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Objective: To compare the safety and efficacy of anti-leukotrienes and inhaled glucocorticoids as monotherapy in people with asthma. Design: Systematic review of randomised controlled trials comparing anti-leukotrienes with inhaled glucocorticoids for 28 days or more in children and adults. Main outcome measure: Rate of exacerbations that required treatment with systemic glucocorticoids. Results: 13 trials (12 in adults, one in children) met the inclusion criteria; all were in people with mild and moderate asthma. Leukotriene receptor antagonists were compared with inhaled glucocorticoids at a daily dose equivalent to 400–450 μg beclometasone dipropionate. Patients treated with leukotriene receptor antagonists were 60% more likely to suffer an exacerbation requiring systemic glucocorticoids (relative risk 1.6, 95% confidence interval 1.2 to 2.2; number needed to treat 27, 13 to 81). A 130 ml greater improvement (80 ml to 170 ml) in forced expiratory volume in one second and a 19 l/min greater increase (14 l to 24 l) in morning peak expiratory flow rate were noted in favour of inhaled glucocorticoids. Differences in favour of inhaled glucocorticoids were also observed for nocturnal awakenings, use of rescue β2 agonists, and days without symptoms. Risk of side effects was no different between groups, but leukotriene receptor antagonists were associated a 2.5-fold increase risk of withdrawals due to poor asthma control (relative risk 2.5, 1.8 to 3.5). Conclusions: Inhaled glucocorticoids doses equivalent to 400 μg/day beclometasone are more effective than leukotriene receptor antagonists in the treatment of adults with mild or moderate asthma. There is insufficient evidence to conclude on the efficacy of anti-leukotrienes in children. What is already known on this topic In 2000 a Cochrane systematic review tentatively concluded that control of asthma was better in patients treated with inhaled glucocorticoids as single agents than with anti-leukotrienes The 2002 Global Initiative for Asthma guidelines still classify the role of anti-leukotrienes as “under investigation” What this study adds Anti-leukotrienes as single agent are less effective than low doses of inhaled glucocorticoids for patients with mild and moderate persistent asthma

A medical genetics clinic is a unique and complex environment in which care requires a combination of medical knowledge, social intelligence, and emotional sensitivity. We offer a few pearls from our medical genetics clinic that we hope will help the pediatric or general dermatologist when caring for patients with known or suspected genetic disorders. This paper addresses five main topics: When is it more than just atopic dermatitis? How should the clinician approach blistering in the newborn period? What is mosaicism? When is genetic testing useful? Where can clinician, patients, and families turn for available resources?

Software frameworks are difficult for plugin developers to use, even when they are well designed and documented. Some of these difficulties stem from the many constraints that frameworks impose on plugin code. These constraints might restrict operations from being called on certain objects, or they might restrict how long an object is available. Additionally, the constraints are relative to the current context of the plugin, and they can involve multiple, interacting framework objects. This paper proposes a lightweight specification system and analysis to check plugins from a semantic perspective, rather than a purely structural view.

The Cygnus Dual Beam Radiographic Facility consists of two identical radiographic sources each with a dose rating of ∼4-rad at 1 m, and a ∼1-mm diameter spot size. The development of the rod pinch diode (RPD) was responsible for the ability to meet these criteria. The RPD in each machine uses a 0.75-mm tungsten diameter tapered anode rod extended through a 9-mm diameter cathode aperture. When properly configured, the electron beam born off the aperture edge can self-insulate and pinch onto the tip of the rod creating an intense, small x-ray source. These sources are utilized in concert with an imaging system on complex experiments, which are single-shot, high-value events. In such an application there is an emphasis on machine performance (reliability and reproducibility). Vacuum quality is a significant determinator for source performance. In this paper we discuss the Cygnus Dual Beam Radiographic Facility, the associated vacuum systems, vacuum monitor calibration and a multi-purpose vacuum chamber. Vacuum system performance, using various enhancements, will be reported. Using the vacuum system enhancements, as well as other machine tweaks, recent source performance has improved. This new level of performance will be presented via dosimetry and electrical measurements.

