This article discusses the problems and prospects of mining placer gold not only in the Trans-Baikal Territory but also in Russia as a whole. The reduction of reserves in placers and a decrease in the quality of minerals in them open up new prospects for the extraction of this precious metal. The ineffective placers, of which, according to preliminary estimates, there are approximately 600 in the Trans-Baikal Territory, can become promising objects in gold mining. However, there are some negative factors that will complicate the gold mining operations. The mining of alluvial gold, even with the best existing technologies, remains a sector of high environmental risk; in many settlements, a gradual decrease in the population and the "extinction" of settlements is predicted, whereas illegal gold mining is gaining traction. Neither the regional nor the federal institutions of environmental supervision are now able to resist the destruction and degradation of nature from the mining of placer gold. In general, this leads to an increase in the negative impact of alluvial gold mining on natural systems and the socioeconomic sustainable development of the regions and municipalities, in which this type of activity is carried out, as well as an increase in accumulated environmental damage. The presented organizational and economic mechanism for the development of ineffective placers will contribute to solving the problems observed in the industry and will allow the implementation of measures proposed by public persons.


The financial crisis of East Asia in 1997 was largely unanticipated and was characterized bythe fact that drastic currency depreciation worsens the corporate capital structure and broughtwidespread financial turmoil (Ho, 2004). This paper attempts to examine the effect of leverageon Indonesian firm's value during the financial crisis. This study fails to show that leverageaffects firm's value both in the financial crisis.


Analyze the shortag es of dedicated networking execution.Discuss the advantages of VPN in contrast w ith the former.And illustrate IPSec protocols how to protect Intranet.Also disc uss its security.


This study addressed two issues. First, it examined the ability of two models, developed by Cox, Ingersoll and Ross (CIR), to explain the differences between futures and implicit forward prices in the thirteen-week T-bill market. The models imply that if future interest rates are stochastic, futures and forward prices differ; the structural difference is due to the daily settlement process required in futures trading. Second, the study determined the efficiency of the thirteen-week T-bill futures market using volatility and regression tests. Volatility tests use variance bounds to examine whether futures prices are excessively volatile for the market to be efficient. Regression tests investigate whether futures prices are unbiased predictors of future spot prices. The study was limited to analysis of the first three futures contracts, using weekly price data as reported in the Wall Street Journal from March, 1976 to December, 1984. Testing of the first CIR model involved determination of whether changes in futures-forward price differences are related to changes in local covariances between T-bill futures and bond prices. The same procedure applied in testing the second model with respect to changes in futures-forward price differences, local covariances between T-bill spot and bond prices, and local variances of bond prices. Volatility tests of market efficiency involved comparison of mean variances on both sides of two inequality equations. Regression tests involved determination of whether slope coefficients are significantly different from zero.


Abstract A class of bitopological p-spaces is defined and it is shown that for pairwise T3½ spaces belonging to this class the biweight cannot exceed the cardinality of the space.


This study aims at identifying the extent to which the Home Economics textbooks (HEC) for the secondary school students in the state of Qatar contributes in presenting the values that the members of the family believe in.
The researcher listed a number of family values after she had consulted the relevant literature. Then she asked a number of experts to study the list and give her their opinion a bout the values in the list. After that she prepared the final list in the light the experts' comments. Then she selected the home Economics textbook forthe three levels of the secondary schools and carried out a content analysis of the textbooks. The content analysis was done according to the following scheme: First the unit of registration which is the (Idea) contained. And the idea was classified as implicit and explicit: second, the unit of context and this is the paragraph, which embodies the idea. The validity of the content analysis was verified by asking another expert to carry out the same analysis.
However, the reliability of the analysis was done through measuring the agreement between the researcher and her. The result of the analysis has revealed that (1) there was a list of family values, which must be included in
the textbooks .(2) Some of the values in the list prepared by the researcher were not included in the textbooks. However some values were given greater emphasis than was given of them in the list, to viz, health, learning some arts and crafts. (3) Absence of any linking and balancing in presenting the values. Finally, the researcher suggested the home Economics experts must be consulted in writing of textbooks so to include the family values in them.


Chinese women loday have many more opportunities to continue their education than they did 10years ago,and when they do so they are much more enthusiastic and demanding than their male counterparts.The greal range of forms and subject matter of continuing education have become a road that urban and rural women have no choice but to follow in their quest for a new life.


The complexation between Cu (II) and the antihypertensive drug Pindolol (HL) was studied in methanol media at molar ratio from 1:1 and 1:10. The binuclear complex Cu2L2Cl2, is neutral, where HL acts as a bidentate (O - , NH) bridging ligand. The bridge between the two copper atoms is realized by the deprotonated oxygen of the alcohol group. The stability constant of Cu (II) and Pindolol has been determined in dioxan-water mixture. Antimicrobial activities of HL and complex have been tested against some bacterias and yeast.


Sheet structures consisting of several layers are used to produce power hull products of high specific strength. The technology of manufacturing of three-layer sheet structures is based on the processes of gas-forming of sheets in an inert gas environment or in vacuum. The molding process can be realized in the mode of viscoplastic flow, in which the material under deformation is both viscous and plastic. However, the theory of deformation of multi-layer panels in conditions of viscoplastic flow is not sufficiently developed. This paper presents an approach to the development of mathematical models of pneumatic forming in viscoplastic flow mode. Resulting equations can be used to establish the dependence of process stability and molding pressure on various process parameters.


Accurate orientations are put forward concerned with the connotation,definition,essential factors,principles and examination standards of the "full-science-ecchnology" pattern.The practices and the development of the "full-science-ecchnology" pattern in the China Railway Engineering General Corporation in the resent 6 years are analyzed deeply in this paper.Based on these aspects,the developing essentials and the key works of the "full-science-ecchnology" pattern in the advanced period are further proposed.


ABSTRACT Most studies argue that short selling is an external constraint mechanism that can restrict managers' manipulation of financial information according to the disciplining hypothesis. Whether this conclusion is also suitable for environmental information, however, is still unclear. Therefore, we examine the effect of short selling on environmental disclosure by using empirical data from China. We find that pilot firms, after being added to the pilot short-selling list, disclose less environmental information than non-pilot firms do. Further examination shows that the pilot firms' internal and external monitoring mechanisms can affect managers' decision-making regarding environmental information. The results suggest that when a short-selling mechanism is implemented, it is important that the appropriate regulatory department mandatorily receives environmental information disclosure. Simultaneously, the pilot firms' internal and external monitoring mechanisms should be strengthened to mitigate the negative disclosure behavior of managers.


Youth unemployment is a major socioeconomic problem in Nigeria, and several youth-employment programs have been initiated and implemented to address the challenge. While detailed analyses of the impacts of some of these programs have been conducted, empirical analysis of implementation challenges and of the influence of limited political inclusivity on distribution of program benefits is rare. Using mixed research methods and primary data collected through focus-group discussion and key-informant interviews, this paper turns to that analysis. We found that, although there are several youth-employment programs in Nigeria, they have not yielded a marked reduction in youth-unemployment rates. The programs are challenged by factors such as lack of framework for proper governance and coordination, inadequate funding, lack of institutional implementation capacity, inadequate oversight of implementation, limited political inclusivity, lack of prioritization of vulnerable and marginalized groups, and focus on stand-alone programs that are not tied to long-term development plans. These issues need to be addressed to ensure that youth-employment programs yield better outcomes and that youth unemployment is significantly reduced.


Understanding the concept is the ability to absorb and understand mathematical ideas and interest in learning are the impulses in students psychically in learning something with full awareness, calmness, and discipline to cause individuals actively and happy to do it. This study aims to analyze the ability of students to understand mathematical concepts in terms of learning interests. The subjects in this study were MIA2 grade students of Christian High School 2 Soe even semester school year 2021/2022 as many as 30 students. The method used in this study is descriptive qualitative data collection techniques using tests, questionnaires, and interviews. The data analysis technique follows the Miles and Huberman model with a validity test of data using the triangulation technique. The results showed that the ability of students to understand mathematical concepts in terms of learning interests varies. Students with a high level of interest in learning by 20% were able to achieve four out of six indicators of the ability to understand mathematical concepts. Students with a moderate level of interest in learning 63% were able to achieve three indicators of understanding mathematical concepts. Students with a low level of interest in learning 17% were able to achieve two indicators of understanding mathematical concepts.


Objective To investigate the appearances and characteristics of hepatic angiomyolipoma(HAML)on CT. Methods The information of eight HAML patients diagnosed pathologically and underwent CT scanning was retrospectively analyzed.Results Among the eight patients with HAML,one belonged to lipoma type that was mainly composed of adipocytes which showed a large fat density on CT.2belonged to angiomatous type that was mostly composed of abnormal vessels,which showed pronounced enhancement in the early arterial phase by enhanced CT scanning.One belonged to myomatous type was predominantly composed of smooth muscle cells,and showing homogeneously low density on plain scan and homogeneous or heterogeneous enhancement on enhanced scanning.4belonged to mixed type that evenly comprising sheets of smooth muscle cells admixed with islands of adipocytes and abnormal vessels,and showing heterogeneous enhancement on enhanced scanning.Conclusion The CT appearances of HAML with different pathological subtypes were not the same.CT scanning can accurately reflect the image feature of tumor.Knowing the relations in different pathological subtypes and CT appearances of HAML is benefit to improve the CT diagnostic rate in HAML.


