This special issue features policy priorities, public perceptions, and policy options for addressing post-disaster return migration in the United States, Japan, and a couple of Asian countries. It includes a series of case studies in these countries, which are based on a sustained dialogue among scholars and policymakers about whether and how to incentivize the return of displaced persons, considering social, economic, and environmental concerns. The research team, composed of researchers from Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka, and the United States, undertook a collaborative and interdisciplinary research process to improve understanding about how to respond to the needs of those displaced by natural disasters and to develop policy approaches for addressing post-disaster return. The research focused on the following three key issues: objectives of return migration (whether to return, in what configuration, etc.), priorities and perceptions that influence evacueesi¯ decision-making regarding return, and policies and practices that are used to pursue return objectives. This special issue includes ten articles on the following disaster cases: the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the Great Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, and the Great Sumatra Island Earthquake in 2009. Important lessons for the future were secured out of these case studies, covering the entire phase of return, namely planning, implementation, and monitoring.


The basic science years of medical training have long been dominated by an exam-based and memorization-oriented lecture format. This paper describes the use of a game show format designed to engage students in an active process of exploring their own group-based images, fears, and stereotypes about what it means to be a physician. The article enamines the game's dynamics as well as the preparations necessary to play the game. The article documents potential pitfalls and offers suggestions as to how the game might be adapted for non-medical students or for staging in other settings.


This report describes the past procedure in dismantling the reactor block of the FRJ-1 research reactor (MERLIN). Furthermore, it gives an outlook on future activities up to the final removal of the reactor block. MERLIN is an abbreviation for Medium Energy Research Light Water Moderated Industrial Nuclear Reactor. The FRJ-1 (MERLIN) was shut down in 1985 and the fuel elements removed from the facility. After dismantling the coolant loops and removing the reactor tank internals with subsequent draining of the reactor tank water, the first activities for dismantling the reactor block were carried out in summer 2001. The relevant license was granted in late July 2001 by the licensing authority specifying 8 incidental provisions. After dismantling the reactor extension (gates of the thermal columns and steel platforms surrounding the reactor block), a heavy-load platform including a casing around the reactor block was constructed. Two ventilation systems with a volume flow of 10,000 and 2 ,000 m3/h will, moreover, serve to avoid a spread of contamination. The reactor block will be dismantled in three phases divided according to upper, central and bottom sections. Dismantling the upper section started in August 2002. This section as well as the bottom section can probably be completely measured for clearance. For this reason, the activities have so far been carried out manually using mechanical and thermal techniques. The central section will probably have to be largely disposed of as radioactive waste. This is the region of the former reactor core in which the experimental devices are also integrated. Most of this work will probably have to be carried out by remote handling. More than 80 % of the dismantled materials of the reactor block can probably be measured for clearance. For this purpose, a clearance measurement device was taken into operation in the FRJ-1. On this occasion, the limits of clearance measurement have become evident. For concrete, which constitutes the largest portion of the dismantled materials by volume, an additional conditioning step has become necessary to fulfill the clearance criteria, whereas waste packages with steel components largely have to be reconditioned once more at a later stage. Material measured for clearance will be disposed of conventionally (recycling, landfill) after inspection by the official expert and clearance by the regulatory authority. Dismantled parts that cannot be measured for clearance will be transferred to the Decontamination Department of the Research Centre. From the present perspective, the dismantling of the reactor block will be completed within the first six months of 2003.


Primary education is the most important pillar of educational structure which supports the mass literary and cause for economic development and modernization of the social structure. It also represents an indispensable first step towards the provision of equality of opportunity to all its citizens. Elementary education is defined as a period of formal education following pre-school but before high school. Different articles of the Indian constitution, policies, plans, schemes and programmes of educational structure are responsible for enhancing the qualitative and quantitative improvement of elementary education this paper emphasis on the different programmes, policies and various reforms for the effective and smooth functioning of primary education.


Abstract A thick marine turbidite succession, dominatly coarse sandstone, underlies the southern portion of the San Joaquin Valley of California. Deposited in paleontologically defined water depths of 6,000 feet or more, the sands are pebbly and gritty to fine-grained, poorly sorted, quartzose to arkosic, and are interbedded with dark foraminiferal shales. Graded bedding is common and, in conjunction with depth determinations, is taken to indicate turbidity current origin for most of the sands. The deep Paloma test was extensively cored, providing good definition of the thick Lower to Upper Miocene turbidite section in the basin deep and allowing comparisons with the electric log. The most widely spread turbidites are the Upper Miocene Stevens sands, which are oil productive and closely drilled, providing data for studies of sand distribution in relation to Miocene tectonics and bathymetry. Oligocene to Early Miocene sands were swept far to the southwest from their Sierra Nevada provenance but by latest Miocene anticlinal barriers were rising from the sea floor, restricting most of the Stevens sands to the northeastern side of the deep basin. Earliest Late Miocene sands there entered from discrete troughs or canyons but later sands came from more widely dispersed sources as shelf sands encroached. Deep basinal transport was both axially northwestward from Tejon and westward from Edison and the incipient Bakersfield Arch. Locally, thick Stevens synclinal sands spread eastward off the rising Temblor Range. Sudden cessation of sand-carrying turbidity currents was followed by deposition of chert, shale, and Pliocene neritic sediments. Detailed subsurface correlations show that Stevens sand bodies include sinuous channel fills bounded by major anticlines, sands flanking and covering lower structures, and lobate and branching apron or fan sands in simple homoclinal areas. Compaction structures are shown to control later sand deposition and to offer clues for continuing exploration.


Leukocytosis is a risk factor for athero-thrombotic disease in humans, and develops in animal models of atherosclerosis in response to feeding high-fat, high-cholesterol diets. The ATP binding cassette transporters ABCA1 and ABCG1 promote cholesterol efflux to apoA-1 and high density lipoprotein (HDL), respectively and are targets of liver X receptor (LXR) transcription factors. Mice lacking ABCA1/G1 develop a dramatic myeloproliferative phenotype with monocytosis and neutrophilia, associated with expansion and proliferation of hematopoietic stem and myeloid progenitor populations (HSPCs). The transporters are highly expressed in HSPCs where they act to control proliferative responses to growth factors (IL-3, GM-CSF) by regulating plasma membrane lipid rafts and cell surface expression of the common β subunit of the IL-3/GM-CSF receptor. ABCG4 is closely related to ABCG1 but is expressed primarily in the megakaryocyte progenitor (MkP) population of the bone marrow. ABCG4-deficient mice have MkP proliferation and expansion, thrombocytosis, increased platelet/leukocyte aggregates and accelerated atherosclerosis. ABCG4 promotes cholesterol efflux onto HDL, and thereby reduces the cell surface expression of the thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor. This appears to involve membrane cholesterol enrichment and interruption of a negative feedback loop involving the TPO receptor and mediated by Lyn Kinase and c-CBL which mediate ubiquitination and internalization/degradation of the receptor. Overall results suggest that ATP binding cassette transporters promote cholesterol efflux, decrease membrane lipid raft formation and enhance the feedback downregulation of growth factor receptors in response to growth factor binding, with anti-proliferative responses that may be beneficial in atherosclerosis and myeloproliferative neoplasms. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Abstract 1365 Poster Board I-387 Background Although sickle cell disease is a genetic disease diagnosed by state newborn screening programs, it is not a reportable condition. Therefore it is difficult to ascertain the actual number of affected individuals living with sickle cell disease in the United States. One NIH estimate puts the number between 50,000 and 75,000 while the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America estimates the number to be "over 70,000". Without accurate estimates, clinicians, health services researchers, and policy makers are all working with incomplete information when determining the extent of the cost and health consequences of sickle cell disease. Our objective was to estimate the number of people with sickle cell disease for the United States as a whole and for each individual State, adjusting for the increased mortality of sickle cell disease. Methods Census estimates by age and race/ethnicity were obtained for both the United States as a whole and for each individual State from the US Census website. The prevalence of sickle cell disease for blacks was uniformly applied to the U.S. and individual states using a rate of 289 black children with sickle cell disease per 100,000 live births. Based on previously published prevalence rates for Hispanics, prevalence rates of 89.8 Hispanic children of non-Mexican ancestry with sickle cell disease per 100,000 live births and 3.14 Hispanic children of Mexican ancestry with sickle cell disease per 100,000 live births were calculated. We did not include sickle cell disease for whites or Asians in our estimate. Year 2005 was used as the baseline year for all calculations. Consistent with previous literature, at age 0, 60% of children with sickle cell disease were classified as having HgbSS/SB0 and 40% of children were classified as having HgbSC/SB+. These proportions were altered towards higher proportions of HbSC/SB+ with increasing age based on the increased mortality of the more severe forms of sickle cell disease. To adjust for mortality, we analyzed the data based on age and sickle cell type, and used published mortality data for different sickle cell genotypes to calculate survival of the population to a given age. A population multiplier was then used to adjust population estimates for the difference in population across age groups and differences in population patterns by race/ethnicity. Results Analysis revealed an estimate of 89,079 (95% CI: 88,494 – 89,664) people with sickle cell disease in the United States, of which 80,151 are black and 8,928 Hispanic. The South, with a sickle cell population of 47,354 people, comprised more than 53% of all people with sickle cell disease in the United States. The five states with the highest estimated number of people with sickle cell disease were New York with 8,308; Florida with 7,539; Texas with 6,765; California with 6,474; and Georgia with 5,890. These five states comprised more than 43% of the total sickle cell population for the nation. Finally, the increased mortality for HgbSS/SB0 leads to an alteration in the relative percentages of sickle cell genotypes, with HgbSS/SB0 comprising 60% of people with sickle cell disease at birth, half of the sickle cell population at slightly over 30 years old, and only 25% of the sickle cell population by 60 years old. Conclusion This study reveals that the sickle cell population in the United States is higher than previously reported, with almost 90,000 people with sickle cell disease. In addition, differential mortality increases the percentage of people with HbSC/SB+, such that after 40 years of age they represent the majority of the sickle cell population. The population estimates for the country as well as the individual states provide important information with regard to allocation of resources for this chronic disease which primarily affects lower income, underserved individuals. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


The current extension of communications, embracing terrestrial and space domains, raises a few legit questions in terms of business model, compatibility, and sustainability. Related to Internet satellites, this paper considers the following questions: Who are the US-based major operational Internet satellite organizations? What was the ambitious plan, and why did it fail? What are the basic incompatibilities of Internet and satellite communications, in terms of system philosophy, operational efficiency, and network architectures? Why are there so many difficulties for practical improvement? How to prevent large-scale Internet breakdowns? What may be the potential solutions?


