By selecting the solvent that dissolves interface activating reagents and bilirubin relatively well and after dissolving each the author prepared an interface activ bilirubin aqueous solution. This solution was evaporated at 80°C under a low pressure and the solubility in water and the chemical properties of the vapor were studied; and the following ressults were obtained. 1. Each interface activation reagent possesses its own specific capacity to dissolve bilirubin in water, and there is almost a direct-proportion relation between the quantity of bilirubin dissolved in water and the quantity of activating reagent required for such a dissolution. 2. The absorption curve of the bilirubin aqueous solution shows its maximum at 450 mμ, and with the increase in the quantity of the loaded activating reagent the absorption maximum moves 5-10 mμ towards the long side of the short wave; but in the case using non-ionic reagent the absorption maximum remains almost unchanged. 3. The bilirubin aqueous solution is positive to the direct diazo reaction, and its sensitivity to the diazo reaction is proportional to the quantity of the activating reagent added, making the maximum sensitvity to the diazo reaction stable beyond a given quantity. Therefore, the dissolution of bilirubin in water by the aid of the interface activating reagent and the positivity to the diazo reaction are two different phenomena. Thus it is impossible to say that the dissolution of bilirubin in water make it positive to the direct diazo reaction. 4. The bilirubin aqueous solution by the aid of interface activating reagent required 40 to 60 minutes for the completion of diazo reaction and the production of azo dye is about directly proportional to the time required for its production. 5. The absorption maximum of azo dye produced the diazo reaction always at 530 mμ even when pH of the solvent is changed, and the optical density increases proportionately to the strength of acidity. At the same pH the optical density at 530 mμ of azo dye produced by ionic activating reagent is higher than that of the azo dye produced by non-ionic activating reagent; whereas the optical density of 470 mμ on the long side of short wave, on the contrary, of the azo dye produced by non-ionic activating reagent is higher.


Today, the design of electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection in semiconductor chips and electronic chips is becoming more challenging task in the automotive industry. Since new ESD pulses are found to be located in high voltage/current and high frequency domain, advanced measurement techniques such as very fast (vf) transmission-line pulse (TLP) system is required to test and verifiy the ESD hardness of chips. This paper presents the design of absorptive rise-time filters for vf- and standard TLP measurement systems for high power applications. To investigate the behavior of ESD protection networks under pulses with different slopes, a series of filters with 200 ps, 500 ps, 1 ns, 2 ns, 5 ns, 10 ns, 20 ns and 50 ns rise-time has been realized and characterized at 800 V and 12.8 kW peak power with 100 ns pulse width on 50 ¿ load.


Background: Crisis hotlines play an important part in suicide prevention by providing a service where individuals contemplating suicide can be immediately, and confidentially, connected with a caring person trained in crisis intervention. Historically, the caring people staffing crisis hotlines were community volunteers. The past decade has been characterized by the professionalization of crisis hotline work, which has led to the development of best practices and enabled hotlines to increase their effectiveness in serving their communities. At the same time, the number of crisis hotlines staffed by paid phone workers has increased while the number of volunteer-staffed crisis hotlines has declined. Objective: The goal of this study is to describe a sample of crisis hotlines that use volunteers, to assess the strengths and limitations of using volunteers in crisis hotline work, and to determine where these programs are most in need of support. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with hotline staff to explore the experience of staffing a hotline with volunteers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The transcript data was analyzed using a general inductive approach. Results: Eight people were interviewed and six summary categories emerged from the interview data: Hotline Administration, Professionalization, Training, Supporting Volunteers, Maintaining a Volunteer Corps, and Volunteer Performance. Conclusions: In order to stay viable, crisis hotlines need to leverage their assets, including phone services and training programs, to generate funds and/or engage in strategic collaborations. Providing sufficient support for volunteers, including onsite supervision, and promoting a culture of connectedness will enable hotlines to cultivate a robust volunteer corps. Public Health Significance: Suicide is a complex public health problem that accounts for more than 35,000 deaths in the United States annually and affects countless others who have lost a loved one to suicide or who have attempted suicide themselves. Community volunteers who serve on crisis hotlines play an important role in suicide prevention by conducting interventions on the hotline and also acting as "ambassadors for suicide prevention" out in the community when they are not working on the hotline.


We report new observations of circumgalactic gas from the COS-Dwarfs survey, a systematic investigation of the gaseous halos around 43 low-mass z ⩽ 0.1 galaxies using background QSOs observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. From the projected one-dimensional and two-dimensional distribution of C iv absorption, we find that C iv is detected out to ≈100 kpc (corresponding roughly to ≈0.5 Rvir) of the host galaxies. The C iv absorption strength falls off radially as a power law, and beyond ≈0.5 Rvir, no C iv absorption is detected above our sensitivity limit of ≈50–100 mÅ. We find a tentative correlation between detected C iv absorption strength and star formation, paralleling the strong correlation seen in highly ionized oxygen for L  ∼ L* galaxies by the COS-Halos survey. The data imply a large carbon reservoir in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of these galaxies, corresponding to a minimum carbon mass of ≳ 1.2 × 106 M☉ out to ∼110 kpc. This mass is comparable to the carbon mass in the interstellar medium and exceeds the carbon mass currently in the stars of these galaxies. The C iv absorption seen around these sub-L* galaxies can account for almost two-thirds of all Wr ⩾ 100 mÅ C iv absorption detected at low z. Comparing the C iv covering fraction with hydrodynamical simulations, we find that an energy-driven wind model is consistent with the observations whereas a wind model of constant velocity fails to reproduce the CGM or the galaxy properties.


The qualitative study in this article explores critical incidents that may facilitate the support a principal provides for a school counseling program. Through structured interviews, supportive principals are asked to reflect on their prior experiences with school counselors, their educational exposure to school counseling, and their recommendations for school counselors. Results suggest that by demonstrating effective leadership and systemic interactions, school counselors can foster relationships with principals that can help them expand their roles and their programs.


The rational combination of two catalysts to expedite the construction of chiral complex biologically and pharmacologically relevant chiral compounds has widely gained momentum over the past decade. In particular, enamine or iminium catalysis ensuing from the activation of aldehyde or ketone by chiral amine catalysts in conjugation with other organocatalytic cycles has facilitated several asymmetric transformations to yield the enantioenriched products. Regardless of the considerable discussion on the various dual catalytic approaches, literature lacks a comprehensive review focusing on the enamine and iminium-based dual organocatalytic systems. Thus, this review article has discussed the noteworthy achievements in the field of asymmetric catalysis and synthesis catalyzed by the enamine and iminium-based dual organocatalytic systems.


Bone is a calcified tissue, which shows a complex structure both at the micro and nano levels, including cells, collagen fibers, and an extra cellular calcified matrix. Bone has remarkable mechanical properties that allow it to support the entire body, showing rigidity with very high tensile and compressive strength but at the same time, increased flexibility. Bone is one of the most dynamic tissues in the body, responding to injuries with very fast healing. The collagen fiber matrix comprises about 25-30 % of bone tissue mass and has an important role in not allowing the bone to break or snap. The mineralized component (about 65 % of the bone mass) is mainly formed of calcium phosphate, called hydroxyapatite, and gives bone its toughness and rigidity. Electrostatic measurements involving bone tissues of various compositions showed a high response to friction charging against different materials. The charge to mass ratios for bone particles with diameters ranging from 200 nm to 2 mum were found to be highly dependent upon the charging material. We also determined a direct correlation between the electrostatic behavior of the bone particles and their substructure, which was then analyzed by electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and other analytical methods. The results indicated the possibility of using electrostatic processes to generate scaffolds that can be used in bone tissue engineering.


Summary.  Repeated measures and repeated events data have a hierarchical structure which can be analysed by using multilevel models. A growth curve model is an example of a multilevel random‐coefficients model, whereas a discrete time event history model for recurrent events can be fitted as a multilevel logistic regression model. The paper describes extensions to the basic growth curve model to handle auto‐correlated residuals, multiple‐indicator latent variables and correlated growth processes, and event history models for correlated event processes. The multilevel approach to the analysis of repeated measures data is contrasted with structural equation modelling. The methods are illustrated in analyses of children's growth, changes in social and political attitudes, and the interrelationship between partnership transitions and childbearing.


OBJECT
Transection of peripheral nerves produces loss of sensory and/or motor function. After complete nerve cutting, the distal and proximal segment ends retract, but if both ends are bridged with unaltered chitosan, progesterone-impregnated chitosan, or silicone tubes, an axonal repair process begins. Progesterone promotes nerve repair and has neuroprotective effects thwarting regulation of neuron survival, inflammation, and edema. It also modulates aberrant axonal sprouting and demyelination. The authors compared the efficacy of nerve recovery after implantation of progesterone-loaded chitosan, unaltered chitosan, or silicone tubes after sciatic nerve transection in rats.

METHODS
After surgical removal of a 5-mm segment of the proximal sciatic nerve, rats were implanted with progesterone-loaded chitosan, unaltered chitosan, or silicone tubes in the transected nerve for evaluating progesterone and chitosan effects on sciatic nerve repair and ipsilateral hindlimb kinematic function, as well as on gastrocnemius electro-myographic responses. In some experiments, tube implantation was performed 90 minutes after nerve transection.

