The central neural mechanisms affecting sympathetic neuronal discharge strategies supporting homeostatic adjustments in human muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) remain unclear. This study investigated the hypothesis that central alpha-2 adrenergic mechanisms affect sympathetic action potential (AP) discharge, recruitment, and latency patterns within human MSNA (peroneal nerve microneurography and continuous wavelet transform). An alpha-2 adrenergic agonist (dexmedetomidine) was infused in eight healthy male and female participants (5 females; 28 ± 7years). Data were recorded during a 5-minute resting control condition, a 10-minute intravenous dexmedetomidine loading dose (0.225 μg/kg), and a dexmedetomidine maintenance dose (~0.1 μg/kg/hr). Data are reported as mean (SD) for the 5-minute control condition and 2-minutes of the dexmedetomidine infusion when MSNA bursting activity was demonstrably reduced. Two-tailed paired t-tests were performed. Dexmedetomidine reduced mean pressure (92 ± 7 to 80 ± 8 mmHg; P < 0.01) but did not affect heart rate (61 ± 13 to 60 ± 14 bpm; P = 0.75). Dexmedetomidine reduced integrated MSNA burst frequency (14 ± 6 to 4 ± 3 bursts/min; P < 0.01), sympathetic AP frequency (75 ± 46 to 16 ± 14 AP/min; P < 0.01), APs per burst (5 ± 1 to 4 ± 1 AP/burst; P = 0.01), AP clusters per burst (3.5 ± 0.7 to 3.0 ± 0.7 clusters/burst; P = 0.03), and de-recruited the largest AP clusters (12 ± 3 to 7 ± 2 AP clusters; P < 0.01). Despite de-recruiting large AP clusters with short conduction times, dexmedetomidine elicited shorter sympathetic AP conduction times (1.18 ± 0.12 to 1.14 ± 0.13 s; P = 0.03). Six participants performed a Valsalva Maneuver (20 s, 40 mmHg mouth pressure) during the control condition and during the dexmedetomidine maintenance dose. Data are reported as mean (SD) change (Δ) from the 2-minute period preceding the Valsalva Maneuver to the Valsalva Maneuver for each condition. During the control condition, Valsalva Maneuver increased AP frequency (Δ 311 ± 317 AP/min; P = 0.048), recruited larger previously silent AP clusters (Δ 2 ± 1 AP clusters; P < 0.01), and elicited shorter AP conduction times (Δ ‑0.09 ± 0.07 s; P = 0.02). Compared to the control condition, Valsalva Maneuver performed during the dexmedetomidine maintenance dose condition elicited lesser increases in AP frequency (Δ 116 ± 189 AP/min; P vs. control = 0.02) and lesser recruitment of larger previously silent AP clusters (Δ 0 ± 1 AP clusters; P vs. control = 0.02). Dexmedetomidine did not affect the latency reduction elicited by Valsalva Maneuver (Δ ‑0.07 ± 0.14 s; P vs. control = 0.61). These data suggest that human central alpha-2 adrenergic mechanisms affect: i) sympathetic postganglionic neuronal discharge and recruitment patterns, and ii) synaptic delays within the sympathetic neurocircuitry influencing AP latency. This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.


The paper presents the results of an exploratory study that examines the experiences bachelor degree students gained from learning with a learning management system from new generation Edu 2.0. The main functional characteristics and available social tools of Edu 2.0 are examined in the context of students learning support. A model of Learning area is developed aiming at analyzing the formal and informal learning flows from the point of view of learning enhancement. A survey questionnaire of students' experiences and perceptions of formal and informal activities facilitating their learning within Edu 2.0 environment was conducted.


Conventional refrigeration has its own drawbacks, the major one being global warming due to Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants. Thermoelectric refrigeration (TER) is an alternative solution for food preservation, medical services, vaccine storages, and military fields .TER uses thermoelectric effect known as Peltier effect wherein heat is given out or absorbed when electric current passes across a junction between two dissimilar materials This heat, which is absorbed or given out can be used to refrigerate or heat an enclosed volume. The current study deals with how effectively this heat transfer can be made use of. Three cases are considered, first case is for cooling, the second case is for refrigeration as well as for heating purpose and the third case is only for heating purpose. The design requirements chosen are to use the heat in such a way that steady temperatures are reached within a short time and to provide retention time of at least half an hour. A working prototype of TER was fabricated, integrated and tested. The response parameters like time taken for attaining equilibrium, minimum and maximum temperatures obtained were studied. It was found that the case where both heating and cooling were used simultaneously had the best value of COP. Finally, it was concluded that a better heat transfer can give the best out of Thermo Electric Refrigeration system. Although having lesser effectiveness compared to conventional refrigeration, TER can deliver the best wherever conventional refrigeration is impossible & works as long as current is being made available. IndexTerms – Peltier effect, thermoelectric refrigeration, heating, cooling.


High‐pressure phases of olivine and pyroxene composition were obtained in laboratory experiments with spherical converging shock waves at Zababakhin All‐Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics. These experiments were conducted with three samples of different composition. The high‐pressure phases developed after biotite and garnet, i.e. minerals that had compositions different from those of the high‐pressure phases. The shock pressure under which these newly formed minerals crystallized were approximately three times higher than the static pressures needed to synthesize these minerals. In nature (in astroblemes these minerals can be preserved only in ejects from the craters, during the super fast quenching of the products of shock metamorphism.


The main research aim is to explore academic resilience (the ability to adapt positively to adversity) among undergraduate public administration students. The ARS-30 questionnaire was applied to first, second and third year undergraduate students from a top tier Romanian university program in order to observe the effect of gender, age, environment, previous academic performance and year of study on academic resilience. According to the ARS-30 design, the respondents were exposed to an adverse situation case vignette describing either personal or vicarious academic adversity in order to obtain more accurate measurements of their academic resilience and more robust overall results. Furthermore, the questionnaire was applied to students from both the main campus (located in ClujNapoca) and an academic extension (located 120 kilometers from the main campus), thus the results are also explored in a comparative perspective. The results showed that gender, the year in which the respondents were enrolled, their background environment, previous or current professional experience, the baccalaureate grade (which is used as the main admission criteria) and programme location, do not have a statistically significant influence on the academic resilience of students. On the other hand, the vignette used and the self-perceived ranking of the respondents (used as a proxy for academic success) showed a statistically significant effect in multiple regression models. The paper also proposes potential measures which could be adopted by national, university and even faculty level decision makers in order to increase academic resilience among students, ensure better educational outcomes and reduce the number of undergraduates who abandon their studies. Points for practitioners The findings can be useful for university decision makers to design general policies and specific programs and measures which can increase the academic resilience of students and reduce dropout rates.


This dissertation includes three chapters which focus on the relationship between public policies and healthcare. The first chapter examines whether tax policy is effective in changing the unhealthy drinking behaviours of individuals. My findings suggest that the VAT rate increase is effective in reducing the consumption of spirits, beer and carbonated beverages, while it is not effective for wine. However, this general result change when looking at sub-groups of individuals. The second chapter studies how real minimum wages affect population health in China. I conclude that real minimum wages are negatively and significantly related to population health, a result which might be explained by the role of more stressful working conditions as a consequence of a higher minimum wage. Finally, the third chapter analyses the effects of incentive mechanisms on the behaviours of primary health workers and the subsequent effects on the quality of hypertension management. The empirical investigation suggests that negative financial incentives could motivate primary health workers and improve the quality of hypertension management. However, neither positive financial incentives nor different modes of performance evaluation are significantly related to the quality of hypertension management.


The paper puts forward soil moisture plague can be divided into the following types of surface moisture, lower moisture, chloride-sodium and re-acid caused by climate, geology and soil texture of several natural and manmade factors by taking Mingshan County as the main study area and analysis on the types of soil moisture plague based on local conditions. It should adopt the measures of excavating drainage canal, semi-arid cultivation, combination of use and maintenance and restructuring crops for reducing soil moisture plague and increasing the output of crops.


Face marks figures of faces which consist of characters such as (¿¿), and are effective for expressing emotions in a text-dialogue system. We usually determine face marks from history of emotional elements and actional elements. We propose a method of learning face marks for a natural language dialogue system from chat dialogue data in the Internet, etc. We use a back propagation error learning of a three-layer neural network to learn a model of face marks. In this neural network, the input neurons express emotional parameters and actional categories of texts, and the output neurons express parts of face marks: mouth, eyes, arms, and optional things. The experimental results showed that the learning error was 0.19, and we could get the performance approximately 93% permissible value for the learning set of dialogues and approximately 60% for the evaluation set of dialogues. It also showed that our system acquired the good information of relationship between parts of face marks and emotional and actional elements.


The Northwest Regional Meeting of the Society is to be held in co-operation with the Vancouver Section of the Canadian Branch of the International Law Association. President Charles B. Martin and Mr. Herbert Little, members of the Society's Committee on Regional and Local Meetings, are assisting in making arrangements for the meeting. The Faculty Director of the meeting is Ralph W. Johnson of the University of Washington Law School, who will be assisted by Mr. David Buxbaum of the Department of Russian Studies. The following subjects will be discussed: the Underdeveloped Countries; The Changing United Nations; Communist China; Laos; and Problems of Foreign Trade and Investment. Further information regarding the meeting will be available shortly. Meanwhile, inquiries should be addressed to the Director of the meeting at the University of Washington Law School.


With the rapid speed development of Internet, Web mining which has unique advantages is acting more and more important role in the electronic-commerce application.This article mainly discussed the concept and classification of Web mining,and elaborated the Web mining′s process and the methods,finally illustrated that the Web mining was concretely applied in E-Commerce.


