The concept of self-schema implies an abstraction of many and varied experiences. It is argued that a self-schema differs from other structural concepts such as scripts and prototypes of persons, which represent abstractions of a more limited range of experience. This difference has implications for remembering information about one's self versus information about situations or other people. According to the levels-of-processing approach to memory, the richer the existing information base involved in cognitive processing, the stronger the memory trace and the higher subsequent retention. It was therefore predicted that self-oriented information would be better remembered than situation-oriented information. This prediction was confirmed in the present study, which utilized the levels of processing incidental learning paradigm.


In order to utilize the existing transmission line to its full capacity Flexible AC Transmission system (FACTS) are used. The power flow control is effective if all the elements of the transmission line must be varied simultaneously or individually. To achieve this, the key appropriate FACTS device is Unified Power Flow controller (UPFC). The use of conventional controllers delays the decision making process to take suitable control action during dynamic conditions. In this paper a fuzzy logic based controller is used to generate supplementary damping signals and to control the shunt converter of IPFC. Two separate neuro-controllers are used for series converter control. Hence coordination between shunt and series converters of UPFC is achieved. The results in MATLAB environment will explain the performance of UPFC during step change of real and reactive powers.


ABSTRACTThis paper is an empirical study determining the relative efficiency position of the Islamic bank of Malaysia, i.e., Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB) and conventional banks of Malaysia during 1992-1996. The paper examines productive and managerial efficiency in the sources and the uses of banks' funds. The weighted ratio approach has been adopted in measuring various types of efficiencies of the banks. The measures of managerial test indicate that the managerial efficiency of the conventional banks is higher than that of the Islamic bank. ANOVA supports our results as the null hypothesis of the equality of means of the two systems is rejected at 5 percent level of significance. The measures of productivity efficiency test, however, show mixed results. The paper is structured as follows: section 1 provides the introduction, objective, methodology and the rationale of this study; section 2 reviews the literature; section 3 defines banking efficiency and develops the analytical tool for measuring efficiency; and section 4 provides empirical evidence and analysis. Conclusions and the scope for future study are presented in section 5.JEL Classification: G210, G320


Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) possess the ability to self‐renew and differentiate into other cell types. Because of their anti‐inflammatory and immunomodulatory abilities, as well as their more ready availability compared to other stem cell sources, MSCs hold great promise for the treatment of many diseases, such as haematological defects, acute respiratory distress syndrome, autoimmunity, cardiovascular diseases, etc. However, immune rejection remains an important problem. MSCs are considered to have low immunogenicity, but they do not have full immunological privilege. This review analyzes and discusses the safety of MSCs from the perspective of their immunogenicity, with the aim of providing a reference for future research and clinical application.


The method based on coherent states representation is developed for investigation of propagation of partially coherent light beams through the micro-lens arrays. Numerical simulations of intensity distributions of a diffracted beam are carried out.


This study aims to improve knowledge of fractured aquifers in the bedrock formations in the Agnibilékrou department (East Côte d'Ivoire). Its main objective is to map the network of fractures in crystalline and metamorphic rocks using an approach integrating remote sensing and geophysics. The processing of Landsat 7 ETM + satellite images made it possible to highlight the lineaments network. The rosettes produced show five (5) predominant directional classes of lineaments which are in order of abundance NW-SE (N120-N150), NS (N0-N10), NE-SW (N40-N60), NNW-SSE (N150 -N180) and NNE-SSW (N10-N40). These directions were confirmed by geophysical work carried out on three sites (3) chosen in the study area. The resistivity and chargeability maps established made it possible to identify certain minor directions on a regional scale. This is the case of the E-W direction (N80-N100) observed in Mossikro and N'guessankro. The fracturing density map produced showed a spatial variability of the fractures. The positioning of certain holes already drilled on the fractures testifies to the presence of groundwater. These fractures could therefore constitute interesting aquifers for the supply of drinking water to populations. Key Word:Landsat 7 ETM + images; electrical methods; fractures; aquifer; Agnibilékrou -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 01-03-2020 Date of Acceptance: 16-03-2020 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Review the renewal of national legal systems there are big problems in the national legal system that is ius constitutum (problem of "Law Enforcement) & ius constituendum (problem of" law reform / development "). Fiduciary, as one of national law in practice raises many legal issues including the lack of legal certainty and legal protection, conflict norms, norms inconsistencies and disclaimers norm by economic actors in Fiduciary Law which causes ineffective in law enforcement. Reconstruction on fiduciary legal system becomes very urgent in the national legal reform for the realization of ideals of Pancasila pillared national law is the existence of legal certainty and justice for all stakeholders in economic activity.


Coastal areas around the world are experiencing a rise in sea level due to the effects of global warming. As a large percentage of the world's population resides within the coastal zone, the rise in sea level is placing evermore developments and people at risk, consequently increasing the demand for more effective coastal defence structures. One of the most common types of coastal defence structures are seawalls, which reduce or prevent wave overtopping and flooding of the landward side of the structure. These structures are often designed as vertical impermeable walls with high crests to ensure protection against overtopping. However, these designs are not always favourable as the high crest levels often obstruct the view of the sea. Recurve seawalls provide the solution, as they reduce wave overtopping without excessively compromising the sea view. However, existing guidelines for the design and research on the effectiveness of different recurve seawalls are very limited. This project aims to determine the effectiveness of different overhang forms of recurve seawalls on reducing wave overtopping. In order to achieve the objective of this study, the performance of different recurve forms in reducing wave overtopping was evaluated by conducting overtopping tests in a physical model. The model was constructed in a glass wave flume equipped with a piston-type wave paddle. A total number of 147 tests with varying water levels and wave periods were conducted for five different overhang forms, providing a comprehensive set of results which were analysed to determine the most effective overhang form. Analysis of the findings clearly indicated that the shape of the overhang has a strong influence on the overtopping reduction capabilities of a recurve seawall. It was found that the concave shape with a squared overhanging edge offered the most reduction in overtopping, when compared with the performances of the remaining forms. For the high relative freeboard cases (large difference between crest level and water level), small amounts of overtopping were observed as a result of colliding incident and reflected waves. These overtopping events constituted mainly of white water spray which were negligibly small but should be treated with caution as the presence of an onshore wind, which was not modelled in this study, could have a significant influence on the amount of overtopping. In addition, it was found that overtopping generally increases with an increase in the wave return angle of the recurve. When comparing the two different concave recurves tested, the Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za


Anatomical guide for the electromyographer : the limbs and trunk:E-Book / , Anatomical guide for the electromyographer : the limbs and trunk:E-Book / , کتابخانه دیجیتال جندی شاپور اهواز


In Thailand, 30 years ago, when I started my career as the first medical oncologist at the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, cancer was considered to be an incurable disease and treatment with chemotherapy was generally considered ineffective. In the Department of Medicine, the only cancers that received chemotherapy were the haematological malignancies, and these were treated by haematologists. Solid tumours such as breast, lung and colorectal cancers were treated by surgeons and radiation therapists. During that period there was a limited number of chemotherapeutic agents available and no good supportive medicines such as the new antiemetics and growth factor support. In the West, medical oncology was established in USA and Europe around 1960 and this initiative led to many improvements in cancer care, especially in cancer research.

In 1986, there were only two medical oncologists in Thailand. I myself worked at the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University; the other one worked at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bangkok. Both of us had started working in oncology in Thailand at the same period.We took care of cancer patients with chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, giving several lectures and organising conferences together with the surgeons and radiation oncologists. Under the support of WHO …


It is apparent that the mechanism underlying comodulation masking release (CMR) relies on the existence of temporal fluctuations in the masker envelope. This raises the question of how much fluctuation is necessary to facilitate CMR. The present experiment addresses this question by measuring psychometric functions relating signal threshold to depth of flanker band modulation using sinusoidally amplitude‐modulated pure tones as masker components. In the first set of conditions, the on‐frequency component had a constant modulation depth of 100%, while the depth of the flanking components was varied between 100% and 0%. As expected, signal threshold improved monotonically as depth of flanker band modulation increased. In the second set of conditions, the on‐frequency component had a constant modulation depth of 63%, while the depth of the flanking components was either 100%, 63%, or 0%. Results to date suggest that signal threshold is lowest when the flanking components have the same depth of modulation as ...


Summary form only given. Slow light has achieved great progress in waveguide and fibers in room temperature, which could be accelerating the transition of this technique to applications. This talk will review devising methods for tailoring the dispersion of optical materials, such as electromagnetically induced transparency, photonic crystals, and nano-optic resonators over the last decade. And the potential applications of slow light for optical buffering, data synchronization, optical memories, and optical signal processing will be cataloged. Then the interaction between slow light and Sagnac effect is discussed. The concept of the Sagnac effect in a slow-light medium and resonator structure with high group dispersion is investigated. It is found that a slow-light medium can be utilized for relative motion sensing, and a slow-light resonator structure is suitable to detect absolute rotation for navigation purposes. It is noted that the high group dispersion leads to a huge enhancement of the rotation sensor's sensitivity in a resonating structure, and an approach to evaluate and design resonator devices with slow-light property is proposed. Moreover, a folded loop-lattice-based structure is numerically simulated to verify the concept.


