We examine the volume of phase space sampled by a nonstationary wave packet when the spectral function consists of a single clump or of a series of them. The relaxation laws are expressed in terms of reduced time variables τ, whose definition involves either the average density of states (for a single clump) or appropriately weighted average densities of states (when the spectrum consists of many clumps). Introducing reasonable approximations, very simple generic relaxation laws are derived for the ratio N(τ)/N ∞ , which measures the fraction of available phase space that has been sampled by time τ. Under certain assumptions, these laws are found to depend neither on the number nor on the individual features (shapes and widths) of the clumps. However, they strongly depend on the nature (regular or chaotic) of the underlying dynamics. When the dynamics is regular, the relaxation law is expressed in terms of τ - 1 , whereas the corresponding equation in the chaotic limit is slightly more complicated and involves terms in τ - 2 and τ - 2 In τ. Phase space is thus explored according to essentially different relaxation laws in the regular and chaotic limits, the difference being appreciable during the entire relaxation. These laws reflect in the time domain the difference in the distribution of nearest-neighbor level spacings observed in the energy domain (Poisson or Wigner statistics).


This paper delves into well-known results on the positive effects of social networks on job search in immigrant communities, to explore the informational content provided by social networks of acquaintances and its effects on the economic attainment of Sri Lankan immigrants in Milan, Italy. Using data from a 2012 survey on personal networks and daily activity spaces of Sri Lankan immigrants in Milan, we analyze co-location and intersection of activity spaces to reconstruct the socio-centric network of likely acquaintances of interviewed immigrants. We then derive an inverse measure of the extent to which a Sri Lankan immigrant is exposed to Italian social contacts (i.e., an index of segregation from Italian contacts), based on the national composition of the personal networks of first-order contacts. Finally, we estimate the impact of this segregation index on wage formation using a spatial cross-regressive human capital earnings model. Our results confirm that brokerage between diverse social circuits has a positive and statistically significant effect on wage. At the same time, we find that this effect is less significant when information in social circuits is more heterogeneous. The highest benefits in terms of wage are associated with either high levels of social network integration in Italian society, or high levels of network segregation within the Sri Lankan community. Thus, consistently with existing theories of social capital, economic attainment increases with network integration within a single national community. However, integration within a single national community reduces the chance to benefit from the diverse information provided by members of different communities. A number of innovative robustness checks are provided to assess the consistency of our econometric results, using both structural and Bayesian approaches. JEL Classification C15, C63, D85, E24, F22


Potentiodynamic polarization,electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and capacitance measurements were used to reveal the passivation behavior and electrochemical characterization of the passive film formed in a buffer solution 0.5 mol/L Na2CO3+1 mol/L NaHCO3 on P110 oil tube steel by different potentials.It is indicated that P110 steel exhibits an obvious passivation behavior in a potential range from-200 mV to 800 mV.EIS result shows that with increase of film formation potentials,the passive film is much denser,stable with better corrosion resistance.Mott-Schottky figure demonstrates that an n-type semi-conductive property of the passive film which formed on P110 oil tube steel in 0.5 mol/L Na2CO3+1 mol/L NaHCO3 buffer solution.With increasing the film formation potential,the donor density of the passive film increased,therwith the protectiveness of the film enhanced.


Emerging evidence suggests that patients with coronary artery disease carry an increased risk of cancer death.

 To assess the association between heart failure (HF) during hospitalization with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and the very long–term cancer death risk, we enrolled 572 patients admitted with ACS to 3 Italian hospitals and discharged alive and free from neoplasia. Patients were followed prospectively for 24 years or until death.

 All except for three patients completed the follow–up, representing 6913 person–years. Patients' mean age was 66 ± 12 years and 70% were males. Baseline clinical HF was diagnosed in 192 (34%) patients. During follow–up, 107 patients (19%) died due to cancer; of them, 81 with no HF [79% of patients without HF] and 26 had baseline HF [14% of patients with HF]. The incidence rates for cancer death were 17 and 14 per 1000 person–years for patients with and without baseline HF, respectively (p = 0.48). The risks for cancer death associated with HF were (HR: 1.37; 95% CI: 0.88–2.15; p=0.16). Similar associations were observed among men and women and in patients younger and older than 75 years of age. The unadjusted HRs for incident cancer were (HR: 1.25; 95% CI: 0.61–2.53; p=0.53) and (HR: 1.26; 95% CI: 0.66–2.39; p=0.49) for patients with HFrEF and HFpEF respectively. We observed a positive interaction between age and LVEF for the risk of cancer death (HR: 1.002; 95% CI: 1.001 –1.004; p=0.01) in the unadjusted model.

 were the same in the fully adjusted model.

 A lack of association between clinical HF at admission for ACS and the long–term cancer death risk has been observed in this prospective study of unselected ACS patients. A positive independent interaction between age and LVEF has been also observed.


In this work, the activation energy barrier and dynamics pathway for the glide of a 5|7 defect are calculated, taking place by way of Stone-Wales transformation in a carbon nanotube. With the aid of the Tight-Binding potential, the action-derived molecular dynamics is utilized for the computation. The effect of the tensile loading, as well as the catalytic role of an additional carbon atom, are considered for the 5|7 defect mobility. The numerical results show that the tensile force and adatom decrease the activation energy barrier. Obtained is the minimum load level that makes a 5|7 defect glide freely with no energy barrier in the presence of an adatom.


With the influence of western learning,advanced ideas and new trends widely spread in modern China.Chinese women began to break the Confucius' shackles of "the three obedience and four virtues," struggling to find themselves a new role in the modern society.Eventually,they successfully transformed the traditional image into a modern one.Pictorials are important literatures for researching on modern Chinese history.With the aid of the pictorials,this paper discusses the process and the features of disintegration and reconstruction of women's physical and social roles as well as their value judgment in modern China.


With the rapid development of new infrastructure and a strong transportation country, China's road infrastructure has been upgraded with intelligent systems. A comprehensive testing and evaluation system is necessary to promote the development of vehicle-road cooperative systems. Traditional testing tools and methods for conventional vehicles cannot meet the needs of cooperative vehicle-road testing. Scenario-based virtual testing methods have significant technical advantages in testing efficiency and cost and are becoming an essential means of testing and verification in the future autonomous driving field. Therefore, this paper proposes a scenario-based method for evaluating the efficiency of vehicle-road cooperative perception. First, a data-driven construction method based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) is used to automatically generate structured test cases for the selected operational design domains (ODDs) to solve the problem of rare event long tails in the testing process. Then, we perform performance tests on multiple visual perception algorithms, such as YOLO, SSD, and Faster R-CNN, on a vehicle-road cooperative simulation platform. Finally, we establish a quantitative evaluation system of testing scenarios and multidimensional test requirement metrics to evaluate the results of the testing stage. The results show that the proposed method can efficiently and rapidly generate critical testing scenarios for evaluating vehicle-road cooperative perception efficiency, thereby improving the testing efficiency of cooperative sensing systems.


INTRODUCTION: Without mastery of the anatomy, luck rather than skill becomes the primary determinant of successful neural blockade. In this educational study our intent was to compare the level of nerve roots blocked by these two techniques of peripheral nerve block, widely used in clinical anesthesia practice. AIMS: To have a three dimensional view of nerve plexus involvement in inter scalene and supraclavicular techniques of brachial plexus block and compare in between them. MATERIAL AND METHOD: 6 recently deceased cadavers preserved in formalin were used. In both the techniques the classical methods usually pursued in daily clinical practice were followed. Dyes used were methylene blue and tartrazine of same dilution. RESULTS: Careful dissection showed that in all cases of inter scalene approach the dye was more concentrated in upper and middle trunk than in lower trunk of brachial plexus. In contrast in supraclavicular approach dye concentration was more in lower and middle trunk and less in upper trunk. DISCUSSION: After reviewing the anatomy it can be concluded that injection of local anesthetic at the interscalene level tends to produce a block that is most intense at the C5-C7 distribution and injection at supraclavicular level provide more compact anesthesia in C8-T1 distribution. CONCLUSION: Supraclavicular block is preferable for operations on the elbow, forearm, and hand and inter scalene block for shoulder.


This is a report of a social-psychological study of persons 17 to 28 years of age resident in Tokyo in 1963-1964. Duchac is at some pains to differentiate his and Jean Stoetzel's approach of a decade earlier. Stoetzel, he writes, conducted a study of "collective personality," viewing the attitudes of a category of the population of several areas of Japan against a traditional values system modified by the special historical experience of defeat and surrender. Duchac's own study differs from the earlier one, he observes, not only in that it is limited to the city of Tokyo, but also in that it is to be read as an effort to formulate the elements of a social psychology of urban relations. It is above all intended to be a study of contact—between individuals, between the individual and groups, and between the individual and institutions. The materials collected for analysis are a basic questionnaire (550 respondents), an attitude survey (157 respondents), an engagingly titled "Test Ruth Benedict" (50 respondents) soliciting reactions to ten citations from her classic work, a "Test 'Les Deux Pires Choses'" (154 respondents) asking the Allport-Gillespie question, "What are the two worst things that could happen to you?," autobiographies of one's future (30 subjects), and informal interviews with 65 persons. The body of the book is an account of Japanese society and Tokyo itself, with a discussion of the method of the study and its assumptions, followed by an analysis of the research findings. Appended are fifty pages of questionnaires (in French only, unhappily, although all were actually administered in Japanese), sample autobiographies, and some interview responses. Another fifty pages are given over to the statistical tables, which are cross-referenced to the text. The bibliography is very useful for its citations of French-language sources, and there is a map of Tokyo. The absence of an index is inexcusable. For the North American reader, one of the most interesting features of the book is one JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES


Thirty-two adult female brown long-eard bats were taken into captivity. Eight individuals gave birth to single young in captivity (known mother-young pairs), 10 were lactating when captured (putative mother-young pairs), and the remaining 14 bats were non-reproductive. Bats were maintained in five groups consisting of females from sigle(n=3) or mixed (n=2) wild roosts. All bats were housed in outdoor, free-flight enclosures and fed mainly on free-flying noctuid moths. Bats were individually were determined daily (n=152) for a single gruup of bats containing four known mother-young pairs and five non-reproductive bats. The probability of a being attached to the nipple declined from 100% of records at 1-5 days of age to 5% of records at 36-40 days of age. Females were always found suckling their own young. Suckling associations were determined using infra-red sensitive video-recordings of bat behaviour within the roost box. For both known (n=8) and putative mother-young pairs (n=10), there were no records of young attached to lactating females other than their own mothers (from the same or different wild roosts).


