We have measured the critical phase change conditions induced by electrical pulses in Ge2Sb2Te5 nanopillar phase change memory devices by constructing a comprehensive resistance map as a function of pulse parameters (width, amplitude, and trailing edge). Our measurements reveal that the heating scheme and the details of the contact geometry play the dominant role in determining the final phase composition of the device, such that a nonuniform heating scheme using rectangular contacts promotes partial amorphization/crystallization in a wide range of pulse parameters enabling multiple resistance levels for data storage applications. Furthermore we find that fluctuations in the snap-back voltage and set/reset resistances in repeated switching experiments are related to the details of the current distribution, such that a uniform current injection geometry (i.e., circular contact) favors more reproducible switching parameters. This shows that possible geometrical defects in nanoscale phase change memory devic...


To determine the efficacy of four weeks course of oral steroid in the conservative treatment of idiopathic mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome this observational study was carried out in the department of neurology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka from January to December 2005. A total of 60 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome were randomly divided in two treatment groups. One group of 30 patients designated as case treated with oral steroid. Initial two weeks 20 mg oral prednisolone, next two weeks 10 mg oral prednisolone with Omeprazole 20 mg twice daily for 4 weeks. Another 30 patients who were clinically and electrophysiologically as CTS treated with physiotherapy. A symptoms questionnaire was used to determine the five major symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome (numbness, pain, weakness/clumsiness, tingling, and nocturnal awakening) on a scale of 0 (nil) to 10 (severe); The resulting global symptom score was used to evaluate the efficacy of treatment. Assessments were made at baseline and at one month. Electro-diagnosis was repeated at the end of the study to validate improvement. After treatment with short-term low dose oral prednisolone GSS improved in 56.3% and electrophysiological parameters showed significant improvement in all measured. It may be concluded that low dose short-term oral prednisolone is an effective treatment of idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome.


At the Royal Women's Hospital Melbourne, treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia has consisted mainly of electrocoagulation diathermy. A random group of 420 consecutive patients attending the follow-up clinic has been studied to assess subsequent cervical function. Long-term follow-up has revealed minimal adverse effects on fertility, parturition, and menstrual function.


White spot syndrome (WSS) has been found in many species of shrimp and crabs, not just in Asia but globally. The causative agent is known as white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). In the pre-patent stage of infection, there are no gross signs of WSS in the shrimp and they behave as though they were healthy. Although the pre-patent stage might persist for months, the transition can happen within a few hours under stressful conditions. In this study, stress was applied to the shrimp by removing one pereiopod each day. The stage of infection was evaluated by WSSV diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (WSSV PCR) using DNA prepared from the excised pereiopod. From being 2-step WSSV PCR-positive, a latently infected Penaeus monodon could become 1-step WSSV PCR-positive within just 24 to 48 h of being stressed. When the specimen was became 1-step WSSV PCR-positive, the WSSV specific probe and the in situ hybridization reaction revealed that cells of the stomach, epidermis, heart, hemocyte in heart, antennal glands, lymphoid organs, hepatopancreas and muscle gave positive signals. These results demonstrate the quick multiplication and spread of WSSV in P. monodon when triggered by stressor.


The invention relates to a drug for the treatment of a respiratory tract infection selected from the group comprising rhinosinusitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, bronchiolitis, pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, said drug containing glutaryl histamine or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof in an effective amount. The invention also concerns the use of glutaryl histamine or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof in the production of a drug for the treatment of a respiratory tract infection. Said drug makes it possible to increase the effectiveness of antibacterial therapy in the treatment of respiratory tract infections.


The main directions of research in the field of nanosized carrier systems for targeted delivery of drugs are reviewed. The fields of research and the results from characterization of the pharmacological properties of nanosized forms of drugs, including nanospheres, liposomes, dendrimers, fullerenes, nanocapsules, and nanocrystalline forms of drugs are considered. Prospects of the search for new forms of drugs based on achievements in nanobiotechnology are considered with a view to the reduction of side effects and improvement of the bioavailability of drugs.


e14575 Background: Among a variety of malignant tumors, the level of the patient's TMB was currently an important criterion for clinical judgment whether to adopt immunotherapy. Hypermutation could produce many nearby mutation sites at the same time, which seriously damages genetic material and may cause cancer. Therefore, performing TMB detection on cancer patients and understanding the occurrence of hypermutation in pan-cancer patients will help clinical researchers to further understand the disease characteristics of cancer patients and helped the choice of treatment methods. Previously, TMB and Hypermutation had been tested and studied in pan-cancer patients in the United States and Europe, but rare research was reported in China. In this study, we explored the TMB and hypermutation landscape in Chinese pan-cancer patient by next-generation sequencing. Methods: A total of 8,361 cancer patients from multiple cancer hospitals and research centers in China were included in the study. We sequenced 8,361 Chinese cancer patients from 8 cancer types using the oncopanscan product of Genetron Health Co., Ltd. and calculated the tumor mutation burden of the patients. We separately analyzed the tumor mutation burden of patients in 8 cancer types and analyzed the relationship between the occurrence of hypermutation and the patient's age and gender. Results: The results showed that in pan-cancer, hypermutation patients accounted for 16.97%, and ultrahypermutation patients accounted for 0.78%. Among them, patients with lung cancer have the highest proportion of hypermutation, reaching 27.72%, and patients with colorectal cancer have the highest proportion of ultrahypermutation, reaching 2.86%. Correlation analysis between TMB and age and gender was carried out on 8336 patients. The results showed that in the patients with intrahepatic bile duct cancer, the proportion of men and women was the same. Among the other cancer types, hypermutation patients were more male, and the proportion of men with liver cancer was the largest, with 90 percent. We further explored the correlation between the TMB of pan-cancer patients and the patient's age, and found that in gastric cancer, liver cancer, and melanoma, the older patients have higher TMB; however, the younger the patients in brain cancer, the higher the TMB ( P<0.05). Conclusions: In this study, we explored the TMB and hypermutation landscape in Chinese pan-Cancer patient for the first time. We found that among Chinese cancer patients, lung cancer patients have the highest proportion of hypermutation. In a variety of cancers, hypermutation patients account for a higher proportion of men, and the older the patient, the higher the TMB.


The present invention provides an image projection apparatus comprising: a light source which emits a light bundle; a display device which forms an image by using the light bundle; and a projection system including a lens part which refracts the light bundle to enlarge and project the image and includes first and second aspherical lenses which are spaced apart from each other and change the degree of refraction of the light bundle and at least one spherical lens disposed between the first and second aspherical lenses and a mirror which reflects the light bundle delivered through the lens unit to the outside.


This paper presents an overview of the User Experience (UX) team at Google. We focus on four aspects of working within Google's product development organization: (1) a bottom-up 'ideas' culture, (2) a data-driven engineering approach, (3) a fast, highly iterative web development cycle, and (4) a global product perspective of designing for multiple countries. Each aspect leads to challenges and opportunities for the UX team. We discuss these, and outline some of the methodological approaches we employ to deal with them, along with some examples of our work.


The paper presents the study of the reflexivity of pedagogical students with different types of anxiety during the adaptation period. The authors identified the peculiarities of the interaction of anxiety and reflexivity in students during the period of adaptation to the educational environment of a higher educational institution and determined the conditions for the use of reflexive methods as possible motivational determinants of students' mastery of professional skills. The findings have implications for the organization of student learning activities. The analysis and self-analysis of manifestation and nature of student reflexivity will favorably affect the quality of mastering professional skills.


Abstract The paper demonstrates that the wind stress curl as an external vorticity source plays an important role in shaping large scale shallow lake circulations. The analysis of purpose-oriented simultaneous wind and current measurements data from the Hungarian part of Lake Neusiedl reasonably fits well the internal boundary layer development theory over the lake surface. A 2-D vorticity formulation of wind-induced flows is used to demonstrate mathematically the IBL-related large scale circulation generation mechanism well reflected in the measured data. Further validation of the findings is carried out by means of simple 2-D numerical flow modelling, in which details on the flow pattern besides the measurement sites could be also revealed. Wind-induced lake circulations linked to IBL development shows a novelty to be implemented in up-to-date numerical flow models.


In this work we propose a WDM PON migration from FTTB to FTTH access by employing bidirectional amplification by a linearized semiconductor optical amplifier. We demonstrate that a semiconductor optical amplifier placed at the entry of a group of ONUs sharing the same wavelength can boost the loss budget allowing to compensate for the losses of a passive splitter up to 1∶16 division rate, allowing to upgrade existing WDM PONs FTTB structures to permit the fiber to reach the final user's home.


In assessing the effects of environmental stress three points are made. 1. Comfort and working efficiency cannot necessarily be equated. 2. The optimal experimental design for assessing individual differences differs fundamentally from that required for establishing population means. Reliable individual differences will only be revealed by repeated measures of a given effect upon the same people and under the same conditions. 3. Regarding the assessment of what individuals find comfortable as regards temperature, or acceptable as regards noise, two difficulties are noted, (a) In terms of what they are prepared to do about it individuals may differ in what they mean when they tick one of a number of terms indicating varying degrees of discomfort or annoyance. (b) Where an observer experiences a range of conditions he will tend to place the centre point of the rating scale at the centre of the range of conditions sampled. Over a group of observers this may bias the average comfort or acceptability vote away...


