Connectivity is playing an increasing role in the driver-vehicle relationship and becoming a basic consumer requirement when choosing a vehicle. This book addresses important aspects of one of the most cutting-edge topics in the industry today. It features 20 SAE technical papers published in 2010 and 2011, as well as three original articles written by various experts. This title presents an integrated view of how the driving experience will develop and what emerging technologies are likely to be successful in the upcoming years.


This paper augments the current research suggesting the less rational factors like attractiveness of Bitcoin and speculative investments to be influential for excessive volatility. In particular, it examines the sentiment as a driver of Bitcoin volatility. The paper contributes with economic rationale about a link between sentiment and Bitcoin. Further, the authors propose a unique decomposition of Bitcoin price to rational and less rational components. The paper tests this theoretical prediction with unique sentiment intraday data in the period of 12/12/2013 – 12/31/2015. The findings of the paper show the marginal presence of sentiment during the overall studied period. However, the explanato- ry power of sentiment significantly increases during the period of excessive volatility, especially dur- ing the bubble period at the end of the year 2013 and beginning of 2014. Moreover, the findings show that positive sentiment is more influential for Bitcoin excessive volatility.


Substantial efforts have been made to integrate manufacturing- and design-relevant knowledge into product development processes. A common approach is to provide the relevant knowledge to the design engineers using a knowledge-based system (KBS) that, in turn, becomes the engineering assistance system. Keeping the knowledge up to date is a critical issue, making knowledge acquisition a bottleneck of developing and maintaining KBS. This article presents a robust metamodel optimization and performance estimation architecture for developing and maintaining a KBS useful for design-for-manufacturing from the context of sheet-bulk metal forming. It is shown that the presented KBS or engineering assistance system helps achieve performing design-for-manufacturing, integrating both design and manufacturing knowledge. Using the presented approach helps overcome the bottleneck of knowledge acquisition and knowledge update through its self-learning component based on data mining and knowledge discovery.


The invention relates to a traditional Chinese medicine bactericide for preventing and controlling soft rot of konjak, and belongs to the filed of insect pests and plant disease prevention and control and biological pesticide. The traditional Chinese medicine bactericide comprises the following components by weight percentage: 12 to 36 percent of garlic extract, 3 to 12 percent of Chinese goldthread rhizome extract, 3 to 10 percent of Flos Lonicerae leave extract, 3 to 5 percent of wettable powder accessory ingredient for farm chemical, and the balance being packing carrier for the farm chemical. The components are compounded into the traditional Chinese medicine bactericide wettable powder which has obvious sterilizing effect on pathogen of the soft rot of konjak, namely Erwinia Aroideae Holland for preventing and controlling the soft rot of konjak. The traditional Chinese medicine bactericide wettable powder is environment-friendly, has strong specificity, is better than chemical agents to prevent and control the soft rot of konjak, has more than 65 percent of relative prevention effect, and can improve the yield of konjak when applied to konjak production, as proved by experiments.


Coreference resolution finds all expressions that refer to the same entity in a document. Coreference resolution is important for information extraction, document classification, document summary, and question answering system. In this paper, we adapt Stanford's Multi-pass sieve system, the one of the best model of rule based coreference resolution to Korean. In this paper, all noun phrases are considered to mentions. Also, unlike Stanford's Multi-pass sieve system, the dependency parse tree is used for mention extraction, a Korean acronym list is built 'dynamically'. In addition, we propose a method that calculates weights by applying transitive properties of centers of the centering theory when refer Korean pronoun. The experiments show that our system obtains MUC 59.0%, 59.5%, Ceafe 63.5%, and CoNLL(Mean) 60.7%.


Background: 3‐Hydroxy‐3‐methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) have been widely used in clinical practise and their efficacy in reducing cardiovascular risk has been well described. Objectives: To investigate the effect of low doses of fluvastatin (nanomolar) on H2O2‐induced cell damage and the underlying mechanism. Methods and results: Primary cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells were used, and the effects of fluvastatin on H2O2‐induced apoptosis, necrosis, and proliferation were observed. H2O2 at a concentration of 100 μm significantly induced apoptotic cell death after 24‐h cell culture. Fluvastatin at low concentrations (10–100 nm) prevented H2O2‐induced apoptosis, as determined by a DNA fragmentation assay and by cell counting with trypan blue and Hoechst 33342 nuclei staining. The protective effect of fluvastatin was mediated by the upregulation of Bcl‐2 expression as probed by real‐time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting. Using siRNA to knock down the expression of Bcl‐2, the protective effect of fluvastatin was abolished. Fluvastatin had no direct effect on the H2O2‐sensitive TRPM2 calcium channel. Conclusions: These results suggest that fluvastatin has a potent protective effect against H2O2‐induced apoptosis via upregulation of Bcl‐2 expression. The findings provide a new insight into the mechanism by which fluvastatin is able to modulate the influence of oxidative stress on vascular endothelial cells.


The epididymis of the fan-throated lizard Sitana ponticeriana was subjected to light and transmission electron microscopic analysis to find the histological variation along the ductus epididymidis, describe the various cell types in the epithelium and compare the resulting descriptions with what is known for other reptiles and for amniotes. The ductus epididymidis of this lizard is differentiated along its length into four histologically distinct zones, initial segment, caput, corpus and cauda. The first three zones appear to be associated with secretion and absorption/endocytosis whereas the cauda appears to be concerned with absorption/endocytosis and storage. The epithelium consists of six different cell types, principal, narrow, apical, clear, basal and intraepithelial leucocytes as in the mammals. Principal cells, basal cells and intraepithelial leucocytes are present along the entire length. Narrow cells and apical cells are confined to the initial segment whereas clear cells occur in the cauda only. The principal cells from the initial segment to the corpus produce biphasic secretion granules measuring 1–2 µm in diameter. This paper reports on four histologically distinct zones along the length of the ductus epididymidis of the lizard S. ponticeriana and six different cell types in the lining epithelium.


Objective To investigate the expression of IL-10 and IL-6 in tissue and plasma of subtypes lymphoma and its significance. Methods Immunohistochemical technique and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to assess the expression of IL-10 and IL-6 in 97 cases paraffin tissue and plasma samples from different subtypes of lymphoma.Results Expression of IL-10 and IL-6 was positive in all lymphoma tissue samples, but there is no significant difference among different subtypes lymphoma (x2 =0.815, x2 =0.542, P > 0.05). Tumor samples were found positive IL-10 and IL-6 expression in macrophages and vascular endothelial cells by immunohistochemistry respectively. Expression of IL-10 and IL-6 in plasma of lymphoma were higher than that in control respectively [(232.57±191.59) pg/ml vs (59.12±68.35) pg/ml,(80.70±89.68) pg/ml vs (45.68±33.66) pg/ml],with significant difference (t =6.968,t =2.896,P <0.05).IL-10 and IL-6 plasma levels increased with enhanced expression in lymphoma (x2 =0.815,x2 =0.542,P < 0.05).Which was found to be correlated with each other (rs =0.394,P < 0.05). Conclusion The expression of IL-10 and IL-6 had been found at various degrees in tissues and plasma of lymphoma.IL-10 and IL-6 in plasma of lymphoma were higher than that in controls. These results showed that IL-10 and IL-6 may cooperate in vivo with lymphoma cell proliferation and infiltrate. IL-6 and IL-10 maybe served as useful indicators for diagnosis of lymphoma.

Key words:
Lymphoma; Interleukin-10; Interleukin-6; Immunohistochemistry; Enzyme-Linked immunosorbent assay


Light emitted by fluorophores can be computed from the knowledge of the absorption spectrum. However, at long wavelengths, the calculated emission may diverge if the decay of the imaginary part of the permittivity is not modelled accurately. We report a technique to obtain the permittivity of fluorophores such as dye molecules from fluorescence measurements. We find that the Brendel-Bormann model enables to fit the emission spectra accurately.


A novel method by high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) with fluorescence detection was developed to determinate eprinomectin(EPR) in milk of cow.Samples were extracted with acetonitrile,cleaned up by solid phase extraction(SPE) on a C_(18) column and dried in airless box.Then EPR was derived with trifluoroacetic anhydride and N-methylimidazole,addition of acetic acid,heat at 65℃.Then the samples were injected into the HPLC column.EPR was detected by fluorescence detector set at 366 nm excitation and 465 nm emission wavelength.The method gave linear calibration graphs(R~2=0.997) over the concentration between 1 and 40 μg/L.The limit of quantification was 0.1 μg/L EPR in milk of cow.The mean recovery ranged between 83.40% and 105.40%.The procedure provides a rapid,reliable and sensitive method for determination of eprinomectin in milk.


INTRODUCTION: CD44 is important in cellular adhesion and invasion, and is upregulated in glioma cells. Here, we extend our previous CD44-antibody blocking and gene silencing experiments to examine, the downstream effects of CD44 knockdown (kd) on the expression of cytoskeletal proteins involved in cellular migration. Atomic force microscope (AFM) was used to measure the stiffness (Young's Modulus, E) of wild type (wt) and CD44-kd glioma cells. METHOD: SNB-19 cells were transfected with either CD44 siRNA, scrambled siRNA, or a non-related gene siRNA. Human non-neoplastic astrocytes were used as a control. Western Blotting (WB), immunocytochemistry (ICC) and flow cytometric analysis were used to analyse changes in cytoskeletal proteins. AFM (CellHesion 200, JPK Instruments) was used to measure E values obtained from force vs. distance plots, using Hertzian mechanics models, by indenting a microsphere (R = 5.6 µm), attached to a AFM cantilever, into cells (10% of cell thickness, nuclear and cytoplasm regions) maintained at 37°C in culture media. RESULTS: Vimentin, GFAP, and microtubule protein expression was associated with lower CD44 protein levels in CD44-kd cells compared to cells with scrambled siRNA. Functionally, CD44-kd cells were less migratory compared to controls. AFM E-values were found to be log-normally distributed, with no differences observed between nuclear and cytoplasm regions. Knockdown CD44 SNB-19 cells (E = 359 ± 180 Pa) were less stiff than wt cells (E = 1099 ± 991 Pa; p = 0.023). The stiffness of wt SNB-19 cells was also greater than control astrocytes (E = 444 ± 311 Pa; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The combined results suggest gene silencing of CD44 may be an important therapeutic strategy for reducing adhesion, migration and invasion of glioma cells.


