Cancer is a group of diseases that leads to uncontrolled cell division and eventually forms a lump or mass called a tumor. They are classified and named after the part of the body where the tumor originates. Breast cancer begins in breast tissue, which is made up of glands for milk production, called lobules, and the ducts that connect lobules to the nipple. The remainder of the breast is made up of fatty, connective, and lymphatic tissue. On the basis of origin, it is of two types (i) ductal and (ii) lobular. Ductal carcinoma constitutes 80-90% and lobular carcinoma constitutes 10-20% breast cancer cases. Breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in women worldwide, comprising 16% of all female cancers cases. It is estimated that this disease will affect one in eight females in America during their lifetime. It is estimated that occurrence of female breast cancer is 28% of cancers from all sites in U.S.A, and the relative risk of ever developing breast cancer is 0.125 (1 in 8) (American Cancer Society, 2009). Although breast cancer is thought to be a disease of the developed world, a majority (69%) of all breast cancer deaths occurs in developing countries (WHO Global Burden of Disease, 2004) and relative survival is poor in underdeveloped and developing countries (Coleman et al., 2008). The relative risk of developing breast cancer in the lifetime of women in the developed and developing countries is 0.048 (1 in 21) and 0.018 (1 in 56) respectively. In India, breast cancer is the leading cancer among women (Fig. 1) and the relative risk is 0.033 (1 in 30) (NCRP, 2008).


The following paragraphs explain TEA district type classifications. Major Urban (10 districts). TEA classifies a district as major urban if: (a) it is located in a county with a population of at least 735,000; (b) its enrollment is the largest in the county or at least 75 percent of the largest district enrol


Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for most people in hillside areas of Nepal, and soil fertility is largely maintained through the use of organic manure. Discussions with farmers indicated five principal soil fertility management practices (manure, chemical fertiliser, compost based on leaf litters, growing legume crops, and in-situ manuring). Farmers identified five soil productivity indicators (crop productivity, soil characteristics (particularly soil colour), management requirement, species of weeds, diseases, and pests, and termites). Historical trends (increasing crop intensification, decreasing livestock numbers, increasing use of chemical fertilisers, reduced labour availability, and change in the climate over the last 30-40 years) showed a decline in soil productivity. Scored causal diagrams on soil fertility drawn from focus group discussions indicated that the primary causes of declining soil fertility and crop productivity are a decrease in available manure, increased cropping intensity, low use of chemical fertilisers, and change in climate. Scientific evaluation confirmed that altitude, farming system, and land types affected the availability of soil nutrients. Organic C, total N, available P and exchangeable K increased in less intensive farming systems, which were at higher altitudes. These nutrients as well as available Fe, Mn, and B in soil significantly increased in rainfed upland (bari) compared with irrigated lowland (khet). Covering manure with black plastic sheets resulted in faster decomposition as well as increased total N and exchangeable K. Covered manure applied to summer rain-fed maize and upland rice as well as irrigated lowland spring maize increased grain and straw yields between 13% and 36% when compared with uncovered manure. Both farmers' indigenous knowledge and their criteria were as useful as scientific evaluation in assessing soil fertility improvements. Therefore, farmers' knowledge and criteria should be considered when monitoring soil fertility and crop productivity in farmer trials.


Oligonucleosomal fragmentation of chromosomes in dying cells is a hallmark of apoptosis. Little is known about how it is executed or what cellular components are involved. We show that crn‐1, a Caenorhabditis elegans homologue of human flap endonuclease‐1 (FEN‐1) that is normally involved in DNA replication and repair, is also important for apoptosis. Reduction of crn‐1 activity by RNA interference resulted in cell death phenotypes similar to those displayed by a mutant lacking the mitochondrial endonuclease CPS‐6/endonuclease G. CRN‐1 localizes to nuclei and can associate and cooperate with CPS‐6 to promote stepwise DNA fragmentation, utilizing the endonuclease activity of CPS‐6 and both the 5′–3′ exonuclease activity and a previously uncharacterized gap‐dependent endonuclease activity of CRN‐1. Our results suggest that CRN‐1/FEN‐1 may play a critical role in switching the state of cells from DNA replication/repair to DNA degradation during apoptosis.


575Background: Muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) comprises 25% of all bladder cancers at the time of diagnosis. Radical Cystectomy (RC) has traditionally been the gold standard curative treatme...


Introduction: Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a key role in glucose and insulin regulation, and in the onset of diabetes. ACE gene polymorphisms A240T, C1237T, G2350A and I/D located in the promoter, coding and non-coding regions have been studied in both type-2 diabetes and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). However, their impact on the development of type-2 diabetes post GDM remains unknown, especially in under-represented population. digestion through restriction endonuclease enzymes. Results: Study results suggest a significant association of ACE genes SNPs A240T, C1237T, G2350A and I/D haplotype with GDM cases progressing to type-2 diabetes later in life (P =.02). Individuals possessing haplotype "CAAI " derived from these SNPs had a 3.65 fold increased risk of type-2 diabetes development in GDM cases later in life relative to other haplotypes. Conclusion: Due to its pivotal role in the pathogenesis of both diseases, the current finding might be of future therapeutic value. Larger-scale studies are required to confirm this novel finding in multi-ethnic populations.


There is a plethora of former industrial sites where coal mining operations have left large slurry impoundments. These contain raw washed fines, which have previously been too expensive to process to requisite grades for commercial use. New technology has been developed for fine material processing, namely the Imhoflot pneumatic flotation G-Cell. This froth flotation technique is a highly efficient means of concentrating coal and is particularly appropriate to the nature of materials encountered in tailings ponds. The high volumetric throughput resulting from the vastly reduced residence time in the cell allows for drastically reduced equipment sizes when compared to conventional flotation cells. This means the process, when combined with innovative pre-treatment and filtration equipment can be developed as a mobile plant concept. This is seen as a minimum requirement when re-treating and rehabilitating fine coal ponds.


ABSTRACT Research calls for teacher education to prepare early childhood educators for the needs of diverse and marginalized young children and their families in the U.S. With an increasing cultural divide between teachers and students, some early childhood educators may demonstrate limited understanding for how diverse cultural, linguistic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds inform the daily functions of families of young children. In this article, we examine how the use of experiential learning vis-à-vis conducting a home visit with a family from a diverse and marginalized background can shape early childhood preservice teachers' (PST) development of cultural humility, an important component of cultural competence. During this experiential learning, PSTs engaged in critically reflective practices to uncover and challenge their implicit biases. While discovering the strengths and challenges among their home visit families, PSTs also learned what they had in common with the families. PSTs noted how the home visit process informed their work as future early childhood educators.


Software Defined Radio (SDR) has become an increasingly credible alternative solution to solid state radio problems. The practical application of SDR in building a spectrum analyser can be complex and expensive; however, the use of lightweight, cost-effective, low-cost SDR and lowpower microprocessors can significantly reduce the cost. This paper investigates ways to build lightweight, cost-effective spectrum analysers and their most effective design and implementation, utilising the RTL-SDR USB device, a software modelling tool (GNU Radio), and a low-power-microprocessor Raspberry Pi. The RTL-SDR USB device, GNU Radio Software and Raspberry Pi are configured together to produce a lightweight SDR-based spectrum analyser. In this particular implementation, the spectrum analyser is used to examine a small section of the electromagnetic spectrum to test the suitability of the configuration for complex Fast Fourier Transform calculations. For comparison purposes, another spectrum analyser is built using a more powerful microprocessor (AMD Turion), and the results recorded and compared. The experimental results and comparative evaluation of the two spectrum analysers demonstrate that the Raspberry Pi-based design performs equally well despite its limited resources and low cost. This shows the success and potential of this SDR and Raspberry Pi-based spectrum analyser as a credible device for a number of intelligence analyses applications in a secure environment.


New 40Ar/39Ar ages from detrital K‐feldspars and metamorphic white micas from the Eastern Province terranes of New Zealand have been used to investigate the thermo‐tectonic history of different parts of an exhumed Mesozoic forearc basin and accretionary wedge. K‐feldspars from barely metamorphosed sedimentary host rocks mainly record detrital source area ages whereas those from zeolite and prehnite‐pumpellyite facies host rocks have textures and argon age spectra that indicate recrystallization during regional low‐temperature metamorphism. The results contribute to a model that genetically links thermo‐tectonic events across the accretionary wedge and forearc basin elements of the convergent margin, and into the Median Batholith arc probably by the Early Cretaceous and possibly by the Middle Jurassic. Thus, even though multidiffusion domain (MDD) models cannot be used to make inference on cooling histories in such situations, the K‐feldspar argon thermochronometer can provide useful information on the timing of geological events in sub‐greenschist facies rocks.


The chairman of the external expert review committee examining the World Health Organization's management of the H1N1 pandemic said the panel wants access to confidential documents between the agency and drug companies.

Harvey Fineberg, the head of the 29 member review committee, told reporters at the annual World Health Assembly, "We are aware we will want to have access to certain confidential documents that may be in place here at WHO, or elsewhere."

Mr Fineberg, who is also president of the Institute of Medicine in Washington, added that, "Some of the agreements with industry that we would like to examine have been considered confidential."

These documents include "contractual or letters of understanding with (the pharmaceutical) industry that have been considered private communications," he said.

