Many contemporary fueling centers are much larger and offer more services than traditional gas stations. For these fueling stations, the information contained in the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Handbook for gasoline stations may not be applicable. However, quantifying trip ends from fueling centers is very difficult due to the many site characteristics that influence whether or not a fueling center is chosen. This paper highlights a study that was conducted to investigate the importance of site and variable selection in developing an improved trip generation model for fueling centers. Thirty data collection sites were studied. Primary site selection factors included the presence of at least 8 fueling positions, the presence of a fast-food restaurant and geographic location across the state. Trip generation data were collected over a three-month period. Two approaches were used for analyzing the data: the linear regression approach typically used by ITE and a multi-variable linear regression analysis. The results showed that the multi-variable equations were able to represent the fueling centers more precisely that the single-variable approach. The recommended trip generation model uses adjacent traffic volume and type of services rather than size attributes in trip generation.


Objective: Information Is sparse about the periodontal health of teachers who play important roles in prevention of oral diseases in schools, especially in developing countries where the promotion of oral health In school programmes Is still sub-optimal. The objective of the study was to evaluate the periodontal health status and periodontal treatment needs of primary school teachers In a country lacking formal school-based oral health programmes.Method: This was a descriptive survey in which intraoral examination was conducted on 407 primary school teachers. Recordings on the oral hygiene status using OHl-S, bleeding on probing, periodontal pocketing and treatment needs with CPITN and tooth mobility were obtained by a trained and calibrated examiner. Information on sociodemographic characteristics was also sought. Data were analysed using SPSS and the level of significance set atp<0.05Result: None of the teachers had healthy periodontium, 3 bled to probing. 284 had calculus accumulation and 109 had shallow pockets while 11 had deep periodontal pocketing. Majority (80.6%) of the teachers had poor oral hygiene and 43 ( 10.6%) had one or more mobile teeth. A higher proportion of rural based teachers had periodontal pockets compared to those in urban areas (38.5% vs. 26.7%, p = 0.026). Older teachers were more likely to have mobile teeth (p = 0.002). There were significant positive correlations between OHI-S, CPITN score and number of mobile teeth.Conclusion: Periodontal disease Is highly prevalent among primary school teachers In the country with calculus accumulation being the predominant feature. The periodontal treatment need of most of the teachers Is In the form of oral prophylaxis and non-surgical periodontal. treatment.


Related party transactions (RPTs) exist in most countries, including developing countries as well as those already developed. RPTs may take place on an ad hoc basis, or routinely. Routine RPTs are commonly found in a corporate group structure and pose tougher regulatory challenges than ad hoc RTPs do. The degree of prevalence of RPTs and the shape of their regulation vary country by country, reflecting differences in their corporate governance environment. Stated reversely, a glimpse into the actual regulation of RPTs may shed light on essential features of the corporate governance ecosystem of a particular jurisdiction.
This is a chapter for Luca Enriques and Tobias Troger, eds., The Law and Finance of Related Party Transactions (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). The purpose of this chapter is to examine, from a comparative perspective, the status of RPTs and their regulation in three East Asian countries, namely Japan, South Korea and China. This chapter will primarily focus on routine RPTs involving large listed firms – which will serve as a convenient window through which to view the complex world of corporate governance in the three aforementioned countries.
This chapter proceeds as follows. Part II sets out the theoretical framework which serves as a basis for the ensuing discussion. It will address basic perspectives and conventional strategies employed to deal with RPTs. Part III entails a brief survey of the current status of RPTs and the regulatory structure in each jurisdiction. It will first present basic RPT-related data, and go on to outline substantive constraints, procedural constraints and disclosure requirements applicable to RPTs. Based on this survey, Part IV will attempt to make some general observations from a comparative perspective. Part V will offer a conclusion.


FOR the past decade and more, psychoanalysts have shown an increasing concern with the application of their understanding of motivation and behavior to the needs of that vast majority of the community that never enters their office door. They participate in many of the various activities described under the term "Community Psychiatry". This includes research into the environmental factors related to emotional disorder, the development of programs of preventive psychiatry, and the large number of innovations in treatment that have recently been undertaken to provide comprehensive and continuous care for the psychologically impaired members of the community. 1,2 This paper will report on the experience of a group of psychoanalytically trained clinicians as they applied their dynamic understanding of human behavior to mental health problems via community consultation, one small sector of community psychiatry practice. This presentation is based on work


Objectives: To examine the outcome of fetuses with short femur length (FL) at the time of the routine anomaly scan. Methods: This was a retrospective review of antenatal, pediatric and genetics records of pregnancies where ultrasound measurement of FL at 18–24 weeks of gestation was found to be below the 5th centile. All pregnancies had an ultrasound at 11–13 + 6 weeks to confirm pregnancy dating and also had nuchal translucency (NT) risk assessment. Results: There were 129 fetuses over a 6-year period. In 46 (35.7%) cases short FL was associated with other structural abnormalities. In this group skeletal dysplasias (n = 16), chromosomal abnormalities (n = 10) and genetic syndromes (n = 4) were the most common associations. Short FL was classified as isolated in the remaining 83 (64.3%) cases. There were no cases of chromosomal abnormalities in this group. Eleven (13%) were false positives with FL at subsequent scans within the normal range; all of these had a normal outcome. In the remaining 72 (87%) FL measurements were consistently below the fifth centile. Early severe fetal growth restriction (FGR) with abnormal umbilical artery Doppler requiring delivery before 37 weeks of gestation occurred in 33/83 (40%); 90% of these had abnormal uterine artery Doppler at the time of presentation. This cohort was complicated by pre-eclampsia in 12/33 (36%) cases, intauterine fetal death in 11/33 (30%), while a further two suffered a neonatal death. In 39/83 cases umbilical artery Doppler remained normal; five of these patients delivered before 37 weeks owing to pre-eclampsia or placental abruption (n = 3) or spontaneous preterm labour (n = 2), while in 34 delivery occurred after 37 weeks of gestation. Conclusions: In a population previously screened by NT, isolated short FL at the time of the routine anomaly scan is not associated with chromosomal abnormalities. Severe FGR associated with high mortality occurs in 40%, making uterine artery Doppler evaluation more useful than amniocentesis in these pregnancies.


In order to survive in nature, different pathogens follow different procedures to manipulate their host plants for the pathogen favor. Plant viruses are not an exception of this rule. They are often found to alter the host plant traits in the way that affects the community of organisms in the host plant as well as the vectoring insects. It has been indicated that virus-infected plants are more preferable than virus-free plants with respect to the growth rates, longevity and reproduction of the vector. Viruses use several strategies in order to reprogram their host's cell to make it more conducive to replication and spread. Consequently, phytohormone signaling pathway in virus-infected plants can be disrupted either directly or indirectly. In plants, there are hormone pathways contribute to all aspects of plant physiology. Sometimes, virus infection can be advantageous to the infected host by providing the plant with tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. This article summarizes some aspects where the virus found to reprogram the host's cell to make it more conducive to virus' cycle of life. It also provides an important basic knowledge about how biotic and abiotic stress affects the interaction among virus, vector and the host plant; this knowledge could open the gate to understand the effect of multi-stress effect on the host plant in future studies through recognizing the necessity for plants to have an integrated system of defense against different threats.


We report a positive exchange bias in thin film multilayers produced with nano-oxide layer. The positive exchange bias resulted from an antiferromagnetic interfacial exchange coupling between the ferromagnetic CoFe and the antiferromagnetic CoO layers, which spontaneously forms on top of the nano-oxide layer during the subsequent deposition of a CoFe layer. The shift in the hysteresis loop along the direction of the cooling field and the change in the sign of exchange bias are evidence of antiferromagnetic interfacial exchange coupling. The high temperature positive exchange bias observed for our system results from magnetic proximity effects between CoFe and CoO.


Abstract The upper Rhone valley in the Swiss canton of Valais is one of the driest and most continental of the inner-alpine valleys and harbours a rich xerothermic flora. We studied syntaxonomy and ecology of dry grasslands and their species richness patterns. In 2018 we recorded 28 vegetation plots (10 m2) and three nested-plot series of 0.0001 to 100 m2 on the south-facing slopes above the village of Ausserberg. Mean richness of all species ranged from 1.7 on 1 cm2 to 47.3 on 100 m2, with little contribution of bryophytes and lichens. The species-area relationship for total richness closely followed a power function. Modified TWINSPAN yielded a three-cluster solution, which could easily be matched with three orders of the class Festuco-Brometea: Stipo pulcherrimae-Festucetalia pallentis (xeric, rocky), Festucetalia valesiacae (xeric, non-rocky) and Brachypodietalia pinnati (meso-xeric). The subdivision of the xeric types into two orders is new for Swiss dry grasslands, where these types up to now had been joined in a single alliance Stipo-Poion within the Festucetalia valesiacae.


