Community colleges in California are grappling with developing and assessing student learning outcomes (SLOs), as the accrediting agency is holding them accountable for providing evidence of student learning as one measure of institutional effectiveness. One means of demonstrating accountability is to use strategic planning to direct the continuous improvement of SLOs through assessment and evaluation. A survey of 108 California community college chief instructional officers (CIOs) examined the relationship between strategic planning and assessing student learning. The response rate was 63 percent. These CIOs did not report a direct connection between strategic planning and assessing student learning as a means to fulfill institutional goals and improve institutional effectiveness. However, follow-up interviews with 12 of the 68 CIOs who responded to the survey indicated the existence of this relationship. Results from this article demonstrate the need for both quantitative and qualitative measures of the same issue to allow for multiple perspectives to arise. Introduction California community colleges (CCCs), with over 2.6 million students, are required to develop systems to demonstrate that students are learning. The struggle for CCCs is how to model and/ or remodel what happens in the classroom into a plan to improve student learning outcomes (SLOs) and how to assess whether the plan is improving learning and institutional effectiveness (IE). The expectation in this day and age is that not only should students possess certain skills but that they have the ability to identify and solve problems, to ascertain the impact of decisions and actions, and to appreciate that learning will be life long. The beginning of the 21st century brought with it many changes in higher education, certainly for California community colleges. Aggressively capturing an advantage in the marketplace promotes the success of the institution through increased income and prestige. More importantly, the ability of the institution to effectively and efficiently educate and equip its students, faculty, and staff makes a crucial difference in the accomplishments of the college (Center for Student Success, 2007; Kirsch, Braun, Yamamoto «Sc Sum, 2007). The aforementioned comes with challenges. Community colleges experience two unique challenges in planning for the improvement of their institutions. The first is that the students have varied education goals ranging from those who want to take one or two classes for personal interest, to those who want specialized vocational training and to those who are interested in transferring to a four-year college or university. The second challenge is the varied demographics of the students. The typical age range of the CCC student body is less than 29 years old (63 %) (see Table 1). That leaves 37 percent who are older than 29 years. The ethnicity of the student body state-wide is mostly White followed by Hispanic and Asian (see Table 2). The CCCs also have the challenge of harnessing the resources, financial and human, necessary to efficiently and effectively facilitate learning within this vast array of needs, making planning for improvement particularly critical for community colleges. Additionally, accrediting agencies are increasingly olding institutions accountable for providing improvement to their institutions, including evidence of student learning. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) oversees CCCs and requires that they meet certain standards of institutional performance. ACCJC defines student learning outcomes as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes that a student has attained at the end of or as the result of the engagement in a particular set of experiences in college (ACCJC, 2002). Assessment is used to gather evidence and evaluate quality of learning and progress toward benchmarks (League for Innovation in Community College, 2004). …


Background & objectives: PCOS is one of the most prevalent endocrinology disorders and 515% of women in fertility age suffer from this disease. The leptin a 167 amin oacid peptide is secreted from adipose tissue in a pulsatile fashion. This hormone is essential in regulation of normal body weight and like the klotho hormone that is express ed most prominently in the distal convoluted tubules of kidneys and the choroid plexus of brain, has a role in pathogenesis of reproductive disorders. The secreted klotho has been identified as an anti aging and anticancer hormone. Metformin is an anti -hyperglycemic drug with anorexic properties that could influence the function of ovaries. Methods: In this case-control study, 45 patients with PCOS who referred to the infertility center of Jahad-e-Daneshgahi in the city of Ardabil from March 2013 through March 2014, were selected in accordance with the NIH criteria. Moreover, 45 healthy women were also selected as the control group. BMIs were calculated by division of weight by square of height and insulin resistance index was calculated by HOMA-IR model. Leptin and klotho serum levels were measured using ELISA kit. In the case group the measurements were repeated after a one-month course of therapy with metformin. Data analysis performed by SPSS software using dependent and independent t-tests. Results: PCOS patients showed significant improvements after receiving metformin for one month. Patients€ weights showed some decline. Fasting plasma glucose levels and insulin resistance decreased significantly ( p<0.01). Hormonal assays indicated significant decrease in leptin and insulin levels and rise in Klotho levels. BMIs did not change meaningfully. Measurements of leptin and klotho levels showed a decrease in mean leptin levels from 34.74 to 28.41 ng/l and the level of klotho increased from 4.01 to 5.43 ng/l. Conclusion: This study showed that metformin treatment can cause a rise in klotho and a decrease in leptin levels without considerable effects on the weights of women with PCOS. Probably, leptin exerts its physiological effects in low concentrations while k lotho in contrast acts physiologically in higher concentrations.


Self-esteem has been a much debated construct in the educational sphere and interest in the area continues to flourish in classroom and research contexts. While the merits of targeting self-esteem have long been accentuated (Emler, 2001; MacIntyre, 2005; Cooper and Jacobs, 2011), the validity of the construct has also been questioned in light of modest empirical support. Recently, clearer definitions of the concepts involved and more reliable means of assessing these variables have helped allay doubts about its validity. However, a number of challenges persist in this regard, most notably in the context of learners with special educational needs (SEN). In light of recent calls for schools to explicitly plan for, monitor and measure the self-esteem of pupils with SEN alongside cognitive-academic outcomes (National Council for Special Education (NCSE), 2014), a review of research and practices in this area is timely. It is hoped that this review will provide some guidance for teachers in terms of defining, measuring and promoting self-esteem outcomes.
Adrian Lohan is a resource teacher based in north County Dublin. In September 2015, he received the Literacy Association of Ireland Biennial Award for an Outstanding Thesis award for research on which this article is based. Dr. Fiona King has been a primary teacher for 25 years and is currently working in the Special Education Department of St. Patrick's College, A College of Dublin City University (DCU)


Abstract Background: Shigellosis is a global human health problem and an important public health problem, especially in developing countries, where substandard hygiene and unsafe water supplies abound. Besides, an increase in resistance against many different drugs among Shigella isolates has been observed in the last two decades. Objective: To determine the pattern of antimicrobial sensitivity of shigella species to commonly used antibiotics. Methods: The antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Shigella species isolated from stool specimens processed over five years at the bacteriology laboratory of the University of Gondar teaching hospital in northwest Ethiopia was investigated. Stool specimens were processed in accordance with the standard bacteriological methods and data were collected in the laboratory log book for bacterial culture, isolation and antimicrobial sensitivity. Results: From the total of 2,891 stool specimens that were cultured, 214 yielded Shigella species. The overall sensitivity of Shigella species to the commonly used antibiotics in the area was 92.1% to gentamicin, 91.1% to ciprofloxacin, 47.2% to chloramphenicol, 26.6% to cotrimoxazole, 20.1% to ampicillin and 14% to tetracycline. About 46% of the isolates were found to be resistant to at least three commonly used drugs, while 1.4% were found to be resistant to all the commonly used drugs. Conclusion: The results demonstrate the continued sensitivity of Shigella species to gentamicin and ciprofloxacin and their widespread resistance against tetracycline, ampicillin and cotrimoxazole. Based on our results, gentamicin and ciprofloxacin may be used rationally under strict regulation for the treatment of severe cases of shigellosis in case where other safer and better drugs are unavailable. [Ethiop.J.Health Dev. 2006;20(3):194-198]


In a large number of states, women are encouraged to take their husbands' surnames at marriage by being offered an expedited name-change process that is shorter, less expensive, and less invasive than the statutory process that men must complete. If a couple instead decides to take an altogether-new name at marriage, the vast majority of states require that each spouse complete the longer statutory process. This name-change system emerged from a long history of naming as a way for men to dominate women. This Note emphasizes the need for name-change reform, arguing that the current system perpetuates antiquated patriarchal values and violates the United States Constitution. By allowing both spouses to change their names on their marriage certificate without any legal incentive for choosing one name over another — an approach currently used by Minnesota, Iowa, and Massachusetts — states could effectively address these problems.


In recent years, various embedded devices, such as home appliances, mobile phones, and PDAs have become equipped with network functions for communication among themselves. Jini is a Java-based distributed object technology that allows distributed systems of components to exist on different hardware/software platforms. A Jini device cooperates with other Jini devices on a network using "services". Each service has a "programmatic" interface that defines the device's operations. To accomplish interactions a conventional Jini client needs a service interface for its required service when the software is built. Without software updates, a client cannot interact with a new device as "undefined services" that may appear in the future. In case of an embedded device with severe memory restriction, a client must contain all service interfaces to be used even if required services already exist on the network. In this research, we propose the Adaptive Jini system that can exploit undefined services without a predefined interface for them. In the system, a client does not need to know the individual interfaces for services in advance when the software is built. A client only needs to know a generic interface that defines the kind of services. A client can lookup and interact with the services by a generic interface. We designed and implemented printer and MP3 audio player services as example applications for the Adaptive Jini system. In addition, we evaluated the memory usage of each client device both on the Adaptive Jini and the conventional Jini system, and confirmed that our system is suitable for embedded devices.


An investigation on the effect of a vegetable oil spill was conducted on the biological diversity of the

 Con Joubert Bird Sanctuary wetland in South Africa before and after biostimulation with different

 concentrations of fertilizer during 2008. Biostimulation responses were analyzed 30 days after different

 concentrations of fertilizer were applied to the freshwater wetland at three selected sampling sites. The

 Con Joubert Bird Sanctuary wetland showed a high degree of contamination after a vegetable oil spill,

 resulting in a large volume of vegetable oil in the sediment and water column, respectively. Vegetable

 oil contents differed at each sampling site before biostimulation and each site showed variable

 responses after biostimulation. In this study, biostimulation results displayed a high yield of microbial

 activity and vegetable oil degradation at site one and two respectively. However, the degradation of the

 high vegetable oil concentrations within the sediments at sampling site 3 may have been hampered or

 retarded by the polymerized state of the vegetable oil. The phytoplankton, protozoan,

 macroinvertebrates and microorganisms assemblage were affected and showed little improvement at

 site 3, even after biostimulation with the high fertilizer concentration of 800 g/m2, in comparison to sites 1 and 2 which showed greater biological activities and degradation of vegetable oil.

