Objective To explore the effect of high thoracic epidural block(HTEB) on the expression of glucocorticoid receptor(GR) mRNA in the brain tissues surrounding the basal arteries and serum contents of inflammatory cytokines in rabbits with cerebral vasospasm(CVS) following subarachnoid hemorrhage(SAH).Methods HTEB was performed in 45 rabbits,who were randomly divided into 3 groups of 15 rabbits each,i.e.the sham-operation group,control group and HTEB treatment group.SAH was developed by two injection of autoblood into the cistern magna(0.5 ml/kg).The mean flow velocity(Vm) was determined by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography before SAH and 1,7 and 14 days after SAH.The expression of GR mRNA and the serum contents of inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) and interleukin(IL)-1,6 were determined in all the groups.Results The Vm of the basilar arteries,and serum contents of TNF-α,IL-1 and IL-6 were significantly higher in the control group than those in HTEB treatment group(P0.05),which were significantly higher than those in the sham-operation group(P0.05).The level of GR mRNA expression in the brain tissues was signifcantly lower in the control group than that in HTEB group(P0.05),which was significantly lower than that in the sham-operation group(P0.05).ConclusionThe CVS following SAH may be relieved by the continuous HTEB in the rabbits.It is suggested that the HTEB-induced relief of CVS following SAH may be related to upregulation of GR expression in the brain tissues surrounding the cerebral vessels and inhibition of the inflammatory cytokine release produced by HTEB in the rabbits with SAH.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of tannins versus Monensin on in vitro ruminal fermentation of a feedlot diet. The treatments were: control (no additives); low tannin (2 mg g DM-1); medium tannin (4 mg g DM-1), high tannin (6 mg g DM-1), and Monensin (0.02 mg g DM-1). The substrate was a feedlot diet composed by hay and concentrate (15:85 w/w; DM basis). Ruminal fluid was obtained from three rumen-cannulated male Santa Inês sheep. In vitro incubations were carried out during four consecutive weeks (run). Gas production (GP) was recorded at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 60, 72, 84, and 96 h of incubation. At 48 and 96 h, two bottles per treatment were withdrawn to measure pH, ammonia concentration (NH3), volatile fatty acid (VFA), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), and in vitro neutral detergent fiber digestibility (IVNDFD). Addition of tannin or Monensin did not affect (P > 0.05) the kinetics parameters. Tannin supplementation reduced (P < 0.05) the GP at 24 h compared to Monensin. Addition of Monensin decreased (P < 0.05) IVDMD at 96 h and IVNDFD at 48 and 96 h compared to the control. The IVNDFD was lower (P < 0.05) with Monensin than with tannin at 48 and 96 h. The NH3 was lower (P < 0.05) with tannin compared with Monensin. By increasing tannin dosage, NH3 levels changed quadratically (P < 0.05). The inclusion of tannin in vitro reduced the NH3 concentration considerably when used in low dose.


The catheter of the present invention, ultrasonic performance, and a distal end extending along a longitudinal axis defined location close to the patient's body tissue of interest; generally in a forward direction with respect to the end portion longitudinally along the axis at least one ultrasonic transducer is positioned at the end to direct ultrasound; variable focusing lens system; optionally mirror; and ultra from the lens system which is not to have been / reflected reflected by the tissue of interest It converts sound waves into a three-dimensional image, and includes an imaging means for transmitting in the form is visible to the image to a human operator in an extracorporeal patient. Variable focusing lens system is positioned on the end of the preceding Generally in a forward direction downstream of the transducer. The lens system can be focused ultrasound emitted by the lens and the transducer in various positions downstream of the catheter end variable. Any mirror is typically positioned at the end downstream of the transducer and the lens system in a forward direction. Ultrasonic from the lens system emitted is reflected from the mirror, or is focused in a substantially perpendicular position to the longitudinal axis; or ultrasonic waves from the lens system emitted is not reflected substantially bypass the mirror in shape, is generally focused by the transducer, the lens system, and downstream of the position of the mirror in a forward direction along the longitudinal axis. Measuring blood flow velocity and pattern in a blood vessel and aneurysm, imaging, and observe, and also a method of monitoring the vascular occlusive coil deployment in an aneurysm during a surgical intervention using a catheter is disclosed.


Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the 3435C>T polymorphism in the multi-drug resistance-1 gene [MDR1, P-gp, ABCB1] and the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Material and Methods: This study included 75 patients with AAA (Group I), 75 individuals who were first-degree relatives of these patients but did not have AAA diagnosis (Group II), and 75 healthy volunteers whose abdominal aortic diameters were in the normal range (Group III). Genomic DNAs of these individuals were obtained from the peripheral blood. The MDR1:c.3435C>T polymorphism [CC (Wild Type), CT (Heterozygous) and TT (Homozygous) genotypes] was investigated by using the real-time polymerase chain reaction technique (real-time PCR). Results: MDR1 TT genotype was significantly more frequent in Groups I and II compared to Group III (33.3% and 38.6% vs. 8%, respectively, p<0.001). MDR1 CT genotype was also more frequent in Group I and Group II in comparison with Group III (44% and 42.6% vs 25.3%, respectively, p<0.01). Conclusion: The presence of an association between the MDR1 gene polymorphism and the development of AAA suggests that this gene may trigger the pathological mechanisms that play a role in the development of AAA. Additionally, patients with AAA and their first-degree relatives possess similar genetic characteristics in terms of the MDR1 gene polymorphism. Therefore, MDR1 gene polymorphism may be a risk factor for AAA in individuals with a positive family history of AAA.


Obesity is a disorder of homeostasis resulting from the excessive supply of energy in relation to energy expenditure of the body. The development of the white adipose tissue constitutes an essential element of energetic homeostasis (1). Preadipocytes, which are the precursors of mature white adipose tissue cells, play an important role in preserving energetic homeostasis. Adipocytes differentiate from precursor fibroblastic cells, i.e., from preadipocytes, during the entire ontogenetic life can result in the development of obesity related to the increase in the number as well as the volume of adipocytes. It was observed that the number of adipocytes is 4-fold higher in extremely obese patients as compared to slim individuals (2). In the murine 3T3-L1 preadipocyte cell line, which is a good experimental model used in the majority of studies on adipocytes, the process of differentiation is similar to the one in human cells (3). Adipogenesis is subject to neurohormonal regulation due to the presence of numerous receptors within adipose tissue cells. There is an inverse relationship between the number of autonomic nervous system axons and the influence on preadipocyte proliferation (4). It was proven that preadipocyte proliferation is inhibited by noradrenaline in vitro (5) and intensified by 2 receptor stimulation (6). Preadipocyte proliferation is also stimulated by thyroid hormones, glucocorticosteroids, estradiol, progesterone and the growth hormone (7, 8). Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) are among important paracrine factors stimulating preadipocyte proliferation (7, 9). The discovery of melatonin receptors on adipose tissue cells gives grounds for considering the possibility of melatonin acting as a factor influencing energy storage through the modulation of metabolism and adipocyte proliferation (10, 11). Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is a biologically active indole derivative biosynthesized in enzymatic steps from tryptophan. Melatonin takes part in the regulation of the circadian and seasonal rhythms with its involvement in measuring the length of the day. The important role of melatonin as a modulator of sleep is well documented (12). Changes in melatonin levels have been reported with regard to circadian rhythm sleep disorders. Administration of exogenous melatonin has been reported to improve the sleep quality, increase its length, and decrease sleep latency and the number of wakeful episodes in elderly women with insomnia, as well as significantly improve the following-day functioning. Timed daily doses of melatonin in able-bodied people have been observed to reduce the sleep onset time, improve sleep maintenance, increase REM sleep, and correct circadian-based JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY 2014, 65, 1, 135-143 www.jpp.krakow.pl


Spinning neutron stars can emit long-lived gravitational waves. There are several mechanisms that can produce such continuous wave emission. These mechanisms relate to the strains in the elastic crust, the star's magnetic field, superfluidity of the neutron fluid, and bulk oscillations of the entire star. In this chapter we describe how the frequency content of the gravitational wave signal, and its relation to any electromagnetically observed spin frequency, can be used to constrain the mechanism producing the gravitational waves. These ideas will be of use in the event of the first detections of such signals, and help convert a detection into useful physical insight.


Some scholars interpret the employment of non-Jewish names by the Jews of antiquity as indicative of their Hellenization or Romanization. Other scholars believe, however, that name-giving practices tell us little or nothing about the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in the ancient world. In this chapter we will study this old question afresh on the basis of the rich onomastic evidence contained in the Jewish funerary inscriptions from Rome. 1 Along with Jewish name-giving practices in Rome, Edfu (Upper Egypt), Beth She'arim (Galilee), and Venosa (southern Italy), non-Jewish onomastic evidence will be studied, too, to determine the characteristics of thirdand fourthcentury C.E. Jewish onomastic practices in Rome. Inasmuch as it may serve as an introduction to this complicated subject, let us first turn to an investigation of Leon's analysis of Jewish onomastic evidence from Rome.


Unobserved variables often threaten the causal interpretation of empirical estimates. An opportunity to alleviate this concern lies in network datasets, which provide a rich source of information about individual characteristics insofar as they influence network formation. This paper develops the idea of controlling for unobserved confounders by leveraging network structures that exhibit homophily, a frequently observed tendency to associate with similar people. This is formally accomplished under two main frameworks. First, I introduce a concept of strong homophily , according to which individuals' selectivity is at scale with the size of the potential connection pool, and I show that an estimator that considers neighbors as a comparison group is consistent for the Conditional Average Treatment Effect (CATE). I then consider a setting without strong homophily and show how selecting connected individuals whose observed characteristics made such a connection less likely delivers an estimator with similar properties. Overall, the method allows nonparametric treatment effect inference for both CATE and Average Treatment Effect (ATE) under a version of unconfoundedness that conditions on unobservables, which is often more credible than selection on observables alone. In an application, I recover an estimate of the effect of parental involvement on students' test scores that is greater than that of OLS, due to the estimator's ability to account for unobserved ability and effort.


