Remotely sensed images in the East Greenland Current marginal ice zone region indicate a variety of mesoscale motions. These range from isolated monopoles and dipoles to multiple eddy fields. Recent observations indicate that many of the eddies may be advected into the region from the West Spitsbergen Current region. They then interact with the East Greenland Current marginal ice zone and its associated along-ice-edge jet. In this paper we illustrate how the ice floe fields can evolve during the interaction of an ocean eddy with an along-ice-edge ocean jet. The effects of eddy sense of rotation, flow strength, and bottom topography are considered in barotropic and baroclinic, two-layer numerical experiments. Initially, barotropic experiments involve the combined effects of flat-bottom eddy-jet interactions and eddy-topography interactions. Over a flat bottom, anticyclones interact with the cyclonically sheared side of the jet and move seaward, exporting ice away from the ice edge in a dipolar distribution. Cyclones move toward the jet and are advected downstream. A second dipole formation mechanism is associated with eddy-topography interaction and is a consequence of the shallow pycnocline depth of the region. Rapid topographic Rossby wave radiation in the lower layer spreads energy along slope and upslope (downslope) for cyclones (anticyclones). The upper ocean response to this process is a dipole which propagates parallel to the ice edge with shallow water to the left (topographic eastward). Jet-induced and topography-induced eddy propagation tendencies combine to enhance cyclone-jet interaction and limit anticyclone-jet interactions. The dipole formation associated with eddy-topography interaction is weakened by the presence of the jet but not eliminated. Eddy-induced distortions in the ice edge are suppressed by the stabilizing effect of topography on the jet. Sensitivity of the initially barotropic results to variation in the Rossby number and degree of topographic slope illustrates that eddies are more efficient in producing ice edge distortions for stronger flows and weaker topographic slopes. For initially baroclinic simulations over topography, results are comparable to flat-bottom cases. Strong upper layer eddy-jet interactions can occur independent of topographic effects which are constrained to the lower layer.


The effect of dielectric cladding on modifying a mode field based on a multilayer planar surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waveguide is investigated at the telecom wavelength of 1.55 μm. Through numerical calculations based on the transfer matrix method and Cauchy integration method, we point out that the mode loss and the mode size can be efficiently engineered via tailoring the dielectric cladding layer. With appropriately optimized thickness and refractive index of the dielectric cladding, the mode size and mode loss of the long-range SPP modes supported by the proposed structure could reach their minima simultaneously such that the figure of merit exhibits a maximum, which breaks the trade-off relationship between confinement and attenuation of SPP waveguide to a certain degree. Furthermore, benefiting from the dielectric cladding effect, the adjustability of field distribution in the dielectric region provides a simple and effective means for improving the light–matter interaction strength for the purpose of SPP signal modulating, detecting or sensing.


The article aims to clarify the point in literary history concerning the composition of the Regrets by Du Bellay, taking into account the sonnets written on the occasion of the poet's trip to Italy that he later left out of the collection. This enables us to situate melancholy in the context of the function of all the humours in the book. Already the first part, clearly marked by melancholy, anticipates the therapy developed in the next two parts; therefore, the itinerary of the poet and of the book becomes that of a gradual recovery. Melancholy as a temperament constitutes a new point of departure; it could therefore no longer be presented, as was the case of the omitted sonnets, in the form of simple, medically operable humour crises, but as a temperament to be transformed progressively, from the sense of perdition to the salvation of a recovered balance.


Shows Marshall telling Truman "The Russians Are Strange People- It's Hard To Get Them To Agree On Anything"; in the background is the Capitol Building fuming with "Budget Disagreement", "Clash On Taxes"; "Labor Legislation Row" and "Appropriations Fight".


Leather processing industries consume high volumes of water and chemicals and release effluents into the environment that pollute the surface water and may cause harm to human health. Leather processing involves different wet processing stages such as soaking, liming, chrome tanning, rechroming, neutralization, fatliqouring and dyeing. The pollution generated from the leather processing stages varies in volume, nature and concentrations. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of effluents generated from different stages of leather processing can be useful to understand the stagewise and overall water pollution of leather wet processing and to design and plan pollution abatement initiatives. Water footprints (WF) can help in understanding the total water consumption and water pollution caused by the leather sector. The objectives of this research are to assess the characteristics of effluents generated from different stages of leather processing, calculate the water footprint (WF) and analyze the pollution load of the Bangladesh leather sector. To perform experimental analyses, effluent samples were collected from the following leather processing stages: soaking, liming, deliming and bating, pickling and tanning, wet back, rechroming, neutralization, retanning, dyeing and fatliqouring from four leather processing factories. The key pollution indicating parameters, such as pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total dissolved solid (TDS) and total suspended solid (TSS) of the effluent samples were analyzed. The experimental study showed that almost 52% effluents generate from beam house and tan yard operations, and about 48% effluents generate from post tanning operations. Due to the presence of high amounts of salt, insecticides and bactericides, the effluent generated from the soaking stage contains high BOD and TDS. On the other hand, effluent generated from liming contains the highest amounts of BOD, COD, TDS, and TSS. The reduction or segregation of soaking and liming effluents will be effective in improving the environmental performance of the wet processing of leather. To assess the total water footprint of the leather sector, the water footprint of feed crops and raw hides were calculated, along with the water footprint of the leather processing stages. The water footprints of bovine and ovine crust leather were found to be 34,000 m3/ton and 17,300 m3/ton, respectively. The blue water footprint is higher in soaking, liming and finishing. The green water footprint of leather is mainly contributed by feed crops of farming animals. The grey water footprint was found higher in the soaking, liming, fatliqouring and dyeing stages. About 97% of the water footprints of tanneries are contributed by the wet processing stages. The grey water footprint is the most significant part of the total water footprint of the leather sector, which indicates the impact of high water pollution by the leather processing stages. This study can help to understand the overall scenario of water consumption and water pollution caused by the leather sector in Bangladesh. This study can also be useful in designing sustainable leather products by reducing the total water footprint per unit of leather goods. The systematic approach of this study could be useful for other countries in leather processing.


The invention belongs to the technical field of petroleum industry, relates to a measuring method for performance of foaming agent, specifically relates to measurement of high temperature performance of foaming agent. By measuring the foam volume and half-life of the foaming agent under different temperature conditions, the method obtains average foam comprehensive index as the measurement result of the foaming performance and foam stabilizing performance of the foaming agent; on this basis, by measuring the resistance factor of the foaming agent under different temperatures conditions, an average foam resistance factor is obtained to be used as the measurement result of the sealing and blocking performance of each foaming agent. The method can objectively measure the foaming performance, foam stabilizing performance and sealing and blocking performance of the foaming agent under varying temperature conditions, thus realizing the optimal selection of the foaming agent used for blocking and profile adjusting under high temperature vapor conditions on the site of oil field.


Special physiological studies have revealed the influence of rhythm on various systems of the human body. Physiological rhythms of people resonate and spontaneously adjust to the frequency and dynamic indicators of musical accompaniment. It is shown that musical tempo, rhythm and structure of works and other musical factors may subdue the internal rhythm of physiological processes. One reason for the physiological effects of music on people is that the nervous system and muscles are capable of mastering rhythm, which in turn stimulates the body's processes that occur rhythmically both in the motor and vegetal spheres. There are many body autonomic responses to music and rhythmic effects. The purpose was to study the influence of the rhythm-tempo structure of aerobics classes on the parameters of heart rate variability and electro-physiological characteristics of the neuromuscular system of students. The object of study was students who practise aerobics at the Physical Education Department of Tomsk State University, aged 17 to 20, divided into three groups depending on the rhythm-tempo accompaniment of the training sessions: 1. 115-125 beats/min; 2. 135-140 beats/min; 3. 145-160 beats/min. To study the peculiarities of adaptation of the cardiovascular system to the aerobic training of girls of different rhythm-tempo structures the cardiointervalography method is used, for the assessment of the neuromuscular system the method of electromyography. It is shown that in Group 1 the influence of the central boundary regulating the heart rate by decreasing the activity of the autonomous regulation boundary. Increase of the rate to 135140 beats/min increased the influence of the autonomous regulation boundary. And with the rhythm of 140 beats/min and above there is an inclusion of additional sections dealing with the regulation of the cardiac rhythm. The effectiveness of relaxing the gluteus maximus muscle and the quadriceps muscle depended on the structure of the rhythm-tempo training. The study of the electrical activity of muscles before and after training revealed significant differences between the three groups. The larger the external load and the strength of muscle contraction, the higher the amplitude of the electromyogram. This is due to an increase in the frequency of nerve impulses, involving a larger number of motor units in the muscle and the timing of their activity. The decrease of the maximum amplitude in the quadriceps femoris and gluteus maximus muscles indicates a more efficient relaxation of these muscles.