 Key words: Biostimulation, vegetable oil spill, fresh water wetland.


OBJECTIVE
To develop a realistic simulation model for performance of laparoscopic colpotomy and evaluate its construct and face validity.

METHODS
A simulation model was developed and constructed using polyvinyl chloride piping, a uterine manipulator, and synthetic vaginal tissue paired with a commercially available laparoscopic trainer. An observational study was conducted to validate the simulation model for use as a teaching tool. Construct validity was measured through performance evaluation of novice and expert surgeons using a standard and modified Global Operative Assessment of Laparoscopic Skills scale with possible score ranges of 5-25 and 5-40, respectively. Expert surgeons included attending surgeons across various gynecologic subspecialties who teach total laparoscopic hysterectomy to trainees and perform more than 50 total laparoscopic hysterectomies annually. Novice surgeons included residents who perform total laparoscopic hysterectomy as part of their training. Standards were set using a modified contrasting groups approach. Interrater reliability was calculated using Kendall's τ correlation coefficient. Participants were surveyed regarding the realism of the model and its utility as a teaching tool to assess face validity.

RESULTS
Five expert and 15 novice surgeons volunteered to participate. Expert surgeons scored higher than novice surgeons on the Global Operative Assessment of Laparoscopic Skills scale (22.8±1.52 vs 13.53±2.69, respectively) with a mean difference of 9.27 (95% CI 7.12-11.4, P<.01) and on a modified Global Operative Assessment of Laparoscopic Skills scale (36.9±2.19 vs 22.6±3.95, respectively) with a mean difference of 14.30 (95% CI 11.2-17.4, P<.01). Suggested passing range was set at 30.5-32.5 out of 40 total points. Kendall's τ interrater reliability was 0.86 (95% CI 0.798-0.923) and 0.87 (95% CI 0.818-0.922), respectively. All participants agreed that the training model was useful for teaching and learning laparoscopic colpotomy and for assessing the learner's ability to perform colpotomy before live surgery.

CONCLUSION
This validated simulation system offers novice surgeons an opportunity to practice the skill set necessary to perform laparoscopic colpotomy efficiently and may be used as an educational tool.


A pre–late Pliocene mega-landslide was discovered in southwest San Diego County during grading of several residential subdivisions. Outcrop evidence indicates that a single lateral spread occurring on a single continuous, bentonitic clay bed and encompassing approximately 125 km 2 occurred between 1.5 and 28 Ma. Steeply dipping shears separating lateral spread blocks mimic the structure in the nearby La Nacion fault zone. Future studies of faults in areas suspected to be within the lateral spread will need to differentiate tectonic faulting from lateral spread deformation. Investigations should include deep borings to determine if bentonite clay beds exhibit evidence of vertical offsets as a result of normal faulting. In addition to a well-developed basal rupture surface, the lateral spread debris contains discontinuous and unpredictably-oriented internal shears and fractures within large blocks of debris that will affect slope stability. Because much of the structure cannot be evaluated completely by subsurface investigations, in-grading mapping and engineering analysis are necessary to provide appropriate recommendations for stabilization of site-specific slopes.


Abstract Background: The inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SENDs) in regular classrooms has been identified as a high priority in many policy documents published by both European and international organisations. Its implementation, however, is influenced by a number of factors, some of which are directly related to the participation and attitudes of different stakeholders, including parents of typically developing children. Parents, as a social group, can act in favour of inclusion or they can support more segregated educational environments. Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore, in a Greek context, the views and beliefs of parents of typically developing children about different aspects of the education of children with disabilities, with a particular focus on inclusion and inclusive education. Method: Interviews were held with 40 Greek parents representing 40 typically developing school-aged children who were educated in six different primary education schools, from the broader area of central Greece. All of the children, at the time of the study, were educated in mainstream classes, in which an in-classroom support system was applied. Open-ended interview questions focused on parents' views and beliefs about the implementation of inclusive educational programmes. Data were analysed according to the principles of an inductive data-driven approach. Findings: The research findings indicate that most of the participant parents did not feel informed about specific school policy practices relevant to inclusive education; they were not aware of the notion of 'inclusion' or approached inclusion from an integrationist point of view. Within this context, they hold positive to neutral attitudes towards inclusion, on the basis that a child with SENDs can cope with the school requirements. Conclusions: This small-scale, exploratory research study suggests the importance of informing and involving parents of typically developing children in efforts to promote more inclusive practices.


Technologies for medicinal oxygen delivery at home are increasingly part of the global health technology landscape in the face of rising rates of chronic lung and heart diseases. From the mere notion of harvesting and privatizing oxygen from the atmosphere to its status as both dangerous and therapeutic, and finally to its capacity to both extend and limit life, oxygen as therapy materializes its status as an ambivalent object in global health. This analysis of ethnographic material from Uruguay and South Africa on the experience of home oxygen therapy is guided by philosopher Don Ihde's postphenomenology – a pragmatic philosophical approach for analysing the relationships between humans and technologies. Participants related to their oxygen devices as limiting-enablers, as markers of illness and measures of recovery, and as precious and limited resources. Oxygen was materialized in many forms, each with their own characteristics shaping the 'amplification/reduction' character of the relationship as well as the degree to which the devices became 'transparent' to their users. Ihde's four types of human–technology relations – embodiment, hermeneutic, alterity and background relations – are at play in the multistability of oxygen. Importantly, the lack of technological 'transparency', in Ihde's sense of the term, reflects not only the materiality of oxygen but inequality too. While postphenomenology adds a productive material and technological flavour to phenomenology, the author argues that a critical postphenomenology is needed to engage with the political-economy of human–oxygen technology relations.


We present a large scale data set, OpenEDS: Open Eye Dataset, of eye-images captured using a virtual-reality (VR) head mounted display mounted with two synchronized eyefacing cameras at a frame rate of 200 Hz under controlled illumination. This dataset is compiled from video capture of the eye-region collected from 152 individual participants and is divided into four subsets: (i) 12,759 images with pixel-level annotations for key eye-regions: iris, pupil and sclera (ii) 252,690 unlabelled eye-images, (iii) 91,200 frames from randomly selected video sequence of 1.5 seconds in duration and (iv) 143 pairs of left and right point cloud data compiled from corneal topography of eye regions collected from a subset, 143 out of 152, participants in the study. A baseline experiment has been evaluated on OpenEDS for the task of semantic segmentation of pupil, iris, sclera and background, with the mean intersectionover-union (mIoU) of 98.3 %. We anticipate that OpenEDS will create opportunities to researchers in the eye tracking community and the broader machine learning and computer vision community to advance the state of eye-tracking for VR applications. The dataset is available for download upon request at this https URL


We tested the short-term efficacy and feasibility of two stress education approaches toe the treatment of mild hypertension in older African Americans. This was a randomized, controlled, single-blind trial with 3 months of follow-up in primary care, inner-city health center. Of 213 African American men and women screened, 127 individuals (aged 55 to 85 years with initial diastolic pressure of 90 to 109 mm Hg, systolic pressure of < or = 189 mm Hg, and final baseline blood pressure of < or = 179/104 mm Hg) were selected. Of these, 16 did not complete follow-up blood pressure measurements. Mental and physical stress reduction approaches (Transcendental Meditation and progressive muscle relaxation) were compared with a lifestyle modification education control program and with each other. The primary outcome measures were changes in clinic diastolic and systolic pressures from baseline to final follow-up, measured by blinded observers. The secondary measures were linear blood pressure trends, changes in home blood pressure, and intervention compliance. Adjusted for significant baseline differences and compared with control, Transcendental Meditation reduced systolic pressure by 10.7 mm Hg (P < .0003) and diastolic pressure by 6.4 mm Hg (P <.00005). Progressive muscle relaxation lowered systolic pressure by 4.7 mm Hg (P = 0054) and diastolic pressure by 3.3 mm Hg (P <.02). The reductions in the Transcendental Meditation group were significantly greater than in the progressive muscle relaxation group for both systolic blood pressure (P = .02) and diastolic blood pressure (P = .03). Linear trend analysis confirmed these patterns.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


SUMMARY

Isolates of Botrytis cinerea were obtained from tomatoes in several localities in the West Scotland. Some isolates grew on agar containing 100 mg/1 benomyl (carbendazim-tolerant), while others did not (carbendazim-sensitive).

Pot-grown tomato plants treated with benomyl and other carbendazim-generating fungicides, applied either as sprays or soil drenches, were inoculated on the leaf scars with some of these isolates. On treated plants the carbendazim-tolerant isolates formed lesions which were about as large as those on untreated plants. Sensitive isolates formed much smaller lesions on treated plants.

There was evidence that the increase in lesion size during the period 7–14 days after inoculation with a carbendazim-sensitive isolate was less on plants sprayed with benomyl or carbendazim with added mineral oil (2% Actipron) than on plants to which the fungicides alone had been applied. No such effect was recorded with thio-phanate-methyl. There was also an indication that the addition of Actipron to a benomyl spray improved the effect of the fungicide against two tolerant isolates, though there was no effect on the relative increase in lesion size during the second week after inoculation.

