This paper presents the response surface optimization method using three-dimensional Wavier-Stokes analysis to optimize the blade shape of an axial flow fan. Reynolds-averaged Wavier-Stokes equations with turbulence model are discretized with finite volume approximations using the unstructured grid. Regression analysis is used for generating response surface, and it is validated by ANOVA and t-statistics. Four geometric variables, i.e., sweep and lean angles at mean and tip respectively were employed to improve the efficiency. The computational results are compared with experimental data and the comparisons show generally good agreements. As a main result of the optimization, the total efficiency was successfully improved. Also, detailed effects of sweep and lean on the axial flow fan are discussed.


The concept of a generalized guidance law is presented, and the closed-form solution for a homing missile pursuing a maneuvering target according to generalized guidance laws is given. It is shown that the guidance laws appearing in the literature are merely special cases of the one proposed by the authors. The derived generalized forms of capture area, missile acceleration, and homing time duration that are derived provide insight into the performance of the guidance laws being considered and lead to the discovery of new ones. The problem of finding a nonlinear optimal guidance law for a homing missile with controlled acceleration, applied so as to capture a maneuvering target with a predetermined trajectory while minimizing a weighted linear combination of time of capture and energy expenditures, is solved in closed form. The derived optimal control law is equal to the LOS (line of sight) rate multiplied by a trigonometric function of the aspect angle. Numerical simulation shows that the resulting guidance law appears to yield a significant advantage over true proportional navigation. >


In a qualitative research approach, an interpretive case study has been conducted. 26 experts from a large financial service provider of the cooperative banking sector were interviewed. The impact of organizational culture on the management of an organization's IT project portfolio was subject to inquiry. We have identified three core dimensions of the organizational culture of the analyzed bank: 'safeguarding culture', 'consensus orientation', and 'sustainability orientation'. These three central cultural elements influenced the company's project portfolio management in a way that the portfolio of projects was oversized, resulting in a shortage of key IT resources in individual projects. As a cultural issue, the organization placed more emphasis on a sustainable, long-term oriented, effective project portfolio, rather than on efficient single IT project performance.


In this paper we are developing a theory of rational (pseudo) difference Hamiltonian operators, focusing in particular on its algebraic aspects. We show that a pseudo-difference Hamiltonian operator can be represented as a ratio AB−1 of two difference operators with coefficients from a difference field , where A is preHamiltonian. A difference operator A is called preHamiltonian if its image is a Lie subalgebra with respect to the Lie bracket of evolutionary vector fields on . The definition of a rational Hamiltonian operator can be reformulated in terms of its factors which simplifies the theory and makes it useful for applications. In particular we show that for a given rational Hamiltonian operator H in order to find a second Hamiltonian operator K compatible with H one only needs to find a preHamiltonian pair A and B such that K  =  AB−1H is skew-symmetric. We apply our theory to study multi-Hamiltonian structures of Narita–Itoh–Bogayavlensky and Adler–Postnikov equations.


Learn to climb safely and confidently with this information-packed guide, shown in 240 photographs. It covers a range of different climbing environments, from indoor walls and simple rocks to sea cliffs. It explains how to climb overhanging rock, chimneys and corners, and how to avoid the most common mistakes. It features step-by-step photographs throughout the book that clearly illustrate perfect rock climbing positioning and technique. It includes essential safety tips and guidance throughout. It features an illustrated guide to the best type of clothing to wear, and explains the basic equipment required. It is targeted at complete beginners, but with variations and advanced techniques for the more adventurous climber. Rock climbing is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. The physical and mental challenge has much appeal and makes climbing the ideal pursuit for anyone seeking fun, adventure and an enhanced level of fitness. Designed as a lead-in to the sport or to complement a professional training course, this essential guide covers all the techniques and safety factors in step-by-step detail. This book progresses from the first moves a climber makes on the indoor wall to some of the most common challenges to be faced, from basic bouldering to climbing crags and corners, and abseiling. Each section features a photograph showing the perfect way to tackle the climb, with annotations pointing out all the important things you need to be aware of when on the wall or rock.


Evaluating them can be an even more complex undertaking. Community change initiatives (CCIs)1, indeed most comprehensive place-based initiatives, consist of multiple interventions over a number of years at individual, group, institutional, social, and political levels. Any one of these interventions could be an evaluation in and of itself, but with a CCI, you want to capture what matters. But what do you measure? How often? Which methods should be used? And how does what you measure influence the very nature of the CCI itself? Over the past 10 years, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has been funding, implementing, and evaluating Making Connections, a CCI in 10 urban neighborhoods across the U.S. As part of the evaluation team for this initiative, I found that I have compiled lists of rules and lessons for myself about the evaluation process, and these lists have become important reminders of things to consider when embarking on the evaluation of a comprehensive placebased initiative. In particular, the final evaluation and documentation of Making Connections has reinforced five lessons about evaluating CCIs that I wish I had known ten years ago. They're certainly not hard-and-fast rules— maybe one lesson I've learned from this work is that there are no hard-and-fast rules! Instead, think of them as prompts to consider when planning and implementing evaluations of CCIs and other place-based initiatives.


An expansile temporal bone lesion above the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) in a 55-year-old woman was initially diagnosed as pigmented villonodular tenosynovitis. Preoperative embolization of the tumor had resulted in excessive tumoral hemorrhagic pigment. The surgical and CT findings suggested that the TMJ was not involved, and a final diagnosis of giant cell tumor was made.


The mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary marks one of the most important biotic turnover events in Earth history. Yet, despite decades of study, the causes of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary crises remain under debate. An important tool that has the capacity to greatly improve our understanding of the events around the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is the geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS). The GPTS is used for age control in numerous Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary studies, including the timing of Deccan Traps volcanism, a majority of studies in marine sections, and studies on climate and ecological change across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The current calibration of the GPTS for cir-cum–Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary polarity chrons (C30n–C28n) from the Geologic Time Scale draws heavily on astronomical tuning and uses a 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age for the Cre-taceous-Paleogene boundary as a tie point that has since been shown to be 200 ka too old. Furthermore, complex sedimentation has been recorded in marine sections immediately following the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, which can possibly obscure orbital signals and complicate cyclostratigraphic in-terpretation. An independent test of the cyclostratigraphy for this time period is imperative for confidence in the astronomical time scale. Further, polarity reversal ages given in the GPTS do not include uncertainty estimates, making them unsuitable for quanti-GSA tative chronometry. Recent calibrations have been attempted using U/Pb geochronology on zircons; however, U/Pb zircon dates may be biased by pre-eruptive zircon residence times of tens to hundreds of thousands of years. In this study, we provide constraints on the timing and duration of the most important circum–Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary chron, chron C29r, using high-precision 40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronology and magnetostratigraphy on fluvial sediments from the Hell Creek region, Montana. Here, we show results for 14 new magnetostratigraphic sections, and 18 new high-precision 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dates, which together provide six independent constraints on the age of the C29r/C29n reversal and two constraints on the C30n/ C29r reversal. Together, these results show that the duration of C29r was 587 ± 53 ka, consistent with the most recent Geologic Time Scale calibration and previous U-Pb age models. We further present new geochronologic data for the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary that provide the most precise date yet, of 66.052 ± 0.008/0.043 Ma. Integration of our results into the extensive paleontological framework for this region further provides important constraints on rates of terrestrial faunal change across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.


Purpose – As a generalisation, the Sports industry is a multifaceted, complex and diverse industry, perhaps making it difficult to offer business support and advice. This paper aims to identify and analyse, through sport and recreation business owners (SMEs), their experience of business support and advice. The study can therefore be seen as contributing to related studies by Mole et al. (2008) and responding to Pawson and Tilley's (1997) request for a more nuanced view of how public-support programmes work.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative, collective case study design is adopted. Three in–depth semi-structured interviews with Directors of Sport Businesses were undertaken to identify business support in the West Midlands Sports sector. Interviews focused on business development, the support and advice Directors received and the future direction of their business. Interviews were analysed using inductive and deductive content analysis (Cote et al., 1993).
Findings – The findings from the case studies highlight a variety of general support and advice mechanisms, e.g. WBDA (Women's Business Development Agency) with differences in regional provision evident. One strong emerging theme indicates that specialised business support occurs which appears critical but ad-hoc.
Originality/value - This paper considers the specific business support needs in a largely unreported, yet growing sports sector (based upon a demand led inquiry) into existing providers and business recipients. These findings are pertinent for various organisations such as policy makers, small business support agencies, as well as sports businesses themselves; as they seek to both identify specific sector support needs and evaluate existing practice.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the patterns of caffeine use and the one-month prevalence of caffeine intoxication among psychiatric patients in comparison with healthy controls. Methods: Four hundred and one patients with various psychiatric disorders and 150 healthy controls were screened for current (one month) caffeine intoxication according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. All parti-cipants were asked to complete Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The patients were also assessed with the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) to determine symptom severity. Results: The amount of daily caffeine con-sumption was statistically significantly higher in healthy control subjects than in patients. However, the prevalence of caffeine intoxication was greater among patients with a psychiatric disorder (8%) when compared with healthy controls (2.7%). In the patients, the amount of caffeine consumption correlated positively with age, CGI, and PSQI scores, indicating that patients with older age, poorer sleep quality, and more severe pathology consumed higher amounts of caffeine. Conclusions: Caffeine intoxication was more prevalent in psychiatric patients than in healthy subjects. The amount of caffeine intake was shown to be associated positively with the severity of pathology and inversely with sleep quality. Further studies are needed to investigate the effect of regulating caffeine consumption on severity of pathology and sleep quality among psychiatric patients.


