Methods being used in a survey of cancer incidence and its relation to background radiation in New England communities are outlined. The measurement of background radiation for epidemiologic purposes is discussed in terms of the application of technics capable of detecting geographic variation in human exposure to both external and internal natural sources of radioactivity at very low levels. The equivalent uranium content was calculated for 58 geological formations in New Hampshire, 5 in Maine, and 24 in Vermont. From this an average equivalent uranium value for the minor civil division, weighted by the proportion overlying each geological formation, was obtained. Illustrations are provided showing the distribution of geological formations and their respective equivalent uranium concentrations in minor civil divisions of New Hampshire. The findings suggest that even within small civil divisions there may be marked differences in terrestrial radiation. Radiometric analysis of small amounts of hiological material, such as individual teeth, are being used to estimate the body burden of radium and other emitters in largescale population studies. A method is described for assaying Ra/sup 226/, Ra/sup 224/, Ra/sup 223/, and Po/sup 210/ in a single tooth. (T CO)


Introduction: Heat pipe cooled traveling wave reactor (HPTWR) is a newly proposed heat pipe reactor. The HPTWR can achieve the low enrichment of loaded fuel, small reactivity swing, and long-term continuous operation for the power supply of decentralized electricity markets. Due to the excellent breeding capability of the HPTWR, the Th fuel is also added into the breeding fuel region of the reactor to achieve the Th-U fuel cycle in this work. Methods: The Monte Carlo code RMC is used to obtain the reactivity swing, propagation of axial power peak, burnup, and productions of bred fissile nuclides for the HPTWR with Th and U fuels. Results and Discussion: The results indicate that the HPTWR with 13.6% 235U enrichment of ignition fuel and 20% 235U enrichment of breeding fuel can continuously operate for 18.1 years without refueling when the mass fraction of 232Th in heavy metals of breeding fuel region is 33%. The propagation velocity of axial power peak and total burnup for the HPTWR with Th and U fuels is about 0.5525 cm/years and 24.72 GWd/THM during the 18.1 years operation respectively. The corresponding productions of bred 239Pu, 241Pu and 233U are about 212.99 kg of 239Pu, 0.19 kg of 241Pu and 81.58 kg of 233U at the end of cycle (EOC) respectively. The obtained results in this study demonstrate that the HPTWR can achieve the Th fuel breeding in the case of the low 235U enrichment loading (≤ 20%).


As the nation expects a change in the make-up of its ethnic groups, minorities will increase and play an important role in STEM fields, requiring greater support. In the last twenty years, the State of New Mexico and, particularly, New Mexico State University (NMSU) and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) have taken major strides to increase the enrollment of minority students. As a result of these efforts to achieve the status of being Hispanic Serving Institutions, changes were made to the curriculum that would teach underserved students the skills necessary to be successful in a STEM field. Programs, such as the New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP), were brought to higher education institutions – including NMSU and NMT – to encourage collaboration between minority students and faculty on research projects, in an effort to promote the pursuit of a graduate education. The New Mexico AMP program was initiated at NMSU, intending to tie the higher education institutions together and supporting students at each of them. This paper will discuss the history of the New Mexico AMP program in detail, discuss student experiences, and provide statistical data on outcomes. This post-secondary STEM program's goal is to recruit students early in their undergraduate careers and integrate them into a working research lab. Engaging minority students in STEM research early in their academic careers proves to be an effective method for retaining interest in such fields and preparing them better for their future careers. Three case studies from Mechanical Engineering students at NMT are included which express the impact of AMP on their undergraduate studies and college careers.


Effects of gradual salinity changes on the gill NKA activities, plasma, gill, and kidney osmolarity and weight losing rate from starvation of Trachinotus ovatus juvenile reared in the deep water net鄄cage were studied in order to understand the mechanism of osmoregulatory adaptation in this fish. Experimental fish with the mean total length of (8.058依 0.843) cm and body mass of (9.010依1.537) g were reared in the glass aquariums (80 cm伊40 cm伊50 cm) with five salinity treatments in triplicate, including 5, 15, 25, 30 and 35 译. The water temperature and dissolved oxygen were maintained at (30依3) 益 and (6.5依0.3) mg / L throughout the experiment, and the pH varied from 8.0 to 8.8 as the changes of salinity. On 12 days after transferring to the target salinities, the survival rates of the juveniles in treatments of salinity 5, 25 and 35 were 87.14%, 95.71% and 88.86%, respectively, and no mortalities were recorded in the treatment of salinity 15 and 30. Gill NKA activities of fish from the salinity of 5, 25, 30 and 35 decreased at the beginning of the trial and then increased and decreased afterwards, and maintained at stable levels. After accumulated in the target salinities two days, the gill NKA activities followed a " U冶鄄shape developmental trends with salinity change at the same time. NKA activities were found stable in both control ( salinity 30) and the salinity of 25 treatments, indicating a stronger adaptive


The densification and microstructural evolution of 17-4PH stainless steel is investigated by means of dilatometry and quenching experiments. The densification kinetics are explained by identifying the microstructure with phase changes for this alloy at key points along the densification curve. Sintering experiments conducted in pure hydrogen, and in hydrogen-nitrogen atomspheres illustrate the austenitic stabilizing effect that nitrogen has on this martensitic stainless steel. This is shown to have a significant affect on the densification kinetics.


This article shares the experience of psychological and pedagogical support for families with kinship guardianship. This work has been carried out from 2012 to the present day on the basis of Murmansk PsychologicalPedagogical and Medical-Social Center. The relevance of this topic is connected with the need for scientific and methodological support of specialists who face problems arising in guardian families. The work focuses on psychological and pedagogical support of families with kinship care in order to prevent repeated abandonment. The article describes characteristics of guardian families distinguishing them from the other types of substitute families. The methodological approaches of Russian researchers to the study and support of guardian families are considered. The experience of practitioners is analyzed. As a result of many years of work, an integrative model of psychological and pedagogical support of families providing kinship care is proposed. The methodological basis of this model is the systemfunctional approach. When developing a model of support for a guardian family, the authors aimed to implement of interdepartmental cooperation in order to preserve the family system in the interests of a child's development. A program of psychological and pedagogical support for guardian families that was carried out at Murmansk Psychological, Pedagogical and Medical Social Center (hereinafter PPMS-Center) is presented in this work. The program focuses on the conditions necessary for its implementation, on the requirements to the teacher psychologists' training as well as basic principles, plans and criteria for evaluating its effectiveness.


The present invention relates to a neck pillow having a hair insertion opening, which enables a user, whose hair is tied back and who is sitting in an automobile seat or chair, to amply and comfortably recline the back of the head and neck thereof rearward and also to receive a massage on the rear of the neck due to a storage pocket capable of receiving a hot pack or ice pack on one side of the neck pillow. To achieve the above, the present invention relates to a neck pillow having a body tube formed in a rounded U-shape so as to fit the circumference of the neck of the user, wherein the neck pillow comprises a supporting portion extending vertically upward from the rounded portion of the body tube so as to support the back of the head when the body tube encloses the neck, and the supporting portion defines an insertion opening in the center thereof to receive a tied hair portion at the back of the head of the user when inserted therein.


In this paper, we present an approach to deduce room usage through a multi-sensor system and an analytical and machine learning component. Various sensor data from a system called sensor cube was recorded within a building of the FH Bielefeld Campus Minden. The sensor data, e.g. temperature, humidity, illuminance, CO2 concentration, indoor air quality, are used to detect human activity in a room. Ideally, this unlabeled data can be processed in such a way that, with the help of machine learning algorithms, predictions can be made on future room usage. The analysis and predictions are based solely on environmental data, without the use of a tracking system or any other sensor which counts or tracks human presence.


The invention relates to an easily-sprayable polypropylene composite and a preparation method thereof. The composite comprises the substances of (1) polypropylene resin containing a propylene unit and an ethylene unit, (2) olefin polymer containing poly-functional groups, (3) a toughener which is obtained through copolymerization of ethylene and octylene, (4) a reinforcing inorganic material, and (5) an additive which contains one or more of the following substances: a lubricant, a heat stabilizer, an anti-ultraviolet (UV) agent, a pigment, a nucleating agent, an acid-acceptor, a demolding agent or other mixtures. The materials are mixed together in a high-speed mixer according to a certain feeding sequence to obtain a semi-finished product, and then the semi-finished product is added into a homodromous double-screw extruder by using a proportioning device at a certain speed to obtain a product through extrusion granulation. The easily-sprayable polypropylene composite can be manufactured into a plastic part complex in structure and excellent in appearance through mould pressing or injection molding, and has excellent UV resistance, dimensional stability after being subjected to water cooking, spraying performance and paint adhesion property.


The questions of influence of contact material, switching modes and environment with various impurity on electroerosion resistance of contact details of switching devices are considered. Substantiated possibilities and measures to increase the reliability and efficiency of relays in electrical installations through agriculture through the use of erosion-resistant contact materials based on the study of physical and mechanical properties of the components of the composite contact material in switching current; substantiated composition of ingredients in the new composite material for contact parts of switching devices. The results of researches of electro erosive stability of composite material depending on structure of ingredients and their physical and mechanical properties are resulted. It has been experimentally established and theoretically confirmed that electric erosion is mainly determined by the microstructure of the material and the change in the physical and mechanical properties of the ingredients on the working surface of the contact parts during current switching. Factors providing increased arc resistance due to thermoemission properties of contact compositions that control the processes of diffusion, migration and phase transformations in chemical reactions are obtained, and the theory of the mechanism of arc reference points movement on the working surface of electrical contacts is substantiated.