RESULTS
At 90 days after sciatic nerve transection and tube implantation, rats with progesterone-loaded chitosan tubes showed knee angular displacement recovery and better outcomes for step length, velocity of locomotion, and normal hindlimb raising above the ground. In contrast, rats with chitosan-only tubes showed reduced normal raising and pendulum-like hindlimb movements. Aberrant fibers coming from the tibial nerve innervated the gastrocnemius muscle, producing electromyographic responses. Electrical responses in the gastrocnemius muscle produced by sciatic nerve stimulation occurred only when the distal nerve segment was stimulated; they were absent when the proximal or intratubular segment was stimulated. A clear sciatic nerve morphology with some myelinated fiber fascicles appeared in the tube section in rats with progesterone-impregnated chitosan tubes. Some gastrocnemius efferent fibers were partially repaired 90 days after nerve resection. The better outcome in knee angle displacement may be partially attributable to the aberrant neuromuscular synaptic effects, since nerve conduction in the gastrocnemius muscle could be blocked in the progesterone-impregnated chitosan tubes. In addition, in the region of the gap produced by the nerve resection, the number of axons and amount of myelination were reduced in the sciatic nerve implanted with chitosan, progesterone-loaded chitosan, and silicone tubes. At 180 days after sciatic nerve sectioning, the knee kinematic function recovered to a level observed in control rats of a similar age. In rats with progesterone-loaded chitosan tubes, stimulation of the proximal and intratubular sciatic nerve segments produced an electromyographic response. The axon morphology of the proximal and intratubular segments of the sciatic nerve resembled that of the contralateral nontransected nerve.

CONCLUSIONS
Progesterone-impregnated chitosan tubes produced aberrant innervation of the gastrocnemius muscle, which allowed partial recovery of gait locomotion and could be adequate for reinnervating synergistic denervated muscles while a parent innervation is reestablished. Hindlimb kinematic parameters differed between younger (those at 90 days) and older (those at 180 days) rats.


: Background and Aim: Rapid promotion and development of technology and undesirable change in life in some fields, especially in consumption field, caused to face with great amount of rubbish which contains different kinds of valuable and toxic materials. If these trashes have not suitable management, they are so harmful for both human and environment. Therefore, appropriate recycle ways and observance of environmental standards can prevent from occurrence such problems. Execution of these methods and standard observance depends on various factors that human factors are one of the most important reasons regarding to this field. Therefore, in this study, we try to analysis the environmental behavior of tried human factors and social factors which are effective on them. Material Method: This study is a kind of surveying research. In addition to gauging method and the study object and date analysis level, for gathering information and data in major levels, attributive study has been used. Also racemes' sampling has been used and to determine the volume sample, the Cochran formula is used, and in total, 400 questionnaires completed and collected. Then, data has been analysis by SPSS software . Result: research`s results showed that there is a positive and meaningful relation between new ecologic paradigm and environmental behavior. Also, there is a positive and meaningful relation between the standpoint toward recycle and environmental behavior. Also, the meaningful relationship between sex (gender), income, and job and environmental behavior has achieved. The regression analysis results showed that 19 percent of independent variable variances are explicated by dependent variables (standpoint toward recycle and new ecologic paradigm). In fact, the coefficient of influence in new ecologic paradigm is 0.142 and for variable standpoint toward recycle is 0.465. Conclusion: Environmental problems such as global changes in climate, regional air pollution, water pollution and etc, are due to human harmful changes in environment. Also, this has been clarified that human factors in producing and recycling rubbish, play an important role, therefore, recognizing their insights and tendencies helps a lot in rubbish and recycle management programming, and should be done by responsible persons.


The strength and duration of the NF-κB signaling response must be tightly modulated to avoid an inadequate or excessive immune response. Relish, a core NF-κB transcription factor of the Drosophila Imd pathway, can control the expression of antimicrobial peptides, including Dpt and AttA, to defend against Gram-negative bacterial infections, but whether Relish may regulate miRNA expression to participate in the immune response remains unclear. In this study, taking advantage of Drosophila S2 cells and different overexpression/knockout/knockdown flies, we first found that Relish could directly activate the expression of miR-308 to negatively regulate the immune response and promote the survival of Drosophila during Enterobacter cloacae infection. Second, our results demonstrated that Relish-mediated expression of miR-308 could suppress target gene Tab2 to attenuate the Drosophila Imd pathway signal during the middle and late stages of the immune response. Third, we detected the dynamic expression patterns of Dpt, AttA, Relish, miR-308, and Tab2 in wild-type flies after E. coli infection, which further revealed that the feedback regulatory loop of Relish-miR-308-Tab2 plays a crucial role in the immune response and homeostasis maintenance of the Drosophila Imd pathway. Overall, our present study not only illustrates an important mechanism by which this Relish-miR-308-Tab2 regulatory axis can negatively control the Drosophila immune response and participate in homeostasis maintenance but also provides new insights into the dynamic regulation of the NF-κB/miRNA expression network of animal innate immunity.


From the machining errors and static dynamic error influence two aspects are discussed in this paper, the analysis of machining process on the processing precision influence of error, puts forward process design. Long-term since, improving precision machine tool is through the two methods: error and avoid error compensation. Avoid error is a "hard", focusing on design and processing in the error may eliminate all stages. And error compensation in existing machine, can work environment to further improve the machining precision, it is a kind of economic effectively improve the machining precision of the method. For error analysis and calculation, the ultimate goal is to eliminate and reduce processing error, the improvement of the machining errors of classification in many ways. According to the machining process of the factors causing error to occur any regularity, processing error into system error and the random error, According to the nature of the changes with time, and can be divided into static error and dynamic error.


In the EU 25, 23 million SME provide around 75 million jobs and represent 99% of all enterprises. However they seldom have the capacity to systematically exploit energy savings. ENGINE aims at helping the engine of European economy become more energy efficient. ENGINE addresses managing and technical staff in SMEs of the automotive, metal and wood processing sectors as well as food industries and energy efficiency advisors in professional associations, Chambers of Industry and Commerce, energy service companies or relevant stakeholders in public authorities in the partner regions. The activities of ENGINE will include specific energy efficiency checks for the SMEs and training for potential and existing energy advisors to support capacity building on both sides. In addition to these straightforward measures, ENGINE will aim at setting up regional networks and promotional campaigns for energy efficiency in producing industries.


Self-attention models such as Transformers, which can capture temporal relationships without being limited by the distance between events, have given competitive speech recognition results. However, we note the range of the learned context increases from the lower to upper self-attention layers, whilst acoustic events often happen within short time spans in a left-to-right order. This leads to a question: for speech recognition, is a global view of the entire sequence useful for the upper self-attention encoder layers in Transformers? To investigate this, we train models with lower self-attention/upper feed-forward layers encoders on Wall Street Journal and Switchboard. Compared to baseline Transformers, no performance drop but minor gains are observed. We further developed a novel metric of the diagonality of attention matrices and found the learned diagonality indeed increases from the lower to upper encoder self-attention layers. We conclude the global view is unnecessary in training upper encoder layers.


The present investigation was taken up to study the effect of long term treatment (30 days) of various potassium channel openers and blockers on serum insulin, glucose, T 3 , TSH and plasma cortisol in rats. Treatment withcromakalim for 30 days produced a significant decrease in serum insulin levels in rats. However, treatment with pinacidil and glibenclamide produced a significant increase in serum Insulin levels. KRN 2391 did not produce any effect on serum Insulin levels. Glucose levels were decreased significantly only with glibenclamide and no significant alteration in serum glucose levels was observed with any of the potassium channel openers. Serum To levels were significantly increased with cromakalim and glibenclamide. However no significant alteration in serum T 3 levels was observed with pinacidil and KRN 2391. Serum TSH levels were significantly decreased with pinacidil. No significant alteration was observed in serum TSH levels by other potassium channel modulators. Serum cortisol levels were significantly decreased with all the three potassium channel openers while glibenclamide did not produce any significant change in serum cortisol levels. Our data suggest that potassium channels may be involved in the release of hormones other than insulin. It also indicates that there is Involvement of different types of potassium channels In the action of different potassium channel modulators.


The present work is based on developing a control strategy to mitigate the impact of reduced inertia due to significant DFIG penetration in a large power system. The paper aims to design a supplementary control for the DFIG power converters such that the effective inertia contributed by these wind generators to the system is increased. The paper also proposes the idea of adjusting pitch compensation and maximum active power order to the converter in order to improve inertial response during the transient with response to drop in grid frequency. Results obtained on a large realistic power system indicate that the frequency nadir following a large power impact in the form of generators dropping out is effectively improved with the proposed control strategy. The proposed control is also validated against the sudden wind speed change in the form of wind gust downs and wind ramp downs occurring in conjunction with the generators dropping out. A beneficial impact in terms of damping power system oscillations is also observed, which is validated by eigenvalue analysis. The affected mode is then excited with a large disturbance in time domain. The damping improvement observed in time domain and subsequent Prony analysis support the result obtained from eigenvalue analysis.


Neural Tangent Kernel (NTK) is widely used to analyze overparametrized neural networks due to the famous result by Jacot et al. (2018): in the infinite-width limit, the NTK is deterministic and constant during training. However, this result cannot explain the behavior of deep networks, since it generally does not hold if depth and width tend to infinity simultaneously. In this paper, we study the NTK of fully-connected ReLU networks with depth comparable to width. We prove that the NTK properties depend significantly on the depth-to-width ratio and the distribution of parameters at initialization. In fact, our results indicate the importance of the three phases in the hyperparameter space identified in Poole et al. (2016): ordered, chaotic and the edge of chaos (EOC). We derive exact expressions for the NTK dispersion in the infinite-depth-and-width limit in all three phases and conclude that the NTK variability grows exponentially with depth at the EOC and in the chaotic phase but not in the ordered phase. We also show that the NTK of deep networks may stay constant during training only in the ordered phase and discuss how the structure of the NTK matrix changes during training.