Fish assemblages associated with 14 marine caves and adjacent external rocky reefs were investigated at four Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) along the coasts of Italy. Within the caves sampling was carried out in different sub-habitats: walls, ceilings, bottoms and ends of caves. On the whole, 38 species were recorded inside the 14 caves investigated. Eighteen species were exclusively found inside the caves: they were mainly represented by speleophilic (i.e. species preferentially or exclusively inhabiting caves) gobids (e.g. Didogobius splechtnai) and nocturnal species (e.g. Conger conger). Forty-one species were censused outside, 20 of which were shared with cave habitats. Apogon imberbis was the most common fish found in all 14 caves investigated, followed by Thorogobius ephippiatus (recorded in 13 caves), and Diplodus vulgaris and Scorpaena notata (both censused in 12 caves). Distinct fish assemblages were found between external rocky reefs and the different cave sub-habitats. New data on the distribution of some speleophilic gobids were collected, showing the existence of a pool of species shared by marine caves on a large scale (i.e. hundreds of km). Considering the uniqueness of cave fishes (18 exclusive species and different assemblage structures), the inclusion of marine caves among the habitats routinely investigated for fish biodiversity monitoring could facilitate the achievement of more comprehensive inventories. Due to their contribution to local species diversity and the shelter they provide to species valuable for conservation, marine caves should be prioritized for their inclusion not only within future MPAs through the Mediterranean Sea, but also into larger management spatial planning.


A rapid and validated method using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QQQ MS) was developed for simultaneous determination of four active steroidal saponins, i.e., dichotomin ( 1: ), pennogenin 3-O-α-l-arabinofuranosyl-(1→4)-[α-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)]-β-d-glucopyranoside ( 2: ), pennogenin 3-O-α-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-[α-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→4)]-β-d-glucopyranoside ( 3: ) and diosgenin 3-O-α-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-[α-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→4)]-β-d-glucopyranosidein ( 4: ), in Ypsilandra thibetica Franch. The optimized sample preparation and UHPLC-QQQ MS conditions were chosen for quantitative analysis. The separation was performed on an Agilent Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18 column (2.1 mm × 50 mm, 1.8 µm) with gradient elution of acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid in water. All calibration curves showed good linear regression (r> 0.9985) within the test range. The limits of detection and quantification were in the range of 0.02-4.40 and 0.04-22.0 ng/mL, respectively. The proposed method was applied to analyze two batches of Y. thibetica samples for target compounds within 10 min. This work promoted the quality control method for raw material or preparations of Y. thibetica.


Many countries in the southern hemisphere are still in the process of developing. In North Africa to be specific, the development process is bringing about various degrees of land use and land cover changes which are having various levels of impact on people's lives both in urban and peri-urban areas among others. The core causes of these changes vary, but literature indicates that the process of urbanization is the main cause since as cities and town areas urbanization, deforestation, soil erosion and the sale of land by rural farmers are encouraged. Implications of land use and land cover changes are broad and vary across geographies. It is the variations of the impact of such changes that motivated this researcher to conduct this research with the aim of analyzing effects of urbanization and expanding cities on the surrounding agricultural area. The research zeroed in on trying to understand how peri urban farmers and their livelihoods are being impacted by various land use and land cover changes that are emerging from the expansion of Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

This study examined the impact, both positive and negative, that the expansion of Tripoli has had on the livelihoods of these rural households in Qarabulli. It further sought to identify the way affected farmers and households cope and react to the various changes the expansion of Tripoli is exposing them to. The research also looked at the context in which the poor rural households pursue livelihoods, and discussed factors that make their livelihoods vulnerable. The forms of capitals, named livelihood assets, available to the rural households are also examined. The livelihood outcomes of the farmers, the strategies and the coping measures employed by affected peri urban farmers are identified and discussed.

Through the utilization of a mixed methods research approach, a mix of qualitative and quantitative data were collected, and analyzed. Data collection was done in two stages. The first stage looked at land use and land cover changes through a critical analysis of land degradation and this was done using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. Image Classification, multi-temporal Landsat TM, and ETM+ imagery were used to determine and detect land use and land cover changes during the periods 1986 to 2009. The second stage of the research data collection process, collected qualitative data using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods to explore farmers' experiences and feelings on how the land use changes are impacting their livelihoods.

Through the use of Remote Sensing and GIS techniques, the study area is divided into four categories: urban area, forest land, irrigated farmland and bare land. Land use and land cover changes during the years 1986 and 2009 were noted and analyzed based on satellite images. The study found that throughout 1986 up to 2009, the size of land classified originally as urban area changed from the original size of 4,997 hectares to 9,653 hectares while within the same time span, land originally classified as forest land reduced in size by 1,793 hectares. Further to these changes, land classified as bare land increased in size by 2,353 ha while the original size of land classified as irrigated farmland reduced by nearly 2,204 hectares. These observed changes are significant, hence pose a growing threat to agricultural land in Libya which could impact food production and water quantity and quality thus potentially destabilizing food sufficiency and sustainability of the whole nation.

Key findings concerned the identification of water quality and quantity as the main challenges faced the agricultural sector. As a way of managing this problem, the farmers asked for a speedy intervention of the Libyan government through greater regulation and investment in the agricultural sector.

Further to the land use and land cover changes that were noted through the use and analysis of the satellite images, the study also noted that livelihoods of rural farmers in the periphery of Tripoli are threatened by the expansion of the city. The expansion, which is the core reason why the images are displaying the various changes noted, confirm that land originally used for agriculture has changed its use and is now used as urban land where urban settlements and associated infrastructure have been constructed thus making farmers lose the land on which rural households activities were being conducted.

The study also found that there are both positive and negative outcomes to the rural households when cities like Tripoli expand. The expansion of Tripoli enabled some of the affected households to access new livelihoods through migration and securing of alternative sources of income in the urban area. On the other hand, the loss of land by the farmers means that there is shortage of land for agriculture. Coupled with poor water and soil qualities, the direct consequences of reduced farming activities have been low food production at household level which has negatively affected rural people's livelihoods.

The study is the first of its kind to be conducted in Libya and among others differs from other studies conducted on urbanization and livelihoods area in Libya because of the nature of study methods. No study prior to this has ever employed a combination of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) strategies, Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) approaches in one study that sought to better understand the impact of land use and land cover changes on livelihoods of peri-urban farmers.


In this research-in-progress paper, we suggest that methodology is lagging behind innovation in the Web 2.0 environment. While prior art on virtual communities (VC) provides some helpful coordinates for our study of User-Generated Content (UCG) sites in the travel sector, there are some important conceptual differences between these phenomena that raise methodological challenges. To illustrate this, we identify the dominant methodological approaches in the VC literature and consider their value for studying UGC. Having noted key differences between the virtual community ethnographic tradition and the mainly quantitative UGC literature, we examine the potential of integrating different streams of methods in Web 2.0 studies. We suggest that exploring a broader range of options during the research design process presents opportunities for IS scholars to advance studies of social media such as User-Generated Content and increases our capacity to make significant contributions during this important period of their development.


Purpose: The aim of this paper is to shed light on the determinants of consumers' evaluations and purchase intentions of gift promotions. Factors analysed relate to the promoted product, the gift, the relationship between the product and the gift, and consumer traits and perceptions. Design/methodology/approach: A 2 (product type: utilitarian vs hedonic) × 2 (gift type: utilitarian vs hedonic) × 2 (brand type: high equity vs medium equity) between-subjects factorial design was undertaken. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 247 respondents in the UK. Findings: Gift attractiveness is the most important driver of consumers' overall evaluation of gift promotions, followed by the attitude toward the promoted brand, the perceived fit between the promoted product and the gift, the hedonic nature of the gift, plus value expression and entertainment benefits perceived by consumers. Results also reveal that deal proneness is positively associated with the hedonic benefits of value expression benefit and entertainment benefit. Finally, the overall evaluation of gift promotions with both brand attitudes and deal proneness positively influences consumers' purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications: To generalise these findings, future research should use a wider sample. Practical implications: The findings of this study provide guidelines for marketers designing their gift promotional strategies. Originality/value: The increased popularity of gift promotions necessitates a better understanding of the factors influencing consumers' evaluations. This study addresses the lack of research in this area by simultaneously investigating the effect of different key factors. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.


We report the first occurrence of moldavites in Poland. This discovery confirms the hypothesis that moldavites could have been distributed up to 500 km from the Ries crater in Germany. The tektites were reworked from Middle Miocene sediments and redeposited in Late Miocene (Pannonian) fluvial deposits of the Gozdnicka Formation in Lower Silesia. The Polish moldavites are represented by nine (<8 mm) fragments with a total of 0.471 g. The lack of the autochthonous tektites indicates that tektites investigated here had to be redeposited in a fluvial environment, probably from the Lusatian area. The chemical composition of the Polish moldavites plots in the same area with those from other localities.