Support Vector Machine is one of the most popular, promising and well-known machine learning tools for classification, regression and novelty detection. The performance of SVM totally depends on its core component of kernel functions like linear, polynomial and radial basis function (RBF). Conventional kernel functions have advantages and drawbacks so it is very difficult to give an excellent performance while using only one kernel function for the large nonlinear dataset to nonlinear mapping from original input space to a high dimensional space. For this reason, in this paper, we proposed a hybrid kernel function combining polynomial and RBF kernel function and data preprocessing algorithms to reduce noisy data for increasing learning ability and generalization performance. These two factors jointly improve the performance of SVM. To validate our proposed model, we used two different nonlinear breast cancer and heart disease datasets with different characteristics. The proposed method achieved the accuracies of 98.55%, 99.47% and 98.36% along with the sensitivity of 100% in the testing phase of these three datasets respectively. The simulation result shows that its performance is better than that of other SVMs constructed by ordinary kernel functions and existing methods.


The pyrolysis of vegetable oil waste is an alternative way to convert biomass into high-quality second-generation biofuels, with social, economic and environmental sustainability. The present work deals with the pyrolysis of oleic acid as a model compound and an industrial vegetable oil residue on CuNiAl mixed oxide catalysts, derived from layered double hydroxides. Reactions of the oils pre-adsorbed on the catalysts (catalyst:oil mass ratio of 5:1) were performed at 550 °C on a micro-pyrolysis system and the analyses of volatile products were carried out online using GC/MS. Copper addition to NiAl catalysts increased the cracking of oleic acid. Increasing copper content also decreased the formation of aromatics and coke precursors, as well as oxygenated compounds. The CuNiAl catalyst with a Cu/Ni ratio of 0.4 showed strong catalytic activity in the conversion of an industrial vegetable oil residue with a high volume of free fatty acids produced. Compared to the non-catalytic reaction, the catalyst reduced the content of oxygenates and increased the content of hydrocarbons, particularly in the gasoline range (C5–C9). The CuNiAl oxide catalyst was able to convert vegetable oil residues into hydrocarbons in the range of gasoline, kerosene and diesel, and also linear alkylbenzenes as chemical precursors for surfactant production.


As a prerequisite of developing muscle biofeedback system which can simulate analogous isokinetic exercise, the purpose of this study was to study the effects of frequency and amplitude of whole-body vibration on the difference in sEMG on lower extremities during leg press exercise with/without vibration. The amplitude of vibration was set to 20, 50, 80 and the frequency of vibration was set to 10, 20, 30, and 50 ㎐. EMG were measured at Vastus lateralis muscle and Vastus medialis muscle. MP100 EMG module(BIOPAC system Inc., USA) was used for EMG measurement. The result showed that the combination of frequency of 30㎐ and amplitude of 50 had more activated EMG than other combination with relatively small work load (30㎏). It is necessary to experiment the frequency between 20 and 40㎐ in detail, and to normalize sEMG using maximal voluntary contraction (MVC).


In the present paper we focus on the two best organised ancient Greek federations the Achaean and the Aetolian. Both were democratic ones. We analyse their institutional structure, decision making bodies, and finances. Then, we compare them to the present European Union (EU) and point out similarities and differences. Lastly, we attempt an evaluation of the two federations and the EU according to a set of criteria, such as the existence or not of direct democratic procedures, single citizenship, common currency, common defense policy etc. We conclude that the present European Union lags behind the Greek democratic federations according to a series of institutional criteria and thus, it has a long way to go in order to develop into a true federation.


journal of the motherhood initiative 209 In Modern Motherhood: An American History, historian Jodi Vandenberg-Daves lays out a broad story of motherhood in America from pre-revolutionary Puritan mingling of reproductive and productive labor, to early twenty-first century work-life balance and attachment parenting. The volume draws on myriad historical studies and surveys related to motherhood, women, the family, and children in American history in order to present a chronological narrative that situates motherhood as an institution and a practice within the larger ideological forces of citizenship, gender, race, class, science, and progress. Though its ambitious scope leads to some inevitable imbalances, the volume's greatest strength lies in its successful contextualization of the idea and practice of motherhood within the complicated discursive intersects of American history. The book is presented in three chronological sections, each of which is organized thematically by chapters. Part i covers the "roots" of modern motherhood in America from the pre-modern world of the English colonies through most of the nineteenth century. In this section, Vandenberg-Daves clearly lays out the origins and development of the ideology of moral motherhood and its conflicting coexistence with the experience of mothers in slavery and institutionalized racism, while also addressing the emerging medical profession's engagement with the maternal body. Part ii examines the rise of "modern" motherhood from 1890 to 1940, during which the ideal of scientific motherhood took center stage before the modern altar of science and progress. This section examines the paternalism of expert mothering advice and public policy that distinguished between the "fit" and "unfit" mother, and the various strategies for adaptation and survival generated within the lived experience of these mothers. In Part iii, which examines these ideas from World War ii to the present, Vandenberg-Daves traces mainstream narratives of motherhood from the submissive and psychologically problematic suburban housewife of the fifties, to the harried and guilt-ridden working mother of today. Within each chapter Vandenberg-Daves seeks to balance the white middle class motherhood ideal with a presentation of historical research into the lived experiences of all American women. As she examines the shaping of the institution of motherhood through its discursive interaction with religion, the state, the patriarchal family, science, race, and class, she also strives to Modern Motherhood: An American History


The crop plants of the family Leguminosae are second to cereal crops of commercial importance on the basis of area harvested and total production worldwide. It is well known globally that many crops do not give good yield due to certain diseases existing in their plants. Nowadays, there is much emphasis on developing disease resistant varieties of crops and especially of commercial crops. Plants need to protect themselves against attack from viruses, microbes, invertebrates and even other plants. NBS-LRR (Nucleotide binding site-leucine rich repeats) genes belong to the largest plant disease resistance gene family and are responsible for plant resistance to pathogens. Studies of the NBS-LRR gene family in plants represent an intriguing challenge and can provide knowledge on the genomic and molecular mechanisms that form the basis of gene regulation and protein function. Their evolution at the gene and genomic level can be defined through ancient and numerous gene families. In the present study, beneficial concepts for generating basic and fundamental knowledge on the NBS-LRR plant disease resistance genes are discussed with emphasis on selected legume plants of commercial importance.


In the new situation, to strenthen and improve the study atmosphere in national colleges and universities has become a necessary requirement in improving the quality of teaching or education and accomlishing their own unconventional leaping development. And it has also become an important and urgent task in the development of national higher education. Combining some new problems and new contradictions exposed in the construction of study atmosphere in national colleges, this article makes an elementary probe into strenthening and improviag the construction of study to make a further improvement on the teaching quality of the colleges and universities and to promote the development and prosperity of the higher education of the whole nation.


Because the reservoir stratum in low permeability oilfield has a small pore throat,it has strict requirements for the quality of injection water in the process of waterflood development.It means that oily sewage advanced treatment is critical and one of key points in water purification(oil and soliquoid removing).In view of oily sewage characteristics and perniciousness in Jianghan Oilfield,this paper presents the necessity of water quality advanced treatment,analyzes the application of two fine filtration treatment technologies with fiber bundle and metallic membrane and accordingly puts forward some suggestions on their applicability so as to provide the basis for improving injection water quality in low permeability reservoir.


Ensemble recording methods are pervasive in basic and clinical neuroscience research. Invasive neural implants are used in patients with drug resistant epilepsy to localize seizure origin, in neuropsychiatric or Parkinson's patients to alleviate symptoms via deep brain stimulation, and with animal models to conduct basic research. Studies addressing the brain's physiological response to chronic electrode implants demonstrate that the mechanical trauma of insertion is followed by an acute inflammatory response as well as a chronic foreign body response. Despite use of invasive recording methods with animal models and humans, little is known of their effect on behavior in healthy populations.


Space exploration has extended the boundaries of biological investigations beyond the Earth to other planets, moons, comets, meteorites, and space at large. This field is covered by the new multidiscipline of astrobiology which has focused on the different steps of evolutionary pathways through cosmic history that are related to the origin, evolution and distribution of life on Earth, or elsewhere in the universe. The over-riding objective of astrobiological research has been to attain a better understanding of the principles leading to the emergence of life from inanimate matter, its evolution, and its distribution, thereby building the foundations for the construction and testing of meaningful axioms to support a theory of life. In the endeavor to quest for life on other celestial bodies of our solar system or beyond, clues can be gained from the history of our own biosphere and its strategies to adapt to changing and even "extreme" environmental conditions. Assuming water in liquid phase as universal prerequisite for habitability, the neighbor planet Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa are now favored targets of astrobiological research. 1 Astrobiology, a Multidisciplinary Approach Astrobiology is a relatively new research area that addresses questions that have intrigued humans for a long time: "How did life originate?", "Are we alone in the Universe?", and "What is the future of life on Earth and in the Universe ?" They are jointly tackled by scientists converging from widely different fields, reaching from astrophysics to molecular biology and from planetology to ecology, among others. Whereas classical biological research has concentrated on the only example of "life" so far known, i.e. life on Earth, astrobiology extends the boundaries of biological investigations beyond the Earth, to other planets, comets, meteorites, and space at large. Focal points are the different steps of the evolutionary pathways through cosmic history that may be related to the origin, evolution and distribution of life. In the interstellar medium, as well as in comets and meteorites, complex organics in huge reservoirs are detected that eventually may provide the chemical ingredients Reviews in Modern Astronomy 19. Edited by S. Roser Copyright © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN: 3-527-40662-X


The Old Lyme Marina, in Connecticut, was looking for a state-of-the-art storage facility utilizing cutting edge technology where possible. The engineer used a unique radiant heated floor system with steel fibers that set it apart from other facilities of this type. Old Lyme Marina concurred with the concept of using the most advanced techniques and materials possible. This article highlights some of the unique features of the Old Lyme Marina's new slab on ground, which are significantly different from typical storage facilities. While steel fibers have been used with radiant heated floors in Europe, it is believed that this application is the first of its kind in North America.


