In 1857, while carrying passengers and gold from California to New York, the SS Central America sank in a hurricane, taking gold bars and coins worth an estimated 400 million dollars to the ocean bottom almost 8,000 feet below. Some 425 people, including the captain, lost their lives. In 1989, after three summers of effort at sea, the Columbus-America Discovery Group recovered one ton of gold bars and coins from the wreck. In 1985, I was given the task of developing a probability distribution for the location of the Central America. This distribution was used to construct the search plan that found the wreck. The methods used to develop the distribution were based on classical OR techniques and included a combination of historical, statistical, analytic, and subjective methods.


One of the most efficient non-destructive techniques for finding hidden faults in a plate is the use of ultrasonic Lamb waves. These waves are reflected by faults, and from this reflection , we can locate the faults. For that, we need to know how the Lamb waves propagate. Their propagation is determined by the dynamic elastic constants C 0 pq , so we must find these constants. These constants cannot be measured directly; instead, we measure the dependence of the speed on frequency c(f), and we must reconstruct C 0 pq from the measured values of c(f). In this paper, we show how this can be done in the presence of probabilistic, interval, and fuzzy uncertainty. Composite materials are very important. Engineers often use composites, i.e., materials obtained by combining several layers of different materials. Composites are becoming main materials for aerospace and submarine applications , where, e.g., an internal layer provides structural strength while the outside layer guarantees protection against the surrounding media. To apply non-destructive testing to materials, we must know their elastic characteristics. Since composite materials are often intended for use in dangerous environments it is important to periodically test the structural integrity of the corresponding structures. For example, we send an ultrasonic wave into the corresponding structure and see whether any faults are causing the wave to differ from its intended path. To reconstruct the faults from the resulting signal , we must know how the sound propagates in this plate. This propagation is determined by the dynamic elastic constants C 0 pq. paragraphWe must determine elastic characteristics from the dispersion curve. In view of the intended use, a reasonable way to measure these constants is by measuring how the ultrasound waves propagate in this composite material, and to reconstruct the values C 0 pq from the results of these measurements. In the absence of faults, a wave travels in a straight line, so the only information we can get is the wave's velocity c at different frequencies f; the dependence c(f) is called a dispersion curve. There is a known algorithm c(f; C 0 pq) that describes how c(f) depends on C 0 pq ; see below. We must therefore reconstruct C 0 pq by solving the system of equations c(f; C 0 pq) = c(f) for measured values c(f). There exist methods for reconstructing the elastic constants from the dispersion curve c(f) (see, e.g., …


This paper presents a 3D facial model reconstruction from a single frontal face image for mobile devices using cloud. In this approach, we design a cloud to receive frontal facial images to reconstruct a corresponding 3D depth map from clients that can be smartphones, computers or any other Wi-Fi supported handsets through Wi-Fi connection. The depth map and texture are then transferred back to the sending client through the configured Wi-Fi connection. This setting makes applications light-weight, portable and fast-executive to be able to install on limited specification devices. The experimental results show the advantage and accuracy of the designed system.


A comparative research was made on the effects of total irradiation with different dosis of X-rays on the sperm morphology of rabbits. Forty adult male rabbits of the White New Zealand breed were used as experimental animals, divided in four groups of 10 animals each, being one group used as control and the others irradiated respectively with 50, 200 and 600 rad. A 4 MeV linear accelerator was used as radiation source. Semen samples evaluations were made before irradiation and in subsequent periods of 7 hours, 3 days and 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Sperm morphology was examined by counting 200 cells in each of 241 smears stained by Williams's method and in 241 formol saline preparations in phase contrast microscope. Averages end standard deviations of these data are presentd in tables1 and 2. Percentages of main abnormalities and the period in which they occurred, are presented in table 3. Mean percentages of normal sperm and spermatic abnormalities are shown in figures 2 and 3. As determined at successive intervals after irradiation, a decrease in number of normal and an increase in abnormal sperm were observed. The level of sperm abnormalities was more sensitive accordingly to higher dosis of X-rays irradiation.


For preparing the good magnetism properties of rubber, NBR/Fe3O4 composites are prepared. In the experiment, the surface microstructure of NBR/Fe3O4 and distribution of nano-Fe3O4 particles are analyzed. The results showed that after the addition of nano-Fe3O4, the surface microstructure of NBR/Fe3O4 is greatly improved. The interface bonding of nano-Fe3O4 and NBR are close-knit. With adding different mass fractions of nanoparticles, the maximum elongation 300% stress at definite elongation and the tensile strength of composites are decreased, but the shore A hardness of composites is improved. The magnetic property of composites can only rely on mass fraction of nano-Fe3O4, while uncorrelated to the degree of scatter of nano-Fe3O4.


Defective seals in packaged products can result in loss of contents through spillage, unsightly or dirty packaging, and, more seriously, potential fouling or contamination of contents due to entry of air or bacteria. Even if not obvious or visible to the eye, compromised package integrity may lead eventually to significant deterioration in product quality, function or safety, all of which can lead to customers' complaints. Typical packaging failure rates in the industry can be as high as 1-3% depending on package type and size. This is an ongoing industry-wide problem for which no immediate solution has been identified. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) uses backscattered light to provide cross-sectional images of micro-layers of tissues and other samples. OCT is akin to "optical ultrasound" in its utilising light waves instead of sound waves for image acquisition, and has become established as an imaging modality for clinical fields such as ophthalmology, cardiology and dermatology. As a relatively new NDT technique for non-biomedical applications, OCT might be suitable for assessment of seal integrity by identifying potential leak points via recovering and analysing internal layer geometry of laminates used in the seal. An OCT system (Lumedica OQ Labscope) using broadband light of 840 nm centre wavelength and capable of attaining depth resolution of 7 μm and lateral resolution of 15 μm has been used to detect defects in transparent plastic seals. The seals contain defects produced by tungsten wires of diameters ranging from 15 to 100 μm. Our results show that OCT has the capability to detect artificially created seal defects which are as small as 15 μm in height. OCT has detected each and every defect successfully, suggesting the high accuracy and reliability of OCT as a non-destructive method of seal inspection. Structural details of the seal defect have also been revealed by OCT. However, it should be noted that OCT is an indirect method of detecting seal leaks and that a structural defect in a seal does not equate to a leak necessarily.


In elbow arthroplasty, a special attention is attributed to postsurgical infections because many patients have predispositions like rheumatoid arthritis and consecutive immunosuppression. In cases of revision arthroplasty different strategies to eradicate the bacteria and to restore joint function are discussed. We aimed to expose detection methods of postsurgical infections including low-grade infections, therapy approaches and surgical procedures for the treatment of an infected elbow arthroplasty.


HighlightsA transportable spectrometer performed similarly to benchtop spectrometers to predict forage quality.Absorption bands in the second and third overtone regions were used to predict forage quality with ample accuracy.A low-cost handheld spectrometer was useful for routine screening of forage for nitrogen content. Abstract. Assessing the nutritional composition of animal feed and forage materials is important to achieve high animal productivity and wellness. Precision nutrition programs that use NIR technology can determine the nutritional composition of feed and forage quickly and simply, generating actionable information such as total nitrogen (N), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent lignin (ADL) contents, as well as in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). Recent advances in optics and microelectronics have allowed for the development of handheld spectrometers that are portable, robust, and user-friendly. However, are the handheld units accurate enough to predict nutritional content of animal feed? In this study, the performance of two handheld NIR spectrometers to predict the nutritional content of forage based on N, ADF, NDF, ADL, and IVDMD was evaluated by comparing them to two benchtop NIR spectrometers often used in feed and forage analysis. The forage samples comprised switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), and Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans). The first handheld spectrometer covers 780-2500 nm with a spectral interval (??) of 1 nm, while the second handheld spectrometer is a palm-sized smartphone spectrometer covering 900-1700 nm with ?? = 4 nm. The benchtop spectrometers both cover 400-2500 nm with ?? = 2 nm. Forage samples were scanned on each spectrometer and divided into calibration (n = 143) and validation (n = 35) sets. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was used to calibrate all spectrometers using mean-centered spectral data that had been preprocessed using Savitzky-Golay first derivative (SG1) or second derivative (SG2) algorithm with 9-63 smoothing points. Results showed that PLS models that best predicted N using the benchtop spectrometers had lower standard error of prediction (SEP = 1.24-1.28 g kg-1) and higher ratio of prediction to deviation (RPD = 3.66-3.78) compared to the models developed based on spectra collected from the handheld spectrometers (SEP = 1.46-1.78 g kg-1; RPD = 2.39-2.84). ADF, NDF, and ADL were variable and generally poorly predicted using spectra from the benchtop spectrometers (SEP = 10.02-33.19 g kg-1;RPD = 1.71-2.24), and even more so using the handheld spectrometers (SEP = 10.63-32.57 g kg-1;RPD = 1.64-2.47). Predicting IVDMD was similar for both sets of benchtop (SEP = 40.00-41.73 g kg-1; RPD = 2.24-2.34) and handheld (SEP = 34.46-40.84 g kg-1; RPD = 2.29-2.72) spectrometers. These results show that the handheld devices can be used for screening of forage samples based on N, which is a closely monitored component in animal feed and forage, as well as IVDMD, an important forage quality index. Keywords: Forage, Portable spectrometer, Spectroscopy, Screenin, Ruminant nutrition.


