Herein, a one-step hydrothermal synthesis method was adopted to fabricate carbon dots (CDs) from amido black 10b in a sodium hydroxide solution. The morphology and composition of the CDs were investigated by XRD, FTIR TEM, XPS, UV–vis, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The obtained CDs (AB-CDs) with an average diameter of 19.4 nm displayed a well-dispersed characteristic in aqueous solutions. The as-prepared CDs showed bright blue fluorescence and good photostability, with a high quantum yield of 24.1%. AB-CDs displayed a selective and noticeable turn-off response to Fe3+. Accordingly, the quantitative detection of Fe3+ was achieved in the range of 5–200 μmol L–1 with a detection limit of 1.84 μmol L–1. The fluorescence response mechanism of Fe3+ to AB-CDs was ascribed to static quenching due to the emergence of the ground-state complex. Moreover, ascorbic acid could restore the fluorescence of AB-CDs quenched by Fe3+ by reducing Fe3+ to Fe2+. The developed nanoprobe was used to detect ascorbic acid with a limit of detection of 7.26 μmol L–1 in the range of 20–300 μmol L–1. Furthermore, the developed sensing system was successfully applied for an Fe3+ assay in a lake water sample and ascorbic acid detection in a human urine sample. The AB-CD-based analytical system showed its latent practical value in the chemical analysis and bioanalytical fields.


The article elaborated the indications for use in clinical practice of low-invasive express-method of intragastric pH-metry in children, that enables to diagnose acidic and antacid functions of stomach at functional dyspepsia, and in future to use this method as indicator of efficiency of antisecretory therapy and stratification of the differentiated guidelines in terms of correction of secretory violations at functional dyspepsia in children.


The change of the blast toughness of the 31Mn2Si cast steel was studied when put in with No.1 rare earth alloy.The result shows that the blast toughness of the cast steel can double when put in with 0.15% mixture rare earth.


Abstract We apply a functional-discrete method with convergence rate not worse than that of a geometric series for an eigenvalue transmission problem with periodic boundary conditions. It is shown that the convergence rate increases with an increase in the ordinal number of trial eigenvalue. Based on asymptotic behavior of eigenvalues of the basic problem and the functional-discrete method, qualitative results concerning the arrangement of the eigenvalues of the original eigenvalue transmission problem with periodic boundary conditions are proved. A number of numerical examples are given to support the theory.


This paper discusses the detection and satellite-based measurement of the surface displacement (surface deformation) of the largest Austrian glacier, the Pasterze (47°05'N, 12°44'E, 17.5 km2) by means of differential SAR-Interferometry (DINSAR). For this Band 42/1 (2008), S. 85–104 Z E I T S C H R I F T F Ü R GLETSCHERKUNDE U N D G L A Z I A L G E O L O G I E © 2009 by Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck


Starting with 01.01.2006 the working entities of Romania apply accountant regulations according with the European directives, starting with the 4 th Directive of the CEE and it's afterwards changes. The authority for accountant regulation had emitted more normative papers applicable to different entities, depending on their activity field and specific economic agents, credit institutions, insurance societies. Adopting the information within the European directives is not consequent in all the normative papers released. In this paper we will refer at the other perspective of the value adjustments and at the provisions within the credit institutions. Keys words: credit institutions, value adjustment, provisions, depreciation.


The main purpose of this study was to determine the level of occupational engagement among university students in one Jordanian university. The instrument used to collect data in this study was the Occupational Engagement scale-student (OES-S-14 items) developed by Cox (2008). The OES-S went through rigorous cross-cultural translation process to ensure its validity. The study surveyed 139 students who were enrolled in the vocational education courses and evaluation courses offered by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Hashemite University. Results of the study indicated that participants have high level of occupational engagement. The study also indicated that students enrolled in the vocational course exhibited higher levels of occupational engagement than those enrolled in the evaluation course.


The use of the Straits of Malacca generally revolves around three sets of interests: warfare and the projection of military power across the globe, commercial interests and maritime trade, and economic exploitation of the sea. One of the biggest issues in the Straits of Malacca today is the threat to maritime security from piracy and terrorism. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) the sovereignty over 'territorial seas,' which extend twelve nautical miles off a state's coasts, the Malaccan Strait falls to the littoral states namely Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. But other maritime states such as Japan and China are imposing authority in protecting this strait for economic reasons in shielding their ships against maritime crime. The act of terrorism from various groups and other separatist groups has complicated and brought more challenges to the security of this straits as US is insisting in joining the back wagon in providing naval security in the global war against terrorism. Nevertheless the littoral states are adamant in ensuring their responsibility in providing security with extensive military exercises amongst these states ensuring non interference from other maritime and non state actors. Malaysia and Indonesia feels there is no need for the presence of an extra regional force for the purpose of securing the straits and that such presence will impinge on the sovereignty of the country unlike Singapore who is the most vocal advocate of international cooperation.


Purpose To evaluate postoperative visual performance and total ocular aberration in cataract patients after implantation of the TECNIS Eyhance™ intraocular lens (IOL). Methods Our study is a prospective interventional non-comparative study that was conducted on 34 eyes of 17 patients who underwent phacoemulsification and Eyhance IOL implantation. Postoperative corrected and uncorrected near and far visual acuity and total ocular aberration were assessed 3 months after surgery. Results Our study included 34 eyes of 17 patients. At the third postoperative month, the mean spherical equivalent (SE) was −0.32 diopters (D) (SD ±0.62), and the mean distance-corrected near visual acuity (DCNVA) was 0.33 (SD ±0.15) and 0.42 (SD ±0.17) decimal notation (DN) monocular and binocular, respectively. The mean near distance with maximum visual acuity was 79.47 cm (SD ±7.70) and 74.76 cm (SD ±7.90) monocular and binocular, respectively. The mean postoperative minimum reading addition (add) was 1.6 D (SD ±0.47). The mean spherical aberration (SA) was 0.13 µm (SD ±0.09). The correlation of amount of spherical aberration with power of minimum reading add at 40 cm was not statistically significant (p=0.324). Conclusion The TECNIS Eyhance IOL provides good intermediate visual acuity and decreases the power of the reading add needed after phacoemulsification.


The environment of this study is the European Space of High Education (EHEA) that the European Economic Countries (EEC) has proposed, in the Bologna Declaration. In 2010 thirty three countries will must adopt a system of easily readable and comparable degrees, with two main cycles, and establish an European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). The main objective of this area is to improve the quality of teaching, learning and investigation at the universities of the European Economic Community (EEC). The adaptation to the norms defined in this area supposes for universities a big challenge whose attainment will allow them the integration with this area. The EHEA tries to establish a system of homogeneous degrees and post-degrees, in the EEC countries, with a new model of teaching and learning.


Development of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in aortic stenosis (AS) is accompanied by dysfunction of the coronary microcirculation, demonstrated by an impaired coronary vasodilator reserve (CVR), but the relative contribution of LVH and changes in haemodynamics remains unclear. In twenty patients with AS, an increase in resting myocardial blood flow (MBF), assessed with positron emission tomography, was demonstrated, proportional to hypertrophy measured with cardiac magnetic resonance, presumably as a result of coronary autoregulation. However, an inverse relationship between CVR and echocardiographic peak transvalvular pressure gradient and left ventricular pressure multiplied by heart rate (LVRPP) suggests that the effect of haemodynamic and intramural forces may be to counteract autoregulation, maintaining transmural MBF at rest, but impairing the coronary microcirculation stress response, particularly within the subendocardium.


Musical instruments are said to have a personality, which we notice in the sound that they produce. The oscillation mechanism inside woodwinds is commonly studied, but the transmission from internal waveforms to radiated sound is often overlooked, although it is musically essential. It is influenced by the geometry of their resonators which are acoustical waveguides with frequency dependent behavior due in part to the lattice of open toneholes. For this acoustically periodic medium, wave propagation theory predicts that waves are evanescent in low frequency and propagate into the lattice above the cutoff frequency. These phenomena are generally assumed to impact the external sound perceived by the instrumentalist and the audience, however, a quantitative link has never been demonstrated. Here we show that the lattice shapes the radiated sound by inducing a reinforced frequency band in the envelope of the spectrum near the cutoff of the lattice. This is a direct result of the size and spacing between toneholes, independent of the generating sound source and musician, which we show using external measurements and simulations in playing conditions. As with the clarinet, the amplitude of the even harmonics increases with frequency until they match odd harmonics at the reinforced spectrum region.


─ TEM Cells can generate computable standard fields, which are often used in electromagnetic measurement systems. Their electromagnetic field uncertainty has a great influence on the evaluation of system measurement results. In this paper, a method and index for rigorous evaluation of the uniformity of electromagnetic field distribution in the test area are presented. The relationship between different measurement accuracies and the size limits of the test object is analyzed by HFSS. According to this relationship, the limit condition of the sample size is established when the E field measurement accuracy is 1dB. Among them, the height requirements are consistent with the traditional experience requirements, and the width requirements are more stringent. On this basis, the electric field distribution law of the symmetric extended TEM chamber is studied and analyzed. It shows that the field uniformity of the symmetric extended TEM room is basically unchanged when the test space is multiplied. Index Terms ─ Electric field, field uniformity, TEM Cells, uncertainty.