PURPOSE: To easily obtain the subject stable compound under mild condition without generating blocking phenomenon nor causing deterioration such as discoloration by crushing crystal of sodium ascorbate and immediately drying the powder at a temperature within a specific range. CONSTITUTION: Crystal of sodium ascorbate [usually an acicular or plate crystal having a loss on drying of about 50-150ppm (110°C×2hr)] is crushed with a conventional crystal crusher such as screen-type crusher or impact crusher preferably in dried air stream. The crushed powder is immediately dried at a powder temperature of 40-80°C (preferably 50-60°C) for 5-30min (preferably 6-20min) usually in a dried air stream to obtain powder of sodium ascorbate usually having particle size passing through a 100 mesh sieve (JIS Z8801). COPYRIGHT: (C)1990,JPO&Japio


Introduction: Europa is a primary target in the search for past or present life because it is potentially geologically active, and likely possesses a deep global ocean in contact with a rocky core underneath its outer ice shell [1]. Challenges of Penetrating Europa Crust: The surface of Europa is dominated by the scars of tectonic activity, as well as pits, domes, and chaos terrains that seemingly erase past surfaces. These processes renew the icy surface over a 40-90 Myr time scale [2]. As Europa orbits Jupiter every 3.5 Earth days, diurnal tidal stresses cycle between tension and compression as the ice shell rises and falls by 30 m. These motions induce stresses with a magnitude of 150 kPa at the equator, and 20-50 kPa at the poles [3]. Additionally, the cold, brittle near-surface ice may have significant porosity (>20%) from impacts and fracturing [4] and potentially high concentrations of salts or acids [5]. Figure 1 shows challenges of Europa environment and mitigation schemes. To reach a baseline 15 km depth, the probe will "Start" the hole in vacuum, "Cruise" through the 15 km of Europa subsurface, and finally "Enter" the ocean (or a lake) in a controlled manner.


The article describes the preparation of cast acrylic sheets by copolymerizing methyl methacrylate (MMA) with varying mole fractions of N-o-chlorophenyl maleimide (OC), N-m-chlorophenyl maleimide (MC), and N-p-chlorophenyl maleimide (PC) using benzoyl peroxide as an initiator. The effect of incorporation of varying mole fraction of N-chlorophenyl maleimides in poly(methyl methacrylate) backbone on the optical, physicomechanical, and thermal properties of cast acrylic sheets were evaluated. Vicat softening temperature, glass transition temperature (Tg) and thermal stability of the copolymers increased with an increase in the maleimide content. The solar transmittance and percentage of transmittance of the copolymer sheets having low mole fractions of N-chlorophenyl maleimides (i.e., 0.025–0.085) were found to be comparable with that of PMMA. Further increase in the comonomer content resulted in a decrease in the percentage of transmittance. Copolymer sheets having low mole fractions of N-chlorophenyl maleimides (0.025–0.108) have tensile strength comparable to that of PMMA, whereas the percentage of elongation decreased. Tensile modulus increased with increasing mole fraction of N-chlorophenyl maleimides. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 68: 527–534, 1998


Real and Reactive power flow in an alternating current transmission line can be independently controlled by connecting, to the transmission line, a series-compensating voltage, which is variable in magnitude and phase angle. The Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC), a solid-state voltage source inverter (VSC) coupled with a transformer, is connected in series with a transmission line. An SSSC injects an almost sinusoidal voltage, of variable magnitude, in series with a transmission line. This injected voltage is almost in quadrature with the line current, thereby emulating an inductive or a capacitive reactance in series with the transmission line. This emulated variable reactance, inserted by the injected voltage source, influences the electric power flow in the transmission line. In this report, an attempt is made to evolve the model of SSSC and VSC with preliminary studies for the controller design.


Fifty six fractures of the lateral humeral condyle in children were treated from 1961 to 1976 in our clinic.Twenty five fractures were followed up on the average for five years.Fourteen boys and eleven girls were from one to ten years old. The internal fixations had been performed in twenty-one cases, and the plaster cast had been applicated in other three cases without dislocation. The deformities of elbow were found in follow-up study, and the varus deformity and the the decrease of normal valgus angle were recognized. The valgus deformity was seen in only one case except another case with pseudo-arthrosis. The roentogenogram showed that the overgrowth of the radial head were in thirteen cases, the epiphysis of lateral humeral condyle were irregular in eight cases, and the closures of the premature epiphysis were in six cases. It seems that the deformities of elbow are related to the reductions of fractures.


In 1993 our international team performed a follow‐on "Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine (NTRE) Extended Life Feasibility Assessment" study for the Nuclear Propulsion Office (NPO) at NASAs Lewis Research Center. The main purpose of this study was to complete the 1992 study matrix to assess NTRE designs at thrust levels of 22.5, 11.3, and 6.8 tonnes, using Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) reactor technology. An additional Aerojet goal was to continue improving the NTRE concept we had generated. Deep throttling, mission performance optimized engine design parametrics, and reliability/cost enhancing engine system simplifications were studied, because they seem to be the last three basic design improvements sorely needed by post‐NERVA NTRE. Deep throttling improves engine life by eliminating damaging thermal and mechanical shocks caused by after‐cooling with pulsed coolant flow. Alternately, it improves mission performance with steady flow after‐cooling by minimizing reactor over‐cooling. Deep throttling a...


Standard cancer therapy reduces tumor burden by killing tumor cells, yet simultaneously creates tumor cell debris and associated inflammation in the tumor microenvironment. Thus, cancer therapy is inherently a double‐edged sword. Since tumor growth is angiogenesis‐dependent, we hypothesize that the accumulation of chemotherapy‐generated debris, stimulates tumor growth via tumor angiogenesis. ω‐3 fatty acid‐derived lipid autacoids termed 'Specialized pro‐resolving mediators' (SPMs), including resolvins, stimulate the resolution of inflammation by activating macrophage clearance of cell debris and promote wound healing and regeneration. While SPMs inhibit VEGFA‐mediated corneal and retinal neovascularization, the role of SPMs in tumor angiogenesis had not been studied to date. Thus, resolvins may represent a novel therapeutic approach to cancer through inhibition of tumor angiogenesis.


Flow state is a psychological state of optimal performance. To experience flow state, one needs to receive unambiguous feedback. Previous studies have described activities with internalized feedback modalities (e.g. visual). However, they do not offer any appropriate feedback modality for the activities that may benefit from external feedback, such as opponent-based sports. Addressing the issue, we adopted a research through design process and considered tennis as our case, in which players can benefit from attaining flow [1]. This pictorial reveals our approach to design 6 wearable device concepts under 3 design themes as future directions for design practitioners and researchers.


The title compound, C 17 H 11 N 5 O.H 2 O, forms two-dimensional layers parallel to the (101) plane. The dihedral angle between the planes of the diazafluorene moiety and the pyridine ring is 27.74 (4)°. The crystal structure is stabilized by O-H...N, N-H...O, C-H...O and C-H...N hydrogen bonds.


Interventions Visitors' professional group: Physician, nurse, other health professionals Frequency and duration of visits: Not reported Fall prevention: No Included exercise: No Included multidimensional geriatric assessment: Yes Description of intervention: Visitors assessed medical and social needs (including diagnostic and therapeutic medical care), post-hospital follow up, education, counselling, and social service referrals. Description of comparison: Usual care Implementation (fidelity and participant compliance): 92.2% of intervention participants received one or more home visits over the study period. 30.0% of comparison participants received one or more visits; however, the majority of these visits occurred shortly before the follow-up study was conducted.


An efficient discontinuous Galerkin volume integral equation (DGVIE) method is presented in this paper for electromagnetic scattering problems. Compared with the conventional DGVIE scheme, the proposed one needs much less memory. This is realized by deleting the half-SWG basis from the original basis sets. Numerical results show that the memory of the proposed scheme is only about half of that of the conventional one. Besides, the proposed scheme is also more accurate than the conventional one.


1. A method for making cheese or a cheese product, in particular a processed cheese, mainly comprising: - mixing of the hot cheese dough, and at least one heat-sensitive compound with a positive nutritional effect such as probiotic bacteria, whey protein, vitamin, or micronutrient and! - dosage in the hot condition of the thus obtained mixture in a container (10) for further packaging cheese or cheese product! characterized in that this mixing is carried out immediately before dosage for a time less than 10 seconds and at a temperature equal to or higher than 60 ° C, to obtain a minimized degree of thermal degradation of the compound or each compound in the container during the entire shelf life of the cheese or cheese product. ! 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the mixing is carried out at a temperature equal to or higher than 68 ° C and preferably ranging from 70 ° C to 72 ° C. ! 3. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the mixing is carried out at the input dose knob (5) that loads said mixture directly into this container. ! 4. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the duration of contact of said or each compound of this cheese dough is in the range of 1 to 5 seconds. ! 5. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that prior to said mixing these (s) compound (I) is injected into the hot cheese dough mass that at the temperature equal to or higher than 60 ° C, preferably by means of metering pump (7) The type of plunger-type slide valve, wherein the particles formed yn


It can be observed that usually, during structures useful life they are submitted to deterioration processes that, depending on the intensity, may affect their performance and load capacity and, as a result, their safety. In this case, it is necessary to accomplish an inspection in order to evaluate the conditions of the structure and to locate and quantify the intensity of the damage. Another important point is to study the behavior of brittle material beams with cracks, as an attempt of understanding the rupture mechanism and crack propagation phenomenon. In this paper, the Residual Error Method (Genovese, 2000) is applied to a concrete beam in order to identify and quantify damages in its structure. This method is based on the alteration produced by damage in the dynamic properties of structures. The results obtained by this method allowed to locate and to quantify damages in a beam. The phenomenon of crack propagation is studied by others methods too: the Fracture Mechanics approaches and the Discrete Element Method (DEM). Changes on the dynamic behavior, crack trajectories, peak loads and energy variations were observed during the simulation. Keyword: Damage, dynamic properties, brittle materials, fracture mechanics, crack propagation.


