Thanks to wide area measurement system, the introduction of the whole electrical power system information into wide area backup protection methods has made up the severe deficiency that some incorrect judgments made by traditional backup protective devices when the transmission line overload occurs are only based on local measuring data, which may cause incorrect operation of protective relays. The deficiency of traditional backup protection has deteriorated the operating condition of the power system and has accelerated process of cascading trips. The current methods of wide area backup protection can be possibly designed for optimal strategies from the point of the whole system. In this paper, according to the different designing principles, methods of wide area backup protection are classified into five categories and are listed in detail based on the present research progress. Advantages and disadvantages of these methods in practical application are summarized. At last, the existing problems and possible studying directions of wide area backup protection methods


This study aims to reveal what the principals' experience of being a principal means to them. Phenomenological research design was used in the study. The study group of the research selected by the maximum diversity sampling consists of 37 principals. The findings of the study show that the most time-consuming tasks of school principals are grouped under three main headings: (i) supervision and control, (ii) establishing and maintaining relationships and (iii)managing bureaucratic processes. There are 11 types of principals created by these daily works: watchman, fatherly, contractor, office clerk, visible, task sharer, CEO, psychologist, Swiss army knife, film director and culture builder. However, although this study shows that school principals assume more of a specific role and type, it can be stated that the permeability between these roles and types is high and whether or not the principals are mobile and relationship oriented have significant effects on the types they take on.


It is convenient to use the inelastic displacement ratio spectra and residual displacement ratio spectra to predict the maximum inelastic displacement and residual displacement of building structures based on linear elastic analysis directly. The prestressed concrete wall system with friction devices (PCW-FD system) can be simulated by single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model with self-centering behavior. To investigate the seismic performance of PCW-FD system, the SDOF models with fully and non-fully self-centering behavior are analyzed firstly, and it is concluded that the hysteresis parameters (strength reduction coefficient, post-yield stiffness coefficient, energy dissipation coefficient, and period) have significant influence on the seismic responses (such as constant relative strength inelastic displacement ratio, constant relative strength residual displacement ratio, maximum absolute acceleration, the hysteretic energy, and site classifications) during short period, and the trends of the seismic responses are similar at different site classifications. Then a large amount of the result data is summarized, and the constant relative strength inelastic displacement ratio spectra and the constant relative strength residual displacement ratio spectra with enough precision (the correlation coefficients are 0.957 and 0.947, respectively) are established by conducting regression analysis. Finally, the direct displacement–based seismic design method is improved and verified to be suitable for PCW-FD system.


Direct conversion orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems suffer from transmit and receive analog processing impairments such as in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) imbalance causing inter-carrier interference (ICI) among sub-carriers. Another source of performance-limiting ICI in OFDM systems is Doppler spread due to mobility. However, the nature of ICI due to each of them is quite different. Unlike previous work which considered these two impairments separately, we develop a unified mathematical framework to characterize, estimate, and jointly mitigate ICI due to I/Q imbalance and high mobility. Based on our general model, we derive a closed-form expression for the degradation in signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) due to the impairments. Moreover, we exploit the special ICI structure to design efficient OFDM channel estimation and digital baseband compensation schemes for joint transmit/receive frequency-independent (FI) and frequency-dependent (FD) I/Q imbalances under high-mobility conditions.


formance, and pivots on the identification of the 'lived' and energized space of the performer/ spectator interaction. For McAuley, the specificity of theatre lies not in its relation to the dramatic but to the spatial. Although arguing that the association of theatre with text is to an extent an accident of historical practice, McAuley indicates in her introduction that she will incorporate analysis of text-based performance in order that the critical approach she is working with can be seen to address all forms of performance practice. In fact, this note seems rather modest: the section dealing with Ibsen's A Dolls House, for example, illuminates parallels between the thematic arrangement of a literary text and the spatial organization of a performance, and explores radical shifts in the meaning constructed by performance when thematic and spatial elements are readjusted. The sixth chapter, 'Space in the Written Text', offers further original and thought-provoking observations on the spatial nature of writing itself. Although centring on spaces generated in performance, the book does not neglect the spaces necessary for the generation of performance. I enjoyed the discussion of 'practitioner' spaces dressing-rooms, green rooms and of the impact of rehearsal space on the subsequent shape of the performance. This is not an architectural study, though obviously commentary on architecture is part of the remit of the book. Rather, it is a creative, accessible, and thorough investigation of the centrality of a spatial perspective to the production and analysis of performance practice. It will be of interest to theatre and performance studies students and scholars, theatre practitioners, and spectators.


Political and social changes since Indonesian's reformation placed Perhutani in an uneasy position. It led to massive deforestation and degradation in state forests land in Java untill now. These acts, perpetrated by miss-management and decrease in the quality of forests resource, were driven by a complicated set of issues. Community Based Forest Management (CBFM known as PHBM) was introduced by Indonesian Forest Enterprises (Perhutani)  during a period of political and social transition in Indonesia, to address increasing rate of forest degradation in Java. The debates between proponents and opponents of the scheme within Perhutani consumed much of the agency's time and energy otherwise invested into PHBM implementation on the field. As a result, PHBM stalled as it was not integrated effectively into the organization of forestry resources management planning. It is due to the gaps in perceptions between community and Perhutani. Additionally, PHBM not managed according to the Collaborative Forest Management principles, and the dominant roles of Perhutani in the implementation of PHBM steer it towards Co-optation Forest Management.


Background    Obese non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was found to increase the risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF) regardless of the metabolic syndrome subgroups that may accompany it. In this study, the effect of NAFLD on the structural and electrical functions of the heart was investigated using tissue Doppler echocardiography (TDE) in non-obese NAFLD patients without any known risk factors for AF.Material and methods    The study included 43 female patients (31.3±3.8 years), who had stage 2-3 hepatosteatosis detected by liver ultrasonography and diagnosed as non-obese NAFLD (patient group), and 31 healthy women (control group, 32.5±3.6 years). In addition to standard echocardiographic parameters, inter- and intra-atrial electromechanical delay (EMD) were evaluated by TDE.Results    Interatrial EMD (PA lateral - PA tricuspid) and intraatrial EMD (PA septum - PA tricuspid) were significantly longer in patient group (16.1±3.4 vs. 12.5±2.3 ms, p<0.001, and 8.4±1.6 vs. 6.6±1.6 ms, p<0.001, respectively). At the subclinical level. atrial size, left ventricular diastolic function, and left ventricular wall thickness measurements were greater in the patient group.Conclusion    Inter-atrial and intra-atrial EMD were detected in young women with non-obese NAFLD. In addition, at the subclinical level, structural and functional impairment was detected However, large-volume prospective studies are required to cobfirm these findings regarding the development of AF in non-obese NAFLD patients.


Vehicle routing solutions delivered to companies as packaged applications combine vehicle routing decision-making models and supporting services for data integration, presentation and other functionality. The packaged applications often are tailored to specific needs of their users thought customization methods and mainly focus on the supporting services rather than on modification of the routing models. This paper proposes a method for customization of the routing model as a part of the routing application. The customization method enables companies to incorporate their specific decision-making goals and context into the routing model without redesigning the model itself. The routing model is also capable of adapting its behaviour according to observed interdependencies among decision-making goals and routing context. An illustrative example is provided to demonstrate customization of the routing solution and to highlight multi-objective and context-dependent characteristics of the vehicle routing problem.


Geochronological studies on the timing of deformation and metamorphism along the Laurentian margin have shown that the ages of metamorphic events change along-strike within the Newfoundland – southern Quebec segment of the Canadian Appalachians. The Gaspe Peninsula is located at mid-point of the two extremities of this segment. New single-grain laser 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages solely reflect latest Middle–Late Ordovician metamorphism. Samples taken within the internal Humber zone in the Shickshock Group rocks yield 40Ar/39Ar muscovite and hornblende ages ranging from 457 to 454 Ma. Samples from the Amphibolite du Diable, the metamorphic sole of the Mont Albert ophiolite, yield 40Ar/39Ar muscovite and hornblende ages ranging from 459 to 457 Ma. Ordovician ages of the internal Humber zone are consistent with 40Ar/39Ar ages from southern Quebec and are interpreted as the result of the emplacement onto the margin of both the ophiolite and its metamorphic sole.


raised whether the material on SuperSalesmanship might not have been interwoven in earlier chapters. Finally, there are very few problem-type questions in the book and no reading references are included. These omissions detract but little from the value of the book to the salesman, but they would impair its usefulness in college classes. Salesmanship Applied should prove stimulating and helpful to the practical salesman. The sections on building personality and on retail selling are excellent while certain other topics have not been given entirely adequate treatment and the organization is confusing at points. Considered as a whole, however, anyone interested in the literature of salesmanship should certainly become acquainted with the point of view and the wealth of illustrative material presented. Ross M. CUNNINGHAM Massachusetts Institute of Technology


The utilization of all-ceramic anterior restorations has been widely advocated by dental clinicians for the creation of a natural appearance, even in teeth that have undergone endodontic treatment. A suitable aesthetic level is generally more difficult to achieve, however, when a post and core system is required in the absence of adequate dental structure. In particular, conventional cast-metallic posts negate light transmission, which has long been considered a vital component in the creation of optimal aesthetics. This article provides an overview of the materials, fabrication methods, and procedures involved in anterior reconstruction using aesthetic alternative systems and solutions.


Purpose: Muscle synergy is a functional unit that coordinates the activity of a number of muscles. In this study, the extraction of muscle synergies in three types of hand movements in the horizontal plane is investigated.
Materials and Methods: So, after constructing the tracking pattern of three signals, by LabVIEW, the Electromyography (EMG) signal from six muscles of hand was recorded. Then time-constant muscle synergies and their activity curves from the recorded EMG signals were extracted using Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) method.
Results: Comparison of these patterns showed that the non-random motions' synergies were more similar than the random motions among different individuals. It was observed that in all movements, the similarity of the synergies in one cluster was greater than the similarity of their corresponding activation curves.
Conclusion: The results showed that the complexity of the recurrence plot in random movement is greater than that of the other movements.


