The role of electromyography in the diagnosis of velopharyngeal insufficiency: our experiences.

The subject of this study is the electromyographic investigation of the velopharyngeal sphincter structures. Seventy-five patients underwent examination, both patients with symptoms of velopharyngeal insufficiency and patients who were thought to have latent pathological sphincter changes based on local findings. A control group of 10 healthy examinees was also investigated. On the basis of electromyographic findings we divided patients into 2 groups: 57 patients without neuromuscular disorders and 18 patients with neuromuscular disorders of the velopharyngeal sphincter. Twelve patients from the latter group had acute, and 6 had chronic lesions of the velopharyngeal sphincter. Particular cases of illness within these 2 groups were investigated further. This study shows the usefulness of electromyography for diagnosing the exact causes of velopharyngeal insufficiency and for choosing the best approach to treatment.</p

Electric dipole moment of the electron in YbF molecule

Ab initio calculation of the hyperfine, P-odd, and P,T-odd constants for the YbF molecule was performed with the help of the recently developed technique, which allows to take into account correlations and polarization in the outercore region. The ground state electronic wave function of the YbF molecule is found with the help of the Relativistic Effective Core Potential method followed by the restoration of molecular four-component spinors in the core region of ytterbium in the framework of a non-variational procedure. Core polarization effects are included with the help of the atomic Many Body Perturbation Theory for Yb atom. For the isotropic hyperfine constant A, accuracy of our calculation is about 3% as compared to the experimental datum. The dipole constant Ad (which is much smaller in magnitude), though better than in all previous calculations, is still underestimated by almost 23%. Being corrected within a semiempirical approach for a perturbation of 4f-shell in the core of Yb due to the bond making, this error is reduced to 8%. Our value for the effective electric field on the unpaired electron is 4.9 a.u.=2.5E+10 V/cm.Comment: 7 pages, REVTE

Enhancement of the electric dipole moment of the electron in BaF molecule

We report results of ab initio calculation of the spin-rotational Hamiltonian parameters including P- and P,T-odd terms for the BaF molecule. The ground state wave function of BaF molecule is found with the help of the Relativistic Effective Core Potential method followed by the restoration of molecular four-component spinors in the core region of barium in the framework of a non-variational procedure. Core polarization effects are included with the help of the atomic Many Body Perturbation Theory for Barium atom. For the hyperfine constants the accuracy of this method is about 5-10%.Comment: 8 pages, REVTEX, report at II International Symposium on Symmetries in Subatomic Physics, Seattle 199

Two-step method for precise calculation of core properties in molecules

Precise calculations of core properties in heavy-atom systems which are described by the operators heavily concentrated in atomic cores, like to hyperfine structure and P,T-parity nonconservation effects, usually require accounting for relativistic effects. Unfortunately, completely relativistic treatment of molecules containing heavy elements is very consuming already at the stages of calculation and transformation of two-electron integrals with a basis set of four-component spinors. In turn, the relativistic effective core potential (RECP) calculations of valence (spectroscopic, chemical etc.) properties of molecules are very popular because the RECP method allows one to treat quite satisfactory the correlation and relativistic effects for the valence electrons of a molecule and to reduce significantly the computational efforts. The valence molecular spinors are usually smoothed in atomic cores and, as a result, direct calculation of electronic densities near heavy nuclei is impossible. In the paper, the methods of nonvariational and variational one-center restoration of correct shapes of four-component spinors in atomic cores after a two-component RECP calculation of a molecule are discussed. Their efficiency is illustrated in correlation calculations of hyperfine structure and parity nonconservation effects in heavy-atom molecules YbF, BaF, TlF, and PbO.Comment: 20 pages, 3 tables, lecture on the Fock school-conference (Novgorod-the-Great, Russia, April 2004

Lace Production On The Island Of Pag, Croatia, From 1900 To The Present

INTRODUCTION In her publication Peacocks and Penguins: The Political Economy of European Cloth and Colours , Jane Schneider (1978) describes the flow of gold and slaves from northern Europe to the Middle East in exchange for colourful textiles, during the Middle Ages. Schneider argues that European-made black cloth and clothing constituted both practical and symbolic means to resist luxury textiles from the Orient, and in this way reverse the balance of trade and power. I believe that, a few centuries later, lace played a similar role in this process; uti1izing 1ocally grown and processed white 1inen thread and the intensive labour of European women, lace (as a totally European luxury textile) had both symbolic and economic implications for the development of European civilisation from the 15th century onwards. Between the 15th and the 18th century, the Roman Catholic Church played an important role in this process by utilizing the free labour of nuns to make elaborate ecclesiastical textiles decorated with lace (Gusic, 1969). In the secular domain, the aristocracy developed an insatiable appetite for the ever evolving quality, as well as sheer quantity, of lace. The lower classes were involved in the production of lace in specialized workshops, but sumptuary laws prevented them from wearing much of it. In the early 19th century the production of handmade lace declined throughout Europe, being partially replaced by machine made lace. As the 19th century progressed, however, the reaction against machine made products resulted in a revival of the trade in old antique lace, and renewed production of handmade lace which continued well into the 20th century (Kraatz, 1989), Only it was now a different Europe. Aristocracy competed with museums to acquire rare, antique lace. Museums sought prestige, while dealers sought material profits, by negotiating the standards of authenticity of antique lace. At the same time, newly produced lace was displayed as \u27women\u27s art\u27 on trade fairs and exhibitions in European capitals. The majority of the new production was no longer centered around monasteries and specialized workshops, but around central schools in European cities, which ran subsidiary lace schools and home industries in rural areas (Pfannschmidt, 1975). The consumption of lace was no longer restricted to the Church and aristocracy, but spread to the emerging bourgeoisie, and even to the lower classes and peasant populations (Bezic-Bozanic\u27, 1984; Polemitou, 1980; Schneider, 1980)