OBJECTIVE: To assess early postdischarge health-related quality of life and disability of all survivors of critical COVID-19 admitted for more than 24 hours to na intensive care unit.. METHODS: Study carried out at the Intensive Care Medicine Department of Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João from 8th October 2020 to 16th February 2021. Approximately 1 month after hospital discharge, an intensive care-trained nurse performed a telephone consultation with 99 survivors already at home applying the EuroQol Five-Dimensional Five-Level questionnaire and the 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. RESULTS: The mean age of the population studied was 63 ± 12 years, and 32.5% were submitted to invasive mechanical ventilation. Their mean Simplified Acute Physiologic Score was 35 ± 14, and the Charlson Comorbidity Index was 3 ± 2. Intensive care medicine and hospital lengths of stay were 13 ± 22 and 22 ± 25 days, respectively. The mean EuroQol Visual Analog Scale was 65% (± 21), and only 35.3% had no or slight problems performing their usual activities, most having some degree of pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. The 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 showed marked impairments in terms of reassuring usual work or community activities and mobility. The use of both tools suggested that their health status was worse than their perception of it. CONCLUSION: This early identification of sequelae may help define flows and priorities for rehabilitation and reinsertion after critical COVID-19.


Chandra and Leong (2016) propose a new model of adaptability: the diversified portfolio model (DPM) of adaptability. Further thought and research on adaptability is a welcome addition to the limited body of work conducted on this topic to date. However, in their discussion there is a lack of definitional clarity, and there is frequent conflation of adaptability and resilience. It is also the case that the hypothesized adaptability model is general and could apply to many psychological constructs and processes (not just adaptability). In addition, there are gaps in research suggested by the authors that have been addressed by other researchers and there is a good deal of contemporary adaptability research that is not cited. Addressing these limitations in future work is vital to the further development of theory, research, and practice in the area of adaptability. (PsycINFO Database Record


. In this thesis, we present a fuzzy logic control scheme to regulate the flow of traffic approaching a set of intersections. An adaptive Fuzzy Logic Traffic Controller (FLTC) is used to adjust the green phase split of the north-south and east-west approaches of a set of traffic signals based on the actual traffic approaching the intersection. Each intersection is coordinated with its neighbouring intersections by adjusting the offset of the local intersection. The offset is adjusted by a local fuzzy logic controller loacted at each intersection. A new fuzzy control scheme, using a supervisory Fuzzy Logic Controller, is also proposed for adjusting the offset. The fuzzy knowledge base of the supervisory Fuzzy Logic Controller is automatically generated by Genetic Algorithms (GAs). The fuzzy rules generated by the integrated Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithm architecture is found to be effective in optimising the traffic flow. The effectiveness of the above fuzzy control scheme is established through simulations of the traffic flow approaching an isolated intersection, two adjacent intersections, and a set of three intersections. The superiority of adjusting offset using a supervisory fuzzy logic controller is established through simulations.


Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is becoming an increasingly important part of the world's energy sources. The determination of the heating value of LPG is of great economic importance in domestic and industrial purposes. This paper discusses the effects of impurities (e.g., moisture, H2S) and the presence of other hydrocarbons (e.g., ethane, pentane, propene, and butene) on the heating value of LPG fuel with different propane to butane. Different LPG composition (propane:butane) of 80:20, 60:40, 40:60, and 20:80 are used in this study. In addition, comparative studies of two mercaptans used as leakage identifiers and two inhibitors used for hydrate formation reduction are examined. Aspen-HYSYS process simulator is used to determine the heating value. Keywords: LPG, heating value, hydrate formation, Aspen HYSYS Cite this Article: Hussain Istiak, Alam Md. Saiful. Effect of variation in LPG composition on heating value using Aspen HYSYS. Journal of Petroleum Engineering & Technology. 2015; 5(1): 51-57p.


We study experimentally and numerically the nonlinear scattering of wave packets by local multisite guiding centers embedded in a continuous dielectric medium as a function of the input power and angle of incidence. The extent of trapping into the linear modes of different sites is manipulated as a function of both the input power and the angle of incidence, demonstrating power-controlled switching of nonlinear trapping by local photonic potentials.


22nd Annual Symposium of the Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa (PRASA), Emerald Casino and Resort, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, 22-25 November 2011


The resolution of the spatial light modulator (SLM) screen and the encoding algorithm of the computer-generated hologram are the primary limiting factors in the generation of large topological charge vortex beams. This paper attempts to solve these problems by improving both the hardware and the algorithm. Theoretically, to overcome the limitations of beam waist radius, the amplitude profile function of large topological charge Laguerre – Gaussian (LG) beam is properly improved. Then, an experimental system employing a 4K phase-only SLM is set up, and the LG beams with topological charge up to 1200 are successfully generated. Furthermore, we discuss the effect of different beam waist radii on the generation of LG beams. Additionally, the function of the LG beam is further improved to generate an LG beam with a topological charge as high as 1400. Our results set a new benchmark for generating large topological charge vortex beams, which can be widely used in precise measurement, sensing, and communication.


Twenty years after the publication of the second volume of the "Critique of Everyday Life", which was widely regarded as prefiguring the protest movement of May 1968, Lefebvre returned to the theme of his great work in a dramatically changed conjuncture of neo-liberal reaction. With the hopes of the 1960s now dispelled amid a pervasive sense of 'crisis', Lefebvre ponders the fate of his original theoretico-political project, registering the middle-class recuperation of such key themes as "changer la vie", before resuming the critical analysis of daily life. Equally rejecting uncritical nostalgia for the past and facile enthusiasm for the present, the twin errors that everything has changed and nothing has changed, positivist endorsement of what exists and 'hypercritical' rejection of it, the final instalment of the trilogy seeks to track the continuities and discontinuities in daily life in the intervening twenty years.


Poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/SiO2/TiO2 hybrid composites were synthesized via the sol-gel method in the presence of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and tetrabutyltitanate (TBT). The formation of Si-O-Ti bonds in the resulting products was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The Photo-degradation properties of hybrid composites were investigated under the ultraviolet radiation. And the change of the intrinsic viscosity for the hybrid composites was measured using an Ubbelohde viscometer after the photo-degradation.


Multiple imaging modalities are often used for disease diagnosis, prediction, or population-based analyses. However, not all modalities might be available due to cost, different study designs, or changes in imaging technology. If the differences between the types of imaging are small, data harmonization approaches can be used; for larger changes, direct image synthesis approaches have been explored. In this paper, we develop an approach based on multi-modal metric learning to synthesize images of diverse modalities. We use metric learning via multi-modal image retrieval, resulting in embeddings that can relate images of different modalities. Given a large image database, the learned image embeddings allow us to use k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) regression for image synthesis. Our driving medical problem is knee osteoarthritis (KOA), but our developed method is general after proper image alignment. We test our approach by synthesizing cartilage thickness maps obtained from 3D magnetic resonance (MR) images using 2D radiographs. Our experiments show that the proposed method outperforms direct image synthesis and that the synthesized thickness maps retain information relevant to downstream tasks such as progression prediction and Kellgren-Lawrence grading (KLG). Our results suggest that retrieval approaches can be used to obtain high-quality and meaningful image synthesis results given large image databases.


Monoliths and stone circles are found in many places in the world. Information about their existence has been characterized by contrasting historical and anthropological explanations. The cultural value of monoliths and stone circles has attracted a wide array of experts and groups: historians, mathematicians, anthropologists, archeologist, culture seeking consumers, etc. The Cross River Stone Circles is one of the popular tourist in the State, Unfortunately, very little has been done in promoting the tourism value of this cultural attraction. This study seeks to gain sight into the nature and critical issues that would increase stakeholders' attention toward the Cross River Stone Circles.  This study adopted an integrated research approach; exploratory and observational. The Emangabe Stone Circle was used as case study. This study has produced interpretative maps for tourist education, marketing communication collateral and inventory of the stones in the Emangebe Stone Circle. The researchers believed that the outcome of the study will bring added value, thereby increasing the marketing performance of the cultural and heritage site.

 Key words: Monoliths, stone circles, ethnography, cultural value, heritage site, geo-mapping.


We examine an infinite-horizon model of appellate court lawmaking. The model focuses on the impact of lawmaking on the behavior of trial courts, incorporating costly review of trial court dispositions by the appellate court. A successful audit by the appellate court provides an opportunity to create precedent. Precedent changes future trial court dispositions by providing new cases from which trial courts can draw analogies. This, in turn, alters the appellate court's scrutiny of these dispositions—its audit strategy—going forward. We use the model to explain many features of actual judicial practice by courts in a hierarchy. Throughout, we relate the findings to existing evidence and derive testable predictions. Given that (1) Defendant [Officer] Leveille did not assert authority over Plaintiff beyond requesting that she leave, (2) Plaintiff did not in any way submit to his request, and (3) Plaintiff indisputably "retrieved Mr. Byers's belongings and walked away" immediately after the incident, this case is on all fours with McCoy v. Harrison, 341 F.3d 600, 605-6 (7th Cir. 2003). (District Court Judge Robert M. Dow)1 Given that (1) Defendant [Officer] Leveille did not assert authority over Plaintiff beyond requesting that she leave, (2) Plaintiff did not in any way submit to his request, and (3) Plaintiff indisputably "retrieved Mr. Byers's belongings and walked away" immediately after the incident, this case is on all fours with McCoy v. Harrison, 341 F.3d 600, 605-6 (7th Cir. 2003). (District Court Judge Robert M. Dow)1


Retinal detachment after ocular perforation related to local anesthesia is a common complication, which is usually associated with a poor prognosis despite complex vitreoretinal surgical procedures. We report a case of 62-year-old male with cataract surgery done 4 weeks back with nasal retinal detachment with a posterior break. Pneumatic retinopexy was performed and laser barrage of the breaks was done the next day when the retina got attached. A vision of 20/30 was achieved at the end of 2 months. To the best of our knowledge, this is a first case report in literature where pneumatic retinopexy was used to manage a retinal detachment caused by block-related perforation.