Objective To study clinical efficacy of Ribavirin Nasal Dropping on treatment of infantile acute upper respiratory tract infection. Methods One hundred and thirty-two infants with acute upper respiratory tract infection were randomly divided into trial group and control group. The control group was given conventional treatment. The trial group was given treatment of Ribavirin Nasal Dropping on the basis of conventional treatment. Dosage: The naristillae was made of 0.1 g Ribavirin injection combined with 10 mL 0.9% sodium chloride injection. 3 months to 6 months old infants were given one drops. And the 6-month-olds to 12-month-olds were given 2 drops. The 1.1-3.0-year-olds were given 3 drops. And the 3.1-6.0-year-olds were given 3 to 4 drops. Both nostrils were given drops. 3 days was a treatment and the infants were given one to two courses. Results The total effective rate of the trial group and the control group was 91.7% and 78.3% respectively. There was a significant difference between two groups ( P0.05). The symptom improvement time of the trial group was less (p0.01). Conclusion Ribavirin nasal dropping can shorten the length of the disease and has a good clinical effect.


The welding. In addition, the root gap can be closed due to rapidly cooled temperature distribution by additional cooling with appropriate cooling position. The appropriate cooling position is dependent on the mechanical melting length behind welding torch. It is significant to consider the effect of weld shrinkage during rapid cooling for closing of the root gap. It is concluded that root gap behavior during butt-welding can be controlled by the optimization of temperature distribution due to additional cooling.


The emergence of pandemic Covid-19 which struck many countries reveals a veil from the viewpoint of the women's world. Besides women are easily infected with Covid-19, apparently women are also prone to violence because of their pandemic. This research used qualitative descriptive research. The research concentrate on communication strategies and used Ledinghem & Burning's theory of Relationship Management Theory. The research also took samples of women's organizations that concentrate on dealing with cases of violence against women who are Legal Resource Center for Justice Gender and Human Rights (LRC-KJHAM) Central Java province. Researchers were looking for data from primary and secondary sources. Data collection techniques of this study were interview techniques and documentation. The results of this research was to know the strategy of communication implemented by LRJ-KJHAM in minimizing the occurrence of women violence in the pandemic is known as the Central Java region. The research also shows that the Relationship Management Theory was applied by the LRC-KJHAM manager so that the women remain protected from violence despite the health protocol when the Covid-19 runs strictly.


Two of the competing approaches to the logical design of relational databases are the third normal form decomposition approach of Codd and the synthetic approach of Bernstein and others. The synthetic approach seems on the surface to be the more powerful; unfortunately, to avoid serious problems, a nonintuitive constraint (the "uniqueness" of functional dependencies) must be assumed. We demonstrate the fourth normal form approach, which not only can deal with this difficulty, but which is also more powerful than either of the earlier approaches. The input of the new method includes attributes (potential column names), along with semantic information in the form of functional and multivalued dependencies; the output is a "good" (fourth normal form) logical design. The new method is semi-automatic, which is especially helpful in the case of a very large database with many attributes that interrelate in complex ways.


ABSTRACT: Neonatal guinea pigs with chronic partial ureteral obstruction (CPUO) and contralateral nephrectomy develop hydroureteronephrosis and reduced glomerular nitration rate (GFR) without significant reduction of renal blood flow. To investigate the role of pressure gradients in determination of GFR, micropuncture studies were performed in animals 23 ± 3 days of age subjected to left ureteral constriction and right nephrectomy within the first 2 days of life and compared to uninephrectomized controls. Resulting ureteral dilatation was variable, with kidney weight and ureteral diameter being proportional to the rise in ureteral pressure (PU). In individual animals with severe CPUO (ureteral diameter > 3 mm), distal tubular transit time was either normal (31-90 s) or prolonged ( > 120 s). Superficial single nephron GFR (SNGFR) was inversely correlated with PU.Glomerular capillary pressure and afferent arteriolar colloid oncotic pressure were not affected by CPUO while peritubular capillary, proximal and distal intratubular hydrostatic pressure increased as a function of Pu. As a result, afferent effective filtration pressure (EFPA) was reduced in severe (10.0 ± 1.1 mm Hg) compared to mild CPUO (13.4 ± 0.5 mm Hg), but was not different from controls (11.3 ± 0.9 mm Hg). For both control and CPUO groups, superficial SNGFR increased by 0.5 nl/min for each mm Hg increase in EFPA but for a given EFPA, SNGFR was 6 nl/min lower in guinea pigs with CPUO. These results indicate that higher EFPA in animals with mild compared to severe CPUO contributes to maintenance of higher SNGFR. However, a 70% reduction in superficial SNGFR for guinea pigs with severe CPUO is due in large part to reduced ultrafiltration coefficient. The mechanisms whereby chronically elevated PU in the neonate result in these complex changes of glomerular dynamics may relate to altered intrarenal production of vasoactive hormones.


This paper1 describes in detail the narrative approach taken in a study of a particular facet of learning in the workplace – how people make sense of change. In unstructured in-depth interviews, employees were encouraged to tell their stories about their organisations, revealing details about the organisational culture and the ways in which this shaped the learning about change taking place within them. The paper shows that narrative analysis is a powerful tool with which to investigate work-based learning. It leads to new insights into how learning in the workplace can be conceptualised and supported in practice. Two key propositions are presented: a) Narratives play important roles in the workplace. They reflect the organisational culture and are therefore an ideal tool to assess whether an appropriate environment for learning – a 'learning culture' – exists. Such a learning culture is based on the values of trust and respect, making people feel comfortable in their workplaces. b) Narratives are also an important tool to manage change. Owing to the close relationship between change and learning, people learn about their changing roles and relationships in the workplace, and can adapt to them, through sharing stories. In this study, the researcher took the role of an observer-reporter, listening, recording and replaying the conversations prevalent in the organisation. To ensure the veracity of the data, the interviewees were given a copy of the transcript on which they were welcome to comment and to engage in shared interpretations.


The article discusses the Noiseboard project, a sensor-equipped skateboard that allows for creating music while skateboarding. Unlike previous projects, the musical augmentation of the board does not limit the movement possibilities of the skater who can do all the usual tricks. The project is designed to be a skateboard augmented with musical feedback primarily but can also be intended as a tangible interface for music performance based on the use of the skateboard. The system was created by embedding sensors and wireless technology in a novel way into a skateboard, and the technical choices and possible scenarios are discussed in detail. The system's feasibility and functionality were tested during live music performances, and current limitations and possible future improvements are presented.


The Zao0 oil group in the Kong1 Member of Duanliubo oilfield, Dagang area is braidedriver deposit. By observing core and loging data, the characteristics of braidedriver deposit in the area were analysed, braidedriver sandbar, braided channel, braidedriver branch, interchannel, natural levee and flood plain six sedimentary microfacies were divided, and the sedimentary and plane distributive characteristics of each microfacies were studied. As braidedriver deposit has lower energy, fine lithology and multiple cyclicity, it shows stronger intrastratal and interstratal heterogeneity. The heterogeneity of reservoirs was mainly controlled by sedimentary microfacies on the plane. As braidedriver facies changed rapidly, the plane heterogeneity of reservoirs in the area was stronger.


This paper discusses a comprehensive investigation and retrofit for extensive fatigue cracks in the end connections of floor beams on a double-deck, cantilever-suspended steel truss bridge. The investigation involved three-dimensional (3D) finite-element analyses using global and local models, field measurement of strains and displacements due to live load and temperature, laboratory testing of steel samples for material properties and high-stress low-cycle fatigue characteristics, as well as development of an effective retrofit based on the analytical, experimental, and field testing results. It was concluded that the cracks were a result of distortion induced fatigue in the floor beam web due to interactive deformations of the global structural system under live load and temperature variations. The retrofit entailed removing the fatigue susceptible weld terminations and reinforcing local areas of the floor beam web for out-of-plane distortion. Construction of the fatigue retrofit was completed in July 2011. The repaired structure has performed satisfactorily since then.


Poor dose-regimen selection remains a key cause of the high attrition rate of investigational drugs in confirmatory trials, being directly related to the escalating costs of drug development. This article is a follow-up to the first white paper put forward by the PhRMA Working Group (WG) on Adaptive Dose-Ranging Studies (Bornkamp et al. 2007). It presents results and conclusions from a new round of simulation-based evaluations conducted by the WG, proposing a new set of recommendations to improve the accuracy and efficiency of dose-finding in clinical drug development.


In the zlst cencury,the competition is of rule's competition.As the domination of west developed countries in the international rules and system, there is none of the united international rules and system, therefore,china should exact the function in forming the rules.


Cloak is a new class of network covert timing channel relied on multilink with high reliability and enhanced data rate. The existing detection schemes are less effective to detect this kind of covert channel. In this paper, the detection method for Cloak covert channel based on burst size distribution is proposed. The statistical distribution of burst size is calculated and Chi-Squared test is utilized to judge whether the network traffic obeys the theoretical distribution generated by Cloak. Further, the influences of detection performance caused by the RTT variation and packet loss are also discussed. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves high detection performance.


The proposed Patient CARE Act would restructure much of Medicaid as a block grant. But that might render it an unconstitutional coercion of the states, which would be compelled to conform to a new compact without the requisite advance notice of profound alterations.


