PurposeThe authors consider the mutual benefits of the ceding company and reinsurance company in the design of reinsurance contracts. Two objective functions to maximize social expected utilities are established, which are to maximize the sum of the expected utilities of both the ceding company and reinsurance company, and to maximize their products. The first objective function, additive, emphasizes the total gains of both parties, while the second, multiplicative, accounts for the degree of substitution of gains of one party through the loss of the other party. The optimal price and retention of reinsurance are found by a grid search method, and numerical analysis is conducted. The results indicate that the optimal solutions for two objective functions are quite different. However, optimal solutions are sensitive to the change of the means and volatilities of the claim loss for both objective functions. The results are potentially valuable to insurance regulators and government entities acting as reinsurers of last resort.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors apply relatively simple, but in the view significant, methods and models to discuss the optimization of excess loss reinsurance strategy. The authors only consider the influence of loss distribution on optimal retention and reinsurance price but neglect the investment factor. The authors also consider the benefits of both ceding company and reinsurance company to determine optimal premium and retention of reinsurance jointly based on maximizing social utility: the sum (or the product) of expected utilities of reinsurance company and ceding company. The authors solve for optimal solutions numerically, applying simulation.FindingsThis paper establishes two optimization models of excess-of-loss reinsurance contract against catastrophic losses to determine optimal premium and retention. One model considers the sum of the expected utilities of a ceding company and a reinsurance company's expected utility; another considers the product of them. With an example, the authors find the optimal solutions of premium and retention of excess loss reinsurance. Finally, the authors carry out the sensitivity analysis. The results show that increasing the means and the volatilities of claim loss will increase the optimal retention and premium. For objective function I, increasing the coefficients of risk aversion of or reducing the coefficients of risk aversion of will make the optimal retention reduced but the optimal premium increased, and vice versa. However, for objective function 2, the change of coefficient of risk aversion has no effect on optimal solutions.Research limitations/implicationsUtility of the two partners: The ceding company and the reinsurance company, may have different weights and different significance. The authors have not studied their relative significance. The simulation approach in numerical methods limits us to the probability distributions and stochastic processes the authors use, based on, generally speaking, lognormal models of rates of return. This may need to be generalized to other returns, including possible models of shocks through jump processes.Practical implicationsIn the recent two decades, reinsurance companies have played a great role in hedging mega-catastrophic losses. For example, reinsurance companies (and special loss sharing arrangements) paid as much as two-thirds of the insured losses for the September 11, 2001 tragedy. Furthermore, large catastrophic events have increased the role of governments and regulators as reinsurers of last resort. The authors hope that the authors provide guidance for possible balancing of the needs of two counterparties to reinsurance contracts.Social implicationsNearly all governments around the world are engaged in regulation of insurance and reinsurance, and some are reinsurers themselves. The authors provide guidance for them in these activities.Originality/valueThe authors believe this paper to be a completely new and original contribution in the area, by providing models for balancing the utility to the ceding insurance company and the reinsurance company.


Merging query-hits in large scale systems, like P2P, is challenging and potentially complex because results have to be ranked with respect to each other while sources are heterogeneous and with no centralized control. To solve this problem, we advocated in [10] a knowledge-based approach relying on users' profiles. A user profile includes information about past interests derived from the user past actions as well as information about peers from which results were obtained in the past for similar queries. Using a knowledge base can lead to the system obsolescence unless an effective approach is proposed to evolve this learned knowledge. Most used approaches for knowledge update are periodic and cannot react on user needs changes at the appropriate time. For this reason, we propose, in this paper, a controlled and distributed mechanism for knowledge evolution based on need observers. A need detector aims to detect the user new needs expressed in his queries, as well as the new resources. Experiments show a clear improvement of the system performance with our controlled mechanism.


Cloud computing is adopted by most organizations due to its characteristics, namely offering on-demand resources and services that can quickly be provisioned with minimal management effort and maintenance expenses for its users. However it still suffers from security incidents which have lead to many data security concerns and reluctance in further adherence. With the advent of these incidents, cryptographic technologies such as homomorphic and searchable encryption schemes were leveraged to provide solutions that mitigated data security concerns. The goal of this thesis is to provide a set of secure abstractions to serve as a tool for programmers to develop their own distributed applications. Furthermore, these abstractions can also be used to support trusted cloud computations in the context of NoSQL data stores. For this purpose we leveraged conflict-free replicated data types (CRDTs) as they provide a mechanism to ensure data consistency when replicated that has no need for synchronization, which aligns well with the distributed and replicated nature of the cloud, and the aforementioned cryptographic technologies to comply with the security requirements. The main challenge of this thesis consisted in combining the cryptographic technologies with the CRDTs in such way that it was possible to support all of the data structures functionalities over ciphertext while striving to attain the best security and performance possible. To evaluate our abstractions we conducted an experiment to compare each secure abstraction with their non secure counterpart performance wise. Additionally, we also analysed the security level provided by each of the structures in light of the cryptographic scheme used to support it. The results of our experiment shows that our abstractions provide the intended data security with an acceptable performance overhead, showing that it has potential to be used to build solutions for trusted cloud computation.


This study investigates the relationship between organizational commitment, emotional intelligence and organizational learning in Yadak – Resan Company. Methods of this study are a descriptive correlation. Sample employee involving 63 people who were selected by random sampling according to Morgan approach. The number of female employees was 17 and the number of male employees was 46. Data were gathered from the questionnaires EQ Azizi (1387) Organizational Learning Mirkamali (2007) and organizational commitment Alen meyer. For data analysis, correlation and regression methods are used simultaneously. Results shows that emotional intelligence, commitment to organizational learning and organizational learning have a significant positive correlation together. Significant relationship between organizational learning and organizational commitment is also investigated.


In the past few years, Christian social thought, particularly Catholic social thought, has received abundant attention through articles, books, and conferences. A significant book to highlight the importance of this tradition is Jonathan Boswell's Community and the Economy. It is significant in that the book offers a vision of the economy that is conducive to Christian social principles and sketches in concrete terms what those principles look like. Boswell's vision, which is fundamentally communitarian and democratic, has been heavily influenced, although not exclusively, by Christian social thought. It is a comprehensive book articulating a vision of an economy that steers clear of a dominant market or state directed model. Boswell's attention to economics is holistic. It contextualizes socio-economic structures within a cultural and ethical framework and asks what kind of people and society do we want in these economic structures. Boswell has structured the book in three sections. Roughly speaking, the first section sets down the philosophical principles and logical tools needed to establish public co-operation. The second section entails what Boswell perceives as the most hazardous part of his project, namely, what structures and institutions have impeded or fostered public co-operation in the western advanced economies (1991a, p. 78). The final section evaluates existing economies and their histories in the West in light of communitarian principles and structures. This essay summarizes Boswell's book and offers a further analysis of the philosophical underpinnings discussed in the first section of the book as well as his concluding chapter. This essay also pays particularly close attention to Boswell's philosophical view of management and the revival of virtue theory in understanding work and management. This review of Boswell's book cannot do justice to the careful nuances of the arguments that he provides. At each juncture, Boswell discusses exceptions, variables, problems, tensions, impracticalities, applications, etc. associated with the particular topic. It is only by reading the book that one can fully appreciate the careful logic of Boswell's thought. ARGUMENT: Synthesizing Equality and Liberty. What are the ends and purposes of the variety of associations we find ourselves in, such as corporations, government, unions, family, etc.? What is the role of the individual in these associations? Within these associations what role ought the market and government play? How should the tension between individual and community be resolved? Boswell suggests these questions have been dominated by one of two values: liberty, which has been mediated by market competition, or equality, which has been mediated by state control. While these values are essential for understanding diversity within community, they are not, according to Boswell, the primary categories that help to achieve a virtuous society. Liberty and equality are means, not ends. They are essential means to develop virtue. Virtue, in turn, contributes to personal fulfillment through one's relationships with others (1991a, p. 47). In good Hegelian style, Boswell argues that many economies are stagnated through the historical pendulum of resolving social and economic problems with either the market (thesis) or the state (antithesis) (1991a, pp. 164-165). This debate has dominated the discussion of economics for so long that the synthesis must come outside those two polarities, namely public co-operation and the development of community. What is central for Boswell is not liberty and equality, but fraternity, associativeness, and participation -- values that enhance community through public co-operation. It is only by understanding and attaining these central communitarian principles that one can understand and attain freedom and equality. According to Boswell, liberty and equality acutely need "the context of fraternity, complementary association and democratic participation; then (they are) seen as an essential precondition, a guarantor of personal and organizational moral choice, but never as the final end" (1991a, p. …


Remote sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques have become very important these days as they aid planners and decision makers to make effective and correct decision and designs. Geomorphological characteristics of a watershed are commonly used for developing the regional hydrological models for solving various hydrological problems of ungauged watersheds or inadequate data situations. A morphometric analysis of Mago basin of Arunachal Pradesh was carried out using RS and GIS techniques. The Watershed was delineated using ArcGIS10 software and divided into 15 subwatersheds and prioritized based on principal component analysis (PCA) using SPSS 14.0 software. The basic parameters (area, perimeter, stream order, stream length and stream number) of each sub-watershed were carried out separately using the ArcMap10. The linear morphometric parameters (stream order, total stream length and bifurcation ratio); aerial morphometric parameters (drainage density, stream frequency, form factor, circulatory ratio, elongation ratio, texture ratios, compactness constant and Ruggedness number); and relief morphometric parameters (relief ratio, relative relief, average slope and hypsometric integral) were computed with the help of standard formulae. The principal components were selected and then ranked based on their relationship with erodibility. The sub-watershed having the least compound parameter was assigned the highest priority and so on. The study area was found to have streams of highest order of 3, with order 1, having highest frequency. The obtained low drainage density of the basin indicates that the region is highly permeable. From the prioritization analysis, it was found that sub-watershed 2, 4, and 14 were the most erosion prone areas with rank 1. Therefore, these sub-watersheds need to be considered first and given prior importance for the implementation of any soil and water conservation measures for watershed management. Hence, RS and GIS techniques and PCA are important tools in the morphometric analysis and prioritization of watershed.