In two tests the addition of 2% and 4% Actipron to benomyl soil drenches did not improve the level of leaf scar lesion control.


Depth estimation from images serves as the fundamental step of 3D perception for autonomous driving and is an economical alternative to expensive depth sensors like LiDAR. The temporal photometric constraints enables self-supervised depth estimation without labels, further facilitating its application. However, most existing methods predict the depth solely based on each monocular image and ignore the correlations among multiple surrounding cameras, which are typically available for modern self-driving vehicles. In this paper, we propose a SurroundDepth method to incorporate the information from multiple surrounding views to predict depth maps across cameras. Specifically, we employ a joint network to process all the surrounding views and propose a cross-view transformer to effectively fuse the information from multiple views. We apply cross-view self-attention to efficiently enable the global interactions between multi-camera feature maps. Different from self-supervised monocular depth estimation, we are able to predict real-world scales given multi-camera extrinsic matrices. To achieve this goal, we adopt the two-frame structure-from-motion to extract scale-aware pseudo depths to pretrain the models. Further, instead of predicting the ego-motion of each individual camera, we estimate a universal ego-motion of the vehicle and transfer it to each view to achieve multi-view ego-motion consistency. In experiments, our method achieves the state-of-the-art performance on the challenging multi-camera depth estimation datasets DDAD and nuScenes.


In the UK, some of the oldest oil and gas installations have been in the water for over 40 years and have considerable colonisation by marine organisms, which may lead to both industry challenges and/or potential biodiversity benefits (e.g., artificial reefs). The project objective was to test the use of an automated image analysis software (CoralNet) on images of marine biofouling from offshore platforms on the UK continental shelf, with the aim of (i) training the software to identify the main marine biofouling organisms on UK platforms; (ii) testing the software performance on 3 platforms under 3 different analysis criteria (methods A–C); (iii) calculating the percentage cover of marine biofouling organisms and (iv) providing recommendations to industry. Following software training with 857 images, and testing of three platforms, results showed that diversity of the three platforms ranged from low (in the central North Sea) to moderate (in the northern North Sea). The two central North Sea platforms were dominated by the plumose anemone Metridium dianthus; and the northern North Sea platform showed less obvious species domination. Three different analysis criteria were created, where the method of selection of points, number of points assessed and confidence level thresholds (CT) varied: (method A) random selection of 20 points with CT 80%, (method B) stratified random of 50 points with CT of 90% and (method C) a grid approach of 100 points with CT of 90%. Performed across the three platforms, the results showed that there were no significant differences across the majority of species and comparison pairs. No significant difference (across all species) was noted between confirmed annotations methods (A, B and C). It was considered that the software performed well for the classification of the main fouling species in the North Sea. Overall, the study showed that the use of automated image analysis software may enable a more efficient and consistent approach to marine biofouling analysis on offshore structures; enabling the collection of environmental data for decommissioning and other operational industries.


In this paper, an automated test setup for PV panels using LabVIEW and several microcontrollers (µCs) based embedded systems has been designed, tested, and implemented. This PV testing system has been characterized as fully automated and the only human intervention required is to install the PV panel and to set the required testing conditions. Several PV panels were evaluated and tested, the obtained results showed a high degree of accuracy and conformity with several testing schemes that have been carried out numerically, manually and manufacturer specifications. The designed system is characterized by a high-performance standard with accuracy, precision, and resolution (9 mV / 1.8 mA) that is good enough to test any PV panel of 12 V and 24 V rating. This system can test and calculate the maximum power point for any PV panel operating at any given working condition by applying different amounts of solar irradiance from 0 W/m2 to 1000 W/m2 to simulate the amount of solar irradiation at any time and everywhere on earth. This system also mimics the environment temperature by providing ambient temperature ranged from 0 °C to 50 °C to simulate the variation of weather around the year.


Two recombinant clones, pA2 and pA3, containing cDNA sequences for human aldolase B have been isolated from a full length human liver cDNA library. The larger one, pA3, has been subcloned in M13 phage and completely sequenced with the chain terminator method. The sequence covers 1,600 nucleotides including the whole coding region (1,050 nucleotides), 67 nucleotides from the 5' non-coding region and the whole 3' non-coding region, 440 nucleotides long, down to the poly-A tail. Comparison with rabbit aldolase A and with a partial sequence of rat aldolase B, shows a homology of about 76* for aldolase A and of about 94% for aldolase B, which indicates that the sequenced cDNA codes for the liver isoenzyme. This is the first complete sequence reported for human aldolase B. The pA3 clone strongly hybridizes to 18S mRNA from human adult liver as expected from the size of the isolated cDNA.


Abstract Powder Metallurgy (PM) is a shaping technology which is based on forming powder particles in a mold under high pressure. This method influences cost of parts significantly due to direct molding. Sintering is one of the most critical steps of a PM process. Mechanical and physical properties of the final product are enhanced by the optimisation of sintering conditions (temperature, time, and type of the atmosphere). The demand for PM products with high performance is increasing day by day. In this context, one way to increase the strength of the part is to perform sintering process by alloying powder. Boron was found to be useful for the activation of sintering process of iron powder in the previous study. In recent times, research is increasingly focused on the Boron addition to improve the density of PM stainless steel parts after sintering process. In this study, the influence of Boron addition into PM 316L stainless steel materials on the microstructure and properties of the final part has been investigated in detail. Boron addition is varied from 0.2 to 1 wt.-%, and the effect of Boron on the densification and distortion behaviour of stainless steel has also been studied. All samples are characterised by using several techniques such as SEM, EDX, image analysis.


An 83-year-old man was hospitalized for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after a 10-day history of a persistent fever. Chest computed tomography showed extensive non-segmental ground glass opacity. Despite the initiation of lopinavir and ritonavir, respiratory failure progressed. Two days of polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column-direct hemoperfusion (PMX-DHP) with adjunctive corticosteroid prevented his respiratory condition from worsening. For rapidly progressive COVID-19 cases, the early use of PMX-DHP may avoid the need for mechanical ventilation by suppressing local inflammation of the lung.


"The land that needs heroes is unfortunate" wrote, in Life of Galileo, the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht, a phrase that fits perfectly with the rhetoric that, for almost a year now, seems to be unleashed every time that at the center of the public debate are the workers of the health system. A rhetoric of heroism, devious and fetishistic, whose role is to transform the work of thousands of male and female workers into a pure "sense of duty", into a due act, into "kindness and good heart" lent to the epidemic crisis. A rhetoric well exposed by the contribution that we publish below, a contribution written by Monia Minorenti, researcher and nurse of the Central Reanimation Department of the Umberto Primo Polyclinic (now, since March, Covid-19 Reanimation). Here, the author not only reports the criticisms of a profession that rightly claims its full recognition, but also captures the emergence of two distinct classes of workers: on the one hand, doctors, whose work is fully traceable and economically quantifiable, on the other hand, nurses and other health care support figures, whose roles are not fully recognized and adequately paid.


The potential to increase suggested flare rates for strong post, W-beam guardrail systems, and thus reduced guardrail installation lengths, is investigated. This reduction in length would result in decreased guardrail construction and maintenance costs, and reduced impact frequency. If the W-beam guardrail can withstand the highest impact angles, with only modest increases in accident severity, total accident costs can be reduced. Computer simulation and five full-scale crash tests were completed to evaluate increase flare rates up to, and including, 5:1. Computer simulations indicated that conventional G4(1S) guardrail modified to incorporate a routed wood could not successfully meet NCHRP Report 350 crash test criteria when installed at any steeper flare rates than the 15:1 recommended in the Roadside Design Guide. However, computer modeling and full-scale crash testing showed that the Midwest Guardrail System (MGS) could meet NCHRP Report 350 impact criteria when installed at a 5:1 flare rate. Impact severities during testing were found to be greater than intended, yet the MGS passed all NCHRP Report 350 requirements. Hence, flaring the MGS guardrail as much as 5:1 will not provide acceptable safety performance for the full range of passenger vehicles. Increasing guardrail flare rates will reduce the overall number of guardrail crashes without significantly increasing risks of injury or fatality during the remaining crashes. Therefore, it is recommended that, whenever guardrail is outside of the sky line for adjacent traffic and the roadside terrain is significantly flat, flare rates should be increased to as high as 5:1 when using the MGS guardrail.


Recorded surface waves often provide reasonable estimates of the S-wave velocity in the near surface. However, existing algorithms are mainly based on the 1D layered-model assumption and require picking the dispersion curves either automatically or manually. We have developed a wave-equation-based inversion algorithm that inverts for S-wave velocities using fundamental and higher mode Rayleigh waves without picking an explicit dispersion curve. Our method aims to maximize the similarity of the phase velocity spectrum ([Formula: see text]) of the observed and predicted surface waves with all Rayleigh-wave modes (if they exist) included in the inversion. The [Formula: see text] spectrum is calculated using the linear Radon transform applied to a local similarity-based objective function; thus, we do not need to pick velocities in spectrum plots. As a result, the best match between the predicted and observed [Formula: see text] spectrum provides the optimal estimation of the S-wave velocity. We derive S-wave velocity updates using the adjoint-state method and solve the optimization problem using a limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno algorithm. Our method excels in cases in which the S-wave velocity has vertical reversals and lateral variations because we used all-modes dispersion, and it can suppress the local minimum problem often associated with full-waveform inversion applications. Synthetic and field examples are used to verify the effectiveness of our method.


