Until recently the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) was in regular decline in both developed and developing countries. Eradication of TB was expected by the 2nd or 3rd decade of the 21st century in countries with low current endemicity. But some 95% of cases occur in developing countries which contain enormous reservoirs of pathology. Annual TB mortality is estimated at 3 million deaths and each year 8-10 million new cases occur in developing countries. In 1986 the relationship between TB and HIV infection became evident in the US when the incidence of TB failed to decline by 5% as it had every year for 32 years. Epidemiological data on TB and AIDS showed that 5% of whites with AIDS 60% of Haitians with AIDS and 10% of non-Haitian American blacks with AIDS also had TB. In Africa about 40% of AIDS patients also have TB. The rate of TB in AIDS patients reflects the prevalence of TB in their countries of residence. TB occurs in the HIV infected either by reactivation of an old and previously quiescent infection or by a rapidly developing new infection. The opposite side of the coin is the frequency of HIV infection in TB patients estimated at 30-50% in New York 30% in Florida and almost 50% in some regions of Africa. The likely increases in TB cases in areas of elevated frequency of AIDS will cause critical problems in anti-TB strategy. Clinical symptoms and radiologic images are often atypical in HIV positive patients complicating diagnosis of TB. Prolonged bacteriological surveillance of multiple body products may be necessary to assure control of TB in individual AIDS patients. 60% of results of cutaneous-tuberculin reaction tests are false negatives in AIDS patients with TB. A greater proportion of TB cases in AIDS patients are resistent to treatment with Isoniazide and Rifampicine. Treatment may be disrupted by adverse reactions to 1 or more common antibacillary drugs. There is also some question as to how long treatment of TB must continue for AIDS patients. From a collective perspective HIV patients constitute a new group at risk of TB. Developed countries must renew their vigilance against the spread of TB especially among health workers. There is urgent need in developing countries for international action and cooperative study to determine the optimal therapeutic regimes in light of the association of TB with HIV infection the rate of new cases of pulmonary and nonpulmonary TB and the contagiousness of TB in AIDS patients.


The papers appearing in this special issue of the Asian and Pacific Migration Journal were selected from those presented at the Conference on International Manpower Flows and Foreign Investment in the Asian Region held at Nihon University in Tokyo over the period September 9-12, 1991. The conference was a collaborative effort of Nihon University and the East-West Center's Population Institute, Honolulu, Hawaii. Additional financial support was provided by the Centre for Migration and Development Studies at the University of Western Australia and Taiyo Village in the Ibaraki Prefecture.


In present paper we have study and discussion about relative validity and importance of various mixing rules viz. Weiner (W), Gladstone–Dale (G–D, Lorentz–Lorentz (L–L), Arago-Biot (A-B), Heller (H) and Newton's realtion (N) with following organic binary liquid mixtures of Cetane (C), + 1-Butanol (B),+ 1Pentanol (P),+ 1-Hexanol (H), + 1-Heptanol (HP)at (293,298,303) K over the entire mole fraction range. We have also made Comparison between various mixing rules and result has been expressed in terms of average percentage deviation.


The sound of a car 's clackson was developed and used 100 years ago, but can cause traffic noise to pedestrians and drivers, which can be harmful. We have previously proposed a new familiar Clackson sound with a different rhythm or tempo using the existing Clackson. However, since the existing Clackson sound is needed in emergency or special cases, this study newly proposed a compatible Clackson sound method. First of all, pressing the center part of the handle of the driver's seat while driving starts a rhythmic clack sound, on the other hand, after a short touch, you can press and hold down to use the existing Crackson sound. We usually use a human-friendly Klaxon sound that is designed considering 100 people's hearing fatigue, brain wave test, stress index, etc., and when using the existing Klaxon sound in the case of emergency. Therefore, the proposed Clackson sound can be used without any major change in all the cars on the market, so that it is possible to minimize the opponent's retaliation during driving.The sound of a car 's clackson was developed and used 100 years ago, but can cause traffic noise to pedestrians and drivers, which can be harmful. We have previously proposed a new familiar Clackson sound with a different rhythm or tempo using the existing Clackson. However, since the existing Clackson sound is needed in emergency or special cases, this study newly proposed a compatible Clackson sound method. First of all, pressing the center part of the handle of the driver's seat while driving starts a rhythmic clack sound, on the other hand, after a short touch, you can press and hold down to use the existing Crackson sound. We usually use a human-friendly Klaxon sound that is designed considering 100 people's hearing fatigue, brain wave test, stress index, etc., and when using the existing Klaxon sound in the case of emergency. Therefore, the proposed Clackson sound can be used without any major change in all the cars on the market, so that it is possible to minimize the opponent's retaliation during ...


The development of technology on diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer contributes to the steady fall in the mortality of early breast cancer.Quality of life of patients with breast cancer which was strongly influenced by the skeletal-related events(SREs) due to bone loss has become one of the focus points.This review provides a synoptic overview including the causes,pathogenesis,treatment and mechanism so as to offer a new thought for the breast cancer-associated bone loss.


The mutual angular distributions of the two ejected electrons following direct photodouble ionization have been measured for D2 at an excess energy (E) of 25 eV using linearly polarized light. These (γ, 2e) 'triple' differential cross sections (TDCSs) were obtained for asymmetric electron energy conditions with energy sharing ratios (R = E2 /E1) of R = 24, 11.5, 4 and 2.57. In all cases the 'reference' electron (energy = E1) was oriented along the direction of the electric field vector (𝛆) and detected in coincidence with a second electron (energy = E2) coplanar with 𝛆 and the photon beam direction (kγ). For comparison, helium TDCSs were obtained for the same E and R values under nearly identical spectrometer conditions. These show very good agreement with the results of hyperspherical-ℜ-matrix with semi-classical outgoing waves calculations, thus providing even more confidence in the D2 TDCSs where there is as yet no accurate ab initio theory. The similarities and differences between the experimental results associated with the two targets are qualitatively discussed in terms of Feagin's model (Feagin J M 1998 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 31 L729).


We investigate goal structures in family firms and provide several findings based on a survey among the shareholders of German companies. Our analysis reveals that the importance that is attributed to family or firm goals depends on certain firm characteristics. First of all, strong family influence by itself favors the orientation towards family goals.
In line with other empirical studies we find that the existence of an advisory board leads to reduced importance of family goals. However, we find that a larger firm size results in higher significance of family goals.


Natural rubber (NR) based composites with various amount of kaolinite were performed via the latex compounding method. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of clay modification and clay contents on tensile properties of the NR composites. The kaolinite clay was modified by an ion exchange reaction with octadecylammonium ion. FTIR spectrum of modified kaolinite revealed the evidence of octadecylamine signals. The modified kaolinite investigated using SEM represents the platelet shape and the size distribution of organoclay particles is consistency. The tensile moduli and strengths of unmodified clay composites tend to decrease whereas those of modified clay composites are improved and increased with the modified kaolinite contents. Swelling resistance in non-polar solvent of the NR/ODA-kaolinite composites is greater than that of NR and NR/kaolinite composites. The morphological study by the SEM suggested that the modification of kaolinite clay helped improve the dispersion of clay in rubber phase. These results reflected that the dispersion of silicate layers was the key parameters in enhancing the physical properties of the composites.


The generalization of Pocklington's integral equation for thin-wire structures of arbitrary geometry with dielectric coating is discussed. The deduction of the integral equation is given, based on the definition of the general electric field as the sum of field current on conductor surface, field of polarization current that is equivalent to dielectric coating and primary field. The primary field can be the field of a localized source (the problem of excitation) or the field of incident plane electromagnetic waves (the problem of scattering). Numerical results are found to be in a good agreement with experiments and with the data obtained by other authors.


pi. 3 would have looked better in a drawing. In reading the text, reference is required to the notes, Greek texts, lists, and plates, all at the end, and place-marking fingers thus well occupied: in such circumstances the notes might better have appeared in the old manner at the bottom of the page, and perhaps the Greek in the text. The writing is lucid and the format (stiff covers) easy to handle. The whole book whets the appetite for the iconographical study of Herakles which we hope Dr. Brommer will give us one day.


The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, and a method of producing using a quarter-wave plate or a circularly polarizing plate, suitable for him for the compensation of the birefringence. Laminating the quarter-wave plate has a quarter-wave plate and a half-wave plate, the quarter-wave plate and the 1/2 wave plate is laminated on each other, the in-plane slow axis so as to cross each other; Each quarter-wave plate and a half-wave plate is referred to the in-plane main refractive indices nx, ny, and the refractive index nz in the thickness direction satisfy the relationship of Nz = (nx-nz) / (nx-ny)> 1.05 do. The circularly polarizing plate is a laminate of the laminated quarter-wave plate and a polarizer.


Objective:To explore the function of multimedia teaching in rural doctor CPR training,to discuss the training methods for how to improve the CPR training in rural doctors.Methods:The method uses the grouping research the method,supposes the experimental group and the control group according to the stochastic grouping principle,separately uses the multimedia union heart and lungs anabiosis computer teaching to 62 rural doctors to simulate the human teaching method or the traditional version book teaching method situation conducts the track investigation and study.Results:In the result 62 examples experiments the group and the control group the result has the highly remarkable difference in the theory knowledge test and the operation inspection,has statistics significance(x2=7.4,p0.01).Conclusion:The conclusion multimedia union heart and lungs anabiosis computer teaching simulates the human teaching training to have the remarkable function in rural doctor in the CPR,should give to promote.


The population characteristics of a community consisting of 16 species of snakes occurring in five microhabitats were studied for 24 years (1982 to 2006) at the Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Fairfax County, Virginia, USA. The portion of the refuge studied included five varied microhabitats: an old farmstead, and old field, extensive woodlands, a pond, and a tidal marsh. The species morphological characteristics, adult male/female ratios, and juvenile/adult ratios are reported, as also are the snake biomass, numbers, richness of each microhabitat and changes in the fauna over the time period. Niche characteristics of the snake species are described. Comparisons are made with Middle Atlantic snake communities to the north and south of Mason Neck. RESEARCH ARTICLE The Herpetological Bulletin 135, 2016: 15-23


This paper highlights the different dimensions of the ideal of equality in contemporary times. Based on this conceptual framework, it argues that the notion of equality as it is currently enshrined in European law is too limited and that this is problematic.


