Dear Editor,

Thyroidectomy is a common surgical procedure performed by us otolaryngologists on our patients. Quite often, we make our post-operative rounds on them, not knowing that the patient may have a lot of concerns regarding his or her operation that we somehow take lightly or worse, do not take seriously. I would like to share with other Ear Nose Throat (ENT) surgeons how it was to be a patient who underwent total thyroidectomy.

My journey began in the mid- 1990s with an incidental finding of thyroid nodules when I underwent a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the cervical spine. It was then when I started medical suppression and yearly thyroid ultrasound examinations. However as the years passed, the nodules became more numerous involving both lobes and enlarging. It was last July when ultrasonography revealed that 2 of the nodules were solid and large. I then underwent ultrasound guided Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy of the thyroid nodules for which the result was Bethesda 1 (the biopsy was non-conclusive). It was unanimously decided by the endocrinologist and my ENT surgeons, Dr. Alfredo Pontejos Jr. and Dr. Arsensio Cabungcal, that I would undergo total thyroidectomy.

I had myself admitted at the Manila Doctors Hospital (MDH) on September 18, 2017 and underwent the surgical procedure on September 19, 2017. Pre-operatively, I told the ENT chief resident, Dr. Catherine Oseña my special "bilins": 1) that I had a cervical spine problem so I could not hyperextend the neck; 2) that I was allergic to Penicillin; 3) that I had ceased antiplatelets (Clopidogrel, Aspirin) and fish oil omega for one week; 4) I had allergies to some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs); 5) if possible the suturing be subcuticular so that there wouldn't be any need to remove any stitches post-op; and 6) the superior thyroid artery be ligated 2 times and the end of the stump sealed by harmonic scalpel.  I had some anxieties regarding the surgery: losing my voice, undergoing tracheostomy for bilateral abductor paralysis since both thyroid lobes would be removed, having a malignant histopathologic result and hypocalcemia.

            DAY 0: "This is it", I said to myself, when the nurse fetched me from my room at 6:00 AM to be brought to the operating room (O.R.) for my 7:00 AM schedule. At the O.R., everybody who saw me greeted me with phrases such as "Ikaw pala ang pasyente, kaya mo yan," "Good luck" and "God bless." Here I saw one of my surgeons, Dr. Cabungcal enter the OR suite. It was then when I saw my anesthesiologists, Dr. Ariel La Rosa and Dr. Greg Macasaet. The last memory I had pre-op was that of Dr. La Rosa inserting an intravenous (I.V.) line in my right wrist and that was the last thing I remembered.

            I woke up, already in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) or Recovery Room (RR) when I felt severe pain in my neck (surgical area). I also wanted to fix the pillow at the back of my head, but I did not want to cause any strain on my anterior neck. It was also here when I was very happy to hear my own voice. It was then I said that the surgeons preserved my voice.  "Whataguys!" I said to my self, "Thank God." It was very painful then, I remember the PACU nurse injecting something thru my I.V. line. I felt the medication run thru the I.V. line towards my arm and throughout my body and this made me sleep again (later I found out that it was nalbuphine). I recognize seeing my wife Lil, my son Vinci and the ENT resident, Dr. Dindo Retreta at the PACU. The medication I was given made me sleep again. I woke up again and heard that I was being wheeled out of the PACU to be brought to my room. I only learned later that I slept about an hour after the nalbuphine was given.

            In my hospital room, the pain in the neck was really painful (9/10) and I had difficulty expelling the phlegm from my trachea. Each time I swallowed my saliva, I could feel my trachea move up with accompanying pain. When the resident-on-duty (ROD) visited, I was given N-acetylcysteine effervescent tablet BID (Ed: bis in die; twice a day) that was very helpful as it made my expectoration easier.  I could feel the pressure dressing over my neck, which was now stiff due to dried blood.

            I had my first meal at around 4:00 PM. I remember it was a tuna sandwich and cold water which I drank using a straw from the hospital plastic cup. Every bite and swallow was painful in the neck and throat. I could not detect whether the pain was coming from the throat or from the surgical site. My antibiotic was given I.V. and so was the pain reliever parecoxib, paracetamol and tranexamic acid. I still did not resume the blood thinners to prevent any post-op bleeding.

            I tried to get up after dinner to walk around but warm serosnguinous fluid came out of the drain soaking my hospital gown. I then had the nurse call the ENT ROD to change my thyroid dressing.  In a few minutes, a new fluffy gauze pressure dressing was applied by the ROD and my hospital gown was replaced. I had a good sleep with some pain still at the surgical site and throat.

            DAY 1: The day started with Holy Communion in my room, a good breakfast and my usual morning breakfast pills (thyroxine, nevibolol and folic acid). The residents came and changed the dressing. The resident "milked" the neck trying to see if there was any accumulated blood or serum at the surgical site. This was the most painful of the whole surgical experience (10/10), and it was good news that there was no hematoma in the operative site. They then mobilized the drain by a few centimeters. The dressing was still replaced with less fluffy dressing. I have allergic rhinitis, and the act of sneezing caused recurrent pain in the surgical site, so I asked for an antihistamine tablet. My neck and throat were still painful on Day 1 (8/10) but relieved every time the I.V. analgesic was given. In the afternoon, I had a sponge bath given by the nurse on duty with me lying in bed. I still had throat phlegm but thanks to the acetylcysteine effervescent tablet it was easier to expectorate. Every time the ROD made rounds, he checked for hypocalcemia-- fortunately I did not have it.

            DAY 2: The day again started with Holy Communion and breakfast in my hospital room.  My main attending surgeon, Dr. Pontejos made his rounds late morning and he changed the dressing and removed the drain. I was here that I realized that the superior and inferior flaps including the incision were all numb. There was no pain on drain removal as well as on tying of the standby suture to close the drain site. They were all numb. At this point, I realized that in all our patients, this removal of the drain and the tying the standby suture were painless.  After a bath in the mid-afternoon before discharge, I was then feeling better but the pain was still there (7/10). On the way home, I bought some sterile gauze, plaster, mupirocin ointment and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for my neck wound dressing at home.

            DAY 3. The pain was less (5/10), and I did not have to take any analgesic from hereon. Bathing became a problem, but I devised a way to bathe that I adopted for the following days. In the shower, I first shampooed by hair with my head and face facing down with my wife holding the telephone shower and focusing it where it was needed.  After this I dried my head and hair with a clean towel then bathed the rest of the body in standing position with the telephone shower targeting the area needing to be rinsed. I did this method of bathing for a week until I decided that I could now bathe without my head looking down. I was at rest at home for 2 weeks.

            DAY 6:  It was one of the best days of my life when the chief resident told me that the histopathologic result was multinodular goiter and no malignancy.  Yehey! Thanks to God! God is really good!

            To summarize some of the things I want to share with other thyroid surgeons:

I didn't realize that the post-op pain was really painful, so I can now understand my patients if they experience pain post-operatively.
It was difficult to expel throat phlegm and the N-acetylcysteine effervescent tablet was a big help in liquefying the phlegm.
The whole area is numb (superior and inferior flaps), thus the removal of the drain and sutures would not cause any pain on the patient.
The "milking" of the site was painful and this procedure should be gently done.
If the patient has nasal allergy, cover the patient with an antihistamine to prevent sneezing and unnecessary pain.
Teach your patient the way I bathed and order a sponge bath on Day 1 and 2.

I hope this sharing of experience will benefit all your patients who will undergo the same procedure- thyroidectomy.

I would like to thank my surgeons (Dr. Alfredo Pontejos Jr. and Dr. Arsenio Cabungcal), the anesthesiologists (Dr. Ariel La Rosa and Dr. Greg Macasaet), the surgical assistants (MDH ORL residents – Drs. Catehrine Elise Oseña and Dindo Retreta), my endocrinologist Dr. Robert Mirasol and my Cardiologist Dr. Rogelio Tangco, for the excellent job, well done.

I would like to thank my family-- Lil my wife, Vinci, Ericka, Raymond for their love and support and for taking care of me.

I would like to thank the MDH ORL Residents for taking care of me and for a job well done as well. I would also like to thank all the nursing staff at the MDH tower 1 and the OR, PACU nurses for taking care of me as well.

Sincerely yours,

Cesar V. Villafuerte Jr. MD, MHA


The strategic priority of promoting healthier populations with 1 billion more people enjoying better health and well-being as expressed in the General Programme of Work (GPW) 13 by the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes the need of multisectoral action to address the social and environmental determinants of health including climate change. WHO data from 2016 show that approximately one quarter of the global burden of disease are caused by known avoidable environmental risks to health, with at least 12.6 million premature deaths every year. Out of this total, 7 million deaths a year are attributable to both ambient and household air pollution, placing it among the top global preventable health risks. As human influence on the environment continues to grow, global environmental challenges will escalate, including climate change and rapid urbanization. Many of the resulting risks exacerbate disease and injuries, while impacting our quality of life, reducing our productivity, and weighing on our health systems. The global endorsement of the sustainable development agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a clear signal that the world expects greater cohesion between people and the planet, with benefits for health and health equity. More sustainable ways of functioning go hand in hand with creating healthier and more sustainable environments, with enhanced focus on prevention through action on the root causes of disease.
 The SDGs set a broad agenda to advance health and equity by 2030. Health is centrally positioned within the SDGs, with SDG 3 - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages. However, achieving this goal means more than just improving health care. It involves action in key economic development sectors, like housing and transport, as well as in the settings where people live and work in cities and rural areas. These areas are covered by SDGs such as: Achieving Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), and Climate action (SDG 13). Progress on these SDGs will not only significantly reduce but also support primary prevention of some of the world's most serious disease threats - including heart and lung diseases, cancers, stroke, injuries, and more. At the workshop different topics and tools that support the achievement of WHOs one billion goal of achieving healthier populations and through this the SDGs will be discussed.

