The existence of Islamic economics as an economic concept that continues to grow and develop, especially in the contemporary era, needs to be addressed with a wise attitude, one of which is by examining various perspectives, including the thought of leaders about the concept of riba and banking, so that knowledge about concept of riba and banking must owned by various parties. This study uses qualitative methods with the type of library research with a comparative approach. This literature research explains and compares the thoughts of two contemporary Islamic economic figures, namely M. Umer Chapra and M. Abdul Mannan. The data analysis technique used is content analysis and comparative. Where the data is obtained by reviewing books, scientific works in printed or electronic form, and all other written material. The author attempts to describe the two objects of research and analyze them and then compare the result of the two objects by combining several content dimension from these two objects. The author uses the intersection union tool to compare several dimension from the thoughts of the two figures regarding the concept of riba and banking. The results of the study show that M. Umer Chapra and M. Abdul Mannan thoughts on the concept of riba and banking are classified into same or similar dimension. The second thought of Islamic economic figures is related to one another. Both figures agreed to integrate Islamic values derived from the Qur'an and Hadits into every economic activity.


Based on the continuum theory of micromagnetics, theoretical expressions for the polarization of the scattered neutron beam in uniaxial small-angle neutron scattering have been derived and their predictions tested by analyzing experimental data on a soft magnetic nanocrystalline alloy. The here-presented theoretical framework forms the basis for polarized real-space methods such as spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering, spin-echo modulated small-angle neutron scattering and polarized neutron dark-field contrast imaging.


In the paper a novel improved immune genetic algorithm is proposed for thresholding image segmentation based on the maximum entropy. At first, the encoded mode is made and the maximum entropy function is selected as the key adaptation genetic algorithm. Then, with the method of regulating density in the immune arithmetic, the ICM algorithm is adopted and the better antibody is transfered to the next generation. And more, the parameter of cross operator and mutation operator are mended appropriately. In the end, Comparing with the standard genetic algorithm, the improved immune genetic algorithm can enhance efficiency of running, form the results of the experiment we can see that the improved algorithm has also some advantages, such as validity and practicability.


The weak points of scientific research and academic journals in higher vocational colleges directly affect the development of scientific research and the level of academic journals.It is necessary to build up an effective administration mechanism which combines scientific research and academic journals perfectly.Analyzing current problems of scientific research and academic journals,this paper gives development thread of coupling scientific research with academic journals.


Objective To investigate the correlation between four kinds of serum tumor markers including CEA,SCC-Ag,CYFRA21-1,NSE and three kinds of different pathological types of lung cancer. Methods The positive rates of CEA,SCC-Ag,CYFRA21-1,NSE in serum of 56 patients with lung cancer before treatment were statistically analyzed,combined with different pathological types. Results The positive rate of CEA in lung adenocarcinoma group was 65%,which was significantly higher than that in squamous cell carcinoma group and small cell lung cancer group( P0. 01). The positive rate of SCC-Ag and CYFRA21-1 in squamous cell carcinoma group was 47. 37% and 57. 89%,respectively,which was significantly higher than that in lung adenocarcinoma group and small cell lung cancer group( P0. 01). The positive rate of NSE in small cell lung cancer group was 76. 47%,which was significantly higher than that in lung adenocarcinoma group and squamous cell carcinoma group( P0. 01). Conclusion The CEA,SCC-Ag and CYFRA21-1 are sensitive tumor markers for non-small cell lung cancer. CEA is closely related with lung adenocarcinoma. SCC-Ag and CYFRA21-1 are closely correlated to squamous cell carcinoma. NSE is closely related with small cell lung cancer. The four kinds of tumor markers are helpful for pathological typing of lung cancers and for clinical treatment,especially for the patients who are inoperable.


The present study aims to delineate the groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) in the Boudinar Basin using geospatial techniques and through an analytical hierarchal process (AHP) method. For multi criteria decision analysis, fifteen thematic layers were integrated into a geographic information system (GIS) environment. In this analysis, each thematic layer is calculated for normalized weights. Furthermore, the consistency index and consistency ratio were calculated to ensure that the result was significant and reliable. The GWPZ map has been categorized into three classes: poor (50.82%), moderate (49.06%), and good (<1.00%). To compare the result, we used four other scenarios of the GWPZ. Two of them are the most similar to our result. Finally, predictive groundwater production and management strategies that ensure long-term sustainability are highly needed.


Abstract: High-quality nurse–patient interaction has the potential to improve patient experience and outcomes of care. Specialist nursing is evolving to include a range of roles to support more complex care in a changing healthcare landscape, where there is an increase in incidence, an ageing population with comorbidities, more treatments, and new and novel therapies all delivered under increasing financial pressures. This chapter discusses the main specialist nursing roles in breast cancer care and the key issues facing breast cancer nursing.


Myron Yaster, MD*† The decision of whether to anesthetize a child with an acute upper respiratory tract infection (URI) is among the most common problems faced by the anesthesiologist who treats children. Not long ago, conventional wisdom dictated that these children were at an increased risk of developing intraand/or postoperative complications and were routinely cancelled for elective surgery (and anesthesia). But like many other "truths" that have not stood the test of time and evidence (e.g., transfusing for hemoglobin levels of 10 g/dL or NPO for liquids after midnight), most anesthesiologists practicing today do not consider an uncomplicated URI (without evidence of lower airway disease) to be a contraindication to surgery (1,2). The exception may be the child with congenital heart disease presenting for cardiac surgery (3). In this situation, postponement of cardiac surgery for approximately six weeks is advisable to allow airway inflammation to subside. Unfortunately, this is not always possible, because the timing of congenital heart surgery is often dictated by the physiology of the particular presenting lesion and is often not elective. Even with this timing constraint, modern perioperative care has allowed pediatric cardiac patients with URI to experience the same survival rates and total hospital lengths of stay as children without URI (3). Despite these successes in managing potentially life-threatening complications in the operating room (OR), a simple, readily available preventive therapy would enhance perioperative safety and make the anesthesiologist's job easier. Only four randomized controlled trials have investigated the role of therapy for the prevention or treatment of the anesthetized child with URI. Collectively, they have found that a laryngeal mask airway is safer than an endotracheal tube for children with URI (4), that sevoflurane and halothane have equivalent complication rates (5) and that neither inhaled albuterol nor inhaled ipratropium offer protection against adverse intraoperative events in children with URI (6). In this issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, Tait et al. (7) add to this literature by investigating whether glycopyrrolate is effective for preventing intraoperative complications, such as bronchospasm, laryngospasm, or hypoxia, among children with URI. The authors found that glycopyrrolate did not decrease respiratory complications in children with URI. While apparently not affecting the incidence of potentially life-threatening intraoperative complications, glycopyrrolate did lead to an increased incidence of self-limited postoperative complications, such as wheezing, dehydration, dizziness, facial flushing, and hyperactivity, which were offset by the reduced incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) (7). The difficulties of research design and execution with this and all single institution studies of complex, multifactorial phenomena in the OR are formidable. First, there is the large barrier of assembling a sufficient sample size. In the Tait et al. (7) study the sample size was only adequate to detect a 50% reduction in complication rate. Very few drugs have a 50% success rate for treating complex, multifactorial life-threatening problems in the operating room or intensive care unit. A 20% treatment effect would be considered a more reasonable criterion for successful treatment of complex, multifactorial responses such as intraoperative From the *Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine; and †Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. Accepted for publication November 14, 2006. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Myron Yaster, MD, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, 935 Blalock, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287. e-mail to email@example.com Copyright © 2007 International Anesthesia Research Society DOI: 10.1213/01.ane.0000253549.28893.bc


Introduction: Tymanoplasty, a middle ear surgery, is done either under Local Anaesthesia (LA), General Anaesthesia (GA) or sedation with local anaesthesia. It is usually performed under Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC) providing advantages of rapid onset, allowing hearing test intraoperatively and early mobilisation of the patient. Aim: To study the effect of nalbuphine/dexmedetomidine with nalbuphine/propofol on sedation and analgesia in tympanoplasties performed under MAC. Materials and Methods: This randomised, double-blind, clinical study was conducted from June 2020 to June 2021 in the Department of Anaesthesiology at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and MY Hospital, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. Total 60 adult patients, of American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade I and II undergoing tympanoplasty under MAC, were randomly allocated into two groups. All patients received injection nalbuphine 50 μg/kg intravenously. Group D received a bolus dose of injection dexmedetomidine 1 μg/kg i.v. over 10 min followed by an infusion at 0.3 μg/kg/h i.v. Group P received a bolus dose of injection propofol 0.75 mg/ kg followed by an infusion at 0.025 mg/kg/min i.v. Sedation and analgesia were titrated to Ramsay Sedation Score (RSS) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of 3 each. The vital parameters and need for intraoperative rescue sedation/analgesia were recorded and compared. Results: Mean RSS was significantly more in group D (3.11±0.055) than group P (2.80±0.350). Overall, VAS score was significantly less in group D (1.60±0.670) than group P (2.70±0.691). In group D, 2 (6%) patients and in group P, 4 (12%) patients required inj. midazolam. Similarly, the requirement of inj. paracetamol in group D was in 3 (10%) patients, and in Group P it was 10 (33%) patients. Bradycardia (23.3% in group D and 13.3% in group P) and hypotension (20% in group D and 13.3% in group P) were the major side-effects seen in the study. Conclusion: Nalbuphine/dexmedetomidine is superior to nalbuphine/propofol in producing sedation and decreasing VAS in patients undergoing tympanoplasty under MAC.