Light emitted from a source into a scene can undergo complex interactions with multiple scene surfaces of different material types before being reflected towards a detector. During this transport, every surface reflection and propagation is encoded in the properties of the photons that ultimately reach the detector, including travel time, direction, intensity, wavelength and polarization. Conventional imaging systems capture intensity by integrating over all other dimensions of the incident light into a single quantity, hiding this rich scene information in these aggregate measurements. Existing methods are capable of untangling these measurements into their spatial and temporal dimensions, fueling geometric scene understanding tasks. However, examining polarimetric material properties jointly with geometric properties is an open challenge that could enable unprecedented capabilities beyond geometric scene understanding, allowing for material-dependent scene understanding and imaging through complex transport, such as macroscopic scattering. In this work, we close this gap, and propose a computational light transport imaging method that captures the spatially- and temporally-resolved complete polarimetric response of a scene, which encodes rich material properties. Our method hinges on a novel 7D tensor theory of light transport. We discover low-rank structure in the polarimetric tensor dimension and propose a data-driven rotating ellipsometry method that learns to exploit redundancy of polarimetric structure. We instantiate our theory with two imaging prototypes: spatio-polarimetric imaging and coaxial temporal-polarimetric imaging. This allows us, for the first time, to decompose scene light transport into temporal, spatial, and complete polarimetric dimensions that unveil scene properties hidden to conventional methods. We validate the applicability of our method on diverse tasks, including shape reconstruction with subsurface scattering, seeing through scattering media, untangling multi-bounce light transport, breaking metamerism with polarization, and spatio-polarimetric decomposition of crystals.


This article frames whistleblowers as regulatory intermediaries who provide a response to the problem posed by the fragmentation of knowledge in a complex society and market economy. I identify two ways in which whistleblowers become regulatory intermediaries: The first is by remedying informational asymmetries between the regulator and the target (instrumental approach). Both in the United States and in the European Union, whistleblowers are protected on the basis of the value of the disclosed information for the advancement of regulatory objectives. The second way in which whistleblowers become regulatory intermediaries is by contributing to the development of "communities of compliance" and by enhancing the internal self-regulatory capacities of regulatory targets (reflexive approach). Creating internal channels of reporting and monitoring is perceived as a way to change the organizational culture of targets. Through the instrumentalism – reflexivity dipole, competing rationales and normative visions of regulatory intermediation become apparent: It could, on the one hand, facilitate state intervention and legal sanctions or, on the other hand, signal the aspiration to embed public and social values in private actors.


This empirical examination assesses effects of ceasing the public trading of company stock, specifically the practice of "going-private," on subsequent corporate behavior. More specifically, this report identifies effects of going private transactions on corporate restructuring, investment, and innovation activities (patents, R&D) using Japanese going-private-type management buy-out (MBO) data. Firms that conducted public-to-private MBOs are matched with firms that have similar attributes to clarify empirically whether going private promotes corporate innovation activities or restructuring. The study described herein also tests factors underlying changes that occur after going private using a hypothesis related to motives for going private. According to the results, restructuring behaviors are observed after going private, but firm innovation activities are not confirmed among the MBO firms. Buyout funds enhance investment of MBO firms after the buyouts are completed, but they exhibit no effect on innovation activities.


This study is to analyze the remodeling method of library in terms of space extension method and urban regeneration by repurposing function in unused facilities through case study. In many case of library extension, horizontal extensions are more frequent than vertical extensions, because there are limits to extend vertically due to high live load estimation by book stacks. Extension schemes was organized by new building extension method in connection with existing buildings, attaching method small scaled mass or linear mass to existing building, connecting method a plurality of existing small buildings, vertical extension method on the top of the structure, underground extension method using special structure. Unused facility remodeling to the library, large scaled buildings can be developed completely to the function of the library through the relocation of the space, while small scaled building needs spatial extension. In the case of spatial extension, existing space that was used for other purposes can be used as a reading room or office, avoiding high live load estimation.


This article discusses the development of a methodological metissage that combined Indigenous and interpretive traditions. This metissage was developed during a doctoral study conducted with Canadian environmental educators who incorporate Western and Indigenous knowledge and philosophy into their ecological identities and pedagogical praxis. It is presented as an invitation to environmental education researchers from all cultural backgrounds to acknowledge and engage with Indigenous knowledge, philosophies, and methodologies.


This article examines the recurrence of xenophobic attacks in 2011 in the light of the events of May 2008. Using archives and secondary data, examining slogans and discourses heard at the time and reflecting on the author's own involvement as an activist alongside foreign residents displaced by the 2008 attacks, it is argued that the xenophobic attacks demonstrated a shift in the national subjectivity or conception of citizenship, from an inclusive notion implying participation in the future South African society to a dialectical representation of nationals against foreigners. It is further argued that, in its mismanagement of the 2008 crisis, the South African government contributed to the emergence of such attitudes and did nothing to stop the violence; hence its repetition. The notion of human rights that has emerged in South Africa is one of the keys to an understanding of the representations at stake: whereas human rights used to be a universal and founding notion in post-apartheid South Africa, they are now seen as a national privilege regarding access to basic needs. The article shows that the humanitarian management of the May 2008 crisis by the South African Government contributed considerably to obscuring the notion of 'human rights'. In order to oppose such a dangerous policy, there is an urgent need to revive the political debate in South Africa.


Objective This study aimed to evaluate the degree of mediastinal involvement in patients with cervical cancer with isolated mediastinal [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose–positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) positivity as verified by histopathologic examination. Methods Two hundred twenty-eight patients with newly diagnosed cervical cancer and who underwent FDG-PET imaging were analyzed. Twenty-nine patients (17%) had disseminated disease detected with PET/computed tomography (CT). Only 10 patients (4%) had increased FDG uptake in mediastinal lymph nodes alone. Of the 10 patients with mediastinal disease, 2 refused surgical mediastinal lymph node biopsy and did not receive any treatment. Patients with suspected paratracheal or subcarinal lymph node metastasis detected on PET/CT underwent mediastinoscopy, and those with hilar metastasis had video-assisted mediastinal lymphadenectomy. Treatment was delivered according to final staging based on histopathologic confirmation of mediastinal lymph node involvement. Results The mean (SD) maximum standardized uptake values for primary cervical tumor and mediastinal lymph nodes were 19.7 (10.3) and 7.5 (1.6), respectively. Of 8 patients who underwent mediastinal lymph node confirmation, 6 (75%) were tumor free, demonstrating granulomatous changes, and were treated curatively. No patients had residual or recurrent disease at the primary site, and all but 1 were alive without disease. Two patients with confirmed mediastinal lymph node metastasis were treated palliatively and died between 9 and 11 months after diagnosis. Conclusions Positron emission tomography/CT is an important tool for lymphatic staging and evaluation of distant metastases in cervical cancer. However, PET/CT should be interpreted cautiously for isolated mediastinal involvement; surgical evaluation is required for accurate staging and appropriate treatment decisions to achieve better outcomes.


Among the unexpected outcomes of the global financial crisis of 2008-9 has been the end of the domination of international economic governance by the U.S.US and other upperincome countries through the forum of the G7, and its replacement by the G20. The depth and breadth of the economic contraction required a broader response than the advanced economies alone could provide, and its origin in financial markets in the United States undermined its support for neoliberal policies. Now that the global crisis has passed, the G20 must demonstrate whether it can serve as an effective forum for monitoring and managing the global economy.


We reviewed 24 patients with intracranial vertebral artery dissections treated during the last 12 years. Sixteen patients were admitted with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and 8 did not have SAH. The mean age at the time of onset was 50.0 years. Male preponderance was noted. Among 21 patients with acute onset, 6 (29%) experienced prodromal neck pain and 3 (60%) of 5 SAH patients showed nuchal stiffness when examined within 6 hours of onset. The preoperative angiographical findings were uniform in SAH cases in contrast to the varied angiographical findings seen in non-SAH cases. So-called pearl and string sign was observed in most SAH cases, but the "string" was often so short and wide that the term "constriction" appeared more suitable. From intraoperative observations, the angiographical point of constriction seemed to represent the proximal or distal end of dissection. As for treatment, 19 patients underwent 20 surgeries. Trapping was performed in eight surgeries, base clipping was performed in five, and proximal clipping was performed in seven. Both trapping and base clipping prevented further bleeding, but trapping was associated with a high rate of postoperative lower cranial nerve palsy. Postoperative neurological complications were less frequent after proximal clipping, but subsequent postoperative bleeding occurred in one patient treated by this technique. The overall long-term outcome in the surgically treated cases in our series was favorable, but most patients suffered from various degrees of uncomfortable dysphagia or hoarseness for some period after surgery. It was also noted that, in half of the disabled cases, the major disability was attributable to lower cranial nerve palsy and respiratory troubles that developed postoperatively.


Among the fishery resources, swamps are very important for various fish species such as Oreochromis nilotica, Oreochromis mossambica, Anabas testudineus, Channa punctatus and Heteropneustes fossilis . Swamps require shorter time and small investment for fish culture (Rahman et al . 1998). However, diseases are major problems in fish production both in culture system and wild condition in Bangladesh (Rahman and Chowdhury 1996). Bacteria, especially Aeromonas sp. is one of the causative agents of fish diseases. Bangladesh is situated in the tropical zone. Temperature is one of the important factors which affect the growth of pathogenic bacteria (Ljungh and Wadstrom 1982). Aeromonas sobria increases and grows at 17- 25°C (Rahman and Chowdhury 1996). Aeromonas sp. is the causative agent of various kinds of ulcerative disease of fishes (Karunasagar and Sugumar 1995). Yesmin et al . (2004) and Chowdhury and Baqui (1997) reported that Aeromonas is a very common pathogen in carps and live fishes. Hossain et al . (2006) worked on the bacterial load, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and their artificial infection to Oreochromis niloticus . The present study was undertaken to investigate the bacterial load in swamp water and the pathogenicity of A. sobria in A. testudineus.   doi: 10.3329/jbs.v15i0.2162 J. bio-sci. 15: 181-184, 2007


This paper proposes a novel neural-network-based adaptive hybrid-reflectance three-dimensional (3-D) surface reconstruction model. The neural network automatically combines the diffuse and specular components into a hybrid model. The proposed model considers the characteristics of each point and the variant albedo to prevent the reconstructed surface from being distorted. The neural network inputs are the pixel values of the two-dimensional images to be reconstructed. The normal vectors of the surface can then be obtained from the output of the neural network after supervised learning, where the illuminant direction does not have to be known in advance. Finally, the obtained normal vectors are applied to enforce integrability when reconstructing 3-D objects. Facial images and images of other general objects were used to test the proposed approach. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed neural-network-based adaptive hybrid-reflectance model can be successfully applied to objects generally, and perform 3-D surface reconstruction better than some existing approaches.


