INTRODUCTION
This study presents results of a systematic review aimed at mapping and understanding which elements are essential to the success of innovations for the improvement of the healthcare access for vulnerable groups.

METHOD
A mixed systematic literature review was conducted and several databases were studied (Medline, Cinahl, Embase, Social Work, SocIndex). All OECD countries were covered in 10-year period (2005-2015). In total, 26 articles were deemed relevant and were included in the review.

RESULTS
The thematic synthesis reveals several categories of innovation such as navigation services, outreach services and clinics offering adapted care. It also highlights key characteristics which contributed to the success of these innovations and improved patient satisfaction, such as social proximity, mastery of context on the part of the worker, interorganizational and interdisciplinary collaboration, respectful care and, finally, sustainability of funding.

CONCLUSION
One of the main lessons learned from this review is that providing health services in a compassionate way is a determinant for access to care among vulnerable groups.


Twenty percent of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease by experts like me in fact don't have elevated amyloid and so, in fact, don't have Alzheimer's. What they do have is the subject of intense research, and there are many possibilities. A recent study of one thousand brain autopsies from older adults with a range of cognitive impairment showed at least 230 combinations of neuropathology. The point is that while the disease will be treatable, we're unlikely to defeat it as we did polio and smallpox. We're going to have to learn how to live with Alzheimer's as an at least somewhat treatable disease. To do so, we need to think outside the biomedical box.


The electrochemical behavior of Nb in acid fluoride media has been investigated by voltammetric, steady-state, and impedance techniques as a function of variables like c F (the total fluoride concentration, varied between 0 and 2 M), pH (0-7), and potential (-1 to 7 V vs. SCE). An active/passive transition is observed, followed by a wide current pseudoplateau where current depends on c F and pH in a way indicating that HF and related species dissolve the passivating oxide whereas F is inactive. Impedance diagrams obtained on this plateau can he reproduced by a literature model (surface charge approach), and the derived parameters may be used to calculate structural and kinetic quantities, as well as the formation ratio of the surface oxide.


A fully distributed operating system transaction facility with fine-grain record level synchronization is described. Multiple member processes, remote resource access, dynamic process migration, and orderly interaction with concurrent non-transaction activities are all supported, An unusual logging strategy, based on shadow pages but supporting logical level locking, is used. This choice is justified on the basis of ease of implementation and performance analysis. The design and implementation is done in the context of Locus, a high performance distributed Unix operating system for local area networks.


This paper introduces a new method for fabricating Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUT) that uses a wafer-bonding technique. The transducer membrane and cavity are defined separately on a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) wafer and on a prime quality silicon wafer, respectively. Using silicon direct bonding in a vacuum environment, the two wafers are bonded forming the transducer. Among the many advantages this wafer-bonding technique, and probably the most important for low frequency transducer applications, is the ability to define relatively large membranes and large gaps easily. The particular device reported in this paper is designed to operate in the 10 kHz - 150 kHz range as a transmitter only for a sonar application. In this paper, we describe the new fabrication process to build CMUTs, and present the first experimental results obtained from this particular device that demonstrate wide-band operation in the above mentioned frequency range.


Background. New antiviral textiles for the protection and prevention of life-threatening viral diseases are needed. Graphene oxide derivatives are versatile substances that can be combined with fabrics by different green electrochemistry methods. Methods In this study, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were combined with textile samples to study GO antiviral potential. GO synthesized in the Chemistry laboratories at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy) and characterized with TEM/EDX, XRD, TGA, Raman spectroscopy, and FTIR, was applied at three different concentrations to linen textiles with the hot-dip and dry method to obtain filters. The GO-treated textiles were tested to prevent infection of a human glioblastoma cell line (U373) with human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A). Green electrochemical exfoliation of graphite into the oxidized graphene nanosheets provides a final GO-based product suitable for a virus interaction, mainly depending on the double layer of nanosheets, their corresponding nanometric sizes, and Z-potential value. Results Since GO-treated filters were able to prevent infection of cells in a dose-dependent fashion, our results suggest that GO may exert antiviral properties that can be exploited for medical devices and general use fabrics.


Exoskeleton robot is an essential tool in active rehabilitation training for patients with lower limb motor dysfunctions. Accurate and real-time recognition in human motion intention is a great challenge in exoskeleton robot, which can be implemented by continues estimation of human joint angles. In this study, we innovatively proposed a novel feature-based convolutional neural network-bi-directional long-short term memory network (CNN-BiLSTM) model to predict the knee joint angles more accurately and in real time. We validated our method on a public dataset, including surface electromyography(sEMG) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) data of 10 healthy subjects during normal walking. Initially, features extraction from each modal data achieved feature-level fusion. Then the importance of each sEMG and IMU signal feature for knee joint angle prediction was quantified by ensemble feature scorer (EFS) and the number of features required for prediction while ensuring accuracy was simplified by profile likelihood maximization (PLM) algorithm. Finally, the CNN-BiLSTM model was created by using the determined simplest features to further fuse the spatio-temporal correlation of signals. The results indicated that the EFS and PLM algorithm could remove the feature redundancy perfectly and estimation performance would become better when bi-modal gait data were fused. For the estimation performance, the average root mean square error (RMSE), adjusted $\text{R}^{{2}}$ and pearson correlation coefficient (CC) of our algorithm were 4.07, 0.95, and 0.98, respectively, which was better than CNN, BiLSTM and other three traditional machine learning methods. In addition, the model test time was $62.47~\pm ~0.29$ ms, which was less than the predicted horizon of 100 ms. The real-time performance and accuracy are satisfactory. Compared with previous works, our method has great advantages in feature selection and model design, which further improves the prediction accuracy. These promising results demonstrate that the proposed method has considerable potential to be applied to exoskeleton robot control.


Baragwanathia abitibiensis is described from the Sextant Formation of northern Ontario, Canada (middle to upper Kmsian age). The plant remains are primarily compressions in which flattened xylem strands, epidermis with stomata, and cuticle are well preserved. Pyrite permineralization of the leaves was Ibiuid in one specimen. Comparison with B. longijolia Lang & Cookson indicates remarkable morphological similarities and probable anatomical similarities although details of the structure of the epidermis and cuticle are lacking in B. longijolia. No information is available on the outline of the cauline xylem strand in B. abitibiensis nor on the form and position of the sporangia it bore. Comparisons are also made to species of Drepanophycus. The age of/?, longijolia and the Baragwanathia Flora, is discussed with particular reference to the putative dating of some specimens as Silurian. The morphological and anatomical complexity of Baragwanathia is at a level of advancement typical of Early to Middle Devonian lycopods. There is no evidence of precursors to the genus associated with the fragments of land vascular plants in the well-dated Silurian sediments of Wales, Czechoslovakia, New York State, or Podolia.


OBJECTIVE
The survival rate of cadaveric renal transplant in children has been improved following the development of transplantation technology and the application of immunosuppressive agents. In this study, the prognosis of renal transplantation, operative procedure and immunosuppressive agents administration in 21 children with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) were analyzed.

METHODS
From January 1985 to December 2001, 21 patients (9 males and 12 females with a mean age of 14 +/- 2 yr, mean body weight of 33.4 kg and mean height of 136.5 cm) received renal transplantation because of ESRD were enrolled in the study. The patients with an average GFR of 8.28 ml/min were managed with dialysis for 13.4 months in average pro-transplantation. All cadaveric kidneys were from adults, which included 1 donor with one HLA mismatch, 3 with two mismatches, 5 with three mismatches and 4 with four mismatches. All transplantations were performed with anastomoses of the adults' renal artery and vein to the children's iliac externa artery and iliac externa vein. Biological inducement therapy was given in 4 cases. At the first 3 - 5 days post-transplantation, methylprednisolone was administered [7 mg/(kg.d)]. All patients received baseline diploid or triple immunosuppression therapy of cyclosporin A [6 - 8 mg/(kg.d)] or FK506 [0.18 - 0.25 mg/(kg.d)], mycophenolate mofetil [MMF 10 - 15 mg/(kg.d)] or azathioprine [1 - 3 mg/(kg.d)] and prednisone [0.4 - 0.6 mg/(kg.d)]. High-dose methylprednisolone [10 mg/(kg.d)] was administered to control the acute rejection.

RESULTS
The renal function of patients was restored 5.6 days in average after transplantations. The 1st, 3rd and 5th year survival rates of recipient/graft were 95.2%/95.2%, 86.7%/73.3% and 72.7%/63.6%, respectively. One case had super-acute renal rejection, 5 cases had acute rejection, 3 cases had delayed graft function and 3 patients died. The longest survival time was 12 years. The major complications included hypertension (47.6%), diabetes (19.4%), infection (19.4%) and drug-induced hepatic injury (14.2%). Catch-up growth was seen in most of the pediatric recipients.

CONCLUSION
Renal transplantation is the most ideal method to treat children with ESRD, and the growth of the pediatric patients will be improved after transplantation. Adult donor kidneys adapt to the school age patient. And the protocol of immunosuppressive therapy (prednisone plus MMF and FK506) should be applied.


Optical properties and valence band density of states near the Fermi level of high-quality VO2 thin films have been investigated by mid-infrared reflectometry and hard-UV (hν = 150 eV) photoemission spectroscopy. An exceptionally large change in reflectance from 2 to 94% is found upon the thermally driven metal–insulator transition (MIT). The infrared dispersion spectra of the reflectance across the MIT are presented and evidence for the percolative nature of the MIT is pointed out. The discrepancy between the MIT temperatures defined from the electrical and optical properties is found and its origin is discussed. The manifestation of the MIT is observed in the photoemission spectra of the V 3d levels. The analysis of the changes of the V 3d density of states is done and the top valence band shift upon the MIT is measured to be 0.6 eV.


