Effects of pre-treating the surface by oxygen and argon plasma, conditions of the sol-gel synthesis of hydrophobic films and modification by silica nanoparticles were studied for two types of sol-gel compositions resulting in coatings of different topology. Wetting study and profilometry were used for characterization of the films hydrophobicity and surface roughness. It was shown that the variation in the amount of acid in the reaction mixture significantly affects the hydrophobicity of the synthesized films due to changing the surface texture upon interactions with HMDS. For the series of films produced at high acid contents, the contact angle (CA) with water is 91.67°–98.98° while reducing the amount of acid allows to obtain films with the CA of 127.88°–132.68°. Modifying films with the silica nanoparticles can further increase hydrophobicity of the obtained films by the influence on their topography. Pre-treatment of the glass surface by air and argon plasma has a significant impact on the structure of the glass, however a significant effect on hydrophobicity of the applied film is not observed.


Recurrent congenial diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) causes challenging conditions. In spite of several advantageous of laparoscopic surgery, this method is associated with the higher risk of recurrence. We described a three- month infant with a recurrent CDH following a successful laparoscopic repair. First, he did not have any specific symptoms and was at a high risk of misdiagnosis. He underwentanemergencysurgerywithpropersurgicalandanesthesiamanagement. InordertoachievedesiredgoalsinCDHrecur-rence cases, an early diagnosis, urgent intervention, and a constant communication between the surgeon and the anesthesiologist are crucial. The parents should also be informed about the potential risks of recurrence after even a successful surgical repair.


In this article, authors simply introduce popularizatio n and application of HRB400 new Ⅲ grade reinforcement in Shandong province, and development of new kind high strength reinforcement.


Introduction Microencapsulation may be defined as a process to entrap one substance within another substance for the purpose of shielding the active ingredient from the surrounding environment. [1,2]. Therefore, this technique is mainly used in areas where particular attention is paid to the stability, efficiency and bioactivity of the obtained materials and it is used, among others things, in the pharmaceutical, medical, food and cosmetics industries [3]. The aim of this paper is to obtain and characterize the mechanical properties of composite materials for potential dermatological applications. The materials were prepared by incorporating polymer microparticles (containing pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) flower extract) in the three-dimensional polymer matrix with a porous structure. The microspheres were produced from sodium alginate and sodium alginate with addition of starch through the emulsion and extrusion method. Alginates are salts of alginic acid and they're extracted from the cell walls of brown algae (Phaeophyceae). The natural origin of sodium alginate makes it a very attractive ingredient due to its characteristics, such as: non-toxicity and biodegradability [4] The obtained microspheres were incorporated into a collagen/gelatin/hydroxyethyl cellulose matrix.


Six forms for recording psychiatric status and history, suitable for use in an automated record-keeping system, are now being used in a collaborative effort involving seven states and the District of Columbia—the Multi-State Information System for Psychiatric Patients Project.


Falls are the most commonly reported incident in the Health Service Executive (HSE 2018). Our aim was to implement the standard: every patient referred to physiotherapy over 65 years or at risk of falls received a personalised falls assessment and intervention.

 Falls assessment and intervention standards were captured through documentation audit in November 2020. Representatives from all physiotherapy specialties were invited to join the physiotherapy falls committee. The falls committee met monthly to review tests of change, discuss audit results and plan further initiatives. A 'Falls Algorithm' was developed outlining expectations regarding falls, with three components: 'Ask, Assess, Intervene'. In-service training on falls was organised and added to induction for staff-grade rotations. Falls champions were identified in each area to promote best practice and induct new staff to expected standards. A falls newsletter was added to the department weekly bulletin to keep a focus on falls. Physiotherapy assessment forms on the electronic patient record were updated, embedding falls assessment and intervention into routine practice. A falls prevention and exercise booklet was developed and the falls education talk was transferred to an online format with Occupational Therapy colleagues.
 Audits across all areas were completed weekly, then monthly to track results. The most recent audit was carried out in May 2021.

 Falls assessment improved from 57% to 99%.
 Fear of falling assessment improved from 30% to 88%.
 Completion of falls outcome measures improved from 26% to 74%.
 Falls intervention increased from 49% to 100%.
 Gait/balance deficits were assessed in 94% of cases in the final audit.

 The aim that all patients referred to physiotherapy over 65 years or at risk of falls receive a personalised physiotherapy falls assessment and intervention was achieved.


4,4'-Bis(4-octylphenoxy)-2,2'-bipyridine which can be used in complexes of ruthenium was synthesized. This ligand bears a long chain for the purpose of increasing the solubility of the final complex. The synthesis was achieved through a nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction of 4,4'-bromo-2,2'-bipyridine and 4-octylphenol.


Abstract A premise of the mass–elite linkage at the heart of representative democracy is that voters notice changes in political parties' policy positions and update their party perceptions accordingly. However, recent studies question the ability of voters accurately to perceive changes in parties' positions. The study advances this literature with a two-wave panel survey design that measured voters' perception of party positions before and after a major policy shift by parties in the government coalition in Denmark 2011–2013. Two key findings extend previous work. First, voters do indeed pay attention to parties when they visibly change policy position. Second, voters update their perceptions of the party positions much more accurately than would have been expected if they merely relied on a 'coalition heuristic' as a rule-of-thumb. These findings imply that under some conditions voters are better able to make meaningful political choices than previous work suggests.


The authors assessed the extent of change in the length of psychiatry clerkships in U.S. medical schools from 1995–1996 to 1998–1999 and explored the relationship between clerkship length and percentage of medical students choosing psychiatry as a career. Data from 124 U.S. medical schools over 4 years included clerkship length in weeks and percentage of graduating students entering psychiatry residencies. Fifteen schools sustained reductions in rotation length; the mean clerkship measured in weeks decreased for the entire sample from 6.27 to 6.04 (t = 3.086, P<0.003). There was no significant correlation between clerkship length and recruitment into psychiatry. There appears to be a trend toward shorter psychiatry clerkships in recent years; however, there is no demonstrable relationship between length of clerkship and medical student interest in psychiatry as a career.


This paper introduces the Delta Team's submission to the Multimodal Emotion Recognition(MER 2023)-MER-NOISE Challenge. Multimodal emotion recognition aims to improve sentiment analysis ability by integrating emotional information from multiple modalities. However, in real applications, various interference such as noise and complex backgrounds significantly degrade model performance, making model construction more challenging. In this paper, we propose two simple and effective feature enhancement strategies, Hidden State Smoothing (HSS) and Embedding Vector Augmentation (EVA), to improve the robustness of the model. The HSS strategy extracts text and audio feature vectors by weighting encoded features at both shallow and deep hidden states, enhancing the model's representation of fine-grained sentiment categories. Additionally, the EVA is introduced to perturb audio embedding vectors with random noise for improving model generalization ability. On the MER-NOISE track, the models are trained with limited video data, and both strategies effectively improve the robustness of the model to varying degrees. The HSS strategy proves to be particularly effective and concise, achieving a 30% performance improvement over the baseline on the noisy test set. It adapts to many models in various interference scenarios.


This paper investigates a new procedure for solving the general-variable pure integer linear programming problem. A simple transformation converts the problem to one of constructing nonnegative integer solutions to a system of linear diophantine equations. Rubin's sequential algorithm, an extension of the classic Euclidean algorithm, is used to find an integer solution to this system of equations. Two new theorems are proved on the properties of integer solutions to linear systems. This permits a modified Fourier-Motzkin elimination method to be used to construct a nonnegative integer solution. An experimental computer code was developed for the algorithm to solve some test problems selected from the literature. The computational results, though limited, are encouraging when compared with the Gomory all-integer algorithm.


For studies investigating torsional vibration of turbine generators, a time-domain PSCAD®/ EMTDCTM analysis provides important information on the magnitude and damping of oscillations, as well as the existence of torsional resonance at frequencies traditionally calculated using a frequency domain or eigenvalue analysis. Mott MacDonald has used PSCAD®/ EMTDCTM to perform a number of such studies. The work presented here discusses the potential of the inter-harmonic currents produced by variable speed Load Commutated Inverter (LCI) drives to excite a torsional resonance mode of the gas and steam turbine generators in a combined cycle power plant typically used in remote gas compression facilities.


The present invention is stannous ion 1.2 ~ 40wt%; Ion 0.01 ~ 2.0wt%; Conductive salt 1.0 ~ 40wt%; Trimethyl thiourea, N, N'- diisopropyl thiourea, acetyl thiourea, ethylene thiourea, 1,3-diphenyl-thiourea, 0.01 ~ 8.0wt% of urea more than one compound selected from the group consisting of thiourea dioxide .; Antioxidants 0.01 ~ 15wt%; Tin comprises a crystal grain adjusting agent 0.3 ~ 1.0wt% and the slip agent 0.6 ~ 1.5wt% and the balance deionized water - relates to a solder bump plating solution. Tin according to the present invention is a solder bump plating solution is excellent in environment-friendly and, plating stability and bump shape to lead-free, and low processing temperatures tin-silver, forming a solder bump having a stable plating rate and alloy composition according to the current density micro bumps there is an advantage capable of forming.


