The paper is aimed at the review of the charge and spin density perturbation on the iron nucleus in the BCC iron-based binary alloys containing as the impurity either 4d (Nb, Mo, Ru, Rh, Pd) or 5d (Os, Ir, Au) metals. Additionally Ga has been used as such impurity as well. Measurements have been performed by means of the Fe 57 transmission Mossbauer spectroscopy at room temperature. Powder X-ray diffraction data for alloys investigated show linear dependence of the lattice constant versus impurity concentration. Mossbauer data were treated assuming random distribution of the impurity over the iron sites and additive effect for the charge density perturbation, and additive in the algebraic sense effect for the corresponding spin density perturbation. Hence, the effect of impurity depends solely on the distance between impurity and the iron nucleus under above assumptions. It has been found that impurities being further away than a third or in some cases as the second neighbor do not contribute directly to the charge and spin perturbation. On the other hand, they have usually some minor effect on the average charge and spin density. Generally, the perturbation to either charge or spin density has some oscillatory character versus distance from the impurity. The phase and period of the charge oscillation is vastly different from the phase and period of the spin oscillation in the majority of cases. Substitution of the impurities with the increasing number of 4d or 5d electrons leads to the lowering of the electron density on the iron nucleus and causes decreased band spin density on this nucleus. Subsequent impurities donate more and more d-type electrons to the band, and the latter screen more and more effectively s-like electrons. Hence, the density of the s-like electrons on the iron nucleus diminishes. Impurities with 5d electrons have generally stronger effect on the charge and spin density perturbation than impurities with 4d electrons.


GLORIA long-range sidescan sonar images from a region of the Nazca plate immediately to the north of the Easter microplate have revealed a prominent series of anomalous ridges. These extend from lat 22°S, long 114°W, near the East Pacific Rise, to 23°S, 112°W, near Pito, deep at the northeast corner of the microplate. They are 20 to 50 km long and trend east-west, subparallel to the Pacific-Nazca spreading direction. Swath bathymetric data indicate that the ridges dip steeply to the south and gently to the north, and in places reliefs exceed 1 km. Earthquake focal mechanisms and predicted plate motions point to thrust faulting as the most likely mechanism for producing these ridges, and their morphology suggests that the crust to the north has over-ridden that to the south. The Nazca-Easter Euler pole predicts a maximum present-day convergence of about 50 km/m.y. at the western end of the Easter microplate9s northern boundary, and we estimate that about one-third of this has been taken up by the intraplate thrusts during the past 2.5 m.y.


The NHS review has implications for the funding of teaching hospitals and the relationship between them and the medical schools. The ring‐fencing of the Service Increment for Teaching and Research (SIFTR) and the need to develop contractual relationships for the provision of service facilities for teaching and research means that more information is needed on the nature and distribution of the service costs of these activities. The article describes research which informed the process of allocating SIFTR in a large teaching district. A methodology for developing rational SIFTR contracts is described and the implications for the future of medical education and research discussed. The local distribution of SIFTR must be well managed if teaching and research are not to suffer as a result of the financial pressures generated by the NHS review.


Four kinds of subdivision methods of Global Discrete Grid are presented in this paper. Furthermore, we systematically and comprehensively compare and analyze the distortion distribution and convergence of spherical diamond discrete grids. Especially, the Electrical Potential Energy is introduced as index to measure the distortion distribution of spherical diamond discrete grids. The result shows that the properties including the distortion of the area of the grid cell and the distortion of the angle of the grid cell or from the global uniformity of spherical diamond discrete grids which are obtained by recursively bisecting the great arcs on the surface of the globe starting with the icosahedron are much better than the properties of the other three discrete grid obtained by subdivision methods.


The accuracy of information retrieval systems is often measured using average precision (AP). Given a set of positive (relevant) and negative (non-relevant) samples, the parameters of a retrieval system can be estimated using the AP-SVM framework, which minimizes a regularized convex upper bound on the empirical AP loss. However, the high computational complexity of loss-augmented inference, which is required for learning an AP-SVM, prohibits its use with large training datasets. To alleviate this deficiency, we propose three complementary approaches. The first approach guarantees an asymptotic decrease in the computational complexity of loss-augmented inference by exploiting the problem structure. The second approach takes advantage of the fact that we do not require a full ranking during loss-augmented inference. This helps us to avoid the expensive step of sorting the negative samples according to their individual scores. The third approach approximates the AP loss over all samples by the AP loss over difficult samples (for example, those that are incorrectly classified by a binary SVM), while ensuring the correct classification of the remaining samples. Using the PASCAL VOC action classification and object detection datasets, we show that our approaches provide significant speed-ups during training without degrading the test accuracy of AP-SVM.


Background: Laparoscopic lymph node biopsy through a multi-port access (MPLB) is a well-established technique for intra-abdominal lymphoma diagnosis. The aim of the current study is to assess the feasibility and the diagnostic accuracy of the single-port laparoscopic lymph node biopsy (SPLB) in intra-abdominal lymphoma. Materials and Methods: Between October 2016 and February 2019, 15 patients underwent SPLB to rule out or to follow the progression of a lymphoma. The clinical outcome and the pathology reports were analyzed retrospectively. Results: SPLB was completed laparoscopically in all cases. The total number of biopsies performed for each procedure was sometimes multiple (median: 2; range: 1-3). Duration of surgery was 85 ± 32 minutes (range: 75-105 minutes). Length of hospitalization was 1.8 ± 0.7 days (range: 1-3 days). No major postoperative complications occurred. A cutaneous infection managed conservatively was observed in a patient. In 10 patients, SPLB was used to establish a diagnosis whereas in 5 patients it was performed to follow a progression of a lymphoproliferative disease. In 93.3% of the cases, SPLB achieved the correct diagnosis and subsequent therapeutic decisions. Conclusion: SPLB has shown good procedure and postoperative outcomes as well as a high diagnostic yield, comparable to literature data on traditional MPLB. Therefore, our results show that this approach is safe and effective and can be an equally valid option to MPLB to obtain a diagnosis or to follow the progression of a lymphoproliferative disease. Further studies are necessary to support these results before its widespread adoption.


Sport and recreational conflict in natural areas arises from growth in the diversity of, and demand for, nature-based sport activities and recreation pursuits. The social sustainability of such activities within a tourism context should recognize that conflicts between different users are complex and dynamic, not simply the result of goal interference or competition for scarce resources. This paper critically explores the complexities of sport hunting and recreational conflict using quantitative and qualitative techniques implemented on Stewart Island, New Zealand. The empirical research points to an ambiguity of feelings and attitudes concerning the relationship and potential/real conflicts between sport hunters and recreational hikers. While some reportedly experienced actual conflict, quantitative methods did in fact highlight many common elements of motivation and environmental values that are shared by both hunters and hikers. Interviews and participant observations highlighted three key elements of the outdoor sport/recreation experience that provide potential for conflict. These included user group characteristics, hut behaviour/etiquette and the use of firearms/killing of animals. We propose that conflict is an integral part of society and hence considerable effort should focus on accurately understanding conflict situations. The results support the need for management based on integration rather than segregation, and may be viewed as a move away from reactive management based on relatively isolated instances of goal interference, towards a social sustainability paradigm founded upon a nuanced understanding of conflict phenomena. Key-words: Sport, hunting, recreational conflict, social sustainability


Undifferentiated sarcomatoid carcinoma of the pancreas (SCP) is a rare and aggressive subtype of pancreatic cancer. Histologically, SCP is a poorly differentiated tumor characterized by the lack of glandular differentiation and the presence of mesenchymal-like, spindle-shaped tumor cells. Due to its rarity, only sporadic cases have been reported, while its molecular characterization has not been sufficiently described. Surgical resection with curative intent is the gold-standard of SCP management, but this strategy is possible only in a small proportion of cases due to SCP early metastasization. Although SCP is generally associated with a poor prognosis, some clinical cases amenable to surgical resection and followed by adjuvant chemotherapy have demonstrated a remarkably long survival. Preliminary molecular insights on the SCP molecular landscape have demonstrated the recurrent presence of KRAS and TP53 mutations, highlighting genetic similarities with conventional pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Although the use of immunotherapy in PDAC remains an unmet challenge, recent insights indicated a potentially significant role of the PD-L1/Notch3 axis in SCP, opening new horizons for immunotherapy in this cancer subtype. In this review, we described the most important clinic-pathologic features of SCP, with a specific focus on their molecular landscape and the potential targets for precision oncology.


Breast cancer is by far the commonest cancer identified in women internationally, positioned second in both sexes collectively. Breast Self-Examination (BSE) leads to a lesser incidence of progressive breast cancer or mortality from breast cancer among women who were prudently trained in the procedure. Study was done with an objective to evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding B.S.E among nursing students. Quantitative approach was considered appropriate with one group pretest & post-test research design. The study was conducted at Faculty of Nursing, SGT University, Budhera, Gurugram, Haryana. The sample were 40 nursing students of age group 18-26years & above who full-fill the inclusion criteria. Non probability Convenience sampling technique was used in the present study. Two Tools were used; First tool consisted of 13 items for obtaining information of demographic variables such as Age, Religion, Education, Type of family etc. Second tool consisted of 25 MCQ's to evaluate the knowledge regarding breast self-examination amongst nursing students. The 't' value of the mean pre-test knowledge score & post-test knowledge score was found to be -7.37 at level of significant p<0.05. The present study concludes that a structured teaching Program is effective in term of gain in knowledge regarding Breast SelfExamination among nursing students.


