This study was undertaken to evaluate the influence ofa carbohydrate restricted diet, a subacute ethanol intake, and their combined effect on the kinetics of toluene in humans. Eight healthy male volunteers were exposed by inhalation at four different occasions to 200 mg/m3 2H8-toluene for two hours at a work load of 50W after a one week low (30%) carbohydrate (CH) diet or high (60%) CH diet with ( + EtOH) or without (EtOH) ethanol consumption (47 g ethanol) on the evening before exposure. Deuterium labelled toluene was used to measure the excretion of hippuric acid originating from toluene separately from hippuric acid from other sources. The results indicated that subacute ethanol consumption combined with a carbohydrate restricted diet, may enhance the metabolism of toluene in humans at an exposure concentration of 200 mg/ml. The cumulative amount of hippuric acid excreted in the urine up to 20 hours after the end of exposure in% ofthe net uptake oftoluene was enhanced by 22% (p = 0-05) in the low CH + EtOH compared with the low CH-EtOH experiment. The apparent blood clearance of toluene was 37% higher in the low CH + EtOH than in the low CH-EtOH experiment, but this effect was not statistically significant (p = 0.1). There were no significant changes in the kinetics of toluene as a result of a low carbohydrate diet alone. Neither did subacute ethanol intake without the combination with a carbohydrate restricted diet influence the kinetics of toluene. (Occup Environ Med 1994;51:487-491) Toluene is a solvent commonly used in the paint, plastics, printing, and other chemical industries.' Acute neurotoxic effects of toluene in humans increase in severity from mild headache at relatively low doses (50 ppm) to muscular weakness, nausea, and impaired coordination at higher doses (100 to 200 ppm).2 Reduced perceptual speed and prolonged reaction time occurred at exposure to 300 ppm,3 but not to 80 ppm.4 The main metabolic pathway of toluene is the formation of benzyl alcohol, a reaction primarily catalysed by the microsomal cytochrome P-450 system.5 Further oxidation to benzaldehyde and benzoic acid is catalysed by alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases. Subsequently, the acid is conjugated with glycine and about 80% of the absorbed toluene is excreted in the urine as hippuric acid in humans.56 A small quantity of absorbed toluene (< 1%) is oxidised at the aromatic ring and excreted as oand pcresol in the urine.7-1' Between 7% and 14% of the absorbed toluene is excreted unchanged by exhalation in humans.'2 Many environmental factors, such as alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, medications, exposure to environmental contaminants, and nutrition affect the metabolism of foreign compounds and are therefore likely to alter their toxicity."-3'6 Such factors are important considerations in the risk assessment of compounds used industrially. Nutritional factors are well known to influence the cytochrome P-450 dependent metabolism of many foreign compounds. The effects have primarily been associated with dietary protein (a high (low) protein diet increases (decreases) the enzyme activity).'7 21 This association, however, was obtained from studies where the high (low) protein diets were prepared by decreasing (increasing) the carbohydrate content to make them isocaloric. Later studies showed that a low carbohydrate dietary regimen, irrespective of other nutrients, enhances the metabolism in rat liver of several industrial aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons.2223 Ethanol has both stimulating and inhibiting effects on the metabolism of foreign compounds.24 It suppresses the metabolism during or shortly after ingestion when it coexists with another foreign compound, whereas it stimulates metabolism when it has disappeared from the body.2526 Inhibition of toluene metabolism in humans has been found during standardised short term toluene exposure after acute oral intake of ethanol.27 Chronic ethanol consumption accelerates the metabolism in rat liver of a variety of volatile hydrocabons including toluene.25 Interestingly, the effect disappeared almost completely after one day withdrawal of ethanol, suggesting that only recently ingested ethanol plays a decisive part in stimulating the enzyme activity involved in the metabolism of these hydrocarbons. National Institute of Occupational Health, S-171 84 Solna, Sweden EWHjelm A LUf A Colmsjo B-O Lundmark Department of Environmental Health, Medical University of Yamanashi, Tamaho, Yamanashi 409-38, Japan A Sato Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Regional Hospital, S-901 85, UmeA, Sweden A Norstrom Correspondence to: E Wigaeus Hjelm, Division ofWork and Environmental Physiology, National Institute of Occupational Health, S-171 84 Solna, Sweden. Accepted for publication 5 April 1994 487 group.bmj.com on July 2, 2017 Published by http://oem.bmj.com/ Downloaded from


Conceiving of accounting as a social practice, this study examines the role of accounting practices in facilitating the development process. The period chosen was characterized by political, social, and economic events that would lead to Milan becoming the financial capital of Italy. These events similarly influenced the development of the Monte di Pieta, a type of charitable organization originating in Italy that ultimately, through a law passed in 1898, became the country's first credit institution. The analysis carried out on accounting practices of the Monte di Pieta of Milan shows, in particular, how the functioning of the institute completely changed after the Napoleonic isolation. Furthermore, the considerable attention paid to producing detailed reports induced virtuous behaviour among the members of the organization that was not required by national regulatory provisions. In this sense, accounting was not only an instrument shaped by the context in which it was inserted, but it was also an instrument that shaped company functioning. The Monte, a charitable institution at the time actually functioned as a credit institution, even before legislative intervention. The accounting practices used, well above the legislative obligations, induced virtuous behaviours among the members of the organization. In other words, the Monte's change into a credit institution was not the result of a path originated by legislative provision but rather from the social behaviour of its members, even by the means of accounting practices.


Due to the share nature of wireless medium, interference is the critic factor for the performance improvement in wireless mesh networks. In this paper, we address topology and traffic has the impact on the interference, and even routing, and the interference consists of two parts. One is topology-related interference. Another is traffic-related interference. In IEEE 802.11 based wireless mesh networks, topology-related interference is come from the hidden nodes, and quantified by the number of hidden nodes. Taking information from CTS frames, traffic-related interference is defined and quantified. With the integration of topology and traffic related interference, an interference-aware routing metric and protocol is proposed. In route selection, the proposed routing protocol selects the route with the least interference as the data transmission path. Simulation results show that the proposed routing protocol outperforms the other two protocols in terms of network throughput and end-to-end delay. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v10i4.870


Amygdalin (AMG) is a plant-based agent that has many therapeutic applications. Metabolism of this herbal remedy may cause cytotoxicity in cells.

In this study, the role of rhodanese (RH) enzyme against the cyanide of amygdalin has been
investigated in human and mouse cell lines in vitro

: We analyzed the cytotoxicity, morphologic changes, apoptotic effects, and gene expression alterations resulting from treatment with AMG and AMG combined with RH (AMG-RH) in mouse fibroblasts (L929) and human dermal fibroblasts (HDF) cell lines.

The lowest half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were 87.95±3.63 mg/ml and
80.82±2.13 mg/ml at 72 h in both cell lines. Cell viability of both cell lines was significantly decreased
after AMG treatment; however, it increased following treatment with AMG-RH for 24, 48, and 72 h.
Morphological changes were observed in both cell lines after AMG treatment for 72 h. AMG-RH combination did not cause any significant morphological alterations in either cell line.

The apoptosis rates were increased in both cell lines treated with AMG and decreased in
AMG-RH treatment for 72 h. BAX, CASP-3, BCL-2, and TST genes were upregulated after treatment with
AMG for 72 h in both cell lines. BCL-2 and TST genes were upregulated, while BAX and CASP3 were
downregulated after treatment with AMG-RH for 72 h. The findings of this study indicate the IC50 dose of
AMG could cause cytotoxicity in HDF and L929 cell lines. Furthermore, it was found that the RH enzyme could decrease AMG cytotoxicity and might have a protective role against AMG.


The article aims to analyze two concepts that are extremely important in the media, i.e. "fact" and "interpretation" and their relationship with "truth." Addressing this issue results primarily from the frequent use of the colloquial understanding of these concepts and building, based on them, fragile theories regarding the correct message in the media. To organize the argument, the article is divided into two parts, which are devoted to – based on logical and philosophical research and methodology derived from historical sciences – the analysis of the concept of "fact," and then "interpretation." In addition, these considerations are supplemented with an attempt to show how we can relate to facts and carry out an interpretation to obtain the most adequate reality and communicable message.


We report on synthesis of large-area MoS2 using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Relatively uniform MoS2 are obtained. To fabricate field-effect transistor (FET) devices, MoS2 films are transferred to another SiO2/Si substrate using polystyrene (PS) and patterned using oxygen plasma. In addition, to reduce contact resistance, synthesis of graphene used as channel. Device characteristics are presented and compared with the reported results.


Objective: Hearing impairment and the often concurrent loss of vestibular function, which is rarely assessed in infants, can both impair sensory integration critical to the development of normal motor coordination. This study demonstrates, for the first time, that vestibular function in infants can be noninvasively assessed using vestibular‐evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs). Our intentions were to demonstrate that VEMPs can be reliably recorded from neonates and to compare neonatal VEMPs with those obtained from normal adults.


This paper investigates the issue of designing decentralized control laws to cooperatively command a team of general fully actuated manipulators. The purpose is to synchronize their movements while tracking a common desired trajectory. Based on the well-known consensus algorithm, the control strategy consists in synchronizing the joint position and the velocity of each robot in the network with respect to neighboring robots' joints and velocities. Modeled by an undirected graph, the cooperative robot network requires just local neighbor-to-neighbor information exchange between manipulators. So, it does not assume the existence of an explicit leader in the team. Based above all on combination of Lyapunov direct method and cross-coupling strategy, the proposed decentralized control law is extended to an adaptive synchronization control taking into account parameter uncertainties. To address the time delay problems in the network communication channels, the suggested synchronization control law robustly synchronizes robots to track a given trajectory. To this end, Krasovskii functional method has been used to deal with the delay-dependent stability problem. A real-time software simulator is developed to visualize the robot manipulators coordination.