 By addressing environmental health risks through progress on SDGs supports also the 1 billion goal to achieve healthier populations. Multisectoral action and turning this action into everyday practice is needed to support achieving the SDGs and the 1 billion goal of WHO.


Disclosed are a gain state adjustment method and device. The method comprises: pre-allocating gain states of various gain devices in a gain device set according to a transmitting power range of a base station; according to the closed loop power calibration of a Uu link, adjusting the pre-allocated gain states, and/or conducting NF accounting and SNR accounting on the pre-allocated gain states, and adjusting the pre-allocated gain states according to accounting results. According to the technical solution provided in the present invention, it is realized that a Un link and a Uu link satisfy requirements of protocol index simultaneously, thereby saving hardware costs.


Promising resistive switching memory characteristics in a IrOx/GdOx/W structure have been investigated. The surface roughness of bottom electrode plays a major role for forming-free and low current resistive switching, due to electric field enhancement. Memory device shows repeatable switching cycles with a small compliance current of 20 μA (60μW), long program/erase endurance of >104 cycles, and excellent data retention of >104 s at 85°C.


Laser scanning technologies have significantly improved the efficiency of spatial data collection to deliver the needed as-built information of job sites. However, many imageries contain unneeded dense data that waste time for data collection and processing, or missing data that are in need. Targeted laser scan data collection is pivotal to avoid such problems. For example, engineers could avoid densely sampling simple geometries (e.g. flat walls) for saving time to focus on edges and openings. Scan planning algorithms can produce data collection plans based on targeted objects marked by users. Unfortunately, manually defining objects and their needed level of detail (LOD) is impractical in dynamic environments, such as construction sites. This research proposes an approach that identifies visually complex regions through discontinuity analysis in rapidly captured sparse imageries for guiding the imaging planning. First, we fuse 3D point cloud data with sparse laser-scan data. A visual complexity analysis algorithm then detects locations in sparse imageries that contain discontinuous 2D and 3D patterns (e.g., color change) for identifying parts deserving detailed laser scan. A frequency analysis for each location would then estimate the LOD necessary for assessing each targeted region. Finally, a sensor-planning algorithm generates laser scan plans based on visually complex regions and LOD requirements.


Introduction: The use of Procalcitonin (PCT) as a bacterial diagnostic marker is controversial in patients on hemodialysis (HD). Infections account for considerable morbidity and mortality in patients on HD. Hence, early diagnosis of bacterial infections is important to make a prognostic assessment of its severity. If PCT can be used as a primary marker for bacterial infections in patients on HD, these infections can be diagnosed and treated early. Therefore, we investigated whether PCT could function as a primary diagnostic marker of bacterial infections in patients on HD. Aim: 1) To measure and show that serum procalcitonin levels will be increased in patients with chronic kidney disease in sepsis on hemodialysis, and will be clinically significant. 2) To compare the serum procalcitonin levels in patients on hemodialysis with sepsis; with procalcitonin level of patients on hemodialysis without sepsis Methods: A total of 80 patients of chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis admitted in M S Ramaiah Hospital during the period October 2012 to september2014, were included in the study and were divided into 40 cases and 40 controls considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: Raised Serum procalcitonin was significantly more associated with CKD patients on hemodialysis in sepsis with P<0.001. When procalcitonin was measured in CKD patients on hemodialysis in sepsis, the sensitivity and specificity was 92.50, and 100.00 respectively, with a cut-off >5ng/ml. Conclusion: Procalcitonin is a good marker of bacterial infection even in patients undergoing hemodialysis. In patients undergoing hemodialysis, procalcitonin cut off level of >5ng/ml indicates sepsis.


The Dynamic Pressure-step Method (DPM) is based on recording time profiles of oxygen concentration in liquid as a response to a concentration change in gas invoked by a small change of overall pressure in the vessel. In contrast to earlier methods (standard dynamic method with inlet gas exchange, or start-up method) the concentration change is performed simultaneously and homogeneously in all bubbles of dispersed gas. The measurements were performed in a vessel of liquid volume 20 l with aspect ratio (H/D) equal to 4 equipped with four Rushton turbines on a common shaft. In experiments, coalescing (distilled water) and noncoalescing (sodium sulphate solution) batches were used, both aerated by air or pure oxygen. Independent experiments with tracers showed the significant axial dispersion in both phases. The experimental k L a values (a) do not depend on oxygen concentration in the gas used, (b) exhibit a simple power dependence on the dissipated power and (c) in this correlation agree within 30% with those obtained in geometrically different vessels. Similar k L a measurements performed by using the standard dynamic and start-up methods produced substantially different results. In the noncoalescing batch experiments, the k L a values even exhibit a decrease at higher mixing intensities


Utilization of weak cross-Kerr interaction will be a key to the photonic quantum information processing. We propose a novel technique to measure tiny cross-Kerr phase shifts and demonstrate it using a photonic crystal fiber.


We present a method to establish a correlation between the crystalline structure and the fluorescence properties of isolated semiconductor nanocrystals. By using ultrathin silicon nitride substrates with markers, we have localized and investigated the same particles in both a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) and a confocal optical microscope. We have found that the observation of strong fluorescence emission does not require single domain particles. Additionally, we have correlated the size and shape of a particle as determined by TEM and its spectral properties like emission wavelength and spectral diffusion.


A study on risk perception and causal explanations of road accidents was conducted on 553 subjects with various kinds of experience and knowledge about traffic and automobile driving. Accident and risk perception was studied by means of three independent variables: the subjects' occupation, driving experience, and accident history. The results showed that all categories of subjects were inclined to overestimate the threat represented by the risk of a road accident. Furthermore, all subjects tended to make more external causal attributions that defended their role in traffic safety and accident prevention. Experienced drivers, but also less experienced ones, exhibited a higher level of risk-taking than other subjects, and also made more external and fatalistic causal attributions. Finally, accident history does not seem to have a notable effect on accident and risk perception, but it does appear to result in more cautious behaviour. The findings are discussed in terms of their possible contribution to accident diagnosis and prevention.


Migration ecology and habitat use of spring migrating birds using the Central Platte River is a well-explored topic, yet less is known about use of the North and South Platte Rivers (NSPR) in weste...


Purpose
This paper aims to examine how capital investment projects are appraised in Lebanon; whether the risk is incorporated into this process by Lebanese firms and the impact of political risk on the capital budgeting process.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a questionnaire survey to investigate the capital budgeting practices of companies located in Lebanon, which is a country characterised by a high level of political risk.

Findings
Lebanese companies tend to use more than one method of investment appraisal and, increasingly, they are using sophisticated discounted cashflow techniques alongside the payback period. The most widely used methods to evaluate risk include scenario and sensitivity analysis. Finally, political risk plays an important role in the capital budgeting processes of Lebanese companies.

Originality/value
The paper reports on whether the methods of capital investment appraisal used throughout advanced Western economies are used in the context of an emerging economy. In addition, Lebanon is an ideal research site to study capital budgeting as the conflicts in the country of the past 50 years have required sizeable new expenditure on capital projects; the country is characterised by high levels of political risk which may lead corporate managers to use different approaches to investment appraisal and it provides an opportunity to study capital budgeting decisions by private, unlisted firms.


High-Speed Rail (HSR) can facilitate significant economic, urbanization and environmental impacts, yet its wider impacts are open to debate. In this wake, the prime objective of the research is to study the environmental impacts of High Speed Rail thus creating a tool for supporting policy level decisions. To carry out the research in Indian perspective, case study of Bangalore-Mysore corridor is taken. The study of environmental impacts of the HSR aims to observe the net equivalent CO 2 emissions resulting from the new system and the amount of equivalent CO 2 emissions saved from passengers switching from other modes to HSR. Revealed and Stated preference survey is conducted for data collection purpose. Discrete Choice Model is developed for calculating the modal shift and market share of each mode. Sensitivity analysis is also conducted using the model to observe the changes in travel behaviour of the passengers with respect to socioeconomic parameters like age, income, gender etc. The outcome of the study indicates that the introduction of new system i.e. HSR, will result in reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions and thus identifies the system as sustainable based on the results. Over all the outcome of the study will be helpful in identifying the best transport system to achieve the 'policy makers' vision towards sustainable development.


Properties of time-periodic Hamiltonians can be exploited to increase the dephasing time of qubits and to design protected one and two-qubit gates. Recently, Huang et al. [Phys. Rev. Applied 15, 034065 (2021)] have shown that time-dependent Floquet states offer a manifold of working points with dynamical protection larger than the few usual static sweet spots. Here, we use the framework of many-mode Floquet theory to describe approaches to robustly control Floquet qubits in the presence of multiple drive tones. Following the same approach, we introduce a longitudinal readout protocol to measure the Floquet qubit without the need of first adiabatically mapping back the Floquet states to the static qubit states, which results in a significant speedup in the measurement time of the Floquet qubit. The analytical approach developed here can be applied to any Hamiltonian involving a small number of distinct drive tones, typically the study of standard parametric gates for qubits outside of the rotating-wave approximation.


Book One considers the origins and formation of societies into States around Rayneval's leitmotiv of self-preservation, as the essence of natural law. In so doing, Rayneval is setting the foundation for his examination of the Law of Nations to come in Books Two and Three. Within Book One, he considers the inner workings of a State: its societal norms; forms of government; and the division of powers as between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Rayneval then turns his attention to the place of law within a society and the objectives of public, private and criminal law; while dealing with the other, diverse, dynamics at play within a State including religion, education, and honour.


By analyzing its supply chain, one CPI (chemical process industry) firm cut $10 million yearly in deliverables and contractors' work at a single site. This article present a proven method that can dramatically slash such expenses for a plant.