Purpose
Currently, the results of database acquisition are variously expressed, but it seems that users' understanding degree will be improved by expressing some search results such as images of products of shopping sites in three dimensions rather than two dimensions. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a system for automatically generating 3D virtual museum that arranges 3D objects with various layouts from the acquisition result of relation database by SuperSQL query.

Design/methodology/approach
The study extended the SuperSQL to generate 3D virtual reality museum using declarative queries on relational data stored in a database.

Findings
This system made it possible to generate various three-dimensional virtual spaces with different layouts through simple queries.

Originality/value
It can be said that this system is useful in that a complicated three-dimensional virtual space can be generated by describing a simple query and a different three-dimensional virtual space can be generated by slightly changing the query or database content. When creating a virtual museum, if there are too many exhibitions or when changing the layout, the burden on the user will be high. But in this system, it is possible to automatically generate various virtual museums easily and reduce the burden on users.


Abstract. In the morning of the 20 February of 2010 an extreme precipitation event occurred over Madeira Island. This event triggered several flash floods and mudslides in the southern parts of the island, resulting in 42 confirmed deaths, 100 injured, and at least 8 people still missing. These extreme weather conditions were associated to a weather frontal system moving northeastwards embedded in a low pressure area centered in the Azores archipelago. This storm was one in a series of such storms that affected Portugal, Spain, Morocco and the Canary islands causing flooding and strong winds. These storms were bolstered by an unusually strong sea surface temperature gradient across the Atlantic Ocean. In this study, the WRF model is used to evaluate the intensity and predictability of this precipitation extreme event over the island. The synoptic/orographic nature of the precipitation is also evaluated, as well as the sensitivity of the model to horizontal resolution and cumulus parameterization. Orography was found to be the main factor explaining the occurrence, amplitude and phase of precipitation over the Island.


Endocannabinoids and CB1 receptors have been implicated in endotoxin (LPS)-induced hypotension: LPS stimulates the synthesis of anandamide in macrophages, and the CB1 antagonist SR-141716 inhibits the hypotension induced by treatment of rats with LPS or LPS-treated macrophages. Recent evidence indicates the existence of cannabinoid receptors distinct from CB1 or CB2 that are inhibited by SR-141716 but not by other CB1 antagonists such as AM251. In pentobarbital-anesthetized rats, intravenous injection of 10 mg/kg LPS elicited hypotension associated with profound decreases in cardiac contractility, moderate tachycardia, and an increase in lower body vascular resistance. Pretreatment with 3 mg/kg SR-141716 prevented the hypotension and decrease in cardiac contractility, slightly attenuated the increase in peripheral resistance, and had no effect on the tachycardia caused by LPS, whereas pretreatment with 3 mg/kg AM251 did not affect any of these responses. SR-141716 also elicited an acute reversal of the hy...


Inductors are a key component for voltage regulators and its on-chip integration could significantly improve their performance and scalability capabilities. However, innovative microfabrication processes have yet to be developed in order to miniaturise the inductors while maintaining their overall performance. In that regards, thin-film magnetic materials on glass substrates, which amplifies inductance values, should ease on-chip inductor integration. Using Ni45Fe55 and Co80P20 magnetic materials, we successfully fabricated 2D core and coreless copper inductors, on both glass and silicon substrates for comparison purposes. Inductors on glass exhibit better performance than the ones fabricated on silicon. An inductance of 10.3 nH (14.7 nH/mm2) at 100 MHz and a quality factor of 5 were reached. We also propose a process flow and morphological characterizations of a 3D inductor architecture on glass substrate featuring through glass vias.


When suspended in methylcellulose, primary mouse keratinocytes cease proliferation and differentiate. Suspension also reduces the activity of the cyclin-dependent kinase cdk2, an important cell cycle regulatory enzyme. To determine how suspension modulates these events, we examined its effects on wild-type keratinocytes and keratinocytes nullizygous for the cdk2 inhibitor p21Cip1. After suspension of cycling cells, amounts of cyclin A (a cdk2 partner), cyclin A mRNA, and cyclin A-associated activity decreased much more rapidly in the presence than in the absence of p21Cip1. Neither suspension nor p21Cip1 status affected the stability of cyclin A mRNA. Loss of p21Cip1 reduced the capacity of suspended cells to growth arrest, differentiate, and accumulate p27Kip1 (a second cdk2 inhibitor) and affected the composition of E2F DNA binding complexes. Cyclin A-cdk2 complexes in suspended p21+/+ cells contained p21Cip1 or p27Kip1, whereas most of the cyclin A-cdk2 complexes in p21−/− cells lacked p27Kip1. Ectopic expression of p21Cip1 allowed p21−/− keratinocytes to efficiently down-regulate cyclin A and differentiate when placed in suspension. These findings show that p21Cip1 mediates the effects of suspension on numerous processes in primary keratinocytes including cdk2 activity, cyclin A expression, cell cycle progression, and differentiation.


This paper investigates a method for estimating a driver's spontaneous frustration in the real world. In line with a specific definition of emotion, the proposed method integrates information about the environment, the driver's emotional state, and the driver's responses in a single model. Driving data are recorded using an instrumented vehicle on which multiple sensors are mounted. While driving, drivers also interact with an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system to retrieve and play music. Using a Bayesian network, we combine knowledge on the driving environment assessed through data annotation, speech recognition errors, the driver's emotional state (frustration), and the driver's responses measured through facial expressions, physiological condition, and gas- and brake-pedal actuation. Experiments are performed with data from 20 drivers. We discuss the relevance of the proposed model and features of frustration estimation. When all of the available information is used, the overall estimation achieves a true positive rate of 80% and a false positive rate of 9% (i.e., the system correctly estimates 80% of the frustration and, when drivers are not frustrated, makes mistakes 9% of the time).


Asian paper wasps reach very high densities in some areas of the far north of the North Island, and concerns about their impact on native biota have led to a search for potential control methods. We simulated the effects of kill-trapping adults by manually removing either 50% or 75% of adults from nests and comparing subsequent counts of adults and capped pupal cells with paired untreated nests. Five weeks after treatment, the 50% removal group had an average of c. 29% fewer wasps than the untreated group, while the 75% removal group had c. 34% fewer than the untreated group. The rate of growth of both the 50% and 75% treatment groups after manipulation was similar to the untreated nests. We conclude that trapping is unlikely to be viable as a control tool unless it can be targeted at early-season queens, and that other options are better pursued at this stage.


For a better understanding of the influence of the immobilized rubber on the non-linear viscoelasticity of filled rubber, spherical silica without intensive filler–filler interactions and with weak silica–rubber interactions was introduced in order to compare the non-linear viscoelasticity of the commercial silica filled rubber. It was observed that the amplitude of Payne effect is related to the interfacial interaction characterized by the content of bound rubber. An interesting phenomenon was produced in the effect of temperature on the Payne effect for spherical silica filled rubber that the amplitude of Payne effect decreases with the temperature below 253 K but the storage modulus increases with the temperature above 253 K which performs the feature of entropic elasticity as pure rubber. The activation energy of the unstable chains can be also divided into two sections in the temperature range which is related to the critical value of immobilized rubber to influence the Payne effect. The results reveal that the number of immobilized rubber reduces with the temperature and it has a critical value to affect the Payne effect which is verified by Maier–Goritz model. The introduction of this kind of spherical silica provides an experimental method to study the non-linear viscoelasticity elaborately.


Soil is a complex environment for roots to navigate, in part due to the heterogeneous spread of water and nutrients. Water availability in soil varies on both a micro-scale, large pores have a lower water retaining capacity than small pores, and on a macro-scale, due to macropores and cracks that form in the soil. The aim of this thesis was to improve our understanding of how roots sense and respond to these differences in water availability. X-ray computed tomography (CT) was employed to non-destructively observe how root growth is modified in response to changing water availability in soil. Water availability was observed to significantly alter root architecture. If water availability is higher on one side of the primary root than the other then branches will only form towards the wet side, a response called hydropatterning, and if the root experiences a temporary water deficit branching will stop completely, a response called xerobranching. In order to understand how water availability regulates root branching a genetic study was conducted with Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants that lacked known water transporters were tested for their hydropatterning response. Altering the permeability of plasmodesmata surrounding the phloem leads to a hydropatterning defect. Therefore, it is hypothesised that maintaining the dynamics of a 'hydro-signal' is critical for water availability to regulate root branching. The work conducted in this thesis highlights the sensitivity of root architecture to water availability in the soil and the importance of water dynamics in the root.


A potential breakthrough of the electrification of the vehicle fleet will incur a steep rise in the load on the electrical power grid. To avoid huge grid investments, coordinated charging of those vehicles is a must. In this paper, we assess algorithms to schedule charging of plug-in (hybrid) electric vehicles as to minimize the additional peak load they might cause. We first introduce two approaches, one based on a classical optimization approach using quadratic programming, and a second one, market based coordination, which is a multi-agent system that uses bidding on a virtual market to reach an equilibrium price that matches demand and supply. We benchmark these two methods against each other, as well as to a baseline scenario of uncontrolled charging. Our simulation results covering a residential area with 63 households show that controlled charging reduces peak load, load variability, and deviations from the nominal grid voltage.