Fusion of features from multi-view is one of the effective means to improve multi-view 3D pose estimation. It relies on robust and accurate 2D pose estimation, and effective fusion methods. If we treat the same fusion weights for predictions with different accuracy. In this case, "Bad-prediction" can have a bad effect on "Well-prediction" during the fusion process. To address these issues, inspired by previous vision transformer work, we propose a transformer framework for multi-view 3D pose estimation named VitPose, aiming to strengthen the mutual constraint of human articulation points by enhancing the large-scale information of image prediction, rather than calibrating after prediction. In addition, we design simple feedback for training fusion weights, which is used to avoid the interference of "Bad-prediction" to "Well-prediction". We add multi-view geometric calibration that introduces the spatial information of the view into the transform structure, which is used to strengthen the connection between two views. We conducted extensive experiments on Human3.6M, which showed that our approach achieved competitive results. Specifically, We achieve 17.0 mm Mean Per Joint Position Error(MPJPE) on Human3.6M on 384×384 resolution, which is the State-of-The-Art(SOTA) method with vanilla triangulation.


This paper is record of early work in oyster culture in the west coast oyster industry. It summarizes operations for a year of running the OSU pilot oyster hatchery, and subsequent recommendations for its continued large-scale production of oysters.


Subpicosecond coherent optical pulses as short as 0.58 ps were generated for the first time by passive mode locking of an AlGaAs double heterostructure diode laser. It was realized by a simple configuration made of a conventional AlGaAs diode laser without antireflection coatings on both facets, which was aged and exhibiting self‐pulsation, placed in an external cavity. When the external cavity length was shorter than about 60 mm, almost complete mode locking was observed over the oscillation spectrum of 3.5 nm in width. Based on the second‐harmonic generation autocorrelation measurement, ultrashort coherent optical pulses from 0.58 to 1.2 ps in duration were demonstrated by increasing the external cavity length together with the proper control of the optical feedback effect and the pumping dc current.


The opportunity to bring a new product in the market has been understood as the key value to win the global competition. To offer a different product, several steps should be taken such as identify the customer need or wants, analyze the product value, knowing the supply chain, producing the innovation and feel the market sustainability. These steps are taken as a part of value chain analysis.Water resource is limited for certain area especially in coastal line that we called maritime area. Fresh water are widely taken to support the production process to be the raw material or supporting production activities. The option of bringing fresh water from other area is the common and easiest way. This, however, should be accompanied with the alternative method such as the use of rain water preservation. Surabaya has a significant development for its infrastructure and willing to a city with sustainable maritime tourism. A sustainable life style would be strongly beneficiary for achieving best long term benefit.To integrate all the factors, the purpose of this research is about building a comprehensive strategy to perform necessary value chain analysis and to mandatory water management action as the community way of life. Thus, a sustainable maritime tourism concept can be designed based on choosing the right product, selecting the necessary process and designing the proper water management. An ultimate and sustainable method and design can be produced for the community.


Electron beam can be focused into a small spot with the diameter of only about nanometers theoretically,and easily controlled.It cannot be replaced by any other micro fabrication techniques in mask-making of VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration ). Based on the electron gun of SDS-3 electron beam lithography machine, the concave hyperboloid Wehnelt (oxide-coated cover) of accelerator is discussed.The electron trajectories and potential distribution are given .Electrons from the gun accelerated by a high voltage reached a target of silicon piece(in front of the aperture) via the Wehnelt.Finally, spots of electron-beam in the silicon piece and the geometry schematics for Wehnelt of accelerator are given.


The small scandinavian country of Denmark is ranked among the top countries in the world according to the World Energy Council (WEC) energy trilemma criteria: energy security, energy equity, and sustainability.


This paper introduced Chongqing emissions trading system construction,the composition of the market system,the number and variety of transactions,transaction price,transaction reasons, etc,analyzed and discussed the emissions trading system of emission reduction technology innovation incentive effect. The paper also put forward policy suggestions to develop and perfect the system of e-missions trading in Chongqing.


INTRODUCTION Although physicians are typically adept at managing clinical dilemmas, we are increasingly challenged by ancillary responsibilities related to medical documentation, billing requirements, and programs evaluating meaningful use and participation in the Physician Quality Reporting System. Although items tracked by these programs have been selected for specific reasons, they do not always reflect the metrics that are most vital to us in daily practice. Nonetheless, many practitioners possess an innate desire to track outcomes relevant to their patients, particularly those with immediate clinical applicability. Many caregivers, however, are not equipped to recruit and train staff to collect and assess longitudinal data, and it is not immediately apparent how to accomplish this task without slowing routine clinical workflow. Furthermore, patients present with a wide range of conditions, so no single instrument is sufficient to track the panoply of outcomes; in otolaryngology, key metrics are as disparate as hearing in noise, nasal drainage, and sleep-related quality of life. Our specialty also encompasses children and adults, who require disparate, age-appropriate assessments. Thus, following clinical outcomes across our patient population is not a single-armed or straightforward endeavor. In the face of these widespread challenges, the author embarked on a multiyear effort to develop and implement a unified means to routinize patient outcome assessment and populate a longitudinal data repository that could simultaneously streamline clinic workflow and ease the burden of medical documentation. The resulting system is described herein. MATERIALS AND METHODS The protocol, contents, and means of administration for the electronic interface were approved through the standard procedures of the Partners Institutional Review Board, from 2012 through the present. The system was built and housed on servers maintained by Partners Health Care Computing. The electronic data capture is built to meet or exceed the standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The author learned the necessary programming skills to develop the conditional logic, score calculations, and JavaScript needed for the project; this effort was deemed necessary to allow immediate upgrades to the system and prevent any potential confusion that might occur when a clinician communicated nuanced concepts to a nonclinical programmer. Implementation occurred in two phases. The first phase occurred between 2012 and 2013, and was shaped with the goal of identifying the optimal content for the planned electronic interface. This initial effort involved utilizing a series of paperbased questionnaires and disease-specific validated instruments in a routine fashion in clinic. At each new patient visit, related symptoms, health status, and quality of life assessments were reviewed directly with each person during the standard history intake for all presenting conditions. Based on experience gained during this period, a pilot electronic interface was developed and trialed in 2013. The second phase began in 2014 and focused on optimizing routine incorporation of the developed electronic interface into daily practice. Since then, based on experience with wireless interfaces, timing of administration, clinical utility during the office visit, medical documentation needs, functionality of trialed portable devices, and patient/ staff/clinician feedback, the interface has subsequently undergone seven upgrades to its current form. Iterative upgrades were developed with the following simultaneous goals: 1) streamline clinic workflow, 2) eliminate clinic paper intake forms, 3) routinize patient-centered outcome assessment at regular intervals, and 4) create a longitudinal data repository. Upgrades were performed at approximately quarterly intervals. Throughout the process, the system evolved according to clinician, patient, and staff feedback (Fig. 1).


The influence of lactational state (30 days prior to calving and 30 days postpartum) on adipocyte beta-adrenergic receptors was studied using the binding of (-) dihydroalprenolol to adipocytes from eight Holstein cows. Lactational state failed (p>.05) to modify binding kinetics with similar affinity rate constants, K-^, for dry and lactating cows (8.2 vs. 7.2 X lO^min ^). Estimates of the equilib rium dissociation constant, Kd, of these receptor sites were not af fected (p> .05) during dry or lactating periods (7.1 vs. 7.9 nM). In contrast, the apparent number of beta-adrenergic receptors varied (p^.05) with lactational state (42,154 vs. 72,264 sites/cell), dry and lactating cows respectively, in assays containing 5 nM (-) dihydroalprenolol. Glycerol release and adipocyte concentrations of cyclic-AMP were followed during incubation of dairy cow adipocytes with or without 10 jiM epinephrine. Epinephrine elicited greater release (p .05) £ between dry and lactating cows (250 vs. 280 pM/10 cells).


The purpose of this paper is to examine the Performance Management during Pandemic Covid 19 throughout two perspectives impulse of  standard-oriented and excellence-oriented applied it in order to improving culture organisation through real-time individual performance as well as continuous improvement organisational development through freshly insight.  A literature review is conducted using a systematic literature search design using the two perspective of performance management. The two perspectives of performance management are entirely compatible with the notion of Standard-oriented or Excellence-Oriented applied  in both contain measuring and appraising the performance workforce  addressing the productivity and quality measurement, The limitation of publication to design framework performance management, thus been impulse create the model of performance management base two perspectives


Real-time flood forecasting of small- and medium-sized rivers in areas with scarce hydrological data is an urgent problem that needs to be solved. Traditional hydrological model parameters cannot be fully trained owing to a lack of data; thus, results obtained by such models are not satisfactory. We need a new way to solve the forecasting problem for small- and medium-sized rivers. We found that the time series of some feature variables have evident change trajectories in spatial dimension, and the change of some feature variables in the spatial dimension has a decisive influence on flooding processes, such as the spatial distribution of rainfall. To reflect the change of feature variables in spatial dimension with to solve the problem of the lack of hydrological data, we constructed a rainfall-flow pattern composed of a spatial-temporal dynamic time warping algorithm and multi-feature algorithm to measure the similarity of hydrological time series. In the experimental watersheds, we used rainfall-flow patterns to forecast the short-term flood streamflow, and satisfactory results were obtained. This suggests that the algorithm is suitable for hydrological studies and improves the accuracy of real-time flood forecasting for longer forecast periods.