To determine whether skin blood flow is local or takes part in general regulatory mechanisms, we recorded laser-Doppler flowmetry (LDF; left and right index fingers), blood pressure, muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), R-R interval, and respiration in 10 healthy volunteers and 3 subjects after sympathectomy. We evaluated 1) the synchronism of LDF fluctuations in two index fingers, 2) the relationship with autonomically mediated fluctuations in other signals, and 3) the LDF ability to respond to arterial baroreflex stimulation (by neck suction at frequencies from 0.02 to 0.20 Hz), using spectral analysis (autoregressive uni- and bivariate, time-variant algorithms). Synchronous LDF fluctuations were observed in the index fingers of healthy subjects but not in sympathectomized patients. LDF fluctuations were coherent with those obtained for blood pressure, MSNA, and R-R interval. LDF fluctuations were leading blood pressure in the low-frequency (LF; 0.1 Hz) band and lagging in the respiratory, high-frequency (HF; approximately 0.25 Hz) band, suggesting passive "downstream" transmission only for HF and "upstream" transmission for LF from the microvessels. LDF fluctuations were responsive to sinusoidal neck suction up to 0.1 Hz, indicating response to sympathetic modulation. Skin blood flow thus reflects modifications determined by autonomic activity, detectable by frequency analysis of spontaneous fluctuations.


A challenging problem for designers of agent societies is the problem of providing for public goods (Hardin 1968). Public goods are social benefits that can be accessed by individuals irrespective of their personal contributions. The dilemma for an individual agent is whether to be a contributor or to be an exploiter (enjoy benefits without contributing proportionately). has been shown that selfish actions on the part of agents in a society can lead to ineffective social systems. In this paper, we evolve agent societies which are able to "solve" the dilemma. In one set of experiments, a genetic algorithm (GA) based approach is used to evolve agent societies that are faced with the Bracss' paradox (Irvine 1993). In another scenario, agent groups adapt to effectively utilize a pair of resources. Encouraged by this initial explorations, we plan to investigate another variation of the GA that uses less global information than the current approach.


Clinical trials and biostatistics workshop: introduction and overview Crowley, John Cancer Research And Biostatistics, Seattle, WA, USA This unique workshop was designed to bring together clinicians and statisticians to discuss current problems and potential solutions to issues in the design and analysis of lung cancer clinical trials and translational science. Each of the afternoon sessions pairs an oncologist with a biostatistician (some also have a formal discussant) to present a particular issue and approach. Two evening panels explore opportunities for lung cancer trials in Asia, and different models for clinical trial conduct. Many of the current issues arise because of the development of newer, targeted therapies. The traditional phase II endpoint of tumor shrinkage may no longer be appropriate in such settings, and there may not be good historical data on newer endpoints such as disease control rate, so new phase II and phase II/III designs are needed. In addition, the degree to which therapies are targeted (and targets can be measured) has implications for the design of phase III trials. The ability to measure thousands of gene expression levels, gene variants or gene products brings with it the challenge of sorting through these high dimensional data sets to identify which patients will benefit from particular therapies. The goal is to use genetic characteristics of the tumor and/or the host to tailor therapy. Finally, the hope persists that the patient's immune system can be enhanced and used to fight cancer. This field of immunotherapy also raises particular issues of clinical trial design.


After the violent white supremacy events in Charlottesville, Virginia, of August 2017, some scholars have written that "hate speech" is absolutely protected by the First Amendment. This paper, first delivered at a Symposium at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco in September 2017, disagrees.
Scholars making the absolute doctrinal assertion tend to rely heavily on Justice Scalia's opinion for the Court in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, while ignoring, discounting or misreading the Court's later opinion in Virginia v. Black (which Justice Scalia joined and, in fact, would have taken further). Black clearly upheld, against First Amendment challenge and as consistent with R.A.V., a statutory ban on cross-burning (while striking down a separate statutory presumption of intent). This paper suggests that Black, as well as prior doctrine, would support a narrowly drawn and carefully administered ban on racial and religious hate speech. Meanwhile, the United States is party to a multinational Treaty (the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, "ICERD"), which obligates us to try, if not inconsistent with the Constitution.
So that critics will have something specific to shoot at, a short draft statute is presented in the paper. Undoubtedly it can be improved -- and perhaps it should not be attempted at all. The dangers in giving any government the power to enforce a "hate speech ban" are real, and must be carefully considered. On the other hand, the dangers and harms caused by hateful speech are also real. A doctrinal assertion that such a statute must be unconstitutional without question is, I assert, in error.


Current implementations of combinatorial auction mechanisms do not allow bidders to change their valuations of bundles during the course of the auction, forcing them to spend time and money in estimating bundle valuations with accuracy at the very start of the auction. But in the common value model, bidder valuations can change in response to signals from other bidders. Here we propose a multi-round package bidding scheme called RevalBundle which, at the end of each round, provides bidders with information to help them modify and resubmit their valuations. RevalBundle also provides incentives for truthful reporting of valuations by making the final payments of winners independent of their reported valuations. Moreover, the seller's revenue is higher than that realized by the VCG method. Experiments are reported that clarify the features and properties of the mechanism.


The growing epidemic of obesity in our society has become a major public health issue, with serious social and psychological consequences in addition to the physical health implications. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally with a similar rise in prevalence among women in the reproductive age group. This has critical consequences for fetal and maternal health in the antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum periods. The aims of this study were to summarise the implications of maternal obesity on maternal, fetal and neonatal health and to recommend good practice guidelines on the management of this problem. The authors highlight the need for good quality interventional research on maternal obesity while identifying avenues with potential scope for future research in this context.


OBJECTIVE To examine the relation between metabolic control and self-assessed quality of life in adolescents with IDDM. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The Diabetes Quality of Life (DQOL) questionnaire for youths was given to 69 subjects with IDDM aged 10-20 years at the time of their outpatient visit. Subjects with IDDM of < 1 year's duration or with documented psychotic disorder or mental retardation were excluded. Metabolic control was assessed by the mean HbA1c during the preceding year (long-term), by a single HbA1c at the time of the visit (short-term), and by the number of acute events related to IDDM in the preceding year. RESULTS The DQOL score correlated with mean HbA1c (β = 6.13, R2 = 0.22, P = 0.0122) and single HbA1c (β = 3.94, R2 = 0.18, P = 0.05). Self-health assessment was the best predictor of DQOL score (β = −44.42, R2 = 0.45, P < 0.0001). The Worries subscale score on DQOL correlated with the occurrence of acute events (β = 6.97, R2 = 0.2, P = 0.006), but did not correlate with either HbA1c level. Correlations of mean HbA1c with the predictors were stronger than the correlations of single HbA1c with the same predictors. CONCLUSIONS Metabolic control and quality of life are two important outcomes of IDDM care. In our study, adolescents in better metabolic control report better quality of life. Both components need to be addressed in developing successful diabetes treatment strategies for adolescents with IDDM.


Endothelin-1 (ET-1) exerts the following two types of aldosterone-stimulating actions on glomerulosa cells: ET-1-mediated direct stimulation of aldosterone secretion (per se effect) and potentiation of the aldosterone secretion to angiotensin II (ANG II; potentiation effect). The role of Ca2+ and protein kinase C (PKC) systems in these two effects was investigated. Incubations of calf cultured adrenal zona glomerulosa cells in low-Ca2+ media or in the presence of the Ca2+ channel antagonist verapamil reduced the aldosterone secretion to ET-1. When cells were preincubated with ET-1 in a low-Ca2+ media or in the presence of the Ca2+ channel antagonist verapamil, washed, and incubated in media with normal Ca2+, ANG II showed potentiation of ANG II-stimulated aldosterone secretion. The PKC inhibitors H-7 and staurosporine did not decrease ET-1-stimulated aldosterone secretion, but they inhibited the potentiation effect of ET-1 on ANG II-mediated aldosterone secretion. Adrenocorticotropic hormone desensitization or prolonged phorbol ester stimulation of PKC resulting in desensitization also resulted in the abolition of the ET-1-mediated ANG II potentiation of aldosterone secretion. The PKC inhibitors did not affect ANG II-stimulated aldosterone secretion. We conclude that ET-1 exerts a direct stimulation of aldosterone secretion through a mechanism dependent on Ca2+ and potentiates ANG II-mediated aldosterone stimulation through a mechanism involving PKC.


Gradient-based numerical optimization of complex engineering designs offers the promise of rapidly producing better designs. However, such methods generally assume that the objective function and constraint functions are continuous, smooth, and defined everywhere. Unfortunately, realistic simulators tend to violate these assumptions, making optimization unreliable. Several decisions that need to be made in setting up an optimization, such as the choice of a starting prototype and the choice of a formulation of the search space, can make a difference in the reliability of the optimization. Machine learning can improve gradient-based methods by making these choices based on the results of previous optimizations. This paper demonstrates this idea by using machine learning for four parts of the optimization setup problem: selecting a starting prototype from a database of prototypes, synthesizing a new starting prototype, predicting which design goals are achievable, and selecting a formulation of the search space. We use standard tree-induction algorithms (C4.5 and CART). We present results in two realistic engineering domains: racing yachts and supersonic aircraft. Our experimental results show that using inductive learning to make setup decisions improves both the speed and the reliability of design optimization.


