Abstract : In order to comply with the provisions of Public Law 101-150, Title XII, the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA), the Department of the Army is required to integrate the United States Army Reserve (USAR) and Army National Guard (ANG) components as functional elements of the Army Acquisition Corps. Amidst the ongoing Department of Defense acquisition reform initiatives, budgetary reductions, and system development and force restructuring, the progress towards achieving this integration goal has been ambiguous. This research effort investigated numerous subjects pertaining to the relative scope and requirements of potential USAR/ANG acquisition- related activities; identified skill qualifications and personnel management issues; evaluated statutory provisions and potential waiver requirements; and addressed USARIANG implementation plan(s).


In recent years, with the high-speed development of digital signal processing technology (DSP) and very large scale integrated circuit technology (VLSI), the current hardware platform provides good technical support for radar signal processing technology towards the development direction of more refined and intelligent processing. Radar signal processing technology is no longer satisfied with the level of detecting the presence or absence of targets; by extending the information dimension and acquiring the ability to refine target characteristics, radar signal processing for target detection and identification technology will also see greater development. This paper summaries the problems and difficulties of existing radar research on small UAV detection, and provides an outlook on the development of UAV target detection and recognition technology in complex scenarios in the future.


This article discusses that the utilization-forecasting of archive information resources should be done well in information ear.We should improve the developing level and scae of archive informaion resources and offer the services where necessary.We believe that archive information resources will be fully developed and utilized.


With a brief introduction and an analysis on market development condition of flavomycin, in order to provide theoretical and practical basis for flavomycin fermentation, this paper reviewed the fermentation control metheds from strain breeding research, the composition of fermentation medium and fermentation process control.


The proliferation of the Internet as a business medium has exacerbated violation of individual privacy. New e-business technologies have increased the ability of online merchants to collect, monitor, target, profile, and even sell personal information about consumers to third parties. Governments, business houses and employers collect data and monitor people, but their practices often threaten an individual"s privacy. Because vast amount of data can be collected on the Internet and due to global ramifications, citizens worldwide have expressed concerns over increasing cases of privacy violations. Several privacy groups, all around the world, have joined hands to give a boost to privacy movement. Consumer privacy, therefore, has attracted the widespread attention of regulators across the globe. With the European Directive already in force, "trust seals" and "government regulations" are the two leading forces pushing for more privacy disclosures. Of course, privacy laws vary throughout the globe but, unfortunately, it has turned out to be the subject of legal contention between the European Union and the United States. The EU has adopted very strict laws to protect its citizens" privacy, in sharp contrast, to "lax-attitude" and "self-regulated" law of the US. For corporations that collect and use personal information, now ignoring privacy legislative and regulatory warning signs can prove to be a costly mistake. An attempt has been made in this paper to summarize the privacy legislation prevalent in Australia, Canada, the US, the EU, India and Japan. It is expected that a growing number of countries will adopt privacy laws to foster e-commerce.


Al foam is an advanced engineering material with many outstanding properties, such as very low density, high specific strength and stiffness, and large energy absorption. In the present study, pure Al foams were mixed with either cenosphere or precipitator fly ash particles of various contents. Fly ash particles are used in Al foams as reinforcement and stabilising materials which enable the foams with large expansion. It is found that Al foams with precipitator fly ash particles of various contents exhibited larger expansions than the foams with cenosphere fly ash particles. The quantitative analysis also revealed that more stable foam structure was obtained in Al foams with precipitator fly ash addition.


Abstract This paper deals with adaptive tracking for discrete-time MIMO nonlinear systems in presence of bounded disturbances, based on a neural observer. A high order neural network structure is used to approximate a control law designed by the backstepping technique, applied to a block strict feedback form (BSFF); besides the observer is based on a recurrent high-order neural network (RHONN), which estimates the state vectors of the unknown plant dynamics. The learning algorithm for both neural networks is based on an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). The applicability of the proposed approach is tested, via simulations, by its application to synchronous generators control.


A recent development of much interest to the livestock farmer is the use of synthetic oestrogens in the production of beef and mutton. Numerous trials have proved that such hormones, implanted under the skin or fed in concentrates, not only increase the rate of liveweight gain in cattle and sheep but improve carcass quality and the efficiency of food conversion. The practice is already common in the U.S.A. and is spreading in the U.K.


In an era focused on an individual��s true and unique personality, men��s hairstyles account for a great portion in expressing their own style....


This study was attempted to improve students' achievement in writing narrativetext by watching movies. This study was conducted by using classroom action researchin two cycles. Cycle I consisted of four meetings while Cycle II consisted of twomeetings. The subject of the research was class VIII-A SMP SWASTA IMMANUELMEDAN. The number of the students was 34. To collect the data, the instruments werequantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data was the scores of the studentsand the qualitative data was interview sheets, observation sheets, and diary notes. Basedon the writing score, students' score were improving in every test. It can be seen inOrientation test, Test I in Cycle I, and Test II in Cycle II. In Orientation test, the meanscore was 37.94 then it was improved to 65.85 in Test I. In the end of cycle II, the meanscore for test II was again improved to 83.41. Based on interview sheets, observationsheets and diary notes, it was found that teaching-learning process ran well. In line withthe data, it showed that the application of watching movies significantly improvedstudent's achievement in writing narrative text. English teachers were suggested to givemovies to be watched as guidance on students' narrative writing in the class.


A new sensorless position estimation technique for interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPM) is presented. Permanent magnet synchronous motors generally require a rotor position sensor to achieve the vector control; however, this sensor increases product cost and maintenance. From these backgrounds, position sensorless schemes have received wide interest for industrial applications. The phase impedance of IPM motors varies appreciably as function of rotor position. This fact is used for the estimation of the rotor position. The scheme is based on injection of a high frequency current explorer signal by means of a current delta modulation controlled inverter. A signal processing technique is used to estimate the phase impedance. A previous knowledge of impedance angular position relation permits the estimation of rotor position. The technique was tested by simulation of a 5 HP 460 V IPM motor. The test results have been found satisfactory in both steady and transient states.


With improved productivity, the impact of social and economic development on the ecological environment is becoming more and more significant, and the transformation of transportation modes often accompanies the transformation of the economic development mode. It is essential to study the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) on the environment. This article constructs a compiled index Ecological Environment Pressure (EEP) evaluation system. The spatial analysis tool is then used to explore the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of EEP in China. The Difference-in-Difference (DID) method and the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method are used to quantitatively calculate the impact of HSR operations on EEP based on Panel Data. The results show that the EEP in China decreased significantly from 2003 to 2018, and therefore the quality of China's ecological environment is improving. The regression coefficient of HSR on EEP is significantly negative, indicating that HSR operations will reduce EEP. Additionally, the HSR operation in the eastern and central regions negatively impacts the EEP. At the same time, the HSR operations will also reduce the EEP of resource-based cities, especially for resource-based cities in the central region. The degree of industrial transformation (DIT) and degree of employment transformation (DET), combined with the implementation of HSR operations, can significantly reduce the EEP. It is suggested to formulate more focused actions and policies to reduce EEP and effectively promote sustainable social development.


Seventy dual-career and 42 dual-earner couples participated in a study designed to assess the influence of perception of equity, role relations and family type on marital and individual adjustment. Equity was found to be a significant factor affecting adjustment for both husbands and wives, while role relations was a significant factor only for wives. Dual-career and dualearner families did not differ in likelihood to report equity or degree of overload. Husbands and wives did not differ in likelihood to report equity, but wives reported a significantly greater degree of overload. Results are discussed in terms of clinical intervention with these families.


Twenty years ago, Myron Weiner described the laggard condition of mass education in India in a groundbreaking book, The Child and the State in India. Relative to other countries with similar economies, India trailed across almost every single educational measure. Weiner ascribed much of India's shortcomings in education to lack of governmental support from the leaders at the Centre, leaders whom he suspected would always resist improving mass education. Since the publication of Weiner's book, however, governmental support for Indian education has improved dramatically. In this paper, I examine what influences national-level government support for social development in the developing world. I do so by examining why Indian national-level government officials have shown a serious commitment to mass education reform when they have historically refused to do so. More than rising incomes, ethnic considerations, or pressures from domestic business, I find evidence that international factors – such as foreign aid and the demands from international institutions such as the World Bank – have played a critical role in bringing education to the forefront of Indian politics.


The rank and census are two filters based on order statistics which have been applied to the image matching problem for stereo pairs. Advantages of these filters include their robustness to radiometric distortion and small amounts of random noise, and their amenability to hardware implementation. In this paper, a new matching algorithm is presented, which provides an overall framework for matching, and is used to compare the rank and census techniques with standard matching metrics. The algorithm was tested using both real stereo pairs and a synthetic pair with ground truth.

The rank and census filters were shown to significantly improve performance in the case of radiometric distortion.
In all cases, the results obtained were comparable to, if not better than, those obtained using standard matching metrics. Furthermore, the rank and census have the additional advantage that their computational overhead is less than these metrics. For all techniques tested, the difference between the results obtained for the synthetic stereo pair, and the ground truth results was small.


Driven by complicated socioeconomic factors, China experienced drastic forest cover changes since the late 1950s, which need to be quantified by satellite images. Also, the size and frequency of change events are important for prescribing disturbance scenarios in carbon and ecosystem models and for evaluating the natural and anthropogenic drivers of forest change. The distribution of size and frequency of forest change is usually modeled by a power-law function, which, however, poorly describes the non-constant variance of patch size at different frequency levels. Based on a forest-cover and -change dataset derived from remote sensing data, we proposed a hierarchical method to model the size and frequency distribution and examined the spatial pattern of forest loss from 2000 to 2005 in China. We found that each province had a unique relationship between size and frequency and dominant disturbance patches in the southern provinces were typically smaller than the north.


