Objective : To determine whether oxidants are formed as part of the cisplatin-induced apoptotic process, intracellular markers of oxidative stress were examined. Methods : Apoptotic death of HeLa cells by cisplatin was confirmed by flow cytometry. Results : The pre-treatment with glutathione (GSH) significantly attenuated cisplatin-induced apoptosis through the reduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and diminished caspases-3 and 9 protease activity. Furthermore,-VAD-fmk, an inhibitor of pan-caspase, effectively inhibited the activation of caspases and prevented apoptosis by cisplatin, although cisplatin-induced ROS generation was not attenuated. Conclusion : These data indicate that ROS may play a role as an upstream mediator of caspases. Taken together, our results suggest that oxidative stress mediates cisplatin-induced apoptosis in HeLa cells.


Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists, such as etanercept, infliximab and adalimumab, are used increasingly in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, moderate to severe psoria-sis and Crohn's disease (1). In recent years there has been an increasing number of reports on malignant lymphomas developing in patients using TNF-α blocking agents, mostly infliximab or etanercept. Most lymphomas deve-loping in patients using anti-TNF-α therapy are B-cell lymphomas (2). Reports on T-cell lymphomas as a result of this treatment, especially those primarily involving the skin, are rare (3–11). We report here an unusual case of cutaneous γδ T-cell lymphoma (CGD-TCL) in a patient with RA receiving anti-TNF-α treatment.CASE REPORT


Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites have received increased attention in recent years. They have been proposed as a viable solution for remote sensing, telemedicine, weather monitoring, search and rescue and communications to name a few applications. LEO satellites move with respect to an earth station. Thus, the station must be capable of tracking the satellite both spatially and in frequency. In addition, as the spectrum becomes more congested, links are being designed at higher frequencies such as Ka band. These frequencies experience larger attenuations and therefore the system must be capable of operating at low signal to noise ratios. In this dissertation we report on the research conducted on the following problems. Firstly, we study the estimation of the frequency of a sinusoid for the purpose of acquiring and tracking the frequency of the received signal. Secondly, we propose the use of the frequency measurements to assist the spatial tracking of the satellite. The highly dynamic environment of a LEO system, combined with the high Ka band frequencies result in large Doppler rates. This limits the available processing time and, consequently, the fundamental resolution of a frequency estimator. The frequency estimation strategy that is adopted in the thesis consists of a coarse estimator followed by a fine estimation stage. The coarse estimator is implemented using the maximum of the periodogram. The threshold effect is studied and the derivation of an approximate expression of the signal to noise ratio at which the threshold occurs is examined. The maximum of the periodogram produces a frequency estimate with an accuracy that is 1 N O , where N is the number of data samples used in the FFT. The lower bound for the estimation of the frequency of a sinusoid, given by the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB), is 2 3 N O . This motivates the use of a second stage in order to improve the estimation resolution. A family of new frequency estimation algorithms that interpolate on the fractional Fourier coefficients is proposed. The new estimators can be implemented iteratively to give a performance that is uniform in frequency. The iterative algorithms are analysed and their asymptotic properties derived. The


Evidences which have been previously advanced relative to the age of the Ouachita orogeny are reviewed and discussed in the first part of the paper. The conclusion is drawn that there is very little evidence in support of a Pennsylvanian age that will withstand a close examination. The chief evidence cited is the presence of chert-pebble conglomerates in the lower Pennsylvanian formations of the eastern part of the Lehigh syncline and northward. The supposition that these chert pebbles originated in the Talihina "chert" formation of Black Knob Ridge (which borders the syncline on the east) is shown to be probably incorrect. In view of the evidence presented, the buried southeastern extension of the Arbuckle Mountains is thought to be a more probable source. Additional evidence relative to the age of the exposed Ouachita Mountains is found in the joint systems of the central and northern Oklahoma plains. This evidence leaves no doubt whatever that an important part of the more intense phases of the Ouachita orogeny occurred after early (Oklahoma) Permian time, and there seems to be a strong probability that all of it occurred then. One of the chief joint systems of central Oklahoma radiates fan-like from the front of the Ouachita Mountain arc, and apparently decreases in "intensity" with distance from these mountains. The short faults of the so-called "en echelon fault belts" in central Oklahoma may be correlated very closely in strike with the joints of the radiating system referred to, and are thus, from the standpoint of origin, connec ed with these mountains more closely than before. Doubts are expressed as to the common occurrence of true en echelon fault belts in Oklahoma.


The adoption of a hybrid electric propulsion system is a promising solution for luxury ship refitting, as it makes it possible to preserve the yacht architecture while introducing innovative technological elements to optimize energy use. Flexibility, comfort and efficiency can be effectively improved using electrical applications in ships. Low Voltage Direct Current (LVDC) distribution can represent a valid solution to achieve these important targets. A luxury ship refitting, based on the introduction of a hybrid electric propulsion and a LVDC distribution, is presented in this paper. Three different power conversion architectures are discussed. One architecture is adopted and analyzed, which utilizes fast DC/DC buck converters to interface generating systems to the grid. Buck converters operate as actuators of the LVDC bus voltage control system. The latter provides bus voltage regulation, load sharing and Active Damping of destabilizing Constant Power Loads.


A green-house experiment was conducted to investigate the growth of Chinese cabbage, radish, and soybean and changes in soil chemical properties after application of 5 and 10mm of pH 2.7 simulated acid rain(SAR) followed by 0, 5, and 10mm of pH 6.0 normal water at the three-day intervals 20 times for Chinese cabbage and radish and 42 times for soybean. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. Visual damages by SAR were white-yellow leaf spots, dark brown or light green leaf color, and wrinkled leaf margins in all crops. The degree of visual damages was severer at 10mm than at 5mm SAR and it was reduced as the amounts of normal water increased after SAR application. 2. Chlorophyll content was higher at 10mm than at 5mm SAR application and increased as the amounts of normal water increased after SAR application in all crops. 3. Fresh weights of Chinese cabbage heads and radish roots and grain yield of soybean were higher at 10mm than at 5mm SAR, while they increased as the amounts of normal water increased at the same SAR level. 4. Changes in the mineral contents of plants were not consistent, while S content in radish and soybean increased as the amounts of SAR increased. 5. SAR lowered soil pH, while it increased soil N and S contents. Contents of soil organic matter, P, and exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K were not affected by the amounts of SAR.


The adaptive regulation is considered for a class of nonlinear
systems including the Hammerstein systems and Wiener systems as
special cases. The observations are corrupted by noise. By using
the intrinsic stability of the system a direct adaptive regulation
control is designed with the help of the stochastic approximation
(SA) method, and its optimality is proved. A numerical example is
provided.


"The colors in the Rothko paintings are those of blood and wine. As you stand in the chapel they are close, very close, even warm and comforting. Yet they do not oppress. …"—D. de M.


The contemporary Chinese Marxist popularization of Marx is facing many problems.To solve these problems,a more profound understanding and comprehensive system is necessary to the popularization of particularity,complexity of the audience,and the popularization of popularization of operational mechanism.Two factors of moderate convergence theory of creation and interpretation of the text should be moderately reduced,organic integration of government administrative and academic influence should be presented Mao Zedong's Speech in the Yan'an Forum on literature and Art contains rich thoughts of Marx's popularity,these thoughts can provide beneficial enlightenment for solving contemporary problems in popularization of Marx.


Osteopoikilosis or spotted bone disease is a rare bone dysplasia of unknown etiology. It is characterized by an abnormality in bone maturation process and often found incidentally on radiologic examination. This disease, which has an autosomal dominant inheritance, has numerous, annular or oval, sclerotic lesions with regular borders. Although it is frequently asymptomatic, rarely polyarthralgia and joint swelling may occur. In this case, we aimed to show that the etiology may be a rare syndrome such as osteopoikilosis in the patient with the complaint of polyarthralgia.


In this review, I first discuss briefly some theoretical motivations for potential Lorentz Violation and deviation from ordinary quantum mechanical behavior (decoherence) of field theoretic systems in the background of some quantum gravity (QG) models. Both types of effects lead to CPT violation, but they can be disentangled experimentally. I, then, proceed to a description of precision tests of CPT symmetry using neutral and charged Kaons, which are of direct relevance to the main theme of this conference. I emphasize the potentially unique r\^ole of neutral meson factories in providing ``smoking-gun'' evidence of some QG-decoherence models in which the CPT quantum mechanical operator is not well defined. This is achieved by means of potential observations of QG-induced modifications of the pertinent Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) particle correlations.


The diagnostic value of serum miRNA-122,which severs as a novel candidate biomarker for herb-induced liver injury,was studied through a preclinical safety evaluation on 19 potential hepatotoxic herbal medicines.In the meanwhile,parameters including body weight,food intake,blood chemistry indicators,organ-to-body-weight ratio and histopathological changes were also observed in this evaluation.The results showed that,by comparison with the vehicle group,serum miRNA-122 significantly elevated in 6 treatment groups,while serum ALT and AST significantly elevated in 2 and 3 treatment groups,respectively.Among the herbs tested,Calla Chinensis could induce acute liver injuries.In time-and dose-related analysis,serum miRNA-122 displayed better sensitivity with the characteristics of earlier appearance and larger fold change than serum ALT and AST.This study demonstrates that serum miRNA-122,which severs as a novel candidate biomarker for herb-induced liver injury,is correlated well with the results of histomorphologic examinations and is much more sensitive than conventional blood chemistry indicators.