This monograph examines how Athenian drama shaped ideas about civic identity. Traditional responses to this question have overlooked the significance of props which were symbolically implicated in Athenian ideology. Yet the key objects explored in this study (voting urns and pebbles, swords, and masks) each carried profound connections to Athenian civic identity while also playing important roles as props on the fifth-century stage. Playwrights exploited the powerful dynamic generated from the intersection between the 'social lives' (off-stage existence in society) and 'stage lives' (handling in theatre) of these objects to enhance the dramatic effect of their plays as well as the impact of these performances on society. This study explores the on-stage and off-stage symbolism of these objects to produce a micro-history of the construction of Athenian identity through theatre, acknowledging both how dramas shaped the city's self-reflective thinking and were enriched by it. This innovative approach to the relationship between Athenian theatre and society also brings fresh insights to two further areas: the dynamics between dramatic genres and the interaction of theatre with iconography. The exploration of the 'stage lives' of these objects across comedy, tragedy, and satyr drama reveals much about generic interdependence and distinction. Meanwhile the consideration of iconography representing the objects' lives outside the theatre sheds light on drama's powerful interplay with art. This study is intended for scholars and students of ancient Greek history, culture, and drama, as well as for those in the fields of Theatre Studies, Art History, and Cultural Studies.


A comprehensive theory of neural computation requires an understanding of the statistical properties of the neural population code. The focus of this work is the experimental study and theoretical analysis of the statistical properties of neural activity in the tiger salamander retina. This is an accessible yet complex system, for which we control the visual input and record from a substantial portion greater than a half of the ganglion cell population generating the spiking output. Our experiments probe adaptation of the retina to visual statistics: a central feature of sensory systems which have to adjust their limited dynamic range to a far larger space of possible inputs. In Chapter 1 we place our work in context with a brief overview of the relevant background. In Chapter 2 we describe the experimental methodology of recording from 100+ ganglion cells in the tiger salamander retina. In Chapter 3 we first present the measurements of adaptation of individual cells to changes in stimulation statistics and then investigate whether pairwise correlations in fluctuations of ganglion cell activity change across different stimulation conditions. We then transition to a study of the population-level probability distribution of the retinal response captured with maximum-entropy models. Convergence of the model inference is presented in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5 we first test the empirical presence of a phase transition in such models fitting the retinal response to different experimental conditions, and then proceed to develop other characterizations which are sensitive to complexity in the interaction matrix. This includes an analysis of the dynamics of sampling at finite temperature, which demonstrates a range of subtle attractor-like properties in the energy landscape. These are largely conserved when ambient illumination is varied 10-fold, a result not necessarily apparent from the measured low-order statistics of the distribution. Our results form a consistent picture which is discussed at the end of Chapter 5. We conclude with a few future directions related to this thesis. iii


The operating mode of ideological and political education in universities,social ecological system,is analyzed from five aspects: the basic structure of social ecological system;social ecological circulation;the energy flowing in the social ecological system;the transmission of information in social ecological system and the feedback,regulation,and ecological balance social ecological system.A new thought,through which the study of ideological and political education in universities could be trasnsformed from static reaserch to dynamic reaserch is provided.


A toluene solution of the two racemic helical tubulands 1 and 2 yields crystals of the stoichiometric product 1·22·toluene through molecular self-assembly involving simultaneous self-resolution of both diols. This composite helical tubulate structure contains parallel tubes with cross-sectional areas of 22.5 A2.


Based on the COM/DCOM component technology,the traditional OPC server highly relies on Windows platform and has technical defects in Web data exchange and security mechanism,while based on OPC UA (Unified Architecture) specification,the traditional OPC services are integrated into one OPC server,which solves the technical defects and simplifies the function collaboration and enterprise deployment.The code management technology of Microsoft's .Net is applied to construct the modularized framework of OPC UA server and design the address space,security configuration and other basic functions.The kernel technologies of the Node and Reference are adopted to implement some functional classes of server address space,such as the Node Manager,Data Manager,Browse Manager,Subscription Manager and View Manager.An independent functional module for OPC UA address space is developed.


We describe the R package uGMAR, which provides tools for estimating and analyzing the Gaussian mixture autoregressive model, the Student's t mixture autoregressive model, and the Gaussian and Student's t mixture autoregressive model. These three models constitute an appealing family of mixture autoregressive models that we call the GSMAR models. The model parameters are estimated with the method of maximum likelihood by running multiple rounds of a two-phase estimation procedure in which a genetic algorithm is used to find starting values for a gradient based method. For evaluating the adequacy of the estimated models, uGMAR utilizes so-called quantile residuals and provides functions for graphical diagnostics as well as for calculating formal diagnostic tests. uGMAR also enables to simulate from the GSMAR processes and to forecast future values of the process using a simulation-based Monte Carlo method. We illustrate the use of uGMAR with the monthly U.S. interest rate spread between the 10-year and 1-year Treasury rates. This manuscript was prepared with the Journal of Statistical Software style.


Current research and development in image retrieval has yielded an extensive collection of feature extraction algorithms. Just to mention a few, texture analysis, sketch comparison, color similarity measures, etc. have shown to be useful matching tools in certain domains. Unfortunately, the design of current image retrieval systems tends to be somewhat one-sided, stressing mainly technical issues. This paper describes a formal framework to provide means for effective, interactive retrieval sessions. The key idea is to model the characteristics of image retrieval algorithms. Each algorithm is described in terms of qualitative rules which reflect its average performance in a manually classified training set of randomly selected images. The abductive retrieval system MIRACLE makes uses of the rules to map query statements to the appropriate set of image retrieval operators. Users obtain qualitative feedback on how to optimize their query statements with respect to a given information need and to the power of the image feature extraction algorithms.


This study aims to improve the results of economic learning through the Student Team Achievement Divisions (STAD) method on the students of class X S2 MA Al-Islam Jamsaren Surakarta academic year 2016/2017. This type of research is aclassroom action research conducted in two cycles. The subjects of the study were the teachers who gave the action and herecipients of the action. The students were the students of Grade X S2 MA Al-Islam Jamsaren Surakarta, amounting to 26 students. Data collection methods used were interviews, observation, tests, documentation and field notes. Data analysis echnique is used descriptive technique of comparative and critical analysis technique. The result of the research showed that the improvement of students' economic learning outcomes in the first cycle was 46% and in the second cycle was 84.62%. So it can be concluded that the implementation of Student Team Achievement Divisions method can improve the economic learning outcomes in the students of class X S2 MA Al-Islam Jamsaren Surakarta academic year 2016/2017.


In this paper, we build on past efforts with regard to the implementation of an efficient feature tracking algorithm for the mass processing of satellite images. This generic open-source feature tracking routine can be applied to any type of imagery to measure sub-pixel displacements between images. The routine consists of a feature tracking module (autoRIFT) that enhances computational efficiency and a geocoding module (Geogrid) that mitigates problems found in existing geocoding algorithms. When applied to satellite imagery, autoRIFT can run on a grid in the native image coordinates (such as radar or map) and, when used in conjunction with the Geogrid module, on a user-defined grid in geographic Cartesian coordinates such as Universal Transverse Mercator or Polar Stereographic. To validate the efficiency and accuracy of this approach, we demonstrate its use for tracking ice motion by using ESA's Sentinel-1A/B radar data (seven pairs) and NASA's Landsat-8 optical data (seven pairs) collected over Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier in 2017. Feature-tracked velocity errors are characterized over stable surfaces, where the best Sentinel-1A/B pair with a 6 day separation has errors in X/Y of 12 m/year or 39 m/year, compared to 22 m/year or 31 m/year for Landsat-8 with a 16-day separation. Different error sources for radar and optical image pairs are investigated, where the seasonal variation and the error dependence on the temporal baseline are analyzed. Estimated velocities were compared with reference velocities derived from DLR's TanDEM-X SAR/InSAR data over the fast-moving glacier outlet, where Sentinel-1 results agree within 4% compared to 3–7% for Landsat-8. A comprehensive apples-to-apples comparison is made with regard to runtime and accuracy between multiple implementations of the proposed routine and the widely-used "dense ampcor" program from NASA/JPL's ISCE software. autoRIFT is shown to provide two orders of magnitude of runtime improvement with a 20% improvement in accuracy.


Though multiobjective sampling survey has many advantages, with the increase of indexes, the diversification of the research object is limited because of the complication of analysis. In the paper, the author discusses thoroughly how to simplify the sampling table in multi-objective sampling survey.


