IT HAS for long been the custom in the great teaching hospitals of these islands, at the beginning of each academic year, for a member of the senior medical staff to deliver an address. I have little doubt at its inception this was a method of introducing the new student to his hospital, advising him of its traditions and practices, and instructing him on his new responsibilities and duties towards his patients. This simple introductory lecture has slowly blossomed into an elaborate ceremonial occasion. This morning, on behalf of the medical staff of the Royal Victoria Hospital, I have the pleasant duty of formally welcoming those students who have recently begun to walk the Wards. In addition, I would like to welcome all those who have come here today, and particularly the ladies who now grace this occasion. My task as spokesman for the medical staff is made difficult by the very high quality of the addresses of previous orators. During the last 30 years I have listened with admiration and awe, first to my teachers, and, more recently, to my colleagues. The depth of their learning and the high content of their orations have left a deep and abiding impression. Last year my colleague, friend and fellow student, Dr. Breen, delighted us all with his oration "Quo Vadis", departing from the traditional historical subject to a more philosophical approach. I find his erudition and scholarship an impossible task to follow. Every student should know that this hospital and medical school owe their foundation to James McDonnell, a physician, who in 1792 opened the Belfast Dispensary in Factory Row, now Berry Street, with six beds. As Belfast grew and the demands for hospital beds increased, the General Hospital of 100 beds was opened in Frederick Street, off York Street, in 1817. In its early years this hospital was largely filled by fever cases, and it was not until many years later that an operating theatre was equipped. The third move did not take place until 1903, when the hospital moved to its present site. The history of the years 1903-1953 have been recorded with great accuracy and tender care by Dr. Robert Marshall, our admirable historian, consultant physician, and raconteur. To all those who aspire to know their hospital, and follow its traditions, this book is a must. The Royal Victoria Hospital has been slowly expanding since its inception, adding …


* Address correspondence to: J. H. Harleman, ASTA Medica AG, Corporate Research, Department of Experimental Pathology, Kantstraße 2, D-33790 Halle/Westfalen, Germany. The role of pathology in research and development (R&D) is very much dependent upon our concept of pathology itself. The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary of the English Language (3) provides an interesting dual definition of &dquo;pathology&dquo;: 1) The scientific study of the nature of disease, its causes, processes, development and consequences; 2) The anatomic or functional manifestation of disease. The word &dquo;pathology&dquo; is derived from the Greek &dquo;pathologia,&dquo; which means the study of passions. (Some persons may wonder whether pathologists are that passionate.) As defined in medical handbooks from at least A.D. 150 onward, pathology was that part of medicine that was specifically concerned with the causes of disease ( 1 ). Even though our lives and our living and working conditions are changing constantly, human nature as well as the underlying disease processes are remarkably stable. This is not a new concept. In ca. 500 B.C., Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher from Asia Minor, had already postulated that &dquo;Constant is only the continuous change&dquo; (2, 4). He illustrated this in the following example: &dquo;If one


Bresnan proposes a model of constituent structure revolving around two universal modes of organisation endocentricity and lexicocentricity For endocentric structures a set of universal principles of structure function association provides a canonical mapping from nodes to f structures This model proposes a highly constrained view of constituent structure but does not take into account syntactic cliticisation We o er an account of Welsh pronominal cliticisation within this framework We argue that the pronominal clitics in question are syntactically rather than morphologically positioned and provide a structure for them We extend the universal principles of structure function association to permit argument functions to be associated with clitic positions We then turn to distributional questions concerning forms of pronominal expression in Welsh demonstrating the relevance of the notions of mutual exclusion and pre emption to cliticisation The LFG account captures mutual exclusion phenomenon in a simple and straightforward way Finally we show that the proposed structure goes some way to explaining the pre emptive quality of cliticisation


On 25 October 2005 the Federal Cartel Office ("FCO") decided not to take action against the intention of several small and medium-sized brick producers to conclude a cartel agreement. The FCO based…


Silicon carbide is an ultra-high-temperature ceramic proposed for hypersonic flight applications. However, its use is limited at conditions where oxidation causes aggressive material degradation an...


Data from 483 societies included in the Ethnographic Atlas were used to compare the relative utility of linear (r) and curvilinear (Eta) correlation models in cross-cultural research. The societies included in the sample were selected in accordance with the procedures recommended by Murdock. The variables included in the study were selected so as to represent four important areas of evolutionary theory: energy supply (agricultural levels), differentiation (class stratification and the division of labor used in metal working, weaving, and pottery making), societal scale (mean size of local communities and settlement pattern), and integrative mode (central states). In addition to supporting the hypothesis that energy supply, differentiation, societal scale, and integrative mode are interrelated, the results indicate that the linear correlation model, r, frequently results in underestimations of the true strength of relationship between variables. It is suggested that comparativists should regularly test for curvilinear relationships in order to avoid possible errors in estimation.


Random walks are the first choice for gathering random samples from communication networks. In its simplest form, which we will call classical random-walk (RW) sampling, random walkers select an outgoing link with equal probability to visit an adjacent node. Although classical RW sampling is preferable because of its simplicity, it does not perform uniform sampling when the degree of the network nodes is not uniformly distributed, in that case, it introduces a large amount of bias to the nodes of large degree. We propose a technique that uses an idea from probability theory, change of measure, to correct the bias in the data obtained by classical RW sampling. For this purpose, we introduce two probability measures defined on a common space: one is a probability measure that characterizes the observation by using a uniformly sampled node, and the other characterizes the observation by using a node sampled by classical RW sampling. Using the relationship between the two probability measures, the statistics for the data from the uniform sampling can be inferred from the statistics for the data from the classical RW sampling. We present a mathematical framework for the above-mentioned approach and derive several formulas for transforming between the two types of statistics. Simulation experiments based on the data of real networks verify the effectiveness of this proposal.


The chitosan of the different concentrations was used to absorb the purine in beer and to solve the purine in beer with HClO_4 hydrolysis method.Four kinds of the purines was analyzed with HPLC method.The data showed that chitosan can absorb the purine in beer and reduce purine concentration in beer.


Paucibacillary leprosy of the palmo-plantar skin is regarded as unusual. Three cases of Paucibacillary leprosy with such lesions are discussed and the relevent literature reviewed.


The primary purpose of this research was to examine the perceived consequences of ten types of contract administration problems for each of seven contract types and to determine how likely each of these consequences were perceived to be. Building upon the earlier research of Davison and Sebastian (in press a, b), the research surveyed National Institute of Government Purchasing (NIGP) and Institute of Supply Management (ISM) members. For each of seven types of contract (e.g., supplies and small purchases) the respondents were asked to indicate the typical consequences they experienced for each of ten contract administration problems (e.g., wrong product). The major problematic consequences examined were contract delays, contract costs, and contract termination. The perceived likelihood of occurrence for each consequence, on the contracting process, was determined for each contract problem within each contract type. The major findings were that when contract administration problems occurred, problematic consequences were more likely than no consequences for all contract types except leases and that the types of problematic consequences that were most likely depended on the type of contract. The implications of the results from this research and Davison and Sebastian's previous findings for procurement professionals and the purchasing process were discussed along with future research directions.


1. Microvascular leakage, a primary feature of inflammation, is well known for worsening the asthmatic condition. Gene expression of and a specific receptor for type‐C natriuretic peptide (CNP), initially considered a neuropeptide, have been detected in the human vascular wall and secretion of CNP from vascular endothelial cells has recently been demonstrated. These facts suggest the presence of a vascular natriuretic peptide system and led us to expect that CNP may act beneficially on airway microvascular leakage in asthma. In the present study, we investigated the effects of CNP against leukotriene (LT) D4 ‐induced airway microvascular leakage and bronchocon‐striction and how these effects were potentiated by thiorphan, a potent neutral endopeptidase 188.8.131.52 (NEP) inhibitor.


The reaction cross-sections are calculated for various Li, Be and B+12C systems, also involving the exotic halo nuclei, by using both the spherical and deformed relativistic mean field (RMF) densities in the finite range Glauber model with Coulomb effects included. For reactions at higher energies (>500 MeV/nucleon), both the spherical and deformed RMF densities give similar results for all the isotopic chains of exotic nuclei studied here. On the other hand, for reactions between stable nuclei, though the two RMF densities (spherical and deformed) result in simply an overall normalization for the excitation functions, it gives an improved comparison with experimental data, at high and low energies for spherical and deformed densities, respectively. A similar normalization is obtained for other densities, which means to stress that, though densities are different, they do not change much with the excitation energy. Finally, some details of the characteristic properies of exotic light nuclei are shown to contain the deformation effects of the halo nuclei.


Al-Cu crystals have been investigated by in-situ aging with a high resolution electron microscope. Results obtained are summarized as follows: a) Four types of G.P. zones are formed by aging at low temperatures. b) In these G.P. zones, pre-G.P zones, G.P.-1 and G.P.2(3) whose Cu-rich {100} planes are separated with three Al-rich {100} planes disappear at room temperature by electron irradiation at 300 kV c) G.R-2(2) zones whose Cu-rich {100} planes are separated with two Al-rich {100} planes easily transform to 03B8'-phase at room temperature by the same electron irradiation. d) The local content of Cu-atoms in these G.P. zones have been estimated from the results obtained by in-situ experiment of electron irradiation induced diffusion. Based on these results, mechanisms on the diffusion of Cu-atoms, the formation of various types of G.P. zones, and the transition from G.P. zones to 03B8'-phase are discussed in terms of Al-Cu atom pairs.


It was very exciting to see a dream become reality with the publication and launch of the first edition of the British Journal of Healthcare Assistants. We trust that you found that the contents and standard of the Journal met your expectations. As this is the first journal specifically for non-registered nurses it is important that you, the readers, tell us what you would like to see included and at which level. The comments we have already received have been really positive and we thank you for taking the time to write. We value your input and look forward to even more letters and emails.