It is ' clear from the amount of material in this book focused on various chromatographic techniques, that the analysis of complex hydrocarbon mixtures continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing analytical chemists in the pharmaceutical , biomedical, environmental, petroleum, polymer, and petrochemical arenas. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has long been recognised as the spectroscopic technique of choice for obtaining detailed structural, dynamic, and chemical information of organic compounds. However, the analysis of complex organic mixtures with traditional one-dimensional (lD) NMR techniques usually suffers from severe spectral overlap, making it virtually impossible to extract detailed compositional information. Many ingenious and elegant ID, 2D, and multidimensional NMR spectral editing techniques have been developed that address various aspects of this resolution problem and are now routinely implemented on modem commercial spectrometers. Excellent texts describing both the theoretical aspects and the practical application of these techniques are available. i-s NMR spectroscopy is a vibrant field and it is neither practical nor the intent of this chapter to capture all the recent advances in this multidisciplinary field. The intent of this chapter is to focus on some of the recent developments in NMR spectroscopy that have potential for improving our ability to analyse liquid phase or soluble hydrocarbons . Some of the improvements in NMR instrumentation that impact hydrocarbon characterisation include higher magnetic fields, improvements in probe technology, facile implementation of pulsed field gradients, and improved selectivity through coupling with separation


Introduction: The brainstem has a potential role in the pathophysiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) (Roger, 2013). In particular, alterations in brainstem volume and their relationship with sensory/motor abnormalities have been suggested (Trevarthen & Delafield-Butt, 2013). However, the findings in volume alterations of subjects with ASD with respect to matched controls are controversial both in adults and children cohorts (Hardan, 2001; Piven, 1992; Kleiman, 1992). Moreover, the contribution to variability of brainstem volume measurements performed with different automated methods is still unclear. Methods: T1-weighted MRI brain scans of a cohort of 80 preschoolers (20 male controls, 20 male subjects with ASD, 20 female controls, 20 female subjects with ASD, mean age controls 49 months, std 12 months, mean age ASD 49 months, std 14) were processed with three different automated methods to measure the brainstem volume: Freesurfer 5.3 (Fischl, 2002), FSL-FIRST (Patenaude, 2011) and ANTs (Avants, 2011). Analysis of variance was then carried out taking into account gender and total brain volume in order to investigate potential brainstem volume differences between controls/ASD subjects for each method. A direct comparison of brainstem volume assessments in native space was then performed to assess inter-method reliability (correlation has been calculated by Pearson coefficient) and Dice similarity indexes were calculated to evaluate the segmentation agreement across methods. Results:The brainstem volume measurements are reported in scatter plots in Fig. 1 to show the agreement in terms of volume (in mm3) between different methods. The color represents the Dice similarity index (range 0-1 were 1 means total agreement) of the brainstem segmentations obtained by the methods under investigation. In Fig. 2 four examples of brainstem segmentations with the different methods are shown in sagittal view (brainstem segmentations are reported in red, green, blue for Freesurfer, FSL-FIRST and ANTs respectively). Pearson correlation coefficient between FSL-FIRST and Freesurfer brainstem volume assessments was 0.27 (p-value=0.02). It was 0.51 (p-value 0.05).Conclusions:The inter-method reliability of automated algorithms for brainstem volume assessment is limited (the mean Dice similarity index barely reaches 0.8 in just one out of 3 comparisons). Inconsistencies across previous studies on brainstem and more in general the lack of evidence for brain biomarkers in ASD may in part be a result of this poor agreements in the extraction of structural features with different methods. Inter-method brainstem volume differences can be attributed to varying definitions of brainstem structure, the use of different templates (e.g. in our study only ANTs processed the brain scans by using an age-specific brain template) and the varying effects of imaging artifacts and acquisition settings. This study suggests that research on brain structure alterations should cross-validate findings across multiple methods before providing biological interpretations.


In this paper, we attempt to improve upon the state-of-the-art in predicting a novel's success by modeling the lexical semantic relationships of its contents. We created the largest dataset used in such a project containing lexical data from 17,962 books from Project Gutenberg. We utilized domain specific feature reduction techniques to implement the most accurate models to date for predicting book success, with our best model achieving an average accuracy of 94.0%. By analyzing the model parameters, we extracted the successful semantic relationships from books of 12 different genres. We finally mapped those semantic relations to a set of themes, as defined in Roget's Thesaurus and discovered the themes that successful books of a given genre prioritize. At the end of the paper, we further showed that our model demonstrate similar performance for book success prediction even when Goodreads rating was used instead of download count to measure success.


This research investigates the factors that influen ce moral judgments when dealing with ethical dilemmas in the organizational context. It also investigates the an tecedents of individual ethical ideology (idealism and relativis m). A mixed method study, which combines qualitative (field stu dy) and quantitative (survey) approaches, was used in this study. An initial model was developed first, which was then fine-tune d based on field studies. Data were collected from managers in Malay sian large organizations. The results of this study reveal th at in-group collectivism culture, power distance culture, paren tal values, and religiosity were significant as antecedents of ethi cal ideology. However, direct effects of these variables on moral judgment were not significant. Furthermore, the results of this s tudy confirm the significant effects of ethical ideology on moral ju dgment. This study provides valuable insight into evaluating the valid ity of existing theory as proposed in the literature and offers sig nificant practical implications. Keywords—Antecedents Factors, Ethical Ideology, Mixed Method, Moral Judgment.


It has recently been proposed that the D-instanton expansion of the open topological B model on P(3|4) is equivalent to the perturbative expansion of the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. In this letter we show how to construct the gauge theory results for all n-point conjugate-maximal-helicity-violating amplitudes by computing the integral over the moduli space of curves of degree n-3 in P(3|4), providing strong support to the string theory construction.


To assess the potential for urban demand side management (DSM) policies as a water resource management tool, we analyze the extent to which price and alternative policy instruments (such as use and quantity restrictions and subsidies for water efficient technologies) reduce residential demand and their distributional implications by type of household. Using detailed household-level panel data for two California communities, the results suggest that the ultimate effects of DSM policies in terms of the reduction in aggregate demand and distribution of water savings among household classes depend both on the policy instrument selected and the composition of aggregate demand.


Ninety percent of FDI between developed countries takes the form of a merger/acquisition rather then greenfield investment, and as shown by Guadalupe, Thomas and Kuzmina (forthcoming), multinationals tend to buy the most productive firms within countries. Two thirds of the MNC productivity premium is the result of selection. This paper delves deeper into the selection process by explicitly studying the characteristics of both the multinational and the acquired firm: who matches with whom? Specifically, we characterize the acquired and acquiring firm in terms of their ex-ante size and productivity, and also the productivity upgrades upon the acquisition. We argue that it is crucial to understand how the selection process takes place in order to uncover the mechanisms that determine how FDI impacts host country productivity. Our empirical analysis is guided by a theoretical framework constructed following the premises of new trade theory and assumes that firms are heterogeneous. We allow for two dimensions of heterogeneity: the unit cost of production (i.e. some firms are more productive than others, as in Melitz, 2003) and investment cost (i.e. some firms face a higher cost of external capital than others). These two characteristics endogenously result in a joint distribution of firm productivity and size. This modeling choice is motivated directly by the data: larger firms are on average more productive, but there is substantial heterogeneity of productivities (measured as production per worker) for a given size (measured by total assets or sales), by industry of operation. In addition, at any point in time, the size of a firm's global production system varies with the characteristics of its existing network of subsidiaries, and can be measured by the sum of its worldwide affiliates' sales. Our model focuses on "horizontal" FDI; that is, where foreign affiliates' sales are destined to the host market. Firms decide whether to acquire a foreign affiliate and choose the characteristics of the acquired firm. By a revealed preference argument, if an acquisition takes place, it necessarily implies that there is some source of complementarity between the characteristics of the parent and acquired firms. Otherwise, the market price of the acquired firm will match its expected discounted flow of profits and, any positive transaction cost would mean that the acquisition was inefficient. In this model, scale, productivity, and productivity-upgrading on acquisition are potential complements and jointly increase the profits of the firm. This modeling choice reflects the empirical findings of Guadalupe, Thomas and Kuzmina (forthcoming). For example, it is intuitive that firms that are initially more productive, or those that upgrade their productivity by a given amount, can extract relatively more profits from new access to larger markets where they have a larger scale. We derive different predictions with respect to the match between the acquired and acquiring firms, depending on the nature of the complementarities within the boundaries of the multinational corporation that dominate in the data. If firms transfer their technology to their newly-acquired subsidiaries, only the most productive firms will choose to acquire foreign affiliates (this result mimics the prediction for "greenfield" FDI in Helpman, Melitz, Yeaple, 2004). In addition, those firms with better technology will acquire larger but relatively unproductive subsidiaries. Intuitively, if acquiring firms can transfer their technology to the affiliate, they would be unwilling to pay a premium for the affiliate's productivity level. On the other hand, given that size and productivity are complementary characteristics: the most productive firms are willing to bid more for market size.The predictions are reversed if firms can only transfer their investment cost differential. In this case, only those with a lower investment cost will choose to acquire foreign firms. Moreover, the lower their investment cost, the higher the productivity (relative to size) of the acquired firm. This implies that taking the predictions of the model to the data can shed light on which characteristics of the firm are "transferrable" within the boundaries of the multinational firm. We argue that this allows us to understand the nature of the multinational comparative advantage. In order to determine the drivers of selection and matching process between multinationals and their subsidiaries empirically, we construct a large cross-country dataset of mergers and acquisitions using the Zephyr and Amadeus databases. Our data include all transactions (both between domestic firms and involving a foreign firm) over eleven years (2000 to 2010) in five large European countries (UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain). The transaction data includes information on both parties in the transaction and financial information on the transaction itself. In addition, using a ten year panel of income and financial statements of public and private firms in those economies from Amadeus we characterize where each firm lies within the distribution of its country/industry, in terms of output per worker, size and total assets. We then observe which firms match in a merger or acquisition and ask: Is there positive or negative assortative matching on size? How do the results change if we allow for more than one selection variable in the matching process? Do cross-border and purely domestic acquisitions look similar? How does the price paid in the transaction relate to the match? How do the size and productivity of the acquirer and target affect the probability of a match? The answers to these questions may well vary with industry and with the host and origin countries of the acquiring and acquired firms. Through the lens of our model, the characteristics of the match in terms of size and productivity will shed light on the sources of comparative advantage for the multinational corporation. Finally, we intend to parameterize the model to compute the effect of FDI on the aggregate productivity in the host country and the distribution of firm size. To do so, we plan to parameterize the joint distribution of size and productivity to match the data on the population of firms in Amadeus. The degree of "transferability" of the unit cost of production and investment cost, which are crucial parameters in our model, will be chosen to match the results on the assortative matching between acquired and acquiring firms.