After analysing the vocabulary of Christian love, this paper displays a panorama of its essential features in relation to God and the neighbour . The commandment of love, whose place is in no utopian realm, takes root in Jesus' as I have loved you


"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)

Associations of environmental agents and MS have gone through the first and second stages of Schopenhauer's "truth" but have not yet attained the stage of acceptance. For more than 50 years environmental triggers, typically viruses, have been implicated in the etiology of MS.1,2⇓ The epidemiology of MS supports an environmental agent. There is evidence of MS clustering,3 and MS increases in incidence with distance in either direction from the equator. Migration away from high prevalence areas before adulthood decreases the likelihood of developing MS. In addition, genetic factors alone are insufficient to cause MS. Despite a clear genetic influence in MS (the rate of concordance is eight times greater in monozygotic than dizygotic twins),4,5⇓ the concordance rate among monozygotic twins remains only 25%. An increased risk of MS has also been observed in persons developing childhood infections as adults.1 Demyelinating animal models exist in which viruses with long incubation periods cause relapsing neurologic disorders,1,6⇓ some of which are immune-mediated. Similar immune reactivities to a number of viruses have been reported in patients with MS.7 Increased antibody titers to a variety of infectious agents …


In this paper, present teaching situation of the course was analyzed systematic in the process of practice teaching of industrial design based on data correlated with the analysis of desks and chairs design. With characteristics of ergonomics of industrial design professional practice teaching in our university, a more reasonable way of teaching reform was explored in the purpose of practice teaching,teaching method and teaching means, and expected the teaching effect in the practice teaching process was put forward.


Let A be a real continuous nxn matrix on an interval T 3 and let the n-vector be a solution of the differential equation r. If [oc,g]er, g is called a conjugate point of if the equation has a nontrivial solution vector that It is shown that the absence on (t..,t ) of a point conjugate to with respect to the equation equivalent to the existence on (t.,t ) of a continuous matrix solution L of the nonlinear differential equation with the initial condition the matrix obtained from the matrix by replacing the elements on and above the main diagonal by zeros o This nonlinear equation -- which may be regarded as a generalization of the Riccati equation, to which it reduces for n = 2 -- can be used to derive criteria for the presence or absence of conjugate points on a given interval.


The article considers the features of modern writer's essay differentiation by the material of the Ukrainian flash fiction. The author describes all classifications of philosophical genre and defines its thematic varieties in connection with the main problem dominants. The description of the main specific features of free genre thematic varieties gives the researcher the opportunity to combine the works in four types of essayistics: critical, political, urban, artistic and reflective.


Based on analyzing the current problems and main existing problems of the social society of land-losing farmers in China,taking Hefei Economic Development Zone as an example,the social security system of land-losing farmers was constructed.


This manuscript reports the trends and issues of mobile-learning in Taiwan. We selected 43 research papers published in mobile-learning field and analyzed the research content including methodology, applied subjects and utilized information technology instruments. We found that most of research focus on the design and development of mobile learning, and the research methodology mainly fousce on learning systemic development, and the subjects of researches the most are elementary school students. Finally, these researches of m-learning which conbined learning system as the most infotmational technology instruments.


Nowadays, the recycling of Tetra Pak®'s packaging in Colombia is a process which do not have a significant solution due to the complexity about its material separation, becoming the product non-biodegradable for the environment. Consequently, Ecoplak® appears as a company that produces agglomerated sheets of tetra pack's waste with excellent physical and mechanical properties. However, the company is limited and it just produces and sales the material, that is why we have proposed a product strategy based on Ecoplak® that has a cyclic life cycle to contribute with the reuse of the material.
Having said that, we designed a balance bike for children from two to five years old. It is called Tetra Bike and its parts, like the framework, the handlebar, the seat base and a holder part, are made of Ecoplak®. Besides, we wanted children to love Tetra Bike. Therefore, the design, the colors, the patterns, customization options and others, are elements of the product.


In this paper certain basic assumptions about causation will be made explicit and then an attempt will be made to show, on the basis of those assumptions, that causation must be supplemented by an extra-causal operation of a selective nature. It is hoped that our assumptions will have in their own right a certain general acceptability, but since assumptions or "postulate sets", whether antecedently acceptable or not are usually chosen for the purpose of proving something already deemed desirable, a word should be said as to why it was thought desirable to argue for selectivity. The reason we wish to establish selectivity is to free naturalism from its deterministic implications. Naturalism is the doctrine which holds (1) that reality is exhaustively composed of entities located in an extensive continuum and (2) that an important connection between such entities is causation. Determinism is the doctrine that causation is completely determinate, i.e., that every actuality can be sufficiently explained by the category of causation alone. The reason it is thought desirable to free naturalism from determinism is that if we do not we have no valid reason for believing in naturalism. If the determinist is right the only reason for my belief is its cause and hence the category of validity is false wherever it is asserted. But as naturalists we like to think of ourselves as having chosen that doctrine because it satisfied certain non-causal conditions. Hence any rational naturalist would like to show that determinism is mistaken.


The degree of uniform sediment concentration and particle size distribution at 13 spatially distributed
sampling points in a 155-m3 sedimentation basin during the inflow period of six identical 100-m3 inflow hydrographs
containing 454 kg of sediment was evaluated. The six events represented the sediment concentration and particle size
distributions in three replications each of an unlined and a lined (no re-suspension) basin. Sediment concentrations
observed at all sampling locations and up to 12 sampling times showed no significant difference during either the lined or
unlined treatments. These results strongly confirm that sediment concentrations were consistent with those expected in a
single, completely mixed reactor. The unlined treatment, however, yielded sediment concentrations 36% higher and the
suspended particle sizes averaged 3.7 µm smaller than during the lined treatment. The increased mass of smaller
particles suspended during the unlined treatment was attributed to an increased amount of re-suspended sediment.


The ratio of ω-6: ω-3 is connected to the higher risk of non-communicable diseases, thus this ratio is becoming more important than quantity of ω-6 and ω-3 in human nutrition. In countries like Iran, cow's milk is mainly produced in rural area and less in conventional systems. The lactating cows reared in rural and conventional farms are different in terms of nutrition, daily yields, and proportion of concentrate to forage that these might affect milk fatty acid profiles. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the ratio of ω-6: ω-3 in cow's milk produced in conventional and rural dairy farms in west of Iran, Khorramabad. Twenty bulk milk samples (rural and conventional) were collected from the conventional dairy farms and local milk collection centers. Fatty acid profiles were determined and results showed that conventional milk had higher ω-6 (2.1± 0.4) and lower ω-3 (0.16 ± 0.03) in comparison with rural milk. The ratio of ω-6:ω-3 in rural milk was significantly lower (8:1) than that in conventional milk (13:1) (p<0.01). In conclusion, milk produced in rural dairy farms had better ratio of ω-6:ω-3, thus rural milk could be healthier for human nutrition in terms of ω-3 fatty acids.


This chapter designs low pass filters (LPF) and band pass filters (BPF). It uses LPF or BPF to extract desired spectral components and explains the frequency characteristics and impulse responses of LPF and BPF. The chapter provides step-by-step code exercises and instructions to implement execution sequences. The MATLAB code fragment generates a vector Hw_vector, the sampled version of H( ?> ). Each element of Hw_vector will be calculated through a separate numerical integration of ht, the sampled version of h(t). The magnitude spectrum |H( ?> )| and phase spectrum H( ?> ) are also plotted. In a time invariant linear system like the LPFs the authors have designed, the input signal undergoes the same amount of delay as the delay of h(t). The chapter is designed to help teach and understand communication systems using a classroom-tested, active learning approach.


We apply the continuation theorem of Mawhin to ensure that a second-order nonlinear difference equation of the form $$\Delta^2 u(k-1) +a(k)u^{n}(k)-b(k)u^{n+1}(k)+c(k)u^{n+2}(k)=0$$ with periodic boundary conditions possesses at least two nontrivial positive solutions, where $n>0$ is a finite positive integer, $\Delta u(k)=u(k+1)-u(k)$ is the forward difference operator and $a(k),b(k),c(k)$ are $T$-periodic functions on $\mathbb{R}$.


With the rapid explosion of Internet, social media has emerged as a new communication venue for city branding initiative. The aim of this chapter is to provide a deeper understanding of today's communication environment, and in particular, to focus the greater interactivity, engagement and responsiveness of resources in relation to city branding. Thus, this chapter firstly outlines the participatory city branding, which can be considered as an appropriate approach for involving wide range of stakeholders in promoting cities as brands. Secondly, the role of social media and its influential users are scrutinized to better present their importance for city branding. Following this, the examined Instagram campaign to promote the city of Izmir intends to allow greater insight into how to utilize online platforms in order to communicate a city both to its citizens and to global arena. And finally, the chapter leads to practical implications regarding how to benefit from social media for effective participatory city branding.


