In this paper, we describe how to construct a machine learning framework that utilizes syntactic information in extraction of biomedical terms. Conditional random fields (CRF), is used as the basis of this framework. We make an effort to find the appropriate use for syntactic information, including parent nodes, syntactic paths and term ratios under the machine learning framework. The experiment results show that syntactic paths and term ratios can improve precision of term extraction, including old terms and novel terms. However, the recall rate of novel terms still needs to be increased. This research serves as an example for constructing machine learning based term extraction systems that utilizes linguistic information.


Synesthesia rhetoric is a linguistic performance of human sense interact each other.This paper interprets the special linguistic form from traditional rhetoric,neurophysiology and cognitive linguistics,and draws out the cognitive elements and models of synesthesia.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the digitization impacts and challenges on the music publishing practices of the Malaysian music industry. This research analyzes how music publishers adapt to the changes in music publishing practices due to digitization. It focuses on the factors that changed the roles of music publishers in the digital era, the impacts and challenges brought by the technological innovation in the Malaysian music industry, and the consequences of the effects and challenges.


A 59-year-old right-handed woman presented with an encephalopathy. Her family reported a 2-week history of worsening cognition and confusion, with 2 months' history of deteriorating gait without falls, seeing black spots, increasing bilateral upper limb tremor and weight loss of 15 kg. She was on telmisartan for hypertension and smoked one packet of cigarettes a day for 30 years. She lived independently at home with her husband. Examination revealed a confused woman with an ataxic gait and bilateral upper limb postural tremor. She was disorientated in time and place. The remainder of her neurological examination was normal. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/magnetic resonance angiography scan of head showed extensive linear areas of perivascular enhancement throughout the deep white matter, raising the possibility of lymphoma (Fig. 1). The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed an elevated protein of 0.85 g/L (0.15– 0.45) and a lymphocytosis (100% lymphocytes); cytology confirmed a non-malignant lymphocytosis; and flow cytometry did not identify an aberrant population. CSF culture and viral, bacterial, fungal polymerase chain reactions were negative. Computed tomography chest/ abdomen/pelvis and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography scan did not identify malignancy or vasculitis. Blood panels were negative for paraneoplastic and autoimmune encephalitis antibodies. Repeat CSF demonstrated a similar picture of lymphocytosis and an elevated protein. A brain biopsy revealed a non-specific polyclonal T-cell infiltrate without evidence of malignancy. Over the next week, she had episodic reductions in consciousness with spontaneous recovery. The clinical and MRI findings raised the possibility of anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein astrocytopathy (antiGFAP). Testing of blood and CSF at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, for anti-GFAP antibodies were positive – confirming the diagnosis. She was commenced on high-dose intravenous methylprednisolone and then oral prednisolone 50 mg daily. She showed a rapid improvement. She was able to follow commands, hold a conversation and answer questions appropriately. Methotrexate 10 mg weekly was introduced as a steroid sparing agent. She was cognitively impaired. As the oral steroid was reduced to 30 mg daily, she developed uncontrollable screaming and shouting. Her prednisolone was increased to 50 mg daily and eventually intravenous methylprednisolone was reintroduced to control the screaming. These behaviours were steroid responsive and were not affected by anti-psychotic treatment. She was eventually transferred to a care facility with persistent screaming and ongoing steroid therapy. She is now at home where she is cared for by her husband; she is increasingly independent. She can walk and communicate verbally. Her screaming has stopped. Letters to the Editor


where I2 = e1yezz + ezze= + ewe,,, e -sezy e.eo ee., and the xy component of the stress is 2(, #)e2.. In other words, the transverse rigidity of the cylinder is ,u-, instead of , (which would be its value if the cylinder were elastically isotropic). As ,B-, u the medium becomes liquid-like in the sense of inability to support a (transverse) tangential stress. This may indicate why the cylinder suddenly thins at a certain point along its length.


To derive reproducibility assessments of ejection fraction (EF) and left ventricular mass (LVM) from short‐axis cardiac MR images acquired at single and multiple time‐points on different 1.5T scanner models.


Patriarchy system occurs in the era of Victoria and many woman experience the effects of this system. The aims of the study is to find out the effect of patriarchy system endured by main female character in the novel "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall." This research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative method. The data used by the researcher in this research were taken from Anne Bronte's novel entitled The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which was published by Anne Bronte in 1848. Data were collected by reading intensively the novel and conducting library research to find some useful resources which relate to analyzed topic namely relate to the patriarchy system. The result of study showed that Helen Graham, main female character in the novel experienced psychological effect because she has a sorrowful life since her marriage with Arthur Huntingdon Moreover, the effect of patriarchy system makes Helen take some actions and struggle against it as the reaction of the effect of the system to end her sad life, by running away from his husband's house which its taboo to be done by a woman in Victorian era.


As the environment of Logistics is changing rapidly, the environment of port is also changing. Accordingly, rapid change within port environment appears as the increase of the volume for world wide cargo, liner ship owners` strategy shift, globalization of terminals, heavy competitions to become a hub of Logistics, development of ship engineering. Therefore, the people who are responsible for the operations and managements of ports foresee such changes and accordingly react to ensure competitiveness. As the competition among ports generally goes international, a port needs to be sure that they become superior to any other port regardless of whether it`s outside their country or not. Especially Korea is located in the most heavily competitive area which is Far-East. So if we fail to get competitiveness against the other ports, it goes without saying that our ports will be defeated by them. In brief, this paper will discuss the history of study regarding the factors by which a port is selected and also suggest some of elements which can be applied to small ports in the future of it.


RANSFORM fuses technology and design to celebrate the transformation from a piece of static furniture to a dynamic machine driven by streams of data and energy. TRANSFORM aims to inspire viewers with unexpected transformations, as well as the aesthetics of a complex machine in motion. This paper describes the concept, engine, product, and motion design of TRANSFORM, which was first exhibited at LEXUS DESIGN AMAZING 2014 MILAN in April 2014.


This is the final report for the third year of the subject grant. We are pleased to have obtained numerous results in many areas of mathematical transport theory and of mathematical physics. We report below on what we believe to be the most significant progress on work carried on during the past year of this contract. We present these results under the headings: nonlinear kinetic equations, linear kinetic equations, specific transport models, and other areas of mathematical physics.


Ritual prayer (salat), performed five times a day, belongs to the fundamental obligations of all Muslims. In addition to this fact, there is another type of prayer, associated with mystical orders in all Islamic countries. Repetitive prayer (dhikr) in mystical Islam (Sufism) belongs to the most central activities of the orders. Despite the geographic spread of the Sufi orders (turuq), accounts of the dhikr in the literature are rare. Psychological commentaries are even more scarce. The aim of this paper is to describe this ritual as it exists today within the Halveti-Jerrahi order of dervishes in Istanbul, Turkey, and to present a preliminary psychological analysis of the ritual.


In 1968, Tanada3~,4) had investigated the electrotropic response of root tips of barley and mung bean, mediated by phytochrome. Tanada,3~'4~ Jaffe1~ and Younghans and Jaffe6~ found that the excised root tips from barley and mung bean seedlings become attached to a glass surface negatively charged, when irradiated with red light, while they were released from it by the successive irradiations with far-red light. ]During the studies on the stimulus response of mung bean roots, the present authors noted that a native pigmented area could be seen with the naked eye at the apex of each secondary root. By employing histological and cytological techniques the writers were able to observe a migration of yellow pigment and a remarkable behaviour of the protoplast in the sieve tube, caused by the irradiation with red light and far-red light. Materials and methods. Young mung bean (Phaseolus aureus) seedlings were grown under continuous illumination as previously described,6~ and those of 12-14 days old were used for irradiation and subsequent observation. The red and far-red light irradiations were performed in the same way as discribed by Yunghans and Jaffe,6~ under the following regimes of a) dark, b) dark and red, c) dark and red and far-red. The duration of every dark and irradiation equally counted four minutes. The distal 5-8 mm root tips excised from the secondary root of 10-25 mm length were submerged in shallow distilled water contained in a petri dish. Immediately after the irradiation, the materials were fixed fixatives. For observation by the naked eye, and with the photomicrographs, MUller's fluid (distilled water 10 ml ; K2Cr207, 2.5 g ; Na2SO4, 1 g) was employed. After the completion of fixation, these tips were thoroughly washed in running water for 5 hours to remove


Introduction The German Auden: Six early poems - Translated by David Constantine Auden's 'Writing' Essay - Edited by Katherine Bucknell with a foreword by Naomi Mitchison A Change of Heart: Six letters from Auden to Professor and Mrs E. R. Dodds written at the beginning of World War II - Edited by Kathleen Bell Frank McEachran (1900-1975): An unrecognized influence on W. H. Auden - John Bridgen 'The Hero': Auden and Flaubert - John Fuller Louis MacNeice's Early Poetry (1924 - 1930) - Peter McDonald 'A Communist to Others': A symposium - Julian Symons, Valentine Cunningham, Stan Smith, Mick Imlah Collecting W. H. Auden - Robert A. Wilson W. H. Auden: A bibliographical supplement - Edward Mendelson Notes on contributors Index


Iron is a fundamental element required by most of organisms, including Brucella. Several researchers have suggested that the iron response regulator (irr) gene and rhizobial iron regulator (rirA) regulates the iron acquisition of Brucella abortus (B. abortus), which influences the heme synthesis and virulence of this pathogen. However, little is known about another Brucella species, Brucella melitensis (B. melitensis). In this research, we successfully constructed two mutants, M5-90∆irr and M5-90∆rirA, where the adhesion, invasion and intracellular survival ability of these two mutants were evaluated in RAW264.7 cells infected with 1×106 CFU either M5-90∆irr, M5-90∆rirA or M5-90 mutants. We also tested the cells' hydrogen peroxide sensitivity and growth ability. The results showed that the invasion and adhesion capability of these two mutants inside the murine macrophages RAW264.7 were attenuated but strengthened the mutants' ability to replicate intracellularly, enhancing the resistance to hydrogen peroxide. The M5-90∆irr mutant showed stronger growth ability than the parental strain under iron-limiting conditions. This is the first report that irr and rirA genes of B. melitensis are associated not only with virulence but also with growth ability. Together, our data suggest that M5-90∆irr and M5-90∆rirA are two promising Brucella vaccine candidates.