In Italy and Sicily as in Spain, the medical traveler is prone to pay more attention to, and profit more from, the history and art of the land than its medicine. And this with right; the key to the history of Europe is to be sought in Rome, and who would know Rome must study Sicily. And yet the physician traveling in Italy, who gave himself over entirely to the satisfaction of his historical and esthetic inclinations, would miss much, for Italy has recently been making great strides forward commercially, socially and scientifically. Especially is this true of northern Italy, which presents a marked contrast to the southern regions where poverty depresses, begging still annoys and dishonesty yet exasperates the American traveler. That the country is everywhere and in almost all particulars making a swing upward is obvious. The national credit is much improved, as the traveler finds, almost to


The aim of the present work was to identify strawberry Fragaria × ananassa Duch. varieties, valuable for breeding on large-fruitfulness. The research objectives included the assessment of varieties by large-fruitfulness and the identification of sources of this trait, that allows to develop not only large-fruited, but also yielding varieties that are in demand in the market and it will lead to an increase in the production of strawberries, satisfying the population's demand in poly-vitamin products. 64 varieties of strawberry were studied. The studies were carried out in the department "M. A. Lisavenko Research Institute of Horticulture of Siberia" of "Federal Altai Scientific Center of Agrobiotechnology" in the south of Western Siberia in conditions of a sharply continental climate in 2005-2018. The degree of large-fruitfulness was defined according to the generally accepted method, the assessment of large fruitfulness (average mass of berries) – according to the scale, proposed by N. P. Stolnikova for Siberian conditions. The coefficient of variation was calculated by the method, described by O. V. Masyukova. As a result of studies, it was found that 26 strawberry varieties had an average mass of berries less than 7.0 g, 17 varieties – 7.0-7.9 g, ten – 8.0-8.9 g, nine – 9.0-9.9 g, two – more than 10 g. The variability of large-fruited trait of the studied varieties seemed to be significant almost in all varieties, except for Alena and Zvezdochka varieties, in which the variability was insignificant and the coefficient of variation was 8.1-9.3 %. At Yaponka variety, the variability was average, the coefficient of variation was 13.9 %. For use in breeding the varieties Pervoklassnitsa and Tsunami with very large (12.8 and 10.3 g, respectively) and the varieties with large berries Alena, Atlas, the Bulgarian velikan, Bylinnaya, Vengerka, Vesper, Geyser, Yaponka (9.0-9.9 g and 10 varieties (8.0-8.9 g) were selected. It is necessary to use such strawberry varieties as sources of large-fruitfulness, which have a large-fruited degree of 5 points, 25 varieties turned out to be with this parameter. The parent forms selected for breeding turned out to be adapted to weather conditions during fl owering and ripening of berries, to recurrent spring frosts.


The evaluation of the cutoff wavenumbers of metallic waveguides can be related to the numerical resolution of a suitable nonlinear eigenproblem defined on the domain C described by the contour of its transverse cross section. In this work, we show that the symmetries of C can be exploited to obtain a block diagonal matrix representation of the nonlinear eigenproblem, which enables a remarkable reduction in the computational effort involved in its resolution.


With the increasing amount of traffic volume on containers, not only identification but also location estimation of assets has become an important issue in logistics automation in a port environment. The locating system is generally composed of tags, readers, and a location engine. Tags are attached to the object and obtain information via communication with readers that are installed around the tags. The engine continuously attempts to estimate the location of tags by using the obtained information. However, if we attempt to apply this common locating system to a port environment for logistics automation, the system performance is degraded because there are many steel obstacles that cause interference in the RF communication and measurement. In this paper, we propose a two-step approach for location estimation in harsh port environments. We divided readers into two types (fixed and mobile readers); hence, the location method operates in two steps for efficient wireless communication and precise measurement. We implemented all the system components and installed these at a real port for evaluation. The communication and estimation success rate is more than 50% better than that of the existing general locating system, and the location precision is substantially increased.


Beta diversity is a measure of the taxonomic differentiation between habitats/localities within an assemblage, and is normally calculated as a set of pairwise taxonomic "distances" between the localities. Due to incomplete sampling, beta diversity estimates for fossil assemblages will always be higher than the true value. However, the difference between the observed and true distances will vary greatly depending on differences in the shape of the relative abundance distribution. Using simulations, it is shown that incomplete sampling of a homogenous fauna with more even relative abundances of taxa produces higher beta diversity than one with very few extremely common taxa. A new procedure is proposed for calculating beta diversity in the fossil record, whereby the observed distances are compared to the distance obtained by randomly resampling a homogenous fauna with the same abundance distribution. This procedure is named Relative Abundance Corrected beta diversity. Simulations indicate that this method outperforms raw beta diversity estimates, providing beta diversity estimates closer to the true values even when the assumptions of the method are violated. This method is applied to an empirical dataset: Permian–Triassic tetrapods from the Karoo Supergroup of South Africa. Increased provincialism is found across the Permian–Triassic boundary in contrast to uncorrected beta diversity patterns.


IN A previous investigations the cheek pouch of the Syrian hamster was subjected to treatment by 3 carcinogenic hydrocarbons: 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene, 20-methylcholanthrene and 3,4-benzpyrene. Neoplasms ranging from benign papilloma to squamous-cell carcinoma with regional lymph node metastasis were produced. The most potent carcinogen for oral tumor induction was found to be 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene in an acetone solution. Later work7 has shown that the average latent period for tumor appearance with this compound could be significantly shortened from 6 to 7 weeks when acetone was used, to 41/2 weeks with mineral oil as a solvent. Although different histologic grades of preneoplasia and neoplasia were described in the earlier report, many animals exhibited changes ranging from hyperplasia to frankly malignant tumors in the same pouch. This may possibly be explained on the basis of different areas of the pouch responding to carcinogenic treatment at different times. It was felt that a study whereby progressive changes in oral epithelium could be observed before neoplastic transformation would be useful. Investigations of this type have been reported previously for epidermal tissue treated with methyleholanthrene" 4 and benzpyrene.2 Generally, these reports concur in their descriptions of the histogenesis of experimental skin carcinoma. The initial reaction after treatment with the carcinogen was inflammation. This was followed by a period of degeneration which, in turn, was replaced by a stage where epithelial hyperplasia predominated. The first evidence of neoplastic change was the appearance of epithelial papillomata. These benign tumors then underwent malignant transformation to squamous-cell carcinoma. Orr5 has described essentially the same findings in subcutaneous tissue implanted with wax pellets containing methyleholanthrene, 3,4-benzpyrene and 1,2,5,6-dibenzanthracene; however, in this latter instance the tumor induced was sarcomatous. Levy, Gorlin, and Gottsegen3 made a single application of 9,10dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene to the skin and mucous membrane of the lips of Swiss albino mice. Animals were sacrificed daily up to 35 days. Their findings on skin were compatible with those described above. In the mucous membrane they reported increased surface keratinization; slight hyperplasia of the


Aims – To assess the adherence of frequency of medical reviews and GP correspondence with Trust Operational Policy. Methods – Retrospective data of 12 months was collected for all patients as part of initial audit. Data of frequency of medical reviews and frequency of correspondence with GP was analysed. A recommendation of maintaining individual caseloads for each doctor within the team was made and a re-audit was done after 6 months. Results – An improvement in the frequency of medical reviews occurring once every 12 weeks was seen from 71% to 84% of patients after re-audit. An improvement in the frequency of correspondence with GP occurring every 12 weeks was seen from 64% to 82% of patients after re-audit. Conclusions – The audit indicates the importance of regular medical reviews and communication with primary care in patients who have severe enduring mental illness with a long history of poor engagement with the care services.


In this work, we address the problem of multivariate time series classification. In particular, we focus on classification of music sequences and propose general, and simple discrete multivariate representations (direct feature quantization, DFQ) and define a family of efficient discrete multivariate similarity kernels (DMV-SK) with manifold embedding. Experiments using new DFQ representation and manifold kernel embedding show excellent classification performance on music time series classification tasks with significant 25%-40% improvements over existing state-of-the-art time series classification methods. Background. Kernel-based approaches for sequence classification show some of the most accurate results for a variety of problems, such as image classification [12], text categorization [7, 17], speech analysis [2], biological sequence analysis [15, 7, 5], time series and music classification [16, 7]. Classification of multivariate time series can be addressed using codebook learning approach. In a codebook learning framework, multivariate time series X , a sequence of n = |X| identically sized (continuous-valued) vectors, x = (x1, x2, . . . , xn), xi ∈ R ∀i is transformed into a univariate discrete sequence of codebook IDs c(x) = (c1, c2, . . . , cn), ci ∈ {1 . . . D} ∀i by mapping each of the vectors xi to the nearest codeword vector in the codebook C = {C1, C2, . . . , CD}. The codeword sequence c(x) is essentially a discrete sequence over finite alphabet Σ = {1, . . . , D}. A number of state-of-the-art approaches to sequence classification over finite alphabet Σ rely on measuring sequence similarity using fixed-length representations Φ(X) of sequences as the spectra (|Σ|-dimensional histogram) of counts of short substrings (k-mers), contained, possibly with up to m mismatches, in a sequence, c.f., spectrum/mismatch methods [9, 10]. In contrast, in this work we aim at methods that directly exploit these multivariate sequence representations to improve accuracy and propose a family of efficient discrete multivariate similarity kernels that as we show empirically provide effective improvements in practice over traditional 1D sequence kernels as well as other state-of-the-art time series methods for a number of challenging classification problems. Direct feature quantization (DFQ). In a typically used codebook learning framework, input sequences of identically sized vectors are typically first encoded using codebook IDs, then standard 1D string kernel methods can be applied (e.g., [7, 12]). In this work we consider alternative multivariate discrete representations of original multivariate (continuous-valued) sequences. A discrete multivariate representation of the original continuous-valued multivariate sequence X = (x1, x2, . . . , xn), xi ∈ R is obtained by direct quantization of each of the d feature dimensions. In this approach, each feature f j , j = 1 . . . d is quantized by dividing its range (f j min, f j max) into finite number of intervals. In the simplest case, the intervals can be defined, for instance, using uniform quantization, where the entire feature data range is divided into B equal intervals of length δ = (fmax − fmin)/B and the index of quantized feature value Q(f) = b(f − fmin)/δc is used to represent the feature value f . Figure 1 shows an example of DFQ representation for 3-dimensional time series X with multivariate DFQ representation obtained using uniform binning (B=64) along each of the three dimensions. Partitioning of the feature data range could also be obtained by using 1D clustering, e.g. k-means, to adaptively choose dicretization levels.


