Hydraulic fracturing is widely used to improve well productivity especially in unconventional reservoirs. This costly operation, however, sometimes underperforms. One of the main reasons for this poor performance is poor clean-up efficiency of injected fracturing fluid (FF). In this work, a parametric study of FF clean-up efficiency of hydraulic fractured vertical wells was performed with 49152 simulations (in 12 sets) consisting of injection, soaking and production periods. Due to the large number of required simulations, that were conducted using a commercial reservoir simulator, a developed computer code was used to automatically read input data, run simulations and creates output data. In each set (consisting of 4096 runs), simultaneous impacts of 12 parameters (fracture permeability, matrix permeability and capillary pressure, end points and exponents of Corey gas and FF relative permeability curve in both matrix and fracture)were studied. To sample the variables domain and analyse results, two-level full factorial experimental design and linear surface model describing dependency of gas production loss (GPL), compared to 100% clean-up, to pertinent parameters at three production periods (10, 30 and 365 days) were considered and supported by the tornado charts of fitted equations, frequency of simulations with given GPL and FF saturation maps. Results indicate that generally parameters controlling FF mobility within fracture had greatest impact on GPL reduction. However in sets with very low matrix permeability especially when applied pressure drop during production is low, the effect of fluid mobility in the matrix on GPL is more pronounced, in other words, it is important how gas and FF flow within matrix rather than how fast fracture is cleaned. In tighter gas formations, generally more GPL and slower clean-up was observed. The effect of matrix capillary pressure on GPL reduction was more pronounced when drawdown was very low and/or soaking time was extended. This observation was more profound in tighter formations, i.e. for these formations, the effect of a change in drawdown and/or soaking time on matrix capillary pressure and GPL was more pronounced. These findings can be used to make better decisions on the performance and optimised design of hydraulic fracturing, which is a costly but widely used stimulation technique for unconventional low permeability gas reservoirs.


A new solution for an ultra-low-voltage, ultra-low-power operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is presented in the paper. The design exploits a three-stage structure with a Reversed Miller Compensation Scheme, where the input stage is based on a non-tailed bulk-driven differential pair. Optimization of the structure for very low supply voltage is discussed. The resulting amplifier outperforms other ultra-low-voltage OTAs in terms of a DC voltage gain and power efficiency, expressed by standard figures of merit. Experimental verification using a $0.18~\mu \text{m}$ CMOS technology, with supply voltage of 0.3-V, showed a dissipation power of 13 nW, a DC voltage gain of 98 dB, a gain-bandwidth product of 3.1 kHz and an average slew-rate of 9.1 V/ms at 30 pF load capacitance. The experimental results agree well with simulations.


For enhancing the security of ubiquitous communication, we have to consider three keywords: mobility, wireless, and low computing capability. In this paper, we study one of suitable security protocols for the ubiquitous communication environment. We discuss RSA-based password-authenticated key exchange (RSA-PAKE) protocols for imbalanced wireless networks where a party uses a low-power device to communicate with another party equipped with a powerful computing device. For imbalanced wireless network applications, it is important to reduce the cost of communication for a low-power device even though the cost for powerful devices is increasing. The most power-consuming operation in RSA-PAKE protocols is the reliability test of unauthorized RSA public keys. Hence, it is important to design an efficient reliability test method to construct an efficient RSA-PAKE protocol. In this paper, we propose a new reliability test technique and design a provably secure RSA-PAKE protocol using the technique. Our protocol is suitable for securing the communications conducted over imbalanced wireless networks since the operations computed by one communicating party are efficient enough to be implemented on most low-power devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. The cost of a low-power device is reduced by 84.25% compared with CEKEP, the most efficient RSA-PAKE protocol. We prove the security of our protocol under a firmly formalized security model.


Generally we have survey of Drinking Water some area in Betul, M.P. and where are having the population approximately 1,50,000 and the chief sources for water supply are the Handpumps, Borewells, Wells, Ponds, Dam and River etc. Such parameters applied for monitoring of Drinking Water qualities for practical and studies proposes. We are using some analytical parameter such as Temperature, pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Alkalinity, Hardness, Chlorides and Fluoride quantities in domestic Drinking Water.


This study examined whether clinical measures of handgrip limitation relate to laboratory measures of grip force impairment during a pinch grip, lift, and hold task post-stroke. Handgrip ability in 45 people with stroke who had residual grip ability was examined relative to 45 age-matched healthy adults. The clinical tests included items from a) the Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test; b) the Motor Assessment Scale; c) the Functional Independence Measure (FIM); and d) a custom-designed survey about hand-use in daily life. The laboratory test was summarized by principal components: 1) Pre-Lift Delay and 2) Grip Force Dyscontrol. For the stroke group, a moderate to strong correlation was found between Pre-Lift Delay and each clinical measure of handgrip limitation (rs=0.70-0.85) except the FIM (rs=0.38-0.49). In contrast, Grip Force Dyscontrol was not associated with handgrip limitation on any of the clinical tests (rs=-0.08 to 0.18).


Rapid development of evolving software systems is highly associated with the ability to react quickly to changing user requirements. This paper presents a coherent set of technologies for simplifying the path from evolving requirements to code. The most important novel element on this path is a language defined at the level of requirements (understandable for non-IT experts) that is equipped with operational semantics. This means that it is possible to translate specifications written in this language, automatically into executable code. The language also allows for easy detection of changes in requirements. This detection can be propagated down to the code structure and appropriate code parts (these that are not automatically generated) indicated for rework. It will be demonstrated that the presented approach is effective and suitable for a wide range of problem domains as opposed to domain-specific approaches. This will be shown through a case study for a typical business software system, performed with a novel tool suite.


The impact of a mussel bed on the neighbouring pelagic food web is investigated by a comparative study of the vertical distribution of plankton above a mussel bed with that above a bare sandy bottom. The use of conventional water bottles did not reflect the near-bed dynamics. However, use of a high-resolution water sampler in the bottom 1 m of the water column above the sea floor revealed statistically significant differences. The results document for the first time in situ grazing on all major components of the pelagic food web. The vertical distributions of phytoplankton, bacteria, protozoa, meroplankton and copepods were statistically significantly different above the mussel and sand beds. The mussel bed recycled nutrients back to the water column as waste products. The pre- sent investigation stresses the need for a more diverse view of the trophic role of suspension-feeding bivalves in shallow coastal ecosystems.


The open field test is used to assess ambulation and anxiety; one way to assess anxiety is to compare ambulation in the center with ambulation in the periphery: the more anxious is the mouse, the less it moves in the center. The results of this report cast doubts on the generality of that rule, because they show that ambulation, both in the center and in the periphery, depends on the mouse strain and on the size of the open field; specifically, in a brightly lit open-field of moderate size (38 x 31 x 25 cm), ambulation in the center reflects anxiety in Balb/c mice, but not in C57Bl/6 mice. Yet, a large open-field (100 x 100 x 30 cm), receiving approximately the same amount of light as in the mouse room, allows assessment of anxiety and exploration-driven ambulation in both strains of mice. To do that, the author of this report proposes (i) to express ambulation in normalized scores (i.e., ambulation per surface unit) to verify that ambulation in the periphery is higher than ambulation in the center, (ii) to use an open field sufficiently large so that mice of any strain ambulate more in the periphery than in the center, and (iii) to measure ambulation in concentric strips of the open field and plot ambulation against the distance of the strips from the wall: it is proposed that the intercept of the line reflects explorationdriven ambulation whereas the slope reflects fear of leaving the wall.


Farmers growing food with high eco-efficiency may be seen cultivating peace by reducing competition among nations for oil and as producers of other public goods: biodiverse landscapes and ecosystem services with more soil fertility, less water use and less pollution. How does Organic agriculture (OA) fare globally on eco-efficiency? Are most African farmers eco-efficient – or may eco-efficient farmers be found everywhere? As OA develops throughout the planet, what does Denmark do beyond Europe? Is organic farming part of our development policy? Do we dilligently share our comparative advantages in this field with developing nations? This article pursues these basic questions.


In this paper the process of silicon anodization as a structuring technique is discussed. 3D-structuring is achieved by 3D control of current density in an anodization process. In contrast to conventional ECM techniques electrodes as structured thin layers on the work piece are used. For the shape controlling of etch form frontside masking design and local backside doping are presented. Influences of the opening size and etch depth on the shape of the etch form is shown. The surface quality of the resulting 3D structures is investigated, with best surface quality (about 1 nm rms) being obtained for electropolishing in 7 wt.% HF at applied current densities of 100 ‑ 300 mA/cm². Application of 3D silicon forms for injection moulding is demonstrated and further implementations of the process for optical and fluidic devices are discussed.


A prospective blind trial was undertaken to assess the usefulness of commonly used tests to diagnose osteomyelitis underlying pressure sores. Sixty-one pressure sores were studied, with a histopathologic diagnosis from the ostectomy specimen being available in 52. White cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, plain pelvic x-ray, technetium-99m bone scan, computerized tomography, and Jamshidi needle bone biopsy were studied. The most useful individual test was a needle bone biopsy, with a sensitivity of 73 percent and a specificity of 96 percent. Technetium-99m bone scans and computerized tomography are not indicated in the diagnosis of osteomyelitis associated with pressure sores. Plain pelvic x-ray, white cell count, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate, with a diagnosis of osteomyelitis if any test is positive, is the most sensitive (89 percent), specific (88 percent), noninvasive workup. Jamshidi needle biopsy may be useful where these tests are negative and a clinical suspicion of osteomyelitis remains. Extent of surgical debridement and antibiotic therapy can then be rationally decided on the basis of this information.