Abstract Haitian consumers were surveyed to determine their preferences for three attributes of peanut butter: form (spicy, sweet, plain), origin (Haiti, U.S.), and price (lowest, most common, highest). Conjoint analysis was used to calculate relative importance and strengths of preferences for these attributes, which showed that price had more than twice the importance in the buying decision as either of the other attributes. Cluster analysis was used to identify market segments of like preferences, such as those strongly favoring Haitian products, or strongly disliking the plain form, or strongly sensitive to price. A multinomial logit model was used to evaluate the effect of various demographic variables on the probability of membership in a segment. A market share simulation determined that a new, sweet peanut butter product would increase domestic revenues most if priced at the highest level because a segment of the population would purchase the product and increase total peanut consumption.


This paper addresses the legal frameworks and rules about what local and regional councils in New Zealand can and cannot do to adapt to the coastal hazards associated with sea-level rise and climate change. The focus is on what councils might be liable for in respect of housing affected by coastal hazards. It is part of a Deep South National Science Challenge program on Impacts and Implications for residential housing that is now – and in the future will increasingly be – subject to such coastal hazards. Its focus is limited to adaptation measures for residential housing; it does not address infrastructure nor commercial building or activities.

The first three chapters address background matters: an introduction and summary of the issues of residential development in coastal areas that will be subject to increased risks of flooding and likely storm damage from climate change; the types of legal instruments usually used in order to adopt climate adaptation measures and the difficulties with adopting those in New Zealand; an outline of the structure and provisions of the Resource Management Act relevant to decision-making on climate adaptation measures; and some general considerations of principle, including coastal hazards guidance from central government.

The second Part of the paper addresses specific tools that will be required to implement climate adaptation: prevention of new development or placing conditions on it, coastal protection works, and managed retreat of residences from future coastal hazard areas.

The final Part of the paper addresses the use of information instruments in order to provide relevant coastal hazard information to current and future homeowners, and then liability in negligence for council consenting decisions.

The paper is not designed to provide a legal opinion on the points discussed but to illustrate where liability may fall for loss and damage from coastal hazards, and for the decisions made in adapting to climate change hazard risks. It also identifies barriers and enablers to the adoption of adaptation measures. While this identification was not the initial aim of the report, it quickly became clear that councils do not have all the tools necessary to effectively adapt housing to coastal hazard risks, yet also that there are some potential tools that are not being used. We thus thought it worthwhile to identify these, including where central government could assist such as through legislative amendment or relevant guidance. The aim is not to recommend what should be done but to assist discussion on whether the law is adequate to enable councils to do what they will need to do in order to adapt to the coastal hazards associated with climate change to the extent necessary for residential housing. While only some of this material on barriers and enablers is concerned with liability, it is all an essential aspect of achieving the bigger goal of effective adaptation.


Oxide-semiconductor based gas sensors have been intensively investigated in order to improve the sensitivity and selectivity of a certain gas. This article reviews the recent research progress of gas sensors having oxide semiconductor as an active layer, in particular detecting for H2 and volatile organic compounds. The semiconductor material for gas sensors reported in this article includes SnO2, WO3, ZnO, In2O3, and NiO. The sensitivity of gas sensors having diŠerent structures and semiconductors is compared.


OBJECTIVES: To assess the disruption of endothelial glycocalyx integrity in children with sepsis receiving fluid resuscitation with either balanced or unbalanced crystalloids. The primary outcome was endothelial glycocalyx disruption (using perfused boundary region >2 µm on sublingual video microscopy and syndecan-1 greater than 80 mg/dL) according to the type of crystalloid. The secondary outcomes were increased vascular permeability (using angiopoietin-2 level), apoptosis (using annexin A5 level), and associated clinical changes. DESIGN: A single-center prospective cohort study from January to December 2021. SETTING: Twelve medical-surgical PICU beds at a university hospital. PATIENTS: Children with sepsis/septic shock before and after receiving fluid resuscitation with crystalloids for hemodynamic instability. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We included 106 patients (3.9 yr [interquartile range, 0.60–13.10 yr]); 58 of 106 (55%) received boluses of unbalanced crystalloid. This group had greater odds of endothelial glycocalyx degradation (84.5% vs 60.4%; adjusted odds ratio, 3.78; 95% CI, 1.49–9.58; p < 0.01) 6 hours after fluid administration, which correlated with increased angiopoietin-2 (rho = 0.4; p < 0.05) and elevated annexin A5 (p = 0.04). This group also had greater odds of metabolic acidosis associated with elevated syndecan-1 (odds ratio [OR], 4.88; 95% CI, 1.23–28.08) and acute kidney injury (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.12–3.18) associated with endothelial glycocalyx damage. The perfused boundary region returned to baseline 24 hours after receiving the crystalloid boluses. CONCLUSIONS: Children with sepsis, particularly those who receive unbalanced crystalloid solutions during resuscitation, show loss and worsening of endothelial glycocalyx. The abnormality peaks at around 6 hours after fluid administration and is associated with greater odds of metabolic acidosis and acute kidney injury.


This work reports aspect related to nano-sized particles of tetragonal anatase phase Titania. This approach is simple, faster, Eco-friendly, cost effective and suitable for large scale production. X-Ray Diffraction studies analyze particles size. It is found to be 74 nm and specific surface area is 19.16m2g-1. Morphology index (MI) derived from FWHM of XRD data explains the interrelationship of particle size and specific surface area. It is observed that MI has direct relationship with particle size and an inverse relationship with specific surface area. This work throws some light on and helps in the production line of Titania nano-particles.


In a series of three articles, spline approximation is presented from a geodetic point of view. In part 1, an introduction to spline approximation of 2D curves was given and the basic methodology of spline approximation was demonstrated using splines constructed from ordinary polynomials. In this article (part 2), the notion of B-spline is explained by means of the transition from a representation of a polynomial in the monomial basis (ordinary polynomial) to the Lagrangian form, and from it to the Bernstein form, which finally yields the B-spline representation. Moreover, the direct relation between the B-spline parameters and the parameters of a polynomial in the monomial basis is derived. The numerical stability of the spline approximation approaches discussed in part 1 and in this paper, as well as the potential of splines in deformation detection, will be investigated on numerical examples in the forthcoming part 3.


Computational models in psychology play an increasingly important role in characterizing theoretical distinctions, understanding empirical results, and formulating new predictions. However, the proper use of models is subject to debate and interpretation, as Cook, Früh, and Landis (1995) have demonstrated in a critique of neural network simulations reported by Kosslyn, Chabris, Marsolek, and Koenig (1992). These simulation results supported a distinction between two types of spatial relations encoding. Cook et al. argue that Kosslyn et al.'s models did not process "spatial" representations and that input-output correlations rather than properties of spatial relations encoding processes explain the performance of the models. This article provides conceptual and analytic rebuttals of those criticisms.


In this paper we describe our progress towards building an interlingua based machine translation system, by capturing the semantics of the source language sentences in the form of Universal Networking Language (UNL) graphs from which the target language sentences can be produced. There are two stages to the UNL graph generation: first, the conceptual arguments of a situation are identified in the form of semantically relatable sequences (SRS) which are potential candidates for linking with semantic relations; next, the conceptual relations such as instrument, source, goal, reason or agent are recognized, irrespective of their different syntactic configurations. The system has been tested against gold standard UNL expressions collected from various sources like Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary, XTAG corpus and Framenet corpus. Results indicate the promise and effectiveness of our approach on the difficult task of interlingua generation from text.


For the PhD guide or the advisor selecting the accurate PhD scholar is the most elephantine task. It actually requires an art for the perfect selection; as the length, breadth, depth and volume of PhD work is spread across the years and this relationship between the scholar and the guide should start and flourish positively for the immense experience throughout the PhD process. Hence it was essential to understand bibliometric details including how many researchers have already published their contributions in the form of papers and patents, in the Scopus database. In addition to the bibliometric details, in this study, we also have incorporated the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) model, based on primary and secondary characteristics related to aspiring PhD candidate(s). These characteristics are taken from the literature as well as based on the experience of various PhD guides, over the years of mentoring students. Hence this paper not only discusses the bibliometric details related to the topic but also provide guidelines for appropriate selection of the PhD student.