The effectiveness of detomidine with or without atropine sulfate premedication in producing sedation and analgesia for arthrocentesis was studied in 12 horses. The effects were evaluated by monitoring heart and respiratory rates, borborygmi, distance from the lower lip to the floor, systolic blood pressure, and response to needle insertion. Either atropine or saline (as a placebo) was administered immediately prior to detomidine. All drugs were administered intravenously. Measurements were taken prior to drug injection and at 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 120, 180 and 240 minutes postinjection. Detomidine with atropine resulted in significantly higher heart rates than detomidine without atropine for the three hours of observation. Borborygmi were significantly decreased for four hours following detomidine with atropine and for three hours following detomidine without atropine, when compared to preinjection levels. Systolic blood pressure was significantly increased for 15 minutes following detomidine and atropine compared to the preinjection level. The head was markedly lowered for 60 minutes with either treatment. Atropine prevented the bradyarrhythmia and bradycardia induced by detomidine, but it induced a tachycardia. A satisfactory response for needle insertion and adequate synovial fluid aspiration was achieved in 95% of the trials with detomidine, with or without atropine sulfate premedication. The results suggest that, although atropine prevents bradyarrhythmia and bradycardia following detomidine, administering detomidine without atropine is satisfactory for arthrocentesis in untrained horses.


Social media platforms are increasingly used across many population groups not only to communicate and consume information, but also to express symptoms of psychological distress and suicidal thoughts. The detection of suicidal ideation (SI) can contribute to suicide prevention. Twitter data suggesting SI have been associated with negative emotions (e.g., shame, sadness) and a number of geographical and ecological variables (e.g., geographic location, environmental stress). Other important research contributions on SI come from studies in neuroscience. To date, very few research studies have been conducted that combine different disciplines (epidemiology, health geography, neurosciences, psychology, and social media big data science), to build innovative research directions on this topic. This article aims to offer a new interdisciplinary perspective, that is, a Population Neuroscience perspective on SI in order to highlight new ways in which multiple scientific fields interact to successfully investigate emotions and stress in social media to detect SI in the population. We argue that a Population Neuroscience perspective may help to better understand the mechanisms underpinning SI and to promote more effective strategies to prevent suicide timely and at scale.


Plastics have been increasingly used to create modern and contemporary art and design, and nowadays, museum collections hold numerous objects completely or partially made of plastics. However, the preservation of these materials is still a challenging task in heritage conservation, especially because some plastics show signs of degradation shortly after their production. In addition, different degradation mechanisms can often take place depending on the plastic composition and appropriate environmental and packaging conditions should be adopted. Therefore, methods for in situ and rapid characterization of plastic artifacts' composition are greatly needed to outline proper conservation strategies. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, such as attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR FT-IR), is a well-established method for polymeric material analysis. However, ATR FT-IR requires an intimate contact with the object, which makes its application less appropriate for the in situ investigation of fragile or brittle degraded plastic objects. Mid-FT-IR reflectance spectroscopy may represent a valid alternative as it allows in situ measurements with minimum or even no contact, and IR data can be acquired rapidly. On the other hand, spectral interpretation of reflectance spectra is usually difficult as IR bands may appear distorted with significant changes in band maximum, shape, and relative intensity, depending on the optical properties and surface texture of the material analyzed. Presently, mid-FT-IR reflection devices working in external reflection (ER FT-IR) and diffuse reflection infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) modes have been used in cultural heritage research studies. As the collected vibrational information depends on the optical layout of the measuring system, differences between ER FT-IR and DRIFT spectra are thus expected when the same polymer is analyzed. So far, ER FT-IR and DRIFT spectroscopy have been individually explored for the identification of plastic objects, but comparative studies between the application of two reflectance FT-IR modes have not been presented yet. In this work, the use of two portable FT-IR spectrometers equipped with ER FT-IR and DRIFTS modes were compared for plastics identification purposes for the first time. Both references of polymeric materials and historical plastic objects (from a Portuguese private collection) were studied and the differences between ER FT-IR and DRIFT spectra were discussed. The spectra features were examined considering the two different optical geometries and analytes' properties. This new insight can support a better understanding of both vibrational information acquired and practical aspects in the application of the ER FT-IR and DRIFTS in plastic analysis. Graphical Abstract


Cass Sunstein argues that judicial and academic debate about statutory formalism (and its operational arm, textualism) should shift from discussion of first principles to an investigation of the way formalism and antiformalism work in practice. Sunstein, for example, contends that we should compare how well formalism and antiformalism function as market-mimicking default rules, roughly defined as rules that replicate what Congress would have done had it explicitly spoken to a particular interpretive question. Leaving aside the difficult question of how to construct a meaningful empirical test of that counterfactual proposition (formalists think it impossible), one must first ask why that or any other conceivable interpretive value — equity, transparency, coherence, deliberation, lower decision costs, higher decision costs, etc. — should qualify as a proper benchmark for empirical testing. This paper argues that in a limited constitutional democracy, any inquiry into interpretive method must begin with the constitutional structure. That is to say, before testing whether a default rule promotes any particular interpretive value, we must first ascertain whether the Constitution either enjoins or permits the judiciary to recognize such a value as worthy of promotion. It is true, as Sunstein contends, that even state-of-the-art formalists sometimes invite skepticism of such an approach by making overstylized constitutional arguments about the implications of bicameralism and presentment, the requirements of democracy, and the like. Still, the modern formalist's (and, for that matter, antiformalist's) occasional overstatement of the case does not warrant rejection of constitutional analysis in the interpretive debate; if anything, it calls for a more textured inquiry into what the Constitution can or cannot tell us about interpretive method. Such analysis should cast light on the valuable question that Sunstein raised — whether and to what extent empirical analysis might help to assess the competing claims of formalism and antiformalism.


Infons are pieces of information. In our work on the Distributed Knowledge Authorization Language (DKAL), we discovered that the logic of infons is a conservative extension of intuitionistic logic by means of connectives p said and p put where p ranges over principals. We investigate infon logic and a primal fragment of it. In both cases, we develop model theory, prove soundness and completeness, and analyze the computational complexity of the ground multiple derivability (GMD) problem (which of the given ground queries follow form the given ground hypotheses). Our most involved technical result is a linear time algorithm for the GMD problem for the primal infon logic given a constant bound on the quotation depth of the hypotheses. In applications quotation-depth is small. Our result gives rise to a linear time algorithm for the GMD problem for SecPAL, a precursor of DKAL that expresses many important access control scenarios.


Objective The estimation of prevalence and intensity of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections at a country-level is an essential prerequisite for the implementation of a rational control programme. The aim of this present study was to estimate the prevalence and distribution of STH infections and malnutrition in school-age children in rural areas of Ecuador. Design Cross-sectional study from October 2011 to May 2012. Setting Eighteen rural schools were randomly selected from the three ecological regions of Ecuador (coastal, highlands and Amazon basin). Participants 920 children aged 6–16 years. Main outcome measures Prevalence and intensity of STH infections associated with malnutrition (thinness/wasting or stunting). Results The results showed that 257 (27.9%) children were infected with at least one STH parasite. The prevalence of Trichuris trichiura, Ascaris lumbricoides and hookworm was 19.3%, 18.5% and 5.0%, respectively. Malnutrition was present in 14.2% of children and most common was stunting (12.3%). Compared with other regions, schoolchildren in the Amazon region had the highest STH prevalence (58.9%) of which a greater proportion of infections were moderate/heavy intensity (45.6%) and had the highest prevalence of malnutrition (20.4%). A positive association was observed between moderate to heavy infections with A. lumbricoides and malnutrition (adjusted OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.04 to 3.31, p=0.037). Conclusions Our estimate of the prevalence of STH infections of 27.9% at a national level in Ecuador is lower than suggested by previous studies. Our data indicate that schoolchildren living in the Amazon region have a greater risk of STH infection and stunting compared with children from other regions. The implementation of school-based preventive chemotherapy and nutritional supplement programmes within the Amazon region should be prioritised. Long-term control strategies require improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene.


Visions of Electric Media is an historical examination into the early history of television, as it was understood during the Victorian and Machine ages. How did the television that we use today develop into a functional technology? What did Victorians expect it to become? How did the 'vision' of television change once viewers could actually see pictures on a screen?
 We will journey through the history of 'television': from the first indications of live communications in technology and culture in the late nineteenth century, to the development of electronic televisual systems in the early twentieth century. Along the way, we will investigate the philosophy, folklore, engineering practices, and satires that went into making television a useful medium.


Introduction: Ectodermal dysplasia is an abnormality of the ectoderm and its derivatives, phenotypically expressed in males and genetically inherited from mothers. Objective: To report the efficacy of the prosthetics treatment of severe ectodermal dysplasia in a 6-year-old boy with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED). Case report: The boy had difficulty in speaking and eating and the condition also affected his self-esteem. Prosthetic treatments included the construction of acrylic custom trays, determination of the vertical dimension of occlusion (VDO), construction of upper and lower dentures, and palatal expansion procedure. Conclusion: Significant improvements in the patient's stomatognathic function and self-esteem were evident.