This paper examines 1,089 private equity (PE) backed and non-PE backed (pure) UK buy-outs, determinants of their survival, and their exit behaviour during the period of 1966-2004. Our results suggest that 56% of the pure sample buy-outs remained in a buy-out organisational form for at least seven years after the original buy-out transaction, thus lending support to views that buy-outs present long rather than short term form. PE backed buy-outs exhibit higher exit rates, fewer early (within 12 months) exits and fewer liquidations than their pure counterparts. Buy-outs sponsored by PE syndicates, those harvested during periods with strong market conditions and greater supply of PE funding, tend to have shorter longevity. The most notable difference between the survival experiences of PE backed and pure buy-outs is documented in IPO exits, where a significant number of pure buy-outs exit early to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

From the point of view of a data warehouse system, collecting and receiving information from source systems is crucial for all subsequent business intelligence applications. Incoming information can generally be classified into two types: (1) the state-oriented data and (2) event-oriented data or transactional data, which contains information about the change performed by processes on the instances of information objects. On the way towards achieving the goal of a full-fledged active data warehouse it becomes more and more important to provide data with minimal latency. In this paper we focus on dimensional data which is provided by general data warehouse applications. The information transfer is performed via messages containing the change of information on the dimension instances. The proposed approach is able to validate the event-messages, reconstruct the complete history of the dimension and provide a well applicable ''comprehensive slowly changing dimension'' (cSCD) interface for queries on the historical and current state of the dimension. A description of the prototype implementation for this kind of an ''active integration'' in a data warehouse and a case study at T-Mobile conclude the paper.

Investment decisions in the development and production of new aircraft models is difficult because of the technical and market uncertainties associated with such a complex process. The accompanying risks can be mitigated through a flexible approach that incorporates several decision points at different stages of the process. Therefore, as the project evolves, management will be able to diagnose its progress, compare it to previous expectations, and decide to continue or not. In this paper, we present a methodology to evaluate flexible business strategies that is based on real options analysis (ROA) and Monte Carlo simulation. This methodology takes into account the flexibility that managers have to affect the success of any given project and, therefore, it provides a better estimate of project value. Numerical results are given for a representative process based on actual aircraft manufacturer's data.

Despite strong economic growth, investment in basic urban infrastructure -- water supply, wastewater removal and treatment, roads, and other capital-intensive systems -- has failed to keep pace with urban growth, leaving a critical urban infrastructure deficit. At the same time, urban lands in these many developing countries are among the most expensive in the world. Much of this land is owned by public authorities. Significant parts of it lie vacant, unused for public service provision or inappropriate for conversion to higher-valued economic activity. A composite public-sector balance sheet for India's urban areas would show an asset mix strong on public-sector landholdings but weak on infrastructure. This raises the following questions: Can some excess public-sector land be exchanged for infrastructure, in a manner that is politically acceptable and economically efficient? Can public land sales be a realistic source of finance for critically needed urban infrastructure investment? This paper considers the policy context that has shaped different land-disposal and earmarking initiatives, provides details about the actual workings of institutions, and examines international experience in infrastructure investment. This study contributes to the consultative process underway in India to consider strategies to unlock public land values to help finance urban infrastructure investment.

Windows 95 may provide a major stimulus to Intelligent Network (IN) development, to real technological convergence between computing and telecommunication, and to a major reordering of research priorities in the field. The paper examines IN in the context of the evolution of convergence and the larger framework of information superhighway, infrastructure and society developments. It shows how the pace and direction of IN development will be driven by demand associated with organisational and institutional change, not the simple supply of greater capacity or the discovery of ‘killer applications’. This will be associated with a shift in priorities to distributed networking, information-based service development and a diversity of very specific new applications.

The chief aim of the paper is to study the major function of higher education in cultural innovation through an analysis of how China's higher education nationalizes and internationalizes and draws challenges for cultural innovation. The starting points are an original contribution to the understanding of the role of higher education in relation to innovation (UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge, 2009). On this basis we move ahead and the procedure we follow can be briefly described as follows: firstly, the paper makes a simple analysis about the characteristics of higher education localization and its influence on cultural innovation; meanwhile, the author puts forward several proposals for the reform of higher education in order to promote cultural innovation. Secondly, the author proceeds to emphasize the importance of higher education internationalization and its value in cultural innovation. Thirdly, the paper expounds internationalization communication and cooperation of Chinese higher education. At last, It is concluded that higher educational localization and internationalization are of great significance for realization of the function of cultural innovation keeping balance between Chinese native culture and international culture. Index Terms - Cultural innovation, localization, internationalization, Chinese higher education

Focal boost to dominant intraprostatic lesions (DILs) has recently been proposed for prostate radiation therapy. Accurate and fast delineation of the prostate and DILs is thus required during treatment planning. In this paper, we develop a learning-based method using positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) images to automatically segment the prostate and its DILs. To enable end-to-end segmentation, a deep learning-based method, called cascaded regional-Net, is utilized. The first network, referred to as dual attention network, is used to segment the prostate via extracting comprehensive features from both PET and CT images. A second network, referred to as mask scoring regional convolutional neural network (MSR-CNN), is used to segment the DILs from the PET and CT within the prostate region. Scoring strategy is used to diminish the misclassification of the DILs. For DIL segmentation, the proposed cascaded regional-Net uses two steps to remove normal tissue regions, with the first step cropping images based on prostate segmentation and the second step using MSR-CNN to further locate the DILs. The binary masks of DILs and prostates of testing patients are generated on the PET/CT images by the trained model. For evaluation, we retrospectively investigated 49 prostate cancer patients with PET/CT images acquired. The prostate and DILs of each patient were contoured by radiation oncologists and set as the ground truths and targets. We used five-fold cross-validation and a hold-out test to train and evaluate our method. The mean surface distance and DSC values were 0.666 ± 0.696 mm and 0.932 ± 0.059 for the prostate and 0.814 ± 1.002 mm and 0.801 ± 0.178 for the DILs among all 49 patients. The proposed method has shown promise for facilitating prostate and DIL delineation for DIL focal boost prostate radiation therapy.