The thalamic posterior ventral neurons with bifurcating axons to both the first and second somatosensory cortical areas (SI and SII) in the cat were examined by the fluorescent retrograde double labeling technique. After injection of Evans blue (EB) into the SI, and of 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindol.2HCl (DAPI) into the SII of the same hemisphere, EB- and DAPI-labeled cells were observed predominantly in both the posterolateral ventral and the posteromedial ventral nuclei of the thalamus. Although EB single-labeled and DAPI single-labeled cells tended to occupy separate regions within the posterior ventral nuclei, a small number of cells double-labeled with both EB and DAPI were detected in the border zone between two single-labeled cell groups. These observations indicate that some cells in the posteromedial and posterolateral ventral nuclei project both to the SI and SII by bifurcating axons.


Professor John Stinneford follows his initial article concerning the original meaning of the Eighth Amendment with an excellent article in the Virginia Law Review, Rethinking Proportionality Under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause. In this latest piece, Stinneford argues that the original meaning of the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause includes not only a prohibition against barbaric punishments (defined as ones without "long usage"), but also against excessive or "disproportionate" punishments. Stinneford then advocates rethinking the Supreme Court's Eighth Amendment evolving standards of decency jurisprudence to center the "cruel" inquiry on whether the punishment at issue is "proportionate," in a retributive sense, in light of prior punishment practices.In this brief Response, I raise two possible objections to Stinneford's analysis. First, Stinneford insists that proportionality must be solely a retributive concept for Eighth Amendment purposes, both as a matter of original interpretation and sound application. While retribution is certainly part of the "proportionality" analysis, I believe that utilitarian justifications of punishment are also relevant to the concept of proportionality. As explained below, this is true both as a matter of original interpretation and perhaps more importantly as a reasonable basis for the Court's current application of the Eighth Amendment.Second, I question whether, if one adopts Stinneford's model of Eighth Amendment retributive proportionality, application of the Eighth Amendment would achieve the purposes he advocates. Spe-cifically, I am not persuaded that limiting the application of the Eighth Amendment to the question of retributive proportionality would improve the much-criticized application of the Eighth Amendment in capital cases. Further, I am not convinced that the retributive model of proportionality Stinneford advocates would effectively bridge the gap between the two-tiered application of the Eighth Amendment in capital and non-capital cases.


The anesthetic approach to the patient with a thoracic aortic aneurysm depends on the urgency of repair. Symptomatic patients with leaking aneurysms require urgent intervention, and there is generally little time to perform more than the most basic preoperative assessment. For elective repair, however, one must consider nearly every organ system. Many of the specific issues are inherent to the underlying pathophysiology that has resulted in aneurysm formation, and some stem from the requirements of the surgical procedure itself. A thorough knowledge of the extent and location of the aneurysm, the functional status of the heart, and the coronary artery anatomy are critical. Most patients aged older than 40 years undergo coronary angiography preoperatively, as do younger patients with specific risk factors for myocardial ischemia. Respiratory failure is one of the most common sequelae of these procedures, and a thorough preoperative pulmonary work-up is mandatory. Neurologic deficits are not uncommon postoperatively, and pre-existing deficits in the central nervous system must be sought. Coagulopathy is common in the immediate postoperative period, and preoperative assurance of hemo-static competence is important. Computed tomography scans and magnetic resonance imaging are the mainstay of diagnosis, although the adjunctive use of echocardiography provides important information. Routine preoperative laboratory studies include complete blood count, chemistries, coagulation profile, and indices of renal function; an electrocardiogram, and chest radiograph. Close communication with the surgeon regarding the operative procedure, cannulation strategy (where applicable), and planned evoked potential monitoring is necessary to ensure appropriate perioperative management. Prophylactic antibiotics and antifibrinolytics are routine.


A combined population study of 7815 male residents of Moscow and Leningrad, aged 40-59, conducted within the USSR-USA collaborative research programme, has made comparative assessments, on the basis of Anderson-Bakhadur intervals, of 13 lipid parameters and indices as predictors and indicators of coronary disease. Indices based on total cholesterol and alpha-cholesterol measurements were found to be of the greatest informative value. Three coefficients are proposed.


Summary
Four inmate volunteers were experimentally infected by sporozoite inoculation with the Chesson and Venezuelan strains of Plasmodium vivax and five inmate volunteers similarly infected with the B strain of Plasmodium cynomolgi. The course of malaria antibody production was followed using the indirect fluorescent antibody technique, and the production of γ-globulin determined by electrophoretic analysis of the volunteers serum proteins. The results of these studies have revealed the following observations. The prepatent period ends before malaria antibody is first demonstrated with a median difference of 6 days. The volunteers infected with P. vivax first demonstrated antibody between the 15th and 23rd days after infection. Maximum antibody titers of 1:320 to 1:5120 were reached 25 to 42 days after infection, and in two of the patients malaria antibody was still detectable 150 days after infection. Four of the five patients infected with the B strain of P. cynomolgi first demonstrated malaria antibody in their sera 17 to 24 days after infection. Maximum antibody titers of 1:320 to 1:5120 were reached 31 to 48 days after infection, and in two of the patients malaria antibody was still detectable 335 days after infection. All of the infected volunteers demonstrated an increase in their γ-globulin levels after infection. The maximum increase in γ-globulin varied between 0.20 to 1.80 grams per cent. The maximum antibody titer tended to occur at the same time as the maximum γ-globulin rise with a median difference of 3 days. These results suggest that the raised γ-globulin levels found in malaria infections correlate with the production of specific malaria antibody as determined by the fluorescent antibody technique, and that the humoral element of malaria immunity is part of the excess γ-globulin produced. The amount of malaria antibody present as γ-globulin is probably much less than the total amount of excess γ-globulin formed in response to infection with malaria parasites.


This study was carried out to select the promising forage crops for forage production in paddy field of NLRI, RDA, Suwon from 1999 to 2001. The species of forage crop used in this experiment were barley(3 varieties), wheat(2), rye(3) and Italian ryegrass(IRG, 3). Stages of heading, milk and yellow ripe of barley were 1 May, middle May and late May, respectively. In milk to yellow ripe stage, dry matter(DM) and total digestible nutrient(TDN) yield of barley were MT and MT per ha, and Albori was the most promising variety among the barley. The growth of wheat was a little late compared to that of barley. but it seemed to be crop having higher forage yield and nutritive value. In milk to yellow stage, DM and TDN yield of wheat were MT and MT per ha. Heading stage of rye was 27 to 29 April, and it seemed to be suitable for harvest at heading to flowering stage because of heavy lodging after flowering. In flowering stage, DM and TDN yield of rye were 10.18 and 6.03 MT per ha. Heading stage of early maturing IRG was 7 May and it seemed to be good for harvest at flowering stage of middle May in cropping system. In flowering stage, DM and TDN yield of early type IRG were 4.48 and 2.96 MT per ha. The results demonstrated that the promising forage crops for forage production in paddy. field were rye and barley(Albori) in Middle region, and rye harvesting at early May was recommended when considered middle May of rice transplanting period, and rye and barley considered late May of rice planting period. Also early maturing and high yielding IRG variety was strongly needed.


a short review on phytochemical analysis of in vitro cultures of selected Polish rare and endangered plants is presented. analysed secondary metabolites, present in investigated species, are responsible for raw materials medical activity. Phenolic compounds (flavonoids and phenolic acids), secoiridoids, saponins and fatty acids were investigated in micropropagated plants, shoot cultures or callus tissue of eleven plant species from the genera: Gentiana L., Oenothera L., Rubus L., Solidago L., Pinguicula L., Primula L., Eryngium L. The studied species represented medicinal plants or plants used in folk medicine in which the secondary metabolites are usually responsible for their therapeutic properties. The investigations showed that those plants contain pharmaceutically promising compounds. Therefore, plant biotechnology can be used for rapid propagation of rare or endangered plants and the regenerated plants may be used as a source of those rare medicinal plants.


The present study surveyed a sample of 116 Australian therapists who identified themselves as working primarily with traumatized clients. Outcome variables were measures of vicarious traumatization (VT), burnout and trauma symptomatology (intrusion and avoidance). A measure of beliefs about the therapeutic process was constructed for the present study and examined along with other predictor variables, namely years of experience as a therapist, percentage of time spent in clinical work with clients, predominant client group, and recent and direct exposure to trauma in the therapist. Therapist beliefs were found to predict vulnerability to VT and burnout, supporting a cognitive model of therapist distress. Implications of the findings for maintaining therapist health are discussed.


Through the multiconfigurational Dirac-Fock method, an ab-initio evaluation of an off-diagonal atomic field-isotope-shift parameter in (5d + 6s)N has been obtained. It appears impossible to relate unambiguously this parameter to the relaxation of definite atomic subshells.


