The article analyzes the experience of teaching the discipline "Dental implantation" to foreign students in Dentistry studying at the Chuvash State University in Cheboksary in the context of internationalization and digitalization of higher education. Forms and methods of teaching Dental implantation and international academic mobility of faculty members are proposed. Foreign students are active participants in the student scientific circle of the department "Dentist of the Future"; they take part in the annual International Student Conferences, tooth drawing competitions "Da Vinci's Tooth", All-Russian festivals of students and youth "Man. Citizen. Scientist". The authors emphasize the significance of professional and communicative competencies denistry teachers. The teachers of the department are members of the International Club of Implantologists - International team for Implantology. In 2019 in Valletta on Malta the first summit "World Women's Implantology Communities WIN EMEA" took place, and in May the University of Bern in Switzerland hosted a symposium in honor of Professor Daniel Buser "20 Years of Progress in Implant Dentistry". The teachers of the department took part in these events. The main emphasis in the programs was placed on the active use of digital technologies in dental implantation, teaching discipline at the university using international standards. Internet resources allow you to check tasks for the teacher. For more than ten years, online testing has been carried out to monitor and assess the level of knowledge, skills and abilities of students in this discipline. The department tests students in Online Test Pad. Computer tools and technologies are used to help educate dentistry students. To improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment, digital technologies for virtual examination and treatment are used: computed tomography, intraoral scanning, data collection and planning methods, CAD / CAM technology, tools and materials for 3D production. The department is aware that foreign graduates will represent Russian education in their country, and seeks to transfer knowledge using digital technologies, international standards and experience. Uniting efforts with foreign colleagues improves the quality of work with foreign students and develops competitiveness of university alumni.


Objective To investigate expression of TERT(telomerase reverse transcriptase) and PCNA(proliferating cell nuclear antigen) in the tissue and cell lines of laryngeal squamaous cell carcinoma,and to elucidate the clinical pathological significance.Methods A continuous mutiple-spectrums scan was applied to show expression of TERT and PCNA in tissue array.TERT and PCNA mRNA expression was measured in Hep-2 cells by RT-PCR test after siRNA inhibition.Results Expressions of TERT and PCNA were significantly different in benign and malignant head and neck cancers.Among the malignant,expression of TERT and PCNA were all higher in grade Ⅲ than grade Ⅰ-Ⅱ.Also,both expressions were moderately interrelated(r=0.577,P0.05).TERT mRNA level was decreased by 80% after siRNA inhibition,while the PCNA mRNA level was decreased by 70%.Conclusion TERT and PCNA are related to the development of laryngeal squamaous cell carcinoma.They are synergetic.It is possible that PCNA can exert an effect on TERT to modulate the proliferation of cancer cells.


Taro, cv. Betelnut, were planted in paddy fields in 1979 and 1980 showed that the higher the plant density, the higher the plant and yield. However, size, weight and number of main corm or cormels produced on each plant were negatively correlated to the plant density. The highest main corm yield was recorded in the plot with a spacing of 60×20 cm (83,300 plants/ha) of 36 tons/ha and 55 tons/ha and the lowest in the spacing of 60×60 cm (26,600 plants/ha) of 17 tons/ha and 21 tons/ha respectively in 1979 and 1980. Total yield (main corm + cormels) also showed the highest in the spacing of 60×20 cm of 43 tons/ha and 63 tons/ha and the lowest in the spacing of 60×60 cm of 22 tons/ha and 26 tons/ha respectively in 1979 and 1980. This information is valuable for the farmers to cultivate taro in the paddy fields.


SUBTITLE: TSA DOLES OUT $2.3 BILLION TO 66 U.S. AIRLINES; 9 TO SIGN AGREEMENTS LIMITING TOP EXECS' PAY. TABLE: THE TSA OUTLAY: AIRLINE REIMBURSEMENTS FOR SECURITY COSTS SINCE 9/11.


This paper is an attempt to understand and define the thermal effects of incident laser radiation on a semi-infinite body. Based on previous research into the subject as well as other research into laser technologies certain assumptions are utilized to facilitate achieving usable solutions. The incident radiation is modeled as a set of independent functions of space and time in cylindrical coordinates. By using the Separation of Variables technique in conjunction with Green's Function a numerical solution to the temperature field induced by the radiation is found. The equations developed while solving the heat conduction problem are then utilized in the analysis of thermal stresses within the body. The Method of Potentials is employed to establish the set of equations necessary to solve for the thermal stresses within the body. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to all those who helped me in the completion of this endeavor. To my co-workers and supervisors who allowed me the special considerations necessary to complete this activity. To my wife Mary Jo and daughters Marissa and Courtney, without their support the completion of this paper would not have been possible. And finally special thanks to Professor Hetnarski whose constant guidance and support were the driving force behind my work. I would also like to thank Professor Hetnarski for giving me the opportunity to help prepare off shoots of this paper which he presented at the 19th Annual Yugoslavian Congress on Applied Mechanics (Ohrid, Yugoslavia) in June of 1990 and at the 2nd Annual Pan-Americam Congress of Applied Mechanics (Valpariso, Chile) in January of 1991.


The authors have been developing a theory of learning automata that is applicable to studying goal-seeking systems of many types. The stepwise convergence of such systems to a goal state can be mapped into the training sequences of an appropriate learning automaton. This theory has been expanded to include infinite sets of states. The learning automaton may have an infinite characteristic semigroup of state transitions. The algebraic properties of the automaton are determined by this semigroup. A topology is introduced into the characteristic semigroup, S'. The latter can be considered as a function space of transformations of S. Behavior characteristics of the learning automaton be defined rigorously. In special cases, they can be related to the topological properties of S' and S, such as continuity of the transition function, separation properties and compactness


We report the theoretical investigation of the phenomenon of the formation of patterns
transverse to the tunneling current in resonant tunneling double-barrier heterostructures
in the case of wide range of bistable voltages. In contrast to the case of the patterns in
the structures with small region of bistability, for pronounced bistability electron lateral
transport is strongly nonlocal. We performed numerical simulations of the stationary
and mobile patterns using special variational procedure. Our results revealed that
though the possible types of patterns remains the same as for the structures with small
bistability region, their characteristics are modified considerably.


The cyclopoid copepod Apocyclops dengizicus was isolated
from a marine shrimp pond, Penaeus monodon,
Kuala Selangor, Malaysia, and reared in the laboratory
for 3 months to establish a pure population
stock. Amino acids and fatty acids of A. dengizicus
were determined when fed Chaetocerous calcitrans
(C), Tetraselmis tetrathele (T) and their combination
(CT) (1:1 by number). The protein contents in A. dengizicus
that received C, T and CT were 46.8%, 60.5%
and 55.3% of dry weight respectively. Correspondingly,
the lipid was 19.0%, 17.8% and 19.1% of dry
weight for C,T and CT respectively. TheA. dengizicus
cultured on C, T and CT had total essential amino
acids without tryptophan measurement of 57.1, 60.3
and 67.8 and total non-essential amino acids of
42.9%, 40.0% and 32.2% of total amino acids. The
fatty acid content of A. dengizicus showed that it was
able to synthesize docosahexenoic acid (22:6n-3,
DHA), eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3, EPA) and arachidonic
acid (20: 4n-6, ARA) from examined microalgal
diets. The DHA:EPA:ARA ratios of A. dengizicus
fed on C, T and CT were 6.8:3.0:1, 14.0:5.8:1 and
11.6:2.6:1 respectively. Apocyclops dengizicus could be
suitable live food for larval ¢sh and shrimp rearing
because it meets their nutritive requirements.


The new lysianassoid amphipod family Sophrosynidae is described and the genus Sophrosyne is reviewed. Fourteen species are recognised including 10 new species and the documented distribution of the genus is expanded into the southwestern Pacific.


Based on the characteristics of high speed relative motion equations in short range,this paper derived the system of linear differential equations.The state-transition matrix and analytic solution were also presented.Simulation results showed that the max error of the solution,which applied to relative motion between high eccentric orbit(HEO) and geosynchronous earth orbit(GEO) with relative range less than 100 km,was about 16 cm.The error was about only 15 percent of the max error of Hill's equation.The state-transition matrix could be applied to real-time high accurate navigation and guidance in space interception mission.


This paper reports on the observation of electric bistability and a first-order electric Freedericksz transition induced by an optical field in a homeotropic nematic liquid crystal film. Molecular reorientation as a function of electric field is characterized by an unambiguous hysteresis loop which exhibits electric bistability. The experimental results match the numerical/theoretical results fairly well. The tricritical point will also be discussed.


Personnel training is a significant part of a management system of any organization; for instance, ISO 9001 standard discusses it in detail. However, it should be defined, who and what is to be trained. Training should increase the personnel qualification level, thus increasing the probability of successful task performance. If we determine the probability of not performing a task for each task, for which a staff member is responsible, we will be able to design a professional development program effectively. It should also be taken into account, in which period a specific staff member should be trained. The paper suggests a method for designing a professional development program that considers such factors as probability of successful task performance, suitable training periods and offers of professional development programs at a specific labor market.


Background/aims Cervical cancer is a highly prevalent type of cancer that causes severe physical consequences, including pain and sleep disturbance. However, in Ghana, little is known about the exp...


Crocodylus johnstoni is a prevailing and stable binomial designating the Australian freshwater crocodile. A brief review traces the description circumstances and recent International Code of Zoological Nomenclature changes that resolve a long-standing argument (C. johnsoni or C. johnstoni?) by exploiting the latest edition of the Code.


