THR£E recent cases on. the liability of informers for false arrest, one Canadian * and two Ghanaian,* demonstrate the continued existence of this aspect of the tort of false Imprisonment in those countries. In the Commonwealth generally, such actions have all but.disappeared from the courts in recent times, and this article examines briefly some of the modern cases on the topic, and discusses some of the problems with which the courts have been confronted in dealing with them. ' False imprisonment.has been defined as "the act of arresting or imprisoning any person without lawful justification, or otherwise preventing him without lawful justification from exercising his right of leaving the place where he is." 8 A defendant may be liable for false imprisonment, though the restraint upon the plaintiff is carried out, not by the defendant personally, but by his agent, who, in most cases of wrongful arrest, will be a police officer. The term " agent" is used here in the sense commonly employed in the law of tort to mean a person who has committed a tort at the instigation or on the authorisation of another. A police officer who arrests under the authorisation or direction of a private person is considered to be a mere intermediary, and the private person will be liable in damages if the arrest proves to be unlawful. If, on the other hand, a constable in making an arrest is shown to have used his own independent judgment, he alone will be responsible for i t It will often be crucial to the plaintiff to establish that the arrest was directed by the defendant since in many cases the police officer concerned will be protected by statutory provisions. The question arises most commonly where a private person makes a report to the police to the effect that the plaintiff has committed an offence, such report leading to the arrest of the plaintiff by a constable. Will the defendant be liable if the arrest turns out to be wrongful? The established principle is that where a person merely gives information to a police officer who then acts at his own discretion in arresting the


Blood lead concentrations less than the federally established level of concern are associated with adverse health effects, a draft assessment by the National Toxicology Program concludes. Once finalized, the NTP assessment could prompt the federal government to lower lead exposure limits for workers as well as the blood lead level it considers to be elevated. Released on Oct. 14, the draft report finds sufficient evidence to associate blood lead concentrations lower than 5 µg/deciliter with decreased academic performance and cognitive function, and "increased incidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and problem behaviors" in children. The report also finds sufficient evidence to associate blood lead levels below 10 µg/dL with delayed puberty, reduced growth, decreased IQ, and decreased hearing in children, as well as increased blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in adults. The current blood lead level of concern, set by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, is 10 µg/dL. Prior to...


Optimal multiuser detection is a 0-1 quadratic optimization problem with binary constraints which demands the search of the whole signal space to achieve the optimal solution. In the presence of such hardship, some soft interference schemes based on Gaussian-Seidel and Jacobi algorithms have been developed to achieve sub-optimum solution of the original problem. This paper presents a novel constrained successive overrelaxation algorithm for the original optimum multiuser detection problem, which corresponds to a near-optimum weight-controlled multistage soft interference cancellation scheme for the DS-CDMA systems. It is shown this scheme converges much faster than the Gaussian-Seidel method and Jacobi method while keeping similar computational complexity. With a few iterations it can yield performance much better than the conventional linear minimum mean squared error multiuser detection method.


Convenient sterile cell separation, collection, and a system for cell seeding into piece scaffold or tissue transplantation is provided. The system may be closed. Separation of the cells, methods for the use of collection and disclosed systems for seeding, and a method for the formation of cultured vascular grafts are also provided. System may be supplied in kit state for efficient and rapid use. .FIELD 1


We show from molecular dynamics simulations that windowed carbon nanotubes can efficiently separate CO2 from the CO2/CH4 mixture, resembling polymeric hollow fibers for gas separation. Four CO2/CH4 mixtures with 10, 30, 50, and 80% CO2 are investigated as a function of applied pressure from 80 to 180 bar. In all simulated conditions, only CO2 permeation is observed; CH4 is completely rejected by the nitrogen-functionalized windows or pores on the nanotube wall in the accessible time scale, while maintaining a fast diffusion rate along the tube. The estimated time-dependent CO2 permeance ranges from 107 to 105 GPU (gas permeation unit), compared with ∼100 GPU for typical polymeric membranes. CO2/CH4 selectivity is estimated to be ∼108 from the difference in free-energy barriers of permeation. This work suggests that a windowed carbon nanotube can be used as a highly efficient medium, configurable in hollow-fiber-like modules, for removing CO2 from natural gas.


Based on our experimental observations of the resonant stimulated Raman gain and loss spectra in Rb atomic vapor, we propose an alternative interpretation of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We find that, in the presence of a coupling field, a probe beam can exhibit both gain and loss depending on the frequencies of the incident beams. The gain and loss can coexist in a Doppler-broadened system, leading to polarization interference between atoms of different velocities, with a sharp transition from gain to loss as the probe-field frequency is scanned. We use the concept of Raman gain, instead of the commonly accepted quantum Fano interference, to explain the phenomenon of EIT and its transparency window as being due to the suppression of linear absorption by the Raman gain. Using this concept, the phenomena of EIT and Autler-Townes splitting may be explained within the same framework.


The pultruded reinforced fiber composites are often used for structural applications, where the components are frequently subjected to variable loadings. It is consequently very important to define the static and fatigue mechanical characteristics, even if this characterization is complex due to the large number of factors that influence their behavior. The composite considered in this work is constituted by isoftalic polyester thermoset resin and E glass fibers. With the aim to investigate the static and dynamic behavior several experimental tests were carried out, by varying the material (in particular the influence of the interfacial bonds was investigated, by considering specimens with and without an additive between the fiber and the matrix), the grips (in fact due to the technological process these specimens have constant section along the axis and the use of special grips is necessary), the average and amplitude values and the stress ratio R. In order to study the internal damaging a large number of experimental static and fatigue tests was interrupted to cut the specimens and observe them by means of a scansion electronic microscope. These observations allowed to define the different damaging in the case of static and fatigue loading. The damage was measured even as residual stiffness parameter, but in this case the measurements resulting were not always suitable to the characterization of the damage.


Really? This statement makes me wonder why the "new fiction" shelf at every bookstore I visit contains rows of historical novels and very few biographical ones. Furthermore, if Lackey is right, why are none of the novels he discusses truly at the center of the American literary canon? And finally, why does it matter whether one genre has supplanted another, especially when the author shows no real evidence that the historical novel has gone the way of the Stegosaurus? Perhaps this latter problem is linked to Lackey's tendency to define the historical novel in the context of Georg Lukács's important but dated book The Historical Novel (1937). Lackey assumes the biographical novel evolved over the twentieth century, while the historical novel has remained frozen in place. I can imagine that many readers who know more than I do about historical novels would be ready to debate him on this point. But enough complaining. The American Biographical Novel deserves praise for its close, scholarly, and thoughtful readings of its key texts. While I remain unconvinced that the biographical novel is as prominent as Lackey maintains, I value his book for its perceptive evaluations of key aspects of modern culture.


The recalibration method of a power management processor of a storage battery, it consists, after a period of time, to initiate an evaluation recalibration process of the amount of electrical energy from the battery to fully charge the battery, detecting the end of the full charge of the battery, to perform a partial discharge of the battery, measuring the amount of power extracted during the discharge, to be worked resting the battery for a specified period under low intensity to completely discharge the battery by measuring the amount of electricity and extracted from the battery, to add said two quantities of electricity measured to obtain the value of the maximum capacity of the battery time of recalibration.


The RCN has confirmed that a proposal to limit the number of forums that its members can join to just one was a mistake.


A finite transitive permutation group G is called a Frobenius group if every element of G other than 1 leaves at most one letter fixed, and some element of G other than 1 leaves some letter fixed. It is proved in [20] (and sketched below) that if k is a number field such that SL(2, 5) and one other nonsolvable group Ŝ5 of order 240 are realizable as Galois groups over k, then every Frobenius group is realizable over k. It was also proved in [20] that there exists a quadratic (imaginary) field over which these two groups are realizable. In this paper we prove that they are realizable over the rationals Q, hence we Obtain THEOREM 1. Every Frobenius group is realizable as the Galois group of an extension of the rational numbers Q.


Temperature-dependent characteristics of GeSn light-emitting diodes with Sn composition up to 9.2% have been systematically studied. Such diodes were based on Ge/GeSn/Ge double heterostructures (DHS) that were grown directly on a Si substrate via a chemical vapor deposition system. Both photoluminescence and electroluminescence spectra have been characterized at temperatures from 300 to 77 K. Based on our theoretical calculation, all GeSn alloys in this study are indirect bandgap materials. However, due to the small energy separation between direct and indirect bandgap, and the fact that radiative recombination rate greater than non-radiative, the emissions are mainly from the direct Γ-valley to valence band transitions. The electroluminescence emissions under current injection levels from 102 to 357 A/cm2 were investigated at 300 K. The monotonic increase of the integrated electroluminescence intensity was observed for each sample. Moreover, the electronic band structures of the DHS were discussed. Despite the indirect GeSn bandgap owing to the compressive strain, type-I band alignment was achieved with the barrier heights ranging from 11 to 47 meV.