We consider Davenport-like series with coefficients in l and discuss L-convergence as well as almost-everywhere convergence. We give an example where both fail to hold. We next improve former sufficient conditions under which these convergences are true.


Coastal protection measures are intended to stabilize the boundaries of land and sea—and of private property. But structural engineering solutions, such as seawalls, have negative side-effects in terms of environmental and climate justice: they cause erosion of adjacent areas, they limit public access, and they can lead to the loss of sandy beaches. So-called "soft" coastal protection approaches promise more sustainable and just alternatives. The article explores the role of the more-than-human in such practices. Arguing that the popular framing of coastal protection as "working with nature" is a strategic naturalization, the paper aims to develop a more-than-human take on the political ecology of coastal protection. The empirical basis is built from ethnographic material on volunteer dune restoration by Coast Care groups in Aotearoa New Zealand. The analysis shows that the "multispecies agencies" (Locke, 2013) at work in various practices associated with Coast Care include communities of plants and animals, human care work and artefacts, as well as abiotic elements such as sand, wind, water and concrete. The article argues that to foster political and practical engagements for more sustainable coastal naturecultures, these entanglements should be made explicit and accountable. A more-than-human political ecology approach to understand the promises of soft coastal protection therefore combines three analytic sensibilities. Firstly, it looks at the ontological politics and categorization practices that define and enact specific versions of coastal nature. Secondly, it focuses on the politics of care in multispecies worlds, including the abiotic. And thirdly, it takes into account the "ordinary politics" of contested coastal space, decision-making and planning.


In order to ensure that the tension and torsion test system can complete the normal test of submarine cable torsion, it is very important to analyze the maximum torque that the system can withstand. In this paper, the finite element simulation software ANSYS is used to model the submarine cable tension and torsion test system. The torque of 1kNm, 5kNm and 10kNm is applied to the model and solved. The main force position of the torsion device was evaluated by analyzing the changes of displacement, stress and strain after the model was twisted. The results show that after applying the maximum allowable torque of 10kNm to the submarine cable tension and torsion test system, the system is not damaged, and the displacement, stress and strain changes are consistent with the actual situation, and the work of torsion testing of the submarine cable can be completed. This paper provides a method and data reference for the evaluation of the operating parameters of the submarine cable tension and torsion experimental system.


The Digital Optical Disk Department of Thomson-CSF has developed the GIGADISK 1001 optical disk product as a cost effective write once optical disk storage system.


BACKGROUND
Immature oocyte cryopreservation is a therapeutic option in assisted reproductive technology.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of supplementing oocyte maturation medium with human follicular fluid (hFF), zinc and copper.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Four different maturation media supplemented with 10% follicular fluid, 4 μg/mL copper and 1 μg/mL zinc were used for vitrified-warmed oocytes of mouse.

RESULTS
Maturation rate was the highest (63.3%) in the presence of zinc. Cleavage and blastocyst rates in groups with copper and zinc were significantly higher than the control group (39.9% and 46.4% vs. 28.8%), without any significant difference between Zn and Cu.

CONCLUSION
Our findings indicate the high importance of using hFF as a natural medium, and also zinc and copper as two efficient trace elements in the maturation medium for vitrified-warmed oocytes.


Abstract Development of resistance during multiple foulings and three-step Cleaning-In-Place (CIP) operations, simulating an industrial cleaning regime of polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes, was investigated. The study explored how trans-membrane pressure (150 and 300 kPa) and feed protein concentration (0.9 and 10%) influenced resistance reduction during filtration and flux recovery by the cleaning procedures. New membranes, pre-cleaned with a full CIP cycle, were used for each experiment. Subsequent fouling (simulating production) and CIP were done three times in a row and the development of fouling layer resistance was monitored and evaluated. Results show that filtration performance decreased during the first days of usage, possibly related to build-up of internal fouling. Cleaning success based on flux recovery was negatively influenced by a high protein concentration in the feed, but independent of the trans-membrane pressure during filtration.


Introduction: The overall objective of this research is to establish the use of plain radiographs as a simple and effective method for assessing bone mineral density (BMD), an important component in the clinical management of osteoporosis. Most clinical assessments rely on one of the standard x-ray densitometric methods, for example dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, which are relatively expensive and require specialized equipment. In contrast, plain radiographic equipment is widely available and could be a valuable resource in osteoporosis screening and management. Although some plain radiographic densitometric techniques exist currently, they have been limited to measurements of the phalanges or more recently the distal radius. The aim was thus to develop a plain radiograph based method for accurately assessing BMD that may be used at a variety of anatomical sites, e.g., the calcaneus. Methods: Eight human calcanei cleaned of all soft tissue were obtained from a commercial supplier. A 1 cm diameter core from the posterior portion of each calcaneus was removed using a low speed drill under constant irrigation. The cores were saturated in a buffered saline solution and placed in a plastic container containing a given height of the solution. Each sample, standing on its medial-lateral axis, was "covered" by a different height of solution, simulating different overlying thicknesses of soft tissue. The solution heights varied from 3.8 cm to 4.4 cm. Each sample in solution was radiographed at a unique exposure (ranging from 48 to 56 keV), alongside a special composite phantom. The composite phantom was constructed from two materials which are superimposed one on top of the other in a checkerboard fashion (Fig. 1). Each rectangular portion of the composite phantom viewed from above thus


Artificial modulation of magnetic structure on a monatomic layer scale has been examined in Co/Ru superlattices. The samples alternating Co 1 ML and Ru x ML (x=1–4, ML: Monatomic Layer thickness) were prepared. Sharp fundamental and satellite peaks corresponding to superlattice structures are seen in the x-ray diffraction profiles for all the samples. For x=1, furthermore, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy observation indicates the formation of an ordered structure with hexagonal-close-packed stacking of alternate Co and Ru atomic planes. The magnetization measurements show that only 1 ML difference in the Ru thickness has significant influence on the magnetic structure. The results are consistent with the first-principles calculations.


The latest development and application of stored grain pests biological control were reviewed.The use of insect and mite parasitoids and predators to control stored grain pests were summarized,and some pathogens of stored grain pests were also discussed.These pathogens included bacteria,fungi,viruses and protozoa.


The paper uses techniques including JSF and Oracle to develop a small freight express management system with B/S structure. The management system is mainly to manage shipping orders, freight classification and lines, etc. It adopts JSF frame built in JavaEE to better separate the view, model and control layers, whose application will realize the informatization of road freight transport management, providing convenience for users to expediently inquire about the freight situation.


Randomized Benchmarking allows to efficiently and scalably characterize the average error of an unitary 2-design such as the Clifford group $\mathcal{C}$ on a physical candidate for quantum computation, as long as there are no non-computational leakage levels in the system. We investigate the effect of leakage errors on Randomized Benchmarking induced from an additional level per physical qubit and provide a modified protocol that allows to derive reliable estimates for the error per gate in their presence. We assess the variance of the sequence fidelity corresponding to the number of random sequences needed for valid fidelity estimation. Our protocol allows for gate dependent error channels without being restricted to perturbations. We show that our protocol is compatible with Interleaved Randomized Benchmarking and expand to benchmarking of arbitrary gates. This setting is relevant for superconducting transmon qubits, among other systems.


ABSTRACTThe trends in higher education towards internationalisation and increasing dependence on ICTs (information and communication technologies) are contributing to the diversification of the student population and their learning needs. In this context learners may encounter an array of educational and technological challenges. For international students these challenges may be compounded by differences in cultural and linguistic backgrounds and limited previous experience of independent learning and library and online information use. This article discusses the interim findings of a research project into the use of online information resources by a group of international students at an Australian university. It describes the students' online behaviour (actions), their affective and cognitive responses (reactions) and associated difficulties. It discusses the implications for information literacy education and online resource development related to cultural and linguistic diversity.


In this paper, the magnetic properties of 10 µm thick Co-rich Co–Pt films (∼80:20 atomic ratio) hard magnetic films electroplated on silicon substrates are characterized at temperatures from 300 to 1000 K. With an increase in temperature up to 500 K, the coercivity and remanence of the films both decrease rapidly, dropping to only 10% of their respective as-deposited values. Above 500 K, the coercivity and remanence continue declining but at a slower rate, reaching nearly zero at 1000 K. Conversely, the saturation magnetization reduces by only 15% at 800 K and 40% at 1000 K from the as-deposited value. In addition to these measurements at elevated temperature measurements, thermal cycling tests are performed to examine the influence of various thermal exposures. Cycles up to 500 K are shown to have little impact on the film morphology but notably reduce the layer adhesion. Most importantly, a thermal cycle to just 400 K is shown to essentially destroy the hard magnetic properties. Because of these temperature sensitivities, Co-rich Co–Pt films may be significantly limited for end applications.


