The invention relates to a multi-input multi-output wireless communication system, in particular to a beam forming algorithm of a multi-user pairing virtual multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system. Directing at the problems in the prior art, the beam forming algorithm of the multi-user pairing virtual MIMO system is provided. Based on a maximized signal to interference plus noise power ratio standard, beam forming vectors of paired users are determined one by one and are enabled to approach an optimal condition, the problems that when a single-user terminal is provided with a plurality of antennas, the virtual MIMO system cannot utilize terminal multi-antenna resources so that transmission efficiency is not high are resolved. Due to the fact that the user terminal is provided with the plurality of antennas, base station receiving signal to interference plus noise power ratio is improved under the scene of an uplink virtual MIMO system transmission, and accordingly transmission quality is improved. The beam forming algorithm is applied to the field of virtual MIMO system uplink data transmission.


Abstract Cytogenetic analyses were done for the first time for the turtle species Trachemys dorbigni and Trachemys scripta elegans. Studies involved several different cytogenetic techniques: the nucleolus organizer region was studied by impregnation with silver nitrate and by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH); heterochromatin was studied with restriction enzymes, digestion using trypsin, and staining with CMA3 fluorochrome. All specimens showed a diploid number of 50 consisting of 13 macro and 12 microchromosomes. The Ag-NORs are located on the long arm of the first pair of microchromosomes, confirmed by results obtained using FISH. G-banding and restriction enzymes facilitated the recognition and pairing of macrochromosomes. The results did not point differences between the karyotypes of the two species.


The influence of thermal disorder and static distortions on the local structure in microcrystalline solid solutions of tungstates ZncNi1-cWO4 with c=0.0-1.0 was investigated using temperature-dependent (10-300 K) x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at the W L3-edge. In addition, the vibrational properties of the solid solutions were studied by Raman spectroscopy. Our results indicate that the formation of solid solutions is accompanied by strong structural relaxations leading to the changes in the [WO6] octahedra distortions, which, in turn, affect the vibrational properties of tungstates. In particular, the frequency and band width of the highest W-O stretching mode at about 900 cm-1 show distinct composition dependence, following the local structure modifications as revealed by XAS.


In this paper we analyse the evolution of the direct and ultimate ownership structure of a large sample of UK non-financial listed firms over the last decade. Our data show that while "outsider" ownership is relatively stable over time, managerial ownership shows a sharp decreasing trend and it is significantly lower in the presence of a large outside controller. Nonetheless, while average shareholding by executives confirms the decreasing trend, the opposite holds for non-executive directors. In addition, while average board size is rather constant in time, the proportion of non-executives is steadily increasing in time. As far as ultimate ownership is concerned, our data show that the existence of complex ownership structures in the UK is far from being negligible. We document that more than 10 per cent of the firms are owned via a complex structure and the degree of divergence between cash flow and control rights for these firms is around 11 per cent at the 10 per cent cut-off. Our data also suggest that the presence of complex structures is decreasing in time at any cut-off level. In addition, we report a decreasing trend over time of "widely held" firms. Finally, we show preliminary evidence of a negative impact of the divergence between cash flow and control rights on firm value. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.


The Fourth Annual Oriental Institute Post-Doctoral Seminar was held in Breasted Hall March 7–8, 2008. Our aim was to present and discuss ways to integrate approaches to and ideas about the roles of pastoral nomads and tribe-state interactions in the ancient Near East. These concerns are by no means new; they have been of interest to researchers for decades, and recent work continues to be shaped by the classic theories of Ibn Khaldun, Jean-Robert Kupper (1957), and Michael Rowton (e.g., 1973), along with accounts and ethnographies of Near Eastern nomads in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries too numerous to list. However, despite calls for the integration of archaeology, anthropology, and history in the study of ancient pastoral nomadism in the Near East, each of those disciplines has been addressing these issues in relative isolation. Although great strides have recently been made on this front, there remains a pressing need for cross-disciplinary dialogue to establish a common framework for the study of pastoral nomadism and tribe-state interactions specific to the ancient Near East. It was this overriding concern that lay behind this year's seminar. The goal of the conference was to find commonalities among the work of those studying nomadic and tribal groups throughout the greater Near East, from Iran to Egypt, and from prehistory to the early Islamic period. Where approaches and theories differed, we aimed to evaluate those differences in order to learn new ways to think about and talk about nomads and tribes in our own research. The seminar was thus an attempt to bring disparate scholars together to push forward a new agenda for studying pastoral nomads, tribes, and the state in the ancient Near East. One particularly thorny problem associated with organizing a small conference on such a large topic presented itself from the outset: how to convey the themes of the conference without falling into the semantic trap of establishing social categories that may not represent reality. For example, the term "tribe," itself, and many of the attributes associated with it, such as segmentary lineages and egalitarianism, notions that have troubled anthropologists for some time, seem even more fluid and amorphous according to recent literature. In recent years, scholars of both texts and archaeology have acknowledged a degree of integration between urban and pastoral sectors, and between tribes and states, that earlier models did not anticipate. Although these recent approaches appear to capture more accurately the complexity of ancient tribe-state interactions, they also introduce questions about the very categories we use to describe pastoral nomadic tribes. Did such bounded categories really exist in antiquity, or are they fabrications or idealizations created by modern ethnographers? If so, should they be applied to mobile and sedentary communities in the past? Does it even make sense to discuss tribe and state as separate social, political, or economic sectors? As the division between tribe and state in antiquity continues to blur, we may seem hyperaware of the inadequacy of those terms that make up the title of the seminar: "nomad," "tribe," and "state." This was one among the many issues that we discussed over the course of the conference, in which papers were presented by archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians whose work has focused on the following regions:


Digital signaling has become more and more applied in the field of electronics including radio, audio, and TV. It offers better accuracy, greater flexibility, increased storage capabilities and high-speed transmission of data of all kinds (including audio and video data) over long distances. The basic types of digital filters are finite impulse response (FIR) and infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. In this paper we model three different lowpass IIR filters: Butterworth, Chebyshev and elliptic using Matlab to compare their response and to explore minimum-order designs to specify the passband and the stopband in terms of the amount of tolerable ripple and frequencies.


Orthopyroxene crystals in a number of meteorites exhibit compositional zoning of Fe and Mg, which provide important constraint on their cooling rates. However, attempts to model cooling rate of these crystals from Fe-Mg zoning profiles suffer from the lack of any measured or theoretically well constrained Fe-Mg interdiffusion data in OP(x) It has been assumed that Fe-Mg interdiffusion in OP(x) only slightly slower than that in olivine. The purpose of this paper is to (1) calculate the Fe-Mg fractionation, and (2) provide analytical formulation relating cooling rate to the length of the diffusion zone across the interface of the overgrowth of a mineral on itself with application to Mg diffusion profile across OP(x) growth on OP(x) in certain mesosiderites.


Glycosylation is a common post-translational modification, and glycan biosynthesis is regulated by a set of 'glycogenes'. The role of transcription factors (TFs) in regulating the glycogenes and related glycosylation pathways is largely unknown. This manuscript presents a multi-omics data-mining framework to computationally predict putative, tissue-specific TF regulators of glycosylation. It combines existing ChIP-Seq (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing) and RNA-Seq data to suggest 22,519 potentially significant TF-glycogene relationships. This includes interactions involving 524 unique TFs and 341 glycogenes that span 29 TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) cancer types. Here, TF-glycogene interactions appeared in clusters or 'communities', suggesting that changes in single TF expression during both health and disease may affect multiple carbohydrate structures. Upon applying the Fisher's exact test along with glycogene pathway classification, we identify TFs that may specifically regulate the biosynthesis of individual glycan types. Integration with knowledge from the Reactome database provided an avenue to relate cell-signaling pathways to TFs and cellular glycosylation state. Whereas analysis results are presented for all 29 cancer types, specific focus is placed on human luminal and basal breast cancer disease progression. Overall, the computational predictions in this manuscript present a starting point for systems-wide validation of TF-glycogene relationships.


The aim of the article is to show the applicability of the Delphi method in the process of building a tourism development strategy in the region. The analysis of the regional tourism development strategies, as well as of the literature indicates that the Delphi method has not yet been used in research in the area of tourism in Poland. The foreign literature, however, contains the examples of its use, starting from the eighties of the twentieth century. The article presents the framework of the research process using the Delphi method. It also presents the theses and the research questionnaire developed by the experts from the tourism sector from the Podlaskie Voivodship within the framework of the research project "Foresight as a tool to improve tourism management in the region". Indication of the possibility of applying the Delphi method in the process of building a tourism development strategy in the region will be an opportunity to build a vision of the future, based on the experience and expertise of the stakeholders in the field of science, administration, business, non-governmental organizations, protected areas, cultural institutions and media. Supporting the strategic planning process through the substantial involvement of experts and stakeholders will enable the joint development of the social vision of the future of tourism development by the parties concerned and to uphold a sense of need for its implementation.


This study examines the oxidation performance of two different iron aluminide coatings obtained by means of High Velocity Oxygen Fuel spraying starting from the same feedstock powder but using propylene and hydrogen as fuels. The isothermal oxidation tests were carried out at 900°C for 4, 36 and 72 hours. After detailed observation a more rapid oxide scale growth is obtained for that coating obtained under hydrogen conditions. It leads to the assertion that propylene-coatings would perform better under high temperature environments.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the difference of chemical compounds of frankincense-myrrh before and after their compatibility, and evaluate the effect of differentiated compounds on NO generated by LPS-induced peritoneal macrophage cells in rats, in order to discuss synergetic material basis of frankincense-myrrh compatibility from the prospective of change in chemical constituents.

