Aim: Acute appendicitis scores have been developed to better analyze the symptoms and signs of acute appendicitis. In this study, we compared the success rates of different scoring systems with imaging methods in the diagnostic confirmation of acute appendicitis. Materials and Methods: Patients aged above 18 years, who presented to the emergency department with right lower quadrant pain and were suspected to have acute appendicitis, were prospectively and observationally evaluated. The demographic characteristics, imaging modalities, Alvarado score, acute inflammatory response score, and adult appendicitis score were assessed. Results: 237 patients, 46.8% female and 53.2% male, mean age of 34±13 (18-95) years. Appendectomy was performed in 144 (61%) patients with a prediagnosis of acute appendicitis. The pathological results were appendiceal cancer in two patients, lymphoid hyperplasia in 12, and acute appendicitis in 130. Imaging methods were found to be more specific than scores, and positive predictive values in scoring systems were more sensitive than imaging methods in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Conclusion: There is still no effective and guiding scoring system for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Due to the low negative predictive values of the available scoring systems, patients should be evaluated with detailed anamnesis, examination and laboratory findings, and computed tomography should be performed if there is clinical suspicion of acute appendicitis.


To avoid poor appearance of lossless visible watermarks due to gray level flipping existence in some previous work,we propose two embedding methods capable of completely reconstructing the host image with satisfactory visual quality. The first calculates exclusive-OR between the image's MSB plane and the binary watermark. The other method uses a bit-shift strategy to push down high bits of the mark-covered pixels,and replaces the MSB with the mark data,making the watermark semi-transparent and other image areas completely transparent. The watermark can be embedded into any position of the carrier image with any size. Both methods can losslessly reconstruct the host image without knowing the watermark information.


By means of core observation,statistics of pore,hole and fraction,logging,and diagenesis,researches are carried out,indicating that the reservoir space types and property of the weathering crust of the Yingshan Formation are different among different structures in the Yubei area. The superposition of multi- period karst took place in the weathering crust of the north-east trending structure in the Yubei area,and the reservoir spaces such as cave,hole and fracture developed,showing good reservoir property. In the Pingtai area and the Yudong fault depression,only the middle Caledonian stage Ⅰ karsts generated with poorer reservoir property,mainly of fractures and weak solution pores. Because of dolomitization,bedding solution pore and fracture reservoirs deve-loped in karst insider of the lower member of the Yingshan Formation,and pores and holes occurred alone,showing poor connectivity and no /half filling( oil or calcite). The evolution models of the Yingshan Formation karst reservoirs were established. And the tectonic movement of the middle- late Caledonian and early Hercynian controlled ancient landform and influenced the karst reservoir development in the Yabei area.


This paper reports the development of a differential pressure sensor with a geometrical structure accommodating dual diaphragms fixed with cantilever operated mechatronic pickup. Thin metallic spherical diaphragms of shallow shell configuration are employed to yield larger drift resulting in increased sensitivity. The cantilevers are excited electromechanically as to produce vibrations and the frequencies of vibrations are determined by picking up signals with orthogonally arranged opto-couplers linked to the cantilever strips. With each frequency determined a lookup table is referred to obtain the pressure acting on each diaphragm. Then, the average pressure acting on two diaphragms and the differential pressure are computed. They are transmitted digitally and also as analogue currents. With improved performance this pressure sensor would be very much useful for measurement of relatively heavy pneumatic pressure.


A pixel cell array architecture having multiple pixel cells with pixel cell components are shared. Individual pixel cell architecture increases the fill factor and quantum efficiency of the pixel cell. Common pixel cell components may be shared by a number of pixels in the array may include several components associated with the read signal from the pixel cell. Other examples of the pixel array architecture having improved fill factor for pixels in the array includes a transfer gate angled, and the capacitors are shared efficiently arranged and. .FIELD 4


Although the word"not"is an easy negative word,its role in a sentence can't be understated.Our understanding of it will directly influence our understanding of the sentence with it.The article analyzes and illustrates the various usage of the word"not"and its different implications in sentences by the means of providing exact examples.


Issue: Practitioners of psychopharmacology can become highly effective by developing the habit of becoming proactive rather than reactive to the forces that play upon their practices. Furthermore, being understood by patients can enhance outcomes, especially if patients realize that side effects may come first before therapeutic actions and that a treatment plan can be developed in which both the prescriber and the patient can win.


Software and software development are extremely complex. We should not expect to measure something so complex with one, two, or even a dozen measures. Measures have to be developed to allow us to view software from many perspectives. To facilitate this process, this paper builds on taxonomies proposed by [1] and [16] that not only allows us to classify measures but also helps us model the object-oriented space. In this paper, as per [8], a metric is any proposed measurement (not necessarily validated); a measure is a validated metric, i.e., all measures are metrics but not all metrics are measures.


In this paper, for the first time, we report a nonmonotonic dependence of the snapback voltage (Vsb) on the buried oxide thickness (tBOX) in silicon-on-insulator laterally double-diffused MOS (SOI-LDMOS) transistors. Step-by-step analysis of this effect is carried out by decoupling the self-heating and impact-ionization effects that cause the turning ON of the parasitic bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and subsequently the snapback effect. It is observed that for LDMOS transistors with low tBOX, Vsb increases with increase in tBOX due to reduction in drain current density as well as reduced impact ionization at higher lattice temperature. On the other hand, for high tBOX, Vsb reduces with the increase in tBOX due to early switching ON of the parasitic BJT at higher temperature. Therefore, it is possible to find an optimum value of tBOX to obtain the highest Vsb for an SOI-LDMOS transistor. An interesting observation is that with proper choice of tBOX, the safe operating area in SOI-LDMOS can be more than that of the corresponding bulk-LDMOS. A physics-based compact model is developed and implemented in Verilog-A. When compared with the Technology Computer Aided Design simulated results, our model exhibits high level of accuracy.


Consider an unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV) multi-agent system. A UAV agent is aware of the destination or goal to be achieved, its own quantitative or qualitative, of encountering enemy defenses in the region. Each agent plans its moves in order to maximize the chances of reaching the target before the required task completion time (see Fig. 1). The plans are developed based on the negotiations between different UAVs in the region with the overall goal in mind. The model is actually motivated by another large research project related to multi-agent systems. The information about enemy defenses can be communicated between UAVs and they can negotiate about the paths to be taken based on their resources, such as fuel, load, available time to complete the task and the information about the threat. In this system, we can also model the behavior of enemy defenses as independent agents, with known or unknown strategies. Each enemy defense site or gun has a probability of destroying a UAV in a neighborhood. The UAVs have an expectation of the location of enemy defenses, which is further refined as more information becomes available during the flight or from other UAVs. To successfully achieve the goal with a high probability, the UAVs need to select a good plan based on coordination and negotiation between each other. One paper dealing with this model is Atkins et al. (Atkins et al., 1996), which considered an agent capable of safe, fully-automated aircraft flight control from takeoff through landing. To build and execute plans that yield a high probability of successfully reaching the specified goals, the authors used state probabilities to guide a planner along highly-probable goal paths instead of low-probability states. Some probabilistic planning algorithms are also developed by the other researchers. Kushmerick et al. (Kushmerick et al., 1994) concentrate on probabilistic properties of actions that may be controlled by the agent, not external events. Events can occur over time without explicit provocation by the agent, and are generally less predictable than state changes due to actions. Atkins et al. (Atkins et al., 1996) presented a method by which local state probabilities are estimated from action delays and temporally-dependent event probabilities, then used to select highly probable goal paths and remove improbable states. The authors implemented these algorithms in the Cooperative Intelligent Real-time Control Architecture (CIRCA). CIRCA combines an AI planner, scheduler performance for controlling complex real-world systems (Musliner et al., 1995). CIRCA's planner is based on the philosophy that building a plan to handle all world


ejd.2011.1408 Auteur(s) : Martin Inzinger email@example.com, Birger Krlsquanke, Barbara Binder Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 8, A-8036 Graz, Austria Malnutrition, a global problem, seems to be uncommon in industrialized countries. However, physicians should be familiar with the symptoms and clinical signs of nutritional deficiencies to facilitate diagnosis. The skin is often one of the first organs affected and can lead to the diagnosis. An [...]


In order to identify the short-circuit fault of high-voltage transmission lines fast and accurately, a novel method for fault detection and phase selection is discussed. Based on shift invariant features of sinusoidal signals after matrix transformations,applying matrix transformation function with 4 sampling points ultra-short data window, the short-circuit fault is detected by dynamic sliding window. The sampling values of each phase current and voltage are used to calculate their K values after short-time dynamic denoising, through comparison of the K value and the threshold, the fault type is identified. A short-circuit fault model of 220 kV dual-source power transmission system is established in MATLAB/Simulink environment, simulation results show that the method has high sensitivity and reliability and it can accurately identify the short-circuit fault under different conditions, theoretically, the time of fault detection and phase selection does not exceed 5 ms.


There has been a heated debate between the two schools of arbitrariness and iconicity of linguistic signs in China since 1980s,which has made the study of this field become a hot issue in the domestic linguistic world. The paper attempts to review and summarize the focal issues and consensus between the two schools in the last 15 years. And finally some suggestions comerning these issues are also provided.


The complex of miniature plastic arts from the Bronze Age burial at the Tourist-2 settlement (Novosibirsk) is unique. Mobile art objects are anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, made in a single peculiar iconographic manner, called the «Krohalevsky» style. Here we present the first radiocarbon dates from this settlement. The obtained dates can be later used for the cultural and chronological attribution of other images close to the figurative manner.