In this profile, we describe how the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study (ISVYOS) leveraged detailed administrative data to create a prospective longitudinal study. We also discuss the research and policy context at the time the ISVYOS was initiated, its methodology, and what has been learned so far. The ISVYOS includes 1,719 participants who were incarcerated in adolescence and followed through adulthood. Between 1998–2002 (Cohort I) and 2005–2011 (Cohort II), male and female youth were recruited for interviews that measured various risk and protective factors, experiences in custody, and attitudes towards the justice system. Follow-up data include measures of justice system involvement, risk assessment data, and social network data. Participants were an average age of 30.57 (SD = 4.65) as of December 2019. Over 90% of the sample was involved in the adult justice system. So far, research using ISVYOS data has addressed the reliability and validity of measures of psychopathy in adolescence, justice system criminal careers, risk factors for chronic and persistent offending, and the adult offending outcomes of youth involved in serious offenses (e.g., sexual offenses and homicide offense). Inquiries regarding data access should be sent to the first author.


This paper discusses 4 slope stability case histories recently investigated in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Each case history includes geological interpretation, geotechnical site investigation, laboratory testing and slope stability analyses. The main failure mechanisms identified in this study involved (a) the mobilization of residual shear strength of a fine-gained colluvium, (b) the brittle failure of a residual soil, (c) the complex failure mechanisma of a sedimentary formation, and (d) the mass movement of a colluvium.


We have classified about 400 new spectral lines of neutral tantalum via laser excitation or observation of laser-induced fluorescence. 37 energy levels with even parity and seven levels with odd parity were found by means of systematic hyperfine structure investigations. For the new levels angular momentum, parity, magnetic hyperfine interaction constant A and electric quadrupole interaction constant B were deduced. In addition, we have classified 230 new lines observed in high resolution Fourier transform spectra by analysing their observed hyperfine structure patterns.


5,954,728 A 9, 1999 Heller et al. (76) Inventors: Miguelangelo J. Perez-Cruet, 1070 6,004,326. A 12, 1999 G al Timberlake Dr. Bloomfield, MI (US) w w o 48302: John R. Pepper, 224 Beacon 6,019,765 A 2/2000 Thornhill et al. Hill Dr. Cheshire, CT (US) 06410 6,059,829 A 5/2000 Schlapfer et al. 6,066,174 A 5, 2000 Farris (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this 6,066,175 A 5, 2000 Henderson et al. patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 318 days.


Objective To explore the examination methods about stability of carotid atherosclerotic plaque and evaluate the curative effect of medicine on carotid atherosclerosis.Methods 150 patients with carotid atherosclerotic plaque in acute stage ischemic stroke were divided into treatment group and control group at random.Stable or instable plaques were assessed and carotid artery intima-media thickness(IMT) were measured according to the characteristics of carotid atherosclerotic plaque on supersound imagin.The treatment in treatment group were different from that in control group.The therapeutic efficacy was observed respectively.Results After the treatment 1 month and 3 months,in treatment group carotid artery IMT decreaced more than that at accidence of treatment group and that of control group,the carotid atherosclerotic plaques stabilizese increasingly.Conclusion The stability of carotid atherosclerotic plaque may be evaluated through the ultrasound imagin.Statin and aspirin can lighten carotid atherosclerosis and stabilize the plaque.


The invention concerns a fenofibrate composition with instant release comprising: (a) an inert water-soluble support coated with at least a film containing an active fenofibrate principle in micronised form with a size less than 20 mu m, a hydrophilic polymer and optionally a surfactant; said hydrophilic polymer representing at least 20 wt.% of the weight of element (a), and (b) optionally one or several external phase(s) or film(s). The invention also concerns its method of preparation.


Background Evidence on the optimal time to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the presence of toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) is scarce. We compared the impact of early vs. delayed ART initiation on mortality and neurologic complications at discharge in a Brazilian population co-infected with HIV and TE. Methods We retrospectively evaluated data from 9 years of hospitalizations at a referral center in Manaus, Amazonas. All ART-naïve hospitalized patients were divided into early initiation treatment (EIT) (0-4 weeks) and delayed initiation treatment (DIT) (>4 weeks). The groups were compared using chi-square test and mortality at 16 weeks. Results Four hundred sixty nine patients were included, of whom 357 (76.1%) belonged to the EIT group. The median CD4+ lymphocyte count and CD4+/CD8+ ratio were 53 cells/mm3 and 0.09, respectively. Mortality rate and presence of sequelae were 4.9% (n = 23) and 41.6% (n = 195), respectively. Mortality was similar between groups (p = 0.18), although the EIT group had the highest prevalence of sequelae at discharge (p = 0.04). The hazard ratio for death at 16 weeks with DIT was 2.3 (p = 0.18). The necessity for intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation were similar between groups. Conclusion In patients with AIDS and TE, early ART initiation might have a detrimental influence on the occurrence of sequelae.


This paper considers a successive light interference cancellation and allocation algorithm (SLICA) practicing interference cancellation for an indoor visible light communication (VLC) system based on successive interference cancellation (SIC) technique. The interference among users is cancelled with the help of the proposed approach to reduce computational complexity. VLC has become the cornerstone of intelligence in the current scenario. The data services allocated to the users are demand based and rely on their channel conditions. The data is allocated to user by modulating light waves via illuminated LEDs. The receiving end has photodiode installed in it to recover back the data. Better performance rate is achieved with lesser interference with the proposed approach. To guarantee good (quality-of service) QoS, considerable simulations are carried out considering real- time scenario which further demonstrates the high level performance of the proposed approach over conventional approach. Based on the analysis, the SINR and interference level is demonstrated for the conventional and the proposed approach and there is a hike in the performance rate of SINR and interference level of about 20 – 30 % with the applied proposed approach. The prior motto of this study is to enhance the system throughput and improve per user average performance rate and reducing the complexity of the system. This contributes to the total efficiency of the optical indoor VLC network. Our proposed algorithm will provide a strong backbone for the 6G deployment.


In this paper, the feasibility of repairing internal defects inside concrete using the electrochemical deposition method is investigated. Various amounts of the air entrance agent (AEA) were added into fresh concrete to produce small air bubbles. Zinc sulfate was used as the electrolyte for the electrochemical deposition method. The dry unit-weight test, compressive strength test, splitting tensile strength test, four-probe electric resistivity, water absorption percentage test, open circuit potential test, scanning electronic microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction are carried out to investigate the repair results. Results show that the electrochemical deposition method is a promising rehabilitation method when internal defects are required to be repaired.


Objective To explore the expression of P53 protein in the surgical margins of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC),and its relationship between clinicopathological parameters and tumor local recurrence.Methods The expression of P53 protein in 82 cases of human HNSCCs and 10 cases of normal oral mucosa was detected by using immunohistochemistry. The correlations among P53 protein to clinicopathological parameters and tumor local recurrence in these cases was investigated. Results Of the 82 cases of HNSCC,59.76% (49/82) in surgical margins were positive for P53 protein. P53 protein was mainly detected in nucleus of basal cell in surgical margins. The expression of P53 protein was significantly higher in surgical margins of patients with HNSCC than that in normal oral mucosa (P0.05). P53 protein positive expression was significantly correlated with tumor differentiation and tumor local recurrence in 82 cases of HNSCC (P0.05),but not with age and gender of patients,pathological stage,lymph node metastasis and anatomic site of tumor were not found (P0.05). Conclusion These results suggest that the presence of P53 protein in tumor surgical margins correlates with the development of HNSCC after operation. P53 protein may serve as one prognostic factor for tumor local recurrence.


This paper describes a technique to model an HVDC power converter installation in the s-domain. A system equivalent is developed, utilising a frequency-domain model, allowing the closed loop frequency response to be expressed. A rational function approximation of the closed loop frequency response is found by writing an overdetermined equation set, solved directly using singular value decomposition. System poles and zeros in the s-domain are extracted through the solution of the rational function roots. Validation of the model at two power converter operating points is obtained via time-domain simulation and step response techniques for an inverter voltage perturbation.


We investigated otolith function using the subjective visual vertical (SVV) in 54 patients with persistent geotropic positional nystagmus (Light cupula), 30 patients with persistent apogeotropic positional nystagmus (Heavy cupula) and 45 healthy subjects. To com-pare benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), SVV was also measured in 56 patients with posterior canal canalolithiasis (PC) and 38 patients with lateral canal canalolithiasis (LC). Patients attended the clinic within 1 week after the onset of vertigo, and the SVVs were examined prior to treatment. The affected sides of Light cupula and Heavy cupula were estimated based on the neutral position at which the horizontal nystagmus direction was reversed. The average SVV toward the affected side showed significantly higher val-ues, in this order: Light cupula > LC/PC > healthy subjects and Light cupula>Heavy cupula. Otolith dysfunction could be demonstrated on the affected side in Light cupula, whereas Heavy cupula exhibited a lesser degree of otolith dysfunction. The average SVV value toward the affected side of 0.9 is recommended as a cut-off value for Light cupula (sensitiv-ity: 0.75, specificity: 0.86). The average SVV value > 1.4 toward the affected side is also recommended as a cut-off for the detection of otolith dysfunction in Light cupula, PC and LC (specificity > 0.93).