After the amended of Indonesian Constitution1945, there is controversy about the position and function of the DPD as representative institution. This article examines the theoretical concepts and applications of bicameralism and unicameralism in many countries in the world and contextualizes them in Indonesia. There are five concepts of ius constituendum that can be explored in this article; First the DPD has the authority of legislation, supervision, and valuation; Second, the DPD has the authority to discuss and participate in deciding all the draft bills proposed by the DPR; Third, the DPD has initiative right to submit a draft bill, but is limited to certain regional affairs; Fourth, the structure and position of the MPR were substituted as a joint house for the DPR and DPD. Fifth, the MPR does not need its own General Secretariat. The MPR also does not require permanent leadership, because it can be held alternately by the leaders of the DPR and DPD.


We consider a Neumann problem for strictly convex variational functionals of linear growth. We establish the existence of minimisers among $\operatorname{W}^{1,1}$-functions provided that the domain under consideration is simply connected. Hence, in this situation, the relaxation of the functional to the space of functions of bounded variation, which has better compactness properties, is not necessary. Similar $\operatorname{W}^{1,1}$-regularity results for the corresponding Dirichlet problem are only known under rather restrictive convexity assumptions limiting its non-uniformity up to the borderline case of the minimal surface functional, whereas for the Neumann problem no such quantified version of strong convexity is required.


The soil bacteria Pseudomonas putida can use benzoate or 3-chlorobenzoate as a sole carbon source. Benzoate and 3-chlorobenzoate are converted into catechol and 3-chlorocatechol, respectively, which are in turn converted into tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates. The catabolic pathways of both compounds proceed through similar intermediates, have similar genetic organization, and have homologous enzymes responsible for different catabolic steps. This has led to suggestions that the plasmid-borne 3-chlorocatechol degradation genes evolved from the chromosomal catechol degradation genes. Both catechol and 3-chlorocatechol pathways are positively regulated by the homologous regulatory proteins CatR and ClcR, respectively. These proteins belong to the LysR family of DNA binding proteins and bind to highly conserved target sequences. We examined the ability of CatR and ClcR to cross-regulate the two pathways. CatR was shown in vitro by DNase I footprinting and gel-shift assays to interact with the clcABD promoter region. Likewise, ClcR was shown to interact in vitro with the catBC promoter region. In in vivo experiments, CatR complemented a ClcR- P. putida strain harboring the clcABD operon for growth on 3-chlorobenzoate. However, ClcR was not capable of complementing a CatR- P. putida strain for growth on benzoate. These observations were confirmed by lacZ-transcriptional fusion expression experiments. Differences in the CatR and ClcR binding sites and their in vitro binding characteristics may explain the ability of CatR and not ClcR to cross-activate. These differences may provide insight about the evolution of regulatory systems in P. putida.


Recently a uni-traveling carrier photodetector (UTC-PD) with a 3 dB bandwidth beyond 67 GHz was presented [1]. The device shows good performance up to 3 mA of photocurrent but experiences thermal failure (see Fig. 1a) at higher currents due to the poor heat extraction in membrane-type devices. Improvements to the thermal design are proposed that promise to double the possible photocurrent before thermal failure, which makes the performance comparable with state-of-the-art SOI UTC-PDs [2].


Mouse cells of the Mx+ genotype accumulate Mx mRNA in response to type I interferon (IFN). Nuclear runoff experiments show that IFN stringently regulates Mx gene expression at the level of transcription. Mx mRNA synthesis peaks about 3 h after IFN treatment, and within 5 h, Mx mRNA concentration rises from undetectable levels to about 0.1% of polyadenylated RNA.


The mercury-gold deposits of the Ivanhoe mining district in northern Nevada formed when middle Miocene rhyolitic volcanism and high-angle faulting disrupted a shallow lacustrine environment. Sinter and replacement mercury deposits formed at and near the paleosurface, and disseminated gold deposits and high-grade gold-silver veins formed beneath the hot spring deposits. The lacustrine environment provided abundant meteoric water; the rhyolites heated the water; and the faults, flow units, and lakebeds provided fluid pathways for the hydrothermal fluids.

A shallow lake began to develop in the Ivanhoe area about 16.5 Ma. The lake progressively expanded and covered the entire area with fine-grained lacustrine sediments. Lacustrine sedimentation continued to at least 14.4 Ma, and periodic fluctuations in the size and extent of the lake may have been responses to both climate and nearby volcanism. The eruption of rhyolite and andesite flows and domes periodically disrupted the lacustrine environment and produced interfingered flows and lake sediments. The major pulse of rhyolitic volcanism took place between 15.16 ± 0.05 and 14.92 ± 0.05 Ma. High-angle faulting began in the basement about 15.2 Ma, penetrated to and disrupted the paleosurface after 15.10 ± 0.06 Ma, and largely ceased by 14.92 ± 0.05 Ma. Ground motion related to both faulting and volcanism created debris flows and soft-sediment deformation in the lakebeds.

Mercury-gold mineralization was coeval with rhyolite volcanism and high-angle faulting, and it took place about 15.2 to 14.9 Ma. At and near the paleosurface, hydrothermal fluids migrated through tuffaceous sediments above relatively impermeable volcanic and Paleozoic units, creating chalcedonic, cinnabar-bearing replacement bodies and sinters. Disseminated gold was deposited in sedimentary and volcanic rocks beneath the mercury deposits, although the hydrologic path between the two ore types is unclear. Higher-grade gold-silver deposits formed in massive rhyolites and Paleozoic quartzites at deeper levels, and these mineralized zones possibly represent the feeder zones for the higher-level deposits. Fluctuations in the ground-water table locally produced hydrothermal oxidation of the near-surface mercury and disseminated gold deposits. The locus of mineralization shifted with time, moving south and east from its inception point in the west-central part of the district. Thus, although mineralization in the district took place during a span of 300,000 years, the duration of mineralization at any one place probably was much shorter.

The low-sulfidation deposits of the Ivanhoe district formed at the same time and under similar conditions as those in the nearby Midas district, 15 km to the northwest, which includes the large, high-grade Ken Snyder gold-silver epithermal vein deposit. The exposures in the Ivanhoe district are interpreted to represent the near-surface example of the paleosurface that originally was present above the Midas mineralizing system. The resulting combined Ivanhoe-Midas model provides an exploration guide for epithermal deposits in similar geologic environments in northern Nevada.


The effect of the host on the population levels of Longidorus a/rieanus Merny has been studied by Lamberti (1968). He found that the nematode reproduced very wei I on sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) increasing the initial population levels by 362°/{j in an experiment conducted from May to October 1967 and by 1100% in a second experiment carried out from November 1967 to April 1968. Plants such as Bermuda grass (Cynodon daelylon L.), Eggplant (Solanum me/ol1- /;C}/(l L.), spinach (SpinClcia oleracea L.), and Iectuce (Laetuca sativa L.), appeared to be inciifrcrent hosts for L. (I/ricwllls in the first e.\.periment, but in the second one population increases of 180 (0 280°0 were obtained with respcct (u thc ini( ;~d \c,"cls. The results of these e:q1erimen(s suggest (hal (he quali(y 01 the host, perhaps associated with dillerent grU\\!h rates at different times of year, influence the reproductive behavior 01 the nematode. Possibly the plant supplies nutrients essenlial for nematode development, particularly for reproduction. In the case of an unfavourable host on the other hand, reproduction may not take place because the nematode is unable to feed on it or because the host docs supply certain substances which negatively affect the sexual development of the nematode. Therefore, having available the material of Lamberti's (1968) e.\.periments and other populations of L. a/ricClnlls grown for different periods of time in soil planted with various hosts, it was thought that useful information could be obtained from a detailed study of the sexual development of the nematode in relation to its nutritional status.


This dissertation is an empirical study of multi-national company's (MNC) distributors capability assessment, which discusses expectation of MNCs with regards to its distributor and suggests ways that MNCs could effectively assess the distributors capabilities for performance improvement. This study is backed by the data from a US based MNC which could be leveraged by other MNCs to discover insights on distributors capabilities and measures to improve performance for order growth. It provides an up-to-date, comprehensive synthesis and evaluation of the existing literature on multinational firms and their distributors. Through a chronological description comparing traditional researches and most recent reviews, it presents the authors findings and understanding of the business relationship for a firm with its distributors. With the knowledge acquired, data from the company is mapped to the adapted assessment model, analyzed and applied in solving a real-life business problem. At the end of data analysis, analysis was made based on the findings and lessons learnt for distributors management optimization and ensuring sustainable order growth were discussed. Overall, the goal of this empirical study is to enable a MNCs or small to medium enterprises (SME) to leverage the model and learnings to assess the performance of distribution channel partners, identify gaps and opportunity, with the goal to grow order ultimately.


In The Folding Cliffs, a narrative poem with a novelistic scope, W. S. Merwin reflects on poetic thinking by availing himself of the tools of narrative. He not only depicts historic injustice against indigenous Hawaiians but also tropes the form of his storytelling to assess the history it relates and its ethical implications. To promote this assessment, Merwin inculcates a judicious self-questioning in his readers by means of his narrative structure, which emphasizes the discrepancy between plot and story. By making readers keenly aware of the mechanics of his storytelling, Merwin offers a model of narrative ethics that respects the individual's alterity.


This paper considers the design, construction, and example use of a new type of 3D printer which fabricates three-dimensional objects from soft fibers (wool and wool blend yarn). This printer allows the substantial advantages of additive manufacturing techniques (including rapid turn-around prototyping of physical objects and support for high levels of customization and configuration) to be employed with a new class of material. This material is a form of loose felt formed when fibers from an incoming feed of yarn are entangled with the fibers in layers below it. The resulting objects recreate the geometric forms specified in the solid models which specify them, but are soft and flexible -- somewhat reminiscent in character to hand knitted materials. This extends 3D printing from typically hard and precise forms into a new set of forms which embody a different aesthetic of soft and imprecise objects, and provides a new capability for researchers to explore the use of this class of materials in interactive devices.


