For cylindrical differentially rotating plasmas, we study large-scale magnetic field generation from finite amplitude non-axisymmetric perturbations by comparing numerical simulations with quasi-linear analytic theory. When initiated with a vertical magnetic field of either zero or finite net flux, our global cylindrical simulations exhibit the magnetorotational instability (MRI) and large scale dynamo growth of radially alternating mean fields, averaged over height and azimuth. This dynamo growth is explained by our analytic calculations of a non-axisymmetric fluctuation-induced EMF that is sustained by azimuthal shear of the fluctuating fields. The standard "Omega effect" (shear of the mean field by differential rotation) is unimportant. For the MRI case, we express the large-scale dynamo field as a function of differential rotation. The resulting radially alternating large-scale fields may have implications for angular momentum transport in disks and corona. To connect with previous work on large scale dynamos with local linear shear and identify the minimum conditions needed for large scale field growth, we also solve our equations in local Cartesian coordinates. We find that large scale dynamo growth in a linear shear flow without rotation can be sustained by shear plus non-axisymmetric fluctuations -- even if not helical, a seemingly previously unidentified distinction. The linear shear flow dynamo emerges as a more restricted version of our more general new global cylindrical calculations.


Abstract : The United States Army has employed a two-reserve concept (Army National Guard and Army Reserve) since the early 1900's. In this paper I will determine if the original reasons for the establishment of a Federal Army Reserve force still exist and whether they remain valid today. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the homeland of the United States combined with the increasingly larger scale magnitude of recent natural disasters have confirmed that the United States requires military forces that are readily available and that possess the personnel equipment and organizational capability to quickly and successfully take necessary action in support of the defense safety and welfare of the communities, states, and of the nation. I will explore whether the United States would be better served by consolidating the units personnel and capabilities of the Army Reserve into the National Guard resulting in a single reserve component with increased capabilities to perform its dual State and Federal mission.


[3-(Ethylthio)allyl]titanium reagent generated easily from allyl ethyl sulfides condensed with aldehydes to give erythro-β-hydroxy sulfides in highly regio- and stereoselective manner. In contrast, crotyl ethyl sulfide reacted with aldehydes affording δ-hydroxy vinyl sulfide exclusively. The substitution pattern of the starting sulfide can have a pronounced effect on the selectivity in this condensation reaction. erythro-β-Hydroxy sulfide obtained was transformed stereoselectively to the trans-vinyloxirane or 1,3-alkadiene.


Eagle's syndrome represent as a neck, cervicofacial pain, dysphagia, facial pain, globus sensation, tinnitus, otalgia and headache, it may be unilateral or bilateral. About 4% of adult population accounted elongated styloid process, which are the principal factor of Eagle's syndrome and followed by 0.16% of patients are symptomatic. Stylohyoid ligament calcification is the second most common factor. The diagnosis must be made through a detailed history, clinical examination, and various imaging modalities. A 36 years old female patient presented with persistent pain in the throat. An elongated styloid process was diagnosed and was removed by transoral approach following the patient was relieved from her symptoms.
J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2022; 40: 72-74


BACKGROUND
In mammographic screening for breast cancer in women aged 40-49, previous studies have found very low estimates of sensitivity and predictive value. Methods of estimation have, however, used primitive models with relatively strong assumptions and less than full use of the data.

METHODS
Here we estimate the underlying preclinical incidence, mean sojourn time, sensitivity and positive predictive value by a variety of methods in a randomized trial of mammographic screening (The Swedish Two-County Trial) and a service screening programme (The Florence Programme, 1975-1986) in women aged 40-49 years.

RESULTS
In the Two-County study, sensitivity estimates ranged from 72-83% and predictive value from 39-89%. In the Florence programme, sensitivity estimates ranged from 69-85% and predictive value was uniformly estimated as 100%.

CONCLUSIONS
The methods involving more explicit modelling of the disease process and fewer assumptions tended to find higher estimates of predictive value in the Two-County study. The results suggest that previously poor sensitivity and predictive value estimates may have been overpessimistic.


Gene Expression measurements from human blood RNA have become an increasingly important research area of focus. A reliable and consistent workflow to obtain RNA measurements from blood would serve to open the clinical arena to gene expression studies as potential diagnostic indicators. The challenge lies in isolating high quality RNA from human whole blood at room temperature without compromising gene expression profiles. To address this challenge, we report a workflow using newly developed MagMax™ RNA isolation kits for Tempus™ stabilized blood and PAXgene® stabilized blood. These two stabilization methods are currently the most widely used methods for blood collection and stabilization in clinics in the United States. High quality RNA generated from these two RNA isolation processes was amplified using the Ambion MessageAmp™ Premier RNA Amplification Kit and hybridized to Affymetrix GeneChip® microarrays. This platform and experimental tools are used, in combination, to demonstrate high quality gene expression profiles from human blood RNA. The reported experimental design includes human whole blood obtained from two donors collected and stabilized in either Tempus™ PAXgene® tubes. RNA was isolated using new MagMax™ RNA isolation kits for Tempus™ and PAXgene® stabilized blood. Isolated total RNA was then processed through the GLOBINclear™-Human kit and then amplified with the MessageAmp™ Premier kit creating a library for hybridization to the Affymetrix Human U133A 2.0 expression arrays. Affymetrix GeneChip® microarray analysis showed parameters within normal limits for expressed genes. Reported results of this controlled experiment, support a validated gene expression workflow for blood on Affymetrix expression arrays using a combination of commercial kits for RNA purification from stabilized blood and library amplification optimized for hybridization and analysis on expression microarrays.


AbstractInterest in this canal, now named the Gloucester and Sharpness, has recently increased with the renovation of the warehouses at Gloucester docks and the establishment there of British Waterways National Museum. The North Warehouse has become the main office of Gloucester City Council, which has ensured its preservation, and has begun the general re-development of the docks.It is thus an appropriate time for an article to be published on how the Loan Commission Board in London and its engineer, Thomas Telford, in particular saved the canal from ignominious failure. The correspondence discovered provides an illuminating insight into the construction of the canal and it is the details that are especially interesting and useful.


In this paper a class of nonlinear control structures is proposed to address the phenomenon of energy exchange between certain controlled modes and uncontrolled modes in the control of distributed parameter systems. The control structure is derived by requiring the energy in the controlled modes to be dissipated in a finite time.


River herring populations have declined in abundance by 99% since the 1970s, in part because of spawning and nursery habitat loss. In Eastern North Carolina, river herring spawn in coastal streams and adjacent riparian wetlands. Juveniles remain in natal streams and adjacent estuaries until the fall, when they migrate to oceanic environments. Many of these habitats are low-lying and may be subject to increasing water levels as the sea level rises in response to climate change. This project evaluates the extent of these effects to currently identified habitat and presents a model to describe future impacts to river herring habitat in these regions as water level rises and wetlands migrate inland. Sea level rise was modeled at increments of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5 and 2 meters for the Salmon Creek watershed in the Chowan River Basin. Resulting sea levels were overlaid with a GIS-based model of current river herring habitat. Future habitat quality was predicted through the application of a simple habitat model and the development of an index that evaluates the potential for riparian wetland migration. Results indicate that sea level rise has the potential to affect a significant portion of available habitat in the study area. Increases in water level are likely to result in the initial creation of habitat in the lower portion of Salmon Creek watershed; however, the suitability of these habitats for river herring spawning and juvenile development will decrease as sea level rise proceeds. Information generated using this model identifies the extent of future spawning and nursery habitat for river herring and can be used to prioritize areas important for conservation of river herring habitat in the future.


The goal of the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy is to assist in identifying and implementing policies and programs that enhance quality of life, well-being and prosperity in metropolitan settings.


The EC funded project SESBE (Smart Elements for Sustainable Building Envelopes) focused on utilizing new types of cementitious materials for reducing the mass and thickness of facade elements while ...


The newly built Women's Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) replaced the pre-existing Women's Hospital (WH) as the only provider of tertiary maternity care for the residents of Qatar. The pre-existing WH was smaller, with a 12-bay emergency department, 3 operating theatres, 12 delivery rooms and 220 beds, in shared rooms. The new WWRC facility is significantly bigger, with a 28-bay emergency department, 7 operating theatres over two floors, 26 delivery rooms and 240 private inpatient rooms catering for around 18,000 deliveries per year. New systems, designed over only a few months, would need to promote that same level of high-quality patient care but in a newer, larger and unfamiliar facility.The aim of the study was to identify and mitigate clinical systems risks, relevant to anaesthesia services, by running The 'WWRC Anesthesia Activation Team' was established to conduct Approximately 110 hours of simulation were conducted in sites relevant to anaesthesia. Many of the participants had never experienced simulation before but nearly everybody complimented its usefulness and debriefing was unanimously constructive. Testing identified 143 discrete latent safety threats (LST) and were categorized under Facility, Workflow, Personnel, Process, Equipment and Technology (Table 1). Fifty-four LSTs were due to systems that were incomplete at the time of testing but would be completed by the time services commenced. The remaining 89 were significant LSTs which could have resulted in significant clinical incidents. After mitigation of LSTs, the areas were simulation tested again to confirm threat elimination. WWRC was opened only after all areas of concern were addressed. A year after moving, a review of all the changes recommended from the simulation-based systems testing was conducted. It showed that there were no anaesthesia-related clinical incidents in those areas.Our experience confirms that simulation can identify Latent Safety Threats (LST) prior to a major move to a new facility


A spatial distribution of radiometer input transfer function in a three-layered human body is calculated by the numerical finite-difference time domain method. The examples for different radiometer input parameters and measurement methods are calculated and examined by experiment. The results of numerical modelling are applied for design of a 4.5 GHz microwave radiometer for breast cancer detection.