Computerised healthcare databases (CHCDs) have been increasingly used in epidemiologic research and have become the single most used source of information in pharmacoepidemiology. A key feature in the selection of a computerised database for research is completeness and validity of the data. As Khan et al highlight in the present issue of the BJGP ,1 researchers should investigate their information source and how well it covers the diagnosis under study.

The validation process of a database is complex, and the resources required to implement a study protocol using CHCDs will vary widely depending on the need and amount of validation required. It all starts with the selection of a database with a track record of acceptable internal and external validity supported by data provided by the database owners and peer-reviewed studies by external researchers. The General Practice Research Database and The Health Improvement Network are primary care UK databases that meet these criteria.2–5

The second step in the validation process is to establish a good operational definition of the outcome of interest by constructing specific diagnostic algorithms using a list of codes from the corresponding clinical dictionary. This initial computerised search might also include objective eligibility (exclusion) criteria. This list may be …


This paper presents the design and measurement of an interpolation-based low noise and variable gain cell (IBA-cell) in the 60-GHz band, using a 40-nm CMOS technology. The interpolation-based gain cell is designed for an innovative analog beamforming front end, where the array pattern is not only controlled in the phase domain, but also wins the flexibility in the magnitude domain. The circuit specifications are first derived for the application at 60 GHz. Techniques to combine low noise figure (NF) with variable gain tuning are presented focusing on the NF and linearity (IIP3) on the example of a 60-GHz low noise amplifier and variable gain amplifier. Subsequently, the design and measurement of the whole gain cell (IBA-cell) integrated into a single chip are reported with the technique of a cross-coupled feedback loop to reduce the phase variations over the gain tuning states and enhance the variations of IIP3. The IBA-cell achieves 15.8-dB maximum gain and 6.5-dB NF at 57 GHz with the gain tuning range from −2 to 15.8 dB and IIP3 varying from −11.3 to −16 dBm over the gain control range. The IBA-cell consumes a dc power of maximum 54 mA from 1.1 V.


: New digital detectors were developed for medical applications, which have the potential to substitute the X-ray film. Digital Detector Arrays (DDA: Flat Panel Detectors, Line Detectors) and Imaging Plates (Computed Radiography, CR) allow a fast acquisition of radiographic images with higher dynamic than film. Especially DDA's allow a radiographic inspection with considerable higher image quality than classical film radiography. Both benefits will be considered. Companies report about a reduction of exposure time down to 5 - 25% for CR and DDA radiography in comparison to NDT film exposures. This provides together with the reduction of consumables and chemical waste economical and ecological benefits and short amortisation periods. But this does not always provide the same image quality as film radiography. The interrelationship between exposure time, photon flow and image quality will be discussed. The wall thickness contrast sensitivity of DDA- and CR-systems is basically controlled by the exposure conditions. This can also imply the risk of misapplication. A special multi gain correction for DDA's yields an extraordinary increase of the radiographic image quality. The contrast sensitivity can be improved by up to 10 times. Fine wall thickness changes of 2/1000 of the total wall thickness can be visualised. This requires the selection of longer exposure times, even longer than typical for radiographic film exposures. It opens new application areas for very sensitive technologies e.g. in the nuclear power industry. European and USA standards for film radiography are analysed to derive correct requirements for the digital image quality and procedures for prediction and measurement of image quality.


The purpose of the present educational manual and didactic guidelines is to provide the analysis and description of key characteristics of the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, adopted in 2020. Based on contemporary notions of the fundamental social relations, the manual systematically and consistently characterizes norms, institutions and branches of the life of society, influenced by the mentioned constitutional amendments. The structure of the manual includes not only author's review comments and legal conclusions of the Constitutional Court of Russia concerning the relevant sets of the constitutional amendments, but also scientist's views on the vast of the most difficult and disputable issues of today's conditions and modernization trends of those elements of the Russian constitutionalism, which are affected by the constitutional amendments. Such an approach provides a high academic level of the presented information, coherence and profundity of its theoretical exploration, and the subsequent efficiency of the practical use of knowledge gained by the readers. The manual will be of interest for undergraduate and doctoral students, teachers, experts in the constitutional (state) law, and for employees of the state and municipal agencies, as well as for all those interested in issues related to the interpretation and practical application of the principles and regulations provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation.


The corrosion characteristics of blades of the cylinder with medium pressure in the ultrahigh voltage turbo-generating unit is described. The accumulated salt of the blades and chemical and electrochemical reasons of corrosion under deposits are analyzed, and effective measures that may relieve the corrosion are put forward.


Review information has been demonstrated beneficial for the explainable recommendation. It can be treated as training corpora for generation-based methods or knowledge bases for extraction-based models. However, for generation-based methods, the sparsity of user-generated reviews and the high complexity of generative language models lead to a lack of personalization and adaptability. For extraction-based methods, focusing only on relevant attributes makes them invalid in situations where explicit attribute words are absent, limiting the potential of extraction-based models. To this end, in this paper, we focus on the explicit and implicit analysis of review information simultaneously and propose novel a Topic-enhanced Graph Neural Networks (TGNN) to fully explore review information for better explainable recommendations. To be specific, we first use a pre-trained topic model to analyze reviews at the topic level, and design a sentence-enhanced topic graph to model user preference explicitly, where topics are intermediate nodes between users and items. Corresponding sentences serve as edge features. Thus, the requirement of explicit attribute words can be mitigated. Meanwhile, we leverage a review-enhanced rating graph to model user preference implicitly, where reviews are also considered as edge features for fine-grained user-item interaction modeling. Next, user and item representations from two graphs are used for final rating prediction and explanation extraction. Extensive experiments on three real-world datasets demonstrate the superiority of our proposed TGNN with both recommendation accuracy and explanation quality.


The aim of this study was to determine nitrogen use efficiency and reduce environmental pollution caused by excessive use of nitrogen fertilizer in pea/maize intercropping fields in irrigated areas of Hexi Corridor, Gansu Province. To that end, a field experiment was conducted in 2011 to determine the spatial and temporal distributions of soil inorganic N(Nmin) in orthic anthrosol soils under pea/maize intercropping at different N application rates(N 0 kg·hm-2, 75 kg·hm-2, 150 kg·hm-2, 300 kg·hm-2, 450 kg·hm-2).Soil samples were collected in the 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, 80-100 and100-120 cm soil layers and Nminconcentrations measured by flow analysis of extracted Ca Cl2. The results showed that NO3--N was the major form of Nmin in orthic anthrosol soils with a concentration 7.55 times that of NH4+-N. During maize growth season, NO3--N concentration increased by 29.7%, 67.5%, 88.2% and134.3% respectively under N rates of 75, 150, 300 and 450 kg·hm-2over no N fertilization treatment. Compared with that after pea harvest, NO3--N concentration decreased by 44.2% after maize harvest. Soil NO3--N concentration in the 0-120 cm soil layer under intercropped pea/maize decreased respectively by 6.1%/5.1% over that of each corresponding monocultured crop. The highest soil Nmin accumulation occurred in the 0-20 cm soil layer at different nitrogen application rates and growth stages. After pea harvest, Nmin accumulation in the 0-60 cm soil layer under intercropped pea/maize respectively decreased by 4.9%/1.9%, and in the 60 -120 cm soil layer by 10.8%/9.2% compared with that of each corresponding monocultured crop. After maize harvest, soil Nmin accumulation in the 0-60 and 60-120 cm soil layers under intercropped pea/maize decreased respectively by 28.2%/9.4% and 23.5%/12.5% over each corresponding monocultured crop. Also soil Nmin residue in the 0-60 and 60-120 cm layers under intercropped pea decreased respectively by 4.9% and 10.9% over monocultured pea. The study showed that nitrogen fertilizer application significantly increased soil inorganic nitrogen concentration and accumulation with higher effect on soil NO3--N. Also excessive N application resulted in environmental pollution in the study area. Pea/maize intercropping significantly reduced soil inorganic nitrogen concentration and accumulation. It was obvious that intercropping reduced soil inorganic nitrogen accumulation especially in the later growth stages of the crops.


This study aims to examine the influence of energy efficiency (EE), along with renewable energy (RE), and certain other factors, on the carbon emissions experienced in Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey; in combination known as MINT countries. The time period taken into consideration spans from 1990 to 2014. MINT primarily represents a group of emerging economies, but it is relatively overlooked in the empirical environment literature. Thus, this study considers EE and RE as the main factors that affect the carbon emissions in MINT economies, and also unfolds their asymmetric links. The empirical results suggest that the variables' effects are asymmetric in nature, and the factors pertaining to the EE and RE reduce the carbon emissions in the MINT countries. In the case of EE, a 1% fluctuation, in its positive-sum lowers the carbon emissions by 0.259% over the longer term, whereas a 1% fluctuation in its negative-sum mitigates the CO2 pollutants by 1.82%, in the short term. For RE, a 1% fluctuation in its positive component lowers carbon emissions by 1.153%. Furthermore, findings from the granger causality test suggest that any reductions in EE would have a positive impact on the extant of carbon emissions. On the other hand, the permanent positive shocks pertaining to EE show a negative association with the level of carbon emissions. Based on these empirical findings, the present study suggests that policy managers need to consider the aspect of asymmetry between variables, particularily while setting their environmental, growth, and energy policies for MINT economies.


Introduction - including a discussion of the current legal status, quality assurance, daily requirements, identification of people who need supplements and the role of the health professional individual chapters concentrating on 54 separate supplements set out in a formulary style which details human requirements, biological actions, dietary sources, metabolism and bioavailability, symptoms of deficiency, plus contra-indications, adverse effects and interactions.