The gynecologic use of the CO2 Laser is neither miracle-way nor useless. It is a reliable surgical instrument which, in our opinion, has often shown more promising advantages of performance and therapeutical results than the conventional physical or chemical methods. Its main draw-backs are: the need for perfect mastery of colposcopy and the purchase price which will limit the availability of this instrument, still for a long time, to a few highly equipped centers.


This paper studies neural network models of vehicle dynamics. We consider both models with a generic layer architecture and models with specialised topologies that hard-wire physics principles. Network pre-wiring is limited to universal laws; hence it does not limit the network modelling abilities on one side but allows more robust and interpretable models on the other side. Four different network types (with and without pre-wired structure, recursive and non-recursive) are compared for the longitudinal dynamics of a car with gears and two controls (brake and engine). Results show that pre-wiring effectively improves the performance. Non-recursive networks also look to be preferable for several reasons.


Background. As it is established that diabetes mellitus causes metabolic disturbances of all types (first of all because of carbohydrate metabolism), affection of blood vessels, nerves, different organs and tissues. However, the influence of DM on the level of microelements is still not investigated enough. Despite the sufficient variety of medicaments, compensation of diabetes mellitus is achieved in less than 30% of patients. For this reason, the search of new ways of treatment which are aimed at the improvement of carbohydrate metabolism is an urgent issue. Objective. The research was aimed to reveal the deficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25(OH)D3] and its correlation with carbohydrate metabolism. Methods. Thirty five patients with diabetes mellitus Type 2 aged 55-74 with illness duration 2-4 years were examined. The control group included 35 healthy people of the same age and sex. Levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25(OH)D3] were tested by means of radioimmunoassay. The level of glycated haemoglobin was tested by means of liquid chromatography. Results. Correlation of the level of vitamin D with the degree of diabetes mellitus Type 2 compensation has been detected. Conclusions. A clear tendency to the improvement of diabetes mellitus Type 2 compensation after medication correction with vitamin D was evidenced.


Litter‐removing disturbances such as fire in grasslands temporarily increase available resources for plants, opening a window of opportunity for new establishment as communities recover. At this time, new individuals or species could be added to the community as a result of germination from the local seed bank. In reconstructed grasslands this may be problematic, as the seed bank may contain a suite of undesired species reflective of prior and surrounding land uses. In two, 25‐year‐old, low‐diversity reconstructed grasslands, we tested the effect of local seed bank establishment following litter‐removing disturbance using seedling removal plots (1 m2) and plots where natural seedling establishment was allowed. Following disturbance, the vegetation was either left intact or hayed to enhance seedling establishment (a common practice following inter‐seeding efforts). Although the seed bank and seedling community were dominated by resident grasses (Andropogon gerardii and Poa pratensis), recruitment from the seed bank increased species richness and reduced evenness through the addition of forb species (including Cirsium arvense) in one of the study sites. Haying temporarily altered the abundances of the dominant grasses, but did not consistently affect seedling recruitment. Disturbances that facilitate seed bank recruitment may promote establishment of undesired species within reconstructed grassland communities, and we need to take steps to better manage the contributions into and recruitment from the seed bank to reconstruct sustainable grasslands.


Through silicon vias (TSVs), acting as vertical interconnections, play an important role in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) 3D wafer level packaging. Today, taking advantage of nanoparticle inks, inkjet technologies as local filling methods could be used to plate the inside the vias with a conductive material, rather than using a current method, such as chemical vapor deposition or electrolytic growth. This could decrease the processing time, cost and waste material produced. In this work, we have fabricated and demonstrated electrical characterization of TSVs with a top diameter of 85 μm, and partially metallized on their inside walls using silver nanoparticle ink and drop-on-demand inkjet printing. Electrical measurement showed that the resistance of a single via with a void free coverage from top to bottom could be less than 4 Ω, which is still acceptable for MEMS applications.


Generative modeling has been used frequently in synthetic data generation. Fairness and privacy are two big concerns for synthetic data. Although Recent GAN [\cite{goodfellow2014generative}] based methods show good results in preserving privacy, the generated data may be more biased. At the same time, these methods require high computation resources. In this work, we design a fast, fair, flexible and private data generation method. We show the effectiveness of our method theoretically and empirically. We show that models trained on data generated by the proposed method can perform well (in inference stage) on real application scenarios.


The 2007-2008 agricultural commodity price boom was short-lived, just like past agricultural commodity price spikes. Grain prices doubled or even tripled from 2006 to 2008, while accompanying food prices rose sharply. But prices then fell steeply in the latter part of 2008. Some international agencies argued that the high prices in 2008 were going to persist for many years, partly because of growing food import demand in China and other parts of Asia. So this article investigates China's role in the 2007-2008 global food price boom and bust. We find that contrary to some claims, income, demand and trade growth in China cannot be blamed for the increase in global food prices in 2007-2008. In fact, in China, growth in meat consumption in the urban areas has slowed down since the 1990s and per capita urban meat consumption has been very constant since 2002. In the rural areas, per capita meat consumption has also stabilized in the last five years. China did not overreact to the 2007-2008 food price boom and one could even argue that strong government intervention in China's grain sector was a stabilizing factor in the world grain markets over the last two years. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) The Agricultural Economics Society and the European Association of Agricultural Economists 2009.


In this paper, the method which forecasts original sequences {x(0) (k)} with logarithmic function or with power function has been complemented, and the method which handles original sequences by logarithmic function-power function transformation or by power function-logarithmic function transformation has been presented, then smooth degree and precision of forecasting of discrete data have been improved.


In acoustic echo cancellation as, e.g., for mobile communication receivers, loudspeakers and their amplifiers cause significant nonlinear distortion in the echo path, resulting in a degradation of the performance of linear echo cancelers. In order to cope with this type of nonlinear echo path, we discuss an orthogonalized version of power filter that can be considered as a parallelized realization of the cascade of a memoryless polynomial followed by a linear filter. As, in the echo cancellation context, the statistics of the speech input are non-stationary and not known in advance, the orthogonalization follows the signal statistics. The performance of the resulting novel nonlinear structure is evaluated by experiments using real hardware.


The gene fragment encoding the cellulose‐binding domain (CBD) of an exoglucanase (Cex) from Cellulomonas fimi was subcloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Transcription from the lac promoter coupled with translation from a consensus prokaryotic ribosome binding site led to the production of large quantities of CBDCex (up to 25% total soluble cell protein). The polypeptide leaked into the culture supernatant (up to 50 mg · L−1), facilitating one‐step purification by affinity chromatography on cellulose. The 11‐kDa polypeptide reacted with Cex antiserum. Absence of free thiols indicated that the two Cys residues of CBDCex form a disulfide bridge. It had the same N‐terminal amino acid sequence as CBDCex prepared from Cex by proteolysis, plus two additional N‐terminal amino acid residues (Ala and Ser) encoded by the Nhel site introduced during plasmid construction. CBDCex bound to a variety of β‐1, 4‐glycans with different affinities and saturation levels. Adsorption to bacterial microcrystalline cellulose was dependent on the temperature, but not on the pH. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


"Teach Yourself Beginner's French" should appeal to anyone who has never learned a language before or who does not feel confident enough to tackle a Teach Yourself complete course. It provides a friendly introduction to French that is easy to follow from start to finish. This updated edition includes new artwork and reflects changes such as the introduction of the euro and the Internet. It teaches the basic structures and applies them to a wide range of real-life situations, useful for both holidaymakers and business travellers.


Abstract Despite the curative potential of autologous transplantation and chimeric antigen receptor T cells in lymphoma, many patients are ineligible, or their disease progresses after these treatments. In this context, antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) have demonstrated very promising efficacy in lymphomas. Antibody drug conjugates are monoclonal antibodies covalently linked to a cytotoxic drug. Because of its highly specific targeting abilities and powerful killing effects, it has become a promising technology for developing anticancer drugs in recent years. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved 14 ADCs since Mylotarg (gemtuzumab ozogamicin) entered the market in 2000. With advances in the design of ADCs, their efficacy and safety have moved in tandem, and many novel ADCs have gained growing interest. Three ADCs, brentuximab vedotin, polatuzumab vedotin, and loncastuximab tesirine, have been approved for treating lymphoma. The rapidly evolving ADC arsenal for treating relapsed or refractory lymphoma offers many choices. The article reviews the history and general mechanism of action of ADCs. This is followed by a discussion of the molecular aspects of their key components and their mechanisms of influence on their design and function. Finally, we review up-to-date clinical data of the approved and emerging targets of ADCs in lymphoma.


Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the importance of the apoptotic activity of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix and Bcl-2 expression. Materials and Methods: Twenty-seven women with cervical squamous cell carcinoma, admitted to our unit between 1996 and 1998, were reviewed. Patients were classified according to staging and grading systems. Bcl-2 protein material was investigated by immunohistochemistry (streptoavidin, biotine, alkaline phosphatase technique). Results: After immunohistochemical staining, 12 of the 27 cases stained positively (44%). There was a correlation between the grade and staining percentage. We found no significant relationship with stage and staining intensity. Conclusions: Bcl-2 could be used as a marker for blocking well-programmed cell death in low grade cases.


Isodose plots are measured on the plane defined by the central axis and corners of rectangular fields. In practice the collimator is rotated (45 degrees for square fields) and the isodose curves are plotted in the horizontal plane. These isodose curves, together with those in the central plane, normally used, encompass the extremes of the field. The diagonal fields are characterized by extreme 'penumbras': about 5 cm (10-90%) for a 32*32 cm field. Examples of such single fields were shown and discussed together with combined treatment fields.