METHOD
UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS combined technology was used to analyze the chemical components of frankincense-myrrh before and after their compatibility. MarkerLynx 4. 1 statistical software was used to analyze differentiated compounds before and after their compatibility.

RESULT
The results of PCA showed that there were significant differences in the combined extracts of frankincense-myrrh and the chromatogram of their combined liquid, suggesting significant differences in their chemical compounds before and after their compatibility; after their compatibility, the dissolution of pentacyclic triterpenoid (alpha-boswellic acid, beta-boswellic acid) and tetracyclic triterpenoid (elemonic acid, 3-acetoxy-16-hydroxy-dammar-24-ene, 3-hydroxytirucalla-8,24-dien-21-oic acid or 3-hydroxytirucalla-7,24-dien-21-oic acid) increased notably, while the dissolution of both yclic sesquiterpenes and macrocyclic diterpenoids decreased. According to the evaluation on in vitro activity, 2-methoxy-8, 12-epoxy-germa-1 (10), 7, 11-triene-6-ketone, 2-methoxy-5-acetoxyl-furan-germa-1 (10)-alkene-6-ketone and 3-carbonyl Euphorbia kansui-8, 24-diene-21-carboxylic acid notably inhibited NO generated by LPS-induced peritoneal macrophage cells in rats.

CONCLUSION
These findings provide scientific basis and reference for studies on anti-inflammatory material basis of frankincense-myrrh compatibility.


The independent superintendence system formed in those countries where for the company management structure, "unified mode" is adopted, such as in United Kingdom and in United States. So far as Chinese listed companies are concerned, where dual mode is exercised and exist special system and cultural background, the introduction of independent superintendence may not surely bring about striking effect. In view of existing problem in the implement process of independent superintendence system in China, in this paper it is pointed out that the causes of those problems in Chinese enterprise management structure are on a profound level, if we only imitate some parts of ways even some technical ways of foreign countries under different systems without combining with our state condition, then we'll not solve any problems, on the contrary, turn into the opposite.


Human or animal joints, treated by inserting a device between the articular surfaces of properly prepared joints, devices use the material having thermoplastic properties and with the vibration energy, both of these It is anchored to the articular surface. To enable at least limited articulation of the joint after implantation, the device includes two joint portions (1 and 2), each of the joint is anchored to the inside of each of the articular surface of the joint . Time of implantation, near the surface of the device into contact with the oscillating tool (5), through part of the vibration device, where the material having thermoplastic properties is in the vicinity of bone tissue articular surfaces of the joint, and the location where liquefaction is desired It is transmitted. The device, provided temporary connector portion for at least transplantation (4), the connector portion (4) connects two joint sections (1 and 2), the connector unit with (4), and in some cases the interface unit together with (3), constitutes a rigid element.


well be highly debatable. In Tilling v. Whiteman, the judges who concluded in favour of the defendant tenant uniformly identified the primary policy of the Rent Act as protective of residential tenants, and thus saw Case 10 as the exception to be narrowly construed. Stephenson L.J. agreed (at p. 144) that " Case 10 opens a door to a landlord's exercising his contractual right to possession; but it is one door in a high wall which strictly protects a tenant and it would accord better with the object of the Act if it opens a little than if it opens wide " (see also Shaw L.J. at p. 146). Likewise, Lord Fraser pointed to Case 10 as " an exception to the main policy of Part II of the [1968] Act, which evidently is to give security of tenure to tenants " {p. 410). However, those judges who ultimately decided in favour of the plaintiff lessors in effect resolved the problem of construction from a diametrically opposed starting point. Eveleigh L.J. expressed the view (at p. 147) that the introduction in 1965 of the new ground for possession contained in Case 10 " was done for the benefit of the landlord " and was governed, at a time of increasingly acute housing shortage, by " an overriding intention to encourage persons in occupation of their homes to be prepared to let them and not refrain for fear of being kept out for ever." Thus, if policy considerations were relevant at all in the construction of Case 10, they operated not in favour of the lessee but in favour of the lessor. Eveleigh L.J.'s identification of the relevant primary policy of the statutory language (and therefore his identification of the direction of strict construction) received explicit support in the House of Lords (see Lord Wilberforce at p. 404 and Lord Salmon at pp. 407-408). Tilling v. Whiteman thus tends to confirm the general trend towards restrictive interpretation of the Rent Act to which attention has already been drawn (see (1979) 38 C.L.J. 38, 44). The result in Tilling v. Whiteman can finally be seen at two levels. At one level, as Lord Scarman pointed out, the conclusion reached in the House of Lords spelt " financial disaster " for the unsuccessful tenant, Miss Whiteman. More generally, the decision demonstrates the clear need for a new, more carefully and more consistently drafted Rent Act.


This issue brief summarizes the findings in Mathematica's final report on the evaluation of the Social Security Administration's Youth Transition Demonstration projects, which provided employment-focused services and enhanced financial work incentives to youth with severe disabilities. Three of the six projects had statistically significant impacts on paid employment during the third year after youth enrolled in the evaluation.


Nuclear medicine methods permit the in vivo measurement of physiological and metabolic functions. For this purpose metabolically active molecules are labelled with radionuclides. After the injection, these radiopharmaceuticals can be detected from outside the body with appropriate detectors such as conventional gamma cameras, single photon emission computerized tomographs (SPECT), or positron emission tomographs (PET). As with any application of ionizing radiation the benefits of nuclear medicine (the diagnosis and treatment of disease) must be balanced against the risks of the procedures. Risks in nuclear medicine are evaluated through dosimetry, the calculation of the radiation dose estimates, in which the energy deposited by the radiation in human tissues is quantitated. The first step of dosimetry is the determination of the biodistribution, i.e. the spatial and temporal distribution of the radiopharmaceutical within the body. When a new radiopharmaceutical is introduced such data are first derived from ex vivo experiments in animals. Further evaluations of the biokinetics and dosimetry are carried out via quantitative measurements in humans using the nuclear medicine imaging equipment, applying whole-body planar and tomographic methods. Based on the knowledge of the biodistribution and using the framework introduced by the MIRD committee as well as by the ICRP, the radiation dose to single organs and to the total body can be calculated. The purpose of this paper is to review methods for measuring radiopharmaceutical biodistributions in humans and for calculating the appropriate radiation dose quantities.


Previous investigations into macroeconomic impact of investments in information and communications technology (ICT), while primarily focused on developed economies, have yielded some important insights. For example, it was determined that: (1) the investments-to-revenues model works well only if a threshold level of ICT capital infrastructure has been developed, (2) it is not the quantity but the quality of the full-time ICT workforce that plays an important role in converting a stream of investments in ICT into revenues and in achieving a spillover effect of investments that is captured by total factor productivity (TFP). In this study we investigate the impact of human development, as measured by the human development index (HDI), on macroeconomic outcomes and TFP. The subject of the study is a group of transition economies, a set of highly related economies that has the Leaders group that has some of the characteristics of developed economies and the Followers group that has some of the characteristics of less-developed economies. Results of our investigation offer evidence that HDI has a statistically significant impact on GDP (gross domestic product) and TFP only in the case of the Leaders.


ABSTRACT The authority of the bishop is not easy to define outside the three key concepts of teacher (mystagogue), prior or prioress of the ordained clergy, and democracy in which the bishop is the 'leader of the choir'. In Uppsala there is a sense of a folk church in which all ministry is collaborative and the bishop's authority is rooted in a practical 'powerlessness'. The bishop is a teacher through regular parish visitations and operates alongside an elected General Synod of which she is not herself a member. As a teacher the bishop is a theologian with a future orientated teaching in the body of the Church.


Purpose – To provide a framework that can identify and evaluate the effectiveness of a given maintenance strategy in a company. This can help in the strategic management of maintenance.Design/methodology/approach – The framework is developed using Hayes and Wheelwright's four‐stage framework on manufacturing strategy as a guideline. To gain a clearer understanding of the framework and its usefulness the subject topic is elaborated in two phases: definition of maintenance strategy, framework description and operationalization using case examples. The scope of the paper is limited to performance measurement of maintenance strategies.Findings – It is found that the framework is applicable and useful for the strategic management of the maintenance function. The case example depicting the fourth stage shows that maintenance can also contribute to enhancing the competitive advantage of a company.Practical implications – Given the current position of maintenance, the framework used in this paper also suggests th...


Non-chemical bond association structures in Fanzhi brown coal and their evolution were studied by the integration of hydrous pyrolysis and CS_2/NMP extraction. Abundant non-chemical bond association interactions are existed in Fanzhi brown coal and the association interactions will change in the thermal evolution. Such association interactions have a great impact on the early evolution of the organic matter and immature oil formation.


The lack of knowledge in health education in the prevention and control of affected diseases negatively influences the health status of people. This research sought to strengthen the nursing educational intervention carried out in Salango in the 2017-2018 period. A non-experimental, descriptive scope with a quantitative approach was followed. A survey of 150 participants was applied, where the current


amiRNA( artificial microRNA) antiviral strategy can silence the target gene of virus by simulating the mechanism of endogenous miRNA( microRNA). This strategy is stable,effective and feasible for producing multi-viral resistance. It has been used for cultivating many plant species with viral resistance.This paper reviewed the mechanism,characteristics and application of amiRNA antiviral strategy in antiviral study of plants.