Abstract
A common problem that many universities face, especially with their specialized programs, is coordinating faculty availability and class offerings. The schedule is usually developed using paper and pencil after numerous iterations. As a result, the objectives of the program, such as course integration, length of course, and student workload, are most likely compromised in lieu of faculty availability. This chapter describes a multiple objective approach to this class assignment problem that considers the program's objectives and faculty preferences. The results of applying this class assignment model to an Executive MBA (EMBA) program are presented.


Fluid filled photonic bandgap fibers (PBGFS) incorporate materials with a large thermo-optic coefficient. the modes of these fibers also have very strong waveguide dispersion. we exploit these two properties of PBGFS to demonstrate highly tunable long period gratings.


In our increasingly global economy, manufacturers and distributers sending and receiving goods are frustrated by the reality of multiple languages. As an example of corporate coding, proactive management in an automotive company have invented a coding system where each car type has its own identification code with associated words that describe the product. Therefore, they can be confident that anyone referring to ID 4523 is describing a four-door vehicle... Read More Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/him_articles Part of the Health Information Technology Commons This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Health Information Management at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Articles & Research by an authorized administrator of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact email@example.com. Recommended Citation McGowan, Veronica F., "Introduction to Medical Coding, Introductory Module" (2019). Faculty Articles & Research. 1. https://dc.swosu.edu/him_articles/1 2019 Introduction to Medical Coding Objectives of this learning module: 1. Learners will be able to identify the legal implications of and ramifications of incorrect coding and the rules to follow for compliance and protection. 2. Learners will examine the structure of modern healthcare coding systems. 3. Learners will become familiar with field resources available for coders. Introduction In our increasingly global economy, manufacturers and distributers sending and receiving goods are frustrated by the reality of multiple languages. As an example of corporate coding, proactive management in an automotive company have invented a coding system where each car type has its own identification code with associated words that describe the product. Therefore, they can be confident that anyone referring to ID 4523 is describing a four-door vehicle (4000 level), compact vehicle (500), black color (20) with leather interior (3). This example is analogous to clinical or medical coding. Clinical or medical coding is an administrative process to transform medical record documents such as laboratory and radiologic results and physician notes into universal alphanumeric codes that represents the medical diagnosis, procedure, service, or equipment. While digital medical records allow entry of narrative text, such as comments and notes, this type of data entry is inefficient for examining larger data patterns that lead to discovery and for communicating medical record information to various stakeholders, including reimbursement agents. Digital data is typically coded by form entry or selection of a code from a predetermined list. Since a single medical event may generate a complex treatment, standardization of procedures, treatments, and medical devices allows for representation of a clinical concept such as chest pain or heart disease. Therefore, clinical coding relates to medical events and ongoing conditions by describing underlying concepts and identifying interventions to allow processing within an information system. While software is becoming increasingly available for converting free or delimited text and codes into more complex coded terms, inaccuracy and quality are still consistent concerns. Ideally, coding provides a level of detail that allows a stakeholder to understand a patient's condition and how treatment relates to that condition. While a perception exists that the primary purpose of medical coding is for reimbursement claims (Pohontsch, et al., 2018), in fact there are numerous benefits to deploying a coding system. In addition to providing a robust reimbursement mechanism for hospitals and healthcare providers to receive payments for services with less than 1% of claims rejected due to coding issues (Landi, 2015), coded insurance claims serve as avenue to discover fraud and insurance abuse and allow for oversight and auditing processes. Coding allows for accurate documentation of a patient's conditions which can lead to better medical decision making, even in cases where a condition is complex or multiple conditions present. In addition to coding a patient's chief complaint, secondary codes allow the history of a current complaint and related medical history, which can extend to family history, to help illustrate the condition. Finally, standardized coding fosters clinical classification of morbidity and mortality for statistical purposes and determining patterns of research variables. In other words, clinical classification is a structure that dealing with pathological states such as indexing of hospital records for improved causation, linkages, and risk management. For stakeholders in healthcare, claims and payments can be analyzed to determine frequency, averages, and patterns of services and care trends. In addition, coded procedures provide data points for quantitative measurement of quality, safety, and efficacy of care. Therefore, users and purposes of coded data vary widely from individual and local concerns to larger healthcare delivery design and policy framing issues. Clinical coding systems, also known as vocabularies or terminologies, are structured, and sometimes, hierarchical lists of medical terms which can be used to describe patient procedures, conditions, diseases, findings, and treatment solutions. Augmented by a physical examination, diagnostic results, medical notes, and prognosis, clinical coding staff are instrumentational in patient healthcare management processes, risk reduction for the healthcare setting, and population data processes. Therefore, coding systems are a mechanism to record a clinical event in a way that can be easily accessed, retrieved, organized, sorted, analyzed, filtered, and transmitted. Structure of a Coding System When sponsoring organizations create coding systems, they can take one of two approaches: as a classification system or as a terminology system. Classifications systems use a meaning-based approach and reflect a defined area or domain, coding specific data items like procedures, pharmacy activity, lab reports, and diagnoses. Therefore, classification systems perform well in statistical analysis, epidemiological studies, and administrative use. The World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Disease (ICD) (https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/revision/en/) serves as an international leader in classifications with multiple applications and national or linguistic derivatives. In 2015, the medical community ran out of codes in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system they were using at the time, ICD-9, forcing a switch to ICD-10, a code update that transitioned 19,000 codes to a set of 142,000 (MBA Medical, 2015). In response, American federal health and healthcare agencies mandated adoption of the current ICD standard; ICD-10 (National Center for Health Statistics, n.d.) in 2015. ICD-11 is in international development with a beta version available as of 2018 (https://icd.who.int/) and will be described in a later module. Terminology systems use a concept approach to organize labels within a domain and are often used as a common reference system to map between systems. These systems perform well in predictive analytics and global studies. In terminology systems, concepts can be combined to make complex nomenclatures, or naming systems. SNOWMED CT (www.snomed.org), produced by an international, non-profit standards development organization, is a recognized leader due to its multilingual translations and wealth of research validations. While a number of healthcare coding systems have been developed, they tend to compete due to need, design, and field adoption factors and as a group, hinder standardization. While wide-scale implementation of a coding systems favors government-adopted systems, such as ICD, such systems often do not have the level of granular detail needed to support specific clinical needs causing information to be lost. On the flip side, highly detailed coding systems hinder data transfer between systems, known as interoperability due to difficulty in reconciling structure and cross-mapping between vocabulary and definitions. Example: for coding a broken leg ICD-10-CM Diagnosis code S82.92XA is used for an unspecified fracture of the left lower leg SNOWMED CT deploys 414292006 for fracture of the lower leg However, coders must use medical records to research the following details to correctly assign a code and some options have more than 150 associated codes:  The associated visit is an initial or subsequent visit  The specific bones of which leg were injured  Is the fracture open or closed  Is the fracture is traumatic or pathologic  Is the fracture was displaced


Objective To investigate the trends of cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) professional development and personnel constitution in the past five years in China,and provide prediction and advice for the trend of Chinese CPB personnel constitution in the future.MethodsWe conducted 2 questionnaire investigations of Chinese hospitals in which cardiovascular surgeries were performed in the year 2005 and 2010,regarding the number of on-pump and off-pump cardiovascular operations and cases of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation(ECMO).Data of CPB personnel constitution in the year 2005 and 2010 were analyzed.ResultsThe total number of cardiovascular operation,on-pump cardiovascular operation and ECMO cases was 104 631,86 155,and 68 respectively in 2005.The total number of cardiovascular operation,on-pump cardiovascular operation and ECMO cases was 170 547,136 753,and 206 respectively in 2010.There were 708 CPB professionals in 2005,including 40.2%(285/708)full time perfusionists and 23.2%(164/708)perfusionists with senior professional titles.There were 2 111 CPB professionals in 2010,including 37.6%(793/2 111) full time perfusionists and 25.5%(539/2 111) perfusionists with senior professional titles.ConclusionThere has been a rapid CPB professional development in the past five years in China.The proportion of full time perfusionists,perfusionists with senior professional titles and higher educational degree will further increase in the future.


The most appropriate heteroskedastic models for predicting volatility of daily stocks prices of 10 major Nigerian banks are proposed. The banks are Access, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Guaranty Trust, Skye, Diamond, Fidelity, Sterling, Union, ETI and Zenith banks; and these are examined from 2004 to 2014. The models employed are Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (ARCH(1)), Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GARCH(1, 1)), Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (EGARCH(1, 1)) and Glosten, Jagananthan and Runkle-Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GJR-GARCH(1, 1)). The results show that all the bank returns are highly leptokurtic, significantly skewed and thus non-normal across the four periods except for Fidelity bank during financial crises; findings similar to those of other global markets. Also noticed is the strong evidence for the presence of heteroscedasticity, and that volatility persistence during crisis is higher than before the crisis across the 10 banks, with that of UBA taking the lead, about 11 times higher during the crisis. The same with persistence levels in volatility, which were relatively higher during financial crises across the ten banks compared to before the crises. Findings further indicate that Asymmetric GARCH models outperformed the symmetric GARCH models, especially during the financial crises and post the crises. Thus with these findings, one could generally conclude that Nigerian banks' returns are volatility persistent during and after the crises, and are characterized by leverage effects of negative and positive shocks during these periods.