When we noticed an increasing incidence of deep sternal surgical site infections (DSSI), a bundle of interdisciplinary infection control measures was initiated in order to prevent further cases of DSSI. Adherence to infection control measures was re-inforced, which included (1) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening, (2) bacterial decolonisation measures, (3) hair clipping instead of shaving, (4) education, (5) good stewardship for antibiotic prophylaxis, (6) change of surgical gloves after sternotomy and after sternal wiring, (7) new bandage techniques, (8) leaving the wound primarily covered for at least 48 h. We checked for potential risk factors in a case-control study (120 patients each) by multivariate analysis. A significant decrease of DSSI from 3.61% (CI 95: 2.98-4.35) down to 1.83% (CI 95: 1.08-2.90) occurred. Independent significant risk factors for DSSI were age >68 years (OR=2.47; CI 95: 1.33-4.60), diabetes mellitus (OR=4.84; CI 95: 2.25-10.4), and intra-operative blood glucose level >8 mmol/l (OR=2.27; CI 95: 1.17-4.42). Protective factors were preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis (OR=0.31; CI 95: 0.13-0.70) and extubation on the day of surgery (OR=0.25; CI 95: 0.11-0.55). Close co-operation between clinical physicians and the infection control team significantly reduced the rate of DSSI. Thus, cardiac surgeons should know the local baseline DSSI rate, e.g. by surveillance, and should be aware of the risk factors for DSSI cases.


High speed milling experiments using nitrogen-oil-mist as cutting medium were undertaken to investigate the characteristics of tool wear for Ti-6Al-4V Alloy, a kind of important and commonly used titanium alloy in the aerospace and automobile industries. Uncoated carbide tools have been applied in the experiments. The cutting speed was 300 m/min. The axial depth of cut and the radial depth of cut were kept constant at 5.0 mm and 1.0 mm, respectively. The feed per tooth was 0.1 mm/z. Optical and scanning electron microscopes have been utilized to determine the wear mechanisms of the cutting tools, and energy spectrum analysis has been carried out to measure the elements distribution at the worn areas. Meanwhile, comparisons were made to discuss the influence of different cutting media such as nitrogen-oil-mist and air-oil–mist upon the tool wear. The results of this investigation indicate that the tool life in nitrogen-oil-mist is significantly longer than that in air-oil-mist, and nitrogen-oil-mist is more suitable for high speed milling of Ti-6Al-4V alloy than air-oil-mist.


Although political risks might seem isolated and rare, their implications are quite alive and profound in the everyday social and economic activities of a nation. Assessing political risk goes beyond checking a country's sovereign rating and having good relations with incumbent political parties. Political risks also must be distinguished from security risks. Political risk insurance wrapping to place debt in the capital markets, and securitization of some of these structures, represents an important market innovation to help reduce funding costs and diversify funding sources. Being able to understand and negotiate appropriate policy language, as well as putting in place credible payment mechanisms, is the main challenge for a successful wrapping.


VizWiz challenge addresses two tasks: visual question answering and visual question answerability. Unlike conventional VQA datasets, VizWiz dataset was collected by the visually impaired using mobile phones and has the following characteristics: (1) the images include a significant amount of blur and unstable lighting while the questions include conversational style. (2) the questions can be unrelated to the images due to the limited visual information. In this paper, we propose bilinear attention networks (BAN), which exploits bilinear interactions between multimodal input channels, followed by two-layer MLPs for each task with a joint loss. Experimental results on VizWiz dataset show that the proposed method significantly outperforms previous methods.


ABSTRACT An electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)-based in-situ corrosion sensor has been adapted and evaluated for use with steel heat exchanger tubes in boilers, coated buried steel pipes, and painted steel structures. An excellent correlation was ob-tained between the logarithm of the ratio of the breakpoint frequencies, as measured by the sensor, and corrosion rate for the boiler tubes. Use of this sensor and appropriate electronics would allow the corrosion of the boiler tubes to be monitored in real time and the inhibitor concentration automatically controlled to prevent excessive corrosion. The EIS sensor is also sen-sitive to the quality of coating of a buried steel pipe with and without the application of cathodic protection. Similar results were obtained from a sensor attached to the pipe and from a separate electrode driven into the soil. A hand-held version of the EIS in-situ sensor is suitable for inspecting painted metal structures, such as storage tanks and locks and dams, under am-bient, service conditions. An excellent correlation was obtained between the sensor measurements and the amount of corro-sion on test panels immersed for up to 28 years.


The ongoing developments in the area of Smart Grids drastically have changed the objectives of the electricity power industry towards extensive monitoring, management and conservation of energy in the competitive power market and independent regulatory environment. In order to achieve a reliable, autonomous and intelligent Power Consumption Control System, that enables households to monitor, manage and conserve energy, we have integrated ICT as an enabling technology to gain energy savings and to reduce the energy bill of the households. The challenge of our research was to enable an efficient control of several home appliances plugged-in to multi-socket extension connected to a single power socket sensor. In this process, we had several problems to deal with, but the most important and challenging task was to identify exactly which of the appliances plugged-in to multi-socket extension was actually running. Therefore, the scope of this paper focuses on developing an algorithm for data clustering based on the box-dimension as a correlation measure between the monitored values from the power socket sensor data. The prediction analysis confirmed the operating states from our test bed and therefore met the evaluation criteria for our algorithm. As a result, the recognition of the operating states of the appliances provides an opportunity for their successful control, simultaneously increasing the energy efficiency.


BackgroundRenal cell carcinoma (RCC) was not a single disease, many efforts have been devoted to identifying RCC subtypes on the basis of genomic profiling, but none has classified immunogenomic profiling based on therapeutic responses in RCC subtypes.MethodsTumors from RCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort were analyzed, and genomic profiling was performed. We classified RCC on the basis of the immunogenomic profiling of 29 immune signatures.ResultsWe investigated the transcriptional changes of three RCC subtypes by RNA-seq. Gene ontology (GO) identify specific gene signatures differed significantly between KIRC, KIRP and KICH related to the distinct pathways. Site of origin within the nephron was one major determinant in the molecular and immune classification, reflecting differences between three subtypes. The Immunity High KIRC and KIRP subtype was enriched not only in immune signatures, but also including PD-L1 expression signaling, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, JAK-STAT signaling pathway and Cell cycle signaling pathway. KICH was a distinct disease that shared little genomic characteristics with KIRC and KIRP.ConclusionsThe identification of RCC subtypes based on immune signatures has potential clinical implications for RCC treatment. It is imaginable that patients with higher immunity subtype of KIRC and KIRP would be more likely to respond to anti-PD-1/ PD-L1 therapy than patients with KICH subtype. CCL21 and CCL25 might be a potential target for KICH therapy.


Lipidomics is a relatively new field in life science, it is based in the study of pathways and networks of cellular lipids in a cell. Lipidomics is a subclass of metabolomics, one of the omics disciplines that the recent decade has greatly contributed to the increased understanding of biological systems. The technological advancement in chromatography and mass spectrometry the last years, can be claimed as one of the main reason that lipidomics has had such a rise the last few years. New technology have made it easier to examine the complex mixture of lipids that exists in biological samples. Lipids are a diverse class of molecules, which are categorized into eight different categories based on their chemical structure: glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, fatty acyls, sphingolipids, sterol lipids, prenol lipids, saccharolipids and polyketides. Lipids and their metabolism are important factor in many diseases, such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and metabolic diseases. The work presented here has made an assessment of the lipidome of JJN-3 cells, a multiple myeloma cell line. This was done using liquid chromatography coupled with a tandem mass spectrometry (quadrupole and time-of-flight mass analysers). The lipidome of JJN-3 comprises of mainly phospholipids, with phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine being the most abundant. There were also a high amount of glycerolipids and fatty acyls, and traces of sphingolipids, sterol lipids, polyketides and prenol lipids in the samples. A comparison between JJN-3 and two other cell lines, DU145 and HEK293 were conducted. There is clearly a difference between the three cell lines. HEK293 has a higher abundance of glycerolipids and has the least amount of phospholipids of the three cell lines. The main experiments tested to see if the peptide ATX-101 had any effect on the lipid composition of JJN-3 cells. The result showed that exposure to a low concentration of the peptide over several days, does not alter the lipid composition. An experiment with a higher concentration of ATX-101 was also conducted. This show that the samples treated with ATX-101 do have some changes in their lipid composition. However, due to the nature of the samples at time zero, the result are inconclusive and the experiment would have to be redone to see if the result are conclusive. It is, however, possible to conclude that the cell-penetrating peptide is not the cause of these alteration.


Due to the recent improvements in digital photography and storage capacity, storing large amounts of images has been made possible, and efficient means to retrieve images matching a user's query are needed. Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems automatically extract image contents based on image features, i.e. color, texture, and shape. Relevance feedback methods are applied to CBIR to integrate users' perceptions and reduce the gap between high-level image semantics and low-level image features. In the past 30 years, relevance feedback (RF) has been an effective query modification approach to improving the performance of information retrieval (IR) by interactively asking a user whether a set of documents are relevant or not to a given query concept. This paper aims at developing a scheme for intelligent image retrieval using machine learning technique and the information gathered from the user's feedback. This helps the system on the following rounds of the retrieval process to better approximate the present need of the user. We have shown that a powerful relevance feedback mechanism can be implemented by using reinforcement learning algorithms. The user thus does not need to explicitly specify weights for relationship between images and concepts, because the weights are formed implicitly by the system. The proposed relevance feedback technique is described, analyzed qualitatively, and visualized in the paper. Also, its performance is compared with a reference method. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed technique is promising.