This paper presents the results of a laboratory study of a clayey soil (kaolin) reinforced by sand columns. The work highlights the influence of the construction method on the mechanical behavior of stone columns modeled with sand. The sand columns were installed by replacement and displacement methods with or without compaction. Several columns were formed using different compaction forces during their installation. The influence of the compaction force during the construction was subsequently analyzed. Finally, reinforced soil specimens were subjected to a vertical loading to assess the influence of a compaction force on the hydro-mechanical behavior of the soil/column complex.


Earlier this year, the PontificaL Biblical Commission published the English translation of the document, The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, the result of five years of research and deliberation. A member of the commission outlines the history of the document, and discusses its import.


Nowadays, educational technology is gaining popularity in the learning environment. E-learning has become an essential tool for teaching and learning. Many researches have been carried out to investigate the effectiveness of e-learning. One of the areas of interest is consideration given to the development of collaborative activities outside the classrooms, which enables students to learn together. This research looks at collaborative learning in a learning environment to assist learners to do homework and projects. The purpose of the study is to compare the essential features on three existing collaborative software from Secondary and Pre-University learner's and teachers' view. The three software are Atutor, Moodle, and Sakai. The learners and teachers are willing to consider this learning method for their studies and work. The instruments used to gather data are interviews and also a survey which comprise of two printed questionnaires for both learners and teachers. The data collected are then subjected to statistical analysis. The findings gathered and analyzed in Educational Complex of Imam Khomeini in Kuala Lumpur are found to satisfy the involvement of collaborative learning at home. Collaborative learning can be put into practice to enhance learning and teaching. The respondents perceived the positive effect of collaborative learning features tested. Generally, the respondents are willing to consider Collaborative learning to do their homework and projects together for better learning effectiveness. Lastly, a comparison between the three existing systems is reported.


S. Brunner and S. Urenje, Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable Development, Visby, 2012, 138 pages. ISBN: 978-91-637-1218-0 Material can also be downloaded at: www.swedesd.se/publications/downloads/viewcategory/1-the-parts-and-the-whole-a-holistic-approach-to-environmental-and-sustainability-education


Face gear dynamics is addressed by many scholars, and vibration suppression of face gear drives is always one of study focuses of face gear dynamics. However, vibration active control solutions of face gear drives are still yet to be constructed. Thus, in the study, a web active control solution of face gear drives, in which face gear web structures are employed to achieve static transmission error active control, is proposed, and a web circumference deformation calculation solution is constructed, as well as a four-degrees of freedom dynamic model of face gear drives is established, and two version control methods of static transmission error are presented. Furthermore, an example case of face gear drives associated with the proposed web active control solution is simulated. The results indicate that effects of the proposed web active control solution on dynamic behaviors of face gear drives are significant, and the fidelity of the proposed web active control solution could be accepted. These contributions would benefit to improve face gear vibrations and engineering applications of face gear drives.


The invention discloses a handle structure applicable to a hose component of a vacuum cleaner. The handle structure is characterized in that a handle is provided with an integrated air passage, and a conductive connecting structure and an electrical control structure are arranged on two sides of the integrated air passage, respectively. The handle structure is simpler in structure, has guaranteed connection and sealing, saves handle space and meets the requirements of safety regulation.


To the Editor: We read with great interest the article by Choi et al., published online in February 2020, describing the use of contrast-enhanced harmonic endoscopic ultrasound (CH-EUS) for guidance and monitoring of EUS-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of solid abdominal tumors. The authors reported good results using CH-EUS in guiding the treatment of 19 patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (n=13), pancreatic solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (n=2), pancreatic insulinoma (n=1), adrenal adenomas (n=2) and adrenal metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma (n=1). At the 1-year follow-up, a complete response was achieved in 68.4% of cases, with a moderate complication rate (two cases of acute pancreatitis, one mild and one moderate). In particular, CH-EUS proved useful in assessing early therapeutic responses and in targeting residual viable lesions susceptible to additional RFA sessions. In our experience, CH-EUS was successfully used to guide ablation with ethanol injection of a 14-mm hepatocellular carcinoma. The lesion was located in the deep subcapsular portion of hepatic segment 2 in a 76-year-old female patient with contraindications to surgery, in whom percutaneous ablation was considered unfeasible due to the interposition of vascular structures. The procedure was well tolerated without adverse events. Forty days later, follow-up with CH-EUS showed a tiny 3 mm residual vascularization component at the periphery of the previously treated area. In the same session, it was possible to ablate the residual area with an additional ethanol injection under CH-EUS guidance. Follow-up at 20 months with computed tomography showed neither local nor distant recurrence. Recently, Jiang and Chai reported EUS-guided laser ablation of adrenal metastasis from pancreatic cancer, and Mangiavillano et al. reported EUS-guided RFA for colon cancer recurrence around the anastomotic site. In both cases, CH-EUS was used for identifying remnant tumor after ablation. CH-EUS has also been used to guide EUS tissue acquisition. A large retrospective study showed that adequate specimens in the CH-EUS-guided fine needle aspiration group (96.6%) was greater than that in the conventional EUS group (97% vs 87%, respectively). Kamata et al. demonstrated that avascular areas seen by CH-EUS were a predictor of inadequate specimens after EUS-fine needle acquisition in up to 27% of cases. Additionally, Yamashita et al. found that CH-EUS could be used for predicting the efficacy of chemotherapy in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. The patients were divided into two groups according to the intratumoral vessel flow observed with CH-EUS, showing that the greater the vascularization of the tumors, the better were the response to chemotherapy and overall survival. CH-EUS has increasingly gained acceptance in clinical practice, ranging from the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer to the differential diagnosis of lymphadenopathy and gastric subepithelial tumors. As far as EUS-guided tumor treatment is concerned, we believe that CH-EUS offers a unique advantage by allowing for the analysis of intratumoral vessels that are not detected with B-mode. In this respect, the arterial phase is crucial for evaluation, as viable tumor tissue will be visible a few seconds after contrast agent injection. When CH-EUS is performed after EUS-guided ablation, it may show either complete absence of vascular areas, compatible with effective treatment, or residual enhanced areas suggestive of persistent tumor that needs further ablation.


Codes correcting/detecting unidirectional byte errors are investigated. It is shown that such codes have the capability of correcting combinations of bidirectional and unidirectional byte errors and code constructions. These are derived from the combination of two codes. One is a code for encoding the Hamming weights of data bytes and is used to estimate error locations. The other is a byte-error-correcting code for error evaluation. Moreover, the authors describe a decoding procedure for the codes, correcting combinations of bidirectional and unidirectional byte errors. The constructions provide many efficient codes of short length. For example, when a byte consists of 32 bits, a systematic code can be constructed with 61 information bytes and 3 check bytes that has the capability of correcting a single bidirectional byte error for double unidirectional byte errors, whereas the best known double-byte-error-correcting code requires 4 check bytes. >


What has happened to our nation since the 1960s and 1970s? The quest for racial equality appears to be rapidly dissipating. Blatant pre-civil rights racism has been replaced by a more virulent, yet camouflaged, form of racial bigotry.


Editor,—Retinal vascular occlusions in young adults are seen very infrequently and are generally associated with systemic disorders.1 Diagnosis of the underlying disease is very important because of treatment and prevention of recurrence.2 We report two cases initially presenting with systemic neurological disease. Both developed retinal vascular occlusions and the diagnosis of the underlying cause was only made afterwards.

### CASE REPORTS

A 30 year old, obese woman presented to the neurologist with acquired perceptive deafness, a tetrapyramidal syndrome, with gait problems and urinary incontinence. Multiple sclerosis was considered, but cerebral magnetic resonance imaging scan showed only atypical lesions. Symptoms gradually decreased without disappearing completely. Six months later an occlusion of the retinal nasal inferior artery occurred in the right eye, visual acuity was 20/20 in both eyes (Fig …


We report for the calculation of the electronic singlet and triplet states in Ba0,6K0.4Bi03 by a discretized path integral molecular dynamics which includes quantum indistinguishability. We show that two nonpolarized electrons form a bound complex within a single Bi ion. Two polarized electrons are located on different Bi sites. The singlet-triplet splitting is found to be -0.6 eV.


Background: Previous research shows that patients in palliative care want to get back to their everyday lives before the disease and do not want to be associated with the disease. Patients fear tha ...


Large and near-linear Stark shifts of the electron-heavy-hole ground state excitonic transition were observed in photoluminescence (PL) measurements for a two-step quantum-well (TSQW) structure. The Stark shift was 40 meV while a corresponding square well shifted only 20 meV at a field of 70 kV/cm. The observed Stark shifts agreed well with calculations. The large Stark shift of the TSQW was achieved on a global-to-local state transition realized via tailor-made quantum well (QW) parameters. This structure is an ideal candidate for optoelectronic devices based on the quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE).<<ETX>>


Using an impact parameter tag to select an enriched sample of $Z \rightarrow b \overline{b}$ events, we have measured the difference between the average charged multiplicity of $Z \rightarrow b \overline{b}$ and $Z^0 \rightarrow hadrons$ to be $\overline{n}_{b} - \overline{n}_{had} = 2.24\pm 0.30(\rm{stat.}) \pm 0.33(\rm{syst.})$ tracks per event. {}From this, we have derived $\overline{n}_{b} - \overline{n}_{uds} = 3.31 \pm 0.41 \pm 0.79.$ Comparing this measurement with those at lower center-of-mass energies, we find no evidence that $\overline{n}_{b} - \overline{n}_{uds}$ depends on energy. This result is in agreement with a precise prediction of perturbative QCD, and supports the notion that QCD remains asymptotically free down to the scale $M_b^2$.


