A pairwise balanced design is an ordered pair S,B , denoted PBD S,B , where S is a finite set of symbols, and B is a collection of subsets of S called blocks, such that each pair of distinct elements of S occurs together in exactly one block of B. Here |S| v is called the order of the PBD. Note that there is no condition on the size of the blocks in B. If all blocks are of the same size k, then...

The paper presents a plastic analysis procedure based on the energy balance concept for performance based seismic retrofit of multi-story multi-bay masonry infilled reinforced concrete (R/C) frames with a ‘soft’ ground story using passive energy dissipation (PED) devices with the objective of achieving a target performance level of the retrofitted R/C frame for a given seismic hazard level at t...

enable ordinary end users to create programs without needing to learn the arcane details of programming languages, but simply by demonstrating what their program should do. If PBD were successful, the vast population of nonprogrammer computer users would be able to take control of their computing experience and create programs to automate routine tasks, develop applications for their specific n...

The fluidity and polar environment of ~100 nm hybrid vesicles combining dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) poly(1,2-butadiene)-block-polyethylene oxide (PBd-PEO, average molecular weight 950 g/mol) were studied upon vesicle heating using the fluorescence spectroscopy techniques DPH anisotropy laurdan generalized polarization (GP). These indicated PBd-PEO membranes are less ordered than solid...

BACKGROUND In patients requiring surgical resection for malignant biliary jaundice, it is unclear if preoperative biliary drainage (PBD) would improve mortality and morbidity by restoration of biliary flow prior to operation. This is a meta-analysis to pool the evidence and assess the utility of PBD in patients with malignant obstructive jaundice. The primary outcome is comparing mortality outc...

Defects in PEX genes impair peroxisome assembly and multiple metabolic pathways confined to this organelle, thus providing the biochemical and molecular bases of the peroxisome biogenesis disorders (PBD). PBD are divided into two types--Zellweger syndrome spectrum (ZSS) and rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata (RCDP). Biochemical studies performed in blood and urine are used to screen for the P...

In this paper, we look at resolvable balanced incomplete block designs on v points having blocks of size 4, briefly (v, 4, 1) RBIBDs. The problem we investigate is the existence of (v, 4, 1) RBIBDs containing a (w, 4, 1) RBIBD as a subdesign. We also require that each parallel class of the subdesign should be in a single parallel class of the containing design. Removing the subdesign gives an i...