[Purpose] To investigate the efficacy and toxicity of combination of paclitaxel, 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) and leucovorin (CF) in elderly advanced gastric cancer. [Methods] Thirty-two cases with gastric cancer were enrolled. Paclitaxel 135mg/m2, d1, d8; CF 100mg/m2, d1~3; and 5-Fu 500mg/m2, intravenously over 2h on day 1, followed by continuous intravenous infusion at a dose of 2500mg/m2 for 70h. The treatment was repeated every 21 or 28 days, and efficacy was evaluated after two cycles. [Results] Thirty patients were evaluated for clinical response. Twelve cases were 12 partial response (PR); 8, stable disease (SD); 10, progressive disease (PD) and 0, complete response(CR). The overall response rate (ORR) was 40.0% and the median TTP was 6.1 months. Of 19 patients initially treated, the ORR was 42.2% and TTP was 6.4 months. Of 13 previously treated cases, the ORR was 36.4% and TTP was 5.7 months. The main toxicities revealed myelosupression and gastrointestinal toxicity with grade Ⅰ~Ⅱ. [Conclusion] Combination of paclitaxel, 5-Fu and CF regimen is an effective and well tolerable for elderly advanced gastric cancer, especially for initial treatment.


The late philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1905–95) is frequently celebrated as one of the twentieth century's most astute and insightful readers of Husserl and Heidegger. Yet Levinas was also an attentive reader of Shakespeare. He specifically mentions Shakespeare when talking of his early influences, and he includes the English playwright in a list of authors whose art he admires. Levinas's great work Otherwise than Being (1974) alludes to both Hamlet and Macbeth on its very first page, and his collected works contain more references to Shakespeare than to any other author, save Dostoyevsky. Indeed, Levinas refers to Shakespeare so frequently in the lectures from 1946 and 1947 published under the title Time and the Other that he feels compelled at one point to pause and beg pardon for having ''overindulged'' himself. The self-deprecating gesture, of course, does not prevent him from going on to say more about Shakespeare, nor does it really apologize for anything. Less an apology than a justification, Levinas excuses his literary allusiveness by provocatively suggesting that Shakespeare is at the


Aim: This study aims to explore the knowledge hiding phenomenon among project teammembers in the consulting industry. This study investigated why, when, how and what type ofknowledge team members h ...


The demand of conventional vehicles which operates with internal combustion engine (ICE) has been increased with the increasing of the world population. However, it has led to the pollutant emissions which would affects to the global warming. Thus, to overcome this problem, auto-manufacturers has been introduced hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) which combined the ICE with battery based electric motor. Many researchers has been focus on a new machine which are known as flux switching machine. HEFSM becomes as a one possible candidates among the other FSMs due to the flux sources. Thus, a structure of 12S-10P HEFSM with additional iron flux bridges has been developed to overcome the problem of C-Type stator core. Therefore, some design optimization is conducted to achieve the target torque and power which similar to the requirement of conventional HEVs, Prius '07. As a result, the optimum design has been successfully achieve the target torque and power, respectively.


The paper develops a method based on waveform interpolation in the discrete time-domain to counter the spectral leakage errors arising in forming, by discrete Fourier transform (DFT), the supply frequency phasors representing power system voltages and currents when there are system frequency deviations from the nominal value. The interpolation scheme allows DFT evaluation to be performed with a time window length which is exactly equal to the fundamental period of the voltage or current waveform. The applications of the method developed include numerical protection where supply frequency phasors are required and synchronized phasor measurements for control functions in power systems. Comparative studies presented in the paper confirm the improvements achieved by the method proposed over other previously-published techniques in terms of accuracy and computing time


Sensor pattern noise (SPN) extraction is a critical stage of the sensor based source camera identification (SCI). However, the quality of the extracted SPN with the traditional discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based method is poor around strong edges and along with the image border. To fill this gap, we propose a dual tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) based method to extract the SPN from a given image, which achieves better performance in the area around strong edges. Furthermore, symmetric boundary extension instead of the periodized boundary extension is used for enhancing the quality of SPN along with the image border. Extensive experimental results on both synthetic noisy images and real-world photographs clearly demonstrate the superior SCI performance of the proposed method over state-of-the-arts. Moreover, the proposed method also shows potential in the application of image tampering localization.


We describe MR findings in patients with a clinical diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Five patients with different extrapyramidal symptoms were submitted to MRI. All patients were clinically followed-up for a minimum period of at least 12 months. MRI study was performed on a 0.5 T system (Philips NT 5 II), using conventional SE, TSE and t-FLAIR sequences on axial and coronal planes. In all cases MR showed bilateral parietal cortical atrophy. t-FLAIR sequences demonstrated cortical signal alteration on both parietal and frontal cortex in four cases and on the parietal cortex alone in 1 case. During the follow-up clinical evolution gave rise to the suspicion of CBD. MRI demonstrated parietal cortex atrophy even in those cases in which symptoms at onset were not specific for CBD, thus helping the diagnosis. Moreover MRI, using t-FLAIR sequences suggested CBD diagnosis even in the earlier phases of the disease, in which cortical damage has not yet become evident as atrophy.


A series of Fe3+-CdS/TiO2 photocatalysts were successfully synthesized by the sol-gel method and characterized by UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra(DRS).By using the degradation of MB as the model reaction,the authors investigated the effect of Fe3+ and CdS on the photocatalytic property of the product.


Based on the idea of using freely available signals for remote sensing, ground-based GNSS-reflectometry (GNSS-R) has found more and more applications in hydrology, oceanography, agriculture and other Earth sciences. GNSS-R is based on analysing the elevation dependent SNR patterns of GNSS signals, and traditionally only the oscillation frequency and phase have been studied to retrieve parameters from the reflecting surfaces. However, recently Strandberg et al. (2016) developed an inversion algorithm that has changed the paradigms of ground-based GNSS-R as it enables direct access to the radiometric properties of the reflector. Using the signal envelope and the rate at which the magnitude of the SNR oscillations are damped w.r.t. satellite elevation, the algorithm retrieves the roughness of the reflector surface amongst other parameters. Based on this idea, we demonstrate for the first time that a GNSS installation situated close to the coastline can detect the presence of sea-ice unambiguously. Using data from the GTGU antenna at the Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden, the time series of the derived damping parameter clearly matches the occurrence of ice in the bay where the antenna is situated. Our results were validated against visual inspection logs as well as with the help of ice charts from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. Our method is even sensitive to partial and intermediate ice formation stages, with clear difference in response between frazil ice and both open and solidly frozen water surfaces. As the GTGU installation is entirely built with standard geodetic equipment, the method can be applied directly to any coastal GNSS site, allowing analysis of both new and historical data. One can use the method as an automatic way of retrieving independent ground truth data for ice extent measurements for use in hydrology, cryosphere studies, and even societal interest fields such as sea transportation. Finally, the new method opens up for further studies in the response of GNSS-R to ice-related parameters, as periods of ice can easily be detected in both historical and new GNSS data.


For circle vibrating screen, it is a familiar problem to do parameter optimization design. The designer always need to find the suitable optimization program after building optimization model, otherwise, he/she must workout the program by himself/herself. That is a waste of time and manpower. Matlab is a huge scientific tool software for facing project, which contains many tool boxes and the optimization tool box is just the one. In this thesis, the author, at first, builds the mathematical model of circle vibrating screen's optimization design, and describes the mothod how to use matlab optimization tool box to solve parameter optimization problem of circle vibrating screen.


Advances in metal-free materials and the popularization of Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) have led to the wide clinical use of all-ceramic crowns for esthetic restorations. A 72-year-old woman presented to our hospital with unesthetic restorations on the right upper and lower posterior teeth. Intraoral examination revealed poorly fitting metal crown margins. Defective prostheses were removed, and provisional restorations were provided to stabilize the mandibular position. Optical impressions and the maxillomandibular relationship were recorded using an intraoral scanner, and monolithic zirconia crowns were fabricated using CAD/CAM technology for complete veneer crown restorative treatment. Occlusal examination revealed an improvement in occlusal force distribution at initial examination (right side: 33.5%, left side: 66.5%) after placement of the zirconia crowns (right side: 54.9%, left side: 45.1%). Occlusal force and occlusal force distribution area also showed an increasing trend. The Oral Health Impact Profile short form (OHIP-14) score decreased from 7 points at initial examination to 0 points after prosthodontic treatment. Appropriate diagnosis and treatment planning contributed to the increased occlusal force and balanced occlusal force distribution. Therefore, the present case indicates the potential of monolithic zirconia crowns to achieve both esthetic and stable functional outcomes.


Abstract In this paper proposes the latest network-assisted online telemedicine service to coincide with the point being discussed for health care providers to match patients, patients with personalized medical service support system. In order to design the system, to understand the requirements of the patient personalized medical support service system, the data were normalized and were designed architecture client server structure. Further, in order to implement the system that was designed to define the structure of server and client, ontology repository, we implement the system. In this paper, as a result of the test by creating a scenario and prerequisites for testing patient personalized medical service support system that is design and implementation, selecting a patient's condition, department of symptoms by the selected but it was confirmed that the inference is, inference medical institutions that fits department inferred one following upon the items medical patient has the required


A recent online article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, which received wide media coverage, raised the possibility that children are being 'subjected to torture' due to the 'fervent or fundamentalist views' of their parents. However, the quality of argument in that article was inadequate to sustain such a radical thesis. There was no engagement with the perspectives of different religious traditions about end-of-life care. Instead the authors invoked practices such as male infant circumcision which are wholly irrelevant to the end-of-life theme. There were serious failings in relation to core principles of social and epide-miological research practice: the study based its conclusion on a sample of only six cases and failed to consider even the more obvious confounding features. Rather than demonizing the religious beliefs of parents there should be recognition of the need for mutual respect, dialogue based on an 'expert-expert relationship' and collaboration based on 'shared understanding'.