The purpose of this study was to analyze the use of video on social media as a learning medium for catheter placement skills in nursing students. The research design is a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest with group control. The results showed that there were differences in the average score of catheter placement skills in the intervention group before being given a video and 32.27 installation of a SOP catheter, after being given a video and SOP catheter placement being 72.73. Statistical test results of independent sample t-test obtained p value of 0,000 (p α α 0.05). Conclusion, there is an influence of the use of video on social media on catheter placement skills in nursing students.
Keywords: Catheter, Learning Media, Video


Time-variant is the typical characteristic of components and systems and the classical approach for time-variant reliability analysis relies on the computation of up-crossing rates. In order to get the up-crossing rate, the common up-crossing approach uses a FORM method to compute the instantaneous reliability index at each time. FORM method likely lead to decrease of the result's accuracy when the limit state function is strong nonlinear. In this paper, a new approach combined PSO with up-crossing approach is proposed to solve this problem and the instantaneous reliability index is computed by PSO. Then a numerical case is carried out to compare this method with up-crossing approach and Monte-Carlo simulation, and the results show that the new approach appears more accurate.


According to the current situation of water resources shortage and high agricultural water consumption in Baoding,the study on the agricultural water-saving regionalization was carried out using the Fuzzy Clustering and Principal Component Analysis methods based on the integrated analyses of the impact factors such as the topography,climate,water utilization,and agricultural structure in the study area.In terms of the principle of regionalization,15 original indicators were selected and then classified into 6 primary component indexes based on the principal component analysis,which can improve the computational efficiency.Based on this method,23 counties of Baoding were divided into 6 agricultural water-saving areas using the hierarchical clustering.Each agricultural water-saving area was discussed in light of the natural,society,and economic situations and the corresponding suggestions were proposed for the agricultural water-saving measures each area.


Abstract A microwave irradiated solventless Sonogashira coupling reaction catalyzed by nanosize nickel(0) powder on potassium fluoride–alumina mixture has been developed. Terminal alkynes couple with aryl, alkenyl iodide, and aryl bromide in the presence of cuprous iodide, triphenylphosphine, and ultrafine particle nickel(0) on potassium fluoride–alumina to generate the corresponding cross‐coupling products.


The main objective of the research is to determine the efficiency of using an environment b-learning in the acquisition of basic skills of programming though customizing the content for each student, to achieve a set of activities that can be used will be designed in the Moodle platform and contribute to teaching an initial programming course, considering three skill levels (basic, intermediate and advanced) of computational thinking of students. A mixed methodology approach will be implemented to achieve the objectives. The quantitative approach, whose characteristics using statistical measure phenomena, experimentation and use cause-effect analysis allow a sequential, deductive and testing process in generating results. The qualitative approach is conducted basically in natural environments and meanings are extracted from data allow a process that context the phenomenon and depth of ideas. To measure the cognitive level of students in computational thinking, instruments will be designed based on the bank of items released by the Computer Olympiad Talent Search in order to have reliable instruments (international proposal), valid (measures learning) and objectives (it focuses on the concept to measure) that they match with contents of subject. The main result is to generate personalized education, a learning experience that contributes to student motivation in tune with the academic goals of initial programming courses.


Introduction:
 Myocardial infarction (MI) induces sympathovagal imbalance, predisposing for ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VT). Thoracic epidural anesthesia reduces VT burden through sympathetic blockade. However, it is unknown if sympathetic afferent activation may cause vagal dysfunction, and if blockade of these spinal afferents can improve vagal function and reduce VT burden.

 Methods:
 Chronic MI was percutaneously created in Yorkshire pigs (n=8). In terminal experiments 6 to 8 weeks post MI, an epidural catheter was placed at the C7-T1 epidural space. After sternotomy, a 56 electrode sock was placed over the ventricles to record activation recovery intervals (ARI, surrogate of action potential duration). Effective refractory periods (ERP) were assessed via extra-stimulus pacing and left ventricular (LV) pressure monitored via a pressure catheter. Vagal function was assessed by baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) after phenylephrine (3 μg/kg, IV). ARIs, ERP, LV function, and BRS were checked before and after epidural RTX (0.6 μg/kg/ml). VT inducibility was assessed by endocardial extra-stimulus pacing from the right ventricular apex.

 Results:
 Epidural RTX led to a modest hemodynamic response peaking at 10.2 ± 4.2 min post-RTX with stabilization by 118 ± 15 min, characterized by increased LV systolic pressure (121±5.6 to 133±9.7 mmHg;
 p
 =ns) and contractility (1411±74 to 1514±163 mmHg/s;
 p
 =ns). While ARI and atrial/ventricular ERP did not change significantly, BRS was significantly augmented by 2 hrs (2.1±0.6 to 4.3±0.8 ms/mmHg,
 p
 <0.01). 9/9 animals in our chronic MI model were inducible for VT by extra-stimulus pacing whereas only 1/6 were inducible for VT after epidural RTX (
 p
 <0.001).

 Conclusion:
 Blockade of nociceptive spinal sympathetic afferents by RTX augments reflexive vagal function without altering basal cardiac function. Blockade of nociceptive afferents and restoration of parasympathetic function alone may be sufficient to suppress VT.


Tradable permits are a popular instrument for environmental policy. Classical examples are emission control, but tradable permit systems are recently also promoted and applied to the conservation of biodiversity. This raises a number of challenges. One problem is that habitat turnover (the destruction of habitats and restoration elsewhere) is harmful to many species, even if the total amount of habitat is constant. Another problem is that the restoration of habitats often takes time, leading to time lags between the beginning of restoration activities and the time when the restored habitat is available for trading. It is therefore important to understand how restoration time lags and economic conditions affect habitat turnover. Using an agent-based model, we study the dynamics of a tradable permit market. In the model, conservation costs differ among agents and change in time, and habitat restoration takes time. Our results show the existence of trade-offs between conservation costs, the amount of habitat provided and the amount of habitat turnover. We discuss how habitat turnover can be controlled by an additional tax. We also find that restoration time lags can lead to feedback loops and oscillations in key variables and reduce the efficiency of the permit market. We conclude that temporal lags deserve a careful analysis when implementing tradable permit systems for the preservation of natural habitats and biodiversity.


Cloud top height retrievals from the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) instruments are evaluated and compared against the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) coincident observations. There are three separate types of cloud top height retrievals presented: (1) a stereo imaging approach using the multi-angle capability of AATSR (called STEREO); (2) an optimal estimation-based retrieval methodology of cloud top height, optical depth, ef-


The yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) is commonly used for preparation of stimulating drinks in South America. In this study, 24 elements were determined in different brands of yerba mate commercialized in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. The element concentrations were determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The element concentrations found were submitted to hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), in order to identify the yerba mate according to the country of origin. The HCA revealed a clustering tendency by country of origin and distinct characteristics of some samples. The HCA also revealed the influence of some element in the yerba mate plant or their absorption by the plant. The results obtained by means of PCA corroborated with those of HCA, indicating that the form of yerba mate processing and the elements absorption by the plant must be responsible for the formation of the observed clusters.


The present invention relates to the preparation of diethyl phosphinate method of flame-retardants are applied to a polymer material free of Dan Yiji phosphinate, prepared by the method of the first hypophosphorous acid and / or hypophosphites, an organic acid and an organic solvent in the reaction under ethylene gas, followed by the initiator, initiators and coinitiators systems formed by reacting the organic solvent containing no Dan Yiji phosphinic acid diethyl phosphinic acids and organic sodium Finally, with a single metal compound containing no diethyl phosphinate ethyl phosphinate flame retardants. The preparation method can hypophosphorous acid and / or hypophosphites conversion rate reached 100%, the finally obtained diethyl phosphinic acid and salts thereof contain a single ethylphosphinic acid groups.


The invention concerns a device for separating solids particles from a gas flow of a circulating fluid bed reactor (1), the solids particles being conveyed in this gas flow. Means are provided which influence the gas flow such that centrifugal and gravitational forces which are greater than the gas flow entrainment forces act on the solids particles, so enabling particles of a given minimum size to be separated from the gas flow. According to the invention, the structure of the circulating fluid bed plant is rendered particularly compact in that the gas flow leaving the circulating fluid bed reactor (1) passes to a flow duct (4) which guides said flow about a horizontal cyclone axis (16) on a circular arc (17) in the downward direction. From here, the gas flow is delivered to a transfer duct (7) suitable for conveying it further. In the vertical direction the flow duct (4) merges into a separation chamber (15) which widens in corresponding manner at the bottom and in which the separated solids particles drop to the bottom.


A 4×1 aperture coupled circularly polarized array antenna in ridge gap waveguide technology is presented. The ridge gap waveguide technology is employed to create a desired directional wave propagation. Circular polarization is obtained by introducing L-shaped slot coupling to an oval shaped patch. The simulated results show high circular polarization purity (axial ratio less than 1dB) over the frequency range of 14.58–15.20GHz and the reflection coefficient of better than −10dB over 14.56–15.25GHz band. Gain and radiation patterns of the proposed array antenna are also provided.


Mucormycosis is a rare invasive fungal disease with high mortality. Early diagnosis and targeted drugs are crucial to improving clinical outcomes.


This work aims to find the optimal argon blowing procedure during vacuum tank degassing in order to achieve optimal toughness and steel cleanliness. During vacuum degassing three different blowing ...