The influence of estradiol and of vasodilating amines on hyperemia, edema production and growth in uteri of ovariectomized rats was determined. Estradiol (0.04 μg), histamine (0.3 mg), 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin, 0.2 mg), 3-(β-aminoethyl) pyrazole (Histalog, 0.2-0.3 mg) or saline was injected into the uterine lumina of rats maintained under controlled lighting and temperature. Solutions were pre-adjusted to pH 7.0. The experimental substances caused significant increases in uterine water content in 4 hr from a level of 79.5 % (saline) to 82–83% (serotonin, histamine) and 84% (estradiol). Histalog, a histamine analogue, produced negligible hydration. Cross sections of uteri from colchicine-treated rats sacrificed 24 hr after injection of control or experimental solutions were examined for evidence of growth stimulation. All luminal epithelial cells in metaphase as well as the total number of epithelial cells in each of 8–16 sections/rat were counted. Calculations of the number of cells in metaphase /1,...


American Indian and Alaska Native communities have experienced a dramatic epidemic of cardiovascular disease, linked disproportionately to high rates of obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, with rates of heart disease nearly twice as high as the overall U.S. population. Tribal members are often keenly aware that these health disparities are closely tied to the social and economic challenges their communities face. For many American Indian and Alaska Native individuals, barriers to health services and self-management are rooted in larger structural challenges that are difficult to overcome, even for the most knowledgeable and motivated. This article discusses a program in Navajo Nation that aims to help individuals overcome these structural barriers. The Navajo Nation Community Health Representative (CHR) Outreach Program employs tribal outreach workers to provide home-based support to high-risk clients. The CHR program offers the unique asset of health representatives who are members of the communities that they serve, who speak Navajo and belong to the community's clan network, and therefore share strong bonds of trust, respect, and culture with their clients.


Abstract COVID‐19 has led to procedural changes in vascular access services to protect healthcare workers and patients from further spread of the virus. Operational changes made by the vascular access service at a healthcare system in New York City during the first wave of the COVID‐19 (SARS‐CoV‐2) pandemic included a team‐based approach as well as consideration for types of lines placed to address the increase in patient volume while providing safety to healthcare workers and conserving personal protective equipment. The study consists of two samples of adult inpatients admitted to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in need of vascular access. Chi‐square tests of independence were used to analyze trends in data. By the fourth wave, usage of shorter lifespan ultrasound‐guided peripheral intravenous lines increased significantly and the use of longer lasting intravenous catheters decreased significantly between the first and fourth waves of COVID‐19. This paper aims to show that with greater knowledge about proper personal protective equipment and mindful resource use, hospitals are able to become more comfortable and efficient while providing increasingly frequent vascular access services in the current and future pandemics.


Objective: This study focused on lipoprotein composition and properties in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: The size distribution of plasma lipoproteins was studied by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) activity was determined by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The affinity of low density lipoprotein (LDL) for proteoglycans was assayed. Twenty‐six women (aged 52±8.2 years) with SLE and a history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (SLE cases) were compared with 26 age‐matched women with SLE and without CVD (SLE controls) and 26 age‐matched population‐based control women (controls). Results: Very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles (nmol/L) were more prevalent among SLE cases than SLE controls (0.039) and tended to be more common in SLE cases than in controls (p = 0.073). By contrast, high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles (nmol/L) were more prevalent among controls than SLE cases (p = 0.024) whereas the number of LDL particles (nmol/L) did not differ significantly. Small dense (sd)LDL (nmol/L) were more common in controls and tended to be more common in SLE cases than in SLE controls (p = 0.036 and 0.086, respectively). Small high density lipoproteins (sHDL) (nmol/L) were more prevalent in controls than in SLE controls and SLE cases (p = 0.002 and p<0.001, respectively). VLDL or LDL size (nm) did not differ significantly between groups (data not shown) whereas HDL size (nm) was increased among SLE controls as compared to controls (p = 0.024) and tended to be increased among SLE cases as compared to controls (p = 0.070). The affinity of LDL for proteoglycans or CETP activity did not differ between groups (data not shown). Conclusions: sdLDL was not increased and SLE cases and SLE controls had decreased levels of sHDL. VLDL differentiates between SLE cases and SLE controls. The lipid pattern in SLE‐related CVD was thus not similar to the pattern seen in diabetes or in CVD in general.


Spintronic memories are one of the most promising candidates as a universal memory. Although they offer superior energy efficiency over the conventional memories, benefiting from approximate computing approach, some novel techniques can be applied to lower the power consumption even further. In this brief, we propose a progressive scaling scheme for spin-transfer torque random access memory (STT-RAM) arrays, by which the power consumption is reduced at the expense of small quality degradation. According to the proposed approach, access transistors in STT-RAM cells are scaled based on an optimized scaling factor, where least significant bits and most significant bits come with different bit error rates in the data word. Simulation results show that the proposed approach provides 36.7% write power dissipation and 25% die area savings, respectively, while negligible quality degradation is observed based on mean structural similarity index.


This chapter explores several ways in which humility is conducive to human flourishing. It claims that humility is rational, benefits its possessor, and contributes to its possessor being good qua human. It considers the relationship between humility and the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, as well as its connections to the cardinal virtues of prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance. It argues that humility plays a key role in the process of theosis. It also argues that humility prevents (or at least hinders) vice in human beings, in particular the seven capital vices of envy, vainglory, sloth, avarice, anger, gluttony, lust, and the primary capital vice, pride.


Government officials' microblogs,which reflect many features of "User-operated Media",are mass communication in its communicating nature.So,it should follow norms and ethics of mass communication.Although government officials' microblogs have an indirect effect on governments' administrations,it could not be regarded as microblogs of governments' administrations because it had not received government authorization or approval,and its communication did not contain any administration feature.So,the blogs' effect on administrations should be well understood from "virtual" or "soft" angle.For the officials' positions and background of enjoying governments' resources,the blogs have aroused close attention from public.And because of publicity reflected on the blogs' content,style and function,the blogs could not be simply regarded as tool of self-entertainment.It should be treated as a "field of public communicating" and be designed to play an active role in public affairs.


Objective TO raise the ultrasonic differential diagnostic rates of the Primary hepatocellularcarcinare (PHC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CGC), by exploring the ultrasonographic characteristics of PHC andCGC. Methods Thirty cases of PHC and 30 cases of CGC were preoperatively examined by ultrasound. The ap-paratuses used were Acuson 128 XP/10, Aloka 650 etc. with 3.5 MHz Probe. The echoes of the liver, the locationand the size of the tumor, the dilatation of the bile duct etc. were observed and compared with operative and patho-lotic findings. Results The ultrasonic diagnostic accurate rates of PHC and CGC were 83% (25/30) and 77%(23/30), respectively. The bouxndary of PHC in the sonography was clear. The bile duct having been invaded bythe tumor often located at the edge of the tumor or not connected with it. However, the boundary of CGC in thesonography was not clear. The bile duct which was invaded located at the border or far from the tumor proper. Thedifferences between PHC and CGC complicated with hepatocirrhosis and lymphatic metastasis were marked as wellas between those complicated with biliary calculi and abcess. Conclusions As the ultrasonic characteristics ofPHC and CGC are quite different and the definite diagnoses of the two diseases are correlative with the selection oftherapy and Operation Program, it is important to differentaially diagnose the two diseases according to their differentsonographic characteristics.


Goals and objectives Recent studies have shown that MALDI-TOF MS can be a useful technique for identification of plant pathogenic bacteria. For example, the technique has sufficient discriminatory power to distinguish members of the genus Clavibacter from the related Curtobacterium genus, and to distinguish the different subspecies of Clavibacter michiganensis from each other (Zaluga et al. 2011). But plant-associated bacteria have not been widely evaluated with the MALDI-TOF MS technique and profiles of reference strains of these bacteria are largely absent from commercially available identification databases. At this moment, this limits the application of the technology in plant pathology. The aim of this project is (1) to identify missing data/needs for increased resolution of plant pathogens in the current database; (2) to characterize a number of plant-health relevant bacteria to initiate the development of reliable database, and (3) to perform interlaboratory comparisons/parallel analysis to check for potential reproducibility/data exchange issues. Research consortium INRA (FR), JKI (DE), NVWA (NL), FGBUVNIIKR (RU), MKGP (SI), ZHAW (CH)


objective To investigate the effects of microRNA-124 (miR-124) on proliferation and apoptosis of glioma cell line A172.Methods The oligonucleotides of miR-124 mediated by lipofectamine 2000 were transected to routinely cultured A172 cells; untransfected group and nonsense sequence-transfected group were employed as controls.The mRNA expressions of miR-124 and its target gene ROCK2 were identified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) after transfection; the protein expressions of Caspase-3 and ROCK2 were identified by Western blotting; the cell proliferation was determined by methylthiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay; the number of apoptotic cells was determined by Annexin V assay.Results As compared with those in control groups,the expression of miR-124 was significantly increased and that of ROCK2 was significantly decreased in the miR-124 transfected group (P<0.05).Caspase-3 protein expression was significantly higher and ROCK2 protein expression was statistically lower in the miR-124 transfected group than those in the control groups (P<0.05).The proliferation activity of cells was significantly reduced and cell apoptosis was significantly increased in the miR-124 transfected group on the fourth and fifth d of transfection as compared with those in the control groups (P<0.05).Conclusion MiR-124 could inhibit the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of A172 glioma cells,suggesting that the mechanism related with decrease of its target gene ROCK2 expressions.