Abstract Background Giardia lamblia is a flagellated protozoan causing diarrheal outbreaks worldwide. Microscopic stool examination is widely used. We conducted this study to explore intestinal giardiasis in children undergoing upper endoscopy for unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms. Methods The study included 160 children undergoing upper endoscopy for unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms (patients) and 90 children as controls. We collected stool samples for microscopic examination and ELISA coproantigen detection from all participants. We examined duodenal biopsies for patients. Results In patients, stool examination revealed Giardia in 23.8% and coproantigen detection was positive in 37.5%. Endoscopic duodenal biopsies revealed Giardia trophozoites in 5% of patients, in addition to various pathological changes. Conclusion Giardiasis was significantly higher (P = 0.001) in children with unexplained gastrointestinal complaints than the controls. Diagnosis by coproantigen detection was superior to microscopic stool examination, with a sensitivity of 90.9%. Duodenal biopsies examination confirmed the infection in fewer cases but added other diagnostic information.


New data on the distribution of 12 species and subspecies of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), which belong to 9 genera, 6 tribes and 5 subfamilies (Anthiinae, Carabinae, Cindelinae, Dryptinae and Panagaeinae) in Kenya are reported.


By exploiting many spare computing resources,grid computing can get a high throughput available.We introduce here a new lightweight Grid system XtremWeb to implement a typical parallel method GMRES.This global computing platform is just like many popular grid systems using CPU cycle stealing technology,is dedicated to general applications with multiple parameters.An implementation of GMRES(m)algorithm which is very important to solve the problem of asymmetric large linear systems is accomplished.


Two hyndred and seventy-one cases of acute appendicitis in children have been treated surgically at Kariya General Hospital during the period 1974-1983. There were the fact-finding studies of clinical practice with all these children. The incidence of acute appendicitis in children, especially perforative cases, has been moderately increased. A role of various factors about the increase is largely considered due to the possibility of delay in operation using preoperative administered antibiotics. Consequently, postoperative complications were increased than before. Therefore, we emphasize that the high potency antibiotics should not be administrated before surgery to set the earlier operation.


The paper studied the effect of lubricants and additives against sticking drilling fluid (EAF- BS , WISP - BS - KTM1 DRC , DRC - 5SK , DRC and DRC - 4mm -CIM) on basic and special properties of bentonite suspensions and natural muds Noyabrskiy oil and gas region Western Siberia. Furthermore, given the information on the composition and regulated physico-chemical parameters of the reactants. The results of testing reagents for compliance with the technical requirements and laboratory experiments to determine their solubility in different technological environments (liquids). Particular attention is given to experiments to identify different levels of expandability of clay dispersion systems (artificially prepared and selected in the fields naturally - established in the process of drilling a wellbore), depending on the concentration of lubricant additives. And also have been studied antifriction (tribological) properties formed crusts of chemically treated muds. Preliminary conclusions and recommendations issued. All the presented group of reagents can be used with varying degrees of effectiveness for improving the lubricating properties of drilling fluids used in the November region. However, in some cases, may require a defoamer. Technologically acceptable concentrations of lubricant additives in the mud range from 0.5-1.0 to 3-5% (vol.). It is necessary to take into account the ability of various lubricant additives adsorption to metal surfaces, as it leads to a decrease in the actual concentration of the reagent solution. Generally, the higher the initial pH of the mud, the greater the lubricating additives cause foaming. The final decision on efficiency and technology applications submitted lubricant additives adopted after pilot testing reagents in the wells.


I T IS WELL KNOWN that from the Upper Paleolithic onward, various items moved over long distances. The question arises, however, as to whether these items were "traded" or travelled by some other mechanism. We shall attempt to outline the concept of trade and exchange, and to discuss various criteria for determining traces of the acquisition or provision of goods (or services) in an archaeological context. We append some examples on the subject. In all trade and exchange studies, we face a semantic problem. There is no single concept of trade in prehistory that is unanimously accepted. Consequently, any scholar who studies trade and exchange needs to define what he means by the term "trade", something that is too seldom done. Most authors assume that they are dealing with trade when considering the long-distance movement of some object. However, "trade" in prehistoric times is not so obvious. Besides archaeological evidence, ethnographic data also offer a rich range of alternative models for trade and exchange, which should be borne in mind when searching for trade in prehistory.


Objective The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the understanding of nurses within a shared care model and the degree of interaction evident in their practice in the shared care nursing environment in a rural care setting. Sharing of care between different nursing teams can allow for the improved use of minimal resources available in rural communities. The objectives of the research were firstly, to identify the interactions of nursing teams in a shared care model and secondly, to determine how shared care is evident in their practice. The final objective was to draw attention to the importance of shared care models in rural health settings and to develop recommendations to support shared care models. Design A qualitative, non experimental, grounded theory descriptive study was used in this research. Setting Primary care Subjects The sample comprised the generalist community health team, which consisted of registered nurses with more than 5 years post registration experience in community health nursing and two external nursing teams, comprised of a palliative care team and an aged care team. Main Outcome Measures Identification of the nursing interactions and shared care practices in order to develop recommendations to foster and support shared care models in changing health structures. Results The study generated four themes: a lack of understanding of each teams' roles; difficulties in communication of information; the importance of setting shared goals in care planning; and the need for collaboration to ensure clarity in case coordination. Conclusion Results suggest that confusion around role, skills, communication, care planning and coordination of care within a shared care model are creating barriers to effective sharing of care. Co‐location of services should enhance sharing of care. These results should facilitate the development of care approaches that maximise health outcomes and contribute to a better understanding of collaborative processes that can assist in the provision of health care in rural settings.


ABOUT A DECADE AGO, THE powers-that-be proclaimed an emerging physician surplus in the United States and called for a capping of residency slots for the training of future physicians. In 2001, the consensus emerged that physician supply was in equilibrium. Today, the conventional wisdom is that a shortage looms, raising questions about the medical community's ability to provide care to an aging population that is living longer and living with chronic conditions. "We're dealing with an overall physician shortage of 10% today, but we're going to go to 20% in just a few years," said Richard Cooper, MD, a professor of medicine and a senior fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. "We fought the war of surpluses, but it was the wrong war." Getting physician supply right is important. Today, the worry is that having too few physicians limits patient access to care and possibly increases morbidity and mortality risk. In the mid-1990s, policymakers feared having too many physicians would lead to even greater overall health care costs, as most physicians are able to generate vigorous income levels regardless of patient demand. An oversupply of physicians also would waste billions of dollars in taxpayer money being spent to train unneeded physicians. In 1996, the Institute of Medicine released a report called The Nation's Physician Workforce: Options for Balancing Supply and Requirements, in which it called for immediate steps to reduce the overall number of physicians-in-training by cutting residency funding and freezing medical school s l o t s . T h e r e p o r t ' s a u t h o r s — academic physicians, economists, and health policy experts—argued that while the number of physicians had increased at 1.5 times the rate of the general population from 1970 to 1992, there was little improvement in the cost and quality of, or access to, health care. They also worried that an oversupply of physicians could lead to higher aggregate health care costs. But the report did not change training patterns. Just 5 years later, the winds shifted. At a 2001 colloquium on US physician supply, hosted by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the chair of the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) said the number of physicians-in-training was "about right." (COGME provides ongoing assessments of physician workforce trends, training issues, and financing policies, and recommends appropriate federal and private-sector efforts on these issues. The council also advises the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and certain Congressional committees.) By 2005, however, COGME was thinking differently. The council, in its Sixteenth Report (http://www.cogme .gov/16.pdf), stated that the number of full-time-equivalent physicians is expected to increase from 781 200 in 2000 to 971 800 in 2020. At the same time, though, because of an expanding and aging population, the demand for physicians is expected to grow even faster. COGME forecasts a shortage of about 85 000 physicians in 2020. The AAMC responded to COGME's report in 2006 by calling for a 30% increase from 2002 levels in medical


We wish to maximize efficiency (accuracy/cost) in the design of atmospheric fluid-flow solvers. An important measure of accuracy for weather and climate applications is a model's ability to resolve meteorologically important features at scales approaching the grid-scale. Simulated kinetic energy spectra provide a useful diagnostic for quantifying a model's resolving capability. Using kinetic energy spectra we illustrate some of the issues affecting the resolution capabilities of models arising from the choice of spatial grid staggering, integration schemes and their implicit filters, and explicit filters. In both Eulerian and semi-Lagrangian formulations, C-grid staggering provides the best resolution of divergent modes that are an important part the KE spectrum in the mesoscale which the global models are now beginning to resolve. Other grid staggerings require special filtering that compromise resolution capabilities. The popular semi-Lagrangian semi-implicit formulations are shown to significantly damp resolvable high-frequency modes and adversely affect their resolving capabilities. While less costly at a given grid density, the SLSI models may well be significantly less efficient than Eulerian models.


The four isomeric bromobutanes were irradiated with low neutron fluxes (total dose <200 r) in order to study carbon chain isomerization. All four isomers were found to undergo fragmentation to bromomethane, bromoethane, and bromopropanes to the extent of 4.5 to 6% of the radiobromime products. They also yield 10 to 20% high-boiling organic bromides, mostly dibroraobutanes. For three of the isomers, the organic retention of radiobromine is in the expected range of 30 to 40a; (CH3)3CBr gave nearly 100% organic retention. Carbon chain isomerization was present for all isomers, but it was highest for (CH3)3/CBr, 13.6% as 2-bromobutane. The unusual product proportions of (CH3)3CBr are explained by the formation of (CH3)3C c ations or radicals; this explanation is supported by the fact that the (CH3)3/ CBr ratio of radioactive 2-bromobutane to 2-bromo-2-methylpropane, 0.2, is close to the 0.23 ratio observed for the equilibration of n-butane with 2-methylpropane in the presence of AlBr3 at 25°C.