The study examined the impact of three marketing strategies (product quality, marketing communication and relationship marketing) on the performance of selected Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The study was motivated by the fact that SMEs in Akwa Ibom State find themselves in a competitive environment and may not know which marketing strategy is effective in improving their business performances. The study adopted the survey method. 240 questionnaires were issued to SMEs in the three senatorial districts of the State. This formed the sample of the study. The data obtained was analysed using Pearson Product Moment correlation analysis which was computed electronically by the use of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21. The study revealed that there is a significant impact of product quality strategy and relationship marketing strategy on the profitability and increased market share of SMEs in Akwa Ibom State. The study recommends that SMEs should invest so much in product quality rather than in advertisement as this would enhance the firm's profitability. Also, the customers should be valued and treated as kings as cordial relationship between firm and customers results in the increase of the organizations market base.


Objective: Peritoneal adhesions following surgery are a common, serious pathology with severe complications. Appropriate animal adhesion models are essential for the assessment of adhesion preventing medical devices. This study introduces a variation of an established rat model in which highest degree adhesions are induced with excellent reproducibility (OPAM = optimized peritoneal adhesion model). Thus, this model seems to be eligible to study effects of adhesion preventing devices. Methods: 24 Lewis male rats were divided into four groups (OPAM, WSFX, sham-OPAM, sham-WSFX). The OPAM technique comprised cecal abrasion, creation of an abdominal wall defect plus approximation of injured areas by a suture, which was compared to a setting of lesions without suture fixation (WSFX). All rats were sacrificed at day 7. Macroscopic and histopathological evaluations were performed. Results were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and Dunnett's test. Results: In OPAM rats macroscopic analyses revealed a 90% incidence adhesion of cecum to the abdominal wall, all adhesions imposing as complete agglutination. In WSFX animals incidence of adhesions formation was 75%, while in both sham groups there were no adhesions at all. Histology showed the structure of adhesions with merged smooth muscle of colon and skeletal muscle of abdominal wall in all cases. Conclusion: OPAM technique provides adhesions of injured areas with a better probability than with conventional methods. All OPAM adhesions impressed as highest degree adhesions, i.e. agglutination. Due to high reproducibility in incidence and extend of adhesion formation, the OPAM is recommended for testing of adhesion prevention medical devices.


To assess the relatedness of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates and to identify the risk factors for the acquisition of MRSA bacteremia in infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), 21 bloodstream isolates from 21 infants were genotyped and other 21 infants without MRSA bacteremia were matched for a case-control study. Two genotypes (A and C) were identified by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and three genotypes (I, II and III) by infrequent-restriction-site polymerase chain reaction. Genotype C-III in 9 isolates and genotype A-I in 7 isolates were the two most common genotypes. The presence of skin infection at onset, prolonged prior duration of central venous catheter indwelling and prolonged hospital stay were significantly associated with MRSA bacteremia in these infants. With multiple logistic regression analysis, the presence of skin infection at onset was the only significant risk factor of MRSA bacteremia, with an odds ratio of 20.8 (95% CI 2.95-145.4, p =.002). Conclusively, two major clones of MRSA prevailed in our NICUs, and the presence of skin infection at onset was the risk factor for the acquisition of MRSA bacteremia in these infants.


This document specifies an RTP payload format for the Forward Error
Correction (FEC) repair data produced by the Raptor FEC Schemes.
Raptor FEC Schemes are specified for use with the IETF FEC Framework
that supports the transport of repair data over both UDP and RTP. This
document specifies the payload format that is required for the use of
RTP to carry Raptor repair flows. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


This study presents applications of a simulated annealing integrated solution algorithm to the optimum design of single-span steel truss bridges subjected to gravity loadings. In the optimum design process of a bridge the members are sized simultaneously as the coordinates of the upper chord nodes are determined such that the least design weight is attained for the structure. The design constraints and limitations are imposed in accordance with serviceability and strength provisions of ASD-AISC (Allowable Stress Design Code of American Institute of Steel Institution) specification. A numerical example is presented, where optimum designs produced according to nine alternative topological forms of single-span truss bridges, namely Pratt, Parker, Baltimore, Pettit, K-Truss, Warren, Subdivided Warren, Quadrangular Warren and Whipple are compared for a selected span length of 600 ft (182.88 m) to quantify the influence of choice of a topological form on the final design weight of the bridge.


A market share analysis is undertaken to determine the contribution of the size of market effect, the distribution effect, and the competitive effect, the distribution effect, and the competitive effect to gains for the five major farm real estate lenders. Results are used as a basis for selection of variables for a demand-supply analysis. Separate demand and supply equations for new farm real estate debt over the 1951-81 period are estimated by three-stage least squares for three major lending groups. The results are used as a basis for simulation of Federal Land Bank supply response to selected policy changes. If current market conditions continue through 1990, FLB market share is expected to decrease 12.34 percent over the 1987-90 period. Higher FLB interest rates would decrease FLB new loans sharply.


Cell lines are crucial to elucidate mechanisms of tumorigenesis and serve as tools for cancer treatment screenings. Therefore, careful validation of whether these models have conserved properties of in vivo tumors is highly important. Thyrocyte-derived tumors are very interesting for cancer biology studies because from one cell type, at least five histologically characterized different benign and malignant tumor types can arise. To investigate whether thyroid tumor-derived cell lines are representative in vitro models, characteristics of eight of those cell lines were investigated with microarrays, differentiation markers, and karyotyping. Our results indicate that these cell lines derived from differentiated and undifferentiated tumor types have evolved in vitro into similar phenotypes with gene expression profiles the closest to in vivo undifferentiated tumors. Accordingly, the absence of expression of most thyrocyte-specific genes, the nonresponsiveness to thyrotropin, as well as their large number of chromosomal abnormalities, suggest that these cell lines have acquired characteristics of fully dedifferentiated cells. They represent the outcome of an adaptation and evolution in vitro, which questions the reliability of these cell lines as models for differentiated tumors. However, they may represent useful models for undifferentiated cancers, and by their comparison with differentiated cells, can help to define the genes involved in the differentiation/dedifferentiation process. The use of any cell line as a model for a cancer therefore requires prior careful and thorough validation for the investigated property.


Sumoylation affects multiple cellular events, including chromatin inactivation and transcriptional repression. Our data provide the first characterization of small ubiquitin-related modifier-1 (SUMO-1) expression during human spermatogenesis by the use of high-resolution cellular SUMO-1 bioimaging. During human meiotic prophase, SUMO-1 localizes to sex chromosomes and centromeric and pericentromeric chromatin. As human spermatocytes progress toward the end of prophase in meiosis I, SUMO-1 is no longer detected within the sex body and pericentromeric heterochromatin but localizes exclusively to centromeres. SUMO-1 localization along sex chromosome axes, pseudoautosomal region, and centromeres of both chromosomes supports a role for SUMO-1 sumoylation in epigenetic events occurring over the entire sex body, e.g., meiotic sex chromosome inactivation and chromatin condensation. Centromeric SUMO-1 throughout meiotic prophase suggests a role in centromeric chromatin condensation and/or other centromere/kinetochore functions. SUMO-1 is likely involved in both facultative and constitutive heterochromatin processes in spermatocytes. Haploid round spermatids show a consistent association of SUMO-1 with centromeric clusters. During spermatid elongation, SUMO-1 localizes in the manchette perinuclear ring. Steroidogenic Leydig cells show some cytoplasmic but strong nuclear and perinuclear SUMO-1. Peritubular myoepithelial cell SUMO-1 colocalizes with centromeric heterochromatin. In epithelial Sertoli cells, when associated with centromeric heterochromatin, SUMO-1 is adjacent but not colocalized with the nucleolus. Male germ cells demonstrate no SUMO-1 nucleolar association. Human and rodent Sertoli cells consistently show an inverse correlation between androgen receptor (AR) and SUMO-1 expression and compartmentalization. Sertoli cells from certain infertile patients, however, showed greatly decreased SUMO-1 and AR. Our data suggest that human testicular SUMO-1 has specific functions in heterochromatin organization, meiotic centromere function, and gene expression.


This guide was designed to introduce you to library resources you can include in your Blackboard courses, and instructions for linking to them.


Introduction: Oral Submucous fibrosis (OSMF) and Oral Leukoplakia (OL) are the most common Potentially Malignant Disorders (OPMD's) seen in South Asia and South East Asian countries. A significant percentage of oral squamous carcinomas develop from pre-existing OPMD's- Candida organisms is thought to be associated with these lesions.
Aim: To determine the incidence and association of candida species in OSMF and OL.
Methods: A Case control study was undertaken in 150 participants, which were equally divided into three groups. The smear or swab taken were subjected for Gram staining and Sabouraud's dextrose agar. The Positive cultured Candida samples were analyzed by using HiMedia M 1297 HiCrome Candida Agar plates for determining the different species of Candida. Chi-square, one-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD Post Hoc test were used as statistical test.
Results: The Gram staining was positive in oral swabs of 14 (28%) participants in OSMF group and 20 (40%) participants in OL group. Similarly, the oral swabs in 28% and 40% of the participants from OSMF and OL group were positive, when cultured in Sabouraud's Dextrose Agar medium. The positive specimens on culturing in HiMedia M 1297 HiCrome Candida Agar plates detected Candida albicans and non albicans significantly (p<0.001) n OSMF and OL group.
Conclusions: The Candida albicans and non albicans are associated with OSMF and OL. The findings of our study may act as diagnostic and prognostic marker, although role of candida in carcinogenesis is still a hypothesis and requires more research.