CHOLARS FROM MANY DISCIPLINES have recently turned to objects as sources for understanding the past. Traditionally, things, or objects, have been the domain of art and architectural historians, who have sifted through them in a search for those objects highly charged with cultural values and meaning. Along the way, these scholars have developed effective methods for interpreting imagery and iconography. As the interest in things has expanded into new academic fields and into different types of objects, scholars have generally relied upon available methods of art


Objectives Lower extremity stress fractures and stress reactions result in moderate to severe functional limitations that often preclude participation in sports and recreational activities, that involve vigorous repetitive lower limb activities and training. However these athletes may have other systemic or locoregional pathologies that may symptomatically mimic tibial stress injury. Our aim in this study was to evaluate stress injury type with bone scan, relation of exercise duration per week and contribution of SPECT/CT in recreational athletes with calf pain. Methods One hundred and forty nine patients (25 bilateral symptoms) with age of 18–53 with tibial pain who had undergone a three phase dynamic Tc-99 m MDP bone scan between January 2014 and May 2016 were included to the study. Stress injury types were determined as simple stress injury, shin split or stress fracture up to their uptake features in three phase dynamic images and uptake intensity. In case of subtle, inappropriate uptake or other sites of uptake in whole body images SPECT/CT was performed. 149 patient of 174 legs were divided into four groups (Group 1 stres injury, group 2 stress fracture, group 3 shin splint and group 4 healthy legs as control). Duration of weekly exercise were statistically analysed. Results There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of age and symptoms durations (p > 0.05). There was a statically difference in exercise duration per week between the groups (p = 0.012) (Table 1). 10.5% of subjects who dealt with sports 5 hours or less was evaluated as "pathological" whereas 53% of 10 hours or more dealers were in the same category. Abstract O-36 Table 1 Percentage of exercise duration in groups Duration of exercise per week Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Total P Value n % n % n % n % (%)* 1-5 hours 1 5,3 1 5,3 0 0 17 89,5 10,9 0,012 5-10 hours 2 5,0 4 10,0 6 15,0 28 70,0 23,0 Over than 10 hours 10 8,7 21 18,3 30 26,1 54 47,0 66,1 Total (n)** 13 26 36 99 174 *The percentage of the column, **The percentage of the line 87/149 bone scan revealed one or more foci compatible with stress injury. Among 149 patients 41 had also undergone a SPECT/CT scan. 20/70 patients who have stress injury in bone scans had positive findings bilaterally. There was a statically difference in a SPECT/CT scan between groups (%38, 5, %50, 0, %13, 9, %18, 2, p = 0.002 respectively). SPECT/CT images revealed stress fractures of metatarsal region in nine patients and also demonstrated five other causes of Tc-99m MDP uptake which were a fibroxantoma, a giant cell bone tumour, a polyosthotic bone disease, a an osteoid osteoma and a unilateral sacroileitis. Conclusions Dynamic -three phase bone scan is a conventional method in assesment of stress injuries. SPECT/CT imaging has a leading and distinctive role for also other musculoskeletal disorders and may offer a different opportunity for treatment and follow ups. Duration of exercise is also an important factor for discrimination of stress injury patients. Reference Shaffer SW, Uhl TL. Preventing and Treating Lower Extremity Stress Reactions and Fractures in Adults. J Athl Train 2006 Oct–Dec; 41(4):466–9.


Background : Real evaluation of any vaccine can only be done after the vaccine has been in routine use for a substantially long period of time. In Japan, acellular pertussis vaccine was introduced and totally replaced whole cell pertussis vaccine in 1981. From 1982 to 1988 40.3 million doses of acellular pertussis vaccine were given to 2‐year‐olds and from 1989 to 2001 59.3 million doses of acellular pertussis vaccine were given to 3‐month‐olds. It is now time to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acellular pertussis vaccine by the use of national data officially supplied by the Government.


The study aimed to identify the effectiveness of the implementation of internal control in its branches (Administrative, accounting and internal check) and in the Kuwaiti joint stock companies, the study followed the analytical descriptive approach, a questionnaire has been used to collect primary data from (295) internal auditors represented the study sample. The study found out that the implementation of internal control procedures have been conducted with its administrative, accounting and internal check types in a moderate degree, in addition that the implementation of internal check in an effective manner was the largest and in a high degree, followed by the implementation of an administrative control with a moderate effectiveness and in the last rank was the accounting control in terms of the effectiveness of implementation and in a moderate degree. The study recommended that senior management gives more attention to the administrative and accounting control, and to take the necessary measures to enable the internal auditors to implement it in a way that lead to raise the level of its effectiveness.


Understanding the spatial distribution and pollution characteristics of heavy metals in lake sediment is crucial for studying deposition and migration processes, assessing lake conditions, and determining the extent of remediation dredging. The present work is a case study of heavy metal pollution in Shitang Lake in Anhui province, China. Heavy metal concentrations were determined in sediment at locations across the lake to a depth of 100 cm, and pollution levels were assessed on the basis of the Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo) and Potential Ecological Risk Index (RI). Hg and Cd were the predominant heavy metals in the sediment, and the Igeo and RI indicated high pollution levels in the northern and southern zones of the lake. These findings can be used to guide the prioritization of dredging operations.


To the editor: The editorial "Diabetes mellitus in the aged" by J.F.D. Cantelon (Can Med Assoc 1 115: 487, 1976) further corroborated my view that we have to differentiate strictly diabetes in a geriatric, or simply old, patient and diabetes in a psychogeriatric patient, particularly if the diabetes started after the age of 65 years. Five years of experience with more than 90 psychogeriatric diabetic patients, including 20 whose data formed the basis of my recent reports,1'2 seem to demonstrate sufficiently that we have to accept for this population much higher "physiologic" standards of glycemia than those currently published. Not only will psychogeriatric patients not cooperate with a prescribed diet, but also most of them seem to need carbohydrates, particularly sugar, to keep their brain neurons functioning. The concept of neuroglycopenia, which might be compensated by hyperglyce-


Barriers have challenged widespread telemedicine adoption by health care organizations for 40 years. These barriers have been technological, financial, and legal and have also involved business strategy and human resources. The article canvasses recent trends—events and activities in each of these areas as well as US health reform activities that might help to break down these barriers. The key to telemedicine success in the future is to view it as an integral part of health care services and not as a stand-alone project. Telemedicine must move from experimental and separate to integrated and equivalent to other health services within health care organizations. Furthermore, telemedicine serves as vital connective tissue for expanding health care organization networks.


Stable Isotope Analysis (SIA) has provided information on ocean productivity, and ecological aspects related to whales' habitat use and feeding ecology, stock structure, physiology, and evolution. We reviewed published studies using SIA on whales worldwide from November 1979 to June 2017. Gaps in geographical areas and heterogeneity amongst species studied using this methodology were assessed. We also investigated which tissue was most frequently analysed, sources of variation in stable isotope values, how this methodology has been combined with other techniques, and how it can be useful for the conservation of the taxon and marine ecosystems. A total of 63 publications were found, and it was possible to detect a general increase in the number of publications along time, as 49% of the studies were from the last 7.5 years of the period analyzed. Almost 55% of studies focused on foraging ecology and habitat use. The baleen plate was the main tissue analyzed. Studies were related to 14 species, the most common being the fi n whale, Balaenoptera physalus (N=19) and the bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus (N=18). Telemetry and SIA methodologies combined were helpful to understand geographical variations in stable isotope values. The methodology can also be valuable under the current scenario of climate change, for example providing information on feeding plasticity and changes in niche amplitude of diff erent species. Despite uncertainties related with stable isotopes distribution in the ocean, and with its incorporation rates for whales, for example, SIA provides primordial ecological information for effi cient management and conservation of this group.