In reviewing Dr Sinnott's "Administrative Delays and Chronic Disability in Patients With Acute Occupational Low Back Injury," I disagree with the author's rationale for not controlling litigation as well as her conclusion that such an omission "minimized the potential for excluded variables to have an influence on outcomes." In fact, the extraordinary influence of litigation on claim administration and cost make adequate statistical controls essential: litigated claims make up approximately one of two lost-time injuries and almost $7 of every $8 spent in the entire California workers' compensation system. The eligibility for and payment of workers' compensation benefits are strictly controlled by statute and regulation. The statutory and regulatory requirements compel claims administrators to determine compensability and other factual issues before benefits can be paid. Litigation is most often triggered by the determination of compensability, the assessment of permanent disability, and the disputes over providing optimal medical care. By not controlling for litigation in issues regarding timing of benefit payments, the author opens the door to significant distortion of the outcomes and misinterpretation of the model's results. If concern over endogeneity was her reason for excluding litigation, then an appropriate alternative technical method of dealing with endogenous variables should have been considered. Instead of not controlling for litigation, the author's goals might have included exploring to what extent litigation explained the observed administrative delays and to determine the factors that enhanced or mitigated the effects of litigation. Furthermore, Dr Sinnott's causal attribution that, "any administrative delay has the potential to produce significantly adverse outcomes" is at odds with a cross-sectional study design's essential purpose of detecting associations and inability to establish cause and effect. Finally, the statutes and regulations mitigating benefit payments during the study's time frame of 1993 to 2000 injuries were significantly modified during the 2003 to 2004 reforms to include a precompensability first pay provision for medical treatment. Given these issues, a revised analysis across the preand postreform period coupled with adequate controls for litigation would add valuable insights to the public policy discussion.


The aim of this study is to construct the framework for "classroom humor" research in Japan. Many studies about this topic have been done recently in Japan, and the increasing interest in this field causes confusion. Therefore it is necessary to present a systematic map to make it clearer. In this paper, the new framework is proposed by referring to foreign literatures, mainly, SCHOOL HUMOUR (written by Wilfred B. W. Martin & Ishmael J. Baksh). In this book, the eight aspects of "classroom humor" researches are shown: (1) A developmental view (2) Formal and informal classroom (3) Class clowns (4) Language and humour (5) Subject specific sumour (6) Humour and test performance (7) Functions of classroom humour (8) Potential dangers. It is important to focus on these eight aspects in the research of "classroom humor". It seems to have some problems, however, if their aspects is applied to Japanese classrooms as it is. Here is a proposal of the new suitable framework for Japanese classroom based on Martin & Baksh's opinion. It consists of the following twelve aspects: (1) The need and function of humor in classrooms (2) The need of a sense of humor for teachers (3) Relationship between humor and classroom atmosphere (4) Humor for the study environment (5) Humor for the study object (6) The meaning of humor for teachers and students (7) Danger of classroom humor (8) Cultivation of sense of humor (9) Humor and counseling (10) Humor and test (11) A developmental view (12) Humor for life environment. This new framework discussed here is useful to think about "classroom humor" in Japanese classrooms.


The development of industry and automotive trafic produces Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) whose toxicity can affect seriously human health and environment. The level of those contaminants in air must be as low as possible. In this context, there is a need for in situ systems that could monitor selectively the concentration of these compounds. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the efficiency of a system build with a pre-concentrator, a chromatographic micro-column and a tin oxide-based gas sensor for the selective and sensitive detection of atmospheric pollutants. In particular, this study is focused on the selective detection of benzene and 1,3 butadiene.


To date, there are no protocols optimized to the effective separation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) from testicular cells derived from mouse testes, thus hindering studies based on mouse SSCs. In this study, we aimed to determine the most efficient purification method for the isolation of SSCs from mouse testes among previously described techniques. Isolation of SSCs from testicular cells derived from mouse testes was conducted using four different techniques: differential plating (DP), magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) post-DP, MACS, and positive and negative selection double MACS. DP was performed for 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 h, and MACS was performed using EpCAM (MACS EpCAM ), Thy1 (MACS Thy1 ), or GFR α 1 (MACS GFR α 1 ) antibodies. The purification efficiency of each method was analyzed by measuring the percentage of cells that stained positively for alkaline phosphatase. DP for 8 h, MACS Thy1 post-DP for 8 h, MACS GFR α 1 , positive selection double MACS GFR α 1/EpCAM , and negative selection double MACS GFR α 1/ α -SMA were identified as the optimal protocols for isolation of SSCs from mouse testicular cells. Comparison of the purification efficiencies of the optimized isolation protocols showed that, numerically, the highest purification efficiency was obtained using MACS GFR α 1 . Overall, our results indicate that MACS GFR α 1 is an appropriate purification technique for the isolation of SSCs from mouse testicular cells.


When a group of mobile robots is deployed in a workspace in order to enable a sensor network to cover an area, they must maintain a proximity where its wireless communication remain connected. This paper studies the coverage control based on the heading angles and the measurement of the power level of the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of the wireless devices mounted over the robots. The main objective is to maintain a desired power level and relative angles avoiding global coordinates. The problem is defined as a generalization of the leader-follower scheme, adding the e ects of the antenna lobe. The gain parameters are modified to prioritize the convergence of the power or the angles using numerical simulations. Finally, the approach is simulated using two omnidirectional wheeled mobile robots.


A field trial was conducted at Quaid-e-Awam Agriculture Research Institute (QAARI), Larkana to examine the performance of  seven  promising sugarcane varieties as compared to  two commercial varieties Gulabi-95 and L-116  during 2006-2007. The results revealed that Larkana-2001 showed excellent performance with cane yield of 218.05 m.t ha-1, followed by varieties Chandka and NIA-98 with cane yield of 142.49 and 124.71 m.t ha-1, respectively against the cane yield of 94.16 and 91.66 m.t ha-1in case of check varieties i.e. Gulabi-95 and L-116, respectively. The cane yield of varieties Triton and CP-43/33 was also promising i.e. 116.66 and 114.99 m.t ha-1, while lowest cane yield of 88.32 m.t ha-1was recorded in variety HOND 3-34. It was concluded from the study that both the varieties evolved by QAARI Larkana  (Larkana-2001 and Chandka) surpassed all rest of the varieties experimented for cane yield, but the brix content was relatively higher in varieties HOND 3-34 and L-116, however, the differences were not so pronounced.


The Unanimity Management is the leading matter of course in employing Blockchain technology. In a fast developing nation like India, utilizing the technologies to strive towards a full digitally connected environment is the primary motive. The exponentially increasing population and diversities form the barrier to achieve digital India. The election commission of India, Nirvachan Sadan takes the responsibility of conducting elections in India. But authenticity, integrity and transparency is still a big question in this largest democratic country in the globe. Hence, in this work, the blockchain technology is utilized on a distributed voting system, in which we can obtain the authentic polls for any citizen in any part of the country. It further guarantees the zero fake votes by imposing a stringent two factor authentication mechanism. Since the ballots are restrained in the blockchain structure, the security is enhanced. The cognitive contents of the block are hashed with Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) for an ascertained Integrity.


AbstractThis paper aims to overcome the drawbacks of current business valuation models. The authors have developed a novel model, a growth value model, by employing the income-asset-hybrid-based approach and with the application of quantile neural networks. This model is greatly strengthened by the main assumption of stockholders equity growth rates following the mean reversion principle. This makes the discounted present value of stockholders equity in the infinite future converge to a bounded value. The empirical findings have significant contributions to the business valuation of property development and construction industries. First, they include the business valuation model of the aforementioned two industries is quite different from those of other industries. The enterprise values of these two can be significantly overestimated if the business valuation model for total industry is applied. Second, they also include the patterns of price-to-book value ratio (PBR) curves that indicate that the growth...


The low cost of posting the schedule doesn't mean that its value is low; rather, it's difficult to set a high price when many others can offer the same information on a different website. This problem afflicts the entire world of information services. There's often a very large consumer surplus and a very low profit margin. But the result is that information-producing activities, such as scientific research or journalism, are constantly seeking a business plan, since, like water, we assume that they should be cheap or free. Meanwhile, other activities are sold far above their production cost-an extreme example being vacant real estate, which might sell for an enormous price although the seller did nothing to create its value. Given the economics of low marginal cost and high consumer value, it's hard to make a workable business plan for information. Similarly, public libraries, education, and other entities are constantly seeking a better business model.


IntroductionImmense research regarding studies of diversification as one of the most important approaches to corporate growth strategy (e.g., Oki, 2013; Palich, Cardinal, & Miller, 2000) has been conducted. Most such studies, however, tend to focus only on diversification at particularly large companies, with less research on diversification considering small- and medium-sized businesses (e.g., Kono, 2016). In addition, we observe limited studies focusing on diversification at the supplier firms that manufacture and sell intermediate products to other businesses, despite the fact that these suppliers account for the bulk of the economy (e.g., Konno, 2007).The most important dimensions of the diversification strategy for suppliers, most of which are smaller than companies dealing in finished products, are extending "product scope" (product range) and "customers scope" (customer reach) within the same industry. For example, supplying a new product to an existing company with a historical relationship is an example of extending in the former dimension; moreover, supplying an existing product to a new customer with no previous relationship is an example of extending in the latter dimension.Numerous studies, both theoretical and empirical, on diversification regarding each of these two dimensions exist separately. Practically, however, decisions about diversification along these two dimensions are not necessarily made independently. No existing studies have considered the two in an integrated manner, notwithstanding the fact that decisions are often made based on comparing and validating them at the same time, implying that they are closely interdependent. This study integrates the two perspectives of product scope dimension and customer scope dimension to provide empirical analysis and discussion regarding the relationship between the supplier diversification strategy and management performance.MethodThis study examines the differences in duration of continuing business and probability of the business continuing ("survival rate") for each of the following five categories of business between suppliers and customers.As shown in Figure 1, we first divide the business relationship into two categories of existing and new business. Subsequently, we further categorize new business as either existing or new along the two dimensions of customer scope and product scope, using the growth matrix approach from Ansoff (1965), yielding four categories of business. This results in a total of five categories of business: existing, existing customer/existing product, new customer/existing product, existing customer/new product, and new customer/ new product.For example, business already in place at some point in time would be categorized as existing business, while business commencing after that point in time would be categorized as new business. Within a new business, providing a new product to an existing customer would be considered existing customer/new product1 and providing an existing product to a new customer with no past business would be considered new customer /existing product. Supplying an existing product to a customer with a historical relationship would be considered existing customer/existing product, while providing a new product to a new customer with no historical relationship would be considered new customer /new product. The problem we posed to ourselves is whether any differences would be visible across these five categories of business in the outcome variables-the duration of the business relationship and the probability of it continuing.In the following part, we estimate the duration of the business relationship and probability of it continuing (survival rate) for the Japanese automobile component supplier industry from 1990 to 2008, using the Kaplan-Meier method,2 to obtain an answer to the problem we posed.DataWe consider a business by a particular supplier in a particular component with an automotive manufacturer. …