Purpose This study aimed to develop the examination objectives based on nursing competency of the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination. Methods This is a validity study to develop the examination objectives based on nursing competency. Data were collected in December 2021. We reviewed the literature related to changing nurse roles and on the learning objectives for the Korea Medical Licensing Examination and other health personnel licensing examinations. Thereafter, we created a draft of the nursing problems list for examination objectives based on the literature review, and the content validity was evaluated by experts. A final draft of the examination objectives is presented and discussed. Results A total of 4 domains, 12 classes, and 85 nursing problems for the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination were developed. They included the essentials of objectives, related factors, evaluation goals, related activity statements, related clients, related settings, and specific outcomes. Conclusion This study developed a draft of the examination objectives based on clinical competency that were related to the clinical situations of nurses and comprised appropriate test items for the licensing examination. Above results may be able to provide fundamental data for item development that reflects future nursing practices.


During the last 50 years, it has been shown that abiotic stresses influence plant growth and crop production greatly, and crop yields have evidently stagnated or decreased in economically important crops, where only high inputs assure high yields. The recent manifesting effects of climate change are considered to have aggravated the negative ef‐ fects of abiotic stresses on plant productivity. On the other hand, the complexity of plant mechanisms controlling important traits and the limited availability of germplasm for tol‐ erance to certain stresses have restricted genetic advances in major crops for increased yields or for improved other traits. However, some level of success has been achieved in understanding crop tolerance to abiotic stresses; for instance, identification of abscisic acid (ABA) receptors (e.g., ABA-responsive element (ABRE) binding protein/ABRE bind‐ ing factor (AREB/ABF) transcription factors), and other regulons (e.g., WRKYs, MYB/ MYCs, NACs, HSFs, bZIPs and nuclear factor-Y (NF-Y)), has shown potential promise to improve plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. Apart from these major regulons, studies on the post-transcriptional regulation of stress-responsive genes have provided additional opportunities for addressing the molecular basis of cellular stress responses in plants. This chapter focuses on the progress in the study of plant tolerance to abiotic stresses, and describes the major tolerance pathways and implicated signaling factors that have been identified, so far. To link basic and applied research, genes and proteins that play functional roles in mitigating abiotic stress damage are summarized and discussed.


U-CARE is one of the Swedish government's strategic research programs atUppsala University. The overarching goal is to promote psychosocial healthamong patients suffering from somatic disease and their significant others by means of self-help programs delivered via an internet platform. Another goal is to reduce costs for individuals and the society caused by emotional distress in response to somatic disease. Professionals within clinical psychology, health economics, and information systems collaborate to reach this goal.Approximately 20% of patients suffering from somatic disease as well as theirsignificant others experience a clinically relevant level of emotional distress in response to disease and treatment. This is in itself alerting, but becomes even moreproblematic since physicians and nurses show low sensitivity and specificityin detecting patients and significant others experiencing a clinically relevant level of distress. This can result in persistent distress causing human suffering as well as costs for individuals and the society.During 2010-2011 an internet platform: www.u-care.se to provide interactive support and cognitive behavioral therapy has been constructed within the U-CARE program. The platform supports, among other things, rule-based unfolding of self-help material for participants, interaction between participants and therapists, interaction within a participant community, and research including a detailed log of participants' behaviors on the platform. In addition self-help programs of interactive support and cognitive behavioural therapy for adolescents with cancer: U-CARE: TeenCan, adults with cancer: U-CARE: AdultsCan, and adults having had a myocardial infarct: U-CARE: Heart to be provided via www.u-care.se have been constructed.Through a multi-disciplinary and design-oriented approach, the U-CARE program aims at developing new evidence-based knowledge in basic and applied psychosocial health care,and actively promoting its implementation in health care practice as well as in undergraduate and advanced education.


The development of solar energy tracking technology has important practical significance for promoting solar energy application. In the paper, double-direction tracking-device was designed based on the theory of calendar check tracking and worm gear mechanism, gear transmission mechanism, cam push-rod mechanism was used to achieve the function of "single driving, double-direction tracking" . So, the function of tracking solar azimuth and solar altitude angles was cleverly realized through controlling a single power. In the paper, design and manufacture of the device were completed by Solidworks software. Through the debugging experiment, the device's advantages were proved of low energy consumption, high reliability, strong anti-interference ability, easy maintenance and suitable for a variety of small solar installations.


The skin lesion erythema migrans (EM) is an initial sign of the Ixodes tick–transmitted Borreliella spirochetal infection known as Lyme disease. T cells and innate immune cells have previously been shown to predominate the EM lesion and promote the reaction. Despite the established importance of B cells and antibodies in preventing infection, the role of B cells in the skin immune response to Borreliella is unknown. Here, we used single-cell RNA-Seq in conjunction with B cell receptor (BCR) sequencing to immunophenotype EM lesions and their associated B cells and BCR repertoires. We found that B cells were more abundant in EM in comparison with autologous uninvolved skin; many were clonally expanded and had circulating relatives. EM-associated B cells upregulated the expression of MHC class II genes and exhibited preferential IgM isotype usage. A subset also exhibited low levels of somatic hypermutation despite a gene expression profile consistent with memory B cells. Our study demonstrates that single-cell gene expression with paired BCR sequencing can be used to interrogate the sparse B cell populations in human skin and reveals that B cells in the skin infection site in early Lyme disease expressed a phenotype consistent with local antigen presentation and antibody production.


A clinical report describing the successful use of the lip repositioning technique for the reduction of excessive gingival display. A female patient aged 34 years reported with a chief complaint of gummy smile and was treated with this technique performed under local anesthesia with the main objective to reduce gummy smile by limiting the retraction of elevator muscles (e.g., zygomaticus minor, levator anguli, orbicularis oris, and levator labii superioris). The technique is fulfilled by removing a strip of mucosa from maxillary buccal vestibule and creating a partial thickness flap between mucogingival junction and upperlip musculature, and suturing the lip mucosa with mucogingival junction, resulting in a narrow vestibule and restricted muscle pull, thereby reducing gingival display.


The low bioavailability and ocular residence time exhibited by the topical conventional liquid ophthalmic formulations because of spillage by overflow, dilution of drug by tear turn over, nasolacrimal drainage and systemic absorption may be overcome by the use of in situ forming systems that are instilled as liquid drops into the cul-de-sac of the eye, where they transform into a gel or semisolid phase. The present work describes the formulation and evaluation of an ophthalmic delivery system of an antiinflammatory drug, indomethacin for the treatment of uveitis based on the concept o f pH induced in situ gelation. The carbopol solutions which are acidic and less viscous, transform into stiff gels upon increase in pH of eye as the gelling agents and its combination with hydroxypropylmethylcellulose-K15 M, a well known ocular viscosity enhancing agent. The enhanced therapeutic efficacy and sustained release of indomethacin over 8 hour period in vitro make them an excellent candidate for in situ gelling ocular delivery systems.


This article traces the history of self-help in the African American community, with emphasis on services and programs for children. The traditions of self-help are very much alive in the African American community, and are manifest in a range of activities. The self-help activities specific to one adoption agency illustrate contemporary models of self-help in the African American community. African American children continue to be disproportionately removed from their families by the child welfare system and placed in alternate care [Billingsley & Giovannoni 1972; Leashore et al. 1991]. "African American children are more likely than other children to be reported as neglected, to enter out-of-home care and to have a prolonged duration of care, and they are less likely to secure permanence through adoption" [Williams 1991: 276]. To say that the plight of African American children is the result of an African American community that lacks an interest in taking care of its children is a fallacy that has been dispelled by current and historical research [Billingsley & Giovannoni 1972; Gutman 1976; Hill 1977; Martin & Martin 1978; Ross 1978; Williams 1991; Wilson 1991]. For the burden of responsibility to rest with the "client" (African American children and their families) is to continue to blame the victim. The focus must be on the institutional practices of agencies and the child welfare system at large. During the past 20 years, several initiatives were undertaken to increase the adoptive placement of African American children [Williams 1991]. These initiatives represented public and voluntary child welfare agency efforts to reduce the disproportionate number of African American children in the child welfare system. Many of these efforts have proven to be successful in facilitating permanent outcomes for African American children-some more successful than others [Williams 1991]. This article examines the use of self-help as a means to increase adoption opportunities for African American children. The history and role of traditional self-help efforts in the African American community related to caregiving of African American children are also reviewed, with particular attention to identifying the steps and the activities that occurred in the beginning stages of one agency's development, to illustrate new perspectives on self-help. Traditions of Self-help The use of formal adoption services are relatively recent for African Americans [Williams 1991]. This is not to suggest that adoption did not take place in the African American community. Hill's [1977] research on the adoption practices of African Americans substantiates that a system of informal adoption has been a historical part of the African American community. This informal system of adoption is consistent with cultural traditions of African Americans in which caring for and protecting children is a value held in high esteem. The strengths of the African American community in providing services and responding to the needs of the children are a consistent theme in the literature on African American adoptions [Billingsley & Giovannoni 1972; Billingsley 1992; Everett et al. 1991; Hill 1977; Ross 1978]. The literature also references self-help efforts that were developed to respond to children's needs for care, protection, and nurturing. Ross [1978] offers an overview of organized efforts of African Americans in providing social welfare services, including child welfare services. Ross' overview substantiates the presence of self-help as a continuing attribute of the African American community. While the literature indicates that the history of self-help in the African American community is ongoing, the strategies and techniques of providing permanence for children differ significantly from Hill's initial assessment [Wilson 1991]. Although challenges and difficulties continue to confront the African American community today, the cultural tradition of self-help, particularly as it relates to responding to the needs of children, also continues to exert its influence. …


: The advantages of system approach in understanding of functions of the whole organism are polemically substantiated. Modem analytical investigations in the field of molecular-cellular biology are critically viewed. It is shown that the results of analytical researches should be considered as components of different functional systems of the organism.