Dr Fineberg's remarks …


VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY Visual anthropology, a process of analysis, elicitation, and interpretation of an everyday event through visual means, is a relatively new field that utilizes ethnographic research methods (Stokrocki, 1985). Using this research method, anthropologists examine a collection of photographs or artifacts for repeated patterns of behavior. Researchers also elicit participant explanations by showing viewers selected objects and asking them to respond. They gather further interpretations from field notes and literature review. In the United States, such studies began with Navajo children's free drawings and crayon pictures by mostly adult Navajo (Leighton & Kluckhohn, 1947). Hatcher (1974) advocated the study of creative visual cognition, a process to engage how the Navajo acquire knowledge and intuit meaning. She discovered that they valued their enduring past and holistic philosophy, as seen in their painted landscapes. In a later study of Navajo children's drawings, I found evidence of traditional and popular culture schema and deep space (Stokrocki, 1994). Sociocultural findings included high status of the arts, traditional education through observation and demonstration, peer imitation, and male drawing competition.'


The technical analysis is made on selection of noise reduction measures for metro wheels,and after comprehensive consideration,the measure to apply damping rings is suggested.In order to research the noise reduction effect of the damping wheels,on the basis of ISO 3095and ISO 3381,the on-track noise measurements inside and outside vehicles are made for the new type 100km/h metro vehicles mounted with damping wheels on certain metro line in Beijing.The measurement result shows that the effect of noise reduction inside vehicle by the damping ring is not obvious,and is about 1dB at the standard measurement points outside vehicle,however,the noise reduction effect is obvious on wheel-rail noise near the field of the bogies,and the maximum noise reduction can reach 18dB.


In many scientific articles on construction topics, the problem of building density has recently been considered [1, 2]. When working construction equipment in the construction of such objects there is a problem of safety of work. For example, in work [3, 4] the possibility of an excavator with an offset digging axis is presented. But, such research for construction cranes and construction robots is not enough. The elasticity of metal structures of real mechanical systems manipulators greatly affects their work [5]. When lifting cargo manipulator in its metal construction generated vibrations due to the complex dynamics of the machine. Fluctuations cargo the cause errors in its position and reduce life of the machine. For eliminate fluctuation make use of the dampers and devices regulate speed of the working body of the manipulator [5, 6].


The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a model of individual characteristic, corporate culture, entrepreneurial leadership and reward system on corporate entrepreneurship and manager's performances. Data were collected from 178 managers of PT. Prusolid Citra Mandiri in East Java. The data were then analyzed using a technigue analysis data of structural equation modelling (SEM) and AMOS version 22 statistical programme to process the data.Results of this study proved that individual characteristic, corporate culture, entrepreneurial leadership and reward system have significant effect on corporate entrepreneurship. Only reward system and corporate entrepreneurship have significant effect on manager's performance as individual characteristic, corporate culture and entrepreneurial leadership have no significant effects on manager's performances. Entrepreneurial leadership have dominant effects on corporate culture and Corporate entrepreneurship have dominant effects on manager's performance. Keywords: individual characteristic, corporate culture, entrepreneurial leadership, reward system, corporate entrepreneurship, manager's performance.


According to the characteristics of the constant current control and the resistance change during the process of spot welding,compensation model to calculate the shunt of the consecutive spot welding was established for three different cases of consecutive spot welding respectively.There is only one nugget in the first case.There are two nuggets in the second case,both nuggets are located on the same side of the spot welding.There are also two nuggets in the third case,but they are located on the both sides of the spot welding.In order to test the reliability of the shunt compensation model for the first case,a simulation model was applied on the fixed type spot welding machine to test the spot shunts under the different dot pitches,materials and thickness.Based on the data tested and calculated,the impact of diversion law was analyzed;the relationship between the shunt of low carbon steel with different thickness,material and the dot pitch as well as the compensation were proposed.Eventually first model validation test on the fixed type spot welding machine was implemented.Results demonstrate a substantial improvement of weld quality and reduction of process variability with the proposed compensation model.


Clustering is an essential data mining tool for analyzing and grouping similar objects. In big data applications, however, many clustering algorithms are infeasible due to their high memory requirements and/or unfavorable runtime complexity. In contrast, Contraction Clustering (RASTER) is a single-pass algorithm for identifying density-based clusters with linear time complexity. Due to its favorable runtime and the fact that its memory requirements are constant, this algorithm is highly suitable for big data applications where the amount of data to be processed is huge. It consists of two steps: (1) a contraction step which projects objects onto tiles and (2) an agglomeration step which groups tiles into clusters. This algorithm is extremely fast in both sequential and parallel execution. Our quantitative evaluation shows that a sequential implementation of RASTER performs significantly better than various standard clustering algorithms. Furthermore, the parallel speedup is significant: on a contemporary workstation, an implementation in Rust processes a batch of 500 million points with 1 million clusters in less than 50 seconds on one core. With 8 cores, the algorithm is about four times faster.


Chiral ferrocene-derived phosphine-thioether mixed donor ligands supported by heterocycles effected the palladium-catalyzed enantioselective allylic alkylations with excellent yields and enantioselectivities (up to 96% ee). With cyclic and unsymmetrical allylic acetates as substrate, the corresponding alkylated products with enantioselectivities up to 87% ee were obtained. Based on X-ray crystallographic and NMR studies, the origin of the observed enantioselectivities is discussed.


Beaver Lake is nestled in the midst of the Ozark Mountains in the northwest corner of Arkansas. The picturesque lake is actually a multi-purpose reservoir constructed and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The 28,220 acre lake offers eleven improved public access areas for use by recreationists. Six additional recreational areas have been planned, to be built as demand requires [16]. Costs for development of the six additional parks were estimated by the Corps of Engineers as of July 1974, to be $6.87 million [16].


Suicide gene therapy has recently emerged as a method used in cancer treatments.  These therapies utilized enzymes that are expressed in the cell.  In this study, Staphylococcus saprophyticus supsp. saprophyticus Nitroreductase gene (Ssap-NtrB) was subcloned into the eukaryotic expression vector namely pcDNA3.1 / V5 / His B. For this purpose, Nitroreductase gene region was firstly amplified from the pET14B vector using PCR strategy and cloned into the pGEM-T-Easy vector.  After this step, the Ssap-NtrB gene was restricted with KpnI/ApaI and was ligated into pcDNA3.1 / V5 / His B vector.  Recombinant colonies were verified using KpnI/ApaI restriction enzymes. As a result, the Ssap-NtrB gene was cloned into pcDNA3.1/V5/His B vector and was readyfor use in suicide gene therapy in eukaryotic human cancer cells.


Theautomaticobservationdatainoneminuteintervalareusedtoanalyze 52 fogeventsthataffectedthetakeoffandlandingofaircrafts at Beijing Capital International Airport(BCIA) from 2000 to 2011. It was found that the visibility evolution of dense fog in the processes of its formation, development and dissipation is abrupt and oscillatory. These oscillations of dense fog can be classified to the leading oscillation, the middle oscillation and the posterior position oscillation. There were 86.5%, 62.5% and 79.2% cases with the leading oscillation, the middle oscillation and the posterior position oscillation. The temperature oscillation in cold season fog is more distinct than that of warm season fog. In the 34 cold season fog events affecting BCIA, there are 61.8% cases including the temperature oscillation. In radiation fog events,the temperature oscillation is slightly ahead of the visibility oscillation. There is a temperature oscillation in a few hours just before the arrival of each advection fog event in cold season, while the temperature oscillation is not distinct at the time of the advection fog occurrence. Based on the statistical results, a quantitative index of the oscillation in dense fog is defined as DFOI(Dense Fog Oscillation Index). It was found that±0.2 can be used as the criterion of nowcasting prediction of dense fog in BCIA, with which an alarm of dense fog can be issued 1-2 hours earlier for the events during 2000 to 2011. According to the result of actual tests in January 2012, it was found that using this index alone could not distinguish fog from snow or haze,other indices must be introduced in the process of early fog warning.


The aim of this study was to assess the influence of corporate governance and intellectual capital on financial performance of Bank Sector companies. The bank sector companies as unit data is listed at Jakarta Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) period 2008-2012. These unit data was represented by the audited financial statements of company and historical data of stock prices in Indonesia Stock Exchange from the year of 2008 to 2012. Companies sampled in the study were only companies which meet the sampling criteria, i.e. 130 companies. Data was analysed with Generalized Structured Component Analysis (GSCA). Result of research indicates that corporate governance does not have significant influence on the intellectual capital. Similarly, that intellectual capital does not have significant influence on corporate governance. However, corporate governance and intellectual capital significantly influence financial performance of banking sector companies listed at the IDX in 2008-2012. It means that any changes in corporate governance and intellectual capital may impact on the financial performance of the banking sector companies listed at IDX


A low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite system has a range of missions delivering economic, environmental, and social benefits utilized by everyone almost every day. However, there exists a challenge for operational management of satellites in LEO because they are not accessible from a given point of earth at all times. In that case, a problem evolves that should be solved is to find a valid broadcasting pattern between satellites and ground stations. Nevertheless, being defined as the satellite broadcast scheduling (SBS) problem almost three decades ago, the few numbers of published studies on the problem used a restricted variety of solution approaches. The recent advances in information technology and tremendous undergoing change in the industrial automation entails handling the SBS problem more comprehensively and propose innovative solution approaches. This article proposes and evaluates three metaheuristic approaches for the SBS problem. A relaxation and decomposition approach is also proposed for generating tighter upper bounds to make justified performance evaluations. Besides the benchmark problems reported in the literature, new benchmark instances are generated and used in computational experiments. Results are evaluated to be promising and highlight the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approaches.