Monoclinic BiVO4 photocatalysts were synthesized via facile and straightforward co-precipitation method at room temperature without high temperature treatment and characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), flourier transfer infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicate that through proper selection of synthesis conditions, it is possible to obtain high efficient BiVO4 nanoparticles. The as-prepared monoclinic BiVO4 photocatalysts have an average crystallite size of about 20 nm with the particle size of about 20 to 50 nm. Their photocatalytic activities were evaluated by decolorization of rhodamine B in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation, and the relationship between the photocatalytic activity of BiVO4 and their physicochemical properties were investigated.


The incorrect insertion of a chest drain can cause serious harm or even death. All elective drains should be inserted in the 'triangle of safety' in line with the British Thoracic Society guidelines. The aim of this study was to test the awareness of junior doctors involved in inserting chest drains with these guidelines. Fifty junior doctors were questioned. Participants were asked to grade their experience of chest drain insertion and mark on a diagram where they felt was the optimum site for inserting a drain for a large pneumothorax in an elective situation. Only 44% (n=22) of doctors indicated they would insert a chest drain within the safe triangle. Level of experience, seniority and specialty all had an effect on knowledge of the correct site. Of those who had inserted drains unsupervised, 48% (n=16) would site the drain outside the safe triangle as would 75% (n=6) of those who had performed the procedure supervised. Only 25% of medics knew where to insert a drain, compared with 58% of doctors working in surgery. The majority of junior doctors do not have the basic knowledge to insert a chest drain safely. Further training in this procedure is needed for junior doctors.


Background P. falciparum gametocytes may persist after treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) plus artesunate (AS) and contribute considerably to malaria transmission. We determined the efficacy of SP+AS plus a single dose of primaquine (PQ, 0.75 mg/kg) on clearing gametocytaemia measured by molecular methods. Methodology The study was conducted in Mnyuzi, an area of hyperendemic malaria in north-eastern Tanzania. Children aged 3–15 years with uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria with an asexual parasite density between 500–100,000 parasites/µL were randomized to receive treatment with either SP+AS or SP+AS+PQ. P. falciparum gametocyte prevalence and density during the 42-day follow-up period were determined by real-time nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (QT-NASBA). Haemoglobin levels (Hb) were determined to address concerns about haemolysis in G6PD-deficient individuals. Results 108 individuals were randomized. Pfs25 QT-NASBA gametocyte prevalence was 88–91% at enrolment and decreased afterwards for both treatment arms. Gametocyte prevalence and density were significantly lower in children treated with SP+AS+PQ. On day 14 after treatment 3.9% (2/51) of the SP+AS+PQ treated children harboured gametocytes compared to 62.7% (32/51) of those treated with SP+AS (p<0.001). Hb levels were reduced in the week following treatment with SP+AS+PQ and this reduction was related to G6PD deficiency. The Hb levels of all patients recovered to pre-treatment levels or greater within one month after treatment. Conclusions PQ clears submicroscopic gametocytes after treatment with SP+AS and the persisting gametocytes circulated at densities that are unlikely to contribute to malaria transmission. For individuals without severe anaemia, addition of a single dose of PQ to an efficacious antimalarial drug combination is a safe approach to reduce malaria transmission following treatment. Trial Registration Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN61534963


In the present work, our objective is to take advantage of the property presented by Ionic Liquids (ILs) based on 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations by having amphiphilic character when the alkyl group is a long hydrocarbon chain. These ILs can act as surfactants forming micelles in aqueous solution. In this sense, the micellar effect on a Diels-Alder reaction (DA) was analyzed taken as a reference. The reactive system studied consists of maleic anhydride and isoprene, variables such as diene:dienophile ratio and reaction temperatura among the most important were optimized. N,N-dodecylmethylimidazolium bromide was used at the critical micellar concentration (CMC) of 1 × 10−2 M. These "new systems" microheterogeneous would allow, in addition to better solubilization of non-polar substrates, to adopt milder reaction conditions.


The recovery of marine ecosystems in the aftermath of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction was accompanied by significant carbon-cycle perturbations, as reflected in large-amplitude global excursions in Lower Triassic carbonate carbon isotope records. In the present study, we generated paired carbonate carbon (δ13Ccarb), organic carbon (δ13Corg), and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope records along with molar C/N ratios for a composite section in the Chaohu area of Anhui Province (northern Yangtze Platform, South China) that spans the entire Lower Triassic. These records document concurrent changes among multiple proxies related to marine plankton community composition, productivity rates, and nutricline structure, providing unparalleled insights into changes at the base of the marine trophic web during the Early Triassic recovery interval.
 Changes in carbonate-organic carbon isotopic differences (Δ13Ccarb-org) and C/N ratios indicate a general shift from anoxygenic photoautotrophy to eukaryotic algal productivity during the Early Triassic. The prevalence of prokaryotic photoautotrophs in the Griesbachian to Smithian was due to frequent environmental disturbance, whereas the reestablishment of eukaryotic algae as dominant primary producers in the Spathian reflects a general amelioration of marine environments at that time. Positive δ13Ccarb excursions and brief spikes toward higher Δ13Ccarb-org and C/N ratios around the Induan-Olenekian boundary and Smithian-Spathian boundary record transient shifts toward improved conditions and temporary rebounds of algal productivity. A negative δ15N shift was associated with decreasing δ13Ccarb, indicating that marine productivity was closely linked to N-fixation intensity owing to a general nutrient-N deficiency. Synchronous fluctuations of δ13Ccarb and δ13Corg through the Olenekian reflect changes in the δ13C of oceanic dissolved inorganic carbon, but the more limited variation in δ13Corg may have been due to concurrent changes in algal-microbial assemblages and, thus, net photosynthetic fractionation of carbon isotopes.


The Landau free energy expansion as a function of three-dimensional polarization for perovskite relaxor ferroelectrics is examined to find effects of large electric fields in causing transitions from one ferroelectric state to another. Our examination of field-induced effects includes a fourth order expansion to obtain the Landau parameters for the observed temperature- and field-induced rhombohedral (R) tetragonal (T) transitions in an (001)-cut 0.70Pb(Mg1/3Mn2/3)O3-0.30PbTiO3 (PMN-30%PT) crystal. These parameters enabled us to predict the appearance of an orthorhombic (O) phase in (110)-cut PMN-30%PT crystals under an applied field. These results show that also for field-induced effects, the Landau expansion shows qualitative agreement with experiment for relaxor ferroelectrics.


ABSTRACT Pichia pastoris is considered as one of the prominent host extensively used as a platform for heterologous protein production. In the present study, the growth inhibition kinetics of recombinant P. pastoris expressing human interferon gamma was studied under different initial substrate concentrations of gluconate (10–100 g L−1) and methanol (2–50 g L−1) in modified FM22 medium. The highest specific growth rate of 0.0206 and 0.019 hr−1 was observed at 60 g L−1 of gluconate and 10 g L−1 of methanol, respectively. Various three- and four-parametric Monod-variant models were chosen to analyze the inhibition kinetics. The model parameters as well as goodness of fit were estimated using nonlinear regression analysis. The three-parameter Haldane model was found to be best fit for both gluconate (R2 = 0.95) and methanol substrate (R2 = 0.96). The parameter sensitivity analysis revealed that µmax, Ki, and Ks are the most sensitive parameters for both methanol and gluconate. Different substrate inhibition models were fitted to the growth kinetic data and the additive form of double Webb model was found to be the best to explain the growth kinetics of recombinant P. pastoris.


Although rare, acute liver failure (ALF) is associated with high levels of mortality, warranting the development of novel therapies. Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) play roles in ALF. Lipoxin A4 (LXA4) has been shown to alleviate inflammation in non-hepatic tissues. In the present study, we explored whether LXA4 exerted hepatoprotective effects in a rat model of ALF. A rat model of ALF was generated by intraperitoneal injections of D-galactosamine (300 mg/kg) and lipopolysaccharide (50 μg/kg). Animals were randomly assigned to: control group (no ALF); model group (ALF); and the groups treated with a low dose (0.5 μg/kg), medium dose (1 μg/kg), and high dose (2 μg/kg) of LXA4 (all with ALF); and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC)treated group (ALF and 100 mg/kg PDTC, an inhibitor of NF-κB). Liver histology was measured using H&E staining, serum levels by ELISA, and liver mRNA expression was measured by RT-PCR for the detection of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6. Liver cell apoptosis (as measured using the TUNEL method and examining caspase-3 activity), and Kupffer cell NF-κB activity [using an electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA)] were examined. Serum levels of transaminases, TNF-α and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were substantially higher in the model group compared to controls. In the model group, significant increases in TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA expression, TUNEL-positive cells, and caspase-3 activity in the liver tissue were noted. LXA4 improved liver pathology and significantly decreased the indicators of inflammatory response and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. High-dose LXA4 provided better protection than PDTC. LXA4 administration significantly decreased NF-κB expression in hepatocytes and Kupffer cells. These results indicated that LXA4 inhibited NF-κB activation, reduced the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and inhibited apoptosis of liver cells, thereby exerting protective effects against ALF.


Purpose The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore perceptions of people with diabetes about their experience of living with and managing their diabetes. Methods This study was part of a larger study of patients with diabetes who used a novel computer portal system for access to information about diabetes and to their health care providers for enhanced communication. The research method used for this portion of the study was grounded theory methodology, a particular kind of qualitative research method. Results A central theme generated from the data was "normalizing an identity as a person with diabetes." The participants described themselves as diabetic; they took on an identity in which having diabetes was central. They struggled with how to become "a person with diabetes" rather than a "diabetic person." Conclusions For people who are diagnosed with diabetes, there is a struggle to become a person with diabetes rather than a diabetic person and to manage the lifestyle changes that are mandated by this role/identity. One way of dealing or coping with this new identity is to begin to "normalize" these lifestyle changes—to view them as healthy living for all people, those with and without diabetes. This will then have implications for interventions—encouraging healthy lifestyles among people with diabetes rather than emphasizing that people with diabetes are "different from" the general population.


