Neural tube defects (NTD) are one of the most important malformations of newborns. The aim of this research is to determine the rates of NTD, anencephaly and spina bifida cystica and the relations of these abnormalities to the factors including sex, race, ethnicity, maternal age and familial marriage in the south-east of the Caspian Sea border. A three-year descriptive-analytic and cross-s...

BACKGROUND Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who receive dialysis confront the burdens of long-term illness and numerous physical problems. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a quasi-experimental study. The selected patients from Gorgan Dialysis Centre were randomly assigned into an empowerment group (n = 40) and a control group (n = 40). Instruments comprised scales of Empowerment and...

This descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out to explore the frequency of contamination with TORCH agents in neonates with congenital malformations in a referral centre in Gorgan city, Islamic Republic of Iran. Blood samples were taken from 64 neonates and their mothers over a 20-month period in 2003-04. Serologic tests showed that 4/64 infants born with congenital malformations (6%) ...

We present the main concepts, usage and implementation of SACO, a static analyzer for concurrent objects. Interestingly, SACO is able to infer both liveness (namely termination and resource boundedness) and safety properties (namely deadlock freedom) of programs based on concurrent objects. The system integrates auxiliary analyses such as points-to and may-happen-in-parallel, which are essentia...

a Ecosystem Earth Observation, Natural Resources and the Environment, CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa Corresponding author contact details: [email protected]; (+27)12 841 2233 b Remote Sensing Unit, Meraka Institute, CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa c Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA, USA d Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New...

The transition between the two structural regimes of the Walker Lane and the Basin and Range allows for complex transtensional fault interactions. NWtrending dextral shear in the Walker Lane and WNW extension in the northern Great Basin imparts enhanced extension and pull-apart basins that bring about structural controls for geothermal systems. The Carson Sink is the surface expression of this ...

We present the data acquired by the TAROT automated observatory on the afterglow of GRB 020531. Up to now, no convincing afterglow emission has been reported for this short/hard GRB at any wavelength, including X-ray and optical. The combination of our early limits, with other published data allows us to put severe constraints on the afterglow magnitude and light curve. The limiting magnitude i...

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in computational complexity results in card games. We focus in this paper on trick-taking card games, extending a study started in 2013. This class ranges from WHIST and CONTRACT BRIDGE to SKAT and TAROT. We investigate how the number of cards per suit, the ranks, impacts the complexity of solving arbitrary positions. We prove that 2 distinct ranks are...