When mayor of New Plymouth Andrew Judd announced in May 2016 that he would not be standing for re-election, he drew national attention to the racist attacks that he had been enduring since he began supporting proposals for guaranteed Māori representation. His comments sparked debate about Māori representation as well as conversations about how non-Māori in politics could appropriately support Māori political aspirations. The related question of how non-Māori within the discipline of political science in New Zealand might support Māori aspirations in universities had emerged as part of the 2015 New Zealand Political Science Association conference. The theme for the conference was 'Disrupting the Discipline' and the organisers highlighted the challenges to Political Studies including from non-Western and indigenous perspectives. Many of the papers presented at the conference emphasised that these 'disruptions' were productive and expanded 'what counts as politics and Political Studies'. The articles in this Special Issue also implicitly disrupt and expand definitions of what counts as Political Studies. Phillip Borell's article, linking of sport and processes of colonisation illuminates questions of political identities in new ways. Lindsey MacDonald picks up on the question of identity and challenges political science scholars to be more attentive to the subjects of their research and avoid the tendency to generalise. Te Hau White examines the maiden speeches of a number of Māori MPs to explore articulations of a Māori world view in parliament. Ann Sullivan and Morgan Godfery raise questions about howMāori tino rangatiratanga and the Crown's kawanatanga are structured and might be restructured in New Zealand's political and constitutional arrangements. In my article on Māori representation, I delve into the specific detail of an Iwi pursuing new mechanisms for involvement in local government decision-making. Taken together, these articles seek to challenge and expand what counts as politics in New Zealand but also to encourage reflection on new ways of thinking about political science that might inform those in the discipline and jurisdictions internationally.


Abstract This study investigates the impact and transmission mechanism of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on the economic growth of city clusters. Via theoretical analysis, a spatial Durbin model (SDM) and mediating effect model are applied based on panel data of the three major city clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 1997 to 2018. The results reveal the following: (1) FDI inflows promote the economic growth of city clusters in the YREB, but the degrees of impacts on the three city clusters are different; (2) the spatial effects of FDI inflows differ across city clusters; the effects are negative in city clusters of the Yangtze River Delta and the Yangtze River Middle Reaches, and positive in the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster; (3) urbanization and industrial structure upgrading are two important mechanisms by which FDI inflows promote the economic growth of city clusters. However, there are differences among the three major city clusters; the intermediary effect of urbanization is more significant in city clusters of Chengdu-Chongqing and the Yangtze River Middle Reaches, while the intermediary effect of industrial structure upgrading is more significant in the Yangtze River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing city clusters. Policy implications are proposed accordingly.


The Overall research work contains a number of procedural steps. Such as converting a black and white image to grayscale and various image processing steps, learning a pattern using Back-propagation Neural Network (BPN) and Bidirectional Associative Memory (BAM) recognize a existing or non-existing pattern from the learned pattern using BAM and BPN technique. All the steps of image processing and feature detection steps are performed and coded by the programming language Matlab provided by the Matwork Inc. Primary operation of Matlab is to acquire an image from the storage disk which is stored in a specific format and process the image. One of the most important factors of the research work is Feature Extraction which is implemented by Matlab. Then the processed pattern is stored in a file such that the file can be processed by another procedure. In pattern learning BPN and BAM is used. The parameters of the learning algorithm are varied and observed the nature of the system. From pattern learning, we get a weight set and correlation matrix which is used in recognition. The recognition part, the results from learning algorithm are used to math the unknown input.


Total polysaccharides were extracted from the residue of Pleurotus eryngii by hot water extraction method. One-factor-ata-time method and response surface methodology were used to select appropriate levels of liquid-material ratio,extraction time and temperature. A quadratic regression model describing the effects of three process conditions on the extraction rate of total polysaccharides was developed using a Box-Behnken experimental design. The results showed that the optimal extraction conditions were determined as follows: liquid / material ratio of 26 mL / g,extraction temperature 87℃ and extraction time 3. 2 h. Under the optimized conditions,the extraction rate of polysaccharide from the residue of pleurotus eryngii reached 8. 76%.


Breaks in optical fibers reveal failures in duct walls. Group of optical fibers wrapped around duct carries light beams from lasers to photodiodes. Break in duct breaks fiber bonded to it, interrupting path of light between laser and photodetector. Interruption used to command shutdown of engine or other system to minimize damage.


Teaching material is learning medium which is used for making the teaching and learning process easier. The purpose of this research is developing teaching material with Modul as a product in teaching English based on the quality, criteria and standard. The process for developing material is tested to the students guided by the teacher. The result from the test shows the score or value which is made by the students. That data is analyzed by the reviewer in details. The result from reviewer shows that it involves good category with the average score 3, 89. The highest criterion is in writing technique category in designing teaching material. The result from the test is on four numbers, such as : in good design, interesting writing and color, good images and interesting writing and also making the students are easier to understand English materials with the average score 116,7 Keywords: Pengembangan Materi, Bahasa Inggris, Anak Usia Dini


Summary:  Purpose: A lack of selective α1‐adrenergic receptor (α1‐ARs) agonists and antagonists has made it difficult to clarify the precise function of these receptors in the CNS. We recently generated transgenic mice that overexpress either wild‐type or a constitutively active mutant α1B‐AR in tissues that normally express the receptor. Both wild‐type and mutant mice showed an age‐progressive neurodegeneration with locomotor impairment and probable stress‐induced motor events, which can be partially reversed by α1‐AR antagonists. We hypothesized that the wild‐type and mutant mice may exhibit spontaneous epileptogenicity as compared with normal (nontransgenic) mice.


THIS PAPER describes a new method of grafting leaf tissue from one citrus plant into a leaf of a second. Leaf tissue was first used for transmission of a citrus virus by Wallace (4), who placed a small portion of a leaf of the plant being indexed under a bark flap of an indicator plant. He observed long-time survival of the leaf piece and transmission of psorosis virus to 90-100 per cent of plants inoculated in this manner. Wallace (5) also used this method for tristeza virus inoculations. McWhorter and Allen (2) used a leaf piece of an infected plant to transmit lily curl stripe virus to the leaves of healthy plants. Although virus transmission was obtained, a true graft union did not develop. Schwarz (3) introduced tristeza virus into inoculated plants by connecting the distal portion of the leaf of an infected West Indian lime seedling to a matching proximal part of a leaf of a healthy seedling. No transmission was obtained unless a callus connection was formed between the donor leaf piece and the receptor leaf. Callus was more likely to form and transmission more likely to occur when old, dark green leaves were connected than when young leaves were used. The new technique involves the setting of a leaf piece from the donor plant into a space of exactly the same size and shape in a leaf attached to a second plant (Fig. 1). The grafting is done by detaching a leaf or leaf piece from the plant providing the graft and laying it flat over a leaf on the second plant. A sharp-pointed scalpel or razor blade is then used to cut through both leaves at the same time. Usually the


The OFDM system channel estimation technology is introduced,the pilot inserted channel estimation methods are analyzed.Based on the Least-Squares(LS) and Linear Minimum Mean Square Error(LMMSE) channel estimation method,a simplified LMMSE,SVD-LMMSE and Kalman filtering of channel estimation methods are adopted to estimate the wide sense uncorrelated scattering of time-varying Rayleigh multipath channel.The BER curves for different channel estimation algorithms are compared.The result showes that the channel estimation based on MMSE is better than LS,but the former is more complex than the latter.


The application of image steganography has greatly satisfied the needs of individuals and public security communication. Although steganography technology provides a convenient way to protect personal information exchange, it also becomes an effective tool for criminals. Steganalysis studying is very necessary. The position and capacity of secret information in stego images depend on the sharpness of the region in the adaptive steganography algorithms in spatial domain. According to this feature we propose a region segmentation pre-processing method in this paper, which is based on absolute difference of gray intensity. In order to improve the features discrimination, She entire image is divided into three different regions roughly, and then features are extracted. Those features have a higher correlation according to region characteristics. This proposed method offers a significant improvement in detection accuracy when compared to Region Segmentation method.