Nowadays with the integration of world economy,hi-tech economy is developing at a rapid speed and the technology has become the most important productive forces.The formation of industry innovation alliance is critical to build an innovative country as well as important means to response to foreign competition in industrial technology.The paper takes the classic industry innovation cluster in United States—the American microelectronics and computer technology corporations as an example to elaborate its organizational structure,operating mode and evolving history.Ultimately,it summarizes the success,the failure and the lessons learned from the example to serve as proposals and references for the formation and management of industry innovation alliance in China.


Let E/Q be an elliptic curve with discriminant Δ, and let P ∈ E(Q). The standard method for computing the canonical height h(P) is as a sum of local heights h(P) = λ∞(P) + Σ P λp(P). There are well-known series for computing the archimedean height λ(P), and the non-archimedean heights λ p (P) are easily computed as soon as all prime factors of Δ have been determined. However, for curves with large coefficients it may be difficult or impossible to factor Δ. In this note we give a method for computing the non-archimedean contribution to h(P) which is quite practical and requires little or no factorization. We also give some numerical examples illustrating the algorithm.


Through the example of the representatives of the central power within a border march not fully integrated yet to monarchy in the early XVII th century, this article intends to show to which extent two political and military major crises (1640-1652 : Catalan upheaval ; 1702-1714/1720 : Spanish Succession wars and the Quadruple Alliance wars) play a fundamental part within the process, quite advanced indeed, of bringing closer to the centre and integrating that territory inside the monarchy, through the implication of a reliable local elite to the royal service finding thus in those critical moments the way to affirm their faithfulness. An opening of the Bourbons during the XVIII th century offers the opportunity to raise a few questions about the future of those local actors inside a state that is striving to create a completely faithful administration, independent of the old local oligarchies. Through the Val d'Aran's case, and reaching beyond that simple frame, are unveiled the processes that monarchy used to control and incorporate its periphery.


The paper presents a multi-rigid model of arm for an impact between a tennis ball and racket, and makes dynamic analysis of it. The input to the model is the impact force caused by a tennis ball and racket. Its value comes from the deflection of the racket stringbed detected by a high speed camera and the stiffness of the racket stringbed is measured by a force gage. The effect of the impact force on the elbow is analyzed in order to research the pathogenesis of tennis elbow.


This seminar will discuss the benefits and challenges of undertaking 'public engagement' cultural history projects with volunteers and partner organisations. As an exemplar, Brooks will detail how she has worked with volunteers on an archival research project exploring theatre and culture during the First World War. She will discuss the design of the 'Recovering First World Theatre' project, its adaptation in response to the input of participants, and how the project is now being developed further. She will also discuss her experiences of working with partner organisations drawing on her work with The National Archives, the Theatre Royal, Brighton, and the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury.
As a theatre historian Brooks' focus is on theatre as a cultural form and institution, and the models, methodologies and approaches she will share in this seminar will therefore be applicable as models to a range of other historical projects.


NATURAL resource managers have used the Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) system to numerically score land parcels to determine their suitability for agricultural use. The Soil Conservation Service initially developed the LESA methodology to evaluate the impact of federal projects on agricultural land conversions. But a more generalized LESA system also was created to assist state and local governments in their own farmland protection efforts ( 15, 16, 18 ). LESA's potential for a wide range of uses has since been recognized in such areas as agricultural districting, purchase of development rights, property tax assessment, environmental impact assessment, and planning for local infrastructure ( 3 ).

The first statewide LESA system was developed in Hawaii to zone agricultural land. Zoning requirements necessitated an areawide system that could simultaneously rate the suitability of all land in the state. Areawide assessment, particularly on such a large scale, places special requirements on a LESA system not found in the more typical case-by-case applications. A computerized, geographic information system (GIS) was used to implement the Hawaii LESA model. Although a GIS-based LESA creates additional problems in developing an areawide system, GIS technology also offers new opportunities in system design and use. Results …


We present randomized algorithms for sampling the standard Gaussian distribution restricted to a convex set and for estimating the Gaussian measure of a convex set, in the general membership oracle model. The complexity of integration is $O^*(n^3)$ while the complexity of sampling is $O^*(n^3)$ for the first sample and $O^*(n^2)$ for every subsequent sample. These bounds improve on the corresponding state-of-the-art by a factor of $n$. Our improvement comes from several aspects: better isoperimetry, smoother annealing, avoiding transformation to isotropic position and the use of the "speedy walk" in the analysis.


Along with the development of socialist market economy in our country and the accountancy standards and accountancy system increasingly perfecting, the fixed assets checking methods will be much more science, norm, practical, and more matched the requirement of objectivity principle, substance heavier than the form principle and the principle of wariness and match international practice


Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-dependent protein kinase (PKR) is an interferon-induced protein kinase that plays a central role in the anti-viral process. Due to its pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative action, there is an increased interest in PKR modulation as an anti-tumor strategy. PKR is overexpressed in breast cancer cells; however, the role of PKR in breast cancer cells is unclear. The expression/activity of PKR appears inversely related to the aggressiveness of breast cancer cells. The current study investigated the role of PKR in the motility/migration of breast cancer cells. The activation of PKR by a synthesized dsRNA (PIC) significantly decreased the motility of several breast cancer cell lines (BT474, MDA-MB231 and SKBR3). PIC inhibited cell migration and blocked cell membrane ruffling without affecting cell viability. PIC also induced the reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and impaired the formation of lamellipodia. These effects of PIC were reversed by the pretreatment of a selective PKR inhibitor. PIC also activated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and its downstream MAPK-activated protein kinase 2 (MK2). PIC-induced activation of p38 MAPK and MK2 was attenuated by the PKR inhibitor and the PKR siRNA, but a selective p38 MAPK inhibitor (SB203580) or other MAPK inhibitors did not affect PKR activity, indicating that PKR is upstream of p38 MAPK/MK2. Cofilin is an actin severing protein and regulates membrane ruffling, lamellipodia formation and cell migration. PIC inhibited cofilin activity by enhancing its phosphorylation at Ser3. PIC activated LIM kinase 1 (LIMK1), an upstream kinase of cofilin in a p38 MAPK-dependent manner. We concluded that the activation of PKR suppressed cell motility by regulating the p38 MAPK/MK2/LIMK/cofilin pathway. Citation: Xu M, Chen G, Wang S, Liao M, Frank JA, et al. (2012) Double-Stranded RNA-Dependent Protein Kinase Regulates the Motility of Breast Cancer Cells. PLoS ONE 7(10): e47721. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0047721 Editor: Chryso Kanthou, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom Received April 24, 2012; Accepted September 14, 2012; Published October 24, 2012 Copyright: 2012 Xu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This research is supported by a NIH grant (AA017226). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


A physics-based first principles approach is adopted in this study to simulate vibration signatures from an idealized gear such as a thin spur gear under plane dynamic stresses induced by an impulsive rotation. The governing equations of velocity—stress are solved using a finite-difference formulation in generalized curvilinear coordinates and a fully characteristic set of boundary conditions based on the theory of hyperbolic systems. The vibration signatures are thus directly obtained in the time domain. A second-order accurate in time and space, time-staggered leapfrog scheme, is used to integrate the time-dependent partial differential equations. Normal as well as damage signatures are obtained and compared; normal signatures correspond to uniform material properties of the gear, and damage signatures correspond to one of the gear teeth being made less rigid in a certain fashion so as to mimic a damage such as due to impact-induced pitting, deformation or incipient crack formation. It is observed that significant deviations from the normal signature occur in amplitude due to this seeded damage. Using this approach, baseline or reference vibration signatures can be obtained for any structural subsystem to aid in its health monitoring.


Objective To observe the changes of serum endothelin, C-reactive protein and fibrinogen before and after the acarbose therapy in impaired glucose tolerance patients ( IGT ). Methods 100 IGT patients were divided randomly into 2 groups treatment group( n=50 )and control group( n=50),Two groups of patients make personalized diet and exercise scheme, Based on this, treatment group use acarbose. Observed treatment before and after 24 weeks ,48 weeks of two groups'Fg, ET, CRP changes.Results After 16, 24 weeks, the levels of ET、 CRP、 Fg decreased significantly in acarbose group, but remained unchanged in control group. 1 year follow-up, DM in the treatment group were significantly reduced than in the control group, The total incidence of cardiovascular events significantly reduced, differences are statistically significant. Conclusion Acarbose can ease patients with abnormal glucose tolerance vascular inflammatory reaction, improves endothelial function, improve blood coagulation high tendency, reducing cardioascular eents.

