Abstract Affecting almost exclusively women, lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare lung disease characterized by estrogen-sensitive metastatic smooth muscle cell-like adenomas that grow slowly, resulting in cystic lung change and loss of pulmonary function. LAM tumors are caused by mutations in tuberous sclerosis complex 1 or 2 genes (TSC1 or TSC2). Mutations in TSC1 or TSC2 genes results in deficient inhibitory regulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), which in turn leads to increased mTORC1 activity and cell proliferation. There is no consensus amongst LAM researchers regarding the origin of these estrogen receptor-positive smooth muscle like LAM cells; however, we previously reported inactivation of TSC2 in the mouse uterus results in notable LAM features in the setting of primary myometrial tumors. Approximately 50% of the TSC2-null mice had metastatic myometrial tumors present in the lung, suggesting that LAM tumor cells might in fact originate from the uterus, thus explaining the female sexual dimorphism, the estrogen sensitivity, and the metastatic nature of the LAM tumors. Interestingly, flow cytometry revealed large numbers of granulocytic myeloid derived suppressors cells (G-MDSCs) in the blood and myometrial tumors of uterine-specific Tsc2 null mice. MDSCs are known to accumulate in the setting of chronic inflammation caused by trauma, infection, and various cancers. This granulocytic subtype not only has the capacity to suppress anti-tumor immune cells of the tumor microenvironment, but also directly promotes tumor cell malignant neoplasicity. We found that Tsc2-null myometrial tumors required MDSCs for normal progression, as MDSC depletion or inhibition of MDSC recruitment reduced tumor growth. We have showed that these tumors expressed estrogen receptors and were exquisitely sensitive to estrogen, while other studies demonstrate that G-MDSCs are also positively influenced by estradiol. Therefore, we hypothesized that, in addition to direct effects of estrogen on tumor cells, estrogen also stimulates tumor growth by promoting MDSC production in the bone marrow. We have developed a technique to stimulate MDSC production from mouse bone marrow. Using this strategy, we found that estradiol is indeed a potent promotor of G-MDSC production. These effects occurred in both male and female bone marrow. Employing both pharmacologic agents and bone marrow from ERα; knockout mice, we showed that ERα; is necessary for promoting a G-MDSC fate for immature myeloid cells and precursors. Thus, estradiol may have duel effects in LAM, both directly promoting tumor growth and indirectly upregulating MDSC production, which in turn promotes tumor growth. We propose that these estrogen effects on MDSC production are not limited to LAM and may be important regulators of tumor growth in many tissues.


Induction motors are widely used as traction motors of railway vehicles. Improving the efficiency of the induction motors is very important to save energy in railway operation. In this paper, we propose a new rotor design that can reduce the harmonic secondary copper loss in the traction motors and improve the efficiency of them.


Alternative paths may significantly improve routing reliability in an IP network, One application of this technique is to enhance the reliability of the popular open shortest path first (OSPF) routing protocol. In our proposed reliable OSPF (ROSPF) routing protocol, one primary path and two alternate backup paths are deployed for data transmission. As expected, the number of shared links and routers among the three paths dominates the reliability of the routing connection between two routers. The calculation of routing reliability of multiple paths is very important in alternate path-finding algorithms. To solve this problem, we use the Venn diagram model to analyze the overall failure probability of three partially disjoint paths and to understand how the double- and triple-shared links affect the routing reliability. General mathematical formulas to calculate the failure probability are also obtained.


The general objective of this research is to describe and analyze the steps in implementing scaffolding technique in reading comprehension and the students reading comprehension implemented through the scaffolding technique in seventh grade student in SMP Negeri 4 Busungbiu in the 2021/2022 academic year. This research is classroom action research. The research subjects were 31 seventh grade students. The researcher used two methods, namely quantitative (student ability in reading comprehension) and qualitative data (data on the implementation of reading comprehension sessions through scaffolding technique and the teachers' difficulties in implementing reading comprehension sessions through scaffolding technique). The results show that: (1) Scaffolding teaching techniques can improve students' reading comprehension in descriptive and procedure texts, namely: ((a) finding general themes b) finding specific information contained in the text, 3) being able to know the appropriate pronouns in the text (d) students being able to understand the meaning of words in the text. Scaffolding teaching techniques can improve classroom situations, in terms of (a) increasing student participation; (b) creating a more interesting teaching atmosphere (c) increasing students' attention to the lesson; (d) increasing the class of cooperation. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that this technique of scaffolding teaching is effectively used to improve students' reading comprehension.


The SNSF's National Research Council decides whether or not to fund applications. The 89 evaluation panels handle the preparatory work on which it bases its decisions, assessing several thousand applications each year.


During the past two decades, the resonance theory in haemodynamics has given a scientific explanation for meridianes, acupuncture points, five zang-organs with six fu organs and the five elements theory; therefore, the physiology, pathology, and pharmacology of Chinese Medicine may be well explained by current physic and mathematics. The discussions on the role of affect in Nanjing "five zang-organs store seven spirits" illustrates that the five zang-organs provide the basis of resonance for six fu organs. Meanwhile, the resonance in circulation system maintains the function of brain and creates affects and spirits. The meridian system based on circulation system (containing material, energetic and informational functions) serves as the foundation of other systems, including the neural system, emerging affects, and the mind. Almost all physiological and psychological functions can be decomposd into the resonance frequency of the twelve meridians, which is obtained from the blood pressure wave with Fourier transform. Given that "habitual behavior" can be discovered by analyzing the excess or deficiency of the twelve meridians, the pathological or pharmacological effects on mentality can be detected objectively. For more than two thousand years, the essence of Chinese Medicine has been the integration of the physical, mental, spiritual, and behavioral, as dictated by the principles in the classical "Huangdi Neijing." "Five zang-organs store seven spirits" implies not only that the physical creates the mental, and material creates spirits, but also "Dao creates one, one creates two, two create four, four create eight trigrams and eight trigrams create everything."


The objective of this research is to investigate the role of lifelong education in Iran, Japan and England. The study population includes different aspects of adults and lifelong education role in Iran, England and Japan. Using purposeful sampling methods, England and Japan were selected among successful industrial developed countries and Iran was selected from developing countries. Considering broadness of the subject, the role of lifelong education, the programs performed in this direction investigated differences and similarities of lifelong education in the sample countries. Research method is a descriptive – comparative method and a library method is used to collect information and then the data was analyzed by Jeorge Berdi's method. The research finding suggests that lifelong education in Japan and England, especially from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth, has become more widespread. Japan, in direction of performing the lows of extension and promotion of lifelong learning, has provided public and lifelong education outside the formal education system and England has also taken effective steps in this area by establishing international adult schools and consulting the other European countries about improving lifelong and adult education, whereas in Iran, basic learning is still the most important challenge in lifelong education. I in investigating lifelong education in these countries, differences and similarities are observed among which we can refer to these three countries' efforts in the area of illiteracy eradication, promotion of technical and vocational training, creation of broad changes in the field of high education in the course of generating a lifelong education and learning – based community as the most important similarities. However, what differentiates the lifelong and adults education in Japan and England from that of Iran is that Japan and England have been able to obtain great achievement as a result of the nation and government's widespread support from lifelong and adult education and they are determined to perform adults programs, whereas Iran has not been successful in this regard yet and it seems that, despite widespread supports of the constitutional law and Islamic consultative assembly for lifelong and adult education, there is no seriousness and continuity in this area.


An all-digital CMOS duty cycle correction (DCC) circuit with a fixed rising edge was proposed to achieve the wide correction ranges of input duty cycle and PVT variations, the low standby power and the fast recovery from the standby mode for use in multi-phase clock systems. SPICE simulations showed that this DCC adjusts the output duty cycle to 50 ± 0.7% for the wide range of input duty cycle from 15% to 85% at the input frequency of 1 GHz, within the commercial range of PVT corners. The all-digital implementation and the use of a toggle flip flop at the input stage enabled the wide correction ranges of PVT variations and input duty cycle, respectively.


Background: Oligomers of amyloid β (Aβ) in the brain correlate with synapse loss and dementia. The fungicide maneb (MB) and mancozeb (MZ) have been shown to activate the transcription factor NF-κB. Activation of NF-κB signaling pathway could initiate the transcription of β-amyloid precursor protein (AβPP) leading to increase Aβ level. Studies showed the cells treated with Aβ42 have the elevated level of phosphorylated double-stranded RNA dependent protein kinase (PKR) which is found to deteriorate the neurons in AD brains.
Objective: To reveal the effects of MB and MZ on AβPP and Aβ42 expressions and to elucidate the role of PKR in response to MB and MZ.
Methods: Western blot analysis and ELISA assay were conducted to investigate the expressions of AβPP and Aβ42 in PC12 cells treated with MB and MZ. The activation of PKR was determined by western blotting the level of phosphorylated PKR at Thr446 in SH-SY5Y cells treated with MB and MZ.
Results: MB and MZ increased AβPP and Aβ42 expressions in a dose-dependent manner. MB and MZ transiently activated PKR.
Conclusion: Studies showed that MB and MZ enhance parkinsonian toxin MPP+ cytotoxicity and trigger DNA damage. The results from this study further revealed that MB and MZ are associated with the increase of AβPP and Aβ42 expressions and elucidated that the PKR signaling pathway involves in MB and MZ induced cytotoxicity. This study provides the evidence about the relationship between fungicides and neurodegenerative diseases.