Due to the limitations of fault diagnosis and forecast using traditional Hidden semi Markov model (HSMM), a model based on fissile PSO is proposed to optimize HSMM parameters. It can avoid local optimum effectively and expand the scope of the search without any impact on training rate. Finally, a more accurate HSMM model verified by experiments is established. The healthy state classifier and lifetime prediction model are established. It shows that the algorithm has high prediction accuracy and can be applied to the fault prediction of complex equipment.


[reaction: see text] Carboxylic acids were converted in high yield to their 1,1-dimethylallyl (DMA) esters in two steps. Palladium-catalyzed deprotection of DMA esters was shown to be compatible with tert-butyl, benzyl, and Fmoc protecting groups, and Fmoc deprotection could be carried out selectively in the presence of DMA esters. DMA esters were also shown to be resistant to nucleophilic attack, suggesting that they will serve as alternatives to tert-butyl esters when acidic deprotection conditions need to be avoided.


At present, telecom operators and service providers to RADIUS server authentication and accounting application to focus the most universal and extensive. However, the existing RADIUS protocol has many limitations. For example, only limited information to the user authentication, user accounts and so on. At present, the industry has a lot of agreements related to the expansion of RADIUS attribute research, and has become the norm. However, most of these studies have focused on the RADIUS protocol security, and relatively less importance to such services for the telecommunications industry is a crucial areas: customer needs. To address this question the applicability of the two very strong expansion of new RADIUS attributes: Disconnect (Disconnect) and change the permissions attributes (Change-of-Authorization) attributes. Disconnected from real-time properties can support the user's network connection disconnected. To change the permissions to change the attributes to support real-time characteristics of the user's session (including bandwidth charges, as well as be able to access network resources, etc.). The main attributes of the new expansion of the specific configuration, packet formats, packet types, such as described in detail.


The board of directors (the "Board") of Li & Fung Limited (the "Company") announces that due to the change of role of Dr. Fu Yuning from chairman of China Merchants Group Limited to chairman of China Resources (Holdings) Company Limited, Dr. Fu is no longer able to serve as a Director of the Company. Accordingly, Dr. Fu has tendered his resignation as an Independent Non-executive Director and a member of the Audit Committee and Nomination Committee of the Company with effect from 31 December 2014.


We demonstrate TrussFab's editor for creating large-scale structures that are sturdy enough to carry human weight. TrussFab achieves the large scale by using plastic bottles as beams that form structurally sound node-link structures, also known as trusses, allowing it to handle the forces resulting from scale and load. During this hands-on demo at UIST, attendees will use the TrussFab software to design their own structures, validate their design using integrated structural analysis, and export their designs for 3D printing.


For quite some time now the premises set up for teachers and teaching within the neo-liberal project, have been heavily criticized (e. g. Apple, 2008; Ball, 2003; Hopmann, 2008; Kliebard, 1995; Nor ...


ASHRAE Standard 161, Air Quality within Commercial Aircraft, includes a requirement for bleed air sensors to detect contamination from lubricating oil. One potential approach to meeting this requirement is through particle detection. A four-part experimental program was conducted to develop a detailed characterization of particles that result when bleed air is contaminated with lubricating oil. The first part of the program utilized a bleed air simulator. A reciprocating compressor follow by a heated tube was used to create controlled temperature and pressure conditions representative of bleed air from an aircraft engine. Aerosolized lubricating oil was injected into the airflow upstream of the compressor and the particulate characteristics were measured downstream of the heated tube. The second and third parts of the program used turbine shaft engines mounted in a test stand and connected to a dynamometer for controlled loading. Aerosolized oil was mixed into the inlet air and the resulting particle characteristics in the bleed air were measured. The compressor for the second part utilized both axial and centrifugal compression stages while the compressor for the third part utilized a single centrifugal stage. The fourth part of the program utilized an engine on an US Air Force C-17 military transport aircraft. Oil was injected into the first stage of the compressor and the bleed air from the engine was diverted to a test platform where it was cooled and sampled. Particulate size distributions and concentrations were measured with aerodynamic particle sizing and scanning mobility particle sizing. Collectively, these instruments could measure concentrations and size distributions for particles ranging from 10 nanometers to 20 microns. The measurements showed that oil contamination in the compressor will result in a fog of very fine droplets in the bleed air under most operating conditions. Typically these droplets are in the 10-150 nanometer range. With very low contamination rates, it appears that many of the droplets may be even smaller than 10 nanometers. This research shows that development of sensors for detecting oil contamination in aircraft bleed air should focus on ultrafine particle detection and sensing of low contamination levels may require sensitivity to extreme ultrafine particles 10 nanometers and smaller.


Low pressure chemical vapor deposition of InSb using neo‐pentylstibine and trimethylindium has been studied with x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). At 600 K, the InSb film with an In:Sb atomic ratio of 1 and a growth rate of ∼2 A/min was formed on GaAs(110). The binding energies of the In and Sb 3d5/2 XPS peaks are in excellent agreement with those taken from InSb single crystal and amorphous samples. The He(II) ultraviolet photoelectron spectrum also agrees reasonably well with photoemission spectra taken from InSb using different photon beam sources. The corresponding Raman spectrum showed two phonon peaks at 179 (TO) and 190 (LO) cm−1, respectively, which are virtually identical to the Raman data reported for InSb single crystal samples. The XPS measurements suggested a three‐dimensional growth mechanism for the InSb film on GaAs(110), which was confirmed by the SEM measurement. However, at ∼800 A t...


The development of hypergene Stefanina Cave, the hydrological conditions, and the maximum discharge of the paleo-flow are studied, based on its pattern in ground-plan, the geometry of the passage, and the peak flow velocity from the dimensions of the scallops. The village of Stefanina is located East of Thessaloniki and the cave NE of the village. A study was conducted measuring the orientation of the discontinuities of the rocks inside and outside the cave, the scallops in various sites to estimate the flow velocities, and in addition, were taken photographs for the full analysis of its cross-section. The cave-in ground-plan has a pattern of branches, which is often associated with recharging through karstic depressions. The shape of the passages is both curvilinear and angular, depending on the foliage and the fractures. The symmetrical phreatic passage shape has been evolved to a vadose canyon, forming a keyhole passage in cross-section. This is indicative of a water table drop. The scallops are visible in a meandering channel, where the discharge of the paleo-flow is estimated. The estimated peak flow velocity ranges from 0.4 to 2.7 m / s, while the area-specific peak flow discharge is estimated to be 2.2 m3/s. On the one hand, the scallops represent the peak flow velocity, on the other hand, the karst springs have a limited maximum discharge, regardless of the size of the catchment, making it impossible to use the calculated paleo-discharge to estimate the respective catchment area.


This invention relates an improved cylindrical blades for axial Steam turbines comprising a leading edge and a trailing edge and a pressure face and a Suction face and an inlet flow angle and an outflow flow angle at the leading edge and trailing edge respectively characterized in that the blades formed by Setting angle variation for incompressible flow as well as at SubSonic Mach numbers at the exit with a lower loSS for a range of Stagger angles.


Safe operation of automated robotic platforms in environments where humans also work require on-board sensors that can accurately and robustly detect humans in the environment so that appropriate action can be taken. This is a challenging problem in unstructured outdoor environments as most sensors are negatively affected by changing environmental conditions like ambient light and moisture. Our aim is to use a combination of thermal and visible colour images to detect humans in forest environments. The system should be able to work through dense foliage and should not be confused by other objects that generate heat like machines or other animals. We developed and tested a system on a data-set of sensor data collected in a similar outdoor environment but with synthetic targets added to highlight the ability of the system to be robust to severe optical occlusion in dense vegetation and to the presence of hot machines that could fool the thermal sensor. Our initial results show promise and also highlight where improvements can be made with further testing in more realistic forest environments.


This article presents an overview of significant issues pertaining to the psychoeducational assessment of visually impaired children. These issues include: incidence and definition of visual impairment, screening for visual problems, variables affecting vision, effects of visual handicaps on psychological development, pre-assessment preparation, testing conditions, use and adaptation of tests, and interpretation of results.