The article analyzes the protocols of the board and general meetings of the Irkutsk Regional Union of Soviet Artists for 1937–1938. The history of the Union, the adoption of program documents, the charter, the organization and holding of exhibitions, the preparation of estimates and plans, the adoption of new members and the exclusion of old ones are considered. The paper presents the economic history of the creative association through the protocols of the Irkutsk Regional Union of Soviet Artists in 1937–1938. Through official documents, financial difficulties and material support for the members of the union are identified, the question of contracting is raised, estimates and plans are determined.


Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films of different thickness have been deposited onto glass/FTO substrates by spray pyrolysis method. The films were characterized by XRD, optical transmittance, Reflectance and SEM techniques.All the films are polycrystalline with hexagonal wurtzite structure, with c- axis growth (002) perpendicular to substrate surface. Starch was hydrolyzed by novel Photoelectrocatalytic process. Hydrolyzed starch was found to contain 60µg ml-1 of glucose and 100µg ml-1 ofmaltose.


In order to investigate whether the genus Hydrobia should be subdivided, three species representing the nominal genera involved (Hydrobia, Ventrosia, and Peringia) were compared on the basis of allozyme data. Based on genetic distances, anatomical and ecological data, as well as data on reproductive biology, it is argued that (1) there is no reason to split the genus Hydrobia into different genera, (2) Hydrobia can be subdivided into the subgenera Hydrobia s. s. and Peringia, and (3) Ventrosia has to be considered synonymous with Hydrobia. The analysis of the genetic structure of the three populations investigated revealed heterozygote deficiencies in practically all polymorphic loci in one case, and low, respectively complete lack of variability in the remaining two populations


The present work deals with the issue of the hearing to present charges in the crimes of defamation and slander, for which it will begin with the introductory part (I), where the reasons that led us to deal with the subject are exposed; Secondly, the theme itself (II) will be developed, where the following topics will be exposed: crimes against honor (2.1); procedure until before Dec. Leg. 1206 in the Code of Criminal Procedure (2.2); modifi cation of art. 77 of the Cd PP, by Decree Legis 1206 (2.3); opening of instruction in private action crimes (2.4); hearing on private action crimes (2.5); hearing of charges and diligence of appearance (2.6). In the new Criminal Procedure Code (2.7). Finally, the conclusions (III).


Residential Wood Combustion (RWC) has undergone a resurgence as a means of home heating in the Tennessee Valley and across the Nation. The Tennessee Valley Authority, Air Quality Branch (AQB), has undertaken two previous studies to determine the impact of RWC in residential areas and found that it can dominate the ambient particulate and Benzo(A)-Pyrene (BAP) concentrations. Other researchers have studied the ambient effects of RWC on urban areas where many other sources also contribute to the ambient pollutant levels and have found that it can have significant effects during the heating season. There is an interest in the Tennessee Valley Authority's Wood Heater Program and the Biomass Integrated Environmental Assessment Project as to the current and projected future effects of RWC in urban areas in the Tennessee Valley Region. A study was conducted during the first quarter of 1983 to determine the impact of RWC on the ambient air quality of Nashville, Tennessee. This study is to be used as the basis for projections into additional urban areas.


Background: Momordica balsamina ( M. balsamina ) is an important medicinal plant that is used as an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory and in the treatment of wounds. Its therapeutic properties suggest its alternative use in the treatment of various ailments and illnesses. Methods: Gastric ulceration was induced using 80% ethanol after a pilot study was done to identify which ulcer inducing agents would induce the most ulceration with minimal mortality in one hour. Thirty Wistar rats were divided into six groups of five rats each. Group 1 (control) was pretreated with normal saline, groups 2–5 were pretreated with 100, 200, 400, 800 mg/kg of M. balsamina extract, respectively, while group 6 was pretreated with 100 mg/kg ranitidine 1 h prior to administration of 80% ethanol. All the rats were sacrificed 1 h after the administration of 80% ethanol by cervical dislocation and the stomach were dissected, incised, washed and examined under dissecting microscope to assess the level of ulceration. Ulcerated and total areas of each stomach were measured in mm². The mean ulcer score, ulcer index and ulcer inhibition rate were calculated for each rat. Results: There was a significant dose-dependent decrease in the mean ulcer score of rats pretreated with M. balsamina compared to that of controls at P M. balsamina compared to the control at P Conclusions: Aqueous extract of M. balsamina at 800 mg/kg could be subjected to further scientific research for use in the prevention/treatment of gastric ulcers in human beings since it was proven to be effective in Wistar rats.


Ever advancing sensor and measurement technologies continually provide new opportunities for knowledge discovery and quality control (QC) strategies for complex manufacturing systems. One such state-of-the-art measurement technology currently being implemented in industry is the 3D laser scanner, which can rapidly provide millions of data points to represent an entire manufactured part's surface. This gives 3D laser scanners a significant advantage over competing technologies that typically provide tens or hundreds of data points. Consequently, data collected from 3D laser scanners have a great potential to be used for inspecting parts for surface and feature abnormalities. The current use of 3D point clouds for part inspection falls into two main categories; 1) Extracting feature parameters, which does not complement the nature of 3D point clouds as it wastes valuable data and 2) An ad-hoc manual process where a visual representation of a point cloud (usually as deviations from nominal) is analyzed, which tends to suffer from slow, inefficient, and inconsistent inspection results. Therefore our paper proposes an approach to automate the latter approach to 3D point cloud inspection. The proposed approach uses a newly developed adaptive generalized likelihood ratio (AGLR) technique to identify the most likely size, shape, and magnitude of a potential fault within the point cloud, which transforms the ad-hoc visual inspection approach to a statistically viable automated inspection solution. In order to aid practitioners in designing and implementing an AGLR-based inspection process, our paper also reports the performance of the AGLR with respect to the probability of detecting specific size and magnitude faults in addition to the probability of a false alarms.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


The impact of urbanization‐induced land‐cover change and increase in anthropogenic emissions on the air quality of the megacity cluster of the Yangtze River Delta is investigated using the WRF‐Chem model coupled with an urban canopy model at cloud‐resolving resolution. The urban land‐cover effect results in considerable reduction of near‐surface aerosol concentrations over urban regions and an increase in particle concentrations at higher altitudes over the surrounding rural areas. The urban heat island effect increases the lower atmospheric instability and vertical velocity, thus increasing the planetary boundary layer height and ventilation over the urban area, favoring the dispersion of pollutants from urbanized areas to their immediate vicinities. However, the urbanization‐induced increases in aerosol emissions outweigh that of land‐cover change, resulting in a net increase in surface particle concentrations by up to 50 μg m−3 and the occurrence of winter haze by more than 10 d season−1 in the Yangtze River Delta region.


The original description of the femur-fibula-ulna (FFU) complex included cases which femur, fibula and ulna show defects and which tend to be associated. These cases are usually sporadic.We present an analysis of 491 cases, registered in the Institute of Human Genetics in Münster, from many different populations and from different years.Our result, showing nearly equal proportions of the most common malformations in four analysed groups (with one, two, three and four limbs affected) supports the hypothesis that even if one arm or one leg is affected, the cases still may belong to the FFU-complex.In our study upper limbs are affected slightly more often than lower. All malformations tend to be unilateral than bilateral. The right-side and male-sex are preferentially affected. The limb malformations present in the FFU complex are usually different from those seen in most other types of limb defects. There is virtually no overlap between FFU complex and other limb anomalies, however differential diagnosis will be briefly discussed.


102 Background: The Penn Cancer Network was formed in the early 1990's to bridge a connection between the community oncology setting and The University of Pennsylvania, an academic medical center. Aspects of the network contracts include cancer program assessment and development, accreditation preparation, and most recently dedicated access to cancer care via the network nurse navigator. This poster emphasizes the impact of a network nurse navigator has as a highly sought link between health systems, providers and patients to streamline patient referrals, with a formal process evolving over time.

METHODS
The establishment, growth and success of the referral process can be attributed to multiple efforts on behalf of the nurse navigator and administration, including but not limited to strong relationship development among nurse navigators and administrators at the hospitals and a formalized process developed by the nurse navigators using an online portal for referrals directly to the nurse navigator. Metrics are also maintained to demonstrate clinical and financial outcomes.

RESULTS
Since the establishment of a dedicated nurse navigator in 2010, referrals have increased year over year and two hospitals have since joined Penn Medicine, in part due to these strong relationships. Systematic chart reviews and data analysis have been completed annually to present to administration, with hundreds of patients being referred annually for second opinions, complex surgeries or clinical trials. A comprehensive financial analysis has been done to demonstrate the impact of these patient referrals on the health system, increasing annually.

CONCLUSIONS
Access to the network nurse navigator has been emphasized as a major advantage to being a network hospital. A nurse navigator is well positioned to triage to subspecialties, assess patient and provider needs, and be knowledgeable in the operations of both systems. Data analysis has been paramount in demonstrating the impact of this program, both clinically and financially. This process could be done for formal network relationships or informal, but it certainly builds a great pattern to improve patient's access to care.