Regardless of their oral communication ability, students must be willing to use their communication skills to be successful in business professions. A pro gram of study that addresses communication skills may not satisfactorily address the apprehension students may feel about communicating. In this study we administered the Personal Report of Communication Appreliension (PRCA) to 84 accounting seniors at an institution whose curriculum requires significant communication skills training and practice. We conclude that busi ness educators must pay special attention to communication apprehension separate from, and in addition to, communication skills.


Based on the characters of medical services and present national status,as well as the advanced international experiences,this paper analyzed the significance and primary strategy of constructing a relatively simple and easily-operated three levels of medical care system in China.Which included national academic medical centers,regional medical center and primary health care system.It is hope to contribute to China's national hospital reform.


Background: Sequel to the diverse diseases resulting in muscle mass degeneration and its key role in the prognosis of the diseases. For instance, currently, only resistance exercise can be used to promote recovery of mass/strength following disuse atrophy. But in contrast, many patients are unable or unwilling to exercise at a sufficient intensity to promote muscle growth. It would therefore be of great advantage to develop natural compounds that counteract the negative effects of skeletal muscle degenerative diseases especially in the form of therapeutic feed). The present study was aimed at elucidating the mechanism by which M. oleifera ameliorates skeletal muscle degeneration caused by malnutrition. Methods: The experimental animals were malnourished with low protein iso-caloric diets for four weeks after which they were treated with 25% M. oleifera leaf – based diet, vitamin E supplemented feed and soy bean based- diet for another four weeks . Results: There was a significant reduction in the activity of calcium ATPase in the skeletal muscle of animals induced with skeletal muscle degeneration. However, this activity was significantly increased following treatments with the most significant increase observed in the skeletal muscle of animals treated with M. Oleifera leaf based diet followed by those fed with vitamin E supplemented diet. Conclusions: In summary, the study revealed that the mechanism by which M. oleifera leaf corrects muscle degeneration caused by PEM might be by increasing calcium ATPase activity and/ or its synthesis and by preventing oxidative stress due to its antioxidant properties .


Palaeoloxodon naumanni excavation was carried out by Network for Shizuoka Prefecture Natural History Museum at the hillback of Mr. Takatsuka s house in Ochigaya, Makinohara City, Shizuoka Prefecture from 23rd to 25th of December, 2006. Palaeoloxodon naumanni fossil has been found from upper Pleistocene in the Furuya Formation on this excavation site in around 1913. This excavation was carried out to find another Palaeoloxodon naumanni fossil and to clarify the horizon that the fossil was found out. This paper reports the geology and the stratigraphy of the excavation site and occurrence of fossils to discuss about the sedimentary environment. This paper also discussed about the horizon where Palaeoloxodon naumanni fossil was found. As a result, in this excavation, Palaeoloxodon naumanni fossil was not found. However, the bone particle, the plant fossil, and the insect fossil were found. In the sedimentary facies analysis, the beds were able to be divided into four sedimentary facies. These sedimentary facies in the excavation site indicates the transgression of the Furuya Formation. * NPO法人静岡県自然史博物館ネットワーク 424-0878 静岡県静岡市清水区御門台10-13 Network for Shizuoka Prefecture Museum of Natural History, 10-13, Mikadodai, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka, 424-0878, Japan **東海大学海洋学部, 424-8610 静岡県静岡市清水区折戸3-20-1 School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University, 3-20-1, Orido, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka, 424-8610, Japan ***富士宮市役所 418-8601 静岡県富士宮市弓沢町150番地 Fujinomiya City Office, 150, Yumisawa-cho, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, 418-8601, Japan 東海自然誌 (静岡県自然史研究報告), 2011, 4号, 5-14 Natural History of the Tokai District, 2011, No.4, 5-14


The Internet of Things is a developing technology that converts physical objects into virtual objects connected to the internet using wired and wireless network architecture. Use of cross-layer techniques in the internet of things is primarily driven by the high heterogeneity of hardware and software capabilities. Although traditional layered architecture has been effective for a while, cross-layer protocols have the potential to greatly improve a number of wireless network characteristics, including bandwidth and energy usage. Also, one of the main concerns with the internet of things is security, and machine learning (ML) techniques are thought to be the most cuttingedge and viable approach. This has led to a plethora of new research directions for tackling IoT's growing security issues. In the proposed study, a number of cross-layer approaches based on machine learning techniques that have been offered in the past to address issues and challenges brought on by the variety of IoT are in-depth examined. Additionally, the main issues are mentioned and analyzed, including those related to scalability, interoperability, security, privacy, mobility, and energy utilization.


In this paper a new fast mode decision method for H.264 /AVC intra coding is developed, which is based on the analysis of edge filter and more efficient mode selection. We analysis the edge detection algorithm from the perspective of edge filters and make it more efficient at mode selecting. In the proposed edge filters, differ from those existing methods which select several neighbor modes only by one filter, we set filters for each directional mode to eliminate the defect of dependency among them. Then the filters are applied to some pixels distributed in the block. The resultant results along with prediction residuals of these pixels are summed for fast mode decision. Besides this, local information has been taken into account by using Most Probable Mode (MPM) from neighbor coded blocks which can significantly mitigate the coding bits increase. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to provide a better coding performance than the existing algorithms.


A model of the electromagnetic form factor of the scalar n meson is discussed in which the n meson is a bound state of scalar nucleon-antinucleon system. Starting from an exact integral representation of the form factor, which is well defined in a space-like region of the momentum transfer squared, q2, an analytic continuation of the representation is performed under some plausible assumptions on dynamics and a simple pole definition of a resonance in the n-N scattering amplitude. It is shown that the singularities of the form factor corresponding to resonances turn out to be dipoles and not simple poles contrary to the widely held belief. A generalization to the other hadron cases is discussed in the quark model scheme.


• The goal is to provide a privacy preserving methodology for strong biometric authentication in federated identity management systems. • Privacy Preserving Multifactor Authentication [1]: multifactor authentication is essential for secure authentication mechanisms. The identity management framework is used to provide proofs of multiple strong identifiers for a given user. • Interoperability: Our scheme provides an interoperable, usable, secure, and inexpensive to use biometric authentication in a federation. • User Control : The raw biometric never leaves the client machine therefore providing complete control to its owner.


Tomato Analyzer measures morphological and color attributes via image analysis in an objective, highthroughput, and semiautomatic manner. This software allows for reproducible quantification of phenotypic data that previously were done by hand or visual analysis. The new version has improved the accuracy of all measurements and reduced the need to make timeconsuming manual adjustments. In this paper new morphological and color attributes available in Tomato Analyzer 3.0 as well as how the color test module was made more user-friendly are described.


The global burden of disease attributable to alcohol and drug use combined is estimated to be higher than the burden attributable to any other risk factor, and in the Eastern Mediterranean Region this burden is largely attributable to drug use (1). According to the World Drug Report 2018, in 2016 an estimated 275 million people (5.6% of the global adult population) used drugs at least once in the previous year, mainly a substance belonging to the cannabinoid, opioid, cocaine or amphetamine type stimulant (ATS) groups (1). Among these, 30.5 million were problem drug users and suffered from drug use disorders, including drug dependence (1).


Fleas are vectors of bubonic plague, murine typhus and several other rodent borne diseases. As with other vectors of medical importance there is widespread insecticide resistance among the flea population. In our efforts to find alternative insecticides 20 plants were screened for their pulicidal properties by obtaining extracts from these plants. It was observed that extracts of plants Acorus calamus, Allium sativum, Anona Squamosa, Brassica nigra, Croton tiglium, Ocimum sanctum, Piper nigrum possessed pulicidal activity.


Ferroelectric nonvolatile memories offer low voltage operation and fast write speeds that makes them attractive for embedded applications. The fundamentals of ferroelectric materials and ferroelectric memory operation are reviewed. Also discussed is the process integration of ferroelectric capacitors into a CMOS flow. A test circuit which embedded an 8 Kbit ferroelectric memory into a Motorola HC 11E9 microcontroller is reported.


Possible brain damage resulting from nonconvulsive seizures is debated "for" by Young GB and Jordan KG (Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, 375 South St, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 4G5), and "against" by Aminoff MJ (Box 0114, Room M-794, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143).


Submitted for the MAR12 Meeting of The American Physical Society Exploration of phase separation in heterogeneous lipid monolayers CURT DECARO, SAMBHUNATH BERA, Northern Illinois University, ZHANG JIANG, Argonne National Laboratory, MRINMAY MUKHOPADHYAY, SPring-8, CAROL THOMPSON, Northern Illinois University — A Langmuir monolayer is a well established model of a single leaflet of a lipid membrane. In this work, we investigate the phase separation behavior of a model Langmuir monolayer as a function of both Langmuir surface pressure and ratio of saturated lipid : unsaturated lipid : cholesterol. The specifics of domain separation behavior, or "rafting," in membranes are generally thought to be responsible for much of the behavior of living membranes, specifically in protein integration and transport. Off-specular x-ray scattering is used to probe in-plane structure of the membrane at the sub-micron scale. Additionally, atomic force microscopy imaging is taken on samples transferred to a rigid support. In-plane order is found to grow as a function of surface pressure. Also, the in-plane order is found to depend on cholesterol concentration in the monolayer. The phase space of the in-plane order as a function of lipid and cholesterol concentration is presented. Curt DeCaro Northern Illinois University Date submitted: 21 Nov 2011 Electronic form version 1.4


The aim of this work is to study the kerosene explosibility in closed or vented vessels and to develop an application to safety systems. The basic characteristics of the model have been developed for the ignition and the combustion of propulsive powders and adapted to liquid fuels with appropriate parameters linked to simplified kinetics. A simple representation of the combustion phenomena based on energy transfers and the action of specific molecular species is presented. The pressure venting, due to the vent breaking is calculated taking into account the mass rate of discharge of the different products in the assumption of the standard orifice equations. The model allows the study of various parameters such as the nature of the kerosene, the fuel ratio of the mixture, the ignition energy, the thermal exchanges and the influence of the pressure venting or the vent area. The theoretical results have been compared with data obtained in the course of experiments performed in small vessel volumes ( V 0 = 13 and 33 l) and indicate correct preliminary tendencies.