A 60-year-old woman with Barrett's esophagus (Prague class C8M10) with flat high grade dysplasia underwent radiofrequency ablation (RFA) therapy. She underwent four sessions with the circumferential balloon and one treatment with the focal 90 ablation catheter for a total of five sessions. Sessions were performed every 3 months and the patient adhered to maximal acid suppression therapy. The patient returned for a sixth session (15 months from the start of therapy). Endoscopy showed a 5-cm area of salmon-colored mucosa remaining. There was also a slightly raised 2-cm island that was suspicious for residual neoplasia (▶Fig. 1, arrow). The decision was made to perform extensive biopsies to rule out progression of disease. Results showed intramucosal cancer in the raised area while the remaining distal Barrett's segment was nondysplastic. Given the presence of refractory Barrett's mucosa, the decision was made to switch therapy to hybrid argon plasma coagulation (hAPC). The neoplastic island was removed using band ligation endoscopic mucosal resection technique; histology showed intramucosal cancer with negative margins. The EMR defect was treated with hAPC. The mucosa was raised using a submucosal injection (Erbejet, Effect 50; Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH, Tübingen, Germany) and ablated at 40W (▶Video 1). The remaining distal nondysplastic Barrett's mucosa was also treated with hAPC at 60W (▶Fig. 2). Follow-up endoscopy 3 months later showed minimal islands, which were retreated with hAPC (▶Fig. 3). Follow-up endoscopy 6 months from the start of hAPC therapy showed complete eradication of intestinal metaplasia (▶Fig. 4), as confirmed by histology from biopsies. E-Videos


[Objective]The research aimed to study the best formula and producing conditions of low sugar yacon jam.[Method]The raw material formula,color-protecting method and thickener of low sugar yacon jam were studied through one-factor experiment and orthogonal test.[Result]The results showed that browning of yacon juice was effectively prevented by boiling in water for 1 minute and then ascorbic acid was added to adjust pH of the yacon syrup within 4.0.The optimum formula of low sugar yacon jam: yacon as a main material,CaCl2 0.2%,LMP 0.5%,sugar 20%,pH 4.0,concentrate time 30 min.[Conclusion]The product has a soluble solids level of 40% and a good flavor and texture.


Objective To evaluate the killing effect of aluminum phosphide and bromadiolone bait on Spermophilus dauricus,and compare the two agents in terms of their killing effect on rodents. Methods All rat holes in the experimental area were plugged before the experiment. Based on calculation of the effective holes the next day,rodentcidal agents were put in the holes,with protection zones set up between and around each of the plots. Results The killing effect of aluminum phosphide was good each month of the study,with maximum corrected efficacy rate greater than 90%. The killing effect of 0.005% bromadiolone bait was better in May to June than in July to September,with the corrected efficacy rates being more than 90% and less than 75%,respectively. Conclusion Aluminum phosphide has a strong killing effect on S. dauricus the entire active season,while 0.005% bromadiolone bait shows good efficacy against the rodent only in May and June.


The response rate to therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) rarely exceeds 60%. Mental disorders (MDs) of the anxiety-depressive spectrum (ADS) and cognitive impairment (CI) substantially affect the evaluation of the efficiency of RA therapy. Adequate psychopharmacotherapy is one of the possible approaches to optimizing the treatment of RA. The factors influencing the efficiency of RA therapy with standard disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and biological agents (BAs) in combination with adequate psychopharmacotherapy have not been previously identified. Objective: to determine the predictors of response to therapy in patients with RA receiving DMARDs and BAs with or without adequate psychopharmacotherapy for ADS disorders. Subjects and methods. The investigation included 128 patients (13% men and 87% women) with a reliable diagnosis of RA. At baseline, 75.1% of patients received DMARDs; 7.8% – BAs. ADS disorders were detected in 123 (96.1%) patients. Psychopharmacotherapy was offered to all the patients with MDs; 52 patients agreed to treatment and 71 refused. The following therapeutic groups were identified according to the performed therapy: 1) DMARDs (n = 39); 2) DMARDs + psychopharmacotherapy (n = 43); 3) DMARDs + BAs (n = 32); 4) DMARDs + BAs + psychopharmacotherapy (n = 9). The changes of MDs symptoms and the outcomes of RA were assessed in 83 (67.5%) patients at five-year follow-up. The efficiency of RA therapy was evaluated with DAS28 (EULAR criteria). Predictors of response to therapy were determined using linear regression modeling. Results and discussion. At 5 years, 22 (26.5%) and 37 (44.6%) patients were recorded to show good and moderate responses to therapy, respectively; 24 (28.9%) patients were non-respondents. The linear regression model included 14 factors (p<0.001). The high values of DAS28 (β=0.258) at the inclusion; belonging to therapeutic groups 2 (β=0.267), 3 (β=0.235), and 4 (β=0.210), the absence of diabetes mellitus (β=-0.230), and experience in using glucocorticoids (β=-0.230) were associated with a high likelihood of response to therapy; high body mass index (β=-0.200) and long RA duration (β=-0,181), a high level of rheumatoid factor (β=-0.176), a history of myocardial infarction (β=-0.153), schizotypic disorder (β=-0.132), and extra-articular manifestations of RA (β=-0.106), and older age (β=-0.102) were related to a low probability of response. The area under the ROC curve for the model was 0.99 (p><0.001). Conclusion. BA therapy and psychopharmacotherapy, along with younger age, shorter duration and high activity of RA, a low level of rheumatoid factor, lower body mass index, the absence of diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, and extra-articular manifestations of RA in the history, schizotypic disorder, and experience in using glucocorticoids are associated with a greater likelihood of a good and moderate treatment response. Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis; mental disorders; disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs; biological agents; efficiency of therapy; predictors; psychopharmacotherapy; therapy adherence><0.001). The high values of DAS28 (β=0.258) at the inclusion; belonging to therapeutic groups 2 (β=0.267), 3 (β=0.235), and 4 (β=0.210), the absence of diabetes mellitus (β=-0.230), and experience in using glucocorticoids (β=-0.230) were associated with a high likelihood of response to therapy; high body mass index (β=-0.200) and long RA duration (β=-0,181), a high level of rheumatoid factor (β=-0.176), a history of myocardial infarction (β=-0.153), schizotypic disorder (β=-0.132), and extra-articular manifestations of RA (β=-0.106), and older age (β=-0.102) were related to a low probability of response. The area under the ROC curve for the model was 0.99 (p<0.001). Conclusion. BA therapy and psychopharmacotherapy, along with younger age, shorter duration and high activity of RA, a low level of rheumatoid factor, lower body mass index, the absence of diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, and extra-articular manifestations of RA in the history, schizotypic disorder, and experience in using glucocorticoids are associated with a greater likelihood of a good and moderate treatment response. Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis; mental disorders; disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs; biological agents; efficiency of therapy; predictors; psychopharmacotherapy; therapy adherence><0.001). Conclusion. BA therapy and psychopharmacotherapy, along with younger age, shorter duration and high activity of RA, a low level of rheumatoid factor, lower body mass index, the absence of diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, and extra-articular manifestations of RA in the history, schizotypic disorder, and experience in using glucocorticoids are associated with a greater likelihood of a good and moderate treatment response.


The ENDOR spectra of diphenyl nitroxide (DPNO) and its monomethyl derivatives were observed in ethylbenzene at −70 °C. The agreement between the ESR and ENDOR data is generally good. The MO calculations, however, indicate a few disagreements in the case of the m- and o-methyl DPNO derivatives. The methyl substitution at the meta-position destroys the equivalency of all protons at the meta-positions, which are divided into two sets of equivalent proton groups of the same number. The ortho-substitution weakens the coplanarity of the two benzene rings and increases the number of the equivalent proton groups, which are fully resolved in the ENDOR spectrum. The steric hindrance is taken into account in the MO calculation, which can predict these slightly different coupling groups-again except for those in the meta-positions. A satisfactorily simulated spectrum of the o-methyl DPNO is obtained on the basis of the ENDOR data.


The Copula theory was used to construct the joint distribution of precipitation in the flood season,the dry season,and the whole year between the water source area and the water receiving areas in the middle route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project.The effect of climate change on the synchronous-asynchronous encounter probability of rich-poor precipitation was analyzed based on the General Circulation Models(GCMs) outputs in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report(IPCC AR4).The results show that on the flood season scale,the synchronous frequency of both rich and poor exhibits increasing tendency in the Han-Tang(Hanjiang Water Source Area-Tangbaihe Water Receiving Area) encounter and Han-Hai(Hanjiang Water Source Area-Hai River Water Receiving Area) encounter,and the values are 3.34%-16.48% and 2.56%-8.21%,respectively,under different emission scenarios;while the synchronous frequency of both rich and poor exhibits decreasing tendency in Han-Huang(Hanjiang Water Source Area-Yellow River Water Receiving Area) encounter,the value is in the range of-1.97%-9.57% under different emission scenarios.On the dry season scale,the synchronous frequency of both rich and poor in the Han-Tang encounter and Han-Hai encounter decreases about-0.21%-9.42% and 0.99%-5.54%,respectively,while that in Han-Huang encounter increases about 1.79%-13.28%.On the annual scale,the synchronous frequency of both rich and poor exhibits decreasing tendency in all the three encounters,and the values for the Han-Tang,Han-Huang,and Han-Hai encounters decrease about-2.88%-10.97%,-1.28%-5.05%,and-2.33%-7.01%,respectively.