In order to solve the problem that the existing power backbone transmission network structure is difficult to meet the emerging service requirements of large capacity and multi-service carrying. This article proposed Pe-OTN/OSU based bearing scheme and phased evolution strategy for electric power backbone transmission network, which have high reliability, large capacity, intelligent management & control characteristics and can realize the comprehensive bearing of different services. The field test also fully verified the service bearing performance and reliability of Pe-OTN, which can provide a solid theoretical reference for the evolution of electric power communication network.


This paper, deals with Latch Free Clock Gating technique for reduction of clock power and dynamic power consumption in ITC'99 bo1 Benchmark circuit and we have compared power reduction at different device operating frequencies. Without latch free clock gating technique in b01 benchmark circuit the Contribution of Clock power was 37.50%, 37.64%, 4.46%, 38.75% and 38.76% of total dynamic power when device is operating at frequency 100MHz, 1GHz, 10GHz, 100GHz and 1 THz respectively. After implementation of latch free clock gating technique, In b01 benchmark circuit, Clock power contribution in total dynamic power reduces to 1.96%, 1.98%, 1.93% and 1.92%, when device operating frequency is 1GHz, 10GHz, 100GHz and 1 THz respectively. We synthesized this device on 40-nm vertex-6 this technique also reduces significantly IOs power. We have shown last results only at two operating frequency i.e. 10GHz and 100GHz. At operating frequency of 1 THz, the proposed design results 97.08 % reduction in clock power, 7.28% reduction in IOs power and 44% reduction in dynamic power as compare d to ITC'99 b01 benchmark circuit without latch free clock gating technique.


In this article, q-Chlodowsky operators are utilized for synchronizing a chaotic master-slave system. The universal approximation property enables q-Chlodowsky operators to approximate uncertainties, which consist of disturbances and unmodeled dynamics. It is verified that uniformly ultimately bounded stability of the tracking/approximation errors can be assured if the q-Chlodowsky operators are utilized as regressors and the polynomial coefficients are tuned by the adaptive laws calculated in the stability analysis. Moreover, it has been assumed that the rate of synchronization error is not at hand and a filter-based strategy has been adopted instead of designing an observer. The Duffing-Holmes oscillator is studied and the results are also compared with three powerful approximation-based and robust control methods. Unlike neural network/fuzzy estimators in which system states are necessary to define the regressor vector, the proposed uncertainty estimator does not require them in the regressor vector. Furthermore, in comparison with radial basis functions neural networks (RBFNNs), we are involved in fewer adaptive coefficients in the regressor vector of the proposed uncertainty estimator. As a result, the tedious and time-consuming procedure of trial and error for tuning the uncertainty estimator is eliminated.


A three step algori thm for automatic detection of stressed syllables in Danish and its application in an Automatie Speech Recogni tion system is described in this paper. The ASR system HEAD is an acoustic-phonetic expert system, incorporating a nevral network which combined with a Greatest Likelihood Relation (GLR) segmentation-algorithm propese allophone hypothesis. This string of allophones is then used by the lexicon to produce ward hypothesis. Finally the words are joined


Based on conservation of resources theory, this study examines the influence of work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) on three dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among Spanish employees in various industries. Using structural equation modelling, significant negative relationships were found between FWC and OCB directed towards the individual and task citizenship behaviour. No significant relationships were found between WFC and any of the three dimensions of OCB. Multi-group analysis revealed significant gender differences in several relationships.


The origin of the Jaka Tarub story in oral tradition shows how Javanese culture deals with encounters and fissues in its civilisation. Drawing on a north Javanese kentrungan performance recorded in the 1980s the article shows how these Islamic storytellers have skilfully blended ancient myths and folktales with local history and non-Javanese Islamic legends. As a rich source of information on local language, manners and customs, these oral tales may also help to answer questions on the relationship between Javanese and other cultures. Investigation of this genre is urgent since the art of storytelling is rapidly fading under the pressure of modernisation.


The effect of application different components of humus (humic acid and fulvic acid) and foliar spraying with Moringa leaf extract on Sudan grass vegetative criteria, some physiological and biochemical properties grown under three levels of soil salinity was conducted. Two pot experiments were carried out under the greenhouse conditions at the farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Egypt, during the growth season 2014 and 2015. Data indicated that salinity stress condition significantly decreased plant height, shoot fresh and dry weight, chlorophyll a, b and caroteniods, photochemical activity, RNA, DNA, total carbohydrates and total sugars, while increment of antioxidant enzymes, i.e., peroxidase (POX) and catalase (CAT). Application of two humus component and foliar spraying with Moringa leaf extract overcome the harmful effects of salinity stress on the above mentioned criteria of Sudan grass compared with untreated plants. Humus components and Moringa leaf extract were helpful in improving these criteria at three cuts under different salinity levels. The highest value of the above mentioned criteria was observed with application of the humic acid + fulvic acid and spraying Moringa leaf extract, while the lowest one was recorded under the control treatment.


In this paper, a method and system for gyrocompassing based on a low-cost micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) gyroscope are described. The proposed setup is based on the choice of a gyroscope with specified bias instability better than 2 deg h-1 and on careful error compensation. The gyroscope is aligned parallel to the local level, which helps to eliminate the g-sensitivity effect but also sacrifices a fraction of the Earth's rotation rate that can be observed. The additive bias is compensated for by rotating the sensor mechanically and by extended Kalman filtering. In this paper, it is demonstrated that the proposed system is capable of observing the Earth's rotation, and the north finding results show that a two-sigma accuracy of 4.03° was attained at latitude 61°N. With current MEMS gyroscopes, the system requires hours of time to achieve this accuracy, but the results demonstrate the theoretical accuracy potential of these small self-contained, low-cost sensors.


The LISA Technology Package (LTP) aboard of LISA pathfinder mission is dedicated to demonstrate and verify key technologies for LISA, in particular drag free control, ultra-precise laser interferometry and gravitational sensor. Two inertial sensor, the optical interferometry in between combined with the dimensional stable Glass ceramic Zerodur structure are setting up the LTP. The validation of drag free operation of the spacecraft is planned by measuring laser interferometrically the relative displacement and tilt between two test masses (and the optical bench) with a noise levels of 10pm/√Hz and 10 nrad/√Hz between 3mHz and 30mHz. This performance and additionally overall environmental tests was currently verified on EM level. The OB structure is able to support two inertial sensors (≈17kg each) and to withstand 25 g design loads as well as 0...40°C temperature range. Optical functionality was verified successfully after environmental tests. The engineering model development and manufacturing of the optical bench and interferometry hardware and their verification tests will be presented.


The intangible cultural heritage of ethnic minorities in the school education is an important way and means of national culture education. Ningxia local universities and primary and secondary schools have conducted some beneficial exploration and practice of the intangible cultural education,but there still exists many problems and dilemma. This paper argues that only accurate positioning of intangible cultural heritage education,progressive enhancing management system,good teachers training program,emphasis on multi-channel cooperation can protect and inherit the outstanding non-material cultural heritage and can foster modern talents to adapt to the multicultural social development requirements.


Background: Statin use is recommended in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) due to its morbidity and mortality benefits. However, the effect of statins on limb salvage in PAD is unclear. We examined the effect of statins on survival and limb salvage among PAD patients undergoing surgical or endovascular intervention. Methods: PAD patients were identified who underwent intervention between 2009 and 2010. Information was collected from electronic medical records and the Social Security Death Index. Univariate analysis was used to determine predictors of ongoing statin use. Survival and freedom from amputation were determined using KM plots and adjusted hazard ratios by Cox regression. Results: A total of 488 PAD patients underwent surgical (n=297) or endovascular (n=191) intervention. 39% were African-American, 44% were female, 41% received statins, 56% received antiplatelet medications, 26% received oral anticoagulants, 9% required a major amputation, and 11% died during follow-up of up to 88 months. Statin users were more often male (p=0.03), caucasian (p=0.03), smokers (p Conclusion: Statin use in PAD patients with interventions was associated with improved limb-salvage and survival. Despite existing guidelines, statin therapy was disappointingly low in our PAD population, and efforts will be made to increase use across our health system.


In this study, GaAs metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitors using Y‐incorporated TaON as gate dielectric have been investigated. Experimental results show that the sample with a Y/(Y + Ta) atomic ratio of 27.6% exhibits the best device characteristics: high k value (22.9), low interfacestate density (9.0 × 1011 cm–2 eV–1), small flatband voltage (1.05 V), small frequency dispersion and low gate leakage current (1.3 × 10–5A/cm2 at Vfb + 1 V). These merits should be attributed to the complementary properties of Y2O3 and Ta2O5:Y can effectively passivate the large amount of oxygen vacancies in Ta2O5, while the positively‐charged oxygen vacancies in Ta2O5 are capable of neutralizing the effects of the negative oxide charges in Y2O3. This work demonstrates that an appropriate doping of Y content in TaON gate dielectric can effectively improve the electrical performance for GaAs MOS devices. Capacitance–voltage characteristic of the GaAs MOS capacitor with TaYON gate dielectric (Y content = 27.6%) proposed in this work with the cross sectional structure and dielectric surface morphology as insets.


Review(s) of: 2008 Environmental Performance Index, by Daniel C. Esty, Marc A. Levy, Christine H. Kim, Alex de Sherbinin, Tanja Srebotnjak and Valentina Mara, Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy, New Haven, 2008, 93 pages, http://epi.yale.edu.