Early models of procedural learning assumed actors were isolated, model-based thinkers. More recently, learning techniques have become more sophisticated as this assumption has been replaced with more realistic ones. To date, however, there has been no thorough investigation of multiple, heterogeneous, situated agents who learn from the pragmatics of their domain rather than from a model. This research focuses on this important problem and develops learning techniques that allow agents to improve their performance in a dynamic environment by learning from past run-time behavior. Humans provide a natural model of pragmatic agents situated in a multi-agent world. [1] argues that the development of distributed cooperative behavior in people is shaped by the accumulated cultural-historical knowledge of the community. Our learning techniques are motivated by this argument and use a structure called collective memory to store the accumulated procedural knowledge of a community of agents. Collective memory contains the breadth of knowledge the community acquires through interacting with each other and the world during the course of solving sequences of distinct problems. The cornerstone of collective memory is a cooperative procedures case-base that augments the agents' first-order planner [2]; in other words, this work follows in the tradition of second-order planners, extending them into multi-agent domains. In our model of activity, each agent has her own point of view on how best to proceed, which often leads to uncoordinated and unproductive behavior. Furthermore, inefficient behavior would occur even if there was a consensus upon the best course of action to follow (perhaps legislated by a supervising agent or agreed to during community-wide communication) because of the community's initial lack of knowledge about their uncertain domain. Through the use of collective memory, however, agents behave more efficiently over the course of solving a problem sequence for two reasons. First, individual agents develop a point of view based upon shared experiences; second, they learn procedures that capture regularities both in the task environment and in the patterns of cooperation for solving problems in task domain. That is, an agent remembers successful cooperative behavior in which she was involved, and uses it as a basis for future interactions.


ABSTRACT Aim: With evolving treatment possibilities for patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) of colorectal cancer (CRC), adequate prognostication and patient selection for treatment becomes increasingly important. The prognostic relevance of commonly identified histological subtypes in patients with PC of CRC being adenocarcinoma (AC), mucinous adenocarcinoma (MC) and signet-ring cell carcinoma (SC) is currently unclear and was investigated in the current population-based study. Methods: This nationwide study involved 3551 patients diagnosed with synchronous PC from CRC between 2005-2011 in the Netherlands, as recorded in a nationwide registry. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank testing were performed to estimate survival. Subsequently a Cox proportional hazard model was used to calculate hazard ratios for the risk of death. Results: The majority of the CRC patients was diagnosed with AC (n = 2465, 69%), whereas MC and SC were found in 836 (24%) and 250 (7%) patients respectively. SC was more frequently found in younger patients, advanced stage and poor differentiation grade. SC was associated with the highest risk of death, with a median survival of 6.8 months. For MC, median survival varied between 10 months in colon and 11 months in rectal cancer. The median survival in AC was respectively 7.1 months in colon cancer and 10.6 months in rectal cancer. Conclusions: Histological subtype is an important prognostic factor in patients with synchronous PC of CRC. This knowledge will aid clinicians in counseling of patients and clinical decision-making regarding possible treatment options. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


An innovative collection of essays on the turmoil spreading across South Asia, "Contesting Nation" sheds light on how violence in wars of direct and indirect conquest marks the present. Featuring contributions by distinguished South Asian women scholars, the book offers inspired, gendered, and contested histories of the present, exploring nation-making and its intersections with projects of militarization and cultural assertion, modernization, and globalization. The contributors to this volume consider such turbulent events as the Gujarat carnage of 2002, post-9/11 mobilizations, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, shedding light on the force with which brutal events encompass lives and disfigure communities. This powerful book examines the very borders such brutality maintains and its intimate and lasting effects on bodies and memories."


The Instruction Assessment Task Force was formed in May 2011, and charged to develop a standardized set of questions and standard scale to be used for all Instructional Sessions (IS), including primarily course-related instruction (CRI) sessions, workshops, and seminars. The Task Force was also charged with recommending a model for centralized IS assessment procedures, including collection (electronic and in print), analysis, retention, and reporting. The Task Force was also asked to recommend a model for data use for teaching improvement and annual professional development, and to consider privacy of data issues. The following is the Task Force's Report on these respective issues. Disciplines Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Library and Information Science This report is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/libreports/7 1 | P a g e Instruction Assessment Task Force Report


The electrochemical and solution stability of discrete molecules trapped in silica-based films on glassy carbon electrodes in aqueous solution was investigated. The films exhibit stability over a wide range of pH values and importantly are created via a simple mixture of commericially available sillanes and the electroactive complexes without a need to synthetically modify the target molecules.


Introduction and Overview - Susan Miller Organizational Behaviour - Susan Miller Human Resource Management - Peter Hamilton Marketing - Dr Dianne Deane Accounting and Finance - Tony Boczko Economics - Professor Tony Cockerill Operations Management - Dr. Christos-Dimitris Tsinopoulos and Dr. Emmanuel Adamides Corporate Social Responsibility - Dr. Timothy Campbell Strategy - Susan Miller Research Approaches - Susan Miller Study Skills - Susan Miller Index


The fundamental principle of fiber optic gyro and the structure of frequency division multiplexing of triaxial system are introduced in this paper The system is simplified by sharing the light source?detector and processing circuit The signal processing method of modulation/demodulation and filtering of frequency division multiplexing of TFOG was analysed in detail The crosstalk of signal was discussed and the solution was presented


: Any inland body of studying water occupying a depression in the earth's surface generally larger than a part and too deep to permit vegetation. The term includes an expended part of a river, a reservoir behind a dam, or a lake basin in termnantly or formally covered by water. The case study has been done for lake analysis for which the geographical analysis of the lake Ramasandra is situated. It is located at on absolute location of 77 0 46' 2'' longitudes and 12 0 95' 6'' latitude. The technological advances software is surely blessing to analyze lake studies. The Indian topographical maps of 1:50,000 scales is used as the base line data for comparison (map no 57H/5). IRS 1-C imagery is obtained for land use map. And to get updated land use data for 2010 GPS survey was conducted, Georeferncing, subset. Mosaic and projection is done in ERDAS imagine software. 9.0. The work is divided into three stage namely pre field, field work and post fieldwork. The present study concentrate of analyze above lake and its catchment area.


Late lower arch crowding is a problem encountering frequently in orthodontic practice. The controversy about the etiology of late lower arch crowding has not yet been satisfactory resolved. The aim of this study was to examine arch length in two groups of subject, with and without crowding in anterior part of lower arch. The experimental group of 123 subject shown statistically significant shorter lower arch in comparison with 51 subject without crowding. Our results indicate that arch length is a strong factor that can affect crowding in the anterior part of lower arch in postadolescent period.


As the chief architect of China's reform and opening up policy, Deng Xiao_ping left us a great deal of precious thinking wealth in all his life. His potitical stability thinking is the important part of the theory of building socialism with chinese characteristics. By the 21st century,China's level of development is expected to be realized modernization,and by the year 2049 is expected to be on par with the mid-ranking developed countries. Faced with the complexed international situation,currently the maintenance of political stability has invaluable significance for the realization of our grand development aim.


Geographic information systems and regression model to analysis the socioeconomics characteristics of occupations in permanent preservation areas - Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil


A two-hole rf-squid fabricated from high-temperature superconducting yttrium-based ceramic is described. Squid operates at liquid nitrogen temperatures and demonstrates all principal features of rf-squid signal. At high frequency, the noise level of the high-Tc squid is only three times as much as the corresponding level of the commercial helium rf-squid. The 1/f-noises begin from 100 Hz approximately so that at low frequencies, the high-Tc squid sensitivity is by 1.5 order less than the helium squid sensitivity.


A dynamical pressure floating polishing device comprises a rack, a polishing disc, and a grinding disc, as well as a capacitance distance measurement module, a servo micro-feeding module, and a dynamical pressure disc floating module, wherein the polishing disc is positioned above the grinding disc; the polishing disc is connected with the lower end of a main shaft; the capacitance distance measurement module comprises three capacitance sensors mounted on a main grinding disc; the servo micro-feeding module comprises a servo motor, a servo motor mounting rack, a shaft coupling, a lead screw, and a lead screw nut; the dynamical pressure disc floating module comprises a DC motor, a motor connecting shaft, a limit shaft sleeving, a main shaft connecting sleeving, a limiting plate and an inching lifter. The device not only can lower the surface roughness and improve the surface quality, but also can improve the precision during workpiece processing.


Jamming of the Hikurangi Plateau (large igneous province) subduction, within the Chatham Rise convergent margin of Gondwana at circa 105 Ma, led to offset and rotation of the convergent margin before subduction ceased in the New Zealand region at circa 100 Ma. The southern limit of the plateau, following leading slab break off, is highlighted by a lineament of prominent horst blocks in the southern Bounty Trough. Subduction jamming of the Gondwana margin, and accompanying compression of the onshore margin and/or extension of the offshore margin, has led to two 60 km left‐lateral SSE offsets of the Chatham Rise convergent margin at the coast and in inland Canterbury. Recognition of the onshore Chatham Rise using the gravity data also highlights the correlation of the inland Chatham Rise and central South Island seismicity. In a similar manner to the rotation of Cretaceous spreading‐ridge and transform‐fault fabric adjacent to the Osbourn Trough spreading ridge, the convergence direction at the Gondwana margin was rotated anticlockwise to N‐S between 105 and 100 Ma. Most of this rotation has been accommodated by offshore extension and margin offset. The divergence between the anticlockwise rotation of offshore crustal structure and the jammed onshore margin led to the development of the Great South Basin at 105–100 Ma. Further offshore in the Bounty Trough, extensional zones, formed between crustal blocks rotated to adjust to a changed Cretaceous direction of subduction, are evident in gravity and seismic profiles.


Analysis goals associated with collections of scenarios include: • Summarizing a collection of scenarios – the summarization could take the form of identification of typical patterns of relations within the collection • Retrieve similar scenarios/cases – the retrieval could be based on parts of scenarios; the similar 'complete' scenarios could be used to suggest additional lines of investigation • Find "relation paths" between key actors A signature-vector strategy is presented that addresses the above analysis goals. The broad strategy has been applied in various settings.


The A. addresses a question that has puzzled scholars for more than a century: Why is a belief in dragons found over much of the earth? He argues that dragons evolved from rainbows through the concept of the rainbow serpent, a concept that itself extends far back into the Pleistocene. In this perspective many seemingly arbitrary traits which are widely associated with dragons are seen to have a physical explanation.