The invention belongs to the technical field of household appliances and the technical field of refrigeration, and discloses an instant heating and cooling type cold and hot water dispenser. The instant heating and cooling type cold and hot water dispenser comprises a box, a refrigerating mechanism consists of a compressor (10), a condenser (17) and an evaporation coil (4), a fan (16), an ice water heat exchanger (3) and a stirring mechanism are located in a water tank (24), after running water is changed into ice water in an acceleration refrigeration manner via the refrigerating mechanism and the fan, the ice water is stirred by the stirring mechanism, the ice water and external running water are in heat exchange via the ice water heat exchanger, a heating mechanism consists of a quick heating device (5) and a flowmeter (27), a water pipe is connected with the flowmeter (27), after receiving data, the flowmeter (27) feeds back the data to a control box (6), and the quick heating device (5) begins to heat the water under actions of the control box (6). The instant heating and cooling type cold and hot water dispenser not only can realize instant heating and cooling functions, but also saves more electric energy, guarantees that ice water and hot water are supplied continuously, and meets the requirement of water drinking of multiple persons simultaneously.


This paper explores the effects of unemployment on the school enrolment decisions. A few studies that have taken up this issue in the past have produced results that are seemingly contradictory with each other. We build a model of the enrolment decision that is capable of explaining these results in a unified manner. In this model, unemployment affects the enrolment decision both through changing costs of and returns to education (investment effect) and through changing parental wealth and thus affecting intergenerational transfers (wealth effect). We develop an empirical framework that allows us to test presence of these two effects separately, and apply this to panel data of Spanish regions on university enrolment. We find that both effects are present.


Diversified leisure involvement pose various health benefits to the elderly population. However, some elderly are too focus on doing a particular type of activity during their leisure time such as religious activity. This study aims to explore factors that could possibly contribute to the higher involvement in religious activity among the Malay ethnic elderly in Malaysia. In depth interviews were conducted, involving a total of 20 elderly aged 60 years and above with stratification by background characteristics. Each interview was conducted for an average of 15 to 30 minutes. They were purposively selected from two health clinics located in two different districts in the state of Selangor, representing an urban and a rural area. Majority of the elderly interviewed perceived that by engaging in religious activities such as prayer and reciting the Holy Quran or old Islamic scripture gives them serenity or calmness. Additionally, they also felt that involvement in such activities is very synonymous with being old and therefore one should be actively involved in religious activities with increasing age. In view of the lack of diversity of leisure involvement among the elderly and the passive and solitary nature of some of the religious activities, the elderly should be made aware of the importance of participating in other types of leisure activities especially physical activities. Although, they gain spiritual and social benefits from involving in religious activities, they also need to perform other form of activities that can improve the physical health status.


Objective To study factors correlated with quality of life (QOL) of gynecologic malignancy patients during first-line treatment Study design Cross-sectional analytical study Materials and Methods Two hundred and fifty-two gynecologic malignancy patients, during firstline treatment within 6 months after diagnosis, completed the general Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G) questionnaires (version 4, Thai version) in assessment of QOL. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analysis were used. Results In univariate analysis, patients with endometrial cancer, early stage, surgery and single modality of treatment had significantly higher total FACT-G percentage score. From multivariate analysis, early stage and single treatment were the two factors that still correlated with higher total FACT-G percentage score. Conclusion Higher QOL score of gynecologic malignancy patients during first-line treatment correlated with early stage of disease and single modality of treatment.


e16564 Background: Self-identified gay men are at higher risk for contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections than their heterosexual counterparts. Gay men are also at higher risk for reporting a lifetime history of cancer diagnoses. While certain types of cancers, specifically Kaposi sarcoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, are more common among gay and sexual minority men, it is yet unclear to what extent this disparity is due to immune compromization or comorbid infection with HIV. Methods: The current study utilized data from 173 gay and 5544 heterosexual men collected as part of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey conducted in 2009 in California. Items assessed lifetime history of cancer diagnosis, type of cancer, sexual minority status, and presence of a weakened immune system resulting from diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Chi-square tests were used to examine differences in rates and types of cancer diagnoses by sexual minority status. Logistic regression was then used to examin...


Winner-take-all (WTA) networks can select the maximum from a set of data, so they are primarily used in decision making and selection. The Maxnet is a feedback WTA network. However, the Maxnet has two crucial problems. The first problem is its slow convergence rate. The second problem is that the Maxnet fails when non-unique maxima exist. In this work, dynamic inhibitory weights are used to speed up the convergence rate and a new convergence rule is proposed to enable the network to find all maxima. Simulation results indicate that the proposed network converges much faster than the other networks.


The authors present results showing that deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) is particularly efficient in identifying the origin of rapid thermal processing (RTP) related defects. It was found that defects are mostly related to residual impurities present in the as-grown silicon wafers or unintentionally introduced during high-temperature processing steps. It was shown, in particular, that these impurities can be thermally annealed out or neutralized by a hydrogenation process. In addition, the authors demonstrated that these impurities can be swept out of the active region of the device by a gettering effect during the RTP which is similar to that occurring in a classical thermal treatment. >


throughout the individual's lifetime unless extracted or surgically exposed. Teeth may become impacted because of factors, such as adjacent teeth, dense overlying bone, excessive soft tissue, or a genetic abnormality. Most often, the cause of impaction is inadequate arch length which reduces the space available for eruption. That is, total length of the alveolar arch is smaller than the tooth arch. The most commonly impacted tooth is the third molars, because they are the last teeth to erupt in the oral cavity.1 Impacted third molars are generally considered for removal when they cause either considerable pain, or infected, or associated with bone destroying pathology, or carious or adversely affects adjacent teeth. Third molar that interferes with the prosthetic rehabilitation of missing teeth are also removed. The removal of impacted third molars is one of the most common surgical procedure done by oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Surgical management of impacted third molar is a difficult procedure because of its anatomical position, poor accessibility, and potential injuries to the surrounding vital structures during surgeries. Surgical removal of impacted third molars is associated with trauma to soft and bony tissue and can result in considerable pain, swelling, and trismus. The postoperative sequelae, such as pain, trismus, and swelling can cause distress to the patient and affect the patient's quality of life after surgery. To control postoperative inflammation and associated symptoms, it is essential to provide an adequate antiinflammatory therapy. Several types of medications have been used to control the postoperative inflammatory reactions after third molar impaction. These agents act by inhibiting the body's inflammatory response to injury due to various mechanisms, with a reduction of fluid transudation and therefore edema. Postoperative swelling and edema is due to inflammation. In inflammation, there is conversion of phospholipids into arachidonic acid by the enzyme phospholipase A2 (PLA2), and it results in the synthesis of prostaglandins, leukotrienes, or thromboxane related substances which act as mediators of the inflammatory response. These symptoms are not observed immediately after surgery but rather begin gradually, attain the peak in 2 days after the extraction. Over several decades, many studies have shown the effectiveness of corticosteroids given before or just after removal of third molars in improving recovery. 1Reader, 2Registrar, 3Postgraduate Student 1,3Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kannur Dental College, Kannur, Kerala, India 2Department of Dentistry, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College & Hospital, Barpeta, Assam, India


We recall the validity of special relativity for the physical conditions it was intended for, dynamics in in vacuum, and show its inapplicability (rather than violation) for physical conditions it was not intended for, such as for the classical treatment of antimatter, interior dynamical problems within physical media, and matter in irreversible conditions. We outline the covering relativity constructed and verified during the past four decades by numerous scholars, today known as isorelativity, that resolves the above limitations via an invariant representation of arbitrary speeds C = c/n in the universe. We submit the hypothesis that dark matter and dark energy are due to the use of the law E = mc2 for vacuum, while their existence is removed by the use of the isorelativistic law E = mC2 = mc2/n2 because the average value of C for the interior of hyperdense astrophysical bodies, such as stars, quasars and black holes, results to be a large multiple of c. The study is complemented with the introduction of dark antimatter and the study of both dark matter and antimatter in irreversible conditions.


of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy LOW TEMPERATURE SOLID PHASE EPITAXIAL REGROWTH OF ION IMPLANTED BORON IN SILICON By Chad Darrell Lindfors May 2003 Chair: Kevin S. Jones Major Department: Materials Science and Engineering The ever-changing nature of silicon-based microelectronic devices demands material properties be modified to meet device expectations. Moving to ultra shallow junction material requires high dopant activation while maintaining shallow electrical junctions. Ion implantation processes inherently produce lattice damage in silicon, bringing about the phenomenon of transient enhanced diffusion upon subsequent moderate temperature annealing. Solid phase epitaxial regrowth, on the other hand, will propagate at lower temperatures, thus minimizing diffusion while still activating dopants. It is the low temperature (500-650 C) solid phase epitaxy process that is of main interest for the work contained within. Several experiments are designed to further understand the solid phase epitaxy process and determine its usefulness for creating the desired material properties. Studies of ultra shallow junction, regrown materials examine the possibility of generating a material suitable for future technology. Applying theoretical predictions to experimental results


This study reports the occurrence of fungi based on a pilot study and a checklist of fungi in Pichavaram mangroves of the southeast coast of India. Damp incubation of wood, root and leaf litter of Avicennia marina and Rhizophora mucronata yielded 15 fungi. The fungal richness was highest (9 spp.) on woody litter of both plant species and root litter of R. mucronata. Aniptodera chesapeakensis, Halorosellinia oceanica, Halosarpheia marina, Periconia prolifica and Phoma sp. were dominant (5- 6.3%). Woody litter of A. marina was highly colonized by H. marina (28%), while R. mucronata by Phoma sp. (24%). The average fungi per sample ranged between 0.3 and 0.8 with a highest on woody litter (0.7- 0.8). In Pichavaram mangroves, so far about 10 niches (water, sediment and live/dead plant parts) and 14 mangrove plant species have been surveyed for mycoflora. About 102 fungi consisting of mitosporic fungi (57 spp.), ascomycetes (37 spp.), phycomycetes (7 spp.) and basidiomycete (1 sp.) have been reported. Woody litter yielded a highest of 36 saprophytic fungi followed by 33 fungi as foliar epiphytes. Cirrenalia pygmea was the most dominant fungus, followed by H. oceanica, P. prolifica, Zalerion maritima and Z. varia. The foliar endophyte, Sporormiella minima colonized the highest number of mangrove plant species. (Nature and Science. 2009;7(5):67-75). (ISSN: 1545-0740).