This article supported by remote sensing and GIS software.Using NDVI,DMSP-OLS and multi-temporal TM images covering the period 1998—2010 of Shiyang River Basin.We put forward the Land-Cover Index( LCI) based on the Vegetation-Impervious Surface-Soil( V-I-S) theory of urban land-cover system raised by Ridd and Calculate it.Then we use wavelet analysis,semivarigram and lacunarity analysis to Study the temporal and spatial scales of LCI.In order to find out the spatial distribution and evolvement rules of LCI in the last decades.Finally we attempt to utilize of the regression fit equation to identify the drive mechanism of influencing factors of land-cover change.The conclusions are obtained as follows: LCI distribution restricted by DEM in large area.The value of LCI high area( urban area) increasing,and the value of LCI low area( vegetation cover area) declining since 2002.That the level of regional urbanization significantly improved,vegetation cover slowly got better.And both of them gradually formed clusters.The level of regional urbanization greater impact by human factors,vegetation cover greater impact by natural factors simultaneously.


The sequential ordering problem is a version of the asymmetric traveling salesman problem where precedence constraints on vertices are imposed. A tour is feasible if these constraints are respected, and the objective is to find a feasible solution with minimum cost. The sequential ordering problem models a lot of real world applications, mainly in the fields of transportation and production planning. In this paper we propose an extension of a well known ant colony system for the problem, aiming at making the approach more efficient on large problems. The extension is based on a problem manipulation technique that heuristically reduces the search space. Computational results, where the extended ant colony system is compared to the original one, are presented


The progressive incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the educational field has been seen as an opportunity to improve teaching strategies and facilitate access to student information and knowledge. International trends invite us to think about the relationship between ICT and quality of education. That had influenced governments to start developing specific policies and programs in this way. In this context, the 1:1 model has been developed. This article aims to understand the influence of this model in the processes of school change and improvement, and to propose recommendations for its proper implementation in primary education centers.


The experimentally measured rates of the semileptonic decays K -> pi l nu and D -> K(pi) l nu can be combined with lattice calculations of the associated form factors to precisely extract the CKM matrix elements |V_{us}| and |V_{cs(d)}|. We report on the status of form factor calculations with Fermilab charm quarks and staggered light quarks on the 2+1 flavor asqtad staggered MILC ensembles. Analysis of data for the D -> pi l nu form factor provides a nontrivial test of our methods via comparison with CLEO data. We discuss the use of HISQ valence quarks to calculate the K -> pi l nu form factor f_+^{K pi}(0) and describe tests of our method.


This article describes a transcultural replication of the CLASS program in Costa Rica. CLASS (Contingencies for Learning Academic and Social Skills) is a comprehensive intervention package for remediating disruptive child behavior in mainstream classroom settings (Walker & Hops, 1979). The CLASS program has been applied successfully in the United States, but its effects have not been previously tested in a cross-cultural setting. This study was conducted in a series of regular public elementary schools in San Jose, Costa Rica, a large urban area. A group of program consultants were trained in CLASS program procedures during an intensive 3-day in-service conducted by the authors. Twenty acting out children enrolled in regular elementary schools served as target subjects. They were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group, forming two groups of 10 each. Direct observational data were collected at pre-and post-time points under identical conditions. Results were analyzed using t-tests of group mean differences between experimental and control group subjects at pre- and post-time points. No statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group means were found at pre, but mean differences favoring the experimental group were obtained at post. A consumer satisfaction measure completed by program consultants was very positive.


We present a real-time correlation-based stereo algorithm with improved accuracy. Encouraged by the success of recent stereo algorithms that aggregate the matching cost based on color segmentation, a novel image-gradient-guided cost aggregation scheme is presented in this paper. The new scheme is designed to fit the architecture of recent graphics processing units (GPUs). As a result, our stereo algorithm can run completely on the graphics board: from rectification, matching cost computation, cost aggregation, to the final disparity selection. Compared with many real-time stereo algorithms that use fixed windows, noticeable accuracy improvement has been obtained without sacrificing realtime performance. In addition, existing global optimization algorithms can also benefit from the new cost aggregation scheme. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated with several widely used stereo datasets and live data captured from a stereo camera.


The ground current of HVDC transmission will cause DC bias of transformer in AC system. In order to master the influence of typical AC grid parameters on DC current distribution, a direct field-circuit coupling model of AC and DC power grid is established, and the evaluation parameters of DC current distribution are proposed. The influence of various factors such as the grid density, transformer and transmission line branch resistance, tower-ground wire system on DC current distribution in AC grid are quantitatively analyzed by grid examples. The results show that the denser the grid of a certain voltage level, and the smaller the circuit resistance of transformer and transmission line branch of a voltage level, the larger the DC current of the voltage level and the total DC current of the AC grid. When considering the tower-ground wire system, the DC current entering the AC power grid increases, and the smaller the wire DC resistance and the tower grounding resistance, the more DC current increases. In a line, the tower with the largest grounding current generally appears in the tower 1-4# near the substation with the larger current amplitude. In the calculation process of DC current distribution in large AC grid, ignoring the mutual resistance effect between substations will make the DC current of the AC grid larger, so it is not advisable to neglect the mutual resistance between substations in calculation.


With the Olympic Games and the campus physical environment as the perspective,this paper analysis the effect of the 2008 Olympic Games to the Beijing college physical environment.The influence touch on the follow aspect: the physical establishment,the psychological health of students,the cohesion of the organization,the physical consciousness of students and the college physical athletics.It will serves as reference for constructing the college physical environment.


The selection of ground control points(GCP) is an important process in geometry rectification of remote sensing imagery.Based on the study about disadvantage of manual GCP selection and the character of GCP data,the integrated storage management scheme for attribute data and image data of GCP is proposed.Furthermore,a pipeline of the query,index,image matching and selecting GCP are designed in the article,and a system of GCP image database has been implemented.The exploitation effect of system,which improves the accuracy and efficiency of point selection,conforms to expectation.The management of GCP data by database can make full use of GCP date,and improve the accuracy and efficiency of GCP selection.


A packaging film for enclosing a product subject to fungal attack, film consists of a polymer blend which contains at least one polymer having a transmission rate of water substantially different from at least one polymer in the mixture where an antifungal agent is dispersed through the polymer blend, and is activated by the presence of moisture.


Objective To extend the study of self-framing,especially focusing on the different impacts of self-framing on immediate and delayed decision making.Methods By the means of cluster sampling,160 male undergraduates were investigated with self-framing questionnaire adapted from Kahneman's Asia disease problem.The participants were randomly assigned to immediate or delayed decision making group.Results Self framing could partly influence participants' decision making: in the immediate decision making group,the more positive and hedonic tone of self-framing was,the more likely the sure option was chosen(χ2=4.17,P 0.05);when the sure option was described more positively than the risky,participants preferred the sure one(χ2=6.72,P0.01).While in the delayed decision making group,self-framing didn't have any significant impact.Conclusion At the different delayed levels,self-framing has different impacts on decision making.


The COVID‐19 pandemic is a unique challenge that has disrupted endoscopy training. Initial infection control measures aimed at protecting patients and staff meant nonessential endoscopic activity was suspended in many countries. The decrease in elective caseload from the pandemic also reduced training numbers during this period. While hands‐on training took a backseat, more efforts were directed to didactic training of cognitive competencies. We review the literature describing the impact of COVID‐19 on endoscopy training and summarize key measures aimed at mitigating this effect. These include leveraging on web‐based didactic material and video‐conferences, increased use of simulation and models to hone technical competencies, and a shift in focus from numbers‐based accreditation to competency‐based accreditation. While COVID‐19 was hoped to be short‐lived, it is clear the impact is long‐lasting. Hence, it is crucial for training programs to take stock of how endoscopy training is evolving and use this opportunity to implement new paradigms into their endoscopic training curricula. COVID‐19 might just be the catalyst that transforms endoscopy training into a new digital era.


Traditional analyses of recreation leadership have two themes: an individual-centered approach to leadership behavior, and the location of leadership activities within the internal organizational context Together, these themes encourage leadership research based on a "closed-system" organizational model. However, general sociological theories of leadership confirm that a leader's behavior is also influenced by social ties with others in the organizational environment. This paper presents some limited data from a study of recreation specialists suggesting that at least some leaders perform boundary-spanning roles for recreation organizations. Their relationships with others in the external environment provided information, informal job performance reviews, encouragement, and support This paper suggests the need for an "open-systems" model of organizational behavior and further research into the organization-environment interactions of recreation systems.


The invention provides automobile exhaust NOx purification catalyst which is high in activity and capable of being generated easily at low temperature. The catalyst is high in NOx purification activity in a wide air-fuel ratio range and is wide in operational window. The prepared catalyst comprises three layers. A first layer is a bauxite substrate going through acid and heat treatment. A second layer is a composite coating composed of rare earth metal, alkaline earth metal and transition metal. A third layer is reactive metal. The catalyst maintains high NOx purifying performance. Moreover, thermal inactivated catalyst can recover most lost activity after regenerating through reducing agents 5vol%H2/Ar and CO.


In the previous paper, the geometrically necessary (GN) incompatibility is newly defined and a new annihilation term of dislocation pairs due to the dynamic recovery is introduced into an expression of dislocation density. Furthermore, a multiscale model of crystal plasticity is proposed by considering the GN dislocation density and incompatibility. However, details of dislocation-crystal plasticity calculation are not given. In this paper, we explain a method of dislocation-crystal plasticity analysis. A finite element simulation is carried out for an f.c.c. single crystal under plane strain tension. It is numerically predicted that micro shear bands are formed at large strain, and sub-GNBs: small angle tilt boundaries are induced along these bands. Furthermore, the annihilation of dislocation pairs and the increase of dislocation mean free path characterizing stage III of work-hardening are computationally predicted.


