The treatment of children in psychiatric units is by now well estab lished. There has been a steady development in this area since the first units were started some 40 years ago, and inpatient intervention has become part of the standard psychiatric treatment, for a small minority of children with psychiatric disorders. Inpatient treatment is probably child psychiatry at its most complex. In addition to knowledge about psychiatric conditions, good powers of observation are required from the staff working in these units, as is the ability to tolerate and control severly disturbed behavior in an accepting therapeutic environment. The expertise comes from different areas of knowledge in what is essentially a hospital based multi-disciplinary approach. Doctors and nurses work in close conjunction with other disci plines, teachers, occupational therapists, psychologists, and social workers to deal with problems with multi-functional etiology and handicaps. The paper describes the development of psychiatric units, indications for inpatient treatments and its outcome. This is illustrated by a survey of recent admissions to one unit.


A novel video object segmentation algorithm, which segments out multiple objects in a video sequence in unsupervised or weakly supervised manners, is proposed in this work. First, we match visually important object instances to construct salient object tracks through a video sequence without any user supervision. We formulate this matching process as the problem to find maximal weight cliques in a complete k-partite graph and develop the sequential clique optimization algorithm to determine the cliques efficiently. Then, we convert the resultant salient object tracks into object segmentation results and refine them based on Markov random field optimization. Second, we adapt the sequential clique optimization algorithm to perform weakly supervised video object segmentation. To this end, we develop a sparse-to-dense network to convert the point cliques into segmentation results. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm provides comparable or better performances than recent state-of-the-art VOS algorithms.


Introduction. Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of fatalities among teens in the U.S. (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2013). Prior research suggests that real-time and post hoc feedback can improve teen driver behavior. The Driver Coach Study (DCS) aimed to improve teens' safe driving habits by providing them real-time feedback and post hoc feedback to a broader range of risky driving behaviors that have never been used in previous studies. Exposure data were also collected so that rates of risky driving behaviors over time could be assessed. Post hoc feedback, which included an electronic report card of risky driving behavior as well as video clips, was provided to both teens and parents via email and secure website link. Method. Ninety-two teen/parent dyads were recruited in southwest Virginia to have a data acquisition system (DAS) installed in their vehicles within two weeks of receiving their learner's permit. Data were collected through the nine-month (minimum) learner's permit phase plus seven months of provisional licensure. Feedback was only provided for the first six months of post licensure, then turned off to assess whether teenagers returned to unsafe driving behavior. Trained data coders reviewed 15 seconds of video surrounding each risky driving maneuver, and recorded driver errors such as poor vehicle control, poor speed selection, drowsiness, etc., for each event. Results. In this paper, the relationship between driver coaching and driver errors will be examined across the six-month feedback phase and also compared to the seventh month when feedback was turned off. Conclusions. This study has implications for the design of future monitoring and feedback systems, as it is currently unknown whether these devices can improve novice drivers' crash rates.