Selecting reactive brilliant red X-3B(RBRX-3B) as the object of decolorization and degradation, and constructing white rot fungal biofilm reactor by using white rot fungus immobilized on biochemical filler, and taking activated sludge biofilm reactor as control, to observe the effect of nutrients on decolorization and degradation of RBRX-3B. The experiment showed that nutritional enrichment could greatly enhance RBRX-3B decolorization by white rot fungus Shu-13. The nutrients in municipal sewage is not enough to meet the necessity of white not fungus for decolorizing and degrading RBRX-3B, for white rot fungus Shu-13 is dependent on the presence of rich nutrition. Under rich nutrient condition, the decolorization efficiency of white rot fungus Shu-13 biofilm to RBRX-3B was obviously better than activated sludge. Nutrient and its concentration, microbial species were the important factors to affect change of pH. The law of pH change of flow water from activated sludge and A. sojae biofilm reactor differed obviously from Shu-13. During decolorization of RBRX-3B, Shu-13 played a remarkably role on degradation, while biofilm recovered its pollutant purification capatility was most important.


Qestioning and skepticism are regarded as the pre-conditions for scientific studies. However, scientific disciplines in which the scientific study is carried out and the concept of science itself are not subjected to these inquires. Scientists carry out their work safely, without questioning, with their trust in the science and the scientific method. Although there is a considerable criticism and debate on the information produced by the natural sciences, particular subjects such as the development of social sciences, ideological factors that accompany the basic approaches in social sciences and the "fictional" structure of historical sciences, provide a useful framework for the debate on the scientific information produced by social sciences. In musical sciences, as a study area that envisions itself in the social sciences, it is possible to see the traces of the historical developments affecting the theoretical perspective of social sciences. Especially, the emphasis by historical musicology discipline on Western art music tradition as a as universal and superior music form, taking the history of European music to the center as the "music history" and the effort for categorization and valuation of the general music from classical music center is remarkable. The aim of this study is to focus on the methods adopted by European collectivity which played a dominant role in the foundation of the social sciences for utilizing the information produced by social sciences and, in this context, question the approaches adopted by historical musicology discipline.


Construction Workers (CWs) are the main source of manpower that is necessary to every construction project. Non conducive and hazardous working environment at construction site will affect the physiological health of the construction labour. This study is conducted to explore the impact of job stress and emotional stress to the CWs that potentially lead to injuries incident in Penang. Twelve stressors were identified through factor analysis. Then, the stressors are classified into five main categories. Questionnaires were developed according to the stressstressor relationship. The correlation between factors of injury incident (stressor) and stress shows that lack of autonomy and inappropriate safety equipment lead to the emotional stress among the CWs with 0.287 and 0.204 respectively. In addition, poor physical environment causes the job stress among CWs with the correlation of 0.270. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2016 Language: en


CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE PRACTICE OF RITUAL THEORY 1. Constructing Ritual 2. Constructing Meaning 3. Constructing Discourse II. THE SENSE OF RITUAL 4. Action and Practice 5. The Ritual Body 6. Ritual Traditions and Systems III. RITUAL AND POWER 7. Ritual Control 8. Ritual, Belief, and Ideology 9. The Power of Ritualization BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX


In this study we test the hypothesis that although certain parts of an observed intonation may seem dispensable in perception tests, they nevertheless are consistently produced by speakers. We refer to all consistently produced parts of an intonation as its ''intrinsic constituents.'' To identify the intrinsic constituents, we developed an experimental paradigm called ''imitation via restoration.'' In this paradigm, the intonation under scrutiny is first recorded by a native speaker. Then words carrying a potential constituent of the intonation are replaced by a loud noise. During the experiment, the sentence containing the replacement noise is presented to the subjects together with the text. The subjects' task is to repeat the sentence in exactly the same way as they hear it. The consistency with which subjects restore the missing parts of the target intonation would therefore provide a reasonable indication as to which of them are truly intrinsic to the intonation. Our first such experiment was conducted on determining whether focus consists of only on‐focus pitch range expansion or it also involves obligatory post‐focus pitch range suppression. Eight native speakers of Beijing Mandarin participated as subjects. Preliminary results have provided supporting evidence for the dual‐component hypothesis.


Objective To explore the causes of 32 sudden death cases in a community health service center in almost five years,to strengthen medical quality at community health service center and to provide the basic safety regulation as well as reasonable suggestions.Methods The material reports of 32 cases according to 45 community health service centers in Shanghai district from 2007 to 2011 were analyzed retrospectively.All patients died in hospital less than 24 h and the medical accidents must be identified.The causes of death and treatment fault were analyzed.Results 26(81.25%) cases of death were caused by medical technology faulty;5(15.63%) cases were due to medical staff irresponsibility and using incorrect medicine leading to anaphylactic shock;1 case was alcohol poisoning death.All the cases were involved medical negligence 55 times,the top five were as follows: improper disposal 16 times,accounting for 50.00% of the total number of cases;misdiagnosis 10 times,accounting for 31.25% of the total number of cases;improper told 9 times,accounting for 28.13% of the total number of cases;irregular case file writing 7 times,accounting for 21.88% of the total number of cases;lack of responsibility lead to drug allergy 5 times,accounting for 15.63% of the total number of cases.Conclusion In order to improve the quality of medical care at community health center,avoid medical disputes,in addition to the leadership to strengthen management,the key was to strengthen the legal knowledge of training,set up good ethics,strengthen the professional knowledge of the study and improve the basic skills,regulate the case file writing,abide by conventional diagnosis and treatment,and regulate the referral process.


Minority students are suspended at a disproportionately higher rate compared with others. To reduce racial suspension gaps, four California school districts banned schools from suspending students for willful defiance, a category consisting of relatively minor disruptive offenses. I evaluate the impact of these policies on high school student discipline outcomes using a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits the temporal variation in the enactment of these policies across school districts. The results suggest that while these policies decreased willful defiance out-of-school suspension rates by around 69%, they did not reduce overall out-of-school suspension rates. In fact, the policies significantly increased out-of-school suspension rates among Black students, particularly in schools with a small share of Black teachers. Taken together, the results suggest that the willful defiance suspension bans failed to address implicit and explicit biases in California schools.


This study investigates the internal mechanisms as an important factor for shareholders and stakeholders in initial public offering (IPO) firms with stakeholder-oriented corporate governance. Over the period of 2009–2016, we examine the role of independent directors in Japanese stakeholder-oriented corporate governance. According to previous research, the monitoring role of independent directors is strengthened in countries with a market-based financial system. Our empirical analyses show that independent directors do not effectively mitigate conflicts among shareholders such as IPO underpricing in a stakeholder-oriented corporate governance framework. Alternatively, accounting expertise may contribute to mitigating IPO underpricing in accordance with U.S. corporations. The participation of bank-affiliated directors in IPO firms further contributes to the mitigation of underpricing. Accordingly, these findings imply that bank ties through Horizontal Keiretsu's bank-appointed directors are critical for mitigating conflicts among shareholders in IPO firms. These results imply that stakeholder-oriented corporate governance systems contribute to reducing conflicts among stakeholders.


Crystals of the title compound are triclinic, space group P with Z= 2 in a unit cell of dimensions a= 7·14 ± 0·01, b= 8·32 ± 0·01, c= 17·31 ± 0·01 A, α= 90·7 ± 0·05, β= 83·9 ± 0·05, γ= 97·5 ± 0·05°. The structure was determined by Patterson and Fourier methods by use of three-dimensional X-ray counter data, and refined by least-squares to R 7·1% for 2219 structure amplitudes. The thienyl ring is planar and is oriented nearly perpendicular to the mean plane of the ester group. The cyclopentyl ring is in the envelope conformation. The acetylcholine-like system adopts a conformation similar to that of acetylcholine in crystals of the chloride salt. The molecular geometry is compared with those of certain related anticholinergic cations as determined in the solid state by X-ray crystallography. A common feature is that the previously defined 'methyl side' of the acetylcholine system is partially blocked by ring substituents in the acyl group and by a large cationic head.


Four hundred years after the publication of Lope de Vega's groundbreaking Arte nuevo de hacer comedias, scholars working on early modern Spanish literature are still discovering new and exciting plays that yield fascinating clues on the craft of writing and staging theater as well as on the contexts that witnessed and inspired its creation. One of the greatest hermeneutic challenges is precisely the need to find a more appropriate balance between canonical and non-canonical texts and, to that end, no better way to reach it than paying more attention to all the little-known gems of our national tradition. As the author of a kaleidoscopic legacy, Pedro Calderon de la Barca has suffered from this tendency like very few comediantes have: it has only been in recent years that some of his lesser-known plays have started to be edited, translated, and staged successfully.Keywords: canonical text; kaleidoscopic legacy; Lope de Vega; Pedro Calderon de la Barca; Spanish literature


In this study, we used high-resolution echocardiographic systems to investigate how early in pregnancy normal fetal cardiac anatomy could be noninvasively evaluated. Over a 2-year period, 84 of 88 fetuses were successfully imaged (27 were studied serially). Postnatal images of 73 were obtained during the newborn period. Estimated fetal age varied at initial examination from 19-41 weeks (mean 31 ± 0.5 weeks [± SEMI) of pregnancy. Estimated fetal weight using an ultrasound algorithm varied from 500-3100 g (mean 1580 ± 80 g [± SEMI). To evaluate fetal cardiac anatomy, we reproduced commonly used cross-sectional views of the heart. The four-chamber and the short-axis great artery views have been most successful for cardiac evaluation in the fetus. These views could be obtained in 96% and 95% of the patients, respectively. With these views, cardiac chamber and valve structures, as well as two great arteries, could be imaged in detail. The ascending and descending aorta, as well as the aortic arch and vessels to the arms and head, were visualized in 87% of examinations, and the inferior and superior venae cavae were visualized in 76%. In two of three RH fetuses, changes in cardiac chambers compatible with hydrops fetalis were demonstrated. We examined all fetuses after birth and verified clinically (or noninvasively) that no cardiac malformations were present. It appears, however, that the diagnosis of major congenital heart defects should be possible before birth.