We aim to characterize fault slip behavior during all stages of the seismic cycle in subduction megathrust environments with the eventual goal of understanding temporal and spatial variations of fault zone rheology, and to infer possible causal relationships between inter-, co- and post-seismic slip, as well as implications for earthquake and tsunami hazard. In particular we focus on analyzing aseismic deformation occurring during inter-seismic and post-seismic periods of the seismic cycle. We approach the problem using both Bayesian and optimization techniques. The Bayesian approach allows us to completely characterize the model parameter space by searching a posteriori estimates of the range of allowable models, to easily implement any kind of physically plausible a priori information and to perform the inversion without regularization other than that imposed by the parameterization of the model. However, the Bayesian approach computational expensive and not currently viable for quick response scenarios. Therefore, we also pursue improvements in the optimization inference scheme. We present a novel, robust and yet simple regularization technique that allows us to infer robust and somewhat more detailed models of slip on faults. We apply such methodologies, using simple quasi-static elastic models, to perform studies of inter- seismic deformation in the Central Andes subduction zone, and post-seismic deformation induced by the occurrence of the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in Japan. For the Central Andes, we present estimates of apparent coupling probability of the subduction interface and analyze its relationship to past earthquakes in the region. For Japan, we infer high spatial variability in material properties of the megathrust offshore Tohoku. We discuss the potential for a large earthquake just south of the Tohoku-Oki earthquake where our inferences suggest dominantly aseismic behavior.


Recent experiments in the Large Helical Device (LHD) clearly show the ability of electron cyclotron heating (ECH) to control accumulation of impurities, as demonstrated by external injection of a tracer-encapsulated solid pellet (TESPEL). The impurity introduced locally into the core region of the LHD plasma by the TESPEL has strongly accumulated in a high-density LHD plasma, as well as an intrinsic impurity, such as a carbon. When a high-power (1.5 MW) ECH is applied just after the TESPEL injection for such a plasma, the accumulation of the impurity injected by the TESPEL was almost completely suppressed. This result indicates that applying ECH enhances the outward radial impurity flux. Although a neoclassical ambipolar radial electric field in stellarators has a stronger impact on the transport, particularly on the impurity transport, than in tokamaks, the sign of the radial electric field measured and calculated is directed to a negative even in the 1.5 MW ECH case, resulting in the inward impurity flux. By revisiting the neoclassical formulation, an increment of ion temperature and its gradient could be one of the candidates for the explanation, since the ion temperature is also increased globally by ECH.Recent experiments in the Large Helical Device (LHD) clearly show the ability of electron cyclotron heating (ECH) to control accumulation of impurities, as demonstrated by external injection of a tracer-encapsulated solid pellet (TESPEL). The impurity introduced locally into the core region of the LHD plasma by the TESPEL has strongly accumulated in a high-density LHD plasma, as well as an intrinsic impurity, such as a carbon. When a high-power (1.5 MW) ECH is applied just after the TESPEL injection for such a plasma, the accumulation of the impurity injected by the TESPEL was almost completely suppressed. This result indicates that applying ECH enhances the outward radial impurity flux. Although a neoclassical ambipolar radial electric field in stellarators has a stronger impact on the transport, particularly on the impurity transport, than in tokamaks, the...


Introduction Conceptual Framework for Analysis: A Typology of National Anti-Proliferation Strategies Underlying Normative Perspectives on Competing Anti-Proliferation Strategies U.S. Proliferation Response Australian Proliferation Response Comparative Findings and Analysis Conclusion Bibliography


Abstract Background Not all Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from respiratory specimens are true pathogens. Distinguishing between true pathogens and colonizers is important to initiate early treatment and to reduce the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics. To determine the microbiological factors contributing to the development of A. baumannii pneumonia, we investigated the association between the expression level of known A. baumannii virulence genes such as ompA and hisF and pneumonia. Methods Patients in whose respiratory specimens A. baumannii was identified between January 2018 and January 2019 in a tertiary university hospital were recruited into this study. Relevant radiologic findings and more than 5 days of susceptible antibiotic prescription started within 3 days of bacterial isolation were considered as having pneumonia. The absence of radiologic findings of pneumonia until 7 days after the isolation of A. baumannii was defined as colonization. The expression of ompA and hisF was determined with quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Host factors known to be associated with pneumonia and expression levels of virulent genes were compared between the groups. Results Overall, 246 patients in whose respiratory specimens A. baumannii was identified were recruited into this study. Among them, 17 and 24 patients were assigned to the pneumonia and colonizer groups, respectively. In the univariable analysis, ompA, ICU stay, and mechanical ventilation were significantly associated with pneumonia (p = 0.03, < 0.01, < 0.01 respectively). In the multivariable analysis, mechanical ventilation was significantly associated with pneumonia (OR = 9.75, p = 0.03). ompA expression was not significantly associated with pneumonia in the multivariable analysis (OR = 1.12, p = 0.75) (Table 1). ompA and hisF were significantly associated with the 30-day in-hospital mortality (p = 0.02, < 0.01). Table 1. Univariable and multivariable analysis of factors related to pneumonia Conclusion The association between increased ompA expression in A. baumannii and the development of pneumonia was not statistically significant after adjusting for patient factors. However, the relatively high expression of ompA in pneumonia patients and their association with increased mortality suggests the need for larger-scale prospective studies to draw a conclusion. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures


The Clebsch‐Gordan coefficients of the group SU(3) are determined by integrating the product of three matrix elements of finite transformations belonging to three irreducible representations of the group. Compact expressions involving a single or a double sum over products of 3‐j and 6‐j symbols of SU(2) are obtained for several different classes of coefficients by suitably restricting the initial states but keeping the final states of the matrix elements arbitrary. To orthogonalize the CG coefficients, a linear combination of several integrals with the same final but different initial states is taken. The coefficients of the linear combination are determined by the Schmidt procedure and are found to be expressible in terms of integrals of the same type.


The Composite Response Index in Systemic Sclerosis (CRISS) was developed by Dinesh Khanna as a response measure in patients with adult systemic sclerosis. CRISS aims to capture the complexity of systemic sclerosis and to provide a sensitive measure for change in disease activity. The CRISS score is based on a two-step approach. First, significant disease worsening or new-onset organ damage is defined as non-responsiveness. In patients who did not fulfill the criteria of part one, a probability of improvement is calculated for each patient based the Rodnan Skin Score (mRSS), percent predicted forced vital capacity (FVC%), patient and physician global assessments (PGA), and the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI). A probability of 0.6 or higher indicates improvement.The objective of this study was to validate the CRISS in a prospectively followed cohort of patients with juvenile systemic sclerosis (jSSc).Data from the prospective international inception cohort for jSSc was used to validate the CRISS. Patients with an available 12-months follow-up were included in the analyses. Clinically improvement was defined by the anchor question about improvement (much better or little better versus almost the same, little worse or much worse) in patients overall health due to scleroderma since the last visit provided by the treating physician.Forty seven jSSc patients were included in the analysis. 74.2% had diffuse subtype. The physician rated the disease as improved in 34 patients (72.3%) since the last visit. No patient had a renal crisis or new onset of left ventricular failure during the 12-months follow-up. Three patients (3.4%) each had a new onset or worsening of lung fibrosis and new onset of pulmonary arterial hypertension. In total, 6 patients resulted in a rating of not improved based on the CRISS in part I. The mRSSS, FVC%, CHAQ and PGA significantly improved during the 12-months follow-up in patients who were rated as improved. The predicted probability based on the CRISS algorithm resulted in an area under curve of 0.77 predicting the anchor question of improvement. In summary, 33 (70.0%) patients were correctly classified by the adult CRISS score resulting in an overall area under curve of 0.7.The CRISS score was evaluated in a pediatric jSSc cohort for the first time. It showed a good performance. However, it seems that the formula of part II of the CRISS score needs a calibration to pediatric jSSc patients.Jens Klotsche: None declared, Ivan Foeldvari Consultant of: Novartis, Ozgur Kasapcopur: None declared, Amra Adrovic: None declared, Kathryn Torok: None declared, Valda Stanevicha: None declared, Jordi Anton Grant/research support from: grants from Pfizer, abbvie, Novartis, Sobi. Gebro, Roche, Novimmune, Sanofi, Lilly, Amgen, Grant/research support from: Pfizer, abbvie, Novartis, Sobi. Gebro, Roche, Novimmune, Sanofi, Lilly, Amgen, Consultant of: Novartis, Sobi, Pfizer, abbvie, Consultant of: Novartis, Sobi, Pfizer, abbvie, Speakers bureau: abbvie, Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, Sobi, Gebro, Speakers bureau: abbvie, Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, Sobi, Gebro, edoardo marrani: None declared, Maria T. Terreri: None declared, Flávio R. Sztajnbok: None declared, Cristina Battagliotti: None declared, Lillemor Berntson Consultant of: paid by Abbvie as a consultant, Speakers bureau: paid by Abbvie for giving speaches about JIA, Despina Eleftheriou: None declared, Gerd Horneff Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Chugai, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Bayer, Chugai, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Farzana Nuruzzaman: None declared, Nicola Helmus: None declared