Supporting users' training and thus improving their working productivity by increasing their search performance is crucial in every day's work-life. This holds true not only for knowledge workers like auditors, who needs to stay-up-to-date with law and new compliance regulations, but also for production workers who need to improve their IT skills in order to keep pace with new technologies established within the ongoing digitalisation in Industry 4.0 (Kleindienst et al., 2016). In both settings, there is a substantial need for workers to find work-related relevant information at the right time. To achieve this, especially production workers with low IT literacy as well as auditors, who need to keep track on the continuous change of laws and rules, need informal learning opportunities on how to improve their search capabilities during their daily work. In this work, we present a first design concept of an adaptive and reflective training support widget. The widget aims at supporting workers to train new search functionalities in order to enhance their search productivity during work.


This opinion piece explores how Libya can merge its nascent renewable energy sector with the recovery of its hydrocarbon industry through a framework that treats both sectors as complementary rather than as separate entities. With the return of certain oil firms that already have a well-established knowledge of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), it may be possible for the Libyan state to create energy arrangements that see oil companies gain access to coveted oil and gas fields in exchange for assistance in not only modernizing Libya's hydrocarbon infrastructure but starting a CSP program that could see Libya reduce domestic hydrocarbon consumption. In the long run, the sale of excess electricity to Europe may also be possible.


The focus of this study is on the analysis of capillary pressure effects on well test data. Ignoring the capillary pressure is one of the assumptions that have been applied in all multiphase well test analysis approaches. In this work we investigate the influences of capillary pressure on the analysis of pressure transient data in a solution gas drive reservoir and in a reservoir containing oil and water. Reservoir simulations were performed to generate pressure and saturation data for each case and the pressure responses and the fluids saturation distribution for drawdown and build-up tests for two cases with and without capillary pressure are compared. According to the results of this study, it has been concluded that the influences of capillary pressure on fluids saturation behavior in build-up test due to importance of capillary force than viscose force in this period is more noticeable. Though the effects of capillary pressure lead to differences in the fluids saturation behavior but the authors have not observed dissimilarity in the pressure responses affected by capillary pressure for draw down and build-up test in the both reservoirs under study.


Neutral beams were proposed for plasma etching in order to reduce damage due to charging. We analyzed the efficiency of neutralization in a system proposed recently where a beam of ions was neutralized in the gas phase and in a set of narrow tubes. We studied surface neutralization as well as collisions of ions in the gas. In the case of collisions of ions with aperture walls, efficiency of neutralization was assumed to be 100%. We also investigated the influence of various parameters such as aperture length, tube diameter and initial ion energy on the efficiency of neutralization using a Monte Carlo code for ion motion simulation. In our calculations we used a well-established set of cross sections for argon.


I present a model in which weak institutions in the form of "Personal Rule" regimes compound the problem of ethnic divisions into one of bad governance because of reduced accountability of the leadership. As a consequence, the ruler can construct a kleptocratic regime in which he can steal from the citizens, included his own ethnic supporters, even though he is at the helm of a weak state. The model also predicts extensive use of patronage, and absence of investment in infrastructure. Hence, it fits the experience of bad governance, wasteful policies and kleptocracy in post-colonial Africa.


The rules that guide fiscal policy in many countries are often specified in terms of cyclically-adjusted measures of the budget deficit. Accounting for the cycle is important because public finances are flattered when the economy is cyclically strong. However measuring the cycle is difficult as the uncertainty surrounding estimates of potential output is significant, especially when the economy is hit by structural shocks. As a consequence, a fiscal framework targeting measures of cyclically-adjusted budget positions and point forecasts has led to spending and taxes being influenced by contentious forecasting assumptions. A more robust approach would take account of the unreliability of the cyclical adjustment or forecasts. A suggestion is to focus on risks around medium-term fiscal forecasts, supported by an independent watchdog. This would contribute to sustainable policy, while avoiding excess sensitivity to forecasts.


In this paper, we study the burstification effect on the TCP synchronization and TCP congestion window mechanism. It is shown that short assembly times are optimal for flows with similar characteristics, while large assembly time provide a higher notion of fairness. In addition, this paper analyzes the synchronization of multiple TCP flows when aggregated together over the same optical bursts. It is shown that there is a strong TCP synchronization effect upon burst losses, in the sense that flows' windows increase/decrease simultaneously, resulting to a significant variation of outgoing traffic. These deficiencies may be dealt with employing a multi-queue burst assembly scheme with different timers and taking into account the TCP dynamics.


OBJECTIVE
Conventional treatment of testicular seminoma has been orchiectomy followed by adjuvant lymph node irradiation. Over the last 10 years the role of postoperative elective radiotherapy has been questioned. This paper reviews the role of radiotherapy in the treatment of seminoma of the testis.

METHODS
The literature is reviewed with special reference to the results achieved in the treatment of testicular seminoma with and without radiotherapy. The advantages and disadvantages of postoperative radiotherapy, the techniques and dose administered are discussed.

RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained with radiotherapy postorchidectomy in stage I seminoma of the testis are excellent, with a disease free survival of 95%-100%. The use of more limited fields of irradiation and lower dose has reduced the radiation-induced toxicity. Currently, many centers have opted for clinical surveillance after orchiectomy. Their experience have permitted identification of the risk factors and there have been attempts to identify the group of patients that benefit from adjuvant therapy. The low incidence of stage II tumors has not permitted performing randomized studies to determine the benefits of adjuvant therapy and its comparison with chemotherapy. Consolidation radiotherapy for bulky stage II and stage III and IV tumors continues to be a controversy, although its potential value in carefully selected patients is recognized.


Experiences of "hearing voices" nowadays usually count as verbal hallucinations and they indicate serious mental illness. Some are first rank symptoms of schizophrenia, and the mass media, at least in Britain, tend to present them as antecedents of impulsive violence. They are, however, also found in other psychiatric conditions and epidemiological surveys reveal that even individuals with no need of psychiatric help can hear voices, sometimes following bereavement or abuse, but sometimes for no discernible reason. So do these experiences necessarily mean insanity and violence, and must they be thought of as pathogenic hallucinations; or are there other ways to understand them and live with them, and with what consequences?One way to make our thinking more flexible is to turn to history. We find that hearing voices was always an enigmatic experience, and the people who had it were rare. The gallery of voice hearers is, though, distinguished and it includes Galilei, Bunyan and St Teresa. Socrates heard a daemon who guided his actions, but in his time this did not signify madness, nor was it described as a hallucination. Yet in 19th century French psychological medicine the daemon became a hallucination and Socrates was retrospectively diagnosed as mentally ill. This paper examines the controversies which surrounded the experience at different points in history as well as the practice of retrospective psychiatry. The conclusion reached on the basis of the historical materials is that the experience and the ontological status it is ascribed are not trans-cultural or trans-historic but situated both in history and in the contemporary conflicts.


This study was undertaken to investigate pharmacological variables that influence the reinforcing efficacy of psychostimulants. Rhesus monkeys (n = 9) responded under a within-session, exponentially increasing, progressive ratio schedule of cocaine reinforcement. Doses of cocaine, methylphenidate (MP), cocaine analogs [(±)-2β-propanoyl-3β-(2-naphthyl)-tropane (WF-23), HD-23; (±)-2β-propanoyl-3β-(2-isopropenyl)tropane (WF-60), HD-60; and 2β-propanoyl-3β-(4-tolyl)-tropane (HD-11, WF-11), and 2β-propanoyl-3β-(4-tolyl)-tropane (HD-11, WF-11), PTT], and MP analogs [(αR,2R)-α-(2-naphthalenyl)-2-piperidineacetic acid methyl ester, HDMP-28; and (αR,2S)-α-(2-naphthalenyl)-2-pyrrolideneacetic acid methyl ester, HDMP-29] that varied in their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties were substituted for cocaine. These drugs were chosen according to their selectivity for dopamine transporters (DAT) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) transporters (5-HTT) as assessed in rodents and their duration of action. In addition, data pertaining to the rate of onset at DAT were collected for the cocaine analogs using an ex vivo binding assay in rodent tissue. Finally, the pharmacodynamic profile of select drugs was confirmed in primate brain tissue. All drugs had reinforcing effects except HDMP-29. The rank ordering of the peak breaking points (BPs) was cocaine = MP = HDMP-28 ≥ HD-60 ≥ PTT ≥ HD-23 > HDMP-29. The time to peak DAT occupancy for the cocaine analogs was greater than 30 min. The potency to maintain peak BP was significantly correlated with DAT affinity. There was not a linear relationship between monoamine transporter affinity and reinforcing efficacy, but it appeared that in nonhuman primates there is a range of DAT affinity under which maximal responding is maintained. Interestingly, the 5-HTT-selective cocaine analog HD-60 functioned robustly as a reinforcer at several doses in all monkeys tested. These data question the dogma regarding the role of pharmacokinetic factors and the relative influence of DAT and 5-HTT in stimulant reinforcement.


Abstract The aim of this article is to contextualise the study of Sovereign Wealth Funds within constitutionalism, which is construed as a limit to the exercise of power, whatever its source of inspiration. Sovereign Wealth Funds are investment funds that are owned by a sovereign government (this is the main difference from ordinary private investment funds). These funds are today major players on the global financial market and their role has increased since the start of the financial and economic crisis in 2008. This article analyses the influence of Sovereign Wealth Funds on several categories of constitutional law, such as sovereignty or the protection of fundamental rights, and suggests several remedies to improve the weak accountability and the responsibility of these funds. The final aim of this article is to prove that there can be no power without responsibility, which also applies to the power of the most powerful actors within the globalized world, such as Sovereign Wealth Funds.