The electric machine design industry has developed rapidly in recent years, in a move largely driven by the electrification of transportation in response to environmental and natural resource concerns. For electric motor designers this translates into a new set of challenges. Motors need to be more efficient and more compact, with sufficient output power and torque density levels. They should also be designed for mass production, especially for aerospace or automotive applications. On top of that, motor designs need to be developed in a short timeframe and as part of a wider complex system, such as powertrains in electrical vehicles. At a motor performance level, motor designers need to account for different physical domains that interact with each other throughout the design process. To meet these challenges many motor designers utilise a systematic design optimisation strategy to find optimal design solutions to a given set of specified requirements.


The different legal character has the different result of enforcement,so the legal value tendency,and the social benefit has its own respectively discrepancy.At present,the governing for prior purchasing rights in China has some negligence because of the implicit legislation and the different doctrines of jurisprudential thought,and the only result is the confusion of the law enforcement in legal system.On the issue of the prior purchasing rights,there still exist several seriously differences,thereby the reality of legal value was affected.It is necessary to analyze the characters of the prior purchasing rights therefore the legal spirits can be fully realized and promoted actively.Arguing on some doctrines about the prior purchasing rights in the Continental Legal System,such as forming rights,application rights,expectancy rights,etc.It must have a vital significance to realize the social benefits orderly and largely and to protect the feeble groups legally and reasonably.


Regardless of ideological conflicts or interpretation, evolution is scientifically possible, with evidence that makes up the daily life of humanity. This study presents, in the historical context of two pandemics, a review of the importance of evolutionary biology for human health, and the primary contribution of scientists such as de Vries, Darwin and Haeckel. In this sense, variations of RNA viruses such as H1N1 arise through mutations, an evolutionary factor discovered by de Vries. Phylogenetic studies on the evolution of SARS-COV-2 strains also trace the branching diagrams of species from a common ancestor, primarily drawn up by Darwin and Haeckel. Thus, evolution is also important for the biomedical sciences, and remembering the legacy of these researchers is fundamental to highlight the contribution of evolutionary biology to humanity.


Learning in practice p 153

Problem based learning, an educational intervention characterised by small group and self directed learning, is one of medical education's more recent success stories, at least in terms of its ubiquity. From its beginnings in McMaster University in the 1960s it has been adopted in undergraduate medical courses worldwide. It is also being used in postgraduate and continuing medical education.

Problem based learning has been the subject of at least four much quoted reviews, three published in the early 1990s and one more recently.1–4 Such attention is not surprising. What might be surprising is that the effects of such a popular educational approach are seemingly small, except in the area of student satisfaction. According to the reviews the extent of knowledge gained by such measures as performance in licensing examinations is at best unclear. Participants in problem based learning, however, can expect small gains in clinical reasoning.

The paper by Smits and colleagues in this …


To the Editor: Povysil G. et al. report that "rare loss-of-function (LOF) variants in type I interferon (IFN) immunity genes are not associated with severe COVID-19" (1). We disagree with the authors' interpretation of our data and their own (2), for six reasons: 1) Only predicted LOF (pLOF) variants are relevant for comparison between the two studies, because, unlike us, these authors did not test variants experimentally. The relevant proportion in our data is therefore not 24/659=3.5%, but 9/659= 1.36%, whereas theirs is 1/713=0.14%. 2) Our definitions of 'severe/critical' patients are different: we defined critical disease as severity grades 6-10 of the WHO scale (3), whereas they restricted their recruitment to grades 7-10 (i.e., excluding patients on high-flow oxygen, considered in our study). Their cohort of 'mild' cases may therefore include 'severe' COVID-19 cases (grade 6), such as perhaps their 'mild' TLR3 pLOF carrier. 3) Their 'controls' are subjects from the general population, without depletion of COVID-19 genetic risk factors, whereas we used pauci-/asymptomatic infected subjects (grades 1-3) as 'controls'. Consequently their power computation in Figure 1 is based on an incorrect hypothesis about the odds ratio, which would be expected to be lower when using general population controls (as they did), than when using pauci- and asymptomatic infected individuals (as we did). 4) The ethnic origin of the patients differs between the two studies: 58% of our 659 patients (and 8 of our 9 pLOF carriers) were European, versus only 10% of their 713 patients with severe disease (and their pLOF carrier is East Asian). 5) Age is a key factor neglected in their comparison: our sample was much younger (mean age: 51.8 years) than theirs (mean: 65.9 years), and seven of our nine pLOF carriers were < 60 years old. We performed a comparison stratified by age (<60/≥60 years), and no significant difference in pLOF proportion was found between the two studies, even ignoring the only patient carrying a pLOF they found (of unknown age): 7/458 in our sample vs. 0/192 in their sample (p=0.11, Fisher's exact test) for patients <60 years old, and 2/201 vs. 0/521 (p=0.07) for patients ≥60 years old. 6) Finally, and crucially, the authors did not exclude patients with autoantibodies against type I IFN, which account for at least 10% of critical cases and are much more frequent in patients > 60 years of age, particularly men (4).


Wireless sensor network(WSN) is a kind of network,which can work in the absence of basic infrastructures.It is organized by the sensor nodes,the nodes form a kind of temporary self-organizing,self-managing wireless networks.Trust management provides a new security mechanism to WSN network security.This paper analyzes the characteristics of WSN network and its security challenges,and we propose a new trust management in wireless sensor networks applications.


Deriving from the basic mathematical theory, we explore a universal method for designing cyclical redundancy check circuits which are not defined by the standard CRC arithmetic. During the design, we use the symbolic arithmetic software named Mathematica to release the circuit designer from the vast calculation of polynomial dividing. This method can be applied in the field such as designing header error control circuit.


A methoxyfenozide-resistant population and a homologous susceptible population of Helicoverpa armigera(Hubner) were selected in the laboratory.The resistant population showed 72.61-fold resistance to methoxyfenozide compared with susceptible one.Resistant mechanisms of H.armigera to methoxyfenozide were preliminary studied by synergism assay using piperonyl butoxide,phosphate defoliant and diethyl maleate in vivo,and by enzyme activity assay for mixed function oxidases,general esterases,and glutathione-S-transferases in vitro.The results showed that enhancement of activity of the three enzymes may contribute to methoxyfenozide resistance in the resistant population of H.armigera.


Neuromonitoring considered in a broad concept, including a dynamic assessment of the neurological status, discrete or continuous use of electrophysiological, biochemical, ultrasound, X-ray, isotopic and other methods. ,, Invos ,, a system for determining the index rSO2: delivery and consumption of O2. Invos-measurements are taken to determine the degree of oxygenation of the central nervous system, that is held neuromonitoring state of the cerebral cortex with simultaneous assessment of the degree of regional tissue oxygenation according to the oxygen saturation of Hb blood.


1Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Gadjah Mada University/Dr Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; 2Department of Anatomical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Gadjah Mada University/Dr Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; 3Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Gadjah Mada University/Dr Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; 4Department of Surgical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Gadjah Mada University/Dr Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; 5Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Gadjah Mada University/Dr Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Purpose: Determining the optimal strategy to implement systemic treatment modalities has been challenging in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We aim to investigate the role of microRNA223 (miR-223) as prognostic factor and predictor of response toward chemotherapy in TNBC. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the association of pretreatment miR223 expression with clinicopathologic characteristics and 36-month overall survival (OS) of 53 all stages TNBC patients. Tumor level of miR-223 was measured using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (expressed in fold change). Cutoff value for miR223 was determined by using receiver operating curve (ROC). Kaplan–Meier curve was used to perform survival analysis. Results: The optimum cutoff value for miR-223 was 23.435 (AUC: 0.706, 95%CI: 0.565–0.848; p:0.01; sensitivity: 78.6%; specificity: 56%) and was used to categorize mir-223 expression into overand underexpressed group. Overexpression of miR-223 was associated with increased expression of EGFR (69.7% vs 35%, p: 0.022) and lower 36-month OS (33.3% vs 70%; median OS±SE (months): 25.66±1.58 vs 30.23±1.99; log rank p<0.05). Worse survival is observed in miR-223 overexpressed group receiving platinum-based chemotherapy compared to miR-223 underexpressed group (mean OS (95%CI) months: 24.7 (20.3–29.1) vs 34.3 (31.2–37.4); p<0.01), while no significant difference observed in non-platinum containing regimen. No significant association was observed between miR-223 expression with other clinicopathologic characteristics. Conclusion: Overexpression of miR-223 is associated with increased expression of EGFR, worse prognosis, and resistance toward platinum-based chemotherapy in Indonesian TNBC patients.


For the last few years, the HVAF process has been established as a commercially used process and has gained an increasing share in the market of thermal spraying. The main thermal spray materials being used for HVAF spraying have been those based on the tungsten carbide family. Economical aspects and European regulations on chemicals management REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) have motivated the demand for thinner WC based coatings, which are still dense and wear resistant. This demand has progressively increased, and the trend shows a further growth in the need for thermal spray feedstock for HVAF sprayed net shape coatings. The challenge for powder producers lies in providing suitable spray powders, with high and consistent quality as well as in considerable volume, to be able to make reliable recommendations to the users of HVAF technology. A deeper understanding of powder requirements for net shape coatings, matching the needs with new powder solutions, and appreciation of the differences in behavior or performance depending on powder type are essential to address the above challenges and constitutes the theme of this paper.