A common educational question in Southern Europe contexts is related to the difficulties in acquisition of reading and writing skills. Why are students finding problems in acquiring these skills? What can be done to improve their potential? What do scholars propose? How can elements at the basis of an effective understanding, wsuch as motivation and reader's and writer's belief, be measured? Can the hybridization of processes lead to better results than the current ones? The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the most recent studies on these problems. Starting from the studies carried out by Steve Graham (Graham, et al., 2018), the attentions to motivational aspects and the hybridization of the processes, are considered the new frontier of investigation on the subjects in question. The attention to these issues has been analyzed on an international scene, in Spain and Italy. This bibliographic review is divided into three parts: the first presents International studies, the second Spanish studies and the third Italian studies. It is part of a wider research for a didactic intervention aimed at improving reading and writing skills of Italian students, still in the experimental phase, within the limits of a well-defined territorial experience.


Rates of post-traumatic stress (PTS) are greater among transgender and non-binary (TGNB) youth compared to their cisgender peers. This disparity has been linked to increased experiences of trauma among TGNB youth, including greater exposure to child abuse, discrimination, hate crimes, and familial and peer bullying and rejection. Few studies to date have examined the use of trauma-focused interventions with TGNB youth. Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) has been identified as a potentially impactful treatment for PTS for communities who experience oppression and human rights violations given its social justice-oriented "testimonial" approach and focus on meaning-making around traumatic experiences. While narrative-based approaches are often considered "best practice" for trauma interventions, youth may present with comorbid conditions that present barriers or often preclude them from receiving trauma treatment, such as selective mutism (SM). In this case series, we describe the use of NET for treating PTS symptoms in two transgender youth with comorbid SM, as well as adaptations to support their engagement and progress in treatment. Treatment progress was observed in reduction of PTS symptoms, increase in self-reported resilience and positive well-being, and full remission of SM, with treatment gains observed 6-months post-discharge. From these cases, we identified that (1) NET is a brief treatment that can address PTS and SM symptoms among TGNB youth; (2) NET is able to be adapted to enhance engagement in a narrative-based, trauma-focused therapy for youth with PTS and SM; and (3) NET can also increase self-perceived resilience and a sense of positive well-being for TGNB youth.


The accumulation of genetic alterations in driver genes is responsible for the development and malignant progression of colorectal cancer. Comprehensive genome analyses have revealed the driver genes, including APC , KRAS , TGFBR 2 , and TP 53 , whose mutations are frequently found in human colorectal cancers. Among them, the p 53 mutation is found in ∼ 60 % of colorectal cancers, and a majority of mutations are missense-type at 'hot spots', suggesting an oncogenic role of mutant p 53 by 'gain-of-func-tion' mechanisms. Mouse model studies have shown that one of these missense-type mutations, p 53 R 270 H (corresponding to human R 273 H), causes submucosal invasion of intestinal tumors, while the loss of wild-type p 53 has a limited effect on the invasion process. Furthermore, the same mutant p 53 promotes metastasis when combined with Kras activation and TGF- β suppression. Importantly, either missense-type p 53 mutation or loss of wild-type p 53 induces NF- κ B activation by a variety of mechanisms, such as increasing promoter accessibility by chromatin remodeling, which may contribute to progression to epithelial – mesenchymal transition. These results indicate that missense-type p 53 mutations together with loss of wild-type p 53 accelerate the late stage of colorectal cancer progression through the activation of both oncogenic and inflammatory pathways. Accordingly, the suppression of the mutant p 53 function via the inhibition of nuclear accumulation is expected to be an effective strategy against malignant


ABSTRACT Existing scholarship on footpaths, sidewalks, streets, and pavements integrates laudable discussions about legal and regulatory concerns alongside debates about safety and place-making. Yet there are fewer debates about diasporic encounters and place-making processes in this everyday space. Accordingly, this paper examines encounters that occur on footpaths and outside adjoining shops by the Sri Lankan diaspora in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. The footpaths fall within the semi-public realm; they are public spaces connected to privately owned shops. I draw from a critical autoethnography and in-depth interviews conducted with Sri Lankans living in Australia to better understand how their place-making processes are entrenched in the semi-public realm. This paper provides a fresh case study to highlight the importance of warm and convivial encounters in everyday spaces that strengthen feelings of familiarity and belonging in host communities.


Soil temperatures recorded with thermocouples and temperature-sensitive paints were quantified during Florida sand pine scrub prescribed fires at Ocala National Forest and Archbold Biological Station in May 1993. Thermocouples and glass petri dishes painted with temperature-sensitive paints and containing seeds of Eriogonum floridanum were placed at 0 cm and 2 cm depth, and in vegetated and open microsites. Maximum temperatures were higher and peak temperature durations shorter at 0 cm than at 2 cm depth. Temperatures did not differ between microsites during the Ocala fire, but were higher in open microsites during the Archbold fire, probably due to combustion of well-aerated litter. Maximum temperatures of petri dishes were lower than those of adjacent thermocouples due to time required to melt paints. All Eriogonum seeds recovered from petri dishes after the Archbold fire failed to germinate. Germination was quantified for Eriogonum floridanum and Garberia heterophylla seeds heated to 1 0 0 ∘ C and 6 0 ∘ C under laboratory conditions. Seeds failed to germinate at 1 0 0 ∘ C, while germination was similar to controls for seeds exposed to 6 0 ∘ C. Results from this study suggest that small-scale spatial variation temperatures at the soil
surface during fires is essential for seed survival and subsequent post-fire recruitment.


This paper documents the origin and conceptual ambiguity of the terms Sustainable, Ecological and Agroecological Intensification. It defines the concept of Ecological Intensification from an agroecological perspective, and examines in energy terms whether it may be sustainable. To illustrate the theory, we apply Land Cost of Sustainable Agriculture (LACAS) methodology to Spanish agriculture, which is representative of Mediterranean agroclimatic conditions. As a result, we demonstrate the impossibility of generalizing an extensive Organic Farming (OF) scenario under the techniques currently used by organic farmers. This is due to the fact that it would bring about a reduction of 13% in agricultural production. Which necessarily means that OF has to be intensified under agroecological criteria. This option is also explored in two scenarios. As a result, we show that it is possible to compensate the yield gap between OF and conventional agriculture by implementing low-entropy internal loop strategies which reduce the land cost of generating the necessary nitrogen flows. However, these cannot exceed the limits established by the structure of Spanish territory. That is, agroecological intensification cannot be prolonged indefinitely over time since it is limited by the land available.


Bacterial populations have been shown to accumulate deleterious mutations during spatial expansions that overall decrease their fitness and ability to grow. However, it is unclear if and how they can respond to selection in face of this mutation load. We examine here if artificial selection can counteract the negative effects of range expansions. We investigated the molecular evolution of 20 lines (SEL) selected for fast expansions and compared them to 20 lines without artificial selection (CONTROL). We find that all 20 SEL lines have been able to increase their expansion speed relative to the ancestral line, unlike CONTROL lines, showing that enough beneficial mutations are produced during spatial expansions to counteract the negative effect of expansion load. Importantly, SEL and CONTROL lines have similar numbers of mutations indicating that they evolved for the same number of generations and that increased fitness is not due to a purging of deleterious mutations. We find that loss of function (LOF) mutations are better at explaining the increased expansion speed of SEL lines than non-synonymous mutations or a combination of the two. Interestingly, most LOF mutations are found in simple sequence repeats located in genes involved in gene regulation and gene expression. We postulate that such potentially reversible mutations could play a major role in the rapid adaptation of bacteria to changing environmental conditions by shutting down expensive genes and adjusting gene expression. Author Summary We investigated if strong artificial selection for fast expansion can counteract the negative effects of range expansion which had been shown to lead to an accumulation of deleterious mutations. This experiments showed that i) an increase in expansion speed could occur if bacteria were selected from the largest protruding sectors, and ii) that artificially selected bacterial lines accumulated about the same number of mutations than simply expanding line suggesting that the observed increased fitness is not due to increased purifying selection where deleterious mutations would have been removed in fast growing lines. We find that loss of function (LOF) mutations are best explaining the observed increased expansion speed in selected lines. These mutations, which are known to play an important role in adaptive processes in bacterial populations, frequently consist in small insertion-deletions in simple sequence repeats, and are thus relatively easily reversible. They could thus act as switches that can reversibly shut down genes. Our results therefore suggest that shutting down expensive genes and adjusting gene expression are important for adaptive processes during range expansion.


With the radio channels physical limits, achieving higher data rate in the multi-channel systems is been a biggest concern. Hence, various spatial domain techniques have been introduced by incorporating array of antenna elements (i.e., smart antenna) in recent past for the channel limit expansion in mobile communication antennas. These smart antennas help to yield the improved array gain or bearm forming gain and hence by power efficiency enhanmaent in the channel and antenna range expansion. The use of smart antenna leads to spatial diversity and minimizes the fading effect and improves link reliability. However, in the process of antenna design, the proper channel modelling is is biggest concern which affect the wireless system performance. The recent works of MIMO design systems have discussed the issues in number of antenna selection which suggests that optimization of MIMO channel capacity is required. Hence, a Particle Swarm Optimization based channel capacity optimzation for MIMO system incorporated with smart antenna is introduced in this paper. From the outcomes it is been found that the proposed PSO based MIMO system achieves better convergenece speed which results in better channel capacity.