A scanning-monochromatic form of differential-aperture x-ray microscopy (DAXM) has been developed that provides micron-resolution depth-resolved dilatational strain measurements. This scanning-monochromatic DAXM technique is applied to measurements of Poisson dilatational strain in 25-μm-thick Si bent into an arch with an apex radius of R=3 mm. Poisson strain measurements agree with anisotropic linear elasticity calculations for a Searle parameter as large as β=1009. Local anticlastic bend radii were shown to oscillate across the arch and reach the R/ν limit for distances less than the plate thickness from the edges, where ν is the anisotropic Poisson's ratio.


Miscellancous Poems,as a part of legacy of Chinese literature,has not got the attention from scholars as its low status in the history of Chinese literature.The publication of Conspectus of Miscellaneous Poems filled in the blanks of the research in this area.It adopted the prosperity and the interest of Miscellancous Poems,but also held the purpose of literature research:differentiation and textual research.Meanwhile,it produced a sense of inspiration for literature research as well.


The variability of the winter monsoon is one of the key components of the Asian monsoon, significantly influencing paleoenvironmental evolution in East Asia. However, whether the winter or the summer monsoon is the dominated factor controlling sedimentary dynamics of the muddy areas of the continental shelves of the East China Sea is debated, due to lack of consistency between various winter monsoon proxies in previous studies. In this work, the sediments of the upper part of core ECS-DZ1 with several marine surface samples were studied in terms of sediment grain size and radiocarbon dating, and changes in sedimentary dynamics of the northern muddy area of the ECS over the past 5000 years were documented. The main findings are as follows: (1) regional sedimentary dynamics were low and did not significantly change since the middle Holocene; (2) coarse particles are the dominated component in the sediments; (3) a proxy can be derived to indicate changes in winter monsoon. Based on this reconstructed winter monsoon record, we found that this record was generally negatively correlated to the stalagmite-based summer monsoon variability over the past 3500 years, but positively correlated before that. Moreover, this record can be well correlated to changes in the Kuroshio Current and the Bond ice-rafting debris events in the North Atlantic on millennial timescales, inferring large-scale and common atmospheric dynamics across the Asian continent over the past 5000 years. Therefore, we concluded that the winter monsoon is the predominant factor controlling sedimentary dynamics in the northern part of the ECS and proposed that the contribution of coarse particles may be one of potential indices to identify the role of the winter and the summer monsoons in sedimentary evolution.


Eminent changes of worldwide climate patterns due to rapid acceleration of global warming process warns the world to reduce the production of greenhouse gas such as CO₂ in one way or another. Many studies for the major sources of CO₂ have indicated that the automotive industry is one of the major responsible party. With such results, automotive researchers have made great efforts to alleviate the dependency on the hydrocarbon based fuels to reduce the CO₂ production by using alternative fuels or electricity. Among many techniques, electric vehicles attracts huge attention with rapid developments in power electronics and motor technologies as well as a battery technology. While the main electric powertrain technologies such as the power inverter, the motor controller and the traction motor make solid progress, the battery technology is still struggling to provide dependable energy storage system for the electric vehicle. With an obvious megatrend of urbanization, a public transportation system plays an important role in the efficient use of the transportation energy. A battery swappable smart electric bus has been developed to address this public needs as a one of the solution. In this paper, energy consumption of the battery swappable smart electric bus was studied in the real world driving condition with altitude variations. Energy simulations for the driving cycle obtained from the real experiment were performed with and without the grade change information. Furthermore, the comparison between the simulation results and the experimental results to highlight the importance of the use of driving cycles with the elevation changes.


Pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction and insulin resistance are the two hallmarks of type 2 diabetes. An early sign of beta-cell dysfunction is impaired nutrient-induced insulin release. Several insulin secretagogues act by increasing the formation of intracellular cAMP. Thus, accurate regulation of cAMP is of vital importance for the ability of the beta-cell to respond properly to these stimuli. The level of cAMP is defined by the activities of adenylyl cyclases and cAMP-degrading phosphodiesterases (PDEs). The aim of this thesis was to study the role of PDE3B in the regulation of insulin secretory processes in pancreatic beta-cells and in the regulation of overall energy homeostasis. Results in this thesis demonstrate that mice with a specific increase in beta-cell PDE3B activity (RIP-PDE3B mice) have, in comparison to control mice, a reduced insulin response to glucose as well as to glucose in combination with GLP-1, glucose intolerance and altered islet morphology. Moreover, when metabolically challenged RIP-PDE3B mice develop severe obesity and insulin resistance. The insulin secretory capacity of isolated islets from RIP-PDE3B mice was studied and a specific reduction in the first phase of glucose-stimulated insulin release was identified. An important role of beta-cell PDE3B for exocytosis and release of insulin was further demonstrated by overexpression of PDE3B and by selective inhibition of the enzyme in both insulinoma cell lines and rat pancreatic islets. Of specific interest was the marked decrease of glucose-stimulated cAMP levels and concomitant decrease in insulin release observed in cells overexpressing PDE3B. In summary, this thesis has contributed to an increased understanding for the role of beta-cell PDE3B in the regulation of insulin secretory processes. Results suggest that PDE3B regulates cAMP pools important for exocytosis of insulin-containing granules responsible for the first phase of insulin release. Also, these studies bring forward the role of cAMP in nutrient-induced insulin release. Finally, the work in this thesis demonstrates for the first time a functional role for beta-cell PDE3B in the maintenance of whole body energy homeostasis in mice.


Subband image coding has been shown to be an effective technique for high quality coding at low bit rates. The choice of filter bank is a critical issue that affects image quality as well as system design. In this paper we investigate the use of linear phase NPR QMF banks for subband image coding. For this purpose, these are compared with the best suited biorthogonal filter banks for image coding. As criteria for comparison we use objective and subjective performance of the encoded images. Coding experiments conducted on image data indicate that NPR QMF banks are competitive with the best biorthogonal filter banks. The impact of some filter characteristics, such as stopband attenuation, stopband edge, filter length and coding gain on the performance of the reconstructed images is also investigated.


The purpose of NASA s Research and Development (R&D) programs is to provide advanced human support technologies for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD). The new technologies must be sufficiently attractive and proven to be selectable for future missions. This requires identifying promising candidate technologies and advancing them in technology readiness until they are likely options for flight. The R&D programs must select an array of technology development projects, manage them, and either terminate or continue them, so as to maximize the delivered number of potentially usable advanced human support technologies. This paper proposes an effective project selection methodology to help manage NASA R&D project portfolios.


The GooFit highly parallel fitting package for GPUs and CPUs has been substantially upgraded in the past year. Python bindings have been added to allow simple access to the fitting configuration, setup, and execution. A Python tool to write custom GooFit code given a (compact and elegant) MINT3/AmpGen amplitude description allows the corresponding C++ code to be written quickly and correctly. New PDFs have been added. The most recent release was built on top of the December 2017 2.0 release that added easier builds, new platforms, and a more robust and efficient underlying function evaluation engine.


Eighty male albino rats were given a series of treatments in a lever pressing situation in order to test specific predictions of a state-dependent hypothesis of ECS effects. Animals received an initial treatment of either ECSO or FS + ECS followed 24 hrs. later by a second treatment of either FS or FS + ECS. Half of the animals were tested 24 hr. after the second treatment and half 96 hr. after treatment. Two control groups received only lever press training. Results of both latency to the first lever press and number of lever presses in a 15 min. extinction session showed no differential effect of initial treatment. The second treatment main effect was highly significant, indicating that ECS following FS alleviated the suppression of responding due to FS. No interactions were significant and thus indicated that the effect of the second treatment was the same regard less of the initial treatment or time of testing. As the statedependent hypothesis would predict significant interactions among levels of the three treatments, these results were interpreted as presenting no behavioral evidence in support of the hypothesis and the most parsimonious explanation of ECS effects in this study is in terms of a disruption of a retention and/or retrieval mechanism.


SEX, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND FRINGE BENEFITS. By Edward E. Burrows. Financial Executives, June 1973. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been aggressively pursuing sex discrimination in fringe benefits programs. This article discusses the EEOC's position on typical benefits practices, which include participation eligibility, differentials in benefits levels, eligibility to retire, benefits restricted


Summary: This session will provide participants with an introduction to polarities, the recurring unsolvable problems experienced by healthcare teams. Health care problems are complex, they are not simple problems that can be fixed with a single solution. Understanding the nature of polarities may help healthcare teams and practitioners improve practice outcomes. Content Outline: I. The unsolvable problems in healthcare a. What keeps you up at night b. What issues keep coming up in your system, organization or on your team? II. What is a polarity? a. Problems to solve b. Polarities to manage c. Seeing both sides of the pole III. The polarities in healthcare a. Common poles b. Common ground 1. The greater purpose 2. The deepest fear Topic Selection: Polarity Thinking: An Innovative Strategy to Advance Leadership Teams, Education, and Improve Practice (25473)


The aim of the article is to consider the issues of the attitude of Serbian youth to Russian culture and the activities of Russian cultural centers in Serbia on the basis of sociological surveys conducted by the author of the article. The survey methodology consisted of questioning Serbian students through an electronic questionnaire on the Facebook platform. In conclusion, it is stated that the Serbian student youth has a very weak understanding of the Russian sphere of culture and education, and therefore the overwhelming majority does not know about the possibility of free education in the Russian Federation, is poorly aware of the quality of life in Russia. Joint efforts of Russian and Serbian state and civil structures are required for a qualitative change in the situation.