The term bezoar refers to foreign bodies found in the digestive tract. It results in a stagnation of ingested non-digestible substances. We report a case of an esophageal bezoar collected in the pediatric gastroenterology department of the children's hospital in RabatMOROCCO. This observation of an esophageal bezoar, the first in our institution, to our knowledge, confirms the rarity of the pathology. 7-year-old child, taken by his parents to the children's hospital of the university hospital in Rabat for total aphagia. His history shows: psychomotor retardation, followed for 2 years for peptic esophagitis complicated by peptic stenosis. The course was marked by total aphagia, early postprandial vomiting, and weight loss of 6 kg in 3 months. This symptomatology has been evolving for 2 months. Esophagogastroduodenal fibroscopy, using an 8.5mm pediatric fiberscope, revealed an esophageal bezoar made of tissues, fibers, hair, sponge, plastics and ropes. A multistage endoscopic extraction was performed, which extracted a 430g bezoar. After a complete cleansing of the esophagus, the esophagogastroduodenal exploration showed ascension of the gastric folds on retrovision, a gaping cardia, a hernial pouch, an esophageal caliber disparity of 25 cm to 20 cm of the dental arches with presence of mucous ulcerations and false membranes. After extraction, the child resumed his normal diet with no vomiting. a proton pump inhibitor and antibiotic therapy were prescribed. INTRODUCTION The term bezoar refers to foreign bodies found in the digestive tract. It results in a stagnation of ingested non-digestible substances, such as hair (trichobezoar), certain vegetable fibers (phytobezoar), concentrated dairy products (lactobezoar), more rarely certain drugs (pharmacobezoar). Its esophageal location is little reported in the literature, it is often secondary to a morphological and / or functional abnormality of the esophagus and is frequently involved. It usually concerns children or young adolescents with mental disorders [1]. We report a case of an esophageal bezoar collected in the pediatric gastroenterology department of the children's hospital in RabatMOROCCO. This observation of an esophageal bezoar, the first in our institution, to our knowledge, confirms the rarity of the pathology. PATIENT AND OBSERVATION 7-year-old child, taken by his parents to the children's hospital of the university hospital in Rabat for total aphagia. His history shows: psychomotor retardation, followed for 2 years for peptic esophagitis complicated by peptic stenosis. The course was marked by total aphagia, early postprandial vomiting, and weight loss of 6 kg in 3 months. This symptomatology has been evolving for 2 months. The admission exam noted: a pale patient. A weight of 12kg (3 DS), a height of 114cm (2DS). World J Gastroenterol Hepatol Endosc Volume: 3.6 1/3 Received Date: 10 Oct 2021 Accepted Date: 16 Oct 2021 Published Date: 22 Oct 2021 The biological assessment showed on the blood count: Hemoglobin at 6.3 g / dL with erythrocyte indices in favor of microcytic hypochromic anemia, leukocytes at 15200 / mm3, polymorphonuclear cells at 12200 / mm3, lymphocytes at 2000 / mm3. Blood sugar and CRP were within standards. Esophagogastroduodenal fibroscopy, using an 8.5mm pediatric fiberscope, revealed an esophageal bezoar made of tissues, fibers, hair, sponge, plastics and ropes (Figure 1). A multistage endoscopic extraction was performed, which extracted a 430g bezoar (Figure 2). After a complete cleansing of the esophagus, the esophagogastroduodenal exploration showed an ascension of the gastric folds on retrovision (Figure 3), a gaping cardia, a hernial pouch, an esophageal caliber disparity of 25 cm to 20 cm of the dental arches with presence of mucous ulcerations and false membranes (Figure 4). After extraction, the child resumed his normal diet with no vomiting. a proton pump inhibitor and antibiotic therapy were prescribed. Figure 1: Endoscopic images of an esophageal bezoar. Figure 2: Endoscopic bezoar extraction Figure 3: Endoscopic image showing an ascending gastric folds, a gaping cardia and a hernial pouch. World J Gastroenterol Hepatol Endosc Volume: 3.6 2/3 Figure 4: Endoscopic image of esophagitis with esophageal peptic stenosis. DISCUSSION The bezoar a rare affection in children, it represents 0.15% of gastrointestinal foreign bodies. Gastric localization is the most frequent. The particularity of our case is above all the esophageal location, which is often unusual and unrecognized. Psychomotor retardation is often seen in patients followed for psychological pathologies, in our case. [2]. Esophageal bezoars can be divided into two groups: primary which occur in the esophagus and secondary where gastric bezoars migrate to the esophagus [3]. cases of esophageal bezoars which have been reported in patients with a functional and / or morphological abnormality of the esophagus (systemic disease, hypertonia of the lower esophageal sphincter, myasthenia gravis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, diabetes, diffuse spasm disease, achalasia, surgery of the esophagus, stomach, peristalsis syndrome ...) [4, 6]. Our case is one of the few primary esophageal bezoars reported in the literature that caused peptic esophageal stenosis, resulting in vomiting and total aphagia. The esophageal bezoar is manifested by swallowing disorders (dysphagia). It is rarely revealed by dyspnea [7]. In our observation, the patient reported mainly aphagia, vomiting and weight loss. Once the diagnosis of esophageal bezoar is clinically evoked, it is necessary to confirm it by endoscopy, which remains the examination of choice in cases of proximal esogastric and intestinal location. It has both diagnostic and therapeutic interests. In our case, the lumen of the esophagus is narrow and the risk of aspiration of fragments during the procedure makes bezoars difficult to treat. Thus, it is more convenient to break up the bezoar into fragments in the stomach by overtube-assisted endoscopy for an esophageal bezoar when possible. Broken bezoar particles can be extracted or pushed into the small intestine. However, intestinal obstruction can occur if the large fragments migrate into the small intestine. Conservative medical treatment can be used in front of small bezoars. Coca-Cola washes and endoscopic procedures can be used with a success rate of 91.3% has been reported in the treatment of gastric bezoars [8]. However, larger bezoars, endoscopic intervention or even surgery may be necessary. CONCLUSION The bezoar is a disease rarely seen in children. Its location in the esophagus is unusual. It is favored by functional or motor disorders of the esophagus with multiple etiologies. Gastrointestinal endoscopy remains the examination of choice. Endoscopic or even surgical treatment significantly improves symptoms.


The double‐membrane‐bound autophagosome is formed by the closure of a structure called the phagophore, origin of which is still unclear. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is clearly implicated in autophagosome biogenesis due to the presence of the omegasome subdomain positive for DFCP1, a phosphatidyl‐inositol‐3‐phosphate (PI3P) binding protein. Contribution of other membrane sources, like the plasma membrane (PM), is still difficult to integrate in a global picture. Here we show that ER–plasma membrane contact sites are mobilized for autophagosome biogenesis, by direct implication of the tethering extended synaptotagmins (E‐Syts) proteins. Imaging data revealed that early autophagic markers are recruited to E‐Syt‐containing domains during autophagy and that inhibition of E‐Syts expression leads to a reduction in autophagosome biogenesis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that E‐Syts are essential for autophagy‐associated PI3P synthesis at the cortical ER membrane via the recruitment of VMP1, the stabilizing ER partner of the PI3KC3 complex. These results highlight the contribution of ER–plasma membrane tethers to autophagosome biogenesis regulation and support the importance of membrane contact sites in autophagy.


With high reflectivity, zero threshold and great system stableness is regarded as one of important combination methods to get high power laser. The principle and the progress of Brillouin-enhanced four-wave mixing combination are reviewed.


Previous work done in this laboratory suggests that a defect exists in the metabolism of blood cells of schizophrenic s u b j e c t ~ . ~ ~ ~ J Administration of regular insulin 30 min. before a blood sample was drawn caused a n increase in the rate of irz vitro incorporation of phosphorus into adenosine triphosphate (ATI') and fructose-1,6-diphosphate (Fl, 6P) by cells from whole blood of the control subject. Insulin did not increase the rate of incorporation into these compounds in blood from chronic schizophrenic subjects. The effect of insulin on the rate of incorporation of phosphorus into ATP did not differentiate the acute from the chronic schizophrenic nor the nonschizophrenic subjects. Instead, this effect seems to be connected with the chronicity of the illness rather than simply with its occurrence.4 On the other hand, the rate of incorporation of phosphorus into F1, 6P appears to be related to the primary symptoms of schizophrenia as defined by Bleuler, and it does appear to differentiate both acute and chronic schizophrenic from nonschizophrenic subjects: Since carbohydrate metabolism then seems to be more closely involved in this phenomenon than energy metabolism, the metabolism of glucose by means of the hexose monophosphate shunt and the Emden Meyerhof scheme was examined more closely. Data from studies involving the rate of conversion of the 1-carbon and the 6-carbon of glucose to CO2 by whole blood from schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic subjects before and after insulin stress suggest that in blood from a control subject insulin causes a shift from the hexose monophosphate shunt of the Emden Meyerhof scheme. The shift does not occur in blood from schizophrenic subject^.^,^ The results obtained by placing erythrocytes from control subjects in plasma from schizophrenic subjects and erythrocytes from schizophrenic subjects in plasma from control subjects and repeating the previous experiment demonstrated that the observed defect was the result of some factor contained in the plasma itself, rather than one caused by some dysfunction of the cellular enzyme system. To confirm this observation, chicken erythrocytes were substituted for human red cells. The results were identical. Insulin caused a shift from the hexose monophosphate shunt to the Emden Meyerhof scheme in chicken cells incubated in control serum but did not affect the chicken cells incubated in schizophrenic serum.s,6 I t was discovered that schizophrenic serum had still another effect on the metabolism of glucose by chicken erythrocytes. It stimulated the cell to increase lactic acid production and to decrease pyruvic acid production, thereby increasing the ratio of lactic acid to pyruvic acid.' It is not necessary to use insulin stress to detect this increase in the 1actate:pyruvate (T,/P) ratio. Re* The work tlescribed in this articlc was assisted by grants-in-aid from the Scottish Rite Committee on Research in Schizophrenia, Detroit, Mich., and the National Association lor Mental Health, Puhlic Health Service, Bethesda, Md.


The paper introduces the principle of grey dynamic model and mathematics theory used in examining the model,and probes into the application of the model in predicting gross population.As the model is set up on the basis of practice,its examination result is excellence,which proves that it has certain application value.


This paper proposes new LMI conditions for state and input recovery of a particular class of nonlinear systems. The convergence approach is presented under the original framework of the contraction theory and the conditions are derived thanks to the differential mean value theorem. This method is more general and more easily implementable than an original method, presented in [1], for the same class of systems. It is applied with success on two numerical examples of chaotic systems with unknown input, used for information encryption and decryption. Experimental results, based on a basic communication setup, are also included.


Abstract : Hazardous materials transport and regulation is coming under severe scrutiny in response to terrorism concerns following the events of September 11, 2001. This increased scrutiny, combined with a lack of a coherent protection strategy from either the Department of Transportation or the Department of Homeland Security, has led municipalities to begin to regulate the shipment of hazardous materials. In February 2005, Washington DC signed into law the Terrorism Prevention in Hazardous Materials Transportation Emergency Act, effectively banning the transportation of ultra-hazardous materials through the city. Municipal reaction to the actions taken by District of Columbia has been varied and widespread. Using both a meta-analysis and a case study methodology, this project analyzes the impacts of the current terrorist environment in an attempt to determine the potential of additional municipal regulation of hazardous materials transportation via rail. Since the case study methodology did not result in any direct data, the research team applied the meta-analysis technique to answer the research and investigative questions through the literature review. The data gained through this study allowed the research team to discover the following findings: there has been limited governmental reaction to terrorism within the rail regulations; the effects of HM-223 are undetermined; the Washington D.C. case, if upheld, will adversely affect the rail industry; and most cities have reactive policies toward HAZMAT rail movement.