Mouse pose estimations have important applications in the fields of animal behavior research, biomedicine, and animal conservation studies. Accurate and efficient mouse pose estimations using computer vision are necessary. Although methods for mouse pose estimations have developed, bottlenecks still exist. One of the most prominent problems is the lack of uniform and standardized training datasets. Here, we resolve this difficulty by introducing the mouse pose dataset. Our mouse pose dataset contains 40,000 frames of RGB images and large-scale 2D ground-truth motion images. All the images were captured from interacting lab mice through a stable single viewpoint, including 5 distinct species and 20 mice in total. Moreover, to improve the annotation efficiency, five keypoints of mice are creatively proposed, in which one keypoint is at the center and the other two pairs of keypoints are symmetric. Then, we created simple, yet effective software that works for annotating images. It is another important link to establish a benchmark model for 2D mouse pose estimations. We employed modified object detections and pose estimation algorithms to achieve precise, effective, and robust performances. As the first large and standardized mouse pose dataset, our proposed mouse pose dataset will help advance research on animal pose estimations and assist in application areas related to animal experiments.


In this paper, we build up a new intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) aided multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) channel model, named the cascaded LoS MIMO channel. The proposed channel model consists of a transmitter (Tx) and a receiver (Rx) both equipped with uniform linear arrays (ULAs), and an IRS used to enable communications between the transmitter and the receiver through the lineof-sight (LoS) links seen by the IRS. To model the reflection of electromagnetic waves at the IRS, we take into account the curvature of the wavefront on different reflecting elements (REs), which is distinct from most existing works that take the plane-wave assumption. Based on the established model, we study the spatial multiplexing capability and input-output mutual information (MI) of the cascaded LoS MIMO system. We generalize the notion of Rayleigh distance originally coined for the single-hop MIMO channel to the full multiplexing region (FMR) for the cascaded LoS MIMO channel, where the FMR is, roughly speaking, the union of Tx-IRS and IRS-Rx distance pairs that enable full multiplexing communication between the Tx and the Rx. We propose a new passive beamforming (PB) strategy named reflective focusing, which aims to coherently superimpose the waves originating from a transmit antenna, reflected by the IRS, and focused on a receive antenna. With reflective focusing, we derive an inner bound of the FMR, and provide the corresponding orientation settings of the antenna arrays that enable full multiplexing. We further employ the MI to measure the transmission capability of the cascaded LoS MIMO system, and formulate an optimization problem to maximize the MI over the PB, the antenna array orientations, and the transmit covariance matrix. We give analytical solutions to the problem under asymptotic conditions such as high or low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regimes or sufficiently large TxIRS and IRS-Rx distances. For general cases, we propose an alternating optimization method to solve M. Zhang and X. Yuan are with the National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Communications, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China (e-mail: email@example.com; email@example.com). This paper was presented in part at 2022 IEEE International Conference on Communications, Seoul, South Korea, May 2022. ar X iv :2 10 9. 08 91 3v 2 [ cs .I T ] 7 J un 2 02 2


This project paper tried to investigate the Criteria used by Ethiopian Companies for accepting or rejecting investment or financing alternatives under the condition of risk or uncertainty. Contemporary financial literatures recommended that companies should use the investment and financing decisions criteria whether the decisions are made for the first time, for expansion or for replacement of the deteriorated asset(s). In contrary to these recommendations, Some Ethiopian companies use these criteria only at the time of initial investment and even that might be employed if they are forced by other bodies such as banks who extends loans to them.


In order to make the simulation model close to the prototype bus, two modeling methods are used in this research. The Semi-empirical simulation models, which are based on the test results, are adopted for the key components or assembly such as the engine, tire etc. and the theoretical models are adopted for the general assembly and components. The power train layout is the same with the prototype bus. Finally, the simulation is carried out and verified by comparison with the experiment data.


Luiz Costa-Lima, Professor ofTheory ofLiterature and Comparative Literature at the Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, is one of the most ambitious theorists in Latin America. This is the third volume in a kind of trilogy, whose earlier titles in translation are Control of the Imaginary (1988) and The Dark Side ofReason (1992). They have been well translated from the Portuguese by Paulo Henrique Britto, who recently brought Urna Arte, Elizabeth Bishop's letters, from English into Portuguese. The matter of translation is important here. A key term in the book is "criticity," a neologism like the Portuguese criticidade, which means the act of questioning. As the translator explains, this is to be distinguished from "critique" or die act ofjudging, and from "criticism" or the activity by means ofwhich the act ofjudging is effected. Costa-Lima's choice ofmajor literary figures is unusual and perhaps arbitrary. The section on Montaigne is called "The Consecration ofthe Individual." This title points toward the emergence ofthe self in Renaissance thought, a familiar topic, but one mat receives a rather novel treatment here. Montaigne might be considered as the first in a line of French writers whose preoccupation with self-examination is almost a national trait; modem writers we could mention include Gide, Bardies, and the Valéry ofthe Cahiers. But Costa-Lima moves for the better part of the book to writers in German: Schlegel and his Romantic contemporaries, and then Kafka. He has a reason for this shift; he thinks that the idea of literature "as an autonomous discursive mode" is already suggested in Montaigne; it becomes explicit in the German Romantics. It is true that Kant's Critique ofJudgment (1790) is usually considered the first systematic work in aesthetics. So to move from Montaigne to Kant, Schiller, Schlegel and the others is to pass over the Enlightenment. This is an interesting way ofviewing Montaigne, who, according to Costa-Lima, "places reason on trial because he denounces as unfounded its pretension to knowledge." So we have here an act of "criticity" before its time. As it is well known, Montaigne left public life at the time of his friend La Boétie's death, which removed anyone he could talk with. He retired to his tower with his thousand or so books and decided to devote his time to a kind of conversation with himself. Hence his need to write in a new form: the essay, the attempt. Some ofCosta-Lima's best pages are concerned with the essay as a mode of discourse. He states mat "according to Adorno, the essay's defining trait is its opposition to the system, the finished theory." And then he builds up a brilliant little defense of this mode: "It is precisely because of its affinity with criticity that the essay is marked more by the forcefulness of its questioning than by the unerringness of its answers. That is why the essay is the form that, though not identified with the literary experience, is closest to it." Costa-Lima claims that Montaigne's activity as essayist pointed toward autobiography but that he refused to write in that mode. It might be useful to compare him with his near contemporary Benvenuto Cellini, whose autobiography (written in 1558-62 but not published until 1730) was typical ofRenaissance egoism. It also resembled die picaresque novel that was being written at that moment in Spain.


PURPOSE: An abnormal traffic sensing apparatus and a method thereof are provided to analyze a traffic image based on traffic statics information of an external traffic analyzing apparatus and to sense abnormal traffic. CONSTITUTION: A traffic image processing unit(110) processes a traffic image. A comparison image processing unit(120) generates a comparison image for abnormal traffic. The comparison image processing unit stores the generated comparison image. An image comparison unit(130) compares the processed traffic image with the stored comparison image.


The Macaulay2 package NumericalSchubertCalculus provides methods for the numerical computation of Schubert problems on Grassmannians. It implements both the Pieri homotopy algorithm and the Littlewood-Richardson homotopy algorithm. Each algorithm has two independent implementations in this package. One is in the scripting language of Macaulay2 using the package NumericalAlgebraicGeometry, and the other is in the compiled code of PHCpack.


Purpose To study the clinical characteristics,the imaging and pathology features of the neurilemmoma arising from the adrenal area,with which to direct clinical treatment. Methods We analyzed clinical data of 4 cases without any special symptoms and abnormal laboratory examination,in which a retroperitoneal mass had been thought to be adenoma of adrenal gland or pheochromocytomas based on computed tomography. Results Excision of the masses were performed in all cases.A pathological examination showed an Antoni-A predominant-type benign neurilemmoma.The available literature on adrenal neurilemmoma was then discussed. Conclusions Although be rare,adrenal neurilemmoma must be considered in the differential diagnosis of any adrenal masses.CT and MRI have suggestive features but can not provide unequivocal diagnosis.Despite the benign pathology of the majority of these lesions,literature supports excision in most cases.


The upcoming Italian election will be closely watched in other EU states. Giulia Pastorella writes that while on the face of it most parties running in the election are markedly pro-European, there is an undercurrent of Euroscepticism in the campaign which should prompt concern for those in favour of further European integration.


The aim of this thesis work is to increase the knowledge of phenomena taking place during the initial stage in a top blown converter. The work has been done in a few steps resulting in four differe ...


The choice of a certain tourist destination by tourists is based among other things and on the natural beauties of the landscape and preservation thereof. Sustainable tourism development means satisfying the needs of today's tourists without compromising the tourist needs of future generations. Waste management in developed tourist environments, such as the city of Hvar, influences the sustainability of the destination and the availability of its resources for future generations. In this paper, the growth and development of the town of Hvar will be considered, its influence on the increase from the aspect of the increased quantities of waste and management, i.e. waste management of the city of Hvar. Management in the town of Hvar is based on collection and disposal of waste to the landfill "Stanisce", and the aforementioned activities are carried out by the municipal company Hvar d.o.o. the degree of separate collection of waste in the city is still poorly developed, and the reasons The absence of a regulated waste collection system "door to door" and unconstructed infrastructure-recycling yard, composting and separate waste sorting. In order to improve the existing waste management system, the work provides measures, projects and objectives with the result of better functioning of waste management in the area of the town of Hvar.