Therapeutic efficacy of anti-cancer agents is a critical requirement however it is often limited due to poor delivery of the drugs to the tumour. The aim of this project was to use gas-filled, lipid-shelled microbubbles (MBs) to enhance therapeutic effects of an epigenetic drug, called decitabine (5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine or DAC), against triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). MB-assisted drug delivery using ultrasound is proposed as a non-invasive approach for controllably triggered drug release, which may protect the drug from rapid degradation, enhance drug efficacy and reduce off-site side effects.
In this study, treatment of human MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells with low doses of DAC demonstrated up-regulation of epigenetically dysregulated tumour suppressor genes and immune response genes, as well as global DNA demethylation. These assays, alongside inhibition of tumour growth, were used as biomarkers for the assessment of DAC delivery in a mouse MDA-MB-231 TNBC xenograft model. To increase the accumulation of therapeutic MBs to the tumour site, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) was evaluated as a suitable molecule for DAC delivery. Smaller tumours showed higher VEGFR2 expression in vivo, suggesting that VEGFR2-targeted MB drug delivery would be most effective during that stage of tumour growth. A flow assay verified that VEGFR2-targeted MBs were bound specifically to VEGFR2-expressing mouse endothelial SVR cells in vitro, indicating that enhanced binding to the mouse tumour vasculature is possible.
Results from in vitro studies revealed that when DAC was delivered in combination with ultrasound destruction of MBs or encapsulated in liposomes, epigenetic effects were detected, suggesting that drug delivery was successful. The main in vivo experiment demonstrated that administration of DAC combined with VEGFR2- targeted MBs and ultrasound showed activation of tumour suppressor genes previously silenced by DNA methylation, as well as inhibition of tumour growth. These results suggest that delivery of DAC in this way could improve drug therapeutic efficacy, prime tumours for secondary anti-cancer agents and potentially reduce the required dose resulting in decreased off-site toxicities.


Bangladesh has huge prospects for both foreign and local investors. However, the core objective of this research is to find out the well and woes of Tourism Investment to enhance the continuous growth of tourism sector. The methodology of this study is qualitative in nature. Primary data was collected from direct interview of 120 tourism stakeholders from private and public sector based on some relevant variables like tourism potential, current tourism investment trend, investment opportunities as well as possible barriers to invest following a focus group discussion comprising of fifteen industry experts having a vast knowledge of Bangladesh tourism and investment policy. Additionally, the secondary data were collected from different journals, dailies, websites (government and non-government), reports and international comments. Therefore, the research has found out that currently the investment is insufficient to make Bangladesh a priority tourism destination. On the contrary, there are huge options to invest in marketing, management and development of amenities in the world's largest mangrove forest, longest sea beach, Shat Gambuj Mosque, Paharpur and many more attractions to increase tourist flow which will eventually enhance national economy. The challenges are lack of integration among the service providers and concerned authorities. In a nutshell, tourism investment is very crucial in Bangladesh in contrast with the neighbouring countries. Thus, this research will find a new pavement to emphasize on tourism investment and budget allocation.


C hanges in diastolic function in the failing myocardium contribute importantly to the elevation of filling pressures that are responsible for many symptoms of congestive heart failure. This symposium has addressed the general problem of the diagnosis of these abnormalities in diastolic function, the incidence of various forms of diastolic dysfunction in heart failure, and the implications for therapy of congestive heart failure in the presence of diastolic abnormalities. Cardiac filling is a complex process, and the term "diastolic dysfunction," much like its systolic counterpart "contractility," has grown to include changes in everything from the fundamental properties of the myocardium to alterations in loading conditions and the changes in measured parameters, such as peak filling rates. Studies presented at this symposium have addressed changes in all aspects of diastolic "function" in heart failure. To review these findings, we will separate those factors that influence early diastole, which in turn involve a blend of systolic and diastolic effects, from those that influence the passive properties of the heart and pericardial system. The passive properties of the heart and pericardium influence all diastolic events, and changes in these properties are discussed below in the context of the pressure-volume relation of the left ventricle. Schematic examples of four pressure-volume curves of the left ventricle are shown in Figure 1. These curves are intended to represent the pressurevolume characteristics of the left ventricle at end diastole when the effects of filling rates and ventricular relaxation are minimized. The volume of blood entering the heart during a single diastole depends primarily on the local slope of the pressure-volume relation and the change in pressure occurring during diastole. The resting heart size is also an important parameter. In heart failure due to ischemic heart disease and probably in other circumstances, considerable improvement in the metabolic requirements of the myocardium can be achieved by a reduction in cardiac volume at the same filling pressure or by a


P.A. Stolypin's portrait is shown in article the person and the politician through a prism of memoirs of his contemporaries who allows to expand ideas of its shape, personal and business qualities.


Imputation models were developed and tested to estimate tree regeneration on Forest Service land in Oregon and Washington. The models were based on Forest Inventory and Analysis and Pacific Northwest Regional NFS Monitoring data. The data was processed into sets of tables containing estimates of regeneration by broad plant associations and spanning a large variety in forest cover conditions. The output tables were organized to facilitate their use within variants of FVS commonly used in the Pacific Northwest region. The methods were implemented in a highly reproducible fashion to ensure future model adaptability.


Transparent MgAl2O4 spinel ceramics were fabricated by hot isostatic pressing of the sintered materials composed of fine grains. Since the fine-grained sintered materials were difficult to obtain from pure powders at low temperatures, the additives reducing sintering temperatures were examined. As a result, a small addition of boron oxides (0.05-0.5 mass%-B2O3) was found to be very effective. The influence of boron oxides on the microstructure was investigated. The restriction of anomalous grain growth was important for transparency. The samples added with 0.15 mass%-B2O3 showed high optical transmittance (80% with 1 mm thick).


AIR. GRAHA:m'S recent articles in the Yale LaW Journal have done much to clarify the history and meaning of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. I do not intend to repeat the story he and others have told, but merely to add a brief footnote to their writings and to call attention to opinions of Chancellor Kent which seem to have been overlooked by those who have written on the history of due process and the position of corporations in our constitutional law.I believe that the opinions in themselves are of considerable interest and that they have the additional importance of being the earliest expression of the attitude of their author. Certainly Kent's place in American legal history gives peculiar significance to his constitutional judgments. The Council of Revision, established by the New York Constitution of 1777, was composed of the Governor, the Chancellor, and the Justices of the Supreme Court, or any two of them.' It was provided that "all bills which have passed the Senate and Assembly shall, before they become laws, be presented to the said Council for their revisal and consideration; and if . . . it should appear improper to the said Council, or a majority of them, that the said bill should become a law of this State, that they return the same, together with their objections thereto in writing, to the Senate or House of Assembly, in whichsoever the same shall have originated, who shall . . .proceed to reconsider the said bill."' If two thirds of each house agreed to the passage of the bill, despite the objections of the Council, it should then become law. The only constitutional statement of policy to guide the Council was the recital in the preamble that "laws inconsistent with the spirit of this Constitution or with the public good may be hastily and unadvisedly passed."' The Council was abolished by the Convention of 1821,0 but during the forty-five years


The delivery earlier this year of two Airbus Industrie A310 aircraft to British Caledonian Airways (B.CAL) with a third scheduled to arrive in 1985, means that the airline has taken another significant step towards the acquisition of an advanced technology fleet which is gradually replacing equipment which has been in service for some time. In addition, an order was placed in 1983 for seven A320 short to medium range aircraft with options on another three. Delivery of the A320s will commence in 1988 and they are expected to be operated with 150 seats on scheduled flights and 162 scats on charter operations. These new aircraft will eventually replace the airline's fleet of BAC One‐Eleven 500s. To enable the One‐Elevens to remain in service for some years, they will have refurbished interiors and be equipped with blind landing capability as well as hush kits, the latter enabling them to meet the new noise regulations being introduced in 1986.


Part 1 Geology in wider perspective: fossil collecting and the culture of geology gathering means, unfolding opportunities. Part 2 Provincial centres of geology: a culture of museums and collections stratifying the collecting community slaves of the collection. Part 3 Collecting in an age of individualism: fossils as commodities and gifts evangelists, collectors and localities excavating answers Saurians in the market place. Part 4 Collecting - the end of "laissez-faire": the problem of free enterprise fossil collecting under government control a phoenix from the ashes. Part 5 The culture of English geology: the making of an heroic age.


This article tries to make a prosopographical analysis of the Castilian corregidores appointed by the Crown in the period 1588-1633. It draws a general draft about their origin, their social profile and their


erythema, trismus and pain. Antibiotic prescription to prevent post-operative infection under some particular circumstances, is acceptable but under debate considering their disadvantages. In the present study, we examined the infection rate in patients taking no or 2 types of antibiotics distinctively after impacted mandibular third molar surgery. Materials and Methods: In this double blind clinical trial, 90 patients within the age range of 18 to 34 were dedicated to 3 groups (group 1: 2 capsules of placebo on surgery day and 1 for 4 days, group 2: Amoxicillin 500 mg every 8 hours for 5 days, group 3: Azithromycin 250 mg, 2 capsules on surgery day and 1 capsule for 4 days). All subjects were treated by a sole surgeon, protocol, surgical technique, and flap type and the same amount of osteotomy. In addition to aforesaid drugs, the patients received chlorhexidine and Gelofen 400 mg. At the day 7 postoperative, cases were examined to evaluate the infection (trismus, erythema and halitosis). Data were analysed using Chi-Square test and the groups were compared by Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Three signs of infection (halitosis, erythema and trismus) were compared in patients. Symptoms of halitosis and erythema were more indicated in first group, but the ultimate statistical analyses among the 3 groups from halitosis and erythema viewpoint showed no significant difference (P=0.072, P=0.149). Although, no severe trismus was reported, the most moderate trismus incidence was in group 2 and mild trismus was exhibited in group 1. In group 3, no trismus occurred. On the whole, the trismus frequency among groups was statistically significant (P=0.004). Conclusion: Comparing infection symptoms of the three study groups emphasized the fact that only trismus rate was statistically significant (P=0.004). On balance, the results of this study indicated that antibiotics did not have significant impact on the reduction of most postoperative complications, especially on infection.


TiO 2 composite powder has been prepared by mixing calcining method. The influences of composing, content and temperture on antibacterial property of TiO 2 composite powder have been studied.


This book accompanies an exhibition by Lucian Freud, which is the first museum retrospective devoted to his prints. Throughout his career Freud has been recognised for producing works of unnerving psychological intensity, and is regarded as one of the leading figurative artists of the twentieth century. His supreme ability as a draughtsman lends itself to the monochromatic, tightly controlled technique of etching and he has used this medium to produce works of great intimacy.