Background: Older patients with malignancies are at high risk of developing both venous thromboembolism (VTE) and bleeding. Aspirin, a known agent to prevent arterial thrombolism, also showed evide...


Cytokines are insolubilized IN WATER by acting a physiologically PROTEIN adaptive or organic acid high molecular weight on a cytokine, and cytokines insolubilized WATER WELL LEARNED RETAIN physiological activity and thus CYTOKINES insolubilized in water are useful as INJECTIONS SUSTAINED RELEASE .


Ferroelectric semiconductors have been predicted to exhibit strong zero-bias shift current, spurring the search for ferroelectric semiconductors with band gaps in the visible range as candidates for so-called shift current photovoltaics with efficiencies not constrained by the Schockley–Queisser limit. Recent theoretical works have predicted that two-dimensional IV–VI monochalcogenides are multiferroic and capable of generating significant shift currents. Here we present experimental validation of this prediction, observing ultrafast shift currents by detecting terahertz electromagnetic pulses emitted by the photoexcited GeS nanosheets without external bias. We explore excitation fluence, orientation, and excitation polarization dependence of the terahertz emission to confirm that shift currents are indeed responsible for the observed emission. Experimental observation of zero-bias photocurrents puts GeS nanosheets forth as a promising candidate material for applications in third-generation photovoltaics ...


In March 1987, the AAHE Bulletin first published "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education." With support from Lilly Endowment, that document was followed by a Seven Principles Faculty Inventory and an Institutional Inventory (Johnson Foundation, 1989) and by a Student Inventory (1990). The Principles, created by Art Chickering and Zelda Gamson with help from higher education colleagues, AAHE, and the Education Commission of the States, with support from the Johnson Foundation, distilled findings from decades of research on the undergraduate experience.


As augmented reality (AR) becomes a promising technology for use in science and engineering teaching, the need for generally valid criteria and frameworks for the analysis, development, and setup of AR applications arises. In this article, we present an evaluations matrix to analyze current augmented reality approaches for life science teaching (biology, chemistry) and engineering and simultaneously provide directives for future augmented reality application designs. Based on an extensive literature review followed by focus group discussions with experts, the evaluation matrix combines domain-specific aspects, technical features, and subject and media didactical principles to determine seven select parameters. This ensures adequate coverage of the broad range of key considerations in the development of augmented reality technology for science and engineering teaching. Through cluster analysis, two groups of applications could be identified. The first group comprises applications whose development was more technology-driven. Applications in the second group take more didactic criteria into account and are to be considered more holistically from an instructional perspective. No correlation could be observed between the design of the AR application and the intended learning effects. The parameters derived for the evaluation matrix contribute to specifying relevant criteria for the development of AR applications.


The article presents the qualification process concerned with the following procedures: finishing welding of aluminium castings pursuant to PN-EN ISO 15614-4, production welding of steel castings pursuant to PN-EN ISO 11970 and productionand finishing welding of cast irons pursuant to PN-EN ISO 15614-3. The work enumerates the cases of qualification of welding procedures for aluminium, steel and iron castings and presents details related to test joint designs as well as the manner of their preparation taking into account welding conditions and other technological aspects. The text also contains precise characteristics of test joint examinations and their range of application while qualifying a given welding procedure. In addition, the article informs about test results which justify the qualification of a finishing welding procedure for aluminium castings and test plate butt joints in case of cast irons and cast steels. In all cases particular attention was paid to the range of qualification of procedures for characteristic conditions of the welding process and its basic variables.


A case of electrical T wave alternans without change of P wave and QRS complex is reported here. Literature on this subject is reviewed. It is emphasized that the alternation of T wave always exists when important morphological anomalies of QT tract and prolongation of QT are present.


The Russian factor poses a real threat to the national security of Ukraine and Poland. The Russian expansion includes the dismemberment of the Ukrainian and Polish territories and formation of weak, non-viable and quasi-public entities there which would be dependent on Moscow. One of the important features of Russian strategy is to undermine national unity of Ukrainian and Polish societies within the countries, neutralize strategic partnership between our countries and to provoke a new Ukrainian-Polish conflict. Russia's neo-imperialist policy is substantiated by A. Dugin's neo-Eurasian geopolitical doctrine. The analysis of the doctrine makes it possible to forecast the Russian policy towards Ukraine, Poland, European Union and the USA and to work out an effective counterstrategy. Deepening the Ukrainian-Polish equal partnership and joint efforts to neutralize and dismantle Russian imperial social system should become the response to common threat to the national security of Ukraine and Poland. Without taking such drastic measures the national security of Ukraine, Poland and other countries will always be at constant threat.


This paper examines how the double meaning of Apocalyptic 'now' is represented in Samson Agonistes. The study begins with the fact that eschatological moment is working in the present: here, the meaning of Apocalyptic 'now' can be distinguished between "imminent" and "immanent." While the apocalyptic literature is full of anticipation of the Judgement, End-feelings already dominate the literature. Ironically, it says that the End will come to us shortly, but it already exists now. Milton's tragic drama, Samson Agonistes contains these double concepts of the Apocalyptic now. Milton does not follow biblical chronology in weaving Samson's story. It begins from the end of the story when manifest evil power is revealed and separated from God's side. From the beginning, the End-feelings dominate the work. At the same time, eschatological incident, the dramatic destruction of Philistines occurs at the final moment of the work. The anticipation of the Judgement is actualized through the downfall of Philistines by Samson's vehement iconoclasm.


Abstract Levels of sterigmatocystin in cultures of various fungal strains were determined by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). This mycotoxin was well separated using acetonitrile / water / acetic acid (55/45/2) as solvent on a μ-Bondapak C18 column (Waters Associates). It was detected by its absorbance at 320 nm. Using this method, sterigmatocystin can thus be simply and rapidly determined in mould strain cultures.


This paper presents a model for organization of educational content in connectionists intelligent tutoring systems. The availability of educational content in a single format has emerged as a problem for many students. The inadequacy of a single format of content that ignores differences in individual profiles may have inefficient outcomes in the teaching-learning process. The proposed multilevel structure allows for different combinations of concepts for presentation to the same content. Assuming that the pattern of successful organization of the study by a student can be applied to other students with similar profiles, a system was structured to assist in the task of customization reactive content. The customization is provided by a neural network that links the student's profile to a proximal learning pattern. This pattern is combined with expert rules to enable a probabilistic selection so that the system presents the reactivity in the different learning stages. The results of experiments indicate that the approach is effective in providing better use of the content in the personal study and its potential use in Distance Education.


Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a powerful evolutionary algorithm inspired from the science of biogeography. It mainly uses the biogeography-based migration operator to share the information among individuals. In canonical BBO, according to the principle of immigration and emigration, poor solutions are like to be completely replaced by better ones. Consequently, this will lead to reduction of the population diversity. On the other hand, for Particle Swarm Optimization, a particle will learn from the global best solution and its own history best solution, which also deteriorate population diversity. In this paper, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) employs the selection mechanism of BBO and provides its solution updating strategy for BBO. A good particle has a large probability to be learned, while a poor particle has a small probability to be learned. In this way, the whole swarm can eliminate the affects from only one solution. The simulation is done using fourteen benchmark functions, and the results demonstrate that this hybrid BBO-PSO algorithm works efficiently.


The effect of oxythioquinox exposure on normal human mammary epithelial cell gene expression: A Title: microarray analysis study Abstract Background


production functions. However, this proposition can be established rigorously only after it has been proved that unique equilibrium prices exist for all given admissible values of the own-rates of return. We prove the latter theorem in Section 3. The existence of a generalized factor-price frontier for our model follows immediately. Moreover, as a by-product we obtain a nonsubstitution theorem which states that for given (admissible) own-rates of return, the equilibrium real wage in terms of any numeraire is determined independently of the composition of output.3 Our nonsubstitution theorem is analogous to those proved by Samuelson [6, 7] and Bruno [2] for Leontief models, and by Morishima [4] for a steady-state neoclassical model with equal own-rates of return. These topics are discussed in Section 4. Section 5 is concerned with the properties of the set of admissible ownrates of return. It is shown that our restrictions are a natural generalization of a two-sector model with a single capital good. Furthermore, we obtain our results, including the validity of our main theorem, under the assumption that labor is required, either directly or indirectly, in the production of every commodity; this condition is much weaker than the alternative assumptions that either labor is required to produce every good or that the technology is indecomposable. In Section 6 we prove that another of Bruno's [2] results for the linear


The higher education context that our CUMU institutions must navigate is complex and begets challenges resulting from the distinct mission our institutions seek to uphold. The implications of these challenges give rise to impacts on everyone within the institution and consequently our constituents within the cities we seek to serve. Bringing together literature, emerging research, and points from discussions at the 2016 CUMU conference, this paper analyzes challenges and their implications and highlights the strategies being employed to navigate them. We consider the tensions inherent in the urban-serving university identity, the cost of serving urban regions, and the state structures that provide funding. All of these tensions have implications for commitment to mission, access for historically marginalized students, and the experiences of faculty within the institution. We also discuss strategic initiatives and efforts that reflect collaboration, strategic alignment, and innovation. This work is of value for those working within urban-serving universities, those who work to uphold their mission in higher education, and policy makers that shape the context of these institutions' work.


Statistic data shown that the residents' income gap has been enlarging in recent years in China. How to shorten this gap in order to fulfill the social fairness is one of urgent tasks for Chinese government. This article has done some research from the light of readjustment of the relationship between efficiency and fairness in China's income distribution policy and hope these thoughts is useful for the perfection of China's income distribution system.