Water distribution network that includes supply reservoirs, overhead tanks, consumer demand nodes, interconnecting pipes, lifting pumps, and control valves is the main mode of water supply for majority of the communities especially in urban areas. Supply of required quantity of water and at right time is the primary objective of water distribution network analysis. The analysis of water distribution networks can be broadly classified into design and operation problems and both problems have been the focus of many researchers over the past three decades. In the water distribution network design problems, the target is attaining the cost effective configuration that satisfies the minimum hydraulic head requirement at the demand nodes. In this paper, a new algorithm for design of water distribution network namely "heuristics-based algorithm" which completely utilizes the implicit information associated with the water distribution network to be designed has been proposed and validated with two water distribution networks. It is found that the proposed algorithm performs well for the least-cost design of water distribution networks. � 2009 ASCE.

This paper was retracted by IOP Publishing on 12 December 2018. This paper was published due to a technical error and was not intended to be included in this journal. Retraction published: 8 February 2019

(1798). XXI. Chemical experiments respecting different methods of rendering paper and the writing on it indestructible by fire. The Philosophical Magazine: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 89-92.

The literature and the employee and workforce surveys rank collaborative problem solving (CPS) among the top 5 most critical skills necessary for success in college and the workforce. This paper provides a review of the literature on CPS and related terms, including a discussion of their definitions, importance to higher education and workforce success, and considerations relevant to their assessment. The goal is to discuss progress on CPS to date and help generate future research on CPS in relation to educational and workforce success.

(1800). III. On the origin and progress of the manufacture of pig-iron with pit-coal; and comparison of the value and effects of pit-coal, wood, and peat-char. The Philosophical Magazine: Vol. 7, No. 25, pp. 35-46.

In the Paper which I had last year the honour of presenting to the Royal Society, I endeavoured to point out the effects which are produced upon the organ of hearing, by a partial loss, or entire destruction, of the membrana tympani. From the facts therein detailed it appears, that an aperture in the membrana tympani does not diminish the power of the ear, and that even a complete destruction of the membrane is not followed by a total deprivation of the sense of hearing; a supposition which medical men have adopted, and common opinion has generally sanctioned.

For a purpose of improvement of project management, we should determine the success right or wrong of project objectively and quantitatively. On the other hand, a decision of success right or wrong of software development projects has been evaluated subjectively by a questionnaire for stakeholders concerned. Furthermore, the study of definition of project success right or wrong and quantitative decision techniques is not found. Recently, gathering of the attribute data about software development projects in Japan has been performed by the IPA/SEC (Software Engineering Centre of the Information-Technology Promotion Agency Japan). Therefore, we developed the diagnostic technique to judge the success right or wrong on a project by a discriminant analysis based on the actual data of IPA/SECs in the precedent study. Also, we tried to develop the diagnostic technique of success right or wrong of project based on the “Success degree estimation mode” in this study. In this paper, we would like to propose the result of comparison between the effectiveness of these diagnostic techniques of the project.

In a Paper which I some time since presented to this Society, (printed in the Phil. Trans, for 1800,) I endeavoured to ascertain the causes, and to explain the various cases, of horizontal refraction, which I had either observed myself, or had seen described by others. At the time of writing that essay, I had not met with the Mémoires sur l'Egypte , published but a short time before; and I was not aware that an account had been given by M. Monge, of the phenomenon known to the French by the name of mirage , which their army had daily opportunities of seeing, in their march through the deserts of Egypt.

In this paper, we contribute with empirical insight into the complexity of establishing and sustaining integration between different information infrastructures in health care. An overall concern is to elaborate on how, despite many obstacles, the integration effort moves forward. We see this as a collective achievement, where users have an essential role in terms of mobilizing and coordinating the other actors as well as maintaining the integration. These activities are not limited to a specific project; they emerge from and are part of day-to-day practice. Empirically, we focus on a large integration initiative between the laboratory systems at the University Hospital of Northern Norway and the electronic patient records used by general practitioners in the Northern health region. Together with the vendor, Well Diagnostics, the hospital initiated a project aimed at establishing a new laboratory requisition system that enabled GPs to send requisitions electronically to the hospital laboratories. Theoretically, we draw on the concept of information infrastructures, and supplement this with Actor Network Theory.