Maintenance of the machinery is a crucial task in industrial production sectors working with machinery. The most important aspect of maintenance is timing. Executing maintenances more frequently or sparsely than the necessary amount causes separate problems resulting with unnecessary expenses or halts in the production. To prevent these problems, a smart system to decide the timing of the maintenance must be established. In this study, we develop an auto-encoder extension of previously proposed deep convolutional network that is trained successfully on the modelling of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals with high performance. The auto-encoder extracts features from the vibration signals collected from the machinery. This method allows us to synthesize multi-channel vibration data which we use to classify the type of the failure that the machinery bearing is going to face, without expert field knowledge and with a high accuracy. The performance of the proposed network is tested on the publicly available Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) bearing dataset with the classification accuracy. Proposed network showed a better classification performance, allowed smaller bottleneck feature sizes and faster training times compared to the Normalized Sparse Auto-Encoder - Locally Connected Network (NSAE-LCN), which is one of the best performing networks on the same dataset.


Purpose: To present management techniques for dealing with mobile floating carotid plaque (MFCP), which represents an indeterminate risk of embolic cerebrovascular events. Case Reports: Two high-risk patients with a history of carotid endarterectomy were diagnosed with MFCP by duplex ultrasound scanning. One patient had a left hemispheric transient ischemic attack while the other was asymptomatic with a moderate stenosis. Both were successfully treated with carotid artery stenting, achieving complete coverage of the MFCP. Their outcomes were uneventful, and sustained patency of the stented arteries has been observed during an event-free survival of 32 and 44 months, respectively. Conclusions: Based upon the unique nature of these lesions and our satisfactory clinical results, we believe that carotid stenting may be a viable option for the treatment of MFCP.


This paper presents a new embodied approach for object segmentation by a humanoid robot. It relies on interactions with a human teacher that drives the robot through the process of segmenting objects from arbitrarily complex, non-static images. Objects from a large spectrum of different scenarios were successfully segmented by the proposed algorithms.


Disorder of arousal (DOA) is a form of nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep parasomnia caused by partial or incomplete arousal from deep sleep. Most previous studies of DOA patients analyzed prearousal hypersynchronous delta activity (HSDA), but few studies have described postarousal HSDA. Herein, we report a 23-year-old man with a history of abrupt arousal during sleep, confused behavior and speech since he was 14 years old. During video EEG monitoring (VEEG), he had nine arousal events of getting up, sitting on the bed, looking around or simple arousal, including eyes open, looking at the ceiling or head flexion. During all arousal events, the postarousal EEG pattern was prolonged HSDA for approximately 40 seconds. The patient was treated unsuccessfully for more than 2 years with an antiseizure medication (lacosamide); eventually, he responded to clonazepam that was administered for the possibility of DOA. Prolonged rhythmic HSDA without spatiotemporal evolution can appear as a postarousal EEG pattern of DOA. When diagnosing DOA, it is important to recognize that postarousal HSDA can appear as a characteristic EEG pattern of DOA.


Background Bile Duct Injuries (BDI) during cholecystectomy are now being recognized as major health problems. Objectives Herein, we present our experience with handling major BDIs and report long-term outcome of hepaticojejunostomies followed by trans-jejunal hepatic duct stenting performed to reconstruct extra-hepatic biliary tracts. Materials and Methods In this case series, we prospectively collected data of 22 patients, who underwent first time biliary reconstruction through Roux-en-y hepaticojejunostomy followed by hepatic duct stenting using a trans-jejunal bifurcated 6F tube drain. The long-term outcome was assessed and defined as excellent (asymptomatic, normal liver enzymes and bilirubin levels), good (asymptomatic, mild abnormality in liver enzyme and bilirubin levels), poor (symptomatic, abnormal liver enzymes and bilirubin level) and failure (requiring reoperation). Results A total of 22 patients including four males (18.1%) and 18 females (81.8%) were evaluated. The mean age was 42.71 (range: 23 - 74) years. Twelve patients had undergone open cholecystectomy (54.5%) and the rest had a history of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The mean interval between the primary operation and reconstruction was 92.71 days. The mean follow-up period after biliary reconstruction was 42.33 (range: 1 - 96) months. No instance of anastomotic leakage or stenosis, biliary sepsis, thromboembolic event, or respiratory infection was noted in the long-term follow-up. The outcome was excellent in all patients. No case with poor or failure of result was noticed. Conclusions Although a devastating complication iatrogenic major bile duct injuries can be corrected surgically with a high rate of success. Temporary trans-jejunal stenting of the hepatic ducts can help in maintaining the integrity of anastomosis without stenosis or biliary sepsis.


In this article I argue that the modernist aesthetic program in post-war Rio de Janeiro, geared towards national construction, competed with a new aesthetic project founded on the universalism of concrete forms. Rather than reflecting the influence of foreign or national avant-garde movements, this change arose from the impact a series of social relations and practices that imposed the recognition of new artistic values. To examine this phenomenon, I reconstruct the history of the Engenho de Dentro Studio, the locus of a sui generis sociability that united young artists, an art critic and artists interned in the Pedro II National Psychiatric Centre.


Introduction . Little is known about the impact of organic manure on andosol. Materials and methods . Two varieties of Solanum lycopersicum L. (cvs. 'Rio grande' and 'Rossol VFN') were grown under tropical andosol. The soil was silty, acidic and very poor in Bray P (3 mg·kg–1 ) with a strong imbalance in the (Ca:Mg:K) ratio of (74.0:25.0:0.7). Five fertilization treatments were used: (i) control with no fertilizer, (ii) minerals, with a (Ca:Mg:K) ratio of (76:18:6) and 75 mg P·kg–1 of soil; (iii) poultry manure with a (Ca:Mg:K) ratio of (68:24:7) and 450 mg P·kg–1 of soil; (iv) a combination of (ii) and (iii), and (v) mineral fertilization as applied by local farmers, with a (Ca:Mg:K) ratio of (73:25:1) and 54 mg P·kg–1 of soil. Results . All cation-balanced treatments (organic, mineral or a combination of both) significantly improved plant growth, the number of trusses and fruits per plant, the marketable fruit yield and fruit P, K, Ca and Na contents of both tomato varieties considered. The 'Rio grande' variety was the most productive (32–44 t·ha–1 ) compared with the 'Rossol' variety (20–22 t·ha–1 ). There was no major difference between the organic fertilizer and the cation-balanced mineral fertilizer. There was no effect of mineral fertilizer with an unbalanced cation composition on tomato plant growth and production as compared with unfertilized control. Conclusion. In tropical andosol poor in potassium and phosphorous and with excess of Mg, application of poultry manure in adequate dosage and at the right time is capable of sustaining tomato fruit production, as well as the application of calculated inorganic fertilizer.


3-Hydroxymethyl-5-(2,3- O -isopropylidene-β-D- erythro- furanosyl)-2-methylfuran ( 2 ) prepared from 3-ethoxycarbonyl derivative 1 was converted to 3-chloromethyl-5-(2,3- O -isopropylidene-β-D- erythro -furanosyl)-2-methylfuran ( 3 ). Compound 3 reacted with cytosine, adenine, 6-chloropurine, 6-mercaptopurine, and nicotinamide to corresponding optically active heterocyclic derivatives 5-10 and 14 . The 6-chloro derivative 9 was converted to 6-alkoxy derivatives 11 and 12 by the reaction with methanol or ethanol, respectively, in the presence of diazabicyclooctane. Dithionite reduction of quaternary chloride 14 gave 1,4-dihydropyridine derivative 15 capable to transform ethyl phenylglyoxylate to optically active ethyl mandelate.


Objective: To determine if Key Feature questions are reliable for Pakistani medical universities.
Methodology: In this cross sectional survey, convenient sampling technique was used and was conducted March 2016 to March 2017 and included 135 medical students. All fourth year students who had completed one month of clinical rotation in the ENT ward were asked to sit for the test after being briefed about the study. The tests were in two parts; the first was of 25 BCQ's which are taken as a regular feature after completion of the clinical rotation. They were given a time of 30 minutes each. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0.
Result: Cronbach's alpha for 25 BCQ's was 0.605 where as the Cronbach's alpha for 13 key feature component was 0.560.
Conclusion: Ideally, 0.07 and above Cronbach's alpha is considered significant and our results do not. Our results did not come up to the level of significance.


Nikolay Alexandrovich Rozhkov (1868–1927) was a prominent Russian historian of the late XIX – early XX century, the author of major works on the economic, political and social history of Russia, the Creator of the original historical concept, which he considered Marxist. For his political activity was subjected to repression under the tsarist and Communist regimes. The article aims to consider the participation of Rozhkov in the last years of his life, when he broke up with politics and was engaged only in scientific and pedagogical work, in the work of the society of historians-Marxists, which was in the second half of 1920 – early 1930 a peculiar center of Soviet historical science. The attitude of Soviet historiography to its scientific heritage after the scientist's death is also traced. It is shown that the cooperation in the framework of the society of historians-Marxists, there was a mutual interest of both the historian and the leadership of Soviet historical science. Despite this, the leading representatives of the official historiography continued to criticize Rozhkov's sociological and historical views for their inconsistency with the basic provisions of the orthodoxal Marxist-Leninist concept of the Russian historical process. For the first time a detailed analysis of the historian's speeches at the meetings of the Society and his publications in the journal «Historian-Marxist», which was a printed body of the organization is carried out. It was found that at this time, as at the beginning of his scientific career, when he worked at the Moscow University, and during the pre-Revolutionary exile in Siberia, the historian focused on historical and economic problems. First of all, it was expressed in the development of methodology of microeconomics study of history of an individual industrial enterprise. On the basis of the developed theoretical approaches and source methods, a detailed study of the specific production and economic activity of Prokhorovka (trekhgornaya) textile factory of the late XVIII-first half of XIX centuries was then presented. Attention was drawn to the fact that at first after the death of the leader of Soviet historians-Marxists M. N. Pokrovsky began to spread the version of the alleged imminent ideological and political rapprochement of Rozhkov with the Bolshevik party, which was prevented by the unexpected and premature death of him. However, soon during the various ideological campaigns of the late 1920 – early 1930 aimed at combating «bourgeois perversions of history» and affirming «purity of Marxism» in Soviet historical science, the well-known characteristic of Rozhkov as a petty bourgeois historian-eclecticism, a Menshevist trend was finally determined.