Since the publication of her first novel, "Mary Barton" in 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell's writing has provoked extensive and wide-ranging criticism. This collection brings together the varied critical responses to her work between 1848 and 1910, and includes comments from the letters and diaries of such contemporaries as Carlyle, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot and Prosper Merime, as well as more formal reviews and notices. The pieces show that, whether tackling the problematic relations between "masters and men", or entering contemporary debate on the "fallen woman", Gaskell's novels caught the mood of her age and captured the imagination of her critics.


One of the key findings of a recent Australian wide research study, Accelerating Precision Agriculture to Decision Agriculture, funded by the Australian Government (Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of its Rural RD


New results are presented from the investigation of relative sea-level changes in the Nanortalik and Qaqortoq-Narsarsuaq areas in SW Greenland from c. 11 000 cal. years BP to the present. Isolation and transgression sequences from seven lakes and seven tidal basins are identified using some of the traditional methods such as stratigraphic description, magnetic susceptibility, saturated induced remanent magnetisation (SIRM), loss on ignition, and macrofossil analyses. Macrofossils and bulk sediments have been dated by AMS radiocarbon dating.

We also demonstrate that the use of the new XRF-scanning technique, combined with lithological description, pinpointed macrofossil analyses and radiocarbon dating, provide a quick and effective way of investigating isolation contacts/transgression sequences for the reconstruction of sea-level changes.

In SW Greenland, the initial relative sea level fall was rapid and present-day level was reached at ~9000 cal. yr BP and continued falling until at least 8800 cal. yr BP. Between 8000 and 6000 cal. yr BP sea level reached its lowest level of around ~10 m below h.a.t. The late Holocene transgression was more gradual as it occurred over a longer time interval. Present sea-level was reached between ~2000-0 cal. yr BP.

We have used glacial-isostatic adjustment models to determine the ice sheet evolution in southern Greenland from the LGM until the present. The sea-level observations from the Nanortalik and Qaqortoq areas are used to constrain the different ice-model scenarios tested. In situ produced cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al in bedrock and erratics give inference concerning the basal regime in the two areas.

Our ice sheet history reconstruction shows an ice sheet extending to the shelf edge from 26,500 cal. yr BP until 22,000 cal. yr BP, followed by rapid retreat. By 12,000 cal. yr BP, the ice margin was inland of the present-day coast and by 10,500 it had reached the present margin. The ice sheet was smaller than at present from 10,500 cal. yr BP and reached a minimum of 30 km inland of the present-day margin at 9000 cal. yr BP. The neo-glacial re-advance started before 6500 cal. yr BP and the present-day margin was reached by 5500 cal. yr BP. The ice sheet was cold-based in the Nanortalik area, but warm-based and eroding in the Qaqortoq area during the Late-glacial.


The research project focuses on the area of the State social support. It deals specifically with financial assisance for housing allowances. The theoretical part deals with the principles and benefits of State social support in the social security system in the Czech Republic. The project also draws up a basic overview and basic concepts of the system of State social support. Another part of the work is devoted to the applicant requesting the financial allowance for housing, its disbursement and the conditions that affect its delivery. Further it compares the statistical data on expenditure from the State budget to benefit the State social support (housing allowance) within the District of Prostejov The aim of the empirical investigation is to find out which factors affect the drawing of housing allowance and evaluate statistical data on housing allowance benefits on the territory of the district Prostejov.


This article analyses the relationship between corporate social performance and financial performance at the level of a panel of 62 Romanian companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The first challenge was measuring of the social performance. A new social performance measurement system was developed based on which the CSP Index was obtained. The GRI criteria for reporting, the channel of communication chosen by the companies, as well as the level of detail of the published information were taken into account. The estimation of the regression model was made using the CSP Index as the dependent variable and the financial indicators (return on assets, return on equity, sales growth, average number of employees, total sales, market value added, PER index) as the independent variables. The panel regression analysis done to highlight the fixed or random effects at the company level indicated a relatively weak causal relationship between corporate social performance and financial performance. The social performance may also depend on other variables that are not included in the model, although, the general conclusion was that the social performance of Romanian companies is relatively low, but in an ascending evolution.


The disadvantages of traditional shotting ways at maneuver targets with random passage property are analyzed.The killing probability in finite random stationary time series is studied by stochastic passage theory.The killing probability expressions and statistical property of the stationary time series are obtained,and their relative formulae under different shotting characteristics are given.Finally,the conclusions are verified to be correct and effective by an example.


Protestantism and poverty / Max L. Stackhouse -- Option for the poor / Dennis P. McCann -- The preferential option for the poor and American public policy / Robert Benne -- To throw oneself into the wave / Gilbert Meilaender -- The story of an encounter / David Heim.


Global economic growth in the last few decades has caused various negative effects,such as environmental degradation,global warming,water deterioration,etc.Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation have attracted more and more attentions from the domestic and international.China has been one of the largest CO2emitters in the world,and is considered responsible for two-third global increase in anthropogenic CO2emissions of 3.1%in 2007.Chinese government has committed to cut CO2emissions per unit of gross domestic product(GDP)by 40%-45% by 2020against the 2005level,while total amount of CO2emissions in China is expected to increase,due to the projected lasting economic growth and increase in energy demand.Thus,urban area has been a critical part for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,due to its large amounts of population and productive enterprise.Wuxi is a well-known industrial city in China and has experienced rapid economic growth over the last few decades.However,its economic growth deeply depends on resources consumption,and the reduction of carbon emissions will have an important impact on its economic growth.Carbon emissions from energy consumption was estimated at the county-level in Wuxi based on the IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories,and one"decoupling"model was established to investigate the relationship between energy consumption,carbon emissions and economic growth.The results showed as follows.(1)Carbon emissions in Wuxi increased from 8,433,500tons in 2000to 25,280,400tons in 2010.Total amount was at the increasing trend,whilst the increasing rate was generally decreasing,and the characteristic of carbon emissions at the county-level presented obvious spatial heterogeneity.Urban district had the smallest contribution for carbon emissions reduction,Jiangyin had become the main area with the increasing growth of carbon emissions,and Yixing was expected to continue at the lower level of carbon emissions growth.(2)The relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth in Wuxi was generally at the weak decoupling state,and the decoupling state was expected at the increasing trend.However,the relationships in different district/counties presented regional heterogeneity.The economic development model in urban district was at the environment-friendly direction;while the decoupling index in Jiangyin and Yixing was lower than the average of Wuxi,and energy saving and emissions reduction were challenged with great pressure.(3)The coal-dominated energy consumption structure would have no great change in the short term,due to resource constraints.Optimizing industrial structure,adjusting internal structure of industry and improving the efficiency of energy use could be one important practical countermeasure to improve the relationship between energy consumption,carbon emissions and economic growth in Wuxi.Carbon emissions from the energy consumption of industrial enterprises above designated size was only included in this paper,resulting in certain underestimation of total carbon emissions.Carbon emissions from mobile combustion,industrial processes,production use and waste disposal should be further included to improve the accuracy of the estimation in the future.


Domestic violence is a widespread social issue in New Zealand and throughout the world and is detrimental to both society and the individual. Public services, such as law enforcement and health care are frequently and directly impacted due to the prevalence of domestic violence, specifically in terms of financial costs. The literature has shown that women who experience abusive relationships are often battered, isolated and left with a shattered sense of self. Consequently, understanding how women respond to and cope with abusive relationships is important. This study therefore examines women's use of possessions to cope with an abusive relationship. A hermeneutic phenomenological framework guided this study. Six New Zealand Caucasian women were interviewed through the use of the Me Box method. The women's lived experiences were analysed and illustrated through interpretive collages in order to understand how these women used possessions to cope with their abusive relationships. The findings indicate that women use possessions in a variety of ways to cope with their abusive relationships. Five themes were evident in this study: nothing given back, secret possessions, my space, finding me, and the salience of possessions. Although the first theme relates to how the women were victimised by their possessions and their respective partner, the latter four describe how the women used possessions to cope with the abuse. The women used attachment to significant possessions to gain control, escape abuse and reconstruct their identity. The attachments to these possessions were unique to the women and their abusive relationships. These significant possessions enabled the women to strip themselves of their victim identity and recreate their sense of self. This investigation contributes to the literature in three ways. First, the findings of this study support the defining of the term possessions in relation to psychological appropriation rather than the tangibility of an object. Second, this thesis seeks to understand how women in abusive relationships are empowered rather than abused through their attachment to their significant possessions. Finally, the Me Box method used to investigate these women's lived experiences supports the use of art-based research methods when examining sensitive and deeply personal topics.