The paper describes the development and validation of a novel computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based throughflow model. It is based on the axisymmetric Euler equations with tangential blockage and body forces and inherits its numerical scheme from a state-of-the-art CFD solver (TRAF code). Secondary and tip leakage flow features are modelled in terms of Lamb–Oseen vortices and a body force field. Source and sink terms in the governing equations are employed to model tip leakage flow effects. A realistic distribution of entropy in the meridional and spanwise directions is proposed in order to compute dissipative forces on the basis of a distributed loss model. The applications are mainly focused on turbine configurations. First, a validation of the secondary flow modelling is carried out by analyzing a linear cascade based on the T106 blade section. Then, the throughflow procedure is used to analyze the transonic CT3 turbine stage studied in the framework of the TATEF2 (Turbine Aero-Thermal External Flows) European program. The performance of the method is evaluated by comparing predicted operating characteristics and spanwise distributions of flow quantities with experimental data.


What type of state has emerged in post-Soviet Eurasia, and what kind of theoretical framework can help us understand its behavior and performance? This article argues that we can usefully understand the logic of political and administrative organization in terms of a kind of "investment market." Access to the state is frequently determined by actual financial payment. Would-be officials invest in offices to obtain access to a stream of income associated with an office. This framework represents a novel perspective on the post-Soviet state, which has hitherto either been premised on modernization theory or emphasized a robustly personalistic logic of political organization.


It was shown that active radiosensitizers, nitroimidazole and nitrofuran, reduced chemically and enzymatically under anaerobic conditions in the presence of DNA, cause singlestrand breaks in the latter. When this modified DNA is exposed to ionizing radiation the yield of single-strand breaks increases as compared to control (unmodified) DNA.


Congenital defects of the calvaria in general and the parietal bones in particular are rare diseases. The latter are of three kinds: 1) cranioschisis, 2) craniodysostosis, and 3) foramina parietalia permagna (FPP). Here, we describe an exceptional anomaly, namely, complete absence of one parietal bone and dysplasia of the other. Agenesis has been reported twice before in the literature. In these cases, the calvarial defect was the only congenital anomaly. In contrast, the patient described in this article exhibited many other congenital deformities, namely, iris coloboma, facial dysmorphism, a large ventricular septal defect of the heart, and a horseshoe kidney. Some of these deformities are associated with neural crest development. Chromosomal analysis was normal in both blood and fibroblasts, and fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis failed to demonstrate a 22q11 deletion as seen in DiGeorge syndrome, a neural crest-related disease complex. Since 2000, the third group of congenital defects of the parietal bones, FPP, has been associated with mutations of the MSX-2 gene. In our case, a genetic analysis of this gene was performed, but no mutations or deletions of MSX-2 were detected.


The burden of breast cancer had been increasing in Asia. However, little is known regarding the presentation, management and outcome of breast cancer among multi-ethnic Asian women. Asian ethnicities, lifestyles, health beliefs, and even life expectancies are substantially different from those of western women, and each of these may play a distinct role in breast cancer presentation, management and prognosis. A major part of this thesis focuses on research pertaining to breast cancer in Asian women, using data from the Singapore-Malaysia Breast Cancer Registry. This registry comprises two hospital-based breast cancer databases (University Malaya Medical Center, Malaysia and National University Hospital, Singapore) which were merged to include more than 5000 breast cancer patients diagnosed between 1990 and 2007. The registry is managed by the Singapore-Malaysia Breast Cancer Working Group (SMBCWG), which is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration between epidemiologists, breast surgeons and oncologists from Singapore and Malaysia. Asian women with breast cancer were approximately a decade younger at diagnosis (median: 49 years), presented with larger tumors, and at later stages of disease, compared to their Western counterparts. About 10% of them had metastatic breast cancer at initial presentation. In this subgroup, it was found that surgical excision of the primary tumor is associated with a survival advantage, similar to findings of studies conducted in affluent Western settings. In patients with early breast cancer, a web-based prognostic tool which predicts the 10-year breast cancer outcomes and efficacy of adjuvant therapy; Adjuvant! Online, was validated. This tool which had only been validated in Caucasian settings, was found to be performing fairly well in terms of discriminative performance (area under Receiver Operating Characteristic curve: 0.73) in Asian women. However, the model was overoptimistic (by 6.7% in the overall cohort) particularly in women under 40 years and of Malay ethnicity, where survival was overestimated by approximately 20% and 15%, respectively. Adjuvant! Online may therefore need further adaptation to improve its utility in Asian settings. As ethnicity had been implicated as a prognostic factor for breast cancer survival in the West, the impact of ethnicity on survival after breast cancer in multiethnic Asian women comprising the Malays, Chinese and Indians, was evaluated. Malay patients were significantly younger at diagnosis, presented more often with unfavorable characteristics i.e. larger tumors, lymph node involvement, hormone receptor negative and poorly differentiated tumors, and were less likely to receive complete loco-regional treatment. Five-year overall survival following breast cancer was highest in the Chinese, followed by the Indians and lowest in the Malays. Compared to the Chinese, Malay ethnicity was associated with 60% higher risk of mortality independent of demographic factors, TNM stage, tumor characteristics and treatment. This survival disparity maybe explained by variations in tumor biology, psychosocial and cultural factors, treatment responsiveness and lifestyle after diagnosis of breast cancer. Based on the studies described in this thesis, it seems that Western derived knowledge on breast cancer may not be always applicable to other populations such as in Asia. Therefore, extending breast cancer research onto different Asian settings is very important.


Question under study: Medication errors are a major concern for health care since they may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm. However, little is known regarding the economic burden of unjustified medications. Methods: Hospital discharge records of 577 patients were prospectively screened for the presence of unjustified medications. From this sample population, 318 (55%) were eligible and their data were used to assess the monthly costs of unjustified discharge medications, their relationship to the total and each individual's drug expenditure, and the relative cost weights of relevant unjustified drug classes. Results: The results found that 619 out of 3691 prescriptions (16.8%) were unjustified. The mean (median; 95% CI) monthly costs of unjustified discharge medications were 32 € (27 €; 29 € to 35 €). The percentage of unnecessary treatments was inversely linked to the amount of total individual drug expenditure. For this collective, monthly extra costs due to unjustified medications were 18585 €, and the relative cost weights of the relevant drug classes were 45.8% for gastrointestinal agents (33.8% for proton pump inhibitors), 17.7% for cardiovascular drugs, and 17.2% for psychiatric drugs. Conclusions: There is a considerable financial burden imposed by unjustified medications at hospital discharge. Discharge medications not motivated by appropriate diagnoses should be questioned. This study should be repeated in other institutions and in a larger population.


Prior studies provide conflicting evidence as to whether managers have a general tendency to disclose or withhold bad news. A key challenge for this literature is that researchers cannot observe the negative private information that managers possess. We tackle this challenge by constructing a proxy for managers' private bad news (residual short interest) and then perform a series of tests to validate this proxy. Using management earnings guidance and 8-K filings as measures of voluntary disclosure, we find a negative relation between bad-news disclosure and residual short interest, suggesting that managers withhold bad news in general. This tendency is tempered when firms are exposed to higher litigation risk, and it is strengthened when managers have greater incentives to support the stock price. Based on a novel approach to identifying the presence of bad news, our study adds to the debate on whether managers tend to withhold or release bad news.
 Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from public sources identified in the study.


Circadian clocks are usually modeled by limit cycle oscillators. These models allow theoretical analyses of the dynamical properties of circadian oscillations, including their entrainment by light-dark cycles and resetting by light pulses. These models account for the emergence of oscillations at the level of single cells. Recent single cell experiments however revealed a great cell-to-cell heterogeneity in the oscillatory behaviour. Theoretical studies and numerical simulations have shown that efficient synchronization can be achieved when individual oscillators are damped. An analytical investigation of the circadian Goodwin model further shows that damped oscillators can be entrained on larger ranges of periods of the light-dark cycle. Together, the experimental observations and theoretical results suggest that the limit-cycle-like oscillations result from the coupling between more sloppy (presumably damped) oscillators.


Technology and globalization have the potential to make higher education more affordable and accessible. In practice, however, rising costs limit educational access, and competition threatens the sustainability of many colleges and universities (Grummon, 2009). With the relevance of traditional curricula in question and the demand for alternate delivery methods expanding, many higher learning institutions face a challenge to reinvent themselves (Barnatt, 2008; Grummon, 2009; Lee, Brennan, & Green, 2009).

We asked four higher education leaders from demographically and structurally diverse institutions to address the question, "How will colleges and universities serve the global knowledge economy in the coming decades?" Our respondents represent perspectives from multiple educational paradigms—public and private, local and international, for-profit and nonprofit, brick-and-mortar and online.

George Mihel, president of Sauk Valley Community College in Illinois, offers a position paper on the need to transform some of higher education's deep-rooted institutional traditions. George Miller, chancellor of American InterContinental University, teams with Caroline Molina-Ray, a University of Phoenix faculty member, to address how higher education can foster both technological competency and critically reflexive thinking. Naana J. S. Opoku-Agyemang, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, offers insight into the unique challenges and accomplishments of higher education in Africa. Finally, Vicki T. Purslow, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Oregon University, and Christine Cook Florence, a higher education marketing consultant, present a commentary synthesizing the symposium contributions and issuing a call to action for higher education leaders. Together, these diverse perspectives offer a glimpse into the higher education of the future.


Forensic Odontology (FO) is now a widely recognised science which has helped to provide evidence and eventual convictions for many criminal cases. Who was the most efficient detective? Sherlock Holmes, Sir Conan Doyle's favourite character (first adventures in 1887), with his magnifying glass, examines dental proofs.