A methodology for rock-excavation structuralreliability analysis that uses Distinct Element Method numerical models is presented. The methodology solves the problem of the conventional numerical models that supply only punctual results and use fixed input parameters, without considering its statistical errors. The analysis of rock-excavation stability must consider uncertainties from geological variability, fr om uncertainty in the choice of mechanical behaviour hypothesis, and from uncertainties in parameters adopted in numerical model construction. These uncertainties can be analyzed in simple deterministic models, but a new methodology was developed for numerical models with results of several natures. The methodology is based on Monte Carlo simulations and uses principles of Paraconsisten t Logic. It will be presented in the analysis of a final slope of a largedimensioned surface mine.


There were two primary goals in this investigation. The first goal was to determine if results from field tests (time-trials and a Conconi incremental test) are related to performance in mass-start long-distance bicycle races. The second goal was to investigate inter-relationships among field test variables. The testing variables measured were critical velocity (CV), Conconi anaerobic threshold (AT) velocity, 4mM AT velocity, fatigue index, peak blood lactate, and anaerobic work capacity. Participants were USCF 30 category 1 through 5 cyclists. Participants performed one 20.75 km and two 10.37 km all-out tests in the field. They also performed an incremental test. The tests were performed at one-week intervals. Results from the field tests were compared to recent mass-start racing performance. Results indicated that Conconi AT velocity was related to performance in a 161-km race. There was also a relationship between 4mM AT velocity and CV and between Conconi AT velocity and 4mM AT velocity. It was concluded that field tests might provide information about performance ability in mass-start long-distance bicycle races.


Background and purpose: The choice of antifungal agent in treatment of Candida urinary tract infections (CUTI) is dependent on the site of infection, the underlying disease of the patient, and the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) of the agent. This study aimed to perform a review of antifungal therapy for CUTI. Materials and methods: Data was obtained by a search for full-text articles in Medline, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Magiran, Irandoc, and Iran Medex published from 1994 until 2016. The search keywords included urinary tract infections, Candida species, diagnosis, and treatment. Results: Fluconazole is the drug of choice for prophylaxis and treatment of CUTI due to low toxicity, high solubility, and wide tissue distribution. Although flucytosine is concentrated in urine and has potent activity against Candida species, treatment is restricted because of its toxicity and expansion of resistance when it is used alone. In addition, amphotericin B is an active drug against most Candida species (except resistant C. krusei strains). Other azoles and echinocandins are not effective for treating CUTI due to the minimum excretion of the active compound into the urine. However, a localized renal infection followed by blood spreading might be treated by echinocandins because of its effective tissue concentrations. Conclusion: We presented diagnostic tests and treatment protocols of CUTI, but new surveillance protocols and diagnostic strategies for control and prevention of CUTI in critically ill patients are essential.


Control can improve the performance of wind turbines by enhancing energy capture and reducing dynamic loads.At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, we are beginning to design control algorithms for regulation of turbine speed and power using state-space control designs. In this paper, we describe the design of such a control algorithm for regulation of rotor speed in full-load operation (region 3) for a two-bladed wind turbine. We base our control design on simple linear models of a turbine, which contain rotor and generator rotation, drivetrain torsion, and rotor flap degrees of freedom (first mode only). We account for wind-speed fluctuations using disturbance-accommodating control. We show the capability of these control schemes to stabilize the modeled turbine modes via pole placement while using state estimation to reduce the number of turbine measurements that are needed for these control algorithms. We incorporate these controllers into the FAST-AD code and show simulation results for various conditions. Finally, we report conclusions to this work and outline future studies.


To address the need for gas, odor, and particulate matter (PM) emission from animal production buildings, funding was secured in the fall of 2001 by a six-state research team for a USDA project entitled "Air Pollutants Emissions from Confined Animal Buildings," or APECAB. The main objective of the APECAB project was to quantify long-term (yearly) air pollutant emissions from confined animal buildings and establish methodologies for real time measurement of these emissions and build a database of air emissions for US livestock and poultry buildings. The APECAB study was a collaboration of land-grant universities in Minnesota (lead institution), Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Iowa, and North Carolina. Extensive planning occurred during the first nine months for protocol development and equipment selection and purchase. Data collection began at various times during the fall of 2002 for each of the cooperating universities and ended at various times in 2004. The immediate goal of the study was a 15-month sampling period to assure that long-term emissions from actual animal production buildings were determined. Long-term measurements revealed the variations in air emissions due to seasonal effects, animal growth cycles, diurnal variations, and manure handling systems.


The paper deals with the effect of pressure, temperature and time on corrosion rate of pipeline steels in CO2 saturated water and in humid saturated CO2 gas in the range from 25 to 60°C and pressure from 20 to 145 bar, up to 400 hours of exposure. The results of weight loss tests show very high rates in the aqueous phase, one or two order of magnitude higher than the values obtained in CO2 saturated with water, but remaining in any case much lower than values extrapolated by De Waard and Milliams model at high partial pressure. Depending on temperature and pressure, cementite and iron carbonate scales can grow on metallic surface reducing corrosion rate. SEM and metallographic analysis evidenced the evolution of scale from defective cementitebased layer to protective compact carbonate scale.


The use of externally bonded FRP-systems is an effective retrofitting technique widely recognized to increase strength and deformability of reinforced concrete columns. With the expanding use of FRP jacketing, accurate prediction in performance for design purposes becomes increasingly important, achieved through well characterised materials. A critical parameter in predicting the ultimate behaviour of FRP confined concrete is measured with the ultimate FRP tensile strain, determined from material direct tensile tests. However, ultimate FRP tensile strain determined experimentally according to flat coupon tests has not been reached at the circumferential (hoop) rupture of FRP jackets confining concrete cylinders. This paper presents the development of a novel 'Investigation of Circumferential-strain Experimental' (ICE) methodology for FRP characterisation, aimed at providing a reliable experimental technique to assess the ultimate hoop strain of FRP laminates. The ICE methodology uses the unique property of water that expands when it changes state of matter from liquid to solid, as a medium to apply an internal hydrostatic pressure replicating the effect of concrete columns subjected to axial loads. The method was first assessed on circular metal containers to assess its feasibility, and then validated on cylindrical Glass FRP specimens made of different diameters and laminate thicknesses. The results indicate that the proposed ICE methodology is a reliable test method generating statistically reproducible hoop strain measurements, while providing an effective test technique. Furthermore, average ultimate hoop strain results indicate a lower level of strain than those found in similar flat coupon specimens under direct tensile tension.


We examined 61 affected members of eight families with an inherited corneal dystrophy. The corneal abnormalities varied greatly from one member of a family to another. Some patients had only a few isolated endothelial vesicles, while others in the same family had severe secondary stromal and epithelial edema. In some patients edema was present at birth or in early childhood; in others it developed later in life. The wide variation of corneal abnormalities suggests the possibility that several conditions previously described as separate disease entities, such as grouped vesicles, Schnyder's posterior herpes, posterior polymorphous dystrophy, and congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy, are part of the clinical spectrum of expression of a single familial corneal dystrophy. Some affected family members also had ocular hypertension or open-angle glaucoma. Broad iridocorneal adhesions were present in some of the patients with glaucoma and in others with normal intraocular pressures. Other ocular abnormalities present in a few patients include pupillary ectropion, "glass membranes" on the anterior iris surface, and bands in Descemet's membrane. The transmission in most of the families was autosomal dominant. In two families it appeared to be autosomal recessive.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study is to understand in depth the experience of the family physician faced with the patient that he perceives as 'difficult'. This was done by means of the 'long interview' as a method of qualitative research.

METHOD
We interviewed 15 randomly selected Board-certified family physicians, with five or more years experience as specialists, employed in the northern district of the 'Clalit Health Services', the major sick fund in Israel.

RESULTS
The participants stated that the 'difficult' patients are not those with difficult medical problems but rather those who are violent, demanding, aggressive, rude and who seek secondary gain. Patients with multiple non-specific complaints and those with psychosomatic problems are also difficult for the family physician. Appropriate use of patient-doctor communication skills and an effort to improve relations with the patient through empathy, tolerance and non-judgmental listening were suggested by the physicians as ways of making the difficult encounter easier.

CONCLUSIONS
Family physicians acknowledge their responsibility for the 'difficult' patient, and seek innovative and creative ways to cope with the difficult medical encounter. The more experienced the doctor is, the less he perceives patients as 'difficult', as he learns to accept greater diversity of behaviours in his patients.


Self-regulation of study activities is a constant in the lives of students—who must decide what to study, when to study, how long to study, and by what method to study. We investigated self-regulation in the context of a common study method: flashcards. In four experiments we examined the basis and effectiveness of a metacognitive strategy adopted almost universally by students: setting aside (dropping) items they think they know. Dropping has a compelling logic—it creates additional opportunities to study undropped items—but it rests on two shaky foundations: students' metacognitive monitoring and the value they assign to further study. In fact, being allowed to drop flashcards had small but consistently negative effects on learning. The results suggest that the effectiveness of self-regulated study depends on both the accuracy of metacognitive monitoring and the learner's understanding, or lack thereof, of how people learn.