In a previous study we showed that the formation of O6‐ethylguanine (O6‐EtGua) in the DNA of CHO cells in culture correlated with mutations induced by ethylnitrosourea (ENU) and diethylsulfate (DES) at the hypoxanthine‐guanine‐phosphoribosyltransferase (hprt) locus but not at the Na, K‐ATPase locus. This study was extended to another ethylating agent, ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS). DNA adduct formation and induction of mutation at the two gene loci were determined simultaneously in CHO cells after EMS exposure. The extent of ethylation at the N7 and O6 positions of guanine and at the N3 site of adenine were measured and the possible correlations with 6‐thioguanine resistance (6‐TGr) and ouabain resistance (ouar) mutations were investigated. A good correlation between the levels of ethylation at O6 guanine and mutation frequency at hprt gene by all three ethylating agents was observed. In the case of the ouar locus, the frequency of O6‐EtGua adducts correlated with mutation induction by EMS and ENU but not by DES. Although both EMS and DES have similar reaction mechanisms, these results highlight differences in their mutational specificity. The comparison of this type of analysis with mutational spectra revealed that correlation studies may be inadequate to analyse multi‐component phenomena like mutation formation. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The study takes into account three important sources of irrigation viz. Kuhl, lift irrigation and tube-well irrigation. The Blaney Criddle procedure was followed to estimate evapotranspiration to work out month-wise requirements of water for different crops. The analysis showed that crop growth coefficients for paddy and maize were highest during July while for rabi crops it was highest during March and April. The results further indicated that with lift and tube-well irrigation, the water use pattern had become more homogeneous round the year as compared to Kuhl irrigation. During June, May and November the water requirements were higher than water availability on Kuh/ irrigated farms. While on lift irrigation and tube-well irrigated farms, the deficit was highest in June and May respectively. This deficit in water availability was synchronous with critical periods like sowing, transplanting, etc. The study suggests that creation of storage facilities on kuhl irrigated farms, is likely to help in water management practices to a greater extent. Similarly the storage facilities for lift irrigation areas is also required since the ground water availability during summer is greatly restricted.


Introduction: Emerging contaminants (ECs) are substances with widely diverse chemical structures that may pose a risk to the environment and human beings. The limited scope of water treatment facilities, particularly in low and middle-income countries, allows ECs to be continuously introduced to the environment and become part of the cycle again for potabilization. In this work, we study for the first time the presence of these compounds in the drinking water of five Ecuadorian cities.Methods: The compounds of interest were mainly pharmaceutical substances commonly present in prescription and over-the-counter medicines, along with caffeine, a known coadjuvant in some of these preparations. Samples were collected from Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Ibarra, and Esmeraldas, considering each city's distribution systems, and, after solid-phase extraction, analyzed by LC-MS/MS ESI+.Results and discussion: Results showed a high occurrence of caffeine, the only analyte present in all cities, with concentrations ranging from <6.35 to 201 ngL-1 and an occurrence from 11% in Quito to 77% in Cuenca. The highest median was found in Cuenca, followed by Esmeraldas. Our observations regarding concentrations are comparable to other studies around the globe. Although in other cities, some pharmaceuticals appeared at levels below our detection limits. These findings highlight the ubiquitous nature of emerging contaminants while pointing out the need for regulatory frameworks that facilitate the implementation of treatment technologies at the source and wastewater level. These actions will safeguard public and environmental health in the long term.


Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive age-related disease, in which dopaminergic neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway are destroyed, resulting in movement and behavioral impairment. Oxidative stress and the generation of reactive oxygen species play a key role in the progression and pathology of neurodegenerative diseases such as PD. Rotenone is a common pesticide that induces PD through the generation of oxidative stress. Isolongifolene (ILF), a tricyclic sesqueterpene of Murraya koenigii, has antioxidant and neuroprotective effects. The current study was aimed to investigate the effect of ILF against oxidative stress and movement impairment on rotenone-induced rat model of PD. Materials and Methods: Biochemical measures, including the activities of catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxidation products [thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and behavioral analysis (hang and catalepsy test) were performed. Results: The muscle strength and cataleptic score of the ILF co-treated groups were significantly improved. Treatment with ILF prevented the increases in the levels of TBARS, significantly improved the SOD, catalase, GPx activities, and GSH levels. Conclusion: These findings suggested that ILF has neuroprotective properties through its potent antioxidant activities.


Artificial muscles are formed by attaching a conducting polymeric film to a non-conducting one. Applying an electrical current on the muscle, a macroscopic bending movement appears on it. Study of curvature variations and related parameters, such as speed of motion or energy of curvature, is necessary for improving the efficiency of these devices. In a previous work, a one-cam computer vision system was developed to estimate motion parameters in 2D with precise results. In this paper, a two-cam stereo vision system is proposed to process the image sequence and track the muscle in 3D. Active contours models are employed in motion detection and mechanical parameters estimation. Results prove the validity of this approach, allowing automatic testing on the research into artificial muscles.


Background. There is no easy and reliable method to measure spasticity, although it is a common and important symptom after a brain injury. Objective. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a new method to measure spasticity that can be easily used in clinical practice. Methods. A biomechanical model was created to estimate the components of the force resisting passive hand extension, namely (a) inertia (IC), (b) elasticity (EC), (c) viscosity (VC), and (d) neural components (NC). The model was validated in chronic stroke patients with varying degree of hand spasticity. Electromyography (EMG) was recorded to measure the muscle activity induced by the passive stretch. Results. The model was validated in 3 ways: (a) NC was reduced after an ischemic nerve block, (b) NC correlated with the integrated EMG across subjects and in the same subject during the ischemic nerve block, and (c) NC was velocity dependent. In addition, the total resisting force and NC correlated with the modified Ashworth score. According to the model, the neural and nonneural components varied between patients. In most of the patients, but not in all, the NC dominated. Conclusions. The results suggest that the model allows valid measurement of spasticity in the upper extremity of chronic stroke patients and that it can be used to separate the neural component induced by the stretch reflex from resistance caused by altered muscle properties.


BACKGROUND
Mentorship is an important factor for career promotion and professional development. The Women in Surgery Committee developed a mentorship program that matched early career female surgeons to senior female surgeons for 1 year. We hypothesized participation in the program would empower junior surgeons by providing opportunities to network and hone skills necessary to attain their career goals.

METHODS
Survey was sent 4 to 6 weeks after program completion. Statements about mentorship and value of the Women in Surgery Committee program were ranked on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Participants were compared based on frequency of encounters using Student's t-test.

RESULTS
A total of 105 pairs were identified; response rate was 60%. Results reported as (mean ± SD). Participants believed mentorship was essential for young surgeons (4.5 ± 1.0), and limiting the program to female surgeons added value (4.4 ± 0.6). When compared with mentees who met less than 4 times in a year, those who met 4 or more times perceived the program as beneficial (4.4 ± 0.82, p < 0.001). Mentees who met 4 or more times in a year benefitted from creating and achieving goals (4.3 ± 0.75, p < 0.001), setting expectations (4.5 ± 0.6, p < 0.001), providing networking opportunities (4.1 ± 1.1, p < 0.05), and developing professional skills (3.9 ± 0.98).

CONCLUSION
The Women in Surgery Committee Mentorship Program provides an opportunity for young female surgeons; however, perceived benefit is dependent on mentee engagement.


The antiemetic and tranquilizing properties of chlorpromazine have proved to be of great value in the management of acute and postalcoholic states. The high incidence of head injuries in the alcoholic population makes it important to determine whether the use of chlorpromazine, a central nervous system depressant, might be contraindicated in the presence of head injury or whether it may be a more desirable sedative than those currently available. This report concerns its use in the management of patients with head injuries. MATERIAL The subjects of the present study were patients admitted to the District of Columbia General Hospital because of head injuries with or without acute alcoholism. All subjects exhibited a disturbed mental condition. After clinical evaluation, 50 to 100 mg. of chlorpromazine was administered, in most instances orally or intramuscularly; in several cases its administration was necessary for the successful completion of diagnostic studies and clinical observations. The


Computational models of network-driven processes have become a standard to explain cellular systems-level behavior and predict cellular responses to perturbations. Modern models can span a broad range of biochemical reactions and species that, in principle, comprise the complexity of dynamic cellular processes. Visualization plays a central role in the analysis of biochemical network processes to identify patterns that arise from model dynamics and perform model exploratory analysis. However, most existing visualization tools are limited in their capabilities to facilitate mechanism exploration of large, dynamic, and complex models. Here, we present PyViPR, a visualization tool that provides researchers static and dynamic representations of biochemical network processes within a Python-based Literate Programming environment. PyViPR embeds network visualizations on Jupyter notebooks, thus facilitating integration with Python modeling, simulation, and analysis workflows. To present the capabilities of PyViPR, we explore execution mechanisms of extrinsic apoptosis in HeLa cells. We show how community-detection algorithms can identify groups of molecular species that represent key biological regulatory functions and simplify the apoptosis network by placing those groups into interactively collapsible nodes. We then show how dynamic execution of a signal, under different kinetic parameter sets that fit the experimental data equally well, exhibit significantly different signal-execution modes in mitochondrial outer-membrane permeabilization – the point of no return in extrinsic apoptosis execution. Therefore, PyViPR aids the conceptual understanding of dynamic network processes and accelerates hypothesis generation for further testing and validation.


This paper examines Hans Kelsen's theory of international adjudication and its political implications in the context of Kelsen's post-war calls for compulsory jurisdiction. It defends Kelsen's position on judicial law-making against claims by scholars such as Hardt and Negri that it amounts to a theory of 'judicial imperialism'. The paper, to finish, examines the ramifications of Kelsen's theory of compulsory jurisdiction in times of fragmentation.


Background and purpose: Metabolic syndrome or X syndrome is a term that refer to a set of metabolic abnormalities including insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia and central or visceral obesity. There is a high prevalence and increased risk of atherosclerotic disease and mortality. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Health Network personnel in Babolsar. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted consisting of all the staff (n= 134) in Babolsar Health Network, 2012. Data was analyzed applying qui square test in SPSS. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was investigated using ATP III and IDF criteria. Results: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 9% (12 people) and their mean age was 39.8 + 7.28. This prevalence was found to be more in men. Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome could have many complications including cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, screening programs are required in Iran in people aged >30 years. High incidence of metabolic syndrome in male staff calls for more attention on appropriate management and providing effective training to reduce the rate of mortality and morbidity due to cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes in this group.