Abstract: Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied. These days, parking is a major challenge in different sub cities of Addis Ababa. Among Addis Ababa sub-cities, Addis ketema sub-city where, public circulation is one of the most obvious problems, and parking seems to be an overlooked element of transportation development. Sites of activities such as market centers, shops, churches, mosques, offices, schools, and similar places often generate huge parking demands, and increase the parking problems in the sub-city. The study used the License plate method of parking survey for both on street and off-street parking surveys. These have been done for two days, one from the weekday Friday and one from the weekend Saturday from 9:00AM-5:00PM. The existing parking conditions were analyzed using Ms-excel. The relationships of utilized parking spaces to the available parking capacity were developed by SPSS software. The effects of on-street parking on travel time have been also analyzed using vissim simulation modeling software in two different situations one by considering roadside parking and the other by removing roadside parking. Based on the findings the average parking occupancy of off-street and on-street parking was 90% and 80% respectively. However, off-street parking turnover is lower than on-street parking. This means the average parking duration of off-street parking were about 4hr per vehicle while the average parking duration of on-street parking were 2hr per vehicle. Using linear regression analysis, the relationship developed between utilized parking spaces and the available parking capacity of offstreet and on-street parking show that parking spaces have been nearly full utilization of available capacity. The total average segment delay of total duration along the road segment due to roadside parking P4, P5 and P6 were 7.29, 12.01 and 25.95 seconds per vehicle respectively.


Superoxide generation by blood monocytes was examined in patients with irritant, nickel, and chromate hand dermatitis. Phorbol myristate acetate stimulated monocytes generated significantly more superoxide in patients with nickel dermatitis, as did patients with hand eczema generally. No significant stimulation of monocyte superoxide generation occurred with either opsonized zymosan or PMA in the presence of excess superoxide dismutase in any of the groups of hand dermatitis. The results indicate a biochemical stimulation of superoxide which may accentuate the immunological damage in the skin that is observed in nickel and perhaps chromate dermatitis.


Systems with active orbital degrees of freedom can display collective excitations involving quadrupoles and higher‐ rank multipoles, alone or in combination with dipoles. The identification and modelling of such propagating excitations, more complex than conventional magnetic spin‐waves, is important to get quantitative insight on multipolar two‐ion interactions, whose nature and form are poorly known. Indeed, whilst the static properties of multipolar-ordered systems provide only space-integrated information on the microscopic interactions between active multipoles, the dynamics of propagating modes depend on their detailed form. UO2 is one of the few systems where these phenomena have been experimentally investigated. This cubic insulator displays a first-order phase transition at 30.8 K to a non-collinear antiferromagnetic (AF) structure with a simultaneous electric-quadrupole ordering of the charge density [1]. Elementary excitations in the lattice originate from two meanfield modes. One of them is purely quadrupolar and leads to quadrupole waves. The other has a magneto-quadrupolar character and gives origin to mixed spin-quadrupole waves where the spin precession is accompanied by charge density oscillations. Strong quadrupolar superexchange and magnetoeleastic couplings with phonons, in addition to spin-spin interactions, result in a mixed character of the excitation modes in extended regions of the Brillouin zone [2]. Such complications have been observed by inelastic neutron scattering focused on the magnetic response of the system [3]. Here, we present the results of inelastic x-ray scattering measurements performed at the ID28 spectrometer at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) with a resolution of 1.5 meV. Neither the magnetic scattering nor the excitations from higher multipoles can be observed directly with x-rays; the technique is sensitive to only vibrational excitations and others modes that mix with such excitations. This experiment is therefore focused on the vibrational component of the mixed modes, which is difficult to observe with neutrons because low temperature and low momentum transfer imply low intensity. We observe mixing of the transverse acoustic phonons (TA) with the spin acoustic (SA) mode at low energy of ~ 6 meV, but also a strong mixing of the TA phonon with the quadrupolar optic (QO) around 11 meV and the spin optic (SO) modes, which has been predicted but not observed previously. The QO mode is observed in neutron scattering spectra because it mixes with the spin optic (SO) mode through quadrupolar interactions that in large part have a vibrational origin. It is therefore to expect that the mixed mode at high energy has also a vibrational component, and it is this part that we observe with x-rays. The temperature dependence of the TA mode shows finite lifetime in the [100] direction well above the AF transition, demonstrating that the low temperature anomalous anisotropic thermal conductivity in UO2 is mediated by this strong magnon-phonon coupling [4].


Given the notion that trust may be viewed as a continuum, and that different modes of conflict management exist, this paper proposes that different modes of conflict management are likely to be associated with different levels of trust. While culture is typically viewed as the overarching variable in cross-cultural negotiations and that trust operates in the background as a decisive factor. We are considering the essential factor in cross-cultural negotiation is the level of trust that both parties have developed as part of their relationship. The important idea of this paper is to study the role of culture and trust while handling conflict in cross-culture scenario.


Conventional x-ray diffraction failed to provide correct information on alloying of materials made of elements with close lattice parameters, even for elements commonly accepted to have miscibility. Using anomalous x-ray scattering, we showed that nanostructured NiCo films did not necessarily form solid solution as expected from their phase diagram or suggested by the results of conventional x-ray diffraction.


The Church of England is the officially established Christian Church in England; it is within the Western Christian tradition, dating its formal establishment from the mission to England by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in AD 597, which brought it under the authority of the Pope. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 and became the established church by an Act of Parliament.


Abstract
 The new species Oxylobus coyulensis , currently only known from the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Valley Biosphere Reserve, located in the states of Oaxaca and Puebla, Mexico, is described. The new taxon can be distinguished from the other species of the genus by leaf shape, leaf trichome diversity, and cypselae surface characteristics. In addition, following a detailed micromorphological study of the species within this genus, it was found that O. juarezensis and O. subglabrus present the same leaf trichome diversity, similar cypselae surface characteristics, and similar macromorphological characters, namely leaf shape and margins, phyllaries, and inflorescence type. As a consequence, it is concluded that O. juarezensis is synonymous with O. subglabrus, as moreover, they are distributed in the same geographical area.


Abstract This article explores the role of nature in two strands of contemporary materialist philosophy: new materialism, and transcendental materialism. Through an analysis of these strands of materialism via the work of Jane Bennett, William E. Connolly, Catherine Malabou, and Adrian Johnston, the article attempts to delineate these perspectives into the opposed camps of monist and dialectical materialisms. The implications of these differing materialist ontologies are then discussed in terms of the theorization of nature as either a vital material force or as a weakness characterizing matter itself. After outlining the importance of nature for these two opposed theories, the lack of serious engagement with the work of F.W.J. Schelling by either group is discussed as a potential middle ground between the Spinozism of the new materialism and the Hegelianism of transcendental materialism, due to its large-scale political analysis, less pessimistic perspective towards the possibility of a contemporary humanism, and embrace of recent advances in the empirical sciences.


We have developed a novolak-based chemical-amplification resist for 0.18-micrometers reticle fabrication. This resist prevents resist footing on a chromium-oxide (CrOx) substrate by use of a matrix resin whose molecular-weight distribution is controlled. With the resist, we could fabricate 0.8-micrometers line-and-space patterns on a CrOx substrate at a dose of 6.0 (mu) C/cm2. Under the dry-air condition, the line-width change was less than 10 nm when the delay between e-beam exposure and post-exposure-baking was from 0.5 to 6 hours. When plates of the resist coating were in a chemical filter testing box under the dry-air condition, the resist sensitivity was preserved for 7 days.


We address the problem of 3D inpainting using ROI-based method for point cloud data. We focus on inpainting of complex, irregular and large missing regions covering prominent geometric features by considering n self-similar examples. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated on 3D artifacts obtained from archaeological sites.


Mallophaga, Darmaptera, Orthoptera, Phy sopoda, Hemiptera, Neuroptera, Mecaptera, Trichoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Siplhonaptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera. The first chapter is devoted to zoological classification a d nomenclature, and the second to the near relatives of the insects-crustaceans; corpions, spiders, mites and nmyriapods. In the third chapter appears a general discussion of the characteristics of the class Hexapoda, together with a table for determining the orders of insects. Then follow nineteen chapters, each devoted to one order of insects. The Manual must prove for many years to come the sine qua non, of the student of American insects. The authors are to be congratulated upon the happy completion of so many years of earnest work, and entomological teachers will be heartily glad to be able to give a satisfactory answer to the query so often asked regarding a text-book for those desiring to take up the study of insects. The accompanying plate showssamples of the engravings in the book.-CLARENCE M. WEED.


Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique has been successfully used for mapping surface deformations [1–2], but it has been normally limited to a measurement along the radar line-of-sight (LOS) direction. For this reason, it is impossible to determine the north (N-S) component of surface deformation because of using data from near-polar orbiting satellites, and it is not sufficient to resolve the parameters of models for earthquakes and volcanic activities because there is a marked trade-off among model parameters [3].


: Urbanization affects air pollutants by urban expansion and emission growth, and thereby 11 inevitably changes health risks of air pollutants. However, the health risks related to urbanization 12 are rarely estimated, especially for cities with complex terrain. In this study, a highly urbanized city 13 with severe air pollution and complex terrain (Chengdu) is selected to explore this issue. The effects 14 of urban expansion are further compared with emission growth as air quality management is mainly 15 to regulate emissions. Air pollution in Chengdu is mainly caused by PM 2.5 and O 3 . PM 2.5 pollution 16 tends to appear in cold months (November to February) due to the secondary circulation forced by 17 complex terrain and the frequent temperature inversion, while O 3 pollution is likely to occur in warm 18 months (April to August) because of high temperature and strong sunlight dominated by high- 19 pressure systems. From 2015 to 2021, the annual total premature mortalities from all non-accidental 20 causes (ANAC) attributed to PM 2.5 and O 3 exposure are 9386 and 7743, respectively. Based on the 21 characteristics of PM 2.5 and O 3 , six numerical experiments are conducted to investigate the impacts 22 of urban expansion and emission growth on health risks. The results show that urban expansion 23 causes an increase in air temperature and the boundary layer height, which PM 2.5 and MDA8 O 3 concentrations can increase by 26.6  g m -3 and 4.8  g m -3 when anthropogenic 30 emissions are taken into account. The total premature mortalities from ANAC attributed to PM 2.5 31 and O 3 exposure then increase by 424 (16.0%) and 87 (4.1%), respectively. The effect of urban 32 expansion on health risks of PM 2.5 is about half that of anthropogenic emissions. Whereas the effect 33 of urban expansion on health risks of O 3 can be 2.3 times that of anthropogenic emissions. This 34 reminds us that the development of cities is also important for the urban air quality apart from the 35 emissions reduction. high COR (0.76 and 0.70) values in both January and July. Our simulation underestimates RH to 269 some extent (the MB values are -14.3% and -4.8% in January and July, respectively), but the diurnal 270 variation of RH is well represented (the COR values are 0.54 and 0.64). As for WS 10 , poor 271 simulation results are predictable in the case of low wind and complex terrain. The WS 10 in the 272 model is overestimated (the MB values are 1.3 and 1.7 m s -1 ), which may be related to the unresolved 273 terrain features by the default surface drag parameterization causing an overestimate of wind speed 274 in particular at low values (Jimenez and Dudhia, 2012). Due to the small change in weak wind, the 275 COR for WS 10 is not high. In general, the WRF-Chem model using our configuration has a good 276 capability in simulating air pollutants and meteorological factors in Chengdu, and thereby the 277 simulations can be used for subsequent analysis.