Josh, age 16, gets poor grades in school and occasionally smokes marijuana and abuses inhalants. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, he cuts his wrist with a hunting knife. While bleeding profusely, Josh calls his mother at work, who calls 911. The cut is deep and requires sutures. Josh says he did not try to kill himself; he only wanted to carve his girlfriend's initials into his wrist to show his love for her. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When treating teenagers with self-harming thoughts and behavior, it may be difficult to distinguish suicide attempts from self-injury without intent to die. Understanding adolescent self-harm, suicide risk assessment, and treatment options guides clinicians to appropriate interventions. Recognizing the need for aggressive treatment--including psychiatric hospitalization--is essential to keeping self-harming teenagers safe. Suicidal vs nonsuicidal self-harm Suicidal behavior involves intent to end one's life and includes ideation (thoughts) and actions (nonfatal or fatal attempts). (1) Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) involves socially unacceptable, self-inflicted harm to one's body without intent to die. (2) Suicide is the third leading cause of death among youths age 12 to 19, claiming almost 2,000 lives each year. (3) Nearly 1 in 5 (17%) U.S. high school students has suicidal thoughts each year, and almost 1 in 10 (8%) attempts suicide. (4) Studies report a 13% to 23% lifetime prevalence of NSSI.(5) These behaviors often begin between age 13 to 15. (6) Cutting and hitting are the most common forms of NSSI; other methods include burning, scratching, and interfering with wound healing. Most teens who harm themselves without suicidal intent report that they feel little or no pain during the act. (5) Unlike suicide attempts, NSSI can be viewed as a means to stay alive. Many adolescents injure themselves to cope with overwhelming feelings that can produce suicidal thoughts. Self-injury may distract the adolescent from painful emotions, reduce tensions, or penetrate numbness. (7) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Teenagers who hurt themselves but do not intend to die are at high risk for suicide and suicide attempts. Adolescents who engage in NSSI are more likely to experience suicidal behaviors, and vice versa. (8) In a large study, 70% of adolescents who engaged in NSSI had made at least 1 suicide attempt and 55% made multiple suicide attempts. (2) Current suicidal ideation is a risk factor for suicide, and a past suicide attempt is the strongest predictor of future suicidal behavior. (9) Risk factors for suicidal behavior and NSSI overlap (Table 1) (2), (5), (6), (10), (11) and include: * depression * substance use * anxiety * impulsive aggression * history of childhood trauma. Table 1 Characteristics of teens who harm themselves Factor Comments Older age Both suicide attempts and NSSI are more common in mid-adolescence (age 13 to 15) Sex Males complete suicide more often (4:1) but more females make attempts. Sex differences have not been consistently identified for NSSI Psychiatric illness Diagnoses associated with adolescent suicide include major depression, substance abuse, and conduct disorder Psychosocial and Recent loss or rejection, living alone (eg, situational risks running away or homeless), poor social (usually combined with supports, family conflicts, family suicidal psychiatric illness) behavior, poor communication with parents, availability of firearms, exposure to suicide in the community or media, academic difficulties, legal problems, gender identity conflicts, history of maltreatment, being bullied, and risky behaviors NSSI: nonsuicidal self-injury Source: References 2, 5, 6, 10, 11 Many teens who engage in NSSI report depression. …


The paper investigates determinants of economic growth in GCC countries using VECM approach. The results report that in a 10-year horizon, FDI accounts 15.87%, 10.29%, 16.58%, 0.89% and 6.88% for Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates respectively in shocks in their economic growth compared to the contributions of exports (9.55%, 1.33%, 6.85%, 10.38% and 20.9%) and gross capital formation (0.83%, 0.07%, 9.88%, 1.98 and 17.98%) for the countries respectively. The results also show that the main determinants of economic growth are foreign direct investment and gross capital formation for Bahrain. For Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, exports and gross capital formation are the main determinants of economic growth. Exports and foreign direct investment are the main determinants of economic growth in United Arab Emirates. Finally, there is no any evidence for short-run or long-run unidirectional or bidirectional causality relationship for Oman.


Introduction Invasive pneumococcal disease due to serotype 19A has become a major concern, particularly in the USA and Asia. We describe the characteristics of pneumococcal serotype 19A related empyema and changes in its incidence in the UK. Methods Data from paediatric empyema patients between September 2006 and March 2011 were collected from 17 respiratory centres in the UK. Pneumococcal serotypes were identified as part of the Health Protection Agency enhanced paediatric empyema surveillance programme. Results Four serotypes accounted for over 80% of 136 cases (Serotype 1 : 43%, 3 : 21%, 7 : 11% and 19A:10%). The incidence of empyema due to serotype 19A quadrupled from 0.48 (0.16–1.13) cases per million children in 2006/2007 to 2.02 (1.25–3.09) in 2010/2011. Severity of disease was significantly increased in children with 19A infection when compared to other serotypes. Conclusions The incidence of empyema due to pneumococcal serotype 19A infection has increased significantly and is associated with substantial morbidity.


Steady‐State growth equations predict that the optimum C:P ratio (R) of Selenastrum minutum (Naeq.) Collins should change by a factor of 20 over the growth range of this organism. Chemostat cultures were established at fixed inflow C:P ratios chosen such that a transition from carbon to phosphorus limitation should occur solely as a result of increasing the steady‐state growth rate. Measurements of residual dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), cellular C:P, the kinetics of photosynthesis with respect to [DIC] and the response of culture biomass lo DIC or K2HPO4 additions were obtained. These results show that optimum ratios are growth rate dependent and that this dependency can be predicted based on steady‐stale algal growth equations.


INTRODUCTION Cystic brosis (CF) is a recessive genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the epithelial chloride channel—CFTR (CFTR).
Our study's primary objective was to examine the demographic prole of cystic brosis at our specialised hospital. MATERIAL AND
METHODS The current research was a hospital-based observational study of individuals suspected of having cystic brosis undertaken at the
G.B. Pant Children's Hospital in Srinagar between 2019 and 2022. In this research, 200 patients were chosen according to inclusion and exclusion
criteria. RESULTS Out of 25, thirteen of our patients were male and twelve were female, for a ratio of 58% males to 42% females. 40% of the
patients in our research were between 1 and 24 months of age. 60% were offspring of non-consanguineous marriage. Positive patients who were
married consanguineously were third-degree relatives. During the course of our investigation, we discovered that the majority of patients were
from Kupwara, totaling 25% of the study group. In our study, 72% of patients presented with recurrent respiratory tract infections.
CONCLUSION In our study we concluded that Cystic brosis in Kashmir is more prevalent in men with non-consanguineous marriages and in the
Kupwara district.


The Aramaic Bible is a large-scale academic project to translate the Aramaic targums to the Pentateuch (gr. πεντάτευχος) into Polish. The originator and initiator of this undertaking is the head of the Biblical Sciences Section of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Father Prof. Miroslaw Stanislaw Wróbel together with the academic staff of the section. The first part of the project will cover three Aramaic targums to the Pentateuch of the Hebrew Bible – Targum Neofiti 1 (1–5), Targum Pseudo-Jonatanus (6–10) and Targum Onkelos (11–15). A total of 15 volumes will be published, plus one introductory volume on targumic topics.


Sexual assault prosecution is often influenced by extralegal factors, such as victims' age, race, and prior relationship to the assailant. The importance of evidentiary characteristics remains unclear. Prior studies suggest that victim credibility may be a central concern to law enforcement and prosecutors. However, many communities have implemented interventions to improve the accessibility and quality of medical forensic exams for sexual assault victims. One such intervention, a sexual assault nurse examiner program, was the focus of the current study. The authors examined what factors predicted adult sexual assault case investigation and prosecution in a large Midwestern county with such a program. They compared the predictive utility of victim characteristics, assault characteristics, and forensic medical evidence in explaining case outcomes. Medical forensic evidence collected by the sexual assault nurse examiner program accounted for significant unique variance in case outcomes, above and beyond victim and assault factors.


The DWY telecontrol systems for electrified railway have been widely used along many electrified railway lines. To overcome the shortfalls in throughput and channel utilization performances on communication protocol of DWY telecontrol system, this paper proposes a extended communication protocol for telecontrol system based on concatenated coding technique. The simulation shows that the throughput performance of this extended communication protocol is much better than that of the standard protocol.


The objective of this program is to develop the capabilities to predict the vaporization and devolatilization behavior of coal/water mixtures under conditions appropriate for spray combustion. The program is currently collecting data in an entrained flow coal reactor which has a fixed position, coal/water slurry spray injector and a movable product extractor. This reactor is being used to study the vaporization and pyrolysis of coal/water slurries. FT-IR is used for the analysis of the product gases, tars and chars to determine species evolution kinetics and kinetics of secondary reactions such as steam-char reactions, cracking, soot formation, char gasification, cenophere formation and particle swelling, and char reactivity. Temperature measurements were made along the center line of the test section of the reactor by removing the collection system and inserting a suction pyrometer through the bottom of the reactor. The temperature profile is quite constant in the top 40 cm of the reactor, but then drops off about 150/sup 0/ in the lower 20 cm. Data for the Pittsburgh Seam coal/water slurry were collected at furnace temperatures of 1100/sup 0/C and 1300/sup 0/C. The general behavior of the various species indicates more conversion of aliphatic to CO and CO/sub 2/, compared tomore » dry coal pyrolysis. Chars from slurry pyrolyses at 1100/sup 0/C and 1300/sup 0/C show substantial agglomeration, with the 1300/sup 0/C char showing the largest effect. The char particles from the water coinjection case appear to be individual coal particles which have swelled into cenospheres, whereas with the slurry there are clearly many coal particles.« less