VOCABULARY tests can be tough for many students. One way to make them less tough is a research based strategy for expanding students' vocabularies?Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt lessons. This article describes the procedure for a Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt, the research base for this lesson, and classroom appli cations. Begin the lesson by dividing the class into teams of 5 to 10 students. Give each student a copy of the worksheet shown in the figure. Each student works on step one alone, reading the list of words and trying to categorize them. Then the students begin their team effort. They com pare lists and arrive at a consensus about the category for each word. Dictionaries are often used. The next step involves the actual "scavenger hunt." Team members decide who will bring in a picture, drawing, or tracing of each item on the list. Some students may bring in the actual items. The following day is scoring time. Team members meet and show what they brought. Each team scores one point for each accurate item, picture, drawing or tracing. The team with the greatest number of points wins.


As a core component of the urban intelligent transportation system, traffic prediction is significant for urban traffic control and guidance. However, it is challenging to achieve accurate traffic prediction due to the complex spatiotemporal correlation of traffic data. A road section speed prediction model based on wavelet transform and neural network is, therefore, proposed in this article to improve traffic prediction methods. The wavelet transform is used to decompose the original traffic speed data, and then the coefficients obtained after the decomposition are used to reconstruct the high-frequency random sequences and the low-frequency trend sequence. Secondly, a GRU neural network is constructed to learn the trend of low-frequency sequence. The spatiotemporal correlation between input data is extracted by adjusting the input of the model. Meanwhile, an ARMA model is used to fit unstable random fluctuations of high-frequency sequences. Last of all, the prediction results of the two models are added together to obtain the final prediction result. The proposed prediction model is validated by using road section speed data based on the floating car data collected in Ningbo. The results show that the proposed model has high accuracy and robustness.


The oral form-discrimination abilities of 18 orally educated and oriented deaf high school subjects were determined and compared to those of manually educated and oriented deaf subjects and normal-...


Aalto University, P.O. Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto www.aalto.fi Author Jeremias Seppa Name of the doctoral dissertation Linear and traceable scales for nanometrology Publisher School of Electrical Engineering Unit Signal Processing and Acoustics Series Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 176/2014 Field of research Metrology Manuscript submitted 15 August 2014 Date of the defence 5 December 2014 Permission to publish granted (date) 25 September 2014 Language English Monograph Article dissertation (summary + original articles) Abstract Methods for the implementation of reliable, repeatable scales are central to all measurement techniques. Laser interferometers and diffractometers can be used for accurate dimensional measurements that are readily traceable to the definitions of the SI (Systeme International) units.Methods for the implementation of reliable, repeatable scales are central to all measurement techniques. Laser interferometers and diffractometers can be used for accurate dimensional measurements that are readily traceable to the definitions of the SI (Systeme International) units. This thesis is a treatise on the correction of periodic error in laser interferometry and diffractometry and the application of interferometry and diffractometry for accurate measurements. Capacitive sensors and diffraction angles are used for measurement of periodic error of laser interferometer, and laser diffractometer rotary table angle scale, resulting in corrections that can be used to attain picometre range uncertainties in laser interferometry and diffraction grating calibration. Computational models resulting in sets of linear equations for linearization measurement data are formulated and used, resulting in Fourier-series type corrective terms for periodic errors. The developed symmetric differential heterodyne laser interferometer with the periodic error correction using capacitive sensor is compared to an X-ray interferometer at National Physical Laboratory, UK. The results suggest that periodic nonlinearity error in the range of 10 picometres and below is possible with the system. The lateral and vertical scales of IT-MAFM (the interferometrically traceable metrological atomic force microscope at the Centre for Metrology and Accreditation (MIKES)) are produced with laser interferometry in the thesis. Grating standards calibrated with laser diffractometer and characterized with IT-MAFM are used to characterize the measurement capabilities of tens of research laboratories with scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) and AFMs in the Nordic-Baltic region. Stroboscopic scanning white light interferometry (SSWLI) is a method that can measure surfaces and interfaces in e.g. oscillating objects in different phases of the oscillation. In this work, a SSWLI at the University of Helsinki is quasidynamically characterized with 2.3 nm uncertainty using a transfer standard with a vertically moving mirror, calibrated with laser interferometry.


There are three common challenges in real-world classification applications, i.e. how to use domain knowledge, how to resist noisy samples and how to use unlabeled data. To address these problems, a novel classification framework called Mutually Beneficial Learning (MBL) is proposed in this paper. MBL integrates two learning steps together. In the first step, the underlying local structures of feature space are discovered through a learning process. The result provides necessary capability to resist noisy samples and prepare better input for the second step where a consecutive classification process is further applied to the result. These two steps are iteratively performed until a stop condition is met. Different from traditional classifiers, the output of MBL consists of two components: a common classifier and a set of rules corresponding to local structures. In application, a test sample is first matched with the discovered rules. If a matched rule is found, the label of the rule is assigned to the sample; otherwise, the common classifier will be utilized to classify the sample. We applied the MBL to online news classification, and our experimental results showed that MBL is significantly better than Naïve Bayes and SVM, even when the data is noisy or partially labeled.


Purpose/Objective: With evidence suggesting ipilimumab and intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) improves survival compared to SRS alone, we compared toxicity, response rates (RRs), and outcomes of metastatic melanoma patients receiving radiation (RT) and ipilimumab to ipilimumab alone. Methods and Materials: We reviewed records of metastatic melanoma patients receiving ipilimumab 3mg/kg between 2010-2014. RRs, measured by immune RECIST criteria, and toxicity were compared by Fischer9s exact text. Overall survival (OS) was estimated by the Kaplan Meier method. Results: 61 patients received ipilimumab, with 35 (57.4%) also receiving radiation within 4 months of ipilimumab. The radiation cohort was similar at baseline except for greater systemic burden of disease (82.9% vs. 42.3%, p = 0.005), higher dexamethasone use (14.3% vs. 0%, p = 0.048), and more brain involvement (74.3% vs. 0% p Conclusion: Despite poorer prognostic characteristics in the RT with ipilimumab cohort, toxicity, RR and OS were similar between the arms. Prospective studies investigating the ideal radiation fractionation to improve ipilimumab response rates are warranted. ALC Citation Format: Kirtesh R. Patel, Daniel E. Oliver, Derick Okwan-Dadu, Yuan Liu, Ragini R. Kudchadkar, David H. Lawson, Mohammad K. Khan. Comparing radiation therapy and ipilimumab to ipilimumab alone in metastatic melanoma patients. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 247. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-247


First, it is recognized that mild elevation of blood pressure in chil-dren and adolescents is more common than previously believed. Second, accu-mulating evidence suggests that in the past two decades mean blood pressure, and consequently the prevalence of hyperten-sion in children and adolescents, is ris-ing.


This paper evaluates quantitative and qualitative methods to work out a reduction of the environmental burden of products. The evaluation of the analysed methods is carried out along criteria indicating the ability to support designers in decision-making in the product development process.


In mid-May 1950, the Subcommission on the Non-Dietary Part of the BudgetType held a particularly fractious sitting. Mr. Andre Baupaume of the CFTC union (Confederation francaise des travailleurs chretiens) submitted that the standard "minimum dwelling" in France should include a sink with running water and a drain. "A long discussion opened," the meeting records report. "The CGT [Confederation generale du travail], CGT-FO [CGT–Force ouvriere] and the CFTC consider that a source of running water inside the dwelling is indispensable"—part of a worker's minimum vital.1 Representatives from all the country's major unions, despite wrenching conflicts in the political sphere, coalesced in unity around the water tap. Not the employers. "The CNPF [Conseil national du patronat francais] and the CGA [Confederation generale de l'agriculture] think that currently, the question of running water inside the dwelling can be considered only desirable. The majority of dwellings do not contain running water; a sink, in general, is located one to a floor."2 Indeed, only 18 percent of rural homes boasted of running water in the early 1940s.3 Statistics gathered in the Seine region by tax authorities in 1939 and 1940 suggest that the ratio of apartments with bathrooms to those without was at least one to ten.4 How could one


This paper takes as material the compound words of suffix '-gate' and other morphemes.With the cognitive theories of Conceptual Blending,metaphor,and metonymy,it describes the origin,development and generative processes of this language phenomenon,at the same time,it points out that this can be the result of the two ways of sense extension,that is metaphor and metonymy.The analysis of this phenomenon can help us see the depth of social phenomena.


This research focuses on the evolution of environmental management within firms. It is based on a survey and semi-structured interviews conducted among UK companies. Building on an evolutionary conceptual model, consisting of several maturity stages, we identify 'milestones', i.e. common practices companies engage in when progressing through specific maturity stages. Whilst clear commonalities can be identified, most notably linked to the order of maturity stages they progressed through and the emergence of commonly acknowledged practices linked to the individual maturity stages, the results also reveal a number of within-sample patterns regarding the companies' progression through the different maturity stages. It can be concluded that the maturity stages and practices identified in this research can provide valuable guidance for firms aiming to make progress in environmental matters, as they help them to identify in which maturity stage they are and sets out steps that they can take to move forward. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.


Suzanne Lewis and Narelle Hampe report on the partnership between Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) Library Service and the CCLHD Care Support Service to develop a series of short online modules on finding high quality, reliable health information for patients, carers and the community.