THE ROLE OF MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN MAINTAINING SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES IN THE EGYPTIAN GULF OF AQABA, RED SEA By Ayman Mohamed Hassan Mabrouk The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) declared Ras Mohamed National Park the first Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Egypt in 1983 to conserve the Gulf of Aqaba coral reef ecosystem, sustain artisanal fisheries and encourage tourism activities in this region. The European Commission helped, initially, by providing the needed funding for the establishment of this MPA and for the establishment of two others, one in Nabq and the other in Abu Gallum. The creation of these managed resource protected areas established the entire Egyptian marine sector in the Gulf of Aqaba as a protected area by 1996. Artisanal fisheries were permitted in selected areas in these marine protected areas which were only conducted by the local people (Bedouin). This research assessed the role of the marine protected areas in conserving the fish populations of target and nontarget families in four regions of the Gulf of Aqaba, all of which were subjected to different regulations and fishing pressures over the last decade. In addition, I evaluated the impact of fishing and the catch dynamics at Nabq to ascertain whether specialized fishing regulations of take and no-take zones was effective in conserving the fisheries. Lastly, I conducted a pilot study on the dependency of the Bedouin fishers on the Nabq fisheries and their attitude towards the initiative of conservation measures and perceived needs for change to increase their effectiveness. I found that the coral reef fish populations have changed over the years since the protected areas came into existence in terms of species richness, diversity, abundance and size; a result of changing fishing pressure due to changes in the effectiveness of law enforcement and conservation. Nabq, which was relatively lightly fished in 2002, was the most affected region where species richness, total fish abundance, and the abundance of target and non-target families significantly declined by 2012 due to heavy fishing pressure and noncompliance to the regulations that applied to the no take zones in the region. In contrast, Dahab, the heavily fished region in 2002, exhibited an increase in species richness, diversity, total fish abundance, the abundances of the least commercially targeted herbivore families and other non-target fish families, by 2012; a result of reduced fishing pressure and increased law enforcement in this region. Additionally Ras Mohamed, which originally did not allow fishing, was found to have experienced illegal fishing beginning by 2003 ultimately resulting in a decline in the abundance of commercially valuable fish families by 2012. Fishers from Nabq and Dahab depend on the Nabq fisheries for food security and livelihoods. However, many of the fishers were willing to change their occupations and work for tourism or other governmental secured job, as the fisheries currently were very poor. Although the local fishers were aware of the regulations for the protected area and noted the significant decline in the fisheries resources, they disagreed on the way that Nabq fisheries should be managed mainly due to the real and perceived lack of local engagement and enforcement. Lastly, it appears that tourism development that focused on having an intact healthy coral reef system and public awareness can play a role in reducing fishing pressure, increasing fish abundance and maintaining fish diversity in the future, and provide alternative sources of livelihoods for the


Abstract : The distribution of atmospheric ozone has been determined six times with this Center's rocket ozonesonde (ROCOZ) in conjunction with similar measurements from an ultraviolet monochromator on the OGO-IV satellite. These simultaneous measurements took place over the Barking Sands Facility of the Pacific Missile Range, Hawaii, during September and October 1967. The ROCOZ data, which appear in this report, show an ozone distribution from 20 to 52 km which is essentially unchanging during this time period. This distribution exhibits a maximum local concentration of 0.0198 atm-cm/km at 26 km, decreasing to 0.0025 atm-cm/km at 40 km and 0.00023 atm-cm/km at 50 km. (Author)


The relationship between accrued and real earnings management in a transitional economy with weak institutions is investigated by using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2001 through 2010.Unlike the developed economies,the findings show that there is dual relationship, namely substitutional and complementary,between accrued and real earnings management in China's stock market.The firm's competitive status in the industry incurs the relative costliness between accrued and real earnings management,which makes them substitutional.


ABSTRACr. -Theory predicts that if males invest nothing in their offspring except genes, they should maximize their reproductive success by fertilizing as many eggs as possible. Male smooth newts (Triturus vulgaris) have a limited capacity for multiple mating (which would result in a high fertilization rate) due to limitations in sperm and spermatophore supply. It is demonstrated that the fecundity of female newts varies with body size; large females both contain and lay more eggs than smaller females. Using proximity to restrained females as an indicator of discrimination and mate choice, males preferred visual cues associated with large females. Using a Y-maze olfactometer device, data were obtained which suggest that males preferred the odor of large females. These results support the hypothesis that male T. vulgaris prefer larger, more fecund females as mates,


Despite a thousand years of history in Nepalese medicinal plant trade to China, there has not been much comprehensive studies that overview the trade from past to present. This study explores the history of the Nepalese medicinal plant trade with China, providing a complete overview of the species involved, their conservation status, and demand drivers. Accordingly, in this study the literature on Sino-Nepal trade relations is reviewed, government reports and data tracked, and interviews conducted with forest officials and exporters trading with China. This study documents 54 medicinal plant species previously (or currently) traded with China. The value of medicinal plants traded with China is worth more than three times as much as the volume exported in percentage terms. Twenty-six species fall into national or international conservation categories. The industrialization of Tibetan medicine, access to modern transportation for the supply of medicinal ingredients and products, globalization of the medicinal plant market, and high per capita income of Chinese people have resulted in consumer behavior shifting toward herbal medication and an increase in the Nepalese medicinal plant trade with China. To mitigate the depletion of resources caused by high demand of medicinal plants, immediate action is required to address trade sustainability as well as prioritize local traditional knowledge and resource-based industry for the substantial socio-cultural and economic benefits both to the local people and nation.


Pulmonary drug disposition after inhalation is complex involving mechanisms, such as regional drug deposition, dissolution, and mucociliary clearance. This study aimed to develop a systems pharmacology approach to mechanistically describe lung disposition in rats and thereby provide an integrated understanding of the system. When drug‐ and formulation‐specific properties for the poorly soluble drug fluticasone propionate were fed into the model, it proved predictive of the pharmacokinetics and receptor occupancy after intravenous administration and nose‐only inhalation. As the model clearly distinguishes among drug‐specific, formulation‐specific, and system‐specific properties, it was possible to identify key determinants of pulmonary selectivity of receptor occupancy of inhaled drugs: slow particle dissolution and slow drug‐receptor dissociation. Hence, it enables assessment of factors for lung targeting, including molecular properties, formulation, as well as the physiology of the animal species, thereby providing a general framework for rational drug design and facilitated translation of lung targeting from animal to man.


For Southern Plains Indian people, music and dance have historically been vital components in the creation, negotiation, and maintenance of their cultures. This essay examines the roots of the contemporary powwow and its connection to traditional forms of dance and belief.


Introduction and Aim: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a large public health problem which is rapidly growing globally as well as in India affecting all age groups. Long duration of diabetes mellitus increases the risk of micro-vascular complications like diabetic retinopathy. The objective was to establish the association between duration of diabetes and presence as well as severity of diabetic retinopathy.

Materials and Methods: The current study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Kolkata, approved by the institutional Research and Ethics Committee. In this study, 107 type 2 diabetic patients of 40 years of age and above were selected. Direct ophthalmoscopy (Heine beta-200) was used for detection & grading of diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Results: Results were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Chi square test, Fisher Exact test, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test were used in statistical analysis as appropriate. P value less than 0.05 was considered as significant. Significant P values were found in association between duration of diabetes and presence as well as severity of diabetic retinopathy. In binary logistic regression, p value was significant, and odds ratio was 1.089 in case of duration of DM (95% C.I. for Odds Ratio was 1.020-1.164).

Conclusion: Results showed that there was statistically significant association between long duration of diabetes and presence along with severity of diabetic retinopathy.


in the following chapter (pp. 137–42). Chapter 7, 'Leucippus and Democritus', deals with the hardest case for the anti-mechanist: the atomists. G.'s view, as we see it here and throughout the book, is that the partisan of the 'Greek natural philosophy as mechanistic' view has two major problems. First, the metaphor of 'mechanistic' thinking comes from a modern European perspective, whereby clocks and other man-made devices perform their tasks regularly, reliably and invariably; but the Greeks' devices neither had these qualities nor were perceived to have them: they wore down and broke all the time; thus, the Greeks would not have tried to explain mindless law-abiding natural behaviour in 'mechanistic' terms. Second, even on a generous interpretation of 'mechanistic' philosophy, it is clear that the Greeks, Leucippus and Democritus included, favoured organic or social metaphors, and the details of atomistic physics are decidedly non-mechanistic (and do not use 'forces' in the way sometimes assumed). This debate often seems semantic: 'is the winnowing basket a mechanê?' G. thinks not, of course. Still, those ascribing 'mechanistic' thinking to the Greeks may be obscuring reality behind labels. Chapter 8, 'The Hippocratic Authors', starts with the unpromising line, 'The Hippocratic authors are another interesting case, and again there are debates about how great an affinity they have to modern ideas' (p. 161); but it ends up being a reprise of earlier issues now with a distinct and impressively varied corpus. The book has a conclusion that nicely summarises the key findings.


China is playing a very important role during the process of solving global climate question as the largest developing country.The growing speed of China's carbon discharge volume is faster and faster owing to the economy's scale and energy's structure during recent years.How to have a low carbon development is a necessary task for China's sustainable development in future.Some developed countries have saved experiences on low carbon economy which offer good lessons to China.