An important problem related to the study of the robust stability of a linear system that presents variation in terms of an uncertain parameter consists of understanding the variation in the roots of a system's characteristic polynomial in terms of the uncertain parameter. In this contribution, we propose an algorithm to provide sufficient conditions on the uncertain parameter in such a way that a robustly stable family of polynomials has all of its zeros inside a specific subset of its stability region. Our method is based on the Rouché's theorem and uses robustly stable polynomials constructed by using basic properties of orthogonal polynomials.


Thin film silicon solar cells have the potential to considerably decrease the cost of photovoltaic. To increase the conversion efficiency of thin film solar cells, nano-sized structures, such as nanoparticle deposition at the front end, were proposed. In the present study, spherical metal nanoparticles such as gold (Au) and silver (Ag) were deployed at the front of the silicon solar cell. The effect of metal nanoparticles on the absorption enhancement factor of the thin film solar cells was investigated using Lumerical Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) solutions. Also the influence of geometrical parameters of spherical nanoparticles on absorption enhancement factor was examined. The maximum absorption enhancement factor was achieved by optimizing the geometrical parameters of nanoparticles. The structure with Ag nanoparticles at the front end of the silicon solar cell exhibits higher absorption enhancement factor than the structure with Au nanoparticles.


A study of the history of the HST focus measurements compared to the predictions of the DiNino (2008) model was recently performed covering a time period from March 2003 to December 2010. Arising from this analysis, an improvement to the secular part of the model has been implemented and the inter-camera offsets have been revised. The model performance is good, falling within 2 microns of the measured values of the secondary mirror displacement 80% of the time. A web page with a link to the model has been supplied to display the measurement and modeling results and these are linked to a method for calculating point-spread functions using Tiny Tim. Point-spread functions can be calculated using the focus offset given by the focus model.


This document describes Two Dimensional IP (TwoD-IP) routing, a new Internet routing architecture which makes forwarding decisions based on both source address and destination address. This presents a fundamental extension from the current Internet, which makes forwarding decisions based on the destination address, and provides shortest single-path routing towards destination. Such extension provides rooms to solve fundamental problems of the past and foster great innovations in the future.


Welding is an important process in several industries and it is required precision and attention during the execution. In addition it is unhealthy work for the operator who is in direct contact with sparks, smoke and electricity. Thus, it is increasingly common to use robots in this type of task, reducing human intervention in the process. This work proposes an automated system to verify discontinuities in the weld beads, which may invalidate them. Through the use of a linear welding robot and a vision system, images of the pre-welding and post-welding metal plates are captured for future comparisons and evaluation metrics applied. The proposed method uses the combination of techniques such as: PCA, Gaussian Mixture and HMM with the objective of identifying the edges of the weld beads. Then, the proposed metrics are applied in order to assist the welding inspector to identify possible discontinuities in the weld.


During the concentration of milk by reverse osmosis deposited layers are formed on the membrane which constitute an additional resistance to permeation. Permeation is seen as mass flow through two resistances, namely laminar flow through the deposited layer and transport by diffusion through the membrane. A comparison of reverse osmosis of pure milk protein solutions and skim milk showed that inorganic ions increased the resistance to flow of the deposited layer considerably. The pressure loss through the deposited layer Δ pL was found by experiment. By means of regression analysis, mathematical relationships could be obtained to describe the effects of the processing variables on it.


Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) modulates many pathophysiological processes, including inflammation and allergic reactions, in which mast cells act as major effector cells. IgE receptor (FcεRI) cross linking leads to an increase in intracellular calcium ([Ca+2]i), a critical step in mast cell degranulation. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of H2S in [Ca+2]i‐dependent mast cell activation.


This paper aims to study the social and cultural issues that led to the marginalization of Polish immigrants and their decedents, focus on a food heritage and cultural aspect in the Curitiba-PR region. Based on bibliographical research about anthropological and sociologic discussions that marked the immigration, colonization, and prejudice, and allied with participative observation at polish colonies at the area, were possible appoint how this phenomenon has started, the main reasons of the prejudice, and how the food heritage is an important theme at this discussion. In conclusion, this article addressed the food by a social perspective, necessary to better understand the historical and actual relations of polish immigrants and their descendants with the local people, immigrants of other ethnicities, and with the region.


Processes of transnational policy transfers are of immense importance in understanding new forms of the reproduction of relations and discourses of power, and of memory and forgetfulness, within particular social welfare regimes. Transnational advice and policy transfers appear particularly unsuited to the need to address the complexities of the ways in which welfare subjects interact with welfare regimes which seek to organise their lives, a theme which touches complex issues of culture, identity and resistance, at the interface of local, national, regional and global social relations. Utilising ethnographic material from post–Yugoslav countries, particularly Bosnia–Herzegovina, this article addresses international consultancy, transnational policy advice, and project and programme documents as a specific 'genre' with its own language and power, including the power of silence. The article is based on an explicit erosion of the border between 'research' and 'consultancy'. Theoretically and empirically, a literature on 'global social policy' has paid too little attention to an emerging 'cultural' perspective on welfare which focuses much more on the social relations of welfare; the role of biographies, subjectivities and memories; and the need for forms of reflexivity and attention to the minutiae of everyday life constructed within, and itself constructive of, 'welfare' as a lived experience. Rendering the practice of policy–making as a subject for ethnographic or anthropological research may be the basis for a new action research, and for policy agendas for a democratic welfare, envisioning forms of access, voice, and empowerment, which much current transnational policy advice militates against.


The electrical properties of fluorite-structure solid solutions of HfO2 fully stabilized by doping with Er20:~ were studied. The dependence of the total ac electrical conductivity and ionic transference number upon composition (10-50 mole percent (m/o) Er203), temperature (520~176 and oxygen partial pressure (1-10 -'9 atm) were investigated. Bulk electrical conductivities of polycrystalline specimens were separated from other polarizations by a complex impedance technique and Were compared to conductivities of single crystals. The electrical conductivity generally decreased as the dopant level increased, although plateaus indicative of possible defect ordering were observed over the composition range of 20-35 m/o Er203. The effects of surface finish, aspect ratio, and porosity of the specimens were negligible. All Er~O.~ stabilized HfO~ compositions were shown to be electrolytic conductors below 1070~ for oxygen partial pressures less than 1 atm. Oxygen diffusion coefficients were calculated using the Nernst-Einstein equation. Hafnium oxide fully stabilized by additions of alkalineearth or rare-earth oxides presents many possibilities for exploitation because of its refractory, electrolytic, neutron-absorption, and chemical-inertness characteristics. Uses and studies of stabilized hafnia have been limited because of high cost. Even though hafnium is a moderately abundant element (1), and is present in zirconium containing minerals, typically at a level of 1.5-3.0 weight percent (w/o) hafnium referred to zirconium content (2), the chemical properties of Hf and Zr compounds are nearly identical, making separation of Hf difficult and costly. Stabilized HfO2 has several advantages over stabilized ZrO2 because of superior physical properties, and it has been recommended for use in solid electrolyte oxygen probes in molten metals (3) and for use as high-temperature electroaes and low-temperature current leadouts for magnetohydrodynamic generators (4). Progressive decomposition into two phases caused by repeated cycling through the monoclinic/tetragonal polymorphic transformation temperature occurs at much higher temperatures in stabilized HfOz than in ZrO~, and the volume change associated with the transformation is smaller. The driving force for this destabilization is smaller for rareearth oxide stabilizing dopants than it is for alkaline-earth oxides, primarily because the rare-earth cations are larger and more electropositive (2). The purpose of this investigation was to determine the bulk electrical transport properties of Er203 stabilized HfO2 (ErSH) over wide ranges of composition (10-50 mole percent [m]o] Er203), temperature (520~176 and oxygen partial pressure (1-10 -'9 atm). This work was to establish a foundation for investigations of fluorite-structure solid solutions in the ternary HfO~-Er2Oa-Ta205 system. Literature Review Electrical conductivity investigations of HfO~ containing systems have been relatively limited, although they were recently surveyed (5). In contrast, such investigations of stabilized ZrO~ have been numerous and have been frequently reviewed (6-11). Binary systems of HfO~ with oxides of all the alkaline:earth metals except radium have been studied (12); systems containing CaO [e.g., Ref. (13)] and MgO [e.g., Ref. (14) and (15)] have been most often investigated. Binary systems containing HfO2 and oxides of all rareearth elements of the cerium subgroup, except promethium, have been studied. The most extensively studied components of this group have been La2Oa: [e.g., Ref. (16)] and PrO~ [e.g., Refi (17) and (18)]. Fewer investigations of binary systems containing oxides of rare-e~rth elements of the yttr ium subgroup have been conducted. Only Y~O3 [e.g., Ref. (19)], Tb203 [e.g., Ref. (17)], and Er203 [e.g., Ref. (20)] have been employed as second components from this subgroup. Details of these investigations and several 'Supported by USDOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences, under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-82. additional citations of literature pertaining to HfO~ containing systems can be found in Ref. (5). Johnstone (20) has made the only previous investigation of electrical transport properties of an extensive range of compositions in the HfO2-Er203 system (8.6-90 m/o Er203), although Marchant (21) has measured the dc electrical conductivity of one high Er203 content composition in air to 1300~ Johnstdne determined ac electrical conductivities at a fixed frequency of 1592 Hz over a narrow temperature range (800-I000~ and a fairly wide range of oxgen partial pressures (1-I0 -'4 atm). Ionic transference numbers were determined using the opencircuit emf method, employing Cu-Cu20 vs. Ni-NiO reversible coexistence electrodes. Predominantly ionic conductivity was exhibited by compositions within the fluorite domain. Evidence of possible ordering within the fluorite single-phase region was also observed. Transport properties of cations in the HfO~-Er2Q system have been investigated by Berard and his co-workers in a series of diffusion studies (22-26). Only two of these, those of Tesch (25) and Tesch et al. (26), involved the HfO_, rich fluorite solid solutions; the other studies involved Er203 rich compositions having the rare-earth oxide type-C structure. Three investigations of phase equilibria in the HfO~Er~O~ system have been reported (20, 27, 28) and reviewed previously (29). In all three studies, the phase boundaries of the single-phase fluorite solid-solution region, which is of interest in this study, agreed fairly closely (Fig. 1), except Duran et al. (28) reported an ordered phase within the fluorite domain below 1500~ based on the hexagonal compound Er4Hf30,~. The ordering process for the formation of the ~-phase ~ was reported to be very sluggish. Indeed, efforts to replicate these results did not produce any evidence of ordering (29). The defect structure of ErSH fluorite solid solutions is consistent with an anion vacancy defect model, as was first shown by Johnstone (20). Recently, Tesch (25) presented a very detailed analysis of the defect chemistry in ErSH (which is strictly applicable only in the case of unassociated point defects). The predominating defects (using KrSger-Vink notation) are Er~f' and Vo; as is shown by the incorporation reaction Er~O~ --> 2Er~f' + 3 Oo ~ + ~ro [1] Theoretical density is predicted by 4 [ (1-x) (MWmo~,) + x (MWE~.,o:~) ] Ptru~ -ao3N A 1 + x [2] where ao is the lattice parameter of a fluorite solid solution containing x tool fraction Er203, MW refers to molecular weight of the oxides subscripted, and NA is Avogadro's number. 2This is the usual designation for the M70,,~ phase; see, e.g., Ref. (30). Duran et al. (28) designated this the 8 phase, which usually refers to an M,,O20 phase (30).