The volume concentration of NOx attained by thermodynamic calculation on the combustion equilibrium in automobile engine is consistent with the actual test value. Then the thermodynamic equilibrium of the system which CO and H2 by plasma pyrolysizing a portion of gasoline are sent into engine to mix with gasoline was calculated, and the volume concentration of NOx was attained. The results indicate that the volume concentration of NOx in automobile vent gas can be deduced by plasma pyrolysizing gasoline. When the working temperature of automobile engine is 2200K, and the maximum work pressure is 40atm, and the ratio of gasoline to oxygen is 1:15.1, on the benchmark of 1mol gasoline, the volume concentration of NOx in automobile vent gas can be reduced to 100ppm by plasma pyrolysizing 0.1mol gasoline and the volume concentration of NOx can be reduced to 44ppm by plasma pyrolysizing 0.2mol gasoline, at the same time the volume concentration of CO is not beyond 65ppm.


DFR facing whole remanufacturing process is an essential premise for remanufacture engineering development, which relates to lots of research contents and engineering technologies. The connotation of DFR including the conception, task, target and characteristic are given and described in this paper, then the research content and system framework of DFR are put forward, finally some key technology units of DFR are explained in detail.


In many common situations, a Bayesian credible interval will be, given the same data, very similar to a frequentist confidence interval, and researchers will interpret these intervals in a similar fashion. However, no predictable similarity exists when credible intervals are based on model-averaged posteriors whenever one of the two nested models under consideration is a so called ''point-null''. Not only can this model-averaged credible interval be quite different than the frequentist confidence interval, in some cases it may be undefined. This is a lesser-known correlate of the Jeffreys-Lindley paradox and is of particular interest given the popularity of the Bayes factor for testing point-null hypotheses.


A robotic visual servo system is of the most important subje ct s in the field of robots.Its research is significant for developing visual robot s applied to industry,production and aerospace,etc.This paper focuses on the vis ual servo control for an uncalibrated robot arm with an eye-in-hand camera.The theory about visual servo control for an uncalibrated robotic arm is introduced first.Then the experiment for uncalibrated visual servo control is designed.Fin ally,the result about the experiment is given.The result shows that the visual servo control for an uncalibrated robotic arm with an eye-in-hand camera is ef fective.


Herpes zoster (shingles) is a common disease affecting approximately three in 1000 of the population per year and up to 10 in 1000 per year in the elderly population. This incidence is likely to increase as the proportion of elderly people in the general population increases and various forms of immunosuppression become more common, e.g. following organ transplantation. Management of both the acute and chronic pain is probably the most important part of caring for shingles patients. Antiviral therapy, anti-inflammatory steroids and sympathetic nerve blocks are the main measures used during the acute phase to prevent the development of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Antiviral agents given early in the acute phase of herpes zoster are generally the therapy of choice and there is also growing evidence for benefit with tricyclic antidepressants. Pain relief once PHN has developed is generally much less effective. Many classes of drug have been investigated for the management of PHN and some have been found to be helpful in some patients. There is as yet no generally effective agent, however preventive antiviral therapy early in the course of herpes zoster is recommended for all elderly patients since they have a high risk of developing severe PHN.


This research was conducted to study hormonal and metabolic statuses and to determine ultrasound criteria for early diagnosis of fetal growth retardation syndrome (FGRS) in dairy cows of Black-motley (n = 41) and Red-motley (n = 56) Holstein breeds. Concentrations of progesterone, testosterone, 17beta-estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, cortisol, and triiodothyronine in blood serum were assessed by immune-enzyme analysis. Concentrations of plasma L-ascorbic acid and nitrogen oxides, serum immune globulin, middle molecular peptides, and bactericidal and lysozyme activity were determined by spectrophotometry. On days 38-40 and 60-65 of gestation, FGRS in cows was associated with hypoprogesteronemia, decrease of adrenal and thyroid gland functions, decreased nitric oxide synthesis, low immune responsiveness, and high endogenous intoxication. In conclusion, body length less than 16 mm on days 38-40 and less than 45 mm on days 60-65 are the criteria for designating underdevelopment of embryos and fetuses in dairy cows. FGRS genesis in dairy cows is determined by the embryo's and fetus's malnutrition at the early implantation and placentation stages, caused by the imbalance of endocrine regulation, nitric oxide systems, and endogenous intoxication.


Objective: To offer clinical reference by investigating the use of impenem and cilastatin sodium for injection of inpatients in a hospital of Jingyuan Coal Industy Group. Methods: All 55 patients who were discharged from January to December, 2013, were given impenem and cilastatin sodium for injection and randomly selected from hospital system of Jingyuan Coal Industy Group. Basic condtions of the patients, the sorts of the infected disease, etiological examination, the use of impenem and cilastatin sodium for injection and adverse reaction were investigated and analyzed to assess the rationality of its use. Results: There were ten cases cured, 42 cases markedly effective and three cases ineffective, total effective rate was 94.55%. Etiological examination rate was 90%, drug utilization index(DUI) was 0.78, and the dose of antibacterials was insufficient in parts of medical cases. Conclusion:Clinical use of imipenem and cilastatin sodium for injection is basically proper in a hospital of Jingyuan Coal Industy Group.


Aiming at the fast and high-precision DOA estimation problem on CACIS-type array, this paper proposes a fast-RVM algorithm which can be used for complex data. Firstly, the CACIS-type array structure is analyzed. Secondly, based on the virtual array expansion principle, a sparse signal model based on complex data is constructed. Finally, the real data processing is performed to make it applicable to the data structure of the fast-RVM algorithm. The simulation results show that the proposed method has ideal effects in both direction finding accuracy and computational complexity.


Specimens of the cosmopolitan sea hare Aplysia parvula, collected in the Tsistsikamma National Park on the south-east coast of South Africa yielded the new dibromo-C15-acetogenin, (3Z)-bromofucin (1). Standard spectroscopic methods were used to establish the structure of this compound.


Collaborative, project-based K-12 engineering education curricula like Project Lead the Way ® (PLTW) strive to integrate the knowledge and skills across the STEM fields to provide both college preparation with technical education. In PLTW, students engage with ideas and activities across a broad range of modalities, including: Abstract mathematical equations, graphs and diagrams; 2D design sketches, computer-aided design (CAD) and simulations; and material construction of devices in wood, metal, plastic, wire and silicone. Curricula designed around such a broad set of modal engagements are assumed to be beneficial to engineering learning, since they provide students with a varied set of contextualized encounters with ideas, representations, tools and skills that foster a rich and grounded engineering education. Studies of high school classroom learning and instruction across two multi-day units in mechanical engineering and digital electronics reveal that students struggle to see the interrelatedness across these modal engagements that are often apparent to curriculum developers and instructors. Analysis of instruction and classroom discourse drawings, gestures and physical constructions shows that the cohesion of mathematics concepts across modal engagements is something that has to be explicitly produced in situ and enforced locally by the participants. Modal engagement analysis reveals the consistent ways that teachers and students produce cohesion (1) by projecting to past and future modal engagements, and (2) by coordinating representations and materials that are simultaneously present during modal engagements. Together, projection and coordination create cohesion-producing opportunities to thread the mathematics through disparate representations, material forms and events. This work alerts us to the importance of explicitly addressing the need to produce and enforce cohesion across the range of material forms, representations and activities that students confront in typical learning experiences.


Following his address, General Bernard Freyberg inspects the New Zealand Divisional Signals on the occasion of the handing over of command by Colonel Agar to Major Grant. Photograph taken at Maadi Camp, Egypt, in early June 1943 by George Frederick Kaye.
Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s).
Physical Description: Cellulosic film negative


Introduction. The choice of tactics for surgical correction of virilized genitalia in girls with the classic form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) remains a topical issue in pediatric surgery. The early one-stage feminization in severe forms of genital virilization, in case of urogenital sinus, is recommended by the international guidelines on CAH clinical practice (2018). One of the arguments for the early one-stage feminizing plasty is to prevent urinary tract infection. However, in experts' opinion, it has a low level of evidence.Purpose. To find out a statistically significance risk of developing chronic inflammation in the bladder (CIB) in patients with persistent urogenital sinus due to CAH.Material and methods. The lower urinary tract was examined in two groups of girls with CAH having non-persistent urogenital sinus (UGS) (n=15) and persistent UGS (n=32). In both groups, cystoscopy was made which is highly specific and sensitive to diagnosing chronic inflammation in the bladder (CIB) which develops as a consequence of long-term disorders in urodynamics and long-term urinary tract infection. Statistical analysis was carried out by comparing 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for the relative frequency of CIB in groups with a population value and for testing the hypotheses on the coincidence of observed and population frequencies of binary trait values using the Chi square criterion (χ2).Results. The relative CIB frequency in the group with persistent UGS was 75%. As far as the point estimate of population value of the relative CIB frequency (0.1) was located outside the calculated 95% CI (0.581; 0.918) and the value of calculated χ2 criterion (148.7813) corresponded to r<0.05 (0.000000), the difference between the obtained data and population values can be considered statistically significant.Conclusion. The conducted study confirms a high risk of developing CIB in patients with persistent UGS compared to population values what is backgrounded by the obtained statistical significance.


Type of funding sources: None.

 A significant gender bias has been identified in cardiology. Industry funding may be important developing electrophysiology (EP) and devices research. Such funding leads to potential conflicts of interest (COI) which must be disclosed on research presentations. There is limited evidence whether the gender bias in cardiology extends to industry funding of research.
 Purpose
 To assess whether COI disclosures in EP and devices presentations at the ESC Annual Congress differ between men and women.

 Recorded presentations from the Arrhythmia & Devices section of ESC Annual Congresses 2016-2020 were assessed. Presentations were excluded if the original presentation contained no slides, it was a panel discussion, it was a non-scientific presentation, or part of the presentation was missing. Presentations with multiple speakers were also excluded. Chi-squared and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to assess differences between groups for dichotomous and continuous data respectively.

