Study objective: The use of plasma proBNP concentrations as a diagnostic tool in differential diagnosis of dyspnea in comorbidity pulmonary patients. Design: Observational study. Setting: University Hospital of Lung Diseases, Tirana, Albania. Patients: 67 patients with pleural effusions and 25 patients with dyspnea of unknown etiology were studied. Intervention: Plasma proBNP was measured in patients with dyspnea and pleural effusion. Measurements and results: Mean age 71±8.9 yr in patients with pleural effusions caused by CHF (n=38), 64±11.6 yr in patients with exudative effusions (n=29) [p 3.1. proBNP plasma level cut-off of 1500 ng/L had a sensitivity of 50%, specificity of 96.5%,PPV of 94%, positive and negative likely-ratio of 14.2 and 0.07 respectively, in the diagnosis of CH.F. Mean plasma proBNP level in comorbidity pulmonary patients with dyspnea was >300 ng/L, adjusting to age, only in 3 of 18 cases aged 50-70 years it was > 900 ng/L. Conclusions: The test of plasma proBNP may be one of the first diagnostic tools in comorbidity pulmonary patients with dyspnea and pleural effusions of unknown origin.


[Objective] The study aimed to accelerate the propagation speed of Ficus binnendijkii var.variegata seedlings.[Method] With top shoot,tender and hard twigs as cuttings,they were treated with ABT rooting powder with different concn.With perlite,coconut coir,peat soil and mixed substrate as culture media,the seedling raising technique by soilless-scale-cutting of F.variegata was studied.[Result] With top shoot as cutting, the rooting time was shortest(28~33 d) and the survival rate was highest(88.7%).The survival rates of 4 soilless substrates were higher than that of garden soil(CK) and the rooting time of cutting in perlite was shortest(23~29 d) and its survival rate was highest(95.6%).As the ABT rooting powder concn.increased,the rooting time of cutting shortened and its survival rate increased.The rooting time of treatment with 200 mg/L ABT rooting powder was shortest(25 d) and its survival rate was highest(95.6%).[Conclusion] In the seedling raising by soilless-scale-cutting of F.variegata,the top shoot should be selected as cutting,perlite should be chosen as culture medium and the suitable concn. of ABT rooting powder was 150~250 mg/L.


PALESTINE AND PALESTINIANS Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector, by Sara Roy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011. 319 pages. $35. Sara Roy's recent work on Hamas, civil society, and the Islamist social service sector in Gaza is a very welcome addition to the scholarly literature on two levels. First, it offers a rich and nuanced view of how Palestinian Islamist social service organizations operate, and their relationships to Hamas - an area where far too many analysts have simply presumed or asserted functional connections with scarce empirical evidence. In this sense, it also provides a partial antidote to those accounts that view the issue almost entirely through the prism of "terrorist financing" or recruitment. Second, the book is also a welcome contribution to the broader literature on Islamist charities and social activism. Roy's knowledge of Gaza is probably unparalleled among Western researchers, and it certainly shows in this study. In the first three chapters of the volume, she provides the necessary conceptual and theoretical context to her analysis, offering an overview of her analytical framework, a brief history of Hamas, and a discussion of Islamist conceptions of civil society. Thereafter, four more chapters and a postscript trace the evolution of Islamist social institutions in Gaza. This part of the book offers a thoughtful assessment of the activities of such groups, and explores their relationship to broader social and political dynamics. Roy's case studies highlight the diversity of the sector, from those Islamist social organizations with clear ideological perspectives that shape their day-to-day operations to others where charitable and social service goals figure far more prominently than doctrine. The relationship between these organizations and Hamas also differs widely. Roy's account highlights how both the sector and context have changed in recent years, tracing the impact of the second intifada, the 2006 Palestinian elections (and subsequent bifurcation of Palestinian politics), the effects of Hamas administration of Gaza, and the impact of Israeli military operations on the Strip. Overall, the book's findings echo some of the findings of Janine Clark's seminal work on Islamic charities, especially with regard to the diversity of groups and the frequent lack of religious or political mobilization as a key function of locally-based service-oriented organization. …


www.PRSJournal.com 1193 T unacceptably high morbidity and mortality rates associated with fat transfer to the buttocks have warranted much debating, theorizing, surveying, and discussing of root causes and, more importantly, what can be done to prevent these complications.1–6 Drs. Del Vecchio et al. have presented a detailed anatomical injection study to add to our current knowledge into what may cause pulmonary fat embolus from gluteal fat injections.7 The study involved injection of dyed applesauce and layered dissection of eight cadaveric buttocks (subcutaneous injection, n = 4; subfascial/intramuscular injection, n = 4). This was to simulate intraoperative conditions to test their deep intramuscular migration theory that fat will travel when injected subfascially (unchecked by the inherent lack of a "backstop" of deep muscle fascia), toward the path of least resistance in which the large neurovascular bundles exist. They show that with increased muscle compartment pressure, the venous plexus can stretch/avulse, allowing siphoning of fat emboli. It is an elegant and thoughtful study and critical in its timing. The question that is naturally raised is whether there is any gluteal topographic region that is safe(r) for placement of injection deeper than the subcutaneous space (subfascial injection) in smaller volumes?8,9 Is this ever necessary for proper gluteal shaping? Unfortunately, these questions cannot be fully answered with a cadaveric study alone. Cadaveric muscle tone and tissues dynamics cannot mimic in vivo conditions close enough to be all inclusive. Tissue resistance, muscle tone, and tactile feedback during injection that guide judicious release of ligamentous attachments are crucial factors in avoiding inappropriately deep injection of fat lobule aliquots into the regions where the large neurovascular bundles are present.6,10,11 Purposeful intramuscular injection of various volumes of fat, particularly in certain anatomical danger regions, is never advocated.1,6,10,11 However, in certain patients with taut/dense tissue layer connectivity between skin/subcutaneous/fascia/muscle, disruption of these layers is necessary for proper gluteal shaping. Every effort should be made to avoid fat lobule transfer directly into the subfascia, particularly in the danger regions (inferomedial and gluteal cleft adjacent). However, just as with breast fat transfer, one can never know for sure if some fat cells were not inadvertently transferred into the parenchyma while injecting subcutaneously. The query here is whether or not there is a threshold in fat lobule volume that increases emboli risk by means of direct or migratory paths? Drs. Del Vecchio et al. demonstrate, quite convincingly, that so long as fat (at least in very large volumes) is injected suprafascially (supramuscular) and subcutaneously, migration into deeper, more dangerous zones is not possible.7 They demonstrate that with volumes large enough to increase muscular compartment pressures (albeit with ebbs and flows), subfascial fat tracks between and within muscle fibers, to migrate deeper toward the large veins. Intramuscular injection volumes need to be large enough to create enough pressure for this. However, I do not know any experienced gluteal surgeon who would inject such large volumes intentionally into the muscle layers and/or solely into the gluteus maximus. In reality, fat is injected where necessary for shape, which may involve unintentionally or intentionally combining injection depths. In the thousands of gluteal fat transfers I performed, would I see "some" (perhaps 10 cc? 20 cc? 100 cc?) intramuscular fat lobules even though the muscle was never my target? Perhaps on occasion? Would other experienced surgeons similarly see lobules? More importantly, large volumes of fat spewing out during autopsies has never been reported.


ABSTRACT The field of gifted education, historically and contemporarily, is not well-known for being equitable for underrepresented students, specifically, Black, Hispanic, Native American, among others. In this article, we present a short history of gifted education with attention to key historical figures who have significantly shaped the field; their influence continues to impact theories and measurement to this very day. We share our reservations, along with 10 assumptions that we believe need to be countered. Given the long history of tension in the field regarding issues of racism, ethnocentrism, and classism, we offer perspectives for moving forward proactively and equitably.


Said that this was a subject which interested both the ophthalmologist and the physician, and one on which the profession had yet much to learn. He hoped some new facts would emerge from this discussion. There were one or two in particular upon which he would like information. One was, what was the relation between the amount of blood urea and the development of these retinal changes ? If any observations on a great number of cases had been made which he thought was doubtful-he hoped the results would be placed before the meeting. The other was as to the relationship of retinal changes to arterial pressure and to arterio-sclerosis. In very many cases one could demonstrate arterio-sclerotic changes in the retina when retinitis was not necessarily present; and there were well marked cases of albuminuric retinitis in which the arterio-sclerotic change Wvas not necessarily present. There was also the retinitis due to toxaemia which occurred during pregnancy, yet the retinitis would clear up and get well as soon as the child was born. These were some of the points on which, particularly, information was desired. Also to what extent was retinitis dependent upon toxsemia, upon arterio-sclerosis, and upon high arterial pressure respectively ?


This paper presents a novel approach for PM2.5 monitoring by using the Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) based sensor. To analyze the response mechanism of SAW sensor, the mass loading effect from the PM2.5 layer to SAW propagation was described by solving the coupled electromechanical field equation in layered structure and surface effective permittivity (SEP). The dispersion curve of the SAW propagation along the layered structure of fused silicon dioxide settled layer and ST-X quartz substrate was calculated. Accordingly, when the operation frequency was 500 MHz, the threshold detection limit of the PM2.5 sensor estimated by three times the noise detection principle was 0.17 ng. It indicates that the PM2.5 detection by using the SAW technology is entirely possible according to the "National ambient air quality standards for particulate matter: final rule, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, 2006".


This paper aims to measure and analyse the effect of the financial depth on the economic growth in Algeria during the period(1980-2019). Using the auto-regressive distributed lags model ARDL. The study uses the money supply M2 as a percentage of GDP to reflect the financial depth, and the GDP per capita to express economic growth. The study also uses the variables of trade openness, gross capital formation, and exchange rate as the control variables. The main finding of this research is the existence of long-term relation between the Financial depth and the economic growth in Algeria.