§1. In my former Papers upon this subject, some account has been given of the effects produced by sulphuric acid upon turpentine, resin, and camphor; and I shall now state the results of other experiments made with the same acid upon a great number of the resins, balsams, gum resins, and gums, the greater part of which, afforded that modification of the artificial tanning substance, which for the sake of distinction, I have in the preceding papers denominated the third variety. The process was simple digestion in sulphuric acid, after which, the residuum was well edulcorated, and was then digested in alcohol. This was separated by distillation, the dry substance which remained was infused in cold distilled water, and the portion dissolved, was examined by solution of isinglass, muriate of tin, acetite of lead, and sulphate of iron.

Discoveries in the anatomy of the human body have been ever considered by this learned Society as deserving a place in the Philosophical Transactions: in the present improved state of our knowledge of this subject, a small addition to it cannot fail of being acceptable, since after the long continued labours of so many acute observers, such only can be expected, and even those are rarely to be acquired. The subject of the present Paper is a portion of a gland, which from the obscurity of its situation has hitherto escaped observation: and were it not for the change produced in it by disease, which enlarges it so much that it sometimes com­pletely shuts up the canal, by which the urine ought to pass, it would be little deserving of attention: but when this im­portant effect is considered, the part itself becomes an object of very serious interest.

The facts and results intended to be communicated in this Paper, are founded upon observations made, during the present winter, at the cotton manufactory of Messrs. Philips and Lee at Manchester, where the light obtained by the combustion of the gas from coal is used upon a very large scale; the apparatus for its production and application having been prepared by me at the works of Messrs. Boulton, Watt, and Co. at Soho. The whole of the rooms of this cotton mill, which is, I believe, the most extensive in the United Kingdom, as well as its counting-houses and store-rooms, and the adjacent dwelling-house of Mr. Lee, are lighted with the gas from coal. The total quantity of light used during the hours of burning, has been ascertained, by a comparison of shadows, to be about equal to the light which 2500 mould candles of six in the pound would give; each of the candles, with which the comparison was made consuming at the rate of 4-10ths of an ounce (175 grains ) of tallow per hour.

The attention of physiologists has been very much with­ drawn, for the last half century, from the consideration of the different states of the circulating and secreted fluids, in conse­quence of the opinion that the nervous and fibrous or mus­cular systems can afford satisfactory interpretations of the phenomena of living beings; and on account of the disgust produced by the visionary properties and groundless hypo­theses, originating in the humoural doctrines of Galen. But late experiments have manifested, that various things taken into the stomach can be made at pleasure to produce consider­able effects, by impregnating sensibly the blood and urine, as well as the milk, sweat, and perhaps saliva. Further; the fine experiments of Professor Colman have shewn, that the conta­gious glanders may be excited in the ass by the transfusion of the blood of a glandered horse, and the matter from the nose of the glandered ass can produce this disease in the horse or the ass. Hence I apprehend it is reasonable to expect, that the farther investigation of the properties of the animal fluids will afford gratifying instruction to the Researcher in natural science, and important practical information to the Physician. On the present occasion, I desire the honour of communi­cating the knowledge I may have acquired, by investigating the properties of expectorated matter secreted by the bron­chial membrane. The appearances of this substance serve to regulate the judgment of the Physician concerning several dis­eases of the lungs; but especially of that of pulmonary tubercles which yearly destroys 120,000 to 140,000 subjects of the United Kingdom. It is fit that I remark, that I do not notice in this paper the ingenious experiments of several learned Chemists, because by so doing I should be led into a detail of too great extent for my design.

When the intricacy of the subject, on which my two last papers have been treating, is considered, it will not appear singular that a few supplementary articles should be given. The compression of the account of the experiments into a small compass, where many material circumstances must be left unnoticed, may throw some obscurity on the results, which can only be removed by examining the subject in a fuller ex­tent, and from various points of view. I hope the following illustration and additional explanations will have the effect of clearing up what may possibly to some appear obscure or doubtful, in either the first or second part of my paper, and serve also to make the conclusions, which in the second have been chiefly supported by prismatic experiments, directly applicable to such as have in the first been made by convex glasses. That the colours in all prismatic phenomena, which have been examined in the 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, and 48 articles of my paper, are produced either by the interior critical separa­tion arising from the different reflexibility of the rays which cause the blue bow, or by the exterior critical separation arising from the different intromissibility of the rays which cause the red bow, has been so clearly and circumstantially proved that it can admit of no doubt; it may even be con­ceived by some that I have been too particular in giving the precise angles, when we see in the LectionesOptica , Sect. II. Par . 2, page 257, 258, how far Sir I. Newton has explained the blue bow ; but a sufficient reason for this minuteness was to give greater clearness to my explanation of the new pheno­menon of a red bow, which I have with equal precision de­scribed, and which by this means may be, step by step, compared with the production of the blue bow; but a sufficient reason for this minuteness was to give greater clearness to my explanation of the new phenomenon of a red bow, which I have with equal precision described, and which by this means may be, step by step, compared with the production of the blue bow. By this precaution I hoped to anticipate any objection that might occur, such as, for instance, that Sir I. N ewton has also explained the red bow which (it may be supposed) merely the converse of the blue bow. This conception, although N ewton no where speaks of a red bow, seems to be countenanced by what is said after he has shown that the blue bow is caused by the different reflexibility of the rays of light; for as he affirms that the red, orange, and yellow colours are transmitted, he contrives a method of proving it experimentally, by adding a second prism, placed under that which gives the blue bow, and thus making the transmitted rays visible. The full import of this Newtonian experiment will be considered in the following articles.