Key words:
MicroRNA;  Glioma;  Proliferation;  Apoptosis


Abstract. The paper presents the measurement strategy and data set collected during the COTUR (COherence of TURbulence with lidars) campaign. This field experiment took place from February 2019 to April 2020 on the southwestern coast of Norway. The coherence quantifies the spatial correlation of eddies and is little known in the marine atmospheric boundary layer. The study was motivated by the need to better characterize the lateral coherence, which partly governs the dynamic wind load on multi-megawatt offshore wind turbines. During the COTUR campaign, the coherence was studied using land-based remote sensing technology. The instrument setup consisted of three long-range scanning Doppler wind lidars, one Doppler wind lidar profiler and one passive microwave radiometer. Both the WindScanner software and LidarPlanner software were used jointly to simultaneously orient the three scanner heads into the mean wind direction, which was provided by the lidar wind profiler. The radiometer instrument complemented these measurements by providing temperature and humidity profiles in the atmospheric boundary layer. The scanning beams were pointed slightly upwards to record turbulence characteristics both within and above the surface layer, providing further insight on the applicability of surface-layer scaling to model the turbulent wind load on offshore wind turbines. The preliminary results show limited variations of the lateral coherence with the scanning distance. A slight increase in the identified Davenport decay coefficient with the height is partly due to the limited pointing accuracy of the instruments. These results underline the importance of achieving pointing errors under 0.1∘ to study properly the lateral coherence of turbulence at scanning distances of several kilometres.


Abstract In a recent paper the first author developed a dynamic-programming-based heuristic for the two-dimensional pallet loading problem. This note presents improvements to that procedure which have resulted in reductions in CPU run times of up to 1/20, as well as drastic lowering of memory requirements. A fundamental improvement in the bounding function is developed, and another improvement taken from observations of real-world pallet loaders and furniture movers is presented. Other implications of the improvements are also discussed, and results are compared.


Three radial flow impellers were tested having an elliptic blade shape and identical blade geometry at inlet and exit but different shapes of the meridional contours. The compressor maps with pressure ratios up to 2.9:1 are compared using time-dependent measurements of the static pressure at the shroud and of the flow angles closely downstream of the impeller. From these measurements, the influence of impeller shap on the jet-and-wake flow is discussed. It is shown that with increasing impeller length, the wake zone at the suction side of the blades can be only partially influenced and friction losses become dominant with respect to compressor performance. A smooth curvature of the meridional cross section of the impeller channel leads to a better jet-wake ratio at impeller exit. Accordingly, the performance characteristic shows higher values especially when the mass flow is increased.Copyright © 1980 by ASME


The author briefly introduces the items , contract signing and performance of international bidding procurement contract for electrical and mechanical equipment at Ertan Hydropower Station . Good performance of international bidding procurement contract is ensured by reasonable organization and staffs and standard management system and program. It is very important to do following jobs carefully : contract document preparation , contract signing , negotiating , design cooperation , technical drawings and documents examination and approval , manufacturer supervision , final examination , equipment transportation , commodity inspection , in-situ storage , equipment transfer , installation and debugging , startup , check and acceptance ,contract claim .


[%metadata%] MBS Q and A - Questions 101 News and views of Molested and Abused Catholics on the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse


While many organizations in modern society, notably educational organizations, have created ethical guidelines as a matter of course, sports federations and associations have not necessarily followed suit. This paper examines the need for them to do so. Most specifically, it considers an instance of alleged sexual harassment by an official of the Japan Clay Target Shooting Association (JCTSA) at the National Sports Festival in Kumamoto in 1999. In the incident, the official was treated in newspaper coverage as a guilty party before the facts of the case had been confirmed, though the JCTSA fact-finding committee subsequently came to the conclusion that they could not substantiate the claim that the official had sexually harassed the alleged victims. The official subsequently sued both Kumamoto Prefecture and the town in which the Sports Festival had been held, and an apology from each of the defendants resulted in an out-of-court settlement of the civil action. Despite this outcome, however, the JCTSA Board of Directors resigned en masse. It was only then that a JCTSA ethics committee was formed and that ethical guidelines were created. If a policy for the creation of an ethical environment had been brought to fruition before the occurrence of the incident, the JCTSA might have been better able to protect the accused official, and the directors might not have felt the need to resign. The incident illustrates the fact that, for sports federations and associations, the creation of an ethical environment would help not only to protect potential victims of violence or sexual harassment but also to protect the rights of accused persons and the integrity of the organizations themselves. Finally, this study suggests that it would have overall benefits for Japan's sports industry as a whole.


Methods, devices (such as computer readable media), and systems (such as computer systems) for defining and executing automated movements using robotic arms (such as robotic arms configured for use in performing surgical procedures), so that a remotely-located surgeon is relieved from causing the robotic arm to perform the automated movement through movement of an input device such as a hand controller.


Non-severe hypothyroidism has no strong association with hyponatremia. However, thyroid function tests (TFT) continue to be ordered as a first-line investigation. The objective of this study was to establish the prevalence of inpatient hyponatremia and to reiterate the association between thyroid disorders and hyponatremia based on study findings and current literature. A cross-sectional study on 3,478 in-patients adults of both gender admitted to a Malaysian tertiary hospital was carried out.  Age, gender, sodium levels, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (fT4) and clinical notes between 1/11/17-31/12/17 were extracted from the hospital's information system. Bivariate analysis was performed using Mann-Whitney U, Chi-square and Spearman correlation tests. 21.9% of inpatients had hyponatremia of which 52% were mild. 359 (69%) of hyponatremic patients had a TFT sent where 71.9% were euthyroid. Sodium level is significantly correlated with age (R=-0.257, P<0.001). No correlations were found between sodium and TSH and fT4. Sodium was significantly lower in the non-thyroidal illness (NTI) group compared to the hypothyroid group. No significant differences in sodium were found between the hypothyroid group and other thyroid states. Hence it was conclude that in hyponatremia, TFT is indicated when there is clinical evidence of severe hypothyroidism, suspicion of hypothalamus-pituitary-axis disorder or when no cause of SIADH is apparent. Otherwise, TFT is unnecessary and costly as a first-line investigation.

Keywords: hyponatremia, hypothyroidism, hypothyroid, non-thyroidal illness, sodium


The title The World of the 'Nahvao' Puppets (dishonest, emphasises three terms essential for Bourek's oeuvre, in particular in the context of per formances he created as sole author. In these performances, each in particular and all in general, he formed a world of his own, regardless of the general rules of dramaturgy or di -recting. Neither was his starting point the text nor did he search for the most suitable man ner for transferring the author's ideas; he was rather in search of the text that would best suit his puppets. The puppets even defined his directing moves. Everything he did was for the sake of the puppets, to make them as strong in expression as possible. He indeed created a world of his own, however not by using either the text or director's moves, but rather by using colour and shapes – his puppets of strong and recognisable visual charac -ter. He tenderly addressed them as freaks or 'grdači' (the ugly ones). Same as Držić's people 'nazbilj' (good, honest) and people 'nahvao' (dishonest, only pretending to be good) exist only in the Prologue to the comedy Dundo Maroje , spoken by the Necromancer Dugi Nos (The Long Nose), Bourek's 'grdači' exist only in Bourek's world. Držić's people 'nahvao' are freaks, ugly both in appearance and character. Bourek's 'grdači' are always ugly, but they are mean only when their character has been designed thus in the play. Nonetheless, even so, they are not unpleasant. Bourek's joy of creation, and his sympathy and love for his theatre of freaks , moved to the audience. Bourek indeed succeeded in creating not only a world of his own, but also admirers of that world.


Leather tanning industry, considered one of the polluting industries, poses various environmental threats to its every sphere. It produces various types of solid wastes as well as liquid wastes. Among the solid wastes, untanned raw trimmings contribute for about 5-7% of the total quantity of raw materials processed. If suitably utilized, these by-products of tanning industry could be a useful resource for various applications. This research work deals with utilization of raw trimmings of tannery solid waste to protein hydrolysate by acetic acid with varying acid concentration, acid solution, temperature and time. The maximum about 76% protein hydrolysate was obtained at 1.5M acid concentration and 80ºC.


Two'Candidatus Phytoplasma mali ' strains (AP and AT), were studied in experimentally infected apple trees to analyze transcriptional profiles during interaction with phytoplasmas. Three groups of sample combinations were employed: healthy - infected, symptomatic - non-symptomatic, and AP-infected - AT-infected sample. The majority of genes were differently expressed between healthy and infected samples. Changes in gene expression involved a wide spectrum of biological functions, including processes of metabolism, cell defence, photosynthesis, transport, transcription, signal transduction and protein synthesis. The possible effect of phytoplasma infection on these processes and their relationships with disease development, symptom appearance and possible plant defence system is discussed. Keywords : Apple, phytoplasmas, 'Ca. P. mali ', gene expression, transcriptome


Aiming at the defects of complex certificate management and high waste of resources in the traditional secure electronic file label management system, a secret classified label (SCL) control model was established based on the identity-based cryptography (IBC). In the secure controlling model of SCL, the digital signature method and the hierarchical access method of electronic documents based on the identity-based cryptography are used to digitally sign the confidential labels and encrypt the confidential documents respectively. Through the modeling of confidential clients, file servers, and key generation centers, the irreproachability of file-level identification and the hierarchical access to files are achieved. Finally, the feasibility, practicability and security of the model are verified by testing the system performance and analyzing the system security.


