Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy worldwide and treatment options are depended on the stage of the tumour. In general, the prognosis of HCC patients with extra-hepatic metastasis is poor. The most common sites of extra-hepatic metastasis are the lung, abdominal lymph nodes and bone. Case presentation: Here, we reported a 54-year-old man with an indolent clinical course of HCC. He had multiple extra-hepatic recurrences after initial hepatectomy for HCC and was benefited from repeated resections with prolonged survival. Eventually, he developed intramuscular recurrence in the thigh, which was initially mistaken as deep vein thrombosis. Conclusion: Selected patients with indolent disease course of HCC may benefit from repeated resections of extra-hepatic metastases with prolonged survival. Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia where viral hepatitis is prevalent. Treatment options and thus prognosis are highly variable depending on the stage of the tumor. The prognosis of HCC patients with extra-hepatic metastasis is generally poor. The most common sites of extra-hepatic metastasis are the lung, abdominal lymph nodes and bone [1]. Rarely, HCC has been reported to metastasize to the breast [2], pituitary gland [3], gingiva and papillary muscle of the heart [4]. Intramuscular metastasis from HCC is indeed very rare. Here, we reported a 54-year-old patient with an indolent and interesting clinical course of HCC. Case presentation A 54-year-man, who is a chronic hepatitis B carrier and with Child A cirrhosis, presented with weight loss in 2002. All along, he did not develop any variceal bleeding, ascites or hepatic encephalopathy. Blood tests showed elevated alpha-fetal protein (AFP) level of 458 ng/ml. Computer tomography (CT) imaging of the abdomen confirmed a 7.5 × 7 × 7.7 cm lesion in segment IVb of the liver. He underwent right tri-segmentectomy and at the time of surgery his Model for End Liver Disease (MELD) score was seven. Pathology showed a 8 × 5 × 4.5 cm HCC' with vascular invasion. He was followed up regularly with serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), chest x-ray and computed tomography (CT) scan every three months. Nine months after the initial operation, the disease recurred in the lung, with Published: 23 April 2008 World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2008, 6:42 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-6-42 Received: 26 February 2008 Accepted: 23 April 2008 This article is available from: http://www.wjso.com/content/6/1/42 © 2008 Yau et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


looking at a hot, contemporary, issue. WikiLeaks is in many ways an un-missable target, and all manner of research in journalism, politics, legal, and cultural studies have touched on its emergence, not to mention the biographies and insider accounts. This is not to say that because there has been a good deal written about WikiLeaks that more cannot be done, but rather a reality that any volume—including Beyond WikiLeaks— risks blending seamlessly into a collection of volumes without leaving its own mark. This leads to a tempting question: where does a volume such as Beyond WikiLeaks sit among those many? The answer is in the first word of its title, and perhaps not the second. This collection offers a concise and thorough account of where things stand and how WikiLeaks research has made sense of change thus far, but it tries to place these within broader discussions that can develop regardless of the WikiLeaks project's future dynamics. In doing so, the work in Beyond WikiLeaks carries weight even as attention to WikiLeaks and Assange wanes. To this point, in June 2013 WikiLeaks' was superseded as the key voice in debates of journalism, power, and society when Edward Snowden and his National Security Agency (NSA) leaks hit the front pages, a position they have yet to abandon. It seems the question of what lies Beyond WikiLeaks has been answered by Snowden and by this new set of leaks meted out across news sites and front pages, and a new set of debates about online freedom and journalistic roles. However, just because we seem to have an answer to the "beyond" question does not make this volume less valuable. Rather, its thorough and provocative scholarship establishes a basis upon which future dynamics of change can be discussed, including those raised by the NSA leaks. For its range of content and its valuable theorization and contextualization, Beyond WikiLeaks offers scholars who work in these areas a broader narrative and a way to avoid WikiLeaks being set aside as something of a moment. The strength of its academic reflection allows us to consider the implications of something like WikiLeaks as well as someone like Snowden across their political, social, cultural, and journalistic disruptions for what each offer in their moments, and for what they hint at "beyond".


Concentration analysis was performed on four typical polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) in 18 water samples coming from seven different sites of the Yangtze River Estuary from April 24,2007 to April 30,2007.In addition,toxic effects((L(E)C_(50)) or no observed effect concentration(NOEC)) analysis was performed from three basic levels of aquatic organisms(Scenedemus vacuolatus,Daphnia magna and Oncorhynchus mykiss).Based on this,the quotient method from the Technical Guidance Document(TGD) on Risk Assessment of Chemical Substances by the European Union was adopted to assess the ecological risks of naphthalene,phenanthrene,anthracene,fluoranthene in water of the Yangtze River Estuary.The results showed that the quotient of PEC/PNEC of anthracene was higher than 1 and those of the other three PAHs were lower than 1.This indicated that the four PAHs except anthracene did not cause potential damage to the Yangtze River Estuary ecosystem.


To address the problem of poor detection and under-utilization of the spatial relationship between nodes in human pose estimation, a method based on an improved spatial temporal graph convolutional network (ST-GCN) model is proposed. Firstly, upsampling and segmented random sampling strategies are used to effectively solve the problems of class imbalance and the large sequence length of the dataset. Secondly, an improved detection transformer (DETR) structure is added to effectively suppress the generation of non-maximal suppression (NMS) and anchor points, a multi-head attention (M-ATT) module is introduced into each ST-GCN cell to capture richer feature information, and a residual module is introduced into the 9th ST-GCN cell to avoid possible network degradation in deep networks. In addition, strategies such as warmup, regularization, loss functions, and optimizers are configured to improve the model's performance. The experimental results show that the average percentage of correct keypoints (PCK) of this method are 93.2% and 92.7% for the FSD and MPII datasets, respectively, which is 1.9% and 1.7% higher than the average PCK of the original ST-GCN method. Moreover, the confusion matrix corresponding to this method also indicated that the model has high recognition accuracy. In addition, comparison experiments with ST-GCN and other methods show that the computation of the model corresponding to this method is about 1.7 GFLOPs and the corresponding MACs are about 6.4 GMACs, which is a good performance.


Achieving adequate force control is an important problem in the application of robotics technology to manufacturing tasks. This is particularly true for assembly tasks that require constrained interaction between a robotic manipulator and a workpart. One approach to this problem is the use of passive compliance. A number of methods have been proposed for designing a passive compliance mechanism with a prescribed spatial stiffness (compliance) matrix using a parallel (serial) connection of elastic devices. If the spatial stiffness or compliance matrix is isotropic, the constituent elastic devices are simple in the sense that they are strictly translational or rotational. Non-isotropic stiffness and compliance matrices require the use of elastic screw devices that couple translation and rotation. These screw devices are of a more complicated nature than the simple elastic devices that are sufficient for the isotropic case. In this article the authors demonstrate how these screw devices can be eliminated by using a hybrid connection of parallel and serial configurations consisting of only simple elastic devices. This method can be used to achieve any prescribed non-isotropic stiffness or compliance matrix.


Leading arbitral institution in the world such International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)-International Court of Arbitration starts in 1923, so ICC have been helping to resolve difficulties in international commercial and business disputes to support trade and investment. Seeking continuously to improve efficiency, control time and costs and aid enforcement and confidentiality by introducing innovative new arbitration tools and procedures, the 2012 Arbitration Rules added new provision address such matters as disputes involving multiple contracts and parties, updated case management procedures, the appointment of an emergency arbitrator to order urgent measures and changes to facilitate the handling of disputes arising under investment treaties and trade agreements. The Arbitration Rules are those of 2012, as amended in order to respond to today business needs.


Procedure of subcategorization acquisition mainly includes two typical steps:Subcategorization hypotheses are generated according to certain heuristic rules;Hypotheses are filtered via statistical methods and reliable subcategorization types are selected.Previous efforts to improve the acquisition performance are focused on statistical filtering,and there is no supervised training for the generation of hypotheses in relevant experiments.Therefore,all these methods are unsupervised.This paper proposes a weakly supervised method for Chinese subcategorization acquisition,where the unsupervised hypothesis generator is replaced with a SVM classifier.Results of experiments indicate statistically significant improvement in the general acquisition performance.


The purpose of this study is to determine the expression of a acute endurance exercise both in cold(2℃) and hot(34℃) temperatures on the skeletal muscle. The main purpose of this study is to the effects of cold and hot temperatures to the heat shock protein 70, heat shock protein 27 and blood lactate, plasma CK using rats as the exercise. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly placed in one of three temperature groups (normal, hot, cold). The treadmill run with an intensity of 26m/min, 10°intensity and soleus(SOL) and extensor digitorum longus(EDL) muscle extracted at 30, 60, 90 min during the exercise. The western blotting analyzed the expression of HSP70 and HSP27 during the exercise, the increased HSP27 protein in the SOL and EDL tissues of the cold, hot and normal temperatures were observed. However, it was observed that only SOL tissues increased HSP70 protein in both cold and hot temperatures. These results implied that increased apoptotic factor by cold and hot temperatures could cause the expression of HSP70 and HSP27 which involve cell damage in early stage of exercise and due to temperatures.


Taking mechanical compressor of coal chemical industry as example,the paper proposed a design scheme of predictive condition maintenance system of compressor.The system uses comprehensive statistic analysis software in database server to evaluate main parameters of important components of compressor,so as to propose optimal operation and maintenance services of compressor.The actual application showed that the system improves maintenance efficiency and prolongs usage life of compressor.


In this research we develop a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model for the design of service networks for repair and refurbishment of short life-cycle products with component commonality (such as electronics and IT products). The solution to the network design problem is the locations of facilities and flows of products and modules among those facilities that result in the least total overall cost, while satisfying the capacity, flow and logical constraints. The data for the model was provided by a company providing after sales support in Asia, including Japan and Australia. The recommendation of the optimal network design was to merge the two existing China country distribution centers into one distribution centre, located in Shanghai.


