This article presents a compensated positive position feedback strategy for active control of flexible structures with piezoelectric actuators. In the proposed compensated positive position feedback method, a negative feedback compensator is involved to remedy the deficiency of traditional positive position feedback and to introduce roll-off characteristic at low frequencies. Thus, compensated positive position feedback controllers can be developed with minimal influences on lower order modes and cause no steady-state error to the controlled system. For demonstration purpose, the design processes and the effectiveness of the compensated positive position feedback method are illustrated by active control of a cable net structure with integrated piezoelectric stacked actuators. The numerical simulations demonstrate that compared to the conventional positive position feedback method, the proposed compensated positive position feedback approach overcomes the fundamental defects of frequency shift and spillover into lower order modes and achieves the goal of step-tracking with zero steady-state error. These comparative results confirm the efficacy and superiority of the proposed compensated positive position feedback methodology in active control of flexible structures.


In our paper [1.] using a special set-theoretical construction assuming the generalized continuum hypothesis (G.C.H . in what follows) we proved that the topological product of J~k discrete topological spaces of power J~ o is not k-compact for every k < co . Since then several related or equivalent problems were independently discussed in the literature . General results of A . TARSKI, P. HANF and H. J. KIESLER made it possible to prove that (assuming G.C.H .) a similar result holds for a very extensive class of cardinals tZ, (see e .g . [2], [3], [4]) . J. MYCIELSKI proved without assuming G .C.H . that the result holds for every 1~ x less than the first weakly inaccessible cardinal > t~ o . On the other hand in [1] we stated several problems depending on a parameter t~a of the type that a positive answer for them would imply the corresponding incompactness result, but the general method for obtaining the incompactness results does not work for them . One of them. i s the following : Does there exist a graph . of t~, vertices such that-0 has chromatic number > t~, but all subgraphs Oy' of P spanned by less than tZ, vertices have chromatic number ? As far as we know, the general methods mentioned above do not help to solve this problem, and all nontrivial instances of the problem are unsolved for 1~x > t~ i . In this paper (using G.C .H.) we are going to give a partial solution of this problem for ~a < t~o . In fact we prove a more general theorem (see Theorem 2) which gives information on the problem involved without using G.C.H . We obtain our result by using a rather special partition theorem . This will be proved in § 2 . In § 3 we prove the main result already mentioned and we are going to define universal graphs Prs « , H O which for every regular t~ a have the property that they contain all graphs Pj of t~ « vertices such that every subgraph ' of spanned by less than K vertices has chromatic number at most t~ o . We will discuss some special properties of these graphs as well. In § 4 we deal with some partition problems related to the one considered in § 2 . In what follows we are going to use the notations introduced in our paper [6] . These are mostly the usual notations of set-theory . We mention that ordinals are defined so that each ordinal ~ is the set of all smaller ordinals . The cardinal t~g is identified with w e .


The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID 19) represents a major public health problem due to its rapid spread and its ability to generate severe pneumonia. Thus, it is essential to find a treatment that reduces mortality. Our objective was to estimate whether treatment with 400 mg/day of Hydroxychloroquine for 10 days reduces in-hospital mortality in subjects with severe respiratory disease due to COVID 19 compared with placebo. Material and methods: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of severe disease by COVID 19 through an intention-to-treat analysis. Eligible for the study were adults aged more than 18 years with COVID-19 confirmed by RT-PCR and lung injury requiring hospitalization with or without mechanical ventilation. Primary outcome was 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes: days of mechanical ventilation, days of hospitalization and cumulative incidence of serious adverse events. Results: A total of 214 patients with COVID 19 were recruited, randomized and analyzed. They were hypoxemic with a mean SpO2 of 65%{+/-}20, tachycardic (pulse rate 108{+/-}17 min 1) and tachypneic (32{+/-}10 min 1); 162 were under mechanical ventilation at randomization. Thirty-day mortality was similar in both groups (38% in Hydroxychloroquine vs. 41% in placebo, hazard ratio [HR] 0.88, 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI] 0.51 1.53). In the surviving participants, no significant difference was found in secondary outcomes. Conclusion: No beneficial effect or significant harm could be demonstrated in our randomized controlled trial including 214 patients, using relatively low doses of Hydroxychloroquine compared with placebo in hospitalized patients with severe COVID 19.


Process mining offers techniques to exploit event data by providing insights and recommendations to improve business processes. The growing amount of algorithms for process discovery has raised the question of which algorithms perform best on a given event log. Current evaluation frameworks for empirically evaluating discovery techniques depend on the notation used (behavioral identical models may give different results) and cannot provide more general statements about populations of models. Therefore, this paper proposes a new integrated evaluation framework that uses a classification approach to make it modeling notation independent. Furthermore, it is founded on experimental design to ensure the generalization of results. It supports two main evaluation objectives: benchmarking process discovery algorithms and sensitivity analysis, i.e. studying the effect of model and log characteristics on a discovery algorithm's accuracy. The framework is designed as a scientific workflow which enables automated, extendable and shareable evaluation experiments. An extensive experiment including four discovery algorithms and six control-flow characteristics validates the relevance and flexibility of the framework. Ultimately, the paper aims to advance the state-of-the-art for evaluating process discovery techniques.


The effects of tree and room ripening and of storage at chill temperatures and at 26–29°C on the sensory quality, composition and respiration of edible wild mango fruits were investigated.

Fruits harvested at the mature green stage and ripened at 26–29°C were slightly preferred to tree-ripened fruits in colour and texture. Apart from a lower moisture content, room-ripened fruits were comparable in composition with tree-ripened fruits. During storage at 26–29°C, CO2 production increased sharply from 22 ml kg-1 h-1 at the end of the first day, reaching a maximum of 91 ml kg-1 on day 5 and declining thereafter; O2 consumption followed a similar trend. The respiratory climacteric coincided with the onset of ripening. Fruits held at 12–15°C developed symptoms of chilling injury including pitting and black spots in mature green fruits, and brownish discoloration, pitting, surface scald, excessive softening and decay in ripe fruits.


The median filter is a common filter, which can get a good result with impulse noise, but it can't work well with Gauss noise. At the meanwhile wavelet transform can remove Gauss noise efficiently. In this paper combined with Biorthogonal wavelet transform and median filtering, an efficient image-denoising method was presented. Experiment result shows that the noise of the image is removed effectively. At the same time, the detail of the image is kept well. The method has better denoising effect than single wavelet thresholding method or median filtering method.


This study presents Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of hydrogen production from Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis (PEMWE). The emission factor of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) has also been calculated based on hydrogen produced from PEMWE. Though there are many methods for hydrogen production like Steam Methane Reforming (SMR), PEMWE is a leading edge method with less carbon emissions, especially if electricity generated from renewable sources are used for electrolysis. The Energy Pay Back Time (EPBT) of the PEMWE system has been calculated to be 3.54 years in Indian conditions. The emission factor is 52.3 kgCO2e/kg of H2 if the system is supported by the present generation mix, but reduced to 20.95 kgCO2e/kg of H2 if supported by solar power. The Vehicle Emission Factor (VEF), considering only driving phase is 0.52 and 0.21 kgCO2e/km respectively. The study shows that the integration of renewables in the generation mix will have significant impact on the GHG emission footprint of H2 production in India. It has also been concluded that in projected generation scenarios for India with more renewable penetration, there shall be notable reduction in the emission values.


In this paper, we present an $\Theta (n)$ time worst-case deterministic algorithm for finding the constrained Delaunay triangulation and constrained Voronoi diagram of a simple n-sided polygon in the plane. Up to now, only an O(n log n) worst-case deterministic and an O(n) expected time bound have been shown, leaving an O(n) deterministic solution open to conjecture.


Abstract:
 A revision of the Mexican genus Thenardia H.B.K. is presented. Three species are here recognized: T. chiapensis J. K. Williams, T. floribunda H.B.K., and T. galeottiana Baillon. A complete account of synonymy, and typification is provided, as well as a key to species, photographs of types and pollen, and a distribution map of the species.


Summary

A series of soils from two areas of Tanganyika have been studied mineralogically. They are derived in the main from amphibolite, but only a small proportion of the more resistant ahminosilicate minerals survive in the soil. The clays (<1.4μ) of the red loams are characterized by a predominance of kaolinite, whereas the more poorly drained grey soils have a disordered kaolin. Other components of the clays are iron oxides and small amounts of illite. The pallid soils contain moderate amounts of montmorillonite in the weathering zone, some of which persists into the soil. The mbuga and black valley soils contain montmorillonite or iliite, with subordinate kaolin.


The Symposium Magic in Science took place on June 17, 2017 in Turku, Finland to celebrate the 75th birthday of our distinguished colleague Professor Grzegorz Rozenberg, U. of Leiden, U. of Colorado. The symposium was organized by Ion Petre, with help of a local team.


1. Department of Physiology, Azad University of Arsanjan, Arsanjan, Iran 2. Department of Physiology, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran 3. Department of Physiology, Azad University of Kazeron, ,Kazeron, Iran 4. Department of Physiology, Azad University of Arsanjan, Arsanjan, Iran 5. Department of Physiology, Payame Noor University of Bavanat, Fars, Iran 6. Department of Internal Medicine, Baghiatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran


In the article the data are given on jogurt import and export from 1998 to the 1 st quarter of 2001. The average contract import and export prices for the product are shown.