Introduction: Hypertension, as well as hyperlipidemia, is believed to be a strong initiating or aggravating factor in atherogenesis. Our previous data showed the close relationship between blood pressure levels and aortic glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) contents in rat with experimental hypertension. This study was designed to clarify the effect of physical stress and adrenergic nervous system separately on GAGS synthesis in the aorta using cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). GAGS synthesis was tested in the cultured aortic VSMCs from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto rat (WKY). Materials and Methods: VSMCs were prepared by explant method from thoracic aortae of both strains. Subculture 5 and 6 were used in these experiments. VSMCs were identified by monoclonal antibody which recognized actin filaments of VSMCs specifically. To evaluate the role of hypertension apart from humoral factors on GAGS synthesis in VSMCs, flasks with cultured VSMCs from both strains were loaded by centrifugal force as a simulation of blood pressure at 0-8.0G. GAGS synthesis was also tested in the both VSMCs in the medium containing 02.OƒÊg/ml of noradrenaline (NA) or adrenaline (A) with or without ƒ¿-or ƒÀblockade. GAGS synthesis was estimated by the method of Saani. In brief, the medium was changed to FCS (-) DMEM containing 20 uCi of [3H]-glucosamine with or without blockade. After 24 hours incubation, 0.5m1 of the medium was stocked and digsted by papain. Subfrutionations of GAGS were measured using the method of Meir et al. Results: Basal levels of GAGS synthesis were 2.6 times more in SHR compared with WKY (SHR: 384.2•}85.2d.p.m./ƒÊg DNA v.s. WKY: 148.2•}41.8d.p.m./ƒÊg DNA, n=8, mean•}S.D., p<0.01). Centrifugal force potentiated GAGS synthesis in a


Introduction: India is undergoing major economic and demographic transition with increased urbanization, industrialization, construction projects and motorization. Head injury is the result of variety of mechanisms including motor vehicle and motor cycle accidents, pedestrians being struck by motor vehicles, falls from heights, occupational hazards, assaults, riots and bomb blasts. India has second highest reported mortality rate of 29.2 per 100000 people from road traffic injuries. Injuries are reported to be the seventh leading cause of death (11% of all deaths) in India, with road traffic injuries making up to 78% of them (WHO, 1999). Current research aimed to study pattern of Head Injury in Road Traffic Accidents from North East India. Material and Methods: This study was conducted on medico legal cases coming for autopsy in Department of Forensic Medicine, Guwahati Medical College and Hospital, Guwahati during the period of 1st August, 2009 to 31st July 2010. During this period a total 2474 autopsies were performed in our department with 815 cases had head injuries. After obtaining the necessary and relevant information about the victim, a thorough and complete autopsy was performed on the dead body, recording the findings on the proforma. Result: Our findings are similar to above studies and also to the studies of Sevitt S (1973), Chandra J et al (1979), Tyagi AK (1986), Motto L (1988) and Basu R et al (1992), Dandona and Mishra (2004), Menon A and Nagesh KR (2005). Most common cause of head injury is Road side accident (21.26%), most commonly occurring during office hours (6-9am) (25.45%) with 4 wheelers being most common offending vehicle(49.39%). Conclusion: Road are like arteries of country. Vehicles must run for development of country and necessities of life. Injuries on head and other parts of body due to road traffic incidents are unavoidable but with scientific data, we can minimize the loss of life and misery due to death and injury. We should design our interventions based on these data and studies.


Intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) are well established as a tool to handle the hesitation in the decision system. In this research paper, fuzzy sets induced by IFS are used to develop a fuzzy time series forecasting model to incorporate degree of hesitation (nondeterminacy). To improve the forecasting accuracy, induced fuzzy sets are used to establish fuzzy logical relations. To verify the performance of the proposed model, it is implemented on one of the benchmarking time series data. Further, developed forecasting method is also tested and validated by applying it on a financial time series data. In order to show the accuracy in forecasting, the method is compared with other forecasting methods using different error measures.


(February 7, 2008)A class of non-Markoffian nonunitary models for Newtonian gravity ischaracterized as following from some rather natural hypotheses. One of suchmodels was previously obtained as the Newtonian limit of a classically stableversion of higher derivative gravity. They give rise to a mass threshold around10


An eye-tracked head-mounted display (ET-HMD) system is able to display virtual images as a classical HMD does, while additionally tracking the gaze direction of the user. There is ample evidence that a fully-integrated ETHMD system offers multi-fold benefits, not only to fundamental scientific research but also to emerging applications of such technology. For instance eyetracking capability in HMDs adds a very valuable tool and objective metric for scientists to quantitatively assess user interaction with 3D environments and investigate the effectiveness of various 3D visualization technologies for various specific tasks including training, education, and augmented cognition tasks. In this paper, we present an innovative optical approach to the design of an optical see-through ET-HMD system based on freeform optical technology and an innovative optical scheme that uniquely combines the display optics with the eye imaging optics. A preliminary design of the described ET-HMD system will be presented.


Variable frequency drives (VFDs) are the types of power electronic device commonly used to drive motors with a wide range of industrial and practical applications, especially in power systems. VFDs are sensitive to voltage sag, thereby limiting their application. However, the difficulty in determining the detailed voltage sag tolerance characteristics of VFDs is due to various influencing factors, and the tolerance curve obtained from test results is updated as mainstream low-voltage VFDs change. This paper is the first to perform an in-depth analysis on the influence and operation mechanism of voltage sags on VFDs. Voltage sag types, which are regarded as the important influencing factors, are explored for their different impacts on VFDs from the perspective of energy. Then, eight commonly used low-voltage VFDs with small and medium powers (7.5 and 18.5 kW) are selected as the test objects. The influence of voltage sags on VFDs is tested, and the equipment parameters (protection modes and control modes of VFDs, and load torque and speed) and voltage sag characteristics factors (sag types, voltage magnitude before voltage sag, and harmonics) are considered. Finally, the general tolerance curves of the low-voltage VFDs under different sag types are extracted via comprehensive analyses and processing of more than 13 000 sets of test data. Based on the test data, this paper further explores the influence of voltage sag on the motor by using the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) as an example, which is used as the load during the tolerance test. Operation performance of the PMSM driven by different VFDs is also discussed.


This paper analyzes the present situation of learning Taiji of university students based on the relate researches.Then it probes some ways such as improving the students' interests,comprehending the healthy functions of Taiji and making better the teaching methods in order to improve the learning efficiency and benefit to the reform of college Taiji teaching.


Though difficult to characterize generally, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe likely offer a tenacious private power industry, with a longer-term view, a role in years to come. The opportunities for independent power producers in the energing markets of Central and Easern Europe has been marked with uncertainty and varying degrees of aceptance. This ranges form the collapse of some early projects, to what apparently is destined to be a high degree of success in othrs. This confused and uncertain marketplace has developed as a direct result of the transition from the old centrally planned, command and control economic decision-making process to new, market-driven economies.This article summarizes the current situation of the electricity sector for eight of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe which have been involved in the USEA/USAID Utility Partnership Program.


Different types of soil data are used in process-based crop models as input data. Crop models have a diverse range of applications, and soil research is one of them. This bibliographic analysis was conducted to assess the current literature on soil-related applications of crop models using two widely used crop models: Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) and Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). The publications available in the Scopus database during the 2000–2021 period were assessed. Using 523 publications, a database on the application of process-based crop models in soil research was developed and published in an online repository, which is helpful in determining the specific application in different geographic locations. Soil-related applications on APSIM and DSSAT models were found in 41 and 43 countries, respectively. It was reported that selected crop models were used in soil water, physical properties, greenhouse gas emissions, N leaching, nutrient dynamics, and other physical and chemical properties related to applications. It can be concluded that a crop model is a promising tool for assessing a diverse range of soil-related processes in different geographic regions.


The main problems of panoramic photo stitching are discontinuity of stitching area and ghost, which has a great impact on the realization of panoramic video stitching. A panoramic photo mosaic method for asymmetric two-way flow field is proposed. In the analysis of asymmetric two-way flow field technology, through optical flow motion analysis and virtual close computer vision. Based on this technology, according to the similarity and smoothness between images, the discontinuous method is used to estimate the fusion area and realize image fusion processing. Considering that the image gray space contains a large amount of smoothing information, one-step method is selected as the flow field estimation method, and the panoramic photo mosaic is realized by combining the occlusion calculation and flow field estimation results. The empirical results show that the average stitching time of 10 panoramic images per frame is 21.588 s, and the minimum and maximum resolution of panoramic photos are 4040 respectively × 1080 dpi and 4580 × 1080 dpi. Subjective evaluation, objective evaluation and fuzzy evaluation methods show that 10 groups of video mosaic images have good mosaic effect. The research results provide the possibility for the high-quality implementation of panoramic photos and video stitching.