Abstract EU's goal is to develop transport system which meets the economic, social and environmental requirements of society. Since first White paper on Transport in 1992 there was evolution of perception of quality and attributes of quality. The basic set of quality requirement is based on frequency, price, safety and security were dominating in 1992-2006, however since 2006 new attributes such as environment impact, and energy efficiency comes into force in European documents. However research case in Siauliai town show that it delays in user perception of quality.


Late Paleozoic supra-subduction zone (SSZ)-type ophiolites and intra-oceanic arc igneous petrotectonic assemblages are developed in the Erenhot—Hegenshan suture zone (EHSZ) in the eastern part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), which contains information about the Late Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the PaleoAsian Ocean (PAO) in the eastern CAOB. However, there are two main views and associated controversies about the closure time of the PAO in the eastern CAOB, which are ―collision suture from Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous‖ and ―final suture from Late Permian to Early Triassic‖. In recent years, the Dahate intra-oceanic arc quartz diorite was newly discovered in the Diyanmiao SSZ-type ophiolite of the EHSZ, which indicates that the PAO developed intra-oceanic subduction in the Early Carboniferous. Therefore, the zircon geochronology, geochemistry, and petrogenesis of the Dahate quartz diorite were examined in this study to provide a new basis for the subduction and extinction time of the PAO in the eastern CAOB.


Despite economic, technological, and regulatory restriction, experts see great potential for direct-use non-electric applications of geothermal energy. Several successes are cited. A lack of awareness hinders investment and development opportunities. Prices of competing fuels, coal use prospects, confirmation of reservoirs, energy tax incentives, and government policy will increasingly affect geothermal programs and projects. The Geysers, the world's largest operating geothermal power plant, and other ventures are described. Developers are showing great interest in Southern California's Imperial Valley binary-cycle pilot operation and the possibilities of energy independence for Hawaii. Geothermal power generation is already cost-competitive with fossil fuel plants in some locations. (DCK)


Let L be a generalized Hom-Lie algebra, V a H-Hom-Lie ideal of [L, L]. In this paper, we mainly discuss the central invariant of L. Using the method of Hopf algebras, we obtain that H-invariant of V is contained in H-invariant of the center of L. It generalizes the main results by Cohen and Westreich (1994).


RHILE the subject of the W or / serology of plant products has claimed, to a greater or less degree, the attention of botanists and pharmacologists for about forty years, it is only within the last decade or two that studies in this field have conclusively demonstrated the usefulness of serology in plant research. Particularly through the efforts of Mez and his associates in Germany, of Osborne, Wells, and their colleagues in America, and of a number of independent workers in Europe, the subject of phytoserology has attracted widespread attention in recent years, as is attested by the accompanying bibliography. Up to the present no attempt has been made to collate and unify the rather extensive literature in the field in question. The writer has repeatedly felt the need for such a digest, particularly as the greater part of the literature involved is to be found only in European publications. The present paper is designed as an attempt to meet this need. In delimiting the scope of such a review it has been felt advisable to restrict the discussion to the serology of plants and plant products exclusive of bacteria. The serology of the phytopathogenic bacteria commands the attention of the phytopathologist, but the growing literature concerning this phase of serology has been dealt with by Link (I'79). The literature on plant serology as delimited above embraces the techniques and applications of phytoserology in such problems as the following: the identification of plants and plant products; the study of the systematic relationships of plants; the investigation of protein metabolism in plants; the genetic constitution of plant hybrids; the nature and properties of the plant viruses; and the elucidation of the principles of general serology as exemplified in plant materials. The concepts of serology rest upon the thesis that the introduction into the animal circulatory system of a foreign substance of biological origin, typically proteid (antigen), gives rise to the production in the blood of substances (antibodies) capable of affecting the introduced antigen in a variety of ways, which effects may be demonstrated by a number of types of serological reactions. From the point of view of plant serology these reactions may be briefly characterized as follows:


A heat exchanger fin for a heat exchanger fin collar, the fin collar having tighter tolerances in order to obtain a larger contact area on the tube. The fin collar comprises an elongated fin portion for dissipating heat and a leg connected to one of the fin portions. The leg has a height and includes a fin portion has a contact portion substantially perpendicular, wherein the contact portion has a contact height along which the contact portion contacts the tube contact height. The height range is 0.203 to 2.032 mm. It also includes a first curved end portion having a first radius and a step-shaped transition portion connecting the contact portion and the elongated fin portion. The transition portion has a second curved end portion of the second radius. Also disclosed is a method for forming the fin collar and the heat exchanger.


<abstract>
In this paper, we show a counterexample to the new iterative scheme introduced by Rezapour et al. in "A new modified iterative scheme for finding common fixed points in Banach spaces: application in variational inequality problems" [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="b2">2</xref>]. We propose a modified iteration to conclude the convergence result. Moreover, some of our results are established under a weaker assumption.
</abstract>


The present study surveys e-agriculture research and experience in the fields of business and the market, through library study, in the first decade of 2000. The omission of middlemen, the expansion of the market, and the ease of buying and selling products, are some of the many effects of electronic marketing in the agricultural sector. The whole process of farming, from cultivation to harvest, could be profitable, on the condition of success in selling the product and supplying it to the market. There have been a great many achievements in different sectors of agriculture in Iran over the past few years, yet Iran's agricultural market lacks a unified system. In this regard, electronic trading could pave the way to providing a situation which would allow farmers to enter the market as sellers. Conclusions obtained by this study show that the India Agriculture Marketing Information Network (AGMARK-NET), is a pattern which could be applied to the public sector of Iranian agriculture, to create a marketing information system. In addition marketing in rural ICT offices network (brokerage model) is a proper model for the private sector of agriculture in Iran, to address the interests of small-scale farmers.


Recommender systems assist the user to overcome the information overflow of today's information society. When a recommendation failed, user's trust in a system decreases due to the fact that most recommender systems act as black boxes. They don't offer any insight into the systems logic and cannot be questioned as it is normal for recommendations between humans. Users don't know how and which personal information is processed. Transparency, which is about explaining to the user why a recommendation is made, allows understanding the nature of a recommendation. Within a mobile environment, it is possible to address the user more individualized but transparency needs a completely different way of visualization and interaction. The paper in hand aims at an analysis of a survey which asked about the kind of style element as well as how much information should be visualized on a mobile device in order to offer transparency.


A new catalytic spectrophotometric method has been studied for the determination of trace osmium(Ⅷ),based on the catalytic effect of Os(Ⅷ) between the redox reaction of bromocresol green and KBrO 3 in HAc in the presence of As(Ⅲ).In the selected conditions,Beer's law is obeyed for Os(Ⅷ) in the range of 3-30ng/10mL and the sensitivity is 3.86×10 -12 g/mL.The method has been applied to the determination of trace Os(Ⅷ) in synthetic nature palladium and nature platinum with satisfactory results.


Abstract : The bibliography of climatic maps consist of sources in the Weather Bureau Library, the Library of Congress and U. S. Hydrographic Office Library. Since few climatic maps for Iran are available, a larger geographic area has also been included: Middle East, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, etc. (Author)


USDA requires flavored milk (FM) in schools to be fat‐free. The IOM report on competitive foods recommends limitations on added sugars in FM. As most elementary children choose FM, it is important to know how well children accept FM meeting these standards. Two southern school districts using fat‐free FM were enrolled. District milk shipment data were collected for three years (2010–2012) as added sugars were reduced. Plate waste studies were conducted each spring in one elementary school (grades 3–5) per district. District A's shipment of FM and unflavored milk (urban; 88% eligible for free/reduced meals) increased (p<0.001). In 2011, District B (rural; 61% eligible for free/reduced meals) removed FM varieties other than chocolate and changed from plastic bottles to paper cartons. While milk shipment varied each year, shipment of FM increased slightly (p=0.08). FM consumption was highly skewed, thus categorized as a binary variable (0–7oz, >;7oz). The proportion of children in District A consuming >;7 oz of FM increased from 37% in 2010, to 44% in 2011 and 59% in 2012 (p<0.01). Whereas the proportion of children consuming >;7 oz of FM in District B decreased from 70% in 2010 to 54% in 2011 and 2012 (p=0.03). Consistent with earlier research, children drink more milk from plastic bottles and when offered a variety. Milk acceptance may be influenced by other factors such as SES. Funding: USDA Hatch and the Dairy Research Institute.