To congratulate Professor Mats Larsson on the occasion of his 60th birthday, the Departmentof Economic History, Uppsala University, arranged a seminar in his honour in the fall of2013. Speakers representing business administration and economic history from a number ofSwedish universities spoke on a range of subjects touching upon Mats Larsson's own researchinterests such as business history, banking history, economic history and biography. Thepresent volume includes the lectures and the following discussions.


Institute of the Lithuanian Language  At the beginning of the 19th century, the financial possibility to establish a department of Eastern languages at one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe, Vilnius University, appeared. Turkish was among the Eastern languages that were expected to be taught. The intensive preparation of lecturers was started. Unfortunately, the ambitious plans were destined to never become reality; in 1832 the university was closed. Nevertheless, over the following two centuries the Turkic direction did not disappear; in one form or another it surfaced and retained its vitality. There was a sympathetic environment: Tartars and Karaims—both Turkic ethnic groups—began settling in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th century. Vilnius University was the cradle of many famous Orientalists who maintained Turkic research by their activities. In such a way, two main research subjects appeared: Kitabistik and the Karaim language. In this article, the origin problems, development and prospects of Turkic research will be examined.


We report the case of a young HIV seropositive patient with severe hemophilia A who presented rapid liver failure related to his chronic C hepatitis. The patient had been receiving factor VIII:C clotting factor concentrates (mean 60,000 U/year) since 1975. In 1984 alanine aminotransferase presented abnormal levels. The CD4 lymphocyte count in 1991 was normal and ultrasonographic scan showed normal liver morphology. In 1991 the patient were found to be seropositive for HCV antibodies as detected by the ELISA method and confirmed by the RIBA method. One year later, a progressive increase in policlonal gamma-globulin and a decrease in the CD4+ lymphocyte count to below 500/muL were detected in concomitance with ultrasonographic evidence of a progressive increase in the longitudinal diameters of the liver and spleen and signs of liver inhomogeneity. A significant inverse correlation was observed between the increase in the longitudinal diameter of the liver and the decline in albumin levels, and between the increase in the longitudinal diameter of the liver and the drop in platelet count. Elevated levels of ammonemia, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, alkaline phosphatase and IgA were detected. Moreover, decreased levels of the C4 and C3 complement fractions were documented. At this time (1994), esophagogram and esophagogastroscopy evidenced varicosities in the lower esophageal section (stage F1). The patient died in 1995 March at the age of 29 years of sudden septic shock related to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.


Members of the Pseudomonas family are commonly found in nature, some species are pathogenic for humans, as well as being resistant to multiple disinfectants. Various studies have revealed that benzalkonium chloride (BKC) has an inhibitory effect on many bacteria but it has no significant effect on Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Cetrimide agar medium is recommended for the isolation and enumeration of Ps. aeruginosa in food and environmental samples. However, there are claims that for some food factories and in particular the bottled water industry, the selectivity of this medium is not sufficient. The aim of the current research is the creation of a more selective medium for Ps. aeruginosa with BKC. A total of 28 isolates were isolated with Cetrimide agar from raw water samples and identified using biochemical tests and commercial identification kits. All the bacteria were inoculated in Cetrimide agar plates containing 0 - 625 μg/mL BKC. The Petri dishes were incubated at 37°C and 42°C for 24 h. The results showed that 375 μg/mL BKC was sufficient to suppress Burk. pseudomallei at both incubation temperatures. Ps. fluorescens-35 could not grow at 42°C at any concentration, including the control, and was suppressed at 500 μg/mL BKC. All the Ps. aeruginosa isolates and control strain were grown at both incubation temperatures at 375 μg/mL BKC concentration. In conclusion, the analysis of Ps. aeruginosa showed that the growth of accompanying flora may be suppressed by adding 375-μg/mL BKC into Cetrimide agar and incubating at an elevated temperature of 42°C.


'In 1880, the California woman safeguarded the Republic by maintaining a morally sound home. Scarcely forty years later, women in the Pacific state won full-fledged citizenship and voting rights of their own. "Becoming Citizens" shows how this enormous transformation came about. Gayle Gullett demonstrates how women's search for a larger public life in the late nineteenth century led to a flourishing women's movement in California. Women's radical demand for citizenship, however, was rejected by state voters along with the presidential reform candidate, William Jennings Bryan, in the tumultuous election year of 1896'.'Gullett shows how women rebuilt the movement in the early years of the twentieth century and forged a critical alliance between activist women and the men involved in the urban Good Government movement. This alliance formed the basis of progressivism, with male Progressives helping to legitimize women's new public work by supporting their civic campaigns, appointing women to public office, and placing a suffrage referendum before the male electorate in 1911. Placing local developments in a national context, "Becoming Citizens" illuminates the links between these two major social movements: the western women's suffrage movement and progressivism'.


SUMMARY The introduction of sodium acetate-2-14C into a bovine rumen resulted in the in vivo labelling of the rumen gases and volatile fatty acids. The relative isotope concentration in substrate and products indicated that a maximum of 5.6 % of the methane and 11% of the carbon dioxide in rumen gas might have been derived from the methyl carbon of acetate when the substrate was added to the rumen 18 hr. after the animal had been fed a normal ration, A maximum of 3-53 % of the methane and 4.2 % of the carbon dioxide might have been derived from the methyl carbon of sodium acetate-2-14C when this substrate was introduced into the rumen immediately after the animal had been fed. The addition of sodium acetate-l-14C to the rumen 18 hr. after feeding indicated that 2 yo of the methane and 10 yo of the carbon dioxide was derived from the carboxyl carbon of the substrate. Most of the derived radioactivity of the volatile acids of the rumen was found in the butyric acid fraction, although smaller amounts appeared in propionic acid and the volatile fatty acids with a chain length of greater than 4 carbons.


Political economy approaches to shadow banking should take into account interconnectedness. Rather than tracing institutions crossing porous regulatory perimeters, analytical efforts would be better placed to theorize collateral networks, the institutions that act as key nodes in those networks, and the common exposure they generate. The paper argues that the collateral intensive nature of shadow banking generates two mechanisms of interconnectedness: the risk management framework and the re-use/re-hypothecation channel. Both have systemic implications, together generating an important political conflict for the management of shadow banking because private leverage is born in, and can destabilize, government debt markets. Collateral-intensive finance thus confronts central banks and governments with a deeply political question: what governance arrangement is best suited to manage the systemic risks generated through shadow activities that blur the lines between financial stability policy and fiscal policy? Institutional innovations that ensure coordination between the central bank and government work best to manage 'shadow' interconnectedness.


A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka.
In partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree
of
MASTER OF SCIENCE (MS)
IN
AGRONOMY
SEMESTER: JANUARY- JUNE, 2010


Recently there is a rapid growth in research and innovation in the natural fiber composites area. This is because natural fiber gives some advantages compared to other synthetic fibers such as low density, environmental friendly, low cost and good mechanical properties. The purpose of this project is to study the mechanical behaviour of palas leaf reinforced composite. The experiments of tensile, impact and flexural tests were carried out on composites made by reinforced palas leaf or licuala grandis as its scientific name as a new natural fiber into polypropylene homopolymer resin matrix. All of the tests were carried out according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard. This project will focus on the matrix-fiber compositions which are, 80/20, 70/30 and 60/40. These three composition will also be compared with a neat polypropylene. There are two processes involved to produce this composite which are compounding process and injection moulding process. The palas leaf and polypropylene will be mixed together by using the compounding process and will produce a pellet size composite. This pellet will then put into the injection moulding process to produce a desired shape of composite such as dog-bone shape. The tensile, impact and flexural test will be carried out once the injection moulding process is done.


Linear accelerator 4 (Linac4) is designed to accelerate negative hydrogen ions for injection into the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB). It will become the source of proton beams for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) after the long shutdown in 2019–2020. Linac4 will accelerate H– ions, consisting of a hydrogen atom with an additional electron, to 160 MeV energy and then inject them into the PSB, which is part of the LHC injection chain. The new accelerator comprises an ion source and four types of accelerating structures. The particles are accelerated first to 3 MeV energy by a Radio-Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ), then to 50 MeV by three Drift Tube Linacs (DTL) tanks, then to 100 MeV by seven Cell-Coupled Drift Tube Linac (CCDTL) modules, and finally to 160 MeV by twelve Pi-Mode Structures (PIMS). A chopper line placed between the RFQ and the first DTL tank modulates the linac beam at the PSB injection frequency. Linac4 includes transfer and measurement lines up to the PSB injection, where the ions are stripped of their two electrons to leave only protons. Linac4 is 76 metres long and located 12 metres below ground. The first low-energy beams were produced in 2013 and after the commissioning of all accelerating structures the milestone energy of 160 MeV was reached in 2016. Linac4 will be connected to the PSB during the long shutdown of 2019–20, after which it will replace the 50 MeV Linac2 as source of protons for the LHC. The Linac4 is a key element in the project to increase the luminosity of the LHC during the next decade.