A general theory for competitive dynamics among many strains at the epidemiological level is required to understand polymorphisms in virulence, transmissibility, antibiotic resistance and other biological traits of infectious agents. Mathematical coinfection models have addressed specific systems, focusing on the criteria leading to stable coexistence or competitive exclusion, however, due to their complexity and nonlinearity, analytical solutions in coinfection models remain rare. Here we study a 2-strain SIS compartmental model with co-infection/co-colonization, incorporating multiple fitness dimensions under the same framework: variation in transmissibility, duration of carriage, pairwise susceptibilities to coinfection, coinfection duration, and transmission priority effects from mixed coinfection. Taking advantage of a singular perturbation approach, under the assumption of strain similarity, we expose how strain dynamics on a slow timescale are explicitly governed by a replicator equation which encapsulates all traits and their interplay. This allows us to predict explicitly not only the final epidemiological outcome of a given 2-player competition, but moreover, their entire frequency dynamics as a direct function of their relative variation and of strain-transcending global parameters. Based on mutual invasion fitnesses, we analyze and report rigorous results on transition phenomena in the 2-strain system, strongly mediated via coinfection prevalence. We show that coinfection is not always a promoter of coexistence; instead, its effect to favour or prevent polymorphism is non-monotonic and depends on the type and level of phenotypic differentiation between strains. This framework offers a deeper analytical understanding of 2-strain competitive games in coinfection, with theoretical and practical applications in epidemiology, ecology and evolution.


Global health-care models for developing countries urge integration of traditional medicine with Western biomedicine. This article shows how residents of a remote Peruvian village negotiate among biomedicine, traditional medicine, lay indigenous medicine, and local knowledge of medicinal plants. Villagers' health-care choices reveal that they often resort to medicinal plants before modern pharmaceuticals. Their discourses show that these choices reflect social and cultural processes beyond the medical: the revitalization of Andean identity, the conflictual relationship that villagers have with modernity, and the desire to evade or subvert the power that Western medicine has over them. This article elaborates the concept of the healthscape as an individual's subjective vision of a landscape's medical resources and institutions, limited by cost and accessibility and shaped by the uneasy coexistence of Western and indigenous medical systems.


The results of neutron irradiation up to a fluence of 1023 m−2 (E>0.1 MeV) are reported for sputtered NbN/AlN multilayer films. The superconducting properties change only slightly with neutron fluence. For the best multilayers, which exhibit critical current densities Jc of >108 A/m2 at 4.2 K and 20 T, the high‐field data show virtually no change in Jc. It is therefore proved experimentally that NbN/AlN multilayers, which exhibit higher Jc than single NbN thin films, exhibit the same extremely radiation‐hard, high‐field behavior which was reported previously for such NbN films.


This article proposes a method for analyzing the way agricultural resources are organized from point to point around the world. The method is based mainly on the identification of the institutional dimensions of the classical factors of production associated with any particular system of agricultural resource organization. A classification scheme for categorizing the various systems of agricultural resource organization, based on management and tenure criteria, is presented and developed briefly. The "systems analysis" approach presented here is useful to the development economist since it serves, among other things, to draw attention systematically to the great variety of possible factors affecting the development of any particular agricultural economy.


The mountain area in Taiwan is usually high and steep with rugged road. The mountain road is easy to be interrupted due to landslide damage during the typhoon period. Li-shing mountain road in Nantou County has its own weak and frangible rock feature, accompanied by the low vegetation cover ratio due to the overuse on the steep slope-land along the road. Landslide and failure of road's foundation and pavement along the Li-shing mountain road during the heavy rainfall or typhoon rainfall interrupted the transportation, especially for the transport of agricultural products. The target of this reach focuses on the segment with high frequency of landslide, i.e., road mileage from 13K+500 to 37K, and covers the upslope and downslope lands of the road with 700 m in length, respectively. The orthophoto map before the typhoon Morakot occurred in August 2009 was first collected. Through the artificial identification method, the landslide areas were identified and divided into two groups, namely landslide and non-landslide, by using the landslide ratio with threshold value of 30%. Landslide potential locations along the 國立中興大學水土保持學系 Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan. *Corresponding Author. E-mail : hcchan@ nchu.edu.tw 水土保持學報 49 (3): 2159–2178(2017) Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 49 (3): 2159–2178(2017) 2160 Li-shing mountain road were then simulated using the instability index method based on six factors: aspect, slope, elevation, distance to river, distance to road, and topographic wetness index. According to the four equal ranges of the landslide potential values, four areas can be identified, i.e., stable, low landslide potential, medium landslide potential, and high landslide potential. The classification error matrix was used to evaluate the simulation accuracy by comparisons of historical landslide locations. The simulation accuracies for the landslide, non-landslide, and total groups are 75.93%, 73.02%, and 73.17%, respectively. It was shown the simulation accuracy for each group is over 70%. The information of medium and high landslide potential locations obtained in this study could be useful for the associated governmental authorities to plan the landslide warning system and engineering improvement measures.


'Transitional change' may sound like trendy jargon, but it sums up the state of healthcare services over the past few years - change within an ever-changing context.


Precise tuning of the bandgap of lead halide perovskites by the postsynthetic anion exchange reaction has been considered as one of the best methods to customize their optical/electronic properties. The anion exchange reaction of lead halide perovskites is very fast and occurs at room temperature. The crystal structure of the lead halide perovskites is soft, and hence it facilitates diffusion of the halide ions through the crystal lattice. Through this anion exchange reaction, emission of lead halide perovskites can be tuned in the entire visible range, by varying the amounts of chloride, bromide, and iodide ions from the same synthesis in a cost‐effective manner. Herein, the mechanism involved in the anion exchange reactions and the factors influencing the same are discussed. Also, the discussion is extended to demonstrate how anion exchange process can make lead halide perovskite a more promising candidate for various applications.


The Bacillus thurerngiensis (Bt) transgenic cotton expressing Cry 1 Ac delta-endotoxin is rapidly dominating world agriculture, which is called as first generation Bt cottons. They have been regarded as novel alternative for management of certain lepidopteron pests. Second generation transgenic Bt cotton produced two endotoxins, Cry 1 Ac and Cry 2 Ab. The duel-gene cottons produced approximately the same level of the Cry 1 Ac protein as the single-gene Bollgard cultivars, but were further protected by the Cry 2 Ab protein (Greenplate et al., 2000 and Adamczyk et al., 2001). There is potential increase efficacy against bollworm due to the additional cry toxin compared with Bollgard cultivars. All the cultivars of transgenic cotton however, did not provide the same level of bollworm control as delta-endotoxin expression level varied. ABSTRACT


Cytokines are polypeptides which are produced by a broad range of cells of the body. They play a key role in the formation and regulation of protective reactions. The researchers attempt to find predictors for the development of exudative-inflammatory reaction after surgery. It led to study of the eyes immunological status. It is known that a change of the pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines balance leads to the blood-ocular barrier dysfunction that increases the inflammatory reaction. It is interesting the blood-ocular barrier has already damaged in diabetic patients. The paper examines the epidemiology, pathogenesis and possible methods of prevention the postoperative cystoid macular edema, presents investigations describing the change in the local cytokine status in patients with diabetes and the association between cytokines concentrations and the severity of diabetic retinopathy. The manuscript has shown possibilities of multiplex analysis, emphasized the features of individual cytokines and angiogenic factors, highlighted cytokines as predictors of macular edema after cataract surgery. The study of the cytokines role in the development of ophthalmic pathology led to the creation the new pathogenetically oriented eye diseases therapy. Further studies of the cytokine status in patients with macular edema after phacoemulsification are needed to determine the possible treatment methods.


was the natural base for operations against the eastern Brigantes ; and the legion withdrew to Deva, about 74. Giindel (de Leg. ii. Adiutrice) prefers,though doubtfully, to place it at Lindum from 80 to its departure from Britain in 87. The legionary inscriptions are not conclusive either way, but all other indications are against his view. One legion would not be so posted in the rear of another; and it is generally agreed that Deva, where the I I Adiutrix has left many records of its presence, was Agricola's chief base, and the main army was needed there. The colonisation of Lindum is a new and conclusive proof of the advance of one legion to Eburacum, and the transfer of the other to Deva; it was a measure of compensation, usual in such cases, for the withdrawal of the garrison. The town, now far within the frontier, could safely be left to veterans, of whom 2000 were discharged every year from the army of Britain, and many would settle uc^.the province. We may conclude that Mndum was colonised between 74 and 83 A.D., probably by Agricola under Vespasian or Titus.


This article investigates factors that influence access to social services in Palestine using data from the Arab-Barometer. Utilizing hierarchical and binary logistic regression procedures, results of this study indicate that a number of factors including age, gender, level of education, and perception of government intervention are important in understanding access to social services. Implications for future policy and research are discussed.