Background  Nonmelanoma skin cancer is caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation within sunlight. Actinic keratoses (AKs) are benign precursor lesions that can develop into invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Little is known about the molecular events that lead to human skin cancer progression from benign to invasive.


By using a weight function,a basic Hilbert-type integral inequality with a homogeneous kernel of-1-degree and the best constant factor is given.The equivalent form and the extended integral inequalities with multiple parameters are considered.


Aim of doing this project stems from the belief that there is an urgent need to introduce environmental thinking into supply chain management. The supply chain consists of those motions associated with manufacturing from raw material obtainment to final product delivery. Under the scenery of globalization, Green supply chain management (GSCM) is identified as direct and effective mechanism to address environmental problems along the global value chain, But there are many drivers as well as barriers' which affects directly and indirectly in the implementation of this in an organization. GSCM not only advances environmental performance but also helps reduce cost improves efficiency and speeds up innovation. The aim of this paper is to briefly review the recent literatures on GSCM and study the drivers and challenges that the construction sector in India is experiencing for its implementation. Innovative sustainable ideas can help organizations become profitable while helping the environment and simultaneously establish long-term buyer-supplier relationships.


Various methods exist for capacitor charging circuits, but for all, a high frequency inverter is indispensable to realize high repetitive operation of the pulsed power modulator. While high frequency operation of the inverter is effective in charging voltage accuracy, the switching loss increases in proportion to the frequency of the inverter. This study utilizes a half-bridge circuit as inverter circuit to the charger characterized by the following components: The switching device is a SiC-based MOSFET (Silicon-Carbide based Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor), and the converter circuit uses high-speed SiC-based diodes. After simulating capacitor charging circuit loss while varying operating frequency of the variable frequency inverter, we analyzed the stability of the charging voltage, continuous operation, and downsizing of charger.


An important consideration when planning a network of transmitters which must provide a service to portable receivers, many of which will be used inside the home, is that of building penetration losses. Building penetration loss is the difference in the level of field strength received inside a building compared to the level existing outside. The BBC has made a number of building penetration loss measurements. Using transmissions from the London area single frequency networks (SFN) transmitters, 39 sets of building penetration loss measurements were obtained for VHF Band III. Five buildings were also measured at Band I and two were measured at L-Band. This paper contains details of measurements and the results of building penetration made in domestic buildings. (6 pages)


Mytilaria laosensis Lec is a tree species of Hamamelidaceae.It is a landscaping species with high economic value,which grows very fast.Its introduction,collecting seeds,raising seedlings,forestation technique and growth rule is studied and reported.The result shows that when its filial generation produces the second generation,it bears flowers and brings fruits in 7-8 years old with the setting percentage of 3%~5% and the good ratio of 72.7%.The kernel weight of good seeds is 138.93±4.36g.The annual increment is 1.03m for height,1.0cm for ground diameter.The mean annual precipitation of 27-year-old Mytilaria laosensis Lec is 0.81m for height,1.1cm for DBH and 0.02631m3 for volum.


Allergic rhinitis (AR), one of the most common inflammatory diseases, is caused by immunoglobulin E (IgE)–mediated reactions against inhaled allergens. AR involves mucosal inflammation driven by type 2 helper T (Th2) cells. Previously, it was shown that the Streptococcus pneumoniae pep27 mutant (Δpep27) could prevent and treat allergic asthma by reducing Th2 responses. However, the underlying mechanism of Δpep27 immunization in AR remains undetermined. Here, we investigated the role of Δpep27 immunization in the development and progression of AR and elucidated potential mechanisms. In an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced AR mice model, Δpep27 alleviated allergic symptoms (frequency of sneezing and rubbing) and reduced TLR2 and TLR4 expression, Th2 cytokines, and eosinophil infiltration in the nasal mucosa. Mechanistically, Δpep27 reduced the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in the nasal mucosa by down-regulating the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway. In conclusion, Δpep27 seems to alleviate TLR signaling and NLRP3 inflammasome activation to subsequently prevent AR.


In September 1999, the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk delivered a speech to a circle of intellectuals at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria that was to give the attending media an incentive to inaugurate a heated debate over the accuracy of his observations and especially over whether he advocates harnessing genetic technology to the improvement of human kind. Under the motto Regeln fur den Menschenpark ('Regulations for the Human Park'), the speech was subsequently published in book form with like title (1999, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main). First and foremost, Sloterdijk's speech constitutes an answer to Martin Heidegger's Brief uber den Humanismus ('Letter on Humanism'). It provides a backdrop against which one may examine the notions of human nature, humanism, and humanistic versus technocratic culture as they obtain in human society today. In this short essay, I will first sketch the content of Sloterdijk's speech, then present what I feel to be the downand upside of human genetic engineering, and finally offer a general comment on the issues and author dealt with here. Gnosis, Vol. VI, No. 1, September, 2002


Objective
To investigated the effects of Rhodiola Compound on improving the intellective function in mice and provide the basis for clinical application.

Methods
Mice were divided to different groups of three doses of rhodiola compound (0.3g/kg, 0.6g/kg, 1.2g/kg) and swimming abilities were tested. Other mice were administrated single dose of compound rhodiola(1.2g/kg) and training by Morris water maze. Drug's improving intelligence function was assessed using memory acquisition impaired models made by scopolamine or alcohol. When the Morris water maze test was finished, mice were killed and brains were removed immediately to measure SOD and NO levels.

Results
Groups of three doses of compound rhodiola could significantly prolong the swimming time(P<0.05, P<0.01). Compound Rhodiola group can significantly reduce the swimming distance than the untreated group(ethanol model group: (26 906.6±2769.7)mm, RCE treated group: (19 586.1±6826.7)mm; P<0.05). Swimming distance and time of cross-platform quadrant was significantly increased, comparing with model group (P<0.05). Compound Rhodiola significantly enhanced the activity of mouse brain's SOD (Scopolamine model group: (150.3±17.7)U/ml, RCE treated group: (197.9±16.8)U/ml; P<0.05)and NO levels(Scopolamine model group: (44.7±16.7)μmol/gprot, RCE treated group: (65.4±14.5)μmol/gprot; P<0.05) significantly.

Conclusion
Compound Rhodiola could promote mice learning and memory function, SOD and NO in brain maybe play a important role in this effect.

Key words:
Rhodiola Compound; Learning and memory; Mice


Objective To understand the types of male and female patients with schizophrenia medication and dose differences in the clinical use of drugs for later provide evidence.Methods From 2009 l~12 hospitalized more than three months our hospital 160 patients with schizophrenia,in which 82 patients with schizophrenic male,78 cases of women as objects,were analyzed.Results Male patients with risperidone,51 patients(62.20%),A Leekpai azole in 13 cases(15.85%),clozapine in 10 patients(12.20%),olanzapine in 8 cases(9.75%);female patients with schizophrenia:Lee Pei-ketone 31(39.74%),A Leekpai yl 32(41.02%),sulpiride 12(15.38%),3 cases of olanzapine(3.85%).Conclusion The male and female patients with schizophrenia,the first choice in medication risperidone.Slightly larger than the female patients the dose of male patients,A Leekpai azole in the amount of female patients is also larger,but no significant difference.


Objective To discuss the relationship between connective tissue disease (CTD) associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and cardiac insufficiency, as well as the effects among the various therapeutic prescriptions against PAH and cardiac insufficiency. Methods Fourteen patients (mean±SD age, 52 ± 18) diagnosed as having CTD associated PAH (CTDaPAH) were retrospectively analyzed in our Hospital between February 1996 and July 2008. ECG, X-ray, UCG of thoracic part and clinical manifestation before and after treatment for each patient were analyzed and compared. Results Among fourteen patients, the incidence of low right pulmonary artery widening was 50% for patients suffering from moderate or severe PAH , and right ventricular hypertrophy discovered in ECG only occurred in 28.57% of severe PAH patients. Some correlation could be found both between PAH widening of inner diameter of right ventricle and between PAH low right pulmonary artery. 4 patients ( 28.57% , 4/14) developed acute left cardiac insufficiency and 5 patients (35.71%, 5/14) developed total cardiac insufficiency. The therapeutic effect of corticosteroid therapy was proven to be the most significant and had statistical significance among the various therapy prescriptions against rheumatism and cardiac insufficiency. Conclusions Our research disclosedthe high frequency of cardiac insufficiency in CTDaPAH patients. Routine ECG , Chest X-ray and UCG test for cardiac insufficiency should be applied to CTDaPAH patients in order to monitor simultaneously the pulmonary artery pressure and the status of cardiac functioning. Active treatment was proven to be effective in treating PAH and cardiac insufficiency at early phase.


A generalized 2-D discrete-time filter is considered. Using the concept of a wave advance process, the filter equation is converted to a 1-D recursive form. A 1-D state equation is then developed and a canonical form for the state equation is presented. A norm bound on state transitions is developed, which is then related to the coefficients of the underlying filter equation. The norm bound is used to specify asymptotic stability conditions; the resultant criteria are illustrated through examples. >


To the Editor.— The illustrations in the article by Dr David Furnas entitled "Ten Speed Bicycles and Shoulder Bags" (236:2318, 1976) shows another danger. There are no lights, front or back, on the bicycle shown. With the medical profession encouraging daily exercise by older people, bike riding after work and therefore after sundown is on the increase. To prevent accidents, why aren't manufacturers required to paint bicycles with fluorescent paint or to have lights or reflectors at the front, back, and sides?


When I was recently writing an intervention for the congress 'Inventory' in Vienna 1 I tried to answer the questions: why do we produce ourselves, promote ourselves, distribute ourselves, and explain ourselves? [2005] By 'we' I tried to point to an 'illegitimate class· of artists-being-theorists-being-curators who are working in the international market of performing arts and are habitually presented as exemplifying eastern European participation in new performance developments.


THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POST GRADUATE SCHOOL
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA; IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF DECREE OF MASTER OF
SCIENCE IN GEOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
AHMAD BELLO UNIVERSITY
ZARIA
NOVEMBER, 2011


Purpose of reviewMajor advances have been made in the understanding of the immune mechanisms underlying hyperacute and acute vascular xenograft rejection. Key roles of T and B lymphocytes have been revealed and significant progress has been made in understanding how they contribute to xenograft rejection and how they can be tolerized. In addition to the well established contribution of naturally occurring anti-Galα1,3Galβ1,4GlcNAc antibodies, the importance of active participation in xenograft rejection by other components of the innate immune system is increasingly being acknowledged. Recent findingsNaturally occurring anti-Galα1,3Galβ1,4GlcNAc antibodies and complement play a central role in hyperacute xenograft rejection and are also involved in acute vascular xenograft rejection. Reports indicate that natural killer cells can contribute to xenograft rejection, and several mechanisms of action have been proposed. Furthermore, evidence indicates that macrophages and neutrophils are able to directly recognize xenogeneic target cells and to directly mediate xenograft damage. Although a role of Toll-like receptor signalling in allograft rejection is emerging, data on its role in xenograft rejection are limited. SummarySeveral components of the innate immune system can actively participate in xenograft rejection and thus represent a barrier to xenograft acceptance that may be particularly difficult to overcome.


Olefins have been regarded as one of the most important platform chemicals. The production of olefins and their derivatives are highly subject to oil. Developing coal-to-olefins processes is therefore of great interest to many countries, especially China. However, people have to face and pay for the severe environmental problems resulting from coal-to-olefins development. Of these problems, high CO2 emission of a coal-to-olefins process, always attracts the most attention since it is about five to six times of that of an oil-to-olefins process. For this problem, this paper proposes a new natural gas assisted coal-to-olefins process integrating CO2 recovery gasification and CH4/CO2 reforming techniques. The former technique increases the amount of syngas from the gasifier, while the latter one uses additional natural gas reacting with CO2 to produce H2-rich syngas. Key parameters are studied during the simulation of the new process. The advantages of the process are manifested by comparison with a conventi...


Since deep neural networks can fully fit all data, including noisy labels, that is, mislabeled data, this will be detrimental to the robustness and generalization ability of the network. To address this problem, existing methods usually use small loss tricks to select clean samples for training. However, sample selection using only small loss techniques cannot distinguish between large loss "hard" samples and noise samples. In this work, we analyze the reasons why clean samples are misidentified as noise samples and propose a balanced selection mechanism based on loss variation. This method sorts the amount of loss change, uses variance to count the rankings of multiple epochs to describe the stability of loss variation, and selects samples with stable loss as clean samples to reduce the misclassification of "hard" samples. At the same time, semantic clustering is used to assist resampling and reweighting, thereby alleviating the negative impact 1 of class imbalance on sample selection. We conduct comparative experiments and ablation experiments on synthetic noise datasets and real-world datasets such as CIFAR-10/100 and Clothing1M. Our VRLVMix has been shown to outperform numerous state-of-the-art methods, as evidenced by the experimental results. Moreover, it demonstrates the ability to extract clean samples even from large loss sample.


This Paper is based upon the examination of about 3 thousands of specimens of the genus Stethorus collected from 28 districts in Fujian Province, South China. 9 species of Stethorus are recognized, of which 2 species marked are first records for Fujian Province, 1 species marked is newly recorded in mainland China and 1 species is unidentified. Stethorus punctillum weise is a dominant species in North and Northwest Fujian. In other areas Stethorus siphonulus Kapur and Stethorus cantoneusis Pang are found as the most important species. The hosts and geographic distribution of each species, and the simple analyses of fauna of Stethorus in Fujian Province are Provieded in the Paper.


This guide has been created to provide you with quick access to resources that are relevant to the Plumbing program at NSCC.


Prof. Dr. NMS de Groot is supported by funding grants from CVON-AFFIP (914728), NWO-Vidi (91717339), Biosense Webster USA (ICD 783454) and Medical Del

 Treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) is still suboptimal as mechanisms underlying AF initiation and persistence are incompletely understood. Endo-Epicardial asynchrony (EEA) plays an important role in AF persistence and has so far only been demonstrated in the right atrium (RA).

 To investigate whether EEA also exists in the thin walled left atrium (LA) and to measure the maximal degree of EEA between the endo- and epicardial layers during sinus rhythm (SR).

 Simultaneous endo-epicardial mapping of the LA was performed during SR in 3 male patients (73 ± 1.5 years) with history of paroxysmal AF undergoing cardiac surgery including rhythm surgery and LA appendage amputation. Simultaneous endo-epicardial mapping was performed with a mapping clamp containing two electrode arrays of 8x16 electrodes (diameters: 0.4mm, interelectrode distance: 2mm) positioned exactly opposite to each other. The mapping clamp was introduced through the LA appendage with its tip towards the superior pulmonary vein. Local endo-epicardial activation time differences were determined by selecting the median time delay within the exact opposite electrode and its 8 surrounding electrodes. The asynchrony map consisted of the maximum of 2 medians from direct opposite electrodes. EEA was defined as time differences ≥15ms. Conduction delay (CD) and conduction block (CB) were defined as differences in local activation times between neighboring electrodes of respectively ≥7 and ≥12ms.

 A total of 35 SR beats were analyzed. Mean total activation time of the whole endo-epicardial LA tissue was 42.4 ± 9.5ms and did not differ between both layers (epicardium: 31.2 ± 9.9ms; endocardium: 37.8 ± 10.3ms; P= 0.62). CD and CB were observed in respectively 3.2% and 6.3% at the epicardium and 3.3% and 3.0% at the endocardium. The lowest amount of CD (5.2%) and CB (0.3%) was observed in the patient who had his first AF episode only 11 days prior to surgery. Also, no EEA was present in this patient. In two patients with paroxysmal AF >6 months, the prevalence of EEA was respectively 2.7% and 41.4% and the degree of EEA ranged from 15 to 44ms. Interestingly, the patient with the highest degree of EEA was diagnosed with paroxysmal AF for almost 5 years (Figure 1).

 Our data provides evidence for the existence of EEA in the human left atrium which appears to be already present during SR. Knowledge of EEA and the ability to stage AF based on the degree of EEA is essential for individualized and staged future therapy for AF.
 Abstract Figure 1. The maximal degree of endo-epi


The present study aimed to provide a deep insight of short-range and medium-range structural order for CaO–SiO 2 –TiO 2 –B 2 O 3 glasses. From various prospects, four techniques, FTIR, Raman, XPS and NMR, were simultaneously employed and only the direct evidences indicated from the spectra were used for structural analysis. The FTIR and Raman spectra proved that the main silicon-related units were Q 0 (Si), Q 1 (Si), Q 2 (Si) and Q 3 (Si) and the results of Raman fittings revealed that a B 2 O 3 addition resulted in an increase of Q 1 (Si) and Q 3 (Si) at the cost of Q 0 (Si) and Q 2 (Si), thus inducing an increasing Degree of Polymerization (DOP). An enhanced DOP generally implied a lower abundance of non-bridging oxygen in the networks, which was further demonstrated by the O1s XPS fittings. Additionally, the 11 B NMR spectra indicated that the dominant boron-related groups were BO 3 trigonal comprising ring and non-ring BO 3 as well as BO 4 tetrahedral comprising BO 4 (1B,3Si) and BO 4 (0B,4Si). Furthermore, it was clarified that an increase of B 2 O 3 content promoted the ratios of BO 4 (1B,3Si) to BO 4 (0B,4Si) and BO 4 tetrahedral to BO 3 trigonal, which undoubtedly identified the occurrence of an equilibrium reaction between NBO, BO 4 tetrahedral and BO 3 trigonal in the glass.


In order to calculate the kinetic parameters from DSC data, we have used the generally accepted methods of Bershtein [13]. We have calculated the rate constants for 4 temperatures and the activation energy based on the shift in the transition temperature, {beta} {yields} {delta} for HMX. The values of E{sub a} from this work is 402 kJ/mol compared to previous results by Brill [9] of 204 kJ/mol. Brill and associates measured the phase transition of HMX using FTIR, sodium chloride plates and silicon oil. Given the differences in technique between FTIR and DSC the results found in this work are reasonable. In this investigation a large sample set (16) proved to be statistically valid for the determinations of k. Linear regressions were performed, observed and good fits were obtained, for each temperature. The enthalpy determination of {Delta}H{sub o}, for the {beta} {yields} {delta} phase transition was reproducible with in 3 parts in 100 over the range of this experiment. Thus, the data derived from this experiment k, E{sub a}, and {Delta}H{sub o} are valid parameters for the solid-solid phase transition. Obtaining pure {beta} phase HMX was very important for this investigation. Related to the phase change is the particle sizemore » distribution and is presented in Figure 3. Compared to previous work on HMX, this study utilized very pure {beta} phase material. In addition, the particle size was controlled more rigorously at about 160 {micro}m, giving a more consistent result for {alpha}. Thus, these kinetic results should have less scatter than results with less control of HMX purity and particle size. The kinetic basis of the polymorphic conversion is due to the cohesive forces in the HMX crystal lattice [21]. The energy required to bring about change from chair to chair-chair conformation has been reported by Brill [21] as ring torsion and is essentially a normal mode of the molecule that requires about 4 kJ mol{sup -1}. For the purpose of this investigation the energy of activation found in this work relates to the disruption of the intermolecular interactions with in the crystal lattice of {beta} phase HMX and is much larger (100X) than that of simple conformational changes. The evidence of a straightforward one step mechanism is not supported by this research. Solid-solid phase transition kinetics is very complexed. There are many factors that contribute to an overall reaction mechanism. The initial assumptions that were chosen to allow simple manipulation of the HMX phase transition data prove to be too limiting. The rate constant by definition should in fact be constant, however, our data reflects it is not (refer to k vs time plot in Appendix 2). The assumption of a first order, simple single step reaction is a good starting point for the study of HMX phase transition kinetics, but further analysis should be done with other reaction orders and multiple step mechanisms. Understanding the kinetics of {beta} phase HMX will clearly help the custodian understand the limitations of storage and use of this compound.« less


Online social networks showed an enormous growth in the last decade. With the rise of online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, researchers got the opportunity to access the data of social behavior of millions of people, whereas in the past it was limited to hundreds of people. For these researchers and marketeers it is of great interest to find communities within these large networks, as this is one of the opportunities to see how people behave in groups on a large scale. The most common approach of analyzing community structures in online social networks is to gather the network by downloading the user profiles one by one (crawling) and afterwards partition the network into groups or communities by community detection algorithms. However, crawling an entire social network is very time consuming and analyzing the networks with community detection algorithms can be computationally expensive. To overcome these problems, in this thesis a method is proposed for crawling nodes using the community structure of a network. It enables the researcher to start the analysis before completing the crawl. This new method performs between 66% and 480% better than existing crawling techniques such as Breadth First Search (BFS) and Depth First Search (DFS), because a smaller portion of the networks has to be crawled in order to crawl entire communities. The computer-generated networks used in this thesis were created using a new network generator which uniquely combines three features; it creates networks with explicit community structure, arbitrary degree distributions and adaptable community strength.


Cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common life-shortening, hereditary disease in whites, manifests itself principally in childhood. Patients presenting with CF as adults appear to be different when compared to patients diagnosed with CF during childhood. Often these patients have been previously diagnosed with asthma, chronic bronchitis or emphysema. We present a case of a woman diagnosed with CF at age 37 years. We noticed her finger clubbing during her son's hospital admission for CF decompensation. Taking a thorough history, she complained of chronic productive cough and was treated for hyper reactive airway disease for many years. A Computed Tomography scan was performed which showed bronchiectasis, atelectasis and the presence of a honey comb pattern in her lung fields. Two sweat tests were performed, both of which were strongly positive. Her CF diagnosis was confirmed. The clinical course of patients receiving a diagnosis of CF in adulthood is largely unknown, but frequently they have milder disease and a more favorable prognosis. The proportion and number of patients with CF diagnosed in adulthood has increased. A large number of these patients present with subtle symptoms or single-organ disease. Since the majority have pulmonary disease CF should be included in the differential diagnosis of chronic respiratory symptoms in adults.


Due to emergence and rapid growth of information and communication technology, more and more business activities are shifting to the electronic media. The way business organizations advertise their products or services cannot be exceptions either. Today, online advertising has become a part of companies marketing strategy. There are many forms of online advertising like email, banner, sponsorship, interstitial advertisements, ad. Network, online coupon, etc. But the most common form of online advertising is banner advertising. It can be found in all types of websites with many forms. In fact, it is the oldest form of online advertising. In the beginning, "advertising" on the internet meant "banner-advertising". In 1998 or so, banner advertisement was a lucrative business. According to Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), banner advertisements accounted for 55% of all online advertisements spending in 1998. And today, also banner advertising is the most popular form of advertising on the Net.


This paper presents an axiomatic approach to the problem of aggregating expert assessments of an event's probability into some group probability assessment. A multiplicative formula is derived.


GRONINGEN (B. A. VAN) La composition littSraire archaique grecque. [Verhandelingen der k. Nederl. Akad. van Wetenschappen, afd. letterkunde, 65, 2.] Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co. 1958. Pp. 394. Fl. 35. For more than twenty years van Groningen has interested himself in the stylistic analysis of early Greek poetry, especially Homer. The work of van Groningen and his fellow countryman W. A. A. van Otterlo seems to have had a somewhat restricted circulation. Although books on Homer often refer to devices like ring composition, it is unusual to find van Otterlo cited by name, and one gets the impression that he is best known at second-hand through Tate's reviews. This deficiency has now been made good by van Groningen's lengthy study of archaic Greek literature. The term is loosely used since the writer considers his material limited not so much by chronology as by the possession of certain common features of style, and therefore includes within his survey sophists, orators and the older part of the Hippocratic corpus. The result is a study which is more extensive than intensive, and specialists, preoccupied with their own difficulties, may well experience a feeling of frustration and disappointment as they turn to the chapters in Book II on individual authors. In his preface van Groningen regrets that the scope of his interests did not always allow him to take advantage of the latest publications. That in itself is perfectly understandable, if the appearance of a book is not to be delayed. There is, however, much more missing from his highly selective bibliography than just the latest publications. Still, as van Groningen is careful to point out, this book does represent a first attempt at such a synthesis of the evidence. We must hope that it will stimulate others to go on and examine its implications in greater detail.


The first example of utilizing halogen-bonding anion recognition to facilitate molecular motion in an interlocked structure is described. A halogen-bonding and hydrogen-bonding bistable rotaxane is prepared and demonstrated to undergo shuttling of the macrocycle component from the hydrogen-bonding station to the halogen-bonding station upon iodide recognition. In contrast, chloride-anion binding reinforces the macrocycle to reside at the hydrogen-bonding station.


This article presents the innovation activity in Romania through a comparative study conducted between 2002-2010. Moreover it treats also the implications of innovation on developing regions. These regions are in the view of the European Union underlying the development of the innovation activity, as well as the financing of this work by the EU programs, especially through the two most large-scale grant programs of innovations, called Europe 2020 and Horizon 2020.


The double aortic arch is a rare congenital cardiovascular malformation, in which two aortic arches form a complete vascular ring that can compress the trachea and/or esophagus. The case of a Colombian patient is presented, who arrived to the emergency room with bronchospasm and laryngeal stridor, inspiratory as well as expiratory. The computed tomography angiography showed a complete double aortic arch. In the analysis of this case the epidemiologic, embryonic, genetic, pathophysiologic and clinical review of this malformation is presented. Finally, how the integral analysis from the basics sciences can guide the diagnostic and therapeutic process is shown.


The systematic intake of an unbalanced diet is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death in the entire world. Most of the studies address this issue using genetically manipulated mice. This study aims to investigate the effect of the intake of a cholesterol-enriched diet on cardiac and hemodynamic parameters in conscious wild type mice. Twenty male, three-month-old C57BL/6 mice were distributed in two groups: (CTL) control, with mice receiving standard commercial chow and (CHO) cholesterol group, with mice receiving a cholesterol-enriched diet during 15 days. Catheters were implanted in the carotid artery and jugular vein for blood pressure and heart rate recording and drugs administration. Electrodes were implanted for electrocardiogram recording and spectral analysis of heart rate variability. Glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides were determined in blood samples and histopathological analysis of the aorta was performed. Serum cholesterol and glucose, mean arterial pressure and heart rate were higher in CHO than CTL mice. CHO mice also exhibited predominance of sympathetic over parasympathetic tonus to the heart, and higher responsiveness to the chronotropic effect of isoproterenol. Arrhythmic episodes, present only in the CHO mice, were cancelled by metoprolol and exacerbated by ICI118,551. It is concluded that the intake of high cholesterol diet causes hypertension and heart rhythm irregularities. Because those effects are exacerbated by the blockade of β2-adrenergic receptor and attenuated by the blockade of β1-adrenergic receptor, data highlights a possible antiarrhythmic protective role played by β2-AR subtype.


Past efforts to improve animal performance have been mainly focused on genetic selections and a number of markers have been identified to be important for production traits. In addition to genetics, recent studies found that environmental factors affect animal development, especially during the embryonic and fetal stages, when all major organs and tissues are formed. Because all fetal nutrients are derived from their mothers, maternal nutrition is the major environmental factor affecting fetal development, which sets the developmental trajectory and has long-term impacts on livestock performance. Stem cells are sources of progenitor cells for the growth and development of adult animals, epigenetic changes during fetal development shape the epigenome of fetal progenitor cells and their derived adult stem cells, which alter stem cell function, providing a key mechanism linking environmental factors during early development to the long-term performance of animals.


The effects of a negative interpersonal experience, such as bullying victimization in childhood and adolescence, can be strong and long lasting. Bullying victimization is associated with paranoid ideation and suspiciousness. Few studies have focused on personality traits of victims of bullying. The aim of this study is to investigate whether a particular personality trait called interpersonal sensitivity may be related to suspiciousness in those who experienced bullying victimization.


In precision robotic applications, inaccuracy in workpiece geometry has been a common problem to the precise processing of the workpiece. Due to manufacturing defects and workpiece deformation, the actual geometry of the workpiece deviates from its nominal 3D CAD model which is defined as model error. For many of the existing industrial robotic applications today, the robot path for processing the workpiece is planned based on the nominal 3D CAD model of the workpiece. Hence, the model error of the workpiece leads to error in the robot path planning eventually inducing inaccurate processing. To enhance the accuracy of the robot in processing the workpiece, a framework for in-situ model error compensation has been proposed. Prior to the processing of each workpiece, the proposed technique employs 3D optical laser scanning technology to capture the actual 3D model of the workpiece and compares it with the nominal model to establish the model errors. The nominal path of the robot initially created based on the nominal CAD model is then modified according to the model error. Thus, this step performs the in-situ model error compensation making the robotic task adaptive to the actual workpiece geometry. Experiments have been conducted to verify the proposed framework and an accuracy of up to 30 micrometers has been achieved in model error identification and compensation. The proposed technique can be employed in applications such as high precision robotic tasks, where accuracy of task execution is an important factor.


According to the requirements of high-energy particle accelerators, a cryostat system was designed and manufactured to provide a low-temperature environment for high uniformity superconducting magnet used for calibration. The performance test of the calibration magnet system including linearity, locking area, stability, and uniformity was completed. This system uses a single 1.5 W @ 4.2 K refrigerator by combining direct conduction cooling with indirect conduction cooling of the gravity heat pipe. The superconducting magnet was cooled to 4 K and entered the superconducting state, and the minimum temperature reached 2.8 K within 40 hours. The maximum excitation current is 300 A and the maximum magnetic field reaches about 6.2 T. At present, the equipment has been running stably for more than 90 days.