The tradition of treating train dynamics and wagons dynamics as two separate problems continues to be supported by both software and standards. The assumption that coupler angles are so small that the consequential vertical and lateral force components can be ignored does not necessarily hold as trains become heavier and longer and coupler forces become larger. In the Australian AS7509 standard the wagon rollover risk from lateral forces is assessed only at slow speed and given an allowance of 100% wheel unloading. Conversely, wagon unloading, in response to curve geometry at speed, is given a limit 60% (excluding transients) and 80% maximum when including effects of the track geometry and typical irregularities. If wind loads are added the criteria is lifted to 90% wheel unloading. Lateral coupler forces, coupler misalignment due to empty wagons in loaded trains and wagon body and bogie pitch are examined. The effect of combining all of these issues is discussed. The results lead, logically, to a discussion of operational assessment verses wagon roadworthiness assessment.


Todetermine components midecamycin in tablets by UV,Midecamycin in ethanol medium was determined and caculated at 230nm,the corresponding average recovery was (97 20±0 8)%(n=6),this method is simple,quick and accurate for simultaneous deterimination of midecamycin.


The frontal cortex is known to contain dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline (NA) terminals arising from projections of mesencephalic and brain stem located cell bodies respectively (Lindvall, Bjorklund & Divac, 1978). Ablation of this region of the cortex stimulates motor behaviour in the rat (Iversen, 1971) although the exact functional roles of the catecholamine neuro-transmitters have yet to be established. Initial obser- vations suggest a behaviourally inhibitory role for DA in the frontal cortex as opposed to its excitant proper-ties in the classical sub-cortical regions (Carter & Tassin, Stinus, Le Moal, We now report the effects of lesions aimed at the frontal cortical DA system on monoamine concentrations in extrapyrami-dal and limbic areas.


Two new chemosensor dyes with either one or two trifluoroacetophenone recognition moieties have been investigated in terms of reversibly interacting with amines and diamines.


The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(1). 201~228. The present study investigates the representations of social struggles depicted in middle school...


The objective of this research, was to quantify sustainability indicators of organic dairy farms using Automatic Milking Systems (AMS), and a comparative group of organic dairy farms using conventional milking systems (CMS). Milk yield per cow was higher for AMS farms but did not result in higher net return to management. Nitrogen surplus per ha of available land was higher for AMS farms, Animal health was unaffected by AMS use, as also most milk quality aspects; somatic cell count, clostridium spores and urea. Acid degree value (ADV), measured as free fatty acids (FFA) in the milk, was higher in milk from AMS users. Labour time was decreased by almost 50% for AMS users, to 2.3 min/cow/day. It could be concluded from quantification of selected indicators on economy, environment, cow health, milk quality, and labour time, that the organic dairy farms using AMS, in spite of the substantial decrease in grazing time, show potential for a sustainable development.


A white light-emitting diode (0.33, 0.33) is fabricated using perovskite quantum dot/silica composites. It is shown to have greatly improved stability.


Video Cytological Image Analysis System and micrography were adopted to examine vessel elements in secondary xylem of Phyllanthus emblica.It was shown that vessel elements in secondary xylem of P.emblica have many different forms and most of them have tails and their perforation plates divide into two types:(1)there is one simple perforation plate at each end of the vessel elements and(2)there is one simple perforation plate at one end of the vessel elements and two simple perforation plate at the other end; (3)a few vessel elements have special inclusions; (4)the intervascular pits are alternate pits; (5)the pits between the vessels and rays are mixed pits, pits with transverse gashes and scalariform pits.


Photosynthesis is the most important process for nearly all life on earth. Photosynthetic organisms capture and transfer light energy from the sun into chemical energy which in turn provides a reso ...


Acoustic measurements have been undertaken on two different twin square jet topologies. OASPL, spectra, directivity measurement and shock-cell visualization have been conducted to evaluate twin square jets in different edge-vertex orientations. The results indicate that twin square jets effectively suppress noise up to 4 dB in terms of OASPL and 6 dB in terms of screech tonal SPL compared to an equivalent single circular jet. The study promises that twin-jet topology could serve as an effective tool for noise suppression.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The modern understand- ing of the comorbidities associated with erectile dysfunction (ED) was shaped by decades-old survey-based epidemiologic studies. The demographics and comorbidities of the United States population have since changed. A contemporary assessment of the comorbidity pro fi le of men with ED is timely and indispensable for the ef fi cient care of these men. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of the MarketScan (cid:1) administrative claims database from 2008 to 2019 was performed. Inclusion criteria were men 18 to 64 years of age with a diagnosis of ED or phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor (PDE5i) prescription with (cid:3) 1 year of enrollment, as well as age-matched controls without an ED diagnosis or related prescription. Comorbidities were extracted by ICD-9/10 diagnosis codes and categorized by the Elixhauser Comorbidity Index. The trends in prevalence of comorbidities and odds of comorbidity diagnosis, overall and by age group, were analyzed.RESULTS: The prevalence of all comorbidities in men with and without ED increased over the study period. The fi ve most prevalent comorbidities (and percentage increase) among men with ED were hypertension (108%), diabetes (78%), obesity (357%), chronic pulmo-nary disease (124%), and depression (164%). The association of ED with comorbidities such as complicated diabetes and paralysis was more pronounced among younger men (age 18-45 years vs 46-64 years). CONCLUSIONS: The comorbidity pro fi le of men with ED has evolved since its initial characterization nearly 30 years ago. Increases in diseases associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome, as well as mental health disorders, are particularly notable. The fi ndings illustrate the complex interplay of chronic health conditions in men with ED, and serve to justify INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Nerve-sparing status (NSS) during RP is a signi fi cant predictor of erectile function recovery (EFR). Poor nerve sparing is associated with collagenization of cav- ernosal smooth muscle and CVOD development with typically poor response to PDE5 inhibitors (PDE5i) and intracavernosal injection therapy (ICI). This study aimed to de fi ne factors predictive of CVOD in men with bilateral NS RP. METHODS: Study population consisted of (i) men who underwent bilateral NS (de fi ned by the surgeon using an institutional grading system) RP (ii) with poor response to PDE5i and ICI (iii) (cid:3) 2 years post-RP (iv) who underwent penile duplex Doppler ultrasound (DUS) (v) using a vasoactive agent redosing schedule. CVOD diagnosis was made with end-diastolic velocity (EDV) values (cid:3) 5 cm/sec bilaterally. ADT and radiation therapy were exclusions. We used multivariable modeling to de fi ne factors predictive of CVOD. Factors included in the model: patient age, history of diabetes, history of obstructive sleep apnea, number of vascular comorbidities, baseline EF, peri-RP total testosterone (T) level, and total T at DUS (within 3 months). RESULTS: 201 men with a mean age of 66 (cid:2) 7 years. 25% of the patients reported 3 or more vascular comorbidities, 17% had dia- betes, 36% obstructive sleep apnea, 39% were current or former smokers. Mean baseline PSA and pre-RP total T was 6.7 (cid:2) 6 ng/mL and 410 (cid:2) 211 ng/dL, respectively. Median baseline EFD score was comorbidities pre-RP have a cant on EFR venous leak. BL NSS, of comorbidities pre-RP, pre-RP EF the of CVOD post-RP.


Conveying safety information to aircraft passengers is an important task for the designers of aircraft passenger safety information cards. Since the information must be understood by all passengers, regardless of native language or nationality, many designers use pictorial representations that are considered "culture free." The current study investigated the comprehension of 13 pictograms from a sample of actual safety cards among participants from four language groups in Europe and the U.S. One-hundred-and-fifty students whose native languages were English (British and U.S.), French, or German, respectively, interpreted 13 pictograms. From their responses, three main conclusions can be drawn: 1. Conveying aviation safety information by pictorial means appears to be largely effective, as indicated by general comprehension levels above 85%. 2. While passengers may get the "essence" of a particular pictogram, it is often difficult for them to recognize specific details. 3. There are relatively small differences in the comprehension levels between participants from different language groups, pointing towards the "universality" of pictograms in conveying safety information. Future research needs to focus on identifying exactly which features of pictograms are most effective in conveying safety information, without introducing cultural or language biases.


Introduction and objective: Unbalanced diet with an overconsumption of salt contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease. Several strategies are currently investigated to design low-salt food while maintaining taste and consumer liking. The strategy relying on cross-modal sensory compensation is being tested within the framework of the EU-TeRiFiQ research project. In this context, this study had for aim to examine whether selected aromas could help to maintain salt and fat perception in low-salt real cheese. Methods: Two commercial cheeses, low-salt cheese (LSC) and regular-salt cheese (RSC), were reprocessed by grinding and addition of a sardine aroma associated to salty taste (LSC sardine), a butter aroma associated to fat perception (LSC butter), a blended aroma (sardine + butter, LSC blended) and non-flavoured (LSC-u and RSC-u). A total of 9 samples, which include graded and non-graded LSC and RSC were prepared. Fifty nine consumers were asked to rate taste, texture, and aroma attributes for each sample in two conditions: with and without noseclip; in the noseclip condition, participants were not able to perceive the aroma. Results: The samples were characterized by means of rheological measurements. The results indicated only a low impact of aroma addition on products' structure (p=0.045), which allowed for the direct comparison of flavored and unflavored samples on the sensory attributes. Cheese grading affected sensory texture and taste of LSC and RSC (p<0.0001). The comparison of flavored and unflavored graded cheeses revealed a significant saltiness enhancement induced by the added aroma perception (p<0.0001). In contrast, no significant effect of aroma addition could be observed on fat perception. Conclusion: In summary, these results demonstrated that odor induced saltiness enhancement can occur in real low-salt food product and that cross-modal sensory compensation can be an efficient strategy to maintain salty taste, and likely acceptability, of low-salt food.