Social insect colonies can provide homeostatic conditions that buffer the incidence of environmental fluctuations on individuals, which have contributed to their ecological success. Coptotermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) is a highly invasive termite genus and several species have important economic impact in many areas of the world. Mature Coptotermes colonies with millions of individuals can provide optimal environmental condition and nurturing capacity for the developing brood. However, it was previously suggested that contrary to mature colonies, incipient colonies may be exposed to critical stress, which may explain for the low success rate of establishment within the first year of the life of a termite colony. We here investigated the stress imposed on individuals of incipient colonies by comparing the developmental instability of individuals between incipient and mature colonies of two Coptotermes species, C. formosanus Shiraki and C. gestroi (Wasmann). We assessed the developmental instability by measuring the asymmetry of morphological traits from the head capsule of the soldier caste. Soldiers from incipient colonies of both species displayed strong asymmetrical traits in comparison to soldiers from mature colonies. We suggest that homeostatic conditions for optimal development are reached as the colony matures, and confirmed that the incipient colony remains a critical bottleneck where individuals are exposed to high developmental stress.


In view of characteristics of large time delay, multi-interference and strong coupling in temperature and humidity control system, an adaptive decoupling strategy based on generalized predictive control (GPC) and multi-model control is proposed in this paper. The proposed strategy mainly contains muti-model control, GPC decoupling control and adaptive algorithm. In multi-model control, multi-model sets are established to prevent the model mismatch in different working conditions. Meanwhile, this paper designs adaptive dynamic decoupling algorithms based on the principle of GPC. In actual experiments, temperature and humidity achieve precision of ±0.2°C and ±0.5% respectively.


Reducing aerodynamic drag of heavy trucks is crucially important for the reduction of fuel consumption and hence results in less air pollution. One way to reduce the aerodynamic drag is the deployment of drag reduction devices at the rear of trucks and this paper describes a numerical study of flow over a bluff body with rear drag devices using the Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach to investigate the drag reduction mechanisms and also to assess accuracy of the RANS approach for this kind of flow. Four cases, a baseline case without any drag reduction devices and three cases with different drag reduction devices, have been studied and the predicted mean and turbulent quantities agree well with the experimental data. Drag reduction varies hugely from a few percent in one case to more than 40% in another case and detailed analysis of flow fields has been carried out to understand such a difference and to elucidate the drag reduction mechanism, which ultimately can lead to better design of future drag reduction devices.


Tin electrodeposits produced from aqueous electrolytes are frequently used within the electronics industry due to their high solderability and corrosion protection. One limitation to using these deposits is their spontaneous formation of long conductive filament whiskers. These whiskers grow post-electrodeposition and increase the risk of unwanted electrical shorts within electronic devices.
In this thesis, tin electrodeposits produced from a proprietary bright acid Tinmac electrolyte, currently used in industry, were studied. Electrodeposits were produced using a range of current densities with and without agitation and were characterised with respect to crystallographic orientation, topography and surface finish. Moreover, the intermetallic compound (IMC) growth produced at the copper substrate-tin coating interface was assessed over a period of time as its growth is considered to be a significant driving force behind whisker formation.
In addition, a technique for the electrochemical anodic oxidation of tin electrodeposits on copper substrates was developed. This technique was used throughout this project for the study of IMC growth from tin electrodeposits as it was able to effectively remove the tin whilst leaving the IMCs and substrate unaffected.
Ionic liquids exhibit promising electrochemical characteristics for electrodeposition but are still not widely utilised in industry. Their ability to deposit tin coatings has been studied in the present investigation. Trials concentrated on process optimisation to produce uniform electrodeposits by varying current density, SnCl2.2H2O concentration, and electrolyte composition. These deposits were then characterised and compared to tin coatings of similar thickness produced from Tinmac with respect to topography, surface finish, crystallographic orientation, IMC growth, and whisker propensity. Electrodeposits produced from the ionic liquid electrolyte exhibited a different crystallographic texture, topography, and IMC growth compared to those produced from Tinmac. Moreover, the deposit produced from the ionic liquid featured increased whisker growth compared to those produced from Tinmac, but in a wider context, far less growth than conventional tin electrodeposits in the literature.
In addition, by exploiting other electrochemical characteristics of ionic liquids, such as their large potential window, future work may be able to produce novel tin or tin alloy electrodeposits which may further reduce the whisker propensity of deposits produced in this investigation.


Leaf-level water balance, as revealed by a correlation between stomatal density (SD) and vein density (VD), has been reported in some plants. However, the generality of this correlation and how it may be affected by altitude changes are unclear. Here, we investigated whether this balance is maintained across tree species of diverse families along a large altitudinal gradient. We measured leaf area (LA), SD, stomata length (SL), and VD in 105 angiosperm species across two altitudinal ranges, 800-1400m above sea level (a.s.l.) in tropical montane forests (TMF) and 2000-2600m a.s.l. in subtropical montane forests (SMF) in Yunnan, South-west China. The average SD was independent of altitude in both regions. Similarly, the average VD within either SMF or TMF was also not significantly different. However, overall, TMF had significantly larger VD and LA but smaller SL than SMF. Vein density was positively correlated with SD across SMF species, with a weaker correlation for TMF species and all species combined. Stomatal length was negatively correlated with SD and VD across all species. Our results extend the leaf water balance theory to diverse angiosperm tree species, and indicate decoupled adaptation of SD and VD in these species along a large altitudinal gradient.


Lawmakers often have an incentive to avoid making important policy choices, shifting responsibility for the outcomes of those choices onto other governmental branches. Statutory incompleteness (that is, a statute containing a gap or ambiguity) provides a mechanism for accomplishing this transfer of responsibility. Drawing on the incomplete contracts literature, we argue that the reasons for statutory incompleteness should form an important consideration for courts faced with interpretive disputes regarding an incomplete statutory provision. Specifically, if lawmakers attempt to employ statutory incompleteness as a means to shift responsibility for difficult policy choices onto courts or agencies, courts should penalize lawmakers by holding that the provision in question is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority. In contrast, when statutory incompleteness is inadvertent or attributable to a legislative desire to enhance public welfare - such as, for example, an attempt to reduce the transaction costs of lawmaking or harness the special expertise of courts or agencies - a penalty would be futile or overly costly and should not apply. This "Penalty Default Canon" sheds new light on the Chevron and non-delegation doctrines, as well as many theories of statutory interpretation. Indeed, we demonstrate that these theories and doctrines are flawed because they assume a single underlying cause of statutory incompleteness. The Penalty Default Canon, in contrast, is more nuanced, mimicking the approach taken by contract scholars and courts in the setting of contractual default rules. The article develops a three-part test for discerning the underlying source of statutory incompleteness through a careful examination of legislative history and interest group dynamics. We then apply this test to two statutory provisions that we argue Congress left intentionally incomplete: the "strong inference" provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 6 of the Clayton Act.


The global credit crisis has been a systemic failure. In this monograph, the author try to set out some of what went wrong, and how to develop the framework of policy and institutions needed to ensure a vibrant and stable financial system in the future. This will require new thinking about the type of institutions on which a successful modern financial economy depends, but, more importantly, on the relationship between each of these institutions. The author focuses on how to get them to work in a way which will support open and effective capital markets. The aim is not to lay out a detailed framework for bank solvency, or accounting regulation or corporate governance, though the author will touch on many examples of reform. Rather it is to try to clarify the principles on which any responsible market system will rest, and how these might be applied to the banks and the other markets where finance is raised to keep the economy going. It is also to suggest various actions the participants in all markets - regulators, investors, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), and bankers, can take to prevent similar disasters.


Physical models continue to form an essential outcome from industrial design practice for both student and professional. Whist the professional may be removed from the "hands-on" model build by employing the services of a modelmaker, students rarely have such resources. Indeed it was (and in many institutions still is) considered an essential part of the education programme for students to develop modelmaking skills and experience the physical interaction with form and material. However, the advent of remote model building technologies via rapid prototyping and computer controlled machining, has given students an alternative, enabling them to become increasingly removed from such interaction. As increasing numbers of industrial design courses utilise remote model build technologies, the emergence of three dimensional (3D) digital modelling via a haptic feedback device may offer a route whereby students can continue to be involved with tactile design modelling. Acknowledging the need to utilise digital design techniques, this paper investigates the capabilities of haptic modelling for use within industrial design practice, with the aim of discussing its suitability for student use. The research is based on an industrial design case study for a communication device that was undertaken by the authors.


Abstract : This series of analyses and chronologies provides information on exchanges of military and military related delegations that have occurred between China and the United States since 1979. Military visits are defined as exchanges between officials of the U.S. Department of Defense and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense and between members or units of the two countries armed forces. Military related visits are defined mainly as exchanges between high ranking U.S. and Chinese government leaders, including officials of ministerial or cabinet rank, whose visits probably had military or strategic significance. The dates, leaders, and itineraries of the delegations accompany a brief analysis of each visit. The data were obtained primarily from Chinese media reports. The series is updated quarterly and published annually.