The art of storytelling has come to be recognised as a powerful tool of peacebuilding. However, our current understanding of its utility is premised on a limited scope of analysis – little is known about the connections between the individual components of stories and storytelling's peacebuilding impacts. This paper seeks to expand our current understanding through examining one of these components. It explores the influence of oral and film media on storytelling's capacity to transform intergroup relations, with a particular focus on the context of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Using a purposive sample of eight peacebuilding organisations, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine respondents with first-hand experience of oral and film storytelling initiatives. An inductive thematic analysis then examined and compared respondents' observations and perceptions, identifying five significant themes on which oral and film media have an influence: 1) receptiveness; 2) temporal orientation; 3) emotivity; 4) forms of dialogue; and 5) wider impacts. In connecting these points of significance to the main points of catalysation that underpin storytelling's transformational effects, the findings from this research suggest that there are multiple links between the properties of each medium and storytelling's capacity to transform intergroup relations. It concludes that the influence of media is clear but complex, underlining the necessity of further research into other forms of media and other contexts.


Schubert varieties have been exhaustively studied with a plethora of techniques: Coxeter groups, explicit desingularization, Frobenius splitting, etc. Many authors have applied these techniques to various other varieties, usually defined by determinantal equations. It has turned out that most of these apparently different varieties are actually Schubert varieties in disguise, so that one may use a single unified theory to understand many large families of spaces.
The most powerful result in this direction was given by Lusztig as a footnote to his work on canonical bases. He showed that the variety of nilpotent representations of a cyclic quiver (including nilpotent conjugacy classes of matrices) is isomorphic to an open subset of a Schubert variety for the loop group GL(n)^. In this paper, we attempt to describe the affine Schubert varieties and Lusztig's isomorphism in the simplest terms possible.
We then apply this isomorphism to an interesting example, the variety of circular complexes, recovering some results of Mehta and Trivedi.


Annual area burned (AAB) variability in northwestern North America was inferred from 38 tree-ring width chronologies widely distributed across boreal regions and spanning the past 300 years and the minimum 1833—1998 interval. AAB estimates accounted for up to 61% of the variance in AAB observed from 1959 to 1998, and were verified using a split sample calibration-verification scheme. Spatial correlation maps of gridded temperature and precipitation data provided an indication of the reliability of the reconstruction to approximate fire-conducive climate variability beyond the period of calibration. Singular spectrum analysis and analysis of variance suggested that AAB has significantly changed during the course of the past 150 years toward increasing variance. Recent 1959—1998 decadal changes in AAB of northwestern North America fitted well within an oscillatory mode centred on 26.7 years and accounting for 21.1% of the variance in the reconstruction. As in previous studies, the current findings suggest that AAB is correlated to seasonal land/ocean temperature variability and that future warming could lead to greater AAB. However, the study has the weakness of not accounting for complex interactions between climate and ecosystem processes and thus its results should be interpreted with caution. We suggest that a calibration model conducted on multiple types of fire proxies (tree rings, charcoal data, fire scars and stand-establishment records) could be relevant for addressing these weaknesses.


Urbanization and living in large and crowded cities is accompanied with traffic, air pollution, noise pollution, high speed of life and social and economic concerns and citizens are always confronting to psychological and spiritual pressures in front of different concerns. And if possible escape of these concerns and taking refuge in the nature and use of the natural landscapes can have a large impact on the spirit of the citizens. Paying attention to the natural talents of each region to meet the citizens' needs is the most important concerns of planners and policies of the government that should be managed. Metropolis of Zahedan suffers from the lack of natural and recreational spaces due to its large population and while the region of Taftan with good weather is placed at a distance of about a 150 Km from this city. This region with natural attractions and pleasant climate can have a key role in modifying the Zahedanian citizens' mood. The purpose of this study is to introduce the tourist attractions of Tafton's domain such as villages of Ladiz, Tamin, seventy Malav, etc on one hand and to identify the urgent need of Zahedanian citizens to suitable space for spending their leisure time and how to manage for suitable benefit of Zahedanian citizens from this potential on the other hand and to provide guidelines in this regard. Research method is in the form of the library and case and the case samples will be used for the statement of problem.


Research of Huizhou art should be guided by cultural thick description thoughts initiated by Geertz,focusing on the thread of village narrative,replenished with individual narrative as necessary,thus revealing the complexity of Huizhou art and interpret its cultural connotation as well as artistic special property.It can overcome the shortcomings of traditional research means,such as the emptiness of extensive narrative and narrowness of clan narrative.


Objective To explore the value of color Doppler ultrasound in evaluating uterine artery embolization therapy of caesarean scar pregnancy.Methods Twenty cases of caesarean scar pregnancy were treated by uterine artery embolization,Ultrasound examination was applied before and after treatment.Results The probability of massive bleeding in abundant blood supply group and few blood supply group was observed during curettage after uterine artery embolization,and there was significant differences between the two groups.Conclusion Color Doppler ultrasonography is a valuable method in evaluating the effect of uterine artery embolization in treatment of caesarean scar pregnancy.


Steam electrolysis experiments conducted at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have demonstrated an efficient process to generate hydrogen using waste heat and electricity from a nuclear power plant. However, the hydrogen output was observed to decrease significantly over time. Solid oxide stack components from the INL studies were analysed at Argonne National Laboratory to elucidate the degradation mechanisms of electrolysis. After probable regions of degradation were identified by surface techniques, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) were used to further characterise the causes of degradation by examining cross-sections of stack components.


The invention relates to the relay protection field of a distribution network, in particular to a single-phase earth fault self-adapting selection method of a double-phase TA distribution network based on transient state zero sequence current frequency distribution. The invention is characterized in that: firstly zero sequence currents before and after failure are decomposed into wavelets and character frequency ranges of each line are reconstructed by single branches; then zero sequence current instantaneous values in reconstructed signals of each line are compared with corresponding instantaneous values of other lines through symbols; if the symbols of the zero sequence current instantaneous values are different from that of other lines, 1 is added to a counter; after all the sampling points are compared, a line with largest counter value is obtained; symbol comparison of respective reconstructed data is performed again to lines with the character frequency range of (4,0), and if points with uniform symbols account for over 60 percent and the values of the points are larger than counter values of other lines by five, then the line is estimated as a fault line; otherwise the line with largest counter value verified is estimated as a fault line. The invention can effectively utilize information included in the fault transient state process and greatly improve the reliability of fault selection.


The CMS distributed analysis infrastructure represents a heterogeneous pool of resources distributed across several continents. The resources are harnessed using glite and glidein-based work load management systems (WMS). We provide the operational experience of the analysis workflows using CRAB-based servers interfaced with the underlying WMS. The automatized interaction of the server with the WMS provides a successful analysis workflow. We present the operational experience as well as methods used in CMS to analyze the LHC data. The interaction with CMS Run-registry for Run and luminosity block selections via CRAB is discussed. The variations of different workflows during the LHC data-taking period and the lessons drawn from this experience are also outlined.


Abstract 5R-Methyl-1-chloromethyl-2-pyrrolidinone reacts with chiral, racemic amines to form a diastereomeric adduct. Analysis of the N-CH2-O signals in the proton NMR spectra allows determination of the enantiomeric excess of the original amine.


The invention discloses an ultraviolet (UV) generator and a manufacturing process thereof. The UV generator comprises a cylindrical shell, one end of which is closed; Hg (mercury) and inert gas are filled in the shell; the shell is a ceramic shell; and the opening of the shell is sealed through glass solder. The invention has the advantages that: a transparent polycrystalline alumina ceramic material with high UV transmittance is used as a container and prepared into the shell of the UV generator; because the ceramic material is not softened or deformed and the interior of a metal halogen lamp has no Kr85 gas, the UV generator has no radioactivity, can obtain the UV radiation of enough strength, has compact structure, and can provide more flexibility for the design of a high-strength gas discharge lamp.


The word ergonomics derives from the Greek words ergon (work) and nomos (law). The term, which literally means laws of work, was coined by Professor Wojciech Jastrzebowski of Poland in 1857. One of the most comprehensive definitions of the word describes it as the matching of the physical, physiological, and psychological capabilities of the human worker with the physical, physiological, and psychological requirements of the task being performed.


In the 21st century, scholars are exploring book illustration not so much as one of the important components of a book, but as the basis of a book. In the newest culture, an attitude has been formed towards non-verbal signs of the text as the main, primary language addressed to the reader. The individuality of the artist is manifested in the fact that the same story, illustrated by different people, can become for the reader a new version of a single literary invariant. At the same time, a deep reception of an illustration requires visual literacy from the reader. The task is to overcome too simple, literal reading of the picture and isolate adequate meanings from the whole wealth of general cultural and personal experience, confirmed by the system of visual images. Many artists illustrated the fairy tale "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen. An illustrator from St. Petersburg, Anton Lomaev (Loreta Publishing House, 2021), offered a modernized version of the fairy tale plot in illustration. The methods of visual semiotics help to interpret the signs and images of the creolized text of this book. Lomaev concretizes the conditional chronotope of Andersen's fairy tale and transfers the plot to Europe of the 20th century. The main color in the book is blue. This color has complex semantics. On the one hand, in the fairy tale about the Snow Queen, it is the color of the Queen herself: snow, cold, ice fragments, lifelessness. Therefore, the influence of blue increases in those parts of the book where the mortal plot is more pronounced: the world of the evil troll (the beginning of the first chapter) and the world of the Snow Queen are made in blue tones. In general, the colors are in cold blue tones if the world is hostile and alien to the characters, and in warm restrained sepia tones if the space of home is depicted. On the other hand, in the world of the Snow Queen, cold is not only a physical phenomenon, but also a world of abstract rationality. The main conflict of the tale of Andersen, a deeply religious author, is the conflict between the spirit and the mind. Lomaev gives this conflict an additional perspective. The artist actualizes the change of thinking in the 20th century, from the patriarchal, organically combining spiritual and intellectual values, to the time of practical rationality, devoid of a spiritual beginning. Lomaev's illustrations include many items of transport and military symbols (the figure of a soldier, a military uniform, cannons, a drum, aircraft, anti-tank hedgehogs, a military cruiser). Transport and signs of war are the leitmotifs that organize the illustrative series of the book, making the fairy tale plot more documentary, realistic, and tense. Thanks to the symbolic row, the artist clearly associates the Snow Queen's palace with fascism. The illustrator's intention is to point out that no social power is eternal. The artist makes the conflict of the fairy tale more universal, opposing the coldness of impersonal power to the warm tones of home: the image of a family, a small town, a familiar lived-in space. The author declares no conflicts of interests.