The article discusses the groups of pollutants most commonly found in the food industry. The results of the content of pollutants in vegetable oils are also presented, which indicates a fairly wide range of concentrations of monoglycerides, diglycerides and triglycerides. Various technological parameters of the deodorization process lead to such a wide range of values and require further research and development of technologies aimed at reducing the content of these compounds. The classification of pollutants is presented, individual groups of pollutants are considered in more detail, and the main measures for the prevention and prevention of the content of pollutants in food products are given. Therefore, knowledge about impurities and pollutants in food is of great practical importance and is considered an important food safety issue. The presence of impurities in food products that have no nutritional and biological value or are completely toxic threatens human health. Thus, in order to reduce the risks associated with the consumption of these compounds, it is necessary to develop effective technological methods for reducing the content of pollutants that can be used not only in production, but also on an industrial scale. And one of the important processes of reducing the content of pollutants in vegetable oils is the improvement of the oil purification process using various solvents.


Networks of interpersonal connections between nobility in the medieval Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Order of St. John The article considers the role of networks of interpersonal connections between the noble families and how they influenced the functioning of the so called Brandenburg Bailiwick of the Order of St. John in the 14 th century. The very term 'Brandenburg Bailiwick', which had been coined in the early-modern era, is misleading for the late medieval era because the Bailiwick covered commanderies between the rivers Weser and Vistula. Apart from the region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, it also covered the lands of the principalities of Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Pomerania and Eastern Pomerania. Late medieval sources refer to this Bailiwick as encompassing Saxonia , Marchia , Slavia and Pomerania . An important factor in the development of this Bailiwick was the annexation of the holdings of the Templars after the dissolution of the Templar Order in 1312. The annexation was a challenge for the Hospitallers as they had too few members to properly manage the acquired properties. The management posts of the new commanderies were frequently given to nobles from the Brunswick duchies, who made use of their networks of contacts and influences in the region. This practice only began to change in favour of the nobility from the Brandenburg and Pomeranian regions after 1399. This was reflected in the change of the name of the Bailwick, with the term Marchia taking priority before Saxonia.


Under the regulations governing marketing authorisation for chemical substances, information on chemical risks to health and the environment generally has to be produced by the industries concerned for submission to the health agencies. Public access to this information is governed by international, European and national legal provisions, and based on the principles of transparency and the freedom to access and re-use the information. However, various factors are restricting the effectiveness of this right to information and, consequently, restricting democratic and scientific oversight of risk assessments. The relevant legal texts are split between environmental legislation and legislation on access to public data. The right of access can be legally limited on grounds of confidentiality and protection of trade secrets, under provisions that allow businesses to protect their commercial interests but which can be interpreted arbitrarily by the health agencies. Finally, on the practical level, the lack of clarity of the format, the language used and the interfaces can be an obstacle to effective access and re-use of the data.


In view of defects in the current Stirling engine fuel management system,this paper presents a new control method according to the rotating speed and designs the fuel flow control strategies corresponding to different operating modes of the system.The test results show that the new control strategy can not only effectively improve the control accuracy of fuel flow and the response speed,but also meet the control requirement of the Stirling engine fuel system.


1 "Inasmuch as institutions and technology work in tandem, we need to find ways to treat technical and organisational innovation in a combined manner" 1. Introduction Nowadays, like all the network industries, the railways in Europe are facing major transformations. The first one is institutional and started at the beginnings of the 1990s with the directive 91/440/EC asking for vertical separation of the national railway companies. The monopolistic segments (tracks) had to be unbundled from the possibly competitive ones (train services). In the same time a more technical transformation was already on the tracks: a technical harmonisation of the control-command and signalling systems at the European level via the migration to a new system: European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). This project has firstly been thought of by the train people themselves (SNCF and DB via "Deufrako" in 1988) and rapidly taken up by the Euro-pean Commission (1995) as a tool to reach an integrated railway network at the continental level by removing the technical barriers to interoperability. Ultimately, the main benefit of switching to ERTMS is to reach a "seamless railway system where trains may run from Barcelona to Warsaw without facing technical problems related to signalling" 1. Nevertheless, this fairly optimistic statement seems to be plagued by the empirical technical trials and also by various kinds of difficulties. Historically the railway networks developed independently at the level of nation-states leading to a patchwork of technical 2 specifications often not compatible (loading gauges, energy, signalling...) and most of the time not interconnected (Milward (2008)); thus creating some technical path dependencies and lock-ins. On top of that, the European Union itself is a puzzle of heterogeneous countries, be it in terms of informal or formal institutions (languages, traditions, legal and political regimes...). One of the direct consequences is that "people from different backgrounds will interpret the same evidence differently, they may as a consequence


This article proposes and designs a novel variable pitch adjustment device for small wind turbines. The generator spindle is designed to be hollow so that the drive rod passes through it and connects the pitch drive mechanism to the pitch actuator. The article introduces the basic structure and working principle of the pitch mechanism and verifies the feasibility of the pitch device by using 3D printing technology to produce a small-scale model. The stress analysis of the wind turbine was carried out using the unidirectional fluid–structure coupling method. The results show that the maximum equivalent stress of the pitch mechanism is 27.42 MPa, the maximum tooth surface contact stress of the gear is 38.40 MPa, and the maximum tooth root bending stress is 18.13 MPa. The rack synchronous disk, blade handle, and gear rack mechanism were designed with light weight using various optimization schemes. The results of the optimization showed that the overall mass of the pitch mechanism was reduced by 33.2%, improving the applicability of the new pitch mechanism.


This study focused on the role of hegemonic masculinities in children's picture books. Chiefly, marginalized and subordinated masculinities are highlighted to investigate their relationships with dominant and complicit masculinities. This was done under a feminist reading of patriarchy and the connection between patriarchy and masculinities. Utilizing a critical discourse analysis framework, the author problematizes the personal transformation of the protagonists in three children's picture books. The personal transformation attends to the masculine subject on an individual level but fails to address how hegemonic masculinities and patriarchy operate at a discursive and corporeal level. Suggestions are made from the findings on promoting new ways of addressing gender inequities in the U.S.


Concepts in valuation shares the dividend basis the earnings basis the assets basis the hybrid basis and the combination basis other valuation methods taxation the shares valuation division. Appendices: Model valuation report alternative investment market.


Objective To explore the effect of application of Chinese medicinal herbs(CMH) on healing of soft tissue injury.Method Experimental trauma models were made on 50 mice of Kunming`s type,taking half of them with oral CMH as experiment group,and the rest without CMH as control group.The mice were sacrificed successively at 2nd,3rd,5th,7th,10th day after operation.After Chinese ink injecting,tissue slicing and HE staining were made to observe inflammatory reaction and change of micrangium and to evaluate the effect of CMH on trauma healing.Result The CMH could promote dilation of blood vessles, extinction of inflammation. The healing of trauma in experimental was more rapid about 3 days that in control group.Conclusion The CMH could promote healing of trauma.


This research aimed to study services during COVID-19 pandemic. A Retrospective Study was undertaken among 1,901 new breast cancer patients who had been treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy at Cancer Hospital during 2018–2021. Data were collected from the Thai cancer base program and the Thai hospital information system. All data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, One-sample T-test, and Mann Whitney U-test. The study results found that the majority of samples were female (99.4%; with average age of 53 years, S.D.=10.7), marital status or widowed or divorced (87.7%), attended primary school (23.4%), farmers (15.9%), universal insurance coverage (70.8%), stage II breast cancer (35.0%), accessed to treatment within the specified period with surgical therapy (76.4%; average waiting time 22 days, S.D.=11.9), chemical therapy (93.6%; average waiting time 24 days, S.D.=13.1), and radiation therapy (92.6%; average waiting time 26 days, S.D.=17.7). In addition, they accessed level to surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy better than standard with significantly (P<0.0001). The pandemic delayed access to surgery and radiation therapy in Cancer Hospital.


In this paper, we propose a blueprint of a new deep network unfolding a baseline quantum mechanics-based adaptive denoising scheme (De-QuIP). Relying on the theory of quantum many-body physics, the De-QuIP architecture incorporates local patch similarity measures through a term akin to interaction in quantum physics. Our proposed deep network embeds both quantum interactions and other quantum concepts, mainly the Hamiltonian operator. The integration of these quantum tools brings a nonlocal structure to the proposed deep network that harnesses the power of the convolutional layers to enhance the adaptability of the model. Thus, recasting De-QuIP in the framework of a deep learning network while preserving the essence of the baseline structure is the main contribution of this work. Experiments conducted on the Gaussian denoising problem, chosen here for illustration purpose, over a large sample set demonstrate start-of-the-art performance of the proposed deep network, dubbed as Deep-De-QuIP hereafter. Based on the properties of De-QuIP, its intrinsic adaptive structure, Deep-De-QuIP network could be easily extended to other noise models.


A cross-sectional study had been carried out in the urban slums of Dibrugarh during July, 2007 to June, 2008 and a total of 316 preschool children (aged one to five years) had been included in the study. The nutritional status of the study subjects had been assessed by anthropometry and for this Zscore approach is utilized. In order to compare the prevalence of malnutrition in different categories, z-test for testing the difference between two proportions had been employed and χ2test was utilized for testing the associations. The study revealed that the overall prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting among the preschool children was 59.37%, 53.12% and 17.81% respectively. Also, it had been observed that the prevalence of stunting was significantly higher in children of illiterate mothers (p <0.01) and wasting was significantly higher (p < 0.001) amongst the children of working mothers. Underweight and stunting was higher in Class III socioeconomic group (p<0.01) and wasting was higher in class IV socioeconomic group (p<0.05) as per modified Kuppuswami's socioeconomic classification. From the present study it had been revealed that illiteracy, lower socioeconomic status and working status of the mother had a negative impact on the nutritional status of their children. The results of the present study indicate the urgent need for appropriate steps to be taken to improve the nutritional status of the children of these areas.