Nowadays, Russia is going through an era of rapid growth in private car ownership. This has resulted in new trends in Russian transportation planning practice. Previously in the USSR, private car ownership accounted for ten percent of the total passenger flow divided by the car occupancy. However, the rapid growth of private car ownership is only one aspect among many other significant changes in Russian socio-economic life. Consequently, Russian transportation planning has been challenged immensely. It is becoming necessary to forecast private car usage taking into account reasons for different journeys. Unfortunately, there are no current statistics in Russia that describe what we have defined as trip generation rates of different object types. Statistics collected during the Soviet era is included in urban planning manuals, but now this data is completely inconsistent with the current situation. The Transportation Laboratory of Irkutsk State Technical University launched regular investigations into the main indices of trip generation. The estimation of parking demand generation and parking accumulation is very laborious. In order to make parking surveys more effective the Laboratory proposed to collect video records from the security cameras of the parking facilities. The objective of the survey is to calculate the numbers of arriving and departing vehicles for each defined time period. The mathematical formula used to calculate parking duration is equal to the OD matrix estimation from traffic counts. The application of this method allows for the collation of all basic data, which is essential to calculate and forecast all factors of parking statistics. That makes possible to develop aggregated and disaggregated transport models including trip generation rates caused by different land use patterns, to plan shared parking and establish tariff policy applied to different parking lots.


PDDLStream solvers have recently emerged as viable solutions for Task and Motion Planning (TAMP) problems, extending PDDL to problems with continuous action spaces. Prior work has shown how PDDLStream problems can be reduced to a sequence of PDDL planning problems, which can then be solved using off-the-shelf planners. However, this approach can suffer from long runtimes. In this paper we propose LAZY, a solver for PDDLStream problems that maintains a single integrated search over action skeletons, which gets progressively more geometrically informed, as samples of possible motions are lazily drawn during motion planning. We explore how learned models of goal-directed policies and current motion sampling data can be incorporated in LAZY to adaptively guide the task planner. We show that this leads to significant speed-ups in the search for a feasible solution evaluated over unseen test environments of varying numbers of objects, goals, and initial conditions. We evaluate our TAMP approach by comparing to existing solvers for PDDLStream problems on a range of simulated 7DoF rearrangement/manipulation problems. Code can be found at https://rvl.cs.toronto.edu/learning-based-tamp.


Purpose: We have applied failure mode and event analysis (FMEA) to review our external beam radiation therapy(EBRT) process with the intent of identifying possible failure modes and increasing the overall safety of the EBRT process. Method and Materials: Our review was initiated in December 2006 and included 12 members of the staff assisted by experts from Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care (CIQPC) at our institution. Meeting weekly, the task group developed a visual map of the EBRT process, completed March, 2007. The group then performed a FMEA to identify those nodes or steps in the process that were most likely to exhibit a failure mode that would potentially harm a patient. Each failure mode was given a rank priority number (RPN) based upon tabulated survey scores for the severity, frequency, and detectibility of that failure. Results: We considered the top 15 failure modes with RPN scores between 75 and 160. The group then brainstormed solutions for the failure modes using accepted mistake‐proofing methods. Each solution was then scored for effectiveness (1 to 10) and feasibility (1 to 10). Solutions with both effectiveness and feasibility greater than 5 (27 total solutions) were considered for implementation into the clinic. We continue to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of these process modifications. Conclusion: FMEA is a widely‐used tool for improving safety and reliability and can be easily adapted for use in radiation oncology.


Thyroid hormone (T3) is essential for normal development and organ function throughout vertebrates. Its effects are mainly mediated through transcriptional regulation by T3 receptor (TR). The identification and characterization of the immediate early, direct target genes are thus of critical importance in understanding the molecular pathways induced by T3. Unfortunately, this has been hampered by the difficulty to study gene regulation by T3 in uterus-enclosed mammalian embryos. Here we used Xenopus metamorphosis as a model for vertebrate postembryonic development to identify direct T3 response genes in vivo. We took advantage of the ability to easily induce metamorphosis with physiological levels of T3 and to carry out microarray analysis in Xenopus laevis and genome-wide sequence analysis in Xenopus tropicalis. This allowed us to identify 188 up-regulated and 249 down-regulated genes by T3 in the absence of new protein synthesis in whole animals. We further provide evidence to show that these genes contain functional TREs that are bound by TR in tadpoles and that their promoters are regulated by TR in vivo. More importantly, gene ontology analysis showed that the direct up-regulated genes are enriched in categories important for transcriptional regulation and protein degradation-dependent signaling processes but not DNA replication. Our findings thus revealed the existence of interesting pathways induced by T3 at the earliest step of metamorphosis.


CONTEXT
Although substantial research has focused on unintended pregnancy among young women, less is known about the circumstances under which pregnancy is desired. Whether a young woman's pregnancy desire changes across her different relationships, or over time within a relationship, has not been directly assessed.

METHODS
Data on intimate relationships and pregnancy desire were assessed weekly for 895 women aged 18-22 who participated in the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study in a county in Michigan (2008-2012). Within-between logistic regression models were used to examine within-cluster and between-cluster differences-comparisons of a woman's pregnancy desire within a relationship over time as well as across a woman's different relationships.

RESULTS
Young women were more likely to desire pregnancy if they were in any relationship more intimate and committed than a casual relationship (odds ratios, 1.6-9.2); the odds of desiring pregnancy were also higher in long-term relationships rather than in short-term ones (2.1). In general, pregnancy desire increased over time as a relationship endured and became more serious. The odds of desiring pregnancy were lower among women with less educated, rather than equally educated, partners (0.7), while the odds were higher in nonmonogamous or violent relationships than in monogamous or nonviolent relationships (1.6 and 1.9, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
Young women's pregnancy desire changes depending on their intimate relationship context, across the range of relationships they experience during the transition to adulthood.


Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the area where many researches enduring like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), called diffusion tensor imaging, Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) to provide an easier life for the people diagnosed. After years and years of combined funding sources from public and private funding, these researches show great promises in recent years. In this paper, we have tried to show a way how children with Down Syndrome Autism can learn through game therapy. These game therapies have shown an immense number of improvements among those children to learn alphabets along with developing their motor skills and memory challenges.


In this paper a new structure for comparator-based switched-capacitor circuits has been presented. In contrast with the conventional architecture the proposed algorithm utilizes an extra comparator to make a variable comparator threshold, in order to attenuating the overshoot at the end of the coarse phase. for better designing we introduced some practical issues on preset levels designing. After that this paper proposes a feed forward offset compensation which can avoid offset accumulation in proposed architectures. Finally we designed a 10b 20MS/s Fully Differential CBSC Pipelined ADC with proposed architecture in a 0.18-µm standard CMOS process. It achieves 74.4-dB spurious-free-dynamic range (SFDR) and 58.34-dB SNDR. In addition It consumes 2.6mW from a 1.8-V power supply at 40MS/s, which obtains a figure of merit of 210fJ/step.


Since its first isolation from Salix roots in 1972, isolates of a sexually sterile Phytophthora species have been obtained frequently
from wet or riparian habitats worldwide and have also been isolated from roots of Alnus and Prunus spp. Although
originally assigned to Phytophthora gonapodyides on morphological grounds, it was recognized that these isolates, informally
named P. taxon Salixsoil, might represent a separate lineage within ITS Clade 6. Based on phylogenetic analyses and
comparisons of morphology, growth-temperature relationships and pathogenicity, this taxon is formally described here as
Phytophthora lacustris sp. nov. Isolates of P. lacustris form a clearly resolved cluster in both ITS and mitochondrial cox1
phylogenies, basal to most other Clade 6 taxa. Phytophthora lacustris shares several unusual behavioural properties with
other aquatic Clade 6 species, such as sexual sterility and tolerance of high temperatures, that have been suggested as adaptations
to riparian conditions. It appears to be widespread in Europe and has also been detected in Australia, New Zealand
and the USA. Itwas shown to be weakly or moderately aggressive on inoculation to Alnus, Prunus and Salix. The extent of
P. lacustris' activity as a saprotroph in plant debris in water and as an opportunistic pathogen in riparian habitats needs further
investigation. Its pathogenic potential to cultivated fruit trees also deserves attention because P. lacustris has apparently
been introduced into the nursery trade.


Many cases could not be successfully prosecuted without a confession, and, in the absence of a confession, many would be much more costly to investigate and to develop other evidence sufficient to convict. Responding to this pressure to reliably elicit confessions from their suspects, the police have developed sophisticated psychological techniques to accomplish two goals: to induce suspects to submit to questioning without an attorney, and to induce them to confess. Unfortunately, these methods are sufficiently powerful to induce false as well as true confessions and to render them involuntary. Further, because they are based upon often subtle, yet sophisticated weapons of influence, their coercive power sometimes goes unrecognized by those who must judge their voluntariness or validity. This yields a crucially important yet often unrecognized three-pronged problem with confession evidence - voluntariness, validity, and prejudicial impact. In this chapter, the authors first briefly review the nature of modern interrogation tactics, and then turn to consideration of the three-pronged confession problem, systemic barriers to recognizing and addressing the problem, and some proposed solutions.


A new schiffbase ligand, methyl-2-pyridyl ketone benzoyl hydrazone (L), and its complexes with rare earth nitrates have been synthesized. These new complexes with the general formula of Ln(L)2(NO3)3·nH2O(where Ln = La, n = 5.5; Ce, Pr, n = 5; Nd, Eu, n = 4 ) were characterized by mass spectra, elemental analysis, IR spectra, thermal analysis, UV spectra, molar conductivity and luminescent spectra. All the complexes are stable in air. The results show that the lanthanide ion in each complex are coordinated by oxygen and nitrogen atoms of the ligand, the oxygen atoms of the nitrate and coordinated water molecules. The amide-oxygen atoms of L coordinate to the Ln ions in its keto-form. Tentative structures for the complexes have been proposed.