Two clans of brown hyenas were studied on the arid chilly Namib Desert coast where very large seal colonies are present. Carcasses from seals were abundant during summer and autumn following the seal pupping season, and scarce in winter and spring. Hyenas fed predominantly on carcasses. Members of one clan of three hyenas obtained most of their food along 3 km of coastline adjacent to the seal colonies. The other clan of nine individuals obtained food from an area along 6 km of coastline north of the seal colonies. Although carcasses were usually scavenged, seal pups were seen to be killed on occasions. Time spent foraging was not affected by carcass availability. Territories of the two clans overlapped and individual home-range size varied from 31.9 to 220 km2. Food availability apparently had no influence on foraging activities but the dispersal of food affected territory and group sizes. Over abundance of food results in the maintenance of territories extending beyond the distribution of food. The shape and area of these territories may result from the cultural inheritance of space.


An effective and fast face recognition method that is capable of dealing with faces under variable pose and illumination conditions has been proposed in this paper. First, the face is detected and the eyes are located automatically by the two cameras, eyes located in the two cameras are matched and the pose angle of the face is calculated. Then, the frontal face is generated according to the pose angle with the method of Binocular Stereo Vision. After that, Sparse Representation method is performed on the frontal face in order to be robust to the different illuminating conditions. Experimental results show that our pose angle calculation method is precise and practical, and our face recognition method can maintain good performance with varying pose as well as varying lighting conditions.


Things have changed a bit at LLAD this summer. Most important, Michael and Sharon will be joined by Rebecca Stephens, our new managing editor from Washington State University. Susan McLeod has kindly provided funding for this new position, and Becky, a new Ph.D. with lots of computer expertise and general abilities that Michael and Sharon are thrilled about!! This means you will be seeing LLAD all over the place now. Becky will be hunting you down for manuscripts, and subscriptions. You'll like her. So, the lineup looks like this: Sharon is mostly responsible for the manuscript process, Michael for production, and Rebecca for soliciting manuscripts and subscriptions. But we all do some of everything. Also, Sharon has moved to the Illinois Institute of Technology, taking the journal with her. Maybe that means we'll see more from engineering and technical writing as time goes on. Send your manuscripts to Chicago, not Ann Arbor. And Michael and J. Marie and little Elizabeth have a new baby, Kara. Keep sending your subscriptions to Urbana. We hope your summer brought about exciting new changes. Or perhaps held in a steady state you like.


This paper is concerned with the dissipativity of θ-methods for neutral variable delay differential equations.The dissipativity results is given for θ-methods,The result shows that the numerical methods inherit the dissipativity of the equations.


ABSTRACT E-texts afford interactive features that are not feasible with paper texts. Several studies have been conducted examining interactive features of E-texts, but it is uncertain what the overall effect is or what features may be most useful. The purpose of this study is to systematically review and meta-analysis of the findings comparing reading performance and/or reading times between E-texts with interactive features and control texts (paper or static E-texts). The systematic search of the literature identified 26 independent studies on reading performance. Based on the meta-analysis, interactive features benefited reading performance (g = .66, p < .001). Individual studies with positive effects involved multiple interactive features; however, potential contributions of three types of features (questions with feedback, digital glossaries, and collaborative tools) are discussed. Future directions for examining interactive features experimentally to better understand what features are most helpful for whom are described.


Objective To explore the postoperative complications and its prevention of interlocking medullary nail to fracture.Methods 435 cases fracture were treated with interlocking medullary nail.Complications were found in 36 cases.These complications include fat embolism,breaking of nails,deformity union,delay or nonunion and postoperative infection.A retrospective analysis was done on these complications.Results Through treatment,all 36 cases fractures healed with good joint function.The average healed time is 25 weeks(11~52 weeks).Conclusion Treatment of fracture with interlocking medullary nail has the advantages of stability and reliable fixation which is of benefit for early functional exercise.The postoperative complications can be avoided by skillful manipulation and correct postoperative exercise.In order to receive a good result,proper and effective treatment for postoperative complications is essential.


The submount, the LED package and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. A sub-mount that has a plurality of light emitting diodes mounted, a plurality of metal bodies have a plurality of light emitting diodes that are mounted, respectively; And adjacent doedoe supporting each other the metal body, the sub-mount including the oxide wall is located between the adjacent metal body so as to be electrically separated, the high heat by forming the sub-mount by selective oxidation of a metal with a plurality of light emitting diodes mounted may represent a radiation effect, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost. Light emitting diodes, oxide wall, the sub-mount


We have studied the impact of potato drill sowing fertilization with zeokarbofos, zeolite and biohumus, both separately and in combination, on the soil conductivity and potato yield. It has been found out that fertility increases by 80÷140 g/ha compared with test one in all backgrounds. The highest yield has been received after applying zeokarbofos and biohumus to the soil in combina- tion. Used fertilizers have increased soil specific electrical conductivity, which positively affects the plant fertility. We suggest to introduce the obtained results in agriculture and to take into account soil specific conductivity during soil fertility evaluation. Изучение электропроводности почвы и урожайности картофеля, удобряя растения совместно и отдельно цеолитом, цеокарбофосом и биогумусом


SUMMARY Learning the spatial layout of a novel environment is associated with dynamic activity changes in the hippocampus and in medial parietal areas. With advancing age, the ability to learn novel spatial environments deteriorates substantially but the underlying neural mechanisms are unknown. Here, we report findings from a behavioral and a fMRI experiment where older and younger adults performed a spatial learning task in a photorealistic virtual environment. We modeled individual learning states using a Bayesian state-space model and found that activity in retrosplenial cortex/parieto-occipital sulcus and anterior hippocampus did not change systematically as a function learning in older compared to younger adults across repeated episodes in the environment. Moreover, effective connectivity analyses revealed that the age-related learning deficits are linked to an increase in hippocampal excitability. Together, these results provide important insights into how human aging affects computations in the brain's navigation system, highlighting the critical role of the hippocampus.


Group pressure to conform is referred to in the con sumer and social psychology literature as "social influence" or "interpersonal influence", which has an impact on consumer product and brand preferences, on eva luations of product quality and also on buying decisions. Market researchers have long strived to understand the effects of social influence on consumer attitudes an d behaviors. That is, how, why, and when do consumers conform to social norms? Rese archers around the world have tried to study how people behave in a particul ar situation and why do they behave like that? The results however have not been commensurate with the efforts made, primarily due to the diversity that people ex hibit in their behavior. Thus, it is imperative for marketers to keep track of their cus tomers by undertaking researches on the various facets of consumer behavior on a reg ular basis. Reference Groups: Olson and Peter (1996), define a reference group as "one or more people that someone uses as a basis for compar ison or point of reference in forming affective and cognitive responses and perfo rming behaviors". Reference groups expose an individual to new behaviors and li festyles and influence attitudes and self-concept; they create pressures for conform ity that may affect actual product and brand choices. Consumers use informal groups as a source of information about products and as a frame of reference in product eva luations and why informal groups influence purchasing behavior. It is argued that the individual has a need to compare himself on various attributes with other in dividuals in order to judge the consequences of his behavior when physical evidence is unavailable. Social comparison increases the stability of one's evaluat ion and offers an occasion for expressing affection and other interpersonal reward s (Clarke, 1971). Consumer susceptibility to group influence is assum ed to be a general trait that varies across individuals and is related to other i ndiv dual traits and characteristics. The construct is defined as the need to identify wi th or enhance one's image in the opinion of significant others through the acquisiti on and use of products or brands, the willingness to conform to the expectations of o thers regarding purchase


The Los Alamos/UNM solar economic performance code (EASE-III) is used to indicate the extent of production function variations as applied to a Trombe wall solar design incorporated in a new home. The economic performance of the solar heated residence is compared to the alternative non-solar home heated by the characteristic conventional fuel of each region. These economic results are used to discuss the impact of subsidy programs.


We investigate the stellar mass–black hole mass ( *–BH ) relation with type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) down to BH=107M⊙ , corresponding to a ≃ −21 absolute magnitude in rest-frame ultraviolet, at z = 2–2.5. Exploiting the deep and large-area spectroscopic survey of the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), we identify 66 type 1 AGNs with BH ranging from 107–1010 M ⊙ that are measured with single-epoch virial method using C iv emission lines detected in the HETDEX spectra. * of the host galaxies are estimated from optical to near-infrared photometric data taken with Spitzer, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and ground-based 4–8 m class telescopes by CIGALE spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. We further assess the validity of SED fitting in two cases by host-nuclear decomposition performed through surface brightness profile fitting on spatially resolved host galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope/NIRCam CEERS data. We obtain the *–BH relation covering the unexplored low-mass ranges of BH∼107–108M⊙ , and conduct forward modeling to fully account for the selection biases and observational uncertainties. The intrinsic *–BH relation at z ∼ 2 has a moderate positive offset of 0.52 ± 0.14 dex from the local relation, suggestive of more efficient black hole growth at higher redshift even in the low-mass regime of BH∼107–108M⊙ . Our *–BH relation is inconsistent with the BH suppression at the low- * regime predicted by recent hydrodynamic simulations at a 98% confidence level, suggesting that feedback in the low-mass systems may be weaker than those produced in hydrodynamic simulations.