According to the WHO there is 39 million blind present across the globe. These visually challenged group faces lot of difficulties in various task including basic orientation and mobility. We worked in two phase. In phase one this paper describes the design and implementation of a smart cane which is consists of Arduino and Ultrasonic Sensor. The stick is made up of a microcontroller, GPS Module, Buzzer, Vibrator, Vibrator goggles, Bluetooth and head phone connections. The Arduino can control the surroundings environmental obstacles by receiving the input signals. A buzzer is operated by a transducer and it converts an electric, oscillating signal in the audible range of 20Hz to 20 kHz. A vibrator motor is included along with buzzer to enhance its capacity to receive information's from the environment in various formats. In addition to this the sound signal can also be transferred to the user's ears with the help of output to an earphone. This walking stick can give response in various conditions like obstacle detections, wet surface detection, Heat detection, IR sensor, LDR sensor. In phase two we used our newly made smart cane for the practical demonstration. For this, we have used National Orientation and Mobility checklist (NOMA) pre and post usage of the cane among 20 blind individuals. Paired t test results shows there is significant changes (p<0.0001) in their mobility performances with this newly made cane. The features of light weight, easy to use and cheaper cost will make it more acceptable to the users. Keywords— Visually Challenged, Smart Cane, Arduino, Ultrasonic Sensor, NOMA


advances which they make in the church's position. Noonan rounds out his presentation with three cases which persuasively suggest that even given the limits set by Gaudium and Humanae Vitae, the church should expect further licit discussions and further development of doctrine in this area. There is only one anomaly in the work. The usually exhaustive Noonan makes no reference to the work of the Papal Commission on Birth Control.


ABSTRACT A successful immobilization in chitosan of the lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus A., Lactobacillus helveticus H., Lactobacillus casei subsp. casei C. and Lactobacillus plantarum 226–15 was accomplished and high viable cell counts (∼1010 cfu/g) in the gel beads were obtained. The resistance of the included in the gel matrix cells to model conditions of digestion was investigated. The high resistance of the immobilized cells to low and neutral pH values and the presence of pepsin and high concentrations of bile salts were demonstrated. The immobilized in chitosan cells of all of the studied strains showed a significantly higher resistance when compared to free growing cells. Thus, they can successfully be used for the production of probiotic preparations.


Some disorders and conditions can put a mother or baby at a higher risk for problems, which requires management by a specialist to help ensure the best outcome of the pregnancy. But it is a big challenge in the case of the rural women in urban China, considering their low income, unstable residence and employment, level of knowledge and awareness of maternal health-care. In this paper, a role-based e-health system with knowledge management and m-health technology is proposed and implemented. The roles in the system include the patients, the specialists in maternal-fetal medicine, the maternal health-care providers (e.g., General practitioners) and the data center service provider. The system is used by approximately 100 rural-to-urban pregnant women in Fengtai District, Beijing, and the experience shows the feasibility of an early-step use of knowledge management and m-health technology in high-risk pregnancy care efforts.


For children and young people with disabilities accumulating the recommended minimum of 60 min per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is difficult to obtain. Much of this has been attributed to a lack of programmes and untrained staff who cannot effectively modify or adapt activities for people with disabilities. Given these barriers, the researchers asked the following question, 'How much activity do children with disabilities receive during a physical activity programme? As such, the purpose of this study was to identify the physical activity achievements of children with disabilities as they participated in a 9-week out-of-school physical activity programme. Participants consisted of twelve children (3 females and 9 males aged 11–15; M = 13.08) with various disabilities. Data were collected using accelerometers then analysed and separated into the following physical activity intensities; sedentary behaviour, light physical activity, MVPA, vigorous physical activity, very vigorous physical activity, and MVPA and above (≥MVPA), and reported as Mean ± SD. Results indicated that children who completed the programme achieved ≥75% of their recommended daily physical activity requirements. The findings of this study support the assumption that the physical activity programme was effective for children with disabilities in reaching their recommended physical activity levels.


The consumer demands that to be provided with a sufficient quantity of articles of animal origin that meet the requirements of sanitary hygiene and are available at acceptable prices. Food articles of animal origin that are safe for human consumption can be obtained only from healthy animals. Veterinarians are daily concerned with the health of animals and are taking measures to prevent the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms from animals to humans. The knowledge of epizootiology, microbiology, the sources and pathways of contamination of food articles of animal origin by microbiological and chemical pollutants, the procedures in the process of producing food articles in which such pollutants can be eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level, and the connection between these factors and human health, give veterinarians the key position in the securing of sanitary hygiene of articles of animal origin. The safety of articles of animal origin is a specialized field in the area of veterinary medicine that links all the activities of a veterinarian. In partnership with other professions, engaged in the chain of food production, veterinarians guarantee that food articles are safe for the health of consumers.


and commentary also appear in ACP Journal Club. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For correspondence: Dr J Lindström, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland. firstname.lastname@example.com Sources of funding: Academy of Finland; Julio Vainio Foundation; Ministry of Education; Novo Nordisk Foundation; Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation; Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation. Lifestyle intervention v oral and written information (control) in overweight, middle aged patients with IGT* Outcome Follow up Incidence per person y RRR (95% CI) NNT (CI) Lifestyle intervention Control Diabetes 7 y 4.3% 7.4% 42% (23 to 56) 33 (25 to 58) Last 3 y 4.6% 7.2% 38% (2 to 61) 37 (23 to 721) *IGT = impaired glucose tolerance. Other abbreviations defined in glossary; RRR, NNT, and CI calculated from hazard ratios in article. Postintervention period. Commentary F ifty percent of people with impaired glucose tolerance will develop type 2 diabetes mellitus over the next 10 years. There is considerable interest among healthcare providers and policy makers worldwide in avoiding the diagnosis and its long term adverse effects on morbidity and mortality. 2 The study by Lindström et al, an unplanned extended evaluation of a lifestyle intervention in 522 Finnish patients with impaired glucose tolerance, was undertaken because the 3 year analysis of the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study showed a 58% relative risk reduction for developing diabetes, which would be clinically useful if sustained. By comparing a group having a median of 20 counselling sessions over 4 years with a control group, the study provided evidence that an intensive lifestyle intervention can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in high risk people. There was an inverse relation between the risk level of the patients and attainment of 5 diet and exercise targets. Few patients who achieved all the targets developed type 2 diabetes. The few problems with the study were acknowledged by the authors. It was underpowered because the development of diabetes was a censoring event and patients with diabetes were no longer followed. Patients in the control group were informed of their at risk status and had an intervention (advice and leaflets) as well as follow up, so the real effect of the Finnish programme may be even more marked for at risk people who have not been identified or given advice. Questions about whether avoiding or delaying the development of diabetes will produce overall benefits in terms of important morbidities or mortality remain open. Frank Sullivan, PhD, FRCP, FRCGP University of Dundee, Dundee, UK 1 Simmons RK, Harding AH, Jakes RW, et al. Diabetologia 2006;49:905–11. 2 Ebrahim S, Beswick A, Burke M, et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2006;(4):CD001561. 3 Tuomilehto J, Lindström J, Eriksson JG, et al. N Engl J Med 2001;344:1343–50. 50 THERAPUETICS www.evidence-basedmedicine.com EBM Volume 12 April 2007


IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-6 were used to study whether both IGF I and IGF II play a role in auto-/paracrine stimulation of rat osteoblast growth. Both IGFBPs decreased basal DNA synthesis in neonatal rat calvaria cells but with different potencies. Consistent with their IGF binding affinities, IGFBP-3 blocked both IGF I- and IGF II-stimulated DNA synthesis, whereas IGFBP-6 preferentially blocked IGF II-stimulated DNA synthesis. These inhibitory effects of the two IGFBPs can be fully explained by the sequestration of IGFs. Because IGFBP-6 preferentially binds IGF II and is much less potent than IGFBP-3 in decreasing basal DNA synthesis in calvaria cells, IGF I but not IGF II appears to be an important auto-/paracrine stimulator of DNA synthesis.


Service-Oriented paradigm enables the composition of loosely coupled services provided with varying nonfunctional properties in terms of Quality-of-Service (QoS). Given a composition template, finding the set of appropriate services that guarantees users' functional requirements under given QoS constraints has been widely acknowledged to be a challenge. The problem of optimal service selection and composition is usually addressed by considering timeinvariant, stochastic, or bounded QoS of candidate services in their QoS analysis models and scheduling algorithms. Our proposed work, instead, considers time-varying QoS of services and leverages its run-time fluctuations for generating dynamic and predictive service composition schedules, by using an ARIMA-based time-series prediction model and genetic algorithms. Extensive case studies based on multiple service composition templates and real-world QoS datasets clearly suggest that our proposed method outperform traditional ones in terms of response time and throughput.


Asian studies is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when considering Iceland. In fact, in the second half of the 20th century Iceland was too pre-occupied with its own European-American identity problem to be able to pay serious attention to a distant region such as Asia. But as Geir Sigurdsson, director of the recently opened Icelandic Centre for Asian Studies explains, the situation has changed rapidly during the last two decades.