Abstract— Now a days the non-linear loads and power electronic based DG systems involvement is increased and these are may introduce power quality issues to the distribution power systems. If we use DG grid interfacing converters properly and regularly then they will improve distribution system efficiency and power quality. This paper mainly discuses on the distribution system harmonic control through DG grid interfacing converters. There is two DG systems in general, one is current controlled DG and another one is voltage controlled DG. There is major previous works on harmonic compensation are done in current controlled DG .But hear a new harmonic control scheme using voltage controlled method is developed in this paper. This method is having more flexibility and similar compensation performance when compare to current controlled DG .This voltage controlled method provides direct voltage and frequency support to grid because of avoiding harmonic current tracking loop. This proposed systems simulated by using MATLAB/SIMULINK.


This study focused on the design and analysis of an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC)-based fabric antenna for body-centric communication. The antenna was made of felt and had a loss tangent of 0.044 and relative permittivity of 1.3. The proposed antenna was built to function in the frequency band centered at 2.45 GHz, widely used in wireless communication devices. The antenna's performance was evaluated using the electromagnetic simulation software CST MWS. A $50~\Omega $ SubMiniature version connector was used to excite the proposed antenna. A $2\times2$ AMC array was integrated into the antenna below it to improve its performance in terms of radiation efficiency, gain, and backward radiation reduction. The antenna and AMC array were fabricated on flexible fabric substrates. The total volume of the AMC-integrated antenna is $0.55\lambda _{\mathrm {o}}\times 0.55\lambda _{\mathrm {o}}\times 0.016\lambda _{\mathrm {o}}$ . It was demonstrated that adding an AMC array enhanced the radiation properties of the antenna and significantly decreased its back lobes. The on- and off-body maximum gains of the AMC-integrated antenna are (≥ 4.11 dBi) and 5.23 dBi, respectively. Furthermore, employing the AMC array, a significant reduction in the specific absorption rate value, which is (≤ 0.43 W/kg) for human body tissue chest/back and (≤ 0.75 W/kg) for human body tissue arm, was obtained, ensuring safety for human use. The simulated and measured results were in agreement. The tested on- and off-body radiation efficiencies in the frequency band centered at 2.45 GHz is (>67%) and (>83%), respectively. The proposed antenna can potentially be used in various applications such as healthcare monitoring, wearable electronics, and Internet of Things (IoT) systems, where reliable and efficient communication is required in a body-centric environment.


HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) is increasingly adopted by over-the-top (OTT)-based video streaming services, it allows clients to dynamically switch among various stream representations. Each of these representations is encoded to target a specific bitrate providing a wide range of operating bitrates known as the bitrate ladder. Several approaches with different levels of complexity are currently used to build such a bitrate ladder. The most straightforward method is to use a fixed bitrate ladder for all videos, which is a set of bitrate-resolution pairs, called "one-size-fits-all", and the most complex is based on the intensive encoding of all resolutions over a wide bitrate range to construct the convex-hull. This latter is then used to obtain a per-title bitrate ladder. Recently, various methods relying on machine learning (ML) techniques have been proposed to predict content-based ladder without performing exhaustive search encoding. In this paper, we conduct a benchmark study of several handcrafted and deep learning (DL)-based approaches for predicting content-optimized bitrate ladder, which we believe provides baseline methods and will be useful for future research in this field. The obtained results, based on 200 video sequences compressed with the high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) encoder, reveal that the most efficient method predicts the bitrate ladder without performing any encoding process at the cost of a slight Bjøntegaard delta bitrate (BD-BR) loss of 1.43% compared to the exhaustive approach. The dataset and the source code of the considered methods are made publicly available at: https://github.com/atelili/Bitrate-Ladder-Benchmark.


Longitudinal, transverse, and perpendicular magnetoresistances were investigated at temperatures 1.2<T<300K in fields of up to 20 T for four ZnO films: one undoped, two with 4% Co (one paramagnetic, the other exhibiting anhysteretic ferromagnetism at room temperature), and one with 25% Co which exhibits hysteretic ferromagnetism, butterfly magnetoresistance, and presence of Co clusters. The magnetoresistance becomes negligibly small above 50–100 K, and magnetic terms are only evident below 20 K, where the mobility is sufficiently high. Quantum oscillations observed below 2 K in the paramagnetic sample with 4% Co give two different extremal Fermi surface cross sections. The data for dilute ferromagnetic samples are consistent with coherent spin transport in a ferromagnetic matrix; data for the x=25% films suggest that spin-polarized electrons can tunnel coherently between well-separated cobalt clusters.


Based on the current standard regulations, according to the service condition of building in a west African country, the current situation of the stadium audience area in a west African country is tested and certificated, two proposals of rebuilding and reinforcement is given, also analysis of the reason and the strength and weakness is offered of two proposals.


Summary. The oral administration of clomiphene or U-11555A to mice appears to block pregnancy primarily through an effect on the maternal environment, rather than by direct action on the cleaving embryos. If given during the period of tubal transport, both agents cause a delay in the passage of the embryos into the uterus. When the compounds are given after the embryos have reached the uterus, implantation fails to occur, and the blastocysts pass out of the uterus. No evidence was found to suggest that pregnancy-blocking levels of the agents have a direct effect on the embryos.


Picea likiangensis var. linzhiensis is a special species in Tibet,and it is in a easily endangered state in our country. After a comprehensive investigation on P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis population distributed in Gongbu nature reserve of southeast Tibet by transects and quadrats,population structure and quantitative dynamics were analyzed in the paper. The results showed that the individual number of P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis gradually diminished with structure level( the diameter class,height class and crown width class),and the number in three structures was presented as the typical pyramid shape. The seedlings of P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis were more abundant,the natural regeneration ability was powerful,and the population was at a stable development state. The survival number of the different diameter class of P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis population showed a logarithmic relationship with diameter class,and the number of the different height and crown width class power function relationship with height and crown width class respectively. There was a linear relation between diameter and height,but there was not obviously correlation between diameter and crown width,such was height and crown width. Individual survival quantity of very age class of P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis population was obviously different in growth process. The mortality and killing rates were greatly fluctuant with diameter class,those of age Ⅵwere lowest( 20% and 22. 31% respectively),those of age Ⅹ were highest( 62. 96% and 99. 33% respectively),the average mortality and killing rates accounted for 41. 03% and 57. 55% respectively. The survival curve of P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis population approached to the B3 subtype of Deevey-Ⅱ.Four survival curves for P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis population indicated that the population would have an early reduction,a mid-term stability,and a late recession because of physiological exhaustion. The time sequence model predicted that the amount of P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis population would have a different rising tendency in the upcoming Ⅱ,Ⅴ,Ⅷ and Ⅵ age classes,the population had better recovery capability and kept stability maintenance. The research results provided a theoretical basis for management and sustainable utilization of P. likiangensis var. linzhiensis population,and enriched the assessment content of the national ecological security barrier in Tibet plateau.


In this paper,an automatic correct offset control system which is controlled by a singlechip is designed.According to the features of the system,both the hardware and the software of the singlechip is developed.PIC16C73 from Microchip is adopted for the singlechip,which is well known for its high quality,low cost and high market share among similar products.


As maximal, nonlinear Boolean functions, bent functions have many theoretical and practical applications in combinatorics, coding theory, and cryptography. In this paper, we present a construction of bent function \begin{document}$ f_{a,S} $\end{document} with \begin{document}$ n = 2m $\end{document} variables for any nonzero vector \begin{document}$ a\in \mathbb{F}_{2}^{m} $\end{document} and subset \begin{document}$ S $\end{document} of \begin{document}$ \mathbb{F}_{2}^{m} $\end{document} satisfying \begin{document}$ a+S = S $\end{document} . We give a simple expression of the dual bent function of \begin{document}$ f_{a,S} $\end{document} and prove that \begin{document}$ f_{a,S} $\end{document} has optimal algebraic degree \begin{document}$ m $\end{document} if and only if \begin{document}$ |S|\equiv 2 (\bmod 4) $\end{document} . This construction provides a series of bent functions with optimal algebraic degree and large symmetric group if \begin{document}$ a $\end{document} and \begin{document}$ S $\end{document} are chosen properly. We also give some examples of those bent functions \begin{document}$ f_{a,S} $\end{document} and their dual bent functions.


In learner-centered classroom,teachers' questioning serves as very important stimuli to foster students' participation in classroom interaction.A classroom full of active interactions is an ideal environment for foreign language acquisition(FLA).Questioning is a critical strategy for the instructors to engage students in reading activities so as to help them build the habit of independent learning.


The writing ability is one of the basic abilities in language command, after years of English learning and training, learners' abilities of oral communication and taking examinations improve greatly, but their English writing level is still lower. According to experiences of teaching and experiences of taking charge of English newspaper the author discusses how to stimulate learners' interest in writing by means of utilizing the learner-centered micro class in order to improve the teaching effect of English writing.


Background To analyze the efficacy and toxicity of bevacizumab on survival outcomes in recurrent ovarian cancer. Results Bevacizumab was associated with significant improvement of PFS and OS compared with standard treatment with HRs of 0.53 (95% CI 0.44 − 0.63; p < 0.00001) and 0.87 (95% CI, 0.77 to 0.99; p = 0.03), respectively. Bevacizumab increased the incidence of G3/G4 hypertension (RR 19.01, 95% CI 7.77 – 46.55; p < 0.00001), proteinuria (RR 17.31, 95% CI 5.42 − 55.25; p < 0.00001), arterial thromboembolic events (ATE) (RR 4.99, 95% CI 1.29 − 19.27; p = 0.02) and bleeding (RR 3.14, 95% CI 1.35 – 7.32; p = 0.008). Materials and Methods Three randomized phase III trials representing 1502 patients were identified. Pooled hazard ratio (HR), odd ratio (OR), risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using fixed or random effects model. Conclusions Adding bevacizumab to standard chemotherapy improved ORR, PFS and OS, and it had a higher, but manageable, incidence of toxicities graded 3 to 4.