Eu3+-Li+-codoped ZnO:Zn phosphor with intense sharp line emissions from Eu3+ 4f intra-configurational transitions and broad green emission band from defect-related luminescent centers upon indirect excitation of near-UV light has been synthesized under reducing condition.Steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence and diffuse reflectance spectra are measured to investigate properties of the luminescence.The results suggest that there is a prominent energy transfer from ZnO host to Eu3+ ions.A series of shallow donor energy levels as temporary storage of excitation energy play a crucial role on this energy transfer process.The energy transfer efficiency can be enhanced by these additional shallow donors.Two kinds of local environments for Eu3+ in Eu3+-Li+-codoped ZnO:Zn are distinguished based on the emission and excitation spectra in comparison with pure Eu2O3.Such phosphor will be a promising candidate employed in the white light-emitting diodes based on the near-UV pumping.


The Cross-Media Electronic Reporting Regulation (CROMERR) provides the legal framework for electronic reporting (ER) under all of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) environmental regulations.


Current technologies have revolutionized the manner in which retailers operate. The early stages of the dot com era allowed businesses to experiment with different business models. On-line retailers focused on front-end systems, overlooking the importance of back-end operations such as supply chain management. Retailers have the option to distribute their products via the traditional method, drop-shipping, or a mix of traditional and drop-shipping strategies also known as the hybrid technique. Retailers have to account for stockouts and act accordingly to not lose sales or customers. This paper revisits current trends in inventory management covered in a paper by Snyder and Hamdan (2009) INTRODUCTION The emergence of the Internet has been the greatest technological advancement since industrial age. It is estimated that 44% of US Internet users are using the Internet to pay bills, and 33% of Internet users are purchasing products online. The number is expected to grow from time as the Internet becomes more prevalent and secure. The rise of the Internet created opportunities for entrepreneurs, destroyed many businesses, and most importantly changed the business structure of e-commerce. The dot com era was a time period where entrepreneurs experimented with new business models (O'Brien, 2008).


The adsorptive removal of cationic Methylene Blue and anionic Alizarin Red S was analysed in microcolumn tests. A detailed analysis of the influence of adsorbent surface acidity/basicity, elemental composition, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller area, pore distribution, and point-of-zero-charge pH on breakthrough properties was carried out. The characteristics of the mass transfer zone were used for evaluation of column performance. Four different activated carbons with different physical and chemical properties were analysed. It was concluded that, for adsorbents containing pores smaller than 1.7 times the solute molecular radius, the interactions between surface and solute have the greatest influence on the effective usage of column uptake capacity. A column packed with adsorbent characterised by large enough pores readily removed either anionic or cationic solutes. Partial correlation analysis revealed that the adsorption of cationic dye (Methylene Blue) was more sensitive to adsorbent textural properties in comparison with anionic dye (Alizarin Red S). Maximum column capacities were 3–4 times higher for cationic Methylene Blue than for anionic Alizarin Red S, with values of 494 and 107 mg/g respectively. The higher solubility of Alizarin Red S could be responsible for its lower and more even removal efficiencies. Finally, the surface chemistry of the adsorbent affected how the operating conditions influenced the column performance, as deduced from the opposite effect of flow rate on the adsorption of Methylene Blue by each adsorbent.


The rectangular hyperbola (RH), Mitscherlich (M) and YE equation were applied to describe the photosynthetic light response (PLR) curves measured from rice leaves with different SPAD values, to reveal the relationship between SPAD values and parameters in different equations, and to establish the modified PLR equations. The parameters in PLR equations are largely varied. SPAD value, as an indicator of leaf N contents, was highly correlated to the parameter of Pnmax in RH, M and YE equations. Incorporating the factor SPAD into PLR equations, the modified equations (MRH, MM, and MYE) were established which were feasible to describing the PLR curves for leaves with different SPAD values using the identical parameters for the ten PLR curves as a whole, and perform much better than the general PLR equations (GRH, GM, and GYE). It indicated that incorporating easy available indicators of leaf physiological and morphological traits in the PLR equations, such as SPAD as an indicator of leaf N or Chlorophyll contents, is an easy way to overcome the shortcoming of parameters variation in PLR equations between individuals of the same specie growing in different environments. Further validation should be done for different crops with both SPAD and other possible factors.


This paper provides an overview of the current pavement design practices in New Zealand and identifies issues which are expected to arise as a result of major changes in the design procedures. Transit N2 has adopted the AUSTROADS pavement design procedures as the basis for design in New Zealand. The AUSTROADS document 'A Guide to the Structural Design of Road Pavements'', (1992), including Transit New Zealand Supplement Notes (1997), now supersedes the previous New Zealand State Highway Pavement Design and Rehabilitation Manual (1989). The introduction of the AUSTROADS preferred mechanistic pavement design procedures has fundamentally changed the method of design used in New Zealand. Whereas previously a limited number of design charts were used regardless of geology and ground conditions, the use of mechanistic design methods firmly places a high level of responsibility for performance on the pavement engineer. The pavement engineer is required to assess the applicable subgrade and pavement material engineering properties and apply these to the site specific operational conditions to develop the design. There is also a requirement in New Zealand for engineers to be conscious of the objectives of the Resource Management Act which encourages increased utilisation of marginal aggregates and recycled materials for which the performance characteristics and limitations need to be well understood. These material assessment and mechanistic analysis methods are a natural extension to the skills of geotechnical engineers who are increasingly involved in pavement design projects. The associated risks, particularly with the advent of performance specified contracts, are also being increasingly directed to the geotechnical engineer in much the same way as structural engineers are subrogating foundation design risks. Geotechnical engineering is clearly not an industry for the faint hearted and it will be interesting to maintain a watching brief on successes and problems that may develop. particularly as there are as yet no clear precedents. Historically, the 85 percentile (or 1 Standard deviation above the mean), has been generally applied for acceptance standards on roading design. Local failures were expected and reluctantly accepted, such that litigation was infrequent and generally limited to clear cases of negligence.


Clocks and watches stand at an important crossroads where science, technology and society intersect. Changes in timekeeping technology, beginning with the invention of the mechanical clock around AD 1300, have influenced the character of scientific observation, aided the development of other machine technologies and brought significant revisions to the way people think about and behave in time. One of the most recent episodes in this long history is the invention of the electronic wristwatch. What follows is a brief summary of a larger work in progress. This preview introduces the engineers who completely reinvented the wristwatch with all new electronic components thirty years ago, considers the contexts in which they worked, and analyzes consumer reception, especially the lively public debate over the comparative benefits of digital versus analog watch displays.


The dead-time effect, as an intrinsic problem of the converters based on the half-bridge unit, leads to distortions in the converter output. Although several dead-time effect compensation or elimination methods have been proposed, they cannot fully remove the dead-time effect of blanking delay error, because the output current polarity is difficult detect accurately. This paper utilizes the zero-voltage-switching (ZVT) technique to eliminate the blanking delay error, which is the main drawback of the hard-switching inverter, although the technique initially aims to improve the efficiency. A typical ZVT inverter—the auxiliary resonant snubber inverter (ARSI) is analyzed. The blanking delay error is completely eliminated in the ARSI. Another error source caused by the finite rise- and fall-times of the voltage is analyzed, which was not considered in the hard-switching inverter. A compensation method based on the voltage error estimation is proposed to compensate the rise- and fall-error. A prototype was developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control. Both the simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the qualities of the output current and voltage in the ARSI are better than that in the hard-switching inverter due to the elimination of the blanking delay error. The total harmonic distortion (THD) of the output is further reduced by using the proposed compensation method in the ARSI.


This article concerns the origin of the early Buddhist term tathagata (on Pali and Sanskrit material). This way, if you judge according to the Pali Canon, is of ancient pre-Buddhist origin. The "Digha-Nikaya" Sutras provides us with a number of nontrivial contexts of the use of this word, allowing us to accurately establish its etymology and literal meaning. In addition, these contexts suggest a special connection of Tathagata (as an image of the Buddha) with "truth telling".


Based on recent quantitative EEG findings of increased slow activity in negative schizophrenia indicating organicity, it was hypothesized that neuroleptics decreasing delta/theta activity should be be


Although man seems a much-developed creature from his days of the jungle, he still is a part and parcel of a natural order of things. Man's development is reflected through his construction and technological improvements. Yet these in the long run has incurred damage and lost to the environment. Therefore the 20 t h century, foreseeing a future crisis and already arisen problems, became much aware of the issue of sustainability. This is an attempt to understand the broad scope of sustainable design. This study is a distillation of existing sustainable design theories, strategies, principles and guidelines with a focus on an urban Residential Buildings. A holistic perspective on this topic result in a much clearer understanding of the concept of sustainability, as well as a better grasp of how to steer the design industry towards more sustainable practices. It is important to note here, that this study is focused on sustainable design applicable to urban context and Residential Buildings. In the actual situation, the designer can never hope to reach absolute sustainability, but must strive to approach it to the limit of his capabilities. This analogy underlines one of the main goals of this study, that is, to take the existing knowledge of sustainable design, which has so far been applied in bits and pieces, and combine them all to create the most complete strategy possible.


Active mobility projects can potentially initiate paradigm shifts in population and urban planning decision-makers. This paper aims to conduct a social cost-benefit analysis of an active mobility project in a Colombian city. The increase of physical activity, reduction of CO2 emissions, and traffic crashes were measured in an area with suitable slopes to promote bicycles for commuting. A social cost-benefit ratio of 1.14 was found, with physical activity and road safety as the most important outcomes of the active mobility infrastructure. Furthermore, a big room for the increase and promotion of cycling as a mode of transport is addressed.