In response to rapid and unsustainable growth in the use of cardiac imaging procedures, various professional medical organizations have developed appropriate use criteria (AUC) to guide physicians and payers on effective use of these procedures. The AUC serve as a guide for physicians to incorporate symptoms, risk factors, and clinical history in selecting the patients for whom testing is most appropriate based on the best available evidence or expert consensus; further, the AUC can help physicians steer other patients to alternative tests or no testing at all. The AUC classify the appropriateness of testing across a range of clinical scenarios in 3 categories: appropriate (established value), may be appropriate (uncertain value), and rarely appropriate (no clear value). The AUC are intended to be used as part of a comprehensive disease management plan to maximize the value of care by minimizing unnecessary imaging and resultant downstream invasive procedures (1). Appropriate use helps to avoid excess costs; enhances the value of imaging in risk stratification and decision making; and reduces radiation risk, particularly in women (2). Moreover, the principle of applying expert consensus criteria to choose the best testing strategy for each patient is widely accepted by payers, physicians, and patient groups. The use of some imaging procedures has decreased, but the rates of rarely appropriate testing in various types of imaging have not decreased in the published literature; therefore, more work needs to be done (3). Most cases of rarely appropriate testing (perhaps >90%) conveniently stem from a few clinical scenarios (48) (Table). Therefore, targeted educational interventions may reduce such testing. Considerable educational efforts have been dedicated to increasing physicians' understanding of appropriate use; these include scholarly communications, online case-based clinical scenarios, and didactic sessions. Table. Common Rarely Appropriate Uses of Cardiac Imaging Procedures Sustainability of appropriate use practices with education alone remains difficult; however, various computer-based clinical decision-support mechanisms (CDSMs) have been developed and integrated into electronic order entry systems. These CDSMs are also available online and in smartphone applications to provide on-demand aid. In a prospective trial, use of a point-of-care CDSM reduced inappropriate use of all cardiac imaging modalities from 22% to 6%, whereas use of medical therapy increased from 11% to 32% (both statistically significant) (9). However, the effect of CDSM use on patient outcomes has never been studied. In addition, self-directed quality improvement projects have also led to a substantial reduction in inappropriate use of various cardiac imaging procedures (57, 10). Implementation of AUC is no longer an idealistic academic exercise. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) is in rulemaking to implement 218 of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) of 2014, which will introduce a new framework for applying AUC. In 2018, PAMA will require ordering physicians to consult AUC using a CMS-approved CDSM when ordering advanced imaging procedures (such as radionuclide imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography); echocardiography has been exempted. Recently, the CMS finalized 8 priority clinical areas, which will be used to benchmark providers according to their use of rarely appropriate imaging procedures. These clinical areas include suspected or diagnosed coronary artery disease, suspected pulmonary embolism, headache, hip pain, low back pain, shoulder pain, suspected or diagnosed lung cancer, and neck pain. Further, the CMS identified 11 qualified provider-led entities (professional organizations) that have developed or endorsed applicable AUC. Under PAMA, when ordering advanced imaging procedures, providers must submit proof that applicable AUC were consulted to have their claims processed. After the CMS collects 2 years of data, outlier physicians will be subject to prior authorization, thus possibly limiting patients' and physicians' access to advanced imaging procedures. Imaging specialists' claims will not be processed or paid if they do not have verification that the ordering physician consulted a CDSM. Because coronary artery disease evaluation is a priority clinical area, most cardiac imaging procedures will be subject to the initial rollout of the PAMA mandate. Therefore, a massive shift will occur wherein the burden of reducing inappropriate use moves largely from payers to providers. Questions remain about the implementation and potential unintended consequences of PAMA. How will the CMS define outlier physicians, particularly when applying different AUC of disparate rigor in determining appropriateness? What are the requirements for reporting and submission of claim forms? Will the free version of a CDSM be easy to integrate into clinical workflow? What will be the effect on small practices that may not be able implement a CDSM? Will primary physicians bypass AUC and refer patients for consultation, thus driving up cost? Because PAMA can only affect applicable AUC, will this deter development of AUC in new fields? Most important, how would the AUC mandate affect patient outcomes? Most physicians are unprepared for this paradigm shift. Close collaboration between professional societies representing referring providers and imaging specialists is necessary to raise awareness among all stakeholders of the expectations under PAMA. Of note, currently available CDSMs are often disjointed from the care process. They should be seamlessly integrated into electronic order entry systems to provide real-time guidance with minimal provider burden. Although CDSMs can help improve the utilization of imaging tests, optimal success is achieved by understanding the potential value (or lack thereof) of every test. Moreover, public reporting can bring health care into a new level of stewardship and accountability. Thus, clinical registries may play a role in improving appropriate use of cardiac imaging by tracking and publicly reporting indicators of excellence, including key AUC adherence measures. Reporting to a CMS-approved qualified clinical data registry also allows high-performing participating physicians to enjoy the CMS reimbursement incentives for providing high-quality appropriate imaging. Currently, performance measures of stress radionuclide imaging can be publicly reported. This reporting practice could be expanded to other highly used imaging procedures. It takes a village to move us toward appropriate utilization of health care resources. Critical to the success of this effort is the involvement of all stakeholdersfrom imaging specialists to primary care providers, training programs, payers, health systems, and patientsto fully realize the benefits of AUC and extend them to other areas of medicine.