Esophageal cancer is the world9s tenth common malignant tumor. Esophageal cancer is divided into esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (ECA). ESCC is the dominant histological subtype. The overall 5-year survival rate for people with advanced-stage of ESCC is only about 10%-20%, but ESCC is still not well-studied. Therefore, it is very important to study the mechanism of cancer progression in ESCC in order to develop new therapies for this deadly disease. Fibroblast growth factor receptor2 (FGFR2) is one of the RTK members and generally regarded as an oncogene, but little is known about its function in ESCC. In our study, we proved FGFR2 played the key role in ESCC progression. From In vitro studies, overexpression of FGFR2 promoted the ESCC cells9 migration, invasion, and proliferation, which was confirmed through knocking down FGFR2 in ESCC cells. In vivo xenograft tumor mouse model studies showed the tumor size from ESCC cells with FGFR2 over-expression larger than that of the control group. Conversely, the tumor size from ESCC cells with FGFR2 knock-down was significantly smaller compared with the control group. Molecular mechanism studies showed that overexpression of FGFR2 activated the ERK and AKT signal pathways and altered the cell cycle in ESCC. In addition, decreased expression of miR-671-5p was identified by microRNA array and QPCR verify assay in ESCC–FGFR2+ tissue. Using a dual influence report system, we confirmed miR-671-5p could regulate expression of FGFR2. It was also found that FGFR2 was highly expressed whereas miR-671-5p was expressed at a low level in most of the FGFR2-positive ESCC clinic samples. Furthermore, we demonstrated that miR-671-5p could inhibit the proliferation and metastasis of ESCC cells in vitro and it could suppress growth of ESCC in vivo. The miR-671-5p suppressed MAPK and PI3K signal pathways through down-regulation of phosphorylation of FGFR2. Therefore, miR-671-5p was seen as a tumor suppressor in ESCC. Our results demonstrated that FGFR2 and miR-671-5p are potential therapeutic targets in ESCC. They both participate in the progression of ESCC, but also play the contrasting roles. Antagonists of FGFR2 or activators of miR-671-5p could be therapeutics against ESCC. Citation Format: Xiaojia Chen, Xiaoyan Li, Baoqing Tian, Xuan Tan, Wei Han, Jiakang Wang, An Hong. FGFR2 and miR-671-5p as key participants involved in the progression of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2520.


Zizyphus jujube is a plant in the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae) that has been the subject of research into antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties of its fruit and seed. However, few studies have investigated its leaves. In this study, the anti-inflammatory activity of ZJL (an extract of Z. jujube leaf) was evaluated to verify its potential as an anti-inflammatory agent and SARS-CoV-2 medicine, using nitric oxide (NO) assay, RT-PCR, SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, and UHPLC/TOFHRMS analysis. We found that ZJL suppresed pro-inflammatory mediators such as NO, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 cells. ZJL acted by inhibiting NF-KB and MAPK signaling pathway activity. We also confirmed that ZJL contains a phenol compound and flavonoids with anti-inflammatory activity such as trehalose, maleate, epigallocatechin, hyperoside, catechin, 3-O-coumaroylquinic acid, rhoifolin, gossypin, kaempferol 3-neohesperidoside, rutin, myricitrin, guaiaverin, quercitrin, quercetin, ursolic acid, and pheophorbide a. These findings suggest that ZJL may have great potential for the development of anti-inflammatory drugs and vaccines via inhibition of NF‐ĸB and MAPK signaling in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells. © Korean Society for Plant Biotechnology.


Motivation– Designers make decisions that later influence how users work with the systems that they have designed. When errors occur in use, it is tempting to focus on the active errors rather than on the latent design decisions that framed the context of error, and fixing latent conditions can have a more general (and future) impact than addressing particular active failures. Research approach– A constructive computer science approach is used, and results from a simulation reported. Research limitations– Error is a complex multidisciplinary field; this article makes a new contribution complimentary to human factors engineering. Take away message– This article shows that latent design decisions cause serious problems (including fatalities) in safety critical applications; the article proposes UI discovery tools to identify and manage latent errors. UI discovery enables human factors engineers and programmers to work together to help eliminate broad classes of latent design errors.


Purpose: In 1991, we began the high-dose-rate (HDR) interstitial brachytherapy (ISBT) for mobile tongue cancer, using an Ir-192 microsource remote afterloader with a plastic tube technique. This report describes our 11-year experience with hyperfractionated HDR-ISBT for mobile tongue cancer. For this purpose we used a phase I/II study for oral cancer, a comparative study of early mucosal reaction between low-dose-rate (LDR)- and HDR-ISBT for patients with carcinoma of the mobile tongue, as well as a phase III study of HDR- versus LDR-ISBT for T1-2N0M0 carcinoma of the mobile tongue. The aim of this study was to investigate whether hyperfractionated HDR-ISBT can be used as an alternative to continuous LDR-ISBT. Patients and Methods: Nine patients with oral cancer were entered into the phase I/II study from July to December 1991. We used hyperfractionated HDR-ISBT to performed a dose escalation study at 20% intervals from the starting dose of 35 Gy. Also from July to December 1991, 10 consecutive patients with carcinoma of the mobile tongue were enrolled in a comparative study of early mucosal reaction after LDR- and HDR-ISBT, and from April 1992 to October 1996, a total of 59 patients were entered into the phase III study. Twenty-five patients in the HDR group and 26 patients in the LDR group were eligible for the final assessment. Except for the thickness of the tumor, there were no differences in patient or treatment characteristics between the two groups. For the LDR arm (70 Gy/4-9 days) we used the guide gutter technique via intraoral approach, while for the HDR arm (60 Gy/10 fractions/one week) we treated patients with the linked double-button technique via a submandibular approach. Results: According to the phase I/II study, HDR-ISBT of 60 Gy/10 fractions/one week was feasible. The peaks of early mucosal reaction were seen at 10 days after LDR-or HDR-ISBT. The rates of increase and decrease in mucosal reactions were almost the same for the two groups. The phase III study showed that the 5-year cause-specific survivals rates of the HDR and LDR groups were 88% and 87%, respectively. Corresponding 5-year local control rates were 88% and 84%, and 5-year nodal recurrence-free survival rates 76% and 77%. Adverse effects, including the late tongue atrophy, were the same for HDR-ISBT and LDR-ISBT. This proved that hyperfractionated HDR-ISBT of 60 Gy/10 fractions/one week can be used as an alternative to continuous LDR-ISBT of 70 Gy/one week for early stage carcinoma of the mobile tongue. Conclusion: Treatment results of hyperfractionated HDR-ISBT as a monotherapy for early mobile tongue cancer were better or the same as those of continuous LDR-ISBT.


The Liushuigou intermediate-basic meta-igneous complex at Guanzizhen,Tianshui,is composed mainly of metagabbro-metagabbro diorite-metadiorite,and the Baihua basic meta-igneous complex consists mainly of pyroxenite-gabbro (-diorite)-diorite-quartz diorite.They form a relatively complete comagmatic evolutionary series.The geochemical characteristics of basic to intermediate-basic igneous rocks indicate that they belong to a tholeiite suite.Their chondrite-normalized REE patterns are of nearly flat and slightly LREE-enriched type,and their primitive mantle-normalized and MORB-normalized trace element spidergrams are generally similar;the LILEs Cs,Ba,Sr,Th and U are enriched,while Rb and K and the HFSEs Nb,P,Zr,Sm,Ti and Y are depleted.All these show comagmatic evolutionary and genetic characteristics.The tectonic environment discrimination by trace elements reveals that these igneous complexes formed in an island-arc setting.The TIMS single-zircon U-Pb age for the Liushuigou intermediate-basic meta-igneous rocks in the Guanzizhen area is 507.5±3.0 Ma,representing the age of these igneous complexes,which indicates that island-arc-type magmatic rocks in the north zone of the West Qinling are Late Cambrian in age and also reveals that the timing of subduction of the paleo-ocean basin represented by the Guanzizhen ophiolite and resulting island-arc-type magmatic activity is probably Late Cambrian to Early Ordovician.


A b s t r a c t: Integration of photovoltaic systems (PV) into the low voltage distribution networks (LVDN) is constantly increasing. Electric vehicles (EV) and plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) are using the infrastructure of the LVDN for charging. The number of such vehicles connected for charging is increasing. When engineers designed LVDNs in the past, dispersed generation and EV were not accounted. This transition in generation and consumption will affect the voltage characteristics and will increase the inefficiency in a given LVDN. Simulation model for the energy needs of EV and PHEV is presented. The algorithm proposed for analyzing the acceptable penetration level of EV and PV in LVDN is based on stochastic method. The standard EN50160 can be used for results evaluation.


Sleep is indispensable for humans to maintain normal life activities. Sex and individual differences in sleep patterns and quality of sleep cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, the overall population generalities and sex- or individual- differences in cerebral cortical functional connectivity (FC) during sleep have not been well described. Here, we evaluated the characteristic patterns of FC based on whole-night sleep electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. An improved weighted phase lag index (WPLI) algorithm was applied to obtain the FC in delta (0.5-4Hz), theta (4-8Hz), alpha (8-12Hz) and beta band (12-32Hz). FC strength, short-term stability and inter-regional imbalance of FC were studied. We found that the variations in FC-related parameters among sleep stages had overall population commonalities, and these parameters also showed stage- and frequency band-dependent sex differences. With the deepening of no-rapid eye movement (NREM), increased delta and beta FC strength were observed. Rapid eye movement (REM) showed weaker FC strength, higher FC stability, and higher anterior-posterior FC anisotropy than NREM in beta band. Meanwhile, females exhibited higher sleep EEG synchronization and higher delta FC stability in deep NREM sleep than males. Moreover, the dominant hemisphere in terms of FC did not show group generality or stage- and frequency-dependence. Our results add to the understanding of sleep staging function and may provide clues to sex differences in sleep patterns and quality as well as the prevalence and clinical manifestations of sleep-related illness. Short-term stability offers a new perspective in analyzing FC, which cannot be ignored.