The amount of works in the reliability domain is really huge although this field of research has not yet evolved as a science. It is worth reminding that Gnedenko took the first step to create the reliability science. He adopted the deductive logic – typical of exact sciences such as mechanics, electronics and thermodynamics – and demonstrated the general form of the reliability function. However the hazard rate, which tunes up this function, has not been demonstrated so far. We believe that one should follow and complete the Gnedenko's seminal work and should demonstrate the various trends of the hazard rate using the deductive approach. We have conducted a theoretical research using traditional mathematical methods and have even introduced a new tool named Boltzmann-like entropy. The present paper makes a summary of various contributions published in the past decade and means to show the deductive implications developed.


The interdigital piezoelectric transducers are used in the microsize membrane silicon sensors to the generation and detection of the ultrasonic wave. The wave generation and propagation depend on some external factors, and as a result the wave amplitude as well as the phase velocity of the propagation change. The system of the membrane sensor with ultrasonic wave Lambda type can be examined as a delay line. The application of the membrane sensors as a delay line which works in the generator close loop was presented. The equivalent circuit of the generator with the sensor was analyzed by means of the SPICE program.


Background:
 Delirium occurs frequently in patients with stroke but is often underrecognized. We aimed to develop a novel delirium screening tool designed specifically for stroke patients, and to test its feasibility and accuracy in a pilot study.

 Methods:
 We designed an easy-to-use 5-point instrument called the Fluctuating Mental Status Evaluation (FMSE) and tested it in a cohort of patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) who had daily delirium assessments throughout their admission. Expert ratings were performed by an attending neurointensivist or behavioral neurologist each afternoon using DSM-5 criteria, and were derived from bedside assessments and clinical data from the preceding 24 hours. Paired FMSE assessments were performed by patients' clinical nurses after brief training on the use of the tool. Nursing assessments were aggregated over 24-hour periods (including day and night shifts), and accuracy of the FMSE was analyzed on both a per-assessment day and per-patient basis.

 Results:
 Among the 40 enrolled patients (mean age 71.1±12.2, median initial NIHSS score 16.5 [IQR 12-20]), 34 experienced delirium during their hospitalization. There were 306 total coma-free days with paired assessments, of which 208 (68%) were rated as days with delirium. Compared to expert ratings, an FMSE score ≥1 had 86% sensitivity and 74% specificity on a per-day basis, while a score ≥2 had 68% sensitivity and 83% specificity. On a per-patient basis, a score ≥1 at any point during admission had 97% sensitivity and 67% specificity in identifying patients who experienced delirium, while a score ≥2 had 94% sensitivity and 67% specificity.

 Conclusion:
 The FMSE is a feasible delirium screening tool in ICH patients, with high real-world sensitivity and specificity. Based on these results, we plan to validate the tool in a larger, more diverse cohort of stroke patients, using score cutoffs of ≥1 as "possible" delirium and ≥2 as "probable" delirium.


The influence of adjuvants on the efficacy of the plant growth regulators: chlormequat chloride (CCC) and prohexadione-calcium was investigated in winter wheat in 2002 and 2003. Field trials were carried out in the Agricultural Experi- mental Farm in Winna Gora. The plant growth regulators were applied alone at normal rate and at a reduced rate with and without adjuvants. Two adjuvants were used: Adpros 85 SL, a methylated rapeseed oil and Break-Thru S-240, an organosilicone surfactant. Crop height, lodging, yield and quality of the harvested crop were assessed. Physicochemical properties of spray solution were measured. Adjuvants improved the biological activity of both, CCC and prohexadione-cal- cium, especially when reduced doses were applied. Efficacy of the plant growth reg- ulators used at normal rate without adjuvant and at reduced rates with adjuvants was similar. Break-Thru S-240 increased the efficacy of CCC and prohexadione-cal- cium more compared to Adpros 85 SL measured in terms of reduction of plant height.


The recent task force report is a welcome review of the situation regarding ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) [1]. In the prevention of VAP section a number of nonpharmacological measures, including posture were discussed. However there was no mention of rotational therapy [2–9]. Admittedly, these publications are variously limited by: selected patient diagnoses, extensive exclusion criteria, various definitions of outcomes (including VAP), lack of controls and small numbers. There is no trial that has produced statistically and clinically significant results that can be generalized to the majority of patients. How successful this treatment is in a wide variety of patients and how it compares with other treatment strategies, alone or in combination, needs to be studied. This subject deserves further research and should be included in the "What should be investigated" section.


The technology of multi temperature measure based on single bus digital thermometer DS18B20 is discussed.The system hardware makeup,sensor's stelliform connection topology configuration,realization method of DS18B20 automatic addressing and taxis are emphatically dissertated.The basic temperature measure principle and applying notice proceedings of DS18B20 are introduced simply.Test data is given, and proves the system's science quality and validity.


Management of massive, retracted rotator cuff tear repair is a difficult task without a consensus algorithm for treatment. Although nonoperative management is appropriate in certain patients, surgical treatment is advocated for younger, more active patients or those with persistent pain. Aggressive surgical options such as rotator cuff repair with patch augmentation, tendon transfers, and reverse total shoulder arthroplasty are options for many patients in which complete anatomical repair of the massive rotator cuff tear is not always surgically possible because of poor tissue quality, tendon loss, severe retraction, or increased tension of the repair. Debridement of the rotator cuff or partial rotator cuff repair offer viable options for patients with goals of pain relief and improvement in range of motion. Although partial repair often does not restore full strength, most patients are satisfied with their overall improvement in function.


ABSTRACT Multiferroic Pb(Fe0.5Nb0.5)1-xSnxO3 (x = 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, 0.10) ceramic compositions were prepared by solid state synthesis and usual sintering. XRD studies have shown a formation of the perovskite structure in all the compositions studied. However, a small amount of pyrochlore phase was detected in Sn-doped compositions with x ≥ 0.05. Scanning electron microscopy studies have shown that at the boundaries of the large grains there exist a lot of small submicron grains enriched by Sn. Concentration dependencies of the unit-cell parameter and ferroelectric phase transition temperatures also imply that solubility of Sn in PFN is limited to ≈ 5 at.%.


Abstract In this paper, I will try to support the admittedly controversial claim that presuppositions are normally defeasible inferences, taking the lead from Levinson, Stephen C. 1983.Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP., Simons, Mandy. 2013. On the conversational basis of some presuppositions. In A. Capone, F. Lo Piparo & M. Carapezza (eds), Perspectives on linguistic pragmatics, 329–348. Dordrecht: Springer, Macagno, Fabrizio & Alessandro, Capone. 2016a. Presuppositions as cancellable inferences. In K. Allan, A. Capone, I. Kecskes & Springer Dordrecht (eds.), 45–68; Macagno, Fabrizio & Alessandro. Capone. 2016b. Uncommon ground. Intercultural Pragmatics 13(2). 51–180. In passing, I will justify further some of the claims we made in Macagno, Fabrizio & Alessandro. Capone. 2016a. Presuppositions as cancellable inferences. In K. Allan, A. Capone, I. Kecskes & Springer Dordrecht (eds.), 45–68; Macagno, Fabrizio & Alessandro. Capone. 2016b. Uncommon ground. Intercultural Pragmatics 13(2). 51–180. I will also make a further attempt to explain those notions in a clearer way. Most importantly, I will capitalize on the distinction between potential and actual presuppositions, a distinction which may parallel the one between potential and actual conversational implicatures (see Levinson, Stephen C. 2000.Presumptive meanings. The theory of generalized conversational implicature. Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press; Levinson, Stephen C. 1983.Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP; Huang, Yan. 1994.The syntax and pragmatics of anaphora. A study with special reference to Chinese. Cambridge: CUP.; Huang, Yan. 2014.Pragmatics. Oxford: OUP.). Levinson, Stephen C. 1983.Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP. understands this distinction and assumes it is of importance, but, in my opinion, he does not sufficiently capitalize on this, as I want to do in this paper. Also, the terminology he uses is not exactly cast in these terms, but I think it is not unreasonable to borrow the distinction from the theory of generalized conversational implicatures, given that as Atlas, Jay. 2004. Presupposition. In L.R. Horn & G. Ward (eds), The Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell, and Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP. say, there are many points of contact between conversational implicatures and conversational presuppositions.


Polytechnic of STIA LAN Bandung is one of the units under the LAN RI which has a core business in the field of education that has an obligation to run the Tri Dharma of Higher Education. In running the Tri Dharma of Higher Education, Polytechnic of STIA LAN Bandung requires several supporting resources. One of the supporting resources that most determine the quality of the implementation of the Tri Dharma of Higher Education is the competence of human resources. To facilitate the decision-making process carried out by the Staffing sub-section in assessing Non-Civil Servant Government Employees (PPNPN), a form of Decision Support System is needed. In conducting employee assessments used a method, namely Entropy. Entropy method that serves to measure the weight (level of importance) on each assessment indicator. Assessment indicators, which are used include Basic Values, Performance, Insight Tests, Warning Letters, and Attendance. The dataset used is secondary data that has been obtained from the staffing sub-section of Polytechnic of STIA LAN Bandung. The data sample consisted of five non-civil servants (PPNPN). From the results of the weight calculation using the Entropy method, it was obtained that the Attendance Indicator has the largest weight value of 0.5495, followed by the Warning Letter indicator with a weight of 0.2353. Then the third largest weight is on the Performance indicator with a weight of 0.1107, followed by the Basic Value indicator with a weight of 0.0604. The smallest weight gain is generated by the Insight Test indicator of 0.0439


The so-called narratives of war refer to hikayat literature composed especially during the Dutch occupation of Aceh in 19th century and early 20th century; they relate mostly battles and exploits of the Acehnese heroes and fighters against the Dutch incursion, beginning in 1873. Since war fought against the Dutch was considered as a jihad war, these hikayats then came to be known as the Hikayat Prang Sabi (or the story of the war in the path of God) or Hikayat Prang Kaphe (or war against the infidels). Besides their cultural and historical significance, these hikayats are also reliable documents to understand the Acehnese perception of the jihad war or the prang kaphe. This essay then is an attempt to study these hikayats as sources in reading the Acehnese perception of jihad. To facilitate analysis, three war hikayats viz. the Hikayat Prang Sabi, Hikayat Prang Cut Ali and Hikayat Prang Rundeng will be chosen as focus of critical study. From the analysis the essay comes to an interesting conclusion: that contrary to popular belief, the jihad war did not have a similar grip on every Acehnese; apparently there were varied responds and emotions towards the war which influence Acehnese perception towards the whole ideology of jihad.


Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) has been applied to the detection of endotoxin in human serum, plasma and blood since the early 1970s. Although the diagnostic potential of LAL for endotoxemia was recognized immediately, the assay's modest sensitivity and specificity (for Gram-negative sepsis/bacteremia) were perceived as limiting the clinical usefulness of LAL. In an attempt to overcome these drawbacks, many studies have been conducted since the initial work by Levin and his colleagues. Numerous attempts have been made to improve the sensitivity of the assay by changing the formulation of the LAL and assay methodology. The original gel-clot method has for the most part been replaced with turbidimetric or chromogenic methods. The amount of endotoxin detectable within a 1 h incubation period has gone from the nanogram to the picogram range. Since blood (plasma) components interfere with the test, various methods to remove inhibition and/or enhancement have been developed. The chloroform extraction technique of Levin and co-workers has been replaced with acid extraction or with dilution and heating. Partitioning of endotoxin in blood may also influence the assay (recovery). Many recent investigators use platelet-rich plasma instead of ordinary plasma, while a few studies have used whole blood. Even with all the improvements, the specificity and related diagnostic usefulness of the LAL assay for Gram-negative sepsis remain an obstacle for regulatory acceptance. This may have more to do with our understanding of the septic process than with the ability of LAL to detect endotoxin. Although a recent study indicates that the type of Gram-negative bacteremia may be a critical determinant for clinical utility of the LAL test, the presence of endotoxin is not highly predictive of Gram-negative sepsis and vice versa. However, with the potential availability of anti-endotoxin therapy, the diagnosis of endotoxemia, with or without bacteremia, may be extremely important for timely and effective treatment modalities. It is concluded that the LAL test and accompanying sample preparation has evolved into a clinically useful test for the detection of circulating endotoxins and even its modest predictability for sepsis may have some clinical utility.


Background: Decreased serum concentration of albumin, an acute-phase reactant with anticoagulant properties, may be associated with unfavorable prognosis in hospitalized patients. Objectives: The s...


This article introduces a generalized version of Kay's (1989) estimator for the frequency of a single complex sinusoid in complex additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Kay developed a maximum likelihood (ML) estimator based on differential phase measurements with a delay of one symbol interval. In this paper the corresponding ML estimator with an arbitrary delay in the differential phase measurements is derived. The proposed estimator reduces the variance at low SNR compared with Kay's original estimator. The penalty for the reduced variance is a reduced estimation range. With sufficient delay the window function in the generalized Kay estimator is nearly uniform and the implementation complexity is reduced. Performance comparisons with an estimator based on differential phase measurements with a uniform window function is given. The proposed estimator is also compared with the Fitz (1991) estimator.


The article focuses on the "revise and resubmit" phase of peer review. The author was among three co-authors who wrote "Taking Empowerment to the Next Level: A Multiple-Level Model of Empowerment, ...


: The authors could be more explicit that the optimal OC/Levoglucosan ratio determined is specific to Ulaanbaatar, and that it is method for determining it is applicable for other studies. Reply: The developed approach can be applicable to any study site for screening the appropriate OC/levoglucosan ratio for estimating OC BB contribution to ambient PM. To do so, the regression analysis is required between OC non-BB [(OC at any study site)-(levoglucosan at any study site*OC/levoglucosan obtained from chamber experiments)] and levoglucosan concentration at any study site. The ratio, which give the lowest value of coefficient of determinant (R 2 ) and slope, could use as optimised ratio of OC/levoglucosan. This optimised ratio can be applied for estimating OC BB for at any study site.


The electrochemical oxidation of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) has been carried out in aqueous solution in the pH range 1.5–11.0 by cyclic, linear sweep, differential pulse (DPV) and square-wave (SWV)voltammetry. SAM exhibits one oxidation peak or wave depending on pH. The oxidation process was shown to be irreversible. For analytical purposes, a very well resolved diffusion controlled voltammetric peak was obtained in phosphate buffer at pH 2.04 for DPV and SWV techniques. The linear response was obtained in the ranges of 2×10−5–6×10−4 M for both techniques with a detection limit of 2.6×10−6 M for DPV and 2.4×10−6 M for SWV. Based on this study, simple, rapid and selective two voltammetric methods were developed for the determination of SAM in tablet dosage forms.


This paper is concerned with the existence, uniqueness and global attractivity of positive periodic solution of a delayed Nicholson's blowflies model with nonlinear density-dependent mortality rate. By some comparison techniques via differential inequalities, we first establish sufficient conditions for the global uniform permanence and dissipativity of the model. We then utilize an extended version of the Lyapunov functional method to show the existence and global attractivity of a unique positive periodic solution of the underlying model. An application to the model with constant coefficients is also presented. Two numerical examples with simulations are given to illustrate the efficacy of the obtained results.


This chapter examines the distinctions between the Tory tradition and what now passes for American conservatism. In the post-World War II era, many prominent voices of the American conservative movement portrayed their cause as a noble continuation of the traditional English conservatism that such worthies as Edmund Burke and Benjamin Disraeli defended in an earlier era. The chapter maintains that these claims are unfounded. By focusing on self-described Tory traditionalist writers such as George Grant, one can locate a wide gap between the neoconservative valorization of capitalist democracy and the inveterate conservative suspicion of what contemporary American conservatives are taught to venerate. Unlike traditional Tories, the advocates of "democratic capitalism," wherever they are present, represent globalization, not a conservative defense of particularity and organic social relations.


A questionnaire was sent to 1124 women aged 18-44 who had an IUD (type Dana 1 Dana Super 2 or Dana Super 3) inserted between 1967 and 1972. The questionnaire was aimed at gathering information about the amount of work-time lost caused by the following non-pregnancy complications attributed to the IUD: bleeding pain infection and injury upon insertion. 414 women returned the questionnaire and formed the study population. 3.62% of women surveyed missed work because of IUD caused complications. Of these 73% missed work because of bleeding on insertion and 13.3% because of infection. On the average IUD caused complications are responsible for .224 days of work lost per IUD user per year. In the authors district this translates to 427.58 days of lost work time and for all of Czechoslovakia the figure translates to 29674.05 days of lost work time per year. None of the women in the study missed work because of pain after insertion or extraction of the IUD nor were any perforations sustained by the study population. After the study terminated 3 cases of perforation were observed in the district - 2 on insertion and 1 on extraction. The work time lost figures illustrate what advantage could be gained by developing new types of IUDs with a smaller incidence of side effects.


Run-of-mine fragmentation is an important aspect of mine productivity optimization, as it affects all mine-to-mill processes. The current blasting fragmentation calculation methods do not consider the 3D geometric information. Therefore, their calculation results are imprecise. 3D laser scanning is a technique for extracting the 3D geometric information of an object by constructing a 3D point cloud model, with which extra information on the geometrical characteristics of an object could be captured than with the technique of 2D image processing. In this paper, 3D laser scanning technology was utilized for the calculation of the rock blocks on the surface of a muck pile, and the information about the surface blocks was utilized as the samples for the statistical estimation of blasting fragmentation of muck pile (BFMP). Monte Carlo simulation was utilized as the statistical estimation method for the BFMP. In the lab experiment, results from 2D image processing technique and from 3D laser scanning technique combined with statistical estimate were compared with the physical measurements utilizing a water tank, which show that results with 3D laser scanning are more similar to the physical measurement. Finally, the applicability of 3D laser scanning technology combined with statistical methods to the calculation of blast fragmentation was estimated through field tests in Biesikuduke and Santanghu mine, two open-pit coal mines in Xinjiang Province of western China. Results show that the accuracy of the statistical estimation results of BFMP has a particle size deviation of 1–3 cm.


The special hydraulic valve taking the place of the stopper for gas pipe has improved the efficiency,decreased the intensity and danger in the operation of gas.


The fluctuations of the price of crude oil is pushing the oil companies to increase the investments in seismic exploration of new oil and gas reservoir. Seismic exploration requires a large number (500 ÷ 2000 nodes/sqkm) of sensors (geophones or accelerometers) to be deployed in outdoor over large areas (≥ 20 sqkm) to measure backscattered wave fields. A storage/processing unit (sink node) collects the measurements from all the geophones to obtain an image of the sub-surface in real-time. Current connectivity is cable based and requires hundreds of kilometers of cabling causing delays, high logistic costs and low imaging quality. This paper serves as a tutorial to introduce the basic principles of seismic acquisition systems from a wireless communication perspective and provides a number of requirements/specifications for the physical, MAC and network layer to develop wireless sensors networks tailored for oil (and gas) exploration. The Wireless Geophone Network (WGN) system will replace the actual cabled systems used in on-shore seismic acquisition. Oil companies are currently pushing for wireless solutions. Early results suggested that a fully WiFi network does not satisfy all the requirements. This motivates the use of a mixture of technologies. In the proposed system wireless UWB devices/sensors are simultaneously sensing, self-localizing and synchronizing while delivering data to Gateway devices in mesh mode. Gateways forward the aggregated traffic to storage unit over long range.