Certain NP-hard problems like Clique and MAX-3SAT have resisted all attempts to find non-trivial approximation. Is there any inherent reason for the apparent inapproximability of these problems? The discovery of PCP Theorem and subsequent research have shown that for Clique and MAX-3SAT, any non-trivial approximation is as hard as finding the exact solution!
In this work, we continue this line of research and show inapproximability of many fundamental NP-hard problems. These include (Hyper-)Graph Coloring, Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) in lattices, Hypergraph Vertex Cover, Clique and Chromatic Number of graphs, and some results based on the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC) that we propose. Specifically, we show that: (Hyper-)Graph Coloring: It is hard to color (i) k-colorable graphs with kΩ(log k ) colors, (ii) 3-colorable 3-uniform hypergraphs with (log log n)Ω(1) colors, and (iii) k-colorable 4-uniform hypergraphs with (log n)Ω(k ) colors. SVP: For all large enough p, it is hard to find the shortest nonzero vector in an n-dimensional lattice under Lp norm within factor p 1-o(1). Hypergraph Vertex Cover: The vertex cover in k-uniform hypergraphs is hard to approximate within factor k − 1 − o(1) for every k ≥ 3. Clique and Chromatic Number of Graphs: Both these problems are hard to approximate within factor n2log ng for some constant g < 1. Consequences of UGC: We propose a conjecture about certain 2-Prover-1-Round games and show that it implies any constant factor hardness for Min-2SAT Deletion and factor k − o(1) hardness for vertex cover in k-uniform hypergraphs for every k ≥ 2.
We use the powerful machinery of Probabilistically Checkable Proofs and introduce many new techniques for constructing and analyzing PCPs.


Recurring estimates of the size of animal populations are often required by biologists or wildlife managers. Because of cost or other constraints, estimates frequently lack the accuracy desired but cannot readily be improved by additional sampling. This report proposes a statistical method employing empirical Bayes (EB) estimators as alter- natives to those customarily used to estimate population size, and evaluates them by a subsampling experiment on waterfowl surveys. EB estimates, especially a simple limited- translation version, were more accurate and provided shorter confidence intervals with greater coverage probabilities than customary estimates.


BACKGROUND: Stroke mortality and related functional disability have been declining over the last two decades, but stroke continues to represent the second leading cause of cardiovascular death worldwide and the number one cause for acquired long-term disability. OBJECTIVES: Assess short- and long-term health outcomes after acute ischemic stroke and analyze factors associated with poor survival and functional outcomes. DESIGN: Retrospective and survival analysis SETTING: Inpatient unit at a tertiary care referral hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All patients admitted with acute ischemic stroke from 1 January 2017 to 31 August 2018 were included in the study. Functional status was assessed using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Other demographic and clinical variables were obtained from medical records. Data were analyzed by multivariable logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards, and the Kaplan-Meier method. Long-term follow-up data, including mortality and mRS was collected by follow-up phone call. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Functional dependency and factors associated with mortality. SAMPLE SIZE AND CHARACTERISTICS: 110 with mean age of 67.0 (14.7) years; 59 patients (53.6%) were males. RESULTS: Hypertension (75.5%), diabetes mellitus (54.6%), and dyslipidemia (29.1%) were common. Sixty-five patients (59.1%) had mRS >2 upon discharge including 18 patients (16.4%) who died during the hospital stay. The cumulative mortality rate was 25.4% (28/110) at 12 months and 30.0% (33/110) at 24 months. Twenty-nine stroke survivors (29/70, 41.4%) remained physically dependent (mRS >2) at the end of follow-up. Old age, atrial fibrillation, history of prior stroke, chronic kidney disease, and peripheral arterial disease were associated with increased mortality and functional dependence. CONCLUSIONS: Patients in Oman with acute ischemic stroke tend to have a high comorbidity burden, and their functional dependency and mortality are higher compared to patients from developed countries. Therefore, evidence-based measures such as establishing stroke units are essential to improve the health outcomes of patients with acute ischemic stroke. LIMITATIONS: Retrospective at single center. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.


Clinical manifestations of thrombophlebitis were analysed in 363 patients in the postoperative period. Complex prophylactic measures of postoperative thrombophlebitis including paravasal injections of a thrombolytic mixture were shown to be most effective.


Inside the globalisation era in which society is immersed, one of the current challenges for any educational system is to provide quality education. While some countries are linguistically homogeneous, many countries and regions display a wealth of linguistic diversity and it is essential to adapt the educational system to those realities. In addition, multilingual education promotes not only social equality but also inter-cultural education. The development of computer software localisable not only at interface level but also regarding learning resources may help to fulfill this aim. During the last years a number of products have emerged to support computer-based concept mapping. This paper presents a pilot study carried out at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU in the area of database systems with three main aims: to facilitate learning about the subject domain, to evaluate whether concept mapping is in general a good technique for learning topics in different languages, and finally, to verify whether CM-ED Concept Map EDitor provides the necessary mechanisms to fulfil this objective. Results confirm that the use of a concept map editor is a good support for education in multilingual settings.


The multidrug resistance (MDR) proteins are member of the ATP-binding cassette superfamily and are present in a majority of human tumors. Their activity is a crucial factor leading to therapeutic failure. It is likely that compounds which inhibit the function of the MDR-efflux proteins such as MDR1 will improve the cytotoxic action of anticancer chemotherapy. Therefore, a search for MDR reversing compounds was conducted among three classes of plant derived compounds such as diterpenes, triterpenes and carotenoids in a hope to find inhibitors without adverse effects in these natural compounds. The inhibition of efflux activity was determined by measuring the accumulation of substrate analogues such as rhodamine in tumor cells in the presence of potential inhibitors. Thus we determined the effect of structurally unrelated diterpenes, triterpenes and carotenoids on reversal of multidrug resistance in MDR-1 gene-transfected L1210 mouse lymphoma cells and MDR mediated multidrug resistance of human breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 (HTB-26) and MCF-7. The majority of diterpenes, cycloartane triterpenes and carotenoids isolated from vegetables and medicinal plants were able to enhance rhodamine 123 accumulations of MDR-cells. Synergistic interaction was found between epirubicine and resistance modifier terpenoids in vitro. It is supposed that these MDR modulators bind into transmembrane domains and the action of ABC transporters is inhibited by induced conformational changes.


The European Drug Report 2017: Trends and Developments, published by the Libson based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) reports that only 20% of patients who undergo treatment for drug addiction are female (a male-female ratio of 4:1).According to the EMCDDA, the reasons for this are varied and could include issues of access and appropriateness of service provision.Using data from two trials conducted within the Department of Pathological Addictions of the Local Health Service of Taranto, this article's intent is to highlight the necessity of specific focusing in terms of health, rehabilitation programmes, and access to services for women drug consumers and addicts.Helping women addicts to become independent, making them aware of their own potential, offering them a real sense of self worth to value and defend, promoting the safeguarding of their own health; all these are essential elements of treatment and rehabilitation, for the prevention and limitation of any harm.


The objective of this thesis was to establish a good way of wet etching a borosilicate glass named Borofloat 33 for bonding microfluidic devices. This was accomplished by wet etching with different materials as masking layers and evaluating them in different concentrations of the main etchant, which is the hydrofluoric acid (HF). The best results were obtained with a mask consisting of evaporated chromium and gold, where gold was sequentially deposited to minimize the occurrence of pinholes generated in the glass substrate. The Cr/Au mask was successfully able to protect the glass, while etching to the predefined depth of 90 micrometer, and at the same time keeping the amount of pinholes at an acceptable level. Deep and precise etching in Borofloat was possible due to an increasing knowledge about how different masking materials behave in different etching solutions as well as how the etch rate in Borofloat depends on the HF concentration. Static simulations were carried out in order to determine a beneficial design of processed micro channels for resisting internal pressure as well as optical inspection of the fluids inside the channels.


Tactics for Listening Third Edition is an activity-rich listening course with proven success in building skills in listening and conversation. Now with Tactics for Testing, it provides plenty of practice in testing and exam techniques. The result is confident listeners - and exam success. This three-level American English listening course uses short chunks and practical, relevant activities to engage and motivate students. The new Testing Program and Resource CD-ROM helps you prepare your students for TOEIC (R), STEP-EIKEN (R), IELTS (R), TOEFL (R) and GEPT (R) exams.


Refactoring is the process of changing the structure of code without changing its meaning, and is a frequent practice among developers. Although programmers refactor frequently, they usually do not use refactoring tools to automate this process. We argue that the need to recall the name of a refactoring before the appropriate tool can be invoked makes it unnecessarily hard to initiate a refactoring with a tool. Conventional ways of initiating a tool also make it hard to transition from novice tool user to expert tool user. The contribution of this paper is a memorable mapping from gestures to refactorings, and an implementation of that mapping in the form of marking menus. In the first reported experiment to explore the effect of the position of items in marking menus on people's ability to infer the location of those items, we asked 16 programmers to complete a paper-based evaluation of our mapping. The results suggest that programmers can infer the gesture that will invoke the appropriate refactoring tool, even if they do not know the name of the refactoring. We also illustrate how marking menus might be used for refactoring during development with two other small studies.


Time-distance helioseismology is a set of tools for peering into the solar interior. In this paper we discuss and provide examples of the steps that go into current high-resolution time-distance helioseismic analyses. These steps include observations (cross covariances, travel times), modeling of the seismic wavefield for a weakly inhomogeneous solar model, and inversion of the travel times. The discussion is framed in the context of studying quiet-Sun flows, although the extension to other solar perturbations is straightforward and analogous. The two-plus-one-dimensional (2+1D) inversion procedure implemented here produces maps of vector flows in the near-surface layers of the photosphere. We examine the flows obtained by compromising, or 'trading off', between different observation times, spatial resolutions, and noise levels. Also studied is the correlation of the flows at different depths and over different time intervals.


