The immense application of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the biomedical fields is likely to increase the exposure of humans. These utilized AgNPs may be potentially deposited in the vital organs or even translocated from the maternal blood system, across the placenta and reach the fetus, exerting the toxic effects. However, little is known whether these nanoparticles can be maternally transferred, especially regarding their biodistribution in younger generation, maternal transfer efficiency and potential toxic effects. In the present study, maternal transfer of AgNPs in a model zooplankton (Daphnia magna) was for the first time visualized and quantified through both in vivo and ex vivo studies. We found that AgNPs were transferred from mother to next generation and mainly accumulated in the digestive cells due to the strong co-localization with lipid droplets which were the major energy sources of Daphnia embryos during early development. In contrast, Ag+ was irregularly distributed in different body parts, probably due to the mobility and reactivity of Ag+. The maternal transfer efficiency quantified by the novel radiolabeling (110mAg) methodology was 2.37±0.25% and 6.05±0.89% for 110mAgNPs and 110mAg, respectively. Furthermore, AgNPs and Ag+ showed significant toxic effects on the reproduction of F0 and F1 generations, but such maternal toxic effect was only found within the first two broods of F0 and F1 generation. Our finding demonstrated that AgNPs can be maternally transferred to next generation of aquatic animals, thus it is critical to produce AgNPs with much lower toxic effects, higher delivery efficacy and more precise targeting.


This paper summarizes the activities of the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC) during the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant crisis. NARAC provided a wide range of products and analyses as part of its support including: (1) Daily Japanese weather forecasts and hypothetical release (generic source term) dispersion predictions to provide situational awareness and inform planning for U.S. measurement data collection and field operations; (2) Estimates of potential dose in Japan for hypothetical scenarios developed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to inform federal government considerations of possible actions that might be needed to protect U.S. citizens in Japan; (3) Estimates of possible plume arrival times and dose for U.S. locations; and (4) Plume model refinement and source estimation based on meteorological analyses and available field data. The Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) deployed personnel to Japan and stood up 'home team' assets across the DOE complex to aid in assessing the consequences of the releases from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant. The DOE Nuclear Incident Team (NIT) coordinated response activities, while DOE personnel provided predictive modeling, air and ground monitoring, sample collection, laboratory analysis, and data assessment and interpretation. DOE deployed the Aerial Measuring System (AMS), Radiological Assistance Program (RAP) personnel, and the Consequence Management Response Team (CMRT) to Japan. DOE/NNSA home team assets included the Consequence Management Home Team (CMHT); National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC); Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS); and Radiological Triage. NARAC was activated by the DOE/NNSA on March 11, shortly after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami occurred. The center remained on active operations through late May when DOE ended its deployment to Japan. Over 32 NARAC staff members, supplemented by other LLNL scientists, invested over 5000 person-hours of time and generated over 300 analyses and predictions.


Noncontact temperature measurements in industrial scenarios present great variety of difficulties (dust, vapor. . . ). In this work, the authors study the use of a low-cost microwave power radiometer to measure the temperature of hot metal plate during its cooling with water. Two different radiometers, centred at different frequency bands, have been experimentally considered. The radiometers have been surrounded with a metal box to reduce undesirable radiation. Several experiments have been carried out, showing the ability of these radiometers to detect the cooling of the plates. A recalibration of the radiometer gain can be done to compensate the gain variation of the circuitry of the radiometers.


Objective To study the difference between the human-bait and CO2 trap in Aedes albopictus surveillance.Methods Using human-bait and CO2 trap monitor Aedes albopictus in two areas each for two weeks.Results With the spearman correlation analysis of human-bait and CO2 trap in monitoring the density of Aedes albopictus,correlation were 0.683 0,P0.05(Combustion Engine Research Institute),and 0.924 3,P0.05(Forest Park).Conclusion As Aedes albopictus monitoring methods,human-bait is better than CO2 traps into a low density of mosquitoes environment,and CO2 traps is a better choice when the mosquito density is more than 40 adults per trap.


To research the rationality and scientific nature of high school entrance PE exam,this paper analyze and investigate the problems of it with literature material method,contrast analysis and logic reasoning method.Studies suggest that,first,the dual evaluation mode is the reform and development trend of urban cities,but the authenticity and fairness of process assessment is difficult to control.So the main topics of current research is how to establish a complete set of supervision and management system of process assessment.Second,according to the students' physical conditions to develop different exemption test,optional test and delayed test policies and regulations to strengthen the equity supervisions of the exams.Third,abandon the exemption test policy of sports top student to concern more about education fair.Last,strengthen teenagers' moral education sports and take necessary doping tests to boycott stimulants and stop the dissimilation of high school entrance PE exam.


The author provides a personal perspective on the legacy of the Troubles and relevance of the Steel Shutter project, a community-based initiative aimed at promoting peace and reconciliation. Drawing on their experience as a peacemaker and psychotherapist, the author emphasizes the transformative power of human encounter and highlights unique cross-community initiatives, which have brought people from different communities together. The author argues that such initiatives have played an important role in building bridges between divided communities and promoting empathy, understanding, and healing. The author also notes the challenges posed by the language of polarization, dehumanization, and othering in contemporary political discourse, emphasizing the need to protect and promote human encounter in the face of such challenges.


An endoscope system includes: an endoscope including an observation optical system in a distal end portion of an endoscope insertion portion; a manipulator apparatus including a driving portion with aplurality of joint pieces connected on a distal end side of a manipulator insertion portion, adjacent joint pieces among the plurality of joint pieces being connected by connecting shafts, and configured as a first joint rotating clockwise and counterclockwise around a first shaft and a second joint rotating clockwise and counterclockwise around a second shaft perpendicular to the first shaft, atleast one first joint and at least one second joint being provided in order from the distal end side; and an overtube including an endoscope insertion portion passing hole through which the endoscopeinsertion portion of the endoscope is passed, and at least one manipulator passing hole through which the manipulator insertion portion of the manipulator apparatus is passed.


1Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. 2International Joint Innovation Center, Key Lab. of Advanced Micro/Nano Electronic Devices & Smart Systems of Zhejiang, The Electromagnetics Academy at Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Haining 314400, China 3State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, 2699 Qianjin Street, Changchun 130012, China. 4Division of Physics and Applied Physics. School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore. 5State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Haidian, Beijing 100084, China.


Gloss of the surface of the developing roller is from about 4 to about 15, a number average spacing (Rsm) between comprise surface has a plurality of raised beads of the developing roller, and the protruding bead is about 200 ㎛ to about 400 ㎛, supply the roller comprises a plurality of foam cells, and a number-average size of the foam cells is about 300 ㎛ to about 500 ㎛, the developing roller is arranged to rotate at a rotational linear speed of about 120% to about 150% of the photosensitive member rotation linear velocity of the a, it is disclosed the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.


The leaves outputs and the leaf area indexes of the first stubble and the second stubble of Pennisetum sinese Roxb are determined at the regular intervals.The relationship beween the leaves output and the leaf area index are studied.The results show that there is a close positive linear relationship between the outputs of airdried leaves and the leaf area indexes of the grass; The highest outputs of the airdried leaves of every stubble are gained when the leaf area index is 6. So the authors come to a conclusion that it is feasible as well as rational to determine an optimum cutting time of herbage by leaf area index.


Spinal Epidural lipomatosis (SEL) is an uncommon condition, usually presents in young and middle aged patients, with male preponderance. Idiopathic SEL is rare, particularly in 8th decade of life. SEL should also be considered as a differential diagnosis in approach of elderly patient presenting with lumbar canal stenosis. Such a case of 77 year old man is presented here.


We have measured the temperature dependence of top and bottom voltage signals of a Y0.8Er0.2Ba2Cu3O7−δ crystal in magnetic field up to 7.5 T parallel to the c-axis using the pseudo-flux-transformer method. The results show that in a dissipative regime the voltage signal on the side of the applied current contacts is more than that on the opposite side; meanwhile the bottom voltage signal shows a field-dependent peak effect near the critical temperature Tc. We calculated the true resistivities ρab and ρc of the crystal within an anisotropic model. The difference between the calculated ρab and ρc and the experimental values ρabst and ρcst is helpful in understanding flux dynamic behaviour. Based on the Yeshurun–Malozemoff model, we have investigated temperature and field dependences of effective activation energy along the ab-plane and c-axis obtained from the ρab(T) and ρc(T), respectively. The temperature dependence of effective activation energy along the c-axis displays a good thermally activated flux flow (TAFF) behaviour. In the TAFF regime the field dependence of effective activation energy follows a power behaviour, U(H) = 4.24 × 104 H−1.1. The TAFF regime and the coupling between the layers have been discussed.


A new federal budget proposal has been released by the House Republican Study Committee that includes a plan to phase out the federal surface transportation program when SAFETEA-LU expires in FY2009. This article discusses this devolution proposal, in the context of what the federal government's role is and should be with regard to transportation. The author argues that the federal government is overly involved in urban transit, which should be a local/regional issue, and underinvolved in ports-to-inland freight infrastructure. Devolution might actually have a positive impact in fixing these kinds of disparities.


A compact silicon photonics multi-wavelength filter is demonstrated using superimposed sidewall Bragg gratings. We show arbitrary wavelength spacing with 8 superimposed gratings on a total footprint that is equivalent to a single Bragg grating device.