Abstract
The Workers' Compensation Board is mostly involved in secondary and tertiary prevention of work-related accidents and disease. Through its new Medical Rehabilitation Strategy, the board will help to ensure that optimal health care programs are available to injured workers. For workers who are left with restricted function, even after the best possible health care, vocational rehabilitation or tertiary prevention programs are offered. In both phases the primary care physician has a key function and must be familiar with the "state of the art" treatment of so-called minor trauma and activity-related disorders. Physicians also must recognize the importance of providing a reasonable prognosis as early as possible because it will drive the vocational rehabilitation planning process.


Nitric oxide (NO) is drawing widespread attention in treating pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) as a safe and therapeutically efficient technique through modulating the dense fibrotic stroma in the tumor microenvironment to enhance drug penetration. Considerable NO nanogenerators and NO releasing molecules have been developed to shield the systemic toxicity caused by free diffusion of NO gas. However, on-demand controlled release of NO and chemotherapy drugs at tumor sites remains a problem limited by the complex and dynamic tumor microenvironment. Herein, we present an ultrasound-responsive nanoprodrug of CPT-t-R-PEG2000@BaTiO3 (CRB) which encapsulates piezoelectric nanomaterials barium titanate nanoparticle (BaTiO3) with amphiphilic prodrug molecules that consisted of thioketal bond (t) linked chemotherapy drug camptothecin (CPT) and NO-donor l-arginine (R). Based on ultrasound-triggered piezocatalysis, BaTiO3 can continuously generate ROS in the hypoxic tumor environment, which induces a cascade of reaction processes to break the thioketal bond to release CPT and oxidize R to release NO, simultaneously delivering CPT and NO to the tumor site. It is revealed that CRB shows a uniform size distribution, prolonged blood circulation time, and excellent tumor targeting ability. Moreover, controlled release of CPT and NO were observed both in vitro and in vivo under the stimulation of ultrasound, which is beneficial to the depletion of dense stroma and subsequently enhanced delivery and efficacy of CPT. Taken together, CRB significantly increased the antitumor efficacy against highly malignant Panc02 tumors in mice through inhibiting chemoresistance, representing a feasible approach for targeted therapies against Panc02 and other PDAC.


Little work has been done to evaluate the progress made in potato improvement in Ethiopia during the past three decades and information about traits most contributing to progress in yield is scarce. Hence, this experiment was conducted to estimate rate of genetic improvement made over time in yield and to determine traits most contributing to progress in tuber yield. Twenty varieties of potato released in Ethiopia between 1987 and 2013 and one farmers` cultivar were evaluated at Holetta and Adaberga, central highlands of Ethiopia in 2017 main cropping season. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Analysis of variance for tuber yield and tuber related traits showed the existence of highly significant (P < 0.01) differences between varieties for all traits. There was a total tuber yield increment of 137.39 and 0.851% over farmers` cultivar and the oldest variety, respectively. The relative rate of gain was 1.15 and 1.42% year-1 for total tuber yield and marketable tuber yield, respectively. The annual rate of genetic progress was found to be 0.3177 and 0.3401 ton year-1 for total tuber yield and marketable tuber yield, respectively.

 Key words: Genetic progress, tuber yield, yields related traits, Solanum tuberosum L., regression.


This article presents a simple procedure for assessing the relative impact of luck and skill in determining investment performance. The procedure is then applied to the large-cap value managers. The results are consistent with earlier work that suggests that the great majority of the cross-sectional variation in fund performance is due to random noise.


ABSTRACT Background: Enlargement of the spleen is commonly observed in animal models of cancer. Here, in a breast cancer model, it was aimed to determine the effect of splenectomy on circulating and tumor-infiltrating myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), tumor angiogenesis, and metastasis. Methods: Mice were inoculated with 4T1 breast cancer cells and underwent splenectomy or sham laparotomy. Tumor growth and survival of animals were followed. Macroscopic and histopathological analyses were performed to determine splenomegaly and metastasis. Immunophenotyping of myeloid cells was performed with flow cytometric analysis of CD11b, Gr-1, F4/80, CD206, CD11c, and F4/80 markers. Suppressive function of MDSCs on T cell proliferation was studied in cocultures. Tumor angiogenesis and granulocytic myeloid cell infiltration in the metastatic foci were studied by CD31 and Ly6G immunohistochemistry, respectively. Results: The mice bearing breast tumors underwent total splenectomy at an early time point of tumorigenesis when only low levels of MDSCs had accumulated in the spleen. Circulating and tumor-infiltrating MDSCs, and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) were increased following splenectomy. Nevertheless, splenectomy could only lead to a temporary deceleration in tumor growth but favored lung metastasis and angiogenesis in the long run. Conclusion: Our data demonstrated a link among splenectomy-induced leukocytosis, accumulation of circulating and tumor-infiltrating MDSC, and enhanced angiogenesis and metastasis. Therefore, as a part of oncological surgery, favorable and unfavorable facets of the splenectomy must be considered to improve therapeutic efficacy.


A great progress in the knowledge about hepatitis virus has occurred in the last decades and several virus have been identified. Virus B, C and D are transmitted parenterally, while virus A and E use the enteral route. Highly effective vaccines for A and B hepatitis are presently available. Virus C is an important cause of chronic liver disease at the present moment. Since the identification of virus C and E, the number of acute hepatitis denominated as non A non B has decreased considerable. Although there are still patients with viral hepatitis of unknown origin and there is considerable effort to identify the agents causing them. Virus G and TT are frequently present in the sera of patients with chronic liver diseases but their real pathogenic role is not completely elucidated


Oil and gas industry are among the largest contributor to the Indonesia's foreign exchange. Many believe that information technology will be major driver for economic wealth in the oil and gas Industry. However, implementing information technology to support corporate business process brings vast information security risks. There is a need of comprehensive information security governance that can comply to information security standards and regulations. This research is conducted to evaluate the use of multiple ISG frameworks for implementing information security governance in a multinational oil and gas company. In detail, we evaluate the effectiveness of such framework, assess its implementation maturity level, and identify the success and inhibiting factors for implementing ISG frameworks. This study shows that framework XYZ, as a multiple ISG framework, is effective to cover the controls of ISO 17799, COSO, and IT Risk Framework at once. Meanwhile, the observed case study indicated lack of compliancy of Framework XYZ followed by the invention of gap between current ISG implementation efforts and company visions. Lastly, several success and inhibiting factors are identified in the ISG framework implementation at PT X.


We propose a typed call-by-name λ-calculus with shift, reset and strict functions and describe its linguistic applications, improving on the previous continuation-based analyses of quantification, binding, raised and in-situ wh-questions, binding in wh-questions, and superiority. The evaluation order is not fixed left-to-right: rather, it is determined by the demand for values exerted by reset and strict functions. Since functions can take general, effectful terms, our analyses need no thunks and similar type raising. The main improvement of the present analyses is in typing: assigning types both to terms and contexts and building types using connectives with clear logical interpretation. Types abstractly interpret operational semantics, and thus concisely describe all the effects that could occur in the evaluation of a term. Our main result is that both typing and call-by-name are necessary to correctly predict superiority and binding in wh-questions with topicalization, without resorting to thunking or type raising and thus maintaining the uniformity of the analyses. We have implemented the calculus including the type checking and mechanically verified all the analyses.


CD4 lymphocyte cells are the primary targets of Human immune-deficiency virus (HIV). Enumeration of CD4 T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood is used in the assessment of disease clinical stage, risk of  opportunistic infections, evaluation of prognosis and guide decision on the commencement of  antiretroviral therapy. The objective was to determine CD4 cells profile of HIV sero-positive naive  patients in Kogi State University Teaching Hospital( KSUTH) Anyigba. A total of 404 HIV sero-positive Highly Active Anti Retro Viral Treatment ( HAART) naive patients comprising 147(36.4%) males and  257 (63.6%) females were examined. Approval was obtained from ethical committee of Kogi State University Teaching Hospital (KSUTH), Anyigba. Written and verbal informed consent was taken from all patients. The overall mean age of patients was 33.0 ± 12.7 years and female-male ratio was  1.7:1. Majority of patients were in the clinical stage two 121(30.5%) and three 200(50.4%). Patients had overall mean CD4 cells count of 381.8 ± 240.8 cells /mm3. Patients CD4 cells count varied statistically with the HIV clinical staging (F =4.512 & P value=0.004) and statistically insignificant with gender (P value = 0.7562 & t Test= 0.3106) and tuberculosis status (P value=0.223 & F=  1.505).Conclusion: This study showed HIV sero-positive HAART naive patients presented in KSUTH with mean age of 33 years. Majority of patients presented in disease clinical stage two and three with a mean CD4 cells counts of 381.8 cells/mm3 . This study recommend the need to reduce stigmatization, discrimination and promote early access to treatment , care and support services. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, CD4, Patient/clients, KSUTH, Nigeria.