Aims: To investigate the effects of ovariectomy and estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) on the structural integrity and proteoglycan (PG) content of articular cartilage (AC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in an ovine model of osteoarthritis (OA) induced by meniscectomy.

Method:  Thirty aged ewes were used for the study. Six had ovariectomy alone (OVX), 6 meniscectomy alone (OA) and 12 ovariectomy and meniscectomy (OVX + OA). Six of the (OVX + OA) sheep received Femtran-50 (3M) estrogen (50 µg/day) patches (OVX + OA + ERT). Six animals were used as non-operated controls (NOC). Three months post-surgery all animals were sacrificed, the stifle joints dissected through the site of lesions, and coronal sections of the lateral femoral condyle (LFC) and lateral tibial plateau (LTP) were cut which were each subdivided into inner (I), middle (M) and outer (O) zones. Toluidine blue stained sections were examined using a modified Mankin scoring system, and AC–PG content determined via computer image analysis.

Results:  There were no significant differences between lesion scores among the OA, OVX + OA and OVX + OA + ERT groups, yet all had significantly higher scores than NOC and OVX in each region (P < 0.005). Computer image analysis of PG content in stained sections showed no difference between OVX and NOC. However, in LFC-AC the loss of PG was highest in the OVX + OA group (P < 0.005) compared to the NOC or OVX groups. The bone mineral density (BMD) of the LFC averaged for all zones was higher in the OVX + OA + ERT group than the OVX + OA group (P < 0.02) with the most significant rise being in the I-zone (P < 0.002). Significantly in this same zone of the OVX + OA + ERT group the AC-PG content was higher than in the corresponding zone of the OVX + OA group (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:  While ERT did not reduce the focal AC lesions scores in the lateral compartment of this OA model it did mitigate the loss of PG from adjacent joint cartilage and increase the bone mineral density (BMD), especially in the I-zone. These findings are consistent with epidemiological studies which suggest that ERT may slow the progression of OA in postmenopausal women.


The purpose of this paper is to analyze the statements of experts and commentators in news items devoted to the parliamentary elections and the election campaign in 2015 and 2019 in one of the most popular news programs, Wiadomości broadcasted by the public television TVP1. Content analysis was used for the study. The aim of the study was both to determine the specifics of the experts and commentators presented and the overtone of their opinions on the election committees participating in the parliamentary election. The results of the study show that during the 2019 election campaign, the public broadcaster's news program mostly presented a different type of experts and commentators than in 2015, and the commentaries themselves changed their overtone from being more distanced from the entities participating in the 2015 elections to being strongly engaged and exposing a strong position on the assessment of the main rivals of the 2019 parliamentary election.


Children who are English Language Learners (ELLs) are often falsely identified with reading disorders. Similarly, some ELLs with true reading disorders are overlooked because it is assumed that they are still acquiring the necessary reading skills in English. This review of current bilingual assessment literature focuses on the use of early screening tasks to identify potential reading disorders among ELLs. These assessment tasks cover phonological, letter naming, rapid naming, sequencing and reading skill sets. This review synthesizes current research findings to determine which tasks are the most appropriate for assessing future reading disorders among children from linguistically diverse backgrounds. Results were mixed. Further research is needed to determine the best methods for reading assessment of ELLs.


A new, conceptually simple model of crystal packing is proposed which uses "packing patterns" to describe unit cells in terms of molecular building blocks.


Abstract Unfolded protein response (UPR) is an evolutionarily conserved pathway triggered during perturbation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homeostasis in response to the accumulation of unfolded/misfolded proteins under various stress conditions like viral infection, diseased states etc. It is an adaptive signalling cascade with the main purpose of relieving the stress from the ER, which may otherwise lead to the initiation of cell death via apoptosis. ER stress if prolonged, contribute to the aetiology of various diseases like cancer, type II diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, viral infections etc. Understanding the role of UPR in disease progression will help design pharmacological drugs targeting the sensors of signalling cascade acting as potential therapeutic agents against various diseases. The current review aims at highlighting the relevance of different pathways of UPR in disease progression and control, including the available pharmaceutical interventions responsible for ameliorating diseased state via modulating UPR pathways.


This work presents a novel non-parametric Bayesian formulation for aligning faces in unseen images. Popular approaches, such as the Constrained Local Models (CLM) or the Active Shape Models (ASM), perform facial alignment through a local search, combining an ensemble of detectors with a global optimization strategy that constraints the facial feature points to be within the subspace spanned by a Point Distribution Model (PDM). The global optimization can be posed as a Bayesian inference problem, looking to maximize the posterior distribution of the PDM parameters in a maximum a posteriori (MAP) sense. Previous approaches rely exclusively on Gaussian inference techniques, i.e. both the likelihood (detectors responses) and the prior (PDM) are Gaussians, resulting in a posterior which is also Gaussian, whereas in this work the posterior distribution is modeled as being non-parametric by a Kernel Density Estimator (KDE). We show that this posterior distribution can be efficiently inferred using Sequential Monte Carlo methods, in particular using a Regularized Particle Filter (RPF). The technique is evaluated in detail on several standard datasets (IMM, BioID, XM2VTS, LFW and FGNET Talking Face) and compared against state-of-the-art CLM methods. We demonstrate that inferring the PDM parameters non-parametrically significantly increase the face alignment performance.


Surface smoothness is an important feature of restorative material. Thus, composite roughness levels should be low to make retention of dental biofilm. Alterations of the surface of composite resin restorations can be associated to drinks and acidic foods, components of saliva, finishing and polishing methods, as well as the action of bleaching agents, rinses and fluoride. Purpose: To evaluate the effect of mouth rinses in superficial roughness of composite resin through a quantitative evaluation. Methods: 48 specimens with composite resin Filtek TM Z350 XT were made and divided into 4 groups (n=12): distilled water, Colgate ® Plax, Oral B ® and Listerine ® . Specimens were made using a rectangular matrix with holes, each measuring 0.8 cm of internal diameter and 0.2 cm in thickness. The specimens were immersed in 50 ml of each substance, for 12 hours, to simulate a year of daily use of the solution for 2 minutes. Then specimens were stored in distilled water until reading of the roughness tester. Data were statistically treated by ANOVA and Tukey tests, with a significance level of 95%. Results: No statistically significant difference was observed between the control group and Listerine ® (p = 0.03). When comparing the average roughness of different brands of mouthwashes, there was no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Among the mouthwashes tested, only Listerine ® caused statistically significant increase in superficial roughness of the composite resin used.


Abstract Background Cold snare polypectomy (CSP) to remove multiple duodenal adenomas (MDAs) in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) could be an effective and less invasive method than more extensive surgery. The aim of the present study was to determine the safety of this procedure. Methods This prospective exploratory study included 10 consecutive patients with FAP and MDAs who underwent CSP for as many as 50 duodenal adenomas. The primary outcome was the incidence of severe adverse events. Results 10 patients were enrolled and underwent 332 CSPs from June 2016 to January 2017. The median procedure time was 33 minutes (range 25 – 53), and the median number of polyps removed during a single session was 35 (range 10 – 50). Most of the removed polyps were ≤ 10 mm. None of the 10 patients experienced a severe adverse event. One patient developed arterial bleeding during the procedure, but it was easily managed using hemoclips. Conclusions CSP for MDAs in patients with FAP was safe. The long-term efficacy of this procedure should be investigated.


Dynamic rating is an approach which implies to operate an electrical network closer to its thermal limits. This approach may be very beneficial for wave farms, as they are expected to present a highly fluctuating electrical current profile while benefiting from the large thermal inertia of the soil where their export cable will be buried. However, as the imple-mentation of this approach is still in its infancy for offshore wind farms, it may be expected that the first wave farms, under the form of small-scale test sites, will be sized with respect to electrical current limits at a first stage. This sizing may be upgraded at a second stage when design methods will have included dynamic rating. However, this raises the question of the economic feasibility of this two-step approach, which is studied in this paper. Also, performing such a techno-economic analysis requires developing an electrothermal model of the export cable able to represent its transient response in a sufficiently precise man-ner while requiring also a reasonable computing time. In this perspective, a comparative analysis between several electrothermal modelling methods is also described in this paper.


ndothelial tight junctions (TJs)* are an important functional part of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). In this issue, Nitta et al. (2003) demonstrate that claudin-5, a transmembrane protein of TJs, is a critical determinant of BBB permeability in mice. Unexpectedly, knockout of claudin-5 did not result in a general breakdown of TJs but in a selective increase in paracellular permeability of small molecules. This suggests that the BBB can be manipulated to allow selective diffusion of small molecules and makes claudin-5 a possible target for the development of drugs for this purpose.