Within a general study of transition metal (TM) alloys, the variation of the Auger parameters of Fe–10 at.% Al and Fe–50 at.% Al relative to the pure metal was determined. Initial‐ and final‐state Auger parameters were calculated and related to charge transfer calculations. Iron exhibits almost pure metal behaviour, particularly in Fe10Al, but Al core holes are more poorly screened than in Al metal. Charge transfer inferred from the final‐state Auger parameters suggests that Al carries a positive charge consistent with the electronegativity differences of Fe and Al. However, there is no evidence of Fe carrying a corresponding negative charge: furthermore, positive Al charge is inconsistent with the Al initial‐state parameter. This suggests, rather, that the Alsp–Fesd bonds in the alloys are less polarizable than Al bonds in the nearly free electron metal, a concept supported by the reduction in Al 2p plasmon satellite intensity on alloying and the increased plasmon energy associated with the enhanced valence electron density. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The novel ionic pentacoordinate NiII−π-allyl complexes [(η3-C3H5)Ni(PMe3)3]Y (1a−d) and [(η3-C3H5)Ni{P(OMe)3}3]Y (2a−d) (Y = SO3CF3 (a), PF6 (b), Br (c), I (d)) have been synthesized and investigated by DSC, solid-state NMR, and X-ray single-crystal and powder diffractometry. Apart from 1a, all complexes are polymorphic. The PMe3 complexes 1b−d undergo monoclinic-monoclinic phase transitions. The solid-state structures of 1a and 1b-II are rigid at low temperature but fluxional at ambient temperature, whereas those of 1c-II and 1d-II are almost rigid, while somewhat faster dynamics occur for 1c-I and 1d-I. Similarly, the structures of 2c-II and 2d-II are fully or almost fully rigid at ambient temperature. The properties of the P(OMe)3-ligated OTf and PF6 salts 2a,b are completely different. 2a crystallizes in the triclinic phase 2a-II, which transforms at −21 °C into the highly mobile, plastically crystalline mesophase 2a-I with a cubic primitive cell. 2b crystallizes from solution in the monoclinic phase ...


With the large advances in computing power and the prevalence of 3D terrain packages and aerial survey, the use of full 2D hydraulic models is becoming more widespread in the terrestrial environment. However, due to the coastal and ocean heritage of many 2D model's solution schemes, they have had some floodplain applicability limitations. Lawson and Treloar has recently utilised DELFT-FLS, developed by WL DELFT Hydraulics, to carry out floodplain modelling in a rural environment, where supercritical flow and floodwave propagation could typically be expected to impact on model stability and results. Initial checks of uniform flow and broad-crested weir behaviour under a range of conditions were performed to ensure the modeller understood the capabilities and limitations of the software as well as the techniques required to achieve the appropriate solutions. As expected, the modelling system had no problems producing accurate uniform depth calculations in comparison to the Manning's equation. The checking of the model's behaviour under weir conditions shows that DELFT-FLS can produce a highly consistent and configurative result with the standard broad-crested weir equation based on fine-tuning grid discretisation, roughness and the number of grid cells to represent the weirs. When used for the floodplain modelling project, it was found that DELFT-FLS provides significant benefits in terms of stability, accuracy of end result and floodwave timing.


Seizures are the part of the epilepsy that occurs in central nervous system which leads to abnormal brain activity. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signal recordings are mostly used in epileptic seizure detection process. Detection of seizures is a crucial part for further treatment of patients. This paper proposes a multi-view SVM model for seizure detection using the single channel EEG signals. In this experiment, two views of the EEG data have been extracted, (1) the time domain features using Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and (2) power spectral densities are obtained in the frequency domain. Extracted features have been fed to multi-view SVM classification model. In this study, a single channel EEG dataset is used for seizure detection. Performance estimation parameters namely Accuracy, Sensitivity, Specificity, F1-score, and AUC value have been estimated for evaluating the proposed model. The model classified seizure and non-seizure over the sets A vs E and B vs E with an accuracy greater than 99% using k-fold cross validation. The classification accuracy obtained by multi-view SVM is better by 1–4% than single view SVM using the same features. Furthermore, the proposed model is also compared with existing single view SVM models. It is observed that the multi view SVM model performed significantly better, compare to a single view SVM model over the same features.


Abstract The way visitors to a new city wayfind in the digital era has been given less research attention than might be expected. The main aim of this study is to examine differences in wayfinding strategies between three groups of participants who used different navigational aids: a group with a paper map, a group with the Google Maps app, and a group relying on local signage only. Methods included GPS tracking, and voice recording of decision-making using the think-aloud method. 38 participants who had never visited Brisbane, Australia, were recruited and placed in one of the three groups. They undertook a two-hour pedestrian wayfinding task and other research activities in the city centre. The results show there are significant differences in wayfinding strategies used by the three groups of participants. The GPS group preferred to follow the suggested route by their navigator, most of them 'locking in' as digital navigators throughout the task. By contrast, the local-signage-only group used a diverse range of strategies to wayfind. Local-signage-only and paper map users tried to locate their position in the city by using piloting or path integration strategies, the GPS group just passively followed the guidance line showed by their device. On completion of the task the digital navigators recognized less spatial information. Surprisingly, the digital navigators did not feel less anxious compared with the two other groups. Urban planners and designers may need to re-think their design strategies to interrupt digital navigation. The provision of a more diverse set of digital navigation options, rather than just shortest-path route identification, is likely desirable to assist navigators who wish to experience more on their pedestrian journeys.


Systems for the deburring of workpieces with inner edges generally have cutting edges supported by springs or spring-like components. Due to this feature, usable rotation speeds and feedrates are relatively low – the longer time for deburring results in higher production costs. The development of deburring tools without spring elements for machining inner and outer edges leads to faster processing. In this case, the forces at the cutting edges are controlled by the pressure of a liquid or gaseous media – in the most cases the cooling media instead of spring forces. Thusly, rotation speed and feed can be increased considerably, and high-speed deburring (HSD) is possible. Through the variation of media pressure, rotation speed, and feed, the resulting quality can be controlled and optimized. The surface of the workpiece is not influenced negatively by the deburring process – modifications of the tool construction can prevent surface quality deterioration.


Abstract: Background: Cell phone use while driving or walking is a big challenge in traffic safety, worldwide. The aim of this study was to systematically identify the effect of cell phone usage on traffic crashes. Methods: A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Sid, IranMedix, Cochrane Library, Science Direct and Web of Knowledge. The included articles are published in 2001-2018. Besides searching in mentioned databases, hand searching was also done for identifying more related articles. After extracting related articles, they were assessed by using existing check lists. Results: Out of 1194 retrieved articles, 80 articles are included in this review. The included articles study different aspects of the cell phone usage effect on traffic safety, e.g. the effect of using cell phone on crash risk, crash severity, pedestrian crash, crash type, the effect of different cell phone use legislations on crash rates and fatalities in which different analytical methods (logistic regression, linear regression, structural equation modeling, econometric methods, etc.) have been used. The results of the studies in crash type show significant effects of cell phone usage on rear-end collisions, most of the studies in crash risk indicate higher collision risks for drivers who use cell phones and most of the studies on pedestrian crash show unsafe crossing behavior for cell phone users. Moreover, the results of hand held cell phone usage ban vary in the influence on traffic safety in different countries. Conclusions: Most of the included articles revealed that safety of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians on the road is undermined by cell phone usage. Therefore, efforts should be made on preventing distracted driving or walking which is one of the main contributors for road traffic injuries. Keywords: Cell phone, Driver, Pedestrian, Crash, Safety


A speaker identification scheme using the speaker-based VQ codecook of a sustained vowel is proposed and tested. With the pitch synchronous LPC vector of the sustained vowel /i/ as a feature vector, a VQ codebook size of 4 was found to be suitable to characterize each speaker's feature space. For 40 normal speakers (20 males, 20 females), we achieved the correct identification rate of 99.4% with a training data set, and 89.4% with a test data set with speech samples of only 50 pitch periods.


Abstract During this century, there have been significant changes in household demography, domesticity and dwelling designs. Moreover, the systems of values attributed to the home, the family and marriage have become more diverse. This article identifies the interrelations between a wide range of factors that contribute to transformations in house planning, household demography and home life. These factors are discussed and illustrated by referring to a case study of Geneva that adopted a historical perspective. This approach shows that there is a growing discordance between housing policies and architectural practice on the one hand and socio‐demographic and socio‐psychological trends on the other hand. In sum, it is instructive to adopt a historical and a contextual approach if alternative strategies to correct the current situation are to be formulated and applied successfully.


Programa de Educación Sobre la Obesidad (PESO) was a targeted intervention which intended to raise awareness about the obesity epidemic, reduce the proportion of overweight and obese adults, and promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables within the Hispanic community of Seminole County, Florida. It was funded through the Florida Department of Health statewide Hispanic Obesity and Prevention Program. The PESO program utilized a multidisciplinary design to implement and evaluate a nutrition education and obesity reduction program. The 4-month program was a collaborative effort of the Seminole County Health Department, University of Central Florida, and Iglesia Vida Nueva church in Seminole County. We used a social marketing framework to deliver the curriculum and structure some of the lessons. In addition, we utilized this framework to critique, redesign, and make recommendations for future programs.


Abstract Introduction: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) presents the problem of a chronic, relapsing, painful, draining wound. There is a myriad of HS wound care management strategies implemented by clinicians and patients centered around which dressings to use. Many factors affect which HS wound care dressing is the most appropriate to use such as the type of HS wound, cost, ease of application, patient comfort, absorbency and odor management among many others. Aim: In this work, the authors aim to prepare a set of guidelines for optimal HS wound care dressing use based on a tier system, ideal characteristics of HS dressings and the type of HS lesion. The dressing recommendations focus on cost-effectiveness for patients, ease of accessibility and ultimately, improvement in the quality of life of patients suffering from HS. Methods: PubMed was utilized to search the terms 'wound care + HS'; 'non-surgical wound care + HS'; 'optimal wound care + HS'; 'HS wounds'; and 'optimal wound dressings'. Results: Silver-impregnated foam is considered the most optimal HS wound care dressing because it contains nearly all characteristics of an ideal wound care dressing. Conclusion: However, silver-impreganted foam is expensive and difficult to access for patients, so lower-tier HS wound care dressings must be considered prior to utilizing this tier 4 dressing.


