Jeg folte da Befrielse ved at se de unge Mond marchere mod Fronten. For en Kamp er et Follesskab og to Duellanter bliver en Enhed. Karen Blixen, "Farah" (Skyggerpaa Grosset 16) I felt a relief then, as I watched the young soldiers marching west, to the frontier, for in aright the adversaries become one, and the two duelists make up a Unity. Isak Dinesen, "Farah" (Shadows on the Grass 5) TOWARD THE END of her life in 1958 Karen Blixen rekindled an old friendship from Africa, namely with General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck of Bremen. To the eighty-seven year old German officer, she wrote proudly (and in English) of her paternal lineage of soldiers who had fought on Danish soil: "Both my father and my grandfather were officers in the French army as well as in the Danish, and received the Legion d'Honneur. My grandfather in the German-Danish War of 1848-50 commanded the "Barterie Dinesen." And she added eagerly, "I wonder if any of your family took part in it" (5 June 1958). (1) The occasion of this letter was Blixen's planned visit to Germany in 1958. Karen Blixen's acquaintance with Patti von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870-1964) began in 1913 when he traveled to Africa to serve as commanding general in German East African in 1914-1918. Blixen made his acquaintance on the ship on the way to Africa in 1913 and bid him farewell in Mombasa on the day of her wedding, January 14, 1914. The two did not meet again in Africa. During World War II, von Lettow served Hitler's Germany and suffered the loss of two teenage sons at the eastern front. (2) When General von Lettow wrote to Blixen in the summer of 1939, he had not been in contact with her for twenty-five years. He had read Out of Africa and kindly pointed out that Blixen had misquoted a poem by Goethe. (3) This correspondence led to Blixen's visit to Bremen in March 1940 on her way to Berlin, an experience she describes in chronicles from Germany, published after the war as "Breve fra et Land i Krig" (1948; translated as "Letters from a Land at War" 1979). Blixen maintained the renewed acquaintance with von Lettow during the Second World War. During the winter of 1942, Patti von Lettow stoically related to her the death of his nineteen-year old son at Moscow with the remark, "But, of course, one has to bear it" And he added in a heartening tone, "I am convinced that the Bolshevisme will be bannished sooner or later, and I think that this is the main question." (Karen Blixen i Danmark: Breve 1931-1962 I: 340). No response by Blixen to this particular letter is to be found in the archives. One wonders whether Blixen appreciated fully the gravity of the general's political convictions in 194-2. What Karen Blixen appears to have seen in the old officer was not a political foe, but an honorable and chivalrous old soldier with whom she identified the military heritage of her father and forefathers. The fact that Hitler's Germany had violated the "non-aggression treaty" and occupied Denmark in the spring of 1940, and the fact that Blixen's and von Lettow's forefathers obviously fought on opposite sides of the border in the Dano-Prussian Wars, seem not to have concerned the Baroness when she penned her letter to him in 1958. If she regarded him as a former political foe, then in her eyes he was a worthy adversary of the sort she idealized in her fiction. On occasion Karen Blixen liked to refer to herself as a "soldier's daughter" and, in keeping with this role, she cultivated notions of a warrior ethos, an aristocratic fearlessness, and a love of danger in her fiction. In Africa, she found the most magnificent and genuine embodiment of her ideals in the Masai warriors, the indigenous lion-hunters of Kenya, and she immortalized representations of them in her literary masterpiece Den afrikanske Farm (1937; Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa, 1937). Blixen's pastoral novel about Africa is colored dramatically by her appropriation of nineteenth-century European culture and values, including archaic notions of honorable warfare and chivalrous soldiery. …


The blue-green facial bands in two species of mangrove crabs, Perisesarma eumolpe (De Man) and Perisesarma indiarum (Tweedie) (Fig. 1), are known to be important in mate and/or species recognition and are believed to convey the physical 'quality' of the individual. For colour to be an effective indicator of quality, there has to be a direct production cost of the colour. Carotenoid-based pigments in animals fulfill these criteria. Being unable to biosynthesize carotenoids de novo, animals rely on dietary supply to achieve carotenoid-based pigmentation; therefore their presence can reflect foraging ability. Facial band tissues of Perisesarma eumolpe and Perisesarma indiarum were extracted and analysed for carotenoids using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The results confirm the presence of carotenoids in the facial bands of both species.


We conducted a study to document the impact of COVID‐19 pandemic on cancer screening continuum in selected low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). LMICs having an operational cancer control plan committed to screen eligible individuals were selected. Managers/supervisors of cancer screening programs were invited to participate in an online survey and subsequent in‐depth interview. Managers/supervisors from 18 programs in 17 countries participated. Lockdown was imposed in all countries except Brazil. Screening was suspended for at least 30 days in 13 countries, while diagnostic‐services for screen‐positives were suspended in 9 countries. All countries except Cameroon, Bangladesh, India, Honduras and China managed to continue with cancer treatment throughout the outbreak. The participants rated service availability compared to pre‐COVID days on a scale of 0 (no activities) to 100 (same as before). A rating of ≤50 was given for screening services by 61.1%, diagnostic services by 44.4% and treatment services by 22.2% participants. At least 70% participants strongly agreed that increased noncompliance of screen‐positive individuals and staff being overloaded or overwhelmed with backlogs would deeply impact screening programs in the next 6 months at least. Although many of the LMICs were deficient in following the "best practices" to minimize service disruptions, at least some of them made significant efforts to improve screening participation, treatment compliance and program organization. A well‐coordinated effort is needed to reinitiate screening services in the LMICs, starting with a situational analysis. Innovative strategies adopted by the programs to keep services on‐track should be mutually shared.


It's a Matter of Laying Children with special needs receive a myriad of services within the early childhood preschool setting. For most children, the child's parents coordinate this process. Under the IDEA, schools are charged with planning for and facilitating the transition of children with disabilities from one educational setting to the next. A smooth transition plan should be developed to maximize the benefits of an effective preschool program in kindergarten. This article addresses the procedures for a fluid transition from preschool to kindergarten for students with disabilities discussing parental roles and critical aspects of the transition timeline. Under the IDEA, schools are charged with planning for and facilitating the transition of children with disabilities from one educational setting to the next (infant/toddler programs to preschool, preschool programs to school age programs, middle childhood programs to secondary programs, secondary programs to post-secondary programs). The intent of planned and coordinated transitions


The oxidation of cesium has been studied using ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy. Upon exposure of a fresh cesium film to oxygen, a very narrow peak appears in the energy distribution curves (EDC's) about 2.6 eV below the Fermi level Ef and grows with increasing exposure. This peak is associated with oxygen ions dissolved in the cesium metal below the surface. After 3×10−5 Torr sec of exposure, additional structure begins to appear. This is associated with the precipitation of cesium oxides. The structure associated with the oxides changes with increasing oxygen exposure indicating the appearance of different oxides. The oxide penetrates appreciably to the surface only after strong oxide buildup has taken place beneath the surface. A sharp minimum of 0.7 eV is found in the work function over a relatively small range of oxygen exposure.


Conventional dialogue summarization methods directly generate summaries and do not consider user's specific interests. This poses challenges in cases where the users are more focused on particular topics or aspects. With the advancement of instruction-finetuned language models, we introduce instruction-tuning to dialogues to expand the capability set of dialogue summarization models. To overcome the scarcity of instructive dialogue summarization data, we propose a three-step approach to synthesize high-quality query-based summarization triples. This process involves summary-anchored query generation, query filtering, and query-based summary generation. By training a unified model called InstructDS (Instructive Dialogue Summarization) on three summarization datasets with multi-purpose instructive triples, we expand the capability of dialogue summarization models. We evaluate our method on four datasets, including dialogue summarization and dialogue reading comprehension. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art models and even models with larger sizes. Additionally, our model exhibits higher generalizability and faithfulness, as confirmed by human subjective evaluations.


Author(s): Steedman, Mark Rory | Advisor(s): Desai, Tejal A | Abstract: This dissertation focuses on the development of polycaprolactone thin films for retinal tissue engineering and drug delivery. We combined these thin films with techniques such as micro and nanofabrication to develop treatments for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease that leads to the death of rod and cone photoreceptors. Current treatments are only able to slow or limit the progression of the disease, and photoreceptors cannot be regenerated or replaced by the body once lost. The first experiments presented focus on a potential treatment for AMD after photoreceptor death has occurred. We developed a polymer thin film scaffold technology to deliver retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) to the affected area of the eye. Earlier research showed that RPCs destined to become photoreceptors are capable of incorporating into a degenerated retina. In our experiments, we showed that RPC attachment to a micro-welled polycaprolactone (PCL) thin film surface enhanced the differentiation of these cells toward a photoreceptor fate. We then used our PCL thin films to develop a drug delivery device capable of sustained therapeutic release over a multi-month period that would maintain an effective concentration of the drug in the eye and eliminate the need for repeated intraocular injections. We first investigated the biocompatibility of PCL in the rabbit eye. We injected PCL thin films into the anterior chamber or vitreous cavity of rabbit eyes and monitored the animals for up to 6 months. We found that PCL thin films were well tolerated in the rabbit eye, showing no signs of chronic inflammation due to the implant. We then developed a multilayered thin film device containing a microporous membrane. We loaded these devices with lyophilized proteins and quantified drug elution for 10 weeks, finding that both bovine serum albumin and immunoglobulin G elute from these devices with zero order release kinetics. These experiments demonstrate that PCL is an extremely useful biomaterial that may be used to treat AMD in multiple ways. Through both tissue engineering and drug delivery techniques we have established that PCL thin films have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of AMD.