Background: One of the main causes of gastric ulcer and inflammation is Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). This bacterium has a global spread. The objective of the present research is to evaluate the genotype relationship between manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) Ala16Val and the risk of the gastric ulcer. Materials and Methods: This case–control research was conducted on 75 patients with gastric ulcer and 60 healthy individuals as a control. By using the kit, DNA was extracted from gastric paraffin blocks and control group blood samples. Polymerase chain reaction was implemented to detect glmM and MnSOD genes, and restriction fragment length polymorphism was used to examine MnSOD Ala16Val polymorphism. Results: The frequency of glmM gene in patients with gastric ulcer was positive and was 74.66%. Analyzing MnSOD Ala16Val polymorphism indicated that the A/V frequency was higher in both patient and control groups. In addition, the allelic analysis indicated that the allele A was significantly (Sig = 0.000) higher in the patient group compared to that in control group (Sig = 0.000). It also showed that the genotype Ala/Ala can increase the gastric ulcer rate by 32.3 times. Conclusion: This research indicated a positive relationship between the MnSOD Ala16Val gene polymorphism and gastric ulcer. Therefore, Ala/Ala genotype could be considered as a risk factor for gastric ulcer disease.


The problem of the synchronous drive for gantry-moving milling machines is researched in the paper. Two same linear motors are used as drive mechanisms of synchronous feed. The dynamic compensated method is adopted, effectively limiting the falling of the system's performance which is produced by the changing of the equivalent inertia. At the same time, puting the fuzzy PID controller in the velocity loop of the system, effectively applying that fuzzy control is independent on the plant model and has the characteristic of the control fast and stronger robustness. The synchronous control precision is enhanced. The simulation results show that the performance of the system is better and the fast synchronous feed is implemented.


As the Large Language Model (LLM) becomes increasingly important in various domains. However, the following challenges still remain unsolved in accelerating LLM inference: (1) Synchronized partial softmax update. The softmax operation requires a synchronized update operation among each partial softmax result, leading to ~20% overheads for the attention computation in LLMs. (2) Under-utilized computation of flat GEMM. The shape of matrices performing GEMM in LLM inference is flat, leading to under-utilized computation and>50% performance loss after padding zeros in previous designs. (3) Performance loss due to static dataflow. Kernel performance in LLM depends on varied input data features, hardware configurations, etc. A single and static dataflow may lead to a 50.25% performance loss for GEMMs of different shapes in LLM inference. We present FlashDecoding++, a fast LLM inference engine supporting mainstream LLMs and hardware back-ends. To tackle the above challenges, FlashDecoding++ creatively proposes: (1) Asynchronized softmax with unified max value. FlashDecoding++ introduces a unified max value technique for different partial softmax computations to avoid synchronization. (2) Flat GEMM optimization with double buffering. FlashDecoding++ points out that flat GEMMs with different shapes face varied bottlenecks. Then, techniques like double buffering are introduced. (3) Heuristic dataflow with hardware resource adaptation. FlashDecoding++ heuristically optimizes dataflow using different hardware resource considering input dynamics. Due to the versatility of optimizations in FlashDecoding++, FlashDecoding++ can achieve up to 4.86x and 2.18x speedup on both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs compared to Hugging Face implementations. FlashDecoding++ also achieves an average speedup of 1.37x compared to state-of-the-art LLM inference engines on mainstream LLMs.


Interested in scalable topology reconstruction strategies with fast convergence times, we consider network cardinality estimation schemes that use, as their fundamental aggregation mechanism, the computation of bit-wise maxima over strings. We thus discuss how to choose optimally the parameters of the information generation process under frequentist assumptions on the estimand, derive the resulting Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimator, and characterize its statistical performance as a function of the communications and memory requirements. We then numerically compare the bitwise-max based estimator against lexicographic-max based estimators, and derive insights on their relative performances in function of the true cardinality.


This paper presents a new realization of electronically tunable mixed mode (including transadmittanceand voltage-modes) biquad filter with single input, three outputs or three inputs, single output using voltage differencing transconductance amplifier (VDTA), a recently introduced active element. It can simultaneously realize standard filtering signals: low-pass, band-pass and highpass or by selecting input terminals, it can realize all five different filtering signals: low-pass, band-pass, high-pass, band-stop and all-pass. The proposed filter circuit offers the following attractive feature: no requirement of inverting type input signal which is require no addition circuit, critical component matching conditions are not required in the design, the circuit parameters ω0 and Q can be set orthogonally or independently through adjusting the bias currents of the VDTAs, the proposed circuit employs two active and minimum numbers of passive components. Furthermore, this filter was investigated from the point of view of limited frequency range, stability conditions, effects of parasitic elements and effects of non-ideal and sensitivity. Thus, taking these effects and conditions into consideration, working conditions and boundaries of this filter are determined. We also performed Monte Carlo, THD and noise analyses. Simulation results are given to confirm theoretical analyses.


This paper shows how a general form of algorithms consisting of a loop with loop-carried dependencies of one can be mapped to a parametric hardware design with pipelining and replication features. A technology-independent parametric model of the proposed design is developed to capture the variations of area and throughput with the number of pipeline stages and replications. This model allows rapid optimisation of design parameters by a few pre-synthesis operations. We present an optimisation process based on this model, and apply it to a Montgomery multiplier implementation on a Xilinx XC5VLX50T FPGA. Our approach is shown to be capable of accurately predicting the values of the parameters that maximise the throughput of the multiplier. In particular, up to 6.5 times fewer synthesis operations are required when compared with a complete search through the design space of the multiplier. This would speed up the synthesis process by 14 times, saving more than 23 hours of development time.


Modern cancer treatment therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy are deemed relatively unsuccessful due to their ineffectiveness, safety issues and costliness. As not all cancer patients respond positively to current anticancer agents, mortality rates of cancer are on a continuous rise including melanoma and prostate cancer.
Natural product-based traditional medicine, often overshadowed by modern medicine, has returned to be a holistic approach for health care in many societies. This "back to basic" approach is due to its long history of usage in disease treatment and the pharmacological/nutritional value of these products which are believed to be able to halt/delay cancer progression.
In this study, the anticancer properties of four Phyllanthus (P.amarus, P.niruri, P.urinaria and P.watsonii) were studied against on human melanoma, MeWo and prostate adenocarcinoma, PC-3 cells. The main aims of this study were to identify the anti-proliferation, anti-metastasis, anti-angiogenesis properties, apoptosis induction and mechanisms of inhibition of Phyllanthus plant extracts on these cancer cells.
Phyllanthus extracts have significantly inhibited the growth of MeWo and PC-3 cells at IC50 values at the range of 155.0-260.0 μg/ml and 54.2-153.3 μg/ml for aqueous and methanolic extracts, respectively. This growth inhibition was due to cell cycle arrest at G1-phase in PC-3 and S-phase in MeWo cells, concurrent with the accumulation of apoptotic cells at Sub-G1. Induction of apoptosis was further implicated with the activation of caspase-3/7, presence of TUNEL positive cells and DNA fragmentations as well as increased pro-apoptotic Bax proteins activity in treated cancer cells. Low level of LDH was detected in treated MeWo and PC-3 cells as the result of damage to
iii
the cytoplasmic membrane, indicative of late apoptosis or necrosis. In contrast, Phyllanthus exerted low cytotoxicity in human normal cell lines (CCD-1127Sk, RWPE-1 and HUVECs).
The anti-metastatic and anti-angiogenic effects of Phyllanthus extracts were observed when Phyllanthus extracts inhibited several essential steps during metastasis and angiogenesis; (i) adhesion, (ii) migration, (iii) invasion, (iv) transendothelial migration and (v) microcapillary-like tube formations. These observations were most likely due to reduction in activities of matrix metalloproteinase-2, -7 and -9 in treated cells as was noted.
These observed anticancer properties ofPhyllanthus extracts are believed to be due to the plants inhibitory effects on multiple signalling pathways; MAPKs, Wnt, Myc/Max, Hypoxia and NFκB, via alteration on their intracellular signalling activities including pan-Ras, c-Raf, Akt, Elk1, RSK, c-Jun, JNK1/2, β-catenin, GSK3β, c-myc, HIF-1α, VEGF, NFκB p50 and p52. In addition, various other proteins involved in proliferation, metastasis and apoptosis were found to be differentially expressed in treated MeWo and PC-3 cells.
Taken together, the results showed that Phyllanthus extracts possess anticancer effects through inhibition in proliferation, metastasis and angiogenesis as well as induction of apoptosis on human melanoma, MeWo and prostate adenocarcinoma, PC-3 cells. Thus, Phyllanthus is a promising candidate for the development of future anticancer agents and could possibly be introduced as a part of diet to prevent cancer development.


In order to understand how olfactory stimuli are encoded and processed in the brain, it is important to build a computational model for olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). Here, we present a simple and reliable mathematical model of a moth ORN generating spikes. The model incorporates a simplified description of the chemical kinetics leading to olfactory receptor activation and action potential generation. We show that an adaptive spike threshold regulated by prior spike history is an effective mechanism for reproducing the typical phasic–tonic time course of ORN responses. Our model reproduces the response dynamics of individual neurons to a fluctuating stimulus that approximates odorant fluctuations in nature. The parameters of the spike threshold are essential for reproducing the response heterogeneity in ORNs. The model provides a valuable tool for efficient simulations of olfactory circuits.


