Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in children and adolescents on renal replacement therapy. Causes of death could be arrhythmia, valvular disease, Cardiomyopathy. The mechanisms by which cardiovascular disease develops in children with chronic kidney disease are thought to occur by two processes: Cardiac remodeling and vascular injury. Spectrum of cardiovascular finding in children on hemodialysis is: left ventricular dysfunction and hypertrophy, vascular and valvular calcification and cardiomyopathy. Aim of study: To evaluate the cardiovascular disease in pediatric patients on hemodialysis, risk factors of cardiovascular disease in pediatric patients on hemodialysis. Patients and Method: The study population consisted of 67 patients suffering from end stage renal disease on regular hemodialysis regime (HD) for at least 3months between 4-18 years old, at all pediatric hemodialysis centers in Baghdad, between the 1st October 2018 to 1st October 2019.HD data were collected from doctors and nurses involved in HD unit, demographic data are: age, sex, height, weight, cause of renal failure, dialysis data are: duration from starting hemodialysis, intradialytic hypotension, ultra filtration volume, frequency of hemodialysis cession per week and time of dialysis cession. All patients had height, weight, systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurement before hemodialysis cession. laboratory test done for the last hemodialysis cession are, renal function test , S. albumin , S. calcium, S. phosphorus, Hemoglobin, Intact parathyroid hormone (IPTH), C-Reactive protein (C-RP), Echocardiogram. Inclusion criteria age from 4-18years old, duration at least 3 months on hemodialysis, absence of congenital and structural cardiac disease. Results: 45(67.1%) of patients have abnormal finding on echocardiography, 22(32.9%) have normal echocardiography.29(64.4%) of patients with cardiovascular finding were male, 20(44%) have glomerular nephritis as a cause of renal failure, 20(44%) of patients were between 10-15 years old, left ventricular hypertrophy present in 40(88.8%) of patients on hemodialysis, left ventricular dilatation present in 13(28%), systolic dysfunction in13(28%), diastolic dysfunction in 17(37%) cardiomyopathy in 13(28%), ejection fraction<50% in 15(34%), pericardial effusion in 4 (8.88%), hemodialysis duration > one year in 36 (80%), 32(71.1%) of patient have 3 hemodialysis cession per week and 32 (71.1%) have dialysis time 3 hours, 25 (55.6%)of patients with cardiovascular finding have ultra Ali et al (2020): Cardiovascular disease in chronic hemodialysis Dec, 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 24 http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.232433 Health Medicine & Public Tropical Annals of filtration volume more than 13 cc/kg/hr., 24(53.3%) have Hb <11 g/l, hypertension present in 33(73.3%), intradialytic hypotension present 22(48.9%), calcium phosphorous product >55 in 27(60%), 35(77.7%) of patient have hyperparathyroidism>4 fold of upper limit of normal, hyopoalbuminemia found in 20(44.4%), positive C-Reactive protein present in 25(55.5%). Conclusion: Significant percentage of cardiovascular findings was detected in pediatric patients with end stage renal disease on hemodialysis regime. Left ventricular hypertrophy is the most common finding in studied patient. Most common risk factors for cardiac disease were anemia, followed by hypertension, hyperparathyroidism, time and frequency of dialysis cession. Good Control of risk factors and regular echocardiography examination to patients in pediatric hemodialysis centers is required to decrease morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular disease in pediatrics on hemodialysis.


When the fairway crosscut, target type, maneuvering character, spare time to reach the near boundary and electronic interfere were used as the major factors to affect the evaluation, the threat evaluation model of air attack target was put forward based on analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive decision making according to the characteristics of multi-channel air defense weapon system in this paper. The weights of different factors were determined using the analytic hierarchy process, and the weight coefficients were given in the form of sectionalized function. The subjection function of each factor computed by the fuzzy comprehensive decision making was derived for some medium range air defense weapon system, and the calculation flowchart was also presented. The simulation results showed that the model designed could evaluate the threat of air attack target correctly with relative high sensitivity.


Penetration of the electromagnetic field through plate-shaped bulk polycrystalline sintered Pb and Y–Ba doped manganite samples is studied in the frequency range from 20 kHz to 30 MHz. Strong magnetic-field dependence of the transmission coefficient is observed. The penetration data are compared with the other magnetic-field dependent parameters: the magnetic permeability, magnetoresistance, and magnetoimpedance. Unusual frequency dependence of the penetration depth is observed.


Hot recycling of asphalt pavements has received considerable attention from highway authorities around the world over the past decade or so because of its simplicity and the benefits that it offers over the conventional fresh mix overlay. Hot recycling usually involves removing the old distressed surfacng partially or fully and constructing the new surfacing, making use of the materials removed after rejuvenating them suitably. The main benefit of hot-mix recycling is significant cost savings by way of conservation of natural resources and reduced energy consumption. In this paper, the authors briefly discuss hot-mix recycling procedures and include computations based on data collected from published case studies to illustrate the three potential benefits, namely, energy savings, conservation of materials and overall cost reductions.


Patients with transient erythroblastopenia of childhood (TEC) may also have a transient neurologic disorder. We present a case history and propose a mechanism for this syndrome.


The invention discloses a titanium alloy artificial joint surface turbulence precision machining method and device. The titanium alloy artificial joint surface turbulence precision machining method is characterized in that a special square machining device is used to form a copying flow passage for machining a titanium alloy artificial joint prosthesis with the titanium alloy artificial joint prosthesis, the rapid flow of a solid-liquid two-phase abrasive particle flow in the copying flow passage is used for forming full turbulence, and abrasive particles in the solid-liquid two-phase abrasive particle flow are used for performing unordered micro force and micro cutting on the titanium alloy artificial joint prosthesis; in the machining process, high-pressure gas is intermittently introduced into the copying flow passage and impacts the abrasive particles to distribute towards workpieces so as to improve the probability of collision of the abrasive particles to the surface of the titanium alloy artificial joint prosthesis and prevent the abrasive particles from submerging into the bottom of the copying flow passage. The titanium alloy artificial joint surface turbulence precision machining device is simple in structure and easy in design; a copying end cover forms good copying with the surface of the titanium alloy artificial joint prosthesis; the soft abrasive particle flow can be in good contact with the surface of the titanium alloy artificial joint prosthesis, so that the machining precision of a titanium alloy artificial joint is higher, and the processing effect is more uniform.


Lenard D. Moore, The Open Eye. 30th Anniversary Edition. Eugene, OR: Mountains & Rivers P, 2015. ISBN 978-0-9896021-3-6, pp 61. $16.00 (paper).Review of Lenard D. Moore's The Open EyeThe Open Eye , which was Lenard D. Moore's first haiku book published by The North Carolina Haiku Society Press in 1985, is republished this year in a limited 30th anniversary edition by Mountains & Rivers Press. In her email of July 12, 2015 to me, the publisher Ce Rosenow states about the importance to reissue the book, "It has been 30 years since the book was first published, and I feel that the book is important in the history of English language haiku, American poetry, and African American poetry." Indeed, Moore deserves this commendation as an accomplished haiku poet. A practitioner and promoter of the genre, he was President of the Haiku Society of America in 2008 and 2009 and serves as the Founder and Executive Director of Carolina African American Writers' Collective and Co-founder of the Washington Street Writers Group. He has taught numerous haiku workshops, given hundreds of readings at schools, festivals and universities, and published four collections of poetry.The Open Eye is an eye-opening collection that follows the expressive trend of traditional Japanese haiku, leading the reader to see, hear, feel, smell and touch through the poet's seasonal experiences. It consists of 100 haiku in four sections subtitled as spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Some haiku keep the 5-7-5 pattern, revealing the poet's beginning stage in haiku writing, as in this one:Summer evening sun;a row of tombs - their shadowsreaching the ditchbankAlthough the traditional 5-7-5 pattern has helped American haiku poets in their haiku practice, its weakness is apparent in that the pattern can also encage their imagination and the haiku following the tradition can be prosy. Therefore, haiku poets have to break the fence to free their mind for a shorter form with fewer syllable counts in each line, a form suitable for the English language. In a way, this minimal form is a breakthrough for free-form haiku. There is no doubt that while maintaining the essence of terseness of haiku tradition, this free form resuscitates the language and sophisticates the way of creative and critical thinking. As an assiduous practitioner in the haiku mainstream, Moore has learned to be economical and terse in writing haiku. His usage of the English language to say more with less has enriched his haiku writing. For instance, this haiku-wind chimes:a robin stopsto listen-demonstrates Moore's ability and adaptability in haiku writing; it also demonstrates a transition of his haiku practice from following the strict 5-7-5 syllabic pattern to using a free form of a 2-4-3 pattern to mean more in a minimal way. This haiku presents a moment for a reader to apprehend, associate, and appreciate the meaning beyond the words or behind the images: the invisible perceiver, who listens to the wind chimes, notices that even a robin stops singing and is drawn to the melodious ringing sound of the chimes. The transference from listening to seeing and to listening again offers a step-by-step glimpse of human connection with nature or a moment of sudden delight. The effective use of images invites the reaction of both visual and auditory senses, and this haiku is a good example of using synaesthesia to guide the reader to watch visually, hear aurally, and comprehend intellectually. The smooth assonance produced through such words as "wind," "robin," and "listen" also helps this haiku ring melodiously.Furthermore, Moore is also a minimalist experimenting with the one-line haiku, termed by Jim Kacian as monoku in his essay, "The Shape of Things to Come," published in the autumn 2012 issue of Modern Haiku. Moore's The Open Eye contains ten one-liners, three in the summer section, six in the autumn section and one in the winter section, which can be as short as six syllables or as long as twelve. …


ROFESSOR A. REIFENBERG, a distinguished specialist in Hebrew sphragistics, after publishing on several occasions during the past years groups of seals from his private collection,' has resumed in a recent manual the general features of this form of art during the period of the monarchy, illustrating his treatment of the subject with numerous examples.2 Most of these are taken from his previous publications, and the others from Diringer's book3 or from more recent articles in reviews, but the author frequently brings to them new judgments and interpretations, and the illustrations are magnificent, often the best that exist, and in some cases the only ones. Not only Hebrew seals are reproduced, but also Phoenician, Moabite, Ammonite, Aramaic, and Greek ones, and also ivory plaques from Arslmn TdA and from Samaria; these are meant to serve as documents illustrative of the common cultural and artistic background. This book, while showing once more the author's special competence, performs, with an exposition intentionally of divulgative character, the important task of bringing this art form to the knowledge of a wider public. Having had occasion to occupy himself with the subject dealt with by Professor Reifenberg and with some of the documents brought forward by him, the present writer may be permitted to discuss briefly certain general questions on which the author has expressed interesting judgments and to make certain remarks on points of detail.