Outlines a new approach for managing brands that brings the process into line with recent advances in the management of flatter, customer‐facing organizations. Argues that the traditional marketing and brand‐building approach, characterized by a narrow, product‐focussed selling proposition, no longer adds sufficient customer value. As a result, a gap has arisen between the value offered by the brand and the value expected by its customers. The factors which contribute to this value gap are discussed in the context of the changing customer and the changing organization where customer value is increasingly generated by business processes traditionally outside the remit of brand management. Introduces a management tool, the Unique Organization Proposition (UOP) to bridge this value gap by integrating the company's core business processes into a visible set of credentials that adds customer value through the supply chain. Identifies and discusses the ways in which the UOP links with each of five core business processes. In conclusion argues that if marketers are to regain their role in the heart of the value‐adding process, they must lead in the management of the UOP and relegate their traditional brand engineering tools to an appropriate place in the overall UOP architecture.


The purpose of this paper is to examine the cultural and linguistic features of Chinese narrative songs of the 20th - early 21st centuries. They are explored through the theoretical frameworks and research instruments of narratology, cultural anthropology and linguistics (M. Bakhtin, R. Barthes, G. Genette, V. Propp, T. Todorov, etc.). The paper highlights the most important changes of narrative songs determined by historical events in China during the period under investigation: a) dynamics of themes, plots and attitudes towards related events - from ideological praise of the Communist party and Chair-man Mao - to a more personalized narration about people's life and love in a globalized world; b) evo-lution of characters from selfless fighters for communism with clearly defined social identity - to general-ized lyrical personalities motivated by love, suffering, kinship and loyalty to their country; c) growth of genre variability due to the relaxation of ideological pressure and the influence of Western musical culture; d) return to the values of ancient Chinese culture and restoration of traditional national identity, implemented in background knowledge, binary oppositions and intertextual connections; e) new forms of linguistic expression.The findings indicate that the algorithm of text analysis developed in the course of the research may be used to investigate other types of Chinese narratives, as well as narratives from other cultures.


. With its unique charm for student education, campus security has recently attracted extensive attention from all walks of life. The scheme design and system management of campus security prevention and control has become a hot spot in related fields. In addition to the basic campus security prevention and control design, the current security prevention and control scheme design tends to achieve more perfect campus security prevention and control from multiple directions and angles. Firstly, this paper introduces the design concept and common measures of campus security prevention and control. Secondly, the paper analyzes the surrounding environment of the school, analyzes the factors that have not been considered in school security prevention and control, and puts forward an optimization scheme of campus security prevention and control.


This paper deals with localization in wireless cellular networks. We performed measurement of the received signal strength in and around Brno city and stored the collected data. The localization approach uses multislope channel models to estimates the propagation distance from the signal strength. Results are processed by two localization techniques. The first one is geometrically based with a triangular constellation of BSs. The second one is independent on the number of connected BSs, however more linked BSs with a triangular constellation refine the localization precision. This technique uses an optimization algorithm and proves to be universal and more accurate. Keywords-Channel; localization; modelling; multislope; optimization; propagation; wireless.


Gastroschisis (gastroshisis) represents evisceration of the abdominal organs, most commonly small bowels, stomach and gonads through the front abdominal wall defect, almost always to the right of the umbilicus (90%) from which it is separated by thin skin bridge. The incidence of this anomaly is 0.5 to 4 per 10.000 liveborn babies. We presented a patient, aged 27 years, who had gastroschisis of the fetus in the 13th week of gestation diagnosed by ultrasound. Ultrasound examination is the method of choice for prenatal detection of fetal anomalies. By differential diagnosis, the possible existence of omphalocele should be eliminated using (2D, 3D) and power Doppler technology which significantly makes the assessment of gynecologist easier during establishment of the final diagnosis. Acta Medica Medianae 2011;50(4):40-44.


In July 2001 a comprehensive training package for business services successfully jumped its first hurdle on the way to endorsement when the Australian National Training Authority passed it onto the National Quality Training Council for quality checking. The Business Services Training Package includes a revised set of recordkeeping competency units based on the 1997 Records and Archives Competency Standards. The revised standards have been packaged into recommended qualifications which embrace both specialist recordkeeping qualifications and general business services qualifications. The training package may be used to construct training programs through a range of levels, from schoolleavers entering the workforce to do office work, through to professional development programs for experienced recordkeeping professionals. The process of re‐organising the 1997 competency standards into training packages has been a subject of controversy in the industry. This article provides an account of the original project to develop records management and archives competency standards and the subsequent revision project in the context of major changes in the tertiary education sector in Australia.


The invention discloses a method for manufacturing an LED epitaxial wafer with a hexagonal coarsened surface. The LED epitaxial wafer structurally comprises a substrate, a buffering layer, an N-GaN layer, a quantum well layer, a doped and coarsened P-GaN layer or a doped cover layer from bottom to top in sequence, and is characterized in that the P-GaN layer or the cover layer is doped to form a hexagonal coarsened surface structure, and a series of problems and defects existing in an existing low-temperature or wet coarsening technology are solved and overcome. The method is simple in operation, the effect of the coarsened surface of a hexagonal defect pit is obvious, more importantly, the original photoelectric property of an LED is kept unchanged, and light extraction efficiency is higher.


Passenger coaches inserted in trains travelling on railway lines of the "Deutsche Bundesbahn" with warning distances of 1000 m at speeds of higher than 140 km/h must be equipped, in addition to the conventional brake systems, with electro-magnetic track brakes which are independent of wheel/rail adhesion. Another brake system which does not resort to adhesion is the linear eddy-current brake which is supported by the journal bearing boxes. Since this brake is not subject to wear, it can be used both as an emergency or service brake. For this reason and on account of the favourable force characteristic in the upper speed range, eddy-current brakes have been chosen for the DB high-speed type ICE. The principles, development and design of this brake system are described hereafter. Moreover, the power supply, the supporting structure and the heating of the coils and running rails are dealt with.


Introduction Rubella immunisation was introduced in the UK in 1970 with the aim of preventing congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) by the selective vaccination of schoolgirls and susceptible adult women. An augmented immunisation policy, aimed at eliminating circulating rubella by the mass vaccination of children of both sexes, was adopted in October 1988 with the introduction of the combined measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine. MMR vaccine was targeted at two age groups: 1-2 year old children who were formerly given measles vaccine and 4-5 year old children who present for preschool booster doses of diphtheria/tetanus vaccine. Rubella vaccination of schoolgirls and susceptible adult women continues. The impact of the selective immunisation programme prior to the introduction of MMR vaccine is assessed using information from several sources. These include vaccine coverage figures, the prevalence of rubella infection and rubella susceptibility in pregnant women and in the general population, and reports of congenital rubella and rubella-associated terminations of pregnancy. The aim is to establish a base-line for the 3 years from 1987 to 1989 from which to evaluate the future impact of the MMR vaccination programme. The most recent information shows that 86% of schoolgirls had received rubella vaccine by age 14 in 1987-88. 1 There has been no change in uptake since 1984 suggesting that schoolgirl immunisation rates may have reached a plateau below the target rate of 95%. Data from the COVER programme (Cover of Vaccine Evaluated Rapidly) administered by the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC) indicate that uptake for MMR vaccine by 1-2 year olds is at least 8% higher than the previous uptake for measles vaccine; by November 1990 coverage of MMR vaccine by age 2 years was 89%. Sales figures for MMR vaccine indicate that uptake rates by preschool children have also been high and that many doses have been given to children outside the two targeted age groups (Dr David Salisbury, personal communication). The numbers of confirmed rubella infections in pregnant women and children reported to CDSC by laboratories in England and Wales are available from 1975 (Figure 1). These, and clinically diagnosed rubella cases reported to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) by 'sentinel practices' (Figure 2), provide information on the epidemiology of acquired rubella before the introduction of MMR vaccination. (Rubella only became a statutory notifiable disease in October 1988.) All three indices show an epidemic pattern with an approximate four year cycle, and a declining …


The Joint Committee of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has recently named the prizewinners of the DFG's Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme for 2004. The most valuable research prize in Germany goes to eleven scientists and academics, two women and nine men. Among them is Professor Dr.Ing. Dierk Raabe, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research in Dusseldorf, Germany. This prize means not only a high award, but also funds of 1.55 million euro. This sum is dedicated to research work over a five-year period and can be used flexibly by the prizewinners, depending on their specific requirements. The Leibniz programme, set up in 1985, aims to improve the working conditions for outstanding researchers, to extend their research opportunities, to relieve them of administrative work and to make it easier for them to employ particularly qualified young researchers. Scientists and academics from all research areas can be nominated for the award. The DFG Nominations Committee considers the many suggestions which it receives for the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and above all selects researchers who can be expected to particularly advance their scientific achievement with this additional funding. This year's prizewinners again include a number of younger researchers; and Professor Raabe is the youngest among them. Dierk Raabe already at an early age had a decisive influence on modem materials science. His work deals with the relationship between the microstructure and the properties of metallic materials. His basic research is positioned at the borders between materials science, physics and mathematics and is of great technical relevance to industrial production processes and other applications. His particular scientific excellence is demonstrated by the fact that the development of simulation methods based on material physical properties which he initiated has now matured into the new discipline of "Computational Materials Science" and is developing rapidly all around the world (see also figure). His latest work on the mechanics of interfaces and surfaces is of outstanding significance to the new field of nanomaterials (for more information on his new working group see [I]). Dierk Raabe studied metallurgy arid metal physics at RWTH Aachen. After research work on textures of bee metals he received his doctorate already in 1992. Then he worked on microstructure simulation in materials science and gained habilitation in Aachen four years later. As Heisenberg fellow he went to Carnegie Mellon University as a Visiting Scientist at the Department for Materials Science and Engineering; he also worked at the US National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee. From there he was appointed as a Scientific Member and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research in Dusseldorf in 1999. He is head of the department of Microstructue Physics and Metal Forming. Prof. Raabe published ca. 100 papers (Peer Review) and 3 books and was already awarded numerous honours:


Abstract In this paper we consider an age replacement policy of a system subject to shocks with number-dependent minimal repair and random lead lime. Introducing cost due to ordering, repairs, shortage and holding, we derive the expected cost per unit time in the long-run as a criterion of optimality and seek the optimum age replacement policy by minimizing that cost. Various special cases are discussed


In the present work, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) capped Zn1-xSmxS (0.0001 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) nanoclusters were prepared using conventional chemical co-precipitation technique. The synthesized samples were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and UV-Vis absorption studies. The XRD and TEM studies reveal that the synthesized ZnS nanocrystals have cubic (zinc blende) structure with average crystalline size ~28 nm. Photocatalytic activity under ultra violet (UV) light exposure has been studied using methylene blue (MB) dye as test contaminant. A possible mechanism is proposed to explain the charge carrier recombination and interfacial charge transfer processes. It has been found the optimum amount of Sm doping and increased adsorption ability of light due to high separation rate of photoinduced charge carriers, which play an important role i enhancing the overall photocatalytic performance significantly.