Knowledge of the topside ionosphere resulting from studies of nonvertical propagation, such as scatter from ionization irregularities and minitroughs, hemispherically conjugate echoes, combination modes, multiple-hop propagation, unusual Z-wave propagation, and whistler-mode propagation, is reviewed. From these studies there appear to be two major types of magnetic field-aligned ionization irregularities: a thick type and a thin type. The thick type has a thickness of tens or hundreds of kilometers and occurs both near the auroral zone and at latitudes corresponding to the equatorial anomaly. The thin type has a thickness of a few hundred meters and may extend thousands of kilometers along a field line. At high latitudes the thin type has a tubular cross section, may have an electron density either greater or less than the ambient, and may result from fluxes of energetic particles; at low latitudes the thin type has an electron density deviation of the order of 1 percent or less. The thin type of ionization irregularity supports propagation which is responsible, at some distance from the satellite, for two different delayed-echo phenomena. In the vicinity of the satellite electrostatic waves with near-zero group velocity are probably responsible for the f H , f T , and nf H resonance spikes and also for the newly discovered f Qn resonance spikes which occur at nonzero and noninfinite values of the wavenumber. A novel spike, called the "floating spike," is believed to result from propagating electrostatic waves.


'Ethical and moral dilemmas including do not attempt resuscitation orders, advanced care planning, and end-of-life care' examines the difficulties of decision-making in stroke medicine, the definitions of 'ethics', laws', 'profession', and 'culture'; ethical systems (consequentialism, rights and duties, virtues, communication and relationships; practical ethics), principlism (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice), communication, and relationship-based ethics; consent, mental capacity, best interests, quantified decision-making, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, difficulties in feeding decisions, end-of-life care; proxy and substitute decision-making, advance care planning, and shared decision-making. Stroke care raises situations where the best course of action is not clear. Ethical theory helps to understand these dilemmas, but applying them in practice needs knowledge (about stroke and about people), time, skills in communication, teamwork, and managing situations, compassion and sensitivity, and broad-mindedness. This only comes from experience, professionalism, and the support of teams and colleagues. Practitioners must be adept at thinking about benefits, burdens, autonomy, mental capacity, developing communication skills, and building trusting relationships, should respect fundamental rights, and show virtues of honesty, compassion, and courage.


An imbalance between generation of free radicals and antioxidant defence leads to an oxidative stress Pulmonary damage caused by oxygen toxicity occurs due to the generation of reactive oxygen species and subsequent formation of more potent oxidants in experimental peridontitis development. Furthermore, the reactive oxygen species content may be a useful and practical parameter for evaluating periodontal disease activity.


[Objective]To study the relationship between trauma and the lumbar disc degeneration and to detect the expression of the fibronectin splicing variants in the degenerated lumbar intervertebral disc,and study the expression of EDA.[Method]The human lumbar intervertebral disc tissues were collected to extract total RNA which was then amplified by RT-PCR technique.[Result]EDA~+ Fn of normal lumbar intervertebral disc were not expressed,whereas EDA~+ Fn of degenerated lumbar intervertebral disc were expressed abundantly.The defference between different groups has statistical significance.[Conclusion]EDA~+ Fn has very strongly expression in the lumbar degenerated intervertebral disc,and the trauma is one of prerequisite factors in the disc degenerated process probablely.


The National Science Foundation research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer carried out a cruise to Antarctica in early spring of 1993. It left Punta Arenas, Chile, close to the tip of South America on 11 August 1993. sailed south for 3 days to the tip of The Antarctic Peninsula, stopping at O`Higgens and Palmer Stations, and from there went southwest and into the Bellingshausen sea. On 10 September, it reached the most southerly position, 71{degrees}S, some distance north of the Thurston Island. From there, it went as far as 110{degrees}W before returning to Punta Arenas. The main purpose of the cruise was to investigate the snow- and sea-ice thickness, properties, and structures in this part of the southern oceans. It also allowed us to carry out continuous radiation measurements. We measured the following fluxes: global radiation (Eppley PSP), infrared incoming radiation (Eppley Pyrgeometer PIR), ultraviolet-A radiation (Eppley UV meter), ultraviolet-B radiation (Yankee Environmental Systems), and pitch and roll of the ship (Lucas Sensing Systems, Inc.). All instruments were sampled twice per second (Campbell Scientific, Model 21 X), and a notebook computer (ASI Patriot) stored 1-minute averages of the radiation data and 1-minute standard deviation of the ship`s pitch and roll. Visual more » observations of cloud cover were also recorded. 2 refs., 3 figs. « less


Talent is the major factor of the existence and prosperity of construction enterprises.From the strategic perspective of the development of construction enterprises, this paper analyses the methods and measures of stabling the talent team for construction enterprises.


This paper discusses on effect of molybdenum on the Ti6Si2B formation in mechanically alloyed and hot-pressed Ti-xMo-22Si-11B (x= 2, 5, 7 and 10 at%) alloys. High-energy ball milling and hot pressing were utilized to produce homogeneous and dense materials, which were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electron dispersive spectrometry, and Vickers hardness. The excessive agglomeration during milling was more pronounced in Mo-richer powders, which was minimized with the formation of brittle phases. Hot pressing of mechanically alloyed Ti-xMo-22Si-11B powders produced dense samples containing lower pore amounts than 1%. Ti6Si2B was formed in microstructure of the hot-pressed Ti-2Mo-22Si-11B alloy only. In Mo-richer quaternary alloys, the Ti3Si and Ti5Si3 phases were preferentially formed during hot pressing. Oppositely to the ternary phase, the Ti3Si phase dissolved a significant Mo amount. Vickers hardness values were reduced in hot-pressed Ti-xMo-22Si-11B alloys containing larger Mo amounts, which were dissolved preferentially in Ti solid solution.


Humans as socio-cultural creatures can never be separated from the use of symbols, including symbols related to linguistics, which are used as sacred symbols in Hinduism in Bali, namely scripts, both Wreastra and Wijaksara Scripts. Hindus in Bali, for the most part, consider that the Wreastra script is only an ordinary script, which has no philosophical meaning, making researchers interested in studying the philosophical meaning in the Wreastra Script that is accompanied by the study of Wijaksara Script. Starting from this background, there are several research problem formulations, namely what is the meaning of the Wreastra and the Wijaksara Scripts in Hinduism. To answer these problems, the researcher use structural theories, semiotic theories, and theories of meaning. This type of research is qualitative research, with a philosophical-symbolic approach. The results of this study are the Wreastra and Wijaksara scripts have a meaning as worship to the God with all its manifestations adjusted to the script used. The application of the Wreastra and Wijaksara scripts in religious ritual activities in Bali as part of socio-religious activities can be seen from its use in the Rerajahang Kajang, Ulap-Ulap and Pecaruan rites. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the Wreastra and Wijaksara scripts have a high philosophical meaning of God, so that in writing and its use is not arbitrary, always starting with prayer of worship to the God.


The supersymmetric descent equations in superspace are discussed by means of the introduction of two operators ζ α , ζ ˙ α which allow to decompose the supersymmetric covariant derivatives D α , D ˙ α as BRS commutators.


The mobile station (2-1) is the pointer looks maximum transmission rate R and the buffer and the amount of data that is stored in the (22-1) Q, by using the requested delay T determined according to service of data of the current maximum transmission at a predetermined cycle It determines whether or not the speed is sufficient. The mobile station (2-1) sends a result of determination as RR (Rate Request) signal to the predetermined control signal to the field in the E-DPCH in the uplink to the base station (1). The base station 1 receives the RR signal from the mobile station (2-1), and the noise rise is determined to increase or decrease the maximum transmission rate which allows its use to the mobile station (2-1) does not exceed a predetermined threshold value, RG (Rate Grant) as a signal from the E-DPCCH in the downlink to notify the mobile station (2-1). The mobile station (2-1) is to raise or lower the position of the pointer according to the RG signal. It takes power, maximum power, reception quality and throughput


Introduction The burn wound is central to all aspects of burn care. The size, depth, and condition of the burn wound directly impacts fluid resuscitation, hypermetabolic response, immune system dysfunction, and predicted survival. Optimal care of the burn wound requires specialized facilities and experienced burn nurses and surgeons, all of which are in limited supply under normal circumstances. These resources may become overwhelmed or unavailable as a result of a largescale disaster in a developed country or the need to provide care in an austere or far-forward environment. In this monograph, we discuss adaption and modification of normal burn wound practices to accommodate austere or disaster environments.


The vascular entity described as arteriolar sclerosis is usually restricted to the small peripheral arterioles with a diameter of 100 p or less. The lesions are morphologically and etiologically different than those found in the "small arteries" that exhibit arteriosclerotic changes. For a long time, hypertension seemed to be the principal etiologic factor; however, several investigators thought that the arteriolar lesions were primarily degenerative in nature and became intensified by hypertension.1 3 Smith4 has studied in detail the arterioles of the kidneys from 528 persons at autopsy and reports that kidneys in 266 were normotensive; most of the remaining specimens were from hypertensive individuals. Smith4 concludes that the arteriolar disease in the kidneys is a degenerative change of the basement membrane and ground substance of the arterioles, and that hypertension intensifies the severity of the lesion. He has subsequently reported on arteriolar disease in other organs from noromotensive people, and finds hyaline arteriolar sclerosis most common in the spleen and pancreas and less common in the adrenals, liver, or esophagus. He thinks that the incidence and severity of the lesion increases with age.5 This investigation was undertaken to determine the effect of age on the blood vessels supplying the pulps of teeth from noromotensive people. This structure was chosen for study because the arterial vessels supplying the pulp are of arteriolar size and structure, and an adequate number of specimens for study is readily available for each specific age group.