The effects of the attitudinal, normative, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) components of the theory of planned behavior and personal- and societal-level descriptive and injunctive norms were investigated with regard to their impact on the intent to enroll on a state organ-donor registry and the intent to engage in family discussion about organ donation. The results indicated that the 5 types of norms were distinct across the 2 behaviors. Different types of norms served as predictors and as moderators for the 2 behavioral intentions. The effects of attitudes toward each behavior and PBC were moderated by personal descriptive norms for behavioral intention to sign and by subjective norms for behavioral intention to talk with family.


The South Australian Government has played a leading role in the digital government trend, and Adelaide has led the move towards becoming a "smart city" ever since the "multi-function polis" in the early 1990s. As a part of the move towards Open Government many jurisdictions have created platforms upon which to publish open public data, and South Australia's data.sa.gov.au is where its public govern- ment data are made available as csv les for use by business and the community. However, there is much more to opening up data than just publishing it. When it comes to data that contains sensitive and private information, the current data publishing and sharing solutions hit bar- riers due to the lack of data provenance and security mechanisms, as well as limited use/usability for applications. Further, building analytic applications that make use of those datasets in line with their sharing policies is another challenge as many users have little digital literacy. These issues can be addressed by a new data sharing platform called the Web Observatory which allows both data and analytics to be published, shared and consumed in a secure and transparent manner. This paper describes the joint eort


We address the question of the degree of spatial non-locality of the self energy in the iron-based superconductors, a subject which is receiving considerable attention. Using LiFeAs as a prototypical example, we extract the self energy from angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data. We use two distinct electronic structure references: density functional theory in the local density approximation and linearized quasiparticle self consistent GW (LQSGW). We find that in the LQSGW reference, spatially local dynamical correlations provide a consistent description of the experimental data, and account for some surprising aspects of the data such as the substantial out of plane dispersion of the electron Fermi surface having dominant xz/yz character. Hall effect and resistivity data are shown to be consistent with the proposed description.


This study presents a low-profile circularly polarised microstrip antenna with two radiators composed of a corner-truncated patch and a corner-truncated ring. They are stacked and printed on the two sides of a suspended FR4 substrate. The axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of the proposed design is greatly improved compared with the traditional patch by merging the existing bandwidth of the patch with the additional bandwidth of the ring. Parametric analysis indicates that the modes of the patch and the ring can be tuned independently. A λ
/4 microstrip line is meandered in the inner part of the ring to reduce the size of the feeding network. The antenna profile is only 0.065
 λ
. A prototype of the proposed antenna is built and tested. The simulated and measured results agree well. The measured 10 dB return-loss bandwidth is 20.6% (2.375-2.88 GHz) and the 3 dB AR bandwidth is 6.94% (2.39-2.56 GHz). The measured gain is ~7 dBiC in the concerned bandwidth, with a variation of 1 dB.


The real estate auction is special way of obtaining property right of real property. Even though it can be offered by private parties, we, in this research consider only real estate auctions offered by the court. Due to inherited uncertainty in bidding process and ever changing economic environments during reversion stage, it is arguably deemed to be riskier than any other real estate investment methods. We stratified into three categories the uncertainty surrounding the whole auction process from bidding to reversion: Internal risk factors, External risk factors, and Expectation failure that is, building a wrong expectation about future reversion price of the property won. We modeled expectation failure at the level of each individual bidder. We use typical AHP method to factor them out and succeed to rank them in a line based on above-mentioned three risk stratification. The questionnaire consists of multiple parts following mainly risk factor classification instead of time sequence from bidding to making profit as in other previous literatures.


Beneficiaries with a lower extremity amputation are seen by their outpatient health care provider about 12 times per year and are hospitalized about 2 times per year. The cost of care for these beneficiaries is substantial, at about $52,000 for total reimbursement of all Medicare services per year. Diabetes mellitus is a significant illness, both from an individual point of view and a societal perspective. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2007, the number of people in the United States (U.S.) with diabetes mellitus reached 24 million, with another 57 million people estimated to have prediabetes.1 From 1980 to 2008, the number of diabetic Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 or older increased from 2.3 million to 7.4 million.2 In a population of beneficiaries with at least 12 months of continuous enrollment in Medicare Parts A and B fee-for-service (FFS) in 2008, 8.9 million all-age Medicare beneficiaries had diabetes mellitus, or nearly 28 percent of this cohort.3 The actual national cost burden of diabetes is thought to exceed $174 billion, including the social cost of intangibles such as pain and suffering, care provided by nonpaid caregivers, medical costs associated with undiagnosed diabetes, and diabetes-attributed costs.4 On average, medical expenditures are thought to be 2.3 times higher in people with diabetes as compared to those without diabetes.4 Many of these expenditures are likely related to comorbidities associated with diabetes like diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) and lower extremity amputation (LEA).


Soils are the largest carbon pool in the world and contain two to three times as much as carbon as either terrestrial vegetation or the atmosphere.Therefore,even a slight change in the soil carbon stock could have a major impact on global terrestrial carbon cycling.Afforestation and reforestation are widely recognized as cost-effective methods to mitigate global warming caused by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide(CO2) concentrations through sequestrating CO2 in the atmosphere into vegetation biomass and soil organic matter. Based on the chronosequence of Pinus tabulaeformis(PT) plantations(12,18,25,and 35 years old) located at the Dagou catchment in a dry valley region of the upper Minjing River,Southwestern China,we investigated the dynamics of soil physical-chemical properties and soil organic carbon content following restoration.Using these data,we examined the correlated relationships between soil organic matter and soil physical properties and among soil physical properties.The results show that soil quality was significantly improved along the restoration chronosequence,with the improvement in soil quality attributed to significant increases in soil clay content,soil surface area,and soil organic matter,as well as significant decreases in soil silt content and soil pH.Soil organic matter was significantly,positively correlated with soil clay content and soil surface area but significantly,negatively correlated with soil bulk density.Soil surface area was significantly,positively correlated with soil clay content and negatively correlated with soil silt content.Soil organic carbon content also significantly increased along the restoration chronosequence(from 5.59 kg/m2 in PT12 to 12.64 kg/m2 in PT35 at 0—50 cm depth).However,the annual soil carbon sequestration rate ranged from an initial rate of 0.05 kg/m2(PT12—PT18) to late 0.36 kg/m2(PT25—PT35),with the mean of 0.31 kg/m2.


Mucoceles are commonly associated with the appendix and cranial sinuses. Rectal mucoceles are rare. There are case reports of rectal mucoceles following Hartmann's procedure, and secon dary to high anal sphincter tone following spinal trauma (1,2). Mucoceles have developed in defunctioned colon after pull-through surgery due to stenosis and retraction of the colonic stump (3,4). Scarring of the mucus fistula, or failure to create a mucus fistula are other described contributing factors. We report a case of small rectal mucoceles following hemorrhoidectomy which caused scarring and stricture of the anal canal.


Changes in interaction patterns during the life span of 20 two-week NTL Institute T groups were studied in order to identify sequential stages of group development. Time sampled transcripts of T-group sessions were coded in terms of categories of communicative acts, referents, and evaluative signs of member and trainer statements. Temporal trends for a set of 17 indices of intermember and trainer-member interaction were interpreted in terms of a 3-stage sequence, the stages being termed "the initial encounter," "interpersonal confrontation," and "mutual acceptance." The findings were compared with a hypothesized 5-stage model, based upon previous theoretical and empirical work on developmental stages in small groups.


A 10-bit 200 MS/s pipeline ADC using the capacitor-sharing concept is presented. A charge-neutralization technique is proposed between the 1st and 2nd MDACs to mitigate the memory effect. To further enhance power efficiency, a reference precharge technique is proposed between the 2nd and 3rd MDACs. The prototype ADC in 90-nm low-power CMOS process exhibits an INL of + 1.59/-1.91 LSB and a DNL of +0.70/-0.75 LSB. Its ENOB is 8.53 bits at input frequency of 2 MHz and 8.05 bits at Nyquist input frequency with the conversion rate of 200 MS/s. It consumes 45.4 mW at 1.2 V supply and occupies an active chip area of 0.53 mm2.


Phase diagrams and collective excitations are investigated for a trapped imbalanced Fermi gas in two dimensions with s-wave pairing at finite temperatures. The treatment of collective modes is performed within the hydrodynamic approach using the Euler and continuity equations. The equations of state for different phases are simulated by a polytropic law with parameters obtained using a fit to the microscopic equilibrium distributions of the pressure and density. These are determined within the whole range of the BCS-BEC crossover using a path-integral description and taking into account fluctuations about the saddle point. We focus on the case of imbalanced gases, when the number of ''spin-up'' and ''spin-down'' fermions that form the pair is not equal. The superfluid-to-normal transition in the trapped Fermi gas is governed by the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless mechanism. The eigenfrequencies of collective modes behave differently from those in the zero-temperature case. They can be used to study a realistic equation of state of a trapped Fermi gas at finite temperatures.