Connect the fuel cell stack into AC grid A system for supplying power to the AC grid (100), DC bus (110) which is voltage regulation is coupled to the fuel cell stack, bidirectional inverter (120) There together is coupled to the DC bus (110), it provides a system (100) to be coupled between the AC grid the DC bus (110). Coupling at least one auxiliary DC load on the fuel cell stack (130) to the DC bus (110). Direct current between the fuel cell stack and the DC bus (110) - providing a DC converter (140).


:
The two previous chapters discussed the main characteristics and ingredients of the design process. Although these ingredients are difficult to generalize, N. P. Suh (1990) found a common core in what came to be known as Axiomatic Design. His objective, as he himself describes it (Suh, 1990: 4), is to establish a scientific basis for design. The result is a theory capable of generating value because it incorporates, in a natural way, the main needs of any designer: robustness, efficiency, simplicity, and so on, along with a maximum probability of success. The following sections describe the theoretical framework on which this philosophy of design is based. The chapter includes an application of Axiomatic Design during the conceptual design phase of the main bearing configuration of a turbofan.


An automated classification algorithm is presented which processes short-duration epochs of surface electrocardiogram data derived from polysomnography studies, and determines whether an epoch is from a period of sleep disordered respiration (SDR) or normal respiration (NR). The epoch lengths considered were 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 s. Epochs were labeled as 'NR' or 'SDR' by a human expert, based on standard polysomnography interpretation rules. The automated classification algorithm was trained and tested on a database of 70 overnight ECG recordings from subjects with and without obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (35 used for training, 35 for independent validation). Depending on the epoch length, the classifier correctly labeled between 87% (15 s epochs) and 91% (60 s epochs) of the epochs in the test set. Accuracy was lowest for the shortest (15 s) and longest (90 s) epoch lengths, but the analysis was relatively insensitive to choice of epoch length. The classifications from these epochs were combined to form an overall summary measure of minutes-of-SDR, allowing per-subject classification.


— This study uses the Kaldor's Growth Law model to estimate the effect of the manufacturing industry sector on the South Sumatra economy. The research objective is to find out whether the industrial sector can be an engine of growth at the full employment level. The results showed that the industrial sector can take a share of 34 percent of economic growth. However, if the input factor is also allocated to the agriculture and mining sectors, the role of industry actually decreases to 14.6 percent. The role of manufacturing does not specifically accelerate the pace of economic growth in South Sumatra. This can be seen from the small and insignificant influence of the difference between the growth of manufacturing with agriculture and mining on the economic growth of South Sumatra. This means that the growth of the manufacturing sector is relatively not greater than the growth of the non-manufacturing sector or even a negative difference, which means faster growth of other sectors. The role of the industrial sector in creating employment is in line with the share of the creation of added value in the industrial sector which is also not yet encouraging in terms of the process of structural transformation. The role of the industrial sector in creating employment opportunities can be said to be insignificant.


The bone marrow cells obtained from the bone marrow of the mouse and the mononuclear cell fractions isolated from the bone marrow cells were transplanted into the rat demyelinated rat model, which surprisingly re-myelinated the demyelinated nerve axons. I found that. Bone Marrow Cells, Rat Spinal Cord Demyelination Model, Rehydration


An individual (J‐1) was shown to be heterozygous for the Mivand Mk genes. Her red cells typed as M+(weak), N‐, S‐, s+(strong), U+, Hil+, Wr(a‐b‐), En(a+weak). Poly‐acrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis of her red cell membranes revealed absence of PAS‐staining bands corresponding to normal MN and Ss sialoglycoprotein (SGP), and presence of a hybrid MNSs SGP [(α ‐ δ)Miv] similar but not identical to that reported for an Miv homozygote. However, J‐1 cannot be homozygous for Miv since the red cells of two of her children are Hil‐ and s‐, carry only a single dose of M antigen, and have a sialic acid content that is consistent with the presumption that they are Mk heterozygotes. J‐I's hybrid MNSs SGP is considered to be gene‐fusion product resulting from unequal crossover between a normal αMand δ gene, and her red cells lack that portion of the Ena antigen that is resistant to ficin. Her hybrid MNSs SGP differs, therefore, from that reported for the Miv homozygote, which probably arose from unequal crossover between αv and δ genes. Further, the red cells of the Miv homozygote carry the ficin‐resistant Ena determinant


Now teachers can help students enjoy physical education and improve their motor skills and fitness with one simple tool - a jump rope. With "Jump Rope Primer", teachers will be amazed at how easily they can make this fun activity a part of a daily curriculum. "The Jump Rope Primer" is organised into three parts. Part 1 is an introduction to rope jumping and the Ropics programme. Part II contains over 175 photos and line drawings that clearly illustrate how to perform specific skills. Part III provides an eight-lesson unit that takes students from the basic two-foot jump to Double Dutch routines. There's also information on different types of jump ropes, prefers floors surfaces, relevant stretching routines, class and programmes design, jump rope games, and tournaments and other events that motivate students. A companion video is also available.


Looking at relative clause extraposition in German as a concrete example, the paper demonstrates how linguistic model building, corpus study and psycholinguistic experiments combine into an integrational research programme that aims at an improved understanding and linguistically as well as cognitively adequate modelling of human language performance. Starting from the word order theory articulated by (Hawkins, 1994), we formulate hypotheses on the positional distribution of relative clauses and evaluate them on the basis of data drawn from corpus analyses and acceptability experiments. Our empirical studies confirm the expectation that grammatical weight has a significant effect on relative clause distribution; at the same time, there is an interesting asymmetry between language production and perception data.


This paper considers the transcription of the widely observed yet less investigated bilingual code-switched speech: the words or phrases of the guest language are inserted within the utterances of the host language, so the languages are switched back and forth within an utterance, and much less data are available for the guest language. Two approaches utilizing the deep neural network (DNN) were tested and analyzed, including using DNN bottleneck features in HMM/GMM (BF-HMM/GMM) and modeling context-dependent HMM senones by DNN (CD-DNN-HMM). In both cases the unit merging (and recovery) techniques in acoustic modeling were used to handle the data imbalance problem. Improved recognition accuracies were observed with unit merging (and recovery) for the two approaches under different conditions.


This report is based on a study of 514 cases of perforated peptic ulcer. Follow-up data were obtained for periods ranging from less than a year to more than 22 years in 285 of the 449 cases in which the patients survived simple closure of the perforation. In 101(35.5 per cent) of these 285 cases, the patients were free of symptoms when they were last seen. Ulcer symptoms persisted or recurred in 166 (58.2 per cent) of the 285 cases, and an operation was performed later in 110 of these 166 cases.


Aclarubicin (ACR) is a new anthracy cloine antibiotic with a reduced cardiac toxicity in animal models. A prospective study was performend in a total of 23 patients with malignant lymphoma (ML), 20 of whom were evaluable for response. Two dose schedules were designed : 12.5mg/M2 was administered daily by intravenous injection for 5 days, and 25mg/M2 for 3 days. The overall response rate was 55% (11/20), among them 3 cases (15% ) with CR and 8 cases (40% ) with PR were found after 3 cycles of treatment. The gastrointestinal toxivity occured frequently but not severely Hematologic to xicity was dose limiting and a mild to moderate grade myelosuppression was noted. There was no alopecia and congestive heart failure. Diarrhea, stomatitis and phebitis were uncommon. ECG changes were observed in 4 out of 23 patients (17.4%) and were not associated with clinical symptoms. Further studies are needed for optimal dose schedule and remote effect of ACR in the treatment of ML.


Not only human health depends on the microbiological purity of air, but also the production processes efficiency at the enterprises of agriculture, food, pharmaceutical industry, and other human activities. To solve the problems of microbiological air pollution and ventilation as well as air conditioning systems, ultraviolet irradiation devices based on low-pressure Hg-lamps are traditionally used. Based on world experience in air treatment of ventilation and air conditioning systems, convenient to use, the energy-efficient, small-sized and safe-to-operate disinfection devices based on amalgam ultraviolet lamps have been created. Recognizing the importance of the problem and taking into account the regulatory documents requirements, we have created professional installations for the ventilation, air channels and air conditioning systems' disinfection: ultraviolet modules MEGALIT and bactericidal cells MEGALIT AERO.


Tourism has significant potentials for generating positive social, cultural and economic benefits depending on how tourism activities are managed and developed. However, tourism also has the potential to generate more negative outcomes. Therefore, the objectives of this study are first; to examine the impacts of tourism development on local communities, second; to recognize the attitudes and perception of local communities towards tourism development in their neighbourhoods. The study is based on the data gathered from 108 families in three villages to analysis the attitudes and perceptions of local communities towards tourism development. Additionally, six unstructured interviews were conducted with government officers of these villages to get the precise understanding of the tourism development in local communities and its impacts. The study reveals inadequate government planning, policies and regulations, insufficient knowledge and skills of tour operators, and the broader social issues of poverty and its concomitant implications have become the impediments. Despite numerous economic advantages for the government, private businesses and other external organizations, the local villagers do not sufficiently benefit financially from tourism development. The study area is located in the heart of the cultural triangle; villagers and tourists in this region generally demonstrate high levels of sensitivity to indigenous cultures, thus minimizing the negative socio-cultural impacts.