Confidentiality of Electronic Health Record (EHR) and privacy are two important security requirements for healthcare systems. Many devices on the EHR network utilize little or no encryption, which makes data in transit vulnerable to exploitative attacks, such as Man-in-the-Middle and other filtration methods. Recently, watermarking algorithms as an efficient response to these requirements is in the underline. In this paper, we present a robust watermarking method conceived as part of an Electronic Health Record platform. In this method a chaotic encryption and blind medical image watermarking technique was incorporated into the system as an authorization mechanism to ensure confidentiality and integrity of electronic health information. We present a hybrid watermarking method based on a combination of discrete wavelet transform (DWT), hessenberg Decomposition (HD), Singular value decomposition (SVD) and an original chaos crypto system based on the Arnold Transform (AT) of Singular Value Decomposition. In order to spread the robustness of our algorithm and provide additional security, an improved SVD-AT embedding and extraction procedure has been used to scramble the EHR data in the preprocessing step of the proposed method. In the process of watermark embedding, an R-level discrete wavelet transform was applied to the host image. The low frequency wavelet coefficients are selected to carry this scrambled-watermark. In extraction process, the stored used plain image is obtained from the trusted authority server to complete the verification process. The receiver should compare the unsigned watermark with the extracted watermark again. The verification can be done before clinical procedures and diagnosis. The proposed watermarking method endures entirety attacks and rightly extracts the hidden watermark without significant degradation in the image quality, thus, when the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Normalized Correlation (NC) performance of the proposed algorithm is performed. performing scrambling of watermark through AT-SVD, and additional parameters (a, b, alpha), these parameters are used as secret keys to extract watermark in the process of watermark extraction, which can be obtained from the embedding process, without the correct initial condition, the watermark cannot be successfully detected. The method endures several attacks and rightly extracts the concealed watermark without major degradation in the image quality of the watermarked image, thus when the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Normalized Correlation (NC) performance of the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that after all attacks the extracted watermarks are visually recognizable and all extracted watermarks are similar to the original watermark, the average NC value is greater than 0.9 which is a good ratio and the PSNR on average is equal to 53.45 dB. Future work will focus on the current artificial intelligence methods for the extraction of robust features from the original image in order to generate a strong brand. This study will allow us to assess the potential benefits of artificial intelligence approaches for an overall improvement of watermarking systems.


Nurse's aides provide the majority of care to resi- dents in nursing homes. Few researchers have studied the percep- tions of aides and attempted to understand their attitudes towihd their work and interactions with residents, families, and staff. This qualitative, pilot study i s a report of intensive interviews with 27 aides in 3 nursing homes. The purposes of the study were to probe the aide's perceptions on their satisfaction with compensation, training, and work load assignments in addition to probing the thorny issues around racism and abuse issues in their nursing homes.


The purpose of this panel is to review past, present, and future human needs and desires associated with riparian environments. Our focus concerns the diverse demands, interactions, and expectations that people have for the riverine lands. The discussion is designed to take place within historic, economic, and social/cultural contexts.


Objective
To observe the protective effect of melatonin (MT) on paraquat (PQ)-induced acute liver injury in mice and its possible mechanism.

Methods
A total of 48 male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into normal group (n = 6), MT control group (n = 6), PQ poisoning group (n = 18), and MT treatment group (n = 18, 1 hour-PQ poisoning + MT). The drugs were intraperitoneally injected, MT 15 mg/kg, PQ 30 mg/kg. The mice in the later two groups were subdivided into 12, 24, 72 hours subgroups according to different time points after administration, with 6 mice in each subgroup. Blood from medial angle of eye and liver tissue were collected at different time points after intervention to determine the serum levels of alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) with iodine colorimetry. The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in liver tissue were determined with double-antibody sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The protein expression of nuclear factor-κB p65 (NF-κB p65) in liver nuclei was determined by Western Blot. The pathological changes in liver tissue were observed with light microscope using hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining.

Results
Compared with the normal group, the levels of serum ALT and AST, and TNF-α in liver tissue were significantly increased from 12 hours after poisoning, and peaked at 24 hours [ALT (U/L): 417.88±76.16 vs. 41.76±3.63, AST (U/L): 469.79±69.81 vs. 53.19±6.31, TNF-α (pg/mg): 46.39±9.81 vs. 13.01±3.19, all P < 0.05], then they were gradually decreased; the levels of IL-1β in liver tissue and NF-κB p65 in nucleus were continuously rose with time prolongation, peaked at 72 hours [IL-1β (pg/mg): 30.74±5.81 vs. 3.81±0.71, NF-κB p65 protein (gray value): 1.70±0.14 vs. 0.85±0.08, both P < 0.05]. MT intervention could significantly inhibit the above parameters with abnormal increase induced by PQ poisoning. Compared with the PQ poisoning group, the levels of AST in serum and TNF-α and IL-1β in liver tissue were significantly decreased from 12 hours [AST (U/L): 269.35±11.34 vs. 391.11±8.71, TNF-α (pg/mg): 15.10±5.03 vs. 28.77±5.96, IL-1β (pg/mg): 6.23±1.03 vs. 10.89±3.02, all P < 0.05], and the levels of serum ALT and NF-κB p65 in nucleus were significantly decreased from 24 hours [ALT (U/L): 249.38±21.71 vs. 417.88±76.16, NF-κB p65 protein expression (gray value): 1.13±0.07 vs. 1.45±0.09, both P < 0.05]. It was shown by light microscope that no pathological changes in hepatocyte were found in normal group. The pathological changes in hepatocyte were obvious in PQ poisoning group as following: inflammatory cell infiltrates, central venous and blood sinus dilation, hyperemia, and necrosis of liver cells. The pathological changes in hepatocyte in MT treatment group were lessened as compared with those of PQ poisoning group. No significant differences were found in above parameters between normal group and MT control group.

Conclusion
MT can lessen the necrosis of hepatocyte induced by PQ poisoning via inhibiting the excessive activity of NF-κB p65 and decreasing the TNF-α releasing, and play a role of liver protection.

Key words:
Paraquat; Melatonin; Acute liver injury; Nuclear factor-κB; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Interleukin-1β


Genetic variability, correlation and path coefficient analysis were done for yield and its component characters in twenty two diverse genotypes of rape seed. The highest genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was recorded for seed yield per plant (31.33%) followed by siliqua per plant (20.07%). Heritability estimates in broad sense were higher for the characters days to maturity (83.92%), days to flowering (72.49%) and thousand seed weight (68.13%). Days to maturity, days to flowering, thousand seed weight and length of siliqua had high heritability along with low genetic advance suggests nonadditive gene action was observed controlling these characters. Correlation coefficient of days to flowering (0.406*), primary branches per plant (0.514**), length of siliqua (0.548**), siliqua per plant (0.864**), seeds per siliqua (0.335*) was positive and significantly associated with seed yield per plant at genotypic level. Primary branches per plant (1.588), days to maturity (0.185), length of siliqua (0.740), siliqua per plant (0.569) and thousand seed weight (0.590) showed positive direct effect on seed yield. Selection based on these traits would give better response for the improvement of seed yield in rapes. The results of this study are expected as the basic information on genetic variation and relationship of component traits which can be used in rape seed breeding. © 2014 Elixir All rights reserved ARTICLE INF O Artic le history: Received: 18 February 2014; Received in revised form: 25 July 2014; Accepted: 8 August 2014;