Aim: To determine the frequency of peroperative morbidity in women with at least previous one caesarean section and compare peroperative morbidity in women with repeated caesarean section versus previous singleton caesarean section. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Karachi, from May 2010 to November, 2010. Patient with the past history of one or more LSCS fulfilling the inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study. Patients were admitted in the ward one day before surgery. Surgeries were performed by researcher herself under supervision of consultant having post fellowship experience of more than 5 years. Outcome of repeat caesarean section was measured in terms of peroperative morbidity of dense adhesions and extremely thinned out lower uterine segment. Results: A total of 150 patients were enrolled, Out of them 73 patients (48.7%) had history of one caesarean section previously whereas 77 patients(55.3%) had history of repeat caesarean section(>one caesarean section previously).Dense adhesions were found in 123 (82%) women, of them 55 patients (75.3%) were in single caesarean section group and 68 patients (88.3%) in repeat caesarean section group and result was found to be statistically significant (p=0.0390).on the other hand, extremely thinned out lower uterine segment was found in 83 women(55.3%), of them 40 women (54.8%) were in single caesarean section group and 43 women (55.8%) were in repeat caesarean section group , result was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Prevalence of dense intra abdominal adhesions was higher in women with history of more previous caesarean section than in women with one previous section.


The purpose of the paper is to reveal the decision-making mechanism on the participations of peasant households in the Conversion of Cropland to Forestland Program(CCFP).Methods employed include bi-Logistic Regression model and SPSS software.The results indicate that the main considerations of peasant households' willingness on participation in CCFP include:firstly,whether the peasant households own the resources to exchange the rights to participation;secondly,whether the peasant households can benefit from the participation,i.e.whether it is worthwhile to participate;thirdly,whether the peasant households can undertake the risk from the participation,i.e.whether they can take part in CCFP without worry.It is concluded that peasant households are becoming more and more rational under the market economy and the key to sustainable development of CCFP is to ensure sustained benefits of peasant households.


We study the behaviors of spin nonclassicality in critical systems of spin chains, with the spin nonclassicality measured by an informational quantifier based on the Wigner-Yanase skew information. For the XY spin chain with three-spin interaction, we evaluate both the single-spin and the nearest neighbour two-spin nonclassicalities, as well as their first-order derivatives. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these quantities of spin nonclassicality in revealing the critical points for quantum phase transition. The merits of the present approach to detecting quantum phase transition by spin nonclassicality lie in its easy computation, informational content and metrological significance.


The purpose of this study was to investigate cortisol levels in the circulation of neonates following spontaneous onset of labor. There was no significant difference of values between primigravidas and multigravidas, male and female babies, or normal and precclamptic pregnancies. There was no significant change in mean cord plasma cortisol values with advancing gestational age, after the 33rd week. It is conceivable that spontaneous labor in humans may be preceded by a release of cortisol into the fetal circulation, and when a critical "parturient" level is reached labor becomes established.


Rat and hamster testes, epididymides, vas deferentia, seminal vesicles, prostates and coagulating glands were assayed for sulfhydryl oxidase activity. The activity, present primarily in the fluids of these organs, was lowest in the testis, increased through the epididymis and was highest in the seminal vesicle. The localization and reactivity of sulfhydryl oxidase activity suggests that it may play a role in regulating the degree of disulfide bonding in spermatozoa during epididymal maturation and storage and after ejaculation.


It is a key problem for government and enterprises to estimate the performance of the management information system(MIS). It summarizes the status of the application of MIS and performance estimation, classfies the index of value, designs the estimation model and guildlines for MIS.


Abstract Interaction of droplets with vortical structures is ubiquitous in nature, ranging from raindrops to a gas turbine combustor. In this work, we elucidate the mechanism of co-axial interaction of a droplet with a vortex ring of different circulation strengths ($\varGamma = 45\text {--}161\ \textrm {cm}^2\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$). We focus on both the droplet and the vortex dynamics, which evolve in a spatio-temporal fashion during different stages of the interaction, as in a two-way coupled system. Vortex rings of varying circulation strengths are generated by injecting a slug of water into a quiescent water-filled chamber. Experimental techniques such as high-speed particle image velocimetry, planner laser-induced fluorescence imaging and high-speed shadowgraphy are used in this work. In the droplet dynamics, different regimes of interaction are identified, including deformation (regime-I), stretching and engulfment (regime-II) and breakup of the droplet (regime-III). Each interaction regime is explained using existing theoretical models that closely match the experimental data. In the vortex dynamics, we compare the interaction's effect on different characteristics of the vortex rings, such as pressure and the vorticity distribution, circulation strength, total energy and enstrophy variation with time. It is found that the interaction leads to a reduction in these parameters.


In this paper we propose the combination of accelerated variants of value iteration with improved prioritized sweeping for the solution of stochastic shortest path Markov decision processes. For the fastest solution, asynchronous updates, prioritization and prioritized sweeping have been tested. A topological reordering algorithm was also compared with a static reordering algorithm. Experimental results obtained on afinite state and action-space stochastic shortest path problem are presented.


Background: Androgens acting via the androgen receptor (AR) stimulate production of PSA, which is a clinical marker of prostate cancer. Because genetic variants in the AR may have a significant impact on the risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, the aim was to investigate whether AR variants were associated with the risk of having PSA above clinically used cutoff thresholds of 3 or 4 ng/mL in men without prostate cancer. Methods: Men without prostate cancer history (n = 1,744) were selected from the European Male Ageing Study cohort of 40 to 79-year-old men from eight different European centers. Using linear and logistic regression models, with age and center as covariates, we investigated whether AR variants (CAG repeat-length and/or SNP genotype) were associated with having serum PSA concentrations above 3 or 4 ng/mL, which often are set as cutoff concentrations for further investigation of prostate cancer. Results: Carriers of the SNP rs1204038 A-allele (16% of the men) were more likely to have PSA>3 and 4 ng/mL (OR; 95% confidence intervals, 1.65; 1.13–2.40 and 1.87; 1.18–2.96, respectively) than G-allele carriers. They also had shorter CAG repeats (median 20 vs. 23, P < 0.0005), but CAG repeat length per se did not affect the PSA concentrations. Conclusion: The A-allele of the SNP rs1204038 gives a 65% higher risk of having PSA above 3 ng/mL than the G-allele in men without prostate cancer, and thereby an increased risk of being referred for further examination on suspicion of prostate cancer. Impact: Serum PSA as a clinical marker could be improved by adjustment for AR-genotype. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(10); 2048–56. ©2014 AACR.


n-type silicon solar cell designs for high-efficiency commonly incorporate boron emitter formation. PECV-deposited boron diffusion sources are an alternative to primarily used boron gas diffusion sources. CVD layers are multi-functional allowing for diffusion of boron, surface passivation and contact formation by one single layer. In this case, these BSG layers are applied in a co-diffused cell design for screen-printed contacts. Reaching iVOC values of over 660 mV as ARC layers, BSG layers are shown to be capable to support the contact formation of commercial Ag pastes to boron emitters at standard firing conditions. An analysis of the contact resistivity as well as the contact formation by SEM is conducted to verify the high quality of the screen-printed contact.


This article addresses the study of the first neighborhood designed and financed by the Caja Popular de Ahorros, called Barrio Jardín and located in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán. Its recipients were the province's salespeople and industrial workers, who were given access to mortgages. This was the first response from the provincial entity for a low-income sector, to face the lack of housing. The housing development, inspired by the English garden city structure, transformed and applied to the garden suburb concept, had its architectural expression in the Californian chalet. The three extensions it underwent in subsequent decades followed the trends of the Modern Movement, both in terms of urban layout and its architecture. The research adopted a qualitative methodology, viewing the problem from a historical perspective. Although work began in the context of Juan Domingo Perón's first government (1946-1952), the extensions were made between 1962 and 1973, in other political and economic circumstances. The unit of analysis is limited to the first garden neighborhood of San Miguel de Tucumán, with its different stages of expansion, but the timeline covers the 1940s, 1960s, and 1970s. The goal of this article was to look through the urban–architectural lines applied in the different stages of the Garden Neighborhood's design, where urban land occupation and architecture were the product of the prevailing principles at their times.


There is a pressing need for methodology to confirm the authenticity of fertilizers labeled "suitable for organic production." In this study, we developed a testing protocol that can be used by laboratories and regulatory agencies to detect adulteration of organic fertilizers and soil amendments with a synthetic nitrogen source. By conducting an extensive literature review and analysis of 180 commercially available raw materials, organic fertilizers, soil amendments and synthetic fertilizers, we compiled a comprehensive database of quantifiable properties of those materials. We analyzed their ammonium content, C:N ratio and stable nitrogen isotope ratio, and for each metric we set thresholds that flag products with a high probability of adulteration. The protocol can be used to authenticate organic fertilizer products and bring transparency to the industry.


Abstract The present study is devoted to the development of an ADI approach to simulate two-dimensional time-dependent diffusion process of ferromagnetic particles in magnetic fluids. Specific features of the problem are the Neumann boundary conditions. We construct an ADI scheme of formally second order accuracy approximation in time and space. It is proved that the scheme is absolutely stable and it has the accuracy in the energy norm of the second order in time and the order 3/2 in space. The numerical results of a test problem indicate that the convergence rate in space is of the second order as well.