FIELD: construction. SUBSTANCE: road inspection manhole comprises a frame determining a central axis (X-X) of a frame and equipped with a hinged link of a frame, and also an element of a frame overhead cover equipped with a hinged link of a cover element. Hinged links are arranged with the possibility to ensure folding back of the cover element in respect to the frame in a disconnection position, at the same time hinged links of the frame and the cover element are arranged as capable of disconnection, when the cover element is in the disconnection position. The inspection manhole comprises a facility to block disconnection of hinged links, which includes the main part and a foot. The foot is directed radially outside relative to the central axis (X-X) of the frame. EFFECT: improved design. 21 cl, 5 dwg


The objective of  the reserach was to identify the quality of  the registers of nusery in  hospitals bills, in three units of admission  of private health  plans, in a universsitary hospital, between august and november of 2005. The data was collected from nursey notes in 144 promptuaries, through a check list, elaborated according to the literature and legislation. The major  problems found are: notes made for shift and not for schedule; erasures and blank spares on the paper, the lack of stamp and signature. There were situations that  the checking of  the prescriptions weren't  made or they or  they were done in na incorrect way. There were also incomplete notes of vital signs. Generally speaking, the notes were understanding, although the handwriting sometimes was not so legible. They used standard acronyms and technical terms. From the identified problems on it is suggested more intensification of the continued education about registers of the nursery and new studies that indentify the lost economic values, for gloss in hospital bills.


The tiger-man pot of the Shang dynasty used to be called tiger-eating-man pot. The present article employs the approach combining macroscopic and microscopic views and uses new archeological materials to interpret the cultural origin and connotation of tiger-man image pots and relevant tiger-man images in the new perspective,thus presenting new ideas on the local bronze art in the late Shang dynasty.


This paper presents a new approach to studying the interaction between monetary policy, the real economy, and the term structure of interest rates. Inspired by the portfolio approach of Tobin (1969, 1982), we introduce bonds of different maturities in a structural Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model typically used for monetary policy analysis. Our approach implies that the entire term structure is endogenously determined within the model, and there are non-trivial interactions between monetary policy, the real economy, and the term structure. Within the growing field of Macro-Finance many authors have studied the links between monetary policy and the term structure. However, the approaches used typically price the entire term structure using the price kernel for one-period bonds extracted from the solution of the model. As a consequency, the term structure is determined outside the model, and there is no feedback from the term structure to the real economy or to monetary policy. Therefore, for instance, investment and consumption depend on short-term rates only, as investors have a limited set of assets to choose between. Our approach differs from the existing contributions as we introduce several bonds of different maturities in the model, and therefore characterize the entire term structure. Our model can be seen as an intertemporal generalization of the Tobin (1969, 1982) portfolio approach in the sense that the representative investors can choose among several types of assets: short, medium, and long term bonds, physical capital and money holdings. The presence of different bonds comes from the assumption that changing the portfolio composition is costly for each agent along two dimensions: first, from changing the composition within the same category of


It is true that wisdom as conceived by the Asian people had a strong inclination to bear out the definition pointed out by Max Weber; wisdom is the only absolute way leading to the supreme bliss of this world as well as of the next world. But it does not mean to know the things of the world, nature, social life nor laws regulating both of them, rather it is the philosophical wisdom of the meaning of life and of the worlds). Indeed, we can say that the Buddhism originally bore the character of intellectualism; according to the theory of dvadasanga-pratitya-samutpadah (the twelve-linked chain of dependent origination), "avidya" (ignorance of the law or true nature of existence) caused all illusion, so the getting possession of "prajna" (wisdom) was required. Roughly speaking, the practice of Mahayana Buddhism also centered on just the point of "prajna", shown in the end of sat paramitah (the six kinds of practice by which bodhisattvas are able to attain enlightenment) and of tisrah siksah (the three types of learning which are considered to embrace all the aspects of Buddhist doctrine and practice). But, realizing this ultimate wisdom, to be supermundane would be required.


Platooning is a challenging application because it requires a frequent rate of beaconing. Performance of traditional Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance method (CSMA/CA) on IEEE 802.11p is unable to satisfy for platooning needs due to unbounded delay especially under high channel load. Several researches about platooning are involved with medium access control (MAC) layer modification in a protocol stack and/or does not support variable number of vehicles and/or have a single point of failure. In this paper, we propose to use a vehicular desynchronization TDMA-based protocol over off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11p, while supporting vehicles joining and leaving a platoon and having no single point of failure. We recommend a range of parameters that are suitable for the platooning application. Our evaluation shows that using our suggested parameters, the vehicular desynchronization protocol could support a high-frequency beaconing with up to 16 vehicles at 100 Hz beaconing.


We synthesized functionalized f-SiO2@GO@Co catalyst through decorating graphene oxide surface using SiO2 sphere with the help of ethylenediamine ligand and chelation with CoCl2.6H2O for increasing the catalyst activity to produce heterogenous catalyst. The heterogenous catalyst was characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, Raman spectra, and TGA. We assessed activity of the catalyst in the synthesis of indenopyrazolones and results demonstrated high activity for the catalyst. The ability of the catalyst to increase the yield and reduction in reaction time as well as high catalytic activity, and recycling are prominent advantages of the catalyst.


Moisture can cause imperfect sealings, faulty roof constructions, cracks and other kind of damages. For measuring the moisture in construction materials like concrete and screed, there are destructive(direct) and non-destructive(indirect) methods, that can be used. This presentation gives an overview and a comparison of these methods.


e16161 Background: Docetaxel is standard of care for the treatment of HRPC, based on two large randomized clinical trials. The aim of this study was to determine if docetaxel use and effectiveness in routine clinical practice was similar to that seen in the TAX 327 randomized phase III clinical trial.

METHODS
A retrospective chart review was undertaken to assess patterns of docetaxel use for HRPC at our institution for the 2-year period since its approval for the first-line treatment of HRPC in 2005.

RESULTS
Eighty-eight patients, median age 71 and baseline PSA 107, received docetaxel in the first line setting. Main reasons for initiating docetaxel were rising PSA (90%) and progressive symptoms (71%). Eighteen percent of patients received docetaxel for rising PSA alone. A median of 7 cycles was administered. PSA response rates were 61%, time to response 1.5 months, and response duration 6.8 months. Disease progression was the most common reason for treatment discontinuation (36%). Main toxicities were fatigue (32%) and neuropathy (22%). Kaplan Meier survival analysis showed median duration of survival was 15.9 months (95% CI 12.4-20.5) from first drug use. 1-year survival was 0.63 (95% CI 0.52-0.72). Post-docetaxel, 36 patients received second-line treatment, mostly with mitoxantrone (89%). Second-line response rates were 22%, and median duration of response was 4 months.

CONCLUSIONS
In routine clinical practice, docetaxel is a well-tolerated regimen for the treatment of HRPC. Response rates and toxicity profiles were comparable to the randomized trials. However, compared with the TAX 327 clinical trial, survival was slightly shorter than expected (15.9 vs. 18.9 months), possibly due to inclusion of patients with poorer performance status and comorbidities, who may be excluded from clinical trials. Second-line response rates were also comparable with previous reports. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


This study provides the technical and tactical substantiation of efficiency of the step turn application in modern cross-country skiing. Taking into account the fact that the routes of cross-country skiing became more truncated at present, abound with turns, it is necessary to approach in a new way to determination of relevance of this question in system of training of ski-racers. Researches in this direction allow the authors to expand the technical and tactical ideas upon the step turn, which still remains poor-studied. In this work we give the kinematic and biomechanical analysis of the step turn techniques with "skating pushing off" and "sliding sidesteps" in comparison to skating strides. Recommendations about this question have been given.


This paper presents a slot-fed dual-ports rectangular patch antenna suitable for harmonic transponders to be employed in logistics. The antenna is fed with two orthogonal H-slot apertures. The two sides of the patch have their first resonance at ${f}_{0}$ and ${2f}_{0}$, respectively. The developed multi-layer layout is optimized to obtain a compact two-piece tag, where the microstrip circuit components (frequency doubler, microcontrollers, sensors and so forth) and the H-slot apertures can be realized on a thin laminate (possibly a flexible substrate) which can be stuck in the interior of a parcel, while the patch can be easily realized at the exterior of a parcel. A proof-of-concept prototype has been realized using standard laminates in the frequency range 1.22-2.44 GHz. The obtained results confirm the theory, and open the door to a new class of harmonic tags for logistics applications.


The fourth industrial revolution of the developing nations seem to be anchored on digitalization of processes, hence the need to ensure effective methods of collecting government revenue to ensure maximum provision of goods and services for the citizenry. This study examined the imperativeness of digitalization in tax administration in Nigeria. The study employed quantitative research method and ex-post facto research design. The study covered a period from 2010 to 2021 which sums up to twelve years. Data on the independent variable, being digitalization (proxy by ICT) was sourced from secondary materials and was analysed with linear regression linking it to the dependent variable (proxy by tax revenue and tax evasion). The result of the analysis reveals the adjusted R square as -0.028 and a computed p-value of 0.406 which indicates that ICT has no significant low adverse effect on tax revenue in Nigeria. It also reveals the adjusted R square of 0.38 and the computed pvalue of 0.061 in respect of the second hypothesis which indicates that ICT has no significant low positive effect on the level of tax evasion in Nigeria. It is therefore concluded that digital economy does not have a significant effect on tax administration in Nigeria. It is recommended from the study that laws and processes be set in place to ensure that the tax authorities across all levels in the state are not left behind in the transition to the digital economy.


The study of a human operator's trunk-spine system dynamics is a difficult one, owing to the great number of degrees of freedom of the mechanical system and the postural regulation mode complexity (reflex, proprioceptive, exteroceptives loops). A good knowledge of these phenomena may be applied to the research on aviations and earthmover operator's spinal traumatisms. In order to have a better knowledge of the postural regulation applied to the mechanical trunk-spine system; this paper presents the results of a study concerning the spinal curvature variations in the sagittal plane of an operator submitted to acceleration in a horizontal plane. After a brief survey of the material and experimental setup characteristics, this paper present a statistical and frequential analysis applied to the recordings obtained concerning spine curvature variations. The results of this process lead to a simplified model of the trunk-spine system. The last paragraph refers to the simulation of this model on an analog computer and its validity. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Impact Trauma. Berlin, Germany. 7,8,9 September 1977 Language: en


Coalescence of droplets in flow through capillary dies and in the filling of strip molds was investigated using experiments and time-scale analysis. The time scales of droplet approach, droplet-droplet interactions, and fluid drainage were compared with the time scales of flow in order to predict the extent of coalescence in each case. In the case of capillary dies, coalescence took place predominantly in the zones away from the die wall and away from the die axis, and the expanse of the coalescence zone increased with blend composition and decreased with mean shear rate. In the case of mold filling, droplet coalescence took place after the polymer flowed a characteristic distance along the mold. A semiquantitative agreement was found between the predictions and the experimental results obtained using blends of polypropylene and polystyrene. In addition to larger-diameter droplets, long fibrils, formed by stringing of coalescing droplets, were observed. Polym. Eng. Sci. 44:2254–2265, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.