Safely and efficiently completing unprotected left turns at intersections is challenging for both automated vehicles and human drivers, given that it is hard to predict the intentions of other road users. Currently, automated vehicles are inclined to adopt an overly conservative policy for safety reasons. And experienced drivers respond to right-of-way competition by employing "negotiation" skills to improve efficiency, mainly through steering, braking and acceleration. However, negotiations do not always go smoothly, and a phenomenon similar to "pedestrian face-off" is called "vehicle face-off", specifically speaking, this host vehicle and vehicles involved in the competition perform the same maneuvers (acceleration or deceleration) continuously and simultaneously, leading to reduced efficiency and safety. In this paper, a new deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method is proposed based on deep convolutional fuzzy systems (DCFS) for automated vehicles to deal with unprotected left-turn scenarios on urban roads. A total of 30 subjects participated in the experiment, and the results show that the proposed method can provide human-like driving skills for automated vehicles, and effectively avoid "vehicle face-off" to improve the efficiency of unprotected left turns on the premise of ensuring safety.


Holmium-YAG (2.1 (mu) ) laser recanalization was attempted in 10 totally occluded miniature swine iliac arteries using a lensed fiber delivery system. The iliac artery occlusions were created in a Yucatan miniature swine model of atherosclerosis by means of a high cholesterol diet and balloon endothelial denudation. In order to increase the spot size, a spherical silica lens was attached to the distal end of a 300 micrometers core diameter silica optical fiber. The holmium-YAG laser was operated in the free-running mode with 250 microsecond(s) ec pulses at 4 Hz. The energy delivered was 225 mJ per pulse for the 1.0 mm lensed fiber and 200 mJ per pulse for the 1.3 mm lensed fiber. Laser energy was delivered in 2 to 5 second bursts. Successful recanalization was achieved in all 10 arteries attempted without perforation of the arterial wall. The average length of the occlusions was 5.0 +/- 1.8 cm. Following successful laser recanalization significant stenoses (>50%) remained in all of the arteries as judged by angiography. In conclusion, the lensed fibers coupled to the pulsed holmium-YAG laser were safe and effective in recanalizing these difficult lesions in relatively straight iliac arteries. There is potential clinical utility for this system as an adjunct to balloon angioplasty in patients with lesions which are unable to be crossed with guidewires.


In this note, we study a general version of a problem posed by Feng Qi in [10] in the context of a measured space endowed with a positive ¯nite measure. For other studies and results, one can consult the pa- pers [2], [3], [5], [8], [9], [12], [13] and [14]. Our basic tool is the classical HAolder inequality. By the convexity method (see [3]) we give an inter- pretation of the lower bound occuring in our main result (see Theorem 2.2 below).


In this chapter, other aspects of psychopharmacological treatment of children are considered, specifically for diagnoses or symptoms of depression, manic states, anxiety, and behavioral problems, as well as autism and OCD. The occurrence of psychiatric symptoms in children does not reflect static disease entities, usually, but rather either diseases in process, which become evident in their final state in adulthood, or other social and cultural factors, such as abuse, trauma, and neglect. Attention deficit disorder (ADD) is not a disease in itself, usually, but rather a mistaken diagnosis when distractibility or impulsivity is caused by mood illnesses or anxiety states. Long-term randomized data with amphetamines indicate no greater functional benefit than with psychosocial interventions for ADD. Notable harms exist, including stunted height and possible neurotoxicity.


The aim of this paper is to introduce an innovative method for measuring the concentration of methanol in alcoholic beverages. The novel approach consists in using Raman spectroscopic data for methanol content detection. Raman spectroscopy is a powerful method for material identification giving information about the structure of examined sample. This analytical method enables rapid, noncontact and non-destructive analysis that can be performed through the glass. The method for quantitative determination of methanol in alcoholic beverages has been developed on the basis of diverse Raman spectra for methanol and ethanol, their mathematical processing and using PLS regression method for the calibration and prediction model of methanol. Development of this new method is related to the massive methanol poisonings which occurred in the Czech Republic in September 2012. A large amount of harmful toxic alcoholic drinks containing methanol in quantities many times over legal limit was illegally distributed. This event led up to serious problems with poisoned people and the losses in lives. However, it can be assumed the problems may occur in the future since about a third of the defective alcohol has not been traced. The detection limit of the method lies below the permitted and safe amount of methanol in the beverages regulated by the European Parliament and the Council.


Application methods and amount of different types of organic fertilizer and the apple yield were surveyed in 56 typical orchards of Weibei areas in Shaanxi Province,and soil organic matter in different layers were analyzed in order to understand the current situation of soil organic matter content.The results showed that the amount of manure applied to the field and organic matter content in soil was positively correlated with apple yields.The average soil organic matter content is 1.26% in 0~40 cm soil layers in apple orchards of Weibei areas,ranged from 0.86% to 2.17%;Organic matter content in 0~40 cm soil layers(1.26%) was obviously higher than in 40~60 cm(0.90%),organic matter contents in different area are different.The vertical difference of soil organic matter content was pointed out in different area,according to the results of experiments,soil organic matter contents index in Shaanxi Province was made out.


Herein, we focus on the design method of a robot, named Wave Wheel, capable of generating a smooth continuous peristaltic wave, which is driven by a bundled rotary helix drive mechanism. Wave Wheel mainly consists of a braided mesh tube, multiple helices that are arranged on the circumference, and spur gears. When a single motor rotates the helices, the wheel generates peristaltic waves. The proposed mechanism has some unique characteristics: (i) In principle, smooth peristalsis can be generated with a simple structure. (ii) It can be driven by a single motor and can propagate waves at high speed by infinite rotation of the shaft. (iii) The structure is a circle in the transversal plane and can be used as an omnidirectional drive wheel. The basic design method, such as waveform, velocity, and the collision condition are discussed from a geometrical point of view. Based on the model accounting for the mechanical constraints, we have designed and fabricate a prototype robot and experimentally tested it. The prototype (diameter of 57 mm) reached the top speed of the peristaltic locomotion of 43 mm/s when angular velocity of the helix was 60 rad/s. We obtained the trajectory of the mesh surface by motion capture, and the result showed that the velocity was not constant on the whole surface but periodically changed with time due to the sliding between the mesh and the helix.


Throttling usually occurs when a fluid passes through an orifice, sometimes even severe cavitation erosion may occur. In this study, the equation for the cavitation index of a throttling valve was proposed and the cavitation erosion area in the throttle valve was found to change its position with the orifice opening (X). Cavitation features of singular and two-port series throttling grooves were characterized by defining cavitation indexes σ1 and σ2, because the cavitation index-σ can determine the occurrence and intensity of cavitation. Then the indexes σ1 and σ2 included internal geometric parameters and external pressure boundaries were obtained, and cavitation indexes curves σ1-X and σ2-X were also plotted. From the curves of the cavitation index, it was observed that cavitation concentration section also would transfer with opening X changes in the U-shaped groove. The depth of the U-shaped groove had a more evident impact on cavitation, whereas the effect of width on cavitation erosion was not so obvious. The intensity of cavitation erosion when the fluid flowed into the orifice section of the U-shaped groove was always larger than that when the fluid flowed away.


As iron plays a very important role in maintaining the sporting capability,this research is devoted to investigating the status of iron metabolism in athletes of sporting anemia,in order to explore the regular pattern of the biochemical changes of iron metabolism in athletes of sporting anemia. The result of the investigation shows: the Hb、RBC、Hct and MCHC of athletes of sporting anemia are obviously below the compared group; when sporting anemia takes place,the density of serum iron diminishes,the density of ferritin and TF increases,and iron metabolism will be disorder.


Abstract : Contents: The structure of the boundary layer in a horizontally nonhomogeneous atmosphere; Wind and turbulent exchange close to frontal surfaces.


Much of the psychological theory and research on romantic jealousy emphasizes the roles of threats to self-esteem and threats to the relationship (from a romantic rival) in generating jealous feelings. However, the causal effects of these threats on the occurrence of jealousy have not yet been examined. In the present study, subjects imagined themselves in four types of jealousy-provoking situations (relatively low and high threat to self-esteem crossed with relatively low and high threat to the relationship) and, in each one, estimated the likelihood that they would become jealous, angry, sad and fearful, and that they would seek proximity to their partner. Results showed that changes in the likelihood of jealousy and its concomitant emotions were a function of changes in the intensity of both types of threats, as expected. However, proximity-seeking increased among men only when relationship threat increased. Among women, the likelihood of seeking proximity increased (relative to the joint-low-threat condition)when either type of threat increased alone but not when both threats increased together. The relevance of these findings to recent formulations of jealousy processes from an attachment perspective and to previous research on jealousy and relationships is discussed.


Objective To observe and compare the clinical effect of treating benign primary blepharospasm(BPB)with acupuncture and injection of type A botulinum toxin. Methods Between January 2012 to July 2013, 80 cases of BPB patients in ophthalmology of Tongren hospital were randomly recruited into a acupuncture group and a control group, with 40 cases in either group. The acupuncture group was treated with acupuncture on points of strengthening spleen and distributing liver and the control group was treated by type A botulinum toxin injection around effected eyes. Then effective rate, visual impairment of quality of life scale and self-rating depressive scale were tested after the treatments. Results The total effective rate of acupuncture was 95%, which was better than injection with type A botulinum toxin, with statistical difference(P 0.05). Visual impairment score was (121.88±30.16) and (121.00±28.72) in the acupuncture group and control group respectively before the treatment, However, acupuncture group(70.00±22.88)reduced less than control group(95.25±28.39)after the treatment, and there was statistical difference(P 0.05), (acupuncture group was(15.90±7.99) and control group was(15.75±6.26). However, acupuncture group(10.40±4.95)reduced less than control group(13.38±6.32)after the treatment, and there was statistical difference(P<0.01). Conclusion It proved that the therapy of acupuncture with strengthening spleen and distributing liver method for benign primary blepharospasm has a better result than injection with&nbsp;type A Botulinum toxin. Moreover, acupuncture can promote optical function and prevent depression for BPB patients.