In the Eastern Amazon, the change in vegetation cover by converting forest areas to pastures affects the diversity of arthropods, and non-conservationist management in these areas can reduce functional diversity, compromising the sustainability of the agroecosystem. Accordingly, the objective of this work was to analyze the composition of the functional groups of the arthropod community associated with the soil under different management regimes in agroecosystems in the Eastern Amazon. For this, the study was carried out in three agroecosystems, namely bean cultivation, cassava cultivation and pasture, and in an area of secondary forest used as a reference. Arthropods were captured by means of fall traps installed in the center of agroecosystems. The captured arthropods were identified at the order and family level and later grouped according to their function. A total of 19,850 individuals were collected and classified into six different functional groups: herbivores, social insects, omnivores, predators, saprophages and xylophages. The arthropods in bean and cassava cultivation agroecosystems were more abundant and diversified in most functional groups. The results revealed that agroecosystems with crop rotation and intercropping, with the incorporation of plant residues and associated with spontaneous plants favored the diversity of functional groups.


Review(s) of: Underwater archaeology: The NAS guide to principles and practice (second edition), by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Chichester, 2008; xiv + 226 pages, 131 illustrations, 52 colour plates; paperback, ISBN 978-1-4051-7591-3, AUD 59.95 (inc. GST).


Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in aircraft soot are capable to distribute in the gas phase and particulate phase in chemical transformations in the atmosphere. The desorption of PAHs from the soot surface is a preliminary step in the study of the reactivity of particulate PAHs. The desorption kinetics of PAHs are measured from soot samples to determine desorption rate constants for different PAHs as a function of temperature and the binding energies between PAHs and soot. The kinetics of degradation of particulate PAHs were studied in the flow reactor. The soot samples previously deposited on a Pyrex tube are introduced into the reactor along its axis and the concentrations of PAHs adsorbed on soot are determined by the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) as a function of the desorption time. The results show a correlation between the size of PAHs and the thermodynamics of desorption: with the PAHs have the same number of carbon atoms, their energies of desorption are very similar and increase with this number. The activation energies EA and the number of carbon atoms in PAHs have a linear correlation. It is consistent with the additivity of the laws Van der Waals. The similarity between the activation energies of desorption of PAHs and the corresponding sublimation enthalpies is consistent with the similarity between the graphitic structure of soot and the structure of PAHs.


Fragment condensations between amino- and carboxyl-components of hydrophobic decapeptides, which have a β-sheet structure in the solid state and are insoluble in DMF, NMP, and DMSO, were examined in a mixture of CH2Cl2 and TFE (4/1, v/v) using various coupling reagents. By the use of DCC and HOBt as coupling reagents, the reaction proceeded smoothly in moderate yield to give eicosapeptides. These have a stable helical structure in the solid state and are easily soluble in a variety of organic solvents. The hydrophobic eicosapeptides obtained were subjected to a successive coupling reaction in CH2Cl2 alone to give helical tetracontapeptides in high yield, which also have high solubility in various organic solvents of low polarity. The solubility of hydrophobic helical peptides presents a solubility feature of helical peptides which are obtained as peptide intermediates in protein synthesis. The synthetic strategy for helical peptides and proteins is discussed in connection with the solubility prediction me...


Chronic Low Back PainA Needs Assessment for Practice Change by Chukwudi O. Oduah MS, Excelsior College, 2013 AS, Excelsior College, 2010 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University December 2017 Abstract There is a practice gap in the self-management education of patients with chronic low back pain. Insufficient self-management leads to increased frequency of flare-ups of low back pain, disability, loss of productivity, and increased cost of health care. The guiding practice-focused question was focused on the unmet self-management support needs of the chronic low back pain patients in a Midwestern state local pain clinic. The purpose of this descriptive cross-sectional study was to ascertain the unmet needs of patients' selfmanagement support by analyzing the results of a patient study performed by this clinic. The theoretical principles of the model for evidence-based practice change, the chronic care model, and the middle-range theory of self-care of chronic illness were used. The evidence included the analysis of the Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care Survey (PACIC) data from 100 patients treated in this pain clinic. The clinic used the PACIC questionnaire to collect data from its 100 chronic low back pain patients, selected by simple random sampling method. The average weighted scores of these patients' responses were below the norm on all PACIC subscales and summary scores. According to study results, this pain clinic did not meet the self-management support needs of its chronic low back pain patients. Evidence-based recommendations were made for the improvement in the medical model of patient care by including nurse-led patient education and support. The positive social change is the improvement in the health status of this growing health population by meeting their identified education and support needs. Positive results from this nurse-led intervention could lead to the dissemination and widespread implementation of these recommendations in other pain clinics.There is a practice gap in the self-management education of patients with chronic low back pain. Insufficient self-management leads to increased frequency of flare-ups of low back pain, disability, loss of productivity, and increased cost of health care. The guiding practice-focused question was focused on the unmet self-management support needs of the chronic low back pain patients in a Midwestern state local pain clinic. The purpose of this descriptive cross-sectional study was to ascertain the unmet needs of patients' selfmanagement support by analyzing the results of a patient study performed by this clinic. The theoretical principles of the model for evidence-based practice change, the chronic care model, and the middle-range theory of self-care of chronic illness were used. The evidence included the analysis of the Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care Survey (PACIC) data from 100 patients treated in this pain clinic. The clinic used the PACIC questionnaire to collect data from its 100 chronic low back pain patients, selected by simple random sampling method. The average weighted scores of these patients' responses were below the norm on all PACIC subscales and summary scores. According to study results, this pain clinic did not meet the self-management support needs of its chronic low back pain patients. Evidence-based recommendations were made for the improvement in the medical model of patient care by including nurse-led patient education and support. The positive social change is the improvement in the health status of this growing health population by meeting their identified education and support needs. Positive results from this nurse-led intervention could lead to the dissemination and widespread implementation of these recommendations in other pain clinics. Chronic Low Back PainA Needs Assessment for Practice Change by Chukwudi O. Oduah MS, Excelsior College, 2013 BS, Excelsior College, 2010 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University December 2017 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents. . Acknowledgments I wish to thank everybody that made this project a success, including all the faculty members at the Walden University and most especially the DNP project mentoring crew, and the team at my practicum site here, in Ohio.


. Architecture specifications such as Armv8-A and RISC-V are the ultimate foundation for software verification and the correctness criteria for hardware verification. They should define the allowed sequential and relaxed-memory concurrency behaviour of programs, but hitherto there has been no integration of full-scale instruction-set architecture (ISA) semantics with axiomatic concurrency models, either in mathematics or in tools. These ISA semantics can be surprisingly large and intricate, e.g. 100k+ lines for Armv8-A. In this paper we present a tool, Isla, for computing the allowed behaviours of concurrent litmus tests with respect to full-scale ISA def-initions, in Sail, and arbitrary axiomatic relaxed-memory concurrency models, in the Cat language. It is based on a generic symbolic engine for Sail ISA specifications, which should be valuable also for other verification tasks. We equip the tool with a web interface to make it widely accessible, and illustrate and evaluate it for Armv8-A and RISC-V. By using full-scale and authoritative ISA semantics, this lets one evaluate litmus tests using arbitrary user instructions with high confidence. Moreover, because these ISA specifications give detailed and validated definitions of the sequential aspects of systems functionality, as used by hypervisors and operating systems, e.g. instruction fetch, exceptions, and address translation, our tool provides a basis for developing concurrency semantics for these. We demonstrate this for the Armv8-A instruction-fetch model and self-modifying code examples of Simner et al.


The construction of today's extremely complex modem electronic devices involves a large number of sequential processing steps, many of which require sub-micron spatial accuracy. A misalignment or error in a processing step resulting in significantly altered device geometry may render part of the device inoperable. In order to characterise the construction and degradation of devices with complex inhomogeneous microstructures, methods of three-dimensional (3D) structural and chemical analysis are becoming increasingly important. At present there are a range of 3D analysis techniques available for determining the morphology of individual device components, each with varying spatial and chemical resolution. The 3D morphology of the gate electrode in a Si-Ge metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors device has been determined by 3D focused ion beam (FIB) tomographic analysis. Sequential two-dimensional FIB sectioning, imaging, and computer reconstruction enables the gate electrode shape and location with respect to the neighbouring source and drain to be determined in 3D.


CITIZENS UNITED V. FEC invalidated a provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act ("BCRA") that prohibited corporations and unions from spending money on "electioneering communication." The decision — which was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, a former lobbyist — was based on an exceedingly narrow definition of political corruption. This Article argues that the Court's definition flies in the face of federal bribery laws, and that it fails to draw a meaningful distinction between corrupt and permissible political action. The Court's poor reasoning is all the more unfortunate since, as this Article also explains, the Citizens United decision appears to be applicable to judicial elections as well.


The "Developmental Village" in China is a natural product when the development of its countryside reaches a ceratin stage,which demonstrates three features:(i) economic development,(ii) the direct combination of economic power with political power,and(iii) the cooperation between the township cadres and the village cadres.Though the developmental villages can play a positive role in economic development,it will disturb the social order in the countryside.A practical approach to removing the dilemma of the developmental villages is to change the guidance by the state government for its economic development.


This article examines the highly specific problems of roof support in coal mines to construct a theoretical framework that describes how texts represent information that is embodied, sensory, and uncertain. As this analysis suggests, workers in risky environments may follow instructions and still fail as situations change. Engineering and management approaches also may fail unless they reflect the kinds of embodied sensory information decision makers need to assess risk in local contexts. This analysis then raises ethical questions about (a) textbook notions of instructions as systematic procedures designed to produce predictable outcomes, (b) limits of particular types of information as signs or indexes of risk, (c) the role of generalized knowledge in uncertain environments, (d) the role of texts in representing knowledge that is sensory and uncertain, and (e) the locus of responsibility for safety if knowledge exists outside of written texts.