A modulated reactance is useful for realizing leakywave antennas. A grounded dielectric slab with thickness modulation is used to obtain a modulated reactance. The problem of a thickness-modulated slab is simplified by studying a constantthickness grounded slab with an air gap between the physical structure and field points (where the impedance is evaluated). The surface reactance of a line source excited grounded slab is analyzed. Numerical evaluation of a Sommerfeld integral in the w plane is used to evaluate the fields near the source region. It is shown that near the source the reactance is not constant. Away from the source, an asymptotic approximation is used to evaluate the reactance. This allows a simplified synthesis procedure whereby the air gaps above the thickness-modulated slab can be ignored. The sinusoidal and square-wave impedance profiles are validated against a thickness-modulated slab using a commercial full-wave solver (CST).


A new three-terminal power switch is reported. The MOS-gated bi-directional device has forward and reverse conducting paths that utilize the same area, thus leading to significant savings in silicon space. A lightly doped N-base region supports the voltage in both the forward and reverse blocking states. A single MOS gate is used to control the current flow in both the forward and reverse directions.


Autonomous on-demand services, such as GOGOX (formerly GoGoVan) in Hong Kong, provide a platform for users to request services and for suppliers to meet such demands. In such a platform, the suppliers have autonomy to accept or reject the demands to be dispatched to him/her, so it is challenging to make an online matching between demands and suppliers. Existing methods use round-based approaches to dispatch demands. In these works, the dispatching decision is based on the predicted response patterns of suppliers to demands in the current round, but they all fail to consider the impact of future demands and suppliers on the current dispatching decision. This could lead to taking a suboptimal dispatching decision from the future perspective. To solve this problem, we propose a novel demand dispatching model using deep reinforcement learning. In this model, we make each demand as an agent. The action of each agent, i.e., the dispatching decision of each demand, is determined by a centralized algorithm in a coordinated way. The model works in the following two steps. (1) It learns the demand's expected value in each spatiotemporal state using historical transition data. (2) Based on the learned values, it conducts a Many-To-Many dispatching using a combinatorial optimization algorithm by considering both immediate rewards and expected values of demands in the next round. In order to get a higher total reward, the demands with a high expected value (short response time) in the future may be delayed to the next round. On the contrary, the demands with a low expected value (long response time) in the future would be dispatched immediately. Through extensive experiments using real-world datasets, we show that the proposed model outperforms the existing models in terms of Cancellation Rate and Average Response Time.


A hydrophobically associating copolymer was synthesized by free radical copolymerization in aqueous solution using AM AMPS and C16 DMHB as monomers. The structure of the polymer was determined by FT-IR. The optimal reaction conditions were that the molar ratio of AM, AMPS and C16 DMHB was 84.6:15:0.4, the total monomer concentration in water was 20 %(w/w) and the initiator concentration was 0.25 %(w/w) relative to the monomer feed,the temperature was 45 ℃ and the pH ranged from 7 to 9. The scanning electron microscopy(SEM)was used to study the network structure. And all the results show that the critical associating concentration appeared when the mass concentration was close to 1.8 g/L. The viscosity declined slowly with temperature rising and the solution exhibited shear thinning behavior.


Spatial and multiuser diversity are two types of diversity techniques for delivering reliable high-date-rate services. Spectral diversity comes from opportunistic scheduling in the frequency domain enabled by the OFDMA technique, and is influenced by partial feedback design. By employing the best-M partial feedback strategy, we provide a unified view of spatial, spectral, and multiuser diversity through asymptotic (in users) analysis. We examine the tail behavior of the distribution of the received channel quality information (CQI) at the scheduler to prove the type of convergence as well as to derive the asymptotic approximations for the average spectral efficiency under partial feedback. We investigate the application of our analysis to different spatial diversity schemes. Our derived results can be used to quickly determine the minimum required partial feedback in a general multiuser MIMO-OFDMA system.


Dielectric materials with large electric energy density are actively pursued for many applications. Among commercially available polymer capacitor film, poly(vinylidene fluoride chlorotrifluoroethylene) P(VDF-CTFE) stands out due to its excellent capability to store electrical energy with relatively high efficiency. In this dissertation, we employed crosslinking approaches to improve energy density of the copolymer by concurrently reducing loss, enhancing permittivity, and improving breakdown strength of the copolymer. The fundamental idea of this effort is to introduce covalent bonding between the polymer chains to confine and destabilize the formation of ferroelectric domain. By carefully controlling of the process conditions and varying the polymer/crosslinking agents feeding ratios the copolymer structures were systematically tuned for optimized dielectric and electrical properties. The crosslinking method leads to the copolymer film with impressive 64% decreased of total loss, 24% improvement of polarization level (under 250 MV/m field) and 70 % improvement of breakdown strength compared to the pristine. All of above improvements have been synergized and consequently 315 % enhancement of energy density can be achieved in the crosslinked copolymers.


We study the oscillatory stationary states in the temperature and concentration fields occurring in tubular chemical reactors. Singular perturbation and multitime scale procedures are combined formally to clearly and simply reveal the mechanism controlling these oscillatory states. Their stability is also studied, and when coupled with previously obtained results on multiple steady states, this information completes the response (bifurcation) diagram in one-parameter range of the tubular reactor. The results apply also to more general nonlinear parabolic problems of which the first order tubular reactor is a special case.


Abstract In this work we study the representation of Muslims on the Internet in Spain. After the terrorist attacks in Europe, Islamophobia and Muslimophobia have grown considerably in our society. There is a strong rejection of Muslim groups and individuals, they are perceived not only as different, but also as dangerous and violent. We follow a cognitive linguistics approach using corpus linguistics as a methodology in order to know which concepts are related to Muslims in discourse. We have used three corpora: the Spanish part of the esTenTen corpus, which is a large web corpus intended to give a picture of the Spanish language on the Internet; a Twitter corpus encompassing tweets published by five main political parties in Spain and their candidates in 2015-2016; and a third corpus of articles on the topic "Muslims" from four important digital newspapers (El País, La Vanguardia, La Voz de Galicia, and ABC). We examine word co-occurrence patterns of islámico ('Islamic') and musulmán ('Muslim') to shed light on the stigmatization of this minority in the online discourse and its frequent presence in negative frames.


Paca (Cuniculus paca), a native rodent of South America, is used for subsistence hunting in the regions of the Amazonic rainforest. It is host for a large number of parasites, such the helminths Echinococcus vogeli and Calodium hepaticum, which can establish themselves in the liver. The aim of this study was to describe the histopathological changes in the livers of pacas from the States of Acre (AC) and Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), Brazil, and identify the helminths which were found by parasitological and / or molecular analysis. A total of 35 livers of pacas was analysed (AC=34; MS=1), where 25 livers showed no apparent lesions, while 10 livers showed lesions, through macroscopic analysis, compatible with C. hepaticum (Xapuri-AC=6) and Echinococcus sp. (Xapuri-AC=3; Corguinho-MS=1). In all samples which presented macroscopic characteristics of Echinococcus sp. infection, E. vogeli species was confirmed as the etiologic agent (n=4) by morphometric and / or molecular analysis. All livers of this study (n=35) were submitted to histopathology analysis for certification and description of microscopic lesions, and it was detected 27 injured livers: seven livers (Sena Madureira-AC=3; Xapuri-AC=3; Corguinho- MS=1) containing Echinococcus sp. hydatid cysts, including those same samples with E. vogeli (n=4), which presented macroscopic lesions
However, the species definition was not possible in the other three remaining samples (Sena Madureira- AC); five (Bujari-AC=3; Sena Madureira-AC=2) presented C. hepaticum bioperculated eggs (identified by morphometric analysis) from samples with no macroscopic lesions, in contrast to evolutionary forms of C. hepaticum absence in samples which had macroscopic lesions similar to capillariasis (n=6); one (Sena Madureira-AC) was found with coinfection between C. hepaticum and Echinococcus sp.; and fifteen livers (Xapuri=9; Bujari=6) showed histopathological lesions which were described, but not reportedly associated with infectious agents. This study showed a potential risk of polycystic echinococcosis and capillariasis transmission in municipalities of the Acre State, besides focusing on the detailed description of the histopathologic lesions caused by helminths C. hepaticum and E. vogeli in tissues of liver of pacas. We also highlighted the description of the sylvatic cycle of E. vogeli found for the first time in paca from Mato Grosso do Sul, Midwest region, expanding the knowledge of their geographical distribution, previously only related to North region of Brazil.