An on-going theme in Information Systems research is the methods by which business rules are gathered and implemented. Additionally, many efforts have been made to de velop reusable algorithms for processing business rules to reduce system development, testing, and maintenance time. The objective of this paper is to present a reusable algo rithm for condition-action rules that are applied to finite static lists. More importantly, the algorithm is generalized for complex rules that are complicated by differences in user authorizations and other dependencies. INTRODUCTION Tiie process of gathering system requirements in a business domain involves the definition of bu siness rules, or more particularly, production rules or condition-action rules. These rules may be tliought of as intrinsic bits of knowledge concerning a particular system's domain. A conditicin-action business rule is any statement that can be put in the form of "if then". A rule is defmtid as: "A statement that defines or constrains some aspect of the business. It is intended to assert business structure, or to control or influence the behavior of the business" (Perkins, 2000). One major and continuing problem in software development is the implementation of business rules as hard-coded elements that are often replicated throughout many applications. As a consequence, they are neither maintainable nor reusable (Belderrain, 2002) (Rouvellou et ill., 2000). Business rules often change during an application's life cycle, and subsequent changes; of these business rules may have an adverse impact on the application. Analysts or jjrogrammers may change or add rules without a full understanding of the existing rules or their I'epilication (Grosoff et al., 2000).


A series of rigid nonconjugated polyimide (PI)-based thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) polymers were reported for the first time, based on a "-TADF-Linker-Host-"strategy. Among of which, the TADF unit contains a typical TADF luminous core structure, the host unit exhibits effective conjugation length that endows polyimide with high triplet energy, and the linker unit has an aliphatic ring structure to improve solubility and inhibit intramolecular charge transfer effect, thus making the polymers exhibit the TADF property of the TADF unit. All the TADF polyimides exhibit high thermal stability ( T g > 308 o C) and refractive index (1.76-1.79). Remarkably, highly-efficient polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) based on the polymers are successfully realized, leading to a maximal external quantum efficiency of 21.0% along with low efficiency roll-off. Such an outstanding efficiency is amongst the state-of-the-art performance of nonconjugated PLEDs, confirming the effectiveness of our structural design strategy, providing helpful and valuable guidance on the development of highly-efficient fluorescent polymer materials and PLEDs.


Oxidized single-domain particles of iron-cobalt were found to exhibit properties characteristic of an exchange interaction between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases. After cooling in a magnetic field, the normal hysteresis loop was shifted along the magnetization axis. Rotational hysteresis and torque values show maxima with increasing field and indicate effective unidirectional fields of ∼20000 oe. The data are consistent with an exchange model similar to that of Meiklejohn and Bean, but the exchange and antiferromagnetic anisotropy fields are larger than those found for the Co-CoO system.


To test the efficiency of some commonly used rapid estimations of intelligence with the restricted range of talent represented in the typical college research population, the WAIS and Quick Test were administered to 56 college undergraduates. Additionally, the Shaw and Doppelt short forms of the WAIS were computed, the latter achieving the highest predictive accuracy by correlating .79 with the WAIS Full Scale IQ. The Quick Test attained the highest correlation (.67) with the Vocabulary subtest of the WAIS.


We have demonstrated all-optical on-off switching at 10 Gbit/s using four-wave mixing in only 1.9 m of bismuth-based highly nonlinear fiber. The all-optical on-off switch has a fast response time and high ON/OFF switching ratio.


Three plants from each of 10 populations of the black biotype of proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) were grown in a common garden in London, Ontario. Seeds were collected from individual plants as they ripened. Each seed was identified as to location on the plant and weighed separately. Mean seed weight decreased over the growing season, both on individual inflorescences and on entire plants. Despite this trend, seeds at the upper end of the weight range were produced throughout the season. The decline in the mean resulted from an increasing proportion of smaller seeds. There was also increased variability in seed weight later in the growing season. In subsequent germination tests there was no discernable relationship between total percent viability and date of seed ripening. Total percent viability was above 70% for each sampling date. Key words: seed weight, positional effects, proso millet, germination, seasonal variation.


Most chip-multiprocessors nowadays adopt a large shared last-level cache (SLLC). This paper is motivated by our analysis and evaluation of state-of-the-art cache management proposals which reveal a common weakness. That is, the existing alternative replacement policies and cache partitioning schemes, targeted at optimizing either locality or utility of co-scheduled threads, cannot deliver consistently the best performance under a variety of workloads. Therefore, we propose a novel adaptive scheme, called CLU, to interactively co-optimize the locality and utility of co-scheduled threads in thread-aware SLLC capacity management. CLU employs lightweight monitors to dynamically profile the LRU (least recently used) and BIP (bimodal insertion policy) hit curves of individual threads on runtime, enabling the scheme to co-optimize the locality and utility of concurrent threads and thus adapt to more diverse workloads than the existing approaches. We provide results from extensive execution-driven simulation experiments to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of CLU over the existing approaches (TADIP, NUCACHE, TA-DRRIP, UCP, and PIPP).


This study aims to analyze the operational model of the local revitalization plan implemented in the indigenous tribes in Taiwan. It treated Namasia District of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan as the subject, and conducted an investiga-tion by qualitative research. According to the findings, the practices of local revitalization are based on the following conditions: 1) local government leads the plan of revitalization; 2) it finds DNA to develop local revitalization; 3) it seeks investment from enterprises; 4) it accepts the assistance from academic and professional teams for the integration and development of innovative and creative products; 5) it reinforces the ethnic consciousness, supports local residents and industries, and participates in the execution of plans.


We propose a model of instrumental belief choice under loss aversion. When new information arrives, an agent is prompted to abandon her prior. However, potential posteriors may induce her to take actions that generate a lower utility in some states than actions induced by her prior. These losses loom larger than gains in other states in which potential posteriors lead to larger utility than the prior. In choosing her belief, the agent optimally trades off these psychological gains and losses against the belief's objective performance. Consistent with empirical evidence, belief updating in this model is conservative and can be asymmetric, so that bad news is updated more conservatively than good news. These updating biases generate prior-dependent information preferences, such that agents may avoid information when being unconfident but are information seeking otherwise. Because belief updating depends on the decision problem in which new information is going to be used, the model allows us to explore how these predictions change with either individual preferences or the choice context.


A system of three coupled diffusion equations describing the equilibration process in the premelt phase of laser annealing is solved and analyzed for a short pulse—20,30 psec—on a thin (d=150 A) and thick Si,Ge slabs. We find the carrier temperature to be a very sensitive gauge for the electron‐phonon relaxation time constant τ0. The existing data (Si, λL =0.533 μm and EL =0.25 J/cm2) are consistent with τ0≂0.4–1.0 psec, and the carrier peak temperature is predicted to be in the range 2000–4300 °K.


In this work we applied mercury porosimetry for the investigation of soybean seed coats. By using this method it was possible to determine the pore size distribution and also the pore size dispersion that is present in seed coats. The results showed that for the studied soybean genotype the seed coats had a characteristic pore diameter, but deviation of this size was not negligible. Finally, the results were confirmed by electron microscopy.


An experiment was conducted at the Disease Diagnostic Laboratory and Net House of Plant Pathology Department, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during July 2011 to June 2012 to investigate the efficacy of some antagonistic rhizosphere microorganisms against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici causing Fusarium wilt of tomato. Probable 20 antagonistic bacterial isolates and one antagonistic fungal isolate ( Trichoderma harzianum ) from rhizosphere soil were screened out against F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici . Out of 20 bacterial isolates, only four (Iso-1, Iso-2, Iso-3 and Iso-4) were found effective in dual culture method. Out of all antagonists, Trichoderma harzianum produced the highest inhibition zone (75.75 %), while the lowest inhibition zone (28.39 %) was produced by Iso- 2. In blotter method, the highest prevalence of Fusarium oxysporum was observed in control (11.25%), while the lowest was in Iso-1 (0.58%) treated seeds. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/agric.v11i2.17494 The Agriculturists 2013; 11(2) 96-103


Based on experience in enforcing operational noise standards for medium‐ and heavy‐duty trucks it is, in certain instances, of interest to prescribe a standard more stringent than the maximum noise level vehicles of that type are capable of producing. By taking advantage of the fact that trucks usually need not operate at full power and/or maximum engine speeds on a level street within inhabited areas a "level‐street noise standard" would require restrictions on the truck operator in order for the vehicle to meet the requirements of such a standard. A twofold measurement program was undertaken with a view of constructing a truck noise model from which the effects of various possible standards on the truck population could be determined. A small number of trucks was subjected to strictly controlled tests in order to collect data on the relationship between noise levels and such operational parameters as engine speed and engine torque. A large number of trucks was subjected to simpler controlled tests in or...


Despite several research have been conducted to understand the relations between PR and journalists, in fact, it is always interesting to know that tangible facilities for journalists in press room setting. This paper seeks to elicit the journalists' perceptions towards the importance and their satisfaction degree towards the facilities that is provided in pressrooms in most companies in Surakarta City. This research focused on the WiFi connection aspect among other aspect/facility within pressroom settings. The study found that WiFi connection is considered important tangible facility in pressroom setting by both local and national journalists. However, the provision of this aspect was still considered unsatisfactory in most institutions in Solo, Indonesia. The suggestions for further study were lastly proposed.


Several explanations have been put forward for the phenomenon - referred to as i®curse of natural resourcesi¯ - that resource-rich countries tend to display low rates of economic growth. This paper studies an R&D-related explanation, using an endogenous growth model with natural resources and R&D-based technological change. For suitable values of preference parameters, the model predicts that knowledge creation as well as capital formation are inversely related to natural-resource intensity, thus providing an explanation for the i®cursei¯. Estimation results on cross-sectional data for 77 countries (1965-1998) are consistent with these predictions. Basic results of the paper remain valid when institutional aspects (corruption, democracy) are included.


