*E-mail: [email protected] We report a rare case of an ectopically placed ureteral stent, which was acceptable and functional. obstructing 8 × 15-mm proximal right-sided ureteral calculus. There were also multiple nonobstructing renal calculi on the left side. An antegrade ureteral stent was placed to relieve his infected and obstructed right kidney. During stent placement, the interventional ra...

Smoking represents today by far the largest preventable cause of death. Data suggest annual premature deaths of 420,000 smokers [1] and of 53,000 passive smokers [2, 3] in the USA alone. A necessary step in the reduction of the smoking epidemic is the use of educational prevention programmes for those at risk of starting smoking, and initiatives to promote smoking cessation for smokers. Althoug...

Determining the required number of sensors to be deployed is a critical decision for surveillance wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we discuss the trade-off between the number of sensors and the breach detection probability considering the effects of sensor parameters. We present the weakest breach path problem formulation and provide a solution by utilizing the Dijkstra’s shortest path ...

We report the detection in the X rays of two weak Seyfert 2’s (NGC3393 and NGC4941) with the Italian–Dutch satellite BeppoSAX. These are among the first sources observed in a sample of 12 Seyfert 2’s which are being studied within the BeppoSAX core program, in an effort to probe the putative torus at high X-ray energies, calibrate an isotropic luminosity indicator for absorbed nuclei, and deter...

Baron, a law professor, traces the history of state and federal regulation of fetal research from 1973 to 1983. He explores the dilemmas raised by research on fetuses, particularly aborted fetuses, and the aspects of fetal research that the federal regulations and state laws were enacted to control. While criticizing many of the states' actions for lack of uniformity and blanket prohibitions ...

Some phthalates are developmental and reproductive toxicants in animals. Exposure to phthalates is considered to be potentially harmful to human health as well. Based on a comprehensive literature research, we present an overview of the sources of human phthalate exposure and results of exposure assessments with special focus on human biomonitoring data. Among the general population, there is w...

Introduction So far, growth and recovery of post-socialist countries of central and east Europe (CEE) was based on efficiency gains from reallocations between sectors and firms, and on the firm level productivity improvements. Growth was not based on local R&D and extensive innovation activities. In order to grow further, CEECs will have to accumulate new knowledge and acquire new technology. I...

This paper attempts to achieve time-optimal performance for servomechanisms via a practical feedback control law. An improvement over the traditional Proximate Time Optimal Servomechanism (PTOS) is proposed in order to eliminate the conservatism present in the controller. The original PTOS switches from the nonlinear approximation of Time Optimal Control (TOC) to a linear controller as the syst...