Jacques Rancière's main philosophical thematic preoccupations stem from an understanding that human beings are equal in all respects. This article is a short introduction to key conceptual formulations central within his diverse body of work. Rancière prompts us to think more critically about how people are apt to be fixed in particular political and cultural locations. His philosophical perspective on 'police' and 'politics' pivots on a subversive endeavour to dis-order dominant ways of perceiving the world and the roles which groups and individuals are expected to fulfil. Rancière also furnishes a range of concepts which can be fruitfully disruptive of particular fields and the more encompassing economic and political frameworks in which they are located. On account of his engagement with these themes, it is argued that Rancière's work may aid social workers' critical reflection.


The charge (relative concentration) of antioxidants in different extracts of medicinal plants used in southwest Amazonia regions of Beni (Bolivia) and Madre de Dios (Peru) was determined employing a procedure based on the quenching of luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence derived from the thermolysis of 2,2'-azo- bis (2-amidinopropane) (ABAP) as the free radical source. Total reactive antioxidant potential (TRAP) and total antioxidant reactivity (TAR) values were determined (in Trolox equivalents) using this method, and 65 extracts showed antioxidant activity. Of these, 46 demonstrated TRAP values > 100 µM. The highest activity was noted in a methanol bark extract of Copaifera reticulata (TRAP = 7500 µM). On the other hand, the highest TAR value was obtained in the methanol root extract of Dracontium loretense. IC 50 and eficiency (compared to Trolox) values were also calculated. The results obtained indicate that the large antioxidant capacity of some medicinal plants may be due to the presence of both v...


A 31-yr.-old male ingested a 0.065 mg/kg non-experimental dosage of LSD-25 (powder form). He was discovered within 30 min., after having vomited copiously, and emergency treatment was begun within 45 min. Associated physiological and behavioral changes are reported, as well as emergency procedures employed.


Since the establishment of China ASEAN Economic and Trade Area, its development speed is very fast, which has injected new vitality into China's economic development. In the face of the situation that China's foreign economy continues to expand, the training speed of foreign related accounting talents should also be accelerated to ensure the sustainable development of ASEAN Economic and Trade Area. Based on the development of China ASEAN Economic and Trade Area, this paper analyzes the demand gap and training dilemma of foreign related accounting talents in China, and puts forward some suggestions on training foreign related accounting talents.


Combined with the construction practice,the paper introduced the principle,fixing and lifting etc.of suspension-type basket,proposed safety operation procedure,problem and routine maintenance of basket.


November/December 2012 Whether an administrator, faculty member, classroom teacher, or specials teacher (Art, Music, and Physical Education), everyone wants students test scores to improve and know that they contributed to it. These improved scores validate the roles and influence of educators and administrators. The purpose of this article is two-fold: 1) to assist school faculty and administration make the important connection between physical activity/movement and improved cognition, and attendance and a decrease in behavioral issues (Berg, 2010); 2) to provide strategies and techniques for classroom teachers and physical educators to understand the role physical activity/movement plays in the classroom and the gymnasium. Collaboration between these two groups is paramount. Physical activity/ movement should be recognized and utilized for its full potential benefits in both the classroom and gymnasium.


In [5], the following pyramid construction problem was proposed: Given nonnegative valued functions ρ and μ in d variables, we consider the optimal pyramid maximizing the total parametric gain of ρ against μ. The pyramid can be considered as the optimal unimodal approximation of ρ relative to μ, and can be applied to hierarchical data segmentation. In this paper, we give efficient algorithms for a couple of two-dimensional pyramid construction problems.


This essay explains the synthesize integral technology and it's environment and gives out an applicable example of synthesize integral system model.


The report discusses the emergence of the Socio-Economic Soft Matter as the consequence of interactions between physics and economy, since the onset of modern times. First, using soft matter science tools, demographic changes since the Industrial Revolution times onset are tested. It is supported by innovative derivative-sensitive and distortions-sensitive analytic tools. All these revealed for population changes the Weibult-type powered exponential description, with the crossover to the lesser rising pattern emerging after the year 1970. Subsequently, population changes are tested for the Rapa Nui (Easter) Island model case and for four selected model cities where the rise and decay phases have occured. They are Detroit and Cleveland in USA and Łódź (Lodz, the former textile industry center), and Bytom (the former coal mining center) in Poland. The analysis shows universal scaling patterns for population changes, coupled to the scocio-economic background impact, revealing also the long-lasting determinism. Finally, sources of obtained universal behavior are discussed in the frame of the Socio-Economic Soft Matter concept. Keywords: Demography; Socio-economy; Soft Matter; Weilbul distribution; Rapa Nui; Post-industrial cities


In the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wen's penal reform mainly included the abolition of the child-bearing system, the abolition of corporal punishment, and the fixed sentence. These reforms changed the prison system of the Qin Dynasty, which were mainly manifested in the order of prisoners, family structure and property. The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties continued to reform penalties, with increasingly lenient penalties, the abolition of imperial punishment, and the reduction in the scope of confinement. The prisoners were free from physical punishment in the true sense and the probability of family members being implicated was reduced. The reform of the prison system in the Qin and Han Dynasties had a positive historical impact.


The paper revealed resources potentiality, market prospects, economic revenue, environ-ment control, and profound processing and peculiar, environmental superiority of development of green food economy It analyzed available main problems and produced series strategy from science and technology, propagate and edcuation, program monitoring, policy, ecological environmentas well as industrialization and so on 7 aspects


Master of Science in Architecture. Thesis(M.S.)--Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture, Dept. of Architecture, 2009. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mesut Ozdeniz.


Comparative constructions display the most intriguing properties in natural languages, in that they interact with a variety of syntactic, semantic,...


The prediction by a mathematical model of the separation of uranium isotopes using a gas centrifuge process is a hard task. The gas motion can be described by analytical or numerical solutions of the system of equations defined by the equation of continuity, the Navier-Stokes equation and the equation of energy. However, these calculations cannot be performed for actual centrifuges. Neural networks are an alternative for modelling complex problems that show too many difficulties to be solved by phenomenological models. The authors propose the use of neural networks for the simulation and prevision of the separative and operational parameters of a gas centrifuge separating uranium isotopes. The results from the uranium separation experiments (Zippe data) are compiled and presented to the neural network in the learning and testing processes. The prediction using the neural network model shows good agreement with the experimental data.


in z8q2, when Edwin Chadwick's report on Tlae Sanitary Condition of tlze Labouring Population of Great Byitain awakened not just England but the entire civilized world to the menace of an insanitary environment. With great respect for, but little knowledge of your programme in food hygiene, I am incapable of relating our efforts to achieve health with those which you experience here in England. Since it is the gap between establishing the objectives of a programme and final achievement of results which offers the greatest challenge to health workers, I feel a responsibility, amounting almost to compulsion, to discuss this phase of the subject and to bring to you some of our problems and thinking in this regard. I have assumed some liberty with the subject assigned to me. To the title &dquo; Food Hygiene &dquo; I have added the phrase &dquo;A Synthesis in Modern Society.&dquo; I shall ask one other liberty due to the difference in terminology between England and the United States. Hygiene in England is apparently synonymous with sanitation, or environmental health, in the United States. I will occasionally refer to sanitation or environmental health, since their implications are slightly different to me than hygiene. Food hygiene may be considered profitably from many viewpoints, but the traditional perspective of the health official limits consideration to the prevention of illness. Since much remains to be accomplished in the fields of basic research, epidemiology and engineering before the details of food hygiene can be formalized, I shall not attempt to discuss the fine points of technology. Just as a bacteriologist first identifies and studies a microbe before attempting control measures, the specialists in food hygiene have studied the problems of illness traceable to food. Their studies have


Fashion and Fabrics is a discipline that involves practical and theoretical skills, and to achieve better results, teachers need to possess pedagogical knowledge for teaching practicals as well. This study aimed to establish the teachers' pedagogical knowledge for teaching Fashion and Fabrics practical skills in Eswatini High Schools. This qualitative study utilized a descriptive research design to get in-depth information. A sample of 16 Fashion and fabric teachers was purposively selected, with eight being interviewed, while the others were observed during their practical lessons. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The study results show that Fashion and Fabrics teachers need to gain pedagogical knowledge in teaching Fashion and Fabrics practical skills. They must prepare for valuable lessons, as evidenced by a need for proper student-sitting arrangements. Teachers were found not to use visual aids and supervise students' work for corrective feedback when necessary. The study concludes that Fashion and fabric teachers need to be stronger in content knowledge and pedagogical competencies, essential for effective learning; hence, students' achievements could have been higher. The study recommends that the training institutions stress peer teaching of Fashion and Fabrics practicals for more practice.