In order to solve the instability of removing nitrogen and phosphorus process in A2O,the high effluent nitrogen and phosphorus concentration issues,fluidized immobilization media were added to the aerobic reactor to maintain a high concentration of nitrifying bacteria and nitrification rate.The effect of different carbon loading,carbon sources and filing carbon modes on the process of nitrogen and phosphorus were studied.In addition,on the condition of the low concentration ratio of COD to TN,the device was modified,i.e.,adding pre-anoxic period before the anaerobic zone so as to reach the advanced nitrogen and phosphorus removal.The results show that when the influent concentration ratio of COD to TN is in the range of 3.6?8.1,the COD,TN and TP removal rates change with different nitrification liquid reflux ratio i.e.,the higher concentration ratio of COD to TN and the nitrification liquid reflux ratio,the lower the effluent nitrate.When the concentration ratio of COD to TN is 8.1 and the nitrification liquid reflux ratio is 300%,the effluent nitrate concentration is only 4.23 mg/L.TP removal rate is low on the condition of the low concentration ratio of COD to TN.When the concentration ratio of COD to TN is higher than 4.5,phosphorus removal is almost 100%.A2O system biofilm nitrification is at the percentage of total 81.6%,while the activated sludge nitrification accounts for only 18.4%,which shows that the biofilm has good nitrification efficiency.


At the risk of casting aspersions, it has to be admitted outright: Lady Capulet is not quite sure how old her own daughter is. To answer this pressing question, Juliet's mother must turn to the woman who has long stood in loco parentis: Juliet's aging wet nurse. "I'll lay fourteen of my teeth," the fond woman wagers, that Juliet is not quite fourteen; her birthdaywill come about a fortnight (or fourteen days) hence, on the harvest festival of Lammastide. We learn much more, too, as the nurse's fulsome memories tumble forth: that she had a daughter, now deceased, named Susan; that Juliet was weaned with the help of a bitter herb eleven years ago, while her parents were away in Mantua; that, the day before her weaning, Juliet had fallen forward and cut her forehead, prompting a dirty joke from the nurse's husband, heartily anticipating when an adolescent Juliet would, instead, "fall backward"; and that, during the very time of Juliet's weaning, "of all the days of the year," there was, simultaneously, an earthquake. Even in this highly edited summary, it is a lot to process. But if the nurse's memories seem jumbled together, their underlying coherence surfaces when we consider that each of these details actually means something. The dead daughter. The absent parents. The harvesttime, which symbolizes sexual fruition. The bitter herb (apothecary's poison). The number fourteen (the lovers' cocreated sonnet). The enforced absence in Mantua (this time Romeo's). The bleeding girl who has fallen on her back (conflated: "the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads"). And—for those directly involved—the earthshaking events: in short, the remembered mock tragic scene of Juliet's prelapsarian tumble shows the audience precisely, albeit


Abstract: Twenty‐eight high risk patients with acute cholangitis due to large common bile duct stones underwent endoscopic stenting for biliary drainage. Seventeen patients were subsequently readmitted for stone extraction after a mean interval of 4 months, 13 on an elective basis and 4 because of recurrent cholangitis. Six patients were noted to have spontaneous reduction in stone size and two had complete stone disintegration. Endoscopic stone extraction was successful in 15 patients. Two patients in whom the stone extraction failed had their stents changed. Two patients died of nonbiliary related causes. The remaining patients were asymptomatic during a follow up period of 4 to 19 months. Endoscopic stenting provides effective temporary drainage for acute cholangitis. Elective stone extraction can be performed when sepsis is controlled. In elderly high risk patients, stenting can be used as a definitive treatment for large common duct stones. (Dig Endosc 1994; 6 : 45–48)


We investigated the possibility of adding a wide-angle converter lens on top of an existing mobile phone camera to provide a 360 degree image of the surroundings of the phone. The motivation behind this work is a possibility of a video stream from a meeting where every participant would be imaged at the same time with sufficient resolution, eliminating the need for separate conferencing equipment. While it is true that the same could be achieved with a fish-eye lens, we believe that our solution is unique and has certain advantages over the fish-eye lens in manufacturing and also in specific imagery cases.


In settings where both daily and event‐driven pre‐exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are offered to men who have sex with men (MSM), a clear understanding of the motives to choose between the different dosing‐regimens can facilitate more effective PrEP implementation. We therefore studied the motives for choosing for, switching between, and stopping daily or event‐driven PrEP.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new qualitative method that is theoretically underpinned by cognitive anthropology. This research strategy is introduced to further advance the understanding of complex green consumer behavior – in this case life‐cycle analysis.Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines the contextual aspects of problem‐solving behavior of green, environmentally concerned consumers. Cognitive anthropology develops a different, yet complementary, understanding of consumer cognition to a psychological approach. Through the concepts of practical thinking and bricolage, cognition and behavior are conceptualized on a contextual basis. Such an approach encourages a reassessment of how consumer research has traditionally conceptualized problem framing, information search, information processing and related concepts. The paper draws upon in‐depth, qualitative interviews with a wide range of green consumers from both the UK and Germany.Findings – The findings provide som...


Objective To investigate the surgical therapeutic effect of thoracolumbar fracture treated by minimally invasive surgery with Quadrant system. Method Select thirty- nine patients with thoracolumbar fracture. All 39 cases were randomly divided into two groups,20 cases received operations with Quadrant system in group A,and the others with traditional operation in group B. According to the visual analogy method( VAS),Prolo standard,the clinical outcome was evaluated,and compared the index,including the length of incision,the bleeding volume,and the operation time. All cases were followed 10- 48 months. Results There was significant difference between two groups on the length of incision,the bleeding volume,the operation time( P 0. 01). Excellent rate of surgery in treatment group last follow- up was 89. 5%,and 90. 0% in control group. There was no significant difference between two groups( P 0. 05). VAS score after a week of operation in treatment group was lower than that in control group( P 0. 05). Conclusion The therapeutic outcome of the two groups is similar. But the surgery trauma is smaller by using Quadrant system,and pain is lighter,recovering faster,the minimally invasive surgery applicating Quadrant system is a better way for thoracolumbar fracture patients.


On July 28, 2016, Mr. Khizr Khan, an American Muslim immigrant, gave a short speech at the Democratic National Convention. Khan's speech eulogized his soldier son, attacked the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and endorsed the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. The speech went "viral" within minutes, circulating rapidly on the Internet, evoking an immediate response on social media. Barely 2 days later, Trump attacked the Khan speech, the Khans responded, and the event dominated the news for days. The event and its aftermath "emerged as an unexpected and potentially pivotal flash point in the general election" (Burns, Haberman, & Parket, 2016). Why did this speech have such an effect? Using principles from Aristotle's concept of the epideictic speech, this study examines (1) the role of surprise in the structure and visual presentation of Khan's speech, as well as (2) the way in which Khan expressed personal and collective anger. Trump's postconvention responses magnified the speech effect through heavy media coverage.


An experiment was conducted during kharif 2018 at the experimental farm of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa and Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour with popular varieties of paddy to study growth, yield and economic assessment under three paddy production systems as treatments T1, T2 and T3 i.e Dry-DSR by rice-wheat seeder equipment, Dry-DSRB by broadcasting of seeds and TPR: manual transplanting of seedling in puddled soil, respectively. The cultivars, viz. Rajendra Bhagwati, Rajendra Saraswati and Rajendra Sweta, recorded maximum yield 5.59 t/ha, 5.16 t/ha and 4.16 t/ha in treatment T1, followed by treatment T3 (5.23 t/ha, 4.92 t/ha and 3.75 t/ha), respectively. The yield of Rajendra Bagwati and Rajendra Saraswati in treatment T2 was 4.75 t/ha and 4.86 t/ha, respectively. Benefit-cost ratio of Rajendra Bhagwati in treatments T1, T2 & T3 were found 4.38 : 1, 3.74 : 1 & 3.19 : 1, respectively followed by Rajendra Saraswati and Rajendra Sweta with values in ratios 3.97:1, 3.85:1 & 2.97:1 as well as 2.97:1, 2.84:1 and 1.99:1, respectively. Obviously, the Dry-DSR of by rice wheat seeder equipment has been found economical viable technology for growing rice in respect of yield and net benefit.


The development of productivity leads to the origin of cities and the forming of its early spatial distribution system in Hunan province.The ancient urban system in Hunan is characterized by its cities being distributed along the rivers;in modern times,the rapid development of railway and highway has broken the original spatial distribution rule;at present,the regional development policies and the construction of information highway are affecting the established spatial distribution.According to the characteristics of the present spatial structure,the paper proposes that the government should promote actively the integration layout on the system of urban spatial structure which relies on the transport network,and intend to adopt regional development policy following the "1-2-3-4-5-6" mode.


This paper elaborates on the sectoral-regional view of the business cycle synchronization in the EU – a necessary condition for the optimal currency area. We argue that complete and tidy clustering of the data improves the decision maker's understanding of the business cycle and, by extension, the quality of economic decisions. We define the business cycles by applying a wavelet approach to drift-adjusted gross value added data spanning over 2000Q1 to 2021Q2. For the application of the synchronization analysis, we propose the novel soft-clustering approach, which adjusts hierarchical clustering in several aspects. First, the method relies on synchronicity dissimilarity measures, noting that, for time series data, the feature space is the set of all points in time. Then, the "soft" part of the approach strengthens the synchronization signal by using silhouette measures. Finally, we add a probabilistic sparsity algorithm to drop out the most asynchronous "noisy" data improving the silhouette scores of the most and less synchronous groups. The method, hence, splits the sectoral-regional data into three groups: the synchronous group that shapes the EU business cycle; the less synchronous group that may hint at cycle forecasting relevant information; the asynchronous group that may help investors to diversify through-the-cycle risks of the investment portfolios. Our results do not contradict the core-periphery hypothesis, suggesting that France, Germany, Austria and Italy countries and more export-oriented economic activities such as an industry, trade, transportation, and tourism, drive the EU business cycle. Catching-up small open Estonia's economy, in this context, is closely following the synchronous cycle and may act as a barometer of the EU cycle. The less synchronous group consists of agriculture, public services, and financial services that respond to global shocks to a lesser extent. Finally, the drop-out segment includes periphery regions, agriculture and more closed-sector-oriented services.


