Phase‐pure epitaxial Tl2Ba2Ca2Cu3O10 thin films have been grown on single crystal (110) LaAlO3 substrates using an improved metal‐organic chemical vapor deposition process. First, Ba‐Ca‐Cu‐Ox precursor films are grown on LaAlO3 (110) substrates using Ba(hfa)2⋅tet, Ca(hfa)2⋅tet, and Cu(hfa)2 (hfa=hexafluoroacetylacetonate; tet=tetraglyme) as volatile metalorganic precursors. Thallium is then incorporated into the films during a post‐anneal in the presence of a Tl2O3, BaO, CaO, CuO powder mixture at 820 °C for 12 h in a flowing 10% O2/Ar atmosphere. The films have a transport‐measured Tc=115 K and Jc=1.5×105 A/cm2 (80 K), while magnetic hysteresis measurements yield Jc=6×105 A/cm2 (77 K). Preliminary surface resistance measurements give Rs=0.35 mΩ at 5 K, 10 GHz.


The intersectoral instruments proposed to assess disbenefits of a project being implemented in a region allow analyzing not only the effect of the project on a local economy, as a limited number of contiguous and visible links are taken into consideration, but also its effect on a national economy. To illustrate this, we applied here the natural gas development project for Yamal peninsula. In our opinion, the intensive implementation of this project is required even if the world's demand for gas drops.


The invention discloses a polyvinylchloride insulating electric power cable material and a preparation method thereof. The material is composed of acrylate rubber, SG-2 polyvinylchloride resin, modified polyamide-6 resin, white carbon black, attapulgite, an accelerator TMTM, an anti-aging agent NBC, dibutyl phthalate, aniline methyl triethoxysilane, hydroquinone, fatty alcohol ethoxylate, tricresyl phosphate, and sodium dihydrogen phosphate. According to the invention, acrylate rubber, SG-2 polyvinylchloride resin, and modified polyamide-6 resin high-molecular materials are used as base materials of the material; with dibutyl phthalate, inter-solubility of the components is improved; and a plurality of functional auxiliary materials are added. Therefore, the defect of the incapability of being used under high-temperature environment of cable materials is solved. The material has good flame resistance, greatly improved mechanical property, and good dynamical performance.


Objective: To establish a method for determination of organophosphorus, pyrethroid, organochlorine, carbamate and weedicide pesticides in foods by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and selected ion monitoring (SIM). Methods: The pesticides were extracted with acetone and dichloromethane. The extract was warmed with water at 80℃, circumrotated and evaporated until it was nearly dry. Then it was cleaned-up by Envi-Carb column and Sep-Pak-NH2 column. The analysis was performed by GC-MS and SIM. Retention time and specific ions were used to confirm the pesticides. Results; The calibration curves of 42 pesticides were linear (correlation coefficient r >0.99) within the range of 0.001-1.0 μg/mL. The recoveries were 89%~94%, the relative standard deviations (RSD) of the method was <10% for each case, and the limit of determination (LOD), defined in terms of 3 times baseline noise was 0.001~0.005 mg/kg. Conclusion: The method is suitable for determining pesticides in foods with satisfactory sensitivity, accurcy and precision.


Chile and Mexico experienced severe economic crises in the early 1980s. This paper analyzes four possible explanations for why Chile recovered much faster than did Mexico. Comparing data from the two countries allows us to rule out a monetarist explanation, an explanation based on falls in real wages and real exchange rates, and a debt overhang explanation. Using growth accounting and a calibrated growth model, we find that the difference in the performance of Chile and Mexico was driven not by differences in inputs of capital and labor stressed by traditional theories of depressions, but rather by differences with which these inputs were used, measured as total factor productivity (TFP). Using economic theory to interpret historical evidence, we conclude that the crucial difference between the two countries was earlier reforms in government policy in Chile. The most crucial of these reforms were in banking and bankruptcy


"The issue we confront today is not primarily one concerning a special day for an individual. The issue is in reality whether our nation can summon the will and vision to recognize a great and historic period in its history by designating the birthdate of one who made major contributions to the period a national public holiday."


The article deals with the basic aspects of visual analysis. It is noted that the principles of video analysis procedures are reduced to descriptions, reconstruction and interpretation. In the first stage, the description of objects, the researcher must take into account that the visual analysis of the objects are no longer objects of direct perception. Critical phase of reconstruction should be supplemented by setting that out-of-universe of natural objects of perception are "vulnerable" to manipulation. Step interpretation even more associated with this threat.


Breakfast.-Porridge. Cornflakes. Rice krispies. Puffed rice. Oat krispies. Egg, boiled, poached, scrambled, or fried. Bacon, grilled or fried. Kippers. Smoked haddock, poached in milk or water. Kedgeree (flaked boiled fish, boiled rice, chopped egg, salt). Gluten-free bread or biscuit. Butter or margarine. Marmalade or preserves. Tea or coffee with milk and/or sugar. Lunch.-Soups-bone stock. Any variety of vegetable. Marmite or bovril can be used. To thicken add pearl barley, split peas, or gluten-free flour. Any type of fresh meat, roasted, grilled, fried, or braised. Stew (thicken with gluten-free flour). Tripe. Liver. Kidney. Heart. Fish, boiled, steamed, or grilled (if fried, dip in egg, then in gluten-free flour to coat). Fish in egg custard (egg and milk). Cold ham. Any variety of fresh vegetable. If white sauce is made, thicken with gluten-free flour. Gravy-natural juice of meat, thicken with gluten-free flour. Fruit, fresh or tinned. Sago or rice pudding. Custard (use recommended custard powder only). Jam tart (pastry made with gluten-free flour). Jelly, ice cream (recommended varieties). Blancmange and fruit (recommended custard powder). Sponge cake and custard (see recipe). High Tea or Supper.-Omelettes. Bacon. Egg. Mushrooms. Soused herrings and salad. Sardines in oil and salad. Toasted gluten-free bread with grated cheese. Gluten-free bread. Butter or margarine. Jam or preserves. Cakes (as recipes). Biscuits (as recipes). Puddings as for lunch. Bedtime Drinks.-Milk. Cocoa (recommended varieties). Fruit juice. . Tea or coffee with milk and/or sugar.


A particle swarm optimization(PSO) based multiuser detection(MUD) is proposed for the receive-diversity-aided multi-carrier code-division multiple-access(MC-CDMA) systems in frequency-selective fading channel.Due to the receive-diversity,the signals received at the different antennas are faded independently,resulting in an independent cost function for each antenna.To resolve the multi-objective dilemma when choosing one signal estimation for multiple receive antenna-branches,the virtual Pareto front is introduced,and each particle updates it's velocity and position in a Pareto optimal way.Simulations show that the proposed scheme has the enhanced capabilities of exploration and exploitation and has better performance than the conventional PSO and multi-objective genetic algorithm.


163 The preceding article reported on the first indirect-drive experiments carried out on OMEGA, using cylindrical hohlraums. This article advocates the use of tetrahedral hohlraums, by which are understood spherical hohlraums with four laser entrance holes (LEH's) placed at or near the vertices of a tetrahedron. This alternative approach appears to be well suited to the OMEGA geometry and could offer an alternate route to ignition on the National Ignition Facility (NIF).


The present invention includes a substrate cutting fixture to be used in the circuit board cut to a method processing device and cutting, more efficient, and an object thereof is to realize a cutting quality is high substrate cleavage, the plurality of elements are mounted circuit board (200) was formed on the surface (11) mounting to be placed, the circuit substrate (200) a plurality of suction holes for adsorbing (12, 13), the mounting surface (11 in), the formed along the trace for the laser light irradiated on the circuit board (200) for cutting the circuit board (200), a plurality of laser beams receiving groove for receiving the laser beam ( 15), wherein formed so as to communicate with each laser receiving groove (15), said circuit suction holes (16 for sucking lysate of the circuit board (200) generated by the cleavage of the substrate (200) substrate cutting jig with) and, the Using the (100).


Despite transformative effects on the therapy of cancers such as melanoma and lung adenocarcinoma, blockade of the T cell immune checkpoints has generated limited impact on glioblastoma. Identifying genetic/genomic alterations that could potentially sensitize the patients to immunotherapy will significantly improve the efficacy of immunotherapy on glioblastoma patients. As part of our effort to identify novel glioma suppressors that affect the interaction of GSCs with their microenvironment, we discovered that the RNA-binding protein Quaking (QKI) is a key regulator of cellular endocytosis. QKI is mutated or deleted in ~34% of human glioblastomas. Supporting QKI's tumor suppresser function, 92% of the Nestin-CreERT2;QkiL/L;PtenL/L;p53L/L mice developed glioblastoma with a median survival of 105 days, however, the Nestin-CreERT2;PtenL/L;p53L/L mice did not develop any glioma up to a year. Mechanistically, QKI regulates the RNA stability and alternative splicing of numerous protein and lipid components of endolysosomes, particularly the unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs). Functionally, deletion of Qki and inhibition of UFA biosynthesis both decrease endolysosome-mediated receptor degradation, thereby enriching receptors on the cytoplasmic membrane (e.g., Frizzled and Notch1) that are essential for maintaining stemness. This enrichment of receptor signaling enables GSCs to cope with the low ligand levels during their invasion. On the other hand, lower lysosomal activity induced by Qki deletion and UFA loss led to defective mitophagy. We also found that insufficient UFAs in mitochondrial membrane significantly compromised mitochondrial membrane integrity and function. These two mechanisms concomitantly led to accumulation of damaged mitochondria and higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and consequently genomic instability. Lastly, we found that the higher level of genomic instability induced by Qki loss rendered cells more sensitive to anti-CTLA4 and anti-PD1 antibodies. Taken together, our data suggest that Qki/UFA loss-induced endolysosomal and mitochondrial defects promote gliomagenesis yet render cells vulnerabilities that could be harnessed for therapeutic purposes.