As recent scholarship has affirmed, the most salient characteristic of American sentimental writing is not so much excessive feeling but interpersonal experience, the showcasing of "the self-in-relation."1 Nineteenth-century sentimental novels highlight affective connections. They expose the crucial role that emotional attachments play in the development of the self, and they function as pedagogical tools, teaching their readers how to interact and establish community with others. Of course, these sentimental novels were only one means of representing interrelational experience. Nineteenth-century fiction offered scenes of hypnosis, magnetism, mesmerism, and romantic love as alternative ways for figuring the self in relation to others. What differentiates sentimentalism from these other phenomena is the former's commitment to the fantasy of similitude. Sentimental writing features interactions among participants who are manifestly diverse but whose differences belie a common humanity and capacity for affect. While mesmerism and hypnosis foreground the coercive nature of their projects (the power of one subject over another), sentimentalism offers up, at least at first glance, a vision of affinity and sameness. For the sentimentalist, all men are created equal not because they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, but because all have the same ability to grieve and to love intensely. Moreover, through the device of sympathy, each subject has the capacity to enter into the sentiments of another, to feel the pain or pleasure of his neighbor and thus to achieve a degree of shared affective experience. Sentimentalism, then, imagines a democratic world based in the communitarian values of common feeling, collective action, and public responsibility.


Mutations in the palmitoyl protein thioesterase 1 gene ( PPT1 ) cause classic infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis-1 (CLN1),1 characterized by rapid visual and psychomotor deterioration, seizures, and death in early to mid-childhood. In rare cases, PPT1 gene mutations cause visual and cognitive decline in young adulthood.2,3 Genetic and clinicopathologic phenotypes of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) are markedly different from CLN1.4,5 We present a case of very early-onset FTLD with a positive family history of CLN1 and discuss its association with 2 novel mutations in the PPT1 gene and a novel variation in the MAPT gene.


Consumer values are the foundation of every successful purchase and motivate customers to buy more. The purpose of this research study is to explore the effect of customer value perception on consumer purchase intention for private label apparels. Further, the mediation effect of perceived quality between customer value perception and consumer purchase intention is also determined. A total of 800 valid questionnaires are collected from consumers who are regularly buying private label apparels. In order to analyse the data, techniques such as exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling are employed to evaluate the proposed framework. The findings reveal that financial, functional, individual and social value perceptions positively influence the perceived quality of private labels. Value perceptions of respondents also influence the consumer purchase intention except for the functional and social value perception. Consumer purchase intention is directly influenced by perceived quality. Furthermore, with the exception of social value perception, the findings imply that perceived quality mediate between the distinct consumer value perception (CVP) and purchase intention of private label apparels. Relevant implications are provided by this study which helps the retailers in better understanding customer value perception and concentrating on improving CVP.


A description of six categories of damage to sunflower heads by sunflower midge, Contarinia schultzi Gagne, is presented based on visual estimates of the relative area of seed destroyed as well as the degree of head cupping expressed as the ratio of the length of the thickened receptacle to the head diameter. Fractional yields of the six damage classes (0–5), determined from heads collected in commercial fields, were 1.0, 0.82, 0.69, 0.41, 0.15 and 0. Head diameter was significantly associated with midge damage and accounted for more variation than the damage rating in regressions of the two factors on yield. Ratings by observers with varying degrees of experience using the damage descriptions agreed significantly in evaluating the same group of heads. The sunflower midge index provides a simple and standard method for comparing varietal reactions to midge and for estimating commercial losses. Key words: Sunflower, Contarinia schultzi Gagne


The dissipative trapped electron instability has been studied experimentally and theoretically in a linear device. Special emphasis is given to the effects of changing the length of the magnetic trapping cell (30 cm<2L<75 cm) and to the development of feedback as a diagnostic technique. It is shown that the dominant axial wavenumber k2, is determined by the length of the trapping cell, and this in turn has an effect on the real frequency omega R approximately=50 kHz. The minimum mirror ratio for instability onset is found to be Rc approximately=1.2. The dissipative nature of the instability is also demonstrated using feedback. The mode is definitely identified as the dissipative trapped electron instability through the dependence of the growth rate on electron collision frequency mirror ratio and through the radial and axial localization of the mode. The saturation amplitude of the density fluctuations is compared with the measured growth rate to show that the growth rate is proportional to the square of the saturation level.


In multibody dynamics, differential and algebraic equations which can satisfy both equation of motion and kinematic constraint equation should be solved. To solve these equations, coordinate partitioning method and constraint stabilization method are commonly used. In the coordinate partitioning method, the coordinates are divided into independent and dependent and coordinates. The most typical coordinate partitioning method are LU decomposition, QR decomposition, and SVD (singular value decomposition). The objective of this research is to find an efficient coordinate partitioning method in the dynamic analysis of flexible multibody systems. Comparing two coordinate partitioning methods, i.e. LU and QR decomposition in the flexible multibody systems, a new hybrid coordinate partitioning method is suggested for the flexible multibody analysis.


People express concern about the possible extinction of animal species which they will never see, about damage to wilderness areas they will never visit, and so on. Such concerns are often interpreted by economists in terms of 'existence' or 'passive use' values. Three views have been proposed regarding the appropriate way of dealing with existence values in benefit-cost analysis. First, the existence values and concerns about environmental preservation that are not related to use may be disregarded. Second, concerns about environmental preservation may be taken into account, but not interpreted as existence values or evaluated in monetary terms. Third, the benefit-cost analysis may be modified to incorporate monetary estimates of existence values. Advocates of the third approach have developed a range of techniques for eliciting existence values, collectively referred to as the contingent valuation method. In this paper, the concept of existence value and the techniques of contingent valuation are surveyed, with the aim or providing a basis for comparisons of the three approaches described above.


2011 saw the release of two drugs for treating patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, both directed at improving treatment response among patients with HCV genotype 1 infections. Boceprevir (Victrelis) and telaprevir (Incivek) are protease inhibitors administered in conjunction with peginterferon and ribavirin; both new drugs were validated in manufacturer-supported randomized trials.

In the boceprevir trials, both treatment-naive patients and treatment-experienced patients in whom a previous course of peginterferon/ribavirin (PR) had failed were randomized to PR plus various boceprevir regimens or placebo. Compared with patients treated …


The dairy sector is the largest agricultural sub-sector in Kenya, and its share in GDP is approximately 4%. Milk consumption per head of population is one of the highest in Sub-Sahara Africa and stands at 115 litres per person. An estimated 80% of total production comes from smallholder farmers of which about 50% is marketed. Out of this 50%, 25% enters the market as processed milk and value-added milk products. The fodder interventions implemented during Kenya market-led dairy program (KMDP) inception phase confirmed that one of the most important bottlenecks for enhanced competitiveness and growth in dairy sector, is access and availability of quality fodder. This has been achieved through introduction of fodder related intervention which positively influenced milk yield, economic, and reproduction performance of the dairy farms in Kenya. The dairy sector is in agreement that without proper feed and feed rations feeding regimes the genetic potential of the breed remains unlocked, and that good fertility management relies heavily on the animal's health and feeding. The fodder gap in dairy subsector has severe impact on cost price of milk, profitability of the farm enterprise and seasonality in milk supply. Improving fodder conservation and utilisation efficiency through high quality forages and alternative feeding practices has shown the potential to increase farmers' income through improved milk yield and nitrogen use efficiency.


The recently published book, The Commercial Determinants of Health, provides an overview of the current debates surrounding how commercial actors influence population health. The term commercial determinants of health, while relatively new, offers an important conceptual framework to more fully understand the factors that impact health. The book also provides an opportunity to elaborate on the possibilities to build healthy public policy and enrich our scholarly and teaching activities within schools of public health and the social science faculties.


This paper presents a blind robust digital image watermarking scheme based on singular value decomposition in wavelet domain for copyright protection. The proposed algorithm inserts bits of singular values of the watermark image in the wavelet coefficients of the host image. In the first step, the wavelet coefficients of each sub-band of the transformed image are grouped into 2×2 blocks. These blocks are sorted according to the defined sequence of singular values of watermark image embedding. To access to bits, we define an algorithm which converts the entries of each wavelet block and the singular values of grey-scale watermark image to new defined semi-binary arrays. Then, the bits of singular values of the watermark are inserted into the arrays of the blocks entries. Finally, the new entries of each block are constructed to make the watermarked image. The experimental results show that the proposed method is more robust against different attacks and the watermarked image has good transparency.


In order to cultivate strong winter wheat spout in the jointing stage, settle the contradiction between the excessive vigor growth resulted form the application of N fertilizer and strengthing the lodging-resist ability of winter wheat in the later period of winter wheat,field experiment was conducted to study the physiological effects of paclobutrazol at different N-application levels on winter wheat leaves.Two-factor-overlapping design was adapted in this study. The results indicated that,compared with the control,the application of paclobutrazol and N not only increased wheat leaf area,but also improved significantly chlorophyll content and photosynthesis rate.Meanwhile,the SOD activities of leaf were increased,and stress resistance was strengthened.The recommended application rates of N and paclobutrazol of winter wheat at the jointing stage were N 104.2-156.3 kg/ha and 1.13-1.50 kg/ha,respectively in the lince brown soil.