The emerging countries of Brazil and Russia are becoming increasingly important for the global economy. However, vehicle ownership is rather low in these countries (133 and 218 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in Brazil and Russia, respectively, in 2010). This indicates that many households have limited access to individual motorized transport at present. As many studies expect a positive economic development in Brazil and Russia, the aim of this paper is to forecast the number of cars bought by the first time buyers until 2030. This paper is based on a system dynamics model, which aims at examining the car purchasing behaviour of first-time buyers in the period from 2000 to 2030. The number of households that are going to buy a car for the first time is simulated and it is furthermore investigated, whether these households will buy a new or used car. Additionally, the model analyses which car segment (basic, small, medium, or luxury) is most popular among the new middle class. The basic assumption is that once a household reaches a certain income level, the household will buy a car. The logit approach is used in order to model segment choice. To verify the prognosis and to build an empirical database, several demographic and economic framework conditions, as well as the Brazilian and Russian car market are analysed in advance. The prognosis shows the expected development of car sales to first-time buyers in Brazil and Russia. Results indicate that households of the new middle class will buy used cars rather than new ones. Moreover, first-time buyers in both countries who do choose new cars will prefer the basic segment. When buying used cars, Brazilian households of the new middle class tend towards basic cars, while Russian first-time buyers favour small cars. The car purchase potential of the new middle class will continue to remain rather small, since the income of the new middle class is unlikely to grow significantly. Furthermore, car costs are rather high.


Though we speak about transformation, we know little about even the most rudimentary aspects of organizational change. This is less a gap and more of an abyss: we have practically no quantitative information on transformation, except in some cases, an approximation of the total cost. This article is a list of the principal areas of knowledge that we lack and the impact of that lack. The list becomes a research agenda for transformation.


This letter is in response to the article by Riddle et al. ([4][1]) that appeared in this journal in April 2000. As Chairholder of the National Committee on Clinical Laboratory Standards Veterinary Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (NCCLS V-AST) subcommittee, I wanted to provide additional


Preface Introduction: A Critical Assessment of Scholarly Literature in Religion and Emotion Historical Studies Ancient Medieval to 1600 1600-1800 Nineteenth Century Twentieth Century Surveys Social and Behavioral Sciences Psychological Studies Anthropological Studies Sociological Studies Theological and Philosophical Theological Studies Philosophical Studies


The study of genetic isolates is a promising approach for the study of complex genetic traits. The small and constant population size, lack of migration, and multiple relationships between individuals in the isolate population could reduce the genetic diversity, and lead to increased levels of linkage disequilibrium (LD). We studied the extent of LD on Xq13 in six population isolates from South Tyrol in the Eastern Italian Alps.


OBJECTIVE: Data on the incidence of peptic ulcer in childhood and risk factors other than Helicobacter pylori (Hp) are insufficient. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency, clinical findings, risk factors and complications of gastroduodenal ulcer in children.MATERIAL AND METHODS: The endoscopy reports and file information of the children who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy in our center between May 2011 and December 2018 were reviewed retrospectively.RESULTS: Of the 5892 pediatric patients examined, 448 (7.6%) had peptic ulcers. Of the ulcers evaluated, 69% were duodenal, 27.4% were gastric, and 3.6% were both gastric and duodenal ulcers. The most common (52.2%) symptom was dyspepsia. The most common risk factor in peptic ulcers was Hp (66.5%). Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were found to be the second most common (5.8%) risk factor. No risk factor could be demonstrated in 14.95% of the cases. Complications secondary to peptic ulcer disease were detected in 70 (15.7%) of the patients. The complications were; bleeding in 50 (12.7%) patients, gastric outlet obstruction in 11 (2.4%) patients, and perforation in 2 (0.4%) patients.CONCLUSIONS: Helicobacter pylori infection is the most important risk factor for peptic ulcer in children. However, in cases where Hp cannot be demonstrated, other risk factors should be investigated.


S FROM GERMAN JOURNALS. BY CH. RAUSCHENBERG, 31. D., ATLANTA, GA. CLV THE OPERATIVE TREATMENT'OF PLEURITIC EXUDATIONS. Dr. Ludwig Lichtheim, Assistant at the Surgical Klinik at Halle, is the author of a valuable article on this subject, the most important points of which are contained in the following abstract: Dr. Lichtheim first calls attention to the fact that the im Dr. Lichtheim first calls attention to the fact that the im proved pathological conceptions of the last ten years, with their correcting and remodeling influences on therapeutical prin ciples generally, have also brought about a material change in the therapeutical efforts of physicians in the treatment of local morbid conditions occurring in the course of internal diseases, and that the old faith in the efficiency of general treatment for the removal of such conditions is fast giving away to an im proved system of local therapeutics, in which operative surgery is destined to occupy an important position. This tendency of the age has effected the operation of thora centesis and its therapeutical relation to the treatment of pleu ritic exudations very essentially, and has demonstrated that it must henceforth be looked upon not as a last resort, or a mere palliative measure, but as a surgical remedy of very great and very general curative usefulness in the treatment of this morbid condition. Heretofore this operation has almost exclusively occupied the position of a mere palliative measure. Excessive danger of suf focation, caused by the compression of the lung on the diseased side and impeded expansion of the other by the misplaced heart and mediastinum, on the one hand, and the danger threatened from the burrowing of pus when bulging of the intercostal integuments indicated pleural abscess on the other, have so far been, in a majority of instances, the phenomena under which thoracentesis has been performed, as they were the only generally-accepted indications under which this operation was con sidered applicable. » As a curative measure, aiming directly at the improvement of the morbid condition per se, this operation—although simple, safe, painless, and often life-saving—was first practiced and re commended in France by the pupils of the great Trousseau, one of its earliest and most zealous advocates in this sense; but it has only acquired the general acceptation of the medical world in the last few years. The labors of Kussmaul and Bartels, in Germany, have, however, the exclusive merit of having first clearly demonstrated the different relations which this opera tion as a remedy bears to the different pathological sequels of pleuritis, and have established the leading and now generally accepted principles which govern its use and execution. The proper use of thoracentesis for the treatment of pleuritic exudations is based upon a correct understanding of the differ ences in the treatment required by purulent effusions, empyemata, on the one side, and that of non-purulent, mere serous effusions, on the other. Besorption of the effused serum frequently takes place; but complete resorption of pus, constituting an empyema of any recognizable size, is a very doubtful occurrence, which has at least never been established by actual observation; while it is a well-known pathological fact that purulent deposits remain within the pleural cavity often for very long periods of time, either as fluid pus or a more or less inspissated substance, sub ject to or engaged in a process of cheesy degeneration, accord ing to the degree of separation of the fluid parts of the pus from its solid morphological elements by resorption of the former. The possibility.of a perforation of the thorax or the pulmonal pleura and lungs, by which the empyema might be emptied and the disease spontaneously cured, can not be taken into consid eration when the question of the necessity of thoracentesis is to be decided, because perforation, if it does take place at all, occurs generally so late, and (particularly when in the direction of the lungs) with such a slow, imperfect and harrassing evacu ation of the pus by coughing, and such wasting febrile phenom ena, that, instead of furnishing a cause for the delay of the operation, it increases the necessity of its performance in order to give additional and more ready drainage to the pus in the direction of the surface, and thus to shorten, and thereby to deprive, the curative process of nature of its dangerous conse quences to the organism in general. After thus establishing the very small probability of a spon taneous cure of empyema, our author arrives at the conclusion that the accumulation of a sufficiently large quantity of pus in the pleural cavity to admit of plain recognition, furnishes a direct indica tion for its removal; and that the old maxim, "Ubi pus ibi evac ua," deserves full recognition in these cases. An early and correct diagnosis, establishing beyond a doubt the existence of a purulent acuumulation uithin the pleural cavity, is therefore imperatively necessary in cases of that kind. If the usual symptoms of oedema of the affected side of the thorax—redness of the skin in that region, the characteristic type of fever with high evening exacerbations, and more or less developed periodical rigors—are wanting, which is sometimes the case; while the physical exploration of the thorax indicates a pleuritic effusion, puncture of the thorax with an exploratory trocar, will always decide whether or not empyema exists. In all doubtful cases the character of the accumulated fluid should thus be ascertained at once, and if pus is found, thora centesis should be performed, as delay will always diminish the probability of a recovery. The frequent incurability of the fundamental disease, which has caused the empyema and the high fever connected with it, should never delay, or much less set aside the operation. The effective removal of the accumulated pus will, in far the majority of instances, more than any other therapeutical measure, not only give comfort to the patient for the time he can live, but will frequently protract the fatal issue a longer or shorter period of time, if it does not accomplish a cure, and will always either lessen or check the fever with its wasting influences on the system, as the latter is almost invariably the consequence of the process of suppuration going on within a closed cavity of the organism. The operation within itself is harmless, and if death has followed it in a few instances, it is very probable that it was caused by a continuation of the morbid conditions wdiich now and then occasion sudden death in large pleural effusions. To prevent the admission of air when the exploring trocar is used, it is always sufficient to let the patient take a full in spiration and retain his breath the moment the trocar is with drawn. Our author acknowledges no valid contra-indication of thora centesis, but such a degree of debility which would necessarily result in death without the operation in a very short time. The governing idea in its performance must be to have an open ing amply large enough to admit free and perfect exit of the pus, and prompt and efficient cleansing of the cavity for a sufficient length of time. The mere puncture with the trocar and canula, with ex clusion of the air, does not answer the purpose. It creates too smal^ an opening; the clearing of the cavity by syringe, even through the retained canula, is too tedious, difficult and incom plete, and this method has therefore been almost entirely aban doned, and the operation by free incision—which, although a little more difficult to perform, is certainly no more a danger ous operation than the other—is now generally preferred. First an incision, one and a half to two inches long, through the integuments, right in the middle of an intercostal space to avoid the intercostal artery, then division of the muscles, layer by layer on the groved probe, is made. If a smaller artery bleeds, the hemorrhage is stopped by digital pressure, but the final perforation of the white, glossy pleura, which either bulges into the aperture of the incision or remains stiff and hard, is not made until all hemorrhage has been entirely arrested, as even an insignificant quantity of blood mixed with the pleural contents, gushing forth through the pleural opening, frequently causes an erroneous impression of danger. If the nature of the contents of the pleural cavity should not have been satis factorily ascertained before, the insertion of a small trocar in one of the angles of the wound at this stage of the operation will remove any existing doubt. A free pleural incision, corres ponding in size with the superficial one, finishes the operation. The best locality for the incision, in order to avoid the obstruc tion of the opening by the previously depressed diaphram, is the fifth or sixth intercostal space between the mammillary and axillary lines. Marked and immediate relief follows the operation, the res piration becomes free and easy, the fever abates, and this relief remains permanent; while, if mere puncture of the thorax has been made, the old condition of affairs, on account of imperfect drainage of the empyema, is reestablished in a very few days, and the patient becomes clamorous for a repetition of the


Even in the case of well established technological conditions for steel rolled production at some stages of production line could be observed various defects which causes are difficult to be determined. In the case of analyzed plate the surface defects observed we consider to have origin in the steel casting stage due to high casting temperature , low casting speed and slag entrapment on the slab surface, the defects dimensions have been increased during the rolling stage.