In highway engineering, GPR is a nondestructive tool for measuring pavement layer thickness, moisture content of subgrade soils, and assessing other pavement conditions, such as moisture-related pavement damage. From the reflected GPR wave information, dielectric properties of the materials, which are highly dependent on soil or aggregate-water-air systems, can be estimated. An increase in dielectric constant may indicate an increase in water content of dielectric materials. However, the relationship between dielectric value and moisture content is complex and controlled by many factors. GPR studies, which consider both real and imaginary parts of dielectric value and its frequency-dependent behavior, have shown potentials for developing more robust model to predict moisture content. This paper presents an overview of GPR applications in estimating water content and assessing pavement condition. Further investigation of GPR is also discussed.


Foodborne infections are much in the news these days. The CDC studies the problem prospectively with FoodNet, an active surveillance program now in its


We have developed a novel bistable TN LCD that switches between π/2 and 3π/2 twist states. The range of d/p for obtaining bistability was obtained experimentally. The swithing behavior using several different switching waveforms was also inveestigated. A high contrast of 30:1 was obtained. the Novel bistable TN LCD can be driven by a passive-matrix addressing method.


Directional drilling technique can provide flexibility in rig location selection as well as increase drilling and production efficiencies through extended reach to isolated reservoirs. However, as well complexity increases, analyzing the mechanical performance of the associated drillstring and its components becomes more difficult. A standard Finite element method (FEM) can accurately analyze directional drilling statics and dynamics by discretizing the structure into a series of straight beam elements. However, this method has a drawback of high computational cost. To increase the computational efficiency, this paper introduces the application of curved beam FEM to model directional drillstring. The minimum curvature method is applied to obtain directional well profiles in which the adjacent survey points are connected by circular arcs. Based upon this assumption, the curved beam is used to model the curved drillstring to minimize the discretization error and to increase the computational efficiency. Static and dynamic analyses are carried out to verify the proposed method. As compared to the straight beam approximation method, fewer elements are needed to obtain a given accuracy, leading to more efficient simulations. The utility of the proposed model is also demonstrated through analyzing realistic drilling scenarios.


ABSTRACT In a Vision Session at the 34th annual NASIG conference, NASIG's Equity & Inclusion Committee coordinated an interactive town hall meeting to discuss as a group what diversity and inclusion means for the organization and its members. Representatives from the Committee introduced questions and facilitated small group discussions among participants. Insights and suggestions were shared during the session, via email to the Committee, and on notecards that were collected at the end of the meeting. The Equity & Inclusion Committee designed these exercises and feedback channels to shape their future activities and service to the community.


In today's era of globalisation, the increased outreach for every event across the world has been leading to conflicting opinions, arguments and disagreements, often reflected in print media and online social platforms. It is necessary to distinguish factual observations from personal judgements in news, as subjectivity in reporting can influence the audience's perception of reality. Several studies conducted on the different styles of reporting in journalism are essential in understanding phenomena such as media bias and multiple interpretations of the same event. This domain finds applications in fields such as Media Studies, Discourse Analysis, Information Extraction, Sentiment Analysis, and Opinion Mining. We present an event corpus Manovaad-v1.0 consisting of 1035 news articles corresponding to 65 events from 3 levels of newspapers viz., Local, National, and International levels. Using this novel format, we correlate the trends in the degree of subjectivity with the geographical closeness of reporting using a Bi-RNN model. We also analyse the role of background and focus in event reporting and capture the focus shift patterns within a global discourse structure for an event. We do this across different levels of reporting and compare the results with the existing work on discourse processing.


For the third year, the regular spr ing meetin g of the [ew Mexico Chapter , AlA was held in connect ion with a two da y conference on a topi c of common interest. As pr evious meetings had been spo nso red by the Albuquerque and Santa Fe Sections of the state organization, the resp onsibility thi s yea r fell on the Southern Sec tion. Centering the discussion ar ound the theme of " Exce lle nce in Ar chitecture," the Southern Sect ion arranged meetin gs to be held April second and third at the Roswell Inn , Roswell, T. M. Much of the labor of organizing the meeting and pr ocuring speakers was und ert aken by Mr. Frank Standha rdt , and to him the Chapter is ind ebted. nfortunateIy, an unu sual lat e spring blizzard consp ired to keep most AIA members fr om the centra l and northern sections from attending. Th ere was, however , an exce lle nt attendance from the south and eas tern ar eas. Th e evenin g meetin gs were immeasurably enlivened by cocktail s proferred by Offi ce Int eri ors and Builders Block and Stone on Friday and Saturday nights respecti vel y. Th e theme for the conference, Excell ence in Architecture, was, of course, a big one. But it was rendered manageable by dint of br eaking the formidable problem of exce lle nce int o five steps, each of which formed the topi c of one sess ion. Th e Five Steps are: Community Teeds, Planning Criteri a, Design , Plan and Specifications, Constr uction. Th e idea of how difficult of attainment is total exce lle nce and the imp ortan ce of accura cy and exce llence at eac h step of a building's development is neatl y represent ed in the foll owing dia gramati c table. In ad dition to the weather , an other " disas ter" heset the conference in that the tap e recorder to record the proceedin gs broke down in the course of the fir st sess ion. Although a full cove rage of the speeches is therefore imp ossible, ex-pres ident of the Chapter Kern Smith, in addition to his responsibilities of giving the Welcoming Speech, was thoughtful eno ugh to undertake the summarization of each talk. It is his notes, that we include here. It was a disa ppointment that Llo yd Snedaker of Sa lt Lake City, Dir ector of the Western Mountain Region of AIA could not ge t to the confere nce becau se of the bad flyin g conditions. He had att ended our two pr evious conferences and added much to them. Attend ing memb ers al so regr etted that Mr. Willard Kruger, who had been scheduled to give the banquet address on " Excelle nce in Architecture," did not come to Roswell. A hasty substitution was arranged and Mr. Bunting imp rovised a talk that at least fill ed the formal requirement s of a banquet address . It is to Kern Smith's summary of the speec hes deliv ered at the five sess ions that we now turn .


With basic theory and system of land circulation as the theme,the basic category of land circulation,foreign experience,theoretical basis,existing problems and causes were reviewed,analyzed and studied,several countermeasures for establishing and perfecting land circulation system were put forward.


OBJECTIVE To examine the association between p53 polymorphisms and esophageal cancer (EC) by systematically reviewing the risk of the original studies. METHODS The literature search in CNKI, Pubmed, ScienceDirect,Springer Link was carried out to find relevant papers. Disqualified studies were excluded. Odds ratio of p53Pro72Arg genotype distributions in the group of patients with esophageal cancer and the group of healthy control was calculated. The Meta-analysis was applied with RevMan 5.1 software for heterogeneity test and pooled OR calculation. RESULTS The pooled OR values of Arg/Pro and Pro/Pro compared to Arg/Arg were 1.12 (95%CI: 1.01-1.25) and 1.43 (95%CI: 1.15-1.78). CONCLUSION There are enough evidences currently to prove the relationship between p53Pro72Arg genetic polymorphism and susceptibility to esophageal cancer. It is demonstrated that p53Pro72Arg genotype Arg/Pro and Pro/Pro are the important risk factors for susceptibility to human esophageal cancer.


Visualization of Propionibacterium acnes in Patients Diagnosed with Acne Vulgaris. - Propionibacterium acnes Detected with Immunofluorescence and Fluorescence in situ Hybridization.


This short note presents a procedure for the separation of Ba++, Ca++, and Sr++ in pairs or combination of the three.


. Elliptic 6 j -symbols first appeared in connection with solvable models of statisti- cal mechanics. They include many interesting limit cases, such as quantum 6 j -symbols (or q -Racah polynomials) and Wilson's biorthogonal 10 W 9 functions. We give an elementary con- struction of elliptic 6 j -symbols, which immediately implies several of their main properties. As a consequence, we obtain a new algebraic interpretation of elliptic 6 j -symbols in terms of Sklyanin algebra representations.


Medication overuse headache (MOH) is preventable and treatable. However, MOH is a major contributor to headache-related disability, affecting up to 70% of patients in headache specialty practices (1). The man- agement of MOH is complicated as patients often have difficulty stopping the overused medication and relapse rates following successful detoxification are high, con- sistent with the concept of MOH as a bio-behavioral disorder, with a shared neurobiology to addiction (2). Analgesics appear to carry varying risks for MOH among susceptible patients, with the strongest associ- ations reported for opioid- and butalbital-containing analgesics (3,4). Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) carry the lowest risk, and may even be protective in the development of chronic daily head- days 1-7)), allowance for symptomatic treatment using a different medication than that previously overused (starting on day 8), and regular clinic follow-up over a 6-month period. The majority of patients were treated as outpatients (77.7%), but three centers used inpatient detoxification. For these three centers, the patients' dis- tance from the hospital and personal preferences were used to determine inpatient versus outpatient treat- ment. The subjects were mostly female, and afflicted with migraine, although 39 subjects (10.3%) had pure tension-type headache. Subjects were excluded if they had previously failed a prior detoxification protocol, were overusing 'pure' opioids, benzodiazepines or bar- biturates, were currently treated with a preventative medication, and if they had significant psychiatric comorbidity. During the 6-month observation period, a larger proportion of subjects undergoing outpatient detoxification dropped out of the study (33.9%) com- pared with those undergoing inpatient detoxification (12.5%). Based on an intention-to-treat analysis, nearly two-thirds of patients were no longer overusing medications at the end of the study protocol and nearly half had reverted to an episodic headache pattern. Further, less than 10% relapsed during months 2 through 6 (i.e. stopped overusing during month 1, but then restarted overusing between months 2 and 6). Among patients who completed the detoxification treatment, inpatient and outpatient treatment strategies had similar efficacy. The most important conclusion from this study is that MOH is a treatable condition across international borders and healthcare settings, with most patients benefiting from a combination of advice, detoxification,


Time synchronization is an important technology in industrial wireless networks.Saving energy and prolonging lifetime are key issues of wireless sensor networks.Based on both remaining energy of nodes and requesting for time synchronization precision,this paper presents an energy-aware and robust time synchronization protocol,in which the traditional flooding time synchronization protocol is improved.Simulation exhibits that the protocol outperforms some traditional algorithms in terms of network lifetime and energy consumption.In addition,the protocol supports WIA-PA.