Like with most large-scale systems, the evaluation of quantitative properties of collective adaptive systems is an important issue that crosscuts all its development stages, from design (in the case of engineered systems) to runtime monitoring and control. Unfortunately it is a difficult problem to tackle in general, due to the typically high computational cost involved in the analysis. This calls for the development of appropriate quantitative abstraction techniques that preserve most of the system's dynamical behaviour using a more compact representation. This paper focuses on models based on ordinary differential equations and reviews recent results where abstraction is achieved by aggregation of variables, reflecting on the shortcomings in the state of the art and setting out challenges for future research.


i DEDICATION I would like to dedicate my thesis to my beloved parents and also my dearest wife, Elnaz, for their endless love, support and encouragement. Figure 6 Optimal profit decrease and probability of robust constraint violation as a function of D s Figure 7 Optimal profit decrease and probability of robust constraint violation as a function of R s Figure 8 Violation frequency and optimal profit value decrease as a function of D s  and R s


This report presents an analysis of energy efficiency trends in Croatian on the basis of energyefficiency indicators based on the ODYSSEE methodology. This analysis focuses on the period 1992-2004 . Most of data are available for this period ; in all calculations where this is not the case, the indicators and comparisons are made with available data.


Purposes: to assess the different factors responsible for failure of posterior urethroplasty in recurrent stricture methods :from "February 2000-december 2007" 17 patients (6-60 years)with failed urethroplasties under went redo urethroplasty for post traumatic posterior urethral distraction..Bulbo prostatic anastomosis was done through perincum in "15"patients and by perineoabdominal transpubic in "2"patients.The operative records of all patients was registered and followed for (6 month-2years). Results: There was failure in "2"cases (8%) ,satisfactory in 6 patients (30%) and successful in 9 patients (62%). Discussion: The causes of failure and satisfactory results was in complete excision of the scared prestatic apex in ability to achieve tension-freebulbo prostatic anastomosis and inpropper lateral fixation of prostatic mucosa on sides. Conclusions: Redo urethroplasty considered one of obstacls in urology ,that should be done by effecient,experts hands (urologist),that stick to the rules of surgical procedure (complete excision of fibrous tissue,lateral fixation of the prostatic mucosa and tension free-bulbo-prostatic anastomosis).


The level-1 integrable highest weight modules of Uq(sl2) admit a level-0 action of the same algebra. This action is defined using the affine Hecke algebra and the basis of the level-1 module generated by components of vertex operators. Each level-1 module is a direct sum of finite-dimensional irreducible level-0 modules, whose highest weight vector is expressed in terms of Macdonald polynomials. This decomposition leads to the fermionic character formula for the level-1 modules.


SUMMARY

A series of trials in 1972–74 in the strawberry-growing area of Cheddar in SW. England showed that introductions of the predaceous mite Phytoseiulus persimilis in March at a rate of 5–10 adults/plant gave a good control of Tetranychus urticae on protected strawberries where average populations of 0·8–15 ex-diapause female mites per lower leaf were present at the time of introduction. The cost of the technique was not economically acceptable at the price currently charged by commercial producers of the predator for use on glasshouse crops.


Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a relatively rare lymphoid disorder with approximately 11 cases per million persons per year in United States. It is seen more commonly in children however adults are also affected with the median age approximately 39 years. The prognosis is influenced by the age of the patient and genetic findings. Abnormal cytogenetic is present in approximately 80 % of the patients. Philadelphia chromosome t (9;22) is seen in approximately 30 % of adult patients (Ph + ALL) and imparts a poor prognosis. Allogeneic stem cell transplant remains one of the corner stones of therapy along with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors TKIs (Imatinib or Dasatinib). Patients who are unable to go for transplant are kept on TKIs and continue consolidation and maintenance chemotherapy. In this retrospective review, we present patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive ALL seen at our institute and their outcomes. Tumor registry data base was searched for adult patients with ALL between January 1st 2010 and June 30th 2015. Forty patients were identified with B cell ALL and ten patients were diagnosed with Ph+ ALL (25 % of the cohort). The median age was 30 years (range 18 - 73 years). Male to female ratio was 4.5:1 Induction therapy was given based on UK ALL protocol. Tyrosine kinase inhibitor (Imatinib) was added when information regarding BCR-ABL translocation status was available. Interestingly 8 out of the 10 Ph+ patients also had CD 20 positive disease and were treated with rituximab in addition to standard chemotherapy and TKI. Two patients were lost from follow-up after receiving initial therapy and achieving remission. Four patients had HLA identical siblings and were able to go for allogeneic stem cell transplant. With a median follow up of 28 months (range 1 to 57 months), 3 of the 4 patients are alive and in complete molecular remission. One patient relapsed 19 months post-transplant and died of complications of a 2nd transplant. The remaining 4 patients were unable to go for allogeneic stem cell transplant. They were treated with Hyper-CVAD regimen and Dasatinib (Rituximab was used in patients with CD 20 positive clone). One patient died of colitis and relapsed ALL (36 months post diagnosis) while the other 3 patients are alive and on active therapy, all being in complete molecular remission. Discussion: This is the first report of incidence, management and outcome of Ph+ ALL from UAE. Ph + ALL contribute to 25 % of the cohort of ALL patients in our center. Majority of this cohort was also CD 20 positive. All patients achieved a complete hematologic remission after induction therapy. However, less than half of the patients were able to go for allogeneic stem cell transplantation as consolidation due to different reasons. Post transplantation use of TKI remains variable. HyperCVAD and Dasatinib appears to be a reasonable but toxic alternative for patients who are unable to go for allogeneic stem cell transplantation with a reported estimated survival of 64 % at 2 years interval. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In recent years, many countries have successfully reduced their inflation rates to relatively low levels of 2 to 3 percent. The question then arises as to whether it would be desirable to move to even lower rates of inflation. The paper examines the benefits and costs of moving from low inflation to even lower inflation by drawing together recent work on this issue. Once a country has decided to move to an even lower rate of inflation, the question then becomes whether it would be better to achieve this objective through inflation targeting or price-level targeting. The paper critically reviews the arguments for both approaches.


Objective
To investigate the in vitro quinolones resistance in Helicobacter pylori (HP) strains isolated in Zhejiang province and to provide references for the clinical application of quinolones in the eradication of HP infection.

Methods
A total of 713 HP strains were isolated from several hospitals located in different regions of Zhejiang province from April to June 2013. Drug sensitivity test was performed to measure the resistance of those HP strains to levofloxacin and moxifloxacin by using the agar dilution method recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). The antibiotic solutions were added to the agar and diluted into corresponding critical concentrations. The mixed liquors were placed in dilution plates and added with the bacteria suspension. If there were bacterial expansion on the plates after incubation, the strains were considered to be drug-resistant strains.

Results
The resistance rates of 713 HP strains to levofloxacin and moxifloxacin were 19.50%. In addition to the Jinhua area, drug resistance rates in the other 7 areas including Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Jiaxing, Taizhou, Lishui and Zhoushan were above 15%. The highest drug resistance rate of HP was found in Wenzhou, which was significantly higher than that in Jinhua area (26.40% vs 9.52%, P<0.05). No significant differences in the resistance rate of HP to quinolone were found between Wenzhou area and the other regions in Zhejiang.

Conclusion
Compared with amoxicillin and furazolidone, higher resistance rates of HP to levofloxacin and moxifloxacin were observed in Zhejiang province. Because the mechanisms of drug resistance to levofloxacin and moxifloxacin were same and the drug targets within HP to which the two antibiotics binding were similar, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin shared common characteristics of drug resistance among HP strains, indicating that prescription of the two antibiotics in replacement should be avoided in clinical treatment of HP drug-resistant strains.

Key words:
Helicobacter pylori; Quinolones; Drug sensitivity test; Resistance


The purpose of this study is to find out policy implication for promoting foreign direct investment inflows in service industry. This study comprised three core chapters. First, this paper analyzes the economic growth effect of service industry in the korean economy. It is found shown that the growth of service industry has been positive effects for business cycle, unemployment problem balance of payment, regional economic discrepancy, and etc. Second, this paper reviews the trend and composition of FDI in Korea industry. The structure of FDI in Korea has shifted towards service industry. Third, this paper overviews the competition policy for service industry, such as, economic policy, foreign trade policy and FDI policy. Finally, this paper concludes that promotion of competition power for service Industry depend on the efficient policy alternatives by Korean government.


This study attempts to explore, investigate and analyze Benazir Bhutto's political leadership by focusing on her role as a ruler/Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988-90 and 1993-96. The study will encapsulate political challenges, administrative difficulties and managerial response of Benazir Bhutto; to these issues as the first women Prime Minister of Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto, as a Prime Minister of Pakistan for two terms took significant steps, worked for democratic stability, addressed socio economic challenges and tried to address social issues like women health, poverty and economic deprivation. Her opponents like Nawaz Sharif did not let her to run the governments smoothly and adopted all those tools and tactics which could destabilize her government which was, infact, the main drawback of the power struggle of 1990s. Her governments were dismissed on the pretext of corruption, nepotism and bad governance; however, she managed to rule Pakistan twice besides all these odds which are unique in the history of Pakistan. Therefore, it is of immense significant to understand the leadership qualities of lady leader in a society where women are at the margins and still she emerged as a head of main political party Pakistan Peoples' Party(PPP) and became Prime Minister twice. Her supporters believe that she got charismatic leadership qualities that enabled her to display resilience after her father's death and to emerge as first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Muslim world. Therefore, this study would like to understand how she emerged as a political leader and how she became a head of the party and what traits made her charismatic leader and why she faced challenges and what were the implications of her becoming a lady Prime Minister of Pakistan. Much has already been written on the role of Benazir in the political history of Pakistan but hardly anyone has explained her leadership qualities by adopting any framework and this paper is an attempt to address it. The present author would like to understand the leadership qualities of Benazir Bhutto by applying various theories and approaches; however, the trait theory seems the most suitable in her case. This paper examines such questions as: What were the main characteristics of Benazir Bhutto as a female political leader? What were the major factors which * Muhammad Azeem, Ph. D. Schollar, Department of History and Pakistan Studies, University of the Punjab Lahore, Pakistan. ** Muhammd Kashif Ali, Lecturer, Department of History, University of Gujrat, Pakistan. *** Ahmad Hassan, Lecturer, Department of History, GC University, Sargodha. **** Saeed Ahmad, Assistant Professor, History Department, GC University, Lahore. Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan – Vol. 55, No. 1, January July, 2018 174 contributed to the emergence of Benazir Bhutto as a political leader/Prime Minister? What were those fault lines and challenges which did not let Benzir Bhutto to complete her tenures as a Prime Minister? What were those steps and contributions which made her a charismatic leader?