Considering the renewed concept of border integration , this work reflects on a specific path of integration between the republics of Argentina and Chile; therefore during 2008 Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso and Universidad Nacional de Cuyo subscribed the chairs creating conventions "General Jose de San Martin" and "General Bernardo O'Higgins", respectively, as areas for joint bilateral to create and consolidate joint work experiences involving teachers and students. Our perspective is historical and is framed within the activities promoted by the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo from their institutional beginnings.


Optimal approaches to solving many problems are required in many areas. One of these areas is the determination of the occurrence of gravity anomalies in oil and gas fields. In this paper is proposed a new approach for determining the source of gravity anomalies in an oil and gas fields by estimating the gravity parameters associated with simple-shaped bodies such as a homogeneous sphere, a horizontal prism, and a vertical step. The approach was implemented in the computational module of the GeoM information system for optimizing the solution of a series of direct gravimetry problems using a genetic algorithm (GA). Approach is based on solving the direct gravimetry problem to minimize the discrepancy of gravity variations by the genetic algorithm. The method allows to select values simultaneously for several parameters of the studied environment. The task is realized through successive approximations based on a given initial approximation of the medium.
The paper indicates the initial calculation parameters and criteria for finding optimal solutions for models of the geological environment. The calculations were carried out for such models of the environment as a homogeneous sphere, a horizontal prism and a vertical ledge. For calculations, the results of gravimetric monitoring at one of the Kazakh oil and gas fields were used. The paper demonstrates the operation of the algorithm and presents the results of modeling for three available field profiles. The obtained results of the system showed an acceptable accuracy of the algorithm up to 10-11. The genetic algorithm made it possible to significantly increase the reliability of the model and reduce the working time for analyzing the measured gravitational field


The subject headings and subheadings oriented PubMed data-mining software can be used to search and calculate the strings of subject heading segment in MEDLINE format downloaded from PubMed to achieve data mining. It has three functions: 1. to analyze the frequency, and co-ordinate relation rate of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in for further co-ordinate searching the downloaded records combined with MeSH and subheadings; 2. to analyze the distribution of factors such as drugs and their treatment process at different times; 3. to compare literature of a series of different factors in a same type (e.g. several drugs and their treatment process) to achieve their similarity.


It is an apparatus and a method for controlling a piezoelectric actuator described. The voltage applied to the piezoelectric actuator, is detected at a predetermined timing. Under certain sizes, the voltage detection and / or transfer of a detected voltage value is locked.


Airborne pushbroom imaging systems are becoming increasingly of interest for panchromatic, multispectral, and hyperspectral applications. The source imagery for this paper isfrom the HYDICE (Hyperspectral Digital Imagery Collection Experiment) sensor, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center. The primary focus of this paper is to present rigorous mathematical models that rectify a single band of HYDICE imagery so that each pixel in the image can be accurately transformed to its ground location. Equations are presented for a piecewise polynomial model and a GaussMarkov model. The implementation of the mathematical modeling of straight linear features into the rectification using either model is discussed. The valuable contribution of linear features and the superior performance of the Gauss-Markov model are shown in tables as well as in orthorectified images that compare the results to those from simpler models.


Pseudoaneurysm of the ascending aorta is a rare, but potentially dangerous condition. The high morbidity and mortality rate associated with its surgical management has led to the development of transcatheter approaches. We report a case of percutaneous closure of an ascending aortic pseudoaneurysm using an Amplatzer mVSD occluder device complicated by device embolization at day 27 and we review the literature of Amplatzer devices in this off‐label use. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Multicellular organisms employ two distinct mechanisms for communicating between the parts of living systems. The purpose of these mechanisms is to maintain a relatively constant internal environment despite large fluctuations in the external environment. One mechanism, of course, is the nervous system, which transmits pulse-coded information between distant tissues via &dquo;wires&dquo; in a manner analogous to the transfer of electrical information in the modern physical world. Neural information transfer is extremely rapid, has a high degree of fidelity, and provides immediate responses to threats to the survival of the organism. The second mechanism uses certain specialized organs (endoc rine glands) which transmit commands to distant tis-


Objective To observe the effects of the combination therapy of sulodexide and irbesartan in elderly patients with diabetic nephropathy(DN). Methods Sixty-five patients with DN were randomly divided into treatment group and control group.Two groups were routinely treated with general treatment for DN.The control group were treated with irbesartan,and the treatment group received the combination therapy of irbesartan and sulodexide,additionally.After 8 weeks,24 h urin protein,cystatin C,triglyceride(TG) and fibrinogen(FIB) were measured in two groups. Results Compared with the control group,the levels of 24 h urin protein,cystatin C,TG and FIB were decreased(P0.05 or P0.01). Conclusions Sulodexide combined with irbesartan can improve renal function in elderly patients with DN.


At some point in your professional career, you will be faced with a job interview. This may range from visiting a graduate school where you already have a placement should you want it, to interviewing for a very high-profile position in industry, government, or academia where there is significant competition for that job. Thinking both as a job applicant and a job interviewer about how I have approached job situations over the years before, during, and after the interview and how those situations have turned out, I can offer the following ten simple rules as you prepare. Where appropriate, I conclude a rule with an illustrative scenario for a junior- and/or senior-level position since while the general principles are universal, how they are applied depends somewhat on the seniority of the position.


This work responds to the following questions: Is it proportional that the crimes against the efficient public administration are imprescriptible while serious illicit and that have a greater impact, such as those that go against sexual life and integrity do not have this special protection? And if it is not the answer, what is a proposal to achieve a fair legal framework? To answer these questions, in the first chapter an explanation of what is the prescription and its exception was made: the imprescriptibility, the method used is the exegetical applied to the description of the crimes under study and the justification of the importance of the Indicators of necessity of the character of imprescriptible. In the second chapter the first question is answered. It is based on 3 parameters of imprescriptibility, which are: the protected legal right, the damage caused to it, when it is affected and the penalty assigned to each crime; the chapter closes with the inclusion of a comparative analysis. In the third chapter, the second question is answered. Proposals for reform are made that allow compliance with the principle of proportionality, in terms of the treatment of the prescription in the offenses that are analyzed, in addition to the achievements obtained from conducting the trial.


We need a large earth volume in large reclamation project,so the choice of borrow area,protection and treatment is a key issue of such kinds of project while treatment of borrow areas is a major method to deal with water loss and soil erosion.Based on the design,research,analysis of protection and treatment measures of borrow area of Wuhan Iron and Steel Plant Fangchenggang steel base,the article summarizes the principle,working method and treatment measures of borrow land for similar projects.


Objective To evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety of external fixators mounted on hydroxyapatite coated pins for the acute treatment of open fractures in the middle and old aged patients. Methods A retrospective study was done on the 18 cases of open fractures of tibia and humerus in patients who were older than 55 years and treated from Jan. 2002 to July 2003. The unilateral external fixator was mounted on hydroxyapatite coated pins (Orthofix, Italy). An antibiotics chain was routinely administered. BMD (bone mineral density) of all the patients was measured. All were given calcium,and some medication of anti osteoporosis. Results 17 patients were followed up for more than 5 months. The mean follow up was 8.2 months. 15 of them suffered osteoporosis and 2 osteopenia. Most fractures (16) united primarily after a mean time of 18 weeks. Only 1 patient with a type ⅢA open fracture experienced local infection and nonunion. No pin loosening occurred. Conclusion In the treatment of open fracture in the middle and old aged patients, the unilateral external fixator mounted on hydroxyapatite coated pins is safe and effective, for it can provide stability and allow early rehabilitation. It is also likely to be a proper way to deal with osteoporotic fracture, though further confirmation by larger prospective trials is necessary.


This paper presents a backstepping observer to reconstruct the angular speed of induction motor and an estimator of fluxes and load torque. Due to the complexity of observation at low frequencies, both the observer and the estimator are tested and validated on the reference trajectories of a new sensorless induction motor benchmark particularly in the well known case where the motor state could be un-observable.


Technology foresight is a forward-looking strategy for the study of social engineering,it is a area of research and technology choice those who can maximize the benefits to economic social,then optimize the allocation of resources and culminate its action on economic social benefits as a tool.In the United States,Japan,Germany,Britain,and other of which technology more developed countries and regions,have widely been promoted and achieved remarkable results.This paper is to discuss the technology foresight on industrial innovation system,mechanism of Qingdao,home appliances and industrial innovation systems and other issues.


Through part of the city of Liuzhou of the elderly community sports present situation investigation,Older people participate in Sports and leisure activities of the strong desire,But the activity of single form,as well as to time and space constraints,The relevant departments of the elderly sports seriously not quite,restricting the sports activities of old people.Therefore,the perfect regulation,infrastructure and service mechanism,Strengthen the construction of community sports culture,To broaden the social sports instructor training channels for improve the elderly group of physical quality of leisure activities is very important.