This overview, or retrospective, has two objectives. The first is to demonstrate how the principles of 'mountain geoecology' were applied in an attempt to counteract the political and socio-economic impacts of a major and misguided environmental orthodoxy-the Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation (henceforth to be referred to as the 'Theory'). The second is to explore the difficulties of transferring the results of on-going scholarly mountain research into the public and political decision-making process. In this sense the paper should be regarded as a case study of the potentially serious effects of exaggerated and emotionally based responses to orthodoxies founded on assumptions and latter-day myths. A third objective, reserved for the companion paper in this issue, outlines the origins of mountain geoecology and explores how academic research influenced the inclusion of high level concern for mountain problems within AGENDA 21, one of the principal results of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (popularly known as the Rio Earth Summit) and declaration of 2002 as the International Year of Mountains.
The original environmental orthodoxy (the Theory) has been eclipsed since the turn of the Millennium by a new populist alarm proposing that the current climate warming will cause all the Himalayan glaciers to disappear in the near future. From this it would follow that, as the glacier melt progresses, numerous large glacial lakes, forming as a consequence, would burst and the ensuing floods would annihilate many millions of people. Eventually, as the glaciers disappeared vital rivers, such as the Ganges and Brahmaputra, would wither to seasonal streams heralding further massive loss of life due to desertification and starvation. This current environmental alarm could be regarded as a present day parallel to the original Theory and will be examined in the final section of the paper.
Between 1970 and about 1985 it was almost universal wisdom amongst scholars and development specialists, as well as conservationists, that the Himalaya were on the brink of environmental, and hence socio-economic and political collapse. This theme of gloom and doom was taken up avidly by journalists, politicians, and diplomats; it influenced the expenditure of large sums of aid and development money, and augmented periodic international confrontations. In concise terms, in the early 1970s an assumed approaching environmental disaster was perceived to be driven by relentless growth in the population of subsistence hill communities and their dependence on mountain forests for fuel, fodder, building materials, and conversion to agricultural land. The assumption of rapid and catastrophic deforestation of steep hillslopes under a monsoon climate (the World Bank predicted that there would be no accessible forest remaining in Nepal by the year 2000) led inexorably to a series of dependent assumptions: increasing soil erosion and worsening landslide incidence; accelerated flooding and siltation on the plains of Gangetic India and Bangladesh; social and political unrest, if not serious armed conflict – the notion of a world super-crisis, considering that the region in question contained about ten percent of the world's entire human population and about thirty percent of its poorest.
As will be emphasized later, none of this all-embracing construct was based on reliable evidence, but it was accepted world-wide as a given. It represents a prime example of the dangers associated with convenient adoption of environmental myths, or environmental orthodoxies, especially where the myth is a Western 'scientific' construct. I characterized it as The Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation (Ives, 1985).


A new structured dynamic model has been developed to describe the composting process. The model includes different populations of microorganisms and types of substrates, and heat and mass transfer between the three phases of the system. Computer simulations provided a reliable approach to expected results and sensitivity analysis determined the key parameters of the model.


Sally is passionate about engaging young people in learning about and developing their own value systems, and about high quality curriculum and teaching practice. She is an experienced teacher and curriculum writer, having worked in a range of schools and educational programs over the past 10 years. She is a director, curriculum developer and educator. for Vanishing Point, the social enterprise partnering the 'RwandanStories' website, which supports teachers to engage their students with the ideas, global perspectives, politics and ethical issues arising from the Rwandan genocide and recovery.


Accurate blood pressure (BP) measurement is essential in epidemiological studies, screening programmes, and research studies as well as in clinical practice for the early detection and prevention of high BP-related risks such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. Posture of the participant plays a vital role in accurate measurement of BP. Guidelines on measurement of BP contain recommendations on the position of the back of the participants by advising that they should sit with supported back to avoid spuriously high readings. In this work, principal component analysis (PCA) is fused with forward stepwise regression (SWR), artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), and the least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) model for the prediction of BP reactivity to an unsupported back in normotensive and hypertensive participants. PCA is used to remove multi-collinearity among anthropometric predictor variables and to select a subset of components, termed 'principal components' (PCs), from the original dataset. The selected PCs are fed into the proposed models for modeling and testing. The evaluation of the performance of the constructed models, using appropriate statistical indices, shows clearly that a PCA-based LS-SVM (PCA-LS-SVM) model is a promising approach for the prediction of BP reactivity in comparison to others. This assessment demonstrates the importance and advantages posed by hybrid models for the prediction of variables in biomedical research studies.


Sweet corn is one of the essential food crops in Indonesia because of its many benefits, such as, being a source of carbohydrates, oil, flour, animal feed, and others. Corn demand increases yearly, needing a large land area to meet its requirements. However, planting maize during the dry season or low rainfall faces more challenges. Therefore, using drip irrigation is a solution to ensure corn growth and sustained optimal production. The presented study aimed to determine the effects of drip irrigation on the production of two varieties of sweet corn (Zea mays saccharata Sturt) and began from February to May 2021 at the Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Teuku Umar, Meulaboh, West Aceh, Indonesia. The study used a randomized design (split-plot) each for two irrigation levels: without drip irrigation (T0) and drip irrigation (T1) in main plots on two sweet corn varieties, Bonanza and Paragon. The parameters observed were cob diameter with cornhusk (mm), cob diameter without cornhusk (mm), cob length with cornhusk (cm), cob length without cornhusk (cm), cob weight with cornhusk (g), and cob weight without cornhusk (g). Analysis of variance showed that the drip irrigation treatments had no significant effect on all the recorded parameters. However, the varieties had a highly relevant impact on the cob diameter and length and considerably influenced the cob weight. Then again, the sweet corn varieties showed nonsignificant differences for all other variables.


PURPOSE
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is the most common inherited retinal disease with high genetic heterogeneity and variable phenotypes. Characteristic symptoms include night blindness and progressive loss of visual field, leading to blindness. Mutations in >60 genes have been identified to date as causative for RP, and additional candidate genes are assumed.

METHODS
To find the disease-causing mutations in the affected members of five Turkish families, we sequenced whole exomes using an Illumina platform.

RESULTS
Among all candidate genes for retinal degeneration we found two previously known sequence variations: a 4 bp deletion in the RPGR gene (c.1662_1665delAGAA; p.Glu555Glyfs*14) and a recently described USH1-causing missense mutation in MYO7A (c.472G>A, p.Gly158Arg). Furthermore, a novel 1 bp deletion in the VCAN gene (c.5118delA; p.Ser1707Valfs*44) was detected as well as a large deletion in EYS, spanning ∼ 400kb and comprising exons 16-26 (p.fs*). In one family, exome analyses of two affected individuals revealed a homozygous missense mutation (c.883G>A; p.Asp295Asn) in the AGBL5 (Agbl5; CCP5) gene, previously not reported to be associated with RP. RNA and protein analyses showed expression in human retina, as well as in mouse retina, brain and testis. Furthermore, cDNA analyses indicate the existence of tissue-specific AGBL5 splice variations in humans. AGBL5/CCP5 immunoreactivity was also visualized in human and mouse retinae.

CONCLUSION
Due to the characteristic RP phenotype in patients carrying the AGBL5 missense mutation we suggest this gene as a candidate for a new form of autosomal recessively inherited RP and recommend further investigation to confirm this hypothesis.


Science at the Theater: From the sun to your gas tank: A new breed of biofuels may help solve the global energy challenge and reduce the impact of fossil fuels on global warming. KTVU Channel 2 health and science editor John Fowler will moderate a panel of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists who are developing ways to convert the solar energy stored in plants into liquid fuels. Jay Keasling is one of the foremost authorities in the field of synthetic biology. He is applying this research toward the production of advanced carbon-neutral biofuels that can replace gasoline on a gallon-for-gallon basis. Keasling is Berkeley Labs Acting Deputy Director and the Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Department of Energys Joint BioEnergy Institute. Jim Bristow is deputy director of programs for the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a national user facility in Walnut Creek, CA. He developed and implemented JGIs Community Sequencing Program, which provides large-scale DNA sequencing and analysis to advance genomics related to bioenergy and environmental characterization and cleanup. Susanna Green Tringe is a computational biologist with the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI). She helped pioneer the field of metagenomics, a new strategymore » for isolating, sequencing, and characterizing DNA extracted directly from environmental samples, such as the contents of the termite gut, which yielded enzymes responsible for breakdown of wood into fuel.« less


Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is the most common cause of diarrhea in travellers and young children in developing countries. We previously characterized three vaccine candidates (MipA, Skp, and ETEC_2479) which effectively protected mice in an intranasal ETEC challenge model after immunization. However, these proteins are conserved not only in multiple ETEC isolates, but also in commensal bacteria. In this study, we examined the potential of these antigens to affect the host intestinal microbiota and subsequently found no significant impact on healthy of host after vaccination. In addition, we also optimized the types of adjuvants and forms of antigens and evaluated the efficacy in a mouse intranasal challenge model. Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is an emerging zoonotic pathogen that cause global public health threads. EHEC possesses the potential to cause gastroenteritis, hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which may lead to renal failure. Type  secretion system (T3SS) is a hallmark of EHEC, characterized by the needle-like structure and a variety of effectors injected into host cells. NleB, one of T3SS effectors, is a glycosyltransferase with the ability to catalyze the transfer of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (N-GlcNAc) to host proteins to suppress the activation of NF-B signaling pathway. In this study, we employed luminescence-based glycosyltransferase assay and high-throughput screening using a chemical library of various compounds. A total of 128 chemicals was selected with significant inhibition on NleB glycosyltransferase activity for further pharmaceutical study as novel therapy against EHEC infection.


Rules are a crucial part of much religious thought and practice. Their importance or insignificance, their strictness or laxness, and their rigidity or flexibility in the face of change are constant themes of debate, both within and outside religious communities. Yet they have arguably not been given the attention they deserve within recent anthropology. Since the rise of practice theory, rules have more often been considered something to look past in the search for agency. Where the new anthropology of ethics has addressed religious orthopraxy, it has largely been through the lens of the cultivation of virtuous  self, or the ways in which moral rules may become especially salient in extraordinary circumstances, such as moments of radical cultural transformation. But religious rules are not just a function of ethical crisis or virtuoso projects of the self. They are also a taken-for-granted part of everyday life for millions of people worldwide. In this introduction and the case studies that follow, we thus aim to move beyond current perspectives, reflecting on both the nature of religious rules themselves and the ways in which they are negotiated in believers' everyday lives.
Keywords: Rules; anthropology; religion; ethics


In this paper we report on a control system developed to tune the magnetron frequency to get the maximum beam pulse in a Microtron (an electron accelerator facility at Mangalore University). The control system so designed consists of a Microcontroller Unit (MCU), a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) and a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) to track and tune the magnetron frequency. A PLL is used to track the deviation of the magnetron output frequency, and by monitoring the reflected wave voltage level, the microcontroller unit tunes the magnetron with the help of a tuner mechanism connected through a stepper motor.


Carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS) has been touted as a reasonable alternative to carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for high-risk surgical candidates. Several published CAS series, primarily from academic centers, show immediate results approaching those of CEA. However, very little is known about long-term results with CAS, particularly in the community hospital setting. Therefore, we retrospectively reviewed our CAS experience. From February 1999 to July 2003, 44 consecutive patients underwent placement of 46 stents. The mean patient age was 73 years, and 57 per cent were men. Most patients were asymptomatic (74%). High-risk categories included prior CEA (71%), other anatomic risks (13%), and/or significant medical comorbidities (16%). Technical success was achieved in all 46 cases. At 30 days, there were no deaths and one stroke, giving a combined stroke/mortality of 2 per cent. Clinical follow-up was obtained on all 44 patients at a mean follow-up of 42 months. Duplex scans performed on 44 stents (96%), at a mean follow-up of 40 months, demonstrated four 60 per cent to 79 per cent recurrent stenoses. CAS in a community hospital can have a 30-day stroke/mortality equivalent to CEA. The procedure is durable, with no critical (80%–99%) carotid restenoses and no stroke or transient ischemic attacks referable to a stented carotid artery in long-term follow-up.


The air conditioner load is the most variable component of the system load of the Kansai Electric Power Company. As the air conditioner load changes with temperature and time, the voltage and frequency characteristics of the system load change as well as its magnitude. Single-phase air conditioner characteristics have been determined through measurement, and simple models suitable for power system studies have been developed.


Cognitive deficits are commonly observed in patients with schizophrenia. Converging lines of evidence suggest that these deficits are associated with impaired long-term potentiation (LTP). In our systematic review, this hypothesis is evaluated using neuroimaging literature focused on proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, positron emission tomography, and single-photon emission computed tomography. The review provides evidence for abnormal dopaminergic, GABAergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission in antipsychotic-naive/free patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy controls. The review concludes with a model illustrating how these abnormalities could lead to impaired LTP in patients with schizophrenia and consequently cognitive deficits.


Transfusion transmissible infections are a very serious complication of blood transfusion.1 This is due to the long term morbidity and mortality associated with infectious agents such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). HIV has continued to pose a great challenge to transfusion medicine, most especially in Africa due to a high transfusion demand.1, 2

Since the discovery that HIV is transmitted through blood transfusion it became necessary to test all intending blood donors for HIV infection before they are bled to ensure the safety of all blood and blood products to the recipients.1 Nigeria with a HIV seroprevalence of 5% by 2004 has the third largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world.3, 4, 5

We carried out this study to determine the incidence of HIV infection among all intending blood donors over a period of five years from January 2000 to December 2004 at the Kaduna Unit of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital.

A total of six thousand and seventy nine (6079) donors were screened over the period with a mean of 1215 donors per year. There was an average of 34 HIV positive potential donors per year. The mean incidence of HIV per year was 2.8%. The incidence were 2.5, 2.9, 2.6, 3.1 and 2.9 for the years 2000 to 2004. The age group 31–40 had the highest incidence of 45.3% of the total HIV positive donors; this was followed by age group 21–30 with 39.5%. The donors 20 years and old or less had the lowest incidence of 5.2%.

The finding of an average incidence of 2.8% of HIV among apparently healthy blood donors in Kaduna Northern central Nigeria is comparatively lower than the incidence 3.8% found by Imoru et al in the northern city of Kano, Nigeria.6 While the findings 1% prevalence in Port Harcourt in South South of Nigeria by Ejele et al.7

Zacharia et al reported an HIV incidence of 22% among blood donors in Kampala Uganda in East Africa which is significantly higher than the Nigerian studies.8 An Indian study on a rural population in 2003 reported a HIV prevalence of 1.56% among blood donors.9

It is important to note that there is no decline in the trend of the incidence of HIV among blood donors in Kaduna, Nigeria over the years despite HIV/AIDS awareness programmes by both government and non-governmental organisation.10 There is thus a need to improve on our public enlightenment programmes, alleviate poverty and increase access to antiretroviral therapy.


Abstract Introduction Pitch-matching refers to the ability to vocally reproduce an acoustic model in a corresponding tone to the presented sound. This ability, which is dependent on pitch perception ability, can vary among individuals, and some are not able to sing in the correct tune or discriminate differences between tones. Objective To correlate pitch-matching accuracy and auditory processing in individuals without musical training. Methods A Pitch-Matching Test (vocal reproduction of synthesized and human voice sounds) and two commercially available tests of auditory temporal processing (the Pitch Pattern Sequence Test and the Random Gap Detection Test) were administered to all participants. A total of 62 college students of both genders, aged between 18 and 35 years old, were divided into 2 groups, according to their performances in the Pitch-Matching Test (the accurate match group and the inaccurate match group). Results In the Pitch-Matching Test, both groups achieved better results when reproducing vocalized sounds. The accurate match group achieved a significantly higher pitch pattern sequence test performance. In the Random Gap Detection Test analysis, there were no differences between the two groups. The Pearson's chi-squared test showed a direct correlation between the Pitch-Matching Test and the Pitch Pattern Sequence Test. Conclusion The findings of this study suggest the existence of a significant relationship between temporal auditory processing and pitch-matching, through which accurate pitch-matching individuals perform better in the Pitch Pattern Sequence Test. Inaccurate pitch-matching individuals may be skilled at discriminating pitch, despite their poor performance in the Pitch-Matching Test.


Now WHO experts annually formulates references on structure of both the 3rd, and 4 valent vaccines against influenza applied worldwide. The purpose of work was the assessment of averted costs due to influenza vaccination with trivalent and quadrivalent vaccines in different age groups. Material and methods. The analysis was carried out by a modeling from a societal perspective taking into account epidemiological data on the Russian Federation. Results. According to data on structure of the allocated influenza viruses in the Russian Federation for 2006-2015, at vaccination coverage of 40% of the population, replacement of trivalent vaccines with quadrivalent vaccines could prevent in addition during the season on average 604 cases of influenza per 100 thousand children aged up to 3 years, 736 cases per 100 thousand children at the age of 3–6 years, 613 cases per 100 thousand children aged from 7 up to 14 years, 106 cases per 100 thousand citizens at the age of 15– 64 years, 19 cases per 100 thousand citizens at the age of 65 years and older. In the whole population replacement of trivalent vaccines with quadrivalent vaccines would allow to prevent during the season on average 181 cases of influenza per 100 thousand citizens in addition. The averted cost is the greatest at vaccination of children of preschool and school age. In general, the volume of the costs averted when replacing trivalent vaccines with quadrivalent vaccines against influenza could be increased for 2006–2015 on average by 15,0%, and during separate seasons this increasing could be more. Replacement of a trivalent vaccines with quadrivalent vaccines could cause decrease in number of cases of influenza during the season by 265,8 thousand, and the costs averted could make 2,498 billion rubles. Conclusions. Influenza vaccination with quadrivalent vaccines can increase clinical effectiveness and costs averted in comparison with trivalent vaccines. Replacement of trivalent vaccines with quadrivalent vaccines can be the most significant at vaccination of children of preschool and school age, and also in adults from risk groups and elderly people. Economic and clinical advantages of quadrivalent vaccines in comparison with the trivalent vaccines depend on a share in the general structure of a case rate of the strains of influenza B which aren't relating to the line included in the trivalent vaccine.


Abstract Ecosystems are complex structures with interacting abiotic and biotic processes evolving with ongoing succession. However, limited knowledge exists on the very initial phase of ecosystem development and colonization. Here, we report results of a comprehensive ecosystem development monitoring for twelve floodplain pond mesocosms (FPM; 23.5 m × 7.5 m × 1.5 m each) located in south‐western Germany. In total, 20 abiotic and biotic parameters, including structural and functional variables, were monitored for 21 months after establishment of the FPMs. The results showed evolving ecosystem development and primary succession in all FPMs, with fluctuating abiotic conditions over time. Principal component analyses and redundancy analyses revealed season and succession time (i.e., time since ecosystem establishment) to be significant drivers of changes in environmental conditions. Initial colonization of both aquatic (i.e., water bodies) and terrestrial (i.e., riparian land areas) parts of the pond ecosystems occurred within the first month, with subsequent season‐specific increases in richness and abundance for aquatic and terrestrial taxa over the entire study period. Abiotic environmental conditions and aquatic and terrestrial communities showed increasing interpond variations over time, that is, increasing heterogeneity among the FPMs due to natural environmental divergence. However, both functional variables assessed (i.e., aquatic and terrestrial litter decomposition) showed opposite patterns as litter decomposition rates slightly decreased over time and interpond differences converged with successional ecosystem developments. Overall, our results provide rare insights into the abiotic and biotic conditions and processes during the initial stages of freshwater ecosystem formation, as well as into structural and functional developments of the aquatic and terrestrial environment of newly established pond ecosystems.


Purpose
This study evaluated the use of telepractice for measuring cochlear implant (CI) behavioral threshold (T) levels in children using conditioned play audiometry (CPA). The goals were to determine whether (a) T levels measured via telepractice were not significantly different from those obtained in person, (b) response probability differed between remote and in-person conditions, and (c) the remote visit required more time than the in-person condition.