The present invention relates to: a phenanthroline compound; and an organic light emitting device, which exhibits an excellent efficiency characteristic since one or more organic layers comprise the phenanthroline compound.


Objective – The main objectives of this study is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership characteristic, organizational commitment and job performance of the four State-Owned Banks employees in Pontianak,West Kalimantan. Methodology/Technique – The Data used in evaluating the model were gathered from the four State-Owned Banks in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. 345 permanent employees of those four State-Owned Banks participated in the survey. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), using LISREL 8.8 Software will be employed to examine the relationship among the constructs in the study. Findings – The findings of the study concluded that transformational leadership characteristic insignificant relationship on job performance, transformational leadership characteristic positive significant relationship on organizational commitment, organizational commitment positive significant relationship on job performance, and Organizational commitment mediates the relationship between transformational leadership characteristic and job performance of employees of the four State-Owned Banks in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. Novelty – Variables used in this study partially been done but research regarding all variables of employees of the four State-Owned Bank in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia felt there was still no. Type of Paper: Empirical.


Advanced tungsten modified 9%Cr ferritic steel (ASTM Grade P92) is a promising material for the next generation of fossil and nuclear power plants. Unfortunately, there are rather few published reports on damage processes in P92 steel during high temperature creep and the effect of damage evolution on the creep strength is not fully understood. In this work, the creep behaviour of P92 steel in as-received condition and after long-term isothermal ageing was investigated at 600 and 650°C using uniaxial tension creep tests. To quantify the effect of each damage process on the loss of creep strength, most of creep tests were followed by microstructural and fractographic investigations. It was found that the large Laves phase particles, which coarsened during creep exposure, served as preferential sites for creep cavity nucleation.


AbstractTornadoes occur at a high frequency in the United States compared with other natural hazards but have a substantially small footprint. A single high-intensity tornado can result in high cas...


We present our submission to the crosslingual pronoun prediction (CLPP) shared task for English-German and EnglishFrench at the First Conference on Machine Translation (WMT16). We trained a Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) classifier based on features from Wetzel et al. (2015), that we adapted to the new task and applied to a new language pair. Additional features such as n-grams of the pronoun context and prediction of NULLtranslations proved helpful to a varying degree. Experiments with a sequence classifier over pronoun sequences did not show any improvements. Our submission is among the top three systems for English-French (61.62% macro-averaged recall) and in the middle range for EnglishGerman (48.72%) out of nine submissions.


Drought is one of the major threats to cowpea productivity in tropical countries, and understanding its impacts is germane in ensuring food security in a global context. The present study was established to screen some accessions of cowpea for drought tolerance at the flowering stage in pots under the controlled conditions of a screen house. High significant differences were observed among accessions for wilting and recovery traits, stomatal conductance, relative water content (RWC), terminal leaflet length (TLL) and width (TLW), stem girth, and yield parameters under drought stress. In addition, drought stress caused a significant reduction in morphological traits and RWC between the initial and the final values. Based on cluster and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), accessions were separated into different classes of tolerance. Direct selection for wilting traits, stomatal conductance, morphological traits, and recovery parameters showing high heritability (≥ 60%), GAM (≥ 20%), and PCA (≥ 0.4) will be effective. Hence, four major classes of tolerance were determined: AC03, AC08, and AC10 were highly susceptible. AC01 and AC04 were moderately susceptible. AC06, AC07, and AC09 were moderately tolerant, while AC02 and AC05 were the highly tolerant accessions. The moderately tolerant and the highly tolerant accessions showed a combination of superior resistance to wilting, superior recovery rates, and superior yield attributes. They also showed lower stomatal conductance, higher RWC, and low reduction of RWC, TLW, and stem girth under drought stress compared to the susceptible ones.


Microfabrication technology has been used to produce free‐standing SixC1−xHy fibers of precisely controlled geometry and composition from thin films deposited by PECVD. The films were deposited in a parallel plate reactor from a mixture of SiH4 and CH4. The atomic composition of the films was determined using RBS and forward recoil spectroscopy (FRES). The film composition was varied from x=0.2–0.8 by adjusting the gas flow, the plasma frequency (30 kHz or 13.56 MHz), and plasma power. The films deposited at 300 °C contained from 33 to 50 at. % of hydrogen. The density, internal stress and refractive index of the films were measured. These properties were strongly dependent on gas flow ratio and plasma frequency. The lower frequency plasma yielded denser and higher compressive stress material with higher refractive index. Photolithography and reactive ion etching techniques were used to pattern the films into one centimeter long self‐supporting fibers with cross‐sectional areas in the gauge section rangin...


To study the preparation technics,and physical and chemical properties of silk fibroin peptide,refined waste silk was dissolved in 40% calcium chloride solution.The solution obtained was hydrolyzed with alcalase,then ultrafiltrated,and after these processes,desalted by nanofiltration(NF).Finally the desalted solution was sprayed dry.The physical and chemical properties of silk fibroin peptide powder were determined.The results showed that the content of silk fibroin peptide in silk fibroin peptide powder was 929.6 g/kg.The relative molecular weights of the main components of silk fibroin hydrolysate with DH 17% were 249 and 762,respectively,and the water contents took up about 72.9% and 15.5%,respectively.The relative molecular weights of the main components of silk fibroin hydrolysate with DH 21% were 209 and 668,respectively,the contents taking up about 84.4% and 7.2%,respectively.The main amino acids of silk fibroin peptide were glycine,alanine,serine and tyrosine,taking up 85% of a total amount of amino acid.The average hydrophobicity was 2.29 kJ/residues.The solubility of silk fibroin peptide was very good in the pH ranging from 2 to 10.The viscosity of silk fibroin peptide solution was low,and increased lentamente with the concentration increased.So silk fibroin peptide had good physical,chemical and nutrient properties,and would have a wide application foreground.


CAMPOS, S. L. S. Return to the hemodialysis: the experience of loss of renal graft by people with chronic renal failure. 2012. 129 p. Thesis (Doctorate in Sciences) – Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, 2012. Due to the complexity of the chronic renal failure and its treatment, renal transplantation is, for the majority of patients, an event very desired. Currently, with the increase of the number of transplants, it is also observed, more frequently, the patient who lives the experience of having to return to the dialysis treatment dialítico after the loss of the renal graft. This work has the proposal focuses on the person with chronic renal failure who has already completed the renal transplantation and, for some reason, has lost the graft encountering, again, with the need to perform hemodialysis to survive. The objective is to understand, starting from the experience lived by the patient, as it is for him to return to live together with the treatment dialítico after having lived a period without needing of that treatment. The work is based on qualitative research method of phenomenological inspiration in Psychology, which investigates the human experience lived, and part of a guiding question: What is it like for the patient to have to return to dialysis treatment after having been a time transplanted and outside the hemodialysis program? For this, all of the eight patients, who experienced this situation and accomplished hemodialysis at the Institute of Hemodialysis of the Holy House of France, SP, were interviewed. By means of phenomenological interview, we tried to get the experience of each patient and apprehend the meanings attributed to their existences. A field diary was used as subsidiary source of information. The interviews were analyzed by means of the phenomenological method. After a careful reading of each interview for apprehension of units of meaning, and from the convergence of these, were discussed the following categories: the transplant, subdivided into: the transplant as a possible: dream and reality, the transplant as experience: the facticity; the loss of the transplant, which is subdivided into: the impact of the loss, the search for the sense, the verification of the learning through experience; the return to the hemodialysis with the subcategories: beginning again, the retaking of the existential project; and the support sources. After the analysis, a comprehensive synthesis of the patients' existences was accomplished and, posteriorly, an understanding of these existences in the light of Phenomenological Psychology. A reflection on the care to these people, taking into account the subjective dimension existential that this look allows, concluded the present study.


In this paper, a bird strike against a simple rectangular panel made of five different layups usually used in transparent parts of a ro- torcraft is investigated. A new bird model is introduced and its results for impact on a transparent panel are compared with those of a traditional bird model. To create the new bird model, a real Mallard duck is initially scanned by a computed tomography scan imaging device. Five dif- ferent transparent layups are studied: single-layer stretch acrylic, single-layer glass, two-wall cast acrylic, acrylic with a polyvinyl butyral (PVB) interlayer, and glass with a PVB interlayer. For each case, the optimum thickness that does not allow any penetration is presented. Finally, it was found that using a PVB interlayer can increase the strength of the transparency component to a great extent. For cases with a PVB interlayer, using glass is recommended over acrylic; however, in cases without the interlayer using acrylic is strongly recommended. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)AS.1943-5525.0000225. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers. Author keywords: Transparent component; Mallard bird model; Glass; Acrylic; Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) interlayer; Smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH).