This paper aims to establish an efficient national R&D Application Programming Interface (API) management system for national R&D data-driven management and explore the possibility of using operational data according to the recent global data openness and sharing policy. In accordance with the trend of opening and sharing of national R&D data, we plan to improve management efficiency by analyzing operational data of the national R&D API service. For this purpose, we standardized the parameters for the national R&D APIs that were distributed separately by integrating the individual APIs to build a national R&D API management system. The results of this study revealed that the service call traffic of the national R&D API has shown 554.5% growth in the year as compared to the year 2015 when the measurement started. In addition, this paper also evaluations the possibility of using operational data through data preparation, analysis, and prediction based on service operations management data in the actual operation of national R&D integrated API management system.


Two new types of automatic equalizers for telephone lines are discussed. The modular configurations shown are designed for minimum adjustment time and are ready to receive data as soon as the response of the unequalized line has been measured. Two forms of such equalizers are compared with respect to upper bounds on the residual distortion.


This paper analyzes the similarities and differences between those certified standards of FSMS and HACCP from three aspects of terminology、terms and others,introducing the advantages and disadvantages of using these different standard.To sum up,the GB/T 22000-2006~*GB/T 27341-2009 and GB/T 19538-2004 standards are all use HACCP theory and execute steps as the core of the standard,but there arc some diversities and the GB/T 22000 is the most perfect.At the same time,it puts forward some new theories that the GB/T 19538 is the simplest one.


The minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer has better resolution and much better interference rejection capability than the data-independent beamformers. However, the former is more sensitive to errors, such as the steering vector errors caused by direction of arrival mismatch, imprecise array calibration or any other possible factors, especially in the case of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). A new robust MVDR beamformer against the general steering vector errors is proposed in this paper. This method is based on the reconstruction of the covariance matrix which aims to reduce the power of the signal of interest (SOI) in the covariance matrix. The eigenanalysis is used in the process of removing the SOI component and modifying the residual covariance matrix. Simulation results show that the proposed method has excellent signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) performance under the mismatch condition.


Introduction We have investigated the long-term (minimum follow-up period; 10 years) clinical results of the total hip arthroplasty (THA) using K-MAX HS-3 tapered stem. Materials and Methods In K-M...


Nandaihe international amusement centre spot as an example is analyzed in this paper. The paper presents a method based on fuzzy inference and gray forecasting, indexes of tourism environment carrying capacity in scenic spots is established, extract fuzzy rules based on historical data, simulate the situation of tourism environment carrying capacity based on fuzzy inference, gray forecasting model is built for single feature index respectively, and various models are combined in system state formula to forecast, then the forecasting result is used to early-warning with the fuzzy inference model. At last, the method designed is effective. Keywords-Fuzzy Inference; Gray Forecasting; Earlywarning Model; Carrying Capacity


Terahertz communication technology has attracted wide attention from academic circles and industry, and is regarded as the key wireless technology to meet the real-time traffic demand of mobile heterogeneous network system, which can alleviate the capacity bottleneck of the current wireless system and realize ultra-high-speed wireless communication. As a key content of Beam-forming Techniques, indoor channel modeling of terahertz band in NLOS (non-line-of-sight) has become an urgent task. In this paper, according to the position of the receiver and the surrounding scenes, the possible path from the transmitter to the receiver is traced back through geometric optics. The influence of diffraction on the transmission channel of 300GHz indoor communication system is evaluated. Ray tracing technology is combined with knife edge diffraction (KED) and double knife edge (DKE) to simulate the diffraction of wedge-shaped object and human body respectively. The results show that when the wedge-shaped object diffracts, the diffraction coefficient decreases with the increase of the diffraction angle. Diffraction in the wedge area can be ignored in most areas of the room's line of sight, but diffraction power is dominant in the incident boundary and reflection boundary area. Due to the shadow effect caused by human movement, the path attenuation increases significantly. The results provide a research basis for the development of indoor terahertz communication.


Starts with a characterization of all ellipsoidal bounds on the limit sets of static output feedback controlled discrete-time systems with ellipsoidally bounded disturbances. Then, all static output feedback gains that will achieve a certain ellipsoidal bound assignment are parameterized. Finally an example illustrates the application of the proposed approach.


But the hardest problem which the author opens to discussion is the identification of the poor themselves. Almshouses founded in late medieval Cambridge are said to be designed in part for the treatment of an urban problem in a controlled and effective manner' (p.128). But what, precisely, was this problem, and in what sense was it new? The recurrent difficulty, faced here and elsewhere in the book, is that medieval records tend to be more informative about the external administration of welfare institutions than about their inmates. This is underlined by Dr Rubin when, in her account of the Cambridge hospital of St John (which occupies one-third of the book), she tells us (p. 162) that we can know nothing of those whom the hospital assisted. In the absence of better information any conclusion must be tentative; but one line of thought stimulated by this book might question its argument that the earlier-founded institutions (such as St John's hospital) were the more practically organized for the relief of hardship (p. 293 and elsewhere). Late-fifteenthand sixteenth-century almshouses and hostels (sometimes established by guilds, as Dr Rubin shows) were more closely controlled by their lay creators than were the semi-monastic foundations of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The later institutions, though usually small, may have represented a deliberate, practical (if hardly adequate) response to new social problems, particularly in towns, in a period of rapid population growth. The 50 page bibliography reveals the author's impressively wide reading, and also the extent of interest in this subject. Yet Dr Rubin herself would be the first to say that attitudes to the poor, and their changes over time, remain tantalizingly difficult to study. The findings concerning medieval Cambridgeshire presented and discussed here will be a stimulus to future work in this fascinating area. Gervase Rosser Department of Medieval History, University of Birmingham


Despite frequent charges of "hypocrisy in the church, "the subject has been neglected in research on religion. Defined as simulating qualities in a false pretense of being holy or virtuous, hypocrisy is widespread in all domains of life. It has played a significant role in the history ofbigotry, wars, persecution, church-state relationships, and "selective indignation" of Christians accusing other Christians. The Bible and the Koran refer to it often. Jesus strongly condemned it and the projection which name-calling accusations often involve. Its impact is evident in the social and behavioral sciences. Scientific methodology aims to control it. Theoretical analyses can deal with defense mechanisms, the inconsistency of behavior with ideals, motivational analysis, deception, dramaturgical face-work, self presentations, self concepts, labeling, social control, societal sources, extrinsic and intrinsic commitment, and its social functions and dysfunctions, to mention only a few potential approaches. Triangulation of disciplines, methods, researchers, theories, and value orientations is desirable in the scholarly and applied investigation of hypocrisy and related topics.


In this paper, several basic issues are discussed regarding tendon redundancy and joint stiffness adjustability for a robotic mechanism driven with redundant tendons. After briefly discussing tendon- controllability, the authors define local maximum sets of tendons that are redundant simultaneously (local maximum redundant tendon sets) and obtain an irreducible description of a redundant tendon in terms of the others. The authors obtain conditions under which the joint stiffness is adjustable using the tendons' nonlinear elasticity.


This paper deals with one-dimensional (commutative) rings without nilpotent elements such that every ideal is generated by three elements. It is shown that in such rings the square of every ideal is invertible, i.e. divides its multiplier ring. In addition, every ideal is distinguished, in the sense that on localization at any maximal ideal it becomes either principal or dual to a principal ideal. Conversely, if a one-dimensional ring without nilpotent elements satisfies either of these conditions, and if all its residue class fields are 2-perfect and contain at least three elements, then every ideal can be generated by three elements.Bibliography: 18 titles.


In 1998, in coincidence with high sea surface temperatures, Maldivian reef corals were severely affected by mass mortality following bleaching. Tabular Acropora corals, formerly abundant in shallow water, were nearly exterminated. Recovery started soon, and in 2004 Maldivian reefs appeared rich in tabular Acropora colonies again, especially at some sites. This study aimed at determining the degree of spatial variability of tabular Acropora abundance and size among reef typologies (ocean versus lagoon reefs) and depth zones (4–6, 10–12 and 16–18 m) 6 years after the mass mortality event. A total of 192 tabular Acropora colonies (Ø > 16 cm) were counted and measured in six sites. Their abundance differed between reef typologies and according to depth zones, with the highest values in deep lagoon reefs. Colony mean size differed only among depth zones, the largest colonies (up to 105 cm) being found in shallow reefs. Assuming a radial extension rate of 10 cm · yr−1, colonies larger than 65 cm can be interpreted as the survivors of the mass mortality of 1998; conversely, they may represent the result of enhanced growth rates in uncrowded situations as those characterizing the coral reefs of the Maldives in 2004.


The article proposes a plan for exploring the processes of women's health-illness-care in peasant communities in Puna jujena, in northern Argentina. The phase in question runs from the early 1990s to the present time, a period concurrent with a deepening of the socioeconomic crisis that has impacted all spheres, including healthcare. One way of approaching the issues affecting this population is to analyze female morbimortality as related to reproductive concerns and to ascertain the socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, gender, and other factors involved in morbid processes and their development. Data was collected by verbal autopsy, a qualitative method that allows us to reconstruct processes preceding death, in the eyes of the closest family members. This study is part of doctoral research being undertaken in Agrarian Social Studies at the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Argentina.


A phantom is developed to replicate the spatial distribution of optical and acoustic breast properties. Blood-carrying channels, with ability to tune oxygenation, make the phantom suited for investigating the capability to extract oxygen saturation.