Abstract: Soluble and membrane‐bound dopamine‐β‐hy‐droxylases (sDBH and mDBH, respectively) from rat adrenal glands have been purified through concanavalin A‐Sepharose chromatography, gel filtration, and ion‐exchange high‐performance chromatographies. Both sDBH and mDBH were composed by four subunits of apparent molecular weight of 57,000 and showed a native molecular weight of 300,000. This procedure has not allowed us to obtain a sufficient amount of enzyme to immunize a rabbit. A second, more rapid procedure was designed to isolate sDBH, including concanavalin A‐Sepharose chromatography and preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. A rabbit antiserum was raised against this purified protein. The specificity of the antiserum was demonstrated by neutralization of rat adrenal gland DBH activity, labeling of rat adrenal medulla on histological sections, and, after Western blot, labeling of the 75,000–molecular‐weight band in the different fractions associated with DBH activity during purification. The antiserum had a higher affinity for the sDBH denatured by sodium dodecyl sulfate than for the native protein. It had a higher affinity for sDBH than for mDBH. These results strongly suggest the presence of specific hydrophilic epitopes on the sDBH, revealing structural differences between the two hydroxylase forms. Two protein bands were stained on Western blots of crude rat adrenal gland extract. One band had an apparent molecular weight of 75,000, and the other of 82,000. Our results showed that the two proteins contained similar epitopes, an observation suggesting a close structural relationship. The higher‐molecular‐weight protein could be the75,000 protein before covalent modifications and cleavage.


The Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM) is a recently developed t chnique designed to solve differential equations and of other types . In the first part of these notes a review of some classical results on periodic orbits is give n. Then the implementation of HAM to solve these problems is shown. Finally, some result s for delay differential equations are shown.


Recent investigations prove that the southern part of Kerala and the adjoining areas further to the south in Tamil Nadu constitute a chrysoberyl-pegmatite field in the granulite terrain of southwestern India. Gem stones like chrysoberyl and its varieties, sapphire, topaz and zircon are mostly derived from pegmatites, though some come from the alluvial beds also. Chrysoberyl-pegmatites occur in a predominantly garnet-sillimanite ± graphite gneissic terrain with intermittent bands of garnet-biotite gneiss and enderbites. Geochronological data reveal that the pegmatites were emplaced 445-474 m.y. ago. Fluid inclusion studies show that the pegmatite minerals contain liquid carbon dioxide and give an entrapment temperature of 500-570°C. CO 2 densities permit a pressure estimate of 250 Mpa and more, which is also consistent with the sillimanite-andalusite and quartz-chrysoberyl associations in the pegmatites. The similarities in geology, the ages of pegmatites and granites and also the mineral composition of pegmatites of southwestern India and the alluvial gem gravels of Sri Lanka suggest that the al1uvial gem beds of Sri Lanka may also be of pegmatitic origin.


Wind erosion in agricultural soils is dependent, in part, on the aerodynamic roughness length (z0) produced by tillage ridges. Although previous studies have related z0 to ridge characteristics (ridge height ( RH) and spacing (RS)), these relationships have not been tested for tillage ridges ob- served in the North African agricultural fields. In these re- gions, due to climate and soil conditions, small plowing tools are largely used. Most of these tools produce non-aggregated and closely-spaced small ridges. Thus, experiments were conducted in a 7-m long wind tunnel to measure z0 for 11 ridge types covering the range of geometric characteristics frequently observed in south Tunisia. Experimental results suggest that RH 2 /RS is the first order parameter controlling z0. A strong relationship between z0 and RH 2 /RS is proposed


Purpose This prospective study examines the changes in short-term intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) receiving intravitreal injections of 0.05 mL ranibizumab (Lucentis®) in a supine position. Methods A total of 45 eyes (45 patients, 16 M, 29 F, mean age: 78 y) received intravitreal ranibizumab injections for treatment of wet AMD (0.05 mL = 0.5 mg). The IOP was measured by Schiötz tonometry immediately preoperatively and postoperatively, and also after 3 and 10 minutes in a supine position. No history of glaucoma was present. Results The mean preoperative IOP was 22.4±5.5 mmHg in supine position. Immediately after the injection, IOP increased to 47.9±15.1 (range 23–82, p<0.001), with 32 eyes (71.1%) >40 and 19 eyes (42.2%) >50 mmHg. The mean difference between preoperative IOP and immediately after the injection was +25.5±13.6 mmHg. IOP decreased spontaneously by the first 3 minutes after operation by 12.6±6.0 mmHg and after 10 minutes by 21±9.4 mmHg. The mean difference between preoperative IOP and 10 minutes postoperatively was +4.6±7.0 mmHg (range: −9.3 to +25.9 mmHg, p<0.001). Eyes without a subconjunctival reflux had a higher increase in IOP than eyes with any reflux (p<0.001). Conclusions IOP increased significantly in a considerable number of patients after intravitreal ranibizumab injections. A rapid and spontaneous decline was observed in the majority of cases. If there is no subconjunctival reflux after the injection, the increase in IOP is higher than in eyes with any back-flow under the conjunctiva.


Based on photoelectric proximity switch,the measurement method of operation distance was introduced.This measure methed could meet the test request which more standard and higher precision.It also could achieved several applications including adjust parallel,visible light auxiliary and operation distance measurement,Finally,the phase laser range finder's principle and method of realization were described.


A sol-gel-based fabrication route for obtaining ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) thin films via a spin-coating technique at low temperatures was developed. The ferroelectric and pyroelectric properties of IR-sensors based on these layers were determined by hysteresis loop measurements, by dielectric characterization and by the laser intensity modulation method. On-chip stepwise poling at room temperature turned out to be very effective in increasing the pyroelectric current response. Finally, the sensors were directly integrated with organic thin film transistors to guarantee a low impedance read-out of the response.


In Chile unexpectedly high 137 Cs activity concentrations in soils and in food products due to the weapons fallout in the 60* have been detected. This is partly due to the prevailing climatic conditions fliigh precipitation rates) and the soil characteristics of the Chilean soils especially in the 10* administrative Region Within an EC project of the 4 th framework: programme in Nuclear Fission Mastering Event of the Past (RESTORE 'restoration strategies for radioactive contaminated ecosystems') an EDSS (Environmental Decision Support System) has been developed which can be adapted to the ecological and site specific conditions of Chile by using information on soil properties, soil contamination and soil-plant transfer factors of n7 Cs for characteristic Chilean soil types and crops. These data can be used to identify areas which are potentially radioecological sensiUve i.e. will result in elevated radiation doses to people living and using these areas, and further more where countermeasure actions might he implemented. The EDSS will use the modern tools such as GIS (geographical information systems) and geostatisticat methods, recently developed dynamic soil-plant transfer models lo determine fluxes of radiocaesium, and dose calculation models. The system will provide an analysis of the present contamination with radiocaesium of Chile. Later it can be modified and applied for other radionuclides such as radiostrontiu m. Examples for the implementation of the EDSS and first results are presented.


Background:  Surveys indicate that malnutrition remains common among hospital patients (Russell & Elia, 2010). It is recommended that all patients be screened on admission and weekly (NICE, 2006). The Malnutrition Universal Screening tool (MUST) is a sensitive and specific screening measure (Kyle et al., 2006). In Homerton Hospital, the nutrition screening round (NSR) ran alongside transition of paper-based screening onto an electronic patient record system (EPR). This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a dietitian-led NSR as a method of training staff to use MUST.

Methods:  Malnutrition screening was audited on an elderly care ward and an adult rehabilitation unit. The number of MUST scores undertaken within 24 h of admission and the frequency of weekly screening were assessed. Data gathered included the numbers of patients with accurately measured height, weight, body mass index, weight loss and acute disease effect scores. A weekly NSR was then conducted on these two wards alongside consultant ward rounds, with the dietitian carrying out nutritional care and all staff gaining practical experience of MUST by assisting with screening of each patient. After 20 weeks, screening levels were re-audited and, at 24 weeks nursing staff took back full responsibility for MUST screening. A final audit of screening levels took place 1 month after staff on the two designated wards had taken back responsibility for screening.

Results:  The initial audit indicated that, of 53 patients, 26 had a paper MUST proforma present. Of 23 patients who were on the wards for >7 days who had a MUST proforma, only one was screened each week as per NICE guidelines. The 20-week mid-intervention audit showed that the number of patients on the wards for ≥1 week with an accurate MUST screen recorded on EPR had increased to 100%. Increased detection of malnutrition led to prompt, effective nutrition support. The final audit at 28 weeks showed sustained screening levels, with all patients on the ward for ≥1 week being accurately screened for malnutrition by ward staff alone.

Discussion:  The NSR appeared to target factors identified as being behind low levels of screening, including a low awareness of screening policy and poor screening skills (Porter, et al., 2009).Confidence in carrying out MUST was increased by 'hands-on' training in the immediate patient environment. Perceived barriers to screening cited in other research include pressures of workload (Hodge, 2008). The NSR demonstrated that screening was not as time consuming as assumed and that it could be fitted alongside other tasks. Previous studies have suggested training might be targeted toward all clinical staff (Wong & Gandy, 2008). The NSR project supports this finding, demonstrating that the involvement of all members of the multiprofessional team is strongly conducive to embedding MUST within clinical care and as part of weekly ward routine.

Conclusions:  A NSR is an effective way of providing practical training in nutritional screening. A NSR raises the ward level profile of screening, encourages it to become routine practice and is a feasible method of increasing frequency of screening in line with policy to enhance patient care.

References:  Hodge, A. (2008) An exploratory case study of cancer nurses' understanding and use of nutritional screening in patients diagnosed with cancer. J. Hum. Nutr. Diet. 21, 388–389.

Kyle, U.G., Kossovsky, M.P., Karsegard, V.L. & Pichard, C. (2006) Comparison of tools for nutritional assessment and screening at hospital admission: a population study. Clin. Nutr. 25, 409–417.