The spread of the new information systems has meant a real revolution in access to information. At the same time, it has involved some significant effects in the socioeconomic field. This article indentifies the status and origin of the databases producers and operators, as well as their users. The author infers that the control done by multinational companies does not help the democracy in information access, but increases its privatization at enterprises, individuals and countries levels


With the developing of hot water washing for 500kV transformation apparatus, research on cleaning efficiency is becoming more and more important and meaningful. In general, the length of post insulators in 500kV substation ranges from 8 to 10 meters, which means the higher request for water column range and washing angle matching during the course of water washing is needed in order to shorten water column range to improve the water pressure and make sure that the insulators could be washed clean, a washing device with the help of two three-axesed robots located on the top of the locomotive flat is introduced; due to the flat highth, the distance between power apparatus and water nozzles can be efficiently reduced. What's more, two typical washing models are introduced in this paper, namely manual and robot-applied; three washing methods are studied under the condition of different pollution, and the influential factors of water pressure on the washing course are also discussed.


The article highlights the legal nature of the system of sources of law, its internal construction. In particular, the study of the legal nature of the system of sources of law is offered to go with the basic principles of the system approach and methodology of system analysis. The system of sources of law is seen as a set of interrelated and mutually regulatory and legal requirements, that expressed in relevant external forms and form a legal organization necessary for regulation in any society. One analyzes such structural sections of the system of sources of law of Ukraine as branch (horizontal) and hierarchical (vertical). Subsystems of the system of sources of law in Ukraine are analyzed, namely system of normative acts (consisting laws and regulations regulations of Ukraine), normative contracts (collective agreements, international treaties of Ukraine), system of legal customs. One reveales the problem of the forming of the system of sources of law in Ukraine, defines the main directions of its development, including changing the content of classical brances and the emergence of new brances and institutes, forming of brances and institutes that are mixed and complex, indicates the high dynamics of development of the system of sources of law in Ukraine. It is noted that the normative act subsystem in Ukraine, as the dominant system of sources of law Ukraine, is overloaded with a large number of regulatory and legal requirements and specific forms of a legal acts. This impedes the proper regulation of social relations. Attention is focused on the need to correct choice of legal form sources of law, organizing and unifying the legal and regulatory requirements and optimal system of sources of law that creats an effective system of sources of law. It is noted that the integration pocesses in Ukraine are of crucial direction for a modern system of sources of law in Ukraine, since provide its quality, influenced by European legal standards.


The full-scale structure to be modeled is a field array of heliostat mirrors. Clusters from the field array were chosen so that representative wind flow patterns within typical arrays could be simulated. There were five basic cluster configurations. In addition, some of the cluster configurations were modified by placing a fence upwind of the models. The model heliostats were constructed of plexiglass to a scale of 1:22. Details of the models, test procedures, and instrumentation and data acquisition system are given; results are presented and discussed. (WHK)


The variation of interface microstructure along thickness direction and the associated effects on tensile strength were studied. Thin intermetallic compounds (IMC) layer, ranging from 700 nm to 2 μm, formed through solid-state diffusion instead of eutectic reaction under low rotation speed of 300 rev min−1. It was consisted of Al3Mg2 sublayer and Mg17Al12 sublayer, with Mg17Al12 sublayer thinner than Al3Mg2 sublayer. IMC layer in the upper part is thinner than that in the middle part, and it is continuous in the upper and middle part while discontinuous near the bottom surface. Despite the difference in interface microstructure, the bonding strengths of upper part and middle part are similar, proving the important effects of macroscopic geometrical configuration of the interface.


This is a continuation of the paper read in April, 1908,* in which, after describing the mode of extracting Scandia from the mineral wiikite, the principal salts, 23 in number, were described, their formulae and analytical results being given in detail.


China is part of the western Pacific region, which is the source of the most frequent tropical cyclones in the world. These cause severe disasters each year, including huge economic losses and casualties. To better understand their frequency and intensity, remote sensing tropical cyclone data were obtained for the entire Northwest Pacific region for the period 1977–2018. MATLAB and ArcGIS were used to analyse the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones and their characteristics in various regions of China. At the same time, the influence factors of tropical cyclone characteristics such as El Niño and SST were analyzed by correlation analysis and Geographical detector. The annual frequency of tropical cyclones in the Northwest Pacific showed a fluctuating state, but the overall trend was decreasing. In particular, since 1994, the overall frequency decreased significantly but rebounded in recent years, while the intensity did not change significantly. It was found that cyclone intensity is lower when the frequency is higher, and vice versa. 85% of tropical cyclones occurred in summer and autumn, with the highest intensities in autumn, when the maximum average wind speed peaks at 37 m/s. The area with the most frequent tropical cyclones was 5–20° N, 125–155° E. A total of 314 tropical cyclones arrived in China during the study period, an average of about 7.5 per year. Their frequency and intensity gradually decreased as they moved from coastal to inland areas. Both SST and El Niño are significantly related to the formation and development of tropical cyclones, and the contribution of multiple factors interaction to the variation characteristics of tropical cyclones is significantly higher than that of single factors. Understanding the characteristics of the Pacific tropical cyclones is an important step in planning disaster prevention framework.


Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of Xeloda alone in treatment of elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer.Method:31 elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer received Xeloda orally at a dose of 2500 mg/m2,twice daily,on days 1-14,the cycles were repeated every 21 days,the evaluation of efficacy and toxicity were performed on all patients after 2 cycles at least.Result:Of the 31 patients,there were 0(0%) complete remission(CR),9(29%)partial remission(PR),7(22.6 %) stable disease(SD).The total response rate was 29%.KPS improvement rate was 38.7%,the major toxicities were myelo suppression,gastrointestinal reaction and hand-foot syndrome.Conclusion:Xeloda is safe and effective in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer,especially for patients old and frail.


This article presents a conceptual study toward establishing a new method for altering lateral boundary conditions in numerical model based estimates for probable maximum precipitation (PMP). We altered an extreme event in a physically and dynamically consistent way in a regional convective-scale weather prediction model (AROME-MetCoOp) by applying fields from a global ensemble climate model approach based on EC-EARTH. Ten ensemble members are downscaled with the regional model, which results in 10 different realizations of an extreme precipitation event for the west coast of Norway. We show how the position and orientation of the moisture flow is different between the individual ensemble members, which leads to relatively large changes in precipitation values for a selected catchment. For example, the modification of the moisture transport on scales of several hundred kilometers impacts the extreme precipitation amount by about 75% among the model members. Compared with historical rainfall records, precipitation changes of 62% and 71% are found for two selected catchments. Although the present study is restricted to one particular extreme event that is modified 10 times with the ensemble approach, there is a considerable spread of the moisture transport compared to the spread of the moisture transport of extreme precipitation events of the past 40 years. We conclude that the described approach is a step toward a new method to derive PMP values for a given catchment; however, a larger amount of events and larger ensembles would have to be considered to estimate PMP values.


A series of equivalent models for a classical, conservative, one‐dimensional system is developed. Next, with respect to such models, we obtain a set of related results about some specific, interesting, and outwardly unconnected subjects in mechanics. For instance, dissipative functions, variable mass, generalized velocity‐dependent potentials, ''hidden motions'', and noninertial situations. A comparative analysis allows us to deduce certain formal analogies with particular relativistic statements.


Under the conditions of the present era, to improve the effectiveness and relevance of the ideological and political education of college students, the work must be combined with the characteristics of contemporary students, and combined with the building of college students community. From the perspective of ideological and political education, scholars have researched and analyzed how to give full play to the college students community in the ideological and political education, which mainly from the aspects of community building atmosphere, community development model, community building methods and ways and so on. The current academic research on this topic has made considerable achievements, but there are problems and shortcomings which need to be further expansion and deepened.


The Shear‐Wave Experiment at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's Underground Research Laboratory was probably the first controlled‐source shear‐wave survey in a mine environment. Taking place in conjunction with the excavation of the Mine‐by test tunnel at 420 m depth, the shear‐wave experiment was designed to measure the in situ anisotropy of the rockmass and to use shear waves to observe excavation effects using the greatest variety of raypath directions of any in situ shear‐wave survey to date. Inversion of the shear‐wave polarizations shows that the anisotropy of the in situ rockmass is consistent with hexagonal symmetry with an approximate fabric orientation of strike 023° and dip 35°. The in situ anisotropy is probably due to microcracks with orientations governed by the in situ stress field and to mineral alignment within the weak gneissic layering. However, there is no unique interpretation as to the cause of the in situ anisotropy as the fabric orientation agrees approximately with both the orientation expected from extensive‐dilatancy anisotropy and that of the gneissic layering. Eight raypaths with shear waves propagating wholly or almost wholly through granodiorite, rather than granite, do not show the expected shear‐wave splitting and indicate a lower in situ anisotropy, which may be due to the finer grain size and/or the absence of gneissic layering within the granodiorite. These results suggest that shear waves may be used to determine crack and mineral orientations and for remote monitoring of a rockmass. This has potential applications in mining and waste monitoring.