We introduce high-harmonic sideband spectroscopy (HHSS) and show that it can be a robust probe of attosecond charge migration (CM) in a halogenated carbon-chain molecule. We simulate both the CM and harmonic-generation (HHG) dynamics using ab initio time-dependent density-functional theory. We find that CM dynamics initiated along the molecular backbone induces sidebands in the HHG spectrum driven by a delayed laser pulse that is polarized perpendicular to the molecular axis. Monitoring the spectrum as either the HHG laser frequency or the relative delay is scanned allows for the extraction of detailed information about the time-domain characteristics of the CM process.


Intestinal malrotation is diagnosed and treated mostly in infancy and childhood, but it is rarely encountered in adults. Here, we present a case of adult intestinal malrotation with cocoon deformit...


Among rural-to-urban migrants in Peru, the concept of "improving oneself" (superar) refers to the process of overcoming poverty through dedicated efforts at self-improvement. This individual effort is situated as a moral act, occurring within a relational web of persons who should also benefit. It is described as a family project and a moral imperative for young people, and they internalize their role in this group effort. The concept is the economic, social, and moral foundation of the kinship strategy of child circulation, a practice in which children grow up outside of their natal homes. "Improving oneself" is a reason for relocating children into the homes of better-off urban relatives, as well as the justification for placing children with less-well-off rural relatives so that a parent can pursue the same goal.


A screening test was done to isolate microorganisms producing a highly specific fructokinase. A specific phosphorylative activity toward fructose was found in a cell homogenate of a bacterium, KN-21, newly isolated from a soil sample. The enzyme was isolated from the sonicated cells as a homogeneous preparation. The purified enzyme was composed of two identical subunits (37 kDa). The Kms for ATP and fructose were estimated to be 7.0 x 10−4 M and 1.0 x 10−3 M, respectively. The enzyme specifically phosphorylated fructose. The use of the enzyme as an analytical reagent was also investigated.


Aflatoxins are poisons which contaminate key African staple crops such as groundnuts and maize. They are produced by a group of soil fungi that infect growing crops, particularly when the plants are stressed by heat and drought. The toxins also accumulate during postharvest storage and handling of produce with higher, unsafe moisture levels. In 2004, it was estimated that more than 4.5 billion people worldwide are chronically exposed to aflatoxins through dietary sources. These poisons cause liver cancer and death, and have been linked to stunted growth in children and immune suppression. Aflatoxins are likely to be a contributing factor in the 4.5 million deaths of children under 5 in subSaharan Africa. In Europe and North America, extensive regulations limit dissemination of products that may contain these toxins through market channels for consumer protection. This results in high trade losses for African countries in key exports such as groundnuts and maize.


The ongoing outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa is the largest outbreak ever recorded with a total number of 28,602 confirmed, probable, or suspected cases in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, including 11,301 reported deaths since December 2013 (as of January 17, 2016).1 A meeting convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in September, 2014, concluded that an urgent unmet need exists for efficacy and safety testing of the EVD vaccine candidates and that clinical trials should be expedited. These vaccines could be used both in an outbreak setting and to provide long-term protection in populations at risk of sporadic outbreaks.


The method and device are used for the separation of a gas mixture in a separation plant. A feed gas (18) in a compressor system (6, 16) and then introduced into the separation plant. In case of failure or partial failure of the compressor system (6, 16) of the first feed gas compressor (6), a first auxiliary power (91, 92) which has approximately the composition of the first product stream or approximately the composition of the feed gas, such as compressed the first pressure at least on (78, 89) and recirculated to the separation plant.


Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive primary brain cancer, with a median survival of 16 months. A subset of cells within these tumours, termed glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs), displays high tumourigenic capacity and resistance to conventional therapies, and are responsible for tumour recurrence. Glioblastomas have been initially shown to mainly rely on glycolysis as a source of energy. However, a growing body of literature reports that GSCs are less glycolytic than their differentiated progeny and can thrive on oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) to survive, sustain stemness and fuel tumourigenic potential. Thus, targeting OXPHOS could be a promising strategy to halt energy production and starve GSCs to death. However, under metabolic stress, GSCs can also switch to a more glycolytic phenotype, suggesting a metabolic plasticity in GSCs, and thus adding a layer of complexity to target GSC metabolism. In the current study, we have investigated the impact of compound X (CX), recently shown to impair mitochondrial respiration, on the fate and tumourigenesis of GSCs.

 Multiple patient-derived and murine GSC models were used to test the impact of CX on GSCs in vitro. The effect of CX on glioblastoma tumors was evaluated using patient-derived xenografts and syngeneic mouse models.

 We have established that CX inhibits GSC proliferation and impairs stemness-related pathways in vitro. CX delays glioblastoma tumourigenesis in vivo. While a drastic decrease in cell proliferation was observed, cell death assays revealed that CX does not induce cell death. This suggests that GSCs gain a slow-cycling phenotype to resist energy depletion. Mechanistically, we have established that CX targets complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, leading to an impairment of OXPHOS. Interestingly, inhibition of OXPHOS by CX was associated with an extensive production of extracellular lactate, indicating that at least, a subset of GSCs gain metabolic adaptability by co-opting glycolysis to survive. Thus, to tackle this metabolic plasticity in GSCs, we adopted a new strategy that involves sequestration of the lactic acid intracellularly via disruption of lactate transporters. Treatment of GSCs with monocarboxylate transporter inhibitors, AZD3965 and syrosingopine, alone did not significantly impact GSC growth and viability. Strikingly, combined CX treatment with either AZD3965 or syrosingopine resulted in high intracellular lactate buildup, increased reactive oxygen species, and led to drastic cell lethality in multiple GSC models.

 This study highlights that re-routing the OXPHOS-dependent GSCs to glycolysis offers a vulnerability to sensitize GSCs to cell death. Dual inhibition of OXPHOS and lactate export could be a promising therapeutic approach to deplete malignant GSCs and suppress glioblastoma tumourigenesis.


The scope of this letter is to show the applicability of the Twisted String Actuators (TSAs) for lightweight, wearable and assistive robotic applications. To this aim, we have developed a novel surface electromyography (sEMG)-driven soft ExoSuit using the TSAs to perform both single and dual-arm elbow assistive applications. The proposed ExoSuit, with an overall weight of 1650 g, uses a pair of TSAs mounted in the back of the user, connected via tendons to the user's forearms to actuate each arm independently for supporting external loads. We confirm this new light-weight and customizable wearable solution via multiple user studies based on the biceps and tricep' sEMG measurements. We demonstrate that user's muscles can automatically activate and regulate the TSAs and compensate for the user's effort: by using our controller based on a Double Threshold Strategy (DTS) with a standard PID regulator, we report that the system was able to limit the biceps' sEMG activity under an arbitrary target threshold, compensating a muscular activity equal to 220% (related to a single arm 3 kg load) and 110% (related to a dual arm 4 kg load) of the threshold value itself. Moreover, the triceps' sEMG signal detects the external load and, depending on the threshold, returns the system to the initial state where it requires no assistance from the ExoSuit. The experimental results show the proposed ExoSuit's capabilities in both single and dual-arm load compensation tasks. Therefore, the applicability of the TSAs is experimentally demonstrated for a real-case assistive device, fostering future studies and developments of this kind of actuation strategy for wearable robotic systems.


Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a pathology frequently causing mortality or serious sequelae. About 20% of individuals with TBI will have some degree of auditory alteration. The aim of the present study was to use behavioural and electrophysiological assessments to analyse the hearing of a patient with TBI. Case report: A young male adult who had suffered severe TBI caused by a motorcycle accident was evaluated. The patient underwent a peripheral hearing evaluation and electrophysiological assessment. Pure tone audiometry revealed profound sensorineural hearing loss in the left ear and normal hearing in the right. In the electrophysiological assessment, an ABR click test showed the presence of a response in the right ear at 80 dB HL but no response in the left ear at 90 dB HL. Evaluation of the Middle Latency Response revealed the presence of both an electrode effect (C3) and an ear effect (A1). The P300 wave showed an event-related potential within normal limits in the right ear and no responses in the left. Conclusions: The present case study verifies the importance of assessing the peripheral and central auditory nervous system in cases of patients with a history of TBI. It reinforces the need for diagnosis and audiological monitoring of these patients.


The article reviews studies on the effects of raising the alcohol purchase age. The studies have been limited to the effects on motor vehicle crashes, and they vary greatly in quality. It was found that the alcohol purchase age is one important way to reduce the problem of alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes: it reduces the problem somewhat in one high-risk but small segment of the popuulation but by no means eliminates the problem in this group. Other countermeasures directed at the problem among both teenagers and adults are needed. It is important that programs directed against drinking and driving among all age groups be continued and strengthened. It is also important to develop and evaluate policies specific to high-risk groups such as teenagers. An example of such a policy is the night driving curfew for teenagers in some states.