There exists wide research surrounding the detection of out of distribution sample for image classification. Safety critical applications, such as autonomous driving, would benefit from the ability to localise the unusual objects causing an image to be out of distribution. This thesis adapts state-of-the-art methods for detecting out of distribution images for image classification to the new task of detecting out of distribution pixels, which can localise the unusual objects. It further experimentally compares the adapted methods to a new dataset derived from existing semantic segmentation datasets, proposing a new metric for the task. The evaluation shows that the performance ranking of the compared methods successfully transfers to the new task.


Abstract The relationship between human rights and humanitarian law is one of the most contentious topics in the history of international law. Most scholars studying their foundations argue that these two fields of law developed separately until the 1960s. This article, by contrast, reveals a much earlier cross-fertilization between these disciplines. It shows how "human rights thinking" played a critical generative role in transforming humanitarian law, thereby creating important legacies for today's understandings of international law in armed conflict.


Can monetary policy influence long-term interest rates? Studies that have tackled this question using VARs generally find that monetary policy's influence on long-term interest rates is small and often statistically insignificant. Other studies, however, using a single-equation approach have found a robust relationship. Our study sheds new light on this question by estimating the effect of monetary policy shocks on long-term interest rates in a VAR with long-run monetary neutrality restrictions. We find that U.S. monetary policy can strongly influence long-term interest rates, but only when the Federal Reserve has inflation-fighting credibility and is able to firmly anchor inflationary expectations.


Researchers of seismic waves may construct a new seismographic recording adding one seismometer to each component of a conventional seismic station. The two identical conventional seismometers are set up in position of perpendicular and are connected in parallel feeding one recording device (digital or analog). This use of the seismometers (which they may be both horizontal or, one is vertical) is called "two seismometers seismograph" or simply "2S-S".
2S-seismograph performs new capabilities: 1.-it cause to a higher gain which is based on directly ground motion energy from the two orthogonal components of signals, 2.-it has a much smoother response curve than that of the single use of seismometer,3.-because of this smoothing, we are able to apply a higher level of static magnification which cause to widening the response at its both ends, therefore, 2S-System enable to work with a larger dynamic range frequency, 4.- it has a directional and motional filtering property which may be used in some cases advantageously, The contribution of "1", "2", "3" and "4" correspond to unique instrumental improvements for which seismography are ever needed.
Data which are obtained from the 2S-Ss have also more advantageous properties comparing with even that of ARRAY's: 5.-it is possible to record signals with their larger plane components all the time by a second 2S-S connected with the opposite ends, 6.-seismic wave types (P,S,R,L) can often be recorded separately on a separated 2S-seismogram since researchers usually deal with a known area of research, 7.-some implicit weak signals, which can not be readable as a phase on the conventional seismograms, become recorded newly and readably by the 2S-Ss


Satellite telecommunications services for military and government customers are required to provide reliable, flexible and secure communications, at short notice, anywhere in the world. The UK Armed Forces have come to rely increasingly on this capability. Under contract, Paradigm Services have taken over, from the UK Ministry of Defence, the provision and operation of MOD's satellite telecommunications network. Paradigm delivers managed services across the military satcom network and makes customer care provision. Paradigm has two types of customer. Firstly, there are the Ministry of Defence officials who pay the bill and require proof that the service delivered is providing good value for money. Secondly, there are the end users, some of whom may be sitting in comfortable offices, while others may be in environmentally and/or militarily hostile areas. In a commercial network, these people would be the traditional customers who rely on the integrity of the network and whose day to day activities are impacted by the delivery of the service. QoS for individual users is important. Unlike commercial telecommunications systems, however, an end user cannot terminate their contract. But, if we get the QoS wrong, it can be the difference between life and death for some people. This is a big motivator. The paper discusses the issues around QoS delivery, where the end user is not the customer, in the traditional sense, but is the person impacted by the failure to deliver a quality service.


Introduction. The works of reducing the intensity of rutting on the roads are relevant nowadays. Activities of improving the stability of road pavements include solving material problems, improving methods of calculation of structures and the development of new technologies to ensure high quality construction.Materials and methods. The analysis of data of natural and laboratory experimental researches established the reasons of formation of the rut on coverings of non-rigid road pavements. The authors presented the technique of experimental research of the tires passes' distribution of vehicles on width of the traffic way and traffic lane. Moreover, the authors gave the coefficients for calculating the number of loads in the central and marginal parts of the coasting strips as well as in the inter-track space.Results. As a result, the authors suggested designs of road pavements with hidden rut elements, which placed on a surface of a highway subgrade on the basis of road pavement.Discussion and conclusions. As a result of the close proximity of the hidden track elements from each other, the soil of the subgrade between them experiences compression, in which the stress deviator is of the least importance compared to other stresses of the subgrade due to triaxial compression arising from both the moving load and its own weight pavement. The suggested variant helps to reduce significantly the deformation. For the successful implementation of hidden rut pavement, it is necessary to develop a new or reasonably choose a well-known method of calculating the depth of the rut, which is necessary to verify the criterion of gauge formation in the calculation of the thickness of hidden rut elements and the thickness of the pavement.The authors have read and approved the final manuscript. Financial transparency: the authors have no financial interest in the presented materials or methods. There is no conflict of interest.


Mean square errors associated with median response estimates are compared for the normal and logistic distributions, based on both maximum likelihood and minimum chi square analyses. In broad perspective there is little difference among the mean square errors for these four estimates, regardless of sample size and stimulus level spacing. The first three of the median response estimates require an iterative numerical solution, whereas the minimum chi square analysis for the logistic distribution yields an explicit expression for the associated median response estimate. This explicit estimation expression may be particularly convenient when nonuniform spacing of stimulus levels is involved in testing.


While national politics often receive the spotlight, the overwhelming majority of legislation proposed, discussed, and enacted is done at the state level. Despite this fact, there is little awareness of the dynamics that lead to adopting these policies. In this paper, we take the first step towards a better understanding of these processes and the underlying dynamics that shape them, using data-driven methods. We build a new large-scale dataset, from multiple data sources, connecting state bills and legislator information, geographical information about their districts, and donations and donors' information. We suggest a novel task, predicting the legislative body's vote breakdown for a given bill, according to different criteria of interest, such as gender, rural-urban and ideological splits. Finally, we suggest a shared relational embedding model, representing the interactions between the text of the bill and the legislative context in which it is presented. Our experiments show that providing this context helps improve the prediction over strong text-based models.


The purpose of this work is to compare a range of test methods and kits for assessing whether a building structure is infested by mould fungi. A further purpose of this work is to evaluate whether air-based methods for sampling fungal emissions provide information qualifying decisions concerning renovation needs. This is of importance when hidden surface testing would require destructive measures and subsequent renovation. After identifying available methods on the Danish market for assessing mould growth in dwellings, a case study was conducted to test the usefulness of the methods in four dwellings of different typology and with or without known mould infestations. In each dwelling seven methods were used in parallel. The criteria for choosing the different methods were that they had to be nondestructive, relatively quick and easy, and frequently used by building professionals. The chosen methods measure different aspects relating to mould growth and vary in selectivity and precision. The two types of air samples indicated low levels of mould growth, even where the results of the other methods indicated high to moderate growth. With methods based on culture and DNA testing some differences in the species that each identified were apparent. In conclusion we found visual and olfactory inspection to be quite indicative of mould growth while none of the surface tests gave the complete representation as stand-alone tests. The air sampling methods seemed only to react to very comprehensive infestation with fungi.


Parasitic nematodes infect over 1 billion people worldwide and cause some of the most common neglected tropical diseases. Despite their prevalence, our understanding of the biology of parasitic nematodes has been limited by the lack of tools for genetic intervention. In particular, it has not yet been possible to generate targeted gene disruptions and mutant phenotypes in any parasitic nematode. Here, we report the development of a method for introducing CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene disruptions in the human-parasitic threadworm Strongyloides stercoralis. We disrupted the S. stercoralis twitchin gene unc-22, resulting in nematodes with severe motility defects. Ss-unc-22 mutations were resolved by homology-directed repair when a repair template was provided. Omission of a repair template resulted in deletions at the target locus. Ss-unc-22 mutations were heritable; we passed Ss-unc-22 mutants through a host and successfully recovered mutant progeny. Using a similar approach, we also disrupted the unc-22 gene of the rat-parasitic nematode Strongyloides ratti. Our results demonstrate the applicability of CRISPR-Cas9 to parasitic nematodes, and thereby enable future studies of gene function in these medically relevant but previously genetically intractable parasites.


Algorithms play a critical role in steering online attention on social media. Many have alleged that algorithms can perpetuate bias. This study audited shadowbanning, where a user or their content is temporarily hidden on Twitter. We repeatedly tested whether a stratified random sample of American Twitter accounts (n ≈ 25,000) had been subject to various forms of shadowbans. We then identified the type of user and tweet characteristics that predict a shadowban. In general, shadowbans are rare. We found that accounts with bot-like behavior were more likely to face shadowbans, while verified accounts were less likely to be shadowbanned. The replies by Twitter accounts that posted offensive tweets and tweets about politics (from both the left and the right) were more likely to be downtiered. The findings have implications for algorithmic accountability and the design of future audit studies of social media platforms.