Collective apologies have an unparalleled potential to right past wrongs and promote reconciliation between victim and perpetrator groups. The purpose of the current study was therefore to examine real-world apologies and the reconciliation process at an intergroup level. Specifically, this research tested the difference between sincere and insincere intergroup apologies (Study 1) and investigated how this might be qualified by victim group acceptance and rejection (Study 2). In Study 1 Australians (N = 95) were given an extract of the 2008 apology made to Indigenous victims of the Stolen Generation which was either sincere (the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology) or insincere (the former Opposition leader Brendan Nelson's apology). In Study 2 a second sample of Australian university students (N = 117) were additionally given Indigenous responses to the apology which indicated rejection or acceptance of one of the national apologies. Outcomes of interests were perpetrators' support for apology, willingness to reconcile, affection for the victims, pride and moral worth. Results revealed that in both studies the sincere and insincere apologies were equally supported. It was however demonstrated in the second study that the role of the apology sincerity on perpetrators' support for the apology was qualified by the victim group"s response. Furthermore, victim group response played an important role in perpetrators' willingness to reconcile and their affection for the victims, with rejected responses leading to less positive outcomes. Finally, the results of this study were the first to identify pride as an important mediating factor driving perpetrators' responses following a public apology offered on their behalf. These results help explain how collective apologies can succeed or fail in the real world.


The effects of pneumatic subsoiling using a Terralift soil aerator on a number of soil physical parameters were measured at sites with sandy loam and loam over clay loam, respectively. The subsoil was compacted under controlled conditions prior to aeration. In the sandy loam, aeration led to a decreased bulkdensity, an increase in porosity (mainly as an increase in macro-porosity) and an increase in saturated hydraulic conductivity and air permeability. Penetration resistance was lowered at this site. After aeration at the loam soil site, measurements indicated that bulk density increased, porosity decreased, there were no changes in saturated hydraulic conductivity and only a small increase in air permeability.


The work perforrned by our group in the last 16 years in connection with the íoundations oí quantum mechanics can be roughly divided in íour stages: The preparatory or introduetory stage, the period oí stochastie quantum meehanies, the period oí stoehastie electrodynamics and fina11y, the present stage. In this paper we present a surnmary oí the development and main results of the various stagesi however, in view oí the minar significance of the first one, and of the excellent recen summary by Brody(1) oí the second and third, we shall pay special attention to our current work, which consists basieally in the construction of a new version of stochastic electrodynamics.


The recognitions of geometrical characteristics and occurrence conditions are very important to evaluate the land-slides in natural terrains. In this paper, the geometrical characteristics of landslides are analyzed according to a geo-logical condition in three landslides areas. The three landslides areas are classified to the geological condition. The three landslides areas are Jangheung, Sangju and Pohang. The geology of Jangheung area, Sangju area and Pohang area is gneiss, granite, and the tertiary sedimentary rock, respectively. During a heavy rainfall of in these areas, 1,582 landslides have occurred in 1998. The geometrical characteristics according to the geological condition analyzed from the investigation of these landslides. The frequency of landslide is high exceedingly above 90% of a slope attitude, while the frequency is very low below 70%. The frequency of landslide is high exceedingly between and of slope angle, while the frequency is very low below . The size of the landslides is ranged from several tens to several hundreds The length is ranged from 5 m to 300 m, and the width is ranged from 3 m to 50 m. Also, the depth is less than 1 m. Therefore, the landslides in these areas have small width, long length and shallow depth. The type of the landslides is changed from transitional slide at the scarp to debris flow at the low part of slope.


Moyamoya disease (MMD) is an uncommon intracranial vasculopathy that typically presents with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Persistent choreoathetosis has been identified as a rare early manifestation of MMD. We present 2 patients with paroxysmal dyskinesia as the initial symptom of MMD, one resembling paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD) and the other paroxysmal non‐kinesigenic dyskinesia (PNKD). We also review the cases of moyamoya‐induced chorea reported previously, none of which resembled PKD or PNKD. We hypothesize that both hormonal and ischemic factors may be implicated in the pathogenesis of these abnormal involuntary movements. These cases suggest that MMD should be included in the differential diagnosis of PKD and PNKD. © 2003 Movement Disorder Society


Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is one of the most mature and widely accepted technologies for mobility support in IPv6 networks. In MIPv6, home agent acts as the anchor points of mobile nodes and is responsible for receiving data packets on behalf of them and tunneling the packets to the current points of attachment of the mobile nodes in the Internet. Two problems existing in the current MIPv6 scheme motivate the study of this paper. First, we do not have any proper load sharing mechanism for multiple HA deployment. Second, Home Agent failure detection in MIPv6 is very slow and there is no specified failure recovery mechanism. In this paper we propose a mechanism to address the above mentioned problems of load sharing and failure recovery while trying to reduce the time of home agent failure detection and recovery. We presented simulation results to demonstrate that our solution can fairly distribute loads among multiple home agents


This paper introduces the 4-tier distribution automation(DA) scheme advocated by Distribution Vision 2010(DV2010) utility research and development alliance.A tier-two DA scheme application in BC Hydro of Canada is described in details.Based on distributed protection,this modular DA system provides continuous,highly reliable power to important customers,through its unique parallel networked feeder topology.Its site selection,design,protection logics and communication system are outlined.


Dementias constitute a group of degenerative diseases that affect different domains within human cognition. While the usual course is chronically progressive, a small group of patients develops a subacute deterioration in months, an entity that is called rapidly progressive dementia. For these patients, an approach based on considering reversible etiologies is mandatory, and its diagnosis must be taken into consideration not only in immunocompromised patients by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but also in patients with other causes of immunosuppression. We report the case of a patient with chronic use of steroids that developed rapidly progressive dementia as the sole manifestation of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis.


This thesis presents a new software tool for the visualisation of EMA data, using 3D animation in a game engine.
This tool displays the movement of articulators in real-time, extrapolating from point-tracking data to a basic representation of tongue and lip movement, as well as being able to induce a palate trace from streamed data, with plans to include more accurate tongue models in the future. The tool is written in Python and reads data into Blender, an animation and game engine, in real-time. In addition, Blender game-like resources have been developed, so that a face `scene' is provided, of which the user can fully customise the appearance and behaviour to their own needs.

It is both compatible with displaying pre-recorded data from various data formats, which may be of use in demonstrating recorded data from different speakers, as well as streaming live data from an NDI WAVE machine, which could be adapted to provide online feedback for pronunciation training. In both modes, game controls allow the user to choose their preferred viewpoint and set game parameters, whilst the researcher can set other parameters before the streaming commences.
Furthermore, effort has been taken to incorporate several modalities: in static data mode, simultaneously recorded ultrasound videos can be overlaid on the image, and synchronised sound recording and playback is supported from live data.

The accuracy of this software's visualisation was tested in an online experiment that involved more than 110 participants: the subjects were challenged to `speech read' three types of vocal tract visualisations to identify the prompt and whether they were displaying matched or unmatched stimuli.
In this experiment a competing two-dimensional visualisation (VisArtico) was found more effective, though this 3D system performed comparably to a third system that showed the data as dots, and well as gathering valuable feedback about aspects of the software.

The open-source nature of both this package and Blender as well as the ease of scripting with Python mean that this software would be ideally adapted for experimenting with real-time feedback for pronunciation training or speech therapy, both by applying changes to its manipulation of the raw data and experimenting with visual adaptations and feedback in the Blender GUI.


The conformational properties of and intramolecular hydrogen-bonding in dithia[3.3]metacyclophanes carrying one or two amino groups on their internal positions were examined by their 1H-NMR and IR spectra and by X-ray structural analyses. It was suggested that an intramolecular hydrogen-bonding network between the amino protons and bridge sulfur atoms is closely related to the conformations of the cyclophanes. Crystal structural analyses of dithia[3.3]metacyclophanes carrying an amino and a nitro group on their internal positions were also carried out. It has been found that the molecules assemble as one-dimensional array columns in the crystal owing to the intermolecular π–π interaction and this columnar structure is deformed by the occurrence of intermolecular hydrogen-bonding.


Friction stir welding is a relatively new solid-state joining technique which is a widely adopted process used to join metallic alloys. It is a vogue in aerospace, automotive and other industrial establishments for connecting complex geometry of joints. In this paper, the effect of cryogenic cooling (Liquid nitrogen & Dry ice) on grain size and mechanical 1 International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Volume 118 No. 24 2018 ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version) url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/ Special Issue http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/


Multicarrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) techniques were originally proposed at mid of 90's for wideband multi-user communications in wireless environments characterised by hostile propagation characteristics. Problems still to be solved are related to the provision of efficient resource channel allocation in variable-bit-rate transmission. In this work, the design of a MC-CDMA-based WLAN infrastructure is considered. The great advantage of MC-CDMA, i.e. the capability of supporting asynchronous multi-user variable-bit-rate (VBR) transmission over multipath channel with conventional detection, is exploited, jointly with an efficient and real-time Medium Access Control (MAC) strategy, in order to allow a significant number of VBR users to share the same bandwidth with different QoS profiles. Different classes of users will be labeled by the MAC level that has to plan a controlled access to the channel on the basis of the users' requests and to check the possibility of assuring to them a certain Qos degree. The paper presents an overview of the system and tests its performance through extensive simulation.