In this study, we compared Oxygen Index by ISO 4589-2 with Fire Spread by ISO 5658-2. The result shows that the tset values of Fire Spread such as IT, CFE, Qsb have mutual relations with thoses of Oxygen Index values in some samples. And we found that the tset values of Fire Spread make up for the insufficient points of Oxygen Index has its limits to evaluate the properties of fire for the interior materials of the railroad vehicles.


Abstract : A discrepancy between body-wave magnitudes, from the Prototype International Data Centre (PIDC) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has persisted since 1995, and amounts to a few tenths of a magnitude unit. Since 1999 we have studied the discrepancy between magnitudes published by different agencies and this final report is comprised of two sections. The first, is a stand-alone paper (published in the 2002 November/December issue of the Seismological Society of America's Seismological Review Letters) comparing the PIDC magnitudes with values assigned by a method that as closely as possible reproduces the Veith-Clawson protocol for reporting seismic body wave magnitudes. That protocol is the most clearly specified, or many different body-wave magnitude scales. The second section here, is a report which documents in detail the actual discrepancies between magnitudes assigned by three key agencies - namely, the USGS, the PIDC, and the International Seismological Centre (ISC).


We show that a quantum state can be perfectly cloned up to global mirroring with a unitary transformation that depends on one single parameter. We then show that this is equivalent to "perfect" cloning for quantum associative memories which, as a consequence e ffi ciently hold exponentially more information than their classical counterparts. Finally, we present a quantum associative retrieval algorithm which can correct corrupted inputs and is exponentially faster than the Grover algorithm.


Future  Validate the method on small-scale test setup at ULg fire lab  Develop SAFIR® to enable performing HFT  Adapt the testing facility for HFT on real size structural elements  Advantage of ULg: in-house software SAFIR® + fire lab  Hybrid Tests extended to other domains e.g. mechanical eng. Fire tests in laboratory remain crucial to understand the behavior of structures subjected to fire Standard testing • Performed on individual elements • Boundary conditions (loads or supports) kept constant • Most common approach


Abstract We examined nesting in Norops lionotus to describe nesting sites and to determine if nesting aggregations were by multiple females or repeated deposition of eggs by the same female. We also described eggs during incubation and the subsequent hatchlings. We collected eggs from nests along streams at Omar Torrijos National Park in central Panama and incubated them until they hatched. We located seven nests (six active, one inactive) containing 47 eggshells (2 depredated; 45 hatched) and 67 unhatched eggs. All nests were on the downstream side of large boulders covered by moss and herbaceous vegetation. Estimated minimum number of females using each nest was one to five, depending on assumptions of the estimate. Estimates indicated that nesting aggregations were a combination of multiple females nesting communally and repeated deposition of eggs by the same female. Hatchlings averaged 2.66 cm in snout–vent length, 4.60 cm in length of tail, and 0.42 g in mass, with no significant difference between males and females or among nests. Overall sex ratio for hatchlings was not significantly different from 1∶1.


The efficiency of $H_2$ production via water electrolysis is typically limited to the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER). As such, significant emphasis has been placed upon improving the rate of OER through the anode catalyst. More recently, the Open Catalyst 2022 (OC22) has provided a large dataset of density functional theory (DFT) calculated oxide catalysts for OER. When coupled with state-of-the-art graph neural network models, total energy predictions can be achieved with a mean absolute error as low as of 0.22 eV. In this work, we demonstrate the full utility of the OC22 framework by constructing a database of the total energy predictions for all slabs and OER surface intermediates for the 3,989 oxide materials in the original OC22 dataset. This expansion includes all terminations of all facets up to a maximum Miller index of 1 with adsorption configurations for the three OER intermediates: $O^*$, $OH^*$ and a subset of $OOH^*$. We considered two thermodynamic models to interpret surface energy: a"variant"model where surface energy is a function of metal concentration and an"invariant"model where surface energy is fixed at the equilibrium conditions for OER. We validated the predicted overpotentials of these stable surfaces with quantities from the experimental literature as well as our own DFT calculations. We then constructed a screening framework to identify viable candidate anode catalysts for OER by assessing the price, thermodynamic stability, resistance to corrosion, surface stability, and overpotential. Finally we verified the overpotentials and reaction energies of the final candidate catalysts using DFT.


The increased price of tef, makes tef injera unaffordable for low income households that depend on it as a daily staple food despite tef 's excellent amino acid composition, lysine levels higher than wheat or barley, as very high calcium, phosphorous, iron, copper, aluminum, barium, and thiamine thus there should be a study which fills the gap to optimize the blending of tef with other crops while ensuring nutritional quality, sensory acceptability and cost feasibility to be popularized and consumed. Injera made from whole wheat tef blend can be an important vehicle for conveying nutrition to pregnant women, young females in areas where there is less tendency of consuming wheat and teff blended injera. Red tef grain (Asgori), white teff grain (Quncho) was obtained from DZARC and bread wheat variatty (kingbird) was collected from Kulumsa Agricultural Research center. Proximate composition, mineral and sensory analysis of 100% tef, 100% wheat and wheat tef blend (10 to 50% wheat added to tef) were carried out. 30% wheat: 70% tef blended injera proves to be acceptable with respect to 100% tef injera and it has shown nutritional quality higher value for both iron and zinc content compared to 10% wheat, 20% wheat, 40% wheat and 50% wheat blended tef injera. Thus, 30% wheat and 70% tef blended injera has shown similar sensory quality with respect to overall acceptability to 100% tef injera and it is also economical important to substitute 30% of tef flour with 70% wheat flour in injera preparation.


Portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) is a complication of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our aim was to determine if sorafenib given postoperatively prolongs the survival of HCC patients with PVTT who undergo hepatic resection. Between 2009 and 2013 advanced HCC with PVTT who underwent surgical resection were given the option to take sorafenib postoperatively. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients that had resection alone and those that took sorafenib were compared. Seventy patients were included; 45 (64.3%) received resection alone, and of the 25 (35.7%) patients who received resection plus sorafenib, 10 began sorafenib after surgery, 15 began after recurrence. The median survival times of the resection and resection + sorafenib groups were 10 months (IQR: 1, 30 months) and 15 months (IQR: 3, 62 months), respectively. The median DFS of surgical resection and resection + sorafenib groups were 3 months (IQR: 1, 7 months) and 4 months (IQR: 1, 36 months), respectively. Patients who began sorafenib within 2 weeks after surgery had longer OS and DFS than patients who received resection alone or who began sorafenib after recurrence. Sorafenib improves OS and DFS of HCC patients with PVTT who undergo surgical resection.


Posters are expensive, guest speakers rare and photos limited to those few students within eye range. The use of slides can present a welcome solution to teachers and students alike. They provide an interesting variation from classroom routine and cognitiveoriented exercises. The colourful visual element of slides encourages the imagination and distances students from too great a dependency on the written word. Slides can supplement intensive and evening ESL programmes and can be used to teach a variety of themes, everyday subjects and specific structures. This article is aimed especially at the high Beginner and low Intermediate level learners and should be of interest to instructors ranging from the secondary to adult education departments. Techniques encompassing the four skills are outlined. Finally, the possibility of using teacher or student-made slides generated by special projects is considered.


Within the transportation sector, a necessity towards realizing the use of hydrogen (H{sub 2}) as an alternative fuel, is its storage for controlled delivery. The U.S. DOE's Centers of Excellence (CoE) in H{sub 2} storage have pursued different methodologies (metal hydrides, chemical hydrides, and sorbents), for the express purpose of supplanting gasoline's current > 300 mile driving range. Chemical H{sub 2} storage has been dominated by one material, ammonia borane (H3B-NH3, AB), due to its high gravimetric capacity of H{sub 2} (19.6 wt %) and low molecular weight (30.7 g mol{sup -1} ). As such, a number of publications have described H{sub 2} release from amine boranes, yielding various rates depending on the method applied. The viability of any storage system is also dependent on efficient recyclability. Within our CoE we have thus endeavored to find efficient base-metal catalyzed AB dehydrogenation pathways and regeneration schemes for the spent fuel from H{sub 2} depleted AB. We will present some recent results in these areas in this vein.


By applying the self-made industrial data mining software, the research into optimizing gasoline production in ar-omatization apparatus in Nanchong Refining Chemical Complex has been done. The research takes octane numbe as its optimized control target, and raw material flow rate ( l) , temperatures of the top and the bottom of the first and second fixed-bed reactors( Ti ) and reaction time( t ) as the affected factors. With a great number of operating data processed, solutions are made to technical problems, including the temperatures elevation of the reactors, the range of the temperature fluctuation for each work section, and the quantitative effect upon the octance number of gasoline caused by the flow rate and temperatures of the reactors. Efforts are made to acquiring the furthest profit for the enterprise under the precondition that the octane number remains stable.


The present study was conducted from the January 2019 to March 2020 to evaluate the effect of active materials (alkaloids) of algae Cladophora crispate and Annona squamosa on the vitality of the protoscolices of the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus In vitro as therapeutic study for these active materials alone or in mixing with albendazole (0.3 mg / ml). Protoscolices were collected from the livers of infected sheep in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf abattoir. The suspention was added to the different concentrations of the therapeutic agents alone or with albendazole which were used for different time period. The vitality of these Protoscolices was measured using 0.1% aqueous eosin. This study showed in vitro that there are statistically significant effects of the agent, the drugs agent (alkaloids the Cladophora crispate and Annona squamosa with albendazole is the best in killing the protoscolices 100% at the second day at the 0.4 mg/ml, alkaloids A. squamosa killing the protoscolices 100% at the fifth day at the 0.4 mg /ml, while alkaloids C. crispate lead to killing the protoscolices 100% at the sixth day at concentration 0.4 mg /ml, but mix the alkaloids the C. crispate with albendazole and alkaloids the A. squamosa with albendazole killing the protoscolices 100% at the third day at the 0.4 mg / ml respectively.