Objectives: To investigate lipid and diabetic profiles of school teachers in Kabul, Afghanistan, who face food insecurity, and examine the association of those with the teachers' knowledge of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Methods: A survey to examine biochemical indicators of NCDs (triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood pressure, height, weight, waist circumference), food insecurity, lifestyle and knowledge of NCDs was conducted among 600 school teachers. Analyses were made of biochemical indicators of NCDs, blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and subject's lifestyle in relation to food security and the subject's knowledge of NCDs. Results: Thirty-nine percent of school teachers experienced food insecurity. The percentage of TC ≥ 200 mg/dL; HbA1c ≥ 5.5%; hypertension and metabolic syndrome were 20.2%, 29.7%, 32.2% and 33.7%, respectively. Food insecurity was associated with lower fruit and vegetable consumption and higher potato consumption. Food insecurity was associated with increased TC (AOR 2.03; 95%CI: 1.23 - 3.34), decreased HDL (AOR 1.70; 95%CI: 1.12 - 2.58), increased HbA1c (AOR 1.73; 95%CI: 1.14 - 2.64), hypertension (AOR 1.68; 95%CI: 1.01 - 2.80) and diagnosis of metabolic syndrome (AOR 1.78; 95%CI: 1.18 - 2.68), after adjustment by demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle variables. Among people living under condition of food insecurity, greater NCD knowledge was associated with smaller prevalence of TG ≥ 150 mg/dL, HDL < 40 mg/dL, and diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. Conclusions: Under conditions of food insecurity, diets have less variety and individuals are more likely to exhibit biomedical risk factors of NCDs. Even under conditions of food insecurity, people with knowledge of NCDs may have better coping strategies for their choice of lifestyles and exhibited a lower percentage of risk factors of NCDs.


In gyrotron theory, the interaction between the electron beam and the high frequency electromagnetic field is commonly modeled using the slow variables approach. The slow variables are quantities that vary slowly in time in comparison to the electron cyclotron frequency. They represent the electron momentum and the high frequency field of the resonant TE modes in the gyrotron cavity. For their definition, some reference frequencies need to be introduced. These include the so-called averaging frequency, used to define the slow variable corresponding to the electron momentum, and the carrier frequencies, used to define the slow variables corresponding to the field envelopes of the modes. From the mathematical point of view, the choice of the reference frequencies is, to some extent, arbitrary. However, from the numerical point of view, there are arguments that point toward specific choices, in the sense that these choices are advantageous in terms of simulation speed and accuracy. In this paper, the typical monochromatic gyrotron operation is considered, and the numerical integration of the interactionequations is performed by the trajectory approach, since it is the fastest, and therefore it is the one that is most commonly used. The influence of the choice of the reference frequencies on the interaction simulations is studied using theoretical arguments, as well as numerical simulations. From these investigations, appropriate choices for the values of the reference frequencies are identified. In addition, novel, advanced concepts for the definitions of these frequencies are addressed, and their benefits are demonstrated numerically.


The present invention discloses a data processing method and system for a mobile terminal of the battery information, wherein said method comprises the steps of: the mobile terminal is powered on, the battery information obtaining sample values acquired cell information of the mobile terminal by analog to digital converter, and to the sampled values of power return result; boot is completed, a set number of filter window contains several battery information, and to update the battery information FIFO filter window to the average or median of the battery information in the filtering window the value returned as a result of the completion of the boot. By the present invention, the battery information collection filter process, and the battery information to the FIFO principle updating the filter window. Finally, the mean or median of the battery information in the filtering window and returns the result value to obtain a reliable battery information, high efficiency of the algorithm of the invention, good portability, does not affect the work of other modules to enhance the user experience.


This paper describes a mathematical model of ship resistance in constricted navigation channels. The model is based on estimation of power required for a particular ship to move at a given speed in a canal of given cross-section, and on the vertical sinkage of the ship which is dependent of ship's speed. Under certain assumptions, the sinkage can be calculated by solving the equation of balance of horizontal forces acting on the fluid within the control volume around the ship. The proposed model is validated by resistance measurements performed for a particular prototype ship. An attempt is made to generalize the results of calculations.


The ratio precipitin/protective antibody is given for several fresh antipneumococcus horse sera (Type II). The application of the precipitin test here dealt with and that of similar ones, based on the conception of a parallelism between precipitin and protective antibody, is limited to unrefined horse sera.


The utility model relates to a sample fixing device of an ultrasonic cleaner. The sample fixing device comprises fixing hanging hooks, a fixing rack plate, a fixing rack bottom plate, adjusting nuts, fixing holes and elastic fixing rubber gaskets, wherein the fixing hanging hooks are installed on the fixing rack plate and the fixing rack bottom plate; the regulating nuts are installed on the fixing hanging hooks; the fixing holes with different hole diameters are formed on the fixing rack plate; and the elastic fixing rubber gaskets are arranged inside the fixing holes. The sample fixing device is simple in structure; the fixing holes with different hole diameters are formed on the fixing rack plate, so that samples with different capacities can be processed at the same time; the elastic fixing rubber gasket in each fixing hole can prevent a glass instrument from being damaged by ultrasonic vibration; the distance between two layers of racks is adjustable, so that the sample fixing device is applicable to the instruments with different heights; and the four fixing hanging hooks are used for fixing a fixed rack on the ultrasonic cleaner firmly without shaking, so that the problems such as loss caused by difficult fixation of the instruments for accommodating the samples because water capacity inside the ultrasonic cleaner is large, and the like can be solved.


Pediatric brain tumors are the primary cause of cancer related mortality in children and are characterized by low mutations burden. The known somatic drivers reside in the coding regions of the genome. The role of non-coding mutations in brain tumors is important yet underexplored. In this study we investigate the impact of regulatory region mutations in pediatric brain tumors. We studied 1.3 million open chromatin regions (OCRs) genome-wide from 9 studies including developing/adult brain, and cancer. Within these OCRs we identified recurring mutations in whole genome sequences from 1003 pediatric brain tumors from CBTN and PCAWG cohorts. A total of 567 OCRs with significantly recurring mutations were found, showing enrichment in brain-specific enhancers and in repressed polycomb regions in stem cells. The mutations in these OCRs resulted in motif disruption or creation of 217 transcription factor binding sites. Differential expression analysis of mutated vs nonmutated samples identified perturbations of gene or protein expression in 67 (RNA) and 16 (protein) OCR-gene pairs. Furthermore, 17 mutated OCRs were found to correlate with alterations in gene expression programs, indicating a potential regulatory role affecting multiple downstream genes. We further performed network analysis to explore clusters of OCR associated genes that share biological networks and pathways, and identified 24 clusters. Among these, OCR mutation-associated genes in 6 clusters showed a survival impact in patients. These 6 clusters mapped to pathways including mRNA decay and degradation, longevity regulating pathway, autophagy, p53 pathway, HIF2-alpha transcription factor network, pathways in cancer among others. In summary, we report functionally important regulatory elements in the genome that impact the biological processes in pediatric brain tumors.


In wireless networking, the main desire of end-users is to take advantage of satisfactory services, in terms of QoS, especially when they pay for a required need. Many efforts have been made to investigate how the continuity of services can be guaranteed in QoS networks, where users can move from one cell to another one. The introduction of a prediction scheme with passive reservations is the only way to face this issue; however, the deployment of in-advance bandwidth leads the system to waste resources. This work consists of two main integrated contributions: a new pattern prediction scheme based on a distributed set of Markov chains, in order to handle passive reservations, and a statistical bandwidth management algorithm for the reduction of bandwidth wastage. The result of the integration is the Distributed Prediction with Bandwidth Management Algorithm (DPBMA) that is independent from the considered technology and the vehicular environment. Several simulation campaigns were conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed idea. It was also compared with other prediction schemes, in terms of system utilization, accuracy, call dropping, and call blocking probabilities.


Crime and the Criminal Justice System in Australia: 2000 and Beyond is the fifth time that Duncan Chappell, now the Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and Paul Wilson, now the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Bond University, have compiled a selection of writings on aspects of the criminal justice system in Australia, starting in 1972 with the Australian Criminal Justice System. In these post-modern times, the implications and claims of such over-arching titles are questionable. Nonetheless the series has provided a useful kaleidoscopic view of the preoccupations of the Australian criminal justice system at given points in time.


Time to collision is an important time-based safety indicator for detecting rear-end conflicts in traffic safety evaluations. A major weakness of the time to collision notion is the assumption of constant velocities during the course of an accident. In this paper we utilise equations of motion to develop a generalised formulation for time to collision by relaxing the assumption of constant velocity, constant acceleration and so on. This paper also illustrates how this concept can be applied to real-world data, and detailed data gathered in the NGSIM project are used. Then time to collision is calculated based on the assumption of constant speed, constant acceleration and linear acceleration for leading and following vehicles. Results indicate that in the third case (linear acceleration), the average duration of exposure to critical time to collision values is greater than the others. So, applying time to collision based on the assumption of linear acceleration in collision avoidance systems would decrease...


Recent progress in CMOS LSI fabrication technology made possible to achieve nanometre-size silicon device. The devices should operate with CMOS transistors to efficiently use high sophisticated CMOS technologies. To achieve high functionality, especially using silicon as a base the difficulty arises in making the coherent length sufficiently longer than the device size. Another candidate is a single-electron transistor (SET), which does not use coherency. The device manipulates a single electron by means of a Coulomb blockade. Fabricating SETs using Si MOS process has been useful in overcoming because SETs were combined with MOSFET. This allows to emphasize the special functionality of SETs like multiple-valued operation, and high voltage gain.


A NEW FAMILY OF IRRETRACTABLE LEFT CYCLE SETS Marco Castelli Università del Salento, Italy email: firstname.lastname@example.com In this talk we introduce a new family of irretractable left cycle sets [2], which allow to construct irretractable square-free solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation that are new counterexamples to GatevaIvanova's Strong Conjecture [3]. In particular, this family includes some recent examples of Bachiller, Cedo, Jespers, Okninski [1].


This is a qualitative and exploratory study aiming to present noises found in the work process of a Psychosocial Care Center on Alcohol and other Drugs, and possibilities for effective welcoming the family in this service. Data collection was conducted through semistructured interviews with eight professionals. Data analysis was performed by Content Analysis according to Bardin and the discussion was based on the theoretical perspective of Merhy. The results showed noises produced in the work process and their interfaces with the families welcoming. More specifically, they revealed excessive demand for care, professional unpreparedness, welcoming focused on dependency, difficulties for interdisciplinary work and the absence of an effective network. This study concluded that expansion of bonds, territorialization, articulation with support groups and flexibility of family groups are possible ways for welcoming the families.