This paper addresses the robust tracking of mobile robots with uncertain parameter variations. Based on the fact that a controllable driftless system with \%m\% inputs and at most \%m+2\% state variables is a differentially flat system, we develop a robust control approach to the trajectory tracking problem of a three wheel mobile robot via the dynamical extension approach and adaptive variable structure control technique. By applying the dynamical extension approach to the kinematic model of the three wheel mobile robot, the exact linearization of the extended dynamic feedback system is first realized under mild regular condition. In designing the robust control law we adopt the control interpolation in a boundary layer and on line parameter estimation to avoid the control chattering under large parameter uncertainties. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to show the efficiency of the proposed approach.


The therapeutic use of radiation approaches the ideal when a truly selective effect can be produced on a tumor with minimal changes in normal tissues that may be exposed to the treatment beam. This is rarely achieved and a certain amount of radiation injury invariably occurs. With elaboration of radiotherapeutic technics, including supervoltage therapy, rotational methods, and various shielding devices, physical methods of protecting tissues have achieved a place in clinical practice. The study to be reported here is the first part of a broad program of investigation of chemical methods of protecting segmentally irradiated organs and tissues as in standard radiotherapeutics. In the past decade, the study of radioprotective substances has received increasing attention not only from the radiotherapeutic point of view but also in relation to their role in threatened atomic warfare. Of particular interest in the development of current concepts of chemical radioprotection is the work of Patt (1) and associates...


Background

The 10-item short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-SF) has been utilized worldwide. However, there is no Japanese version. Furthermore, the PTGI-SF does not capture a broader category of existential spiritual growth that has been incorporated in the more recent Expanded version of the PTG Inventory (PTGI-X). Thus, we developed a Japanese version of the Short Form (PTGI-X-SF-J), which reflects more diverse perspectives on existential and spiritual growth.
Methods

A cross-sectional study using questionnaires was conducted in Japan. The first sample consisted of 408 university students, and the second sample comprised 284 university students. Exploratory factor analysis was performed using data from the first sample. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, and reliability and validity were confirmed using the second sample.
Results

The PTGI-X-SF-J is composed of 10 items including two items from each of the five subscales of the PTGI-X, similar to the original version of the PTGI-SF, and this model fits the data well. Items concerning existential/spiritual change in the PTGI-X-SF-J were "I feel more connected with all of existence" and "I have a greater sense of harmony with the world," which were not included in the original PTGI-SF. The score of the PTGI-X-SF-J was significantly correlated with the scores of the Core Beliefs Inventory and the Event Related Rumination Inventory-Deliberate; however, no correlation was observed with the scores of the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5.
Conclusions

We developed the PTGI-X-SF-J using 10 items to measure PTG among people whose first language is Japanese and confirmed its factor structure, reliability, and validity. The PTGI-X-SF-J is useful for assessing PTG more efficiently and accurately as it considers more diverse spiritual/existential experiences of personal growth and reduces physical and psychological burdens due to its brevity.


Various aspects must be taken into account when working with wind-diesel hybrid systems for the generation of electricity especially in remote areas. Reliability and cost are two of these aspects. On the other hand, various mathematical models of the elements that make up these systems can be used, as well as various design and simulation models. This paper will review the simulation and design models of the hybrid systems that have been used up to this moment in time, indicating which tools have been developed for this purpose.


The paper presents a general framework for interval comparison for preference modelling purposes. Two dimensions are considered in order to establish such a framework: the type of preference structure to be considered and the number of values associated to each interval. It turns out that is possible to characterise well known preference structures as special cases of this general framework.


It is suggested that the right-angled technique for deep injection of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine into the deltoid area of young children should not be used. In this technique the mother holds the childs arm and the vaccinator holds the syringe leading to possibilities for changes in the position of the needle point and poor operator control of the situation. The result may be a superficial injection or even an inadvertent intravenous injection. Preferable is the oblique-angled technique in which the operator holds the childs arm and the end of the syringe in 1 hand so the movement between the 2 is reduced. A 25 mm needle is essential because the oblique insertion involves a longer traverse to reach the deep layer of the subcutaneous tissue. It is estimated that serious reactions to DTP vaccine occur each year once in 3 million of the general population.


Strategies of general medical journals are discussed with National Medicine Journal of China as example.First and foremost,select multidisciplinary issues,arrange various columns and reinforce the functions of editoral board to strengthen the publication of high-quality works.Next,increase the communication with mass media,establish digital publishing platform and strengthen service awareness to improve the development of public service system.Last but not least,promote the market system.Thus journal development and society service can be integrated and the proper solution to implement "12th Five-Year Plan of press and publication" are offered.


Gender Issues is interdisciplinary and cross-national in scope focusing on gender and gender equity. The journal publishes basic and applied research examining gender relationships as well as the impact of economic, legal, political, and social forces on those relationships across four domains: 1. Understanding gender socialization, personality, and behavior in a gendered context. 2. Exploring the wide range of relationships within the gender spectrum, such as acquaintances, friendships, romantic, and professional relationships. 3. Assessing the impact of economic, legal, political, and social changes on gender identity, expression, and gender relations. 4. Interpreting the impact of economic, legal, political, and social changes on the aspirations, status and roles of people internationally.


We thank the authors for their thoughtful commentary on our paper [1]. In our article, we described our institution experiences, challenges, and successes in creating geographic rounding (i.e. hospitalists assigned to a particular nursing unit or geographic assignment) for the hospital medicine program. Dr Wang and Dr Nguyen illustrate the struggles their program has had implementing a similar model and provide an excellent analysis as to the difficulty of this model when taking into account the work flow of an entire hospital [2]. In regard to some of their specific concerns, we would add the following. In terms of resident buy-in, we were successful in achieving this as our residents on wards work exclusively with academic hospitalists who are part of the larger hospital medicine team. We intentionally placed an academic hospitalist with a resident team and a nonteaching hospitalist on each floor to account for the excess volume over resident caps. We have struggled operationalizing geographic admitting with resident teams due to fluctuating unit capacity for new admits and time constraints for duty hours. The writers outlined concerns about the geographic rounding and admitting process causing bottlenecks for the emergency department and intensive care units. Like all large hospitals, our patient volume from the emergency department and intensive care unit does vary. We have a max census for each hospitalist per day, which usually includes one admission to their floor. Once that admission is received by the hospitalist on the geographic unit, further admissions go to a backup admitting team. We would agree that patients who bounce back should ideally go to the discharging physician; both bed availability and our provider schedule (7 on/7 off) limit our ability to do so. In terms of evening and overnight coverage of admissions, the off hour teams admit all patients no matter which geographic area they are being admitted to. Admitted patients from the prior evening and overnight are then assigned in the morning to the appropriate geographic hospitalist. If patients are in queue to be admitted, those patients are also assigned in the morning if possible to the geographically assigned hospitalist. Nurse staffing is also a legitimate concern. In our institution, we have the ability to open extra floors when the volume is high. Nurse staffing is taken into account by the administration when those floors are opened. We then assign hospitalists to that floor if possible or assign those patients to flex teams. As discussed in our paper, we do have flex teams which by definition are not geographically assigned and are used to either see patients when hospitalists in a geographic area are capped or when we have surges in census. Lastly, we agree that multidisciplinary care is the expectation and standard of care for all our patients and that high patient volume can limit the abilities of our colleagues including social work, case management, pharmacists, and physical and occupational therapists, leading to bottlenecks and delays in discharge. Again, we thank DrWang andDr Nguyen for their commentary and would agree there remains work to be done to ensure patient and physician continuity and overall work flow in the hospital.


In 2015 India released the final text of a model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) which sought to optimise the balance between these two goals, and which was to form the basis for negotiations of BITs with other countries. The text was perceived as a particularly radical departure from the existing status quo, and has been the subject of significant commentary and discussion. This contribution seeks to situate the 2015 Indian model BIT in the historico-legal context of India's engagement with investment arbitration.

Section I sets out a brief history of India's engagement with investment treaties and investment arbitration in an attempt to place the model BIT in the historical context of India's engagement with investment treaties and investment arbitration. Sections II to IV undertake a detailed analysis of scope and jurisdictional issues (Section II), substantive provisions (Section III) and the dispute resolution mechanism (Section IV) in the new model BIT, in an effort to provide a legal context to the model. By analysing the text of the model BIT and comparing it against previous model and negotiated texts, these sections hope to provide an insight into the genesis and rationale for the major innovations introduced by the 2015 Model.