The randomness and volatility of photovoltaic (PV) output brings difficulties to do real-time forecast. This paper proposed a new method called EMD-SVM-GA to forecast PV output real-time. Three steps were needed to carry out the method. Firstly, decompose historical PV output data sequence into several Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF) and a Residual Component based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) theory. Secondly, construct Support Vector Machine (SVM) models for every component and search best parameters by Genetic Algorithm. Then superpose all forecast results to obtain the final data. Examples show that EMD-SVM-GA method has better performance and higher accuracy.


Scholarship on the impact of Lenin's thinking and on the Soviet Union's relationships with Africa has emphasized two dimensions: on the one hand, the ideological imprint on and support provided to nationalist and anti-imperialist movements and, on the other, the emulation of communist techniques of authoritarian rule by many postcolonial governments. This paper highlights the neglected receptions of another major communist idea, namely, the 'Leninist solution to the national question', as embodied by the federal political model of the Soviet Union. The paper argues that many actors in different contexts, where the nationalities question had to be tackled with, showed a keen interest in the Leninist solution and in the sui generis federal model of the USSR. These contexts included the post-1945 French Union, as well as postcolonial countries such as Sudan, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. The Leninist alternative to the nation-state and to assimilation assumed a great deal of significance to minority groups. Nevertheless, it was rejected even by Marxist-inspired movements and elites which sought to create a nation-state. The paper uses the approach of cultural transfers to investigate and assess both the appeal and the limits in the reception of the Leninist federalist alternative.


Insomnia is the most common form of sleep disturbance in childhood. Sleep disorders and a decrease in its duration and quality lead to the development of cognitive disorders, change emotional and behavioral functions of the developing organism, and negatively affect medical and psychological aspects that require medical correction. The article provides an overview of current literature data on pharmacological approaches to insomnia therapy in childhood. The general principles of treatment and the use of various pharmacological groups of drugs are discussed. It is shown that pharmacotherapy of childhood insomnia should be carried out based on knowledge about the age characteristics of patients, efficacy, safety, analysis of pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic parameters of the drugs used. Drug therapy should be combined with cognitive behavioral techniques, including adherence to sleep patterns and hygiene.


The following new species are described from California fishes: Gyrodactylus armatus from Leptocottus armatus Girard, Pacific Ocean, Bodega Bay, Sonoma Co.; G. brevis from Salmo gairdneri Richardson (type host) and Hesperoleucas navarroensis Snyder, Navarro River, Mendocino Co.; G. navarroensis from Hesperoleucas navarroensis Snyder, Navarro River, Mendocino Co.; G. sculpinus from Leptocottus armatus Girard, Pacific Ocean, Bodega Bay, Sonoma Co.; and G. stellatus from Platichthys stellatus (Pallas), Pacific Ocean, Bodega Bay, Sonoma Co. Fishes were seined from California waters. Methods involving host preparation and those concerning preparation, observation, measurement, illustration, and description of new species of Gyrodactylus were employed as given by Mizelle and Kritsky (1967), except that the formalin solution was made with either fresh or marine water according to the habitat of the fish. Measurements are given in mi-


Introduction 1. A sense of mystery 2. The mission revealed 3. The grand prophecy 4. God and Federation 5. Gospels and Gospels 6. Out of the body 7. The religion of 'the best' 8. 'Finish your job and turn in' Conclusion.


The use of constructed wetland to treat civil wastewater is become a widespread method. It is also true that in the last decade this particular technique is becoming more familiar with industrial wastewater treatment. A CW plant used to process the cheese factory washing water provide a discrete quantity of vegetable biomass several times during the year. When the main pollutant is organic based, the final destination of the cut upper side of the plants, could be the anaerobic digestion. In this study was taken under consideration the possibility to use this kind of biomass as a seasonal feed for the anaerobic digestion process. This may allow optimization of the reactor feeding regime and gradually/partially substitute paid biomass with less expensive one. In the experiment was used a self-made 128 L AD pilot plant, already used for similar experiences. With this instrument can be correctly estimate the biogas and methane yield under batch, fed-batch and continuous regime. The test was conducted starting from a situation that simulate a real anaerobic reactor working phase. This start-up stage was conducted loading 50 Kg of cattle slurry mixed with 5 Kg of digestate. Sufficient quantity of Phragmites Australis plants, from Morgex (Aosta - Italy) cheese factory wastewater treatment plant, where harvested and then dried at about 30 °C for almost a month and then mechanically chopped at about 1.5 mm. When acceptable steady state were reached (methane quality exceeds 50% of the produced biogas) inside the reactor, the second stage of the experience was performed. The biomass initially loaded was been gradually substitute with an appropriate percentage of cow manure, cheese whey and chopped phragmites. COD behavior, methane and biogas yields, pH, temperatures, and pressure trends were analyzed


Described are N,N-pentamethylene derivatives of daunomycin and adriamycin having the formula: wherein R1 is -COCH3 or -CHOHCH3 in the case of daunomycin derivatives, or -COCH2OH or -CHOHCH2OH in the case of adriamycin derivatives. The compounds have utility as antitumor agents.


Based on the biding practice of ADB financed Wuhan Luobuzui WWTP deodorization system,the feasibility of functional equipment bidding and the approach of technical realization are analyzed under ADB's Single-Stage:One-Envelope bidding.The practice provides solutions for functional equipment bidding in similar projects.


ABSTRACT Consumers differ in their involvement in new product purchase decisions. Opinion leaders usually show a higher involvement in their purchase decisions than other consumers. This leads to a higher stability in their answers when being asked about their preferences. An important question that previous research has not analyzed yet is whether and how to capture this finding in preference‐based market forecasts. The authors study these aspects for a representative sample of 364 consumers in the mobile phone market of a large European country. They find that assigning higher weights to the preferences of opinion leaders in aggregate market forecasts results in estimates that are more consistent with observed market shares than forecasts in which all consumers are given equal weights. The authors further test different measures of opinion leadership and find that sociometric indicators outperform psychographic constructs to account for the outcome of opinion leadership in preference‐based market forecasts. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


By signing the Agenda 21 declaration from the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, theUK government committed itself to the preparation of a national sustainabledevelopment plan. To facilitate this process, Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 envisagessigni® cant local-authority-led action for sustainable development at the locallevel (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED),1992). Termed Local Agenda 21 (LA21) plans, these rely heavily on activecitizen participation and empowerment, thereby challenging the establishedorthodoxy of top-down down models of citizen participation and planning. Thetheory and the rhetoric suggest that LA21 has the potential to bring aboutsubstantive change to current environmental, economic and social systems.However, does LA21 deliver in practice, and what kind of change, if any, iseffected to attain the elusive goal of sustainable development?This paper addresses these concerns with reference to recent research carriedout in Powys and Ceredigion County Councils in rural Wales (Figure 1). Bothare unitary authorities following local government reorganisation in Wales in1996. By examining survey data, minutes of meetings and reports, as well asemploying participant observation techniques, this research documents andcontrasts the philosophy, approach and potential of the LA21 programmes.


This Legal Scholarship Symposia Articles is brought to you for free and open access by TU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tulsa Law Review by an authorized administrator of TU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact email@example.com. Recommended Citation Lori A. Merrill, Ownership of Unspecified Minerals in Texas and Oklahoma after Reed v. Wylie II, 16 Tulsa L. J. 511 (1980).


ABSTRACT Given two real Banach spaces X and Y with dimensions greater than one, it is shown that there is a sequence of norm attaining norm-one operators from X to Y and a point with , such that This shows that a version of the Bishop–Phelps–Bollobás property in which the operator is not changed is possible only if one of the involved Banach spaces is one-dimensional.


Energy internet zones (EIZ) supply multiple energy carriers to customers in certain regions. They can achieve high energy efficiency by energy cascade utilization. In mid‐term, they participate in the wholesale market and retail market simultaneously. Customers can shift their energy use among different hours and energy carriers to satisfy demand according to the retail prices. Unfortunately, multiple energy systems and markets bring various uncertainties on demand and prices. In this paper, the weekly bidding strategy for the EIZ is proposed to determine the optimal bilateral contracts to sign and the optimal energy retail prices. In retail market, the satisfaction degree and elasticity matrix describe customers' response. Distributionally robust optimization is adopted to consider the distributional uncertainties of random variables and Worst‐case Conditional Value‐at‐Risk is employed for risk management. The distributional uncertainties of pool prices and elasticity matrix are discussed in this paper. An EIZ in Shanghai, China is adopted to illustrate the proposed strategy. The results have great resistance to distributional uncertainties. The risk aversion and satisfaction degree affect the EIZ's strategy in wholesale market and retail market, respectively. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.


This paper deals with an indexed estimation of seed material of farms at the Forest-Steppe zone in Ukraine. Studies have shown that all seed lots of corn and soybeans had signs of trauma. Considerable different quality of seeds in terms of its vigor in the similarity in the laboratory and cold germination even within category of its conditioning is set. Study on the uniformity biopreparation seed treatment, which contains labeling substance, is conducted. Adding food coloring in the Biopolicide did not lead to the suppression of vital activity and functional activity of the cells of his biological agents. Seeds of corn and soybean in manual handling by Biopolicide had sufficiently uniform color, which indicates the effectiveness of processing.


We use the new release of the AKARI Far-Infrared all sky Survey matched with the NVSS radio database to investigate the local ($z<0.25$) far infrared-radio correlation (FIRC) of different types of extragalactic sources. To obtain the redshift information for the AKARI FIS sources we crossmatch the catalogue with the SDSS DR8. This also allows us to use emission line properties to divide sources into four categories: i) star-forming galaxies (SFGs), ii) composite galaxies (displaying both star-formation and active nucleus components), iii) Seyfert galaxies, and iv) low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) galaxies.
We find that the Seyfert galaxies have the lowest FIR/radio flux ratios and display excess radio emission when compared to the SFGs. We conclude that FIRC can be used to separate SFGs and AGNs only for the most radio-loud objects.