Summary We examined recombinant activated factor VII (rVIIa) administered by continuous infusion to eight patients with inhibitors to factor VIII, undergoing elective surgery. rVIIa was infused at a fixed rate of 16.5 μg/kg/h for a median of 13.5 days (range 1-26). There was effective haemostasis at this infusion rate in only one of two minor procedures and two of six major operations. Three patients experienced excessive bleeding despite plasma factor VII activity around 10 IU/ml. Serious bleeding occurred in two other patients caused by procedural errors unrelated to rVIIa and required re-operation. The median rVIIa clearance on day 1 was 57 ml/h/kg (range 18-100) and on day 3 was 100 ml/h/kg (range 61-200). Clearance on the final infusion day was not significantly different from day 3. The infusion did not induce pathological activation of the coagulation mechanism. The only thrombotic adverse events were two episodes of superficial thrombophlebitis of the infused vein in one subject. In conclusion, the 16.5 μg/kg/h infusion rate reliably achieves plasma factor VII activity levels of 10 IU/ml, but this level does not provide reliable haemostasis.


An enhancement of the classical Runge—Kutta technique for numerical simulations is presented for the computer-aided global analysis of nonlinear dynamic circuits/systems. With Runge—Kutta triples a remarkable saving of calculation time can be achieved by using an interpolation polynomial for dense output. The Runge—Kutta triples are applied to calculate the Poincare map for autonomous models/systems.


Because human-produced language is often still considered the golden standard in the natural language generation field, many virtual humans (VHs) used in communication-skills training simulations continue to be accompanied by human-authored dialogue instead of computer-generated dialogue. The human author used for writing such dialogue, however, has yet to be investigated. Dialogue authors can have a variety of identities - gender, culture, profession, etc. - which may or may not have an effect on the VH dialogue they produce. An identity incongruency between an author and the VH itself could have unexpected effects on VH interviewers' interactions. Therefore, in this paper, we examine the effect of an author's identity on VH dialogue produced in the context of a virtual patient (VP) interview. We evaluated writing samples from speech-language pathology (SLP) students and Chinese and Chinese Americans when creating a Chinese VP suffering from trouble swallowing. We also conducted a user study in which SLP students interviewed VPs created with dialogue from these different author identities. Our results indicate that there are some content differences in the dialogue produced by different author identities and that VH interviewers are able to recognize these differences.


Hybrid organizational arrangements, in which two or more sovereign organizations combine to pursue common interests, raise significant questions for both scholars and managers. A review of previous research yields four key issues—breadth of purpose, boundary determination, value creation, and stability mechanisms—that form the core of a theory of hybrid arrangements. This theory is then used to generate researchable propositions that explore differences among types of hybrids and to offer insights for managers of hybrid organizations.


Organizations play a major role in the development of managerial women. The purpose of this paper was to see if managerial woman in Pakistan were better off or worse as compared to 'work place situation' in another Muslim country? Malaysia was chosen as the comparative country as Malaysia presented a modern 'enlightened' picture of a Muslim country. It was expected that the perceptions of managerial women regarding organizational practices of these two different countries would be reflective of their respective national cultures and priorities. The paper used data from a previous Malaysian study and the authors own study. The Pakistani study's data clearly indicates little bias by organizations. Managerial women in Pakistan perceive equal opportunities for advancement after recruitment, equity in rewards and generally a female friendly organizational environment. The author concludes that since women are a small minority at managerial levels, they are not seen as'threat'. They are accepted because they are largely invisible.


(54) CYCLIC PEPTIDE ANTIFUNGALAGENTS 4,876,241. A 10/1989 Feldman et al. AND PROCESS FOR PREPARATION 4,927,831 A 5/1990 Malamas THEREOF (Continued) (75) Inventors: Frederick J. Burkhardt, Indianapolis s s FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS IN (US); Manuel Debono, Indianapolis, IN (US); Jeffrey S. Nissen, Indianapolis, CA 2043762 C 12/1991 IN (US); William Wilson Turner, Jr., Bloomington, IN (US) (Continued)


This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction, Housing finance, Housing mortgage in a socialist economy, The Czech Republic, Mortgage banking, Hungary, Housing finance system in Hungary, Loan guarantee measures, Poland, Financial institutions, Affordability of mortgage loans, Evolution of housing mortgage loans, The demand for housing and mortgage credit, Short history of mortgage banking, Increasing individual housing loans, Public mortgage bonds, Slovakia, Housing finance, Slovenia, Privatization process, Mortgage loan system in Slovenia, Housing market in Slovenia, Residential loan offered by banking sector, Obstacles of the mortgage loan market in Slovenia, Discussion, Summary and conclusion, Abbreviations and References.


BACKGROUND
The computer mouse is an important human-computer interaction device. But patients with physical finger disability are unable to operate this device. Surface EMG (sEMG) can be monitored by electrodes on the skin surface and is a reflection of the neuromuscular activities. Therefore, we can control limbs auxiliary equipment by utilizing sEMG classification in order to help the physically disabled patients to operate the mouse.

OBJECTIVE
To develop a new a method to extract sEMG generated by finger motion and apply novel features to classify sEMG.

METHODS
A window-based data acquisition method was presented to extract signal samples from sEMG electordes. Afterwards, a two-dimensional matrix image based feature extraction method, which differs from the classical methods based on time domain or frequency domain, was employed to transform signal samples to feature maps used for classification. In the experiments, sEMG data samples produced by the index and middle fingers at the click of a mouse button were separately acquired. Then, characteristics of the samples were analyzed to generate a feature map for each sample. Finally, the machine learning classification algorithms (SVM, KNN, RBF-NN) were employed to classify these feature maps on a GPU.

RESULTS
The study demonstrated that all classifiers can identify and classify sEMG samples effectively. In particular, the accuracy of the SVM classifier reached up to 100%.

CONCLUSIONS
The signal separation method is a convenient, efficient and quick method, which can effectively extract the sEMG samples produced by fingers. In addition, unlike the classical methods, the new method enables to extract features by enlarging sample signals' energy appropriately. The classical machine learning classifiers all performed well by using these features.


This report provides a basic guide to the major Presidential, Legislative, Judicial, and Federal agency actions relating to energy policy, research, development, and regulation in recent years. The chronology is arranged synoptically, allowing users to reference easily the historical context in which each event occurred. Summaries of Presidential, Legislative, and Judicial actions relating to energy, rosters of federal energy officials, and a genealogy of federal energy agencies are also provided in separate appendices. The Energy History Chronology was prepared in conjunction with the History Division's series of pamphlets on the Institutional Origins of the Department of Energy. The series includes concise histories of the Department of Energy, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Federal Energy Administration, and the Atomic Energy Commission. All significant events and achievements noted in the institutional history are also listed.


General simulation requirements within the train control system simulation framework were described. Dynamic characteristics were modelled at four resolution layers, ranging from low to very high resolution. The research focuses mainly on the dynamic behaviour and simulation representation at the signal emulation layer. The Balise Transmission Module Hardware-In-the-Loop simulator was justified with respect to dynamic behaviour modelling. Furthermore, the relationship between Balise Transmission Module dynamic characteristics and train speed was verified by simulation and test data. The speed factor is derived and analyzed. Finally, quantitative evaluation issues of high-speed adaptability were explored based on the deduction of decoding failure probability under a certain bit error rate and the availability targets for a certain line.


A model of chemical mechanical polishing is presented which quantitatively correlates the polishing rate with the slurry concentrations of both chemicals and abrasives. The model predicts that as the concentration of either chemicals or abrasives is increased, an initial steep rise in the polishing rate is followed by an asymptotic approach to a maximum rate. The causes and implications of this behavior are discussed.


Weathering and erosion are key processes involved in the transfer and redistribution of materials on earth's surface, influencing climate and driving exogenic cycles of elements. In a kinetically limited weathering regime like Himalaya, both monsoon and erosion exert critical control on the weathering intensity, generating an intense erosional flux accompanied by enhanced organic carbon burial and silicate weathering. Today the Ganga-Brahmaputra River system transports about a billion tons of sediments towards the delta and Bengal shelf. Then, turbidite exported to the Bengal fan accumulate a long-term archive of the Himalayan erosion which preserve the signature of source rock characteristics and mineral sorting during transport. Our study focuses on reconstituting a refined quantitative estimate of the Himalayan silicate weathering intensity using Neogene and Quaternary sediment record from IODP Expedition 354 at 8 ◦ N. Differences in chemical composition inherited from different crustal maturity of the Himalayan formations need careful assessment of sediment sources, done here using Nd isotopic composition, which are less effected by sorting and weathering, and demonstrate a strong control on provenance. Acid leaching of the sediments has been refined to retrieve silicate major and trace elements compositions of the sediments. Source rock composition is constrained by comparison with modern river sediment and bed rocks. Bengal fan Data at 8 ◦ N show geochemical characteristic comparable to the modern pattern during Quaternary and Pliocene. Miocene record shows depletion of 0.2-0.4 mol/kg of Ca (δCa>70%) and 0.1-0.3 mol/kg of Na that