Corresponding author
Xavier Riaud
National Academy of Dental Surgery
France


Well, I'm glad my little girl didn't snatch and push. It's better to go without than to take from other people. That's ugly.' Harriett is the Victorian embodiment of all the virtues then viewed as essential to the womanly ideal: a woman reared to love, honour and obey. Idolising her parents, she learns from childhood to equate love with self-sacrifice, so that when she falls in love with the fiance of her closest friend, renunciation of this unworthy passion initially brings her a peculiar sort of happiness. But the passing of time reveals a different truth. Ironic, brief and intensely realised, The Life and Death of Harriett Frean (1922) is a brilliant study of female virtue seen as vice, and stands with the work of Virgina Woolf and Dorothy Richardson as one of the great innovative novels of the century.


Energy security is a difficult issue to evaluate due to its polysemic and multifaceted nature. Recent studies have evaluated energy security by considering a multitude of dimensions ( i.e. , availability, affordability, etc. ). However, these works lack coherence, as performance in one dimension is not necessarily relevant to performance in others. Due to this consideration, an ex-ante evaluation ( i.e. , policy analysis) of energy security cannot be reliably performed. This paper proposes an integrated simulation approach to address this apparent shortcoming. We consider energy security performance as a feature that emerges from interactions between the components of energy security dimensions. Integration is completed by identifying and establishing relationships between these components. A model is developed for the simulation that uses system dynamics as a modeling tool. The evaluation of Indonesia's energy security is presented as an example. It is found that the policies intended to improve Indonesia's energy security may conflict with each other. Increasing energy production will maintain the performance of the availability dimension at a high level in the short term, but this benefit is outweighed by the resulting degradation to the performance of the acceptability dimension. Subsidy elimination will increase the availability of energy due to lower energy consumption at the expense of maintaining energy affordability for the public. This study shows that the interrelationships between the dimensions of energy security is an important aspect to consider in energy security evaluations, as they can reveal tradeoffs between policies and improve the reliability of analyses.


A biological paradigm of versatile locomotion and effective motion control is provided by the polychaete annelid worms, whose motion adapts to a large variety of unstructured environmental conditions (sand, mud, sediment, water, etc.), and could thus be of interest to replicate by robotic analogs. Their locomotion is characterized by the combination of a unique form of tail-to-head body undulations (opposite to snakes and eels), with the rowing-like action of numerous lateral appendages distributed along their long segmented body. Focusing on the former aspect of polychaete locomotion, computational models of crawling and swimming by such tail-to-head body undulations have been developed in this paper. These are based on the Lagrangian dynamics of the system and on resistive models of its interaction with the environment, and are used for simulation studies demonstrating the generation of undulatory gaits. Several biomimetic robotic prototypes have been developed, whose undulatory actuation achieves propulsion on sand and other granular unstructured environments. Extensive experimental studies demonstrate the feasibility of robot propulsion by tail-to-head body undulations in such environments, as well as the agreement of its qualitative and quantitative characteristics to the predictions of the corresponding computational models.


In both Australia and New Zealand, the objective of clearance for registration and licensing is to ensure safe and efficient use of chemicals and to recognise the special needs of several different interests, namely 1. end-users concerned with efficacy and possible hazards; 2. the consumers of food products from treated animals; 3. stock owners and vendors who need protection from false claims from competitive products; 4. wildlife and other ecological considerations; 5. protection of overseas markets, with special reference to drug and chemical residues. In Australia the Technical Committee on Veterinary drugs is responsible for the preliminary clearance of products for mass-medication with respect to efficacy and safety and, in association with the National Health and Medical Research Council Committees, sets residue limits and establishes poison schedules. This committee, however, can only make recommendations to the individual States, who are responsible for administering regulations through relevant State departments. In New Zealand, the Animal Remedies Act (1967) is responsible for the control of manufacture and importation of animal remedies and for the licensing of these for specific purposes. The Animal Remedies Act is administered by an Animal Remedies Board which operates within the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and and Fisheries.


The paper examines Japan's equity capital market to find out whether stock market development proceeds from, or precedes, economic growth. It first starts with a general description of the capital market, its principal players and the various methods of financing investment. It then explores the relationship of economic growth and capital market development, focusing on the Japanese experience. The empirical evidence illustrates the case of growth first before stock market development, a finding which could prove useful for developing countries planning to develop their capital markets.


In this paper, we propose a graph-based construction of semi-supervised Gaussian process classifiers. Our method is based on recently proposed techniques for incorporating the geometric properties of unlabeled data within globally defined kernel functions. The full machinery for standard supervised Gaussian process inference is brought to bear on the problem of learning from labeled and unlabeled data. This approach provides a natural probabilistic extension to unseen test examples. We employ Expectation Propagation procedures for evidence-based model selection. In the presence of few labeled examples, this approach is found to significantly outperform cross-validation techniques. We present empirical results demonstrating the strengths of our approach.


An investigation into sensor optimal placement for bridge structure based on Single Parents Genetic Algorithm with different fitness functions has been carried on. Five fitness functions are designed from several aspects on linear independence, orthogonality and energy of mode. The two-step method is proposed to determine the number of sensors firstly and then sensor position. An example of a large span arch bridge has proved the following facts: the Single Parents Genetic Algorithm is quite suitable to sensor optimal placement for bridge structure. Fitness functions designed by effective independence index and MAC and BHM combined index are more desirable than other evaluation indices. Two-step method used to determine the number of sensors and position is very effective.


Volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits exhibit a continuous range in metal composition from copper-dominated (Cyprus type) to lead-rich zinc (+ copper) deposits (Kuroko type). This spectrum is best viewed as a progressive enrichment in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) in the ores (e.g., Pb, Ba) and the magmatic systems (e.g., K) responsible for their generation. Thus, lead-rich volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits are associated with calc-alkalic magmatism in mature are systems (e.g., Buchans) or in back-arc sites, where older continental crust can be implicated in magma genesis. At the copper-rich end of the spectrum, ores are related to plagiogranites in supra-subduction-zone ophiolite complexes, and LILE enrichment is minimal. The ancient back-arc assemblages that now constitute greenstone belts host Cu-Zn massive sulfide deposits associated with tholeiitic-calc-alkalic magmatic systems of intermediate LILE enrichment. I suggest that these variations in both the metal composition of such ores and the petrochemistry of coeval intrusions relate in a fundamental way to the siting of their emplacement in arc and back-arc systems and the duration of the subduction process.


A major limitation with traditional phage preparations is the variability in titer, salts, and bacterial contaminants between successive propagations. Here we introduce the Phage On Tap (PoT) protocol for the quick and efficient preparation of homogenous bacteriophage (phage) stocks. This method produces homogenous, laboratory-scale, high titer (up to 1010–11 PFU·ml−1), endotoxin reduced phage banks that can be used to eliminate the variability between phage propagations and improve the molecular characterizations of phage. The method consists of five major parts, including phage propagation, phage clean up by 0.22 μm filtering and chloroform treatment, phage concentration by ultrafiltration, endotoxin removal, and the preparation and storage of phage banks for continuous laboratory use. From a starting liquid lysate of > 100 mL, the PoT protocol generated a clean, homogenous, laboratory phage bank with a phage recovery efficiency of 85% within just two days. In contrast, the traditional method took upwards of five days to produce a high titer, but lower volume phage stock with a recovery efficiency of only 4%. Phage banks can be further purified for the removal of bacterial endotoxins, reducing endotoxin concentrations by over 3,000-fold while maintaining phage titer. The PoT protocol focused on T-like phages, but is broadly applicable to a variety of phages that can be propagated to sufficient titer, producing homogenous, high titer phage banks that are applicable for molecular and cellular assays.


Like most of the benthos, brachiopods suffered huge losses in biodiversity during the end-Permian extinction and did not fully recover until the Anisian (Middle Triassic). Anisian brachiopod faunas are thus a key clade characterizing the recovered marine ecosystems in the early Mesozoic. Of these, the brachiopod fauna from Qingyan Town in Guizhou Province, south-western China has long been one of the best-known Anisian faunas in the world. The taxonomy of the Qingyan fauna, however, was last studied half a century ago, and thus requires revision. Here we describe 34 species (and subspecies) (including seven undetermined species) assigned to 29 brachiopod genera from the Qingyan Formation from the Leidapo and Wachangpo localities in the Qingyan section. Of these, 11 species are described for the first time from this area. Two new genera: Parabrekia and Caucasorhynchella (= Crurirhynchella Xu & Liu, 1983, a nomen nudum) and seven new species (Angustothyris dagysi, Angustothyris qingyanensis, Koeveskallina bifurcata, Neocyrtina xui, Nudirostralina minuta, Parabrekia yangi and Rutorhynchia? trigonalis) are also erected. The Qingyan brachiopod fauna is characterized by abundant endemic genera (33.3%) and exhibits a weak similarity with several coeval faunas reported from the western Tethys. In addition, faunal affinity analyses of 13 Anisian brachiopod faunas indicate that at least five biogeographical provinces (western Tethys, eastern Tethys, northern Siberia, Himalayas and New Zealand) were present during the Anisian, and the eastern Tethys province included three subprovinces: Yangtze, southern Qilian–western Qinling and central Qinghai. However, most faunas mutually share rather low Jaccard similarity coefficients (<0.4), except for those in the western Tethys, implying a continuity of the multi-provincial pattern established for Early Triassic brachiopod distributions. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AAD98089-C804-4AF4-BC73-CDA5823C66A7


Introduction: The recent development of advanced techniques and technologies increased the interest in dental venues to improve esthetics, such as ceramics and veneers.

Aim: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the level of awareness of dental veneers among the population in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Materials and Methods: There was a total of 627 participants in the study. Data were collected using self-administrated questionnaires that were modified from previous studies. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software for t-test, linear regression, Chi square, and ANOVA analyses.