Pharmaceutical compositions suitable for sublingual aerosol delivery comprising cannabis. The cannabis may be derived from the cannabis family of plants or may be a synthetic cannabis analogue, derivative, precursor or metabolite such as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. The compositions may include a propellant such as butane, 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134a) or 1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane (HFC-227) and may contain a carrier such as ethanol, propylene glycol or a fatty acid alkyl ester. Surfactants and flavouring oils may also be included. The compositions may be dispensed from a device having a metering valve. At least part of the device may be formed from a polyester to improve functioning of the device.


[1] We investigate the origin of low-energy (Ek 500 m s−1) ion upflows within the cusp at altitudes between 640 km and 768 km. We report a significant correlation between ion upflow and precipitating magnetosheath electron energy flux in this altitude range. There is only very weak correlation between upflow and wave power in the VLF band. We find a small negative correlation between upflow and the magnitude of the DC electric field for fields less than about 70 mV m−1. The apparent relation between upflow and electron energy flux suggests a mechanism whereby ions are accelerated by parallel electric fields that are established by the soft electrons. Significant ion upflows are not observed for electron energy fluxes less than about 1010 eV cm−2 s−1. The lack of correspondence between ∣∣ and upflow on the one hand, and wave power and upflow on the other, does not rule out these processes but implies that, if operating, they are not local to the measurement region. We also observe narrow regions of large ion downflow that imply either a rebalancing of the ionosphere toward a low-Te equilibrium during which gravity dominates over the pressure gradients or a convection of the upflowing ions away from the precipitation region, outside of which the ions must fall back into equilibrium at lower altitudes.


References Pork production has the potential to alleviate poverty in East Africa.1 In Kenya and Uganda, 2.2 million pigs are raised in traditional systems by resource-poor, subsistence farmers.2,4 Women, particularly those widowed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, may not have the resources required to raise cattle. Pigs require fewer resources so raising pigs is within their means. Farmers raise 1 to 4 pigs to generate income to pay for medicine, school, food, and seeds.2,5-7 However, pig productivity is low.8 Lack of feed may contribute to pigs' low average daily gain.7 Seasonal feed shortages, expensive commercially prepared feed, and human/pig food/feed competition are production constraints. 6,8 Low-cost, nutritionally balanced pig diets (recipes) using seasonally available local feedstuffs are needed. • Identified locally available pig feeds6,7 • Conducted nutritional analysis on local feeds and reviewed literature • Collected price of feeds at local markets • Estimated seasonal availability (extension officers) • Rated accessibility of ingredients to farmers • Estimated nutritional needs and growth rate of East African pigs from 5 feeding trials9-13 • Formulated low-cost diets using a linear programming model14 • Considered seasonal availability, farmer access to ingredients, and human/pig food competition when formulating diets • Conducted a randomized controlled feed trial in Uganda to evaluate pigs' average daily gain and feed efficiency when fed 1 of our diets (local diet or sweet potato vine and tuber silage based diet)


Direct Expansion Ground Source Heat Pump (DXGSHP) system directly extracts
heat or cold energy from ground by consuming electricity to provide for space
conditioning. Compared with the currently widely-used secondary loop Ground
Couple Heat Pump (GCHP) system, it has higher energy efficiency, lower
operating costs, and less environmental impact. A case study is carried out in
this paper. The subject is a residential building located in Beijing, China. It
is assumed that the building adopts the DXGSHP system and the GCHP system
respectively. Annual loads and energy consumption are simulated and computed.
Then the initial cost, operating cost and CO2 emission are calculated.
The economic benefit is analyzed with the Payback Time method and the Dynamic
Annual Cost Value method. The environmental benefit is discussed mainly by
comparing the CO2 emission savings. The results show that the DXGSHP
system has higher initial costs, but lower operating costs, and less greenhouse
gas emissions. The DXGSHP system has better comprehensive benefits than the
GCHP system.


A regenerable sorbent based on manganese oxides impregnated on high surface area γ-alumina and supported onto cordierite honeycomb monolith was tested for elemental mercury capture in different gas environments. The sorbent was tested in air (reference case), nitrogen, and air with added CO2, CO, NO, SO2 and HCl. Results were analyzed in terms of the apparent initial Hg removal rate. In the absence of oxygen, the sorbent gradually deteriorated its performance. Both CO2 and CO moderately worsened the Hg capture performance, while NO did not show any appreciable effect. The effect of all these species was reversible. On the other hand, SO2 adversely impacted on the sorbent performance and most importantly the Hg capture capacity was permanently deteriorated. No release of oxidized Hg was observed in tests containing the above components both during adsorption and desorption stages. When HCl was present in the gas stream the sorbent both adsorbed elemental Hg and catalyzed its heterogeneous oxidation giving an overall outstanding performance. During desorption only oxidized mercury was released. Introduction Transition metal oxides have been recently proposed as possible alternatives to activated carbon sorbents for elemental mercury capture from combustion flue gas [1,2]. Metal oxides appear to be promising candidates due to their relatively low cost and to several attractive features. In particular, they offer the possibility to be regenerated in order to achieve a cost-effective cyclic operation, and to capture mercury at higher temperatures (200–400°C) than activated carbon. Manganese oxides have been reported to have a good mercury capture potential [1,3-5]. Mn, due to its multiple possible oxidation states, is also well known to display a high activity for the partial or total oxidation of various hydrocarbons [1]. Mn can be expected to oxidize Hg in a similar way, and this feature may be beneficial since oxidized mercury species can be captured more effectively than elemental mercury. In a recent work a synthetic sorbent based on manganese oxides impregnated on high surface area γ-alumina and anchored as a thin layer onto commercial cordierite honeycomb monoliths was synthesized [6]. Honeycomb supported sorbents are well suited for flow-through exhaust gas treatment associated with a very low pressure drop. Elemental Hg capture experiments were carried out in a XXXVI Meeting of the Italian Section of the Combustion Institute lab-scale quartz reactor in air at temperatures ranging from 50 to 350°C to characterize kinetics and capacity of the sorbent. Results showed that the structured MnOx sorbent performed satisfactorily up to 300°C. TPD experiments after mercury uptake showed that the sorbent could be completely regenerated at a temperature as low as 500°C. In this work the same sorbent was tested under more realistic conditions, by using gas streams containing different species (CO2, CO, NO, SO2, HCl). In fact, some gaseous species typically present in combustion flue gas are well known to significantly influence both the homogeneous and the heterogeneous mercury chemistry at the temperatures of interest. For example, in a real flue gas containing SO2 and NO, there is the possibility of sorbent poisoning through formation of manganese sulfates or nitrates [1]. In addition, it has been previously shown that many oxides, carbons, and noble metals show activity for the catalytic oxidation of elemental mercury in the presence of flue gas halogen species such as HCl [7-9].


The role that the gynoecium plays in pollination has been considered a passive one, much like a nutrient conduit or vessel for the active growth of the pollen tube (Sanders & Lord, 1989). Most research has been on the pollen tube itself in this process of conveying the sperm to the egg, and on the phenomenon of self-incompatibility, or how this process can be blocked. This is in spite of the fact that self-compatibility is the predominant condition in the Angiosperms and no doubt the primitive one from which incompatibility arose (Nasrallah, 1989; Sanders & Lord, 1989). A more thorough knowledge of how compatible pollen tubes grow and interact with the gynoecium can only enhance our understanding of how the complexities of the derived condition of seif-incompatibility arose evolutionarily, and suggest a mechanism for its function, especially in gametophytic systems. The ability to grow pollen tubes in a defined medium greatly facilitated study of tip growth in pollen (Steer & Steer, 1989), but such an approach only strengthened the assumption that the transmitting tract of the gynoecium functioned much as a culture dish, providing a path of nutrient secretions which "guided" the pollen tube to the ovule. The difficulties with this view of pollination are that pollen tubes never grow as fast or as long in vitro as in vivo, and the appearance of tubes grown in vitro differs from those which are seen in vivo. They exhibit random wanderings in culture and generative cell division in bicellular species rarely occurs in vitro. One explanation may be that the ingredients of the medium are not complete, that some unknown factors are missing. The stylar secretions of many species have been analyzed and found to contain a variety of components including sugars, amino acids, peptides, phenolic compounds, fatty acids, lipids, and glycolipids. The high molecular weight compounds are polysaccharides and complex proteins (Heslop-Harrison, 1983; Clarke, 1981). Arabinogalactans appear to be widespread and abundant (Clarke et aI., 1979). The transmitting tract cells of the style secrete these components either onto the epidermis of a hollow style or between cells in the solid style (Knox, 1984). Pollen tubes track these secretions from the stigma to the micropyle of the ovule and rarely, if ever, cross free space. It is agreed that the secretions guide the tubes to the ovary but the idea that a chemotropic guidance is involved (via a calcium gradient) has been discredited for some time (Heslop-Harrison, 1987). The general assumption now is that the tube travels in the secretion of the style much as a fungal hypha would be guided by a nutrient medium; that the tissues of the gynoecium offer the path of least resistance for the pollen tube (Heslop-Harrison, 1987). The question of rates of growth is not addressed by this argument. 'Nhy do pollen tubes grow so rapidly in vivo and not in vitro? In fact, there are species-specific rates of tube growth and we now recognize that the rate of travel is a critical component for a pollen tube's success in "siring" individuals of the next generation (Mulcahy, 1975).