The development of a labor force has become an important focus of recent historical research on 19th-century Puerto Rico. One center of investigation has been slavery and its linkages to sugar culture.1 Until recently historians had consistently stressed the relative insignificance of slave labor in Puerto Rico.2 However, by focusing at the municipal, or even hacienda level, scholars have begun to generate a more analytical view of 19th-century Puerto Rican slavery. It has been shown that slaves were critical for Puerto Rican planters during the period of rapid sugar expansion in the 1820s and 1830s, and continued as an important source of labor until abolition in 1873. Contrary to prior interpretations, the history of slavery in Puerto Rico differed little from that of the other sugar producing islands of the Caribbean


Abstract. Let M be an N-function satis es the 4 2 -condition andlet O M be the Orlicz space associated with M. Let C(O M ) be thespace of all continuous functions de ned on the interval [0;T] withvalues in O M .In this note, we de ne the analogue of Wiener measure m M˚ onC(O M ), establish the Wiener integration formulae for the cylinderfunctions on C(O M ) and give some examples related to our formu-lae. 1. IntroductionIt is the starting point of the study for Brownian motion that RobertBrown observed the motions of small particles in water through a mi-croscope in 1827. Since then, Wiener had established a theory for thereasonable probability measure m ! associated with Brownian motion,the one-dimensional Wiener measure, on the space C 0 [0;T] of all real-valued continuous functions on the closed bounded interval [0;T] thatvanish at 0 in 1923[12]. In 1965, Gross presented the theory for the ab-stract Wiener mesure !on the in nite dimesional real seperable Banachspcae B[2]. These are Gaussian measures on C


The number of women who venture into the field of business and entrepreneurship grows every year like mushroom growth every morning. The purpose of this research is to identify the factors contributing towards women inclination in business in Kota Bharu, Kelantan to venture into, grow and develop their business. Factors examined include motivation factor (source of income/survival), hobby or leisure time and earn more money and demographic details raging from age, races, status and education level. Questionnaires have been used as a method of data collection in this research and have been distributed to 50 women entrepreneurs in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 18 to get frequency, percentage and mean. Generally, the result of this research shows main factors that influence women in Kota Bharu, Kelantan to become entrepreneurs because of their hobby or leisure. Discussion on findings, conclusion and limitations of study are also included in the report.


Published as part of the Accounts of Chemical Research special issue "Chemical Biology of Peptides". Emily G. Baker,† Gail J. Bartlett,† Kathryn L. Porter Goff,† and Derek N. Woolfson*,†,‡,§ †School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, U.K. ‡School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, Biomedical Sciences Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, U.K. BrisSynBio and the Bristol BioDesign Institute, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, U.K.


This study was undertaken to examine the status and performance of various governmental schemes facilitating protected cultivation of horticultural crops in India and particularly Maharashtra. It was observed that the cumulative area achieved under protected cultivation by NHM in India during 2005–06 to 2017–18 was estimated to be 2.15 lakhs ha while the area brought under protected cultivation by Maharashtra was nearly about 0.16 lakh ha which accounted for 7.4percentof the total area under protected cultivation in India. The performance of NHM programme in Maharashtra showed that about 2811 farmers benefited with an average subsidy of 4.86 lakhs for establishing greenhouse. In case of shade net house about 3364 farmers were benefited with an average subsidy of 2.5 lakhs. Among eight divisions, Pune division accounted a share of 34 and 33percent among the total area in case of greenhouse and shade net house respectively. The state made significant progress in the horticulture sector with the use of the funds under the NHM programme. However, the performance of these schemes was uniform across regions but it was slow down. Thus, it was suggested that the efforts need to be made by the government to enhance the performance of schemes facilitating protected cultivation in order to have a larger impact.


Tetranychus urticae (Koch) is an economically important pest of many agricultural commodities in the Pacific Northwest. Multiple miticides are currently registered for control including abamectin, bifenazate, bifenthrin, and extoxazole. However, populations of Tetranychus urticae have developed miticide resistance through multiple mechanisms, in many different growing regions. Producers of agricultural commodities where Tetranychus urticae infestations are problematic rely on integrated pest management tools to determine optimal control methods. Within this species multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms have been documented in different genes which are associated with miticide resistance phenotypes. The detection of these mutations through TaqMan qPCR has been suggested as a practical, quick, and reliable tool to inform agricultural producers of miticide resistance phenotypes present within their fields and have potential utility for making appropriate miticide application and integrated pest management decisions. Within this investigation we examined the use of a TaqMan qPCR-based approach to determine miticide resistance genotypes in field-collected populations of Tetranychus urticae from mint fields and hop yards in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and confirmed the results with a multiplex targeted sequencing. The results suggest the TaqMan approach accurately genotypes Tetranychus urticae populations collected from agricultural fields. The interpretation of the results, however, provide additional challenges for integrated pest management practitioners, including making miticide application recommendations where populations of Tetranychus urticae are a mix of resistant and wildtype individuals.


Polyethylene reactor alloys are synthesized through heterogeneous ethylene polymerization with a new type of Ziegler-Natta (ZN)/late transition metal (LTM) hybrid catalyst. The effect of various parameters including catalyst composition (LTM/ZN = 0.01, 0.02, 0.04), polymerization temperature (TP = 30, 30–60, 60 °C) and loading temperature (TL = 30, 60 °C) on catalyst activity, chain's vinyl content, viscosity average molecular weight (Mv) and thermal properties are investigated. Two distinct melting peaks were observed in the ranges of 110–140 °C and 60–90 °C, indicating presence of two different lamellar structures. LTM/ZN ratio shifted melting peaks toward lower values. Rheological properties confirmed homogeneity of polymer blend's microstructure as they follow time temperature superposition.


Reaction of Na2(PdCl4) with two equivalents of amino- or acetylamino-pyridines (LH) affords trans-(PdCl2- (LH)2 ){ LH= 2-amino-3-methylpyridine (2-ampyH), 3-ami- nopyridine (3-apyH), 2-acetylamino-3-methylpyridine (2-ac- mpyH), 3-acetylamino-pyridine (3-acpyH)}. An X-ray crystal structure of trans-(PdCl2(2-ampyH)2) shows that the 2-ampy-H ligands are coordinated in a monodentate fashion via the nitrogen atoms of the pyridine rings. Treatment of trans- (PdCl2(2-acmpyH)2) with NEt3 affords the cyclometalated complex, trans-(Pd(j 2 -2-acmpy)2), the X-ray structure of which shows that the 2-acmpy ligand is coordinated to palla- dium in a bidentate fashion via the nitrogen atom of the pyridine ring and oxygen. Reaction of trans-(PdCl2(LH)2) with two equivalents of sodium saccharinate affords the bis(sacchari- nate) complexes, trans-(Pd(sac)2(LH)2), in which the saccha- rinate anions are coordinated via the amide nitrogen atom.


It is estimated that over 20 million Americans have cholelithiasis (stones in the gallbladder) and that almost one million new cases are diagnosed each year. Nearly 600,000 cholecystectomies are performed annually, ranking this surgical procedure among the five most frequently performed in the United States(1). Gallstones are common in people over 40 years of age, but they can also occur in teenagers. Women are affected four times more frequently than men are, and it has also been estimated that gallstones remain undetected in 60 to 80 percent of the population(2). Gallstones are prevalent in people in the United States, Western European countries, and Australia; they are rarely found in the people of Africa, particularly in the sub-Sahara region. In one study, gallstones in Americans were composed of cholesterol 92 percent of the time. In Orientals, however, the cholesterol content of stones was minimal, and stones were more likely to contain a high percent of bilirubin pigments(3). Gallstones are the most common cause of gallbladder disease (cholecystitis), but stones may also be present in such rare diseases as cholesterolosis (abnormal amounts of cholesterol in the tissues), adenomyoma, or carcinoma of the gallbladder. Several diseases and clinical states are associated with a high incidence of gallstones. Hemolytic disorders and cholesterol saturation of the bile both predispose an individual to biliary stones. Patients who have had extensive bowel resection for Crohn's disease have a three-to-fivefold increase in gallstones, possibly due to the interruption of recirculation of bile salts. Obesity and diabetes mellitus increase the likelihood of gallstones. Oral contraceptives and multiple pregnancies also increase the chance of stones. Oral contraceptives appear to alter the bile, which results in increasingly greater cholesterol saturation(4).


The main equipments,process,work flow of acid regeneration of cold rolling in Xinyu Steel are introduced.Aiming at the problems occurs during the production debugging,reason for breakdown is found after troubleshooting and analysis.The normal operation of acid regeneration systems is ensured through improved facilities,adjusting method parameters and etc.