Édouard Glissant has often been called a novelist, an essayist, a theorist, and—his preference—a poet, but he has less frequently been called a philosopher. Despite the ontological and epistemological thrust of his notions of creolization, Relation, and the Tout-Monde, Glissant always balked at the self-enclosed systems associated with philosophy. Yet his work, in its terminological consistency and conceptual rigor, undeniably develops a kind of system—a système non systématique, to quote a short letter that Glissant wrote to his friend and colleague Alexandre Leupin. This paradox lies at the heart of Leupin's rich and original new study, Édouard Glissant, philosophe, which argues that Glissant is a philosopher precisely in his challenge to Plato's banishment of poetry from the realm of rational philosophical inquiry. Against the Platonic quest for fixed forms of Truth and Being, Glissant allows the unpredictable play of poetic language to generate an ontic system of ongoing creation and perpetual becoming. He thereby inscribes himself into a lineage running from Heraclitus through Hegel, following a particular line of Western thought in order ultimately to dispel the idea that philosophy belongs exclusively to the West. According to Leupin, Hegel is Glissant's primary philosophical interlocutor throughout his career. On the surface, this is a surprising claim given that Hegel's name shows up sparingly in Glissant's work (compared with, say, Deleuze) and that, when Glissant does mention Hegel, particularly in Le discours antillais (1981), it is to criticize his Eurocentrism, universalist History, and racism. Yet, as Leupin demonstrates in detail, Hegel was a key figure in Glissant's education, and Hegelian processes underlie much of his thinking: the negation of African cultures in the slave trade forces the synthesis of new Caribbean cultures, in Relation; reflections on particularities always open onto a broader thinking of totality; and for both thinkers, human knowledge originates in a poème primordial, although for Glissant this poem is not a simple origin but an ongoing, endless textual "weave." Early authors of this poème primordial, Leupin explains, included the pre-Socratics, especially Heraclitus, whose maxims on totality and becoming Glissant would adopt and reconfigure. Glissant's egalitarian vision of the Tout-Monde—where forms, ideas, bodies, and landscapes interact in the same immanent space—largely results from his conversation with these anteand anti-Platonic philosophers. Glissant is not the only twentieth-century thinker to question the Platonic tradition, however, and we know that Glissant was in direct conversation with at least two others: Deleuze and Derrida. Leupin mentions them both several times but never analyzes their relationship to Glissant in detail. While Édouard Glissant, philosophe is refreshing in its claim that Glissant is a philosopher irreducible to academic labels rather than a postcolonial 'theorist' reliant on post-structuralism, the reader is left with questions about how Glissant conversed with his contemporaries. Given Leupin's close personal relationship with Glissant, he would seem particularly well positioned to address these questions. Still, this book is an indispensable reference for how Glissant engages deeply with Western philosophy and constructs a stunningly original philosophical system (albeit non systématique) of his own. NEAL ALLAR Tsinghua University


Federated learning (FL) is a collaborative learning paradigm for decentralized private data from mobile terminals (MTs). However, it suffers from issues in terms of communication, resource of MTs, and privacy. Existing privacy-preserving FL methods usually adopt the instance-level differential privacy (DP), which provides a rigorous privacy guarantee but with several bottlenecks: severe performance degradation, transmission overhead, and resource constraints of edge devices such as MTs. To overcome these drawbacks, we propose Fed-LTP, an efficient and privacy-enhanced FL framework with \underline{\textbf{L}}ottery \underline{\textbf{T}}icket \underline{\textbf{H}}ypothesis (LTH) and zero-concentrated D\underline{\textbf{P}} (zCDP). It generates a pruned global model on the server side and conducts sparse-to-sparse training from scratch with zCDP on the client side. On the server side, two pruning schemes are proposed: (i) the weight-based pruning (LTH) determines the pruned global model structure; (ii) the iterative pruning further shrinks the size of the pruned model's parameters. Meanwhile, the performance of Fed-LTP is also boosted via model validation based on the Laplace mechanism. On the client side, we use sparse-to-sparse training to solve the resource-constraints issue and provide tighter privacy analysis to reduce the privacy budget. We evaluate the effectiveness of Fed-LTP on several real-world datasets in both independent and identically distributed (IID) and non-IID settings. The results clearly confirm the superiority of Fed-LTP over state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods in communication, computation, and memory efficiencies while realizing a better utility-privacy trade-off.


In search of new potential therapeutic agents, 8-Hydroxyquinoline which is a highly active antifungal and antibacterial agent was subjected to Mannich reaction. Different combinations of aromatic aldehyde and aromatic amines were used for Mannich reaction on 8-Hydroxyquinoline from which one new 7-[α-(anilino)-3',4'-dimethoxybenzyl]-8-hydroxyquinoline ( 3 ) and two known Mannich bases ( 1,2 ) were obtained.


The sicklefin lemon shark (Negaprion acutidens) is found in coastal waters of the Indo-West Pacific where it has been assessed by the IUCN as threatened with extinction. Information on the species' reproductive ecology and local abundance, which are important considerations for effective management, remain limited. I used genetic analyses of tissue samples collected from juvenile N. acutidens, at the Curieuse Marine National Park (CMNP), Seychelles, between 2014-2017, to (1) estimate the number of adults reproducing at CMNP annually and (2) identify their breeding patterns through pedigree reconstruction.

I report strong evidence of philopatry; primarily in females. Over the study period 25 reconstructed females produced multiple litters; the majority (88%) displayed biennial parturition. The remaining 12% displayed annual parturition. Multiple paternity was common (66% of 58 litters; mean number of sires per litter = 1.92). Convenience polyandry provides a likely explanation for this and may be driven by biased operational sex ratios during mating. Male philopatry to CMNP was low (17% of 114 reconstructed males) and may be influenced by habitat availability. Males likely breed over broader geographic scales than females. The breeding patterns I report are similar to those identified in other populations of lemon sharks and are likely applicable across the genus.

In Seychelles, shark stocks are in decline due to overfishing. The high female philopatry in N. acutidens suggests protection of parturition sites, such as CMNP, is likely important to the conservation of local populations. However, adult life-stages, particularly males due to wider-ranging behaviour, are still subject to fishing pressure outside the park. Additional management measures are required to prevent further population declines. Species-specific management appears to be the best approach. The introduction of science-based fisheries control measures, for N. acutidens and other shark species, should be an urgent priority in the Seychelles.


Introduction: Nowadays, we need to deal with heart transplanted patients for other medical concerns. So, it is important to see in detail different aspects and modalities of their care during other types of surgery. A transplant team will carefully monitor each heart trans-plant recipient and should be possible to seek information on the patient's overall status. They will be able to inform on the most recent investigations (ECG to assess graft function, recent biopsy for rejection, angiography for coronaries, etc.).
Case report: Our patient, a 65-year-old lady underwent heart transplantation 5 years before. The cardiac situation was stable and she was doing fine. She was recovered in the gynaecological clinic with a diagnosis of vaginal prolapse with surgical indication General anaesthesia was done with fentanyl 7 ml, pavulon 4 mg, propofol 200 mg and sevoflurane 1.5-2.2%. The patient was monitored during surgery with SpO2, ECG, IBP, CVP. The operation technique was open of vaginal plastic repaire.
Discussion: By 3 months, most recipients of heart transplant came under New York Heart Association (NYHA) I class. The last UK national survey about health-related quality of life after cardiac transplantation indicates that, 1 year after surgery, there is an improvement in quality of life (60% are much better; 28% somewhat better) and there is no deterioration in general health at 3–5 years, except that many of them have symptoms compatible with depression.
Conclusion: Perioperative care of heart transplant recipients will entail a greater attention to maintaining an adequate preload and vascular tone, to avoiding infections and to being aware of the multiple side effects of immunosuppressive therapy. References and recommended reading papers of particular interest, published within the annual period of review, have been highlighted as of special interest of outstanding interest Additional references related to this topic can also be found in the Current World Literature section in this issue.


Large amounts of threat intelligence information about mal-ware attacks are available in disparate, typically unstructured, formats. Knowledge graphs can capture this information and its context using RDF triples represented by entities and relations. Sparse or inaccurate threat information, however, leads to challenges such as incomplete or erroneous triples. Named entity recognition (NER) and relation extraction (RE) models used to populate the knowledge graph cannot fully guaran-tee accurate information retrieval, further exacerbating this problem. This paper proposes an end-to-end approach to generate a Malware Knowledge Graph called MalKG, the first open-source automated knowledge graph for malware threat intelligence. MalKG dataset called MT40K1 contains approximately 40,000 triples generated from 27,354 unique entities and 34 relations. We demonstrate the application of MalKGin predicting missing malware threat intelligence information in the knowledge graph. For ground truth, we manually curate a knowledge graph called MT3K, with 3,027 triples generated from 5,741 unique entities and 22 relations. For entity prediction via a state-of-the-art entity prediction model(TuckER), our approach achieves 80.4 for the hits@10 metric (predicts the top 10 options for missing entities in the knowledge graph), and 0.75 for the MRR (mean reciprocal rank). We also propose a framework to automate the extraction of thousands of entities and relations into RDF triples, both manually and automatically, at the sentence level from1,100 malware threat intelligence reports and from the com-mon vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) database.


The 'make-believe' nature of play-the realisation that the player is only temporarily committed to a particular set of circumstancesmakes it a useful therapeutic device for handicapped children and adolescents who are made anxious by the 'for keep' demands of the real world. Such children also respond to carefully structured play in which their development can proceed at an individual pace. Written by six occupational therapists, this book (whose title is misleading) contributes to an awareness of the importance of play for the 'deficit child' and to the actual implementation of therapeutic play. Shirley Michelman provides a Play Agenda to ensure that the development of sensory, perceptual and intellectual behaviour will be fostered in a balanced manner. Nancy Takata offers a model for taking a Play History for a child; based on this, an individualized Play Prescription can be devised to direct the therapist's efforts more effectively. Susan Knox, recognizing that play reflects general development, presents a Play Scale of what can be expected at different levels of maturity. Janith Hurff addresses the middle-childhood period with an inventory that determines whether a child performsfour kinds of play skills acceptably or unacceptably. Phillip Shannon is concerned with decision-making play as a means of helping emotionally-immature adolescents to choose a future occupation. In addition, there are three lengthy prefatory chapters by the book's editor. These are historical and theoretical and are of potential interest to persons like myself who find the subject of play fascinating and provocative because of its implications for an understanding of art and creativity. Mary Reilly is aware of the significance of play not only for individual therapy but in a broader sense; for example, she describes ways in which play is important to survival. She considers leisure, along with education, to be of crucial importance for contemporary social transformation. and she asserts that play provides numerous opportunities for changing as well as adapting to reality. Her survey of biological, psychological and socio-cultural explanations given for behaviour of play is wide-ranging and up-to-date and the implications for play of systems analysis and game theory are included in her purview. Unfortunately, the complex subject is made more perplexing by confused syntax, faulty grammar, atrocious jargon, befuddled presentation and many minor errors. These shortcomings are regrettable, for the field of play can offer insight into many subjects, some of them of vital significance to human life.