In 2008 I placed a piece of translucent vellum paper over the score for Bach's Cello Suites. I then played a CD of Rostropovich performing this same score, and, while I listened, I traced the written notes as closely as I could at the same speed as the music. My piece one to one involved writing all thirty-six pages of the score in this way and videotaping the process. Plugging myself into this circuit of simultaneous recording and playback wasn't really very relaxing. I had a sustained sensation of failing the task at hand. Even though I was pushing my motor control to the limit there was no way I would be able to trace legibly a measure of fast notes at the actual speed that they are performed. At any given moment I was already behind, and the activity required such focus that there was no way to look ahead. The pen recorded my ear-to-hand transmissions, resulting in something of a laboratory printout. But the pen was also an instrument that I performed; I was trying to be a musical machine. The lines were inflected by the energy of the cellist as he brought these notes to life on the recording. No doubt the man had soul, and a little of this soul found its way back into the lines, imprinting another kind of data onto the page. And there were other things being recorded in the line. My hand and fingers had been conditioned by years of playing instruments and notating music—movements previously recorded into my muscle memory and now being played back as I recorded the playback of the recording of Rostropovich playing. In a related experiment, also in 2008, I began with a written transcription of Charlie Parker's Steeplechase. I put a piece of tracing paper over it, but this time, instead of tracing it in time to a CD recording, I paced myself with a metronome. I found that if I set the speed on the metronome to its slowest possible setting I could trace perfectly readable notes. I then increased the speed of the metronome little by little, each time making a new tracing, until I was writing at the same tempo that Charlie Parker recorded it: a lightning fast one hundred seventy-six beats per minute. In the end there were twenty-six pages that resulted from this process that were arranged in a line, incrementally from left to right.


Background: Trichomoniasis is a sexually transmitted disease detrimental to pregnant women. They are prone to vaginal pH increase during pregnancy, creating a conducive environment for the parasite. This study assessed the prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis among pregnant women attending an ante-natal clinic in Immanuel General Hospital Eket, Akwa Ibom State.
Methods: Pre-designed questionnaires were administered to randomly selected pregnant women aged 18-49. High vaginal swabs were collected from each participant, and T. vaginalis was diagnosed using wet mount and Giemsa-stained microscopy method.
Results: Of the 200 samples collected, 28 (14%) were positive for Trichomonas vaginalis. The infection was highest among the age group 26-35 years, with a prevalence of 22 (78.57%). A higher prevalence of 16 (57.14%) was observed among women with elevated vaginal pH (>4.5) than those with lower pH (<4.5). The distribution of T. vaginalis by clinical manifestation revealed that all the positive women (28; 27.7%) had vaginal discharge and 11(14.3%) experienced itching. Few women experienced Dysuria (4;22.2%) and Dyspareunia (2; 10%). Chi-square analysis showed a significant difference in the age group (p< 0.05).
Conclusions: Routine screening of all pregnant women is recommended so that appropriate treatment can be administered early to avoid childbirth complications due to this disease. There is also a need for routine health talks on personal hygiene and safe sex practices.


COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease of 2019) is one of the most challenging healthcare crises of the twenty-first century. The pandemic causes many negative impacts on all aspects of life and livelihoods. Although recent developments of relevant vaccines, such as Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA, AstraZeneca, or Moderna, the emergence of new virus mutations and their fast infection rate yet pose significant threats to public health. In this context, early detection of the disease is an important factor to reduce its effect and quickly control the spread of pandemic. Nevertheless, many countries still rely on methods that are either expensive and time-consuming (i.e., Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction) or uncomfortable and difficult for self-testing (i.e., Rapid Antigen Test Nasal). Recently, deep learning methods have been proposed as a potential solution for COVID-19 analysis. However, previous works usually focus on a single symptom, which can omit critical information for disease diagnosis. Therefore, in this study, we propose a multi-modal method to detect COVID-19 using cough sounds and self-reported symptoms. The proposed method consists of five neural networks to deal with different input features, including CNN-biLSTM for MFCC features, EfficientNetV2 for Mel spectrogram images, MLP for self-reported symptoms, C-YAMNet for cough detection, and RNNoise for noise-canceling. Experimental results demonstrated that our method outperformed the other state-of-the-art methods with a high AUC, accuracy, and F1-score of 98.6%, 96.9%, and 96.9% on the testing set.


Dilithiated 1-tetralone or 2-tetralone carboalkoxyhydrazones were prepared in excess lithium diisopropylamide and condensed with a variety of aromatic esters followed by acid cyclization of C-acylated intermediates to give substituted dihydrobenzindazoles, alkyl 4,5-dihydro-2H-benz[g]indazole-2-carboxylates and methyl 4,5-dihydro-2H-benz[e]indazole-2-carboxylates. These fused-ring heterocyclic products have considerable application potential.


The inclusion of elastomeric substances into concrete aimed at improving performance properties may pose a serious threat, particularly at high temperatures. This paper presents experimental findings regarding the elastomeric influence of natural rubber latex on compressive strength of concrete at elevated temperatures. Normal and modified concrete specimens were prepared, heated, and subsequently tested for compressive strength. Five temperatures—ambient temperature (27°C), 150, 300, 500, and 800°C—were applied. Microstructural samples were observed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the role of poly(1,4-isoprene) particles in the modified system was evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) conducted on hardened cement paste, latex film, and cement-latex blend. Finally, compressive strength of the modified concrete was observed to depreciate at the softening point temperature of the latex films in the comatrix, eventually with more strength loss. At 800°C, the strength loss was 50.5%...


HJ, Fazio VW. Epidural anesthesia-analgesia shortens length of stay after laparoscopic segmental colectomy for benign pathology. Surgery 2001; 129: 672–6. 109 Brodner G, Mertes N, Buerkle H, Marcus MA, Van Aken H. Acute pain management: analysis, implications and consequences after prospective experience with 6349 surgical patients. Eur J Anaesthesiol 2000; 17: 566–75. 110 Schuster M, Gottschalk A, Freitag M, Standl T. Cost drivers in patient-controlled epidural analgesia for postoperative pain management after major surgery. Anesth Analg 2004; 98: 708–13. 111 Tanaka K, Watanabe R, Harada T, Dan K. Extensive application of epidural anesthesia and analgesia in a university hospital: incidence of complications related to technique. Reg Anesth 1993; 18: 34–8. 112 Kane RE. Neurologic deficits following epidural or spinal anesthesia. Anesth Analg 1981; 60: 150–61. 113 Horlocker TT, Wedel, DJ. Neurological complications of spinal and epidural anesthesia. Reg Anesth Pain Med 2000; 25: 83–98. 114 Serlander D. Neurotoxicity of local anaesthetics. Reg Anesth 1993; 18: 461–8. 115 Kee WD, Jones MR, Thomas P, Worth RJ. Extradural abscess complicating extradural anaesthesia for caesarean section. Br J Anaesth 1992; 69: 647–52. 116 Mackenzie AR, Laing RB, Smith CC, Kaar GF, Smith FW. Spinal epidural abscess: the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. J Neurosurg Neurol Psychiatry 1998; 65: 209–12. 117 Dawson SJ, Small H, Logan MN, Geringer S. Case–control study of epidural catheter infections in a district general hospital. Commun Dis Public Health 2000; 3: 300–2. 118 Lindner A, Warmuth-Metz M, Becker G, Toyka VV. Iatrogenic spinal epidural abscesses: early diagnosis essential for good outcome. Eur J Med Res 1997; 2: 201–5. 119 Wu CL, Perkins FM. Oral anticoagulant prophylaxis and epidural catheter removal. Reg Anesth 1996; 21: 517–24. 120 Kassis J, Fugere F, Dube S. The safe use of epidural anesthesia after subcutaneous injection of low-dose heparin in general abdominal surgery. Can J Surg 2000; 43: 289– 94. 121 Horlocker TT, Wedel DJ, Benzon H et al. Regional anesthesia in the anticoagulated patient: defining the risks (the second ASRA Consensus Conference on Neuraxial Anesthesia and Anticoagulation). Reg Anesth Pain Med 2003; 28: 172–97. 122 Teng YH, Hu JS, Tsai SK, Liew C, Lui PW. Efficacy and adverse effects of patient-controlled epidural or intravenous analgesia after major surgery. Chang Gung Med J 2004; 27: 877–86. 123 Gedney JA, Liu EH. Side-effects of epidural infusions of opioid bupivacaine mixtures. Anaesthesia 1998; 53: 1148– 55. 124 Ready LB, Loper KA, Nessly M, Wild L. Postoperative epidural morphine is safe on surgical wards. Anesthesiology 1991; 75: 452–6. 125 Parker RK, Sawaki Y, White PF. Epidural patient-controlled analgesia: Influence of bupivacaine and hydromorphone basal infusion on pain control after cesarean delivery. Anesth Analg 1992; 75: 740–6. 126 Hopf H-B, Weibach B, Peters J. High thoracic segmental epidural anesthesia diminishes sympathetic outflow to the legs, despite restriction of sensory blockade to the upper thorax. Anesthesiology 1990; 73: 882–9.


Background : Diabetic patients are at a high risk of developing micro and macro vascular diseases. Mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW) are indicators of platelet function and activity and they have been reported to be influenced significantly by diabetes. The complications of diabetes mellitus are a leading cause of death in people with diabetes. Recent studies suggest that platelets count and indices with altered morphology could be associated with an increased risk for developing vascular complications in diabetes. Objective: To assess the Platelets count and Platelets indices in Sudanese Patients with diabetes mellitus. Method: This case control study was conducted in Omdurmanmedical clinic and hospitals in Khartoum state. A total of 50 Sudanese patients were diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type I and type II were included of his study and (50) apparently healthy non- Diabetic volunteered individual were used as controls, Patients included in this study werediabetes mellitus type I and type II. 2.5 ml of Venous blood of all Diabetic patients was collected in Ethylene Diamine Tetra acetic Acid (EDTA) containers to Complete blood count Platelet count and platelets indices (RDW, MPV,PCT) were measured by using Hematology Analyzer MINDRAY (280) made in china on the same day of collection, Clinical data were collected from patient medical records. Results : The mean platelet count for the Diabetic patients type I was (270.2917 ± 95) x 109/L; PDW was (12.31250 ± 0.3), the mean MPV (10.3 ±2.3) fL; the mean PCT was (0.25 ±.06%) for patients with type II mean platelet count for the Diabetic patients type I was (275.2917 ± 82) x 109/L; PDW was (14.3 ± 0.3) the mean MPV (15.5 ± .03) fL; the mean PCT was (0.25± 0.06%). Conclusions: Our study found higher platelet counts and MPV in Diabetic patients type II compared to type I Diabetic subjects.