Osteoporotic fracture is one of the major health burdens in an aging society, leading to excess mortality and morbidity in older adults. From 2007 to 2011, the societal cost of osteoporotic fracture was estimated to increase annually from US $88.8 million in 2007 to US $149.3 million in 2011, and a steeper increase in health costs is expected according to rapid aging in South Korea. Among Korean adults aged 50 or older, the cumulative incidence of subsequent fractures gradually increased over 4 years of followup once an osteoporotic fracture occurred, along with high crude fatality rates in the first 12 months after hip fracture (14.0% for women and 21.0% for men). Despite recent advances in pharmacologic interventions including potent antiresorptive or anabolic agents such as denosumab or romosozumab, more tailored approach to reduce lifetime fracture risk at individual level remains unmet need to improve fracture prevention strategy, including the management of metabolic risk profiles. Metabolic crosstalk between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and osteoporosis, as the most representative and prevalent metabolic diseases reflecting disrupted homeostasis in fat metabolism and the skeletal system, has been intensively investigated in prior literatures. However, the results remain controversial that some studies reported independent association of NAFLD with new onset osteoporosis, whereas some argued null association between NAFLD and bone mineral density. Although common pathophysiologic links such as chronic inflammation and insulin resistance provide potential biological plausibility, the mechanical aspect of bone mass regulation makes interpretation of association between NAFLD and bone mineral density more complex that tendency toward obesity in individuals with NAFLD lead to constantly higher mechanical loading to axial bones, thereby preserving bone mass. Therefore, it would be important to study the fracture risk as clinical outcome in individuals with NAFLD for providing robust rationale to investigate crosstalk between NALFD and the skeletal system. In this issue of Gut and Liver, Kim et al. comprehensively assessed the association of biochemical indices of NAFLD (fatty liver index, FLI) with incident fracture risk during median 4.6 years of follow-up in a large Korean national claim database. Highest FLI quartile, calculated using triglyceride, body mass index, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), and waist circumference, was associated with 23% increased risk of fracture compared to lowest quartile after adjustment for potential confounders. In subgroup analysis, the association between NALFD and elevated fracture risk remained robust in individuals with body mass index >25 kg/m, or those with normal blood pressure or fasting glucose level <126 mg/dL. As authors stated, these findings suggest that more clinical attention regarding fracture risk management may be warranted to individuals with high FLI score, with calls for future studies to elaborate mechanisms linking liver-bone axis. Some clinical implications can be postulated from this finding. Although routine osteoporosis screening or fracture risk assessment in overall patients with NAFLD may not be supported by current evidences, presence of risk factors such as prior fracture history, menopause, or concomitant glucocorticoid use can be utilized as clinical indications for bone density testing with fracture risk as-


This article is devoted to non-verbal communication and it's definition. Communication is defined as the interaction between two or more people in the exchange of information that has a cognitive or affective-evaluative character. Or communication is a complex, comprehensive process of establishing and developing relationships that arise from the need for collaborative activities between people and consist of the exchange of information. Communication tools can include language, emotional tone, facial expressions, mimicking, postures, body movements, gaze, gestures and distance. Nonverbal communication is a form of language that embodies all forms of non-verbal communication, consisting of actions and gestures that are devoid of meaning. In addition to gestures and poses, nonverbal speech includes paralinguistic and extralinguistic means.


(I) The nature of the movement in handwriting; (2) its adaptation, or development; and (3) the nature of the stimulus which directs the adaptation. Pursuing these lines of thought, one arrives finally at the following definition of the particular process of learning that is involved: Learning to write is the gradual adaptation of the handwriting movement to a gradually developing perception of form. One finds, moreover, that out of the adaptation of movement comes speed, and out of the development of perception comes quality of product, and that the relation between speed and quality of handwriting may be distinguished in the relation which exists between the adaptation of movement and the development of perception.'


(57) Abstract: plastic securing cartridge for curable multi-component material comprising a resin and a curing agent. In the borehole, disrupts cartridge in uniform breaking point, in order to be mixed with ingredients to form a homogeneous material, the wall of the outer cartridge, cross section reduction are arranged at a uniform spacing from one another part is provided.


1. Millan JM et al. An update on the genetics of usher syndrome. J Ophthalmol 2011: 2011: 417217. 2. Fettiplace R, Hackney CM. The sensory and motor roles of auditory hair cells. Nat Rev Neurosci 2006: 7: 19–29. 3. Riazuddin S. 2012. Alterations of the CIB2 calciumand integrinbinding protein cause Usher syndrome type 1J and nonsyndromic deafness DFNB48 Nature Genetics. 2012: 44(11): 1265–1271.


Renewed concern over the possible effects of pornography has been sparked by a "new" body of research. Foremost among these concerns is the possibility of a linkage between viewing pornography and subsequent aggressive behavior, especially toward women. However, the vast majority of this research is limited to laboratory settings. This study reports on a field experiment which assesses the impact of presenting a pornographic movie on a college campus. A longitudinal, self‐report study of 230 women students was conducted to determine any effects of the film's showing on the sample's experiences with aggression from males. Compared with the weeks prior to and following the movie's showing, no significant difference in reported aggression was found. Further, those women reporting association with males attending the movie reported no significantly different levels of experienced aggression from those women whose companions did not view the film. Reasons for the apparent lack of effect are discussed in light ...


For some children with severe motor disabilities, a power wheelchair is their first mobility experience and for others it builds on previous experiences. The power wheelchair can allow children independent exploration with decreased reliance on caregivers leading to more age-appropriate interaction with their peers. With this independence comes a sense of achievement which may not have been reached with previous mobility experiences. It is important to think about all children who are not functional in their mobility as potential power mobility users. In children with spastic cerebral palsy if certain milestones requiring good trunk control have not been achieved by age three, then the chances of functional independent ambulation is limited. Restricted early mobility is associated with the onset of learned helplessness and has a lasting impact. Not all of the children we introduce to power mobility will become power wheelchair owners, but the movement experience may stimulate cognitive development and be a valuable part of their therapy. Efficient and independent locomotion can lead to increased confidence, a greater opportunity to make choices and more active participation in their own lives rather than remaining spectators. With intervention focusing on participation goals such as keeping up with peers and energy conservation for other activities, introducing power mobility early can lead to social inclusion and community integration.


Purpose: The parabolic role of any church in society: to be a source of influence, in organic and pervasive ways as a free corporate decision- maker in the society. The general objective of the study was to evaluate role of church justice and peace commission and conflicts management in pastoral communities
Methodology: The paper used a desk study review methodology where relevant empirical literature was reviewed to identify main themes and to extract knowledge gaps.
Findings: The study concludes that different mechanisms influenced in the management of conflicts between communities. The initiatives made by religious organization in mediating, disarmament, peace mission and reintegration were helpful in quelling the conflicts between conflicting communities. Also, the introduction of county government reduced incidences of cattle rustling as leaders from both counties usually arranged for peace meeting through which issues surrounding them were discussed and mediated upon.
Recommendations: There is need for religious leaders from pastoral communities to be involved and avoid siding with any of their respectively conflicting communities. The place that religious leaders and organizations held in the society could be observed by ensuring that the members of clergy remained non-partisan for the sake of offering spiritual and moral support to the victims of the conflicts. The elders from pastoral Communities need to assert their authority in ensuring that the commands and decisions they make to young men against attacking or raiding the neighbouring communities, were strictly followed and those found to violate could be punished


This paper deals with tomographic travel time inversion of three dimensional seismic refraction survey conducted over a dipping interface. The slowness, and thus velocity as its reciprocal, distribution on the subsurface interface is to be determined applying an ART with under-relaxtion parameter. The models chosen are realistic, i.e., most likely to be met in engineering seismics, and the interface includes anomalous zones. It is found that, generally speaking, the inversion could be misleading or meaningless without the correction of the dip of the interface. This is rather surprising when we recall that usual assumption for the interpretation of refraction seismics data is the horizontal attitude of structures within the limit of dip or so. To make the present method tenable for a new means of routine seismics, some practical ways of identifying head wave arrivals are to be devised.


On the evening of 27 April 2012, the Centre of Korean Studies (CKS) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. After twenty-five years, the CKS remained the largest Korean Studies centre in the United Kingdom (UK), and an important European and global centre for Korean research. The CKS boasted twenty-three research students engaged in higher-level study into Korean history, language or culture. The first Korean post was set up at SOAS in 1953, and the first teacher of Korean Studies at SOAS, and in fact in the whole of the UK, was William Skillend. The SOAS Library holds more than 1.5 million items in addition to electronic resources. SOAS holds a number of notable artworks, many of which have been held in storage at SOAS for years without any real conception of their value and significance. Keywords: Centre of Korean Studies (CKS); Europe; SOAS; SOAS Library; United Kingdom (UK); William Skillend


OBJECTIVE To establish the quality standards for prescription of Jiuyangshenqi.METHODS The Fructus lycii and ginseng in the preparation were identified by TLC,the content of Icariin in the preparation was determined by RP-HPLC.RESULTS TLC has good specificity and reproducibility;The linear range of icariin is 0.03348~0.3348μg(r=0.9997),the average recovery was 101.4%,RSD was 2.03%.CONCLUSION This method was reliable,and can be used effectively for the quality control for the preparation.


OBJECTIVES
The treatment for the neuropathic pain is still a big challenge. Pulsed radiofrequency technique has been widely used to relieve neuropathic pain recent years. The purpose of this study is to optimize the temperature for pulsed radiofrequency therapy.

DESIGN
Animal, experimental study.

METHODS
Seventy-five male SD rats were randomly divided into five groups: sham operation group (Sham group), chronic constriction injury group (CCI group), PRF 42 °C group (P42 group), PRF 50 °C group (P50 group), PRF 60 °C group (P60 group). The hindpaw withdrawal threshold (HWT), paw thermal withdrawal latency (PTWL), sciatic nerve structure and the concentration of spinal methionine enkephalin(M-ENK) were detected to identify which temperature is the best for PRF treatment.

RESULTS
PRF at 42 °C, 50 °C and 60 °C significantly alleviated the pain in CCI rats. The therapeutic effects of 50 °C and 60 °C were similar, and both were better than 42 °C. In addition, PRF using 42 °C, 50 °C and 60 °C mediated nerve injury to sciatic nerve were grade 1, 1 and 2 respectively. The concentration of M-ENK in spinal cord increased accompanying with the increasing of the temperature of PRF.

CONCLUSION
PRF using 50 °C could induce less damage while achieving better improvement of mechanical and thermal pain threshold than 42 °C and 60 °C in CCI rats, which may be achieved by promoting the expression of M-ENK in spinal cord.