In this paper, we combine the method of constructing the compensating function and the energy method for the study on the relativistic Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) equation. Both the global existence of solutions and the time decay rates of the Cauchy problem for the relativistic BGK equation near the Jüttner distribution are obtained.


L Of all of the factors that contributed to the spread of Islamic civilization in the millennium after the prophet Muhammad received his divine revelations in the early 7th century C.F., perhaps none was as crucial—yet neglected—as the rather modest sailing vessels that plied the waters of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Most commonly known as dhows (see Chapter 7, p. 175), but appearing in numerous variations with different names and found from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean these ships were probably first developed along the Nile River. Compared to the great junks of China, or even many of the less-imposing trading ships in the Indian Ocean in the classical age, dhows were rather small vessels. They normally had one or two masts and planked, wooden hulls that resembled modern yachts in shape, with pointed bows and square sterns (Figure 8 1) The dhows h Liii design contributed to their swiftness and maneuverability, but


This paper presents a simple data processing algorithm which can improve the performance of a uniform circular array based on guided wave transducers. The algorithm, being intended to be used with the delay-and-sum beamformer, effectively eliminates the effects of nonuniformities that can significantly degrade the beam pattern. Nonuniformities can arise intrinsically from the array geometry when the circular array is transformed to a linear array for beam steering and extrinsically from unequal conditions of transducers such as element-to-element variations of sensitivity and directivity. The effects of nonuniformities are compensated by appropriately imposing weight factors on the elements in the projected linear array. Different cases are simulated, where the improvements of the beam pattern, especially the level of the highest sidelobe, are clearly seen, and related issues are discussed. An experiment is performed which uses A0 mode Lamb waves in a steel plate, to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method. The discrepancy between theoretical and experimental beam patterns is explained by accounting for near-field effects.


This paper concerns issues related to building mathematical models and optimal algorithms of stacks [1] control in single-and two-level memory. These models were constructed as 1, 2 and 3 dimensional random walks. In our opinion the algorithms, constructed for concrete data structure, will work better, than universal replacement algorithms in paging virtual and cache-memory. It was confirmed by the practice of construction of stack computers [1].Some scientists think, that non-Merkov model is more exact model of stacks behavior[12]. In [13] we have studied models, which include the possibility that, probabilities of the operations depend on the operations performed at the previous step. We can't include this models to the paper because of its small volume. On the other hand Ertl's finding concerns only particular application of stacks - stack caching for interpreters. It is very important, but there are many other applications of stacks. For example recursive algorithms, computer graphics, system tables and many other, when dynamic allocation of stacks after compilation(in the time of program running) it requires.This research work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research. grant 01-01-00113.


Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) related post-transplant lymphoproliferative diseases (EBV-PTLD) is a rare and deadly complication after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). The clinical manifestations often show the unexplained fever, swollen lymph nodes, hepatosplenomegaly, pharyngitis, and central nervous system symptoms, with rapid disease progression and high fatality rate. As allo-HSCT for treatment of complex and refractory hemopathy has made a great progress, the prevention of graft versus host disease (GVHD) requires more application of immune inhibitors, resulting in an increasing incidence rate of PTLD. In addition to conventional treatments, such as antiviral therapy, reduction of immune suppression, local surgery and traditional chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies and adoptive immunotherapy with T-cells for treatment of PTLD have brought a profound influence. This paper reviews the latest progress of treatment of EBV-PTLD.

Key words:
Epstein-Barr virus post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder; Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; Treatment progress


Different sociological analyses agree with the observation that the idea of autonomy is no longer an ideal or individual claim, but rather an omnipresent obligation in contemporary, flexible capitalism. The rising importance of autonomy is apparently, however, linked not only to increasing personal freedom but also to new diseases as burn-out and depression. The book reconstructs different dimensions of the idea of autonomy and asks how individuals in precarious working and living conditions perceive and negotiate different autonomy imperatives in everyday practice.


Teaching is a complex endeavor that requires deep knowledge of content, pedagogy, and students. Educational stakeholders design teacher competence frameworks to outline the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that teachers need to have to improve their teaching activity. These competence frameworks are guided by research and theory and tend to respond to local contexts and national efforts. In this article, we examine teacher competence frameworks in two national contexts, the United States of America and Türkiye, using Merriam's (2009) approach to document analysis and Phillips and Schweisfurth's (2014) framework for comparative inquiry. This analysis reveals much overlap but also distinct differences in educational structures. Our analysis is based upon four categories including overall structures, development, scope, and accountabilities of teacher competence frameworks. Given that the teacher competence frameworks in both countries are dated, we conclude our article with a call for updating such frameworks through participatory efforts, taking into account recent post-COVID pandemic needs in teacher competencies.


A device for positioning a component (17) in an inclined position, with a substantially at least partially spherical executed holding unit (4) which in a constructed as a ball socket bearing (5) of a base (24) for tilting about at least (an axis of the component 17 ) is accommodated, and an actuator which tilts the holding unit (4) at a defined angle of inclination to the at least (an axis of the component 17), wherein the holder unit (4) at least one (of two pins 9; 10) extending from the projecting at least partially spherical region of the holder unit (4) axially opposite to each other, formed coupling element (9; 10) having on at least one abutment (11; 12) of the actuator unit is mounted, which relative to the at least one coupling element (9; 10) movable is to move the holding unit (4) with the component (3) in the tilted position.


As there is a great contrast between the developing speed of countryside industrial domain and the growing pace of countryside labour force,the overplus of labour force becomes more and more extruding.Combing with the realism of our countryside,this paper analyzes the obstacle of China's countryside surplus labour force shift,and brings forward some countermeasures of expediting the shift of China's countryside labour force.


There is an ongoing discussion in the industry in particularin the complex and dynamic automotive domain on how the workplace can be arranged in the future to best possible support knowledge work. This discussion understands the concept of the 'future workplace' in a holistic way, i.e. including new forms of web based technology as well as new ways of working together. Respective scientific literature has already discussed social media to play a major role for the workplace, as social collaboration, social workplace and social business are already ubiquitously used terms. But what are major trends and drivers of the future workplace? This position paper presents results of recently conducted study on the future workplace, where 16 experts from academia and industry have been interviewed, to launch the discussion on a research agenda for holistic future workplace research. The interviewed experts mentioned most notably the relevance of social media, mobility and cloud services to facilitate knowledge work.


Generally described herein for providing dynamic hybrid enhanced physical downlink control channel using automatic repeat request - Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) embodiments of systems and methods of transmission. In some embodiments, the receiver is configured to receive the lowest control channel element index (n) on an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) enhanced control channel elements and the minimum index (n) of a user equipment specific starting offset (N (1)) and at least one additional offset parameters. Processor based on a lowest control channel element index (n) and the lowest control channel element index of the enhanced (n) in a user equipment specific starting offset (N (1)) and at least one additional offset parameters determined physical uplink control channel allocated for HARQ-ACK transmissions (PUCCH) resource of the uplink. Uplink resource using the allocated transmitter transmits a signal on the PUCCH.