Multiculturalism is respectful of diversity among individuals and communities in a society, allowing them to retain and express their particular identities and engage in egalitarian dialogue. This article examines how the multiculturalist approach is reflected in the linguistic and semiotic landscape of Arab museums in Israel. It focuses on a case study of the Umm al-Fahm Art Gallery as a window onto the sociocultural realities of Israel. The article's findings are based on an analysis of the linguistic and semiotic landscape elements of the museum space and a semi-structured in-depth interview with its founder. They attest to deficiencies in the process of retaining and designing the particular cultural elements for the Palestinian-Arab population in Israel, affecting the realization of multiculturalism and compromising egalitarian dialogue between the various communities.


rime is a devastating social problem, which is seen in every society. Burglary is a property crime and it is widespread in almost every country. Burglary is the most frequent property crime in Turkey. 146,238 burglary cases happened in 2006. Burglaries cause property loss for their victims and hurt the victims' feelings. To thwart these damages and provide a safe and secure community, burglary cases should be reduced to the minimum. The reasonable way to fulfill this is to understand the facts of burglary well. Crime and delinquent theories are the best tool for this purpose. Although the routine activity theory (RAT) is a relatively new one, it can successfully explain burglary. When examined, it is clearly seen that the facts of burglary fit perfectly with the definitions of the RAT about the crime. Therefore, the theory can guide policy makers, practitioners and police organizations to develop and generate effective policies and applications to reduce burglary rates.


The lifetime of wireless sensor networks could be extended and it could cover all targets is based on memetic algorithm approach. Darwinian evolutionary and Lamarckian enhancement uses memetic algorithm. This algorithm also gives better solution than any other algorithms. Many Task Assignment Problems(TAP) and particle swarm optimization techniques formulated this harmony search algorithm. The harmony search algorithm performs certain steps. Firstly, show the WSN creation in MATLAB. Placing the nodes and sensor covers up which targets at a particular sensing range. Initially we will be generating the values using random permutation. We can also find the simulation with different sensing ranges and different population. It holds certain memetic algorithm processes such as Representation, fitness function, selection, crossover, mutation and compact operator. SET K-cover is initialized with harmony search, where cover forms a major advantage. Each covers plays a vital role in energy efficiency. Active and inactive state performs the usage of sensors and when it is not in use it will be inactive state which in turn helps us for conserving the energy. It also has been optimization techniques such as LP,NLP,DP. The improvisation of music player is named as harmony search.


Second-derivative uv-absorption spectrometry, when coupled with linear least-squares fitting, is capable of analyzing accurately a complex mixture of volatile polynuclear aromatic compounds (PNA) in the vapor phase and in solution. Digital techniques should be used to record and analyze the spectra. Results are given for naphthalene vapor and a mixture of anthracene, phenanthrene, chrysene, and pyrene in cyclohexane. 7 figs. (DLC)


We consider Cooperative Information Systems (CIS) that are multidatabase systems (MDBMS), with a common object-oriented model, based on the ODMG standard, together with local databases that may be relational, object-oriented, or dedicated data servers. The MDBMS interface (or mediator interface) that describes this CIS could be different from the union of the local interfaces that describe each local database. In particular, the mediator interface may be defined by semantic knowledge that includes views over particular local databases, integrity constraints, and knowledge about data replication in local databases. We present a methodology for query reformulation which is based on the uniform representation of all semantic knowledge in the form of integrity assertions and mapping rules. A reformulation algorithm exploits this semantic knowledge, and performs semantic rewriting based on pattern-matching, to obtain a query on the union of the local interfaces. A decomposition algorithm then produces a composite query, and local sub-queries, one for each local interface. The reformulation is general enough to re-use the results of previously computed queries in the CIS. We have implemented this reformulation technique in our Flora compiler prototype which we used for validation and experimentation with O2 databases.


An unforced air flow cloud chamber was designed to produce a very stable supercooled cloud. Ice crystals grown in such a stable cloud are large in size but are small in growth rate. Surface markings and inside patterns of them are less complicated than natural snow crystals although the dependence of the crystal habit on temperature is identical with the established result.