The word Himachal Pradesh translates to Region of Snowy Mountain. The state is not only famous for the natural beauty but also have a strong religious history. That is why probably one of the reasons that the state is also referred to as Dev Bhoomi that means the land of Gods. At administration level there are twelve districts in Himachal Pradesh, which are further divided in to more than 70 tehsils. Holidaying, sightseeing and religion are the main purpose of travel to the state. Among alternate forms of tourism adventure tourism and nature based tourism is also familiar. Now a day's community based tourism and community based tourism initiatives are also gaining popularity particularly in the rural areas with a specific aim to protect preserve and conserve local culture, heritage, customs and values thereby showcasing all these things as tourism products. The current study aims to explore the possible benefits of community based tourism initiatives to the community and thereby measuring the perception of local residents of the community regarding these benefits.


higher in the jet ventilation group (p =0.03) Intraoperative high frequency jet ventilation was significantly associated with less frequent blood loss (p=0.049). Respiratory complications such as pneumonia was found more often when intraoperative One Lung Ventilation was used (p = 0.023). No differences in the length of hospital stay but surgery time were significantly reduced (p<0.05).


The ubiquitous probabilities of evolutionary theory (ET) spark the question: Which interpretation of probability is the most appropriate for ET? There is reason to think that, whatever we take probabilities in ET to be, they must be consistent with both determinism and indeterminism. I argue that the probabilities used in ET are objective in a realist sense, if not in an indeterministic sense. Furthermore, there are a number of interpretations of probability that are objective and would be consistent with deterministic evolution and indeterministic evolution. However, I suggest that evolutionary probabilities are best understood as propensities of population‐level kinds.


Law in terms of history and culture law and bureaucracy the enforcement of law legislation legal professions and judicial independence judicial review legal reform.


support compensation or social change. In particular, all our proposals dealing with problems specific to women were rejected during that time" (222-23). In a chapter on women and sport, M. Ann Hall distinguishes between "liberal-reformist" and "radical-cultural" approaches to gender equity. She argues that feminists must go beyond arguing for the inclusion of women, to identifying the patriarchal structures of sports themselves, and to seeing sport as a site of cultural struggle. In addition, she identifies an obstacle to social change which is one of the raisons d'etre of the Changing Methods collection. Like the other authors, Hall believes that theory can inform practice, and that the kind of theory we need is socially committed and self-aware. However, "The trouble with a good deal of feminist theory is that it is not written in a clear, precise, and accessible language. This is a problem because sometimes only the theorists understand and read the theory" (294). Changing Methods will be read primarily by academic feminists, and will resonate strongly with their experiences. Its contributions will find many uses in interdisciplinary Women's Studies courses. However, the inclusion of essays by women working to stop violence against women, in the area of child care, for Canadian Inuit women and for farm women also represents an effort to bridge the gulf between feminist theory and women's movements. We should not be too surprised if the book falls short of Hall's ideal. The very norms of academic publishing which the authors so effectively criticize—as well as the tenuous positions of critical research in the universities—combine to limit the socially radical and culturally accessible synthesis of theory and practice which may be realized in an academic text.


Farmers' livelihood in the watershed areas of Indonesia are generally marginal. Their main income, which can rarely support the family needs, depends on the natural resources available in the area. Consequently, these farmers do not have any choice but to exploit these resources. This in turn proves to be a major factor in aggravating the causes of soil erosion and landslides and land degradation in general.


Abdominal draw-in is a functional transversus abdominal muscle exercise to ac-quire the contraction. However, it is difficult for even healthy subjects to selectively contract the deep transversus abdominal and internal oblique muscles without over-contraction of the superficial rectus abdominis and the external oblique muscles. This study examined whether the transversus abdominal muscle is selectively contracted by our taping method. The subjects were 20 healthy males. Using ultrasound, we compared the thickness of external oblique, internal oblique, and transversus abdominal muscle among no taping, kinesio taping and abdominal muscle activation taping in the standing position. The thickness of transversus abdominal muscle significantly increased in the activation taping more than the other methods. This study showed that abdominal musculature activation taping made it possible to contract the transversus abdominal muscle selectively.


Three-layer panels are referred to light weight energy efficient building envelopes. According to current trends, mineral wool from basalt fiber is preferable to be used as panels middle layer. All three-layers of the construction together account for mechanical properties, though these layers taken separately have very different mechanical properties. The work of such a composite design has a number of features that require careful consideration when calculating the panels for strength. Thus, it has not yet been described how squeeze reduction of a relatively soft middle layer affects the load bearing capacity of a panel. When panels are exposed to external loads, their middle layer is squeezed thus changing the characteristics of the panel. This effect is particularly evident in supporting structures. Besides, squeeze reduction of the middle layer changes its elastic-plastic propeties. The purpose of this work is to study the effect of the middle layer of an energy efficient panel squeeze reduction on its load bearing capacity. When solving this task, the authors worked out a methodology which takes into account squeeze reduction of a middle layer and its effect on load bearing capacity of the panel. The researches introduced an algorithm for solving this task and created a tool that allows to easily receive the exact solution. The paper presents this methodology and describes a computer program for calculating three-layer panels with account of changing elastic compliance of a middle layer. The main result of the work is an extended methodology of calculation of the panels and an obtained engineering tool that allows to quickly obtain an extended solution.


The static kink, sphaleron and kink chain solutions for a single scalar field $\phi$ in one spatial dimension are reconsidered. By integration of the Euler--Lagrange equation, or through the Bogomolny argument, one finds that each of these solutions obeys a first-order field equation, an autonomous ODE that can always be formally integrated. We distinguish the BPS case, where the required integral is along a contour in the $\phi$-plane, from the semi-BPS case, where the integral is along a contour in the Riemann surface double-covering the $\phi$-plane, and is generally more complicated.


We present an approach to fabricate shell objects with thickness parameters, which are computed to maintain the user‐specified structural stability. Given a boundary surface and user‐specified external forces, we optimize the thickness parameters according to stress constraints to extrude the surface. Our approach mainly consists of two technical components: First, we develop a patch‐based shell simulation technique to efficiently support the static simulation of extruded shell objects using finite element methods. Second, we analytically compute the derivative of stress required in the sensitivity analysis technique to turn the optimization into a sequential linear programming problem. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach can optimize the thickness parameters for arbitrary surfaces in a few minutes and well predict the physical properties, such as the deformation and stress of the fabricated object.


Objective:To study endothelin-1 (ET-1)expression in astrocytomas and the relationship between the ET-1quantitative analysis and the estimation prognostic of astrocytomas.Methods:ET-1 positive expression and quantitative analysis were detected in 70 cases with astrocytoma using Streptavidin-Peroxidase method and image analysis technology.Results:The ET-1 expressed in all of astrocytomas, and the ET-1 positive expression were mainly located in the cytoplasm.The positive rates of ET-1 in Ⅳand Ⅲ grade of astrocytoma were significantly higher than the others(p0.05).The results of image analysis on astrocytoma showed that the lower differentiation of astrocytoma, the higher ET-1 quantitative.(P0.01).The ET-1quantitative of astrocytoma were independent survival time of astrocytoma(r=-0.787,P0.01),and dependent the grading of astrocytoma(r=0.863,P0.01)?Conclusion:The ET-1 quantitative analysis may be used as a monitoring index of the estimation prognostic of astrocytomas.


This paper shows that the precautionary premium embodies a tradeoff between risk and downside risk. It is the size of a mean-preserving spread for thish the strength of aversion to risk just offsets the strength of aversion to downside risk. Using this result, decreasing absolute prudence can be interpreted as meaning that the amount of exposure to risk (as measured by a spread) for which aversion to risk just offsets aversion to downside risk decreases as wealth increases. This happens when an increase in wealth causes a smaller percentage change in absolute downside risk aversion than in absolute risk aversion.


A design implementation is tested for a hospice that more fully supports the quality of life of its inhabitants, through the notion of "connection".


Four convicts in the sensational 2012 Nirbhaya Gang rape and murder case will be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail, a Delhi court said on Tuesday. The order was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora who issued the death warrants against the four death row convicts -Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31). During the hearing, the prosecution said there was no application pending before any court or the President right now by any of the convicts and the review petition of all the convicts was dismissed by the Supreme Court. While urging the court to issue the death warrants, the prosecution said, "In between the issuance and the execution of death warrants, if the convicts want to file curative petitions, they can do so." Counsel for two of the convicts Mukesh and Vinay said they were in the process of filing curative petition in the Supreme Court. When the hearing commenced, advocate M L Sharma appeared before the court and said that he was representing Mukesh. However, amicus curiae Vrinda Grover, who on the last date was appointed by the court to represent Mukesh, said Sharma had no authority to represent him. The court heard the arguments from both of them and directed Sharma to produce Vakalatnama (document empowering lawyer) showing that Mukesh authorised him. After the court reserved the order for 3.30 pm on issuance of death warrants, Mukesh's mother entered the court room crying and urged the court to show mercy. The court refused to entertain her. Talking to media persons outside the courtroom, she said her son was framed because he was poor. The court interacted with all the convicts through video conferencing from Tihar jail. The media was not allowed inside the video conferencing room. After the court passed the order, the lawyers and family members of the convicts came out and informed the media about court's order. Victim's parents said they were satisfied with the order. The trial court had earlier directed Tihar jail authorities to seek within a week response from the four death row convicts as to whether they were filing mercy pleas against their executions with the President of India. It was hearing the applications moved by Nirbhaya's parents and the prosecution (Delhi government) seeking issuance of death warrant against the convict. The Supreme Court on December 18 had dismissed the plea of Akshay seeking review of its decision, saying review petition is not "re-hearing of appeal over and over again" and it had already considered the mitigating and aggravating circumstances while upholding the death penalty. Continued on Page 4 @TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneer Follow us on:


PID control systems have been widely employed in industrial processes. Recently, some data-oriented PID control systems have been proposed because it is difficult to adjust a set of suitable PID gains. In this paper, one of data-oriented PID control schemes, which is designed by using the generalized output errors, is proposed. The generalized output is defined from a PID control law. Moreover, PID gains are determined based on minimizing the errors between an operating data and the generalized output errors. The proposed scheme has been designed for single-input/single-output linear systems and multivariable systems, and the effectiveness of the scheme is verified by these numerical simulation examples.