This study investigates the topological behavior of an elastic phononic structure characterized by Kekule distortion. The truss-like elastic waveguide consists of a hexagonal unit cell whose geometric dimensions are intentionally perturbed according to a Kekule scheme. The resulting structure exhibits an effective Hamiltonian that resembles a quantum spin Hall system, hence suggesting that the waveguide can support helical topological edge states. This study also reveals the existence of finer structures including frequency splitting of pseudospin states in Kekule distorted lattices as well as their 6-lobe alternating pattern. Important insights are also provided concerning the, so far considered, topologically indistinguishable states in Kekule lattices and their connection to the existence of gapless edge states.


Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy and most common cause of cancer-related death in women worldwide. Despite advances in the treatment of early breast cancer, approximately 20% 30% of patients will relapse with distant metastases. Metastatic breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with a variety of clinical presentations ranging from a single metastatic lesion to diffuse and multiple organ involvement. The risk of recurrence and the distinct patterns of metastatic spread are not only in luenced by stage at initial presentation, but are also associated with the molecular subtype of the primary tumour.


The Summary of the Symposium on Criminal Cases of Environmental Pollution in 2019 has important normative and guiding significance for criminal justice of environmental pollution, further clarifies the judicial concept of recognizing the objective elements of environmental pollution by carrying out the protection purpose of ecological legal interests, clearly identifies the subjective fault of environmental pollution based on responsibility doctrine and the attempt of dealing with environmental pollution based on objectivism. Criminal forms, based on the actual results of environmental pollution to deal with environmental pollution related to illegal business and the release of dangerous substances and other criminal cooperation phenomenon.


Objectives: YouTube is well known for providing easy access to various kinds of video content. In this study, we investigated the quality and reliability of videos on YouTube addressing exercise or dysphagia management in the pediatric population. Methods: Video quality and reliability were assessed by using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and a modified DISCERN tool, respectively. The accuracy of the information in each video was also evaluated. Other information, including the video source, length, date of upload, as well as the number of views, likes, dislikes, and comments were investigated, and statistical significance was determined. Results: In total, 22 videos on exercises and dysphagia management in pediatric populations were evaluated; 36.4% and 72.7% of these videos did not have high quality or reliability, respectively. Moreover, half of the videos did not contain accurate information. Even when videos were created by medical specialists, many of these YouTube videos were of low quality, reliability, and accuracy. Conclusions: The reliability, quality, and accuracy of many videos on exercise or dysphagia management in the pediatric population were low. Video creators, especially medical specialists, should strive to create videos with high quality, reliability, and accuracy.


Abstract. Nankai–Tonankai megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis pose significant risks to coastal communities in western and central Japan. Historically, this seismic region hosted many major earthquakes, and the current national tsunami hazard assessments in Japan consider megathrust events as those having moment magnitudes between 9.0 and 9.1. In responding to the lack of rigorous uncertainty analysis, this study presents an extensive tsunami hazard assessment for the Nankai–Tonankai Trough events, focusing on the southwestern Pacific region of Japan. A set of 1000 kinematic earthquake rupture models is generated via stochastic source modelling approaches, and Monte Carlo tsunami simulations are carried out by considering high-resolution grid data of 10 m and coastal defence structures. Significant advantages of the stochastic tsunami simulation methods include the enhanced capabilities to quantify the uncertainty associated with tsunami hazard assessments and to effectively visualize the results in an integrated manner. The results from the stochastic tsunami simulations can inform regional and local tsunami risk reduction actions in light of inevitable uncertainty associated with such tsunami hazard assessments and complement conventional deterministic tsunami scenarios and their hazard predictions, such as those developed by the Central Disaster Management Council of the Japanese Cabinet Office.


In this chapter various TGD based ideas related to the role of super-conductivity in biosystems are studied. TGD inspired theory of consciousnses provides several motivations for


The dermal and endochondral shoulder girdle of the Early Permian osteolepid rhipidistian fish Ectosteorhachis nitidus Cope is described from well preserved, uncrushed fossil material. The scapulo-coracoid of Ectosteorhachis differs from that of other Rhipidistia in the very strong development of the anterior buttress and the relatively weak development of the dorsal buttress (new terms). The powerful construction and oblique orientation of the scapulo-coracoid suggest that Ectosteorhachis was able partially to support the weight of its trunk in semiterrestrial locomotion and was capable of more amphibious behavior than other known Rhipidistia.


When studying the Associated Procedure of Administration in the United States, we cannot divide its evolution from the changing social demands at that time. This paper analyzes its progress and probes into its enlightenment to the legislation of administrative process, including the code proceedings and the connection between codes and state conditions in our country.


Abstract Presented in this article is a scaled model of a hybrid-source autonomous electric microgrid, which is developed using a Real Time Digital Simulator, to provide a laboratory-level research facility on renewable energy-based electric microgrid systems. Three energy sources: a pico-hydropower emulator, a diesel engine emulator and a wind turbine emulator; are inter-connected at a point of common coupling, with the hybridized source supplying an aggregate of electrical load. A control scheme is developed that employs the synchronous machine-based pico-hydropower emulator as grid-forming source, while the other two sources feed the grid-former. Since models demonstrated with simulated weather data and load demand profiles may not accurately represent the operational behaviours of the actual system in the real-world scenario, a real-life wind speed profile is implemented on the wind turbine emulator to investigate the behaviours of the lab-microgrid under a near-real-world operating scenario. Balance reactive power flow is established among the three source emulators as a result of which the frequencies of the emulators are synchronized. A proper fault ride-through characteristic is also exhibited by the system. These show that the near-real-world behaviours of the lab-microgrid closely match the operational performance of the actual microgrid in the real-world scenario. The application could, therefore, be adopted as an affordable laboratory tool in research activities and as an instructional kit in teaching on the autonomous microgrid.


The neutral sphingomyelinase (nSMase) family is a group of enzymes that catalyzes the conversion of sphingomyelin to ceramide in a pH dependent manner. Sphingomyelinase activity and sphingolipid signaling play a role in the regulation of cellular processes. Our current data suggest that a novel, muscle‐specific neutral sphingomyelinase, nSMase3, may regulate muscle cell size. Overexpression of nSMase3 in C2C12 myotubes causes a decrease in myotube density, while treatment with an nSMase3 siRNA causes an increase in myotube density. MicroRNA‐133 (miR‐133) is a muscle‐specific small RNA molecule that has roles in proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts. A sequence within the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of nSMase3 contains a predicted miR‐133 binding site. We hypothesize that miR‐133 inhibits nSMase3 translation and therefore plays a role in its regulation of cell size. In support of our hypothesis, expression of miR‐133 progressively increased while nSMase3 protein levels decreased during myotube differentiation. To test our hypothesis, a luciferase reporter gene containing the 3′ UTR of nSMase3 was cloned and used in a transient transfection assay. Co‐transfection of the reporter gene and miR‐133 decreased luciferase activity. These data suggest that miR‐133 is capable of regulating the expression of nSMase3 and, thus, may have a role in the regulation of muscle size.


The genus Steccherinum was established by S. F. Gray2 on Hydnum ochraceum Pers. as the type. In Persoon's herbarium, now preserved in the University of Leyden, there is a specimen marked in what is believed to be Persoon's hand: "Hydnum ochraceum (junius? resupinatum) Prope Parisios." The specimen has been peeled from the substratum and glued tight to the sheet, hymenial surface down. It is nearly wholly resupinate, the margin being only slightly reflexed. In consistency of substance and character of teeth, so far as they could be made out, the specimen appeared to be identical with American plants commonly referred to this species. As we have observed the plant in this country it presents a considerable degree of variation, from very thin sheets with slightly reflexed margins to much thicker layers with distinct prominent pilei. The typical form of the plant as suggested by Persoon's specimen and figure,3 as well as by Sowerby's figure of Hydnum Daviesii,4 believed to be a synonym, compared with our American plants most nearly like these, appears to be a thin, separable, membranous subiculum more or less reflexed at the margin into numerous thin flabelliform pilei. This typical form of the plant does not appear to be common with us and is usually found on the lower side of large prostrate limbs, spreading upward on the sides of the substratum until compelled to become reflexed to preserve the plagiotropic position of the hymenium. A more common form with us has a thicker subiculum and is usually found growing on the vertical side of standing trunks of various


Background.  New clinical guidelines (CGs) for ovarian cancer in the western health care region in Sweden were established, beginning in September 1993 and still in effect.


A multi term theory for solving the Boltzmann equation and a Monte Carlo simulation technique are used to calculate electron transport coefficients in the mixtures of CF3I and SF6 as a function of the applied electric field. The calculated transport coefficients are then used as an input in the fluid equation based models to investigate the transition from an electron avalanche into a streamer and streamer propagation. Electron transport coefficients are also calculated in radio-frequency electric and magnetic fields crossed at arbitrary phases and angles. A multitude of kinetic phenomena induced by the synergism of the magnetic field and electron attachment is observed and discussed using physical arguments.