This study constitutes a preliminary survey within the project "Lake and groundwater paleohydrology of the Vomb plain, southern Sweden, for quantitative paleoclimatic calibration".
The aim of the study is to describe the Holocene sediment stratigraphy of the former lakes Fonesjon and Kalvsjon (Kalvs mosse), and furthermore to describe and date stratgraphical indications of climatically caused lake-level changes in the Early Holocene.
The Vomb plain is a flat area situated in the south-central part of the province of Scania, South Sweden. It consists of glacifluvial deposits, mainly sand, which compose an important groundwater supply. Within the plain a number of lakes are situated, and these are entirely dependent on the supply of groundwater. The lake levels are strictly defined by the position of the water table and the groundwater flow in the surrounding permeable deposits.
The two investigated lakes are kettle-holes, today completely filled with Holocene organic sediments. The stratigraphy is built up mainly by gyttja and algae gyttja with an increasing amount of minerogenic matter towards the bottom. In some places distinct layers of silt and sand occur in the lower part of the organic sediments. The Holocene sediments are resting on sand, silt, clay and clay-gyttja, deposited during the Late Weichselian.
The methods used were determination of loss on ignition, pollen analysis and measurement of magnetic susceptibility. By these methods it was possible to demonstrate that some of the stratigraphical records probably were caused by climatic
changes.
The study was also compared with a paleohydrological reconstruction from Lake Bysjon, a nearby site which earlier has been thoroughly investigated, resulting in a detailed Holocene water-level curve.
The present results show that a distinct lowering of the water table occured in the area during the zones PB and BO 1 in the Early Holocene. The water level then rose substantially during the zone BO 2, and remained high throughout the rest of the Holocene, however possibly with some minor fluctuations.
The two former lakes included in this study seem to be suitable for further investigatiotls within the project, as the conditions are favourable for paleohydrological reconstructions.


Primary cilia are microtubule-based signaling organelles present in the plasma membrane of most cell types, including mature astrocytes and neurons. However, little is known about the role of this organelle in the mature brain. Data from our lab show that neuronal primary cilia (nPC) is required for soluble amyloid beta oligomer signaling and modulation of autophagy, and that these events are age dependent. Here, we hypothesize that astrocytes react to the loss of nPC and that aging might impact these events. For that purpose, we have characterized morphological changes in astrocytes as well as in the cilium and autophagy of these cells in brain tissue from young and old mice with impaired PC in neurons. Our results show that upon loss of PC in neurons astrocytes become reactive and reduce their lysosomal capacity, an effect that is reinforced with aging. Moreover, aging reduced the pool of ciliated astrocytes, which might impact their ability to react to extracellular events. Overall, our data suggest that the PC might act an intermediary in the communication between astrocytes and neurons. Highlights of the paper Astrocytes become reactive upon loss of primary cilia in neurons, which is reinforced during aging. Astrocytes in the old brain are less ciliated. Loss of neuronal primary cilia decreases lysosomal capacity in astrocytes in age-dependent manner.


J. M. Orbes's 'She would have' is a vignette turning on themes of absence and forgetting, and exploring contrasts between mundane event and formal play.


This technical paper details the outcome of the development of a quality assurance (QA) system for transport modelling tasks. We primarily focus on general QA procedures which are relevant to all modelling projects. We set out good practice operating procedures for the naming, storage and logging of critical input and output data, covering model directories, interfaces and log files and the use of version control and configuration management. All model updates and scenarios need to be reviewed and approved by a nominated technical reviewer with knowledge of the model and the modelling software. We also look at the QA systems for setting up the base model and for scenario testing. For the base models there is a focus on calibration and validation acceptance tests while clear file naming and configuration management are needed to reduce the possibility of errors in scenario testing, where large numbers of scenarios and input assumptions are incorporated. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E216058.


Effect of carbide addition on the surface characteristics of aluminum alloy 5083 has been investigated with the plasma transferred arc welding process (DCSP) of NbC, TiC or SiC powder. Optimum overlaying conditions under which bead appearance is superior and porosities in overlaid metal are lesser are determined. Moreover some characteristics of overlaid metal containing carbide are evaluated under these optimum conditions. The results are summarized as follows: (1) The maximum area fraction of carbide in overlaid metal is about 40% for NbC and TiC, and about 30% for SiC, (2) Vickers hardness of overlaid metal containing carbide is in the range between 111 and 141hgf/mm2, (3) Abrasive resistance of overlaid metal at higher sliding speed is remarkably improved by the addition of carbide although that at lower sliding speed is not almost improved, (4) In the 180 degree bend test, cracks appear not in the boundary layer between overlaid and base metals but only in overlaid zone, meaning that the boundary layer is sound enough for ductility.


The paper describes a single-board ionizing-radiation monitor which uses HM65162 SRAMs as sensors. They are sensitive to single event upsets and latchups, and can thus detect highly ionizing radiation and alarm in case of excess radiation conditions, like heavy solar flares. The monitor is a low cost, low weight (230 grams), extremely low power consumption (<15 /spl mu/W) unit and is easily implanted in any satellite. It will serve on board of TechSAT, the Technion satellite.


This paper reports the development of MIMO channel sounder operating at 11 GHz with 400 MHz bandwidth. The sounder utilizes the software radio architecture to measure the full MIMO channels simultaneously, since the same hardware can be also used to test the real-time data transmission.


The increasing demand for the densification of the national airspace in various social and economic applications have pressed aviation authorities to reduce aircraft separation, allowing more efficient operations in Air Traffic Management (ATM) in a given air space. However, issues related to the safety of air traffic operations arise when considering the possibility of reducing aircraft separation. Thus, surveillance plays a key role in monitoring and controlling air traffic in new scenarios. The accuracy of positional information provided by the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), originally designed to improve situational awareness for pilots and support controllers in air traffic management, is fundamental in order to avoid exposure to events of loss of separation (AIRPROX) and collisions for new Global ATM paradigm. This paper presents a qualitative approach to assess safety when using ADS-B systems considering its data integrity as a relevant factor for safety in aerial systems in aeronautical operations for different scenarios. A testing platform – the Integrated Platform for Testing Critical Embedded Systems (PIpE-SEC) – is also presented as a possible solution for this safety evaluation.


A composite conductive paste was prepared using Ni powder and Ag-Cu powder as the conductive fillers, and modified polyurethane resin (PUR) as the matrix. The conductive coatings were cured after being applied onto polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films. Results show that when the mass ratio of the Ag-Cu powder, Ni powder and resin matrix was 13 : 2 : 5, the resistivity of the prepared conductive paste reached a minimum value of 7.92 × 10–4 Ω·cm and the binding force between the conductive coating and PET film was 20.1 N. In addition, the prepared coatings also exhibited good corrosion resistance in a neutral corrosive environment. Even after being bent 50 times, they showed no significant change, still exhibiting good corrosion resistance and bending performance.


A cisoid E,E-1,4-diperfluorophenyl-1,3-butadiene has been prepared in which offset stacking between perfluorophenyl–perfluorophenyl rings occurs, and face-to-face stacking between phenyl–perfluorophenyl rings is found in crystals of its 1 : 1 complex with a cisoid E,E-1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene.


T hE combinat ion of ipsilateral optic a t rophy and contra la tera l papilledenm was emi)hasized as a syndrolne characteristic of basal f rontal t umor by Foster Kennedy in 1911. 7-9 T h e purpose of this report is to alert neurologists and neurosurgeons to certain pitfalls in the diagnosis of the Foster Kenned y syndrome by illust ra t ing nonsurgical causes of similar ophthahnoscoi)ic findings.


The pollution of arsenic in non ferrous industry and the methods preventing the pollution are reviewed in the present paper. In China there are about 30 000 T arsenic every year being put into smelteries.But most of them can not be utilized effectively.So it is very important to find a way to utilize arsenic comprehensirely.Arsenic is mainly used in wood antiseptics and termite prevention. The present status and the importance of wood antiseptics and termite prevention are then reported. Wood antiseptics containing arsenic is discussed in detail. There are four generations of antiseptics, and the former three are ZMA, CZA, CuCZA. The fourth generation consists four types, which are FCAP, ACA, CCA and ACZA. CCA is used most widely and is most effective at present.The performances and characteristics of wood antiseptics containing arsenic are then given. They are wide scope of aplication,good antiseptic effect,convinient to deal with the wood,no second pollution and low cost.The trend of utilization of wood antiseptics containing arsenic is analyzed briefly. In the end, the countermeasures for arsenic prevention are presented. They are curing and packing, comprehensive utilization, direct utilization and the development of wood antiseptics containing arsenic.


The theoretical basis of generalised versions of the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) are reviewed and used to support their use in evaluating the autoregressive conditional duration (ACD) models that are widely used in the analysis of fine scale financial series. This provides a more solid theoretical underpinning, whilst allowing for greater generality, than the consistent information criteria discussed in our last paper (Xie and Cowpertwait, 2014). Using an Exponential and Weibull distribution of errors, the likelihood functions for two ACD models are derived and used to fit the models to IBM transaction data. The fitted models are compared using AIC and the derived generalised AIC. Both information criteria show that a Weibull distribution of errors provides the best fit to the transaction data, although the presence of autocorrelation in the residual errors indicates that further work would be needed before the models are used in practical applications.