Anodic TiO2 nanostructures have wide applications due to their various functional properties such as wide band-gap, chemical stability, and anti-corrosiveness. In order to enhance the properties, several approaches to fabricate TiO2 structures have been developed. Especially, TiO2 nanotube arrays prepared by anodization in a fluoride electrolyte show impressive properties for dye sensitized solar cells and photocatalyst. In this presentation, we introduce new types of TiO2 nanostructures beyond TiO2 nanotubes that are fabricated by anodization at high temperature in a glycerol/phosphate electrolyte. We show that depending on the anodization parameters different self-organized morphologies - of highly alligned, high aspect ratio oxide structures can be formed. Critical factor for growth and the use for dye sensitized solar cells and photocatalyst will be discussed.


The natural and cultural heritage are acknowledged permanent sources for the progress of the civilization. Their positioning within space is important for a quality treatment of the permanent sources. The positioning of the natural and cultural heritage represents a corelation of personal, economic, social, cultural and spatial characteristics of particular societies within the time structure.
Difinition, the research of the meaning and evaluation of the positioning the heritage are incorporated in the Methodology for Distinguished Development of Heritage Within Space, that has been developed by the Piran District Unit of the Institute for Preservation of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia in recent years. The individual, the society, the economy, the cultural heritage, the space and the institutions are dealt with as development parametres. The objective of the methodology is to set up a system for balanced implementation of recognition and identification of the space. The starting-points of the methodology are as follows:


This paper proposes an integrated model of the behavior of a buoyant jet injected into a uniform cross-flow. Governing equations are the integral conservation equations of volume, mass, cross-streamwise and its perpendicular components of momentum. The ordinary differential equations to predict the variations of cross-sectional area, mean velocity, and the trajectory of a jet axis are derived from the governing equations. Entrainment rate is estimated by considering the vortex induced flow of the ambient fluid.


Vicious words for George Drew incited by his political scheming with the intention to undermine the authority and efforts of Calvin's brother Hon. Thomas B. McQuesten (1882-1948).


It's a 'two-way street': resident perspectives of effective coaching relationships in the clinical learning environment Cela va dans les deux sens : le point de vue des résidents sur l'efficacité des relations de coaching dans l'environnement d'apprentissage clinique Jessica Trier,1,2 Jennifer Turnnidge,3,4 Cailie S McGuire,4 Jean Côté,4 J Damon Dagnone5,6 1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada; 2Providence Care Hospital, Ontario, Canada; 3Office of Professional Development and Educational Scholarship, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada; 4School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada; 5Department of Emergency Medicine, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada; 6Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Ontario, Canada Correspondence to: Jessica Trier, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Queen's University, 752 King Street West, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 4X3; telephone: 613-544-4900; email: email@example.com; Twitter: @jesstrier. Published ahead of issue: DATE CMEJ 2022 Available at https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.72940 © 2022 Trier, Turnnidge, McGuire, Côté, Dagnone; licensee Synergies Partners. This is an Open Journal Systems article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is cited. Major Contributions


A new algorithm of data fusion combined neural networks with DS evidential theory is presented to these questions of low accurate identification, bad stabilization and solution of uncertainty in some ways of multi-sensor system at present. According to the characteristic of characteristic information that the multi-sensor obtained, divide it into some groups and set up a corresponding neural network to every group, at the same time we introduce a concept of unknown probability to the goals based on the result of credible probability of these goals, at last we have a fusion of time and space depending on the transpositional result of the neural networks' output by DS evidential theory. The simulation shows that the way can effectively improve the rate of the targets' identification and great antinoise capacity


The invention relates to an antimicrobial phosphate glass composition, the following components comprises in wt .-% on oxide basis: P B SiO Al SO Li Na K CaO 0-40 wt .-% MgO 0-40 wt .-% SrO 0-15 wt .-% BaO 0-40 wt .-% ZnO 0-40 wt .-% Ag CuO 0-15 wt .-% Cr J 0-10 wt .-% TeO GeO TiO ZrO La Nb


SUMMARY The tectonic stress orientation is estimated in the lithosphere of northern Sicily, the southern Tyrrhenian sea and southern Calabria, and in the Wadati-Benioff zone below the Tyrrhenian, by inversion of fault-plane solutions of earthquakes covering a magnitude range from 2.5 to 7.1. Focal mechanisms of 97 earthquakes are taken from the literature, after a critical evaluation of their data quality. An average misfit of F= 13" indicates that the set of all shallow (<50 km) earthquakes is generated by a heterogeneous stress field. For three subsets, based on regional and magnitude separation, F was small enough (2.8"lFs5.9") to support the assumption of a homogeneous stress direction; for an additional subset, with F= 7.4, such a condition is close to being fulfilled even though some heterogeneity appears to be present. The number of earthquakes in these subsets ranged from nine to 22, and the uncertainties of the principal stress directions were generally of the order of 20" at the 90 per cent confidence level. The earthquakes with A425 define a regional stress field with the greatest principal stress, ul, dipping at a shallow angle to the south. In north-eastern Sicily and south-western Calabria the stress field estimated by earthquakes is extensional, with o3 in a direction of WNW, and a near-vertical ol, in agreement with the graben tectonics mapped geologically in this area. In western Sicily the c1 direction is oriented WNW, but this result is judged less reliable than the others, based on the broader confidence limits of the solution and the average misfit of 7.4". The earthquakes in the Wadati-Benioff zone define ol dipping at about 70" to the NW, subparallel to the zone, with o2 horizontal and striking parallel to the zone.


The article deals with methods calculating the electric power losses in non-insulated conductors of overhead power lines. Recommendations are given for practical calculation of active power losses or electricity in the wires cross section up to 240 mm 2 or over.


Abstract : The central purpose of this ONR Graduate Traineeship Award in Ocean Acoustics was for the Primary Investigator, Gareth Lawson, to design, execute, and defend his doctoral dissertation research, with the Co-Primary Investigators, Timothy K. Stanton and Peter H. Wiebe, acting as advisors. In terms of its scientific goal, the project examined the physical and biological factors underlying variability in the distribution of high-frequency acoustic volume backscattering stemming from zooplankton. The specific research objectives were: 1. To quantify spatial and temporal variability in zooplankton distribution, and hence the distribution of uncertainty in the acoustic field, in shallow water coastal regions. 2. To assess the predictability and persistence of such patchiness, and understand its association with physical and biological oceanographic processes. 3. To continue the process of field-testing and refining zooplankton scattering models.


The structure and function of the skin details the individual components of the epidermis, dermis, and their roles in normal skin health. The individual cell types in the epidermis, the different epidermal layers, and the roles of the keratinocyte are explained. The epidermis and dermis, and their important relation to each other through the dermoepidermal junction are described. The dermal adnexal structures of hair follicles (pilosebaceous units), sweat glands, and nerves are all considered. The functions of skin and barrier function are also listed. Rare but important causes of disordered sweating (hyperhidrosis and hypohidrosis) are described. In addition, presentations of hyperhidrosis are discussed.


Planar optical waveguides can be used for self-imaging. The formation of one-dimensional self-images in solid waveguide slabs of homogeneous refractive index is reported. The location of the self-images along the guide are shown to be dependant on the optical path of the signal wave. Reflective means are used to shorten the device size and to provide focussing so that a two-dimensional imaging device can be fabricated. The integration of a dispersive element such as a grating is proposed to permit the design of angularly dis-persive devices to the multiplexing of several optical signals at different wavelengths. Possible applications in multimode optics include branching couplers, frequency multiplexers for multimode transmission systems, fail-safe multimode switching and electro -optical modulators.


The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of selected land use types on soil properties in Nando, Anambra State, Southeastern Nigeria. Four land use types (cassava farm, bush fallow, oil palm and rice farm) spread over Nando were chosen for the study. A free soil survey technique aided field sampling. Soil profile pits were dug, characterized and described. Soil samples were subjected to routine laboratory analyses. Soil data were subjected to correlation and regression analysis. Results showed variations in soi l properties with soils under fallow containing higher amounts of organic matter and total nitrogen. There was significant (p=0.05) positive correlation between organic matter and pH (r=0.75*), total nitrogen and organic matter (r=0.82*) while negative correlation existed between pH and aluminum (r=-0.58*). Field Studies: A free soil survey technique was used in Before late 1980's, bush fallowing was a measur e field work. Four land use types were studied. A profile pit farmers in Nando adopted to restore the fertility status was dug in each of the land use types, given a total of of the soils that had been cultivated for some years. four profile pits that were described based on th e During this period, three (3) years of cropping were guideline of (7). Soil samples were collected from the followed by eight (8) years of bush fallow, but increasing bottom most layer upwards according horizon population pressure has forced farmers to reduce the differentiation. A total of 16 samples were collected. Soil length of fallow to three years. This as anticipated would samples were air dried, crushed and sieved using a 2mm result in decline of soil fertility and productivity. sieve. The information obtained from the characterization of soils would enable farmers to rationally plan the Laboratory Analysis: Particle size distribution was development and use of the lands accordingly, so as to determined by hydrometer method (8). Soil pH wa s put available agricultural lands to their best uses for measured using 1:2.5 soil -water ratio (9). Organic matter sustainable food production. This has, therefore, was determined by wet digestion method (10). Available necessitated this study with the objective of investigating P was estimated using Bray-P II method (11). Total the properties of soils under different land use types. nitrogen was determined by kjeldah digestion method \ - \\


Deep cervical space abscess may cause life-threatening complications despite the advent of antibiotics , so early detection and localization of the abscess are essential for management decision. To evaluate the efficacy of utilizing CT scanning in deep cervical space abscess, we retrospectively revieweed CT of 17 patients confirmed by surgery. CT was found to be veπ accurate in defining the presence, location, and extent of the abscess along with the demonstration of life-threatening complications such as airway compression and mediastinal extension. In conclusion, CT can play and essential role in guiding surgical approach to deep cervical space abscess .