911 dispatchers are often the first contact in an emergency, playing a critical role in the investigative process. Presently, a new bill is seeking to nationally reclassify these communications officers, recognizing them as vital first responders, as their initial collection of eyewitness evidence aid in the attainment of crucial information and detailed descriptions of an accident or crime. However, only one study (Kassis, 2017), to date, has examined the training of 911 dispatchers, as well as their self-reported knowledge of the potential influences their language could have on an eyewitness' memory. While this research highlighted disparities between the perceived role of a dispatcher and the adequacy of their knowledge on eyewitness evidence collection, our overall understanding of these concepts is in its infancy. The current study is a replication and extension of Kassis (2017), aimed to fill this knowledge gap through a survey methodology of 911 dispatchers. Similar to Kassis (2017), the results demonstrated that while a majority of the respondents recognized their role as evidence collectors, they had insufficient knowledge of the fragility of eyewitness memory, specifically the potential harm that "leading" language and post-event information can have on the accuracy of an eyewitness account. Therefore, training and knowledge regarding the collection and preservation of eyewitness memory appears to be largely absent or inadequate among dispatchers. Future directions and potential solutions to this problem are discussed. 911 DISPATCHER KNOWLEDGE 6 911 Dispatchers: Investigating Knowledge of Eyewitness Evidence Collection The first call to 911 was made nearly 50 years ago, in February 1968, in Haleyville, Alabama. This universal emergency number was created to ensure that anyone in the United States could quickly and easily dial public safety for help. Today, the 911 system is a critical service providing access to first responders in any time of need. An estimated 240 million calls are made to 911 in the United States each year (911 Statistics, 2018). With this volume of calls, it is critical that 911 dispatchers are adequately trained to manage various scenarios and ensure the timely response of the appropriate emergency services. Despite their current national classification that merely emphasizes clerical duties, 911 dispatchers, who are often the first contact in an emergency situation, have been described as the "heroes behind the calls," which has prompted a re-evaluation of their status through Rep. Norma J. Torres' 9-1-1 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services (SAVES) Act (Berry, 2019). The SAVES Act, which is currently under consideration by the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, is seeking to nationally reclassify communications officers from a nonprotective service occupation to a protective one in the Standard Occupational Classification system, thus attributing dispatchers with recognition as first responders (Berry, 2019). This specialized occupation requires its professionals to think critically and use extensive skills and training to help first responders save lives. Critically, 911 dispatchers must also understand the significance that their communication has when gathering information from callers. Specifically, dispatchers are given the first opportunity to gather detailed descriptions of a crime or perpetrator and are thus responsible for recording a witness' statements that may 1 The terms "911 dispatcher" and "911 operator" are often used interchangeably. For clarity, the term dispatcher will be used in this thesis to refer to the individual who answers an emergency call. 911 DISPATCHER KNOWLEDGE 7 become crucial in future legal proceedings. For example, in criminal investigations, eyewitness accounts can be essential in helping to identify a suspect or describing key details of a crime (Laney & Loftus, 2018). It has been suggested that eyewitness testimony is likely to be the most persuasive form of evidence presented in court; however, in many cases, its accuracy is dubious, given the fact that eyewitness accounts are susceptible to contamination and error (Laney & Loftus, 2014). The consequences of such errors can be seen in wrongful conviction cases, for example, where mistaken eyewitness testimony was a leading contributing factor in over 70% of DNA exoneration cases (Garrett, 2011; Innocence Project, 2019). As the first point of contact in many cases, 911 dispatchers, tasked with the critical responsibility of initial evidence collection, must be precise in their interactions with callers so as to ensure that the eyewitness' memory is tested and probed correctly, without leading questions. Along this vein, Kassis (2017) referred to the role of 911 dispatchers as being "evidence collectors," a role that dispatcher participants in that study concurred with. Despite this, Kassis demonstrated the lack of training dispatchers receive pertaining to eyewitness memory. Critically, evidence of this inadequate training was found across regions. This may be due in part because 911 call centers across the United States are managed by a variety of different local and state agencies, including law enforcement, fire departments, and private EMS units, which may differ in training standardization and practices. Therefore, dispatchers may be more or less equipped with the skills and knowledge to adequately collect information from eyewitnesses depending upon their region and the size of the population they serve. In combination, this information demonstrates a need to standardize 911 dispatcher training on the topic of eyewitness memory so as to equip dispatchers, regardless of location, with the proper guidelines 911 DISPATCHER KNOWLEDGE 8 to ask questions that are clear and appropriate in order to increase the likelihood that memory reports will be accurate. Little is known about 911 dispatcher training on the topic of eyewitnesses, specifically whether there are any standardized procedures relating to what types of questions are used to gather information from witnesses. Therefore, in the event that there are no standardized protocols, it is essential to better understand dispatchers' knowledge of factors that can affect the reliability of eyewitness memory. The primary reason for this is that research has demonstrated that the wording (Harris, 1973; Loftus, 1975; Loftus & Palmer, 1974), structure, and style of questions (Leding, 2012; Lindsay, 1990; Sharman & Powell, 2012) all have the potential to influence memory. Further, as time passes, memories become more susceptible to error (e.g., Dysart & Lindsay, 2007), thus there is some need to record a witness' recollection for an event or persons as quickly as possible. The more we learn about dispatchers' awareness of these factors and practices that they engage in when collecting eyewitness evidence, the better we will understand what safeguards may be needed to prevent eyewitness errors that could arise from memory contamination through 911 calls. Even though there has been one study on the topic, our understanding of the training and knowledge dispatchers have of their influence on callers is in its infancy. The current study is a replication and extension of Kassis (2017), whose examination of 911 dispatchers, the first of its kind, offered valuable insight into the training and knowledge of dispatchers in regard to the questioning and communication techniques used with eyewitnesses. Given their unique position in the criminal justice system and the impending SAVES Act (2019), it is critical for dispatchers to recognize their role as evidence collectors and understand the ways in which certain factors can influence eyewitness memory. This study focuses on two factors, language effects and post911 DISPATCHER KNOWLEDGE 9 event information, given that they are likely the means by which dispatchers may influence eyewitness memory. Malleability of Memory More than a century of psychological research has provided evidence on the fallibility of memory. Memory, for example, becomes more susceptible to post-event information – that is encountered after an incident without immediate recall following the event (Paterson & Kemp, 2006). There are a number of ways in which witnesses can be exposed to post-event information. One of the most common ways might be through conversation with those who have also witnessed the event, otherwise known as a co-witness (Laney & Loftus, 2018). According to witnesses who have been interviewed, the primary purpose of discussions following an event is to attain information and assure consistency (Zajac & Henderson, 2009; Thorley, 2013). However, misinformation from a co-witness has been shown to impair eyewitness accounts, sometimes leading witnesses to report details that they never actually observed (Zajac & Henderson, 2009). In a real-life example, on May 21, 2018, a 911 call was made regarding a robbery of pharmaceuticals at a Walgreens in Connecticut (Surveillance Video & 911 Call, 2018). The caller indicated there were two perpetrators involved in the crime, and provided details on the appearance of one. The following exchange is related to the inquiry about the second individual involved: Dispatcher: What did the other one have? Caller: Does anyone remember what the other one looked like? The caller in this case is clearly asking co-witnesses for their knowledge of the second individual's appearance. A reading of the full transcript makes clear that no information was provided, but, if there had been, the likelihood of all witnesses adopting this information pertaining to the perpetrator would have increased dramatically. 911 DISPATCHER KNOWLEDGE 10 This type of co-witness sharing or contamination has far reaching consequences, with potentially costly (accuracy) implications for the subsequent investigation and legal proceedings, (Paterson & Kemp, 2005; Skagerberg & Wright, 2008). As way


Circles, such as concentric circles, arbitrary coplanar or parallel circles, are often employed for camera calibration. An interesting observation in football or basketball scenes is that a circle called the center circle existing in the midfield. By taking into account the midfield line which passes through the center circle' center, a novel camera calibration method using the images of the midfield is proposed in this paper. A point at infinity can be determined from the center circle and the midfield line using the pole-polar relationship. The image of a point at infinity is called a vanishing point. The image of a circle is called a circle image in this paper. From one circle image and one coplanar vanishing point, a cubic constraint on the IAC can be obtained. The degenerate cases are discussed, and some applications are given in this paper.


was carried ou't, and have no knowvledge of wlhat pervecntage these failures represent of the total -number of operations. The multitudinious statistics that have been published are also in no way comparable. In somne published lists thle. after-results have been traced for only onie year oI short after-results have been comubined witlh the fgures of cases traced for a longer period. In soine the percentage of good results is computed from the total c.ses; in others, only from those that have been traced. Ia a riecent paper, for instance, the author publishes a table giving 90 per cent. of satisfactory results after partial gastrectomy, but his figures do not inielude those lpatients who died, 9.2 per cent. For these reasonis the beginniier is hopelessly confused, and finids it almost imipr(ssible to determinie which operation he oulght to under-


A numerical one‐dimensional model for domain‐wall structure in magneto‐optic materials has been developed. It is assumed that the source of coercivity is a variation in micromagnetic parameters such as the exchange constant. A classical domain wall is placed at location of the change in the parameters and allowed to relax. Then, the coercivity is computed by slowly increasing a magnetic field until the wall breaks away from this well. In an illustrative example, a decrease in exchange, which permits a higher rate of spin rotation in the wall, distorts the classical domain‐wall shape, and this distortion has to be reduced as the wall tries to break away.


The most important factor in resistance to cephalosporin is Escherichia coli bacteria producing Extended SpectrumBeta Lactamases (ESBLs). Over the past decade, CTX-M enzymes have been the most common type of broad-spectrum beta-lactamases in Europe, Canada and Asia. Therefore, the purpose of the research was to study the prevalence of E. coli bacteria producing ESBL and CTX-M-I group with molecular method. There were totally gathered 257 urine samples from 12 medical laboratories in Khoramabad. After culturing them on EMB agar environment at 37°C for 24 h and biochemical testing for confirmation, there were isolated 100 samples of 257 samples of Escherichia coli. Presence of CTX-M gene was studied by PCR method on the separated isolates in diagnostic tests of Diffusion agar disk and combined disk. There were 31 (31%) strains of ESBL producing out of 100 examined strains. PCR process to detect CTX-M genes showed that 16 out of 31 strains of ESBL (51.161%) contained the considered gene. The results of this study show high percentage of beta-lactamases resistant among E. coli strains. This indicates a serious public danger that all measures must be taken to avoid this danger.


Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) can be measured (mGFR) after intravenous application of indicators that are eliminated by kidneys or estimated (eGFR) using mathematic equations. We have compared eGFR obtained by the chronic kidney diseases epidemiology collaboration (CKD-EPI) and the Modification of diet in renal disease (MDRD) Study equations with GFR measured by technetium-99m diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid ( 99m Tc-DTPA) renal clearance in different stages of renal diseases in order that obtained results may contribute to more adequate choice of methods for the GFR assessment in relation to the type and stage of kidney disease. The study included a total of 189 participants with diabetes mellitus (DM), glomerulonephritis (GN), Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) and healthy subjects. 99m Tc-DTPA clearance (ml/min/1.73 m 2 ) was calculated from the regression equation based on high correlation between distribution volume of radiopharmaceutical and clearance values obtained by multiple blood samples. For blood sample taken at 3 h and 4 h, clearance was calculated according to the equations: y = -0.0128x 2 + 3.077x  30.3, and y = -0.00628x 2 + 2.066x  19.3, where y is clearance, and x is distribution volume. MDRD-GFR (ml/min/1.73 m 2 ) was calculated from equation: 186 × Scr -1.154 × age -0.203 × 0.742 if female. CKD-EPI-GFR was calculated from equation: 141 × min(Scr/κ, 1) α × max(Scr/κ, 1) -1.209 × 0.993 age × 1.018 if female, where Scr is serum creatinine, κ is 0.7 for females and 0.9 for males, α is -0.329 for females and -0.411 for males, min indicates the minimum of Scr/κ or 1, and max indicates the maximum of Scr/κ or 1. Irrespective of renal disease, both equations underestimated radionuclide clearance at mGFR ≥ 90 ml/min/1.73 m 2 (91.7 ± 18.8 and 88.2 ± 22.0 vs. 121 ± 19.6, p 60 ml/min, we suggest its use for prediction of GFR at higher renal function levels. However, underestimation of renal function by CKD-EPI equation seems not to be quite appropriate in diabetic patients with expected GFR above 90 ml/min because it may miss the patients with glomerular hyperfiltration. Thus, priority may be given to 99m Tc-DTPA clearance method in the earlier stages of kidney diseases in type 1 diabetes mellitus. At last, in patients with expected GFR < 60 ml/min, it is better to monitor disease progression by estimating equations than by 99m Tc-DTPA renal clearance,


The pharmaceutical home visit (PHV), carried out together with the Family Strategy Team (FST), can contribute to the improvement of the effectiveness and safety of the therapy through the development of educational actions, obtaining the greatest possible benefit of the pharmacotherapy that the patient uses. For the development of PHV, planning, execution, data recording and evaluation of actions are necessary. A PHV instrument was previously prepared by specialist pharmacists in the FST area in 2016, through the Focal Group Technique. The proposal of this study was to apply this instrument during the PHV by the pharmacists who effectively carry out home visits at the FST, from August to October 2017. After the PHV, the pharmacists performed the evaluation of the instrument through a forms, referring to the professional profile and another concerning the adequacy, clarity, effectiveness / precision, feasibility and suggestions of this tool. Participating in the study were 07 distinct Program Areas and 32 pharmacists who effectively performed PHV. According to an expressive evaluation of the participants, the instrument was considered adequate, clear, effective, accurate and feasible for use in the practice of home visits. The activities developed by professionals include those related to the management and administration of pharmaceutical care, which require a large part of the work time and actions related to the patient. The evaluated PHV instrument presented contribution as an aid to the professional in the accomplishment of the home pharmaceutical care in the ESF of the city of Rio de Janeiro.


The deep placement of large urea granules (known as Guti urea in Bangladesh) into puddle enhances the soil's nitrogen absorption capacity. It helps nitrogen to stay close to the roots of paddy plants, preventing urea from being washed away by rains or floods. Urea Super Granule (USG) technology is cost effective and environment friendly. Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) with technical assistance from the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) has been implementing the Guti Urea Technology Extension Project in the country since November 2007. Study says, cultivated lands using Guti urea get three times better result than the lands cultivated by urea sprayed by hand in the traditional method and earn good amount of profit and normal fertility of the land may shrink faster with the use of Guti urea instead of using organic compost fertilizer. This technology is not new in Bangladesh now but due to some gaps i.e., lack of proper marketing and demonstration, subsidy in fertilizer (especially to promote USG), less availability of user friendly Urea Deep Placement (UDP) applicator and communication gap between farmers and officials became some major constraints. In this study, author tried to focus on total scenario of Bangladesh agriculture highlighting UDP technology as productive agricultural input. Comparing with field survey data and it has been found that the technology not yet been popular to the farmers due to some technical problems like high labor cost, time consuming and difficult application process. To solve these problems it is suggested that, necessity of active marketing to spread the technology to the farmers is very important, also create more demonstration project, available supply of USG, active co-operation from fertilizer dealers can be a major support to achieve this technology as successful. Keywords: Bangladesh, USG, FDP, UDP, Agricultural Policy, Agriculture


This chapter engages with arguments provided in defense of a state's right to exclude. It considers four such arguments. Two of these begin with the consideration of human goods and how they are distributed; arguments from the distribution of territory, and the importance of solidarity, are engaged with here. Two other arguments begin with rights and how these rights might serve to ground the right to exclude. The rights discussed here are the right to property and the right of freedom of association. All of these methods, I argue, have some power, but none places the moral emphasis where it ought to be in the consideration of the right to exclude.


We design an alternative of the high-speed parallel multiplier based on the standard basis over GF(2/sup m/). it is composed of three types of general multiplier cells (GMC) and two types of delay boxes (DB) When we implement the proposed multiplier over GF(2/sup 8/) by using 0.8 /spl mu/m CMOS standard cell library, at the 185 MHz clock-rate, the implemented multiplier has less complexity, ie, a 25% reduction from that of Berlekamp (1982) and a 33% reduction from that of Jain et al., (1998). For power-consumption, the implemented multiplier has a 29% reduction from that of Jain.


We explore optimal and politically feasible growth policies in the form of basic research investments and taxation. Basic research is a public good that benefits innovating entrepreneurs, but its provision and financing also affect the entire economy -- in particular, occupational choices of potential entrepreneurs, wages, dividends, and aggregate output. We show that the impact of basic research on the general economy rationalizes a taxation pecking order to finance basic research. More specifically, in a society with desirably dense entrepreneurial activity, a large share of funds for basic research should be financed by labor taxation, while a minor share should be left to profit taxation. Such tax schemes will induce a significant proportion of agents to become entrepreneurs, thereby rationalizing substantial investments in basic research that fosters their innovation prospects. These entrepreneurial economies, however, may make a majority of workers worse off, giving rise to a conflict between efficiency and equality. We discuss ways of mitigating this conflict and thus strengthening the political support for growth policies.


A beam-steering laser ultrasonic C-scan system and a laser generation/aircoupled detection hybrid ultrasonic system are here presented. The C-scan system employs a confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer for ultrasound detection, which is stabilized by using only the object beam. This stabilization effectively compensates for slowly-varying disturbances and, more importantly, for changes in the interferometer illumination conditions while probing different scanning points. The hybrid ultrasonic system proves to be well-suited for on-line control of the tow-placement process in thermoplastic composites. This system features fiberoptic high-power laser light delivery for enhanced remoteness, safety and flexibility. Narrow-band surface wave generation improves the sensitivity of the measurements, while retaining thermoelastic generation conditions. In addition, the theory of the narrow-band generation of surface acoustic waves by spatially-modulated illumination sources is improved by accounting for possible str...


Genomic evaluations are commonly based on models with genomic relationships. However, estimated genomic relationship matrices are often positive semidefinite and ad-hoc corrections are applied to force positive definiteness without consideration about model properties. In this contribution a hierarchical quantitative genetic model is postulated that provides a positive definite genomic relationship matrix by taking into account the amount of genetic variance captured by estimated marker effects. Based on the hierarchical formulation the proposed model also provides a system of equations to estimate marker effects and breeding values jointly without setting up and inverting covariance matrices. Further extension with pedigree information is also possible.


Paper presented in Pre-Congress Workshop of XXIII International Grassland Congress - IGC 2015, held from 20-24 November 2015, at Delhi NCR, India.


Summary Above-ground biomass data are compared for 21-year-old radiata pine stands on three sites which had different types of land use prior to plantation establishment. The three sites, previously under native forest, grazed pasture and a pasture site subsequently used for crop production (cultivated) formed a continuous section of plantation in the 1968 age class. Biomass equations were developed for each tree component in relation to stem diameter for each site. There were no significant differences between sites in the coefficients for stemwood and bark, but different coefficients were required to relate stem diameter to the biomass of branches in the dead crown and foliage in the lower live crown. Stands on previously cultivated pasture (pasture followed by crops) accumulated 362,745 kg ha−1 in the above-ground biomass; 40% and 13% more than the ex-native forest (259,183 kg ha−1) and ex-pasture (320,055 kg ha−1) sites, respectively. Trees on the previously cultivated pasture allocated a larger propo...


The GSAA data quality: There is no information about this data, such as how parcel boundaries are derived, their accuracy, etc. The authors may add more information in the introduction section. Further, Figure 6 also shows some missing fields in vector label (B). Although the authors mentioned some limitations of label data, the ability and accuracy should have been addressed in the beginning to show the potential of this data. Note that this is the main data used for training and testing all ML/DL models to map field boundaries; thus, it has to be highly accurate and confident.


For at least 20 years I have been conducting guerrilla warfare against legal publishers on the matter of copyright. Whenever I get a copyright form I either �forget� to send it back to the publisher (in more than half the cases no one seems to notice or care) or, if they do insist, I always cross out the critical language concerning my intellectual property (they usually ask you to make them a gift of your copyright) and replace it with a handwritten grant of a non-exclusive licence. I was challenged only once. I informed the publisher of the journal in question (Blackwell) that if they were unhappy they should feel free to drop my piece. That did not happen. The first footnote proudly displayed: ©JHH Weiler.
I remember the moment of change. The publisher in question was Walter De Gruyter, publisher of the multi-volume series Integration through Law, of which I was co-editor and in which I had published a couple of pieces myself. Some years later I wanted to photocopy one of the pieces for my students. University copy-centres in the USA take copyright seriously and requested a release from the publishers. I requested such from De Gruyters, who promptly sent it accompanied by a hefty bill. They owned, it appeared, the copyright on my work and were now re-selling it for a profit (two years later I would presumably receive a 10% royalty on the fee I had paid�). Res ipsa loquitur.
Consider the raw deal we authors get from most legal publishers, including law journals. Typically you are asked in exchange for publishing your brilliant piece, the result of many months of research, drafting and redrafting, to cede your copyright to the publisher of the journal. Now make no mistake: law journals are a serious source of �


CAB+RPV LA administered monthly for HIV treatment is non-inferior to daily oral ART at maintaining viral suppression and preferred by most participants in clinical trials over daily ART. CUSTOMIZE, an implementation-effectiveness study, evaluated facilitators and barriers to clinic implementation of CAB+RPV LA from the patient perspective.