Objective To investigate laboratory characteristics of Light-chain multiple myeloma(LCMM). Methods To do retrospective analysis on laboratory results of 27 cases of LCMM and 38 cases of Ig G type MM statistically. Results There were significant differences in RBC、HB、CRE、β2-microglobulin、Ig G between LCMM and Ig G type MM(P0.05). Conclusion The extent of renal dysfunction 、anemia and infection of LCMM is much more severe than that of Ig G type MM.


A dynamic method for LCA environmental optimisation exemplified by an analysis of an energy-system with a superheated steam-dryer integrated in a local district heat and power plant.


An addition weatherproof windproof lined garment, its outer layer 1 is made of a stretchable knit or textile, and with one or more places of the inner layer 2, such as wrist, neck, waist, ankle, or It is connected to the connecting edge predecessor. Stretchable layer 24 before putting a hydrophilic layer 5 of a porous hydrophobic polymer layer, and then putting an elastomeric textile layer 6 constituted.


By means of the lead X, Y, Z, the scalar recording of its component, a difference of the electrocardiogram was compared between the young and the old persons. They include the normal healthy and diseased ones. The former consisted of 88 elder and 32 younger persons. In this study, criteria of ventricular hypertrophy ere sought.P-wave showed a positive or diphasic one in the lead X, Y, but a negative in the lead Z. QRS-wave also showed a positive one in the lead X, Y, and a diphasic or positive, in the lead Z. T. wave showed a positive one in the lead X, Y, and a negative in the lead Z. The frontal QRS axis calculated from the lead X, Y, exhibited a correlation with the Eintoven's triangle, although the normal range of the former was narrower than that of the latter. It was found that the mean spatial T-magnitude was smaller in the younger aged groups than in the elder groups, in hypertensive patients an increase of the elevational QRS-V° was considered to be due a shift of the QRS vecthr to the left and posterior. It was also noted that the mean spatial QRS-T angle and QRS, T. magnitude were angmented. The mean spatial T-magnitude showed a decrease upon an elevation of the diastolic presure. Thus, it would seem that Rx+R=≧20mm is more quantitative method for criteria of the diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy. This leading method is found to be more quantitative method than ever before and to have fewer leading sited of the electrodes. Therefore, it may clinically be useful.


This study applied GM (1,1) model of grey system theory to establish the forecasting models of the ratio per thousandth for the labor insurance payments of occupational accidents in Taiwan based on the annual statistics of Bureau of Labor Insurance. The ratio per thousandth of the total benefit payment, the benefit payment on injuries or illness, and the benefit payment on disability represent excellent results in the rolling forecast modeling on 5 to 10 periods. As to the benefit payment on death, the accuracies of grey prediction on the ratio per thousandth are generally acceptable on less than 8 periods. Predicting the trend of insurance payments of occupational accidents, the ratio per thousandth is going down on the total payment, disability payment and death payment, and rising on the injuries or illness payment.


Abstract : The computer code, LAUNCH, is designed to maintain a data file on the launches of major launch vehicles. From this data file one can obtain a chronological history of any desired vehicle or group of vehicles as well as the historical reliability and/or projected reliability for any future launch. A discussion of the code and its applications are included along with a listing of the program and a sample output results. (Author)


Abstract Wind and wave energy devices produce their output in the form of shaft work, with a power output which varies over a wide range as the input energy intensity changes. For many processes (desalination, thermochemical processes, steam raising, space heating) energy is required in the form of heat. The conversion of shaft work directly to heat is thermodynamically very inefficient. This efficiency may be greatly improved by using the shaft work to drive a heat pump which abstracts thermal energy from the environment (the sea or airstream) and upgrades it to the requisite temperature level. In this regard, wind and wave energy are ideal sources, since the thermal energy contained in the airstream or sea exceeds by several orders of magnitude the mechanical energy that can be abstracted. Heat pumps have hitherto been designed to utilize a constant work input and a source of heat at variable temperature. But in order to harness renewable energy effectively, a heat pump is required that will utilize var...


Mechanical clocks consist of a pendulum and a clockwork that translates the pendulum period to displayed time. The most advanced clocks utilize optical transitions in atoms in pla ce of the pendulum and an optical frequency comb generated by a femtosecond laser as the clockwork. The comb must be stabilized at two points along its frequency spectrum: one with a laser to lock a comb line to a transition in the atom, and another through self referencing to stabilize the frequency interval bet ween the comb lines. This approach requires advanced techniques, so optical atomic clocks are currently laboratory devices in s pecialized labs. In this paper we leverage unique properties of Kerr comb oscillators for realization of optical atomic clocks in mi niature form factors. In particular, we describe a clock based on D1 transition of 87 Rb that fits in the palm of the hand, and can be further


This study aimed to analyze part of the processes of production of skateboarder's subjectivities in their relations with certain social rules that are in place in contemporaneity, specifically through a wish for inclusion by individuals and social groups positioned as abnormal. Social cartography was used as a theoretical-methodological framework and the empirical material included radio and TV interviews, informal conversations, posters of events, pictures taken from social media sites open to the public and street diary notes. We analyzed vectors of normalization related to skateboarders by connecting them with certain social norms through actions and speeches morally recognized as being "for the good", in order to ascribe traits of legitimacy and normalcy that are strategic to the permanent game of power relations and conduction of oneself.


Abstract: In this paper, we are going to return to early parallel programming language Occam and investigate its features, hardware, concepts, versions and concurrency. Due to this, we will begin with the development history of this program. Then, the Transputer as the hardware that Occam is using it will be investigated as pioneering microprocessor architecture of the 1980s, featuring integrated memory and serial communication links, intended for parallel computing. Different versions of Occam including Occam 1, Occam 2, Occam 2.1 and Occam π are going to be talked in follow. Characteristics and features on these versions are talked in details.


Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common infections in developing countries such as Kenya. Despite this, their prevalence is virtually unknown from a patient's perspective, especially in rural communities. Worldwide, it is estimated that one in two women will contract a UTI during their lifetimes. More specifically, UTI incidence rates are nearly 20 percent higher in the developing world. A UTI is contracted when bacteria enters and settles in the urinary tract. Untreated UTIs can spread to the kidneys and cause birth complications in pregnant women. Since UTIs are prevalent, yet mostly unknown to rural Kenyans, many are at risk for developing high-risk complications. The social stigma surrounding UTIs labels them as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and contributes to challenges regarding addressing and treating the infection. This article provides a review of the existence and prevalence of UTIs in rural Kenya. It focuses on data gathered from local doctors, nurses, community health workers (CHWs), health care facilities, and community members from Nyeri county. The current pathway system that a patient may follow when exhibiting symptoms of a UTI is identified. Technology based opportunities that stem from this pathway system are also proposed, including improved UTI screening test strips manufactured on an inkjet printer. By replacing traditional ink with chemical solutions to react with indicated parameters found in infected urine, inkjet printers exhibit promise in becoming simple manufacturing machines for low cost test strips specific to UTIs. Simple technology in PowerPoint and Kindles has proven to be an effective educational tool In the developing world and should be leveraged to bring increased awareness to UTIs in these communities.


The characteristics of information resources in the network era require the referring and consulting service of the university/college library to be digitalized, which involves offering asynchronous service and real-time mutual service, setting up multimedia teaching software, setting up "subjects-consulting group of experts", and working out the quality criteria of the digitalized referring and consulting service, for convenience, timeliness, guidance and authoritativeness.


THERE has always been considerable discussion of what teachers should and shouldnT t do to help children read. But it is a serious mistake to as sume that reading is solely the responsibility of teachers and the school. A child spends more time at home than he does in school and a great deal de pends on what happens there. What is the parents' attitude toward their children s reading? Do they feel the school is doing a good job of teaching read ing to their children? Do they provide physical conditions and special reading materials for their children? Books? Magazines? Questions suchas these are particularly important when considering the reading development of g i f t e d children. Re search shows that gifted children are mentally hun gry and that their cerebral appetites often are met through wide reading. Since the school frequently is unable to provide enough free periods for gi fted children to satisfy their insatiable desire to read, most of their free reading, if it is going to take place at all, must occur in the home. With the cooperation of a number of experienced elementary teachers enrolled in the writersT class es, the authors were able to gather informatio n about the home reading environment of 83 gif t ed intermediate grade children. The study grew out of questionnaires filled out by 29 fourth-, 33 f ifth-, and 19 sixth-grade children. Two additional chil dren were included, although no grade designation for them was available. Intelligence quo t i e n ts ranged from 130 to 185 with an average of 137.8 Approximately one-third of the total number of chil dren began to read before entering school. Among other things, the children were asked how many books at home belonged to them, if magazines came to their home just for them, and the names of such magazines. They also were asked how much time they spent daily out of school, reading for fun. When questioned as to how many books at home belonged to them, two of the 83 children answered with an ambiguous "many. " One child failed to respond. The remaining 80, as evidenced in Table I, indicated having personal libraries ranging in size from 2 to 500 books. The average size was 41 books. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of these data is variability. Although no child reported owning no books, almost 20% of the children report ed having small libraries (two to ten books); and a minority group indicated tremendously large librar ies for this age level. In general, however, it is reassuring to find that 40% of the children own sub stantially large libraries of 20 to 100 books. Forty-seven children in this study answered af firmatively the query, "Do any magazines come to your home just for you?" Table II shows that 21 different magazines were subscribed to by parents, with four: Children s Digest, Boys* Life, Jack and Jill, and Calling All Girls, enjoying a popul ar i t'y accounting for 65% of the total number. Asa side light, it is interesting to note that most of the mag azines are juvenile in their appeal. A few adul t magazines, such as Saturday Evening Post and Look, also are represented. In several in stances, the magazine titles reported by the chil dren are in error. Table III shows the varying amounts of time the gifted children in this study devote to reading fo r fun outside of school. Seven children failed to com mit themselves in this regard. But of the 76 who did respond, it is reassuring to find that well over half of them are devoting more than one hour daily to free reading outside of school. ''' In the home, where do you do most of your reading?" To this question, the authors received multiple responses. Fifty-five children (56% of the total responses), answered: "my room." Another 27 children (28% of the total responses), said that they did their reading in the "living room. " The remaining answers varied and included: "den, ' ' '"'kitchen," "spare room," "study," "in a cor ner, " and " tree house. " Three children failed to answer the question. The responses given, how