 Of 1,153 presentations assessed, 999 were suitable for inclusion. Women made up 22% (n = 221) of presenters. There was no difference in whether COI declaration slides were missing between women (5.9%, n = 13) and men (7.6%, n = 56), p = 0.38. In those with COI disclosure slides (n = 927), women declared significantly lower median number of COIs (0, IQR 0-3) compared with men (2, IQR 0-8), p < 0.0001. In contrast, women spent a greater time-per-word on their COI disclosure slides (250ms, IQR 125-375ms) compared with men (200ms, IQR 118-333ms), p < 0.0001.

 Women made up a minority of presenters in EP/devices talks at the ESC annual congress. Women were less likely to have COIs which may suggest that they are less likely to receive industry funding. Despite this, women spent a greater amount of time-per-word on their COI slides. The lower number of declared COIs in women highlights another potential area of gender bias in cardiology that needs further investigation so that it can be addressed.


Channel pruning is used to reduce the number of weights in a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Channel pruning removes slices of the weight tensor so that the convolution layer remains dense. The removal of these weight slices from a single layer causes mismatching number of feature maps between layers of the network. A simple solution is to force the number of feature map between layers to match through the removal of weight slices from subsequent layers. This additional constraint becomes more apparent in DNNs with branches where multiple channels need to be pruned together to keep the network dense. Popular pruning saliency metrics do not factor in the structural dependencies that arise in DNNs with branches. We propose Domino metrics (built on existing channel saliency metrics) to reflect these structural constraints. We test Domino saliency metrics against the baseline channel saliency metrics on multiple networks with branches. Domino saliency metrics improved pruning rates in most tested networks and up to 25% in AlexNet on CIFAR-10.


The statistical fluctuations in the number of charge carriers (conduction electrons of valence band holes) in a given volume of semiconductor in the steady state is calculated from the transition probabilities of electrons between the conduction and valence bands or between either band and impurity levels The case in which one independent fluctuating variable (either n or p) specifies the electronic state of the system is considered. Simple general formulae are developed for the mean value n0 of n and its variance and it is shown that for large numbers n tends to be normally distributed about n0. The relaxation time for small deviations from equilibrium is evaluated. These results are applied to three cases: (i) the intrinsic semiconductor, (ii) the strongly extrinsic semiconductor and (iii) the slightly extrinsic semiconductor with all impurity atoms ionized. The relation between the statistical approach and the thermodynamical treatment (given in another paper) is indicated.


As a result of field research of 1996-2010 in the northern- and middle-boreal subzones of European Russia, the dependences of plant species percent cover in Scots pine forests (taken totally, upland vs. bog forests, and by groups of associations) upon bedrock type (silicate vs. carbonate/sulfate) and soil texture (sand vs. loamy sand and loam) were estimated using pair-wise group mean comparisons by Student t-test. Patterns in the affiliation of different European North pine forest syntaxa to silicate or carbonate/sulfate bedrock are confirmed at a species level. The pine forests on silicate bedrock are characterized by a numerous 'cortege' of acidophyte species. The presence of calciphytes has just a minor effect on the positive flora differentiation of pine forests on dolomite or gypsum bedrock. The main reasons for establishment of species on carbonate/sulfate bedrock or for increase in their cover are reduction in competitive pressure on the part of acidophytes, preference for soils with an increased level of nutrition or erosion demands of several species, as well as stress-tolerance. There are several groups in the pine forest flora which are distinguished by the restriction of ecological optima of the plant species they consist of, as expressed by the mean percent cover of the latter, to soils of different texture. The group most numerous in species is that of oligotrophic and mesotrophic-oligotrophic plants bound to sand or shallow peat underlain by sand. The group of mesotrophic plants on sandy loam and true loam is the second richest in species; the latter are rather various in their soil moisture requirements. The increase in the plant cover on loams and sandy loam due to attenuation of competitive pressure from oligotrophic dwarf shrubs is also typical of some mesotrophic-oligotrophic species. At the same time, many plant species growing in pine forests seem bedrock- and soil texture-neutral. The Scots pine Pinus sylvestris should be considered a moderately mesotrophic-oligotrophic species in the European North according to both our research and phytoindication scales. It demonstrates a slight decline in canopy density on loam, if compared to loamy sand and sand. The simulation model of N. I. Kazimirov, predicting maximal canopy density and production of pine forests on loam due to soil physics regularities, should be revised. There are several groups in the pine forest flora which are distinguished by the restriction of ecological optima of plant species they consist of, expressed by projective cover means of the latter, to soils of different texture. Oligotrophic and mesotrophic-oligotrophic plants bound to sand or shallow peat underlain by sand are most numerous in species number. Mesotrophic species on sandy loam and true loam are second best and rather various due to their soil moisture requirements. The increase in cover on loams and sandy loam due to the competitive pressure loose on the side of oligotrophic dwarfshrubs is also typical of some mesotrophic-oligotrophic species. At the same time, many plant species growing in pine forests seem bedrock- and soil texture-neutral. The Scots pine Pinus sylvestris should be considered moderately mesotrophic-oligotrophic species in the European North according to both our research and phytoindication scales. It demonstrates a slight decrease in canopy density on loam, if compared to loamy sand and sand. The simulation model of N. I. Kazimirov [1995], predicting maximal canopy density and production of pine forests on loam due to soil physics regularities, should be revised.


In recent years, oxidative damaged DNA by hydroxyl radical ( ·OH) has been received much attention. But the reports on oxidative damaged RNA by ·OH were quite limited. In fact, RNA, being the same as DNA, is also one of big two components for nucleic acid. It also has many important functions. Therefore, RNA attacked by ·OH leads to serious consequence, which bring about decline of the cell activity even death of the cell. Thus a chemiluminescence system for generating and detecting oxidative damaged RNA by ·OH was made, which initiated with Vit.C/CuSO 4/Phen/H 2O 2/RNA, so as to strengthen the study on oxidative damaged RNA by ·OH. Through the investigation on detecting conditions of the system, optimal scheme of the system was obtained: concentration of Vit.C, CuSO, Phen, H 2O 2 and RNA were 350μmol/L,55μmol/L,350μmol/L,0.2mol/L and 20μg/mL,respectively. The pH of the system was 5.5. The final volume was 1mL. Using the system, we detected the effects that quercetin, caffeic acid, baicalin and rutin resisted oxidative damaged RNA by ·OH and found that the four antioxidants could effectively inhibited oxidative damaged RNA by ·OH. These facts also proved feasibility and practicality of the system. Molecular mechanism for oxidative damaged RNA by ·OH was analyzed by the system and special antioxidants. The results indicated that sulfocarbamide which was a ·OH scavenger nearly inhibited whole chemiluminescence. The reason for the phenomenon was that RNA oxidative damage was not initiated only because sulfocarbamide scavenged ·OH , an initiator; catalase also inhibited whole chemiluminescence, revealing that ·OH couldn't be generated due to H 2O 2 removed by catalase. SOD, a O 2 · scavenger, could only inhibit a small part of chemiluminescence, whereas NaN 3 or benzene carboxylic acid, a 1O 2 scavenger, could inhibit most of chemiluminescence. These results suggested that ·OH is an initator; but O 2 · is a minor factor, 1O 2 is a major factor for the RNA oxidative damage.


All over Saudi Arabia, the medicinal plant Calotropis procera (C. procera) is a common wild shrub. We looked into the phytochemical makeup and several extracts of C. procera in this work.  The presence of different ingredients was checked in all extracts. Table displays the findings of this exploratory phytochemical investigation. Following a phytochemical analysis, it was discovered that Calotropis procera contains alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids, tannins, and terpenoids. To separate the active compounds that might have pharmacologically active ingredients, a TLC chromatographic research was conducted. Ethanol and chloroform extract of Calotropis procera leaves demonstrate the presence of flavonoids and phenolic substances in preliminary phytochemical testing. Additionally, the TLC of both extracts reveals the presence of several phytometabolites. After collection of all fractions of both ethanol and chloroform extract, these fractions then screened for anti-rheumatic arthritis activity. Results depict that 150 mg/kg of crude extract and ethanolic fraction on 10th day showed more superior repression of paw edema i.e., 80.26% and 81.25% (p < 0.001) as compared to 79.56% reduction in paw edema by 100 mg/kg aspirin on 10th day.


The incidence of hyoid bone involvement by neoplasia is undetermined, despite its importance in hyoid‐preserving surgery. Eleven (1.46%) of 755 whole‐organ laryngeal specimens examined demonstrated hyoid bone infiltration. These included 6 cases originating from the larynx, 3 from the vallecula, and 1 case each from the pyriform fossa and tongue base.


Angiogenesis is a crucial event in the survival and progression of solid tumors. To determine whether angiogenesis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an intrinsic property of leukemic cells, the vascularity of bone marrow biopsies was determined. Bone marrow vascularity in newly diagnosed or post‐chemotherapy AML patients was increased 4‐fold (P < 0.01) and 8.7‐fold (P < 0.01), respectively, relative to controls. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression by AML blast cells was assessed by immunohistochemistry, and bone marrow cell supernatants were assayed for secretion of VEGF, fibroblast growth factor‐2 (FGF‐2), and endostatin by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Diffuse cytoplasmic and strong extracellular VEGF immunoreactivity was seen in bone marrow aspirates from AML patients, but not controls. In contrast, there was no difference in the levels of VEGF, FGF‐2, and endostatin secreted by mononuclear cells cultured from bone marrows of AML patients compared to normal controls following two days of culture in vitro. Total angiogenic potential of bone marrow cell supernatants was assessed by endothelial sprouting in vitro and by a chick chorioallantoic membrane assay. No differences were found between 2‐day conditioned medium from normal and AML bone marrow mononuclear cells in either assay. Our data show a discrepancy between bone marrow vascularity and VEGF expression in vivo and VEGF expression and angiogenesis from 2‐day conditioned medium ex vivo. This suggests that angiogenesis in AML likely represents a response to microenvironmental factors in vivo, rather than being an intrinsic property of leukemic cells. Am. J. Hematol. 70:22–30, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


From digital pathology to disease screening algorithms, the iSOFT Laboratory User Convention 2010 showcased some of the most cuttingedge healthcare technology available today.