NICE (2006) Nutrition Support in Adults. Clinical Guideline 32. London: NICE.

Porter, J., Raja, R., Cant, R. & Aroni, R. (2009) Exploring issues influencing the use of the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool by nurses in two Australian hospitals. J. Hum. Nutr. Diet. 22, 203–299.

Russell, C. & Elia, M. (2010) Nutrition Screening Survey in the UK and Republic of Ireland in 2010. Redditch: British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

Wong, S. & Gandy, J. (2008) An audit to evaluate the effect of staff training on the use of the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool. J. Hum. Nutr. Diet. 21, 405–406.


INTRODUCTION .............................................................. 869 Enzymatic Repair of UV Damage in E. coli ......... .......................... 869 Error-Proof and Error-Prone Pathways of DNA Repair ....... ................. 871 The "SOS" Hypothesis: the Regulatory Role of DNA Damage ...... ............ 874 EVIDENCE FOR THE INDUCIBILITY OF ERROR-PRONE REPAIR ("SOS REPAIR") ACTIVITY ..................................................... 875 SOS Repair of Bacteriophage DNA ............ ............................... 875 SOS Repair of Bacterial DNA ................ ................................ 876 Evidence from studies of repair-deficient mutants ....... .................... 876 Evidence from studies of postreplication repair ........ ...................... 879 MANIFESTATIONS OF SOS REPAIR AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE ..... ...... 879 Mutation Frequency Response to Increasing Fluence of UV Radiation ..... ..... 879 The UV Lesion Responsible for Induction of SOS Functions.................... 880 Kinetics of Induction and Decay of SOS Repair Activity ....... ................ 882 Time of Action of SOS Repair in UV Mutagenesis ...... ........................ 882 Cryptic Premutational Lesions Susceptible to SOS Repair ...................... 884 Mutator Effect of SOS Repair on Undamaged DNA ....... ..................... 885 PLASMIDS AND SOS REPAIR ................................................ 886 MECHANISM OF SOS REPAIR ............................................... 886 Mechanism of SOS Repair in Bacteriophage ......... .......................... 886 Mechanism of SOS Repair in Bacteria ........... ............................. 887 IMPLICATIONS OF SOS REPAIR FOR CARCINOGENESIS ................... 888 REGULATION OF SOS REPAIR AND OTHER UV-INDUCIBLE FUNCTIONS . 889 PROTEASES AND THE EXPRESSION OF SOS FUNCTIONS .................. 894 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................... 895 APPENDIX................................................................... 896 LITERATURE CITED ......................................................... 898


The present work reports the effect of concentration on photoluminescence properties of Sm3+ ions doped lithium fluoroborate (LFB) glasses by using the absorption, emission and decay measurements. The Judd-Ofelt theory has been used to evaluate the three Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters and calculated oscillator strengths. LFBSm glasses exhibit intense reddish-orange emission when excited with 405 nm wavelength. Concentration quenching has been noticed beyond 1.0 mol% of Sm3+ ion concentration. The decay curves of 4G5/2 level exhibited single exponential at lower concentrations and turn to non-exponential at higher concentrations. The evaluated radiative properties suggest that the 4G5/2→6H7/2 (602 nm) transition is responsible for reddish - orange luminescence which might be used in the development of visible lasers for photonic applications.


T h e NEW EIGHTH EDITION of this atlas is improved over pre vious versions, but still retains significant flaws in both design and execution, and falls significantly short of what it should be. The topi cal coverage is extended, and some of the text and maps are updated from previous editions. The book contains eighteen topical sections in 152 pages. Each topical section typically includes maps, photo graphs, tables, diagrams, and an explanatory text. The fundamental structure of this book is a collection of maps and illustrations, supported by data and informative text that collec tively describe and explain the essentials of the Pacific Northwest. This is an ambitious and demanding design, but the editors have not delivered on the promise. The content and style of the sections is poorly coordinated and almost none of the photographs carry a title or annotation that would make them useful to the reader. Most la mentably in what is clearly intended to be a reference book, very few of the maps and tables have any citation at all. Those of us who have for years attempted to use this book in courses on Pacific Northwest geography will have to continue to apologize to our students for the failure to meet even this most basic of bibliographic requirements.


In this paper, we propose an adaptive beamforming scheme that generates the beam weight using dominant eigenvectors of the spatial covariance matrix. The number of eigenvectors used for the generation of beam weight is determined to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for given feedback constraints (e.g., the amount of feedback information and feedback delay). It is shown that the conventional limited feedback beamforming and eigen-beamforming are special cases of the proposed scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed beamforming scheme can effectively be applied to spatially correlated channels.


Background: Tympanostomy Tube is the best modality of management of otitis
media with effusion which needs mothers care for helping on maintenance the functions of
tympanostomy tube and prevent recurrence of otitis media with effusion. Aim: this study
aimed to assess maternal care hindering successful tympanostomy tube for children with
otitis media with effusion. Design: Descriptive design was used to conduct this study
Settings: This study was conducted at Out-Patient Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
clinic affiliated to Tanta university hospitals and Ain shams university hospitals. Sampling:
A purposive sample consisted of 100 mothers and their accompanied children with otitis
media with effusion and tympanostomy tube. Tools of data collection: Two tools were used
which included: An interviewing questionnaire sheet and Attitudinal rating scale. Results:
nearly two third of the studied mothers had poor knowledge about otitis media with effusion
with tympanostomy tube. While, less than quarter of them had fair knowledge and less than
quarter of them had good knowledge. Conclusion: The current study concluded that more
than half of the studied mothers had incorrect knowledge about the best way to clean the child's ear
while keeping the Tympanostomy tube and the best position for a baby while breastfeeding or eating
to keep the tube, respectively. Recommendations: Conducting educational programs for
preschoolers and their mothers about early detections and aspects of care related to OME to
minimize the negative consequence of OME


The *Voronoi diagram* is a partition of a set S of N points in a plane, such that each region is the locus of the points (x, y) closer to a point of S than to any other point of S. If no four points are co-circular, the *Delaunay triangulation* is the straight-line dual of the Voronoi diagram. The triangulation may be *constrained*, that is, a set of straight-line segments may be prespecified. This thesis presents some characteristics of constrained Delaunay triangulation and introduces a set of numerically stable algorithms for incremently constructing and updating constrained Delaunay triangulation. The dynamic constrained Delaunay triangulation algorithms have been implemented in a layout system for multichip modules. It has been used as the underlying data representation for rubber-band sketch, a topological routing for one layer. We have proved the O(n log n) expected running time for the Delauney triangulation algorithm.


The study aimed to examine the primary school students' cognitive structures about nutrient content. The case study design, which was one of the qualitative research methods was used in the study. Participants of the study included 41 fourth grade students in a public school in Bursa in the 2021-2022 academic year. Data were collected by word association test and analyzed by content analysis method. The study revealed that 11 themes related to proteins were formed and the most associated sub-theme was milk, meat, fish, and egg food group. Carbohydrates were classified under 14 themes and the most associated sub-theme was bread and cereals. 13 themes related to fats were created and the most associated sub-theme was oil seeds. Regarding vitamins, 12 themes were created, and the most associated sub-theme was fruits. 13 and 14 themes were created, respectively, related to water and minerals. While the sub-theme most associated with water was beverages, the sub-theme associated with minerals was mineral resources. The concept that students left mostly blank and established wrong relationships was minerals.


The invention provides processes for the preparation of polymers in the form of their aqueous dispersions or water-redispersible powders by free-radically initiated heterophase polymerization of one or more ethylenically unsaturated monomers and optionally subsequent drying of the polymer dispersions obtained thereby, characterized in that the heterophase polymerization is carried out in a jet loop reactor ,


This article considers the relevance of Autonomist Marxism for both research and practice in education and technology. The article situates the Autonomist perspective against that of traditional Marxist thought – illustrating how certain core Autonomist concepts enable a critical reading of developments in information and communication technology. These include notions of the 'social factory', 'immaterial labour' and 'cognitive capital', the 'general intellect' and 'mass intellectuality', and the 'cybernetic hypothesis'. It is argued that these perspectives are particularly useful in enabling a critique of the place of education and technology inside the circuits and cycles of globalised capitalism. The Autonomist approach can be criticised – not least for its apparent network-centrism and its disconnection from the hierarchical, globalised forces of production. Nevertheless, this position offers a powerful 'way in' to understanding education and technology as key sites of struggle. It lays bare the mechanisms through which technology-rich educational settings are co-opted for work, while also suggesting possibilities for pushing back against the subsumption of contemporary education for capitalist work.


The invention relates to the medical field and discloses a digital pathological section remote synchronous diagnostic system. The digital pathological section remote synchronous diagnostic system comprises an image collecting module, a server terminal and a plurality of client terminals; the image collecting module is used for scanning digital pathological section images and transferring the scanned images to the server terminal; the server terminal is used for storing the images sent from the image collecting module and controlling the client terminals to display the image synchronously; the client terminals are used for being controlled by the server terminal to display the images sent from the server terminal. The digital pathological section remote synchronous diagnostic system which achieves the purposes of enabling the plurality of client terminals to directly obtain the clear pathological section images synchronously and enabling operation of the pathological section images to be displayed in the plurality of client terminals synchronously is applicable to fields such as medical diagnosis.