Background Poor knowledge and attitude have the potential to compromise the quality of patient care and result in unsafe practice. The aim of the study was, therefore, to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of pediatric and adult ICU nurses to wards oral care. Methods A cross-sectional quantitative and observational design was applied at the generalized pediatric and adult ICUs. Data for knowledge and attitude level were collected from all (n=30) diploma nurses and health assistants through face to face interview using pretested and structured questionnaire. In the other hand, data for the assessment of practice was collected from all participants through observational checklist. Descriptive analysis and spearman rank correlation coefficient tools were performed to analyze the data using SPSS (Version 20). Result In addition, around half (48.3%) of the participants reported that there was no any oral care protocol or guidelines in the hospital. Nevertheless, there is no significant difference in knowledge between ICU nurses with different educational level ( p =0.398) and years of working experience was found ( p =0.273). In the other hand, during the observational study, oral cleaning was performed using normal saline and gauze. From those observed, 90% did oropharyngeal suctioning for a patient in need. Even though nurses are knowledgeable and ranked oral care a high priority, the practice varies among the nurses. The existence of various oral care practices indicate that there is a need of a standardized oral care protocol or guidelines that includes tooth brushing and use of chlorohexidine mouthwash.


In many inventory models uncertainty is due to fuzziness and fuzziness is the closed possible approach to reality. In this paper, we proposed a fuzzy inventory model with acceptable shortage which is completely backlogged. We fuzzily the carrying cost, backorder cost and ordering cost using Triangular and Trapezoidal fuzzy numbers to obtain the fuzzy total cost. The purpose of our study is to defuzzify the total profit function by Graded Mean Integration Value Method. Further a numerical example is also given to demonstrate the developed crisp and fuzzy models.


Clinical psychology trainees (CPTs) are susceptible to elevated stress. Despite recognition of the need for training in self-care strategies for CPTs, research in this area is limited, with little progress in the evaluation of effective models for guiding self-care training. This study explored the utility of the acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) framework for identifying processes and strategies to enhance self-care in CPTs. A total of 116 CPTs completed questionnaires in the first year of clinical training. The ACT processes constituted the predictors: values, defusion (measured as thought suppression), mindfulness, and acceptance. The adjustment criterion variables included: stress, distress, life satisfaction, and clinical training satisfaction. The ACT processes explained significant amounts of variance in all of the adjustment outcomes, and thought suppression, values, and acceptance each emerged as significant predictors of 1 or more of the outcomes. With the exception of mindfulness, the ACT processes were related to better adjustment as predicted. The adverse effects of thought suppression were pervasive, whereas the beneficial effects of acceptance and values varied across adjustment outcomes. Acceptance had unexpected suppressor effects on mindfulness in regression analyses on distress and stress. Findings support the utility of the ACT framework for explaining and enhancing adjustment and self-care in CPTs.


New 6-months regimen based on bedaquiline, pretomanid and linesolid (BPaL), evaluated in TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial, is one of modern treatments for extensively drug resistant tuberculosis. Patients on BPaL should be carefully observed for side effects, especially liver toxicity, myelosuppression, peripheral and optic neuropathy, QT-interval prolongation and pancreatitis. A clinical case of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis with the outcomes of BPaL regimen treatment on the backgrounds of side effects is presented in current report. This case demonstrates that timely and thorough monitoring of side effects allows to preserve the BPaL regimen modality, regardless the occurrence of several adverse effects in one person and to complete the prescribed course of treatment, which resulted in cure. Key words: extensively drug resistant tuberculosis, BPaL regimen of treatment, saide effects.


Economic theory does not have a formal model of how announcements of future policies affect economic performance, or how they could be used to manage expectations. We show that rational expectations do not affect the controllability of an economic system in either its static or its dynamic versions, even though their introduction in particular cases may make it impossible for the policymaker to determine certain variables because of policy neutrality or time inconsistency problems. The controllability conditions stated by Tinbergen and subsequent authors therefore continue to hold under rational expectations. Indeed, we find that when they are satisfied the presence of rational expectations may even enhance our power to control an economy over time. This is important because it shows that an underlying equilibrium can exist, even if some of our traditional policy exercises lead to invariance or time inconsistency. For example, it provides the theoretical justification for the recent literature on anchoring expectations so that monetary policy becomes effective enough to achieve or maintain low inflation.


We develop an optimization framework to trade short-term profits for reputation (i.e., reducing ramp-up time). We apply the stochastic bandits framework to design an online discounting mechanism wh...


Bacterial transmission from contaminated surfaces via hand contact plays a critical role in disease spread. However, the fomite-to-finger transfer efficiency of microorganisms during multiple sequential surface contacts with and without gloves has not been formerly investigated. We measured the quantity of Escherichia coli on fingertips of participants after one-to-eight sequential contacts with inoculated plastic coupons with and without nitrile gloves. A Bayesian approach was used to develop a mechanistic model of pathogen accretion to examine finger loading as a function of the difference between E. coli on surfaces and fingers. We used the model to determine the coefficient of transfer efficiency (λ), and influence of swabbing efficiency and finger area. Results showed λ for bare skin was higher (49%, 95%CI=32-72%) than for gloved hands (30%, CI=17-49%). Microbial load tended towards a dynamic equilibrium after four and six contacts for gloved hands and bare skin, respectively. Individual differences between volunteers' hands had a negligible effect compared with use of gloves (p<0.01). Gloves reduced loading by 4.7% (CI=-12%-21%) over bare skin contacts whilst 20% of participants accrued more microorganisms on gloved hands. This was due to poor fitting, which created a larger finger surface area than bare hands.


The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of e-transaction monitoring on customer satisfaction, as a strategy in a hyper competitive environment, with Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited as the case study. The study involved 5 managers, 10 Middle Level staff involved in E-banking operations, 5 Head office (Stanbic) E-banking operative staff, 8 Customer relationship officers attending walk-in-customers and 63 Customers of Stanbic Bank. A cross-sectional approach, involving collecting data at once from employees and customers was adopted. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques was employed in this study. Quantitative data analysis techniques involved the use of descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages to summarize responses on issues of E-banking and customer satisfaction while the Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to establish the relationship between dimensions of E-banking and customer satisfaction as specified in the study objectives. Findings from descriptive statistics indicated that on average the respondents agreed that there are some e-transaction factors that do affect customer satisfaction which include; quick checking of account balances, easy access of account history, increased efficiency in account management and customer touch points which are user friendly. Further findings indicated that there was a weak statistically significant positive relationship between e-transaction and customer satisfaction. The appropriate degree of automation will vary from institution to institution mainly dependent on the scale, nature and complexity of the bank's business. Further research is recommended on the likely negative externalities of the adoption of information and communication technology in the financial services sector.


Most of existing literature assumes that social movement organizations will inevitably become more ideologically and tactically conservative over time. This paper presents a couterargument to this position, suggesting that many movement organizations can be shown to have grown more radical as they have developed. A definition of movement radicalization is constructed, and eight propositions concerning factors which seem to increase the likelihood that a movement organization will radicalize are presented. These factors include repressive action by the agents of social control, changes in the ideological and tactical orientations of the movement organization's constituency, codification of a radicalizing movement's ideology, a reduced likelihood of co-optation, certain aspects of the structural character of the larger society, weak internal controls over the group's members, and the presence of individual radical leaders. Each proposition is illustrated by reference to the career of a North Irish group known as the People's Democracy.


The angular distribution of Compton scattering of two quanta originating in the annihilation of a positron with an electron is investigated as a quantum key distribution (QKD) mechanism in the gamma spectral range. The geometry of coincident Compton scattering is observed on the two sides as a way to obtain partially correlated readings on the quantum channel. We derive the noise probability density function of a conceptually equivalent prepare and measure quantum channel in order to evaluate the limits of the concept in terms of the device secrecy capacity and estimate it at roughly 1.9 bits per 1 000 annihilation events. The high error rate is well above the tolerable error rates of the common reconciliation protocols; therefore, the proposed key agreement protocol by public discussion requires key reconciliation using classical error-correcting codes. We constructed a prototype device based on the readily available monolithic detectors in the least complex setup. Keywords—Compton scattering, gamma-ray polarization, quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution


According to the structural characteristics of erected reinforced earth retaining wall,and adopting non-linear finite element method,this paper analyzes its structural characteristics from the stress distribution of erected reinforced earth retaining wall,foundation stress distribution,and lateral displacement of the wal1.The conclusion that the structural characteristics of erected reinforced-earth retaining wall is obviously different from general gravity retaining wall is drawn,based on which,some suggestions are put forward.


We report the rational fabrication and structural, thermal, mechanical, and electrochemical characterization of a new type of intermediate-temperature (IT) polymer-inorganic composite (PIC) proton exchange membranes (PEMs) that are made of cerium ultraphosphate (CeP5O14—CUP) as the solid-state proton conductor composited with a high-temperature (HT) polybenzimidazole (PBI) as the polymeric binder. Flexible PBI-CUP PIC membranes with the thickness of ~135 μm and CUP mass fraction of up to 75 % were prepared by solution-casting without additional acid-doping (e.g., phosphoric acid). The proton conductivity of the fabricated IT-PIC-PEMs was up to 5.80 × 10-2 S cm-1 as measured from a prototype IT PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) operated at 200°C in the humidified hydrogen and air environment. This type of IT-PIC-PEMs also demonstrated sufficient mechanical strength and flexibility, excellent thermal stability (up to 350°C), and very good durability of the proton conductivity (within the test duration of 500 h). The present experimental study shows the promising future of the IT-PIC-PEMs for applications in various IT electrochemical processes including IT-PEMFCs, IT-electrolyzers, etc.