BackgroundRecent advances in mobile technologies have created new opportunities to reach broadly into populations that are vulnerable to health disparities. However, mobile health (mHealth) strategies could paradoxically increase health disparities, if low socioeconomic status individuals lack the technical or literacy skills needed to navigate mHealth programs. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine whether patients from vulnerable populations could successfully navigate and complete an mHealth patient decision aid. MethodsWe analyzed usability data from a randomized controlled trial of an iPad program designed to promote colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. The trial was conducted in six primary care practices and enrolled 450 patients, aged 50-74 years, who were due for CRC screening. The iPad program included a self-survey and randomly displayed either a screening decision aid or a video about diet and exercise. We measured participant ability to complete the program without assistance and participant-rated program usability. ResultsTwo-thirds of the participants (305/450) were members of a vulnerable population (limited health literacy, annual income < US $20,000, or black race). Over 92% (417/450) of the participants rated the program highly on all three usability items (90.8% for vulnerable participants vs 96.6% for nonvulnerable participants, P=.006). Only 6.9% (31/450) of the participants needed some assistance to complete the program. In multivariable logistic regression, being a member of a vulnerable population was not associated with needing assistance. Only older age, less use of text messaging (short message service, SMS), and lack of Internet use predicted needing assistance. ConclusionsIndividuals who are vulnerable to health disparities can successfully use well-designed mHealth programs. Future research should investigate whether mHealth interventions can reduce health disparities.

In a paper which I had the honour of laying before this Society, about three years ago, and which is published in the Philosophical Transactions, some cases are related, illustrating the effects of magnesia in preventing an increased formation of uric acid, and some experiments are detailed, instituted with a view to discover its mode of action. Since that period many opportunities have occurred, both to Sir Everard Home and myself, of confirming its efficacy upon a more extended scale, and of ascertaining the efficient treatment of those cases in which magnesia is ineffectual, and in which it has even been found to aggravate the complaint.

It is well known that when wood and other vegetable substances are submitted to destructive distillation, there is produced, among other matters, a black dense fluid resembling molasses or common tar. My connection’ with the Ordnance powder-mills having compelled me to examine some of the properties of this substance, which is obtained in large quantities in the process of making charcoal, I was induced to extend my enquiries, in consequence of finding that the nature of the compound has not hitherto been understood. As it is commonly called tar by the workmen, I shall use this term for want of a better. This tar is very inflammable, and so liquid that it may be burnt in a lamp. Although it appears to be an uniform fluid, it contains a great quantity of acetic acid, in a state of loose combination or mixture. For, by washing with water, a great part of this is separated; the water at the same time acquiring a colour from a portion of the tar which is retained in solution by the acid. Boiling water takes up a larger portion, and the tar acquires from this operation a thicker and more pitchy consistence. Lime and the carbonated alkalies separate the acid with ease, carrying away also a portion of the tar which continues united to the solution. With subcarbonate of potash it thus forms in the first instance an uniform solution of a brown colour, but a continuance of trituration or boiling renders it pitchy and

In a paper formerly communicated to this Society by Sir Everard Home, and since published in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1809, some facts were stated which render it probable that the various animal secretions are dependent on the influence of the nervous system, and this opinion seemed to derive support from some physiological experiments which were afterwards instituted by myself, and in which it was observed, that after the functions of the brain had been destroyed, although the action of the heart continued, and the circulation of the blood was maintained as under ordinary circumstances, the secreting organs invariably ceased to perform their office. It has been attempted by former physiologists to determine how far the nerves are necessary to secretion, but there are considerable obstacles in the way of this inquiry, and no observations, that have been hitherto made, appear to throw a great deal of light on the subject. The only method, which can be devised, of ascertaining by direct experiment, whether the nerves are really necessary to secretion, is that of dividing the nervous branches by which the glands are supplied. But this, with respect to the greater number of the glands, is an experiment impossible to perform; and, with respect to others, can not be executed without so much disturbance and injury to the other parts, as must render it extremely difficult to arrive at any positive results. Perhaps in future investigations, some circumstances may arise, which will enable us to determine more satisfactorily this important physiological question. In the mean time, as the labours of physiologists have hitherto contributed so little to this purpose, any facts that tend to its elucidation may deserve to be recorded, and I am therefore induced to lay before the Society the following experiments, which afford one example of a secretion being dependent on the influence of the nerves.