DURING the war years the development of new designs, new machines, new methods, and processes to meet customers' demands for better service and higher quality products was accelerated far beyond any previous advancement. These new developments, as well as the rise of standardization and interchangeability of parts requiring stricter tolerance conformance, have accelerated, of necessity, the development of the statistical method of controlling quality.


ABSTRACT Agricultural land is a limited resource. Poland has implemented new legal regulations to protect the sale of agricultural land. An Agricultural Land Sales Control System (ALSCS) has been called into existence for the purpose of real estate marketing. The currently implemented National Land Administration System, referred to as the Integrated Real Estate Information System (IREIS), was analysed to determine the extent to which it supports farmland management policies. The results of the study indicate that the IREIS is a fit-for-purpose ALSCS which offers a high degree of protection for agricultural land. The IREIS can effectively protect agricultural land during market transactions.


The present invention relates to a method for identifying and collating system and the identification and verification of documents based on the use of nanoparticles embedded or imbibed into the medium to form a document. Thereby, each having its own characteristics, by combining different nanoparticles, using different optical reflectance characteristics of nanoparticles to provide a high-performance forgery particular.


The concept is demonstrated with a linearly polarized reflectarray designed to provide required coverage of wireless local area network (WLAN) access point at 5.8 GHz. The reflectarray is illuminated by a feed. The design process consists of two steps. First, a phase-only pattern synthesis technique is applied to obtain the required phaseshift distribution on the reflectarray surface which generates the shaped pattern. The second stage is determining the length of square patches in order to achieve the phase distribution synthesized in the previous step. The far-field generated by the vivaldi antenna is used to compute the radiation patterns of the reflectarray and the radiation patterns exhibit a shaping close to the requirements. To verify the proposed antenna, the reflectarray has been manufactured and tested in an anechoic chamber, showing a good agreement between theoretical and measured radiation patterns.


during welding of alloys the precipitation of detrimental phases intermetallics and nitrides. investigation and pitting corrosion of the welded joints of lean duplex stainless the welded joints made using the various shielding gases different of heat The effects of TIG welding and post-treatment procedures on the microstructure and the pitting corrosion resistance of welded lean duplex stainless steel S82441 were investigated. Autogenous TIG welding was used with different amounts of heat input and shielding gases such as Ar, and mixtures of Ar-N 2 and Ar-He. The addition of 5% to 15% of nitrogen to argon practically did not affect the level of the pitting corrosion resistance. However, the application of gas mixtures (50% Ar + 50% He) resulted in a significant decrease in pitting corrosion resistance. We found that increased current (200 A and 250 A) led to lower values of CPT of welds compared with welds obtained with 50 A, 100 A and 150 A. In addition, the removal of the weld surface layer (0.2 ~ 0.3 mm thickness) in most cases not only resulted in a significant increase in resistance to the pitting corrosion but also post-treatment of weld, implying that corrosion resistance depended on factors such as surface roughness or the presence of undesirable oxides.


ABS TRACT Objective: It has been reported that there is a good correlation between the degree of the hyperammonemia and the depth of coma in hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a neurobehavioral disorder. The Glasgow coma scale (GCS) has been used widely to evaluate brain dysfunction due to structural and metabolic disorders. We would like to determine whether there is an inverse correlation between the GCS score and simultaneous blood ammonia level in patients presenting with HE. Material and Methods: This retrospective clinical study includes 27 patients presenting with HE in emergency department (ED). On admission, all patients had a full neurological examination including the GCS, followed with obtaining simultaneous arterial blood ammonia level. Results: Mean GCS score was 10.1±3.7. Mean level of arterial blood ammonium was 291±175 μg/dL. There was a negative correlation between the GCS scores and blood ammonium levels (r= -0.641; p<0.001). Conclusion: Our results have shown that the GCS may be used to estimate arterial blood ammonia levels in patients with HE (Regression coefficient of -0,956).


This paper studies the impact of corporate ownership structure on firm performance. This paper tests whether policy intervention with respect to blockholding and higher managerial ownership is required in Pakistan. We hypothesise that market places expropriation premium on stocks of such firms where large insiders are present. In addition to poor market performance, such firms are expected to show poor accounting performance due to various forms of expropriations. These hypotheses are tested on a sample of 183 firms listed at the Karachi Stock Exchange over the period 2003-2008 with the help of OLS and 2SLS regressions while controlling for other explanatory variables that have been identified in the literature. The results indicate that both the market- and accounting-based measures of performance are negatively related to the ownership percentage of incumbent managers. Among the control variables, Tobin's Q increases with growth opportunities and tangibility of assets, whereas it decreases with firm size, market risk, firm-specific risk, and ownership percentage of institutional shareholders.


The study examined the moderating effect of personality variable of excellence on the predictive effectiveness of multi-attribute attitude model. Data were collected from Master's students in business administration at four Canadian universities. Analysis indicated that the students who scored high on excellence showed a stronger correlation between attitude and intention to enter a program than the students who scored low. It was speculated that excellence has potential as a segmentation variable for complex, high involvement products.


In 2019-2020, the Defamation Working Party, established by the Australian Council of Attorneys-General, was undertaking a review of defamation law in Australia to identify areas for national reform. Led by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, the Defamation Working Party invited public feedback on draft amendments to the Model Defamation Provisions. (Australia's Model Defamation Provisions were endorsed in 2005 and each state and territory enacted legislation to implement the provisions.) This is a submission to that review.


Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic conversion of scanned or photographed images of typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded/computer-readable text. It is widely used as a form of data entry from some sort of original paper data source, whether passport documents, invoices, bank statement, receipts, business card, mail, or any number of printed records. It is a common method of digitizing printed texts so that they can be electronically edited, searched, stored more compactly, displayed on-line, and used in machine processes such as machine translation, text-to-speech, key data extraction and text mining. OCR is a field of research in pattern recognition, artificial intelligence and computer vision. Optical Character Recognition or OCR is the electronic translation of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine translated images. It is widely used to recognize and search text from electronic documents or to publish the text on a website [1]. A large number of research papers and reports have already been published on this topic. The paper presents introduction, major research work and applications of Optical Character Recognition in various fields. At the first introduction of OCR will be discussed and then some points will be stressed on the major research works that have made a great impact in character recognition. And finally the most important applications of OCR will be covered and then conclusion.


Maasoumi (1978) proposed a Stein-like estimator for simultanous equations and showed that his Stein shrinkage estimator has bounded finite sample risk, unlike the 3SLS estimator. We revisit his proposal by investigating Stein-like shrinkage in the context of 2SLS estimation of a structural parameter. Our estimator follows Maasoumi (1978) in taking a weighted average of the 2SLS and OLS estimators, with the weight depending inversely on the Hausman (1978) statistic for exogeneity. Using a local-to-exogenous asymptotic theory, we derive the asymptotic distribution of the Stein estimator, and calculate its asymptotic risk. We find that if the number of endogenous variables exceeds two, then the shrinkage estimator has strictly smaller risk than the 2SLS estimator, extending the classic result of James and Stein (1961). In a simple simulation experiment, we show that the shrinkage estimator has substantially reduced finite sample median squared error relative to the standard 2SLS estimator. ∗Research supported by the National Science Foundation. This paper is written for the Econometric Reviews special issue in honor of Essie Maasoumi. †Department of Economics, 1180 Observatory Drive, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706. firstname.lastname@example.com


This study investigates the use of an external magnetic field to cause the magnetic and physical alignment of ferromagnetic particles in a thermoplastic polymer matrix. The composite selected provides the best alignment involving rare-earth ferromagnetic particles in a polystyrene matrix. The rare-earth particles are able to be effectively aligned due to their high magnetic and physical anisotropy. The time-to align the particles ranged from <5 s at 498 K to approximately 60 s at 398 K. Composites with weight percents ranging from 5 to 25% are studied. A model is developed in order to predict the alignment, and is validated against experimental data. This model predicts the time-to-align based on magnetic torque balancing that would cause alignment with the viscous drag that acts to slow the particle rotation. It is found that the model describing the polymer as a Newtonian fluid follows the same trends and form as the experimental data. Potential sources of differences that prevents close fit to the data are attributed to particle interactions, sample variations, and especially the shear thinning behavior of polystyrene.


A passionate advocate for life in the vet profession, Colin Whiting is beginning a new chapter with a travelling surgical team. It's been a wonderful ride so far...