Addition of caffeine to the recovering medium after mutagenesis of Zymomonas mobilis by N-methyiN-nitrosoguanidine increased 4-fold the number of auxotrophie mutants obtained. Moreover, while the mutants isolated without caffeine survived only a few repeated serial transfers on minimal medium supplemented with the required growth factor, 40 % of those obtained in the presence of caffeine were stable. Induced mutation is still a valuable tool for improving the performance of microorganisms in biological processes. Z y m o m o n a s mobilis is an anaerobic Gram-negative bacterium reported to be a promising alternative for the industrial production of ethanol (Swings and De Ley 1977; Rogers et al. 1979, 1982; Baratti and Bu'Lock 1986; Rodrfguez and Callieri 1986; Abate et al. 1989) and levan (Dawes et al. 1966; Swings and De Ley 1977; Yoshida et al. 1990). Moreover, Z. mobilis produces antimicrobial agents (Gon~alves de Lima et al. 1968, 1970, 1972) and it was also tested as a host for the expression of heterologous proteins (Uhlenbusch et al. 1991; Sprenger et al. 1993). In this context the possibility to obtain stable mutants with improved properties, such as ethanol tolerance and flocculation in the case of industrial production of ethanol, would be of interest. However, although several agents, such as N-methyl-N-nitrosoguanidine (NTG) and UV light, exert a marked mutagenic effect on Z. mobilis (Docile et al. 1993), the resulting mutants showed a high phenotypic instability (Sprenger et al. 1993). In this paper we report the preparation of stable auxotrophic mutants of Z. mobilis by treatment with NTG and caffeine. M A T E R I A L S A N D M E T H O D S Bacterial strains and growth conditions. Z y m o m o n a s mobilis strain ATCC 10988 was grown at 30 ~ in a complex medium (CM) containing in g/L: yeast extract 10, glucose 30, KHzPO4 1, MgSO4"7H20 1, (NH4)2SO4 1. Minimal medium (MM): biotin 0.01, o-pantothenic acid (semicalcium salt) 0.01, glucose 30, KHzPO4 1, MgSO4"7H20 1, (NI-h)2SO4 1. Mutagenic treatment. The concentration of NTG used for the mutageuic treatment reduced the population viability by 99.2 %. Caffeine was used in the concentration range at which no effect on the viability of the cells was observed, viz. 1 and 5 g/L for solid and liquid media, respectively. The microorganism was cultured in CM. When mid-to-late exponential phase of growth was reached, the following mutagenic conditions were tested: (a) Addition of NTG, dissolved in water-ethanol (4 : 1) to a final concentration of 0.8 g/L. After 3 h of incubation (about two duplication times) the cells were harvested by centrifugation, washed twice with saline-phosphate buffer of pH 7.2 (Skotnicki et al. 1980), incubated for 3 h at 30 oC in liquid CM, and plated on CM to allow segregation and phenotypic expression (Goodman et al. 1982). (b) The same treatment as in (a) but adding 5 g/L of caffeine, dissolved in water, to the liquid CM and 1 g/L to solid CM for plating. After further 3 h the cells were collected, washed as indicated in (a), incubated for 3 h in liquid CM containing 5 g/L caffeine and plated on CM containing 1 g/L of caffeine. Isolation and characterization o f mutants. The auxotrophy of isolated which grew on CM but not on MM was determined by replica plating using MM containing the substance to be tested. When assaying the isolates obtained applying the mutageuic treatment (b) i g/L of caffeine was also added to the medium. Determination o f the stability o f mutants. It was determined by growing them in liquid caffeinefree CM at 30 ~ for 2 d. This was repeated several times, using a portion of a growing culture as 1997 ISOLATION OF STABLE MUTANTS OF Z. mobilis 563 inoculum for the next one. Samples of each culture were serially diluted in sterile water and survivors determined by using poured plates of CM and MM incubated at 30 ~ for 2 and 5 d, respectively. R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N The mutants obtained by treatment with NTG, with or without the addition of caffeine, were identified as thr-, leu-, asp-, pro-, trp-, cys-, gly-, ser-, arg-, ile-, his-, lysand phe-. Some of the isolates could not be identified on the plates with growth factor pools and were assumed to have multiple mutations. As shown in Table I the mutants obtained by treatment with NTG in the absence of caffeine, became nonviable after 4 serial transfers to MM supplemented with the required growth factor although they could grow on CM. It was also clear that caffeine included in the mutagenesis procedure led to an enhanced yield of mutants and to a marked positive effect on the stability of auxotrophy. The stability of the mutants was further investigated by repeated serial transfers to CM, without caffeine, which led to a 60 % of reversion and nonviability. The remaining mutants were maintained by monthly transfers to MM supplemented with the required growth factor, no reversion being observed up to date. Table I. Effect of caffeine on the induction and stability ofZymomonas mobilis mutants a Mutagenic Number Auxotrophs treatment of transfers recovery, % NTG 14 1 4 2 2 3 >1 Mutagenic Number Auxotrophs treatment of transfers recovery, % NTG + caffeine 58 1 43 2 28 3 23 4 23 aFhe percentage of auxotrophs recovering during serial transfers on minimal medium supplemented with the required growth factor is shown. At the concentration used caffeine is not mutagenic but might improve the mechanisms of repair. At high concentrations of mutagenic agents, constitutive repair mechanisms, such as excision, are overloaded (Shetty et al. 1986). Therefore, under these critical circumstances the presence of caffeine might contribute to the induction of error-prone enzymes belonging to the SOS system which are able to repair damaged DNA in the absence of DNA template. The improvement of mutagenesis by the addition of caffeine was also reported for Schizosaccharornyces pornbe (Clark 1973) and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ATCC 9649 (Demirci and Pometto 1992) although other mutagens than NTG were used. The preparation and long-term maintenance of mutants of Z. mobilis may contribute to a wider use of this microorganism in industrial processes and genetic studies. The authors are indebted to SAREC (Sweden), International Foundation for Science (Sweden), and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y T~cnicas (Argentina) for support of this study. We also acknowledge to Jos~ Manuel Bruno l~ircena for his helpful discussions.


Polyfunctional aromatic rings have been constructed by direct functionalization of C–H and O–H bonds to C–S and C–O bonds under mild and green conditions.


The author describes the works involved in the first stage of London Transport's $80 million Fleet Line project of which the civil engineering construction is now substantially complete. In addition to the difficulties of fitting in with and connecting to London's existing underground railway lines, the author describes how above-ground structures, such as the Queen Eleanor Memorial at Charing Cross, were supported while the work was under way.(a) /TRRL/


A radiation detector based on plasma display panel technology, which is the principal component of plasma television displays is presented. Plasma Panel Sensor (PPS) technology is a variant of micropattern gas radiation detectors. The PPS is conceived as an array of sealed plasma discharge gas cells which can be used for fast response (O(5ns) per pixel), high spatial resolution detection (pixel pitch can be less than 100 micrometer) of ionizing and minimum ionizing particles. The PPS is assembled from non-reactive, intrinsically radiation-hard materials: glass substrates, metal electrodes and inert gas mixtures. We report on the PPS development program, including simulations and design and the first laboratory studies which demonstrate the usage of plasma display panels in measurements of cosmic ray muons, as well as the expansion of experimental results on the detection of betas from radioactive sources.


Pharbitis purpurea and Ipomoea cairica are worst weeds of herbaceous vine in South China. Seeds of P.purpurea were treated by germinating application of 2 methyl 4 chlorine and 2,4 D, the results showed that at concentrations of 65×10 -6 and 650×10 -6 2 methyl 4 chlorine reduced germination to 64% and 97 7% respectively, at concentrations of 36×10 -6 and 360×10 -6 2,4 D reduced germination to 62 6% and 84 7% respectively. Seedlings of P.purpurea were treated by foliage application of 2 methyl 4 chlorine and 2,4 D, the results showed that at 650×10 -6 2 methyl 4 chlorine and 360×10 -6 2,4 D would kill the seedlings as soon as. Plants of P.purpurea and I.cairica were treated by foliage application of 2 methyl 4 chlorine and 2,4 D, the results showed that 650×10 -6 2 methyl 4 chlorine and 3 600×10 -6 2,4 D would kill the plants at day 5. One ml of 2,4 D,"RONSTAR" and "TORDON" was injected respectively into stem of I.cairica, the plant was killed entirely in day 2.


(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)IntroductionThe quest for finding language universals has been an important goal of modern linguistics. Universal laws, of which markedness is assumed to be one, are assumed to underlie language acquisition. An influential view among linguists is that children are born with prior knowledge of the type of categories and rules that are found in the grammar of any human language. This innate knowledge, frequently called Universal Grammar, equips the mind to acquire any human language. This nativist view, advocated by Chomsky (1965; 1975; 1986), suggests that the grammars of all the world's languages share a basic design. According to Chomsky, although specific grammatical principles vary from one language to another, they are all based on certain fundamental principles that correspond to innate properties of the human mind.Although markedness as an innate property of human language was considered a relatively poor idea, with the advent of generative linguistics markedness was reconceptualized as a property of languages determined by Universal Grammar rather than as a property of individual languages, as asserted by Trubetzkoy (1939). He declared that markedness values are assumed to be predetermined universally.Markedness Differential HypothesisAs cited in Dehghayedi and Sadighi (2015), there are two different approaches to the markedness theory, (a) the 'typological' and (b) the 'transformational' approach. The typological approach was developed by J. Greenberg and is aimed at discovering implicational universals. In a very general sense, implicational universals consist of a generalization concerning the correlation of various properties of language according to certain principles. The Transformational Approach, has been developed by Chomsky who remarks that the process of language acquisition proceeds over a relatively short period of time (compared for instance to second language acquisition). He argues in favor of an innateness of language acquisition process. As a consequence, there must be a number of abstract inherent principles which can be equated with language universals. Thus, any grammar can be divided into a 'core', unmarked grammar and a more marked 'periphery'. The 'core' of language includes universal principles and only unmarked parametric options; the 'marked periphery' of language consists of whatever else lies outside of the core of language (Chomsky 1986).Jakobson (1941) found that certain categories of a language are less marked (i.e. basic) than others. Unmarked categories are widespread, whereas marked categories arerelated to a specific language and are conditioned by different factors. Unmarked categories are more 'natural' than marked categories, and that less marked language structures are more easily learned and processed than marked ones. Thus, according to Greenberg (1991, p. 38), 'if a marked category A always implies the presence of the unmarked B, a child must acquire B before or simultaneously with A'. In acquiring the first language, children seem to follow the same general developmental route. More general rules imply less general rules, which are acquired at a later stage of development. In the transformational approach, core grammar rules are acquired in a relatively short time in comparison with peripheral rules. Core grammar rules and structures are unmarked as opposed to peripheral rules which are marked" (Dehghayedi and Sadighi, 2015; p.2).Markedness is claimed to play a crucial role in the development of phonological theories; however, there are different approaches for markedness. One advocated by Chomsky and Halle (1968) assumes a theory of markedness and a formal theory of phonology (or grammar) for language patterns. They believe that the goal of markedness theory is to distinguish between more and less natural segments and rules. However, a theory of grammar determines the well-formedness of linguistic structures. …


Soil organic matter (OM) is very important in its function, but information about the chemical composition, chemical structure and the changes caused by anthropogenic factors in the processing system is still in the research. The research objective is to examine the characteristics of organic materials and their derivatives, and their functions in various land use changes. Soil samples were taken at a depth of 0-20 cm in the Bromo mountainous lands under changes in land use of: coffee gardens (CT); apple orchard (AT); vegetable garden (VT) and secondary forest (SF). Soil samples were analyzed for C-org content, humic acid, pH, CEC, total of P, aggregate stability, and redox potential. The characteristics of humic acid were analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), UV-Vis fluorescence spectroscopy and elemental analysis (CHNS). The FTIR spectrum of HAs is similar for all land uses. The results showed that humic characters varied between all samples tested. There is a positive correlation between changes in intensive land use to secondary forests with soil physical chemical characteristics, Corganic content and humic character. Keywords—characteristics; FTIR; land use changes; C-org; physical chemical