In this paper, lexical categorization of Xinkan verbs is explored. Based on data gathered from my own fieldwork and past documentation of the Xinkan languages, I argue that intransitive verbs are organized in a way that is similar to the organization of split-intransitive systems. This analysis is supported by the morphological distribution of two intransitive verb classifiers, -ɬaʔ and -ʔ, coupled with the semantic interpretations of the roots to which they attach. Consequently, the analysis contributes to the ongoing discussion about verb categorization and semantic alignment in general and the typological characteristics of this language family in specific.


1. "The Humanities in a Troubled Age: Conclusions—after a Military Interlude." Garland Ethel, University of Washington. 2. "Are Great Works of Art Immortal?" Ronald Hilton, Stanford University. 3. "The Tower of Babel in Four Contemporary Novels." Marianne Bonwit, University of California, Berkeley. 4. "Ideas in the Recent Novel in English and in Romance." Francis Carmody, University of California, Berkeley.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an authenticity discriminating forming body which is applied to valuables necessitating prevention of forgery, alteration and duplication and wherein a latent image having a feel of depth can be recognized visually with transmitted light. SOLUTION: A first hole group (2a) is provided on one side (1a) of a nontransparent base, while a second hole group (2b) is provided on the other side (1b) of the nontransparent base in the area wherein the first hole group is formed, and the first and second hole groups (2a) and (2b) are made to have regularity. Thereby the shapes of the second holes formed on the other side (1b) of the nontransparent base are recognized visually in enlargement, with the feel of depth, when the authenticity discriminating forming body is observed with transmitted light. COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI


Particulate Matter (PM) has been associated in epidemiology investigations with lung cancer risk and mutagenicity. PM exposure has been linked with blood DNA hypomethylation, an epigenetic alterati...


The efficacy and safety of ondansetron, administered alone and in combination with domperidone to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting of breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy FAC regimen (5-fluorouracil, adriamycin and cyclophosphamide) were evaluated. A consecutive open-label interventional study was conducted on a total number of 86 female breast cancer patients who were receiving chemotherapy. Forty two patients received ondansetron (8 mg) intravenously 30 min before chemotherapy which is followed by ondansetron (8 mg) administered orally every 8 hourly for 2 days from the day of start of chemotherapy. Another 44 patients received ondansetron (8 mg) intravenously 30 min before chemotherapy followed by ondansetron (8 mg) plus domperidone (20 mg) administered orally 8 hourly for 48 hours from the day of start of chemotherapy. The number of emetic episodes, severity of nausea, assessment of appetite and adverse events were recorded at 8 hour intervals for two days study period using specific scoring criteria. Ondansetron in combination with domperidone significantly decreased the chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in comparison with ondansetron administered alone (P<0.001). Appetite status was good with combination therapy (P<0.001). Improvement in appetite indicates that ondansetron plus domperidone exert protective effect against nausea and maintain normal appetite, while patients who were getting monotherapy experience loss of appetite. The common adverse event, headache was present in both the groups. No extrapyramidal reaction was observed in any group. This study showed that ondansetron plus domperidone exert more pronounced antiemetic effect in patients with breast cancer receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (FAC regimen) with good appetite status and less adverse effect.


There are many references in the pages of the Journal to Old Age Pensions, and in view of the Act of last year the subject—from a financial and statistical aspect—may be discussed without transgressing on questions of State policy. I therefore venture to submit the following notes of some of the financial and statistical questions involved, stimulated in so doing by Mr. G. F. Hardy's statement in his Presidential Address, that he believed our most important work lies in the proper application of actuarial principles to the many practical questions which arise from time to time. Old age pensions ranging from 1 s . to 5 s . a week according to the yearly means of the pensioners are granted to British subjects resident in the United Kingdom who have attained the age of seventy years, provided their yearly means do not exceed £31 10s., and provided they are not disqualified on the ground of Poor Law Relief, imprisonment, or the other reasons set forth in Section 3 of the Act.


An experimental study was conducted on a novel cooling device that consists of a rectangular micro-fins array placed inside the cooling device. A unique cover was designed and fabricated to allow the mass flow rate in and out and for measuring the temperature and pressure of the fluid. Scanning electronic microscope measurements showed that the average hydraulic diameter of the mini channel is 155 microns. The novel mini channels were tested with different volume flow rates and heat inputs. Two thermocouples and two pressure transducer sensors installed at the inlet and outlet recorded the pressure drop and temperature difference for the different flow conditions. A similar experiment was conducted on a dummy finless device to compare its performance with the minichannels. The experimental results showed an improvement in the heat transfer rate of the novel device compared with the dummy device. According to the experimental results, this study revealed an improvement in the cooling process by having rectangular micro-fins inside the device. For constant flow rates, the novel microchannel design was able to remove 5.6 times as much heat as the finless plate. It is expected that this novel device may increase the heat transfer rate significantly in aerospace and electronic cooling applications.


We propose a novel method for solving the localization problem, particularly useful in self-similar environments. Localization is the task of determining a robot's position with little or no prior knowledge about its initial location. We introduce a computationally efficient active strategy for the localization task. The proposed method also automatically generates optimal macro actions giving the robot the ability to localize in all environments. Combining the active strategy and macro actions, the method introduces an efficient strategy for determining a robot's position in any environment where localization is possible.


Purpose – Agile software development is an emerging approach in software engineering, initially proposed and promoted by a group of 17 software professionals who practice a set of "lightweight" methods, and share a common set of values of software development. They consolidated their thoughts, and defined these methods as "agile". The approaches are based on experiences and best practices from the past by the above‐mentioned group of 17 software professionals. The purpose of this article is to outline the history and evolution of agile software development practices, their principles, and the criticisms as reported by the software development community.Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive literature review was undertaken to do this research.Findings – Based on the literature review, this paper provides a comprehensive document that helps the practitioners working in the area of the agile software development.Originality/value – This article will provide comprehensive material for the researchers ...


Most university departments of psychiatry across Canada were dumbfounded by the recent publication of the final draft of the Code of Ethical Conductfor Research Involving Humans by the Tri-Council Working Group.' Article 5.4 of the code states that "the use of placebos in clinical trials is ethically unacceptable where clearly effective therapies or interventions are available." This document is accompanied by a Message From the Presidents of the Three Granting Councils of the Government of Canada,2 which informs us that further targeted consultations will be held before the code is adopted as the formal policy in early 1998. Taking a position on placebo-controlled trials has been the topic of many discussions in scientific, academic and hospital environments throughout the country. These discussions have led national organizations to develop policy and position statements that are mainly contrary to the position taken by the Tri-Council Working Group in its draft document. These efforts have been to no avail; the group's "final" position on the use of placebo in clinical research has not changed. Has the rift on this issue developed because the clinical and scientific disciplines are inherently unethical and totally wrong? Or because the ethicists have no understanding or are simply not listening? Or because the ethicists and the researchers are speaking different languages and establishing "two solitudes"? The first issue is one of definition. The Tri-Council Working Group defines placebo as "a chemically inert substance given in the guise of medicine for its psychologically suggestive effect; used in controlled clinical trials to determine whether improvement and side effects may reflect imagination or anticipation rather than the actual power of a drug."' The Canadian Psychiatric Association has adopted Shapiro's3 definition of "any therapeutic procedure (or component of any therapeutic procedure) which is given deliberately to have an effect, or unknowingly has an effect on a patient, symptom, syndrome, or disease, but is objectively without specific activity for the condition being treated." This definition introduces the concept of nonspecificity to the treatment, which at least acknowledges other components of any therapeutic process; however, this concept was not considered by the Tri-Council Working Group. In its position paper, entitled "The use of placebos in psychiatry: a response to the draft document prepared by the Tri-Council Working Group," the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CCNP)4 described the "placebo effect" as encompassing not only the nonspecific effects of a treatment, but also the natural course of the illness and the tendency of any trial to cause biological variables to regress toward the mean. The CCNP thus introduced scientific and illness variables to the definition; it also discussed the "placebo arm" as a treatment arm of a trial. In its principles and proposed guidelines for the clinical evaluation of psychotropic drugs, the World Health Organization (WHO)5 addressed the ethical dilemma of introducing a placebo arm, recognizing


This research paper aimed to explore student's behaviour towards career-oriented activities provided in campus. It is necessary to prepare our students in two-year college programs which provide them experience that goes beyond the theoretical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge alone is not enough to develop other critical skills necessary for effective and productive professionals. This research paper will help us to understand their approach and develop the changes in students' behaviour by actively participating in the activities. This research topic is classified as descriptive research that is designed to describe the present situation and characteristics of the students' behaviour towards career-oriented activities. The primary data collected through interview and discussion with students & colleagues. After exploring the relationship between career-oriented activities and students' behaviour, perception and gains, we then examine the characteristics of the activities and programmes where these student's behaviour occurred. Additionally, active & collaborative learning techniques, academic challenges, higher order cognitive activities, and programmes arranged for the student's development integrated with the employable skills, communication, teamwork, and ethics reported greater gains in personal/social development and general education knowledge on campus where students learned to challenge them. The findings showed the differences in students previous and later behaviour. Students


Objective To explore the nursing measures for patients undergoing artificial liver plasma replacement.Methods Eighty hepatic failure patients who were treated at our department from January 2008 to November 2009 were divided into observation group and control group.Forty cases in observation group were treated with artificial liver plasma replacement combined with support treatment.Forty cases in control group weren′t treated with artificial liver plasma replacement,the average hospitalization days and the improvement rate of each group were analysed.Results After plasma exchange treatment,the clinical symptoms and biochemical parameters were improved to some extent,the average hospitalization days were shortened and the cure and improvement rate was 77.5%.Conclusion Plasma exchangebased artificial liver support system is an effective means of treating liver failure.Preoperative preparation,intraoperative monitoring,observation,treatment and postoperative care of patients are the important bases to ensure a successful treatment.