In the early-phase design of complex systems, a model of design performance coupled with visualizations of competing designs are used to aid human decision makers in finding and understanding an optimal design. This consists of understanding the tradeoffs among multiple criteria of a "good" design and the features of good designs. Current visualization techniques are limited when visualizing many performance criteria and/or do not explicitly help the decision maker learn the mapping between the design space and the objective space. We present a new technique called Cityplot which can visualize a sample of an arbitrary (continuous or combinatorial) design space and the corresponding single or multidimensional objective space simultaneously. Essentially a superposition of a dimensionally-reduced multidimensional scaling of the design space and a set of bar plots representing the objective space, Cityplot can provide explicit information on the "smoothness" of the design space. Applications of the method are demonstrated on two toy problems and two complex engineered systems, namely the NASA Earth Observing System and a Guidance, Navigation and Control system. Considerations are given on choosing relevant distance functions and appropriate samples of the design space to generalize the technique to other design problems. INTRODUCTION Decision-based approaches to design as advocated by Hazelrigg [1], Mistree [2] and others have become an increasingly popular form of system design. In the decision-based design paradigm, the decision maker formulates an optimization problem by defining a design space through a set of variables representing design decisions, and the corresponding objective space through one or more design criteria representing the "value" of the design. The design space can be continuous or combinatorial. Deterministic or probabilistic models linking design variables to design criteria are used to predict the value of a design, and optimization or search algorithms are used to solve the problem, i.e. to find the most preferred design [3,4]. Since the goal of the design process is necessarily to choose a single design, the value function used to make the final decision must necessarily be singledimensional. However, many authors have advocated the use of multi-objective value functions as a preliminary step [5–7] due to the difficulty of eliciting the true preferences of the decision maker. In the multiobjective approach, a designer considers multiple design criteria or objectives simultaneously, such as a camera's field of view, spatial resolution and cost, and attempts to find the optimal tradeoffs of these factors. By not articulating an explicit preference between the design criteria beforehand, a designer is able to consider the evaluated alternative designs and choose the one which appears best suited to his or her overall objectives, and is more informed of what is or is not possible within the design space [5–7]. Visualization tools are often used in this a posteriori articulation of preferences (i.e. design by shopping [8]) to help the decision maker understand the maintradeoffs between criteria (information in the objective space), coupling between design variables (information in the design space), and sensitivities of criteria to design variables (information in the mapping between design space and objective space). The typical method of visualizing the values of objectives of a set of designs is to plot out all the values with the objectives as axis in a scatterplot. However, visualizing the tradeoffs of more than 3-5 objectives quickly becomes intractable. More significantly, it also gives little to no information on what design decisions drive the shape of the tradeoffs in objectives or what kind of design parameters and decisions lead to given results. A popular method to visualize more than 3-5 objectives is to instead plot each objective in a parallel axis plot. This has the advantage of allowing an essentially unlimited numbers of objectives to plot whilst retaining some ability to track what designs achieve which scores. However, these plots can also quickly become difficult to read and it is often not obvious how to order the axes; Furthermore, this ordering affects which objectives appear to be trading against each other and can easily unintentionally alter the perception of the design space. Additionally, it is still difficult to tell which design decisions lead to which result—even following the performance of a single design can be difficult without some form of highlighting.


Neoplasia was launched in 1999 with the mission of providing a high-quality publication venue for the rapid dissemination of novel and exciting advances in cancer research. The journal has grown, in a very rapid fashion, from a bimonthly publication to a monthly publication by publishing a broad-based range of articles ranging from apoptosis to angiogenesis, as shown in Table 1. This table categorizes articles published by Neoplasia by general topic for publication years 2004 to 2006. Cancer genetics, cell and tumor biology, experimental therapeutics, and cancer imaging continue to be significant components of article growth published over these years. The number of submissions and published articles has continually increased over the year, and, next year, Neoplasia will enter its ninth year of publication (Vol. 9). The success of Neoplasia has affirmed to the editorial staff and editorial board that there was and continues to be a significant need for a broad-based cancer journal. During the past year, Neoplasia has further adapted and taken the lead in online peer-reviewed publication of cancer research articles.

Table 1

Major Research Topics Published in Neoplasia from 2004 to 2006.

In 2006, Neoplasia adopted the open access (OA) model for all articles published. This allows for all articles to be made available free to the scientific and layman communities through online electronic access. All articles are linked through PubMed (www.PubMEd.gov) to a Web-based database, which hosts all Neoplasia articles published to date. Moreover, beginning in 2007, all Neoplasia articles published in Neoplasia will also be freely available through the Biomedcentral portal (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) beginning on the day of publication, rather than after 6 to 12 months like most journals. Of 8700 selected journals currently covered in Web of Science, only 160 are available through Biomedcentral. The effect of immediate OA on the impact of Neoplasia is anticipated to dramatically improve the citation impact factor in terms of the frequency with which an article is cited in the literature (http://dlib.org/dlib/june04/harnad/06harnad.html) [301]. Overall, OA will provide for dramatically increased readership due to access to articles, which would traditionally be unavailable due to costs associated with access tolls to the journal in which it was published because their affiliated institution could not afford the price of subscription. Overall, providing OA to all past, present, and future articles published in Neoplasia should significantly improve the quality and speed at which cancer research advances will be made due to more rapid dissemination of knowledge.

Neoplasia is committed to meeting the challenges and emerging needs of the cancer research scientific community. This commitment has been met through the early establishment of a rapid online peer-review system, which has facilitated review of submitted articles. Moreover, the recent OA in 2006, with expansion onto Biomedcentral in 2007, will provide maximal international dissemination of all manuscripts published by Neoplasia. This forward-looking approach allowing for immediate OA availability of all published articles should provide authors using Neoplasia as their publication venue with maximal impact of their exciting research findings.


Whether intensive lipid-lowering therapy yields greater regression of atherosclerotic plaques remains inconclusive. We therefore performed a prospective, randomized trial comparing standard (achieving LDL-C levels recommended by the Japanese guideline) and intensive (achieving further 30% lower levels than the former) rosuvastatin therapy for 1 year with primary outcome of aortic plaques evaluated by MRI. Sixty dyslipidemic patients, who were eligible for statins therapy, were randomized to standard or intensive group, and dose of rosuvastatin were titrated to achieve the respective target LDL-C. Average doses of rosuvastatin throughout the study were 2.9±3.1 and 6.5±5.1 mg/day in standard and intensive group, respectively. Although both treatments significantly reduced serum LDL-C and hsCRP levels, reduction of LDL-C levels was greater in intensive group than in standard group (-46 vs. -34%). Intensive therapy improved endothelial function as evaluated by FMD in brachial artery compared to standard therapy (95 vs. 22%). MRI study revealed that both thoracic and abdominal plaques were significantly regressed in both groups with greater regression in thoracic plaques in intensive group compared to standard group (-9.1 vs. -3.2%) (Figure A). Correlation analysis revealed no significant association of plaque regression with the doses of rosuvastatin and the changes in serum lipids/FMD. In contrast, thoracic plaque regression correlated with hsCRP reduction (Figure B). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that this association still remain significant even after adjustment of the doses at flow-up, serum lipids and FMD. In conclusions, the present study demonstrated that intensive lipid-lowering using rosuvastatin led to additive plaques regression compared to standard therapy. Therefore, rosuvastatin may provide long term benefit in patients with increased risk through its LDL-C lowering and anti-inflammatory effects.


The general experience in gold cyanidation research activities and plant practice is that high oxygen and cyanide concentrations improve gold leaching kinetics which in turn reduce residence time and increase throughput. This paper shows how the improved pre-oxidation method for the pyrrhotite rich gold ore of Bounty Gold Mine has increased gold recoveries at lower reagent consumption rates. The installation of a pipe reactor, in conjunction with a Multi Mix Systems oxygen injector, has lowered the amount of oxygen required to achieve a dissolved oxygen level target of 20 mg/L. The improvement of the pre-oxidation stage and lead nitrate solution addition has led to a reduction in the free cyanide concentration required for leaching, resulting in a decrease in cyanide consumption rate by 36 per cent to achieve a one to two per cent improvement in the gold recovery.


Over the last several decades tbe role of incomes policy has been a critical issue in an understanding of Australian workplace and macroeconomic relationships. A significant institutional reform was the Prices and Incomes Accord, which began with the election of the Labor government in 1983, and ended with the change of govern ment in 1996. What follows is a discussion of the circumstances that led to the adoption of the Accord, and an analysis of some of its consequences for strikes and wages. Several themes are explored. One is that the success of incomes policies depends on economic, political and industrial relations factors. A second is that the origin and maintenance of the Accord depended on the Labor government's commitment to wage restraint, which had its intellectual underpinnings in corporatism. The Accord changed over thirteen years, and the industrial system became more directed to enterprise bargaining. While this might imply that it became increasingly difficult to have low strike and wage outcomes, the changes in industrial and economic relationships seem to be permanent. Conjectures are offered to explain this outcome.