As suggested by the modern view and use of the "axiomatic method" in science, a view and use which has placed belief to a very simple deep level and thus far away from the "axioms", as similar approach is suggested in religions. This would create a joint framework upon which both science and religion be based, and could pursue their development in appropriate ways, including possible useful interaction. Within such a joint framework, science would focus on those Laws of Nature which act more or less instantly, while religion would - as has always done it - focus on the Laws of Nature which need not always manifest themselves immediately.


The new series of pyrazolines derivatives containing isoniazid moiety were synthesized from 2-hydroxynaphthyl functionalized chalcones and isoniazid using sodium hydroxide as a base in 2-ethoxy ethanol.We are evaluated for their antitubercular activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain (H37Rv) by Microplate Alamar Blue Assay (MABA) some of the tested compounds 3a, 3b, and 3c, were found to have higher antitubercular activity than the selected standard drugs, where as the compounds 3d, 3e, 3i and 3j found to have higher antitubercular activity than Streptomycin and same as that of drug Pyrazinamide and Ciprofloxacin. While remaining compound showed moderate activity. Where as it is found that the disubstituted halogen compound and electron withdrawing group on the phenyl ring are important substitution for increase in antitubercular activity.


The association between psoriasis and cardiovascular disease is well documented, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. The relationship between osteopontin and psoriasis has been studied. High serum levels of osteopontin are reported in psoriasis, with increased cardiovascular risk factors in these patients.


Induction of immunogenic cell death (ICD) plays crucial roles in cancer immunotherapy, whereas its efficacy is severely compromised by redundant antioxidant defenses in cancer cells and aberrant lipid metabolism in immunosuppressive cell populations. In this work, it is found that hollow mesoporous CuS nanoparticles (NPs) possess an intrinsic capacity of inhibiting glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). When loaded with an inhibitor of the ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1), these NPs block two parallel redox systems and cooperate with near‐infrared irradiation to reinforce ICD. A hydrogel co‐delivering cancer‐cell‐targeting CuS NPs and immunosuppressive‐cell‐targeting sulfo‐N‐succinimidyl oleate (SSO) for spatiotemporal lipid intervention i further fabricated. While the CuS NPs augment ICD via synergistic lipid peroxidation, SSO reinstates immune perception via lipid metabolic reprogramming, thereby coordinately triggering robust innate and adaptive immunity to restrain tumor growth, relapse, and metastasis. This study provides an immunometabolic therapy via orchestrated lipid modulation in the tumor milieu.


Objectives: (1) To describe sperm kinetics in semen samples in infertile couples; (2) Evaluation of the factors related to sperm kinetics. Subjects and methods: Descriptive study cross-sectional 50 semen samples in the husband of the infertile couple. Sperm motility and kinetics were evaluated using computer‐aided sperm analysis Hamilton Thorne IVOS II. Results: The mean values of VCL, VSL, VAP, ALH in the normal morphological group were higher than in the abnormal morphology group (p < 0.05). There were the positive correlations between VCL (r = 0.373, p = 0.008), VSL (r = 0.343, p = 0.015), VAP (r = 0.381, p = 0.006), ALH (r = 0.311, p = 0.028) with normal sperm morphology; and negative correlation between VCL (r = -0.286, p = 0.044) with head abnormality. The normal morphological in the group with drinking alcohol was lower than in the group that did not drink, (p = 0.027). The neck-tail abnormality in the drinking group was higher than in the non-drinking group (p = 0.124); The neck-tail abnormality in the smoker group was higher than in the non-smoker group (p = 0.001). Sperm kinetics parameters (VCL, VSL, VAP, ALH, LIN, STR) recorded lower than in the drinking and smoker group, (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Motility and kinetics are related to sperm morphology. Sperm kinetics combines semen parameters to evaluate male fertility more totally.
Key words: sperm, semen parameters, sperm kinetics, computer‐aided sperm analysis


A novel Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) solution is presented in this work to achieve human age/gender classification from their facial image data in an unconstrained environment. Our proposed Whole-Component CNN solution contains both the whole face and the facial component networks, and a confidence analysis module to handle the classification task. The proposed WC-CNN solution outperforms prior art in the challenging Adience database by a significant margin.


Over the past decades, new methods of treating burn wounds based on biotechnology have appeared. The review presents the main materials for the treatment of burns, which were created using tissue engineering - biological wound dressings and skin substitutes.


Samples with representative formula Li0.45Ni0.1Mn0.1Fe2.35O4 have been sintered by conventional sintering technique and microwave sintering technique. Both the samples showed single-phase with spinel structure. The lattice constant for the microwave sintered (MS) sample showed a lower value than the conventionally sintered (CS) sample. The density of the MS sample has been found to be higher than the CS sample. And MS sample showed a higher value of resistivity and activation energy compared to the CS sample. The possible mechanisms are discussed.


With the increasingly globalized framework of governance, compliance mechanisms have evolved through intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the United Nations (UN) in order to better pressure states to comply with international customary norms. An integral element of the collective security provisions outlined in the UN Charter offers the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) "an important instrument to enforce its decisions, situated on a continuum between mere verbal condemnation and recourse to armed force" (Annan 2000: 49). Given the historic transition away from traditional declarations of war and the ineffectiveness of verbal denouncement, the sanction authority of the UNSC has developed into a powerful tool utilized by the body as a mechanism for deterring rogue state behavior. While such actions carry significance and respect in the international community, "sanctions have had an uneven track record in inducing compliance with Security Council resolutions" and "little if any effort has gone into monitoring and enforcing them" (Annan 2000: 49). Apparent inefficiencies make it evident that while sanctions are a significant compliance mechanism of the UNSC, reforms are needed in order to mitigate negative socio-economic and political impacts on vulnerable populations in targeted countries, while ensuring that enacted sanctions are effective in coercing a state to change its behavior (Cortright et al. 2010: 4). Through analysis of research conducted on UNSC sanctions, this paper will attempt to examine the extent to which targeted sanctions regimes are effective in pressuring state adherence to the customary norms of international law and establish recommendations for potential reforms.


Introduction Turmeric and turmeric extracts have long been active ingredients in compositions for oral and topical application to treat diseases and conditions. Curcuma longa (Family Zingiberaccae), or turmeric, is a spicy plant that is a common ingredient in curry powder [1]. Turmeric is one of the oldest herbs in Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine. Turmeric has been applied topically to wounds to stop bleeding, speed healing and reduce scarring. Ground turmeric has been used as a topical salve to prevent and treat a variety of skin diseases and conditions [1]. The significance of turmeric in medicine has changed in modern times with the scientific observation of turmeric's therapeutic properties. Curcuminoids have scientifically documented anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, anti-mutagen, and anti-cancer properties. Significant data are available on the safety, toxicity, dose range, pharmacokinetics, and other biological properties of turmeric and its components, including curcuminoids and turmeric peptide. As detailed below, turmeric components are well tolerated while providing anti-oxidant benefits, inhibit microbial growth, inhibit several enzymes, and inhibit abnormal cell growth in studies of cells, animals, and humans. Turmeric reduces arachidonic acid-induced rat paw and mouse skin edema and markedly inhibits epidermal lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase activity in vitro [2, 3, 4]. Phosphorylation events can also be influenced by curcumin, as it has been reported that curcuminoids inhibit protein kinase C activity induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate in NIH 3T3 cells [5]. Abstract *Ketan Desai


Focus is a special, year-long seminar program open only to matriculating first-year students. Several Focus programs are offered every year, each built around a seminar topic reflecting the Focus faculty member's particular area of expertise. Students in a Focus seminar frequently enroll in a companion course chosen by their professor to encourage exploration of the seminar topic from varying perspectives. A Focus program provides a coherent, group-oriented learning experience with out-of-classroom activities, while still allowing time for electives.


The necessity of a lab course on computer security arises from the students' need to complement course work by hands-on experience. In order to meet the distance teaching demands of our institution, we designed an internet-based laboratory. We sketch the types of tasks the students are to perform, and our approach to check immediately whether students have completed a task. Yet, the typical tasks in labs only cover work done alone, while security engineering often comprises tasks involving several independent parties. This in turn calls for collaborative tasks, which we sketch. As students operate in larger groups, and the server hosting the lab machines can only run a finite number of them simultaneously, a reservation scheme is employed to guarantee fair access for all participants.


A quantitative comparative analysis of the mechanisms of hardening of the surface layers of differentially hardened 100-m rails is carried out. It was based on structure formation, phase composition, defect substructure regularities revealed by the methods of modern physical materials science. The studies were carried out at different depths of up to 10 mm in the rail head along the central axis and along the axis of symmetry of the fillet in the initial state and after various periods of extremely long-term operation (passed tonnage of 691.8 and 1411 mln. tons brutto). The contributions due to the friction of the matrix lattice, interphase boundaries, dislocation substructure, presence of carbide particles, internal stress fields, solid-solution hardening of the pearlite component of the steel structure are estimated.