Providing technology network service sent on a tunnel between the processing in a communication network a first node of the tunnel and the second tunnel node. This technique comprises a device to implement Enhanced Network address translation (ENat) assembly (10). eNAT assembly (10) comprising: a first obtaining unit (14) configured to obtain an uplink data packet (26) from the first node to the tunnel to the second tunnel uplink tunnel node, uplink data packet comprises a first node of a first network address associated with the tunnel, the second tunnel with the second network address associated with the node, a first identifier associated with the associated uplink tunnel, the internal network address and internal port number; second obtaining means (16), is arranged, wherein the downlink related uplink tunnel tunnel from the second node to obtain a second tunnel to the downlink tunnel identifier of the first node associated with the tunnel; inspection unit (18 ), it is configured based on the first identifier and the second network address to check in the database (12) whether there is a second network address comprises the first identifier and the database entries; update unit (20) configured in a database ( update the database (12) in the case examined there are no entries in the database 12); and an operation unit (22), is configured to operate uplink data packet (26).


The NASA Aeroelasticity Handbook comprises a database (in three formats) of NACA and NASA aeroelasticity flutter data through 1998 and a collection of aeroelasticity design guides. The Microsoft Access format provides the capability to search for specific data, retrieve it, and present it in a tabular or graphical form unique to the application. The full-text NACA and NASA documents from which the data originated are provided in portable document format (PDF), and these are hyperlinked to their respective data records. This provides full access to all available information from the data source. Two other electronic formats, one delimited by commas and the other by spaces, are provided for use with other software capable of reading text files. To the best of the author s knowledge, this database represents the most extensive collection of NACA and NASA flutter data in electronic form compiled to date by NASA. Volume 2 of the handbook contains a convenient collection of aeroelastic design guides covering fixed wings, turbomachinery, propellers and rotors, panels, and model scaling. This handbook provides an interactive database and design guides for use in the preliminary aeroelastic design of aerospace systems and can also be used in validating or calibrating flutter-prediction software.


: Stauroneis smithii is considered to be a widely distributed and highly variable species complex. So far, more than 20 infraspecific taxa have been described. In the present study, six members of this complex were observed. Stauroneis smithii is widely distributed in Macedonia, recorded from various aquatic habitats. Minor morphological variations were observed between the populations found in oligotrophic, slightly acidic habitats and ones found in meso- to eutrophic ponds and rivers. Stauroneis separanda and S. prominula were infrequently observed in mountain habitats and always at low abundance. In previous studies, Stauroneis borgei and S. balatonis were found in both the modern flora and the fossil diatom record from Lakes Ohrid and Prespa. In those studies, these two taxa were identified as varieties of S. smithii , designated elliptica and incisa, respectively. In the present study, one form with unique morphological features was observed and is here described as a new species, Stauroneis blazenciciae sp. nov. The new species can be easily differentiated from S. smithii by the valve shape: elliptical-lanceolate with weakly undulate margins in the largest specimens to linear-lanceolate with valve margins gradually narrowing towards the abruptly protracted to acute apices.


A 2D higher-order turbulence closure model for research on the structure of the thermal internal boundary layer (TIBL) has been developed in this paper. The mean quantities (temperature and wind), as well as their turbulent moments and their distribution under the TIBL, were computed. Results of numerical simulation show that under the initial condition of onshore flow and surface temperature on land being higher than on water. (1) the profile of the TIBL on shore can be identified by the distributions of the mean wind and temperature, and during the integration hours there is an unstable stratified region over land that extends upward and inland gradually; (2) the shape of the profiles of the TIBL is roughly in concordance with observed profiles, but there are some differences, obviously, between the results computed by the formula of h{approximately} x{sup 1/2} and the results of the numerical experiments and (3) u{prime}{sup 2}, v{prime}{sup 2}, w{prime}{sup 2} and {prime}{prime}w{prime}, {theta}{prime}w{prime} and their general features are well reproduced by the model. It is shown that the numerical model is feasible and effective. 13 refs., 8 figs.


A new maintenance scheduling of generating units (MSU) game in competitive electricity markets is presented to analyze strategic behaviors of generating companies (Gencos). The payoff of each player comprises the revenues from the energy auction market, production cost, maintenance cost, and risk loss over the horizon, which involves the compensation fee of interruptible load and the forced outage of generator. A simplified offer price methodology and a stochastic programming one are adopted to determine player's optimal bidding strategies for the day-ahead market, whose trends of game result are similar. The maximal payoff of each Genco is obtained by tabu search algorithm. The solutions of non-equilibrium, unique equilibrium, and multiple equilibria are coordinated. Numerical results for a two-Genco system and a realistic system are used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Those who refer to literature plain and simple, without the quotation marks designed to suspend the habitual reference of the term, run the risk of losing sight of the present crisis of the paradigm, including the theoretical discourses and disciplinary practices that reveal and intensify that crisis. Among the latter, the practice known as Cultural Studies acquires its place of relevance in close connection with the problematization of the literary text's undecidable nature. Surely, in the expression "literary text," the former term still carries the heavier burden of disputability-and this should not surprise us. Once the phenomenon called "literature" is placed in a secure, undivided, independent, and immune position, the result is a silencing or suspension of the relevant cultural conditions that have situated it as a contingent notion. The flip side to that silence is the exclusion of subaltern spaces, an exclusion generated by a canon founded on a concept of language that is marked in a specific aesthetic sense and contains the power to cover up its own historicity. The most immediate effect of a contingency that wraps itself in secrecy to hide its own dimensions is an elevation of the paradigm to the privileged position of universality. Although, as Garcia Canclini pointed out in a slightly different context, there is no "reason to abandon the


A four‐ball tester was used to evaluate the anti‐wear performance of three kinds of organomolybdemun compounds in engine oils and lithium soap grease, i.e. molybdenum dialkyldithiophosphate (MoDDP), molybdenum dialkyldithiocarbamate (MoDTC), and sulphur‐ and phosphorus‐free organomolybdeum (molybdate). The results indicate that a low concentration of MoDDP does not improve the anti‐wear properties of the commercial engine oils, but a high concentration of MoDDP can obviously improve the anti‐wear properties of the engine oils. MoDTC does not improve the anti‐wear properties of the engine oils, but worsens the anti‐wear properties of the oils. Significant improvement of the anti‐wear properties is obtained with molybdate added in the four fully formulated oils. Both MoDDP and molybdate have good anti‐wear properties in the lithium soap grease, especially MoDDP with a high concentration. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We introduce a class of models in which statistical isotropy is broken spontaneously in the CMB by a nonlinear response to long-wavelength fluctuations in a mediating field. These fluctuations appear as a gradient locally and pick out a single preferred direction. The nonlinear response imprints this direction in a range of multipole moments. We consider two manifestations of isotropy breaking: additive contributions and multiplicative modulation of the intrinsic anisotropy. Since the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (WMAP) exhibits an alignment of power deficits, an additive contribution is less likely to produce the observed alignments than the usual isotropic fluctuations, a fact which we illustrate with an explicit cosmological model of long-wavelength quintessence fluctuations. This problem applies to other models involving foregrounds or background anisotropy that seek to restore power to the CMB. Additive models that account directly for the observed power exacerbate the low power of the intrinsic fluctuations. Multiplicative models can overcome these difficulties. We construct a proof of principle model that significantly improves the likelihood and generates stronger alignments than WMAP in 30%-45% of realizations.


Ion of Chios - his place in the history of Greek literature the chronology of the Antiphon speeches two problems in the text of Antiphon the originality of the first Greek historians anecdotes, gossip and scandal Thucydides "as history" and "as literature' Thucydides on oracles Thucydides' historical judgment Androtion on Ostracism the date of Plato's "Symposium" Aristophanes' speech in Plato's "Symposium" Greek homosexuality and initiation the freedom of the intellectual in Greek society Anthemokritos and the Megarians Anapsephisis in Fifth-century Athens review of Peter Green - "Armada from Athens" ancient interpolation in Aristophanes explorations in the history of the text of Aristophanes review of D. Mervyn Jones and N.G.Wilson (editors) "Scholia in Aristophanis Equites" expurgation of Greek literature Byron on the Ancient Greeks on writing for the general reader what are the "two cultures"?


Dong and Miao are the words different group of Han-Tibetan language family,their isolation,at least in the thousands or more.But relations between the peoples and close very early in its history,lived in today's distribution,not only the two Nations forming mixed situation,in some places with a village inhabited by two peoples.Since Ming and Qing dynasties,Qingshui River basin in Southeast Guizhou Miao Dong,Dong and Miao are very common.Long-term exposure on the cultural and linguistic learning,has had a profound impact with each other.This article from a synchronic point of view compared to the Miao and Dong language dialects in the middle voice,exploring multiple relationships of the Miao and Dong language.