Due to the strong speckle noise caused by the seabed reverberation which makes it difficult to extract discriminating and noiseless features of a target, recognition and classification of underwater targets using side-scan sonar (SSS) images is a big challenge. Moreover, unlike classification of optical images which can use a large dataset to train the classifier, classification of SSS images usually has to exploit a very small dataset for training, which may cause classifier overfitting. Compared with traditional feature extraction methods using descriptors—such as Haar, SIFT, and LBP—deep learning-based methods are more powerful in capturing discriminating features. After training on a large optical dataset, e.g., ImageNet, direct fine-tuning method brings improvement to the sonar image classification using a small-size SSS image dataset. However, due to the different statistical characteristics between optical images and sonar images, transfer learning methods—e.g., fine-tuning—lack cross-domain adaptability, and therefore cannot achieve very satisfactory results. In this paper, a multi-domain collaborative transfer learning (MDCTL) method with multi-scale repeated attention mechanism (MSRAM) is proposed for improving the accuracy of underwater sonar image classification. In the MDCTL method, low-level characteristic similarity between SSS images and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, and high-level representation similarity between SSS images and optical images are used together to enhance the feature extraction ability of the deep learning model. Using different characteristics of multi-domain data to efficiently capture useful features for the sonar image classification, MDCTL offers a new way for transfer learning. MSRAM is used to effectively combine multi-scale features to make the proposed model pay more attention to the shape details of the target excluding the noise. Experimental results of classification show that, in using multi-domain data sets, the proposed method is more stable with an overall accuracy of 99.21%, bringing an improvement of 4.54% compared with the fine-tuned VGG19. Results given by diverse visualization methods also demonstrate that the method is more powerful in feature representation by using the MDCTL and MSRAM.


We present a method for estimating the viewpoint from which a 3D image has been taken using a central-projection range sensor. We assume we have the 3D coordinates of the points, organized with a known topology, but considerable noise is present in the data. At points in the scene where there are surface discontinuities, we estimate step rays through a linear interpolation. The viewpoint is found as the point of minimum distance to the set of step rays. To cope with noise, we define an unbiased distance measure. The minimization of the sum of distances provides the viewpoint. We present results of several experiments carried out with 3D images of an old church.


Aims: The objective of the study was to assess the therapeutic usefulness of Homoeopathy in the management of LD, viz ., dyslexia and dysgraphia, to ascertain the role of homoeopathic medicines and verify their characteristic symptoms in the management of various types of LD to establish verified characteristic symptoms of medicines used in the management of various types of LD. Settings and Design: A 3-year randomised double blind case control study was carried out on 67 children between ages 8-12 years fulfilling the criteria of LD (ICD-10) for dyslexia and dysgraphia with a minimal observation period of one year. The study was conducted in three Marathi-medium schools in Mumbai. Material and Methods: 67 children between ages 8-12 years fulfilling the criteria of LD (ICD-10) for dyslexia and dysgraphia were studied for a minimal observation period of one year. All received remedial education as it is the standard mode of management. 32 children constituted Group I and were administered the indicated homoeopathic medicine in the 200 th potency in infrequent repetition while 35 children from Group II were given placebo. The children and the Remedial Educators who were the assessors were blinded for the study. Statistical Analysis Used: t -test was done for statistical analysis. Results: The children under homoeopathic treatment with remedial education showed an early response to remedial inputs and a statistically significant change in the indicators of dyslexia and dysgraphia. There was also a significant change in the co-morbid behavioural condition notably Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The study not only helped verify the characteristic symptoms of the remedies from Materia Medica useful in LD but also was able to report clinical symptoms which have not been reported in source books. 53.12% of children needed Calcarea salts. The other significant remedy indicated in 9.3% children was Medorrhinum , Argenticum nitricum, Calc-flour, and Natrum salts were indicated in 6.25% children. Conclusion: Homoeopathic intervention when combined with standard remedial education has a definite role in bringing about an early change in all parameters of LD. It also assists in bringing about a change in treating the co-morbid conditions, commonly Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD). The improvements started simultaneously in most of the areas except in speed of reading and reading comprehension, repetition in reading and omission of punctuation in writing.


This paper addresses the functional robustness and fault-tolerance capability of very-deep submicron CMOS and single-electron transistor (SET) circuits. A set of guidelines is identified for the design of very high-density digital systems using inherently unreliable and error-prone devices. Empirical results based on SPICE simulations show that the proposed design method improves fault immunity at transistor level. Graceful degradation of circuit performance allows recovery of information, where classical circuits would fail.


Climate change is a widely accepted fact. Urbanization and industrialization are the main cause of the climate change phenomena all around the world. One of the main problems of urbanization is the increase in growing dependence on automobiles. The main modes of transportation even in the neighborhood area are the private cars because it is the norm of urbanites to use the motorized vehicles rather than to walk. This shows that the planning and design of the neighborhood itself can influence the walkability of the housing area. This paper highlights the implication of walkability towards promoting sustainable urban neighborhood.
Keywords : Walkability; climate change; neighborhood design; community facilities; sustainable
eISSN 2514-751X © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
https://doi.org/10.21834/aje-bs.v3i8.290


This study investigates the influence of an actual music stand on the evaluation of a videotaped audio-visual solo instrumental performance. Previous research has provided evidence that the presence of a score or music stand (obstructing the audience's view of the performer) might negatively influence the evaluation of the performance. However, due to methodological ambiguities, results in previous studies cannot be regarded as definitive. Thus, we conducted a replication study of Williamon (1999) with better control over confounding variables (e.g., varying levels of technical proficiency in different conditions). A violoncello player performed two pieces for solo instrument: once with a music stand on stage (pretending to play from score) and once without. The level of technical proficiency was kept constant in both performance presentations by the use of a pre-recorded, well-rehearsed performance from memory. Audio tracks were synchronized with the performance movements in a playback paradigm. Based on the performance evaluations from a web-based experiment ( N = 471 participants), we found a significant but small effect size for the main effect of performance presentation (with vs. without music stand) ( d = 0.23). We conclude that the audience's appreciation of a particular performance from memory might be based on factors other than the objective performance quality.


Results are presented for a two-point correlation function of a spin chain after a quantum quench for an intermediate time regime where inelastic effects are weak. A Callan-Symanzik-like equation for the correlation function is explicitly constructed which is used to show the appearance of three distinct scaling regimes. One is for spatial separations within a light cone, the second is for spatial separations on the light cone, and the third is for spatial separations outside the light cone. In these three regimes, the correlation function is found to decay with power laws with nonequilibrium exponents that differ from those in equilibrium, as well as from those obtained from quenches in a quadratic Luttinger liquid theory. A detailed discussion is presented on how the existence of scaling depends on the properties of the initial state before the quench.


Abstract Bedding mullions have been produced by compression parallel to bedding in the hinge region of a large recumbent fold. Geometrically, the mullions are a combination of parasitic folding, with characteristic gadrooned profile, and cleavage planes. The cleavage is not an axial plane structure, but where fully developed produces a perfect slate fabric in rocks of appropriate lithology. The mullions are found on both sides of a bed of inferior slate sandwiched between two beds of good roofing slate. Boudinage structure results where the mullions are exactly back to back, and the planes of separation provided by the cleavage are infilled with coarse calcite. The slates are interbedded and interlaminated with limestone. Such boudins are unusual in that they occupy the hinge region of a fold and result from compression parallel, rather than at right angles, to the bedding.


Unstable wheel inverted pendulum is modelled and controlled deploying Kane's method and optimal partial-state PID control scheme. A correct derivation of nonlinear mathematical model of a wheel inverted pendulum is obtained using a proper definition of the geometric context of active and inertia forces. Then the model is decoupled to two linear subsystems namely balancing and heading subsystems. Afterward partial-state PID controller is proposed and formulated to quadratic optimal regulation tuning method. It enables partial-state PID to be optimally tuned and guarantees a satisfactory level of states error and a realistic utilization of torque energy. Simulation and numerical analyses are carried out to analyse system's stability and to determine the performance of the proposed controller for mobile wheel inverted pendulum application.


Non-woven silica fabric was made by electro-spinning method for the application as a bone grafting material. The silica gel, the source material for electro-spinning, was prepared by the hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate in the presence of water, hydrochloric acid and ethanol. It was transferred to a syringe (spinneret), which was connected to the high voltage supply generating a high electric field between the spinneret and the ground collecting drum. The silica fibers were spun under the electric field of 2 KV/cm. Their diameters were in the range from about 100 nm to 5 µm. After soaking in the SBF for 4 week, low crystalline apatite crystals were observed to occur partly on their surfaces. From the results, it can be concluded that the non-woven silica fabric made by electro-spinning method has the apatite forming ability in the SBF and it means it has a potential to be used as a bone grafting material because of its apatite-forming ability, high surface area to volume ratio and high porosity.


Currently uneven distribution of limited water resources in addition to growing urban and irrigation water demands have severely increased water shortages in Iran. Inter-basin water transfer projects are among important infrastructures used by water managers and planners to supply for the needed water. However due to the complex technical, socioeconomical, and environmental aspects of these projects, in every stage of the decision making process, group multi-criteria should be considered. In this article four proposed routes of water transfers from the Aras River to the Northeastern part of the Urmia Lake in Iran are evaluated. The effective criteria including environmental impacts, cost of construction, simplicity of the construction, and the social acceptance are weighted by three stakeholders. Using the ordered weighted averaging and fuzzy quantifiers the group weights are obtained. Then using the four multi-criteria decision making methods (simple weighted averaging, TOPSIS, compromise programming, and ordered weighted averaging methods), the different alternatives are ranked and finally the best and the most robust water transfer route is selected. Results showed that the simple additive weighting and ordered weighted averaging methods are more useful methods for group multi- criteria decision making on water resources development infrastructures.