 115 participants were enrolled across 8 HIV clinics. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with a randomized subgroup of 3-6 participants per site, prior to the 1st (Baseline [BL], N=34) and 12th CAB+RPV LA injections (Month 12 [M12], N=31). Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research-guided interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded using ATLAS.ti.

 At BL, 97% (n=33) of those interviewed indicated ≥1 challenge taking daily oral ART, including concerns about adherence (n=19; 56%), dosing frequency (n=13; 38%) and side effects (n=12; 35%). Twenty-seven (79%) reported anticipated challenges of CAB+RPV LA such as worry about side effects (n=15; 44%) and discomfort from injections (n=14; 41%). Participants reported at BL that CAB+RPV LA may help with adherence (n=17; 50%) or reduce fears of HIV status disclosure (n=10; 29%). At M12, 35% (n=11) reported some pain/discomfort from injections, but 87% (n=27) reported satisfaction with CAB+RPV LA, most commonly due to preferring the monthly regimen over the daily pill (n=15; 48%). Facilitators reported by participants as most helpful during early implementation were verbal education by clinic staff (14%), reminder texts/calls (13%), and an educational video about the regimen (6%). Most (n=25; 81%) indicated clinic hours were not a barrier, but 19% (n=6) noted taking time off work for the visits. Many participants (n=21; 68%) described positive aspects of going to the clinic each month, none complained about visit length, and 94% (n=29) reported intent to continue CAB+RPV LA after the study.

 Interviewed participants reported several challenges with daily oral ART that monthly CAB+RPV LA may help overcome. Some initial concerns about receiving CAB+RPV LA were reported at BL, but most participants were satisfied with the regimen after one year and plan to continue receiving CAB+RPV LA following the study.

 Cindy Garris, MS, GlaxoSmithKline (Shareholder)ViiV Healthcare (Employee) Larissa Stassek, MPH, GlaxoSmithKline (Consultant, Other Financial or Material Support, My company (Evidera) received funding from GSK to conduct this research. We did not receive funding for work on this abstract.) Ronald D'Amico, DO, MSc, GlaxoSmithKline (Shareholder)ViiV Healthcare (Employee) Marybeth Dalessandro, BS, ViiV Healthcare (Employee, Shareholder) Sheila Adkins, BS, GSK (Employee)GSK (Employee, Stock) Maggie Czarnogorski, MD, MPH, GlaxoSmithKline (Shareholder)ViiV Healthcare (Employee)


We summarize here the main arguments, basic research lines, and results on the foundations of the logics of formal inconsistency. These involve, in particular, some classes of well-known paraconsistent systems. We also present their semantical interpretations by way of possible-translations semantics and their applications to human reasoning and machine reasoning. 1 1. Do we need to worry about inconsistency? Classical logic, as we all know, cannot survive contradictions. Among the principles that were gradually incorporated into the "properties of correct reasoning" since Aristotle, the Principle of Pseudo-Scotus (PPS), also known since medieval times as ex contradictione sequitur quodlibet (and also called the Principle of Explosion by some contemporary logicians), states that in any theory exposed to the enzymatic character of a contradiction A and A one can derive any other arbitrary sentence B, so that the theory would turn out to be trivial. Another principle called the Principle of Non-Contradiction (PNC) states that there should be theories from which no such contradictions are derivable. To those principles, one could add the Principle of Non-Triviality (PNT), stating that there should be at least one theory and one sentence B such that B is not derivable from this theory. In order to fully understand what those principles mean, what the relationship is between them and what their importance is for modeling the concept of inconsistency let us introduce some formalism. This formalism will be apt for the syntactical approach to the logics of formal inconsistency we discuss in the first three sections of this paper. However, the reader should be aware that it is possible to start from a purely syntactical account, as we do in Sections 4 and 5. Let For be a collection of formulas of a certain language, and call a theory any subset of For. Let a consequence relation over For be a relation between theories and formulas of For, that is, ⊆ (℘(For) × For), where ℘(For)


The greatest challenge of doing philosophy today may be one of not being able to see the forest for the trees. Whether teachers and students will readily admit to it, the content of philosophical studies is too often presented in twigs, many of which are rarely if ever connected to larger branches of thought. The problem for students is not usually one of understanding a particular argument, but rather understanding where and how all the arguments fit together. Consider, for example, the difficulty involved in trying to determine the current status of a longstanding philosophical debate. What arguments have already been made? Which have been rebutted? Who has argued what against whom? What counter-rebuttals have been offered? The most interesting and important arguments are usually carried on in the journals of several different fields. Research and the debates over the nature of consciousness, for instance, appear in the journals of neurobiology, cognitive science, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. How can we expect to keep track of what is being currently thought about or written on the subject? At the same time, philosophers and students of philosophy also have wide-ranging curiosity. Most of us still want to know what's happening outside of the narrow speciality that occupies so much of our professional life. Yet we live in an age of information overload. To continue the botanical metaphor, we are too often lost in a dense wood of interesting but unconnected thought on important topics. The sheer number of good journals continues to rise, making it impossible to scan, let alone read, all of the articles that might interest us. How can we expect to navigate, let alone benefit, from such abundance?


An experiment was conducted during 2018-19 at JNKVV College of Agriculture, Tikamgarh (M.P.) to study the Influence of plant growth regulators (PGRs) on growth parameters and sex ratio in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)" cv. Kumud f1 hybrid. Total nine treatments of the growth regulators viz, GA3 50, 100, 200ppm, NAA 50, 100, 200 ppm, Ethrel 100, 200 ppm and control were applied in Randomized Block Design with replicates three. Foliar applications of all treatments were given at 2-true leaf to 4-leaf stages during the morning period. Out of these treatments GA3 @ 200 ppm had maximum effect on growth parameters viz., vine length (132.44 cm), number of branches (6.81), number of nodes (22.67), and number of leaves (57.67). Sex ratio was recorded minimum in the treatment Ethrel @ 200 ppm (1.73:1).


As we know in facts, the prosperity about assist teachers on general or
Islamic school only get the salary of month about Rp.300.000,00 - Rp.800.000,00,
therefore it is assumed that the effectiveness of learning process influenced by the
state of teachers who are not prosperous. This research was conducted with the
aim to know the level of prosperity and professional competence by the teachers
of Islamic or base school in Wedung Sub-district Demak Regency, to know
whether or not the impact between welfare level and professional competence,
and other factors that can be influence teachers professional competence level.
The research method used by the researchers is quantitative research
method. This method intended to measure the impact level of teachers Islamic or
base school professional competence in Wedung Sub-district Demak Regency.
The used of data analysis are normality, homogeneity, linearity and simple linear
regression test.
The results of this research are: (1) welfare level by the teachers in Islamic
or base school Wedung Sub-district Demak Regency is medium category; (2)
level of professional competence teachers in Islamic or base school Wedung Subdistrict
Demak Regency is medium category; (3) The data result by using simple
linear regression, shows t-count value smaller than t-table that is 1,543 2,101
with significance equal to 5%, causing regression equation Y = 78,005 + 0,401 X1
it's mean that if teachers welfare level is 0 (zero / no change), then the
professional competence level of teachers Islamic or base school in Wedung Subdistrict
Demak Regency is 78,005, and if welfare level increase by 1 unit, hence
level of professional competence teachers Islamic or base school in Wedung Subdistrict
Demak Regency will increased only 0.401. Based on the analysis of
simple linear regression test, the results obtained that the level of welfare teachers
did not give a significant effect on professional competence level; (4) The level of
professional competence teachers influenced by other factors, internal factors
(including teacher's motivation and commitment) and external factors (school
principal programs). Some principal programs that contribute to professional
teacher competence levels include regular and on going supervision, workshops,
KKG, Micro teaching, monitoring and evaluation.


Analyse different to apply fertilizer to A WL232HQ,Ao Chinese alfalfa thick albumen influence of content, money of ridge and alfalfa of American, alfalfa of Canada, and different to apply fertilizer different alfalfa thick albumen difference of content under variety under the system,from analyse different to apply fertilizer to contrast difference indicate a best one apply fertilizer scheme 60 urea different variety.33kg/hm2, over calcium phosphate are 90.78kg/hm2,sulphuric acid potassium are132.00kg/hm2,the supreme content of thick albumem: American alfalfa WL232HQ is 22.20%, the ridge money is 21 in Canadian alfalfa A.21.863%, the Chinese alfalfa of AoHan is 20.098%, Learn American alfalfa WL232HQ in apply fertilizer thick albumen content high variety than other have under the terms while being the same kind of.