tent relationship to all parties as an independent outsider and even as "heretic" (his own famous self-description); his financial support for social democrats and especially for the Bolsheviks; his outspoken criticism of oppressive and dehumanizing conditions under the autocracy; his scandal-plagued mission to the United States in 1906; his efforts to promote European culture in Russia, especially among the lower classes whose cultural backwardness was one of Gor'kii's lifelong preoccupations; his fervent moral and cultural critique of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917-1918; his sympathetic but critical relationship to Soviet politics as an "exile" in western Europe in the 1920s; and finally his return and transformation into a panegyrist of Iosif Stalin's order (even, most notoriously, of forced labor). Yedlin is fair-minded and judicious in exploring these often difficult and controversial moments in Gor'kii's political life. She considers alternative interpretations, offers the most reasonable explanations, and honestly admits when contradictions cannot be resolved or the drive to explain must stop before the opacity of the evidence. Indeed, she acknowledges that while the facts of Gor'kii's political life are now clear, many of the "whys" remain in darkness. Although I admire Yedlin's emphasis on uncertainty and irresolvable contradiction, I admit to a certain frustration with other, self-imposed, interpretive limits. Yedlin tells us at the outset that she will not look at Gor'kii as "philosopher" or as "literary artist" and will touch upon his religious thinking only lightiy. But can Gor'kii's philosophical and literary writings be separated from his political thinking? Are not the explanations for Gor'kii's political choices to be found precisely in these sidestepped "philosophical" questions? In practice, fortunately, Yedlin does not completely ignore the complex ideas that helped to shape Gor'kii's political thinking and activities. Indeed, as she seeks to explain Gor'kii's politics, she mentions many important themes in his thought, such as the centrality of the individual self to political ethics, the need to overcome Russia's traditional "Oriental" culture, the danger posed by the Russian peasant to national progress, the essential place of emotion in knowledge about the world, and the need (often painfully unsuccessful in Gor'kii's own inward struggles) to combat pessimism with optimism and faith. Yedlin makes note of these and other ideas, which were essential to the construction of Gor'kii's politics, but she does not elaborate much on them. She tends to offer simple and useful, if superficial, summaries of many of the moral and intellectual notions that shaped Gor'kii's ideas about society and politics. And yet she also points toward deeper waters, although she chooses not to explore these. Her interpretive hints in this direction, however, are often quite compelling. When, for example, she cites Gor'kii's sense of estrangement from the common people he supposedly spoke for in his art, notes his persistent uncertainty about balancing the twin values of self and society, or quotes his friend Romain Rolland writing in 1935 that "the chorale [of enthusiasm for Stalinism] is there to deafen a groan which comes from his inner self," she points toward levels of analysis that will certainly reward further study. This book, an excellent survey of Gor'kii's political life and thinking, enriched with a wonderful selection of quotations from Gor'kii and from those who knew him, is a valuable step toward a full understanding of this exceptionally central and appropriately complex figure in Russia's dramatic, and often traumatic, historical experience of the first half of the twentieth century.


Background: Self-defining memories (SDMs) are key memories that describe how a person has come to be the person they currently are. Key events in one's life, and the way that they are recalled can have a dramatic impact on sense of self, and this can contribute to depression. Therefore understanding SDMs and the processes that affect their recall is of important clinical value. This research extends Singer et al.'s (2007) research by examining OAs with depression.

Research questions: This study examined the characteristics of depressed and non-depressed OAs SDMs along the dimensions of content, affective valence, memory specificity and the ability to derive meaning from memories. Additionally, the study explored contributors to overgeneral memory by measuring cognitive avoidance and assessing metacognitive factors in meaning making ability.

Methods: A cross-sectional between groups study of 16 depressed and 19 non-depressed OAs. Participants completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30, the White Bear Suppression Inventory, the Self-defining Memory Task and the Self-defining Memory Rating Sheet. The groups were reasonably well matched on demographic variables except for education, gender and physical health problems.

Results: Depressed OAs recalled fewer specific memories than non-depressed OAs and were less able to derive meaning from their memories. However, when years of education was controlled for in a partial correlation, the correlations between depression scores, memory specificity and meaning making ability were no longer significant. Cognitive avoidance was not significantly correlated with memory specificity and metacognition was not significantly correlated with meaning making ability.

Conclusions: These results are broadly consistent with previous studies of overgeneral memory in individuals with depression. The results raise the possibility that years of education also contributed to the differences between the two groups and so potential interpretations of this finding are also presented. None of the psychological mechanisms investigated were significantly correlated with memory specificity or integrative meaning. Larger samples and demographically matched groups are required to conduct mediation analyses on factors influencing over general memory and meaning making ability in SDMs.
Keywords: Depression; self-defining memories; memory specificity; avoidance; and metacognition.


Background Heart failure (HF) and type 2 DM are considered nowadays two epidemic diseases. 1, 2 Although DM is considered a risk factor for the occurrence of heart failure and greatly increases the risk of worse outcomes, morbidity and mortality once heart failure develops. 3,4 the mechanism is less well understood. Heart failure can be described as a state of insulin resistance but the underlying mechanisms are not clear yet. 5 Diabetic cardiomyopathy can be defined as myocardial disease in patients having DM that cannot be related to any other known cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as hypertension and coronary heart disease. Many changes can affect the structure and function of the heart in patients with diabetic cardiomyopathy. Therefore patients with diabetes are liable to develop heart failure even early in the course of the disease. 6 The spectrum of disease varies, ranging from subclinical left ventricular (LV) diastolic and systolic dysfunction, to overt systolic dysfunction in advanced disease. 7 Rubler and colleagues published the earliest report about diabetic cardiomyopathy, after performing a postmortem study in patients with DM and HF without an evidence of hypertension or coronary heart disease. 8 Many studies confirmed the relation between DM and HF; however no studies were conducted in Egypt studying either cardiac function in patients with DM without hypertension or ischemic heart disease, the effect of diabetes duration or diabetes control. Methods A case control study included 190 patients 60 years old and above recruited from Ain-shams University Abstract


A method is described for the quantitative determination of organophosphorus insecticides and six dialkyl phosphate metabolites in animal tissues. The procedure relies on solvent extraction, automated gel permeation chromatography cleanup, and gas chromatographic analysis with flame photometric detection. Tetrabutylammonium hydroxide is utilized as the derivatization reagent for dialkyl phosphate metabolite analysis. Method detection limits ranged from 0.02 to 0.05 ppm for the compounds studied. The method was applied to the analysis of liver and kidney samples of pigeons exposed to diazinon and parathion. Residue levels were confirmed by mass spectrometry, using selected ion monitoring.


Objective: to evaluate the care provided by a team of the Family Health Unit (FHU) to patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Method: descriptive study performed in the Family Health Strategy Nossa Senhora das Graças, Campo Grande/MS. The study population comprised members of the FHS with DM who were hospitalized. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, CAAE 01679512.9.0000.0021. Data were described and analyzed and the discussion was made in light of the literature. Results: we identified 118 diabetic patients registered and one hospitalized for complications due to diabetic foot, with an expected hospitalization rate for this population of 0.58/118. Conclusions: the evaluation process of health services should be permanent, with increase of time analyzed and data collected in order to maintain satisfactory assistance to the assisted population. Descriptors: Diabetes Mellitus; Evaluation; Family Health Strategy. RESUMO Objetivo: avaliar a assistência prestada por uma equipe da Unidade Básica de Saúde da Família (UBSF) aos pacientes com Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Método: estudo descritivo realizado na ESF Nossa Senhora das Graças, Campo Grande/MS. A população estudada foi composta por usuários da ESF portadores de DM que foram internados. O projeto de pesquisa foi aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética e Pesquisa, CAAE 01679512.9.0000.0021. Os dados foram descritos e analisados e a discussão foi feita à luz da literatura. Resultados: identificou-se 118 pacientes diabéticos cadastrados e um internado por complicações devido ao pé diabético, sendo a taxa de internação esperada para esta população de 0,58/118. Conclusões: o processo de avaliação dos serviços de saúde deve ser permanente, com o aumento do tempo analisado e dos dados coletados, a fim de manter a assistência satisfatória à população assistida. Descritores: Diabetes Mellitus; Avaliação; Estratégia de Saúde da Família. RESUMEN Objetivo: evaluar la asistencia prestada por un equipo de la Unidad Básica de Salud de la Familia (UBSF) a los pacientes con Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Método: estudio descriptivo realizado en la ESF Nossa Senhora das Graças, Campo Grande/MS. La población estudiada fue compuesta por usuarios de la ESF portadores de DM que fueron internados. El proyecto de investigación fue aprobado por el Comité de Ética e Investigación, CAAE 01679512.9.0000,0021. Los datos fueron descriptos y analizados y la discusión fue hecha a la luz de la literatura. Resultados: Se identificaron 118 pacientes diabéticos registrados en un internado por complicaciones debido al pie diabético, siendo la tasa esperada para ésta población de 0,58/118. Conclusiones: el proceso de evaluación de los servicios de salud debe ser permanente, con el aumento del tiempo analizado y de los datos recogidos, a fin de mantener la asistencia satisfactoria a la población asistida. Descriptores: Diabetes Mellitus, Evaluación, Estrategia de Salud de la Familia. Nurse, PhD Professor, Department of Nursing, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul/UFMS. Campo Grande (MS), Brazil. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com; Nurse, Specialist in Health Services Management, School of Public Health of Mato Grosso do Sul/UFMS. Campo Grande (MS), Brazil. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com; Nurse, Master of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Facilitator of Teaching and Learning Process, Clinical Management Specialization Course for Unified Health Services Hospitals, Institute of Education and Research Sírio-Libanês Hospital in São Paulo. São Paulo (SP), Brazil. E-mail: email@example.com; Nurse, Master, PhD Student, Graduate Nursing Program, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte/UFRN/Natal/RN). Natal (RN), Brazil. E-mail: email@example.com; Nurse, Master Student, Graduate Nursing Program, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte/UFRN/Natal/RN). Natal (RN), Brazil. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com; Nurse. PhD Professor, Graduate Nursing Program, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte/UFRN. Natal(RN), Brazil. E-mail: email@example.com ORIGINAL ARTICLE Cheade MFM, Alencar TVR de, Cardoso AIQ et al. Tracer condition for analysis of attention... English/Portuguese J Nurs UFPE on line., Recife, 9(2):558-64, Feb., 2015 559 ISSN: 1981-8963 DOI: 10.5205/reuol.7028-60723-1-SM.0902201510 Over the last thirty years, there has been a profound change in the morbidity and mortality profile of the Brazilian population. Currently, there is high prevalence of diseases and deaths due to chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), among them, diabetes mellitus (DM), which today constitutes a pandemic. Diabetes and Hypertension are in first place as responsible for deaths, hospitalizations and lower limb amputations. It is estimated there are in Brazil about 7.8 million adults diagnosed with diabetes.1 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder resulting from defects in insulin secretion and/or defects in insulin action. It is characterized by hyperglycemia manifested by symptoms such as polyuria, polydipsia, weight loss, blurred vision or acute complications that may be life-threatening.2 The prevalence of DM has increased due to aging population, greater urbanization, growth of obesity, sedentary lifestyle and increased survival of diabetic patients. For this reason, the adoption of preventive measures is a priority for global public health in order to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality by DM. It is estimated that in 1995 the DM reached 4% of the adult population worldwide and that by 2025 it will reach the amount of 5.4% of diabetic people.3 In 2011, the Municipal Health Network of Campo Grande totaled the record of 21,193 diabetic people in the health units of Primary Care. DM is considered a major public health problem in Brazil, and has assumed alarming proportions of prevalence, with about 7.6% for the population aged between 30 and 69 years old and 20% for the elderly population with 70 years old or more. It is responsible for complications that can lead to serious health problems, representing a socioeconomic burden to the annual health budget. Estimates of direct cost to Brazil are around 3.9 billion dollars, whereas for Argentina this represents 0.8 billion and 2 billion to Mexico. This situation justifies the growing concern for the control and prevention of this disease and its complications, which are expressed by the increasing morbidity and mortality rates and the consequences of disabilities that this disease causes to the affected patient. Most of these complications could be avoided with preventive measures, implemented through health programs for the control of DM or its acute and chronic complications. Adequate care to DM patients in primary care reduces adverse economic effects caused by hospitalizations, sequelae and complications. Research on hospitalization for diabetes complications assists as an indicator of the effectiveness of health care and interventions implemented. Government spending exclusively on hospitalizations attributable to DM is significant, representing 2.2% of the budget implemented by the Ministry of Health. Various strategies and actions are being taken with the aim of reducing the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases in the population. The implementation of the Family Health Strategy (ESF) as a priority of Primary Care favors access to the multi-sectoral and integrated measures that the approach of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) requires for its conformation and different work process.1 The Family Health teams work with health promotion, prevention, recovery, rehabilitation of more frequent diseases and disorders, in addition to maintaining the health of the population under their responsibility. It is characterized, among others, for intervening on the risk factors to which the community is exposed and for providing comprehensive, permanent and quality care to the population. It has been growing in Brazil, in recent decades, initiatives to institutionalize health evaluation as a result of the intention to give rationality to sectoral interventions, by evaluating actions, services and facilities, and also programs, systems and health policies. The evaluation of health services is a management and planning tool based on an explicit and dynamic judgment in order to trigger a movement of transformation in practices and services towards a previously desired quality. Assessors need to be proactive in this process, rescuing the ideals and principles of the SUS, in order to integrate the expanded concept of completeness as a social action resulting from democratic interaction between the actors in their everyday practice in health care provision in the different attention levels of the system. "Tracer Condition" is a technique used to evaluate the quality of health care through the evaluation of the care given to a set of conditions or diseases. It is included in the analysis the resolution, proper use of complementary tests, opportunity of actions, access to medicines and other health care levels. The Tracer Condition is a frequent health condition assisted routinely in health services. Its use, as valuation technique, allows us to INTRODUCTION Cheade MFM, Alencar TVR de, Cardoso AIQ et al. Tracer condition for analysis of attention... English/Portuguese J Nurs UFPE on line., Recife, 9(2):558-64, Feb., 2015 560 ISSN: 1981-8963 DOI: 10.5205/reuol.7028-60723-1-SM.0902201510 detect problems and bottlenecks in health care paid to a given population. Because of the relevance of DM and its complications, the differentiated work proposed to be performed by the Family Health Teams and the managerial role in the control and evaluation of health actions, this work aims to analyze the care provided to diabetic patients in the coverage area of the FHS through the Tracer Condition, whose variable to be investigated is the hospitalization for complications of diabetes and its causes. This was a descriptive study, performed in the city of Campo Gran