In this article, the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) was prepared by two-step anodizing process in oxalic acid electrolyte. And a blue-emission of AAO itself attributed to the oxalate was observed. The AAO membrane with ordered nano-sized porous structure was an important membrane to produce nano-materials. And luminescent nano-particles embedded in AAO, such as ZnO in this article, possessed notably special performances which were due to the quantum size effect and the special environment provided by the nano-pores. Since AAO membranes possessed a unique structure, in this paper, an assumption about the application of the membrane in field emission display (FED) and electroluminescence (EL) was proposed.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN RETRACTED Background: Combination therapy has traditionally been recommended for cancer patients with Febrile Neutropenia (FN), but the results remain controversial. Objective: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the two methods in clinical practice. Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) to compare monotherapy with meropenem versus combination therapy with ceftazidime plus amikacin for empirical treatment of cancer patients with FN. Data on interventions, participants' characteristics and the outcomes of therapy, were extracted for statistical analysis. Seven trials fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Results: The treatment with ceftazidime plus amikacin was more effective than meropenem (OR = 1.17; 95% CI 0.94 -1.45; 1471 participants). Likewise, the failure rate of meropenem was higher than ceftazidime plus amikacin (OR = 0.87; 95% CI 0.7 -1.08; 1471 participants). A total of five articles mentioned adverse effects in detail. Drug-related adverse effects afflicted more patients treated with ceftazidime plus amikacin (OR = 1.06; 95% CI 0.83 -1.35; 1336 participants). The common responses were nausea, diarrhea, rash, and increase in SGOT, SGPT and bilirubin. The treatment effects of the two therapy methods were almost parallel in adults (OR = 1.04; 95% CI 0.64 -1.67; 378 participants older than 16). Only trials on adults mentioned adverse effects in this review. The use of monotherapy for FN is associated with higher failure than ceftazidime plus amikacin and should be carefully considered pending further analysis. However empirical use of ceftazidime plus amikacin entails more adverse effects. Conclusions: Ceftazidime plus amikacin should be the first choice, and meropenem may be chosen as a last defense against pathogenic bacteria.


Biomicroscopy was employed to study the time-course of microcirculatory reactivity in rat mesentery under the influence of adrenaline solution from the 3d to the 13th week of development. Variation in the microcirculatory reactivity in the mesentery in ontogenesis is associated with an increase in the sensitivity of microvessels to the action of vasoactive substances and with the organization of the microcirculatory bed becoming more complicated. Three stages were revealed in the development of microvascular reactivity in the course of formation of mesenterial microcirculation: early (3-5 weeks), characterized by relatively low sensitivity of microvessels; intermediate (7-8 weeks) marked by a progressive increase in microvascular sensitivity; mature (starting from the 13th week) characterized by the appearance of the definitive reaction pattern.


Proponents of the Millennium Villages Project argue that the complex problems facing rural development in Africa require a 'big push' if substantive progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to be made – and propose the simultaneous introduction of improvements in agriculture, health, transport, energy, technology, telecommunications and internet connectivity, costing US$110 per person per year over 5 years, and funded mainly from aid flows. This paper examines the challenges this initiative faces, and the questions it raises, in its search for 'quick wins' to reach the MDGs.


Shot peening is widely used for automobile parts such as springs and gears to improve fatigue strength. In general, high-hardness media is required for shot peening to high-hardness materials. Recently, shot peening to various tool steels such as cold and hot work tool steels and high speed tool steel has been investigated and is used in some applications, and improvements in fatigue strength and die life by the increase of compressive residual stress and hardness at their shot peened surface have been reported. In this study, the properties of cold work tool steel shot peened by Fe-8%Cr-6.5%B (mass%) gas atomized powder (FeCrB powder) with HV 1200-class Vickers hardness and long life as shot peening media were examined. Quenched and tempered JIS SKD11 followed by shot peening by FeCrB and high speed steel powder sieved between 45 and 125 μm was used. Vickers hardness and compressive residual stress of the shot peened JIS SKD11 surface by FeCrB powder were higher than these by high speed steel powder. As a result, JIS SKD11 shot peened by FeCrB powder showed excellent fatigue property, Charpy impact value and wear resistance property.


A mixture of benzalkonium chloride, Triton X100, and citric acid (Resiguard F) had a marked virucidal effect on lipid-containing deoxyribonucleic and ribonucleic acid viruses, such as vaccinia virus, herpesvirus, and influenza virus. Adenoviruses and picornaviruses were more resistant to inactivation. Electron microscopy showed that influenza particles became aggregated in the presence of Resiguard F and that the outer fringe of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase spikes seen in control virus preparations became indistinct. The mixture had no detectable antiviral activity in mice infected with influenza AO/PR/8/34 virus, and this was attributed to the reduced virucidal effect of Resiguard F in the presence of serum proteins.


A new lightweight system to detect and mitigate low and high rate DDOS attacks on SDN by analysing traffic flow count and game theory model. The model is comprised of two layers, one for detection and layer two performs the mitigation. Detection is carried out by analysing the flow and mitigation is carried by blocking the IP address or forwarding the packets towards the honeypot. The system needs to be implemented at gate way point of software defined network and analyse the traffic before entering the network and mitigate the detected attacks. The system can detect low and high rate DDOS attacks for network and application layer of TCP/IP network topology. The experimental system has been evaluated by setting up virtual machines and results show that system can detect the high rate, low rate DDOS attack from spoofed IP address and can mitigate the attack by blocking the IP or routing the traffic towards the honeypot.


A strategic framework for the excellence in higher education has been presented in this research. The major input to the frameworks is the requirement of regulatory bodies, need and expectations of customers. The complete components of strategic framework are discussed in this paper, which are supported by the SMART key performance indicators (KPIs). To measure the effectiveness of strategic objectives, SMART KPIs are designed, which are continuously monitored by the management. These KPIs not only mitigate the risk but are also helpful to focus organization towards the higher HEI ranking as well as the quality assurance throughout the institution. The KPIs are used to define the objective for the management to different levels of leadership and management. It has been observed that the implementation strategic approach has not only increased the performance of the NED University, but also reduced the audit observations recorded during the internal and surveillance audits.


: The list of differential diagnoses in the case of midline facial granulomatous lesions is long. Intensive investigation into the true origin of disease must be done before definitive treatment can be begun. Extensive and repeated biopsies are necessary. The diagnosis may narrow down to the nonspecific midline lethal granuloma. Evidence in the literature coupled with our experience strongly indicates that this disease does not exist as a pathologic entity but merely as a clinical syndrome which upon further evaluation will reveal either Wegener's granulomatosis or a reticulum cell neoplasm. Treatment of the syndrome consists of corticosteroid drugs, irradiation, and chemotherapy until a definitive diagnosis is made. Midline granulomas have been and will continue to be a challenging diagnostic and therapeutic problem for the otolaryngologist.


Purpose: We sought to validate the stray radiation dose maps provided by CT manufacturers and to investigate the effects of varying phantom composition and shape on these scatter profiles especially as they pertain to shielding requirements. Method and Materials: The standard CTdosimetry cylindrical body phantom was used to validate the published results by the manufacturer. The technique factors used were: 8 × 3 mm detector configuration, 140 kVp, 400mA, 2 second rotation time, and 350 mm FOV. A 150 cc ion chamber at isocenter height and always facing isocenter was used to measure the secondary radiation. The chamber was clamped to a rolling cart and was moved in 50 cm increments around isocenter to cover a grid of 3 m × 4 m. This was repeated for the standard CTdosimetry head phantom, an anthropomorphic head phantom, and an anthropomorphic chest and pelvis phantoms. Results: There was poor agreement between the nominal data obtained for the standard CTdosimetry body phantom and that supplied by the manufacturer especially on the cranial side of the gantry. There was considerable difference between the results from standard CTdosimetry body phantom and the anthropomorphic pelvis phantom, both in magnitude (40% higher on average) and shape of the isodose contour plots. In addition, comparisons between anthropomorphic head and the standard CTdosimetry head phantom will be presented as isodose contour plots in the horizontal plane 100 cm from the floor. Conclusion: There were differences in the scatter magnitude between the manufacturer supplied values and those measured. However, as this information is often used in barrier shielding calculations, these differences were not significant enough to alter shielding requirements for barriers 1.5 meters or further away from isocenter. The manufacturer values tended to be somewhat higher and thus more conservative than those measured.


In 1996, Matsuzawa et al. reported on the extremely long-lasting afterglow of SrAl2O4:Eu2+ codoped with Dy3+ ions, which was more than 10-times brighter than the previously widely used ZnS:Cu,Co. Since then, research for stable and efficient persistent phosphors has continuously gained popularity. However, even today - almost 15 years after the discovery of SrAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+ - the number of persistent luminescent materials is still relatively low. Furthermore, the mechanism behind this phenomenon is still unclear. Although most authors agree on the general features, such as the existence of long-lived trap levels, many details are still shrouded in mystery. In this review, we present an overview of the important classes of known persistent luminescent materials based on Eu2+-emission and how they were prepared, and we take a closer look at the models and mechanisms that have been suggested to explain bright afterglow in various compounds.