Pernicious anemia (PA) is an autoimmune disorder associated with atrophic gastritis, presence of antibodies to gastric parietal cells and intrinsic factor (IF) and vitamin B2 malabsorption leading to megaloblastic anemia. It has a comparatively higher prevalence in people of North European origin, is uncommon in Arabs and usually affects the elderly. This report, the first from Bahrain, describes a rare case of PA in young female. The presenting symptoms, clinical and laboratory features were similar to those described in classical elderly Caucasian patients. No association with any other autoimmune disease was detected.


INTRODUCTION
Monolayer specimens were compared with conventional smears in a split sample study. The quality of the specimens, sensitivity, time consumption, and costs were elucidated.

METHOD
Conventional smears and fixated residual material from 1701 women were available.

RESULTS
The number of inadequate/less adequate specimens was reduced significantly (p < 0.001). Diagnostic agreement was found in 1531 (90%) of the 1701 cases (kappa = 0.52, SE (kappa) = 0.026). Dysplasia (NOS) was diagnosed in seven monolayer specimens (0.4%) versus 33 smears (1.9%) and ratio atypia/low grade was reduced by 33%, which indicates greater accuracy in diagnosis in monolayers. Histological follow-up showed sensitivities of 95% (monolayers) and 94% (smears). The time consumed (laboratory work, screening) on a smear versus a monolayer specimen was 11.5 minutes versus 9.3 minutes. Utensil costs of a smear are kr. 10.69. compared to kr. 26.50 for a monolayer specimen.

CONCLUSION
The higher costs should be set against the saving in significantly improved specimen quality, improved diagnostic accuracy, and shorter time consumption. The use of the monolayer technique (direct to vial) is recommended to replace the conventional smear.


In recent years, much attention has been devoted to the development of metaheuristics and local search algorithms for tackling stochastic combinatorial optimization problems. This paper focuses on local search algorithms; their effectiveness is greatly determined by the evaluation procedure that is used to select the best of several solutions in the presence of uncertainty. In this paper, we propose an effective evaluation procedure that makes use of empirical estimation techniques. We illustrate this approach and we assess its performance on the probabilistic traveling salesman problem. Experimental results on a large set of instances show that the proposed approach can lead to a very fast and highly effective local search algorithm.


Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is rapidly emerging as a tool for analyzing numerical and structural chromosomal abnormalities in both liquid and solid tumors. Most studies make use of fresh samples. To determine the feasibility of detecting numerical chromosomal abnormalities (NCA) by FISH using chromosome‐specific probes 8, 12, 17, and X (Vysis, Inc., Downers Grove, IL) on archival cytologic preparations, we studied 23 patient samples, one Papanicolaou‐ and one Diff‐Quik‐stained slide per case (46 slides), and two additional unstained slides (fresh ascitic fluids) as controls. Included in this study were nine ascitic fluids (four benign and five malignant), four malignant pleural fluids, three benign bladder washes, and seven malignant fine‐needle aspirates (FNA) from various sites. The slides ranged from 1–94 days old. After removal of coverslips using xylene, all slides were destained in a series of alcohol and water washes. Pretreatment of slides with pepsin was followed by the in situ hybridization procedure. Two hundred cells per slide were evaluated for distinct separate signals. Results showed the following: 1) all slides were evaluable except for eight (8/46) which had either too few cells or enough cells but with faint signals, 2) the oldest sample showed distinct signals, 3) previously Diff‐Quik‐stained slides showed relatively better signals than Papanicolaou‐stained slides, 4) samples less than a month old showed relatively better signals, and 5) malignant samples showed various NCA, but not the benign samples. We conclude that FISH on archival cytologic preparation 1) is feasible, although age of the slide is a factor since better signals were seen in those less than a month old, 2) shows better results in previously Diff‐Quik‐stained slides, and 3) is a tool that can be used in the retrospective study of various liquid and solid neoplasms. Diagn Cytopathol 1996;14:178–181. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Human breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease composed of different histologies and molecular subtypes, many of which are not replicated in animal models. Here, we report a mouse model of breast cancer that generates unique tumor histologies including tubular, adenosquamous, and lipid-rich carcinomas. Utilizing a nononcogenic variant of polyoma middle T oncogene (PyMT) that requires a spontaneous base-pair deletion to transform cells, in conjunction with lentiviral transduction and orthotopic transplantation of primary mammary epithelial cells, this model sporadically induces oncogene expression in both the luminal and myoepithelial cell lineages of the normal mouse mammary epithelium. Microarray and hierarchical analyses using an intrinsic subtype gene set revealed that lentiviral PyMT generates both luminal and basal-like tumors. Cumulatively, these results show that low-level expression of PyMT in a broad range of cell types significantly increases tumor heterogeneity and establishes a mouse model of several rare human breast cancer subtypes.


Strong shock waves propagating in argon gas exhibit a variety of precursor effects. The main shock wave appears to be unstable and supports perturbations ahead of it that are fed by radiation or other energy from the main front. Confining walls oriented parallel to the shock motion absorb radiation from the shock front and produce a heated region near the wall that supports perturbations consisting of oblique shock waves, which precede the main shock. A bright region exists where the oblique and main shocks intersect due to elevated temperatures from shock focusing. Perturbations in the form of small floating drops are also found to propagate ahead of the main shock. Wires with their long axis in the direction of the flow also support a hot thermal boundary layer, causing a shock wave to run far ahead of the main shock in a similar fashion to the oblique shocks on the confining walls. These precursor effects are presented and discussed.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the visual outcomes and fourth-order Zernike spherical aberrations induced with a customized change in corneal asphericity (ΔQ) correction of presbyopia combined with monovision for hyperopic patients.

METHODS
Consecutive hyperopic patients who underwent presbyopic LASIK between September 2013 and July 2014 were included. For the non-dominant eyes, the aspheric ablation profile associated with a myopic refraction was planned using the Custom-Q nomogram (Alcon Laboratories, Inc., Fort Worth, TX). Uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA), uncorrected near visual acuity (UNVA), spherical equivalent refraction, ΔQ, and change in corneal spherical aberration coefficient (ΔC40) were analyzed. Postoperative data were collected at 1, 3, and 6 months.

RESULTS
Sixty-five patients were included. The mean age was 56.5 ± 5.7 years (range: 47 to 70 years). At the 6-month follow-up, the spherical equivalent refraction for non-dominant and dominant eyes was -1.07 ± 0.74 and 0.32 ± 0.55 diopters (D), respectively. The mean binocular UDVA was 0.01 ± 0.04 logMAR (range: -0.12 to 0.30 logMAR); 91% of patients achieved 20/20 or better binocular UDVA and 83% of patients had Jaeger 3 (Parinaud 4) or better binocular UNVA. The ΔQ for non-dominant and dominant eyes was -0.61 ± 0.15 and -0.33 ± 0.25, respectively, for a 6-mm pupil diameter and was significantly higher for non-dominant eyes (P < .0001). The achieved ΔC40 was -0.49 ± 0.23 µm for non-dominant eyes (for a theoretical ideal value of -0.40 µm) and -0.30 ± 0.18 µm for dominant eyes. For non-dominant eyes, the attempted ΔQ (-0.60) was close to the achieved value (-0.61 ± 0.15).

CONCLUSIONS
For hyperopic patients, combining the customized corneal aspheric ablation profile with monovision is safe, effective, and reproducible, inducing intended changes in corneal spherical aberrations. [J Refract Surg. 2016;32(11):734-741.].


A system is described for tomographic myocardial perfusion imaging which has proven superior to planar imaging. This approach utilizes a multi-pinhole plate to project 7 simultaneous views of the heart as separate images. The heart is positioned 13 cm from the pinhole plate, and 750,000 count images are accumulated. The digitized data is processed into 12 tomographic planes spaced 6 cm to 24 cm from the pinhole plate. Reconstruction is accomplished by the Simultaneous Multiple Angle Reconstruction Technique (SMART) which computes 12 tomographic images in less than 2 minutes. Iterative techniques are used to perform attenuation correction and refocusing of the data. Point source resolution 13 cm from the collimator was measured to be 10 mm FWHM parallel to the detector and 15 mm perpendicular. The probability of detection in patients with coronary artery disease was improved from .75 to .95 by the tomographic method.


The purpose of this research was to mask the bitter taste of Rizatriptan benzoate (RB) and to formulate an oral disintegrating tablet (ODT) of the taste-masked drug. Taste masking was done by mass extrusion with aminoalkylmethacrylate copolymer, Eudragit EPO, in different ratios. The drug: polymer ratio was optimized based on bitterness score and RB -polymer interaction. Taste masking was evaluated by checking the in vitro release of RB in simulated salivary fluid (SSF) of pH 6.8 and by sensory evaluation in human volunteers. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) were performed to identify the physicochemical interaction between RB and the polymer. For formulation of rapid- disintegrating tablets of RB, the batch that depicted optimum release of RB in SSF, was considered. ODTs of Rizatriptan Benzoate were prepared by using superdisintegrants namely, sodium starch glycolate, crospovidone and croscarmellose sodium using the direct compression method. The tablets were evaluated for hardness, friability, wetting time, in vitro disintegration time. The optimum formulation was selected and the tablets were evaluated for thickness, drug content, content uniformity and mouth feel, in vivo disintegration time, in vitro drug release at pH 1.2 and 6.8 and stability study. Eudragit EPO was able to mask the bitter taste of Rizatriptan benzoate effectively in 1:1 ratio by mass extrusion method. FTIR and DSC data revealed absence of RB-polymer interaction. ODTs containing crospovidone (5% w/w) depicted minimum disintegration time. Taste evaluation of ODT in human volunteers revealed considerable taste masking, with all 6 volunteers, reporting the taste of ODTs as good in comparison with RB. Thus, results conclusively demonstrated successful taste masking and rapid disintegration of the formulated tablets in the oral cavity with adequate dissolution. The research work suggests a rapid, simple and cost effective mass extrusion method for formulation of ODT of Rizatriptan benzoate.