Results: The mean total knowledge score of the participants was m=13.58 (SD=3.35) for a total of twenty-two dental veneers knowledge questions. The participants' knowledge of dental veneers significantly differed in relation to gender, level of education, family income, and marital status. A small portion of the participants (16.6%) knew about preparation-less veneers (commercially known as Lumineers), and an even smaller portion (14.7%) knew about clip-on veneers (commercially known as a Snap-On smile). Some participants (64.1%) stated that the main reason to seek dental veneers was to have a beautiful smile, while others (49.9%) stated that the main barrier to not have dental veneers was the satisfaction with their own smile.

Conclusion: The overall knowledge regarding dental veneers was moderate and needs to be improved. Social media was the main source of information which suggests that using social media networks in education by dental professionals will help increase population awareness of dental veneers.


Abstract Polar ice is known to be one of the most anisotropic natural materials. For a given fabric the polycrystal viscous response is strongly dependent on the actual state of stress and strain rate. Within an ice sheet, grounded-ice parts and ice shelves have completely different stress regimes, so one should expect completely different impacts of ice anisotropy on the flow. The aim of this work is to quantify, through the concept of enhancement factors, the influence of ice anisotropy on the flow of grounded ice and ice shelves. For this purpose, a full-Stokes anisotropic marine ice-sheet flowline model is used to compare isotropic and anisotropic diagnostic velocity fields on a fixed geometry. From these full-Stokes results, we propose a definition of enhancement factors for grounded ice and ice shelves, coherent with the asymptotic models used for these regions. We then estimate realistic values for the enhancement factors induced by ice anisotropy for grounded ice and ice shelves.


We have studied the velocity field of the blue compact dwarf galaxy Mrk 86 (NGC 2537) using data provided by 14 long-slit optical spectra obtained in 10 different orientations and positions. This kinematical information is complemented with narrow-band ([O III]5007 A and Hα) and broad-band (B, V, Gunn r and K) imaging. The analysis of the galaxy global velocity field suggests that the ionized gas could be distributed in a rotating inclined disc, with projected central angular velocity of Ω=34 km s^−1 kpc^−1. The comparison between the stellar, H I and modelled dark matter density profile indicates that the total mass within its optical radius is dominated by the stellar component. Peculiarities observed in its velocity field can be explained by irregularities in the ionized gas distribution or local motions induced by star formation.
Kinematical evidences for two expanding bubbles, Mrk 86-B and Mrk 86-C, are given. They show expanding velocities of 34 and 17 km s^−1, Hα luminosities of 3×10^38 and 1.7×10^39 erg s^−1, and physical radii of 374 and 120 pc, respectively. The change in the [S II]/Hα, [N II]/Hα, [O II]/[O III] and [O III]/Hβ line ratios with the distance to the bubble precursor suggests a diminution in the ionization parameter and, in the case of Mrk 86-B, an enhancement of the shock-excited gas emission. The optical-near-infrared colours of the bubble precursors are characteristic of low-metallicity star-forming regions (∼0.2 Z_⊙) with burst strengths of about 1 per cent in mass.


We present a cross-layer modeling and design approach for multigigabit indoor wireless personal area networks (WPANs) utilizing the unlicensed millimeter (mm) wave spectrum in the 60 GHz band. Our approach accounts for the following two characteristics that sharply distinguish mm wave networking from that at lower carrier frequencies. First, mm wave links are inherently directional: directivity is required to overcome the higher path loss at smaller wavelengths, and it is feasible with compact, low-cost circuit board antenna arrays. Second, indoor mm wave links are highly susceptible to blockage because of the limited ability to diffract around obstacles such as the human body and furniture. We develop a diffraction-based model to determine network link connectivity as a function of the locations of stationary and moving obstacles. For a centralized WPAN controlled by an access point, it is shown that multihop communication, with the introduction of a small number of relay nodes, is effective in maintaining network connectivity in scenarios where single-hop communication would suffer unacceptable outages. The proposed multihop MAC protocol accounts for the fact that every link in the WPAN is highly directional, and is shown, using packet level simulations, to maintain high network utilization with low overhead.


Since the early 1990s, there has been a growing understanding that supply chain management should be built around information sharing and collaboration among supply chain partners. The emergence of RFID technology is expected to revolutionize many of the collaborative supply chain processes and to empower new collaboration scenarios, such as anti-counterfeiting, product recall and reverse logistics, collaborative in-store promotion management and total inventory management. This paper proposes eight RFID-enabled supply chain collaboration services (e.g. dynamic pricing, smart recall, in-store promotion management, out-of-shelf response) in a networked retail business environment. The services are characterized, on a high-level, by the information shared between retailers and suppliers, the level of tagging (pallet/case/item level) and the location of the tag readers. Also, a scalable-distributed network architecture, building on the possibilities provided by web service orchestration and data stream management systems, is proposed to support these collaborative supply chain management processes. However, this paper introduces into a research-in-progress with the ultimate purpose to assess and categorize the RFID-enabled supply chain collaboration services according to four dimensions: the extent of collaboration required between retailers and suppliers, the RFID technology requirements, the transformation of existing (or the introduction of new) processes and the business performance impact of the RFID-enabled collaborative service. This research is partly funded by the European Commission (IST-2005, FP6) through the IST SMART research project with participating user companies being European grocery retailers and suppliers from the fast-moving consumer goods sector.


American agricultural law's environmental record is a legacy of legislative failure. Most of the blame can and should be attributed to the failure of the law to separate ecological objectives from competing and ultimately contradictory economic objectives. Two strains of agroecological fallacies loom large. A macroecologial variant of the agroecological argument supposes that agriculture is environmentally benign or even ameliorative. A more fearsome fallacy may not exist. Agriculture is one of the most resource-depleting economic activities and deserves to be treated accordingly. The microecological variation on agroecological reasoning favors improving agriculture's environmental performance by reducing farm sizes and dispersing farm ownership. In ecological terms, it is supposed, small farms are better, and small family farms are best. Such a pity that none of this is true. Economic theory and empirical evidence subvert every agroecological claim, especially those based on farm size and ownership structure. This article exposes four specific types of agroecological fallacies. First, statutes putatively designed to protect the environment are often more honestly described as programs for boosting commodity prices and farm incomes by restricting output. Second, explicit farm income support programs are dishonestly justified as environmental measures. Third, whenever a law threatens the economic interests of farmers, particularly smaller freeholders, opponents decry the law as a threat to the environment and only secondarily, if at all, as an economic menace. Finally, lobbyists often use specious environmental arguments to justify agricultural exceptions from a generally applicable system of regulation. The solution is as transparent as it is simple. Environmental protection must be decoupled from agricultural protectionism. Farmers need to get green or get out.


Abstract We evaluate public–private sector wage differentials by gender in Turkey between the years 2005 and 2013. Using micro data from Household Labor Force Surveys we find a positive premium for low wage earners and a penalty of working in the public sector at the higher end of the distribution. Although the penalty has not disappeared, the price effect has increased at both ends of the distribution. The increase at the lower tail is attributed to a higher price effect in the public sector, whereas at the higher tail it has been a result of a relatively uneven wage increase in the private sector along the distribution, rather than an explicit public wage policy.


A single chip speech synthesizer was designed using a switched-capacitor multiplier to implement the LPC algorithm. The chip contains the LPC-10 filter, 20 kbit ROM, all control logic, a three-pole switched-capacitor low-pass filter, and an audio amplifier capable of driving a speaker directly. The chip was fabricated in 5 µm CMOS technology and is 218 mils on the side.


CC chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) is the most potent monocyte chemoattractant and inter-individual differences in its expression level have been associated with genetic variants mapping to the cis-regulatory regions of the gene. An A to G polymorphism in the CCL2 enhancer region at position –2578 (rs1024611; A>G), was found in most studies to be associated with higher serum CCL2 levels and increased susceptibility to a variety of diseases such as HIV-1 associated neurological disorders, tuberculosis, and atherosclerosis. However, the precise mechanism by which rs1024611influences CCL2 expression is not known. To address this knowledge gap, we tested the hypothesis that rs1024611G polymorphism is associated with allelic expression imbalance (AEI) of CCL2. We used haplotype analysis and identified a transcribed SNP in the 3′UTR (rs13900; C>T) can serve as a proxy for the rs1024611 and demonstrated that the rs1024611G allele displayed a perfect linkage disequilibrium with rs13900T allele. Allele-specific transcript quantification in lipopolysaccharide treated PBMCs obtained from heterozygous donors showed that rs13900T allele were expressed at higher levels when compared to rs13900C allele in all the donors examined suggesting that CCL2 is subjected to AEI and that that the allele containing rs1024611G is preferentially transcribed. We also found that AEI of CCL2 is a stable trait and could be detected in newly synthesized RNA. In contrast to these in vivo findings, in vitro assays with haplotype-specific reporter constructs indicated that the haplotype bearing rs1024611G had a lower or similar transcriptional activity when compared to the haplotype containing rs1024611A. This discordance between the in vivo and in vitro expression studies suggests that the CCL2 regulatory region polymorphisms may be functioning in a complex and context-dependent manner. In summary, our studies provide strong functional evidence and a rational explanation for the phenotypic effects of the CCL2 rs1024611G allele.