This study sought to determine the intelligibility of DECTalkTMsynthesized speech to both native and non-native speakers of English. The ability of the groups to understand DECTalk sentences delivered both in quiet and at a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of +10 dB was investigated. Results suggested that non-native speakers made significantly more errors transcribing DECTalk sentences than did native speakers. DECTalk was found to be significantly less intelligible in noise than in quiet for both groups, but non-native speakers experienced significantly more difficulty understanding DECTalk in noise than did native speakers. Implications of these findings and the need for further research are discussed.


Aim:To study the effect of garlic polysaccharide on cell proliferation and its protective effect on pheochromocytoma cells injury induced by hydrogen peroxide. Methods: MTT assay for cell proliferation,the model that H2O2 induced injury in PC12 cells was generated.Morphological changes of PC12 cells were observed under reversal phase microscope.Lactate dehydrogenase(LDH),malondialdelyde(MDA) and superoxide dismutase(SOD) in the culture medium and MDA,SOD in cells were measured by spectroscopy respectively.Results: Garlic polysaccharide with different concentrations could promote the cell proliferation of PC12.It could resist the decrease in the cell viability and increase in the apoptotic rate induced by 25 μmol/L H2O2.After exposed to 25 μmol/L H2O2 for 4 h,typical morphological characteristics of cells injury were observed.Both LDH and MDA levels increased significantly,while SOD level decreased significantly in H2O2 induced group compared with those in the sham group.Garlic polysaccharide could decrease LDH and MDA content and increase SOD level significantly.Conclusion:Garlic polysaccharide stimulates the proliferation of PC12;and it has protective effect on PC12 cells injury induced by hydrogen peroxide in culture,which may be related to enhancing the antioxidant abilites of PC12.


It is paramount to provide seamless and ubiquitous access to rich contents available online to
interested users via a wide range of devices with varied characteristics. Recently, a service-oriented content
adaptation scheme has emerged to address this content-device mismatch problem. In this scheme, content
adaptation functions are provided as services by multiple providers. This elevates service discovery as an
important problem. As most of the clients are using battery-powered devices, discovering closer providers are
essential to reduce the accumulated time of receiving adapted content version. This study proposed a
proximity-aware service discovery to address closer service discovery issue. The proposed mechanism uses
estimation method to find closer service providers. The performance analysis verifies that our approach
guarantees closer providers with a high probability, while at the same time significantly reduced the overhead
up to one magnitude compared with the baseline brute force method.


The eulophids Cirrospilus sp. near lyncus and Pnigalio pectinicornis L. are the most abundant parasitoids of the citrus leafminer, Phyllocnistis citrella Stainton, in Spain (Urbaneja et al. 2000). These were opportunistically recruited onto this pest after its introduction in 1993. C. sp. near lyncus is a late larval solitary idiobiont ectoparasitoid which can also behave as a hyperparasitoid. Its impact on P. citrella relies on both parasitism and host feeding (Urbaneja et al. 1998a). C. sp. near lyncus populations in citrus orchards increase from mid-July until the end of October, but remain almost undetectable during the rest of the year (Urbaneja et al. 1999). A previous study demonstrated that C. sp. near lyncus was very well adapted to temperatures prevailing on the western part of the Mediterranean Basin. That is the range between 7.1 ° C, mean of minimum temperatures of the coldest month (January), and 29.0 ° C, mean of maximum temperatures of the hottest one (August) (Urbaneja et al. 1999). To further study the influence of environmental conditions on the biology of this wasp, the effects of photoperiod on development and survival were investigated. Environmental chambers were used to check the effects of three different photoperiods: 16:8, 12:12 and 8:16 (L:D). Temperature fluctuated from 10 ° C to 30 ° C in eight 3h-steps of 5 ° C (mean temperature 20 ° C). Highest temperature always coincided with the mid-point of the photophase. This sequence mimics the regime of field temperatures both in spring and autumn. Therefore results obtained under both 16:8 and 8:16 (L:D) photoperiods are presumed to reflect field conditions at those seasons. Insects were reared at the Institut Valencià d'Investigacions Agràries as described by Urbaneja et al. (1998b). Eggs of C. sp. near lyncus were obtained by offering detached citrus leaves containing P. citrella third instar larvae (LIII) to isolated mated females (12 LIII per female). Exposure took place in Petri dishes (140 mm diameter) where leaves were placed on a layer of agar (2% weight) under a temperature of 25 ± 1 ° C during 4 hours. After exposure, leaves were checked under a stereoscopic binocular microscope and those containing parasitized hosts (recognized by the presence of C. sp. near lyncus eggs on them) were randomly transferred to the corresponding experimental photoperiod on a layer of


Abstract This paper reports a retrospective evaluation of a therapeutic community (TC) for mentally disordered offenders in a regional secure unit (RSU). All 85 patients who had passed through the TC since it opened in 1987 were eligible for the study. Information on 81 patients was available in clinical records, providing a descriptive profile of the population. Information on recidivism was collected from the Home Office Offenders Index for 53 patients, providing information on effectiveness of the TC in terms of its impact on crime. Those for whom post-discharge crime information was collected were split into assessment and treatment groups, and short- and long-stay groups. All patients significantly reduced their offending after discharge as compared with pre-admission levels. There was no significant difference between the assessment and treatment groups, or between short- and long-stay groups. Whilst there was a significant overall reduction in offending, this cannot be attributed to the TC programm...


MRP software is one of the approaches that had been considered important in improving
the performance and competitiveness of manufacturing industry. The results of the
research carried out companies that had used this software for implementation their
organization such as Society Manufacturing Engineering Technology, Society
Manufacturing Engineering Aerospace, TDK, and so on. Normally, MRP was used by
big company. This new development of low cost MRP system based on Microsoft Excel
will help a small and medium industry to control their inventory control. Its cause from
the in expensive cost for MRP software in the market and the SMI can't use it. However,
this low cost MRP software based on Microsoft Excel will gives the chance SMI to use it.
Regarding to this matter, the manufacturing industry will be increase the productivity
follows the IT development which growing rapidly and fulfilling the manufacturing
strategy criteria.


Objective: To establish a quality control standard for Fengtongxiao spray. Methods: TLC was applied to the qualitative identification of Caryophylli Flos,Paeoniae Radix Rubra and Fibraurea Caulis. HPLC was applied to the quantitative determination of paeoniflorin and salvianolic acid B in the preparation. Chromatography conditions were Kromasil C18column( 250 mm × 4. 6 mm,5 μm) with methanol-water( 0. 1% phosphonic acid) as a mobile phase in gradient elution. UV detection wavelength was set at 230 nm for paeoniflorin and 286 nm for salvianolic acid B,respectively. The column temperature was 25 C and the flow rate was 1. 0 mL·min- 1. Results:The characteristic spots in Caryophylli Flos,Paeoniae Radix Rubra and Fibraureae Caulis were identified by TLC.The concentration of peoniflorin showed a good linearity in the range of 0. 213 2 ~ 2. 132 0 μg( r = 0. 999 9). The average recovery rate was 98. 48% and the RSD was 0. 93%. The concentration of Salvianolic acids B showed a good linearity in the range of 0. 493 6 ~ 4. 936 0 μg( r = 0. 999 9). The average recovery rate was 96. 68% and the RSD was 1. 52%. Conclusion: This qualitative and quantitative method is simple,feasible and repeatable,which can be used for quality control of Fengtongxiao spray.


This paper provides a brief description of a general-purpose component model called OpenCom and also outlines the results obtained from the experiments with such a component model. The evaluation adopts a dual approach: first, we measure the inherent performance properties and overhead incurred by OpenCom. Then, we present three case studies which evaluate OpenCom's adaptive architecture in constructing system software for a wide range of domains.


Objective: Specific learning disorders (SLD) are delays or deviations observed in an individual's ability to speak, read, write, understand and do arithmetic. Diagnosis and the educational process is very difficult. Abnormalities of the central nervous system are shown as the cause of SLD, in addition to hereditary and environmental interactions. SLD has four subareas of reading disorder (dyslexia), written comprehension disorder (dysgraphia), mathematic disorder (dyscalculia) and other types. SLD may be accompanied by attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety, emotional and social problems. Epidemiological research has found rates of 1-33%. The lack of clarity in SLD criteria with very different rates of diagnosis may be linked to the difficulties of diagnosis and method deficiencies. Studies have shown it is observed more often in males in terms of gender, with no significant correlation between females and males. This study aimed to retrospectively assess SLD diagnoses from 2009 to 2017. Methods: The study accessed data for all SLD children from 2009-2017 and included 846 child diagnoses in total. Results: The study found the percentage of a population of 201,347 people aged from 0-18 years containing 197 SLD cases was 0.09%. Single sample chi-square test observed a significant level of increase as the years passed. Additionally, in terms of gender, the incidence in males (69.14%) was higher than in females (30.85%). The increase in SLD according to year was identified to be significantly rapid. Conclusion: According to the data obtained in the study, it was concluded that there is a need for in-depth research into topics from SLD diagnosis to methods on a country basis.