Authors Dr Naresh Kumar Damerla, DNB (Gen Surg) Dr Thogari Kranthi Kumar, DNB (Gen Surg)* *Corresponding Author Dr Thogari Kranthi Kumar, DNB (Gen Surg) Absract A fistula is defined as an abnormal connection between two structures or organs or between an organ and the surface of the body. In case of perianal fistula, it is an abnormal connection between anal canal and perianal skin. In the past, imaging techniques played a limited role, but now it is increasing, especially the use of MRI. In this study we tried to correlate MRI and intra-operative findings and discussed the usefulness of MRI in surgical management of perianal fistula. MRI is able to adequately evaluate and classify perianal fistula disease with a high degree of accuracy.


Dear authors, reviewers and readers of Measurement Science and Technology , I would like to thank all those who have published papers with us in 2013, and offer a special thanks to those of you who have given up much of your precious time and kindly reviewed articles for the journal. 2013 was of course a very special year for the journal, marking the 90th anniversary of the journal's foundation, as Journal of Scientific Instruments. In order to mark the anniversary we started the year with a historical perspective of the journal [1], and a historical review of 90 years of dielectric properties measurement of materials [2]. The celebrations continued with a stimulating meeting at the Institute of Physics in London in March, entitled 'Frontiers of Measurement'. In keeping with the multidisciplinary ethos of the journal, the speakers covered a diverse range of topics, all linked by the common language of measurement science. Patrick Gill of NPL talked about atomic clocks, Bruce Tromberg of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic covered biophotonics, Roger Bisby of the University of Salford lectured on developments in biochemical techniques, Ivan Marusic of the University of Melbourne spoke on fluids and Mervyn Miles of the University of Bristol described recent developments in atomic force microscopy. Nicola Gulley, Editorial Director of IOP Publishing (IOPP), briefed the meeting on some of the latest developments in the world of scientific publishing. The meeting ended with a presentation to Sharon D'Souza, outgoing Publisher of the journal, and a welcome for Ian Forbes who has taken over the role. On behalf of all the Editorial Board I would like to offer a very special thanks to Sharon for all her great work for the journal over many years and wish her every success in her new IOPP posts as Publisher of Reports in Progress in Physics and the recently launched Methods and Applications in Fluorescence. Ian Forbes comes to the journal with a PhD in Physics from Heriot-Watt University and a wealth of relevant experience from having been Publisher of IOPP's Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering . Looking forward, I would like to take this opportunity to update you all on some of what is in store in the journal in 2014. This volume opens with three topical reviews on the application of energy harvesting, both in buildings and in the medical field, and on quantum cascade lasers. These continue the journal's tradition of publishing both the latest research papers and excellent articles designed to summarize activities in a research field, which are useful to both the expert and beginner alike. We will also continue to have a strong programme of special features on the pick of research presented at conferences around the globe, including the 11th International Symposium on Measurement Technology and Intelligent Instruments (ISMTII), Nanoscale 2013 and Sensors and their Applications XVII. In a broad-interest journal such as Measurement Science and Technology , it is necessary to have the advice of a wide range of experts, and I consider myself fortunate to be able to count on the assistance of our distinguished Editorial Board. The range and depth of expertise and experience of these researchers exists to serve all users of the journal, and is truly inspiring. I want also to acknowledge the diligent work of our reviewers and the editorial and production staff at IOPP. Through their hard work in 2013 the average time from submission of a manuscript to delivery of a first-stage publication decision has been reduced to under six weeks for the first time, with the average time for an accepted paper to go online being less than one month. Most important of all we should not forget that the journal is here to serve its users-–the authors and readers across research communities in industry, government and academic sectors who all share a common passion for measurement, whatever their discipline. If you have ideas on how we might do this even better then please do not hesitate to contact me. Finally, I offer my very best wishes to all of you who interact with the journal and I thank you for your efforts past, present and in the future, and I wish you every success with your own endeavours in 2014! References [1] Dewhurst R J 2013 Measurement science and technology: a historical perspective Meas. Sci. Technol. 24 012006 [2] Kaatze U 2013 Measuring the dielectric properties of materials. Ninety-year development from low-frequency techniques to broadband spectroscopy and high-frequency imaging Meas. Sci. Technol. 24 012005


Abstract Calcium tatrate tetrahydrate (L-CTT) is reported to have point group symmetry mm at room temperature. Second harmonic generation experiments indicate that calcium tartrate tetrahydrate prepared from pure L-tartaric acid has the noncentrosymmetric point group mm2. All the nonlinear optical d-coefficients are determined. Linear optical properties of this material such as: refractive indices and absorption constant are measured in the range 200 nm Λ <2000 nm and the phase matching conditions for optical frequency doubling are derived. Non critical type I phase matching can be achieved in L-CTT at room temperature for a fundamental wavelength of Λ = 816 nm.


Summary The general results which have accrued from this investigation may be summarized as follows: the shaly type of Liassic sedimentation with much pyrite, indicating a quiet sea with abundant sulphur compounds, gradually gave place to a regular and at first fairly steady shallowing of the water with, somewhat later, occasional incursions of strong currents bringing pebbles and broken fossils from an area undergoing active erosion. At the same time the amount of iron introduced, both in solution and in the form of derived ooliths, increased steadily, culminating in the siliceous oolite of the Dogger, which is essentially similar to the rocks composing this formation to the west and north-west.


VLSI designs are typically data-independent and as such, they must produce the correct result even for the worst-case inputs. Adders in particular assume that addition must be completed within prescribed number of clock cycles, independently of the operands. While the longest carry propagation of an n-bit adder is n bits, its expected length is only O(log2 n) bits. We present a novel dual-mode adder architecture that reduces the average energy consumption in up to 50%. In normal mode the adder targets the O(log2 n)-bit average worst-case carry propagation chains, while in extended mode it accommodates the less frequent O(n)-bit chain. We prove that minimum energy is achieved when the adder is designed for O(log2 n) carry propagation, and present a circuit implementation. Dual-mode adders enable voltage scaling of the entire system, potentially supporting further overall energy reduction. The energy-time tradeoff obtained when incorporating such adders in ordinary microprocessor's pipeline and other architectures is discussed. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


This special issue of Criminal Justice Review, ''Crime in the Ivory Tower: Understanding Campus Victimization and Evaluating Efforts to Prevent It,'' comes at a fitting time in our field. High-profile mass shootings and other violent, interpersonal crimes occurring on college campuses have captivated media attention and public concern. At the same time, these tragedies have affirmed that the ''ivory tower'' is no longer a safe haven where students learn and discover but instead places where they may encounter crime and violence. As a result, the federal government and states have wrestled with how best to measure and respond to campus crime. Given this recent public policy emphasis, this special issue includes six empirical articles that broadly examine the nature and extent of campus victimization or crime policy efforts to address and prevent it. The first article is entitled, ''University Policies and Programs for Crime Prevention and Awareness: An Examination of Online Reports and Resources.'' It explored whether and how institutions have implemented various facets of the Clery Act, a seminal piece of legislation in addressing campus crime, such as providing online educational information to the university community. Its findings indicate that most universities comply with the Act, but also that variation exists across regions and student populations. An additional discovery was that virtually no institution has gone beyond the minimum standards set by Clery. These results indicate that online outreach could be improved in the future to better educate and assist the student population. In a different direction, the study, ''Who Seeks Counseling for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)? The Role of Emotional Distress,'' aims to evaluate the factors related to receiving victim assistance for dating violence among college students. Prior investigations have revealed that student victim use of services is abysmally low. Accordingly, the study endeavored to enhance knowledge of the challenges and factors concerning use of assistance. In the study, college students who experienced greater levels of IPV and with self-reported higher emotional distress were significantly more likely to pursue counseling than those with lower exposure to IPV and distress. Demographic indicators, specifically age and sex, were also associated with greater help-seeking behavior. In particular, older


The present study investigates the influence of attachment representation on adolescents' nonverbal behaviour during an observed mother-adolescent interaction task. In a follow-up of the Regensburg longitudinal study, 43 (of the original 51 participating families) 16-year-old adolescents and their mothers were observed in a short revealed differences task. Ekman and Friesen's (1978) facial expression descriptions were used in the second-by-second analysis of the adolescents' facial expressions. The analysis assessed emotional states (anger, sadness, surprise, uneasiness, joy, smiling), manipulators or adapters as signs of tension (biting of lips, biting nails), emblems, and eye contact. Concurrently, adolescents were given the Adult Attachment Interview to assess their attachment representations using Kobak's Adult-Attachment-Interview Q-sort. Results showed a significant relationship between adolescent attachment representation and adolescent nonverbal facial expression during the interaction task. Attachment security was related to open and positive expression of emotion, whereas dismissive attachment style was associated with communication inhibiting behaviour. The results are congruent with attachment theory claiming that coherent emotional appraisals of one's own attachment history is a prerequisite to open emotional expression and communication of one's feelings to others.


The present invention is an epitope growth factor antigen and epitope as a human vascular endothelial vaccine, the field of biotechnology. The present invention discloses the epitope one human vascular endothelial growth factor, human vascular endothelial also disclosed based on a single domain antibody Scaffolds growth factor vaccine epitope, the epitope inducing an animal to produce an effective vaccine against human vascular endothelial growth factor antibodies, the epitope vaccine in animals showed better anti-tumor growth effect, may be used with drugs of solid tumors and other tumors.


A telecom photon is a suitable information carrier in a fiber-based quantum network due to its lower transmission loss in fiber. Because of the paucity of suitable atomic system, usually the photon connecting different memories is in near infrared band, therefore the frequency conversion of the photon in and out of telecomband has to be required to realize the interface between the atomic-based memory and the photon-based carrier. In order for that, two atomic or other systems which could realize the frequency conversion have to be taken into account, and besides, one more atomic system as a storing media is need. So the ability of storing a photon in telecomband is an interesting and exciting topic. In this work, we give a first experimental proof of principle of storing a light in telecomband. The telecom light is directly stored and retrieved later through two nonlinear processes via an inverted-Y configuration in a cold atomic ensemble, therefore the interface between the memory and photon in other proposals is not needed. We believe our work may open a new avenue for long-distance quantum communication.