Planktonic foraminiferal analysis of the Erto section in the Vajont valley (Southern Alps, northern Italy) reveals a relatively complete succession across the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) boundary. The turnover of planktonic foraminiferal fauna was studied for a stratigraphic interval spanning theAbathomphalus mayaroensisZonep.p., Pseudotextularia deformisZone,Guembelitria cretaceaZone,Parvularugoglobigerina eugubinaZone,Eglobigerina eobullioidesSubzone, andParasubbotina pseudobulloidesZonep. p.The extinction of most large, ornate, late Maastrichtian species occurs below a black 'boundary clay' (2–4 cm thick); however, part of the Late Cretaceous species, mainly heterohelicidids and hedbergellids, were found over an interval of more than 100 cm above the boundary. Although a relatively high number of species occur for the last time in the main extinction phase, the abundance of these outgoing species is less than 20% of the total population; unkeeled or weakly keeled, simple-shaped forms (heterohelicids, globotruncanellids, hedbergellids) constitute the bulk of the planktonic foraminiferal population both in uppermost Maastrichtian and lowermost Danian beds. The first Tertiary species ('Globigerina'minutulaand 'Globigerina'fringa) appear just above the 'boundary clay';Parvularuglobigerina eugubinaoccurs a few centimeters above. A marked increase in abundance and diversity in the Tertiary planktonic foraminiferal population occurs at the base of theEoglobigerina eobulloidesSubzone.


Engineering Technology faculty regularly encounter undergraduates taking courses in their professional field of study who lack adequate preparation in mathematics. Research indicates that students face difficulties in the application of mathematical concepts in engineering and technology. There appears to be a lack of articulation between the two disciplines. A recent National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) 1 report by a select group of engineering technology educators and industry leaders demands (or requests) that substantive and more innovative measures be undertaken to recruit and educate engineers for the 21 st century Furthermore, the study suggests changes that need to occur in developing curricula with a more interdisciplinary approach that is relevant to the careers of students, attractive to a more diverse student population, and connected to the needs of society. In response to these issues and the growing demand to retain minority students in engineering and technology programs, we are in the process of developing a problem-solving based mathematics course. The goals for creating this course are to: 1) increase retention rates of minority students enrolled in engineering and technology programs, 2) introduce engineering problemsolving methodologies in mathematics courses, and 3) promote team work among students. This paper describes our course structure, course activities, E-Team projects and initial evaluation of the effectiveness of this course. Analysis of the results of this study (or initial study) provides strong evidence that the mean scores of an integrated project-based course in mathematics and engineering technology and the control group are not equal. Also, the data proves that, on average, post-program grades are greater than pre-program grades. Furthermore, female averaged scores were higher compared to male scores, showing a significant difference (up to 10 points)


Population growth and development of city activities take some lands to carry them. As a result, land use competition happens among persons, society or sector. Land necessity for settlement, industry, or sector has taken over farm land, therefore farm land has been converted intensively and massively. Chronologically, population growth will cause land necessity increase. Unproductive land, especially farm land will be converted. Furthermore, farm land conversion will cause carrying capacity change. Carrying capacity has certain bio capacity. With the population growth, it will increase resource consumption; on the other side, farm land conversion will decrease carrying capacity. The objective of the study is to know about the influence of population growth towards carrying capacity (bio capacity) in Semarang city. Land consumption per capita is indeed influenced by city population, the higher the population is, the lower the land consumption per capita. With the population growth, it will influence carrying capacity. Carrying capacity here is the ratio of area to population. Analytical descriptive method is applied in the study with all sub-districts in Semarang city as the analysis unit. Population here is sub-district area and population per sub-district in Semarang city. Population growth data period is from 2000 until 2015. Main variables of the study are area per sub-district, population, population growth, carrying capacity. Result of the study shows significant influence of carrying capacity decrease, especially some outskirts in Semarang city. This condition happens because the outskirts in Semarang city tend to have dense population growth. Range of carrying capacity in Semarang city is from 0,007 to 0,117 of 0 to 1. Almost all sub-districts in Semarang city show miserable condition, except Mijen and Tugu. The conclusion of the study is that population will decrease carrying capacity. Therefore, the government should control population growth by paying attention to its distribution.


This case explores work climate and its relation with innovativeness in a small U.S. secondary wood products company. The primary objective of this in-depth stage of a larger study was to preliminarily validate the components and relationships of a theoretical model describing the links among work climate and innovativesess. The company is one of three companies studied in depth after the theoretical model was developed and was chosen based on the researchers' familiarity with its innovativeness and creative climate The study included a quantitative survey, plus qualitative interviews. Overall, 70 percent of the company's workforce responded to the survey, representing hourly workers, management, and office staff. Findings supported the theoretical model, and qualitative data provided additional insight. The following six factors appeared to adequately indicate a pro-innovation climate: supervisor encouragement, team cohesion, challenge, autonomy, openness to innovation, and availability of resources. Organizational commitment and job satisfaction show positive and significant correlations with climate for innovation. This illustrates the synergistic effect of management actively leading for innovation as a way to build competitiveness, while simultaneously creating a positive work climate. The case company profiled here illustrates this leadership very clearly.


Some environmental changes (either natural or anthropogenic usually caused by leaving sustainable management of its natural resources) alter natural conditions to such an extent that individuals and entire communities are forced to leave their place of permanent residence and seek another that would provide them with at least the minimum subsistence level of living. Some of those journeys may be temporary and cover small distances; others may involve crossing the border of one's homeland with no hope of ever coming back. Migrants struggle with not only their precarious financial situation, but also a wide range of legal and administrative difficulties, often compounded by social, cultural, religious, and political issues. Even though the number of people fleeing inhospitable environments is increasing every year, the international community and host countries refuse to grant them status to ensure due protection. This, however, does not relieve anybody from the obligation to search for a viable solution.


Background: The emergence of a 'Southern' discourse of corporate social responsibility (CSR) highlight the crucial issues of poverty reduction, infrastructure development and the broader questions of social provisioning and community development. Aim: This study builds on existing knowledge to reveal how CSR has become a drive or aid in the community development discourse and poverty reduction mechanisms. This was done through the analysis of major CSR projects by Zimplats mining company. Setting: The study was carried out in Mhondoro-Ngezi, Zimbabwe, which is in a rural setting. Method: The study employed a triangulated design, with data collected using a mini-survey, focus groups and in-depth interviews. Results: The key findings are that the fundamental roles of CSR have been to link it to addressing under-development and poverty reduction issues in developing countries. Conclusion: Through distributional CSR activities, the mining company was able to address the health, educational, employment and water needs of the local people.


-Within the Ephemeroptera family Baetidae, Demoreptus, new genus, is erected to accommodate D. capensis (Barnard), new combination, D. monticola (Crass), new combination, and D. natalensis (Crass), new combination. These species were originally described from southern Africa and assigned to Acentrella Bengtsson. Demoreptus is distinguished from Acentrella in the larval stage by having apicolaterally prolonged and attenuated fused incisors and relatively long, well-demarcated labial palp segments and in the adult stage by having a small, rounded process anteriorly on the mesoscutum. The larval stage of each species in Demoreptus is redescribed and a key to the species is provided. Analysis of interspecific relationships indicates that D. capensis is the most plesiotypic species, and that D. natalensis and D. monticola represent derived sister species.


Given a Banach space $X$ and a Kothe sequence space $\lambda_p$, with $1\leq p 1$ is barrelled if and only if every continuous linear operator from $\lambda_p$ into $X$ is compact. As a consequence we get a characterization of the distinguished spaces of type $\ell_\infty\hat{\otimes}_\pi\lambda_p$.


Article history: Received 29 June 2020 Accepted 11 August 2020 Drilling machines (TBM) used for civil engineering work in large towns to significantly reduce the harmful effects of expenditure on the earth's surface. The tunneling process complicated due to the dependence of this relationship on construction technology that lead to undesirable consequences such as damage to adjacent structures, so the use of the finite element method has become common to simulate construction stages model using the Hoek-Brown ,the methodology includes using the finite element method by constructing the model to predict the behavior of stresses during the tunnel construction stages and to collect the required data so that it is appropriate to the requirements of the region and to analyze the parameters of the numerical model entry and comparing the natural condition of the rocks during the various tunnel construction stages. During tunneling development, vertical stresses at the top and bottom of the tunnel are reduced while horizontal stresses are increased. Three vertical sections are selected to test the TBM tunnel 's impact on nearby rocks. The first section (x = 0) passes through the center of the tunnel. The second section is near the side edge of the tunnel whereas the third section is more or less selected than the edge of the tunnel. Progression of TBM is reflected through one to five phases. By conducting an axial symmetric FE analysis, the results of math measurement showed major changes in stress that occur in rock regions near the tunnel boundary mostly affects closeness to rocks. This increasing pressure decreases as you step horizontally away from the tunnel and the seams achieve exceedingly small values for lengths greater than 12 m from the edge of the tunnel.


I was trying to do three things at once. To read the time away, to smoke less, to ride somewhere far away. The blue lights were coming on in the first class carriage. The red Chinese lantern sank into the poplars. Awkwardly, into my pleasant compartment a poet was trying to get, whose book I had just put down. It was lying spread open on a pull-out table like a dead bird on a deserted beach, its lines shyly facing the board under the window, meaning the world. In it were bridges with canals silently rising and falling, there were tufts of highway grass and waterway traffic signs shooting up. "Stai caminar fin Trieste?" barked a young man in army fatigues, proceeding onwards, or rather backwards (considering the direction of the journey).


SELMAN, ROBERT L., and BYRNE, DIANE F. A Structural-Developmental Analysis of Levels of Role Taking in Middle Childhood. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 803-806. 40 childrenages 4, 6, 8, and 10-were interviewed by standard and Piagetian clinical method on 2 sociomoral dilemmas. Each child's discussion of the perspectives of different characters in the dilemma was analyzed according to a previously defined sequence of role-taking levels. The high correlation of these levels with increasing age indicates that role taking as a concept is amenable to a structural-developmental analysis.