Unconventional gas resources from tight and shale gas reservoirs have received great attention in the past decade and become the focus of petroleum industry. Shale gas reservoirs have specific characteristics, such as tight reservoir rock with nano-Darcy permeability. Multi-stage hydraulic fracturing is required in such reservoirs to create very complex fracture networks to connect a huge reservoir area to the wellbore effectively. During hydraulic fracturing, an enormous amount of water is injected into the formation, and only a part of the injected water (25-60%) can be reproduced during a flowback and long production period. A major concern with hydraulic fracturing is water blocking effect in tight formation due to high capillary pressure and the presence of water sensitive clays. High water saturation in the invaded zone near the fracture face may reduce greatly gas relative permeability and impedes gas production. In this paper, we will consider numerical techniques to simulate water invasion or formation damage during hydraulic fracturing and its impact on the gas production in shale-gas reservoirs. Two-phase flow simulations are considered in a large stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) containing extremely-low permeability tight matrix and multi-scale fracture networks including primary hydraulic fractures, induced secondary fractures and natural fractures. To simulate water blocking phenomena, it is usually required to explicitly discretize the fracture network and use very fine meshes around the fractures. On one hand, the commonly used single-porosity model is not suitable for this kind of problem, because a large number of gridblocks is required to simulate the fracture network and fracture-matrix interaction. On the other hand, a dual-porosity model is not suitable either, because of large block sizes and long transient duration with ultra-low permeability matrix. In this paper, we study the MINC (Multiple INteracting Continuum) type method and use a hybrid approach between matrix and fractures to simulate correctly fracturing fluid invasion and its backflow under hydraulic fracturing. This approach allows us to quantifying with satisfactory the fracturing water invasion and its formation damage effect in the whole SRV.


Public participation in water resources management and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for engaging with public have both been studied extensively albeit independently by researchers. The use of ICT for managing water resources in developing nations like India has mainly been top-down and technical in nature and has not found much role in participative and deliberative decision-making processes. The objective of this study is to understand the role that ICT can play in participative river management. Based on a face-to-face questionnaire survey with 2706 respondents along the River Yamuna in India and key informants' interviews, the study aims to explore the knowledge, readiness and willingness of the public to use ICT for participation in river water quality management projects and their perception about the technology that would be most effective for that purpose. The findings reveal the familiarity of people with television and mobile phones across different socio-economic groups. However, knowledge of computer and the internet was stated mainly by the higher income and the literate groups confirming that the impediments associated with trickling down of technology is not just limited to access but also to lack of education. Gender-based differentiation in knowledge and readiness was also observed in the study.  ICT for receiving information was the key role perceived by the respondents, and higher order participation roles like consultation, virtual representation and monitoring were perceived only by the educated class. The paper suggests "belongingness" to the river and "benefits" from the participation process as the two key drivers for willingness of the public to participate.


The finite difference approximation method is commonly used to convert a differential equation into a recursive computation for computer simulation of an acoustic medium. Less well known is the digital waveguide modeling approach to the same problem, which is based on simulating the propagation of sampled traveling waves in the medium, and which implements losses and dispersion using digital filters applied to the traveling waves [Comput. Music. J., 74–91 (Winter 1992)]. It turns out the two methods are equivalent in rectilinear coordinates in one, two, and three dimensions, in the lossless, nondispersive case, provided the spatial sampling interval is chosen to be a specific constant (c in the one‐dimensional case) times the temporal sampling interval. Since the digital waveguide simulation technique requires far less computational effort, it can be used to both accelerate and increase the accuracy of numerical simulations of acoustic media.


With the rapid development of modern real-time applications, the need of high scalable and predictable real-time transaction processing technology becomes more and more urgent. In this paper, we focus on realtime transaction scheduling algorithm in shared-nothing parallel database systems. We propose and evaluate a new time-stamp based scheduling protocol, which uses priority-based time-stamp to implement parallel sub-transactions synchronization. The experimental results show our new protocol can better resolve the conflict between the synchronization controlling and the communication overhead. Therefore the protocol performs well in the cases when the system overload is heavy or the skew problem is serious.


During the 2015–2016 JET campaigns, many efforts have been devoted to the exploration of high-performance plasma scenarios envisaged for DT operation in JET. In this paper, we review various key recent hybrid discharges and model the combined ICRF+NBI heating. These deuterium discharges with deuterium beams had the ICRF antenna frequency tuned to match the cyclotron frequency of minority H at the centre of the tokamak coinciding with the second harmonic cyclotron resonance of D. The modelling takes into account the synergy between ICRF and NBI heating through the second harmonic cyclotron resonance of D beam ions, allowing us to assess its impact on the neutron rate RNT. For discharges carried out with a fixed ICRF antenna frequency and changing toroidal magnetic field to vary the resonance position, we evaluate the influence of the resonance position on the heating performance and central impurity control. The H concentration is varied between discharges in order to test its role in the heating performance. It is found that discharges with a resonance beyond  ∼0.15 m from the magnetic axis R0 suffer from MHD activity and impurity accumulation in these plasma conditions. According to our modelling, the ICRF enhancement of RNT increases with the ICRF power absorbed by deuterons as the H concentration decreases. We find that in the recent hybrid discharges, this ICRF enhancement varies due to a variation of H concentration and is in the range of 10%–25%. The modelling of a recent record high-performance hybrid discharge shows that ICRF fusion yield enhancement of  ∼30% and  ∼15% respectively can be achieved in the ramp-up phase and during the main heating phase. We extrapolate the results to DT and find that the best performing hybrid discharges correspond to an equivalent fusion power of  ∼7.0 MW in DT. Finally, an optimization analysis of the bulk ion heating for the DT scenario reveals around 15%–20% larger bulk ion heating for the 3He minority scenario as compared to the H minority scenario.


Current advances in processor technology, and the rapid development of high speed networking technology, such as ATM, have made high performance network computing an attractive computing environment for large-scale high performance distributed computing (HPDC) applications. However, due to the communications overhead at the host-network interface, most of the HPDC applications are not getting the full benefit of high speed communication networks. This overhead can be attributed to the high cost of operating system calls, context switching, the use of inefficient communication protocols, and the coupling of data and control paths. We present an architecture and implementation for a low-latency, high-throughput message passing tool, that we refer to as the NYNET (ATM wide area network testbed in New York state) Communication System (NCS), which can support a variety of HPDC applications with different Quality of Services (QOS) requirements. NCS uses multithreading to provide efficient techniques that overlap computation and communication. NCS uses read/write trap routines to bypass traditional operating system calls. This reduces latency and avoids using inefficient communication protocols. By separating data and control paths, NCS eliminates unnecessary control transfers. This optimizes the data path and improves performance. Benchmarking results show that the performance of NCS is at least a factor of two better than the performance of corresponding p4 and PVM primitives.


Prognosis of bearing is critical to improve the safety, reliability and availability of machinery systems, which provides the health condition assessment and determines how long the machine would work before failure occurs by predicting the remaining useful life (RUL). In order to overcome the drawback of pure data-driven methods and predict RUL accurately, a novel physics-informed deep neural network, named degradation consistency recurrent neural network, is proposed for RUL prediction by integrating the natural degradation knowledge of mechanical components. The degradation is monotonic over the whole-life of bearings, which is characterized by temperature signals. To incorporate this knowledge of monotonic degradation, a positive increment recurrence relationship is introduced to keep the monotonicity. Thus, the proposed model is relatively well-understood and capable to keep the learning process consistent with physical degradation. The effectiveness and merit of the RUL prediction using the proposed method are demonstrated through vibration signals collected from a set of run-to-failure tests.