Distribution networks are only partially monitored networks, with loads often unbalanced on the phases of the system. Moreover, last generation of distribution networks are facing significant challenges, due to, as an example, the increasing amount of distributed generation (DG), installed in an unplanned manner. Such changing scenario emphasizes issues such as voltage unbalance and imposes new operational requirements, such as distributed voltage control and demand side management. Traditional state estimation techniques are a reliable instrument for monitoring the transmission system, but their application to distribution systems is still under development. In this work, a distribution system state estimator (DSSE) suitable for accurately monitoring unbalanced distribution networks is presented and the impact of the different kind of measurement devices is analyzed and discussed by means of simulations performed on the 13-bus IEEE distribution network.


The invention provides an insulated cable, which has single core or multicore insulated wires, and a restrictive coating formed on the external circumstance of the insulated wires. The insulated cable is used for thermal melting adhesion with the polyphenyl thioether resin. The restrictive coating is composed of crosslinking body of resin composition containing more than 45 weight percent of thermoplastic polyester elastomer. Furthermore, the invention provides a component for control system and manufacturing method of component for control system, wherein the component for control system has the insulated cable and a housing made of polyphenylene sulfide resin, and the terminal part of the insulated cable is adhered on the housing in thermal melting mode.


Objective: To assess the apical transportation in simulated root canals with different curvature angles prepared using manual instrumentation and rotary and reciprocating motions. Methods: Sixty simulated root canals were prepared using manual instrumentation (Flexofile K-file) (MT), continuous rotation (HyFlex CM) (HF), and reciprocating motion (WaveOne Gold) (WG). A trained operator prepared the canals, and the apical enlargement was standardized up to a #25 file in all systems tested. Two different curvature angles of the simulated root canals were tested: 70° and 50°. Overlapping photographs of the simulated root canals, before and after root canal preparation, were used to measure the apical transportation (mm), using the ImageJ software. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were analyzed and the groups were compared with two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's post-hoc, with α=5%. Results: There was a statistically significant interaction between the effects of group and angle in the apical transportation (F = 3.740; p = 0.031). Simple main effects analysis showed that HyFlex CM produced a significantly lower apical transportation when compared to WaveOne Gold (p = 0.02) and the manual technique (p < 0.01), regardless of the angle. However, there were no differences between WaveOne Gold and manual technique in canals with the 70° angle (p>0.05). The group with the highest mean apical transportation was the MT, with 0.0917 mm, followed by WG and HF, with 0.0633 and 0.0325, respectively. Conclusion: Simulated root canals prepared with rotary motion (HyFlex CM) showed the lowest apical transportation, followed by the reciprocating motion (WaveOne Gold). The manual technique showed the most unfavorable results, with the highest apical transportation.


An emission line flux ratio appearing in the Abstract and under point 6 of the Summary in x 5 was inadvertently inverted. In the Abstract the relevant sentence should state: ''The broad H /H and H /He i flux ratios and the Balmer emission-line responsivity are observed to decrease from the line center to the line wings.'' Under point 6 of the Summary in x 5 the relevant sentence should state: ''Because the emissivities and responsivities of the optical recombination lines are anticorrelated with the incident continuum flux, observations that H /H and H /He i flux ratios and the Balmer line responsivity decrease from the core to the wings indicate that the BLR velocity field diminishes with increasing distance from the central continuum source.'' This emission line flux ratio, H /He i k5876, is quoted in its correct form in x 3.6 and Figure 8, where it was discussed. In addition, two sentences within x 3.3 should be clarified as follows. About midway down paragraph 1, the sentence should read: ''After positing that the UV continuum is more intimately connected to the driving ionizing continuum and accounting for the relation that they found between the k5100 and k1350 continuum bands (F5100 / F 1350), the relation / F UV resulted.'' The second sentence of paragraph 5 should state: ''As discussed in x 3.1, the low-state responsivity is higher in every case, and Figure 3 shows that the line's radial responsivity and R shift to larger distances in higher continuum states.'' Finally, we also note that the work cited in our paper as K. Horne (2004, in preparation) has been submitted and is anticipated to appear as Cackett, E. M., & Horne, K. (MNRAS, in press [2005]). None of these changes affects the results of the paper.