Many readers have regarded the "Fire Watch" epilogue to Thomas Merton's published journal The Sign of Jonas (1953) as among the most powerful and eloquent of his writings. Merton's biographer, Michael Mort, describes the "Fire Watch" narrative as "almost a prose poem" and goes on to say that, in part because of its being dated on Independence Day, 4 July 1952, the piece exhibits a "praise for, and loyalty to, a place" (267). (1) Mott's comment is apt, particularly in light of the vow of stability that bound Merton for life to the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. The "Fire Watch," which grew out of Merton's temporary duty as a night watchman charged with spotting any incipient signs of fire in the monastery, documents his revisiting of places that had marked the stages of his formation as a Trappist monk. In walking through the monastery, which had been erected by French Trappists in the nineteenth century, Merton mentally excavated both the Abbey's past and his own. The evocative qualities of the "Fire Watch" that have attracted the praise of readers over the years derive in part from the skillful interweaving of a rich symbolic typology and the vivid depiction of a spiritual journey, a journey that is keyed to an unanswered question. The symbolic typology, which is sustained throughout the "Fire Watch," involves an antithetical juxtaposition of day and night, each with its cumulative secondary associations. With the night Merton associates the eternal abyss, the fecund darkness of the soul, and the blissful silence and solitude that permit an emerging sense of contact with the transcendent. The day he associates with the intellect and reason, language and speech, the desire for clarity, and the articulation of meaning. The antithetical motifs of light and darkness are nourished, from a narrative point of view, by the concrete particulars of Merton's progress as watchman and by the injection of wit and paradox Paradox appears, for example, in the observation that night and darkness bring a "semblance of order before all things disappear" (349), a reversal of the conventional perception of day and night. The daytime, filled with external movement and declared purposes, is granted only a shallow kind of order alongside the immensity of the night, which allows the mind, now able to set aside its tasks, to focus on ultimate realities. Adopting the biblical persona of Jonas or Jonah, Merton conceives of his relationship to his religious community as similar to that of Jonas inside the whale. In the biblical account the whale serves as an instrument sent by God to bring Jonas to his senses and to his divinely appointed destiny. Similarly, Merton hopes that his participation in his monastic community, which he describes as a "holy monster" (349), will allow him to reach his divinely appointed destiny, however obscure that destiny might at times appear. As he goes through his rounds as firewatcher, Melton is reminded both of the depth of his own vocation and of his need to achieve a more individual encounter with God, something that seems more and more pressing as he moves through the darkness in which most of his fellow monks are either asleep or trying to sleep in the summer heat. His growing detachment from the community-driven work of the day appears humorously as he visits the monks' kitchen where he notes that each of the walls has been painted a different color, a matter that had produced some minor controversy in the community. While claiming, as merely a watchman, to have no opinion about the matter, Merton clearly found the sight startling, referring to it as "dizzy and new." Setting the matter into perspective, though, he winds up his visit to the kitchen with a look at a bit of Scripture painted on one of the walls close to the ceiling: "Little children, love one another!" (351). Although in his fire watch Merton gradually distances himself from his community in order to experience himself spiritually in an individual sense, he retains a fundamental respect for the community's role in his life, referring to that community at one point as a "religious city" (359). …


From the standpoint of recreation planning and design,the recreation planning and design index system of urban green land was established to conduct the planning and design,the recreation evaluating and the recreation management.It's based on AVC theory and had four levels.The recreation attraction,vitality and capacity were its key theories.


Part 4 is perhaps the most engaging. Rather than repeating the conclusions of its previous chapters, as such surveys often do, it widens the discussion to take in the difficulties faced by ASEAN. Its three chapters discuss the organisation's goal of economic integration, the relationship between governance and economic performance across the region, and the search for a shared development paradigm. Yet none of the book's parts gives any attention to poverty and inequality – topics intrinsic to development, especially in Indonesia. Any such detail would have complemented Tjandraningsih's chapter on employment, in part 3. On the whole, however, the book gives readers updated and comprehensive information, and new analysis, on many critical elements of the Indonesian economy, and it presents a new way of thinking about the country's future development.


The invention discloses a dryer or a pyrolyzer. The dryer or the pyrolyzer comprises a shell (1), a material bed (2), a feeding pipe (3), a rotation driving mechanism (4), an air exhausting pipe (13), driving plates (14), air inlet pipes (16) and a discharging pipe (17). An inner cavity of the shell (1) is divided into an air outlet cavity (B) in the upper portion and an air mixing cavity (A) in the lower portion. The feeding pipe (3) penetrates through the top wall of the shell (1) and extends into the surface of the material bed (2) to input materials, the discharging pipe (17) is connected with the material bed (2) and extends outwards to output materials. The rotation driving mechanism (4) can drive the driving plates (14) to rotate, and therefore materials are driven to move on the material bed (2) and flow into the discharging pipe (17). Rotation feeding can be carried out from the top end of the shell through the feeding pipe, the driving plates are in cooperation to drive materials to move on the material bed, the rotation driving mechanism does not need to be arranged in the air mixing cavity in the bottom of the shell any more accordingly, the temperature of the cavities is not limited by the high temperature of the rotation driving mechanism accordingly, and various temperature requirements of coal type treatment can be met.


Exploring the potential of 3D printing in electromagnetic wave manipulation, this paper introduces a novel, cost-effective instrument for microwave metasurface characterization. Metasurfaces, designed to alter wave propagation, are promising tools for enhancing antenna efficiency in advanced telecommunication methods, such as 5G systems. However, their complex profile characterization often poses significant challenges. Our proposed fully automated four-axis instrument, leveraging 3D printing capable of creating complex structures (such as metasurfaces), addresses these challenges by offering an efficient and precise solution. The instrument, costing approximately USD 1550, successfully characterized a metalens designed for modulating 30 GHz signals with a 20 cm focal distance, proving its utility. The 2D and 3D intensity distribution profiles and key parameters (including 8.05 dB gain, 11 cm 3 dB depth of focus, and 2.17 cm full width at half maximum) were extracted. Our measurements notably corresponded with the theoretical diffraction calculations, validating the instrument's efficacy. This breakthrough significantly contributes to microwave metasurface characterization techniques which are vital for future millimeter-wave communication systems.


In this article we present a model for correlating dynamic and kinematic viscosities of liquid mixtures, which is based on Eyring's absolute rate theory for liquid viscosity and the UNIQUAC equation. The proposed model involves the concept of ideal viscosity and uses the UNIQUAC equation to represent the deviation from ideal behavior. The expression adopted to describe the ideal term viscosity has been chosen after a thorough investigation of the performance of different equations previously proposed in the literature. The correlation results have shown a strong dependence on the expression used to account for the ideal viscosity contribution. Besides size and shape parameters, for each pure component, the model requires only two adjustable parameters per binary system. The binary interaction parameters have been determined by fitting literature viscosity data. More than 350 binary systems, 4619 viscosity data points at 0.1 MPa, have been correlated using this model. The binary systems investigated are re...


In the present paper, two new species of Chorthippus Fieb. from Heilongjiang Province are described. Type specimens are deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Shaanxi Normal University. 1. Chorthippus wuyuerhensis, sp. nov. (Figs. 1~3) This new species is allied to Chorthippus xiangchengensis Liu, 1985, but differs the latter in: 1) width of costal area 2.0~3.0 times the width of subcostal area; 2) width of coastal area 1.7~2.0 times wider than radius at ramification; 3) elytron in both sexes extending beyond end of hind femur; 4) length of elytra 6 times (♂) and 5 times (♀) of its width; 5) length of tympanal organ 3.0~3.5 times its width (♂); 6) in female, in the middle of hind margin of subgenital plate triangular protruding. Length of body: ♂14.0~15.0 mm; ♀18.0~20.0 mm; Length of pronotum: ♂3.0~3.5 mm; ♀4.0~5.0 mm; Length of elytra:♂14.0~16.0 mm; ♀15.5~16.0 mm; Length of hind femur:♂9.5~10.0 mm; ♀11.0~11.5 mm. Holotype: ♂, Bei'an City (126o5′E, 48°2′N), Heilongjiang Province, 26-Ⅷ- 2007, ZHANG Xiao-jing; Paratypes: 2♂♂1♀, same data as holotype; 3♂♂3♀♀, Bei'an City, Heilongjiang Province, 27-Ⅷ-2007, coll. ZHANG Xiao-jing, LI Xin, SUN Hui-min and XU Shu-juan; 2♂♂1♀, Mohe City (122°5′E, 53°5′N), Heilongjiang Province, 04-Ⅸ-2007, coll. ZHANG Xiao-jing, LI Xin, SUN Hui-min and XU Shu-juan. Etymology: The specific name is derived from type locality wuyuerhe. 2. Chorthippus flexivenoides, sp. nov. (Figs. 4~5) This new species is allied to Chorthippus flexivenus Liu, 1981, but differs the latter in: 1) length of foveola 3 times its width; 2) length of metazona equal to the length of prozona; 3) elytron in both sexes extending beyond end of hind femur; 4) width of costal area narrower than the width of radius at ramification; 5) width of medial area 1.3 times the width of cubital area. Length of body: ♂15.0 mm; ♀23.0~25.0 mm; Length of pronotum: ♂3.8 mm; ♀4.0~4.5 mm; Length of elytra: ♂13.5 mm; ♀17.0~18.0 mm; Length of hind femur: ♂10.0 mm; ♀12.5~13.0 mm. Holotype: ♂, Mohe City (122°5′E, 53°5′N), Heilongjiang Province, 03-Ⅸ- 2007, ZHANG Xiao-jing; Paratypes: 5♀♀, same data as holotype, coll. ZHANG Xiao-jing, LI Xin, SUN Hui-min and XU Shu-juan. Etymology: The specific name is derived from the Latin "flexivanus" and "oid".


Let L be a convex cone of real random variables on the probability space (,A,P0). The existence of a probability P on A such that PP0, EP|X| < 1 and EP(X) � 0 for all X 2 L is investigated. Two results are provided. In the first, P is a finitely additive probability, while P is �-additive in the second. If L is a linear space then X 2 L whenever X 2 L, so that EP(X) � 0 turns into EP(X) = 0. Hence, the results apply to various significant frameworks, including equivalent mar- tingale measures and equivalent probability measures with given marginals.


Abstract Cluster analysis was used to classify the trait patterns of middle managers in the United States into six personality types. These personality types ranged from low to high leadership, and they differed in terms of background characteristics, time spent on and importance of job functions, and managerial styles. The six types appear to be useful for understanding the personalities of middle managers and for making organizational decisions about them.