[1] The in situ data in the Deepwater Navigation Channel (DNC), Yangtze River Estuary (YRE), China, in the dry season 2009, shows spring tides associated with greater maximum velocities, more mixing, less stratification, and diffused fluid mud; whereas neap tides are associated with smaller maximum velocities, greater stratification, inhibited mixing, and stratified fluid muds. The balance of salt flux indicates the seaward salt transport is dominated by fluvial flows, and the landward salt transport is generated by compensation flows during spring tides, but shear effects during neap tidal cycles. The balance of suspended sediment flux illustrates the offshore sediment transport is dominated by fluvial flows as well, but the onshore transport is induced by tidal-pumping effects on spring tides, and shear effects on neaps. The suspended sediment transport is strongly affected by the salinity distribution and salinity-gradient-induced stratification in the DNC. The spring-neap asymmetry is generated by the estuarine gravitational circulation during low-flow conditions; while the flood-ebb asymmetric stratification within a tidal cycle is due to the semidiurnal tidally movement of the salt front.


mammoth, complex organization—is riven up and down by bureaucratic politics; . . . Soviet policies and lack of policies, foreign as well as domestic, mirror the clashes and compromises, antagonisms and alliances, of powerful bureaucratic agencies and their representatives" (p. 17). On the lower level, this is manifested by "a local conflict in which industrial interests have been as influential or even more influential than urban Party officials" (p. 5), to the extent that he concludes, "On urban and environmental issues the much-maligned Party apparatchik is indeed needed to rein in recalcitrant managerial specialists. Yet ironically the supposedly powerful Party secretaries are not powerful enough to dictate to influential industries whose activities adversely affect the pattern of urban development" (p. 7) . In developing his thesis the author provides new information on Soviet local politics and administration, especially on the changing role and importance of the city within the Soviet territorial-administrative hierarchy. Though at times he appears to overstate his case against the "totalitarian model," his focus on bureaucratic politics at the local level—particularly in Soviet "company towns"—is refreshing and worth pursuing. The book whets the reader's appetite for a more substantial treatment of the many issues and themes discussed, particularly those dealing with the participation of the party in local decision-making. The latter, however, are not examined in enough depth and detail to justify some of the author's statements about the surprising strength of urban industrial managers vis-a-vis party apparatchiki. Can the data be found for a more solid evaluation of this fundamental relationship? Probably not, though one hopes that other scholars, following the author's lead, will make the attempt.


This study evaluates the power harnessing performance of a two-directional inertial pendulum energy harvester for miniature underwater mooring platforms (UMPs). This novel harvester can achieve a dominant rotational motion under different parametrical excitations. The two-directional energy harvesting performance is investigated through vibration platform experiments over roll-pitch coupling excitations. The frequency ratio between the pitch and roll motion is about 2 to 1, the roll excitation frequency is over the range of 0.2–0.3 Hz, and the pitch amplitude is much lower than the roll amplitude. Experimental results indicate that the inclination configuration of the harvester can improve two-directional energy harvesting performance significantly with low-frequency vibration. Geometrical tunability through adjusting inclination configuration for the harvester can enhance the two-directional energy harvesting apparently. Four prominent phenomena of the two-directional energy harvesting performance are observed with the increasing load resistance. The motion state transformation of the inertial pendulum can result in dramatical jumps or drops in two-directional energy harvesting.


This paper attempts to study Medicinal plants ; defined as the plants that possess therapeutic properties or exert beneficial pharmacological effect on the human or animal body The ancient tradition of taking parts of a plant or preparing plant extracts for treating certain discomforts and maladies has long been lacking a scientific rationale to support its preparation and still widespread use in several parts of the world. A mechanistic hypothesis is generated when a metabolite is known to be present in a given plant, that plant is known to be used to treat a certain disease, that disease is known to be linked to the function of a given protein, and that protein is finally known or predicted to interact with the original metabolite. The construction of plant–protein networks from mutually connected metabolites and diseases facilitated the identification of plausible mechanisms of action for plants being used to treat analgesia, hypercholesterolemia, diarrhea, catarrh, and cough. Pharmacopoeial methods focus on authentication and quality of herbal materials; however, metabolomics allow us to go a step beyond authentication and look in more detail at a broad range of secondary metabolites. By coupling analytical data to multivariate software, this allows us to develop statistical models to firstly differentiate between species but also to get a better idea of a typical metabolite composition for a particular species. The advantage of this is that it can help to inform any laboratory test or clinical intervention. There has been great emphasis on making sure that any experiment or intervention uses plant material that is authenticated, with a herbarium specimen deposited. This is where metabolomics can provide essential information—by collecting a wide range of samples from different geographical locations, altitudes, growing conditions, it allows us to map their metabolite differences and highlight how diverse or how similar metabolite composition is. When an experiment is performed, we have the choice to use a specimen that may be typical, i.e., contains an average composition or we can look at compositions that are atypical, containing greater amounts of specific metabolites or even different metabolites. Moreover, if a particular experiment produces positive results and we want to reproduce the data, a metabolomic model allows us to choose species that have a similar composition. Additional concrete examples using both experimentally known and computationally predicted, and subsequently experimentally confirmed, metabolite–protein interactions to close the connection circle between metabolites, plants, diseases, and proteins offered further proof of concept for the validity and scope of the approach to generate mode of action hypotheses for some of the therapeutic uses of remedial herbs.


Trust is an inevitable form which has become a pure significance towards the pillars of a democratic community. The nature and effects of trust in social and political institutions have been studied distinguishing between various levels of trust. Political trust is one of the key principle indicators that measure the depth of citizens' belief in the political system. Levels of trust relate to the stability of democracy for which political system needs to establish in order to foster political participation of the electorates. Perhaps democracies function more effectively when citizens support key institutions. The main purpose of this paper is to test different category of trust in the political institution/agents and examine voter's level of political trust to assess the overall health of democratic system. The present study is conducted in five assembly constituencies of Mokokchung District in Nagaland covering fifteen polling stations. The studies found out that majority of the respondents are highly confident with the performance of the non-governmental entities.


Objective To describe the Reverdin technique for treatment of hallux valgus (HV) based on correction of proximal articular set angle (PASA). Methods Thirty-one Reverdin osteotomies (in 31 feet of 17 female patients)were performed between 1992 and 1998. Reverdin operation is unique among the surgical procedures for its ability to correct large PASA with a medial wedge-type osteotomy of the metatarsal head. Results On the follow-up of 1 to 8 years, patients rated outcomes as excellent or good in 96% (30 feet). There was no complication of delayed union or avascular necrosis of the metatarsal head. Radiographical follow-up: PASA averaged 19 degrees(range 30-12 degrees), had a postoperative averaged value of 1.95 degrees, HV angles averaged 30 degrees(range 41-23 degrees), had a postoperative value of 14.3 degrees. Intermetatarsal angles averaged 10.9 degrees (range 16-4 degrees), had a postoperative value of 5.8 degrees. Conclusion The preoperative PASA value is the most important factor in hallux valgus evaluation, as well as the selection of operative techniques. The normalization of PASA safegurds more successes and less recurrences.


Diesel fuel-, gasoline-, and heating oil-range materials prepared from coal, shale, and petroleum are found to exhibit similar toxicological properties in studies to date. Benzo(a)pyrene content, the weight distribution of bioactive chemical fractions, bacterial mutagenicity, and skin tumorigenicity are found comparable for several refined products. 15 references, 3 tables.


Significance The excitatory amino acid transporter 2 (EAAT2) is the predominant glutamate transporter in the mammalian brain, and its expression is reduced in aging and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains. The mechanisms through which reduced EAAT2 expression contributes to cognitive decline and AD-related neurodegeneration and the differential functional roles of its astrocytic and neuronal components remain largely unknown. This study uses behavioral analysis to show that astrocytic and neuronal EAAT2 deficiency in mice causes age-dependent cognitive dysfunction. Furthermore, we show that gene expression from human AD and aging datasets have a robust overlap with astrocytic EAAT2 deficiency. This study highlights the distinct signaling mechanisms mediated by neuronal and astrocytic EAAT2 and EAAT2 as a potential therapeutic target in aging and AD. The excitatory amino acid transporter 2 (EAAT2) is the major glutamate transporter in the brain expressed predominantly in astrocytes and at low levels in neurons and axonal terminals. EAAT2 expression is reduced in aging and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients' brains. The role EAAT2 plays in cognitive aging and its associated mechanisms remains largely unknown. Here, we show that conditional deletion of astrocytic and neuronal EAAT2 results in age-related cognitive deficits. Astrocytic, but not neuronal EAAT2, deletion leads to early deficits in short-term memory and in spatial reference learning and long-term memory. Neuronal EAAT2 loss results in late-onset spatial reference long-term memory deficit. Neuronal EAAT2 deletion leads to dysregulation of the kynurenine pathway, and astrocytic EAAT2 deficiency results in dysfunction of innate and adaptive immune pathways, which correlate with cognitive decline. Astrocytic EAAT2 deficiency also shows transcriptomic overlaps with human aging and AD. Overall, the present study shows that in addition to the widely recognized astrocytic EAAT2, neuronal EAAT2 plays a role in hippocampus-dependent memory. Furthermore, the gene expression profiles associated with astrocytic and neuronal EAAT2 deletion are substantially different, with the former associated with inflammation and synaptic function similar to changes observed in human AD and gene expression changes associated with inflammation similar to the aging human brain.