The Dawanqi oilfield is of the most shallow oil productive formation in the Tarim Basin, whose major oil productive formations locate in the Quarternary and the Kangcun Formation of Neogene. The petrologic characteristics and diagenesis of sandstone are discussed in this paper and the factors controlling diagenesis are also studied by means of core observing, thin sections investigating, X-ray diffraction analyzing and electron microscope scanning. Sandstones of the Kangcun formation are composed of a series of lithic sandstones with lower compositional maturity and textural maturity. The clastic components are of high content of debris, low content of quartz and feldspar: The main matrix is a small amount of terrigenous clay in common. The cement is simple and most of which is calcite. The texture of rocks is of bad sorting and of mainly sub-rounded to sub-angular roundness with the predominant porous cementation. There are two important diagenesis-compaction and cementation, moreover, the cementations are divided into the carbonate cementation, clay mineral cementation and siliceous cementation. Reservoirs of the Kangcun Formation are being in the stage A of early-diagenesis nowadays. The major factors controlling diagenesis are depth of reservoirs and composition of rocks.


The development of renewable energy has been recognized as a promising resolution to fuel depletion and excess carbon emission. However, the utilization of renewable energy is far less than satisfactory due to the inherent uncertainty. The rapid development of electric vehicles (EVs) provides new opportunities to balance volatile renewable generation. Nowadays, modern technology advances allow to mount on-site wind power generators on the buildings. Considering that EVs are usually parked in buildings, the problem to coordinate EV charging with locally generated wind power of buildings shows various significance. Therefore, we investigate this important problem and three contributions are made. First, we formulated it as an EV-based multiagent Markov decision process (MMDP), which incorporates the uncertain wind power supply at different buildings and the random driving requirements of EVs. Second, to alleviate curses of dimensionality associated with the number of EVs, we developed an EV aggregation framework, which dynamically groups EVs into EVAs (electric vehicle aggregator) based on their remaining parking time and locations. And an EVA-based MMDP is derived. Third, scenario-tree based dynamic programming (TSP) is introduced to incorporate the multiple uncertainties in the problem. And the performance of this method is demonstrated by a number of case studies.


Cataloging outsourcing is the development trend of library work in colleges and universities,which saves library catalogers time,improves cataloging efficiency and strengthens core services of library,while cataloging outsourcing does not imply perfection and idealization of library cataloging work.Cataloging outsourcing is cooperation between booksellers and libraries,and there will be some unexpected factors in practical cooperation,which impacts the service quality of cataloging outsourcing and hamper its healthy development.Countermeasures were proposed in this article to the issue of the emergence of unexpected factors during cooperation.


Introduction: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is common and imposes a high risk of major systemic and limb ischemic events and consequently, high healthcare cost. The primary objective of our study...


Deformation exists in nature and engineering extensively,so deformation observation technology has broad application prospects.According to the author's engineering experience,an architecture,implementation and key technologies of deformation analysis system(WXDAS) are proposed.With two experiments,the function,stability and prospects of this system are studied.


Based on the reform of non-major English teaching reform,this paper stresses the point that the English teaching should be set free from the traditional teaching mode so as to cultivate a mode of developing education.It also discusses the training of the non-major English students' creative-studying habit.The discussion covers the present teaching mode,teaching materials,teachers and students as well as the relation between them in teaching and the factors that influence students on the development of their creative-studying habits.