We report laboratory measurements of oscillator strengths for 44 transitions in the Mn T spectrum covering the wavelength range 209-2780 nm. Nine energy level lifetimes have been measured using time resolved laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). The lifetimes have been combined with branching fractions measured by Fourier transform spectroscopy to obtain absolute oscillator strengths. In total, 24 of these oscillator strengths are measured for the first time, including transitions in the previously unobserved infrared region above 2.0 mu m.


Abstract Forage production for white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus is often limited in closed-canopy forests. We measured browse production and nutritional carrying capacity after prescribed burning and understory fertilization in closed-canopy hardwood stands one growing season after treatment in two physiographic regions of Tennessee. Nutritional carrying capacity estimates for prescribed burning, fertilization, and prescribed burning with fertilization were greater than in controls on the Cumberland Plateau. However, the cost per pound of forage produced after fertilization exceeded US$26. In the Coastal Plain, fertilization did not affect nutritional carrying capacity, and prescribed burning and prescribed burning with fertilization lowered nutritional carrying capacity from controls. At both sites, prescribed fire had minimal effect on soil pH or soil phosphate and potash levels. Our results suggest prescribed fire and fertilization are of limited utility for increasing browse production in clos...


The authors introduce the use of the Tabu search method to guide the Sanchis (1989) multi-way interchange algorithm and improve the initial generated partition given by the eigenvector model. The combination of Tabu search and Sanchis interchange algorithm gives rise to a powerful hybrid algorithm. Good initial partitions obtained by the numerical eigenvector method allow the iterative improvement method under the guidance of Tabu search to refine that initial partition quality in a reasonable amount of time, thus reducing the computational time and enhancing the solution quality. Results obtained indicate that the quality of solutions and running time of this method are superior to results obtained from random starting points.


This article explores what it means to be a Punjabi Sikh man in an era of transnational migration. I look at how Sikh men from India access global migrant flows and negotiate the formal and informal sets of requirements for moving across national boundaries. Upon learning that different travel itineraries necessitate different embodied practices, what kinds of transformations do migrant men undergo? In anticipation of transnational travel, Sikh migrants often cut their hair. Yet, many continue wearing their turbans from time to time, especially when returning to their familial homes in rural Punjab. Detached from its traditional association with Kesh (unshorn hair), the turban as mobilized by Sikh migrant men no longer simply represents an emblem of Sikh identity. Rather it operates as a flexible symbol of cultural citizenship and gendered belonging, an integral part of the process by which these migrants reincorporate themselves into the landscape of their homeland.


This study collected data on the evacuation from Hurricane Lili to answer questions about households' reliance on information sources, the factors affecting their decisions to evacuate, the timing of their hurricane evacuation decisions, and the time it took them to prepare to evacuate. The results replicated previous findings on the sources of hazard information, evacuation concerns, and the timing of evacuation decisions. In addition, they provide new information about evacuation preparation times and the finding that household characteristics are uncorrelated with evacuation decision times or evacuation preparation times.


Organic marketing is a phenomenon which is rapidly gaining importance in last few years. The paper has made anendeavor to understand the customerawarenesswith reference to organic manufactured goods and marketing in city Patiala, as well the behavior of consumer. Quantitative data is collected by data collection by questionnaire survey method consisting of structured questions which are only targeted to organic consumers This paper draws on sample of 100 respondents heading towardsinvestigate the attitudes and behaviour of consumers of Patiala towards organic food products.The results concluded that most of the people prefer organic food products Scope for organic foodin India is vast and still not yet explored to its full potential. The foremostreason are organic sellers are low, insufficient market facility is not there, lack of awareness and promotions, and etc.however, the farmers as well as government give attention to organic farming it will be effortlesslyattractive good marketing system


Introduction Sampling Plans Different Approaches to Sampling Safety Practical Sampling Equipment for Sampling Sampling of Liquids Sampling of Gases Containers Information to be Submitted with the Sample Transport and Storage Appendix 1: Theoretical aspects Appendix 2: Definitions: List of general terms used in sampling References.


A method of compliant and collision avoidance control is presented. The collision avoidance motion is first generated in off-line routine and its data are stored as as a sequence of desired joint angles. Next, virtual impedance model-following control is employed as force feedback control. Redundancy is used for minimization of the variance from the desired joint angle during compliant motion. In particular, the computation time for the inverse kinematics at each sampling time was reduced by using approximate values of Jacobian matrix. The stability of the control system is analyzed and the effectiveness of the proposed method is discussed.<<ETX>>


Why should Man learn mathematics? From the perspective of science,mathematics was the feature of the times,a wonderful piece of music,the Queen of science,the servant of science,the company of science.From the perspective of education,mathematics was a prerequisite to possess the citizenship,as was the basic literacy of modern people.Mathematics equip one with the excellent quality,teach one how to think,elevate the aesthetic ability,and accelerate one's lifelong development.In the background of the curriculum reform of mathematics,"Why should Man learn mathematics?" was the fundamental problem which the education operators like us must understand.


We have studied anti-sticking layers for nanoimprint lithography using different types of polymers, thermoplastic and thermosetting ones. Typically thermosetting polymers have higher mask selectivity in a fluorocarbon dry etch process than the thermoplastic polymers, but replication into these materials is much more complicated. We observe a high tendency for the polymer to adhere to the stamp. To minimize the sticking problem a fluorocarbon coating of the stamp was tested. It was deposited in a radio frequency plasma reactor with C4F8 as a feed gas. The thickness of the coating was several nm. It was characterized by contact angle measurement, XPS and FTIR analysis. Such coatings could successfully reduce sticking effects during an imprint process.