Long‐lasting or "L‐type" calcium (CaL) channels mediate voltage‐dependent Ca2+ influx and contraction in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). We have suggested that pressure‐induced depolarization of VSMCs induces the expression of the pore‐forming α1C subunit of the CaL channel, thereby contributing to the elevated Ca2+ influx and vascular tone observed in arteries of hypertensive rats. This study investigated the hypothesis that CaL channel β subunits, which may increase the cell surface expression of CaL channels, promote CaL channel expression in the VSMCS of small renal arteries. Initial Western blots indicated that cultured rat renal arteries minimally expressed the β2 subunit, which was apparent as an immunoreactive band at ~68 kD in renal VSMC membranes. In similar renal arteries, incorporation of fluorescein‐labeled antisense directed against the β subunit resulted in a profound loss of CaL channel α1C subunits. The downregulation of CaL channel α1C subunits in response to βantisense was associated with a loss of Ca2+‐dependent contraction in renal arteries. Interestingly, depolarization of renal VSMCs for 48 hours resulted in an upregulation of the β2 subunit that correlated with an increased expression of CaL channel α1C subunit proteins. Thus, the expression of functional CaL channel α1C subunits in small arteries may rely on ancillary β subunits, which may promote the trafficking, insertion or membrane stability of the CaL channel in the VSMC membrane.


The objective of the current study was to study the effect of drought stress and organic nutrition on quantity and quality of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis). Lemon balm is a perennial herbaceous herb which is extensively used in pharmaceutics and food industries. Given that province of Kerman, Iran, is an arid region, the current study was so important because of the limitation of water resources. The study was carried out in Kerman, Iran in 2008 as a split-plot experiment based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. The main plots included drought stress at two levels of stress and no-stress and the sub-plots included organic fertilization treatments at five levels of three types of green manure (vetch, alfalfa, clover) and decomposed (cattle) manure with the amount of 30 t.ha -1 . The drought stress was created by changing irrigation interval. The measured traits included plant height, single-plant leaf number, single-plant stem and leaf dry and fresh weight, single-plant fresh and dry weight, leaf:stem ratio, leaf length and width and finally, leaf area. The data were analyzed and the means were compared by Duncan's multiple range test. The results showed that the effect of green manures was significant on leaf number, leaf fresh weight, stem fresh weight, leaf dry weight, plant fresh weight and leaf area. Plant yield had the highest correlation with leaf number, plant height, plant fresh weight and stem fresh weight. The highest plant yield was obtained under cattle manure and alfalfa green manure treatment. The effect of drought stress was significant on treatments.


An epithelial tumor cell line was recently established from a biopsy specimen of a nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and designated HONE‐1. Uncloned (parental) HONE‐1 and HONE‐1 clone (C)‐40 cells were found to contain latent Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV). Expression of the latent EBV genome in HONE‐1 C‐40 cells has been examined. It was possible to detect a small percentage of cells spontaneously synthesizing EBV early antigen (EA) and virus capsid antigen (VCA) by immunofluorescence (IF). In addition, the EBV nuclear antigens (EBNA‐I and EBNA‐2), as well as the EBV latent membrane protein (LMP) were detected in the HONE‐1 cells. Attempts were made to induce the latent EBV genome in these cells with iododeoxyuridine (IUdR). We observed a significant increase in the number of EA/VCA‐positive cells, an increase in EBV DNA, the synthesis of virus particles, and the rescue of infectious virus after treatment of HONE‐1 C‐40 cells with IUdR. The HONE‐1 C‐40 cells should facilitate studies of the expression and regulation of the EBV genome in NPC epithelial tumor cells, which have not previously been available.


Publisher: Garamond Press, 67A Portland St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada Mv5 2M9 Year of Publication: 1989 Length: 247 pages Price: $16.16 (Canadian) paperback Summary: The Pay-Per Society: Computing and Communication in the Information Age is a critical analysis of the development of computers and communications systems in the workplace, industrial organizations, bureaucracies, mass media, politics, and the military. Attention is also devoted to examining the implications of deregulation in the telecommunications industry, with examples drawn from the Canadian and American experiences. The author argues that the integration of computers with communications systems aims to achieve two goals: (I) to commodify and privatize the ownership of and access to information; and (2) to enhance governmental and corporate social control at the local, national, and global levels.


Although many neurodegenerative diseases affect different neural circuits, they often express complex and overlapping symptom profiles making them difficult to differentiate precisely. Current methods of analyzing patients are limited to bedside examination, patient self-rating scales, semiquantitative clinician-rating scales, and other observational evidence, which are often non-specific, resulting in open multiple interpretations and ambiguity in diagnosis and treatment plans. We present a method to analyze patient symptom profiles using multimodal analysis of subjects performing the Stroop Test. We use high-sample-rate eye tracking and speech recording tools to record subject behavior while completing the Stroop Test and simultaneously analyze multiple traits of their interaction with the test. We compare the performance of healthy controls to patients with Parkinsons Disease, Alzheimers Disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases with clinical parkinsonism. We automatically extract metrics based on eye motor behavior, gaze characteristic uttered responses, and the temporal relationship between gaze and uttered responses. We identify many that have clinical relevance through high correlations with existing MoCA and MDS-UPDRS, many of which have significantly different distributions between groups. We present here our analysis approach, provide freely available source code to replicate it and demonstrate the potential of multi-modal recording and analysis of patients throughout their execution of neuro-psychological tests like the Stroop Test.


"Three Represents"from concerning about the people,not only adhere to the"people-oriented",respect human values,comfirm human dignity,but also advocate to play human creativity actively,promote people to establish and develop democracy,the rule of law,freedom of modern values,to build a socialist harmonious society,in order to achieve comprehensive development of human freedom.Through focusing on people,focusing on culture and tolerating the world's cultural diversity,"Three Represents" contain exploration of humanism spirits.


Chlorosis in plants growing in tropical soils which have been limed has been reported many times5. Sanford 6 stated that after 50 to 60 years of continuous cropping to pineapples many areas in Hawaii are deficient in available iron. In Ghana, Greenwood and H ay fron 4 reported that iron deliciency in cacao occurred when the trees were growing (a) on weathered termite mounds (which are underlain by a calcareous horizon) , (b) on peasant farms where wood ashes were plentiful as a result of burning forest, (c) where wood ash was placed experimentally in planting holes at Tafo Research Station, and (d) where compost including beach sand with numerous shell fragments was used. Chlorosis in the latter cases was corrected by spraying with 1 % ferrous sulfate solution but not by soil application. During the period 1954-60 chlorosis in a variety of plants was observed on the farm at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.* In each case the chlorotic condition was confined to a small area. In 1954 a patch of yams (Dios corea rotondata and D. alata) showed marked chlorosis. Weeds in the same patch were similarly affected. The yam leaves were brittle, showed interveinal chlorosis, and in the case of D. alata necrotic patches. Spraying the foliage with 0.5% ferrous sulfate produced green colour but application of the same solution to the soil had no effect. The top foot of oil in the chlorotic area had a pH of 8.2 and effervesced with dilute hydrochloric acid, while the adjacent soil where plant growth was normal had a pH of 5.5 to 6.0. Enquiries concerning the history of, the area revealed that cloth dyeing had been practised there in the past and that the yam plot had been laid out on the edge of the old dye boiling site where a large quantity of ash had accumulated. In 1957 another case of severe chlorosis in yams was observed and once again the soil proved to be heavily charged with ash. In 1955 the sporadic occurence of chlorosis in an experimental pineapple plot was noted. In an area of two acres there were about a dozen patches of approximately six plants each, in which all the plants were more or less chlorotic. The soil in these patches showed markedly more ash and charcoal fragments than the soil of the rest of the plot. It was found that when the plot


The article shows the difficulties and risks that arise when implementing the HACCP system in Russian enterprises of the food industry. An expert group of specialists of different profiles and competencies identified the risks using the brainstorming method. An analysis of the risks that arise during the development and implementation of a food safety system based on the principles of HACCP showed that according to the source of occurrence, they are divided into two groups: external and internal. External risks include the risks posed by the state, which, according to experts, are the most significant. These include: poor educational work; lack of explanatory materials on the preparation and implementation of the system; lack of harmonization of HACCP requirements with the regulatory framework of the Russian Federation; complex terminology, complex presentation of information, etc. Internal risks include risks from the management and personnel of catering enterprises: a formal approach to the creation and implementation of the system, a low level of education for linear personnel, an imperfect incentive system, non-compliance with discipline in maintaining records and documents of the system, etc. The article describes actions to minimize the identified types of risks.


Introduction: Psychophysical methods are used in clinical settings to obtain estimates of visual performance. Such methods should be fast and accurate, yet robust to the corrupting effects of false responses.


This paper describes experimental and numerical analysis of the effect of high temperature to the steel frame structure. There are compared results from the experiment realised in the thermal technical chamber of VŠB-TU Ostrava and numerical modelling using the finite element method in the ANSYS software. There are evaluated thermal measurements and also measurements of relative deformations in time of fire using physical and geometrical nonlinear methods of solution. Key-Words: Steel structure, fire, fire resistance, plasticity, physical nonlinearity, geometric nonlinearity, experiment, numerical modelling


In this new era of increasing population, it is necessary to look upon new sources of fuel for vehicle as the fossil fuel is going to extinct due to our unproductive use of it. There are also many drawbacks to human and nature's health of using gasoline as the fuel for vehicle. This paper investigates the feasibility study of a fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle through a model-driven approach and yields two main initial contributions. PVFCHEV (Photovoltaic Fuel cell Hybrid Electric Vehicle) system, including the vehicle's power supply, controllers and electric vehicle is modelled in detail in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. A fuzzy logic controller is designed which aims to the effective utilization of fuel cell at different levels of irradiation and battery charge state. In the fuzzy logic controller, the PV irradiation and battery SOC are fuzzy inputs and fuzzy output is the adaptable function for the fuel cell. Different simulations outcomes are obtained at different levels of PV irradiations and battery. Likewise, the simulation for various manually created torque signals is conducted which is considered as the required input torque for the motor. Performance with two input fuzzy logic system is also compared with the three-input fuzzy logic system having an additional input member as input torque given to the PMSMMotor.