The interest in the sacred problem, clearly felt throughout the centuries, was caused by those socio-historical processes called social disasters, which raised the question of the very possibility of the existence of modern man. In the modern century, the process of destroying the fundamental foundations of traditional life, the growth of an ever-deeper feeling of losing a person's sense of stable, guaranteed being, became clearly apparent. Similar processes took place in Kazakhstan, in the history of which, over the centuries, the events of the beginning and the end of the century are surprisingly synchronized when it comes to their impact. The essence of these events was a sharp demolition of the integrity of the way of life and the transition to new foundations of being. The relevance of our study is determined, on the one hand, by the realities of the modern state of society, the intensity of experiencing the deep needs of its development, and, on the other, by the state and logic of the development of historical, cultural, philosophical and religious knowledge. As for the first aspect, it is determined, firstly, by the systemic crisis experienced by civilization, the essential feature of which is the destruction of the fundamental foundations of traditional life, the growing sensation of loss of the person's lasting guaranteed existence. This caused the rapid development of new anthropological concepts that seek to comprehend the "position of man in space," the main ways of its constitution, and the main directions of socio-cultural determination. Secondly, the complexity of the transitional processes of the modern world, the dramatic tension in the atmosphere of spiritual life. The essence of this period is rooted in a radical and fast-paced change of the whole lifestyle.


The quantitative descriptive analysis(QDA)method was used to assess the qualitative and quantitative quality of the wines,which were made from ordinary grapes or frozen grapes.The principle and application of QDA method were also studied.After QDA analysis,the results showed that the sensory characteristics of frozen wine,including color,lasting,aromatic,transparency and aroma,were better than those of the ordinary wine.


The application of partial nitritation-anammox (PN/A) under mainstream conditions can enable substantial cost savings at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), but how process conditions and cell physiology affect anammox performance at psychrophilic temperatures below 15 °C remains poorly understood. We tested 14 anammox communities, including 8 from globally-installed PN/A processes, for (i) specific activity at 10-30 °C (batch assays), (ii) composition of membrane lipids (U-HPLC-HRMS/MS), and (iii) microbial community structure (16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing). Crucially, the key parameters impacting anammox activity were the membrane lipid composition and cultivation temperature. The size of ladderane lipids and the content of bacteriohopanoids were key physiological drivers of anammox performance at low temperatures. Higher contents of (i) short C18 [3]-ladderane alkyl and (ii) large phosphatidylcholine headgroup were determined in anammox more active at 15-30 °C and 10-15 °C, respectively. At below 15 °C, the activation energies of most mesophilic cultures severely increased while those of the psychrophilic cultures remained stable; this indicates that the adaptation of mesophilic cultures to psychrophilic regime necessitates months, but in some cases can take up to 5 years. Interestingly, biomass enriched in the marine genus "Candidatus Scalindua" displayed exceptionally highest activity at 10-20 °C (0.50 kg-N.kg-VSS−1.d−1 at 10 °C, Ea10-30 °C = 51±16 kJ.mol−1), indicating outstanding potential for nitrogen removal from cold streams. Collectively, our comprehensive study provides essential knowledge of cold adaptation mechanism, will enable more accurate modelling and suggests highly promising target anammox genera for inoculation and set-up of anammox reactors, in particular for mainstream WWTPs. Highlights Ladderane size and cold exposure affected anammox activation energy (Ea). Ea improved with more C18 [3]-ladderanes over C20 and larger polar headgroup. Long-term cold exposure reduced Ea at 10-15 °C, not activity per se. Marine "Ca. Scalindua" was exceptionally suitable for cold streams. Anammox Ea at 15-30 °C was 79±18 kJ.mol−1. Graphical abstract


A better knowledge of soil erosion by water is essential for planning effective soil and water conservation practices in semi‐arid Mediterranean environments. The special climatic and hydrological characteristics of these areas, however, make accurate soil loss predictions difficult, particularly in the absence of minimal data. Two zero‐order experimental microcatchments (328–759 m2), representative of an extensive semi‐arid watershed with a high potential erosion risk in the south‐east of Spain, were selected and monitored for 3 years (1991–93) in order to provide information on the hydrological and erosional response. A pluviogram and hydrograph recorded data at 1‐min intervals during each storm, after which the soil loss was collected and the particle size of the sediment was analysed. Runoff coefficients of about 9% and soil losses of between 84·83 and 298·9 g m−2 year−1 were observed in the area. Rapid response times (geometric mean values lower than 2 h) and low runoff thresholds (mean values between 3·5 to 5·9 mm) were the norm in the experimental areas. A rain intensity of over 15 mm h−1 was considered as 'erosive rainfall' in these areas because of the total soil loss and the transport capacity of the overland flow. Differences in pore‐size distribution explained the different hydrological responses observed between areas. The erosional response was more complex and basically seemed to be determined by soil aggregate stability and topographical properties. A greater proportion of finer particles in the eroded material than in the soil matrix indicated selective erosion and the transport of finer material. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Purpose. Study of the effect of sodium phosphate additives on the properties of a reversible sand-clay mixture in the green and dry state to improve the quality of castings from iron-carbon and aluminum alloys.
Research methods. A reversible molding mixture based on quartz sand and kaolin clay was used. The effect of three additives (sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium pyrophosphate) in amounts from 0.5 to 2.0% was studied. Properties of mixture were determined using standard methods: clay component content, strength, gas permeability, crumbleness, flowability, formability, packing.
Results. Effective additives have been studied to ensure the possibility of multiple use of reversible molding sand-clay mixtures. Special attention is paid to the regulation of the properties of the mixture in the dry state, since this issue has been much less researched today. For this purpose, sodium phosphates, which are produced by the chemical industry in sufficient quantities, were used for the first time. As materials that affect the properties of the mixture as a whole, they have not been considered before.
Scientific novelty. For the first time, the positive effect of sodium phosphate additives on the physical and mechanical properties such as strength and crumbleness of reversible sand-clay mixtures was established. This effect is manifested in the fact that additives contribute to a slight improvement of properties of the green mixture and a very significant improvement of these properties of the dry mixture. There is practically no effect on important technological properties (flowability, formability, packing).
Practical value. Based on the results of the experiments, it is recommended to use sodium tripolyphosphate or hexametaphosphate additives in the amount of 0.5 to 1.0 % to significantly improve the properties of dry sand-clay foundry molds. The use of these additives eliminates the appearance of surface defects in cast parts from aluminum and iron-carbon alloys.


: After many years of being touted as success, the foreign direct investment (FDI)-oriented development model of East-Central Europe (ECE) has recently come under fire. The controversy is closely linked to discussions on the effects of EU integration for the development of poorer Eastern member states. Our paper contributes to these debates by investigating the neglected relationship between FDI and EU funds, where EU funds are used as investment incentives for FDI. The interaction between them is problematic, as these two types of external funds have fundamentally different purposes. Whereas FDI is driven by market logic, the EU funds are supposed to correct market inequalities and failures. However, we argue that, due to a combination of the ECE's structural dependence on foreign capital and design of funding allocation mechanisms, the EU funds may in fact amplify the existing market inequalities. To examine whether the EU funds to the private sector in ECE are market correcting or market amplifying, we analyse allocation of EU funds to the automotive industry in Poland and Romania in the 2007-13 programming period. We find some evidence for the market-correcting effects, in that foreign multinationals receive a smaller portion of these funds, relative to their share of employment and output of the sector, and that there is no bias towards foreign companies once we control for other firm characteristics. However, we also find that due to the peculiarities of the industry, where ownership, size, and productivity strongly overlap, a very large portion of EU funds —one half to three quarters—is nevertheless spent on subsidies to multinationals. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of these funds support routine capital investments instead of promoting innovative projects. We thus confirm the existence of a perverse mechanism in the distribution of EU funds in ECE, whereby the least developed regions of Europe spend the EU's development monies to support some of the richest firms in the world. We conclude that using EU funds as investment incentives to foreign enterprises is wasteful and may reinforce the negative developmental consequences of the dependent market economies. Abstract: In the concept of the aesthetic formation of knowledge and its as soon as possible and success-oriented application, insights and profits without the reference to the arguments developed around 1900. The main investigation also includes the period between the entry into force and the presentation in its current version. Their function as part of the literary portrayal and narrative technique. period The main investigation also includes the period between the entry into force and the presentation in its current version. Their function as part of the literary portrayal and technique.


thorough book. The answer to such a question lies in Barrett's attempt to show how Wittgenstein's views on religious belief 'can be reconciled with Christian doctrine' (p. 95). And this really is the crux of the matter: Wittgenstein is, for Barrett, a figure who can with but a little effort be located in the history of Christian thought. Certainly, Barrett has shown that elements of Wittgenstein's thinking can indeed be so placed. The question remains, though, as to how exhaustive and satisfactory this interpretation is. Indeed, one might feel that such a thoroughgoing ' Christianization' of Wittgenstein is insensitive to many of his comments: for example, both his statement about the ejaculating Horus related by Drury, and the nearenthralled treatment of human sacrifice, reveal, not specifically Christian insights, but, rather, a sense of what David Sachs calls 'natural piety'. So whereas Barrett is helpful in expounding much of what Wittgenstein wrote about religion and ethics, it is this sense of natural religious expression, and an articulation of the very strangeness of human life, which is so central to Wittgenstein's reflections on religion, that is largely, and conspicuously, missing from this book.


In order to improve the carrying capacities of hydraulic coupling,autofrettage is adopted in the outer sleeves.Based on the nonlinear FEA software ANSYS,two FEA simulated calculating methods were adopted in the autofrettage and fit tolerance assembling.Element birth-death method and heating-cooling method were proposed to solve the complicated nonlinear problems in the autofrettage and fit tolerance assembling.Considering the FEA calculation,referred in GJB3271-98,on plain strain and spatial axisymmetric condition in Φ 170 hydraulic coupling and analyzing the influence of different autofrettage pressure on the fit tolerance and contact pressure,the real stress distribution in coupling was obtained.The results indicate that the hydraulic coupling with autofrettaged outer sleeves greatly improves its carrying capacities and the two FEA methods are effective.