The boost inverter is used to transforms a single step of DC voltage into an amplified AC voltage. The inverter is associated with a DC voltage source as the input, in order to create decentralized single phase AC electrical network. In order to control this inverter, the combination of proportional integrator (PI) and hysteresis controller is proposed, and has better performances compared to results of the sliding mode control one.


Traditionally, the theory of abstract interpretation has concentrated on the study of when one interpretation is <italic>sound</italic> (also <italic>safe</italic> or <italic>correct</italic>) with respect to another. We consider the dual notion of when one interpretation is <italic>complete</italic> with respect to another. Under the usual formulation of abstract interpretation, undecidability in general implies that a finitely computable sound abstraction of the standard interpretation is not complete. (For example, if we simplify 643 * (-192) to (+) * (-) using the "rule of signs" we cannot expect to retrieve -123456 from the resulting (1), even though we are <italic>certain</italic> that the result is negative.) Based on the idea that compilers can only depend on a   finite number of program properties, we augment interpretations with predicate symbols specifying properties of interest (thereby replacing algebraic interpretations with logic interpretations). Interpretation <italic>J</italic> being sound (resp. complete) with respect to <italic>I</italic> is now phrased as "all questions (formulae) yielding true for <italic>J</italic> (resp. <italic>I</italic>) also yield true for <italic>I</italic> (resp. <italic>J</italic>)".
The traditional "rule of signs" turns out to be sound and complete for multiplication but only sound for addition.
Sometimes abstract interpretations have spurious domain elements. The state minimisation algorithm for finite deterministic automata can be used to produce a canonical   (simplest) abstract interpretation which is sound and complete with respect to any given finite abstract interpretation but possibly simpler to compute.
A homomorphism always yields a sound and complete abstraction. Moreover, we show that a sound and complete abstraction map is not necessarily a homomorphism, but its composition with the natural map to the canonical interpretation is a homomorphism,
One side-effect of our formulation of abstract interpretation is that it de-emphasises the ordering on the abstract domain which is relegated to an (optional) proof basis.


In this paper, we prepared thin films by using co-evaporation method, and analyzed the properties of the thin films. During the thin film preparation process, we confirmed phase was formed at in first stage, and also confirmed the thin films showed the vacancy decrease. In second and third stage, we confirmed the density increase of crystalline structure at over and the formation of phase. As the result of SEM and XRD analysis of the films which were before and after heat-treated, we confirmed the disappearance of and the formation of single phase after the heat-treatment, We, therefore, confirmed the heat-treatment did not affect the absorbency spectra of the thin films.


The article looks at region's development prospects and analyzes the activity of the oblast authorities in transport and transit policy


Abstract When artists engage in postcolonial critiques, reworkings or parodies of what is often called 'human zoos', their performances claim access to the real, the culturally authentic, and the psychically primal – three expectations which Hal Foster (1995) qualifies as quasi-anthropological or pseudo-ethnographic. This article is an attempt to substantiate, expand and refine Foster's argument, in three subsequent steps. First, the article explores how Foster's ethnographic challenge for contemporary artists can be substantiated by looking into the postcolonial reinvention of the historical ethnographic encounter in anthropology and cultural studies. Second, as a point of comparison, the article examines the format of cultural representation variously known as 'human zoos', 'black villages' or 'human showcases', as exemplary loci of colonial ethnographic work. Third, the article probes the ethnographic aspirations and tensions in a contemporary art project which directly engages with the human zoo as historical format of exhibiting alterity. The project in question is 'Exhibit B' by the South African artist, Brett Bailey, which explores the representational mechanisms and ethical dimensions of the 'human zoo' in the way postcolonial Europe deals with its historical and contemporary 'others'. Inequality is identified as the central issue and the ethnographic stance as the ultimate remedy to overcome the pitfalls of the 'human zoo'. The latter boils down to 'ventriloquism' which, with the help of Walter Benjamin, Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, we call 'bourgeois', and consists in using one's position of domination in order to silence, direct or even insinuate oneself into the other's voice.


Abstract : This research employs a direct time domain model applicable to aperture antennas of any shape excited by fields of any form in space and time to study theoretically the electromagnetic far fields of a paraboloid reflector when fed by a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) horn antenna. First, the TEM horn antenna is considered as an aperture antenna with an arbitrary excitation V(t) applied to its apex. The time domain model is then applied to determine the electric far fields of the TEM horn, and the theoretical results are compared with published experimental data on a relative basis. Reasonable agreement is obtained. Approximate closed form solutions for the electric far fields of the TEM horn in the azimuth plane are also found. Secondly, the TEM horn is studied in terms of current sheets using the vector potential formulation in order to confirm the approximate closed form solutions found in the azimuth plane using the aperture model.


The present paper is concerned with tracing the genealogies of the concept of sustainable development in philosophy per se, comparing those genealogies with two important conceptions of rationality, i.e.; metaphysical rationality and instrumental rationality with its previous and contemporaneous developments on other intellectual fronts. The paper expounds the idea that sustainability implies more than the economics that follows therein. Rather, it includes the aspects like spiritual character and the ability to know and to act. The paper further considers the present circumstances that encourage a strong interest in instrumental rationality, which is the theoretical reason that subordinates nature and use it in an unsustainable way. Thus, the paper elucidates on the notion that the metaphysical understanding of the term 'sustainable living' enhances the quality of human life that implies the unfoldment of the human spirit. We must also include in our characterization the mental aspects of sustainable living such as the cognitive capacities and our activities of perceiving, imagining, reasoning, judging and deciding. Proponents of sustainable living aim to conduct their lives in manners that are consistent with sustainability, in natural balance and respectful of humanity's symbolic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology and cycles. Thus, we argue that a person's conception of good life, Sreyas rather than Preyas, is the basis upon which the meaning of sustainable living is based.


the limited number of studies which investigates the differences in physical fitness levels between male and female students in Indonesia forms the background of this study. The objective of this study is to investigate the difference in physical fitness levels of male and female students in SMPN 3 Depok Yogyakarta, in the academic year 2015/2016. This research is a comparative descriptive project with a cross-sectional design and the subjects are Grade VIII students (117 students: 54 male, 63 female) aged 13-15 years. The instrument employed in this research is the Indonesian Physical Fitness Test for the 13-15 age-group (Male, validity=0.950, reliability=0.960; Female, validity=0.923, reliability= 0.804). The data was analyzed by using a descriptive quantitative analysis and the Mann Whitney U Test. The result of the research show that the overall physical fitness level of the male students is higher than that of the female (the mean of the male students = 14.02 ± 5.264, and the mean of the female students = 13.41 ± 6.601). However, there is no significant difference between the physical fitness levels of male and female participants (sig = 0.144). In addition, there is no student who attained a very good physical fitness level and as many as 45.3% students still have a low and a very low physical fitness level. Considering the result above, it is quite evident that physical education needs to be introduced and promoted in schools as the importance of physical activities in improving the physical fitness level of students cannot be overemphasized. Keywords—physical fitness, male, female, students


Missing outcome data occurs often in the causal inference of observational studies. For example, in observational study on the safety of a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) injection in market, some patients are missing safety outcome variables. In this paper we proposed a consistent estimator for the average treatment effect (ATE) with partially missing outcome data and derived the asymptotic variance of the proposed ATE estimator under the condition that the missingdata mechanism is missing at random (MAR). We then proceeded to assess the performance of the asymptotic variance estimator via a simulation study. The simulation study showed that the asymptotic variance estimator had good performance in finite sample sizes. This asymptotic variance could then be used to construct a confidence interval for the average treatment effect. We also compared the bias and mean squared error (MSE) of the ATE estimators based on the proposed method-dealing with the missing outcomes with that of the complete-data method, which means that directly deleting the samples with the missing data through a simulation study. The simulation study showed that the MSE and Bias of our method were smaller than the complete-data method under MAR. In addition, we also found that coverage of the confidence interval constructed on the ATE and its asymptotic variance from our method are better than those based on the traditional method. Keywords—average treatment effects (ATE); asymptotic variance; delta-method; missing data


A connector assembly for creating a plastic tube joint in a length of plastic tubing having a distal end, a proximal end and a hollow lumen includes forming a flare in the tube proximate the proximal end thereof by means of a flared ferrule disposed in the lumen and defining a void between the flare and the proximal end of the tubing, the void being defined between the ferrule and a collet, the tubing contracting into the void, and forming a neck between the ferrule and the collet proximate the ferrule flare, the neck substantially permanently capturing the tubing contracted into the void; and substantially permanently bonding the collet to a connector body. A connector assembly for simultaneously forming a plastic tube joint in a pair of plastic tubes is further included as is a method for simultaneously forming a plastic tube joint in a pair of plastic tubes.