LEADERSHIP, by its very nature, involves the exercise of social power. Exerting a profound effect on personal behavior, individual and organizational productivity, adjustment to working situations, and morale in organizations, leadership should not be viewed separately from social power. Yet, the relationship between leadership and social power has been an obscure subject and the exercise of social power in leadership has not been well understood. Effective leadership in administration and optimum performance by subordinates requires such understanding. The psychological definition of these terms is fundamental to this analysis. Leadership is the ability to influence the behavior of others in a group or organization, set goals for a group, formulate paths to the goals, and create some social norms in the group. This definition, which has consensus and technical acceptability, describes the behavior of parents, members of social groups, and work groups. Thus, leadership is the exercise of social influence, with weak leadership resulting in a loss of social influence over others. Power has been analyzed traditionally in political, economic, and sociological units of analysis. Only recently has social power been examined as an important aspect of interpersonal behavior. Viewing social power in such terms gives a clearer view of human motivation, and knowledge of motivation is basic to an understanding of sound leadership practices.


The function of a protein macromolecule often requires conformational transitions between two native conformations. Understanding these transitions is essential to the understanding of how proteins function, as well as to the ability to design and manipulate protein-based nanomechanical systems. In this paper we propose a set of 3D Cartesian workspace maps for exploring protein pathways. These 3D maps are constructed in the Euclidean space for triads of chain segments of protein molecules that have been shown to have a high probability of occurrence in naturally observed proteins based on data obtained from more than 38,600 proteins from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). We show that the proposed 3D propensity maps are more effective navigation tools than the propensity maps constructed in the angle space. We argue that the main reason for this improved efficiency is the fact that, although there is a one-to-one mapping between the 2D dihedral angle maps and the 3D Cartesian maps, the propensity distributions are significantly different in the two spaces. Hence, the 3D maps allow the pathway planning to be performed directly in the 3D Euclidean space based on propensities computed in the same space, which is where protein molecules change their conformations.


List of Contributors \ Acknowledgements \ List of Abbreviations \ Introduction Allegra de Laurentiis and B. Jeffrey Edwards \ 1. Hegel's Path to the System \ 1.1 Tubingen, Bern and Frankfurt: 1788-1800 Martin Bondeli \ 1.2 The Jena Years: 1801-1806 Martin Bondeli \ 1.3 The Phenomenology of Spirit of 1807: a Conspectus Kenneth R. Westphal \ 2. The System of Philosophy \ 2.1 The Introductions to the System Ardis Collins \ 2.2 Science of Logic Michael Wolff \ 2.3 Philosophy of Nature Dieter Wandschneider \ 2.4 Transition to Spirit Cinzia Ferrini \ 2.5 Subjective Spirit: Soul, Consciousness, Intelligence and Will Willem deVries \ 2.6 Objective Spirit: Right, Morality, Ethical Life and World History Italo Testa \ 2.7 Absolute Spirit: Art, Religion and Philosophy Walter Jaeschke \ 3. Substantive and Interpretive Questions \ 3.1 Logic - Nature - Spirit Michael J. Inwood \ 3.2 System and History Angelica Nuzzo \ 3.3 Concept, Object, and Absolute Idea Burkhard Tuschling \ 3.4 Determination, Determinacy Michael J. Inwood \ 3.5 Thinking and Knowing Marina Bykova \ 3.6 Mediation and Immediacy Marina Bykova \ 3.7 Truth George di Giovanni \ 3.8 Spirit, Consciousness, Self-Consciousness Michael J. Inwood \ 3.9 Reason and Understanding Michael J. Inwood \ 3.10 The Finite and the Infinite Angelica Nuzzo \ 3.11 Moment George di Giovanni \ 3.12 Negativity, Negation George di Giovanni \ 3.13 Identity and Contradiction George di Giovanni \ 3.14 Will and Freedom Marina Bykova \ 4. Hegel's Forms of Argument \ 4.1 Scepsis and Scepticism Italo Testa \ 4.2 Dialectic Manfred Baum \ 4.3 Proof, Justification, Refutation Kenneth R. Westphal \ 5. Hegel's Philosophical Influence \ 5.1 Feuerbach, Bauer, Marx and Marxisms Tom Rockmore \ 5.2 Hegel and Analytic Philosophy Paul Redding \ 5.3 Hegel in France Tom Rockmore \ 5.4 Marx's Hegelian Project and World History Fred E. Schrader \ 6. Chronologies \ 6.1 Notable Dates in Hegel's Life Kenneth R. Westphal \ 6.2 Writings, Publications and Berlin Lecture Series Kenneth R. Westphal \ Selected Bibliography \ Analytical Index of Subjects \ Index of Names


This version may not include final proof corrections and does not include published layout or pagination. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm fitness function for case-base maintenance. Available from OpenAIR@RGU. [online]. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm fitness function for case-base maintenance. In: S. are protected by copyright and intellectual property law. If you believe that any material held in 'OpenAIR@RGU' infringes copyright, please contact email@example.com with details. The item will be removed from the repository while the claim is investigated. Abstract. Case-Base Maintenance (CBM) has two important goals. On the one hand, it aims to reduce the size of the case-base. On the other hand, it has to improve the accuracy of the CBR system. CBM can be represented as a multi-objective optimization problem to achieve both goals. Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) have been recognised as appropriate techniques for multi-objective optimisation because they perform a search for multiple solutions in parallel. In the present paper we introduce a fitness function based on the Complexity Profiling model to perform CBM with MOEA, and we compare its results against other known CBM approaches. From the experimental results, CBM with MOEA shows regularly good results in many case-bases, despite the amount of redundant and noisy cases, and with a significant potential for improvement.


Economic and social development in developing countries are dependent on the government's ability to make enough revenue for providing necessary programsservice programs like health, training, transportation and communication. Therefore, the relationship between government revenue and expenditure in every country is a scale for measuring the level of development and growth. Data of 1970-2002 was used. At first we use unrestricted error correction model (UECM) that has been suggested by Pesaran et al for testing cointegration between government revenue and expenditure, then we use inter-temporal budget constrain (IBC) for fiscal sustainability. The results show that government revenue is changed to government expenditure quickly, but it takes long for government expenditure to change to government revenue, although there is no fiscal sustainability in Iran.


The successful development of a petroleum field dep ends on an optimal production strategy. The selecti on of a strategy involves minimizing the capital and operational exp nditures, maximizing the oil and gas productions, and maximizing profits as measured by the Net Present Value of the proj ct (NPV). There are innumerable methodologies for production strategy optimization and, in general, they are lab orious and require a great computational effort. Si nce time is an important variable in the project economic return, the industry tends to simplify the numerical simula tions by separating the reservoir and operational systems. The existenc e of oil fields that share production facilities, r eferred to as a "cluster", are common in the petroleum industry. Ho wever, the production strategy optimization process is normally based on a separate analysis of the reservoirs and do ot consider operational constraints for the clu ster. Thus, gas flow limits for fields that share gas pipelines are cons idered in a simpler way. The objective of this pape r is to determine if these simplifications have significant influence on the final result of the production strategy select ion process. Therefore, a system consisting of two hydrocarbon fields shari ng a single gas pipeline was studied; one a non-ass ociate gas field and the other, an oil field with gas cap. The resul ts show that the gas flow limits influence the defi nition of a production strategy and the parameters most impacted. Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2010


In the flows and connections that are central to transnational studies, language is a conduit that facilitates transfers; it allows for the movement of ideas and people across national and linguistic boundaries. In the case of transnational Irish Studies, foreign languages have been both bridges and barriers: bridges in that they allow access and interaction with non-Anglophone worlds, but also barriers because Irish Studies has generally shied away from non-Englishlanguage investigations. The degree to which transnational Irish Studies has remained Anglophone, even when purporting to be global in nature, is striking. Irish interactions with Australia, America, Canada, and Britain have, for obvious reasons, dominated Irish transnational studies, while connections with European and non-Anglophone countries have historically received little attention. In this article I wish to examine exchanges outside of the English-language domain in nineteenth-century Ireland in order to highlight important alternative dialogues that existed beyond the dominant English narrative. To illustrate these trends I will use two case studies of multilingual Irish transnationalism from the nineteenth century. The first focuses on translation activity, and the second investigates the study of modern foreign languages in this period. Both will serve to illustrate the


Indramayu is regency that produce Oil and Earth Gas in Indonesian and as main paddy granary for West Java Province. So that the investment in this sectors is a strategic effort. Region development study have intention to know investment developing, analyzing investment competitiveness and make Indramayu Regency investment increasing strategy. Methods that is used in this study is competitiveness analysis by using SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats) and AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method. The Analysis showing result: First, Indramayu Regency up to year 2000-2005 experience investment decreases. Second, analysis result about investment competitiveness show the priorities factor that most regard Indramayu Regency investment competitiveness alternately which ares strength factor (0,458), weakness (0,280), opportunity (0,162), and threat (0,100). Third, from the competitiveness analysis, priority alternative strategy in increasing Indramayu Regency investment alternately which are developing zone and industrial cluster (0,551), developing agroindustry upstream until downstream (0,237), developing institution (0,138), and increasing human capital quality (0,074).Keywords: Indramayu, Competitiveness, Investment Increasing Strategy