Summary Eight-and-a-half syndrome is a rare clinical entity comprised of one-and-a-half syndrome with ipsilateral facial palsy. We present a clinical case of a 45 year old male who presented with left eight and a half syndrome. Contrast MRI brain showed the constellation of findings with diffusion weighted images (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) changes corresponding to the anatomical correlation in the dorsal pontine tegmentum. Treatment with antihypertensive and antiplatelets showed significant improvement in symptoms. Our report aims to raise awareness about this rare neuro-ophthalmological syndrome, as early recognition can accelerate diagnosis and decrease the morbidity.


Iterative software methodologies allow development teams to be agile in their response to changing requirements. However, the software development team is usually at the mercy of requirements changes, rather than being part of the project engineering staff defining the changes to the solution architecture. Therefore, projects tend to implement inferior solutions. Integrating a project-level innovation technique called Inventive Problem Solving into agile software development methodologies such as the spiral model, the Rational Unified Process, and Scrum, allows the development team to affect the overall solution architecture utilizing their expertise in information technology to the maximum benefit. As a result, more creative, innovative, and efficient solutions to the problem are conceived and implemented.


Aging and degeneration of the intervertebral discs are cell mediated processes that include biochemical, mechanical and structural changes. Although these processes are similar, disc degeneration is defined as an accelerated aging process that results in a detriment in the function of the disc. Biochemical changes include protein cross-linking, proteoglycan depletion and changes on collagen type. These compositional changes are related to changes in the mechanical properties of the disc and its tissues. For instance, it has been shown that an increase of protein cross-linking by glycation or genipin treatment causes an increase of the stiffness in disc tissues [1,2]. On the other hand, a decrease on the amount of proteoglycan has been shown to cause a decrease on tissue stiffness due to a reduction of the osmotic pressure [3,4]. However, during aging and degeneration, these two processes occur simultaneously with opposing effects on the mechanical properties of the tissue. Consequently, it is important to analyze these effects separately. Additionally, many multiphasic models for soft charged tissues, such articular cartilage and intervertebral disc, also consider the ionic phases separately from non-charged solids. Although multiphasic models for the disc have been used in the past, the mechanical properties of the non-charged extra-fibrillar matrix (EFM) have not been measured directly.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Entrepreneurship is more about people than about firms, institutions and programmes. If previous recommendations are to be achievable, it is important that regional inhabitants accept them and are prepared to invest both personally and collectively. This is precisely the subject of this chapter, which attempts to answer a basic question, namely: how can Croatians be encouraged to launch projects, create new ventures and develop existing firms with a view to repositioning their country on the European checkerboard? Generally speaking, it is a matter of improving the existing entrepreneurial fabric and preparing it for the free market through general policies, programmes and instruments delivered primarily by the public sector, but also by the private sector.


We conducted an integrated groundwater–surface water monitoring programme in a 3.2‐km2 experimental catchment in the Scottish Highlands by sampling all springs, seepages, and wells in six, spatially extensive synoptic surveys over a 2‐year period. The catchment has been glaciated, with steep hillslopes and a flat valley bottom. There is around 70% glacial drift cover in lower areas. The solid geology, which outcrops at higher elevations, is granite and metamorphic schist. The springs and seepages generally occur at the contact between the solid geology and drift or at breaks of slopes in the valley bottom. Samples were analysed for stable isotopes, Gran alkalinity and electrical conductivity. Despite the surveys encompassing markedly different antecedent conditions, the isotopic composition of groundwater at each location exhibited limited temporal variability, resulting in a remarkable persistence of spatial patterns indicating well‐mixed shallow, groundwater stores. Moreover, line‐conditioned excess values derived from the isotope data indicated no evidence of fractionation affecting the groundwater, which suggests that most recharge occurs in winter. The alkalinity and electrical conductivity of groundwater reflected geological differences in the catchment, being highest where more weatherable calcareous rocks outcrop at higher altitudes in the catchment. Springs draining these areas also had the most variable isotope composition, which indicated that they have shorter residence times than the drift covered part of the catchment. The study showed that even in geologically heterogeneous upland catchments, groundwater can be characterized by a consistent isotopic composition, reflecting rapid mixing in the recharge zone. Our work, thus, emphasizes the critical role of groundwater in upland catchments and provides tracer data that can help constrain quantitative groundwater models.


This study aimed to examine a descriptive review of technopreneurship and IT-preneurship viewed from an aspect of vocational education perspective. Descriptively, this research will provide an overview of the technopreneurship and IT-preneurship that must be possessed by vocational tertiary institutions. Technopreneurship and IT-preneurship is one part of entrepreneurship based on technology. The world of vocational education is obliged to produce generations who not only have an entrepreneurial spirit, but also have a spirit of technopreneurship and IT-preneurship. Communicating important technology in developing entrepreneurial spirit is a challenge for the world of vocational education. This article is a conceptual paper related to publish publications related to the themes in this article and this article discusses the concepts of technopreneurship and IT preneurship in the perspective of vocational education and also enhances entrepreneurship development in the world of vocational education.


A compact dual-band electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure is proposed. It is shown through numerical simulation using 3D full wave solver that by adding a slit to the classical mushroom shape an extra resonance is introduced and thus dual-band EBG structures can be built by cascading these new elements. It is also demonstrated that this novel approach can be used to isolate noise in a system such as a dual band transceiver integrated into a mixed signal system in a package. Finally, equivalent circuits have been established to aid the design process.


Interplanetary magnetic fields and bulk plasma velocity values gathered by the Mariner 2 spaceprobe and corresponding to the recurrent geomagnetic storm of October 7, 1962, have been compared to ground-based standard magnetograms and micropulsation recordings. The results indicate that (1) high-latitude micropulsation enhancements can sometimes be correlated to large changes in interplanetary fields, (2) these sharp changes in the interplanetary fields and their corresponding effects suggest an interplanetary field structure corotating with the sun, a possibility that is consistent with the Pioneer 6 results, and (3) extended periods of micropulsations as well as bay disturbances are preceded and accompanied by exterior fields having a southward component. These results may provide support for Dungey's theory of reconnection between geomagnetic and interplanetary lines of force.


The class of XUV laser operating by collisional excitation and driven by typically kilojoule nanosecond laser pulses is well developed, and current research aims to produce more coherent beams and beam characteristics tailored to specific applications.


Investigations of hepatitis B virus antigens (HBsAg and HBeAg) and antibody (anti-HBc, anti-HBe, anti-HBs) and DNA-polymerase activity in 136 patients with acute virus hepatitis B revealed their different diagnostic value depending on the severity of the process. The rate of finding of hepatitis B virus antigens declines in regression of the clinical symptoms of the disease. However, when hepatodystrophy develops, HBsAg and HBeAg concentration decreases, anti-HBc persist, and in one third of the patients anti-HBs are found. In moderately severe and mild forms of hepatitis, anti-HBs were detected in the convalescent period, as a rule.


One considers a linear heterogeneous media (e.g. filtration in porous media, composite materials, CMs, nanocomposites, peristatic CMs, and rough contacted surfaces). The idea of the effective field hypothesis (EFH, H1, see for references and details [1], [2]) dates back to Mossotti (1850) who pioneered the introduction of the effective field concept as a local homogeneous field acting on the inclusions and differing from the applied macroscopic one. It is proved that a concept of the EFH (even if this term is not mentioned) is a (first) background of all four groups of analytical methods in physics and mechanics of heterogeneous media (model methods, perturbation methods, self-consistent methods, and variational ones, see for refs. [1]). An operator form of the general integral equations (GIEs) is obtained which connects the driving fields and fluxes in a point being considered. New GIEs present in fact the new (second) background (which does not use the EFH) of multiscale analysis offering the opportunities for a fundamental jump in multiscale research of random heterogeneous media with drastically improved accuracy of local field estimations (with possible change of sign of predicted local fields).Copyright © 2015 by ASME


We use computer simulations to help us understand the experimental observation that depleted uranium (DU) rods penetrate more steel than equal density tungsten alloy (WA) rods, and that this advantage depends on velocity and fineness ratio. Our simulations used thermal softening. Although the DU rods exhibit shear fracture instead, both phenomena result in a loss of hoop strength, and help to keep the projectile residue from interfering with the incoming rod. Our simulations show that rods of DU (or other alloy with strong thermal softening) penetrate more steel than rods of WA (for alloys with little thermal softening), and show velocity and fineness ratio dependencies that are in qualitative agreement with experiment.


This article has analyzed the causes that hardening surface layer peeling off on the roll made of 9Cr2Mo steel. It introduces the processes that using simultaneous mid-frequency induction quenching in water-oil and carbide ultra-refining replace the original processes that continuous mid-frequency induction spray quenching and globurizing, quenching and tempering. Hardening surface layer peeling off no longer take place with new processes.


The one-loop renormalization of the Abelian Higgs-Kibble model in a general 't Hooft gauge and with chiral fermions is fully worked out within dimensional renormalization scheme with a nonanticommuting ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{5}.$ The anomalous terms introduced in the Slavnov-Taylor identities by the minimal subtraction algorithm are calculated and the asymmetric counterterms needed to restore the Becchi-Rouet-Stora symmetry, if the anomaly cancellation conditions are met, are computed. The computations draw heavily from regularized action principles and algebraic renormalization theory.


Abstract In this article we examine how brands express compassion and care through their advertising amid the Covid-19 crisis. Drawing from organizational theory research, we theorize how brands enact compassion organizing, which refers to the process of noticing, feeling, and responding to human suffering in a coordinated manner. We employ a grounded theory inspired Gioia methodology to analyze more than 200 pandemic-related ads that were released in the United States over a six-month period. The findings reveal three main themes of compassion organizing—solidarity, trust, and resilience—and showcase how brands may use advertising to address care deficits in times of crisis. The study underscores the institutional role of advertising and brands and informs extant research on corporate advertising and cultural branding.