This paper examines the findings of 278 companies sampled systematically from a list of the Chinese companies that have become listed in the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges in order to assess the proportions and positions of the female members in the upper levels of management in these companies. Reviewing these companies' 2004 annual reports, this paper recognizes gender differences existing in the upper levels of management in these listed companies. Firstly, the proportion of senior positions held by women is 13.52 percent. The proportion of women members in the board is 10.73 percent. The proportion of key positions held by women is much low. Secondly, women tend to have a higher proportion of deputy positions than that of chief positions though women and men who hold senior positions have similar educational background. Thirdly, the average age of women holding senior positions is lower than that of men.


We present the high angular resolution catalogue for the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey, using the high angular resolution 6-km antenna data at the baselines of � 4500 m of the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). We have used the data to produce the visibility catalogue that separates the compact Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) from the extended radio sources at the 0.15 arcsec angular scale, corresponding to t he linear size scale of 1 kpc at redshifts higher than 0.7. We find the radio population at 20 G Hz to be dominated by compact AGNs constituting 77% of the total sources in the AT20G. We introduce the visibility-spectra diagnostic plot, produced using the AT20G cross-matches with lower frequency radio surveys at 1 GHz (the NRAO-VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) and the Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS)), that separates the 20 GHz population into distinct sub-populations of the compact AGNs, the compact steep-spectrum sources, the extended AGN-powered sources and extended flat- spectrum sources. The extended flat-spectrum sources include a local thermal emitting population of high latitude planetary nebulae and also gravitational lens and binary black hole candidates among the AGNs. We find a smooth transit ion in properties between the compact CSS sources and the AGN populations. The visibility catalogue, together with the main AT20G survey, provides an estimate of angular size scales for sources in the AT20G and an estimate of the flux arising from central cores of extended radio sources. The identification of the compact AGNs in the AT20G survey pro vides high quality calibrators for high frequency radio telescope arrays and VLBI o bservations.


This short article explains my joint research with J. Scott Carter and Joachim Rieger, \A combinatorial description of knotted surfaces and their isotopies" 3]. For other topics in knotted surface theory that I am interested, see the book with J. Scott Carter \Knotted Surfaces and Their Diagrams" 4]. Please also check publication list in my home page for more details. This article is intended for people with little background in Mathematics or Knot Theory. In the above mentioned paper we provided new methods for the study of knotted surfaces in the 4-dimensional space by visual-izations. The methods we proposed include movie descriptions where we regard the 4-dimensional space as the space-time, and projections of knotted surfaces into the 3-space where they can be actually visualized.


Ab initio studies of molecular structures and properties of the Li + Ar n complexes were carried out. The investigation of the Li + Ar dimer with the MP2(FULL)/6-31 1G+(3df) method provides satisfactory agreement with the available experimental data. This conclusion is extrapolated for larger Li + Ar n (n > 1) clusters which are studied within this level of theory. The reported complexes are stable and deserve the future experimental efforts. The obtained results indicate that the consecutive complexes represent the most symmetrical structures possible with the closing shell for the Li + Ar 6 cation. The dissociation energies as well as interaction energy components follow systematic paths of changes. The reveled clusters are different from their H + Ar n predecessors characterized by two solvation shells of 7 ligands total and are also different from Na + Ar n clusters for which the single shell may accommodate eight argons. The Ar-Ar interactions do not influence geometries of small complexes but are noticeable in larger structures due to repulsive forces caused by the lack of space around the central cation.


AbstractResidential areas are major areas of runoff during urban floods, and many low-impact development (LID) measures have been developed to alleviate runoff at the source. In this paper, our goa...


Headache is one of the most common side effects of Indomethacin. This headache is of interest because the drug has analgesic properties and does not stimulate pain receptors. Moreover, according to investigations in animals, it has no definite vasomotor activity. Experiments are described in which it is demonstrated that Indo-methacin produces intracranial vasoconstriction. It is suggested that Indo-methacin evokes a vascular headache when vascular dilatation occurs subsequent to the vasoconstriction described above. The effects of the drug in migraine are due principally to the vasoconstrictor action of the compound; analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities may play a supplementary role. It is concluded that Indo-methacin may be regarded as an interesting new drug, and of possible therapeutic use in the treatment of migraine headache


The relationship between the load of power system and other influencing factors is strong coupling,multivariable,very non-linear,and dynamic.Traditional prediction cannot realize high accuracy,while dynamic recurrent nerve network(Elman) can reflect the dynamic nature of the system in a more direct and effective way.A prediction model of power load was established based on Elman neural network in this paper.By cases of prediction,the modeling effect of Elman network and BP network structure was compared.Simulation experiment shows that Elman neural network bears features such as dynamic,fast in network training and high accuracy,which proves that Elman prediction model is a fresh and reliable way of power load prediction.


A major challenge in integrated services packet networks is the design of packet multiplexing systems to support different QoS requirements. We focus on the problem of satisfying different loss requirements. In time-slotted multiplexing systems, one may have batch arrivals (i.e., simultaneous arrivals in a time slot), and it is necessary to reject some of the packets in a batch when there is an insufficient number of available buffers. We propose a simple and intelligent probabilistic mechanism for rejecting packets in order to meet the loss requirements. It may be used as a selective discard mechanism to provide different QoS levels in terms of loss (weighted fair blocking). It may also be used to achieve fairness (balanced fair blocking). It offers important advantages and gains relative to existing approaches while being very simple. It allows decoupling of buffer dimensioning from the parameterization of a discard mechanism. It is universal in the sense that it may be used on top of many discrete-time multiplexing schemes. It also reduces the buffer space needed to meet loss requirements compared to natural rejection methods such as random selection. The mechanism is derived explicitly for two Markov modulated Bernoulli sources. The derivation for an arbitrary number of Bernoulli sources is formulated as a linear programming problem.


This paper investigates asymptotic stabilization for linear systems over networks based on event-driven communication. A new communication logic is proposed to reduce the feedback effort, which has some advantages over traditional ones with continuous feedback. Considering the effect of time-varying transmission delays, the criteria for the design of both the feedback gain and the event-triggering mechanism are derived to guarantee the stability and performance requirements. Finally, the proposed techniques are illustrated by an inverted pendulum system and a numerical example.


Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women diagnosed, according to figures from developing nations. One of the well-known risk factors for cervical cancer, HPV 16 or HPV 18, is responsible for more than 70% of new instances of the disease. The human papillomavirus (HPV) changed cervical cancer screening, and researchers started seeking for alternatives to conventional cytological exams that would be helpful in underdeveloped areas. A key step in the pathophysiology of cervical cancer is natural language processing (NLP), which is essential for retrieving structured data from electronic health records (EHRs). It is essential to improving healthcare. In the past ten years, the area of pathology has made a number of advancements as a result of the use of NLP to pathology reports. This work focuses on the integration of natural language processing into the creation of digital cytopathology systems for the identification of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.


The pseudopotentials of particle interaction, taking into account quantum-mechanical effects of diffraction at short distances and also screening effects at large distances, are obtained for a partially ionized plasma. The dielectric function method was used.


The spin and space symmetry of negative ions of polar molecules are studied. It was previously known that a dipole moment exceeding 1·625 debye is a sufficient condition for the existence of the corresponding ion. It is shown that such an ion has the same space symmetry in its electronic wavefunction as does the neutral molecule. Additional negative ion states of one or more other symmetries exist if the molecule has a symmetry axis or plane, and has a dipole moment exceeding 9·638 debye. The above results are proven in the approximation that the nuclei are held stationary.


Mooring chain systems, mainly used in Floating Production Storage and Off-loading (FPSO) vessels are composed of metallic chains coupled with polyester cables. It is known that the failure of even one of those chains can have catastrophic consequences, ranging from environmental pollution to loss of lives. Many causes of early failure of those chains have been identified, fretting wear being a very important one. This type of wear occurs in between links, which exhibit torsional reciprocating motion. This study focuses on determining the suitability of a specific polymer blend, i.e. Polycarbonate/Acrylonitrile-ButadieneStyrene (PC/ABS) with a 60:40 weight ratio, to coat a R3-graded offshore steel mooring chain link. To accomplish that, experimental testing was done in a sphere-to-flat configuration with two material pairings: R3 x PC/ABS 60:40 and R3 x R3 (called the reference condition). Tests were made with 1.0 kN and 2.0 kN normal loads, for 0, 50, 100 and 200 kcycles of ±1.0◦ range at 5 Hz. Wear scars were analyzed with a confocal laser microscope. The PC/ABS samples showed much higher wear rates than R3 steel. However, the former also exhibited a remarkably predictable behavior, whereas R3 displayed a highly non-linear evolution of wear with increasing number of cycles. From that predictable behavior, it can be estimated that a 5 mm thick coating of this polymer blend could extend the lifetime of a mooring chain link by 25.4 M cycles at 1.0 kN and by 4.6 M cycles at 2.0 kN. Given the results, it is concluded that PC/ABS 60:40 could indeed lead to a significant increase in component lifetime and reliability of a mooring system.