Significance The protein gasdermin D (GSDMD) is the physiological substrate of inflammatory caspases and plays key roles in cell pyroptosis upon microbial infection and associated danger signals. GSDMD, as well as other gasdermin members, can bind lipid and form pore structures to induce pyroptosis. However, detailed structural information for GSDMD remains unknown. We have determined the crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of human GSDMD. The structure reveals that the first loop inserts into the N-terminal domain to help stabilize the full-length GSDMD conformation. Furthermore, we identify that one short segment is sufficient to kill bacteria and can act as a potential antimicrobial peptide. Thus, these findings offer a perspective for understanding the mechanism of GSDMD in innate immune defense. Recent findings have revealed that the protein gasdermin D (GSDMD) plays key roles in cell pyroptosis. GSDMD binds lipids and forms pore structures to induce pyroptosis upon microbial infection and associated danger signals. However, detailed structural information for GSDMD remains unknown. Here, we report the crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of human GSDMD (GSDMD-C) at 2.64-Å resolution. The first loop on GSDMD-C inserts into the N-terminal domain (GSDMD-N), which helps stabilize the conformation of the full-length GSDMD. Substitution of this region by a short linker sequence increased levels of cell death. Mutants F283A and F283R can increase protein heterogeneity in vitro and are capable of undergoing cell pyroptosis in 293T cells. The small-angle X-ray–scattering envelope of human GSDMD is consistent with the modeled GSDMD structure and mouse GSDMA3 structure, which suggests that GSDMD adopts an autoinhibited conformation in solution. The positive potential surface of GSDMD-N covered by GSDMD-C is exposed after being released from the autoinhibition state and can form high-order oligomers via a charge–charge interaction. Furthermore, by mapping different regions of GSDMD, we determined that one short segment is sufficient to kill bacteria in vitro and can efficiently inhibit cell growth in Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium Smegmatis. These findings reveal that GSDMD-C acts as an auto-inhibition executor and GSDMD-N could form pore structures via a charge–charge interaction upon cleavage by caspases during cell pyroptosis.


Learning styles of marketing students have changed over the years. Changes have also occurred in emphases placed by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, universities, schools, and departments on meeting student learning needs. This study measures the pedagogical preferences of marketing seniors and alumni and relates them to a global attitude toward the marketing major. This approach may be used in any marketing program as a potential attitudinal enhancement mechanism, since key pedagogies can be identified. In turn, the motivation and learning potential of pedagogies can be evaluated. Results indicate an association between in-class activities and overall attitude toward the marketing major.


A literature review of static ball bearing thermal conductance in both air and vacuum was performed, with an emphasis on understanding the conductance that would be expected across ball bearings of...


Systematic deviations from Landau-like behavior have been observed in the thermal expansion coefficient and the dielectric constant of TGS in the paraelectric phase along the ferroelectric b -axis. A linear relationship between the deviation of the thermal expansion coefficient Δ β 2 and ( e x - e ∞ )· t , the product of the dipolar part of the dielectric constant at constant strain and the reduced temperature, is obtained in the temperature range \(\text{0.4 K}{\leqslant}T-T_{\text{c}}{\leqslant}\text{3 K}\), which is consistent with the Larkin-Khmel'nitskii theory.


In order to know pond's effect in irrigation and use its water much better, the author investigated 36 managers of ponds in 4 villages, which are around the third dyke of Zhanghe Irrigation Area. The results indicate that after FGS, farmers depend on ponds in irrigation, and ponds become more and more important. Using pond water for irrigation can cut cost, save water, boost capacity in fighting droughts. So the development of pond is very important in the country for now and the future. This article analyzes questions in using pond such as the main water source of pond is rain and it is so instable, and the capacity of pond is limit and so on, and bring forward corresponding measures.


We investigate the perturbation in the tunneling current caused by nonadiabatic mechanical motion in a mesoscopic tunnel junction. A theory introduced by Caroli et al. is used to evaluate second-order self-energy corrections for this nonequilibrium situation lacking translational invariance. Inelastic signatures of the mechanical degrees of freedom are found in the current-voltage I(V) characteristics. These give rise to sharp features in the derivative spectrum, d2I/dV2.


This study investigates the axial load behavior of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFT) columns with the width-to-thickness ratios between 40 and 150, and proposes an effective stiffening scheme to improve the mechanical properties of square cross-sectional CFT columns. Seventeen specimens were tested to examine the effects of cross-sectional shapes, width-to-thickness ratios, and stiffening arrangements on the ultimate strength, stiffness, and ductility of CFT columns. Moreover, nonlinear finite element analysis was also conducted to investigate cross-sectional axial stress distribution at the ultimate strength. Comparing the measured ultimate strength with estimates by using some current specifications suggested that current specifications may considerably underestimate the ultimate strength of circular CFT columns, particularly for columns with a small width-to-thickness ratio. Results in this study demonstrate that the proposed stiffening scheme can significantly enhance the ultimate strength and ducti...


62 International Education & Research Journal [IERJ] Reference and positioning within the scope of the current discussion concerning migration and identity Identity, what is it? It describes an innate bundle of traits and is already fixed? Or it is to be understood as a dynamic process? Can it be so well established at a certain point in time that it does not continue to change? In the face of the global political situation, a large number of individual fates are reflected, which often remain unnoticed in broader discussions. But what do their experiences mean to the refugees themselves? How should the entire process of fleeing be grasped and reconstructed from the internal perspective, and what change of identity does the reflection of that which has already been experienced bring with it? This work tries to understand these multi-dimensional aspects of a life story, in that it details the lives of two, originally Afghan brothers, who fled from Iran to Germany, and tries to conduct a kind of deep hermeneutic analysis of the individual identity-related considerations of the two men.


Microstrip Patch antennas are very prevalent these days due to various attractive features possessed by them. Coplanar Waveguide (CPW) fed patch antenna has benefits of compact size, ease of fabrication and integration with other monolithic circuits. Moreover, the proposed design is very simple design fed with CPW feed. The proposed antenna performs dual band (1.5 GHz and 7 GHz) operation with later band being wideband ranging from 5.32 GHz to 8.27 GHz. Thus, acting as directional wideband antenna with total impedance bandwidth of 2.95 GHz (42%). In addition, various geometric parameters of designed antenna have been varied in order to obtain the desired performance. The Proposed antenna has been designed and simulated using 3D finite element based electromagnetic solver HFSS.


Before turning to some specific consumer protection areas, such as advertising and consumer fraud, I want to re-emphasize a point that almost every speaker preceding me has made: the consumer protection work at the FTC, unlike any other consumer protection work at any other agency, federal or state, is carried out in a context that is informed by and affected by the antitrust and economics work of the Commission. If you haven't done consumer protection work at some of the other federal agencies the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Food and Drug Administration, the United States Department of Agriculture you really can't fully appreciate how different consumer protection is when it is informed by antitrust and competition policy. I think the Committee was unanimous in the view that what makes the Federal


The study was a self-assessment of faculty members of UST centered on 'teaching performance, academic advising, departmental duties, scholarships, behavior, and improvement.  The evaluation employed the Likert scale and frequency scores. The results revealed that teaching performance described the teachers highly satisfactory at mean of 4.54; they met expectation in 'advising' at a mean of 2.09; they exceeded expectation in 'departmental duties' with a mean of 1.75; they did not exhibited at all a negative behavior at a mean of 4.45; positive behavior was exhibited 'most of times' at a mean of 1.43.  The teachers' 'scholarships' involvement' was most prevalent in 'workshop' followed by 'chair of a conference'; and less prevalent in 'conference paper,' 'editorial' and 'publication.' It was concluded that the faculty members did not achieve a general performance at the utmost.  Thus, the study provided a career development program to improve further the qualities of the teachers.


The general subject of this research was suggesting/devising measures and schemes in order to increase the service load at Competent Motors authorized service station and preparing an ideal delivery process for the competent show room. The research has been successful in determining the areas of delivery and service which causes dissatisfaction to the customers and suggesting measures in order to rectify the reason for customer dissatisfaction. Moreover an ideal delivery process has been prepared as a part of the research objective. Primary research was conducted for the above mentioned objective and Personal interview as observation were the tools. For the purpose structure and undersigned scheduled were prepared. A total of 100 schedules were administered at Competent Motors and Unauthorized service station lying at the radius of 5 kms from Competent motors. A total of 70 schedules were administered at Competent motors and 30 at the unauthorized service stations. The final conclusions were that the customers with the customer care parameters ranged between dissatisfied to somewhat satisfied, and the customer satisfaction with the general services parameters was exactly somewhat satisfied. The ultimate customer satisfaction at Competent Motors is just near about being somewhat satisfied.


In this work, we propose a demonstration of Urban Traffic Light Control based on an IoT network (IoT-UTLC) for smart cities. We mocked up a real crossroad by integrating a 6LoWPAN Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to control mini traffic light panels. The network's nodes are wireless sensors and actuators interacting with an IoT Cloud Platform. MQTT Quality of Service (QoS) protocol has been implemented to manage the priority levels of exchanged data between the Cloud and WSN. Our IoT-UTLC has been found functional after verification and validation using the UPPAAL model checker.


In a method for troubleshooting in automatically operating electronic measuring and testing devices for a variety of electrochemical elements in the space provided for the galvanic elements brackets cell simulators (9) are used. These cell simulators (9) simulate in outer shape and size, including the electrical connections a galvanic element. They contain a test electronics (6, 7), whose behavior is in inverse polarity very different from the behavior during application correct polarity. A cell simulator is activated and subjected to a measurement current. Subsequently, the voltage is measured at the cell simulator and compared with that for this cell simulator (9) predetermined nominal voltage value. The test electronics consists of at least the parallel circuit of a resistor (7) and a diode (6).