The rate constants for the reactions of diazodiphenylmethane (DDM) with 2-substituted nicotinic acids in nine aprotic solvents at 30 °C were de- termined. The obtained second order rate constants in aprotic solvents were correlated using the Kamlet-Taft solvatochromic equation in the complete form: log k = log k0 + sπ  + aα + bβ. The correlations of the kinetic data were realized by means of multiple linear regression analysis. The obtained results were analyzed in terms of the initial and the transition state of the reaction and compared with previously determined kinetic data for nicotinic acid. The signs of the equation coefficients (s, a and b) are in agreement with the reaction mechanism and the influence of the solvent on the reaction rate is discussed based on the correlation results. The mode of the transmission of the sub- stituent effect is discussed in light of the contribution of solute-solvent inter- action to the reactivity of the acid. The substituent effect was additionally analyzed by the Hammett equation, log k = ρσ + log k0.


The purpose of drilling oil and gas wells is the extraction of the drilling-the maximum amount of oil or gas. In step between drilling and operating the wells is carried out a number of oil and gas well work, to one of which includes testing and producing formation. Under the test reservoir is considered to be a set of works, providing a challenge influx of formation fluid sampling and gas, revealing the contents of oil and gas in the reservoir, the definition of basic hydrodynamic formation parameters such as: formation pressure, hydraulic conductivity, coefficient of productivity and others. Formation testing conducted in wells during drilling and after drilling, and lowering the production tubing. Currently, there are three types of formation tester used in the drilling process: testers, lowered into the well on drill string, wireline into the wellbore, and descends into the drill string. The most widely used in Russia and abroad have testers, get down on the drill string. This article describes an arrangement for the selective formation testing in the open borehole and test the technology with the help of the complex. The layout has been designed on the basis of the data obtained during the analysis of the most common problems in the downhole equipment for the open borehole, which is considered complex. The design and choice of each individual site layout were carried out in view of solving existing problems in order to achieve maximum reliability and durability of the equipment, as well as increase the quality of testing promising horizons of oil and gas wells.


This text attempts to study on choosing NVOCC for liner company correctly according to The Maritime Transportation Regulations and its Implementing Rules,especially on choosing foreign NVOCC.Analyze the legal effect and consequence of the business relationship between liner company and NVOCC without qualification.


The aims of this study were to describe and determine the test-retest reliability of an exercise protocol, the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (the LIST), which was designed to simulate the activity pattern characteristic of the game of soccer. The protocol consisted of two parts: Part A comprised a fixed period of variable-intensity shuttle running over 20 m; Part B consisted of continuous running, alternating every 20 m between 55% and 95% VO 2max , until volitional fatigue. Seven trained games players (age 21.5 +/- 0.9 years, height 182 +/- 2 cm, body mass 80.1 +/- 3.6 kg, VO 2max 59.0 +/- 1.9 ml kg -1 min -1 ; mean s x ) performed the test on two occasions (Trial 1 and Trial 2), at least7 days apart, to determine the test-retest reliability of the sprint times and running capacity. The physiological and metabolic responses on both occasions were also monitored. The participants ingested water ad libitum during the first trial, and were then prescribed the same amount of water during the second trial. The 15 m sprint times during Trials 1 and 2 averaged 2.42 +/- 0.04 s and 2.43 +/- 0.04 s, respectively. Run time during Part B was 6.3 +/- 2.0 min for Trial 1 and 6.1 +/- 1.3 min for Trial 2. The 95% limits of agreement for sprint times and run times during Part B were -0.14 to 0.12 s and -3.19 to 2.16 min respectively. There were no differences between trials for heart rate, rating of perceived exertion, body mass change during exercise, or blood lactate and glucose concentrations during the test. Thus, we conclude that the sprint times and the Part B run times were reproducible within the limits previously stated. In addition, the activity pattern and the physiological and metabolic responses closely simulated the match demands of soccer.


The wide using of spinal anesthesia that is technically uncomplicated and highly effective technique makes strict demands to its safety, minimizing of complications and side effects that it is not devoid of unfortunately. In present review the author summarizes data from special literature dedicated to importance of choosing the needle of this or that type in terms of safety and efficiency of SA as well as safety of diagnostic lumbar puncture.


The strain generated at the moment of excitation and its distribution are important parameters in the research of pulsed magnetic field.Traditional sensors are sensitive to outside magnetic interference.The method using fiber Bragg grating(FBG) embedded inside the pulsed magnet coil to accomplish strain measurement in liquid nitrogen is proposed.Three FBGs are embedded inside the three different layers of the pulsed magnet and 34 μe,63 μe and 13 μe are the corresponding strains that are measured at the moment of 1 000 V excitation.The results of experiment show that the condition of strain variation fits the previous simulation results.The method using embedded FBG sensors can be an effective tool for the strain measurement inside the pulsed magnet under cryogenic environment.


Microstructure evolution during the hot forming shows a significant impact on material's mechanical properties. To explore the deformation characteristics of 5CrNiMoV steel, numerical simulation and microscopic phase-field simulation of the multi-direction forgings were carried out. The strain distribution at each pass was investigated and the evolution of temperature, effective strain, effective strain rate, and grain size was acquired. The hot forging trials were carried out and three typical regions of forgings were taken to study the microstructure evolution. Detailed microstructure characterizations showed that the constructed parent austenite grain size of the forging in typical regions was slightly larger than the simulation results due to the grain coarsening during the air cooling. There were large amounts of high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) for the occurrence of complete dynamic recrystallization and many bulging grain boundaries showed that discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) could be the governing mechanism of nucleation and growth of dynamic recrystallization (DRX). Besides, the hot deformation texture changed significantly during the non-isothermal forging and the texture component differed remarkably at different regions of the forging. The main hot deformation texture components were Cube {001}<100> and Goss{011}<100>.


This study aimed to understand the defence mechanism among China international student to handle the stress and anxiety due to language barriers in one of the Malaysia local university. The research methodology utilised in this research was the qualitative approach; five China international students participated in this research through purposive sampling and interviews were carried out. The interview session was audio recorded with the consent of the participants. Steps taken to ensure the trustworthiness of the study, include member checking, peer-reviewing, being sensitive to ethical practice and appropriate arrangement of data collection. The findings of this study revealed the language barriers are difficulties in academic, poor English, differences in local accents and emotional states. Three defence mechanisms investigated which is denial, projection and identification. The researcher recommends that university and international students themselves should take appropriate steps to solve the language barriers


The manufacturing enterprises increasingly realize many orders (projects) at the same time in order to maintain their position in the global market. Project portfolio management is a complex activity and requires to adopt an innovative approach to managing business. One such method is the critical chain project management (CCPM), which allows for more efficient projects execution in a multi-project environment by introducing time and drum buffers. This method has been implemented in one of the companies in Opole Voivodeship, which performs production and service orders for complex design and implementation of industrial automation and execution of complex electrical installations for various 318 K. Marek-Kołodziej, I. Łapuńka, D. Jagoda-Sobalak types of industrial buildings. The implementation of the critical chain method has allowed the enterprise significant financial and organizational benefits.


Modem status of technique of new generation and "critical" technologies in a number of the most developed countries is characterized by Microsystem technology dynamic development from the beginning of the 90-th years ("microsystems technology " - MST) that determined the creation of a new scientific and technical direction - "microsystem engineering " ("mirosystems engineering " MSE).


In order to solve the problem of cost cloud data and hole repair efficiency and accuracy, this article offers a study of integrated cloud network hole algorithm research based on optimal neural network. This paper first introduces a common point cloud hole-filling algorithm, provides a neural network-based point cloud blank filling algorithm, and introduces hotspot problems in a given algorithm, combined with the technology related to high-performance computing, the parallel optimization technology based on OpenMP and CUDA is adopted to accelerate the algorithm accordingly. Experiments have shown that the accuracy of pre- and postoptimization of CUDA-based algorithms varies. As the model and input point cloud data increase, the accuracy of the algorithm decreases slightly. However, when the data increases to 104 orders of magnitude, the rate of accuracy decline meets an inflection point and finally stabilizes to about 96.8% in the environment of 132457 data of monk model. The point cloud hole-filling algorithm based on the optimal neural network given in this article is highly predictable, can well repair incomplete point cloud holes, has good repair effect on point cloud holes, and can obtain high acceleration ratio, which can provide reference for practical engineering application.


The invention discloses a method for extracting and separating resveratrol from polygonum cuspidatum root. The method comprises the following steps: crushing polygonum cuspidatum root as a raw material, carrying out enzymatic hydrolysis, extracting the polygonum cuspidatum root by an ethyl acetate mixed solvent, concentrating, separating the obtained crude product with ethanol, allowing the obtained material to go through alumina, decoloring with active carbon, removing impurities, and crystallizing with ethanol to obtain resveratrol with the content of 98-99%. The method has the advantages of high yield, mature technology and suitableness for industrialized production.


Bioluminescence tomography reconstruction algorithm based on Bayesian multitasking compressed sensing method, belonging to the field of medical image processing, the method first high-order approximation model Model of Light Propagation in a biological tissue, and to explore the learning based multitask intrinsic correlation between the multi-spectral, as a priori information about the correlation between the multi-spectral integration reconstruction algorithm to reduce the morbidity of BLT reconstruction, and finally achieved on the basis of three-dimensional reconstruction of a fluorescent light source. The method of the present invention compared to other bioluminescence imaging tomographic reconstruction algorithms, and further into the multi-spectral correlation properties to reduce the morbidity BLT reconstruction, the reconstruction can not only accurately positioning a fluorescent light source, and can greatly improve the computational efficiency.