From the Publisher:
Because Visual Basic powerful development capabilities are within ready grasp of both the professional and the recreational programmer, many Visual Basic developers are self-taught—and therefore lack formal training on programming standards. But anyone who writes even a single line of code—and especially developers working in concert on a single project—should employ some basic, standardized techniques to optimize application maintainability and extensibility, as well as sidestep costly errors and pitfalls. But until now, there has been no definitive handbook describing these standards. Practical Standards For Microsoft Visual Basic fills this critical need, providing pragmatic guidelines on both where and how to apply programming standards for maximum benefit. Readers discover that by consistently utilizing standards in how they design interfaces and organize code, they can realize substantial gains in efficiency, reliability and performance—for themselves and in the solutions they build.
Key Book Benefits:

Provides pragmatic guidance and advice on programming standards to the community of Visual Basic developers—many of whom lack formal training in the areas of standards Compiles professional standards for Visual Basic in practical and easy-to-read format In addition to delineating standardized techniques, book also suggests guidelines for their application, helping individual developers or teams of developers optimize their time and resources and avoid the consequences of sloppy design

About the Author(s): James Foxall is Vice President of Tigerpaw Software, Inc. (www.tigerpawsoftware.com), a software development firm specializing in commercial database applications. James is responsible for the management of all Windows® application development including Pursuit, a certified Office Compatible contact and customer-information system reviewed in many major software and trade publications. James's experience in creating certified Office Compatible software has made him an authority on application interface and behavior standards of applications for the Microsoft Windows and Office environment. James has personally written over 90,000 lines of commercial production code in both single-programmer and multiple-programmer environments.
James has written several computer books on both Access and Visual Basic. The author has also written for Access/Office/VBA Advisor magazine and is an international speaker on Microsoft Access and Microsoft Visual Basic, and he is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). In addition to speaking and writing, James has taught Visual Basic at the college level, and has been featured on numerous television news shows, in trade publications, and in newspaper articles for his technology expertise.


PURPOSE: A pressure-sensitive adhesive composition is provided to ensure excellent transparency and to effectively prepare a laminate such as optical filter at a room temperature without high temperature and high pressure process. CONSTITUTION: A pressure-sensitive adhesive composition comprises: an acrylic monomer mixture including a soft acrylic monomer with a glass transition temperature of 0 °C or less and a hard acrylic monomer with a glass transition temperature of 80 °C or more; and a near infrared absorbent. The acrylic monomer mixture comprises 70-99 parts by weight of soft acrylic monomer and 1-30 parts by weight of hard acrylic monomer.


Facing with the deepening aging issue of the Japanese population accompanied by the dilemma of social security system,the Japanese government has established nursing-care insurance system to get out of dilemma,serving as a prelude to its social security system reform.After 8 years of operation,Japanese nursing-care insurance system has positive effects coexisting with negative ones.On the one hand,to some extent,the modes of nursing-care service for the old people provided by the central government,governments and families have been changed into the ones provided by local governments,the public and the society respectively.And it has attained the primary goal of institutional design.On the other hand,it has brought such problems as fairness,financial difficulties of local governments and a lack of institutional integration,introducing challenges to the sustainable development of nursing-care insurance system.


This volume spans the field of polymer colloids. Many types of latexes are represented including: homopolymers, copolymers, and natural polymers, those made with reactive surfactants and polymeric stabizers, surface-modified, hybrids and blends. A variety of polymerization processes are described varying from batch to semicontinuous, free radical, and controlled free radical; dispersion and suspension are also presented. Polymerization kinetcs, on-line monitoring, and control are also included.


In this thesis, we provide a rigorous definition for the term "qualitative" in the context of static and dynamic systems. Based on these definitions, we develop mathematical and computational tools for reasoning about qualitative properties of models. The dissertation makes contributions to three problems of qualitative reasoning: Qualitative Comparative Statics, Qualitative Stability, and, Qualitative Analysis of Differential Equations.
1. The problem of solving for the direction of change of an equilibrium point when the Jacobian of she system of equations about the equilibrium point is specified only in terms of signs is plagued with multiple solutions. In this thesis we introduced the use of the dimensions of variables to constrain the number of solutions. We present a set of conditions under which the information of the dimensions is sufficient to solve for the direction of change uniquely.
2. We can reason about stability of systems when the interactions between the state variables is specified in terms of signs only if the feedback loops are of length 2. In this thesis we introduce representations which allow equality and order of magnitude relations between the interactions and derive two new stable structures with feedback loops of length greater than 2. These structures are encountered in the startup of chemical process plants.
3. Lastly, we have developed a program ANDRONOV, which integrates the use of symbolic and numeric computation to automatically analyze the qualitative behavior of second order, nonlinear, autonomous differential equations. We have illustrated the capability of this program to analyze complex differential equations with illustrative examples.


The role of a pre-service teacher education in a construction of social representation about being teacher is the topic of this study, which included the participation of 44 first year and 27 last year undergraduate students from a course of chemistry. The theoretical lens used was Theory of Social Representation. Open questionnaires in which students had to write about their personal view about working as Chemistry teacher were used. In their answers were observed two categories: characteristics and vision of teaching. Comparing the characteristics that those students propose to the achievement of teaching and learning processes was perceived that the attitudes and pedagogical practices were suggest by both groups, what reinforces the many representations about teaching built even before start pre-service teacher education. In the social representation of last year students was observed that the characteristics and vision of teaching no longer centered on the teacher. In addition, was identified the expansion of the components of representation, by adding speeches and contents related to chemistry teaching (particularly the use of everyday life, the understanding phenomena), approached during graduation.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate feasibility of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy with fibre optic probe for predicting fatty acids profile of Beluga caviar. Measurement was performed on 100 samples of Beluga. The wild caviar samples caught sturgeon comprised Huso huso. NIR calibrations were developed using partial least square regression (PLSR). Selected models for the estimation of fatty acids in this specie of caviar exhibited coefficients of determination for cross validation which ranged 0.81-0.91 % with root mean square errors of (RMSE) between 2.1 and 3.0. This information suggested that in general, NIR interactance spectroscopy could provide an opportunity to measure fatty acids contents of caviars. Keywords— Beluga Caviar, Fatty acids, Near infrared spectroscopy.


ABSTRACT The effects of a cooling strategy following repeated high-intensity running (RHIR) on soccer kicking performance in a hot environment (>30ºC) were investigated in youth soccer players. Fifteen academy under-17 players participated. In Experiment 1, players completed an all-out RHIR protocol (10×30 m, with 30s intervals). In Experiment 2 (cross-over design), participants performed this running protocol under two conditions: (1) following RHIR 5 minutes of cooling where ice packs were applied to the quadriceps/hamstrings, (2) a control condition involving passive resting. Perceptual measures [ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), pain and recovery], thigh temperature and kick-derived video three-dimensional kinematics (lower limb) and performance (ball speed and two-dimensional placement indices) were collected at baseline, post-exercise and intervention. In Experiment 1, RHIR led to small-to-large impairments (p < 0.03;d = −0.42–-1.83) across perceptual, kinematic and performance measures. In experiment 2, RPE (p < 0.01; Kendall's W = 0.30) and mean radial error (p = 0.057; η2 = 0.234) increased only post-control. Significant small declines in ball speed were also observed post-control (p < 0.05; d = 0.35). Post-intervention foot centre-of-mass velocity was moderately faster in the cooling compared to control condition (p = 0.04; d = 0.60). In youth soccer players, a short cooling period was beneficial in counteracting declines in kicking performance, in particular ball placement, following intense running activity in the heat.


Human cytomegalovirus is a common herpesvirus that is linked to autoimmunity, especially in genetically predisposed persons. The article by Hsieh and colleagues in a previous issue of Arthritis Research & Therapy suggests that a C-terminal peptide of the human cytomegalovirus protein pp65 is highly immunogenic in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and that antibodies against this peptide cross-react with nuclear proteins and double-stranded DNA, which are highly frequent autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus patients. These observations highlight the fact that immunization with one small cytomegalovirus-specific peptide results in multiple autoreactive antibodies, probably through molecular mimicry and epitope spreading, in genetically predisposed persons. In Vivo. 1991 May-Jun;5(3):217-25. Isolation of human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) from patients with collagen vascular diseases. Krueger GR, Sander C, Hoffmann A, Barth A, Koch B, Braun M.


The reliability of general circulation climate model (GCM) global air temperature projections is evaluated for the first time, by way of propagation of model calibration error. An extensive series of demonstrations show that GCM air temperature projections are just linear extrapolations of fractional greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing. Linear projections are subject to linear propagation of error. A directly relevant GCM calibration metric is the annual average 12.1% error in long-wave cloud forcing (LWCF) produced within CMIP5 climate models. This error is strongly pair-wise correlated across models, implying a source in deficient theory. Climate model LWCF error introduces an annual average ±4 Wm-2 uncertainty into the simulated tropospheric thermal energy flux. This annual ±4 Wm-2 simulation uncertainty is 114 larger than the annual average ~0.035 Wm-2 change in tropospheric thermal energy flux produced by increasing GHG forcing since 1979. Tropospheric thermal energy flux is the determinant of global air temperature. Uncertainty in simulated tropospheric thermal energy flux imposes uncertainty on projected air temperature. Propagation of LWCF thermal energy flux error through the historically relevant 1988 projections of GISS Model II scenarios A, B, and C, the IPCC SRES scenarios CCC, B1, A1B, and A2, and the RCP scenarios of the 2013 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, uncovers a ±15 C uncertainty in air temperature at the end of a centennial-scale projection. Analogously large but previously unrecognized uncertainties must therefore exist in all the past and present air temperature projections and hindcasts of even advanced climate models. The unavoidable conclusion is that an anthropogenic air temperature signal cannot have been, nor presently can be, evidenced in climate observables.