This paper presents a model of competition in the banking industry based upon the interplay of two factors: the level of capitalization of banks and their ability to monitor different types of projects (i.e., their expertise). In a setting of moral hazard with limited liability, banks must receive some rents to induce them to monitor projects diligently. The rents are decreasing in the banks' expertise and in the amount of capital that banks are able to commit to a project. This leads to a trade-off between capital and expertise. The analysis shows how shocks to bank capital and interest rates, and technological shocks can affect competition and monitoring efficiency in the banking sector.


This study aims to analyze the application of the Electronic Land and Building Tax in Urban and Rural (E-PBB P2) at the Regional Financial and Asset Management Revenue Agency of Magetan Regency. The research method uses descriptive qualitative. Sources of data used are primary and secondary data sources. Data collection techniques are interviews, observations, and documentation. Data analysis techniques use data reduction, presentation of information data, and concluding. The results of the implementation of E-PBB in Magetan Regency have been maximized from data collection, assessment, determination, billing, payment, and services. Although there are still some obstacles, such as the application network, the system is not optimal and taxpayers' low participation. In terms of income, the increase was not significant. Only the circulation of billed money that went to the Regional Government was faster.


With the goal of eventually observing current-induced switching in cobalt/copper nanowires, we begin by electrodepositing cobalt into polycarbonate membranes to create simple wires of 200nm diameter. We confirm the validity of these samples using anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR), thereby demonstrating the success of our sample creation methods. This is followed by preliminary steps toward the creation of simple layered Co/Cu wires for the observation of giant magnetoresistance (GMR). Finally, we describe current-induced switching and some of its potential technological applications.


A scanning tunnelling microscope has been used to determine the conductance of single molecular wires with the configuration X–bridge–X, X–bridge–Y and Y–bridge–Y (X = thiol terminus and Y = COOH). We find that for molecular wires with mixed functional groups (X–bridge–Y) the single molecule conductance decreases with respect to the comparable symmetric molecules. These differences are confirmed by theoretical computations based on a combination of density functional theory and the non-equilibrium Green's functions formalism. This study demonstrates that the apparent contact resistance, as well as being highly sensitive to the type of the anchoring group, is also strongly influenced by contact-asymmetry of the single molecular junction which in this case decreases the transmission. This highlights that contact-asymmetry is a significant factor to be considered when evaluating nanoelectrical junctions incorporating single molecules.


The singalized intersection chapter of The Highway Capacity (HCM) Manual although widely used, describes a methodology that merely assess the operation at a signalized intersection and assigns a level of service (LOS). The deficiencies and limitations of this chapter can be overcome by using the data from the HCM in conjunction with the TRAF-NETSIM simulation model. This is achieved by using the HCM/CINEMA. This leads to the automation of the procedures for the analysis of signalized intersections using the methodology in the HCM. This article describes a case study, network analysis, the analysis of the results, and the implementation, as well as the results of the mitigation.


This article makes a preliminary analysis on the industrial and occupational structure of population employment and occupational structure in the Salar areas through actual investigation and the data of population census in China,and probes into the cause above mentioned.


We discussed the influence of Jiangtang Fanglong capsule (glucose-lowering deaf-preventing capsule) to hearing of experimental diabetic deaf animal model. The experimental diabetic deaf animal model was replicated by disposable intraperitoneal injection of 55mg/kg streptozotocin(STZ) to every Wistar rats. 40 Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups, treatment group treated by 10g·kg-1·d-1 Jiangtang Fanglong capsule suspension in intragastric gavage, and control group by equivalent normal saline, the two groups were separately accepted auditory brainstem response(ABR) detection in first month,second month,third month after model establishment. After first month, the latency and inter period of each wave of ABR of two groups were no significantly difference(P>;0.05);and after second, third month, the latency and inter period of each wave of ABR of treatment group were obviously shorter than that of control group, difference was significant(P<;0.05, P<;0.01). Our results suggest that Jiangtang Fanglong capsule may be have a prevention and cure function to the hearing of diabetic deaf animal model.


Hypothesis / aims of study OASIS are a major contributory factor in the development of anal incontinence in women. Despite a primary repair up to 61% continue to suffer from anal incontinence. A previous small study of 56 women who sustained OASIS has shown that the presence of a combined defect of the internal (IAS) and external anal sphincter (EAS) is significantly related to bowel symptoms 6 to 8 weeks post partum (1). Furthermore an association between IAS defects and severe symptoms of fecal incontinence has been demonstrated (2). However the effect of persistent anal sphincter defects on quality of life (QoL) has not been studied. The aim of our study was to establish the effect of IAS and/or EAS defects (as diagnosed by endoanal ultrasound) on symptoms, manometry and QoL, following primary repair of OASIS.


Basic methods and techniques involved in the determination of minimum sample size at the use of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in a research project, is one of the crucial problems faced by researchers since there were some controversy among scholars regarding methods and rule-of-thumbs involved in the determination of minimum sample size when applying Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Therefore, this paper attempts to make a review of the methods and rule-of-thumbs involved in the determination of sample size at the use of SEM in order to identify more suitable methods. The paper collected research articles related to the sample size determination for SEM and review the methods and rules-of-thumb employed by different scholars. The study found that a large number of methods and rules-of-thumb have been employed by different scholars. The paper evaluated the surface mechanism and rules-of-thumb of more than twelve previous methods that contained their own advantages and limitations. Finally, the study identified two methods that are more suitable in methodologically and technically which have identified by non-robust scholars who deeply addressed all the aspects of the techniques in the determination of minimum sample size for SEM analysis and thus, the prepare recommends these two methods to rectify the issue of the determination of minimum sample size when using SEM in a research project.


This piece introduces the issue through two scholarly methodologies: reconstruction and reparative reading. After briefly contextualizing these methods, it introduces each article under one rubric or the other and inquires into the status of our knowledge, and pursuit of knowledge, in regard to Greek tragedy.


The future development of CCeU ULM needs to consider the nature of volunteers who do not want to continue to be in the organization. Therefore, retaining volunteers to continue to be actively involved and contribute to the organization is a challenge in itself. This study aims to empirically test the "HERO" training (Hope, Efficacy, Resiliency, Optimism) to increase the engagement of disaster volunteers. The instrument used to measure psychological capital is adapted from Cetin and Basim (2012), namely Psychological Capital Scale (R= 0.941). The scale used to measure the Work Engagement of Crisis Center Unit ULM volunteers was (R= 0.935). The respondents of this study were 53 members of the ULM Crisis Center Unit, divided into men and women, with criteria for 18-25 years. This research is a quasi-experimental study with a non-randomized one-group pre-test post-test design. Statistical analysis showed 0.699 >, 0.699 < 0.05, so it can conclude that there is no significant effect of HERO training on the work engagement of CCU FK ULM members. It means that other antecedents can lead to one's work engagement.


A mechanism for tunable band rejection in the reconfigurable balun of an ultra-wideband (UWB) tightly-coupled array (TCA) is presented. A variable capacitor increases and controls the effective length of the balun's short stub, shorting out the dipoles of the array at a specific frequency. The practical implementation of the rejection scheme using varactor diodes is discussed. A number of different varactor diodes has been measured using a custom-made evaluation board to model their actual behavior. Simulation results, including the characterized components and their DC biasing network, verify the design. A fabricated prototype of the reconfigurable array will be presented at the conference.


One of the main aims of transport layer protocol is achieving best throughput without any congestion or reduced congestion.  With rapid growing application needs and with increasing number of networks in Internet, there is a primary need to design new protocols to transport layer.  To transmit multimedia applications, one of the suitable congestion control mechanisms in transport layer is TCP Friendly Rate Control Protocol (TFRC).  It controls congestion based on its equation. However, every packet requires an acknowledgement in TFRC. It creates congestion in the network when the transmitted data is very large, which results in reduced throughput. This paper aims to increase the throughput when the transmitted data is large with minimal congestion by reducing the number of acknowledgements in the network.  We modified some fixed parameters in the TFRC equation. The results show the increased throughput with minimal congestion. Full Text: PDF DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v6i6.12560


SCM(Supply Chain Management) is a new approach to satisfy customers via an integrated management for the whole business processes of the manufacturing from the raw material procurement to the product or service delivery to customers. Typically the semiconductor industry is the one whose supply chain network is distributed all over the world, and its manufacturing process has the particular characteristics which has to be considered in the modeling of supply chain. In this paper we suggest the push and pull type supply chain models based on the manufacturing characteristics and their mathematical formulation for the semiconductor industry. Push supply chain model pursuits the high throughput and the balance of the WIP flow, and pull supply chain model does to minimize the total cost of order-based manufacturing, distribution and transportation process in order to meet customer's request appropriately.