We examine the LHC phenomenology of quantum black holes in models of TeV gravity. By quantum black holes we mean black holes of the smallest masses and entropies, far from the semiclassical regime. These black holes are formed and decay over short distances, and typically carry SU(3) color charges inherited from their parton progenitors. Based on a few minimal assumptions, such as gauge invariance, we identify interesting signatures for quantum black hole decay such as 2 jets, jet + hard photon, jet + missing energy and jet + charged lepton, which should be readily visible above background. The detailed phenomenology depends heavily on whether one requires a Lorentz invariant, low-energy effective field theory description of black hole processes. Chargé de recherches du F.R.S.-FNRS. email@example.com email@example.com firstname.lastname@example.com


An 81-year-old woman presented with progressive right levodopa-nonresponsive hemiparkinsonism for 6 months. Brain CT scan and MRI (Figure 1) showed a giant supraclinoid unruptured aneurysm of the left internal carotid artery, leading to severe left basal ganglia displacement and left cerebral peduncle compression. The patient underwent ioflupane SPECT (Figure 2) that showed decreased tracer binding exclusively in the left putamina and left caudate nuclei. The preserved presynaptic dopaminergic function of right basal nuclei ruled out an unmasked latent Parkinson disease.


This thesis creates a gendered typology of women's testimonio that foregrounds the Cold War context of the genre. This new perspective reveals that contrary to the assertions of some critics, the texts struggle to convey a unitary propagandic message. Rather, their prime purpose is to counter hegemonic discourse. Yet, far from being unliterary or impersonal, they impart much personal information using a diversity of stylistic devices.

The testimonios challenge the profoundly gendered national security discourse of their own governments and the US. The argument that brutal counter-insurgency tactics, widespread incarceration and torture, were necessary to combat "communist-inspired" insurgency is invalidated by these testimonios which replace dichotomising and reductionist Cold War propaganda with accounts of the local, subjective and personal reasons for political involvement. The texts disclose the potentially traumatising lived consequences of US foreign policy and national security strategies to reveal their disproportionate and excessive nature. However, the testimonialistas' sense of a greater purpose, collective identity and belonging to a wider community enables them to remain resilient in spite of adverse experiences.

Despite their loyalty to utopian and egalitarian ideals, sexism from within leftist movements and governments is exposed and denounced by the female protagonists as patriarchal institutions, traditions and gendered identities are consistently undermined. Latin American women, as guerrilleras, organisers and members of peasant and indigenous communities, present themselves as defiant protagonists who, aside from the male-dominated master narratives of the superpowers, demonstrate the strength of their political agency, psychological resilience and ideological convictions.


Sub-Saharan . Africa is characterized by widespread poverty and rapid population growth. Millions of Africans today are malnourished, and many more, perhaps 100 million or more, would eat better if they could (.Rotberg, 1983). The 1960's mark the beginning of a striking decline in the region's ability, to produce or purchase sufficient food for the needs of' its population. The trend over the past two decades has-been a continuing per, capita fall and, in some countries, . an absolute fall in food production.


The present contribution investigates three grammars dating back to the Early New High German period: Albertus' Teutsch Grammatick oder Sprachkunst (1573), Olinger's Vnderricht der Hoch Teutschen Spraach (1573) and Kromayer's Deutsche Grammatica / Zum newen Methodo / der Jugend zum besten / zugerichtet (1618).The main purpose of the work is to check the most considerable changes of the Early New High German in the point of view of the three mentioned grammarians. The work opens with a general analysis of the three texts, of their addressees, their purposes and their structure. Afterwards a detailed study of the syntactic changes about name, verb, adverb and preposition is carried out.


Emotional Intelligence is totally dependent on the environment. It is related neither to development of some organ or to psychological process. So the result of this study will be useful to the teacher to improve their Emotional Intelligence. Objectives of the Study: 1.To find out the Emotional Intelligence of school teachers and classify them. 2. To find out the Emotional Intelligence of school teachers with respect to the areas Intra –Personal Awareness (own Emotion), Inter Personal Awareness (other Emotion), Intra –Personal management (Own Emotion) and Inter –Personal management (Other Emotion). 3. To find out the influences of variables like Gender, Residence, Medium of instructions, Type of family, Type of school, Educational qualifications and Experience on the Emotional Intelligence. Hypothesis: 1. There would be a significant difference between the Emotional Intelligence of school teachers of Rural and Urban areas. 2. There would be a significant difference between the Emotional Intelligence of school teachers in Govt/private/residential schools. 3. There would be a significant difference between the Emotional Intelligence of school teachers in E.M and T.M schools.4. There would be a significant difference between the Emotional Intelligence of school teachers with strict and moderate free discipline (a) At home, (b) At school. 5. There would be a significant difference between the Emotional Intelligence of school teachers belonging to low, high, moderate socio Economic status Tool: Emotional Intelligence inventory prepared by Dr. S.K. Mangal Department of Education, M.D University amd Mrs. Subhra Mangal, C.R.S. College of Education. Sample: Stratified random samples of 60 teachers are being selected from the schools of Guntur district. The main sample taken from rural and urban schools from each are selected randomly. All the teachers teaching academic subjects such as Tlugu, English, Hindi, Maths, Physical science, Natural science and Social are included in the sample from the randomly selected schools. Data Analysis: The following statistical techniques were employed in the analysis of data collected Mean, S.D., skewness, kurtosis, t-Test (**significant at 0.01 level,* 0.05 level & @not significant at 0.05 level.). Findings: The present study is focused on Emotional Intelligence of school teachers in Guntur District. Most of the Emotional Intelligence of school teacher are found to be high level. There is no significant difference between the Emotional Intelligence of male and female, rural and Urban, medium of instructions, type of family, type of school private, government and residential schools, experience and educational qualifications are secondary school teachers. Suggestions: They are suggested to develop self-help skills. The social organization of the society there must be recognize teaching profession. Society gave top importance to the teachers. The economic status Leeds to the social status, hence steps are to be taken to improve the salary, welfare abilities of teachers. The government has to take further steps for the well development of the status as the teachers. This study may be extended to higher education. This study may be taken between teachers stress and adjustment of teachers can be taken up and in relation to Emotional Intelligence.


The present invention relates to a binary photomask blank and a method of manufacturing a binary photomask. Two yuan the present invention is a photomask blank having a light-shielding film on a transparent substrate, comprising a compositionally graded layer and the substrate-side surface side, having a thickness of 35-60nm by comprising a transition metal and N and / or O silicon-based material. Compositionally graded layer having a thickness 10-58.5nm the substrate side, and the N + O in an amount of 25-40 atomic% at its surface, the upper surface thereof is 10-23 atomic%. Compositionally graded layer having a thickness of 1.5-8nm surface side, and the N + O in an amount of 10-45 atomic% at the lower surface thereof, at its upper surface is 45-55 atomic%.


Several strains of soybean mosaic virus (SMV) can be differentiated on the basis of the phenotypic response of various soybean cultivars (e.g., the soybean line Williams '82 is susceptible to all SMV strains, whereas the lines P. I. 96983, L78-379, and Davis are functionally immune to SMV strain G2 but susceptible to strains G7 and G7a). Inoculation of the immune lines with G2, followed 2 days later by inoculation with G7 or G7a, resulted in systemic spread of the avirulent SMV G2. Further evidence, suggests that complementation groups of SMV strains may exist.


This paper proposes a fuzzy goal programming based on Taylor series for solving decentralized bi-level multiobjective fractional programming (DBLMOFP) problem. In the proposed approach, all of the membership functions are associated with the fuzzy goals of each objective at the both levels and also the fractional membership functions are converted to linear functions using the Taylor series approach. Then a fuzzy goal programming is proposed to reach the highest degree of each of the membership goals by taking the most satisfactory solution for all decision makers at the both levels. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Societal security, as developed by the Copenhagen School of Security, is an extremely important area of the broader contemporary security concept which, in addition to military issues, also takes into account a number of other threats coming from the fields such as political, economic, societal or environmental ones. In the study of contemporary societal security, a number of concepts specific to the theory of complex systems, such as complexity, self-organization, the threshold of chaos, etc., have been borrowed, substantially enriching the hermeneutics of security discourse on the basis of non-mechanistic interpretations of social systems. This article aims to show that in the study of societal security the use of tools specific to the study of modern complex systems has produced quite interesting results, which could give a new meaning to the research in this field. At the same time, the paper presents some conclusions regarding the methodology of analysis specific to the science of complexity applicable to the field of societal security.


Traditional forms of Chinese music of national minorities in modern era all face a problem to maintain the original forms while being integrated into the modern realities.This paper focuses on the traditional Ewenki,Oroqen,and Daghur music,extending the issues to developing and utilizing the musical resources,maintaining local music characters and preserving while seeking on-going possibilities.


As a special imaging technique, one of the most important advantages of single-pixel imaging (SPI) than conventional imaging method is that it can recover the object image even through turbid medium. In these situations, the noises bring by the turbid medium usually obey special rules in statistics. While in some other applications, SPI is performed in the environment with complicate ambient light, in which no prior information of the environment noise is known. Aiming at this situation, in this work, the frame-by-frame subtraction-based compressive sensing SPI (FFS-CSPI) method with random 0/1 pattern is used to decrease the effect from the unknown ambient light. The noise robustness of the FFS-CSPI method is analyzed and compared with Hadamard CSPI. In simulation and experiment, two kinds of noises, from external light source and from background video, are considered. The results prove that FFS-CSPI with random 0/1 patterns can achieve higher image quality than conventional mean subtraction method and Hadamard CSPI with the same measurement number. Considering the high refresh rate of digital micromirror device when it loads the 0/1 binary patterns, the imaging speed is acceptable. This work will promote the practical applications of SPI in complicated environment.