While error correcting codes (ECC) have the potential to significantly reduce the failure probability of post-quantum schemes, they add an extra ECC decoding step to the algorithm. Even though this additional step does not compute directly on the secret key, it is susceptible to side-channel attacks. We show that if no precaution is taken, it is possible to use timing information to distinguish between ciphertexts that result in an error before decoding and ciphertexts that do not contain errors, due to the variable execution time of the ECC decoding algorithm. We demonstrate that this information can be used to break the IND-CCA security of post-quantum secure schemes by presenting an attack on two round 1 candidates to the NIST Post-Quantum Standardization Process: the Ring-LWE scheme LAC and the Mersenne prime scheme Ramstake. This attack recovers the full secret key using a limited number of timed decryption queries and is implemented on the reference and the optimized implementations of both submissions. It is able to retrieve LAC's secret key for all security levels in under 2 minutes using less than $2^16 $ decryption queries and Ramstake's secret key in under 2 minutes using approximately $2400$ decryption queries. The attack generalizes to other lattice-based schemes with ECC in which any side-channel information about the presence of errors is leaked during decoding.


This paper presents Video Summagator (VS), a volume-based interface for video summarization and navigation. VS models a video as a space-time cube and visualizes the video cube using real-time volume rendering techniques. VS empowers a user to interactively manipulate the video cube. We show that VS can quickly summarize both the static and dynamic video content by visualizing the space-time information in 3D. We demonstrate that VS enables a user to quickly look into the video cube, understand the content, and navigate to the content of interest.


Background: Although pediatric healthcare organizations have widely implemented the philosophy of family-centered care (FCC), evaluators and health professionals have not explored how to preserve the philosophy of FCC in evaluation processes. Purpose:  To illustrate how fourth generation evaluation, in theory, could facilitate collaboration between evaluators and families and uphold the philosophy of FCC in evaluation. Exploration focuses on describing the ways in which fourth generation evaluation is consistent with FCC and outlining a strategy for implementing it within pediatric healthcare organizations.  Discussion: Current evaluation practices used in healthcare organizations reflect what some describe as the first three generations of evaluation: measurement-, descriptive-, and judgment-oriented evaluation. While these generations encourage evaluators and health professionals to use systematic and rigorous approaches and techniques, they negate opportunities to explore issues that may surface in more flexible evaluation processes and do little to promote FCC in evaluation. Fourth generation evaluation is based on the constructivist paradigm, and its hermeneutic dialectic process moves beyond these generations, as well as the problems associated with them, to reflect the FCC notions of family participation, partnership, collaboration, respect, and joint decision-making. Conclusion: The collaborative and dialogue-oriented environment of pediatric healthcare organizations provides an ideal context for fourth generation evaluation. Although this evaluation approach is consistent with the philosophy of FCC, more research is required to understand the strengths and limitations of using it in these organizations.Keywords: family-centered care; pediatrics; fourth generation evaluation; constructivist paradigm


P.E teaching can not only raise the awareness of the students' potentiality of skills,but the students' knowledge of cultivating and training their technical skills as well. Therefore, this paper draws the conclusion that P.E teaching needs to stimulate the students' thinking and skills through motivation and tries to find out and settle the potential problems so as to improve learning efficiency and teaching quality.


In certain families of lizards having a carotid arch-Anguidae (Beddard, '05), Tejidae, Iguanidae, Gekkonidae (Adams, '53) and probably others-the internal carotid is not, as it is usually described and figured, a simple, uncomplicated branch of the common carotid artery, f o r it arises from the concavity of the carotid arch in a most unusual (but quite characteristic) way by several openings (2-5 or possibly more). I n these lizards, moreover, we cannot speak strictly of a ' ' bifurcation" of the common carotid, for the origin of the external carotid artery is very variable-it may come off the carotid arch apparently well below the opening of the internal carotid (fig. lA, IB), but may, on the other hand, arise slightly beyond it (fig. I C ) . Indeed, since in most lizards the ductus caroticus is the direct continuation of the ' 'common" carotid artery, and is consequently as much a branch of it as the other two, it would in fact be more correct to speak of a trifurcatiom in those cases where the ductus persists and the external carotid arises near


The present invention relates to an improved degree of freedom in assembling the connector and a circuit board. Can be directly connected to the terminal fittings 12 and a bottom end connector 13 mounted on the base 11. The base 11 is mounted to the main circuit board 40, terminal fittings 12 directly connected to be inserted into the through hole 40 in the main circuit board. The sub circuit board 50 is placed on the main circuit board 40, a base located therebetween. An end plate mounted on the sub circuit board 50 and the connector 14 is connected to the housing side terminals 13.


skin biopsy. Electron microscopy reveals specific granular osmiophilic inclusions among degenerated smooth muscle cells of dermal arterioles walls. Composition of osmiophilic granular inclusions is unknown; it is assumed that the Notch3 protein is one of its components. The described pathomorphological signs appear early and may be determined by biopsy before the patient's age of 20. Electron microscopy has high specificity but has low sensitivity, so the authors recommend repeated biopsies from different areas of the body. Minimal asymptomatic specific changes are defined in the medium and small arteries and veins in almost all organs as well as aorta. Histological studies indicate that the wall of leptomeningeal and penetrating cerebral arteries is considerably thickened, largely due to the accumulation of extracellular matrix proteins including the various types of collagen and laminin. The presence of granular inclusions distinguishes this disease from other vasculopathies. Conclusions. Thus, according to the proposed diagnostic criteria the CADASIL diagnosis includes an analysis of family history (although a cases of mutations de novo were described) and base symptomatic followed by genetic testing, electron microscopy and/or immunohistochemistry of skin or muscle tissue biopsies, brain MRI. Many questions of diagnostics remain open due to obvious deficiency of theoretical and clinical knowledge in this area. Further study of CADASIL syndrome pathogenesis will significantly facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.


This study employed a web-based survey investigating graduate students' perceptions of effectiveness of various learning activities in an online teacher education course designed to teach instructional strategies. Learner-centered evaluation allows for insights into the teaching and learning process, and learner satisfaction is particularly critical in determining quality in distance education. The findings would inform a redesign of the course with the goal to enhance learning, using students as evaluators. The students' ratings and comments of course activities are discussed, and implications related to course redesign are examined.


Abstract. In extreme ultraviolet lithography, reducing the number of phase defects (PDs) on mask blanks is a critical issue because the PDs cause degradation of the printed pattern quality. To minimize the number of printable PDs, covering PDs beneath an absorber pattern is an effective way of addressing the problem. Therefore it becomes necessary to detect the PDs and pinpoint their locations by a blank inspector. In this work, a three-dimensional analysis of PDs has revealed that some PDs can grow and propagate in an angular direction away from the normal to the substrate surface. The impact of the inclination angle on the printing performance was evaluated by calculating printed pattern images using a simulator. A PD with an inclination angle of 1 deg corresponds to a 1-nanometer positional shift compared with a position defined as surface topography of a defect as observed by an atomic force microscope or by some nonactinic defect inspector. However, an actinic blank inspection (ABI) tool with high-magnification optics can pinpoint the actual location of the PDs. Covering a PD under an absorber pattern, by a shifting of the pattern based on the information of the PD's location obtained by the ABI tool, works quite well.


Stimulation by gibberellic acid of rachis internode elongation in barley grown in short days was dependent on either the timing of application or on the amount applied in a dose at day 10. There was no immediate rachis internode elongation in response to gibberellic acid treatment until floret initials appeared and then only if sufficient gibberellic acid was present in the shoot apices of the barley plants grown in short days. Applications of gibberellic acid promoted the growth of the double-ridge meristem (upper ridge only) and this resulted in a group of abnormal spikelets being formed on the lower six nodes of the inflorescence, all of which were characterized by enhanced growth of the rachilla apical meristem. In a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with gibberellic acid, abscisic acid was found to slightly reduce the growth rate of the vegetative barley apex between days 10 and 14. Abrupt cessation of primordium formation, coincident with the appearance of stamen initials, was observed following continued application of both gibberellic acid and abscisic acid whereas neither hormone alone had this effect. Enhanced growth of the rachilla apical meristem of the basal six spikelets following application of gibberellic acid resulted in the formation of branched inflorescences, and this result was not altered by the addition of abscisic acid to the treatment.


The most interesting and most important scientific topics related to planetology, cosmochemistry, meteoritics, impact processes, and crater formation were discussed at the 81st Annual International Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, which was first held in Russia, July 22–27, 2018. Scientists from the whole Word discussed problems of the formation of presolar grains, interplanetary dust particles and micrometeorites, refractory inclusions, volatiles, as well as the chronology of the Solar System material; carbonaceous, ordinary and enstatite chondrites, chondrules, impact structures, achondrites, geochemistry of Martian and Lunar meteorites, differentiated cosmic bodies; the most modern methods and equipment used in the study of the the Solar System material.