Objectives: To assess risk factors for thrombotic events or obstetrical complications in a targeted cohort of triple positive patients for antiphospholipid tests, a novel score is proposed to better stratify this clinical risk and a short follow up was performed. Methods: Recruitment criteria were an age ranged between 18–80 years old and triple positivity for aPLs tests, namely lupus anticoagulant; IgG/IgM anti-beta-2-glycoprotein I antibody (aB2GPI) and IgG/IgM anti-cardiolipin antibody (aCL). Demographic, laboratory and clinical data were retrospectively collected. Results: Over a 2-year period, 88 subjects were selected and formed two groups according to their clinical status: clinical group and carriers group. A high prevalence of triple positive carriers is highlighted; moreover, having two or more cardiovascular risk factors is an independent risk factor for clinical events. We also evidenced that the double-double profile (which associate double IgG isotype for both aCL and aB2GPI, normalized ratio > 1.2 and Rosner Index > 15) and a Rosner index above 27 are also independent risk factors, and the combination of a high Rosner Index (value exceeding 27) and double-double profile is an important and an independent risk factor for thrombosis or obstetrical complications. All these results led us to propose the Score for Triple Antiphospholipid Positive Patients (STAPP) considering clinical and laboratory data significantly associated with clinical events. Conclusions: Interpretation of aPLs triple positivity needs consideration of clinical and laboratory data. The use of our score, the STAPP, may help clinicians to stratify the clinical risk and initiate or not a primary prophylaxis.


30 patients, affected by chronic ethylic hepatopathy, were treated with 450 mg/daily of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA): after six months, a significant decrease of serum hepatic enzymes was noted. The addition of silymarin (400 mg/daily) to UDCA in other 30 patients, induced a further improvement of hepatic function.


The diversity of discourses that the processes of organization, production and diffusion of knowledge express is examined. Establish features identifiers of the Information Science and Communication Science. You discuss interdisciplinary's proposals that characterize the bodies of knowledge that are studied. The character needs the existent dialogues between of the Information Science and Communication Science. You include bibliographic references and a proposal of findings.


Abstract In this work, we study the unique solvability of the inverse problem that consists of determining a weak solution u(x, t) to the nonlinear pseudoparabolic equation with p−Laplacian and damping term ut − Δut − div (|∇ u | p −2 ∇u) = γ |u|σ−2 u + f (t)g(x, t) and the coefficient f (t) of right-hand side, which depends on t. Due to the presence of an unknown coefficient in such problems supposes that there is an additional condition along with the initial and boundary conditions. In the present work, an additional condition is represented by the integral overdetermination condition, which represents the average value of a solution tested with some given function over all the domain. The investigating inverse problem considered in two cases: the coefficient of the damping term γ |u|σ−2 u is a positive (nonlinear source term) or negative (an absorption). In both cases, we establish the global and local in time existence and uniqueness of a weak solution to the inverse problem under suitable conditions on the exponents p, σ, the dimension d, and the data of the problem.


134Background: The optimal number of MRI-US fusion biopsy cores to adequately sample regions of interest (ROI) remains unknown. To better understand the optimal approach to lesion targeting, we aimed to examine the cancer detection rate based on sequential number of cores obtained. Methods: Of 744 patients undergoing MRI-US fusion biopsy between 2012 and 2016 at our institution, we identified 628 men with targets on multi-parametric MRI (mpMRI) who underwent targeted and systematic fusion biopsy using the Artemis platform for clinical suspicion (n=465) or known history of PCa (n=163). mpMRI studies were reviewed by genitourinary radiologists using a 3-tiered Likert scale and PI-RADS classification schema. Biopsy was performed by two urologists performing a high volume of fusion biopsies (PS and RD). Cores were taken sequentially from each ROI with an even distribution. The primary outcome was the proportion of high-grade (Gleason ≥3+4) cancers missed on a 2-core lesion biopsy. Results: We biopsied 1,233 R...


There are two ways in which you can read a definition. You can read it from left to right and you can read it from right to left. To read a definition from left to right is to treat it as a real or essentialist definition, whereas to read it from right to left is to treat it as an abbreviatory, nominalist or verbal definition. Abbreviatory definitions are good and helpful and commonplace in science for they replace a (usually) long expression with a shorter one as the following examples show:


School leaders in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) now have the important responsibility of initiating and implementing school improvement. This raises the question of their leadership capacity and the competencies that are required for school leaders to fulfil this new role. This article focuses on school leadership in T&T. The study presented in this article utilised a qualitative interpretive research design employing a range of data collection methods, including questionnaires and interviews. The results of the study confirm a need for developing a new type of school leader who is: better trained, more research oriented, more of a risk taker and autonomous.


OBJECTIVES: to ascertain the degree of completeness and consistency of data in the Mortality Information System (SIM) and the Live Births Information System (Sinasc) in Pernambuco and to analyze the quality of information on child mortality obtained using these systems. METHODS: the SIM and Sinasc databases were combined using the linkage technique and deterministic and probabilistic methods. The data base obtained was analyzed according to the type of relation, the child mortality component and the demographic scope of the municipality of residence. Analysis of the fields filled in in the registers considered variables common to both systems. RESULTS: deterministic linkage helped greatly to identify true pairs of neonatal deaths, while the probabilistic method allowed a large portion of the postneonatal records to be recovered, especially in smaller municipalities. It was also found that there was a significant improvement in the completeness of the information analyzed, with the Sinasc contributing more to improve the information contained in the SIM. CONCLUSION: linkage made it possible to reduce the percentage of empty fields for all variables under study to less than 1% in both systems, showing that this is an important tool for ascertaining and improving the quality of information on child mortality.


For the Nankai Trough and Japan Trench subduction zones, we examine the combined thermal effects of lateral heat exchange by fluid circulation in an oceanic crustal aquifer and the thickening of that aquifer due to plate‐bending‐related faulting. Faults induced by the bending of a plate entering a subduction zone are hypothesized to increase the depth over which vigorous hydrothermal circulation can redistribute heat in the oceanic crust. Previous 1‐D (vertical) thermal models have examined how aquifer thickening can mine heat from deep in the crust seaward of the trench. Here we construct 2‐D thermal models that include aquifer thickening and lateral heat exchange in the aquifer. We vary the maximum aquifer thickness and the landward extent to which hydrothermal circulation persists within the subducted crust. For the Nankai margin, models most consistent with heat flux data require vigorous fluid circulation extending up to 150 km landward of the trench; aquifer thickening is permitted but not required for models to be consistent with the heat flux observations. Conversely, for the Japan Trench, preferred models include substantial aquifer thickening (maximum aquifer thickness of 1.8–5 km); vigorous circulation extending landward of the trench is permitted but is not required. For hot subduction zones, the thermal effects of aquifer thickening are modest relative to the large lateral advective heat redistribution. For cold subduction zones, where small lateral temperature gradients limit the amount of lateral heat redistribution, aquifer thickening can be the dominant process generating thermal anomalies.


Placental abnormality is the important predisposing cause of intrauterine growth retardation. Massive subchorionic hematoma is defined as a large size of maternal blood clot that separates the chorionic plate from the villous chorion and can result in serious obstetrical complications. We report a case of massive subchorionic hematoma diagnosed prenatally, and propose an additional peculiar finding detectable on both the ultrasound and magnetic resonance images: a large hematoma in the subchorionic region at 17 weeks gestation. At 18 weeks 2 days gestation, the fetus was miscarried. The clinical and pathological findings were compatible with massive subchorionic hematoma. Recurrent massive subchorionic hematoma without thrombophilic finding was observed at the next pregnancy in 17 weeks 5 days by ultrasound. The patient was managed conservatively and had successful outcome at term. So we report the case with the brief review of literatures.


This paper presents the way to connect SQL server database with ADO control and DataGrid control in VB,and setting of connection string and record source,which are two key properties in ADO control.At last,by constructing a single table management system of C/S model with VB,the paper also expounds how to add,update,delete and query records in a database with ADO control.


Differential cross sections and analyzing powers have been measured for the {sup 15}N(p,n){sup 15} O(g.s.) reaction at bombarding energies of 200 MeV and 494 MeV. The 494 MeV data were obtained at the LAMPF Neutron Time-Of-Flight Facility on an 82 m flight path with a resolution of about 2.7 MeV. The 200 MeV data were obtained at IUCF on a 76m flight path with a resolution of about 1.1 MeV. At both energies, the measured analyzing power is small, the magnitude is less than .2 for momentum transfers of less than 1 fm{sup {minus}1}. In contrast, both Relativistic and standard DWIA calculations predict a maximum of A={minus}.7 near q=0.7 fm{sup {minus}1}. 53 refs., 44 figs.


The present invention provides seed tape component, the adhesive article, the stretchable tape is removed belonging Field, which can solve the conventional problems stretchable removable upon removal of the tape stretched at a large angle easily broken. For the adhesive tape assembly of the invention bonded to at least one substrate, and comprising: a stretch removable adhesive tape having a bonding surface; interposer layer, covering the stretch removable adhesive tape is at least partially surface, and having opposed first and second faces; wherein the first surface of the substrate for bonding; the second face adhered to the adhesion surface, and at least a portion of the second surface direct contact with the adhesive surface; the second surface having a Ra value between 0.1μm to 7μm.