Dear Sir, In a former paper on “Some Properties of Light,” which I took the liberty of addressing to you, and which the Royal Society honoured with a place in their Transactions, I attempted to give a brief abstract of a set of experiments on the Properties of transparent Bodies in refracting, dispersing, and polarising the rays of Light. An account of the instruments and methods employed in these experiments has since that time been published in my “Treatise on new philosophical Instruments.” From the general object of these researches, however, I have been allured into a new field of inquiry, by the discovery of a singular property of light transmitted through the agate, and the prosecution of the views which it suggested has led to some very extraordinary results, which, while they seem to conduct us into the very mysteries of physical optics, exhibit at the same time a series of appearances which far surpass, both in splendour and variety, all the phenomena of light under its usual transformations. In again soliciting you to communicate these observations to the Royal Society, I trust I need offer no apology. They are closely allied with that science which you have so widely extended by the must profound and brilliant discoveries; and it is probably from the cultivation of this department of physics, that philosophy will be enabled to unfold the secrets of double refraction, to explain the forms and structure of crystallized bodies, and to develope the nature and properties of that ethereal matter, which, while it enlivens all nature by its presence, performs also a capital part in the operations of the material world.

Sir, Since you did me the honour of submitting to the Royal Society my experiments on the comparative light of the Cassegrainian and Gregorian telescopes, I have been so fortunate as to have an opportunity of establishing the conclusions deduced from them by another experiment, the detail of which I trust will not prove unacceptable. The telescopes used on the present occasion were the excellent Gregorian described in my former paper, and a new Cassegrainian constructed by Mr. Crickmore. The diameter of the large speculum of this instrument is 4, 9 inches, the distance between the mirrors only 18 inches, and it bears a power of about 550 (as roughly determined by experiment) with perfect distinctness and considerable light.

In the prosecution of my inquiries into the modifications impressed upon light by the various bodies of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdom, I have had the good fortune to discover several new properties of light, and to establish the laws which regulate the most remarkable of the phenomena. A few of these results have already been laid before the Royal Society ; and from the reception which they have experienced, I have taken the liberty of addressing to you the following paper containing a series of new facts, remark­able for their extreme singularity, and their opposition to almost all our notions of the action of bodies upon the luminous rays. The extraordinary character which these experiments at first assumed, induced me to think that I had overlooked some source of deception ; and it was not till I had performed them under every variety of circumstances, and till they had been repeated, and viewed in the same light by several of my friends, that I prevailed upon myself to bring them under your notice. The splendid exhibition of colours which distinguishes mother of pearl from every other substance, and the succes­sive developement of fresh tints, by every gentle inclination of the plate, have always been ascribed to the lamellated structure of the shell, and have been regarded as a fine proof of Newton's theory of the colours of natural bodies. This explanation I had no disposition to call in question, nor did the general train of my experiments lead me to such an inquiry. In examining the coloured rings which mother of pearl, like the topaz, exhibits by polarised light; and in ascertaining the relation between its refractive power, and the angle at which it gives polarity to the reflected ray, I was under the necessity of grinding and polishing, with the utmost care, various plates of this substance. The developement of new colours, and the extinction of others which took place during these processes, indicated the operation of some unknown and extraordinary cause, and encouraged me to pay the most minute attention to all the phenomena which were presented. The results of this investigation I shall endeavour to explain under the four following heads.

(1815). V. Second reply to Mr. De Luc's observations on a paper entitled “reflections on the inadequacy of the principal hypotheses to explain the phaenomena of electricity.”. The Philosophical Magazine: Vol. 46, No. 207, pp. 13-14.

The object of this paper is to show that the nerves which accompany the arteries regulate their actions, and occasion different proportions of blood to be supplied to different parts of the body. The facts which first led the author to entertain this opinion, were the accidental consequence of an extremely painful application of pure kali to a wound, which occasioned a general pulsation of the limb to which it was applied, although the pulsations of distant arteries were at the same time undisturbed. In order to he quite certain that this consequence was really dependent on the irritation of nerves, the author made two experiments on rabbits in the neighbourhood of the carotid artery. Having laid hare the par vagum and intercostal nerves, a probe was passed under the former so as to separate it, so that the irritation might be first given to this nerve alone; but no sensible effect was thus produced upon the artery. But when the same application of pure kali was made to the adjacent intercostal nerve, by which the artery is supplied, the dilatations and contractions of the artery were considerably increased, and the violence of the pulsations continued about three minutes before they began to subside. The same experiment being repeated on a second rabbit, was attended with the same result; and it was afterwards repeated on a dog without any perceptible difference.