− Threaded pipe connections are used in different applications in the oil and gas industry. These tubular structural elements are often subjected to fatigue loads. Due to stress concentrations, resulting from the thread geometry, the connections are the weakest points in the pipeline. The stress concentrations depend on pipe dimensions, thread type and friction between the threads. To quantify these stress concentrations, finite element analyses are carried out for different connection types using the software ABAQUS. Based on calculated stress concentration factors the fatigue lives of the connections can be estimated. To validate the models, smalland full-scale experiments will be carried out. A torque machine has been refurbished to assemble the connections with a certain make-up torque. These tests will be performed to study the coefficient of friction between the threads. Fatigue tests will be performed using a universal tensile test machine. Final objective is an optimized fatigue model considering the different connection parameters. Keywords− threaded connection, pipeline, fatigue, FEA


A mini film coater was built to investigate the rheological behavior of paper coating colors and the film application on a paper web at commercial speed. As for the rheological characterization, the main idea is to use measurements of metering nip pressure and torque on the metering rod to back calculate the viscosity (inverse problem). It was found that the values of process viscosity are very different from those obtained in classical rheometry. This is explained by the rheological behavior of the suspension in the nip, where it is subjected to a mix of high intensity extensional and shear deformations for a very short period of time.


How to identify community structure is a fundamental problem for analysis of complex network. In this paper we propose a novel similarity matrix of the nodes for this purpose, which combines the information of adjacency matrix and common-neighbors matrix. We compare it with diffusion kernel similarity and adjacency matrix using several algorithms which are widely used in detecting community structure, including the standard nonnegative matrix factorization, symmetric nonnegative matrix factorization and spectral clustering. The results performed on the synthetic benchmark networks show that the novel similarity matrix is relatively effective to find the community structures in networks with heterogeneous distribution of node degrees and community sizes, and this effectiveness is also manifested on the real world networks.


In order to evaluate the performance of high speed amphibious vehicle during its design phase,numerical simulation was taken to simulate the amphibious vehicle's running on the water. An analysis of running resistance around an amphibious vehicle is carried out under the condition of wheel raised and wheel lowered. The forecast is made to the running resistance under given conditions. Visual analysis is also done to the flow field. The obtained result shows that raising wheel is an effective way to reduce the resistance. Meanwhile,the numerical simulation for resistance forecast provides a new approach to study the resistance reduction of amphibious vehicles.


The invention provides an aircraft propeller thrust and torque measuring balance of a rim structure and a strain type. The aircraft propeller thrust and torque measuring balance comprises balance elements, a balance outer wheel ring, a locating pin and a screw. Multiple grooves are evenly distributed in the balance outer wheel ring. The balance elements are mounted in all the grooves of the balance outer wheel ring respectively. The aircraft propeller thrust and torque measuring balance is simple in structure and easy to machine; the axial size of the balance is small, so that the thermal structure deformation of the balance is reduced; the balance elements and the balance outer wheel ring are respectively machined as a whole before being assembled together, so that the rigidity of the balance is enhanced; the balance can be installed in a test model, so that the disturbance to a test is small; the balance can directly measure the thrust and torque on an aircraft propeller, thereby greatly simplifying the process of matching aircraft-engine-propeller with an air hole test and improving the accuracy of a test result.


ABSTRACT Plasmodium yoelii merozoite surface protein 4/5 (PyMSP4/5), expressed as a recombinant protein, was highly effective at protecting mice against lethal challenge with P. yoelii. There was a significant correlation between prechallenge antibody levels and peak parasitemia, suggesting that the homologues of PyMSP4/5 in Plasmodium falciparum are promising components of a subunit vaccine against malaria.


Leg swelling is a significant problem following ankle fracture. Venous pump function and femoral and popliteal venous patency were assessed prospectively in 26 patients with ankle fractures requiring open reduction, internal fixation and immobilization in plaster. Functional venous volume, venous filling index (VFI), ejection volume fraction (EVF) and residual volume fraction (RVF) were measured using air plethysmography at 5 days and at 6, 12 and 18 weeks after fracture. The uninjured leg was used as a control. Popliteal and femoral venous patency was determined using duplex ultrasonography. No patient developed deep vein thrombosis during the study. At 5 days after fracture there was a significant reduction in mean(s.d) EVF, 18·2(12·1) versus 55·9(19·5) percent, and increase in RVF, 87·0(14·3) versus 42·5(22·2) per cent (both P < 0·001). Analogous values were similar at 6 weeks, EVF 28·5(21·2) versus 55·6(21·9) per cent, RVF 82·2(16·8) versus 48·5(23·8) per cent (both P < 0·001), and at 12 weeks, EVF 39·1(16·0) versus 60·3(14·9) per cent, RVF 64·7(18·8) versus 38·8(13·2), per cent (both P < 0·001). However, by 18 weeks there was no significant difference in venous function between fractured and control limbs. It is concluded that there is a significant and prolonged impairment in venous pump function following ankle fracture.


(70% v 59%, p < 0.001). The association was retained after adjustment for other risk factors (p = 0.004) (table). Non› vertebral fractures were also increased in women with depres› sion (28% v 21%, p < 0.001) and had a 30% increased rate after adjustment for other risk factors (table). Rib fracture had the highest incidence in women with depression (adjusted hazard ratio 2.0, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.4, p = 0.01) whereas wrist and humerus fracture were not associated with depression. Vertebral fractures occurred more frequently in women with depression than in those without depression (11% v 5%, p < 0.001), and the associ› ation remained significant after adjustment for other risk factors (p < 0.001) (table).


Adopted by the UN member states in 2015, the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 is detailed into 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It was the first time that the UN and the international community had generally recognised the key role of municipalities for development. The development agenda is to address issues that are primarily local problems that cannot be resolved without local government participating. It is towns and cities that are the bodies that have the means and the skills to improve administration and plan for and implement solutions locally. Towns and communities are targeted primarily in Goal 11 'Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable', which is comprised of a range of secondary targets and tasks including mitigating climate change impacts, adapting settlements to climate change impacts and reducing disaster risk. Complex strategies of municipalities adapting to climate change impacts will be demonstrated on an example of a city and two towns in the Czech Republic: Hradec Kralove, Žďar nad Sazavou and Dobruska.


Perspectives on Refugee Adaptation Soviet Jews Background and Migration Experience Vietnamese Refugees Background and Characteristics The Soviet Jewish Enclave Recently Arrived Vietnamese Resettlement Agencies and Refugee Communities Self-Employment and Refugee Communities Patterns of Community Organization Conclusions Appendix Photographs


. In this paper, we examine the problem of maintaining an approximation of the set of nondominated points visited during a multiobjective optimization, a problem commonly known as archiving. Most of the currently available archiving algorithms are reviewed, and what is known about their convergence and approximation properties is summarized. The main scenario considered is the restricted case where the archive must be updated online as points are generated one by one, and at most a fixed number of points are to be stored in the archive at any one time. In this scenario, the ◁ -monotonicity of an archiving algorithm is proposed as a weaker, but more practical, property than negative efficiency preservation. This paper shows that hypervolume-based archivers and a recently proposed multi-level grid archiver have this property. On the other hand, the archiving methods used by SPEA2 and NSGA-II do not, and they may ◁ -deteriorate with time. The ◁ -monotonicity property has meaning on any input sequence of points. We also classify archivers according to limit properties, i.e. convergence and approximation properties of the archiver in the limit of infinite (input) samples from a finite space with strictly positive generation probabilities for all points. This paper establishes a number of research questions, and provides the initial framework and analysis for answering them.


The reliability and lifetime of electronic components are mainly influenced by aging processes related to superposition effects of mechanical vibrations, thermomechanically induced stress and thermal loads. The latter two factors can be minimized by optimizing the component's thermal design. In simple cases, a satisfying thermal design can be found in an empirical way. However, in order to reduce the experimental effort in this field, thermal simulation methods are applied. In this work, an innovative thermal simulation tool especially designed for the prediction of the thermal performance of complex electronic components is presented. The developed simulation tool is applied for investigating plastic-encapsulated and ceramic packages under various operating conditions. Both steady-state and dynamic analyses are carried out and simulation results are compared with those established in experiments. The experimental test procedure and main features of the developed simulation tool are presented. The reliability expectations from the thermal viewpoint are discussed. Although ceramic thermal conductivity is high compared to plastic moldings, the results clearly show that plastic packages can compete with their ceramic counterparts.


New family of ear simulators has been developed and manufactured within the framework of joint research project funded by European Commission. This paper presents results of characterization measurements of three demonstrator devices from the new family of ear simulators performed at National Metrology Institute of Turkey (TÜBİTAK UME), which is the one of the partners in the project consortium. The characterization was limited by the measurements of acoustical transfer impedance of ear simulators in various configurations and determination of dependence of acoustical transfer impedance on environmental conditions. Results of the performed measurements gave basic idea about performance characteristics of the ear simulators as well as identified some shortcomings and further research to be carried out to proceed with the developed simulators for standardization work.


Relevance of the study is conditioned by the fact that study of archiving history at regional level is important for the very sectoral science of archive studies, as well as for institutional history of Russia. In this connection this article is aimed at study of experience of formation and evolution of archiving in Tatarstan in the end of XIX century – 30s of ХХ century, since basic principles of the Russian archiving organization were developed and originality of its development in the republic was revealed precisely in this time, and correlating its features with common features peculiar to the Russian archiving in general is a relevant task. The object of this article is analyzing the trends of archiving development at All-Russian regional scale based on the materials of the Kazan Province and Tatar Republic. The historical-comparative method allowing to compare regional experience to the All-Russian one on the basis of history sources, is the leading approach to research of this problem. Results evidencing the influence of public, economic, political and cultural processes which occurred in the Russian Empire in the late imperal period and the first decades of the Soviet government on the process of formation of the very archive establishments structures and on formation of office work and archiving culture, are presented in the article. Materials of the article represent value for studies of institutional history of the late imperal period and the first decades of the Soviet government in the Russian history.