The invention provides a method, a device and a system for tracing an internet protocol (IP). The method comprises a step of sending an identification message to an AAA server through a broadband remote access (BRAS). If identification is passed, a private network IP address is sent to a user terminal, user information including a corresponding relation between the user identification and the private network IP address is stored, the BRAS further receives a network interviewing record of the user terminal sent by a CGN device, and log information corresponding to the private network IP address is set by the BRAS according to the user information and the network access record and is sent to a log server to carry out IP traceability with traceability information as an index, wherein the log information comprises the user identification, the private network IP address, a public network IP address, a port identification, a user online time stamp and a user offline time stamp, and the traceability information includes the time stamps, the public network IP address and the port identification. Therefore, the IP traceability based on the CGN device is achieved, network behaviors of a user are deeply monitored, and network security is strengthened.


Estrogen operates through estrogen receptors (ER) α and β, which belong to the superfamily of steroid nuclear receptor transcription factors and operate by recruiting cofactors, which form complexes that bind to target genes. Post translational modifications play a role in directing ER activation. We demonstrate that a phospho-mimetic S305E induces ERα activity in the absence of ligand, and enhances activity with estradiol above wild-type. This activation also results cofactor binding and an increase in cell proliferation. We identified a novel protein interaction between ERα and the focal adhesion associated protein zyxin. Zyxin acts as a coactivator by increasing ERα activation. We also demonstrate that mutating the acetylation site of ERα K303 results in downregulation of phosphorylated p38, suggesting a link ERα between and p38 MAPK pathway. Together these data suggest that regulation of the receptor is linked to several kinase mediated signaling pathways and has role in breast cancer progression.


Introduction Government needs funds to execute social obligations to the public. These social obligations include but are not limited to the provision of infrastructure and social services (good educational system, good roads, good health care system, etc.). This perhaps explains why the government shows great concern for a medium through which fund can be made available to achieve their set goals for the society. It becomes the responsibility of the government to source for funds to enable her provide basic amenities to the citizenry who are the beneficiaries. One of the media through which government generate funds is taxation. The citizens are expected to discharge their civic responsibility by paying their taxes as these contribute to the development and administration of the society at large (Murkur, 2001). Soyode and Kajola (2006) defined tax as a compulsory exaction of money by a public authority for public purposes. The authors noted that it is possible for tax payers not to receive anything identifiable for their contribution but that they have the benefit of living in a relatively educated, healthy and safe society. The responsibility to ensure that tax is collected rest on the government and it is their responsibility too to ensure that they have information about the tax payers. Such information could range from sex, age, occupation, and location of the citizens. The tax collectors need this information at their fingertips to be able to fulfil their obligation of collecting tax money from the citizens. Information is acknowledged as a commodity in the world today. Our economy depends primarily on the production and consumption of information (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2011); thus, information propels the society forward. However, different definitions have been given to information based on perception, context and discipline. For this study, information is defined as facts, opinions, news, databases, symbols, etc. that change the knowledge state of the recipient either positively or negatively (Popoola, 2006). While information behaviour on the other hand is defined by Pettigrew, Fidel and Bruce (2001) as the study of how people need, seek, give and use information in different contexts, including the work place and everyday living. Hence the assessment of information behaviour of revenue collectors becomes vital. In the context of this work, information behaviour is used as it applies to revenue collectors' information need, seeking, sources, access and use with regard to their job activities. Many factors determine level of awareness, information behaviour of revenue collectors and eventually compliance to tax laws by citizens. For revenue collectors to have information on tax law, they must have access to relevant information, be able to read and understand it. There are a number of studies on human information behavior in various work contexts, Wilson (2000, Rafiq and Ameen, 2009, and Eunkyung, Myunghyun and Yongbeon, 2008) for example. However, there is little or none of such literature in the context of revenue collectors in Nigeria. Objectives of the Study The general objective of this study is to investigate information behaviour of tax collectors in Lagos State. The specific objectives are to: 1. find out the information need of revenue collectors in Lagos State Internal Revenue Service. 2. establish the information seeking pattern of revenue collectors in the Internal Revenue Service, Lagos. 3. investigate the information sources used by revenue collectors. 4. assess the level of ease associated with information access/retrieval of revenue collectors in Lagos. 5. find out the challenges revenue collectors face in seeking information. Review of Related Literature Information behaviour is described as the many ways in which human beings interact with information, it is particularly concerned the ways in which people seek and utilize information. …


Abstract In this paper we introduce a low-cost procedure and methodology for markerless projectile tracking in three-dimensional (3D) space. Understanding the 3D trajectory of an object in flight can often be essential in examining variables relating to launch and landing conditions. Many systems exist to track the 3D motion of projectiles but are often constrained by space or the type of object the system can recognize (Qualisys, Göteborg, Sweden; Vicon, Oxford, United Kingdom; OptiTrack, Corvallis, Oregon USA; Motion Analysis, Santa Rosa, California USA; Flight Scope, Orlando, Florida USA). These technologies can also be quite expensive, often costing hundreds of thousand dollars. The system presented in this paper utilizes two high-definition video cameras oriented perpendicular to each other to record the flight of an object. A post-processing technique and subsequent geometrically based algorithm was created to determine 3D position of the object using the two videos. This procedure and methodology was validated using a gold standard motion tracking system resulting in a 4.5 ± 1.8% deviation from the gold standard.


A confluence of technological advances is impacting teaching as new educational methods and structures are now possible. Lecture capture technologies are a particularly active area of interest where a class or lecture is recorded and then made available to students. Many university instructors are experimenting with how to use capture technology in their teaching while new entrants, such as the Khan Academy and massively open online courses, or MOOCs, which use this technology are beginning to compete for students. This lecture capture movement is important as it increases access to education opportunities that were not possible before, it can improve efficiency, and it can increase student engagement. However, this is just the start for how capture technology can be used as it is essentially a modern version of the objectivist approach to teaching where an expert, or "sage on the stage", projects information for student consumption. More importantly, capture technology can fit into the constructivist learning paradigm, which requires students to take what they have learned and apply it to new concerns of importance to them. This paper considers how lecture capture technology can be used to impact student engagement and facilitate both objectivist and constructivist learning. In particular, it is proposed that student-generated content is important to achieving constructivist learning via capture technology. Ideas for how this can be achieved in face-to-face and online classes ranging from computer-oriented to writing-intensive courses and internships are discussed.


Due to the prevalence of the COVID-19 epidemic around the globe, children were compelled to engage in remote learning through online platforms, hence mobile phone has become one of their predominant devices. Mobile device with Internet access offers a major outlet for education, entertainment, and social connection, but this combination can lead to several significant bad sequences such as online exploitation, harmful addictions, and other negative impacts of online social networking. To address harmful effects, parental controls are becoming more crucial, yet Sri Lankan parents are less aware of this. Consequently, this study proposes a parental control system to monitor their child's activities. Android, Microsoft Azure, Java, Python, OpenCV, MySQL, and FastAPI are among the most prominent technologies utilized in the proposed application's development. The suggested approach focuses primarily on the Sri Lankan context and aims to enhance parental digital literacy while safeguarding children from cyber threats. Yielded results showed the proposed mobile application for the identification of toxic words, drugs & alcohol content, game character images, and Instagram Sinhala comments severity as 94%, 95%, 97%, and 55% respectively in controlled experiments.


Three new Chinese records of Phyllachora are reported.They are Phyllachora minutissima on Pennisetum flaccidum,P.platyelliptica on Themeda giguntia var.caudata,and P.contigua on Millettia sp.Descriptions and illustrations are given based on Chinese specimens.The specimens are deposited in Mycological Herbarium of the Yunnan Agricultural University(MHYAU),China.


The structures of molten KCl and KBr were studied by energy dispersive X ray diffraction experiments under high temperature and high pressure using synchrotron radiation. The radial distribution function g(r) for molten KCl and KBr was obtained at several points just above the melting temperatures up to 4 GPa. The second neighbor ionic distance decreases with pressure, although the nearest neighbor distance is almost constant. The coordination number of the nearest neighbor ions increases with pressure. Both melts transform from an open, simple-cubic-like structure into a more highly coordinated structure, probably a body-center-cubic-like structure. The structure of molten KCI changes before the crystalline phase but the molten KBr transforms into a dense phase about the same time as the solid. In both KCl and KBr melts the structural transition occurs over a narrow pressure range.


The eponymous protagonist of Mateo Alemán's picaresque novel Guzmán de Alfarache (1599, 1604) frequently refers to Spain's now notorious theories of limpieza de sangre, or purity of blood, which discriminated against those with Jewish or Muslim ancestors. In one instance,Guzmán describes his penchant for self-aggrandizement: "¿Como trataré de linajes, para encajar la limpieza del mío? Cómo descubriré al otro su falta, para que quien oyere que la murmuro piense que yo no la tengo?" (How would I discourse on lineages, in order to highlight the purity of my own? How would I uncover the faults of another, so that all who overheard my gossip would think that I did not possess the same flaws?). Since the novel opens with the ignoble story of Guzmán's origins—his father is a converso, of Jewish descent, and thus Guzmán is as well—he recounts his claims to purity of blood with his tongue placed firmly in his cheek. The novel satirizes those who lay claim to pure descent by putting protestations of purity of blood in the mouth of a converso pícaro and in so doing suggests that this presumed purity functions as a social performance as well as an inconvertible essence. The first English translation of Guzmán, James Mabbe'sThe Rogue(1622), changes the emphasis of these lines. Mabbe's Englished Guzmán tells us: "How often would my selfe fall a discoursing of other mens houses and their gentilitie, only of purpose to set my own Pedigree afoot, and to shew that I was a gentleman well descended? How often would I discover another mans defect, and find fault with it, and only to this end, that by taxing such