The purposes of this study were (a) to determine the level of job satisfaction of public health department nurses (PHNs) and employees, and (b) to identify relationships between job satisfaction and demographic characteristics. A descriptive correlational / design was used. A sample of 181 was taken from a metropolitan public health department population. Job Descriptive Index and Job in General instruments were used. Employees were satisfied with the overall job, supervision with work, not satisfied with promotional opportunities, and neutral regarding pay and co-workers. PHNs were satisfied with the overall job, supervision, work and pay, not satisfied with promotional opportunities and neutral regarding co-workers. There were several correlations between employee and PHN demographic and levels of job satisfaction.


Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll: The American Counterculture of the 1960s offers a unique examination of the cultural flowering that enveloped the United States during that early postwar decade. Robert C. Cottrell provides an enthralling view of the counterculture, beginning with an examination of American bohemia, the Lyrical Left of the pre-WWII era, and the hipsters. He delves into the Beats, before analyzing the counterculture that emerged on both the East and West coasts, but soon cropped up in the American heartland as well. Cottrell delivers something of a collective biography, through an exploration of the antics of seminal countercultural figures Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Timothy Leary, and Ken Kesey. Cottrell also presents fascinating chapters covering "the magic elixir of sex," rock 'n roll, the underground press, Haight-Ashbury, the literature that garnered the attention of many in the counterculture, Monterey Pop, the Summer of Love, the Death of Hippie, the March on the Pentagon, communes, Yippies, Weatherman, Woodstock, the Manson family, the women's movement, and the decade's legacies.


Textual data plays an important role in the modern world. The possibilities of applying data mining techniques to uncover hidden information present in large volumes of text collections is immense. The Growing Self Organizing Map (GSOM) is a highly successful member of the Self Organising Map family and has been used as a clustering and visualisation tool across wide range of disciplines to discover hidden patterns present in the data. A comprehensive analysis of the GSOM's capabilities as a text clustering and visualisation tool has so far not been published. These functionalities, namely map visualisation capabilities, automatic cluster identification and hierarchical clustering capabilities are presented in this paper and are further demonstrated with experiments on a benchmark text corpus. Keywords—Text Clustering, Growing Self Organizing Map, Automatic Cluster Identification, Hierarchical Clustering.


This longitudinal study addresses the role of support given by parents and peers during the transition from university to work life. A sample of 64 German university students in their last year at the university completed scales from the Network of Relationships Inventory regarding general support, namely, instrumental aid and intimacy with mothers, fathers, romantic partners, and friends. Four years later, they assessed domain-specific support when looking for work, namely, joint exploration and instrumental support. Participants perceived receiving both types of support from all significant others. However, joint exploration was more important than instrumental support. They felt especially supported by romantic partners. Women received more support than did men. Both types of domain-specific support were explained by general modes of support assessed 4 years earlier. Whether parents, friends, and partners were perceived as helpful during the transition was explained mainly by joint exploration. Again, support from a partner was seen as especially helpful in contrast to help from parents and friends. The special significance of joint exploration underlines the benefit of counseling at the transition from university to work life.


The purpose of this study was to investigate students' perceptions of computer literacy skills they had obtained prior to enrolling in a university and to develop implications and recommendations for teaching a college-level computer course. One hundred twenty-five students who were currently enrolled in a required university computer literacy course completed a questionnaire. Students were asked to identify their skill level in various types of software and their exposure to computer concepts and issues. Results showed that students perceived themselves to be better prepared in word processing than they did in spreadsheet and database applications and that they had not received extensive coverage of ethical, social, legal and global issues. In determining the content of a university computer literacy course, consideration needs to be given to nontraditional students who have not been exposed to computers as well as those students who enter the university with a variety of skill levels. Additionally, an improved and extended coverage of database and spreadsheets might be warranted in a college level computer course. Since required computer literacy competencies are continually changing for high school graduates, it is imperative that universities monitor design and content of the curriculum to provide an adequate computer literacy background for university students.


AMBIT (Adolescent Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment) is a developing team approach to working with hard-to-reach adolescents. The approach applies the principle of mentalization to relationships with clients, team relationships and working across agencies. It places a high priority on the need for locally developed evidence-based practice, and proposes that outcome evaluation needs to be explicitly linked with processes of team learning using a learning organization framework. A number of innovative methods of team learning are incorporated into the AMBIT approach, particularly a system of web-based wiki-formatted AMBIT manuals individualized for each participating team. The paper describes early development work of the model and illustrates ways of establishing explicit links between outcome evaluation, team learning and manualization by describing these methods as applied to two AMBIT-trained teams; one team working with young people on the edge of care (AMASS — the Adolescent Multi-Agency Support Service) and another working with substance use (CASUS – Child and Adolescent Substance Use Service in Cambridgeshire). Measurement of the primary outcomes for each team (which were generally very positive) facilitated team learning and adaptations of methods of practice that were consolidated through manualization.


For the past 35 years, radio astronomy has revealed a rich organic chemistry in the interstellar gas, which is exceptionally complex towards active star-forming regions. New solar systems condense out of this gas and may influence the evolution of life on newly formed planets. Much of the biologically important functionality is present among the some 130 gas-phase molecules found to date, including alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, amines, amides and even the simplest sugar glycolaldehyde. Still, many unidentified interstellar radio signals remain, and their identification relies on further laboratory study. The molecules hydroxyacetone and lactic acid are relatively small organic molecules, but possess rather complex rotational spectra owing to their high asymmetry. Hydroxyacetone is particularly problematic because it possess a very low barrier to internal rotation, and exhibits strong coupling of the free-rotor states with the overall rotation of the molecule. As in the case of acetamide, a full decomposition method was employed to order the resultant eigenstates onto normal asymmetric top eigenvectors.


Estimating conditional dependence graphs and precision matrices are some of the most common problems in modern statistics and machine learning. When data are fully observed, penalized maximum likelihood-type estimators have become standard tools for estimating graphical models under sparsity conditions. Extensions of these methods to more complex settings where data are contaminated with additive or multiplicative noise have been developed in recent years. In these settings, however, the relative performance of different methods is not well understood and algorithmic gaps still exist. In particular, in high-dimensional settings these methods require using non-positive semidefinite matrices as inputs, presenting novel optimization challenges. We develop an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm for these problems, providing a feasible algorithm to estimate precision matrices with indefinite input and potentially nonconvex penalties. We compare this method with existing alternative solutions and empirically characterize the tradeoffs between them. Finally, we use this method to explore the networks among US senators estimated from voting records data.


We consider the problem of deriving an explicit approximate solution of the nonlinear power equations that describe a balanced power distribution network. We give sufficient conditions for the existence of a practical solution to the power flow equations, and we propose an approximation that is linear in the active and reactive power demands of the PQ buses. For this approximation, which is valid for generic power line impedances and grid topology, we derive a bound on the approximation error as a function of the grid parameters. We illustrate the quality of the approximation via simulations, we show how it can also model the presence of voltage controlled (PV) buses, and we discuss how it generalizes the DC power flow model to lossy networks.


End-to-end (E2E) models, which directly predict output character sequences given input speech, are good candidates for on-device speech recognition. E2E models, however, present numerous challenges: In order to be truly useful, such models must decode speech utterances in a streaming fashion, in real time; they must be robust to the long tail of use cases; they must be able to leverage user-specific context (e.g., contact lists); and above all, they must be extremely accurate. In this work, we describe our efforts at building an E2E speech recog-nizer using a recurrent neural network transducer. In experimental evaluations, we find that the proposed approach can outperform a conventional CTC-based model in terms of both latency and accuracy in a number of evaluation categories.


The functions of the consultant dietitian and the foodservice supervisor were studied by surveying dietitians consulting in nursing homes and the administrators of each dietitian's nursing home accounts. Data were available from consultants and administrators in 297 nursing homes in a twelve-state, midwestern region. Almost 60% of the homes had employed a consultant for three to eight years, and nearly half had employed the present consultant for the same length of time. Generally, the dietitians made one to three visits to the homes a month, for a total of 3 to 12 hr. The administrators listed personnel, cost of department operation, and facilities as problem areas in foodservice. Dietitians reported greater concern than did administrators in all of the rated problem areas except cost. Problem ratings of the two groups reflected differences in interest and expertise.