Key words:
Impaired glucose tolerance; Acarbose; Endothelin; Fibrinogen; C-reactive protein


The 31P and 13C NMR spectra of the heteroatom-substituted λ3-phosphaalkynes (Me3Si)- iPrNCP (1), K+ [iPrNCPl- (2) and KOCP · 2 DME (3) are described (Me = methyl; iPr = isopropyl). In addition,15N NMR data of 1 and 2 as well as further NMR results of all accessible nuclei of 1 to 3 are reported. The absolute values of the coupling constants 1J(31P13C) of 1, 2 and 3, 18.2, 45.7 and 57.2 Hz, respectively, are considerably different; the geminal coupling constants 2J( 31P15N) of the first two compounds show a decrease in the reverse order, 15.1 and 3.3 Hz. 13C, 29Si,15N, and 18O isotope effects on the nuclear shielding of the 31P nucleus in the non isotope-enriched compounds 1, 2 or 3 are presented and discussed. The [mono-13C]isotopomers of 1, 2 and 3 exhibit extremely negative 31P13C one-bond isotope shifts varying from -211 to -223 ppb. Remarkably, for 1 and 2 large two-bond 31P15N isotope shifts of -32 and -84 ppb, respectively, are observed. An unexpectedly large two-bond 31P180 isotope effect of -124 ppb was assigned to the [mono-180]isotopomer of compound 3. A three-bond 31P13C isotope shift of -27 ppb was found in 2.


Excerpt INTRODUCTION The not infrequent occurrence of peptic ulcer in man is perhaps not surprising, considering that the digestive tract, from early life, is subjected to innumerable mechanical, b...


Accurate location of subsea pipelines is a prerequisite for real-time tracking and detailed inspections by underwater robots. The magnetic anomalies generated by ferromagnetic pipelines can be used to locate both exposed and buried pipelines. However, due to the low signal ratio and model inconsistencies under weak and variable ambient magnetization, there is currently no intuitive and reliable pipeline detection method for pipeline tracking. This paper proposes a method capable of immediately and accurately locating pipelines via active magnetization and vertical magnetic measurements. Finite element simulations show that a magnet array can significantly enhance the magnetic anomaly, and that the vertical magnetic component alone can accurately indicate the pipeline's position, avoiding the inconvenience of magnetic three-component alignment in the field. It is experimentally demonstrated that the magnetic detection signal-to-noise ratio can be significantly increased by 5 dB–20 dB for a Φ219 mm steel pipe using the magnet array, and the maximum lateral positioning error is 0.03 m and much smaller than that without the magnet array.


One of the many inequalities that superquadratic functions satisfy is the parallelogram inequality f(u+v)+f(u −v) 2f(u)+2f(v). In this paper, we present Cauchy means for superquadratic functions and other mean value the- orems. We show also positive semi-definiteness, log-convexity, exponential convexity of certain set of functions.


Summary The decommissioning of offshore oil and gas installations is becoming an increasingly crucial issue to the oil and gas industry as a large number of assets within the sector are approaching the end of their economic life. Globally, there are over


Physical rehabilitation is an important part of a patient's recovery after surgery. Physical therapists are crucial to the success of that patient's healing process. Physical rehabilitation can determine how quickly the patient's healing progresses. It is difficult to determine how long a person will be in rehab and every patient has different expectations of how long their recovery will take. In this study, I explored how a patient's perception of time affects the estimated versus actual recovery time post-surgery. The participants were patients admitted to the inpatient rehab at Mercy Regional Medical Center in Lorain, Ohio. Each patient was assessed on their perception of time as well as their expected recovery time compared to their actual recovery time. All patients were surveyed and placed on the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory subscale. I was seeking to determine if there is a strong relationship between a patient's perception of time and how long they expect their recovery to take. As a result of this study, it was found that there was a negative correlation between a patient's perception of time and how long they expected their recovery to take. Further, those who scored Present Hedonistic on the Zimbardo's subscale, showed a significantly negative correlation with a patient's expected time of recovery. This study is relevant because the results may aide in physical therapist treatment strategies. If a physical therapist knows how the patient perceives their time, they can alter their treatment skills to help them heal more efficiently. *Supported by the McNair Scholars Program


Uranium mononitride (UN) has the NaCl-type structure, is a good conductor of electricity, is antiferromagnetic (type I) below \ensuremath{\sim}53\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K, and obeys the Curie-Weiss law in the paramagnetic state in the temperature range 77-300\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K. A continuous-wave NMR study was carried out on $^{14}\mathrm{N}$ in this temperature range and in applied magnetic fields of 6340-13 000 Oe by the use of a Varian V-4210A spectrometer. The NMR signals were detected only in the dispersion mode and only by using high modulations and rf fields. The positive temperature-dependent Knight shift can be represented by $K={K}_{0}+\ensuremath{\alpha}{\ensuremath{\chi}}_{M}$, where ${K}_{0}=\ensuremath{-}(31.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}3.5)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ is different from the Knight shift, + (10.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.5)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$, of $^{14}\mathrm{N}$ in isostructural ThN. The difference is probably due to some temperature-independent susceptibility of \ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ cgs. The coefficient $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ is 4.20+0.25 (when ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{M}$ is in cgs units), which is practically the same value as $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ for other uranium compounds; $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ is analyzed on the assumption of ${\mathrm{U}}^{+4}$ ions ($5{f}^{2}$ configuration) and the recent value of 0.876 conduction electrons per uranium atom. In the model with uniform conduction-electron polarization, an exchange constant ${J}_{\mathrm{sf}}$ of - (1.0\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2) eV is obtained that has the same sign as in the lanthanides, but is about one order of magnitude larger; the variation is probably due to the larger extent of the $5f$ electronic functions. In the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) model, the $s\ensuremath{-}f$ coupling constant $\ensuremath{\Gamma}=\ensuremath{-}460$ eV ${\mathrm{\AA{}}}^{3}$ is again negative, but is about eight times higher than $|\ensuremath{\Gamma}|$ obtained from the paramagnetic Curie temperature ($\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}320\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$K) and the magnetic contribution to the resistivity. The variation of T is mainly due to the sensitivity of the RKKY sums, but also may be due to the simple RKKY model used. The constant value of $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ in uranium compounds, which have an ordered magnetic state, is an indication of the nonapplicability of the RKKY model to the analysis of the Knight shifts. The linewidth of $^{14}\mathrm{N}$ in UN depends on the temperature and magnetic field. The linewidth is analyzed in terms of a constant quadrupole interaction (similar to that which contributes to the total linewidth in ThN) and a magnetic contribution that is proportional to $\frac{{H}_{0}}{(T\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\theta})}$ (similar to that in UP with the quadrupole contribution absent). These results are compared with those on $^{14}\mathrm{N}$ in lanthanide nitrides and with uranium compounds that have an ordered state.


Inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) is a process to obtain a potential reward function according to expert's behavior. Then the optimal control policy is generated though some optimization theory, such as reinforcement learning, so that we can implement the imitation for expert's behavior. In this paper, we consider the inverse reinforcement learning principle from t he point of performance sensitivity analysis. After that, we propose a novel inverse reinforcement learning analytical framework by analyzing the performance difference formula between expert's policy and any other policies. This analytical framework extends the standard inverse reinforcement learning to the case that the reward function is related with both states and actions. At the same time, this framework provides a unified approach for IRL with the discount reward and the average reward in Markov decision process. Finally, the validity of corresponding results is verified under a grid world problem.


Orientation and Mobility (O&M) in school education is traditionally described as a separate expanded core curriculum subject taught by specially trained instructors and/or teachers. O&M usually involves one-on-one teaching where the student learns by doing. Pedagogy is defined as the discipline that focuses on identifying the best ways to teach subject areas to groups of students. The pedagogy of O&M is therefore specifically designed to identify the most effective teaching strategies and approaches to enable students with vision impairment (VI) to learn how to independently and safely travel within their community. In this paper the author argues that O&M pedagogy may provide all teachers, not just those who work in O&M, with a potentially rich, yet currently largely untapped set of strategies and approaches. The paper concludes with a call for research to help ascertain which O&M pedagogy could be more gainfully employed to support students with VI in inclusive settings, and how this pedagogy might be more readily made available to teachers.


enough to detect small amounts of possibly abnormal serum ferritin derived from leukaemic cells. Isoelectric focusing techniques have shown characteristic isoferritin profiles for several normal tissues and immunological differences can also be shown using specific antisera.4 If immunological differences between leukaemic and normal ferritins exist it may be possible to produce an antibody directed against leukaemic cell ferritin; assays using such an antibody might be expected to yield data of clinical relevance in acute leukaemia. We thank the many haematologists who sent specimens and information about patients. Antibiotics and respiratory illness in general practice: prescribing policy and work load Twenty-five million prescriptions for antibiotics are written by general practitioners annually for new episodes of respiratory illness.' Apart from the treatment of relevant morbidity the belief remains that withholding antibiotics creates extra subsequent work, particularly work "out-of-hours." This retrospective study examines the relationship between antibiotic prescribing policy on new respiratory illness and consulting patterns in a group practice. The practice was a three-partner one caring for some 6000 city patients. A fourth doctor worked in the practice on a regular part-time basis and a trainee was employed. The following three groups of patients, all registered continuously with the practice since birth, were studied: (1) all 50 born in 1970, (2) all 60 born in 1960, (3) all 43 born in 1950 and 1951. The study covered the seven years 1970-6. For each consultation for a new respiratory symptom a note was made of the doctor consulting, any antibiotic prescribed, and any further consultation within two weeks and what was then prescribed. "Failure" of treatment was defined as the prescription of either an antibiotic within two weeks of a new consultation at which no antibiotic had been prescribed or a change of antibiotic for a patient who had received an antibiotic at a new respiratory consultation within the previous two weeks. Out of 856 new respiratory consultations antibiotics were prescribed at 639 (75 I): 53 "failures" of treatment were noted, an incidence of 6 ".,. Tohe "failure" rate was the same for all doctors working in the practice although the antibiotic prescribing policies ranged widely from 48 ", to 88 (" (table). Antibiotics were prescribed at 73 ,. of 521 consultations with the youngest group of patients and 8 1% of consultations were failures. The trainees had double the failure rate (11)O) of the morc experienced doctors (6",) in this age group. …