Dear Sir, In prosecuting the experiments on the depolarisation of light, which you lately did me the honour to lay before the Royal Society, I have been led to the discovery of a remarkable pro­perty of soft transparent solids, in virtue of which they ex­hibit, by simple pressure, all the optical qualities of doubly polarising crystals. In the paper on depolarisation to which I have now alluded, it has been shown that a mixture of bees' wax and rosin, when melted and cooled between two plates of glass, depolarises a ray which falls upon it at a vertical inci­dence, w'hile the same substance, pressed between two plates of glass, without the aid of heat, produces no effect when the polarised ray falls perpendicularly upon it, but depolarises it at an oblique incidence. In this experiment the crystallization was not produced by pressure, as the unmelted bees' wax was already crystallized; but it is obvious, either that the pressure had modified the natural crystallization of the bees' wax, so as to enable it to depolarise only at an oblique inci­dence, or that its liquefaction between two plates of glass had produced such a change, as to communicate to it the property of perpendicular depolarisation. In whatever manner this difference of action was produced, the effects of pressure seemed to require farther investigation, and in order to be able to apply a sufficient force, without injuring the structure of the substance, I employed animal jellies which could be brought to any degree of tenacity with­out losing their transparency.

Modern accelerator driven experiments like linear colliders or spallation sources are supplied by RF amplifiers using klystrons. The cathode voltage for these klystrons can be generated by long pulse modulators generating highly accurate voltage pulses in the length of milliseconds. Conventional designs using pulse transformers become huge for long pulses. The series-parallel resonant converter (SPRC) topology avoids this drawback as the transformer is operating at high frequencies. This paper presents a comprehensive design approach for SPRC modules, which is based on an optimization procedure containing an electrical model of the resonant circuit and a thermal model of the semiconductors. In addition, an insulation and a leakage design procedure and a thermal model of the transformer are also presented. Finally, this procedure provides the optimal design parameters of the resonant circuit elements. With these parameters, a global optimizer chooses the optimum amount of modules connected in series and/or in parallel to fulfill the given restrictions. The efficiency of a basic SPRC-module is 94.7% with a pulsed power density of 4.63 kW/l.

A knowledge of the readiness with which liquids pass from the stomach into the circulation, carrying along with them the impregnation of different medicines; and the readiness with which such medicines are carried off from the circulating blood, by the action of the kidneys, led Mr. Brande and myself to an enquiry respecting the prevention of gravel and gout, upon which subject he has laid two separate papers before the Society. In these communications, the action of different substances on the contents of the stomach has been considered, and those substances most efficient in depriving them of the principal ingredient met with in stone and gout, are pointed out.

The development of a DNA microfluidic device with a high speed, low power, and low reagent volume is very critical for real-time genotyping and diagnosis in point-of-care applications. This paper reports a polymer-based thermal cycler for a handheld and battery-powered polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system using a polyimide (PI) film-based micro-fabricated heater module and polymer film microfluidic chambers of 10 μL, with a handheld and low power consumption, compared to state of the art. It took 21 min for 40 thermal cycling for DNA amplification and a maximum power consumption of 0.6 W. The microheater on PI film substrate fabricated and real-time quantification of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) using the heater in hand-held sizes experimentally shown here. The device would be applicable for on-site molecular diagnostics.

In the prosecution of an inquiry in which I have been en­gaged for several years, some of the results of which were published in the Philosophical Transactions of last year, I have had occasion to make many experiments with galvanism, which seem to me to point out with more precision than has yet been done, what we are to expect from it in the cure of disease; and I think it will appear from what I am about to say, that to the want of discrimination in its employment we must ascribe the little advantage which medicine has hitherto derived from the discovery of this influence. It seems to be an inference both from my own experiments and observations and those of others, which I had the honour to lay before the Society in my first paper, that what is called the nervous system, comprehends two distinct systems, the sensorial, and the nervous system properly so called. Now it does not appear that galvanism can perform any of the functions of the sensorial system, yet, in the greater number of instances in which it has been used in medicine, it has been expected to restore the sensorial power. It has been expected to restore hearing, and sight, and voluntary power. It may now and then happen in favorable cases, from the connection which subsists between the sensorial and nervous systems, that by rousing the energy of the latter, we may excite the former. It would be easy to show, that we have little reason to expect that this will often happen. It also appears from the experiments to which I allude, that galvanism has no other power over the muscular system, than that of a stimu­lus; we are, therefore, to expect little more advantage from it in diseases depending on faults of the sanguiferous system, than from other stimuli. Hence its failure in tumors, &c. But I cannot help regarding it as almost ascertained, that in those diseases in which the derangement is in the nervous power alone, where the sensorial functions are entire, and the vessels healthy, and merely the power of secretion, which seems immediately to depend on the nervous system, is in fault, galvanism will often prove a valuable means of relief.