The Active Monitor Box of Electrostatic Risks (AMBER) is a double-head thermal electron and ion electrostatic analyzer (energy range 0–30 keV) that was launched onboard the Jason-3 spacecraft in 2016. The next generation AMBER instrument, for which a first prototype was developed and then calibrated at the end of 2017, constitutes a significant evolution that is based on a single head to measure both species alternatively. The instrument developments focused on several new sub-systems (front-end electronics, highvoltage electronics, mechanical design) that permit to reduce instrument resources down to ∼ 1 kg and 1.5 W. AMBER is designed as a generic radiation monitor with a twofold purpose: (1) measure magnetospheric thermal ion and electron populations in the range 0–35 keV, with significant scientific potential (e.g., plasmasphere, ring current, plasma sheet), and (2) monitor spacecraft electrostatic charging and the plasma populations responsible for it, for electromagnetic cleanliness and operational purposes.


Teaching materials is a device that occupies the most important position in learning that is used to facilitate the course of learning activities. Teaching materials allow students to learn a competence coherently and systematically so that the accumulative able to master all the competencies as a whole and integrated. This study aims to produce teaching materials writing biography text based on mind map in the form of module. This is a Research and Development (R & D) method with ADDIE development model. The subjects of this study are 3 students for individual trials, 9 students for small group trials, and 32 students for limited field trials. Product quality assessment using questionnaire and analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis technique. Based on data analysis, the overall assessment of module material is at very good criteria. The content feasibility assessment has an average percentage of 85%, the presentation feasibility assessment has an average percentage of 98.87% and the language feasibility assessment has an average percentage of 87.5%, while overall the design assessments are at very good criteria with an average percentage of 88.3%. This means that teaching materials writing biography text based on mind map is feasible and very good to be implemented in the learning process. Keywords—development; teaching materials; writing; biography text; mind map


Professionals of different disciplines, including chemists and chemical engineers, engage in water research, even though they might not have been extensively trained in it during their studies. We describe a project-centred master level subject "Water as a Hydrogeological, Ecological, and Analytical System", which, by focussing on waterbodies instead of a particular aspect of water quality, merges total analytical process with water research and, by a considerate choice of chemical parameters, enables students to apply water-research-specific data-treatment techniques, including the Piper and Stiff diagram, to discuss water genesis, processes in water, and influences on waterbodies. Agile management, initiated in computer engineering in 2001, is believed to contribute to better products in a shorter time. We demonstrate how its incorporation into the organisational scheme helped students self-organise, handle their projects, and collaborate within and between groups. Student's expressions confirm their overall satisfaction, motivation, and that the omission of the final classical exam had no adverse effects on the learning outcomes. Their consent with different benefits of the project-centred collaborative approach and their self-efficacy beliefs, respectively, expressed as mean values in a five-grade Likert scale ranged from 4.26 to 5.00 and from 4.32 to 5.00. Regarding the students' time investment, the project-centred approach as the mean grade 3 confirmed is not recognised as an easier way. We provide partially self-calculating, self-notifying Excel spreadsheet tables to ease the implementation of water research data-treatment techniques, which help students collaborate and discuss their subject extensively.


This article examines a remarkable case of analogy in the verbal systems of German and Dutch which to date has hardly received any attention. In both languages, the ablaut pattern that originally stems from the second Germanic ablaut class ("oPRETERITE = oPAST PARTICIPLE") spread to other strong verbs by analogy, as in German heben–hob–gehoben or Dutch binden–bond–gebonden. It is argued that the low token frequency of these verbs triggered this analogy. As in both cases a new type of ablaut class arises through the convergence of several strong verbs, I refer to it as the eighth ablaut class.*


The relationship of time and serum concentrations of Russell's viper venom (RVV), as well as blood coagulating factors, hemodynamics, and renal hemodynamics were studied, in comparison with the co-administration of dopamine plus furosemide, in anesthetized male mongrel dogs (N=18), weighing 10-15 kg. Intravenous infusion of normal saline solution (NSS) containing inulin and para-aminohippuric acid (PAH) was given for renal hemodynamic studies. Twelve dogs were intramuscularly injected with RVV (0.1 mg/kg). Six of these dogs were given with RVV (0.1 mg/kg) followed by infusion of dopamine (D, 3 μg/kg/min) plus furosemide (F, a bolus dose of 1 mg/kg and infusion of 1 mg/kg/h). The other 6 dogs were injected with NSS and served as a control group. Blood and urine samples collected at time 0, 2,6,12 and 24 hour were analysed for inulin, PAH, electrolytes, complete blood count (CBC) and blood coagulating factors including fibrinogen, factor V, factor X and fibrin degradation product (FDP). Calculation were made to obtain renal blood flow (RBF), glomerular filtration rate (GFR), renal vascular resistance (RVR), filtration fraction (FF), fractional excretion (FE) of electrolytes. Serum concentrations of RVV, in twelve dogs given with RVV, were measured by ELISA at time 0, 15 min, 30 min, 1,2,4,6,9,12 and 24 hour. The serum concentrations of RVV were plotted against time on semi-log paper. Kinetic parameters were calculated from the graphs. When comparing the group given with RVV alone and the group given with RVV plus D and F, the results showed gradual absorption of RVV from the injection site into systemic circulation with time of maximum absorption (T max ) of 9 hours. In both groups, maximum concentration (C m ) of 13.0 ± 13.34 ng/ml and 13.0 ± 2.83 ng/ml, elimination half-life (T 1/2 of 26.0 ± 18.53 hours and 16.4 ±10.96 hours, the elimination rate constant (K e ) of 0.0267 ± 0.01 94 h-1 and 0.0423 ± 0.0211 h-1 and volume of distribution (V d ) of 5.56 ± 3.23 I/kg and 6.06 ± 3.85 I/kg, were observed, respectively. Mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) was significantly decreased at time 12 and 24 hours after RVV injection, but slightly decreased in the group given with RVV+D+F. Heart rate was increased owing to sympathetic stimulation as a compensatory mechanism. In the group given with RVV, RBF, GFR, urine flow rate (V) were markedly decreased throughout the period of 24 hours of experiment whereas RVR was significantly increased. In contrary, D plus F could restore the renal function that being altered by RVV. The increase of FF and FE K and the decrease of FE Na and FE Cl were not significant. Among blood components, there was no significant difference among the 3 groups. Blood cell components were slightly increased. Blood coagulating factors, including fibrinogen, factor V, and factor X, were significantly decreased where as FDP was increased throughout the experiment. Dopamine plus furosemide seemed to attenuate the effect of RVV on blood coagulation. These results indicated the failure of blood coagulation induced by RVV. The effects of RVV were closely related to serum RVV concentrations. Binding of RVV to some tissues may be responsible for high apparent V d and long T 1/2 , thus duration of RVV action is prolonged. Dopamine plus furosemide synergistically improved the renal functions, thus increased renal clearance of RVV. This may result in lesser effects on blood coagulation. This should be taken into an account when human victims of Russell's viper bites are treated. The conventional treatment using antivenom and maintenance of adequate volume should be monitored and observed over a longer period of time than 24 hours. Dopamine plus furosemide may considerably be useful in treatment of the viper bites.


The purpose of my dissertation is: to explain and analyze position of SLSP bank products in conditions of Slovak banking industry. I deal with past and future of bank, activities of its subsidiaries and a lot of other activities surrounded in this bank. My dissertation engages in SWOT analyze of bank and elaborately analyze products according to segments. Selected products, which were best-selling, analyze and compare with competition. The dissertation is divided into three chapters. It includes 17 graphs, 34 tables and 12 supplements. The first chapter – Position of SLSP in Slovak banking industry, describes SLSP in general, it points out its importance, position of bank and its client orientation. It describes segmentation of clients, which is necessary for better understanding of client needs. The second chapter – Products of SLSP is devoted to past product offer. On the basis of segmentation this chapter refers to complex product portfolio. There are assigned products to every subsegment and accented conditions of obtaining products, advantages, payments and other informations. The third part is orientated to concrete credit products and term deposits. I concentrated on comparison of products, which offer this bank, with competitors. I specified constituted elements of products from retail segment and I compared it with parameters of similar products of competitive bank. I evaluated percentage whack of credits and deposits of competitive bank by analysis.


This paper presents the investigation of polyphase P4 code usage in pulse radar for target detection as part of range resolution. As one of essential parameters in pulse radar, the range resolution is acquired to determine the relative range between two or more close targets in order to be detected as different targets. The generation of phase-coded pulse signal and its processing are performed in Matlabreg; and GNU Radio by utilizing audio waves. From the result, it shows that the phase-coding with polyphase P4 code could provide good compression to the pulse signal. In addition, by making the code longer it generates side lobe level less than −40dB for the code with length of 2000.