Objectives Fecal incontinence (FI) is frequently associated with low sphincter pressures, sensory abnormalities, and advanced age. Twenty-three percent of patients with FI and 22% of healthy patients demonstrate dyssynergic defecation (DD) on high-resolution anorectal manometry. Overflow incontinence occurs in some DD patients with normal resting and squeeze anal sphincter pressures. Our aim was to identify factors associated with normal sphincter pressures in women with FI. Methods We reviewed medical records of 134 women with FI. Patients with normal resting and squeeze anal pressures were compared with those with abnormal pressures using Wilcoxon rank sum test and Fisher exact. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with normal resting and squeeze anal pressures. Results Among 134 women, abnormal resting and/or squeeze pressures were identified in 113 and normal pressures were identified in 21. Women with normal sphincter pressures were younger (mean age 52.7 ± 10.8 years vs 59.0 ± 14.0 years, P = 0.036), more often had abnormal defecation indices (100% vs 83.2%, P = 0.043) and higher rectal defecation pressures (30.8 ± 18.8 mm Hg vs 50.8 ± 22.6 mm Hg, P < 0.001). There was an overall association between DD subtype and normal and abnormal sphincter pressure groups (P = 0.021). Dyssynergia subtypes I or III (odds ratio, 7.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.8–28.8) and age younger than 67 years (odds ratio, 8.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.5–48.6) were associated with greater odds of having normal sphincter pressures. Conclusions Female FI patients with normal anal sphincter pressures are younger, have higher rectal defecation pressures, and more often have type I or type III DD.


OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of obesity and sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in two different populations of Italian schoolchildren studied 13 years apart living in a country town of Central Italy (Ronciglione, VT).

RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Subjects were drawn from two populations, both non selected, of schoolchildren. Parents underwent to a 9-items sleep questionnaires investigating on SBD. We assessed measures of weight and height obtaining and using BMI values to assess obesity, with cut-off values proposed by the International Obesity Task Force.

RESULTS: Two cross sectional surveys were carried out on 177 students (males 82; mean age 9.65±0.61 years) in 1998 (group 1) and on 198 students (males 111; mean age 9.3±0.9 years) in 2011 (group 2) from elementary school without significative differences for age and sex between groups. The prevalence of obesity from 1998 to 2011 was significally increased (from 10.21% to 20.7%, p<0.0001). No statistically significance was found in SBD for snoring (from 8,5% to 9,1%), nocturnal awakenings (from 2,3% to 2,5%) and sleep apnea (from 5,6% to 6,1%). Only the oral breathing increased significantly (from 36,2% to 57,6,%, p<0,0001). In group 2 the percentage of snoring and sleep apnea were higher in obese children than in those without obesity (from 12.2% to 7.7% and from 12.2 to 4.6%, respectively) although not statistically significant.

DISCUSSION: The prevalence of obesity in young Italian children is very high, and it is rapidly growing. There is upward trend of SDB in the obese population while no statistically increments were showed in SBD in total population.


This paper proposes an efficient example sampling method for example-based word sense disambiguation systems. To construct a database of practical size, a considerable overhead for manual sense disambiguation (overhead for supervision) is required. In addition, the time complexity of searching a large-sized database poses a considerable problem (overhead for search). To counter these problems, our method selectively samples a smaller-sized effective subset from a given example set for use in word sense disambiguation. Our method is characterized by the reliance on the notion of training utility: the degree to which each example is informative for future example sampling when used for the training of the system. The system progressively collects examples by selecting those with greatest utility. The paper reports the effectiveness of our method through experiments on about one thousand sentences. Compared to experiments with other example sampling methods, our method reduced both the overhead for supervision and the overhead for search, without the degeneration of the performance of the system.


All four different K(+)-channel blockers [tetraethylammonium (TEA), a nonselective K(+)-channel blocker; tolbutamide, an ATP-sensitive K(+)-channel blocker; quinine and 4-aminopyridine, both primarily voltage-dependent K(+)-channel blockers] stimulated prolactin (Prl) secretion by acutely dispersed anterior pituitary cells but had no effect on thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) secretion. TEA stimulated Prl secretion in a dose-dependent manner between 1 microM and 20 mM, but even as high as 20 mM, TEA did not induce TSH secretion. Valinomycin (2 microM), a K+ ionophore, inhibited both basal and TEA-induced Prl secretion. TEA-stimulated Prl secretion was abolished by using a Ca(2+)-depleted medium or adding 10 microM dopamine. TEA did not reverse the inhibitory effect of dopamine on thyrotropin-releasing hormone-induced Prl secretion. Our data indicate that K+ channels may play a role in the secretion of adenohypophysial hormones that is idiosyncratic for each hormone. Differences in the role of K+ channels may reflect differences between the various pituitary cell types in plasma membrane ion channel composition, membrane potential, or the mechanism of exocytosis.


"We tried as hard as we could to believe that politics might be idyl, only to discover that what we took to be a political pastoral was really a grim military campaign or a murderous betrayal of political allies". Thus Lionel Trilling summarized the experience of an entire generation of American liberal intellectuals who had watched with mounting disbelief and disillusion the rise of totalitarianism in the 1950s. In this book, the author makes it clear that Trilling's summary was in itself a mythic reconstruction, a prominent example of the way liberals came to terms with their own political past. Schaub's book analyzes their efforts to reshape an "old" liberalism alleged to hold naively optimistic views of human nature, scientific reason, and social progress into a "new", skeptical liberalism that recognized the persistence of human evil, the fragility of reason, and the ambiguity of moral decision. These liberal reassessments of history, politics, human nature, and distiny - what Schaub calls the "liberal narrative" - mediated the critical and imaginative production of the literary community after World War II. Schaub shows that the elements of this narrative in American history, political philosophy, and social criticism during the Cold War era. His analysis of the dominant critical communities of the '40s - led by critics such as Lionel Trilling and Irving Howe, Cleanth Brooks, and Allen Tates - recovers the political meanings embedded within their debates over the nature of literary realism, the definition of the novel, and speculations on its "death". In the second part of this study, Schaub turns to Ralph Ellison, Flannery O'Connor, Norman Mailer, and John Barth. His readings of their fictions isolate the political and cultural content of works often faulted for their apparent efforts to transcend social history.


The refolding of equine lysozyme from guanidinium chloride has been studied using hydrogen exchange pulse labelling in conjunction with NMR spectroscopy and stopped flow optical methods. The stopped flow optical experiments indicate that extensive hydrophobic collapse occurs rapidly after the initiation of refolding. Pulse labelling experiments monitoring nearly 50 sites within the protein have enabled the subsequent formation of native-like structure to be followed in considerable detail. They reveal that an intermediate having persistent structure within three of the four helices of the alpha-domain of the protein is formed for the whole population of molecules within 4 ms. Subsequent to this event, however, the hydrogen exchange protection kinetics are complex and highly heterogeneous. Analysis of the results by fitting to stretched exponential functions shows that a series of other intermediates is formed as a consequence of the stepwise assembly of independently nucleated local regions of structure. In some molecules the next step in folding involves the stabilisation of the remaining helix in the alpha-domain, whilst in others persistent structure begins to form in the beta-domain. The formation of native-like structure throughout the beta-domain is itself heterogeneous, involving at least three kinetically distinguishable steps. Residues in loop regions throughout the protein attain persistent structure more slowly than regions of secondary structure. There is in addition evidence for locally misfolded regions of structure that reorganise on much longer timescales. The results reveal that the native state of the protein is generated by the heterogeneous assembly of a series of locally cooperative regions of structure. This observation has many features in common with the findings of recent theoretical simulations of protein folding.


BACKGROUND It has been known that intra-cellular immunity is important for defense against viral infections and this function lies with interferon gamma (INF-gamma). Here we evaluated the role of IFN-gamma system in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis C (CHC). METHODS The levels of interferon gamma receptor alpha (IFNGR alpha) on the peripheral lymphocyte membrane were assayed with flow cytometry. The plasma concentrations of the cytokines IFN-gamma and IL-10 in CHC patients and normal controls were assayed by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The samples were collected randomly from Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Zhejiang and the northern regions of Jiangsu Province in China. RESULTS The levels of IFNGR alpha in CHC patients were significantly lower than that of normal controls (NC), especially among patients during the stable stage (P < 0.001), whereas there were no significant differences between CHC in active and stable stages. Among the patients of the three regions, there were no significant differences between patients from Xinjiang and Zhejiang provinces, but both had statistically significant difference compared with the patients from Jiangsu Province (P < 0.001). Plasma IFN-gamma and IL-10 concentrations in CHC patients decreased significantly, IFN-gamma in particular, but there were no significant differences in these levels between various stages of the disease. The IFN-gamma/IL-10 (Th1/Th2) ratio in patients was reversed. CONCLUSION There may be defects in the IFN-gamma system in chronic HCV infected subjects and a low immune response, which may play an important role in the persistence of HCV infection.


Unheard of in the eighteenth century, restaurants became an integral part of New York City's public culture in the antebellum period. This article examines the emergence and development of New York's restaurant sector in the nineteenth century, focusing on three aspects in particular: the close ties between urbanization and the rise of New York's restaurants, the role restaurants played in enforcing the city's class structure and gender mores, and the role of restaurants in shaping the public culture of the growing metropolis.