Abstract: Dopamine (DA) uptake into synaptosomes from rat corpus striatum was studied in the presence of a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor and dithiothreitol, by means of a filtration technique. Under these conditions a steady state develops rapidly in which the synaptosomal DA content remains constant while the continuing DA uptake is counterbalanced by DA efflux from the synaptosome. Exchange of synaptosomal [3H]DA and [14C]DA was measured under these conditions. In timecourse experiments it was found that exchange could be described significantly better by a three‐compartment model than by a two‐compartment model. However, if synaptosomes from reserpine‐pretreated animals were used, analysis according to a three‐compartment model did not result in a significantly better fit compared with a two‐compartment model. Subsequently, kinetic transfer parameters describing DA fluxes between compartments at different DA concentrations were calculated from the fitted exchange curves. A Michaelis‐Menten kinetic analysis indicated that only the in‐series three‐compartment configuration, in which DA is taken up from the medium into one synaptosomal compartment, from which it can subsequently be transferred to a second compartment without direct access to the medium, gave kinetically acceptable results. Transfer parameters in synaptosomes from reserpine‐treated rats were comparable to those parameters describing DA transport between the medium and the first intrasynaptosomal compartment as measured under control conditions. Morover, it was found that potassium depolarization of synaptosomes resulted in a release of DA in a quantity similar to that found in the second intrasynaptosomal compartment. It is suggested that the two intrasynaptosomal compartments found correspond to a cytoplasmatic and vesicular DA pool, respectively. The functional significance of these findings is discussed in terms of the regulation of DA levels within the nerve terminal.


This is an cultural study about the effects of jazz on America in the 1920s. Jazz had a profound impact at this time, and became a subject of huge controversy. Its raw emotion and sexuality, its extraordinary artistic innovation, and the speed of its communities to the broader worlds of Chicago and New York, were both shocking and powerfully attractive at the same time. Kathy Ogren first describes the dissemination of jazz from its roots in the deep south to the cabarets and nightclubs of the north, and through recordings and radio. She then focuses on the dynamically opposed attitudes that the early jazz boom produced, both in blacks and whites, and provides new insights into the music's sociological impact and importance.


In the paper,Geostatistic method was used to analysis the spatial variations of the average year precipitation and transpiration from 53 meteorological stations in Gansu Province.Through comparison and analysis,using Exponent model and Spherical model to calculate the semivariogram of them separately,spatial distribution maps were generated according to Kriging interpolation method.It analyzed gently the space Mutant law of the Object of the study.


In the 1 000×104 t/a refinery project at Qingzhou Harbor, Guangxi, the underground storm sewer network utilized entirely the HDPE pipes with the diameters from 400 mm to 2 600 mm. In combination with that project, this paper describes the characteristics of HDPE pipeline and its construction process and method, points out several issues for attention in using HDPE pipelines.


We apply the recently suggested strategy to lift state spaces and operators for (2 + 1)– dimensional topological quantum field theories to state spaces and operators for a (3 + 1)– dimensional TQFT with defects. We start from the (2+1)–dimensional Turaev–Viro theory and obtain a state space, consistent with the state space expected from the Crane–Yetter model with line defects. This work has important applications for quantum gravity as well as the theory of topological phases in (3 + 1) dimensions. It provides a self–dual quantum geometry realization based on a vacuum state peaked on a homogeneously curved geometry. The state spaces and operators we construct here provide also an improved version of the Walker–Wang model, and simplify its analysis considerably. We in particular show that the fusion bases of the (2+1)–dimensional theory lead to a rich set of bases for the (3+ 1)–dimensional theory. This includes a quantum deformed spin network basis, which in a loop quantum gravity context diagonalizes spatial geometry operators. We also obtain a dual curvature basis, that diagonalizes the Walker–Wang Hamiltonian. Furthermore, the construction presented here can be generalized to provide state spaces for the recently introduced dichromatic four–dimensional manifold invariants.


The present invention relates to an image sensor using a diffraction lens, to provide an image sensor having a diffraction lens as the inner lens in order to compensate the sensitivity of the light receiving between the color filter portion and the photodiode using a diffractive process to simplify and relates to an image sensor that can minimize the loss of light. An image sensor, a diffraction lens


Antonymous functions are real-valued functions on the Stone spectrum of a von Neumann algebra R. They correspond to the self-adjoint operators in R, which are interpreted as observables in quantum physics. Antonymous functions turn out to be generalized Gelfand transforms, related to de Groote's observable functions.


In this paper we present different approaches to the problem of fuzzy rule extraction by using a combination of fuzzy clustering and genetic algorithms as the main tools. This combination of techniques allows one to define a hybrid system by which one can have different approaches in a fuzzy modeling process. For example, one can obtain a first approximation to the fuzzy rules that describe the system behavior represented by a collection of raw data, without any assumption about the structure of the data by using the fuzzy clustering technique, and subsequently these rules can be tuned using the genetic algorithm. Alternatively this genetic algorithm can be used in order to generate and tune the fuzzy rules directly from the data without or with some priori information. Finally, their performances are compared.


Hazel Henderson argues that the world must address how to finance development through innovative funding sources, as well as how to fund global public goods as a matter of priority in the new global order.


The study aims to determine the social and economic impact on the development of Mangrove Forest Ecotourism in Langsa City. The analytical method used in this research is to identify the impact of mangrove forest development on the social and economic community in Langsa City. The sample amounted to 100 people who are affected by the community around the mangrove forest. Based on results, the development of mangrove forest ecotourism can increase community activities. Other impacts are opening new jobs, increasing income, increasing welfare, providing public facilities, increasing PAD, and others. While the lowest impact in the development of mangrove forests is the occurrence of social conflict in the community. The existence of mangrove forests greatly supports the level of social and economic development of the surrounding community. From an economic perspective, mangrove forests are a source of income from forest products that are of high economic value.


Recent work has highlighted the crucial dependence of the power of existing unit root tests on the deviation of the initial observation from the deterministic component of the series. In practical applications, it is useful to have a test available with power more robust to the initial condition. In this paper, we propose such a procedure based on a data-dependent weighted average of the standard Dickey--Fuller and Elliott--Rothenberg--Stock tests. Simulation of the new test's power reveals very good performance across different magnitudes of the initial condition, and the procedure's value is further highlighted by application to U.S. producer price inflation. Copyright 2005 Royal Economic Society


Boron is an excellent dopant for forming germanium (Ge) shallow junctions because of its low diffusivity. This work investigates fabricating heavily boron-doped hydrogenated polycrystalline Ge thin films with an aim to develop a thin p + emitter of the bottom cell of a monolithic tandem solar cell. The films were deposited on glass by cosputtering in an argon and hydrogen mixture at 500°C. Rapid thermal annealing at 600°C for 60 s enhances the boron activation level from 6.24 × 10 19 to 1.21 × 10 20 atoms/cm 3 . The high activation level obtained with a low thermal budget indicates that the simple fabrication approach is promising.


Because the a problem about Unilateral evaluation for weapon efficiency evaluation,a mathematical description of the weapon efficiency evaluation method is given,a standard selection method of the confrontation between weapons and target is infered,the concept of confrontation index is proposed,the state of the confrontation is describded.According to the research on Weapons performance optimization method,this paper sorts the thinking of the weapons performance optimization scheme out,the calculation method about the probability of the realization of the confrontation scheme of each weapon are given out,and the optimization method on confrontation scheme is deduced.


Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme, which has the ability to superpose information in the power domain and serve multiple users on the same time/frequency resource, is regarded as an effective solution to increase transmit rate and fairness. In this paper, we introduce the NOMA scheme in a downlink land mobile satellite (LMS) network and present a comprehensive performance analysis for the considered system. Specifically, we first obtain the power allocation coefficients by maximizing the sum rate while meeting the predefined target rates of each NOMA user. Then, we derive the theoretical expressions for the ergodic capacity and the energy efficiency of the considered system. Moreover, the outage probability (OP) and average symbol error rate performances of NOMA users are derived analytically. To gain further insights, we derive the asymptotic OP at the high signal-to-noise ratio regime to characterize the diversity orders and coding gains of NOMA users. Finally, simulation results are provided to validate the theoretical analysis as well as the superiority of employing the NOMA scheme in the LMS system, and show the impact of key parameters, such as fading configurations and user selection strategy on the performance of NOMA users.


By means of set up mathematical models,the uncertainty of flame atomic absorption spectrometry determination of nickel in water was evaluated,component values of uncertainty effecting measurement results were calculated and composed,so it gives the evidence to build efficient methods of quality control.


In order to model natural human behaviour, it is necessary to capture this behaviour. First, we will start out by modelling behaviour for specific situations, such as taking a seat in a theatre. To capture human behaviour, the following experiment is performed: Given a virtual environment, a sufficient number of subjects (real humans) are asked to execute a human task in this virtual environment (e.g. take a seat in the theatre). Whenever the subject deviates from the shortest path, the system will ask for a clue why this is done. The hypothesis is that the combination of the motion paths and the clues for making/changing decisions will provide decision rules to make reliable predictions about human behaviour under the same conditions when using virtual persons. To test the hypothesis, we propose to use the university's main conference and presentation hall as a test case. A 3D model and a motion path graph are constructed that enables a virtual person to find its way to a selected chair. The clues from the experiment are implemented as decision rules that determine a virtual person's behaviour. Running the simulation will result in the following data: Time per person to find a chair, Deviation from the shortest path, Distance covered per person to find a chair, Distribution of seated persons over time and Relocation of persons. To validate the test case, the process of people entering the hall and finding a chair is recorded on videotape. The walking behaviour of the people observed on the video is analysed and compared with the data from the simulation.


Sexual dimorphism between racial phenotypes and populations could be expressed in terms of metric and morphologic variations. The objective of this research was to estimate sex by metric analysis of new combination of pelvic measurements. The minimum iliac breadth (MIB), maximum auricular length (MAL) and maximum ischio-pubic length (MIPL) were measured from intact os coxa (pelvic bone) of 50 males and 50 females of South Indian origin, which were easily reproducible. Data were analysed by using discriminant function and demarking point analysis. The accuracies of sex estimation from discriminant function analysis ranged from 68% to 81%. Although the accuracies were relatively low, these could be used in fragmentary remains of the os coxa. Sectioning points are useful in predicting the sex of individual bones.