The genus of a group G is defined to be the minimum genus for any Cayley graph for G. This paper describes a classification of the toroidal groups, that is, the groups of genus one. That every toroidal group is finite is an immediate corollary of Levinson's theorem [9] that the genus of any infinite group is either zero or infinite. All the finite planar groups (genus zero) have been determined by Maschke [lo]. After providing an excellent introduction to what is known about the genus of a group, White [ll] derives numerous new results, including the establishment of dicyclic groups and certain abelian groups (see case (12) of Theorem 2) as toroidal. Gross [4,8] has distinguished several classes of toroidal metacyclic groups. Baker [2] has established a long list of toroidal groups that have a Cayley graph with a half-regular toroidal imbedding, i.e., an imbedding with the same number of polygons of each size incident at every vertex. Baker neglected two classes, those groups satisfying case (16) of Theorem 2 and those satisfying case (10) of Theorem 3. Baker also neglected three other toroidal groups, one from each of the cases (7)-(9). This paper provides a complete list of all toroidal groups. It turns out, perhaps surprisingly, that every toroidal group has a Cayley graph with a halfregular toroidal imbedding. The list given here may be useful in deciding whether a finite group is toroidal. Details of the proofs will appear elsewhere. The methods used involve frequent computation of the average face size and also the voltage graph construction of Gross [4]. (See also Gross and Alpert [6], Gross and Tucker [7], Alpert and Gross [l], and Gross and Tucker [8].)


The study goal is to determine the features and scientific and theoretical aspects of the university unified informational and educational environment coordination in the preparation and teaching of students in a foreign language while exerting pedagogical influence on the individual, taking into account the modeling of foreign language competence. The article analyzes the university informational and learning environment role, that is based on the mechanisms of students internal activity with the information and methodological dominant of educational activity, which allows them to master a foreign language in a natural language environment based on information technologies. This is possible on the basis of appropriate language information and educational integration of teaching methods and techniques associated with interactive learning platforms and the university information resources. The article also identifies a new information content type that affects the foreign language teaching optimization. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the modeling of the university information and educational environment in the new education paradigm justification, in the center of which there is individual information literacy. As a result, it is proved that the theory and methodology of teaching a foreign language depends on the communication organization effectiveness and information environments that increase the students socio-cultural competence and


Despite a long series of disheartening failures, researchers continue an aggressive search for a sepsis therapy that could significantly reduce mortality from this disease. Recent clinical trials have built on the experience gained in the design of previous trials and in our understanding of the pathogenesis of this condition. The report that infusions of recombinant human activated protein C (rhAPC) reduced the relative risk for death in septic shock by almost 20% over the control group emphasizes that point (1). While the success of rhAPC in this clinical trial is impressive when measured against previous results with other therapies for sepsis, it is also an important reminder that we need to change our approach to therapy for this leading cause of death in intensive care units. Natanson and colleagues (2) performed a highly informative meta-analysis of 21 clinical studies that evaluated the efficacy of inflammatory mediator modulation in more than 10 000 patients. They observed that it was impossible to draw any conclusion about treatment effect from studies with small enrollments because of the large confidence intervals. In contrast, studies that enrolled large numbers of patients demonstrated with relatively narrow confidence intervals a marginal improvement in mortality after mediator modulation. After pooling the results of all studies, Natanson and colleagues calculated a small but significant improvement in survival (odds ratio, 1.17). One can conclude that it is necessary to do a very large study with a highly active compound to measure a small benefit in a single study. Such a study was recently reported (MONARCS [Monoclonal Anti-TNF, A Randomized Controlled Sepsis trial]) (3). This study, the largest clinical trial for sepsis to date, randomly assigned more than 3000 patients to receive one of several doses of a Fab component of a monoclonal antibody against tumor necrosis factor (TNF) or placebo. As predicted by Natanson and colleagues, there was a small improvement in mortality that mirrored the data presented in their meta-analysis. These observations suggest that it would be unlikely that any single inflammatory mediator modulation would provide the home run therapy anticipated. Similarly, a long-anticipated trial with a different reagent, recombinant bactericidal/permeability-increasing (BPI) protein for treatment of meningococcal sepsis, was reported (4). Unlike the anti-inflammatory mediator strategy, BPI targets a source of mediator induction, the lipopolysaccharide of gram-negative bacteria. Despite heroic attempts at optimizing clinical design, the BPI-treated patients showed only a modest, yet statistically significant, improvement in organ injury scores and no reduction in mortality. A critique of those earlier studies (that is, MONARCS and the study of BPI) is beyond the scope of this essay, but some of the issues have been addressed (5). In these as well as in the earlier, failed studies (reviewed by Natanson and colleagues), the problem was rarely that the test agent lacked biological activity. Each of the previous agents could modify the activity of the target molecule. Indeed, many of the anti-TNF interventions have become licensed effective products for other disease processes, such as inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis. License applications are pending for additional indications. This suggests that sepsis is a more complex process than many of these other complicated diseases. Again, this complexity demands that we reconsider our approach to therapy for sepsis. Sepsis, currently defined as a systemic inflammatory response in the presence of infection (6), is increasingly being considered an exaggerated, poorly regulated innate immune response to microbial products (7). Thus, abrogation of the inflammatory response with therapy early in the development of sepsis may render the patient susceptible to infection. Fatal infection necessitated cessation of some therapeutic trials (8, 9). In contrast, a similar abrogation of that response late in sepsis, when the patient is more in danger from the excessive inflammatory response, may be of benefit. The availability of rapid, reliable assays that could be used to quickly identify the stage or severity of sepsis and to monitor therapy may optimize use of immunomodulatory therapy. Unfortunately, no such assays are available. The inability to identify the patients at risk is a problem both for patient enrollment in studies and for establishing guidelines for therapy. In the rhAPC and anti-TNF studies, the interleukin-6 level failed to identify patients who would benefit from therapy. In the former study, however, the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation score did identify patients who benefited most from therapy and was used for product labeling. The serum procalcitonin level has also been proposed as a useful indicator of severity (10). In the near future, it may be possible to accurately predict the likelihood of response to immunomodulatory agents through gene chip technology. This may allow for specific, early interventions tailored to the patient's individual needs, based on the knowledge of a patient's particular single nucleotide polymorphism, which may be associated with a more vigorous inflammatory response. Microbes and microbial products (for example, lipopolysaccharide, peptidoglycan, DNA) stimulate cells of the immune system, including neutrophils, endothelial cells, and macrophages, and initiate coagulation, kinin, and complement cascades (Figure). Microbial products are recognized by members of a family of pathogen-associated molecular pattern receptors that shares homology with the Toll proteins on Drosophila that participate in fruit fly development and antimicrobial defense; consequently, they are called Toll-like receptors (11). Through these and other surface receptors, microbial products stimulate intracellular signaling pathways that generate inflammatory mediators (including cytokines [such as TNF- and interleukin-1], free radicals [including oxidants and nitric oxide], and arachidonate metabolites [including phospholipid mediators such as platelet-activating factor]). When properly regulated, these host responses form effective antimicrobial defenses. In excess, these responses devolve into sepsis. Figure. Novel interventions for the treatment of severe sepsis. The complexity of this response affords ample targets for therapy, as indicated in the Figure. Clinical trials with single agents have been or are being conducted with inhibitors of TNF-, interleukin-1, kinins, platelet-activating factor, coagulation factors, nitric oxide generation, lipopolysaccharide receptors (E5564, anti-CD14), and lipopolysaccharide itself. In addition, evidence suggests that a longer (>2 to 3 days) course of low-dose corticosteroid therapy may be of benefit, particularly in septic patients with poor adrenal reserve as measured by the corticotropin stimulation test (12). Early aggressive maintenance of blood pressure and oxygen saturation may also improve outcome from sepsis (13). Finally, subgroup analysis of patients entered into the rhAPC and antithrombin III studies indicates that the use of low-dose (<15 000 U/d) unfractionated heparin may merit further study. Experimental therapies have been evaluated in models of sepsis with other agents shown in the Figure, including inhibitors of intracellular signaling proteins such as tyrosine kinase and mitogen-activated protein kinases. At the time of diagnosis of sepsis, an entire network of cellular responses and septic cascades is probably already activated. Consequently, it is unlikely that therapy aimed at only one process (for example, recognition of microbial products by immune-competent cells; generation of inflammatory mediators; coagulopathy) would by itself have the highly significant impact on sepsis mortality that has been sought. Neutralization of endotoxin (through the use of BPI), inhibition of TNF activity (through the use of anti-TNF monoclonal antibody), and arrest of coagulopathy leading to multiorgan failure (through the use of rhAPC) may have been effective in large clinical trials, but only modestly affected total mortality (for example, a 6% absolute reduction in mortality for rhAPC). Furthermore, the disappointing results from the recent phase III trials with similar endogenous anticoagulants (high-dose antithrombin [14] and tissue factor pathway inhibitor [15]) have tempered enthusiasm for the hypothesis that inhibition of thrombus formation in the microcirculation during sepsis may prevent organ failure and thereby improve outcome. Rather, recent studies have suggested alternative mechanisms for the efficacy of rhAPC (16, 17). While neutralization of some underappreciated inflammatory mediator or of one of the newly described late-acting cytokines (such as migration inhibitory factor and high mobility group 1 protein) (18, 19) may provide the single-therapy Holy Grail of sepsis intervention, it is more likely that survival from this condition will improve only through combination therapy directed at multiple stages of the sepsis process. Combination therapy directed at a single process (for example, interleukin-1 and TNF cytokine generation) would not be expected to be any more successful than effective single-dose therapy against that one process. In fact, experimental evidence suggests that inhibition of both interleukin-1 and TNF increases the septic risk by blocking so much of the cytokine response that none is left for normal, effective host defenses (20). Furthermore, an animal model of sepsis shows that therapy directed against the bacteria, the circulating endotoxin, and the induced cytokines is far more effective in preventing death than any one therapy or combination of two therapies (21). Until recently, it has been considered unethical to conduct a trial of combination therapy since any single arm of that trial would have no


Thinking about education as a social, cultural, historical, political and anthropological reality, we were already aware at that time of the fact that a real understanding of what is going on in education demands an almost complete immersion in the field. Probably due to the francophone worldview acquired from a PhD done at the University of Caen in 1995, when the phenomenology, the researcher's implication, the social representations and the paradigm of the complexity were object of intensive debates, my affiliation both to Alain Coulon and his ethnomethodology, and to Georges Lapassade and Patrick Boumard and their ethnography of education occurred as a natural process. In fact, soon after my thesis defence, I participated in the creation of an embryo of the Societe Europeenne de l'Ethnographie de l'Education in Paris in December 1997, with the presence of Lapassade, who became its Honorary President, at the 1st SEEE Meeting in Lecce, Italy, until he died in 2008.