Autonomous Vehicles have long leveraged Artilicial Intelligence to be capable of self-driving without the need for a human supervisor. To achieve self-driving autonomy, various sensors are installed onboard the vehicle in order to be able to perceive information from its surroundings. However, since autonomous vehicles' capabilities rely heavily on sensor readings, various challenges arise in terms of security and privacy. Thus, it is of the essence to design methodologies able to detect anomalies caused by malicious threat actors or sensor malfunctions. This paper proposes an anomaly detection algorithm for autonomous vehicle camera sensors. By utilizing Recurrent Neural Networks in combination with Convolution operations, it is possible to obtain a sequence of images and reconstruct the next frame in real-time. By leveraging image similarity techniques such as Mean Squared Error and Structural Similarity Index, it is possible to compare the ground truth with the predicted image and draw conclusions about whether an anomaly is present. The experiments in real datasets captured from autonomous vehicles within the European-funded nIoVe project highlighted that the proposed framework is able to detect anomalies and malfunctions with high accuracy, clearly indicating the necessity of such algorithms to enhance the security of autonomous vehicles.


Water analysis revealed high levels of sulfate and nitrate together with significant nitrite. The community structure showed a high proportion of novel phylotypes as well a high abundance of Nitrospira relatives. The unusual community, the nitrite in the water, and the apparent absence of aquatic macrofauna, means these microbial structures may represent biochemically novel, chemoautotrophic communities dependent on nitrite oxidation.


THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF HERITAGE IN THE PROVINCES OF BUENOS AIRES, LA PAMPA, AND RIO NEGRO: OLD PROBLEMS AND NEW PERSPECTIVES. The provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa and Rio Negro have changed their heritage laws after the return of democracy, following a common trend across the country. However, these rules do not conform to national legislation because they were enacted before National Law 25.743 and, in the case of Buenos Aires province, the provincial law was passed prior to the reform of the National and Provincial Constitutions. In this context, the aim of this paper is to carry out a comparative study of the heritage laws in these three provinces in relation to the new national legislation and to the new perspectives applied to the protection of cultural heritage at an international level. Beyond the significant differences between the laws under study, they share a scientific and traditional view of heritage, irrespective of its social and cultural context. The adoption of a comprehensive and holistic view of heritage that includes the landscape as a unit of protection, and the inclusion of new stakeholders in their management and the public, as the recipient and participant in its preservation, are proposed as strategies to overcome the above mentioned weaknesses.


• Protocol 1—New Needle: A new needle and syringe were used for each pig. • Protocol 2—Rinse: A single needle and syringe were used to bleed all pigs consecutively. The needle and syringe were left intact and rinsed once between the collections from each pig. The needle and syringe were rinsed by drawing 6 mL of distilled water from a total volume of 80 mL into the syringe and then ejecting the water into the manure pit. • Protocol 3—No Rinse: A single needle and syringe were used to bleed all pigs. The needle and syringe were not rinsed between the collections from each pig. Sera were submitted to an American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians-certified state diagnostic laboratory for PRV serum neutralization (SN) screening titers and G1 Particle Concentration Fluorescence Immunoassay (G1 PCFIA) tests. Samples from individual pigs in the New Needle protocol were divided into five aliquots prior to submission to evaluate the variability of the diagnostic tests. D I g i P ) s t o u q i l a 5 ( e g n i r y s d n a e l d e e N w e N e s n i R e s n i r o N 1 4 6 : 1 8 2 1 : 1 8 2 1 : 1 4 6 : 1 4 6 : 1 4 6 : 1 4 6 : 1 2 8 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 3 8 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 2 : 1 6 1 : 1 4 8 : 1 6 1 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 2 : 1 8 : 1 5 8 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 6 1 : 1 8 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 8 : 1 8 : 1 6 1 : 1 7 2 3 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 2 3 : 1 2 3 : 1 2 3 : 1 8 2 3 : 1 2 3 : 1 2 3 : 1 2 3 : 1 2 3 : 1 4 6 : 1 2 3 : 1 9 4 6 : 1 4 6 : 1 8 2 1 : 1 4 6 : 1 4 6 : 1 4 6 : 1 4 6 : 1 0 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 6 1 : 1 Table 1


A laboratory scale fine particles-gas conveyed system was utilized to measure the hydrogen reduction rates of liquid wustite containing gangue such as 14.5 mol%CaO, 18.2 mol%SiO2, or 5.15 mol%A2O3 at 1773 K. The N2-H2 mixture having various flow rates and compositions was flowed downward through a cylindrical reactor maintained isothermally and a batch of spherical wustite particles (mean dia.; 58 μm) was concurrently fed into the reactor at a small constant rate and reduced in a hot zone. The reduction process was found to proceed in such a manner that a single metallic iron sphere was formed in the center of a wustite droplet. Rate analysis was made according to one dimensional mass balance equations for particles and gas in an isothermal steady moving bed. Under relatively small reducing potentials, it was concluded that the major fraction of overall reaction resistance is attributable to chemical reaction. The obtained chemical reaction parameters were found to be two orders of magnitudes larger than those in previous CO reduction. CaO raised the parameter, SiO2 lowered it, and Al2O3 did not affect it, relative to gangue-free one. Under higher reducing potentials, the reduction process was estimated to include an appreciable diffusion resistance in the liquid particle.


Assemblies of dust particles suspended in the plasma sheath often show high kinetic temperatures, which can range from 430 K in a two-particle system [1] to ≈ 3000 K in clusters [2], or even to tens of electron volts in bilayers [3]. In all these cases, the neutral gas was at room temperature. Such extreme temperatures were ascribed to collective instabilities that invoke ion wake fields [3]. A moderate temperature increase of the order of 100 K was predicted to arise from charge fluctuations [4], which were estimated for a quasineutral plasma environment without ion flow. We now approach this problem by studying the Brownian motion of a single dust particle, which excludes the influence of collective effects. In this contribution we first analyse the random motion of a particle trapped in a three-dimensional trapping potential by means of Langevin dynamics simulations. These results are compared with the OrnsteinUhlenbeck model [5]. Then we discuss the present understanding of the equilibrium charge and charge fluctuations in the presence of ion drift and collisions. On this basis, we extend the Langevin-dynamics simulations by including stochastic forces from charge fluctuations. The model calculations are compared with experimental results that are presented in a companion paper [6]. These investigations were supported by DFG within SFB TR-24 and by DLR under contract 50WM1139.


The results of small scale experimental measurements of the behavior of soil stressed with high electric fields in geometries designed to allow measurement of either the current distribution along the center conductor or the voltage along a growing streamer are reported. Data are obtained which are important for development of streamer initiation and propagation models.


Two distinct approaches are possible in the area of computer-aided drug design. If the molecular structure of the target macromolecule is known, the methods are obvious and direct and have achieved a high level of sophistication. That area may be extended by using computational techniques to predict protein structure as illustrated here by the interleukin-4 receptor. When the only lead is a set of known active compounds or knowledge of a biochemical transformation which is to be interrupted, then the path is less direct. Currently favored tactics include the use of molecular similarity methods and the employment of neural networks. Recent advances include the prediction of the relative potency of different chiral forms of drugs.


The switching characteristics of a trench-type 4H-SiC insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) device with interface defects are analyzed up to the nonquasi-static (NQS) switching regime using reported interface density measurements and device simulation. Collector current degradation characterized by threshold voltage shift to higher gate voltages and reduction of current magnitude due to carrier trapping are observed under quasi-static (QS) simulation condition. At slow switching of the gate voltage, carrier trapping causes a hump in the transient current at the start of conduction. At very fast switching, the current hump is limited by the NQS effect which results to a reduced switching efficiency and increased on-resistance.


Breast cancer (BC) is the world's most prevalent cancer in female population, with 2.3 million new cases diagnosed worldwide in 2020. The great efforts made to set screening campaigns, early detection programs, and increasingly targeted treatments led to a significant improvement in patients' survival. Full-Field Digital Mammograph (FFDM) is considered the gold standard method for the early diagnosis of BC. From several previous studies it has emerged that breast density (BD) is a risk factor in the development of BC, affecting the periodicity of screening plans present today at an international level. In this study, the focus is the development of mammographic image processing techniques that allows the extraction of indicators derived from textural patterns of the mammary parenchyma indicative of BD risk factor. Different Machine Learning (ML) techniques have been employed to classify breasts based on the values of the tissue density. Textural features were extracted only from breast parenchyma with which to train classifiers thanks to aid of ML algorithms. The preliminary results are in line with those obtained in the literature, reaching an accuracy of 93.55% for a binary classification between dense and no-dense tissues.


Abstract This study was an initiative to investigate the extent to which synthesizing Transformative Education (TE) with Dynamic Assessment (DA) can contribute to developing EFL learners' productive skills; speaking and writing. To do so, 105 Iranian university students majoring in English language were randomly assigned into four different classes, as control and experimental groups. The control groups were instructed based on pure TE-oriented approach, whereas the experimental groups were instructed based on the integration of TE with DA. Given the nature of the research questions, only the speaking and writing post-tests' data meeting the required normality assumptions were analyzed based on parametric statistical approach (i.e. Independent Samples t-tests). The analyses revealed a significant difference between control and experimental groups in terms of both speaking and writing performances. So, TE integrated with DA is suggested as an innovative trend in foreign language education. The main implication might be for the practices in higher education to incorporate classroom activities such as critical thinking and class projects in their instructional delivery so that students would have the chance to participate in the teaching-learning process.