We study flows on the space of topological Landau-Ginzburg theories coupled to topological gravity. We argue that flows corresponding to gravitational descendants change the target space from a complex plane to a punctured complex plane and lead to the motion of punctures.It is shown that the evolution of the topological theory due to these flows is given by dispersionless limit of KP hierarchy. We argue that the generating function of correlators in such theories are equal to the logarithm of the tau-function of Generalized Kontsevich Model.


Epoxy bonded fiber sheets are attractive for strengthening structural laminated timber due to high tensile strength and easy handing. The objective of this study is to evaluate structural performance of structural laminated timber beams. A total 10 specimens were tested. The main parameters are fiber sheet types(polypropylene fiber sheet, carbon fiber sheet), and location of finger joints. The vertical loading steadily increased by displacement control. Also, the load and displacement curves, flexural strength(MOR), elasticity(MOE), and failure modes on outermost lamination of structural glued-laminated timber is to investigated. Also, moisture content was measured before and after the test. The main parameter are the mechanical grades and wooden types. The M.O.R and M.O.E of specimens on outermost lamination of structural glued-laminated timber are higher than a standard value of the product. Also, the results of the test show that specimens stiffened with fiber sheets was characterized by fairly good strength and stiffness than those of the non stiffened specimens.


This study aims to detect the composition, abundance patterns, and successional stage distributions exhibited by arboreal species inside and at the linear edge of a submontane seasonal forest in the Chapada Diamantina (12°28'31'S, 41°23'14'W), Bahia, Brazil. The individual plants with breast height diameters ≥5 cm were sampled in 30 quadrats (10 m × 10 m), 15 in the forest edge and 15 inside the forest. Species were classified according to successional category. Phytosociological and diversity indices were calculated. Shannon indices were compared using Hutcheson's t-test, and the remaining parameters were analyzed by ANOVA. Linear edges exerted a high impact on the floristic composition, diversity, and abundance of species, though little interference was observed in the structure of the community, since phytosociological parameters and the proportions of successional categories did not differ between the edge and inner forest fragment. The impact of linear infrastructure was similar to that of other border types. Additionally, even though the distance between forest fragments was very short, an edge effect was observed, which underlines the importance of linear forest edges to biodiversity conservation.


This paper provides descriptions of the requirements analysis, hardware development and software development phases of the Control System design for the MOD-5A 7.3 mW Wind Turbine Generator. The system, designed by General Electric Company, Advanced Energy Programs Department, under contract DEN 3-153 with NASA Lewis Research Center and DOE, provides real time regulation of rotor speed by control of both generator torque and rotor torque. A variable speed generator system is used to provide both airgap torque control and reactive power control. The wind rotor is designed with segmented ailerons which are positioned to control blade torque. The central component of the control system, selected early in the design process, is a programmable controller used for sequencing, alarm monitoring, communication, and real time control. Development of requirements for use of aileron controlled blades and a variable speed generator required an analytical simulation that combined drivetrain, tower and blade elastic modes with wind disturbances and control behavior. An orderly two phase plan was used for controller software development. A microcomputer based turbine simulator was used to facilitate hardware and software integration and test.


Habitat map and habitat descriptions of 1 km2 study area of 1st Hungarian Biodiversity Day in the neighbourhood of eco-village Gyűrűfű, SW Hungary, with some facts on land-use history. Habitats found (according to categories of MÉTA database): mesophilous forests, regenerating forests, hillside pastures (more or less degraded or regenerating), wetland habitats of a stream valley.


To design and implement a kind of IO interface conversion system with good interfaces,OPC technology and specifications are adopted in this paper,its hardware platform is industrial computers with analogue input and output cards,modular programming and multithread programming technologies are used in designing and implementing this system,and the test result shows that all of data are updated once per 40 mS,which is robust,and the designed functions are implemented.


Realistic turbofan inlet configurations are usually nonsymmetric, and this can considerably influence the radiated soundfield. In this paper, a 3-D finite element scheme is used to model such inlets in the frequency domain. By employing an irrotational mean flow assumption, the aeroacoustics problem is posed in terms of the acoustic velocity potential. Thus, the formulation represents aeroacoustic propagation through a 3-D potential flowfield. The duct and exterior field regions are fully coupled and simultaneously solved by employing a single continuous inlet and farfield mesh. Conventional elements are used in the nearfield and a wave envelope mesh in the farfield. A preconditioned iterative solver is used in conjunction with a sparse storage scheme which enables relatively large problems to be solved using modest computing facilities. For three separate modes, the method is used to predict the acoustic field of three radius-lipped inlet configurations. These comprise an axisymmetric, a 15-degree scarred, and a combined S-duct/scarred inlet combination. The FE scheme is used to compute both the three-dimensional potential flowfield and the acoustic fields where the source is prescribed as an incident mode at the fan face. (Author)


Tolerancing of illumination systems is currently a difficult task, especially for components that are injection molded. The ISO standards are not applicable to such systems due to their innate requirements of image formation. Methods to parameterize the shape of injection-molded optical components are presented. First, a method based on experimental measurement of actual components is presented. Next, this method is extended to the Monte Carlo formation of perturbed parts based upon these measurements. Finally, a method based on the application of a bi-directional surface distribution function (BSDF), i.e., scatter profile, is based upon ray-trace results from the application of the experimental measurements. The BSDF method is fit with the ABg scatter function, applied to witness sample surfaces, and compared to the perturbation method. The utility of these two methods is presented, whereby the BSDF method is appropriate for systems with many ray-surface interactions, while the perturbation method is best suited for systems with limited ray-surface interactions.


After a year of contraction and restructuring, Celanese is finally expanding: The one-year-old chemical spin-off from Hoechst has agreed to acquire Air Products & Chemicals' polyvinyl alcohol business for $326 million. With the deal, which is expected to be completed by the end of the month, Celanese is acquiring the number two producer of polyvinyl alcohol in the world and the leader in North America. The business employs 200 people and had sales of almost $200 million in the past 12 months from plants in Pasadena, Texas, and Calvert City, Ky. Air Products put the unit up for sale in January, telling analysts it suffered from a tough competitive landscape, lack of global manufacturing, and no integration into vinyl acetate, which is polyvinyl alcohol's key raw material (see page 11). For Celanese, in contrast, the purchase extends a raw material chain that starts with methanol production and goes to acetic acid and vinyl acetate. Claudio Sonder, ...


As a number of European banks was touched by the American subprime crisis, there is a new urgency to consider the pros and cons of the ongoing globalization of the banking sector. In this letter, we aim to describe foreign exposures of French banks and compare them to the situation in other developed countries. Foreign subsidiaries and branches of French banks have brought them new sources of profits. However, these profits appear to be more modest when we consider higher risks of investing in countries with unfamiliar cultures, poor quality of institutions and uncertain business environment. In addition, the globalization of banking has diminished the benefits of diversification and has increased the risks of contagion.


In Europe where most mothers breast feed their infants breast milk banks have been in operation since the early 1900s. In the US where only 51% of white mothers breast feed breast milk banks are a more recent phenomenon and there are no general standards for them. In 1982 the Mothers Milk Bank of San Jose California surveyed 53 breast milk banks internationally. 46% of them reported bacterial limits less than 10000 colony forming units per milliliter. Storage temperatures ranged from 0-40 degrees Celsius in Pyrex containers with repeated freezing and thawing. Storage times ranged from 8 days to indefinite. The average donor is 27.6 years old has 1.7 children starts donating 3.3 months postpartum donates for an average of 3.8 months and donates an average of 12 liters a month. Expression methods include breast shields and manual expression from the opposite breast or electric and hand pumps. 77% of the milk is donated on account of prematurity. Donors are examined continuously for infection. Most of the milk bank personnel are volunteers; most banked milk is free; and most donors as well as recipients find out about milk banks by word of mouth.


As an important means of improving social welfare, there is no fundamental conflict between trade and environment. It is unnecessary for human beings to make the either-or choice, on the contrary, the integrated development between the globalization in trade and the globalization in environment is the inexorable trend of human development of civilization.


The diatom genus Longinata Hajós was first described from an Upper Cretaceous DSDP core. Its description was rudimentary with just a single light micrograph of the holotype. In this contribution we re-describe the species Longinata acuta using light and electron microscopy from specimens found in the same core, clarify what the type specimens are and the slide they come from, transfer Eunotogramma fueloepi Hajós to Longinata and provide a few comments on its relationships.


It is well known that ionizing radiation is currently a very important way to create genetic variability that is not exists in nature or that is not available to the breeder (Ahloowalia & Maluszynski, 2001; Lemus et al., 2002). Therefore, there are many papers aimed to determine the best radiation dose to applied in plant breeding work. As a result it has been defined intervals gamma radiation useful for many cultivated species, though the determination of the radiosensitivity of tissues by exposure to different intensities of radiation (De la Fe et al., 1996; Castillo et al., 1997; Fuchs et al., 2002; Lemus et al., 2002; Fuentes et al., 2004; Ramirez et al., 2006). However, most studies have been conducted have been designed to evaluate the biological response to high doses of radiation, while in relatively few studies have used low doses to stimulate physiological processes (radiostimulation) although the ionizing radiation hormesis has been widely supported (Luckey, 1980). Hormesis is the excitation, or stimulation, by small doses of any agent in any sistem (Luckey, 2003). The beneficial effect of hormesis has been well documented in species of agricultural importance (Zaka et al., 2004; Kim et al., 2005). However, there is not enough information about its use in forestry. Although little is known about the basic nature of this phenomenon, Vaiserman (2010) had indicated the possible relationship between the hormesis and epigenetic effects. The application of low-dose ionizing radiation could produce in coniferous species hormetics radiostimulants effects through genetic and epigenetic changes that manifest as adaptive responses.