: Surgical resection of Crohn's disease is followed by early recurrence in a high percentage of patients. Mesalazine has been shown to be effective in the prevention of post‐operative recurrence, but some 50% of patients under treatment recur at 3 years of follow‐up.


Abstract Delaroche's Cromwell and Charles I (figure 1) was a late arrival at the Salon of 1831.1 It had been eagerly anticipated, and once it arrived the critics gave it extensive coverage, positive and negative. The comte Horace de Viel-Castel hailed it as 'an important victory for the new dramatic school of painting'.2 Planche, dismayed by dramatic painting, thought that it was 'in every respect, the worst, the least successful of all of Delaroche's works.'3 Planche's hostility reflected his concern. Delaroche's subtle and complex Cromwell was not reviewed as an individual creation; it was proof either of modern historical painting's salvation or its annihilation. Critics recognized that modern historiography's innovations mandated the renovation of historical art.


This paper presents a new fuzzy-neural network based on the Takagi-Sugeno(TS) model with dynamic consequent parameters. In the first step, this network adopts the least-square method for rough-tuning the consequent parameters; this is an off-line processing. It then in the second step employs the error back-propagation to fine-tune the consequent parameters, which is on-line. The fusion of fuzzy logic and neural network enabling us to captures the physical meaning in the model. In summary, the approach is a semantic oriented approximation of non-linear maps; the optimization of the parameters is fast and efficient. The network is applied to the cascade control system of superheated steam temperature in power plants. The approach is simulated in MATLAB. The simulation shows the method is effective; fast in response, minimal in overshoot, and robust.


Twenty-five traditional rice genotypes were assessed to identify suitable lines having good milling and cooking qualities. On the basis of high percentage of polished rice (> 70%), head rice recovery (> 60%) and good cooking quality, five cultivars, two from short bold group (Malsundri and Rottadhan) two from long bold group (Gadakatha and Ratanchud) and one from slender group (Dubraj) were selected.


—In order to develop geophysics tools for exploration of energetic resources, numerical models are proposed to un-derstand complex geological structures. They are solved from the discretization of Partial Differential Equations by the Finite Differences Method. This method creates a pattern that solves each point in a 3D domain, and it replicates the same calculation to compute all the data domain. Because of the quantity of calcu- lations, solving the numerical kernels requires High Performance Computing. However, the complexity of current architectures may reduce the efficiency. In some cases, applications tuning have been used to improve the performance. In this context, predicting the performance from input parameters is a critical problem. This is particularly true regarding the high number of parameters to be tuned both at the hardware and the software levels (architectural features, compiler flags, memory policies, multithreading strate- gies). This work focuses on the use of Machine Learning to predict the performance of geophysics numerical kernels on many- core architectures. Measures of hardware counters on a limited number of executions are used to build our predictive model. We have considered three different kernels (7-point Jacobi, seismic and acoustic wave propagation) to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. Results show that the performance can be predicted with high accuracy.


CALIFORNIA'S SILICON VALLEY OFTEN CALLS to mind a landscape of white-collar office parks and manicured research campuses filled with young dot-com boomers and self-made millionaires. Much of the writings on this vast suburban region likewise have tended to concentrate on the area as a breeding ground for invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship—home to America's creative class and the pioneers of the digital revolution. This narrative, however, fails to acknowledge the diversity of people and places behind the region's storied image. In a place often measured by the number of start-ups and venture capitalists, the lives of other residents and communities, especially those on the margins, frequently have gone unnoticed. Addressing this gap, several scholars have offered alternative accounts that spotlight the contributions of and the conditions suffered by women, minorities, immigrants, the poor, and others who have long existed in the Valley's shadows. While not a prominent part of the writings about the region, such stories are not difficult to locate on the ground, as the expansion in information technology has gone hand in glove with vast demographic changes. Over the past half-century, as Silicon Valley's population has swelled to accommodate a booming innovation economy, it also has shifted from majority-white to majority-minority. Asian immigrants have been among the region's largest and fastest-growing groups (see table 1). Asian immigrants began arriving in Silicon Valley in record numbers after the passage of the historic 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, otherwise known as Hart-Celler. The act opened the floodgates to Asian immigration by lifting restrictive quotas from non-European countries and instituting new policies aimed at family reunification and at attracting skilled labor. Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as Filipinos were particularly prominent among initial migrants. In the Valley, they later were joined by a rush of political refugees from Indochina, particularly Vietnam, who arrived in several successive waves after the Fall of Saigon in 1975 and throughout the 1990s. By then, the Valley was also welcoming large numbers of skilled immigrants from mainland China and India (see table 2). The region's mild climate, extant Asian American community, and perhaps


Japanese university learners of English are sometimes perceived to be reluctant to participate"proactively"in classes, in terms of answering and asking questions, giving opinions and volunteering for activities. This perceived reluctance is due in part to the effects of Japanese sociocultural norms, including meiwaku(not wanting to be an inconvenience to others), iwareru(not wanting to be spoken of by others)and enryo(self-restraint), as well as differences between typical Western and Japanese philosophies of education. This paper explores the idea of adopting a participation point system(PPS)in order to encourage more proactive learning behaviors. It is argued that proactive learning is both necessary and desirable when considering the logistics of Japanese university classrooms, conditions established by Communicative Language Teaching, and expectations of Western English teachers. Both the observations of the teacher-researcher in this study, and the results of a survey administered to the learners, suggest that the PPS described here is effective in encouraging a more proactive approach amongst learners in Japanese university English language classrooms, thereby leading to more exposure to genuine communication and further language learning opportunities. The results of the study are discussed, and recommendations for teaching practices are suggested. 88 2013 年度 Obirin Today ─ 教育の現場から


In this paper, we present an interesting observation that seems at odds with the common belief that Bayesian learning should do better than no learning. Specifically, in a dynamic pricing problem with limited inventory for sale, we show that the optimal revenue of a learning system can be lower than that of a no-learning system, suggesting that "ignorance is bliss." Our subsequent investigation into a two-state model reveals that the "superior" performance of the no-learning system is actually an exaggeration due to an overly optimistic demand belief resulted from its ignoring of past demand observations. We also show that this insight reverses as the demand environment becomes more cyclic. We further verify the robustness of the insight under a continuous-state model. Our findings shed light on the importance of inventory assumption in dynamic pricing problems - whether inventory is ample or limited can lead to drastically different insights about demand learning.


Summary A diagnosis of congenital bilateral patellar aplasia was made in two male littermate Siamese cats that presented for abnormal conformation and hind limb gait. Both cats had abnormalities of the femora, tibiae, fibulae, and tali. The owners reported that the cats were able to ambulate adequately in the house and jump onto low-lying objects. Other than signs related to this developmental anomaly, significant abnormal clinical signs were not noted in either cat. According to the owner, none of the other littermates were affected, but the seven year old sire displayed identical clinical signs. Unfortunately, the sire and littermates were not available for examination. Treatment was not pursued for either cat.


SUZUKI, Fabio Mineo. Dynamics of fish eggs and larvae from the upper Grande River, downstream from the Furnas Reservoir, Minas Gerais, Brazil. 2010. 114 p. Dissertation (Master in Applied Ecology) – Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras.* The concern with a successful recruitment of fish, especially in water courses affected by dams, has led researchers to perform studies focusing on the early life stages of fishes. In the past years, there has been an increasing interest in studying fish eggs and larvae in freshwater environments. Such phases are critical to the successful recruitment of species. Despite the importance of such issue, there are no records concerning this issue in the upper Rio Grande. In order to broaden the knowledge of the fish fauna of the region, three objectives were proposed concerning the study of fish eggs and larvae: (1) analyze the influence of environmental variables on the drift of eggs and larvae, (2) identify spawning and nursery areas as subsidies to identify priority areas for conservation and (3) assess the role of dams and reservoirs as a barrier to downward movement of ichthyoplankton. The influence of abiotic factors on the reproduction of fish in the basin was clearly evident in the analyses concerning the relationships between these factors and the distribution of eggs and larvae in each environment sampled. However, no patterns were observed concerning the influence of these abiotic factors on the ichthyoplankton densities. The areas most influenced by the dams and reservoirs differed their environmental factors from the stretches without such influence. This could possibly be explaining the low number or even the lack of eggs and larvae in these areas. Significantly different densities observed during the day and at night suggest different behaviors between the larvae of the orders Characiformes and Siluriformes. The tributaries in general contributed to the high number of ichthyoplankton. The distribution of developmental stages of eggs and larvae showed the proximity of the spawning sites and the sampled stretch. The tributaries may also be considered important nursery areas due to the presence of areas of development (marginal lagoons) along their water course. Similar results regarding the importance of ichthyoplankton and natural nursery were obtained for the stretches of the Rio Grande located in the borderline of the Furnas reservoir, the Funil dam and upstream of the Camargos reservoir. The number of marginal lagoons and the contribution of ichthyoplankton associated with the percentage of remaining riparian vegetation make the tributaries Aiuruoca and Mortes as well as the stretch of the Rio Grande located between the Furnas and the Funil reservoirs priority areas for conservation actions. The conservation of the remaining lotic stretches of the upper Rio Grande is fundamental for preserving


Fast decaying induced polarization in frozen rocks manifest itself as a not monotone induction transients. To account for induced polarization in the transient electromagnetic method, one usually uses the Pelton resistivity model. The relaxation time t, as found using the Pelton model, determines the decay rate of induced polarization voltage response to a current source. Conversion from t to the time constant t specifying the decay rate of the polarization current response to a voltage source, suggests that fast decaying induced polarization in frozen rocks is controlled by the dielectric relaxation of ice.