Present study was aimed to isolate the jacalin from the jack fruit which is humans consumes more frequently in their daily lives. Secondly, to purify the lectin by agglutinin method preferred PBS with a combination of sulfate precipitate was used to perform agglutination. But, agglutinating activity levels of erythrocytes will enhance when they undergone trypsinization. The purified lectin is an entire lectin because it is agglutinated from erythrocytes without trypsin remedy and as well as without addition of metal ions. Heam-agglutination was performed and assayed for the crude extract, dialyzed sample and purified lectin samples. Incubated for one hour the resultant plates were formed a layer of erythrocytes on the surface of wells and it was confirmed the indication of agglutination. The extracted lectin was used for agglutination inhibition assay and specificity in the direction of the distinct sugars used in the present study. The present study revealed that lectin proteins have the abilities to differentiate determinants of carbohydrates in mammalian blood cells. Our ancient's have been used plant lectins for detecting the blood groups. An enormous plant lectins and some kind of glycan compounds have the ability to bind with high affinity and appropriate haptenes for blocking of interactions. Due to these fusion and duplication combination of defense genes may leads evolutionary advantage and to generate new diversified protein specificities.


The study investigated students' patterns of interaction and their viewpoints toward incorporating peer feedback in L2 writing class, making use of a video stimulated recall (VSR) interview and the compositions. Data were analyzed qualitatively; two groups of six students with mixed English proficiency were analyzed in terms of the language-related episodes (LREs). The participants of the study were 21 undergraduate students, majoring in English in a university in the three southernmost border provinces of Thailand. For data analysis, peer dialogues were recoded, transcribed and coded to identify students' patterns of interactions in terms of collaborative, expert/novice, dominant/dominant and dominant/passive patterns, based on Storch's (2002) scheme. Moreover, the findings revealed that the students' English proficiency level did not influence the LREs and their writing ability. Additionally, students' writing performance was improved in the identified patterns of the collaborative and expert/novice instances. Specifically, students perceived the writing process, developed affective strategies, reinforced their critical thinking ability and enhanced their social interaction skills.  Besides, it encouraged them to become more effectively autonomous learners. Hence, peer feedback should be implemented in L2 writing.


Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) is a revolutionary standard in DRAM architecture based on 3D integration. It provides marvelous concurrency and reduced latency. HMC uses CRC32 for data integrity, but conventional Serial CRC calculation is very slow and has long latencies, here we propose three methods to implement parallel CRC to be very fast. The first method uses symbolic toolbox in MATLAB to generate the final equations of the CRC, and then these equations are exported to VERILOG so that we are able to calculate it in only one clock cycle. The second method is depending on using an existing tool that can generate parallel CRC but this tool has a limitation on the input data width as it is less than the maximum allowed data width in HMC which is 1152 bits, so we were able to find a work around method that enable us to calculate CRC32 for large data widthwith this tool. The third method is based on using the polynomial mathematics for CRC, as the CRC can be calculated using long division method. Method 1 latency is one clock cycle, Method 2 latency is 2 clock cycles, and method 3 latency is 37 clock cycles compared to serial CRC which latency is 1152 clock cycles.


According to process property of Wire Cut EDM(WEDM) for die mould machining,it is analyzed material of die mould and request of heat treatment are analyzed. Based on peculiar process for WEDM and producing performance in practice,is presented the improvement measures,and so it is improved machining accuracy and producting quality in order to enhance producting efficiency.


The work aims to solve the problems of low efficiency of traditional polishing process through the experimental research on the surface grinding and polishing of M300 steel. The elastic ball type abrasive tool was used polish and grind M300 steel. Single factor experiment and orthogonal experiment were designed to study the influence of main process parameters on the surface roughness and material removal, such as spindle speed, abrasive grain size, feeding depth and cutting depth. In the experiment, the Hilbert path was used to evenly process the entire surface. The five-axis machining center was used as the test platform, and the electronic analytical balance and three-dimensional surface topographer were used as testing instruments to obtain the optimal process parameters and preferred interval. Among the selected 9 sets of polishing parameters, the ideal surface roughness of 0.078 μm was obtained, the optimized removal rate was 2.152 mm3/min, and the wear ratio was 0.07. The factor significantly affecting the surface roughness was the cutting depth. The factor having greater influence the material removal rate was the change in cutting depth and feeding speed. For multi-objective optimization, the influence of cutting depth, spindle speed, feeding speed and abrasive size decreased in turn. The optimum combination of process parameters was: ball type ·362· 表 面 技 术 2019 年 6 月 abrasive tool: 320#, spindle speed: 4500 r/min, cutting depth: 0.4 mm and the feeding rate: 80 mm/min. The use of ball type abrasive tool can increase the material removal rate of M300 steel and improve the quality of the machined surface, thus enhancing the processing efficiency.


A real-time speech recognition system for Italian, based on a probabilistic approach, has been developed at the IBM Rome Research Center. It handles natural language sentences, from a 3000-word dictionary, dictated with words separated by short pauses. The architecture consists of an IBM 3090 mainframe and a PC/AT equipped with signal processing hardware. Recognition experiments have been performed for several speakers, each of whom had previously trained the system by dictating a 15-minute text. The paper describes the system, gives results and outlines future developments.


Herbal medicines are traditionally used by all ethnic groups in folk medicine in a hope of promoting health and managing various diseases such as pains, cold, inflammation, heart diseases, and diabetes, although the mechanism of action is generally unclear and clinical efficacy and safety data are lacking [1]. The 2007 National Health Interview Survey including 23,393 adults aged 18 years or older and 9,417 children aged 17 years and under revealed that 17.7% of American used natural products mainly including herbs and other supplements. Herbal medicines are often used in combination with conventional drugs, and this may give rise to the potential of unfavorable herb-drug interactions. To date, a number of clinically important herb-drug interactions have been reported [2-6]. The question is how to minimize the occurrence of harmful clinical herb-drug interactions.


A dispersion system of graphene oxides(GO)nanosheets was prepared by oxidization and ultrasonic treatment.The toughening effect and mechanism of GO nanosheets on cement matrix composites were investigated.GO nanosheets structure was characterized by EDS,FTIR,XRD,SEM and AFM.The results indicate that the oxygen content of GO is 32.3wt%,the thickness of GO nanosheets is about 6nm and there are many hydroxyl,carboxyl and sulfonic groups on the GO surface.The results of SEM images and mechanical strength indicate that GO can prompt the formation of flower-like hydration crystals and increase the tensile,flexural and compressive strength of the corresponding mortar 65.5%,60.7%,38.9% compared with the control samples,respectively,when GO dosage is 0.03wt%.The templating regulation mechanism of GO nanosheets on cement hydration crystals is proposed and the formation of the flower-like hydration crystals is revealed.


This paper puts forward the grey exponential fitting method which gets rid of numerical dispersion due to GM( 1.1) model. And then it is applied to degradation dynamics of pesticide and the result is statisfactory.


The second axis of DARHT, a Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is in production with a scheduled completion date of August 2001. This linear induction accelerator, designed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, consists of 88 induction cells and drivers which provide a total acceleration of 20 MeV to a 2 kA electron beam which has a flat-top pulse width of 2.02 /spl mu/s. Major induction cell components include high flux swing magnetic material (Metglas 2605SC) and a Mycalex insulator. The cell drivers are pulse forming networks (PFNs) which are tuned to provide voltage regulation of /spl plusmn/0.5% during the flat-top. This paper describes the design and performance of the cells and cell drivers.


Abstract : We report the design and test of reciprocal quantum logic shift-register yield vehicles consisting of up to 72 800 Josephson junction devices per die, the largest digital superconducting circuits ever reported. Multiple physical layout styles were matched to the MIT Lincoln Laboratory foundry, which supports processes with both four and eight metal layers and minimum feature size of 0.5 m.


The data of scientific literature sources regarding the relevant aspects of the implementation of save health technology in secondary schools and higher education institutions. The necessity of research and the introduction of new learning technologies and management organiza tion to ensure the safety of life of children and youth in modern condi tions on the basis of aggregated data of domestic experience.


Ionic solid 1,3-disulfoimidazolium chloronickellate [Dsim]2[NiCl4] with low band gap value can be modified as a heterogeneous photocatalyst after immobilization on siliceous zeolite HZSM-5. In this study, different percentages of [Dsim]2[NiCl4]/HZSM-5 supported ionic systems were prepared as acidic solid materials via wet impregnation. The structural changes of the parent HZSM-5 framework within the heterogenized materials were studied using IR, UV, SEM-EDX, PXRD, Raman, BET, TGA, Hammett acidity, HRTEM and ICP-OES techniques. Assessment of their thermal and water tolerance and intensity of photoluminescence spectra instigate the hybrid samples as possible heterogeneous photocatalysts for oxidative degradation of model dye compound methylene blue (MB) involving H2O2 and sunlight at ambient temperature in aqueous solution. This study may contribute to a new perception for the exploration of halometallate ionic salt systems as potential visible light driven photocatalysts in organic transformation.


Pedestrian signals, particularly at signalized, mid-block crossing cause delay to a driver which is termed "excessive delay" in this study. In many cases at a mid-block signal, a pedestrian pushes the button and then quickly crosses the street as soon as the walk signal appears and drivers still face several seconds of solid red ball and by law must remain stopped. On a busy street a queue of vehicles waiting after all pedestrians have crossed can amount to hundreds of hours of excessive delay per year. The High intensity Activated cross WalK (HAWK) beacon signal, which is now proposed to be called a "Pedestrian Hybrid Signal" in the next Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) (2009 version), is proven to be effective in decreasing this excessive delay by its different sequence of signal operation. The City of Lawrence was interested in experimenting with a HAWK and they installed one at a mid-block crossing. A study was conducted at this site to find out the effectiveness of the HAWK in decreasing the delay to drivers by comparing it with a signalized mid-block on Massachusetts Street, Lawrence, Kansas. Cameras were used to capture video at these sites and the effectiveness of a HAWK was analyzed from the video. The HAWK proved to be effective in decreasing the excessive delay for the drivers in this study.