Highly B‐site ordered Pb2ScTaO6 crystals are studied as a function of temperature via dielectric spectroscopy and in situ high‐dynamic‐range electron diffraction. The degree of ordering is examined on the local and macroscopic scale and is determined to be 76%. Novel analysis of the electron diffraction patterns provides structural information with two types of antiferroelectric displacements determined to be present in the polar structure. It is then found that a low‐temperature transition occurs on cooling at ≈210 K that is not present on heating. This phenomenon is discussed in terms of the freezing of dynamic polar nanodomains where a high density of domain walls creates a metastable state.


EAI Energia, Ambiente e Innovazione 3-4/2013 ■ Claudio Puglisi, Luca Falconi ENEA, Technical Unit for Environmental Characterization, Prevention, and Recovery Introduction A community that wants to tackle the critical issues determined by a rampant urbanization needs to know about the environmental characteristics of its territory and, among these, the risk conditions which it is subjected to. Here are presented the results of the study led by ENEA in the Messina area (North-East Sicily) after the Giampilieri disaster occurred on October 1st, 2009, when heavy rainfall (over 200 mm in 7 hours) triggered more than 1000 debris mud flows (Fig. 1), in an area of about 20 square kilometers. The flows hit 16 villages causing 37 casualties, 140 injured, 1642 evacuated and the interruption of national roads and railways. After this event the Messina Municipality asked the UTPRAPREV team to make a landslide hazard assessment of its whole territory, to obtain a decision-support system for sustainable urban planning. The study has been addressed to properly model causative factors leading to an effective hazard assessment of both existing and potential phenomena1. Part of the study is limited to the debris-mud flows since they are the most common and destructive landslide typology in the area. Different tasks have been performed on the basis of the experience developed in more than ten years in many sites and at different scales: creation of a database containing information about historical and recent landslides (landslide inventory); identification of the areas prone to triggering landslides (susceptibility map) through the application of a heuristic method; assessment of debrisLandslide hazard assessment of the Messina Municipality area (Sicily)


The A. shows that under some simple conditions involving the expectations of the logarithms of the absolute values of the output sequences, strictly stationary and ergodic bilinear models are invertible.


Introduced structural characteristics and w orking principle of the buffer device of torque type electric valve,this paper discusses the design and selection of main parts and method to improve the stability of the device.


This Article explores the intersection of peer-to-peer file sharing and storied legal doctrines of fairness. Many contemporary treatments of this subject focus on the theoretical implications of substantive due process in this area. This analysis, in contrast, places less emphasis on contorting old doctrines into new circumstances. Instead, this Article argues that modern legal, practical, and technological developments require reevaluation of the Copyright Act's regulation of statutory damages. It further argues that this reform should not come from the judiciary wielding due process, but rather from Congress.


The world's food and agricultural programs have gradually declined into an unsustainable situation due to challenges such as increase in world population, varied agro-climatic regions, increase temperature, extreme sole-culture growing techniques, and water shortage. A considerable emphasis has been put on few staple food crops coupled with repeated dieting, food scarcity, and essential mineral deficits, frequently inducing dietary disorders. Because relying on staple crops may lead to serious food shortages in the future, we must adjust our dietary habits to include a diverse range of non-staple foods and maximize their use in order to achieve food security and reduce the nutritional gap. To assure healthy meals around the world, an authentic and reasonable strategy is presented to draw additional awareness towards variations in agricultural production techniques and dietary preferences. The EAT-Lancet declaration highlighted the importance of increasing agri-based foods to achieve sustainable health. Expanding overlooked crops with abundant genetic stocks and possibly beneficial characteristics is an approach that might meet food and nutritional security challenges. Although undervalued, pumpkin is a valuable vegetable herbaceous plant that contributes to global food and nutritional security. This crop has already been identified as a revolutionary age crop, balanced food, and more adapted to low soil and atmospheric circumstances than other major crops. This review paper focuses on the potential uses of pumpkin as an underutilized crop; diversification and development of hybrids, particularly hybridization breeding through diallel mating design; and how implementation of this "modern" technology would contribute to the breeding of the neglected pumpkin vegetable and stimulate productivity and nourish the world's largest malnourished, deprived, and starved populations.


This study examines the representation of cultures and communities in the world across five editions of New Headway elementary level textbook (NHE). It conducts a diachronic content analysis to explore how the representation of cultures and communities has evolved in NHE across five editions since its first edition's publication in 1993. Adapting Kachru's model of concentric circles for data analysis, we utilized Yuen's adaptation of ACTFL's (1996) standards for language teaching via the categories of persons, perspectives, products, and practices. Our findings mainly indicate that the Inner Circle has maintained its dominance in NHE's content over five editions. We found that there was an imbalance favoring European cultures against non-European cultures in the Expanding Circle. On the other hand, Expanding Circle / Non-European and Outer Circle are underrepresented with around 10% of the textbook content. These findings show that NHE's cultural focus is on the Western, European, and Anglo-American world of English-speaking communities. Such an imbalance in representation of world cultures leads us to conclude that NHE's writers do not sufficiently raise English learners' global cultural consciousness since there has been little engagement with multicultural view of English language varieties. We invite teachers, learners, and material developers to critically approach, analyse, revise, and/or adapt textbook content as discursive constructions which shape the imagination of cultures and communities.


The exposure of cryptantigens on the Red Blood Cell (RBC) membrane is one of the known causes for            incompatible minor cross match. It causes agglutination of altered red blood cells by a large proportion of ABO                    compatible adult human sera - the phenomenon is called polyagglutination. Historically Polyagglutination was first  descri bed as an in vitro phenomenon caused by bacterial contamination of RBC suspension. Case Report A 27 year old male patient with the history of chronic renal disease with hemoglobin of 6gmdl required two units of blood for                 transfusion. ABO and Rh typing was done and his blood group was O ve. Three units of group matched donor blood samples were cross matched and found to be compatible with major cross match and incompatible with minor cross match. These donor samples were screened for unexpected              antibodies and found negative. DAT and IAT was negative for both donor and patients and auto control was negative. There was positive reaction with adult sera and no agglutination with Cord Sera. Screening for polyagglutination was done by Lectins. Patient sample was agglutinated with Dolichos             biflorus and not by Arachis hypogea.TN polyagglutination was confirmed by specific lectin Salvia sclarea


The article briefly introduces effect of oxygen on beer quality, the non-biological stability, and the flavor and color. The measurement of prevent beer oxidation is also available as for the points of filtration and bottling.


In the given historical conditions, by their ability to influence, educate the masses sports can become important socio-cultural values, a veritable "ferment" of civilization, helping to enrich the human heritage. The exceptional results in improving the human condition Biophysicist, sports essentially contribute to the development of spirituality. Between our intellectual faculties and our physical vitality is an unquestionable correlation. It can thus say that promote physical exercise spiritual level.


In cellular network cost involved in location management is higher but this issue is more common, crucial and complex problem. Although location management issues have been emerged in the field of communications no specific definition has been devised for it. Wireless network area is usually consisting of location area and paging area. The cost involved when a mobile subscriber moving in a particular service area. Since during a call the exact location of the subscriber must be known to the network the management of the network is to track the subscriber when a call comes to mobile device. For the same some cost is incurred that is location update cost and paging cost of the subscriber during the movement in a location service area. This study proposes a new evolutionary approach named Binary Differential Evolution (BDE) minimizes the total cost involved in wireless network. This technique is a stochastic, population-based optimization strategy proposed for combinatorial optimization problem to solve the location management issue. Here the given cellular network is partitioned into reporting cell and non-reporting cell so as to optimize the location area of a given cellular area. BDE is a meta-heuristic strategy presented to be a very powerful widely used technique based on evolutionary algorithms with some specific characteristics. Among the various evolutionary strategies BDE is one of the biological global optimization approach with reduced complexity has received a wide attraction from many fields such as computer science, economics and engineering fields. With the help of the realistic data for generating the test network simulation are carried out in different networks and the results are demonstrated and discussed in this work. The objective of this work is to define the best values to the Differential Evolution (DE) configuration by considering various parameters using realistic network.


[Objective] The aim was to study the reasons for consecutive severe droughts in autumn and winter. [Method] By dint of precipitation in the observatory station and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data in observatory station, the circulation background, vertical movement, abnormal temperature and changes of water vapor conditions in Xuzhou from October 2008 to January 2009 were expounded to reveal the causes for consecutive drought in autumn and winter. [Result] Xuzhou was under stable situation for a long time in autumn and winter in 2008, being behind east coastal trough, the downward airstream prevailing; the south trough intensity was weak, and in addition to the east subtropical high and weak intensity, the water vapor transportation condition in Indian Ocean and South Sea was unfavorable. The autumn was warm and the cold air was weak; ever since winter, there were several cold air activities. But the influencing body was in the east, and the south warm and wet airstream was insufficient. Thus, they couldn't met, which resulted into gale and lower temperature and less precipitation when under the influence of cold air. [Conclusion] The study provided theoretical basis for the prevention of drought in the area.


An RFID smart card dedicated microcontroller including an internal structure constituted by the central processor and internal peripherals, said central processor includes state generator, the program counter, instruction fetch means, an instruction decoder, arithmetic logic unit and special function registers; refers to the internal peripheral integrated in the microcontroller peripherals, including timer counter and an interrupt controller. Compared with the prior art, an advantage of the present invention are: high efficiency, low power consumption, scalability, a small chip area, to meet the RFID smart card chip microcontroller stringent requirements, can be applied to a passive RFID smart card chips.