We propose a new technique for the estimation of multidimensional evaluation functions. Technical advances allow nonparametric inference on the joint distribution of continuous and discrete indicators of well-being, such as income and health, conditional on joint values of other continuous and discrete attributes, such as education and geographical groupings. In a multiattribute setting, "quantiles" are "frontiers" that define equivalent sets of covariate values. We identify these frontiers nonparametrically at first. Then we suggest "parametrically equivalent" characterizations of these frontiers that reveal likely, but different, weights for and substitutions between different attributes for different groups, and at different quantiles. These estimated parametric functionals are "ideal" in a certain sense which we make clear. They correspond directly to measures of aggregate well-being popularized in the earliest multidimensional inequality measures in Maasoumi (1986). This new approach resolves a classic problem of assigning weights to dimensions of well-being, as well as empirically incorporating the key component in multidimensional analysis, the relationship between the attributes. It introduces a new way to robust estimation of "quantile frontiers", allowing "complete" assessments, such as multidimensional poverty measurements. We discover massive heterogeneity in individual evaluation functions. This leads us to perform robust, weak uniform rankings as afforded by nonparametric tests for stochastic dominance. A demonstration is provided based on the Indonesian data analyzed for multidimensional poverty in Maasoumi & Lugo (2008).


The competition between innovative and generic pharmaceutical companies has intensified in the last decade. Generic medicines have very important role in the development of a sustainable and accessible healthcare system. On the other hand, innovations should be stimulated to maintain and improve the quality of health care. Finding the balance between pharmacotherapy and pharmacoeconomy is one of the key challenges of the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare policies.


The latest application status of chitosan fiber in textile industry is summarized. The problems and shortage of chitosan fiber production in China are analyzed. The development prospects of this fiber is forecasted.


AIM
Conducting PK studies in pregnant women is challenging. Therefore, we asked if a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model could be used to predict the disposition in pregnant women of drugs cleared by multiple CYP enzymes.

METHODS
We expanded and verified our previously published pregnancy PBPK model by incorporating hepatic CYP2B6 induction (based on in vitro data), CYP2C9 induction (based on phenytoin PK) and CYP2C19 suppression (based on proguanil PK), into the model. This model accounted for gestational age-dependent changes in maternal physiology and hepatic CYP3A, CYP1A2 and CYP2D6 activity. For verification, the pregnancy-related changes in the disposition of methadone (cleared by CYP2B6, 3A and 2C19) and glyburide (cleared by CYP3A, 2C9 and 2C19) were predicted.

RESULTS
Predicted mean post-partum to second trimester (PP : T2 ) ratios of methadone AUC, Cmax and Cmin were 1.9, 1.7 and 2.0, vs. observed values 2.0, 2.0 and 2.6, respectively. Predicted mean post-partum to third trimester (PP : T3 ) ratios of methadone AUC, Cmax and Cmin were 2.1, 2.0 and 2.4, vs. observed values 1.7, 1.7 and 1.8, respectively. Predicted PP : T3 ratios of glyburide AUC, Cmax and Cmin were 2.6, 2.2 and 7.0 vs. observed values 2.1, 2.2 and 3.2, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Our PBPK model integrating prior physiological knowledge, in vitro and in vivo data, allowed successful prediction of methadone and glyburide disposition during pregnancy. We propose this expanded PBPK model can be used to evaluate different dosing scenarios, during pregnancy, of drugs cleared by single or multiple CYP enzymes.


Abdominal wall incisional hernias is one of the most common long-term complications after abdominal surgery. The treatment and prognosis of incisional hernias differs according to their different types. A variety of classification for abdominal incisional hernias has been proposed by experts from both domestic and abroad in recent years. However, due to the complexity of incisional hernia, the lack of unified classification criteria and the limitation in their value of providing clinical guidance have been witnessed as an unsolved problem. In this article, we systematically review and summarize the classification for abdominal incisional hernia and its historical evolution.

Key words:
Incisional hernias; Abdominal wall; Classification; Complication


Object detection is a fundamental task in computer vision. While approaches for axis-aligned bounding box detection have made substantial progress in recent years, they perform poorly on oriented objects which are common in several realworld scenarios such as aerial view imagery and security camera footage. In these cases, a large part of a predicted bounding box will, undesirably, cover non-object related areas. Therefore, oriented object detection has emerged with the aim of generalizing object detection to arbitrary orientations. This enables a tighter fit to oriented objects, leading to a better separation of bounding boxes especially in case of dense object distributions. The vast majority of the work in this area has focused on complex two-stage anchor-based approaches, where the detection is split into a region-of-interest identification step followed by the object localization and classification based on sets of predefined bounding box anchors. These anchors act as priors on the bounding box shape and require attentive hyper-parameter fine-tuning on a perdataset basis, increased model size, and come with computational overhead. In this work, we present DAFNe: A Dense one-stage Anchor-Free deep Network for oriented object detection. As a one-stage model, DAFNe performs predictions on a dense grid over the input image, being architecturally simpler in design, as well as easier to optimize than its twostage counterparts. Furthermore, as an anchor-free model, DAFNe reduces the prediction complexity by refraining from employing bounding box anchors. Moreover, we introduce an orientation-aware generalization of the center-ness function for arbitrarily oriented bounding boxes to down-weight low-quality predictions and a center-to-corner bounding box prediction strategy that improves object localization performance. Our experiments show that, to the best of our knowledge, DAFNe outperforms all previous one-stage anchor-free models on DOTA 1.0. DAFNe improves the prediction accuracy over the previous best results by 4.65% mAP, setting the new state-of-the-art results by achieving 76.95% mAP. We provide the code at https://github.com/steven-lang/DAFNe.


Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of18F-fluorodeoxyglucose( FDG) PET / CT for esophageal cancer.Methods Forty-five cases with esophageal cancer diagnosed by clinical visit were examined with 18F-FDG PET /CT. Lesions were defined as positive if the maximum standardized uptake value( SUVmax) 2. 5 in PET and local wall thickening or lumina stenosis in CT. The results were compared with pathological examinations. Results In the 45 cases,40 cases were confirmed as esophageal cancer by pathological examination while 39 cases were found positive in PET / CT. For five cases with esophagitis,2 cases were found positive and 3 negative. Thus,sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of the method were 97. 5%( 39 /40),60 %( 3 /5) and 93%( 42 /45),respectively. For 28 cases with lymphatic metastasis,25 cases were positive and 3 cases were negative. Therefore,sensitivity and specificity for metastasis were 82. 1% and 83. 3%,respectively. In the delayed imaging,30 cases with esophageal cancer showed an increased SUVmax while no change was found in patients with esophageal inflammation. Conclusion PET / CT is an accurately diagnostic tool for esophageal cancer as well as lymphatic staging. However,it may be missed if a lesion is restricted at membrane.


Previous research regarding the effects of the specification of goals on performance has shown that "specific hard goals produce a higher performance level than a goal of 'do your best' " (Bryan & Locke, 1967). The data reported here support this finding and generalize it to a rather complex industrial situation. Although it is a truism to say that employees assigned to work at a certain rate are more likely to work at that rate than are other employees not so assigned, the situation under investigation here has ramifications which might work to reduce the difference in performance between employees with and without specific assignment. The dara were generated as part of the evaluation of an incentive program the purpose of which was to induce soft-drink salesmen and servicemen to adjust soft-drink coolers to a temperature deemed optimal for sales (Hewes. Leidy, & Blumenfeld, 1968). For each unit yhecked, salesmen and servicemen turned in a card which, in fact, granted them certain bonus" sales points and constituted an entry in a national sweepstakes drawing. In addition to the national drawing, many local drawings and contests were held. Therefore, in addition to the influence managerial directives might have on employee behavior, in this situation direct and indirect financial rewards were also explicitly associated with high perform- ance levels. At the end of the program, participating bottlers were mailed a questionnaire intended to provide an over-all evaluation of the success of the program. The data cited here were developed from the responses made by 55 responding bottlers to two items included in the questionoaire. These were: (1) Were your men instructed to check a specified number of units each day? and (2) How many units did the typical salesman check each day? Cross-tabulating these two items indicated a positive relationship between the number of units assigned and the number actually checked (xa = 7.528, df = 2, p < .05). The obtained contingency coefficient was .35.


This study aimed to explore the Pakistani secondary teachers' perceptions towards teaching English in large classes and to find out how they coped with the challenges which come with teaching such classes. The data was collected through semi structured interviews, with eight secondary school teachers currently working in the public sector schools of Lahore, Pakistan. The data was analyzed inductively through repeated engagement with the interview transcripts. Research results indicated that teaching large classes had many issues and problems, such as lack of space, facilities and resources; inability to pay attention to every student; high noise levels; time constraints; problems with assessment of a large number of students; and limited opportunities of interaction between teacher-student and student-student. The discussion highlighted the teaching and learning strategies employed by teachers in their classrooms in the Pakistani context, which include the use of pair and group work, notional time, peer correction and self-editing to improve assessment.