The utility model discloses an intelligent-controlled 35kV transformer parallel operation automatic switching device. The intelligent-controlled automatic 35kV transformer parallel operation automatic switching device comprises a current detecting and converting circuit, a current judging and processing circuit, a transformer input switching-on circuit and a transformer exit switching-off circuit, wherein the current detecting and converting circuit is connected in series to a high-voltage side of a first transformer; a signal output end of the current detecting and converting circuit is connected with a signal input end of the current judging and processing circuit; a signal output end of the current judging and processing circuit is connected with signal input ends of the transformer input switching-on circuit and the transformer exit switching-off circuit respectively; and signal output ends of the transformer input switching-on circuit and the transformer exit switching-off circuit are connected with an input switching-on breaker circuit and an exit switching-off breaker circuit of a second transformer respectively. The intelligent-controlled 35kV transformer parallel operation automatic switching device can reduce labor intensity and improve the running safety and reliability of transformers.


rT HE standards of the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business require 40 per cent of cultural work for the Bachelor's degree with another 20 per cent optional. Opinions as to the place of foreign languages in this program vary. Practice in the member schools ranges from a requirement of four units of entrance credits plus twelve semester hours of college credit to nothing at all. In between are those which require only entrance credits, or credits obtained in either preparat6ry school or college, or one or two years of college credit. Thirteen schools require college work.-Columbia, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Syracuse, Tulane, Virginia, Washington and Lee, and Wisconsin require two years of college work. New York's requirement is for the Bachelor of Science degree; if the degree of Bachelor of Commercial Science is sought, no foreign language is required. Tulane stipulates that the work must be in commercial Spanish. North Carolina's requirement is the heaviest because it follows four units of preparatory study. Wisconsin recommends four units for the Bachelor of Arts degree. The usual student in Alabama probably takes two years of college work, but if he enters with three or four units of foreign language he needs to offer but one year of college work in satisfaction of the requirement. Boston, Georgia Tech, and Missouri require one year of college work. Two units of high-school work is usually required as preparation. Missouri specifies three units as required, while Pennsylvania states that its college work is not elementary. It is likely that students in Indiana and Iowa take college work in foreign languages, but the requirement as stated places both of these institutions in the optional requirement class. Seven schools require either high-school or college work.-If a Freshman at Indiana or Iowa enters with credit for four units of foreign language, no further languages are required. If he offers two units, one year is required, if less than two units, two years. Ohio State asks for ten tetm hours unless at least two units are presented for entrance. Chi-


The development of a biological wastewater treatment control system is discussed. It is proposed to take into account the phenomenon of self-organization and self-regulation of activated sludge when constructing a control system. The biological treatment process is presented as the result of the work of a diffuse regulator (coordinator of active points). A mathematical description of the diffuse regulator and predictor is given, which allows predicting a change in the parameters of incoming wastewater for a long-term period. The structure of a dual-circuit adaptive biological treatment control system with a model, coordinator and predictor is presented.


Objective: Low Birth Weight neonates need complementary interventions (e.g. tactile kinesthetic stimulation) to promote their development. This study was conducted to determine the effect of TactileKinesthetic Stimulation (TKS) on motor development of Low Birth Weight neonates. Method: In this clinical trial study, sample was made out of 40 inborn LBW neonates who were divided into two groups randomly. TKS was provided for three 15-minute periods per day for 10 consecutive days to the test group, with the massages consisting of moderate of pressure strokes in prone position and kinesthetic exercises consisting of flexion and extension of limbs in supine position. All measurements were taken before and after completion of the study with the same equipment and by the same person. Results: Results indicated that motor behavior in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group after the 10 days TKS (P-Value≤0.0001).


Copyright © 2018 by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 816 www.ccmjournal.org May 2018 • Volume 46 • Number 5 The impact of telemedicine on critical care outcomes is dependent on the setting in which it is applied and the process used to integrate the technology with patient care. What has become evident is that to achieve successful outcomes, the technology must be used strategically. Although there is a preponderance of data acknowledging the clinical and financial successes of tele-ICU, there is also evidence for lack of benefit. In 2000, Rosenfeld et al (1) demonstrated reduced mortality and length of stay (LOS) with continuous oversight by a dedicated intensivist providing care by telemedicine to a single 10-bed community surgical and trauma ICU. Nassar et al (2), on the other hand, found no reduction in mortality or LOS in a Veterans Administration program. Lilly et al (3) reported on the mortality, LOS, best practice adherence, and complications of tele-ICU at a single academic medical center and found reduced mortality and hospital LOS as well as improved adherence to best practices and a lower rate of preventable complications. Young et al (4) reported decreased ICU mortality and LOS but not hospital mortality or LOS and did note a striking degree of variation in how tele-ICU coverage was described and the types of hospitals studied. Wilcox and Adhikari (5) in a systematic review and meta-analysis found 11 before and after observational studies of 49,457 patients and found lower ICU and hospital mortality with tele-ICU but noted that the effects varied and were perhaps overestimated by nonrandomized designs. Lilly et al (6) reported that there was significant variation among the tele-ICU programs in the United States. Over the last 15 years, it has been recognized that the successful integration of tele-ICU into patient care is dependent on several factors. Some of these include buy-in by bedside clinicians, coordination of care between bedside and telemedicine providers including handovers and management privileges, the type of technology used, adherence to best practices, bedside staff model, use of safety and quality data, hours of operation, types of ICUs, community versus tertiary facilities, hub hours of operation, and the qualifications of providers. The literature on the financial return of a tele-ICU program is less substantial but again reflects on the need to adopt the technology to a strategic process that will deliver better, cost-effective care to the critical care patient (7–10). In this issue of Critical Care Medicine, Armaignac et al (11) report the first study to examine the effect on the mortality, LOS, and cost of a telemedicine application to progressive care units (tele-PCUs). Their primary outcome was PCU and hospital mortality, and secondary outcomes were hospital LOS, PCU LOS, and mean direct costs. The PCU units were across five hospitals, but not all PCU beds had telemedicine monitoring capability. The authors only looked at primary admissions and did not include patients transferred from an ICU to the PCU. This is a large study with 16,091 patients, and although it is retrospective, it did assess the patients concurrently. The study showed that the tele-PCU patients had a significantly decreased mortality (20% survival benefit), reduced LOS in the PCU (2.6 vs 3.2 d), and a decreased hospital mortality despite the fact that the tele-PCU patients were older (71.1 vs 63.4 yr old) and had a higher All Patient Refined-Diagnosis Related Group disease severity. The hospital LOS (7.3 vs 6.8 d) and mean direct costs ($13,180 vs $12,301) for the tele-PCU patients were higher, except for those nontele-PCU patients more than 85 years old. The direct fixed cost included the cost of the telemedicine. Patients with renal, circulatory, and nervous system disorders showed the highest survival benefit. The study by Armaignac et al (11) is the first to examine the effect of telemedicine on mortality, LOS, and cost as it applies to PCUs. There are certain limitations to the study. This was a retrospective study, and admission to a tele-PCU bed was at bedside clinician discretion and not randomized. Although the study involved five PCUs, not every bed had telemedicine monitoring capability. Only primary admissions were included, thus circumventing patients being transferred from the ICU. The study should have included "failure rate" determined by the number or percent of patients transferred from PCU to the ICU as an index of PCU care failure and rates of PCU readmission after transfer to a hospital ward. The authors do not specify if the tele-PCU patients underwent process of care changes such as additional handovers, routine application of evidence-based practices, more frequent rounding by the telemedicine clinician, or whether the staffing of the telemedicine hub afforded the patient more scrutiny by an intensivist, critical care nurse, or pharmacist. Additionally, Figure 2 (11) suggests that the survival benefit for the tele-PCU patients was evident only after a median LOS of 15 days. Nevertheless, this is a valuable addition to the literature and fills a void that can reflect on the vertical integration of *See also p. 728.


The loss of liver regenerative capacity is the most dramatic age‐associated alteration. Because of an incomplete mechanistic understanding of the liver aging process, a successful therapeutic strategy to improve liver regeneration in the elderly has not been developed so far. Hepatocyte plasticity is a principal mechanism for producing new hepatocytes and cholangiocytes during regeneration. This study aims to promote the repopulation capacity of elderly hepatocytes by decoding the underlying mechanism about the regulation of aging on human hepatocyte plasticity.


CASE HISTORIES AND PROBABLE CAUSES OF SLOPE FAILURES IN STIFF-FISSURED CLAYS AND SHALES ARE REVIEWED, AND ANALYSES ARE DESCRIBED WHICH WERE PERFORMED TO DETERMINE THE INFLUENCE OF THE INITIAL STRESS CONDITIONS ON THE STRESSES AROUND EXCAVATED SLOPES. THESE ANALYSES SHOW THAT THE SHEAR STRESSES AROUND EXCAVATIONS ARE MUCH LARGER FOR CONDITIONS REPRESENTATIVE OF HEAVILY OVERCONSOLIDATED CLAYS (HIGH INITIAL HORIZONTAL STRESSES) THAN FOR CONDITIONS REPRESENTATIVE OF NORMALLY CONSOLIDATED CLAYS (LOW INITIAL STRESSES). SHEAR STRESSES LARGE ENOUGH TO CAUSE FAILURE AT SOME POINTS MAY DEVELOP EVEN WHEN THE FACTOR OF SAFETY CALCULATED BY THE INCLINATION OF MOHR ENVELOPE EQUALS 0 METHOD OF ANALYSIS IS MUCH LARGER THAN UNITY. THE HIGHER THE HORIZONTAL STRESSES BEFORE EXCAVATION, THE HIGHER THE FACTOR OF SAFETY CORRESPONDING TO DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL FAILURE. /ASCE/


Modular automation is a recent concept for industrial automation offering a more flexible production with less engineering effort. Historically, incompatible standards for modular automation exist in different industrial segments, e.g., in process automation (Module Type Package) and discrete automation (PackML). The incompatibility of these standards has a particular negative impact on so called hybrid or mixed-equipment production facilities where process and discrete manufacturing modules co-exist in a physical installation. In this contribution, we propose an integration approach of both standards which is based on Industry 4.0 technologies (e.g., Asset Administration Shell). Our approach is validated on a simulated process plant involving commercial soft-PLCs of multiple vendors for MTP modules and a BPMN-based process orchestrator.


ii Acknowledgements vii Vita viii List of tables xv List of Figures xvii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Background and motivation 1 1.2 Current dispersion as a limiting factor in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for high-power/highspeed applications 6 1.2.1 Current dispersion in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs 6 1.2.2 Trapping mechanism: surface/bulk electron trapping 9 1.3 Efforts to minimize trapping effects 24 1.4 AlGaN/GaN HEMT operation and electron transport 31 1.4.1 Basic theory of GaN HEMT operation 31 1.4.2 Electron transport in GaN-based materials 38 1.5 Research Objectives 48 1.6 Organization 51 Chapter 2: AlGaN/GaN HEMT Fabrication 54 2.1 AlGaN/GaN Heterostructures 54 2.2 HEMT processing procedure 55 2.2.1 Fiducial layer 56 2.2.2 Mesa Isolation 58 2.2.3 Ohmic metallization 63


The demand for Photovoltaic (PV) energy system has been on the growth. A system planning software has been developed using C# and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to aid the photovoltaic system design engineer to plan a standalone PV system with battery backup, taking into account of various key design parameters. It calculates the PV tilted angle, potential energy output from PV arrays, storage battery and cable sizing, and provides suggestions on the system protection devices.