We address a poorly understood aspect of ecological niche modeling: its sensitivity to different levels of geographic uncertainty in organism occurrence data. Our primary interest was to assess how accuracy degrades under increasing uncertainty, with performance measured indirectly through model consistency. We used Monte Carlo simulations and a similarity measure to assess model sensitivity across three variables: locality accuracy, niche modeling method, and species. Randomly generated data sets with known levels of locality uncertainty were compared to an original prediction using Fuzzy Kappa. Data sets where locality uncertainty is low were expected to produce similar distribution maps to the original. In contrast, data sets where locality uncertainty is high were expected to produce less similar maps. BIOCLIM, DOMAIN, Maxent and GARP were used to predict the distributions for 1200 simulated datasets (3 species x 4 buffer sizes x 100 randomized data sets). Thus, our experimental design produced a total of 4800 similarity measures, with each of the simulated distributions compared to the prediction of the original data set and corresponding modeling method. A general linear model (GLM) analysis was performed which enables us to simultaneously measure the effect of buffer size, modeling method, and species, as well as interactions among all variables. Our results show that modeling method has the largest effect on similarity scores and uniquely accounts for 40% of the total variance in the model. The second most important factor was buffer size, but it uniquely accounts for only 3% of the variation in the model. The newer and currently more popular methods, GARP and Maxent, were shown to produce more inconsistent predictions than the earlier and simpler methods, BIOCLIM and DOMAIN. Understanding the performance of different niche modeling methods under varying levels of geographic uncertainty is an important step toward more productive applications of historical biodiversity collections.


Ionic liquids (ILs) are compounds that consist exclusively of ions. These compounds, which can be considered as salts, feature low melting temperatures (generally below 100°C), at which other salts are solids. The cations in these compounds are of organic type and some of the most common structures are heterocyclic such as imidazolium (1), pyridinium (2), pyrazolium (3) and pyperidinium (4), or may also be formed by non-cyclic, heteroatom-containing cations such as ammonium (5) and phosphonium (6) (Figure 1) [1].


In this paper,the mesoscale numerical weather prediction model WRF3.2 is used to study the influence of different assimilation time intervals on the heavy rains simulation,which occured on July 3,2011 in Chengdu.The results show the assimilation of radar data can make the initial field distribution of water vapor field,horizontal wind field and vertical velocity field more closer to the fact.Except temperature field,the frequency of assimilation is higher,which can bring about greater impact on the initial field,greater incremental value of the horizontal wind field,and The more information on the medium and small scale are present,which can be more closer to the real atmosphere.After many times assimilations,low level wind field changes have been delivered to the high level,which cause adjustment of the flow field in high level.Radar reflectivity data assimilation is effective,which can adjust the distribution of water vapor in atmospheric.


IT IS A COMMONPLACE observation that normal aging is accompanied by a "memory loss" of varying degree. Recently, a number of studies have substantiated this impression, documenting the fact that the ability to acquire new information declines with advancing years.l-ll In another type of study, electroencephalographic investigations have shown that a large proportion of aging subjects may show slowor sharp-wave activity in the temporal regions.12-17 Furthermore, pathological changesneurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques-tend to occur preferentially in the hippocampal regions .18-2! Since the recognition that isolated lesions of the hippocampal complexes (HC lesions) may produce a circumscribed deficit of memory storage,18-23 it has been only logical to speculate whether a similar situation might account for the cognitive and EEG changes that occur in normal aging. Isolated degenerative HC lesions might produce the memory deficit and be reflected in temporal abnormalities on EEG. Further, it has been suggested that the more generalized intellectual impairment seen in old age may result from a relatively pure underlying memory deficit.3,5J3y24 While these possibilities are both cogent and provocative, they suggest a number of relationships that must be rigorously evaluated. First, memory is not a homogeneous psychological function but consists of a number of separable mechanisms that may be disrupted in a variety of ways. The memory loss produced by HC lesions is only one of these amnestic syndromes and may or may not be similar to the loss produced by aging. Second, temporal abnormalities on EEG may not only reflect damage to the hippocampal regions but may also be caused by lesions in other portions of the temporal lobes or in deep subcortical locations. Finally, the expectation that gen-


This paper has focused on the integration of renewable energy, specifically the solar energy resources into conventional electric grid and deployment of smart architecture of hybrid energy system in the user-centric pervasive computing concept in the context of Kyoto Protocol for sustainable development of the rural and urban sector. A concept of next generation mobile smart-grid city for efficient real-time collaborative use of renewable and non-renewable energy sources at smart user-centric device for sustainable green environment in the context of climate change is proposed


The term filtenna [1] refers to a class of microwave components that, being able to perform both filtering and radiation operations, have been widely investigated for reducing the cost and space occupancy of a microwave system. In most cases, filtennas are designed by inserting a filtering element with a frequency-dependent behavior in the structure of a standard antenna. Given their wide operation bandwidth, which often exceeds the required one, waveguides and horn antennas have been extensively used for this purpose [1] - [3] . Moreover, by properly choosing the topology of the filtering element and by loading it with non-linear elements, the polarization state and power level of the incoming wave can be used as further discriminating characteristics between signals [3] - [4] .


(54) METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR WEBPAGE (52) U.S. Cl. ....................................................... 382/218 REGRESSION TESTING (57) ABSTRACT (75) Inventors: Krishna Bihari Kumar, Phoenix, AZ A regression testing system comprises an automatic test tool (US); Keshav A. Narsipur, Phoenix, AZ configured to capture a first web screen shot and a second web (US); Hans-Jurgen Greiner, Phoenix, screen shot of a webpage, where the webpage has undergone AZ (US) an update or edit. The regression testing system also com prises a visual comparator configured to identify similar areas (73) Assignee: American Express Travel Related in the first web screen shot and the second web screen shot. Services Company, Inc., New York, NY The visual comparator receives, and compares characteristics (US) of the web screen shots. Furthermore, the regression testing system generates a report with marked different characteris (21) Appl. No.: 13/173,132 tics between the first and second web screen shots. The regression testing system identifies similar areas in the first (22) Filed: Jun. 30, 2011 and second web screen shots shot even if the similar areas are at different locations within the web screen shots. The com Publication Classification parison performed by the visual comparator includes per forming a pixel comparison combined with a marking algo (51) Int. Cl. rithm to group differences in Smaller, related but separate G06K 9/68 (2006.01) aaS.


In the scientific study of religion the concept of ecstasy is connected to many phenomena, among them Shaman initiation journeys, ritual intoxication, the state of possession, as well as erotic and aesthetic rapture.


OBJECTIVE
This study was aimed to evaluate the potentiality for the use of apoptosis cells count as a chemosensitivity testing in vitro for ovarian cancer.

METHODS
An end-labelling assay was used to determine the apoptosis cells of 4 specimens of fresh ovarian cancer cells and the results were compared with that of ATP assay.

RESULTS
It was found that chemotherapy can induce apoptosis, and the same chemotherapeutic agent can induce different apoptosis cells for different cancers.

CONCLUSION
The observed agreement between apoptosis cells count and ATP assay was 0.75. The above data demonstrate that apoptosis cells count can be used as a chemosensitivity testing for ovarian cancer, and a combination of these two methods may improve the clinical effects of chemotherapeutic agents.


The results of Most Probable Number (MPN) enumerations of chemolitho-autotrophic nitrite oxidizers are very much dependent on the nitrite concentration applied in the incubation medium. In order to explain this dependency, the influence of pH, nitrite and resultant nitrous acid concentration of the incubation medium on the MPN-enumeration was investigated. It appeared that none of these factors were exclusively responsible for the result of the enumeration. In samples from a well drained grassland soil, highest number have been obtained with a combination of a low pH and a low nitrite concentration in the counting medium. The relation between the MPN-counting results and the nitrous acid concentration showed an optimum with the same soil samples. It was hypothesized that the relatively high numbers of nitrite-oxidizing cells determined in soil samples at a high nitrite concentration and pH 7.3 was due to the presence of dormant cells. However, this hypothesis could not be confirmed with enumerations of aged cell suspensions of different Nitrobacter species. In contrast to the field observations, these resting cells were always enumerated more efficiently at a low nitrite concentration. The importance of the use of more than one incubation medium for the enumeration of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria is emphasized.


One of the greatest difficulties in teaching statistics is imparting an understanding of the procedures and their uses. This analysis develops a framework for using spreadsheet software on a microcomputer to develop sophisticated statistical procedure templates that are effective in teaching statistical concepts. The analysis consists of four parts: an overview of traditional computer-based statistical applications, the development of a framework for teaching-oriented statistical applications, illustrations of the framework with an example for time series analysis, and suggestions for integrating multiple procedures in a single spreadsheet. Keywords: spreadsheet, statistical analysis, teaching, template.


For Hannah Arendt thinking is a true ethical imperative, in opposition of a non-thinking that thus appears to be the radical evil. To think is the ability to give reason for the event through judgment, autonomous mental faculty, which has its own principles in itself, through which it is able to distinguish good from evil, justice from an injustice, etc.


This paper first analyses the shortcoming of traditional methods for data acquisition currently used by some departments. Then it discusses the importance and the necessity of the data acquisition system based on eSuperMap. Meanwhile,the correlative technologies,system configuration,function designs are discussed,in which the function designs are especially introduced in detail.