This article is an outline of sociolinguistic investigations on the Korean language, which includes such subjects as language policy, sociolinguistic analysis/description of the Korean language, and various aspects related to its use in social contexts. Topics examined in this article include (1) language attitudes, which involve the desirability or undesirability of the exclusive use of Han'gül (the Korean alphabet) and merits or demerits of the use of Chinese characters and of Chinese loan words in Korean; (2) language maintenance, which involves language purification, patterns of loan words, characteristics of dialects, and linguistic divergency; (3) linguistic variation; (4) honorifics; (5) bilingualism; and (6) sex differentiation in language.


In this article, an event-triggered state estimation problem for wireless sensor network systems affected by random packet losses and correlated noises is considered. A set of independent Bernoulli variables are used to describe the random packet losses in the measurement transmission. An event-triggered transmission strategy is introduced to decrease limited network bandwidth consumption, and the measurement noise is correlated with the process noises of the same moment and the previous moment. Event-triggered estimator of process noises under the linear minimum variance criterion is derived. Then, an event-triggered state estimation algorithm related to the packet loss rate, noise correlation coefficient and triggering threshold is designed. Sufficient conditions are provided to guarantee convergence of the estimation error covariances of the proposed estimator. Finally, comparative simulation verifies the effectiveness of our algorithm.


Background: Case reports concerning irreversible renal failure caused by 5‐aminosalicylates (5‐ASA) have been published. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of long‐term use of 5‐ASA on renal function in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). Methods: This was a retrospective survey in 200 consecutive outpatients with CD. Endogenous creatinine clearance (ECC) was estimated from serum creatinine with the Cockroft and Gault formula. The first ECC was chosen close to the start of 5‐ASA and the second was the most recent ECC available. Results: In 153 patients (59 men and 94 women), sufficient data were available for analysis. The interval between ECCs was 11 years, with a mean exposure to 5‐ASA of 8.6 years. The cumulative dose of 5‐ASA amounted to 9 kg. The ECC declined 0.3 ± 5 mL/min/yr (from 100 ± 25 to 92 ± 28 mL/min; P < 0.01). In a multiple linear regression model, duration of the interval was a significant predictor for change in ECC (P < 0.0001), but cumulative dose of 5‐ASA was not predictive (P = 0.30). No interstitial nephritis was reported, and in the 8 patients with the largest decline in ECC, comorbidity causing renal function impairment was present. Conclusions: The mean decline in ECC of 0.3 mL/min/yr in patients with CD does not exceed the decline expected from physiologic aging. Furthermore, the cumulative dose of 5‐ASA was not a predictor for change in renal function. However, as interstitial nephritis caused by 5‐ASA may rarely occur, we still advocate measurements of serum creatinine before and during treatment.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section is commonly associated with hypotension and crystalloid preload is widely recommended. Low-dose spinal appears to cause less hypotension. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the combined use of crystalloid preload and low dose spinal anaesthesia might further reduce the rates of hypotension.

METHODS
Sixty-two patients were randomly assigned to two groups: crystalloid preload anaesthesia (P): received a rapid infusion of 20 mL/kg lactated Ringer's solution (LR), and no preload anaesthesia (N). The incidence of hypotension and the amount of ephedrine used to treat it were compared. Spinal anaesthesia was performed with 0.5% isobaric bupivacaine 7.5 mg and fentanyl 10 microg and morphine 100 microg.

RESULTS
The incidence of hypotension was similar in the P and N groups. Same doses of ephedrine were required to treat hypotension in the two groups.

CONCLUSION
Crystalloid preload combined with low-dose spinal anaesthesia do not reduce the incidence of hypotension nor its severity.


Micro sensors offer the potential solution to cost, size, and weight issues associated with smart networked sensor systems designed for environmental/missile health monitoring and rocket out-gassing/fuel leak detection, as well as situational awareness on the battlefield. In collaboration with the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville), University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa and Birmingham), Alabama A&M University (Normal), and Streamline Automation (Huntsville, AL), scientists and engineers at the Army Aviation & Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) are investigating several nano-based technologies to solve the problem of sensing extremely small levels of toxic gases associated with both chemical warfare agents (in air and liquids) and potential rocket motor leaks. Innovative techniques are being devised to adapt voltammetry, which is a well established technique for the detection and quantification of substances dissolved in liquids, to low-cost micro sensors for detecting airborne chemical agents and potential missile propellant leakages. In addition, a surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technique, which enhances Raman scattered light by excitation of surface plasmons on nanoporous metal surfaces (nanospheres), is being investigated to develop novel smart sensors for the detection of chemical agents (including rocket motor out-gassing) and potential detection of home-made explosive devices. In this paper, results are delineated that are associated with experimental studies, which are conducted for the aforementioned cases and for several other nano-based technology approaches. The design challenges of each micro sensor technology approach are discussed. Finally, a comparative analysis of the various innovative micro-sensor techniques is provided.


Poly(ethylene glycol methyl ether)-b-poly(ethylenimine hydrochloride) was characterized using potentiometric and viscosimetric titration methods. The average chemical compositions of the polyamine hydrochloride salts estimated by the acid-base titration,1H-NMR, and elemental analysis were compared. The apparent dissociation constant, pK, and the inherent viscosity of the polyamine hydrochloride were found to be highly dependent on the degree of neutralization. Very strong coulombic interactions among the charged sites were observed at low pH's for this polymer.


Papua New Guinea has been defined as a collectivist (as opposed to individualist) culture (Triandis et al., 1986a). The aim of this study was to examine the effects of allocentricity on a standardised personality test, the Eysenck Personality Inventory, using a sample of Papua New Guinean university students. The responses of 256 subjects were factor analysed. The 22 factors extracted in the first-order analysis were reduced to eight factors in a higher-order analysis. These eight factors were only psychologically meaningful if interpreted within the context of a collectivist society. The implications for cross-cultural personality assessment are considered.


This text expects CT the technical and vocational college in analytical society transformation student foundation of mental characteristcs up,transformed the important function and methods of the class guidance of the period senior technical and vocational college work to carry on some quest analysis to the society,put forward the technical and vocational college some class quidance method of the work.


In this paper, a 3D printed high-Q semihemispherical resonator fed by a coax-like transmission line is demonstrated. The semi hemispherical resonator was fabricated using polyjet printing followed by blanket metalization. It is coupled to a two-part coax-like transmission line using a slot in the 3D printed structure. The coax-like structure is fabricated using a hybrid process, combining 3D printing and fine line patterning using microlithography. Unloaded Q-factor of >8000 is measured near 44 GHz. This work shows that a 3D printed high-Q resonator can readily be coupled with microfabricated circuits on a printed circuit board or a flex substrate. Details of design, fabrication, and measurements are presented, and the measured and simulation results match closely.


Several research groups have reported variable results about incretin effects of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide-1(GLP-1) particularly, as well as cytokines balance in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The present case-control prospective interventional study was conducted in 2014-2015 at Medical College for Women & Hospital, Dhaka, investigating responses of incretin hormones and insulin to oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in Bangladeshi subjects. Blood samples were collected from 36 OGTT positive adult T2DM patients (Pt) and 30 normal adults (NC) at '0' minute (fasting) and at 2 hours after OGTT. Routine laboratory investigations in blood were done and special parameters in serum, i.e. insulin, HGH, TSH, GIP and GLP-1 were analyzed using enzyme immunoassay kits. Pt had FBG and BG2Hr levels much higher than NC ( p <0.001). In Pt, F-Insulin and Insulin2Hr were much lower than NC subjects ( p <0.001), although Insulin2Hr level was higher than F-Insulin level in Pt. F-GIP ( p =0.309) and F-GLP-1( p =0.984) levels were similar between Pt and NC. Interestingly, NC responded to OGTT by increasing GIP2Hr and GLP-1,2Hr levels about 3 times, whereas Pt responded by raising about 1.5 times only compared to F-GIP and F-GLP-1 (p<0.001). Reduced insulin levels, both fasting and postprandial, were possibly due to decreased responses of GIP and GLP-1 to glucose load in T2DM patients. Further studies with a larger sample size including cytokines are warranted.


University Medical Center of Utrecht's (UMCU) brain division houses three clinical
wards and two Medium Care Units (MCUs). Two of these clinical wards and both MCUs
are central in this research. In these wards there is too much variability in bed utilization,
and too many patients are being declined due to a fully occupied ward. Besides that,
a lot of incident reports are due to communication errors between the professionals of
the di�erent wards. To solve these problems, the management has decided to merge
both MCUs and clinical wards. This intervention alone would not solve all problems.
After a thorough analysis, we have discovered that the management lacks understanding
of the (quantitative) relation between the bed occupancy and bed blocking probability.
In order to solve the problems mentioned, we thus need to provide information on the
optimal bed capacity and its relation with relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
The central problem is therefore formulated as: "What is the optimal number of beds for the new wards, taking the relevant KPIs into
account?"