With the recent rapid increase in the use of roof top photovoltaic solar systems worldwide, and also, more recently, the dramatic escalation in building grid connected solar farms, especially in Australia, the need for more accurate methods of very short-term forecasting has become a focus of research. The International Energy Agency Tasks 46 and 16 have brought together groups of experts to further this research. In Australia, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency is funding consortia to improve the five minute forecasting of solar farm output, as this is the time scale of the electricity market. The first step in forecasting of either solar radiation or output from solar farms requires the representation of the inherent seasonality. One can characterise the seasonality in climate variables by using either a multiplicative or additive modelling approach. The multiplicative approach with respect to solar radiation can be done by calculating the clearness index, or alternatively estimating the clear sky index. The clearness index is defined as the division of the global solar radiation by the extraterrestrial radiation, a quantity determined only via astronomical formulae. To form the clear sky index one divides the global radiation by a clear sky model. For additive de-seasoning, one subtracts some form of a mean function from the solar radiation. That function could be simply the long term average at the time steps involved, or more formally the addition of terms involving a basis of the function space. An appropriate way to perform this operation is by using a Fourier series set of basis functions. This article will show that for various reasons the additive approach is superior. Also, the differences between the representation for solar energy versus solar farm output will be demonstrated. Finally, there is a short description of the subsequent steps in short-term forecasting.


Costa Rica is supporting Marine Areas of Responsible Fishing (AMPRs) to enable small-scale fishing communities to apply for exclusive harvesting and management rights within spatially delimited areas under a co-management policy framework. Communities need to self-organize their own fishing association and develop a fishing management plan (POP) to apply. Seven AMPRs have been established in the Gulf of Nicoya, but many face collective action challenges to develop and achieve common goals and implementation. In this article, we conduct a qualitative comparative analysis by applying the Social-Ecological System Framework (SESF) as a tool to identify the social and ecological conditions influencing collective action and co-management in three AMPRs in the Gulf of Nicoya, and we compare the similarities and differences between them Our results show that all three AMPRs face collective action challenges for different reasons. Nonetheless, some commonalities exist. Common drivers motivating collective action include the desire to restrict certain types of fishing gears due to perceptions of resource scarcity and high dependence on local resources. Monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms, the presence of effective leadership and the economic heterogeneity of actors all positively influence collective action in two cases. However, in all three cases, there are more variables hindering collective action such as mistrust among actors, internal conflicts, non-rule compliance, lack of governmental support and resource unit mobility. Our findings suggest that AMPRs are a promising and potentially effective governance strategy because they can empower marginalized small-scale fishing communities and bring them into national development processes. However, there is an evident need for more state and local community investment into capacity building for self-organization and deliberation processes that can better enable the development of mutually accepted goals and implementation tools such as communication and enforcement strategies. Maintaining the perceptions among local communities that AMPRs are an acceptable and legitimate form of governance is a key challenge for continued collective action and achieving associated conservation goals. This research shows that adapting governance institutions to fit the social-ecological context of each AMPR is critical for success, despite the perceived similarity between the AMPRs.


Abstract Introduction Increasing computing power and sophisticated telecommunications technology are making the development of distributed information systems a reality. The use of such a distributed environment provides a new and powerful means of gathering, processing and disseminating a vast array of information products. There are, however, some facets to this environment which are not adequately dealt with by current policies in many jurisdictions. Some of the institutional issues which appear to be floundering in the wake of rapid advances in information technology relate to the ownership of information, the role of the private and public sectors in the distribution of information, the rights of access to information, and information privacy.


The aim of this study is to develop a simulation method for predicting the wind environment and turbulent diffusion process, which are affected by moving automobiles within the real situation of urban street canyon. In this study, a simulation method to reproduce the aerodynamic effects generated from the moving automobiles based on the methodology of canopy models, namely 'Vehicle Canopy Model', was developed. Furthermore, a series of wind tunnel measurements of flow over car-shaped roughness elements and the drag forces caused by the roughness with different configurations and densities were carried out. By comparing the results of CFD predictions of the developed 'Vehicle Canopy Model' with experimental data, the accuracy of the developed model was examined.


The main objective of this chapter is to understand if Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are effectively exploiting the potential of the digital world and are considering online information in the management model of tourism destinations. To this end, an exploratory study was carried out, focusing on a regional DMO in Portugal: Tourism of Alentejo/Ribatejo. The methodology used in this study unfolds in three phases: (1) a content analysis of strategic and operational plans and/or activities of the DMO under study; (2) analysis of its online presence, namely its website, social networks, and positioning in the Google search engine; and, finally, (3) a semi-structured interview with the president of the DMO. The results indicate that DMOs start to wage digital communication, opting to be on the Internet through their own website and with a profile created in some social networks. However, their activity in social networks is not regular. On the other hand, DMOs are still in a very incipient phase in the use of web and social networks data to support the organization's decision making. Digital Marketing Strategies of Destination Management Organizations: An Exploratory Study


Abstract:The following article aims to contribute to the scholarly discussion of both the development and the uses of the text of the Gospel of Thomas, now extant only in a single, fourth-century Coptic manuscript, with very fragmentary attestation of a few sayings among the Oxyrhynchus papyri as well. Here the concern is with post-compositional changes to the (Coptic) text, as opposed to redactional and pre-redactional literary developments. Specifically, the article examines in some detail four of the sayings (G. Thom. 111, 45, 29, and 61) identified by Uwe-Karsten Plisch as interpretive glosses, concluding, on the basis of mainly internal evidence, that in at least three of these cases, there are good arguments to be made that the form of the saying in our Coptic manuscript has been embellished by interpretive comments, perhaps originating as marginalia. The article also aims to link this phenomenon of interpretive glosses "getting into" copies of the text to the scholarly culture of antiquity, finding analogues for this kind of textual change not only in the NT texts, but also and especially in school- and study-oriented classical texts such as Homer and Isocrates.


Unwanted and distressing visual imagery is a persistent and emotionally taxing symptom characteristic of several mental illnesses, including depression, schizophrenia, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Intrusive imagery symptoms have been linked to maladaptive memory formation, abnormal visual cortical activity during viewing, gaze pattern deficits, and trait characteristics of mental imagery. Emotional valence of visual stimuli has been shown to alter perceptual processes that influence the direction of attention to visual information, which may result in enhanced attention to suboptimal and generalizable visual properties. This study tested the hypothesis that aberrant gaze patterns to central and peripheral image regions influence the formation of decontextualized visual details which may facilitate involuntary and emotionally negative mental imagery experiences following a stressful or traumatic event. Gaze patterns and hemodynamic response from occipital cortical locations were recorded while healthy participants (N = 39) viewed and imagined scenes with negative or neutral emotional valence. Self-report behavioral assessments of baseline vividness of visual imagery and various cognitive factors were combined with these physiological measures to investigate the potential relationship between visual perception and mental recreation of negative scenes. Results revealed significant effects of task and valence conditions on specific fixation measures and hemodynamic response patterns in ventral visual areas, which interacted with cognitive factors such as imagery vividness and familiarity. Findings further suggest that behaviors observed during mental imagery reveal ROLE OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN INTRUSIVE IMAGERY processes related to representational formation over and above perceptual performance and may be applied to the study of disorders such as PTSD. ROLE OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN INTRUSIVE IMAGERY Eye Movements and Hemodynamic Response during Emotional Scene Processing: Exploring the Role of Visual Perception in Intrusive Mental Imagery Stephanie Marie Roldán GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT Intrusive imagery describes the visual components of flashbacks that are common to mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia. Several explanations for this symptom have been suggested, including incomplete memories, changes in visual brain structures and function, inappropriate viewing patterns, and an individual's ability to imagine visual scenes in detail. The emotional tone of a scene has also been shown to affect viewing patterns, which may lead to attention being narrowly directed toward specific visual details while ignoring surrounding information. This study tested whether inappropriate viewing patterns to central and outer image regions in negative images influence narrow focus to emotional details, thereby allowing flashback-type imagery to occur following a traumatic or stressful event. Viewing patterns and blood flow in brain regions were measured while participants (N = 39) viewed and imagined scenes with negative or neutral emotional tone. Self-reported detail of voluntary mental imagery and other cognitive factors such as content familiarity and pleasantness were used to investigate a relationship between viewing and imagery of emotionally negative scenes. Results showed that certain cognitive factors as well as the type of visual task significantly affected particular eye movements and patterns of blood flow in visual regions of the brain. These measures interacted with cognitive factors such as imagery detail and content familiarity. Findings further suggest that behaviors observed during mental imagery reveal cognitive processes over and above those during viewing and may be useful in the study of disorders such as PTSD. ROLE OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN INTRUSIVE IMAGERY v


31 (2), pp. 101-114. 34. Xie A. Exposure to hypoxia produces long – lasting sympathetic activation in humans. J. Appl. Physiol. 2001, 91, pp. 1555-1562. Climatic conditions of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug have been characterized. Literature data about state of the functional systems of organisms in conditions of the North and influence of environmental climatic-ecological factors on human health have been analyzed. It has been established that health of persons who moved to the north differed from the norm very often. Northerners' organisms function under influence of quite severe ecological factors affecting health state due to the fact that part of their reserves is used in processes of adaptation and directed at formation of adaptive reactions of homeostasis. Human body development in northern conditions specifies formation and development of any functional systems of organisms including the neuromuscular and cardiovascular systems.