A study on ground water quality has been carried out in parts of coastal region of Andhra Pradesh, South India, where groundwater is a major source for drinking and irrigation. The area is underlain by rocks representing the Eastern Ghats (khondalites, charnockites etc), over which the river alluvium occurs. The results of pH, EC, TDS, TH, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3−, Cl−, SO42-, NO3− and F− suggest that the quality of groundwater is of alkaline nature with fresh to brackish and controlled by rock-weathering, mineral dissolution, ion exchange and evaporation. Poor drainage conditions and chemicals from agricultural fertilizers degrade the groundwater quality. In many locations, the quality of groundwater is not suitable for drinking with reference to TDS, TH, Mg2+, Na+, Cl−, NO3− and F−, while it is not good for irrigation with respect to USSL's diagram. Thus, the study suggests management measures to improve the groundwater quality.


Journals dominate the Information Technology literature. Undoubtedly, these are well-established means of transmission of information from the generator to the end user. Though the information is available indifferent forms like books, magazines and journals, CD-ROM, Internet sources, online databases, microfilms, magnetic tapes etc., a survey conducted at foreign universities reports that majority of users are interested to use e-journals. An attempt has been made in this article to report the advantages and disadvantages of e-journals as perceived by the academicians of universities of Karnataka. It is observed that "It provides current and up-to-date information" and "Site license problem" were the major advantage and disadvantage of e-journals."


There exists a problem of making much of knowledge and looking down on application in the current automobile specialty English teaching.To enhance the students' ability,we amended program of instruction and innovated teaching mode and improved the teaching and learning environment,so the teaching effect had the distinct enhancement.


The propagation of electrostatic waves in a dense magnetized electron–positron–ion (EPI) plasma with nonrelativistic and ultrarelativistic degenerate electrons and positrons is investigated. The linear dispersion relation is obtained for slow and fast electrostatic waves in the EPI plasma. The limiting cases for ion acoustic wave (slow) and ion cyclotron wave (fast) are also discussed. Using the reductive perturbation method, two-dimensional propagation of ion acoustic solitons is found for both the nonrelativistic and ultrarelativistic degenerate electrons and positrons. The effects of positron concentration, magnetic field, and mass of ions on ion acoustic solitons are shown in numerical plots. The proper form of Fermi temperature for nonrelativistic and ultrarelativistic degenerate electrons and positrons is employed, which has not been used in earlier published work. The present investigation is useful for the understanding of linear and nonlinear electrostatic wave propagation in the dense magnetized EPI plasma of compact stars. For illustration purposes, we have applied our results to a pulsar magnetosphere.


This paper describes the work of VOICE UK, one of the country's leading support organisations in the field of abuse of adults with learning disabilities. Here the organisation's director outlines the scale and scope of the task facing VOICE, its aims, priorities and achievements. Contact details are provided and enquiries welcomed.


In CNC machining, it is desired to obtain high machining accuracy with high processing velocity as far as possible, however it is difficult to realize, and especially machining NURBS curve with large curvature. Based on scheduled feedrate on curvature of NURBS, a new NURBS curve interpolation algorithm was proposed. First, the curvature extreme of NURBS curve was calculated, and the critical value was defined according to machining dynamical requirements. Second, the NURBS curve was split several sub-segments, feedrate scanning algorithm based on S curve acceleration/deceleration was used to schedule the feedrate within each sub-segments and the connection points between adjacent sub-segments. Last, during real-time interpolation, with the second-order Taylor expansion, the interpolation parameter was computed. The results of interpolation case indicated the proposed method not obtain high interpolation accuracy with high interpolation feedrate, but the interpolation output acceleration and jerk within the machine tool's dynamical requirements.


We developed a foraging model for young fishes that incorporates handling and digestion rate to estimate daily food consumption. Feeding trials were used to quantify functional feeding response, satiation, and gut evacuation rate. Once parameterized, the foraging model was then applied to evaluate effects of prey type, prey density, water temperature, and fish size on daily feeding rate by age-0 (19–70 mm) pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus). Prey consumption was positively related to prey density (for fish >30 mm) and water temperature, but negatively related to prey size and the presence of sand substrate. Model evaluation results revealed good agreement between observed estimates of daily consumption and those predicted by the model (r2 = 0.95). Model simulations showed that fish feeding on Chironomidae or Ephemeroptera larvae were able to gain mass, whereas fish feeding solely on zooplankton lost mass under most conditions. By accounting for satiation and digestive processes in addition to handling...


Author(s): Haselhoff, Kim; Ong, Paul M. | Abstract: The Lewis Center has partnered with several groups to develop the survey and to analyze and disseminate the results. Organizations on the UCLA campus include the Center for Communications and Community, the Institute for Transportation Studies, the UCLA Center for Civil Society, and the UCLA Anderson School. We have also partnered with two public agencies, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), and the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC). UCLA faculty partners include Vickie Mays from the Psychology Department and Michael Stoll from the Department of Policy Studies. We also received helpful comments from several UCLA faculty members including Brian Taylor, Amy Zegart, Frank Gilliam, Helmut Anheier, Hagai Katz, Chris Thornberg and Ed Leamer.The survey covers seven topics but is divided into two parts, Form A and Form B. The Public Opinion, Transportation, and Demographic modules are administered to all 1500 survey respondents. The remaining modules are only given to half of the survey respondents. Form A includes the questions on the Economy, Employment, and Housing. Form B includes questions on Social Capital and Terrorism and Disaster preparedness. The Transportation questions are also divided into two modules. Half of respondents are asked questions about their commute, while the other half are asked about their last trip in a car. However, if a respondent who is assigned the commute question is not employed or does not commute they are assigned to the last trip questions.


To generate high quality images with faster calculation speed for holographic displays, we propose a modified unsupervised Vision Transformer model, which has the capability of capturing globalfeatures of an image. The proposed method can infer a hologram significantly faster than the stochastic gradient descent method, while producing images with similar quality.


Background: Seizure is the most common neurological disorder in children and an important cause of paediatric hospital admission with the highest prevalence in the under-five age group. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the neuro-imaging technique of choice in the initial evaluation of children with epilepsy. High-field MRI is the ideal imaging modality for evaluating seizures but this is not readily available in developing countries.
Objective: To analyse the spectrum of MRI findings in children presenting with seizures using a low-field (0.36T) MRI.

Methods: Children aged ≤18years with seizures, with cranial MRI at the University College Hospital (UCH), Nigeria between January 2013 and June 2015 were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: There were a total of 134 patients with 53% as adolescents and most of them (85; 63.4%) had abnormal cranial MRI findings. More male children had abnormal findings (52; 61.2%) and most abnormal findings (42; 49.4%) were reported among adolescents. The most frequent abnormality was hydrocephalus (23.5%) from various causes followed by cerebral tumours (14.1%) and ischaemic cerebral infarcts (11.8%). In the adolescents, intracranial tumours (21.4%) were the most frequent abnormal findings, while hydrocephalus was commoner in children aged less than 10 years, accounting for 33.3% and 36.0% among the 1-5 years and 6-11 years age groups respectively.

Conclusion: Low-field MRI, which is more readily available, can provide substantial preliminary findings to aid the management of children with epilepsies. Improved access to high-field MRI through cost reduction and early MR imaging evaluation in the course of illness are desirable.


The positions of PbI 2 molecule synthesized into the molecular-dimensioned cavities of |K 6 (Pb 4 I 2 )(PbI 2 ) 0.67 -(H 2 O) 2 |[Si 12 Al 12 O 48 ]-LTA have been determined. A single crystal of |Pb 6 |[Si 12 Al 12 O 48 ]-LTA, prepared by the dynamic ion-exchange of |Na 12 |Si 12 Al 12 O 48 -LTA with aqueous 0.05 M Pb(NO 3 ) 2 and washed with deionized water, was placed in a stream of flowing aqueous 0.05 M KI at 294 K for three days. The resulting crystal structure of the product (|K 6 (Pb 4 I 2 )(PbI 2 ) 0.67 (H 2 O) 2 |[Si 12 Al 12 O 48 ]-LTA, a = 12.353(1) A) was determined at 294 K by single-crystal X-ray diffraction in the space group Pm 3m. It was refined with all measured reflections to the final error index R 1 = 0.062 for 623 reflections which F o > 4σ(F o ). 4.67 Pb 2+ and six K + ions per unit cell are found at three crystallographically distinct positions: 3.67 Pb 2+ and three K + ions on the 3-fold axes opposite six-rings in the large cavity, three K + ions off the plane of the eight-rings, and the remaining one Pb 2+ ion lies opposite four-ring in the large cavity. 0.67 Pb 2+ ions and 1.34 I - ions per unit cell are found in the sodalite units, indicating the formation of a PbI 2 molecule in 67% of the sodalite units. Each PbI 2 (Pb-I = 3.392(7) A) is held in place by the coordination of its one Pb 2+ ion to the zeolite framework (a Pb 2+ cation is 0.74 A from a six-ring oxygens) and by the coordination of its two I - ions to K + ions through six-rings (I-K = 3.63(4) A). Two additional I - ions per unit cell are found opposite a four-ring in the large cavity and form Pb 2 K 2 I 5+ and PbK 2 I 3+ moieties, respectively, and two water molecules per unit cell are also found on the 3-fold axes in the large cavity.


The bachelor´s theses describes formation and development of newspaper and magazines in Slovakia. I focus on the most important social, cultural and political events which had an impact on formation of contemporary print media. Exploration leads to women and lifestyle magazines. I describe contents and graphic forms of three selected titles. In the practical part, I designed the authorial lifestyle magazine INSPIRE.