This article studies the structure of the Stishnoy Prologue (Synaxarion), an artefact of Old Church Slavonic writing containing brief lives of the saints, hagiography, and moralising stories arranged in accordance with the calendar. There are many unsolved issues concerning the history of the translation of the Stishnoy Prologue into the Slavic language and its existence in Russia between the 14th and 17th centuries. These issues have to do with the sources, the peculiarities of its copies, and the role played by the hagiographies and moralising texts in different manuscripts. The author aims to clarify the structure of the Stishnoy Prologue and the description of Slavic saints' lives corresponding to their anniversaries. In order to draw a typological classification of the 40 copies of the spring and summer parts of the Stishnoy Prologue from the 15th–17th centuries in their Russian, Serbian, and Bulgarian versions, the author uses the linguo-textological method, dividing all the manuscripts into five groups. As a result of the study, the author singles out nine hagiographies devoted to Slavic saints and supposedly written by Slavic authors. Three saints' lives describing the earliest events in Christian history (early 4th century AD, 351, 812) can be found in all the copies of the document, which means these texts were part of the original Slavic translation of the Stishnoy Prologue from Greek. The commemoration of Holy Prince Wenceslaus (Vyacheslav) of the Czechs can be found in all the Russian copies, while the life of Methodius, Bishop of Moravia (characterising the Khutyn group of manuscripts), was included into the Stishnoy Prologue after its appearance in Russia in the 14th century. Additionally, the author discovered descriptions of the lives of the most venerated Bulgarian St John of Rila and St Prince Lazar of Serbia in only two out of the fifteen South Slavic manuscripts, both dating back to the 17th century. This testifies to the fact that the South Slavs demonstrated a stronger adherence to tradition when copying texts. The author also points out that the life of the Bulgarian St George the New can only be found in the 16th-century copy of the Stishnoy Prologue. It also contains a number of Russian and Slavic saints canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church after the Councils of 1547 and 1549. Finally, the author concludes that the presence of the lives of Slavic saints in the Stishnoy Prologue is an important typological feature to be taken into account when characterising the existing manuscripts.


With three years' development,China Business News exerts considerable fame and influence in public,forming its sole report characteristics.China Business News is good at excavating exclusive news.Combining the timeliness and depth;it embodies the professionalized perspective,specialty and brevity and global vision.


Since these selected Neo-Confucians had similar philosophical concerns and their various philosophical positions were based on largely the same Confucian classics, the best way to capture their philosophical variances is to present their views thematically rather than chronologically. The structure of this book lays out the metaphysical foundations for Neo-Confucian theories of mind and morality. The major common themes in NeoConfucianism include: 1) The relationship between the two constituents of the universe—cosmic principle (li) and cosmic force (qi); 2) The debate on whether human nature, or human mind, is the exemplification of this cosmic principle; 3) The analysis of the roots of human good and evil as a way to answer the question of what makes human morality possible.


Nanotechnology offers a targeted approach to both imaging and treatment of cancer, the leading cause of death worldwide. Previous studies have found nanoparticles with a wide variety of coatings initiate an immune response leading to sequestration in the liver and spleen. In an effort to find a nanoparticle platform which does not elicit an immune response we created 43/44 nm gold or silver nanoparticles coated with biomolecules normally produced by the body, α-lipoic acid and the Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), and have used mass spectroscopy to determine their biodistribution in mouse models, 24 hours following tail vein injection. Relative to controls, mouse EGF (mEGF) coated silver and gold nanoprobes are found at reduced levels in the liver and spleen. mEGF coated gold nanoprobes on the other hand do not appear to elicit any immune response, as they are found at background levels in these organs. As a result they should remain in circulation for longer and accumulate at high levels in tumors by the enhanced permeability retention (EPR) effect.


In the article data of analysis of quality of the specialized psychiatric help to the children and teenagers are presented in Saint Petersburg. Research came true on the base of Center of restoration treatment "Child's psychiatry" the name of S.S. Mnuchina, where work of service of quality to medicare, organization of examination of quality of medicare, was studied, sociological research of opinion of patients and their parents was conducted about organization of psychiatric help in this medical establishment and their satisfaction from the got medicare. Problems are educed in organization and quality of the specialized medicare to the children and teenagers with psychonosemas and disorders of behavior. The necessity of further perfection of work on the continuous upgrading of work of psychiatric service is set.


By the use of a chemical vapour deposition technique a series of metal wires (W, Ta, Steel ) with differently shaped tips have been coated by arrays of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT). The field emission properties of the SWNT deposits have been measured by a home made apparatus working in medium vacuum (10-6- 10-7 mbar) and the SWNT-coated wires have been used to fabricate tiny electron sources for X-ray tubes. To check the efficiency of the nanotube coated wires for X-ray generation has, a prototype X-ray tube has been designed and fabricated. The X-ray tube works at pressures about 10-6 mbar. The target ( Al film) is disposed on a hole in the stainless steel sheath: this configuration makes unnecessary the usual Be window and moreover allows us to use low accelerating potentials (< 6 kV).


Process for preparing a high manganese steel having a good hot working efficiency and hardness is described. Thus, a high manganese steel ingot which is mixed below 1.5 wt.% of C, 15.0-35.0 wt.% of Mn, 0.1-6.0 wt.% of Al, residue of Fe, and unavoidable containing impurities as a principal steel with one or more of 0.0005-0.040 wt.% of B, 0.0005-0.050 wt.% of Ti, 0.0005-0.050 of Zr, 0.0005-0.040 wt.% of La, 0.0005-0.040 wt.% of Ce, and 0.0005-0.030 wt.% of Ca at 1,150-1,300 deg.C is heated and rolled under the low pressure with below 7% of a draft percentage classified by rolling pass and below 2.0 sec-2 of an average modulus of strain until a total draft percentage becomes 40%, but under the high pressure as a conventional pressure when a total draft percentage exceeds 40%.


The trial of the core members of the terrorist group the Red Army Faction (RAF) provided the backdrop to what was the final crescendo of the most tumultuous period in West German history. The trial began in May 1975, with the verdict in Spring 1977 giving way to the "German Autumn," a violent few months that climaxed with a kidnapping, a hijacking and the prison deaths of the RAF leaders. The defense strategy for the trial was to frustrate the process and ignore the charges in favor of using the proceedings to present the RAF cause and RAF identity. This article outlines how the extralegal use of the high-profile case as a platform to communicate with an audience beyond the courtroom was grounded in an instrumentalization of international legal conventions on "political prisoners" and "prisoners of war" as hooks for the RAF's rhetoric of anti-fascism and anti-imperialism.


[The copy of Thomas Forsyth's letter of October 24, 1831 to Lewis Cass which is reproduced below is in the Forsyth Papers, Draper Mss., of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Major Thomas Forsyth was born in Detroit, December 5, 1771. After trading with Indians at Saginaw Bay, Michigan, and near Quincy, Illinois, and at Chicago, Illinois, Forsyth settled in 1804 at Lake Peoria, Illinois. In 1812 he was appointed United States Indian subagent for the district of Illinois. Later he was transferred to Fort Armstrong at Rock Island, Illinois, where he was Indian agent for the Sac and Fox from 1819 to 1830. He died in 1833. See Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 6, p. 188, fn.; vol. 11, p. 316, fn. 1.-Ed.]


Food security in the arid and semi-arid areas (ASALs) of Kenya is linked to climate and socio-economic factors. This study was conducted in two ASAL counties of Kenya, Kajiado and Makueni, inhabited by pastoral communities. Both primary and secondary data were collected on climate and socio-economic aspects from published and unpublished documents. Time series data covering a 31 year period were collected on rainfall amounts, rain days, temperature, beef and maize prices, stocking, livestock sales and land under cultivation to generate descriptive statistics and regression results based on the OLS, GLS and AR models. Livestock contributed 78.2% and 38.3% of total income in Kajiado and Makueni Counties respectively. Crops contributed more to the total income in Makueni County at 52.7% compared to Kajiado County at 6.9%. Of the three models tested, the GLS was found to be the most appropriate based on the number of significant variables and the estimated R2 value. The model showed that rainfall, temperature, rain days, and beef and maize prices influence income in Kajiado and Makueni Counties. Therefore, creation of micro-climates through agroforestry moderates temperatures, attracts rainfall, sequesters carbon and provides services such as food, timber, raw materials and employment. Moreover, initiatives that regulate beef and maize prices ensure predictable markets and income in both counties.


The organic electrolyte is composed of the inorganic electrolyte, the organic electrolyte, the organic solvent and the poly component additive. The organic electrolyte the the inorganic electrolyte are dissociated in the organic solvent to supply the cation and anion. The organic solvent is the dimethyl sulfoxide innocuous organic compound of higher decomposition voltage. The poly component additive decreases the viscosity and internal resistance of the organic solvent, and improves the electrochemical stability and safety of the organic electrolyte. Thus the density of energy and power of the super-capacitor is improved.