Reading literacy, characterized by that set of knowledge, skills and strategies necessary not only in the period of schooling but throughout lifelong, isamong the prominent themes of national and international research. It is possible to facilitate the comprehension process and fill the textual gapswhen systematic and structured enhancement paths are designed and implemented, which call for specific processes involved in reading text. This work is part of the wider national Reading Comprehension - Reciprocal Teaching (RC-RT) project, promoted by the association S.Ap.I.E, and describes a research-training path implemented in the fourth grade of primary school, aimed at improving text comprehension focusing on the synthesis ability. The reading comprehension and the ability to synthesis information are closely related as the reader must summarize what he has read in order to reconstruct a global text representation, faithful to the original. Data analysis confirms the effectiveness of the intervention program, reporting an accentuated increase in the final performance in the experimental classes involved.


Dale J. Benos. gp120-induced alterations of human astrocyte function: Na 1 /H 1 exchange, K 1 conductance, and glutamate flux. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 279: C700–C708, 2000.—Many human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients suffer from impaired neurological function and dementia. This facet of the disease has been termed acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-associated dementia complex (ADC). Several cell types, including astrocytes and neurons, are not productively infected by virus but are involved in ADC pathophysiology. Previous studies of rat astrocytes showed that an HIV coat protein (gp120) accelerated astrocyte Na 1 /H 1 exchange and that the resultant intracellular alkalinization activated a pH-sensitive K 1 conductance. The present experiments were conducted to determine whether gp120 affected human astrocytes in the same fashion. It was found that primary human astrocytes express a pH-sensitive K 1 conductance that was activated on intracellular alkalinization. Also, gp120 treatment of whole cell clamped human astrocytes activated this conductance specifically. Furthermore, gp120 inhibited glutamate uptake by primary human astrocytes. These altered physiological processes could contribute to pathophysiological changes in HIV-infected brains. Because the gp120-induced cell physiological changes were partially inhibited by dimethylamiloride (an inhibitor of Na 1 /H 1 ex-change), our findings suggest that modification of human astrocyte Na 1 /H 1 exchange activity may provide a means of addressing some of the neurological complications of HIV infection. centrifuged 14,000 once EtOH, and resuspended in 50 m l of 5 m g/ml RNase A. products to 37°C for 30 min, packaged, and sent to the sequencing facility at Iowa State University for DNA sequencing.


A proof-of-concept method is developed to estimate bulk refractive index (ηbp) of particles for deriving information on their composition and optical properties of natural waters using satellite ocean color data. It estimates ηbp as a function of the backscattering ratio (Bp), hyperbolic slope of the particle size distribution (ξ derived from the beam attenuation slope β), and apparent density of particles (ρa) as described in our previous inversion model. For deriving these parameters from remote-sensing data, large in situ measurement data of the remote-sensing reflectance (Rrs), particulate scattering (bp), backscattering (bbp) beam attenuation (cp), and seawater constituents' concentrations are used to establish the required relationships and derive the model parameters (i.e., ηbp ← Bp, ξ, ρa; Bp ← Rrs; ξ ← β ← cp ← Turbidity; Turbidity - Rrs; and ρa ← cp). When validated with those derived from in situ data spanning the large dynamic range in water optical properties and relevant water constituents impacting the remote-sensing signal, the derived model parameters and bulk refractive index had errors of a few percent which falls well within the benchmark for a validated uncertainty of ±35% endorsed for the remote-sensing retrieval of chlorophyll-a in oceanic waters. The model was applied to regional and global images of satellite ocean color observations provided by the MODIS-Aqua sensor. Global images of seasonal climatology over a decade of MODIS-Aqua ocean color observations provided interesting insights into the seasonal variability of ηbp in coastal and open ocean waters. To further investigate the bulk particulate assemblages in some regional waters, several MODIS-Aqua imageries from different regional waters dominated by sediment-laden river plumes and phytoplankton blooms were analyzed. Satellite retrievals of the ηbp varied from 1.035 to 1.05 for clear oceanic waters, 1.045- 1.07 for phytoplankton-dominated waters (higher water content), 1.05-1.15 for floating algal blooms and Cocolithophore blooms, 1.07-1.10 for coastal waters dominated by detrital particles, and 1.10-1.28 for river plume and sediment-laden coastal waters (lower water content). These results were consistent with those expected for the waters examined, being in excellent agreement with the previous reports and estimates based on the laboratory/in situ measurements and modeling studies. Given the fact that there is currently no satellite-based method to differentiate between bulk particulate compositions, the new method provides a valuable tool for estimating ηbp values as a proxy for the apparent density and composition of particles and such information when derived from satellite ocean color data provides new tools for improving our current understanding of particle dynamics of pelagic ecosystems, advancing biogeochemical modeling, assessing the global ocean ecosystem, and elucidating the coastal processes.


The aspects of regeneration system of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) were summarized.The problems in present were summed up,the trends of study on regeneration system of alfalfa research in future were pointed out.


Applies the question which is in the writing teaching process,this paper proposes that we should let the students truly have the words board in the application writing teaching process.The teachers utilizes the example——the expand,the vivid comparison,the scene simulation training to realize students' words board.


The study we present here aims to explore the possibilities that new Artificial Intelligence tools offer teachers to design assessments to improve the written proficiency of students of English as a Foreign Language (the participants in this study have predominantly Spanish as their L1) in a University English Language Course with CEFR B2 objective. The group we are going to monitor is, as far as the Spanish university system is concerned, on average: more than sixty students, with diverse backgrounds and unequal proficiency in English. In such conditions, the teacher must be very attentive to meet the needs of all students/learners and, at the same time, keep track of successes and failures in the designed study plans. One of the most notable reasons for subject/class failure and dropout, in a scenario such as the one described, is the performance and time dedication to written competence (Cabrera, 2014 & López Urdaneta, 2011). Consequently, we will explore whether the union of all the theoretical baggage that underpins the linguistic and pedagogical tradition of Error Analysis, one of the most notable tools for enhancing the writing competence of English as a Foreign Language, and new intelligent technologies can provide new perspectives and strategies to effectively help learners of English as a Foreign Language to produce more appropriate written texts (more natural outputs) and, at the same time, to check whether an AI-assisted Error Analysis-based assessment produces better results in error avoidance and rule application in the collected writing samples.


We calculate complex-temperature (CT) zeros of the partition function for the $q$-state Potts model on the honeycomb and kagom\'e lattices for several values of $q$. These give information on the CT phase diagrams. A comparison of results obtained for different boundary conditions and a discussion of some CT singularities are given. Among other results, our findings show that the Potts antiferromagnet with $q=4$ and $q=5$ on the kagom\'e lattice has no phase transition at either finite or zero temperature.


The table-organized data can be analyzed by various algorithms; some of them are capable of generating IF THEN decision rules which comprises of condition attributes and decision attributes. However, it is possible to reduce the set of condition attributes but without information loss. By analysis of the condition attributes set and cuts histogram obtained by discretization and rule consistency, it is possible to choose condition attributes. This paper gives some directions and the practical example.


Up to 25% of healthy ambulatory adults exhibit cutaneous colonization by Acinetobacter and are the most common Gram-negative bacteria carried on the skin of hospital personnel.(4) They are usually opportunistic pathogens reported to cause a number of outbreaks of nosocomial infections such as septicemia, pneumonia, wound sepsis, endocarditis, meningitis, urinary tract infections and peritonitis, (5) but their predominant role is in ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP), in intensive care units International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 12 (2017) pp. 2230-2236 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com


Introduction. There is a prevailing view that leadership and management development play a vital role in the creating
of high performing organisations.
Aim of the study. The aim of this research is to review relevant qualitative studies to identify the attributes of effective Nursing Leadership. Material and methods. Healthcare systems have experienced a substantial transformation during recent decades. This has resulted in Nurse Managers dealing with increased levels of systemic complexity and change. It's been found,that leadership skills may help nurse managers to deal with these difficulties.
Nine databases, Nursing Journals, reference lists from relevant publications and grey literature were searched. From over identified 2,000 articles, 394 were reviewed at abstract and 257 reviewed in full. Twelve articles were accepted for the systematic review. Systematic review and meta-synthesis methodologies were employed in the study. Data was collected between November 2006 and January 2007.
Results. A variety of effective nursing leadership attributes were identified. Six themes were identified through metasynthesis:
personal characteristics, interpersonal relationships, future vision, management of change, managerial competence
and clinical experience.
Conclusions. Whilst the findings of the research could not be explained by any single leadership theory, all the themes
and attributes identified (except clinical experience) could be all identified in the generic leadership theory system, particularly in transformational and charismatic leadership theories. Two recommendations arise from the research. Firstly that further enquiries into Nursing Leadership should encompass the views of other relevant groups, such as patients,and other hospital staff groups. Secondly, these attributes should be empirically tested through quantitative methods.