Most of the real world problems in the fields of philosophy, physics, statistics, finance, robotics, design theory, coding theory, knot theory, engineering, and information science contain subtle uncertainty and inconsistent, which causes complexity and difficulty in solving these problems.


With awareness of environmental protection strengthens and constraints of regulations and laws to environmental protection increasing, more and more enterprises focus on the closed-loop supply chain management. Considering difference between new product and remanufactured product, this paper constructs closed-loop supply chain system with manufacturers recycling used products directly from the consumers based on game theory. The optimal pricing decisions and the optimal profit of centralized and decentralized closed-loop supply chain are obtained. It is found that the efficiency of decentralized closed-loop supply chain decreases by 25%. At last, the coordination mechanism is designed to solve the profit conflict in the decentralized closed-loop supply chain by the two-part tariff contract.


"The Participation of Italian Arhitects, Sculptors and Entrepreneurs in the Construction of the Heroes' Monuments Fallen in the First World War in Interwar Romania. Seasonal or permanent migration from Italian regions to Romania in the 19th and 20th centuries involved a variable number of unskilled workers but also personalities (artists and sculptors), many Venetians and Friulians, who left clear, tangible evidence, of their stay and the results of their work on the Romanian territory. With the end of the First World War and with the outbreak of Greater Romania, the need to build memorials dedicated to those who fell in the struggles for the unification of the nation was felt throughout the country. Sculptors and entrepreneurs from Veneto and Friuli were among the protagonists of this process of institutionalizing memory. It is worth mentioning, regarding the sculpture, the presence in Romania of the artists Ettore Ferrari and Raffaello Romanelli; the Italian entrepreneurs and stonemasons, Giovanni Battista De Nicolò, Victor and Giovanni Mezzarobba, made a significant contribution to the materialization of the projects to honor the memory of the heroes of the First World War. The artistic and urban involvement of the Italians settled in Romania proved to be important in the construction of public monuments in many cities in Romania. Vincenzo Puschiasis (1874–1941), a sculptor established in Piatra Neamț in 1899, played a special role among the stone carvers of Friulian origin living in Romania. Puschias is established himself in Romania not only locally, but also nationally, through the large number and quality of monuments erected for the Romanian heroes who fell in the First World War. His works are characterized by strength, finesse, elegance, combination of styles and aesthetic harmony. After 1919, Vincenzo Puschias is founded the Construction Company in the County of Neamț, specializing in the construction of memorials dedicated to those who fell in the First World War. Among his most remarkable works in this field are: the funeral complex from the "Eternitatea" Cemetery of Piatra Neamț, made in collaboration with Gheorghe Iconaru; monuments of the heroes erected in Bistricioara, Căciulești, Verșești, Roznov, Bahna, Văleni, Zănești; obelisks in Gârcina, Oanțu, Roznov, Piatra Șoimului, Podoleni; the statue of the hero soldier from Viișoara. Keywords: Italian emigrants; First World War; sculptors and entrepreneurs; Ettore Ferrari; Raffaello Romanelli; The Mausoleum of the Heroes of Mateiaș; Vincenzo Puschiasis. "


The midbrains of four adult Tokay geckos were probed with tungsten microelectrodes to determine sites of multiple-unit responses to the binaural presentation of white noise pulses. Auditory responses


A novel technique for predicting point-to-point execution times on contemporary microprocessors is presented. It uses machine-description rules, similar to those that have proven useful for code generation and peephole optimization, to translate compiled object code into a sequence of very low-level instructions. The stream of micro-instructions is then analyzed for tuning, via a three-level pattern matching scheme. The timing tool is currently predicting execution time of code segments targeted for the Motorola 68020 and Intel 80386 processor. The timing tool has been integrated with a version of the vpo C compiler and the ease environment. A prototype has been built and preliminary tests are very promising.<<ETX>>


The effects of smoking habits on thyroid function, echo-texture (nodules and/or cysts) and thyroid gland volume were determined by using ultrasound and measuring serum Thyroxin (T4), Triiodothyronine (T3), Thyrotropin (TSH) and TPO antibodies (ab-TPO) in 189 healthy smokers and non-smokers, randomly selected (111 females and 78 males) among the employees of our hospital and their relatives. When the entire group of subjects was considered the mean ratio of thyroid gland volume/body weight was found to be significantly higher in male (P<0.05) and female (P<0.05) smokers compared with non- smokers. In female smokers, mean serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) was lower (P<0.05) and the degree of smoking was positively correlated with the ratio of thyroid gland volume/body weight (P<0.05). However, when the subjects with a family history of goitre in first degree relatives were excluded from our study (14 females and 9 males), no significant differences in mean ratio of thyroid volume/weight or TSH between the remaining smokers and non-smokers were detected. In both sexes, the correlation between the degree of smoking and thyroid volume, although positive, did not reach statistical significance. No difference in prevalence of abnormal echogenicity and echo-texture (nodules and cysts) between smokers and non-smokers was detected. It is concluded that smoking habits present a goitrogenic effect only in subjects with a family history of goitre but have no influence on thyroid gland texture.


Abstract  Objectives: Late results after stentless aortic valve replacement (AVR) may be jeopardized by progressive aortic dilatation. To define functional outcome using the intact non‐coronary sinus technique, all patients operated using the stentless Edwards Prima Plus xenograft were assessed. Methods: Between January 2000 and August 2007, 154 patients, aged 71 ± 9 years, underwent stentless AVR using a technique, which replaces the non‐coronary sinus and stabilizes two of three commissures. Indication was aortic valve stenosis (AS) in 103 (67%) patients: 33 (21%) had bicuspid valve and four endocarditis. Ninety‐six (62%) patients were in NYHA III‐IV, and 13 (8%) had LVEF <30%. Associated procedures were required in 59 (38%) patients (CABG, 34; ascending aorta, 22; others 3). Study endpoints were survival, freedom from valve‐related events, clinical status, and graft function. Results: There were two hospital and two late deaths during a 48 ± 19 months (1–92) follow‐up (97 ± 3% survival at seven years). Seven‐year freedom from structural failure, nonstructural failure, and endocarditis was 99 ± 1%, 97 ± 3%, and 98 ± 2%. Follow‐up NYHA (96 vs ten patients in class III‐IV, p = 0.001), and cardiac function (13 vs one patient with LVEF <30%, p = 0.02) were improved. Xenograft performance was satisfactory: 0–2 + aortic insufficiency (AI) in 147 (98%) patients, mean trans‐prosthetic pressure gradient 8 ± 4 (0–25 mmHg). Aortic root diameters were comparable to postoperative values (sinus of Valsalva, 36 ± 8 vs 35 ± 9 mm, p = ns; sinotubular junction, 32 ± 7 vs 34 ± 8 mm, p = ns). Conclusions: Stentless AVR with non‐coronary sinus replacement affords excellent late outcome and low rate of valve‐related events, even in complex patients (bicuspid valve, LV failure, and endocarditis). Aortic root dimensions remain stable over time allowing rewarding xenograft function.


his report examines federal law regarding obscenity and indecency. The First Amendment provides: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." In general, the First Amendment protects pornography, with this term being used to mean any erotic material. The Supreme Court, however, has held that the First Amendment does not protect two types of pornography: obscenity and child pornography. Consequently, they may be banned on the basis of their content, and federal law prohibits the mailing of obscenity, as well as its transport or receipt in interstate or foreign commerce.


Q. Cui,1,7 Q. Huang,2 Jose A. Alonso,3 Denis Sheptyakov ,4 C. R. De la Cruz,5 M. T. Fernández-Díaz,6 N. N. Wang,1,7 Y. Q. Cai,1 D. Li,1,7 X. L. Dong,1,7,8 H. D. Zhou ,2 and J.-G. Cheng 1,7,8,* 1Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA 3Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, CSIC, Cantoblanco, E-28049 Madrid, Spain 4Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland 5Quantum Condensed Matter Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37381, USA 6Institut Laue Langevin, BP 156X, Grenoble F-38042, France 7School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China 8Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China


Mo field emitters with a lateral wedge have been fabricated using a dual beam system consisting of a focused ion beam (FIB) and a field emission electron beam. A FIB process was applied to the fabrication of a lateral-type wedge field emitter. An emitter–collector gap for the wedge emitter gap produced by physical sputtering of the Mo layer on SiO2/Si by a FIB and subsequent wet etching of the underlying silicon dioxide layer. Controlled gaps of 10–500 nm could be obtained by raster scanning of a FIB. An emission current of up to 2 μA was observed for a wedge emitter with a gap of 100 nm.