Method
An ABBA design (A, in-person; B, remote) was split across 2 visits. Nineteen children aged 2.6-7.1 years participated. T levels were measured using CPA for 3 electrodes per session. A "hit" rate was calculated to determine whether the likelihood of obtaining responses differed between conditions. Test time was compared across conditions. A questionnaire was administered to assess parent/caregiver attitudes about telepractice.

Results
Results indicated no significant difference in T levels between conditions. Hit rates were not significantly different between in-person and remote conditions (98% vs. 97%, respectively). Test time was similar between conditions. Questionnaire results revealed that 100% of caregivers would use telepractice for CI appointments either some or all of the time.

Conclusion
Telepractice is a viable option for routine pediatric programming appointments for children using CPA to set behavioral thresholds.


While a large social-choice-theoretic literature discusses the aggregation of individual judgments into collective ones, there is much less formal work on the transformation of judgments in group communication. I develop a model of judgment transformation and prove a baseline impossibility theorem: Any judgment transformation function satisfying some initially plausible conditions is the identity function, under which no opinion change occurs. I identify escape routes from this impossibility and argue that the kind of group communication envisaged by deliberative democats must be "holistic": It must focus on webs of connected propositions, not on one proposition at a time, which echoes the Duhem-Quine "holism thesis" on scientific theory testing. My approach provides a map of the logical space in which different possible group communication processes are located.


Adrenomedullin recently has been found to potently stimulate cAMP formation in cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). In the present study, we examined the effect of adrenomedullin on the production of a vasoconstrictive and growth-promoting peptide, endothelin-1, after stimulation with a clotting enzyme, thrombin, and a potent mitogen, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), in cultured rat VSMCs. Thrombin and PDGF stimulated endothelin-1 production in a dose-dependent manner. Rat adrenomedullin significantly inhibited thrombin- and PDGF-stimulated endothelin-1 production in a dose-dependent manner between 10(-7) and 10(-9) mol/L. Inhibition by rat adrenomedullin of thrombin- and PDGF-stimulated endothelin-1 production was paralleled by an increase in the cellular level of cAMP. Human adrenomedullin also inhibited thrombin- and PDGF-stimulated endothelin-1 production and increased cAMP levels. The addition of 8-bromo-cAMP, a cAMP analogue, reduced thrombin- and PDGF-induced endothelin-1 production. Furthermore, forskolin, a potent activator of adenylate cyclase, reduced thrombin- and PDGF-induced endothelin-1 production. In contrast, basal production of endothelin-1 was not altered by rat or human adrenomedullin. These results indicate that adrenomedullin inhibits not basal but thrombin- and PDGF-induced ET-1 production in cultured VSMCs probably through a cAMP-dependent process. Taken together with the finding that adrenomedullin is synthesized in and secreted from vascular endothelial cells, adrenomedullin may modulate vascular tone as a paracrine regulator partially through the inhibition of VSMC endothelin-1 production in some pathophysiological states.


The main objective of this paper is to verify bank cheques by using account number and account holder's signature present on the cheque image. Main problem is to exact localization of active regions among non-active contours in the image. Here, we locate the regions based on the prior knowledge of Cartesian coordinate space. It further involves various steps such as Gray-Scale conversion, Segmenting contour, Inner-localization of account number, Feature Extraction and Verification. Gray-scale conversion has been performed on cheque images for reducing dimensionality of cheque size, which are required for further processing. Segmentation and localization are employed together to extract active-regions-of-interests such as account number and signature. Furthermore, segmented account numbers are obtained into individual digits using inner-localization. Feature Extraction is implemented on both account number and signature with trained images using Hamming distance measures (HDM). Finally the verification is processed to identify the matching. Trained and testing features were compared.


In this paper, we present a novel resource allocation (RA) algorithm for packet Universal Filtered Multi-Carrier (UFMC) BIC-based communications, the latter being a novel modulation format possibly envisaged to be applied in 5G wireless systems. Assuming the perfect knowledge of the channel and capitalizing on the specific UFMC signal waveform, the proposed RA strategy optimizes the coding rate and bit loading within the overall bandwidth along with the per-subband power distribution. In the presence of a carrier offset and over fading selective channels, the results we obtained are twofold: i) the UFMC format reveals to be more robust than the conventional OFDM scheme; ii) the performance of the UFMC system itself is further boosted by the optimal choice of radio resources evaluated by the proposed RA algorithm.


Bottom die crack issue is found in one type of thin-die and 4-stacked multi-chip-package (MCP) at a failure rate of almost 100 % after full decapsulation by nitric acid. Experiments and FEA simulation of the acid soak process are conducted to find the root cause of the failure. The residual stress redistribution after molding compound has been etched during acid soak is studied using advanced FEA element birth/death technology. If redistributed stress exceeds the strength of silicon, die crack will occur. Stress on the bottom die redistributed during acid soak is dominated by the package itself. The main influencing factors are bottom die thickness and the substrate. Using new destructive analysis method, no die crack found anymore.


Instead of two-kink system, two-breather system under sum ansatz is quantized. A covariant meson-breather interaction to the one-meson range and to the leading nonstatic order is obtained. All of the results depend on breather internal variable θ.


The precision of noninvasive optical measurement of the concentration changes in oxy-, deoxy-, and total-hemoglobin depends on wavelength. For estimating the precision, we calculated the noise level of the concentration changes as the uncertainty in measurements using several wavelength pairs of light. Seven laser diodes (664-848 nm) were used simultaneously for spectroscopic measurement of brain activity during finger motor stimulation. We also used the analysis of error propagation from the uncertainty in direct measurements of absorbance changes to estimate indirectly the uncertainty of concentration changes. The measurement of the concentration changes made using an 830/664-nm pair are two times (oxy-Hb) and six times (deoxy-Hb) more precise than those made using an 830/782-nm pair.


Oil production in the Mid-Continent began in 1860 with a discovery near Kansas City. The initial find was in rocks of Pennsylvanian age, and reservoirs in that system are still the most important in the region. Hundreds of pools produce from it at depths which range from the surface "tar sands" of western Missouri and southern Oklahoma to sandstones 3 mi or more deep. Several major fields produce mainly from Pennsylvanian rocks. The geologic history which accounts for this prolific production is punctuated by 3 distinct orogenic episodes: the widespread post-Morrowan Wichita orogeny, the early Desmoinesian Ouachita orogeny, and the Late Pennsylvanian Arbuckle uplift. Activity centered in a belt extending from southern Arkansas across Oklahoma and into the Texas panhandle. Between the major orogenic pulses there were lesser and somewhat more localized movements. Repeated folding is common in the area. Orogeny actually began in Late Mississippian time with the uplift of an area in northern Texas and southern Oklahoma and the development of a foredeep on the north. Earliest Pennsylvanian rocks are a flysch laid down in this southern Oklahoma geosyncline. In the beginning of the Pennsylvanian most of the Mid-Continent was above sea level and subject to erosion, but by Desmoinesian time shallow seas had spread across the shelf as far north as central Nebraska. Two large topographic highs in Kansas were the last to be submerged. Cyclic sedimentation characterized the entire period so that alternating marine and nonmarine rocks occupy most of the region north of the geosyncline. Relatively thin and persistent carbonate rocks and shale are most abundant on the north, siliceous clastic rocks predominate and attain great thicknesses on the south. A shelf-edge zone of marine banks and algal reefs occupies the boundary between the two regions. Redbeds and some evaporites are present in Upper Pennsylvanian strata. Oil and gas are produced from all types of stratigraphic and structural traps. Reservoirs include conglomerate, arkose, sandstone, siltstone, limestone, dolomite, and shale. To date, only dry gas has been found in the southeast Oklahoma-western Arkansas part of the province; elsewhere gas and oil generally are found in close association. Liquids range from nearly solid hydrocarbons to very light naturally refined oils. Prospecting in the region uses all the conventional techniques but subsurface geology is the most popular and most effective in the more densely drilled parts. Success for exploratory wells in recent years has been as high as 26% in Oklahoma and Kansas where virtually all wildcat drilling is based on geologic advice. End_of_Article - Last_Page 840------------


This paper demonstrates welding the tip of an ultrathin Pt wire to the side of a similar wire by Joule heating. The tip of the wire, with a diameter of 600–800 nm, is brought into contact with the side of another wire, and they are welded together into a complex form by supplying a constant direct current through the parts in contact. The conditions for tip to side welding of Pt wires are compared to those of tip to tip welding using a parameter that was proposed previously for the tip to tip welding of two wires. The parameter depends on the current, the length and cross-sectional area of the wires and comprises a function with respect to the thermal boundary conditions. Although the successful welding conditions of tip to side welding are located in the range of those for tip to tip welding, the lower limit of the conditions for tip to side welding was slightly higher than that in tip to tip welding. Finally, a three-dimensional micrometer-scale structure was created by repeating the tip to side welding process.