The article examines the institute of specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office in Ukraine and compares it with the legal support of the institute of anti-corruption prosecutor's office in foreign countries. It is determined that the establishment of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine (SAP of Ukraine) took place at a time when a number of anti-corruption laws were adopted, the so-called anti-corruption package, which became the main requirement of the European Union for further integration of Ukraine as a member. It is investigated that the SAP of Ukraine occupies a special place in the criminal justice system of Ukraine, and as part of the system of prosecutors is endowed with special powers that significantly distinguish it from other structural elements of this system. Instead, belonging to the prosecutor's office and organizational subordination and dependence on the leadership of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, according to many experts, scientists is a significant problem that significantly affects the effectiveness of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine. It is concluded that the emergence of the SAP of Ukraine is objectively due to the desire of society to create an effective state anti-corruption mechanism for criminal prosecution of corruption crimes and those who committed them. Analysis of foreign theory and practice of prosecutorial activity suggests that the legitimization of specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office in some European countries is based on the legal postulate of liberal constitutional and legal doctrine on non-recognition of the absolute nature of unity and hierarchical dependence of the constitution. legality and independence. Keywords: prosecutor's office, prosecutor, corruption, specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office, corruption, anti-corruption reform


Analysis of acid pitchstone (sample from Iceland) using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is presented in this study. The rock sample was taken because of its uniform composition and a homogenous structure at microscale. Elements like Si, Fe, Ca, Mg, Al, Mn, Ti, Na, K, Ba, Sr and Li were detected in the LIBS spectra. Important plasma parameters (electron density and temperature) were calculated on the base of Stark broadening mechanism of spectral lines and Saha- Boltzmann plot method, respectively. Quantitative analysis was performed using calibration free (CF) approach of LIBS method. CF-LIBS analysis compared to reconstructed bulk rock analysis using precise mineral and glass analyses obtained by electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) gives a good correlation, sufficient enough for having primary information of chemical composition of the studied rock sample or alternatively large mineral phases. An element with very low atomic number, lithium, was detected only by LIBS. Li is not detectable on microprobe. Taking into account possible local mineral accumulations and imprecisions induced by estimation of mineral volumes in the glass the CF-LIBS method gives acceptably precise analyses for geological purposes.


This paper deals with the most important economic aspects of the medieval town of Varaždin -trade and crafts. For successful economic development of the city, including trade and crafts, there were the necessary preconditions: good transport links, the support of Hungarian-Croatian kings who provided the town with the administrative and judicial independence from the local feudal lords, relieved it of some taxes, and enabled and supported the large annual trade fairs in the city that attracted professional traveling traders and residents from near and far surrounding of the town. Town administration regulated and protected trade and oversaw the proper conduct of trade activities. In medieval Varaždin anyone could engage in retail or wholesale trade with their surplus of goods, in the hope that such activity will generate some income. In trade, as their primary activity, were engaging many small grocery retailers. There were also traders of salt, and some prominent citizens of Varaždin traded with luxury goods. Butchers were probably dealing with the sale and exports of livestock and leather, and many domestic traders were joining together for the purpose of trade and sharing the profit and damage. Of the foreign traveling traders we recorded mainly those who were selling luxury cloth, for their customers who were mainly wealthier citizens of Varaždin. Under the concept of craft we should mean the set of all non-agrarian professions in the town, which include the productive and non-productive professions (services). In Varaždin the most important and numerous were the crafts that are prevalent in most medieval towns: metal, textile, leather and food types of crafts. The most important and numerous were the butchers. They had their own street where they cut and sell meat and were the first craftsmen in Varaždin, who have joined together to protect their corporate rights. Their association was called "fraternity", because the guild did not yet exist in the city (the first guild was formed in the mid XVI. century). The most numerous members of non-productive activities were servants, ordinary workers and various city officials who were dealing with successful functioning of town and administration. At the end of the paper, are presented the various measures, types of currencies and taxes that were valid in the medieval Varaždin. Finally, we conclude that the trade and crafts in the town of Varaždin in the XV. century were enough developed to allow the town to be self-sufficient and export-oriented in its closer and further surroundings, financially secured, easy accesible to traders from afar, and thus attractive to new settlers who were looking for their existence.


Abstract The Solutrean techno-complex of southern France and the Iberian Peninsula is an impossible candidate as the "source" for either pre-Clovis or Clovis traditions in North America. Primarily this is because the Solutrean ended ca. 16,500-18,000 B.P. (at least 5,000 years before Clovis appeared) and was separated from the U.S. eastern seaboard by 5,000 km of ocean. In addition, there are major differences between the Solutrean and Clovis (and even more between it and "pre-Clovis") in terms of the composition of lithic and osseous technologies and with regard to evidence of artistic activity. Nor is there any evidence that Solutrean people had navigation, deep-sea fishing, or marine mammal hunting capacities which could have made a transatlantic crossing even conceivable. Furthermore, there is no evidence that people lived above about 48° N latitude in western Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum, making a "jumping-off" point from the (then largely glaciated) area of the current British Isles unlikely. The peopling of the Americas, even if the result of several "migrations," was from Asia.


'Ocean Fire House' is a bespoke work of sustainable residential architecture that resulted from technical and design-led applied research into the applicability of new performance-based provisions in Australia's National Construction Code (NCC). The collaborative team led by Dr Ian Weir as the design/research architect included two teams of structural engineers (based in QLD and WA respectively), expert energy assessors and building certifiers. The 190m2 built work, has a cost of works of $1m and is located immediately adjacent an extremely fire prone forest reserve at Ocean Beach on the south coast of Western Australia. The key design innovation lies in the way the designed artifact synthesizes energy efficiency with bushfire safety. Features include high thermal mass bushfire-proof materials and renewable energy systems. The work provides an exemplar demonstration project into how the NCC's performance-based provisions can be employed to address a problem of national significance: the sustainable development of homes in bushfire prone areas.

Research Background

Field: This research contributes to, and reinforces, the emerging field of 'bushfire resilient design', which has emanated from the broader fields of 'resilient design' and 'sustainable design' in the context of natural disasters. Built demonstration projects, like Ocean Fire House, are the most effective means of addressing the gaps in knowledge in this field.

Context: The National Construction Code's new emphasis (2017) on 'performance-based design' encourages innovation in building design but few architects or building designers have embraced this opportunity to integrate the otherwise disparate and high-cost requirements of energy efficiency and bushfire resilience. Unlike other countries with bushfire-prone landscapes, Australia is unique in that it's regulatory framework supports innovation - thus further emphasizing Ocean Fire House's relevance to international contexts.

Research Question: The architectural and building design professions are challenged by the technical and philosophical difficulties in reconciling sustainable, human-centred design with extreme bushfire-prone sites. The research questions are framed by key misunderstandings within these professions: that buildings do not have the technical capacity to protect human life in bushfires and if they did they would be either prohibitively expensive, or lacking in human amenity.

Research Contribution.

Innovation: The research tests the efficacy of the NCC's performance-based provisions in realizing built works of architecture which are human-centred, environmentally sustainable and bushfire-resilient. The novelty lies in the way regulatory compliance was achieved, with energy efficiency and bushfire safety requirements synergized via renewable energy systems, fire-rated insulating walls, and site design.

New Knowledge: Ocean Fire House produces new knowledge by demonstrating how a performance-based certification pathway can accommodate innovative, cost effective design solutions in bushfire prone landscapes, which hitherto were considered a constraint on innovation.

Research Significance.

Following invitations from the Australian Institute of Architects and the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors, Dr Weir presented 'Performance-based Approaches to Building in Bushfire Prone Areas' to institute members in March and July 2018 respectively. In September 2018, Dr Weir was again invited to present the research outcomes at the annual Australian Bushfire Building Conference. And on 18th July, Dr Weir was interviewed by Simon Lauder on ABC Radio (ABC South East NSW) wherein he broadcast his findings from the Ocean Fire House research project.


In Software engineering, there are a plenty of prediction approaches used for several purposes like fault prediction, security prediction, effort prediction, correction cost prediction, reusability prediction, test effort prediction and quality prediction. These approaches help to minimize the cost of testing which minimizes the cost of the project. In this paper, we study software fault prediction techniques to find the software defects at an early stage of software development life cycle. The methods, metrics and datasets are used to find the fault-proneness of software. The various techniques like linear regression, logistic regression, negative binomial regression, fuzzy subtractive clustering, radial basis function (RBF) network, multilayer perceptron, support vector machine, artificial neural networks, instance-based reasoning, Bayesian-belief networks, decision trees, rule induction, multi-linear regression models, multivariate models, back propagation neural Network (BPN), probabilistic neural network (PNN), expert estimation and nearest neighbor are used to predict the fault proneness of the software. Each of these has its own advantages and disadvantages.


High levels of glucose in the blood are the primary indicator of diabetes. Due to the fact that diabetes can cause several complications, many diabetics are hospitalized multiple times. The quality of treatment that is delivered and the overall cost of medical services are impacted when patients spend unnecessary time in the hospital. The healthcare systems inevitably capture data from clinical patient contacts; a machine learning based approach seems suited for addressing this issue. This paper includes one hundred thousand medical records for seventy thousand diabetic patients from 130 institutions in the United States (United States of America). Using a machine learning technique to process this massive dataset is time-consuming. Here, a unique preprocessing approach is demonstrated that reduces the 55 characteristics of the United States diabetes dataset to 21, with additional machine learning techniques used to predict early readmission. We employed machine learning (ML)-algorithms such as K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), support vector machines (SVM), decision trees, random forests (RF), logistic regression (LR), gradient boosting (GB), and Gaussian naive bayes (GaussianNB) to evaluate the accuracy of a successful data engineering technique. Gradient Boosting, which beat the other machine learning methods, achieved 77.4 % accuracy in the end.


Earlier this week, India's courts banned a BBC documentary about the 2012 gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, a 23-year old medical student in Delhi. Shakuntala Banaji separates debates thrown up by the film, from those around gender violence in India to the discussion of violence against women in a wider context, and from the issue of orientalist perspectives in the western media to the question of whether the film should be shown while judicial procedures are still pending.