It has long been known that the "detection loophole", present when detector efficiencies are below a critical figure, could open the way for alternative "local realist" explanations for the violation of Bell tests. It has in recent years become common to assume the loophole can be ignored, regardless of which version of the Bell test is employed. A simple model is presented that illustrates that this may not be justified. Two of the versions — the standard test of form –2 <= S <= 2 and the currently-popular "visibility" test — are at grave risk of bias. Statements implying that experimental evidence "refutes local realism" or shows that the quantum world really is "weird" should be reviewed. The detection loophole is on its own unlikely to account for more than one or two test violations, but when taken in conjunction with other loopholes (briefly discussed) it is seen that the experiments refute only a narrow class of "local hidden variable" models, applicable to idealised situations, not to the real world. The full class of local realist models provides straightforward explanations not only for the publicised Bell-test violations but also for some lesser-known "anomalies". * Email: email@example.com; Web site: http://users.aber.ac.uk/cat In 1970 Pearle showed that if not all particles are detected there exist local realist (hidden variable) theories that can reproduce almost exactly the quantum-mechanical (QM) predictions for Bell test experiments. This fact, which has become known as the "detection", "efficiency" or "fair sampling" loophole, has since been re-discovered many times, for Pearle's paper did not attract wide publicity. It is cited by Clauser and Shimony in their review article of 1978 but few others. There seems, however, to have been general acceptance in the 1970's that "fair sampling" could not legitimately be assumed. Experimenters such as Freedman and Clauser in 1972 and Fry and Thompson in 1976 recognised that neither Bell's original test nor the variant introduced in 1969 by Clauser, Horne, Shimony and Holt (CHSH69) was appropriate to the real experimental conditions. They used instead even later versions, described in Clauser and Horne's 1974 paper (CH74), that were not dependent upon near-perfect detection efficiency. "Normalisation" in these modified tests was by comparison with coincidence counts obtained with the polarisers removed, not, as in (the modern interpretation of) the CHSH69 test, with the total when both were present. The 1969 paper had been inspired by Bell's original work. The 1974 one took account of his later ideas, making substantial improvements; suggested a test that did not demand high detector efficiency (instead, the assumption of "no enhancement" was made) and also gave detailed footnotes covering almost the full set of other "loopholes" potentially present in real optical experiments. It is the 1969 paper, though, that is most frequently quoted and, since about 1980, the CHSH69 test and the almost-equivalent "visibility" test have come into favour. The assumption of "fair sampling" is accepted either with no comment at all or described by terms such as "plausible", the hidden variable theories associated with its failure being dismissed as "bizarre" or requiring "conspiracies" between the detectors. Some experimenters, for example N. and B. Gisin, have taken due note of the importance of the detection loophole, but others seem unaware


This study investigates differences between Pedagogy and Teachers' Certificate in Mathematics undergraduates, males and females, from public and private institutions with respect to motivational orientations, cognitive styles and perception of pedagogical practices for creativity implemented by their teachers, as well as relationships between these variables. Three hundred and sixty-five students answered scales regarding motivation to learn, cognitive styles, and teaching practices for creativity. Intrinsic motivation predominated in the private university students and extrinsic motivation in the public university students. The data revealed differences between courses, gender and type of university concerning cognitive styles. Private university and pedagogy students had a more positive perception of professors' teaching practices that promote creativity. Positive relationships were observed between the factors of the instrument of pedagogical practices for creativity, intrinsic motivation and nonconformist transformer style, and between the various cognitive styles and intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientation.


Understanding gas transport in subsurface systems is necessary for the successful application of innovative technologies, such as soil vapor extraction (SVE), bioventing (BV), and in-situ air sparging (IAS), to remediate subsurface-contaminated hazardous waste sites. In general, gas transport in natural porous media occurs via several flux mechanisms including: viscous flow, free-molecule or Knudsen flow, continuum or ordinary diffusion (molecular and nonequimolar fluxes), surface flow or diffusion, and thermal flow. The relative importance of these mechanisms depends on factors related to the permeate gases (molecular weight, and viscosity) and the porous media (the type of porous media, porosity, moisture content, and bulk density). Three models are currently used to quantify the diffusive transport of gases in natural porous media, namely, Fick's first law, the Stefan-Maxwell equations, and the dusty gas model (DGM). The application of these models requires the quantification of many transport parameters, such as gas permeability coefficients, the effective binary diffusion coefficients, and Knudsen diffusion coefficients. These parameters are estimated from either laboratory or field measurements. Parameters determined from in-situ experiments tend to be much higher than the corresponding estimates from laboratory tests, while Knudsen diffusion coefficients have never been estimated in the field. These differences are attributed to the inclusion of macropores, fractures and heterogeneities in the field, and to the failure to consider all gas flux mechanisms that may have occurred. The DGM combines these mechanisms in a rigorous manner and can be applied to multicomponent gaseous systems under isobaric and non-isobaric conditions. Thus, it has been suggested as a framework for assessment and quantification of gas transport in subsurface systems and for the analysis of in-situ and laboratory tests to estimate the needed gas transport parameters.


BACKGROUND
Research has indicated that clinical staff in long-term care often lack self-confidence in palliative care delivery, particularly at the end of life.

GOALS
(a) To examine the contribution of age, palliative care education, palliative care work-related experience and psychological empowerment to palliative care delivery confidence and (b) to explore the social reality shaping those factors for long-term care staff.

DESIGN
Explanatory sequential design.

SETTING
Twenty long-term care facilities in two district health boards in New Zealand.

PARTICIPANTS
Phase 1:139 clinical staff. Phase 2:46 clinical staff who provided care in the last month of a residents' life.

METHODS
Phase 1: Cross-sectional survey. Phase 2: Individual semi-structured interviews.

RESULTS
Phase 1: Previous experience (β = .319) and psychological empowerment (β = .311) contribute most to predicting an increase in palliative care delivery confidence. Phase 2: Four factors underlay palliative care delivery confidence, (a) mentorship by hospice nurses or colleagues (b) contextual factors (organisational culture, resources and experience), (c) maturity and (d) formal education.

CONCLUSION
Organisational leadership should use multiple strategies (e.g. power-sharing, increased opportunities for mentorship) to improve staff palliative care delivery confidence.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
This study adds to the literature in understanding the predictors of palliative care delivery confidence specific to long-term care staff. The results indicate that educational interventions must be contextually appropriate to achieve sustainable improvements in palliative care confidence and ultimately in resident care at the end of life.


Abstract Previous studies of former communist countries have linked decentralisation of power to a greater likelihood of reform. An analysis of the anti-corruption drives in Georgia and Ukraine after their respective 'colour revolutions', however, suggests that Georgia's greater centralisation was integral to its success in enacting anti-corruption measures. In explaining why this contradictory result happened, this article argues that a centralised government can be more effective at implementing reforms than a decentralised one as long as the background and preferences of the ruling administration are conducive to change.


Stiffening effect on the X‐type welded tubular joint is evaluated by a numerical procedure. Tubular joints with three kinds of stiffeners are analyzed by finite element technique using an elasto‐plastic isoparametric thick shell element. Two parameters are introduced to the evaluation of the stiffening effect; they are a mean equivalent plastic strain increment and a plastic work increment per unit volume. The parameters are calculated in the three cases of the stiffening types, and are compared with the experimental results prepared by the writers. It is concluded both of them are effective, and the former is recommendable. The calculation is stood on a static load condition, nevertheless the results can be applied to a fatigue problem because the fatigue resistance of the stiffened joint is in proportion to its static strength. Finite element analysis is also applied to the estimation of an optimum shape of the st.


CASE: A family physician refers a 41year-old woman (gravida 3, para 3) to a gynecologist. The referral form reads, "Constipation and rectocele. Please repair." The nurse practitioner working with the gynecologist obtains the following history. The patient notes increasing constipation over the past 1–2 years and now has very hard bowel movements three to four times per week that require considerable straining effort to evacuate. Occasionally, she sees bright red blood on the outside of a bowel movement. By her account, she eats a "normal diet" but has decreased the amount of fluid she drinks because her boss discourages restroom breaks. At times, when she is straining hard at stool, she notices a bulge in the vagina, but never notes it any other time. On physical examination, the patient's abdomen is mildly tender but soft, with fullness in the left lower quadrant over the area of the descending colon. The uterus and adnexae are neither tender nor enlarged. Split speculum examination reveals stage II pelvic organ prolapse: the anterior and posterior vaginal walls are both at the level of the hymen, and the cervix descends 1 cm with Valsalva. Rectal examination confirms a rectocele, normal sphincter tone, and no lesions.


Software Defined Networking (SDN) has come to prominence in recent years and demonstrates an enormous potential in shaping the future of networking by separating control plane from data plane. OpenFlow is the first and most widely used protocol that makes this separation possible in the first place. As a newly emerged technology, SDN has its inherent security threats that can be eliminated or at least mitigated by securing the OpenFlow controller that manages flow control in SDN. A flow based anomaly detection method in OpenFlow controller using Deep Neural Network (DNN) have been approached in this research. Hence, in this exploration, we propose a combined Gated Recurrent Unit Long Short Term Memory (GRU-LSTM) Network intrusion detection system. In order to improve the classifier performance, an appropriate ANOVA F-Test and Recursive feature Elimination (RFE) (ANOVA F-RFE) feature selection method also have been applied. The proposed approach is tested using the benchmark dataset NSL-KDD. A subset of complete dataset with convenient feature selection ensures the highest accuracy of 87% with GRU-LSTM Model. Experimental results show that deep-learning approach with feature selection method offers high potential for flow-based anomaly detection in OpenFlow controller.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the incidence and significance of intraoperative and postoperative myocardial ischemia and their relationship to preoperative ischemia and postoperative cardiac events in patients undergoing peripheral arterial surgery.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort trial.

PATIENTS
One hundred fifteen patients undergoing elective vascular surgery who met predefined eligibility criteria and were thought to have acceptable cardiac risk as assessed by independent cardiologists.

INTERVENTIONS
Ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring preoperatively, intraoperatively, and up to 72 hours postoperatively.

MEASUREMENTS
Preoperative clinical characteristics and laboratory data were collected. Predefined adverse cardiac events were identified by an investigator who was "blinded" to monitoring results. Monitor recordings were interpreted for ST-segment depression by investigators blinded to patient information.