Abstract Reduplicative words like chiffchaff or helter-skelter are part of ordinary language use yet most often found in substandard registers in which attitudinal and expressive meaning components are iconically foregrounded. In a rating experiment using nonwords that either conform to, or deviate from, conventional reduplicative patterns in German, the present study identified affective meaning dimensions, judgments of familiarity and esthetic evaluations of sound qualities associated with such words. In a subsequent recall test, we examined the respective mnemonic potential of the different types of reduplication. Results suggest that, in the absence of semantic content, reduplicative forms are inherently associated with several affective meaning associations that are generally considered positive. Two types of reduplicative patterns, namely full reduplication and [i-a]-vowel-alternating reduplication, boost these positive effects to a particularly pronounced degree, leading to an increase in perceived euphony, funniness, familiarity, appreciation, and positive belittling (cuteness) and, at the same time, a decrease in arousal. These two types also turn out to be particularly memorable when compared both to other types of reduplication and to non-reduplicative structures. This study demonstrates that reduplicative morphology may in and of itself, that is, irrespective of the phonemic and the semantic content, contribute to the affective meaning and esthetic evaluation of words.


The S4800 scanning electron microscope with energy spectrometer, D8 Focus X-ray diffractometer, AG-10TA electronic universal testing machine and electrochemical station were employed to investigate systematically the effects of Y addition on the microstructure, the mechanical properties at room temperature and high temperature(175 ℃)and corrosion resistance of AM60B magnesium alloy. Experimental results indicate that the thermodynamically stable new phase Al2Y is formed after Y addition to the AM60B alloys, and distribution of Mg17Al12 is changed from reticulation to dispersed state. When the addition amount of Y was 0.6%, both the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of the alloy were enhanced. There were obviously diffraction peaks of Al2Y phase in XRD patterns when the addition amount of Y was 1.2%, the high temperature(175 ℃)tensile strength of the alloy reaches 147 MPa and the room-temperature tensile strength also reached the best. At the same time, the corrosion potential of alloy increased to -1.02 V. With Y content increasing from 1.2% to 1.8%, the corrosion potential of alloy had no obvious change while the mechanical properties decreased.


Isolated hyoid fractures are rare injuries, usually associated with road traffic accidents, trauma or strangulation.[1][1] The majority present immediately to the emergency department with neck pain, dysphagia and dysphonia. Severe injuries can lead to airway compromise and complications include


Energy (oil and gas) is one of the important and critical factors in the Persian Gulf countries. Energy is important factor on the economy-politics-culture and all aspects of social life and the outer areas of the country. Democracy and the rule of democracy in these countries are important factors. Energy ithas help edorhindered the process of democracy. What are the important factors of democracy? Persian Gulf are often considered a perfect example of the so-called "resource curse" the argument that energy tends to undermine democracy. Given high oil prices, some observers see the countries as virtually condemned to authoritarian government for the foreseeable future. In addition Persian gulf are countries with an Industrialized economy, a highly educated, urbanized population, and an Petroleum sector that remains majority private-owned is unlikely to be susceptible to most of the hypothesized pernicious effects of resource dependence. The most fundamental question is which, Do oil and other mineral resources inhibit democracy? Studies of mineral-rich countries in the Middle East, Africa, and other world regions have often suggested that the answer is yes. This article explains the interaction of the energy role and democracy in Persian Gulf countries.


The combustion characteristics of an HCCI engine fueled with n-butanol were investigated on a modified two-cylinder, four stoke diesel engine. The experiments were conducted on the HCCI engine with λ of 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0, and the intake air temperature and engine speed were kept at 140 °C and 1000rpm, respectively. Effects of λ on combustion characteristics including in-cylinder pressure rise rate, heat release rate, CA05 and combustion duration of HCCI combustion engine are discussed in details based on the recorded in-cylinder pressure. The results indicate that in-cylinder pressure and the rate of pressure rise both decrease with the increase of λ, the maximum heat release rate also decreases with the increase of λ but occurs at late crank angles. In addition, as λ increases, the combustion phasing retards and combustion duration becomes longer.


Gradiometric gravimetry is a survey technique widely used in geological structure investigation. This work demon- strates the feasibility of a new class of low frequency accelerometers for geodynamics studies and space applica- tions. We present the design features of a new low noise single-axis differential accelerometer; the sensor is suit- able to be used in a Gravity Gradiometer (GG) system for land geophysical survey and gravity gradient measure- ments. A resolution of 1 Eotvos (1 Eo =10 −9 s −2 ) at one sample per second is achievable in a compact, lightweight (less than 2 kg) portable instrument, operating at room temperature. The basic components of the sensor are two identical rigidly connected accelerometers separated by a 15-cm baseline vector and the useful signal is extracted as the subtraction of the two outputs, by means of an interferometric microwave readout system. The structure will be engraved in a monocrystal of sapphire by means of Computer-Numerically-Controlled (CNC) ultrasonic ma- chining: the material was chosen because of its unique mix of outstanding mechanical and dielectric properties.


Abstract Increased interest in the production of rabbit meat justifies the need to assess and improve the welfare of these animals not only during the production cycle but also at slaughter. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effects of different stunning methods on the level of blood biochemical parameters (stress indicators), and meat quality of slaughter rabbits. Rabbits of the Hycole line (n = 60) were subjected to the following stunning methods: mechanical with a non-penetrating captive bolt (group I; n = 20), mechanical by hitting a narrow rod on the head (group II; n = 20), and electrical stunning (n = 20). In the stunning groups there were no differences found in the blood level of insulin, cortisol, glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, non-esterified fatty acids, and protein content (P>0.05). The stunning method did not affect the pH of rabbit meat (P=0.768), but significantly influenced the L* and b* colour parameters. The muscles of longissimus thoracis et lumborum, from the group of rabbits mechanically stunned by hitting a narrow rod on the head, were the darkest (L * = 58.4), with the lowest yellowness values (b* = 4.04). The meat of electrically stunned rabbits was characterised by higher drip loss (P<0.001), lower plasticity (P=0.043), and higher free water content (P=0.043). From the analysed texture measures, only the Warner Bratzler Shear Energy values of the cooked meat were affected by the stunning method. These values were higher in the meat of the mechanically stunned groups compared to the electrically stunned rabbits (P=0.042). The percentage of dry matter, crude protein, extractable fat and water to protein ratio, were affected only by the muscle type (P<0.001). To conclude, the rabbit meat was characterised by good quality, with only slight differences between the groups. No differences were found in the stress reaction of rabbits subjected to the examined stunning methods.


The EduJudge project aims to open the repository of programming problems of the University of Valladolid Online Judge (online-judge.uva.es) to pedagogical uses in secondary and higher education. This project integrates a repository of learning objects that will be used for managing collections of programming exercises and retrieving those suited to the profile of a particular student. This paper describes the conceptual architecture of the repository, based on a book library metaphor, and the definition of programming problems as learning objects. It describes also the repository's concrete architecture, starting with the definition of its use cases and its structure in components. We finish with an enumeration of the tasks ahead of us.


Objective To study the protective effect and mechanisms of saikosaponin-D(SS-d) on primary rat hepatocytes injured by ethanol.Methods Primary hepatocytes were isolated、cultured by trypsin digestion and induced by ethanol.Various concentrations of SS-d were added to the primary cultured hepatocytes for 12h.The content of malondialdehyde(MDA) and activity of glutathion peroxidase(GSH-px) in hepatocytes and the activity of ALT in cultural supernatant were determined by general methods.The viability of hepatocytes was measured by MTT.Results Compared with model group,SS-d could restored remarkably ALT level in supermatant of cultural hepatocytes,decreased MDA content,elevate GSH-px activity of hepatocytes,and improve hepatocyte viability.Conclusion SS-d has protective action on primary rat hepatocytes injured by ethanol.The mechanisms may be related with eliminating free radicals and reducing lipid peroxidation.


SAUDI ARABIA The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia, by David Commins. London, UK and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006. xi + 209 pages. Chron. to p. 212. Gloss, to p. 214. Notes to p. 258. Bibl. to p. 269. Index to p. 276. $74.95. Reviewed by Paul Aarts After the September 11,2001 terrorist attacks, much has been made of the influence of Wahhabism on the make-up of 'Usama bin Ladin and the extremism of his followers and supporters. American "Neocons," in their anti-Saudi campaign, have been in the forefront of conflating Wahhabism with terrorism, unhampered by any scholarly knowledge about these matters. Not only in the United States, or Western Europe for that matter, Wahhabism has become a sort of bogeyman in public discourse. Also, and more in particular, Russia and Central Asia have increasingly witnessed the phenomenon of Wahhabi-phobia, the most egregious example being the Kyrgyztani government's complaint about "Wahhabi agitators from Iran." This anecdote is taken from The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia, an erudite account of Wahhabism's historical development from its early beginnings till the present day. The most interesting part of the book starts with the third chapter, when King 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Saud initiates the process of "taming Wahhabi zeal." Wahhabi 'ulatna' increasingly accepted the constraints on their mission imposed by political realities: "simply put, political considerations trumped religious idealism" and the pre-eminent shaykhs realized that "half a loaf is better than none" (p. 103). The Al Shaykh received control over religious and (a large part of) educational institutions, in exchange for political quietism. This deal, however, was not set in stone. Due to the influence of Islamic revivalist trends elsewhere in the Arab East and South Asia - in particular the writings of Sayyid Qutb and Abu 'Ala' Mawdudi - more politically oriented ideas won ground at the expense of the more puritanically oriented Wahhabi trend. Though the two may resonate with one another, they were different movements. They shared a common adversary (Western influence), though not a common doctrine. Between 1979 and 2001, three major crises developed, leading to the gradual erosion of Wahhabi credibility as the establishment 'ulama ' found itself in the akward position of defending an unpopular dynasty as political discontent intensified. The brief seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979, by Juhayman al-Utaybi, was a manifestation of a millenarian, antimonarchical movement, condemning the Wahhabi 'ulama' and echoing the activist ideas of Qutb and Mawdudi. …


A statistical classifier was developed to interpret falling weight deflectometer data for the detection of voids under jointed concrete pavement slabs. The classifier was trained with the Seasonal Monitoring Program sections in the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database and data from the Minnesota Road Research Facility. A two-level cross-validation process was used to assess the performance of existing void detection methods, according to a threshold of a single variable, and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) classifier, which is based on several variables. Simple void detection methods based on the normalized 9,000-lb deflection were found to perform better than void detection methods based on variable deflection analysis. The LASSO classifier outperformed any of the existing void detection techniques. The LASSO classifier was validated through two field trials in Pennsylvania and an LTPP general pavement section in which significant faulting had developed.