Generating a text based on a predefined guideline is an interesting but challenging problem. A series of studies have been carried out in recent years. In dialogue systems, researchers have explored driving a dialogue based on a plan, while in story generation, a storyline has also been proved to be useful. In this article, we address a new task—generating movie scripts based on a predefined narrative. As an early exploration, we study this problem in a "retrieval-based" setting. We propose a model (ScriptWriter-CPre) to select the best response (i.e., next script line) among the candidates that fit the context (i.e., previous script lines) as well as the given narrative. Our model can keep track of what in the narrative has been said and what is to be said. Besides, it can also predict which part of the narrative should be paid more attention to when selecting the next line of script. In our study, we find the narrative plays a different role than the context. Therefore, different mechanisms are designed for deal with them. Due to the unavailability of data for this new application, we construct a new large-scale data collection GraphMovie from a movie website where end-users can upload their narratives freely when watching a movie. This new dataset is made available publicly to facilitate other studies in text generation under the guideline. Experimental results on the dataset show that our proposed approach based on narratives significantly outperforms the baselines that simply use the narrative as a kind of context.


Multiple jet impingement is one of the most efficient methods in the field of internal heat transfer enhancement. It provides a large heat transfer efficiency and a more uniform heat transfer distribution when cooling a large area of surface. This paper investigated the anti-crossflows characteristics of jet shape and inclination on multistage impingement channel. In order to reduce the adverse influence of upstream accumulative crossflow on downstream impingement heat transfer, two novel impingement jets, the Capsule and X-shape jets, were developed. On this basis, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of jet shape and inclination on multistage impingement channel were analyzed. The results indicated that with the development of the crossflow, the vortex and detached flow formed by the interaction of crossflow and impingement jet was a significant factor affecting the downstream impingement heat transfer. Once the intensity of the vortex developed to the point where it could pass through the downstream impingement core heat transfer region, the jet can no longer directly transfer heat with the target surface, resulting in the deterioration of downstream impingement heat transfer. The impingement jet hole with an inclination angle could offset the adverse influence of the crossflow on the downstream heat transfer and improve the heat transfer efficiency, due to the existence of the momentum component against the crossflow. Compared to the Circle and Capsule jet, the X-shape jet with jet inclination exhibits the best enhanced heat transfer performance and anti-crossflows characteristics. Considering the pressure drop and enhanced heat transfer effects comprehensively, the comprehensive performance of the X-shape jet with 0° inclination was the optimal, and its comprehensive heat transfer factor increased by 1.81% at a high Reynolds number compared with the reference case.


An invesgation about size and colour of Marchantia sp moss, had been done in Cughup Embun water fall, Pagar Alam, South Sumatera, Indonesia at November 9th, 2014(end of drough season). The aim was to know wether the distance from water fall (air and soil moisture) should effect the size and colour of those moss. Twenty meters sistematically distance in 4 points location  from above slope to water fall pond; 5, 25, 45, 65 and 85 m were considered for Marchantia sp sampling. Body size, colour and existing of Sporangium were noted. It is found that the size of moss body gradually bigger from 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.3  and 1.3 cm. Colour of moss change An from pale brown, pale green, green and deep green. Amount  of archegoniopore seems exist in many number at 45 m distance from above ground. Keywords: Marchantia sp, moisture, archegoniopore, antheridiopore.


Indigo, one of the oldest dyes, has a very important role for the textile sector.  It is primarily used to dye cotton clothes, and blue jeans and over one billion pairs of jeans around the world are dyed blue with indigo. Although Sodium Hydrosulfite (Na 2 S 2 O 4 ) is used as a reducing agent in most indigo dyeing processes, it is environmentally unfavorable because of the resultant contaminated toxic wastewater. In addition, the color fastnesses of dyed samples using Na 2 S 2 O 4 as reducing agent are not good enough. In the present paper sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ) were used as ecologically safe reduction systems for the indigo dyeing of cotton fabric. After dyeing processes, the color yield and fastnesses according to washing and rubbing were measured, and results were compared. It was found when NaBH 4 was used as reducing agent instead of Na 2 S 2 O 4 , the color yield and the fastness properties of the dyed samples improved.


Pagan revivalism is a growing trend in the contemporary religious landscape. Is it possible to be a neopagan without disregarding the demands of reason? While outright belief in the old gods seems out of the question, I argue that polytheism represents a live epistemic possibility, and that non-doxastic paganism is therefore a viable option. However, the rational, non-doxastic neopagan should only commit to general polytheism, rather than a detailed, specific pagan pantheon (such as the Greek or Old Norse). I also suggest that the ancient pagan conception of the divine as radically immanent must be rejected.


Tubal diseases accounts for 25%–35% of infertility in women. The line of treatment for it is tubal cannulation and microsurgical reconstruction. Moreover, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is suggested to patients post tubal microsurgery. These treatments have low success rate but have high costs. Hence, it is important to look for alternative therapies which are safe and cost-effective. From an Ayurvedic perspective, tubal blockage can be considered as Sangha Srotodushti of Artavabeejvaha srotas due to vitiated Tridosha. This is a case report of a female patient with a Bilateral cornual tubal block with a history of infertility. Due to Kapha -Vata dosha, 5ml Kshartail Uttarbasti was planned for 2 days for 3 consecutive menstrual cycles to remove obstruction produced in the tube. Due to Vyavayi (spreading fast throughout the body), Vikasi (distribution throughout the body without routine digestive process), and Sukshma (minute) properties of Kshartail, it spreads quickly into minute pores of the tube. Due to its Ushna (hot), Tikshna (penetrates deep tissue), Chedan (punctures tissue), and Bhedan (break down of particles) properties it scrapes the obstructing substance and removes fibrosed and damaged endometrial lining of the tube & uterus. Due to its Avakashkara (produces space), Srotoshodhak (purification of srotas) Ropan (wound healing), and disinfectant properties, it promotes the rejuvenation of tissue and improves the conductive functions of tubes and its Snigdha (oily), Ushna (hot) properties neutralises vitiated Vata dosha. After removal of the tubal block, the patient gets conceived naturally within 4 months and delivers a healthy baby. The result suggests that Uttarbasti is a highly effective, safe, low-cost Ayurvedic treatment without apparent complications.


The present invention discloses a method for unlocking the lock and off based on intelligent lock system security, the security system comprising lock smart lock, a key, a handheld terminal and the main station, the handheld terminal connected to the communication master station, a first key via the Bluetooth communication module handheld terminal is connected, via a first communication module key lock connection, the handheld terminal mounted with a software module; multiple authentication command is transmitted when the handheld terminal and lock information between the mobile terminals, to achieve a lock master security unlock the head, while the corresponding lock set by a multiple unlock password and only when multiple simultaneous input the correct password to unlock the lock allows the way to reach more than act as a lock to lock lock security level, reducing the use the number of locks, easier to operate. As a result of overall management of the communication network and the master station, an information storage function, and to achieve an effective management of information related to the recording off, shut the operation target, the operator, the operation time.


AIM
To determine the practice of New Zealand orthopaedic surgeons when women taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or a combined oral contraceptive pill (COC) present for major surgery. Current practice is compared with recently produced guidelines and manufacturers advice.

METHODS
A postal survey was sent to all New Zealand orthopaedic surgeons.

RESULTS
The response rate was 80% (118/148). There was wide variation in beliefs surrounding the peri-operative use of both of these medications. 44% of surgeons indicated that they would routinely advise discontinuing the COC pill peri-operatively for major surgery. 24% indicated that they would routinely advise discontinuing HRT peri-operatively. Recently released guidelines recommend that HRT should be stopped for at least 30 days prior to elective surgery and withheld for 90 days following surgery. Less than 3% of surgeons appeared to be routinely following this recommendation. Most manufacturers of COC pills recommend stopping the medication for at least four weeks prior to elective surgery. Only 25% of surgeons routinely practice in accordance with these recommendations.

CONCLUSIONS
This survey clearly demonstrates substantial differences between current clinical practice, recently revised HRT guidelines and oral contraceptive manufacturers advice. These differences need to be brought to the attention of surgeons and guideline producers. Particular medico-legal caution in this area is advised.


Nine years of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations have been analyzed to determine the magnitudes of the tidal variations in UTl for periods between 5 and 35 days. Corrections for variations in atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) significantly reduce the scatter of the measured amplitudes across both time and frequency. The AAM corrections are found to reduce the scatter in the observed tidal amplitudes by as much as 60% for periods as short as 5.6 days; in contrast, earlier studies have shown a loss of coherence between AAM and length-of-day (LOD) for periods shorter than about 10 days. The tidal amplitude measurements place bounds on both the nonequilibrium ocean and mantle anelasticity effects. The in-phase k/C determination is found to agree to better than 0.5% with the value of 0.944 from Yoder et al. (1981). The out-of-phase values are found to have a frequency dependence that can only be explained by nonequilibrium ocean effects. The observed slope is larger than the theoretical by about 3 times the expected error. This result may indicate that the ocean is farther out of equilibrium for the higher frequencies than present models permit. Significant improvements are needed in both ocean and atmosphere modeling to exploit the full capability of the VLBI observations.