Geological processes result in redistribution of noble gases on Earth, with some isotopes being accumulated due to radioactive decay and cosmic irradiation. Therefore noble gas isotope and concentration ratios can be used as tracers of geological processes and geologic age. Analytical techniques for measuring noble gases are complex and differ substantially from the techniques used for stable isotopes. This chapter describes the historical development of noble gas isotope ratio mass spectrometry, sampling requirements, noble gas extraction techniques and sample gas purification and also gives the overview of modern commercially available instruments. Next the referencing strategy and calibration approaches are considered. The only international reference for noble gas isotope ratios is the Earth atmosphere reservoir – an artifact-based scale. In contrast to stable isotopes, noble gas applications require not only relative determinations vs. the international scale but mostly numerical values of isotope and elemental ratios. Up to date many publications refer to the noble gas isotope ratios determined in 1940s. Since then several re-determinations have been reported, being mostly based on commercially available noble gases. Unsolved discrepancies in the isotope ratios, e.g. for atmospheric Ar imply not well-identified uncertainty component for noble gas data which needs more attention. Finally an overview of applications is given.


Electrochemical aptasensor is a sensor based on an indicator electrode covered with a layer of an aptamer that is able to bind target molecules with high specificity. In this work, DNA-aptamer LC-2108 specific to lung cancer tumor marker was immobilized onto the surface of golden screen-printed and disc electrodes. The electrodes were studied by conventional electrochemical methods–cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The current increase and electron transfer resistance decrease were registered. It seems as if the aptamer presence facilitated the electron transfer through the electrode-solution boundary. As the possible reasons of such an unusual electrochemical behavior we proposed the unordinary or irregular structure of the aptamer layer on the Au surface or the specific electrochemical properties of the aptamer itself.


NA62 is an experiment designed to measure the branching fraction of the ultra-rare decay of the positively charged kaon into a pion and a neutrino-antineutrino pair. The specialties of its Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH) are the muon-pion separation, the sub-nanosecond timing and the participation in the lowest level trigger of the experiment. These characteristics made the NA62-RICH crucial for the physics data taking that run in the three-year period 2016–2018. Two aspects are currently under consideration to increase the impact of RICH in the broad NA62 physics program: a better time resolution to cope with higher intensity beam and the online extraction of high level features to be used in the trigger logic. This paper describes the RICH detector and presents its possible upgrades.


3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA lyase (HL) is a mitochondrial matrix enzyme which catalyzes the last step of leucine catabolism and of ketogenesis. Autosomal recessive HL deficiency in humans results in episodes of hypoglycemia and coma. We are interested in the pathophysiology of HL deficiency as a model for both amino acid and fatty acid inborn errors. We have cloned the human and mouse HL genes. In order to analyze the 5{prime} nontranslated region of mouse HL gene, we cloned and sequenced a 1.8 kb fragment containing the 5{prime} extremity including exon 1 and about 1.6 kb of 5{prime} nontranslated sequence. The region surrounding exon 1 is CpG-rich (66.4%). Using the criteria of West, the Observed/Expected ratio for CpG dinucleotides is 0.7 ({ge}0.6 is consistent with a CpG island). We are carrying out primer extension and RNase protection experiments to determine the transcription initiation site. We constructed a gene targeting vector by introducing the neomycin resistance gene into exon 2 of a 7.5 kb genomic subclone of the mouse HL gene. Targeting was performed by electroporating 10 mg linearized vector into 10{sup 7} ES cells and selecting for 12 days with G418. 5/228 colonies (2.2%) had homologous recombination as shown by PCR screeningmore » and Southern analysis. We are microinjecting the 5 targeted clones into blastocysts to create an HL-deficient mouse. To date we have obtained two chimeras with contributions of 95% and 55% from 129, by coat color estimates. Three of 27 (11%) of the HL-deficient patients studied were suggested by genomic Southern analysis to be homozygous for large intragenic deletions. We confirmed this and defined the boundaries using exonic PCR.« less


[Objective]To give a theoretical basis for the research of Xingshan featured Flue-cured tobacco.[Method]Slecting theclassic tobacco samiple in the Xinfshan Tobacco-growing areas,using Routine method to compare with the High-quality tobacco leaf in Zimbabwe.[Result]The flammability and filling value ofthe Xingshan tobacco's different site are a few better than the latter's.And filling value of the top leaf is much better than the latter's,The Xingshan tobacco's appearance quality,smoke flavor and the balance of Irritant are better.[Conclusion]The quality of the former's is better,however,there is still some gap in individual indicators.Some Measuresis needed to Improve.


Daniel is a 12-year-old child admitted to the pediatric inpatient surgical unit. As the nurse enters the room to perform a shift assessment, they notice a preferred name "Dani" written on the whiteboard. The child appears to be distressed whenever someone uses the legal name "Daniel" and insists that others use the name Dani. The nurse also observes colored spots on Dani's fingernails and hands, and when asked about them, Dani admits to playing with nail polish. As they build rapport, Dani then tells the nurse, "I think I'm in the wrong body, I don't think I'm a boy." How should a nurse respond to a child who says they are in the wrong body?


If Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) systems are to be successful over time, it will be necessary to promote ongoing and continuing activity, not just initial adoption. In this paper, we consider what technical and social affordances are required to encourage the continued use of a CSCW system. To explore these issues, we examine a chat-like system, the Zephyr Help Instance, which is used extensively at MIT. The Help Instance facilitates users asking questions of one another, and is an example of a distributed help and problem-solving system. We provide an overview of the systemOs use as well as those mechanisms, both technical and social, that facilitate continuing its use over time.


Background: The pharmacological action of specific immunosuppressants is mediated by immunophilins. While cyclosporin A binds to cyclophilins, FK506/tacrolimus, rapamycin, and others bind to FK506 binding proteins (FKBPs). Different physiological actions of immunophilins were described but their genuine function, however, remains elusive and is still under investigation. A yeast two-hybrid screen was performed using the FK506 binding protein 13 kDa (FKBP13) as a bait and a fetal liver expression library as a prey. Results: The C-chain of complement C1q (C1q-C) was detected to interact with FKBP13 in the yeast two-hybrid system and in a protein complementation assay. Neither FKBP12, FKBP25, FKBP52 nor the unrelated immunophilin CypA did react with C1q-C in the yeast system stressing the specificity of the interaction. Binding of C1q-C to FKBP13 could not be prevented in the presence of FK506, demonstrating that possibly other regions than the binding pocket of the drug are responsible for the interaction of the two proteins. Conclusion: It is concluded that exclusively FKBP13 but no other FKBPs tested so far interact with the C-chain of complement C1q in the two different assays and further work will be initiated to investigate the physiological relevance of the interaction. Background The pharmacological action of cyclosporin A and FK506/ tacrolimus is mediated by cytosolic immunophilins namely cyclophilin A and the FK506 binding protein 12 kDa (FKBP12). The drug immunophilin complex binds to and inhibits the protein phosphatase calcineurin thus preventing signal transduction in activated T cells [1]. FKBPs are a family of proteins that were found from procaryotes to humans. At least 10 human FKBPs are known and can be found in every tissue so far analyzed. Some FKBPs bind to and "stabilize" intracellular receptors. For example, FKBP12 and FKBP12.6 interact with the ryanodine Ca2+ channels RyR1 and RyR2, respectively [2,3]. FKBP52 is part of the steroid receptor complex [4]. Another FKBP, FKBP13, is localized in the endoplasmic reticulum. FKBP13 mRNA is up-regulated in the presence of unfolded proteins, e.g. after tunicamycin treatment and heat shock and it is regarded to act as a chaperone [5]. On the other hand FKBP13 was shown to interact specifically with single proteins like a homologue of the erythrocyte membrane cytoskeletal protein 4.1 and a FKBP associated protein 48 kDa [6,7]. Finally, FKBP25 was described to be a nuclear protein and the transcription factor YY1 or Published: 07 September 2004 BMC Pharmacology 2004, 4:19 doi:10.1186/1471-2210-4-19 Received: 02 April 2004 Accepted: 07 September 2004 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2210/4/19 © 2004 Neye and Verspohl; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


An enterprise aim is to search the increasing of an enterprise's value through maximizing utilities and heritage with the purpose of minimizing risk levels and thus to obtain a suitable solvency in order to face short-time engagements. The real challenge to find the enterprise's value and to interpret it, through Financial Indicators that, even though they are considered to be clear and easy reasons to be worked out, might decrease their effectiveness as instruments for wealth measuring and the Added Economic Value(AEV) which is a tool which tries to counteract these indicators limitations by valueing and assessing any management perfomance through value creation.


In this work, we use semigroup integral to evaluate zeta-function regularized determinants. This is especially powerful for nonpositive operators such as the Dirac operator. In order to understand fully the quantum effective action, one should know not only the potential term but also the leading kinetic term. In this purpose, we use the Weyl type of symbol calculus to evaluate the determinant as a derivative expansion. The technique is applied both to a spin-0 bosonic operator and to the Dirac operator coupled to a scalar field.


This study evaluated the quality of educational resources vis-à-vis effective instructional service delivery in Nigerian universities. Particularly, the study was carried out in university of Calabar, using five hundred and nineteen (519) students selected through the simple random sampling technique from the fifteen faculties of the University of Calabar. To achieve the purpose of the study, two hypotheses were formulated. A questionnaire titled quality of educational resources and effectiveness of instructional service delivery questionnaire (QEREISDQ) was developed by the researchers, this was subjected to face and content validity by three experts in measurement and evaluation and Administration of Higher education all in Faculty of Education University of Calabar. A pilot test was carried out using forty students from University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom state to establish the reliability of the instrument. Using the Cronbach's alpha reliability method, the instrument had a reliability coefficient of α=.79-.85. The instrument was administered to the respondents and retrieved with Zero attrition rate. The data collected was analyzed through means, standard deviation, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analysis. It was revealed among other things that; the quality of educational resources has a significant relationship with effective of instructional service delivery, with the quality of lecturers being the strongest predictor of effective instructional delivery. However, it was also revealed that the quality of library was significantly low and influenced effective instructional delivery negatively. It was therefore, recommended that government and corporate organizations should provide adequate educational resources and promote viral development programmes for lecturers to enhance effective instructional delivery in Nigerian universities.