Foreword. Introduction. Part I. Journals, Newspapers and Policemen:. Scenes from Street Life:. 1. Words, Scorned and Persecuted. 2. Words Caught in Flight: Government, Information and Resistance. Part II. Speeches of Discontent:. Forms and Motifs:. 3. Mobility and Fragmentation. 4. Motifs. Part III. Speaking Against the King, or. Words from the Bastille:. 5. a Who is to Stop me Killing the King?a . 6. a Your Worthy Subjects Deserve a King who Shall. Surpass Thema , or, the Constitution of Successive. Figures of Royalty from 1744 to 1775. Conclusion. Notes. Index.


SAPO-34 molecular sieves with CHA framework and nano-ZSM-5 molecular sieves with MFI framework were synthesized and characterized by XRD,BET method,NH3-TPD and SEM techniques.In Methanol-to-olefins(MTO) reaction,high selectivity of ethylene and propylene of SAPO-34 zeolite and high selectivity of propylene of nano-ZSM-5 zeolite were observed.Meanwhile,nano-size ZSM-5 zeolite had longer life,which is a promising catalyst in modern industry.


The well-known forensic science television series C.S.I. has had quite an impact on the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab. Fairly often in court, the MSHP criminalists are asked to compare their job with C.S.I., since most of the jurors are familiar with the TV show. The lab even receives calls from officers asking if we can perform techniques on their evidence like what they saw on an episode. While the ideal world of C.S.I. paints a glamorous portrait of crime scene processing where an investigator quickly obtains lab results from pristine evidence to apprehend the suspect and solve the case, the world in which the MSHP lab exists is quite different. Crime Scene Processing— Unlike C.S.I., the MSHP lab criminalists seldom go to crime scenes or attend autopsies. Occasionally with non-routine cases, an officer requests our assistance through our lab director. In those instances, we assist the officer mainly through evidence location, presumptive testing, and sample collection. However, the officer is still responsible for packaging and submission. We do not interview witnesses or question individuals involved in a case. Local municipalities, county agencies, and the MSHP all submit evidence to the lab. Therefore, the officers are the first and only people to deal with the evidence before it reaches us. As a result, the criminalists work with what is submitted to the lab, no matter the condition. Our product is only as good as the evidence you submit. Bottom line: the crime scene is yours, and you need to take whatever steps necessary to protect and process it, even if that means limiting the number of fellow officers who want to be a part of it or informing coroners of what you want collected and how to do so. Backlogs— Analysts on C.S.I. eagerly wait for investigators to bring items to process, which are completed while the investigators watch. At the Patrol lab, case processing takes time, resulting in backlogs. Routine cases may be worked fairly quickly, such as single specimen marijuana detection. Others though, such as fiber collection from a vacuum cleaner bag, are complex and time consuming. The turn around time may be even longer if the case has multiple specimens to be routed through several disciplines. For efficiency, specify the exact exams you want; also submit reference standards, if possible, before we have to request them. The criminalists also perform other essential duties in addition to casework, which are rarely, if ever, seen on the show. For example, criminalists attend training to keep abreast of new techniques and technologies, generate reports, perform essential quality assurance checks, and correspond with officers and attorneys. The most time-consuming functions tend to be related to court issues: several hours are attributed to


Nanocomposites of lithium ion conductors (Li2SiO3 and Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3) and electrode materials (TiO2, Li0.01TiO2 and FePO4) were prepared to investigate interfacial structure and ionic conductivity at the interface between solid electrolytes and electrode materials. It was revealed that lithium ions in the solid electrolytes were attracted to the cathode materials with increasing electrode potential, which increases lithium vacancies in solid electrolytes. For the FePO4 containing composites, due to the high electrode potential, lithium transfer across the interface and ionic conduction through the cathode materials was remarkable. The results suggest that severe lithium depletion occurs and interfacial resistance is large at the interface of high ionic conductors and cathode materials.


Ectopic pancreas is a rare phenomenon that usually does not cause symptoms and is detected incidentally during laparotomy. In this paper, a heterotopic pancreas case, a 43-year-old female patient has been reported. She has suffered from nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain for the last 48 hours. In the physical examination there was sensitivity and mass in the right lower quadrant. She was operated on as a patient with atypical ileus. As a result of the pathological examination, heterotopic pancreatic tissue was detected in the ileum wall.


Data for 425 sampling locations in England and Wales, covering the 1987 bathing season, were analysed against a range of six water-quality standards used by European and North American agencies. The following order of relative stringency was established: EEC guide level > US Environmental Protection Agency† > Toronto†> Canadian Federal† > Modified EEC standard > EEC imperative level†.

All European Community (EC) countries, at present abiding by the'imperative'bacteriological standards of the bathing waters Directive, would experience a significant increase in non-compliance for the faecal coliform parameter if standards were altered from the current EEC imperative criteria to any of the existing alternative beach management standards.


[Problem] To provide a solution employing a food product that is effective in countering the detrimental effects of diminished energy metabolism in humans or other mammals requiring treatment and/or prevention of accelerated energy expenditure and/or diminished energy expenditure functionality. [Solution] A method involving successive intake of a functional food product of rare sugar containing at least D-glucose, to effectively improve energy expenditure.


The landscape of Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) has known great changes these past six years. As compu- tational costs drop, libraries are developed and new applications become possible. Prototypes demonstrating private health diag- nosis, signal processing, genome statistics and database queries spur hope on the practical deployment of FHE in the near future. However, in most of these applications, increasing the privacy, security or enabling new functionalities comes in pair with some significant computation and/or communication burden. In this work, we depart from the latter paradigm and demonstrate that FHE might be useful to increase the practical performance of elliptic-curve cryptography. More precisely, we show how to reduce the computational burden of computing elliptic-curve points from a generator through delegation. We show that using homomorphic encryption it is possible to reduce in practice computational costs even with respect to traditional, not based on homomorphic-encryption, delegation protocols. We demonstrate the feasibility of our protocols with proof-of-concept implementations using HElib (adapted to handle multiprecision plaintext space moduli).


as always. It may be true that Nero's fall was partly due to some sort of burn-out, with Nero 'disinclined to save himself', whatever the Establishment tried (294). The last part (End, 372–415) discusses Nero's relation to Greece and his fall. Again, much is sensible and convincing, for instance how the emperor's much-discussed 'triumph' may have been a 'celebration of the successes of peace' (382–4). None of D.'s reconstructions go against the evidence and many of the scenarios he proposes will become the new points of departure. Occasionally, however, it feels that evidence is deemed plausible if it ts the pattern that D. has established. This is not helped by continuous and frustrating cross-referencing, often to later parts of the book (e.g. 156 n. 31 refers to 293, which for evidence refers to 304 n. 274; but examples are legion). This heightens the sense that D. is arguing a case as much as analysing his sources. As D. recognises, almost all reconstructions of Neronian politics reect the times in which they are written. Notwithstanding his monumental attempt to weigh the evidence fairly, D. does not entirely avoid that trap. His Nero seems to function in a much more recent setting: his liberti are compared to Samuel Pepys (65), the concilium is a 'privy council' (67), and Nero might even be kept in check by 'a loyal opposition' (154) and supported by a 'freedman-based scal machine' (350). The Pavilion in the Golden House was a sensible new centre of power, and 'much smaller overall than Buckingham Palace' (257). This is a very British Nero.


On 29 July, experts from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research gathered to discuss the issue of water quantity and quantity in South Africa. Their findings indicate that the looming water crisis may already be in effect.


For the past five years, readers of the Harvard Business Review have experienced a series of perceptive articles centering on the theme of human relations in industry. This book, compiled by the editor of the Review, reprints a generous selection of these articles. It is always convenient for research workers and business executives to have noteworthy articles collected and bound into book form, even though reprints of the articles have been widely circulated. The convenience of this particular volume, however, is somewhat lessened by the fact that the particular issues from which the selections are drawn are not indicated. The absence of dates may have been intended to emphasize the "timeless" quality of the articles, but dates would be a matter of interest to most readers. A collection of articles such as this usually requires, for maximum utility, a quantity of interpretive connecting material to give the book unity, coherence, and additional insights. The fact that this connective tissue is missing does not detract from this volume, however. Proceeding as it does from articles of a general nature to those containing discussions of specific areas within human relations, the book's organization provides a reasonably satisfactory substitute. The articles themselves are excellent, so that further editorial comment may have seemed unnecessary. Beyond selecting the items to be included, the editor's contribution includes a short introduction. In this statement, Mr. Bursk asserts that the collection is "from among the best of the articles in human relations published during the last five years" in the Reviewt. The primary criterion for selection is stated to be "balance and well-rounded perspective." The selections fulfill this criterion nicely, but as with any collection of articles, there will be some who will wish that other choices had been made. This book will prove useful as reference material at all levels of management and as instructional material for executive training sessions and university classes in human relations in industry. It provides an excellent overview of some of the best work in human relations during the past five years. This collection does much to counteract the claims of skeptics that human relations as a discipline has little to offer.


We report new measurements of the parity-violating asymmetry A(PV) in elastic scattering of 3 GeV electrons off hydrogen and He-4 targets with approximate to 6.0 degrees. The He-4 result is A(PV) = (+6.40 +/- 0.23(stat) +/- 0.12(syst)) x 10(-6). The hydrogen result is A(PV) = (-1.58 +/- 0.12(stat) +/- 0.04(syst)) x 10(-6). These results significantly improve constraints on the electric and magnetic strange form factors G(E)(s) and G(M)(s). We extract G(E)(s) = 0.002 +/- 0.014 +/- 0.007 at = 0.077 GeV2, and G(E)(s) + 0.09G(M)(s) = 0.007 +/- 0.011 +/- 0.006 at = 0.109 GeV2, providing new limits on the role of strange quarks in the nucleon charge and magnetization distributions.