Laura L. Mielke, Introduction 1. Matt Cohen, Lying Inventions: Native Dissimulation in Early Colonial New England 2. Nan Goodman, The Deer Island Indians and Common Law Performance 3. John Pollack, Native Performances of Diplomacy and Religion in Early New France 4. Olivia Bloechl, Wendat Song and Carnival Noise in the Jesuit Relations 5. Stephanie Fitzgerald, 'I Wunnatuckquannum, This Is My Hand': Native Performance in Massachusett Language Indian Deeds 6. Caroline Wigginton, In a Red Petticoat: Coosaponakeesa's Performance of Creek Sovereignty in Colonial Georgia 7. Jenny Hale Pulsipher, Playing John White: John Wompas and Racial Identity in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World 8. Timothy J. Shannon, 'This Wretched Scene of British Curiosity and Savage Debauchery': Performing Indian Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Britain 9. Phillip H. Round, Performing Indian Publics: Two Native Views of Diplomacy to the Western Nations in 1792 10. Theresa Strouth Gaul, Editing as Indian Performance: Elias Boudinot, Poetry, and the Cherokee Phoenix Philip J. Deloria, Afterword Contributors Index


Pseudohexagonal aragonite crystals are common components in some hot-spring travertines at Chemurkeu on the western shore of Lake Bogoria, Kenya. Beds, lenses and pods of aragonite crystals are intercalated with beds of white non-crystallographic calcite dendrites. The pseudohexagonal aragonite crystals, which are up to 4 cm long and 4 mm wide, are formed of nested skeletal crystals. Each skeletal crystal is formed of cyclical twinned crystals that are constructed of stacked subcrystals. The latter are inclined at a consistent angle of 40° to the long axis of the pseudohexagonal aragonite crystal. Intense competition for space during growth modified the crystal morphology with the result that many of the pseudohexagonal crystals are distorted. Intercrystalline and intracrystalline pores are filled or partly filled by epitaxial aragonite overgrowths and/or reticulate microbial coatings that have a high concentration of Si and Mg. In places, this extracellular mucus induced etching of the underlying aragonite crystal.

Today the hot (T>95 °C) Na-HCO3-Cl spring waters at Chemurkeu have a salinity of 5–6 g L−1 TDS, a pH of 8·1–9·1, Ca2+ concentrations of <2 mg L−1 and Mg2+ concentrations of <0·7 mg L−1, The springs of the Lake Bogoria Geothermal Field are fed by a shallow aquifer (T∼100 °C) and a deeper aquifer (T∼170 °C). Springs at Chemurkeu derive from meteoric groundwater, lake water and condensed steam, and are fed mainly from the shallow thermal aquifer. Much of the aragonite may have formed when the spring waters contained more dissolved Ca2+ than today, possibly under more humid conditions during the Holocene.


Tank-washing is an essential practice in chemical tanker operations, the washing-water together with the residues from the tanks being discharged into the open sea. In order to control the pollution of the sea, limits have been imposed on the amounts of chemicals to be discharged from each tank and on the maximum permissible concentrations in the wake of the ship following tank-washing operations, and these have been promulgated in international regulations for the operation and equipment of chemical tankers. Research by the Royal Dutch Shell Laboratories of Amsterdam has led to the development of a calculation method for determining the amount of residue in a tank and a standard washing method with controlled discharge from a "slops" tank. The method, which has been tested on a prototype scale in a 1 cu m tank, is claimed to provide a solution not only to problems of chemical tanker operation but also to those of port storage capacity. Order from BSRA as No. 51,280.


The performance of the students in the analytical laboratory was tested in a potentiometric determination of fluoride ion in anti-caries dental tablets. The analytical results determined by freshman students and experienced personnel were compared. The error in the student's experiments was only about two times bigger than in the reference determinations. The lack of experience mainly affected students in complex tasks.


The invention concerns the use of a Phaeodactylum algae extract, in particular of tricornutum Phaeodactylum, as cosmetic agent for promoting the proteasome activity of skin cells, in particular of keratinocytes, fibroblasts or melanocytes, preferably human. The invention enables to produce a cosmetic composition protecting the skin against the harmful effects of UV exposure, or for preventing and/or delaying skin ageing effects.


Aqueous two-phase flotation (ATPF) is an integrative downstream method for separating and concentrating biomolecules from crude biosuspensions such as fermentation broth. Its continuous operation not only increases throughput, but also makes it recommended for continuous upstreams. In this work, an optimized apparatus design in the form of a horizontal flotation tank is presented. The geometry of the new apparatus for continuous ATPF is optimized using flow simulations so that the two aqueous phases can be pumped uniformly through the flotation tank in co-current or counter-current flow. The implementation of a conductivity measurement enables to characterize the phase mixing effect induced by the rising gas bubbles introduced through three different gassing units. ATPF experiments with the model enzyme phospholipase A2 show that there are favorable combinations of gas flow rates to increase the flotation rate and reduce the back-diffusion at the outlet of the apparatus. This allows high phase exchange rates up to 2/h and hence increases the amount of enzymes that can be recovered per time. Co-current operation of continuous ATPF increased separation efficiency about 14% up to E = 74% compared to counter-current operation.


This article examines intercultural learning as a lifelong process. The data on which the article is based consist of 10 biographical interviews in which Finnish teachers were asked to talk about their lives from the perspective of intercultural learning. The analysis of the interviews showed that other people were involved in many of the experiences being referred to, and that these individuals played an important role in the stories. This article, therefore, focuses on the role of significant others in the intercultural learning of teachers. Three roles of significant others that arose from the data are introduced: transforming attitudes towards diversity; awakening and developing intercultural awareness; and developing ethical orientation.


Cobalt(II), nickel(II), copper(II) and zinc(II) complexes of two new multi-dentate ligands, 3-{(2E)-2-[(2hydroxyquinolin-3-yl)methylidene]hydrazinyl}quinoxalin-2-ol(QZOH) and 3-{(2E)-2-[(2-sulfanyl quinolin-3yl)methylidene]hydrazinyl}quinoxalin-2-ol(QZSH) were prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, conductance, thermal, spectral and magnetic data. The ligand QZOH de-protonates to give a monobasic ONO donor and binds to the divalent metal ions in bis-tridentate fashion, using two ONO donor sets. The other ligand QZSH also de-protonates to give a monobasic SNO donor and binds to the divalent metal ions in bis-tridentate fashion, using two SNO donor sets. Octahedral geometries are proposed for all these complexes, and preliminary studies show that they possess potential antimicrobial activity.


Background: Non-traumatic intracranial arterial dissections (IADs) are characterized by the sudden disruption of the internal elastic lamina in intracranial arteries. It is still unknown why IADs occurs. There are few reports concerned with relationship between the endothelial function and IADs.

Purpose: The purpose of our retrospective study was to investigate whether or not patients with nontraumatic IADs had normal endothelial function.

Methods: Included for retrospective analysis were patients with symptomatic nontraumatic IADs (1) who were admitted to our institution from 2012 to 2013 and (2) who underwent an endothelial function test during hospitalization. Headache patients admitted to outpatient clinic were selected as a control matched for sex and age. The endothelial function was assessed using flow-mediated dilatation (FMD). We investigated ankle brachial index (ABI) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) to determine the degree of atherosclerosis. Patients' characteristics, brachial FMD, ABI and PVW were assessed in two groups.

Results: During study periods, there were 14 patients (median age 45.5 years, IQR 38-53.5 years) with nontraumatic IADs. Fourteen patients of the control had median age of 47 years (IQR: 44-53.5 years). The locations of IADs were the vertebral artery (n=10), the internal carotid artery (n=3) and the superior cerebellar artery (n=1). Between two groups, there were no significant differences of clinical features, atherosclerotic risk factors, ABI and PWV except FMD, indicating that most of them did not suffer from atherosclerosis. However, FMD in IADs was significantly lower than in control (4.85 vs. 7.4, p<0.01)

Conclusion: ur results suggest that the endothelial function of intracranial arteries might be impaired in patients with symptomatic nontraumatic IADs in spite of no atherosclerotic change.


When a beam is bent about its greatest flexural resistance axis it may twist and move laterally, before it reaches its strength limit. Although this problem of lateral torsional buckling of steel beams at room temperature is well known, the same problem at elevated temperature is not. This paper summarises the results obtained in the scope of a research project entitled "Lateral buckling of steel I beams under fire conditions", where a set of 120 experimental and numerical tests were performed on IPElOO beams, submitted to temperatures varying from 20 "C to 600 "C, to validate a new proposal for the buckling resistance moment of a laterally unrestrained beam under fire conditions. It will be shown that this new proposal is safer than the Eurocode 3 formulas.


Objective To explore the bioavailability of the two means of rectal and oral administration.Methods The bioavailability of allopurinol was studied in 10 patients with lymphoma after a single dose of 300 mg p.o.in comparison with the same dose given by the rectal route.The plasma levels were measured with a high-performance liquid chromatography 1、2、3、4、8、 24 h after administration.Results 5 patients received allopurinol orally and obtained a peak level of 3.2~6.4 μg/ml at 1~2 h,the elimination half-life was (2.3+1.3) h.However,allopurinol was not detected in the 5 patients who received allopurinol as an enema.Conclusion The bioavailability of allopurinol in this formulation is poor after rectal administration.


Through the use of headspace-gas chromatography, the sensitivity and detection limit of formaldehyde content in wastewater obtained by the standard curve method and the standard addition method are compared in order to obtain the best detection method. The results show that the calibration curve correlation of the standard insertion method for testing the formaldehyde content in wastewater is 0.9991, the detection limit of the method is 0.18 mg/L, and the lower limit of determination is 0.69 mg/L. Excellent standard curve method; this method is used for samples with low, medium and high concentrations. The range of standard recovery rate calculated is 85.1%~112.9%, the relative standard deviation in the laboratory is 2.7%~ 6.3%, which is also better than the standard curve method and meets the test requirements. This method is easy to operate, high sensitivity, and low detection limit for the determination of formaldehyde in wastewater, which meets the requirements of analysis and testing.