The moderation hypothesis, that ideologically moderate candidates in a two-party contest are more likely to win elections than extreme candidates, is both prevailing wisdom and a major conclusion of spatial theories of elections. We examine the hypothesis using perceptual data from samples of caucus attenders in the 1984 and 1988 presidential nomination campaigns at both the individual and the cross-candidate levels of analysis. In both analyses, we find qualified support for the moderation hypothesis. In explaining individuals' perceptions of the four nominees' electability, we find a modest effect of perceived proximity to the American voter for all candidates, save George Bush. Other variables, such as party, candidate affect, and nomination chances are stronger predictors, and the candidate's perceived abilities on TV rivals moderation in its impact. In our comparative analysis of some 20 candidates, we find that Ronald Reagan and John Glenn were very significant outliers in what is otherwise a strong relationship between moderation and electability. We also find that performance on TV is a strong and significant predictor of electability. We conclude that the moderation hypothesis holds up reasonably well for the large majority of candidates, but that other candidate factors are also important to include in any complete assessment of candidate electability in November.


OBJECTIVE
To approach the naphtha analysis of different processed products of Rhizoma Curcumae from Guangxi.

METHODS
The naphtha was extracted by steam distillation. The relative content of every compound was determined with area normalization method and the structures were elucidated by GC-MS technique.

RESULTS
33 kinds of chemical compositions were identified in the naphtha of the six samples,the main contents were Cyclohexane, 1-ethenyl-1-methyl-2,4-bis (1-methylethenyl)-, 5-Benzofuranacetic acid, 6-ethenyl-4,5,6,7-terahydro-3, 6-dimethyl-alpha. -methylene-,methyl ester, and so on.

CONCLUSIONS
Six samples of Rhizoma Curcumae are significantly different in quality,and the naphtha's content of the sample processing with vinegar is the highest.


A recent article in The New York Times1 suggests that physicians—because we understand the implications of a serious illness diagnosis and the implications of treatment and the associated morbidity—die "better" than do non-physicians.


The hot-line work robot for distribution network, an important branch of intelligent robot, has been given more and more attention. In the operation of the hot-line work robot for distribution network, environmental inference such as weather, light and temperature could have a great impact on the robot's performance. Therefore, it is of great significance to improve the anti-inference performance of robot in distribution-network operation. Firstly, this article studies about 3D vision recognition and reconstruction in terms of distribution network operation, and explores the principle of binocular stereo vision in measuring sparse parallax of conducting wires in live working environment of distribution network and the operator-for -contour-matching algorithm based on RGB image data. Secondly, this article builds up a system, where based on binocular vision and laser point cloud, the distance between wires and the robot is measured, parameters of the operating environment are identified, the target's depth is estimated. Thus, the anti-disturbance performance and operating accuracy are effectively improved.


Background Interpretation of missense variants can be especially difficult when the variant is also found in control populations. This is what we encountered for the LMNA c.992G>A (p.(Arg331Gln)) variant. Therefore, to evaluate the effect of this variant, we combined an evaluation of clinical data with functional experiments and morphological studies. Methods and Results Clinical data of 23 probands and 35 family members carrying this variant were retrospectively collected. A time-to-event analysis was performed to compare the course of the disease with carriers of other LMNA mutations. Myocardial biopsies were studied with electron microscopy (EM) and by measuring force development of the sarcomeres. Morphology of the nuclear envelope was assessed with immunofluorescence on cultured fibroblasts. The phenotype in probands and family members was characterized by atrioventricular conduction disturbances (61% and 44%, respectively), supraventricular arrhythmias (69% and 52%, respectively) and dilated cardiomyopathy (74% and 14%, respectively). LMNA p.(Arg331Gln) carriers had a significantly better outcome regarding the composite endpoint (malignant ventricular arrhythmias, end stage heart failure or death) compared to carriers of other pathogenic LMNA mutations. A shared haplotype of 1 Mb around LMNA suggested a common founder. The combined LOD score was 3.46. Force development in membrane-permeabilized cardiomyocytes was reduced due to decreased myofibril density. Structural nuclear LMNA-associated envelope abnormalities, i.e. blebs, were confirmed by EM and immunofluorescence microscopy. Conclusion Clinical, morphological, functional, haplotype and segregation data all indicate that LMNA p.(Arg331Gln) is a pathogenic founder mutation with a phenotype reminiscent of other LMNA mutations, but with a more benign course.


This paper presents an alternative way for constructing a topological space in an information system. Rough set theory for reasoning about data in information systems is used to construct the topology. Using the concept of an indiscernibility relation in rough set theory, it is shown that the topology constructed is a quasi-discrete topology. Furthermore, the dependency of attributes is applied for defining finer topology and further characterizing the roughness property of a set. Meanwhile, the notions of base and sub-base of the topology are applied to find attributes reduction and degree of rough membership, respectively.


This paper conducts tests of the random walk hypothesis and market efficiency for 14 national public real estate markets. Random walk properties of equity prices influence the return dynamics and determine the trading strategies of investors. To examine the stochastic properties of local real estate index returns and to test the hypothesis that public real estate stock prices follow a random walk, the single variance ratio tests of Lo and MacKinlay (1988) as well as the multiple variance ratio test of Chow and Denning (1993) are employed. Weak-form market efficiency is tested directly using non-parametric runs tests. Empirical evidence shows that weekly stock prices in major securitized real estate markets do not follow a random walk. The empirical findings of return predictability suggest that investors might be able to develop trading strategies allowing them to earn excess returns compared to a buy-and-hold strategy.


SUMMARY

The incidence of leaf diseases was assessed in approximately 150 crops of spring barley in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset in 1967–69 inclusive. Estimates of the percentage area of the laminae of the two top leaves affected by each disease were inade at growth stage 11.1 (Feekes scale). Mildew, leaf blotch and brown rust were the main diseases, mildew being the most severe in two of the years. Disease incidence varied with location and cultivar. Leaf blotch was usually more severe in earlier than in later sowings but the effect of sowing date on mildew severity was not consistent. None of the diseases was significantly more severe in crops which immediately followed barley than in those which did not, but the level of mildew was significantly lower after barley than after other crops. Thousand-grain weight determinations, made on samples from a proportion of the crops surveyed, correlated well with the amount of total disease on the top leaf. The estimated loss in grain yield from all diseases ranged from about 19 to 22 per cent over the three years. Leaf blotch was more severe and mildew less severe in the three south-western counties than in England and Wales as a whole.


In this paper we develop sensitivity analyses w.r.t. the long-range/memory noise parameter for solutions to stochastic differential equations and the probability distributions of their first passage times at given thresholds. Here we consider the case of stochastic differential equations driven by fractional Brownian motions and the sensitivity , when the Hurst parameter $H$ of the noise tends to the pure Brownian value, of probability distributions of certain functionals of the trajectories of the solutions $\{X^H_t\}_{t\in \mathbb{R}_+}$. We first get accurate sensitivity estimates w.r.t. $H$ around the critical Brownian parameter $H = \tfrac{1}{2}$ of time marginal probability distributions of $X^H$. We second develop a sensitivity analysis for the Laplace transform of first passage time of $X^H$ at a given threshold. Our technique requires accurate Gaussian estimates on the density of $X^H_t$. The Gaussian estimate we obtain in Section 5 may be of interest by itself.


The experiments of acoustic emission(AE) monitoring were designed for several nickel plated steel sheet specimens.The parameters of AE signals collected by PCI-2 AE system were analyzed.The results showed that the characteristic parameters including energy,duration and count could be used to represent the dynamic evolution of mechanical behavior of nickel plated steel sheet specimens,and the energy and counts of AE signal were increased with the specimens distorts to yield stage,the neck to shrink-break stage.The amplitude range of AE signals was mainly from 43 dB to 79 dB.AE technique could be useful for real-time monitoring of nickel plated steel sheet.


Congratulations to Hahn, Murray and Carvalho on a nice contribution. The authors propose the Bayesian causal forest (BCF) model. It reduces the bias and improves frequentist coverage of Bayesian credible intervals of treatment effect estimates in the presence of strong confounding and treatment effect heterogeneity. The BCF model builds upon the popular and empirically proven prediction method, Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) (Chipman et al., 2010). BCF reformulates the response surface model as the sum of two functions, one modeling the prognostic impact of the control variables and one representing the treatment effect. This formulation directly incorporates estimates of the propensity score (PS) which induces a covariate-dependent prior on the regression function and regularizes treatment effect heterogeneity separately from the prognostic effect of control variables. It is impressive that the proposed method, in many settings, has better bias reduction, more consistent 95% coverage probability and shorter uncertainty intervals compared to the vanilla BART, which boasts better performance in a host of modern causal inference studies, including Hill (2011), Wendling et al. (2018), Dorie et al. (2019) and Hu et al. (2020), to name a few.


The invention discloses flywheel based attitude maneuvering control device and method for successive approaching of a satellite rounding an instantaneous Euler shaft and relates to control device and method for satellite attitude adjustment. The invention is provided for solving the problems of great fuel consumption, short service life of a satellite, complex configuration of an air injecting control system and difficult reduction of size and weight of the satellite existing in the realization of satellite wide-angle attitude maneuvering by adopting air injecting control. The method comprises the following steps of: setting a parameter of the control device according to the system requirement of the control device and obtaining attitude deviation angular velocity according to a motion equation; and expressing a relationship of the instantaneous Euler shaft and a deviation angle of the current attitude and a target attitude of the satellite by an attitude error quaternion to obtain a control signal, calculating to obtain a flywheel control input moment vector calculated by a satellite controller, to be used as a data control command as a basis for generating moment by a back action flywheel. The invention does not consume other resources on the satellite or consume fuel, prolongs the service life of the satellite and can be widely suitable for various satellites needing attitude maneuvering.