The technology of direct digital frequency synthesis(DDS),is a new typed synthesizer technology and signal frequency methods.Its circuit system with high frequency resolution can achieve the frequency switching rapidly,and keep the continuum of phase when switching so as to realize the NC adjustment of frequency,phase and amplitude easily.Aim at the problems exists in DDS using market,this paper introduces a practical method with the using of FPGA "Hurricane" series(EP1C6) that is low-cost made by Altera Co.,to realize DDS.


The results of literature data analysis and those of hygienic studies of work conditions in production of power(cid:23)producing plants at different technological stages are given. Technological and hygienic peculiarities of biofuel production have been estomated.


The present invention relates to a process and devices to clean and reuse displaced outgoing air containing additives (e.g. solvents) or pollutants, especially to clean and reuse outgoing air with solvents displaced from drying devices in offset web-fed rotary presses. In the first stage of the process the outgoing air is passed through at least one condenser so that the additives or pollutants contained in the air can be condensed out. In the second step of the process the outgoing air treated from the first stage of the process is passed through at least one separator element in order to clean said air further from condensed additives or pollutants contained therein. Finally, the outgoing air treated after the second step of the process is returned for renewed absorption or suction of additives and pollutants.


Stepper motors suffer with skipped steps due to the occurrence of resonance and instability, under certain load conditions. Unlike in other machines, variation of torque is not reflected in the current. Hence the current measurement based position estimation techniques fail. Experimental investigations reveal that high frequency variations are present in the current dynamics during the resonating periods. This paper proposes an identification technique which works based on frequency content during the transient period of the current rise. It is shown that resonance can be identified and with suitable compensation, current measurement based identification technique provide accurate speed & position estimation.


The concept of company is not new; it has existed since the beginning of mankind. In this thesis, we will review the beginnings of what led to what we know today as companies and how has this development accompanied the progress of society in general. The progress towards what we now understand as companies, has been achieved by implementing changes in the beginning through pragmatic acts and then through laws and rules. However, since societies are not static but dynamic, regulations and laws have had to adapt to changing societies by introducing laws that grant the social, cultural and economic changes. The change of address is a corporate figure used in almost every country; it allows the mobilization of the company to a different place from the one it was previously incorporated. This legal institution was only domestic, at first, but later it reached across borders, meaning that it has been forced to allow companies not to move exclusively within a country, but also to foreign jurisdictions. The legal figure of re-domiciliation of companies is the one that allows the commercial address of a company to be transferred abroad without involving the possible loss of its legal personality. This institution is not currently stated in any Ecuadorian law. It is important that Ecuador prepares for the challenges that global economy today embraces, among those defiance, it is undoubtedly the inclusion of this corporate figure. In order to be prepared for it, we must know and analyze the advantages and disadvantages that this challenge proposed. This dissertation analyzes and contrasts institutions that Ecuadorian law provides and the elements required for the implementation of the legal figure that represents the re-domiciliation of companies. It proposes bases for the foundation on how this new figure should be incorporated in order to benefit our country.


the context of 'neo-colonialism' and how such neo-colonialism limits the leverage for certain countries (such as Hong Kong) to proclaim their own version of Chineseness. The protest against the curriculum and pro-democracy movement both show that people of Hong Kong still face the dilemma of how to integrate their 'pre-colonial' legacy (under British rule) into a new regime (Chinese government). Overall, this book is suitable for those who have interests in the fields of culture, identity, colonialism, and Chinese history. It is also a good example of disentangling complicated historical materials and presenting ambiguous identities in a relatively constructive way.


Temperature sensitivity is used to measure the junction temperature of semiconductor devices without using external temperature sensors. Temperature sensitivity may vary more than 10% due to the measurement environments, which affects the accuracy of the junction temperature. However, this fact hasn't been well recognized. It is presumed that temperature sensitivity measurement is not reliable when a single sided cold plate is used. It is due to the temperature gradient between the cold plate and the ambient, through the junction of the semiconductor. Unless the device is put inside the temperature controlled chamber, it is hard to eliminate the temperature gradient between the junction of the semiconductor and the ambient. This paper presents the results of several temperature sensitivity measurements using 2 types of temperature controlled environments: a single sided cold plate and a temperature controlled chamber. Also, we have tested with several packages such as TO-220, TO-264, SOT-227, and D3 package, to see how it varies. We have come to the conclusion that it is better to use a temperature controlled chamber to measure temperature sensitivity, while some devices allow us to use a single sided cold plate as well. The differences due to the devices and environments are discussed by using CFD simulation, visualizing the temperature gradient inside the packages.


Knocking is an important issue in improving the efficiency of spark ignition engines. It can be detected by photographing with high-speed cameras or measuring in-cylinder pressure or engine vibration or engine radiation sound. However, these methods each have the problems for example sensor damage risk or necessity of machining the engine. In this paper, we propose the efficient measurement method and the effective evaluation method with the restricted measurement results for engine knocking detection by utilizing the simultaneous measurement results of knocking with these sensors.


There has been much discussion over the past two decades about water as a 'strategic' resource, as the likely cause of the next war in the Middle East, and as so integral to the operation of both human and natural systems that achievement of any of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals is dependent on an adequate supply of fresh water. The stories of water diversions for economic and/or political gain or disruptions in water supply make for exciting reading. But the policy response from most of the world is still focused on augmenting supply to meet the demands of an increasing population, moving water in large volumes over enormous distances and again building large dams. Over the past two decades (or longer, in terms of the rhetoric, if not the action), there has been an increased interest integrated water resource management and in promoting demand-side solutions to the problems of water supply. Such solutions might include educational activities to raise awareness about water issues; market-based solutions that include full water pricing and water banking; and command-and-control approaches, such as setting limits on time of use (for watering lawns, for example). The present volume goes beyond merely advocating demand management for water resources, however. It incorporates the contemporary notions of deliberative democracy and rational discourse in coming up with solutions and promotes backcasting— developing future scenarios and then working backwards to examine how best to get there—as a policy and analytical tool using what is known as a soft-path approach to water resource management. It is with great relief (for me, at least) that we are starting to see publications on demand-side water management that incorporate the soft-path approach from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. In Making the Most of the Water We Have, editors David Brooks, Oliver Brandes and Stephen Gurman not only set out the rationale for managing our water consumption, but also draw on cases that highlight successes in both the policy and the applied realm. Drawing from their past experience in energy-demand management and the so-called soft energy-path approach, the editors present a strong case for a soft water-path approach to managing water consumption. Although dissimilar resources in many respects, water and energy are both excellent examples of how a soft-path approach can be successful in reducing consumption. In their Introduction, the editors note four principles that make soft paths different from conventional planning and management:


Passive acoustic tracking of sperm whales was conducted during three cruises (2001, 2002, and 2003) in the northwestern part of the Mediterranean Sea using a 128-element towed linear array with real-time beamforming capabilities. This allowed angular separation of sperm whales clicking from different horizontal directions, as well as an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, when several diving animals were present, the description of individual click series was possible. Over a total of 279 complete dives, sperm whales were recorded clicking an average of 35 min per dive. The acoustic repertoire heard from diving sperm whales consisted of usual clicks, creaks, codas, and trumpets. Trumpets occurred at the beginning of 45 dives. One hundred and thirty-one codas, 98% belonging to the Mediterranean pattern 3+1, were recorded, usually at the end of the dive.


Significant differences are observed in the NMR spectra of cis-1,4-cyclohexanediol and 4-hydroxycyclohexanone measured in different solvents. For the diol the differences are shown to arise from averaging of coupling constants through strong coupling effects. The differences for the ketone result from a combination of the same factors plus differences in conformational equilibria. A discussion of the averaging of coupling constants due to conformational equilibria and due to strong coupling effects is given. The signal band width method for determination of conformational equilibria is shown to be independent of strong coupling effects.


The invention provides a trigger switch with a kick mechanism, comprising a base, an upper cover which is buckled on the base and a button which is rotationally arranged on the upper cover; the kick mechanism is arranged in the base; the button drives the kick mechanism to act; the kick mechanism comprises a dynamic contact frame capable of sliding in the base and a driving component capable of driving the dynamic contact frame to act; a kick pressure spring is arranged in a space formed by the dynamic contact frame and the driving component; and the driving component controls the dynamic contact frame to act through the kick pressure spring. The trigger switch with the kick mechanism has the characteristics of operability and higher safety, the service life of the switch is prolonged by controlling the on and the off of the switch through the elasticity of the spring, the safety of the switch when the switch is disconnected and connected is improved through a certain fixing action of the elasticity of the kick pressure spring to the dynamic contact frame, and the personal safety of an operator is ensured.


Customs duties constitute a significant source of revenue for the Central government although its importance has declined over a period of time due to the liberalisation of the economy and the policy of progressively reducing import duties. This paper analyses the trends in import duties since Independence and examines the revenue significance of customs duties among indirect taxes. The paper also discusses the legislative framework with regard to customs duties to understand the various categories of customs duties that are in force in India.