Abstract The recent, development of industrial robots has produced quite powerful and cost-effective manipulators. Some crucial operations, as managing parts with random orientation or realigning pieces, can now be solved with the aid of vision systems connected with the manipulator. Quality control can be partially done during the assembly itself. The solutions we may adopt to integrate manipulation and vision can be various. If we want to make it easy to program the system as a whole, with the same programming language, we should study solutions in which manipulation and vision use high-level languages To this end we will discuss how the choice of the programming language for the application programs is crucial. The hardware and software structures of an operational example of such a system are presented. Examples of programs are given


The uptake, metabolism, tissue distribution and excretion of four sulphonamides and trimethoprim following bath treatment of Atlantic halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossus L., were studied. Bath treatment using a concentration of 200 μg ml–1 for 72 h resulted in peak sulphadimidine concentrations in muscle and abdominal organ homogenates of 32·6 and 68·2 μg g–1, respectively. The corresponding values were 24·4 and 73·4 μg g–1 for sulphaguanidine, 6·1 and 45·1 μg g–1 for sulphamethoxazole, 2·1 and 15·1 μg g–1 for sulphadimethoxine, and 99 and 169 μg g–1 for trimethoprim. After a 72-h treatment, approximately 90% of the sulphadimethoxine and sulphamethoxazole present in tissues was found as the N4-acetylated metabolite, whereas for sulphadimidine and sulphaguanidine, the N4-acetylations were from 9 to 23%. Based on these preliminary absorption studies, sulphadimidine was chosen as the companion sulphonamide to trimethoprim. Using a combination of 500 μg ml–1 sulphadimidine and 100 μg ml–1 trimethoprim in the bath for 72 h, peak muscle and liver concentrations of 262 and 312 μg g–1, respectively, for sulphadimidine and 32·8 and 83·6 μg g–1, respectively, for trimethoprim were achieved. Elimination half-lives (t1/2β) for sulphadimidine were calculated to be 35 and 48 h for muscle and liver, respectively. The corresponding values for trimethoprim were 98 and 116 h. Using the 95% confidence limit for single observations (95% prediction limit) and a maximum residue limit (MRL) value of 0·05 μg g–1 for trimethoprim and 0·1 μg g–1 for sulphadimidine, the elimination times (Et95) for muscle and liver were calculated to be 18 and 26 days, respectively, for sulphadimidine and 40 and 55 days, respectively, for trimethoprim. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) values against selected strains of Vibrio sp. were equal to or above 128 μg ml–1 for sulphadimidine, between 0·25 and 4·00 μg ml–1 for trimethoprim and between 0·4 and 8·8 μg ml–1 for various ratios of the sulphadimidine:trimethoprim combination. In the tested ratios, the combined antimicrobial action of trimethoprim and sulphadimidine were synergistic, as revealed by their fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) indices. In general, the 1:5 trimethoprim sulphadimidine ratio showed the highest degree of synergism. Using a combination of 500 μg ml–1 sulphadimidine and 100 μg ml–1 trimethoprim in the bath for 72 h, concentrations greater than a MIC value of 0·8 μg ml–1 were maintained for 22 days in muscle and 29 days in liver. In a laboratory challenge experiment using Vibrio anguillarum strain HI 11347, a significantly lower mortality was observed in the drug-treated group (40%) compared to the untreated control group (93%).


Recently, Emilia et al[1][1] reported a high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and a significant increase in platelet count after bacterium eradication. In this study, we analyzed the correlation between H pylori infection and HLA


We distinguish two types of sensitivity analyses: local and global studies. In contrast, to the local sensitivity study, the global one accounts for parameter correlations. That is the reason, why we employ in this work a global sensitivity study. Unfortunately, global sensitivity studies have the disadvantage that they are computationally extremely demanding. Hence, they are prohibitive even for state-of-the-art finite element simulations.


The work deals with a moment and a time element in the photographic media. It offers various meanings of the word moment and explains it's coherence with some of the photographic genres. Later it explores different ways of interpreting the moment and time. These various artistic approaches vers the subject are demonstrated on works of individual artists.


The most important section of quaternary deposits in the coastal plain of Israel has been recently described in a quarry near kibbutz Evron in the northern part of the country (Western Galilee Coastal plain, fig. 1) (1). Later, the quarry section was tied into an east-west transect across the northern coastal plain (2). The transect was shown (fig. 2) to include three soils (continental phases) intercalated between four layers of sandstone (ingressions). The existence in the vicinity of Evron of three superposed Acheulean assemblages renders the Evron transect of a prime importance for both prehistoric and geological-pedological studies. Investigations by the present authors have shown that the description given by Issar and Kafri was oversimplified. We intend to discuss the stratigraphy here, while the industries will be treated elsewhere (3).


An installation structure for a roof frame of a car is provided. A roof side bean (3) of the roof frame is fixed on a side wall upper longitudinal beam (4) of a side wall frame along the longitudinal direction of the car. The installation structure for the roof frame comprises a support member (5) fixed on the side wall upper longitudinal beam (4) and a roof cross beam (1) of the roof frame from the interior of the car. The support member (5) and the roof cross beam (1) are located in the same cross section of the car. The installation structure for the roof frame can remarkably increase the rigidity and the strength of the upper structure of a body frame, so that the roof frame of the car can be prevented from serious deformation toward the interior of the car when a side rollover car accident occurs so as to ensure the safety of passengers.


Superficially the syndrome observed in dogs (1) after fatal X-irradiation resembles that reported in traumatic and hemorrhagic shock (2, 3). The circulatory changes in radiation shock, however, have not been so thoroughly studied as have those in other types of shock. To be sure, a fall in blood pressure has been observed in rats 2 to 5 hours after X-irradiation (4, 5), but this early change is not shown by dogs (6). In these animals large doses of irradiation which are fatal in 3 to 8 days produce a terminal reaction characterized by elevated body temperature, a rapid heart rate, and lowered blood pressure (7, 8). In the present study, the changes in the cardiovascular system (cardiac output, systolic and diastolic pressures, venous pressure, and heart rate), respiratory system (pulmonary ventilation, blood gases), and metabolism (02 consumption, C02 production, R.Q., body weight, food and water intake) were measured at intervals in splenectomized dogs, before and after exposure to lethal doses of total-body Xirradiation. These physiological changes were correlated with the clinical observations and pathological findings. A dosage of 1000 r was selected because the effects are reproducible, the survival time is predictable within narrow limits, and the course of the changes in blood volume is known (1, 9).


To test the response of a natural benthic microbial assemblage to differences in the composition of organic matter supply, surface sediments from the Arctic continental slope (1000 n~ water depth) were enriched with a vanety of organic compounds. Glycine and glucose represent substrates which can be directly utilized by bactena; protein, chitin, cellulose, starch and the lipld Tween require extracellular hydrolysis by peptidase, chitobiase, P-glucosidase, a-glucosidase and lipase, respectively. The effect of these enrichments on hydrolytic activity potentlals and on several parameters of microbial biomass was observed over a period of 63 d. Within 10 d , specific activities of P-glucosidase and chitobiase were enhanced by their respective substrates by a factor of 10 to 20. a-Glucosidase and peptidase were greatly inhibited in the presence of glucose and glycine, respectively. Peptidase, a-glucosidase and lipase activities were not induced by their respective substrates. The supply of starch, lipid and cellulose d ~ d not cause detectable growth of the bacterial assemblage for the whole p e r ~ o d of the experiment. Enrichment with ylycine, albumin, chitin and glucose resulted in significant biomass production of the bacterial populations with similar growth rates of 0.1 d.' after a lag phase of up to 10 d. However, the supply of amino acid sources resulted in a 60% higher bacterial biomass yield after 63 d compared to chitin and glucose.


536 Background: This group previously showed that fractionated epirubicin (EPI) alone is an active, well tolerated adjuvant regimen in postmenopausal women (Wils, JCO, 1999). DEVA evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of incorporating docetaxel (DOC) to create a sequential anthracycline-taxane regimen. Methods: Following complete tumour excision, postmenopausal women with node-positive EBC were randomised to either EPI 50 mg/m2 d1 and 8 every 4 weeks for 6 cycles, or EPI-DOC 3 cycles EPI (as above) then 3 cycles of docetaxel 100 mg/m2 d1 every 3 weeks. Patients with ER positive EBC also received endocrine therapy for 5 years. Disease-free survival (DFS) (local and distant relapse, 2nd primary breast cancer, intercurrent death) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Results: From 1997 to 2005, 803 patients at 36 centres entered DEVA (EPI n = 397, EPI-DOC n = 406). 198 DFS events have been reported (EPI-DOC n = 84 EPI n = 114); median follow-up 64.7 months (IQR 45.2-84.4 months). 5-year DFS rates were EPI-...


Abstract The illicit use of anabolic steroids amongst the gym population continues to rise in the United Kingdom presenting serious challenges to public health. This study used qualitative interviews to explore the experiences of 24 users of anabolic steroids and investigate their motives and experiences. Body satisfaction was a motivating factor in the use of anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroid users' drug use and associated behaviour were influenced by numerous sources of information, in particular, first-hand accounts of their peers, along with personal opinion and anecdotes on the Internet. As a result of this knowledge, users expressed their belief that these drugs can be used relatively safely. The prevailing viewpoint, that the harms associated with anabolic steroids can be managed and that this behaviour is part of a healthy lifestyle, contributes to the potential health risks.


The present invention relates to an ethylene homopolymer or an ethylene and α- transition metal and a transition metal having a high catalytic activity for the production of a copolymer of an olefin compound and a catalyst composition comprising the same. More specifically, the Group 4 transition metal and the central metal, including a cyclopentadiene derivative and ortho Ethylene homopolymers, ethylene and α- olefin copolymer, the Group 4 transition metal catalyst, single site catalyst, a cyclopentadiene, a heterocyclic aryl derivative substituted aryl oxide ligand


The production clearly entranced its young audience while revealing uncertain aspects of Poe's story. At the same time, the destruction of the Usher house was difficult to interpret. As with most young-adult productions at Steppenwolf, Lady Madeline performed on the set used for the current Downstairs Theatre's show; thus the production had few set pieces, most of them covered with white sheets. Because of the limitation of performing over another set, the house's enormity and significance remained unclear.