Single-indicator multiwave models provide one way to estimate the error variance of survey items. Two influential papers in the early 1970s (Wiley and Wiley 1970; Wiley and Wiley 1974) presented variations of such models for three waves of data. The first assumes that the only measurement error present is random (RE model). The second allows for correlated errors (CE model). The RE model has frequently been applied with useful results. The CE model, on the contrary, has rarely been used and tends to produce anomalous results. CE estimates based on only three waves of data are shown to be generally so sensitive to sampling error that they are uninformative. The standard errors of the CE model improve substantially when panels of four or more waves are used. This improvement, however, is contingent on the appropriateness of extending the rigid assumptions underlying the three-wave CE model to longer panels.


Let $G = (V_G,E_G)$ be a simple connected graph. The eccentric distance sum of $G$ is defined as $\xi^d(G)=\sum_{v \in V_G}\,\varepsilon_G(v)D_G(v),$ where $\varepsilon_G(v)$ is the eccentricity of the vertex $v$ and $D_G(v)=\sum_{u \in V_G}\,d(u,v)$ is the sum of all distances from the vertex $v$. In this paper, we characterize $n$-vertex unicyclic graphs with given matching number having the minimal and second minimal eccentric distance sums, respectively.


Innovation virtuously impacts on the degree of inte r ational growth, which in turn positively influences innovation activities and then firms' pe rformance. Many authors have tried to identify and explain the relationship between these two phenomena at firm level. Only recently, few empirical studies investigate them at a more aggregate level. Moreover the literature focuses only on one direction of causali ty, while scant attention has been paid to inspect empirically innovation and internationaliza t on together. This paper provides an empirical analysis of the mutual relationship of th ese two phenomena, taking into account various features of the regions themselves. The emp irical study is based on a statistical analysis conducted on data concerning 20 Italian re gions covering the period 1999-2008. To better understand the complex relationship between internationalization and innovation, we refer to the Structural Equation Models (SEM). Thes e are multivariate regression type models, in which response variables could in turn a ct as dependent and predictor within a system of equations, and all variables are assumed to influence one-another reciprocally, either directly or through other variables as inter m diaries.


Optimized stroke systems of care enable access to timely care, including endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). Stroke systems have likely evolved after publication of EVT benefit (2015). Our objective was to map the stroke patient transfer network in California in terms of EVT access and patient transfer patterns, and to examine changes after 2015.

 In this observational study, we identified all ischemic stroke encounters, transfers, alteplase use, and EVT procedures in California from 2010 to 2017. An established connection between any hospital pair was defined as the transfer of ≥2 patients between them. A 2‐level logistic regression model assessed whether encounters were more frequently transferred to EVT‐capable hospitals post‐2015, adjusting for patient‐ and hospital‐level factors. Linear regression examined trends in key network characteristics over time, and interrupted time series regressions examined for changes post‐2015.

 Among 336 247 encounters, 3.4% were transferred, 9.3% received alteplase, and 2.3% underwent EVT. From 2010 to 2017 the proportion that were EVT treated increased (1.0%–4.3%;
 P
 ‐for‐trend<0.001) with a significant increase post‐2015 (
 P
 =0.01). Odds of transfer to EVT‐capable hospital were greater post‐2015 (adjusted odds ratio, 6.54; [95% CI 5.52–7.74]), but were lower for patients who were older, Black, Hispanic, and presented to a rural hospital. Significant network changes from 2010 to 2017 included increased number of encounters transferred, increased number of transferring hospitals, decreasing number of receiving hospitals, and increased proportion of receiving hospitals performing EVT. However, none of these network changes demonstrated a significant inflection point after 2015.

 The California stroke network has been dynamic over time. Although most changes have been incremental, after the release of EVT trial data in 2015 changes in transfer patterns did lead to increased access to EVT.


Objective To evaluate the effect of setting up neurosurgical specialized nurses on the quality of nursing in operating room.Methods The neurosurgical specialized nurses in operating room were selected and allocated in the team of neurosurgery,and received systematic and specialized training and examination periodically. At the same time,the related regulations and responsibilities of neurosurgical specialized nurses were established.Results This practice increased the doctors' and patients' satisfaction.The accurate rate of cooperation during operations was 100.00%.Moreover,the rescue time was significantly shortened for emergent operational patients (P0.01).Conclusions The setting up of neurosurgical specialized nurses in operating room can improve the quality of nursing in neurosurgical department.


Introduction: To establish the pharmacognostical and phytochemical standardization parameters of Pyrus pashia fruits in order to ensure quality and safety of this traditionally acclaimed medicinal tree. Methods: The fresh fruits of P. pashia were collected and dried. Fruit was subjected to various pharmacognostical investigations, Extraction procedures, and preliminary phytochemical screening, according to WHO guidelines. Ethanolic extract was standardized to total phenolic and flavonoid content, followed by phyto chemical quantification of P. pashia extract using lupeol as a chemical marker by HPLC method. Results: In the present study, microscopy of the fruit showed typical characteristics of berry, having thick fleshy pericarp differentiated into thin epicarp and thick mesocarp having wide radiating carpel chambers with one or two seeds attached in axile placentum. Further, physicochemical evaluation was done like, loss on drying, total ash value, acid insoluble ash value, water soluble ash value, fluorescence analysis etc. Heavy metal and pesticide residue analysis was also performed. Furthermore, ethanolic extract of Pyrus pashia (EPP) obtained from cold maceration and phytochemical screening of different fractions obtained by liquid partitioning revealed the presence of various secondary metabolites such as glycosides, steroids, triterpenoids, phenols flavonoids etc. Moreover, the total phenolic content and total analysis revealed that fruits are rich source of phenols and flavonoid. The HPLC chromatogram suggested that EPP contained 4.24% w/w of lupeol. Conclusion: Pharmacognostical and phytochemical investigation will ensure quality and safety of this medicinal plant, furthermore HPLC quantification will aid in authentication and development of monograph.


Investigate action of pancreatic lipase inhibition and characterization of extracts obtained from fruit pomace cultivars grown in Brazilian semiarid. Phytochemicals of Vitis labrusca, Passiflora edulis flavicarpa Deg., Citrus sinensis L Osbeck, and Punica granatum L. were extracted by maceration in a hydroethanolic solution. Inhibition activity of pancreatic lipase was performed by ELISA reader. To identify which compounds would probably be responsible for inhibitory activity, extracts were characterized by method of total phenolics using folin ciocalteau, phenolic acids and flavonoids were identified by HPLC, antioxidant potential was quantified by DPPH. With exception of pomegranate seed, all other pomace showed potential for inhibition of lipase. However, V. labrusca had higher percentage of inhibition (89.74%), this percentage similar to that obtained by commercial orlistat inhibitor, which would indicate its use as an efficient inhibitor. For all extracts were found several phytochemical compounds with phenolic characteristics, however, pomaces of P. granatum peel and V. labrusca showed best results in total phenolic and antioxidant activity. P. granatum peel had a high content of total phenolics (82.50 EAG g-1) and the best antioxidant activity (IC50 = 1.47 µg mL-1). All pomace extracts showed varied secondary metabolites, although antioxidant activity from grape and passion fruit pomaces showed potential for inhibition of lipids absorption.


Tianjin North Port Water Diversion Reservoir as planning the regulating reservoir,plays a significant role in ensuring the Tianjin municipal and industrial water.Using the dynamic monitoring data of chloride and other substances in Maquan gate and the 10 th gate to describe water quality change of North port water Diversion Reservoir,influence factors of the water quality in North Port Water Diversion Reservoir were analyzed. Improvement measures of water quality were put forward,which had great significance on the future protection of water quality in North Port Water Diversion Reservoir and improvement of urban water quality.


The author develops a relational Gompertz fertility model and applies it to the experience of India based on official statistics. (ANNOTATION)


Since 1998, Northern Ireland has been the subject of a unique experiment in governance and democracy. The experiment includes the establishment of a participatory Civic Forum in which the voluntary and community sector has an important stake. Beginning with a discussion of the merits of a participatory aspect to democracy in the contemporary age, this paper identifies factors that might help establish the Civic Forum as a successful participatory institution in Northern Ireland. Key factors include the attitude towards the Forum of political representatives and their willingness to foster a participatory dimension to the new democracy. Other important factors are inclusiveness and the balance of sectoral representation in the Forum.


Due to large computation cost and low accuracy of traditional angel measurement in single-beam mechanical scanning radar, a new application of monopulse techniques is proposed. First of all, this paper introduces the principle of monopulse and analyzes the difference in accuracy between monopulse and the traditional methods. Based on that, engineering implementation is then discussed. Finally, experimental data obtained in detection mode for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) is processed by this method, and results demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed method.


The genetic diversity of eight natural populations of Rosa odorata Sweet var.gigantea Rehd.et Wils.in Yunnan Province was analyzed with SSR markers.The result showed that 72 bands were amplified with twelve polymorphic primers.Polymorphic loci were 70 and percentage of polymorphism was 97.22%.At the level of species,the Nei's genetic diversity was 0.301 2 and the Shannon information index was 0.460 0,showing that the genetic diversity of the populations of Rosa odorata Sweet var.gigantea in Yunnan Province was abundant.It was 69.49% of genetic variation within populations,and 30.51% of genetic variation among populations.So the genetic variation within populations was the main reason of the genetic variation.The Nei's pairwise genetic identity and genetic distance were 0.761 5-0.934 8 and 0.067 4-0.272 4.The cluster analysis based on genetic distance showed that the genetic distance was not significantly related with the geographic location.