In a recent viewpoint article, Dragutin Novosel argued that "informed consent has been a crucial element in psychotherapy since its beginnings, but under another name: the setting" [1]. In response, Trachsel and Biller-Andorno have rightly pointed out that informed consent extends beyond disclosure of the setting of psychotherapy [2]. Novosel acknowledges that unwanted effects and alternative treatments should be disclosed, but he reiterates the argument that this might deter patients from treatment and "increase their anxiety" [1]. As the author references psychoanalytic psychotherapy frequently, it is noteworthy this is a common view among psychoanalysts [3]. Indeed, Freud famously warned against lengthy discussions at the outset of psychoanalysis [4], because these might unduly influence the transference relationship. Furthermore, the importance of disclosing the setting is an original psychoanalytic idea. In Freud's words, "time and money" [4] are the most important constituents to be disclosed. Nonetheless, the issue of informed consent to psychodynamic psychotherapy is particularly complicated. Informed consent is notoriously difficult for this form of psychotherapy because the positive and negative consequences for the patient are hard to foresee. In line with this, Beahrs and Gutheil state that "[i]nforming of uncertainty is particularly relevant in exploratory psychotherapeutic approaches in which therapists play a less directive role and uncertainty is intrinsically greater than in procedure-based treatment" [5]. Informed consent to psychodynamic psychotherapy, as an exploratory psychotherapeutic approach, thus has to account for this uncertainty. As a solution to this problem, some authors have recommended adopting a procedural approach to informed consent, where informed consent is seen not as a single event, but as a continuous process [3, 6, 7]. In this view, consequences and constituents of psychotherapy are only disclosed after some psychotherapy has transpired, for example, if they are clinically relevant. How this procedural informed consent would work and whether it is a better fit for psychodynamic psychotherapies still needs to be discussed. Nevertheless, informed consent to psychodynamic psychotherapies demands special attention in research and training because of the intrinsic procedural uncertainty, alongside disclosure of the setting.


Mr.Zhang Guangnian published A Translation in Parallel Prose after 40 years solid scholarship.It establishes another milestone in Dragonology by means of its pioneering form of translation,its exact language of translation,its enlightening commentaries in his epilogue,and its original compilation.It is therefore significant in both theory and practice.


Although these methods can be shown to work in principle, the quality of the generated meshes heavily relies on the dual cycle structure of the given surface mesh. In particular, it seems that difficulties in the hexahedral meshing process and poor mesh qualities are often due to self-intersecting dual cycles. Unfortunately, all previous work on quadrilateral surface mesh generation has focused on quality issues of the surface mesh alone but has disregarded its suitability for a high-quality extension to a three-dimensional mesh. In this paper, we develop a new method to generate quadrilateral surface meshes without self-intersecting dual cycles. This method reuses previous b-matching problem formulations of the quadrilateral mesh refinement problem. The key insight is that the bmatching solution can be decomposed into a collection of simple cycles and paths of multiplicity two, and that these cycles and paths can be consistently embedded into the dual surface mesh. A second tool uses recursive splitting of components into simpler subcomponents by insertion of internal two-manifolds. We show that such a two-manifold can be meshed with quadrilaterals such that the induced dual cycle structure of each subcomponent is free of self-intersections if the original component satisfies this property. First experiments indicate that the hexahedral mesh quality can greatly benefit from both methods proposed in this paper. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the lull citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Computational Geometry 2000 Hong Kong China Copyright ACM 2000 1-58113-224-7/00/6...$5.00 1. I N T R O D U C T I O N The automatic generation of finite element meshes is essential for the numerical analysis and simulation in a wide variety of applications. Recent years showed many research efforts and brought up several approaches, but up to now, hexahedral mesh generation for an arbitrary 3D solid is still a challenge. Prescribed surface meshes. In many applications, in particular in structural mechanics simulations, high mesh quality is required near the boundary of the solid and is much more important than "deep inside the domain". Therefore, it is often preferred to start the volume meshing subject to a fixed quadrilateral surface mesh of an excellent quality. Moreover, the complete solid may consist of several components, for example, solid parts of different material or a solid and its complement within a larger box. Many subdomains may also arise for algorithmic reasons: we may want to divide the domain into smaller and simpler regions either to facilitate the meshing process for each part or to allow parallelism which can be crucial for some large-scale applications. In all such cases, it is usually essential to have a compatible mesh at the common boundary of adjacent components, that is the surface meshes must be compatible. The only solution for this problem we can envision is to prescribe the surface mesh for each component. Thurston [ 19] and Mitchell [7] independently characterized quadrilateral surface meshes which can be extended to hexahedral meshes. They showed that for a volume which is topologically a ball and which is equipped with an all-quadrilateral surface mesh, there exists a combinatorial hexahedral mesh without further boundary subdivision if and only if the number of quadrilaterals is even. Furthermore, Eppstein [4] used this existence result and proved that a linear number of hexahedra (in the number of quadrilaterals) are sufficient in such cases. Unfortunately, all these results are nonconstructive and it remains unclear whether they can be extended to constructive methods for geometrically well-shaped hexahedral meshes. There are quite simple solids with natural looking quadrilateral surface meshes, for example the quadratic pyramid problem of Schneiders [16], where only rather complicated combinatorial meshes are known, but no mesh with an acceptable quality is available. Related work. We briefly review approaches to hexahedral mesh generation based on prescribed quadrilateral surface meshes. For a more complete survey, online information and data bases on meshing literature see [15] and [13].


The earth-observation and environmental monitoring satellite PPF/ENVISAT-1 is the largest European satellite up to now. A comprehensive programme of mechanical identification and qualification tests was performed on the spacecraft structural model.The final Sine Vibration test ahd to demonstrate that the satellite structure as well as all payload and quipment satisfactorily withstands the qualification level vibration environment. The tests were performed at ESTEC using both the new hydraulic shaker HYDRA and the electrodynamic multishaker facility. ESTEC and DLR vibration measurement equipments were jointly utilized in order to meet the unusually large instrumentation requirements of the PPF/ENVISAT-1 Sine Vibration test. This report describes DLR activities in the test performance and presents the main results.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a fuel composition made using the residues discharged in a process to produce saccharide and/or ethanol with lignocellulose as material, and a method of producing the same.SOLUTION: A fuel composition contains residues obtained by separating a treated liquid obtained by saccharification treatment and fermentation treatment of lignocellulose material into the residues and liquid components by solid-liquid separation.


The Perry Initiative in 1994 provided a top-down directive for the defense industry to use the benefits of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technology to effect major cost savings in military programs. While such military product cost reduction advantages have become well publicized, less well known is the concomitant problem of meeting military system test requirements with equipment that has been designed for commercial applications. This paper describes and addresses the test problems caused by the insertion of COTS products into military systems. A systematic approach is presented that provides a general methodology for meeting military system test requirements with COTS product usage. This process maximizes reuse of existing COTS supplier tests, and gives guidelines for determining and closing performance gaps regarding military requirements. Some specific techniques for assessing the quality of existing COTS product tests are described. Also discussed is how to fulfill the need for a library of test improvement techniques that can be applied to closing COTS product test performance gaps to meet military test requirements. Finally, military field supportability implications of COTS product usage are considered.


Under the background of the active development of ecological economy in China, the transition from traditional supply chain to ecological supply chain has become a new topic of supply chain management. The use of big data technology is not only an inevitable choice for supply chain, but also an important guarantee for the development and innovation of supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to study the ecological economic development based on supply chain in the era of big data. This paper firstly analyzes and studies the development problems of enterprises in the supply chain, and expounds the significance of applying big data technology to ecological supply chain. Then it introduces the connotation and composition of ecological supply chain. Then, based on the gradient promotion decision tree algorithm, a cost sensitive xgboost algorithm, called cs-xgboost algorithm, is proposed in this paper. The experimental results show that it is of practical significance to apply the decision tree algorithm proposed in this paper to the risk prediction of ecological supply chain. In this paper, AUC and ACC are used as performance indicators to test the cs-xgboost algorithm, and the value of AUC of the algorithm is 0.9.


: The onset of flowering is decisive to the reproductive success of plants. The objectives of this study were to characterize the phenotypic variation in heading date and estimate its heritability in segregating populations of oat (Avena sativa L.). F 2 and F 3 generations of two large populations, derived from crosses 'URS Taura × Leggett' and 'FL0206B-S-B-S1 × UFRGS 078030-1', were evaluated. A wide phenotypic variation in the number of days to heading was observed in both populations. Heritability coefficients of 0.68 and 0.46 were estimated for the 'URS Taura × Leggett' and 'FL0206B-S-B-S1 × UFRGS 078030-1' populations. Our results demonstrate that genetic differences derived from parents in response to photoperiod and temperature explain most of the phenotypic variation in heading date of oat populations. Understanding genetic and environmental effects on flowering expression is essential to increase the response to selection for well-adapted and high-yielding oat cultivars. heading date in hexaploid oat. The experiments were carried out at the UFRGS Agronomy Experimental Station, located in Eldorado do Sul, Brazil. From the crosses URS Taura × Leggett and FL0206B-S-B-S1 × UFRGS 078030-1, 563 and 733 plants at the F 2 generation were evaluated, respectively. Both populations were seeded on June 20, 2015, with individual seeds distributed in 3 m long rows in the field with a spacing of 0.10 m between seeds and 0.30 m between rows in a no-tillage system (with soybean as the preceding crop). Of the two crosses, 74 and 87 families in the F 3 generation were evaluated. Both populations were seeded on June 14, 2016, with individual seeds of each family distributed in 1 m long rows in the field with a spacing of 0.10 m between seeds and 0.30 m between rows in a no-tillage system (with soybean as the preceding crop). Minimum and maximum daily temperature, day length, and rainfall were used to quantify environmental variation in 2015 and 2016. the 'FL0206B-S-B-S1 × UFRGS 078030-1' population, the phenotypic variation observed in heading date among the F 2 individuals and F 3 families also represents differences in the genetic background of the parents. In this case, FL0206B-S-B-S1 is highly adapted to environments in the southern United States, where the photoperiod is favorable to flowering from the early stages of plants' development. It is expected that FL0206B-S-B-S1 possesses alleles related to the sensitivity to photoperiod and insensitivity to vernalization. However, the sensitivity to photoperiod observed in FL0206B-S-B-S1 was less intense than the sensitivity observed in Leggett. In all the experiments carried out in the present study, FL0206B-S-B-S1 showed an earlier heading phenotype compared to Leggett, suggesting that these parents must have different genes or different alleles of the same genes in response to photoperiod. It is important to highlight that FL0206B-S-B-S1 carries in its genealogy information from a parent (UFRGS 995088-3) developed in Brazil, which may substantially contribute to the lower sensitivity to photoperiod and the greater agronomic adaptation in the growing environments of Southern Brazil. The UFRGS 078030-1 parent stands out for its early flowering phenotype, which indicated that it must carry alleles related to the insensitivity to both photoperiod and vernalization and alleles of earliness per se in its genome.