Background: the purpose of this study was to compare rates of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and the pregnancy outcome after using gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa) alone and GnRHa in combination with low-dose human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG, dual trigger) for final oocyte maturation in women undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH). Patients and Methods: the study included 150 female patients with high risk of OHSS occurrence who were allocated by the Computer-based randomization method into two groups with 75 patients in each arm, Group I received GnRHa trigger and Group II received dual trigger (GnRHa + low-dose (1500 IU) hCG trigger). Results: Our study showed that the incidence of OHSS was higher after dual trigger than GnRHa trigger but with no statistically significant difference (8.0 vs 1.33 %, p >0.05). There were 6 cases of OHSS developed with dual trigger group (Group II) (3 were mild early OHSS, 2 were moderate early and one case was severe late OHSS). In contrast, there was only one case of severe late OHSS seen in Group I. Conclusion: Dual trigger for final oocyte maturation using GnRHa and low-dose hCG is associated with increased the incidence of early OHSS compared to GnRH alone. However, dual trigger appears to be a safe approach with a satisfactory pregnancy outcome. Also, the dual trigger improves the oocyte maturation, the number of yield embryos and the quality of embryos.


Objective To evaluate the safety,serological and epidemiological effect of the Freeze-dried varicella attenuated Live vaccine produced(VarV-Fd)by Changchun Keygen biological products co.Methods A random,double-blind control clinical trial was adopted.5192 non-infected children who aged from 3~9 years old were divided randomly into experimental group(2593 children) and control group(2599 children).Results In the observation period,the incidence of varicella was 2.70‰ in the experimental group and 14.24‰ in the control group.There was a significant difference(P0.001).Vaccine effectiveness(VE%())was 81.04%,the lower limit of 95%CI was 65.75%,the upper limit was 96.33%.Conclusion The varicella vaccine produced by Keygen was effective.


This thesis focuses on panda diplomacy as a part of Chinese interest in soft power and its public diplomacy. The main purpose is to examine the role of the panda in Chinese foreign affairs. A previous research chapter is mapped out to understand the domestic discussion on soft power and the state of public diplomacy in Chinese foreign affairs. Pandas and the concept of panda diplomacy is then examined from an empirical perspective in different ways they are being used, concluding that pandas and their popularity makes them a unique and powerful source of soft power. Panda diplomacy is further analyzed in three different contexts: Nordic countries, in the US and Japan, and in Taiwan, the conclusion is that countries must both have a good relationship with China and be of economic interest. In the analysis, the previous chapters are analyzed from Gilboa's framework for analyzing public diplomacy. Concluding that the uniqueness and strongly emphasized ties to China makes it an effective measure of drawing attention from other domestic issues, as well as generally being a good way of engaging the public which thereby makes it a useful and utilized tool of public diplomacy. (Less)


Foreign language proficiency and digital literacy are key aspects of today's education. Consequently, if teachers are responsible for providing students with opportunities for the best learning experiences so that they can discover their potential and put their skills into practice, it seems evident that the competences of these professionals cannot be overlooked. Research is profuse when analyzing the teachers' digital literacy in different contexts, including in-service and pre-service ones in areas such as English as a Foreign Language and bilingual education. However, it is necessary to examine how future teachers view their digital competence in hybrid education settings derived from the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the self-perceived digital competence of a group of pre-service primary teachers of English and bilingual education studying at the University of Córdoba (Spain) that have received hybrid education during the 2020/21 academic year. A quasi-experimental design and a quantitative approach based on the use of a questionnaire are followed. Findings show that surveyed teachers show general positive attitudes in relation to their digital literacy, and gender differences are only statistically significant when considering self-perceived competence in terms of searching, accessing, and selecting online content for teaching purposes in favor of men. It seems clear that specific training is still needed among future teachers of English and bilingual education in this respect.


A resonator can support at any position, and vibrating the resonator stably at a predetermined frequency, to provide an efficient holding device resonator capable of providing ultrasonic vibration to the object With the goal. The first supported portion 41 and the second supported portion 42 of the A resonator 7, the first clamping means 21 and second clamping means 22 a portion which contacts at least with these each As the material of the .Field


The analogy between a multispectral image and a 2-dimensional solid in a thermodynamic quasi-equilibrium state is used to design a maximum entropy image restoration method. The solid is described by a dynamic quantum field model. Closed form solutions for the Gibbs partition function, the associated local Markov transitional probability functions and the resulting entropy function in equilibrium and quasi-equilibrium states of the 2-dimensional solid are given. Using these functions the entropy of the whole solid is maximized by maximizing the entropy of each of the single particles in the solid. The model is simple even for multispectral images because the calculations take place in the 2-dimensional solid model instead of in the multispectral image. The performance of the new method is illustrated by the restoration of simulated piecewise constant images with known noise characteristics. Well defined physical models of thermodynamics and statistical quantum field theory can be used to design powerful and simple models for image restoration.<<ETX>>


General Comments: Given the focus on rainfall variability in the introduction text, I expected a paper that would advance our knowledge on the impact of rainfall variability on long term incision rates. Essentially what I read was a paper that concludes that lithological strength variability is very important in correctly predicting erosion rates and that accounting for rainfall variability also helps some (results in table 5, especially). I think the introduction needs to be revised somewhat to better reflect the results presented in the paper. The abstract does a better job of communicating the essence of the paper. Generally, the manuscript is very heavy on the methodology and too light on the discussion of the results and why these results matter. I also think the authors sometimes overreach on the significance of some results. It seemed like a long slog through the methodology section with many figures that did not seem terribly


This paper aims to understand how governmental intervention can drive organisations to adopt social sustainability aspects in their supplier selection process. The successful case study of the recent introduction of the In-Country-Value program at the Oil and Gas sector of Oman is examined. A survey and interviews with supply chain, contracting and procurement managers were conducted and the primary data was analysed. Governmental intervention was found capable of driving organisations to adopt social sustainability aspects in their supplier selection process, but leads to a 'cap' bounded by governmental requirements if the motivation does not come from within the organisations.


A major goal of time-course microarray data analysis is the detection of groups of genes that manifest similar expression patterns over time. The corresponding numerous cluster algorithms for clustering time-course microarray data have been developed. In this study, we proposed a clustering method based on the primary pharmacokinetic parameters in the pharmacokinetics study for assessment of pharmaceutical equivalents between two drug products. A real data and a simulation data was used to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method.


Izou Hayashi is now 69 years old, yet it seems very natural for him to be sitting in his very wide office as director of the Optoelectronics Technology Research Laboratory (OTL) at Tsukuba Science city outside Tokyo.


The aim of the research is to evaluate the factor influence of Human
Resource, Management System, Information Technology, Service Price and
Corporate Culture to banking services of Surakarta City.
The results of F the experiment is done with F and R² test, showns that the
model used is good enough, they are the chosen of Human Resource variable,
Management System, Information Technology, Service Price, and Corporate Culture
are Suitable.
Partial or individual regression coefficient test (t test) can be known that
Human Resource, Management System, Information Technology, Service Price, and
Corporate Culture can be conclude as follows : (a) Human Resource, Information
Technology, Service Price variable, have a positive and significant influence to the
banking services in Surakarta City; (b) Management System, and Corporate Culture
variable haven't influent to the banking services in Surakarta City.
Based on the rate of beta coefficient value can be shown that Human
Resource variable influent the most dominant to bank service, than the second rate is
information technology variable and the third rate is service price variable.


Surgical collapse of the lung has won an honoured place in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis and, in the form of thoracoplasty, is widely used. We are, however, very conscious of the drawbacks of this operation. No matter what the individual technique or aftercare, in a certain proportion of cases the collapse of the apex of the lung, which had seemed so perfect a week after operation, is found a few weeks later to be less complete, and cavities which had closed to have reopened in the re-expanding lung. The ordeal of multiple stages and the inevitable permanent deformity are, moreover, distasteful to the surgeon and to the patient alike, being acceptable only as a life-saving necessity. In the past, efforts have been made to overcome these defects by the use of plombage. The experience at that time of one of us (Morriston Davies, 1933, 1944) was not encouraging. Paraffin plombs had a tendency to lead to ulceration from surface cavities, or to produce tissue reaction leading to abscess formation necessitating the subsequent extraction of the foreign body. Living tissue grafts of breast and muscle failed because they were difficult to pack into the extrapleural space and, even when the immediate result was good, later shrank. Plombage, with fat from other parts of the body and lipomata, was equally unsatisfactory owing to the tendency to liquefy and disintegrate. Later extrapleural pneumothorax was tried and still has its advocates, as has the substitution of the air in the extrapleural space by oil. Since 1937 Semb has been advocating the extrafascial stripping of the lung from the mediastinum when doing a thoracoplasty. For a time this was hailed by some as a solution of the problem of re-expansion of the lung but not of the deformity. Still later Semb (1950) tried air refills of the " Semb space," and he and others (Edwards, 1949) have attempted many varieties of bone graft and suture to assist in maintaining the collapse of the lung and cavity. The quest for a solution of the two problems, the prevention of re-expansion and of deformity associated with a thoracoplasty, continues. In 1946 Wilson published his paper on the use of polymethyl methacrylate or lucite balls as an extrapleural plomb. This interested us as there was evidence that the balls did not irritate the tissues, and it seemed evident that they could be made to accommodate any size and shape of space. When, however, we obtained samples of these lucite balls we decided against their use. The very hardness and unresilient qualities of lucite, at any rate as spheres, seemed to us to constitute a danger. The insertion of an unyielding substance extrapleurally in apposition to the lung, with


The larger DC-bus voltage fluctuation of the dual-PWM converter under the conventional direct power control(DPC) strategy threatens the safe operation of the system.In order to reduce the fluctuation,a power feedforward control strategy was proposed according to the instantaneous active power balance.In this strategy,the motor-side instantaneous active power was directly fed-forward to the grid-side given instantaneous active power node through a constructed load state feedforward channel,which avoided the slower process of indirect power adjustment through outer voltage loop.So,the system response speed was greatly accelerated,and the DC-bus voltage fluctuation was inhibited effectively.Furthermore,due to the smaller fluctuation of the DC-bus voltage in the proposed strategy,the capacitance of the DC-bus capacitor could be reduced,which also contributed to the smaller volume and lower cost of the system.Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.