Aims - Recent studies have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of catheter-based renal sympathetic denervation (RD) for the treatment of resistant hypertension. We aimed to determine the cost-effectiveness of this approach separately for men and women of different ages. Methods and results - A Markov state-transition model accounting for costs, survival, quality of life, and incremental cost-effectiveness was developed to compare RD with best medical therapy (BMT). The model ran from age 30 to 100 years or death, with a Markov cycle length of 1 year. All patients entered the model with elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP, 180 mmHg), but free from prior cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. Patients could remain in this disease-free state or could have one of the following primary CVD events: myocardial infarction, angina, stroke or heart failure. After an event, patients transitioned into chronic disease states and/or could suffer from secondary CVD events. In the base case scenario, RD resulted in a sustained SBP reduction of 20 mmHg and in a corresponding relative risk reduction of adverse CVD events and death. The cost analysis was conducted from a health care payer perspective. Effectiveness was expressed as quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) gained. Costs and effects were discounted at 3% per annum, respectively. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to evaluate the robustness of the results. As compared with BMT, RD gained 0.99 QALYs in men and 0.91 QALYs in women 60 years of age at an additional cost of $3,265 and $2,594, respectively. As the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio increased with patient age, RD consistently yielded more QALYs at lower costs in lower age groups. Considering a willingness to pay threshold of $50,000/QALY, there was a 95% probability that RD would remain cost-effective up to an age of 82 and 80 years in men and women, respectively. Cost-effectiveness was influenced most by the extent of SBP lowering by RD, the rate of RD non-responders, and the costs associated with the RD procedure. Conclusion - RD offers a cost-effective treatment option for the prevention of CVD events in patients with resistant hypertension. An earlier intervention produces better cost-effectiveness ratios.


The latest coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) related articles in The Journal of Laryngology & Otology include an update on head and neck cancer referrals and diagnosis during the pandemic from Wolverhampton. We have covered the topic previously in The Journal, and have articles from before the pandemic for comparison. The 62 per cent reduction in fast-track referrals in early 2020 (compared to 2019) during the study period is of the same order of magnitude that has been experienced elsewhere. The authors highlight that this major change in patient illness related behaviour forms part of the hidden cost of the pandemic. A similar detection rate in the two time periods suggests that there is a cohort of undiagnosed patients in the community, which is worrying, despite the acknowledged limitations of the 'two-week wait' system of cancer diagnosis. The anosmia story during the pandemic is updated this month by a study from Italy, which found that over one-third of anosmic Covid-19 patients still had symptoms after over five months, and those who had a complete recovery tended to have a shorter duration of symptoms. A long duration of symptomatic anosmia predicted incomplete recovery. An earlier (small) study from Milan found that 91 per cent of patients had some degree of recovery, with 53 per cent showing total recovery at eight months. Cholesteatoma diagnosis by special sequences of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has allowed many patients to avoid costly and inconvenient secondor third-look tympanoplasty operations, as the technique has a high predictive value. Equivocal cases might lead to a negative exploration. This issue's study of MRI diagnosis of cholesteatoma, from Newcastle upon Tyne, found that, in equivocal cases, when the lesion in the middle-ear cleft has higher signal intensity compared with the ipsilateral temporal lobe, there is high statistical probability of cholesteatoma diagnosis. Human papilloma virus (HPV) and its relevance to head and neck tumours continue to stimulate interest; previous work has investigated the prevalence in paediatric tonsils, which has been low. The paper in this issue, from London, Ontario (Canada), examined paediatric tonsillectomy specimens in 102 children aged 0–18 years, and found that none contained relevant viral subtypes as determined by a quantitative polymerase chain reaction test. This suggests no vertical transmission of the virus in this population, unless the virus is latent, as would be expected from a primarily sexually-transmitted disease, and strengthens the push for HPV vaccination prior to the age of sexual activity. The growing interest in biofilms in inflammatory disorders, and the efficacy of saline douches in the management of chronic rhinosinusitis, has made many rhinologists wonder if the old-fashioned maxillary sinus washout ('antral lavage') had some merit and might reappear. This issue has a study from Haifa, Israel, in which patients with chronic rhinosinusitis were treated medically, with or without maxillary sinus irrigation. The irrigation added nothing, as judged by a careful outcomes assessment, so it seems that the Tilley Lichtwitz trocar and cannula will not experience a manufacturing renaissance just yet. Otosclerosis has a female bias in presentation and its association with pregnancy has been known for a long time, but how real is the association? This issue's study from Verona, Italy, reviews the topic, but finds that hard and fast answers are hard to come by. The authors conclude that a fair proportion of women (probably over 40 per cent) with a definite diagnosis of otosclerosis experience a deterioration in hearing during or after pregnancy.


Aim: to evaluate changes in the parameters of the visual system, psycho-physiological reactions (psychoemotional changes), and hormonal changes in patients with central serous chorioretinopathy and on this basis to develop a conceptual scheme for the activation of pathogenetic mechanisms of the formation of acute and chronic forms of the disease. Material and methods. 40 people with central serous chorioretinopathy and 26 control subjects were examined with the assessment of psychophysiological (psychoemotional) and hormonal changes.Results. The most informative criteria have been identified which determine various forms of the clinical course of central serous chorioretinopathy: the area of damage to the retinal pigment epithelium, psycho-emotional changes (the difficulties of role-playing, dependence on other people in domestic and professional environment, a high degree of reactive and personal anxiety, paranoia and level of distress), violation of the psycho-physiological characteristics of the state of the visual system, changes in hormonal regulation (cortisol, thyroid hormones, dehydroepiandrosterone, melatonin, 17-OH-progesterone, testosterone).Conclusion. The complex of psychophysiological changes that form the basis for the pathogenesis of central serous chorioretinopathy, according to the feedback mechanism, enhances the initial moments of the disease, exacerbates the severity of clinical manifestations and leads to chronicity of the pathological process, causing, thus, the complexity of diagnosis and treatment of central serous chorioretinopathy.


In spite of the robust stock of literature on the problem of state failure in Nigeria and Africa, there are scarcely any rigorous studies that link state failure to the growing security menace in the Nigerian oil industry. The article analysis the thorny problem of insecurity in the Nigerian oil industry, and how the 'transnational oil companies' (TNOCs) that dominate the industry are responding to the challenge. The study makes some thoughtful suggestions on how to re-capacitate and re-position the state to effectively provide security to the oil industry, the host communities and beyond.


This research project emphasizes that it is very interesting to know the perception of investment banks of Bahrain on the effectiveness of the financial audit report. Thus, the study asked 36 investment banks in Bahrain to state their opinions on the effectiveness of the financial audit report. The results of the study showed that the financial audit report is effective and the investment bankers easily understand the contents of financial audit report. The investment bankers regarded the financial audit report as a reliable and relevant source of information. Further, the financial audit report is considered as a cornerstone in decision making and acts as a key element in maintaining safe investment environment in Bahrain.


Push recovery is an important capability that needs to be included while developing a robust humanoid robot walking scheme. In this paper we propose an overall control system and a push recovery controller for humanoid robot walking. When the robot is pushed, the algorithm will modify the walking phase to maintain walking, while considering the practical constraints. 3D simulation results of the walking phase modification approach are presented and its effectiveness for push recovery during walking is discussed.


Eight species of the genus Strobilomyces are reported.Among them four are new to science,namely Strobilomyces glabellus Ying sp.nov.,S.latirimosus Ying sp.nov.,S. subnudus Ying sp nov.,S.velutinus Ying sp.nov.,and four are new to China,i.e.S.mollis Corner,S.nigricans Eerk.,S.polypyramis Hook.,and S.seminudus Hongo.


Joseph Korkames T.D. Stanley Stefan Stremersch 4 December 2022 ABSTRACT The authors employ and compare recently developed meta-analysis methods to better correct for misspecification, aggregation, publication, and selection bias, which frequently plague metaanalyses and are often misunderstood. They apply these methods in a new meta-analysis of advertising effectiveness, using the largest database to date on business-to-consumer own-brand advertising elasticities (i.e., consisting of 538 elasticities with standard errors). The authors show that the usage of such better methods greatly reduces (more than sixfold) the meta-analytic overall estimate of advertising effectiveness relative to prior meta-analytic estimates reported before; they obtain an average short-term elasticity of .0008 and a long-term elasticity of .03. The authors also inventory how conditional estimates meaningfully differ depending on the product life cycle stage, measures, models, industries, regions, data structures, and advertising medium employed. For advertising scholars and professionals, this study provides an updated (i.e., lower) benchmark on advertising effectiveness. For analysts, it charts an improved methodological framework that should guide meta-analytic research on and beyond advertising effectiveness.


In the title compound, C25H19NO, the quinoline ring system is approximately planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.32 (1) Å, and forms dihedral angles of 80.74 (3) and 81.71 (4)° with the two phenyl rings. In the crystal. molecules are stacked along the b axis by way of a C—H⋯π interaction and a weak π–π interaction between the pyridine and phenyl rings with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.6924 (5) Å.


Abstract : With the proliferation of information systems in the Department of Defense's inventory along with the rise of third-party software vulnerabilities, software patch management has become a key focus for the Department of Defense Cyber Command. The implementation of a software patch management plan is the first line of defense to protect the network from exploitation from cyberattacks. Three organizations are responsible for testing, integrating, and distributing software patches to the end-users: program management offices, the U.S. Army Software Engineering Command, and the Sustainment Automation Support Management Office (SASMO). With the increasing rate of third-party software releases, the challenge facing the SASMO community is how to install these third-party software patches in the most expeditious and cost-effective manner. Nearly 15 years since the enactment of the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 as Public Law No. 107-347, many Federal agencies continue to report deficiencies in managing software patches within their systems. This study provides an overview of the software patch management process, an analysis of the reasons for the deficiencies in patch management, and some recommendations to assist the SASMO community to implement software patch management across the enterprise.