The main question behind the work presented here is: How can agricultural greenhouse gas emissions be reduced or sequestration enhanced while maintaining and even increasing food supply. To address this question, we first estimated the business-as-usual emissions of greenhouse gases from the agricultural sector using the IPCC framework and land cover datasets based satellite imagery for the base year 2006 for four East African countries— Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and five West African countries—Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. We found the total emissions to be in the order of about 129 million t CO2e/yr., with emissions from activities related to livestock dominating (84% of the total). Then, we estimated the annual quantity of CO2e/ha that could be sequestered in soil and vegetation (agroforests and native ecosystems) above business-as-usual for several potential mitigation options across the nine countries by four climatic zones. We found that the change in practices included soil only resulted in carbon sequestration rates of about 0.4 to 5 t CO2e/ha/yr and for changes that included in soil and vegetation of about 6 to 22 t CO2e/ha/yr.


In this study, Cu films doped with different Sn concentrations from 0.6-1.4 at.% were prepared by magnetron co-sputtering. The electrical resistivities and microstructures of Cu (Sn) films after annealings were investigated. The results showed that a sharp increase of the resistivity of Cu (1.4 at.% Sn) and Cu (1.1 at.% Sn) films were found after annealing above at 500°C. The existence of 0.6 at.% Sn in the Cu film is in solid solution state. A minimum electrical resistivity value of ~3.2μΩ•cm was obtained after annealing at 600°C for 1h . Even after a annealing at 700°C, the Cu/Si interface of Cu (0.6 at.% Sn) film still remained sharp without any Cu-Si and Cu-Sn compounds. The results confirmed that the lower resistivity and higher stability of Cu films can be achieved by strictly control of the doping concentrations and the existing state (solid solution without compounds and precipitates) of Sn element.


The leaves of Annona muricata were extracted using ethanol and the extracts were evaluated for cytotoxicity using Brine Shrimp Lethality Assay, total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging assay. The crude extract showed 73.33 % mortality at 1000 μg/mL concentration and its LC50-value was 1.59 μg/mL against brine shrimp larvae. The crude extract exhibited a significant toxicity in comparison with the positive control, the potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) with LC50-value 0.57 μg/mL. The TPC assay of the extracts was expressed as mg of tannic acid equivalent per gram of sample and mg of gallic acid equivalent per gram of sample, the result showed the content of phenolic compounds as 266.86 ± 2.21 mg·TAE/g and 278.60 ± 4.21 mg·GAE/g respectively. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of the ethanol extracts displayed a signigicant free radical scavenging capacity with the IC50 value of 2.58 μg/ml compared with the standard drugs, the ascorbic acid (IC50 0.563 μg/mL) and the butylated hydroxytoluene (IC50 0.570 μg/mL). The result suggested that the antioxidant property exhibited by the ethanol extract could be associated with its high total phenolic contents.


This study aims to use agent-based simulation as a tool to illustrate the importance of human behavior in the dynamics of vector-borne disease spread. For this, a baseline compartmental model was developed and, based on it, four different scenarios considering human behavior were proposed: two assuming the whole population adopts the same behavior and two assuming each individual has his/her own behavior. Paired t-test was used to compare the proposed scenarios with the baseline, based on two output responses from the simulation experiments: total number of infected people and duration of the epidemic. Results from the data analysis indicate that behavior is an important factor and, as such, it must be further investigated and included in infectious-disease spread models to obtain more accurate results. As a final remark, we presented possible explanations to why human behavior has been neglected in many epidemiological models up to now.


Previous research has mostly overlooked the hotel employee- -related perspectives on (occupational) health, including its relation to pandemics (such as COVID-19). This research examines this perspective focusing on the case of the Slovenian hotel industry. An anonymous web questionnaire, as the only practical option, was sent during the lockdown to potential respondents from hotels throughout the country. For the analysis, the following approaches were employed: univariate analysis, the check of reliability and confidence intervals for the means, principal component analysis with Varimax rotation, and Spearman's and Pearson's rank-order correlations. The majority of respondents changed their attitude towards health during the pandemic (χ2 = 2.66). Using PCA, dimensionality-reduction of the dataset was implemented. A five-component solution, in which components account for 60.3% of the total variance, was identified. Due to low rs and rp, all components are negligibly correlated to demographic characteristics as well as to the respondents' changing health concerns due to COVID-19.


Managing ecosystems with deeply uncertain threshold responses and multiple decision makers poses nontrivial decision analytical challenges. The problem is imbued with deep uncertainties because decision makers do not know or cannot converge on a single probability density function for each key parameter, a perfect model structure, or a single adequate objective. The existing literature on managing multistate ecosystems has generally followed a normative decision-making approach based on expected utility maximization (MEU). This approach has simple and intuitive axiomatic foundations, but faces at least two limitations. First, a prespecified utility function is often unable to capture the preferences of diverse decision makers. Second, decision makers' preferences depart from MEU in the presence of deep uncertainty. Here, we introduce a framework that allows decision makers to pose multiple objectives, explore the trade-offs between potentially conflicting preferences of diverse decision makers, and to identify strategies that are robust to deep uncertainties. The framework, referred to as many-objective robust decision making (MORDM), employs multiobjective evolutionary search to identify trade-offs between strategies, re-evaluates their performance under deep uncertainty, and uses interactive visual analytics to support the selection of robust management strategies. We demonstrate MORDM on a stylized decision problem posed by the management of a lake in which surpassing a pollution threshold causes eutrophication. Our results illustrate how framing the lake problem in terms of MEU can fail to represent key trade-offs between phosphorus levels in the lake and expected economic benefits. Moreover, the MEU strategy deteriorates severely in performance for all objectives under deep uncertainties. Alternatively, the MORDM framework enables the discovery of strategies that balance multiple preferences and perform well under deep uncertainty. This decision analytic framework allows the decision makers to select strategies with a better understanding of their expected trade-offs (traditional uncertainty) as well as their robustness (deep uncertainty).


We examine the effects of conflict and conflict asymmetry on creativity in interdisciplinary teams. Testing our hypotheses on teams working on graduate-level nanobiotechnology projects, we found task conflict to have a positive relationship with creativity whereas relationship conflict had a negative relationship with creativity. Our results also revealed that relationship conflict asymmetry had a positive effect on creativity. Examining the two components of creativity separately, we found that relationship conflict asymmetry explained variance in the novelty component, whereas task conflict, team size, and functional diversity explained variance in the usefulness component.


By utilizing strong optical resonant interactions in arrays of atoms with electric dipole transitions, we show how to synthesize collective optical responses that correspond to those formed by arrays of magnetic dipoles and other multipoles. Optically active magnetism with the strength comparable with that of electric dipole transitions is achieved in collective excitation eigenmodes of the array. By controlling the atomic level shifts, an array of spectrally overlapping, crossed electric and magnetic dipoles can be excited, providing a physical realization of a nearly reflectionless quantum Huygens' surface with the full 2π phase control of the transmitted light that allows for extreme wavefront engineering even at a single photon level. We illustrate this by creating a superposition of two different orbital angular momentum states of light from an ordinary input state that has no orbital angular momentum.


How species originate and how communities of species assemble are among the most
intriguing questions in biology, and colonisation is a key element to understand them.
Using two island scenarios and applying molecular tools, this thesis looks within
species to investigate the themes of colonisation (both island colonisation and European
continental recolonisation) and diversification processes in invertebrates. The aim was
to address three gaps in our understanding about island colonisation, speciation and the
assembly of biota. In the Canary Islands, an oceanic island system, the gaps addressed
were: (i) the possibility that genomic admixture among multiple founding lineages has
featured in the diversification of a very species rich coleopteran genus; and (ii) the lack
of information regarding the colonisation history and dynamics of the small arthropod
soil dwelling fauna. In Great Britain, a continental island system, the gap addressed was
the under-explored possibility that the UK was not completely defaunated during
glaciations, then recolonised from external sources, but that a more complex pattern,
involving persistence within small cryptic refugia, may have featured in the history of
its invertebrate soil dwelling fauna. I reveal two instances of shared mtDNA variation
among weevil species from different Canarian islands for which I was able to dismiss
explanations of incomplete lineage sorting and reveal a history of colonisation and
speciation involving genetic admixture (first gap). I characterise Collembola
evolutionary diversity within Tenerife and the distribution of lineage colonisation times,
and reveal this fauna to be represented by a mosaic of very old lineages and a large
number of very recently arrived lineages (second gap). Finally, I reveal signatures of
survival and persistence of the Collembola fauna through the last Pleistocene glaciation
in Great Britain (third gap). How these results fit into a broader evolutionary and
conservation context as well as future directions are discussed.


White, U.S. homosexual males were primarily affected in the early stages of the AIDS pandemic. Some Western researchers argued, however, that the syndrome originated in Africa. Strong political and social response to this notion resulted in only an anemic response to the growing AIDS epidemic in Nigeria. Nonetheless, the Stop AIDS Organization finally launched the Motor Park AIDS Education Program (MPAEP) in 1988, for health and education outreach to populations at risk of STDs and HIV infection. Specifically targeted are long-distance truck drivers, their young male assistants known as motor boys, and the barmaids, prostitutes, and homeless juveniles who frequent motor parks where these drivers rest while on the road. Many of these long-haul drivers have unprotected casual and commercial sex, both homosexual and heterosexual, take drugs, and suffer high rates of STDs. Marginalized, 75% illiterate, and speaking a variety of languages, these populations tend to be largely ignorant of the incurable nature of AIDS. Over 45% of motor park populations are estimated to be infected with an STD, or to have a future re-infection. These drivers are optimal vectors for the spread of HIV both internationally and within Nigeria. MPAEP workers work 6 days/week in the larger interstate motor parks to reach out to their predominantly male customers. They meet a host of primary health needs, and refer STD clients for testing and treatment. Drug use and homosexuality are 2 topics of discussion especially taboo in African society which have nonetheless been vigorously researched by MPAEP. Many drivers are unacknowledged bisexuals who have sex with their motor boys. Workers therefore explain the need to use condoms in same-sex activity without specifically mentioning homosexuality. Many Nigerians deny the existence of HIV and AIDS, are reluctant to speak about sex, and consider MPAEP workers to be intruders. Despite opposition in Muslim- dominated Northern Nigeria, however, program efforts continue.