The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of aerobic exercise and a protein diet on serum lipid profiles, liver function, and immunoglobulin levels in rats. The subjects, 24 male Sprague-Dawley rats, were grouped into an exercise with protein diet group (A, n


This paper reports on an experimental classroom exercise and in-class experiment which Is designed to demonstrate the effects of different types of tasks on the emergence of Organization structure and on group member satisfaction. A limited discussion of relevant literature describing the conceptual development of the dynamics of task group structure, group performance and member satisfaction as interrelated variables follows. The exercise and its administrative procedures are then described in some detail. Reported in the concluding sections are the results of the use of this exercise for 13 groups of students in organization behavior classes at the University of Kentucky. Main effects serving to assist in classroom learning are reported first. Secondary effects and other findings of interest in organizational research follow. The paper concludes with recommendations for the use of this design in both exercise and experimental modes.


The authors discuss and illustrate the advantages and limitations of a family of new approaches to the analysis of metric and nonmetric data in marketing research. The general method, which is based on alternating least squares optimal scaling procedures, extends the analytical flexibility of the general linear model procedures (ANOVA, regression, canonical correlation, discriminant analysis, etc.) to situations in which the data (1) are measured at any mixture of the nominal, ordinal, or interval levels and (2) are derived from either a discrete or continuous distribution. The relationship of these procedures to traditional linear models and to other nonmetric approaches (such as multidimensional scaling and conjoint analysis) is reviewed.


Ontologies in the Software Engineering domain can improve the acquisition of knowledge in this field by providing a formal representation of this knowledge domain. When encoded in a XML-based format, ontologies can therefore be easily processed by a knowledge management system, an expert system or a browser so it is possible to facilitate the location of Software Engineering resources in repositories or in the Semantic Web. This article presents two ontologies related to the domain of Software Engineering: a global ontology created from the IEEE Glossary of Software Engineering and a specific ontology created to conceptualize the knowledge about CMMI Systems Engineering/Software Engineering (staged) specification. These ontologies are now being used in objects semantic repositories for software engineering elearning courses as well as support for application of CMMI certification.


The 68 000 I-band light curves of variable stars detected by the OGLE survey in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (MCs) are fitted by Fourier series, and also correlate d with the DENIS and 2MASS all-sky release databases and with lists of spectroscopically confirmed M-, S- and C-stars. Lightcur ves and the results of the lightcurve fitting (periods and amp litudes) and DENIS and 2MASS magnitudes are presented for 2277 M-,S-,C-stars in the MCs. The following aspects are discussed: the K-band period-luminosity relations for the spectroscopica lly confirmed AGB stars, period changes over a timespan of abo ut 17 years in a subset of about 400 LPVs, and candidate obscured AGB stars. The use of a sample of spectroscopically confirmed variables allows me to show specifically that almost all carb on stars are brighter than the tip of the RGB, and occupy sequences A+,B+,C and D. It is shown (for the LMC where there is a sufficie nt number of spectroscopically identified M-stars) that for sequences A+,B+,C the M-stars are on average fainter than the C-stars, as expected from an evolutionary point of view and previously observed in MC clusters. However, this is not so for sequence "D", suggesting that the origin of the so-called Long Secondary Periods is not related to an evolutionary effect. The fraction of objects that has a period on sequence "D" is also independent of chemical type. Three stars are identified tha t have been classified as oxygen-rich in the 1970s and carbon- rich in 1990s. Possibly they underwent a thermal pulse in the last 20 years, and dredged-up enough carbon to switch spectral type. The observations over almost two decades seem to suggest that up to 10% of AGB variables changed pulsation mode over that time span. More robust estimates will come from the ongoing and future (microlensing) photometric surveys. A sample of 570 variable red objects ((J K) > 2.0 or (I K) > 4.0) is presented in which most stars are expected to be dust obscured AGB stars. Estimates are presented for cut-offs in (J K) which should be applied to minimise dust obscuration in K, and based on this, C- and O-star K-band PL-relations for large amplitude variables in the SMC and LMC are presented.


We propose a new model for peer-to-peer networking which takes the network bottlenecks into account beyond the access. This model allows one to cope with the fact that distant peers often have a smaller rate than nearby peers. We show that the spatial point process describing peers in their steady state exhibits an interesting repulsion phenomenon. We study the implications of this phenomenon by analyzing two asymptotic regimes of the peer-to-peer network: the fluid regime and the hard--core regime. We get closed form expressions for the mean (and in some cases the law) of the peer latency and the download rate obtained by a peer as well as for the spatial density of peers in the steady state of each regime. The analytical results are based on a mix of mathematical analysis and dimensional analysis and have important design implications. The three key conjectures which underpin the analysis are substantiated by simulation.


The development of PROC MIXED of SAS has made analysis of the linear mixed model with unbalanced data technology accessible.However,a sticky problem for the procedure has been the specification of appropriate degrees of freedom for test of moxed effects in unbalanced data with small sample sizes.This paper considered the analysis of unbalanced data from 3 experimental designs frequently used in agricultural research. Several methods for aproximating the degrees of freeom are employed,all of which are available in PROC MIXED. The Monte Carlo simulation results showed that the Kenward-Roger method provided the best control of the Type I error rate.


Apoptosis is now widely recognized as being a distinct process of importance both in normal physiology and pathology. In the current paradigm for apoptotic cell death, the activity of a family of proteases, caspases, related to interleukin-1 -converting enzyme (ICE) orchestrates the multiple downstream events, such as cell shrinkage, membrane blebbing, glutathione (GSH) efflux, and chromatin degradation that constitute apoptosis. Recent studies suggest that mitochondria could be the principle sensor and that the release of mitochondrial factors, such as cytochrome c, is the critical event governing the fate of the cell. One of the most reproducible inducers of apoptosis is mild oxidative stress, although it is unclear how an oxidative stimulus can activate the caspase cascade. Oxidative modification of proteins and lipids has also been observed in cells undergoing apoptosis in response to nonoxidative stimuli, suggesting that intracellular oxidation may be a general feature of the effector phase of apoptosis. The caspases themselves are cysteine-dependent enzymes and, as such, appear to be redox sensitive. Indeed, our recent work on hydrogen peroxide– mediated apoptosis suggests that prolonged or excessive oxidative stress can actually prevent caspase activation. A physiological example of this is the NADPH oxidasederived oxidants generated by stimulated neutrophils that prevent caspase activation in these cells. Pursuant to these findings, stimulated neutrophils appear to use a specialized caspase-independent pathway to initiate phosphatidylserine (PS) exposure and subsequent phagocytic clearance. The possible implications of these dual roles for reactive oxygen species in apoptosis, that is, induction and inhibition of caspases, are discussed in the present review. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), also called oxygen free radicals or oxidants, are generated in all aerobic cells. They are produced during normal mitochondrial respiration, they are used by specialized phagocytic cells to destroy invading pathogens, and they are byproducts of the intracellular metabolism of toxic drugs and environmental agents. ROS can react rapidly with a range of biological molecules, making them highly destructive. Fortunately, aerobic cells are endowed with a complex network of antioxidants to scavenge ROS or repair the damage; however, the overwhelming of these defenses, termed oxidative stress, is implicated in numerous disease states. The gradual accumulation of oxidative damage has also been hypothesized to contribute to aging. For example, it was recently reported that in liver cells from old rats the mitochondrial membrane potential declines and mitochondrial heterogeneity and production of oxidants increase. Similar findings have been made in mouse lymphocytes, suggesting that a population of lymphocytes from old mice are more susceptible to activation M. Hampton was supported by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Corresponding author: Tel: (46 8) 728 7590; fax: (46 8) 32 90 41; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Current address: Department of Pathology, Christchurch School of Medicine, P.O. Box 4345, Christchurch, New Zealand. HAMPTON et al.: REDOX REGULATION 329 of the mitochondrial permeability transition, which would be compatible with the suggestion that mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to immunosenescence. Although it is known that acute oxidative stress kills cells, the mode of cell death has been largely ignored. Today, the study of cell death itself is one of the most rapidly growing areas in biomedical research. It is recognized that many compounds, rather than being directly cytotoxic, actually cause sublethal damage that triggers an innate suicide program in the cell. This process, termed apoptosis, involves cell shrinkage, nuclear condensation and fragmentation, and the bundling up of the cellular material into apoptotic bodies. Changes on the outer surface of the plasma membrane, such as the exposure of phosphatidylserine (PS), label these bodies for removal by neighboring cells or phagocytes, without the leakage of cellular material. Apoptosis is essential during development in maintaining tissue homeostasis in the adult organism and also for the removal of damaged, infected, or potentially neoplastic cells. The possible role of increased apoptotic cell death in aging is less well established, although a number of reports suggest that this may well be the case. For example, aging in the circulation is associated with an increased susceptibility to apoptosis in neutrophils, and age-associated immune dysfunction has been suggested to correlate with defects in Tcell apoptosis. Aging has also been reported to be associated with a progressive increase in the proportion of terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-positive hepatocytes, and sensory hair cells in the inner ear exhibit agerelated cell death by apoptosis. Further, myocyte cell death, apoptotic and necrotic in nature, constitutes an important determinant of the aging process. However, in contrast to these reports, a recent study of apoptosis in mice following gamma irradiation has found a striking age-dependent decrease in radiation-induced apoptosis in splenic lymphocytes but not in colorectal epithelial cells, and Zhou et al. showed a decrease in Fasmediated apoptosis in thymocytes and peripheral T cells of aged mice. Thus, the overall relationship between apoptosis and aging is still unclear. Apoptosis can be triggered by numerous factors, including receptor-mediated signals, removal of growth factors, and cell damage. Each of these stimuli has its own specific pathway that leads to activation of the apoptotic process; however, all appear to converge at a highly conserved sequence of events. The caspases are a central component of this apoptotic program. This family of cysteine-dependent enzymes cleaves its target substrates on the carboxyl side of aspartate residues. Caspases exist in the cytoplasm as inactive zymogens (procaspases). Conversion to the active form involves zymogen proteolysis and assembly and joining of two identical heterodimers. Caspases cleave a defined number of target proteins, and these changes lead to the characteristic features of apoptosis and organized disassembly of the cell. Caspase activity has been detected at an early stage in numerous models of apoptosis, and specific peptide inhibitors of the caspases can block almost all of the subsequent apoptotic changes. The ability of caspases to cleave and activate other cytoplasmic procaspases sets off a destructive cascade of events. Although this proteolytic cascade is likely to be common among different models of apoptosis, the sequence of events leading to activation of the first caspases will vary depending on the apoptotic stimulus. The best characterized systems are the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte component granzyme B, which can directly cleave specific procaspases, and the Fas (CD95/APO-1) surface receptor, which sequesters and activates procaspases via interactions between intracellular "death domains." 330 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES The majority of other models seem more complex. The challenge of contemporary apoptosis research will be to elucidate the sequence of events leading to caspase activation in these systems. ACTIVATION OF APOPTOSIS BY ROS Incubating cells with exogenous oxidants, or adding redox-active compounds, can trigger apoptosis. How then does a broad-spectrum biological oxidant initiate apoptosis? One possibility is that extensive oxidation of cellular components could trigger general protection systems, and these sensors detect the damage and activate the apoptotic machinery. A classic example of this is p53 detection of DNA damage. An alternate mechanism is that oxidants could activate specific signaling pathways that lead to apoptosis. Low-level oxidative stress is already known to activate different protein kinase pathways and transcription factors, and the ability of nitric oxide to rapidly react with the heme group of guanylate cyclase has been used as a message in several cellular pathways. We have recently focused on the ability of hydrogen peroxide to trigger apoptosis in Jurkat T lymphocytes. Hydrogen peroxide is a relatively ineffective oxidant, and we suspected that selective pathways were involved in hydrogen peroxide–mediated apoptosis. Initial experiments showed that 50 μM hydrogen peroxide (10cells/mL) optimally triggered caspase activation and subsequent apoptosis. This occurred several hours after the initial bolus of hydrogen peroxide had been consumed by the cells, and addition of hydrogen peroxide to cytoplasmic extracts does not activate the caspases directly (Hampton, unpublished data), indicating that other factors were involved in the pathway to activation. Mitochondria are receiving considerable attention in apoptosis research for their ability to release proapoptotic factors. In particular, the export of cytochrome c to the cytoplasm has been detected in various systems, and a groundbreaking study showed that cytochrome c, in combination with other cytosolic factors, is capable of triggering the caspase cascade. Kluck et al. reported cytochrome c release from peroxide-treated T lymphoblastoid CEM cells, and in our Jurkat cell model cytochrome c was detected in the cytoplasm within one to two hours after treatment with hydrogen peroxide, which was at least one hour before significant caspase activation could be detected. Specific inhibition of the as yet unknown export mechanism will be important to determine the necessity of cytochrome c release for hydrogen peroxide–mediated caspase activation. Another important issue is to determine the initial target of the hydrogen peroxide and how this initiates cytochrome c export. Mitochondria are well known targets of oxidative stress, with alterations in cellular calcium metabolism as a prominent result of o