Abstract While rupture of the Achilles tendon is one of the most frequent injuries sustained in sports and physical activity, bilateral Achilles tendon rupture is uncommon. We present the case of a 33-year-old man who sustained a bilateral Achilles tendon rupture in the absence of predisposing factors. The lesions were managed by percutaneous tenorrhaphy and casting. Six months after surgery he was able to return to his daily-life activities and to perform light sports activity. The Authors review the current literature on the management of this rare condition in young people, with or without risk factors.


Introduction Femoro-popliteal bypass with autologous vascular graft is a key revascularization method in chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI). However, the lack of suitable autologous conduit may occur in 15–45% of the patients, necessitating the implantation of prosthetic or allogen grafts. Only little data is available on the outcome of allograft use in CLTI. Aims Our objective were to evaluate the long term results of infrainguinal allograft bypass surgery in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) and compare the results of arterial and venous allografts. Methods Single center, retrospective study analysing the outcomes of infrainguinal allograft bypass surgery in patients with CLTI between January 2007 and December 2017. Results During a 11-year period, 134 infrainguinal allograft bypasses were performed for CLTI [91 males (67.9%)]. Great saphenous vein (GSV) was implanted in 100 cases, superficial femoral artery (SFA) was implanted in 34 cases. Early postoperative complications appeared in 16.4% of cases and perioperative mortality (<30 days) was 1.4%. Primary patency at one, three and five years was 59%, 44% and 41%, respectively, while secondary patency was 60%, 45% and 41%, respectively. Primary patency of the SFA allografts was significantly higher than GSV allografts (1 year: SFA: 84% vs. GSV: 51% p = 0,001; 3 years: SFA: 76% vs. GSV: 32% p = 0,001; 5 years: SFA: 71% vs. GSV: 30% p = 0.001). Both primary and secondary patency of SFA allograft implanted in below-knee position were significantly higher than GSV bypasses (p = 0.0006; p = 0.0005, respectively). Limb salvage at one, three and five years following surgery was 74%, 64% and 62%, respectively. Long-term survival was 53% at 5 years. Conclusion Allograft implantation is a suitable method for limb salvage in CLTI. The patency of arterial allograft is better than venous allograft patency, especially in below-knee position during infrainguinal allograft bypass surgery.


This article presents a selected review of literature concerning environmental influences on activity participation by the elderly person, the relationship between activity engagement and satisfaction in the environment, and the ways in which activity participation influences environmental experiences. The studies reviewed examine such factors as the amount and quality of activities offered, the types of roles available to elderly people in institutional settings, and how elderly people themselves experience and perceive their current living environments. The literature underscores the need for an awareness of how environmental variables can affect the individual's involvement in activity, as well as an understanding of how activity engagement may relate to the individual's evaluation of the environment and of oneself. The article concludes with some general implications for clinical intervention with institutionalized and non-institutionalized elderly people.


Skin
Most people experience a bout of acne at some stage in their life. For an unlucky few, the skin condition feels relentless and can evade treatment. Petridis et al. performed a DNA study of individuals with acne vulgaris and found that those affected share similar, but surprising, genetic mutations. Homing in on 15 regions of the genome, they identified a series of culprit genes that controlled hair growth and follicle formation. This discovery lends weight to the idea that hair follicle shape creates a milieu susceptible to bacterial colonization and inflammation.

Nat. Commun. 9 , 5075 (2018).


The Digital Cherenkov Viewing Device (DCVD) is a tool used by nuclear safeguards inspectors to verify irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies in wet storage based on the recording of Cherenkov light produced by the assemblies. One type of verification involves comparing the measured light intensity from an assembly with a predicted intensity, based on assembly declarations. Crucial for such analyses is the performance of the prediction model used, and recently new modelling methods have been introduced to allow for enhanced prediction capabilities by taking the irradiation history into account, and by including the cross-talk radiation from neighbouring assemblies in the predictions. In this work, the performance of three models for Cherenkov-light intensity prediction is evaluated by applying them to a set of short-cooled PWR 17x17 assemblies for which experimental DCVD measurements and operator-declared irradiation data was available; (1) a two-parameter model, based on total burnup and cooling time, previously used by the safeguards inspectors, (2) a newly introduced gamma-spectrum-based model, which incorporates cycle-wise burnup histories, and (3) the latter gamma-spectrum-based model with the addition to account for contributions from neighbouring assemblies. The results show that the two gamma-spectrum-based models provide significantly higher precision for the measured inventory compared to the two-parameter model, lowering the standard deviation between relative measured and predicted intensities from 15.2 % to 8.1 % respectively 7.8 %. The results show some systematic differences between assemblies of different designs (produced by different manufacturers) in spite of their similar PWR 17x17 geometries, and possible ways are discussed to address such differences, which may allow for even higher prediction capabilities. Still, it is concluded that the gamma-spectrum-based models enable confident verification of the fuel assembly inventory at the currently used detection limit for partial defects, being a 30 % discrepancy between measured and predicted intensities, while some false detection occurs with the two-parameter model. The results also indicate that the gamma-spectrum-based prediction methods are accurate enough that the 30 % discrepancy limit could potentially be lowered.


The Nihewan Basin is famous for producing a rich Early Pleistocene fauna, the most classic and standard for the Early Pleistocene of northern China, as well as rich paleolithic remains, documenting the early presence of humans. Many fossil Carnivora, including the scimitar toothed cat Homotherium, were found from this basin, but no complete material of this cat was known, which hampers a deep study of its taxonomy. Here, we report a complete cranium of Homotherium, found in Shigou, a recently discovered locality in the Nihewan Basin. The morphology of the cranium supports its assignment to Homotherium crenatidens teilhardipiveteaui, a terminal evolutionary stage of the species with a Palearctic distribution. Our analyses suggest that Homotherium evolved largely contemporarily in different regions of Eurasia, suggesting a continuous gene flow within the continent, and the subspecies delimitation should be more chronological than geographical.


This article discusses which people actually died in two parishes because of the famous Christmas night flooding of 1717, when large parts of the province of Groningen became covered with at least 2 meters of water, resulting in nearly 1.000 casualties (22% of the population) in the Marne in north Groningen. It argues that especially poor people living in relatively vulnerable small houses in two small villages drowned (Broek and Houwerzijl), while the more wealthy farmers in their well-established farmsteads nearly all survived this natural disaster. Proven is also in opposition to many references in popular publications that the Christmas Flooding of 1717 did not destroy the whole village of Vliedorp, as before 1717 this place also only consisted of one house and a church.


Emotion and the ability to understand them are considered a channel of non-verbal communication. It is an important factor to achieve a smooth and yet robust interaction between machines and humans. In this paper, we review CNN-based methods for facial emotion recognition and we propose a new cutting edge deep learning approach to classify facial expressions from pictures. To guarantee the efficacy of the method, we used multiple datasets: FER2013, AffectNet, RaFD, and KDEF. We obtained results respectively 82.3%, 76.79%, 78.58 %, and 77.08 %. Those results surpassed the current state of the art. We also compared our achieved measurements to available APIs for facial emotion recognition.


Abstract : In year 01, we completed the majority of our studies in Aim 1 and a portion of Aim 2. We found, in both rats and mice, that severe pilocarpine-induced seizures that result in long-term appearance of spontaneous epileptic seizures are associated with marked changes in the structure of hippocampal mossy fiber presynaptic terminals and functional hyperexcitability of presynaptic vesicular transmitter release. Mossy fiber terminals as a whole, their transmitter release active zone and readily-releasable vesicle pool, were greatly increased in size, and there was even sprouting of new mossy fiber terminals into regions where they do not normally synapse. Functionally, these presynaptic glutamatergic terminals showed greatly enhanced rate of vesicular release from the rapidly-recycling vesicle pool and accelerated endocytotic recycling of vesicles. We commenced studies to be completed in year 02 to test the ability of four antiepileptic drugs that act via differing mechanisms (levetiracetam, lamotrigine, carbamezipine and topiramate), to control presynaptic vesicular release two months after pilocarpine-induced seizures, when the brain has become spontaneously epileptic. We also discovered that the presynaptic vesicle protein dynamin, which is an essential component of one vesicle recycling pathway, is markedly down-regulated in expression and the dynamin pathway loses its ability to keep up with vesicular release in the epileptic brain. If we can find agents that can control presynaptic release, and do so even after development of epilepsy when release is enhanced, we would have a whole new class of treatments to help the 40% of epileptic patients who do not respond to any current therapeutics.


In recent years, research related to studying the effect of gut microflora on the human health has become of major economic importance. The main objective of our study was to examine whether or not the orally administered Lactobacillusstrains (LB) as an oral adjuvant can improve the mucosal immune protectionviaan enhanced IgA secretion to a co-administered marker antigen ovalbumin (OVA). We adapted a murine (BALB/c) model to demonstrate beneficial adjuvant effects of probiotic LB strains. Orally sensitised mice with OVA, which were prefed with native or heat denatured (HD) Lactobacillus salivarius (Ls) or Lactobacillus casei (Lc) responded better or with the same efficiency to a vaccination with antigen (OVA) than mice that had been sensitised only with OVA or not sensitised at all. Antibody (IgA) responses in the gut were increased in response to vaccination with OVA in mice that had been prefed with native or heat denatured Ls or Lc followed by Ls or Lc and OVA feeding. In prefed groups, the OVA feeding...


This paper specially concentrates on finding the square roots of perfect as well as imperfect square numbers by the Vedic sutra Vilokanam. Generally, extracting the square root of a number is considered a tedious job. There are two methods taught in our presentday classroom by conventional approach to find square roots, which are lengthy and time consuming. But, the Vedic Sutra Vilokanam helps us to find square root of such numbers with a little practice. The technique mentioned for extracting square root for imperfect square numbers does not belong solely to Vedic Mathematics written by Swami Bharati Krishna Tirthaji Maharaja. Mathematicians have been using it as a part of their general practice. However, the technique for calculating square roots and described in Vedic Mathematics is difficult. The methods discussed and organization of the content of the paper here are intended to show the Vedic Mathematics as an extremely refined and efficient mathematical system than conventional system.