Mining is a new complex economic and legal technology and at the same time a new type of human activity in the economic sphere, which is not a business activity. In this regard, it seems that mining should not be subject to taxation, does not involve specialized state legal regulation (licensing, control, etc.), can not be considered in the absence of registration as an illegal business and does not entail other negative consequences from the implementation of such actions. For the first time in the scientific literature, the definition of "mining" is considered, taking into account its two main components: information and legal. In contrast to the definition of "mining", formulated in the draft Federal law "on digital financial assets", the mention of electricity consumption was excluded, because in reality there are other types of mining, which are problematic to detect on a consistently high level of energy consumption per system.


Optical Music Recognition (OMR) is a sub-field in Artificial Intelligence. Automation of the translation, or understanding music sheets are the main goals of OMR. The application of this field includes the documentation of music sheets for storage or transcribing the music sheet to machine-readable formats [1]. However, on the more applied aspect of OMR, there lacks a practical application for musical Tone Transposition.Tone Transposition is the process of moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval. Traditionally this was a labor-intensive manual process, often impossible during a live performance. Our work proposes a method in which musicians can perform tone transposition by scanning a music sheet, inputting the number of shift tones or semitones required. Finally, the algorithm will output an audio file or a new music sheet with all notes shifted to the required pitch.


Genetic analysis has revolutionized our understanding of the pathophysiology of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and has led to an evolving approach to both screening and diagnosis of patients with HCM and their relatives in recent years. Phenotypically, HCM was characterized and defined by left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) unexplained by other conditions and LV outflow tract obstruction. Current genetic evaluation can now identify mutations within sarcomeric proteins that form the basic contractile unit of the heart in >60% of HCM cases. Despite the advancement of genetic diagnosis and cascade screening, the clinical impact of genetic testing for HCM remains somewhat uncertain. Genetic mutations in HCM have both variable expressivity and incomplete penetrance, thus current mutation-specific risk stratification of patients with HCM lacks precision. Screened relatives who are genotype positive may never progress to overt clinical disease, and even patients who have the same genetic mutation may manifest highly variable phenotypic severity over time. Furthermore, there has been no reliably established link between the type of genetic mutation and patient prognosis. These factors have resulted in a hybrid of genetic and cardiac imaging to improve profiling of preclinical disease in patients who are genotype positive but phenotype negative. In accordance, cardiac magnetic resonance has emerged as a valuable imaging tool to complement genetic evaluation, attributable to its high spatial resolution and ability to assess myocardial tissue characteristics. With unrestricted scan planes and imaging field, cardiac magnetic resonance allows imaging of the heart volumetrically and may identify focal ventricular hypertrophy and subtle structural abnormalities, such as myocardial crypts, less easily detected by 2-dimensional echocardiography. Recent data have also emphasized the prognostic significance of quantifying the extent of myocardial fibrosis by late gadolinium enhancement imaging in this heterogeneous disease.


Firstly, the use of saline as local anesthetic (LA) can be particularly helpful if urgent biopsies are needed, in patients who have suspected LA allergy or for whom LA is less desirable, for example in pregnant women. The use of saline has also been found to cause less pain than lidocaine anaesthetic which is relevant for paediatric or anxious patients.2.


This work discusses the creation and assessment of rounded carbon membrane arranged from P84 co-polyimide mixes with Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). In light of earlier examinations, it defined the theory that rounded carbon membrane execution can be controlled by controlling the carbonization parameters. The focal point of this investigation is to acquaint compelling dip-coating strategies with deliver superior rounded carbon membrane. In light of the result of this examination, the coating carbonization cycle (1, 2, 3, and multiple times) has been distinguished as real effect on the separation productivity. Gas separation performance and transport instrument of the carbon membranes were enough assessed by single gas permeation of O2, and N2. In this exploration, use of 2-cycles of coating carbonization has brought about carbon membrane with the most elevated selectivity and O2 penetrability which are 9.29±2.54 and 29.92±1.44 GPU, individually.


Starting from a quantum-mechanical description of the total system consisting of an electron and two nuclei, the semiclassical equation for the transition amplitude between electronic adiabatic basis states is derived for the case of the Rutherford scattering. This method is then generalized to include the effect of nuclear elastic and inelastic collisions. The total transition amplitude for a reaction in which both the electron and nuclei are excited is expressed as products of three factors summed over the intermediate atomic states. Of these three factors, the first and the third are the semiclassical atomic transition amplitudes before and after the nuclear collision, respectively, and the second is the $S$-matrix element for the nuclear collision.


This article considers the dynamics of speculative trading ranges. Daily trading ranges provide good estimates of the level of speculative volatility, and analysis of the daily trading range of twenty US futures markets finds that first order differences of the logarithm of daily range show significant negative autocorrelation. This mean-reverting process is also revealed with Hurst analysis. Spectral analysis shows that the underlying dynamics of speculative trading ranges is a pink noise process with each futures market yielding a spectral exponent below that of brown noise.


Increased vascular calcification and tortuosity are rather common in end-stage renal failure patients who are on hemodialysis. It renders manipulation of catheters and performance of percutaneous transluminal interventions more difficult than expected. Such vascular alterations may be evident in large veins and pose significant difficulties in placement of pacing leads as shown in our case. To overcome such difficulties, we demonstrated in this patient case that long guiding catheters may be of particular value.


The development of railway transport is one of the most important elements in the country's economic development. One of JSC "Russian Railways" strategies is to automate sorting processes and reduce the share of manual labor. The analysis shows that the majority of employees at railway stations in the country perform their duties in high-risk areas, resulting in accidents and abnormal situations with employees during working hours, which cause significant damage to transport employees and transport infrastructure. The relevance of the research is the need to reduce production factors that negatively affect the work of employees of the holding, minimize manual labor and prevent economic damage to the company. The purpose of the research is to develop a set of measures to reduce the number of factors affecting the work of railway transport employees, with the possibility of applying them in international practice, where the first stage of work is to clarify the principles of combining professions and determine the priority functions of employees for automation using new technological devices or software. The main research tasks were solved using theoretical and experimental methods, such as computer modeling, expert evaluations, statistical analysis, and others. The results of the research are of theoretical and practical significance. The theoretical result - is the development of additional working conditions of employees, increasing productivity and reducing the risk of emergency situations at work; practical – development of a set of proposals to improve the quality of work of employees of the railway transport system.


An approximation method for determining the response function of a system given the first few frequency moments is presented. The response is assumed to be well represented by poles in the second unphysical sheet of the complex cut frequency plane. Technically, such a description is achieved by first introducing a nonlinear transformation of the frequency to map both first and second sheets on to a single plane of a new variable. The moment series in the new variable is then represented by a Pade approximant. The technique is illustrated by application to a model of a diluted ferromagnet for which the first ten frequency moments of the zero- temperature response have been calculated for arbitrary wavevector and arbitrary concentration of nonmagnetic impurities. Aspects of the diluted ferromagnet that cannot be adequately treated in an effective-medium approach are discussed.


The development of resistance to insecticides by insects, increased concern over chemical residues, and continued pressure for insect control procedures that will not involve dispersal of toxic materials has created increased interest in repellents and attractants.


When multi-view structured light is used for three-dimensional measurement of metallic objects the structured light images obtained by each camera exhibit obvious differences because the reflected light intensity significantly changes with the angle thus the degree of matching of images is reduced At some locations with strong reflections stray light can even render the measurement of line structured light impossible Moreover when the same parameter is used to match or process the image the accuracy of the measurement is poor if materials with large differences in reflectivity and reflection performance are simultaneously encountered To mitigate these problems a three-dimensional structured light measurement method and an instrument calibration method based on the formation of multiple reflected images are proposed The three-dimensional structured light measurement method solves the spatial coordinates of structured light image points by establishing a relation between the image and spatial coordinates of the corresponding points of the multiple reflected images Experimental results indicate that to a certain extent this method overcomes the problems of large brightness contrast and high reflectance encountered in structured light measurement of high-reflection surfaces Moreover the measurement accuracy in our experimental platform reaches the engineering requirement of ±0 1 mm