The Stockholm II trial [1] randomized 557 patients with localized, resectable adenocarcinoma of the rectum to radiotherapy (25 grays in I week, four fields) followed by surgery within a week (RT+ ; n 1⁄4 272) or surgery alone (RT); n 1⁄4 285). There were protocol violations in 25 patients (4%). The median follow up was 8.8 years. 481 patients (86%) had a curative resection and in these the pelvic recurrence rate was 12% (RT+) and 25% (RT)), respectively (P < 0.001). Overall survival improved (46% vs 39%, respectively; P < 0.03) in the curative resection group. However when all patients were included the survival differences were not significant (39% vs 36%, respectively; P 1⁄4 0.2). There was a significantly larger proportion of Dukes A tumours in RT+ group (P 1⁄4 0.02) and Dukes C tumours in RT) group. Six month mortality was higher in the radiotherapy group (13 out of 272, 5%) compared to surgery alone group (4 out of 285, 1%) mainly due to higher cardiovascular mortality. Morbidity was 41% in RT + and 28% in RT) group (P < 0.01) mainly due to an increased wound infection rate in the RT+ group. The conclusion was that pre-operative radiotherapy reduces pelvic recurrence and might improve survival following curative resection but some of the benefit is offset by increased cardiovascular mortality. The Dutch colorectal cancer group [2] randomized 1861 patients with resectable rectal cancer to preoperative radiotherapy (25 Gy in 5 fractions) followed by total mesorectal excision (924 patients) or total mesorectal excision alone (937 patients). At two years follow-up, there was no difference in survival (82% and 81.8%, respectively; P 1⁄4 0.84). The local recurrence rate at 2 years was significantly less in the radiotherapy plus surgery group at 2.4% compared to surgery alone group with a recurrence rate of 8.2% (P < 0.001). Cafiero et al. [3] randomized 218 patients with TNM stage II-III resectable rectal cancer into adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy alone (50 Gy over 5 weeks) vs combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy with 5 FU and levamisole. The radiotherapy was completed with original or modified protocol in 170 (90%) of 189 evaluable patients in both arms. 31 of 75 patients (41%) in the chemoradiotherapy group had to stop or never started the treatment and only 44 patients (59%) completed or had adjustment to the regimen. These patients had more severe toxicity, especially enteritis (P 1⁄4 0.03), with one death due to GI bleeding. There was no significant difference in outcome or pattern of recurrence in the two groups. The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) R-02 trial [4] randomized patients with Dukes' B and C carcinoma of the rectum to either receive postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy alone (n 1⁄4 348) or chemotherapy with radiotherapy (n 1⁄4 346). All female patients (n 1⁄4 287) received 5-FU and leucovorin. 200 male patients received 5-FU and leucovorin while 207 male patients received 5-FU, semustine and vincristine (MOF). Average follow-up was 93 months. Postoperative radiotherapy reduced the incidence of local recurrence from 13% to 8% at 5 years follow-up (P 1⁄4 0.02) but showed no improvement in disease free survival (P 1⁄4 0.90) or overall survival (P 1⁄4 0.89). Male patients who received 5-FU and leucovorin had significantly better five year disease free survival (55%) compared to the group receiving MOF chemotherapy (47%; P 1⁄4 0.009). No significant difference was reported in overall 5-year survival (65% vs 62%, respectively; P 1⁄4 0.17). Witte et al. (Eastern Cooperative Study Group) [5] divided patients with residual primary colorectal carcinoma into two groups: Group A with no hepatic metastases and Group B with hepatic metastases. The Correspondence to: Mr M. Shafiq Javed, Lecturer and Specialist Registrar, Department of Surgery, Charles Bell House, 67–73 Riding House Street, London, W1W 7EJ, UK. E-mail: email@example.com


Abstract A new method of synthesizing disodium alkyl polyglucoside citrate surfactant has been reported in the paper, in which citric acid anhydride was firstly prepared, and then reacted with alkyl polyglucoside to obtain ester. The structures of products were indicated by infrared spectroscopy. Moreover, the surface activities of raw materials and their corresponding products were investigated. The results show that products exhibit low surface tension in 28 mN/m. Comparing with raw materials, the disodium alkyl polyglucoside citrate surfactants possess better emulsification stabilities to oil acid, good foam abilities and excellent hard water-resistant properties.


The complexities of actions, pharmacokinetic characteristics, potential for interactions of antidepressants and anxiolitics require wide range of issues to consider in the provision of pharmaceutical care. Pharmacists have an important role to play in providing information for patients about interactions of antidepressants and anxiolitics with the other drugs, adverse reactions, duration of treatment, dosage in the context of minimum and maximum dosages, withdrawal syndrome of benzodiazepines, antidepressant discontinuation syndrome. Support of adherence to therapy, individualization of care and follow-up are important issues for pharmacists in the treatment of depression and anxiety. Pharmacists" accessibility and their expertise in the use of medicines mean that they are well placed to provide information for patients, but strategies to optimize the ability of pharmacists to perform such roles need to be developed.


Imagine you are a manager at a large company. You stay current with the latest thinking in business management and leadership. You are up on the trends in sales and operations. But for the wealth of resources available, you havent found much support in answering some of the most important questions about your business life: How can I manage the tension of living an authentic faith while delivering ever–increasing business results? Is there meaning in my work beyond making a living? How can I understand the world of money and profit in the context of my faith or a purpose and meaning for life? Whos been there before me?


Coconut is an important plantation crop grown on about 2 million ha land. It is used extensively for edible oil and for industrial uses. It is also used for making several other products like coconut flour, skim milk powder, cake, vinegar, coconut shell charcoal, activated carbon etc. Post Harvest Technology used for processing of coconut and making various products from coconut are disused in this paper.


The invention relates to a vehicle hood lining (10), having at least one depression (14), preferably lying along an edge of the lining, the depression having at a distance from its ends, at least one singularity (36A; 36B; 56; 68; 97) not reproducing both identical and continuously over the entire length of the depression.


-Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is meta-heuristic algorithm inspired from nature to solve many combinatorial optimization problems such as Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). ACO algorithms for datagram networks was given by DiCaro &M.Dorigo, in year 1996. One direction that researchers have gone to pursue this is to study the behaviour of ants for their techniques to find the shortest path between two points ACO is a meta-heuristic approach for solving hard combinatorial optimization problems.In this paper, the Ant Colony Optimization Technique has been applied in different network models with different number of nodes and structure to find the shortest path with optimum throughput. The performance measure taken here is shortest path as well as time taken by the data from source to destination.


In the present article the author has shown, in what features of regulation of work of the civil personnel as on a work regulation the is standard-legal base influences realization of the rights and duties of various categories of persons of the civil personnel in work sphere are expressed. Their legal status is analyzed, that general is allocated that characterizes a legal status of the persons which features of working conditions are considered.


This 1989 volume presents a theory of capitalist collective action and a case study of the pre-World War II American coal industry to which the theory is applied. The author examines the irony of capitalist firms that do not want to compete with each other, but often cannot avoid doing so. He then explains under what conditions businesses would be able to organize their competition and identifies the economic and political factors that facilitate or inhibit this organization. The case study not only illustrates the theory, but demonstrates how the competitive relations of capitalist firms are critically important determinants of their political behavior. The author argues that the traditional Marxist concern with conflict between workers and capitalists should be supplemented with a concern for the competitive conflicts among capitalists.


Abstract Context Thalassaemia is one of the most common inherited autosomal recessive disorders around the world. A considerable amount of literature has been published about the type of mutations and the prevalence of thalassaemia, but findings are often contradictory. Objective This systematic review aimed to provide a comprehensive view of the prevalence of thalassaemia-associated mutations in different countries, their effect on haemoglobin (Hb) levels, as well as reporting thalassaemia-associated rare mutations. Methods A systematic search of the literature was carried out through major indexing databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane central, and ISI web of science) using keywords: "Co-inheritance, αα, β, thalassaemia" and "α-β thalassaemia, Mediterranean anemia, mutations" from 1998-September 2019. Hand-searching was also performed. There was no language restriction. Results The initial searches yielded 1059 studies, of which 92 articles were included following inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of these, 3.3% (3) of articles were cohort studies, and 96.7% (89) of the remaining articles were cross-sectional studies. Our findings showed that 45.6% (42) of researchers investigated β-thalassaemia, 22.9% (21) αα-β thalassaemia, and 31.5% (29) α thalassaemia. Conclusion The present study provides valuable information about the spectrum of thalassaemia-associated mutations, which can be useful for preventing thalassaemia, reducing costs of care, reducing the treatment-related side effects, and showing the most defective mutations. Highlight Evaluating the increase or decrease in the birth prevalence of thalassaemia Identifying the most common and rare mutations in various parts of the world Comparing researchers' findings from various parts of the world


A new synthesis of biologically relevant benzo[c]azepins is achieved via a novel Pd/Ag-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of ortho halogenated N-cyclopropyl benzamides.


To determine variation in fiber and vessel elements with respect to positions along the longitudinal direction (bottom, middle, and top of the culm) and the radial direction (from the inner part to the outer part of the culm wall) of Guadua amplexifolia, the length and width of fiber and vessel elements were measured. Results showed that fiber and vessel elements were varying in length from 1 738 to 2 764 μm and from 383 to 526 μm, in width from 13 to 20 μm and from 99 to 288 μm, and in ratios of length to width from 91 to 211 and from 1.3 to 4.4. For the culm, fiber length and ratio of length to width were in the order: bottom middle top, but fiber width was reversed (bottom middle top). In the radial direction, fiber length and ratio of length to width increased first and then decreased gradually. Fiber width in the bottom and middle of the culm did not vary, whereas in the top of the culm it was higher for the inner and outer parts. In the longitudinal direction, there was no variation in vessel element length; for vessel element width, the bottom, compared to the middle and top, was higher even if there was no variation between the middle and top, but for the length to width ratio, the reverse was true. In the radial direction, there was no variation for vessel element length, the width of the vessel elements decreased, and there was no variation for the length to width ratio of vessel elements from the inner to the middle part; however, there was an increase from the middle to the outer part of the culm wall.


Understanding the natural history of a disease is essential to assess effective treatment and allocate resources. In a recent commentary in the BJO Hitchings1 decried the absence of a natural history of glaucoma and thus a control group against which to measure treatment. Fortunately, other medical problems, such as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), have been subject to study before it became unethical to withhold treatment.23 Possession of this information, however, may pose more questions than answers.