Most studies of the Christianization of cities focus on churches, bishops, or conversion. However, to make cities 'Christian' in some way, Christian groups also had to re-frame how the city was conceived and to develop new urban practices. In sermons, Christian preachers attempted to re-conceptualize the city, while some Christian inscriptions attempted to write Christian history into the urban fabric. Newly developed Christian processions as well as Christianized public ceremonies similarly served to transform urban habits. Processional participants claimed to represent the city, even as the procession claimed the city itself. These ritual acts of place-making, whether rhetorical or performed, changed the city as much as church construction even though they did not (physically) change a thing. This ritual Christianization of cities began with Constantine, the first Christian emperor, but it continued for centuries after; if it ever ended.


Prefluorescent probe dansyl-TEMPO was synthesized within NaY supercages by means of a base-catalyzed ship-in-a-bottle synthesis to yield the supramolecular assembly DT@NaY, providing the first example of base-catalyzed synthesis in the normally acidic zeolite cavities. This material was successfully employed in the solid state as a sensor to monitor intercavity diffusion of carbon-centered radicals produced by AIBN thermolysis and in a slurry to study the interpore diffusion of carbon-centered radicals produced in solution from a suitable precursor (3,3'-diphenyl-3H,3'H-[3,3']bibenzofuranyl-2,2'-dione, 6). The dynamics of hydrogen atom transfer from a good donor, such as the synthetic lactone antioxidant 3-phenyl-2-coumaranone, to DT@NaY were also investigated in benzene slurry.


This article focuses on the process-tracing method, primarily used in case studies in social sciences. The method – in which the process between cause and effect is closely traced in detail – is used to understand the processes of change, especially in single case studies. For this purpose, the researcher follows a series of intermediate steps between the process' beginning (independent variable) and the end (the dependent variable). The researcher usually uses archival documents and primary sources to explain the process in detail. Conventional constructivists often use this method. Mainly applied in Europeanization studies, the process-tracing approach has also contributed to understanding the policy transfer from the European Union to the national level. The first part of this article will focus on the specifics of the method. In the second part of the article, the evolution of the European studies will be focused on, and the contribution of this method, especially in the field of Europeanization, will be emphasised.


Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are significant pathogenic bacteria that can cause severe gastrointestinal diseases and also the hemolytic-uremic syndrome. Domestic ruminants appear to be the main reservoirs of these organisms. Although Bangladesh is an endemic zone for diarrhea caused by different enteric pathogens, no systematic study on STEC has yet been done there. We estimated the prevalence of STEC infections among diarrheal patients and the occurrences of STEC in the human food chain in Bangladesh. In addition, we evaluated methods for the isolation of STEC O157 from animal feces and foods. We found that the prevalence of STEC was low among diarrhoeal patients compared with other diarrheagenic pathogens. In contrast, there is a high prevalence of STEC including serogroup O157 in animal reservoirs and in the food chain. We concluded that the lack of STEC O157 infection among Bangladeshi population might be due to the protective immunity against these pathogens acquired by the frequent exposure to the antigens.


Background: Hyaluronic acid (HA) has the potential to promote wound healing. Pain and swelling with trismus are common sequalae post wisdom teeth removal. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of intra-socket HA solution to reduce these uncomfortable post-operative events. Materials and methods: 30 patients underwent bilateral extractions of mandibular wisdom teeth for this study. Intra-socket application of 0.7 ml 20 mg/2 ml HA solution (Hyalgun) with Gel foam as a scaffold in study site versus Gel foam only on control site was conducted via a split mouth study design. Data collection of five facial reference points for swelling and maximum mouth opening was recorded during the pre-operative period and post-operative 2nd and 7th day. The VAS pain score at post-op 1st, 2nd and 3rd day and the number of analgesics for the 7-day post-operative duration were evaluated. Results: The HA group demonstrated statistically significant less swelling, trismus and analgesia consumption on the 2 and 7 days after surgery. VAS scores on day 1, 2 and 3 after surgery (P = 0.05) were significantly less in the HA group compared to the control group. Conclusion: The application of intra-socket HA has a positive effect for reducing postoperative pain and swelling with trismus after the lower third molar intervention (LTMI).


On December 9, 1905, newspapers announced the French Third Republic had passed the Law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. This law dissolved the complex relationship that had existed between the French state and the Catholic Church and ended the public role of religion. However, while religious conviction seemed to be on the wane within the French metropole, public discourse in the early twentieth century regarding the impending French seizure of Morocco consistently referred to the French populace as "Christians" while the Moroccans were collectively labeled as "Muslim savages." This thesis argues that the French media, government, and other public figures generated the concept of a "Christian France" in order to underline the moral and civilizational superiority of a supposedly unified French civilization in relation to the inhabitants of Morocco. INDEX WORDS: Morocco, France, Colonialism, French Third Republic, Catholicism, Law of Separation, Secularism, Sexuality, Discourse, Laicite, Religion "REFASHIONING AFTER THE SPLIT: MOROCCO AND THE REMAKING OF FRENCH CHRISTIANITY AFTER THE 1905 LAW OF SEPARATION"


Based on Section 9 of the Geriatric Nursing Act of 17 November 2000 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1513) in conjunction with Section 1 of the Competence Adjustment Act of 16 August 2002 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 3165) and the Organisational Decree of 22 October 2002 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 4206), the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth issues the following Regulations in agreement with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research:


The cartesian product of two graphs has been studied by many authors and has been generalized by introducing 2 - cartesian product G1 _2 G2 of two graphs G1 and G2. In this paper, we obtain G1 _2 G2; for Pn, Cn and Ks;t.


A polymer nanoparticle network using single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) as cross-links is designed. The experimental and theoretical study shows that incorporating SCNPs in polymer networks leads to smaller mesh size, faster terminal relaxation time, and reduced fluctuation among cross-links, resulting in a significant increase in shear storage modulus, and enhancement in tensile stress. Notably, the reversible single-chain collapse of SCNPs under thermal stimulation enables the polymer network to undergo coherent changes between two topological states, thereby exhibiting reversible transformations between soft and stiff states. This approach and finding can effectively tailor the mechanical properties of polymer networks, potentially leading to the development of intelligent, responsive materials.


This paper presents a design plan of multi-channel infrared signal's synchronous detecting. In order to improve system's dependability, and to solve the problems such as big area, diversiform components, complex circuit and imprecise synchronization, Author adopted the hardware programmable technology (FPGA). System have the property below: numerous detecting channel, good synchronization, brief circuit, low price, and so on. In the end, through applying in the reality, result presents that performance of the system is stable and extensible, which can be used in the field of not only analyzing the object's infrared property but searching the gathering and disposal of infrared image.


In the study, exam questions prepared by social studies teachers were analyzed in relation to Bloom's Taxonomy. Document analysis method was used in the study. The study group consisted of social studies teachers working at 10 primary schools in Altindag, Kecioren and Elmadag districts of Ankara province. As a result of the study, when the levels of 6th and 7th grade social studies course exam questions were compared according to the previous and the new curriculum, it was found that the questions at knowledge level significantly decreased while the questions at comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels significantly increased.


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Two hundred years ago, Friedrich Schleiermacher took critical issue with Immanuel Kant's intellectual notion of intuition as applied to human nature (Wellmon 2006). He found it necessary to modify—"hermeneutically," as he said—Kant's notion of anthropology by enabling it to include as human the new and strange human tribes Captain Cook found in the Pacific South Seas. A similar hermeneutic move is necessary if physics is to include the local contextual empirical syntheses of relativity and quantum physics. In this hermeneutical revision the synthesis is formed around the notion of a Hilbert Vector Space as the universal grammar of physics, adding to it the dynamic of the Schrodinger equation, and representing empirical "observables" by projection operators that map the subspaces of definite measurable values. Among the set of observable projection operators, some pairs share the same subspace, commute with one another, and share a common laboratory setting. Other pairs do not share this property and are described as being mutually complementary. Complementary symmetries introduce into the discursive language of physics the commonsense notion of contextuality. The new synthesis, proposed by Eugene Wigner, John von Neumann, and (in his own way) Paul Dirac, brought physics into the community of common language and established it as a work of general human achievement.1


The work proposed here wants to highlight the similarities and differences of reading of the therapeutic process as thought by three Gestalt psychotherapy belonging to different schools. To this purpose, Maria Mione (Gestalt Institute HCC Italy), Anna Ravenna (Gestalt Institute Florence – IGF) and Stefano Rossi (Gift Institute of integrated medicine) have been asked to comment, according to their point of view, the synthesis of a same verbatim of a first session of psychotherapy following the track of some guiding questions. With these questions, we tried to bring out the heart of Gestalt psychotherapy with respect to the reading of the relationship therapist-patient, the modalities of making diagnosis and the aspects of the therapeutic process. The result is an interesting comparison, an integrated and not introjective reading. Some concepts proper to Gestalt psychotherapy (contact meant as authentic participation of the therapist, the concept of field, the importance of the therapist's feeling, the way of making diagnosis) are declined by each author in original and different forms, but not for this reason dissonant.