The numerical simulation of polymeric ows has attracted the attention of many researchers and a variety of numerical methods for simulating viscoelastic ows has been published in the literature. Most of the techniques solve the constitutive equation in dier ential form rather than using the integral form. Nonetheless, numerical methods for solving integral models have been developed, most of them using the nite element method on a Lagrangian framework. One dicult in solving integral models is how to compute the Finger strain tensor. In this work we present a numerical method for solving the upper convected Maxwell (UCM) model, given in its integral form, for incompressible viscoelastic ows. We employ the nite dier ence method and solve the integral equation using an Eulerian mesh. The Finger strain tensor is calculated using the ideas of deformation elds method presented by Peters et. al (1) (see also Hulsen et al. (2)). The equation of motion is solved by the GENSMAC methodology (3) and the integral equation is approximated by a second order quadrature scheme. Convergence results are obtained by considering fully developed ow in a two-dimensional channel and numerical results for the 4:1 planar contraction problem are given.


Dipeptide acids are directly phosphorylated with dialkyl phosphite and triethylamine in carbon tetrachloride/water under mild conditions to give the title compounds in high yields


This article explores a small sample of musicians in two European musical contexts – the Netherlands and the UK. It examines the relationship between the conditions of national music industries and the strategies used to negotiate a career in music and the extent to which musicians frame their careers as entrepreneurs. Interview data from two projects with early-career musicians form the basis of our secondary comparative analysis. We argue that their strategizing can be framed as a set of responses to their local structural conditions. However, neither set of responses produces market advantage. Instead, traditional power and economic relations that reinforce the logic of the hegemonic mainstream industry tend to prevail, whereby only a very small fraction of the aspiring musicians can sustain themselves financially in music.


Introduction: Nonreceptor tyrosine kinases play key roles in the integrin system. Located at the focal adhesions, they consist of large protein complexes through which the cytoskeleton connects to the extracellular matrix. The focal adhesion kinase (FAK)–Src–paxillin complex, a major mediator of the integrin pathway, contributes to cell migration and motility. Its overexpression is increased in children with advanced neuroblastoma (NB), one of the most common malignancies of childhood, with poor survival. Areas covered: We review the most recent data on FAK–Src–paxillin and their implications in NB, the molecular structure and the regulatory mechanisms of each molecule and their interactions and up-to-date information on their use as the newest biomarkers and their potential use as therapeutic targets in NB. Expert opinion: Based on the current literature, we hypothesize that combined and concurrent inhibition of the FAK–Src–Paxillin system may result in significant tumor suppression and prevention or delay of metastasis.


The present invention provides, inter alia, a storage stable aqueous formulation of immunoglobulin having histidine at a weakly acidic to neutral pH in a variety of aspects. The invention also provides a method of stabilizing an immunoglobulin composition by complexing with histidine at a weakly acidic to neutral pH. Advantageously, the methods and formulations provided herein allow stable aqueous compositions of immunoglobulins at weakly acidic to neutral pH for parenteral administration.


Card sorting is a knowledge-elicitation technique often used by information architects, interaction designers, and usability professionals to establish or assess the navigation hierarchy of a Web site. The items are typically menu entries or hyperlinks, while the groups are categories or headings. The process involves asking participants to sort items into meaningful groups. In open card sorts, the number and names of groups are decided by each participant, while in the closed card sorts, these factors are fixed by the researcher in advance. Analysis of card-sorting results range from simple counting of the number of times items were grouped together to the rather intimidating "monothetic agglomerative cluster analysis" (known simply as cluster analysis in most cases). Unfortunately, no single technique provides everything a researcher needs to know, especially if convincing evidence is needed to persuade colleagues or customers of the effectiveness of a proposed design. The evidence we need falls into three categories: Participants. Are these the right participants for our site? Are they all thinking about the items and their groupings in a similar way? Do they have a clear understanding of the card-sorting task itself? Items. Are the item names well-understood by participants? Are there alternatives that should be considered—perhaps terms users are more familiar with? Groups. For closed card sorts, have we chosen the right number of groups and names for each? For open sorts, are participants largely in agreement about the number of groups needed? How well do participants feel the items fit into their groups? Happily, the answer to this last question—how well participants feel the items fit into their groups—can also help us with many of the other issues listed. Coupled with a few data-collection guidelines and alternative presentations of results, we can collect fairly comprehensive evidence about what will and will not work in our navigation hierarchies. So let's examine this last question in some more detail: How well do participants feel the items fit into their groups? It is possible to argue that this question is redundant, that the items must fit into their groups relatively well in any given set of results, because that is how the participant decided to group them. However, practical experience says otherwise. Consider the following example that I use as a practice sorting exercise when teaching: Participants are given the names of 14 wines and asked to sort them into three groups (full-bodied reds, dry whites, and sparkling). Participants are instructed to omit any items they feel do not really belong to any of the groups. The cluster analysis dendogram shown in figure 1 is a fairly typical set of results for 12 participants. The dendogram shows the three groups, connected in the characteristic tree-like structure that gives this form of presentation its name. The vertical connections between branches indicate the strength of the relationship between items, with stronger relationships to the right and weaker to the left. So for example, the relationship between Riesling and White Zinfandel is the strongest in this dendogram, meaning that those two items appeared in the same group more frequently than any other pair of items. The relationship between Beaujolais and Claret is only slightly less strong, while the weakest relationship between any single item and its groups is Pinot Grigio. But for wine lovers, there is something fishy about this result. If you remember, participants were asked to group the wines into three categories, one of which was full-bodied reds. While Beaujolais is a red wine, it certainly cannot be described as full-bodied (there is also a problem with White Zinfandel that I am not going to deal with here—it was a nasty trick played on participants that will p eo p le email@example.com


This is the fifth in a series of Eurobarometer surveys on biotechnology and the life sciences. The surveys have been conducted in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1999 and in 2002. The survey is based on a repres ...


A smart city is one that uses a smart system characterized by the interaction between infrastructure, capital, behaviors and cultures, achieved through their integration. From our survey of the smart city concept by reading recent papers in this field, we found no uniform concept of the smart city; some papers discussed it as a general case study, while others dealt with specific parts. This paper is a survey of a number of articles , which we divided into two categories:1-General case study, which covers the topic of smart city in a general framework, and 2-Specific case study, which covers the topic of the smart city from a specific detailed application, such as Traffic Management System, Smart Grid, Wireless Technology,…etc. The results of our research show that the information of communication technology (ICT) covers all areas on smart cities such as government facilities, buildings, traffic, electricity, health, water, and transport. Until now there is no unique definition for smart cities, most of researcher define the smart city form their needs or prospective.


Deep convolutional networks have recently achieved significant success in sensor-based human activity recognition (HAR). Existing works are mainly devoted to extracting multiscale activity features from sensor time series by increasing network depth or width, which are not friendly to mobile devices with limited computing resources. It still remains a challenging issue to strike an ideal tradeoff between activity recognition performance and inference-time costs, e.g., the latency and memory footprint. To address this issue, we propose a diverse-branch convolution (DBC) scheme, which could strengthen the representation capacity of vanilla convolution via exploiting diverse branches of different scales and complexities to enrich activity feature space. Then, DBC could be equivalently transformed into a single convolution layer after training for HAR deployment. In such a manner, DBC only complicates training-time microstructure while preserving inference-time macrostructure, where the model performance can be boosted to a higher level and then converted back to its original inference-time structure for activity recognition. Extensive experiments are conducted on three publicly available benchmark datasets, i.e., OPPORTUNITY, UniMiB-SHAR, Wireless Sensor Data Mining (WISDM), and a self-collected weakly labeled HAR dataset, which verify that our method can give a lift in performance while maintaining the same number of parameters and FLOPs as baselines. Finally, the actual inference-time cost is evaluated for HAR deployment on a Raspberry Pi platform.


Critics have identified the corporate and business sector as contributing to household food insecurity through its endorsement of low wages, anti-union activities and lobbying for retrenchment of the Canadian welfare state. It is therefore troubling that this same corporate and business sector has come to dominate positions on the boards of directors of civil society organizations with missions to reduce household food insecurity. Fisher uses the term 'Big Hunger' to describe how this 'hunger-industrial complex' of food banks, food diversion schemes and corporations and companies are accruing benefits to themselves yet do little to reduce household food insecurity. We consider such processes as illustrating two key political economy concepts: (1) Marx's concepts of base and superstructure and (2) Gramsci's cultural hegemony. We carry out a critical case study of the relevance of these concepts to the Canadian household food insecurity scene by examining how the corporate and business sector now dominates the boards of directors of four major civil society organizations concerned with reducing household food insecurity. We find evidence of these civil society organizations exhibiting agenda distortion, reciprocity and loss of integrity, all reflecting their becoming part of the superstructure of capitalist society whose ruling elites come to dominate the ideas and values of society. Issues of wages, unionization and collective agreement bargaining, taxes and taxation, income inequality and retrenchment of the welfare state – all important contributors to household food insecurity and key concerns of the corporate and business community – are for the most part absent from these civil society organizations' reports, documents and statements. We specify the implications these developments have for addressing household food insecurity and the inequitable distribution of other social determinants of health.


According to anti-dumping theory, when the export price is lower than its normal value, the price of the similar products drops sharply and the related industries suffer serious losses in the importing countries, the importing countries will file anti-dumping lawsuits against the importing products. This paper constructs a price detection and early warning model for export cotton yarn of our country to America with back propagation neural network in order to enhance the reaction capabilities of the cotton yarn export industries of China to the anti-dumping lawsuits of America or trade protection policy. The result shows that the precision of this model on training and forecasting is higher and it can be used as an early warning tool.