The analysis of steroid estrogens (Estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), and 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2)) in wastewater samples is a problem of primary concern for quality control due to the toxicity level of these compounds and their public health risk. Solid phase extraction (SPE) was used to enrich and to clean up the aqueous samples and then high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to quantify the steroid estrogens. The elution solvent, elution rate, elution volume and flow sample rate have been studied and optimized for extraction procedure in order to achieve the higher SPE recoveries. Results show that the best overall recoveries of the tested steroid estrogens were achieved with acetonitrile elution solvent, 3-4 mL/min elution rate, 10-12 mL elution volume and 7-15 mL/min sampling rate. The optimized extraction procedure was applied to the determination of the steroid estrogens in a real wastewater treatment plant. Results show that E1, E2 and EE2 were all detected in the influent and effluent samples. The removal efficiencies of which were averaged at 72.9%, 76.2% and 76.6%, respectively.


Energy plays a significant role in the development of industrialized countries in the world. America by taking part of the global economy requires a lot of energy. Country's involvement in world energy centers strives to take part the situation under which these parts as a means to supply their energy needs cheaper and more reliable. Persian Gulf is one of the important energy centers in the world that generates lot of energy. America's presence in the Persian Gulf and building alliances with Persian Gulf states and dependence on their own, seek some sort of convergence with Persian Gulf states. In this regards, Iran as one of the most important and influential countries in the Persian Gulf region and one of the main opponents of America in the region and the world plays a significant role in America's relations with the Persian Gulf states. Iran's role in international relations with America and other countries can be positive or negative, in a manner that the divergence between Iran and other countries in the region improve America's relations with these countries. On the other hand, convergence between Iran and the countries by emphasizing the common interests between Iran and other countries in the region cause America's relations with these countries undermined.


The aim of this work is to design, plan, apply and assessment educational activities to help in the teaching-learning process of the concept of refactoring. The teaching methodology used is based on two pillars. The first is a progressive learning of the concept of refactoring by e-activities defined at different levels of knowledge of Bloom's taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation). The second is the use of resources in e-activities that are related to those the student may find during their professional career oriented towards software development: integrated development environments and software project repositories. The result of this work is the definition of a set of Java code refactoring e-activities. The version control functionality of software project repository, i.e.; GitHub, is used in different ways depending on the type of e-activity. Under these assumptions five types of e-activities are designed: Reading and comprehensions, objective tests, problem-based learning, case studies and webinars. The e-activities designed are applied in the context of the course Software Engineering of the Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science at the University of Burgos. The paper concludes analyzing some consequences of the experience from the perspective of using these new e-activities in the teaching-learning process as from the perspective of workload involved for both the teacher and the student.


Quantitation of total nucleic acid concentration that is traceable to International System of Units (SI) is crucial in many fields of biotechnology, specifically for the production of a reference material of DNA. In the described method, quantitation of nucleic acid is carried out by measurement of the stoichiometrically existing phosphorus content by spectrophotometry as crystal violet ion associate of phophomolybdic acid. The use of microwave energy in the presence of dilute nitric acid in the pressurized PTFE vessels resulted in fast and efficient mineralization of DNA and quantitative conversion of phosphorus to orthophosphate. The ion associates were preconcentrated via adsorption onto glass beads. The adsorbed ion associates are desorbed into a mixture of 1:1 butyl acetate and acetone prior to spectrophotometric measurement. The described method is applied to organic moieties having phosphodiester, methyl phosphonate, and phosphorothioate backbone linkages. The relative expanded uncertainties (% U) expressed at 95% confidence for the P mass in the range 0.1-1μg for most of the calf thymus DNA (CTDNA), 2- aminoethylphosphonic acid (AEP) and adenosine-5´-O-thiomonophosphate (AMP-S) analyses range from 2.3 to 7.5%. The microwave based sample preparation approach coupled with the spectrophotometric measurement of phosphorus as an ion associate of molybdophosphate with crystal violet provides a quantitation of phosphorus mass as low as 0.02 μg, corresponding to a nucleic acid (CTDNA) mass of 0.2 μg. The limit of detection (LOD) of phosphorus is 3 ng g-1. The phosphorus content of the nucleic acid and model compounds was also measured using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), which provided independent data for comparison with the uv-visible crystal violet based approach. © 2013 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved


In this paper, we proposed a learning algorithm using the information entropy minimization heuristic and mutual information entropy heuristic to select expanded attributes. For a data set of which the values of condition attributes are continuous, most of the current decision trees learning algorithms often select the previously selected attributes for branching. The repeated selection limits the accuracy of training and testing and the structure of decision trees may become complex. So in the selection of attributes, the previously selected attributes and the other attributes, which have high correlation to the previously selected attributes, should not be selected again. Here, we use mutual information to avoid selecting the previously selected attributes in the generation of decision trees and our test results show that this method can obtain good performance.


A method based on a four flux model is proposed to accurately estimate multiple‐substance concentrations in seawater. Simulations are used to confirm the uniqueness and sensitivity of the solutions of the proposed method when applied to sample water cases in which three selected substances, i.e. phytoplankton, suspended minerals and dissolved organic matter, of various concentrations are combined. The analysis is performed in the visible and near‐infrared bands equivalent to Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor output. The results of inverse estimation using simulated data show that solution uniqueness is maintained within the range of concentration values examined of our target area, i.e. the northern part of Tokyo Bay. We find that the atmospheric noise remaining after atmospheric noise calibration significantly impacts the estimation accuracy. However, if the calibration is reasonably accurate and adequate optical properties are known for each substance, the concentration estimated from both airborne Multi‐spectral Scanner (MSS) data and actual Landsat TM data are in good agreement with actual sea truth data for deep areas wherein the reflectance from the sea bottom can be ignored.


This contribution highlights the socio-economic constraints to the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations in coffee farms in Burundi. These constraints are basically related to the sociological environment that structure behaviors of Burundian coffee growers in the process of economic production. In view these sociological contradictions, initiating a typically socio- anthropological approach, this article highlights a set of policy conditions to stimulate the adoption and diffusion of innovations in Kayanza province of Burundi.


AbstractWhile the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has brought various new issues in the study of post-conflict society and transitional justice, a problematic issue that remains is how we should understand the ideal of reconciliation. This paper first critically traces previous theoretical works on reconciliation policy in South Africa, particularly paying attention to the arguments in political philosophy that have been deployed to incorporate the post-TRC condition into a theoretical frame. This examination is followed by a discussion invoking Rene Girard's notion of desire to capture the dilemma of people in a post-conflict society. Finally, the uniqueness and importance of the reconciliation project is inferred to have the possible function of affecting the collective relationships among former enemies.


THE concept of decision as a logical compound of fact and value propositions was first popularized by Simon in his Administrative Behaviour in 1945. But this part of his theory soon fell into the background, mainly for two reasons. In the first place, when the distinction was criticized by several academics as reviving the old unreal politics-administration dichotomy, as obscuring values and as misleading decision-makers, Simon did not care much to answer these criticisms in detail. 1 Secondly, he shelved this element of his theory along with the means-end chain somewhat early in his di$cussion and rather unceremoniously in favour of concentrating straightaway on the process of choice. In doing this, Simon was instinctively right in terms of practical psychology. At the time of decision, the decision-maker is intensely aware of the element of choice-and the obligation to choose one thing to the exclusion of other things. The feeling of agony associated with choice by many2 is partly a by-product and symptom of the obligation to exclude. This agony as such is glorified as the symbol of the basic moral commitment of human existence by the Existentialists. In the context of this agony, it is perhaps rare for the majority of human decision-makers to make conscious use of the fact-value distinction. Hence, studies of the


Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with high incidence of suicide. Positive thoughts and beliefs can act as buffers that protect people against eventual suicide, despite the existence of important risk factors for suicide. Several studies have found a strong relationship between low levels of meaning in life and suicide risk. The aim of this research is to analyze the mediating role of meaning in life in the relationship between the risk factor depression and hopelessness. 80 patients with BPD participated. The results indicate that the meaning of life showed partial mediation effect between depression and hopelessness, 61% of the total effect of depression on hopelessness was mediated by the meaning of life. The results of this study confirm the hypothesis and indicate that meaning in life is a buffering factor for


In this work, [Zn(Tryp)2(H2O)2] and [Cu(Tryp)2H2O] complexes were synthesized by using Zn2+ and Cu2+ (from Zn(CH3COO)2, Cu(CH3COO)2.H2O, respectively) as central metal ions with tryptophan (HTryp) as ligand. The compositions and structures of the synthesized [Zn(Tryp)2(H2O)2] and [Cu(Tryp)2H2O] complexes have been investigated by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), infrared (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (MS), thermal analysis (TG, TGA/DTG), and electrical conductivity methods. The obtained results demonstrated that in the synthesized complexes, tryptophan is a bidentate ligand. The bonding between the tryptophan with central metal is with (O, Namino) donor sets. The coordination number of Zn2+ and Cu2+ in the complexes is 6 and 5, respectively. The stability of synthesized complexes was also confirmed via testing in simulated gastric fluid environments.