PURPOSE: To simplify a structure and to retard wear by forming a holed brick in such a manner that this brick protrudes from a gas wash flow brick and a lining. CONSTITUTION: The refractory holed brick which houses the refractory ceramic gas wash flow brick formed by covering a gas outflow surface from the inside of a vessel is fitted into the lining at the bottom of the vessel. The range 8 of the holed brick 2 of the gas wash flow device existing at the metallurgical vessel where gases are transmitted in the juncture with the gas outflow surface 15 of the gas wash flow brick 4 projects from the gas wash flow brick 4 existing in the vessel and the lining 1. COPYRIGHT: (C)1992,JPO


Abstract Objective To understand stakeholders' perspectives on food waste in a universal free School Breakfast Program implementing a Breakfast in the Classroom model. Design Semi-structured focus groups and interviews were conducted with school district stakeholders. Inductive methods were used to code resulting transcripts, from which themes were identified. The analysis provides a thematic analysis of stakeholders' perspectives on food waste in the School Breakfast Program. Setting Ten elementary schools in a large urban school district implementing a universal free Breakfast in the Classroom model of the US national School Breakfast Program. Subjects Elementary-school students (n 85), parents (n 86), teachers (n 44), cafeteria managers (n 10) and school principals (n 10). Results Stakeholders perceived food waste as a problem and expressed concern regarding the amount of food wasted. Explanations reported for food waste included food-related (palatability and accessibility), child-related (taste preferences and satiation) and programme-related (duration, food service policies, and coordination) factors. Milk and fruit were perceived as foods particularly susceptible to waste. Several food waste mitigation strategies were identified by participants: saving food for later, actively encouraging children's consumption, assisting children with foods during mealtime, increasing staff support, serving smaller portion sizes, and composting and donating uneaten food. Conclusions Stakeholders recognized food waste as a problem, reported myriad contributing factors, and have considered and employed multiple and diverse mitigation strategies. Changes to the menu and/or implementation logistics, as well as efforts to use leftover food productively, may be possible strategies of reducing waste and improving the School Breakfast Program's economic, environmental and nutritional impact.


Chica da Silva continues to fascinate Brazilian and foreign chroniclers, anthropologists, historians, as well as new generations of cultural studies scholars and artists. Da Silva's exploits as an 18th century Brazilian slave-woman who earned her own freedom and gained social status as a diamond-miner's lover has inspired novels, rock songs, and soap operas, as well as recent dance choreography. I first learned of Chica da Silva through the Jorge Ben Jor song written for the Caca Diegues film, Xica da Silva (1976). Ben's repetitious chorus led me to investigate this fictional protagonist and examine the film representation of her life. As a historical figure and emblem of the Brazilian nation, she has not only stirred up great emotion across more than three centuries, but also sustains her place as an important symbol for the evolution of race relations in Brazil and beyond. In these pages I focus primarily on Eliana de Santana's embodied interpretation of Chica's life stoiy in her choreography "Chica da Silva: Urn esbozo" (2012) but also integrate Caca Diegues's cinematic engagement, Puerto Rican author Mayra Santos Febres's fictional account (2009), and Junia Ferreira Furtado's historical chronicle (2009) to explore the role of Chica da Silva in twenty-first century Brazil. This range of representations allows me to trace recurring tropes across genres and to explore Chica's capacity for sustained impact. My primary interest is in the ways that Chica/Xica as a figure has transcended the confines of the eighteenth century and emerged as a key figure in contemporary discussions of Afro-Brazilian and Affo-diasporic female identity. (1) I will trace the development of Chica as a leader and inventor of new racial paradigms, and Chica as a resource for explaining contemporary society. Each of the texts I examine engages and highlights different aspects of the myth and reality of Chica da Silva; I will draw out some of these stories and connect them to recent theoretical interventions in critical race studies and feminist and gender studies to explain how Chica went from, "escrava a amante." (2) Twenty-First Century Chica Brazilian dancer and choreographer Eliana de Santana resurrects the legend of Francisca da Silva de Oliveira through her bodily exploration of the "other side of the myth" in her choreography. (3) The piece begins with an exaggeratedly slow entrance and limited visual access to the approaching dancer. The air is filled with smoke and the lighting is dim, only five dangling light bulbs illuminate the scene as the dancer arrives at a slow walking pace wearing a long black tank-gown. Santana stands centered before the audience for some time and then dramatically falls to the floor. Once on the ground she cannot seem to stand; she strains to arch her back away from the ground and rolls backwards with restricted movements, each time trying to lift her torso but always falling back to the ground and then rolling further back toward the rear of the stage. Our introduction to Santana and her representation of Chica thus commences with discord; each moment that her body makes contact with the stage floor the audience is compelled to attend to this struggle. While Santana performs as a solo artist, her interaction with the audience is reminiscent of the complacency of members from all sections of society: there is a privileged set of onlookers as the toils and tensions are played out on a distant individual body. Sitting in the small theater of Funarte in 21st century Suo Paulo, Santana seems to hold audience members accountable for their symbiotic function in the formation of social roles as performed in the colonial period. Santana's silent entrance calls the audience's attention to the communicative potential of the body and relies on what French philosopher and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has described as "durable dispositions" and "bodily hexis" (89). These learned and ingrained embodied histories, argues Bourdieu, are held in the body like a repository and reside in the pre-conscious realm. …


The structural form of the main bridge of Guangya Bridge in Liuzhou City of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is 63 m+2×210 m+63 m hybrid bridge of gull double-hole half-through tied arch and three-angle constitutive pier.This paper systematically introduces the main construction technologies for the main bridge's foundation and upper structure in order to provide some references for other similar projects.


The use of a local power supply system for fiber in the loop usually takes power from a commercial power source near the terminal. If a power failure interrupts the power supply, power is taken from a rechargeable battery in the power-supply unit. An intelligent battery system is introduced. This system has a control circuit which monitors the rechargeable battery in the local power supply. The control circuit controls charging and discharging of the rechargeable battery and transmits the remaining capacity of the rechargeable battery and the battery status (normal or abnormal) to the central office. Each terminal manages it own rechargeable battery. The central office monitors the condition of all batteries in the system.<<ETX>>


The utility model relates to an automatic lifting device for liquid crystal display and liquid crystal television, comprising s lifting device, wherein said lifting device comprises a lifting frame, a first gear and worm motor, a screw, a screw connection piece, a secondary lever, an installation support and a limit switch; said lifting frame comprises a fixed bottom plate, a pair of three-section sliding rail with grooves and a first fixing piece; the screw is in the center of the fixed bottom plate and is perpendicular to the fixed bottom plate; the screw connection piece is sleeved on the screw, and two ends thereof are respectively fixed on the lower end of the inner side of the third section of slide rail; the secondary lever support is set on the middle part of the second section of slide rail; a hinge metal plate is fixed on the upper end of the inner side of the third section of slide rail. The automatic lifting device provided by the utility model can conveniently control the lifting device to operate precisely through an intelligent central control system. The utility model is safe, reliable and convenient to use. The utility model makes the table surface for installing the liquid crystal display and the liquid crystal television more beautiful, and is convenient to use and has small vibration and is dustproof.


Designed for the beginner yet useful for the expert, COMPUTER NETWORKING FROM LANS TO WANS: HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, AND SECURITY covers all aspects of computer networking. Hardware details such as the operation of Ethernet, network media and devices, including hubs, switches, routers, and physical topology, are provided, with many design and troubleshooting examples. Software details such as the operation of the TCP/IP protocols, routing protocols, and network operating systems are examined. Applications, such as FTP, Telnet, and email are explained in detail, as are the requirements of writing client/server applications, with several working examples provided. Techniques for applying security to networking and computing activities are covered, including network management, secure communication methods such as SSH, TLS, and VPN, and the fundamentals of forensics. A strong pedagogical approach introduces each new topic with practical, real-world examples, and step-by-step Hands-On Projects. A companion CD includes videos and numerous files that allow the reader to perform important hands-on networking, security, and forensic activities.


Appliance integration services which make two or more sensors and home appliances in home network system are widely developed. In this paper, we define an appliance integration service which cooperate sensors and appliances as a sensor-driven service, and propose a chain reaction detection system between an appliance integration service and a sensor-driven service. The chain reaction between an appliance integration service and a sensor-driven service occurs by detecting execution result of the integration service as an event for the sensor-driven service. Such chain reactions may cause unintended problems for developers and users. We have proposed an algorithm to detect such chain reactions in our previous study. In this study, we developed a chain reaction detection system based on the algorithm. In addition, we performed experiments to evaluate difficulty of detecting chain reactions between integration services manually.


Pachyderm Acoustic Simulation is a professional tool for geometrical and numerical simulation of acoustics in the built environment that happens to be open source under the General Public License. Over the course of the 14 year life of the open-source acoustics simulation project, Pachyderm Acoustic has had the privilege of partnering with numerous academic institutions worldwide to educate architecture and engineering students in acoustics. This has been in the form of support for student projects, lectures and workshops on acoustics simulation and other topics, and, in some cases, PHD advice. This session will explore several notable examples of successful pedagogy using the open source software as a tool for higher education. There will also be some discussion of approaches to pedagogy that have not been as successful, in an effort to further discussion regarding an appropriate approach to higher learning in acoustics.


Based on the analysis of mythology, folklore, beliefs and practices, the ontology and the modern myth in the article there is an attempt to explain why land privatization in Altai Republic has a lot of difficulties.