Enlightened by characteristics of magic Tee,and different from the traditional balanceable microstrip-slot line 0/180° phase shifter with a double planar circuit structure,a V-band miniaturized balanceable CPW-Slot line 0/180° phase shifter with faster response speed and lower parasitic amplitude modulation characteristic based on a single planar structure is introduced in this paper.In the design the balanceable CPW-Slot line transmission circuit and Schottky barrier diodes are adopted,which simplified the circuit design.In a 4 GHz bandwidth the maximum insertion loss of the 0/180° phase shifter is less than 3 dB,the maximum phase consistency is less than 5°and the maximum amplitude consistency is less than 0.5 dB.The results show that this 0/180° phase shifter has good electrical performance,simple structure and is easy to be fabricated as well.


STUDIA L!CHENOLOGICA IN CENTRAL ITALY. III. SPECIES NEW rn UMBRIA. 31 infrageneric taxa are repor ted as new to the lichen flora of Umbria (Centrai Italy). Notes conceming their ecology and distribution are given. The new combination Phaeoca/icium mildeanum (Hepp) Puntillo is proposed.


Introduction 1 Building the Commonwealth: Republicanism, Godly Government, and the Media 2 The 'Great Whore of Scotland': Newsbooks, Pamphlets, and the Cromwellian Conquest 3 Marketing Empire: The Western Design and Conquest of Jamaica 4 The Anglo-Spanish War, Protestant Empire, and the Media 5 International News, Religious Conflict, and Protestant Solidarity Under the Cromwellian Protectorate Conclusion


Using a multiple stage age of infection model, we derive an expression for the basic reproduction number, Ro. We apply this method to find Ro in analogous treatment models. We find, in the model without treatment, Ro depends only on the mean infective period, and not on the infective distribution. In treatment models, Ro depends on the mean infective and mean treatment period, as well as the distribution of the infective period, but not on the distribution of the treatment period. With an explicit formula for Ro and the final size relation, we provide a practical alternative to evaluating the effect of treatment and other control measures. We compare our models to previous models of SARS and TB.


In order to elucidate the relationship between the chemical structure and bitter taste of the C-terminal portion of β-casein, some analogues, in which the phenylalanine residue was substituted by D-phenylalanine, lysine, glycine, glutamic acid or L-pyrenylalanine, were synthesized. Sensory analyses and CD spectra showed that the location of a hydrophobic amino acid with the L-configuration between the two proline residues should be important for this series of peptides to produce a strong bitterness.


Aim: This study assesses the improvement in outcome for newborn infants by decreasing major complications associated with intravenous fluid therapy by using an in‐line filter, and evaluates the economical impact this might have in relation to daily changing of i.v. lines. Methods: In a prospective controlled study, 88 infants were randomly assigned to receive either filtered (except for lipids, blood and blood products) or non‐filtered infusions via a central catheter. Main outcome measures such as bacteraemia, phlebitis, extravasation, thrombosis, septicaemia and necrosis were all scored. The costs attributable to patients during a standard 8‐day stay were also recorded. Results: Significant reductions were found in major complications such as thrombi and clinical sepsis (control group (21), filter group (8); p < 0.05). Bacterial cultures of the filters showed a contamination rate on the upstream surface of 15/109 filters (14%). The mean costs of disposables were less in the filter group, showing a reduction from ±31.17 to ±23.79.


A reaction is seen to occur between benzene and oxygen in a supersonic beam when mixed clusters are irradiated by 193nm. This reaction has been investigated by multiphoton ionization mass spectrometry, with primary reaction products including the introduction of up to four oxygen atoms onto the benzene, as well as species resulting from hydrogen abstraction. A two laser experiment indicates that the initial step in the photochemical reaction results in a neutral species which lives for longer than 100 ..mu..s.


Modern software methodologies, e.g., agile and continuous integration and deployment, rely on frequent feedback loops to respond to sudden changes. Improvements to feedback, development activities, and quality rely on information needs. We found a lack of understanding on the information needs of software engineers when the software quality is the main concern. I propose the term "software quality information needs" to refer to a software engineer's eagerness to define, locate, obtain, and use information to satisfy a conscious or unconscious concern towards software quality. I want to understand what information about software quality does a developer need while performing code changes or designing new parts of a system. For understanding the broad research question, I propose three sub-questions, namely (1) How can we conceptualize information needs when dealing with software quality? (2) What information is needed when dealing with software quality? and (3) How can software quality information needs be detected unobtrusively through behavioral patterns? I propose a 24 months plan for a research fellowship comprising of three empirical studies, which will involve 120 students in computer science and the companies Daimler, Porsche, and Bosch. The studies will make use of multidisciplinary research in software engineering and behavioral science. The theoretical results of the execution of this proposal are the software quality information needs theory and instances, which will add to the body of knowledge in software engineering. The practical implications might be large. Providing a software developer with the right kind of information about the current state of and the effect of changes on software quality can prevent catastrophic software failures and avoid opening up security holes. ‡ © Graziotin D. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are


Landscaping design factors, like lakes and vegetations, have a large impact on microclimates and are considered an efficient mechanism for cooling communities. In order to evaluate different effects of landscaping design factors, a field measurement on outdoor environmental parameters were carried out in a residential community in Guangzhou, China. Meanwhile, a CFD software of microclimatic simulation, ENVI-met, was employed to simulate the conditions during the experiment days. After validating the models and simulation results with measured data, different landscaping design factors are sensitively analyzed.


Explicitly stated learning aims and precise objective testing are essential to evaluate the many courses available today and to ensure equal chances for all language learners. The idea here is not to specify aims for different levels but to explain the method of formulating aims. Explicit statements are built up from a series of complementary and interdependent lists and taxonomies. Language appears in many forms and functions and the overlap between various taxonomies and lists acts as a check that all aspects are covered. The taxonomy of situations [examples given] covers social interaction in specific places and roles with formalised conversations. The taxonomy of themes [examples given] comprises 18 items and allows much subdivision. Thematic material is not restricted in place, role aim or speech conventions. Themes and situations can appear in many different kinds of texts. The third taxonomy sets out texts which test separate language skills reading and listening comprehension. Subdivisions can be added and more specific authors or books cited. The fourth taxonomy is spoken intentions, numbering over 90 items [examples given]. To interpret the taxonomies language lists are given: the vocabulary list, based on frequency counts from the texts and augmented from other taxonomies, the list of structures, set out as model sentences, and the list of wordbuilding rules, useful for passive vocabulary and especially for listening and reading skills. Basic to explicit statements of learning aims are research into needs of language learners, work on final objective testing and on teaching materials.


Giving service to agriculture, villages and peasants is the main aim of Higher Agriculture Education; agriculture, villages and peasants is the soil and presupposition for the existence and development of Agriculture Colleges, meanwhile, it direckly vestricts and influences the existence and development of Higher Agriculture Education.


Climate change litigation (climate litigation) has increased worldwide partly due to governments enacting laws to comply with global climate change agreements, as well as courts playing a pivotal role in developing related precedents. By analysing Tanzania's climate litigation in the context of worldwide trends, one may observe that the courts have addressed critical aspects of climate litigation, although their doing so has not been fully acknowledged in some of the contemporary literature. Also, unlike in other jurisdictions, the courts in Tanzania have not referred to numerous instructive precedents. This shortcoming may be attributed partly to the lack of a comprehensive climate change law, the legal impediments to instituting public interest litigation, and a general lack of enthusiasm for researching and probing current court precedents on the part of counsel and the judiciary. This commentary advocates enacting comprehensive climate change legislation and enhancing the capacity of civil society, non-governmental organizations, the Bar, and the judiciary to engage with contemporary developments in climate change impacts and related litigation.


Inclusion Models in Elementary Physical Education Over the last 30 years the number of disabled students being placed in regular education settings has increased dramatically, as has the severity of their disabilities (Greenwood & French, 2000). With the integration of students into regular education classrooms, practitioners are challenged to provide adequate supports to insure beneficial learning environments. According to Public Law 105-17 all students must be provided elementary physical education (pecentral.org). The law does not distinguish between students who are classified as "special education students" and those who are classified as general education students. This study investigates the development and implementation of inclusion practices for special education students in general elementary physical education classes. The research project surveyed 21 Eisenberg elementary school (EES) teachers related to the use of selected inclusion strategies for elementary physical education classes at EES. The survey results formulate the basis for implementing inclusion methods at Eisenberg elementary school.


It certainly influenced me at that time, and then where after University of Virginia? You and I went to Vanderbilt for 2 years of general surgery residency. At that time I was interesting in pursuing either general surgery or urology. I was leaning toward urology at the time and applied for residency during my second year of general surgery knowing that I was entering the army for 2 years. By the end of 2 years at Vanderbilt I had been accepted to the residency programme at Indiana University to begin 2 years later.


The fundamental and first-overtone azido antisymmetric stretching frequencies of 19 aryl azides have been measured. It is demonstrated that the splitting of the V(NS)as band is not due to the presence of conformers in solution, and probably does not involve ?hot? bands. Fermi resonance explanations of the splitting are suggested.


Accurate and real-time thickness measurement of metal film on Si-based wafer improves the global planarization by adjusting the polishing pressure and avoids over-polishing and under-polishing during the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. Nevertheless, the large lift-off distance between the sensor and the target film with low conductivity, such as the tungsten, bring great challenges to measure the metal film thickness precisely in the metal CMP process. In this paper, a novel eddy current sensor with Mn-Zn ferrite core is designed to improve sensitivity of eddy current thickness sensors at the large lift-off distance. And the measured results are compared with an air core coil.


This chapter covers algorithms used in DGPS, presents the methodologies of AGPS using the GSM and 3G cell phone networks. It also includes the implementation of GPS and compass applications in iPhone.