Objective To prevent and identify gastrointestinal outbreaks due to swimming pools using a two-part surveillance system i) Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC) Guideline Survey and ii) syndromic surveillance Introduction Swimming in contaminated pools can cause gastroenteritis from water contaminated by viruses, bacteria, or parasites. Germs that cause gastroenteritis are shed in feces of infected persons, and easily spread to uninfected persons swimming in pools. Symptoms of gastrointestinal illness can include nausea, vomiting, watery or bloody diarrhea, and weight loss. Common causes of swimming-related gastroenteritis included viruses (norovirus), parasites (giardia, cryptosporidium), and bacteria (Escherichia coli, Shigella). Cryptosporidium is most common agent associated with swimming pool outbreaks. In 2011-2012, public health officials from 32 States reported 90 swimming-pool associated outbreaks to CDC's Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance System (WBDOSS). These 90 outbreaks resulted in 1,788 cases, 95 hospitalizations, 1 death. 52% of these outbreaks were caused by Cryptosporidium. Methods Literature search was conducted using published peer-reviewed articles via PubMed and Internet websites including, CDC and U.S. consumer product safety commission, Agency for toxic substance and disease registry. Statistical data on GI illness outbreaks associated with swimming pools prevalence and outcomes were also reviewed. Current surveillance methods used for detecting prevalence of waterborne disease outbreaks are based on examples from Ohio and Nebraska to determine approaches and effectiveness of the systems. Results Survey and Education Packet - Distribute a survey with questions about current MAHC guideline adherence and MAHC educational packets that include the incident response guidelines and the water contamination response log Strengths: Low cost, simple, and acceptable Limitations: Not timely event reporting Event Reporting - Develop a website for reporting contamination events based on the water contamination response log Strengths: Timely reporting Limitations: Complex to setup and maintain, moderate cost, and may not be acceptable Pool Inspections - Require pools to undergo periodic inspections to monitor adherence to MAHC guidelines Strengths: Complete and representative Limitations: Complex, expensive, not timely event reporting The current system is based on state reporting to the CDC through the paper-based reporting waterborne disease outbreaks surveillance system (WBDOSS), and the National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS), an electronic reporting system in place since 2009 CDC uses waterborne disease outbreak surveillance data to o identify the types of etiologic agents, and settings associated with outbreaks o evaluate the adequacy of regulations to promote healthy and safe swimming o establish priorities to improve prevention, guidelines, and regulations at the local, state, and federal levels The WBDOSS is not sufficient to capture early detection and reporting of AGI outbreaks. We recommend the these surveillance approaches: Syndromic surveillance of WBD outbreaks to capture early outbreaks of diarrheal, and as many suspected cases as possible in a timely manner Sentinel surveillance at specific healthcare facilities in the proximity of swimming pools where outbreaks can occur Active Lab-based surveillance would offer more robust and complete analysis of the prevalence and incidence of acute GI illness outbreaks in the State Conclusions Our study concluded that state health department should begin a two-part surveillance system: i) distributing MAHC guideline surveys & education packet; ii) syndromic surveillance system for outbreaks. MAHC Guideline Survey and Education Packet would be cost effective to educate pool operators on current MAHC guidelines and gather baseline data on adherence to MAHC guidelines for responding to contamination events. Afterwards, once baseline data is gathered and awareness of the MAHC guidelines is established, the state health department can determine if event reporting or pool inspections are necessary to increase either the timeliness or representativeness of the surveillance system. Syndromic surveillance would be the most timely and sensitive surveillance system. This is important to achieve health department's goal of early outbreak detection. Both predictive value and data quality are limitations of syndromic surveillance system. Acute gastrointestinal illness is also caused by sources other than pool contamination which can cause false positives. References 1-CDC. Protracted Outbreaks of Cryptosporidiosis Associated With Swimming Pool Use --- Ohio and Nebraska, 2000 MMWR 2001; 50(20); 406-410. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5020a3.htm 2-CDC. Outbreaks of Illness Associated with 2-Recreational Water — United States, 2011–2012 MMWR. 64(24); 668-672. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6424a4.htm?s_cid=mm6424a4_w 3-CDC. The Model Aquatic Health Code. August 2015. http://www.cdc.gov/mahc/index.htm 4-CDC. (n.d.) Decoding the MAHC: The Model Aquatic Health Code. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/swimming/pools/mahc/decoding-the-mahc.pdf 5-CDC. (2016). Fecal Incident Response Recommendations for Aquatic Staff. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/pdf/fecal-incident-response-guidelines.pdf 6-CDC. (n.d.) Water Contamination Response Log. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/swimming/pools/water-contamination-response-log.pdf 7-CDC. (2016). Model Aquatic Health Code Aquatic Facility Inspection Report. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/mahc/pdf/mahc-aquatic-facility-inspection-report.pdf


The structural and formal aspects of free association have not received adequate attention in the psychoanalytic literature partly because of the methodological problems involved in their objective study. Visual imagery aroused considerable interest during Freud's concentration technique but, following this, interest in imagery has declined and has remained low despite the "primacy" retained by the dreams in the analytic practice and theory. Visual imagery, an integral part of conscious thought, is enhanced during free association by the regression, the altered states of consciousness, the suspension of censorship and the shift in figure ground relationships of ordinary awareness of the analytic setting as the analysis progresses and, despite the deepening of regression, the development of transference and the establishment of the analyst as the focal figure of the patient's experience produce a shift from the visual to the verbal and a decrease in the sensory elements of free association. The predominantly verbal nature of the analytic exchange once transference is established is underscored by the analyst's interpretations which, by their emphasis on ordered verbal thought, reinforce the dialectical elements of analysis. The above shift from the visual to the verbal during free association was well illustrated in a case where the development of transference signalled the decrease of the abundant visual element present at the beginning in the material of the patient. Interestingly, the patient's dreams became equally more verbal as the analysis progressed, a phenomenon which was also observed by Anzieu in Freud's dreams in his study of the latter's self-analysis. The possible mechanism for this shift and its significance are discussed.


This paper presents an account of one of the problems regarding the distribution of controlled subjects: the complementary distribution between PRO and lexical DPs. The growing evidence showing that both types of subjects appear in configurations of regular Case suggests discarding the traditional idea that the distributional issue at hand is directly related to Case. In this paper, I spell out the traditional but vague idea that the T-Probe in Control is more defective than the T-Probe that licenses Lexical Subjects. Briefly, I suggest that T in Control is Partial in the sense that it lacks the [person] feature that is present in lexical subjects licensing.

The paper has 7 parts. It starts by deciding that the object of study in this paper is the null subject involved in genuine Control relations, namely those motivated by Exhaustive Control predicates rather than by Partial Control predicates. In Section 3 I review the problem of the distribution of PRO and I outline the main solutions that have been suggested in the literature. Section 4 gathers evidence that demonstrates that PRO receives regular Case. This suggests discarding the proposals outlined in the previous section as valid both on empirical and theoretical grounds. Section 5 starts to reveal the ingredients responsible for the complementary distribution of PRO and lexical subjects: the categorial status of the embedded clause. Specifically, I show that Control predicates take TPs and not CPs as has been standardly assumed. Section 6 presents the Basque infinitival paradigm in detail, which will be crucial to show that Control T is Partial in the sense that it lacks the [person] feature that is present in DP subject licensing. Finally, section 7 explains why PRO and lexical subjects are only compatible with Partial-T and Complete-T, respectively.


This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Edward Elgar Publishing via the DOI in this record.


reactions. Blood (serum) cholesterol; 200 mgm. %. No X-ray evidence of calcified arteries in lower limbs. The case seems to lie halfway between Weir-Mitchell's erythromelalgia and angio-spasm (Raynaud's syndrome) of the small arteries supplying the toes, but I expect that thrombosis has occurred in some of these arteries. The rather excessive pulsation in the dorsal artery of both feet is rather against the case being one of true thrombo-angiitis obliterans (Buerger's disease).


The globalization of financial markets, information technology development, and increasing competition have largely affected bank business and its risk management. Together with these forces, regulatory factors play a significant role. This chapter approaches bank risk management under the regulators' perspective with an emphasis on the risk-based capital regulation. Specifically, how bank risk is regulated under the risk-based capital regulation and whether the regulation shapes bank risk are discussed in detail. In such a way, the chapter provides better under-standing of the risk-based capital regulation and bank risk-taking behaviors.


Environmental taxation very often comprises special provisions for parts of the business sector in order to attenuate effects on competitiveness of emissionintensive activities. This paper discusses motives, alternative designs and criteria for the evaluation of such safeguards and analyzes if such provisions can reconcile environmental and economic objectives. It looks at theoretical aspects as well as practical issues of implementation and evaluates special provisions that have been discussed or implemented in the framework of the environmental tax reform (ETR) introduced in Germany in 1999. This reform is characterized by two features: Firstly, it aims at the reduction of greenhouse gases and thus at a global environmental problem. Secondly, environmental taxes are embedded in the framework of a revenue-neutral tax reform, where the additional tax revenue is recycled to the tax payers by a reduction of social security contributions. The reform should finance "non-insurance-related benefits" of the pension insurance system in order to reduce labor costs and spur employment.


Asphaltene aggregates are known to form viscoelastic film preventing the coalescence of droplets in water-in-oil emulsions formed during crude oil exploitation. Since phase separation is necessary for oil refining process, demulsifying additives are used. It was found that formulations based on polysiloxane copolymers promote separation of water from crude oil even at very low concentration (few tens of ppm). Two alternative scenarios of emulsion destabilisation can be envisaged: (i) dissolution of asphaltene aggregates or (ii) displacement of the asphaltene network by adsorption of the more surface active copolymer into void sites at the oil/water interface. In order to reveal the mechanism of destabilisation, interactions between asphaltene aggregates and copolymer were explored. For that purpose various techniques have been employed: small angle X-ray scattering allowing the determination of the influence of copolymer on the size of asphaltene aggregate; capacity of copolymer to displace asphaltene aggregates initially adsorbed on silica particles (which simulate water droplets); Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) was used to observe the influence of copolymer on the interfacial structure of asphaltene films spread on water surface.