This article explores the role that product- and firm-centered heritage plays as an advantage-creating resource and competitive dynamic in contributing to minimizing risks for firms in global production networks (GPN). Research on the management of risk has been identified as critical for developing an understanding of the underlying determinants of GPN. In the satellite industry, key risks relate to launch, extreme conditions in outer space, and challenges concerning repair. These risks are minimized by the development and management of heritage . Heritage is a reputational asset founded on proven technology embedded in products and/or firm-based relationships that have values or associations that accumulate and are passed down over time. The risks associated with the space sector are extreme; however, heritage also plays an important but unacknowledged role in other economic sectors, including shipping, nuclear energy, rail, medical technologies, and aviation. The article adds to the economic geography literature in three ways. First, it highlights the central role that regulators and insurance providers play in defining market imperatives for GPN. Second, it identifies and explores heritage as a reputational asset, providing both a source of competitiveness and a competitive dynamic influencing firm-based routines and interfirm relationships. Third, it provides the first in-depth analysis of the satellite industry in the context of heritage — a sector that impacts on the everyday activities of government agencies, citizens, and firms. This analysis


This paper presents a new approach to the fuzzy unit commitment problem using the absolutely stochastic simulated an- nealing method. In every iteration, a solution is taken with a cer- tain probability. Typically in the simulated annealing minimization method, a higher cost feasible solution is accepted with tempera- ture-dependent probability, but other solutions are accepted deter- ministically. However, in this paper, all the solutions, both higher and lower cost, are associated with acceptance probabilities, e.g., the minimum membership degree of all the fuzzy variables. Be- sides, the number of bits flipping is decided by the linguistic fuzzy control. Excess units with system-dependent distribution handle constraints efficiently and reduce overlooking the optimal solution. To reduce the economic load dispatch calculations, a sign bit vector is introduced with imprecise calculation of the fuzzy model as well. The proposed method is tested using the reported problem data sets. Simulation results are compared to previous reported results. Numerical results show an improvement in solution cost and time compared to the results obtained from powerful algorithms.


The nanostructure and textural properties of acid-activated bentonite clays from the Bogovina coalmine were investigated. The acid activation was performed with HCl in the concentration range 1.5-7.5 M. The atomic force microscopy followed by image analysis was used in order to establish the influence of the acid treatment on the size of bentonite particles. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms at -196 °C were used to estimate the specific surface area, pore volume and pore size distribution. The acid treatment reduces the size of bentonite particles and increases the specific surface area and pore volume of the investigated bentonites. These effects are improved by increasing the acid concentration up to 4.5 M HCl. Further increase in acid concentration does not result in development of new porous structure.


The conventional method of calculating static load allowables for rolling element bearings is based on a brinell which will not affect the rotational fatigue life of the bearing. For an oscillating bearing requiring only limited cycle life, this is a very conservative approach. Increased allowables are possible where static allowables are based on 2/3 of the fracture capacity of the bearing, provided performance of the bearing is not adversely affected by these loads. Results of tests performed on one in. dia balls and 3/8 in. dia rollers are reported. Fracture capacities were determined and permanent deformation as a function of load is listed for the five material combinations tested. Permanent deformation variation at temperatures to 1500 F is discussed. The effect of lubricants and the significance of brinell indentations on rolling friction and on endurance life is reported. Static allowables based on maximum Hertz stress values are listed for each material combination from data obtained. These allowables are much higher than those presently used. Maximum Hertz stress static allowables to 1,000,000 psi can be considered with high strength steel for both ball and roller specimens. Tests on six and one half in. dia ball and roller bearings confirmed that the bearings could withstand very high static loads and still operate at high dynamic loads for the number of cycles required in wing pivots and other similar applications.


Background: The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn disease (CD) affect a person's health-related quality of life (HRQOL). IBD patients report high levels of anxiety, which correlates with the degree of perceived dissatisfaction with the information on disease-related themes provided in routine health care. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in anxiety after participation in a group-based educational intervention for IBD patients screened for high anxiety. Methods: The programme consisted of 8 sessions, and 49 patients participated. Anxiety was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale at baseline and 6 months after intervention. HRQOL was assessed with the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ) and the SF-36 health survey. Participant satisfaction with education was measured using a study-specific questionnaire. Results: No significant change on the HAD anxiety score was found at the 6-month follow-up for those who participated in the education programme despite the fact that the participants reported they had gained better knowledge of disease-related items. Furthermore, there were no significant changes over time regarding bowel symptoms, systemic symptoms, emotional functioning and social functioning of the IBDQ or generic HRQOL (SF-36). Conclusions: IBD patients with a high anxiety level reported improved satisfaction with information about disease-related items, but did not indicate any benefits in terms of reduced anxiety or improved HRQOL after participating in the education programme, not at least in the short-term perspective. In this selected group of patients, psychosocial problems other than disease-related concerns were found that warrant other approaches.


Using 2002/03 and 2005/2006 nationally representative household surveys, poverty headcount index declined from 38.8% respectively. The corresponding poverty gap ratio declined from 11.9% to 8.7%. While all Ugandans enjoyed an increase in consumption between the sample periods, the rate of growth in consumption was slightly higher for the lower percentiles. The led to a significant improvement in the distribution of income as demonstrated by the decline in the Gini coefficient from 0.428 to 0.408. The urban areas continue to have higher rates of inequality, nonetheless, they witnessed a significant improvement. the Gini coefficient declined from 0.483 in 2002/03 to 0.432 in 2005/06. Overall, the improvement in the distribution of income had a positive impact on poverty reduction. The poverty headcount in 2005/06 would have been higher by 1.2 percentage points if distribution of income had remained constant at the 2002/03 level. Using static decomposition techniques to examine the pattern of inequality in real consumption between regions and educational attachment of the household head increased over the sample periods. but inequality declined between rural/urban subgroups.


The North Pacific Ocean (NPO) state is about to experience significant transition by the end of this century under the current trend of the global climate change. NPO coastal communities are now facing a challenge to establish adaptation plans to mitigate impacts of the climate change to their socio-economical environment. The best resource to provide the future projection of an ocean state available today is CMIP5 data and they have been used substantially for evaluating future coastal marine environment. However, this approach has drawbacks to meet with current demands in the coastal applications. Since CMIP5 data are produced by a coupled earth system model, its resolution is kept relatively coarse and additional downscaling efforts are required for the coastal applications. Further, not all key variables are available to be assessed due to limited storage space. Under the SI-CAT project, we are aiming at providing a set of near-future NPO state for assisting stakeholders develop an adaptation plan along Japan coast. Our approach is unique in the following points: 1) ensemble ocean state is re-generated by driving the eddy-resolving NPO model with ensemble CMIP5 atmospheric forcing, 2) Base ocean state forced by reanalysis atmospheric forcing is provided for model evaluation and is validated against high-resolution ocean state reanalysis, 3) Comprehensive model state variables are saved so that of o(2km) ocean state along Japan coast can be generated by dynamical downscaling, 4) A set of CMIP5 models is selected based on availability of 3 hourly data in the historical, rcp2.6


1. A novel technique utilising the microdialysis technique to measure the concentrations of chemicals of nitrosation, nitrite, thiocyanate, ascorbic acid and total vitamin C in the lumen of the human upper gastrointestinal tract was developed and validated in vitro. 2. The recoveries of the chemicals of interest using the microdialysis probes were inversely proportional to the rate of perfusion of the microdialysis probes except for nitrite which was also dependent on the pH of the solution being sampled. We determined the optimal perfusion rate of the microdialysis probes as 0.15mL hr-1 This perfusion rate enabled adequate volumes of microdialysis product to be obtained for subsequent analysis without reducing the recoveries of the chemicals by the microdialysis probe. 3. The microdialysis probe was accurate in sampling the chemicals of interest under dynamic conditions which mimicked the reaction of intermittent delivery of nitrite in swallowed saliva with gastric juice ascorbic acid under both high and low nitrite load. 4. Salivary nitrite in man is derived from the bacterial reduction of dietary nitrate which has undergone entero-salivary recirculation. In the human subjects without gastro-oesophageal reflux, high concentration of nitrite was detected in the saliva and the distal oesophagus following an oral nitrate load. 5. In subjects without gastro-oesophageal reflux, there was an increasing concentration gradient for ascorbic acid and total vitamin C at increasingly distal sites of the upper gastrointestinal tract whereas there was a decreasing concentration gradient for nitrite with virtually no nitrite detectable in the distal stomach. In the acidic stomach, the cardia was the site of greatest ascorbic acid oxidation and also the site of the lowest ascorbic acid to nitrite ratio both before and after an oral nitrate load indicating that the condition for the formation of carcinogenic N-nitrosamines was maximal at this anatomical site in subjects without gastro-oesophageal reflux. 6. Twenty to thirty percent of the nitrate in the saliva is reduced to nitrite by the bacteria within the oral cavity. The nitrate reduction appears to continue within the oesophagus leading to a greater recovery of nitrite to that in the saliva in some subjects. No nitrate reduction was seen within the nasal cavity of healthy subjects. 7. In subjects with Barrett's oesophagus, concentration gradients for ascorbic acid, total vitamin C and nitrite showed a similar pattern to that of the subjects without gastro-oesophgaeal reflux. However, the ascorbic acid to total vitamin C ratio and ascorbic acid to nitrite ratio in the acidic environment were both lowest within the Barrett's segment suggesting that the oxidative stress and the nitrosation potential were greatest within this anatomical site during periods of acid reflux. 8. Within the Barrett's segment the nitrite concentrations fell greatly compared to that of the squamous oesophagus which was attributed to the conversion of acidified nitrite by the gastric juice ascorbic acid to nitric oxide. Using a miniturised nitric oxide sensor and measuring the nitric oxide generation in real-time we were able to demonstrate nitric oxide generation of up to 50muM when saliva came into contact with acidic gastric juice within the Barrett's segment during periods of gastro-oesophageal reflux.