maximum 300 words): This paper provides a student perspective on the variety of forms of design critique available to educators. In architecture and landscape architecture, the design jury remains the dominant format for providing feedback to students. In recent years this format has come under scrutiny and its effectiveness called into question. However, little research has been done into the variety of alternative or supplemental formats available to educators. This paper explores an array of techniques that the authors have employed in design studio courses (which include techniques suggested by students in Webster's 2007 article in the Journal of Architectural Education). These include written and verbal forms of feedback, peer and self evaluations, feedback provided during the design process and variations in the jury format. The benefits and limitations of each of the techniques are explored through presentation of the results of two web-based surveys of students. The student surveys were conducted department-wide at the Mississippi State University Department of Landscape Architecture and the Hampton University Department of Architecture. The surveys consisted of a series of Likert-scaled and open ended questions focused on the students' perceptions of the educational and motivational value of each technique. Students were also asked to rank the various techniques in order of preference and explain why they found the techniques helpful or not. Responses demonstrated a clear preference for one-on-one forms of evaluation. This result has raised a number of questions relative to students' preparation for professional practice and the role of educators in fostering student independence. This paper explores these issues as well as the benefits and limitations of each technique in an effort to assist educators in making informed use of the various assessment formats. Introduction While criticism is an essential part of every designer's education, a design critique can be a powerful and even emotional experience for many students. Although this feedback is intended to promote learning, it is sometimes distressing for beginning design students. They are often unprepared for criticism and easily misunderstand comments or even the purpose of the event. These early experiences are sometimes so powerful that they drive students away from the design professions before they have even had an opportunity to develop the skills or vocabulary necessary to succeed. For many others, bad critique experiences negatively influence their general attitude toward design criticism and therefore hinder their long-term development. Even among graduating students and practitioners, a healthy attitude toward design critique seems to be a rare trait, although there are probably few attributes more valuable in professional practice. The ability to speak and write coherently about design, as well as openness to client, peer and community input require training and practice. Educators can help to foster these skills by providing effective, encouraging and constructive feedback tailored to students' needs. This paper provides student perspective on a variety of critique formats, including written and verbal, peer and self-evaluations, feedback during the design process, and variations in the jury format. Historically, design critique has come in the form of the design "jury" during which students present their work in front of an audience composed of professors, peers and invited professionals. The most significant investigation of this tradition, Kathryn Anthony's Design Juries on Trial provides an exhaustive exploration based upon surveys, interviews, student diaries and behavioral observation. Anthony's research outlines many of the limitations of design juries: students often find them discouraging, confusing, boring and educationally ineffective. In addition, Anthony identifies the disagreement that exists among students, faculty and practitioners about the purpose of the jury process and its role in educating designers. She suggests that the design jury tradition may bear some responsibility for "driving away many qualified women and people of color...". As possible solutions to these problems, Anthony proposes a series of improvements to traditional design juries, as well as an array of alternative approaches for design educators to consider. Explorations that are more recent include architect Helena Webster's 2007 article "The Analytics of Power" which examines the roles of faculty, students and guest critics in the design jury. Webster's yearlong ethnographic study found that juries are dominated by faculty and guest critic commentary, while students are typically uninvolved in the peer analysis. Webster identifies "passive compliance," "active compliance" and "active resistance" as the three primary ways that presenting students deal with critical commentary. She explains that regardless of tactic or ability, students focus primarily upon "gaining the best possible outcome" and not necessarily upon learning or becoming better designers. She concludes that design juries reinforce and objectify the "power differential between critic and student" and thereby distort learning outcomes. Alarmed by her findings, Webster proposes replacement of the design jury with "a new set of pedagogic events that are carefully constructed to support student learning." She lists a series of alternative approaches suggested by students, including peer reviews, exhibitions, special tutorial days and self-evaluation exercises. Additional studies have investigated the connection between graphic quality and success in design juries, explored the essential nature 5 and substance of design critiques, and analyzed verbal forms of design evaluation. This paper builds upon prior research by evaluating a series of alternative or supplementary critique approaches, and comparing them to students' perceptions of the design jury. The purpose of this research is to assist design educators in making informed selections of evaluation techniques, and to foster a continuing dialogue regarding best practices for design studio instructors. Methodology The student surveys were conducted department-wide at Mississippi State University's Department of Landscape Architecture in the fall of 2007 and at Hampton University's 1 Kathryn Anthony, Design Juries on Trial: The Renaissance of the Design Studio (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991). 2 Helena Webster, "The Analytics of Power: Re-presenting the Design Jury," Journal of Architectural Education 60, no. 3 (2007): 21-27. 3 This paper was largely inspired by the students' suggestions and is intended to further understanding of a variety of evaluation techniques by comparing them to students' perceptions of the design jury. 4 Meltem O. Gurel and Inca Basa, "The Status of Graphical Presentation in Interior/Architectural Design Education," International Journal of Art and Design Education, 23 no. 2 (2004): 192-206. 5 Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, "Behind the Mask: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Interaction in the Design Studio, Journal of Architectural Education, 53 no. 4 (2000): 194-206. 6 Belkis Uluoglu and Taksim Taskisla, "Design Knowledge Communicated in Studio," Design Studies, 21 no. 1 (2000): 33-58. 7 See Deanna P. Dannels, "Performing Tribal Rituals: A Genre Analysis of 'Crits' in Design Studios," Communication Education, 54 no. 2 (2005): 136-160 and Janne Morton and David O'Brien, "Selling your Design: Oral Communication Pedagogy in Design Education," Communication Education, 54 no. 1 (2005): 6-19. Department of Architecture in the fall of 2008. Surveys were administered online and consisted primarily of Likert-scaled statements aimed at determining students' perceptions of the educational value, fairness and motivational aspects of each technique. Students were given a definition (see Figure 1) of each type of feedback and asked to rank the techniques based upon perceived effectiveness and in order of preference. In addition, students were invited to justify their choices of most and least preferred techniques. The survey took students an average of fifteen minutes to complete. Fifty-three of one hundred and twenty seven enrolled landscape architecture students responded to the survey, while fifty-four of one hundred and ninety four enrolled architecture students responded. The two groups of respondents differed substantially in terms of field of study, ethnicity (Figure 2), and gender (Figure 3). Figure 1: Definitions Provided to Students in the Survey Evaluation Technique Definitions: Gallery Review: Review of a completed project in which the student's work is displayed and both professionals and faculty critique the work individually or in small groups. One-on-One Desk Critique: Critique in the studio between the professor(s) and student during the design process. One-on-One Evaluation: Critique of a completed project involving the student and the professor(s). Studio Pin-up: Informal studio critiques in the design process typically involving the entire class or large groups within the class. These critiques could involve the professor(s), additional faculty, or invited guests. Traditional Design Jury: Oral and graphic presentation of a completed project to a jury of qualified professionals, which could include professors, additional faculty, invited professionals or other guests as well as an audience consisting of the student's classmates. Verbal Peer Evaluation: Verbal critiques of a project by one or more of the student's classmates. Written Evaluation by the Professor: An in-depth, written critique of a project by the professor(s). Written Peer Evaluation: Written critiques of a project by one or more of the student's classmates. Written Self Evaluation: Written critique of the student's own project. Figure 2: Ethnicity of Survey Respondents 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Caucasian African American All Others Ethni


This paper reviews the education and training of engineers for marketing from two perspectives. The foundations that should be given at undergraduate level and the development of professional skills after graduation. The view is advanced that a highly structured approach aids students in assimilating the key concepts quickly. To this end a number of models and frameworks have been developed. Possibly the most important role of engineers is in the development and improvement of products or services. The age old problem is should products be market led or technology driven? An engineer with marketing skills is able to do both and this is essential not only to devise appropriate products but in an age of decreasing product life cycles to reduce the time to market. (3 pages)


A device for guiding a cable carrier for receiving and guiding lines between a stationary and a mobile terminal, the conductor support device connected to the stationary terminal for wires first run, an adjoining this deflection and subsequent to the deflection region, moving to the terminal having connected the wires second strand, the apparatus comprising two opposite lateral guides, which have at least two adjacent magnetic poles between which at least a portion of the lead frame can be arranged so that the lead frame between the side guides is floating freely Stable at least over part of its length , characterized in that the adjacent poles are not equally and the lead frame at least partially comprises a ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic material which can be magnetized by the signal generated by the pole magnetic field.


We propose a Markov model with an ergodic two-component switching mechanism that dynamically generates anomalous diffusion. The first component plays the role of a hidden parameter. The second one is the switching component generating the superdiffusion of a random walker and is itself non-Markovian. The model is studied numerically using the Monte Carlo technique.


Based on the data of disaster of landing Typhoo in coastal regions of Guangdong Province in 1949-1998, and through the analysis of the activity features of landing Typhoo in recent 50 years, this paper has studied the features of Typhoo disasters. It has analysed factors leading to Typhoo disaster, and has classified the main disasters and statistics of the effects of the disasters causeed by landing Typhoo. This paper has also studied the characteristics of Typhoo disasters and the relations of Typhoo route and Typhoo disasters , and has given the countermeasures of prevention and control.