Objective:To investigate the effect of co-application of NGF and GM on the regeneration and functional recovery of transected sciatic nerves in rats. Methods:ninety-six SD rats were randomly divided into the normal saline group,NGF group,GM1 group and NGF + GM1 group. The sciatic nerves were incised for 5 mm defect. Saline , NGF, GM1 and NGF+GM1 were injected into tube immediately at the end of the operation and injected into the muscle of injured leg once a day. The sciatic nerve function index (SFI),nerve conduction velocity (NCV),the account of the number of nerve fibers of the injured sciatic nerves and the thickness of myelin sheath were measured at the 4th, 6th,8th weeks postinjury. Results:At weeks 4 and 6, the SFI and NCV were significantly higher in NGF + GM1 group than in other groups;the number of sciatic nerve fibers and the thickness of myelin sheath were increased significantly in groups 2,3 and 4 than in group 1. In the 8th week,group 2,3 and 4 showed significant increase in the SFI, NCV,number of sciatic nerve fibers and thickness of myelin sheath compared with group 1;there were no significant differences among group 2,3 and 4. Conclusion:The GM1 can lead the NGF to enhance peripheral nerve regeneration and functional recovery;compared with only use of NGF or GM1,co-application of NGF and GM1 can express a better and earlier biology effect.


Results from a metasynthesis of the relationships between 14 different types of preservice teacher preparation practices and teaching quality, preschool to university student performance, and university student and beginning teacher belief appraisals are reported. Each type of preservice practice (e.g., course-based student learning) included different kinds of instructional methods (e.g., problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and project-based learning). The metasynthesis included 118 meta-analyses and 12 surveys of more than three million study participants. Findings clearly indicated that active university student and beginning teacher involvement in mastering the use of instructional practices and both knowledge and skill acquisition by far stood out as the most important preservice teacher preparation practices. These included extended student teaching experiences, simulated instructional practices and microteaching, faculty coaching and mentoring, clinical supervision, different types of cooperative learning practices, and course-based active student learning methods. The pattern of results helped identify high leverage and high impact teacher preparation practices. Implications for future research and improving teacher preparation are described.


High frequency transmission characteristics of human body are investigated. The signal less than 100MHz is transmitted inside human body. The human body transmission loss is categorized three parts which are the contact loss, the transmission loss in the human body and the propagation loss of human surface. Consequently, the television signal with 6MHz bandwidth and around 10MHz is transmitted inside the human body.


This paper gives an information about the supply response of mungbean in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi regions of Bangladesh during the period of 1980–81 to 1996–97 (There are six divisions in Bangladesh namely Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet and Rajshahi. In this study Barisal is included in Khulna and Sylhet is included in Chittagong division). Three different response models were developed separately for area, yield and production responses using the Nerlovian partial adjustment model. The lagged price of competing crop and lagged mungbean area significantly influenced current area in Chittagong region. The influence of the time variable in determining area response was found negative for Rajshahi indicating technological backwardness in mungbean cultivation. In Dhaka region, yield response was found significantly negative to lagged own price and positive to time trend. The price and non-price variables were found significant and positive in determining yield response in Khulna region except time trend. The yield response was lound significantly positive to time factor for Chittagong region and own yield lagged by one year for Rajshahi region. Production response was only influenced by own produclion lagged by one year for Khulna region. In case of overall Bangladesh the farmers were found quick to realize the effect of price changes through production.


Beans are a major grain legume widely consumed in Tanzania. They serve as a major source of protein especially to low income households. Consumption of beans in the country is low despite their nutritional benefits reasons for which are not established. The limited information on factors influencing beans consumption and preference affects the ability of chain actors to respond to demand requirements of consumers. This study was conducted to identify factors shaping consumers' preferences for, ultimate choices and consumption of beans. Specifically, the study objectives were to; determine factors influencing the decision to consume beans at household level, examine households' consumption frequency of different beans and bean products, and assess factors influencing consumers' choices of beans. Data collected under Legume Innovation Lab Project SO2.2 from a random sample of 754 households were analysed to address the study objectives. Binary probit, descriptive statistics and Cragg's double hurdle models were used in the analysis. Results reveal that the decision to consume beans at household level was significantly influenced by income status of the household, age and education of the main decision maker. Dry red beans were the most frequently consumed followed by dry brown and dry mottled beans. Processed bean products were the least frequently consumed. Choices and willingness to pay for beans were significantly influenced by gravy quality, cooking time, income status of the household, age, education and sex of the main decision maker. Future efforts to promote beans consumption should take into consideration the consumption requirements and preferences of different consumer categories.


Exchange rate fluctuations are caused by interactions between economic factors and non-economic factors. The purpose of this study is to see the effect of the fluctuations in the rupiah exchange rate on economic growth along with several macro variables in Indonesia. The analytical method used in this study is multiple regression methods, namely testing the hypothesis about the effect of rupiah exchange rate fluctuations (KURS), inflation (INF), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Indonesian bank certificate interest rate (SBI), and Money Supply (JUB ) to the Indonesian economy (GRDP). The data used in this study are secondary data taken from Bank Indonesia, the Central Bureau of Statistics, and the World Bank. The research method used is multiple linear regrelsi method using eviews application. The results of this study indicate the exchange rate, inflation and the money supply have a negative direction with economic growth while foreign investment (FDI) and interest rates on Bank Indonesia Certificates (SBI) have a positive and significant direction towards economic growth in Indonesia.


Trace theory (formulated by Mazurkiewicz in 1987) is a framework for formalizing equivalence relations for concurrent program runs based on a commutativity relation over the set of atomic steps taken by individual program threads. It has been implicitly or explicitly used in a broad set of program analysis techniques, such as predictive testing for atomicity or data race violations, static and dynamic partial order reduction in model checking (particularly stateless model checking), and reasoning about distributed programs. In this paper, we introduce a different line of work that uses traces for the purpose of proof simplification for a broad set of automated verification goals. The long term thesis of this line of work has been that by taking advantage of commutativity, one can discover a substantially simpler verification task to replace the original one, and succeed at it despite the inevitability of the failure of the original one. The idea is to verify a different program in place of the original one and use commutativity as a way of soundly carrying the verification results over to the original one. We discuss hypersafety verification of sequential and concurrent programs, and safety and liveness verification of concurrent and distributed programs. We show how commutativity can be incorporated into a new verification algorithm which enumerates infinitely many possibilities for alternative programs to be verified instead of the original one. We conclude with an overview of some open research questions in this area.


The peptide chain in C 15 H 29 N 3 O 5 adopts an extended conformation. The peptide unit is trans and shows significant deviations from planarity. The crystal packing enables neighbouring molecules to interact through hydrogen bonding in an anti-parallel fashion.


The collection of Drosophilidae contains 358 type specimens of 122 species out of 23 genera. 74 of these species were described by De Meijere. With few exceptions the flies were collected in Indonesia. A list of the type specimens is given.


The appearance of loom weights at a number of southern Aegean sites in the Middle and early Late Bronze Age is indicative of the adoption of a new weaving technology: the use of the warp-weighted loom. The specific type of loom weight (discoid) recovered is a Cretan form, and this evidence of Cretan influence is also seen in a wider range of material culture features at these settlements during this period. Weaving is a complex skill and learning requires contact between novice and expert practitioner over an extended period of time; the introduction of a new weaving technology therefore raises the question of how the necessary technical knowledge and know-how was transferred from one individual or community to another. The archaeological indicators of this new technological practice, the loom weights themselves, are objects that very rarely travel, except with their owners; the presence of loom weights manufactured from non-local ceramic fabrics at some of the southern Aegean sites can therefore provide a window into the patterns of mobility through which the new technology is likely to have spread. Both in the Bronze Age and subsequent Archaic and Classical periods, weaving was closely associated with women. Loom weights thus constitute archaeological markers for the craftswomen who used them. This paper explores the insight they can offer into female networks of teaching, learning and craft practice in the second millennium bc. Ο ιστός της αράχνης: οι γυναίκες, η υφαντική και τα γνωστικά δίκτυα την εποχή του Χαλκού στο Νότιο Αιγαίο Η εμφάνιση των υφαντικών βαρών σε αρκετά μέρη στο νότιο Αιγαίο την περίοδο της Μέσης και αρχές της Ύστερης εποχής του Χαλκού είναι ενδεικτικό της υιοθέτησης μίας νέας υφαντικής τεχνολογίας: δηλαδή, της χρήσης του όρθιου αργαλειού. Ο συγκεκριμένος τύπος υφαντικού βάρους (δισκοειδής) που ανακαλύφθηκε, είναι Κρητικού τύπου και η ανακάλυψη της Κρητικής επιρροής είναι επίσης εμφανής σε ένα ευρύ φάσμα χαρακτηριστικών των υλικών καταλοίπων στους οικισμούς κατά τη διάρκεια αυτής της περιόδου. Η υφαντική αποτελεί μία πολύπλοκη δεξιοτεχνία και η εκμάθηση της απαιτεί την στενή συνεργασία μεταξύ των αρχάριων και των επαγγελματιών για μεγάλο χρονικό διάστημα. Έτσι, η εισαγωγή μίας νέας υφαντικής τεχνολογίας θέτει το ερώτημα πώς η απαραίτητη τεχνική γνώση και η τεχνογνωσία μεταφερόταν από το ένα άτομο στο άλλο ή από την μία κοινότητα στην άλλη. Οι αρχαιολογικές ενδείξεις αυτής της νέας τεχνολογικής πρακτικής, τα ίδια δηλαδή υφαντικά βάρη, είναι αντικείμενα που σπάνια ταξιδεύουν, εκτός αν τα μεταφέρουν οι ιδιοκτήτες τους. Η ύπαρξη αγνύθων που παράγονται από μη τοπικά κεραμικά υλικά σε ορισμένες από τις περιοχές του νότιου Αιγαίου μπορεί ως εκ τούτου να αποτελούν ένα «παράθυρο» στα πρότυπα της κινητικότητας μέσω της οποίας η νέα τεχνολογία είναι πιθανό να έχει εξαπλωθεί. Τόσο στην Εποχή του Χαλκού όσο και στις επόμενες Αρχαϊκές και Κλασικές περιόδους, η ύφανση συνδέεται στενά με τις γυναίκες. Επομένως, τα υφαντικά βάρη αποτελούν αρχαιολογικά στοιχεία για τις τεχνίτριες που τα χρησιμοποίησαν. Αυτό το άρθρο διερευνά τις γνώσεις που μπορούν να προσφέρουν στα δίκτυα γυναικείας διδασκαλίας, εκμάθησης και χειροτεχνίας στη δεύτερη χιλιετία π.Χ.