Technology development facilitates the dissemination of information and news from various media, especially on social media. The news spread on social media is not necessarily the truth, and it could cause many fake news or hoaxes to spread and mislead the public. The number of hoaxes circulating on social media confuses readers in understanding the truth of information. Several models for detecting hoaxes have been built using a Deep Learning approach to process unstructured data such as text and images. In this study, three models were created using a deep learning approach to detect hoaxes on social media Twitter. The three deep learning methods used are Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM), 1 Dimensional-Convolutional Neural Network (1D-CNN), and Hybrid Bi-LSTM-1DCNN. Term Frequency - Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) is used as feature extraction and Global Vectors (GloVe) as feature expansion. Several scenarios were applied to compare the methods to achieve the best model with the best accuracy results. 1D-CNN method gets the highest accuracy of 96.51%, followed by Bi-LSTM with an accuracy of 96.09%, and Hybrid Bi-LSTM-1D-CNN with an accuracy of 95.94%.


Background Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is a common autoimmune disease characterized by high levels of thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) and thyroid globulin antibody (TgAb) as well as infiltration of lymphocytes in thyroid. In recent years, metformin has been proven to be effective in a variety of autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Methods This study systematically explored the therapeutic effect of metformin on HT and its underlying mechanism by comprehensively utilizing methods including animal model, in vitro cell culture and differentiation, mRNA sequencing and 16S rRNA sequencing. Findings We found that metformin indeed had a therapeutic effect on mice with HT mainly by reducing TgAb and lymphocyte infiltration in thyroid tissue. In addition, metformin also significantly suppressed the number and function of Th17 cells and M1 macrophages polarization in HT mice. Furthermore, metformin can inhibit the differentiation and function of Th17 in vitro. The results of mRNA sequencing of thyroid tissue illustrated that the therapeutic effect of metformin on HT was mainly achieved by regulating immune pathways. 16S RNA sequencing of the intestinal flora found that the intestinal flora of HT mice differs significantly from that of the normal mice and also were altered by metformin treatment. Interpretation These experiments provided a preliminary theoretical basis for the clinical application of metformin in the treatment of HT.


A sound quality-training programme is the vehicle that ensures that all employees are adequately qualified to perform their jobs in accordance with applicable quality requirements. An effective quality-training programme is one that adequately addresses the varied training needs of employees in different roles in the organisation. Generally, it is not sufficient to administer the same training evaluation questionnaire to assess what all the attendees of a quality-training have learned. This is because, typically, employees receiving a quality-training are from different functional areas in the organisation, and thus have different vested interests and learning objectives. That is, a training audience is typically heterogeneous as opposed to homogeneous. Therefore, in such situations, training evaluations must be tailored to accommodate the unique needs of the various segments of the training audience, and to correctly ascertain whether the employees in each segment (or role) have learned what they need to know to directly apply in their specific jobs. The purpose of this paper is to address this critical need. Specifically, the contribution of this paper is that it proposes an innovative method and tool for performing role-specific evaluation of quality-training. A secondary notable benefit of this novel approach to training evaluation is that it may be used as an interactive trainer to help reinforce key concepts from the training.


T authors undertook a challenge to address the complex nomenclature of the temporal fossa area and propose consistent names for structures.1 It was a formidable task to review all their referenced articles and extract the lists of multiple names for the same anatomical structures. I support a goal of reducing each of the lists of names collected by the authors down to a single name that will promote better understanding of the surgical anatomy of this region. I further agree with the distinction they make for the use of the term "layer" where the term "plane" has often been used. I must point out that of the authors' 10 proposed names, seven are names for temporal area structures that were introduced by the Australian group of anatomists in this and earlier articles. It should be acknowledged that thoughtful names for these same structures have been introduced by several other authors who, understandably, might consider some of these chosen names less worthy than their own selected names, and the question of favoritism may be raised. Nevertheless, I feel that the authors of this article earned the privilege of naming these structures by investing the considerable effort required to address this nomenclature problem. However, I must direct attention to two of their selected names which, in my opinion, have little surgical relevance and may warrant their reconsideration. The two names that I question in this regard are the "temporal ligamentous adhesion" and the "lateral orbital thickening." In the case of the former, this adhesion site is of little importance to the surgeon, and it is the overlying soft tissue in that area that is relevant surgical anatomy and could deserve a name. In the case of the latter, this layering of periosteum and superficial temporal fascia over the lateral orbital rim would seem not to warrant a specific name. I do applaud the authors for not proposing a new name for "layer 4" over the temporal fossa area; although 11 names for this layer may appear in the surgical literature, a specific name for it is unnecessary. I concur with their introduction of the terms, "superior temporal septum," "inferior temporal septum," "upper temporal compartment," and "lower temporal compartment." These new names are worthy of inclusion in the temporal area nomenclature because they help identify both the safe and the risky areas for dissection. Although no important structures cross the upper temporal compartment and dissection in this compartment is safe, dissection in the lower temporal compartment requires the surgeon's alertness to avoid injury to the rami of the temporal branch of the facial nerve that pass through the roof of this compartment en route to the forehead area. The authors have performed beautiful cadaver dissections, and they use these dissections to demonstrate their concepts of the temporal area anatomy. I feel that it is important to emphasize that some of the illustrations of cadaver dissections shown in the article are used in a way to demonstrate the authors' anatomical concepts, and that the illustrations may not always reflect what the surgeon will observe at surgery. For example, the superior temporal septum in Figure 2 is the connective tissue that joins the galea aponeurotica and superficial temporal fascia layers, at their confluence, to periosteum along the superior temporal line of the skull. This connective tissue shown in Figure 2, however, appears to have been stretched and elongated to illustrate the concept that it is a limiting septum for the upper temporal compartment. The reader should appreciate that at surgery this connective tissue will appear more like the anterior half of the superior temporal septum shown in Figure 3. Another example of an


The quantification the exact dimension of heavy metals pollution in soils requires more data than the total contents of metals in soils. The determination of different fractions (speciation) is necessary to understand the mobility and bio-availability of the metals in soils. This paper presents results of speciation of copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), and cadmium (Cd) in soils of ten automobile workshops in Sapele, Nigeria. Composite soils samples were taken from depth 0 – 60cm, and geochemical forms and total concentrations of the metals (Cu, Cr & Cd) in soils were determined by sequential extraction procedures and atomic absorption spectrometry. The total concentrations range of: 39.10 – 129.80mg/kgCu, 11.55 – 40.10mg/kgCr, and 3.15 – 6.28mg/kgCd obtained for the soils in the vicinities of the automobile workshops were distinctly higher than that of the control indicating enrichment of these metals in these soils. Speciation revealed that 20 – 33% Cu, 19 – 27% Cr and 25 – 45% Cd, were potentially mobile and bio-available. Keywords: sequential extraction, bio-availability, heavy metals, soils, automobile workshops


Background: Peer narratives engage listeners through personally relevant content and have been shown to promote lifestyle change and effective self-management among patients with hypertension. Incorporating key quotations from these stories into follow-up text messages is a novel way to continue the conversation , providing reinforcement of health behaviors in the patients' daily lives. Objective: strategies to self-management. to describe our for developing a text-messaging protocol intended for use after that incorporate the of these We used a video-recorded into We into texting We an iterative of story transcripts to identify vernacular features and key self-management concepts emphasized by storyteller. We worked our narrative text message development in substantive ways, as we sought to craft culturally sensitive content for texts. by input on timing and integration, supplementary educational and 2-way interactive assessment text were Within the Veterans Affairs texting system Annie , we programmed five 6-month text-messaging protocols that included cycles of 3 text message types: narrative messages, nonnarrative educational messages, and 2-way interactive messages assessing self-efficacy and behavior related to hypertension self-management. Each protocol corresponds to a single Veteran storyteller, allowing Veterans to choose the story that most resonates with their own life experiences. Conclusions: We crafted a culturally sensitive text-messaging protocol using narrative content referenced in Veteran stories to support effective hypertension self-management. Integrating narrative content into a mobile health texting intervention provides a low-cost way to support longitudinal behavior change. A randomized trial is underway to test its impact on the lifestyle changes and blood pressure of African American Veterans.


The paper is a general description of the hydro-electric development at the Serra de Cubatao, in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The general load and climatic conditions which led to the development are outlined, together with the advantages of the site chosen for the power house andreservoirs. The method of the provision of power for constructional purposes is next described.There follow details of the permanent lay-out and the construction of the power house and its equipment. The switch-house lay-out and equipment, and the control and relay systems are described. Details of the earthing system, the 88 000-volt outdoor equipment, the transmission line and the Sao Caetano terminal station for the city of Sao Paulo are set forth.Finally, the capacity and cost of the development and the Sao Paulo system are dealt with.


The stability of the open-pit slope has been one of the important security issues on open-pit mining.Before damage occurs,the high and steep slope always shows the trend of slow process of displacement.Therefore,by monitoring the small displacement of the high and steep slope,we can predict its catastrophic collapse.In this paper,the monitoring system of open-pit slope based on Beidou is presented that can achieve real-time automatic monitoring of high slope.This paper introduces the data acquisition program development, data transmission program development, as well as data analysis and integrated data management.


Retraction of 'The synthesis and biological activity of marine alkaloid derivatives and analogues' by Shiyang Zhou et al., RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 31909–31935, DOI: 10.1039/D0RA05856D.


In his novel 'Putri', Putu Wijaya applies his concept of 'New Tradition', which was originally applied to art, to Balinese customs and culture. This article is a close reading of Putu's new novel and suggests that he is rediscovering his Balinese roots, to which he previously expressed ambivalence.


From the Iberian Federation of Viewers and Listeners have created a new campaign for quality television. The spectator in Spain is unprotected because there is no Audiovisual Authority with powers of sanction. Regarding this issue presents different aspects that influence, as the need for a publicly owned television, respect the schedule of child protection, or trash television. Each issue includes a section of relevant regulations.