This study investigated the effectiveness of Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) in managing adolescents in secondary schools with somatic symptom disorder in Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State. Three research questions were raised to guide the study and three corresponding hypotheses were formulated, which were all tested at 0.05 level of significance. The pre-test, post-test, control group, and experimental design were adopted for the study. The population of the study is three thousand, five hundred and sixty-one (3,561) students, which comprised all Senior Secondary Class Two (SS2) students from the twenty public secondary schools in Ika North East Local Government Area. A sample size of forty-six (46) students, made up of twenty (20) males and twenty-six (26) females reporting somatic symptom disorder were selected from two schools using the multi-stage random sampling technique. The research instrument titled "Adolescents Somatic Symptom Scale" (ASSS) was adapted and modified for use by the researcher. Three test experts of measurement and evaluation revalidated this instrument. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability method to test the consistency of the test items and a reliability coefficient of 0.70 was obtained. The instrument was administered to the students as a pre-test and forty-six (46) students who evidenced somatic disorder in the two schools were randomly assigned for treatment to experimental group A (Cognitive Analytic Therapy), and B (Control Group). The data collected were analyzed, using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics of paired and independent sample t-test. The findings of the study revealed that, there is a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test of somatic symptoms disorder mean scores of in-school adolescents exposed to CAT and also, there is no significant interaction effect on treatment by sex. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others, that counselling psychologists should embrace Cognitive Analytic Therapy as an effective counselling therapy for adolescents irrespective of gender.


It seems somehow fitting to begin this paper on databases that store historical information with a chronology, touching briefly on all work that I am aware of in this area. I discuss in some detail what I consider to be the ten most important papers and events in terms of their impact on the discipline of temporal databases. These are emphatically not meant to detract from the other excellent papers in temporal databases. My goal is to characterize the evolution of this field, as an introduction to the approximately 350 papers specifically relating time to databases that have appeared thus far. I then identify and discuss areas where more work is needed.


In the first chapter, I consider the institutional structures as well as the doctrines typically encountered in the surface water sector. To investigate the sources and methods of government support in the water sector, I categorize different sorts of government support according to the location of water along the water cycle. I conclude the section with examples of observed water markets. In the second chapter, I consider the problem of water usage, developing a model to analyze the optimal pricing of water within a second-best economy. As a water supplier, the local government may price discriminate across consumers and farmers. I introduce the second-best pricing scheme, derive conditions for the marginalcost pricing and inverse-elasticity rules, and analyze when the government optimally deviates from these two pricing schemes. In the third chapter, I provide an analysis of the data I collected from Turkey. First, I examine the data on reservoir flows, including service share and fixed costs of the reservoirs. Then, I provide details about the relationship between the quantity and price of irrigation and of tap water. Finally, in the fourth chapter, I apply the theoretical framework to the data from Turkey. In Turkey, the current water-pricing policy is dictated by the sole objective of breaking-even in each period. This results in large withdrawals, which is not sustainable in the long-run, hence not optimal. I analyze the dynamic optimal water resource management problem of a benevolent government. I compare the implications of the current and the optimal pricing policies.


CARVALHO, P. F., VILAS BOAS, A. A. Performance evaluation: incentive or penality ? Re- vista Universidade Rural: Serie Ciencias da Vida, Seropedica, RJ: EDUR, v.26, n.1-2, p. 40-46, jan.-dez., 2004. This research describes and analyzes the performance evaluation in the urban-industrial organizations in the State of Rio de Janeiro. After bibliographical research, questionnaires had been distributed to understand the process of evaluations, one of the powerful organization instruments that makes each professional of its teams pledges more energy in the fulfi llment of the strategical goals. The subject is extremely delicate since it involves people and they cannot be considered as instrument of work only, but as essentials collaborators for the success of the organization. In short, one perceives that performance evaluation is a subject that still awakens resistance.


Qixiang is a unique sacrificial culture created by the Han army eight banners in northeast China. This culture not only has elements such as shamanism and Han people burning incense, but also has military sacrificial elements. This paper argues that Qixiang is the evolution and legacy of Maji, a military sacrificial ritual in ancient China. The Han military banner people in the Qing Dynasty took Maji as the main body, combined the Manchu Shamanism with the Han incense burning, and created a cultural symbol representing their own ethnic group. At present, the study of Qixiang not only helps to understand the complexity of the development and evolution of Manchu shamanism, but also helps to reveal the ethnic identity of Han bannermen under the Eight Banners system of the Qing Dynasty.


Remote observing has been widely used in radio astronomy for the last decade. However, in the optical and infrared domain very few observatories have been successful in supporting it. One reason for this difference is that optical/infrared telescopes are more demanding in the sense of object acquisition and amount of science data produced. Another reason could be that optical astronomers have less trust in the performance of the telescope and instruments. In the early 1980's a number of observatories started experimenting in remote observing (Raffi and Tarenghi, 1984, Longair et al., 1986, Raffi and Ziebell, 1986). Most of these early attempts failed, mainly because the technology was not yet matured. The communication links were not reliable and the data transmission rates were too low. It also became evident that it was very difficult to operate a telescope originally designed for local control in remote mode. In the late eighties the situation became more favourable. First, there was a general improvement in communication infrastructure: cheaper, more reliable and faster, not to forget the development of Internet and, more recently, of the WorldWide Web. Second, a new generation of 3-4-m class telescopes were designed and went into operation. For some of these, remote observing had been foreseen already during the design phase (Loewenstein and York, 1986, Raffi et al., 1990). Remote observing comes in many different modes, starting (or ending) at fully automatic telescopes. In 1992 a workshop dedicated to remote observing was held in Tucson (eds. Emerson and Clowes, 1993), where many of the available forms were extensively discussed. We will first summarise the terminology adopted at this conference for the various remote-observing modes, before describing the present situation at ESO.


Free living pleurostomatids are characterized by leaf like body shape and cytostome on the lateral side, and about 200 morphospecies have been described (Wu et al., 2015). They were confirmed the monophyletic taxon with molecular phylogenetic studies, and classified into 12 genera belonging to three families by the differences of perioral kineties, somatic ciliature, distribution of extrusomes, and status of suture, etc. (Lynn and Small, 2002; Lynn, 2008; Song et al., 2009; Wu et al., 2015). In the present study, two species belonging to unre ported genera of pleurostomatids, Amphileptus Ehren berg, 1830 and Kentrophyllum Petz, Song et Wilbert, 1995, in Korea were described and illustrated morpho logical characteristics using live observation and protar gol impregnation. Additionally, the accession numbers of their SSU rDNA sequences were reported.


We propose a new cooperative communication approach that simplifies the transmit and receive processing requirement on the relay node while providing significant savings in the transmission energy over the cooperative diversity technique, particularly in high spectral efficiency regime. The proposed approach is to make each relay node to detect only a fraction (sub-stream) of the source data stream and forward all sub-streams simultaneously over the same physical channel. Then, multiple receive antennas at the destination allow the sub-streams to be detected separately based on their spatial characteristics. The distinctive benefit of this approach is the reduction of transmit and receive processing requirements on each relay node. Therefore, the proposed approach is particularly attractive in sending high-rate data where each relay node can handle only low-rates due to limited resources in terms of energy, computation power, hardware, and space (size).


With the promotion and popularization of the State Grid Corporations security access platform, the possibility of the massive remote terminal access the security gateway system is growing, its public network resource consumption surged along with the expansion of the number of terminals. The designated area farther away from the terminal to the gateway routing digestion, the massive terminal access at the same time, the burden on the public network will also be very large. This article is based on the target about reducing the burden on the public network and improving the efficiency of the system access, designed the division of regional security access platform system with the help of the courier. Successfully Solved the chaotic gateway autonomy brought the access path complexity and through the SM1 Encryption module, SM2 signature module, and SM3 hash module greatly improve the operating efficiency and the security of the Secure Access platform under massive terminal access, has a strong practical.


(21) Appl. No.: 14/811,715 Methods for precise and predictable modification of previ (22) Filed: Jul. 28, 2015 ously synthesized nanocrystals. The methods rely on the solu O O bility behavior of crystalline materials to provide for con Related U.S. Application Data trolled reversal of the nanocrystal growth process (i.e., (63) Continuation-in-part of application No. 13/142,191, dissolution). A method for post-synthesis modification of filed on Dec. 7, 2011, now abandoned, filed as applicolloidal nanocrystals includes (1) providing a first nanocrys cation No. PCT/US 10/21461 on Jan. 20, 2010. tal having a first size and a first shape, (2) forming a reaction (60) Provisional application No. 61/145,925, filed on Jan. mixture that includes the nanocrystal, at least one ligand 20, 2009. capable of binding to at least one component of the nanoc rystal, at least one solvent, and an inert gas atmosphere, and Publication Classification (3) modifying the size and/or shape of the nanocrystal in the reaction mixture for a period of time at a temperature in a (51) Int. Cl. range from about 100° C. to about 240° C. so as to produce at HOB I/2 (2006.01) least a second nanocrystal having a second size and/or a C07F 7/24 (2006.01) second shape.