The present study is an attempt to explore the nexus between state-building, identity crisis and ethnic conflict considering the case of CHT in Bangladesh. The study is based on multiple secondary sources of data and information (e.g., study reports, conference papers, documents and journal articles). It draws the nexus between understanding historical context and dynamics of conflict; identifies the motives, interests, strategies and capacities of conflicting parties to show how structural and proximate causes trigger violent conflicts in the CHT. The study also explores how state-building project escalates identity crisis and ethnic conflict in this region. However, in the case of social science enquiry, no work goes beyond limitation. And the present work is not exception to this point of view. The major limitations of this study include outright reliance on secondary data. It was very hard for us to cross-check secondary data on the CHT conflict for deeper understanding on the CHT conflict from theoretical perspective. Introduction The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is the south-eastern extensive hilly part of Bangladesh with an area of 13,295 square kilometers which constitutes about ten percent of the territory of Bangladesh. This area is considered as the homeland of 13 indigenous communities (where Chakma, Marma, Tripura are predominant). These groups are collectively known as "Pahari" or "Jumma" (Ahsan & Chakma, 1989; Amnesty International, 2013). The CHT enjoyed autonomy with the status of "excluded area" as per the CHT Regulations Act-1900 under the British imperialists' regime. The then Pakistan government repealed such special status and also constructed theKaptai dam that uprooted above 100,000 indigenous peoples (Ahsan and Chakma, 1989). It can, therefore, be argued that the genesis of the today's CHT conflict dates back to the rule of Pakistan. When the East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) emerged as an independent nation state in * Assistant Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000. His email address is firstname.lastname@example.com. ** Lecturer, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka, Dhaka1000. His email address is email@example.com Journal of Sociology 1971, the CHT conflict surfaced with new dimensions and new actors on issues around the Liberation War of Bangladesh, citizenship, identity and autonomy. Because, Mohsin (1997: 63) elucidates: "In the new state of Bangladesh, Bengalis who constituted the new ruling elite and the core ethnic were not only the immediate neighbors of the hilly people, but more importantly this group endeavored to create a Bengalidominated homogenous state in Bangladesh under the rubric of Bengali/Bangladeshi nationalism". This statement reveals how the state-building process deteriorated inter-group (indigenous vs. Bengali) relations which outburst with the protest of M.N. Larma in the parliament: "You cannot impose your national identity on others. I am a Chakma, not a Bengali. I am a citizen of Bangladesh, Bangladeshi. You are also Bangladeshi but your national identity is Bengali ... They [indigenous people] can never be Bengali" (Amnesty International, 2013:15). Shortly after independence of Bangladesh, this inter-group conflict at the leadership level turned into armed clash between the Shanti Bahini (SB) and Bangladesh military in 1977. This was the opening of violent phase of this conflict that sternly affected grassroots level in the form of massacres, forced displacement, sexual violence and repression in the period of 1980-1990. During the insurgency, particularly since 1985, dialogue set off between both parties to settle the longstanding conflict peacefully that reached the climax in 1997 with the signing of Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord (Amnesty International, 2013). Though the Accord has plausibly stopped direct conflict between the warring parties, there are many sources evident that violence in different forms (e.g., land grabbing, sexual harassment, imposed discrimination, etc.) still continues in the CHT in the post-accord regime (Siddiqui, 2016). However, more explicitly, this paper explores the question: how do state-building and identity crisis account for causing violence in the post-Accord regime? Understanding State Building: Concept and Theories The modern history (1940-present) of state-building can be divided into two major partsdecolonization period and post-cold war period when a number of new quasi-states according to Jackson came into being without pre-colonial experience of statehood (Hehir and Robinson, 2007). Generally, state building refers to establishment, re-establishment and strengthening of a state capable of delivering public goods (Deutsch, 1966), establishing legitimate monopoly of physical force (Weber, 1984) and gaining legitimacy from the sovereign power of the people (Beetham, 1991). More specifically, the state-building project embraces the policy of changing names of the states and locations of capitals, national currencies, military conscription, religious and linguistic harmonization and national identity etc. (Ghatak et al., 2008) as outlined by Scott (1998) and Young (2012). But sub-nations or tribal people have resisted assimilation and harmonization policies of the state and its monopolization of power that have created violence between groups and the state as it happened in Turkey, Peru, Venezuela and Guatemala (Nagengast, 1994). The recent scholarship on statebuilding emphasizes on state reconstruction with humanitarian intervention of international community to save a state from crisis (e.g. Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq etc.) from global security perspective (Hehir and Robinson, 2007). In other Muhammad Sazzad Hossain Siddiqui and Anurug Chakma 61 words, state-building is implemented in the fragile or weak states which have no infrastructural power as argued by Mann to penetrate society, regulate social relationships, extract and use resources in determined ways (Hehir and Robinson, 2007). In a nutshell, the present-day state-building projects are concentrated on weak states of Africa and Asia where ethnic conflicts have sparked from state failure (Taras & Ganguly, 2016: 210). Different Schools of Thought on Ethnicity Sometimes ethnicity used to refer to 'nation' in academic arena but ethnicity and nation are fundamentally different from each to other. According to Yang (2000), ethnicity is the outcome of the subjective perceptions based on several objective characteristics such as physical attributes, ancestry, culture or national origin. But this definition is not comprehensive in this sense that it cannot distinguish ethnicity from nationhood. Varshney (2009) has clearly drawn boundary between ethnicity and nation by arguing that a nation is a group whose members have a sense of collective belongings but has a political and territorial home. On the contrary, an ethnic group is smaller compared to nation and it can obtain nationhood establishing a sovereign political entity (ibid). The present paper briefly presented three dominant theories (e.g., essentialism, instrumentalism and constructivism) of ethnicity below. The primordialist or essentialist school of thought, which dominated the thinking on ethnicity until 1970s, is based on three arguments. Firstly, ethnicity is an ascribed identity that persists from generation to generation. Secondly, it is static and fixed in drawing boundary between groups. Thirdly, it stresses the role of primordial factors for instance, culture, language and identity (Yang, 2000). The essentialism explains ethnic conflict from "primordial animosity" perspective. After the World War II, the state-building projects of decolonized nations faced resistance from ethnic groups due to century-old historical or primordial animosity (Taras&Ganguly, 2016; Varshney, 2009). On the other hand, ethnicity is seen neither as inherent in the nature of human beings nor valuable intrinsically. Hence, ethnicity is used in multiethnic societies as an instrument by political leaders for the sake of their political and economic interests which can be explained from the greed vs. grievance model of conflict (Collier, 2004). To put it more simply, interests are the sole elements of identity formation. Rational choice theory is the best example of this school of thought according to which, people act based on cost-benefit analysis (Taras&Ganguly, 2016; Varshney, 2009). Moreover, the constructivism is based on three major arguments. Firstly, ethnic identity is a social construction. Secondly, ethnic identity is flexible and dynamic. Thirdly, ethnic affiliation is determined by the society. Anderson in his "Imagined Communities" has said that ethnic identity formation is closely associated with the "print capitalism". Constructivism explicates ethnic conflict from the "master cleavage perspective" which is historically constructed and can be easily used by leaders to intensify or instigate violence just inserting local, often trivial, incidents and rumors into the "master narrative" (Yang, 2000; Varshney, 2009, Taras & Ganguly, 2016). Global Overview of State-Building Projects, Identity Crisis and Ethnic Conflict Ninety percent of the countries of the world are multiethnic states (Mishra, 2014) and most of the developing countries of Asia and Africa are wracked by Journal of Sociology ethnic tensions and violent conflict (Taras & Ganguly, 2016). Approximately 80 ethnic conflicts are active in the world and 35 of them can be described as civil wars (Gurr, 1993). But there is an academic debate on why some states have ethnic conflict while others do not have. Edward Azar (1990) has rightly pointed out that majority of the contemporary conflicts cannot be elucidated from traditional perspective of conflict according to which conflicts arise due to big power politics and territorial rivalry. Rather the contemporary conflicts are arising out


A new synthesis of α-agarofuran (1) has been realized in four steps from ketol 3 and a stereospecific synthesis of isodihydroagarofuran (dihydro-α-agarofuran) has been achieved in four steps.


This article presents an introduction to Rasch model analysis and its application to examinations that require examiners. The introduction begins with a discussion of the Rasch model and its assumptions and then presents the multifacet Rasch model to include examiners. The article concludes with an example of an application to an oral examination administered by a medical specialty board.


Core–shell structured nanoparticles for near-infrared (NIR) photocatalysis were synthesized by a two-step wet-chemical route. The core is composed of upconversion luminescence NaYF4:Yb,Tm prepared by a solvothermal process, and the shell is anatase TiO2 nanocrystals around NaYF4 particles formed via a method similar to a Stober process. Methylene blue compound as a model pollutant was used to investigate the photocatalytic activity of NaYF4:Yb,Tm@TiO2 composites under NIR irradiation. To understand the nature of NIR-responsive photocatalysis of NaYF4:Yb,Tm@TiO2, we investigated the energy transfer process between NaYF4:Yb,Tm and TiO2 and the origin of the degradation of organic pollutants under NIR radiation. Results indicate that the energy transfer route between NaYF4:Yb,Tm and TiO2 is an important factor that influences the photocatalytic activity significantly and that the degradation of organic pollutants under NIR irradiation is caused mostly by the oxidation of reactive oxygen species generated in ...


This study investigates the application of a photocatalytic process involving fly ash (FA) as a Fenton-like catalyst (without iron) for the removal of paracetamol (Para) in water. The active sites in Fenton-type reactions were found to be the trace metals in FA such as nickel, copper, and manganese. Furthermore, the removal efficiencies of the synergic process (UV-FA + H2O2) were compared with UV alone, FA, FA + UV, FA + H2O2, and H2O2 alone. Moreover, the effect of different pH, catalyst dose, a hydroxyl radical scavenger, and the effect of hydrogen peroxide dose was investigated. Para removal efficiency by different processes were found out to be Fly ash + UV + H2O2 > Fly ash + H2O2 > Fly ash > Fly ash + UV > UV. The adsorption of para on fly ash was found to have no significant effect on removal efficiencies. The optimum conditions were found out to be pH = 3, 8 mM concentration of H2O2, 0.2 g dose of fly ash for the synergic process. Although the synergic process was the best at pH 3, however, even near wastewater pH it was found to be effective. It is therefore concluded that fly ash + UV + H2O2 based synergic process is effective for the removal of pharmaceuticals even near wastewater pH.