The first railway line was introduced in Zagreb in 1862, while the Central Station was built in 1892. At the time of its construction the station was located to the south of the town outside the built-up urban area. For reasons of accelerated development of the urban area, undoubtedly supported by the railways as well, further continuing urban spread to the south and railway lines soon reached the point of confrontation, in particular the Central Station buildings and facilities for their location, size and level. The paper deals with different designs of the Central Station as anticipated in the urban area development plans over the period of past hundred years and the actual situation reported in practice.


Deep learning using multi-layer neural networks (NNs) architecture manifests superb power in modern machine learning systems. The trained Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are typically large. The question we would like to address is whether it is possible to simplify the NN during training process to achieve a reasonable performance within an acceptable computational time. We presented a novel approach of optimising a deep neural network through regularisation of net- work architecture. We proposed regularisers which support a simple mechanism of dropping neurons during a network training process. The method supports the construction of a simpler deep neural networks with compatible performance with its simplified version. As a proof of concept, we evaluate the proposed method with examples including sparse linear regression, deep autoencoder and convolutional neural network. The valuations demonstrate excellent performance.
The code for this work can be found in this http URL


Clusters of galaxies are powerful cosmological probes, particularly if their masses can be determined. One possibility for mass determination is to study the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on small angular scales and observe deviations from a pure gradient due to lensing of massive clusters. I show that, neglecting contamination, this technique has the power to determine cluster masses very accurately, in agreement with estimates by Seljak and Zaldarriaga. However, the intrinsic small scale structure of the CMB significantly degrades this power. The resulting mass constraints are useless unless one imposes a prior on the concentration parameter c. With a modest prior on c, an ambitious CMB experiment ${(0.5}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ resolution and $1\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$ per pixel) could determine masses of high redshift $(zg0.7),$ large $(Mg5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{14}{h}^{\ensuremath{-}1}{M}_{\ensuremath{\bigodot}})$ clusters with $\ensuremath{\sim}30%$ accuracy.


Microservices is an interesting option for those who want to migrate their systems to improve performance, maintainability, scalability, and interoperability. Microservice architecture is a collection of self-sufficient services working together to provide functionalities. Nowadays, there are many options to build microservices, some of them are lead by patterns. However, the mapping between quality attributes and patterns is not clear yet. This systematic literature review presents a microservice pattern collection, it describes their benefits and the association between patterns and quality attributes. Finally, some metrics of quality attributes are identified.


This dictionary is suitable for university students and sixth-formers who are beginning a course in the study of language. It covers all the most central terms in the core areas of linguistics (pronunciation, word structure, meaning), and also the key terms encountered in the study of the social, anthropological, psychological and neurological aspects of language. Definitions are brief and clear with a minimum of jargon and in many cases with helpful examples. There are entries for the names of major language families, and there are also brief biographical entries for the major figures in the field, past and present. Particular attention is given to the terminology of traditional grammar, but at the same time the book is up-to-date: it includes the key terms from such recently important areas as language disability, language acquisition by children, conversation and discourse, the linguistic capabilities of apes and the origin and evolution of language.


Recently, the organic food market in many places of the world has grown at a soaring rate. With a flood of similar products with identical features available in today's marketplace, package design becomes one of the important factors for marketing managers in their decision making. Against this backdrop, corporations tend to invest large amounts of money into packaging to influence consumer's intension to buy. However, it is not the case for SMEs, since their financial resources are more than often limited. In this study, we identified major elements of packaging and examined their effectiveness to derive managerial guidelines for SMEs to efficiently design organic food packages. We conducted two different user tests, and applied conjoint analysis to evaluate the relative importance weights of four visual elements. Subjects were influenced by visual stimuli equally regardless of purchasing experience. We showed that "typography" played the most influential role by appealing to consumers' eco-sensibilities and affecting their purchasing decisions. The study could be extended to various products as well as consumer groups, so that designers find an appropriate design strategy to communicate with consumers more properly.


The enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) is involved in the regulation of serotonin levels. Recently, researchers uncovered the existence of TPH2 , a gene that is highly expressed in brain raphe neurons, which are heavily serotonergic. TPH2 polymorphisms have since been associated with unipolar depression (see Journal Watch Psychiatry Feb 9 2005). To learn more about …


Over the last few years, interest in "green computing" consumes motivated research into energy-saving method for activity systems, from network proxies in additional to virtual machine migration to the return of thin clients. The entire world today is speaking green. It's not green with jealousy, but green while in becoming more eco-friendly, environment companionable, energy preservation, efficient usage of computing resources, adherence to global standards (like Energy Star, ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances etc.) So that the Information Technology products could be managed efficiently throughout its life and even at the time of disposal.


(1951). The Cavities After Retro-Auricular Radical Ear Operations with Special Reference to the Significance of the Primary Factors. Acta Oto-Laryngologica: Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 388-394.


The present invention relates to a method for representing information in a means of transport, in which the information is presented in the form of hierarchical menu structures. Furthermore, the invention relates to a device for displaying information to a control unit and a display unit for stereoscopically and / or autostereoscopic display of information. Finally, the invention relates to an instrument cluster for a motor vehicle. In the method the display is stereoscopic, wherein at least two different menus or menu items are displayed to the viewer at varying distances. The combination instrument according to the invention is characterized in that a mask is arranged in front of the display a display unit which so changes the light emission of the light emitted by the display light that autostereoscopic images can be displayed.


OBJECTIVE To engage in a systematic pharmacognostical studies on Swertia erythrosticta Maxim.METHODS The cross sections of root were observed by the optical microscope,and the physical and chemical identification methods were adopted.RESULTS Morphological,histological characters of Chinese folk medicine Swertia erythrosticta Maxim were described and illustrated with line drawing.The physical and chemical identification were also applied.CONCLUSION The studies can provide reference information for further development,quality control,and identification of this crude drug.


ABSTRACT The characterization of transcriptional start sites of 14 genes encoded by the extremely AT-rich genome of "Candidatus Blochmannia floridanus" revealed a high degree of conservation with the RpoD promoter consensus sequence of the free-living relative Escherichia coli. Moreover, in agreement with the presence of the alternative heat shock sigma factor RpoH in "Ca. Blochmannia," typical RpoH-dependent promoters were identified. However, no heat shock response resembling that of E. coli could be detected in "Ca. Blochmannia."


Continuous body temperature monitoring during anesthesia in children is very important. Hypothermia in children may lead to higher morbidity and mortality. Measurement points to detect the temperature of core body are not simply accessible. In this study we measured the skin temperature over the carotid artery and compared it with the nasopharynx. Totally, 84 children of 2-10 years undergoing elective surgery were selected. Temperature over the carotid artery and nasopharynx was measured during anesthesia. Mean temperature of these points was compared which each other, and the effects of age, sex, and weight change of temperature during anesthesia were evaluated. The mean age of patients was 5.4±2.6 years s. 37% of patients were female, and 63% were male. The mean weight was 20±7 kg. The mean duration of surgery was 60.45±6.65 min. The temperature of the skin and nasopharynx was decreased during surgery as after 60 min, the deference between skin over the carotid artery and the nasopharyngeal area was 1° C. The bodyweight has a significant effect on carotid skin temperature in regression model. Skin temperature over the carotid artery, with a simple correction factor of+1° C, provides a viable noninvasive estimate of nasopharyngeal temperature in children during elective surgery with a general anesthetic.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the prevalence of low skeletal muscle index (area normalized for height) and density, their trajectory of change, and to determine associations with clinical outcome in adults with severe respiratory failure requiring venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

DESIGN
Prospective observational study.

PATIENTS
Adults receiving venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for a minimum of 72 hours and a maximum of 6 months between September 2010 and June 2017, who had a CT scan which included the third lumbar vertebra.

INTERVENTION
None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Skeletal muscle index and density was determined using Slice-O-Matic V5.0 (TomoVision, Montreal, QC, Canada). Low skeletal muscle index and density were defined using published criteria. Regression models were used to assess for associations between muscle index and density and clinical outcome. Two-hundred fifteen patients, median (interquartile range) age 46 years (35.0-57.0 yr) were included. Forty-five patients (21.1%) had low skeletal muscle index, and 48 (22.3%) had low skeletal muscle density on commencement of venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Low skeletal muscle index was more prevalent in males (28.8% vs 11.6%; χ = 9.4; p = 0.002) and was associated with a longer duration of venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (B = 5.0; 95% CI, 0.2-9.9; p = 0.042). Higher skeletal muscle density was independently associated with ICU survival (odds ratio 1.6 per 10 Hounsfield units; 95% CI, 1.1-2.5; p = 0.025). No relationship was observed between skeletal muscle index nor density and physical function. Adequacy of energy and protein did not influence change in skeletal muscle index or density.

CONCLUSIONS
Low skeletal muscle index at the commencement of venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was associated with a longer duration of venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, whereas preserved skeletal muscle density was associated with improved survival.


Review(s) of: A concise dictionary of first names, by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges; Oxford University Press, 1997, $12.95; A dictionary of English surnames, by P H . Reaney and R.M. Wilson; Oxford University Press, 1997, $24.95.