Modeling and control of ground vehicles have become a major research field in the last few years, due to the increasing diffusion of driver assistance technologies and the persistent need for guaranteeing safety and comfort of driver and passengers. Although vehicle control systems require a large set of measurements to perform accurate computations, due to the possible unavailability and the non-negligible cost of sensors, it is not always possible to assume the direct knowledge of some important dynamic quantities involved, among which a major role is taken by its lateral velocity. In this letter, we address the design and implementation of an asymptotic sampled-data state observer for the vehicle single-track model. The observer only exploits the knowledge of sparse yaw-rate samples, which are obtained by relatively cheap digital gyroscopic devices, to reconstruct the continuous behavior of lateral velocity and yaw rate. However, due to the inherent properties of the vehicle single-track model, the observer is theoretically guaranteed to work only in the presence of sufficiently bounded driver maneuvers. Consequently and in view of a practical exploitation in a realistic setting, we preliminarily validate the approach by means of simulations of the observer applied to a more general vehicle model, including parameter variations, unmodeled dynamics, and quantization. The results seem to confirm the potential of the approach.


Neutrinos are neutral, spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particles which undergo only weak interactions. The experimentally observed phenomenon of neutrino oscillation establishes the fact that neutrinos are massive and there is mixing between different neutrino flavours. This constitutes the first unambiguous hint towards the physics Beyond Standard Model (BSM). In the BSM theories, the neutrino mass terms in the Lagrangian lead to the non-diagonal neutrino mass matrix in the flavour basis which depends on neutrino mass and mixing parameters. Thus knowledge of the neutrino oscillation parameters and understanding the underlying symmetries of the neutrino mass matrix are very important as they can give an insight to the new physics beyond Standard Model. Therefore the measurement of different oscillation parameters and studying the structure of the neutrino mass matrix are some of the main goals in neutrino physics at present. In this thesis we have studied the potential of present/future neutrino oscillation experiments and synergy between them to determine the unknown parameters in the neutrino sector in the light of current experimental results. We have also studied the phenomenological consequences of texture zeros in the neutrino mass matrices in the presence of a sterile neutrino.


Summary 1. Differences in nematocyst isolating procedures significantly affected the discharge characteristics of the acontial nematocysts isolated from Calliactis tricolor. 2. Most of the nematocysts isolated in artificial sea water (ASW) discharged instantaneously in 5mmoir ' EGTA and to a lesser degree in distilled water (DW), but they did not discharge in Ca 2+ -free ASW or 50mmoir ' CaCl2. 3. Most of the nematocysts isolated in lmoll" 1 sodium citrate discharged instantaneously when treated with any of the above solutions. 4. Nematocysts isolated in DW or 1 mol I" 1 sucrose exhibited a modest degree of discharge in Smmoll" 1 EGTA after a considerable latent period. 5. Some of the present results appear to be inconsistent with the hypothesis that removal of Ca 2+ from the intracapsular fluid causes nematocyst discharge.


The invention discloses a filling method for mining. The filling method includes the first step of mining ore in a first-step mining field in a mine body, the second step of enabling filling slurries containing cementing materials to be filled into a gob of the first-step mining field, the third step of mining ore in a second-step mining field in the mine body, the fourth step of enabling the filling slurries containing the cementing materials to be filled into a gob of the second-step mining field and filling areas adjacent to a third-step mining field in the mine body, and enabling filling slurries without the cementing materials to be filled into other areas of the gob of the second-step mining field, and the fifth step of mining ore in the third-step mining field and enabling the filling slurries without the cementing materials to be filled into a gob of the third-step mining field. According to the filling method for mining, after the ore is mined, the filling areas, adjacent to the third-step mining field, of the second-step mining field are filled with the filling slurries containing the cementing materials, and other positions of the second-step mining field are filled with the filling slurries without the cementing materials. Therefore, according to the filling method for mining, the reasonable distribution of filling strength in the gobs can be guaranteed, the cementing filling proportion of the second-step mining field is reduced, the filling cost is low, and the ore can be mined to the largest degree, so the utilization rate of the resources is improved, and the economical benefits are improved.


Despite the long history of stem cells studying, the mechanisms of their action are still not fully understood. A classic example is the described non-hematological effect of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), presumably due to the ability to transdifferentiation and cell fusion. The focus of clinical application in the field of regenerative medicine is mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC), and the understanding of the ways of implementfnion of their regenerative potential has evolved significantly. MSC were discovered and described as a structural unit of the HSC niche responsible for the repair of connective tissue through differentiation. However, it later turned out that they are a regulator of various processes in the body as a whole. These processes include anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic, and immunomodulatory effects, which are realized in various ways. Among these pathways, the paracrine mechanism has already been identified – the release of various growth factors, exosomes and microvesicles, the mechanism of direct transfer of mitochondria and other cellular organelles from cell to cell using tunneling nanotubes, the mechanism of efferocytosis. One of the latest discoveries in this field was the immunomodulatory effect of apoptotic MSC.In general, the study of the stem cells mechanisms of action is a living, developing field of science in which the last word will not be said soon.


Non-infectious subcutaneous emphysema of the hand has previously been mentioned in literature. In most cases, it presents in a benign and self-resolving form, which may be managed conservatively. However, in cases of subcutaneous emphysema involving insufflation with nitrogen gas, clinical vigilance is advised as acute compartment syndrome may be a potential complication due to the non-permeative nature of the gas. This would necessitate a complete change in the dynamics of management, warranting urgent surgical intervention. Current literature on acute compartment syndrome of the hand complicating subcutaneous emphysema is scarce. This report aims to highlight this unique case and add to the current literature on this rare condition.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of university knowledge capital on the local business activity in the Korean local governments in the year 2015. We found that the increase of the standard deviation of university patent, scientific publications, incumbent firms, and industrial property rights raised the number of new knowledge-intensive firms to 15%, 11%, 54%, and 22%, respectively, in the local economy. In addition, the coefficient which reflects the interaction effects of the knowledge capital between universities and local industries was significant in the given area in the year. On the other hand, in the control variables, the coefficients for the size of local government, population density, and percentage of 20s ∼ 40s out of the total population in the local government were significant, showing above 90% level except for the variable of the distance between a local government and Seoul. In particular, when the knowledge capital of the university and industry coexists, the synergistic effect which has influence on the foundation of knowledge-intensive firms was meaningful despite the small scale, and these two types of knowledge capital could be complementary in creating new knowledge-intensive firms in the Korean local economy.


Lexicographic type structures (Brandendenburger, Friedenberg, Kiesler, ECMA 2008) have become a standard tool for the epistemic analysis of strategic reasoning in …nite static games. Yet, the implicit approach of type structures does not allow to fully understand which limitations are imposed by di¤erent structures and how their choice in‡uences epistemic characterization results. Here we start from hierarchies of lexicographic beliefs and construct two di¤erent canonical structures, one for all hierarchies and one for those which can be represented by a mutually singular LPS over strategy-hierarchy pairs of the opponent. It turns out that the latter includes also hierarchies where beliefs are not mutually singular at any order. Thus, mutual singularity is an in…nite-order notion rather than a …nite-order one. Moreover, we analyze the terminality properties of the canonical type structures, i.e. how they relate to other, generic lexicographic type structures. Our canonical structures are proved to be fundamental for the epistemic analysis of iterated admissibility in other papers (Catonini 2013, Catonini and De Vito, 2018)


The application of Dongchimi liquid into Naengmyon broth for the improved eating quality of Naengmyon was scientifically explored by reviewing the quality properties of the product. Primarily, the optimum fermentation conditions for Dongchimi from which the liquid portion was extracted were pursued and the optimum mixing ratio was sought on the basis of sensory and microbiological properties of the product. The liquid portions which had been periodically extracted from Dongchimi at intervals of two or five days during fermentation at were added to Naengmyon broth. The treatments were prepared with three levels, namely, basic broth only('A') and the ratios of 3:7(v/v, 'B') and 5:5(v/v, 'C') of Dongchimi liquid and basic broth, respectively. According to assessments of Dongchimi liquid on taste and intensity based on sensory analyses, the organoleptic factors such as color, smell, sour taste, carbonated taste, and overall acceptability were given higher values from day 11 to day 17 in all items. As for the assessment of Dongchimi liquid on intensity, color, sour odor, moldy odor, and carbonated taste have shown the increasing scores during with high intensities while those for clearness has stayed low. Most of the phenomena observed from the Naengmyon broth substituted with (Treatment 'A') and (Treatment 'B') of Dongchimi liquids with different storage periods ensued much of the previous fermentation pattern of Dongchimi itself. Organoleptic assessment on taste and its intensity showed that better(the best) scores could be obtained at between day 1625(17) and 1320(15) for Treatments A and B, respectively. The intensity scores of taste for color, smell, carbonated taste, sour taste, and mouthfeel were increased while those for clearness, palatability, and meaty ones were decreased with lapse of fermentation. The numbers of total cell and lactic acid bacterial counts of Dongchimi has increased until day 13 and then decreased in the later stages. Total cell count and lactic acid bacterial counts of Naengmyon broth also increased until the 13th day and then they began to decrease. It was also proven that slightly over-ripened Dongchimi liquid was more preferable for adding into Naengmyon broth. Granting the optimum ripening period of Dongchimi liquid itself to be 13 days, both Treatment A and Treatment B were evenly favored using Dongchimi liquids slightly over-ripened at days 13 to 17. However, Treatment A was more favored than Treatment B when Dongchimi liquid over-ripened for 20 to 26 days was used.