The objectives of this study were to identify a Site Conservation Threshold, the point at which accelerated erosion occurs, and to examine the usefulness of the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model in determining the Site Conservation Threshold on a clay loam upland rangeland site. Sixteen sample sites were chosen to represent a wide range of species composition, ground cover, biomass and apparent soil stability to determine which of these factors could be used to evaluate the site conservation status of a clay-loam upland ecological site on a southern Arizona semi-arid desert grassland. A Site Stability Rating based on observable vegetation and soil-surface characteristics (i.e. ground surface cover and distribution of plants) was developed. A Site Stability Rating was estimated for 100 quadrats per sample site and averaged for the entire sample site. The Water Erosion Prediction Project model was used as an objective index of soil stability to assess the degree of site protection. The Soil Conservation Service soil loss tolerance value (T) was used with the sediment yield predicted by the WEPP model to establish a threshold value for the Site Stability Rating. The objective measures of standing biomass, basal cover, average distance to the nearest perennial plant, and frequency of quadrats with no rooted perennial plant showed strong relationships to the subjective Site Stability Rating. Site Conservation Thresholds were identified for standing biomass (750 kg/ha), basal cover (8%), average distance to the nearest perennial plant (15 cm), and frequency of quadrats (20 X 20 cm) with no rooted perennial plant (13%).


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This paper describes the shape changes and shape transformations observed in human red cells heated for 2 min. to 48, 50 and 52° C. The first change observed is an irregularity of the cell; this is followed by sphering, but the spherical forms can be turned into irregularly shaped disks again by the addition of serum albumin. The sphering is accordingly part of a reversible disk-sphere transformation due to the loss of a (recoverable) anti-sphering substance from the cells. At a slightly higher temperature 50°C.) fragmentation of the cells occurs with the production of fragments which are also capable of undergoing something equivalent to a disk-sphere transformation. The properties upon which the shape transformations depend are therefore not necessarily dependent on the integrity of the red cell as a unit. The fragments derived from the cell may be unequally haemoglobinized, and the Hb is usually lost in a step-wise, as opposed to an all-or-none, manner. Taken together with the loss of anti-sphering substance and an accompanying loss of potassium from the cells, the shape changes preceding fragmentation and the step-wise loss of Hb suggest that the phenomena observed in the heated red cell are part of a process of disintegration of a plastic Hb-bearing 'solid'.


Travel is a powerful force in shaping the perception of the modern world and plays an ever-growing role within architectural and urban cultures. Inextricably linked to political and ideological issues, travel redefines places and landscapes through new transport infrastructures and buildings. Architecture, in turn, is reconstructed through visual and textual narratives produced by scores of modern travellers — including writers and artists along with architects themselves. In the age of the camera, travel is bound up with new kinds of imaginaries; private records and recollections often mingle with official, stereotyped views, as the value of architectural heritage increasingly rests on the mechanical reproduction of its images. Whilst students often learn about architectural history through image collections, the place of the journey in the formation of the architect itself shifts. No longer a lone and passionate antiquarian or an itinerant designer, the modern architect eagerly hops on buses, trains, and planes in pursuit of personal as well as professional interests. Increasingly built on a presumption of mobility, architectural culture integrates travel into cultural debates and design experiments. By addressing such issues from a variety of perspectives, this collection, a special Architectural Histories issue on travel, prompts us to rethink the mobile conditions in which architecture has historically been produced and received.


This paper presents a complexity science informed theory to describe how organizing forms emerge and foster innovation. The theory explores the bidirectional linkages between fine-grained interactions among human beings in a complex adaptive system and the emergent coarse-grained properties that characterize qualitatively distinct and yet stable organizing forms in social systems. By exploiting a mathematical foundation that has been successfully employed in analogous cases in the natural sciences, it opens the door to a rigorous theory of performance and adaptation in human systems by relating changing local rules of interaction to qualitative changes in emerging organizing forms. This process is mediated by evolving models of the system in the environment developed and shared among individuals. Finally, the paper explores whether this model can be used canonically and does so in the context of axiomatic hurdles that must be overcome if a practical mathematical theory of human organizing is to be realized.


Introduction Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) is the most common childhood malignancy. Optimal util-isation of chemotherapy in addition with supportive care achieves highest survival rates (about 85%) for children. The main problem is the drug toxicity (mostly myelosup-pression, mucositis, and nausea/vomiting) as well as re-current infections. Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) are often used in Paediatric Oncology. The medicinal mush-room Ganoderma lucidum plays a pivotal role as im-mune-modulator. Medicinal mushrooms are boosters or restoring agents of the ability of the immune system to fight infections, cancer and other diseases. The main bio-active compounds in Ganoderma lucidum are polysac-charides, in the form of beta-d-glucans, and triterpenes, both with well-defined biological properties. Beta-d-glucans have demonstrated antitumor and im-mune-stimulating activities. They modulate both innate and adaptive immune responses and increase opsonic and non opsonic phagocitosis, enhancing antitumor cytotoxicity. They also induce natural killer (NK) cell cy-totoxicity against various cancer. Triterpenes are able to inhibit cancer cell growth and activity as we showed in previous experients using different cancer cell lines.This mushroom also increases plasma antioxidant capacity and enhances immune response in cancer Aim Chemotherapy is a cause for neutropenia, increas-ing therefore the susceptibility to infections. Ganoderma lucidum previously showed to increase lymphoprolifer-ative responses in immunocompromized children with cancers in a randomised, double-blind and placebo-con-trolled study. However, clinical evidence supporting the use of medicinal mushrooms in paediatric patients is still scarce. Therefore, we decided to investigate the role of this mushroom in improving the quality of life, prevent-ing recurrences and infections in patients affected by ALL. Prior to any use the product developed, based on Local strains from Ganoderma lucidum, showed no inter-ference with the hepatic cytochromes, as we showed in previous studies Case study A 4 year old boy with confirmed diagnose of ALL type B without leucocitosis finished his chemothera-py treatment 2 years after the initial diagnose date, with a complete remission. The patient followed the protocol 58 081 of the EORTC with good response. After getting the Informed Consent from their parents, and estimate the initial dose based on BW (mg/Kg), the child received an oral dose of 445 mg of Ganoderma lucidum powder (Bioganoderma ©) daily with excellent tolerance. Six months later, we decided to double the dose with ex-cellent clinical response as well as tolerability. Two years later, daily providing the same oral dose, the patient still was free from infection (the neutropenia was corrected), no recurrence of his malignancy) or side effects referred. Blood tests are absolutely normal, as well as the myelo-gram. In fact, currently he follows a complete normal life (school, outdoors activities). He does not have any neurological or hepatic con-sequences from this treatment. His parents referred an impressive improving in his performance status since the child has being taking this mushroom compound, Ganoderma lucidum. Conclusions We need novel therapeutic approaches for Paediatric Cancer in order to improve the quality of life, prevent consequences and recurrences. As for adults, Ganoderma lucidum is an excellent opportunity for pae-diatric patients due to its safety, tolerability and clinical response.


The problem of Most Probable Explanation (MPE) arises in the scenario of probabilistic inference: finding an assignment to all variables that has the maximum likelihood given some evidence. We consider the more general CNF-based MPE problem, where each literal in a CNF-formula is associated with a weight. We describe reductions between MPE and weighted MAX-SAT, and show that both can be solved by a variant of weighted model counting. The MPE-SAT algorithm is quite competitive with the state-of-the-art MAX-SAT, WCSP, and MPE solvers on a variety of problems.


SIR,-Once more the medical arena is beset with confusion and misunderstanding. Mr. Anthony Barber (Supplement, 26 September, p. 135) succeeded very nicely in evading the crucial issue-namely, who is to provide the money initially for the expansion of the ancillary-help scheme-the Government or us ? To understand the situation it is necessary to think in terms of two distinct sums of money. First, there is the sum already being expended on ancillary help, and therefore mostly included in the present global Pool. This money is to be redistributed by giving moie of it to those doctors who have actually borne this expenditure, which is not unreasonable. Secondly, there is the sum total of new expenses which will accrue as more ancillary help is employed. Mr. Barber expected that eventually this will amount to several million pounds. This is really the crux of the whole matter, for no provision, it seems, will be made in the Pool estimates for this new expenditure (29 August, p. 124). This means initially it must be financed by us. Were this scheme to be brought into operation in April 1965 under the existing arrangements not one penny of this money would find its way back to our pockets until July 1968. Mr. Barber seemed to have forgotten that the increase in the number of principals between 1952 and 1960 was financed initially in this manner. The remuneration of the new principals and increasing practice expenses resulted in the huge Pool balances in the middle and late fifties which the Royal Commission condemned. At the time many doctors did not seem to realize that that was their money which was owed to them and on which they received no interest. The initial cost to the Pool for additional ancillary help could be considerable, and if the Minister will not " prime the pump " the proposals should be regretfully rejected. In any event these terms may well fail to encourage any substantial increase in ancillary help, for the initial net gain to a practitioner or group could be so small as to discourage advantage being taken of it. Surely, however, the time is ripe for discussions with the Minister on the question of making proper provision in the annual Pool estimate for any expected increases in practice expenses. This is particularly important in the light of the new proposals, for ancillary helpers will rightly expect periodical pay increases. Why should we be obliged to find the money in the first place out of our own income ? There is also the curious anomaly that in the proposed scale of direct reimbursements the more experienced and qualified an ancillary helper is, and thus the higher her salary, the smaller will be the percentage of the salary directly reimbursed. This seems an odd way to promote efficiency in generalpractice organization. I am as anxious as anybody to see this scheme implemented-my partners and I employ helpers already-but it is clear that if it is to achieve its objectives and operate to the full advantage of doctors and patients alike much still needs to be negotiated before it is accepted. There is room for much hard bargaining, and the G.M.S. Committee will be unwise to bring the proposals in their present form before the profession.-I am, etc.,


A multilevel halftoning algorithm can be used to overcome some of the challenges of multi-channel printing. In this algorithm, each channel is processed so that it can be printed using multiple inks of approximately the same hue, achieving a single ink layer. The computation of the threshold values required for ink separation and dot gain compensation pose an interesting challenge. Since the dot gain depends on the specific combination of ink, paper and print resolution, compensating the original image for multilevel halftoning means expressing the dot gain of multiple inks of same hue in terms of the coverage of a single ink. The applicability of the proposed multilevel halftoning workflow is demonstrated using chromatic inks while avoiding dot overlap and accounting for dot gain. The results indicate that the multilevel halftoned image is visually improved in terms of graininess when compared to bi-level halftoned images.