Estimation fusion for multisensor asynchronous sampling system is currently a hot subject of research. Under the assumption with independent and uncorrelated noises, some asynchronous fusion algorithms have been provided. Unfortunately, the general optimal solution with real-time update performance in Linear Minimum Mean Square Error (LMMSE) hasn't been given up to now. Simultaneously, it is difficult to design the optimal recursive asynchronous fusion estimator with cross-correlated noises under centralized frame and the research progress is slow. Aiming at this problem, an optimal and general recursive fusion estimator for this kind of multisensor asynchronous sampling system with cross-correlated noises is proposed by use of a universal effective noises decorrelation technology in this paper. The proposed asynchronous fusion estimator not only is optimal in LMMSE, but also can archive the best real-time running performance. Additionally, it can also be even applied to the "Out-Of-Sequence" Measurements (OOSM) system. Theoretic analysis and simulation both show the validity and superiority of this fusion estimator.


†Department of Materials, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom ‡Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom §Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom ⊥Physical & Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California, 94550, United States ║Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California, 94720, United States ∇Department of Physics, University of York, Heslington, YO5 10DD, United Kingdom


In determination of a material's coefficient of friction, the more common science used is known as tribology. Derived from the Greek tribo (to rub) and the Latin logia (study or learning), tribology is defined as the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion. The coefficient of friction of a material has to be measured experimentally and cannot be calculated, which means it is empirical. Compared to smooth surfaces, rough surfaces like hot-mix aggregates tend to have higher coefficients. During production of asphalt mixtures, boundary fluids (like asphalt binders) can serve to reduce the coefficient of friction of aggregates. The concept of testing asphalt binders in thin films was first introduced by Reinke and Baumgardner at the Warm-Mix Technical Working Group (WMA TWG) in Baltimore, MD, December 2007; they suggested lubricity and internal friction reduction as a potential explanation of the mechanism which allows production of asphalt mixtures at reduced temperature - warm-mix asphalt (WMA). A continuation of the work of Reinke and Hanz is presented in this paper, moving from gap-dependent rheology to tribology utilizing a standard tribology fixture and new methods for testing asphalt binders using a dynamic shear rheometer. The following comprise this work: evaluations of various asphalts used to produce hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures, as well as the effect they might have on friction characteristics, allowing production of warm-mix asphalt through non-chemical techniques, such as foaming; and regarding asphalt mixtures produced with Lubricity Optimized Asphalts TM (LOA), the evaluation of LOA and the effect additives have on friction characteristics.


In this paper we consider tiling {p, q} of the Euclidean space and of the hyperbolic space, and its dual graph Γq,p from a combinatorial point of view. A substitution σq,p on an appropriate finite alphabet is constructed. The homogeneity of graph Γq,p and its generation function are the basic tools for the construction. The tree associated with substitution σq,p is a spanning tree of graph Γq,p. Let un be the number of tiles of tiling {p, q} of generation n. The characteristic polynomial of the transition matrix of substitution σq,p is a characteristic polynomial of a linear recurrence. The sequence (un)n≥0 is a solution of this recurrence. The growth of sequence (un)n≥0 is given by the dominant root of the characteristic polynomial. The result of this paper is related to [6, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 2].


In light of the research on and development of the experimental and teaching system for electric power engineering program, an open multifunctional experimental-teaching system is built with the theory and practice of all major professional courses combined for not only their auxiliary teaching experiments, but also the comprehensive application of and research on professional knowledge. Thus students are enabled to train in work on comprehensive experimental topics and application topics using what knowledge acquired to cultivate their hands-on ability, multiple application ability and innovative ability. Applications of the system in China's 100-odd universities are favorably commented on by students for its excellent instructional effects.


Independent mining in steep and close seam can influence the next mining of the adjacent coal seam destructively in the same section by means of horizontal section top-coal caving at Jiangou coal mine in Urumqi mining area.Using numerical and similar simulation,the movement rule of overlying strata was researched for independent mining and united mining,the scientific of united mining in steep and close seams was discussed.The results show that,united mining neither increases the range of damage and movement sharply,nor brings about the disaster.So united mining is an effective way to solve the mining problem in thinner of the steep close and thick seam.The results can provide scientific basis for industrial test of united mining B_19,B_20 seams in Jiangou coal mine,also have successful experiences for similar mining.


This paper studies a version of the job shop scheduling problem in which some operations have to be scheduled within non-relaxable time windows (i.e. earliest/latest possible start time windows). This problem is a wellknown NP-complete Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP). A popular method for solving these types of problems consists in using depthrst backtrack search. Our earlier work focused on developing e cient consistency enforcing techniques and e cient variable/value ordering heuristics to improve the e ciency of this procedure. In this paper, we combine these techniques with new lookback schemes that help the search procedure recover from so-called deadend search states (i.e. partial solutions that cannot be completed without violating some constraints). More speci cally, we successively describe three intelligent backtracking schemes: Dynamic Consistency Enforcement dynamically enforces higher levels of consistency in selected critical subproblems, Learning From Failure dynamically modi es the order in which variables are instantiated based on earlier con icts, and Heuristic Backjumping gives up searching areas of the search space that appear too di cult. These schemes are shown to (1) further reduce the average complexity of the search procedure, (2) enable our system to e ciently solve problems that could not be solved otherwise due to excessive computational cost, and (3) be more e ective at solving job shop scheduling problems than other look-back schemes advocated in the literature.


In the background of specific environmental effects' realization in common visualization system, we analyze current implementation strategy of special effects and disadvantages in emulation. Accord to the features of virtual environment, we design an optimization which can simulate special effects basing on DirectX in visualization system. As the same time, using the examples of water wave effects, we study some key technologies: data's tissue and dispatch, rendering strategy. Last, we hold tests to approve the optimization is fit for visual simulation. Besides, the optimization can well achieve the target of effects. We believe the method should be made use and promoted.


Objective
To observe the clinical efficacy of peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) in patients with achalasia of cardia followed up three years and assess the value of high resolution manometry (HRM) and esophageal barium meal in assessment of POEM therapy.

Methods
From April 2011 to December 2013, 58 patients diagnosed as achalasia of cardia and accepted POEM therapy were collected. Before operation, at one month, six months, one year, two years and three years after operation, low esophageal sphincter pressure (LESP), low esophageal sphincter relaxation rate (LESRR), four seconds integrity relaxation pressure (4sIRP) and proportion of effective esophageal body peristalsis were detected by HRM; maximum diameter of esophageal was examined by esophageal barium meal and the efficacy was evaluated with Eckardt score system. The t test was performed for normal distributed measurement data. Rank sum test was used for non normal distributed measurement data. Pearson product moment was performed for correlation analysis.

Results
POEM was successfully completed in 58 patients with achalasia of cardia. At one month, six months, one year, two years and three years after operation, the Eckardt score was 0 (0 to 1), 1 (0 to 2), 1 (0 to 2), 1 (0 to 4), 2 (0 to 4), respectively, compared with that of before operation (7, 5 to 9) and the differences were statistically significant (Z=-4.134, -4.124, -4.135, -4.121 and -3.656, all P<0.05). The differences in LESP, LESRR and 4sIRP between before operation and at one month, six month, one year, two years and three years after operation were statistically significant (tLESP=4.968, 6.301, 5.757, 4.716 and 5.608; tLESRR=-5.364, -5.080, -4.965, -4.755 and -4.348; t4sIRP=6.334, 8.422, 7.423, 6.507 and 5.627; all P<0.05). At one month, six month, one year, two years and three years after operation, the maximum diameter of esophageal was (3.51±1.27) cm, (3.47±1.26) cm, (3.60±1.26) cm, (3.66±1.53) cm and (3.82±0.90) cm, respectively, compared with that before operation ((6.29±1.69) cm), the differences were statistically significant (t=4.898, 6.116, 4.452, 4.650 and 4.187, all P<0.05). At three years after operation, there were correlations between the maximum diameter of esophageal and Eckardt score, between 4sIRP and Eckardt score, and even between 4sIRP and the maximum diameter of esophageal (r=0.635, 0.844 and 0.729, all P<0.05).

Conclusions
The short and medium term efficacy of POEM in patients with achalasia of cardia is good. HRM and barium meal examination could objectively reflect the efficacy of POEM.

Key words:
Achalasia of cardia; Peroral endoscopic myotomy; High resolution manometry; Barium meal


Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory arthritis with the incidence reaching up to 1% of the population. The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has improved dramatically over the last years with the introduction of TNF (tumor necrosis factor) alpha inhibitors. Joint damage and functional impairment are highly important adverse outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis. They have been repeatedly shown to be associated with clinical disease activity, in particular with swollen joint counts and acute-phase reactant levels, as well as composite measures of disease activity in which these variables are included as components. OMERACT outcome measures in rheumatology group published consensus US definitions for common pathologic lesions observed in patients affected by RA, each of them is discussed, effusion, synovitis, bone erosion, hypervascularity and tenosynovitis. The use of musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSK-US)is growing more and more between radiologists and rheumatologists for the early diagnosis and therapeutic follow up of rheumatoid arthritis and US scores are used for monitoring RA disease activity; US findings can be scored using quantitative or semiquantitative scoring systems to estimate the degree of synovial/tenosynovial and erosive processes.. New technologies such as elastography, three dimensional sonography, fusion imaging and contrast enhanced ultrasound can add further powerful information in the imaging of RA. [Egypt J Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, 2015; 3(1): 23-32]


On Thursday November 19, 2015, LANL postdoc received an eye injury from a reflected, nonvisible laser beam (Class 4, pulsed, wavelength 800 nanometer). The setup is configured to split the laser output into two work areas in which qualified operators conduct research experiments. During this incident, the laser output beam was being projected to both experimental work areas, although only one experimental area was actively being used. The second laser beam directed to the second work area was blocked by an inappropriate device (Plexiglas, reflective, non-normal incidence) that reflected substantial portion of the beam toward the first setup. In preparation for the measurements, worker stepped on the stepstool and decided to remove the laser goggles to better see the micrometer readings which were difficult to see due to insufficient lighting. Immediately, he noticed a flash of light in his eye. The operator quickly replaced the laser eye-wear and then, using an infrared viewer, located a stray laser beam being reflected from the plexiglas beam block. The operator did not think he had sustained any injury and continued working. Later that day, however, he noticed a blurry spot in the vision of his left eye. He notified his supervisor on Fridaymore » morning, November 20, 2015, and was taken by CINT management to Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) medical facility for evaluation. SNL Medical did not find any abnormalities, but referred the operator to a local ophthalmologist for further evaluation. Further evaluations by the ophthalmologist on November 21 and November 23 identified a small spot of inflammation near the fovea on the retina in his left eye. The ophthalmologist stated that this spot would most likely heal on its own and that the blurry spot on the operator's vision would go away. A follow-up visit was scheduled. The employee was released back to work without restrictions.« less


The model statement objectives (MSO) in this volume serve as a checklist in evaluating existing BI programmes, developing educational goals when determining new programmes, and determining whether such goals are being achieved.