Since the reform and opening up policy,there has appeared clan revival in the country.People began to pay more attention to the relation between clan and rural management.This paper analyses its different communication,economy,organization,education,coordination and culture functions in early 20th century and after the reform and opening up policy.


MSMEs in the ceramics industry are still experiencing a difficult period even though they have entered the post-pandemic period. Will competitive advantage be created from supply chain collaboration in terms of obtaining resource information which will ultimately create innovation and increase market demand? This research involved 200 ceramic MSMEs in Bali with the condition that the perpetrators had been running their business for more than one year, analyzed with SEM-PLS with the SmartPls processing tool. The results show that the relationship between market demands has a positive effect on competitive advantage and will give a boost to the performance of ceramics SMEs. While the collaborative relationship of innovation value does not have a positive effect on performance and competitive advantage because so far ceramic SMEs, especially photocatalysts, are still relatively new and are still running their business in one small group and no organization has yet been formed to support the acquisition of information related to the innovations to be carried out. This research also shows that the mediation of competitive advantage is the perfect mediation in creating market demand in improving the performance of MSMEs.


Health and feeding outcomes for preterm infants depend upon healthcare providers' ability to recognize non-verbal signs of distress during bottle-feeding. Methods of training future providers' to interpret feeding behavior in preterm infants are unclear. This study used a pre-test/post-test design to compare the effects of in- vivo simulation and video-simulation training on students' knowledge of feeding abnormalities, clinical judgment, and documentation accuracy. Fifty-two graduate level speech-language pathology students were assigned to the in-vivo (N= 27) or video-simulation (N= 25) group. Results revealed that both methods proved beneficial for increasing knowledge and clinical judgment skills. Participants trained using video-simulation training documented a greater number of distress signs. The use of patient simulators to train graduate level speech-language pathology students to use correct clinical judgment for managing abnormal feeding behavior is efficacious.


Physico-chemical, sensory and microbiological properties of restructured chicken steaks extended with milk co-precipitates (CCPs) at 0, 10, 20 and 30% levels were evaluated. Inclusion of CCP singificantly improved the emulsion stability and reduced the cooking loss, while moisture, total proteins and ether extractives were not affected. The steaks with 20% CCP were most preferred for colour, juiciness and overall acceptability with statistically equivalent flavour ratings as those of all-meat steaks. Incorporation of 20% CCP also did not appreciably increase the number of total aerobes, while both control and extended groups were completely free from coliforms.


Measurement of the maximum range of 55 keV 42K along the directions of b.c.c. metals and directions of f.c.c. metals shows that the electronic stopping cross section differs by a factor of ~ 5 betw...


A brief survey is presented of current knowledge on olfaction in rodents and the various roles that odors may play in modifying rodent behavior. Some species at least uti lize olfactory cues: to locate food items; to recognize their mother and mates; to mark territory; as an involuntary population density regulator; possibly to recognize predators; as a warning cue against a repellent or toxic substance (poison-bait shyness); and probably, for many other behavioral purposes. The value of using a r t i f i c i a l odors in rodent baits to increase bait acceptance is not yet well documented. The addition of attractive natural odors may increase detection of low-preference foods, but there is l i t t l e evidence that a strange odor can improve palatability for any prolonged period. Much more research is needed before rodent control methodology can f u l l y exploit the olfactory acuity of w i l d rodents. A review is made here of knowledge on the role of smell in the ecology and behavior of w i l d rodents as it may relate to rodent control. Since so l i t t l e is known about the role of smell and taste in the acceptance and rejection of baits by w i l d f i e l d and commensal rodents, it is hoped that this report w i l l stimulate more research in this control area. Every rodentcontrol operator has his own theories about the significance of human odor on rat traps or the addition of a few drops of aniseed o i l in a bait. Host of the evidence, however, is subjective. This paper discusses a number of aspects of olfaction and gustation in rodents which seem to bear directly on the role of odor in rodent control. Also reported are a few of our own preliminary findings. According to Moulton (1967), the a b i l i t y to detect, analyze, and exploit odors appears to reach it s highest degree of development among mammals. Mammals are especially flexible and efficient in deploying their sensory resources and tend to make more use of a l l available cues. Many exploit odors extensively in trail-following, recognition of territory, of young, of mates, and of other social groups, as well as in the detection of food and predators. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly evident that odors may control certain reproductive functions by acting as pheromones, as discussed later. Since the pairing of eyes and ears help an animal determine the direction of a stimulus, Moulton asks whether the pairing of the external nares, located so close together, serves a comparable function (tropotaxis). It could be, if very sensitive receptors could make simultaneous comparison of odor intensities or time of arrival. The high mobility of rodents and most mammals, however, may make this type of stationary orientation unnecessary. The volatile constituents of food actually in the mouth may also be smelted through intercommunication between olfactory and buccal cavities. According to Moulton (ibid.), Whitten observed that f l u i d from the mouth can travel up a cleft in the upper l i p of the mouse to enter the nasal cavity. The snout of a mole is really a chemotactile sense organ, l i k e the snout of a pig, where both tactile and olfactory information can be extracted simultaneously (Moulton, ibid.). Mammalian chemoreception is associated primarily with taste buds or olfactory epithelium, and there appears to be no question that rodents have a highly effective olfactory modality, though l i t t l e is known about the extent to which w i l d rodents use their olfactory senses to locate food items they may or may not have encountered previously. Research at Davis (Howard and Cole, 1967; Howard, Marsh, and Cole, 1968; Howard, Palmateer, and Marsh, 1969) has substantiated that at least in some w i l d rodents olfaction is high in the sensory hierarchy in richness of cognitive detail, in variety of sensory experience, and in motivational s i g n i f i cance. Even so, research techniques must become much more sophisticated before we w i l l know how to capitalize f u l l y on the sense of smell of rodents in improving current rodent-control methods. L i t t l e is known about the extent to which various species of w i l d rodents use their olfactory senses to locate or avoid various food items; the significance, if any, of smell in affecting the palatability of foods to rodents; and how odor cues facilitate the locomotion, spatial orientation, and other ethological responses of rodents. It is generally known that the act of ingestion, normally a response to hunger, may be reinforced or inhibited by seemi n g l y unrelated types of behavior and previous experiences. Some suspected or recognized factors include maternal instincts, social interand intra-specific stresses, population density and structure, hierarchy and dominance, tameness and fear, imitation and imprinting, general health and d a i l y rhythm of the individual, season, temperature, and weather. Our premise is that odor is what usually i n i t i a l l y motivates a rodent to search for and pick up specific food items to satisfy its appetite, and that each rodent learns to associate i t s gustatory experiences with the odor of the item. Also rodents apparently have sufficient


The invention discloses a ZigBee technology based room environment monitoring system and relates to the technical field of devices used for monitoring and testing through a wireless communication network. The monitoring system comprises a plurality of wireless sensor groups, a plurality of routers, a network coordinator, a control terminal and a feedback control system, the wireless sensor groups are used for collecting environment information in one region and transmitting the collected environment information to the routers wirelessly, the routers gather data collected by the wireless sensor groups and then transmits the gathered data to the network coordinator, and the network coordinator responsible for communicating with the routers transmits the received environment information to the control terminal and the feedback control system respectively. The monitoring system is miniaturized, wireless, intelligent and low in cost by making use of ZigBee wireless transmission.


Tinnitus is a symptom frequently encountered in the E.N.T. clinic and variously described as buzzing, ringing and thumping sound, etc., but the cause, pathogenesis, specific treatment remains to be established through close investigation. In fact, it is not easy to evaluate the treatment efficiency of tinnitus reasonably. However, in this study. we clinically investigated 47 patients who visited E.N.T. department of Kyung Won University Hospital from May. 1996 to May. 1999 and belonged to specific bianzheng(辨證) types of tinnitus classified by bianzheng(辨證), a kind of diagnostic method in order to estimate efficiency of the treatment and give aids to establishing more effective and recognizable treatment method. The result is as follows: 1) In bianzheng(辨證) types of tinnitus, Piweixuruo(脾胃虛弱) was most frequently found, in descending order, Shenjingkuisun(腎精虧損), Ganhuoshangra(肝火上擾), Tanhuoyongjie(痰火壅結). 2) In the treatment efficiency, the type of Piweixuruo(脾胃虛弱) showed the highest, in descending order, Ganhuoshangrao(肝火上擾), Tanhuoyongjie(痰火壅結) and Shenjingkuisun(腎精虧損). 3) The treatment efficiency is shown higher in patients with tinnitus included in other sysmptoms than those with a simple symptom of tinnitus. especially in case of tinnitus accompanied by vertigo, we could get much higher treatment efficiency more than we had expected.


Laser-induced thermochemical wet etching of titanium in phosphoric acid has been investigated to examine the feasibility of this method for fabrication of microstructures. Cutting, drilling, and milling of titanium foil were carried out while examining the influence of process parameters on etch width, etch depth, and edge straightness. Laser power, scanning speed of workpiece, and etchant concentration were chosen as major process parameters influencing on temperature distribution and reaction rate. Etch width increased almost linearly with laser power showing little dependence on scanning speed while etch depth showed wide variation with both laser power and scanning speed. A well-defined etch profile with good surface quality was obtained at high concentration condition. Fabrication of a hole, micro cantilever beam, and rectangular slot with dimension of less than 100㎛ has been demonstrated.