Biogas solutions in the Nordics is undergoing rapid developments and the demand for biogas is ever increasing because of the Russian war on Ukraine and the transition to fossil free industry and transportation. Furthermore, with the introduction of several multi-national companies into the biogas sector in the Nordics and with more and more biomethane being traded across national borders, it becomes increasingly important to view biogas solutions in the Nordics as a whole and to go beyond the confines of each individual nation. Since the transition and the current energy crisis require a quick response, understanding what could be done with current technologies and established substrates is important to guide decision-making in the short-term. This study aims to do just that by presenting the current biogas potential for the Nordics, including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The potential was estimated for eight categories: food waste, manure, food industry waste, sludge from wastewater treatment, landscaping waste, straw, agricultural residues, and crops with negligible indirect land use effects (such as ley crops and intermediary crops). Two categories were excluded due to a lack of appropriate estimation procedures and time to develop such procedures, and these were marine substrates and forest industry waste. Furthermore, several categories are somewhat incomplete due to lack of data on the availability of substrates and their biogas characteristics. These include, for example, crops grown on Ecological focus areas, excess ley silage, damaged crops, and certain types of food industries. The specifics of each category is further detailed in Section 2 of the report. In the report, the biogas potential includes the biomethane potential, the nutrient potential, and the carbon dioxide production potential, capturing all outputs of a biogas plant. The results of the potential study show that the current biomethane potential for the Nordics is about 39 TWh (140 PJ) per year when considering the included biomass categories in the short-term perspective. In relation to current production, realizing this potential would mean a roughly fourfold increase in yearly production, meaning that a significant unexploited potential remains. On the nutrient side, the biogas system in the Nordics would, given the realization of the estimated potential, be of roughly the same size as current mineral fertilizer use (about 75 percent for nitrogen and 160 percent for phosphorous). While this represents the management of a significant portion of nutrients used in agriculture, the potential to replace or reduce mineral fertilizer use through biogas expansion remains unexplored in this study since a significant portion of nutrients come from biomass that is already used as fertilizer (e.g., manure). Finally, on the carbon dioxide side, about 4.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would be produced, which could be either captured and stored or captured and utilized, thereby further increasing the positive environmental effects associated with biogas solutions. In conclusion, there remains a large unexploited biogas potential in the Nordics, even when only considering current technologies and established feedstock that could be realized in the short-term (the theoretical potential is much larger since many substrate categories are excluded and the potential is limited to established technologies). Such a realization would bring large increases to biomethane production but would also mean that a significant amount of nutrients would be recirculated through the biogas system. This means that the biogas system has a key role to play in increasing both the food and energy security in the Nordic countries, in addition to its many positive environmental effects.


The pottery craft in Indonesia faces a challenge in the postmodern era that demands them to self-adjust. This study uses qualitative approach in the case study of the Bayat Klaten's pottery industry. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews, participatory observations, and documentation. Data analysis was done using Miles and Huberman's interactive model. The findings reveal that (1) the social system at Bayat's ceramics industry was a collaborative effort among the Bayat community. This is a contributing factor in facing the challenges in postmodern era. (2) The production of the products is adjusted with the needs of the current time and creative approach. (3) There are many types of modification in the Bayat pottery products, yet they still represent old elements such as ornaments as decoration. This study is expected to develop the creative thinking skill among high school/vocational high school students through pottery making. Keywords— pottery industry, Bayat creative pottery, postmodern


Microeconomic theory deals with the study of indivi dual units of an economy, such as, the demand of a single consumer and the behaviour of a single firm. Macroe onomics deals with the study of the economy as a w hole. It studies variables like national income and employment. In m icroeconomics, the assumption is that there is the full employment of resources. While in macroeconomics there is no such assumption. Microeconomics deals with a pricing of different factors of production while macroeconomics deals with econo mic growth and development. Microeconomics makes us of partial equilibrium analysis while macroeconomics makes use of general equilibrium analysis. This paper endeav ors to identify the differences and similarities between microecono mics and macroeconomics, outline the scope of micro economics and macroeconomics, and examine the role of each in pol icymaking.


This work describes a new concept of pigging using low density from to prevent/removal of wax in subsea satellite well flowline. The methodology of wax control is world pioner. The pigs are sent through a 2.5 in lift gas line, and through a wet x-mas tree, not designed to be pigged, and back through the flowline.


This paper explores research carried out in order to demonstrate the profitability of libraries that make use of social media both to offer products and services to the users in line with their expectations and needs and to deliver significant ROI. A set of social media indicators to measure the evolution and results has also been established.


In the United States, patients make 1 billion visits to physicians' offices every year.1 These visits are the principal way patients access health care and are the building blocks of the patient-physician relationship, at an estimated annualcostofnearly$600billion.2 Paymentsystemchanges are fueling growth in alternatives to the traditional office visit, raising the question of how often patients should visit and interact with their clinicians. The large variation in practice, the paucity of research on the subject, and the emergence of accountable care organizations (ACOs), in which health systems uphold quality standards and assume a share of financial risk for patient costs, present new impetus to examine this question from an individual and a population health perspective. Physicians tend to schedule routine health visits for adults every 3, 6, or 12 months, but this frequency does not always satisfy the complexity of care needs. Little is known about the optimal follow-up interval—whether defined by health outcomes, care utilization, or clinician or patient experience.3 Despite relatively low visit rates by international comparisons, some limited studies suggest that patients may need fewer visits than physicians may think are necessary.3 Nonetheless, consensus guidelines for adult visits tend to offer wide ranges of follow-up times or avoid making recommendations because of concerns about patient and disease heterogeneity and lack of evidence. This ambiguity, coupled with the subjective yet critical task of building the patient-physician relationship, differing patient expectations, and concern about litigation, has led to wide variation in how frequently physicians schedule follow-up visits with their patients.4 In a study using clinical vignettes, Cutler et al5 found that 23% of 500 responding cardiologists recommended follow-up intervals for patients with stable angina that were shorter than the 4to 12-month range advised by 2005 guidelines. In 2013, at Massachusetts General Hospital, each physician (n=1594) saw his or her outpatients an average of 1 to 24 times, averaging a visit every 8.4 months, whereas nearly 20% of physicians (n=306) saw patients every 6 months or more on average. When generalists and specialists co-manage patients, there is variation in which physicians perform which tasks and in turn, in the frequency of visits. Underlying this variation is the traditional fee-for-service payment model that rewards individual clinicians and health systems for more frequent visits and limits alternative touch points customized to individual patients' needs such as telephone text messages or home visits. The ACO, along with other forms of bundled payment, is an increasingly prevalent model designed in part to counter the incentive for excess. Since the Affordable Care Act mandated the creation of ACOs for Medicare beneficiaries in 2010, more than 600 public and private versions of the ACO have been created covering more than 18 million patients nationally.6 The success of ACOs depends on their ability to improve care and serve more patients within the constraints of their current infrastructures, so they benefit financially from the "right" number of visits—the lowest number that maintains good outcomes while preventing avoidable hospitalizations. Excess visits are costly in their own right by virtue of patient time and transportation costs, as well as through the tests and treatments that accompany them. In one study, one-third of 30 000 patients at Veterans Affairs hospitals underwent lipid tests unsupported by guidelines, attributed in part to more frequent visits to primary care practitioners.7 Fewer follow-up visits for marginal indications would create capacity for more acute care visits, complex care, and new patients. By a conservative estimate, cost savings may also be substantial. For instance, based on information from the 2014 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and from the Partners HealthCare ACO, and assuming a median per-visit cost of $286, it is possible that among patients who make 3 or more visits per year (36% of patients), reducing visits by one-quarter of a visit each year would save $1.9 million (0.24% of per-member, per-year cost) among Partners HealthCare's Medicare ACO patients and $470 million among all ACO patients nationally. Annual reduction by 1 visit would save $7.6 million (1.0%) at Partners HealthCare and $1.9 billion nationally.2 So how might physicians and health care organizations work toward the optimal number of visits? The solution involves analysis of current practice, coordination among clinicians, and alternatives to traditional visits. To start, ACOs could use scheduling data to examine variation in clinician-specific follow-up rates. More ambitiously, they could study factors that drive visit rates and associations with clinical outcomes. Clinicians could use decision support to operationalize existing guidelines, then create and implement new ones based on consensus-driven clinical goals. Visit interval guidance could be modified in real time based on clinical inputs such as medication changes and patient-reported outcomes to reflect true need. For example, a patient beginning therapy with a diuretic for heart failure may be scheduled to have a return visit in 1 month to assess medication tolerance and to check electrolytes and renal function. Future visit VIEWPOINT


A bandwidth efficient way to cope with the highly bursty traffic of the Internet is to resort to on-demand fast reservation of optical circuits (or lightpaths). Taking into consideration the data burst size, signaling dynamics and network latency, the paper compares performance of centralized versus distributed reservation mechanisms for WDM ring.


Polymeric composite materials are now very well established in all areas of engineering and are still increasingly being used to replace metallic counterparts. As an important advantage, composite materials hold the promise of multifunctionality, that is, fine tuning the material composition to synthetically achieve specific requirements. Among these requirements, the electrical conductivity is still limited to values orders of magnitude below those of typical metals. An approach to conductive fillers, which involves taking advantage of the favorable properties of both carbonaceous and metallic fillers to provide near metallic conductivity to the surface of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites is herein presented by the authors. The synthesis of hybrid core‐shell high aspect ratio carbon–silver nanoparticles with a continuous silver coating, which allows both a low contact resistance between individual fillers and a greater connectivity owing to the wire‐like morphology of the particles is achieved by the authors. Incorporating the nanoparticles in an epoxy matrix yields a conductivity of 2.5 × 105 S m−1 at a loading of 6.3 vol% for a corresponding material density is of 1.9 g cm−3. The conductivity reached is high enough even to divert emulated lightning strike energy.


Present paper proposes a novel scheme to utilize Voltage Mode Control (VMC) over Peak Current Mode Control (PCMC) to achieve a wide output voltage adjustability range with a Current Doubler output circuit in order to overcome the issue of inductor current imbalance. The proposed scheme is validated in an actual prototype of a 3.6kW/30 V-120A Phase Shift Full Bridge (PSFB) converter.


"This exhibition began both as a tribute to International Women's Year and as a response to the feeling that a significant body of work was being done by women artists in British Columbia, working in artistic and geographic isolation from each other, and that a representation of it should be brought together under one roof." -- p.3


Genetic disorders are causing a lot of complex problems in our daily life. Due to the large scale amount of discrepancies in the genes we are unable to find a cure for many genetic disorders. Understanding many genetics disorders it is taking a lot of time. The number of people suffering by the genetic disorders is increasing day by day. We are yet to find a remedy to the problems occurring due to the genes.