Key words:
Benign primary blepharospasm; Acupuncture; Botulinum toxin type A; Evaluation of effect


Abstract 1835 Defective apoptosis has a central role both in development and progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Indeed in this hematological malignancy the expression of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) has been shown to be significantly up-regulated. The most potent among IAPs is probably the X-linked IAP (XIAP), which is characterized by three highly conserved tandem BIR domains (BIR1-3) able to block various members of the family of cysteine proteases (caspases) known as the main effectors of the apoptotic process. BIR3 domain selectively targets caspase 9, an initiator caspase, whereas the linker region between BIR1 and BIR2 binds with executioner caspases 3 and 7, thus inhibiting the activity of both initiator and effector of apoptosis. Smac-DIABLO (Second Mitochondria-derived Activator of Caspases - Direct IAp Binding protein with LOw pI) is a protein released from the mitochondria antagonizing the activity of XIAP. Therefore, small molecules mimicking Smac (Smac-mimetics) can induce apoptosis in tumor cells by displacing the interaction between XIAP and caspases. At the University of Milan, Center for biomolecular Interdisciplinary Studies and Industrial applications (CISI), new cell permeable Smac-mimetic compounds (monomers and dimers) binding to XIAP with high affinity were recently synthetized. Here we report the activity of a selection of these new agents in human lymphocytes from 32 CLL patients and from 6 healthy controls. The patient population included only subjects with active disease (11 females and 21 males; median age 72 years; Rai-Binet stage 0-A to II-B), who, at the time of samples collection, were either untreated or out of therapy since several months. Patients were characterized for the mutational IGVH status, cytogenetics (by FISH analysis), and the expression of both CD38 and ZAP 70. Following isolation from peripheral blood samples by density gradient centrifugation, mononuclear cells were treated for 16 hours at 37°C and 5% CO2 with low micromolar concentrations (1-10 microM) of a selection of our new Smac mimetic compounds, including 4 monomers (34, 55, 66 and 73), and 2 dimers (83, 85) which were have been previously shown to be active in leukemic cell lines overexpressing XIAP. Combination treatments with the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (10nM) and with Tumor necrosis factor-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) (50 ng/ml) were also tested. Apoptosis rate was evaluated by flow cytometric analysis following annexin V and propidium iodide staining. Overall, the monomers were more cytotoxic than the dimeric compounds on leukemic cells. The most active agent was the monomer Smac66, which, after 16 hours of treatment at a 10 microM concentration promoted apoptosis in up to 72,5% (median value 40% ranging from 11% to 72,5%) of CLL lymphocytes. In comparison to normal lymphocytes from healthy controls, where the median rate of apoptosis was 10.1% (range1.2% to 18%), the cytotoxic effect of the Smac66 compound was significantly higher (p=0.0004) in CLL cells. No synergistic effect was observed in combined treatment with bortezomib nor with TRAIL. Rate of apoptosis did not correlate with clinical parameters, cytogenetics, mutational IGVH status, and expression of CD38 and ZAP70 was observed, but the limited size of our patient population should be taken into account. In conclusion, among our Smac mimetics selected molecules seem be very active in CLL lymphocytes, suggesting a promising therapeutic potential in this malignancy. Further molecular investigations as well as in vivo studies in animal models are currently ongoing respectively to better elucidate the mechanism of action of these compounds and to promote their preclinical development. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Iterative channel estimation and decoding over flat Rayleigh fading channels have been shown in literature to improve the performance of receivers in wireless communication systems. Turbo and low density parity check codes have mostly been used as the forward error correction (FEC) scheme in the iterative receiver structures. This study proposes a decision directed iterative channel estimation and decoding receiver using Reed–Solomon codes. In particular, the Koetter and Vardy, Reed–Solomon (KV–RS) soft decision decoder is adopted in the receiver structure as the FEC scheme. Two methods of deriving a priori information in joint iterative channel estimation and decoding receiver structures are also analysed in this study. The first method derives the a priori information employing the log likelihood ratio (LLR) method. A priori information derived using the LLR method is mostly used in iterative receiver structures in the literature. The second method derives the a priori information employing the distance metric (DM) method. The DM method is proposed in this study as an alternative approach to the LLR method of deriving a priori information in the iterative receivers. Hard and soft feedback information from the KV–RS decoder is considered to verify the performance of these methods. The performance of the two a priori information methods is documented through computer simulation assuming an M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation system. Simulation results verify the improvement in symbol error rate (SER) performance in the KV–RS iterative receiver structure in comparison with the KV–RS receiver without feedback. Also, the proposed DM method exhibits the same SER performance in comparison with the LLR method which is mostly used in the literature. More importantly, the proposed DM method has the advantage of less computational delay and time complexity compared with the LLR method.


In recent years, application of intelligent autonomous robots for home amusement has become an important research criterion, and pet robots have been designed to become the electronic toys for the next generation. To develop pet robots that can act in real time in the real world, this work adopts the behavior-based control architecture. In our control framework, an imitation-based learning system is included to build robot behaviors. Moreover an emotional model is embedded to the control architecture. By giving the pet robot an emotional model it can explicitly express its internal conditions through its various external behaviors, as the real living creature does. To evaluate the proposed framework, we have developed an interactive environment and successfully used it to design a pet robot.


Objective To establish a method to determine the concentration of loxapine in human plasma by RP-HPLC.Methods The drug from the plasma was analyzed in an RP-HPLC system Diamtnsil C18 column(150 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm);The mobile phase consisted of 0.03 mol·L-1 postassium dihydrogen phosphate(pH 6.4)-acetonitrile(83∶17);the flow rate was 1.0 mL·min-1;the detection wavelength was 256 nm.Ethyl acetate was used as the extracting solvent.Results The average recoveries of loxapine in high,middle and low concentrations(1 000.0,400.0,10.0 ng·mL-1) were 99.75%,98.94% and 101.93%,respectively.The intra-day and inter-day variation(RSD)was less than 7%(n=5).The calibration curve of loxapine showed good linearity,r=0.999 5(n=10),over the range of 10.0~1 000.0 ng·mL-1.The regression equation was Y=83.52X-3.65.r=0.999 5(n=10).The minimum detectable concentration of loxapine was 3.0 ng·mL-1.Conclusion The method is sensitive,accurate,easy and quick,which can be used for clinical drug monitoring and pharmacokinetic studies.


57 ABSTRACT There are disclosed herein a gelatin coating composi tion which comprises succinated gelatin as the main component and polyethylene glycol, and a hard gelatin capsule formed from said gelatin coating composition. The hard gelatin capsule has sufficient mechanical strength for filling operation. Moreover, it does not become insoluble due to reaction with a special drug having an aldehyde group filled therein. Therefore, it can be used for various drugs, especially macrollide antibiotics for which conventional hard gelatin capsules are inadequate.


Abstract - Habitat loss from human activity and vegetative succession is a major threat to the imperiled Glyptemys muhlenbergii (Bog Turtle). In its southern range, most remaining populations are in open-canopy wetlands with emergent vegetation and a history of livestock grazing. To better understand the natural history of Bog Turtles in an understudied habitat, we studied the movements and habitat use of Bog Turtles in a Castor canadensis (American Beaver)-maintained southern Appalachian bog in North Carolina with no known grazing history and a predominance of shrub/scrub habitat. We tracked 6 adults (4 female, 2 male) using radio telemetry from May to November 2015, calculated daily movement rate and home range, and investigated vegetation and soil components of habitat selection. Our results suggest wetlands with substantial shrub/scrub macrohabitat should be considered potentially suitable Bog Turtle habitat if emergent macrohabitat for nesting and deep, mucky soil are also present. The relative roles of vegetation and soil in habitat selection need further investigation.


The harmonious educational environment is the foundation of building a harmonious campus,and also a constituent of a harmonious society.A good educational environment is achievable through establishing a workable balance in the five relationships:managing the school according to both law and liberal education,improving both scientific quality and training moral qualities,the coexistence of pluralistic values and mainstream values,the role of models and mass participation activities,as well as school-led demonstration and vigorous promotion in society in general.These relationships must be handled well in order to create social harmony and unity.


The condensation of o-mercaptobenzamides with methyl acetylenedicarboxylate or methyl propiolate occurs with trans addition of the SH to the alkyne linkage. The resulting vinyl sulfide adducts can be ring closed to 1,3-benzothiazin-4-ones in excellent yield.


The Skellefte district is one of the most important mining districts in Sweden and hosts over 80 massive sulfide deposits. The Blylodtorpet area is located in the eastern part of the district a ...