The corrugated steel plate shear wall (CoSPSW) is a new type of steel plate shear wall, in which corrugated wall plates instead of flat wall plates are adopted. The lateral stiffness and shear buckling capacity of the shear wall system could be significantly enhanced, and then, wall plate buckling under gravity loads would be mitigated. This paper presents a study on the probabilistic assessment of the seismic performance and vulnerability of CoSPSWs using fragility functions. The damage states and corresponding repair states of CoSPSWs were first established from experimental data. Then, incremental dynamic analyses were conducted on the CoSPSW structures. The structural and nonstructural fragility functions were developed, based on which the seismic performance and vulnerability of the CoSPSWs were obtained and compared with the conventional steel plate shear walls (SPSWs). It was shown that for various repair states, the 25th percentile PGA of the CoSPSW was always higher than the SPSWs with the same wall thickness and boundary frame, which indicated that the CoSPSW has a lower damage potential and better seismic performance than the SPSW.


Addressing climate change and sustainability starts with individuals and moves up to institutional change. Here is what we as scientists in the life sciences can do to enact change.


In the past, indoor wireless access systems had been designed mainly from the radio coverage perspective. Recently, fingerprint-based localization has also been proposed as another popular application for such access systems. However, few has been studied in the network design for both coverage and localization at the same time. This paper proposes a novel network design for guaranteeing radio coverage and maximizing fingerprint difference. The proposed scheme consists of two stages: The first stage finds the minimum number of access points and their locations to guarantee the desired coverage ratio by using an iterative search algorithm, The second stage uses the simulated annealing to further optimize the deployment so that the fingerprint difference can be maximized without compromising the coverage requirement. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheme can guarantee coverage requirement and provide higher localization accuracy.


The Western Indonesia Bauxite Province in Kalimantan forms a lateritic bauxite region with a complex history and poorly known sustainable metal contents within the bauxite residue. Bauxite residue produced using the Bayer process contains notable scandium. We present new geochemistry, mineralogical, and geological data from the lateritic bauxite and red mud from the active mine and deposit, which aims to investigate the behavior of critical elements during weathering. The geochemical analysis and translated isocon results have shown that the content of scandium in red mud is higher than the average concentration of crustal rocks and is concentrated in the ferrite layer and bauxite residue. A positive correlation between the existence of iron oxyhydroxide mineral in residual iron-rich layer and red muds with the rare earth elements (REE) and scandium concentrations may be interpreted as a scavenging effect of mobile REE. The weathering and leaching processes in bauxite allows the adsorption of the trivalent scandium cation (Sc
 3+
 ) on goethite and are followed by the ionic substitution with other trivalent cations in the crystal of hematite. The study illustrates the importance of understanding processes during weathering and laterization for geochemical processes and rare earth elements exploration in tropical areas.

 Thematic collection:
 This article is part of the Geochemical processes related to mined, milled, or natural metal deposits collection available at:
 https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/geochemical-processes-related-to-mined-milled-or-natural-metal-deposits

 Supplementary material:
 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6689139


A 58-year-old female with advanced lung cancer, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, pulmonary artery thrombosis, bilateral subclavian artery stenosis, and vocal cord dysfunction presented to the ER with cough, shortness of breath, dysphagia, and weight loss. HR 114 bpm, RR 24/min, SpO2 95% on 4L, Temperature 36.2o C. She was lethargic, chronically ill-looking, and had bronchial breath sounds and crackles in the right upper lobe. Chest x-ray revealed enlarging previously known right upper lobe mass and loculated right pleural effusion. Contrast CT of the chest showed unchanged necrotic right apical mass, increased consolidation inferior to a mass in the right middle lobe, and metastatic infiltration of the right lateral 6th rib. She also had purulent secretions in all airways on bronchoscopy. Shortly after bronchoscopy, she had an episode of aspiration and required Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission.


Does entrepreneurship contribute to improving social mobility in Ecuador? This paper constructs a pseudo-panel to analyze the dynamic effect of entrepreneurship on Ecuadorian household incomes during the period 2002- 2010. Using dynamic panel estimation techniques and three estimation scenarios, the paper finds a significant level of unconditional mobility and an important effect of entrepreneurship (conditional mobility).


Glaucoma is a group of chronic diseases of the optic nerve that, if not managed effectively, could lead to blindness of many people worldwide. Non-adherence to medical treatments typically lead to burdensome consequences such as progressive visual loss and disabilities. Fortunately, literature reveals that with timed appropriate treatment, such blindness can be prevented. Thus, patients' adherence to follow-up plays an important role in maintaining vision. However, glaucoma patients in Vhembe District still miss their follow-up appointments.


: The developed models leave the ground of discussion for their accuracy, reliability and practicability for different school of thoughts. The traditional ways have been used in past to develop landslide risk models. As in this research, the conceptual model has been developed using various combined previous landslide risk algorithms, criteria and parameters. The hypothesis was also built initially based on the consideration of the topographic situations, geophysical properties and previous landslide records to develop this conceptual model. This model has utilized qualitative technique by assigning the different weight to the different parameters for developing different levels of risk. The weight assigned weight known as comparison matrix method remains subjective, so in this regard, the experts opinions and saaty scale of importance method has been used to cover the subjectivity of the selected criteria. The utilization of Geographical information systems (GIS) techniques and remotes using their various sub techniques have been applied for preparation of this conceptual model. It is assured that this type of developed composited algorithm, criteria conceptual model will assist to the different model developers for development for accurate, reliable, and implementable landslide risk models which can be helping for the different decision makers in the field during implementing them.


This article reviews the journey of special education in Spain by considering the legal frameworks. It examines the extent to which legislation has tapped into the feelings of society in general towards people with disabilities who wish to secure inclusion in both education and society. It tracks the evolution of legislation, originally based on a preoccupation with the segregation of those with disabilities, towards the more progressive and inclusive laws which obtain at the present time. In so doing the article considers the positives and negatives that have accompanied this process. Spain has a high percentage of students with special educational needs enrolled in its mainstream schools; insights into the legal mechanisms shed light on how these figures were reached. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of training in attitudinal approaches towards disability in order to make the journey more accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


This paper presents a cable-driven parallel robot for waist rehabilitation (CPRWR). The CPRWR has been conceived, designed, and analyzed. Degree of freedoms (DOFs) of the waist movement, the characteristics of drives, and the structure of the robot should be considered in the design process of the CPRWR. All kinds of sensors are chosen and used to measure the position and orientation of trainer for ensuring their safety. Human body waist is considered as a spherical joint, and the part above of human body waist is driven by a cable-driven parallel robots(CDPRs). Considering that the lower extremity and pelvis of human body have an effect on the waist rehabilitation training, thus the lower extremity and pelvis of human body are fixed by a lower extremity exoskeleton. Inverse kinematics, statics, and dynamics of the CPRWR have investigated. Finally, numerical simulation results indicate that change curves of the cable lengths are successive and smooth, and all cable tensions are positive, which also meet design requirement of the CPRWR.


The main aim of my thesis is to evaluate the approach to creating advertising campaigns in a commercial bank and on the basis of knowledge of the theory and practice of bank marketing formulate processes for its effective implementation in selected commercial banks. The first part is theoretical determination of this issue from the very essence of the marketing mix, through the characterization process of advertising campaigns to determine the role of banks and advertising agencies to create advertising campaigns. After a theoretical definition follows illustrate the design of the concept of advertising in the bank. The last chapter takes the form of recommendations, which we generalize on the basis of the obtained analysis of advertising campaigns selected commercial banks.


This article introduces a novel neural network framework for the approximate bilinear algorithm that scales asymptotically with the input size. The network actually learns from the deviations from the expected form of the identity and in the progress of learning the matrix multiplication exponent gradually decreases via a probabilistic trail. The probability density function associated with the learning algorithm decides the time the algorithm takes to converge and arrive at an appreciable form of the identity. Consequently, one can also accelerate commercially accepted context-free parsing by the reduction to Boolean matrix multiplication and then using the proposed scheme.


This paper investigates the issue of physical layer security for green communications. Specifically, the cooperative communication scenario which contains one source node, one eavesdropper, one destination and multiple cooperative nodes is considered. We aim at minimizing the total power consumption under the restriction of security performance. To achieve this goal, two novel cooperation strategies are proposed. The two methods are named as Only Relay and Relay and Jamming Pair. The former selects one relay node for cooperation. However, as the legitimate receiver's channel condition deteriorates, in order to satisfy security performance, the system would switch to the latter method, which selects a relay and jamming node pair for cooperation. The optimum node selection and power allocation method under the two strategies is studied. The performance of minimal power consumption under different circumstances is investigated. Numerical simulation results show that compared to traditional communication without cooperative node, the proposed methods result in less power consumption under security restriction.


As VLSI technology nodes continue to scale down, double patterning (DP) lithography has become the most promising interim solutions due to the delay in the deployment of next generation lithography (e.g., EUV). DP requires the partitioning of the layout patterns into two different masks, a procedure called layout decomposition. Layout decomposition is a key computational step that is necessary for double patterning technology. Existing works on layout decomposition are all single-threaded, which is not scalable in runtime and/or memory for large industrial layouts. This paper presents the first window-based parallel layout decomposition methods for improving both runtime and memory consumption. Experimental results are promising.