This study aimed to assess the impact of mindfulness activities, yoga, and kinesthetic movement on students' self-reported mood, feelings of wellbeing, and levels of calmness and attention. Research suggests that meditation and mindfulness can help students regulate emotions and accordingly decrease levels of stress and increase feelings of wellbeing in the classroom (Dariotis, Mirabal-Beltran, Cluxton-Keller, 2016). Mindfulness has also been shown to increase executive functioning in young children. Kinesthetic movement, including yoga and repetitive movements, has also been shown to increase cognitive functioning in young children, especially in regards to executive functioning (Zeng, Ayyub, Sun, Wen, Xiang, & Gao, 2017). This qualitative study was conducted with three classes of the first year of a new program for TK classroom students, who in this research, participated in a sequence of mindfulness and yoga activities over three weeks. Students reflected on their experiences in post-exercise drawings and focus groups. The classroom teachers also participated in interviews. The major findings identified that many students felt readier to learn and calmer after and during the mindfulness, movement, and drawing exercises. To exemplify this, students rate themselves as more calm on average through lower numbers on a scale of 1-5. More students drew themselves as being rainbow or "ready to go" after the activities. Students also found that after participating they had greater facility for identifying their emotions. Finally, many students showed improved peer relationships throughout the day following the experiences. Movement and mindfulness practices can promote equity in young children by providing opportunities for all children to develop self-awareness, emotional regulation, and empathy. These practices can be particularly helpful for children from marginalized communities who may experience stress and trauma related to their experiences with systemic oppression. By engaging


To circumvent the problem of radiation damage when using an x-ray coherent diffraction imaging experiment to resolve the structure of biological samples, we propose a method to add objects made of heavy atoms with the bio-samples or we load the samples on a template made of heavy atoms. This template method is shown by a numerical simulation (including shot noise) to be able to resolve the structure of a virus better than without the template. A counter-intuitive result is obtained, where heavier templates have a better resolution, even if the diffraction intensity of the bio-sample is much smaller than the noise intensity. In addition, the method also helps to greatly increase the efficiency of phase retrieval. We also provide a way to estimate the error to be expected if a particular experimental setting were chosen once the charge ratio between the sample and the template is estimated. Hence, this method will also help experiments choose the optimal setting for the best resolution with minimal radiation damage.


This paper describes a hybrid adaptive filter which employs a cascade of analog forward and inverse Fourier transform processors interconnected via a digital interface. The interface multiplies the transformed input, sample by sample, by a set of weights stored in RAM and compares the products against a desired complex spectrum. The resulting error is used to update the RAM weights via a feedback loop, which forces the multiplied output to converge towards the desired complex spectrum. The use of frequency domain processing in the adaptive filter offers faster, more controlled convergence than conventional time domain adaptive transversal filters. We present simulations and practical results on a frequency domain adaptive filter based on 100 point surface acoustic wave chirp transform processors which give the adaptive filter a 4 MHz real-time bandwidth capability. Thus, this new processor is likely to find potential application in equalization, echo, and interference suppression in high bandwidth communications and radar systems.


This paper presents three macros to create a line plot with error bars that includes automatic jittering and adjusting axis ranges within the plot. The purpose of these three macros is 1) to create a mean or median line plot with error bar of standard error, standard deviation, or range that has individual panels for each value of a parameter and also pages by a different parameter; 2) to automatically jitter the x-axis variable based on the number of lines in the graph; 3) to dynamically define axis ranges that are identical within each page-by parameter yet vary across page-by parameters with options to incorporate up to two reference lines in the range. The jittering and the axis range macros are stand alone macros and can be used apart from the first macro as well.


Aquatic firefly Luciola substriata emits single species-specific flash signals for courtship. Under 23℃ and 86% RH, flying male adults emit flash signal with flash duration 0.52 s, interval 0.28 s, and flash intensity peak of 0.6 lx. The flash signal period of female adults is 0.67 s and the intensity peak is 0.4 lx. About 0.22 s after male advertising signal, female adults respond with two flash signals. The duration of the first response signal is 0.49 s and the second is 0.41 s. The interval of the two response signals is 0.11 s. When received the response flash signals, flying male adults land 5~10 cm near the female adults and continue to flash. At this time, the signal frequency of male adults become lower, with flash duration 1.23 s and the interval 0.5 s. Adults of L. substriata mate with copulatory position of "V" or "-" type.


Infiltration of water into the soil mostly happens in area near to the ocean or area where rain occurred frequently. This paper explains about the water infiltration process that occurred vertically and horizontally at the subsurface layer. Infiltration act as an indicator of the soil's ability to allow water movement into and through the soil profile. This research takes place at Teluk Kumbar, Pulau Pinang, area that located near to the sea. Thus, infiltration process occurs actively. The study area consists of unconsolidated marine clay, sand and gravel deposits. Furthermore, the methods used for this research is 2-D Resistivity Imaging by using Wenner-Schlumberger array with 2.5 m minimum electrode spacing, and the second method is Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) with antenna frequency of 250MHz. 2-D Resistivity Imaging is used to investigate the subsurface layer of the soil. Other than that, this method can also be used to investigate the water infiltration that happens horizontally. GPR is used to inv...


We report, to our knowledge, for the first time on humidity-induced Brillouin frequency shifts in perfluorinated graded index polymer optical fibers. A linear relation between Brillouin frequency shift and humidity was observed. Furthermore, the humidity coefficient of the Brillouin frequency shift is demonstrated to be a function of temperature (-107 to -64 kHz/%r.h. or -426 to -49 kHz m3/g in the range of 20 to 60 ◦C). An analytical description proves temperature and humidity as two mutually independent effects on the Brillouin frequency shift. © 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement


Objective
To investigate the therapeutic effect of Suoquan capsule on the enuresis of children with spleen and kidney deficiency.

Methods
Eighty children with spleen and kidney deficiency were enrolled in this study and were divided into two groups randomly. The children of the control group were given dextroamphenicin (decoction), and the patients in the experimental group were treated with Suoquan capsule, and the scores of traditienal chinese medicine (TCM) symptoms, the overall treatment effect, disease related parameters, safety evaluation, adverse reaction rate and recurrence rate were compared between the two groups.

Results
The main symptoms, sub symptoms and TCM symptoms in the experimental group was significantly lower than those in the control group, and the efficiency was significantly higher than that in the control group; after treatment, LUTS score and nocturnal urine volume/daytime urine volume were significantly lower than those in the control group, single urine, hematuria, urine osmotic pressure ratio and the proportion of bladder capacity levels in experimental groups were significantly higher than those in the control group, the differences were significant (P<0.01). The recurrence rate of the children in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group, and the difference was significant (P<0.05).

Conclusions
The curative effect of Suoquan capsule on children with spleen and kidney deficiency is significantly, and has high security and reference significance.

Key words:
Enuresis; Suoquan capsule; Safety; Follow-up


Three experiments were conducted in healthy middle-aged volunteers (six males and six females in Expt 1, six males and two females in Expt 2 and twelve males in Expt 3) with a mean BMI of 27 kg/m2 to determine whether there is a difference between morning and afternoon dietary fat clearance and utilization, and to determine in what way the fat and starch contents of the meal influence postprandial blood lipid metabolites over 4·5 h. Over 4 days in Expt 1 each subject received isoenergetic, high-carbohydrate (L, 5·5 g mixed fat/meal) and moderately high-fat (M, 33 g mixed fat/meal) breakfasts and lunches, in three combinations (LL, MM, LM), or they fasted at breakfast time and received a high fat lunch (NM) in a randomized and balanced arrangement. Each evening a standard meal was given. The following effects were significant (P<0·05): plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) responses were greater following M meals; plasma TAG concentrations were greater in the afternoon than in the morning, following two meals of the same composition, although the postprandial incremental response was less following lunch than following breakfast and peak responses were reached much earlier than after breakfast; a low-fat breakfast, or fasting at breakfast time, delayed the peak TAG response to a M lunch. The plasma concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and of free glycerol were higher in the afternoon following M meals at breakfast and lunch, especially in males. This response was reduced, by the L breakfast preceding the M lunch. Two M meals in succession lowered plasma HDL-cholesterol concentration. In Expt 2 each subject received a very low-fat (VL) breakfast, followed by a lunch of the same composition. Each of these meals was followed, 110 min from the start of eating, by an infusion of Intralipid 10% emulsion at the rate of 1 ml/kg body weight over 60 s. Clearance rates of Intralipid were faster in the afternoon than in the morning (P= 0·024). In Expt 3 twelve subjects were randomly allocated to either treatment MM or LM meal patterns, as given in Expt 1. These were given daily for a period of 17 d, during which the change in fasting plasma TAG concentration was similar in both treatments. On days 1, 16 and 17 responses were measured to the M lunch and to a glucose tolerance test (GTT), conducted 2 h 17 min after lunch. The post-lunch responses confirmed those found in Expt 1; but immediately following the glucose dose there was an abrupt increase in plasma TAG that was greater in treatment LM than in treatment MM (P= 0·025), whereas plasma NEFA concentration decreased rapidly in both treatments at that time (P = 0·00066)


We propose a distance measuring system based on lateral shearing interferometer (LSI) with extended range of measurement and improved resolution. The sensor is based on a wedge-shaped plate LSI and due to the presence of tilt, a finite number of fringes parallel to the direction of shear appear and hence significant spatial carrier frequency is generated at the focus position. On varying the distance of the object surface from the focus position, the orientation, fractional and integer order, and the width of the interference fringes change. It is shown that the orientation of the fringes is the most sensitive parameter, by means of which one can detect small changes in distance. The Fourier transform method for fringe analysis is used, and from the position of the maxima of the first-order Fourier spectrum the orientation of the fringes and hence the distance is measured. Experimental results of distance measurement by changing the focal length of the lens are presented. A large range of measurement without any fringe ambiguity problem can be achieved using the system.


The English National Health Service is introducing 'Payment by Results' so that hospitals are paid according to the activity they undertake. This should encourage hospitals to increase activity but perhaps to unaffordable levels. Drawing on interviews with NHS staff and documentary evidence, the authors examine local strategies to manage activity and NHS expenditure. These alone cannot be relied upon to control expenditure, and payments themselves should be modified.