An inter-laminar adhesive film is provided for multi-layer printed wiring boards, the film being attached to an internal-layer circuit board where the film is embedded in an internal-layer circuit. A process of producing a multi-layer printed wiring board using the film is also provided. The adhesive film facilitates simultaneous and integral coating of an internal-layer circuit pattern and resin filling into through-holes and/or superficial via holes in a build-up process of producing a multi-layer printed wiring board in which a conductor circuit layer and an insulation layer are alternately laminated together. The adhesive film for multi-layer printed wiring boards, comprises a support film base and a resin composition which is solid at ambient temperature, both to be laminated on an internal-layer circuit board, wherein the resin composition which is solid at ambient temperature contains at least 10% by weight of a resin with a lower softening point than the lamination thickness of the conductor in the internal-layer circuit and the resin flow of the resin composition at the lamination temperature is at least of the thickness of the conductor of the internal-layer circuit, or is of the depth of a superficial via hole if present in the internal-layer circuit, or is 1/2 fold or more the depth of a through-hole in the internal-layer circuit singly or in combination with a superficial via hole.


Stuart Rowan, a professor at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, will succeed Timothy P. Lodge of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, as editor-in-chief of ACS Macro Letters, a peer-reviewed journal launched in 2012. Rowan will assume the role in January 2018. "Our first five years under the leadership of professor Tim Lodge has put the journal in a strong position," Rowan says. "In that time, ACS Macro Letters has established itself as the highest impact and fastest-to-publication journal in polymer science. My goal is to continue to build on this legacy so that ACS Macro Letters continues to serve the community in this way." ACS Macro Letters publishes advances in polymer science in areas such as nanotechnology, self-assembly, supramolecular chemistry, biomaterials, energy generation and storage, and renewable and sustainable materials. Rowan has served as deputy editor of ACS Macro Letters since the journal's launch.


Climate change (CC) is now a global challenge due to uncertainties on the drivers and the multifaceted nature of its impacts. It impacts many sectors such as agriculture, water supply, and global economies through temperature and precipitation, affecting many livelihoods. Although there are global, regional, and national studies on CC, their application to determine local CC occurence mitigation and adaptation measures is not ideal. Therefore, this study aimed to determine climate change trends in Lake Kyoga Basin using standardized precipitation and anomaly indexes. Short-term (39 years, 1981–2020) and long-term (59 years, 1961–2020) monthly data from eight strategic meteorological stations were acquired from the Uganda National Meteorological Authority and supplemented with satellite and model reanalysis climate datasets. Change in precipitation was determined by SPI-6, while SAI determined change in temperature. The Mann–Kendall test was used to determine the trend significance. Whereas two (Serere and Lira) long-term data stations showed significant changes in precipitation, all the short-term data stations showed a significant increasing trend. Decadal relative rainfall anomaly increased from 85.6–105 in 1981–1990 to 92.0–120.9 in 2011–2020, while mean temperature anomaly increased from 0.2–0.6 °C to 1.0–1.6 °C in the same period. The frequency of severe wet weather events was more than for dry weather events in many stations, indicating an increase in precipitation. Maximum, mean, and minimum temperatures increased, with resultant warmer nights. The findings showed that the Lake Kyoga basin is experiencing climate change, with both temperature and rainfall increasing spatially and temporarily. Climate change affects agriculture, which is the main economic activity, and causes the destruction of infrastructure from floods, landslides, and mudslides. The results of this study are helpful in pointing out climate change-affected areas, and hence for designing mitigation and adaption strategies for local communities by policy and decision-makers from relevant stakeholders.


A new type of quasi-optical diplexer is presented. It consists of one polarisation splitter, two quarter-wave plates, and two plane-parallel Fabry-Perot resonators working under normal incidence. Measured dropped- and through-channel losses at 100 GHz frequency range were about 1 dB and 0.5 dB respectively.


This paper studies the different flavours of beneficiaries in Modern Greek beyond the usual suspects. The purpose of this paper is to give a full account of this function in Modern Greek and to reassess the category benefactive in general. Greek data are compared with those taken from Spanish.


2. A green fluorescence develops and then disappears (for references see Jorgensen, 1945). Attention was drawn to the advantages of this fluorescence for the detection of adrenaline by Gaddum and Schild (1934), who found that it provided a sensitive physical test, by which a concentration of 10'8 adrenaline could be easily detected. They also found that the reaction was specific at this concentration, many substances chemically related to adrenaline giving no fluorescence, whilst others gave fainter green fluorescences in more concentrated solutions.


Twelve dwarfed children (3-13 yrs. of age) with heights < 4 SDs below the mean, growth rate < 4 cm/yr, and retarded bone ages were investigated. They all had low Somatomedin-C (Sm-C < .25 U/ml) basal levels and standard GH provocative stimuli. Following a 10 day course of GH treatment at a dose of .168 U/kg¾, they were seen at 12 weeks for height measurements. Based on the endogenous GH levels, and the plasma Sm-C and growth increments, 3 separate groups could be identified. Predicted growth rate was calculated according to Rudman's protocol (JCEM 48,472, 1979).Group 1 represents children with classical growth hormone deficient dwarfism all of whom responded to treatment with a rise in Sm-C and enhanced growth. Group 2 is a set of twins with Laron type dwarfism. Group 3 probably represents children with biologically inactive but immunoreactive GH.In conclusion, the acute increase in Sm-C levels appears to predict best an adequate growth response to exogenous GH.


Surgical training systems based on virtual reality (VR) and simulation techniques may represent a more cost-effective and efficient alternative to traditional training methods. This paper describes a training system ESSO of virtual arthroscopic knee surgery. It is developed as a joint project between the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Tsinghua University. An overview of the current state of development is presented. The virtual model used in this system is constructed from the Visual Human dataset. It simulates the real-time deformation of soft tissue with topological change by using finite element analysis. We also present the user with a force feedback device to give the realistic feelings of the operation.