MAIN RESULTS
Intraoperative ischemia was present in 21 patients (18%), and postoperative ischemia was present in 35 (30%). There were 16 postoperative cardiac events. The relative risk of suffering a cardiac event was 2.7 in patients with intraoperative ischemia and was 16 in patients with postoperative ischemia. Preoperative ischemia closely correlated with intraoperative and postoperative ischemia. Preoperative and postoperative ischemia preceded cardiac events in 14 of 16 patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative ischemia appears to identify high-risk patients, and subsequent perioperative monitoring detects silent ischemia that commonly precedes clinical events and that may be treatable with anti-ischemia therapy.


Strong constraints on possible variations in fundamental constants can be derived from H i 21-cm and molecular rotational absorption lines observed towards quasars. With the aim of forming a statistical sample of constraints we have begun a program of systematic searches for such absorption systems. Here we describe molecular rotational searches in 25 damped Lyman-α systems where, in many cases, we set optical depth limits an order of magnitude better than that required to detect the 4 known redshifted millimeter-wave absorbers. We also discuss the contributory factors in the detectability of H i 21-cm absorption, focusing on possible biases (e.g. low covering factors) in the currently known sample of absorbers and non-detections.


Flower color in African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha Wendl.) is due to the presence of anthocyanidin-3-rutinoside-5-glucosides. Blue-flowered cultivars contained malvidin-3-rutinoside-5-glucoside, and a naturally occurring light blue mutant obtained by in vitro culture contained 80% less of the pigment. African violets with red petals contained peonidin-3-rutinoside-5-glucoside and pink-petalled cultivars contained pelargonidin 3-rutinoside-5-glucoside. African violets with light pink flowers contained about 80% of the pelargonidin found in cultivars with dark pink petals. The petals of a plant with speckled red and pink flowers, which had been produced from petioles of a red-flowered African violet following X-irradiation, contained peonidin and pelargonidin, respectively, in the red and pink petal sectors.


The orientational order and the molecular structure of the banana mesogen 4-chloro-1,3-phenylene bis{4,4'-(11-undecenyloxy)benzoyloxy}benzoate have been studied in its nematic phase by means of 2H ...


Objective
To investigate the influences of the functional polymorphisms of cytochrome P450 isozymes 2A6 (CYP2A6),2B6 (CYP2B6),2C9 (CYP2C9),and 2C19 (CYP2C19) on plasma concentration of sodium valproate.

Methods
A total of 131 Chinese children with epilepsy receiving sodium valproate after a period of more than 5 half-time were recruited.The genotypes of CYP2A6 were detected by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR),and the genotypes of CYP2B6,CYP2C9,and CYP2C19 were detected by PCR-ligase detection reaction.Enzyme-multiplied immunoassay technique was used to measure the plasma concentration of sodium valproate.The association between the polymorphisms and the plasma concentration of sodium valproate were analyzed by one-way ANOVA or Student's t-test.

Results
Patients were divided into 4 groups according to the genotyping results of CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 (G1:extensive metabolizers in both CYP2C9 and CYP2C19; G2:CYP2C19 intermediate metabolizers; G3:CYP2C19 poor metabolizers; G4:CYP2C9 poor metabolizers),the mean normalized steady-state sodium valproate concentrations were significantly higher in G3 (3.70±0.95) and G4 (4.35±1.48) patients when compared to those in G1 (2.57±1.30,t=3.056,4.490,both P<0.01) and G2 (2.76±1.19,t=2.827,4.462,both P<0.01) patients.The daily doses (mg/d) of sodium valproate received by G3 (19.46±5.20) and G4 (19.30±7.67) patients were significantly lower than that of G1 patients (24.10±6.97,t=2.359,2.297,both P<0.05).There were no differences in daily doses or normalized steady-state concentrations of sodium valproate among the CYP2A6*4 or CYP2B6*6 genotypic groups.

Conclusions
The CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 polymorphisms have dramatic effects on the plasma concentration of sodium valproate.The daily doses of sodium valproate in G3 and G4 patients should be lower than usual.

Key words:
Epilepsy; Valproic acid; Plasma concentration; Aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylases; Oxidoreductases,N-demethylating; Polymorphism,genetic


With the rapid increase of heart diseases in recent years, the number of people who die from these diseases is also increasing rapidly. Therefore, early diagnosis of diseases is very important in increasing human life span. In the study, records of 299 clinical patients with heart failure, covering the months of April and December 2015, were taken from the open access website and used. The data obtained from the open access website were made ready for analysis with artificial intelligence by passing through the data preprocessing stage. Firstly, the data set was determined by hyper parameters of the Random Forest algorithm. Using the obtained hyper parameters, binary particle swarm intelligence method, a global feature selection was made from the data set. The obtained results were trained again with random forest algorithm and 10 times 10 iteration cross validation, and the most appropriate model showing death risk situation was obtained. The average accuracy rate of 100 trainings of the model obtained was determined as 79.66%.


The fault diagnosis process of power conditioning components is characterized by strong correlation of signals within the modules, difficulty in positioning, diverse fault modes, micro-defects and micro-differences, etc., resulting in complex analysis process, failure detection and other problems, therefore, this paper proposes a hierarchical fault identification technology of power conditioning components based on sensitive feature extraction. First, the module is used as the object of analysis, extracting 2 sensitive module feature quantities, according to the normal module characteristic quantity and the signal fluctuation factors t and s, the threshold range of the module characteristic quantity is determined. If the module characteristic vector exceeds the threshold range, it is the fault module. Secondly, the channel signals in the fault module are analyzed, and its characteristic vector is composed of five time-domain and frequency-domain sensitive parameters, including signal maximum, waveform index, kurtosis index, time-domain energy, and is input into the SVM classification model for training. Through the above two steps, the hierarchical fault identification model is established, and finally the fault identification accuracy reaches 95%.


The present invention provides a method and system for selecting the encoding format used to read the target document. The method reads a reference document by at least one reference encoding format, and, and determining all or some failure code pattern is obtained when reading the reference document by reference encoding formats, each time, one encoding and reading the target document by the format, for each encoding format, and compares the failure code pattern it is determined that the data that is generated when the read target document by this encoding format, the target document by this encoding format and determining a fault code that is generated when the read failure code generated when the read target document by the respective encoding formats Counted, and comprises a, and determining the encoding format used to read the target document by executing the comparison. The technical solution described above, problems in the prior art, i.e., by reading only the first few bytes in the text document, determining the value of these bytes, and, thereby, the encoding format Although determined, in some cases, information not exists regarding the encoding format of holding text documents within these bytes, therefore, obtains the encoding format of the text document by such a method the fact that it is impossible to, can be avoided.


The two steps linearization methods used to deal with the problem of nonlinear is introduced based on thermistance bridge thermometer,and the analytical expressions of linear equations,maximum non-linearity error and temperature measurement maximum error for several typical plan of which is deduced,and the optimal plan of which is also given,and the steps used to determine bridge parameters of several typical plan of which is introduced.Theoretical analysis and simulation based on PSpice show that the two steps linearization methods is correct,the optimal plan of which is less than about 2 ℃ method of one step linearization.


Quality of maternal care experienced during infancy is a key factor that can confer vulnerability or resilience to psychiatric disorders later in life. Research continues to indicate that early-life experiences can affect developmental trajectories through epigenetic alterations capable of affecting gene regulation and neural plasticity. Previously, our lab has shown that experiences within an adverse caregiving environment (i.e. maltreatment) produce aberrant DNA methylation patterns at various gene loci in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of developing and adult rats. This study aimed to determine whether caregiver maltreatment likewise affects expression levels of several genes important in regulating DNA arly-life stress aternal care


This case study investigates a local football club mobile application by providing an overview of an official club app lifecycle. Previous studies have focused mainly on branding and marketing aspects of club apps. The motivation behind this study was to investigate how existing club apps could be improved by creating more value for the club and their fans. In sports business official club apps have become a trending solution to expand digital services traditionally offered in a club website. In general, there is not much diversity in solutions and content on different club apps. Majority of club apps lack interactive elements. This case study followed Yin (2009) guidelines. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used for data collecting and analysis. The data collection methods included a literature review, a comparison of different football club apps, the case study of the AC Oulu app, brainstorming new feature ideas, a development survey, and finally a conceptional specifications for the most potential new features. Both club and service provider sides were interviewed to identify the vision, the purpose, and collaboration behind the app. The AC Oulu's original intention behind the app was to keep it as simple as possible. The common features the AC Oulu club app is missing are push notifications, ticketing, e-commerce and registration. Digital ticketing and payment related features inevitably increase the app's complexity. The findings suggest that club apps should provide more interactive unique content and a high-quality user experience. Club fans expect club app to be developed further. The app should promote future match events more aggressively to possibly increase the number of people attending in AC Oulu match events. Although club apps are common, mobile app is not a necessity for a football club.


Background: The knowledge, attitude and behavior of the public during an infectious outbreak is important for individual protection as well as to control the spread of the disease in community. The knowledge, attitude and practices regarding Swine Flu and the correlation between Knowledge and Practices regarding Swine Flu among the parents/guardians accompanying the children attending the pediatric department of KGMCH, Nagercoil was investigated in this study.Method: This cross sectional study was conducted among the parents/guardians accompanying the children attending the pediatric department of KGMCH after the epidemic situation. After obtaining written informed consent, participants were interviewed personally through predesigned and pre-tested questionnaire to elicit information regarding awareness of Swine Flu. All data were analysed using SPSS 25 software.Results: Of the 200 people included in the study, 117 (58.5%) knew that it was a viral disease. Of all the participants, 97(48.5%) knew about the respiratory mode of transmission. Only 28% knew about the hand washing to prevent transmission. Around 93% participants told fever as major symptoms and 71% told cough as a major symptom.55% of the participants were scared regarding the deadly nature of the disease. Only 12.5% of the participants practiced hand washing as a preventive measure. Correlation between Knowledge and practice was weakly positive (Pearson correlation 0.252).Conclusion: Knowledge regarding swine flu was average among the study population. TV, friends news channels and Health care workers were found to be the most common sources of information. Lack of awareness regarding key focus areas like hand washing as a preventive measure is of serious concern.