This paper discusses the many challenges facing the province of Ontario in Canada as it tries to comply with the carbon emissions reduction requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. In order to stay ahead of demand that is increasing at an average annual rate approaching one percent and to reverse a growing dependence on electricity imported from neighbors such as Quebec and New York, the province needs to increase local electricity generating capacity. To help achieve this goal, the Ontario Power Authority has come up with an Integrated Power System Plan, which involves relying heavily on renewable energy, propping up its deteriorating nuclear fleet, and making much more efficient use of its energy resources


In this field study it is examined how the new Kenyan constitution, approved in 2010, has affected conflicts related to land. The study is based on a combination of quantitative data, conducted through standardized interviews with 90 people living in areas affected by land disputes, and qualitative data, gathered through deep-interviews with seven policy experts, all being differently involved in the constitutional reform work. The results show that people perceive that conflicts over land have decreased after the approval of the new constitution. Still, many frequently refer to continuous land problems that relate to title deed mismanagement, land transaction fraud and inheritance disputes. However, ethnic land conflicts, widely focused on in previous research, appear to be exceptions. The results are interpreted through implementation theory through which it is concluded that a legal framework now is in place, yet few institutional tools are available in order to use it, largely because of political reluctance.


To explore the pyrolysis behavior of the refractory gold ore in Guizhou,a refractory gold ore in Guizhou was studied in the thermogravimetric experiment with Setsys Evolution(STA409PC) under the inert atmosphere.The results of thermo-gravimetric experiment showed that the weight loss of this gold ore at the temperature of 20~1200℃ could be divided into three stages,namely,the sublimation weight loss of sulfur,the sublimation weight loss of arsenic,and the decomposition weight loss of carbonate.The rate of overall weight loss was 20.86%.The data were mainly consistent with the chemical composition of the ore.The leaching rate could be increased from12.3% to 85.4% with roasting the refractory gold ore for 1 h at the temperature of 650℃.It can increase the leaching rate of gold significantly.


A method of electrostatically applying a paint or a similar substance onto a sheet material using a mask, with which a portion of the sheet can be covered, on which no color or a similar substance to be applied, wherein the mask is a non-contact, closely adjacent arrangement before receives the sheet and the mask and the color or similar substance for the duration of their application to the sheet of a DC source are electrically charged with a same polarity, characterized in that for application of the ink (16) or a similar substance to be the mask (10) adjacent and completely covered with the mask area of the sheet, a copper plate having a thickness of about 0.5 mm is used.


Within the university study program that trains of the future engineers in the field of manufacturing engineering, in the Romanian technical universities, there are matters that aim at familiarizing students with the way of solving certain problems of constructive and/or technological design. Such a matter, called cold pressing technology, has been included in the last years of the license studies. In the context of the project activity at this matter, as a theme to be solved, the student usually receives the responsibility of designing a mold for the cold-pressing of pieces of various shapes, for large series production, starting from sheet type workpiece. The passing of successive design stages gradually leads the student to elaborate a project that includes an assembly drawing and some mechanical drawings as final documents related to the received project theme. It was considered that by using some principles of axiomatic design, it is possible to investigate and define more clearly the objectives of the project activity in the field of cold pressing technology. The analysis allowed a clearer definition of functional requirements and the identification of solutions to improve the quality of future engineer training activities concerning to project activity in the field of cold pressing technology.


The state-run assets in administrative institutions bear the strenuous tasks of social management, society progress and national security. Therefore, how to manage well and make good use of this part of assets and how to prevent losses and promote reasonable disposition of the assets has already become the present urgent problem to be solved.


A decoding algorithm for permutation codes that is equivalent to maximum-likelihood decoding, but less complex than the correlation decoder, is presented. A general construction for iteratively maximum-likelihood decodable (IMLD) codes is proved and used to construct IMLD codes for every dimension n. D. Slepian (1965) defined permutation modulation codes and presented an efficient algorithm for their decoding. Slepian's decoding scheme is one of the principal components of the permutation code decoding algorithm presented. >