The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of ownership
structure, firm size, and firm age on the firm performance with intellectual capital
performance as dependen variable. The Value Added Intellectual Capital
(VAIC™) method was used to measure of intellectual capital performance.
Independen variables were used in the research are ownership structure, firm size
and firm age. Ownership structure that represented by manajerial ownership,
institutional ownership, foreign ownership and goverment ownership.
The samples of this study taken from banking companies listed in
Indonesian Stock Exchange, with observation period of 2005 until 2009. The
samples are collected by purposive sampling method and resulted 56 observation
become the samples. Data analysis using multiple regression.
The result show that manajerial and institutional ownership does not
affect intellectual capital performance, while foreign ownership and firm size
affect positively and significant on the intellectual capital performance.
Goverment ownership has negative but not significant effect and firm age
negatively and significantly affect on the intellectual capital performance.


The quality and performance of the drilled component is of prime importance in the development of aero-engine components and are directly related to the quality of HAZ, Recast Layer and Hole taper. In order to maintain and/or improve the reliability of aerospace components, it is first essential to be aware of the possible damages that can be imparted to a material when it is drilled. Therefore, an attempt has been taken to investigate the effect of laser drilling parameters such as Gas Type: O2, N2; Power: 3200Watts, 3900Watts and Pressure: 4 bars, 5 bars, while laser drilling the Nimonic C-263 super alloy. Laser drilling trails have been conducted with different combinations of drilling parameters. The quality of the drilled holes such as Hole Tapper, HAZ and Recast Layer were evaluated quantitatively and analyzed through scanning electron microscope (SEM).


Room temperature humidity sensing performance of polypyrrole/chromium oxide (PCO) composite has been investigated in the relative humidity (RH) range 11-97%. The composite has been prepared by mixing chemically synthesized polypyrrole (PPy) with chromium oxide (Cr2O3). Structural and morphological characterization of the composite was investigated by FTIR and SEM techniques. Maximum sensing response of 98% with response time of 110s and recovery time of 90 s was recorded in case of composite. Stable humidity sensing response was also seen in case of the sample over a period of two months.


Patient specific instrumentation (PSI) for elective knee replacements in arthritic knees with severe deformities and in revision scenarios is becoming increasingly popular due to the advantage of restoring the limb axes, improved theatre efficiency and outcomes. Currently available systems use CT scan or MRI for pre-operative templating for design considerations with varied accuracy for sizing of implants. We prospectively evaluated 200 knees in 188 patients with arthritic knees with deformities requiring serial clinical assessment, radiographs and CT scans for PSI templating for TruMatch knee system (DepuySynthes, Leeds, UK). The common indications included severe arthritic deformities, previous limb fractures and in obese limbs with difficult clinical assessment. Surgical procedure was performed on standard lines with the customised cutting blocks. The 'lead up' time between the implant request and the operating date was 5 weeks on an average. We compared the pre op CT images and the best fit post-operative x- rays. The sizing accuracy for femur and tibia was 98.93 % and 95.75% respectively. All blocks fitted the femur and tibia. There were no bail outs, no cutting block breakage, 1 patient had residual deformity of 20 degrees, and 1 patient had late infection. The length of hospital stay, economic viability in terms of theatre turnover, less operating time, cost of sterilisation in comparison to conventional knee replacement surgery with other factors being unchanged was also assessed. The projected savings was substantial along with improved geometrical restoration of the knee anatomy. We recommend the use of PSI based on CT scan templating in difficult arthritic knees.


High entropy alloys (HEAs) are a recently-opened research area in materials science and condensed matter physics. Although 3d-metal-based HEAs have already been the subject of many investigations, studies of HEA superconductors, which tend to be based on 4d metals, are relatively fewer. Here we provide a short update of the progress made in studies of superconducting HEAs. We aim to summarize their current status and describe some of the key factors that appear to influence their superconducting transition temperatures and properties, including crystal structure, atomic makeup, valence electron count, molar volume and mixing entropy. Many opportunities and challenges remain for expanding our knowledge of HEA superconductors, finding new types of HEA superconductors, and their potential for applications; these are also briefly discussed.


Reconfigurable antennas based on ferrite materials require lower values of saturation magnetization than that of YIG to operate properly below 5 GHz. To this end, we turned to aluminum-substituted YIG. Six Y3Fe5-xAlxO12 samples, with x = 0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9, were synthesized with the standard solid state reaction method. Isothermal magnetization measurements at T = 295°K showed ferrimagnetic behaviour with ferromagnetic saturation magnetic moment which diminishes linearly with x. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements revealed that the mixed compounds exhibit approximately half the losses of pure YIG. The YIG-Al compound was then applied in the design of a tunable notched UWB antenna operating in the 1.7-8 GHz range. The ferrite was biased by small permanent magnets. The biased and unbiased states of the YIG-Al block produce isolated stopbands. Moreover, in these stopbands, the notched antenna is not only reflective, but also very inefficient.


The process of education digitalization has been on its way for a long time. However, a strong surge of interest arose during the period of temporary communication restrictions associated with Covid-19 and the widespread transition to a completely remote format of interaction between all participants in educational process. Digitalization has affected all levels of education and directly the activities of students, teachers, administrators, or stakeholders. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the current state of education digitalization. The objectives of the research are to study trends in the global and domestic online educational market, identify the features of digital educational activities implementation in the Russian Federation, and comparatively analyze the willingness of secondary and higher education to put digital distance learning into practice.


The concept of utilizing oxide decompositions in advanced thermochemical hydrogen cycles for solar heat sources is introduced. It has particular interest in allowing direct transmission of energy to the process through an air window. A cycle for the Co/sub 3/O/sub 4/-CoO pair would be, schematically: (1) Co/sub 3/O/sub 4/ = 3CoO + 1/2 O/sub 2/; (2) I/sub 2/(s,1) + Mg(OH)/sub 2/ + 3CoO = MgI/sub 2/(aq) + Co/sub 3/O/sub 4/ + H/sub 2/O(1); (3) H/sub 2/O + MgI/sub 2/(aq) = MgO + 2HI; (4) 2 HI = H/sub 2/ + I/sub 2/; and (5) MgO + H/sub 2/O = Mg(OH)/sub 2/. Reaction (2) should give a high concentration of MgI/sub 2/ that would be favorable for (3). The solutions would also contain iodine dissolved as polyiodide, partly offsetting this advantage. Preliminary results indicate that reaction (2) is slow at 150/sup 0/C. It is surmised that the mechanism of (2) consists of the iodine disproportionation reaction (6), followed by reaction (7). (6) I/sub 2/(s,1) + Mg(OH)/sub 2/ = 5/6 MgI/sub 2/(aq) + 1/6 Mg(IO/sub 3/)/sub 2/(aq) + H/sub 2/O(1); (7) 1/6 Mg (IO/sub 3/)/sub 2/(aq) + 3 CoO = 1/6 MgI/sub 2/(aq) + Co/sub 3/O/sub 4/. Other workers have found (6)more » to be relatively fast and with a good yield at 150/sup 0/C. We have found the independently studied reaction (7) to be sufficiently slow at 150/sup 0/C to account for the slowness of (2). The yield of (7) was found to be proportional to the square root of the time, which suggests that iodate must diffuse through an adherent, accumulating Co/sub 3/O/sub 4/ layer. Since (7) is much fasterwhen Mg(IO/sub 3/)/sub 2/ is replaced by KIO/sub 3/, the Mg/sup 2 +/ ion may catalyze formation of an adherent Co/sub 3/O/sub 4/ spinel layer. The reactivity of CoO in the KIO/sub 3/ analog of (7) is greatly decreased by exposure to high temperature. Work will be continued to resolve these problems.« less


Extended waiting time for treatment in National hospitals is very common in Sri Lanka. This situation has created several problems to patients, doctors and even to other health workers. The quality of service leaves a lot to be desired and is costly to the economy. This study analyses different queues which create bottlenecks in the Out Patient Department at national eye hospital in Sri Lanka and critically evaluate several appointment scheduling rules with the help of a simulation model to come up with a solution which minimises the total patient waiting time. Our results shows that total patient waiting time can be reduced more than 60% using proper appointment scheduling system with process improvement.


This article analyzes the choice of contract (sales or rental) of a durable-goods monopolist facing a threat of future entry. Although in the absence of such a threat a monopolist would prefer to rent his entire output, we show that the threat of entry alters that preference. There is an optimal preentry contract mix, involving both rental and sales. If both firms behave as Cournot duopolists after entry, the optimal choice of preentry contracts enables the erstwhile monopolist to gain the same profits as he would if he behaved as a von Stackelberg leader.


Since the earliest period of history, many civilizations have ruled our country. Historical structures, which we inherited from these civilizations, should be transferred safely to future generations. For this purpose, it is essential to clearly determine the behavior of these historical structures. In the present study, one of these historical structures, Sofular mosque located in Merzifon, was examined in detail by static and dynamic analysis. In the analysis, the mechanical properties of the material obtained by experimental studies were used. In the static analysis, the mosque was analyzed under its own weight, and it was obtained that the stresses have large values at the supports of the main dome. So, it can be said that the dome has to be supported at these points. The results of the modal analysis show that the mosque has translational displacements with great mass ratios through two orthogonal directions. This shows that the mosque will have out of plane deformation during an earthquake. Also, under the dynamic effects of seismic forces, it was identified that critical out of plane deformations could occur at the upper parts of the eastern and western facades. Also, it is clear that large stress and deformation values could occur at the narthex part. Moreover, it is determined that the dome portion is involved in translational motion and can be damaged during an earthquake.


Value added tax (hereinafter – VAT), like other taxes, has certain functions, among which regulatory, incentive, fiscal functions are distinguished. Being an indirect tax assigned to one budget, VAT occupies a significant place in the tax revenues of the federal budget. The degree of performance of certain functions, including fiscal, depends on the level of tax administration of this tax. At the same time, the functions performed by the tax are closely interconnected: strengthening the stimulating function of the tax weakens the fiscal function and vice versa. The relevance of the research topic is due to the importance of VAT in the country's budget system. The article analyzes the dynamics of tax revenues in general, including VAT, in comparison with the dynamics of Gross domestic product (GDP). the methods used in tax administration, including those not provided for by tax legislation are investigated. Taking into account world experience, measures are proposed to improve the tax calculation mechanism. The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of tax functions, tax administration on budget revenues.