In a paper which I had the honour of submitting to the Society, at the end of last session, I gave a detailed account of the effects of mechanical compression and dilatation, in communicating to glass and other uncrystallised bodies, all the properties of doubly refracting crystals. I had at that time attempted, without success, to alter the polarising structure of doubly refracting crystals, although I applied the force of powerful screws to Topaz, Rock-crystal, and Calcareous spar. All the specimens which I employed were crushed to pieces by the pressure, but exhibited no traces of the coloured rings when exposed to polarised light.

Several of my friends, much more deeply versed in mathematics than myself, who were present at the reading of the Croonian Lecture, remarked that no spherical bodies could be accurately measured by the common micrometer, and therefore no correct idea of the diameter of a globule of the blood could be obtained by that means. They were also led to doubt the appearance represented in the coagulum, being real, since air, in all ordinary circumstances, when let loose, forms itself into globules, not moving in straight or curved lines. These objections, coming from philosophers for whose opinions on such subjects I have the highest respect, induced me to request permission of the President to withdraw the Lecture, that I might correct any errors I had fallen into before the Paper came before the Committee. I found also upon reflection, that I had left the investigation more imperfect than I was aware of, since it is of very little consequence whether, in the act of drying, coagulated blood puts on this particular appearance or not, if I cannot at the same time adduce proofs of the same changes taking place in coagula while they are still moist, and also in the blood when it is extravasated, and coagulates in the interior parts of living animals.

The provision of legal aid to date is still not fully felt for the poor, especially the legal and justice aspects. The issuance of Law Number 16 Year 2011 on Legal Aid or so-called UUBH becomes an important breakthrough in constitutional development post-reformasi law. This paper focuses on the provision of legal aid by the Legal Aid Post (Posbakum) in the Religious Court of Bengkulu City. This research is a qualitative research with interview to get data. The results showed that the implementation of legal services through Posbakum in Religious Courts of Bengkulu City has been going well. Although in the implementation of legal services is still constrained by the human resources (HR) in Posbakum, but if dihat from the administrative process and the impact of legal aid services, the overall implementation of legal services through Posbakum in the Court of Religion has been running well according to achievements based on legislation

It is proposed in this paper to show in what respects the effects of local attraction, in the above mentioned ships, were conformable to the observations which had been made in preceding voyages; and how far the errors, which were found to take place on different courses, and under different dips of the magnetic needle, corresponded with the rules for calculating corrections, which Captain Flinders had found useful in his own experience, and which he had recommended for a more extensive trial. It may be desirable to premise, that the irregularities here alluded to, are not those accidental disturbances which may be caused by iron placed inadvertently too near the compasses ; but the permanent, and constant effect of the mass of iron contained in a ship, affecting its compasses at all times, and in a greater or less degree, according as its influence is more or less powerful, in comparison to the directive force of the earth's magnetism. That errors have always existed from this cause, may be inferred, from the uncertainty which ex­perience has attached to the results of azimuths observed in ships. The cause, however, appears to have been very long unsuspected, whilst its effects had produced a general impres­sion, that the azimuth compass was in itself an imperfect instrument, and only to be relied on within certain undefined and variable limits.

So deeply is this country in particular interested in whatever may tend to give additional safety to the number of persons, and the immense sums of money employed in commerce, that I trust I shall stand excused for again bringing to the notice of the Royal Society, the subject of the construction of ships. The description of vessels of which I am now about to treat, are those employed in our mercantile service, in the construction of which, the imperfections are such as on a close examination will, I conceive, leave but little doubt that lives and property to an immense amount, must, from time to time, have sacrificed by the present injudicious mode of constructing these ships; and under that impression I have presumed to lay this paper before the Society. And first, as to the principle on which mercantile ships are at present built, and particularly as regards the putting together their ribs or frames, and the arrangement of the materials.

The favorable reception which the Society of Antiquaries has been pleased to give to my paper on the Body-armour antiently worn in England, induces me through your means to lay before them some remarks on those parts of military Costume which were worn with it. The subject however is one of considerable difficulty, because several of the garments greatly resembled one another, and because they were worn sometimes under the hauberk, and sometimes without as armour themselves. On this account Strutt and other writers on the subject have considered them as the same, or confounded them one with another. It would be presumption therefore in me to speak positively in this attempt at elucidation, so that all I shall advance will be offered as conjecture.