.................................................................................................5 Introduction and Problem Statement................................................................6 Literature Review......................................................................................8 Research Problem and Objectives...................................................................15 Methods.................................................................................................19 Results...................................................................................................26 Discussion...............................................................................................54 Conclusions.............................................................................................64 Significance.............................................................................................65 Appendix I Reproductive history....................................................................................66 Survey of women.......................................................................................68 Survey of healthcare workers.........................................................................71 References................................................................................................74 Appendix II..............................................................................................78 The Ohio State University IRB Approval Tanzanian National Institute for Medical Research Ethical Approval Tables and Figures Fig. 1....................................................................................................16 Fig.2.....................................................................................................28 Fig.3a...................................................................................................42 Fig. 3b...................................................................................................42 Table 1..................................................................................................26 Table 2..................................................................................................27 Table 3..................................................................................................47 Table 4..........................................................................................49


The combination of philosophical orientation to education (learning as indoctrination or individual discovery) and values about school management (high trust or regulated) yields different cultural assumptions and orientations to what school is and how it operates. This short note introduces some of the conceptual issues in play for each of the cultural patterns.


Maize is an important cash and food crop grown in Tanzania and other parts of the world. The crop is susceptible to fungal infestation and subsequent mycotoxins contamination that negatively affects human and animal health as well as the socio-economic status of the farmers and respective stakeholders. The study was conducted to determine occurrence of aflatoxigenic fungi ( A. flavus and A. parasiticus ) on maize stored in warehouses found in Morogoro municipality and Makambako district. A total of 226 maize samples were collected from six wards in the selected study areas then analysed for aflatoxigenic fungal infestation. Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) was used for isolation of the fungi which were then identified to species level via observation of morphological characteristics with aid of taxonomic keys. The proportional occurrence of A. parasiticus and A. flavus with respect to areas where samples were collected was presented using descriptive statistics. The result showed that only 15% (34/226) of the collected samples were contaminated with Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus . In the collected samples, the incidence of A. flavus was higher than that of A. parasiticus whereby 28 samples were contaminated with A. flavus and 6 samples with A. parasiticus . The study elucidated that the methods used in the storage of this major staple food used by majority of Tanzanians makes it vulnerable to infestation and subsequent contamination by aflatoxigenic fungi. We therefore recommend that responsible sectors should implement appropriate intervention strategies designed to reduce occurrence of aflatoxigenic Aspergillus species on stored maize.


The aim of the article is reveal brand value creation from different point of views: customers and stakeholders. Literature analysis suggests brand value has become an important metric for brand health for consumers and corporate performance metric for many companies and investors. However increasing consumer power, accelerated social media, marketing promotions companies threatens the foundations of brand value. This article focus on measuring the influence of advertising, sales promotions, brand community, innovations and other incentives on brand value after controlling for net income and lagged brand valuation of Lithuanian companies. The article was prepared by using comparative analysis of scientific literature, integrated brand valuation model, empirical results from some Lithuanian companies and the author insights on this topic.


Being open is a basic feature of the course in the Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching in teachers' universities or colleges. It includes the opening to the concerned subjects and environment, the practice of foreign language teaching in middle schools and the culture .So it is just the feature of being open that makes the course in the Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching full of life and vitality.


Guo Moruo and Junichirou Tanizaki's research is engaged in Guo Moruo to study the unavoidable question.It not only may develop China and Japan modern literature research from the case,it has the great academic value to research deeply relations between Guo Moruo and Japanese writers.Therefore,we collect Guo Moruo and Junichirou Tanizaki's fact relations through the historical data collection;We study both esthetic relations through comparison of its novel,and obtain similarities and differences between both novels,the existing field of vision is expanded.


10114Background: There are limited studies to evaluate treatments that target causative mechanisms of Cancer-related-fatigue (CRF) using validated tools in a defined population. The objective is to...


Behaviorism as system of thought has its roots in a number of philosophical traditions: materialism, empirism, and positivism. Behavior-istic psychology applied to the educational context has resulted in several educational policy emphases and specific instructional practices, i.e. behavioral objectives, instructional strategies, and competency based education. The emphases in competency based education are on the outcomes rather than the process of learning. The advocates of behavioral education maintain that learning outcomes should be measured objectively and precisely.


Du Fu's Tsingchou Poems is a landmark for the new high level of its ideological content and artistry.If Tsingchou Poems is compared to music,the main theme will be full of emotions of concerns about the times and social instability,recollections of life experiences and sadness without a fixed living place.And affections are found between the lines of anxiety about frontier safety and concerns about people's fate and the country's future.Du Fu has a deep understanding of Misery and Compassionate Consciousness advocated by Confucius and Mencius,and this idea is interpreted fully in Du Fu's affectionate poems.


An emissive microdisplay technology has been developed which incorporates a layer of light emitting polymer on a CMOS substrate. Monochrome microdisplays of QVGA (320 × 240) resolution have been manufactured and early aspects of their initial characterization are presented. Benefits of the technology include very low power consumption plus relatively simple drive electronics and opto‐mechanics.


Purpose - – The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the impact of stock market development on the economic growth for a panel of 27 emerging economies using annual data over the period from 1995 to 2012. Design/methodology/approach - – A second-generation panel unit root test developed by Pesaran (2007) has been used to test the stationary properties of the data series. To achieve the study objectives and to mitigate the endogeneity problem that exists in the given model, the authors use a dynamic panel "system GMM" estimator. The authors also use a heterogeneous panel causality test proposed by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) to examine the direction of causality among the variables. Findings - – The empirical findings indicate that stock market development significantly contributes to economic growth. Further, a unidirectional causality running from stock market development to economic growth has been found. This finding is consistent with the supply-leading hypothesis. Besides stock market development, it is also evident that macroeconomic variables, such as investment ratio, trade openness and exchange rates, have significant impact on economic growth. Research limitations/implications - – The findings suggest that a well-functioning stock market, a more globalized economy and increasing aggregate investment can potentially foster the economic growth in those emerging economies. Originality/value - – Unlike other studies, this study constructs three alternate composite indices along with the individual indicators of stock market development and applies robust panel econometric techniques to establish more reliable results.


Background: Demonstration of alpha adrenoreceptors in the peripheral nervous system has made to study the effects of various alpha adrenergic drugs with local anesthetics in peripheral nerve blocks. This study is designed to compare the efficacy of clonidine and epinephrine when added to bupivacaine in brachial plexus block. Methods: Forty ASA 1 and 2 patients undergoing upper limb surgeries under supraclavicular brachial plexus block were divided into two groups in a randomized double blinded fashion. Group BA received 5 mcg/ml of adrenaline and group BC recieved mcg/ kg of clonidine along with 30 ml of 0.375% bupivacaine. Onset of sensory and motor blockade, duration of analgesia, hemodynamic stability were studied in both the groups. Results: Onset of sensory and motor blockade were 6.25+1.33 minutes and 3.80+0.834 minutes respectively in group BA and 5.85+1.26 minutes and 3.55+1.05 minutes respectively in group BC which were not statistically significant between the two groups. Duration of analgesia was 7.12+0.63 hours in group BA and 12.69+1.28 hours in group BC which was statistically significant (p value 0.001). There were no significant difference in the hemodynamic parameters between the two groups. Conclusion: Addition of clonidine to bupivacaine in supraclavicular brachial plexus block provides a significant advantage over epinephrine to bupivacaine in terms of postoperative analgesia without any significant side effects.


The coming of the year 2000 has haunted the Western imagination for the past thousand years. Ever since the world failed to end at the turn of the first millennium after Christ, theologians, evangelists, poets, and seers have looked to the end of this decade with an expectation that it would bring something momentous. No less an authority than Isaac Newton speculated that the world would end with the year 2000. Michel de Nostradamus, whose prophecies have been read by every generation since they were first


A study was conducted to determine the species composition, relative abundance and seasonal variation of mosquito fauna of District Upper Dir in 2014. A total of 1241 species; 712 male (57.37%) and 529 female (42.63%), comprising of nine species of four genera, were collected from four localities, namely Barawal (278), Sheringal (381), Wari (356) and Dir City (226) of the District Upper Dir. Three species each of Anopheles and Culex, two species of Aedes and one species of Culiseta were recorded. The insect species recorded were Culex quinquefasciatus, Culex mimeticus, Culex theileri, Anopheles maculates, Anopheles stephensi, Anopheles annularis, Aedes albopictus, Aedes shortii and Culiseta longiareolata. Mosquito species were found in water, field crops, animal sheds and human dwellings habitats. Monthly variation and abundance studied from April to November revealed that out of total number of 1241 samples recorded there were highest number of 357 of Cu. quinquefasciatus and lower number of 3 of Cu. longiareolata. The present results might be helpful in devising pest management strategies against the mosquito species of District Dir Upper.