Membrane processes provide a powerful technique for solvent and solute recovery from dilute (Reverse Osmosis, RO; Nanofiltration, NF; Ultrafiltration, UF) to concentrated (Pervaporation, PV) solutions. The special features for membrane processes that make them attractive for environmental applications are their compactness, ease of fabrication, operation, and modular design. Considerable volume reduction of waste streams is also possible with membranes (for example, 30 fold for RO and up to 1000 fold for PV). Removal of heavy metals, arsenic, nitrates, and other inorganics is of immense interest for drinking water production and also for dilute aqueous systems. Although many conventional techniques (i.e., ion exchange, precipitation, inorganic adsorbents, etc.) are effective for removing some of these pollutants, they are limited in their capacity to accomplish simultaneous removal of all species (including natural organics and pesticides). This paper deals with the applications of RO/NF/PV, and novel functionalized (with polymeric ligands) microfiltration membranes. The results of high performance zeolite pervaporation membranes showed high water flux and outstanding water/organic solvent selectivity. With a new generation aromatic polyamide and other composite RO membranes, rejection of heavy metals such as Pb and As(V) are greater than 98% and nitrate rejections range between 95-97%. Novel microfiltration based metal sorbents with capacities considerably higher than conventional ion exchange have been developed.


Introduction: Head trauma is a high-risk presentation to the emergency department (ED). Preventing secondary brain injury through earlier diagnosis and intervention relies on timely access to head CT. Wexford General Hospital (WGH) ED uses NICE guidelines, which recommend specific timeframes for acquiring CT in head trauma. Following an audit demonstrating low compliance to NICE CG176 time standards in 2020 (34%), a quality improvement project was undertaken to optimize imaging pathways for head trauma. Method: 94 head trauma CT scans were analyzed over a two-month period (June 14, 2022-August 14, 2022) from the NIMIS and IPMS databases to establish current time compliance and median wait times for CT. Following the implementation of a head injury assessment proforma at triage to prompt earlier evaluation of high-risk head injuries, 108 head trauma CT's were reviewed over a two-month period (August 15, 2022-October 15, 2022) to determine if these parameters improved. Unpaired, two-tailed Mann-Whitney's test was used to compare median wait times from triage to CT. Two-tailed Chi-square test was used to compare overall compliance rates. Results: Overall ED compliance to NICE time standards improved following implementation of the proforma (43% vs. 36%, p=0.401). For CT scans that were indicated within one hour, there was a statistically significant decrease in median wait time from triage to CT (134mins vs. 186mins, p=0.046). There was also a decrease in median wait time for scans indicated within 8 hours; however, this did not reach the threshold for statistical significance (216mins vs. 275mins, p=0.230). Conclusion: Although there was an overall reduction in wait times for CT, this did not translate to a significant improvement in compliance rates to NICE CG176 time standards. This suggests that, despite earlier identification of these high-risk head injuries at triage, other systemic barriers to obtaining head CT are present and warrant further investigation.


The aim of the study was to report the results of a systematically conducted literature review of empirical studies about healthcare organizations' ethics and management or leadership issues. The study was conducted by a four-member team, and search in electronic databases MEDLINE and CINAHL yielded 909 citations. After a two stage application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria 56 full-text articles of qualitative and quantitative studies were included for review in this study. No large research programs were identified. By examining each of the team members, and a final conclusion a lot of information from the literatures were obtained. Research in the field organizational ethics has increased since 2000. Most of the studies were in acute hospital settings from the 1990s onwards. The studies focused on ethical challenges, conflicts and dilemmas; employees and managers' moral distress in practice and the ethical set priorities, values, beliefs and climates or environments. Study samples typically consisted of healthcare practitioners, operational, executive and strategic managers. Data collection was mainly by questionnaires or interviews and most of the studies were descriptive, correlation and cross-sectional. The result of this study, Inadequate development of organizational ethics, along with organizational change and grow general knowledge level, there is need to develop conceptual clarity and a theoretical framework around the subject of organizational ethics and the breadth of the contexts and scope of the research needs to be increased.


Cryptorchidism or undescended testes is a commonly observed congenital anomaly of male children seen in patients presenting in general and paediatric surgical practice of our region. Cryptorchid testes are observed unilaterally or bilaterally in one to ten per cent of male infants at birth1 and its incidence decreases to 0.8 per cent at the age of one year. Occasionally a truly cryptorchid testis descends spontaneously at puberty or in response to parental chorionic gonadotropin therapy , but this is not the rule and usually surgical exploration with orchidopexy or orchidectomy (in rare cases) is required. Cryptorchid testes are associated with varied pathological changes depending upon age at presentation, location of undescended testes and familial and genetic factors. In this study, we examined gross and microscopic changes in histological specimens of 146 patients operated in the department of General Surgery at Govt. Medical College Baramulla from Nov. 2014 to Dec. 2019 and concluded that most of the patients tend to present late for surgery especially in the rural settings of north Kashmir with consequent increased risks of malignancy and infertility.


The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the major perspectives on the social and economic situation of "blacks" in Britain and the U. S. A. As part of this, alternative concepts are suggested which we feel are of greater theoretical depth and relevance than race relations theory. By race relations theory we mean any text which implicitly or explicitly does not treat "race relations" as a concept. That is to say, one which attempts to explain race relations rather than investigate it epistemologically. The race relations perspective justifies itself with reference to the actors' definition of the situation, namely, race consciousness, racism and racial discrimination. We hope to demonstrate that its epistemological and methodological basis generates a formidable theoretical incoherence and unavoidable inconsistencies. Our method is to take the theory at its word and confront its conclusions and propositions with its methodological principles. We then extract the inadequacies and trace them to epistemological assumptions.

This procedure is accompanied by a suggested resolution of the problems identified by race relations theory, namely, that to explain the social and economic situation of "blacks" it is necessary to analyse the class structure of capitalist society. In other words, the most theoretically consistent approach would be that whose point of departure is capitalist relations of production. Such an explanation, however, must be prefaced by the analysis of race relations as a concept, i.e. as a term within a specific epistemological and theoretical tradition.

This development displaces "race relations" as a theory and paves the way for the posing of different questions about modes of labour exploitation, and capitalist production. Thus the last two chapters are concerned with the explanation of the conditions of existence of social segregation and changes in the processes of labour exploitation via an investigation of the relations of production within the capitalist mode of production.


This study addressed the occupational risk to health care workers (HCWs) of acquiring HIV infection. The investigators exhaustively reviewed the world's literature on the subject and contacted authors to eliminate duplicate reporting of conversions. They identified 94 cases of documented conversion and 170 cases …


Increasingly the non-traditional security issues generally concern countries in the world. Currently associated with the Gulf countries is a series of non-traditional security hot issues related to the population security, food security, ecological security and economic security, and these problems are not only linked with the Gulf countries' current interests, but also affect their long-term development. The Gulf countries have taken measures to solve the problems above effectively,but they still face many challenges. Therefore, the Gulf countries should further adjust its strategy to respond actively.


A wide range of database applications manage time-varying data. Although temporal database technology has reached a level of maturity and sophistication where it is evident that these applications may beneet substantially from built-in temporal support in the database management system (DBMS), these applications typically run in an ad-hoc fashion on top of conventional relational systems. This state of aaairs may be explained by the fact that it is not clear how to smoothly migrate from a non-temporal DBMS to one that provides systematic and comprehensive temporal support. The topic of what requirements the data model and query language of a temporal DBMS should satisfy to facilitate this transition has only received scant attention so far, but is nonetheless vital in order to unlock the potential of temporal technology for application in practice. This paper deenes a set of such requirements. The paper introduces the notion of statement modiiers that provide a means of systematically adding comprehensive temporal support to an existing data model and query language. It is demonstrated how to temporally extend SQL{92 with statement modiiers while fulllling each of the requirements. A temporally extended SQL{92 is formally deened via a denotational-semantics-style mapping of temporal statements to expressions using a combination of temporal relational and relational algebraic operators. A prototype implementation of the temporal SQL{92 extension is accessible online.


Purpose: To determine the response rate to oral capsular fenretinide in children with recurrent or biopsy proven refractory high-risk neuroblastoma. Experimental Design: Patients received 7 days of fenretinide: 2,475 mg/m2/d divided TID (<18 years) or 1,800 mg/m2/d divided BID (≥18 years) every 21 days for a maximum of 30 courses. Patients with stable or responding disease after course 30 could request additional compassionate courses. Best response by course 8 was evaluated in stratum 1 (measurable disease on CT/MRI ± bone marrow and/or MIBG avid sites) and stratum 2 (bone marrow and/or MIBG avid sites only). Results: Sixty-two eligible patients, median age 5 years (range 0.6–19.9), were treated in stratum 1 (n = 38) and stratum 2 (n = 24). One partial response (PR) was seen in stratum 2 (n = 24 evaluable). No responses were seen in stratum 1 (n = 35 evaluable). Prolonged stable disease (SD) was seen in 7 patients in stratum 1 and 6 patients in stratum 2 for 4 to 45+ (median 15) courses. Median time to progression was 40 days (range 17–506) for stratum 1 and 48 days (range 17–892) for stratum 2. Mean 4-HPR steady-state trough plasma concentrations were 7.25 μmol/L (coefficient of variation 40–56%) at day 7 course 1. Toxicities were mild and reversible. Conclusions: Although neither stratum met protocol criteria for efficacy, 1 PR + 13 prolonged SD occurred in 14/59 (24%) of evaluable patients. Low bioavailability may have limited fenretinide activity. Novel fenretinide formulations with improved bioavailability are currently in pediatric phase I studies. Clin Cancer Res; 17(21); 6858–66. ©2011 AACR.