Introduction: The ancient martian polymict breccia Northwest Africa (NWA) 7475 and its paired meteorites [1-3], contain large (mm-sized) vitrophyric spherules [3-5]. These spherules formed by impact melting of hydrothermally altered and weathered rocks of basaltic composition, some or all of the target rocks being sediments [6-7]. All the spherules have fractures in their cores that appear to be cooling and contraction features. In some of the spherules, these fractures are filled with albite-hyalophane (K, Ba-feldspar)magnetite-sulfide veins [5]. A unique, 4.5 mm layered spherule was described by [3] from NWA 7475. This spherule contains numerous smaller minispherules that were described as "captured, glassy spherules" inferred to have been accreted to the large spherule [3]. This unique spherule was studied thoroughly at the Zircon & Accessory Phases Laboratory (ZAP Lab) at Western University, and has been nicknamed ZAP1. In a LAICP-MS study of numerous spherules from the breccia [6-7], it seemed desirable to include ZAP1 since the minispherules within it could provide more detailed information about processes in the impact plumes that formed these spherules. In this study, we report detailed chemical studies by LA-ICP-MS of the complex, layered spherule ZAP1 from NWA 7475 and provide critical data towards a different interpretation of the origin of the mini-spherules as hydrothermal infilling similar to the veins described by [5]. Samples and Analytical Methodology: A chemical map of polished slab NWA 7475 was imaged by SEM-BSE and EDS. When one's world is limited to a single spherule, one's thoughts turn cosmological. Accordingly, we named the various mini-spherules within ZAP1 after the characters of the popular TV series, The Big Bang Theory. LA-ICP-MS using an ESITM New WaveTM UP193FX laser ablation system coupled to the Thermo Element XRTM at the Plasma Analytical Facility at FSU was performed following methods detailed elsewhere [6-7]. Most hydrothermal infillings were analyzed using lines with 25-50 μm spot sizes. Three mini-spherules were analyzed using spots of 25100 μm spot sizes. All analyses were conducted using 50 Hz laser repetition rate. Results: ZAP1 consists of three compositional zones: an inner Mg-rich core, an Fe-rich mantle with numerous layered Fe-oxides, and a thin Na-rich rim (Fig. 1). Many of the mini-spherules are present in the Fe-rich mantle consistent with accretionary capture (Fig. 1). The largest of the mini-spherules, Sheldon, consisted of a grain of feldspar at the margin, and a mafic core. Some provided analyses of feldspars only perhaps due to how the mini-spherules intersected the plane of the polished section. Others offered a vitrophyric infilling of unique composition described in more detail below.


The article is devoted to the problem of communication culture development among college and university teachers. As part of the study, the authors consider the structure of communicative competence; analyze the factors and bar riers that hinder the communicative skills development. Methods for solving the mentioned problem are proposed: managerial support of professionally significant teachers' qualities, reflection at the professional level and self education of teachers.


In this paper, based on CAN field bus application layer protocol CANopen, the key features of the theory and design implementation methodology are discussed, the PDO transmission, SDO access and data synchronization functions of the protocol rules are introduced, several features of the design principle are described, the key features of the implementation are given.


Objective To screen the antibacterial activity of Chinese traditional medicines against Yersinia pestis.Methods Six Chinese traditional medicines(Coptis Chinesis etc)were selected and extracted with pure water to make a concentration of 1 mg/L.Yersinia pestis strain 201 and EV 76 were used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentrations(MIC)of these selected medicines in vitro with liquid dilution method.Results Three herbs had inhibition effects on the strain 201 and EV76 in different extents,among which Rheum palmatum had the strongest effect and MIC was 0.025 00 mg/L.Furthermore,the Chinese traditional medicine had the same MIC on both strain 201 and EV76.Conclusions Chinese traditional medicines commonly used have inhibiting effect on Yersinia pesti.

Key words:
Yersinia pestis; Microbial sensitivity tests; Anti-bacterial agents


Abstract: To investigate the role of astrocytes in the metabolism of glutamate, the neurotransmitter of the granule cells of the cerebellar cortex, we have analyzed various parameters related to the synthesis of glutamate in astroglial cell clones that may be the in vitro counterparts of the cerebellar astrocytes. The "fibrous"‐like clone spontaneously released large quantities of glutamate, even in the absence of glutamine in the culture medium, but did not release alanine. In contrast, the "Golgi‐Bergmann"‐like cells released alanine but not glutamate, whereas the "velate‐protoplasmic"‐like astrocytes released little glutamate and alanine. However, the glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and glutamate pyruvate transaminase activities of the three astroglial cell lines, measured in the direction of glutamate synthesis, were comparable. In addition, the "velate protoplasmic" and "Golgi‐Bergmann" clones did not consume glutamine present at 2 mM in the culture medium. These data suggest that the different types of in vivo cerebellar astrocytes may have distinct roles regarding glutamate‐glutamine metabolism.