The emergence of web 2.0 technologies has created new opportunities and challenges in the field of second and foreign language learning. Among all web 2.0 tools, blogs can be considered the most well-known one. The present study was an attempt to determine the effectiveness of using blogs as an independent learning tool to develop students' reading skills. Blogs can be divided into three main types; teacher's blog, class blog, and learner's blog. Participants were 22 first level students in the English Department at Qassim Private Colleges in Saudi Arabia. The experimental group (N =11) used teacher's blog with an independent reading program, whereas the control group (N=11) didn't have any additional exercises. This program ran for two months during the second semester, 2014/2015. The   pre-posttest comprised two reading comprehension passages.  Results of the t. test analysis revealed that using blogs yielded significant effects on students' reading skills, i.e. the experimental group outperformed the control group. Keywords :  blog , web 1.0 , web 2..0, learner's autonomy


Sn clustering on Si(111) samples was studied during deposition at 100 °C and after an additional postdeposition anneal at 200 °C for 5 min. These conditions lead to early stage morphologies for the surface phase separation process of the thin film. We focus in this atomic force microscopy study on (i) the evolution of the partial ordering in the nearest-neighbor distance distributions observed in the late stage of phase separation and (ii) on the role of well-defined substrate defects on the development of the early stage morphology.


The relationship between transcephalic DC potential changes and simple serial reaction time performance was investigated with the hypothesis that Ss exhibiting more positive TCDC shift would be slower in RT performance than Ss with less positive (or negative) shift. In two experiments, measurements of shift in DC from an initial pre-performance reading to points just before, during, and following RT performance were made. Equal division into groups based on those Ss with most shift in a positive direction versus those with least positive (or negative) shift provided two groups of 12 male Ss in Experiment I, which used constant intertrial interval, and two groups of 11 Ss each in Experiment II, which used random intertrial intervals. The differences in performance between the groups were consistently in the direction expected by the hypothesis. In Experiment I, analysis of variance revealed significant interactions between groups and RT performance blocks over time. Significant differences between groups as well as significant interaction effects were found in Experiment II.


The purpose of this article is the review of the main paradigms and models on disability and its implications in the educational field. For this, it starts conceptualizing disability and in a second moment a historical tour is made about the explanatory paradigms and models, emerged from the twentieth century until today. Finally, there is a reflection on the influence they have had on education, identifying the models of educational care for people with disabilities


Aim of this study was to observe the radiological and histological changes in calcified placenta and correlate with obstetric pathologies and neonatal outcomes in terms of level of hypoxia and their level of resuscitation needed to make new born survive and compare between grades of placental calcification and maternal pregnancy induced pathologies. Role of vitamin D was also correlated with placental calcification grades. Material and methods Total of 100 calcified placenta were enrolled in study. The calcified placenta were assessed morphologically, histologically and radiologically along with mother's clinical history to rule out any high risk pregnancy association in terms of PIH, anaemia, abruption etc. Mother vitamin D level were also performed for further correlations. New born were assessed in terms of normality, /birth asphyxia/IUGR/LBW/Prematurity/IUD. The APGAR score, need of resuscitation and NICU requirement was noted. Placenta were examined grossly for visible calcification and the placental tissue were processed for routine paraffin embedment for radiological grading of placental calcification, placentae were kept on the X-ray plate and graded. To conclude placental calcification is more common with PIH cases and it is associated with intranatal and postnatal asphyxia necessitates good quality of resuscitation in new born. Ultrasound directed Grannum's grading at 36 weeks of gestation can predict placental calcification. With this it is possible to prevent severe degrees of neonatal asphyxia and also the mother can be evaluated in details for further prevention of complication in subsequent pregnancies.


After extraction of tissues (spleen, thymus, blood) B cell bearing surface immunoglobulins were specifically labelled with Fab-peroxidase conjugate in light and electron microscopy. Positive and negative labelled lymphocyte were counted. This procedure allowed us to quantitate B and T cell in different diseases in peripheral blood and within lesions. It may represent a new immunopathological approach.


Generally tunnelling in urban ground condition is not always favourable due to the tunnels' susceptibility to major displacement especially when excavated in the soft soil and/or weak weathered rock formation. Apart from conventional support systems, pre-support measure like forepoling umbrella arch is frequently used to reinforce the ground. Modern computational tools allows the inclusion of multi-stage excavations and pre-support which was not possible in two dimensional (2D) plane strain. This paper demonstrates the three dimensional (3D) finite element analysis of Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer tunnel, as a reference case, where multi-stage excavation and pre-support are incorporated as intrinsic part of the model. The New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM)-3 segments which encountered Grade III weathered granite, having shallow overburden cover, was selected for numerical analysis using RS 3 software. Comparison between simulated and observed data has shown good agreement during verification


Background
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has various effects on the vascular tree, both macrovascular and microvascular and both intracranial and extracranial circulation. Metabolic syndrome is a combination of medical disorders that, when occurring together, increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases including stroke.
 Objectives
In this study, we aimed to estimate the site and degree of intracranial arterial stenosis among patients clinically diagnosed as acute ischemic stroke patients with metabolic syndrome with or without T2DM.
 Patients and methods
This cross-sectional study included 100 patients admitted in Ain Shams University Specialized Hospital-Stroke Unit with the diagnosis of clinically first-ever cerebral infarction and metabolic syndrome with or without T2DM. All patients were subjected to detailed medical history, thorough general and neurological examination, full laboratory investigations, computerized tomography, MRI, and magnetic resonance angiography of the brain, carotid duplex, ECG, and echocardiography.
 Results
Small vessel disease (lacune) was present more frequently in patients with T2DM than in those without T2DM, and this showed a statistically significant difference ( P = 0.008). It was found that intracranial stenosis was statistically significantly higher compared with extracranial carotid stenosis in patients with T2DM with total or near-total occlusion, with P values less than 0.05. These stenoses or occlusions also tend to be multiple in the same group of patients with T2DM ( P = 0.033).
 Conclusion
Diabetic patients with acute ischemic stroke have a higher severity of intracranial arterial stenosis, higher incidence of multiple intracranial arterial stenoses, and lastly higher tendency to have obstructive intracranial arterial lesions.


2019-novel corona virus (nCoV) has come as an unexpected health emergency to the world. The highly contagious and unknown virus is still being studied for its origin, molecular structure and virulence as the globe faces numerous deaths every day. The situation is highly challenging because there is currently no vaccine available for 2019-nCoV as the virus had never infected humans. Every nation is facing multiple challenges of testing, diagnosing treating and containing the spread of COVID (as is 2019-nCoV infection commonly called). The economies of all nations have been ravaged due to the exigencies arising out of this extraordinary situation. In the midst of this global health emergency, it is essential to learn from the concurrent clinical cases and develop measures to detect, diagnose and treat the patients. This article aims at consolidating the existing knowledge with respect to the different aspects related to the COVID infection.


A multianalyte CE competitive immunoassay using two‐color detection was developed to measure insulin and glucagon in islets of Langerhans. Insulin was quantified with FITC‐insulin (Ins*) and anti‐insulin antibodies (Ins Ab) and glucagon was quantified with Cy5‐glucagon (Glu*) and anti‐glucagon antibodies (Glu Ab). A 3 mW Ar+ laser at 488 nm and a 25 mW laser diode at 635 nm were used to excite FITC and Cy5, respectively. Fluorescence was split with a half‐silvered mirror and passed through a 520 ± 20 nm bandpass filter or a 663 nm longpass filter for the detection of insulin and glucagon, respectively. The two‐color detection format enabled independent quantitation of both analytes even with concentrations of insulin immunoassay reagents 20‐fold higher than glucagon reagents. Simultaneous calibration curves were generated and used to determine insulin and glucagon content in islets of Langerhans. Amounts of insulin and glucagon were 56.6 ± 3.2 and 1.0 ± 0.5 ng/islet, respectively. LODs were 7 nM insulin and 3 nM glucagon. The assay will be applicable to fast monitoring of multiple peptides secreted from islets of Langerhans and can be applied to other systems for the quantitation of multiple analytes with large differences in concentrations.


Introduction:
 Papillary fibroelastomas (PFEs) are benign, often isolated, valvular tumors of endocardial origin although they may originate from non-valvular tissue and can be multiple. We report a unique case of PFE that involved 2 cardiac valves and nearly entire left ventricular (LV) endocardial surface.

 Case:
 A 73-year-old white woman with a history of non-valvular atrial fibrillation was admitted with intermittent worsening headaches and loss of peripheral vision in the right eye. An occipital-parietal hematoma was detected on brain computed tomography. Transthoracic echocardiogram showed multiple mobile masses on the mitral valve and the subvalvular apparatus. Transesophageal echocardiography showed additional involvement of the aortic valve and LV endocardium and no otherpotential source of embolism. She experienced recurrent systemic embolism and underwent surgery for the removal of cardiac masses. At surgery, more than 40 loosely attached individual and clustered PFEs (some shown in Figures A and B) confirmed by histology (Figure C) covered both aortic (Figure D and E) and mitral (Figure F) valves and nearly the entire LV endocardial surface (including papillary muscles,Figure G). All LV masses were removed and aortic and mitral valves were replaced. Conclusion. Although cases of multiple valvular PFEs have been reported previously, we report a unique case with a large number of PFEs that involved 2 cardiac valves and the entire mural surface of LV. We have used the term papillary elastofibromatosis to describe such an extensive tumor growth.


An insulated conductor heater may include an electrical conductor, the electrical conductor generates heat when a current is supplied to the electrical conductor. An electrical insulator at least partially surrounding the electrical conductor. Over the electrical insulator having a substantially kept constant or increased resistivity of the heat is generated at the time an electrical conductor. Outer electrical conductor at least partially surrounding the electrical insulator.