Part I Internet Fundamentals1 Understanding the Internet2 Surfing and Searching the Internet3 Communicating Over the Internet4 Commercializing the InternetPart II Web Page Authoring Fundamentals5 Creating Web Pages6 HTML Coding7 Interacting with Users8 Creating Active Web Pages9 Making Web Pages AccessiblePart III Networking Fundamentals10 Introduction to Networking11 Architecting the Internet12 Database Connectivity and Server-Side Scripting13 Securing the Internet


Objective – to determine the main health indicators in preterm newborns. Materials and Methods: Premature newborns and full-term newborns (160 and 1408, respectively) were investigated with clinical, instrumental, and statistical methods. Anthropometric parameters, somatic health, vulvar anatomy were considered to be the main criteria for general health. Results: The indicators of general health (physical development, somatic health, vulvar anatomy) in premature and full-term newborns were estimated. Anthropometric parameters (body weight, height, head and chest circumference) in preterm newborns were naturally lower compared to full-term newborns. However, the body weight of preterm infants matches the degree of prematurity and gestational age. Preterm newborns had more frequent intrauterine hypoxia of the fetus during pregnancy, and at birth – perinatal central nervous system injure, respiratory distress syndrome, aspiration syndrome, intrauterine infection, hemolytic disease of the newborn, transient hypoglycemia, high bilirubin blood disease, hypocalcemia, hypoconjugational jaundice, congenital conjunctivitis. Having studied the case records of the women with premature births, the high risk factors for the development of hypoxia in the fetus are established. These include chronic diseases of the reproductive organs, somatic diseases, complicated pregnancy and childbirth. The cumulative effect of these factors results in fetal hypoxia, and, as a consequence, the birth of children with physical immaturity, perinatal injures of the neurological areas. Conclusion: Miscarriage affects the neonatal health formation in the antenatal period and may contribute to manifestation of the pathology in the postnatal period.


The dielectric properties (static dielectric constant e0, Debye relaxation time τD and distance dependent Kirkwood G-factor Gk(R)) of commonly used three-site water models (the "simple point charge" models SPC and SPC/E, as well as the "transferable intermolecular potentials with three point charges" TIP3P and its CHARMM modified variant TIP3Pmod) were evaluated from 2 ns molecular dynamics simulations using the Ewald summation method to compute the electrostatic interactions. The results for SPC (e0=65±5, τD=7.6±0.8 ps) and SPC/E (e0=68±6, τD=12.1±1.3 ps) are in good agreement with the literature; for TIP3P (TIP3Pmod) we obtained a dielectric constant e0=97±7 (97±6) and a Debye relaxation time τD=7.3±0.7 ps (6.9±0.6 ps). The surprisingly large differences in e0 were rationalized by an investigation of the relationship between the force field parameters and the dielectric properties. Based on simulations of hybrid SPC/TIP3P models, the HOH bond angle was identified as the determining factor of the dielect...


The lappet and horn were examined. In the lappet, unlike the structure of common skin, there are many bundles of smooth muscles which arranged transversally and longitudinal in dermis. The core of horn mainly consists of smooth muscles. Which arranged in circular outside and longitudinal inside. There are many small blood vessels surrounded by sinus in the base of the core. Only in the buff part of the born's skin, as in lappet, many bundles of longitudinal smooth muscles are discovered. The mechanism of expansion and contraction of lappet, as well as the upright of the horn are discussed.


The water quality data in the reservoirs of Tianjin Binhai New District were obtained through field sampling and laboratory analysis,and the Comprehensive Trophic Level Index Method was used to evaluate the eutrophication of each reservoir in Tianjin Binhai New District.The results indicated that(1)only Yingcheng Reservoir shows light eutrophication,whereas other reservoirs are moderately nutrient;(2)some of the water quality indexes of Shajingzi Reservoir,Yingcheng Reservoir,and Qianquan Reservoir have higher values than those defined by the grade IV of Surface Water Environment Quality Standard(GB3838-2002),and some of water quality indexes of Beidagang Reservoir and Beitang Reservoir have higher values than those defined by grade III;and(3)TP,TN,and CODCr of Beidagang Reservoir exceed the drinking water standard.This reservoir is an important water source area of Tianjin City,therefore it needs immediate water purifying measures.


The objective of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is to reconstruct the internal conductivity of a physical body based on current and voltage measurements at the boundary of the body. In many medical applications the exact shape of the domain boundary and contact impedances are not available. This is problematic as even small errors in the boundary shape of the computation domain or in the contact impedance values can produce large artifacts in the reconstructed images which results in a loss of relevant information. A method is proposed that simultaneously reconstructs the conductivity, the contact impedances and the boundary shape from EIT data. The approach consists of three steps: first, the unknown contact impedances and an anisotropic conductivity reproducing the measured EIT data in a model domain are computed. Second, using isothermal coordinates, a deformation is constructed that makes the conductivity isotropic. The final step minimizes the error of true and reconstructed known geometric properties (like the electrode lengths) using conformal deformations. The feasibility of the method is illustrated with experimental EIT data, with robust and accurate reconstructions of both conductivity and boundary shape.


This paper reports micropipette resonators, mechanical resonator integrated micropipettes, which enable selective aspiration and mass measurement for particles or cells suspended in liquid with two orthogonal vibration modes. A custom pipette pulling system is built to provide power modulated linear heating on a rotating glass capillary to make asymmetric cross-section with extended uniformity. A glass capillary is stretched with the custom puller, cut within the pulled region, polished, mounted in a machined metallic jig and then coated with metal. As a result, a micropipette with a doubly clamped tube resonator integrated is made. For simultaneous frequency readouts of two orthogonal modes, an optical pickup, originally developed for optical data storages, is configured closely above and properly aligned to the micropipette resonator and two digital phase locked loops are employed. For mass responsivity calibration, frequency shifts of the micropipette resonator are measured with various liquids and glass microparticles. Buoyant masses of unicellular organisms, Paramecium Aurelia, freely swimming in a culture dish are successfully measured with two orthogonal modes.


Specific crosslinker is an alkali metal bis (styrene sulfonyl) imide monomers are used in the synthesis of the single ion conducting copolymer ratio (非) and non-fluorinated (非) PEO base. The copolymer satisfies the security and cost requirements to be used as a solid polymer electrolyte (SPE). These are due to their advanced security and flammability characteristics is a promising alternative to the standard liquid electrolyte in an alkali metal ion battery. The described copolymer is a polyvinyl sulfonate or an acrylate-vinyl sulfonate block-copolymers. The preferred acrylate monomer is a methacrylate, a preferred vinyl sulfonate is styrene sulfonate. Copolymer of vinyl sulfonate and cross-linked are prepared by a linker, and optionally a radical photopolymerization using, in particular functionalized bis (acyl) phosphine oxide plate (BAPO) by radical polymerization of the acrylate as a photoinitiator. In addition, the use of the copolymer as a solid polymer electrolyte is described in a lithium ion battery.


Background. The K-ras gene is one of the most extensively investigated oncogenes in a wide variety of human tumors, but has rarely been studied in distal bile duct carcinoma (DBDC). We sought to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of K-ras codon 12 mutations in this type of tumor. Methods. Forty-seven patients who had undergone resection for DBDC were analyzed to reveal the incidence of K-ras codon 12 mutations, the locus most frequently involved. A rapid and simple two step, semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was used to detect mutations in paraffin-embedded tumor samples. Results. The PCR mismatch amplification technique demonstrated that 35 (75%) of the 47 tumors harboured a point mutation in codon 12 of the K-ras oncogene. Patients with mutated tumors had no statistically different survival time compared to those patients without a mutation in the tumor. In contrast, negative microscopic margins proved to be a significant prognosticator. Conclusion. K-ras codon 12 mutations are common in DBDC and may be useful in the diagnosis and early detection of these tumors. However, no prognostic value of these mutations could be identified in this analysis. The results of this study also suggest that negative surgical margins remain the mainstay of prognostication in resectable DBDC. However, due to the small number of patients included in this study, the results obtained should be interpreted with care.


The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is widely used as a biological eukaryotic model and also serves as a production organism in biotechnology. One of the methods used to avoid degradation of the yeast cell content is lyophilization. The use of lyophilized yeast cells has several advantages over fresh ones: samples can be easily transported and/or stored and variations of their metabolomic profiles do not occur during transport or storage. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is one of the most emerging approaches in modern biology that permits operation on very small quantities of whole cells without the need for extractions or purifications. This technique is very sensitive and not only allows the discrimination between different cell genotypes but also between different growth conditions. FTIR spectra provide interesting data on the metabolic status of the whole cell. Modern multivariate data processing was applied to analyse live fresh or lyophilized S. cerevisiae cells from different growth media. This study clearly demonstrates that yeast cells coming from an identical biological medium can be used indiscriminately for FTIR analysis whether they are analysed directly as live fresh cells or after lyophilization which is a freeze-drying process. Moreover, FTIR data obtained using lyophilized cells showed less variability.