Four polymer-dispersed liquid crystals(PDLC) dope with C4H3O as photoconductive sensitizer were presented.To qualitative analyses the PDLC,FT-Raman Module was to identify the contents and characteristic changes of it.Basing on the intensity ratio of liquid crystal 5CB.Raman peak and the characterizing Roman peak of PMMA measured at the same time,one can quantitatively obtain the real 5CB concerns,hence providing an effective direction for the photorefractive effect.


The anthropogenic environmental change characteristic of the Anthropocene generates numerous threats and opportunities for the non-human beings who are intrinsic to forest and tree health. There are profound consequences for both humans and non-humans as a result of natural ecosystem disturbances, such as forest fires or invasive insects, and their accompanying environmental management responses. However, the consequences for non-humans as a result of either disturbance or management receive virtually no attention within environmental policy and practice. In this paper we argue for the growth and transformation – the 'eclosion' – of the 'stakeholder' concept so as to provide a pragmatic basis for greater attentiveness to, and comprehension of, non-human interest. We explore the implications and feasibility of this, describing particular approaches to stakeholder analysis and representation that emanate from research methods including multispecies ethnography and studies in 'new animism', that can effectively enable non-human 'voices' to be heard and taken more seriously. We conclude there are solid methodological and conceptual foundations on which to build an effective understanding of non-human stake-holdership, particularly in the area of forest and tree health.


Point clouds of 3D scenes are widely applied in guiding the visually impaired by precious research. Many auxiliary systems for the visually impaired are integrated with RGB-D sensors such as Kinect and binocular cameras, which are able to acquire depth pictures and 3D point clouds. Real-time location of objects is adjusted to the world coordinate system through utilization of attitude angle transducers. This paper proposed a novel approach of scene segmentation based on the estimation of normal vectors of a point cloud. Multiplying a point cloud's normal vectors in two directions helps to eliminate correlation in different directions. It is used to split a stereo scene into several surfaces such as ground, walls and slopes. The method is faster and can obtain more separated results than RANSAC algorithm. Besides, three ways to evaluate surface smoothness are compared, including inconsistent degree of normal vectors, variance of depths and difference between normal vectors of two sizes of adjacent regions. Experimental results attained from indoor and outdoor circumstances are presented to validate the approach. It is demonstrated that the proposed method can be efficiently applied into scene segmentation and guiding the visually impaired.


This paper presents an AM-PM compensation of a differential power amplifier using capacitance neutralization. Gain of power amplifier is enhanced by capacitor neutralization technique[1], [2]. The AM-PM of differential power amplifier is compensated by neutralization technique since it reduces influence by the change of gm against power. The differential power amplifier with cross-coupled capacitors are fabricated with a GaN HEMT. The AM-PM of the fabricated differential power amplifier is reduced by 22 degree compared with a singlephase power amplifier without the cross-coupled capacitance. And it achieves gain of 20 dB and power added efficiency of 35 % with output power of 36 dBm at 17.7GHz.


BRIEF indeed is the original documentary evidence for the existence of Melchisedech, priest and king of Salem. Three verses of Genesis (14, 18-20) picture him succinctly and then allow him to pass quietly out of the life-story of Abraham. But this dignitary, though he ruled a tiny state, and must have been very insignificant in comparison to other rulers of his time, has been from his day to our own a subject of interest; first to the Hebrews, then, after the famous comparison between Christ and Melchisedech in the Epistle to the Hebrews, to the Christians. Among the Christians themselves, he has been a center of controversy. The early Trinitarian heretics and Gnostics chose him as a figure around which to weave error and speculation. The Reformation period found him the object of countless treatises in connection with the question of sacrifice. Criticism relegated him to mythology, but seems today ready to treat him less unkindly. Since Paul, at least, we find him a constant topic of exegetical interest. Of the many questions that arise in the study of Genesis 14 we are going to limit ourselves to one: Was there a sacrifice on the occasion of the meeting of Abraham and Melchisedech? A strictly literal translation of the passage runs as follows:


Depending on difference between ambient and exhaust air temperatures, considerable amounts of heat energy can be recovered from the exhaust of a crop dryer by means of a heat exchanger which keeps the inlet and exhaust air streams separate but conducts the heat through the barrier from the hot exhaust to the cold intake. A flat plate, turbulent flow heat exchanger was attached to a bulk curing tobacco barn with appropriate ducts to channel the exhaust and intake through alternate channels of the heat exchanger. Wet and dry bulb temperatures were measured in both streams at the inlet and outlet ends of the exchanger along with air flow rate through the exhaust and intake ducts. Values of the heat transfer coefficient determined from experimentally observed temperature differences and the amount of heat transferred were larger than values calculated directly. At least part of the difference was due to condensation which delayed cooling of the hot exhaust stream and enhanced heat recovery. Values of observed and calculated heat exchanger effectiveness were similar. Measurements were made of six cures of tobacco spaced over two years. The heat exchanger used in these experiments saved approximately six to 12% of the curing fuel. For typical tobacco barn operations, recoverable costs for a heat exchanger with a 20-year life and interest at 10% would be about $400 to $800, depending on fuel costs, barn usage, weather conditions and the manner in which the barns are operated.


In this thesis work an investigation of the aerodynamics of a Fomula Student race car was conducted. The work focused on a computational fluid dynamics evaluation of the aerodynamic effects predicted for the car moving through relatively sharp corners of constant curvature. To assess the credibility of the closure models investigated, comparisons with experimental reference cases were conducted. To put some bounds on the numerical discretization errors for the car simulations, a grid convergence study was also conducted. For the simplified wing validation test cases, a relatively good agreement between aerodynamic performance values obtained from experiments and simulations was found. For the full car simulations, comparisons were made with on track measured values of lift. With respect to the measured values, the predictions of lift obtained from the simplified computer model geometry was high. It is believed that this was due, in part, to the simplicity of the model geometry, allowing for less disturbed air flow around the lift generating devices of the car, as well as the turbulence models inability to accurately predict amplitudes and the stream wise extent of the wake of bluff bodies directly upstream of several key lift generating devices. For assessing the aerodynamic effects of steady state cornering for the vehicle the momenta about its yaw, pitch and roll axes were tracked. In addition, lift, drag and sideforces were investigated. The modelling of rotational flow around the car found effects not present in, and in direct opposition to those predicted by modeling a cornering vehicle as having a fixed yaw angle with respect to the free stream.


One useful combined forging process of front and back cover used on the friction press was given on the basis of process analysis on the characteristic of ring forgings and flan forgings.This process used the punch of the upper die to pierce billet for back cover,and the rest billet was used for front cover,which was deformed in the die with the strike of the press.By using this process,we can reduce the labor cost,save the materials,avoid the step for blank,and the structure of the trimming die can be simplified.


A new satellite-based product containing daily sea surface net radiation () values at a spatial resolution of 0.25° from 1988 to 2013, named the Japanese Ocean Flux Data Sets with Use of Remote Sensing Observations, version 3 (J-OFURO3), was recently generated and released. In this letter, the performance of the J-OFURO3 sea-surface product was fully evaluated by using observations from 55 global moored buoy sites. The overall accuracy was satisfactory, with root-mean-square difference (RMSD) of 24.05 and 10.76 Wm−2 at daily and monthly scales, respectively. However, an inconsistency issue was found in the long-term variations in the J-OFURO3 sea-surface values in approximately 2000; this inconsistency may be due to the replacement of the input dataset. To address this issue, a simple but effective inconsistency correction method was developed and conducted in this study. The analysis results demonstrated that the variations in the corrected J-OFURO3 sea-surface data were more reasonable and that its daily validation accuracy was significantly improved by decreasing the bias from 4.67 to 0.27 Wm−2 before the year 2000. Thereby, it is suggested that the inconsistency correction method should be applied before using the J-OFURO3 sea-surface data. However, the data users still should be cautious about another discontinuity issues caused by the quality of the input dataset itself.


We study the impact of the recent global financial crisis on CHAPS, the United Kingdom's large-value payments system. Core infrastructures functioned smoothly throughout the crisis and settlement banks continued to meet their payment obligations. However, payments data show that in the two months following the Lehman Brothers failure, banks did, on average, make payments at a slower pace than before the failure. We show that this slowdown is related to concerns about counterparty default risk, thereby identifying a new channel through which counterparty risk manifests itself in financial markets.


In this paper, we demonstrate the thermal effects of micro-ovenized clocks embedded in the device layer of a vacuum sealed MEMS inertial measurement unit. We demonstrate a novel in-plane suspension and heater that provides improved thermal isolation within a mm-scale chip, compared to in-cap heaters. We show the interaction of three resonators within a single die: an ovenized tuning fork, a resonant accelerometer, and a disk resonating gyroscope. We demonstrate that a device layer micro-oven, which operates at a tenth of the power of an encapsulation cap-layer micro-oven, has very small effects on the frequency of the other resonators in the die, thus proving good thermal isolation in our structures. We show that the in-plane heater isolation provides more than a 15X reduction of frequency deviation of adjacent sensors.


One-cone bits offer good efficiency in driling small diameter holes.By building bit coordinate,cone coordinate and tooth coordinate,an emulation model for drilling by one-cone bits at well bottom has been established.It gives a reference to design of one cone bit structure and choice of drilling parameter.