Low Differential Pressure and Multiphase Flow Measurements by Means of Differential Pressure Devices. (August 2004) Justo Hernandez Ruiz, B.S., National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico; M.S., National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Gerald L. Morrison The response of slotted plate, Venturi meter and standard orifice to the presence of two phase, three phase and low differential flows was investigated. Two mixtures (air-water and air-oil) were used in the two-phase analysis while a mixture of air, water and oil was employed in the three-phase case. Due to the high gas void fraction (α>0.9), the mixture was considered wet gas. A slotted plate was utilized in the low differential pressure analysis and the discharge coefficient behavior was analyzed. Assuming homogeneous flow, an equation with two unknowns was obtained for the multi-phase flow analysis. An empirical relation and the differential response of the meters were used to estimate the variables involved in the equation. Good performance in the gas mass flow rate estimation was exhibited by the slotted and standard plates for the air-water flow, while poor results were obtained for the air-oil and air-water oil flows. The performance of all the flow meter tested in the analysis improved for differential pressures greater than 24.9 kPa (100 in_H2O). Due to the tendency to a zero value for the liquid flow, the error of the estimation reached values of more than 500% at high qualities and low differential pressures. Air-oil and air-water-oil flows show that liquid viscosity influences the response of the differential pressure meters. The best results for high liquid viscosity were obtained in the Venturi meter using the recovery pressure for the gas flow estimation at differential pressures greater than 24.9 kPa (100 in_H2O).


Technological features of pulsed laser machining of yttriastabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP) were studied. The connection between the laser power, scanning speed, laser beam steps and surface state of zirconia ceramic was established. The results of the research showed that pulsed laser machining of this material is an effective tool to control surface modification process and presents an attractive alternative to conventional techniques.


This paper provides an overview of the mobile ecosystem in Asia, highlights political impacts of the mobile information society in Asia, identifies a wide spectrum of challenges for free speech activists and policymakers, and ends with a classification of wireless information societies in Asia. Recent developments like curbs on widespread registration of pre-paid subscription cards and monitoring of SMS traffic in other cases are identified. Wireless environments in the Asia-Pacific can be classified into seven categories, based on a combination of factors like ICT infrastructure, political culture, and international presence: restrictive, embryonic, emerging, negotiating, intermediate, mature and advanced.


BACKGROUND:
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disease whose etiology is not clearly known, probably autoimmune in origin affecting the small, peripheral joints like hand, feet etc. It is characterised by extra-articular manifestations involving the lungs, heart, eyes, ears, etc. Diagnosis of RA is based on 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria. Active disease in RA with DAS 28 score >5.1 characterised by early morning stiffness of the affected joints for more than 45 minutes, increased APR like ESR, RF positivity and increased titres of ACPA. In active disease, release of inflammatory cytokines like IL 6, MMP3 increase the expression of citrullinated antigens, thus increasing the autoantibodies like ACPA. Hence, ACPA is taken as the biomarker of active disease. The disease during its active stage affects the cochlear hair cells of the inner ear resulting in SNHL. The hair cell injury is due to the ongoing active inflammation, deposition of immune complexes, expression of antigens by the inner ear, compromised nutrition to the hair cells, oxidant stress, etc. Screening with OAE & BERA is done to identify hair cell damage at a very early stage.
AIM OF THE STUDY:
1. To determine the functional integrity of cochlear hair cells in patients with active RA by OAE screening.
2. To determine the site of lesion by Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry.
3. To assess serum ACPA levels as a biomarker of active RA in these patients.
4. To correlate serum ACPA levels with wave I of BERA in these patients.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
30 patients with active RA of both sexes in the age group 25-45 years without any clinical evidence of hearing impairment ascertained by PTA were included in the study. Controls were age and sex matched healthy population. Both the controls and active RA patients were subjected to OAE, BERA and their serum ACPA levels was measured.
RESULTS:
Data analysis was done with unpaired student 't' test. Serum ACPA levels were statistically significant in these patients. BERA shows prolonged latency of wave I which was statistically significant. 41 out of 60 ears showed REFER on OAE screening indicating damage to cochlear hair cells. There was a positive correlation between serum ACPA levels & latency of wave l in BERA which was statistically significant.
CONCLUSION:
Active RA with DAS 28 score >5.1 was assessed by increased serum levels of ACPA. The hair cell abnormalities in active disease were identified with OAE screening tests & BERA in these patients. The positive correlation between latency of wave I of BERA & serum levels of ACPA explains the involvement of hair cells in active RA. Early intervention will protect the hair cells, prevents damage & thus the hearing disability. So periodic & regular ENT examination with OAE screening & BERA may be beneficial to these patients.


Changes in precipitation at local to regional scales in a warmer world remain highly uncertain. This is especially true of both moderate and high extremes (e.g. > 90%-iles and > 99.9%-iles, respectively). While a relationship between increasing model resolution and increasing precipitation (both means and extremes) appears to be present for both GCMs and RCMs there are conflicting results when convection-permitting scales are reached. These differences can be region as well as model dependent. A project under the auspices of the World Climate Research Program’s (WCRP) Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiments Flagship Pilot Studies program (CORDEX-FPS) was established to investigate these, and other issues. This initiative aims to build first-of-their-kind ensemble climate experiments using convection permitting models to investigate present and future convective processes and related extremes over Europe and the Mediterranean. In this presentation we offer a first look at the scenario simulations (Historical 2000-2009 and RCP8.5 2090-99 timeslices) and an analysis of precipitation changes and their drivers over various sub-regions of a large domain, which cover the Alps, parts of central Europe and the Mediterranean and Adriatic coasts (0-17E x 40-50N). This study employs an innovative precipitation separation algorithm specifically designed for use with km-scale models. The algorithm separates convective, stratiform and orographic precipitation, which allows for a more nuanced understanding of projected change. The method is based on physical processes such as vorticity and vertical velocity. This new approach focuses on the physical processes leading to precipitation of a certain types rather than use the circular reasoning of employing the result to determine the cause. As a result we are able to see that despite overall drying in some seasons increasing intensity of convective precipitation contributes toward the shift to more intense extremes. We conclude with a discussion of the changes to the underlying physical processes driving convective and other types of precipitation at highly localized scales.


The adsorption property for bilirubin of the IE701 ion exchange resin prepared in our laboratory was investigated. The ratio of equilibrium adsorption of IE701 resins at 25℃ for free bilirubin and human serum albumin combined bilirubin were 97.1% and 86.4%, and the imported product MARS IE250 ion exchanger resin were 96.3% and 91.3%.


Objective To observe the therapeutic effect and safety of local hyperthermia combined with chemotherapy in patients with advanced cancer. Methods One hundred and three patients with advanced cancer were divided into 2 groups: 51 patients received local hyperthermia with chemotherapy (combination group), 52 patients were treated with chemotherapy alone (chemotherapy group). The hyperthermia therapy was carried on in a HG-2000 hyper-frequency heat-therapy device, the temperature was maintained at 40℃~42℃ for 60min ( 2 times a cycle); Various chemotherapeutical protocols were adopted for 2 cycles according to the type of cancer. Results In combination group the overall response rate (CR and PR) was 49.0%, while that in chemotherapy group was 28.8% (P0.05). The clinical benefit response rate of combination group was significantly higher than that of chemotherapy group (45.1% vs 25.0%, P0.05). There were no significant differences between two groups in toxicities of gastrointestinal tract, liver and myelosuppression. (P0.05). Conclusion Hyperthermia combined with chemotherapy is effective and safe for patients with advanced cancer.


Abstract Background The genus Scaponopselaphus Scheerpeltz was originally described to accommodate the species Trigonopselaphus mutator Sharp. New information In this paper, I review Scaponopselaphus and describe a new species from Colombia as Scaponopselaphus diaspartos n. sp. Illustrations are provided for the identification of specimens and the presence of spatulate setae on first mesotarsomere is shown to be a unique characteristic of Scaponopselaphus within Xanthopygina.


The evolution of modern cooperative trends now seen in society have not yet been easily explained,After extenisve computational studies and theoretical analysis,Nowak and Sigmund proposed that cooperation was established largely due to the emergence of indirect reciprocity.Our previous studies show that a high information flow rate stimulates cooperation in a society.In this study we find that the decrease of cooperation cost will make a society more cooperative,and the inheritance of wealth will induce cooperation in the society even when the exchange rate is comparatively low.We also study the distribution of knowldge according to wealth.We find that.for this model,cooperation is slightly less likely to occur if the exchange rate is low.


Internet of Things (IoT) system provides personalized services to users by analyzing the amount of data collected from billions of sensors. It is important to ensure the trustworthiness of the heterogeneous IoT data. To address this requirement, the data provenance needs to be used in the IoT system. In this article, we integrate the PROV-DM model into the IoT architecture and propose an IoT data provenance model. To avoid corrupting and forging the provenance information, we record the provenance data onto the blockchain. In addition, we use the IoT secure and computable data sharing system to illustrate that the proposed model can construct a provenance graph to detect which agent operates the IoT data abnormally. Finally, we implement and evaluate the proposed model on a public IoT database.


Preface The Nature of Groups The Study of Groups Group Development Group Size Group Territory The Nature of Group Composition The Amount of Group Resources The Variability in Group Resources The Compatibility in Group Resources The Elements of Group Structure Group Position Group Status Group Roles Group Norms Group Leadership The Nature of Cohesion Correlates of Cohesion in Sport Teams Team Goals Co-operation & Competition in Groups Attributions in Sport Communication in Groups Collective Efficacy Team Building in Sport Index.