The National Institute of Mental Health England (NIMHE) appointed a Fellow in Ageing and Mental Health to take on a national leadership role for a three‐year period from 2003 to 2006. Starting from a position where the NIMHE website could only address older adult issues under social exclusion, a group of committed individuals in a range of organisations came together and a regional and national work programme in older people's mental health was developed. This paper offers reflections on the issues raised during the Fellowship in respect of older people's mental health services and this Fellowship model of leadership.


There are differences regarding distribution, conservation status and protection according to national and European laws and directives between the four dormouse species (Gliridae) native to Central Europe. We question the coherence between scientific knowledge and conservation status of dormice in Europe and hypothesize that the species included in the Habitats Directive have been the subject of considerable research, while those not included have been neglected, despite having an unfavourable conservation status. We did a review of the research presented at the International Conferences on Dormice from 1990–2017 and published in the scientific literature since 1950 to see for which species the most research was done and whether the Habitats Directive had an impact. The number of presentations increased over time for the Hazel (Muscardinus avellanarius, N = 200) and the Edible dormouse (Glis glis, N = 150), while those on the Garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus, N = 46) decreased until 2014 with an apparent increase only in 2017; the Forest dormouse (Dryomys nitedula, N = 67) does not show any trends. The number of published articles increased for all species except for the Garden dormouse. This focus does not adequately address the current threats of the species. The results can serve as a guide for the re-evaluation of future research priorities and conservation strategies as well as the implementation of new monitoring projects and ecological studies.


Introduction ................................. 36 Materials and Methods ...................... 38 Animals and Treatments .................. 38 Analytical Measurement .................. 39 Statistical Analysis .................. 41 Results ..................................... 41 D i s c u s s i o n ................................... 46 IV. EFFECTS OF COPPER INTAKE AND INFLAMMATION ON COPPER STATUS OF MALE SPRAGUE-DAWLEY RATS . . . 48 A b s t r a c t ..................................... 48 Introduction ................................. 49 Materials and Methods ........................ 52 Animals and Treatments .................. 52 Analytical Measurement .................. 53 Superoxide Dismutase Assay . . . . 53 Cytochrome C Oxidase Assay . . . . 55 Electrophoresis .................. 56 Western Blotting for Cytochrome C Oxidase............................ 57 Bio-Rad Protein Assay ............. 59 Ceruloplasmin Assay ............... 59 Hemoglobin Determination ......... 59 Statistical Analysis .................... 60 R e s u l t s .......................................... 60


Experiences in the Management of Choledochal Cyst in Pediatric Patients in a Tertiary Care Center of Bangladesh Armed Forces 1. Col Meherun Nessa, MBBS, MS, Adviser Specialist in Paediatric Surgery, CMH, Dhaka 2. Col Shams-ud-Din Elias Khan, MBBS, MS, Classified Specialist in Paediatric Surgery, CMH, Dhaka.


As habitat loss and degradation increase across native grasslands, much of the local flora and fauna associated with this ecosystem are becoming rare or are in decline. Insects play an important role in ecological systems across the globe, and ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in particular play essential roles in moving soil, dispersing seeds, and decomposition. Here, we report a test of insect responses to three grassland management treatments, focusing on ants. These treatments are: (1) patch-burn and graze (burning of spatially distinct patches and free access by cattle), (2) graze and burn (burning of entire tract with free access by cattle), and (3) burn only. We predicted that land-use legacies would affect insect abundance and diversity, effects of time since fire, grazing history, remnant history (remnant or reconstructed grassland) and pre-treatment vegetation characteristics, so each were evaluated. Butterflies (Lepidoptera), ants, and leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) were surveyed for three years to compare their responses to each treatment as measured by abundance, richness and species diversity. Approximately 5,794 ants were captured and identified; 14 species were determined. Ant species richness was positively associated with pre-treatment time since fire and vegetation height, and negatively associated with pre-treatment proportion of native plant cover. Our results indicate that land-use legacy can exert greater influence on grassland insect community composition than current manage ment, but the particular aspects of land-use legacy type vary across insect taxa. The next step is to compare the effects of other management treatments used on the abundance of ant functional groups.


After 71 years of independence 69 per cent peoples are living in rural areas and for cooking they still depend on bio-fuels. The over-dependence on biofuels has led to several ecological and health problems. Keeping this in view a study was conducted to assess biofuel collection pattern, consumption pattern and its impact on health in rural areas. This study was conducted in two villages Achitpur and Chota Mirzapur Khurd of Jamalpur Block of Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. A multi stage sampling design was followed. The target groups who were interviewed were women above 18 years of age. A total of 125 rural women (16 % of the total household) were selected randomly for data collection purpose. Desk review and analysis of secondary literature/data was also carried out to supplement the research. Survey method was adopted for quantitative data collection in the selected villages. The quantitative data collection tool was developed keeping in view the objectives, scope and focus of the study. The draft interview schedule was pre-tested in study villages of Mirzapur district in which around 50 respondents were interviewed. The data collection instruments were modified and finalized based on feedback of the pre-test exercise. Before the data analysis, a tabulation plan was developed. The quantitative data analysis was carried out by using latest version of statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS programme). The bi-variate analysis was carried out for the data analysis. Descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation and percentage frequency were used for describing background characteristics of the respondents. This study points to a need for creating awareness on the environmental and health issues. At the same time, effective interventions on the popularization and use of fuel efficient and renewable energy cooking appliances should be carried out by the government and non-government organizations. Intersectoral co-ordination for the promotion of public health is also need of the hour.


One of the serious challenges in geotechnical engineering issues is the evaluation of dynamic pile driving in soils. Effort is made in this paper to examine the process of pile driving in soils by providing a Finite Difference (FD) numerical model. Considering the axisymmetric nature of pile driving environment with a circular section in the soil and the related border conditions, a 2D numerical model is presented by FLAC 2D software. Use of a constitutive model of critical condition for soil constitutive model called BBM which was previously proposed by Alonso et al., and spring-dashpot pile driving model (Smith) are among the major characteristics of the modeling conducted in this paper. At the end, the proposed numerical model is accredited by comparing the results of the model to the results of an actual pile driving project which was previously proposed by Fakharian et al., (2014) using M-C constitutive model.


ABSTRACT There are an estimated 16,000 nature related remote web cameras that provide users around the world with an opportunity to view wildlife. Because there is no monetary price to view the webcams, we utilise variations in the viewers' opportunity cost of time to estimate consumer surplus. We apply this model to a large sample (n = 2649) of the more than 10 million viewers of Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve brown bear webcams. The resulting consumer surplus is around $11 per hour of viewing. When applied to the 2.42 million viewer hours, this yields a benefit of $27 million annually. Since there are limits on the number of visitors as well as high costs of visiting this remote site, the aggregate webcam viewing value is more than twice the aggregate on-site viewing value. With minimal survey data required to apply this model, we believe it has broad applicability to other nature-related webcams around the world.


The effect of Z 2 magnetic monopoles and vortices on the finite temperature deconfinement phase transition in the fundamental-adjoint Villain form of SU (2) lattice gauge theory has been investigated. A complete suppression of the Z 2 monopoles has been shown to lead to an action for the theory which is self-dual under the exchange of the fundamental and adjoint couplings. By further suppressing the Z 2 vortices the theory has been reduced to the usual Wilson action but with a modified coupling. The universality of the SU (2) deconfinement phase transition with the 3-dimensional Ising model should therefore remain intact in the entire plane of the fundamental-adjoint couplings in the continuum limit. Generalizations of these arguments to the SU (N) theory have been outlined. Adding separate chemical potentials λ and γ for Z 2-monopoles and vortices respectively in the Villain form of the mixed action for the SU(2) lattice gauge theory, their role in the interplay between the deconfinement and bulk phase transitions has been studied using Monte Carlo techniques. Setting λ to be nonzero, the line of deconfinement transitions has been shown to shift in the coupling plane but curiously it behaves also like the bulk transition line for large enough adjoint couplings, as for λ = 0. However, separate deconfinement and bulk phase transition lines have been demonstrated to exist in a narrow range of couplings on the same lattice for large λ. This confirms that the two apparently unrelated transition lines do indeed remain coincident for a range of different lattice sizes and couplings. The cause of this coincidence is not yet known. Setting both λ and γ to large values leads to only lines of second order deconfinement phase transitions in the entire coupling plane. This work resolves a long-standing paradox of an apparent lack of universality in these theories. The production of charginos and neutralinos at a 500 GeV e + e − collider (NLC) is investigated. Also studied are their decays to the lightest neutralino, which then decays into multi-fermion final states through couplings which do not conserve R-parity. These couplings are assumed to affect only the decay of the lightest neutralino. Detailed analyses of 1


People with dry skin (xerosis) are common in community pharmacies, but there is no consistent guidance for community pharmacists to evaluate and alleviate dry skin. Through evaluating any difference of the clinical scoring systems of EEMCO guidance between a dermatologist and pharmacists and the efficacy of moisturizers for the treatment of dry skin recommended by community pharmacists, we aim to validate a dry skin guidance through the help of community pharmacists. These results provide insight into how community pharmacists can help patients with dry skin.


The solution for the electromagnetic tornado in a vacuum gap of a pulsar that could serve as an explanation of the observed circular polarization of giant pulses from pulsars and might also explain the frequency strips observed in giant pulses spectrum is found.


The purpose of this study was to gain a clearer picture of how after-school-care teachers' work with fundamental values in after-school care, both practically and theoretically based on the curricu ...