Abstract The adsorption of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-esterified fatty acids at methylated silica, phosphatidic acid, and phosphatidylcholine surfaces was investigated within situellipsometry. For a series of PEG-fatty acid esters of ethoxy groups and acyl tails of type Ci:j-EO151(16 ≤i≤ 18, 0 ≤j≤ 2) adsorption at methylated silica was independent of bulk micellization, and a plateau was reached below the critical micellization concentration (CMC). The plateau adsorbed amount for the investigated fatty acid esters was only weakly dependent on the nature of the hydrophobic moiety. Instead, saturation adsorption was largely determined by the interactions between PEG chains. Adsorption isotherms were therefore essentially identical on all three of the quite different surfaces. At saturation adsorption, the adsorbed layer thickness was 10–15 nm, while the average adsorbed layer concentration was 0.07 g/cm3. Formation of the PEG-surfactant coatings thus appeared to involve significant molecular alterations of PEG from a random coil. The ability of the PEG-ester coatings to inhibit protein adsorption was also investigated. At the adsorption plateau, all coatings investigated displayed quite good ability to inhibit adsorption by a number of serum proteins. For the surfaces studied this ability decreased below 0.2 CMC. These findings are discussed in relation to the ability of PEG-derivatized lipids to control thein vivofate of colloidal drug carriers.


We consider an auction setting in which potential buyers, even if they fail to obtain the good, care about the price paid by the winner. We study the impact of these price-externalities on the first-price auction and the second-price auction in a symmetric information framework. First, we consider situations in which bidders care about the price paid independently from the identity of the winner. We prove that the first-price auction is not affected by this kind of price-externalities while the second-price auction is. In broader specifications, we observe though that the first-price auction can be affected by the presence of such price-externalities. In any case, in comparison with the first-price auction, the second-price auction exacerbates the effects of price-externalities whatever their types. Therefore, there is no revenue equivalence between the two auction formats.


Reliability is an integral part of all decisions regarding water distribution system layout, design, operation and maintenance. Providing reliability for water distribution systems is complicated due to the many factors that affect reliability, the inherent nonlinear behavior of the system and its consumers, and due to the different conflicting objectives facing a water distribution system utility. Although the reliability of water distribution systems has received considerable attention over the last two decades, there is still no common, acceptable, reliability measure or reliability assessment methodology. This paper describes the classification and reliability analysis methodologies of water distribution systems and compares two previously published algorithms for reliability evaluation of water distribution systems: a tailor-made 'lumped supply–lumped demand' approach used most commonly in regional water distribution systems and a general stochastic (Monte Carlo) framework suitable for any generic network.


Economists tend to represent learning as a procedure for estimating the parameters of the ''correct'' econometric model. We extend this approach by assuming that agents specify as well as estimate models. Learning thus takes the form of a dynamic process of developing models using an internal language of representation where expectations are formed by forecasting with the best current model. This introduces a distinction between the form and content of the internal models that is particularly relevant for boundedly rational agents. We propose a framework for such model development that uses a combination of measures: the error with respect to past data, the complexity of the model, the cost of finding the model, and a measure of the model's specificity. The agent has to make various trade-offs between them. A utility learning agent is given as an example.


This research review of the implementation of iMatter was commissioned by The Scottish Government Directorate for Health Workforce, Leadership and Service Reform in conjunction with the Health and Social Care Analysis Division. The aim of the research was to provide evidence to support and inform ongoing work to ensure that there is a meaningful, effective and cost-effective approach to staff engagement in health and social care. Staff experience and engagement have been central themes of policies developed by the Scottish Government in recent years to modernise NHSScotland and the wider public sector. Supporting engagement is a priority for NHSScotland and Health and Social Care Partnerships (H & SCPs), as a route to improving the experience of employees (for example, in relation to motivation, commitment and empowerment), contributing to organisational goals and delivering positive health and care outcomes for patients and service users. iMatter has been developed since 2013 under the remit of the existing NHSScotland Scottish Workforce and Staff Governance (SWAG) Committee as a means of more effectively measuring the experience of staff working in health and social care. The further roll-out of iMatter to most H & SCPs in Scotland means that it is now also able to capture the experiences of local authority-employed social care and social work staff. iMatter has been designed to map onto and reflect NHS Staff Governance Standards. As we report below, iMatter is an effective means of capturing staff experience and engagement in line with these standards Our research also captured views of the NHSScotland Dignity at Work (D@W) Survey that was run in 2017. D@W was designed to bridge the gaps between the items in iMatter and the previous NHSScotland National Staff Survey by reporting experiences around bullying and harassment, as well as views on experiences of violence, whistleblowing and staff resourcing. The research reported in this document sought to: * consider validation and response rate issues associated with iMatter and D@W; * review the presentation and utility of iMatter report data; * gather and analyse evidence on the of acceptability of iMatter and D@W; * gather and analyse evidence on facilitators of the implementation of iMatter and areas of best practice; and * identify ongoing challenges and areas where more work is needed.


An all scalar PWM and control approach for the four-leg inverter based three phase transformerless UPS is proposed. The output voltage of each phase is controlled independently and its controller is formed by a stationary frame resonant filter bank accompanied with proportional control and output capacitor current based active damping loops. The resonant filter bank consists of the fundamental component controller and one controller for each dominant harmonic. The simple to implement scalar control method exhibits superior overall steady-state and dynamic performance in the UPS application. Utilizing the inverter zero- state partitioning, a generalized form of scalar PWM for the four-leg inverter is developed. A novel minimum loss discontinuous PWM (MLDPWM) method, which provides minimum switching losses under all operating conditions (including unbalanced load operation) is derived. This simple scalar method provides superior performance and unlike the vector methods it is easy to implement. The controller and modulator design and implementation details for the system are given. Linear and nonlinear loads for balanced and unbalanced load operating conditions are considered. The scalar control and PWM methods are proven by means of theory, simulations, and thorough laboratory experiments of a 5 kVA UPS system.


In this exclusive Hospital Formulary interview, Louise Riff, MD, and Richard Hutchinson, PharmD, highlight the challenges of their 15-year tenure as the Chairman and Secretary of the University of Illinois Hospital P & T Committee. While continuity in formal leadership has been advantageous, they also attribute part of their success to the diverse informal leadership that develops each year. Drs. Riff and Hutchinson discuss how the P & T Committee has become accomplished at making what once were controversial decisions, such as removing the number one drug from their formulary as a cost-containment strategy. They also describe the recent development of an improved ADR reporting system and the progress in exchanging formulary decisions with neighboring hospitals. This P & T Committee, however, expresses some discomfort with the evaluation of high-tech drug products, since significant cost implications without therapeutic guarantees create new dimensions in decision-making for their Committee.


The proposal of Dijkgraaf, Verlinde and Verlinde for the emergence of smooth strings from a supersymmetric U(N) Yang-Mills theory assumes that conjugacy classes in the symmetric group with a few long cycles dominate the dynamics about the infrared fixed point. It is shown that the average number of cycles in a conjugacy class of $S_{N}$ is bounded below by $const.\sqrt N\ln\sqrt N,$ implying that some physical mechanism is needed to ensure the assumed dominance. It is shown that if individual cycles have positive energies that depend very weakly on their lengths, then long cycles dominate the dynamics at low temperatures.


Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is characterized by abnormalities in blood oxygenation caused by the presence of intrapulmonary vascular dilations (IPVD) in the context of liver disease, generally at a cirrhotic stage. Knowledge about the subject is still only partial. The majority of the information about the etiopathogenesis of HPS has been obtained through experiments on animals. Reported prevalence in patients who are candidates for a liver transplantation (LT) varies between 4% and 32%, with a predominance of mild or moderate cases. Although it is generally asymptomatic it does have an impact on their quality of life and survival. The diagnosis requires taking an arterial blood gas sample of a seated patient with alveolar-arterial oxygen gradient (AaO2) ≥ 15 mm Hg, or ≥ 20 mm Hg in those over 64 years of age. The IPVD are identified through a transthoracic contrast echocardiography or a macroaggregated albumin lung perfusion scan ((99m)Tc-MAA). There is currently no effective medical treatment. LT has been shown to reverse the syndrome and improve survival rates, even in severe cases. Therefore the policy of prioritizing LT would appear to increase survival rates. This paper takes a critical and clinical look at the current understanding of HPS, as well as the controversies surrounding it and possible future research.