This chapter focuses on the involvement of Chinese Indonesians in electoral politics in post-Suharto Medan and Surabaya and how this intersects with their stereotypical position as businesspeople. The opening up of a democratic environment in post-Suharto Indonesia has prompted many Chinese Indonesians to get involved in electoral politics. Some of them become electoral candidates in order to push for reform and positive changes in Indonesia and reject approaches of support for their campaigns in return for political and business favours. But there are also those who become actively involved in politics with the aim of gaining political protection for their business instead of fighting for the interests of the general public. Ironically, the latter often have a higher chance of getting elected, because of the increased cost of campaigning in direct elections introduced during the democratisation process. Their own wealth, or the willingness to accept support from corrupt businesspeople, often Chinese, ensures enough funds to obtain party support and to bribe voters. In this way, Chinese businesspeople continue to establish corrupt and patrimonial relationships with aspiring politicians in exchange for political favours for their business.


Mobile phones security is an emerging field of study. As the number of data-centric mobile phones grows, the industry experts expect them to face major security problems. We believe the first step to devise countermeasures for protecting users would be a comprehensive understanding of the mobile users' perception of risk. We report on a qualitative grounded theory study to inspect such perception. The initial thematic analysis identified relationship between level of knowledge and security attitude. However, further grounded theory analysis returned in personality type taxonomy for exposure for mobile attacks in general and phishing attacks in particular. We confirm our findings by conducting the first naturalistic phishing experiment on mobile phones


The quarter foremilk samples from 144 apparently healthy quarters of 37 lactating cows were subjected to sodium lauryl sulphate test and cultural isolation for 3 consecutive days to define the health status of quarters asper International Dairy Federation criteria. The samples were also analysed for electrical conductivity, fat, total protein, lactose and SNF. Health-wise distribution of quarters revealed: Healthy (48.61%), specific mastitis (25.0%), non-specific mastitis (11.11%) and latent mastitis (15.28%). A significantly (P< 0.05) higher mean ′ SD values of electrical conductivity (Milli mho/cm) were observed for specific (6.98 ′ 0.99) and non-specific mastitis (6.69 ′ 1.16). Similarly, both the specific and non-specific mastitis quarters had significantly (P<0.05) lower lactose and SNF contents; the actual values (%) for 2 components were 4.62 ′ 0.27 and 8.13 ′ 0.43 inhealthy, 3.82 ′ 0.76 and 7.33 ′ 1.05 in specific and 3.61 ′ 0.82 and 7.34 ′ 0.92 in non-specific mastitis. Significantly higher total protein but not the fat was observed in specific mastitis. In reverse, non-specific mastitis showed higher fat but not the total protein. The latent mastitis did not produce any significant change for any of the milk components. It may be concluded that both specific and non-specific udder reactions are equally important in altering milk composition.


Introduction. The operation of lifting cranes is an integral part of the production processes. For the trouble-free operation of these mechanisms, certain knowledge, skills and abilities are required, which should also be possessed by specialists performing organizational and supervisory functions at facilities where such cranes are involved. Here there is an important problem – the lack of a reasonable connection between the level of development of professional competencies and possible emergency situations, as well as various incidents during the operation of lifting cranes. The authors of this study are trying to solve it. Their goal in this regard is to assess the probability of an emergency during the operation of lifting cranes, depending on the level of professional competence of specialists, through the use of neural networks.Materials and Methods. The competencies of workers in the operation of lifting cranes (knowledge, skills and work responsibilities) provided for by the professional standard «Specialist in the operation of lifting structures» were used as initial data to train neural networks. Based on them, a list of possible incidents was compiled. For the purposes of training, the results of the certification of 200 conditional employees were generated. During the generation, the Monte Carlo method was used, and the data were output to Excel tables. Neural networks were trained in Python 3.10 in the PyCharm development environment. Open libraries Keras and TensorFlow, as well as auxiliary libraries for data representation and processing (Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn) were used for neural networks training.Results. As a result, a tool was obtained – a neural network in the form of executable program code, which makes it possible to assess the probability of emergencies during the operation of lifting cranes by analyzing the degree of proficiency of specialists in professional competencies. It is proposed to implement artificial intelligence technologies based on neural networks in order to assess the knowledge, skills and abilities of specialists of facilities operating lifting cranes, both during the certification of employees and in the course of work.Discussion and Conclusion. The main result of using neural networks to assess the knowledge of employees of facilities operating lifting cranes is the expected reduction in accidents, which can be ensured by timely identification of incompetent personnel at the stages of primary certification and, most importantly, during periodic tests of knowledge based on an impartial analysis and evaluation of data.


Our study is the first to investigate the effects of reparations for victims of gross human rights violations. In Colombia, victims of forced displacement, homicide, and other atrocities during the conflict received a lump-sum payment equal to three times their annual household income. Using novel linked administrative microdata and event studies, we show that reparations help victims rebuild their lives and significantly improve their well-being and that of their children. Specifically, reparations promote investment in physical and human capital, leading to enhanced living and health conditions, better educational outcomes, and increased asset-building and entrepreneurship, despite slightly discouraging labor supply.


Reliable extrinsic calibration is critical to fuse camera and inertial measurement unit (IMU), which are usually used in stereo visual-inertial odometry (VIO), however, it is difficult to obtain extrinsic parameters in practice. This article proposes a stereo VIO with the capability of calibrating the unknown extrinsic parameters online. The initial values of IMU-camera and camera–camera transformations are estimated during the initial process, which fully leverages commonly observed features between stereo cameras. The pose and velocity are estimated and the extrinsic parameters are jointly refined. In addition, the accelerometer and gyroscope biases, and gravity direction are taken into account. The proposed VIO scheme has been demonstrated to be effective without prior knowledge of extrinsic parameters.


A computer system can be secured by using various methods like firewalls, anti-virus tools, network security tools, malware removal tools, monitoring tools etc. These tools and applications are being by most of the computer users. These computer security tools need to be updated and monitored regularly by the user. If any computer users fail to update the security tools, then the computer system may be infected by virus or may be attacked. Through this paper a learning system is being proposed to provide security by identify the operating system process as Self and Non-Self. Concepts of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Learning have been used for the identification of processes. Initially, an Artificial Neural Network is created by using processes parameters with random weights. These weights are updated by using Gradient Descent Algorithm for various training examples, and then this Artificial Neural Network is tested with test data examples. It has been observed that the Artificial Neural Network Learning provides a better approach for identifying Self and Non-Self process and provides a better security.


While researchers worldwide have spent much effort on quantitatively evaluating organic carbon at the regional scale, few studies have examined organic carbon pools at different levels, or their driving factors. Comprehensive analysis in this field would facilitate a deeper understanding of carbon pool mechanisms and lay a foundation for future work. In this study, the improved Terrestrial Ecosystem Regional (TECO-R) model was modified and parameters were calibrated for local application. The vegetation, litter, soil, and ecosystem carbon pools in the Xilingol typical steppe region of Inner Mongolia, China were quantitatively modeled for the 2011–2018 period. The organic carbon pools at different levels were compared and analyzed in terms of their spatial distribution, inter-annual variation, and climate-driving factors. Overall, the modified TECO-R model accurately simulated carbon storage, revealing that the various organic carbon pools increased overall and were characterized by different degrees of clustering in their spatial distribution, inter-annual variation, and climate-driving factors. Clear formation mechanisms were observed in the soil, litter, and root carbon pools. As the soil depth increased, the carbon stock of the root carbon pool and the soil carbon pool decreased. Climate factors exerted different degrees of constraints on each carbon pool. Integrated studies, such as this, promote understanding of the compositional differences in grassland carbon pools and the driving mechanism for these carbon pools, which, taken together, can help shape the policy for carbon sink management in grasslands.


This paper discusses dynamics of collagen metabolism, woman' GAGs participating in comprehensive treatment of the aging process of skin. The results were confirmed by an experiment on white rats.


Based on the nonlinear finite element analysis results and the known theoretical equations for the two extreme regimes of bending plate and stretching membrane, we propose two new closed-form formulas for determining the adhesion energy or interfacial energy release rate for pressurized and point-loaded blister tests. A comparison with existing experimental data shows that the present formulas can predict energy release rate well in the full range of all parameters, covering all three regimes of bending plate, transition from plate to membrane, and stretching membrane, for both pressurized and point-loaded blister tests.


An inexpensive system for maintaining desired water potentials throughout seed germination was developed. During hydration, a water reservoir at the base of inclined petri dishes allowed continual saturation of filter paper on which seeds were placed. During dehydration, seeds were exposed to equilibrium vapor pressures above saturated salt solutions (...)


This article shows the optimization of the reverse osmosis process in seawater desalination plants, taking the example of the Canary Islands, where there are more than 320 units of different sizes, both private and public. The objective is to improve the energy efficiency of the system in order to save on operation costs as well as reduce the carbon and ecological footprints. Reverse osmosis membranes with higher surface area have lower energy consumption, as well as energy recovery systems to recover the brine pressure and introduce it in the system. Accounting for the operation, maintenance and handling of the membranes is also important in energy savings, in order to improve the energy efficiency. The energy consumption depends on the permeate water quality required and the model of the reverse osmosis membrane installed in the seawater desalination plant, as it is shown in this study.


Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea is a significant problem in many hospitals and chronic care facilities (2). When established in the colon, pathogenic strains of C. difficile produce toxins that cause diarrhea and colitis; strains that do not produce toxins are not pathogenic. Toxin A (molecular mass, 308 kDa) acts as an enterotoxin, while toxin B (molecular mass, 250 to 270 kDa) acts as a cytotoxin (3), and both toxins may act synergistically in vivo.