The structure of (acetylacetonato-O,O')chloro(η 6 -cyclohepta-1,3,5-triene)ruthenium(II), (Ru(η 6 -C 7 H 8 ){HC(COMe) 2 }Cl], was determined. The Ru atom lies on a crystallographic mirror plane which is coincident with the molecular mirror plane. The geometry at the Ru atom is, as expected for ruthenium(II), approximately octahedral, with O-Ru-Cl and O-Ru-O bond angles of 84.1 (1) and 90.4 (1) o , respectively


In the first few decades of the twentieth century, as the United States asserted itself on the world stage, American women played important roles in the work of diplomacy within the formal U.S. Foreign Service structure. They accompanied their diplomat husbands abroad, as wives and quasi-professional partners in the Service, primarily focusing on the critical social and domestic aspects of diplomatic life abroad.  As these American missions grew in size and complexity during the period from 1900 to 1940, U.S. State Department officials saw the need for additional clerical assistance, and increasingly relied on the work of women, as clerks and stenographers.  As employees of the U.S. State Department, these women also maintained the representative qualities associated with diplomatic work. During this same time period, the U.S. State Department and the Foreign Service in particular remained rather adamantly convinced that American women were "not fitted to discharge the exacting and peculiar duties of a Foreign Service Officer."  Increasing pressure from women's groups resulted in a protracted debate over the suitability of women to serve as official representatives of the U.S. government in overseas positions. This paper will analyze the debates, in the State Department and among American diplomats abroad, about the roles of women as wives, clerks and professional diplomats  in the U.S. Foreign Service during the critical pre-World War II era.


This Article provides a democratic assessment of the corporate lawmaking structure in the United States. It draws upon the basic democratic principle that those affected by legal rules should have a voice in determining the substance of those rules. Although other commentators have noted certain undemocratic aspects of corporate law, this Article aims to present a more comprehensive assessment of the corporate regulatory regime. It departs from prior accounts by looking past the states' role to consider the ways that federal regulation shores up the legitimacy of the overarching structure. This focus on the federal role provides some comfort on a democratic account, but also counsels caution with respect to continuing efforts to limit the scope of the federal role within the corporate governance structure. At the federal level, Congress has chosen to regulate corporate matters by setting broad policy objectives and delegating administrative tasks to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The democratic legitimacy of the corporate regulatory regime thus requires proper respect for the discretion that Congress has vested in the agency.  Associate Professor, Boston College Law School, A.B., Princeton, J.D., Harvard. The author thanks Joan Blum, Lawrence Cunningham, Elizabeth Foote, John Gordon, Ray Madoff, Michael McCann and Vlad Perju for helpful comments on drafts of this Article. The Article also benefited from comments by participants at the panel on Firms, Markets and Social Welfare at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association and at a Boston College Law School Faculty Workshop. Joanne Ricciardiello and Arianna Tunsky provided excellent research assistance. Research support was generously provided by the Perini Family Faculty Research Fund. 1274 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [VOL. 86:1273 This Article therefore urges skepticism toward efforts to constrain the SEC's regulatory role through judicial challenges to its rulemaking authority. It argues that the agency's ability to respond deftly to market crises and scandals has been hampered unnecessarily by a tradition of aggressive judicial review of agency rulemaking. While rooted in concerns for preserving democratic accountability, this tradition has undermined the very values it seeks to protect. Because the procedures for SEC rulemaking comport well with democratic principles, the agency deserves more deference than courts have been willing to allow. The analysis has implications for current proposals to reform regulation of the national financial markets. Calls to reduce or weaken the SEC's role in financial regulation should give pause to those concerned with the democratic integrity of our regulatory processes. It is the SEC's political independence that bolsters its ability to navigate the rough terrain of regulating the powerful industries within its jurisdiction. Enhancing rather than diminishing the agency's independence should be a central element of proposals to reform our financial regulatory system.


In the present work, an autogenous TIG welding technique was used to join 2 mm thick sheets of a TiNi binary shape-memory alloy at three different values of current (80 A, 90 A and 100 A). The effects of the welding current on microstructures, residual stresses, mechanical properties and nano-mechanical behaviour were investigated. Microstructure analysis revealed that with an increase in current, the columnar grain size decreased, which had a significant effect on mechanical properties. The tensile strength of the weldment at 100 A was ∼92% of that base alloy's (BA) and elongation of approx. 14%. The reduction in elongation was due to the formation of Ti2Ni and Ti3Ni4 type precipitates. The microhardness profile in all the weldments showed an increase of approx. 30% between the base alloy and the fusion zone due to the formation of Ti2Ni and Ti3Ni4 type precipitates during welding. Residual stress analysis suggested the tensile residual stresses in the longitudinal direction are minimum in the weldment performed at 100 A. The nanoindentation results revealed that the weldment obtained at 100 A had the least plastic deformation (∼45.5% less than the 80 A weldment) owing to a decrease in inter-dendritic spacing and high proportion of IMCs: Ti2Ni and metastable Ni4Ti3.


Application of thermal diffusion technology to measure the sap flow of Pinus massoniana in serious soil erosion areas in Changting county during the typhoon,the results showed that: typhoon brought high-intensity rainfall and strong winds which suppressed transpiration;the rainfall didn't improve plant availability moisture;photosynthesis and water physiology before and after the typhoon had no significant difference;the sap flow density during the typhoon was significantly related(P0.01) with the environmental factors as: solar radiation,air temperature and vapor pressure deficit,while on sunny days were: air temperature,solar radiation,relative humidity and vapor pressure deficit.Studies have shown that: typhoon did not improve the plant available water,nor destroy the physiological activities of Pinus massoniana.


Aiming at the limitations of the existing saliency detection algorithms in defining saliency features artificially and the poor robustness of the algorithm, a saliency detection algorithm based on deep convolutional neural network was proposed. Firstly, the VGG-16 model used for image classification is modified to make it applicable to significance detection. Then, the network is trained with super-pixel segmentation samples and the initial saliency graph is predicted. Finally, on the basis of preliminary significant image to join the regional contrast, increases significantly the difference of target and background region, further improve the quality of significant image. Compared with the existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm avoids the uncertainty of manually defining significant features, and has stronger robustness and generalization. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated from two aspects of subjective qualitative observation and objective quantitative detection.


For more than two centuries, Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury - royal governer of New York and New Jersey from 1702 to 1708 - has been a despised figure whose alleged transgressions ranged from looting the colonial treasury to public cross-dressing in New York City. Seeking to strip away the many layers of "the Cornbury myth", Patricia Bonomi offers a challenging reassessment of this intriguing figure, royal government, and of the rough and tumble political culture of the first British Empire.


(a) Streptavidin tetramer (left ) was engineered to form a monomer that binds biotin with low nM affi nity (right). (b) HEK293 cells displaying biotinylated CFP (top) were fl uorescently labeled with Alexa 488 conjugated mSA (bottom). Fluorescent images taken at i) t = 0 and ii) 50 min indicate little dissociation of bound mSA. (c) mSA fused to the Z domain was used to form a noncovalent complex with antibody and recruit reactive biotin to a protein of interest, Erk-2. Biotinylated proteins are affi nity purifi ed using immobilized streptavidin and analyzed (e.g. SDS-PAGE, Western blot, mass spectrometry) to identify all proteins that interact with Erk-2.


A 65-year-old man presented with the complaints of a growth on the scalp, which ruptured spontaneously leading to bleeding and foul smelling discharge associated with severe pain. Examination revealed ulceroproliferative growth with slough and surrounding induration, infested with maggots. Histopathological examination revealed proliferating trichilemmal tumor (PTT) with secondary infection. Wide excision of the tumor was done with 1 cm margin all around it. PTT is a benign neoplasm that can rarely undergo malignant transformation thought to originate from trichilemmal cyst. Malignant PTT (MPTT) predominantly affects the scalp, eyelids, neck, and face and the treatment recommended being a wide local excision.


Worldwide, many patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) have already reached adulthood, but reports on the long-term outcome are still sparse. In our clinic population of grown-up CAH patients over 16 years of age, 108 subjects could be evaluated (68 females, 40 males). Simple virilizing CAH (SV-CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD) was present in 56 patients (38 females, 18 males), due to 11-hydroxylase deficiency in 3 patients (1 female, 2 males). Salt-losing 21-OHD (SL-CAH) occurred in 44 patients (24 females, 20 males), late-onset 21-OHD in 5 females. Final height in females was 156.6±5.9 (SD) cm (range:143.0-169.0 cm; n=68). in males 166.9±7.0 cm (range:150.9-181.1 cm; n=40). There was no significant difference between females and males in final height, expressed as standard deviation score (SDS). However, final height in both, females and males, was markedly lower than target height (p<0.0001). For each gender, measured final height did not differ between patients with SL-CAH and those with SV-CAH. Furthermore, younger grown-up CAH patients were not taller than older patients. On average, timing of pubertal development was normal, although menstrual irregularities and decreased testicular volumes were common. We conclude that despite adequate treatment CAH patients do not reach their full height potential.


The Windows Volatile memory maintains information about the various activities on the system such as processes and its threads running, registry key open, user authentication details. This paper details out the technique to identify and extract the last access time of a registry key based on the key control block of the key objects in use by the running process. The paper also details out the technique to locate and extract the value of a registry key in use by the running process. A framework to reconstruct the user activities based on the registry key accessed by the running process is proposed. The methods discussed in this paper have been verified on the 32-bit Windows 7 and Windows 8 volatile memory dump.


Complexation of Cu 2+ with poly(vinyl 2-aminoethyl ether) and copolymer of N-vinylpyrrolidone and vinyl 2-aminoethyl ether in aqueous solutions was studied using the potentiometric titration, viscometry, IR and ESR spectroscopy methods. Formation of complexes having various composition, structure, and stability was established, the properties of the complexes being dependent on the nature of the reacting polyamines, their concentration and pH


The reformer tubes made of HP40Nb used in the conversion stove for hydrogen generation in a petrochemical company experienced burst and firing after being in service for less than 40 000 h.Thus macroscopic examination , surface inspection, mechanical test, together with energy spectrum analysis, metallographic analysis, electron microscope inspection, X-ray diffraction analysis, and stress analysis were conducted to reveal the causes leading to the failure.It was found that the toughness of the reformer tubes was weakened by excessive carbide at crystal boundaries and loose holes contained in material, which led to microcracks.Besides, stress corrosion cracking was initiated between the outlet nozzle and bottom support with large stress in the presence of a large amount of Na+, Cl-, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ in the exterior heat-preservation material of the tubes.Subsequently, leak and firing of No.58 tube first occurred, accompanied by damage of other tubes owing to roasting in the exterior, followed by bulging and final breakage. preventive measures were suggested for future use of the former tubes with respect to those reasons.