This paper starts with a description of our. inversion methodology, goes on to describe the precise method used in processing the data for the blind experiment at the 1989 Berlin workshop and concludes with practical suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the method.


High transparency and small in the thickness direction retardation, and provides easy-to-stretch of methacrylic resin composition. Methacrylic resin composition of the present invention, methacrylic, and the content of structural units of methylmethacrylate-derived 80% or more by weight, a weight average molecular weight of 200,000 or less of methacrylic resin, having a number average molecular weight of the viscosity of 1,000 or more, 32,000 or less, the and methacrylic wife 1-4 mass content of the resin 100 parts by mass of a polycarbonate resin, a polymer processing aid, which has an average degree of polymerization of 3,000 ~ 40,000, a content of about 100 parts by mass of the methacrylic resin parts of 0.3 ~ 6 by weight It contained, and the methacrylic resin and the total amount of the polycarbonate resin to be contained in the methacrylic resin composition is at least 80% by weight.


OBJECTIVE:To analyze the adverse drug reactions(ADRs) induced by antibiotics reported by Nanjing Gaochun County People's Hospital for clinical reference of rational drug use.METHODS: A total of 614 ADR cases induced by antibiotics submitted from 2006 to 2010 were analyzed statistically.RESULTS: The ADRs in the 614 cases presented mainly as lesions of skin and its appendants,followed by lesion of gastrointestinal tract.CONCLUSION: Great importance should be attached to the ADR monitoring so as to reduce incidences of ADRs.


This article simply introduces quality characteristics of Pu'er tea, historic records of Pu'er tea's health functions at home and aboard are reviewed, analyses effect factors on health functions of Pu'er tea.


This article proposes to analyze the relationships between Clarice Lispector's social experience and her literary works that constitute a fruitful field for the identification of a range of both, constraints and the familial and social triumphs, which played an important role in her artistic repertoire. Despite making use of a wide range of biographies about the author and taking into consideration the obstacles and opportunities that concurred to Clarice Lispector's literary career, this analysis also questions the achievements and limitations of biographies as an instrument for sociological investigation by highlighting the necessity of putting forth metatheoretical discussions.


It is widely believed that in Mesopotamia patrimonial transmission was patrilineal, while the kinship system was agnatic. This article reconsiders the relevant literature in the light of the analytical methods of anthropology, and argues that, on the contrary, the data from the paleo-baylonian period show an inheritance process characterized by diverging devolution, as well as a model of family organization with dual lineage, matrilineal and patrilineal. This allows us to place the Mesopotamian case inside the Eurasian cultural area.


Rate constant ratios, kd/kc for the disproportionation/combination reaction have been measured as 0.07 ± 0.02 when an H is removed from the CH2 position of the CF3CH2CHCH3 radical and as 0.24 ± 0.03 when the H is removed from the CH3 position in the reaction with the CF3 radical. For the self-reaction between two CF3CH2CHCH3 radicals, kd/kc has been measured as 0.27 ± 0.03 when the H is removed from the CH2 position and as 0.47 ± 0.04 when the H is removed from the CH3 position. The branching fraction, corrected for the number of hydrogens at each site, is 0.70 favoring the methyl position when the acceptor radical is CF3 and 0.54 when CF3CH2CHCH3 is the acceptor radical. Branching fraction results show that the CF3 substituent on the CF3CH2CHCH3 radical hinders disproportionation when CF3 is the acceptor radical. When the accepting radical is CF3CH2CHCH3 the CF3 substituent may slightly impede the disproportionation reaction, but the branching ratio is nearly statistical. The effect of substituents on the donor radical, CF3CH2CHX, will be discussed for the series X = H, CF3, Cl, and CH3 when the acceptor radical is CF3. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 33: 549–557, 2001


The Take-away Technique was used in High School Physics and Physical Science courses for the unit on Newtonian mechanics in a teacher (6) by grade level (4) partially crossed design (N=272). All classes received the same IE instructional treatment. The experimental group (classrooms) did a short Takeaway after each class summarizing the key concepts and points covered in the class, whereas the control group (classrooms) wrote a short evaluation of what they liked and disliked about the class. The experimental group performed better than the control group on the standardized Force Concepts Inventory achievement measure (Hestenes et al., 1992) using Hake normalized gain scores by a quarter to two-thirds of a standard deviation. Neither group showed the typical decline in attitudes towards Physics that occurs in IE approaches. The experimental group students gave the same positive benefits for the Takeaway technique as given in a previous study done with college undergraduates in a psychology course with those students in the control group citing much lower rates of these benefits and primarily emotional expression benefits. Given its design, the increased achievement observed in this study could be attributed directly to the Take-away technique as opposed to other rival hypotheses.


This study aims to discuss how the European Union and Turkey deal with the Syrian refugee crisis. The research method used in this study was a systematic literature review using 504 scientific articles sourced from the Scopus database. In reviewing the articles, the authors used the Vosviewer application. The results revealed that Syrian refugees were accommodated correctly and facilitated properly and contributed to the problem by providing insight into digital literacy, information needs, and strategies among Syrian and Iraqi refugees entering Europe and changing perspectives on migrants and refugees as passive victims of this event made to make Syrian refugee decisions to stay in Germany, in an econometric strategy based on estimating models of equality in social unity, economic integration and the decision to stay. The results contribute to developing a research roadmap on the Syrian internecine crisis in Turkey and the European Union and contribute to international relations science. Turkey and the European Union. Subsequent research must use scientific articles from other reputable international databases, such as Web of Science and Dimensions Scholars.


Abstract Neofunctionalism lives on in health policy: while there are many ways in which the theory of Haas has become obsolescent, it still provides a convincing explanation of the expansion of EU competencies, as shown above all by the ongoing, unintended, development of a European health policy. Member states have carefully isolated health services and policy from the EU since its inception, granting only narrow responsibilities and weak tools relevant to marginal areas of policy. Yet today the EU is emerging as one of the formative influences in health policy. Simply put, the activities of EU institutions in areas outside health, both legislative and judicial, have had unexpected consequences for health by changing the legal environment under which health systems contract employees, purchase goods, finance services, and organize themselves. The result is systematic encroachments on health policy by the EU, driven by the Court and justified by internal market rules and decisions.


Background Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is one of most common forms of glomerulonephritis. At this point, the clinical impact of hyperuricemia on IgAN is not clear. The aim of the present study was to explore the clinical impact of hyperuricemia on the progression of IgAN. Study Design Multicenter retrospective cohort study. Setting & Participants 935 IgAN patients who were diagnosed by kidney biopsy at Osaka University Hospital, Osaka General Hospital, and Osaka Rosai Hospital. were included in this study. Predictor Uric acid levels at renal biopsy. Outcomes The outcome of interest was the time from the kidney biopsy to the time when a 50% increase in the baseline serum creatinine level was observed, which was defined as "progression". Measurements The baseline characteristics according to the kidney biopsy at the time of diagnosis were collected from the medical records, and included age, gender, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes (use of antidiabetic drugs), serum levels of creatinine, urinary protein, smoking status, RAAS blockers and steroid therapy. Results An elevated serum uric acid level was an independent risk factor for progression in female patients (per 1.0 mg/dL, multivariate-adjusted incident rate ratio 1.33 [95% confidence interval 1.07, 1.64], P = 0.008) but not in male patients (1.02 [0.81, 1.29], P = 0.855). To control a confounding effect of renal function on an association between serum uric acid level and progression in female patients, age- and serum creatinine-matched and propensity score-matched analyses were performed, and these results also supported the effect by uric acid on kidney disease progression independent of basal kidney function. Limitations A cohort analyzed retorospectively. Conclusions This study revealed that an elevated uric acid level was an independent risk factor for ESKD in female IgAN patients. Therefore, uric acid might be a treatable target in female IgAN patients.


This present paper aims to investigate strength characteristics of cement mortar using natural sea sand as fine aggregate in different curing conditions. Research was carried out with making mortar mixtures by two types of cement, Portland Composite Cement (PCC) and Pozzolana Portland Cement (PPC) with tap water as mixing water. Characteristics of fine aggregate and strength of cement mortar use river sand (RS), sea sand (SS), and washed sea sand (WS) were observed. Further, specimens of cube mortar in size of 50 mm x 50 mm x 50 mm of six mortar mixture series were casted according to Indonesian Standard. At 24 hours after cube specimens were casted, cube mortar specimens were cured in three curing conditions such as tap water curing (TC), seawater curing (SC) and air curing (AC). After curing at certain period (3-day, 7-day, 14-day, and 28-day), cube mortar samples were tested in compressive strength. Results concluded that sea sand aggregate improve characteristic of mortar in compressive strength up to 28 days in all curing conditions, and there was no significant effect of type of curing water (TC and SC) on 28-day strength performance of mortar was obtained. In addition, sea sand could potentially be utilized as an aggregate in production of mortar and/or concrete.


One of the problems with interdisciplinary work is that the outsider to a discipline so often tends to join its discourse at points which seem irrelevant to its practitioners. The experience is not unlike that of the foreign visitor who watches with amazement and not a little sadness as the 'natives' abandon those items of their culture which seem to him to be of most value. And the 'native' has only impatience for advice to slow down the pace of change. African specialists on the history of the family seem to be entertaining a similar break with their past practices and present significant problems of orientation for the outside observer. The chief dissatisfaction appears to be with the legacy of the powerful generation of anthropologists who emerged in the 1930s and 1940s. They dealt with the organization of large corporate groups and interpreted action, belief and feeling in terms of a few principles derived from the structures of such groups.1 It has become an everyday criticism that this great work suffers from its 'timelessness', and of course historians have a professional interest in reiterating the point. More serious is the fact that the older constructs no longer seem to assist in analysing either the new problems that excite the historian aware of what his colleagues elsewhere are doing or the actual findings of new research. To the outside observer – in this case an historian of Europe, whose bedtime reading consists of ethnologies of Africa, Papua-New Guinea, and the like – a confrontation with current research on Africa helps focus issues and problems in his own work and suggests a few points where common discussion might be fruitful.