Hexavalent chromium contamination in groundwater has become a very serious and challenging problem. Identification of the groundwater chemical characteristics of the sites and their control mechanisms for remediation of pollutants is a significant challenge. In this study, a contaminated site in Xinxiang City, Henan Province, was investigated and 92 groundwater samples were collected from the site. Furthermore, the hydrogeochemical characteristics and the distribution patterns of components in the groundwater were analyzed by a combination of multivariate statistical analysis, Piper diagram, Gibbs diagram, ions ratio and hydrogeochemical simulation. The results showed that the HCO3-Cl-Mg-Ca type, SO4-HCO3-Na type, and HCO3-Mg-Ca-Na type characterize the hydrogeochemical composition of shallow groundwater and HCO3-Cl-Mg-Ca type, HCO3-Na-Mg type, and HCO3-SO4-Mg-Na-Ca type characterize the hydrogeochemical composition of deep groundwater. Ion ratios and saturation index indicated that the groundwater hydrogeochemical characteristics of the study area are mainly controlled by water–rock action and evaporative crystallization. The dissolution of halite, gypsum and anhydrite, the precipitation of aragonite, calcite and dolomite, and the precipitation of trivalent chromium minerals other than CrCl3 and the dissolution of hexavalent chromium minerals occurred in groundwater at the site. The minimum value of pH in groundwater at the site is 7.55 and the maximum value is 9.26. The influence of pH on the fugacity state of minerals was further investigated. It was concluded that the saturation index of dolomite, calcite, aragonite and MgCr2O4 increases with the increase of pH, indicating that these minerals are more prone to precipitation, and the saturation index of Na2Cr2O7, K2Cr2O7 and CrCl3 decreases with the increase of pH, implying that Na2Cr2O7, K2Cr2O7 and CrCl3 are more prone to dissolution. The saturation index of the remaining minerals is less affected by pH changes. The study can provide a scientific basis for groundwater remediation.


In a tension-controlled section, all steel tension reinforcement is assumed to yield at ultimate when using the strength design method to calculate the nominal flexural strength of members with steel reinforcement arranged in multiple layers. Therefore, the tension force is assumed to act at the centroid of the reinforcement with a magnitude equal to the area of tension reinforcement times the yield strength of steel. Because FRP materials have no plastic region, the stress in each reinforcement layer will vary depending on its distance from the neutral axis. Similarly, if different types of FRP bars are used to reinforce the same member, the stress level in each bar type will vary, and the member will show different behavior from our expectation. In this study, six high-strength concrete beam specimens reinforced with conventional steels, CFRP bars, and GFRP bars as flexural reinforcements were constructed and tested. The members reinforced with hybrid reinforcements showed higher stiffness, smaller crack width, and better ductility than the members reinforced with single type of FRP bars.


The selenium contents in different varieties(lines) of potato and in the soil where the potato was grown were analyzed, and the patterns of selenium absorption and enrichment of different varieties(lines) of potato were studied. There was a large difference in different varieties(lines) of potato for selenium accumulation, and the selenium accumulation of '0602-65' was obviously higher than other varieties(lines), then followed by the line of '09012-74'. Different organs of potato were also different in the absorption and the enrichment ability of selenium, with stem, leaf, root, and tuber placed in descending order. The selenium absorption ability of potato was stronger in stems than other organs, and the selenium was mainly enriched in potato stems.


Sediments from Hess Deep, Ocean Drilling Program Leg 147 Site 894, and from the deepest point of Hess Deep (recovered during cruise Sonne 60, core 95) were examined. Different lithologies within these sediments have different geochemical signatures. It is possible to distinguish the source rocks of the different sediment types and to reconstruct the processes affecting the genesis of the sediments. Foraminiferal ooze from Site 894 has high Sr concentrations and elevated but not constant Ba values. Sediments from lithic breccia sequences have nearly the same element concentrations and rare earth element (REE) patterns as underlying gabbroic rocks. The lithic breccias are a pure physical weathering product, exhibiting no alteration. Hydrothermal sediments from core 95 have varying concentrations of Mn, As, and other elements precipitated by hydrothermal activity. A serpentine sequence in the middle of the sediment-core is of turbiditic origin, inferred from high Mg, Ni, and Cr concentrations. Platinum group elements (PGE) in the serpentinitic sediments were fractionated during the alteration of peridotite. In the hydrothermal sediments PGE are partially enriched.


A method of reducing the oxygen content in gas mixtures at 0.0 to 1.5% by volume, wherein the gas is contacted with a solution containing anthrahydroquinone derivatives capable of being oxidized with molecular oxygen with a hydrogen peroxide formation. The oxygen supply is adjusted such that the amount of oxygen supplied, with a quantitative formation of hydrogen peroxide, stoichiometrically corresponds to a value not exceeding 90%, preferably 50%, of the quantity supplied derivatives of anthrahydroquinone. The hydrogen peroxide content to the contact surfaces between the solution and gas must not exceed 100 millimoles per liter at a simultaneous oxygen pressure of gas not exceeding 100 mbar. The gas mixture with low oxygen content obtained by this method can be used as protective or inert gas in the processes of the chemical industry which are used flammable gases.


Different unmanned aerial vehicles teams often work independently, leaving a "stove-piped" isolation problem, and the cost of collaboration among them is relatively high. Interoperability has been proposed to study the ability of unmanned aerial systems in working together, of which smooth communication is the fundamental requirement. To construct communication ability of different systems, the protocols they support should be essentially concerned. A novel, lightweight and flexible protocol, named as LAB protocol, is developed in this paper, where we study it and STANAG 4586 and MAVLink for comparision. We propose a bridging method to break isolation and verify interoperability among UASs using different protocols through experiments.


We buy and sell new and used cold circular saws (cold circular saw). (new, used, wanted, buy, sell) (adjustment, stop, manually, controlled, numerical control, CNC, saw blade diameter, automatic, machine, digital, measurement) (Kaltenbach, Pedrazzoli, Trennj�ger)


In the CMSMPR (continuous mixed suspension mixed product removal)system, the effect of temperature and RPM on the CSD (crystal size distribution) in the calcium carbonate process was investigated. In the steady state operation, the change of solution pH was small. At the low temperature and below 300 RPM, volume mean size change of calcium carbonate was stable and CSD was narrow. In the SEM view, calcite and aragonite was obtained.4y


Mentally disordered people who offend have been a causeforconcernfora longtime.As longago as 1807 a Select Committee complained of the conditions in which some patients were held and recommended the establishment of a secure hospital, and in 1900 Thomas Holmes described his concerns at the "¿ ever increasing army of the demented― coming before the magistrate's courts. Reviews in the 1970s (Home Office/Department of Health and Social Security, 1975; Department of Health and Social Security, 1975) produced limited improvements in services for mentally disordered offenders, but continuing concern led to the establishment of a new review in 1990. The conclusions of that review (Department of Health/Home Office, 1992), with its 276 recommendations and six supporting reports (Department of Health/Home Office, 1993a-f) have been accepted by Ministers in the two departments as setting the direction in which they wish services to develop as resources allow. In September 1992 Ministers in the two departments set up further groups to review the provision of care in high security and the problems posed by people with severe personality disorders who fall within the legal category of psychopathic disorder.


In a refined vanadium enterprise wastewater reuse process,ammonia nitrogen continuous enrichment,affecting the quality of products of the problem,the ultrasonic exploration research,remove method of ammonia nitrogen wastewater was treated.After the project implementation,ammonia nitrogen concentration of less than 15 mg/L,wastewater reuse production,not all the environmental pollution multidrug,eliminate the hazard.


A four level system such as found in dyes and F2+ centres of alkali halides is irradiated by two fields in a Fabry-Perot or ring cavity.It is shown that both fields exhibit optical hysteresis and bistability.Applications such as a single element half-adder and tunable optical bistability are described.


Plants represent the best and most extensively studied source of natural antioxidants. The present study investigated the antioxidant and anti-glycation properties of different concentrations of essential oils obtained from fruits and branchlets of Juniperus oblonga M. Bieb., Cupressaceae, using different assays. The essential oils were obtained by steam distillation of the branchlets of male tree (BMT), branchlets of female tree (BFT) and fruits of J. oblonga. Compositional analysis of oils was performed using a gas chromatography-mass method. Antioxidant activity was assessed using linoleic acid peroxidation, peroxyl radical mediated hemolysis of red blood cells (RBC) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation assays. Anti-glycation properties of oils were evaluated using hemoglobin and insulin glycation assays. Seventeen, eighteen and fifteen compounds were identified in the BMT, BFT and fruit oil, which represented 82.51, 55.69 and 96.89% of the total oils, respectively. α-Pinene was the major component of all three oils. All three oils possessed antioxidant effects against LDL oxidation, linoleic acid peroxidation and peroxyl radical mediated RBC hemolysis. Anti-glycation activities against hemoglobin and insulin glycation were also observed from all tested oils. Overall, there was no unique pattern of dose-dependence for the antioxidant properties of oils in different employed systems. The findings of this study suggest that essential oils from fruits and branchlets of J. oblonga possess antioxidant and anti-glycation properties. Therefore, these oils might be of therapeutic efficacy against diabetes and cardiovascular disease.


Freeways have profoundly influenced the form and function of U.S. cities, yet urban planners generally played only a peripheral role in their development. This article traces the history of freeway development in California to show how political negotiations between local and state governments over street and highway finance resulted in urban freeways financed, designed, and built by the state highway department. To fund their ambitious transportation plans, local officials and planners in cities like Los Angeles turned over control of the planning and development of urban freeways in the 1940s and 1950s to state departments of transportation. This shift in control led to, among other things, the construction of freeways too large to fit easily into cities and freeway networks too sparse to adequately disperse urban traffic. While federal surface transportation legislation returned significant control over metropolitan freeways to regions and planners in the 1990s, the influence of modern freeways on urban life endures.


On the one hand, edge computing has the advantage of distributing the load to the edges of a computer network. Local computation at the edge is bandwidth-efficient and anonymous. On the other hand, cloud computing is the choice when it comes to computationally demanding tasks and big data. In this paper, we argue for edge-cloud computing (which blends the two together) with an experimental study on the impact of execution location on application performance. We answer the question of how to determine whether it should compute a task at the edge or on the cloud and what the criteria are. We analyze the factors of response time, memory space, data availability and privacy policy. We experimentally evaluate the impact of these factors on execution location based on a network visualizer software.