In order to effectively complement the formation energy and improve the productivity of Chang 8 low permeability reservoir in Block Luo 52,the type of formation damage and damage mechanism were analyzed on the basis of the data of salinity,particle size and the mineral composition of precipitation in produced water.In combination with the results of the rock mineral composition,evaluation of reservoir sensitivity and well stimulation,it is considered that the precipitation of calcium sulfate,iron hydroxide,fine particle migration and acidizing treatment are the major reasons of inducing formation damage.It is suggested that ironic ion and calcium ion complexing agents should added in acidizing.


The invention discloses a household medical monitoring platform based on wifi (wireless fidelity). The medical monitoring platform based on wifi comprises a computer, a mobile phone, a monitor, a data collection module and a wireless router, wherein the data collection module, the computer, the mobile phone and the monitor are connected to a wifi network through the wireless router; the data collection module collects data (electrocardio, blood oxygen, blood pressure, pulse wave, body temperature and the like) of a human body, processes the data and transmits the data to the wifi network; the computer, the mobile phone and the monitor receive the data transmitted by the collection module through the wifi network, and process, display and record the data. Through the household medical monitoring platform disclosed by the invention, the practicability is improved.


Comment 3: "How was the radar used in the study? There is a brief mention in the introduction on page 3 line 17 'The radar is used to determine multiple cloud layers', and then is not mentioned again (apart from to define its frequency in Section 2.2). Could the radar be used to define a more accurate cloud base? Could the profiling information of the radar be used to improve the microphysical retrievals?"


The judgment of the Appeal Court of Murcia, subject to comment, resolves a dispute faced by a couple in relation to the matrimonial property regime regarding a property acquired by the husband. Accordingly, the property must be registered under the property separation regime and be considered own property. According to the woman, the assets were acquired by the husband while the economic regime of the marriage was that of the common assets and, therefore, the assets should appear registered as common to both spouses. The element of discussion in the case is the granting of a marriage property agreement, celebrated four years after of the marriage, according to which the ma-rriage was contracted under community property. This is what the wife claims to hold that the property must be jointly owned. The husband, on the other hand, argues that the law applicable to the economic regime of the couple is Algerian law and, therefore, the separation of property. The Appeal Court of Murcia, without justifying the resolution of the case, establishes that, as in the matrimonial property agreement it is said that the marriage was celebrated under community property regime and the property was acquired before the granting of the same, the asset must to be considered common because it is not until the date of the matrimonial property agreement that the couple's economic regime becomes that of patrimonial separation. With this solution, we study, fundamentally, the possible retroactive effects of matrimonial property agreements.


Future network intruders will probably use an organized army of malicious nodes (here called "malnodes", or collectively a "malnet") to deliver many different attacks, rather than recruiting a disorganized set of compromised nodes per attack. However, partly due to the lack of understanding of the resiliency and efficiency a malnet can have, countering malnets has been ineffective. This paper begins to address this deficiency. Through calculation and simulation for three representative malnets-random, small-world, and Gnutella-like-we show that extremely resilient malnets can be formed to deliver attack code quickly. In particular, we show that disconnecting malnets is possible, but extremely naive approaches such as randomly disinfecting malnodes will not suffice, and effective defenses must either happen very quickly during a second-wave attack, or take effect prior to it.


We fabricated a water-cooled silicon monochromator crystal with small channels for the special case of a double-crystal fixed-exit monochromator design where the beam walks across the crystal when the x-ray energy is changed. The two parts of the cooled device were assembled using a new technique based on low melting point solder. The bending of the system produced by this technique could be perfectly compensated by mechanical counter-bending. Heat load tests of the monochromator in a synchrotron beam of 75 W total power, 3 mm high and 15 mm wide, generated by a multipole wiggler at SSRL, showed that the thermal slope error of the crystal is 1 arcsec/40 W power, in full agreement with finite element analysis. The cooling scheme is adequate for bending magnet beamlines at the ESRF and present wiggler beamlines at the SSRL.


Abstract The purpose of this research was to conduct a follow-up of 92 inmates who had been assigned to a group therapy or a control condition in 1974. The original study had found a significant improvement in the institutional behavior of the therapy subjects. The follow-up, however, failed to find any significant differences between experimental and control subjects. There were non-significant trends for better adjusted follow-up subjects to have been from the control group, to have had fewer psychotherapy contacts, and to have had poorer institutional adjustment. Overall, 44.3% of the released subjects showed successful post-release adjustment for over three years; only 12.5% of the released subjects were reincarcerated at the time of the follow-up.


Silicon carbide (SiC) devices allow electronics to operate at high junction temperatures (>200°C) and high voltages (>10 kV). In addition, they provide faster switching and lower power losses than their silicon-based counterparts. Recently, MOSFET (metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor) devices were demonstrated to work up to 500°C. Robust packaging solutions are needed to take advantage of the extreme temperature capability in the areas of propulsion, power generation, and oil/natural gas exploration. This paper reviews the current packaging challenges for 400-500°C operation temperature, and presents a hermetic package solution for reliable operation.


The seismic respons e of hydraulic turbines under water medium is the typical coupled vibration of l iquid elastic body. To begin with, this paper briefly introduces the theory bac kground and computation method about dynamic behavior of turbines in water, then focuses on discussing the dynamic governing equations of turbine water system in consideration of the influence of 3 dimensional coupled vibration of liquid turbine. The time history analysis is adopted to resolve the equations. Finally , an example of a practical case is given, with the computational result compare d against the result obtained without considering the influence of water medium.


Through introduction of digitalization of urban traffic, this paper d iscusses on several key factors of realizing GIS by using the combination of Map X and VB, especially points out that the function of the database in the course is irreplaceable, and expounds the relations among geography information, digita lization and database with concrete examples.


This study aims to examine the effect of variable government spending, number of companies, foreign investment, and domestic investment on employment opportunities in Banten Province and to determine the most influential variables. Banten Province in 2018 was the province with the lowest employment opportunity rate in Indonesia. This study uses a panel data model with a fixed-effect model (FEM) for 8 districts/cities from 2010 to 2019 and elasticity analysis to determine the most influential variables. The results showed that the variable government spending, the number of companies, and domestic investment had a positive and significant effect on the job opportunity variable, while the foreign investment variable did not affect. The number of companies variable is the most influential variable. The implication is that to increase employment opportunities the government can increase government spending, encourage the creation of new company units, and increase domestic investment.


Objective :To study the psychological factor's changes on schizophrenia patients of convalescence stage by nursing intervention, for directing clinical treatment. Methods:The study included 180 cases of convalescence schizophrenia. The observation group which included 90 patients were intervened by normal and special nursing intervention. The control group which included 90 patients were intervened by normal nursing. We analyzed their anxiety by SAS Questionnaires, depression by SDS Questionnaires, perceived social support by PSSS Questionnaires. Results: The scores of anxiety and depression were lower, but the scores of perceived social support were higher in the observation group. Conclusions: The psychological factors are various in patients of chizophrenia patients of convalescence stage. The nursing intervention are effective to improve paitents' anxiety, depression and perceived social support.


Abstract This paper reports on an inquiry into the construction of stance in finite reporting that-clauses. The data were drawn from two corpora of academic papers from a journal in the discipline of Applied Linguistics written by different language users: native speakers of English and Chinese writers using English as L2. By drawing on Sinclair's distinction between "averral" and "attribution," as well as Martin and White's notion of extra-vocalization, this paper sets up a framework for analyzing the sources in reporting clauses in order to examine how the writers construe their stances as visible, hedged or concealed. The study found that for self-sourced reports, the L2 writers are inclined to avoid direct self-mention which shows the greatest writer visibility, but instead use hidden averral with internal attribution. As for other-sourced reports, L2 writers prefer reporting verbs which are strong in the strength of attitude to make a much more definite and stronger claim, while native writers tactically use the moderate verbs and boosting expressions to construct more flexible stances. These discrepancies are likely to result from the disciplinary characteristics which are both community-based and context-situated.


VIEWS OF MATHEMATICS OF WOMEN RESTARTING THEIR EDUCATION: LOOKING FOR SAFETY IN NUMBERS FEBRUARY 1996 SUSAN H. MACLEOD, B. A., UNIVERSITY OF YORK A. M., BOSTON UNIVERSITY Ed. D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Johnstone Campbell Inclusiveness and usefulness are principles underlying community college education and reform in mathematics teaching. But adults restarting their education may view mathematics as inaccessible, threatening, and of limited personal use. The purpose of this study was to gain awareness and appreciation of the beliefs about mathematics and attitudes about themselves as learners of mathematics of a group of financially and educationally disadvantaged women preparing to enter community college and technical occupations. In the event that these beliefs and attitudes seemed to be counter productive to the effective mathematics education of the students, the study considered how they changed in a learning community where science, mathematics, communication, and career development skills were integrated and learned experientially. The methods used were qualitative and interpretive. The researcher interviewed six women at the beginning and end of the semester, and talked with the math/science instructors about their objectives and methods. She observed the students in the classroom and laboratory and administered an attitude questionnaire. Literature from the fields of human development, teaching and learning, and mathematics education formed the background for the study. The study found that the students varied in their attitudes and in their responses to the learning experiences. Students perceived little change in their own attitudes during the program, but the instructors and researcher observed positive change in the group, with the least change


A game theoretic controller is synthesized for momentum management and attitude control of the space station in the presence of uncertainties in the moments of inertia. Full state information is assumed since attitude and attitude rates are assumed to be very accurately measured. By an input-ouput decomposition of the uncertainty in the system matrices, the parameter uncertainties in the dynamic system are represented as an unknown gain associated with an internal feedback loop(IFL). The input and output matrices associated with the IFL form directions through which the uncertain parameters affect system response. If the quadratic form of the IFL output augments the cost criterion, then enhanced parameter robustness is anticipated. By considering the input and the input disturbance from the IFL as two noncoopera-tire players, a linear-quadratic differential game is constructed. The solution in the forrfl of a linear controller is used for synthesis. Inclusion of the external disturbance torques results in a dynamic feedback controller which consists of conventional PID control and cyclic disturbance rejection filters. It is shown that the game theoretic design allows large variations in the inertias in directions of importance.