Imbalanced data with skewed class distributions and different misclassification costs is common in many real-world applications. Traditional classification approach does not work well for imbalanced data, because they assume equal costs for each class. To deal with this problem, cost-sensitive approaches assign different misclassification costs for different classes without disrupting the true original distributions of samples. However, due to lack of prior knowledge, the misclassification costs are usually unknown and hard to choose in practice. Whats more, even instances in the same class may have different misclassification costs. As an extension of class-dependent costs, this paper presents a composite cost-sensitive deep neural network (CCS-DNN) for imbalanced classification. A specifically-designed cost-sensitive matrix, which is composed of example-dependent costs and class-dependent costs, is embedded into the loss function to improve the classification performance. And the parameters of both the cost-sensitive matrix and the network are jointly optimized during training. The results of comparative experiments on some benchmark datasets indicate that the CCS-DNN performs better than other baseline methods.


Ergot alkaloids are mycotoxin produced by fungi of the Claviceps genus, mainly by Claviceps purpurea in EU. Recently obtained informations indicates necessity for control the ergot in imported grains. Recent occurrence data of ergot alkaloids from EU countries indicate the necessities of management and control these toxins from the imported grains like rye, wheat, oat etc. The aim of this study is to optimize the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of ergot alkaloids (ergometrine, ergosine, ergotamine, ergocornine, ergocryptine, ergocristine and their epimers (-inines) from grain and grain-based food. The test method was optimized by extracting the sample with acetonitrile containing 2 mM ammonium carbonate, purification with Mycosep cartridge, and instrumental analysis by LC-MS/ MS using Syncronis C18 column. The standard calibration curves showed linearity with correlation coefficents; R2 >0.99. Mean recoveries ranged from 72.0 to 111.3% at three different fortified levels (20, 50, and 100 μg/kg). The correlation coefficient expressed as precision was within the range of 1.9-12.9%. The limit or quantifications (LOQ) ranged from 0.012 to 0.058 μg/kg. The developed analytical method met the criteria of AOAC Int. and CAC validation parameters like accuracy and sensitivity. As a result, it was confirmed that the test method developed in this study is suitable for the simultaneous analysis of six species of ergot alkaloid from grains and grain products.


Prior research examines the effects of a strong market orientation on a news organization, looking at both content and journalists' perceptions. But recent technology allows for more weakly market-oriented newsrooms, an under-researched area of inquiry. This study, utilizing long-form interviews with 23 journalists at digital news organizations with weak market orientations, examines journalist perceptions of market orientation. The data show that journalists perceive positive effects of this orientation on their organization through more time for stories, more ability to engage with the audience and more overall autonomy. However, the journalists believe negative effects include a lack of innovation, an unstable funding structure, and a lack of perceived credibility from the audience. These results are discussed through the lens of market theory for news.


In December 1999, the Swedish Tourist Authority commissioned Statistics Sweden to carry out a border survey on incoming tourism. In Sweden, as in many European countries, the first attempt to measure tourism was made through accommodation statistics. Since 1978 data has been collected from the service supply side: hotels, motels, youth hostels, campsites etc. The limitations are obvious, as far from all tourists stay in such establishments. We honestly believe that the experience has been extraordinarily positive both for the STA and for Statistics Sweden, although their responsibility for the design and execution of the survey has involved them in combating a number of problems which are described below.


Proliferation/apoptosis balance is an important information in gastrointestinal ulcerative and malignant diseases. Immunohistochemical staining and visual counting is routine procedure. Recently we reported a new scanning fluorescence technique for automated motorized microscopes (SFM). Development of triple fluorescent labeling method for proliferating/apoptotic/resting cells and application of SFM for the automated analysis and counting on gastric biopsy specimen. Routine antral biopsy specimens by gastroscopy were fresh frozen and 5 micron sections were prepared. Proliferation was detected using a PCNA antibody, anti-mouse-biotin and streptavidin-Texas-Red labeling system. Apoptotic cells was labeled using the TUNEL reaction with FITC bound nucleotids. DAPI nuclear counter staining was applied. Labeled sections were scanned and digitized in the three fluorescent channels. SFM was modified to detect epithelial surface, glands in the biopsy specimen. Automated nuclei detection, PCNA and TUNEL detection was performed, ratio was calculated. In parallel standard biopsies were labeled with PCNA and AEC. TUNEL reaction was performed. Up to 1000 epithelial cells were manually counted. The mean PCNA labeling in healthy samples were 45,3±12,4%, that significantly increased to 56.4±8.7% in H. Pylori positive cases. Positive TUNEL reaction was found in 2,9±1,1% in H. pylori negative cases, while in the H. Pylori positive cases the apoptotic ratio was significantly increased (14.1±3.2%, p<0.05). Significant correlation in apoptosis/proliferation ratio between the SFM and routine methods could be observed (p<0,05). SFM procedure proved to be more time efficient both in labeling, both in detection procedures. Triple fluorescent labeling and automated fluorescence microscopy is an applicable tool for the proliferation, apoptosis determination in fresh frozen samples.


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Descriptivist Theory of Name holds that names have both sense and referent, whereas Causal-Historical Theory of Name holds that proper names and natural material names have only referent; Aristotle's Essentialism discusses essence in actual world, whereas Kripke's Essentialism discusses essence across possible worlds. It was considered that these two kinds of viewpoints conflict with each other. With the framework of Possible Worlds and previous achievements concerned, the article argues that there is no so-called conflict. In the course of discussion, the author stresses the importance of social practices for the understanding of Name and Essence and clarifies some misconceptions.


Most speech recognition systems search through large finite state machines to find the most likely path, or hypothesis. Efficient search in these large spaces requires pruning of some hypotheses. Popular pruning techniques include probability pruning which keeps only hypotheses whose probability falls within a prescribed distance from the most likely one, and rank pruning which keeps only a prescribed number of the most probable hypotheses. Rank pruning provides better control over memory use and search complexity, but requires sorting of the hypotheses, a time consuming task that may slow the recognition process. We have recently proposed an estimated rank pruning (ERP) technique which combines the search-space and memory consumption advantages of rank pruning with the efficiency of probability pruning. Given a prescribed number n of hypotheses, ERP estimates the probability of the n-th most likely one and prunes all the less likely ones. In this paper we outline two improvements of ERP: a more accurate rank estimation, and a method for avoiding over-pruning.


A systematization of Hurricane Cesar's impact and the attention given to the affected population. 886 homes of 29 communities within the three more damaged areas were visited. The main findings indicate the economic losses affected the economic savings of families. If no help is received from the government the effects of Hurricane Cesar will become one more factor responsible for the increase in poverty among those who live in the Southern part of Costa Rica


Symbolic aggregate approximation (SAX) is an ideal technique for dynamic biometric recognition of handwritten digits. The manipulation of time series in SAX readily lends itself to analysis of the spatial coordinate data acquired from a digit written on the touchscreen of a smartphone or tablet. SAX generates a sequence of alphabetic characters derived from a time series as a result of this analysis. Alphabetic sequences may be compared using the SAX minimum distance function. We propose a new algorithm for author authentication based on this process and the simple use of mean and standard deviation. We analyze the accuracy of our solution using JMotif, a Java time series data mining toolkit based on SAX, and a handwritten digit database of 1400 samples from 14 authors. Our experimental validation proves that our algorithm will authenticate the author of any handwritten digit almost 100% of the time. We conclude that our work has important implications in the design of handwritten Personal Identification Number systems.


This chapter provides evidence-based assessment techniques for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). An overview of formative and summative assessment, innovative formative assessment strategies for students with ASD, and innovative summative assessment strategies for students with ASD are included. Discussion includes case studies and clear examples of how technology can support the assessment process. Practitioners may combine the assessment supports presented in this chapter because each support addresses more than one characteristic or need.


Using the modern theory of public economics as the point of departure, this paper outlines a basic principle for setting taxes and/or prices of commodities based on two key criteria, efficiency and equity. The paper shows that for petroleum products, the basic principle needs modification in the presence of various externalities and market imperfections in a setting where the instruments to address the externalities and imperfections are limited. Drawing from theoretical and empirical literature, the paper provides an operational framework and then illustrates how, for a country like Nigeria, the relevant taxes/subsidies to correct the externalities and to address equity and revenue considerations can be measured with a view to setting prices of petroleum products. However, the paper refrains from making any specific suggestion for policy reform in Nigeria. The framework outlined in the paper can be applied to the analysis of petroleum product taxes and prices in other developing countries.


Hybrids consisting of a microporous film and polymeric microspheres were fabricated via a simple method without a special apparatus. Highly ordered microporous polymer films with honeycomb structure were fabricated by a dissipative process utilizing amphiphilic poly(acrylic acid)- block-polystyrene, which was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization followed by an acid-catalyzed ester cleavage reaction. In order to embed the microsphere efficiently, the dried microporous films should be soaked in methanol to alter the surface functionality and to improve the wettability of the film surface. The introduction of amino functionality to polystyrene microspheres by seeded polymerization of N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate drastically improved the embedding efficiency. The effect of open pore size was also investigated.