Since most of XY positioning stages with large travel range proposed by former researchers suffer from loose structure and low out-of-plane payload, this article presents a novel monolithic parallel XY stage based on spatial prismatic–prismatic joints with centimeters travel range, compact size, and high out-of-plane payload capacity. The novel parallel linear compliant mechanism of the stage is composed of four spatial prismatic–prismatic joints, which is two compound leaf spring parallelograms serially connected in cubical space to obtain large travel, compact size, and high out-of-plane payload capacity simultaneously. The theoretical static stiffness and resonant frequencies are obtained by matrix structural analysis. As a case study, a reified stage is presented and discussed in detail. Finally, theoretical models are comprehensively compared with finite element analysis models. It is shown that the stage in the case study has the following merits: large travel range up to 20 × 20 mm2, high-area ratio of workspace to the outer dimension of the stage about 2.26%, well-constrained cross-axis coupling motion less than 1.5 μm at the full primary motion, acceptable resonant frequencies of the two translational axes about 34 Hz, and large out-of-plane payload capacity more than 24 kg.


CdSe microclusters have been synthesized by a simple and cost-effective Chemical Bath Deposition method onto soda-lime glass substrates. In order to study the annealing effect on CdSe thin films as deposited films were air annealed at temperatures 100, 200, 300 and 400 °C respectively for 1 hour. These films are characterized for their optical, structural, morphological properties using UV-VIS spectrophotometer, X-ray Diffraction and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy techniques. The optical band gap energy is found to decrease from 1.76 to 1.21 eV exhibiting a red shift. XRD pattern shows the formation of amorphous CdSe for as deposited thin films. Annealing effect leads to the transition of crystal structure from amorphous to cubic and cubic to stable hexagonal which is clearly evidenced from XRD. FESEM images show formation of microclusetrs which on air annealing at 400 °C further composed of bunch of nanoclusters within the microclusters with improvement in the crystallinity.


While it is generally agreed that culture and biology are both relevant to an understanding of human behavior, there is little consensus about the appropriate use of reductionist procedures. Disagreement abounds concerning the nature of the interaction and the relative contribution of distal and proximal mechanisms. An understanding of such issues may emerge only with long study of the interaction of variables at different conceptual levels of organization that intervene between the genes and culture. It is toward this larger end that the limited efforts of this paper are directed. Two cultural phenomena are considered: Murdoch's "social laws of sexual choice," and aspects of human ritual behavior. Although these constitute a unique organization of cultural items, I attempt to show how they are influenced by underlying biopsychological processes. I specifically reject, however, the view that cultural phenomena are isomorphic with, or can be completely reduced to, such processes. Emergent novelty and multiple possibilities are always present at more inclusive levels of organization. I argue that the relationship between the different sets of system variables is based on homologous functions and not merely on analogies.

SEYMOUR PARKER is Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. UT 84112


Maintaining thermal comfort in built environments is important for occupant health, well-being, and productivity, and also for efficient HVAC system operations. Most of the existing personal thermal comfort learning methods require occupants to provide feedback via a survey to label the monitored environmental or physiological conditions in order to train the prediction models. However, the accuracy of these models usually drops after the training process as personal thermal comfort is dynamic and changes over time due to climatic variations and/or acclimation. In this paper, we present a hidden Markov model (HMM) based learning method to capture personal thermal comfort using infrared thermography of human face. We chose human face since its blood vessels has a higher density and it is not covered while performing regular activities in built environments. Learning algorithm has 3 hidden states (i.e., uncomfortably warm, comfortable, uncomfortably cool) and uses discretization for forming the observed states from the continuous infrared measurements. The approach can potentially be used for continuous monitoring of thermal comfort to capture the variations over time. We tested and validated the method in a fourday long experiment with 10 subjects and demonstrated an accuracy of 82.8% for predicting uncomfortable conditions.


The paper summarized the current research of the multimedia information retrieval and pointed out the development trend.And gave the challenges that the research on the technologies of the multimedia information retrieval is facing.


Sir Richard Clarke, known always as Otto, was a highly unusual and controversial Treasury civil servant responsible for a wide range of new initiatives in Whitehall between 1945 and 1970. A Cambridge Wrangler, a pre-war chess champion and originator of the Financial Times Index he entered Whitehall in war time more literate and numerate than most of his contemporaries. He regarded Keynes with whom he worked as his model. He was one of a new breed of post-war forceful civil servants, and one of the few capable of original thought. This biographical article tries to assess Otto's contribution, especially in the period 1945-52, compared with that of his contemporaries, in working out the new economic and financial strategy needed for post-war recovery. It also glances at his later career as the main architect of the P.E.S.C. system for controlling public expenditure.


Objective—Clinical and experimental studies demonstrate the important roles of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. We have previously determined that the osteogenic transcription factor Runx2 is essential for VSMC calcification. The present study characterized Runx2-regulated signals and their potential roles in vascular calcification. Methods and Results—In vivo studies with atherogenic apolipoprotein E−/− mice demonstrated that increased oxidative stress was associated with upregulation of Runx2 and receptor activator of nuclear factor &kgr;B ligand (RANKL), which colocalized in the calcified atherosclerotic lesions and were juxtaposed to infiltrated macrophages and osteoclast-like cells that are positively stained for an osteoclast marker, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase. Mechanistic studies using RNA interference, a luciferase reporter system, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and electrophoretic mobility shift assays indicated that Runx2 regulated the expression of RANKL via a direct binding to the 5′-flanking region of the RANKL. Functional characterization revealed that RANKL did not induce VSMC calcification, nor was RANKL required for oxidative stress–induced VSMC calcification. Using a coculture system, we demonstrated that VSMC-expressed RANKL induced migration as well as differentiation of bone marrow-derived macrophages into multinucleated, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase–positive osteoclast-like cells. These effects were inhibited by the RANKL antagonist osteoprotegerin and with VSMC deficient in Runx2 or RANKL. Conclusion—We demonstrate that Runx2 directly binds to the promoter and controls the expression of RANKL, which mediates the crosstalk between calcifying VSMC and migration and differentiation of macrophages into osteoclast-like cells in the atherosclerotic lesions. Our studies provide novel mechanistic insights into the regulation and function of VSMC-derived RANKL in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and vascular calcification.


The final test of any management decision is its effect on the value of the firm's securities. This paper examines the subsequent impact of the publication of new product announcements on stock returns. A distinguishing feature of this presentation is the integration of decision making in the marketing and finance functional areas.


Ectopia cordis is a rare malformation presenting as an isolated lesion or as part of the Cantrell's pentology syndrome. Prenatal ultrasonographic diagnosis of ectopia cordis must be followed by a careful search for associated anomalies, since the prognosis may vary accordingly. A case of prenatal diagnosis of ectopia cordis in the early second trimester is presented. Routine sonographic examination at 18 weeks of gestation revealed protrusion of the heart into the amniotic fluid, ventricular septal defect and omphalocele. The perinatal evaluation and management are discussed. Copyright © 1991 International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology


Abstract Epigram 5.67 derives its point from Martial's critical and creative way of dealing with the mythical tradition. After he has described from the swallows' perspective an incident that occurred in the avian world, in the last distich the point of view undergoes a surprising shift from the victim to the agent. This is effected by a smooth transition from the swallow that has been cruelly torn to bits by its own kind to the mythical Procne, who tore her son to bits and suffered the punishment of being changed into a swallow. The aetiology that forms the concluding point of the epigram shows the incident in a new light. The nature of swallows is marked once and for all by Procne's behavior: as she once tore Itys to pieces, so the swallows of our epigram behave; indeed, at the very beginning they are pointedly designated as Attbides. The narrator's concluding comment that the guilty mother ought to have been torn to bits immediately after her impious act is an attempt, albeit a vain one, to correct the myth.


A new IR transmission topograph apparatus in which video image contrast is enhanced greatly by digital processing is developed for fast and nondestructive evaluation of GaAs wafers. Clear topographs of IR (1 μm) absorption in 2‐in.‐diam GaAs wafers, resulting from the distribution of the native defect EL2, and birefringence, resulting from residual stress, are obtained with good contrast and high signal/noise ratio.


This paper presents initial findings from an empirical study utilising an intelligent virtual museum with the aim to explore its learning and engagement capability. The study investigates the participants' experiences with the environment, their perceptions on its learning and engagement ability, and how they envision future learning scenarios with intelligent virtual environments. Participants found the system interesting, useful, and engaging. Suggestions for improvement highlighted technological, pedagogical, and social aspects which can guide further exploitation of such systems in education.


RATIONALE
Persons with cystic fibrosis (CF) are at greater risk of nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections than the general population. However, among patients with CF, geographic variation in prevalence is poorly understood.

OBJECTIVES
To describe the prevalence and screening practices of NTM among U.S. patients with CF.

METHODS
CF Patient Registry data from 2010-2011 were obtained to estimate the prevalence of NTM among patients with CF 12 years of age or older by state. Climatic data were also obtained and predictors of NTM infection analyzed using regression analysis. Geographic clustering and mycobacterial culture rates by state were also assessed.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Among patients with CF 12 years of age or older, 58% had mycobacterial cultures; 14% were positive for NTM. Most states (n = 31) had a prevalence of 10-20%; seven states predominantly in the West and Southeast had a prevalence of 20% or greater, including Alaska, which cultured patients more frequently than any other state. Nearly 60% of positive cultures were for Mycobacterium avium complex, although this ranged by state, from 29% in Louisiana to 100% for Nebraska/Delaware. Significant (P < 0.002) spatial clustering of NTM was detected, centering in Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, and Maryland. Higher saturated vapor pressure increased risk for NTM (odds ratio = 1.06; 95% confidence interval = 1.02-1.10). The proportion of patients cultured for mycobacteria varied greatly by state of residence (median = 46%; range = 9-73%).

CONCLUSIONS
NTM prevalence varies significantly among patients with CF by geographic area, and is largely influenced by environmental factors. However, NTM culture practices vary greatly, with some high-prevalence states screening less than 25% annually. Routine screening for all patients with CF is needed for timely detection.