- The internet could be used as a means of online trading, often called e-commerce (electronic commerce). The increasingly positive e-commerce growth in Indonesia has resulted in a shift in people's shopping patterns towards online or online shopping, thus making marketers learn various strategies so that consumers continue to feel satisfaction when shopping using applications, especially Shopee online shop applications. This research aims to analyze consumer satisfaction as measured by the price and e-service quality. The population in this study are respondents with a minimum age of 15 years who is infinite and has to carry out payment at least 1 time in the last 6 months of Shopee application. The sampling techniques used are non-probability sampling by sampling method i.e. judgmental sampling and obtained as many as 220 respondents. Data collection techniques for this research uses online questionnaire distribution with a Likert scale and the technical analysis of the data used is multiple linear regression. The results of this study show that the price and quality of e-service have a positive and significant influence on customer satisfaction variables in Shopee application users.


For orthodontists,it is important to maintain the stability of occlusion and soft tissue after orthodontic treatment.This article presents a patient orthodontic retreated with glossectomy 13 years after orthognathic surgery.The patient was a 33-year-old female.She had undergone orthognathic surgery at 19 years old.Although glossectomy had been recommended because of macroglossia tendency at that time,it was not per-


This paper attempts to understand contemporary cultural politics in Africa by examining how 'Big Brother Africa', a reality program in 2003 was received, distributed, and interpreted in African countries. 'Big Brother Africa' is a reality program that has been live-broadcasted for about three months throughout the African continent. As an African edition of reality television blockbuster, 'Big Brother', this program recruited young participants from 12 different countries in Africa and caused many controversies in those countries. This paper will examine the dynamic reception processes of the popular cultural product. In doing so, it will demonstrate how the global meets the local in the areas like national identities, media, and popular culture. This paper argues that contemporary cultural politics in these countries, once revealed in the consumption and reception process of 'Big Brother Africa' as a popular cultural product, demonstrated that cultural globalization in Africa is much more complicated than what the existing perspectives, which tend to view African countries or Africans as a final destination of global cultural flows or passive receivers or consumers of global cultural products, usually describe. In conclusion, this paper will provide some critical discussions on contemporary cultural politics in these African countries, while top-down, national, and hegemonic discourses on African identities are coming across new, different imaginations of African identities, which are mainly dispersed among young Africans.


Background: The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) is a popular tool for assessing the nutritional status of the elderly. MNA has a short form version comprised of the first 6 questions of the long form MNA for screening risk of malnutrition. Replacement of BMI with expanded scores of mid-arm circumference and calf circumference has been shown to improve the predictive ability of the tool. Objective: This study attempted to determine whether replacing CC for BMI in short form could also improve the predictive activity of the tool. Method: The study employed a purposive sampling and recruited 297 consecutive elderly subjects who attended an area hospital for health examination during the summer of 2008. Subjects who agreed to participate in the study were interviewed with a structure questionnaire for eliciting personal data and answers to questions in the MNA. Biochemical data were obtained from their laboratory reports. Subject's nutritional status was evaluated with three (the original and two modified) versions of the MNA and two modified long form versions. Results were analyzed with Friedman Test, Wilcoxon Signed-rank Test and Spearman's correlation. Receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC AUC) was used to analyze the agreement between the results of the short form versions and of the long-form versions. Results: The original short form version graded significantly greater proportions of elderly at risk of malnutrition than the two modified versions. The two modified versions graded similar proportions of elderly at risk of malnutrition. Overall, the short form T-2 version has the best predictive ability among the three versions. Conclusion: Short form MNA-T2 appears to have the best predictive ability among the three short form versions. MNA-T2 has the advantage of not requiring weight and height measurements for calculation BMI. The version presumable can improve the work efficiency of the primary care workers because patients nutritional risk screening can be completed more quickly. Thus, the tool has the potential to improve the job efficiency of the primary care workers. It can also help to improve the quality of life of the elderly patients.


— We provide a coupling proof of Doob's theorem which says that the transition probabilities of a regular Markov process which has an invariant probability measure m converge to m in the total variation distance. In addition we show that non-singularity (rather than equivalence) of the transition probabilities su‰ces to ensure convergence of the transition probabilities for m-almost all initial conditions.


Increasing the time that a crop canopy maintains an active photosynthetic apparatus could potentially increase economic yield. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of phenotypic recurrent selection for seed dry matter accumulation rate (DMAR) and seed effective filling period (EFP) on leaf senescence in selections of a maize (Zea mays L.) synthetic population, KyWVS. Selection groups included factorial combinations of high, same (same as Cycle 0), and low DMAR; and long, same, and short EFP(.)


Simple statistical theory has been used to report the thermo-physical properties of mixing in liquid Cd-Zn alloys. The energetic of mixing in liquid alloys has been analyzed through the study of surface properties (surface tension, surface concentration) and transport properties (diffusivity, viscosity). Negative deviation from Raoultian behaviour has been observed in the computed mixing parameters (viscosity, surface tension) of the alloys. The computed results support a weak phase-separation tendency in molten Cd-Zn system. Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, 2014, 19(1): 14-18


psychology. to, archeology, closer to uncovering precisely what makes the human mind so unique. Evolutionary psychology offers an especially valuable perspective as it looks at the timeline of human cognitive development and the divergence of modern humans from their close primate relatives. In this review, cognition will be used in the broad sense of the term, including functions such as language, cooperation, and which together have allowed humans to function in large groups; causal reasoning and mental time travel, which amount to humans' ability to determine cause and effect and extend thought into the past and future; and metacognition and theory of mind, which facilitate an understanding of one's own beliefs and of others' perspective and beliefs, and how they may differ one's own.


In a comment on my article (Taylor 1982b) that uses Friedman's (1953) profit criterion to evaluate official foreign exchange intervention, Peter Spencer (1985) proposes an alternative criterion for measuring the success of intervention that deducts the effect of the mean level of intervention. His criterion is seriously flawed by a strong positive bias in favor of the central bank if it pursues a policy of "leaning against the wind." This reply uses a stochastic model that assumes that the exchange rate follows a random walk and that the central bank leans against the wind. Although this is a fair game with the expected profit equal to zero, Spencer's criterion is biased to show positive results for the central bank approximately 96 percent of the time. In addition, his empirical results are exaggerated by his misinterpretation of his test statistic as the slope coefficient for a regression with a constant. The model's assumptions that exchange rate changes are independent and that the central bank leans against the wind are empirically good first approximations. Evidence on the independence of exchange rate changes is provided in studies such as Levich (1978), Mussa (1979), Frenkel (1981), and Dooley and Shafer (1984), which show that the random component of exchange rate changes overwhelmingly dominates any systematic behavior in exchange rate movements. Evidence presented in Taylor (1982a) shows that central banks lean against the wind by selling dollars when the price of the I am indebted to Howard Stratton and Charles Corrado for helpful suggestions and help with the simulations. I have also benefited from comments from Peter Spencer, Michael Bordo, Michael Connolly, Todd Sandler, Sam Peltzman, and a referee. Of course, they are not responsible for any remaining errors.


Electrodeposition of aluminum has been investigated from solutions of aluminum bromide in cumene-ethylbenzene baths. In comparison with the hydride type baths, this mixed solvent bath has advantages in preparation of the solution, low bath voltage and good stability. Silver-white deposits of aluminum were obtained from the bath consisting of AlBr3 3.07-3.33M/l, 10vol-% cumene-90 vol-% ethylbenzene mixed solvent, at 10-20mA/cm2 and 20-30°C, with stirring. The effective additives were found to be L-ascorbic acid, tannic and polystyrene. Specifiic conductivity of the bath, solubility of aluminum bromide were ca 6.0×10-3mho/cm, 6.1M/l respectively. It was shown by X-ray diffraction analysis that the preferred orientation of the Al deposits was strong in (101). The mean lattice constant and grain size of the deposits were found to be 4.04-4.05A and 36-80A, respectively.


Abstract Four new eriophyoid mite species of the genus Diptilomiopus Nalepa (Acari: Diptilomiopidae) from China are described and illustrated. They are D. cotoneastrus sp. nov. on Cotoneaster acutifolius Turcz. (Rosaceae), D. clidemioidus sp. nov. on Boehmeria clidemioides var. diffusa (Wedd.) Hand.-Mazz. (Urticaceae), D. quinatus sp. nov. on Vitex quinata (Lour.) F.N.Williams (Lamiaceae), and D. macropodus sp. nov. on Daphniphyllum macropodum Miq. (Daphniphyllaceae). All new species are distributed in the Oriental Region of China. They are vagrants on the leaves causing no apparent symptom to their host plants. We further provided mitochondrial cox1 gene sequences for the four new species.


In this work, I develop an alternative explanation for the acceleration of the cosmic expansion, which seems to be a result of recent high redshift Supernova data. In the current interpretation, this cosmic acceleration is explained by including a positive cosmological constant term (or vacuum energy), in the standard Friedmann models. Instead, I will consider a Locally Rotationally Symmetric (LRS) and spherically symmetric (SS), but inhomogeneous spacetime, with a barotropic perfect fluid equation of state for the cosmic matter. The congruence of matter has acceleration, shear and expansion. Within this framework the kinematical acceleration of the cosmic fluid or, equivalently, the inhomogeneity of matter, is just the responsible of the SNe Ia measured cosmic acceleration. Although in our model the Cosmological Principle is relaxed, it maintains almost isotropy about our worldline in agreement with CBR observations.