T his issue deals with a wide range of clinical topics of urology, and contains two Review Articles, eleven Original Articles and one Urological Notes. Microribonucleic acids, a class of small non-coding ribonucleic acids, regulate protein-coding gene expression by repressing translation or cleaving ribonucleic acid transcripts in a sequence-specific manner. Using eight genome-wide microribonucleic acid expression signatures, the Review Article by Goto et al. (Chiba, Japan) reported microribonucleic acids contributing to prostate cancer development, progression and metastasis, such as miR-221/222, miR143/145, miR-23b/27b/24-1 and miR-1/133a. They also discussed the functional significance of the differentially expressed microribonucleic acids and the molecular pathways/targets regulated by these microribonucleic acids. The other Review Article by Minagawa and Ishizuka (Matsumoto, Japan) deals with urological Kampo medicine. Currently, more than 10 Kampo formulations can be used for urological problems. Among them, they listed representative urological Kampo formulations used for lower urinary tract symptoms, and discuss their roles in the urological field, including their position in Japanese clinical guidelines. They also introduced the essence of general Kampo medicine, including its history and current status in Japan. Finally, they proposed the multi-organ targeting strategy using Kampo formulations as a future vision. C-reactive protein is a non-specific, acute phase, hepatic protein secreted in response to various cytokines, but primarily interleukin-6. Using the cohort of 516 patients undergoing surgery for renal cell carcinoma,Hsiao et al. (Atlanta, USA) have generated four nomograms with stage, grade, C-reactive protein levels and presence of metastatic disease, using overall mortality and renal cell carcinoma-specific mortality as end-points, two each for preand postoperative counseling. The factor with the largest effect on all nomograms was preoperative C-reactive protein. Although their findings require external validation, their nomograms seem to be applicable for all common histological subtypes of RCC. Matsuyama et al. (Ube, Japan) performed a randomized study comparing running suture with interrupted suture for vesicourethral anastomosis in retropubic radical prostatectomy. They demonstrated that running suture for vesicourethral anastomosis was feasible during retropubic radical prostatectomy. Furthermore, it offered better outcomes than the conventional standard interrupted suture technique, with a higher likelihood of improvement in patients' health-related quality of life. On the other hand, Yumioka et al. (Yonago, Japan) evaluated the influence of prior abdominal surgery on surgical outcomes of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy in an early single center experience in Japan. From their results, robot-assisted radical prostatectomy appears to be a safe approach for patients with prior abdominal surgery without increasing total operative time, robotic console time, positive surgical margin or the incidence of perioperative complications. In the field of neurogenic detrusor overactivity secondary to spinal cord injury, Sengoku et al. (Kobe, Japan) reported multi-institutional experience of botulinum toxin A injection in Japanese patients. They examined the efficacy and safety of onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox) injection into the bladder wall after a 2-week washout of anticholinergics. The mean number of urinary incontinence episodes decreased from 4.3 to 1.5 times/day (P = 0.004), and the maximum cystometric capacity increased from 100 mL to 296 mL (P = 0.0004). Clinically significant adverse events were not observed. The approval of this drug is desired in Japan. Tanaka et al (Osaka, Japan) examined the difference in improvement of lower urinary tract symptoms between morning and evening dosing of α1-blocker naftopidil, using 177 male patients with nocturia. From their randomized study, evening dosing of naftopidil seems to be more effective in treating nocturia in male patients with lower urinary tract symptoms. This information is useful for daily outpatient clinic.


The HIFiRE-1 flight experiment provided a valuable database for boundary-layer transition over a 7 deg half-angle, circular cone model from supersonic to hypersonic Mach numbers as well as a range of Reynolds numbers and angles of incidence. This paper reports the findings from a computational analysis of the measured in-flight transition behavior during the ascent phase. Given a nearly zero angle of attack, computations indicate that the most likely cause for transition during the flight window of 19 to 22.5 s is the amplification of second-mode instabilities in the laminar boundary layer, except in the vicinity of the cone meridian, where a roughness element was placed midway along the length of the cone. The growth of first-mode instabilities is found to be weak at all trajectory points analyzed from the ascent phase. Based on the time histories of temperature and/or heat flux at transducer locations within the aft portion of the cone, the onset of transition across the aforementioned window is found t...


Pile temperature control is normally maintained by using four horizontal rods, two ``long`` rods extending to the far side of the pile and two ``short`` rods whose tips are on the near side. (1) This procedure prevents cycling of ``hot spots`` about the pile, but does not achieve symmetrical horizontal temperature distribution. Prior to pile operation the cadmium-containing cans were removed from the near ends of the two ``long`` control rods, numbers 5 and 11, at C pile, so that when these rods were in the ``full in`` position their poisoning effect outside the flattened region at the near side of the pile would be small. By using these ``half rods`` in conjunction with ``short`` rods it was expected that a nearly symmetrical horizontal temperature distribution could be maintained. A comparison of near-to- far temperature distribution at C-pile with other piles indicates that gains in production of 4% during early operation of a pile and 3% during later equilibrium operation can be realized by using the half-rods. On the basis of these observations ``half-rods`` are to be incorporated in the K-piles currently under construction. It is recommended that the ``long`` control rods in existing piles be replaced by rods alteredmore » in an equivalent manner.« less


Enterprise management shall be adaptive to economic development. As a result of management revolution brought by network economy, enterprise managemen t seems to have such new trends as flexible management and green management, et c. Thus management staffs have to keep up with the new trends in the information e conomic age to keep their development.


Stratospheric transport and polar processing during the 2014/2015 Arctic winter were strongly influenced by a minor sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) in early January. Disturbances to temperatures and trace gases in the middle and upper stratosphere were similar in character to those associated with major SSWs: The stratopause dropped, and vertical temperature gradients weakened, followed by renewed descent of mesospheric air. The lower stratospheric polar vortex was barely disrupted and remained unusually strong throughout the winter. The SSW did, however, cause lower stratospheric temperatures to rise well above chlorine activation thresholds; trace gas abundances from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) were consequently exceptional. The degree of chlorine activation in January was the smallest, and lower stratospheric ozone values in February were the highest, in the 11 year MLS record. The major role played by a minor SSW highlights the Arctic stratosphere's sensitivity to a spectrum of dynamical variability.


What psychological theory and research can reveal about training in Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) is summarized. A framework is provided for the critical analysis of current approaches to CRM training. Background factors and definitions critical to evaluating CRM are reviewed, followed by a discussion of issues directly related to CRM training effectiveness. Some of the things not known about the optimization of crew performance and the research needed to make these efforts as effective as possible are described.


Two great movements in the American common law in the second half of this century put into question the jury's role in deciding normative issues. The shift from rules to standards has given the jury more say regarding what is inappropriate conduct because the jury makes that normative decision at the point of application of a standard. The movement from rules to standards has been especially pronounced in contract law. Meanwhile in tort law, in reaction to a perceived liability explosion, judges have taken the power to define what is inappropriate conduct from the jury by announcing no-duty rules. These two movements raise similar questions regarding the relation of the choice between rules and standards to the allocation of normative authority between judge and jury, and in particular, the question whether any values other than the familiar costs and benefits of rules and standards bear on how this authority is allocated. This article argues that other values do weigh on the scale. The American common law manifests a commitment to popular judgment regarding what is inappropriate when conduct foreseeably causes physical harm as well as a commitment that runs in the opposite direction to professional judgment regarding what is inappropriate conduct affecting only economic interests. Because of the latter commitment the choice to define inappropriate conduct in the marketplace by standards need not entail the transfer to the jury of the power to decide what is inappropriate conduct in the first instance. Judges can and do define good faith, improper interference, unjust enrichment, and other legal standards of fair dealing though they do so on a case by case basis. Because of the former commitment judges do not and ought not decide what is reasonable conduct in negligence unless they can frame their decision in the form of a categorical rule that applies beyond the immediate case. This article closes with a discussion of the law of restitution and the concept of abuse of a confidential relationship. While judges historically have defined what is inappropriate conduct in the marketplace, juries have defined what relationships rise above the morality of the marketplace through their power to define when a confidential relationship exists and whether it has been abused. To preserve this power for juries without allowing it to encroach too significantly upon conduct in the commercial sphere the concept of abuse of confidential relationships should be defined as the exploitation of trust for personal gain.


This study aimed at analysis of the general-index change for the mean annual and seasonal precipitation in six stations in Latakia Governorate (Syria). The data of precipitation were collected for 40 consecutive years (1970–2010) in order to figure out the extent of the changes and variability in precipitation rates and the impact of this change on changes in the potential density that might cause extremely high or low precipitation rates according to Gumbel distribution of the extreme precipitation rates. Results revealed a decrease of the annual precipitation rates in all stations, the reduction in precipitation ranged from 46 to 210 mm during the whole period of the study. Spring, however, recorded the highest and statistically significant reduction, which reached 46–210 mm, while winter precipitation increased by 21–82 mm. Spring also has witnessed a decrease of about 3–9% of the total annual precipitation as compared to winter precipitation which increased by 5–8% of the total. The potential density of extremely high winter precipitation rates increased in all stations as indicated from Gumbel distribution in winter, and a greater increase took place in the probabilities of occurrence of the extremely low spring precipitation rates. This shows significant probability of occurrence of drought during spring season. By contrast, probabilities of winter precipitation rates increased more, thus winter is relatively more humid than before and spring is relatively drier than before.


SUMMARY We propose a new visual tracking method, where the tar- get appearance is represented by combining color distribution and keypoints. Firstly, the object is localized via a keypoint-based tracking and matching strategy, where a new clustering method is presented to remove outliers. Secondly, the tracking confidence is evaluated by the color tem- plate. According to the tracking confidence, the local and global keypoints matching can be performed adaptively. Finally, we propose a target appear- ance update method in which the new appearance can be learned and added to the target model. The proposed tracker is compared with five state-of- the-art tracking methods on a recent benchmark dataset. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluations show that our method has favorable perfor- mance.


A model for estimating monthly and annual evaporation of Lake Qaroun was developed using the energy budget concept. The evaporation is estimated from the amount of solar radiation, atmospheric long‐wave radiation, back radiation and evaporative energy. A modification is made to the energy equation to allow the calculation of evaporation from saline lakes by analyzing data from four evaporation pans with different salinities.