In 1961, the Canadian geographer John D. Chapman recognized the rapid growth in demand for inanimate energy and the role geographers could be playing in explaining its patterns and importance in the growing world economy (Chapman, 1961). Fifty years later, Karl Zimmerer (2011) introduced a Special Issue of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers by noting that not only had Chapman's prediction come true but that geographers were studying even a wider spectrum of energy challenges than Chapman could ever have imagined (see e.g. Dorian et al., 2006; Florini, Sovaccol, 2009). Many of those energy challenges were underscored at last year's G20 summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Particular attention was paid to four concerns considered as crucial for global energy (OECD, 2013): phasing out fossil fuel subsidies (which encourage wasteful consumption, disproportionately benefit wealthier countries and sectors, and distort energy markets); price volatility (understanding and reducing temporal fluctuations and regional differences in commodity prices); market transparency (a necessity for accurate and timely energy data); and – last but not least – options of mitigating climate change (as the source of two-thirds of global greenhouse-gas emissions, the energy sector is crucial for achieving any climate change goals).By 2035, the world is projected to consume one-third more energy than today, while electricity demand should increase even by more than two-thirds (IEA, 2013). The centre of gravity of global energy demand will move decisively towards emerging economies such as China, India or Brazil, which should account for more than 90% of net energy demand growth. At the same time, however, it is estimated there will still be one billion people without access to electricity and 2.7 billion without access to clean cooking fuels in 2035, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (ibid.). The current global energy market is characterized by rising differences in regional energy prices (depending on the availability of domestic resources and regional position within international energy flows), which have led to major shifts in energy and overall trade balances, as well as to energy expenditures taking a growing share of household income (IEA, 2013). The current political crisis in Ukraine and Russia´s chess operations with the supply of natural gas, have again emphasized the role of energy as an effective tool to influence international relations and maintaining political influence.During the last two decades, environmental and security concerns have led to a rapid and far-flung development of renewable energies. Modern wind power development, for example, now is found in over 100 countries, and solar power deployment is – in one form or another – in many more. Reaping the benefits of renewable sources has become a global ambition for several reasons, ranging from anxieties about climate change and energy security to the dangers of the atom. Indeed, the generous feed-in tariffs that Germany used to stimulate renewable energy development have been so effective that Chancellor Merkel was able to renounce Germany's nuclear program after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 (The Economist, 2011). Nonetheless, renewable energy development has been uneven around the world. Despite rapid and substantial growth in countries such as China, Germany, Spain and the United States, it still represents but a small amount of generation in most countries. For this reason, governments still need to consider other options, including cleaner use of fossil fuels, nuclear power, and new technologies such as shale gas fracking.All energy sources are characterized by potentially negative impacts, direct or indirect, manifesting themselves at different spatio-temporal scales. The economic costs of resources and the reliability of their supply are no longer the only criteria shaping political decisions and public opinions. Rather, perceptions of energy landscapes from renewable energy resources can be significant factors affecting: (1) national energy policies and their support by the general public (Leiserowitz et al., 2013); (2) acceptance of new energy facilities by local communities (Frantal, Kucera, 2009; Frantal, 2014; Pasqualetti, 2011a; Pasqualetti, 2011b; Soland et al., 2013, etc.); and even (3) customer loyalty in liberalized residential energy markets (Hartmann, Ibanez, 2007).The concept of what we call the "energy landscape" is one of the most intriging, important and challenging themes of the new geography of energy. Energy landscape is a term that has been commonly used for decades in physics and organic chemistry. In recent years, however, it has acquired a new meaning in the field of geography and landscape ecology (Pasqualetti, 2012). An energy landscape is a landscape whose images and functions (be they natural, productive, residential, recreational, cultural, etc.) have been significantly affected by energy development. Traditional energy landscapes include mines, canals, refineries and power plants, transmission lines, well fields and waste disposal sites, but more recently they have come to include expansive, whirling wind turbines and even the glare of solar central receivers in places like Ivanpah Dry Lake California (e.g. Nadai, Van der Horst, 2010; Zimmerman, 2014). In the broadest context, the range of what can be called an energy landscape is particularly expansive, though it may be used in the context of all branches of energy production and consumption with a geographic expression.Projects like wind farms, solar power plants, the cultivation of energy crops, biogas stations and other innovative technologies, have become effective means of realizing officially declared state-subsidized support for clean and sustainable energy. These projects, as well, can be objects of entrepreneurial interest among investors and developers, a potential source of income for communities involved (often located in less-favoured rural areas), and an alternative type of land use and source of profit for


Kilo is not just another book about cocaine and drug cartels. It is rather a vivid depiction of Colombia's criminal psyche, and a detailed record of the impact the 2016 peace deal between the Fuerz...


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the causal relationships between organisational practices, employee knowledge management (KM) engagement and organisational KM performance.

Design/methodology/approach
Following a quantitative research approach, an online survey of 536 knowledge workers from multinational knowledge-based organisations located in Sri Lanka was carried out. The data were analysed with structural equation modelling.

Findings
Teamwork, reward structure, learning, performance management and employee empowerment are found to be motivational antecedents of KM engagement while, subsequently, organisational KM performance is affected by employee KM engagement.

Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study are based on the use of five key organisational practices derived from the literature. Further research is needed to establish whether the findings extend to other organisational practices such as resourcing strategy, organisational culture and communication. Further, the sample for this research comprised knowledge workers in Sri Lankan organisations which limit the generalisability of the findings.

Practical implications
Teamwork, rewards structure, learning, performance management and employee empowerment are organisational practices that foster employee KM engagement. Organisational practices and employee KM engagement are imperative for the organisational success of KM initiatives.

Originality/value
This research introduces the term KM engagement as the indicator of individual-level KM success and integrates the sequential linkage between individual-level KM outcomes (i.e. KM engagement) and organisational KM outcomes (KM performance) which has not yet been investigated.


This paper attempts to understand the underlying physics associated with the S-shape behavior of the illuminated IV in bilayer organic solar cells. A comprehensive charge transport model was developed to quantitatively study the role of three major hypotheses for S-shape IV behavior: the work function of electrodes, the bulk recombination, and the recombination at the PV interface. Work function of the front and back electrode, recombination lifetime in the bulk of acceptor and donor layers, and the recombination velocity for electrons, holes and excitons at the donor/acceptor interface are used as the sweep parameters to develop a comprehensive quantitative understanding of the effect of sweep parameters on the IV behavior and its shape. The results from this simulation along with the experimental results from the relevant literature will be utilized to understand the physics behind the S-shape behavior of the illuminated IV in the bilayer organic solar cells.


Predictions of the gap-probability renormalization model for single and double diffraction dissociation cross sections in proton-proton collisions at the LHC are presented and compared with recent CMS measurements.


This study led to the development of a decision support tool to quantify the hospital effluent generated by public and private health care establishments in the region of Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz situated in Morocco. The estimation concerns the consumption in drinking water, the production in wastewater and on the most consummate products collectively in the whole of the establishments of care and which join the sewer system (cleaner, soap, washing, Glutaraldehyde) based on the capacity litter, the hospitable vocations and the production rate. By having the results of quantification of the deposit rejected in the municipal network, the present study estimates then for the case of the city of Marrakesh the part of contribution of the hospital effluent in the municipal pollution.


The Stirling machine has had wide diffusion only in cold or cryogenic applications (Philips) while the engine, despite the efforts of large Companies (Philips, Westinghouse, General Motors, etc.), never definitively reached the market; today new interest is raised correlated with environmental and energy related considerations. Thus, researchers' efforts are addressed towards the design of innovative and more competitive Stirling engine configurations, like the one proposed by the authors. This paper describes the configuration of a new, rotary Stirling engine. In the cold part of the engine, the working fluid is compressed by a rotating element, then it passes through the regenerator from the cold to the hot end, where it absorbs the heat and expands in the high pressure and temperature area. The high pressure working fluid pushes on the rotating element (the so called "rotator") and the engine outputs power. In their design, compression and expansion volumes change with the rotation. Two rotators are connected with a set of gears, therefore, the engine transmission system is simplified and dimensions are reduced.


Feasibility of tracing the geographical origin of Chinese green tea by means of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometrics methods was investigated. The results showed that effects of different spectral data pretreatment methods varied greatly, the classification rates for the original test ranged from 43.2% to 91.9% and from 40.5% to 81.1% in forms of tea powder and tea water extract respectively, while ranged from 37.8% to 70.3% and from 32.4% to 56.8% respectively for the cross-validated test. 9S1D and UVN were suggested as the optimized methods of spectral data pretreatment for tea powder, while SDT and DER were suggested as the optimized methods of spectral data pretreatment for tea powder and water extract respectively. It was also showed that either NIR data of tea powder or that of water extract could not give good result of classification of geographical origin, even the optimized spectral data pretreatment methods were used, while CDA by combination of the scores of PCs extracted from NIR spectra of tea powder pretreated with 1D9S and UVN, and those of tea water extracts pretreated with SDT and DER displayed much better classification result, 100% and 94.6% of samples were correctly classified in original and cross-validated test respectively with the combination of spectra of tea powder pretreated with UVN and tea water extracts pretreated with DER. It was concluded that NIR of tea powder and tea water extracts can be used to trace the geographical origin of Chinese


With the development of new sensor technologies and the standardization of sensor data formats, sensor data from different sources becomes available for many applications. A crucial task is to get an overview on the spatial and temporal extent for which data is available before integrating the data into an application. This work presents an approach for accessing the necessary information about the availability of temporally structured sensor data from sensor web services. We show different kinds of data availability visualization. Based on the required values we specify a new generic sensor web service interface operation that constitutes the foundation for realizing the presented visualization methods.


Introduction The agricultural industry is extremely vulnerable to risk and uncertainty. Farmers and agribusinesses closely monitor changing weather patterns, farm programs, prices, sales, etc. to reduce their exposure to risk and uncertainty. However, many farmers and agribusinesses are less familiar with one of the major risk variables that can significantly affect their business operation's profitability. Macroeconomic policy changes often dramatically impact the agricultural economy. Although policymakers try to design policies to improve the national economy, these policies often have unintended and harmful effects on the agricultural economy. Therefore, farmers, agribusinesses, and policymakers must understand the policy process and be aware of the impact that changing macroeconomic policies can have on their business. This knowledge will put them in a better position to react strategically to actual or anticipated changes in the macroeconomy. In addition, knowing how macroeconomic policy changes impact agricultural markets is the first step in making farmers and agribusinesses active players in the policymaking process. With this awareness, they can begin to influence farm leaders and policymakers to design macroeconomic policies that benefit agriculture.