Background: Retapamulin is a novel pleuromutilin antibacterial developed for topical use. Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety of retapamulin ointment, 1% (twice daily for 5 days), with sodium fusidate ointment, 2% (3 times daily for 7 days), in impetigo. Methods: A randomized (2:1 retapamulin to sodium fusidate), observer-blinded, noninferiority, phase III study in 519 adult and pediatric (aged ≧9 months) subjects. Results: Retapamulin and sodium fusidate had comparable clinical efficacies (per-protocol population: 99.1 and 94.0%, respectively; difference: 5.1%, 95% confidence interval: 1.1–9.0%, p = 0.003; intent-to-treat population: 94.8 and 90.1%, respectively; difference: 4.7%, 95% confidence interval: –0.4 to 9.7%, p = 0.062). Bacteriological efficacies were similar. Success rates in the small numbers of sodium-fusidate-, methicillin- and mupirocin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were good for retapamulin (9/9, 8/8 and 6/6, respectively). Both drugs were well tolerated. Conclusion: Retapamulin is a highly effective and convenient new treatment option for impetigo, with efficacy against isolates resistant to existing therapies.


The nuclear cytology of Sphaeroplea annulina (Roth) Ag. and S. annulina var. crassisepta Heinreicher are described. Chromosome number in both the forms were determined to be 16. Earlier chromosome counts could not be confirmed. Some evidence for the possible existence of Nucleolar Organising chromosomes was presented. In its nuclear cytology, Sphaeroplea was shown to have very little in common with Cladophoraceae, while its affinities with members of Ulotrichales seemed to be close. The inclusion of the genus in the order Ulotrichales on cytological grounds was upheld.


Even though O'Connell came from a Gaelic background and is well-known for this struggle in favour of the emancipation of Irish Catholics and the Repeal of the 1800 Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britain, he also took part in other struggles such as the abolition of slavery. He also developed an interest for India. This paper wishes to examine how the Irish leader took part in the debates on the 1833 parliamentary Bill, which renewed the Charter of the East India Company and in the campaigns led in 1839 and 1840 by two associations – the British India Society et the Northern Central British India Society. It will try to determine if there were links between O'Connell's campaigns against British rule in India and against the 1800 Act of Union, which should lead to a discussion and assessment of O'Connell's attitude towards the British Empire.


2016 was marked primarily by an all-time low consumer (especially food) inflation. The subsistence minimum, which is calculated based on the cost of a minimum food basket, was increasing at significantly slower pace than inflation. The cost of living has recently changed similarly for all regions of Russia, while in the previous years it saw a strong growth in poor regions.


Bioflocculants are essentially polymers produced by microorganisms during their growth . In the present study, screening of twenty eight bacterial isolates producing flocculating substances were carried out .They were isolated from cultivated soil from El-Qanater El-Khayria, Egypt and the raw water samples tested ( River Nile water) have been collected from Ismailia Canal ( about 13Km 2 from EL-Marge station for water treatment plant). From all isolates , two isolates that secret a largest amount of bioflocculant were selected . Based on16S rRNA gene sequencing and its morphological, physiobiochemical, characteristics, the isolates were identified as Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis respectively . Maximum bioflocculant producing activity percent in water samples was affected by pH between 7-8 and at temperature rang 30- 40 o C and during growth period of strains from 72 to 96 h .The biopolymer flocculants named FQ-B1 and FQ-B2, produced by Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis were precipitated chemical elemental analyses and UV scan were achieved for investigating the purified bioflocculant. In two isolates bioflocculants , total carbohydrate content were 0.524 µg/ 1m (16.99%) and 0.321 µg/ 1ml (15.27%) respectively , while the total protein content were 2.56 µg/ 1ml (83.01%) and 1.78 µg/ 1ml (84.73%) respectively. There are 18 types of mino acid were determined in both bioflocculants and the highest amino acid were Aspartic acid (14.9 µg/ 1ml), and Leucine (25.88 µg/ 1ml) . The present results anticipated that FQ-B1 and FQ-B2 had flocculating activity range from 75% to 76.3% and potential of application in raw water treatment, owing to their effective bioflocculation effective and harmlessness towards humans and the environment . Application of Silver 30 nm & Gold 60 nm nanoparticles alone and in conjugation with bacterial bioflocculants exhibited efficient flocculation capabilities in the treatment of River Nile water .Using Gold and silver nanoparticles alone in raw water treatment was approximately similar to that obtained two bioflocculants FQ-B1and FQ-B2 and the conjugation of nanoparticles with bioflocculants ranged from (75 to 80%) .Transmission electron microscopy(TEM) observed images of the nanoparticles irregular circular in group or in linear shape,when conjugation with bioflocculants, nanoparticles trapping and converted to a large sponge structure , this refered to highly flocculating efficiency without addtion nanoparticles .


In WCDMA systems, the spreading factor (SF) of a user is allowed change as a new radio frame (length 10 ms) starts. The receiver does not know in advance the SF a user is really using. In this paper, techniques to detect the used spreading factor are studied. The problem is formulated as a general SF detection problem for a DS-CDMA systems. The optimal detector as well as the suboptimal autocorrelation based detector were studied. It was found that the SF detection can be devised rather reliably by a simple autocorrelation based detection algorithm.


Chronic pelvic pain, defined as "pelvic pain that is present for at least 6 months," is one of the most frustrating and common problems encountered in gynecology. There are numerous causes of pelvic pain (Table 1). In laparoscopic studies, approximately one third of patients have endometriosis, one third other visible pathology, and one third have no obvious findings. 1 Even with the resources of an academic pain clinic, 20% of women with chronic pelvic pain cannot be effectively treated, 2 and surgical interventions for chronic pelvic pain overall have at least a 20% failure rate. 3 Given the nature and chronicity of the pain, difficulties in diagnosis, and lack of effective therapy, it is not surprising that there is often a significant psychological overlay. 4 As a result, the symptom complex often becomes intertwined with alterations of inter-personal and physician-patient relationships in addition to interference with daily function. Thus, a physician investigating and treating a patient with chronic pelvic pain may be faced with a frustrated, hostile, or complex patient whose symptoms are


We introduce Elephant Tracks (ET), a dynamic program analysis tool for producing traces of garbage collection events, including object allocations, object deaths, and pointer updates. Like prior work, our tracing tool is based on the Merlin algorithm Hertz et al. [2002], but offers several substantial new capabilities. First, it is much more precise than previous tools: it measures time in terms of method entries and exits, allowing it to place events precisely in the context of the program structure. Furthermore, we exploit this notion of time to actually reduce the amount of work required to compute precise object death times. Second, it is implemented using a combination of JVM Tool Interface (JVMTI) Microsystems [2004] callbacks and bytecode rewriting, and works with any standard JVM. Finally, it properly handles Java Reference objects, including weak references, finalization, and multithreaded programs.


Voltage stability is considered to be a complex field of study since it has a number of contributing factors. Due to this, numerous studies or research has been made to look into various methods of analysis, detection and mitigation. In general, these methods would involve either complex computation for accurate results but suffers from high computation time. Some methods may also be simple and fast but then has the disadvantage of inaccuracy. This paper presents an alternative method of analysing the voltage stability problem by incorporating machine learning techniques, i.e. fuzzy decision tree method. The author proposed a general overview on how the algorithm is created. The algorithm is then tested using an IEEE 300 bus test system to test the algorithm's capability. Results presented show that the proposed FDT has a lot of future potential as an online tool for voltage stability analysis.


It provides a signal for coupling to the inductive coupler power line. The inductive coupler comprises a power line disposed around the magnetic core, a coil wound around a portion of the magnetic core, and a sealing semiconductor cladding layer and the core in contact with the power line. Signal is coupled to the coil.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION - FACETS OF MUSICAL MONUMENTALITY 1. - Musical Apotheoses 2. - Sounding Souvenirs 3. - Classical Values 4. - Collective Historia 5. - Faustian Descents EPILOGUE - BEETHOVEN'S NINTH AT THE WALL BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX


The purpose of this study was to determine demographics and educational backgrounds of chief student affairs officers (CSAOs) in public 2-year colleges. Using systematic sampling techniques, 300 2-year colleges were selected from the AACC Membership Directory for inclusion in the study. Each college's website was visited to determine the name of the CSAO and for any information about this individual. When college catalogs were included online, they were searched for highest degrees of CSAOs. Each CSAO name was entered into Dissertation Abstracts International to identify type of doctoral degree, year of graduation, alma mater, and dissertation topic.


A stabilized mixed finite element method is proposed for the approximation of steady reaction–diffusion PDEs, where no LBB consistency condition is needed for the MFEM spaces. The method is obtained by translating the primal second-order PDEs into a first-order mixed system, and then adding some suitable elementwise residual terms multiplied by a stabilization parameter to the weak formulation. The new method is compatible, and the stabilization parameter is independent of the mesh size. We prove both coercive and continuous properties in a weighted norm for the corresponding new mixed bilinear formulation. A simple proof of a priori error estimate with lower order regularity requirement is discussed, and numerical experiments confirm the efficiency and reliability of the new stabilized mixed method. Finally, the new method is applied to solving elliptic OCPs. Optimality conditions are deduced in both continuous and discrete levels, then error estimates are given, and numerical tests support the theoretical analysis very well.


In this paper, we begin with a model of a Λ-type atom whose both transitions are chirally coupled to a waveguide and then extend the model to its giant-atom version. We investigate the single-photon scatterings of the giant-atom model in both the Markovian and non-Markovian regimes. It is shown that the chiral atom-waveguide couplings enable nonreciprocal, reflectionless, and efficient frequency conversion, while the giant-atom structure introduces intriguing interference effects to the scattering behaviors, such as ultra-narrow scattering windows. The chiral giant-atom model exhibits quite different scattering spectra in the two regimes and, in particular, demonstrates non-Markovicity induced nonreciprocity under specific conditions. These phenomena can be understood from the effective detuning and decay rate of the giant-atom model. We believe that our results have potential applications in integrated photonics and quantum network engineering.