In the present research, we address the implications of the pulsating electric field on controlling mass flow-rate characteristics for the time-periodic electro-osmotic flow of a viscoelastic fluid through a microchannel. Going beyond the Debye-Hückel linearization for the potential distribution inside the Electric Double Layer, the Phan-Thien-Tanner constitutive model is employed to describe the viscoelastic behaviour of the fluid. The analytical/semi-analytical expressions for the velocity distribution corresponding to a steady basic part, and a transient perturbed part are obtained by considering periodic pulsations in the applied electrical field. Our results based on sinusoidal pulsations reveal that enhanced shear thinning characteristics of the viscoelastic fluids show higher amplitude of pulsations with the oscillations in the velocity gradients primarily contrived within the Electric Double Layer region. The amplitude of mass flow rates increases with increasing the viscoelastic parameter , whereas, the phase lag displays a reverse trend. The analysis for an inverse problem is extended where the required magnitude of electric field pulsations for a target mass flow rate in the form of sinusoidal pulsations. It is found that with increasing shear-thinning characteristics of the viscoelastic fluid, there is a progressive reduction in the required electric field strength to maintain an aimed mass flow rate. Besides, required electric fields for controlled mass flow with triangular and trapezoidal pulsations are also determined.


The use of inverted sugar presents a series of advantages in relation to diluted sucrose and the enzymatic hydrolysis have a superior yield over acid hydrolysis, beyond supplying a product of better quality and do not generate toxic residues. In this way, the objective of this work was to immobilize by multipoint linkages a commercial invertase and an inulinase produced by a Kluyveromyces marxianus strain on glyoxyl-agarose, amine-agarose, glutaraldehyde-agarose supports and Sepabeads, Sepabeads-amine and Eupergit C epoxy supports, and to determine the activities, stabilities and the capability of reutilization of the derivatives. The derivatives were obtained through different protocols and kinetic parameters Km and Vmax were determined. The results of the derivatives were compared with the ones obtained with soluble enzymes. When invertase was immobilized on agarose using 5mg of enzyme/g of support, it was possible to reutilize the derivatives at least two times with maintenance of the activity, what it was not possible when high enzyme concentration was placed to react with the support, using agarose CL6B or CL4B. This same enzyme supplied derivatives with high activity when glutaraldehyde was used to crosslink the enzyme and agarose CL6B and CL4B supports, with the higher activity of all (21,643 and 14,984 U/mg prot, respectively). Six invertase derivatives were obtained with stability to the temperature of 50°C and for the period of 1440 min, with relative activity above 80% in the reutilizations, but no one inulinase stabilized derivative was obtained. Analyzing these results, it was possible to conclude that the amine+glutaraldehyde CL6B and amine+glutaraldehyde CL4B were the best active stabilized derivatives, presenting catalytic efficiency (Vmax/Km) of 0,59 and 0,52, respectively, corresponding to 59% and 52% of the soluble enzyme efficiency.


(...) During the 4-week growth period the leaves of salt-stressed sensitive cultivars howed a linear accumulation of large quantities of Cl − , accompanied by an accumulation of Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and K + in the leaves of salt-stressed tolerant cultivars were low. The levels of Na + in the leaves of both sensitive and tolerant cultivars remained low under salt stress. Scions of tolerant cultivars grafted onto the root stock of sensitive cultivar Williams showed a typical sensitive response in terms of growth, nitrogen fixation and ionic content. In contrast, scions of sensitive cultivars grafted onto the root stocks of tolerant cultivars showed a typical tolerant response, sustaining growth and nitrogen fixation under salt stress. This confirms the primary role for the root in the regulation of ion uptake, as well as growth and nitrogen fixation, under salt stress


Nanorobots are nanodevices that will be used for the purpose of maintaining and protecting the human body against pathogens. Nano is one billionth of one centimeter. It is the application of different technologies primarily interested in the reduction of size. The credential part of this paper gives the theoretical application of nanodevices in the treatment of AIDS. There is no technology for the treatment of AIDS. Some of the drugs of specific composition are given nowadays to the patients depending on the intensity of the disease which increase their lifetime to a few years only. To make the treatment more specific, we use the nanodevices that use nanosensors to sense the AIDS infected WBC's. In this method, we are using nanorobots to get back the HIV infected WBC's. By doing so, constant levels of WBC's are maintained in the blood stream. Thus, the AIDS patient is provided with an immune system so that he can defend himself from diseases. In this paper, only a theoretical analysis is given and all the information provided is specifically organized by us. In India, more than 50 lakhs of people are infected by this dreaded disease and it constitutes 10% of the total infected. We are doing research on this paper and we hope that this theoretical approach can be made practical in the near future, so that the killer disease AIDS could also be made in control in the hands of Human with the emerging new technologies like NANOTECHONOLOGY which has a Bio-medical application.


Rapid-melting growth of SiGe stripes on insulator without crystal-seed has been investigated. After rapid-thermal annealing (RTA) of amorphous SiGe stripes (~5 μm) at a temperature between melting-point and solidification-point, SiGe crystals with large lateral sizes (~20 μm) are formed. The Si concentrations in the grains show peaks at the center of the grains and gradually decrease toward the grain boundaries. These phenomena are explained based on the self-organized formation of Si-rich micro-crystals and subsequent Si-segregating lateral-growth during RTA.


PURPOSE: A black photosensitive resin composition and an image display device with the same are provided to ensure excellent chemical resistance and to improve surface hardness. CONSTITUTION: A black photosensitive resin composition contains a black perylene-based organic pigment, an insulation metal oxide particle, alkali soluble binder resin, a photopolymerization compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a solvent. The insulation metal oxide particle is selected from silica, alumina, titania, and zirconia.


E xtravagance is a notable characteristic of human reproduction, as it is in all animal species: the majority of offspring launched at conception die before or soon after birth. For example, it is estimated that 40 percent of human pregnancies end in spontaneous miscarriage; a little more than half of these occur so early that a woman may not even realize she is pregnant.' (Major chromosomal abnormalities are a leading cause of this substantial toll in fetal life.) Many unwanted pregnancies are intentionally terminated (approximately 30 percent of pregnant women in the United States chose abortions during 19792); and an unknown number of livebom infants are neglected, abandoned, or killed before they reach the age of one month.


This research examines the prevalence and role of external information sources, such as training sessions, plant visits, and conferences, in lean improvements within organizations. Specifically, based on an initial qualitative study of 18 Canadian Manufacturing firms, and followed by a survey of 109 Canadian manufacturers, an empirical model is developed outlining the relationship between various key drivers of lean improvements, management awareness of lean gain through external sources, demonstrated management commitment to lean, and lean thinking.


The vascular-intervention therapy of chronic coronary artery total occlusion(CTO) has been involved in the problems of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). It seriously impact on long-term efficacy, the heart function and long-term survival of the patients. In this review, the clinical features, imaging characteristics and pathologic features of CTO were analyzed. Then according to these characteristics,the methods and definition of cognitive typing of CTO was advanced. Finally, based on typing and characteristics of pathological changes, the principles, strategies and technical skills of CTO-vascular interventional treatment were clarified.


Ten imported pearl bean type peanut varieties as materials ,through planting in special ecological conditions of Xinyang, various varieties of fertility and economic characters were observed and analyzed.Results showed Gui Peanuts 22,Gui Peanuts 30,Fu Peanuts10 had increased production than control , but the yield difference was not significant .Each variety of growth period had no big difference. They could mature normally,Gui Peanuts series field growth state was good, economic characters performed well,lodging-resistance ability was strong.Comprehensive analysis , Gui Peanuts 22 and Gui Peanuts 30 were better than main local plant peanut varieties ——Baisha1016,they were suitable for promotion and planting in Xinyang.


We describe our experiences with the integration of two ocean models (THCM and MOM4) within a computational framework, in this case Cactus. The use of a framework like Cactus offers many advantages to computational scientists. When integrating existing code some problems are still encountered. The main problems are structural ones caused by mismatches between data structures and parallelization models. We discuss these problems and try to offer directions for improvement of the available frameworks. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Foetus requires several nutrition for normal growth and all this nutrition are transported to foetus from the mother through placenta. Any persistence decrease in the availability of these substances will limit the ability of the foetal growth potential. The majority of conditions affecting foetal growth are placental in origin and the most common placental condition is alteration in the uteroplacental and fetoplacental circulation.


Abstract.  1. Myzus persicae sensu lato demonstrates considerable genetic variation in respect to adaptation to host plants. The subspecies M. persicae nicotianae shows a preference for tobacco, while M. persicae sensu stricto (s. str.) for other herbaceous plants. Given that winged colonisers of several aphid species play an important role in selecting host plants, here their role in the host specialisation observed in M. persicae was examined in choice and no‐choice tests conducted outdoors, in performance studies, and in DC Electrical Penetration Graph (DC‐EPG) studies.


We study the Compton scattering of x-rays off electrons that are driven by a relativistically intense short optical laser pulse. The frequency spectrum of the laser-assisted Compton radiation shows a broad plateau in the vicinity of the laser-free Compton line due to a nonlinear mixing between x-ray and laser photons. Special emphasis is placed on how the shape of the short assisting laser pulse affects the spectrum of the scattered x-rays. In particular, we observe sharp peak structures in the plateau region, whose number and locations are highly sensitive to the laser pulse shape. These structures are interpreted as spectral caustics by using a semiclassical analysis of the laser-assisted QED matrix element, relating the caustic peak locations to the laser-driven electron motion.