A model approach for wedge/wedge bonding copper wire is presented. The connection between wire and substrate is based on a variety of physical effects, but the dominant one is the friction based welding while applying ultrasound. Consequently, a friction model was used to investigate the welding process. This model is built up universal and can be used to describe the formation of micro welds in the time variant contact area between wire and substrate. Aim of the model is to identify the interactions between touchdown, bond normal force, ultrasonic power and bonding time. To do so, the contact area is discretized into partial areas where a Point Contact Model is applied. Based on this approach it is possible to simulate micro and macro slip inside the contact area between wire and substrate. The work done by friction force is a main criterion to define occurring micro joints which influence the subsequent welding.


Lumbar total disc replacement (LTDR) is a surgical procedure for the treatment of degenerative disc disease (DDD) and lumbar spinal distortion to preserve range of motion (ROM). The SB Charité™ is the first device for LTDR but it produces more complications and long-term issues, causing a shortage of SB Charité™ disc. Currently, the evolution of lumbar disc arthroplasty based on some criteria like prosthetics structure, biomechanical model, tissue engineering and biomaterials approach. The optimal biomechanical model is based on kinematic and kinetic parameters together to ensure a long-term implantation with a lower rate of damage from disc implant in the spinal column. The finite element method (FEE) of human lumbar spinal is advanced to support biomechanical modeling techniques which are related to biomaterials guideline for choosing better material for implantation. Therefore, this paper presented a 3D biomechanical FEM model of L1 to L3 lumbar spines by different types of discs and materials. We applied a compressive force, and compressive force plus extension moment to this model to calculate Tresca stress of annulus fibers, strain and von Mises stress on the vertebral endplate at each intervertebral level under COMSOL Multiphysics® software.


Based on Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) and combined with the development of energy-saving technology,a quantitative analysis and evaluation of resources consumption,energy consumption and pollutant emissions caused by magnesium and its alloy production in China were carried out.The result shows that the Pidgeon process has made great process in improving energy efficiency and environmental governance.Be applied to the reduction process,the energy saving,in particular,plays a key role in the reduction of pollutant emission.Compared to the production status of 2005,the results showed,the production of primary magnesium in 2009 had a sharply reduce in terms of Abiotic Depletion Potential(ADP) and Global Warming Potential(GWP).Among them,GWP fell by a third.By expanding the system boundary,this research carries out the environmental load analysis on the technologies of producing magnesium alloy with gas protection,and calculates the cumulative environment load of the primary magnesium and primary aluminum.The result shows that,the environment load brought by primary magnesium production has a decisive influence on the cumulative environment load of the magnesium alloy production.


The lower limb exoskeleton robot is capable of providing assisted walking and enhancing exercise ability of humans. The coupling human–machine model has attracted a lot of research efforts to solve the complex dynamics and nonlinearity within the system. This study focuses on an approach of gait trajectory optimization of lower limb exoskeleton coupled with human through genetic algorithm. The human–machine coupling system is studied in this article through multibody virtual simulation environment. Planning of the motion trajectory is carried out by the genetic algorithm, which is iteratively generated under optimization of a set of specially designed fitness functions. Human motion captured data are used to guide the evolution of gait trajectory generation method based on genetic algorithm. Experiments are carried out using the MATLAB/Simulink Multibody physical simulation engine and genetic algorithm-toolbox to generate a more natural gait trajectory, the results show that the proposed gait trajectory generation method can provide an anthropomorphic gait for lower limb exoskeleton device.


The stiffness matrix and damping matrix of a Stewart platform with pre-load are derived by the linearization method. The damped free vibration equation of the platform is established. Considering the platform with disproportionate damp when it is pre-loaded, the complex modal analysis method is used to solve the above equation. Finally, the platform structure parameters and posture′s influence on the stiffness is discussed, and the platform′s vibration response is analyzed through an example.


The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of a vaccine containing modified-live bovine viral diarrhea virus Type I (BVD1) against a highly virulent BVD Type II (BVD2) challenge in calves.


The combination of lamivudine and hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) reduces the risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV) recurrence after liver transplantation (LT). However, the efficacy of this strategy and the need for combined therapy with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) in patients who select lamivudine‐resistant strains (YMDD) before surgery is still unknown. Twenty‐two patients treated with lamivudine (LAM) who underwent LT after YMDD‐mutant selection were studied. In 13 patients, YMDD mutants were associated with an HBV DNA breakthrough greater than 5 log10 (group A: phenotypic resistance), and 11 were treated with ADV to decrease viral load before LT. In the remaining 9 patients who did not experience the viral breakthrough, YMDD mutants were detected only retrospectively in sera stored at the time of LT (group B: genotypic resistance). During 35 months of post‐LT follow‐up, none of the 11 patients of group A treated with ADV before and after surgery (in addition to HBIG and LAM) had HBV recurrence, and neither did any of the 7 subjects of group B treated with LAM before and after transplantation (in addition to HBIG). HBV recurred in 2 patients of group A (untreated with ADV before surgery and transplanted with an HBV DNA exceeding 5 log10) and in 2 subjects of group B (who spontaneously stopped HBIG after surgery). In carriers of YMDD mutants, the risk of post‐LT HBV recurrence is low, provided that preemptive and prophylactic ADV (in addition to LAM and HBIG) treatment is used in highly viremic patients and prophylactic LAM (or ADV) and HBIG therapy is continued in low viremic patients. (Liver Transpl 2005;11:532–538.)


As widely known in the contamination community, outgassing phenomena is a quite complex process that needs to be modelled and understood in order to quantify its impact on spacecraft. During a spacecraft design, one can rely on numerical tools that model outgassing physics by taking into account the diffusion of the molecules within the materials, the reflection of the contaminants on the satellite surfaces, the residence time of outgassed species and the sticking coefficient. OHB, with the support of ONERA, performed a comparison between two numerical tools (used in Europe) that are based on different modelling techniques. This paper will present the validation and its challenges: as example, the residence time of the species can be modelled either with an Arrhenius law or Linearized Exponential. The article will point out the challenges for modelling the outgassing: the numerical approach greatly depends on the quality of the input that are provided from dynamic outgassing experiments. Plus, due to lack of inorbit data, EOL data from the simulation are based on "mathematical" extrapolation of species residence time inside the bulk material. The outcome of the work is that for simple cases, phenomena like importance of reflection versus reemission can be modelled and the results correlated. Once the geometry of the case became more complex, the tools are numerically consistent when compared with each others. However, the two approaches shows discrepancies when it comes to model the volatiles. The challenges of the contamination due to outgassing is mainly related to the physical modelling. The European approach in this case is to model the spacecraft and minimize the design cost by performing a full-scale analysis. However, lessons learnt showed the limits of this approach: the key point of validation with regard to in-orbit tests is missing. Perspectives will be that more in-orbit experiments are needed to correlate the simulation and most importantly, cross-match the impact of other processes on outgassing such as Atomic Oxygen, UV radiation and Thruster Plume.


The HGM-database contains over 5000 entries at present and is the standard database for human genome mapping. The YaleHuman Gene Mapping Library offers distribution of the HGM database for IBM and Macintosh computer systems and for the latter ASCII text or Microsoft-Excel formatted data is available. ASCII files do not offer any retrieval routines and rely on the capabilities of a database management program. Microsoft-Excel is a commercial spreadsheet/database program offering some retrieval options and allowing field specific searches. However, presentation and retrieval based on Microsoft-Excel is somewhat cumbersome and awkward to manage for scientists who are not regular users of Excel. I took advantage of the Macintosh HyperCard programming tool licensed to Macintosh computers to develop a HyperCard-shell that will provide all desired database retrieval functions at no extra costs. It automatically loads both HGM-data and references into HyperCard stacks linked during loading. Updating with further HGM-data or references requires a simple mouse click upon which the new information will be added to the existing HGM-HyperBase. Data is presented on a single card divided into two sections providing information on mapping (left section) and relevant clones and probes (right section; see figure HGM—HyperBase data card). Guided search routines support retrieval based on individual or all fields according to the original HGM-field definitions. Automatic scanning of the whole genome is easily achieved, requiring only about 20 seconds on a Macintosh IIx. The references are kept in separate stacks for each chromosome and are available by simply clicking one of the reference buttons of the data-card. The reference stacks feature search and retrieval routines of their own. Furthermore they can be used as standalone databases for management of a personal literature database, including easy retrieval of reference lists for publications. HGM-HyperBase allows import and export of formatted text files, ensuring compatibility with any word processor and most other reference databases. HGM-HyperBase is designed to be a user-friendly tool featuring self-explanatory buttons as well as complete on-line help. It requires a Macintosh computer running HyperCard Version ^ 1.2, the HGM database in field and record delimited text format and about 5 MB on a hard disk. The database is available on request from Yale-Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Human Gene Mapping Library, 25 Science Park, New Haven, CT 06511, USA, at a charge of US$ 20.00. In order to avoid copyright infringements the data should be ordered by the user. HGM-HyperBase ready for downloading including the reference-database program and a brief guide is available free for nonprofit institutions from the author. To get a copy please send a formatted 800KB or 1.44 MB Macintosh diskette to the above address.


The first results of the study performed with THGEM (Thick-Gas Electron Multiplier) devices developed in the Detection System Laboratory of the Brazilian Center for Physic Research are reported. Thinner THGEM devices of thickness 0.2 mm, with different hole diameter and pitch have been developed. Results of gain versus high voltage in double-THGEM detectors using these THGEM devices, for the gas mixtures Ar/C2H6(75/25) and Ar/CO2(70/30) at atmospheric pressure using 5.9 keV X-rays, are also presented.