Resonance Raman spectrum was measured for the monocation radical of 1,5-dithiacylooctane (1,5-DTCO), which has a transannular three-electron sulfur-sulfur bond. The spectrum, which is mainly composed of the bands below 500 cm - 1 ascribable to skeletal deformation vibrations, is enhanced through a resonance effect due to a σ-σ* transition around 405 nm. The prominent feature at 1180 cm -1 was tentatively assigned to the stretching vibration of the three-electron transannular sulfur-sulfur bond. The normal Raman spectra were measured for the dications of 1,5-DTCO, 1,5-dithiacyclononane, 1,6-dithiacyclodecane, and 2,6-dithiaheptane


Congenital cranial teratomas are a well-recognized but infrequent entity and are usually characterized by complete loss of the normal intracranial architecture. They contain tissues from all three germ layers. This review presents the clinical features, diagnostic methods and management of cranial teratomas based on our experience and the literature. Material and methods: Four pathologically proven cases of congenital cranial teratomas were reviewed. One case was diagnosed prenatally, and the others were diagnosed postnatally. While CT and MRI had been performed in all patients, ultrasonography was only performed in one patient. Craniofacial mass, macrocephalus and/or hydrocephalus were the prominent findings. Localized neurological deficits were not observed even with very large tumors. In all patients, the mass was totally removed, and a ventriculoperitoneal shunt was performed in two patients who had hydrocephalus. Histological examination demonstrated a variety of tissues from all three germ layers. All three forms of teratomas were observed. There was no operative mortality and morbidity, but two patients died at 2 and 3 years after the surgery. Conclusion: Teratomas can be diagnosed early with antenatal ultrasound. They are detected postnatally in the setting of hydrocephalus and macrocephaly. CT and MRI show a multiloculated, heterogeneous solid-cystic mass with both lipids and calcification. The prognosis is poor, with death usually occurring shortly after birth, although there are rare reports of prolonged survival up to 3.5 years following tumor resection. Early diagnosis is important, and it is necessary for appropriate family counseling regarding the morbidity and mortality of fetuses diagnosed with tumors.


The whole bound volume of sixteenth-century Colo' nial Mexican Mss is probably in the hand of Tovar. Preceding the Calendar is an exchange of letters between him and Jose de Acosta and a copy of his only other extant work, a second version of his Relation del origen de los yndios. A condensation of Duran, it is now better known as the Ramirez Codex (c. 1583). The Calendar and the Relation were delivered to the Jesuit historian Acosta, who used the latter but not the former in his Historia natural y moral. Kubler and Gibson here publish the Calendar and the Tovar-Acosta correspondence for the first time. Unique in this work is a disclosure of details of observances in the Aztec months or festivals, some of which, as Kubler and Gibson point out, are found nowhere else. New data appear for the feasts of Tlacaxipeualiztli, Toxcatl, Teotleco, Quecholli, and the Nemontemi. Etzalqualiztli, Panquetzaliztli, and perhaps others are freshened with new and penetrating interpretations. The authors incline to credit much of this to the local diversity reflected in Tovar's very acute and observant informants; Much is contributed too by discussions of correlations of Central Mexican calendric systems with the Gregorian calendar, and the clarification of the many differences between what may be termed the Sahagun and Motolinia traditions. Kubler sees these as attempts to codify Central Mexican calendars, and finds them a continuation of pre-Conquest attempts to make uniform a number of calendric systems which varied in starting point, sequence, nomenclature, and the like, depending upon agricultural and other peculiarities of different regions. Also of interest is Kubler's apparent suggestion (pp. 48-51) that such a study of calendric systems might be used to distinguish "schools of writing," geographic distribution of a number of traits, or even chronological variation. A number of such propositions and questions link this work to Paul Kirchhoff's recent study, "The Mexican Calendar and the Founding of TenochtitlanTlatelolco" (Transactions, N.Y. Acad. Sci., Ser. II, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1950), in which solutions to chronological discrepancies may have had some bearing upon Kubler's approach. The handlist of annotated relevant sources (Mss, codices, published works, archaeological evidence), though specialized to the present subject matter, is likely to be of more general use and inspiration. A twentypage section of halftones, including facsimile reproductions of the Tovar Calendar, and a bibliography of some 200 titles end the memoir. The work is clearly and carefully presented, and the conclusions of the authors seem unexceptionably sound. The student may wish for more specific information on the coloring of the calendar, which might be significant, and may find the authors' translations of some of the Aztec month names unduly free or sometimes inexact. These are comparatively minor points, and the work is a valuable reference, whose importance is wider than the field it covers.


Resituates Katherine Mansfield as an observant diarist, chronicler of her times and erudite reader of English and European literatures.
Previously only available as edited excerpts or as largely unedited transcriptions, Katherine Mansfield's diaries and notebooks have been re-transcribed and minutely edited for the first time, and are presented in this volume with precise historical, cultural and biographical contextual information. The entries show Mansfield's evolution as a writer as well as the impact of her era on early drafts of her mature writings. This volume also contains fascinating new material never previously published – poem-cycles, letters, Mansfield's own illustrations, and the last materials she was working on in the final weeks of her life. A detailed index facilitates cross-reading and referencing for scholars and general readers alike.


Many economical scholars exist some misunderstandings on Smith's economic man assumption at present,these misunderstandings include: the concept of economic man derives from Smith;economic man is abstracted from the normal people of economical life;economic man is considered as selfishness;the behavior of the economic man in the economical activities is full rational.Based on self-examination Smith "economic man" assumption,the misunderstandings are re-explained,and explained the present meaning of Smith economic man assumption.


The invention relates to an ultra-high ultra-large-span box type component truss splicing method. The method includes the steps that a jig frame is reasonably arranged to be located and installed; lower chord box type section rod pieces are spliced on the jig frame and are connected firmly; diagonal web members are installed on the lower chord box type section rod pieces and provided with a middle chord rod piece, and a closed locally-stable unit I and a closed locally-stable unit II are formed; an upper chord box type section rod piece is installed at the upper ends of the corresponding diagonal web members, supporting rods are installed between the middle chord rod and the upper chord box type section rod piece, and a closed locally-stable unit III and a closed locally-stable unit IV are formed; in the splicing process, supporting and reinforcing measures need to be taken for a single-frame truss inside a plane and outside the plane in two directions, and every two adjacent single-frame trusses are connected into the closed locally-stable units through longitudinal connecting beams and inclined supports; and the above steps are repeated till the trusses are completely spliced. By the adoption of the method, the problems that in the whole splicing process, the box type section fixing difficulty is large, stability is poor, and safety risks are high are effectively solved.


This paper proposes a new method of visually-lossless data hiding. The proposed method firstly applies a nonlinear quantization to an original image accordingly to the size of a payload to be hidden. The method, then, embeds the payload to the quantized image based on a histogram modification-based lossless data hiding technique. The hidden payload can be extracted reversibly and be completely removed from the image to recover the quantized image. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


During 1979 and 1981, populations of ground-dwelling predators and parasites in research and commercial cabbage fields in upstate New York were assessed by pitfall trapping to determine species composition, abundance, phenology, and the impact of insecticides on them. Staphylinidae, Phalangida, Carabidae, and Araneida were consistently the most abundant predaceous taxa. Carabids and Staphylinids together comprised 75.9 and 74.1% of all predaceous or parasitic insects in commercial fields during 1979 and 1981, respectively. One of the 32 species of Carabidae captured, Pterostichus melanarius (Illiger), accounted for >50% of the total number of Carabidae. Total number of predators and parasites tended to decline from July through September in both treated and untreated fields, but this decline was hastened by the use of broad-spectrum insecticides.


. An annotatted list including 116 species of lichenized, lichenicolous and non-lichenized fungi growing on beech in foothill Dagestan is given. Among them 66 species are firstly reported for studied forests of which 31 species have not been previously known from beech in Dagestan. Species Biatora pallens , Bryobilimbia hypnorum , Lithothelium hyalosporum , Myelochroa aurulenta , Scutula circumspecta , Verrucaria breussii and genera Bryobilimbia , Lithothelium , Mye-lochroa are new for the East Caucasus. The record of Lithothelium hyalosporum is the second for Russia and the Caucasus. These species, and genus Eopyrenula , have not been known in Da-gestan. We notice absence of most lichens which are growing in the belt of beech forest within the Caucasus. This is a result of the forest ma nagement on study area. A low proportion of foliose and fruticose lichens (36%) and cyanobiont species (5%) indicates a low precipitation and high anthropogenic disturbance of the studied habitats.