Anne Arundel County's Lost Towns Project recently completed an extensive archeological survey in an attempt to locate the "lost" 17 th century town of Herrington. Perhaps the second oldest settlement in the county, historical research and recovered diagnostic artifacts indicate that Herrington may date as early as the 1650s. The 100-acre survey project centered on an area that is still called Town Point in southern Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The excavation of 600 shovel test pits eventually identified a total of six archeological sites. These included one prehistoric, two 19 th century, and three multi-component sites— including two with 17 th century occupations. A large concentration of 17 th century diagnostics was found in close proximity to active and relict springheads and a probable town-period road.


Dispersion forces, such as Casimir and van der Waals forces, can have a significant influence on the fabrication, handling, and assembly processes as well as the performance of micro- and nanodevices. In this paper, we investigate the Casimir force between a graphene sheet and a ferromagnetic metallic substrate in vacuum. The reflection coefficients, entering the expression for the force, are dependent on the graphene conductivity, which is described by the Kubo formalism. It is found that the magnetic response of the ferromagnet plays a significant role at low temperatures or high value of the graphene chemical potential. The numerical results also demonstrate that the thickness of the metallic plate has a minor influence on the Casimir force. This study maybe useful for the design and operation of micro- and nanodevices.


Abstract This study was an attempt to evaluate sperm chromatin structure in the semen of insemination boars. Preparations of semen were stained with acridine orange, aniline blue, and chromomycin A3. Abnormal protamination occurred more frequently in young individuals whose sexual development was not yet complete, but may also be an individual trait. This possibility is important to factor into the decision regarding further exploitation of insemination boars. Thus a precise assessment of abnormalities in the protamination process would seem to be expedient as a tool supplementing morphological and molecular evaluation of semen. Disruptions in nucleoprotein structure can be treated as indicators of the biological value of sperm cells.


Visual classifications were used successfully to measure differences in damage to com seedlings by the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith). Finer levels of damage are detectable using an 11-class rating system. If high levels of resistance occur, they can be detected visually. Use of seedlings permits more lines to be screened in less time with smaller space requirements than formerly, and tests can be conducted throughout the year.

FAW #1, a selection from Antigua 2D × (B10 × B14), and Texas Experimental Hybrid 6417 are the most resistant lines of corn studied thus far. Ioana sweet corn was used as the susceptible check.


The experience of psychoanalytic clinical work with adults has long supported the conviction that adult patients' current ways of functioning have a complex history dating back to early childhood and indeed to infancy. This gave rise to an interest among psychoanalysts in early development. This interest was at first pursued mainly through clinical work with adults and children, but from the beginning there has also been an interest in directly observing childhood and infancy unfolding in its natural setting in order to study early modes of mental functioning and the quality of infantile experiences (Freud 1909, 1920; Klein 1921, 1952a; Winnicott 1941).* In 1948 Esther Bick, with the support of John Bowlby, established Infant Observation as a central part of the training of child psychotherapists at the Tavistock Clinic (Bick 1964). This chapter gives an outline of one particular psychoanalytic model of mental and emotional development rather than covering the full range of psychoanalytic theories of development. It is a model which derives centrally, though not exclusively, from the work of Klein, Winnicott, Bick and Bion. This account does not give separate descriptions of their work or explore the differences between their positions. Rather, it seeks to outline the view of infant development which has been derived from their work and which is, broadly speaking, part of a shared tradition of thought among those teaching on the Tavistock Clinic Psycho-analytic Observation course. We have tried to give a description of the relevant psychoanalytic ideas in a form which would be useful to readers who are unfamiliar with this approach. At various points, chiefly in the footnotes, we have related this model to some of the issues currently being debated within developmental psychology. (Students attend a separate course reviewing the academic literature on child development.) Psychoanalytic theory has arisen gradually. It is not an unchanging body of dogma, nor is it a homogeneous entity; rather, it is made up of a


This project is about studying on ergonomic aspects and a design of functional cart. The purpose of this project is to investigate ergonomic aspects. Several cart which
available at the market now has been analyzed and cleaner's trolley has been selected. The observation and analysis of the cart and operator will be conducted. During the
observation and analysis the cart, several factors must be considered such as performance, accessories, size and maintenance. Several anthropometry data must also used as a design consideration for cart. In the end of this project, cart that has an ergonomics element must be produced. Besides, some technical drawing and maybe prototype of the cart also must be produces. In order to know the effectiveness of this ergonomic aspect, some
observation and response from the operator will be conducted. Some constraint that has to face is there is no complete anthropometry data for population in Malaysia For that, this project can be further studied by taking anthropometry data as a prime design consideration.


Abstract Recurrent stone detection is common after endoscopic treatment of common bile duct stones (CBDS). This study aimed to identify the risk factors for recurrence of CBDS. We retrospectively evaluated 14 patients who underwent endoscopic treatment for CBDS. Risk factors for single and multiple recurrent CBDSs were evaluated using logistic regression analysis. Endoscopic and needle-knife precut sphincterotomy was performed in 506 and 112 patients, respectively. There was 1 recurrence in 85 patients (13.8%), 2 recurrences in 23 patients (3.7%), and 3 recurrences in 9 patients (1.5%). According to the multivariate analyses, being older than 65 years (odds ratio [OR] 1.084, P = .000), concomitant heart disease (OR 2.528, P = .002), concomitant lung disease (OR 1.766, P = .035), a large common bile duct diameter (OR 1.347, P = .000), presence of cholelithiasis (OR 1.752, P = .018), stent (OR 1.794, P = .023), or T-tube placement in the common bile duct (OR 47.385, P = .000), and prolongation of the procedure (OR 1.037, P = .000) increased the risk of recurrence, while having undergone cholecystectomy due to gallstones (OR 1.645, P = .042). The mean stone diameter (P = .059), nitroglycerin use (P = .129), and periampullary diverticulum (P = .891) did not increase the risk of recurrent CBDS. The probability of multiple recurrences after the first recurrence of CBDS increased with age >65 years, concomitant heart/lung diseases, stent/T-tube placement in the common bile duct, a wide common bile duct (≥10 mm), and cholelithiasis.


Two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MOS<inf>2</inf>) is a potential sunlight harvester due to low cost, layered type atomic structure, favorable electrical and optical properties. The performance of a molybdenum disulfide (MOS<inf>2</inf>) photovoltaic cell is investigated by using the wxAMPS simulator. The hidden potentiality of Mos2is unfolded by using BSF strategy. The photoconversion efficiency is found 21.39% <tex>$(\pmb{J_{sc}}=\pmb{29.89}\ \mathbf{mA}/\mathbf{cm}^{\pmb{2}},\pmb{V_{oc}=0.841}\mathbf{V}$</tex> and <tex>$\mathbf{FF}=\pmb{0.856}$</tex>) for <tex>$\mathbf{r}\ \ \pmb{1}\ \ \pmb{\mu} \mathbf{m\ MoS}_{\pmb{2}}$</tex> absorber layer with 100 nm SnS BSF whereas in conventional structure, it is found 19.48% <tex>$(\pmb{V_{oc}=0.826}\mathbf{V}, \pmb{J_{sc}}=\pmb{27.848}\ \ \mathbf{mA}/\mathbf{cm}^{\pmb{2}}$</tex>, and <tex>$\mathbf{FF}=\pmb{0.846)}$</tex> without BSF for 1 <tex>$\pmb{\mu} \mathbf{m\ MoS}_{\pmb{2}}$</tex> absorber layer. The measured temperature coefficient (TC) is <tex>$\pmb{-0.047\%/}^{\circ}\mathbf{C}$</tex> for conventional photovoltaic cell structure and −0.046<sup>%</sup>/°C for a modified structure with SnS BSF. It indicates the better thermal stability of the modified structure compared to the conventional structure.


Mathematical models have proven valuable for public health decision makers as they can provide insights into the understanding, control and, ultimately, the prevention of diseases. This thesis cont ...


Persons with mental retardation need to be viewed, on a daily basis, as having potentiality. Viewed in this way, programming is never static and opportunities are provided throughout the life cycle for potentiality to emerge. A developmental approach to encourage expression of potentiality is presented.


In this study, strain relaxed and compressive strained Ge1-x-ySnxSiy (0.015≤x≤0.15 and 0≤y≤0.15) layers were epitaxially grown on Si substrate in a chemical vapor deposition reactor at atmospheric ...


A 48-year-old male presented with progressive exertional dyspnea and was found on transthoracic echocardiography to have multiple right atrial masses (Fig. 1). There was severe tricuspid regurgitation with an estimated pulmonary artery pressure of 85mmHg. A contrast-enhanced computed tomogram of the chest revealed filling defects in both pulmonary arteries and a 2 2.5 cm mass in the right atrium (Fig. 2). At the time of surgery, three foci of myxomas were excised with partial thickness of the atrial wall (Fig. 3). Longitudinal Figure 1. Transthoracic echocardiography image showing multiple masses in right atrium.