Background: The aim of this study is to identify the common indications for tracheostomy in the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in a 5
year period (2017-2021) carried out by the ENT Department of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. A review of the Surgery Method:
records of all patients with tracheostomy over the study period (January 2017 to December 2021) using the records of the Main theatre, Intensive
Care unit and the private critical care unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital between 2017 and 2021 after ethical approval. Data
retrieved includes: Age, Sex, Indication for Surgery, type of tracheostomy (Emergency or elective) and method of Anaesthesia and data analyzed
using Microsoft Excel. In the study period, 89 tracheostomies were carried out of whi Result: ch 62(69.66%) were emergencies while 27(30.34%)
were electives. 51(57.3%) were done under General anaesthesia while 38(42.7%) were under local anaesthesia. 38(42.7%) of the patients were
females while 51(57.3%) were males. The common indications for tracheostomy were upper airway obstruction secondary to laryngeal
tumor(37.8%) and upper airway obstruction secondary to tracheomalacia (16.85%). Prolonged Huge multi-nodular Goitre with suspected
tracheomalacia (7.87%) and assess for anaesthesia(5.62%) were other indications for tracheostomy. Tracheostomy remains a live Conclusion:
saving procedure. Relief of upper airways obstructions secondary to laryngeal tumor and tracheomalacia were the common indications in our
study. Other common indications are prolonged huge multi-nodular goitre with suspected tracheomalacia and assess for anaesthesia.


This work presents the integration of an automatic assessment system for virtual/remote laboratories and the institutional Learning Management System (LMS), in order to analyze the students� progress and their collaborative learning in virtual/remote laboratories. As a result of this integration, it is feasible to extract useful information for the characterization of the students� learning process and detecting the students� engagement with the practical activities of our subjects. From this integration, a dashboard has been created to graphically present to lecturers the analyzed results. Thanks to this, faculty can use the analyzed information in order to guide the learning/teaching process of each student. As an example, a subject focused on the configuration of network services has been chosen to implement our proposal.


. Immunoreactive insulin (IRI) and C-peptide secretory responses to terbutaline, glucagon, glucose and a standardized meal were investigated in fasted non-diabetic control subjects and newly discovered insulin-independent (type 2) diabetic subjects, during continuous monitoring of plasma glucose concentrations. The β-adrenoceptor agonist terbutaline (125 μg i.v.) induced a prompt insulin secretory response in controls as well as in diabetics. The diabetic group was heterogeneous with regard to the C-peptide and IRI responses after this secretagogue. Diabetics with the highest fasting plasma glucose levels had reduced C-peptide responses to terbutaline. On the contrary, diabetics with the lowest plasma glucose had C-peptide responses within the range of the control group. Glucagon (250 μg i.v.) induced a pronounced IRI and C-peptide response in controls as well as in diabetics. In diabetics, the acute C-peptide response was slightly decreased (by about 35%), whereas the total response during 30 min after glucagon injection was more markedly decreased (by about 65%). No correlation was seen between the degree of C-peptide secretory derangement and fasting plasma glucose after glucagon stimulation. Glucagon induced also an elevation of plasma glucose levels. However, the continuous glucose monitoring revealed that the IRI and C-peptide responses preceded the rise in plasma glucose. Furthermore, there was no apparent difference in plasma glucose response to glucagon between the controls and the diabetics. A small load of glucose (6 g. i.v.) induced an immediate insulin secretory response in the controls, whereas the diabetics had totally abolished IRI and C-peptide responses to glucose. After meal intake, diabetics had decreased IRI and C-peptide secretory responses during the first 2 hours (about 20 and 45%, respectively) and a slower glucose disappearance rate. Thus, newly discovered type 2 diabetics seem to have totally abolished IRI and C-peptide secretory responses to a small (6 g) dose of i.v. glucose, while non-glucose stimuli, such as terbutaline and glucagon, give close to normal (IRI) or moderately diminished (C-peptide) responses. These results suggest, that determination of the acute IRI and/or C-peptide secretory responses after a low dose (6 g) of i.v. glucose might be a useful test in the classification of early type 2 diabetes. This simple test leads to plasma glucose levels within the physiological range, and also to levels seen after glucagon and food intake. Furthermore, the secretory response of the insulin cells to terbutaline was lowest in diabetics with the highest levels of circulating glucose. Therefore, the insulin response to terbutaline seemed to give a better differentiation of the degree of metabolic derangement than the insulin secretory response to glucagon or glucose, the C-peptide levels being a more reliable index of insulin secretory activity than the IRI levels.


Abstract In a large vocabulary audio‐visual speech recognition system, to efficiently improve the robustness of the system and reduce the word error rate, two discriminative stream‐weight training methods are provided. The state‐dependent stream weights are trained based on lattice rescoring by the minimum phone error and boosted maximum mutual information using the extended Baum Welch algorithm respectively. Experimental results show considerable error reductions have been achieved by the proposed methods over those using global stream weights. It is also shown that these methods provide better results than the minimum classification error based stream weight training methods.


Transfiguration, the artist expired without ever taking up his brush again. When Raphael's body was laid out in the hall where he had worked, the Transfiguration placed at his head, the sight of the living work next to the dead body made the hearts of all break in sorrow, or so Vasari says. Raphael, Vasari continues, was given an honorable burial, and artists wept as they followed his body to the grave. When Raphael died, Vasari tells us, the entire papal court was plunged into grief, and the pope wept bitterly. With the death of Raphael, Vasari suggests in a rhetorical flourish, the art of painting died with him. (We moderns have not been the only ones supposedly to witness "the end of art history.") Vasari rounds out his account by quoting in full Bembo's epitaph for Raphael, in which the author suggests that, with the artist's demise, nature herself feared death. He also quotes Baldesarre Castiglione's elegiac poem in honor of the painter, which addresses his un-


The automatic diagnosis of depression using deep learning has recently shown significant progress, and 3DCNN has been applied to assessing depression levels from videos. There are two problems to be encountered applying 3DCNN, including insufficient data to train the model and an insufficient diversity of features extracted on a single scale. An approach is presented in this paper to address these issues. Firstly, we augmented the raw data by adding noise and applying rotations to increase the amount of the training set. Secondly, we constructed a 3DCNN to extract more diverse features from multiscales. We evaluated our proposed method on the AVEC 2014. Our approach achieved MAE=7.13 and RMSE=9.16, demonstrating its effectiveness in improving the accuracy of depression assessment compared to existing approaches.


Zimbabwe at the turn of the new Millennium has received widespread condemnation particularly with the implementation of the controversial land reform. The image portrayed abroad has been tattered because of reports of violence, instability and abandonment of the rule of law, which has created a serious challenge to modern developments on democracy and human rights. Zimbabwe has seemingly lost many friends especially those from the West and/or West controlled institutions, through suspension from, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Commonwealth; the US and the European Union has applied targeted sanctions; Scandavian countries which have supported Zimbabwe's social services, especially health, have cut aid and have threatened to close their missions. From such a standpoint the paper seeks to examine the causes behind this strain in relations between Zimbabwe and western global actors. It will also analyse the extent to which Zimbabwe as an actor in the International System has been affected. Finally, the paper will examine the survival strategies adopted by Zimbabwe in the face of such environment of animosity. Introduction The 20 Century has seen a rapid rise in the importance of foreign policy with virtually every nation in the world being able to interact with one another in some diplomatic form. This can be attributed to the increased inter-linkages amongst international actors both in developed and developing societies in various fields of interaction i.e. economic, political and socio cultural. Zimbabwe is one African country that has maintained a rather active role participating in several fora maintaining links with several countries, participating in several multilateral processes, namely through the United Nations (UN), Organisation of African Unity (OAU) /African Union (AU), Group 77 (G77), Non Aligned Movement (NAM), European Union (EU)-African Caribbean Pacific (ACP), Commonwealth and Southern African Development Community among others. At the turn of the new millennium Zimbabwe has seen its relations with the West souring. It has largely featured Zimbabwe's heated debate with Britain over the land issue, enactment of the US-Zimbabwe Democracy Bill in the United States, suspension of Zimbabwe from the International Monetary Fund, suspension and subsequent withdrawal of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth, suspension of Aid in social services by some Nordic countries, the imposition 1 The West is a term used to denote mostly countries in the developed world, the first world, largely industrialised countries. The author is not exhaustive making reference to the countries and institutions but only makes reference to those that are pertinent to the Zimbabwean case.