The loss of effectiveness of television advertising centred on advertising spots has caused the development, and subsequent consolidation, of new forms of advertising within this medium. While management assumes that these new forms of advertising generate greater recall, in order to justify their usage, there is a noticeable lack of research evidence to prove this supposition. Therefore, in this article we use a representative sample of Spanish television audiences to compare the advertising recall that advertising spots generate, as opposed to that occasioned by a combination of new television advertising formats. The empirical analysis was carried out by means of an Ordered Probit model, which showed that the new forms of advertising gave rise to better recall than advertising spots, as much with regard to aided as with unaided recall.


The chairman addresses the impact of future change on the life of the professional automotive engineer, external factors influencing change, the British bus industry requirements, the export bus industry requirements, process innovations and products innovations.


We reviewed 128 femoral neck fractures in patients over65 treated between 1997 and 2000. The mean age was 78.4 years. We paid attention to place of residence at injury as social background. Place of residence at injury was classified into two groups, own home and hospital facilities. Activities of daily life (ADL) was evaluated by gait ability. We report the connection between placeof residence at injury and transition of ADL. ADL in the patients with dementia declined. In patients whose ADL was comparatively good and who did not have dementia, the transition of ADL in the group that stayed in their own home improved more than in that of those who remained at hospital facilities. We found that place of residence atinjury is an important factor that affects the transition of ADL.


Introduction: Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative condition of joint often associated with pain, deformity, disability in movement, and reduction in the quality of life. Study aimed to assess the utilization and efficacy of Plateletrich plasma (PRP), for the management of early knee osteoarthritis. Material and methods: Patients presenting with symptomatic early knee osteoarthritis were included in the study. They underwent infiltration of 5 ml PRP into the knee joint. Patients are evaluated 6 months after the procedure with Visual analogue scale (VAS) and range of motion assessment. Result: In our study of 150 patients with early osteoarthritis of knee, 58.6% presented with Kellgren lawrance grade 2 and remaining were grade 1 osteoarthritis. At 1 month follow up, the procedure gave excellent results in 32% patients and good results in 26% patients, better with Kellgren lawrance grade 1 osteoarthritis. At 3 month follow up, PRP infiltration gave excellent results in 47.3% patients with early osteoarthritis and good results in 37.3%. At 6 month follow up, results were excellent in 47.3% of patients and good results in 24.6% patients. Of the 71 patients showing excellent results, 57.7% had Kellgren Lawrance grade 1 osteoarthritis. Poor response following PRP infiltration is shown by only 2 patients Conclusion: Our study results support the application of autologous PRP as a safe and effective method in the treatment of the early stages of knee osteoarthritis. Significant clinical improvement was seen with 6 months of follow-up.


The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of hormonal stimulation of the female ide (Leuciscus idus L.), following the application of two commercial preparations concerning different GnRHa combined with dopamine inhibitors: Ovopel and Ovaprim. Ide spawners were bred under controlled conditions. The examined parameters included the percentage of ovulating females, time of ovulation and the rate of embryo survival to the eyed-egg stage. The growth and survival rates for larvae produced by farm and wild fish were compared. Stimulation with Ovopel resulted in a shorter latency time (36), whereas stimulation with Ovaprim resulted in a higher percentage of live embryos at the eyed-egg stage (79.7 %). Eggs was obtained from 20% of females in the control group, whereas in treated groups it was at level 90–100%. No differences were found between the growth rate of the ide larvae produced by the farm fish and that obtained from wild fish.


ABSTRACT The exploration for hydrocarbons on the continental shelf of North America commands a very significant portion of industry's efforts. Exploration emphasis will continue to increase but requires a political-economic environment conducive to the high risks and high dollar investments. Nearly 580 million acres are under lease or permit to industry on the continental shelves of North America, of which some 566 million acres are under the jurisdiction of Federal or Provincial governments in Canada. Cumulative production by the oil industry is approximately 2.8 billion barrels of oil and 10.8 trillion cubic feet of gas, and reserves have been developed exceeding five billion barrels of oil and 34 trillion cubic feet of gas, largely in the Gulf of Mexico. Future potential hydrocarbon estimates of the continental shelf of North America range from 137 to 340 billion barrels and 1140 to 1520 trillion cubic feet of gas. By way of comparison it is estimated the total cumulative production plus present reserves for all areas of North America total 144 billion barrels of oil and 724 trillion cubic feet of gas. We as an industry have a major challenge facing us-to find more oil than has been found in the past. It is ironic, we are faced on the one hand with the task of finding increased reserves and on the other with defending the economic climate conducive to the search. The future of continental shelf exploration depends in large upon the development of an acceptable political-economic environment. End_of_Record - Last_Page 0---------


Background: The development of eating disorders (EDs) and disordered eating pathology (DEP) is related to a complex interplay of various factors, with the media being a main risk factor. The high comorbidity related to EDs and DEP highlights the importance of preventive interventions and requires additional prevention strategies that create opportunities for policy changes, while targeting media influences. In 2012, Israel initiated the "models' law", setting limits on both the employment of underweight models and the use of photo editing. This study examined the impact of the models' law on body dissatisfaction, DEP, and EDs among young women in Israel. Methods: The study included two parts: self-report questionnaires and a telephone interview. The sample of 203 women was divided into two age groups, 81 women aged 18-24 and 122 women aged 25-35-that completed both parts of the study. Results: The models' law had significantly higher impact on younger as opposed to older participants. Yet younger participants were found to have higher levels of DEP than the older participants. Additionally, participants who were highly supportive of the law had lower levels of DEP. Conclusion: The results indicate that younger participants had higher levels of DEP and were more influenced by the thin ideal and the media. Thus, these results highlight the importance of implementing prevention programs at younger ages and expanding the spectrum of prevention programs to the field of policy change, using legislation.


40301-08 Hazardous Locations (15 Hours) Covers all classes of hazardous locations, including seals, components, and equipment approved for use in various hazardous locations.


It is shown that certain zeros in row vectors involved in the calculation of state-variable feedback laws by the method of Anderson and Luenberger may be replaced by elements of arbitrary value, without affecting system eigenvalues. Minimisation of the norm of a row of the feedback matrix is suggested as one possible way to exploit this freedom.


The integration of computer security into existing Computer Science undergraduate education is an urgent and complicated task. With the increasing risk of computer intrusion, computer crimes and information wars, Computer Science educators bear the responsibility of cultivating a new generation of graduates who are aware of computer security related issues and are equipped with proper knowledge and skills to solve the problems. The task of integrating computer security into existing Computer Science programs, however, is complicated due to the fact that most faculty members lack the specialty knowledge in this field. This paper begins with a survey of the computer security field by examining the sequence of actions that the US government has taken since 1987 to counter the computer security issues, followed by an assessment of needs for practitioners in the field. A comprehensive approach of integrating computer security into an existing degree program is then proposed. The paper concludes with observations upon what should be taught and how computer security could be integrated into undergraduate education.


This paper presents three-dimensional robot task using the vision control method. A minimum of two cameras is required to place points on end dffectors of n degree-of-freedom manipulators relative to other bodies. This is accomplished using a sequential estimation scheme that permits placement of these points in each of the two-dimensional image planes of monitoring cameras. Estimation model is developed based on a model that generalizes known three-axis manipulator kinematics to accommodate unknown relative camera position and orientation, etc. This model uses six uncertainty-of-view parameters estimated by the iteration method.


Duan Anjie's theory on vocal music,typical of traditional Chinese music,is totally different from that of western countries,There is profound philosophy and connotation in it.


Extensive research on extreme phenomena and their impact on the living conditions of people, their safety and economic and social consequences were initiated in many countries throughout the world many years ago (Crisci et al., 2002). In Poland, research in this scope has been neglected or limited merely to analyses of particular cases, such as the catastrophic flood in Gdańsk in 2001 (Cyberski, 2003). Our country remains a "blank area" on the map of Europe in this respect. The more so, as the current analyses of extreme situations are most often restricted to precipitation and thaw high waters (on land) and storm situations on the Baltic Sea. In the case of the latter, only the hydrometeorological conditions present in the given period on the sea are analysed. What is missing, however, is the information on changes in land water quality within the coast, which is also influenced by the extreme conditions. This is so important as the zone of sea and ocean coasts is a place where on the one hand, phenomena and processes not found in land interior are observed, and on the other hand, the phenomena which occur here have a huge force and dynamics of their course. The most frequent phenomenon, precisely in periods of the occurrence of extreme conditions, are sea water intrusions, observed in various hydrographic objects of the coastal zone, including the mouth sections of rivers (Giambastiani et al., 2007). As a result, a change in the qualitative composition of the waters of these objects is observed, which is manifested mainly in a change in salinity (van der Thuin, 1990). Unfortunately, for Polish coast of the southern Baltic there are only scarce documented examples of the occurrence of sea water intrusion into the mouth sections of rivers and they concern mainly the Wisła and Odra. For the remaining rivers in most cases there is no information on the volume and intensity of the impact of salt waters. Hence, the aim of the paper is the determination whether in the case of the mouth sections of the rivers of the Polish coastal zone of the southern Baltic, the phenomenon of intrusions occurs and if so, whether it occurs in all the rivers and how intense the course and extent of this phenomenon is in particular objects. The objects selected for investigation are the mouth sections of eight rivers or canals of the Polish coastal zone, i.e. the Martwa Wisła, Reda, Płutnica, Piaśnica, Łeba Canal, Łupawa Canal, Potynia and Głownica (Figure 1).