Mediation can be magical. In the face of seemingly insurmountable differences, it can lead to productive resolutions far beyond what litigation could ever produce.' In the hands of sophisticated practitioners and in appropriate cases, it offers a means for participants to engage in self-determination and more flexible conflict resolution. In light of how well mediation can work, it has experienced explosive growth in all areas of conflict, and in both private and court-connected contexts. There is, nevertheless, a risk that mediators can be unskilled or, worse, affirmatively damaging. This risk is endemic to all mediation but play out in particularly troubling ways when low-income litigants participate in mediation through court-annexed programs that have few resources, high volume, and uncertain quality control. There are a number of reasons why such a risk exists. There is little consensus about how best to practice mediation. Mediators can and do advocate a wide range of, and sometimes inconsistent, approaches to mediation. The debate becomes foundational, even to the extent that mediators claim that another style of mediation is not mediation at all. This means that mediators do not agree about what the norms of their profession are, and thus, do not agree about whether a mediator is unskilled or not. Indeed, to the extent codes for mediators exist, such as the Uniform Mediation Act and the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators, they are not detailed because there is not consensus as to what good mediation is. Moreover, confidentiality, while valuable, also has unintended consequences of largely insulating mediations from scrutiny.
The risk of poor mediation intensifies in settings where there are large numbers of low-income litigants. These litigants often know nothing about mediation, may face more powerful litigants, and, in almost all cases, have no legal counsel. The lack of an effective means to assess quality in such a setting creates a risk that such participants will not only fail to experience the many benefits that good mediation can offer, but instead experience the negative consequences that bad mediation can generate.
This Article traces these interlocking circumstances as a means to explore the risks faced by low-income mediation participants. The Article first explores the range of issues that have impeded a unified understanding of the professional norms and identities of mediators. Second, the Article defines bad mediation and the particular vulnerability low-income litigants face in the context of high-volume court-annexed programs. The Article concludes with recommendations about how best to minimize the risk of bad mediation, with a particular emphasis on insuring quality mediation for low-income litigants.


Specialists often question market efficiency. Some works suggest arbitrage opportunities in several financial operations. Such opportunities can be explained mainly by information asymmetry, since pricing in the stock market is directly linked to information; therefore, the investor that has access to such information the soonest has a competitive advantage. The objective of this paper is to verify the existence of arbitrage opportunities via ADRs, traded in the American market, and their respective stocks, which are traded in the domestic market. Through a case study conducted with four companies, not considering the transition costs, arbitrage opportunity windows were found. Among the companies studied, two had frequent arbitrage opportunities, for one of them the arbitrage opportunity can be shaped by the time series model.


The significant drop of the storage modulus under uniaxial deformation (Payne effect) restrains the performance of the elastomer-based composites and the development of possible new applications. In this paper molecular-dynamics (MD) computer simulations using LAMMPS MD package have been performed to study the mechanical properties of a coarse-grained model of this family of nanocomposite materials. Our goal is to provide simulational insights into the viscoelastic properties of filled elastomers, and try to connect the macroscopic mechanics with composite microstructure, the strength of the polymer-filler interactions and the polymer mobility at different scales. To this end we simulate random copolymer films capped between two infinite solid (filler aggregate) walls. We systematically vary the strength of the polymer-substrate adhesion interactions, degree of polymer confinement (film thickness), polymer crosslinking density, and study their influence on the equilibrium and non-equilibrium structure, segmental dynamics, and the mechanical properties of the simulated systems. The glass-transition temperature increases once the mesh size became smaller than the chain radius of gyration; otherwise it remained invariant to mesh-size variations. This increase in the glass-transition temperature was accompanied by a monotonic slowing-down of segmental dynamics on all studied length scales. This observation is attributed to the correspondingly decreased width of the bulk density layer that was obtained in films whose thickness was larger than the end-to-end distance of the bulk polymer chains. To test this hypothesis additional simulations were performed in which the crystalline walls were replaced with amorphous or rough walls.


New types of direct burial cable, associated devices, and methods, coupled with ecological pressures, have resulted in phenomenal growth of underground power distribution. Applications are going far beyond previous industrial and residential development use. Often loop or alternate feeds are not available, particularly in rural radial systems. Rapid service restoration may depend upon cable tracing and fault location. The proliferation of under-ground utilities with increasing possibility of excavation damage makes on-site route tracing and depth finding highly desirable. The ready availability of suitable tracing and fault locating equipment in the hands of trained personnel becomes of greater importance as installations multiply.


BACKGROUND The undifferentiated-type (UDT) component profoundly affects the clinical course of early gastric cancers (EGCs). However, an accurate preoperative diagnosis of the histological types is unsatisfactory. To date, few studies have investigated whether the UDT component within mixed-histological-type (MT) EGCs can be recognized preoperatively. AIM To clarify the histopathological characteristics of the endoscopically-resected MT EGCs for investigating whether the UDT component could be recognized preoperatively. METHODS This was a single-center retrospective study. First, we attempted to clarify the histopathological characteristics of the endoscopically-resected MT EGCs with emphasis on the UDT component. Histopathological examination investigated each lesion's UDT component: (1) Whole mucosal layer occupation of the UDT component; (2) UDT component exposure to the surface of the mucosa; and (3) existence of a clear border between the differentiated-type and UDT components. Then, preoperative endoscopic images with magnifying endoscopy with narrow-band imaging (ME-NBI) were examined to identify whether the endoscopic UDT component finding was recognizable within the area where it was present in the histopathological examination. The preoperative biopsy results and comparative relationships between endoscopic and histopathological findings were also examined. RESULTS In the histopathological examination, the whole mucosal layer occupation of the UDT component and exposure of the UDT component to the mucosal surface were observed in 67.3% (33/49) and 79.6% (39/49) of samples, respectively. A clear distinction of the border between the differentiated-type and UDT components could not be drawn in 65.3% (32/49) of MT lesions. In the endoscopic examination, the preoperative endoscopic images showed that only 24.5% (12/49) of MT EGCs revealed the UDT component within the area where it was present histopathologically. Histopathological UDT predominance was the single significant factor associated with the presence of the endoscopic UDT component finding (61.5% vs 11.1%, P = 0.0009). Only 26.5% (13/49) of the lesions were diagnosed from the pretreatment biopsy as having a UDT component. Combined results of the pretreatment biopsy and ME-NBI showed the preoperative presence of the UDT component in 40.8% (20/49) of MT EGCs. CONCLUSION Recognition of a UDT component within MT EGCs is difficult even when pretreatment biopsy and ME-NBI are combined. Endoscopic resection plays a significant role in both treatment and diagnosis.


IFNγ induces cell death in epithelial cells, but the mediator for this death pathway has not been identified. In this study, we find that expression of Bik/Blk/Nbk is increased in human airway epithelial cells (AECs [HAECs]) in response to IFNγ. Expression of Bik but not mutant BikL61G induces and loss of Bik suppresses IFNγ-induced cell death in HAECs. IFNγ treatment and Bik expression increase cathepsin B and D messenger RNA levels and reduce levels of phospho–extracellular regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) in the nuclei of bik+/+ compared with bik−/− murine AECs. Bik but not BikL61G interacts with and suppresses nuclear translocation of phospho-ERK1/2, and suppression of ERK1/2 activation inhibits IFNγ- and Bik-induced cell death. Furthermore, after prolonged exposure to allergen, hyperplastic epithelial cells persist longer, and nuclear phospho-ERK is more prevalent in airways of IFNγ−/− or bik−/− compared with wild-type mice. These results demonstrate that IFNγ requires Bik to suppress nuclear localization of phospho-ERK1/2 to channel cell death in AECs.


Comparing events from the early decades of the Christian Church in Korea with the history of the Early Church is a potentially rich form of research as the experience of the Early Church can help to both highlight distinctive characteristics of the Early Korean Church and to point out the broad similarities of Christian experience regardless of cultural and temporal differences. Both the Early Church and the Early Korean Church had a strong millenarian element in their history. The earliest example of a distinct millenarian movement in the Early Church which separated from the mainstream was the Montanist group, whereas in Korea one can point to the Empire of Mount Sion movement of the 1940s and its subsequent denomination. Both of these groups arose at a time when the state was imposing a cult of the worship of imperial rulers for the purpose of creating national unity.