We report a case of isolation of a Clostridium sp. other than C. difficile that produced A and B toxins from an elderly patient belonging to a group of 17 subjects with diarrhea who were admitted to the same room of the orthopedics unit and all treated with ceftriaxone for 7 to 10 days of prophylaxis before operation. Diarrhea in this group of patients lasted for 20 days, but the patients were not simultaneously affected. Stool samples from all patients were collected in clear containers and screened for exotoxins A and B by a commercially available enzyme immunoassay (Ridascreen C. difficile toxin A, B; R-Biopharm, Darmstadt, Germany). Swabs of stool specimen from each patient were transported in an anaerobic system (Port-A-Cul; BBL) and inoculated onto C. difficile selective agar plates (Oxoid) prepared in-house. The plates were then incubated anaerobically for 48 to 72 h at 35°C. Colonies were identified as Clostridium by colonial morphology, Gram's stain, and biochemical profile (API 20 A anaerobe and Vitek ANI systems; bio-Merieux).

Out of samples from 17 patients, toxins A and B were detected at different times in the stools of only 8 patients, but no C. difficile was isolated. In our experience, this is very unusual, because we generally isolate C. difficile from stools with toxins A and B. For the last 3 of the 17 patients we therefore considered all the clostridia isolated, namely, C. paraputrificum, C. baratii, C. tertium, C. bifermentans, C. innocuum, C. clostridiiforme, and C. sporogenes. After identification the clostridium strains were cultured and stored, before being checked for the presence of toxigenic products, in Bactec plus anaerobic vials (Becton Dickinson) containing liquid medium and matrix with fluorescent material that reacts to CO2 produced by bacteria. This reaction, as measured by the photodetectors of an instrument, is evidence of bacterial growth. We chose this method because the bacterial culture is performed outside an anaerobic chamber and we observed (unpublished observation) that the production of bacterial exotoxins may be predicted by the black coloring of matrix at the bottom of the vials. Indeed, the bacterial cultures of nontoxigenic strains produced no change in color and the matrix remained brown, while exotoxin-producing strains changed the matrix to black. Only in one of the last three patients considered did we identify a strain of C. baratii producing exotoxins A and B. Cultures of this microorganism were positive for A and B exotoxin production by enzyme immunoassay and for cytotoxin B by tissue culture assay using Vero cells and C. difficile antitoxin B (Biolife) as a control. After the addition of a 0.5-ml inoculum (0.5 McFarland) in 30 ml of liquid medium, C. difficile ATCC 9689 produced black coloring of the matrix in 3 days while C. baratii produced black coloring in 8 days. This Clostridium sp. was positive for C. difficile antigens by a latex agglutination test (Meridian Diagnostics Inc.), but its biochemical profile and gas chromatography results were different from those of C. difficile ATCC 9689 and similar to those of a C. baratii toxin nonproducer. For toxigenic C. baratii tested by an agar dilution method (4), the MICs of teicoplanin and metronidazole were 1 and 8 mg/liter, respectively. The patients with diarrhea were treated at first with metronidazole without success and later with teicoplanin. This experience suggests that Clostridium microorganisms other than C. difficile sometimes produce A and B toxins but also that C. baratii, which is reported as a botulinal toxin producer (1, 5), is capable of toxin A and B production.


This paper aims to provide new insights into information systems (IS) project management success. Even though many studies found in the literature show results of software development projects, few studies address the success of IS (socio-technical) projects. Responses to an international survey, regarding 472 projects in total, showed that IS project management is achieving high levels of success; yet, only a minority of projects end without changes in scope, schedule or cost. Furthermore, the results show that changes in scope, schedule or cost are frequent in this kind of project and do not significantly affect the perception of success. These results provide researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of IS project management success evaluation.


The aim of this study is to demonstrate and analyse energy management practices to increase energy efficiency in industries. In the study, examples of energy efficiency increasing applications that can be carried out in industrial organizations were discussed and the amount of savings for these applications was calculated. The main energy efficiency applications discussed in the study are the heat recovery in boilers and furnaces, thermal insulation, and heat recovery in HVAC systems. As a result of this study, with energy management and energy efficiency applications, 38.2% of heat recovery and 15.79% of fuel savings were achieved when recuperators were used in the furnace. While the boiler thermal efficiency was 64.46% when the recuperator was not used, the boiler thermal efficiency increased to 76.54% when the recuperator was used. In HVAC systems, heat recovery was achieved with 47% efficiency with the recuperator, heat exchanger with 51% efficiency and 1.09 COP in heat pump. In cooling applications, 30.4 % energy saving was achieved in the insulated room.


Establishment of a transient gene delivery system, such as adenovirus (Ad) vectors, into embryonic stem (ES) cells and their aggregation form, embryoid bodies (EBs), is essential for its application in regenerative medicine because the transgene should not be integrated in the host genome. In this study, we optimized Ad vector‐mediated transduction into EBs, and examined whether Ad vector‐mediated transduction of adipogenesis‐related gene into EBs could promote the adipocyte differentiation.


A 2-dimensional climate model is established,which considers the radiant energy transfer process.Through using it,the relationship between the ice line latitude and concentration of CO_2 as well as the curve of mean global surface temperature change with concentration of CO_2 are analytically gained.And then an explicit analysis has been made and some interesting results have been obtained. It is suggested that if the concentration of CO_2 increases from the level of 280×10~(-6) in pre-industrial era to 700×10~(-6),the ice line will recede northward by several latitudes(in the North Hemisphere);while the concentration continues to increase,there will be a quick receding and even no ice covers the earth eventually.Accompanying with this,the mean global surface temperature will rise, with a slowed down increasing velocity before the level of 700×10~(-6) reached but an accelerating rate after 700×10~(-6).To verify the impact of albedo,the different albedo values ranged from 0.1 to 0.32 are tested.It is found that with the change of albedo the results vary little.The model does not have much sensitivity to albedo.According to the calculation,the warming effect incited by CO_2 seems to tend to approach a quasi-saturated state in the current situation,that is,the climate system will not transform fast to a warming globe due to the increase of CO_2.A more realistic circumstance might be that the global temperature will rise robustly after an andante increasing.According to the computational results,this critical value is near 700×10~(-6).However,that does not mean the warming effect of CO_2 can be ignored.It can be implied from the results that the climate will be in a very warm state and the temperature will rise robustly after exceeding the critical value.


The huge amount of multimedia data produced worldwide requires annotation in order to enable universal content access and to provide content-based search-and-retrieval functionalities. Since manual video annotation can be time consuming, automatic annotation systems are required. We review recent approaches to content-based indexing and annotation of videos for different kind of sports and describe our approach to automatic annotation of equestrian sports videos. We especially concentrate on MPEG-7 based feature extraction and content description, where we apply different visual descriptors for cut detection. Further, we extract the temporal positions of single obstacles on the course by analyzing MPEG-7 edge information. Having determined single shot positions as well as the visual highlights, the information is jointly stored with meta-textual information in an MPEG-7 description scheme. Based on this information, we generate content summaries which can be utilized in a user-interface in order to provide content-based access to the video stream, but further for media browsing on a streaming server.


A class of locally compact quantum semigroups in the sense of WORONOWICZ, containing the quantized Heisenberg group, is studied. The underlying quantum space is described in terms of a crossed product. We show the existence of a universal corepresentation and a Pontryagin dual, which turns out to be a twisted crossed product. The Pontryagin duality for these quantum semigroups is investigated.


The Mar Menor lagoon has been subjected to high anthropogenic pressures. Among them, in the early 1970s, dredging and enlargement of one of the inlets to make a navigable channel has had strong consequences on the hydrology, ecology, and fisheries of the lagoon. In recent years, changes in agricultural practices have induced an eutrophication process, leading to loss of water quality. As a solution, some management proposals have included dredging of the inlets in order to increase the water renewal. However, these proposals did not take into account the negative effects of previous experiences nor the consequences on environmental conditions of the lagoon and therefore on biological processes. The purpose of this work is to assess the effect that proposed mitigation measures, could have on the hydrodynamic conditions and discuss its possible ecological consequences. A three-dimensional (3D) numerical model has been used to simulate the lagoon under different dredging scenarios, covering different dredging depths and extensions. The simulated current fields and fluxes through the inlets, as well as water renewal times have been compared for the different scenarios. It is found that some of the considered scenarios take the system beyond the threshold of sustainability, where the modified current dynamics could affect sediment transport, beach dynamics and fishing capacities in a significant way. Water exchange with the Mediterranean is also strongly affected, with consequences for species connectivity, and a homogenization of the water renewal times that could lead to loss of ecosystem heterogeneity and structural complexity. The study demonstrates the utility of numerical models as effective tools for the management of coastal areas.


Category: Other Introduction/Purpose: Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are used to inform treatment, payment, and health policy decisions. As such, it is crucial to develop a robust understanding of extrinsic factors influencing PROM scores. Prior studies suggest sociodemographic factors are associated with variation in outcome scores not only in response to treatment, but also at initial presentation. The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to deepen our understanding of sociodemographic factors affecting baseline PROMs in a foot and ankle population; and second, to assess the extent to which modifiable sociodemographic factors may explain perceived racial and ethnic disparities in outcomes. Increased understanding of the complex relationships between health and social factors may facilitate conscientious use of PROMs and help identify points of intervention for reducing healthcare disparities. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed baseline Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) and PROMIS Global-Mental scores of 26,409 foot and ankle patients within our institutional database from 2015 to 2021. Primary predictors included age, sex, race, ethnicity, primary language, education level, median household income, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. All continuous predictors were transformed into categorical variables for analyses. Descriptive analyses, two-tailed T-tests, and Bonferroni post hoc analyses were utilized to assess variation in unadjusted baseline PROM scores stratified by sociodemographic factors. Multivariable modeling was utilized to investigate the independent correlations with and relative importance of the predictors in accounting for variability in outcome scores while adjusting for confounding by all. To examine if the effects of race and ethnicity were modulated by related predictors, we used a series of sequential regression models and evaluated the change in race and ethnicity parameter estimates and R2 values upon including additional predictors in the models. Results: On unadjusted analysis, our data revealed differences in FAAM and PROMIS Global-Mental scores that exceeded the minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) when stratified by educational level and primary language spoken, but not age, sex, race, ethnicity, median household income, or Charlson Comorbidity Index. Our models accounted for less than 20% of the observed variation in PROM scores. In adjusted models, education level was most prominently associated with baseline scores. Black vs White race had a minor effect in unadjusted models, well below the MCID, and appears to be influenced by differences in education level and household income, which do importantly impact outcomes. Hispanic ethnicity had a larger effect than race in unadjusted analyses and appears to be explained by primary language spoken, education level, and median household income. Conclusion: FAAM and PROMIS Global-Mental baseline scores differed by amounts exceeding the MCID when stratified by educational level and primary language spoken. In adjusted models, race and ethnicity did not independently correlate with clinically significant variations in PROMs scores. Interventions to eliminate disparities among racial and ethnic groups should address modifiable factors such as improving health literacy and removing language and financial barriers to care. To avoid widening health disparities, differences in education level and primary language spoken should be acknowledged when using PROMs as a metric in research, clinical care, or health policy.