Communities are increasingly threatened by extreme weather events. The cumulative effects of such events are typically investigated by assessing community resilience, that is, the extent to which affected communities can achieve pre‐event states. However, a mechanistic understanding of the processes underlying resilience is frequently lacking and requires linking various measures of resilience to demographic responses within natural communities. Using 13 years of data from a shrub community that experienced a severe drought in 2005, we use generalized additive models to investigate temporal changes in three measures of resilience. We assess whether community‐weighted, species‐specific demographic traits such as longevity and reproductive output can predict changes in resilience and how the performance of these traits compares to more commonly used plant functional traits such as leaf area or root dry matter content. We find significant spatiotemporal variation in community dynamics after the drought. Overall, demographic traits are better at predicting absolute and relative resilience in total plant cover, but functional traits outperform demographic traits when resilience in community composition is assessed. All resilience measures show nonlinear and context‐specific responses to demographic and functional traits; and these responses depend strongly on the severity of initial drought impact. Synthesis. Our work demonstrates that a full picture of the mechanisms underlying community responses to drought requires the assessment of numerous species‐specific characteristics (including demographic and functional traits) and how these characteristics differentially affect complementary measures of community changes through time.


The paper examines the image of the maternal in Hayyim Nahman Bialik's poetry and short prose. Contrary to most prior critical evaluations, which have viewed the autobiographical or symbolic mother in Bialik's works as a monolithic representation of misery, helplessness, and self-sacrifice, this paper emphasizes the mother's portrayal as a feared, loathed, and highly ambivalent object of identification vis-à-vis the emergence of the romantic Hebrew male poet. In a reading that spans from Bialik's early lyric poetry to his mature epic "Yatmut" (Orphanhood), the author traces the development of the mother image over the course of the poet's adult life and compares it to maternal images in the works of other romantic poets (William Wordsworth, for example). She also draws parallels between the ambivalent knot through which the poet is bound to his mother, and a similar ambivalent knot that cements the bond between national poet and his "people."


Cl The anode electrolyte and cathode electrolyte, respectively V and Fe cation or may have a cation, or the anode electrolyte and cathode electrolyte solution may contain both in the form of a mixture of V and Fe cations cations respectively. Furthermore, the support solution is SO


Usually, the reflection probability R(E) of a particle of zero energy incident on a potential which converges to zero asymptotically is found to be 1: R ( 0 ) = 1 . But earlier, a paradoxical phenomenon of zero reflection at zero energy ( R ( 0 ) = 0 ) has been revealed as a threshold anomaly. Extending the concept of half-bound state (HBS) of 3D, here we show that in 1D when a symmetric (asymmetric) attractive potential well possesses a zero-energy HBS, R ( 0 ) = 0 ( R ( 0 ) ≪ 1 ) . This can happen only at some critical values qc of an effective parameter q of the potential well in the limit E → 0 + . We demonstrate this critical phenomenon in two simple analytically solvable models: square and exponential wells. However, in numerical calculations, even for these two models R ( 0 ) = 0 is observed only as extrapolation to zero energy from low energies, close to a precise critical value qc. By numerical investigation of a variety of potential wells, we conclude that for a given potential well (symmetric or asymmetric), we can adjust the effective parameter q to have a low reflection at a low energy.


The thrust of this dissertation involves superconductivity, or the lack of any resistance in an electric current, which has been of great interest since its discovery in 1911. Contemporary research has turned to ever more complex systems and has found fascinating interactions and new sources of the phenomenon. Our contribution comes from superfluid density, λ−2(0), measurements of Superconducting/Ferromagnetic (S/F) thin film bilayers and trilayers, as well as the high temperature superconducting ceramic cuprate Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (BSCCO or Bi-2212) films we grow by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). Superconductivity and ferromagnetism are opposing phenomena, resulting in complex interaction. We find the ferromagnet in S/F bilayers has a surprisingly small exchange energy, Eex, and large interface resistance, Rb. This contradicts conventional understanding of these systems, but our study of the theory shows that it is entirely consistent. The theory proposed by Houzet and Meyer (H-M) expects normalized superfluid density, λ−2(0)/λ−2 0 , as a function of normalized transition temperature, Tc/Tc0, to follow a narrow band, where λ −2 0 and Tc0 are the parameters for an S monolayer. We show the data agree well with H-M theory and offer a plausible explanations for the exception. When a second superconducting layer is added to make S/F/S trilayers, a second superconducting transition results. The second transition is visible by a kink in superfluid density and allows us to determine the contribution to λ−2(0) from each


In performance spaces, double sloped sound energy decays can be created intentionally to combine the two contradicting qualities clarity and reverberance. However, in office environments with atria, unintentional occurrence of double sloped decays might lead to noise nuisance. This research focuses on the low frequency range. In contrast to the high frequency range, the double slope effect is expected to be frequency dependent for low frequencies. The low frequency sound field is simulated using the finite element method by solving the acoustic wave equation, for two rectangular rooms with varying location and distribution of apertures in the partition wall. The results show a varying decay curve over different positions in the room, independent of the aperture location and distribution. The location of the apertures shows to have a large influence on the decay curve due to the modal shapes in the secondary room. A systematic frequency dependence of the decay curve has not been found but is likely to be present due to reduced aperture transparency at low frequencies. It is expected to be more distinctly present in larger volume room systems. Additionally the use of quantifiers to identify double sloped decay curves is discussed.


Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are lightweight and an increasingly used material with good mechanical properties. In the aviation industry, they are also required to have specific electrical properties that guarantee resistance to the direct and indirect lightning effects. The paper is focused on the description of a test stand and development of a method used to determine the electrical characteristics of conductive CFRP laminate samples with the use of high current impulses of lightning nature. Samples of three laminates (square format with side 30 × 30 cm) with a different composition were tested on the constructed stand, confirming the possibility of characterizing this type of laminate sample in terms of electrical conductivity and resistance to the effects of lightning current. It was possible to observe the impulse current flow (with a peak value up to 15 kA and a rise time above 6 µs) from the high voltage electrode placed in the center of the sample in all directions towards the edge. The optical fiber measuring system was used to record the voltage and current time waveforms. The energy stored in the impulse current generator was sufficient to simulate the mechanical damage, such as burnout and delamination, that accompanies the direct lightning strike to structural elements made of CFRP. The influence of the matrix composition used for laminate fabrication on the test results describing the electrical properties of the tested CFRP samples was noted. The experimental setup allows the testing of specimens with a maximum width and length of 50 × 50 cm and any thickness with a peak current of up to 50 kA.


We study the properties of a dissipative two-state fermionic system embedded in a phonon bath at zero temperature. In contrast to the traditional path-integral and canonical transformation approaches, we propose a self-consistent Green's function approach. Our results show that the mean field theory overestimates the polarization of the system. To justify our approach, we consider a simplest case in which there is only one phonon mode. This simple model can be 'exactly' diagonalized. We find that the results from the self-consistent Green's function approach agree well with the quantum mechanical diagonalization results.


Described herein are heterocyclic organic compounds of following formulae: More specifically, described herein are fused heterocyclic naphthalene compounds, polymers based on fused heterocyclic naphthalene compounds, methods for making these compounds, and uses thereof. The compounds described have improved polymerization and stability properties that allow for improved material processibility for use as organic semiconductors (OSCs).


More attention has been paid to fish interferon(IFN) system since it played a key role in fish innate immune system.The interferon regulatory factor(IRF) family comprises transcription factors that regulate the expression of interferon and IFN-stimulated genes(ISGs) by binding to characteristic elements in their promoters.Among IRFs,at least four members,IRF1,IRF3,IRF5 and IRF7,have been implicated as direct transducers of virus-mediated IFN signaling.IRF1 was the first IRF family member known to activate the IFNβ gene,and found to be constitutively expressed in most cell types.In our laboratory,a cDNA library of CAB cells(Blastulae embryonic cells of crucian carp) has been established,which is an ideal cell model system for studying fish antiviral-relevant genes,and the fulllength cDNA of crucian carp IRF1(CaIRF1) was cloned from the library.Furthermore,subcellular localization and inductive expression of CaIRF1 were also characterized in the previous study.In order to further investigate the role of CaIRF1 in fish innate immune system,the stably transfected cells were obtained with CaIRF1 overexpression in the study.Firstly,the cDNA fragment containing C-terminal 165 amino acids of CaIRF1 was cloned and integrated into a prokaryotic expression vector pET32a,and then a recombinant protein with the expected size was expressed under the induction of IPTG and purified according to the protocol of the His.Bind Purification Kit.The anti-CaIRF1 polyclonal antibody was prepared by immunizing rabbit with the purified recombinant protein and subsequently used to detect the stably transfected cells in western blotting analysis.Secondly,we cloned CaIRF1 gene with in-frame restriction sites into a eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1,which is under the control of a strong cytomegalovirus immediate-early gene promoter.Then,the recombinant eukaryotic expression vector was transfected into CAB cells,and the stably transfected cells were selected with G418 for a month.After that,the stably transfected cells were detected to confirm the CaIRF1 overexpression by real-time PCR and western blotting analysis.Real-time PCR analysis showed expression of CaIRF1 was obviously higher in mRNA level in the stably transfected cells than that in the control cells;Moreover,the data also revealed that mRNA level of IFN gene was up-regulated in the stably transfected cells.Correspondingly,expression of CaIRF1 was also increased in protein level in the stably transfected cells as compared with the control cells by western blotting analysis;to verify the specificity of the anti-CaIRF1 polyclonal antibody,the antiserum was pre-adsorbed with the purified recombinant CaIRF1-C/His peptide for 16h at 4℃.As a result,the pre-adsorbed antiserum could not recognize the corresponding peptide in the subsequent western blotting.So,the results from real-time PCR and western blotting analysis confirmed that CaIRF1 had been overexpressed in the stably transfected cells.To study effect of CaIRF1 overexpression on expression levels of other genes in interferon system,the stably transfected cells were induced with poly I:C,and the two genes,STAT1 and IFI58 were detected by real-time PCR.The results displayed that the expression were obviously up-regulated in mRNA levels.In conclusion,our data indicates that CaIRF1 may have the same function as mammalian IRF1,which mediates the antiviral state in cells by regulating the expression of IFN and ISG genes.Therefore,further studies will be needed to understand the importance of CaIRF1 in fish interferon system.