Counterfeit Intelligence(AI) and Data Analytics will completely change ourselves to the point of being unrecognizable, and they will have a definitely more critical effect than the web or versatile innovation. We are presently at the edge where machine insight is similar with human knowledge, in certain constrained perspectives, without precedent for history. Upgrades in innovation, both programming and equipment, have brought about some human dynamic being second rate compared to and more inconsistent than AI in numerous fields, including medication. In any case, it is broadly acknowledged that instead of rival machines, utilizing AI to help and help settle on better-educated choices is the way to future medication. In territories like sedation, information examination can be utilized to create valuable progressed clinical choice help apparatuses dependent on AI.
Information investigation and AI innovation can possibly change medication to a level never observed, as far as effectiveness and precision yet in addition making uncertainty and permitting the exchange of master area information to machines. In any case, applying AI to all zones of medication, for example, sedatives can't consequently be expected to accomplish upgrades past human specialists. It is regularly overlooked that it is "Counterfeit" knowledge that is being thought of. Observing of profundity of sedation during medical procedure is emotional and relies upon the patient's ASA characterization and the medical procedure type to permit exact medication organization against the deliberate condition of excitement of the patient. The patient's affectability may shift all through the surgery, and the haemodynamic impacts of the medications may restrict the sum that can be given securely.
Sedatives is a mind boggling clinical control that includes a lot of psychological and ability based work, and accepting AI can without much of a stretch supplant experienced, and learned clinical professionals is an entirely nonsensical desire.
Mechanical headway has made robots a vital piece of a few fields, including medical procedure. Pharmacological robots are shut circle frameworks, ready to accurately titrate the portion of sedative medications to a preset worth, concerning entrancing, absense of pain and neuromuscular square. Mechanical robots consequently imitate manual assignments, demonstrating promising execution. Choice emotionally supportive networks can improve clinical practice. The utilization of robots in sedation shows the upside of dispensing with the tedious piece of the outstanding task at hand, permitting the anaesthesiologist to concentrate on quiet consideration.
A significant issue with current profound learning frameworks is "darkness." Although a machine might be prepared to play out a particular info yield planning, it is regularly indistinct regarding which part of the preparation organize is answerable for a particular result. This is bothersome, as doctors need to comprehend and confide in the activity of any self-ruling sedation framework. Specifically, A doctor should be certain that the machine Will not create "wild" reactions in unanticipated working conditions. At present, worthy techniques comprehend this by expanding the preparation sets and progressively complex degrees of handling, without an exact examination of intellectual predisposition that may happen. Dynamic for use in sedatives can't be a nondeterministic shut procedure, and clinicians need to have full control and comprehension of the choices created by these standard based calculations. Sedatives includes a lot of psychological and finesse-based work. Innovation is progressively infringing on both of these zones. Man-made intelligence Systems utilizing Machine based Learning instruments and programming can be extremely valuable in certain parts of clinical choices inside sedatives.
This paper centers around the unpredictability of both AI and information investigation advancements and chances of AI in sedatives for what's to come. It will survey current advances in AI and Data systematic devices and equipment innovations just as plotting how these can be utilized in the field of sedatives.
The openness of shorter-acting meds and improved development has extended undertakings to make electronic sedation structures. The most timely undertakings return to 1950 when Bickford portrayed a gadget to robotize backing of sedation using summated electroencephalography signs to control narcotic depth.1 Since by then, even more imaginatively complex emphasess of sedation computerization systems have been introduced (e.g., McSleepy), anyway all current beginnings of free or semiautonomous sedation upkeep structures rely upon the proportional essential thought that began with Bickford's contraption. In particular, each accentuation required standard based, shut circle input systems to administer at any rate one of the various spaces imperative to viably keep up general sedation, for instance, hypnotizing, absense of agony, and muscle loosening up. Arranging a shut info hover for any of these regions requires a couple of stages that must be organized in a top-down way. From the outset, a reliably quantifiable target measure must be recognized. For instance, the bispectral record is typically used to assess significance of hypnotizing. By then an estimation containing rules and responses must be expected to affect changes in the target variable around a foreordained extent of characteristics, regularly through alterations to sedate association rates. Eventually, there is consistent assessment and acclimation to keep up the target variable around the set point.


According to the motor vehicle directive of the European Community, as of January 2017 new cars will only be allowed to use air conditioning systems with refrigerants of GWP below 150. A moratorium to significantly extend this deadline is not to be expected considering the recent negotiation process on the EU F-Gas-Regulation. One option will be flammable refrigerants of the ASHRAE classification A3 or a future classification A2L. However they are subject to safety reservations when used in systems with direct evaporation. R744 requires for a wide use and a complete realization with development, industrialization and validation probably more time than the remaining available time horizon. Therefore an option shall be discussed, which is based on a hybrid solution with R744 and a flammable refrigerant and which may allow a sufficiently rapid implementation. The utilization of R744 refrigerant mixtures shall not be considered. Instead a small and compact refrigerant loop will be operated with A3 or A2L refrigerants. Compactness, leak tightness and significant reduced charge amounts already contribute to the enhanced safety. R744 will be used as a secondary refrigerant. Additional safety aspects arising from the use of R744 as secondary refrigerant and at the same time in the function as fire extinguishing medium. Efficiency, safety, time-tomarket and scenarios for the possible full transition to R744 as a refrigerant will be discussed.


Five fundamental scales of mass follow from holographic limitations, a self-similar law for angular momentum and the basic scaling laws for a fractal universe with dimension 2. The five scales correspond to the observable universe, clusters, galaxies, stars and the nucleon. The fundamental scales form naturally a self-similar hierarchy, generating new relationships among the parameters of the nucleon,the cosmological constant and the Planck scale. There is implied a sixth fundamental scale thatcorresponds to the electrostatic force within an atom. Identifying the implied scale as such leads to new relationships among the fundamental charge, the mass of the electron and cosmological parameters. Theseconsiderations also suggest that structures on the scale of galaxies and larger must be bound by non-Newtonian forces.


The output is a creative project, 'Make Your Future', that involved schools across West Yorkshire partnering with higher education institutions to reignite making in the classroom and tackle the challenges faced by craft education. The project resulted in a curated exhibition. The project was a collaboration between Leeds Arts University, the Crafts Council, University of Leeds, University of Huddersfield and secondary schools in the region. Pratt and Wadkin ran screen-printing and printmaking activities in schools and curated the exhibition. Research Process:
Make Your Future 2018 spanned the entire academic year starting with introducing teachers to the different projects, followed by professional development sessions with teachers, a series of workshops in schools and finally ending in an exhibition event and private view. The project explored and investigated the rich historical heritage of Yorkshire's textile industry reimagined through Knit, Print and woven textiles design, through both hand and digital practices bringing together both traditional crafts and contemporary technologies. The exhibition included school children's work from 8 secondary schools from across West Yorkshire. Research Insights: The exhibition enriched the on-going collaboration of Leeds Arts University, University of Leeds with the Crafts Council, together with local schools and sixth forms. The project demonstrated how the workshops and exhibition promoted design and making in schools and encouraged young learners from Key Stage 3 to select art or design technology as a GCSE option. Dissemination: The peer-reviewed exhibition of textile artworks was showcased at the Vernon Street Building, Leeds Arts University, 29 June – 16 August 2018.


The research investigated the impact of EU law and policies on direct taxation in
REITs, and movement towards a harmonised EU-REIT with common direct
taxation of REITs profits. It represents the first comparative study of EU member
state REIT regimes to identify an emerging common understanding informed by
European jurisprudence and Europeanization policy and theory.
After identifying the fundamental elements of a REIT (following the original US
model) within a context of Europeanization theory, the research examined EU
policy mechanisms (such as goodness of fit and adaptational soft pressure) and
the impact of relevant case law from the European Court of Justice. It then
presented in-depth case studies of three member states: France (example of a
well-established REIT regime), Bulgaria (a new accession state) and Spain (a
recent REIT regime).
The research found an emerging common understanding between member states'
REIT regimes, offering the prospect of a European harmonised REIT form
distinguishable from the US model. It also found negative approaches to direct
taxation in cross-border situations, and member state concerns about loss of
sovereignty and tax base, which should be recognised within any harmonised
direct tax regime.
The research can claim to be the first comparative analysis of MS REIT regimes to
address a common understanding, and thus is relevant to practitioners and
academics in the fields of European law and international taxation. It has potential
to contribute towards an improved common direct taxation approach and the
harmonisation of European REITs within the wider processes of Europeanization.
The research was limited to REIT regimes in EU member states, and further
research could analyse relevant member state tax regimes outside the 'common
understanding' REIT model, and further explores issues of loss of sovereignty and
tax base in member states.


Rheumatic heart disease is the most common cardiac disease associated with pregnancy in developing countries. In India, rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS) comprises 88% of heart diseases complicating pregnancy. Despite advances and improved anesthetic techniques, the management of parturients with cardiac valvular pathology can be challenging. Therefore, the anesthesiologist has to be vigilant and meticulous in planning the technique of anesthesia to aid in safe confinement. In this article, we present the anesthetic management of a parturient who presented to our hospital with a medical record of moderate MS, in active labor. We combined a technique most feasible at that moment, with tactful and detailed knowledge of the pathophysiology to guide our anesthetic management and facilitate a normal vaginal delivery. We have tried to highlight how clinically individualized and personalized care with sound pathophysiological knowledge of the patient's cardiac condition can achieve optimal outcomes, especially when conventional modes and techniques are not feasible.


Background Loneliness, understood as the negative feeling experienced by those who perceive their social relationships to be deficient, and social isolation, characterised by the relative absence of contact with others, have recently been identified as a public health challenge in the United Kingdom. How is this social «problem» defined, who is expected to tackle it, and how? These are the questions we explore in our presentation. Methods We used Bacchi's (2009) 'What's the problem represented to be?' framework, informed by Foucault's theory of governmentality and methods of problematization, archaeology and genealogy, to analyse the way in which the issue of loneliness and social isolation is represented in British policy. Taking the 2012 White Paper «Caring for our Future: Reforming care and support» as our starting point, we used discourse analysis to identify the assumptions of the public health strategy currently being promoted. Results We identified three main assumptions: 1) being lonely or socially isolated is perceived to be particularly problematic in older age; 2) loneliness and social isolation are targeted as factors whose potential effects on health can be modified; 3) the involvement of civil society is identified as key to the delivery of interventions aimed at strengthening the social relationships of isolated individuals. We show how these assumptions shape the prevention strategies currently promoted, and what they omit. In particular, we discuss how the current focus on secondary and tertiary prevention ignores important dynamics such as lifecourse trajectories and social determinants of health. Conclusion Actively questioning the representation of the «problem» of loneliness and social isolation in British policy allows us to shed light on the limitations of the intervention approach currently pursued. In particular, it highlights the absence of primary intervention initiatives, which are key to an effect prevention strategy.