This study aims to analyze the impact of the Hindi language over English Language in the digital/ online shopping. This study helps to understand the importance of the various languages and its usage in the online and social medial marketing. When it comes to online shopping the language used is very important for the buyer to purchase the product or the service which is required for them. The data is collected from 50 sample population whose regional language is Hindi. The sample method used in Judgmental Sampling. The study shows that online shopper prefers to use English Language while purchasing online. Simple percentage analysis and correlation are the tools used for data analysis. The study reveals that though Hindi is official language, English is the most preferred language while it comes to online shopping and purchasing the product online. The language used, review of the product and the feedback about the product is very essential for the other similar buyers to purchase the product. These criteria will improve the consumers trust and goodness to purchase the product


The overall purpose of this study was to identify continuing education needs of family day care providers in Virginia. Specific objectives were to: (1) identify the most suitable method of provider training; (2) learn how providers usually obtain information about young children, what information they have found to be most valuable, and what they believe will help them most in the future; and (3) obtain providers' views on legislation that would require providers to receive annual training. A survey was mailed to the 270 licensed family day care providers in the state and an open-ended instrument was mailed to the presidents of 10 organized family day care associations in the state. Results of the surveys are summarized and a list of implications and recommendations is offered. (RH) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************%**************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Mica of Educational Research and Improfer sent EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) XTrite document Ms boon roproduced *cwed from the person or *roam:anon originating it 0 Minor changes have Wen mad* lo improve reproduction Quality poffils of view or opinions stated in INS documint do not nocuarily rpresent official OE RI position or policy Continuing Education for Family Child Care Providers: Seek Alternatives Karen DeBord Loretta Buffer J.C. Gordon Department of Family and Child Development and Virginia Tech Continuing Education Program Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0416


A fully coupled numerical model to simulate the complex behaviour of soil deformation, water flow, airflow, and heat flow in porous media is developed. The following thermal effects are taken into account: heat transfer through conduction and convection, flow, as well as viscosity and density variation of the fluids due to temperature gradients. The governing equations in terms of soil displacements, water and air pressures, and temperature are coupled non‐linear partial differential equations and are solved by the finite element method. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the model performances.


Iron absorption from foods is dependent on the type of food consumed and other factors such as ligands which may have enhancing or inhibiting effects on iron absorption. In this study, iron (Fe 2+ or Fe 3+ ) and two organic acids (ascorbate and citrate) were added to three seafood surimis (scallops, prawns, and cod) and then subjected to simulated gastrointestinal conditions (pH 2, 4, and 6) to evaluate iron solubility. Soluble iron decreased with increasing pH in all samples and control. In cod, a combination of ascorbic and citric acid (1:2) was most effective to increase soluble iron; however, in scallops and prawns citric acid alone was best. After sequential pH and enzyme treatments, it was found that the effectiveness of iron solubilization depended primarily upon the type of seafood present and to a lesser extent the oxidation state of the iron salt.


This studydeals ... ith the pelrOgn.p/lyofsuifides and quam veins. Phi$(lt(lpell, major and trace elements in galena, microlhermometry and Rmnan spectrometry of fluid inclll$iorl.'l, with the objective of delineating temporai and spatial asperu of the Iluidcirculatioopattemsdwingthe origin of the On ... gold deposit, Mato Gn)$S(l Stale, Brazil. The Pb i$oI:ope and minera.l chemistry data indicate variable SOW"Ce$ for the Pb isoI:opes, major (S and Pb) and trace elemenlS (Sb, Ag, Zn and Se), with increases or decreases of the conteotsdwingtbegrowtboftheg,alenacrystals.Theresults~thatthevar:WiOll.maybedu.etothe contamination of the hydrothennal solution by mixing with components derived from Supraaustalltosl rocks of Pontes e J..aeerda. metavolcanic-sedimentary $e<[uence The mineral chemistry and f1uid$ inclusion studlel $lI~ TWO possible sources for the hydrothennal solutions: ( I) deep solutions that originated during the regional metamorphism represented by the Aguape/ metamorphic event wh~ the sol .. ions pre5eIl1 aque()U$-arbonic composition and low salinity. Geologiccootrol of the minen.lization is inagreemenl with this h)'pO(hesis beeause thc ore bodies are syntectonic with foliation formed during the Aguapef event; (2) high contents of bI.\lc metals indieatcs. pfLrlOnic influence in the <Xi(inofthe flu.ids. Geologie controls Ilso are in agreement with this hypothesis because pegmatitic intrusion was synchron()U$with the mincnliCQ.tions.. The Ph iso«Jpe and fluid inclusion relations allows the conclll$iQl\ll that the compositions oflhe hydrotbermal solutes were Ylriable during the emplacement of the quartz veins and the growtb of galena crystals. Tbe earlier solutes bad bydrocarbons and were mon: radiOflenie, whereas the later solutes had base metals and wn-e less radiogenic. The Onofa deposit originated dutin& a mewnorpbic event by the effect of bydrothermal solutions related 10 plUlOnism, and with an importanlcontribution from the host rocU1lS recorded by the influence of isotope, major and uaceelemenlcomposilions on the growth ofore-fonning


This paper introduces a realtime and dynamic gas confection system based on the method of mass flow mix.This system applying high precision Mass Flow Controller(MFC) can be used for confecting kinds of low concentration standard gas,to supply standard gas for industry and science research.


High quality epidemiological studies on the possible link between exposure to non-ionising radiation and its effects on human health are of great importance for radiation protection. The main sources of ELF fields are domestic appliances, different electrical energy distribution systems, and all types of electrical machinery and devices in the workplace. In general, the ELF fields present in the environment show complex temporal patterns and spatial distributions, depending on the generating source. The complete characterisation of the different field sources often requires highly sophisticated instrumentation, and this is therefore not feasible within the scope of epidemiological studies. On average, indvidual exposure from ELF fields is low in both the working environment and in residential areas. People are subject to significant ELF exposure, with regard to biological effects, only in certain workplaces. Different methods have been developed to determine levels of exposure received by study subjects, with the aim to rank exposed and non-exposed groups in epidemiological studies. These include spot measurements. calculations or modelling. The different methods used to estimate total exposure in epidemiological studies may result, to a differing extent, in a misclassification of the study subjects. Equally important for future studies is the selection of the appropriate exposure metric. The most widely used metric so far is the time-weighted average, which thus represents a quasi standard metric for use in epidemiological studies. In addition, wire codes have been used for a long time in residential studies, and job titles are often used in occuptional studies. On the basis of the experience gained in previous studies, it would be desirable to develop standardised, state-of-the-art protocols to improve exposure assessment. New surrogates and metrics were proposed as the basis for further studies. But only few of these have recently undergone preliminary testing. A favourite candidate is the dB/dt metric. because it is closely related to known biological interactions.


Background and aim: Optoelectronic plethysmography (OEP) allows the measurement of lung volume changes through the assessment of chest wall surface motion. It has been shown that it provides an accurate estimation of total and compartmental (rib cage and abdomen) lung volume changes in adults during spontaneous breathing and mechanical ventilation and in spontaneously breathing infants (REF). The aim of the present study is to evaluate the accuracy of OEP in infants during continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP). Methods: 5 infants (GA=27.9±3.6, PNA=3.8±3.6, BW=1077±461) were studied for ∼ 2 minutes at CPAP 0, 4 and 8 cmH2O. Flow was measured at the inlet of a full-face mask by a mesh-type pneumotacograph connected to a differential pressure transducer. Chest wall volume changes were measured by OEP (DVOEP) and compared with lung volume changes obtained by integrating the flow signal (DVPNT). Results: We analysed a total of 602 breaths at 0 cmH2O, 523 at 4 cmH2O, and 150 at 8 cmH2O. The mean difference between DVOEP and DVPNT for all newborns was -0.45±3.92% of Vt at 0 cm H2O, -4.25±9.04% at 4 cmH2O and -8.31±3.87% at 8 cmH2O. Pooling data points from all infants and all pressure levels, Bland-Altman and linear regression analysis showed good agreement between the two measurement techniques (see Fig).
 Conclusions: OEP can be used to assess lung volume changes and breathing pattern noninvasively in newborns supported by CPAP.


In a common-values election where voters receive a signal about which candidate is superior, suppose there is a small amount of uncertainty about the conditional likelihood of the signal's outcome, given the correct candidate. Once this uncertainty is resolved, the signal is i.i.d. across agents. Information can then fail to aggregate. The candidate less likely to be correct given agents' signals can be elected with probability near 1 in a large electorate even if the distribution of signal likelihoods is arbitrarily near to a classical model where agents are certain that a particular likelihood obtains given that a specific candidate is correct.


The aim of the present study is to demonstrate, experimentally, the feasibility of third-harmonic imaging with high quality. In order for the third-harmonic detection to be effective, a new ultrasonic transducer system for high spatial resolution, which consists of a separately arranged transmitting/receiving ultrasonic transducer (SATRUT) and a simple filter with a capacitor and a inductor, has been proposed. The observation of pulse echo spectra from a ball target, back-scattered images of it, and B-mode images of a sponge phantom have confirmed the improvement of the spatial resolution in the images visually which is testified quantitatively using an auto-correlation method.