Board-level drop test performance was evaluated and compared for the following four different solder combinations in BGA/CSP assembly: 1) SnPb paste with SnPb balls, 2) SnPb paste with SAC105Ti balls, 3) SAC305 paste with SAC105Ti balls, and 4) SAC305 paste with SAC105 balls. Presence of Ti improved the drop test performance significantly, despite the voiding side effect caused by its oxidation tendency. It is anticipated that the voiding can be prevented with the development of a more oxidation resistant flux. The consistently poor drop test performance of 105Ti/SnPb is caused by the wide pasty range resulted from mixing SAC105 with Sn63 solder paste. The effect of Ti in this system is overshadowed by the high voiding outcome due to this wide pasty range material. In view of this, use of SAC105 BGA with SnPb solder paste is not recommended, with or without Ti addition. High reflow temperature drove fracture shift to interface at package side, presumably through building up IMC thickness beyond the thresh...


The purpose of this study was to describe the quality of E-Government in citizenship administrative service of Population and Civil Registry Office of Banyumas Regency. The citizenship administrative service can be accessed by the public through the gratiskabeh.banyumaskab.go.id. website. This study used quantitative research method and cluster sampling technique. The respondents of this study were 100 people. They were the users of this website service. Methods of data collection used questionnaire, observation, and documentation. The result obtained shows that the quality of E-Government in citizenship administrative services through the gratiskabeh.banyumaskab.go.id. website had been optimal in four dimensions, which were efficiency, trust, reliability, and citizen support.


The thickness and composition of a specimen are fundamental information for analyzing image, diffraction, and spectrum acquired by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The thickness and composition maps are mainly obtained by spectroscopy, such as electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) or energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Since these spectroscopies require a large electron dose, they cannot apply to electron-sensitive materials. In crystalline materials, as alternatives to spectroscopy, imaging and diffraction are used to measure the thickness and composition [1,2]. On the other hand, in non-crystalline materials, there are few alternatives to spectroscopy. Here, we focus on the diffraction patterns obtained by a pixelated detector. The thickness affects the number of scattering events, and the composition affects the scattering cross section. Thus, the diffraction pattern must contain the information of thickness and composition. Furthermore, by grace of the fast pixelated STEM detector, we can acquire the diffraction patterns at all scanning points (four-dimensional scanning TEM (4D-STEM)) [3]. We attempted to make the thickness and composition maps simultaneously from the diffraction patterns acquired by 4D-STEM. We picked up the thickness and composition from experimentally obtained diffraction patterns by comparing simulated diffraction patterns at various thicknesses and compositions. In the comparison, we used the radial distribution function (RDF) of the diffraction pattern because the diffraction pattern of non-crystalline material does not depend on the azimuthal angle.


Information Extraction, Summarization and Question Answering all manipulate natural language texts and should benefit from the use of NLP techniques. Statistical techniques have till now outperformed symbolic processing of unrestricted text. However, Information Extraction and Question Answering require by far more accurate results of what is currently produced by Bag-Of-Words approaches. Besides, we see that such tasks as Semantic Evaluation of Text Entailment or Similarity -- as required by the RTE Challenge, impose a much stricter performance in semantic terms to tell true from false pairs. We will speak in favour of a hybrid system, a combination of statistical and symbolic processing with reference to a specific problem, that of Anaphora Resolution which looms large and deep in text processing.


• Nitrous oxide-oxygen-thiopental anesthesia can be supplemented by injections of alphaprodine, an analgesic that reduces the amount of thiopental needed. Alphaprodine in large doses has the disadvantage of causing marked respiratory depression, but this can be prevented by levallorphan. In this study 852 patients who received nitrous oxide, oxygen, thiopental, and alphaprodine with levallorphan were compared with 756 patients who, in a previous study, had received the same combination without levallorphan. The use of alphaprodine reduced the amount of thiopental needed. The addition of levallorphan made it possible to increase the alphaprodine to such a level that in 92 cases of extraperitoneal surgery satisfactory operating conditions were obtained without any thiopental at all. The amount of thiopental needed, in milligrams per minute, diminished as the duration of the anesthesia increased. The same was found to be true for alphaprodine.


The Rankine Hugoniot equation relating the conversion of momentum across a shock front and the empirical relationship for shock velocity as a function of particle velocity are used to calculate the impact pressures for selected materials. The shock velocity and particle velocities are then calculated as a function of impact pressures. The calculated data are graphically presented sets of three figures for the selected materials as follows: Impact pressure as a function of impact velocity, impact pressure as a function of particle velocity, impact pressure as a function of shock velocity. Given the projectile impact velocity and material Hugoniot information, this graphical representation of the data allows for a fast approximation of the impact pressure particle velocity, and shock velocity in the target material. 9 refs., 1 fig., 3 tabs.


Objective: To explore the curative effects and safety of olanzapine combined with Niuhuang Ningong tablet in treatment-resistant schizophrenia.Method: One hundred and twelve patients of treatmentresistant schizophrenia were randomly divided into observation and control groups.Olanzapine was taken oral in control group(n = 56) for 8 weeks,the starting dose was 5 mg·d-1,and added to 10 mg·d-1in weeks.56patients of observation group took olanzapine combined with Niuhuang Ningong tablet for 8 weeks,the dose of Niuhuang Ningong tablet were 5 piece / times,tid.Clinical effectiveness and side effects were assessed with positive and negative symptom scale(PANSS),global assessment scale(GAS) and treatment emergent symptom scale(TESS) before treatment and at the end of 8 weeks of treatment.Result: The total effective rate of control group was 62.50%,and the and the total effective rate of observation group was 75.00%.the treatment TCM of pathogenic fire derived from stagnation of liver-QI,innter disturbance by phlegmatic fire(IDPF) and exuberant fire due to yin-depletion(EFYD) in control group were(2.51 ± 0.27),(2.68 ± 0.32),(2.47 ± 0.39); the treatment TCM of pathogenic fire derived from stagnation of liver-QI,innter disturbance by phlegmatic fire(IDPF)and exuberant fire due to yin-depletion(EFYD) in observation group were(1.35 ± 0.21),(1.28 ± 0.13),(1.87 ± 0.42).There were more significant difference in the total effective rate and after treatment Chinese Medicine symptom between observation group and the control group(P 0.05 or P 0.01).Compare with the control group,PANSS score,positive symptoms points,negative symptoms points,psychopathological points and CGI-SI total score of the observation group were significantly decreased from the fourth treatment(P 0.05 or P 0.01).The scores of TESS and the recurrence rate of the control group were(0.72 ± 0.23) and 32.43%,and the scores of TESS and the recurrence rate of the observation group were(0.54 ± 0.16) and 21.43%.So the adverse reaction and the recurrence rate of the observation group were significantly lower than the control group(P 0.05 or P 0.01).Conclusion: The results suggest olanzapine together with Niuhuang Ninggong tablet has good efficacy,less side effects and less recurrence rate in the treatment of treatment-resistant schizophrenia.This method deserves extensive application in the clinical.


Uploading instrument-end application compiled with GeoBASIC on survey robot and being able to measure automatically,it is importallt to survey traverse network and triangulation network.Download survey data from instrument to computer by LeicaSurvey Office and save it as text format.Data convened to NASEW format by self-programming program can be uploaded to NASEW,and it can adjust automatically.


Repair rate is very important parameter in a system maintainability and
it can be defined as frequency of the successfully performed repair
actions on failed component per unit of time. This paper analyses the
integral characteristics of a stochastic repair rate for corresponding
values of availability in the system operating under maintenance
contracts. The equation for the envelope line of the probability density
function (PDF) maximums of the repair rate has been provided. This new
expression can be used for planning of base stock levels and capacities
of repair facilities. Namely, in that way instead of repair rate PDF
equation, for some calculations we can use envelope line parameters,
which are expressed in simpler mathematical form, to reduce the time
required for calculations and prediction and enhance reactions in
failure events. For analytical and numerical evaluation of system
performance, the annual repair rate PDFs are analyzed like particular
solutions of corresponding differential equation, while the existence of
singular solution is considered and analyzed under different conditions.
Moreover, we have derived optimal values of availability for which the
PDF maximums have been obtained. Finally, in order to generalize
behavior of the repair process, a partial differential equation, as a
function of the repair rate process and availability parameter, has been
formed.


The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was founded on 14 July 1967 in Stockholm. The tasks of WIPO are: the conclusion of new international conventions and the modernization of the national legislation to protect the intellectual property; providing technical support to developing countries; the collection and publication of information; support to obtain protection in several states for inventions, trademarks and industrial designs; and the promotion of administrative cooperation among the member states. Every state that is a member of one of the two unions (Paris or Berne), or a member of the United Nations or one of their specialized agencies, or is a contracting party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice ( ICJ), or is invited by the General Assembly of WIPO, is entitled to become a member of WIPO. Keywords: Berne; Paris; United Nations; World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)


In this paper, the Volterra series decomposition of a class of multiple input time-invariant systems, analytic in state and affine in inputs is addressed. Computable bounds for the non-local-in-time convergence of the Volterra series to a trajectory of the system are given for infinite norms (Bounded Input Bounded Output results) and for specific weighted norms adapted to some "fading memory systems" (exponentially decreasing input-output results). This work extends results previously obtained for polynomial single input systems. Besides the increase in combinatorial complexity, a major difference with the single input case is that inputs may play different roles in the system behavior. Two types of inputs (called "principal" and "auxiliary") are distinguished in the convergence process to improve the accuracy of the bounds. The method is illustrated on the example of a frequency-modulated Duffing's oscillator.