A 28 year old woman underwent investigations for primary subfertility in 1994. No cause was found and, in particular, a hysterosalpingogram was normal. In 1995 her first pregnancy was proceeding uneventfully when a routine ultrasound anomaly scan showed marked funnelling of the membranes down the endocervical canal at a gestational age of 19 weeks. Speculum examination was normal. It was decided that the significance of the ultrasound findings in a primigravid woman was unknown and although cerclage was considered, it was deferred. Three days later she presented with malaise, pyrexia and ruptured membranes. This was soon followed by uterine activity and a midtrimester miscarriage. Autopsy revealed chorioamnionitis with evidence of fetal infection and Streptococcus agalactiae was cultured. Maternal investigations for antiphospholipid syndrome, abnormal thyroid function and impaired glucose tolerance were negative. She booked in the first trimester of her second pregnancy in 1996. Vaginal cultures at this time showed bacterial vaginosis, which was treated with oral metronidazole; follow up cultures were negative. Her cervix was reported as normal at the time of her routine transabdominal anomaly scan at 19 weeks but, due to an administrative error, transvaginal cervical scanning was not performed until 21 weeks of gestation. Although entirely asymptomatic, the internal 0s was 2 cm dilated with membranes prolapsing 1.8 cm down the endocervical canal. There was only 1 cm of closed cervical canal below the funnel (Fig. 1 a). Emergency McDonald cerclage was performed. Empirical antibiotics (metronidazole, amoxycillin and erythromycin) were given for 10 days. Post-operative transvaginal scans showed no change in the cervical configuration (Fig. 1 b). She


The purpose of this paper is to document the costume design and production process for The Ohio State University Department of Theatre's 1998 production of Fortunes o f the Moor, a new script by Barbara and Carlton Molette, directed by Dr. Anthony Hill. Told from an Afro-centri c point-of-view, the play dealt with the issues of religion, slavery, cultural differences, and the "noble savage." The story was set in the late sixteenth century and centered on a custody battle over the interracial child bom to Othello and Desdemona. The problem set forth was to tell the story in a presentational West African method of storytelling from the perspective of the Africans which reflected how they imagined the Venetian culture. Included in this document are a discussion of the producing situation, the production concept and design scheme, a character analysis ,the process of mounting the production, and an evaluation of the completed project.


Because the surge immunity level of telecommunication equipment has decreased with the drive to use low-voltage electronic parts for it, we have developed a new surge protection circuit that uses a triac. It has the same operating voltage at the electric power supply frequency as previous surge protection circuits. And it enables lower operating voltage in the frequency range of lightning surges. This surge protection circuit improves the surge immunity level of telecommunication equipment.


Historically, SEM developed as a high vacuum technique requiring sample chamber vacuum of 10-5 Torr or better. Energetic electrons scatter from any molecules they encounter, so their creation and transport from source to sample, through the focusing lenses of the electron column, requires high vacuum. This imposes a number of limitations on the kinds of samples that can be examined. Samples must tolerate the vacuum environment and the vacuum system must tolerate the sample. Generally, samples have to be solid, clean, dry, and not contain volatile components. Furthermore, since the vacuum insulates the sample from everything except the stub that supports it, non-conductive samples require a conductive pathway between the scanned region and ground to prevent the accumulation of charge deposited by the beam electrons.


Principal as the key to school reform has been a frequently discussed topic in the research literature. However, few studies have investigated principals' own values, views and visions and how these may affect reform in their schools. The study reported in this paper intends to fill this void. It is a joint effort by American and Chinese education scholars to explore and examine the profiles, preparation and perspectives of urban and rural principals in China, based on the conceptual framework and research methodology of the American national Study of the Education of Educators and the earlier comparative study of Chinese, American and Australian school principals. A comprehensive principal survey was administered to several hundred urban and rural school principals in China and interviews were conducted with selected principals. Our study findings reveal both similarities and differences in values, views and visions between urban and rural school principals, and a huge gap in the quality and equality of education between urban and rural schools. Although Chinese principals are in general progressive and liberal in their fundamental beliefs and values, they perceive great difficulties in realizing their visions for ideal schools and recognize major obstacles to reform because of the existing school conditions, the national examination system, and certain policy restrictions on their autonomy and decision-making power in schools. Findings from this study provide special insight to policy makers and education reformers and urge them to create necessary policies, improve conditions, and increase autonomy and decision-making power for principals to manage and effect changes in their schools, especially those in rural and minority areas.


The article reviews the exhibition "Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe" at the Whitney Museum in New York City from June 26-September 21, 2008.


To investigate the adaptive response of astrocytes to an environmental chemical, methylmercury (MeHg), we herein examined transcription factors activated in rat primary astrocytes treated with 10 μM MeHg for 6 hr using the Combo Protein/DNA Array. The activities of 38 transcription factors increased by 5-fold or greater in response to MeHg. The paired box family of transcription factors were strongly activated by MeHg exposure, which are considered to be activated downstream of NGF and BDNF upregulation induced by MeHg. Nrf-2 (an antioxidant response element) was also activated, which has been reported to act on MeHg detoxification.


An analysis of population dynamics in the USSR between 1917 and 1926 is presented. The methodology used to prepare estimates of the population is first described and estimates are presented by national and ethnic group for regions and the country as a whole. Data are primarily taken from the 1926 Soviet census supplemented by contemporary health statistics and other sources. (summary in ENG) (ANNOTATION)


Restart-based Branch-and-Bound Search (BBS) is a standard algorithm for solving Constraint Optimization Problems (COPs). In this paper, we propose an approach to find good partial assignments to jumpstart search at each restart for general COPs, which are identified by comparing different best solutions found in different restart runs. We consider information extracted from historical solutions to evaluate the quality of the partial assignments. Thus the good partial assignments are dynamically updated as the current best solution evolves. Our approach makes restart-based BBS explore different promising sub-search-spaces to find high-quality solutions. Experiments on the MiniZinc benchmark suite show how our approach brings significant improvements to a black-box COP solver equipped with the state of the art search techniques. Our method finds better solutions and proves optimality for more instances.


Abstract This study investigates market price integration by testing per-share trade execution price or cost (TEP/C) differentials for matched intraday trades for a sample of Canadian shares cross-listed in the U.S. The TSE trade price advantage over the entire time period changed significantly after both the TSE's own minimum quotation increment reduction and that of its U.S. competitors. We show that the differential TEP/C is equivalent to the international effective spread differential and that market quality comparisons, which benchmark using the National instead of the International BBO, need to compare both national effective half-spread and midspread differences. Our cross-sectional regression results support our predictions that TEP/C differentials can be explained by differences in national midspreads and by ex ante proxies of national effective half-spreads. The TEP/C differentials vary inversely with increasing levels of our measure of signed market nonfragmentation.


A theoretical study of optical bistability in a Type 1 one (planar 3 × 3) coupler fiber-ring resonator with an all-fiber scheme, Scheme B, of degenerate two-wave mixing (DTWM) is presented. The bistability is caused by the DTWM, the inherent positive feedback in the fiber-ring resonator and the nonlinear dependence of the circulating intensity of the fiber-ring resonator on the DTWM gain. The relations between the bistability and various parameters of the fibers and the planar 3 × 3 coupler are inuestigated. A comparison between the bistability in such a jiber-ring resonator and that using an equilateral triangular 3 × 3 fiber coupler is also made. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


The change of weed flora of arable lands has been continuously followed in Hungary for more than 60 years. From the database of the Five National Weed Surveys the weed species detected in wheat, maize and on cereal stubbles are ranked in the order of their dominance. It is believed that allelopathy may play important role in their rapid spreading. This is especially true for invasive alien species (IAS), like Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Sorghum halepense etc. Out of these dominant weeds the allelopathic inhibitory effect only in case of a few weed species is not known. Based on the results of bioassay, pot and field experiments carried out in Hungary for more decades we can conclude the followings: Inhibitory effect of organic dissolvent plant extracts are generally stronger than that of water extracts. In bioassay laboratory experiments a dose –response relationship study is necessary, because the stronger inhibitory effect of the higher concentration extracts may be due not only to allelopathy but to the increased osmotic potential as well. In bioassays, inhibitory effect on seedling growth are generally stronger than that on germination rate. Inhibitory effect of allelochemicals greatly depends on donor, recipient (test) species, plant parts, the age of plant parts (living, dead), concentration and type of the dissolvents (water, organic) and physiological process affected (e.g. germination, growth). Bioassay, pot and field experiments generally give different results, suggesting that allelochemicals can be destroyed due to the biological decomposition with the time, especially under field conditions. Therefore in fields rather competition than allelopathy plays a greater role in plant-plant interactions. Today the term allelopathy has been extended, including not only plant-plant but – among others plant-microorganism interactions also (e.g. some plant extracts can inhibit the virus concentration in the systemic plant hosts). Allelopathy is considered as an alternative way of biological control. Nevertheless an internationally excepted uniform standard method would be essential for allelopathic studies – similar to that of competition methods – because in the lack of this, results achieved in different places and in the different countries are not comparable.


Medical images are
 very important for diagnostics and therapy. However, digital imaging
 generates large amounts of data which need to be compressed, without
 loss of relevant information, to economize storage space and allow
 speedy transfer. In this research three techniques are implemented
 for medical image compression, which provide high compression ratios
 with no loss of diagnostic quality. Different image modalities are
 employed for experiments in which X-rays, MRI, CT scans, Ultrasounds
 and Angiograms are included. The proposed schemes are evaluated by
 comparing with existing standard compression techniques like JPEG,
 lossless JPEG2000, LOCOI and Huffman Coding.
 In a medical image only a small region is diagnostically relevant
 while the remaining image is much less important. This is called
 Region of Interest (ROI). The first approach compresses the ROI
 strictly losslessly and the remaining regions of the image with some
 loss. In the second approach an image is first compressed at a high
 compression ratio but with loss, and the difference image is then
 compressed losslessly. Difference image contain less data and is
 compressed more compactly than original. Third approach exploits
 inter-image redundancy for similar modality and same part of human
 body. More similarity means less entropy which leads to higher
 compression performance. The overall compression ratio is
 combination of lossy and lossless compression ratios. The resulting
 compression is not only strictly lossless, but also expected to
 yield a high compression ratio.
 These techniques are based on self designed Neural Network Vector
 Quantizer (NNVQ) and Huffman coding. Their clever combination is
 used to get lossless effect. These are spatial domain techniques and
 do not require frequency domain transformation. An overall
 compression ratio of 6-14 is obtained for images with proposed
 methods. Whereas, by compressing same images by a lossless JPEG2K
 and Huffman, compression ratio of 2 is obtained at most. The main
 contribution of the research is higher compression ratios than
 standard techniques in lossless scenario. This result will be of
 great importance for data management in a hospital and for
 teleradiology.