How do Mexican voters react to contentious electoral discourse, particularly to accusations of fraud? Using a survey-embedded experiment that exposes respondents to vignettes in which the loser of an election makes accusations of fraud, Mexican voters are found to respond to them as if they were negative campaign statements. This means that the general electorate punishes the accuser for "going negative," yet voters who identify with the prd reward the accuser, but only if the accusation is credible. These results illuminate the incentive structure faced by candidates who opt for protest and accusations when facing an electoral defeat, which have the potential to mobilize voters but also to


ABS TRACT Ob jec ti ve: The ob jec ti ve of this study was to exp lo re con san gu i nity, con san gu i ne o us mar ri a ges, the ir dif fe rent types, and so ci o-de mog rap hic cor re la tes in a su burb of Bur sa, the fo urth lar gest city in Tur key. Ma te ri al and Met hods: A to tal of 1380 ever mar ri ed wo men, who at ten ded the Emek Fa mily Me di ci ne Cli nic in this su burb over a pe ri od of one ye ar, we re re qu es ted to parti ci pa te in the study. Tho se who ga ve the ir in for med con sent we re ac cep ted as study par ti ci pants. A to tal of 1110 wo men we re in ter vi e wed. The qu es ti on na i re pro vi ded in for ma ti on on con san gu i nity and so ci o-de mog rap hic da ta. Analy ses we re ma de by using SPSS V.11.5. Re sults: The me an age of our study par ti ci pants was (me an ± SE) 34.2 ± 0.6 ye ars. Most of them we re il li te ra te and ho u se wi ves. Abo ut one-third of the par ti ci pants had con san gu i ne o us mar ri a ges and abo ut 93% of tho se mar ri a ges we re bet we en first co u sins. Among first co u sin uni ons, mar ri a ge with unc le's ma le child was the most com mon. The me an co ef fi ci ent of in bre e ding was 0.015458. Con san gu i ne o us mar ri a ges we re mo re pre va lent among il li te ra te wo men. Con san gu i ne o us mar ri a ges we re 4 ti mes mo re com mon in wo men with a fa mily his tory of con san gu i nity than in wo men wit ho ut any such his tory. The re we re no sig ni fi cant cor re la ti ons bet we en con san gu i ne o us mar ri a ges and re por ted still births, mis car ri a ges or in fant de aths. Ho we ver, we fo und a sig ni fi cant re la ti ons hip bet we en con san gu i ne o us mar ri a ges and re por ted con ge ni tal mal for ma ti ons of the offs pring. Conc lu si on: We conc lu de that offs pring of con san gu i ne o us uni ons are at high risk for so me con ge ni tal mal for ma ti ons and di se a ses. Hen ce, we re com mend that fa mi li es with a high risk for ge ne tic di se a ses be identi fi ed and be pro vi ded with pros pec ti ve ge ne tic co un se ling.


The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) Nurse Manager Fellowship (NMF) is in its 10th year providing leadership development to select nurse managers (NMs). Seeking to understand and identify the outcomes of this program, a mixed-method evaluation was used to examine the NMF, years 2008 to 2013 (NMF multiclass study). This study utilizes the template designed in the study Capturing Change: Creating a Template to Examine the Educational Experiences and Outcomes of the AONE Foundation Nurse Manager Fellowship.


Abstract Both work engagement and job embeddedness have seen dramatic growth in research interest over the past few years. Briefly, work engagement can be defined as a positive, fulfilling state of mind, most commonly characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption. Job embeddedness, in contrast, captures components of an individual's attachment to their job and can be said to consist of links, perceptions of person–environment fit, and the sacrifices involved in quitting. Despite some strong similarity in the constructs in their theoretical bases, there has been no attempt to distinguish them empirically. Thus, the primary research question driving this study was whether work engagement and job embeddedness were empirically distinct constructs. Using a sample of US employees from a wide variety of industries and occupations (n=587), their supervisors, and their closest co-worker, we found via confirmatory factor analysis that engagement and embeddedness were unique constructs. Moreover, using usefulness analysis, we found that engagement and embeddedness each shared unique variance with in-role performance and intention to leave. We discuss the implications of these findings relative to work on motivation and attachment and develop practical implications from our findings as well as directions for future research.


Negative type inequalities arise in the study of embedding properties of metric spaces, but they often reduce to intractable combinatorial problems. In this paper we study more quantitative versions of these inequalities involving the so-called $p$-negative type gap. In particular, we focus our attention on the class of finite ultrametric spaces which are important in areas such as phylogenetics and data mining.
Let $(X,d)$ be a given finite ultrametric space with minimum non-zero distance $\alpha$. Then the $p$-negative type gap $\Gamma_{X}(p)$ of $(X,d)$ is positive for all $p \geq 0$. In this paper we compute the value of the limit \begin{eqnarray*} \Gamma_{X}(\infty) & = & \lim\limits_{p \rightarrow \infty} \frac{\Gamma_{X}(p)}{\alpha^{p}}. \end{eqnarray*} It turns out that this value is positive and it may be given explicitly by an elegant combinatorial formula. On the basis of our calculations we are then able to characterize when $\Gamma_{X}(p)/ \alpha^{p}$ is constant on $[0, \infty)$.
The determination of $\Gamma_{X}(\infty)$ also leads to new, asymptotically sharp, families of enhanced $p$-negative type inequalities for $(X,d)$. Indeed, suppose that $G \in (0, \Gamma_{X}(\infty))$. Then, for all sufficiently large $p$, we have \begin{eqnarray*} \frac{G \cdot \alpha^{p}}{2} \left( \sum\limits_{k=1}^{n} |\zeta_{k}| \right)^{2} + \sum\limits_{j,i =1}^{n} d(z_{j},z_{i})^{p} \zeta_{j} \zeta_{i} & \leq & 0 \end{eqnarray*} for each finite subset $\{ z_{1}, \ldots, z_{n} \} \subseteq X$ and each choice of real numbers $\zeta_{1}, \ldots, \zeta_{n}$ with $\zeta_{1} + \cdots + \zeta_{n} = 0$. We note that these results do not extend to general finite metric spaces.


A container is provided including a pair of hingedly connected housing halves swingable between first side-by-side open positions wherein the housing halves open outwardly in the same direction and second closed positions wherein the housing halves are swung together and open into each other. One of the housing halves includes an interior anchor portion with which the hooked end of a line attached fishhook may be engaged and a remote closing edge of one of the housing halves has an outwardly opening recess formed therein for receiving the end of a fishing line attached to the fishhook, the outer end of the recess being closed by the other housing half when the housing halves are in their closed positions. Coacting latch structure is carried by the housing halves for securing the latter in their closed positions and the marginal portions of the housing halves remote from the aforementioned notch include anchor tabs having keyhole-shaped recesses formed in edge portions thereof for snap-anchoring engagement with an associated fishing rod line eye.


This research looks at the results of the assessment of the state of young plantations Hippophae rhamnoides L. subsp. chinensis Rousi on disturbed highlands of Hongyuan County using biometrical and microbiological approaches. It was found that the growth dynamics of young seedlings corresponds to the initial stages of ontogenesis, but has some features. Plantations of H. rhamnoides L. subsp. chinensis Rousi are classified as healthy with signs of weakening. The number of healthy plants is 60.5 %. Soils under plantations are characterized by high heterogeneity of microbiological conditions. The ratio of the main taxonomic and ecological-trophic groups of microorganisms indicates the poverty of the soil with available nitrogen. It is predicted that further these plantations will be able to perform environmental functions.


Combining fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors and finite element simulation analysis, an online monitoring method for non-invasive distributed flow velocity in pipelines has been proposed. A placement strategy has been proposed for the deployment of these FBG sensors to ensure effective sensing of strain. The cross-sensitivity problem of FBG sensors can be solved by differential FBG measurements. The principle of online monitoring of flow velocity based on the flow velocity function and finite element analysis is described and derived. Finite element analysis results show the $\boldsymbol {\varepsilon }_{1}- \boldsymbol {\varepsilon }_{2}$ at 45° of the elbow of the bend is quadratically proportional to the flow velocity. Meanwhile, the feasibility of the method is verified by experiments. The calibration results show a fitted correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9982 in the velocity range of 4.25-10.62m/s, fitted by least squares to the wavelength data. The repeatability error of the flow measurement of the proposed sensor is no more than 5.06%FS. Compared with the existing literature, the method proposed in this paper has a wider range of flow velocity measurement and applications, especially suitable for applications with strong electromagnetic interference capability and harsher environment, showing great potential for engineering applications, especially in the distributed detection of long-distance pipeline networks.


The function of the exocrine pancreas is decreased in patients with type 1 diabetes but it is not known when this defect develops. The current study set out to determine whether the reduced exocrine function becomes manifest after the initiation of islet autoimmunity.


One of the major efforts of students of comparative politics in recent years has been directed at establishing, more or less systematically, relationships between economic development and political change. Much of the literature in this area, perhaps because of its stated or unstated value and policy orientation, has been concerned with the conditions and the prospects for democracy. In the present article, we attempt to correlate economic development with another phenomenon of political change, that of Communism and, more specifically, the strength of Communist parties. We begin with the hypothesis that the relationship between economic development and Communist party strength is curvilinear. In underdeveloped countries—and these included all Communist-ruled countries at the time the Communist party came to power except East Germany and the Czech sections of Czechoslovakia—Communist parties may be regarded as merely one variety of the modernizing movements that evolved in these countries in response to the impact of Western industrialism.