We perform electrical characterization on single cells using dual nanoprobe through environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM)-nanomanipulator system. The ability to characterize the electrical property of single cells can be used as a novel method for cell viability detection in a quantitative and fast manner. The nanoprobe has been successfully fabricated using focused ion beam (FIB) tungsten deposition and etching processes. The characteristics of the nanoprobe have been examined from the energy dispersion spectrometry (EDS) and noise analyses. In this paper, for the first time, the electrical property of single cells under their native condition was presented. In order to realize this method for cell viability detection, two types of cells were used, i.e. dead cells and live cells. The results showed that there is a significant different on the electrical measurement data between dead and live cells.


Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of cutaneous candidiasis among patients with skin mycoses in Baquba, the center of Diyala province. Patients and methods: During the period from October/2003 to July/2005, a total of 972 specimens (skin scrapping and/or nail) were collected from patients attending the out-patient clinic for dermatology and venereal diseases in Baquba General Hospital. Direct microscopical examination and culture were done for specimens. Identification of candida species based on standard cultural and biochemical criteria. All data were statistically analyzed. Results: The results revealed that 753 (77.5%) patients were clinically and laboratory confirmed as having skin mycoses, 197(26.2%) of them have cutaneous candidiasis. The prevalence of candida infection was significantly higher in folded skin compared to other body sites and in females compared to males (64.8% vs 35.2%).Additionally, the highest rate was recorded in 12-21 years age group, and there was insignificant difference in the infection rate regarding the residence. Similarly, there was insignificant association between candida species and site of infection. Conclusion: Cutaneous candidiasis constitute about one quarter of skin mycoses infections in Diyala province, Iraq.


Low cost and compact 3D imaging for various applications like face-recognition, machine vision or LIDAR for automotive has introduced new requirements in terms of NIR light source characterization. These sources must comply safety regulations and must be verified rapidly and accurately during the fabrication process. In addition, precise characterization of the light source emissions within their entire angular aperture is mandatory to get accurate 3D images. The paper introduces a new Fourier optics system dedicated to this task.


PURPOSE: An AC(alternative current) operating LED(light emitting diode) apparatus and operating current control method thereof are provided to output current which is close to a sine wave by controlling a plurality of input current as each constant current or constant voltage. CONSTITUTION: One side of a first LED array(120) is connected to an output side of an AC power source. One side of a second LED array(130) is connected to an input side of the AC power source. An input side of a rectifying unit(140) connects to other side of a second LED array and a first LED array, one side of the second LED array, and an input side of the AC power source. An input side of an operating control unit(150) connects to an output side of the rectifying unit. An output side of the operating control unit connects to an input side of the rectifying unit.


Masmoudi (2010) obtained global well-posedness for 2D Maxwell-Navier-Stokes system. In this paper, we reprove global existence of regular solutions to the 2D system by using energy estimates and Brezis-Gallouet inequality. Also we obtain a blow-up criterion for solutions to 3D Maxwell-Navier-Stokes system.


The changes of the city dwellers' concept on sex are revealed in the TV "Talk" on reproduction health in the 1990s,the disappearance of Program "Mask" in 2004 which was called "Number One Midnight TV Program on Sex in China" and the entertaining tendency of today's TV programs on sex.Today's host of TV "Talk" engages in the city dwellers' discussion on sex,avoids vulgar tendencies,tries to give some scientific explanations and offers positive suggestions,which provides a wider vision to such TV "Talk" and encourages more rational thinking.


This paper reports the first-ever presentation of evidence for room-temperature ferroelectric behavior in anatase-phase titanium dioxide (a-TiO2). It is shown that behaviour strongly indicative of ferroelectric behavior is induced in ultra-thin (20nm to 80nm) biaxially-strained epitaxial films of a-TiO2 deposited by liquid injection chemical vapour deposition onto (110) Submitted to neodymium gallium oxide (NGO) substrates. The structural properties of the films were analyzed by x-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, which showed significant orthorhombic strain in films. Possible ferroelectric behavior was probed by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). The films on NGO showed a switchable dielectric spontaneous polarization, the ability to retain polarization information written into the film using the PFM tip for extended periods (several hours) and at elevated temperatures (up to 100°C) without significant loss, and the disappearance of the polarization at a temperature between 180 and 200°C, indicative of a Curie temperature within this range. This combination of effects is believed to constitute strong experimental evidence for ferroelectric behavior, which has not hitherto been reported in a-TiO2 and opens up the possibility for a range of new devices and materials applications. A model is presented for the effects of large in-plane strains on the crystal structure of anatase which provides a possible explanation for the experimental observations.


A wired circuit board includes a first insulating layer, a first conductive layer provided over the first insulating film and including a first wire, a second insulating layer provided over the first insulating layer so as to cover the first wire, and a second conductive layer provided over the second insulating layer and including a second wire. The second conductive layer includes a first terminal portion for electrically connecting the first wire to an outside, a second terminal portion for electrically connecting the second wire to an outside, and a connection portion electrically connecting the first terminal portion and the first wire.


Objective To determine the contents of the heavy metals in 5 traditional Chinese medicines in 4 raw material bases of Guizhou Province and to provide more basis for the control of Chinese herbal medicines.Methods Atomic Absorption Spectrographic method was adopted.Results The contents of heavy metals Pb,Hg,As were under the prescriptive standard.The exceeding rate of Cd was the most serious,next was Cu.Conclusion This method is simple,rapid,accurate and sensitive.Therefore we must adopt the powerful measures to prevent raw material base form the heavy metal pollution.


A cellulase (endo--1,4-D-glucanase(E.C.126.96.36.199)) was isolated from the hepatopancreas of abalone Haliotis discus hannai by EST analysis. The abalone cellulase named HdEG compassed 1977 bp, including 195 bp in the 5'untranslated region, 1680 bp in the open reading frame which encodes 560 amino acid residues, and 92 bp in the 3'-untranslated region. The C-terminal region of the HdEG showed 44-52% identity to the catalytic domains of glycoside hydrolase family 9 (GHF9)-cellulases from arthropods and bacteria. The recombinant cellulase, pEHdEG was produced in E. coli with being fused with C-terminal His-tag. The expressed protein showed a single band (~62 kDa) on Western blotting which was consistent with the value (61,878 Da) calculated from the DNA sequence.


Abstract Let (X, τ) be a metrizable space and {fn: n = 1,2,…} be a commuting family of continuous mappings on X with a common fixed point ξ ∈ X such that (I) for each k = l, 2, … and (II) Then for each c ∈ (0,1), there exists a metric d on X inducing the topology τ such that , for all x, y∈X and n = l, 2, …. The above result is also generalized to Tychonoff spaces.


Changes in target strength (TS) values of sandfish when sandfish was alive and dead were investigated using ex-situ at 120 kHz. TS values measured by tilt angles with ‑ 50 ∼ +50 degrees showed ranges from ‑ 71.0 to ‑ 53.3 dB for live sandfish, ‑ 63.1~ ‑ 46.3 dB for thawed sandfish, and ‑ 70.0~ ‑ 50.4 dB after 24 hours from thawed, respectively. It was shown that while TS values were similar between the case of live and the case of after 24 hours from thawed, mean TS values were higher by approximately 5 dB in the case of immediate thawed sandfish. It was also seen that TS values were similar between the case of thawed sandfish and the case of after 21 hours from live. The results showed that TS values of live sandfish were different from those of frozen sandfish. It implies that when estimating TS of frozen fish, the influx of bubbles and changes of body should be considered.


Objective To investigate the value of color Doppler flow imaging(CDFI)in diagnosis of muscular calf venous thrombosis.Methods Seventy-two patients underwent hip or knee joint replacement,and 92 lower extremities of these patients were examined with CDFI pre-operation in order to detect deep venous thrombosis,while X-ray contrast venography(CV)was performed on 65 lower extremities.Results Muscular calf venous thrombosis was detected on 3 lower extremities via CV,whereas on 18 lower extremities with CDFI(P0.05).The incidence of muscular calf venous thrombosis with venous regurgitation and non-regurgitation extremities were 57.14%(16/28)and 17.78%(8/45),respectively.Conclusion CDFI can be regarded as a simple,rapid,non-invasive and reliable procedure in detection of the muscular calf venous thrombosis.