An algorithm, which is used to solve a kind of the stochastic dynamic programming models, is proposed based on the theory of hybrid programming to explore the multi-stage military decision-making problem . The target problem is divided into a set of single-step problems, then the optimization policy and goal value of the sub-problem of single step is obtained by Random-Simulation and the genetic algorithm on the training sample of NN. The optimization policy and goal value of the problem are obtained step by step in inverted sequence from the initialization value. The simulation result shows that the algorithm meets the needs to optimize the stochastic dynamic programming models with the features as follows: be universal, the initial value be generated randomly, the precision be insensitive to the nonlinearity of the functions, be less restriction to the target function and the constrained conditions.


Abstract Introduction. The study considers the issue of technical and economic analysis of alternative design options of non-rigid pavement. This issue is especially relevant during the repairing and reconstruction of roads, when it is need to consider the reuse of road construction materials, the use of geosynthetic materials, and so on. Problem statement. Experience shows that most designers perform technical and economic analysis by one indicator only- the estimated cost, which is due to the lack of methodology for technical and economic analysis of such technical solutions. In many countries, the concept of TBL (Triple bottom line) has been implemented in recent decades, when solutions are analyzed in three independent areas, in construction this approach is often formulated as "Three E" concept (economics, energy and environment). Purpose. To develop a method of multifactor technical and economic analysis of alternative design options of non-rigid pavement. Methods of study. According to the results of exploratory researches, it is proposed to apply the method of analysis of hierarchies. Results. According to the problem ststement, a hierarchical system for determination of the optimal design option of non-rigid pavement is developed. According to the developed hierarchical system, the vectors of priorities of independent factors of analysis are determined, which allow to evaluate objectively the designed alternative options. The searching for the best option is performing by independent factors based on the analysis of economic, energy and environmental indicators. Conclusions Performed modeling using the method of hierarchy analysis allows to make a multifactor analysis of alternative options of non-rigid pavement with the definition of the optimal design. Keywords : multifactor analysis, ecology, energy saving, hierarchy analysis method, non-rigid pavement, reuse.


After the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) recognized inadequate regulations in the banking sector. Thus, the BCBS published Basel III in 2011. The third regulatory framework of the committee aims to strengthen the stability of the financial sector by introducing stricter capital ratios for banks. The capital ratios represent the capital adequacy of a bank under Basel III and function as key figures in the assessment of a bank's capital strength. The implementation of Basel III is set over the years 2013-2019, as the framework is highly complex. This implementation forces banks to take a step back and evaluate their business, as the implementation presents many challenges. The imposed challenges of Basel III present new risks and opportunities for banks that have to be exploited in order to make correct choices in the future. The main challenges consist of the new stricter minimum capital requirements. Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) and other vital capital ratios are increased in order to create a buffer for banks during economic stressful times. The raised capital requirements create constrains on a bank and the economy as a whole, as a bank has to stack capital into reserves. These reserves and unexploited capital quantities will lead to less profit such as decreasing Return on Equity. Thus, the study aims to analyze the current capital adequacy in Europe by assessing current capital ratios. This is done trough qualitative research on main financial institutions, and an assessment of the Basel III European monitoring exercise conducted by the European Banking Authority (EBA). Additional comparisons will be made on the capital ratios and key figures of two Nordic case banks. These are Handelsbanken and Nordea. The outcome of the study clearly states a bank conversion towards the Basel III framework and demonstrates the significance of regulation. European banks have already adapted to the ratios and some even fulfill the minimum capital requirement today. Thus, it can be concluded that the overall capital adequacy in Europe is acceptable.


The nth gene of Escherichia coli affects the production of endonuclease III, a glycosylase-endonuclease that attacks DNA damaged by oxidizing agents or by ionizing radiation. An nth insertion mutant and a deletion mutant were studied. nth is located between add and tyrS on the linkage map of E. coli K-12 and was 97% linked to tyrS in a transduction with phage P1.


Automobile Manufacture Technology is one of the automobile manufacturing specialized courses.It comprehensively analyzes auto parts manufacturing process,puts forward approaches on how to improve the quality of parts in the machining process,improve labor productivity and reduce the cost.A project oriented teaching mode should be formed in teaching,practicality and systematicness should be focused on,comprehensive application of knowledge should be integrated and organic, it should cultivate students' ability of integrating theory with practice and the ability of independently analyzing technology problems,the ability of independently completing the process route of typical parts and the ability of designing general machine tool fixtures.It should lay a solid foundation for students'graduation design and their future work in the enterprise.


Collapsing categories is a commonly used data reduction technique; however, to date there do not exist principled methods to determine whether collapsing categories is appropriate in practice. With ordinal responses under the partial credit model, when collapsing categories, the true model for the collapsed data is no longer a partial credit model, and therefore refitting a partial credit model may result in model misspecification. This article details the implementation and performance of an information matrix test (IMT) to assess the implications of collapsing categories for a given data set under the partial credit model and compares its performance to the application of a nominal response model (NRM) and the S − X2 goodness-of-fit statistic. The IMT and NRM-based test are able to correctly determine the true number of categories for an item, given reasonable power through this goodness-of-fit test. We conclude by applying the test to a well-studied data set from the literature.


Transmission error (TE) has long been thought to be a major contributor to gear vibration and noise, but insufficient consideration has been given to the different types of TE and how they generate vibrations. TE is defined as the difference in torsional vibration of two meshing gears, scaled so as to represent linear motion along the line of action. There are three distinct types of TE; 1) Geometric TE (GTE) given by deviations of the (combined) tooth profiles from ideal involute; 2) Static TE (STE) including elastic deformation of the teeth and therefore being load dependent; 3) Dynamic TE (DTE) including inertial as well as stiffness effects, and thus being speed as well as load dependent. It has long been recognized that TE can be measured very accurately by phase demodulation of the signals of shaft encoders rigidly attached to each of the gears in mesh, but only recently realized that all three types can be measured; GTE at low speed and low load, STE at low speed and higher load, and DTE at higher speed and higher load. This paper demonstrates that TE has several advantages over vibration acceleration (or even the raw torsional vibrations) as a diagnostic parameter, being close to the source (the gearmesh) and with "common mode rejection" from the twogears, thusbeing much less sensitive to operating conditions and rig parameters, including the much greater number of transfer paths, modulations, and resonances in the casing vibration measurements. The measurements in this paper were made on a single stage gearbox,over an inputgear speed range from 2–20 Hz, and input shaft torque range from 0–20 Nm. Earlier measurements on the same gearbox were for soft gears which developed distributed pitting over an operating period of many hours. Unfortunately, the encoders used at that time (actually included in slip rings) had a low torsional resonance frequency, which precluded obtaining TE at higher than 2 Hz shaft speed, so only GTE and STE could be estimated. New results are presented here for ground, hardened gears with a simulated tooth root crack on one tooth. Not only does this illustrate the differences with a local fault, but new encoders were mounted, valid up to a shaft speed of 20Hz, so that DTE could also be measured.


Zhenlai irrigation area is located at the Songnen plain on the west bank of Nenjiang river in the northwestward of Jilin province. The experiences of more than 20 years were summarized during the water structures design and construction of the irrigation area, which include the configuration and the foundation type selection, the foundation replacement and the drainage treatment. These measures were adopted to counteract the frost heave action and to insure security of the water structures.


Despite rapidly rising productivity, the amount of time spent in formal work across most of the developed world remains fairly constant. Employment is maintained through a continual increase in con ...


The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in accordance with the state assignment for Ural State Mining University No. 0833-2020-0008 'Development and environmental and economic substantiation of the technology for reclamation of land disturbed by the mining and metallurgical complex based on reclamation materials and fertilizers of a new type'. We obtain the scientific results by using funds of the Center for the collective use of scientific equipment of the Federal Scientific Center of biological systems and agricultural technologies of RAS as well (No Ross RU.0001.21 PF59, the Unified Russian Register of Centers for Collective Use - http://www.ckp-rf.ru/ckp/77384).The search for natural bioremediators to restore crop and grazing lands in conditions of the increased anthropogenic load is a relevant and promisingly significant area of research. Thus, we were tasked to assess the prospect of using the physiological and adaptive characteristics of microorganisms of the genus Bacillus as an active biosorbent of movable forms of lead from the substrate on the in vitro model.Soil isolates of microorganisms of the genus Bacillus extracted from samples from areas with increased lead levels were used to achieve our aim. Pb(NO3)2 solutions in the concentration range from 1 to 0.063M were used as the factor regulating the growth. Methods used in the work were: the method of agar basins, the nephelometric method, atomic-absorption spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. B. subtilis and B. cereus were isolated from soil samples. The maximum resistance to different concentrations of Pb(NO3)2 was revealed for B. subtilis. The presence of lead cations in the nutrient substrate significantly increased the population density to 26.0%. At the same time, the percentage of lead sorption in the initial stage of the stationary growth phase was 65.3% with the maximum localization on the surface structures of the cell membrane.