Summary Here we introduce a novel web-infrastructure for differential network analysis. The aim of the web-site is to provide a comprehensive collection of tools for network inference, network comparison and network reproducibility analysis. Four main processes are available through the web service: the network inference process which include 11 reconstruction algorithms, the network distance process with 3 available metrics, the network stability process which includes all the network reconstruction methods and network distances and the netwok statistic process which computes the most common measures for network characterization. We introduce here a novel infrastructure which allows the user-interface logic to be separated from computing services and the asynchronous task management. Task submission is implemented mimicking the high performance computing queue submission system which allows to run multiple jobs without affecting the front-end server. Availability and Implementation The web-site is available at https://renette.fbk.eu, the implementation is based on the django framework and Apache, with all major browsers supported. Furthermore, the whole project is Open Source under GPLv2 and the code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/MPBA/renette for local installation. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com;


Inspired by recent successes using single-stranded DNA tiles to produce complex structures, we develop a two-step coarse-graining approach that uses detailed thermodynamic calculations with oxDNA, a nucleotide-based model of DNA, to parametrize a coarser kinetic model that can reach the time and length scales needed to study the assembly mechanisms of these structures. We test the model by performing a detailed study of the assembly pathways for a two-dimensional target structure made up of 334 unique strands each of which are 42 nucleotides long. Without adjustable parameters, the model reproduces a critical temperature for the formation of the assembly that is close to the temperature at which assembly first occurs in experiments. Furthermore, the model allows us to investigate in detail the nucleation barriers and the distribution of critical nucleus shapes for the assembly of a single target structure. The assembly intermediates are compact and highly connected (although not maximally so), and classical nucleation theory provides a good fit to the height and shape of the nucleation barrier at temperatures close to where assembly first occurs.


There is an increased risk of cancer after organ transplantation mainly due to the immunosuppressive therapy required in these patients. We report a case of biphasic pulmonary blastoma in an adult male who underwent liver transplant for hepatocellular carcinoma in March 1999, followed by immunosuppressive treatment and adjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin. Disease-free survival lasted 18 months, then a diagnosis of biphasic pulmonary blastoma was made and the patient underwent a lung lobectomy. Five months after surgical resection a recurrence of this rare tumor was recorded and two cycles of cisplatin + etoposide and ifosfamide + etoposide and one cycle of second-line chemotherapy with vinorelbine were administered. The tolerability and the efficacy of this treatment were poor. The patient died less than one year after diagnosis. To our knowledge this is the first reported case of pulmonary blastoma in a transplant patient. Our findings confirm that organ transplant recipients deserve long-term medical surveillance also in the absence of graft complications, and that pulmonary blastoma is an aggressive tumor with a poor prognosis.


Background Reduction in admissions is an important aim of emergency department working policy to overcome the problems of a shortage of inpatient beds, rising costs and exhausted resources. A new policy was instituted in the paediatric emergency department (PED) of a hospital in Kuwait with the following components: (1) assigning senior doctor staff (2) implementation of new disease management guidelines; and (3) maximising the useof the paediatric emergency department observation unit. Objective To evaluate the effect of change in our policy on the admission rate. Methods The effects of this policy on reduction of admission rates for total paediatric admissions and for some selected common paediatric conditions were prospectively studied over a period of 3 years from institution of the policy and compared with the 3-year period before the policy was instituted. Results There was a significant reduction in admission rates after institution of the new policy. The proportion of hospital admissions to PED observation unit cases was significantly reduced as a whole from 64.9% ± 5.1% to 33.2 ± 0.6% and also for the common paediatric problems studied. Conclusion A multidisciplinary paediatric emergency department policy, using as much available evidence as possible, was successful in significantly reducing paediatric hospital admissions.


"Financial repression"—policies that allow a government to place its debt with financial institutions at relatively low interest rates—has been used widely for centuries. This essay focuses on one important form of repression: requiring financial intermediaries to hold more government bonds than they would if policies didn't require it. We argue that this policy should only be used when the government has an urgent need to issue debt and has difficulty issuing new debt because of potential lender doubts about the government's ability to repay. {{p}} This research suggests that policies that allow financial institutions to hold only small amounts of their own country's government bonds may not be desirable.


The sinonasal mucosa forms a dynamic immune barrier where epithelial cells and the immune system interact with the inhaled environment and nasal microbiome. Recent studies suggest that B-cells, plasma cells and antibody production are highly activated locally within the nasal mucosa of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). Findings additionally suggest that polyp tissue contains elevated levels of cytokines, chemokines and complement that may drive this profound B-cell response. Currently, the data are conflicting on whether the B-cell response found in the CRSwNP nasal mucosa is antigen-specific, a superantigen response or an expansion of natural antibody responses. Indeed, investigations into the specificity of the mucosal antibody responses find increased production of class-switched antibodies that bind to aeroallergens, staphylococcus aureus as well as autoantigens. A continuation of these studies is needed to elucidate whether extrinsic factors, like the inhaled environment, or intrinsic factors, like the mucosal microbiome and host inflammatory response, are key to the pathogenesis of CRSwNP. This chapter will cover the current evidence regarding local B-cell responses in CRSwNP.


The study was carried out to determine the profitability and resource use efficiency of poultry-egg production in Yobe State. A sample of 200 poultry-egg farmers was selected by multistage sampling technique and data were collected by using a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis, and Stochastic Frontier Analysis techniques. The study revealed that poultry-egg production enterprise is profitable in the study area. Maximum Likelihood Estimate of coefficients of the stochastic frontier model for poultry-egg production were all positive and the parameters estimates of farm size, veterinary services, feed intake and labour were statistically significant, indicating that they contributed incrementally to the total value of poultry-egg output in the study area. Analysis of inefficiency model shows that factors influencing technical efficiency were years of experience, access to credit, cooperative membership and extension contact. Recommendations include the establishment of feed producer cooperative society, provision of adequate and timely veterinary services, and access to credit, frequent extension contacts and adult education classes for the farmers.


We describe an experimentally feasible protocol for performing a variant of the quantum delayed-choice experiment with massive objects. In this scheme, a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond driven by microwave fields is dispersively coupled to a massive mechanical resonator. A double-pulse Ramsey interferometer can be implemented with the spin-mechanical setup, where the second Ramsey microwave pulse drives the spin conditioned on the number states of the resonator. The probability for finding the NV center in definite spin states exhibits interference fringes when the mechanical resonator is prepared in a specific number state. On the other hand, the interference is destroyed if the mechanical resonator stays in some other number states. The wavelike and particlelike behavior of the NV spin can be superposed by preparing the mechanical resonator in a superposition of two distinct number states. Thus a quantum version of Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment could be implemented, allowing fundamental tests of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic scale.


Thanks to a series of controversial music videos and live performances, pop star Miley Cyrus is back in the news, prompting strong reactions as well as a public debate about the nature of feminism. In the wake of Cyrus's new incarnation as a twerking, pot-smoking provocateur, it is perhaps easy to forget that just a few years ago she epitomized all-American tweendom with her hit television show Hannah Montana and her wholesome, girl-next-door persona. At the height of the TV show's popularity in 2008, Cyrus drew an enormous crowd to her concert at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. I happened to be in the area and saw thousands of young girls on their way to the concert, fully arrayed in Hannah Montana costumes, with makeup, toy microphones, and long blonde wigs. Struck by the scene, I stopped a number of the families and asked the girls to pose for portraits wearing their concert outfits. Some of the parents agreed, and through them I met more Hannah Montana fans, who also wanted to participate. My photographs have long dealt with issues of gender and sexuality, especially as they intersect with popular culture, beauty, and consumption. In particular, I have been interested in how mainstream media outlets portray women and girls, and how the subjects of those portraits in turn form their own communities, subcultures, and realities. My photographs of Hannah Montana fans, which were taken in 2008 and 2009, explore how these girls (ages four to eleven) emulate their idol through carefully crafted appearances that at first seem rigorously conformist, but which also allow for creative possibilities.


Background The expansion of intratumoral stem-like CD8+ T (Tstem) cells provides a potential approach to improving the therapeutic efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Thus, here we demonstrate a strategy to facilitate Tstem cell expansion by combining an alarmin high-mobility group nucleosome binding domain 1 (HMGN1) peptide with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) blockade. Methods The antitumor effects of HMGN1, anti-PD-L1 antibody, and their combined treatment were monitored in the B16F10, LLC, Colon26, or the EO771 tumor-bearing mice. The comprehensive immunologic analyses, such as high-dimensional flow cytometry, transcriptome analysis, and single-cell RNA sequencing, were used to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of antitumor immune responses after treatments. Results The HMGN1 peptide synergizes with PD-L1 blockade in augmenting the number of mature DCs enriched in immunoregulatory molecules (mregDCs) in tumors, and enhancing their MHC class I antigen-presenting program, which is correlated with the expansion of intratumoral Tstem cells, specifically promoting the Tstem cells but restricting terminally exhausted CD8+ T (Tex) cells, owing to the regulatory molecules expressed on mregDCs. Conclusion Our results indicate that HMGN1 peptide serves as an immunoadjuvant to promote effective anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy and implicate that mregDCs play a role beyond facilitating Tstem cell expansion.