Background: Diabetic foot ulcers are one of the most commonly encountered cases in any surgical out-patient department. Causes of leg ulcers vary from traumatic, diabetic, chronic venous insufficiency, trophic, hypertensive, and so on. Objectives: To evaluate the safety and clinical efficacy of negative pressure wound therapy compared with moist gauze dressings to treat foot ulcer wounds. Methods: Patients presenting with leg ulcers to the department of general surgery, VMKVC hospital. 40 randomly selected patients will be assigned to the study group based on their willingness for undergoing topical negative pressure dressing and 40 patients to the moist gauze dressing, control group. Results: Most of the ulcer (46%) got healed by secondary intention through VAC. dressing. Treating DFU with VAC therapy results in a better graft take rate (p=0.05) when compared to standard wound care. There is a statistically significant association found between interventions and the area of the ulcer on day 21.Among the study participants according to day 1 ulcer state 16% had healthy granulation tissue, 14% had necrotic granulation tissue, and 50% had their tissue with pale granulation.


The paper gives the results of a study of the prevalence of socioeconomic and behavioral factors that determine the health status in the adult population of an industrial town. Smoking, frequent alcohol use, sedentary lifestyle, and lack of regular physical activity are widely spread among the representatives of the study population. Exposure to hazardous production factors, which most of the respondents who have to contact, is aggravated by the fact that many of them worry about their possible health worsening and, in a number of cases, by a negative moral and psychological climate in the collective body. Only 18.2% of the respondents are aware that their lifestyle is unhealthy; the majority of them would like to correct the situation and to live a healthy lifestyle. The results of the study enable one to correctly identify the target group for preventive measures depending on risk factors that have a preferential influence.


The authors report the case of a 78-year-old woman suffering from cholangitis secondary to intrahepatic biliary stricture and intrahepatic lithiasis. Successful management consisted of successive percutaneous transhepatic internal-external biliary drainage, balloon dilatation of the stricture and gallstone mobilisation and removal through the stricture. No complications were noted.


Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were estimated to claim 17 million lives each year. Among these, coronary heart disease almost accounts 50% deaths associated with CVD, which causes the blockage of the coronary arteries that supplies blood to the heart. Nowadays, the cardiac tissue engineering have become a promising solution to overcome the drawbacks associated with current therapies. Further, the scaffold used in cardiac tissue engineering must possess thromboresistant and anticoagulant nature to serve as a plausible candidate for cardiovascular applications. In this present investigation, a novel nanocomposite based on polyurethane (PU) and carotino oil was fabricated using electrospinning. Scanning electron microscopy images indicated that the nanocomposites have smaller fiber diameter (702 ± 130 nm) compared to the pristine PU (969 ± 217 nm). The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis confirmed the interaction between the carotino oil and PU by the formation of hydrogen bond and shifting of CH peak. The contact angle of electrospun PU/carotino oil was found to be 119°, which was increased compared to pristine PU (86°) indicating the hydrophobic nature of developed nanocomposites. Moreover, the surface roughness and thermal stability were found to be enhanced due to the presence of carotino oil in the PU matrix indicated in atomic force microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The enhanced surface roughness of nanocomposites resulted in delayed activation of the blood clot as revealed in activated partial thromboplastin time and prothrombin time assay. Moreover, the hemolytic index of fabricated nanocomposites was found to very low of about 1.33% compared to pristine PU (2.73%), suggesting non-hemolytic nature and also better blood compatibility. So, the developed PU/carotino nanocomposites having desirable characteristics like better physicochemical and blood compatibility may render appropriate potentials for raw materials of cardiac tissue engineering. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45691.


The thesis is devoted to the development of new methods for the constructive design and the systematic tuning of passivity-based controllers for both smooth and switched nonlinear systems. The main contributions are: (1) methods for the estimation and enlargement of the domain of attraction; (2) a controller design method for the stabilization of switched nonlinear systems; and (3) conditions for the solvability of the exact output trajectory tracking problem for switched nonlinear systems and methods for the tracking controller design.


The objectives of this study were to compare the results of artificial neural network (ANN) and standard vegetation algorithm processing to distinguish nutrient stress from in-field controls, and determine whether nutrient stress might be distinguished from water stress in the same test field. The test site was the US Department of Agriculture's Variable Rate Application (VRAT) site, Shelton, Nebraska. The VRAT field was planted in corn with test plots that were differentially treated with nitrogen (N). The field contained four replicates, each with N treatments ranging from 0 kg ha−1 to 200 kg ha−1 in 50 kg ha−1 increments. Low-altitude (3 m pixel) Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) hyperspectral imagery (224 bands) was collected over the site. Ground data were collected to support image interpretation. An ANN was applied to the AVIRIS image data for detection of crop and water stress. Known vegetation indices were used as a baseline for comparison against ANN-based stress detection. The resulting comparison found that ANN methods provided a heightened capability to separate stressed crops from in-field, non-stressed controls and was sensitive to differences in nutrient- and water-stressed field regions.


This article provides a status report of the U.S. Coast Guard implementation of an automatic identification system (AIS). The AIS is a shipborne transponder-based navigation safety system that enables the efficient exchange of data such as name, type, position, course, speed, navigation status, dimensions, or type of cargo among ships and between ships and shore stations. The AIS will form an important part of the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) Ports and Waterways Safety System (PAWSS) acquisition project to aid in providing safety to a community of ports and waterways. The evolution of this acquisition, from the conceptual stage to the anticipated installation schedule, is described.


In this paper we compare three spatial multiplexing techniques suitable for the use in the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU MIMO) downlink. The first one is a linear method called bloek diagonalization (BD) and is based on the singular value decomposition (SVD). The second one is Tomlinson-Harashima Precoding Transmit Wiener Filtering (THF' TxWF). The third one is a new technique that combines the advantages of BD and THP transmit filtering. We investigate the influence of different degrees of channel state information at the transmitter on their bit error performance. We show that the combination of THP TxWF for single-antenna nsers and BD for multiple-antenna nsers can improve the overall system performance and has better bit error performance with perfect as well as imperfect channel state information at the transmitter.


We have fitted the protons momentum distribution of the 16 GLEs of solar cycle 23 with a log-parabola and have found a correlation between the previously determined energy break and the global spectral curvature of the log-parabola.


The operation of an Osterberg cell O-cell used for testing piles with large load in the axial direction is explained. Its main advantage is that it does not require the application of a load on top of the pile. The capacities are obtained for shaft and tip directly and separately. This paper shows the background and results of a series of tests performed with O-cell in foundation piles of great size in the Concon refinery. The data recorded in the field were used to calibrate a numerical model of the test using the finite element software Plaxis 2D. Finally, it is performed a numerical model of a traditional load test, which is compared to the equivalent curve for a traditional test carried out with the data of the executed O-cell load test.


Experiments have been carried out to determine whether the recombination of electrons with highly oriented Vk centres creates oriented H centres, in the same way as orientation is maintained during the photolysis of U2 centres. The work has confirmed optically that H-like centres are formed by electron-Vk recombination in KCl, but no polarization in the H band can be detected even when the starting Vk centres are highly oriented. This implies that if H centres do separate from F centres via correlated (110) collision sequences the direction of the sequence is not maintained to its end. It has also been found that the lead impurities significantly enhance the production of H-like centres.


We present the experimental results of voltage-biased superconducting bolometers (VSB) on silicon nitride (Si3N4) membranes with niobium wiring developed in collaboration between the Institut fur Physikalische Hochtechnologie (IPHT), Jena, Germany and the Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie (MPIfR), Bonn, Germany. The bolometer current is measured with the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), and as expected, the current responsivity is proportional to the inverse of the bias voltage. The experiments were performed with bilayer gold-palladium molybdenum thermistor at 300 mK 3He cooled cryostat and the desired transition temperature of Tc = 450 mK is achieved. The strong negative electro-thermal feedback of the VSB maintains the constant bolometer temperature and reduces the response time from 4 ms to 100 μs. We have tested thermistors of various size and shape on a continuous membrane and achieved a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 3.5 × 10-16 W/√Hz. The measured NEP is relatively high due to the comparatively high background and high thermal conductance of the unstructured silicon nitride (Si3N4) membrane. We have fabricated 8-leg spider structured membranes in three different geometries and the relation between the geometry and the thermal conductance (G) is studied. Using the COSMOS finite element analysis tool, we have modeled the TES bolometers to determine the thermal conductance for different geometries and calculated the various parameters. Due to the demands of large number pixel bolometer camera we plan to implement multiplex readout with integrated SQUIDs in our design.


The statement of the risk assessment problem of convergence trajectories of dynamic objects is formulated. An example of the solution assessment problem of the convergence trajectories of two dynamic objects is considered. Modeling of aircraft traffic taking into account the influence of random perturbations in MatLab is carried out. Relative projections of the trajectories of two aircrafts are constructed. An assessment of the occurrence of a conflict situation between two dynamic objects is obtained, the results of this problem are analyzed. The aim of research is developing an approach to risk assessment problem of convergence trajectories of dynamic objects. The problem is solved in the test case with the given initial conditions. Further development of the article consists in finding the probability of a conflict situation from the multidimensional Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation. The process of aircraft traffic is described by the random Markov process of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck. conflict situation; forecasting; aircraft; conflict situation assessment; conflict probability; dynamic object; stochastic differential equation


Pulse image detecting device was applied to acquire radial dynamic pulse images. In this paper, we improved the probe structure of the pulse image detecting device with new film material. Four kinds of different thickness films, the different pulse-taking pressures and the different sealed chamber pressures were used to determine the optimum film. For different subjects, the pulse amplitude was extracted with the different pulse-taking pressures and different sealed cavity pressures. The experiment results had shown that the best pulse amplitude could be obtained with the film thickness for 0.504 mm, pulse-taking pressure for 3 N and the sealed cavity pressure for 120KPa. This work provided an important theoretical basis for the parameter choice of the pulse image detection device.