In this article the author discusses scientific and cultural Polish-German relations at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. These considerations are based on the old Polish cosmographers: Wojciech of Brudzew, Jan of Głogów, Wawrzyniec Korwin and Jan of Stobnica. These works show that German scholars were regarded as scientific authorities and were an inspiration and source of knowledge for Polish scholars. However, the cosmological treatise by Jan of Głogów shows that Poles associated Germans with vice and crime, as evidenced by the example of Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, who was attributed German origins. The picture of Germans and their lands painted by Old-Polish cosmographers is apparently based on ancient and later authors, especially Solinus, Strabon and Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. Significant excerpts from these works were also made available to Polish readers to show them a multifaceted panorama of the Germanic lands. Wawrzyniec Korwin's treatise also contains the opinions of Germans about Poland and Poles. The western neighbors of Poland–Lithuania were particularly keen on Cracow and its famous university and academic staff. The two nations were undeniably fascinated by each other's science.


A greenhouse experiment was conducted to study the effect of boron in dry bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) grown in pots. The treatments consisted of 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 kg.ha-1 of boron in the form of borax. Two identical experiments were carried out during the winter (June/July) and the spring (September/October) seasons. In the winter experiment, the boron deficiency symptoms were shown only by the control plants. In those conditions, the high concentrations of Ca and Mg and the low temperatures affected the boron absorption of the plants. The application of 1 kg.ha-1 of boron was sufficient to reduce the visible symptoms of B deficiency, and increased the dry weight of the shoots. At the rate of the 2 kg.ha-1 B or above there was excess of boron in the dry matter of the shoots. In the spring experiment there was no deficiency symptoms in the plants and the boron concentration was adequate in the shoots. Also, the application of 2 kg.ha-1 of B or more increased the B concentration to excess. The results suggest that boron deficiency is relevant only in the winter and that excess of boron is a problem, causing toxicity, independent of the season.


In this paper,aggregation indicators and Iwao'sm*-m-regression equation.were taken to judge and analyze the spatial distribution patterns of larva of Dappula tertia Templeton.The result showsed that they were all assembly distribution.At the same time their aggregation caused by some environmental factors and their mass conduct based on this distribution pattern a suitable sampling mode has been provided.


Curing of Cold Bitumen Emulsion Mixtures (CBEMs) is influenced by different factors such as curing temperature, curing time, humidity and presence of cement. In this study, the influence of these contributory factors on CBEMs has been evaluated in terms of indirect tensile stiffness modulus. During the curing period, the mix moisture content has been monitored. The results showed that the high curing temperature is responsible for additional stiffness gain by increasing the binder stiffness due to ageing and by increasing the moisture loss by evaporation during the curing process. However, at high curing temperature the moisture loss by evaporation may hinder the hydration of cement. Moreover, the results also indicate that the high relative humidity level influences the stiffness modulus of CBEMs negatively.


Based on analysis of the chemical composition,metallographic structure,mechanical properties and welding performance of low-temperature steel SA516 Gr.60,extension tests under normal temperatures and the Charpy V-notch impact tests under low temperatures were conducted with regard to the welding points of the low-temperature steel SA516Gr.60.The test results show that when the appropriate welding specifications are employed by the shielded metal arc welding and the submerged arc welding,the domestic welding materials meet the practical needs.


Fast and accurate malicious domain detection is an essential research theme to prevent cybercrime, and machine learning is an attractive approach for detecting unseen malicious domains in the past decade. In this paper, we present MADMAX (MAchine learning-baseD MAlicious domain eXhauster), a browser-based application leveraging extreme learning machine (ELM) for malicious domain detection. In contrast to the existing work of ELM-based domain detection, MADMAX newly introduces two methods, i.e., selection of optimized features to provide higher accuracy and throughput based on permutation importance and real-time training to retrain a model with an updated malicious dataset for continuous malicious domain detection. We demonstrate that MADMAX fairly outperforms the existing work with respect to accuracy and throughput by virtue of the selection of optimized features. Moreover, we also confirm a model with real-time training stably detects even unseen malicious domains, whereas accuracy of a model without the real-time training decreases due to the unseen domains. The source codes of MADMAX is publicly available via GitHub.


The aim of this research is to analyze technical and economic aspects of apiary set up at Don Bosco College of agriculture Sulcorna, Goa for the year 2020. The Economics of apiary was given under cost heading which includes three sub groups mainly recurring cost, non-recurring costs and Net expenses. Net expenses incurred to Rs. 22595. The provincial difference in costs and returns of beekeeping enterprise were determined to get net profit, which amounts to Rs. 27605. B:C ratio was 2.22 which depicts investment of Re. 1 tends to give profit of Rs. 1.22 from honey and wax excluding pollination benefit, representing apiculture business is profitable in South-Goa district of Goa state.


• A phase 3 trial, the Clinical Evaluation of ARIKAYCE™ (CLEAR)-108 study, compared the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of LAI vs tobramycin inhalation solution (TIS), USP, over 3 treatment cycles for the management of P. aeruginosa infection in patients with CF. – LAI administered once daily was found to be comparable to TIS administered twice daily in improving lung function by the third on-treatment period. – Patients treated with LAI reported significantly greater improvement in respiratory symptoms at the end of the third on-treatment period compared with those treated with TIS. – The majority of adverse events (AEs) associated with LAI were respiratory in nature and decreased from treatment Cycle 1 to treatment Cycle 3, suggesting decreasing frequency of treatment-associated AEs with continued use of LAI.


The final report for the Model Orlando Regionally Efficient Travel Management Coordination Center (MORE TMCC) presents the details of the 2½-year process of the partial deployment of the original MORE TMCC design created in Phase I of this project. The purpose of Phase II was to deploy certain modules of the original design, given the limited funding and resources that were available to the project team. As part of the Phase II partial deployment, one aspect of the original design was implemented—multimedia trip management. As one of the foundations of MORE TMCC, enhanced trip management allows customers "around the clock" access to book, view, or cancel trips online or via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) telephone. Additionally, representatives such as human service agencies, dialysis clinics, or nursing homes are able to access their customers' trips as well. This system reduces telephone call hold times and customer no-shows because they are able to manage their trips online. Additionally, a Short Message Service (SMS) system was implemented to notify customers of their vehicles imminent arrival. This report reviews the project methodology, Phase II deployment, self-evaluation, outreach, and results and findings.


Progress in the extraction and purification of plant genome DNA was reviewed.Advantages and disadvantages of different methods were compare to provide technical references for plant genome research.


A fractal model for nucleate pool boiling heat transfer is developed based on the fractal distribution of sites (areas) of nucleation sites on boiling surfaces. Algebraic expressions for the fractal dimension and area fraction of nucleation sites are derived


The isometry types of rund quadratic forms over an arbitrary real algebraic function field in one variable are completely determined. Using his theory of rund forms, Witt was able to simplify proofs for some of the well-known structure theorems for the Witt ring W(F) (see [6]). Thus the determination of all rund forms over a field F became a desirable goal. Using local-global methods, Hsia and Johnson were able to compute all rund forms over a global field (see [4]) and over R(t) (see [5]). In this note, using the theory of Pfister forms, we determine all rund forms over an algebraic extension field F over R(t). In particular, we show that an even dimensional rund form over F is isometric to a quadratic form of the type r(l, x)IK1, wx) for some integer r>O, where x E F and w is a sum of two squares in F. The notation in this note will follow [3]. Thus by a field F, we shall mean one whose characteristic is different from two. A quadratic form ?1 (1, xi), xi E P=F-{0} will be called an n-fold Pfister form and be notated by ((xl, , x")). The n-fold Pfister forms generate IIF as an abelian group, where IF is the ideal in the Witt ring W(F) consisting of (nonsingular) even dimensional quadratic forms. If q is a quadratic form, we shall write DF(q)=D(q) for the set of nonzero values represented by q, and GF(q)=G(q) for the group of similarity factors {x E t: (x)q q} of q. A nonsingular quadratic form q is called rund over F if either D(q)= G(q) and q is anisotropic or q is hyperbolic. Thus if q is rund, ((-x))q=O (in W(F)) for all x E D(q). It is well known that Pfister forms are rund, and we shall use this fact implicitly throughout this note. We begin by classifying all odd dimensional rund forms over an arbitrary field. LEMMA. Let F be an arbitrary field. If an odd dimensional form q over F is rund then q_(2r+ 1)(1 )for some integer r>O. The form (1) is always Received by the editors February 5, 1973. AMS (MOS) subject classfications (1970). Primary 15A63.


1 Ventricular preparations from patients with mitral disease and hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) were set up to contract isometrically. Ventricular membrane particles were also prepared and putative calcium channels were labelled with [3H]‐nimodipine. 2 Positive staircase was induced by varying the rate of stimulation of isolated strips from 6 min−1 to 120 min−1 in the presence of 6–60 μm (—)‐adrenaline or (—)‐noradrenaline. (—)‐Verapamil 3–5 μm or (+)‐verapamil 20–30 μm reversed the force‐frequency relationship (i.e. caused negative staircase) in preparations from patients with mitral disease or HOCM. 3 In subendocardial strips of ventricular septum from 5 patients with HOCM paced at 60 min−1, both (—)‐verapamil and (+)‐verapamil caused cardiodepression. Half‐maximal cardiodepression was observed with 0.4 μm (—)‐verapamil and with 3 μm (+)‐verapamil. 4 [3H]‐nimodipine bound to ventricular membrane particles in a saturable, reversible fashion to a high affinity site with an equilibrium dissociation constant of 0.23 nm. The density of these sites was 95 fmol mg−1 of membrane protein. Binding of the tritiated 1,4‐dihydropyridine was stereoselectively inhibited by 1,4‐dihydropyridine enantiomers and nifedipine. 5 (—)‐Verapamil and (+)‐verapamil inhibited high affinity [3H]‐nimodipine binding in a negative heterotropic allosteric manner with (—)‐verapamil being 5 times more potent than (+)‐verapamil on an IC50 basis. At a given [3H]‐nimodipine concentration, (+)‐verapamil inhibited a greater fraction of specific [3H]‐nimodipine binding. 6 The allosteric mode of (+)‐verapamil inhibition of [3H]‐nimodipine binding was confirmed by kinetic studies. (—)‐Verapamil shifted (+)‐verapamil‐binding inhibition curves to the right in an apparently competitive fashion. 7 The inversion of staircase caused by both verapamil enantiomers suggests that they cause a use‐dependent channel blockade. The similar potency ratios for binding and for cardiodepression are indicative of a common locus of action for both verapamil enantiomers within the calcium channel.