The links of international reserves, exchange rates, and monetary policy can be understood through the lens of a modern incarnation of the "impossible trinity" (aka the "trilemma"), based on Mundell and Fleming's hypothesis that a country may simultaneously choose any two, but not all, of the following three policy goals: monetary independence, exchange rate stability, and financial integration. The original economic trilemma was framed in the 1960s, during the Bretton Woods regime, as a binary choice of two out of the possible three policy goals. However, in the 1990s and 2000s, emerging markets and developing countries found that deeper financial integration comes with growing exposure to financial instability and the increased risk of "sudden stop" of capital inflows and capital flight crises. These crises have been characterized by exchange rate instability triggered by countries' balance sheet exposure to external hard currency debt—exposures that have propagated banking instabilities and crises. Such events have frequently morphed into deep internal and external debt crises, ending with bailouts of systemic banks and powerful macro players. The resultant domestic debt overhang led to fiscal dominance and a reduction of the scope of monetary policy. With varying lags, these crises induced economic and political changes, in which a growing share of emerging markets and developing countries converged to "in-between" regimes in the trilemma middle range—that is, managed exchange rate flexibility, controlled financial integration, and limited but viable monetary autonomy. Emerging research has validated a modern version of the trilemma: that is, countries face a continuous trilemma trade-off in which a higher trilemma policy goal is "traded off" with a drop in the weighted average of the other two trilemma policy goals. The concerns associated with exposure to financial instability have been addressed by varying configurations of managing public buffers (international reserves, sovereign wealth funds), as well as growing application of macro-prudential measures aimed at inducing systemic players to internalize the impact of their balance sheet exposure on a country's financial stability. Consequently, the original trilemma has morphed into a quadrilemma, wherein financial stability has been added to the trilemma's original policy goals. Size does matter, and there is no way for smaller countries to insulate themselves fully from exposure to global cycles and shocks. Yet successful navigation of the open-economy quadrilemma helps in reducing the transmission of external shock to the domestic economy, as well as the costs of domestic shocks. These observations explain the relative resilience of emerging markets—especially in countries with more mature institutions—as they have been buffered by deeper precautionary management of reserves, and greater fiscal and monetary space.
 We close the discussion noting that the global financial crisis, and the subsequent Eurozone crisis, have shown that no country is immune from exposure to financial instability and from the modern quadrilemma. However, countries with mature institutions, deeper fiscal capabilities, and more fiscal space may substitute the reliance on costly precautionary buffers with bilateral swap lines coordinated among their central banks. While the benefits of such arrangements are clear, they may hinge on the presence and credibility of their fiscal backstop mechanisms, and on curbing the resultant moral hazard. Time will test this credibility, and the degree to which risk-pooling arrangements can be extended to cover the growing share of emerging markets and developing countries.


In Part I of this series on Radio Waves I have tried to prove that Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic waves, claiming that a radio wave travelling in vacuum consists of oscillating electric and magnetic fields mutually inducing one another, is not supported by experiments, being based on assumptions and mathematical manipulations, and is therefore untenable because electric fields cannot exist in vacuum where there are no electric charges to produce them and because experiments have yet to prove that electric fields can be produced in vacuum by changing magnetic fields. In Part II I have expressed the view that light and radio waves are waves in the aether, magnetic in nature, not containing electric waves, being described by the magnetic vector potential A, which corresponds to the velocity v of the flowing aether. In this article I show that the views expressed above give a consistent explanation of the photoelectric effect. I will outline how do the experimental observations of the photoelectric effect summarized in the equation W mv hf   2 2 , suggest that the photoelectric effect is a Faraday effect of electromagnetic induction. This is significant because, to the best of my knowledge, such an explanation of the photoelectric effect has not been advanced before, and because it proposes a mechanism by which the energy of a light wave is transferred to an electron without being necessary to introduce the hypothesis that light is composed of particles called photons.


A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MOST VIEWED YOUTUBE VIDEOS RELATED TO DEPRESSION Elizabeth Pessin Baquero Depression contributes to a host of health problems resulting in disability, pain, and death. An important aspect of preventing and reducing the harmful effects of depression is educating the public about this pervasive mental disorder, including the importance of early detection and effective treatment. During the past 20 years, many people have turned to the Internet in general and social media in particular to learn about health. Current research has examined YouTube coverage of some mental health topics, but no published research describing YouTube coverage of depression was identified. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to describe the most viewed YouTube videos about depression with respect to source, speaker, format, purpose, number of views, length, upload year, and content. A cross-sectional design was used to examine the 394 most viewed YouTube videos on depression. Collectively, these 394 videos were viewed 155,349,029 times. Three sources— consumers, internet-based video, and nongovernmental agencies—accounted for approximately 85% of the most frequently viewed videos and garnered 93% of the total views (n = 144,506,467). Consumers uploaded almost half of all the most widely viewed videos (n = 193, 48.98%), and these videos had the highest cumulative view count (74,391,500 views). Content mainly focused on signs and symptoms, which were covered in more than 75% of the videos (n = 300, 76.14%), and promotion of healthful behaviors and protective factors, which was covered in 68.52% (n = 270). Slightly more than one-half of the videos explicitly mentioned risk factors (n = 200), and slightly less than one-half provided general information about depression (n = 189). Between 20% and 35% of the videos included content related to suicide (23.10%), stigma (22.08%), psychotherapy (28.93%), medication (31.22%), and alternative therapies (30.96%). Content related to screening was only included in 9 of the most widely videos (2.28%). While good sleep hygiene was only mentioned in 28 videos (7.11%), collectively, these videos received over 16 million views. Another main finding was that governmental agencies have not produced videos that are among those most widely viewed. Given YouTube's wide reach, they should, however, be using this media channel to help inform the public.


We propose a novel and flexible anchor mechanism named MetaAnchor for object detection frameworks. Unlike many previous detectors model anchors via a predefined manner, in MetaAnchor anchor functions could be dynamically generated from the arbitrary customized prior boxes. Taking advantage of weight prediction, MetaAnchor is able to work with most of the anchor-based object detection systems such as RetinaNet. Compared with the predefined anchor scheme, we empirically find that MetaAnchor is more robust to anchor settings and bounding box distributions; in addition, it also shows the potential on the transfer task. Our experiment on COCO detection task shows MetaAnchor consistently outperforms the counterparts in various scenarios.


In this paper, we study the decentralized control problem of a two-agent system under local goal specifications given as temporal logic formulas. The agents collaboratively carry an object in a leader-follower scheme and lack means to exchange messages on-line, i.e., to communicate explicitly. Specifically, we propose a decentralized control protocol and a leader re-election strategy that secure the accomplishment of both agents' local goal specifications. The challenge herein lies in exploiting exclusively implicit inter-robot communication that is a natural outcome of the physical interaction of the robots with the object. An illustrative experiment is included clarifying and verifying the approach.


The study of black hole thermodynamics has provided deep insights into the nature of quantum gravity. In particular, it is almost universally accepted nowadays that 'quantum gravity is holographic', so that the maximum amount of information allowed in a given region of spacetime is proportional to the area of the boundary rather than the volume of the region. This is against the conventional notion of extensivity of information (entropy), but in accord with Bekenstein's proposal on the proportionality of black hole entropy to its event horizon area. Due to the very definition of black holes, however, conventional black hole thermodynamics rely on the standard causal structure of general relativity dictated by local light cones. It may therefore seem that the notion of holography is ultimately tied to the same causal structure, and hence, on the equivalence principle and local Lorentz invariance. The goal of this dissertation is to re-evaluate this generally accepted wisdom. To that end, we consider a modified gravity theory called Einstein-aether theory. This theory violates local Lorentz invariance and therefore destroys the notion of a universal light cone. Yet, in the low energy limit, it possesses static and spherically symmetric solutions with 'universal horizons'---spacelike hypersurfaces that are causal boundaries between an interior region and asymptotic spatial infinity. In other words, this theory admits black hole solutions but with very different causal structures. In this dissertation, we investigate into how much of black hole thermodynamics carry over in this new setting. We consider static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions of Einstein-aether theory and establish the Smarr formula and the first law of black hole mechanics for them, with the relevant horizon now the universal horizon. We also consider tunneling of a scalar 'test' field through the universal horizon, and show that the latter radiates as a blackbody at a fixed temperature. Our results suggest that the scope of holography may be much broader than currently assumed. However, one still needs to go a long way before these questions are convincingly settled, and we comment on the open questions in our concluding remarks.


Wheat is the most important grain crop, a main sustenance for a third of the world population. Biotic stress by diseases represents a serious risk to wheat production particularly under dry condition. In this work the use of plant beneficial microorganisms as bio elicitors to improve the productivity of two common wheat varieties (i.e. Gemmiza 10 and Sakha 93) were achieved. The Bio elicitors used are Streptomyces griseus, Trichoderma hamatum , Rhodotorula  glutinis , Paenibacillus polymyxa, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas putida , P. fluorescens reduced wheat diseases occurrence including rust, net blotches and powdery mildew in comparison with  regular elicitors, as methyl jasmonate (MJ), chitosan (CHI), ascorbic acid and putrescein grown in new reclaimed areas in Sinai and arable land in Behira Governorate.  Results show that bio elicitors  enhanced and increases total phenols, hormonal stress as peroxidase, chitinase and total soluble protein in both varieties as well as promote growth rate, yield, flour starch, protein contains and gluten in both wheat grains verities. The obtained data show that the used microorganisms have enhanced and improved the wheat tolerance to biotic stress. That innovation might make advantageous in alleviating effects of environmental changes on other crops and expanding the wheat cultivation in the new reclaimed lands under arid climate condition.


Vector font synthesis is a challenging and ongoing problem in the fields of Computer Vision and Computer Graphics. The recently-proposed DeepVecFont [27] achieved state-of-the-art performance by exploiting information of both the image and sequence modalities of vector fonts. However, it has limited capability for handling long sequence data and heavily relies on an image-guided outline refinement post-processing. Thus, vector glyphs synthesized by DeepVecFont still often contain some distortions and artifacts and cannot rival human-designed results. To address the above problems, this paper proposes an enhanced version of DeepVecFont mainly by making the following three novel technical contributions. First, we adopt Transformers instead of RNNs to process sequential data and design a relaxation representation for vector outlines, markedly improving the model's capability and stability of synthesizing long and complex outlines. Second, we propose to sample auxiliary points in addition to control points to precisely align the generated and target Bézier curves or lines. Finally, to alleviate error accumulation in the sequential generation process, we develop a context-based self-refinement module based on another Transformer-based decoder to remove artifacts in the initially synthesized glyphs. Both qualitative and quantitative results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively resolves those intrinsic problems of the original DeepVecFont and outperforms existing approaches in generating English and Chinese vector fonts with complicated structures and diverse styles.