RECENT EVENTS have forced our community to acknowledge the presence of serious problems associated with drug dependence and addiction. Initially there seemed to be a reluctance by many citizens, including members of the medical profession, to admit its presence. However, lay-group organizations and widespread ,publicity have done much to make the public aware of the potential and present dangers; in fact, one wonders if perhaps some people are becoming either blase or discouraged as a result of "over exposure" of the topic without critical comment. One of the more popularly debated controversies has centred around the possible legalization of marihuana, a drug first used in China in the third century B.C. Lawyers, doctors and politicians have all been amongst those supporting the case for acceptance. Their arguments seem based on the claims that it is less harmful than alcohol and generally a rather innocuous drug. Is this so? A search of the literature reveals a paucity of sound research, and it is difficult to remain unconfused by the maze of inconclusive and often selfishly motivated, emotional comment published both for and against its use. Over the past 18 months, however, some interesting papers have appeared that at least provide "food for thought" and guidelines for further research. In 1968, A. T. Weil et alii' conducted a double blind experiment, in which nine "naive" tobacco smokers and eight chronic marihuana users smoked reefers containing 4'5 mg and 18 mg of tetrahydrocarbinoI. The chronic users became "high" on the latter dose, and their cognitive function improved slightly. The "nafve" smokers with the exception of one subject who earlier expressed the desire to get high, experienced few subjective changes, but their cognitive function and time judgement were markedly impaired in a dose-effect relationship. This experiment reveals that cannabis can cause casual smokers to become accident-prone through poor cognition. Does it also suggest that regular usage could create a dependency state that demands increasing doses of the drug to enable the user to function normally? If so, is there a possibility that intellectual deterioration can result, as is the case in chronic alcoholism? Finally, what part does personality play in the final results experienced by users? M. M. Cohen and A. B. Mukerjic' and T. T. Persaud and A. C. Ellington" have shown species-s.pecific teratogenic properties in mice and rats. The former animals, when injected with cannabis resin while pregnant, carried stunted fmtuses and had a high incidence of fmtal resorption. The rats also revealed similar changes, but


For many decades, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has conducted studies of wages by occupation and industry. The best known of the early studies stemmed from a Senate resolution of March 3, 1891, which instructed BLS to investigate the effects of tariff legislation on wages and prices. Systematic collection of wage data by occupation and industry continued after the turn of the century, with changes in coverage dictated mainly by government needs. Survey activity shifted in the early 1940's defense period to heavy industries essential to war production. Implementation of wage stabilization policy during the war required a large-scale program of occupational wage studies by industry and locality. The emphasis on data by locality continued after 1945 within the framework of industry studies generally designed to yield national and regional estimates. Area wage surveys, initiated in the late 1940's, were designed to meet the growing demand for pay data related to office clerical and manual jobs that are common to a wide variety of manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries within a metropolitan area. In 1960, the program was converted to a statistically selected group of areas which data could be estimated to represent all metropolitan areas of the 48 contiguous United States. Also in 1960, the Bureau began conducting an annual nationwide survey of professional, administrative, technical and clerical jobs in a broad spectrum of private industries. In 1990, Congress passed legislation that provided for local variations in Federal white-collar pay scales. B LS combined its area wage program with the national white collar pay survey into the Occupational Compensation Survey Program (OCSP) to meet this administrative need along with providing compensation analysts with an enhanced local/national products. In 1976, the Bureau began to publish the Employment Cost Index (ECI) which measures the rate of change in employee compensation, which includes wages, salaries, and employer's cost for employee benefits. Several elements distinguish the ECI from other surveys of employee compensation. It is comprehensive in that it includes costs incurred by employers for employee benefits in addition to wages and salaries; and covers all establishments and occupations in both the private nonfarm and public sectors. It measures the change in cost of employing a fixed set of labor inputs, so it is not affected over time by changes in the occupational composition of the labor force. The survey is timely in that statistics are published quarterly. The ECI also enables users to compare rates of change in occupational group, industrial, geographic, union coverage, and public/private sub series. In 1980 the Bureau began annual full-scale comprehensive surveys on the incidence and characteristics of employee benefits for full and part time employees: the Employee Benefits Survey (EBS). Since the early 1980's discussion has ensued within the Bureau to integrate the occupational wage surveys, industrial wage surveys, ECI and EBS into a single integrated compensation program. One purpose of the goals of integration is to find ways to eliminate the duplication that exists through the current use of three separate surveys to study compensation. With the new joint occupation selection system, each establishment would only be contacted one time (in each sample cycle), rather than possibly being visited for more than one survey. Therefore, the burden on respondents will be reduced significantly, especially for those large establishments that are likely to be selected in multiple samples with many of the same data elements captured in multiple surveys. While the new sample size would be larger than that for an individual survey, it would be smaller than the sum of the samples for the current surveys. Therefore, fewer establishments of all sizes would be visited, so the overall burden on respondents would go down. In October 1996, BLS began the process of integrating the above program into a single program: The National Compensation Survey (NCS). NCS allows for the continuation of data collected by OCSP, ECI and EBS. A review of some of the key concepts underlying the programs follows.


Objective:To study therapeutic effects about dentin allergy in two different ways:TMKN gels for desensitization,and MDC 500 semi conductor laser therapeutic machine.Methods:Two group cases were cured respectively by TMKN gels for desensitization and MDC 500 semi conductor laser therapeutic machine, which was used to evaluate prompt therapeutic effects and therapeutic effects in one month.Results:The total effective rate is 100% if using MDC 500 semi conductor laser therapeutic machine.The obvious effective rate was 64.1%.After one month of re examination, the total effective rate was 96.7%,The obvious effective rate was 58.7%;Meanwhile,the total effective rate was 94.9% if using TMKN gels for desensitization.The obvious effective rate was 40.7%.After one month of re examination, the total effective rate was 66.1% ,and the obvious effective rate was 19.6%.Conclusion:It is obviously effective for dentin allergy to be treated in two different ways.And the operation is very safety and convenient.That is all good and a recommendation well deserved ways about dentin allergy treated.


In this study, the effect of shot peening intensity of the structural steel specimens on the bending fatigue strength was investigated. Three structural steels S235JRG2, S355J2+N, P460NH were shot-peened with three levels of intensity. The results of fatigue tests were compared with non-peening processed samples. S-N curves in fatigue were determined in cyclic bending fatigue. The novel attempt to evaluate the bending fatigue, which relies on the 3D optical profiler measurement of the side-area of fractures, was proposed. All investigated steels present ferritic-pearlitic structure. Moreover, due to the peening process, refinement of the grains size was observed. Also, fractures were analysed with the 3D profiler. In the presented results of research, the highest level of peening gave the greater increase in fatigue life. For all types of investigated steels, shot-peening gave superior results of fatigue bending performance compared with unpeened specimens.


The 35Cl nuclear quadrupole resonance (n.q.r.) frequencies at 77 °K of twenty-two chloroformates, twenty-eight acid chlorides, two thiocarbonyl molecules, and five carbamyl chlorides are reported.


Spatial filtering method and fast Fourier transform (FFT) based spectrum estimation method are applied to reveal the presence of steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) in multiple-electrodes electroencephalogram (EEG) signals used in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system. The SSVEP responses are elicited by visual stimuli in the form of flickering light emitting diode (LED) array and computer animation on the screen monitor. The essence of this method is to extract a narrowband frequency component of SSVEP in EEG. Subjects are instructed to shift their gaze during the trial to elicit multiple components of SSVEP spectrums. This approach which is called multi-target SSVEP is proposed to extend the feasibility of a BCI system. Using four subjects with two distinct stimuli, the experiment give a result of 41.6% accuracy for detecting dualfrequency combinations.


Macrophages are the mononucleated cell which turns out into multinucleated cell. The process of multinucleation enhances the phagocytic action of the cell efficiently. The virulent virus at small doses while the temperate virus at high doses can cause cell fusion of both infected and uninfected cells producing multinucleation. There are two routes of cell-virus fusion namely endoplasmic and ectoplasmic. The present article aims to review the process of cell-virus fusion and its endoplasmic and ectoplasmic routes.


Background and objective:  Genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) have identified the three chromosomal regions, 5p15, 6p21 and 15q25, as being associated with lung cancer risk in European populations. This study was performed to confirm these associations in Korean patients with lung cancer.


This study highlights the operation under the bilateral scenario of the deregulated environment, considering a three unequal area thermal system, wherein several renewable sources namely geothermal plant (GTP), solar thermal and wind had been integrated to analyse their effect both through dynamic responses as well as analytically from the aspect of GENCO participation, related to the price based environment. Later a flexible alternating current transmission (FACT) device, interline power flow controller (IPFC) is being connected to the above-considered system at different positions. Various observations are made for checking if there is an optimal location for the placement of IPFC and it reflects that IPFC placed between the tie lines of area 1 and area 3 shall economically be the most feasible option. The considered thermal systems are provided with suitable generation rate constraints. In this study, an initiative has been taken to use a new combination of fractional order (FO) cascade controller, FO integral-FO proportional-derivative as secondary controller and its capability is being checked with the traditional controllers revealing it to outperform the others. The gains and other required parameters of all the secondary controllers are optimised by means of the stochastic sine cosine algorithm.


After a brief career in the West Australian secondary school system, Ric Smith joined the Department of External Affairs in 1969. In that department − and its successor, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade − he held numerous important positions, including postings in New Delhi, Tel Aviv, Manila and Honolulu. In 1992 Smith was appointed Deputy Secretary in DFAT with responsibility for Australia's relations with Asia. He acted as Secretary of DFAT for much of the period from December 1992 to May 1993. From March 1994 to the end of 1995, Ric Smith served on secondment to the Department of Defence as Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Intelligence, before being appointed as Australian Ambassador to China in February 1996. He served there, and as non-resident Ambassador to Mongolia, until February 2000. From January 2001 to October 2002, he served as Australia's Ambassador to Indonesia. During this time, Bali was bombed and he, along with many others, played a major role in the recovery and repatriation of Australians. Ric Smith returned to Canberra in November 2002 to commence his role as Secretary of the Department of Defence, from which he retired in November 2006.