The aim of the article is to analyze the main challenges related to the unilaterally declared permanent neutrality of the Republic of Moldova. This decision was made in complicated historical and geopolitical circumstances after the war in Transnistria was "frozen", and foreign forces were deployed on its territory. Permanent neutrality was seen as the best way for Moldova to maintain stability and territorial integrity. Moldova has not yet resolved the "frozen conflict" on its territory. Although the situation has largely stabilized in the meantime with the help of the international community, the division is leading to economic and political instability and carries the risk of new conflicts and tensions. Also, Moldova has not received international recognition of its permanent neutrality status, while the Russian troops continue to infringe its sovereignty and internal security. As a result, questions about the sustainability of that status are increasingly being asked. Despite all the dilemmas, Moldova remains determined to establish permanent neutrality as a basic principle of its foreign and security policy. Permanent neutrality is still considered to be the best way to respond to external influences and internal divisions and thus to preserve the stability and territorial integrity of the country. At the same time, neutral status does not exclude a certain type of security cooperation with Western institutions in order to ensure or, at the very least, implicitly guarantee the security of the state.


For a brief period events in the troubled Congo held the center of the world political stage, only to fade into the background as a precarious peace was restored in the heart of Africa and the world's attention turned to other areas of conflict. But the Congo was something special, for it offered the spectacle of a United Nations intervention designed both to keep other nations out of and to create internal order in the Congo. As the &dquo;Congo crisis&dquo; passed into history it not only left behind


Abstract. Let be a compact Hermitian symmetric space, and let be a U-homogeneous Hermitian vector bundle on X. In a previous paper, we showed that the space of nearly holomorphic sections is well-adapted for harmonic analysis in provided that non-trivial nearly holomorphic sections do exist. Here we investigate the problem of extending local nearly holomorphic sections to global ones and prove the existence of non-trivial nearly holomorphic sections. This extends the results on the U-type decomposition of from our previous paper.


The aim of this study was to clarify the impact of dementia on surgical outcomes of laparoscopic cholecystectomy for symptomatic cholelithiasis and acute cholecystitis.


Authors determined the main priorities of the Ukrainian railways in the course ofEuropean integration. These priorities areexamined in the context of institutional and infrastructural integration of Ukraine Railway Transport. Authors defined the main tasks of the railway transport of Ukraine within the framework of European integration priorities.


Student/Teacher Actions (what students and teachers should be doing to facilitate learning) 1. Discuss with students what they already know from science class about independent and dependent variables. Develop a definition for each term. 2. Distribute copies of the Independent and Dependent Variables activity sheet. Have students work with partners to identify the independent and dependent variables for each situation presented on the chart. 3. When students have finished, have them present their solutions and defend their reasoning. 4. Distribute copies of the Poster Directions, poster paper, and markers. Have students complete the poster project. 5. Display the posters, and have students present their variables to the class.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder characterized by tremor, ridigity, bradykinesia and cognitive impairment. In clinical practice, the FP-CIT SPECT scans are one of the most widely used tools to diagnose PD and also to measure its progression. Whereas Healthy Control (HC) subjects show their striatum region highly illuminated and with a c-shape, in patients with PD this area is not as much highlighted and it presents a rounded shape. Traditionally, analysis of FP-CIT scans have been carried out following voxel-wise comparisons between HC and PD subjects. This approach is limited due to the necessity of non-linear spatial registrations that might alter artificially the interclass separation between HC and PD subjects due to the intrinsic deformation of striatum region in PD scans. In this scenario, morphological analyses have become a more effective alternative for determining this separation. In this work we analyze the contour of 208 FP-CIT SPECT volumes to obtain a set of features that will support PD diagnosis. For this purpose, 3D alpha-shapes have been used to measure this contour. In addition, we propose a method to determine the intensity threshold from which most of the information is contained. This helps to limit the number of input features and eliminates potential background noise.


During the past couple of years, the UK footwear market has gone through a considerable transformation. Demand has significantly changed, thus has consumer behaviour. Therefore, the aim of this study was set to analyse the main aspects of consumer behaviour currently prevailing in the market. Furthermore, the major research was focused on exploring gender and generational differences in purchasing behaviour and consequently examining the current state of brand loyalty in the UK footwear market. The research was based on a questionnaire, which has been distributed to fashion and footwear associations and several universities in the UK. The questionnaire was sent via a social network and the network of the University of Huddersfield. Due to an insufficient number of responses, further research was carried out on a Huddersfield University campus. Results of the questionnaire showed very noticeable differences between women's and men's attitudes toward shoe shopping. Although a vast majority of women stated a strong positive relation toward footwear, men showed a significantly more moderate attitude. The results also indicated that nowadays, young consumers purchase rationally and carefully. The research has also revealed markedly low brand loyalty, which suggests that footwear brands/retailers may need to adjust their current offer, which has been found unsatisfactory.


This book is a piece of philosophical work of extremely high intellectual quality. Its purpose is to defend in detail a 'resolute' reading of the Tractatus. It succeeds in this aim. It thus accomplishes something that has not yet been accomplished even by Conant or Diamond. It is therefore a major contribution to 'Wittgenstein studies', to contemporary philosophy and to the philosophical history of recent philosophy. (It has significant implications, for instance, for the work of Freudians, Sartreans, Griceans, Davidsonians.)


A particularly challenging situation in amateur multimedia authoring is ad-hoc collaborative capture, i.e., a process that, having no pre-production phase, demands live coordination between multiple authors. Important problems to realize such scenarios include proper synchronization of media elements by multiple devices, and which information to include in the resulting collaboratively authored multimedia document. In this paper, we report how our collaborative authoring system tackles these ad-hoc multimedia capture problems by combining mobile and web applications. We present a case study in the educational domain and discuss the results of a user study.


Drinking water quality is one of the most important factors affecting human health. The task of the waterworks is to purify raw water into drinking water. The quality of drinking water depends on two major factors: the raw water quality, and the treatment measures that are applied in the waterworks. Since the raw water quality develops over time, it must be determined whether the treatment measures currently used are also suitable when the raw water quality changes. For this reason, a hydrogeochemical model relevant to the drinking water quality during the treatment process was developed. By comparing the modeled results with the measured values, with the exception of chloride and sodium, all other relevant water quality parameters were consistent with one another. Therefore, the model proved to be plausible. This was also supported by the results of mass balance. The model can be used to forecast the development of drinking water quality, and can be applied as a tool to optimize the treatment measures if the raw water conditions change in the future.


Soil-structure interaction effects on the reliability assessment of containment structures are examined. The probability-based method for reliability evaluation of nuclear structures developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory is extended to include soil-structure interaction effects. In this method, reliability of structures is expressed in terms of limit state probabilities. Furthermore, random vibration theory is utilized to calculate limit state probabilities under random seismic loads. Earthquake ground motion is modeled by a segment of a zero-mean, stationary, filtered Gaussian white noise random process, represented by its power spectrum. All possible seismic hazards at a site, represented by a hazard curve, are also included in the analysis. The soil-foundation system is represented by a rigid surface foundation on an elastic halfspace. Random and other uncertainties in the strength properties of the structure, in the stiffness and internal damping of the soil, are also included in the analysis. Finally, a realistic reinforced concrete containment is analyzed to demonstrate the application of the method. For this containment, the soil-structure interaction effects on; (1) limit state probabilities, (2) structural fragility curves, (3) floor response spectra with probabilistic content, and (4) correlation coefficients for total acceleration response at specified structural locations, are examined in detail. 25 refs., 21more » figs., 12 tabs.« less


A questionnaire consisting of 50 typical schizophrenic behavior traits, as determined by a consensus of psychiatric opinion, was given to 100 manic-depressives, 125 schizophrenics, and 240 normal individuals. From the data collected, the following conclusions are offered: 1. The normal and schizophrenic groups possess on the average about the same number of schizophrenic traits. The former report 18 such traits and the latter 17.60 traits. The manic-depressive group, on the other hand, report only 14 such traits or about 80 per cent as many as the other two groups. 2. Analysis of individual traits fails to reveal a dichotomy of personality types underlying schizophrenic and manic-depressive patients. There is some indication that normal individuals possess somewhat different traits than psychotic individuals, but in general, all groups tend to have the same personality traits. 3. The lack of agreement between clinical observers of personality types and experimental workers is perhaps due to the fact that ...


Traditionally, frailty is thought to be a syndrome of the elderly—one which comes as a natural and inevitable side-effect of aging, gradually transforming strong, healthy bodies into weaker, more delicate frames over time. For clinicians, frailty is a concept which has long posed formidable challenges in perioperative medicine. For patients, frailty turns even the most routine operative procedures into complicated life or death undertakings.