An ion beam gyroscope has been proposed to measure the speed of rotating, which is potentially inexpensive and free of the mechanical stress. The characteristics of the lowpressure corona gas discharge in a compact discharge tube are studied to obtain a sufficient and stable ion beam source for ion beam gyroscopes. Ions moving to the cathode by the effect of an electric field can produce a current signal. If a dual-cathode discharge device is used, currents going to the two cathodes are denoted by I1 and I2 respectively. If the device is placed on a rotating platform, ions will be deflected by the Coriolis effect. Thus, I1 and I2 change accordingly with rotating speeds. Consequently, the differential current between the variation of each cathode is a function of the Coriolis acceleration rate. Since a magnetic field can deflect ions in the same way as the Coriolis effect, a magnetic field is used to simulate the Coriolis effect to avoid the rotating platform in the early exploring stage. This replacement allows us to have a simpler experimental setup, and the magnetic field is also easier to control. A theoretical model has been derived to describe the motion of ions in the discharge tube. Emulation experiments were conducted to explore the correlation between speed of rotating and differential current, relevant variables and their impacts on the sensitivity of ion beam gyroscopes. These experiments demonstrate the ion beam gyroscope is feasible, although the device's sensitivity is limited by 1.6 pA/rpm.


In this study, structure water solubility modeling was performed to describe a set of 50 of aliphatic alcohols in a Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship model by developing of two descriptors types based on multifunctional autocorrelation method, which gives a general description of whole molecule; and electro-topological descriptors. The index combines the topological nature with electronic state of the atom. The Modified Autocorrelation Method was used in structure–property relationships to describe the local environment of the hydroxyl group. For the statistical studies, Multiple Linear Regression, Artificial Neural Networks and Principal Components Analysis were used. The approach efficiency approach was evaluated through the predictive ability of models by leave-p-Out cross-validation method. The coefficient of determination and errors of descriptors combination calculated respectively by multiple linear regression and artificial neural networks were r= 0.99, s = 0.18 and r = 0.99, s = 0.32. In order to simplify components computation, the molecules were coded by means of SMILES system and stored as input files. The results showed that aliphatic alcohols solubility is dominated by the shape and molecule branching, also the electro-topological descriptors had a considered model effect.


[1] The active deformation of the southwestern United States (30°–41°N) is represented by a finite number of rotating, elastic-plastic spherical caps. GPS-derived horizontal velocities, geologic fault slip rates, transform fault azimuths, and earthquake-derived fault slip vector azimuths are inverted for block angular velocities, creep on block-bounding faults, permanent strain rates within the blocks, and the rotations of 11 published GPS velocity fields into to a common North American reference frame. GPS velocities are considered to be a combination of rigid block rotations, recoverable elastic strain rates resulting from friction on block-bounding faults, and nonrecoverable strain rates resulting from slip on faults within the blocks. The resulting Pacific–North America angular velocity is similar to some published estimates and satisfies transform azimuths and one spreading rate in the Gulf of California, earthquake slip vectors in the Gulf of California and Alaska, and GPS velocities along coastal California and within the Pacific Basin. Published fault slip rates are satisfied except in the southern Mojave Desert where the motion of the Mohave block relative to North America is faster than can be explained by mapped faults. The largest blocks, the Sierra Nevada–Great Valley and the eastern Basin and Range, show permanent strain rates, after removing elastic strain, of only a few nanostrain per year, demonstrating approximately rigid behavior. Observed horizontal strain rates correlate strongly with predicted strain rates from known faults suggesting that the short-term strains evident in GPS velocities are largely elastic. In only about 20% of the region is distributed deformation needed to match the data, indicating that a plate tectonic style description of the deformation of the western United States is plausible. Most blocks rotate about vertical axes at approximately the same rate as the Pacific (relative to North America), suggesting that locally, spin rates are communicated from block to block, arguing against both floating block and ball-bearing mechanisms of block rotation. The similarities of the blocks' spin rates to that of the Pacific suggests that the Pacific strongly influences their motions through edge tractions. However, it is shown that the blocks cannot rotate about the Pacific–North America pole without spinning counter to the sense of Pacific–North America shear. Unlike some other broad plate boundaries, in the western United States, vertical axis rotations take up very little of the slip rate budget across the region.


In competitive energy markets, large energy consumers are confronted with risks associated with energy prices. As the volatility in price of electricity is higher than that of other energy sources, this problem may become more pronounced for large electricity consumers. Hence, large industries should always seek sound paradigms for maximisation of their profit considering the risk caused by uncertainty within the planning horizon. In this study, a new fuzzy-based decision-making system for procurement of electricity from different sources is proposed which helps large industries to reach a compromise between the profit and risk. The simple but efficient technique of fuzzy α-cuts is applied for modelling the mentioned electricity pool price uncertainty in our problem. By using this modelling, a decision is made to maximise the profit of a consumer for different α-cuts corresponding to different levels of uncertainty. Therefore a range of decision-making with different strategies of profit-uncertainty is established and the consumer, depending on being a risk-taker or being risk-averse, can choose the appropriate strategy. To evaluate the proposed approach, a cement factory in north-eastern part of Iran (Khorasan Province) has been selected as the industrial consumer through a 12-week scheduling plan.


At present, the microscopic visualization of luminescent labels containing lanthanide(III) ions, primarily europium(III), as light-emitting centers is best performed with time-gated instrumentation, which by virtually eliminating the background fluorescence results in an improved signal to noise ratio. However, the use of the europium(III) macrocycle, Quantum DyeTM, in conjunction with the strong luminescence enhancing effect (cofluorescence) of yttrium(III) or gadolinium(III), can eliminate the need for such specialized instrumentation. In the presence of Gd(III), the luminescence of the Eu-macrocycles can be conveniently observed with conventional fluorescence instrumentation at previously unattainable low levels. The Eu(III) 5DO yields 7F2 emission of the Eu-macrocycles was observed as an extremely sharp band with a maximum at 619 nm and a clearly resolved characteristic pattern. At very low Eu- macrocycle concentrations, another sharp emission was detected at 614 nm, arising from traces of Eu(III) present in even the purest commercially available gadolinium products. Discrimination of the resolved emissions of the Eu-macrocycle and Eu(III) contaminant should provide a means to further lower the limit of detection of the Eu-macrocycle.


Object counting is an active research area that gained more attention in the past few years. In smart cities, vehicle counting plays a crucial role in urban planning and management of the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Several approaches have been proposed in the literature to address this problem. However, the resulting detection accuracy is still not adequate. This paper proposes an efficient approach that uses deep learning concepts and correlation filters for multi-object counting and tracking. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated using a dataset consisting of 16 videos with different features to examine the impact of object density, image quality, angle of view, and speed of motion towards system accuracy. Performance evaluation exhibits promising results in normal traffic scenarios and adverse weather conditions. Moreover, the proposed approach outperforms the performance of two recent approaches from the literature.


Policy termination is the special form of policy change, including whole termination and partial termination. The policy of bonus point to the disadvantaged groups in China's college entrance examination has aroused much controversies in implementation process, especially whether the policy of bonus point to minorities maintains or cancels. The suggestion on policy of bonus points in the college entrance examination at the end of 2014 has abolished the rewarding policy and on the contrary maintained the preferential policy, manifesting policy of bonus points just realized partial termination. The study makes clear the key factor of influencing basic attitude is policy goals and value preferences rather than interests or institutional attributes, which form the different coalitions due to differences in beliefs, thus making the policy maintain. Support coalition and opposition coalition are the two basic coalitions. The advocacy coalition framework has strong fit in a few problems that how to explain why the policy of bonus point to minorities keeps stable, whether to terminate in the future and how to terminate it etc.. We hope to contribute to a better understanding of preferential policy in general and of the stability and change and variation, thus prompting the whole termination of bonus-point system, improving the reform of China's college entrance examination and realization of education fairness and equality. Keywords: Advocacy coalition framework, Policy of bonus point to minorities, Policy change, Non-termination


Size measurements of jaw muscles reflect their force capabilities and correlate with facial morphology. Using MRI, we examined the size and orientation of jaw muscles in patients with mandibular laterognathism in comparison with a control group. We hypothesized that the muscles of the deviated side would be smaller than those of the non-deviated side, and that the muscles of both sides would be smaller than in controls. In patients, a comparison of deviated and non-deviated sides showed, in orientation, differences for masseter and medial pterygoid muscles, but, in size, differences only for the masseter muscle. Nevertheless, muscle sizes in patients were much smaller than in controls. Lateral displacement of the mandible can explain the orientation differences, but not the smaller muscle size, in patients. It is possible that the laterodeviation initiates an adaptive process in the entire jaw system, resulting in extensive atrophy of the jaw muscles.


Recent progress in the development of transparent silicate glass-ceramics embedding Ni-doped nanocrystals as broadband gain media is reviewed. At first, optical properties such as the peak positions, wavelengths lifetimes and quantum efficiencies of the near-infrared emission of nickel-doped oxide crystals are overviewed. The quantum efficiencies of the near-infrared emission of nickel-doped LiGa5O8 and MgGa2O4 were as high as ~1 even at room temperature. Thus these materials are promising candidate crystals to be precipitated in glass-ceramics. Crystallization process of Li2O-Ga2O3-SiO2-NiO (LGSN) glass was investigated in detail. Transparent glass-ceramics in which only Ni2+:LiGa5O8 was contained as crystalline phases have been successfully prepared from the glass by heat-treatment. The glass-ceramics exhibited broad near-infrared emission around 1300 nm and the quantum efficiency was about 10 %. The figure of merit as laser transition of the emission was comparable to that of rare-earth doped glasses used in optical fiber amplifiers. LGSN transparent glass-ceramics is a promising candidate material for broadband optical fiber amplifiers and tunable lasers.


This paper observes that what constitutes an appropriate answer to a degree question differs for two types of gradable adjectives – dimension (e.g. big) and color (e.g. red). When we ask 'how big' something is, we are asking for that object's size within some reasonable limits. When we ask 'how red,' we are asking to what degree of redness (appropriate to that object) the object has. I propose that the two types of adjectives merge with degree quantifiers that have different restrictors. This accounts for the differing interpretation/answerhood conditions of dimension and color degree questions.