The paper by Darlow et …


One of the truisms in the medicinal chemistry of antibiotics is that there can never be enough scaffolds and structures, whether of natural or synthetic origin. No matter how successful a new antibiotic is upon clinical introduction, the inevitable selection for resistant microbes will limit its useful lifetime.[1] Resistance to all major classes of antibiotics has been well chronicled, and one of the bacterial pathogens best known for its resistance is Staphylococcus aureus. With high global mortality in human infections, S. aureus has been described as a professional pathogen that has overcome every antibiotic campaign. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections are particularly problematic in both community and clinical settings.[2]

The aureus designation (Latin for golden) comes from the pigment staphyloxanthin 1,[3] a glycosylated carotenoid whose biosynthetic pathway proceeds through the same early steps as sterol biosynthesis. A recent anti-MRSA drug discovery effort by Liu and coworkers[4] focuses on one step in particular: the head-to-head condensation of two molecules of farnesyl diphosphate (2) to the C30 hydrocarbon dehydrosqualene 3 by the S. aureus enzyme CrtM. This transformation parallels the eukaryotic pathway to cholesterol, including the intermediacy of the cyclopropane-containing molecule presqualene diphosphate 4.[5] However, a distinction occurs in the last step of catalysis: the eukaryotic squalene synthase[6] uses an NADPH-dependent reduction to quench an allylic cation and yield squalene 5 while the staphylococcal enzyme likely abstracts a proton to yield the central olefin in dehydrosqualene. Subsequent enzymatic dehydrogenations create the conjugated chromophore responsible for the golden color in the end product staphyloxanthin.[3]

Staphyloxanthin functions as a virulence factor for S. aureus. The conjugated polyene system is thought to quench reactive oxygen species such as superoxide, peroxide, and hypochlorite that are produced by the white cells of vertebrate hosts as they try to kill the staphylococci during the inflammatory response.[7] Thus, while staphyloxanthin biosynthesis does not appear to confer a growth advantage on S. aureus, it increases survival during vertebrate infections and therefore qualifies as a virulence factor.

In the search for the next generation of antibiotics, recent efforts have targeted virulence rather than essential gene functions.[8] A team of investigators that includes structural biologists, chemists, and microbiologists have recently discovered that inhibition of the S. aureus dehydrosqualene synthase reduces bacterial survival during infections, offering a proof-of-principle for such a virulence-targeted approach .[4]

The effort was based on determining of the x-ray structure of S. aureus CrtM, the dehydrosqualene synthase, after its heterologous expression in E. coli and subsequent purification and crystallization. Since prenyltransferases are involved in terpene and sterol biosynthesis and the posttranslational S-prenylation of proteins, many of these enzymes have been studied in mechanistic detail. The eukaryotic enzyme squalene synthase, a potential drug target for cholesterol-lowering therapy, has been the object of several medicinal chemistry campaigns to identify potent and specific small molecule inhibitors. Based on these efforts, a variety of known inhibitors could be resynthesized and tested as inhibitory ligands for S. aureus CrtM. One of these molecules, a sulfur-containing farnesyl analog 6, could be co-crystallized with CrtM. The x-ray structure of the complex shows two molecules of 6 in the active site, likely defining the orientation of the prenyl side chains of the natural CrtM intermediate presqualene diphosphate.[4]

Evaluation of several inhibitors, including other farnesyl diphosphate analogs and amine-containing hydrocarbons that had previously been prepared as mimics of cationic intermediates in the squalene/dehydrosqualene synthase reaction, led to the observation that phosphonosulfonate scaffolds are submicromolar inhibitors of CrtM and could also be co-crystallized. The biarylether phosphonosulfonate 7 was chosen for further evaluation for several reasons: it had a Ki value of 1.5 nM against CrtM, it inhibited staphyloxanthin production when administered to live S. aureus (IC50 = 110 nM), and it had already progressed through preclinical toxiciology and into human clinical studies as a cholesterol-lowering agent without significant adverse effects. Liu and coworkers found that 7 had no effect on the growth of three human cell lines in serum, a cholesterol-rich medium. While 7 caused S. aureus colonies to lose their golden color, it did not inhibit the growth of S. aureus per se, since staphyloxanthin is not essential for growth.[4]

The subsequent evaluation of CrtM as a virulence factor involved a model of systemic infection in mice. When 108 colony-forming units of wild-type S. aureus or a crtM knockout were inoculated intraperitoneally (i.p.), the crtM-deficient strain was successfully cleared 72 hours later while the wild-type strain, as expected, was far more resistant to the oxidant-based defenses of the mice. With this result as a backdrop, mice were then treated with 7 for four days and infected i.p. the second day, and bacteria remaining in the kidney were assessed at the end. The treatment worked successfully and the authors conclude that "on average this result corresponds to a 98% decrease in surviving bacteria in the treatment group".[4]

What lessons should be taken from this report? First, the principle that inhibiting a virulence factor in a bacterial pathogen can have a dramatic effect on bacterial survival in a vertebrate host has been proven. (However, since S. aureus is famously difficult to defeat, it will be instructive to see whether repeated passaging of the staphyloxanthin-deficient S. aureus strain leads to compensatory mutations that restore evasion of oxidative host defenses.) A second lesson is that prior medicinal chemistry efforts on mammalian squalene synthases had great utility in this antibiotic drug development program. These efforts have produced a molecular inventory of inhibitors that served as valuable starting points for the evaluation of selectivity for the bacterial enzyme over the host enzyme, ability to penetrate into S. aureus cells, and lack of toxicity in mammalian cells. The definition of a new target is only the beginning of an antibacterial development program, but the existence of compounds that have already been tested in humans lends much confidence to the effort.

This story raises the broader question of the utility and advisability of narrow-spectrum vs. broad-spectrum antibiotics. Inhibitors of staphyloxanthin biosynthesis would likely be restricted to treating S. aureus; is this pathogen an important enough target to warrant the development of antibiotics specifically tailored to it? Probably - given the high mortality of S. aureus human infections, three of the antibiotics recently approved by the FDA (quinupristin/dalfopristin, linezolid, and daptomycin) share MRSA as a primary target.[9] In addition, combination therapies may become more prevalent in the face of infections by multidrug-resistant bacteria, so a staphyloxanthin biosynthesis inhibitor might become a useful agent in such an antibacterial cocktail.

The recommendations of a U.S. National Research Council committee in 2006 included the development of narrow-spectrum antibiotics to minimize the perturbation of normal microbial flora and to minimize resistance development.[10] While ecologically sound, such a discovery and development strategy will have its own challenges, including real-time diagnostic tests for rapid pathogen identification and a change in mindset about the acceptable market size for a new antibacterial. A breakthrough antibiotic targeted against virulence would advance such a debate.


Recently due to violation of phytosanitary situation, change of sowing area structure, technology of agricultural crop growing, temperature rise, the structural changes in entomocomplexes of spring and winter grain crops have been revealed.


Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have increased morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular (CV) comorbidities.The association of CV diseases (CVD) and traditional CV risk factors have been debated, depending on patient and RA characteristics. This study aimed to find the prevalence of CVD and CV risk factors in patients with RA.A multi-center cross-sectional study was performed on RA patients using the BioSTAR (Biological and Targeted Synthetic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs Registry). Socio-demographic, clinical, and follow-up data were collected. Patients with and without major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were grouped as Group 1 and Group 2. Prevalence rates of CVD and traditional CV risk factors were the primary outcomes. Secondary outcomes were the differences in the clinical characteristics between patients with and without CVD.We analyzed 724 RA patients with a mean age of 55.1 ±12.8 years. There was a female preponderance (79.6%). The prevalence rate of CVD was 4.6% (n=33). The frequencies of the diseases in the MACE category were ischemic heart disease in 27, congestive heart failure in 5, peripheral vascular disorders in 3, and cerebrovascular events in 3 patients.The patients with CVD (Group 1) were significantly male, older, and had higher BMI (p=0.027, p<0.001, and p=0.041). Obesity (33.4%) and hypertension (27.2%) were the two CV risk factors most frequently. Male sex (HR=0.085, 95% CI:0.028-0.257, p<0.001) and hypertension (HR=4.63, 95% CI:1.251-17.134, p=0.022) were the independent risk factors for CVD.The prevalence of CVD in RA patients was 4.6%. Some common risk factors for CVD in the general population, including male sex, older age, and hypertension, were evident in RA patients. sex and hypertension were the independent risk factors for developing CVD in patients with RA.[1] Raj R, Thomas S, Gorantla V. Accelerated atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review. F1000Res. 2022;11:466.[2] Charles-Schoeman C, Buch MH, Dougados M, et al. Risk of major adverse cardiovascular events with tofacitinib versus tumour necrosis factor inhibitors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis with or without a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: a post hoc analysis from ORAL Surveillance. Ann Rheum Dis. 2023;82(1):119-129.Table 1.Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the study groups.Overall (n=724)Group 1 (n=33)Group 2 (n=691)pAge group‡<40 years92 (12.7)0 (0)92 (13.3)0.015≥40 years632 (87.3)33 (100)599 (86.7)Sex‡Male148 (20.4)12 (36.4)136 (19.7)0.027Female576 (79.6)21 (63.6)555 (80.3)BMI group‡<30 kg/m2482 (66.6)17 (51.5)465 (67.3)0.087≥30 kg/m2242 (33.4)16 (48.5)226 (32.7)Smoking‡Current smoker101 (14.1)1 (3.0)100 (14.7)0.071Alcohol‡Current consumer21 (3.0)2 (6.3)19 (2.8)0.248Educational status‡Illiterate/primary448 (61.9)22 (66.7)426 (61.6)0.865High school202 (27.9)9 (27.3)193 (27.9)University or higher73 (10.1)2 (6.1)71 (10.3)Comorbidities‡Hypertension197 (27.2)22 (66.7)175 (26.6)<0.001Diabetes mellitus100 (13.8)12 (36.4)88 (13.7)0.001Chronic renal failure23 (3.2)5 (15.2)18 (2.9)0.004Dyslipidemia61 (8.4)11 (44.0)50 (11.9)<0.001COPD39 (5.4)6 (18.2)33 (4.8)0.007Coagulopathy6 (0.8)3 (10.3)3 (0.5)0.002Malignancy12 (1.7)2 (6.3)10 (1.6)0.113Valvular heart disease11 (1.5)2 (6.1)9 (1.3)0.256†: median (min-max),‡: n (%)Group 1 and 2: Patients with and without major adverse cardiovascular event (cardiovascular disease).BMI: body mass index, COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.NIL.None Declared.