This paper derives the theoretical average bit error rate (BER) expressions of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems employing binary phase shift keying (BPSK), differential BPSK (DBPSK) and M-ary phase shift keying (MPSK) in a multi-path fading channel using the angle-of-arrival probability density function (pdf) at the mobile where a directional antenna is mounted. The channel introduces Doppler shift with the maximum Doppler spread fd. Two special cases are considered (i) fd is Gaussian distributed and (ii) fd is Rayleigh distributed. Two major diversity techniques are considered: (i) selective combining (SC), and (ii) maximal ratio combining. Detailed discussions and comparisons on performance of OFDM systems employing SC, MRC with directional antennas are given.


The decision regarding prophylactic treatment after surgery in Crohn's disease (CD) requires a good estimation of the risk of recurrence. It is also important to consider the consequences of recurrence for the patient, and the risks and benefits of treatment, bearing in mind that it will be given over a long period.


Internal damage in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites modifies the internal electrical conductivity of the composite material. Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) is a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique that determines the extent of damage based on electrical conductivity changes. Implementation of ERT for damage identification in CFRP composites requires the optimal selection of the sensing sites for accurate results. This selection depends on the measuring scheme used. The present work uses an effective independence (EI) measure for selecting the minimum set of measurements for ERT damage identification using three measuring schemes: two-probe, four-probe and multi-probe. The electrical potential field in two CFRP laminate layups with 14 electrodes is calculated using finite element analyses (FEA) for a set of specified delamination damage cases. The measuring schemes consider the cases of 14 electrodes distributed on both sides and seven electrodes on only one side of the laminate for each layup. The effectiveness of EI reduction is demonstrated by comparing the inverse identification results of delamination cases for the full and the reduced sets using the measuring schemes and electrode sets. This work shows that the EI measure optimally reduces electrode and electrode combinations in ERT based damage identification for different measuring schemes.


FOUR years ago, Hu Ping, then the Minister of Commerce, was doing an investigation in Hubei Province in central China. This busy minister took the opportunity to stroll through the market and buy himself a pair of brown mesh oxhide shoes which he put on immediately. Coming back to Beijing the next day, he took off his shoes only to find the heel of the right shoe was missing. With joy and expedition, a newly-married couple went to buy a pair of stylish women's shoes in Xidan, a shopping area in Beijing. The bride put them on at once and only walked a hundred meters before the heels dropped


We provide a new proof of the upper-semicontinuity property for the global attractorsadmitted by the solution operators associated with some strongly damped wave equations. In particular,we demonstrate an explicit control over semidistances between trajectories in the weak energy phasespace in terms of the perturbation parameter. This result strengthens the recent work by Y. Wang andC. Zhong [7].


SIRS, We read with great interest the review article by Wantuck et al. discussing the epidemiology and treatment outcomes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes 4 through 6. HCV genotype 5 (HCV-5) is an uncommon genotype with few reports outside South Africa, including a cluster of the infection described in Greece. Although a fixed 48-week course of pegylated interferon (PegIFN) and ribavirin is currently recommended, this suggestion is not based on solid evidence. Indeed, most therapeutic data come from retrospective studies with small sample sizes and extreme heterogeneity regarding treatment modalities (e.g. use of standard interferon) and patient sampling (e.g. inclusion of relapsers). As stated by Wantuck et al., HCV-5 has been claimed to be an easier to treat genotype (as compared with HCV genotype 1), showing response rates similar to genotypes 2 and 3. However, this has been questioned by other reports showing an overall response more similar to genotype 1. Clearly, comparison with other HCV genotypes is not a solid basis for standardising treatment of HCV-5. Prospective trials, to date hampered by obvious difficulties in patient sampling, are urgently needed to establish the optimal therapeutic strategy for HCV-5. This includes assessment of the potential cost utility of a response-guided approach, as originally adopted for HCV genotype 1 and recently proposed for genotype 6. Including 27 treatment-na€ıve patients with HCV-5 infection, we have prospectively assessed the efficacy of combined anti-viral treatment showing a sustained viral response (SVR) of 63%. Congruently with previous reports, our patients were more frequently females of advanced age, characterised by high baseline viraemia and advanced hepatic fibrosis. Albeit adequately powered studies are warranted for definitive conclusions, it seems that neither these factors nor IL-28B polymorphisms, known to adversely affect treatment of other HCV genotypes, impact therapy of HCV-5. In our study, 16/27 patients (59.3%) had undetectable HCV-RNA by week 24, all but one of whom (85.2%) went on to achieve a 48-week response. Nevertheless, a substantial relapse rate, in our setting as high as 26.1%, may decisively discourage a fixed shortening of treatment duration to 24 weeks. However, our finding of an excellent predictive value of early viral dynamics on SVR offers a brand new perspective: a response-guided schedule may be a viable option for patients with HCV-5 infection. More intuitively, a 24-week course may be enough for those achieving a negative viral load by week 4 of treatment, as indicated by the high positive predictive value (93.8%) of this variable on sustained virological response. Contrarily, adoption of a stopping rule may be the most reasonable option for patients in whom HCV-RNA remains positive by week 12 of therapy, as these patients are unlikely to respond to the 48-week treatment. In conclusion, before attempting to evaluate the newly approved (but costly) protease inhibitors boceprevir and telaprevir or newer agents with pan-genotypic activities (such as sofosbuvir) against HCV-5, a response-guided approach based on the standard dual (PegIFN and ribavirin) regimen merits appropriate consideration in randomised trials targeting to establish a cost-effective treatment for HCV-5. This is important as the HCV-5 infected population is mainly based in developing countries with limited financial resources. Thus, we are ready to share our data in multicentric efforts.


A novel Bi0.2Sr0.7TiO3–BiFeO3 thin film prepared by sol–gel/spin coating possesses ultrahigh energy storage density, good thermal stability and excellent charge–discharge performance.


ABSTRACT G.E. Moore's open question arguments (OQAs) have been targeted by unsympathetic philosophers for close to a century. Perhaps the most serious criticism directed towards Moore's OQAs is that they beg the question against targeted theories. After presenting an OQA extracted from §13 of Principia Ethica, I lodge this question-begging objection before articulating Moore's autobiographical efforts to mitigate its force. I then suggest that Moore's OQAs are incomplete, awaiting the final stage of construction, an explanation of the 'open question' phenomenon—the inclination of many philosophers to endorse the central premises of Moore's OQAs. After a brief investigation of noncognitivist attempts to explain the phenomenon, I propose a semantic explanation, a cognitivist explanation that commits its proponents neither to mysterious nonnatural properties nor to perilous positions regarding the paradox of analysis. I conclude by arguing that Moore's completed OQAs are successful, but his deployment of them in efforts to refute metaethical naturalism, even analytic or semantic versions, is not.


We present the status of our efforts to demonstrate the feasibility of recording on a cover-layer protected dual-layer optical disc with a blue laser and NA=1.45 objective lens that is based on a solid immersion lens (SIL). We discuss the potential data density and some practical and theoretical considerations for the light path, the objective lens and the media. In particular, we show a lens design and results of prototype manufacturing for a NA=1.45 lens that focuses on the data layer of an optical disc through a sub-wavelength air gap and a 3 µm spin coated cover-layer that protects the data on the disc.


The title compounds 1a and 1b have been synthesized in two steps from the saturated pyran-3-ones 2a and 2b, respectively. Upon irradiation (254 nm or 350 nm) in dilute solutions (10−3−10−2M), compounds 1 undergo a formal [4 + 2] cycloreversion from the excited triplet state to give (2-methylprop-1-enyl)ketene (11) and either formaldehyde or acetone, ketene 11 being trapped by H2O or MeOH to afford 4-methylpent-3-enoic acid (5) or its methyl ester 4 in 75–85% isolated yield. In this (monomolecular) photoreaction, heterocycles 1 differ from their alicyclic counterparts, i.e., 4,4-dimethylcyclohex-2-enone (10a) and 4,4,6,6-tetramethylcyclohex-2-enone (10b), as no rearrangement to a 4-oxabicyclo[3.1.0]hexan-2-one occurs. On the other hand, the photochemical behavior of pyranone 1a in bimolecular reactions (cyclodimerization, [2 + 2] cycloaddition to 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ene) resembles that of enone 10a.


[Purpose] The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of vibratory stimulus on the static postural control of 8 healty senior adults. [Methods] To achieve this goal, all subjects participated in two different kinds of static postural control tasks. Task 1 was a static postural control task, where both-legs stand on the ground. Second task was an unstable static postural control task using only single leg stance. As they maintain their balance, 6 different vibratory stimulus were provided on the sole of their feet(personal threshold 0%, 80%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 120%). [Results] The results of the study were as follows: First, there was no significant differences in postural control ability according to different types of vibrator intensity. Second, there was a significant difference in single-leg postural control ability according to vibrator intensity. Third, there was a significant difference in anterio-posterior stability according to the different types of vibrator intensity. [Conclusion] Stochastic resonance using vibratory stimulus was more effective in the single leg stance task, rather than the double leg stance task. Moreover, sub-threshold vibratory stimulus(80%, 90%) intensity were more effective than higher vibratory stimulus(100%, 110%, 120%).