Although the food security discussion has given more emphasis to the individual (household) level as the proper unit of analysis, it still suffers from applying inappropriate indicators, which are mostly quantity oriented, instead of relying on more recent results of the literature that it is purchasing power or real income that matters. In addition, it has not been made clear so far how food security corresponds to the welfare status of agents. Since food security can more or less be associated with an uncertain world, this should at least be reflected in the value function of individuals who are generally risk averse. Therefore, it is proposed in the paper that the measurement of both food security and welfare should be based on the probability distribution of adjusted real household income over time on a daily basis. Food security can then be defined as the probability of any agent's real income exceeding a critical level, whereas the welfare status is measured as the agent's expected utility of this real income. Special formulas are developed in this context which allow one to calculate producer's and consumer's welfare under price uncertainty and risk aversion separating the risk response effect from the mean income moving effect of price fluctuations. In addition, an alternative measurement of protection in a stochastic world, the so called real protection rate, is proposed which simultaneously covers protection against low prices and volatile prices. All these indicators should be used when comparing and evaluating food security or food insecurity of any agent in whatever region. In the paper the concept is utilized to answer the raised question of how the EU contributes to worldwide food security.


This paper explains why capital does not flow from the North to the South - the Lucas Paradox - with a New Economic Geography model that incorporates mobile capital, immobile labour, and productively heterogeneous firms. In contrast to neoclassical theories, the results show that even a small difference in the ex-ante productivity distribution between North and South can a have significant impact on the location of firms. Despite differences in aggregate capital to labour ratios, wage and rental rates continue to be the same in both locations. The paper also analyses the effects of risk on industrial locations, and shows why 'low-tech' industries tend to migrate to the South, while 'high-tech' industries continue to locate in the North.


As humans, we develop the ability to recognise people by their voice from an early age. Getting computers to perform the same task has proven to be a challenging and interesting problem. Automatic Speaker Recognition is the process of automatically determining who the speaker is (identification) or verifying the claimed identity of a speaker on the basis of information gathered from the spoken words. The advantage of Automatic Speaker Recognition over other biometric techniques is that authentication may be performed remotely. In this thesis, a series of experiments are presented exploring the utilisation of Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) for the task of speaker identification. The database of speakers includes 12 speakers saying twice the following words: one, two, three, four. They were cut up into frames which contained mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and cepstral derivatives. These cepstral coefficients and/or cepstral derivatives were then presented to an Adaptive Resonance Theory neural network together with an indication of the speaker-id for learning purposes. A number of classifier structures were explored and reported within for the classification of speakers with experimental results confirming the most suitable structure (one speaker - multiple networks). A focus of the thesis is also: (a) in the exploration of fusion techniques for use with multiple classifier structures and, (b) on the vectors used for training and testing, amount and component of the vectors and to see how will they affect the performance of the network. The original objective of the work was to construct neural network(s) that may be employed as speaker identifiers. Whereas this has been achieved the work has shown that great care must be taken to ensure that the size of the input vector used is crucial because it influences the learning process.


The paper assesses the steady-state performance of a five-phase induction machine fed by a modified open loop constant volt/hertz (V/f) control method, which imposes a trapezoidal induction waveform in the air gap under varying load conditions. The trapezoidal air gap induction is achieved through the imposition of an appropriate combination of the third harmonic and fundamental stator voltages. This harmonic combination is determined from the steady-state model using a mathematical optimization procedure, which allows to obtain the optimal weighting factors for each harmonic component. The optimized reference voltages lead to a trapezoidal air gap induction, which allows a better iron utilization and higher output torque for the same rms stator current when compared to sinusoidal air gap induction. The resulting air gap induction is obtained from the induced voltage of a full pitch search coil placed in the air gap. The proposed control scheme was successfully simulated and implemented on a five-phase prototype machine running under different load conditions. Experimental and simulations results show an increase in the torque/ampere relationship for loads above 50% when compared to the conventional V/f method using only the fundamental current and air gap induction. A comparison between the simulation and experimental curves presents a very good agreement that confirms and validates the parameters and model used.


Increased dietary protein provided as purified casein augments renal endothelin production (JASN 2004;15:2266) by mechanisms that have not been fully elucidated. We tested the hypothesis that augmented renal endothelin production induced by dietary protein as casein is mediated by the acid challenge to systemic acid-base status induced by metabolism of this protein source. Munich-Wistar rats ate minimum electrolyte diets with protein provided as either casein (CAS) that yields net acid or soy that yields net base when metabolized. After 3 weeks of diet we measured blood and urine acid-base data, urine endothelin-1 (ET-1) excretion as a surrogate of renal ET-1 production, and renal cortical endothelin-1 mRNA with real-time PCR and light cycler technology. Within groups eating the two protein types, those eating diets with higher protein content (50%) were compared to those eating 20% protein, the latter % being comparable to standard rat chow. Animals eating 50% compared to 20% CAS had lower serum total CO2 (23.3 ± 0.5 vs. 25.2 ± 0.6 mM, p < .03), higher urine net acid excretion (NAE) (7067 ± 937 vs. 4460 ± 639 μM/d, p < .04), and higher urine ET-1 excretion (70 ± 14 vs. 22 ± 3 pg/day, p < .005). By contrast, total CO2 (27.3 ± 0.6 vs. 26.6 ± 0.7 mM, p = .78), urine NAE (1698 ± 247 vs. 1803 ± 332 μM/d, p = .80), and urine ET-1 excretion (42 ± 10 vs. 37 ± 3 pg/day, p = .64) were not higher in animals eating 50% compared to 20% soy. ET-1 mRNA was higher in 50% vs. 20% CAS but was similar in 50% vs. 20% soy. 50% CAS animals given oral bosentan, an endothelin A/B receptor antagonist, had higher serum total CO2 (24.8 ± 0.5 vs. 23.3 ± 0.4 mM, p < .04, paired t) and lower urine NAE (7067 ± 937 to 5704 ± 594 μM/d, p < .05, paired t) than 50% CAS animals not given bosentan. Serum total CO2 and urine NAE were not different in the bosentan-ingesting vs. non-ingesting 20% CAS or in either soy group. The data show that increasing dietary protein with the acid-producing casein diet but not with the base-producing soy diet increases renal endothelin production and induces endothelin-mediated augmentation of renal acidification. The data support the hypothesis that augmented renal endothelin production induced by increased dietary protein as casein is medicated through the acid challenge to systemic acid-base status provided by the casein diet.


In this paper, a new structure for a power UMOSFET_ACCUFET, based-on 4H-SiC, has been represented. We have demonstrated that by using vertical P and N pillars under the trench of a conventional UMOSFET, a superior characteristic for this device is achieved. The structure may be optimized by appropriate choice of N and P pillar's doping concentrations as well as widths.


IntroductionWe know that rates of adverse pregnancy outcome such as low birthweight and preterm births vary both by socio-economic status and across geographical areas. Furthermore, more deprived neighbourhoods show higher rates of adverse outcomes. However, much of the evidence comes from cross-sectional observational studies where causality is difficult to assess.
Objectives and ApproachNeighbourhood crime and a resultant increase in maternal stress is a plausible explanation for the deprivation-birth outcome relationship. Without an experiment, isolating this pathway from other confounding effects is challenging. Because many mothers (within the Scottish maternity dataset) experience multiple pregnancies and varying exposure for the same person, we can assume a quasi-experimental allocation to exposure. We model associations as both within mother (comparing exposures between pregnancies to the same mother) and between mother (comparing different people between more and less deprived areas) partitioning the variation and effects accordingly.
ResultsWe find that both composite neighbourhood deprivation and neighbourhood crime specifically is associated with reduced birthweight. However, the composite neighbourhood deprivation measure is only significant when modelled as a between mother effect. Neighbourhood crime on the other hand is significantly associated with both between mother and within mother effects (though the latter is reduced compared to the former). These results suggest that much of the observed relationship with deprivation in general is therefore confounded by factors associated with the composition of individuals in these areas rather than an area deprivation effect per se. In contrast, the association with neighbourhood crime can be considered in isolation from the composition of individuals and is therefore likely to be an independent "area" effect.
Conclusion/ImplicationsThese results are important because outcomes of pregnancy including birthweight and premature births influence health and social outcomes not just in infancy but across the life course. This study suggests policies targeting neighbourhood crime may help to reduce neighbourhood disparities in pregnancy outcomes and therefore health inequalities in general.