Abstract Background Dupilumab has been approved to treat moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis; however, the data in a real-world setting are still limited. Objective To analyze the effectiveness and safety of dupilumab. Methods This was a real-life Czech multicenter retrospective study from patients treated with dupilumab for severe AD. Results A total of 360 patients were included. At 16 weeks, 66.6, 34.1, and 5.5% of patients achieved EASI75/90 and EASI100, respectively. Improvement continued with the time, and the proportion of patients with EASI75/90 and EASI100 increased to 89.5, 55.6, and 12.9% after one year of treatment and reached 95.8, 60.4, and 27.1% in the second year of therapy, respectively. A significant reduction was observed in the DLQI scores. The most common adverse events were infections in 5.8% of patients, followed by ocular complications in 2.5% of patients. Persistence rates were 98.2% at four months to 93.1% at month 24, and lack of effectiveness was the most common reason for discontinuation. Conclusion This real-life study confirmed the effectiveness and safety of dupilumab in a real-life setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study revealed a higher frequency of infections and a lower conjunctivitis frequency than other real-life studies and clinical trials.


The majority of literature dealing with textile-related artifactual evidence has consisted of descriptive catalogues concerned primarily with identification of material but only minimally placing it into a broad historical context. Some recent studies have moved away from this approach, to look at the impact of cloth production and consumption on local social, economic and political realities. Scholars have examined such things as the use of fabrics to indicate wealth and status; the influence of British imperial policies on North American textile production; the differences between urban and rural production and use, and the impact of the migration of cultural traditions on the structure and output of textile-making. Despite the newer research, there remains a distinct polarity between the descriptive works on the one hand, focusing on objects, and those on the other that look at broader issues of textile use and production through an analysis of documentary evidence. This paper examines how we can begin to integrate the study of objects with more traditional historical research.

Resume

Les textes consacres aux documents archeo-logiques ayant rapport aux textiles sont, pour la plupart, des catalogues descriptifs ou l'on s'attache principalement a decrire des arte-facts, sans s'attarder a les situer dans un contexte historique general. Certaines etudes publiees recemment s'ecartent de ce modele et tentent d'evaluer l'effet de la production et de la consommation de textiles sur les realites sociales, economiques et politiques de cer-taines collectivites. Les chercheurs se sont ainsi penches sur l'usage de certains tissus comme signes de richesse ou de rang social, l'influence des politiques imperiales bri-tanniques sur la production textile en milieux urbain et rural, ainsi que les repercussions de la migration des traditions culturelles sur la structure et la productivite de l'activite textile. Malgre ces nouvelles recherches, on remarque encore une nette polarisation autour des travaux descriptifs centres sur les objets eux-memes et de ceux ou l'on analyse ces documents archeologiques dans une perspective plus vaste comme celle de l'utilisation et la production des textiles. Cet expose examine la facon dont nous pourrions maintenant integrer l'etude des objets a une demarche plus classique de recherche historique.


Palaeoclimatic stability is regarded as an important factor in explaining patterns of endemism in the Azorean flora. However, modelling simulations and quantitative reconstructions for the last 6000 years suggest considerable palaeoclimatic variability. Here we explore the link between Holocene palaeoclimate and palaeovegetation on the islands of Flores and Pico. Modern pollen assemblages indicate that most major plant communities can be detected using pollen analysis and that, in some cases, the pre-colonisation vegetation was quite similar to present-day relict vegetation. A 200–500-year pollen record from Alagoinha, a low-elevation mire in western Flores, shows that Juniperus brevifolia-dominated communities were widespread at lower elevations prior to large-scale deforestation. Today these communities are generally restricted to higher elevations. While our results are preliminary, there appears to be a weak link between palaeovegetation (which was primarily influenced by volcanism, soil formation and human impact) and palaeoclimatic changes detected through geochemical proxies. Even if the Azorean palaeoclimate varied substantially, its impact on the pristine vegetation, at least in terms of pollen production, was relatively small.


A cDNA library was constructed with mRNA from the 105th day's fetal skin of cashmere goat.846 ESTs were analyzed,with the average length of 443.2 bp.Five hundred and twenty five known genes were proved,and they are 18 cell divisions,65 cell signals,73 cell constructions,21 cell defenses,126 gene/protein expresses,69 metabolism and 153 unclassified.Wnt-4,Bmpr-Ib,ASIP gene and Ectodysplasin A gene were discovered,which are important candidate genes for the hair follicle development.


Evaluation of dosimetry associated with inhalation of radioactive isotopes has been difficult because of the self -shielding characteristics of the thorax. Duplication of the heterogeneous composition of the body is a difficult task, and the use of nonbiological phantoms is always questionable, especially with low-energy x or gamma rays, where atomic number is extremely important. The Radiation Medicine Staff of Presbyterian Hospital (University of Pittsburgh) has undertaken a study of the self-shielding characteristics of the thorax, using a human cadaver as the phantom. The isotopes of immediate interest and currently being studied are Pu239 and Am241. The phantom has a series of Lucite tubes through the thorax region. Count-rate distributions from a small source have been obtained for both "free-inair" and in-phantom conditions. Preliminary results obtained with a thin NaI crystal (1 mm thick and 2 in. in diameter) indicate that the count rate observed from the phantom is not always less than the "free...


In this paper a review of application of chemometrics in simultaneous spectrophotometric analysis briefly introducedand discussed the basic principles of chemometrics including multiple linear regression, factor analysis, principal componentregression, partial least squares, Kalman filter and artificial neural network, as well as application of chemometrics for practicalanalytical purpose. 90 references have been cited.


While the main aim of the economic policies of European nation-states was to use the power of the state to promote trade and economic growth and to build up national industries and manufacture, the Ottoman Empire continued to follow its provisionist, fiscalist, and traditional economic policies of land expansion in the early modern period. In Western Europe, this experience gave birth to a new class that gradually improved its trade ability and expanding industries and markets under a capitalist system. The Ottoman imperial policy was mostly concerned about the continuity of strong central authority and land expansion, which never meant improving the industry or trade concerns. Instead, the economic policies of the Ottomans were subsistence of the people, provisioning the major population centers, collection of taxes, and maintaining freedom of trade. The balance and stability in society explain the priority for the Ottomans in the economy. However, commercialization and profit explain the priority for the Dutch nation in the economy. This article elaborates the economic views of the Dutch Republic and the Ottoman Empire in the mercantilist ages. Copyright © 2009 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc..


The object of this paper is to apply some recent results in Queueing Theory and Queueing Networks to a unified approximate model of An Automatic Conventional Telephone Exchange of the type L.M. Ericsson ARM 20. This model can lead to explicit expressions for most of the parameters of interest to Traffic Engineers concerned with traffic flow and exchange configuration in Telephone Networks, although these expressions may become rapidly rather complex. We specially turn our attention to the Via-Markers average holding-time, to the Registers average holdingtime, as well as to the Probability of Time-Out at the Code-Senders. No account is taken of eventual Blocking at the outgoing Trunks, neither will any effort be made to Rationally incorporate The Probability of Blocking in The Link System into the model. Different Traffic Streams compose the Total Incoming Traffic, each of these streams having full access -to a set of Registers that it does not share with any other stream. These different traffics are mixed in the Exchange at the Via-Marker level, and are directed to one of three possible Destinations: 'The Local Exchange, The Rural Area that the modelled exchange monitors, and other Interurban Exchanges.


Background: Limited options exist for alleviation of exertional dyspnea in interstitial lung disease (ILD). Exertional dyspnea in ILD is associated with increased inspiratory neural drive (IND) to the diaphragm (Faisal et al, AJRCCM 2016;193(3):299-309). We assessed the impact of nebulized fentanyl on dyspnea intensity, IND and its physiological underpinnings in ILD during constant work rate (CWR) cycle exercise. Methods: This randomized double-blind cross-over study examined the effect of 100mcg nebulized fentanyl vs. placebo on dyspnea (Borg scale), IND using diaphragmatic electromyography (EMGdi/EMGdi, max), pulmonary gas exchange and dynamic respiratory mechanics during 4-min CWR exercise (performed at 75% peak work rate) in ILD subjects. Results: Subjects (n=21) had Baseline Dyspnea Index of 7.8±1.7; TLC 70±12%predicted, FVC 79±17%predicted and DLCO 50±15%predicted (mean±SD). With placebo from rest to end-exercise dyspnea increased to 4.1±1.2 Borg units, IND increased from 17±7% to 61±13%, minute ventilation (VE) increased from 15.5±3.3L/min to 58.7±11.6L/min and inspiratory reserve volume (IRV) dropped from 1.6±0.5L to 0.6±0.2L (mean±SD). Significant inter-relationships were found between increased dyspnea, increased IND and decreased IRV (all p Conclusions: In ILD exertional dyspnea increases in tandem with IND as IRV decreases. Nebulized fentanyl had no effect on dyspnea, IND, dynamic respiratory mechanics or their inter-relationships during exercise.


Abstract : The analytical data from sediment, interstitial water, and seawater analyses of samples collected near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, during the period from March to May 1977, are presented. Analyses include determinations of moisture, calcium carbonate, and organic carbon contents in the sediment samples and pH, electrical conductivity, alkalinity, and concentrations of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, and sulfate in the interstitial water and seawater samples. Salinity, ionic balance, and freezing point of the water samples were calculated. The marine sediments in Prudhoe Bay generally contain more calcium carbonate, organic carbon, and interstitial water than the underlying glacial and fluvial gravels. On land, a surficial layer of peat also had high organic carbon and moisture contents. The salinity of the seawater samples varied from concentrated brines near the shore where sea ice is frozen directly to, or is located near, the sea bottom to water which was 1.0 to 1.5 ppt less saline than normal seawater at a distance of approximately 10 to 15 km from shore. Potassium, calcium, sulfate, and alkalinity concentrations all showed significant variations from those of normal seawater. The interstitial water samples from sediments taken from the marine boreholes generally contained water whose overall composition was close to that for normal seawater, suggesting that seawater had either infiltrated into, or had been deposited with, the sediments. Potassium, calcium, alkalinity, sulfate, and magnesium concentrations showed significant variations from those of normal seawater.