A new generation of honeycomb membranes is herein described from a novel library of multipurpose linear‐dendritic block copolymers. These are accomplished by combining atom transfer radical polymerization together with dendrimer chemistry and click reactions. The resulted amorphous block copolymers, with Tg between 30 and 40 °C, display three important functions, i.e., pore generating aromatic groups, crosslinking azides, and multiple dendritic functional groups. All block copolymers enable the successful fabrication of honeycomb membranes through the facile breath figure method. The peripheral dendritic functionality is found to influence the porous morphologies from closed pored structure with pore size of 1.12 μm2 to open pore structure with pore size 10.26 μm2. Facile UV crosslinking of the azides yields membranes with highly durable structural integrity. Upon crosslinking, the pH and thermal stability are extended beyond the noncrosslinked membranes in which the porous integrity is maintained up to 400 °C and pH 1–14. Taking into account the straightforward and cost‐efficient strategy to generate ordered, functional, and structurally stable honeycomb membranes on various solid substrates, it is apparent that these multipurpose block copolymers may unlock future applications including use as molds for soft lithography.


This study investigates the differences in outdoor thermal comfort in different spatial types over long-term observations during the transition season in a cold region. Using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) as an evaluation index, subjective questionnaires and field surveys were conducted on thermal comfort in three different typical outdoor environments (sunlight, tree shade and building shade) in Dalian (Northeast China). The results demonstrated the following: (1) Air temperature and mean radiant temperature were the dominant meteorological factors affecting outdoor thermal comfort in Dalian. (2) The main thermal sensation recorded in the transition season was "slightly cool". Over time, the human thermal sensation experienced a gradual transition from "hot" to "cold". (3) Compared with direct sunlight, the average UTCI decreased by 6.6 and 3.5 °C for building shade and tree shade environments, and the neutral UTCI in Dalian was found to be 18.8 °C. Subjects were most sensitive to the thermal environment in building shade, then in tree shade and the least in sunlight. (4) When UTCI ≥ 21.9 °C, the thermal acceptability rate in building shade remained the highest; when 10.2 °C ≤ UTCI < 21.9 °C, it was highest in tree shade; and when the UTCI < 10.2 °C, it was highest in sunlight. This study verifies the UTCI applicability in the transition season in cold regions and analyzes the spatial differences in human thermal comfort. These differences play a positive role in developing optimization strategies for outdoor thermal environments, improving environmental satisfaction and facilitating pedestrian outdoor activities.


Abstract : The integrated absorption coefficients of the (0,0) bands for the transitions 'Sigma(+) - 'Sigma(+) and triplet Delta - triplet Delta of the ZrO molecule were studied in a plasma of a reflected shock wave. The integrated absorption coefficients were determined as a function of the shock wave temperature and the results confirm that the ground state of ZrO is X'Sigma(+) and that the next excited state is a triplet Delta at 1700 + or - 250/cm. (Author)


The X-ray single-crystal structure determination of the title compound, [Al(CH 3 ) 3 (C 11 H 16 N 2 )], reveals that the Al atom is four-coordinate in a distorted tetrahedral environment and is bonded to the N atom of the piperazine molecule carrying the methyl group, with an Al-N bond length of 2.050 (2)A. The piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation.


Dust plays a globally important role in supplying biologically essential elements to landscapes underlain by nutrient‐poor substrates. Here we show that dust may play a significant role in sustaining productivity in the vast wetlands of the Okavango Delta in southern Africa, one of the world's richest biodiversity hotspots. Dust accumulates preferentially on tree‐covered islands in the seasonal swamps of the Delta, creating pockets of fine‐grained, nutrient‐rich material within the semi‐arid landscape of the Kalahari Desert. Strontium and neodymium isotopes reveal that this dust likely originates predominantly from the Makgadikgadi salt pans, located 300 km away, and contributes 10–80% of the fine‐grained material present in Okavango island soils. Surface material sourced from the Makgadikgadi Pans contains relatively high amounts of bioavailable phosphorus and iron, potentially influencing Okavango Delta biological productivity. We propose that long‐term ecosystem productivity and nutrient availability in the Okavango may be strongly mediated by regional dust inputs. Understanding the influence of dust deposition on nutrient loads and biogeochemical cycling is thus critical for predicting the response of the Okavango Delta to future changes in climate. We suggest that dust inputs may play a significant role in the supply of nutrients to other large, global wetland systems located in dryland environments. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd


In the present paper we put forth a preliminary research aimed at the development of an encompassing maturity model for the management of hospital information systems. The development of this model is justified to the extent that current maturity models in the field of hospital information systems management are still in an early development stage, and especially because they are poorly detailed, do not provide tools to determine the maturity stage nor structure the characteristics of maturity stages according to different influencing factors.


Attention is focusing more and more on the nation's pre-school programs. We are deeply involved in the theory, application, practicability and results obtained from offering a pre-school program to our culturally deprived children, our exceptional children and, more recently, our neurologically handicapped children. This preliminary report details some of the problems to be overcome and the responsibilities which must be met in design and implementation of this type of pre-school program.—C. C. E.


Purpose: To present a fast and robust hybrid deformable image registration algorithm (Juggler) for target motion estimation, automated segmentation and internal target volume (ITV) generation in 4DCT lungimaging.Method and Materials: The Juggler algorithm utilizes two alternating separately optimized diffusion models: one for low gradient features (soft tissues), the other for high gradient features (bony anatomy). Clinical lungimaging, acquired from 4DCT, consisted of free breathing CT and 10 phased CT sets. Comparison with three other conventional algorithms (demons, accelerated demons, and free‐form deformation method) was carried out using both simulated data and clinical 4DCT. Algorithm validation was carried out using comparison of 1) displacement vectors (for simulated data), 2) correlation coefficient, 3) difference imaging, and 4) vector streamlines. Clinical efficacy of Juggler was evaluated by visual inspection of anatomical structures mapped from the reference onto target imaging using the deformation map. Tumor motion/ deformation was determined using image moments. Results: For simulated data, Juggler achieved the highest correlation coefficient and minimum error. Its unique alternating mechanism greatly improved the convergence rate, resulting in at least 40% reduction in iterations. For 256×256×80 imaging, Juggler required <3 min for 50 iterations using Pentium‐4 3.2 GHz PC. For clinical 4DCT, Juggler performed best based on correlation coefficient and visual inspection. We used Juggler for generating ITV, and autosegmenting normal structures onto the phased CTs based on the initial segmentation on the reference CT.Conclusion: Juggler demonstrated the benefits of utilizing multiple diffusion models into a single unified model. Initial experiments indicated Juggler achieved the fastest rate of convergence per iteration, and overall superior registration based on correlation coefficient, difference imaging and error analysis. Its success in autosegmentation and ITV generation make this highly promising in implementation of adaptive radiation therapy. With new computer hardware, <30sec computation times are expected.


Given the neighbourhood focus of much regeneration policy, we need to know more about the functional roles that neighbourhoods play in the way that households move within the housing market and hence about the different functional types of neighbourhood amongst deprived areas. Such knowledge would help both to guide the priorities of policy and to interpret the probability of policy interventions being successful. This exploratory study draws on an evaluation of the British government's National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, part of which entails an interpretation of household mobility data from the 2001 Census. It suggests four categories of neighbourhood—transit, escalator, isolate, and improver areas—based on the relationship between where households move to and move from, focused on the 20% most deprived lower super output areas in England. Evidence on the ground suggests the plausibility of the different functional roles played by the four neighbourhood types. Some continuing conundrums—the robustness of the categorisation, the need to take account of the spatial context of deprived areas, and the difference between movers and stayers—are discussed as a prelude to further continuing research.


Introduction: At a time of unpredictable challenges for health, whether from a changing climate, emerging infectious diseases, or the next microbe that develops drug resistance, one trend is certain: the ageing of populations is rapidly accelerating worldwide. For the first time in history, most people can expect to live into their 60s and beyond. The consequences for health, health systems, their workforce and  budgets are profound. A healthy city is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and developing to their maximum potential. Aim: This presentation focuses on the city as a setting for health promotion and on the role of healthy city projects in  promoting healthy aging. Methodology: The main approach of this study is to   provide a review of previous research about successful and healthy ageing that have been utilized by many countries in their policy responses towards the demographic changes brought about by ageing. Results: These will be illustrated in this paper through case studies. Conclusion: In the context of the healthy city programs,   various activities to promote the health of older citizens have been carried out.