This encounter followed by some years the pioneering application of aerial photography in soil surveys (Simonson, 1989, p. 18-19). Nevertheless, the experience may be of interest because the photographs were made specifically for our project, on the one hand, and the setting in which they were used was unusual, on the other. My first experience with aerial photographs occurred along the Missouri River in northeastern Montana from June into December 1935. Fort Peck Dam was being built across the river near Glasgow. Consequently, the Federal government was buying all private lands within the projected flowage area. Land appraisals had been started in 1933, continued during the field season of 1934, and completed in 1935. A crew of three men made the appraisals. The senior member of the group had appraised farm and ranch lands, city buildings, railways, and other properties up and down the Great Plains. The other two members were an agricultural economist and a soil surveyor. I joined the crew as a replacement for the soil surveyor who had to leave for another assignment. Ranches were appraised one by one. The first part of my work on each ranch was to prepare a map showing the kinds of soils, the dominant vegetation, types of fences, and approximate heights above the river of the flood plain segments or "bottoms," as they were called. While I was preparing my map, the other men examined, measured, and photographed the buildings first, then walked over the ranch to get an impression of the land. My field sheets were aerial photographs of excellent quality at a scale of about 1000 ft to the inch (1:12 (00). Before the flying was done, land surveyors had located all section and quarter-section corners. Workmen had then placed crushed limestone in hollow squares around section comers and in hollow triangles around quarter comers. The white squares and triangles showed clearly in the photographs. The comers had been established originally in the rectangular survey by the General Land Office of the Federal government. I got a set of photographs for each ranch after its boundaries had been plotted on them by an engineer at Fort Peck. When my map had been completed in the field, I assigned a productivity rating on a scale of 1 to 10 to each kind of soil. Those ratings were especially welcome to my appraisal partners. After my map and the general examination of a ranch had been completed, the three of us reviewed the information first and next set per-acre values, keyed to the soils. 1\vo or more kinds of soils might have been the same value per acre. The boundaries already on the field sheets were inked to show all delineations differing in value as well as all kinds of soils and types of vegetation. Computation of the value of the entire ranch followed. The completed aerial photographs were returned to the engineer at Fort Peck. He measured the delineations with differing per-acre values, using a planimeter, and computed the


A computer technique for financial control is described which is based on assembly and observation of a representation of the cost significant factors. The Project Cost Model (PCM) is assembled from data defining the quantities of work in the project, the unit costs of the plant, labor and materials, the outputs of the resources to be applied and any limitations upon the sequence and timing of work. The PCM may be used to compile an estimate or tender for a project, to monitor costs and progress, to support, or to analyse a project for contractual purposes or for estimating/design feedback. Details are given of the mechanics of using PCM and the computation process involved.


In order to get more active compounds,two related active drugs by combination theory with raw material cinnamic acid.The synthesis started from cinnamic acid,and the two steps were acylation and esterification,then the target compounds were gained.Results and conclusions:two kinds of cinnamon esters were gained in this experiment,the yield were 60.5 %,53.98% respectively.The product was initially tested by MP,TCL,IR and chemical identification methods.


A method for the simultaneous determination of trace elements of lead, arsenic and cadmium in phosphate ores by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) was established. The detection limits of the method are 0.042 mg/L for lead, 0.053 mg/L for arsenic and 0.006 mg/L for cadmium. The recoveries of lead, arsenic and cadmium are 109.3%, 94.0% and 90.0% with precision (RSD,n=11) of 0.86%, 1.36% and 1.08% respectively. The method has been applied to the routine inspection of lead, arsenic and cadmium in phosphate ores with satisfactory results.


This article is a response to 'The Christocentric Principle: A Jesus-Centred Hermeneutic' (Peppler 2012). The author argues that the christocentric principle holds much promise as an interpretive tool for all branches of evangelical theology. The article then identifies two potential pitfalls in the way the christocentric principle might be used, namely, (a) treating the gospels as a canon within a canon and (b) imposing a distorted picture of Christ upon other biblical texts. It is proposed that these pitfalls can be avoided if the rest of the canon is allowed to inform the christocentric principle, just as the christocentric principle often guides our interpretation of the rest of the canon.


White-rot fungi are frequently employed as producers of ligninolytic enzymes. Particularly Phanerochaete chrysosporium is widely studied as the model microorganism for investigating several extracellular enzymes such as manganese peroxidase (MnP) and lignin peroxidase that are capable of degrading lignin (Reddy, 1995). Due to the important degradative potential of MnP, there is a general interest in producing this enzyme by fermentation processes. White-rot fungi are now widely used in bioremediation of polluted soils. On the other hand, it was suggested that MnP can be a potent biocontrol agent. However, the lack of delivery technology schemes and effective formulations limits the application of white-rot fungi. Solid-state fermentation is accepted as one of the most economic process for ligninolytic enzyme production by fungi (Iwashita, 2002). Moreover, the production of lytic enzymes can be stimulated by the presence of cheap organic substances rich in ligno-cellulose when used in solid-state fermentations as substrate or support material. Agro-industrial wastes that are abundant at local level can be treated microbiologically by SSF and converted to valueadded final products. Particularly in the Mediterranean region, residues and by-products derived from the olive oil production industry are abundant sources of organic matter with high fertilizing value. On the other hand, immobilized (gel-entrapped) cells of soil-plant beneficial microorganisms are presenting a highly efficient approach to preparation and formulation of inoculants (Vassilev et al., 2001, 2005). Enhanced metabolic activity and stability and longer field persistence due to slow release of viable cells (sustained delivery), easier survival at adverse environmental factors, longer periods of storage, ease of transportation and application, are amongst the most advantageous characteristics of encapsulation-based formulations. In this work, we test two different cultivation schemes of P. chrysosporium aimed at its further introduction into soil.


Cholecystokinin (CCK) is found in high concentrations in the central nervous system (CNS) and is thought to mediate or influence a number of behavioral and biochemical systems. In order to define the site or sites of action of CCK in the brain, radioligand binding studies have been developed. Peptide binding studies with CCK have primarily utilized radiolabeled 12'I-Bolton-Hunter-CCK-33 ('"I-CCK-33).' The predominant species of CCK in the CNS, however, is the octapeptide (CCK-8). Miller et a1.' have described an iodinated CCK-8 Bolton-Hunter reagent ('251-CCK-8) which they have characterized in studies of the pancreas. We now describe the use of this radioligand to characterize CCK recognition sites in the CNS. Using this radioligand, evidence for heterogeneity of CCK receptors in the brain was found. As outlined in FIGURE 1, binding of '"I-CCK-8 to mouse cortical membranes was 80% displaceable by 1 pM of CCK-8. Specific binding displayed a high affinity for 12sI-CCK-8 (K,, = 1.6 nM) and was displaceable by various CCK peptide fragments (CCK-8, desulfated CCK-8, caerulein, pentagastrin, and tetragastrin) with KI values less than 10 nM. The maximum number of binding sites (BmJ was estimated to be greater than 200 fmol/mg protein. These values of KD, B,,,, and K , are similar to those described previously for '251-CCK-33, indicating that both radioligands bind to a similar class of recognition sites. In contrast to the binding of lZSI-CCK-33, that of '251-CCK-8 to both cortex and pancreas was markedly increased by the inclusion of salts (FIG. l . , top panel). BSA is usually present in the assays of '"I-CCK-33 binding described in the literature.' In the assays in this report, BSA markedly inhibited "'1-CCK-8 binding to mouse cortex but not pancreatic membranes (FIG. 1 .. bottom panel). Similar results were obtained with BSA samples, one of which was a crystalline sample, from three different suppliers. 1251-CCK-8 dissociated from its recognition sites in a biphasic manner (FIG. 2., left panel). The slow component from mouse cortex, estimated by linear regression of values obtained after 60 min, represented 72% of the total sites. These sites had a half-life for dissociation of nearly 200 min. Dissociation in guinea pig cortex as well as in mouse pancreas was biphasic, but in these organs the slow component represented 50% and 56% of the receptor population, respectively. Therefore, the relative proportion of sites of slow and fast dissociation varied between parallel preparations of guinea pig and mouse cortical membranes. Preincubation of mouse cortex membranes a t 37°C for 30 min decreased specific binding by approximately 50% and reduced the apparent population of sites of slow dissociation from 72% to 33%. The results of the dissociation kinetics and heat inactivation studies indicate that


(Bi-2212) superconducting single crystals were prepared by a modified vertical Bridgman method using large alumina crucibles of a 26 mm bore diameter with coneshaped bottom. In order to obtain large and high quality single crystals, we optimized growth conditions using the large crucibles. We obtained a large plate-like single crystal with a size of 17.0 mm 5.5 mm when the crystal growth was carried out with the rotation speed of 50 rpm and at the temperature for starting the crystal growth of 1000 . In the single crystal, the FWHM value of the (0010) x-ray diffraction peak which was assigned to a Bi-2212 superconductor was small and about 0.06 . of the single crystal was about 87 K, which was higher than of the single crystals grown with smaller crucibles whose bore diameter is 35% less than the large crucibles. Index Terms— , crystal growth, high-temperature superconductors, modified vertical Bridgman method.


On 10 March 2005, Professor Bernard McGinn delivered the William James Lecture on Religious Experience at the Harvard Divinity School. The founding bequest of this annual lectureship was made for the purpose of having an outstanding scholar or scholars lecture on some aspect of this subject, which received classic treatment in William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience. James's aim was not to defend religion by scientific proof, but to stake out his own position as a "piecemeal supernaturalist, one who admits miracles and providential leadings, and finds no intellectual difficulty in mixing the ideal and real worlds together" to locate where the "ideal region" interacts with "the real world's details" to cause experiences—prayer, epiphany, or visions—that generate faith.


Urea-formaldehyde adhesives are widely used in the wood-based materials industry. The study investigates the possibility of using cellulosic particles as a filler that modifies the properties of the resin and consequently improves the properties of plywood. Moreover, the study also examines the differences between microcellulose and nanocellulose used as a filler for UF adhesive. Based on the investigations, it was found that the addition of MFC and NCC significantly affected the curing process and rheological behaviour of adhesive mixtures. Modification led to increase of viscosity and extension of a gel time caused by lowering solid content of the resin. The experimental and reference plywood were tested in terms of bonding quality and mechanical properties such as modulus of elasticity and modulus of rigidity in accordance with applicable standards. The results of the tests confirmed that both the amount and the type of modifier added to the resin had a significant effect on the properties of plywood. The bonding quality and the above mentioned mechanical properties improved in all variants of modification; however the most effective was the addition of NCC in the amount of 10 %/100 g of solid resin. The slight decrease of formaldehyde emission was only observed for 5 % cellulosic particles added to 100 g of solid UF.