"Whichever kind of study it was, whether it was about ecological indicators of seasonal change or agricultural practices, I mostly was reading similar types of studies where [nonindigenous scientists] would go and document that knowledge and report it back in a scientific journal," said David-Chavez (https://nni.arizona.edu/people/staff/dominique-m-david-chavez-phd-arawak-taino), who is a postdoctoral fellow working jointly with the University of Arizona's Native Nations Institute in Tucson and Colorado State University in Fort Collins. She is a member of the Arawak Taíno community.


Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that the apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids (AA) in fermented soybean meal (FSBM) are greater than those in soybean meal (SBM). FSBM was produced by fermenting SBM with a mixture of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The fermentation process decreased trypsin inhibitor and crude fiber levels by 67.80% and 7.56%, while it increased the total amino acid content by 2.56%. In the first experiment, a substitution method was used to determine the AME and nitrogen-corrected AME (AMEn) of SBM and FSBM. A corn-SBM basal diet and two test diets consisting of 70% of the basal diet plus 30% SBM or FSBM were formulated. The results show that fermentation did not have an effect on the AME and AMEn concentrations of SBM (p > 0.05); the respective AME and AMEn values were 10.29 and 10.62 MJ/kg (DM basis) and 9.09 and 9.23 MJ/kg for SBM and FSBM. In the second experiment, a nitrogen-free diet was formulated to measure the endogenous AA flow, and the other two semi-purified diets containing SBM or FSBM as the sole source of AA were formulated. The results show that the AID and SID of isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, valine, cysteine, tyrosine, and aspartic acid were greater in FSBM than in SBM (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the fermentation of SBM by a mixture of B. amyloliquefaciens, L. acidophilus, and S. cerevisiae can improve its nutritional values and is a promising protein resource for broiler production.


The nonlinear coupled vibration model of cables and bridge decks is established. The decks are simplified as continuous beams with uniform cross section. The sag of cable, aerodynamics and geometric non-linearity caused by large displacement are considered. The numerical results of different cables are obtained. Serious internal resonance with beat rhythm can occur when the ratio of cable frequency and deck frequency is close to 1:1 and 2:1. The results show that the vibration characteristic of the coupled system is related with the sag of cable, vibration frequency, wind velocity, yaw angle of wind velocity, inclined angle and damping. It can provide theoretical basis for bridge design and calculation.


poses, and some triumphs of provincial autonomy occurred on issues related to the status and prerogatives of lieutenant governors. Yet, lieutenant governors themselves had little to do with these developments. Their office had been established in order to achieve the opposite, and today still remains a symbolic reminder that what the Fathers of Confederation had in mind was a quasi-legislative rather than a truly federal union. In this vein, one can feel that describing federal-provincial disputes as "tension between the Crowns" (185) does not throw much light on the subject. Despite these ambiguities, the author successfully conveys his basic point that the formal powers of the Crown are immense and the monarchy continues to enhance the supremacy of the executive over the other branches of government. Readers are offered a fresh perspective on issues such as Supreme Court advisory opinions, royal commissions, special warrants and appointments. In this sense, "the Crown" matters, and substituting a republic for the monarchy will no doubt require more reflection on the desirable balance to be maintained, or established, between existing powers. Plenty of monarchies evolved into republics without experiencing a significant decrease of executive authority, and many contemporary republics have fairly strong executives as well. For example, a Canadian prime minister would no doubt enjoy having the ample regulatory powers the French executive can use without any need for a specific legislative empowerment. How strong a factor the Crown may be in establishing a strong executive, in comparison with factors like a plurality electoral system or strong party discipline, still remains an open question.


Selective oxidation is of great importance in organic synthesis, and green, efficient, selective oxidation techniques are highly sought after in the chemical industry. In particular, selective oxidation of alcohols is a fundamental transformation in the synthesis of fine chemicals. Recently, aerobic oxidation processes have received increasing attention, as oxygen or air are used as the terminal oxidant to replace the stoichiometric metal oxides such as chromates and manganese oxides. The use of oxygen has great benefits from both economic and green chemistry viewpoints, because oxygen is relatively cheap and produces water as the only byproduct. Accordingly, varied heterogeneous and homogenous catalysts derived from precious metals have been developed for this purpose, for example, Pt, Ru, Pd, Au, and Ag. However, because of their rarity and high price, precious metals are impractical for industrial use. Despite this, few efforts have been made to seek out nonprecious metal catalysts. One example is the 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine1-oxyl (TEMPO)/Br2/NaNO2 aerobic oxidation system reported by Liu et al. , in which TEMPO was used as a homogeneous catalyst, and the in situ generated NO played a crucial role in the activation of O2. Our interests are in the exploration of the potential of carbon-based materials to be applied as metal-free catalysts for selective aerobic oxidation of alcohols. Several studies of carbon catalyst materials have already revealed the ability to replace metal-based catalysts in several important transformations, such as the Friedel–Crafts reaction and the oxidative dehydrogenation of aromatic hydrocarbons and alkanes. Interestingly, carbon catalysts with an ordered nanoshell structure or doped with heteroatoms have been reported to possess surprisingly high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities. However, to date there is no report on the selective aerobic oxidation of alcohols using the same catalyst. Herein, we present a novel protocol: nitric acid assisted carbon-catalyzed oxidation System (NACOS), by which benzyl alcohol and its substituted derivatives can be smoothly oxidized by oxygen under mild reaction conditions, affording high conversions and good selectivities into the corresponding aldehydes. The nanoshell carbon (NSC) used in this investigation was prepared by pyrolization of a blend of phenol resin and iron phthalocyanine, similar to methods reported by Ozaki et al. , and subsequent acid washes using concentrated HCl. The iron metal on the carbon surface can be thoroughly removed by acid washes, and the metal-free surface was characterized by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) (Figure 1a) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS; Table 4). The specific surface area of NSC was 330 m g , determined by N2 adsorption. Initial experiments with benzyl alcohol showed that the NSC alone could not activate oxygen and no alcohol conversion was observed. It was postulated that the catalyst might take effect in the presence of an additive, so several acid and base additives were tested. Among all the tested additives, concentrated nitric acid


A dual polarized ultra-wideband tight coupled dipole array with no extra wideband balun and feed organizer is presented in this paper. The array aperture is comprised of optimized dipoles which are printable and easy to fabricate. The dipoles are excited by unbalanced feed structure and are shorted by capacitive short vias at the end of dipole arms. The total profile of the proposed array is very low. A bandwidth of 3.2:1 was achieved with voltage standing wave ratio $(\text{VSWR})\leq 2$ from 1.5GHz to 4.8GHz at broadside. The angle of scanning ranges up to 45° in the E-plane with $\text{VSWR}\leq 2.5$ and in the H-plane with $\text{VSWR} \leq 2$.


This paper puts forward the implementation of Cubic lattice structured multiagent based PSO algorithm (CLSMAPSO) to obtain the optimal power flows by optimally placing TCSC devices. The Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC) is modeled using susceptance model with modifications in the Y bus of the Newton Raphson Algorithm. The constraints related to violation limits, minimization of line overload factor, and line loss are dealt using penalty factor approach. The new multi agent based cubic lattice structured PSO algorithm was considered for optimizing power flows while satisfying all the constraints mentioned above. This algorithm was tested on IEEE14, IEEE 30 and IEEE 57 bus systems to identify the suitable location, its reactance value and firing angle. The above results have been validated using Linear programming method in powerworld simulator. The results obtained were quite encouraging and will be useful in electrical restructuring. General Terms- Multi agent systems, Particle swarm optimization, Optimal power flows, security constraints, Thyristor controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC), FACTS (Flexible AC transmission systems)


Chersonese culture has certain features of its own which find explanations in peculiarities of this peripheral region of the antique world's historical development where the antique culture was developing in close interaction with the natives' cultures. The city's residents were experienced in various trades, such blacksmithery and foundry. There were workshops producing various ceramics (amphora, crockery, terracotta, tiles, tubes, etc.), tapestry and dyestuffs. Especially proficient were Chersonese stonecutters and builders. Chersonese was a great cultural center inhabited by philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers and doctors. The blossom of Chersonese antique culture dates back to the 4th-3d century B.C., this being promoted by permanent commercial, political and cultural ties with Greek cities. The migrants brought to the North Black Sea countries the cults of Greek gods who were later depicted on coins, for whom they built temples and for whom they made sacrifice. Especially dear to Chersonese residents was Heracles. In Chersonese residents' opinion, Heracles was constantly switching from the hero to the god to finally become the patron of Chersonese state's expansion as well as to become the defender of its borders. Sources have it that over the 4th-2d century B.C. Heracles was viewed both as the hero and the savior. However in the 2d century B.C., since Chersonese lands located in North Taurica were invaded by the Scythians, his role in religious life was appreciably reduced


An apparatus designed to compare small differences between the impedance modulus of two identical cells when the measurement frequency is varied from 0.1 to 500 Hz is described. The resolution is typically about 105. The electrode polarization errors are eliminated by using two four‐electrode cells. This apparatus is used to determine the very‐low‐frequency dielectric relaxation spectrum of DNA solutions.


Biomedical questions are often complex and address multiple topics simultaneously. Answering them requires the comprehensive evaluation of several different types of data. They are often available, but in distributed and heterogeneous data sources; this hampers their global evaluation. We developed a software architecture to create and maintain updated a Genomic and Proteomic Data Warehouse (GPDW), which integrates several of the main of such dispersed data. It uses a modular and multi-level global data schema based on abstraction and generalization of integrated data features. Such a schema eases integration of data sources evolving in data content, structure and number, and assures provenance tracking of all the integrated data. Thanks to the developed software architecture and adopted data schema, the GPDW has been kept updated easily and progressively extended with additional data types and sources; it is publicly usable at http://www.bioinformatics.dei.polimi.it/GPKB/.