This study proposes an integer quadratic programming method for grouping and selecting the singular spectral analysis components based on the empirical mode decomposition for performing the denoising. Here, the total number of the grouped singular spectral analysis components is equal to the total number of the intrinsic mode functions. The singular spectral analysis components are assigned to the group indexed by the corresponding intrinsic mode function where the two norm error between the corresponding intrinsic mode function and the sum of the grouped singular spectral analysis components is minimum. Actually, this assignment of the singular spectral analysis components to a particular group is an integer quadratic programming problem. However, the required computational power for finding the solution of the integer quadratic programming problem is high. On the other hand, by representing the integer quadratic programming problem as an integer linear programming problem and employing an existing numerical optimisation computer aided design tool for finding the solution of the integer linear programming problem, the solution can be found efficiently. Computer numerical simulation results are presented.


For many years, continuous downgrade of the current deficit in South Africa has been a concern for a country that has an open economy and seeks for global positioning. Many authors have researched on this particular topic with an emphasis on common variables that lead to the same results. The current article seeks to highlight a predominant role played by information and communication technology in boosting the current account balance and thus enhance the economic growth in South Africa. Using a digital economic framework, this study considers time series from 2007 to 2016 (the latest full data available at the moment of research), as recent decades have been dominated by digital transformation to approach data analysis. Research findings indicated that 52.93% of GDP is explained by the dependent variables, namely foreign direct investment, ICT trade balance, computer and communications trade balance and the current account balance. This suggests that technological upgrading through digital innovation system, as well as adoption and information infrastructure, is statistically significant in affecting the current account balance and growth performance in South Africa. Data interpretation revealed that deficit on the ICT trade balance generates sustainability of the current account deficit due to a higher rate of imports compared to exports in the field of ICT in South Africa. Since ICT contributes 3.0% to the total of GDP and is a multidisciplinary field that touches all the other sectors, the South African government should restructure exiting trade policies and regulations to promote development of smart technologies. Additionally, the implementation of the sophisticated enterprise resource planning system at the level of businesses and the government should optimise productivity and profitability which are building blocks of the economic growth. However, other factors, such as policy strategies, political and currency stability are not to be neglected when moving towards long-term survival and economic growth in South Africa.


Key Points Question Is integrating rapid diabetes screening into a community-based COVID-19 testing site feasible and effective in reaching socioeconomically disadvantaged Latinx persons without health care? Findings In this health care improvement study of 6631 participants presenting for COVID-19 testing, 923 (13.9%) underwent hemoglobin A1c testing, of which 313 (34%) and 113 (12%) had prediabetes and diabetes, respectively. Persons reached were mostly Latinx (83%), low-income, had not previously been tested for diabetes, and were not engaged in formal health care services. Meaning These results suggest that leveraging community COVID-19 infrastructure and partnerships has the potential to address disparities in diabetes.


A device for shaping the laser radiation. The device has a lens unit for deflecting or imaging or collimation the laser radiations (6) relative to one direction (Y). Another lens unit is provided for deflecting or imaging or collimation the laser radiations relative to another direction (X). The device forms the laser radiation in such a way that the laser radiations are incident into an optical fiber 5. The two lens units are implemented in or at a component (1).


The present invention discloses a method for enhancing corrosion resistance of NdFeB permanent magnets, comprising the steps of: first step: pre-treatment, the NdFeB degreasing, rinsing; Step: Nickel plated metal film layer, NdFeB permanent magnet surface coated with a layer of nickel metal film; the third step: the surface layer of nickel and then plated with a silicon oxide film. Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are: first, the surface of the electroplated nickel layer NdFeB permanent magnet by a vapor deposition and then coated with a layer of processing the silicon dioxide film on the surface of the nickel plating layer can be effectively reducing the porosity of the film, the surface of the coating becomes dense, significantly enhanced the corrosion resistance of NdFeB permanent magnets, while the film thickness of the silica layer is not significantly increased, without affecting its magnetic output, and production of process safety and environmental protection, in line with environmental requirements of the country.


In this note we propose model selection criteria (MSC) for unconditional moment models using empirical likelihood (EL) statistics in the construction of the MSC The use of EL-statistics in lieu of the more common J-statistics leads to a much more transparent interpretation of the MSC by providing a closer analogy with MSC in standard parametric likelihood models and underlying the common likelihood- (or information-) based underlying model selection procedures for bothe parametric as well as semi-parametric models


Background: Bone injury/insult heals by new bone formation a process termed as osteogenesis. When this regenerative process is deficient; healing is disturbed and need for osteoinduction arises. Various methods of osteoinduction in current practice are either extensive or expensive. Bone marrow as a natural source for osteoinduction was first described in the year 1869. Recently there are studies showing the successful osteogenesis using components of bone marrow in specific conditions. The current study aims at evaluating the results of injection of bone marrow aspirate in its natural form without separating its contents, to induce osteogenesis in difficult orthopaedic problems.
Methods: The procedure was carried out in the Operation theatre under sterile precautions. Bone marrow was aspirated from the iliac crest in all cases. A sternal puncture needle was used for aspiration and around 30 ml was injected immediately, directly into the fracture site on a previously placed needle with the help of image intensifier. All these fractures had a fixation device either externally or internally. There was no evidence of infection at the time of injection. Defective non unions were excluded from the study. Radiological assessment for union was done at an interval of 4 to 6 weeks. Number of injections given varied from 2 to 4 and interval between the injections varied from 4 to 6 weeks.
Results: In a total number of 33 cases distributed as follows that is, 27 type 3 B, open tibial diaphyseal fractures with delayed union stabilized by external fixator, 1 closed tibial fracture with nonunion, 1 closed tibial fracture with implant failure, 2 humeral shaft fractures with plate osteosynthesis, 2 fracture shaft femur with internal fixation, all showed progressive callus and union within an average period of 12 to 18 weeks with 2 or 4 bone marrow injections.
Conclusion: We conclude that autologous bone marrow aspirate injection in its natural form is biological, simple, cost effective and reliable procedure, which can be used to induce osteogenesis in difficult orthopaedic problems without the need for any sophisticated technique or set up and gives good results.
Level of the study: Prognostic Studies Level IV- See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence


A field experiment to investigate the bio-organic fertilizer on tobacco quality,economic efficient was carried out in the present work.The results showed that the bio-organic fertilizer might appropriately reduce the thickness of the parietal lobe,harmonized the ratios of sugar to nicotine and nitrogen to nicotine in lower and the next two leaves.The quality of tobacco leaves,especially contents of aroma compounds was improved after the application of the fertilizer,and the total amount of aroma was positively correlated with the bio-organic fertilizer usage.Also,the bio-organic fertilizer treatment significantly elevated the economic efficiency compared with that of the fertilizer-free,and 50% bio-organic fertilizer treatment played a remarkably role in the economic efficiency of middle leaf and lower leaves.


Abstract The overall goal of this report is to improve understanding of public responses to domestic threats. Project 1 focuses on pandemic influenza and dirty bomb threats, aiming to understand the role of emotions in anticipated behavioural responses. Project 2 examines a situation in which people are evacuated from a community to avoid exposure to radioactive fallout from an upwind nuclear explosion. The project aims to understand the factors that affect people's decisions about how long to wait until returning to their homes, given the gradual decline in radiation levels resulting from radioactive decay. First, we present an overview of each problem, by presenting models summarizing scientific knowledge. The resulting models use the logic of influence diagrams (Clemens, 1997; Fischhoff, 2000) with nodes reflecting relevant variables affecting the risk, and mitigating it, and links showing how they are connected. The models differ from traditional risk models, because they include emotional and behavioural components that affect how a risk event unfolds. Project 1 models concern the interplay between emotional and behavioural responses to domestic threats, focusing on fear and anger. The model for project 2 concerns the health, social, and economic factors that may affect people's decisions to return to a community with residual radiation levels that elevate cancer risk. Second, we report on surveys with Canadian and U.S. participants, based on these models. For project 1, we presented participants with scenarios describing the risks and mitigation strategies for pandemic influenza and radiological dispersion devices. We examined the independent relationship of fear and anger with different responses to these scenarios. We found that, independent of anger and trait emotions, fear was related to seeing more risk of morbidity and mortality, and predicting less resilience, more compliance with mitigation strategies, and higher likelihood of being absent from work in case of pandemic influenza. However, anger showed no significant relationship with these variables, after controlling for fear and trait emotions. For project 2, the survey examined people's decisions about how long to stay evacuated before returning to a fallout-contaminated neighbourhood. We found that those decisions were affected by the cancer risk of radioactive fallout, as well as the availability of free housing in the evacuation zone. Although cancer risk was rated as the most important factor affecting these decisions (as was the overall health of participants and their household members),other characteristics of the household, the neighbourhood, and temporary housing were also rated as relatively important.


Foundation pit engineering plays an important role in infrastructure construction, but the collapse of support structure of the foundation pit often occurs. This paper takes the structural importance in the fault tree as the basis of the analytic hierarchy judgment matrix, pointing out that the construction process planning is the most important for the foundation pit engineering. The improved analytic hierarchy process (AHP) helps to reduce subjectivity, which is used to conduct the risk assessment of the collapse of the support structure of the foundation pit. In this way, this paper provides reference for the risk evaluation of the foundation pit engineering.