One of the most challenging issues facing deployment of 3G technology is how to make the network architectures compatible with each other. New signaling techniques are being designed specially to enhance today's 2G networks, deliver unprecedented functionality for 3G, and successfully derive the future generation of wireless systems, thus delivering immediate and long term benefits to subscribers. With the architecture of each generation of wireless devices addressed in the development of advance technologies, subscribers can easily evolve their systems without additional network modification, significantly reducing cost and implementing time. The present paper provide the in depth review of Data Communication using Pulse Shaping techniques in wireless signal processing approach.


In industrialized and urbanized societies, medical science focuses primarily on trauma and diseases, and most environmental work attempts to remediate natural and anthropogenic degradation. This es...


The chapter looks at the problem of urban centre and the periphery, as well as the production of the Other in neoliberal India and new Hindi cinema. The Other here means one that is outside of the new emergent middle class—it can be a rural otherness, but often—the urban, deprived lower orders of the society. Drawing heavily upon psychoanalysis and the work of Slavoj Žižek, the chapter theorizes the insecurity of the urban middle class and its relationship to its Other, and the urban periphery by taking films NH10 and Highway as key examples.


As a student or teacher, writing cannot be separated. Writing means the process of expressing ideas through writing. So the more we write, it means that the more our thoughts are contained in writing. This research is motivated by the low value of writing ad text on junior high school students, this is evidenced by the results of interviews with Indonesian teachers who stated that advertising text material is new material that is in learning in junior high schools. Therefore, researchers formulate how the results before and after learning to write ad text using the active learning method in class VII students. The purpose of this study was to determine the success and effectiveness of active learning methods in learning to write ad text. Therefore, the learning method used by researchers is the active learning method. In this study, researchers took the title of the effectiveness of learning to write ad text using the active learning method. In this study, researchers used quantitative methods. The population in this study amounted to 25 students of class VIII. Based on the data obtained, the initial test results of the average student score of 42.76. As for the final test that has used a learning method, the average value of students is 75.32.


The relevance in the study of interaction between elderly and robots may depend on the choice of activities that robots can be developed to perform and the assessment of their impact and importance for older people. This research requires coordinated research between computer engineers and specialists in the humanities and social sciences. Being a recent research area, it is particularly relevant to carefully select the behavioural variables to be analyzed, the methodology adopted and the instruments that allow for a rigorous evaluation. Based on these assumptions, the present study aims to develop Innovative Initiatives for the Promotion of Active Aging in the EUROACE Region. The authors propose an appropriate methodology and instruments to evaluate the impact of the human-robot interaction in the promotion of a more active aging in a group of elderly in a nursing home. The analyzed variables focus on the involvement of the elderly in the activities, their capacity for initiative and to establish social interactions, indicators of well-being and a proactive attitude. The methodology of the study is mixed (qualitative and quantitative), organized as an exploratory case study. Data collection is based on naturalistic observation but variables are quantitatively assessed in a pre/post-test design.The research design identified the narratives of the elderly and the staff of the institution regarding the needs and interests of each elderly person, classified the participants according to the levels of prevailing social interactions, involvement and initiative in activities, considered important variables for an active ageing and, in this sense, demonstrated its adequacy to be used to evaluate the results of the intervention using social assistive robots. © 2018 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk


Thank you for reading forgotten truth the common vision of the worlds religions. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look hundreds times for their chosen novels like this forgotten truth the common vision of the worlds religions, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some infectious virus inside their desktop computer.


Bees are social insects, they live forming colonies that can be constituted by around 40,000 individuals and that are distributed in a very orderly food and work. Given the above, the research focused on the evaluation of the pollinating effect of bees in conventional and agroecological crops in the nursery of the ESPAM-MFL. For its effect, a completely randomized design was used (factorial DCA 2x3 with 3 replications). Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) conventional and agroecological crops were generated, with and without the intervention of bees (Apis mellifera) and the productivity of the cucumber was determined. Ten experimental units were adapted, 6 plots of 5mx2m located inside the closed greenhouse for treatments 1 and 2; and 4 plots of 15mx2m were adapted outside the greenhouse for treatments 3 and 4. The conventional agricultural methods included synthetic agrochemicals such as methamidophos, nonyl phenol, ethylene glycol and Urea and in the agro-ecological fertilizers and control of weeds of organic origin were used. The treatment that presented the highest number of fruits, weight and thickness per plants, was number 1 (presence of bees by conventional practices); while the treatment that presented lower values in the aforementioned variables was number 4 (absence of bees due to agroecological practices). The results described showed that the presence of bee pollination and the application of conventional techniques, favors the increase of fruits, weight and thickness of the cucumber. It is worth mentioning that without bees in the world, man would have a few years to live, since all trees with flowers and fruit producers would stop reproducing over the years; from which the importance and socio-environmental justification of this investigation is inferred.


AbstractSynthesis by 'far from equilibrium' processes allows development of novel crystal structures and microstructures, leading to achievement of enhanced physical and mechanical properties. Three far from equilibrium techniques are reviewed (with emphasis on the amount of departure from equilibrium): mechanical alloying, plasma processing, and physical vapour deposition. Consideration is given to solubility extension, formation of nanostructured grains, amorphisation, and synthesis of intermetallic compounds. Examples are drawn from systems based on the light metals aluminium, magnesium, and titanium. PM/0715


Soil nailing has been widely used in slope engineering,but so far there are no norms that the soil nailing parameter selection can conform to.Based on the finite difference method FLAC software,orthogonal design for numerical simulation is used to get a reasonable range of soil nailing parameters under a certain slope height,and the example of typical soil nailing is selected to evaluate the supporting effect,and then the slope safety coefficient and the largest horizontal displacement before and after treatment are compared.The test results show that slope stability has been greatly increased by selecting the reasonable supporting parameters of soil nailing based on the orthogonal test.The results of soil nailing can be used as references for quantitative design of soil nailing.


For the traffic jams under the temporary traffic-control measures in small and medium-sized city,microscopic traffic simulation software TransModeler is applied for establishing regional network under the traffic congestion.Dynamic model of traffic organization means is used to realize total amount control of regional traffic congestion,and balance traffic pressure of network.And dynamic optimization of traffic congestion of the downtown area in Qujing city is took for example,it is through simulation results of optimizing organization before and after to evaluate traffic flow of each of road traffic congestion.It proves that flow adjustment methods can ease the regional traffic congestion and it has certain scientific effectiveness.


The accurate determination of the velocity vector from a particle image velocimetry (PIV) transparency depends on the number of image pairs that have been recorded in the region under examination. If one particle pair is present, there is an ambiguity of rad in direction. Two particle pairs give four ambiguous velocity vectors. This paper describes a new approach in PIV that resolves the ambiguity problem and potentially increases the dynamic range of the technique.


By using experimentation, questionnaire investigation and mathematical statistics, this paper makes comparative analysis on two university student physical health test data and fi nds out the distortion of data, which cannot refl ect the real physical health situation. The suggestion is to improve monitoring scale, increase testers' ability, strengthen education and post-service of university student physical health test, emphasize on implementation of test institution, develop more intelligent and delicate instrument, formulate new National Student Physical Health Standard according to reality.


Micro-hole drilling of advanced printed boards with a CO2 laser is revealed. The applied high-peak power CO2 laser has a pulse duration shorter than 100 μs and a peak power level in the kW-range. Thedesign of the laser system and its implementation into a processing system lead to an industrial laser drilling system which is able to process minimum hole diameters of 50 μm. Some examples of micro-drilling results are described.


This essay offers a personal and critical reflection on some of the approaches to practice and research found at Dartington College of Arts. Its foundation is my experience of studying for an MA in Performance Writing part-time between 2001 and 2003. Taking its title from a sentence spoken to me at my interview for the course, the essay contemplates how the practice of the college was to offer an environment to nurture and develop unique methodologies as well as a language for continuing artistic and practical as well as theoretical and academic activity. To finish, the essay considers how and why Dartington could be viewed as a pioneer in the often discussed and still contested field of practice-as-research.


The inclusive reactions p+A..-->..p+X are studied in the framework of an evolution process in momentum degradation. All measured inclusive cross sections between C and Pb for all x values can be understood in terms of one basic degradation function which involves only one adjustable parameter. The inferred degradation length in nuclear matter is 17 fm.