There are two generations of Gibbs sampling methods for semiparametric models involving the Dirichlet process. The first generation suffered from a severe drawback: the locations of the clusters, or groups of parameters, could essentially become fixed, moving only rarely. Two strategies that have been proposed to create the second generation of Gibbs samplers are integration and appending a second stage to the Gibbs sampler wherein the cluster locations are moved. We show that these same strategies are easily implemented for the sequential importance sampler, and that the first strategy dramatically improves results. As in the case of Gibbs sampling, these strategies are applicable to a much wider class of models. They are shown to provide more uniform importance sampling weights and lead to additional Rao‐Blackwellization of estimators.


Abstract This article traces the implementation, execution, and results of the French Ministry of Armaments' scrap iron collection drive from September 1939 to June 1940. This collection drive was a belated effort to mobilize patriotic sentiment and raw materials for France's war effort. By the late 1930s, the French government realized that it did not have — and, more importantly, would not be able to acquire — enough metal to meet ambitious armament plans. In September 1939, Raoul Dautry, the Minister of Armaments, began moving toward a controlled economy by setting up central distribution organizations, preventing the movement of stocks, and organizing the national scrap drive, modelled, in part, on Germany. Despite a rural distrust of the state and cases of individuals hoarding metal, most people responded to the call. Yet logistical difficulties in finances, manpower, and transportation hampered efforts. By May 1940, half of the 85,000 tons collected remained piled on the platforms of railway stations. With the invasion, the Germans immediately confiscated this metal. With the defeat of France, this failed drive came to symbolize France's defeat and humiliation, as well as the impotence of the Third Republic.


In this chapter, we'll tackle the problem of developing one of the most well-known approaches to scheduling, known as the Multi-level Feedback Queue (MLFQ). The Multi-level Feedback Queue (MLFQ) sched-uler was first described by Corbato et al. in 1962 [C+62] in a system known as the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), and this work, along with later work on Multics, led the ACM to award Corbato its highest honor, the Turing Award. The scheduler has subsequently been refined throughout the years to the implementations you will encounter in some modern systems. The fundamental problem MLFQ tries to address is twofold. First, it would like to optimize turnaround time, which, as we saw in the previous note, is done by running shorter jobs first; unfortunately, the OS doesn't generally know how long a job will run for, exactly the knowledge that algorithms like SJF (or STCF) require. Second, MLFQ would like to make a system feel responsive to interactive users (i.e., users sitting and staring at the screen, waiting for a process to finish), and thus minimize response time; unfortunately, algorithms like Round Robin reduce response time but are terrible for turnaround time. Thus, our problem: given that we in general do not know anything about a process, how can we build a scheduler to achieve these goals? How can the scheduler learn, as the system runs, the characteristics of the jobs it is running, and thus make better scheduling decisions? THE CRUX: HOW TO SCHEDULE WITHOUT PERFECT KNOWLEDGE? How can we design a scheduler that both minimizes response time for interactive jobs while also minimizing turnaround time without a priori knowledge of job length?


Human harmful insects include mosquitoes, lice, fleas, flea-biters, bedbugs, flies and fire ants. Developing countries, such as Burundi; are challenged in the access of chemical products to control these insects. The present study aims to control human harmful insects with pesticidal plants based on ethnobotanical knowledge of Burundians. A survey on pesticidal plants was carried out using a questionnaire on 250 participants in Gitega province, Central Burundi. The consensus index (CIs) was used to analyse the credibility of the information collected. Seventy five percent of participants recognized at least one pesticidal plant. The present study reveals 69 plant species divided into 35 families. The Asteraceae (8 species) and Euphorbiaceae (6 species) families were the most represented. Of all the plant species recorded, the most exploited part is the leaf (47% of species) and 50% of species are used without prior preparation, while 22% are roasted before use or administration. The local application is most used (for 46% of species). The most cited species are Tetradenia urticifolia (ICs: 0.60), Euphorbia tirucalli L (ICs: 0.10) and Tagetes minuta L (ICs: 0.06) repelling fire ants, Solanum incanum (ICs: 0.60) and Gymnanthemum amygdalinum (ICs: 0.12) treating the flea-bites. The present study showed a large number of pesticidal plants, some of them having a considerable potential in the control and treatment of these insects and their bites. The preferred use of the leaves leads to a promising valorisation with less impact on sustainable conservation of the reported plant species. The present study revealed the importance of pesticidal plants knowledge with an emphasis on plants against flea-bites and fire ants (31 and 23 species respectively). The results suggest that there is need for phytochemical studies aimed at the production of effective and affordable plant-based pesticides.


The paper examines the efficiency of the institutions created in Ukraine with the view to approximate its laws to the acquis communautaire and tests the limits of the transformative power of the acquis and the European Union's ability to effect positive domestic change in non-EU countries by "exporting" EU law. The findings suggest that although Ukraine has created an elaborate statutory mechanism to ensure that its new laws comply with the acquis, this has no meaningful effect on the improvement of the quality of the country's company law. The study argues that the failure of approximation can be explained with reference to the concept of demand for law developed in comparative law theory. The process of approximation is particularly studied in several areas of company law: shareholders' preemptive rights, distributions through dividends and transfer pricing, disclosure of companies' charters and accounts, and effects of limits on contracting powers of the company's executive organ. These areas have been chosen because while being mostly harmonized at the EU level they are deemed to be crucial in solving agency costs problems (in particular self-dealing) in the context of transitional economies. These aspects of Ukrainian law and the depth of their approximation to EU law are examined by looking at the 2008 Ukrainian law on joint-stock companies and the 2004 law on disclosure of corporate information. This comparative study is supported by the empiri-cal survey of recent judgments of the Ukraine's High Commercial Court. In particular, all cases involving limitations on contractual powers of management decided from May 2006 to June 2009 are examined to establish how often the court actually relied on the protec-tions to third parties imported from the EU law. This study is a pioneering attempt to test empirically the success of approximation of Ukrainian law to the EU law. The study finds a very low success rate for parties invoking EU-inspired legal norms and attempts to explain this failure of approximation.


By the time series model, this paper constructed the disturbance model for the aluminum sputter deposition process and derived the extending Kalman filter (EKF) controller based on this new disturbance model. Experimental results reveal that ARI(3,1) model appropriately characterizes the dynamic behavior of the disturbance for the processes. The EKF controller which includes information of process noise and measurement noise is able to regulate the model coefficients automatically as the target is replaced or degrades. In this paper, the d-EWMA controller, time-varying d-EWMA controller, age-based d-EWMA controller, and EKF controller have been applied to aluminum sputter deposition processes for predicting deposition rates and comparing their performances. The application of the EKF controller here is proven to improve the estimating accuracy of the aluminum sputter deposition process significantly, regardless of whether the deposition rates are measured at each run or not.


The silicon pixel detector will be installed in summer 2009 as part of the RHIC-PHENIX silicon vertex tracker (VTX) upgrade at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The VTX consists of a silicon pixel detector and stripixel detector. For the construction of the silicon pixel detector, we have developed a fine pitch and low material readout bus as the backbone parts of the VTX. In this article, we report the development of the readout bus.


For effective thermal management of high power and dense electronics, the heat sink forms the bulkiest component, and aluminum, owing to its light weight and easy machinability, is the preferred choice for airborne PCB devices used in aerospace and defense telecommunications. In this paper, we present a versatile and robust fabrication method to build circuit boards used for RF and microwave telecommunication devices over a large frequency of interest from MHz up to several tens of GHz range. Typically, 1 mil of copper is plated in the blind holes, followed by the desired final finish applied to it (nickel/gold, tin/lead, chromate). There can be several inner copper layers anchored to the blind holes. Cross sectional examination showed that the connectivity of the inner layer(s) with the barrel wall was very good and no delamination of the hole wall occurred even after 1,000 thermal cycles of (-40°C to +100°C) excursions were carried out in an automated thermal cycling chamber. Resistivity of the blind hole coupons with the 1 mil copper layer (protected by a 0.1 mil tin coating), with 300 mA of current applied, was always less than 0.0006 milli ohm even after 1000 thermal cycles.


The aim of the present study was to develop a pH sensitive gastroretentive drug delivery system for an antidiabetic drug glipizide, based on gas formation technique using 32-factorial design, in order to prolong the gastric residence time and increase the overall bioavailability of the dosage form, since the absorption is erratic in diabetic patients. The system consists of the drug, glycol chitosan (5% w/w) and aqueous PVA solution (10% w/w) which were mixed together and pH was adjusted to 4.5–5.0. Then the crosslinking agent (10% aqueous glyoxal) was added, followed by sodium bicarbonate which acts as foaming agent. In acidic environment, superporous hydrogels showed higher swelling ratio because of the cationization of amine groups. The presence of PVA and increased levels of crosslinker significantly improved the mechanical strength of the superporous hydrogels. The drug release studies showed that sustained release of drug could be achieved with high crosslink density and higher amount of PVA. Keywords: Hydrogels , pH sensitive, gastroretentive, glipizide, factorial design Cite this Article Vasanth Samaga, Puranik SB. Formulation and Development of Gastroretentive Hydrogels of Glipizide. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Drug Formulation, Development and Production . 2017; 4(1): 1–7p.


A planetary atmosphere is the gaseous layer that divides the planetary surface and surrounding space. Although the Earth's atmosphere occupies a tiny fraction of the total Earth's mass, it plays an essential role to make the Earth's surface environment circulating liquid-water that is thought to be the most fundamental condition for the emergence and evolution of the terrestrial life organisms. The vertical structure of Earth's atmosphere from the Earth's surface to the uppermost region that merges into space is strongly influenced by interactions with space.