We review a characterization of domination perfect graphs in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs obtained by Zverovich and Zverovich [12] using a computer code. Then we apply it to a problem of unique domination in graphs recently proposed by Fischermann and Volkmann. 1 Domination perfect graphs Let G be a graph. A set D ⊆ V (G) is a dominating set of G if each vertex of G either belongs to D or it is adjacent to a vertex of D. A set S ⊆ V (G) is stable [or independent] if it induces an edgeless subgraph G(S). An independent dominating set is vertex subset that is both stable and dominating, or equivalently, is maximal stable. The domination number γ(G) is the minimum cardinality taken over all dominating sets of G, and the independent domination number ι(G) is the minimum cardinality taken over all maximal stable sets of vertices of G. Let X ⊆ V (G). For a vertex x ∈ X, the set PN(x,X) = N [x]\N [X\{x}] is called the private neighborhood of x [with respect to X]. A dominating set of a graph G is minimal if it does not contain another dominating set of G. It is wellknown and easy to see that a dominating set D is minimal if and only if PN(x,D) 6= ∅ for each x ∈ D [Berge's lemma]. Definition 1 (Sumner and Moore [8]). A graph G is called domination perfect or γ-perfect if γ(H) = ι(H) for every induced subgraph H of G. A graph G is called minimal domination imperfect if G is not domination perfect and γ(H) = ι(H) for every proper induced subgraph H of G. We shortly describe a history of the forbidden induced subgraph characterization of domination perfect graphs [12]. First Allan and Laskar noted that K1,3-free graphs are domination perfect. A more particular results that line graphs and middle graphs are domination perfect was obtained by Gupta [see Theorem 10.5 in [5]]. Theorem 1 (Sumner and Moore [8]). A graph G is domination perfect if and only if γ(H) = ι(H) for every induced subgraph H of G with γ(H) = 2. Let A = {H : |V (H)| ≤ 8, γ(H) = 2, and ι(H) > 2}. Sumner and Moore [8] proved a series of results on domination perfect graphs: • A chordal graph is domination perfect if and only if it is G1-free (Figure 3). • If G is an A-free graph and also G does not contain an induced copy of the graph S in Figure 1= , then G is domination perfect. • A planar graph is domination perfect if and only if it is A-free.


ABSTRACT An experimental investigation on gas and liquid separation at Y-junction tubes was conducted to explore whether it is viable to keep Y-junctions in good operational condition by pressure control. In the experiments, four junctions were combined in series, all with a 60° upward branch. The results show that there exists a critical value for the pressure drop ratio to make the system perform best, and the pressures at the inlet and both outlets play a significant role in the separation efficiency. Furthermore, a new relationship has been developed for the prediction of the phase split at Y-junction tubes.


In order to provide an objective method for early diagnosis of tomato gray mould, PCR assay was established for detecting the species specific P729 fragment of tomato gray mould pathogen, Botrytis cinerea. The method was evaluated in laboratory with the materials got from vegetable-planting field. The results showed that the PCR assay was specific, stable and credible. The method B was the most suitable after comparing the 6 genome-extracted methods. The sensitivity of the method was considerable, with PCR product was positive by template extracted from 0.2 μg bacterial filament. The result of detecting field samples suggested the PCR assay could be used as an early diagnosis measure.


To write the history of Chinese Literature again " has been the theoretical responsibility and the aesthetical consiousness of the contemporary historcans of the Chinse literature.A fatal mistake has been made to the traditional periodicality as to the division of the present or contemporary literature owing to its lack of the bases on the history scinece and its literature with a whole-viewpoint from the 20th century literature in our minds or on our booksheves,A framework has been established by "the TWO Great Discussions"and "the Three Tides and Tideways of Literature and Arts"for the division of the history of Chinese literature in the 20th century.


Most currently available quality measures reflect point-in-time provider tasks, providing a limited and fragmented assessment of care. The concept of episodes of care could be used to develop quality measurement approaches that reflect longer periods of care. With input from clinical experts, we constructed episode-of-care frameworks for six illustrative conditions and identified potential gaps and measure development priority areas. Episode-based measures could assess changes in health outcomes ("delta measures"), the amount of time during an episode in which a patient has suboptimal health status ("integral measures"), quality contingent upon events occurring previously ("contingent measures"), and composites of measures throughout the episode. This article identifies a number of challenges that will need to be addressed to advance operationalization of episode-based quality measurement.


This paper analyzes the frequency signature of real-detected ship noise, proposes a kind of method to extract the object signature, builds up object抯 through signature mathematical model and respectively simulates the through signature of whole frequency channel noise and each frequency channel noise for two class of objects on different conditions. The research result can apply to the ship noise identification.


The objective of this paper is to develop a thorough understanding of the evolution of automation techniques throughout its time span. To achieve this, a literature review followed by classification schemes and simple Meta analysis have been presented in this paper. The literature review was based on journals collected for the study. A total of 234 articles were selected for the study. The study yielded 37 variables which formed the basis of classification schemes. The first classification scheme was conceptual while the second was functional. The entire study was grouped into these classification schemes. The classification schemes were the foundations for performing simple Meta analysis. The analysis was done under three categories, according to classification schemes, according to year of publication and according to journals. The results show various trends of automation throughout the years. In the end, the results are discussed in detail and future areas of research are identified. Keywords: Automation techniques, Classification schemes, Meta analysis, Primary dimensions


Race walking is an athletic event which is contested in most major international track and field competitions, including the Olympics. It is also slowly growing in popularity as a form of exercise and recreation. The rules of race walking state that it is "progression by steps so taken that unbroken contact with the ground is maintained". Further, "during the period of each step when a foot is on the ground, the leg must be straightened (i.e., not bent at the knee) at least for one moment... in the vertical
upright position" (I . A . A . F . , 1982) .


Abstract : A number of techniques are discussed which can be used to modify the bang-bang principle in order to overcome some common problems such as finite gain, random inputs, and minor time constants, namely: automatic dual mode, provision for reserve torque, and means for incorporating lag compensation. An example is given in which the methods are incorporated into an approximate bang-bang system to control an inertial platform. (Author)


The seed spice coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) belonging to the family Apiaceae, having a diploid chromosome number 2n=22. Coriander leaves is extensively used in India as well as western countries in flavouring of processed foods, including breads, cakes, sauces, meat products, soup and confectionery. Coriander seeds are used in tonic, carminative, diuretic, stomachic and as an aphrodisiac. Oleoresin from coriander is used as a flavouring agent, as an ingredient in pharmaceutical formulations and in perfumery. A number of chemical constituents such as volatile constituents, flavonoids, isocoumarins, and coriandrones have been isolated from different parts of the plant (Taniguchi et al., 1996). Due to the easy collection of the plant and being wide spread and also remarkable biological activities, this plant has become both food and medicine in many parts of the world, (Jinous and Nastaran, 2012). The term 'plant growth promotion' (PGP) is often used to describe increased plant growth followed by increased crop yield. Many microbes especially, rhizobacteria (bacteria from rhizosphere) are International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 3 (2017) pp. 1926-1934 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com


The valuation of employee stock options has become a key requirement due to the rapid growth in the use of these options as a means of employee compensation. IFRS 2 Share-based Payment stipulates that these instruments must be valued and expensed on the date the awards are issued. This dissertation aims to value an employee stock option, in a case where both the equity and vesting (performance) condition are based on a reported earnings process. The equity dependency on earnings stems from the fact that we are primarily concerned with the valuation of employee stock options that are issued by a private firm. We implement a capital structure framework provided by Goldstein, Ju and Leland (2001). In this framework, equity and debt are derived from an underlying EBIT process that is governed by a geometric Brownian motion. The model also accounts for taxation and bankruptcy. The research aim is addressed by incorporating the capital structure model into our employee stock option pricing framework.


In this paper, we develop an analytical model of outside directors' signaling role--a role that is especially important for entrepreneurial firms. We formally demonstrate that in the face of a market failure in which stakeholders refuse to align themselves with new firms, high-quality new ventures may be able to credibly signal their type by appointing reputable directors to their boards. However, this option is not universally feasible. Both directors' reputations and the quality of their information determine the effectiveness of this strategy. In contrast to earlier adverse selection models, we demonstrate that when the middlemen (directors) have incomplete information on firm quality, bad and good firms can coexist in equilibrium. In this equilibrium, the quality of the directors' information determines the mix of good and bad firms in the population of surviving firms. Avenues for future research and normative implications for practitioners are discussed.