REPORT OF CASE Some time ago I was called into the country by Dr. Sharpe, in consultation, to see Mrs. X., a primipara, aged 23, who was then in her thirteenth week of pregnancy. Vomiting had begun on the eightieth day following the beginning of her last menstruation, and had become progressively worse until, at this time, it had reached the pernicious stage. The patient was much reduced and exhausted, but looked fairly well, and it was arranged that, should the remedies then suggested prove inadequate, interruption of the pregnancy must be undertaken without delay. Three days later, I dilated and emptied the uterus, placing a strip of iodoform gauze in the cavity and packing the vagina lightly with the same material. The following day the patient became nervous and disturbed, and these symptoms continued during the greater part of her illness, the delirium at times becoming boisterous and agitated.


Recommendations on manuscripts which are to be submitted to quality journals are made. Problems encountered by many authors and some strategies to overcome those problems are reviewed. Procedures and purposes of journal editing are considered.


Rate changing occurs whenever sequences of data undergo transformations in rate without undergoing a change in the order of sequence. When the ratio of transformation is not an integer, fractional rate changes are necessary. These are generally, a prerequisite for the time-compression multiplexing mode of data transmission. Zero or minimal delay is a desirable characteristic, for example, in reducing the annoyance from the far-end echo whenever voice is encoded and transmitted. Conventional fractional rate changing entails an inherent delay in the rate change circuits. Segmenting shift registers reduces the delay of the last bit without completely eliminating it, unless the shift-register length is reduced to one bit. In this paper, a method of partitioning the shift registers by logarithmic counts is developed to reduce the complexity of the gating and the counting circuits. Zero last-bit delays are attainable in all cases where the rate increase is greater than two or, conversely, the rate reduction is less than half. For the remaining cases, the compromise between circuit complexity and the last-bit delay is outlined.


The size effect is a phenomenon where the strength and the ductility of a material depend on the size of the structure. Investigating size effects and related crack formation in brittle materials requires advanced monitoring methods. The aim of this research is to experimentally investigate the impact of size effect with the acoustic emission (AE) technique. Brazilian splitting tests with AE monitoring were performed on cement-based mortar cylinders of three sizes. It was found that in addition to the size, the boundary condition affects the final strength. When adopting similar boundary conditions in samples with different sizes, the larger samples had the lowest tensile splitting strength. For the larger samples, initially, there were fewer AE activities. However, there was a surge of high-amplitude AE events near the peak load. This indicates that as size increases, there is a lack of micro-cracking before macro-crack propagation, and the material fails in a more brittle manner. The width of the fracture process zone was quantified with AE and increased with sample size. A further analysis of the AE amplitude distribution demonstrated a change in the distribution in the pre-peak phase for the larger samples and for the smaller samples in the post-peak phase, signifying the brittle to ductile failure transition that occurs as size decreases.


University is a precious wealth left over from the Medieval Western Europe to the modern world. Theearly universities arose in high Middle Ages and gained many privileges, such as in habitation, internal jurisdiction, cessation and migration, freedom from duties and levies, grant of the Licentia docendi and so on. These privileges were obtained not only through "struggle" and "utilization" from the church or secular authorities, but also from the "natural" extension of other privileges and the special status of universities. Therefore they provided a wide variety of liberty and nurtured a flourishing growth in the complex European society. So they are considered the roots of academic freedom and autonomy. Historically, the privileges of the medieval universities have long been noticed, but never before been studied comprehensively, especially in China. This is the main concern of the present paper.


A UNIT CURVE IS DEVELOPED FOR THE DESIGN OF A HIGHWAY TRANSITION SPIRAL. FOR ANY SPIRAL ANGLE, CORRESPONDING LENGTHS OF THE UNIT CURVE AND A GIVEN FIELD TRANSITION CURVE BEAR A CONSTANT RATIO WHICH IS TERMED THE CHARACTERISTIC CONSTANT OF THE FIELD CURVE. THE CONSTANT IS A FUNCTION OF THE CHOSEN MINIMUM RADIUS AND THE TOTAL LENGTH OF THE FIELD SPIRAL. THE CARTESIAN CO-ORDINATES FOR A PARTICULAR LENGTH OF THE FIELD CURVE ARE EQUAL TO THE CONSTANT TIMES. THE CARTESIAN CO-ORDINATES OF THE CORRESPONDING LENGTH OF THE UNIT CURVE, AND THE DEFLECTION ANGLE IS THE SAME FOR BOTH. THE USE OF THE UNIT CURVE VERY MUCH SIMPLIFIES THE DESIGN OF A HIGHWAY TRANSITION SPIRAL. /AUTHOR/


Aeronautical Equipment Industry is living a significant (r)evolution: its shift from "build to print" to a "global intelligence" driven business makes it a major contributor in the innovations needed for sustaining the growth of the aeronautical transportation system. Those trends are analyzed, and illustrated by several achievements of the Aeronautical Equipment Branch of SAFRAN. Introduction Since a few year a new context has evolved for aeronautical equipment industry: future stakes for aeronautics ask for more innovation old style work organization where airframers used to design by themselves airframes and systems , buy equipment, and integrate them, is not favorable enough for innovation innovation implies sharing core issues and identifying together key factors of success through shared system analysis innovation requires that equipment industry shifts from "build to print" to a "global intelligence" driven business by considering final customer needs, operator (airlines, air traffic control organizations) needs, environment (airport, community) requirements, this means a better understanding of the global aeronautical system to propose high value innovative concepts, covering the whole scope of: i. New technologies ii. New functions iii. New architectures to generate functions The future challenges of aeronautics The commonly agreed challenges among the whole spectrum of stakeholders in Europe within the ACARE are: quality and affordability: the goals relate on one side to the passenger value for money, on the other side to the supply chain efficiency, typically halving the time to market environment preservation: halving fuel consumption per pax.km, cutting NOx by 80%, reducing perceived external noise by 50%, and progress in reducing the impact of manufacturing, maintenance and disposal of aircraft safety: reduction of accident rate by 80% and consequently addressing the reduction of human error efficiency increase of the air transport system in terms of capability to accommodate three times more aircraft movements in 2020, to ensure on time flights, and to reduce time spent by passengers in airports security, the goal being zero successful attack or hijack. All these challenges can be achieved only in the frame of a global system approach involving the aircraft, the airport and the air traffic management. They may be conflicting one another: therefore a series of compromises has been hypothesized within five High Level Target Concepts, each of them corresponding to a desirable prospective vision of Air Transportation System (ATS): Highly Time Efficient 1 Advisory Council for Aeronautical Research in Europe Key Technology Enablers For The Future Of Aeronautical Equipment Industry


In the course of my thesis work I prepared PLGA based drug loaded nanoparticles using the nanoprecipitation method. Three drugs candidates were chosen because of their effectiveness against Mycobacterium tuberculosis: TB501, TB503, TB517.
I determined the pharmacological parameters, the drug content and the encapsulation efficiency of the prepared PLGA particles. I also characterized the particles by their size, size distribution and zeta-potential. The hydrodynamic diameter of the particles was around 135 nm, an ideal size range for all kind of administration.
A connection was found between the drug content of the particles and the hydrophobicity of the molecules characterized by their logP. Relatively low encapsulation parameters were obtained for all three drug molecules. To increase the drug content and encapsulation efficiency the formulation conditions have been modified. The changes involved the increase of the organic/aqueous phase ratio and the concentration of the drug in the organic phase. In the case of TB503 an eightfold increase in drug content was achieved.
I demonstrated that the improvement of the drug content is incorporated with the water solubility of the relatively hydrophobic drugs. Taking into consideration the quantities of the drug, the size of the particles and their zeta-potential values, it was concluded that the drug molecules are partially present on the surface of the PLGA nanoparticles, but are also partially incorporated into the polymer matrix.
According to the results it was possible to improve the encapsulation of the drug candidates into PLGA particles prepared with the nanoprecipitation method by changing the formulation conditions. The similar result could be also achieved by increasing the hydrophobicity of the drug.


In this paper, we propose a power-efficient Turbo coding scheme for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for disaster areas. In this system, UAV is functioning as an extension of mobile cognitive radio base station (MCRBS) to build networks in disaster areas. Both MCRBS and UAV require efficient use of power to provide longer duration of services. The proposed Turbo coding scheme is a simple virtual Turbo codes involving MCRBS and UAV, where the Turbo decoding combines signal from both MCRBS and UAV. The proposed codes are constructed from Convolutional and Accumulator codes that consume low power, because the codes are having memory of one bit. We evaluate the performance of the proposed codes in terms of bit-error-rate (BER) under additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and Rayleigh fading channels via a series of computer simulations. We also evaluate the proposed codes with two elevation angles of $45^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$ configurations. We found that the proposed codes can remove error-floor even though the signals from the direct link are not available due to the block in disaster situations. The results of this paper are expected to contribute to the development of coding techniques of UAV for disaster recovery network.