Monoclonal antibodies anti-Ly 1, anti-Ly 2 and GK1.5 were applied to determine phenotypes of T cells within granulomas formed as a result of infection of mice with the facultative intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. Early in granuloma formation, equal numbers of Ly 1+, Ly 2+ and L3T4+ cells were found, T cells of different phenotypes being evenly distributed over the lesions. In mature granulomas, numbers of Ly 1+ and L3T4+ cells about doubled as compared to incipient granulomas, Ly 2+ cells, however, remained constant. Whereas Ly 1+ and L3T4+ cells within mature granulomas still were evenly distributed, Ly 2+ cells were predominantly localized in the periphery of the lesions. The data indicate that both, specific Ly 2+ and L3T4+ T cells, display characteristic dynamics within granulomas: Ly 2+ T cells which most likely mature from Ly 1+2+ T cells over time locate to the periphery. Concomitantly, L3T4+ T cells are enriched maintaining their distribution all over the lesions.


A novel estimate system is proposed to discover the security weaknesses of a chaos based random number generator (RNG). Convergence of the estimate system is proved using auto-synchronization. Secret parameters of the target RNG are recovered where the available information are the structure of the RNG and a scalar time series observed from the target chaotic system. Simulation and numerical results verifying the feasibility of the estimate system are given such that, next bit can be predicted while the same output bit sequence of the RNG can be reGenerated.


Behind-the-scenes disclosures, a staple of film and television production, have extended to the visible documentation of manga (comics) and anime (animation) production in Japanese media. This article examines manga "industrial reflexivity," using as a case study publisher Shueisha's most popular periodical, the best-selling shônen (boys) manga magazine, Shûkan Shônen Jump (Weekly Shônen Jump). Jump's documentary-like portrayals of the manga production process have bled out from the magazine in "exclusive" footage that takes viewers on behind-the-scenes tours exploring Shueisha offices or mangaka ateliers to spill insider knowledge and industry secrets. This article argues that such disclosures are borne out of industrial survival as much as education and promotion. Jump's professional self-reflexivity is an example of an old media brand attempting to fight for relevance in a shifting media environment through appeals to the legacy and ecosystem of the manga magazine format itself.


The aim of this study was to evaluate rumen fluid sampling as a novel method for quantifying nematode challenge encountered by grazing sheep. In Experiment 1, rumen fluid samples were seeded with known numbers of third stage infective larvae (L3) of Teladorsagia circumcincta, Trichostrongylus colubriformis and Cooperia curticei. Immediate recovery rates averaged 92% (Coefficient of variation, 13%), 53% (15%) and 50% (30%) for each species respectively. Recovery rates from rumen fluid stored at 7°C decreased to 44% (29%), 33% (18%) and 0% (0%) after 72 hours. In Experiment 2, 15 ewe hoggets maintained indoors were dosed with 5,000 L3 T. circumcincta and 5,000 L3 T. colubriformis. At 1, 2 and 12 hours after dosing the numbers of L3 recovered from the rumen fluid were 0.2 (125%), 0.16 (145%) and 0.01 L3/mL (300%) respectively. In Experiment 3, rumen fluid samples were taken from small groups of lambs grazing four paddocks with variable herbage infestation rates of mixed species of L3. Species composition of L3 on the herbage and in the rumen fluid was T. circumcincta 8% and 0%; T. colubriformis 27% and 19%; C. curticei 0% and 5%; Nematodirus spp. 63% and 69% and Haemonchus contortus 2% and 9%. A significant number of technical challenges remain before the method has a practical application.


Objective. Sensorimotor rhythms (SMRs) are 8–30 Hz oscillations in the electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded from the scalp over sensorimotor cortex that change with movement and/or movement imagery. Many brain–computer interface (BCI) studies have shown that people can learn to control SMR amplitudes and can use that control to move cursors and other objects in one, two or three dimensions. At the same time, if SMR-based BCIs are to be useful for people with neuromuscular disabilities, their accuracy and reliability must be improved substantially. These BCIs often use spatial filtering methods such as common average reference (CAR), Laplacian (LAP) filter or common spatial pattern (CSP) filter to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of EEG. Here, we test the hypothesis that a new filter design, called an 'adaptive Laplacian (ALAP) filter', can provide better performance for SMR-based BCIs. Approach. An ALAP filter employs a Gaussian kernel to construct a smooth spatial gradient of channel weights and then simultaneously seeks the optimal kernel radius of this spatial filter and the regularization parameter of linear ridge regression. This optimization is based on minimizing the leave-one-out cross-validation error through a gradient descent method and is computationally feasible. Main results. Using a variety of kinds of BCI data from a total of 22 individuals, we compare the performances of ALAP filter to CAR, small LAP, large LAP and CSP filters. With a large number of channels and limited data, ALAP performs significantly better than CSP, CAR, small LAP and large LAP both in classification accuracy and in mean-squared error. Using fewer channels restricted to motor areas, ALAP is still superior to CAR, small LAP and large LAP, but equally matched to CSP. Significance. Thus, ALAP may help to improve the accuracy and robustness of SMR-based BCIs.


BACKGROUND : Hypertension is the most risky factor of coronary artery disease and strokes. Attention to non-pharmacologic treatment can be one of the most important goals in treating hypertension. The aim of this study is the assessment of effective non-pharmacologic methods of hypertension. METHODS : In this review study, books, articles and some sites that are related to non-pharmacologic methods of treatment of hypertension were used. Then, the subjects were studied and the obtained findings were compiled as an essay. RESULTS : The appropriate planning for regular control of blood pressure, reduction of dietary salt intake, caloric restriction (to prevent obesity, and reduce consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol) elimination of environmental stress, regular exercise, and periodic control of blood pressure can prevent its complications. Among the non-pharmacologic treatment methods that are used to treat and control hypertension are progressive relaxation technique, massaging therapy, family counseling, and quitting smoking. CONCLUSION : Findings indicate that non-pharmacologic treatment can reduce complications and risk factors of hypertension, and sometimes even be used as initial treatment for hypertension. KEYWORDS: Hypertension, Treatment, Non-pharmacologic Methods


1. Most game theoretical models of biparental care predict that a reduction in care by one partner should not be fully compensated by increased work of its mate but this may not be true for incubating birds because a reduction in care could cause the entire brood to fail. 2. I performed the first handicapping experiment of both males and females during incubation, by placing small lead weights on the tails of male and female northern flickers Colaptes auratus, a woodpecker in which males do most of the incubation. 3. Females responded to the acute stressor (handling and handicapping) by tending to abandon more readily than males and staying away from the nest longer in the first incubation bout. Among pairs that persisted, both males and females compensated fully for a handicapped partner, keeping the eggs covered nearly 100% of the time. 4. Partners did not retaliate by forcing their handicapped mate to sit on the eggs with a long incubation bout length subsequent to having a long bout length themselves. Instead, during the 24 h immediately after handicapping, males behaved generously by relieving handicapped females early. 5. Such generosity was probably not energetically sustainable as these male partners took on less incubation in the 72 h following handicapping compared to female partners of handicapped males. Males and females are probably generous in the short-term because of the high cost of nest failure during incubation but maintaining increased work loads in the longer term is probably limited by body condition and abandonment thresholds consistent with game theory models.


For finite-temperature micromagnetic simulations the knowledge of the temperature dependence of the exchange stiffness plays a central role. We use two approaches for the calculation of the thermodynamic exchange parameter from spin models: (i) based on the domain-wall energy and (ii) based on the spin-wave dispersion. The corresponding analytical and numerical approaches are introduced and compared. A general theory for the temperature dependence and scaling of the exchange stiffness is developed using the classical spectral density method. The low-temperature exchange stiffness $A$ is found to scale with magnetization as ${m}^{1.66}$ for systems on a simple cubic lattice and as ${m}^{1.76}$ for an FePt Hamiltonian parametrized through ab initio calculations. The additional reduction in the scaling exponent, as compared to the mean-field theory $(A\ensuremath{\sim}{m}^{2})$, comes from the nonlinear spin-wave effects.


Geophysical evidence for gas hydrates is widespread along the northern flank of the Storegga Slide on the mid-Norwegian margin. Bottom-simulating reflectors (BSR) at the base of the gas hydrate stability zone cover an area of approximately 4000 km 2 , outside but also inside the Storegga Slide scar area. Traveltime inversion and forward modeling of multicomponent wide-angle seismic data result in detailed P- and S-wave velocities of hydrate- and gas-bearing sediment layers. The relationship between the velocities constrains the background velocity model for a hydrate-free, gas-free case. The seismic velocities indicate that hydrate concentrations in the pore space of sediments range between 3% and 6% in a zone that is as much as 50 m thick overlying the BSR. Hydrates are most likely disseminated, neither cementing the sediment matrix nor affecting the stiffness of the matrix noticeably. Average free-gas concentrations beneath the hydrate stability zone are approximately 0.4% to 0.8% of the pore volume, assuming a homogeneous gas distribution. The free-gas zone underneath the BSR is about 80 m thick. Amplitude and reflectivity analyses suggest a rather complex distribution of gas along specific sedimentary strata rather than along the base of the gas hydrate stability zone (BGHS). This gives rise to enhanced reflections that terminate at the BGHS. The stratigraphic control on gas distribution forces the gas concentration to increase slightly with depth at certain locations. Gas-bearing layers can be as thin as 2 m.