Innovative nanoscale devices have been developed to enhance future circuit design to overcome physical barriers hindering the CMOS technology. Among the emerging nanodevices, resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) have demonstrated promising electronic features due to their high-speed switching capability and functional versatility. Great circuit functionality can be achieved through integrating heterostructure FETs (HFETs) in conjunction with RTDs to modulate effective negative differential resistance. In this paper, we propose novel programmable logic elements (PLEs) implemented in threshold gates (TGs) and multithreshold TGs by exploring RTD/HFET monostable-bistable transition logic element (MOBILE) principles. Our three-input PLE can be configured through five binary control bits to realize all the three-variable logic functions, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the first single RTD-based structure that provides complete Boolean logic implementation. It is also a more efficient reconfigurable circuit element than a general lookup table that requires eight configuration bits for three-variable functions. We further extend the design concept to construct a more versatile four-input PLE. A comprehensive comparison of three- and four-input PLEs provides an insightful view of design tradeoffs between performance and area. We present the mathematical proof of PLE's logic completeness based on Shannon expansion, as well as the HSPICE simulation results of the programmable and primitive RTD/HFET gates that we have designed. An efficient control bit generating algorithm is developed by using a special encoding scheme to implement any given logic function. Based on our PLE structures, we propose a reconfigurable architecture, namely MORE, which offers dynamic reconfigurability without incurring latency overheads, due to the intrinsic self-latching property of MOBILE circuits. An efficient reconfiguration data generation algorithm is also built to take full advantage of our MORE architecture. The experimental results indicate that it can help reduce the reconfiguration cost by 37% on average.


This study examines the sensitivity of simulated precipitation to planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the Yangtze River Valley (YRV). The summer precipitation from 15 June to 30 July 2010 is simulated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model over these areas. Three PBL parameterization schemes, Mellor-Yamada-JanjiA‡ (MYJ), Yonsei University (YSU), and Medium-Range Forecast (MRF) are compared in the simulation. The simulated hourly precipitation overestimates the observed precipitation, and the simulation of MRF scheme is more close to the observation. In general, the WRF model shows good (poor) ability in simulating the diurnal cycle of precipitation over the TP (the upper YRV). Although the WRF model simulates a two-peak pattern different from the observed one-peak pattern in the middle YRV, both of them are generally close in trend. The choice of PBL parameterization schemes affects not only the amplitude of the precipitation but also the phase of diurnal cycle, and MRF scheme simulates better in precipitation amount than YSU and MYJ schemes. Among the three PBL schemes, the hourly PBL height of MYJ scheme is higher than those of MRF and YSU schemes. All the three PBL schemes present a similar diurnal cycle of PBL height, and the differences of PBL heights are responsible for the discrepancies in the simulated precipitation amounts. The three largest lakes in the central TP result in three large centers of the minimum PBL heights and of the average hourly PBL heights at the same locations, which are responsible for the maximum centers in the simulated precipitation in the central TP.


Automotive transmission is one of the most important parts of any vehicle powertrain system, and in order to achieve reliable operation, effective health monitoring must be used. Predictive health monitoring (PHM) systems are currently gaining in popularity due to their effectiveness in reducing maintenance costs; however, reliable monitoring techniques are required such as the analysis of vibration, acoustic emissions and oil debris. In this paper, different monitoring techniques and their features are studied in order to develop an advanced monitoring system able to track the condition of an operating transmission system, classify faults, and detect the onset of failure. The study presents an online PHM system utilising autoregressive (AR) parametric algorithms, time and frequency analysis based on wireless transmission of vibration data. The online monitoring algorithm can support CBM and PHM of automotive multistage manual transmissions. The design, operation and validation of the online system are described and demonstrated. The results of the experimental test prove the system's capability and support the recent trend of using CBM and PHM strategies.


We report the case of a 64-year-old man with dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) at right jugular foramen, presented as subarachnoid and intraventricular hemorrhage. The malformation was fed by only the neuromeningeal trunk of the right ascending pharyngeal artery and drained into the right lateral medullary veins craniopetally. Complete embolization was attained by selective transarterial glue injection, but patient showed lower cranial neuropathies. A 3-month follow-up angiogram still showed persistent fistula occlusion. Transarterial glue embolization is a feasible method, only if a transvenous access is not possible in case of single channel fistula.


Purpose: The purposes of this study were: (a) to describe the physical and mental health status of Afghan immigrant women in one Canadian city; (b) to construct an Afghan cultural model of pain (experience and management) using interview data and available literature; (c) to explore the experience of chronic pain and its management among Afghan immigrant women, both culturally and individually; and (d) to identify potential barriers to chronic pain management for both Afghan immigrant women and their health care providers.
Methods: This study has two parts; questionnaires were used in Part 1, and semi-structured interviews supplemented by three short questionnaires were used in Part 2. Interpretive description methodology using thematic analysis and conceptual mapping was used for analysis of interviews in Part 2.
Results: SF-36 responses (n = 9) in Part 1 suggested that the physical health status of the Afghan women was better than their mental health status. Health sciences literature and interviews with 6 Afghan immigrant women and 1 healthcare professional were used to construct cultural models of pain experience and pain management. Findings indicated that Afghan immigrant women who experienced and managed their chronic pain within their cultural model did so holistically across multiple factors: environmental, spiritual, biological, and psychological. However, each individual internalized their cultural model of pain in varying amounts. Barriers in healthcare access that prevented Afghan immigrant women from managing their pain well included: (a) different cultural perspectives between Afghan immigrant women and healthcare professionals regarding how pain is experienced and managed; and (b) communication difficulties between healthcare professionals and Afghan immigrant women.
Significance of Findings: Cultural perspectives on pain experience and pain management influence treatment expectations and pain management. Differences in cultural perspectives are a barrier in healthcare access that prevents Afghan immigrant women from managing their pain well. Addressing the differences in perspective identified in this study will increase understanding for healthcare professionals as they work together with Afghan immigrant women patients, thereby improve communication and reduce barriers to pain management.


In current broadband MIMO-OFDM systems such as 3GPP LTE, embedded buffering memories occupy a large portion of chip area and a significant amount of power consumption. Due to the dense structure of memories, they are especially vulnerable to scaling effects such as process variation. These effects (hardware errors) become more pronounced when aggressive voltage scaling is used due to the reduced voltage overhead. To address this issue, we present an error resilient MIMO detector. First, we derive a combined distribution of the received data in a MIMO-OFDM receiver that includes both the noise incurred by the wireless channel and errors introduced at the receiver buffering memory due to aggressive voltage scaling. Using the derived distribution, a modified MIMO detection algorithm based on the tree-searching structure is presented. A case study is presented showing that the proposed approach can achieve near-optimal performance in the presence of both channel noise and memory error, while 40% to 50% of memory power savings are realized.


Japan, 1865, the women's palace in the great city of Edo. Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man - the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen to be his concubine. But Japan is changing, and as civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her; but this is a world in which private passions have no place and there is not even a word for 'love'. Before she dare dream of a life with him, Sachi must uncover the secret of her own origins - a secret that encompasses a wrong so terrible that it threatens to destroy her ...


The emergence of blogs, web video, social software, wikipedia and other new media has seen shifting relationships to time. These new web genres continue to rely on the computer's traditional command roles: transmitting messages, calculating and performing decisions. However, they also make enhanced use of operations of memory: recording images and texts, hosting conversations, making connections and holding archives. For Harold Innis the ways the dominant media of an era relate to time and space help define a civilisation. Spacebinding media (such as papyrus, or electronic communication) facilitate command and control over territory, supporting empire-building. Time-binding media (such as stone, and spoken communication), on the other hand, operate to maintain cultural continuity, and tend towards more stately priestly structures. The computer has become the dominant medium of the current era. From its original diagram, it put command and memory onto the same circuit. However, as Innis feared, the implementation was always out of balance. Command functions were always cheaper and more effective than memory or storage. More recently, though, it could be argued that more sophisticated time-binding features are better supporting uses of sound, image and text drawn from archives and cultural networks. This paper explores the value and limitations of Innis for understanding of the current generation of Internet media.


Background: Atrial myxomas are rare benign tumors; causing obstructive
or embolic complications, and even death, depending on their site and
size. Therefore, once diagnosed, it should be surgically resected
emergency. Atrial myxomas are present about 75% in left atrium (LA) and
about 15% in right atrium (RA). Early diagnosis is a challenge because
of nonspecific manifestations, and sometimes is asymptomatic and
discovered accidentally during TTE. Objective: Minimally invasive
cardiac surgery (MICS) has benefits include cosmetically, less pain,
shorter intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital stay. Methods: From Jan.
2011 to Sept. 2020, (20) patients (10 Sternotomy, 10 MI) underwent
surgery for isolated resection of atrial myxoma. We reported outcomes;
cardiopulmonary bypass time (CPB), cross-clamp time, conversion to
median ST, length of stay, complications (stroke, renal failure,
respiratory failure, reoperation, and infection),pain, patients
satisfaction, recurrence and survival. Mean follow-up time was 6 month.
Results: There is no significant difference in CPB or cross-clamp time
between groups. No MI cases required conversion to a median ST. Length
of stay is shorter in the MI group by 2.2 days (p = 0.045). There is no
difference in morbidity or mortality between groups. Conclusions: A
minimally invasive approach for atrial myxoma resection is safe,
feasible, and favored over sternotomy.