The aim of this work consisted in providing a contribution for the improvement of the
Sistema Contabil Gerencial Ambiental – SICOGEA - Geracao 2 ("Environmental Management
Accounting System – SICOGEA – Generation 2"), searching for its implementation by means of
case study. In order to respond to the objectives of the research, an exploratory-descriptive study
was carried out with a qualitative approach of the data. The data collection and treatment
procedures consisted of a focus group, bibliographic research and feasibility study, developed in
three stages: a) mapping out the aspects considered relevant in studies that approach the
application of SICOGEA; b) analysis of the reliability of SICOGEA; and c) analysis of the feasibility of improving the SICOGEA – Generation 2, in the perception of the researchers that
applied such a system.
As a result, the proposal of creation of SICOGEA – Generation 3 was raised, which calls
attention because of the flexibility of its structure and also because it presents a broader
integration of the steps and the stages. The third generation of SICOGEA brought contributions
as regards the inclusion of actions such as "Dynamics of groups and feedback", "Identification of
the stakeholders", "Diagnosis of the activities that produce pollution" and "General plan of
environmental management". The model suggested the mapping out of the activities that are
highly polluting as a guiding criterion for the possible grades to be given to the questions of the
check list. In addition, it proposed that, when selecting the suppliers, the following be
considered: evidence that the products have the environmental certification and, therefore, that
they offer less risks to the environment. There was also anticipation in two stages of the
elaboration of the 'Summarized plan of environmental management' in view of the
improvements observed in the application of SICOGEA in some cases. In order to illustrate the
application of some changes introduced by SICOGEA – Generation 3, a case study was carried
out by researchers that took part in the feasibility study of the method. Thus, the method
proposed proved to be valid as an improvement of the analysis methods for the environmental
sustainability conceived by Pfitscher (2004) and Nunes (2010).


Vegetable cultivation is considered to be a high returned agri-business. The present case was documented for a Permaculture technique adopted by a farmer under the technical guidance of KVK, Namakkal at Palapatti village of Namakkal District, Tamil Nadu, India. The observations revealed that sale of multi vegetables at a time and get a gross income of Rs. 1,500.00 per day than sole vegetable (Rs. 300.00 – 500.00). The permaculture farmer considers that there is a need to diversify the mono cropping to multiple cropping in a piece of land for secure and sustainable future.


We describe herein an optoelectronic butterfly interconnection (OEBI) architecture, which is based on a space-position-logic-encoding (SPLE) scheme , for implementing optieal Parallel computing based on modified signed-digit (MSD) algorithm. A parallel fulladder/subtracter was built by using this OEBI architecture. The effectiveness is verified byboth simulation and experimental results.


In order to sustain oncology care, biosimilars have been proposed as a cost-effective treatment option that may serve to improve affordability and access to therapy [1]. The particular interest in ...


Purpose: The aim of the article is to identify the key components of the business model of an enterprise operating in the Industry 5.0 environment Design/methodology/approach: The achievements and results presented in the article were obtained on the basis of literature research and expert research conducted among 25 professionals with experience in strategic management, Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 technologies. The research technique was the Delphi method. The key components of the business model were presented in the form of Business Model Canvas. Findings: Based on the research results obtained, components shaping the business model of a company operating in the Industry 5.0 environment were identified. Research limitations/implications: The analysis of experts' opinions is a preliminary stage of identifying key components of the business model of a company operating in the Industry 5.0 environment. The research should be extended to the analysis of case studies of companies implementing Industry 4.0 technologies. Originality/value: The original achievements obtained during the research include obtaining valuable research results in the field of key components of the business model affecting the formation of its architecture, competitive advantage and value creation and monetization. The research results were obtained directly from experts who have the necessary knowledge of strategic management, Industry 4.0 technologies and Industry 5.0 pillars.


Peptones are among the most expensive culture components used in the cultivation of microorganisms. This study was performed to prepare a protein hydrolysate from sheep wool using a locally isolated keratinolytic bacterium Bacillus licheniformis EY2 (GenBank: MN809476), and to investigate the usability of the prepared hydrolysate as a peptone in a microbial medium. The optimum pH, temperature, and incubation time for wool hydrolysis and keratinolytic activity were determined as 7.0, 55 °C, and 6 days, respectively. Optimum concentrations of KH2PO4, MgSO4, and NaCl were determined as 1.5, 0.5, and 2 g/L, respectively. After the prepared hydrolysate was partially purified, it was converted to wool peptone (WP). The total protein, ash, carbohydrate, and lipid content of WP was found to be 82.7, 7.2, 0.1, and 0.2 g/100 g, respectively. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis of WP confirmed the formation of sulfoxide bonds (S=O), which indicated the breaking of disulfide bonds. When compared with commercial tryptone peptone (TP), WP was found to be superior for the cell growth performances of Esherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Candia albicans and Aspergillus niger. A protein hydrolysate (including wool protein hydrolysate) prepared via microbial hydrolysis was tested for the first time as a peptone source. The cost of WP is much lower than commercial peptones. At the same time, the method developed offers an environmentally friendly approach for the reduction of the amount of unutilized or waste sheep wool. © 2021 Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.


The evolved packet core (EPC) network is the mobile network standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and represents the recent evolution of mobile networks providing high‐speed data rates and on‐demand connectivity services. Software‐defined networking (SDN) is recently gaining momentum in network research as a new generation networking technique. An SDN‐based EPC is expected to introduce gains to the EPC control plane architecture in terms of simplified, and perhaps even software‐based, vendor independent infrastructure nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel SDN‐based EPC architecture along with the protocol‐level detailed implementation and provide a mechanism for identifying information fields exchanged between SDN‐EPC entities that maintains correct functionality with minimal impact on the conventional design. Furthermore, we present the first comprehensive network performance evaluation for the SDN‐based EPC versus the conventional EPC and provide a comparative analysis of 2 networks performances identifying potential bottlenecks and performance issues. The evaluation focuses on 2 network control operations, namely, the S1‐handover and registration operations, taking into account several factors, and assessing performance metrics such as end‐to‐end delay (E2ED) for completion of the respective control operation, and EPC nodes utilization figures.


INTRODUCTION How far it is possible to insulate a company from the possibility of insolvency proceedings is an open question. The question is not new but has only rarely come before the courts and academic views differ. (1) It has gained an increased commercial importance because of the prevalence of clauses in inter-creditor agreements restricting unilateral action by finance creditors and because of the importance attached to "bankruptcy remoteness" by the rating agencies when rating structured finance products. Such clauses need to be reconsidered in the light of the decision of the Court of Appeal in Fulham Football Club. (2) For the purposes of this article, a "non-petition" clause is a contractual term which purports to prevent the inception of any form of insolvency proceedings at the instigation of a creditor, whether or not involving recourse to the courts. Clearly, in any given case, the drafting of the clause will determine precisely what is potentially being restrained, but this article is concerned with the applicable legal principles and the extent, if at all, to which non-petition clauses offend public policy. Public Policy There are two potential public policy objections to non-petition clauses: first, that they purport to oust the jurisdiction of the courts (thereby interfering with the course of justice) and, secondly, that they represent an attempt to contract out of insolvency law. Both are recognised strands of public policy which are capable of striking down contractual arrangements (and there is a measure of overlap) but neither is absolute. It is therefore not enough to engage a public policy objection that the practical effect of a non-petition clause is to prevent a company from being wound-up. Curiously, in the case in which public policy was most clearly argued in this context, Colt Telecom, (3) the objection appears to have been put on the basis that exposure to the risk of liquidation is the price attached by the law to the privilege of limited liability. Although support for that proposition (which was rejected in Colt Telecom) can be found in Peveril Gold Mines, (4) it founders on the simple counter-proposition that the insolvency jurisdiction is not confined to legal entities whose members enjoy limited liability. A public policy objection, if it exists, must be more broadly grounded than that apparently asserted in Colt Telecom. Not all agreements which oust the jurisdiction of the court offend public policy. The best and most obvious example of a permissible agreement is an arbitration agreement covering a contractual dispute, but the statutory support for such arbitration agreements, now contained in the Arbitration Act 1996, clouds the issue of public policy in that context. Maintenance agreements are another frequently chosen example, but there too the issue is clouded by statutory recognition. The true principle, at common law, appears to be that it is not permissible to exclude the jurisdiction of the courts to decide questions of law, but that it is permissible, at least to some extent, to confer power on a non-judicial body to determine questions of fact. (5) However, this formulation does not readily assist consideration of non-petition clauses and the validity of agreements purporting to disapply statutory remedies. In that respect, the question of whether it was open to the parties to a contract for the sale of land to exclude the power of the court to order the return of a deposit under section 49(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925, which was addressed in Aribisala, (6) provides an analogy. It was held that it was not possible to exclude the jurisdiction under section 49(2). Two points are important for present purposes: first, the court treated section 49(2) as conferring a jurisdiction on the court to grant relief thereby distinguishing it from a right to the performance of a statutory duty (which can be waived) (7) and, secondly, the court recognised that legislation conferring jurisdiction could permit contracting out (which, as a matter of construction, it had not done in that case). …