LESS IS MORE Estimating Vitamin D Status and the Choice of Supplementation Dose To the Editor In a recent issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, Bischoff-Ferrari and colleagues1 reported the results of an interesting randomized clinical trial testing the efficiency of physiological (equivalence, 800 IU/d) and supraphysiological doses (equivalence, 2000 IU/d or 800 IU/d plus calcifediol 300 μg/mo) of vitamin D supplements in lowering the risk of functional decline. The authors found that older participants in the higher-dose vitamin D groups experienced the greater incidence of falls,1 a result already described with mega doses of vitamin D supplementation2 but in contradiction with the well-recognized antifall effect of physiological doses.3 Before claiming that high-dose vitamin D supplementation makes seniors fall, we wish to draw attention to the secondary analyses stratified by initial vitamin D status.1 The 12-month number of falls was greater after high-dose vs low-dose vitamin D supplementation only in the group t h a t h a d n o h y p o v i t a m i n o s i s D a t b a s e l i n e ( i e , 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] ≥ 20 ng/mL [to convert 25[OH]D level to nanomoles per liter, multiply by 2.496]), but not in the group with initial hypovitaminosis D less than 20ng/mL (P = .03 and P = .33, respectively). It thus appears that, among people without hypovitaminosis D, high-dose vitamin D supplementation, aimed at increasing 25(OH)D concentration to supraphysiological levels, is probably not useful—and might be toxic—compared with lower doses aiming at preventing hypovitaminosis D and maintaining 25(OH)D concentration to physiological levels. These data confirm the current hypothesis of a possible U-shaped or J-shaped effect of vitamin D, with both low and high 25(OH)D concentrations being associated with adverse health events.4 For this reason, we call for the need to determine older individuals' vitamin D status before any vitamin D supplementation. However, we recognize that such systematic screening for hypovitaminosis D is currently compromised in this population due to the cost of 25(OH)D assay, which is higher than the annual supplementation. To avoid the current trend toward universal supplementation on sight, and to help determining which individuals should receive lower-dose or higher-dose vitamin D supplements, it is urgently needed to develop new cost-effective routine screening strategies to provide an appropriate medical decision. For instance, we recently developed a clinical tool able to identify older adults with hypovitaminosis D who may be administered high-dose supplements without blood test.5 Further investigations will be necessary to examine the feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and usefulness of such tools in daily practice and to estimate if they allow supplementing older adults in a personalized way, thus avoiding vitamin D toxic effects described by Bischoff-Ferrari and colleagues.


We report on the optimization of textured-dielectric coatings for reflectance control in crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic modules. Textured-dielectric coatings reduce encapsulated-cell reflectance by promoting optical confinement in the module encapsulation; i.e., the textured-dielectric coating randomizes the direction of rays reflected from the dielectric and from the c-Si cell so that many of these reflected rays experience total internal reflection at the glass-air interface. Some important results of this work include the following: we demonstrated textured-dielectric coatings (ZnO) deposited by a high-throughput low-cost deposition process; we identified factors important for achieving necessary texture dimensions; we achieved solar-weighted extrinsic reflectances as low as 6% for encapsulated c-Si wafers with optimized textured-ZnO coatings; and we demonstrated improvements in encapsulated cell performance of up to 0.5% absolute compared to encapsulated planar cells with single-layer antireflection coatings.


Solutions to role ambiguity related to employment stress in terms of managerial and individual behaviors. Five categories of stress reduction culled from social learning theory.


Gamma scanning of fuel rods containing plutonium has gained acceptance as a way of determining the uniformity of fuel loading and, to a lesser extent/ the total amount of material. The usual electronics for making these measurements includes, an analogue ratemeter driving a strip chart recorder. The resulting strip chart recording is hard to interpret in more than a qualitative manner. The use, re-cently, of a digital ratemeter in a red scanning apparatus has made statistical analysis of the data much more convenient and prompted such an analysis to be made. The following analyses were performed:


Lupton, C.J., Pfeiffer, F.A. and Blakeman, N.E., 1991. Medullation in mohair. SmallRumin. Res., 5: 357-365. Experime ats reporting incidence of medullated fiber in mohair were reviewed. Genetics, nutrition, season and .disease have been implicated in affecting medullation levels which are variable within fleeces. To raeasure medullation accurately, representative samples of the whole fleece must be measured. Subjective medullation scores are of limited value since they are not highly correlated with actual measarements of medullation. Progress towards reducing medullated fibers in mohair is possible by selection of animals older than one year of age. The environmental factors nutrition, geographical location and disease have minimal effects on medullated fiber production. Effects of season and management on medullation are not clear.


ABSTRACT Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder. Risperidone and Aripiprazole appear to be effective in associated behavioural problems with ASDs, including irritability, aggressiveness, hyperactivity, self-injurious behaviour, and stereotypies. In our case, new-onset diurnal enuresis was observed as a side effect after risperidone use. New-onset diurnal enuresis improved when risperidone was stopped, but recommenced when aripiprazole was added to treatment. However, all symptoms of enuresis resolved when the aripiprazole dosage was reduced. In contrast to some reports in which aripiprazole was used in the treatment of enuresis, our case is different in that it led to diurnal enuresis.


Ascididemine (9H-quino[4,3,2-de][1,10]phenanthrolin-9-one) (1) and an isomer (9H-quino[4,3,2-de][1,7]phenanthrolin-9-one) (4) have been synthesized starting from 1,4-dimethoxyacridone (7). The acridone was converted into 1,4-dimethoxy-9-ethynylacridine (11) by a triflate coupling. The ethynylacridine was converted in one-pot into 3H-6-methoxypyrido[2,3,4-kl]acridine (15) by reaction with sodium diformylamide; the mechanism of this key transformation is discussed. Conversion into 6H-4-bromopyrido[2,3,4-kl]acridin-6-one (19) and 6H-pyrido[2,3,4-kl]acridin-6-one (17), followed by reaction of each of these under high pressure conditions with acrolein N,N-dimethylhydrazone, gave ascididemine and its isomer, respectively.


Abstract Sufficient conditions are obtained for the existence of a globally asymptotically stable strictly positive (componentwise) almost-periodic solution of a Lotka-Volterra system with almost periodic coefficients.


Conservation agriculture is a set of practices widely promoted to increase agricultural productivity while conserving soil through reduced tillage, mulching and crop rotation. Adoption levels are low across southern Africa and farmers often use only some components on small portions of their land. This study uses in-depth interviews and partial budget analysis to explore adoption of conservation agriculture in Mozambique's Angonia highlands. Farmers described many benefits but there was little sign of adoption beyond plots where non-governmental organizations promoting conservation agriculture had provided inputs. Most farmers were adamant that conservation agriculture could perform better than conventional agriculture only if they applied fertilizer or compost. With current costs and prices, conservation agriculture is unprofitable except on small plots for farmers with low opportunity cost of household labour. These findings suggest that conservation agriculture can improve maize yields but capital and labour constraints limit adoption to small plots in the absence of free or subsidized inputs. Given the current ranges of prices for grain and inputs these manual forms of conservation agriculture will not be adopted on a large scale in Angonia. Nevertheless, small conservation agriculture plots can provide farmers with high yields where constraints are lowest.


Several cases of the B1.1.7 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were identified in North Carolina first on January 23, 2021 in Mecklenburg County and later in Guilford County on January 28, 2021. This variant has been associated with higher levels of transmissibility. Using the nowcasted reproduction numbers, a stochastic discrete compartmental model was fit with the current vaccination rates and B1.1.7 transmissibility to estimate the impact on the effective reproduction number. We found that the effective reproduction number for North Carolina and Guilford County may exceed one, indicating a return to accelerating spread of infection in April as the proportion of B1.1.7 increases. Existing non-pharmaceutical interventions will need to remain in effect through the spring.


Dendrobium nobile has both ornamental and pharmaceutical values. The botanical characters, cultural practices, medicinal constituents, pharmacological activities and economic values are reviewed in this paper.


It is part of folklore in mathematical physics that in many cases a symmetric potential produces a symmetric ground state. It is our intention here to prove this in a fairly general setting, and for a selection of terms in the equations. We shall also consider only problems in which the boundary conditions are homogeneous and Dirichlet, u = 0 on ∂X ; this avoids situations such as those discussed in [4, 3], where symmetry breaking is known to occur. In cases where the potential is decreasing, this is readily demonstrated, as may for example be found in [8], Ch. 11 for the Schrödinger equation and [11], [2] and [7] for the Schrödinger–Newton equations in various settings; we give a summary of this in the next section. The procedure that we employ goes by various names in the literature: rearrangement, symmetrisation, and in the case that the symmetry group is a rotation group, "radialisation". We begin by giving definitions related to the spaces we shall work on, focussing on generality, and then give several examples. The third section introduces the terms in the energy functionals that we shall consider. The fourth discusses the standard approach for increasing potentials using symmetric– decreasing rearrangement. In the fifth section, we introduce our new mean values and discuss its basic properties, most of which are similar to those of the standard L-norms or symmetric–decreasing rearrangement. In subsequent sections, we discuss each term given in the second section, and finally in Section 8 give the proof of the main theorem. The last two sections discuss some further generalisations, to certain relativistic kinetic energies, and other nonlinear terms.


Unemployment is one of the major problems in the world, especially in Indonesia. According to the national statistics agency, the number of unemployed in Indonesia in 2010-2012 to reach 8 million people. The low ability of people in the field of web and the availability of qualified teachers and the availability of professional staff time, as well as the lack of developers who create e-learning, especially the use of touch screen technology. NET Framework 4.5 on windows8, is one cause. But in this era, there are opportunities and industry information technology content. In Indonesia, the content industry is growing rapidly, increasing by 50% from 2011 to 2012 because of high demand from the public. To overcome that, we need an education automation, collaboration and community-based environmental and information technology fields. All that can be overcome with the application-based e-learning that iCode. This application will allow users to learn HTML5 anywhere and anytime, even they do not deal directly with the teacher, as represented by the video tutorial. Features of e-learning in the iCode, which users can learn HTML5 programming language, practice the source code (coding) while watching the video tutorials, the user can perform a challenge to test their understanding and generate the best value, the user can connect with teachers and other users through social media facebook. The results obtained after the application iCode, there is an increase in learning and motivation to learn the language HTML5 users where users are playing games during a.


In order to extend sociological thinking about socialization in secondary schools, I have tested the contention that the social status of a high school independently affects the college-going intentions of its students, using data from a 1955 sample of students in 518 American high schools. The effect, although weak, is found to be more an effect of the social-status composition than of formal organization of the school. The positive effects of school status are found to mask a negative effect; in schools with students of higher average ability, students of any given ability and status are less likely to have college intentions, presumably because standards of competition rise within the school. When this hidden negative effect is held constant, the positive effect of school status on college intention increases.