This contribution entails an extensive analysis of the Northern Dutch literary radio program Literair Kwartier (Literary Quarter). After Dutch national radio had already broadcasted literary programs from the early 1940s onward, the three Northern Dutch provinces (Fryslân, Groningen and Drenthe) were to follow as soon as they acquired a regional broadcasting station of their own in 1945, called RON or RONO. The emphasis on culture characterizing policy-making in postwar Dutch politics in general proved favorable to literature. In a great many book reviews and talks on literature Literair Kwartier acquainted literary critics and writers from the region to the broader listening audience. Since the program largely discussed Frisian literature, it makes for a remarkable insight into the issues, reception and evolution of this minority literature in the decades shortly after the Second World War. Yet, not in the least through the inclusion of book reviews of renowned national and international authors, Literair Kwartier also guided its listeners towards a proper high-brow literary taste. Literair Kwartier, the authors conclude, can best be seen not only as complementary to the written criticism of the period but also as an amplifier of the literary taste in the region in general.


The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay of the ether, methanol, and aqueous extracts of the spice Myristica malabarica (rampatri) revealed the methanol extract to possess the best antioxidant activity. Column chromatography of the methanol extract led to the isolation of a new 2-acylresorcinol and four known diarylnonanoids of which the diarylnonanoid, malabaricone C, showed the maximum DPPH scavenging activity. Malabaricone C could prevent both Fe(II)- and 2,2'-azobis(2-amidinopropane)dihydrochloride-induced lipid peroxidation (LPO) of rat liver mitochondria more efficiently than curcumin. The anti-LPO activity of malabaricone C was attributed to its better radical scavenging and Fe(II) chelation capacities. The superior activity of malabaricone C was rationalized by a systematic structure-activity correlation of the results obtained with the structurally related diarylnonanoids and curcumin. Malabaricone C also prevented the gamma-ray-induced damage of pBR322 plasmid DNA in a concentration-dependent manner. The radioprotective activity was found to correlate with its (*)OH radical scavenging property, which matched well with that of d-mannitol.


Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the major global causes of death. Different types of gene are involved as Ankyrin repeat domains of RNASE L gene. It performs a significant role in antiviral response, regulated by interferon, and involved in cleavage of RNA. Therefore, aim of this study was to identify Ankyrin repeat domain expression in Hepatitis C positive patients and correlate it with viral load of Hepatitis C.

Methods: In this study, a total of 80 HCV positive patient's whole blood samples were investigated. RNA was extracted from plasma followed by Real Time PCR for quantization of HCV viral load and genotypic analyses. DNA was also extracted from these samples followed by PCR amplification of Ankyrin repeat domain of RNASE L gene. Data was analyzed using SPSS

Results: All of the patients (n=80) included in study had HCV infection. Mean age of patients was 50.86 ±14.84 years. Among them, 48(63.8%) were males and 32 (36.1%) were females. Majority of patients were males and belonged to age group 58-73 years age. All HCV infected individuals 36 (45%) had HCV genotype 3 and had viral loads mean range 837404.21 ±1302. Therefore, Ankyrin repeats domain of RNASE L gene expression was high in HCV patients sample with viral load of 17.00±15.1.

Conclusion: Ankyrin repeat domain expression was observed in Hepatitis C patients and its significant correlation with viral load of Hepatitis C. Ankyrin repeat domain of RNASE L gene in conjunction with therapeutic intervention are required for establishing better strategies for controlling HCV infection.


Introduction: The high prevalence of antenatal mental disorders in Sub-Saharan African countries is poorly understood. Pregnancy and childbirth are gaining recognition as significant risk factors for the development and exacerbation of mental health problems. In low- and lower-middle income countries about one in six pregnant women are experiencing antenatal common mental disorders (CMD). Objective: To assess prevalence and associated factors of common mental disorders (CMD) among pregnant women in Debre Berhan town, North Showa Zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia, 2016. Methods: Community based cross-sectional study was employed among 569 participants. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews with Amharic version of Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) from seven selected kebeles. Kebeles were selected by simple random sampling and individuals were selected using cluster sampling. Crude and adjusted OR was analyzed using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis and the level of significance for association was determined with 95% CI and at P- value < 0.05. Result: A total 557 study participants were completed the interview and the prevalence of antenatal common mental disorder was found to be 45.2%. Loss of loved one (AOR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.19–3.27), history of chronic medical illness (AOR = 6.57; 95% CI: 2.17–19.94), unwanted pregnancy (AOR = 2.13; 95% CI: 1.15–3.95), nulliparity (AOR = 8.71; 95% CI: 1.58–47.94), one or less ANC consultations (AOR = 0.22; 95% CI: 0.08–0.64), two-three ANC consultations (AOR = 0.30; 95% CI: 0.11–0.83) and current obstetric complications (AOR = 4.45; 95% CI: 2.21–8.99) were important factors significantly associated with antenatal common mental disorder. Conclusion: The prevalence of antenatal common mental disorder (CMD) was high in this study that shows antenatal CMD is significant public health issue that requires a great emphasis. So, early screening and intervention for antenatal CMD should be integrated in primary health care and antenatal care service settings.


We prove the quantum analogy of the coding theorem for both pure quantum states and mixed quantum states. The quantum coding theorems have applications in relating different quantum algorithmic entropy measures.


: Mukbang is a Korean word for 'eating livestream'. As an emerging sub-genre of internet influencers, Mukbang influencers has become the marketing tool for some firms recently. In this paper, we will conduct a case study of small sized e-commerce firms in China's food industry. We explore firms' perspectives towards the emerging Mukbang phenomenon, aiming to find out which factors influence the adoption of Mukbang influencer marketing by small firms. Our research results illustrate that the main point of concern for companies is the lack of information about financial data such as the average return on investment, and also the lack of information on consumer preferences and consumer analysis. Opportunity, potential benefits, uncertainty, resources available and the characteristics of the firms (or to be more specific, the management team) are important factors that influence small firms' marketing decisions to use or not internet influencer marketing.


We study the effect of an entropy parameter in the Karman-Guderley model. The non-linear boundary value problem with constraints is solved by minimising a functional taking into account the discretization of the model and of the constraint. The solution method using variable grids is presented. Values intervals for an entropy parameter are obtained by studying shocks that appear when the entropy condition is considered. Results are validated by comparison with other studies using different methods.


The aim of the research is to document Iraqi Paralympic participations in IPC athletics from 1990 – 2017. The problem of the research lies in archives destruction in 2003 especially in athletics for the physically disabled thus all history is destroyed and it was necessary to document this history again. The researchers used the historical method to record the history of the sport and the subjects were physically disabled national league athletic participations from 1990 till 2019. The researchers concluded that all undocumented participation details in IPC from 1990 till 2017 were documented. Finally, they recommended paying attention to documenting Iraqi international participations on regular bases through special records and should be saved in the central Iraqi federation of athletics.


In this paper, we propose a novel 1-bit full adder using hybrid-CMOS logic style. The new full adder is based on a novel XOR-XNOR circuit that generates XOR and XNOR full-swing outputs simultaneously and outperforms its best counterpart showing 28% improvement in power-delay product (PDP). Design of proposed full adder is based on improvement in the PDP and it provides full-swing output with good driving capability. Simulations demonstrate that full adder successfully operates in the PDP compared to similar circuits.


Various causes of fraud in Indonesia, especially in the government sector, have decreased public trust in the government. This study aims to test empirically the effect of professional skepticism, workload, and audit experience on the ability of internal auditors to detect fraud. The object of this research is the role of auditors at the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Finance concerning implementing their duties in detecting fraud. The selection of this object was based on the consideration that the auditors there had knowledge and experience regarding internal audits and were interested in disclosing and detecting fraud cases in the Ministry of Finance. In this study, researchers distributed 100 questionnaires from a total population of 285 auditors at the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Finance. The analysis concluded that the audit experience has a positive but insignificant effect on the ability of internal auditors to detect fraud. The workload has a positive but not significant effect on the ability of internal auditors to detect fraud. Besides, there is a positive and very significant effect of professional skepticism on the ability of internal auditors to detect fraud.


We study the production of high energy neutrinos in jets from the tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes. The diffuse neutrino flux expected from these tidal disruption events (TDEs) is calculated both analytically and numerically, taking account the dependence of the rate of TDEs on the redshift and black hole mass. We find that ~10% of the observed diffuse flux at IceCube at an energy of about 1 PeV can come from TDEs if the characteristics of known jetted tidal disruption events are assumed to apply to the whole population of these sources. If, however, plausible scalings of the jet Lorentz factor or variability timescale with the black hole mass are taken into account, the contribution of the lowest mass black holes to the neutrino flux is enhanced. In this case, TDEs can account for most of the neutrino flux detected at IceCube, describing both the neutrino flux normalization and spectral shape with moderate baryonic loadings. While the uncertainties on our assumptions are large, a possible signature of TDEs as the origin of the IceCube signal is the transition of the flux flavor composition from a pion beam to a muon damped source at the highest energies, which will also result in a suppression of Glashow resonance events.


Abstract Murine typhus is a rare condition caused by the gram-negative bacterium Rickettsia typhi which classically presents with the triad of fever, rash, and headache. Herein we report a rare presentation of murine typhus in an adult who presented predominantly with fever and gastrointestinal symptoms. Initial imaging showed cardiomegaly and hepatosplenomegaly, which led to further workup revealing rickettsial disease. Although this illness is considered a rare diagnosis in the emergency department, every person with a pet that might have fleas is susceptible to it.


Mandibular arteriovenous malformation is a severe vascular pathological condition that may lead to life-threatening hemorrhages. In child and teenaged patients, a conservative treatment is preferred to avoid profuse blood loss and/or mutilating alterations in the still-growing patients' face. The aim of this article was to present a case of an 11-year-old boy with an arteriovenous malformation involving the left mandible and treated by means of endovascular embolization with direct lesional delivery of N-butyl-cyanoacrylate glue through transfemoral catheterization.


This notice sets forth the names, addresses, service areas, and dates of qualification of entities determined by the Secretary to be qualified health maintenance organizations [HMOs]. In addition, this notice reports a service area expansion and name changes of previously qualified HMOs.