A Socially Aware Bayesian Model for Competitive Foraging Sheeraz Ahmad (firstname.lastname@example.com) Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of California, San Diego Angela J. Yu (firstname.lastname@example.com) Department of Cognitive Science University of California, San Diego Abstract can do better by moving to another patch. Competitive for- aging, therefore, presents an ecologically convenient case study for how individual-based, decentralized learning and decision-making, can lead to coherent and desirable behav- ioral patterns at the group level. Surprisingly, despite the rich body of empirical literature on the subject, the cognitive and neural mechanisms leading to IFD are not well understood. Most of the models (see (Pyke, 1984) for a detailed review) are descriptive in nature, and make unrealistic assumptions about foraging agents' knowledge about the reward environ- ment and their behavioral constraints. In particular, agents are assumed to have precise and unbiased knowledge about the reward distribution (the ideal assumption), and that they can freely travel from one patch to another without any lim- itation or cost (the free assumption). In more natural scenar- ios, humans and animals often have to forage without (initial) knowledge about the relative reward value of the different op- tions, and there may be costs associated with switching be- tween options (e.g. time, energy, opportunity cost, money). A more complete understanding of competitive foraging be- havior needs to incorporate these factors. Effectively solving the problem of when and where to forage is critical for survival in many animal species. The task is further complicated when there are other agents, potentially competing for the same limited resources. Previous models of foraging consider agents either in isolation or in groups but without competition. Here, we present a novel Bayesian model for competitive foraging, Socially Aware Bayesian Agent (SABA), that takes into explicit account the presence of other agents for both learning and decision-making. For comparison, we also implement a simple Naive Agent model that completely ignores the presence of other agents. We find that although all models perform well in a stationary environ- ment, converging quickly to the optimal population-level solu- tion, only SABA with the stochastic foraging policy can read- ily adapt when the environment is non-stationary. These results represent a first step toward cognitively sophisticated represen- tations for learning and decision-making in competitive forag- ing. Keywords: competitive foraging; Bayesian learning; decision-making; public information; Ideal Free Distribution (IFD). Introduction Foraging is the general problem of deciding how to choose among different reward options (e.g. food patches) adap- tively, based on sequentially observed, noisy data, and thus in the presence of uncertainty associated with reward values of the different options. In competitive foraging, there is both benefit, in terms of information, and cost, in terms of com- petition, due to the presence of other foraging agents. Daily life is rife with such competitive foraging examples, such as picking a restaurant, asking someone out on a date, bidding on a house, picking a vacation location, etc. In the experimen- tal literature, this has most often been studied in the context of animals foraging in an environment containing patches of food (see (Pyke et al., 1977; Perry & Pianka, 1997) for re- view). The optimal solution for the population is to have the agents distributed proportional to the underlying reward rates at the different food patches, as that ensures maximal efficiency of food intake in the population. This distribu- tion is also known as the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD), and has been observed in humans (Sokolowski et al., 1999; Kraft & Baum, 2001; Madden et al., 2002; Goldstone & Ashpole, 2004; Goldstone et al., 2005) and other species such as ducks (Harper, 1982), guppies (Dill, 1987), sticklebacks (Milinski, 1979), Bumblebees (Dreisig, 1995), etc. Interestingly, IFD is also the individually optimal Nash equilibrium solution (Nash et al., 1950), in which no agent Recently, there has been a shift toward models that re- lax these strong assumptions, such as EPICURE (Roberts & Goldstone, 2006), Polyworld (Griffith & Yaeger, 2011), Avidian agents (Walker, 2011), Omega agents (Seth, 2011), and Dynamic system (Krivan et al., 2008). While these mod- els have demonstrated that IFD can be achieved even when the ideal assumption is relaxed, they still make the free as- sumption. More importantly, these models are overly sim- plistic in their assumptions about each agent's representation of the environmental reward distribution and other compet- ing agents. Most of these assume that learning only proceeds based on private information, i.e. an agent's own history of choices and reward outcomes (Griffith & Yaeger, 2011; Walker, 2011; Seth, 2011). EPICURE (Roberts & Goldstone, 2006) does consider the effect of competition but it just fits an ad-hoc, descriptive parameter corresponding to agent den- sity, so that the competition has a unidirectional (negative for their data) effect on agent choices, failing to account for the fact that depending on agent's knowledge, at times high agent density might make an option more lucrative. A large body of empirical ecology research shows that animals readily use public information, i.e. other agents' choices and possibly also their outcomes, in foraging (e.g. (Krebs, 1973; Boyd, 1988; Templeton & Giraldeau, 1995)), as well as in other bio-


X-ray emission and absorption spectra of \ensuremath{\alpha}-${\mathrm{Fe}}_{2}$${\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ have been arranged on a common binding-energy scale and compared with results of multiplet theory and cluster calculations. In the case of the Fe L\ensuremath{\alpha} emission and the Fe K absorption, the information content of x-ray spectroscopy has been further increased by measuring and analyzing linearly polarized spectra. The results of the x-ray spectroscopic investigations and their comparison with the theory complement the findings of other types of high-energy spectroscopy and seems to provide good support for the validity of certain cluster theories. Especially, x-ray spectra reflect the strong influence of correlation and charge-transfer effects on the electronic structure of \ensuremath{\alpha}-${\mathrm{Fe}}_{2}$${\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ and support the suggestion that this compound should belong to the class of charge-transfer insulators.


Let $\mathrm{SO}(3,\mathbb{R})$ be the 3D-rotation group equipped with the real-manifold topology and the normalized Haar measure $\mu$. Resolving a problem by Breuillard and Green, we show that if $A \subseteq \mathrm{SO}(3,\mathbb{R})$ is an open subset with sufficiently small measure, then $$ \mu(A^2)>3.99 \mu(A).$$ We also show a more general result for the product of two sets, which can be seen as a Brunn-Minkowski-type inequality for sets with small measure in $\mathrm{SO}(3,\mathbb{R})$.


Abstract Composites reinforced with polyethylene fibers of Spectra type are noted for low compressive strength. Therefore, they may have limitations in structural applications. The objective of present study was to determine to what an extent the compressive properties are affected by the matrix material. Of proposed theories of composite compressive strength, we found Piggott's theoretical and experimental work most satisfactory especially in the modified form.


In this work, gigantic magnetocapacitance effect and magnetostriction in GdMnO/sub 3/ were reported to demonstrate the direct evidence for strong mutual coupling among spin, localized charge, and lattice degrees of freedom. The results clearly indicate a direct correlation between the magnetic and dielectric properties of the material. Also, it was concluded that magnetostriction is not a major origin of the observed gigantic magnetocapacitance. The observed coupling among magnetic, dielectric, and lattice structural properties may bring a possible multifunctional device in the future.


Date Presented 4/20/2018
 This study used a mixed methods approach to identify and define common interventions for the treatment of fine motor delays in school-age children and explored their effectiveness in an outpatient pediatric clinic.
 Primary Author and Speaker: Aimee Piller
 Additional Authors and Speakers: Elizabeth Torrez


Background: Hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancers (BC) have fewer tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and lower response rates to immune checkpoint inhibitors in early phase studies than other breast cancer subtypes. Immune biomarkers that accurately reflect the immune microenvironment have important clinical implications in HR+ BC patients. Prior evidence suggests that macrophage-related immune pathways may be relevant to the pathophysiology of HR+ BC. Methods: Patients identified from a prospective trial of preoperative bevacizumab (preop bev) followed by bev with adriamycin/cyclophosphamide/paclitaxel dose-dense chemotherapy (chemo). Tumor samples were collected at diagnosis and surgery (pre-tx and post-tx). TILs and immunohistochemical staining for PD-L1, CD8, and CD68 were scored. Whole transcriptome sequencing (RNAseq) and Nanostring PanCancer Immune Profiling Panel were performed. Pathologic response at surgery was assessed by Miller-Payne (MP) and residual cancer burden (RCB) scores. An immune score was calculated for each pre-tx specimen by integrating 10 published immune signatures. Immune cell subsets were inferred from bulk transcriptional data using CIBERSORT. Results: 55 patients had at least 1 evaluable specimen and were included for analysis. 18% of pre-tx tumors had 'high9 (≥10%) TILs and 'high9 TILs were associated with significantly higher immune signature score (p=0.004). Immune score correlated highly with proportion of CIBERSORT anti-tumor M1 macrophage and CD8 T-cell signatures (r>0.65 and p Conclusions: Most HR+/HER2- breast tumors demonstrate low levels of anti-tumor immune activity; however, those with higher levels have a more favorable response to chemo plus bev. Assessment of immune activity based on RNA signatures is consistent with histology and immune-related protein expression. T-cell- and checkpoint-related biomarkers tend to decrease following preoperative chemo plus bev in HR+/HER2- breast cancer. Following treatment with chemotherapy/bevacizumab, we observe increased expression of chemokines and complement pathway genes. Citation Format: Adrienne G. Waks, Daniel G. Stover, William T. Barry, Deborah A. Dillon, Evisa Gjini, Scott J. Rodig, Jane E. Brock, Michele Baltay, Jennifer Savoie, Eric P. Winer, Ian E. Krop, Sara M. Tolaney. The immune microenvironment in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer and treatment outcome following preoperative chemotherapy plus bevacizumab [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4564.


The author focuses on the academic activities of S. M. Solovyov during the dissertation defense procedures of 1845–1847 that became a basis of his academic biography and contributed to the development of historical knowledge. The historian is considered as significant in the establishment of the dissertation system/culture in Russian universities. Solovyov was an activist in this new locus of the university space. Inspired by G. W. F. Hegel's philosophic ideas and J. P. G. Ewers's experience of reinterpreting the Old Russian history, he was the first to articulate novel conceptual ideas concerning the development and the meaning of Russian historical process in his dissertations. He also presented his system of methodological bases of research practice. His drastic conquest of historical academic Olympus became a logical conclusion for one of the stages in the history of historiography of the late 1810s — early 1840s, characterized by a famous debate around N. M. Karamzin's "History" and by a phenomenon of academic authoritarianism. The young Solovyov felt that the methodological frameworks proposed by his grand predecessors (M. P. Pogodin, N. G. Ustryalov) for the interpretation of the specificities of Russia's history were too narrow and irrelevant. Solovyov in the 1840s looks like a reformist researcher aiming at the reviewing of ideas, principles, and methods of studying the history of Russia.


This article provides a literature review of anti-consumption for environmental sustainability, or environmentally oriented anti- consumption (EOA). The authors draw upon the marketing, management,...


This study aims to determine how much the contributions industry practices and student motivation on attitudes to entrepreneurship. The study was conducted on students of SMK Negeri 1 Tembilahan Hulu with a sample of 38 students and collecting data using questionnaires and documentation. The result showed that the industry practices and student motivation has a higher contribution to the students' entrepreneurial attitude. The conclusion of this research is to improve the quality of graduates of vocational schools should place students in appropriate and relevant industries. In addition, provide an understanding of student motivation in order to encourage students to have an entrepreneurial attitude and be able confront the challenges in the world of work and life.