Tumours that over-express the growth factor receptor HER2 have been shown to be more aggressive than those that do not. Trastuzumab (Herceptin) is a humanised antibody that specifically binds to the HER2 receptor, preventing cell division and causing cell death. Herceptin-based regimes are the standard of care for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC). However, most patients with HER2-positive MBC ultimately experience disease progression on the currently available cytotoxic and HER2 targeted therapies. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that the antibody-drug-conjugate, Trastuzumab-DM1 (T-DM1), may have superior efficacy in killing breast cancer cells in vitro, in mouse models and in clinical studies. This effect is particularly noticeable in Trastuzumab-resistant cancer cells. This literature review analyses recently published primary research articles that evaluate the effectiveness of T-DM1 for the treatment of MBC.


Although regulations on copyright law in Belgium are essentially integrated into a general law – the Act of 30 June 1994 on copyright and related rights (Copyright Act)1 – clearly the effects of this law vary to a non-negligible extent depending on the literary and artistic categories concerned. First, in addition to the general law, the existence should be noted of a specific law that was adopted, also on 30 June 1994, to transpose the European Directive of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs (Computer Programs Act).2 If we then consider the structure of the Copyright Act, and in particular Chapter I, devoted specifically to copyright law, it will immediately be observed that Section 1, which sets out the provisions applicable to any type of work, is followed by a number of sections on the established categories of works: literary works (Section 2),3 graphic or plastic arts (Section 3),4 audio-visual works (Section 4)5 and databases (Section 4bis);6 Chapter I also includes a section common to audio and audio-visual works (Section 6).7 Finally,


Site degenerate electronic defect states in oxide materials generally are stabilized against tunneling by electron-phonon coupling, forming small polarons. Their properties, especially optical absorption, are exemplified with a two-state system (SiO2 : E'1). Generalizations to more complicated systems are given (MgO : V-, SiO2 : [Al]°, etc.). The impact on applicational aspects, including radiation induced optical attenuation of glass fibers, is emphasized.


The invention discloses a print system and method of intelligent disposal file, which comprises the following parts: file generation end, priority generation unit and set end, wherein the file generation end outputs the printed file; the priority generation unit entitles the file priority; the set end receives the file and stores the file in the storage device, which provides intelligent pick-up mechanism to acquire the corresponding file and print the file as well as hand-operated unit to select priority to print file by hand. The invention solves the problem of resource conflict in the printer resource-shared condition, which prints file according to the priority disposal principle.


In computer-aided diagnosis, a Bayesian classifier that can give the class membership probabilities should be more favorable than classifiers that only give a class assertion. In Bayesian classification, an important and critical step is the probability distribution estimation for each class. Existing methods usually estimate the probability distribution in the whole sample space where the original distribution may be too complex to model. In this paper, we propose a probability distribution estimation method based on local probabilistic model assumption. In our method, the estimation of global probability for a certain point is transformed to the computation of local distribution in a small region, where the local distribution is supposed to be simpler and can be assumed as a simpler probabilistic model. By this method, we implement the Bayesian classifiers based on several local probabilistic model assumptions, and experiments with these classifier have been conducted on several real-word biological and medical datasets; the experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method for probabilistic classification in medical diagnosis.


A study to examine the maximum interval between time of death and enzymatic sampling was conducted to determine the appropriate interval to procure reliable data from electrophoretic analysis of mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki. Dead fish were sampled at regular time intervals (0, 8, 12, 24 hours) and electrophoresed. All 26 of the enzyme systems assayed were reliably scorable 8 hours after death, with a large number remaining scorable up to 24 hours after death.


Stock markets worldwide have rewarded patient investors, hence the common advice to 'buy and hold'. Yet even with a large body of research over a prolonged period, proving this concept remains an onerous exercise for academics. We use Tobin's Q and the dividend yield to build an equilibrium relationship for the US aggregate stock market using 119 years of data. The resulting VECM model supports practitioners making long-horizon predictions and provides powerful forecasting ability. Our work is directly applicable to UK price controls.


This study aims to determine the effect of development on employee career improvement at the Office of the Regional Secretariat of Nias Regency. The sample in this research is by using random sampling. The analysis technique used is a simple linear correlation analysis, simple linear regression analysis. The method used in this research is a descriptive method with the quantitative approach that is the method in researching the status of a group of people, an object, a set of condition or system of thought or a class of events in the present. From the results of research conducted, it is obtained results that: Based on the results of hypothesis testing obtained that there is significant influence between the development of employee career improvement at the office of the district secretariat nias.


Rutting is a consequence of plastic deformation and consolidation of pavement layers and subgrade. The prediction of rutting evolution is a complex problem, requiring detailed knowledge of materials state, elastic and plastic deformability and viscosity of pavement materials. Several thickness design methods are generally based on limiting the vertical compressive elastic strain or stress in the top of the subgrade. Such procedures assume that surface plastic deformation is mainly due to the subgrade and do not consider deformations in the pavement upper layers. This article presents and compares rutting evolution of asphalt mixes in cored specimens using a laboratory LCPC traffic simulator and in a full-scale test section loaded by a linear traffic simulator. This study is part of a comprehensive research carried out in Brazil aiming at investigating the performance of asphalt concrete with both conventional and polymer modified binders. For the covering abstract see ITRD E117840.


Conventional 2D or 3D texturing methods do not permit an efficient simulation of highly complex structured textures like fire, fur, cotton, etc. More recent techniques, using specific kinds of 3D textures, such as hypertextures or texels based on volume rendering algorithms, are more interesting, for the simulation of such special types of textures. Unfortunately, these techniques remain still restricted because either they need a functional modelling of the object, as it is the case of hypertextures, or they are strictly limited to one specific kind of texture, as it is the case of texels.


Out-of-school time (OST) programs frequently struggle with recruitment and retention of youth in their programs. Recruitment and retention in OST programs can be thought of as two sides of the same coin: after the initial decision to try out a program, youth need to be continually recruited to keep attending, or to be retained in the program. Youth decide to participate (and to keep on participating) in programs based on a number of interacting intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors. Several approaches to understanding these factors are discussed, and suggest that youth are "active agents" in their own development; are influenced by their "ecology," or social surroundings; and consciously plan their behavior. Youth attendance in programs is also influenced by a combination of social and peer factors, psychological processes, program structure, and context. Some specific methods and recommendations for increasing the success of recruitment and retention efforts are also provided. These recommendations are based on several youth development assumptions: (a) youth have power and ability to make conscious decisions about their activities and behaviors; (b) youth experience multiple influences on their OST program participation; (c) youth desire the opportunity to engage in "voice and choice;" and (d) authentic representation and participation of youth is crucial to all recruitment and retention efforts.?


In the past, foods prepared and used in traditional ways have been judged safe on the basis of long-term experience, even when they contain natural toxicants (e.g. solanin in potatoes) or anti-nutritional substances (e.g. phytate in soya beans). In todays scientific language we would say that a food is considered safe when we are reasonably certain that it will cause no harm if it is used as intended, under the anticipated conditions of consumption.


............................................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. 5 CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................ 6 LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... 13 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ 15 CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................................. 17 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 17 1.1. DNA STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY .................................................................................................... 17 1.2. G-QUADRUPLEX DNA STRUCTURE AND TOPOLOGY ....................................................................... 19 1.3. G-QUADRUPLEX DNA STABILITY ................................................................................................ 21 1.4. QUADRUPLEX FOLDING AND UNFOLDING KINETICS ........................................................................ 24 1.5. G-QUADRUPLEX DNA INTERACTION WITH SMALL MOLECULE LIGANDS .............................................. 26 1.6 BIOPHYSICAL METHODS TO STUDY G-QUADRUPLEX STRUCTURES ....................................................... 31 1.6.1. H NMR spectroscopy ................................................................................................. 31 1.6.2. Circular dichroism spectroscopy ................................................................................. 32 1.6.3. UV spectroscopy ......................................................................................................... 34 1.6.4. Electromobility shift assay .......................................................................................... 35 1.6.5. Fluorescence melting .................................................................................................. 35 1.6.6. Single molecule FRET .................................................................................................. 36 1.7. BIOLOGICAL ROLE OF G-QUADRUPLEX DNA ................................................................................. 38 1.8. TELEMERIC G-QUADRUPLEX ..................................................................................................... 40 1.9. G-QUADRUPLEXES DNA IN GENE PROMOTER REGION .................................................................... 41 1.9.1. Bioinformatics studies ................................................................................................ 41 1.9.2. Evidence for G-quadruplex mediated regulation of c-MYC gene promoter ............... 43 1.9.3. G-quadruplex studies in other gene promoters .......................................................... 45 1.10. POTENTIAL G-QUADRUPLEX MOTIFS IN GATA4 GENE PROMOTER .................................................. 49 1.11. HYPOTHESIS AND AIMS .......................................................................................................... 51 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................. 52 BIOPHYSICAL STUDIES ............................................................................................................ 52 2.


Starting from the establishment of the guiding case system in December 2010, the Supreme People's Court of China has issued 31 guiding cases. This article discusses the background, purposes and functions, ways to function, and effects of the guiding case system. It compares it with ancient Chinese guiding case systems, and the common law system from these perspectives. Based on the analysis of these comparisons, this article argues that the current guiding case system is neither an extension of the ancient Chinese guiding case systems nor a transplant of the common law system. However, the current guiding case system and common law system have the tendency to become more and more similar systems in reality.