This report examines how the optimised use of new on-demand shared transport modes could change the future of mobility in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area in Finland. Based on simulation, it provides indicators for the impact of shared mobility solutions on accessibility, metro/rail ridership, required parking space, congestion and CO2 emissions. The model also analyses service quality, efficiency and cost competitiveness of the shared solutions. In addition, the report explores the willingness among the citizens of the Helsinki region to adopt shared mobility solutions based on focus group analysis. The findings provide an evidence base for decision makers to weigh opportunities and challenges created by new forms of shared transport services. The work is part of a series of studies on shared mobility in different urban and metropolitan contexts.This report is part of the International Transport Forum's Case-Specific Policy Analysis series. These are topical studies on specific issues carried out by the ITF in agreement with local institutions.


Mean motion resonances (MMRs) are widespread in our Solar System. Moreover, resonant dynamics has always been an essential topic in planetary research. Recently, the research about exoplanets and the potential Planet Nine with large eccentricity has given rise to our interests in the secular dynamics inside MMRs in the elliptic model. In this paper, we study the fixed points of the averaged Hamiltonian and the long-term stable regions of the 1/1 resonance (or co-orbital motion) in the elliptic restricted three-body problem (ERTBP) systematically. Numerical integrations prove those test particles trapped in "apsidal co-rotation", where both the resonant angle ϕ res and the secular angle ⧍ϖ (or apsidal longitude differences) librate simultaneously, always survive the long-term simulations. Furthermore, utilizing a semianalytical method based on the adiabatic approach, three families of long-term fixed points of the averaged Hamiltonian of the planar ERTBP inside the 1/1 resonance have been found. We call them QS-points, Hpoints, and T-points here, whose values of the (ϕ res, ⧍ϖ) are (0°, 180°), (180°, 0°), and (± 60°, ± 60°), respectively. All the fixed points of the averaged Hamiltonian of the co-orbital motion in the ERTBP are presented in the e-e′ plane (′ represents the elements of the planet in this paper). We find that QS-points and T-points always exist for the arbitrary eccentricity of a planet, while H-points only exist for the cases of low e′ and very high e. Furthermore, we measure the libration width in terms of eccentricity, ⧍e, around these stable equilibrium points in the e-⧍ϖ phase-space portraits. The "apsidal co-rotation" around all the stable equilibrium points is presented in the e-e′ plane. All these results are effectively confirmed by numerical experiments. The long-term stable zones around these periodic orbits in the e-e′ plane are significant for the research of the co-orbital motion in the ERTBP. Above all, these practical approaches that we proposed can also be used to study the secular dynamics of other MMRs.


Noise is undesired information that affects an image. Noise appears in images from
various sources. Noise reduction and noise removal is an important task in images
processing.
The weight median filters are extension of the median filter; it belongs to the broad class
of nonlinear filters. Weight median filter is more effective form of image processing, it
is the removing ability of impulsive noise. Impulsive noise is a kind of image corruption
where each pixel value is replaced with an extremely large or small value that is not
related to the surrounding pixel values by a probability.
iv
The design of weight coefficients of the weight median filter is considered as a difficult
problem. The weight coefficients of the weight median filter learnt by the backpropagation
with supervised multi-layer perceptron feed-forward networks and threshold
decomposition has been presented in this thesis, which has been implemented using
Turbo C++ language.
Good results have been achieved by using program package. Results show that weight
median filter based on threshold decomposition removes impulsive noise with an
excellent image detail-preserving capability compared to nonlinear filter and linear filter.
Restored images evaluation by using mean square error and speed. The package has
been implemented using the MATLAB language.
This study provides three types of filtering windows size, 3×3, 5×5 and 7×7 window
size. The result shows that the mean square error of weight median filter based on
threshold decomposition using 3×3 filtering window is less than 5×5, and 7×7 filtering
window and the speed of weight median filter based on threshold decomposition using
3×3 is faster than 5×5, and 7×7 filtering window.


This paper presents hierarchical clustering algorithms for land cover mapping problem using multi-spectral satellite images. In unsupervised techniques, the automatic generation of number of clusters and its centers for a huge database is not exploited to their full potential. Hence, a hierarchical clustering algorithm that uses splitting and merging techniques is proposed. Initially, the splitting method is used to search for the best possible number of clusters and its centers using Mean Shift Clustering (MSC), Niche Particle Swarm Optimization (NPSO) and Glowworm Swarm Optimization (GSO). Using these clusters and its centers, the merging method is used to group the data points based on a parametric method (k-means algorithm). A performance comparison of the proposed hierarchical clustering algorithms (MSC, NPSO and GSO) is presented using two typical multi-spectral satellite images - Landsat 7 thematic mapper and QuickBird. From the results obtained, we conclude that the proposed GSO based hierarchical clustering algorithm is more accurate and robust.


The student loan option remains a useful adjunct to federal grants, work/study programs, and cooperative education programs, Mr. Cronin points out. But excesses of enthusiasm for student loans in the 1980s created problems, from which he derives at least seven basic lessons. WHAT CAN the higher education community learn from the financial troubles experienced by the Higher Education Assistance Foundation (HEAF) in the summer of 1990? During the 1980s the HEAF group was the largest and most aggressive of the not-for-profit student loan guaranty agencies. HEAF provided loan guarantees first for Minnesota and later for many other states whose legislatures were not inclined to create their own agencies to guarantee student loans, including Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, and West Virginia -- as well as the District of Columbia. HEAF also reached out to any group that wanted guaranteed access to student loans, including the United Negro Colleges, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Lutheran Brotherhood, a variety of law schools, and even the trade, technical, barber, and beauty schools that grew substantially in number during the 1980s. The size of HEAF's portfolio of guarantees grew until it reached 10%, then 15%, and finally more than 30% of what by 1987-88 had become a $10-billion-a-year federal student loan program. What went wrong for HEAF? The federal government "reinsures" student loan guarantors according to the level of annual default rates on the loans they guarantee. Full federal reimbursement is paid only if a guarantor's default rate is under 5%. Only 90% is reimbursed for default rates in the 5% to 9% range, and only 80% for default rates higher than 9%. HEAF experienced several years of double-digit default rates. Several large national lenders specializing in making loans to students in career schools pursued the speedy HEAF guarantee service. Incredibly, one degree-granting college in Kansas, whose loans HEAF guaranteed, purchased a "correspondence" tractor-trailer driving school, in part to help balance the college budget. HEAF was also one of the three agencies that guaranteed loans for several California-based chains of career schools with high default rates whose loans were serviced by United Education Services (UES), an enterprise run by the trade school owners themselves. Hearings conducted by Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who chairs a U.S. Senate subcommittee on investigations, revealed a lack of diligent oversight of the loans guaranteed by HEAF and, ultimately, by the federal government. Fortunately, these 1990 hearings came in time to shape the debate on the 1991 or 1992 reauthorization of student aid and higher education programs. In November 1990, when Sallie Mae (Student Loan Marketing Association) assumed $9 billion of HEAF's responsibilities, a strong signal was sent to the Congress, to the Bush Administration, and to the higher education community that the time had come to make some crucial revisions in the programs that guarantee student loans. Why couldn't HEAF correct the situation on its own? Testimony by HEAF's chairman before the Senate subcommittee indicated that he was not allowed to cut off lenders or schools with high default rates without following a cumbersome review process that might have been slowed still further by litigation in each case. Guarantors, as first-line insurers and as administrative agents, previously had more discretion in their business dealings. However, increasingly figid federal regulations and interpretations of federal policy had limited this discretion and so required HEAF to continue to guarantee risky loans. Subsequently, Congress authorized the U.S. Department of Education and state guarantors to take emergency action to suspend those institutions that were not abiding by regulations governing federal loans. Furthermore, in the wake of savings-and-loan disasters and in the shadow of a growing federal deficit, no representative or senator wanted to extend the bailout option to student loan agencies. …


Screening proteins for their potential use in foam applications is very laborious and time consuming. It would be beneficial if the foam properties could be predicted based on their molecular properties, but this is currently not possible. For protein-stabilized emulsions, a model was recently introduced to predict the emulsion properties from the protein molecular properties. Since the fundamental mechanisms for foam and emulsion formation are very similar, it is of interest to determine whether the link to molecular properties defined in that model is also applicable to foams. This study aims to link the exposed hydrophobicity with the foam ability and foam stability, using lysozyme variants with altered hydrophobicity, obtained from controlled heat treatment (77 °C for 0–120 min). To establish this link, the molecular characteristics, interfacial properties, and foam ability and stability (at different concentrations) were analysed. The increasing hydrophobicity resulted in an increased adsorption rate constant, and for concentrations in the protein-poor regime, the increasing hydrophobicity enhanced foam ability (i.e., interfacial area created). At higher relative exposed hydrophobicity (i.e., ~2–5 times higher than native lysozyme), the adsorption rate constant and foam ability became independent of hydrophobicity. The foam stability (i.e., foam collapse) was affected by the initial foam structure. In the protein-rich regime—with nearly identical foam structure—the hydrophobicity did not affect the foam stability. The link between exposed hydrophobicity and foam ability confirms the similarity between protein-stabilized foams and emulsions, and thereby indicates that the model proposed for emulsions can be used to predict foam properties in the future.