Biological organisms have various mechanisms of coping with the dynamical environments in which they live. Recent papers in computational biology show that individuals reside in deferent regions of neutral networks according to environmental variation. This work investigated evolutionary dynamics of GAs in dynamical environments with neutrality using a simple model. The evolutionary dynamics observed were consistent with those observed in the experiments of biological evolution, confirming that the genotype distributions change depending on the rates of environmental variation as well as mutation.


RH50 is required for processing of chloroplast ribosomal RNA and shares several features with the signaling factor GUN1, including intrachloroplast localization, expression profile, and epistatic effects. DEAD-box RNA helicases (DBRHs) modulate RNA secondary structure, allowing RNA molecules to adopt the conformations required for interaction with their target proteins. RH50 is a chloroplast-located DBRH that colocalizes and is coexpressed with GUN1, a central factor in chloroplast-to-nucleus signaling. When combined with mutations that impair plastid gene expression (prors1-1, prpl11-1, prps1-1, prps21-1, prps17-1, and prpl24-1), rh50 and gun1 mutations evoke similar patterns of epistatic effects. These observations, together with the synergistic growth phenotype of the double mutant rh50-1 gun1-102, suggest that RH50 and GUN1 are functionally related and that this function is associated with plastid gene expression, in particular ribosome functioning. However, rh50-1 itself is not a gun mutant, although—like gun1-102—the rh50-1 mutation suppresses the down-regulation of nuclear genes for photosynthesis induced by the prors1-1 mutation. The RH50 protein comigrates with ribosomal particles, and is required for efficient translation of plastid proteins. RH50 binds to transcripts of the 23S-4.5S intergenic region and, in its absence, levels of the corresponding rRNA processing intermediate are strongly increased, implying that RH50 is required for the maturation of the 23S and 4.5S rRNAs. This inference is supported by the finding that loss of RH50 renders chloroplast protein synthesis sensitive to erythromycin and exposure to cold. Based on these results, we conclude that RH50 is a plastid rRNA maturation factor.


This study examined the factors influencing participant engagement in a home visiting program. Specifically, it explored the relationship between dosage and the constituent components of psychological resources: mental health, mastery, and cognitive resources. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted utilising implementation data from a sample (n = 95) of participants in an Irish home visiting program. Psychological resources significantly predicted dosage, yet an investigation of each component found that only cognitive resources remained significant. Furthermore, when considering types of cognitive resources, verbal ability was found to significantly predict the number of home visits but not the average duration of visits. Conversely, perceptual reasoning was found to predict the average duration of home visits but not the number of home visits. These results suggest that cognitive resources may be the driving component behind previous findings that link psychological resources and level of dosage in home visiting programs. Practice and policy implications are explored. C


— Since the reform and opening up, China's economic development has made remarkable achievements, and the people's living standards have been greatly improved. After meeting the basic living needs, residents have begun to seek higher levels of consumer demand. People begin to pay attention to improve personal cultivation, enjoy life reasonably, and cultural consumption, as a high-level consumption demand of people's spirit, gradually comes into people's vision. 19th CPC National Congress's report clearly points out that in order to promote the development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries and meet the new expectations of the people for a better life, rich spiritual food must be provided. Jiangsu Province, as a major economic and cultural province, Have good The foundation of cultural industry development in Jiangsu Province, but there is still insufficient consumption in the development of cultural industry in the whole province. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the development strategy of cultural industry and further guide cultural consumption. It has theoretical value and practical significance to promote cultural consumption in Jiangsu Province .


We reviewed the literature for pediatric patients infected with Naegleria fowleri (N. fowleri) to assess the relationship between patient survival and treatment with hypothermia. A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed to identify studies describing cases of pediatric N. fowleri infections. We identified 47 studies describing 55 pediatric patients (median age 9-years [range: 5 months-16-years]; 22.6% female [12/53]) with a mortality rate of 85.5% (47/55).


[PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , January 1, 2006; 95 (1): 33-41. J Neurophysiol Wendy Kincaid, Miranda J. Neubert, Mei Xu, Chang Jae Kim and Mary M. Heinricher Role for Medullary Pain Facilitating Neurons in Secondary Thermal Hyperalgesia [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , December 16, 2009; 29 (50): 15828-15835. J. Neurosci. Akiko Okada-Ogawa, Frank Porreca and Ian D. Meng Controls in Dura-Sensitive Medullary Dorsal Horn Neurons Sustained Morphine-Induced Sensitization and Loss of Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , August , 2011; 338 (2): 579-587. J Pharmacol Exp Ther and Kazuo Hanaoka Haihua Shu, Masakazu Hayashida, Hideko Arita, Wenqi Huang, Hui Zhang, Ke An, Guiyun Wu -Opioid Receptors in Mice κ Compromised by -Opioid Receptors and μ Pentazocine-Induced Antinociception Is Mediated Mainly by [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , August , 2011; 106 (2): 731-740. J Neurophysiol Nigel P. Pedersen, Christopher W. Vaughan and MacDonald J. Christie the rostral ventromedial medulla in mice Opioid receptor modulation of GABAergic and serotonergic spinally projecting neurons of


A wearable two-antenna system to be integrated on a life jacket and connected to Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) of the Cospas-Sarsat system is presented. Each radiating element is a folded meandered dipole resonating at 406 MHz and includes a planar reflector realized by a metallic foil. The folded dipole and the metallic foil are attached on the opposite sides of the floating elements of the life jacket itself, so resulting in a mechanically stable antenna. The metallic foil improves antenna radiation properties even when the latter is close to the sea surface, shields the human body from EM radiation and makes the radiating system less sensitive to the human body movements. Prototypes have been realized and a measurement campaign has been carried out. The antennas show satisfactory performance also when the life jacket is worn by a user. The proposed radiating elements are intended for the use in a two-antenna scheme in which the transmitter can switch between them in order to meet Cospas-Sarsat system specifications. Indeed, the two antennas provide complementary radiation patterns so that Cospas-Sarsat requirements (satellite constellation coverage and EIRP profile) are fully satisfied.


The twin‐tube Koralm Tunnel with a length of about 32.9 km is the key structure on the new high‐speed line between Graz and Klagenfurt. The Koralm Tunnel passes through the mountain massif of the Koralpe with a maximum overburden of about 1,200 m. The two tunnel bores have a standard inner radius of 3.95 m and run at a spacing of about 40 m, connected by cross‐passages every 500 m. In the middle of the tunnel is an emergency station. Construction works on the main contracts started with the completion of investigation works at the end of 2008. The structure of the tunnel should be completed by 2019 with the start of operation being planned for 2023.


Zr + is implanted into monocrystalline Cu at an energy of 60keV, and with 5×10 16 ,1×10 17 ,2×10 17 ion/cm 2. The TEM analysis shows that Cu 5Zr and CuZr dispersoids phases are obtained, Cu 5Zr and CuZr has the common lattice relationship with crystal plane of the original monocrystalline Cu, and the dispersoids phase increaseds and enlarges with raising of the dose of Zr +. The samples are of high hardness on surface after Zr + implanted.


Agriculture is less becoming the main source of livelihood in rural Nigeria owing to high climatic risks, poor returns to investment and lack of modern tools. Thus, rural households are beginning to diversify their livelihoods from farming into non-farm activities, as alternative income sources. However, investment in non-farm income generating activities that yield higher returns require in most cases credit availability and accessibility. A household's participation in and choice of nonfarm activities is thus expected to vary significantly between those who have access to credit and those who do not. However, recognition of the widespread nature and possibly far-reaching impacts of credit on non-farm income activities is scarce. This study examines the link between credit constraint status of rural households and their choice of nonfarm activities. Descriptive statistics, Probit and Multinomial Logit Regression models were employed for analysis. Results revealed that trading, artisanship and commercial transportation activities were the major non-farm activities engaged in by the households. A household credit constrained status also significantly influenced the choice of non-farm activities. Credit constrained households were more likely to participate in commercial transportation activities relative to other non-farm activities owing to its less capitalintensive nature. Promoting access to credit is thus pertinent and should be of utmost priority in the design of any programme for rural households in Nigeria.


Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Some patients are resistant to interferon-α (IFN-α) treatment, and thus there is urgent need to improve anti-HCV therapies and discover novel therapeutic approaches in the form of new antiviral agents. Using real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and the MTS assay, we examined the suppression of HCV replication and the cytotoxicity of 11 aqueous extracts and eight compounds using Chinese herbs traditionally used for liver protection. Curcuma aromatica Salisb. (Zingiberaceae), Canna indica L. (Cannaceae), and two commercial extracts from Ganoderma tsugae Murr. (Aphyllophoromycetideae), Triterpenoids Enterprise (Shuang Hor Lingzhi®) and Polysaccharides Enterprise (Shuang Hor Supreme Lingzhi®) substantially inhibited HCV replication at 1 mg/ml in Huh-7 human hepatoma cells containing an HCV subgenomic replicon. In addition, HCV-Huh-7 cells treated with a combination of a low dose (10 IU/ml) of IFN-α and 1 mg/ml of one of the four herbal extracts also exhibited significant inhibition of HCV replication. Thus, C. aromatica, C. indica, Triterpenoids Enterprise (Shuang Hor Lingzhi®), and Polysaccharides Enterprise (Shuang Hor Supreme Lingzhi®) are possible sources of potent anti-HCV agents.