Abstract Over the past 20 years, the use of non‐invasive hair snare surveys in wildlife research and management has become more prevalent. While these tools have been used to answer important research questions, these techniques often fail to gather information on elusive carnivores, such as bobcats (Lynx rufus). Due to the limited success of previous bobcat studies using hair snares which required active rubbing, this technique has largely fallen out of use, in favor of camera trapping. The goal of our study was to construct a novel, passive bobcat hair snare that could be deployed regardless of terrain or vegetation features, which would be effective for use in capture–recapture population estimation at a large spatial scale. This new hair snare was deployed in 1500 10‐km2 cells across West Virginia (USA) between two sampling seasons (2015–2016). Collected hair samples were analyzed with newly developed mitochondrial DNA primers specifically for felids and qPCR to determine species of origin, with enough sensitivity to identify samples as small as two bobcat hairs. Over the two years of the study, a total of 378 bobcat detections were recorded from 42,000 trap nights of sampling, for an overall rate of 0.9 detections/100 trap nights—nearly 2–6 times greater than any previous bobcat hair snare study. While the overall number of recaptured animals was low (n = 9), continued development of this platform should increase its usefulness in capture–recapture studies.


The invention relates to a friction motor spindle (10) having a housing (15) and a spindle (11), and having a bearing unit (13), which is provided for bearing the spindle (11), and also an electromotive drive (16) which is provided for directly driving the spindle (11), wherein a regulator assembly (19) for operating the electromotive drive (16) is arranged in or on the housing (15) of the friction motor spindle (10), and to a method for operating a friction motor spindle system comprising at least two friction motor spindles (10), in which system, according to the invention, at least one friction motor spindle (10) controls or regulates another friction motor spindle (10).


We discuss the relation between self-organized criticality and depinning transitions by mapping sandpile models to equations that describe driven interfaces in random media. This equivalence yields a continuum description and gives insight about various ways of reaching the depinning critical point: slow drive (self-organized criticality), fixed density simulations, tuning the interface velocity (extremal drive criticality), or tuning the driving force. We obtain a scaling relation for the correlation length exponent for sandpiles.


The growth-promoting activity in fruit extracts (38 kinds) was screened using cultured human-derived cells in serum-free medium. A human-human hybridoma cell line (HB 4 C 5) and a human promyelocytic leukemia cell line (HL 60) were cultured in ERDF medium and in ERDF medium supplemented with insulin, transferrin, ethanolamine and selenite. Extract of various fruits promoted the growth of HB 4 C 5 and HL 60 in serum-free medium with or without ITES. A higher growth-promoting activity on HB 4 C 5 cells was shown by the extracts of akebi, grapefruit, grape, plum (dry), mango, melon, litchi, and that on HL 60 was shown by extracts of akebi, kiwi fruit, pear, banana, grape, plum, mango and melon.


To investigate longitudinal changes of habitual physical activity (HPA) and sedentary time in children with cerebral palsy (CP) aged 1 year 6 months to 5 years across all functional abilities.


Clinical drug development activities in pulmonary fibrosis have been robust since the regulatory approval of pirfenidone and nintedinib. Most recently, these have produced the PINTA trial, a phase II randomised controlled trial of GLPG1205, a G-protein-coupled receptor antagonist in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) []. Unfortunately, there is little to cheer about. Despite a committed community of patients, providers, researchers and sponsors, we begin our second decade of the "anti-fibrotic" era without additional treatment options for this deadly disease. This is deeply, deeply disappointing and represents a failure of our field to address the needs of our patients. Clinical drug discovery in pulmonary fibrosis needs to evolve. Embedded trials, expedited approvals, and inclusive design are three important areas for change. https://bit.ly/3UUU5M7


Soil‐moisture patterns in floodplains are highly dynamic, owing to the complex relationships between soil properties, climatic conditions at the surface, and the position of the water table. Given this complexity, along with climate change scenarios in many regions, there is a need for a model to investigate the implications of different conditions on water availability to riparian vegetation. We present a model, HaughFlow, which is able to predict coupled water movement in the vadose and phreatic zones of hydraulically connected floodplains. Model output was calibrated and evaluated at six sites in Australia to identify key patterns in subsurface hydrology. This study identifies the importance of the capillary fringe in vadose zone hydrology due to its water storage capacity and creation of conductive pathways. Following peaks in water table elevation, water can be stored in the capillary fringe for up to months (depending on the soil properties). This water can provide a critical resource for vegetation that is unable to access the water table. When water table peaks coincide with heavy rainfall events, the capillary fringe can support saturation of the entire soil profile. HaughFlow is used to investigate the water availability to riparian vegetation, producing daily output of water content in the soil over decadal time periods within different depth ranges. These outputs can be summarized to support scientific investigations of plant‐water relations, as well as in management applications.


MINOR degrees of congenital uterine abnormality due to failure of fusion of part of the Miillerian duct system are very common. Hay (1958) estimated the incidence to be 10 per cent but the incidence varies with the criteria of normality. In minor variations from the normal, the deformity caused by endometrial carcinoma may obscure the congenital anomaly. However, complete failure of fusion of the uterine body (uterus bicornis) is obvious to the naked eye, and it is surprising how infrequently a deformity of this type co-existing with an endometrial carcinoma has been described. Occasional specimens are seen in pathological museums but there is in fact no previous record of a case in the British medical literature. Since major degrees of uterine abnormality are often found to be associated with infertility and low parity, it might be expected that endometrial carcinoma would be particularly likely to develop in abnormal uteri. (Table 1.) TABLE I


This paper performs a time-series and a fixed-effects panel data analysis to investigate the effect of economic policy uncertainty, caused by the Brexit referendum, on aggregate and sectoral-level FDI into the UK for the period 20102019. In general, on average, the number of M&A projects decreases by 1,041% after Brexit. A 1% increase of EPU will cause the number of M&A projects to decrease by 0,173% before Brexit; however, after the referendum, an 1% increase of EPU will cause the number of M&A projects to increase by 0,049%. A similar effect is observed on the sectoral model: On average, there are 12,45 less M&A projects per sector after Brexit than before. However, after Brexit, a 1% rise in EPU will result in a rise of 2,697 M&A projects. The positive moderating effect of Brexit can be attributed to firms' conceptions. The service sector consistently has a higher number of M&A disinvestment compared to the primary and manufacturing sectors. When EPU increases by 1%, the service sector has an average reduction of 0,639 M&A projects more than non-service sector. Banks and Insurance sector is the most affected by the referendum due to potential changes in the regulations regarding the EU market.


Abstract XRN1 is the major cytoplasmic exoribonuclease in eukaryotes, which degrades deadenylated and decapped mRNAs in the last step of the 5′–3′ mRNA decay pathway. Metazoan XRN1 interacts with decapping factors coupling the final stages of decay. Here, we reveal a direct interaction between XRN1 and the CCR4–NOT deadenylase complex mediated by a low-complexity region in XRN1, which we term the 'C-terminal interacting region' or CIR. The CIR represses reporter mRNA deadenylation in human cells when overexpressed and inhibits CCR4–NOT and isolated CAF1 deadenylase activity in vitro. Through complementation studies in an XRN1-null cell line, we dissect the specific contributions of XRN1 domains and regions toward decay of an mRNA reporter. We observe that XRN1 binding to the decapping activator EDC4 counteracts the dominant negative effect of CIR overexpression on decay. Another decapping activator PatL1 directly interacts with CIR and alleviates the CIR-mediated inhibition of CCR4–NOT activity in vitro. Ribosome profiling revealed that XRN1 loss impacts not only on mRNA levels but also on the translational efficiency of many cellular transcripts likely as a consequence of incomplete decay. Our findings reveal an additional layer of direct interactions in a tightly integrated network of factors mediating deadenylation, decapping and 5′–3′ exonucleolytic decay.


In this note we consider situations of (multidimensional) spatial majority voting. We show that under some assumptions usual in this literature, with an even number of voters if the core of the voting situation is singleton (and in the interior of the policy space) then the element in the core is never a Condorcet winner. This is in sharp contrast with what happens with an odd number of voters: in that case, under identical assumptions, it is well known that if the core of the voting situation is non-empty then the single element in the core is the Condorcet winner as well.


Background: Hyperglycemia is an important predictor of prolonged hospitalization and mortality. The objective of this study was to analyze the role of early hyperglycemia in predicting the severity of COVID-19 illness and mortality. Method: Retrospective study on 259 patients with COVID-19 with measurement of average glucose during 24 hours of admission. Association of Early Hyperglycemia categorized as <180 mg/dl or >180 mg/dl; was studied with mortality, requirement of ICU stay and prognostic markers. Results: Early hyperglycemia (>180 mg/dl) revealed a higher median value for CRP (109 mg/l [IQR; 48 - 199]) in comparison to <180 mg/dl group (86 mg/l [IQR; 26.3 - 153]) p = 0.03. ICU stay was higher in >180 mg/dl group; 24 (15.9%) vs 14 patients (13%) [p = 0.51] in the <180 mg/dl group. Mortality in the group > 180 mg/dl was 8 (5.3%) while <180 mg/dl had a mortality rate of 4 (3.7%) [p = 0.547]. Conclusion: Hyperglycemia in the first 24 hours may anticipate an increased risk of ICU stay and a higher mortality rate. It may be a possible predictor of disease severity.


The main goal of this paper is to introduce the notion of twisted partial action of groupoids. We generalize the theorem about the existence of an enveloping action, also known as the globalization theorem, and show that the crossed products of the twisted partial action and of its associated twisted global action are Morita equivalent. Finally, we generalize the concepts of partial projective representation and partial Schur multiplier for a groupoid, and we show the interaction between groupoid partial projective representions and groupoid twisted partial actions. 2010 AMS Subject Classification: Primary 20L05, 16S35. Secondary 20C25.