For much of the twentieth century Ernest Barker was the most frequently cited authority on Greek political thought in the English-speaking world. The centenary of his first publication, The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle, provides a fitting occasion to commemorate his seminal and enduring contribution to the subject. In the first of two articles, I explore Barker's treatment of Plato, particularly as a foil for developing his own synthetic brand of neo-idealism. With a focus on the Republic, Barker crafts an erudite yet lively account that leaves little of Plato's political thought left standing. Yet for all this damning criticism, Barker remained under the 'spell of Plato' insofar as he saw in his organic and ethical conception of the polis a foundation for the state far superior to the mechanical and legalist orientation of classical liberalism. In fine, Barker provides an engaging, if occasionally anachronistic reading of Plato's politics, one marked by an eclecticism and ambivalence that would characterize his own political commitments over the course of a long career.


This paper considers straight line path following control of underwater snake robots in the presence of constant irrotational currents. An integral line-of-sight (LOS) guidance law is proposed, which is combined with a sinusoidal gait pattern and a directional controller that steers the robot towards and along the desired path. Integral action is introduced in the guidance law to compensate for the ocean current effect. The stability of the proposed control scheme in the presence of ocean currents is investigated. In particular, using Poincaré map analysis, we prove that the state variables of an underwater snake robot trace out an exponentially stable periodic orbit when the integral LOS path following controller is applied. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed path following controller for both lateral undulation and eel-like motion.


In the fashion industry, department stores normally trade with suppliers of national brands by markdown contract whilst developing private labels with cooperated designers by profit sharing contract. Motivated by this real industrial practice, we study a single-supplier single-retailer two-echelon fashion supply chain selling a short-life fashion product of either a national brand or a private label. The supplier refers to the national/designer brand owner and the retailer refers to the department store. We investigate the supply chain coordination issue and examine the supply chain agents' performances under the mentioned two contracts. We find the analytical evidence that there is a similar relative risk performance but different absolute risk performances between the national brand and the private label. This finding provides an important implication in strategic interaction for the risk-averse department stores in product assortment and brand management. Furthermore, we explore the impact of sales effort on the supply chain system and find that the supply chain is able to achieve coordination if and only if the supplier (i.e., the national brand or the private label) is willing to share the cost of the sales effort.


The General Medical Council is the organisation which doctors as well as the public are asked to trust to regulate the medical profession. While the members of the public may have doubts about the ability of the profession to regulate itself in their best interests, there are increasing doubts, after the case of the Bristol paediatric surgeons, about the ability of the GMC to be fair in the treatment of individual doctors.

> PCC procedures need to be more robust and less influenced by individuals

I was privileged to be an elected member of the GMC for five years from 1994 to 1999. I sat on the professional conduct committee (PCC) for two years. For nine out of the 10 weeks I felt comfortable, but one week left me very disturbed. What I considered was my duty to speak led me into conflict with the GMC, which took out an injunction to prevent me from expressing my concerns (25 March, p 822).

It is the first hearing of a case before the PCC which is …


Ludwig van Beethoven is such a universally revered composer that recordings of his works form a significant part of most classical recording collections. While many discographies of Beethoven's music have highlighted the numerous excellent recordings of his symphonies, piano sonatas, and string quartets, it is rare to find essays devoted to recordings of his chamber music for instrumental combinations other than the string quartet. This essay will provide a discography of currently available recordings of Beethoven's chamber music and endeavor to cover all instrumental chamber works except the string quartets. (1) Works are presented according to frequency of recording, beginning with the compositions most often recorded and ending with those that are recorded less often, followed by an overview of recordings that feature an assortment of Beethoven's chamber works. Thus, titles appear in the essay and the discography in this order: Piano Trios, Quintet for Piano and Wind Instruments, Septet, String Trios, Ce llo Sonatas, Violin Sonatas, Horn Sonata, Collections. The term "chamber music" needs clarification in this context, particularly since it is often used ambiguously as an umbrella term that may be applied to any composition that does not fit well into such other standard classifications as symphony or concerto. For instance, Barnes and Noble stores include recordings of songs and lieder along with piano sonatas and other works for solo piano in their chamber music sections; this is true in both their brick-and-mortar and their online stores. Amazon.com organizes its online catalog in a similar manner. In this article, however, the term will refer to works for combinations of two or more instruments, and not to piano sonatas, other compositions for solo piano, or lieder collections. PIANO TRIOS Perhaps the most frequently recorded of Beethoven's instrumental chamber works that fall into the categories under discussion here are the piano trios. There are nine works of this type with opus numbers, beginning with the three trios of opus 1, written early in his career during the 1790s, continuing through opus 97, which was written between 1810 and 1811. Five other works with either Hess or WoO numbers are also among Beethoven's piano trio compositions. (2) Several cycles of the complete piano trios are available, the most impressive being a 1992 recording by the Beaux Arts Trio on the Phillips label (reissued at midprice in 2001 as 289 468 411-2). Another notable cycle is the 1989 remastering of the recordings by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, and Jacqueline du Pre (EMI Classics 63124). While the Beaux Arts Trio's interpretation is all dignified refinement, the Barenboim/Zukerman/du Pre combination exudes a more intense, emotional expressiveness. Recordings of Beethoven's piano trios are also readily available in period-instrument performances. The most appealing historically-informed performances of these works are those by the Castle Trio. There are three compact discs by this group issued separately by three different record companies that include the entire set of piano trios. (3) These recordings all exemplify the best characteristics of sensitive historical performance. The two most frequently recorded of Beethoven's piano trios, op. 70, no. 1, commonly referred to as the "Ghost" Trio, and op. 97, the "Archduke" Trio, are often paired together in recordings that do not include the whole cycle of piano trios. The best pairing of these two works is also recorded on historical instruments, a 2000 Sony Classical release featuring Vera Beths, Anner Bylsma, and Jos van Immerseel (Sony 51353). Recording original instruments is often difficult because of the unique acoustical challenges such instruments can pose, but the recording techniques used for this recording are masterfully executed, as are the performances. QUINTET FOR PIANO AND WIND INSTRUMENTS One of Beethoven's compositions is commonly paired on recordings with a similar work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: this is Beethoven's opus 16, the Quintet for Piano and Wind Instruments, the second most frequently recorded of Beethoven's chamber works which seems almost invariably to be paired with Mozart's Quintet K. …


Distributed soft real-time systems are becoming increasingly unpredictable due to several important factors such as the increasing use of commercial-off-the-shelf components, the trend towards open systems, and the proliferation of data-driven applications whose execution parameters vary significantly with input data. Such systems are less amenable to traditional worst-case real-time analysis. Instead, system-wide feedback control is needed to meet performance requirements. In this paper, we extend our previous work on developing software control algorithms based on a theory of feedback control to distributed systems. Our approach makes three important contributions. First, it allows the designer for a distributed real-time application to specify the desired temporal behavior of system adaptation, such as the speed of convergence to desired performance upon load or resource changes. This is in contrast to specifying only steady-state metrics, e.g., deadline miss ratio. Second, unlike QoS optimization approaches, our solution meets performance guarantees without accurate knowledge of task execution parameters-a key advantage in an unpredictable environment. Third, in contrast to ad hoc algorithms based on intuition and testing, our solution has a basis in the theory and practice of feedback control scheduling. Performance evaluation reveals that the solution not only has excellent steady state behavior, but also meets stability, overshoot, and settling time requirements. We also show that the solution outperforms several other algorithms available in the literature.


Technical debt is a metaphor introduced by Cunningham to indicate "not quite right code which we postpone making it right". Examples of technical debt are code smells and bug hazards. Several techniques have been proposed to detect different types of technical debt. Among those, Potdar and Shihab defined heuristics to detect instances of self-admitted technical debt in code comments, and used them to perform an empirical study on five software systems to investigate the phenomenon. Still, very little is known about the diffusion and evolution of technical debt in software projects.This paper presents a differentiated replication of the work by Potdar and Shihab. We run a study across 159 software projects to investigate the diffusion and evolution of self-admitted technical debt and its relationship with software quality. The study required the mining of over 600K commits and 2 Billion comments as well as a qualitative analysis performed via open coding.Our main findings show that self-admitted technical debt (i) is diffused, with an average of 51 instances per system, (ii) is mostly represented by code (30%), defect, and requirement debt (20% each), (iii) increases over time due to the introduction of new instances that are not fixed by developers, and (iv) even when fixed, it survives long time (over 1,000 commits on average) in the system.


A new matrix product, called semi-tensor product of matrices, is reviewed. Using it, a matrix expression of logic is proposed, where a logical variable is expressed as a vector, a logical function is expressed as a multiple linear mapping. Under this framework, a Boolean network equation is converted into an equivalent algebraic form as a conventional discrete-time linear system. Analyzing the transition matrix of the linear system, formulas are obtained to show a) the number of fixed points; b) the numbers of cycles of different lengths; c) transient period, for all points to enter the set of attractors; and d) basin of each attractor. The corresponding algorithms are developed and used to some examples.