6-Thioguanine, an immunosuppressant and anticancer prodrug, has been shown to induce DNA damage and cell death following exposure to UVA radiation. Its metabolite, 6-thioguanosine, plays a major role in the prodrug's overall photoreactivity. However, 6-thioguanine itself has proven to be cytotoxic following UVA irradiation, warranting further investigation into its excited-state dynamics. In this contribution, the excited-state dynamics and photochemical properties of 6-thioguanine are studied in aqueous solution following UVA excitation at 345 nm in order to provide mechanistic insight regarding its photochemical reactivity and to scrutinize whether N9-glycosylation modulates its phototoxicity in solution. The experimental results are complemented with time-dependent density functional calculations that include solvent dielectric effects by means of a reaction-field solvation model. UVA excitation results in the initial population of the S2(ππ*) state, which is followed by ultrafast internal conversion to the S1(nπ*) state and then intersystem crossing to the triplet manifold within 560 ± 60 fs. A small fraction (ca. 25%) of the population that reaches the S1(nπ*) state repopulates the ground state. The T1(ππ*) state decays to the ground state in 1.4 ± 0.2 μs under N2-purged conditions, using a 0.2 mM concentration of 6-thioguanine, or it can sensitize singlet oxygen in 0.21 ± 0.02 and 0.23 ± 0.02 yields in air- and O2-saturated solution, respectively. This demonstrates the efficacy of 6-thioguanine to act as a Type II photosensitizer. N9-glycosylation increases the rate of intersystem crossing from the singlet to triplet manifold, as well as from the T1(ππ*) state to the ground state, which lead to a ca. 40% decrease in the singlet oxygen yield under air-saturated conditions. Enhanced vibronic coupling between the singlet and triplet manifolds due to a higher density of vibrational states is proposed to be responsible for the observed increase in the rates of intersystem crossing in 6-thioguanine upon N9-glycosylation.


— With the notion of flavor-oscillation clock of Ahluwalia et. al. or the notion of local time introduced by the author, we will consider a quantum mechanical local system that forms a bound state with respect to the local Hamiltonian of the system. We will see that such a local system is considered timeless and hence the principles of relativity do not apply to those timeless systems. As application, we will suggest a possibility of the faster-than-light phenomena and a possible explanation of dark matter and Big Bang phenomenon consistent with the theory of relativity and the conservation law of matter. 1 Definition of local time Ahluwalia et. al. in [1], [2], [3] introduced the concept of flavor-oscillation clock of a quantum mechanical system, which was later noticed in [4] to be the same as the notion of local clock introduced earlier by the author in [5] and developed further in [6], [7], [8], [9] and other papers in the references. We here review some basic ideas considered there. A quantum mechanical many body system with Hamiltonian Hnl on a Hilbert space Hnl = L(R) is called a local system and is denoted (Hnl,Hnl), where N = n + 1 is the number of particles in the system with n ≥ 1, and the label l = 1, 2, . . . distinguishes different systems with the same number of particles. Concretely stating, Hnl is defined from the Hamiltonian H̃nl of N -particles located at X1, . . . , XN (Xj = (Xj1, Xj2, Xj3) ∈ R) in a given Euclidean space


The Purple Martin (Progne subis) has long been known to show geographic variation in certain of its characters, and much has been said about the nature and degree of the variation (Brewster 1889:92; Mearns 1902:919; Ridgway 1904:35; Dwight 1905:37; Miller 1906:177; Grinnell 1928:123; van Rossem 1931: 269 and 1945:164; Hellmayr 1935:13; Brandt 1951:669; A.O.U. Check-list 1957:365; Miller, Friedmann, Griscom, and Moore 1957:107; Mayr and Greenway 1960:86; Phillips, Marshall, and Monson 1964:102; Johnston 1966). It seems certain that the species is weakly polytypic. Only two infraspecific differentiates are currently recognized. The race P. s. subis ranges through the eastern and midwestern United States, while P. s. hesperia occupies Lower California, Sonora, and extreme southern Arizona. Size differences are apparent between these two races in both sexes, but color differences are confined to females. Johnston (1966) suggests an adaptive basis for the pattern of geographic variation in the color characteristics, concluding that the color of the feather coats of females


NONE OF THE LEGION of articles written about Morts sans sepulture since its first presentation in November; 1946, center around the presence- or lack-of bad faith in the various characters of the play. It is this lacuna that I shall attempt to fill.Let us first define what is meant by "bad faith." In daily speech, the grocer who knowingly cheats his customers, but hides the lie with which he lives, is guilty of bad faith. In Sartrian terms, however, it is only when the grocer, hypnotized by his own trickery, begins to believe in his basic honesty, that he becomes guilty of bad faith. It is only when hypocrisy turns into autohypocrisy that bad faith in the Sartrian way sets in. This is the case of Egisthe in Les Mooches.As all Sartrian plays, Morts sans sepulture is centered around one theme. In this case, it is duty. All the characters of the play have forgotten how to live. Instead, they "act" in a fashion dictated by their notion of their duty. This role, though self-imposed, destroys all subjectivity a...


Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) belong to a widely heterogenous group of diseases of clone origin that are associated with stem cell affection. MDS is characterized by disruption of bone marrow cell maturation and symptoms of inefficient haemopoiesis associated with anemia and neutropenia [3; 7]. Patients with MDS are predisposed to suppurative infections [4; 5]. Due to the fact that neutrophil content in part of patients remains the same before MDS transforms into acute leukemia, predisposition to the infections may be explained by qualitative cell alterations and cell function disorders. A number of studies [5; 9; 10; 11] revealed neutrophil subpopulations with defective receptor function, phagocytosis, etc. There are some data demonstrating disorders in neutrophil adhesive ability [12; 13; 14]. The mechanism of these dysfunctions and their physiological role are still unclear. And the inhibition of neutrophil function and mostly disorders of neutrophil adhesive ability during malignisation process are considered to be a favorable factor for tumor spreading. The aim of the study was to reveal disorders in neutrophil function and assess their role in patients with MDS.


The x-ray structure factor of molten ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$ has been measured, enabled by the use of aerodynamic levitation and laser beam heating, to a temperature of $T\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}2250(30)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$. The Ti-O coordination number in the melt is close to ${n}_{\mathrm{TiO}}=5.0(2)$, with modal Ti-O bond length ${r}_{\mathrm{TiO}}=1.881(5)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\AA{}$, both values being significantly smaller than for the high temperature stable rutile crystal structure $({n}_{\mathrm{TiO}}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}6.0,\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{r}_{\mathrm{TiO}}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}1.959\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\AA{})$. The structural differences between melt and crystal are qualitatively similar to those for alumina, which is rationalized in terms of the similar field strengths of ${\mathrm{Ti}}^{4+}$ and ${\mathrm{Al}}^{3+}$. The diffraction data are used to generate physically and chemically reasonable structural models, which are then compared to the predictions based on various classical molecular dynamics (MD) potentials. Interatomic potentials, suitable for modeling molten ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$, are introduced, given the inability of existing MD models to reproduce the diffraction data. These potentials have the additional advantage of being able to predict the density and thermal expansion of the melt, as well as solid amorphous ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$, in agreement with published results. This is of critical importance given the strong correlation between density and structural parameters such as ${n}_{\mathrm{TiO}}$. The large thermal expansion of the melt is associated with weakly temperature dependent structural changes, whereby simulations show that ${n}_{\mathrm{TiO}}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}5.85(2)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{-}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}[3.0(1)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}]T(\mathrm{K},\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}2.75\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\AA{}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{cutoff})$. The ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$ liquid is structurally analogous to the geophysically relevant high pressure liquid silica system at around 27 GPa. We argue that the predominance of fivefold polyhedra in the melt implies the existence of as-yet-undiscovered ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$ polymorphs, based on lower-than-octahedral coordination numbers, which are likely to be metastable under ambient conditions. Given the industrial importance of titanium oxides, experimental and computational searches for such polymorphs are well warranted.


With no need for position sensors, sensorless control makes permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) more compact, more economical, and easier to manufacture. Due to the advantages of no model limitation and low noise level, flux estimator is a promising method of sensorless control, while the drift caused by pure integrator limits its performance so hitherto it is not used in precision motor control. In this paper, a new flux estimator with drift elimination capability is designed to achieve high-accuracy flux estimation. The proposed drift eliminator using the orthogonality of α- and β-axis can estimate the drift in variable situations with high dynamic performance. Theoretical interpretation is given while comparative simulations and experiments consistently show that the proposed estimator can eliminate the flux drift phenomenon efficiently. Sensorless control experiments are also conducted on a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM), where the position estimation error (PEE) can be lower than 50 µm. The results certify that the proposed estimator can be used in high-precision sensorless control, both for constant speed and variable speed trajectories.


Serine proteases of parasites play a significant role in the infection of a host organism. This is especially reflected in the process of immunosuppression, in particular, during IgG hydrolysis. The importance of the performed functionensures their presence at all stages of development, which makes them key targets for early diagnosis of trichinellosis. In this study, we demonstrated that serineprotease transcripts are detected in 83% of cases when mice are infected with BALB/c on days 7 and 14 after infection and are identified by molecular methods.Two groups of mice were infected with different doses of larvae (100 and 250 larvae), it was shown that the dosage did not affect the effectiveness of serine protease detection in mice, which would provide a better diagnostic effect. The transcripts presence confirms the possibility of using serine protease as a protein for the diagnosis of trichinellosis in animals and humans.