One of the loco weeds, Oxytropis lambertii , has been subjected to chemical and toxicological study with the following results:

An extract containing the loco poison purified from other plant constituents has been prepared and studied. This substance produces typical locoism in cats under experimental conditions. All other constituents of the plant were fed to cats in large doses and failed to produce locoism. There is, therefore, one specific poisonous substance in O. lambertii capable of producing the loco disease.

The chemical study of this substance indicates that it is a stable, nonbasic, nitrogenous, and highly hydroxylated organic substance. It is not an alkaloid, glucoside, acid, ester, or ether. It is free from barium compounds.

The loco poison is very soluble in water and extremely hygroscopic, less soluble in alcohol and methanol, and still less soluble in acetone. It is quite insoluble in ether, chloroform, and the hydrocarbon solvents. It does not affect the ray of polarized light.

It may be decomposed by heat and then yields products that are positive to the pine-splinter test for pyrrol derivatives. Barium compounds do not produce locoism in cats.


Have the macroeconomic effects of QE programs been overestimated empirically? Using a large set of model specifications that differ in the degree of time-variation in parameters, the answer is yes. Our forecasting exercise suggests that it is crucial to allow for time-variation in parameters, but not for stochastic volatility to improve the fit with data. Having a more reliable specification, we find that the portfolio balance and signaling channels had sizable contributions to the transmission of QE programs. Finally, our identified structural shocks show that QE1 had larger macroeconomic effects than QE2 and QE3, but much smaller than usually found in the literature.


A new stable cationic polyacrylamide(CPAM) water emulsion with a high solid content(37%~44%)was prepared through aqueous two-phase copolymerization in ammonium sulfate(PS)solution containing self-making polyelectrolyte(PDMC)and polyether(PAB)as dispersion agent and stabilizing agent respectively.The structure and properties of CPAM emulsion were characterized by infra-red spectrum(FT-IR),transmission electron microscopy(TEM)and weightlessness(TG-DTA)testing.The single CPAM system and CPAM-bentonite micro-particle system were both used as the retention and drainage aid of hardwood pulp.The optimal parameters are as follows: w(CPAM)(on O.D.pulp)=0.06%,w(bentonite)(on O.D.pulp)=0.2%,reaction time 50 s,shear rate 750 r/min and 300 r/min before and after adding bentonite respectively,pH 7.4,c(NaCl)=0,and under these conditions,the drainage time of the furnish is 16.5 s,one-pass retention is 93.1%.The results showed that,water-in-water type CPAM can be used as an efficient retention and drainage aid in paper making.Comparing with the single system,CPAM-bentonite micro-particle system can increase retention rate and reduce drainage time by 2.4 points and 2.5 s respectively.


As a chemically amplified resist, the present invention provides a resist and compound having a good balance by which line edge roughness (LER) is improved without impairing basic physical properties inherent in a resist, such as base adhesion properties and resistance to dry etching. Provided are a lactone ester compound represented by general formula (1), a method for producing same, a (meth)acrylic copolymer comprising general formula (1), and a photosensitive resin composition containing same. (In formula (1): R 1 denotes a hydrogen atom or a methyl group; R 2 denotes a hydrogen atom, an aliphatic alkyl group having 1-10 carbon atoms or an alkyl group having an alicyclic structure having 3-10 carbon atoms; R 3 denotes a hydrogen atom, an alkoxycarbonyl group represented by formula (2), an aliphatic alkyl group having 1-10 carbon atoms or an alkyl group having an alicyclic structure having 3-10 carbon atoms; here, R 2 and R 3 may bond to each other to form an alicyclic structure having 3-10 carbon atoms; and n1 is an integer between 0 and 2.) (In formula (2): R 4 denotes an aliphatic alkyl group having 1-13 carbon atoms or an alkyl group having an alicyclic structure having 3-13 carbon atoms; and the dotted line denotes the bonding location in the compound represented by formula (1).)


The study aimed to: (1) investigate physical and technical performance among players during six consecutive phases of a competitive season, (2) determine if levels of match running and technical performance between the 1st and 6th phases of a season can be maintained, (3) and determine which phase features the lowest and highest values for variables assessed. Seventy out of 556 outfield players who played at least 80% of the matches in each phase of the Bundesliga seasons were analysed. Each season was divided into 6 phases: phase 1 (matches 1–6), phase 2 (7–11), phase 3 (12–17), phase 4 (18–23), phase 5 (24–28) and phase 6 (29–34). Thirteen variables were selected to quantify the physical and technical activity of players. Our results showed that by reducing the distances covered at intensities below 11 km·h−1, players were able to cover greater distances at intensities in the range of 11–13.99 and 21–23.99 km·h−1 in subsequent phases of a season. Players' capacity to maintain match running and technical performance between the first and sixth phases of the season has been demonstrated, though the 4th phase of the season showed a breakthrough point as regards the maintenance of exercise capacity among players participating in the Bundesliga.


In the research of regulation of the Hengmeng outfall waterway on the Pearl River Delta, a method is introduced for calculation of the erosion depth of the bed load waterway. According to the characteristics of current and sediment in bed load waterways at estuaries, this method takes bed load as suspended load with highly concentrated sediment moving closely to riverbed, and introduces a synthetic coefficient to correct errors caused by approximate treatment of bed load as suspended load. The synthetic coefficient is determined by physical model experiment data. The result shows that this calculation method successfully reflects the erosion and deposition caused by bed load, and gives accurate results concerning the amount and process of erosion and deposition on bed load riverbeds.


The aim of this study is to examine the self-confidence relevance of the individuals who mountaineer and individuals who are part of search and rescue operations. Two hundred seventy nine persons voluntarily participated in the research. The research data was collected using the self-confidence scale developed by Akin (2007). There are a total of 33 articles in the scale. The scale is composed of two factors. These are the two sub dimensions being interior self-confidence and exterior self-confidence. The data collected was analyzed through the statistical package program (SPSS 16.0) and the results were interpreted. In our study, the Cronbach's Alpha Value of the scale was calculated as 0.89. The One Way ANOVA and T-test were used in the evaluation of the research data. In the research, as regards the gender, branch, experience, age and marital status, meaningful correlations were identified. As a result, athletes who performed search and rescue have higher self-confidence than those who mountaineer. Since both fields involve risky activities, it is recommended for the athletes who are involved in outdoor sports to be encouraged to get into search and rescue operations. Regular activities and training would improve self-confidence. Article visualizations:


The rise in the number of automated or bot accounts on Twitter engaging in manipulative behaviour is of great concern to studies using social media as a primary data source. Many strategies have been proposed and implemented, however, the sophistication and rate of deployment of bot accounts is increasing rapidly. This impedes and limits the capabilities of detecting bot strategies. Various features broadly related to account profiles, tweet content, network and temporal patterns have been utilised in detection systems. Tweet content has been proven instrumental in this process, but limited to the terms and entities occurring. Given a set of tweets with no obvious pattern, can we distinguish contents produced by social bots from those of humans? What constitutes engagement on Twitter and how can we measure the intensity of engagement among Twitter users? Can we distinguish between bot and human accounts based on engagement intensity? These are important questions whose answer will improve how detection systems operate to combat malicious activities by effectively distinguishing between human and social bot accounts on Twitter. This study attempts to answer these questions by analysing the engagement intensity and lexical richness of tweets produced by human and social bot accounts using large, diverse datasets. Our results show a clear margin between the two classes in terms of engagement intensity and lexical richness. We found that it is extremely rare for a social bot to engage meaningfully with other users and that lexical features significantly improve the performance of classifying both account types. These are important dimensions to explore toward improving the effectiveness of detection systems in combating the menace of social bot accounts on Twitter.


We report total-energy electronic-structure calculations based on the density-functional theory which clarify atomic structure, spin configuration and charge of the decavacancy V 10 in crystalline Si. We have found that V 10 is a negative- U system due to substantial breathing relaxation of the surrounding atoms, which makes charge states ranging from +4 to -4 possible. We have also found that V 10 exhibits various types of Jahn–Teller symmetry lowering in the atomic structure depending on the charge. Highly spin-polarized states are obtained in several charge states.


This work investigates the impacts of unknown parameters of noise and signal powers on the popular spectrum sensing scheme, i.e., energy detection, for cognitive radios (CRs) over fading channels, which is a promising communication technology for the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. To study the effects of unknown parameters for the energy detector, a new maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation of noise and signal powers employing the cyclic prefix (CP) of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is presented. The Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) of the estimation are obtained. Furthermore, the performances under both hypotheses, i.e., false-alarm rate (FAR) and detection probability (DP), of the impaired energy detector are validated by both simulation and analytical results.


Abstract Hogna coloradensis (Banks 1894) (Araneae, Lycosidae) is redescribed. Banks' original description from 1894 made identification difficult. Internal and external genitalia of both sexes are herein described and illustrated. The spider is found east of the Rocky Mountains from Wyoming south to Mexico. It constructs shallow, straight burrows that it sometimes closes with small rocks and debris. Lycosa evagra Chamberlin 1925 is synonymized with H. coloradensis.


Buildings' sector remains an important player on the international economy dynamics, as it integrates significant resources which can be translated in energy consumption, while regulations demand a high energy performance of buildings for significant reduction of the energy consumption. The present study emphases the creation of a ventilated solar façade for air heating with integrated thermal inertia elements. A Transpired Solar Collector (TSC) is made of metal cladding with perforations, installed at a certain distance from a building wall, thus creating a cavity through which the air is circulating. The metal cladding is heated by the solar radiation from the sun and ventilation fans create negative pressure in the cavity, extracting the solar heated air through the perforated panel. Studies have shown that the change of these perforations geometry can be an important factor and leads to heat transfer increase. Thermal behavior of TSC with latent heat storage was experimentally investigated.