Maleimide-functionalized HNTs (HNTs-I) were prepared and explored as a nanophotoinitiator. Vinyl monomers can be grafted onto the nanotubes following a spatially controllable, metal-free and non-contact photoinitiated approach. The obtained HNTs-I were further used in a 3D printing system to fabricate hydrogels with designed configurations.


A restricted energy intake in the immediate postnatal period has been found to result in a significant increase in the maximal expression of lactase by enterocytes from 2‐week‐old pigs. Although villus size was significantly reduced on a low compared with a high food intake, total villus lactase activity was unaffected because of the compensatory increase in lactase expression by individual enterocytes.


INVESTIGATION OF A SULFUR-UTILIZING PERCHLORATE-REDUCING BACTERIAL CONSORTIUM MAY 2011 TERESA ANNE CONNEELY, B.A., SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Klaus Nusslein We present research investigating how, with in depth knowledge of the community, microbial communities may be harnessed for bioremediation of hazardous water contaminants. We focused on the bacterial reduction of perchlorate, a common water contaminant. For this we studied the structure and capabilities of a novel sulfurutilizing, perchlorate-reducing bacterial (SUPeRB) consortium. Initially, we characterized the minimal consortium that retained functional capabilities, using 16S rRNA and functional gene analysis. A diverse functional consortium dominated by Beta-Proteobacteria of the family Rhodocyclaceae and sulfur-oxidizing EpsilonProteobacteria was found. We also examined the optimal growth conditions under which perchlorate degradation occurred and uncovered the upper limits of this function. Bacterial isolates were screened for function and the presence of functional genes. We expanded to bioreactor studies at benchand pilot-scale, and first used a perchlorate-reducing, bench-scale bioreactor to probe the stability of the microbial ecosystem. During stable reactor function, a core consortium of Betaand EpsilonProteobacteria reduced perchlorate and the co-contaminant nitrate. A disturbance of the


In recent years, an angular-velocity-based brain injury criterion, BrIC, has been proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for consumer vehicle safety assessment tests. In this study, the cumulative strain damage measure (CSDM), as one of the brain injury metrics, was calculated based on data obtained for a total of 360 anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) in vehicle crash tests conducted by NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) using the Simulated Injury Monitor (SIMon ver. 4.0), a human brain finite element model developed by NHTSA's research institute. Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) and hierarchical clustering were used to classify test data composed of the brain injury risk level based on CSDM and its corresponding head kinematic parameters. Results demonstrated that, in addition to the peak values of angular velocities, the peak values of angular accelerations around three axes are also influential parameters for accurately predicting brain injury risk based on CSDM.


Since the year 2000, the Zimbabwean banking sector continues to experience unprecedented bank closures. The study seeks to identify the root causes that led to the banking crisis and to suggest solutions and measures that can be adopted to improve the financial sector. It also seeks to examine the effects of bank closures. The study finds that the root cause of bank failures in Zimbabwe is poor corporate governance practices. It was established that poor corporate governance resulted in other negative factors such as huge non-performing loans (NPLs) and poor credit risk management. The study also identifies weak and ineffective regulatory and supervisory framework, poor state of economy and under capitalization as other factors that caused the banking crisis. Loss of confidence and loss of employment were found to be the biggest effects of bank failures. Banks, government, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and other responsible authorities should collectively institute measures to prevent future banking crisis. There is need to review and update financial sector policies and adopt prudential corporate governance practices.


Mouse sera obtained 14-18 h after transplantation of skin or spleen cells from H-2-disparate donors contain a "lymph node activating factor". They activate the draining lymph nodes of syngeneic recipients or F1 hybrids of the mouse strains, which have served as graft donors and recipients, and give specific precipitation lines with the antibody against LNAF. LNAF can be determined in the sera of mice, which have been sensitized with spleen cells prior to transplantation, from 7 to 48 h after transplantation.


This work exploits the advantage of asymmetric configuration over symmetric supercapacitor in designing high energy density flexible devices from two active electrode materials–keratin‐based renewable‐resource hierarchically porous carbon and hydrous ruthenium oxide (RuO2). The asymmetric device exhibits significantly high capacitance. Conventional estimation of energy storage parameters, however, cannot be applied for devices with a Faradaic energy storage contribution via redox charge transfer mechanism. Therefore, this work applies a precise measurement of pseudocapacitance contribution at various scan rates to correct the device data that reveals effective capacitance of 120 F g−1 with the energy density of 37 W h kg−1 at 776 W kg−1. It also retains excellent rate capability, >74% at high current density 25 A g−1. The charge storage activity and device stability can be further enhanced by introducing redox‐active electrolytes that improve specific capacitance, but the rate capabilities deteriorate at high current densities. Further, the principle of asymmetric electrode design is applied to fabricate a bending‐tolerant, flexible device by depositing active electrode material on wire‐shaped current collector followed by coupling those separated with polyvinyl alcohol gel containing redox electrolyte; it yields 36.8 mF cm−1 specific capacitance at a 0.2 mA cm−1 current density.


Abstract : The report presents the application of pattern recognition and signal processing techniques to the problem of mechanical diagnosis. It is shown that an analysis of the vibration record from an internal combustion engine allows discrimination between faulty engines and ones in good condition. Two methods are presented, both based on the identification of important zones of the vibration records which are correlated with events occuring during an engine cycle. (Author)


The Integrated Medicine and periodontics is attracting most of the researchers now a days. Alternative medicines related to periodontology such as Inner engineering and herbal medicines have been extensively using in this decades. The ancient Indian system of health care concentrated on views of man and his illness and focused on treating these illness through traditional and natural healing systems, Indian natural products these from traditional medicinal plants which are reported in classic texts like Ayurveda and Charaka Samhita have contributed to the "boom" in drug discovery. It is a well-documented fact that natural remedies through Ayurveda owe their origin to India and this science was popularly known as the "science of life." Ayurveda aims at ensuring a healthy mind and healthy body by not only providing cure of illness but also elaborating the correct the in-balances and method for maintenance of health. Ayurveda attempts to correct the in-balances arrangements of bodily humours and to restore equilibrium conditions by the application of all spiritual and material resources available to man."


Nanosecond and sub-nanosecond high voltage pulses can provide new biological applications. A cancer treatment by an ultra-short pulse high electric field is one of them. High power pulsed electromagnetic wave has been proposed to apply the high electric field for that treatment. This work focuses on the design of a compact high power pulsed electromagnetic wave generator using a nanosecond pulsed power generator for the biological applications. For this purpose, we have developed a high frequency cluster burst pulse generator based on a SOS diode. The generator uses a magnetic switch and the SOS diode with current cutoff time of nanoseconds. The generator outputs the multiple damping oscillation pulses like burst pulses in a cluster state continuously. In this study, we improved the control of the output frequency and the duration of the output pulse of the cluster burst pulse electromagnetic wave generator. A 1/4 wavelength cable that can get single frequency component by resonating in a circuit is employed. In this circuit, the output frequency of the pulse can be controlled by changing the cable length. The output frequency is controllable by changing the cable length. By using LC oscillation by the inductance of magnetic switch, the capacitance of C1 and parasitic capacitance of SOS diode, during the half cycle of the oscillation of the transformer, the number of the burst pulses and the duration of the burst pulse increased.


The continuous probability distribution (CUPID) method [Džakula, Ž.; Westler, W. M.; Edison, A. S.; Markley, J. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1992, 114, 6195] for conformational analysis of molecules from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data has been extended to the determination of molecular conformations of five-membered rings. This approach, which should be particularly useful for studies of molecules containing pyrrolidine or furanose rings, is illustrated by the analysis of NMR data from the literature for small peptides containing l- and d-prolines, hydroxyprolines, and fluoroprolines. The CUPID approach to the analysis of five-membered rings, which takes advantage of linear regression, generally yields better fits to experimental data in a shorter time than the conventional discrete approach, which utilizes nonlinear fitting procedures. The new method proved successful in a few cases in which the conventional approach failed to produce satisfactory analysis of the data. Built-in error-propagation analysis ...


The paper examines the causal relationship between tax revenues and expenditures in the G7 countries using cointegration and error-correction methodology. This statistical technique provides additional channels through which causality could emerge. The empirical results show that bidirectional causality exists between government taxes and expenditures in all countries except in Japan and Italy. For Japan and Italy, causality runs from government taxes to expenditures.


BACKGROUND
To identify injured cells in the liver of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and to determine the effects of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) on these cells, we examined the cellular expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in PBC both before and after treatment with UDCA.

METHODS
Expression of HSP70 and ubiquitin in PBC livers (n=34) was evaluated immunohistochemically as well as by immunoblot analysis, and compared with chronic viral hepatitis type C (n= 9), primary sclerosing cholangitis (n=8), and controls (n=7).

RESULTS
Immunoblot analysis demonstrated a marked expression of HSP70 and ubiquitin in PBC. Immunohistochemical staining for both HSP70 and ubiquitin was observed to be strong in biliary epithelial cells (BECs) and moderate in both hepatocytes and arteries in PBC. Cellular labelling rates for HSP70 and ubiquitin of bile ducts in PBC were significantly higher (p<0.01) than those in chronic viral hepatitis type C, primary sclerosing cholangitis, or controls. The labelling rates for HSP70 and ubiquitin in bile ducts and in hepatocytes were significantly decreased (p<0.01) after treatment with UDCA in PBC.

CONCLUSIONS
The present data suggest that BECs and hepatocytes significantly express HSPs even in the early stages of PBC, and that UDCA treatment significantly improves their condition. The immunohistochemical evaluation of HSPs is a valid and sensitive means to identify injured cells in PBC.