Correlation is defined as the strength and sense of association between two random variables. Some of the most widely used correlation coefficients are described, such as Pearson's correlation coefficient, Spearman's correlation coefficient, and Kendall's tau coefficient.


In the title compound, C10H8N2S2·C4H6O2, both components of the cocrystal lie on crystallographic twofold rotation axes. In the di-2-pyridyl disulfide molecule, the dihedral angle between the two pyridine rings is 66.6 (1)°. In the crystal structure, intermolecular O—H⋯N and weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link both types of molecules into columns along the c axis.


In order to screen the new cytoplasm male sterile lines and promote the hybrid wheat for the practical utilization,their fertility characteristic and screening method of the sterile gene of non-1BL/1RS wheat male sterile lines of Nian type from different sources were studied.Results were as follows:(1) Two kinds of wheats SP4(T.spelta var.duhamelianum) and T.macha var.subletschchumicum carried the non-1BL/1RS wheat cytoplasm male sterile gene of Nian type by somatic identification and A-PAGE,while the other materials were 1BL/1RS wheat male sterile lines of Nian type.(2) In according to morphology of meiosis and mature pollen of materials employed,the male sterile performance came with the development of the gametes.There was different pollen morphology between SP4,T.macha in the cytoplasm with Ae.bicornis and with Ae.kotschyi,Ae.ventricosa.The mature pollen bourgeon rates were higher in the cytoplasm with Ae.bicornis than that with the other two cytoplasms.(3)The fertility restoration performance of the two male sterile lines with Ae.kotschyi,Ae.ventricosa cytoplasms and SP4,T.macha nucleus were investigated.There was a difference between these two male steriles.Averagely,the fertility degree of male sterile lines with T.macha nucleus was higher than that of SP4.


CWD is closely related to mad-cow disease, which was found to infect humans in 1996. However, since CWD first was discovered in 1967, there have been no known reports of CWD infecting humans. While no link between CWD and human illness has been identified, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) advise people to avoid exposure to CWD-infected meat. The CDC states, "some animal studies suggest CWD poses a risk to certain types of non-human primates, like monkeys, that eat meat from CWD-infected animals or come in contact with brain or body fluids from infected deer or elk. These studies raise concerns that there may also be a risk to people." The Game Commission recommends hunters who harvest deer in Disease Management Areas (DMAs) take advantage of the free CWD-testing offered within the DMA. It's important to note this is not a food safety test. Failure to find prions in the examined tissue does not indicate the harvested animal is CWD-free. But the tests are valuable in identifying CWD-positive animals that should not be consumed. MYTH: CWD Can infect humans.


Controlled release delivery device for release by controlling the active ingredient, the core particle was uniformly dispersed or dissolved (i) an active ingredient, and a (ii) organosol polymer coating. The organosol polymer coating is approximately in (a) dry weight ratio of 20: and the water-soluble gel-forming polymer and water-insoluble organic-soluble polymer 80 to about 50:50, and (b) an organic solvent, (c) anti-sticking agent including a mixture of capital uniformly. This organosol polymer coating, covering the core particles directly, are wrapped substantially.


This paper proposed to discuss the complexity of scheduling by comparing two optimization methods between genetic algorithms with differential Evolution. Genetic Algorithms can solve the simplest to complex problems as well. Therefore, the Genetic algorithm is precisely applied to the scheduling of subjects. Then another appropriate optimization method for completing optimization is the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm. DE algorithm is a fast and effective search algorithm in solving numerical and finding optimal global solutions. The steps of the two algorithms are initialization, participation, mutation, crossover, and selection. The scheduling system produces non-optimal schedules for teacher conflicts and empty slot schedules. After the genetic algorithm and differential evolution are applied, an analysis of the results of the subject scheduling is then performed by comparing the fitness values and the execution speed of the two algorithms. the genetic algorithm found only 2 perfect schedules out of 10 experiments, whereas in the implementation of differential algorithms, there are 7 perfect schedules out of 10 experiments. Thus, it can be concluded that by determining the value of the producing parameters 5, generation 50, mutation 0.6, and crossover 0.2, the differential evolution produces better output or conformity values using genetics.


The Australian telecommunications system has undergone radical reform since 1991. Indeed, along with New Zealand, Chile and Guatemala, Australia is viewed as one of the leaders in telecommunications reform (Spiller and Cardilli 1997). The former public monopoly, comprising Telecom Australia and the Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (OTC) has been corporatised, taking the name Telstra, and partially privatised.


1-ligand-mediated apoptosis contributes to the regulation of normal erythropoiesis in bone marrow [6] . Biological importance and expression pattern of APO-1 in hematopoietic precursor cells were extensively studied [3–6] , but most studies were focused on malignant tumors and autoimmune diseases. Despite intense research, there have been few studies that have closely examined relationships of serum sAPO-1 concentrations, mature blood cells, hematopoiesis-related biochemical parameters, and anthropometric variables. In the present study, we tested whether or not serum sAPO-1 concentrations are signifi cantly correlated with blood cell counts and also investigated which lineages of hematopoietic cells are more closely associated with serum sAPO-1 concentrations in elderly persons. A total of 167 apparently healthy women with a median age of 64 years (age range 58–69 years) were investigated by measurements of serum sAPO-1 concentrations, reticulocytes, hemograms, and anthropometric variables. The anthropometric indices included body weight, height, and body mass index. To minimize the possible infl uence of age, gender, hormonal effects, and smoking on hematologic parameters or apoptotic activities, nonsmoking postmenopausal women were enrolled in this study. Women were judged to have reached menopause if they had not menstruated for 1 12 months prior to the investigation. The individuals who had smoked Apoptosis has important biological roles in the development and homeostasis of cell populations, and in the pathogenesis and expression of disease processes. Proteins that modulate apoptosis include Bcl-2, which inhibits apoptosis, and APO-1 (Fas/CD95), which induces apoptosis [1] . APO-1 is a membrane-anchored protein and belongs to the tumor necrosis factor receptor family. Triggering of APO-1 by its ligand or by certain anti-APO1 antibodies results in rapid induction of apoptosis in susceptible cells [2] . A soluble form of APO-1 (sAPO-1) is produced through proteolytic cleavage of membranebound receptors or by alternative splicing [3] . Changes in serum sAPO-1 concentrations are associated with abnormal growth regulation of lymphoid cells. Elevated sAPO1 levels are observed in patients with B and T cell leukemias and lymphomas. Tumor cells have a greater tendency than nonmalignant cells to produce and shed soluble forms of the cell surface protein to escape APO1-ligand-induced apoptosis [4] . Apoptosis is an important regulatory mechanism in hematopoiesis. During hematopoiesis, APO-1 is differentially expressed on distinct cell types and different maturation stages with an increase in receptor density from early stem cells to maturing progenitor cells. Incubation of bone marrow cells with anti-APO-1 induces apoptosis in mature erythroblasts and neutrophil progenitors and to a lesser extent in stem cells and myeloblasts [5] . APOReceived: August 9, 2005 Accepted after revision: August 30, 2005


An electromagnetic field shielding system for an electric automobile driving motor is disclosed, wherein a plurality of power source surge protectors and signal lines and a control line protector that are mounted between an external shielding body and the driving motor are used for absorbing and unloading electric currents, inducted by a motor electromagnetic field, on a power source line and the signal lines; the currents can be prevented from penetrating the shielding body and forming new strong electromagnetic fields, and therefore a medical standard of magnetic field intensity<0.4[mu]T within a range of 0.6 meter for the electric automobile driving motor can be met; via use of the electric automobile driving motor free of electromagnetic field radiation, a user can drive and ride an electric automobile for a long time in a driver seat which is positioned at a distance of less than 0.6 meters from the electric automobile driving motor. Via use of the electric automobile driving motor free of electromagnetic field radiation, electric automobiles can be greatly popularized and can be used for replacing conventional automobiles which consume gasoline and diesel oil as fuel, and therefore a problem of world environmental pollution can be completely solved.


Research has been conducted on the source term for long‐range underwater propagation of signals from nuclear explosions in and above the ocean, in support of CTB monitoring objectives. A suite of source‐region simulations is reviewed to study the variation of wave properties and source‐region energy partition as a function of height or depth of burst. The multistep calculation combines LLNL's CALE hydrodynamics code in the strong shock region with NRL's weak shock code, NPE, at intermediate ranges. The source term calculations are intended as a starter field for long‐range linear propagation models to obtain signature estimates at normal observational ranges. Calculations are presented to examine the effect of sea ice below an air burst on acoustic coupling into the water column. The ice was modeled as a continuous elastic layer 5‐m thick at the water surface, and the source as a 1‐Kt explosion 50 m above the ice. Calculations with and without the ice layer predict a moderate, but noticeable reduction in coupled acoustic energy in signals observed at the 10 000‐m range. [Work performed under the auspices of the U. S. Department of Energy by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W‐7405‐ENG‐48.]