The effect of latrunculin A, an inhibitor of actin cross-linking, on exocytosis in PC12 cells was investigated with single cell amperometry. This analysis strongly suggests that the actin cytoskeleton might be involved in regulating exocytosis, especially by mediating the constriction of the pore. In an extended kiss-and-run release mode, actin could actually control the fraction of neurotransmitters released by the vesicle. This scaffold appears to contribute, with the lipid membrane and the protein machinery, to the closing dynamics of the pore, in competition with other forces mediating the opening of the exocytotic channel.


Although multimedia messaging services (MMS) are becoming increasingly popular, and companies are maximizing the use of their content, few systematic studies on MMSs exist. This study examined technology acceptance factors for MMS in 398 young people aged 10 to 39 to identify MMS users' continuous intention to use (CITU) via a questionnaire and SPSS21 and PLS-Graph 3.0. The results showed that perceived media richness (PMR) had a positive effect on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and most importantly, CITU. Furthermore, PMR had a positive effect on perceived ease of use as a moderating effect on experience. To increase use efficiency in MMSs based on these results, media richness, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and user experience may serve as important variables affecting users' CITU and provide a basic reference and development direction for MMS users. Future studies should include more variables and examine additional factors when analyzing the structural model.


The Teerikorpi cluster incompleteness bias for galaxy clusters is demonstrated using a simplified model of an artificial cluster. The distance indicator for this demonstration is the combination of the Hubble morphological type (T) and the van den Bergh luminosity class (L) introduced in Paper V. The model shows that the luminosity function must be sampled to ∼3.5 mag fainter than the brightest cluster galaxy if a distance modulus that is accurate to ∼0.1 mag is to be achieved using the T-L method. The bias properties of the artificial model are demonstrated using actual data from the complete catalogs of the Virgo and the Ursa Major Cluster galaxies. The derived bias-free distance moduli derived from the data are ⟨(m - M)⟩0 = 31.95 ± 0.15 mag for the Virgo complex and ⟨(m - M)⟩0 = 31.61 ± 0.13 for the Ursa Major Cluster. These are larger than the values of (m - M)0 = 30.80 mag for Virgo and 30.95 mag for Ursa Major derived by Pierce & Tully in 1988 from the Tully-Fisher method. The Virgo modulus here is also larger than the (m - M) = 30.81 mag adopted by the "Key Project" consortium in their work for the Hubble constant, but it is consistent with 31.7 derived earlier by many methods. This modulus, combined with other data, led to H0 = 58 ± 6 km s-1 Mpc-1 in earlier papers and derived most securely from the Cepheid calibration of the mean absolute magnitude of Type Ia supernovae (e.g., Saha et al.; Parodi et al.).


The article considers the role of the ideas of linguistic philosophy in the context of the anthropological turn of culture that happened in the middle of the 20th century. Culture has constantly been developing on the horizon of man, and all its initiations have always met at the point of "life of man", which is impossible without language as an essential anthropological attribute of man. The purports of linguistic philosophy (ordinary language philosophy) are relevant as never before. The study presented is based on the phenomenology of Nietzsche's ideas of returning a new European thought to the origins of modern culture –the idea of a sovereign individual, which is determined by power over himself and his destiny, the ideas of the representatives and founders of linguistic philosophy, the slogan by I. Kant "Sapere aude!" ("Dare to think for yourself!"), on the historical excursus concerning the origin of the term "anthropological turn". The anthropological turn in the culture of the 20th century together with the purports of linguistic philosophy brought back and developed further the main idea of new European culture – the idea of the self-worth of life, individuality, and freedom. These events gave a new value meaning to this idea.


The The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of the information and resources available on the Web are formally described, making it more machine-interpretable. In the layered architecture of the Semantic Web, the Web ontology language (OWL), built upon the logic-based knowledge formalism Description Logics (DLs), is a W3C recommendation for the ontology layer; the Rule Interchange Format (RIF), built upon the formalism Logic Programs (LP), is a W3C recommendation for the rule layer. Uncertainty is an intrinsic feature of real-world knowledge and refers to a form of de_ciency or imperfection in the information: the truth of such information is not crisply established, yet can be rigorously formalized. In the last decade, one of the key research directions in the Semantic Web community has been to handle uncertainty, as evidenced by W3Cs Uncertainty Reasoning for the World Wide Web Incubator Group. At the same time, in order to enrich the knowledge representation capabilities of ontologies based on traditional DLs, considerable research e_orts have also been directed towards the integration of ontologies and rules. In this chapter, we _rst give a comprehensive overview of existing approaches in uncertainty extensions to DLs and OWL based on various uncertainty treatments, mainly including Fuzzy Logic and Probability Theory. We summarize and classify previous work based on (a) the generalized classical description logics, (b) the supported forms and allowed constructors of uncertain knowledge, (c) the underlying fuzzy logics or probabilistic semantics, and (d) their inference problems and reasoning algorithms. Second, we summarize the differences between the two subsets of _rst-order logic formalism, Description Logics and Horn Logic. On top of this, we then review a number of theoretical proposals for integrating ontologies with rules, as well as some practical implementations. By and large, existing approaches for rule extensions to DLs and ontologies can be classi_ed into two categories: the so-called homogeneous approach and the so-called hybrid approach. We explain several existing work as representatives of the homogenous approach, as well as some work following the hybrid approach.


This paper presents a pupil detection algorithm based on a global adaptive thresholding procedure. The binarization threshold for each image is determined by analyzing the derivative of the percentile function. Additional morphological transformations are used to obtain the set of possible pupil contours. Afterwards, the algorithm selects the largest compact contour, fits an ellipse to it by using the least square method and delivers its center as the output. By using this method, the algorithm achieves good results even in non-uniform and variable lighting conditions. For two representative databases of eye images, the 5 pixels detection rate is higher than 92%.


Under clear sky conditions, daytime solar heating of the ground surface causes thermal instability and the formation of buoyant parcels of air, which combine to produce organized structures ranging in scale from the convective boundary layer (CBL) depth (1-2 km) down to the Kolmogorov microscale (∼ 1 mm). When considering photochemistry, the vast majority of trace gas emissions take place near the earth's surface, usually within the CBL. During the daytime, these emissions are caught up in the turbulent eddies of the CBL. The turbulent nature of the CBL would normally imply that all trace gases and other scalar quantities are well-mixed. Reactive surface-emitted gases might be expected to decrease monotonically in mixing ratio with height. However, observational data have shown significant concentration variations within the CBL for some trace species. Andronache et al. (1994) presented several complex profiles of isoprene, a gas emitted from surface vegetation, gathered during a Southern Oxidants Study (SOS) field experiment. These isoprene profiles showed unexpected mixing ratio maxima at heights well above the surface. The observed structure in many trace gas profiles is a result of the nonlinear interaction of the turbulence and the photochemical transformation processes. The chemical lifetimes of important trace gases can range from fractions of a second (e.g., OH) to years (e.g., CH4). Convective overturning of large eddies within the CBL occurs on a time scale of 10-20 minutes. Shorterlived trace gases react on time scales on the order of the convective time scale, or faster, leading to concentration fluctuations for these species. Sykes et al. (1994) emphasized that if the reaction rate between two reactants is relatively fast compared to the turbulent mixing rate, then the reactants cannot be brought together quickly enough by the turbulent cascade process and, hence, the overall reaction rate will be controlled by the turbulence time scales. The effect of the turbulence on the fast reactions operates on the trace gas prognostic equations via a concentration


[Objectives] To determine the optimum conditions for the induction and termination of diapause in Trichogramma dendrolimi in Antheraea pernyi eggs. [Methods] The effects of age(parasitoids developed for 40、96 and 144 h after parasitization at 26℃), temperature(10, 13 and 16℃), and low temperature exposure period on diapause rate were investigated to determine the optimum conditions of diapause indication. The emergence rate, emergence synchronism and number of wasps emerged per Antheraea pernyi egg post diapause termination after cold storage at different temperatures for different periods were investigated to determine the conditions required for the termination of diapause. The effects of diapause inducing temperatures on diapause termination were also studied. [Results] Diapause was induced in insects of different ages by exposure to constant low temperatures, but the highest diapause rates(100% and 99.12%, respectively) were achieved when young larvae(26℃ for 40 h) were exposed to 31 days of low temperature at 10 and 13℃. Diapause termination of T. dendrolimi, and its post-diapause emergence was affected by both diapause induction temperature and cold storage temperature. Diapausing prepupae that were inducted at 10℃ and then stored at 1℃ had a shorter diapause breaking time, a higher emergence rate, and a longer storage period. These pupae stared to emerge normally, when transferred to 26℃ after being stored at 1℃ for 30d. After being stored for 60 d, the emergence rate reached 95.24% and the emergence rate was higher than 60%. More than 50 wasps emerged per host egg after storage for 4 months. [Conclusion] The optimum conditions to induce diapause in T. dendrolimi consisted of keeping the parasitoids at 26℃ for 40 h, and then moving them into 10℃ for 31d; the optimum diapause breaking conditions were storing diapausing prepupae at 1℃, however the storage period should be not exceed 4 months.