This is the second in a series of two contributions in which we set out to establish a novel momentum space framework to treat field theoretical infinities in perturbative calculations when parity-violating objects occur. Since no analytic continuation on the space-time dimension is effected, this framework is particularly useful to treat dimension-specific theories. Moreover (finite) arbitrary local terms stemming from the underlying infinities of the model are properly parametrized. We (re)analyse the undeterminacy of the radiatively generated CPT violating Chern-Simons term within an extended version of QED4 and calculate the Adler-Bardeen-Jackiw triangle anomaly to show that our framework is consistent and general to handle the subtleties involved when a radiative corretion is finite. PACS: 11.25.Db , 11.30.-j , 11.10.Kk, 11.15.Bt


Series-connection of silicon carbide (SiC)-MOSFETs is an attractive method to achieve a high-voltage and fast-switching power semiconductor switch. In order to deal with the unequal voltage sharing problem in such series connection method, a novel active voltage clamping circuit topology is proposed in this letter. The maximum drain–source voltages of the series-connected SiC-MOSFETs are clamped by individual clamping capacitors; therefore, high reliable switching of the power semiconductors is guaranteed. Besides, the accumulated energy in the clamping capacitors can be actively transferred back into the power supply through a simple gate drive signal adjustment algorithm; thus, the induced clamping circuit loss can be effectively suppressed. The proposed active clamping topology has been experimentally verified in a half-bridge inverter with four SiC-MOSFETs connected in series.


share of Indian agriculture in the GDP has been steadily declining over the years. Main reason for deceleration in agricultural growth is declining investment in agriculture research and development and irrigation, inefficiency of rural credit and extension. One more the most important factor is; inefficient use of resources is the reason for declined growth of agriculture sector. So the present study was under taken in Dharwad district to analyse the resource use efficiency of major crops. Major crops grown in the district such as chickpea, cotton, paddy, soybean, maize and chilli were selected for the study. Multistage random sampling was adopted for selection of sample respondents. Cobb-Douglas production technique was employed. Results of the study revealed that seed, fertilizers, PPC and machine labour were over utilized and human labour and bullock labour were underutilized by the chickpea farmers. Cobb-Douglas production function for cotton under rainfed condition revealed that seed, PPC, human labour and bullock labour were over utilized and FYM, fertilizer and machine labour were underutilized. During production of paddy seed, fertilizers, FYM, bullock labour and machine labour were over utilized and human labour and PPC were underutilized by the farmers. FYM and PPC were underutilized and seed, fertilizers, human labour, bullock labour and machine labour were underutilized by farmers in cultivation of soybean. Resource use efficiency under rainfed chilli production revealed that seed, PPC, bullock labour and machine labour were over utilized and FYM, fertilizer and human labour were under utilized by the farmers.


Localizations of lactoferrin and lysozyme in the peripheral blood cells and bone marrow cells obtained from normal volunteers were investigated by an electron microscopic immunogold double stainings. Both lactoferrin and lysozyme were present in the same granules of neutrophils. Mast cell granules and some phagolysosomes of bone marrow reticulum cells also showed similar double stainabilities. In contrast, monocyte granules and eosinophil granules contained exclusively lysozyme. Neither lactoferrin nor lysozyme was observed in blastoid cells, megakaryocytes, platelets, erythroblasts, red blood cells, plasma cells, lymphocytes and basophils.The electron microscopic immunogold double stainings are useful for detecting a couple of antigens on a single cell.


The development of testis and the response of plasma testosterone in reproductive season to injection with extrinsic LHRH-A of wild male stone flounder are studied by the methods of paraffin slice,histological staining techniques and radioimmunoassay(RIA).The results show that the spermary of stone flounder is lobular type and the testis development can be divided into six stages;GSI、HSI and CF present remarkable seasonal change in a whole reproductive periods;The plasma T levels increase significantly 6 hour post-injection,but decrease gradually post-injection 12?h、24?h and the lowest level occurs at 24?h;which increases significantly again post-injection 48?h,and almost is eight times than that at 0?h.Be different from the treated group,the plasma T level of the control group decrease significantly at 6?h,and is almost unchanged to 12?h,increases remarkably post-injection 24?h and this phenomenon persists to 48?h,but the plasma T level of the control group is lower than the treated group.


Null results of experimental searches for the Higgs boson and the superpartners imply a certain amount of fine-tuning in the electroweak sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The "golden region" in the MSSM parameter space is the region where the experimental constraints are satisfied and the amount of fine-tuning is minimized. In this region, the stop trilinear soft term At is large, leading to a significant mass splitting between the two stop mass eigenstates. As a result, the decay ˜ t2 → ˜1Z is kinematically allowed throughout the golden region. We propose that the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can search for this decay through an inclusive signature, Z + 2jb + E /T + X. We evaluate the Standard Model backgrounds for this channel, and identify a set of cuts that would allow detection of the supersymmetric contribution at the LHC for the MSSM parameters typical of the golden region. We also discuss other possible interpretations of a signal for new physics in the Z +2jb+ E /T + X channel, and suggest further measurements that could be used to distinguish among these interpretations.


The on-board GNSS clock technology has evolved greatly in the last years, moving from the initial Caesium atomic clocks, to the latest Rubidium (Rb) and Passive Hydrogen-Maser (PHM) clocks. Both Rb and PHM technologies have proven to be highly predictable clocks, which opens the door to a series of improvements or modifications with respect to the "classical" Orbit Determination and Clock Synchronisation (ODTS) algorithms that would not only lead to the consequent and quite evident performance improvement, but it may also pave the way for the provision of advance services such as extended long-term predictions or an autonomous navigation service implemented on-board. The most common approach for any ODTS process is to estimate the satellite orbits and clock parameters by means of a Weighted Least-Square or a Kalman Filter processing, but whereas the satellite orbits are integrated by using a dynamical model with at most 15 parameters, the estimation of the satellite clock parameters is based on an epoch-by-epoch estimation of all clock parameters without taking into account any physical behavior of the satellite clocks. This means that the values of a clock bias at different epochs are considered independent of each other, regardless of their stability. This classical epochby-epoch clock estimation approach has the advantage of being somehow "insensitive" to the typical stochastic behavior of the atomic clocks and to clock jumps, whereas the clear disadvantage is that no a-priori information regarding the clock stability is used within the estimation process. The explanation for this clock estimation approach is that traditionally the stability of the on-board clocks was such that no deterministic model could match the clock behavior to the necessary accuracy level. In this regard, the Galileo satellites are equipped with Passive Hydrogen Masers clocks, which have shown excellent short-term performance only comparable to the Rubidium clocks (Rb) clocks on-board of the GPS Block IIF satellites. This aforementioned high clock stability makes it feasible to accurately parameterize those satellite clocks with a model within the ODTS process, reducing the number of snapshot parameters to be estimated, which will allow to reduce the computational burden, increase the robustness of the estimation process of the other parameters, increase the prediction performances validity and reduce the required ground tracking network, since a continuous satellite tracking by several stations would no longer be required. Furthermore, the clock stability does not only enable the improvement in the performance of the ODTS algorithms, but it would also increase the prediction performance validity of the predicted clocks in the navigation messages. The scope of this paper is to perform a preliminary assessment of the potential station network reduction and clock prediction performance improvement based on the usage of physical clock modelling within the ODTS processing.


As urban areas expand, wildlife show adaptations to urban ecosystems. We tested two hypotheses for urban populations of red fox (Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758)) in urban areas: the population press...


Abstract A glycosyl dithiocarbamate derivative is developed as a 'turn on' fluorescent sensor for fluorides in aqueous medium. The probe is prepared through a simple chemical strategy reported earlier from our group. The virtually nonfluorescent probe showed significant enhancement of fluorescence upon interaction with fluorides in aqueous solution. It was seen to be selective to fluorides too as the interactions with various other anions resulted in very low increase in fluorescence. The simple preparation and unique interaction of the dithiocarbamato derivative with fluorides in aqueous solution promise the development of a novel turn-on probe for the detection of fluorides.


Evaluation is an essential part of service development and quality management and this is especially pertinent when introducing new initiatives. In 2001 a new countywide assessment and rehabilitation Intermediate Care service, consisting of three care management Rehabilitation Link Teams (RLT), was implemented for older people. To monitor the implementation and impact of the service an evaluation study was conducted. The study centred on evaluating team development, interagency working, outcomes from multiple perspectives (client, carer, clinical and service) and the cost effectiveness of the service. Of particular importance to the study, however, was the action-research approach that provided the underpinning philosophy to the study. This paper provides insight into the ways that the action-research approach was used to facilitate learning and change within the organization. To enable this to happen, it was important for the health and social care staff to understand that the researchers' role was not to judge their role proficiency, but to gather information to facilitate learning and understanding within the organization. It was also vital that the teams being evaluated were provided with regular insight into the emerging study findings and opportunity to address these. Three examples are provided to illustrate how regular information feedback sessions influenced the implementation of the service. Insight is also provided into the participant's views of being evaluated. Although at times, the RLT members found the evaluation burdensome, almost all stated that the action-research approach allowed opportunity for reflection, catharsis and personal action planning. Overall, the action-research approach to evaluation fitted well with the organization's need to learn and change simultaneously, allowing emergent data collection to inform decision making and service and team development.


Over the past 20‐ 30 years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people living with immunosuppression. Cancer chemotherapy and the treatment of haematological disease transiently put people at risk, while the immunosuppression required for solid organ transplants and for immunemediated diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, is more prolonged. In addition to these iatrogenic causes of impaired immunity, there is an increasing burden of HIV infection and better survival of individuals with primary immunodeficiency. This article will attempt to outline the defects in host defences in some of these groups, and show how the presentation, diagnosis and management of sepsis may differ from that seen in normal hosts. The abnormal hosts mentioned above fail to respond appropriately to infecting pathogens and opportunist organisms because of defects in one or more of the components of the immune system: i neutropenia and other phagocytic defects