This paper is a general survey of the oral Chinese textbooks published since 1949 and the relevant researches.In the past sixty yeas,especially in the past thirty years,there has been a big increase in publication of such textbooks.In the past,such textbooks attached importance to linguistic knowledge,and now with diversified orientations and goals,they give more emphasis on practicality.The relevant researches have focused on the oral features of the Chinese language,the arrangement of the key language points,its content and application.With this,the paper finally brings up some suggestions for the future compilation and research of such textbooks.


An aviation polysulfide sealant has been soaked in a water bath at 85 °C to study the effects of hydrothermal treatment on this material. The morphology, Shore A hardness, and mechanical properties of the sealant were measured before and after soaking. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and room temperature storage modulus (E') were measured by means of a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA). The results showed that the surface glossiness of the polysulfide disappeared, some bubble defects appeared on its surface, the Shore A hardness and the tensile strength increased, while the elongation at break fluctuated with aging. The Tg and E' of the sealant changed only slightly. The chemical structure of the sealant was not obviously changed, and its aggregation state was changed only slightly, thus indicating that this sealant is characterized by good hydrothermal resistance.


The present invention discloses a data conversion method of driving a display panel, the display panel is divided into a plurality of display areas, wherein the converting method comprising steps: A) initializing M = 0; B) A (m, n) = 1-q × m, where, q is greater than 0 and less than 1, (m, n) represents the position coordinates of the display area, a (m, n) represents the adjustment parameters corresponding to the display area; C) according to the RGB data adjustment parameter inputted into a display region corresponding intermediate RGBW data; D) to calculate the saturation values of HSV color space according to the intermediate RGBW data; E) determining the saturation value is not smaller than a predetermined saturation value of the display region corresponding to; F.) if the saturation value is not is smaller than a predetermined saturation value, then the intermediate data as output RGBW data to RGBW. The present invention also discloses a drive data conversion system of a display panel. Conversion system and the drive data conversion method of a display panel according to the present invention, it is possible to improve color saturation of the display screen of the display device, thereby improving the display quality of the display device.


AbstractThe River Tay is renowned as the foremost salmon river in the United Kingdom, draining the greater part of Perthshire and entering the North Sea between the south coast of Angus and north-east coast of Fife. It is also probably the most scenic river in Britain and from source to sea stretches for nearly 120 miles, possessing a stronger flow than the Thames and Severn put together. For at least 800 years salmon have been netted on the Tay, the earliest fishing rights divested by the Scottish Crown to the medieval ecclesiastical houses that bordered the river and further beyond. The River Earn, whose confluence with the Tay is just west of the Fife town of Newburgh, is, on the other hand, a muddier siltier river since it largely comes off agricultural land.


Object recognition, a core technology that cannot be missed in the industrial revolution, is used in various fields such as face recognition, robot control, IoT and autonomous driving. In this paper, we propose hand region detection based on computer vision. We used a method of using the images obtained from the camera because the method of wearing the equipment is expensive and has the cumbersome disadvantage of wearing it every time. We also used FPGA as an accelerator for real-time image processing. We used YCbCr color domain transformation, median filter, morphology dilation and labeling for hand detection. In this paper, since the result of YCbCr color conversion is 0 or 1, the result of 24 bits is reduced to 1 bit, so the memory size can be reduced. YCbCr Since the result is 0 or 1, when median filter is executed with mask of size 3by3, it can be seen that the intermediate value is 1 when the addition result is 5 or more. The result of the median filter used in this paper is much faster than that of the conventional median filter, which is obtained by comparing the sizes of the pixels, since it can be obtained by 1 clock. The use of line buffers during morphological operations and labeling reduces the total amount of data to be loaded.


We study theoretically the formation of the deeply bound pionic atoms in various cases to deduce the pion properties in nuclei precisely from the observables. We show the angular dependence of the pionic atom formation spectra of the 122 Sn(d, 3 He) reactions in the forward angles. At each scattering angle, a different combination of the pion-bound and neutron-hole states dominates the spectrum because of the kinematical condition. We conclude that we can obtain information on the deeply bound pionic 2p state in addition to the 1s and 2s states by observing the spectra in finite angles. We also consider the neutron-odd nucleus as a target nucleus of the formation reaction, because it has an advantage that the pionic atom is formed in the even-even nucleus, of which the ground state has no neutron-hole states. In the 117 Sn(d; 3 He) reaction, we find that we can see clearly the peak structure of the pionic 1s state formation with the ground state of the even-even nucleus 116 Sn. The pionic atom in the even-even nucleus will not have additional shifts induced by the effects of the residual interaction between pion-bound and neutron-hole states. The observation of these pionic states is preferable for extracting the accurate information on the pion properties from data.


The authors' reply to comments regarding on resonant and anitresonant frequencies, the validity of the transfer function SAW filter after cancellation and the proposed perfect cancellation are discussed and attested to be mathematically correct.


OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS Employees play critical roles in improving the performance of operation systems. Work-related health disorders and injuries degrade employees' work performance and hence the performance of the system. Previous studies frequently reported the negative effects of poor ergonomic conditions of the workplace on developing occupational health problems. However, managers lack tools to consider occupational ergonomics aspects, employees' health conditions, and their financial consequences when the performance of systems is optimized. This research provides a hierarchical modeling framework to integrate occupational ergonomics aspects into system performance optimization models. With this modeling approach, ergonomists and human factor practitioners can better influence managers' decisions by developing analytical tools that demonstrate the health, economic, and operational improvement of ergonomics conditions in the system-level analysis. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Occupational illnesses have negative consequences for employees. They also reduce employees' overall work performance, creating negative economic impacts on companies. Occupational ergonomics studies mostly investigate work-related health and safety aspects of a system to reduce the rate of these health problems for employees. However, they do not usually involve optimizing the performance of a system and do not account for the operational aspects of the system such as demand, workstation interactions, and inventory levels. In contrast, operations management studies usually deal with these operational aspects while optimizing the performance of operation systems. Although human resources are involved in many stages of operation systems, operations management performance optimization models usually use simplifying assumptions regarding human operational characteristics. They rarely include causes and effects of work-related health problems. Purpose and Methods: This article introduces a modeling framework, integrating occupational ergonomics aspects into operations management performance optimization models. It provides a road map for assessing the impact of work-related risk factors, including physical and psychosocial aspects on system performance. Results: An illustrative example demonstrates the applicability of the developed framework in a real situation. The results demonstrate a 0.76% to 3.76% cost growth for a manufacturing system due to the poor ergonomic design of the workplace. Conclusion: By applying this framework, practitioners can find out how the performance of their systems will be enhanced by investing in safer working conditions for employees. Managers can also better assess the economic consequences of a poor ergonomic design and consequent occupational illnesses.


The shoe outsole forming system automates the work of vulcanizing rubber in moulds for a fixed time and withdrawing the moulds. The system comprises a mould set (20) having three mouds (21,22,23), a plate (7) moving up and down by a push plate (10) fixied to the upper end of a hydraulic cylinder (8) piston (9), a heater positioned within the plate (7), a link hook (26) fixed to one end of the lower mould (23), a support body (35) under whick feeding devices such as a rail (31), limit switches (32) and a switch actuator are poritioned, posts (39) fixed to the support body (35), and cylinders (55,58,60) fixing the mould withrower (A) at the working position of the press (1).


The design of a 29.5 GHz experimental active interferometer for the measurement of the angular velocity of moving humans is presented in this paper, as well as initial measurements of walking humans. Measurement of the angular motion of moving objects is a desirable function in remote security sensing applications. Doppler radar sensors are able to measure the signature of moving humans based on micro-Doppler analysis; however, a person moving with little to no radial velocity produces negligible Doppler returns. Measurement of the angular movement of humans can be done with traditional radar techniques however the process involves either continuous tracking with narrow beamwidth or angle-of arrival estimation algorithms. Recently, the authors presented a new method of measuring the angular velocity of moving objects using interferometry. The method measures the angular velocity of an object without tracking or complex processing. The frequency shift imparted on the signal response is proportional to the angular velocity of the object as it passes through the interferometer beam pattern. The experimental system consists of a transmitter and two separate receivers with two widely spaced antennas. The received signals in each of the two channels are downconverted and digitized, and post-processed offline. Initial results of a walking person passing through the interferometer beam pattern are presented, which verify the expected operation of the receiver derived from the initial theory.


The myotoxin isolated from the venom of the snake Bothrops brazili has been studied in its mode of action. In the first hour of activity the myotoxin injected in the gastrocnemius muscle of white mice, induces the release of creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase, while by PAGE-SDS, it is shown that the incubation of miotoxin with isolated gastrocnemius muscle releases other proteins from this tissue. Moreover myotoxin produces hipercontraction, delta lesions and increases the concentration of intramuscular calcium "in vivo" and "in vitro", which does not depend on extracellular calcium entry through dyhidropyridine receptors. This increase of calcium would explain the hipercontraction observed. Also it could trigger the activation of endogenous proteases and lipases, which would lead to muscle necrosis.


Considering the flow processes of the working fluid with the pressure drops, a thermodynamic model for a triple-shaft open intercooled-recuperated gas turbine cycle is established using thermodynamic optimization theory in Part 1 of this paper. The relative pressure drops associated with the flow through various cross-sectional areas are derived as functions of the low-pressure compressor inlet relative pressure drop. The analytical formulae of the cycle's power and efficiency are derived. The performance of the model cycle is optimized by adjusting the compressor inlet pressure, the mass flow rate and the distribution of pressure losses along the flow path in Part 2 of this paper.