Discovering how to best protect one of the most endangered animals in the world, giant pandas, has always been an important project in ecological studies. Moreover, researching the living environments of giant pandas and how to recover them is one of the most important elements to these studies. In order to more effectively protect the giant pandas and their habitats, we studied the changing of Xiaohegou nature reserve landscape for 20 years, from 1994 to 2014, based on the landscape ecology theory and "3S" techniques (geographic information systems, GIS; remote sensing, RS; global navigation satellite system, GNSS). Specifically, this paper analyzes factors such as landscape fragmentation, connectivity, disturbance degree, landscape diversity, etc. Accordingly, the research presented divides giant panda habitat into nine landscape types that include: evergreen deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest, secondary broadleaved forest, mixed coniferous and deciduous broad-leaved forests, and coniferous forest, et al. The results show that: 1) before establishing the Xiaohegou Nature Reserve in 1993, deforestation was a serious problem, as the results from the 1994 landscape fragmentation suggest. 2) Logging was rampant before the implementation of the national natural forest protection project that began in 1998. Severe damage was observed on the coniferous forest in giant panda habitat. Yet, from the high level of fragmentation that was observed in the connectivity of giant panda habitat, the results suggest 1994 was the worst. After more than ten years of recovery, from 2001 to 2014, the situation of regarding the habitat's connectivity appears better than previous years. 3) The habitat has been impacted heavily by human disturbance from 1994 to 2001, although it has shown a slight decrease in this tendency from 2001 to 2014. 4) In the past 20 years, both the diversity and evenness indexes are showing a slow drop tendency. 5) This paper analyzes the changing situation regarding the land category evolution of giant panda habitats. Coniferous forests, the main habitat of giant pandas, decreased 6.37 hm during these 5 years, with a rate of decrease at 1.27 hm per annum from 1994 to 1998. In the years that followed, however, the coniferous forest recovered 4.21 hm over the course of 15 years at the rate of 0.28 hm per annum from 1999 to 2014, providing a reference for further nature reserve policy development.

http://www.pjoes.com/pdf-50898-23464?filename=20 Years of Evolutionary.pdf


Objective To evaluate the effect of propofol combinded with remifentanil for conscious sedation on respiratory function during hysterectomy under continous spinal epidural anesthesia.Methods After informed consent was given,80 ASA I-II patients undergoing hysterectomy under CSEA were randomly individed into four groups with 20 patients in each:control group(group C),propofol group(group P),Remifentanil group(group R),propofol and remifentanil group(group P+R).The patients received continous intraveous infusion without loading dose,propofol 3 mg/(kg·h)(Group P)or remifentanil 6 μg/(kg·h)(Group R)or propofol 1.5 mg/(kg·h)and remifentanil 3 μg/(kg·h)(Group P+R)or saline 0.3 ml/(kg·h)(group C).Depth of sedation was maintained at the Obsever's Assessment of Altertness/Sedation Scale(OAA/S)=3 by adjusting the rate of hypnotics.The value of SpO2,spontaneous Respiration Rate(sRR)were recorded before anesthesia(T0 baseline),before sedation(T1),after sedation 5 min(T2),10 min(T3),15 min(T4),30 min(T5),after hysterectomy(T6),stopping infusion(T7),stopping infusion 10 min(T8).pH,PaO2,PaCO2 were determined at T0,T5,T8.The incidence of respiratory depression was recorded during sedation.The scores of anxiety was measured with a visual analog scale.Results There was no significant difference in age,body weight,duration of sedation.The rate of infusion was propofol 2.8±0.6 mg/(kg·h)in group P,remifentanil(6.4±1.5)μg/(kg·h)in group R,P+R remifentanil(2.7±0.4)μg/(kg·h)and propofo(l 1.6±0.6)mg/(kg·h)in group P+R.SpO2 was decreased in R group at T5,T6 as compared with T0(P0.05).sRR was significantly decreased at T4,T5 as compared with T0 in group R(P0.05).PaCO2 was significantly increased at T5 as compared with T0 in group R,P,P+R(P0.05).The incidence of respiratory depression was higher in group R than another groups(P0.05).The scores of patients anxiety was higher in groupC than in group R,P,P+R(P0.01).Conclusion The combination of propofol and remifentanil provided respiration stability,and a low scores of patients anxiety with a low risk of side effects in conscious sedation during hysterectomy under CSEA.


Core B997‐328PC is from the landward side of a 100‐m‐deep basin in Reykjarfjördur, a small fjord on the north coast of the northwest peninsula of Iceland. This is an area that can be severely affected by incursions of polar sea‐ice but has not suffered marked land erosion during the Settlement period. The core is 422 cm in length and consists principally of fine‐grained muds with in situ molluscs. Eleven AMS 14C dates on molluscs indicate a constant sediment accumulation rate of ca. 1 cm 10 yr−1 for the last 4280 ± 50 yr BP. We measured and derived a variety of proxies for indications of changes in the nearshore environment. These included physical properties and grain size, mass accumulation rates, micropalaeontology (pollen and Foraminifera). Multivariate analysis and constrained clustering were used to define major changes in the proxies. In several parameters the major change in the fjord environment occurred close to 1000 14C yr ago, thus approximately coincident with the onset of the Settlement of Iceland. Other changes are noted at around 1600 and 3400 14C yr ago; Betula pollen disappears from the record ca. 1500 yr BP and there are peaks in marine productivity occurring ca. 2 and 3.4 ka. A major decline in carbonate accumulation and a sharp increase in the cold water benthic foraminifer Elphidium excavatum forma clavata 400 yr ago represents the local marine signature of the Little Ice Age. None of the changes in our data can be explained adequately by a simple call to land‐use practices and an increase in land to sea transport, but both the pollen and foraminiferal records indicate a decrease and even loss of 'warm' elements in both flora and fauna over the past 4 kyr. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In order to ensure the preservation of plant embryos for long periods, is pretreated embryos on a medium containing an osmotic pressure agent prior to freezing at a temperature of -15 / -40 degree (s) C.


Modern business environment imposes the need for the continued finding and defining of new concepts and tools that support strategic management. The aim of introducing new concepts is certainly raising the overall efficiency of the enterprise. The recession and related economic and production difficulties that enterprises face today, require a deep re-consideration of the business models and managerial approaches adopted to increase the enterprise's growth and value-creation. The effort of the modern management, along the twentieth century, had been aimed to develop a wide range of models to allow managers to control, understand and coordinate the functions of enterprise's value chain as well as their integration in accordance with a strategic perspective like the balanced scorecard model. The question is, if the Serbian managers are aware of the necessity of introducing and implementing balanced scorecard, what are the implications of its implementation?

 Key words: Performance measurement, balanced scorecard, economic effects.


The COVID-19 pandemic has attracted the attention of big data analysts and artificial intelligence engineers. The classification of computed tomography (CT) chest images into normal or infected requires intensive data collection and an innovative architecture of AI modules. In this article, we propose a platform that covers several levels of analysis and classification of normal and abnormal aspects of COVID-19 by examining CT chest scan images. Specifically, the platform first augments the dataset to be used in the training phase based on a reliable collection of images, segmenting/detecting the suspicious regions in the images, and analyzing these regions in order to output the right classification. Furthermore, we combine AI algorithms, after choosing the best fit module for our study. Finally, we show the effectiveness of this architecture when compared to other techniques in the literature. The obtained results show that the accuracy of the proposed architecture is 95%.


This paper handles about the influences of production tolerances on the performance of ultrasonic piezoelectric motors. To eliminate assembling and mounting tolerances from the modal experiments, the patented Leuven motor structure is redesigned into a sample structure. To enable modal measurements, an innovative experiment is constructed in which steal balls are launched to excite the sample structures. A generic code has been developed to determine the dominant production causes for these performance deviations.


The manual wheelchair has undergone much advancement over the past two decades. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the most significant advances in manual wheelchairs. These technological advances are now available in the clinical setting and should be recognized, discussed, and adopted by doctors, clinicians, engineers, funding sources, and, most important, consumers when the most appropriate manual wheelchair is being selected.


It is indispensable, on the occasion of the publication of a special issue on the history of women and gender, to provide the journal's readers with the main stages. Three approaches to the history of women have developed since the early 1970s: activist, scientific, and institutionalist. Women historians paved the way for going outside of the masculine universe, to show women as actresses of history. This was the first stage in a progression that gave increasing visibility to women, their oppression, relations between men and women, and men as masculine and not universal. To put it simply, they drew attention to the fact that the world is gendered. By focusing on the place of women in this profession, methodological problems, historiography debates, and scientific production, the idea in this paper is to look at an open history whose legitimacy seems accepted but which nevertheless continues to face resistance and ignorance.


Liquidity crisis emerged in the U.S. market had a significant impact on the European financial markets. To restore confidence in the financial system, authorities took measures to reduce systemic risk and limit the impact on the economy. These measures were aimed at monetary stimulus,fiscal, liquidity injections by Central Banks and direct action to support systemically important institutions. Also, the Basel Committee adopted in September 2010 new standard relating to capital and liquidity requirements will require financial institutions from 1 January 2013, as Basel III. Financial integration in Europe is of particular importance since both economic theory and empirical results show that integration and financial development contributes to economic growth by eliminating barriers to the transfer of capital between countries in a more efficient allocation of it. These benefits to financial stability complement the critical role that capital markets play in efficient resource allocation and in reducing over-reliance on the banking sector for the mobilization of savings and financial intermediation. Regulators are often faced with the perennial question of whether and how they should intervene to manage irrational exuberance and panic in the market.