The heart of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)I is the requirement that federal agencies prepare and circulate a Comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) when proposing any major federal action that will significantly affect the quality of the human environment.2 An EIS must include a detailed statement of the proposal's environmental impacts and alternatives.3 For most project proposals, the regulations issued by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to implement NEPA establish procedures by which agencies must make the threshold decision of whether an EIS must be prepared. Generally, federal agencies must first prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA).4 This document is less comprehensive than an EIS but must still provide sufficient information to permit an agency to determine whether a full EIS is necessary.5 If the EA indicates that the proposal will not significantly affect the environment, the agency may forego preparation of a full EIS and instead prepare a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI).6 Neither NEPA nor the CEQ NEPA regulations explicitly address the critical issue of how mitigation measures should affect EIS threshold decisions. Under NEPA, mitigation includes avoiding or minimizing environmental impacts; rectifying impacts by repairing, restoring, or rehabilitating the affected environment; reducing or eliminating impacts over


The invention discloses a Lentinus edodes virus detection kit and a Lentinus edodes virus detection method. The detection kit comprises an edible fungus RNA extraction reagent, an RT-PCR detection reagent and reference samples, wherein the RT-PCR detection reagent comprises 100 mu mol/L solution of dNTPs, Tris-HCl buffer solution, extracted RNA template, RNAase-free deionized water, enzyme mixed reagent and three pairs of RT-PCR specific primers; and the reference samples comprise a positive reference sample and a negative reference sample, and the kit is stored in a refrigerator at a temperature below 20 DEG C below zero. The detection method comprises the following steps: A, extracting RNA from Lentinus edodes mycelia or fruit bodies; B, using extracted total RNA as a template, performing RT-PCR amplification of the RNA by using designed primers respectively, wherein reverse transcriptase used in the reaction is M-MLV reverse transcriptase, and DNA polymerase used in the reaction is Taq enzyme or high fidelity DNA polymerase Pfu; and C, extracting PCR reaction solution to perform agarose gel electrophoresis and identifying the sample. The kit and the method are high in detection flexibility and accurate in result, and can detect Lentinus edodes viruses in early stage quickly, flexibly and accurately and greatly reduce the diseases caused by viruses in Lentinus edodes production.


Polynorbornanes frameworks are highly preorganised, rigid and stable aliphatic scaffolds. These frameworks can be functionalised with a variety of functional groups and have displayed effective uses in host-guest chemistry (e.g. anion recognition). Research to date has almost entirely focused on "end" and "centre" functionalisation of the [n]polynorbornane framework with little research completed in exploring the "edge" of the [n]polynorbornane framework. The [n]polynorbornane frameworks have also been used in the construction of metallosupramolecular assemblies. A metallosupramolecular assembly is a continuous network made from the interactions of organic ligands with metal centres. These assemblies can have a range of geometries and unique useful properties (e.g. porosity for gas capture and storage). In this project, a [3]polynorbornane framework was constructed with the aim of exploring "edge" functionalisation. The entire synthetic process was optimised and all compounds characterised using 1H NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, for taking advantage of the "edge" of polynorbornane frameworks a metallosupramolecular assembly was devised using zinc and an epoxide diacid. The outcome of this project was a reliable synthetic process for creating [3]polynorbornane frameworks (using both microwave and traditional heating methodology) and an approach for exploiting the "edge" of [n]polynorbornane frameworks with respect to assembling metallosupramolecular architectures.


This paper aims at analyzing precarity as an existential condition that is structural and that permeates one's affective environment. The uncaring rules of contemporary public management and their competitive spirit produce a sense of widespread precarity. This paper explores the effects of this sense of precarity on subjectivities, specifically in relation to those operating in domains with a caring mission, such as social work or university education and research, where burnout, depression and exhaustion, due to trying to comply with new rules, often occurs. However, it is also possible to find other reactions, such as cynicism, which, when directed not towards those who expect care but towards the organization itself, may be a form of resistance that signals an alternative approach to care of the self in the face of systemic neoliberal imperatives.


Let R be a ring with identity. A unital left R-module M has the min-property provided the simple submodules of M are independent. On the other hand a left R-module M has the complete max-property provided the maximal submodules of M are completely coindependent, in other words every maximal submodule of M does not contain the intersection of the other maximal submodules of M. A semisimple module X has the min-property if and only if X does not contain distinct isomorphic simple submodules and this occurs if and only if X has the complete max-property. A left R-module M has the max-property if for every positive integer n and distinct maximal submodules L, Li (1 ≤ i ≤ n) of M. It is proved that a left R-module M has the complete max-property if and only if M has the max-property and every maximal submodule of M/Rad M is a direct summand, where Rad M denotes the radical of M, and in this case every maximal submodule of M is fully invariant. Various characterizations are given for when a module M has the max-property and when M has the complete max-property.


Dr Bernd Stahl, R&D Director of Human Milk Research at Nutricia Research, Utrecht, Netherlands, discusses the results of research into the anti-allergenic effect of beneficial bacteria within the gut, and how their activity and numbers might be encouraged with specific non-digestible oligosaccharides.


In this paper the method and steps of foundation design and calculation of power machine with space frame structure are introduced. Based on a engineering example the design and calculation process are elaborated, at the same time various factors should be considered to perfect this foundation design and meet the requirements of practical operation.


Abstract We point out that the results of Adleman and Huang ("Primality Testing and Abelian Varieties over Finite Fields," Lecture Notes in Math., Vol. 1512, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1992) imply that there are infinitely many real quadratic function fields over finite fields of ideal class number one. This is in marked contrast to the case of imaginary quadratic function fields over finite fields, of which there are four( J. Algebra 17 (1971), 243-261).


Two regimens of insulin therapy are used to achieve the goal of near normoglycemia: multiple daily injections (MDI) and continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII). 1 Due to the apparent improvement in quality of life and metabolic control and the greater personal independence (compared with MDI), CSII is becoming an increasingly popular method of insulin delivery for people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). 1–3 However, one of the major problems related to the use of CSII, or intensive insulin regimens in general, is the accurate calculation of insulin boluses. These calculations should take into account multiple factors, such as current and target blood glucose levels, carbohydrate intake, insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio (ICR), and insulin sensitivity. 3 Using the ICR to calculate meal bolus and insulin sensitivity factor (ISF) to correct hyperglycemia are accepted methods of optimization of metabolic control. 3–5 These rules are also used to program the bolus calculator (BC), which is an insulin pump function. 3–6 The BC uses preprogrammed settings to generate a recommendation of bolus dose.3 There is an agreement that these settings should be individualized for each person; however, some general rules as starting points do exist.4–6 The aim of this analysis was to evaluate BC settings used by CSII-treated T1DM patients, exclusively with good metabolic control [glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) < 7.0%].

Thirty-nine patients (26 females and 13 males) with T1DM treated with CSII and using a BC (more than 50% of total daily boluses delivered via this function) were included in this analysis. The data regarding body mass index (BMI), HbA1c level, diabetes duration, insulin dose, blood glucose parameters, and other clinical data from the past 3 years were collected from all the patients. Insulin pump memory data were downloaded via the Carelink software. Statistical analysis was performed with the use of statistical package Statistica10.0 PL. The Pearson or Spearman correlation was applied when appropriate. The mean age of the patients was 35 years, diabetes duration was slightly over 17 years, and mean HbA1c level was 6.38%. The clinical characteristics of the patients is summarized in Table 1. Mean ICR was 1.58 IU/10 g carbohydrates, and mean ISF was 36.8 mg/dl/IU of insulin. The ICR correlated positively (r = 0.39, p =.013; r = 0.35, p =.032) and the ISF negatively (r = -0.57, p < .000; r = -0.41, p =.010), with total daily insulin dose and daily insulin dose per kilogram of body weight. Additionally, ISF correlated negatively with BMI (r = -0.34, p = .034). No significant correlation was found between ICR or ISF and any of the following parameters: HbA1c, mean glycemia, diabetes duration, percentage of basal insulin, number of measurements per day, and age. The results of our study indicate that the rule for counting ICR (per 10 g of carbohydrate) in well-controlled T1DM patients should be approximately 290 and, for ISF, 1670.

Table 1

Clinical Characteristics of Study Participants

In conclusion, we have shown that the ISF rule in Polish patients with good metabolic control is similar to rules used by other centers; however, the ICR rule should be much more stringent. We have also shown that the ISF rule should be considered with respect to patients' BMI.


The principle of the design of the duct system for the exhaustion of lacol air and a method of determining calculated static pressure and calculating residuary static pressure are introduced.Finally a solution for the duct in diameter on the basis of the principle and a project example are given.


In recent years,the eco- physiological characteristics,biological diversity and mechanism of AM fungi have been in-depth studied. However,the research on AM fungi in medicinal plants has been one of the hot topics. In this paper,the effects of AM fungi on growth,secondary metabolites,and stress resistance in medicinal plants were summarized,and the related functional mechanism was discussed. This review summarizes the recent progress of domestic and international,we prospect the research direction of AM fungi in medicinal plants,in order to provide theoretical basis for the application of AM fungi on green culture in medicinal plants.


Results of nonpenetrating deep sclerectomy (NDSE) operations fulfilled during 3 months of 2006 in 6l patients with different stages of primary open-angle glaucoma at the И Ophtalmologie Department of Perm Regional Hospital were analyzed. Nonpenetrating deep sclerectomy is the operation of choice for the Mil stages of primary open-angle glaucoma, to monoocular patients, nonpenetrating deep sclerectomy permits to minimize complication, normalize intraocular pressure and preserve visual acuity. When necessary, nonpenetrating deep sclerectomy can and should be added by laser descemetogoniopuncture.