The literature on success factors of media products is extensive, yet patchy. No common standards regarding the measurement of success and the operationalization of variables exist (reference withheld for review, 2016). Means of distribution have become less important in times of digitalization and convergence, and trans-medial brands are replacing products assignable to one media type. In this research project, media product brands are distinguished along more relevant dimensions of seriality (one-off, multi-part and continuous) and content aims (information, infotainment and entertainment). In a literature review and an explorative qualitative study, ten building blocks of media success were identified: content, design, environmental orientation, internal processes, organizational aspects, leadership, human resources, marketing, distribution, and external evaluation. The building blocks of success were in the qualitative part of the research project found to be applicable across media types and dimensions of seriality and content aim (reference withheld for review, 2016). The building blocks of success can be seen to function as 'hygiene' factors, factors to avoid failure of media product brands (reference withheld for review, 2016). The proposed paper and presentation report on the quantitative analysis in this three-phased research project and answer the question: which of the ten previously identified building blocks are necessary and/or sufficient for success? The findings are based on an online survey of 255 media professionals in print, audio-visual and online media in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. The deployed method, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), is well suited for success factor analysis. It allows simultaneous testing of several conditions and avoids problems of multi-collinearity and equifinality (cf. Ragin 2014). A two-step QCA proved to be the most suitable method for the analysis of complex causality with ten aggregated meta-factors (i.e. the building blocks of success), that can be distinguished in causally proximate and remote factors (cf. Schneider und Wagemann 2006). The refinement of QCA 'Enhanced Standard Analysis' (cf. Schneider und Wagemann 2012) was deployed to improve the findings. The results of the QCA and the subsequent elaboration in the shape of case inspection provide insights in the factors that lead to success: the building blocks human resources, environmental orientation, design, and distribution are identified as necessary for success. In addition, three configurations of intersecting building blocks emerge as sufficient for success in a trans-medial context. The question which specific configuration leads to success of a media product brand is connected to its seriality: one-off products show a different path to success than continuously producing brands. Case inspection is an integral part of QCA, and aims at discovery of 'new' factors influencing success, and ultimately, at reformulating theoretic notions on success of media product brands (cf. Schneider und Rohlfing 2013). Case inspection uncovered, that the width of the topical scope of a media product brand, and, correspondingly, the size of the projected/potential audience, can be related to specific sufficient paths to success: in 'broadcasting' specific paths lead to success, in 'narrowcasting' another path is the sufficient route to success. In addition, case inspection uncovered intervening factors, like life phase of the media product brand, and the responsibility/role of the respondent, that exercise influence on the emergence of specific paths to success. References Ragin, Charles C. (2014): The comparative method. Moving beyond qualitative and quantitative strategies: with a new introduction. Oakland, California: University of California Press. Schneider, C. Q.; Rohlfing, I. (2013): Combining QCA and Process Tracing in Set-Theoretic Multi-Method Research. In: Sociological Methods & Research 42 (4), S. 559–597. DOI: 10.1177/0049124113481341. Schneider, Carsten Q.; Wagemann, Claudius (2006): Reducing complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Remote and proximate factors and the consolidation of democracy. In: European Journal of Political Research 45 (5), S. 751–786. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00635.x. Schneider, Carsten Q.; Wagemann, Claudius (2012): Set-theoretic methods for the social sciences. A guide to qualitative comparative analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Strategies for Social Inquiry).


In this model, the local moments of the platinum atoms are proportional to the moments of their near neighbor atoms while the cobalt moments are not affected by their local magnetic environment. The moment of the cobalt atom polarizes directly only its nearest neighbors and then this effect is transmitted to the whole platinum matrix producing the magnetization cloud. The interaction between clouds is responsible for the onset of ferromagnetism at low temperatures. Taking only one cloud and the value of the experimental susceptibility we calculated the self‐energy of the cloud, the nonenhanced susceptibility and the exchange constant between Pt and Co atoms, JPtCo. Also with the model, we calculated the critical temperatures of ferromagnetism in the concentration region 0.66≤c≤6.0 at. % Co by the Monte Carlo method. The results obtained were compared with experimental values of the critical temperatures showing a good agreement. We conclude that the onset of ferromagnetism in these dilute alloys is due to...


Mutations in hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)-1 (MODY3) account for the largest proportion of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) cases in the U.S. This form of diabetes is characterized by impaired insulin secretion in response to glucose, but wide variability exists in the severity of hyperglycemia and in the age at which it becomes clinically manifest. We have previously shown that the age at onset of diabetes in MODY3 families is influenced by familial factors (including modifying genes) and exposure to diabetes in utero. To identify genes influencing the onset of MODY3, we conducted a genome scan in 13 extended MODY families in which diabetes segregates with an HNF-1 mutation. Linkage with age at onset of diabetes was assessed by genetic variance component analysis using SOLAR. The locus with the strongest evidence of linkage was on chromosome 14q24 (D14S588; logarithm of odds [LOD] 2.58, P 0.0004). This location overlaps with IDDM11 and includes SEL1L, a negative regulator of the Notch pathway that may control islet development. Linkage evidence also supported loci on 5p15 (D5S817; LOD 2.44, P 0.0004) and 9q22 (D9S910; LOD 2.02, P 0.0018). The latter matches a region linked to 2-h insulin levels in Pima Indians. Less strong linkage evidence was observed at three other regions: chromosomes 3p24 (LOD 1.44), 7q21 (1.20), and 16q23 (1.51). Our data are consistent with the existence of multiple loci that contribute to the expression of the MODY3 phenotype. Identification of these genes will offer new insights into the pathophysiology of MODY that may, in turn, increase our understanding of the cellular events underlying more common forms of diabetes. Diabetes 52:2182–2186, 2003 Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a form of familial diabetes characterized by an early age of onset and an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance (1). Six MODY genes have been identified to date (2–8). One MODY locus corresponds to the enzyme glucokinase, which is an essential component of the -cell glucose sensor (2,3). The other five MODY genes are transcription factors (hepatocyte nuclear factor [HNF]-1 , HNF-4 , HNF-1 , insulin promoter factor 1 (IPF1), and NEUROD1) that are involved in islet cell differentiation and metabolism as well as insulin secretion (4–8). Most MODY cases in the U.S. are attributable to mutations in HNF-1 (9). This form of diabetes, also known as MODY3, is characterized by impaired insulin secretion in response to glucose (10,11). While HNF-1 mutations are highly penetrant, there is wide variability in the severity of the disease. There is also wide variation in the age at which MODY becomes clinically manifest. Indeed, only 50–60% of HNF-1 mutation carriers develop diabetes before age 25 years (the traditional criterion for a MODY diagnosis) (9). Such variability does not appear to be related to the type (truncated versus missense) or to the domain localization of the HNF-1 mutations (9). In a large panel of HNF-1 mutation carriers, we found that inheritance of the mutation from the mother and exposure to maternal diabetes in utero are associated with an early onset of MODY (9). In addition, we found the age of diabetes onset to be highly heritable (h 0.47), and when the parent-of-origin of the HNF-1 mutation was taken into account, the heritability was even greater, with familial (presumably genetic) factors accounting for 91% of the residual variability (9). Thus, the clinical manifestation of MODY3 appears to be more complex than previously thought, being influenced by both modifying genes that are inherited independently of HNF-1 as well as environmental factors. Similar phenotypic complexity has been proposed for other "simple" Mendelian disorders such as Gaucher disease (12). To identify loci that influence MODY3 onset, we conducted a genome screen of 13 extended families in which diabetes segregates with an HNF-1 mutation. The clinical characteristics of these families have been previously From the Research Division, Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, Massachusetts; the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; and the Department of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Alessandro Doria, MD, PhD, Section on Genetics and Epidemiology, Joslin Diabetes Center, One Joslin Place, Boston, MA 02215. E-mail: email@example.com. Current affiliation for S.-H.K.: Division of Endocrinology, Samsung Cheil Hospital and Women's Healthcare Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. Received for publication 7 February 2003 and accepted in revised form 12 May 2003. HNF, hepatocyte nuclear factor; IGT, impaired glucose tolerance; LOD, logarithm of odds; MODY, maturity-onset diabetes of the young; Ngn3, neurogenin 3; OGTT, oral glucose tolerance test; WHO, World Health Organization. © 2003 by the American Diabetes Association.


Copper powders have been widely used in electrically conductive coatings, electrode materials et al. and are very prospective since they are cheaper than noble metal powders such as silver or palladium. In this study, copper powders for metal filler of EMI shielding have been prepared using a solvothermal process from , NaOH, Glucose, mixed solvent (: Ethanol) and hydrazine which was used as a reducing agent at various reaction conditions. The prepared copper powders showed finely dispersed spherical shape without agglomerate, uniform morphology, narrow size distribution, high purity and were about 400-700 nm in size. The prepared powders were characterized using XRD, SEM, TGA, XPS, particle size measurement and EMI shielding efficiency.