The paper investigates how firms operating in the Levant economies (Jordan) and the Gulf Cooperation Council economies (Bahrain) determine their capital structure. Using unbalanced panel data and multiple regressions, the paper finds that the leverage ratio is positively affected by the size of the firm, but declines with an increase in the firm's profitability, the tangibility of assets and the firm's liquidity in both types of economy. The leverage ratio is also affected by the market conditions in which the firm operates. The degree and effectiveness of these determinants are dependent on the country's legal and financial traditions. Overall, the capital structure of a firm is heavily influenced by the economic environment and its institutions, corporate governance practices, tax systems, the borrower-lender relation, exposure to capital markets and level of investor protection in the country in which the firm operates.


Modern InfiniBand interconnects offer link speeds of several gigabytes per second and a remote direct memory access (RDMA) paradigm for zero-copy network communication. Both are crucial for parallel database systems to achieve scalable distributed query processing where adding a server to the cluster increases performance. However, the scalability of distributed joins is threatened by unexpected data characteristics: Skew can cause a severe load imbalance such that a single server has to process a much larger part of the input than its fair share and by this slows down the entire distributed query. We introduce Flow-Join, a novel distributed join algorithm that handles attribute value skew with minimal overhead. Flow-Join detects heavy hitters at runtime using small approximate histograms and adapts the redistribution scheme to resolve load imbalances before they impact the join performance. Previous approaches often involve expensive analysis phases, which slow down distributed join processing for non-skewed workloads. This is especially the case for modern high-speed interconnects, which are too fast to hide the extra computation. Other skew handling approaches require detailed statistics, which are often not available or overly inaccurate for intermediate results. In contrast, Flow-Join uses our novel lightweight skew handling scheme to execute at the full network speed of more than 6 GB/s for InfiniBand 4×FDR, joining a skewed input at 11.5 billion tuples/s with 32 servers. This is 6.8× faster than a standard distributed hash join using the same hardware. At the same time, Flow-Join does not compromise the join performance for non-skewed workloads.


The present investigation was undertaken with a view to study the growth and biochemical activity of normal Yoghurt cultures with probiotic Acido-Bifido-Yoghurt with various combination of the ingredients and cultures and to investigate the sensory quality profiles of this product by comparing this value-added product with its traditional counterpart viz. plain yoghurt. Buffalo milk was used to prepare this value-added product A human vaginal isolate of Lb. acidophilus~LBKV3 was used as a proven prodiotic organism and a human strain of Biloidobacterium bilidum as another organism. A method was standardize the probiotic Acido-Bifido-Yoghurt. Product was assessed for its sensory atbidutes through a panes of judges. It was observes that incorporation of probiotic cultures do not affect the sensory characteristice of the product.


Abstract When recirculating cooling tower systems are used as a source of cooling water for plant operations, quality and composition of the initial and make-up water systems are not the only factors to be considered when selecting an inhibitor. Also important are the contaminating factors introduced from the atmosphere. This paper describes a situation wherein at one plant the initial inhibitor treatment became ineffective due to expansion of plant activities and introduction of additional and greater amounts of atmospheric contamination. The value of laboratory screening tests followed by plant tests to assure proper protection are discussed. As a result of this incident the value of continuous testing in the field in a versatile and ever-growing plant is reported. 4.6.4


Case reports of historical vintage are of considerable interest in the medico-legal field. Thus, a previous such case was demonstrated personally concerning a seaman; although he was sentenced, postmortem examination instituted by a lawyer versed in Anatomy was salutary. Therefore, the present case is deemed worthy of extraction from the famous 1832 work of Hodgkin. Indeed, with reference to the postmortem examination, the suspicious appearances of the liver and spleen, which were observed, were led to rest as not being due to violence


948 to "the emergence of a larger consumer culture in which the personal use and bodily display of commodities became constitutive of individual and group identity" (284). The commitment to Victorian manliness, which was so evident in the lives of Prince Hall Freemasonry and UNIA, did not hold the same currency for these young, middle-class blacks, for they instead questioned this bourgeois notion of masculinity. Yet, despite the shift in the definitions of manliness, Summers implies that ultimately all black men were "incapable of completely transcending the hegemonic definitions of manhood put into place by the American middle class" (241). Summers is successful in recognizing the hegemonic power of white manhood, while also locating African American and African Caribbean men as agents within these hegemonic, gender conventions. He has produced a wonderful and insightful text that demonstrates succinctly that black men, during the first three decades of the twentieth century, "were not merely screens on which white men projected their anxieties about manhood" (290). I wonder, however, if he is successful in actualizing the promise he made in the beginning of his discussion, that gender formation is a process. According to Judith Butler, Hélène Cixous, Felix Guattari, and other theorists who deal with gender and sexuality, the idea is that gender and sexuality are fluid and multiple. When we construct and perform gender, we do it at the expense of all kinds of exclusions and repressions. Yet, when Summers talks about middle-class black men "fitting" themselves into the ideological, gender, and moral suits of the Freemasonry and UNIA, he never points to what is consciously or unconsciously excluded or repressed. Moreover, as Michel de Certeau argues in The Practice of Everyday Life, when the "other" performs normative rituals, they subvert them "not by rejecting or altering them, but by using them with respect to ends and references foreign to the system they had no choice but to accept."1 Although Summers admits that when black men perform Victorian manliness they are not simply copying it, he never seizes upon the opportunity to define how they, in doing so, create re-described definitions that are new and different, which allow them to escape it without leaving it. Thus, in simply concluding that black men never transcend hegemonic definitions of manhood, he eschews the opportunity to talk about difference and re-description, and remains locked in the binary logic of modernity.


Production of image sensor devices has increased dramatically in recent years due to wide scale adoption of camera modules in mobile phones. It is expected that over 150M camera modules will be shipped in mobile phones in 2004. The packaging of an image sensor in a camera module presents several unique engineering challenges. Materials selection, assembly process, optical test, and facilities control are all areas where technology is rapidly developing. This paper focuses on current challenges, and highlights several areas where advances in research and development are needed.


As a brief background, substance use disorder (SUD) is fundamentally a learning disorder that affects millions across the nation. Within the mesocorticolimbic system, the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is ideally situated to process reward information which makes it a key region involved in SUD. Moreover, recent studies have shown that neuronal ensembles, coordinated populations of neurons, within the NAc can be activated to specific stimuli, including drugs of abuse. This developing ensemble theory has made these neuronal ensembles potential therapeutic targets for treating maladaptive drug seeking. Our project aims to characterize these neuronal ensembles activated by cocaine to assess their role in cocaine use disorder. Specifically, we plan to characterize how lesioning of these cocaine activated ensembles in the NAc affects cocaine related behaviors. New technological advances have led to the development of genetic mouse lines that allow for activity-dependent expression of viruses, which we use to modulate ensemble activity. Using an Arc-CreER T2 mouse line, a Cre-dependent diphtheria toxin was injected into the NAc to lesion neuronal ensembles specifically activated to chronic cocaine and withdrawal. Using these two groups and a control, we sought to characterize the role of this ensemble in reinforcement learning and other cocaine-related behaviors. We had mice perform a positive reinforcement task for sucrose and determined the active pokes after acquisition and the total average sucrose infusions. Interestingly, we found that lesioning either the ensemble recruited by chronic cocaine or withdrawal does not attenuate reinforcement learning or motivated behavior, as there was no significant difference in the days to acquire the task or the average infusions. Next, we also had mice perform a negative reinforcement task for shock avoidance and determined the percent correct trials, the days to > 75% correct trails, total shocks, and escapes. Here, we also found that lesioning either ensemble does not attenuate reinforcement learning or motivated behavior, with no significant different among the 3 groups. Lastly, in animal models, cocaine use is also associated with locomotor disturbances, where mice move significantly more after repeated exposure to cocaine. Therefore, we also investigated whether there were any effects of lesioning the cocaine ensembles on cocaine locomotor sensitization. Here we found that both the control group and the group lesioned to withdrawal were sensitized to a challenge injection of cocaine. However, lesioning the chronic cocaine ensembles resulted in the group not being sensitized, as they did not have a significant difference in locomotion from the initial cocaine injection to a final injection on the sensitization day. Together, these results suggest that the ensembles recruited after a history of cocaine are not necessary for reinforcement learning and motivated behavior. However, the chronic cocaine ensemble may be critically in the pathways that underlie locomotor behaviors associated with repeated cocaine use. Characterizing the role of these ensembles in the brain sheds light on how reinforcement learning processes are dysregulated and will provide crucial insight in finding effective treatment strategies.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To explore and describe spouses' experiences of losing couplehood with their dementia-afflicted partner living in institutional care.

BACKGROUND
Despite the losses and experiences of discontinuity due to the cognitive decline caused by dementia, the feelings of belonging and reciprocity in close relationships are still crucial to many couples. However, these experiences of spouses with partners living in institutional care are not well documented and are thus the focus of this study.

DESIGN
A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to capture the relational processes described by the spouses.

METHODS
Conversational interviews were conducted with n = 10 spouses of dementia-afflicted persons living in institutional care. Data were analysed using the constant comparative method.

RESULTS
The spouses' experiences of losing couplehood were primarily connected to separation from the partner and the sense of being alone. They were also related to the loss of the shared past and future. However, these experiences did not seem to be constant; short glimpses of connectedness, reciprocity and interdependence contributed to a feeling of couplehood, although these were only momentary.

CONCLUSIONS
The spouses' experiences of losing couplehood were dynamic and were related to the couple's entire life. The spouses wavered between senses of loss and belonging to couplehood, depending on the conditions characterising the moment.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Healthcare personnel must recognise the severity of some spouses' experiences of losing couplehood and be aware of how these experiences can fluctuate and be situation dependent.