The results of a research activity aimed at providing a finite element capability for analyzing turbo-machinery bladed-disk assemblies in a vector/parallel processing environment are summarized. Analysis of aircraft turbofan engines is very computationally intensive. The performance limit of modern day computers with a single processing unit was estimated at 3 billions of floating point operations per second (3 gigaflops). In view of this limit of a sequential unit, performance rates higher than 3 gigaflops can be achieved only through vectorization and/or parallelization as on Alliant FX/80. Accordingly, the efforts of this critically needed research were geared towards developing and evaluating parallel finite element methods for static and vibration analysis. A special purpose code, named with the acronym SAPNEW, performs static and eigen analysis of multi-degree-of-freedom blade models built-up from flat thin shell elements.


A regularized image zooming model of adaptive couple TV and fourth-order PDE is proposed according to that the fourth-order PDE model can maintain the smoothness of flat areas and the total variation model has blocky effects.Based on the above considerations,the coupling coefficients were reasonably adjusted according to area contents.In the flat areas,the fourth-order PDE model was emphasized to eliminate block effects;where as in fast changing region,TV model was stressed to enhance the large gradient edges.Experimental results show that the algorithm is an effective image enlargement method.


The production of matrix matalloproteinases(MMPs) by the UV irradiated skin fibroblast and the degradation of extracellular matrix(ECM) by these enzymes is known as one of the main reasons of photoaging. Recently, Fisher group showed that the MMP expression is mainly regulated by the mitogen-activated protein(MAP) kinas family, such as extracellular signal-regulated kinase(ERK), c-Jun amino-terminal kinase(JNK) and p38, each of which forms a signaling pathway. In this work we first examined the effect of nitric oxide (NO) on the production of MMP-1 and MMP-2 by the human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). NO is a multifunctional messenger molecule generated from L-arginine and involved in many kinds of signaling pathway. We found that the treatment of HDF with NO donor, sodium nitroprusside (SNP) enhanced the expression of MMPs with or without UV irradiation and the treatment with nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitors resulted in the significant decrease of MMPs production. From these results, we concluded that the production of MMPs by the UV irradiated HDF is regulated through the signaling pathway involving NO and cyclic GMP.


ABSTRACT A 5′ nuclease TaqMan PCR was developed for the quantitative detection of the periodontopathic bacteria Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis. The relative numbers of bacteria were measured by the comparative threshold cycle method. This simplified method is a way of obtaining the relative quantities of these organisms from specimens and of monitoring the effect of therapy.


Intensively reading poems by Emily Dickinson, who used to be called "the recluse" and a pessimism poet, we discover them filled with life hope and fervor. Intoning myriad things of nature radiates her deep loving and praising for life; narrating current social events demonstrates her attending and yearning for the life movement; stating unafraid of death expresses her comprehending ultimate significance of life and her pursuing to life eternal.


Two producing oil wells were used against a fracture model to determine actual fracture parameters. Results of these comparisons was used to examine possible acid jobs of cost equivalent stimulation. The results of these comparisons are discussed. The fracture model was also used to look at different sized treatments to get some idea on optimum size job that should be run. The economics of net present worth, benefit cost ratio, continuous internal rate of return and internal rate of return are examined.


The present paper introduces the current production conditions of all sintering workshops in Wuhan Iron Steel Corporation,and the production measures they have taken to reduce the sintered ore content in grain sizes ≤10mm and results achieved as well as the target they are aiming for further improvement.


Patients diagnosed with GBM RPA class IV and V have median survival (MS) of 15 and 10 months respectively after standard adjuvant chemoradiation (CRT) in randomized trials. We evaluated unfavorable socioeconomic factors (SEF) in patients treated in the community and its effect on the outcome. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of GBM patients treated at the Maimonides Hospital between 1/2008-5/2014. Six unfavorable SEFs were selected: (1) Medicaid Insurance (2) non-English speaking (3) no family at first visit (4) or at last visit, (5) need of home health aide (HHA) (6) need for transportation. Outcomes measure included MS, completion of CRT and adjuvant Temozolomide (TMZ). RESULTS: 58 patients (32 M, 26F) with median age of 64 (range 29 - 85) were identified; 16 were older than 70. 34 (58%) had Medicaid, 22 (37%) were non-English speaking, 10 (17%) required an HHA. Median number of SEFs was 2 (range 0 - 6), 12 patients (36%) had ≥3 SEFs. 14 patients (24 %) were RPA class IV and 44 (76 %) were class V, MS was 12 m (95% CI, 10.2 - 13.8) and 11 m (95% CI, 6.9 - 15.1) respectively. 54 (93%) patients completed CRT and 21(36%) completed adjuvant TMZ. In univariate analysis, the SEF of need of HHA, showed an adverse effect vs those with no HHA. MS was 7 m versus 13 m (p= 0.035), and the completion rate for CRT was 72 % vs 97% (p= 0.019). Sum of SEFs did not affect any outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Our patients with GBM had overall survival comparable to that in the randomized trials. Only SEF which adversely affected the outcomes was those patients who needed HHA. Necessity of HHA indicates worse physical function and poor family support.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: In our centre distal ureteral frozen sections during radical cystectomy (RC) for bladder cancer (BC) are routinely performed and repeated, if positive, until the reach of negative samples. However, despite several studies, there is not a global consensus on the adequate management of positive margins. Especially it is not clear if the positive findings are correlated with oncological outcomes. Aim of our study was to evaluate if the presence of positive ureteral frozen sections (negative at final pathological report) impacts on recurrence and survival outcomes METHODS: We evaluated 391 consecutive patients treated with RC for BC at a single tertiary referral centre between 2008 and 2015. We systematically performed ureteral frozen section independently to the bladder diversion or to TNM status. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to predict cancer specific mortality (CSM), overall mortality (OM) and recurrence (R). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare recurrence, CSM and OM in the overall population. Covariates included age at surgery, gender, pathological T stage, pathological N stage, pathological grade, surgical margins (SM) and lymph vascular invasion (LVI) RESULTS: Median age was 71 years (IQR 40-90 years). 322 patients (82%) were male. Overall, 117 (29,9%), 51(13%) and 174 (44,5%) patients were recorded with lymph node metastases, positive SM and pT3-4 , respectively. CSM was observed in 146 (37%) patients, whereas OM was observed in 194 patients (49%) and R in 154 (39%) patients. Median follow-up was 30 months (IQR 5-109 months). Intraoperative frozen section were positive in 62 (16%) patients. At univariate analysis presence of positive frozen section was associated with CSM and R (respectively HR 1,82 and 1.98; CI 1.15-2.84 and 1.12-2.92; all p <0.001) but not OM (p=0.3). At multivariate analysis presence of positive frozen sections was associated with higher recurrence and CSM risk, (respectively HR 1,58 and 1.52; CI 1.05-2.37 and 1.06-2.42; p <0.001 and p 0,04) conversely any association was found with OM (HR 1,15; p 0.5). Other predictors of CSM were nodal stage, T stage, grade and LVI. While other predictors of recurrence were T stage and nodal stage. Finally predictors of OM were age at surgery, T stage and nodal stage CONCLUSIONS: Ureteral frozen sections should be always performed. Considering the impact on oncological outcomes, positive ureteral frozen sections, even when negative at the final report, should be taken into account in the planning of the follow-up of patients who underwent to RC due to BC Source of Funding: none


I present a jaunty little $[[14, 3, 3]]$ non-CSS surface code that can be described using a rhombic dodecahedron. Do with it what you will.


The aroma profiles of Oregon Pinot Noir wines were investigated with aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA). The wines were extracted with pentane-diethyl ether, the aromas were distilled using solvent-assisted flavour evaporation (SAFE) and separated into acidic/water-soluble and neutral/basic fractions. In the acidic/water-soluble fraction, 2-phenylethanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol showed the highest AEDA values, followed by 2-methylpropanoic acid, butanoic acid, 2-methylbutanoic acid, 3-methylbutanoic acid, 2-methylpropanol, hexanol, trans-3-hexenol, cis-3-hexenol, benzyl alcohol, 3-methylthio-1-propanol, 3-ethylthio-1-propanol, linalool and geraniol (all with FD ≥ 64). In the neutral/basic fraction, ethyl 2-methylpropanoate, ethyl butanoate, 3-methylbutyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate, and benzaldehyde had very high AEDA values (all with FD ≥ 64), followed by ethyl 3-methylbutanoate, 3-methylbutyl 2-methylpropanoate, ethyl octanoate, ethyl decanoate, benzyl acetate, phenylethyl formate, phenylethyl acetate, ethyl dihydrocinnamate, ethyl anthranilate, 3-methylthio-1-propanal, citronellal, whisky lactone and γ-nonalactone (all with FD ≥ 16). Overall, the results indicated that there is no single compound that characterizes the aroma of Pinot Noir, and that the characteristic aroma comes from a blend of numerous compounds. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The high reputation attained by the original of this treatise fully justified its republication; and, on the whole, we think that Dr. Power has discharged his editorial duties very successfully, having made several important additions, which are calculated to be of much service to the student. The first of these, however, on the 'Anatomy of the Heart,' strikes us as being rather superfluous; since that subject is fully considered in most treatises


We present two lock detectors associated with the Gardner (1986) timing error detector (GA-TED). The first one (detectors A) requires an oversampling frequency of 4/T at the receiver, where 1/T is the symbol rate. The second (detector B) uses the same signal samples needed to implement the GA-TED, and thus, an oversampling frequency of 2/T is sufficient. Performance analysis shows that detector A matches to the GA-TED which means that independently of the channel impulse response, the optimal sampling instant obtained by the GA-TED corresponds to the optimal instant of the lock detector, i.e., it leads to the maximum average output. Unless, the channel transfer function has Hermetian symmetry, detector B does not match to the GA-TED. However, we show by computer simulations, that the performance degradation caused even by severe channel distortion remains negligible. The paper describes the basic principle of these lock detectors, analyzes their performance and discusses some points related to their implementation.