Common cause failures (CCFs) may lead to the simultaneous unavailability or failure of numerous components in the nuclear power plant because of the existence of a shared cause when an initiating event disrupts the normal functioning of nuclear power plants. The presence of common cause failures (intra-unit and inter-unit) can be recognized in a multi-unit probabilistic safety assessment (MUPSA) as a crucial dependency factor that can influence accident scenarios and the core damage frequency (CDF), as CCF may affect the availability and proper operation of mitigating systems. Since such failures are likely to significantly undermine the benefits of the concept of redundancy in nuclear power plant systems, it is necessary to identify the CCFs that contribute to the core damage in a multi-unit site and analyse their overall quantitative magnitude and qualitative proportions. In this study, a twin-unit generic pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear plant is modeled using the AIMS-PSA software. For the loss-of-offsite-power (LOOP) and station blackout (SBO) events, the site CDF was calculated, and the cut-sets produced by this quantification were examined for the modeled CCF basic events in the fault trees. The quantitative and qualitative contributions of the CCFs to the frequency of site core damage were examined. CCFs in the modeled fault trees contributed to 4.58% to the site CDF of the combined LOOP followed by SBO event. In the LOOP event alone that leads to core damage, the CCF contributed 4.58% to the site CDF while CCFs contributed 17.19% to the site CDF in the SBO event alone that leads to core damage. With CCF events considered in the modeling process, the site CDF estimated with CCF events increased by 7.53% in the combined LOOP followed by SBO event. In the LOOP event alone that leads to core damage, inclusion of CCF events in the modeling increased the site CDF by 7.42%. A 15.66% increase in site CDF was recorded in the SBO event alone that leads to core damage as compared to modeling without CCF events. The results show how crucial the common cause failure contribution is to site CDF. The safety of the nuclear plant at a site is impacted by an increase in site CDF when common cause failures are considered. The various CCF fundamental event compositions and their percentage contributions were explicitly examined by the minimal cut-sets which leads to core damage in the units. In conclusion, this study's findings can help us better understand how CCFs increase multi-unit site risk and can also act as a starting point for future studies on the qualitative and quantitative categorizations of CCF effects within MUPSA.


Velvet beans (Mucuna pruriens) represent an interesting food and feed commodity because of the presence of harmful, but also potentially beneficial componen...


It is striking how sustainability is widely now acknowledged as key, not only to survival, but also to good business practises or new ways to prosperity. It appears, and happily so, that one can save the planet and build really good holistic enterprises while doing so. In essence, though, sustainability is common sense, and people are thus making excellent businesses grow from common sense.


Progress toward developing metal implants as permanent hard‐tissue substitutes requires both osteointegration to achieve load‐bearing support, and energy‐dissipation to prevent overload‐induced bone resorption. However, in existing implants these two properties can only be achieved separately. Optimized by natural evolution, tooth‐periodontal‐ligaments with fiber‐bundle structures can efficiently orchestrate load‐bearing and energy dissipation, which make tooth–bone complexes survive extremely high occlusion loads (>300 N) for prolonged lifetimes. Here, a bioinspired peri‐implant ligament with simultaneously enhanced osteointegration and energy‐dissipation is presented, which is based on the periodontium‐mimetic architecture of a polymer‐infiltrated, amorphous, titania nanotube array. The artificial ligament not only provides exceptional osteoinductivity owing to its nanotopography and beneficial ingredients, but also produces periodontium‐similar energy dissipation due to the complexity of the force transmission modes and interface sliding. The ligament increases bone–implant contact by more than 18% and simultaneously reduces the effective stress transfer from implant to peri‐implant bone by ≈30% as compared to titanium implants, which as far as is known has not previously been achieved. It is anticipated that the concept of an artificial ligament will open new possibilities for developing high‐performance implanted materials with increased lifespans.


This paper is an empirical analysis of the relationship between industrial sturcture, urbanization and carbon emission with an employment of the panel data of China as a whole, Eastern China and Western China from 2005 to 2011 as provided on the provincial level. It has been found out that while the impact of the second industry on carbon emissions is stable in different regions, the impact of the third industry varies from region to region. The accontability of urbanization on carbon emission depends on the development of the third indusry. While the harmonious development of industrial structure and urbanization optimizes their impact on carbon emission, the opposite will result in increase in carbon emission.


We present new absolute archaeointensity data from six archaeological sites situated in the Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The materials studied are well-dated fragments from pottery, ceramic coffins and haniwa artifacts. Their ages range from 160 AD to 675 AD, covering the Late Yayoi and Kofun periods. Rock magnetic experiments suggest the presence of magnetite and/or Ti-magnetite as the main carrier of the remanence, with a possible minor contribution of higher coercivity minerals. After thermal demagnetization experiments, the most magnetically stable samples were selected for archaeointensity analysis performed following the double-heating method proposed by Thellier and modified by Coe. Partial thermoremanent magnetization (pTRM) checks and pTRM tail-checks were performed for monitoring possible chemical alterations during heating. All measurements were corrected for both anisotropy and cooling-rate effects. Successful archaeointensity determinations, following rigorous selection criteria, were obtained for samples from all the investigated archaeological sites. Compared with literature data from Japan, the new high-quality data show significantly lower intensity values. They also reveal possible fast secular variation changes during the Late Yayoi period and very weak geomagnetic intensity field around 630 AD. Such values offer evidence of a possible recurrence of weak intensity field in East Asia, suggesting an ancient recurrence of the West Pacific Anomaly. The new data might change the archaeomagnetic field models interpretations in the area, even though more data are still necessary to better understand the secular variation in Japan and the temporal evolution of the geomagnetic field's behavior in East Asia.


A microstrip Wilkinson power divider with harmonic suppression and size reduction is presented in this paper. The proposed power divider has reduced its occupied area to 37.6% of the conventional design. Furthermore higher order harmonics are effectively suppressed. The whole design is validated by the full-wave electromagnetic simulation results.


The model power system developed at the University of New South Wales during the last few years consists of four model transmission lines and a model substation. An analog and digital measurement and control interface provides a link to a computer system based on PDP11/10 and PDP11/40 computers. Important features of this research facility are described in this paper. The model is designed for use in digital protection and security control studies.


Northern hardwood forests provide the industries of New England with their most valuable woods: yellow birch and sugar maple for veneer, paper birch for turning stock, and other hardwood species for a variety of specialty products. As a result of recent developments in hardwood pulping, these northern hardwood forests now represent a tremendous reservoir of raw material to the pulp and paper industry. To ensure a continued and balanced supply of timber for these wood-using industries, foresters must be well equipped with information on the growth and development of northern hardwoods.


Objective
To analyze the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of spinal dural arteriovenous fistula (SDAVF), and to improve the understanding of this diease and the early diagnosis rate.

Methods
The clinical data and MRI manifestations of eight patients with SDAVF admitted to Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital of Shanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January 2006 to December 2016 were retrospectively analyzed.

Results
Of the eight patients, six lesions were located in the thoracic region, one lesion was in lumbosacral region and one lesion was in craniocervical junction. MRI showed tortuous flow void phenomena in spinal cord, the contrast MRI study showed the tortuous blood vessels significantly enhanced; all patients presented intramedullary abnormalities, and 6 cases presented spinal cord thickening.

Conclusions
SDAVF is easily to be missed or misdiagnosed. MRI plays an important role in the early diagnosis that it can provide basis for diagnosis and identification of SDAVF.

Key words:
Spinal dural arterio-venous fistula; Spinal meninges; Magnetic resonance imaging features


BACKGROUND: Multidisciplinary cancer teams regularly treat patients with Malignant Pleural Effusion(MPE) Uniportal VATS talc poudrage is the standard of care for fit patients being talc slurry reserved to unfit for surgery AIMS: In patients unfit for pleurodesis (low-performance status/comorbidity),recurrent MPE after pleurodesis,trapped lung,outpatient management through subcutaneous tunneled indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) could be used METHODS: From 2001, 189 patients referred for IPC with histological/cytological confirmed MPE Contraindications: mesothelioma,coagulopathy,skin infection,loculated effusions IPC placed under local anesthesia Weekly fluid evacuation recommended District nurses management on outpatient RESULTS: All reported reduction in dyspnea/improvement of well-being All discharged in the same implantation day Minor complications in 9% (no IPC metastatic seeding) Mean duration of drainage 54 days (range 21-296) Pleurodesis achieved in 81 (42.9%) after median time of 54 days (range 31-83) Mean survival 184 days (range 21-296) CONCLUSIONS: In end-stage cancers, treatment of MPE with IPC improves quality of life Complication rate is low and IPC can be safely managed at home.


Construction using composite IWF steel and concrete have been widely
used nowdays, but this construction exists at a high price so the research on
composite steel castellated modification beams. This research is done to reduce
the prices and also to increase load capacity of composite castellated beams.
Results of previous studies showed that an increase in the load capacity of the
castellated composite beams with angled stiffeners (Haidar,2014) on castellated
composite beams with hexagonal openings (Pribadi,2012) is 31.04%. Failure on
the castellated composite with angled stiffeners is at angled stiffener so
conducted further research. This study aims to determine the flexural behavior of
castellated beams with reinforcement bracing and mortar composite.
The tests carried out on one specimen castellated beams are combined with
D22 rebar stiffeners and cast with a mortar and given a rectangular hole in the
specimen. Mortar mix used was 1: 1.5 with added material viscocrete 10. Methods
of testing was done by providing two point static load to determine the flexural
behavior of castellated composite beams spaced support 288.6 cm and the
distance between the loading is 78.4 cm.
The results showed that the load capacity of this study was 178.853 kN
increased research on castellated composite hexagonal openings (Pribadi,2012)
was 29.83%, and has decreased the castellated composite angled stiffeners
(Haidar,2014) was 1.76%. Failure mechanisms that occur are a result of the
collapse of bending and stress concentration at the hole (vierendeel mechanism).
The pattern of cracks that occur in this research that the tensile cracks in beams
and around the holes in the beam. The maximum load capacity of the beam
calculated by the Abaqus CAE modeling of 147.351 kN smaller 17.61% of the
maximum load capacity beam experiments. Stiffnes beam experiments was larger
16.66% than the beams with hexagonal openings and smaller than of the beams
with angled stiffners which 44.99%, while ductility the experiment beam was
6.412 larger than the beams with angled stiffners was 5.280 and smaller than
beams with hexagonal openings was 10.578.
Keywords: flexible behavior, castellated modification, Abaqus CAE, ductility,
stiffness