The extraction rate of pig bones protein using boiled method was studied,and the extraction process of pig bones protein was optimized.The result showed that,the optimal parameter were:the ratio of material to water 1∶7(m∶V),extraction temperature 100℃, extraction time 150 min.Under this condition,the extraction rate reached 28.45%.


The literature in the field of education has suggested that teachers have implicit beliefs about teaching and learning that guide their planning and their processes of decision-making in the classroom (Munby, 1982; Verloop, 1989, Johnson, 1994, and others). It has also been argued that undergraduate students join these programs with their own images of teaching and learning (Lortie, 1975, Bennett & Carre, 1993). This perspective finds support in the area of teacher thinking, that seeks to understand teaching based on how professionals think and act (Calderhead, 1987). Although studies in education have been addressing this perspective since the early 1980s, the adoption of such a theoretical framework for the teaching of foreign languages is recent (see Gimenez, 1995).


In this article strong association is reported between the performance of the England football team and subsequent daily changes in the FTSE 100 index, representing the price of shares in the 100 largest companies traded on the London stock exchange.


This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper SPE 197560, "Enhanced Well Remedial Decisions From Exact Location of Fluid Movement Behind Casing Identification," by Marcel Croon, SPE, Perry Huber, SPE, and Jacob Wright, SPE, Weatherford, SPE, prepared for the 2019 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, 11-14 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
 Historically, acoustic wellbore monitoring is among the primary methods of detecting fluid movement behind the casing. However, analysis of the complex acoustic environment in the wellbore can be challenging. A standard hydrophone noise tool is unable to measure flow directions (vertical and horizontal) and cannot detect low flow, low-pressure sporadic events, or multiple sources. The complete paper discusses a geophone array, including four, three-component geophones deployed by wireline, that provides a solution for this problem by creating a 3D map of the acoustic environment.
 Introduction
 Well-integrity issues such as a poor cement bond can lead to undesirable fluid movements behind the casing, which could have negative effects with regard to health, safety, and the environment. A detailed understanding of annular fluid movement is critical in identifying potential source locations for wells with surface-casing vent-flow (SCVF) issues. Applicable scenarios include the following:
 Planned well-intervention activities for wells with multiple-source vent/flow situations
 Confirming the presence of flow (gas/oil/water) behind the casing
 Identifying areas with suspected crossflow between zones
 Integrity confirmation for gas storage caverns or zones
 Identifying unwanted flow for well-abandonment activities
 Well abandonment is bound by stringent regulations in some countries where the testing and repair of SCVF and gas-migration (GM) issues before final abandonment are required. An ex-ample is western Canada, where surface casing vents must be tested through a bubble test at minimum. This involves connecting a small container with 2.54 cm of water using fittings to the surface casing vent and monitoring for gas bubbles for 10 minutes. Often the flow rates are very low (less than 35 cu ft/d) with minimal pressure buildup. If bubbles are detected during the monitoring period, the well is deemed to have a positive vent flow. Consequently, the source of the vent flow must be identified by a survey as approved by the energy regulator, which could be conducted by means of acoustic logs, temperature logs, or gas- isotope analysis. Additionally, GM measurements must be conducted before final abandonment in specific areas within western Canada but are recommended for all wells. The complete paper details this process.


.................................................................................................................................. II DECLARATION BY AUTHOR ....................................................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................ V LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................... XI LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................... XII ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................................... XIV CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background and Motivation .............................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 The research motivation ...................................................................................................... 4 1.1.2 The research question .......................................................................................................... 4 1.1.3 The research process ............................................................................................................ 5 1.2 Summary of the Outcomes ................................................................................................ 6 1.3 Research Contributions ................................................................................................... 10 1.3.1 Theoretical contributions ................................................................................................... 10 1.3.2 Practical contributions ....................................................................................................... 11 1.4 Organisation of the Thesis .............................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................... 13 2.


Aiming at zero error nonlinear correction problem of Current Transformer(CT),this paper presents a nonlinear sensor zero error correction algorithm based on Radial Basis Function(RBF) neural network optimized by Ant Colony Optimization(ACO) method(ACO-RBF).The parameters of RBF neural network are optimized by ACO algorithm,and the optimized RBF neural network is used to correct CT zero error adaptively.Simulation results show that the proposed method can effectively improve the measuring accuracy of automatic test system and reduce measurement error compared with other methods.It can reflect the characteristic of zero.


In this paper, the migration of European aeronautics organisations towards virtual and extended enterprises is described. This change in business processes stems from international competitive pressure as well as from new ways to co-operate over company and discipline boundaries thanks to technological developments such as the Internet. Developments in European civil aeronautics are compared to developments in the United States and elsewhere. An overview is presented of information and communications technologies and tools as enablers for extended and virtual enterprise networks. Finally, the indispensable role of the European Union and the Information Society Technology programme with respect to European developments in aeronautics and other sectors is described.


Empirical evidence supports the notion that communication behaviors in intercultural encounters are effectively extensions of cultural values as well as epistemologies. Study 1 established communication behaviors of Asians and New Zealanders (NZs) as consistent with vertical collectivism and horizontal individualism, respectively. In particular, argumentativeness is positively related to independent self-construal (SC) and negatively related to interdependent SC. This supports Markus and Kitayama's SC theory. Study 2 showed that NZs exhibited more idiocentric and argumentative behavior, while Asians displayed more sociocentric and less argumentative behavior during two actual interactions; specifically, participants diverged in their communication styles to be more consistent with their cultural values during intercultural interactions. Analyses of decision outcomes provide support that culture moderates cognitive consistency behaviors such that NZs exhibited more inconsistency-reduction behaviors, which is rooted in adherence to noncontradiction. In contrast, Asians exhibited more inconsistency-support behaviors, suggesting that naive dialecticism rooted in acceptance of contradiction is customary in Asian social interaction.


The present invention provides an image reading apparatus comprising: an image reader that reads the manuscript placed on the manuscript image table; and a size detector which detects a document size, wherein the image reader to a document table disposed in the internal housing below the slide table parallel with the document, and reads the manuscript image, wherein the size of the detector comprises two light sensors, each by a light emitter and a light receiver, where the light emitted from the position below the document table toward the document table to emit light, and the light receiver receives reflected light reflected by the document, wherein the light emitter and the light receiver mounted on a substrate, so that the light emitter and the light receiver each connected to an optical sensor lines may be in a straight line, and wherein the size detector arranged at a side edge region of the interior region of the rack by sliding the image reader does not overlap, so that the line connecting the light emitter and the light receiver can be read with the image parallel to the sliding direction of the extractor.


In design of structures subjected to earthquakes or ground shock from nuclear blasts, shock is described by record of foundation motion obtained from structure that was subjected to similar shock, presenting such information in form of response spectra; analytical models for particular types of structures are developed for studying errors that may occur when such comparative record is used. (49 refs.)


Due to the imposition of sanctions, based more on geopolitical interests, there were additional essential restrictions on sources of external credits, use of import raw materials and technologies, possibilities of attraction to work of the qualified employees which do not have the Russian nationality, participation in the international technology and scientific projects. At similar restrictions of different resources investment decisions are made extremely carefully, and especially careful and reasonable efficiency evaluation of the investments is required. Traditionally used techniques of efficiency evaluation of investment projects not fully consider strategic interests of owners of industrial enterprises and investors. Decrease in risks requires higher quality of project evaluation. In this work the method of multi-level consistently complex integral assessment of investment projects on an indicator of the integral indicator of their efficiency implementing consecutive selection of investment projects from a portfolio on essential indicators of commercial effectiveness, efficiency of production business activities, a financial state and productivity of activity is provided. The developed method of a complex assessment of investment projects is implemented for practical application by the software product allowing to create on the basis of economic-mathematical modeling specific recommendations in economic practice of industrial enterprises during the developing and implementation of investment strategies. The conclusion that for the Russian economy in the conditions of import substitution accounting of all set of interests of investors and owners of the enterprises provides development and implementation of reasonable investment strategies is drawn.


Von Koch curves allow numerous variations and have inspired many researchers and fractal artists to produce amazing pieces of art. In this paper we present a new algorithm for plotting the Koch curve using complex variables. Further we have applied various coloring algorithms to generate complex Koch fractals.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effects of organizational culture on the relationships between leadership behaviour and organizational commitment and between organizational commitment and job satisfaction and performance in the Malaysian setting.Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered from 238 Malaysian UM MBA part‐time students and the researchers' working peers. Data on the respondents' organizational culture and leadership behaviours, and how they affect organizational commitment, job satisfaction and employee performance, were collected using the OCI, leadership behaviour questionnaire, ACS, single global rating for job satisfaction and overall performance questionnaire, respectively. Descriptive statistics were reported, followed by factor analysis, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation and hypotheses testing using hierarchical multiple regression.Findings – Generally, and with a few exceptions, leadership behaviour was found to be significantly relat...


The effect of 1% chitosan with 0.03% zinc acetate or cerium acetate on the qualitative properties of harvested cherry tomato under ambient temperature was investigated. The results showed that chitosan maintained its crystal structure, but its crystallinity decreased in chitosan-zinc composite coating. While in chitosan- cerium composite coating, the chitosan crystal structure was changed. Two composite coating could inhibit the decrease of cherry tomato firmness and soluble solids, and suppress the increase of weight loss and malondialdehyde content. In addition, the respiratory rate was maintained lower level, and the activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase were maintained higher level during the cherry tomato storage time. Besides, after coating, more vitamin C and lycopene in cherry tomato were reserved compared with control sample.