Abstract NTC thermistors of Y-Al-Mn-Fe-Ni-Cr-O systems were fabricated by using normal ceramic processing for wide temperature range measurement. Pt-Rh alloy as electrodes was inserted into the body during the forming process to increase the reliability of high temperature and to decrease the contact resistance. The properties were analyzed by XRD, SEM and resistance measurement. There are no distinct XRD patterns between Y0.2Al0.1Mn0.27Fe0.16Ni0.27Ox and Y0.2Al0.1Mn0.264Fe0.16 Ni0.264Cr0.012Ox because of too small content of Cr2O3, as a dopant, to make peak difference or new phases within the XRD resolution. SEM images and resistance behaviors show the different properties. With the addition of Cr2O3 as a dopant, the crystallinity and the grain size were decreased and increased, respectively. The resistance behaviors were similar but the values are low with Cr2O3. The specimens show the straight line relationship between the electrical resistivity and the temperature over a wide temperature range, indicating NTC thermistor characteristics.


Absorption and emission anomalies have been investigated for trans-styrylpyridines, dipyridylethylenes, and some other aza-analogues of stilbene-like molecules in aliphatic hydrocarbon solvents at low temperatures. Fluorescence spectra, quantum yields, and lifetimes have been measured at different excitation and emission wavelengths. On cooling, the structured fluorescence spectrum of the monomer is gradually replaced by a new broad red-shifted band which becomes prominent when irradiation is carried out at the red tail of the absorption spectrum. Its intensity decay is multi-exponential and the measured lifetimes depend on both λex and λem, reflecting a continuum of new species of longer lifetime than the monomeric compounds. The extent of these anomalies depends on solvent, concentration, temperature, rate of cooling, and structure of the olefin. The emission spectra of the crystalline azastilbenes differ from the broadband emission which is tentatively assigned to association products with a more or less narrow size distribution.


The study focuses on examining how the total factor productivity (TFP) of China's agriculture-related enterprises is affected by the reform of "County Administrated by Province" (CAP). Using panel data from 1998 to 2013, with a sample size of 292, 423 agriculture-related enterprises, the study investigates the influence of CAP reform on the TFP. The findings reveal a significant dampening effect of the CAP reform on the TFP of agriculture-related enterprises. These results are further supported with a series of robustness tests including placebo test, multidimensional fixed effects test, and clustering of cities or counties. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the CAP reform has significantly restrained the TFP of agriculture-related enterprises in high level cities, while showing no significant impact on cities with lower administrative levels. In the eastern region, the impact of the CAP reform on the TFP of agriculture-related enterprises is significantly negative, whereas it is not statistically significant in the central and western regions. the study on mechanisms elucidates that the inhibitory impact of CAP policy on the TFP of agriculture-related enterprises is enhanced by urban property prices, labor resource allocation, and banking competition. The research conclusion is of significance in guiding the practices of agriculture-related enterprises and deepening the reform of "County Administrated by Province".


The CHORD workshop on: 'Retailing, Shopping and Gender: Historical Approaches' will take place at the University of Wolverhampton on 15 May 2013 The programme, together with abstracts and further information about the venue, can be found at: http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/gender.htm The programme includes: Anneleen Arnout, University of Leuven & University of Antwerp, Belgium, Flaneurs and Grisettes: Shopping in the Galeries Saint-Hubert in nineteenth-century Brussels Justin Bengry, McGill Uni...


In this paper we present the results on the synthesis of nickel-containing particles from solutions of nickel nitrate under the action of a DC glow discharge at atmospheric pressure in air. The interaction of the plasma with the solution leads to the formation of a colloidal suspension in the anode part of the cell, followed by the formation of agglomerates and precipitation to the bottom of the cell. The composition and surface structure of the resulting powders were studied using scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis, X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. According to the results of dynamic light scattering, particles in solution have two characteristic sizes of the order of 73.5 nm and 1.2 μm. Images obtained on a scanning electron microscope showed that the resulting powders have a well-developed granular structure. X-ray phase analysis of the obtained samples showed the presence of clearly defined reflections, which indicate the crystallinity of the structure of the synthesized powder. Decoding showed that it is β-type nickel hydroxide. The elemental composition of the surface obtained using X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy showed the presence of nitrogen in the sample. Therefore, the powders have a complex composition and are a mixture of hydroxide and hydroxonitrate with a ratio of 0.8 Ni(OH)2 : 0.2 Ni(OH)NO3. Thermogravimetric analysis confirms the data obtained using X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy. High-temperature treatment of the obtained powders leads to the formation of β-type nickel oxide. The specific surface area (Ssp) was calculated using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method from the adsorption branch in the range of relative pressures of 0.05–0.20; the total pore volume (Vp) and pore size distribution were calculated from the desorption branch in the range of 0.40–0.99.


During the 1980s local economic policy became an issue of major political concern. The polarisation of the New Right market‐led strategies advanced by the Thatcher governments and the New Left-inspired counter-response, typified by the last years of the GLC, reflected the tenor of national political and economic debates at the time. Arguably, in the 10 years since the abolition of the GLC, local economic development has been devoid (some might say spared) of any "big idea" arising from wider political debates. Recently, however, there have been signs that a new political direction may be emerging at the national level with significant implications for local economic policy. That direction is the notion of stakeholding.


The invention discloses a water-cooled exhaust system of a diesel engine of a heavy transportation vehicle. The system comprises a shell, and a smoke discharge pipe inserted in the shell; one end, serving as a smoke discharge port, of the smoke discharge pipe extends out of the shell; a cavity between the smoke discharge pipe and the shell forms a cooling water way; the shell is provided with a water inlet and a water outlet communicated with the cooling water way; the water inlet is connected with a water inlet pipe; the water inlet pipe is connected with a water tank; and a temperature sensor is arranged in the smoke discharge port.


We compare results from magnetohydrodynamic computations of Io's interaction with the plasma torus with observations from the Galileo flyby. Both conducting and intrinsically magnetized models of In are considered. Both models can reproduce many observed features of the interaction, including a high plasma density, a low plasma temperature, and a significant depression in magnetic field magnitude in Io's wake. The high plasma density in the wake is produced by ion pickup and concomitant slowing of the flow and is not of ionospheric origin. The models also show important quantitative differences with the data. In particular, neither model reproduces large-scale structure on the flanks of the geometric wake. Neither model can be ruled out at the present time, but intrinsically magnetized models most easily match the magnitude of the maximum observed magnetic field depression in the wake. Comparison of results with future Galileo flybys past Io (planned for 1999) may help to clarify whether Io is magnetized.


Introduction
With the introduction of VERT, advanced technologies have become available to support and enhance learning within the academic environment. In Cardiff, staff from the Radiotherapy teaching team have explored ways of utilising this hardware to augment anatomy learning.

The Virtual Classroom
Via an Access Grid, collaborative teaching sessions have been trialled which enable Cardiff to 'sit in' on live interactive anatomy lectures streamed from the University of Chicago.
Screen 1: This displays the anatomical reference images from the core text book.
Screen 2: The virtual space. This is viewed in 3D. This data set produces images of a patient which can be manipulated and rotated in space. Surface and muscles layers can be 'stripped off' to view underlying structures, blood vessels and nerves in detail.
Screen 3: This shows the surgeon delivering the lecture from Chicago and class participants from Chicago and Cardiff.

Having successfully completed several sessions, the next phase will be to invite undergraduate radiotherapy students to evaluate the tutorials in terms of assisting their anatomy learning. Its value as a post graduate teaching / clinical staff CPD activity is also being explored.

Outcome
The main benefits to date of taking part in this project have included the opportunity for academic staff to undertake CPD (the opportunity for facilitated learning with a practising surgeon has been invaluable) and the raised profile of radiotherapy. The main limitation is the international time difference so sessions run in the evening. However, where this may cause problems with motivating students to attend it may prove to be a benefit for clinical staff as attendance would not require time away from departments.


The investors of mutual funds can reduce their selection risk by selecting the mutual funds based on certain criteria. One such criterion could be the educational credentials of fund managers. The present study has examined whether performance of mutual funds could be attributed to differentials in educational credentials of fund managers and thereby can provide necessary signals to investors. The study has compared performance and investment strategy of fund managers having management degree from premier management institutions with others having CA/CFA/ICMA qualification. The results show that the performance between these two groups of fund managers does not differ significantly. However, the difference in performance became significant after controlling for various fund characteristics, such as size, expense ratio, liquidity ratio and flow of funds. This suggests that the relation between fund performance and educational credentials may be moderated by control variables. The results showed that the fund managers with a premier management degree were performing better than the other group and that they also followed a more extreme investment strategy. Further, the study has examined whether the relation between educational credentials of fund managers and performance and investment strategy has been impacted by different time periods of economic cycle. The examination in different sub-periods of economic cycle provided better performance of fund managers with premier management education, particularly during crisis period of economy. This performance differential due to educational credentials during the crisis period have been independent of the investment strategy of fund managers.


The monastic breviary and the English congregation the "Opus Dei" of St Benedict the termination of St Benedict's Hours the capitella additions to the Benedictine Office variations in the daily horarium the medieval monastic Office vespers compline matins lauds prime terce, sext and none the last three days of Holy Week Easter and Pentecost special observances connected with the regular Office manuscripts consulted.


Substring search is a basic operation in all text processing applications. Among many algorithms for this purpose, there are three that are very common, namely Knuth-Morris-Pratt, Boyer-Moore and Rabin-Karp algorithms. All these are applied generally to English (byte-based text). This paper presents the experimental validation of these algorithms when they are applied to Hindi (UTF-8 encoded) text made up from 49000 unique Hindi words.