In this paper a conceptual model is developed that relates loyalty to a community of countries to the material benefits derived from it, measured by the transfer of extra income. We argue that the extent of a country's welfare, and consequently its acceptance to participate in a community increase together with the latter's scope for influence on the former. We use the paradigm of Greece, which is one of the main recipient countries in the EU. It was found that financial transfers concerning regional policy affect in the long-run 'the acceptance of European integration' by the public in Greece while social policy funds appear to have short-run positive effects on public opinion.


Abstract : The current operational FAST battery is scored by hand more than 90% of the time. Quality checks at MILPERCEN and reports from field testing locations reveal a high error rate among hand-scored tests. This required establishing a quality control system in 1975 by which FAST test scores are checked by hand at MILPERCEN. Thus, it was apparent that a desirable test battery would be one which was easier to administer and which could be 'checked' by machine. At the time the FAST was originally developed provisions were made for further analysis to shorten the battery and provide more effective prediction of training performance. This research represents an effort to accomplish these objectives and to develop a single FAST battery for all applicants consisting of fewer, shorter, and more easily scored component tests. A principal objective in the revision effort was to shorten the battery. To accomplish this the following two-phase approach was applied. First, the number of tests included in the battery was reduced by factor analysis and stepwise multiple correlation. Second, items in each of the more predictive tests were subjected to item analysis procedures to retain the more valid items and eliminate the less effective ones.


Objective To investigate the survival rate and to estimate their hazard ratio of death in the post-stroke elderly in the communities of Beijing.Methods The study samples were collected from districts(or counties),subdistricts(or townships) and residents committees(or natural villages) in 1997 using stratified classification,multistage random sampling according to the principles of cluster sampling.The individuals were questionnaired.A total of 2788 valid samples were obtained.These samples were followed up comprehensively in 2000 and 2004,respectively;the time and reasons of death and lost to follow-up were documented.Results The year mortality in stroke group was 7.77/100 person-years,and in non-stroke group was 4.51/100 person-years(χ2=27.69,P0.001).The difference was statistically significant.The cumulative survival rate was 57% in the stroke group up to the end of the follow-up period,and it was 72%(u=29.24,P0.001) in the non-stroke group.The difference was statistically significant.With the extension of time,the cumulative survival rate in the stroke group was significantly lower than that in the non-stroke group: the survival rates of 1,2,3,and 5 years in the stroke group were 86%,78%,73%,and 64%,respectively.They were all lower than 94%,89%,85%,and 78% in the non-stroke group.After adjusting for age,sex,hypertension,coronary heart disease,diabetes,tumor and other chronic diseases with Cox regression,the mortality risk ratio of stroke was 1.869(95% CI: 1.530-2.283).The attributable risk(AR) was 3.95,and the attributable risk proportion(ARP) was 46.5%.Conclusions The survival rate of the post-stroke elderly in the communities was significantly decreased.Stroke is one of the important factors of the death in the elderly.So the whole society should pay attention to the prevention of stroke.


The porphyry-type molybdenum deposit in east Gobi is the first oversize molybdenum deposit in Xinjiang.Being different than a typical porphyry-type molybdenum deposit,the orebody is not located in the internal or external contact zone of porphyry bodies,but is situated in the veins of surrounding rock outside the porphyry body.The veins related with mineralization primarily consist of quartz veins(largest in scale),potassium feldspar veins(second largest in scale),and some other polygenic veins(such as calcite-quartz vein,fluorite-quartz vein,fluorite-potassic feldspar vein etc.).Mineralization is almost not found in surrounding rocks outside the veins.After comparing porphyritic granite mass and mineralized veins in east Gobi in terms of the petrology and petrogeochemistry characteristics,the paper studies the homology between porphyritic granite mass and mineralized veins,and it shows that both of the two belong to comagmatic evolutionary series.The various kinds of veins are products of differentiation of porphyritic granite magma in the later period of evolution.The author also believes that the hydrothermal ore-forming solution mainly originated from porphyritic granite magma.The results of study are intrusive and can be used for reference to the further discussion of methods and process of magmatic hydrothermal mineralization.


ABSTRACT We discuss combining sign restrictions with information in external instruments (proxy variables) to identify structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) models. In one setting, we assume the availability of valid external instruments. Sign restrictions may then be used to identify further orthogonal shocks, or as an additional piece of information to pin down the shocks identified by the external instruments more precisely. In a second setting, we assume that proxy variables are only "plausibly exogenous" and suggest various types of inequality restrictions to bound the relation between structural shocks and the external variable. This can be combined with conventional sign restrictions to further narrow down the set of admissible models. Within a proxy-augmented SVAR, we conduct Bayesian inference and discuss computation of Bayes factors. They can be useful to test either the sign- or IV restrictions as overidentifying. We illustrate the usefulness of our methodology in estimating the effects of oil supply and monetary policy shocks.


A highly sensitive and specific real-time TaqMan-fluorescent-quantitative PCR(FQ-PCR)assay was developed to detect and quantitate porcine cytomegalovirus(PCMV)infection using PCMV DNA sequence-derived specific primer pairs and TaqMan fluorescent probe.The sensitivity,specificity and repetition assay of FQ-PCR were tested,and 15clinic suspicious PCMV infected samples were detected by the FQ-PCR assay in contrast to the routine PCR method.Virus contents in different internal organs of six PCMV-positive swine were compared and detected.The results indicated the FQ-PCR assay as well as a quantitative standard carve with good linearity(R2=0.998)were successfully established.The developed FQ-PCR assay was able to detect as little as 1.0copy/L of recombinant pGEM-T/PCMV plasmid DNA,and the sensitivity of which was 100times more than that of the routine PCR.The specificity assay exhibited that positive signals could be obtained from recombinant pGEM-T/PCMV plasmid,but not from the genomic DNA or total cDNA of the other 6kinds of pathogenic microorganism acting as the controls.The repetition test indicated that the FQ-PCR was reproducible.Nine positive results from 15clinic suspicious PCMV infected samples were obtained,which were consistent with the results detected by routine PCR.The organs with the highest and lowest PCMV content levels were tonsils and small intestine,respectively.PCMV FQ-PCR method was successfully established and used for the clinical diagnosis of PCMV and early detection of latent infection,which was of great significance for rapid diagnosis of PCMV,comprehensive prevention,control,and purification.


Symptomatic navigational veering in Parkinson's disease (PD) is related to abnormal processing of radial optic flow, or the motion patterns perceived during foreword self‐movement. Previous studies indicate an important role of the parietal cortex in the perception of radial optic flow. However, the link between radial optic flow perception, cortical degeneration, and disease severity in PD has not been explored. The aim of this study is to better understand the correlation between three‐dimensional radial optic flow perception in PD and cortical degeneration in area V6 of the parietal lobe. The V6 region is important for the analysis of visual motion patterns during self‐motion, and therefore navigation. We hypothesized that evidence for degeneration in area V6 correlates with radial optic flow measures in PD patients. Voxel‐based volumetric MRI data analyses using FreeSurfer, focusing on area V6 as the region of interest, was performed on MR brain images from 19 PD patients. Results correlated to radial optic flow measures and PD disease severity measured by Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), part 3. Correlation analyses were also conducted between the visual pathway and the basal ganglia, since both are linked to PD pathology.


This paper uses a dynamic model with asymmetric players to explore the question: in a second-best world, should environmental regulations for transboundary pollutants be carried out locally or centrally? We find that combined payoffs are larger with decentralized control if payoffs are sufficiently heterogeneous and initial pollution stocks are sufficiently small. This result obtains because the central authority applies one shadow price to pollution (i.e., it uses uniform standards), whereas local authorities use different shadow prices, and therefore different standards.


During the preceding decade, the Rehnquist Court significantly limited Congress's Commerce Clause and Fourteenth Amendment authority over civil rights. The new trend in judicial oversight first appeared in United States v. Lopez, where the Supreme Court invalidated a statute because Congress failed to show the law congruently and proportionately regulated behavior with a substantial effect on the national economy. In several cases, the Court relied on this congruency test to reduce Congress's ability to enact civil rights legislation. On another front, beginning with City of Boerne v. Flores, the Court reduced Congress's ability to enforce Fourteenth Amendment due process and equal protection rights. Boerne interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to be a responsive, rather than a proactive, federal empowerment. This means Congress cannot "determine what constitutes a constitutional violation" in order to secure fundamental rights; it can only prevent judicially identified unconstitutional behavior. The Court thereafter reiterated this remedial interpretation in United States v. Morrison, finding that Congress overstepped its Fourteenth Amendment authority in enacting a civil cause of action for gender-motivated violence committed by private individuals as opposed to state actors. Interestingly, the Rehnquist Court has not similarly reduced Congress's authority under the Thirteenth Amendment, making it an alternative source for federal civil rights statutes. This Article develops an approach that sidesteps the Court's recently placed obstacles to national civil rights initiatives. The Thirteenth Amendment differs from the Fourteenth Amendment because it lacks a state action requirement. Similarly, it differs from the Commerce Clause because the Thirteenth Amendment's central concern is liberal equality rather than economic transaction. The Thirteenth Amendment's framers drew from antislavery and abolitionist writers to develop a constitutional provision for protecting individual rights essential for the common good of citizens.