AIM: To design and implement a snapshot imaging system capable of mapping oxygen saturation of retinal vessels and tissue clinically for the first time. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our image-splitting design is attached to the imaging portions of a fundus camera. A relay subsystem and reimaging system convert reflected white light from the eye into seven monochromatic images simultaneously. Our algorithm uses intensity information at each of these discrete wavelengths to approximate the area between the oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin spectral curves, which has been shown to be proportional to oxygen saturation. We used Matlab to convert this information into color-coded oxygen saturation maps of the optic nerve head. We validated our system by using it on a model eye with a capillary of known blood oxygen saturation, then used it in vivo to obtain quantitative values of human oxygen saturation for veins and tissue. RESULTS: By collecting seven images simultaneously with one snapshot, our system is the first to document and map oxygen saturation of the retinal vessels and tissue. Our system's calculations agree with co-oximeter readings of blood in a model eye capillary mimicking a vessel. The quantitative calculations from the healthy subject, as well as the qualitative oxygen saturation maps, show oxygen saturation levels consistent with those in the literature. CONCLUSION: This system is clinically valuable for diagnosing and monitoring diseases affecting ocular oxygen saturation, such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and others. Retinal tissue often becomes hypoxic in such diseases, and our reliable method is capable of documenting tissue oxygenation. KEY WORDS : Multispectral, Oxygen Saturation, Snapshot, Noninvasive, Hemoglobin


In the present work experimental and simulation studies have been carried out to describe the reaction kinetics of catalytic reforming process using Iraqi heavy naphtha as a feedstock. Two types of bi -metals catalysts were prepared ( PtSn/Al2O3 and Pt-Ir/Al2O3) supported on γ-Al2O3. The main three described reforming reactions were investigated (dehydrogenation, dehydrocyclization, and hydrocracking) to characterize catalysts performance in term of activity and selectivity. The performances of catalysts were investigated under the following operating conditions: reaction temperature range of 480-510 ˚C, weight hour space velocity range of 1-2 hr -1 , pressure at 6 atm, and hydrogen to hydrocarbon ratio of 4:1. The results showed that the higher conversion of Iraq i heavy naphtha components (i.e., paraffins and naphthenes) increased with temperature whereas, weight hourly space velocity has shown inverse impact on conversion. On the other hand, it was concluded that the yields of aromatics and high components are increased for both types of catalysts (Pt-Sn/Al2O3 and Pt-Ir/Al2O3) under the same operating conditions. A comprehensive mathematical model and simulation was developed in the present work to describe the reaction kinetics of reforming reactions. The comparison between the concentration of (paraffin's, naphthenes, and aromatics), and temperature profile of experimental and simulation results showed a good agreement and the deviation confined between them in the range of 1.93% to 14.51%.


A computerised summary of all anaesthetics administered by the North Canterbury Hospital Board's Department of Anaesthesia was used to examine the work patterns of registrars in the vocational training program over a two-year period. There was a considerable difference in the case load of some registrars even allowing for holidays and other leave. The exposure to surgical specialities and the degree of supervision were examined and problem areas identified. From a relatively simple data base it is possible to obtain information of value in the monitoring of a graduate training program.


ABSTRACT Introduction: The diagnosis of infectious diseases is among the most successful areas of application of new generation sequencing technologies. The field has seen the development of numerous experimental and analytical approaches for the detection and the fine description of pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms. Areas covered: Without claiming to be exhaustive with respect to all applications and methods developed over the years, this review focuses on the advantages and the issues brought by the new technologies, with an eye in particular to third generation sequencing methods. Both experimental procedures and algorithmic strategies are presented, following the most relevant publications which have led to progress in our ability of detecting infectious agents. Expert commentary: The technical advance brought by third generation sequencing platforms has the potential to significantly expand the range of diagnostic tools that will be available to clinicians. Nonetheless, the implementation of these technologies in clinical practice is still far from being actionable and will temporally follow the path undertaken by second generation methods, which still require the setup of standardized pipelines in both wet and dry laboratory procedures.


At the start of 2018 the global economy is in full swing. On a PPP-basis growth in 2017 was 3.9 percent, the highest rate since 2011. While leading indicators point to still robust growth in early 2018, sentiment has recently been negatively affected by increasing uncertainty about the pace of monetary tightening in the US and concerns about the future of global trade. Financial market turbulence in the course of the coming normalization of monetary policies and an escalation of trade conflicts constitute major risks to our baseline forecast of a gradually moderating but still robust world economy. We expect global output to rise by 4.0 percent and 3.8 percent in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The upward revision from our December forecast by 0.1 resp. 0.2 percentage points to a large extent reflects the incorporation into our baseline of the US tax reform.


By means of first-principles calculations, we have investigated the effects of various Li-doping on the exchange interaction and the formation energy in bulk GaN with Ga vacancies. Although the Ga vacancies can induce ferromagnetism in GaN, their formation energy is rather high. Our calculations show that Li-doping can effectively tune the formation energy of Ga vacancies. It is revealed that the stabilizing effect depends on whether the number of holes is increased or decreased after Li-doping. When Li atoms substitutes for N atoms or occupies the interstitial sites, the holes are reduced and the formation energy of Ga vacancies is lowered. In contrast, Li substituting for Ga generates additional holes in the system, leading to an enhancement of the formation energy of Ga vacancies and making the system less stable.


Small firms have been identified as an important contributor to the economy. In Ethiopian economy, this sector contributes to the national objective of creating employment opportunities, generating income, and providing a source of livelihood for low income households. However, the small firms have not been able to contribute considerably as needed to the economic development mainly because of inadequate financial management practices. Given that, the issues of financial management are one of the key aspects of the well being and survival of a business. The study aims to explore the financial management practices of small business enterprises in Sokoru District to those variables namely, working capital management, financing, investment, financial reporting, financial planning, analysis, and control, and accounting information systems. For the purpose of this study the sample of 70 small firms were taken from the total population of 115. To achieve the stated objectives of the study the primary data were obtained from owners' of small firms and trade and industry office of Sokoru District. Both stratified and simple random sampling methods were used to select sample used for the study. The study found that the financial management practices of small firms are very weak especially in the areas of financial planning, analysis, and control, working capital management, and investment decision. The study also recommended that it is advisable that the owners of small firms avail themselves with various training programs; better to engaged in financial planning, analysis, and control in order to compare their financial plan with performances; and also keep professional accountants so as to maintain complete accounting records.


In this paper, the performance of a closed-loop Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is evaluated as an automation scheme for an implantable insulin delivery system in type I diabetes therapy. The incredible progression in micro and nanotechnology has brought the concept of an "artificial pancreas" closer to reality. Manufacturing miniaturized, implantable insulin sensing and delivery devices are in fact feasible. The key to a successful implantable delivery system is the development of a self-regulated arrangement that mimics the performance of the real pancreas. The PID-FLC can be an effective control strategy for implantable insulin delivery system. It combines all the necessary components that react to the possible changes of glucose concentration in the blood stream. This paper is concerned with the parallel structure design of the PID-FLC which is achieved by combining the Proportional-Integral (PI-FLC) and Proportional-Derivative (PD-FLC) controllers. The PID-FLC is implemented on the nonlinear delay differential model of the glucose-insulin regulatory system, which describes how glucose and insulin interact in healthy individuals. Compared with other controlling approaches, the PID-FLC gives more than satisfactory results in maintaining near-normal glycemia and saving the amount of the daily delivered insulin.


Immunopathological mechanisms of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) are very com plex and are recognized as the cause of the basic pathophysiological abnormalities in this infection. In this report the results of investigation of IL12р70 and IL12р40 levels in serum of 22 patients with HFRS of different severity in dynamics of illness have been stated. High activity of IL12р70 in the acute phase of HFRS, associated with serotype Seoul virus has been determined. Probably, the influence of the other factors of immune system along with IL12р40 promoted the development of relative failure of cellular immunity in HFRS. (Med. Immunol., 2005, vol.7, No 1, pp 89592) Адрес для переписки:


The production of B þ , B 0 and Λ 0 b hadrons is studied in proton-lead collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi s NN p ¼ 8 . 16 TeV recorded with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The measurement uses a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 12 . 2 (cid:2) 0 . 3 nb − 1 for the case where the proton beam is projected into the LHCb detector (corresponding to measuring hadron production at positive rapidity) and 18 . 6 (cid:2) 0 . 5 nb − 1 for the lead beam projected into the LHCb detector (corresponding to measuring hadron production at negative rapidity). Double-differential cross sections are measured and used to determine forward-backward ratios and nuclear modification factors, which directly probe nuclear effects in the production of beauty hadrons. The double-differential cross sections are measured as a function of the beauty-hadron transverse momentum and rapidity in the nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass frame. Forward-to-backward cross section ratios and nuclear modification factors indicate a significant nuclear suppression at positive rapidity. The ratio of Λ 0 b over B 0 production cross sections is reported and is consistent with the corresponding measurement in pp collisions. DOI:


This article argues that the nature and character of separation of powers in Australia has been fundamentally shaped and defined by the High Court, which chose a Blackstonian, common law conception of separation of judicial powers in preference to the principles elaborated in The Federalist and articulated in the American Constitution. But the Court's recent jurisprudence, including its admission that it makes the law, has presented unprecedented theoretical and political challenges to the concept of separation of judicial power in Australia, including a transformation in the role of the attorneygeneral, the creation of new institutions and a move towards an American conception of checks and balances. Thus this article suggests that the Court continues to exercise a profound influence on the formulation of separation of powers in Australia.


Radiation therapytreatments grow ever more complex along with a growing reliance on networked computer systems to carry out our daily routines. Medical physicists have both an ethical as well as a legal responsibility to provide quality assurance to the entire treatment process. In order to do that effectively one needs to understand the systems in question, particularly weak points that can result in failures. This talk will provide an overview of the systems on which we rely and some of the important aspects of maintaining their functionality. Learning Objectives: 1. Review the variety of types of patient data common in Radiation Oncology. 2. Understand the basics of HIPAA as it pertains to pertaining that data and business continuity. 3. Understand the various causes of electronic data loss, including viruses, worms, computer system failures and theft. 4. Review how network topology can be used to enhance efficiency as well as provide additional layers of protection for patient data.


Central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) are costly, cause the prolongation of a patient's hospital stay and are of increasing incidence in the United States. Patient participation, awareness and knowledge of CLABSI are pivotal to prevent the acquisition of these life-threatening infections. We completed a systematic evaluation of materials for patients' education on CLABSI using a verified tool, the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) in order to determine the actionability and understandability of said materials. Patient education materials we found received mediocre scores in both categories.