Diet is a significant factor in the prevention of chronic disease. In the past, misreporting of energy intake using self-reported dietary intake data has been shown to affect the interpretation of relationships between diet and disease. However, the gold standard, doubly labelled water method, is expensive and not feasible in large epidemiological studies. The objective of the present study was to explore whether several factors including possible underreporting – contribute to differences observed between energy intakes among pregnant women living in Ireland in two different cohorts initiated a decade apart. Data from two different prospective cohorts of pregnant women living in Ireland were used, the Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study (initiated between Oct 2001-Jan 2003) and the Lifestyle in Pregnancy study (LIP; initiated in 2011). Lifeways include Irish nationals only and was representative of the general population, whilst the LIP study included about 30 % foreign nationals. The same instruments and methodology used in Lifeways were applied to the LIP study. Analysis was conducted on data from a sample size of 1903 women. A validated questionnaire was used to collect biological and sociodemographic data in both cohorts. Dietary information was assessed using a Food Frequency Questionnaire. Underreporting was assessed using the ratio of reported energy intake (EI) to estimated basic metabolic rate (BMR) (EI/BMR). Using the methods described by Goldberg et al., a cut-off value of <0·9 was used to identify definite under-reporters and a value of <1·2 identified possible under-reporters. Differences between two means were assessed by Mann-Whitney U tests. For categorical variables, Chi-Square tests were performed to identify differences between proportions. The women in the LIP study have a significantly lower energy intake compared to women in Lifeways (p < 0·001; median energy intake was 2364 kcal in Lifeways compared to 1986 kcal in LIP study). Factors that significantly differed between the two cohorts (p < 0·001) included the following: women in the LIP study were slightly older, higher educated and more often employed. No differences were observed for medical card possession, marital status and BMI category. Significantly more women in the LIP study were definite or potential underreporters (29·6%) compared to women in Lifeways (18·3 %; p < 0·001). Excluding non-nationals did not alter these results. In conclusion, the observed difference in energy intake levels might be a real difference or – as our results seem to suggest – several factors might contribute to this difference, including education, age, employment and underreporting. A factor explaining the possible underreporting could differences in consenting and recruiting procedures between the two cohorts. If the difference between energy intake levels is due to underreporting, this might have implications for the designs and set-up of future studies. Future analyses will explore these factors more fully.


Tidal urban rivers have severe environmental problems like massive fish death which was mainly caused by formation of hypoxic water mass. However there was little information on DO environments in large tidal rivers. To investigate DO environments in tidal rivers and its relation to floodings which are closely related to CSO(Combined sewer overflow) impacts, we conducted field measurements on water-quality environments in the Sumidagawa and Kandagawa Rivers, Japan. The result indicates that massive fish death in tidal reach of small urban rivers appeared frequently just after flooding events in summer seasons. The measured results reveal that DO on Sep. 9, 2010 were lower than 2 mg/ L in overall region of Sumidagawa River due to the flooding event. These facts indicate that inflows of CSO due to flooding events have an important influence on reduction of DO concentration in the Sumidagawa River.


In the age of knowledge and new economy, universities have become the principal institutions of the society and will push the society forward with tremendous motivation and impetus. With the national strategy of Beijing-tianjin-hebei integration and the coordinated development of these areas, university clusters of megalopolis have been vitalized with strong opportunities and yet great challenges at the same time. This paper is aimed to unveil the new development of the members of university clusters of megalopolis from the macro and micro perspectives.


Forty patients of idiopathic painful heel were observed closely. The cause of pain is considered to be neuralgia of medial calcaneal nerve as a result of entrapment or stretching while passing through the flexor retinaculum. Stretching is predisposed in patients with valgoid feet and odesity. Pain can be relieved by walking on outer border of heel of heel causing relaxation of the retinaculum or by superficial injection of one to 2 ml of xylocaine blocking the medial calcaneal nerves. 'Calcaneal spur' is thought to be only an association related to the process of aging. Relief obtained after operation for 'calcaneal spur' is considered to be due to sectioning of medial calcaneal nerves.


Abstract: This chapter considers stakeholder issues, examining common-sense approaches developed to ensure that stakeholders understand their boundaries of influence. The text draws heavily on experience of consultation/engagement processes gained at Dounreay, with specific regard to the long-term management of low-level waste. Different approaches are considered, and some of the lessons learned are outlined. The findings of European studies are discussed, establishing that although issues of concern are similar in all countries, the legislative process does not lend itself to a co-ordinated approach. Although legislation may differ from country to country, the ethics of handling these matters with respect for all affected parties should be universal.


Among the chronic non-communicable diseases, cancer is a serious international
public health problem, not only because of cultural differences and environmental, as
well as to economic changes in each social context. Breast cancer remains the
leading cause of cancer mortality among Brazilian women. This paper aims to
analyze the socio economic, demographic, knowledge and access to exams for
preventive detection of breast cancer for women living in Bola na Rede on the Distrito
Sanitario III, in Recife in 2010. A study was conducted exploratory descriptive crosssectional
survey of women living in Bola na Rede, selected through a convenience
sample with a total 81 women, aged greater than or equal to 35 years old. Data were
obtained through the application form consists of questions with the following:
socioeconomic status; coverage of the Family Health Program and membership of
private insurance, risk factors for Breast Cancer, and information about directions
and access to health services for early detection of breast cancer. The main results
shows that most women interviewed were 40 years old or more and low education.
95% of these women were under the coverage of the PSF Bola na Rede. Only 65.4%
considered themselves as being oriented with respect to any examination necessary
for early detection of breast cancer, 96.3% of women had did at some point the selfexamination,
of which 66.7% indicated they had never seen any change in their
breasts. Most women interviewed somehow know or have heard about ways to
detect breast cancer, but most of them have never been trained on the existing
possibilities in the health sector, generating as a consequence of not performing
mammograms and USG breasts, these tests are available and recommended by the
Ministry of Health.


Ejected-electron excitation functions for the lowest-lying (3p54s2)2P3/2 and (3p54s2)2P1/2 autoionizing states in potassium have been measured for incident-electron energies from threshold to 500 eV and 200 eV, respectively, with improved energy resolution. Strong resonances have been observed and well resolved in the excitation functions of both states near their excitation thresholds. R-matrix (close-coupling) calculations were performed to analyse and tentatively assign these features. A remarkable similarity between the spectrum of the core-excited negative-ion potassium states and the excited states of atomic argon is noted.


A flow-induced vibration problem evaluation of a shell and tube cooling water heat exchanger equipment installed in a power plant is presented in this paper. The problem produced loss of thickness in many tubes of the bundle, by impact or fretting wear, and the need to plug these tubes to avoid leakage. These vibrations could had been produced by changes in the equipment operational conditions or by a wrong evaluation during the design stage. An analytical and experimental evaluation was made to predict tubes dynamical response and to identify the excitation mechanisms. The original design modification adopted to solve the problem is presented and evaluated.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


Consider a set of terminal nodes K that belong to a network whose nodes are connected by links that fail independently with known probabilities. We introduce a method for estimating a performability measure that depends on the hop distance between terminal nodes. The new measure generalises the diameter-constrained network reliability measure. We propose a Monte Carlo method with significant variance reduction compared to crude Monte Carlo. It is based on using edge sets named d-pathsets and d-cutsets for reducing the variance of the estimator. These edge sets, considered as a priori known in previous literature, heavily affect the attained performance; we hereby introduce and compare a family of heuristics for their selection. Numerical examples are presented, showing the significant efficiency improvements that can be obtained by chaining the edge set selection heuristics to the proposed Monte Carlo sampling plan.


at his writing a popular six-penny booklet on a subject that has been stressed so greatly in recent years; but when one reads the foreword one sees the motif and is repaid. Antenatal care began in 1902 when in response to a popular appeal, Dr. John W. Ballantyne was able to announce that an anonymous donor had endowed a bed for the care of an expectant mother in Edinburgh. This was the first bed in the world to be set apart for this purpose and from that small beginning, inspired by the genius and forethought of Dr. Ballantyne, has sprung the antenatal care movement of every civilised country in the world, for they all have grasped what that meant in the prevention of disease or disaster in the parturient woman. It is not because there is anything new in this cheap little book that the reviewer praises it, but because of that one sentence in the preface? " Antenatal work has spread until it is probably correct to say that there is no civilised country in the world to-day in which the routine care and examination of expectant mothers does not form an important part of obstetric practice." What can India answer to that? What have the popular press and the politicians of the people done for this? Surely the voices of the women and children can be heard in the land : surely the days of kismet and dltarma and kharma have passed; surely this little book or its like could reach into every village and town of India. The vernacular press have done nothing to promote en masse the physical welfare of the


The aim of the present study is to investigate the pharmacognostic and phytochemical investigation of the root bark of the plant Plumeria acutifolia belonging to the family Apocynaceae. In microscopic studies, transverse section (TS) of root bark and powder characters of the plant was studied and characteristic features were established. Physicochemical parameters such as total ash value, acid insoluble ash value and water soluble ash value were determined. The alcohol soluble extractive and water soluble extractive were also determined. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of ethanolic extract was carried out. The results of preliminary phytochemical screening were positive for alkaloids, tannins, glycosides, terpenoids and saponins. The results obtained from standardization of root bark of Plumeria acutifolia established the macro- and microscopical parameters, physicochemical parameters, TLC profiles that characterize the genuine plant drug. The present study provides pharmacognostical, physicochemical and phytochemical details of the root bark of Plumeria acutifolia which are useful in laying down standardization and pharmacopoeia parameters.