Food insecurity (FI) is a multifaceted, socioeconomic problem involving difficulties accessing sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet people's dietary requirements and preferences for a healthy life. For children experiencing FI, there are some potentially negative developmental consequences and it is, therefore, important to understand the links between FI and children's health and well-being as well as any strategies undertaken to address FI. The overall objective of this assessment was to determine the nature, extent and consequences of FI affecting children (aged ≤ 18 years) in the UK.To determine the nature, extent and consequences of FI affecting children (aged ≤ 18 years) in the UK.The databases searched on 4 December 2017 included MEDLINE (including In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and E-pub ahead of print files), EMBASE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux (CAB) abstracts, The Cochrane Library, Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC), PsycINFO, the Social Science Citation Index and the Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA).A rapid review of the current published and unpublished literature was conducted, including all study designs from specified high-income countries in children aged ≤ 18 years. Searches were conducted of major health-care, nutrition, education and social science databases from 1995 onwards, and websites of relevant UK and international organisations. Final searches were undertaken in December 2017.In total, 109 studies were selected. Only five studies were conducted in the UK, four of which provided qualitative data. Possible factors associated with child FI were identified, for example socioeconomic status, material deprivation, living in public housing and having unemployed or poorly educated parents. Children's health, well-being and academic outcomes were all negatively affected by FI. The mediating effects of family stressors and parenting practices in the relationship between FI and children's health and well-being outcomes were not clear. Food assistance programmes were generally effective in mitigating FI and improving nutritional outcomes (including hunger) in the short term, but did not eradicate FI, eliminate its effects on children's health or have an impact on academic outcomes. No reports assessing the prevalence of child FI in the UK or the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of interventions to tackle FI were identified.There was a lack of consistency in how FI was defined and measured across studies. Most of the studies used indirect measurements of child FI through parental reports. The majority of studies were conducted in North America. Only five studies were conducted in the UK. Thirty potentially relevant studies were not included in the review as a result of time and resource constraints. Most studies were observational and caution is advised in interpreting their results.A number of factors that were related to child FI were identified, as were negative associations between child FI and physical, mental and social outcomes. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution because of the correlational nature of the analyses and the fact that it is difficult to determine if some factors are predictors or consequences of FI.There is an urgent requirement for the development of a reliable instrument to measure and monitor child FI in the UK and for well-designed interventions or programmes to tackle child FI.This study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42017084818.The National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme. The Health Services Research Unit is core-funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates.


: A case of nonfebrile and nonpyogenic but inflammatory exophthalmos in a 60-year-old woman is presented in illustration of a diagnostic enigma which has previously eluded physical and roentgen examination. With painful limitation of rotation, a less than satisfactory diagnosis of tenonitis or, less commonly, orbital pseudotumor usually has been made. The convenient assistance of contact (nonimmersion) B-scan ultrasound gives objective evidence of fluid within Tenon's space and communicating into the vaginal spaces beneath the optic nerve sheath appearing as homogeneous and echolucent areas. Concurrently there is thickening of the posterior bulbar complex and muscle sheaths evidenced by increased echo density. A definitive finding as the echolucent "T sign" lends substantial and specific basis for clinical management. Rapid improvement in exophthalmos, rotations, and discomfort following oral steroids (without antibiotics) further supports the etiologic concept of both noninfectious and nonendocrine ophthalmopathy. The T sign is suggested as a specific finding, rather than an artifact, differentiating this exophthalmos from neoplastic invasion or thyroidopathy.


Background Intramedullary nailing under fluoroscopic guidance is a common operation. We studied the intraoperative radiation dose received by both the patient and the personnel. Patients and methods 25 intramedullary nailing procedures of the tibia were studied. All patients suffered from tibial fractures and were treated using the Grosse-Kempf intramedullary nail, with free-hand technique for fixation of the distal screws, under fluoroscopic guidance. The exposure, at selected positions, was recorded using an ion chamber, while the dose area product (DAP) was measured with a DAP meter, attached to the tube head. Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) were used to derive the occupational dose to the personnel, and also to monitor the surface dose on the gonads of some of the patients. Results The mean operation time was 101 (48–240) min, with a mean fluoroscopic time of 72 seconds and a mean DAP value of 75 cGy·cm2. The surface dose to the gonads of the patients was less than 8.8 mGy during any procedure, and thus cannot be considered to be a contraindication for the use of this technique. Occupational dose differed substantially between members of the operating personnel, the maximum dose recorded being to the operator of the fluoroscopic equipment (0.11 mSv). Interpretation Our findings underscore the care required by the primary operator not to exceed the dose constraint of 10 mSv per year. The rest of the operating personnel, although they do not receive very high doses, should focus on the dose optimization of the technique.


mans [1983], ;E8-85, pp. 81, ISBN 0-8028-3581-3) reminds us, Coptic studies are fortunate in having one of the best dictionaries ever compiled for an ancient language, that of W. E. Crum. But Crum is daunting to the beginner, who normally contents himself with the vocabularies in the various grammars. The present small lexicon is an attempt to encourage the student further, and it has the added advantage of directing the reader towards the Nag Hammadi 'gnostic' material, most of which came too late to be included in Crum, but which has already given a new impetus to the entire subject. The format is clear and elegant, and well proof-read. Brevity of course has dangers, especially with bare translations. Thus namou (p. 19) can certainly mean 'is dying', but not invariably so; mfzfzsatre = does not automatically mean 'after' (p. 20), and some of the translations are ambiguous. The entry for mpate on p. 21, on the


Topological photonics have emerged as a framework to manipulate light for low-loss and compact photonic applications, such as waveguides, beam splitters, isolators, and lasers, due to their immunity to imperfections or structural disorder in bulk [1] . One-dimensional topological photonic crystals (1D-PhCs), particularly, have received great attention due to their simple architecture, convenient fabrication process, and relatively easy prediction of their optical characteristics using standard simulation methods. Recently, a topological nanocavity laser with high Q factors of over 10,000 was demonstrated at the interface between two topologically distinct 1D photonic crystals (PhC) [2] .


The microspectrometric investigation used 5- and 8 microns-thick histological specimens, stained after Feulgen, and the following equipment: scanning integrating microspectrophotometer (1,080); TV-image analyzer (70). Interphase nuclei of normal growth tissue, mild and moderate dysplasia, atypical proliferation and carcinoma were investigated using bioptical material from the larynx, cervix uteri, endometrium, stomach, large bowel, prostate and breast. The weighted mean index of DNA accumulation in nuclei as well as the "index of clonal proliferation" (ICP)--ratio of average DNA index for carcinogenesis stage in question and normal tissue index--suggested by the author, were measured. Malignant transformation was characterized by the following ICP values: mild and moderate dysplasia--less than 1.4; intraepithelial neoplasia--2.2 and carcinoma and adenocarcinoma--3.3 and higher. Microspectrophotometric analysis of Feulgen-DNA yields reliable data on ICP in malignant tissue which can be used for clinical purposes in treatment and prognosis of malignant disease.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease affecting approximately 1 % of the population above 60 years of age. It affects preferentially the extrapyramidal system, causing severe deficits in motor function. So far, the progression of the disease can neither be delayed nor cured. The dyshomeostasis of trace elements, especially of iron, and the presence of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) aggregate-containing Lewy bodies (LBs) in the brain are two main pathologic events playing a crucial role in PD. The underlying pathomechanisms for spreading of α-syn through the brain are still unknown, but PD-related targets such as trace elements or the rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) were suggested to affect its aggregation pathology. Identifying triggers that affect α-syn propagation is of fundamental importance since they could be considered as auspicious targets for new therapeutic strategies.
In the present study, the elemental content of nigral neurons of PD patients and control patients without neurodegeneration was analyzed using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and it was found that intracellular element concentrations differ substantially within and between patients. Copper was the most discriminating element between the groups. On a subcellular level, X-ray diffraction revealed the presence of β-sheet protein structures in a LB, whereas XRF measurements identified a varying distribution of trace elements such as iron, selenium or copper within two LBs. Furthermore, the relation of iron and α-syn was examined. With the objective to investigate the influence of iron on α-syn propagation through the brain, a murine α-syn fibrils injection model was combined with iron intoxication and revealed reducing and redistribution effects of iron on α-syn spreading and a reduced microglia accumulation. Both iron and α-syn fibrils treatment resulted in long-term memory dysfunction in the novel object recognition test. Moreover, the influence of iron on α-syn spreading was investigated in cortical neurons using microfluidic chambers. Spreading of α-syn seemed not to be affected by iron in vitro, arguing for a more systemic mode of action in vivo. Since the ROCK inhibitor fasudil showed multiple protective effects in PD mouse models previously, we analyzed its effects on α-syn spreading in vivo. Here, the application of fasudil did not alter α-syn propagation. Taken together, the present work investigates the influence of trace elements, particularly iron, and ROCK inhibition on α-syn spreading and thus contributes to a better understanding of PD pathophysiology and to the identification of auspicious targets for new therapeutic strategies.


This paper provides a clarification of the advanced solution for the mission of complexity in science, which was previously published in 2015; but the new solution is too difficult to scientists; for this, this paper describes the academic reasoning and the relevant scientific background behind solution. Moreover, it shows that the solution can be simulated the complex systems by the computer program MATLAB Simulink or an analog-type simulator under virtual circumstances. Thus, this paper verifies that the new solution has validity and superiority; additionally, it must replace the established older chaos theory with the advanced solution in future, so that this new solution is disadvantageous to many chaos physicists and the famous organization SFI, and others. However, they must suspend their work on complexity, because the complexity is a solvable problem in science.


An inventory has been made on sleeping problems and the use of hypnotics in a nursing home. Contrary to general opinion, the results show that admission to a nursing home does not have to lead to an increase of hypnotics and neuroleptics used. One third of the total patient population revealed severe subjective sleeping problems, for which, however, a therapeutic intervention was not always necessary. In particular somatic revalidation patients showed high percentages of sleeping complaints and medical treatment. A communication hypothesis is presented as a possible explanation: somatic patients are able to ask for medication contrary to psychogeriatric patients, for whom the caregiving network often initiates therapeutic intervention. Attention is focussed on a few sleep disturbing stimuli that often occur in the setting of a nursing home. Prevention of these stimuli implicates changes in the nursing care organization.