Background:Etiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is unknown. Genetic, environmental and immunologic factors are probably involved in development of the disease and its clinical course. Some studies have suggested that poor quality of sleep (QS) could play a role in IBD. The aim of our study was to determine QS in patients with IBD, and assess its association with disease activity, compared to patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and healthy controls. Methods:We conducted a cross-sectional, observational cohort pilot study between April and July 2015. Patients with Ulcerative Colitis (UC) or Crohn's Disease (CD) that visited our IBD Program at Clinica Las Condes were invited to participate. Patients with IBS, fulfilling Rome III criteria, were enrolled from the Gastroenterology outpatient clinic, as well as healthy controls. Demographic variables as age, gender and smoking were assessed. In IBD patients, we also collected data on disease related variables including diagnosis, years of disease, Montreal classification, extraintestinal manifestations, hospitalization or surgery due to IBD in the last month, and medical treatment. All the patients answered the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire, to assess QS. Patients with a PSQI >5 were considered "poor sleepers." Disease activity of IBD patients was determined by Harvey-Bradshaw Index in CD patients (remission <4) and Modified Mayo Clinical Score (remission = 0) in patients with UC. For statistical analysis frequency and percentage were used. Comparisons between groups for dichotomous variables were performed by chi2 test, and for continuous variables with not normal distribution Mann–Whitney U test (2 variables) or Kruskal–Wallis (more than 2). A P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results:A total of 276 patients were enrolled (111 IBD, 85 IBS and 80 healthy subjects), observing a poor QS in 66%, 67% and 55% of patients, respectively. The mean PSQI was significantly higher in patients with IBD and IBS compared to healthy controls (7, 7 versus 6; P = 0.014). When comparing IBD patients and IBS patients with healthy controls, independently using Mann–Whitney test, the results are: IBD versus healthy controls P = 0.009, IBS versus healthy controls P = 0.011 and IBD versus IBS P = 0.960. When analyzing demographic and clinical characteristics in IBD patients by QS, there were no differences between poor and good sleepers. IBD patients with active disease had a clearly worse QS than patients in remission (mean PSQI 9 [2–18] versus 6 [1–17], P = 0.005). Conclusions:Sleep disturbances are frequent in IBD and IBS patients compared to healthy controls, observing worse QS in IBD patients with active disease. Therefore, QS should be routinely assessed in IBD patients hence it might influence quality of life of these patients. Prospective studies are needed to investigate if untreated sleep disturbances affect the disease course of IBD.


Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) is a recently developed method for dimensionality reduction, feature extraction and data mining, etc. Currently no NMF algorithm holds both satisfactory efficiency for applications and enough ease of use. To improve the applicability of NMF, this paper proposes a new monotonic, fixed-point algorithm coined FastNMF by implementing least squares error-based non-negative factorization essentially according to the basic properties of parabola functions. The minimization problem corresponding to an operation in FastNMF can be analytically solved just by this algorithm, which is far beyond all existing algorithmspsila power. Therefore, FastNMF holds much higher efficiency, which is validated by a number of experimental results. For the simplicity of design philosophy, FastNMF is still one of NMF algorithms that are the easiest to use and the most comprehensible. Besides, theoretical analysis and experimental results also show that FastNMF tends to converge to better solutions than the popular multiplicative update-based algorithms.


The excitation of exciton resonances in semiconductors with certain polarization-shaped optical pulses reveals the existence of new photocurrents. For resonant excitation of excitons with an optical pulse whose linear polarization is slowly rotating versus time we observe an antisymmetric shift current linked to a second-order nonlinear tensor that is antisymmetric in its last two Cartesian indices. Moreover, for non-resonant excitation of excitons with an elliptically polarized optical pulse whose major and minor axis slowly decreases and increases in time and become minor and major axis, respectively, we observe an additional symmetric shift current being associated with a second-order nonlinear tensor that is symmetric in its last two Cartesian indices. Both of these currents vanish for continuous-wave excitation and, thus, differ from previously known shift currents.


A methodology was developed to calculate the probabilities of tensile rupture and compressive local buckling for pressurised pipelines that are buried in unstable slopes and subjected to longitudinal loading imposed by the slopes. The limit state functions were established by comparing the tensile and compressive strain demand with the corresponding strain capacities. The strain demand is calculated using an analytical model reported in the literature, which is capable of accounting for the elastic–plastic behaviour of the pipeline and the elastic–perfectly plastic behaviour of the pipe–soil friction. The strain capacities are characterised based on the information available in the literature. The spatial variability of the soil and pipe properties is incorporated in a simplified manner. A numerical example was used to illustrate the proposed methodology and impact of the spatiality variability of the soil and pipe properties on the failure probability. The analysis results suggest that the spatial variability of pipe wall thickness and yield strength tends to increase the failure probability, whereas the spatial variability of the soil ultimate resistance tends to decrease the failure probability.


Optimal induction regimens for patients at high risk for antibody and/or cell–mediated rejection have not been established. This pilot, prospective, randomized study evaluated addition of B cell/plasma cell–targeting agents to T cell–based induction with rabbit antithymocyte globulin (rATG) in high immunologic risk renal transplant recipients. Patients were randomized to induction with rATG, rATG + rituximab, rATG + bortezomib or rATG + rituximab + bortezomib. Inclusion criteria were: (1) current cytotoxic panel reactive antibody (PRA) ≥20% or peak cytotoxic PRA ≥50% or (2) T or B cell positive flow crossmatch with donor‐specific antibody (DSA) or (3) historical positive serologic or cytotoxic crossmatch or DSA to donor or (4) prior allograft loss with more than one acute rejection. Median overall follow‐up was 496 days: 1‐year and overall acute rejection were 25% and 27.5%, and 25% of patients developed de novo DSA within 1 year. One‐year and overall patient survival were 97.5% and 92.5%, and 1‐year and overall death‐censored allograft survival were 97.5% and 95%. Renal allograft function posttransplant was similar among all arms. Eight of nine cases of peripheral neuropathy were mild, whereas one case was moderate and required a narcotic prescription. In conclusion, addition of rituximab and/or bortezomib to rATG induction has an acceptable safety/toxicity profile in a high immunologic risk renal transplant population.


A threshold voltage model for ESFI-SOS transistors is presented accounting for the thin-film structure and the existence of the silicon-sapphire interface. The model uses simplifying assumptions in order to obtain analytical expressions. In most practical cases the charge at the silicon-sapphire interface is sufficiently high to accomplish a saturation effect of the value of the threshold voltage. Consequently, the exact value of the interface charge must not be known in order to calculate the value of the threshold voltage; the sign of the interface charge, however, has a drastic effect. Experimental results are in good agreement with calculated values. The threshold voltage can be reproducibly controlled to the extent that the ESFI-SOS technique can be utilized for low-voltage applications as well.


Abstract Most official analyses of the recent food price crisis have focused on the market fundamentals of supply and demand for food as key explanatory factors. As a result, most of the policy recommendations emanating from the major international institutions include measures to boost supply and temper demand. In this paper I argue that international macroeconomic factors played a key role in fostering both price volatility and vulnerability, and as such they need to be recognised. With respect to the recent price volatility, the weak US dollar and speculation on agricultural commodities futures markets greatly influenced agricultural prices. With respect to price vulnerability, global economic forces played an important role in dampening production incentives in the world's poorest countries over the past 30 years, leading to a situation of food import dependence. Policy responses to the food crisis must consider the role of these broader international macroeconomic forces—both in the immediate context and their longer term impact.


We present some results on integrating computing with networking so as to optimize the placement of workloads within a distributed network. We describe INCA, an In-Network Computing Architecture that allows clients to request functions that are then instantiated at a place within the network that attempts to meet both the QoE constraints of the application and the incentives of the operator of the network. We have implemented INCA, including network monitoring capability as well as a function placement optimization capability. In our evaluation, INCA demonstrates the benefit of a joint optimization of the networking and computing aspects.


1 The vascular actions of Nω‐nitro‐l‐arginine methyl ester (l‐NAME), sodium nitroprusside and noradrenaline were investigated in cats under chloralose anaesthesia with controlled vascular tone and ventilation. Cardiac output, heart rate, vascular pressures and mean circulatory filling pressure (MCFP) were measured. Total peripheral resistance (TPR) and resistance to venous return (Rvr) were calculated from steady‐state readings. 2 l‐NAME (37 μmol kg−1, i.v.) administered to ten cats receiving noradrenaline (6 nmol kg−1 min−1, i.v.) increased aortic pressure by 47.5 ± 7.1 mmHg from 106 mmHg, and MCFP by 1.56 ± 0.36 mmHg from 10.0 mmHg (means ± s.e.means). Mean changes in portal venous pressure, RAP and heart rate were not significant. Cardiac output fell by 29.7 ± 3.3% from 130 ml min−1 kg−1. TPR rose by 108 ± 7.2% from 796 mmHg l−1 min kg and Rvr by 58.4 ± 4.5% from 64 mmHg l−1 min kg. 3 Infusion of sodium nitroprusside into cats receiving noradrenaline evoked dose‐related falls in aortic pressure, MCFP, TPR and Rvr. Changes in portal venous pressure, RAP and heart rate were not significant, and cardiac output fell slightly. After l‐NAME, sensitivity to nitroprusside was increased by 139 ± 34% for MCFP, 176 ± 19% for TPR and 351 ± 39% for Rvr, and cardiac output rose slightly. The nitroprusside infusion required to restore TPR after l‐NAME was estimated to be 5.8 × 10±0.41 nmol kg−1 min−1, which was approximately three times more than that required to restore MCFP. 4 Infusion of noradrenaline evoked dose‐related increases in aortic and portal venous pressures, heart rate, cardiac output, MCFP, TPR and Rvr. After l‐NAME and nitroprusside (4.4 nmol kg−1 min−1, i.v.), TPR and Rvr were not significantly different, but MCFP was reduced by 1.76 ± 0.24 mmHg, and cardiac output by 22 ± 1.9%. After subsequent expansion of the circulating blood volume (5–7.5 ml kg−1 dextran‐saline), mean values for all parameters were restored to their previous levels. Sensitivity to noradrenaline was not significantly altered for heart rate, TPR and Rvr, but was reduced by 31.8 ± 12% for MCFP and by 66.5 ± 18% for cardiac output. 5 The depression of cardiac output by l‐NAME is attributed to the increase in Rvr, partly compensated by the rise in MCFP. For a given rise in MCFP, the increase in Rvr was seven times greater after l‐NAME than after noradrenaline, and the difference in the relative actions of the two drugs on resistance and capacitance vessels largely accounts for their contrasting effects on venous return. A procedure is suggested for replacement of vascular nitric oxide by nitroprusside infusion and blood volume expansion.