This paper presents findings from an exploratory case study, with the purpose of illustrating how student teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) in the United States and student teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Germany evaluated a blended learning course that focused on jointly creating Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) units via the Internet. This project enabled participants to share perspectives about teaching contexts and practices in other countries and learn about TBLT through model learning (Willis, 2001). Consequently, student teachers not only became more proficient users of technology, but also grew from the unique opportunity of collaborating with their future colleagues abroad. The author presents the German and American student teachers' perspectives with regard to what both groups gained by participating in this project. Finally, the author makes suggestions for language teacher training.


In this thesis the first steps in the verification process of the new Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) kernel of PLAXIS are made. The proper implementation of the governing equations is verified by co ...


The objective of this study is to decrease the number of defects occurring through manufacturing process of the fluorescent glass tube using six sigma techniques performing cost analysis for the case under study; before and after improvement i.e. reduction of the number of defects. The case under study is applied on glass tube production line in one of Toshiba El-Araby Industrial factories. It was observed that there are a number of defect that was monitored through the study period of 9 months. These defects include variation in the outer diameter of the tube, the texture of the batch mix and some other defects. The fluorescent glass tube factory consists of four main areas: utility, batch, melting and production area. The scope of the study is targeting the muffle area in which different types of defects occur during the process. These defects include; variation in the outer diameter of the tube, knots, stones, etc. Advanced six-sigma tool (DMAIC) is applied on a case study to reduce process variation by capability index improvement and determine reduced cost of outside diameter defect per million through using Part-Per-Million (PPM) Calculations. The reduction of outside diameter variation reached 50%


We have initially investigated the temperature dependence of density and viscosity of a number of crude oils, collected from various hydrocarbon reservoirs in Oman. The measured data are then utilized to investigate the flow dynamics of these hydrocarbon fluids under gravity and applied pressures at various temperatures. We have modeled the flow of the various crude oil samples through a vertical (a) annulus and (b) cylindrical pipe - all treated within the Newtonian fluid flow approximation of a laminar flow - to investigate the flow properties of these samples. A computer program is developed so that the temperature dependence of the fluid flow distinctly separates the laminar mode from a turbulent mode with respect to Reynolds numbers within the ranges Re 2000. The adopted models of the velocity profiles, mass rate of flow and viscous force on the solid surface are not novel, but the present calculations aim to specifically use the various Omani crude oil samples with various AIP values; the calculated results shed some light on the dynamics of these specific samples within Newtonian approximation. The measured physical properties and the subsequent calculations of the relevant dynamical properties might be useful for various purposes e.g. extraction and transportation of crude oils through pipes.


"Why don't you just use a technician?" Posed at a recent conference of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, this question was puzzling and, admittedly, a bit exasperating. Nonetheless, this is not the first encounter with skepticism concerning digi tal documentation techniques for architectural research. The conference session "The Digital Lens on the Past" centered on the use of digital technologies to record and represent aspects of built heritage, with emphasis on indicating a fourth dimension: time. This included the visualization of ruined or lost elements, unrealized interiors (e.g., Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi), rates of decay at heritage sites in severe peril, and seasonal changes in constructed landscapes.1 If formulated differently, it is not difficult to imagine that the attendee's question would have instantly perplexed the room of architectural historians, cultural resource managers, and preservation professionals: why not hire someone to autonomously complete an analog survey of a building or site? That person could pass along the information, and the scholar would then advance all subsequent study and analysis. Between the two parties, there would be a linear and sequential project path, albeit entirely independent: technical data input and output from research professionals. In short, the conference attendee's question placed elements of documentation practice and architectural scholarship at odds. If it is difficult for most professionals in the built environment to envision the success of a project in which analog survey and onsite experience are divorced from research and analysis, why has a hierarchical divide emerged with reference to digital documentation? This essay argues that when fully integrated into the discovery and analy sis phases of a project, digital documentation is a valuable, reliable, and exploratory practice that can combine information about the physical aspects of the built environment with additional archival, experiential, and technical layers. The incorporation of reality capture— the use of technical means to record and visualize elements from the physical world— offers new veins of exploration and analysis for the built environment, and it has been used in architectural history for decades. Yet there are ongoing hesitations and misinterpretations about the use of digital technology for documentation in the built environment. Foremost, digital documentation is viewed as a tool rather than a methodology, and some view its products solely as visualizations. Examples of digital documentation include 3D scanning, photogrammetry, and 360 imagery captures; each offers a different way of docu menting, visualizing, and studying a site, but they all require additional tools and software (Figures 1– 3). Architects, architectural historians, and DANIELLE S . WILLKENS


This paper describes the current situation concerning medical implants and suggests why the number of available devices is so limited. It then goes on to describe how a consortium was established from an EU network focussing specifically on Medical Devices. This consortium was successful in obtaining EU funding for the development of a range of medical implants that will help patients with specific disabilities relating to the nervous system, including deafness, blindness, lack of limb motion and urinary incontinence.


Acid dissociation constants for the chromium(III) complex of N-(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylenediamine-NN′N′-triacetic acid (H3TOH) have been determined by potentiometric titration. The three species involved are [CrIII(TOH)-(H2O)], [CrIII(TOH)(OH)]–, and [CrIII(TO)(OH)]2– and at 25 °C, I= 0·1M(KNO3) : pk1= 6·02 ± 0·05 and pk2= 9·85 ± 0·10. When the pH is greater than ca. 13·1 de-chelation of the ligand from the metal ion occurs, and the kinetics of two consecutive slow steps, giving [CrIII(TO)(OH)2]3– and [CrIII(TO)(OH)3]4– respectively, have been studied by conventional spectrophotometry. There is no significant hydrogen-ion dependence and values of the rate constants at 25 °C, I= 1·0M(NaClO4) are k3= 1·7 × 10–3 and k4= 2·0 × 10–4 s–1. A slower concurrent process, k34= 2·0 × 10–5 s–1 at 25 °C, has also been studied.


The parasite fauna of 336 adult Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) from 15 geographic localities along the North American coast, ranging from northern California to the northern Bering Sea, was examined to assess zoogeographic and latitudinal zonation of Pacific halibut parasites in the eastern North Pacific. Results show the existence of three zoogeographic zones in the northeast Pacific with boundaries near the southern Queen Charlotte Islands and in the vicinity of Kodiak Island. "Fuzziness" around these boundaries probably reflects small-scale fish movement and the complexity of parasite life cycles. These boundaries roughly correspond to those previously established using the fish and invertebrate faunas. Parasite species richness appears to be more directly correlated with halibut abundance than with latitude; parasite abundance appears to be correlated with temperature and therefore negatively correlated with latitude.


There were some problems in the past when someone need crown restoration such as the time consuming in waiting the crown to be formed by the dental laboratory & The error that could be happen in the formation of the crown. In the past after the dentist prepared the tooth that needed crown restoration; he took an impression of the needed tooth by putting a wax material in the mouth of the patient to took the shape of the needed tooth after that he send it to the dental laboratory to produce the solid model and to form the crown to fit that model.


The outbreaks of hantavirus infections in some regions of the Russian Federation in some years involve considerable material and social losses. In this connection, the designing of the most effective types of vaccines is an urgent task. The authors have created plasmid constructions containing the gene of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome virus, with whose Intramuscular injection there is a specific immune response and plasmid DNA is detectable in the adjacent tissues within a month after injection.


Abstract Two experiments are described in which the interaction of prolactin, cortisol and growth hormone on hypoosmoregulation in the anadromous brown trout was studied. In experiment 1, fish at the postsmolt stage in freshwater (FW) were given four injections on alternate days of 5 μg cortisol (F)/g in combination with 0, 0.2, 1 or 2 μg ovine prolactin (oPRL)/g. Additional groups received 2 μg oPRL/g or saline as control. In experiment 2, FW parr were given four injections on alternate days with 5 μg F/g and 2 μg ovine growth hormone (oGH)/g in combination with 0, 0.2, 1 or 2 μg oPRL/g. Additional groups received 2 μg oPRL/g, 2 μg oGH/g, 5 μg F/g or saline as control. In both experiments, the fish were subjected to a 48 hr seawater (SW) challenge test 24 hr after the last injection. Muscle water content, plasma osmolality and ion levels, kidney and gill Na+, K+-ATPase activity were measured. In experiment 1, F-treated fish had better hypoosmoregulatory capacity than control fish as judged by a higher level of muscle water content and lower plasma osmolality after 48 hr in SW. All three doses of oPRL completely abolished this action of F. Gill Na+,K+-ATPase activity was stimulated by F and unaffected by oPRL at any dose. In experiment 2, oPRL impaired, whereas F and oGH (injected individually or together) improved performance in the 48 hr SW test relative to control fish, judged by plasma osmolality and muscle water content. Ovine PRL inhibited the combined action of F and oGH in a dose-related manner but could not completely counteract the combined effect of these hormones. F and oGH had additive stimulatory effects on gill Na+,K+-ATPase activity. This activation was counteracted by coinjection of oPRL in a dose-related manner but not below the level found in the F-treated fish. We conclude that exogenous oPRL inhibits the hypoosmoregulatory action of F. However, oPRL does not antagonize the F-dependent stimulation of gill Na+,K+-ATPase activity. The observed antagonism between PRL and F in SW-acclimation may therefore occur on a target different from gill Na+,K+-ATPase.