India contains the largest herds of buffalo and cattle and produces highest amount of milk in the world. Among the livestock species, buffalo has remained an integral part of the Indian rural economy. With the advent of genome sequencing technologies, the whole-genome sequence assembly of Murrah breed of water buffalo has been done recently in India. Also, significant amount of information on different functional elements of various breeds of buffalo genome are available in public domain. However, the annotations of functional elements on the genome are not available. In addition, the 3D structures of buffalo proteins are not available and there exist no browser available to visualize the genic information on buffalo genome. Hence, a study has been taken up with the objectives to (i) retrieve and the nucleotide and protein sequence information available in public domain and thereby develop a database (ii) develop user-friendly Web-based information system (iii) develop a genome browser to map gene information on genome. Initially, both the nucleotide and protein sequence information has been retrieved from NCBI and parsed. Later on, the 3D structures of proteins were predicted, validated, refined and stabilized. The parsed sequence information and protein sequence as well as structure information was imported to a database. An information system on buffalo genome with 3-tier architecture has been developed with MySQL database as bottom layer, Personal Home Page (PHP) as server side application-middle layer, HTML, CSS and JavaScript at top layer as client side application layer. The developed information system contains 930 complete CDS, 1154 partial CDS, 656 Exon sequences, 237 Intron sequences, 1709 Mitochondrial DNAs, 73 sequences of Promoter Region and 67 sequences of UTR region. Out of 930 buffalo genes, 837 have been found to be mapped onto Bubalus bubalis (female Murrah breed). The developed genome browser shows that maximum number of genes are distributed on chromosome 4 followed by chromosome 18. The total number genes present on chromosome 4 and chromosome 18 are 324 and 155 respectively. The results from the study also reveal that 837 out of 930 genes are mapped onto Bubalus bubalis genome. Whereas, 561 buffalo genes are mapped onto Bos taurus genome. Further, 202 genes are found to Chapter – 4


Stochastic variance reduced methods have gained a lot of interest recently for empirical risk minimization due to its appealing run time complexity. When the data size is large and disjointly stored on different machines, it becomes imperative to distribute the implementation of such variance reduced methods. In this paper, we consider a general framework that directly distributes popular stochastic variance reduced methods in the master/slave model, by assigning outer loops to the parameter server, and inner loops to worker machines. This framework is natural and friendly to implement, but its theoretical convergence is not well understood. We obtain a comprehensive understanding of algorithmic convergence with respect to data homogeneity by measuring the smoothness of the discrepancy between the local and global loss functions. We establish the linear convergence of distributed versions of a family of stochastic variance reduced algorithms, including those using accelerated and recursive gradient updates, for minimizing strongly convex losses. Our theory captures how the convergence of distributed algorithms behaves as the number of machines and the size of local data vary. Furthermore, we show that when the data are less balanced, regularization can be used to ensure convergence at a slower rate. We also demonstrate that our analysis can be further extended to handle nonconvex loss functions.


Basic and advanced signal processing algorithms run in a large variety of ABB products that are equipped with embedded electronics, from small domestic motion detectors, to sophisticated control units for mediumand high-voltage switchgears. In field devices in particular, signal processing provides an opportunity to improve the quality of measurements and the overall functionality of instruments.


Objective Periodontitis and trauma might cause serious alveolar bone defects and damage the patients' health.Tissue engineering technology can be applied to the reconstruction of the defects of the alveolar bone and restore its shape and function.The present study was to search for a method of constructing guided bone regeneration( GBR) membranes by combining platelet-rich plasma( PRP) and bone marrow stromal cells( BMSCs),and to use these GBR membranes in repairing the alveolar bone defects.Methods About 5 × 106BMSCs were suspended in 200 μl of PRP,and the mixture was seeded and cultured on a plate. BMSC-sheets were harvested after three weeks of in vitro culture and transplanted to the defected alveolar bone. The control groups received flap operation or GBR alone. The renascent alveolar bone formation was evaluated by gross observation,X-ray,histological analysis and histomorphometry 12 weeks after operation. Results BMSC sheets about 0. 2 mm thick were successfully constructed after 3-week in vitro culture of BMSCs with PRP. Twelve weeks after the implantation,a mass of new bone formation was observed in the defected area of the alveolar bone,more obvious in the GBR membrane group than in the groups of flap operation and GBR alone. Conclusion Sick BMSC sheets can be constructed by in vitro culture of BMSCs with PRP and transplanted to the defected alveolar bone,which shows a good effect in bone defect repair.


We study the continuum epitaxial model for elastic interacting atomic steps on vicinal surfaces proposed by Xiang and E [1, 2]. The non-local term and the singularity complicate the analysis of its PDE. In this paper, we first generalize this model to the ( m, n ) interaction between steps. Based on several important formu-lations of the non-local energy, we prove the existence, symmetry, unimodality, and regularity of the energy minimizer in the periodic setting. In particular, the symmetry and unimodality of the minimizer implies that it has a bunching profile. Furthermore, we derive the minimum energy scaling law for the original continnum model. All results are consistent with the corresponding results proved for discrete models by Luo et al. [3, 4].


In [7] Lyndon introduced the concept of inner rank for groups. He defined the inner rank of an arbitrary group G to be the upper bound of the ranks of free homomorphic images of G. Both Lyndon and Jaco have shown that the inner rank of the fundamental group of a closed 2-manifold with Euler characteristic 2 − p, p ≧ 0, is [p/2] where [p/2] is the greatest integer ≦ p/2. The proof given by lyndon [8] uses algebraic techniques; whereas, the proof by Jaco [4] is geometrical.


Oral melphalan and dexamethasone (MDex) is now widely considered to be the standard conventional treatment for patients with AL amyloidosis. With M-Dex median survival is around 5 years but survival of non-responders is poor in the absence of rescue treatment. We examined whether utilization of new drugs in non-responders to M-Dex is associated with an improved survival. We included 32 patients who received, as salvage therapy, thalidomide (n1⁄4 5), lenalidomide (n1⁄4 7), or bortezomib (n1⁄4 20). Hematological response occurred in 71%, with 34% complete response (CR). Partial response was obtained in 4/5 patients with thalidomide and 2/7 with lenalidomide; 17/20 patients (85%) in the bortezomib group responded with 11 CR (55%). With a median follow-up of 21 months, 23 patients (72%) are alive. Introduction of new drugs in refractory patients to MDex gives a high level of response leading to a better survival. Bortezomib seems to be particularly attractive with response rate of 85%, and 55% CR. Introduction: Since the randomized trial published in 2007 [1] comparing intensive treatment with stem cell support (melphalan 140 or 200 mg/m depending on age and clinical status supported with autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) collected with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) alone) and the oral regimen melphalan and dexamethasone (MDex) (melphalan 10 mg/m and dexamethasone 40 mg for 4 days each months, up to 18 months), M-Dex is our reference front-line therapy in patients with AL whatever be the risk group. With M-Dex, median survival is longer than with MP (melphalan and prednisone), being around 5 years, in our study as well as in the Italian series [2]. Patients with hematologic response (at least 50% drop in the monoclonal protein) after M-Dex have a very good median survival but survival was very poor for refractory patients in our study. The 12 nonresponder patients in the M-Dex arm (patients who received at least three cycles of M-Dex and had a measurable disease) had a median survival of only 6 months (Figure 1), in the absence of valuable rescue treatment between 2000 and 2005. The new drugs used in myeloma, thalidomide, lenalidomide, and bortezomib have been reported to be effective in patients with AL amyloidosis [3–8]. We examined whether utilization of these drugs in patients refractory to M-Dex has translated into improved outcome. Method: We performed a retrospective multicentric study in 11 centers belonging to the French network for AL amyloidosis. Patients with AL amyloidosis, treated front line with M-Dex, since June 2006 were included if they were considered as refractory by their referent physician and had received, as salvage treatment, thalidomide, lenalidomide, or bortezomib, associated to sequential dexamethasone and/or alkylating agents. We recorded the hematological response, monitored by the free light chain (FLC) assay, with second-line treatment. All patients but one enrolled in this study had measurable disease, only one patient had a monoclonal light chain level below 30 mg/l with an abnormal serum-free light chain ratio, he was considered as non-responder after the second-line treatment and normalized the ratio after third-line treatment with bortezomib and dexamethasone. Survival was analyzed from the first day Figure 1. Randomized trial (high-dose melphalan versus melphalan plus dexamethasone), 2000–2005 [1]. Survival according to the hematologic response in the 38 patients in the M-Dex arm who could be evaluated. Blue curve: patients with at least a 50% response. Red curve: patients with less than a 50% response, median survival: 6 months. 145


Organization and Employee commitment are inseparable. Specifically organizational development is the key result of various factors affecting of an employee's holds towards his/her working environment and general life. It leads to increasing the employee performance and effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to measure and analyze the organizational commitment with reference to automobile industry in Coimbatore district. The primary data was collected from 321 respondents from different automobile industry units in Coimbatore district. The researcher has used various tests, such as Simple tables, Cross tables, Chi-square, T-test, F-test, Correlation, and ANOVA for or assessing the level of organizational commitment.


My aim is to reconstruct the basic steps and the fundamental idea of Kant's transcendental deduction of categories as well as Hegel's interpretation and reframing of Kant's idea. Hegel's reading is crucial for two reasons: first, for fixing the basic form of the Kantian argument and secondly, for understanding its metaphilosophical relevance. For Hegel, philosophical proof has a specific nature, which distinguishes it from scientific proof and brings it closer to a juridical one. In this perspective the transcendental deduction, which is universally considered one of the most difficult chapters in the history of philosophy, reveals itself as the genuine clarification of specifically philosophical proof. I first present the idea of Kant's transcendental deduction in the Critique of Pure Reason as well as its Hegelian reading in the Science of Logic and reformulation as the very method of philosophy in the Philosophy of Right. I show what in the Kantian argumentation constituted the basis for Hegel's own interpretation and transformation. In so doing, I highlight a 'red thread' between the two ideas of the transcendental deduction. I conclude by proposing a formal account of Kant's and Hegel's ideas and by summing up the main metaphilosophical insights we can gain from Kant's idea and its Hegelian interpretation.