A redefinition of the genus Tarasco Marsh is provided along with description of two new species found in Brazil (T. granulata Barbalho and Penteado-Dias, new species and T. costata Barbalho and Scatolini, new species). This redefinition of the genus considers variation in characters in wing venation, such as the presence of vein r-m in the fore wing and vein 1-SC+R being complete and tubular in the hind wing.


The general grasp planning problem has been studied in the academic community for decades. Developing efficient and versatile grasping systems has great implications in automating tasks that require dexterous and compliant manipulation. Traditional approaches tend to favor optimality over efficiency, producing grasping systems that are slow. I propose a new strategy that combines successful probabilistic approaches, object model abstraction schemes and force-closure constraint approximations into a single unifying algorithm. It is my hypothesis that through combining successful techniques already published in the literature, a more efficient strategy can be developed. The proposed algorithm will be tested in the dynamic simulation environment GraspIt! and then tested on the physical Barrett Hand and WAM arm


The invention is a circuit substrate, comprising a base layer, a patterning conductive layer, a dielectric layer, an outer pad and a conductive block. The patterning conductive layer is arranged above the base layer and is provided with an inner pad; the dielectric layer is arranged above the base layer and covers the patterning conductive layer; the outer pad is arranged above the dielectric layer; the conductive block penetrates the dielectric layer and is connected between the outer pad and the inner pad; and the outer pad and the conductive block is integrated, and the outer diameter of the outer pad is equal to that of the conductive block substantially. In addition, the invention also provides a circuit substrate technology.


This paper proposes a distributed control result for strong output-agreement of a class of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems. The nonlinear dynamics of the agents are handled by a class of nonlinear control laws. It is first proved that each controlled agent admits a positively invariant set if the outputs of the neighboring agents are bounded. Then, by showing the existence of a positively invariant set for the multi-agent system, the state boundedness of the multi-agent system is guaranteed, and strong output-agreement is proved by showing that the size of the positively invariant set is reducing. An example with simulation is employed to show the effectiveness of the main result.


Rates of sulphide mineral oxidation in seawater were studied using abiotic batch reactor experiments completed under seafloor conditions. The aims of these experiments were to assess the potential ...


I.PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE. 1.Behaviourism, Definition, and History. 2.Behaviourism as a Philosophy of Science. 3.Public, Private, Natural, and Fictional. II.A SCIENTIFIC MODEL OF BEHAVIOUR. 4.Evolutionary Theory and Reinforcement. 5.Purpose and Reinforcement. 6.Stimulus Control and Knowledge. 7.Verbal Behavior and Language. 8.Rule-Governed Behavior and Language. 8.Rule-Governed Behavior and Thinking. III.SOCIAL ISSUES. 9.Freedom. 10.Responsibility, Credit, and Blame. 11.Relationships, Management, and Government. 12.Values, Religion, and Science. 13.The Evolution of Culture. 14.Design of Culture: Experimenting for Survival.


Research in development geography in Norway has already come of age. As a scholarly tradition it dates back more than a generation. In simple terms we can claim the activity to be doubly rooted, in missionary activities and development aid. Development geography as a subdiscipline and research activity was first established at the University of Oslo by Aadel Brun Tschudi, born of missionary parents in China (Hesselberg 1993). Little wonder, therefore, that research was first oriented towards East Asia. It was, however, relatively early supplemented with research in Africa and South Asia, the research tasks here mainly linked to organized development aid, which developed from the early 1960s. The need for geographic expertise on Third World issues was gradually met on a broader national basis, as teaching and research in development geography soon spread to the other universities and later to some regional colleges. The subdiscipline was established in Bergen by the early 1970s and Trondheim followed suit ...


PURPOSE: A semiconductor substrate and a method for manufacturing the same are provided to suppress the adhesion of particle and easily perform marking process. CONSTITUTION: In the semiconductor substrate having a semiconductor layer which is provided on the upper side with an insulation layer interposed, a mark(4) is formed in an area other than the surface area of the semiconductor layer. Specifically, a first substrate is prepared, and a mark is formed in the peripheral part of a second substrate, and then the first and second substrates are adhered with each other in such a manner that the marked parts are not adhered, and the unnecessary part of the first substrate is removed, thereby moving a moving layer of the first substrate to form an SOI substrate.


Summary Evidence is presented that pep-tide products of hydrolysis of casein, including some di- and tripeptides, but not the constituent amino acids, can stimulate growth of C. briggsae in defined basal medium supplemented with cytochrome C and β-sitosterol. Peptide activity may arise from amino acid imbalances in the medium which cause competitive inhibition of uptake of essential amino acids. Such activity precludes facilitation of heme transport as the sole function of growth factor in C. briggsae. This is the first report of a nutritional role of peptides in invertebrate meta-zoa.


The preface to this book states boldly: 'Partnership working is a matter of life or death' - a thought-provoking statement about the potential consequences of a failure to collaborate with others.


This research will explore the issue of identity in postcolonial literature. In the modern world with the increase of immigrant numbers, hybrid nations, and constitution of countries with different cultural diversities the question of identity came to the surface. The research will present discuss those theorists arguments about the issue of identity in postcolonial world and how they viewed and presented their ideas about constructing identity in former colonized countries and immigrants from these countries who suffered from facing the diasporas and the dilemma of the difficulty to construct their identity. The paper will investigates postcolonial novelists especially writers in former British colonies such as V.S.Naipaul, Sam Selvon and Tayeb Salih. As postcolonial theorists considered the issue of identity as one of its essential discussion, novelists also exposed and expressed the conditions of identity crises that emerged in postcolonial period. The method will undertake applying postcolonial theories on works of the above mentioned novelists.


Electrochromic films have shown great application prospects in electronic display and information storage. In this work, we report the fabrication of electrochromic ultrathin films (UTFs) by layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly of layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets with poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene)–poly(styrene sulphonate) (PEDOT:PSS). UV-vis absorption spectra illustrate the uniform and regular growth of the UTFs. The X-ray diffraction results indicate that the (PEDOT:PSS/LDH)n UTFs possess long-range ordered stacking in the normal direction of the substrate, with PEDOT:PSS accommodated between the LDH nanosheets. SEM and AFM images demonstrate a continuous smooth surface of the (PEDOT:PSS/LDH)n UTFs without aggregation. The (PEDOT:PSS/LDH)n UTFs exhibit an improved ion transfer kinetics, owing to the high dispersion of PEDOT:PSS and the presence of an ordered superlattice architecture. This leads to significantly enhanced electrochromic performance, including ultrafast switching speed (0.27/0.18 s for coloring/bleaching response), high optical contrast (ΔT = 32%, at 650 nm) and satisfactory coloration efficiency (159 cm2 C−1). Therefore, this work provides a feasible method to construct high-performance electrochromic films, which are promising candidates for application in optical/optoelectronic devices.


As a result of the change in the structure of the tower head, when live working is carried on double circuit AC 500 kV compact transmission lines on the same tower, where all three-phase conductors are arranged vertically, the path, by which the operator enters into and exits from the equipotential area under such a structure, is quite different from the paths for the live working carried on common compact transmission lines. Based on the particularity of such transmission lines, experimental research on the working modes, by which the operator enters into and exits from equipotential area of upper-, middle- and lower-phase conductors, is performed, and relation curves of 50% switching impulse discharge voltage of combined gap to the gap of combined gap are obtained, and according to experimental results the hazard rate of live working and the required minimum safety distance are calculated and analyzed. The impact of phase-to-phase switching impulse discharge voltage on live working is analyzed by tests and the required minimum phase-to-phase safety distances for live working under different over-voltage amplitudes are determined. Simulative tests of live working operators carrying on equipotential working on the phase conductors under phase-to-phase switching impulse voltage are carried out, and the hazard rates of live working under different operating conditions are verified and the safe and reasonable live working modes are determined.


The National Health Service in England is currently discussing whether to fund a Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Programme. The number of eligible individuals expected to come forward is a key consideration. The British HIV Association/BASHH position statement supports access to PrEP for men who have sex with men (MSM) if they have a confirmed HIV-negative status, report condomless anal sex (CLS) with a man in the past 3 months and report CLS is likely to occur again in the next 3 months.1 We aimed to investigate what proportion of MSM attending genitourinary medicine (GUM) services could be eligible for PrEP in England, using data from the AURAH (Attitudes to and Understanding of Risk of Acquisition of HIV) study,2 which recruited in English GUM services (2013–2014). A total of 4380 patients were approached over the study period and …


PURPOSE: To reduce the influence due to parasitic coupling among a pixel electrode and adjacent wirings without increasing remarkably the power consumption and the cost of a planar display device. CONSTITUTION: This liquid crystal display device is provided with a plurality of display pixels PX which are to be divided into a plurality of sub-pixels PE1 to PE3 which are weighted respectively by prescribed area ratios and driving circuits 2, 3, 4, G1, G2 driving respectively the plurality of the display pixels PX. Especially, these driving circuits are constituted so as to determine the gradation of respective pixels by combining the plurality of the sub-pixel PE1 to PE3 and a plurality of driving periods which are weighted by prescribed time ratios.


This paper attempts to clarify what constitutes «the problem of God» as a philosophical problem with Xavier Zubiri. To do this, we divide the paper into three parts. First, we should clarify if possible to study «philosophically» the subject of «God». From Zubiri, this is possible if we studythe «problem» of God as something «given» sentiently, not «God» understood as a supreme being beyond the world. Second, we have to analyze what is the «problem of God» according to Zubiri. Do we mean that the problem of God is «given» as a starting point in the primordial apprehension?Or might it be that the «problem of God» is something that can lead or not «towards» God? Finally, thirdly, we must analyze the various attitudes and solutions to the «problem of God» as atheism, agnosticism or theism. Zubiri defended himself a theistic position and established a rational proofthat was gradually modified in his later years.