Background Our objective was to estimate receipt of preconception health care among women with congenital heart defects (CHD), according to 2017 American Heart Association recommendations, as a baseline for evaluating recommendation implementation. Methods and Results Using 2007 to 2013 IBM MarketScan Commercial Databases, we identified women with CHD diagnosis codes ages 15 to 44 years who became pregnant and were enrolled in health insurance for ≥11 months in the year before estimated conception. We assessed documentation of complete blood count, electrolytes, thyroid‐stimulating hormone, liver function, ECG, comprehensive echocardiogram, and exercise stress test, using procedural codes, and outpatient prescription claims for US Food and Drug Administration category D and X cardiac‐related medications. Differences were examined according to CHD severity, age, region of residence, year of conception, and documented encounters at obstetric and cardiology practices. We found 2524 pregnancies among 2003 women with CHD (14.4% severe CHD). In the 98.3% of women with a healthcare encounter in the year before conception, <1% received all and 22.6% received no American Heart Association–recommended tests or assessments (range: 54.4% for complete blood count to 3.1% for exercise stress test). Women with the highest prevalence of receipt of recommended care were 35 to 44 years old, pregnant in 2012 to 2013, or had a documented obstetric or cardiology encounter in the year before conception (P<0.05 for all). In 9.0% of pregnancies, ≥1 prescriptions for US Food and Drug Administration category D or X cardiac‐related medications were filled in the year before conception. Conclusions A low percentage of women with CHD received American Heart Association–recommended preconception health care in the year before conception.


This thesis examines processes of peace-promotion in the Balkans since the end of the Cold War.
It is conducted from the perspective of International Relations theory and as such identifies peace
as a pattern of order defined by the analytical framework of security communities. In this respect,
the thesis argues that the initiation of a security community in the Balkans is a result of the post-
1999 international socialisation of regional decision-making by the EU and NATO. It, therefore,
advances the concept of an elite security community as the embryonic stage of securitycommunity-
building. The focus on state-elites is an outcome of the procedural dynamics of
socialisation, where it is the decision-making behaviour that signifies compliance with externallypromoted
standards. The conjecture is that the promotion of peace in the Balkans is the result of
the extension of the Euro-Atlantic security community. The inference is that both the EU and
NATO tend to be more convincing agents of socialisation as a result of their
association/partnership and accession programmes. Being a complex and context specific
process, the conditioning of Balkan states into a security-community-pattern of relations is
underwritten by the Euro-Atlantic exercise of socialising power. This notion of power, however,
is not defined as the control of policy-outcomes, but instead emphasises the ability of external
actors to cause change in decision-making behaviour. The thesis also argues that the process of
international socialisation has different effects depending on the nature of statehood in the target
entities - in integrated states the external agency is both more immediate to discern and
implement, while in awkward states the process tends to be longer and more intricate. Yet, as the
case of the Balkans attests, the extension of the Euro-Atlantic security community to the region
depends on the viable (even if distant) prospect of membership in the EU and NATO. In this way
the thesis contributes to understanding the early stages of initiating a security community, as well
as the role played by international actors in its promotion.


An adaptive, self-calibrating instrument for digital spectroscopy is proposed and demonstrated. Most of the typical processing features (pole-zero cancellation, baseline restoration, and shaping) are digitally implemented and optimized. The main feature of the processor is the capability to self-calibrate and self-optimize the configurable sections of the whole measurement setup, both digital and analog parts. This is accomplished through automatic dynamic initialization procedures, which make the system particularly user friendly and flexible to varying operative conditions while keeping very high resolution performances.


The article concerns the issue of the existence of non-obvious relationships and of potential correlations between the emission of greenhouse gases and particulate matter (PM), renewable energy and corruption perceptions. Additionally, it analyses the possible impact of these above-mentioned connections on the economic, environmental and social situation in the context of further economic development, including during the COVID-19 pandemic and in relation to European countries. The issue of reducing dirty energy sources and corrupt activities is not only a problem considered at the state level, but it is very closely related to the operation of many private enterprises. The conducted research applied methods of desk research as well as comparative quantitative analyses and used extensive statistical data of most European Union member states as well as the United Kingdom and Norway. The ambiguity of the results obtained in the research does not allow for an explicit verification of the existence of relationships between corruption and the pro-ecological initiatives influencing the lower intensity of greenhouse gases and particulate matter (PM) to the atmosphere or increasing share of renewable energy in the whole energy consumption. However, in many analysed cases it is possible to observe the occurrence of the indicated relationships, which, although not considered to be a rule, may give direction to further detailed research in this area, in particular in order to show the resulting beneficial or unfavourable implications for the performance and development of companies and the economy as a whole with rules of sustainability.


We study the neural network (NN) compression problem, viewing the tension between the compression ratio and NN performance through the lens of rate-distortion theory. We choose a distortion metric that reflects the effect of NN compression on the model output and derive the tradeoff between rate (compression) and distortion. In addition to characterizing theoretical limits of NN compression, this formulation shows that \emph{pruning}, implicitly or explicitly, must be a part of a good compression algorithm. This observation bridges a gap between parts of the literature pertaining to NN and data compression, respectively, providing insight into the empirical success of model pruning. Finally, we propose a novel pruning strategy derived from our information-theoretic formulation and show that it outperforms the relevant baselines on CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets.


INTRODUCTION
Vertical transmission of HIV can be reduced if the pregnant woman and new born child receive antiretroviral treatment. Delivery by caesarean section and avoidance of breast feeding further reduce vertical transmission. The aim of this study was to describe the treatment of HIV-positive pregnant women in Denmark and the risk of vertical transmission.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We retrospectively describe the risk of vertical transmission of HIV among HIV-positive women giving birth in Denmark during the period, mid-1994 to February 2000.

RESULTS
Fifty children were born. One mother gave birth twice during the study period, and one had twins. Five (10%) children were infected. All five were born by vaginal delivery. Three of the five mothers and three of the children did not receive antiretroviral treatment. The remaining two mothers were only given intrapartum treatment. In none of the five mothers was the HIV-infection known until the time of delivery or later. Transmission of HIV did not occur in the 34 mother-child pairs who received antepartum and intrapartum antiretroviral treatment, who had a caesarean delivery, who did not breast-feed, and whose children were given postpartum antiretroviral treatment.

DISCUSSION
It is important to identify HIV-infection in pregnant women in order to provide the relevant treatment and prevent vertical transmission of HIV.


Hypergraph offers a framework to depict the multilateral relationships in real-world complex data. Predicting higher-order relationships, i.e hyperedge, becomes a fundamental problem for the full understanding of complicated interactions. The development of graph neural network (GNN) has greatly advanced the analysis of ordinary graphs with pair-wise relations. However, these methods could not be easily extended to the case of hypergraph. In this paper, we generalize the challenges of GNN in representing higher-order data in principle, which are edge- and node-level ambiguities. To overcome the challenges, we present SNALS that utilizes bipartite graph neural network with structural features to collectively tackle the two ambiguity issues. SNALS captures the joint interactions of a hyperedge by its local environment, which is retrieved by collecting the spectrum information of their connections. As a result, SNALS achieves nearly 30% performance increase compared with most recent GNN-based models. In addition, we applied SNALS to predict genetic higher-order interactions on 3D genome organization data. SNALS showed consistently high prediction accuracy across different chromosomes, and generated novel findings on 4-way gene interaction, which is further validated by existing literature.


Space in a household is not only a private commodity but also it has alternative uses. Scarcity and alternative uses of space compel occupants in a household to choose what they have to do with their limited space against unlimited spatial needs. A household becomes a ''home'', when it serves spatial needs of its occupants and helps them to realize maximum potential of their capabilities. Space scarcity is reflecting not only existing standard of living of people but also acts as a predictor of their future attainments. In this article we present spatial conditions of scheduled caste households in caste settlement colonies in Kerala. We argue that present residential conditions and space availability among scheduled caste households in caste settlement colonies in Kerala cause denial of many human rights including conjugal rights and sexual privacy to them. We suggest that housing policies of the state must give more importance to qualitative aspects of 'space' in household rather than quantitative aspects like how many number of houses we add every year.


Background Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important cause of lower respiratory tract disease in early life and a target for vaccine prevention. Data on the age-prevalence of RSV specific antibodies will inform on optimizing vaccine delivery. Methods Archived plasma samples were randomly selected within age strata from 960 children less than 145 months of age admitted to Kilifi County Hospital pediatric wards between 2007 and 2010. Samples were tested for antibodies to RSV using crude virus IgG ELISA. Seroprevalence (and 95% confidence intervals) was estimated as the proportion of children with specific antibodies above a defined cut-off level. Nested catalytic models were used to explore different assumptions on antibody dynamics and estimate the rates of decay of RSV specific maternal antibody and acquisition of infection with age, and the average age of infection. Results RSV specific antibody prevalence was 100% at age 0-<1month, declining rapidly over the first 6 months of life, followed by an increase in the second half of the first year of life and beyond. Seroprevalence was lowest throughout the age range 5–11 months; all children were seropositive beyond 3 years of age. The best fit model to the data yielded estimates for the rate of infection of 0.78/person/year (95% CI 0.65–0.97) and 1.69/person/year (95% CI 1.27–2.04) for ages 0-<1 year and 1-<12 years, respectively. The rate of loss of maternal antibodies was estimated as 2.54/year (95% CI 2.30–2.90), i.e. mean duration 4.7 months. The mean age at primary infection was estimated at 15 months (95% CI 13–18). Conclusions The rate of decay of maternal antibody prevalence and subsequent age-acquisition of infection are rapid, and the average age at primary infection early. The vaccination window is narrow, and suggests optimal targeting of vaccine to infants 5 months and above to achieve high seroconversion.


Uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC) is an uncommon histologic variant of endometrial carcinoma that typically arises in post menopausal women, that may present with extrauterine spread, resulting in high relapse rate and poor prognosis. Mature cystic teratomas (MCT) are common tumors that occur during the reproductive years. We report a case of a 60 years old female with UPSC with MCT of left ovary. To our knowledge, this is the second report of UPSC combined with ovarian MCT.


Temporal or spatio-temporal sequential pattern discovery is a well-recognized important problem in many domains like seismology, criminology, and finance. The majority of the current approaches are based on candidate generation which necessitates parameter tuning, namely, definition of a neighborhood, an interest measure, and a threshold value to evaluate candidates. However, their performance is limited as the success of these methods relies heavily on parameter settings. In this paper, we propose an algorithm which uses a nonparametric stochastic de-clustering procedure and a multivariate Hawkes model to define triggering relations within and among the event types and employs the estimated model to extract significant triggering patterns of event types. We tested the proposed method with real and synthetic data sets exhibiting different characteristics. The method gives good results that are comparable with the methods based on candidate generation in the literature.


The pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), is a major global pest of cotton. Current management practices include chemical insecticides, cultural strategies, sterile insect releases, and transgenic cotton producing crystalline (Cry) protein toxins of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). These strategies have contributed to eradication of P. gossypiella from the cotton growing areas of the United States and northern Mexico. However, this pest has evolved resistance to Bt cotton in Asia, where it remains a critical pest, and the benefits of using transgenic Bt crops have been lost. A complete annotated reference genome is needed to improve global Bt resistance management of the pink bollworm. We generated the first chromosome-level genome assembly for pink bollworm from a Bt-susceptible laboratory strain (APHIS-S) using PacBio continuous long reads for contig generation, Illumina Hi-C for scaffolding, and Illumina whole-genome re-sequencing for error-correction. The psuedohaploid assembly consists of 29 autosomes and the Z sex chromosome. The assembly exceeds the minimum Earth BioGenome Project quality standards, has a low error-rate, is highly contiguous at both the contig and scaffold level (L/N50 of 18/8.26 MB and 14/16.44 MB, respectively), and complete, with 98.6% of lepidopteran single-copy orthologs represented without duplication. The genome was annotated with 50% repeat content and 14,107 protein-coding genes, further assigned to 41,666 functional annotations. This assembly represents the first publicly available complete annotated genome of pink bollworm and will serve as the foundation for advancing molecular genetics of this important pest species.


A resource management framework, called dynamic resource scheduling (DRS), is presented and evaluated for W-CDMA systems. Dynamic resource scheduling provides QoS provisioning through optimal power assignment and code hopping by its adaptability according to the instantaneous traffic load and interference conditions. In this paper, error and bandwidth QoS parameters are considered; power is treated as the common resource. DRS is observed from the power control point of view, and the uplink channel performance is evaluated. Initial results show that DRS provides higher capacity and throughput, more stable QoS maintenance and lower power usage as compared to existing schemes. The DRS framework efficiently serves different traffic classes with CBR, VBR, ABR and UBR characteristics.


PURPOSE
This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of periodontal bone loss and to assess the prevalence of self-reported medical conditions in patients with and without periodontal bone loss in Saudi Arabia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 2103 dental records with complete data from patients > or = 18 years of age admitted to the King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Dentistry during the year 2005 were included. Age, gender, nationality and self reported medical history were abstracted from the dental records. Periodontal bone loss was determined by a single examiner using panoramic radiographs that were taken prior to any dental treatment. Descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square and logistic regression models were used for data analyses.

RESULTS
About 20% of the study sample reported a positive history for one or more medical conditions. Diabetes was the most frequently reported condition (7.4%), followed by hypertension (5.4%) and anemia (3%). Radiographic alveolar bone loss at one or more sites was found in 71.6% of the sample. The mean number of sites with alveolar bone loss was significantly higher among individuals with diabetes and hypertension than those without these conditions (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Prevalence of periodontal bone loss is high in the present sample, especially among those with chronic medical conditions. Collaboration between dental and medical professionals is needed for better oral and general health.


A novel photonic instantaneous microwave frequency measurement system based on signal remodulation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Modulation and remodulation are achieved using a single electroabsorption modulator operating bidirectionally. The RF power and frequency are derived from the RF tone powers of the modulated and remodulated signals, respectively. The incoherent operation principle of the proposed system enables a high resolution measurement with reduced ambiguity over a large frequency range.


Introduction : The knowledge of the relationship between Visceral Leishmaniosis and climatic aspects is already well established in the literature of other countries, but lack data of this relationship in Brazil. Objective : This study aimed to describe the seasonal distribution of hospitalizations for Visceral Leishmaniosis (VL) in a referral hospital for infectious diseases located in an endemic area of the semiarid in the Northeast of Brazil. Methods : The number of monthly hospitalizations between 2003 and 2012 was recorded retrospectively and was correlated with climate variables. Results : During this period 1,302 patients were hospitalized. We observed an inverse relationship with the monthly amount of precipitation (r = - 0.725; p = 0.008), the number of days per month with precipitation (r = - 0.683; p = 0.0144) and relative humidity (r = - 0.746; p = 0.005) when compared with the monthly number of hospitalizations due to VL. Inversely, there was a direct relationship with the maximum monthly mean temperature and the number of hospitalizations due to VL (r = 0.643; p = 0.024). Conclusions : The rainy season, characterized by more rainfall and higher humidity, was correlated with fewer hospitalizations for VL. Conversely, in months with higher temperatures the number of hospitalizations for VL was higher.


This paper addresses the unit commitment in multi-period combined heat and power (CHP) production planning, considering the possibility to trade power on the spot market. We present a modified unit decommitment algorithm (MUD) that starts with a good feasible initial solution generated by a heuristic procedure. The heuristic procedure utilizes both the Lagrangian relaxation principle to relax the system-wide (heat and power) demand constraints and a linear relaxation of the ON/OFF states of the plants. Numerical results with realistic power plants show that on the average MUD is somewhat more accurate (0.3--0.5%) than a generic unit decommitment algorithm and significantly more efficient (1.1--3 times faster) for different planning horizons.


Objective: The method to treating cancer that combines light and light-sensitive drugs to selectively destroy tumour cells without harming healthy tissue is called photodynamic therapy (PDT). It requires accurate data for light dose distribution, generated with scalable algorithms. One of the benchmark approaches involves Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. This gives an accurate assessment of light dose distribution, but is very demanding in computation time, which prevents routine application for treatment planning. Methods: In order to resolve this problem, a design for MC simulation based on the gold standard software in biophotonics was implemented with a large modern wavelet based genetic algorithm search (WGAS). Result: The accuracy of the proposed method was compared to that with the standard optimization method using a realistic skin model. The maximum stop band attenuation of the designed LP, HP, BP and BS filters was assessed using the proposed WGAS algorithm as well as with other methods. Conclusion: In this paper, the proposed methodology employs intermediate wavelets which improve the diversification rate of the charged genetic algorithm search and that leads to significant improvement in design effort efficiency.


A high prevalence of low serum vitamin B-12 concentrations has been reported in studies and surveys in Latin America including Mexico, but the functional consequences are unknown. This randomized controlled trial assessed the response to a high-dose vitamin B-12 supplementation of women in rural Querétaro, Mexico. Participants aged 20-59 y were stratified at baseline to deficient, marginal, and adequate status groups (serum vitamin B-12, 75-148, 149-220, and >220 pmol/L, respectively), and each group was randomized to vitamin B-12 treatment (single dose of 1 mg i.m. then 500 μg/d orally for 3 mo, n = 70) or placebo (n = 62). Measures at baseline and 3 mo included: complete blood count, serum vitamin B-12, holotranscobalamin (holoTC), folate, ferritin, C-reactive protein (CRP), bone alkaline phosphatase, and methylmalonic acid (MMA) and plasma total homocysteine (tHcy). At baseline, 11% of the women were vitamin B-12 deficient and 22% had marginal status. HoloTC was low (<35 pmol/L) in 23% and correlated with serum vitamin B-12 (r = 0.7; P < 0.001). Elevated MMA (>271 nmol/L) and tHcy (>12 μmol/L) occurred in 21 and 31%, respectively, and correlated with serum vitamin B-12 (r = -0.28, P < 0.0007 and r = -0.20, P < 0.01, respectively). Supplementation increased serum vitamin B-12 and holoTC and lowered MMA and tHcy, normalizing all values except for elevated tHcy in 21% of the women. Supplementation did not affect hematology or bone-specific alkaline phosphatase. Vitamin B-12 supplementation normalized biochemical indicators of vitamin B-12 status in the treatment group but did not affect the functional outcomes measured.


Many scenarios, such as network analysis, utility monitoring, and financial applications, generate massive streams of data. These streams consist of millions or billions of simple updates every hour, and must be processed to extract the information described in tiny pieces. These notes provide an introduction to (and set of references for) data stream algorithms, and some of the techniques that have been developed over recent years to help mine the data while avoiding drowning in these massive flows of information.


There is no comparison between this new, sixth edition, and the last, fifth edition, of this useful text, originally published in 1958 by Dr Manter. Drs Gilman and Winans have completely rewritten and reorganized the text, making this now a splendid overview of the essentials of clinical neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. Although the contents are organized similarly to previous editions, the present authors have revised all sections, incorporating a number of recent advances that have occurred in our knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. Updated material includes mention of the enkephalins and endorphins and new methods of studying nerve denervation by the Nauta method over the usual Marchi method. It would have been appropriate to include a brief section on the physiology of the cerebral circulation and on cerebral metabolism, and to at least mention that the carotid and vertebral arteries arise from the heart and aorta