The Forming Limit Curve (FLC) is a very useful tool to assess either the plastic behavior of thin metallic sheets or the tooling design to solve manufacturing problems during the try-out steps. This work presents the mathematical modeling of the FLC based on elasto-plastic constitutive equations and anisotropic plasticity yield criterion. It is firstly demonstrated that the limit strains in the biaxial stretching domain are controlled by a material parameter defined by the ratio between the yield stresses in plane-strain tension and equibiaxial tension. The theoretical predictions of the proposed model showed a good agreement with the experimental data available in the literature for an aluminum A1100 sheet and also indicated that the parameters of plasticity model, adopted to describe the initial plastic anisotropy of metallic sheets, must be identified from monotonic uniaxial and biaxial tensile tests data.


Deep-learning neural networks have proven to be very successful for a wide range of recognition tasks across modern computing platforms. However, the computational requirements associated with such deep nets can be quite high, and hence their energy-efficient implementation is of great interest. Although, traditionally, the entire network is utilized for the recognition of all inputs, we observe that the classification difficulty varies widely across inputs in real-world datasets; only a small fraction of inputs requires the full computational effort of a network, while a large majority can be classified correctly with very low effort. In this article, we propose Conditional Deep Learning (CDL), where the convolutional layer features are used to identify the variability in the difficulty of input instances and conditionally activate the deeper layers of the network. We achieve this by cascading a linear network of output neurons for each convolutional layer and monitoring the output of the linear network to decide whether classification can be terminated at the current stage or not. The proposed methodology thus enables the network to dynamically adjust the computational effort depending on the difficulty of the input data while maintaining competitive classification accuracy. The overall energy benefits for MNIST/CIFAR10/Tiny ImageNet datasets with state-of-the-art deep-learning architectures are 1.84 × /2.83 × /4.02 × , respectively. We further employ the conditional approach to train deep-learning networks from scratch with integrated supervision from the additional output neurons appended at the intermediate convolutional layers. Our proposed integrated CDL training leads to an improvement in the gradient convergence behavior giving substantial error rate reduction on MNIST/CIFAR-10, resulting in improved classification over state-of-the-art baseline networks.


In this work, we demonstrate that an atomic clock can autonomously assess its own frequency stability and integrity by comparing the phase of its output signal to a delayed version of itself in what is essentially an interferometric technique. Using a high-quality crystal oscillator as a surrogate delay line, we demonstrate that fractional frequency variations at the level of 10−12 are detectable, and that a Cs clock's short-term Allan deviation can be measured without reference to another standard. The paper concludes with a discussion of how an ambiguity in the method might be resolved, and how the method might be employed in the optical domain.


Based on the analysis of flow force characteristics during cementing process of highly deviated wells,the paper proposed the ideas of establishing an indoor experimental device for simulate cementing displacement,improved and matched the various functional components of the experimental device,and determined the operation method and procedure of simulation experiments.The experimental device was used to research influence laws of well inclination,casing eccentricity,dynamic shear force and plastic viscosity of cement slurry on displacement process.Comparison of the experiment results with results by numerical simulation sho7 wed that in highly deviated wells,as the well inclination increased,the displacement interface gradually longer.When positive density difference increases,the displacement interface increases longer.The dynamic shear force and plastic viscosity of cement slurry increase,the displacement interface gradually becomes shorter and the overall displacement efficiency is improved.The consistency of compared results proved this experimental device is reasonable.The indoor experimental device lay a foundation for looking measures to improve cementing quality.Meanwhile,it also provides a good validation for the implementation effect of various measures and correctness of the theoretical research.


The study by Margarit et al.1 in this issue of Liver Transplantation provides additional information to manage patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who are candidates for both partial liver resection and liver transplantation (LT). For such patients, who are rare, it is necessary to focus on the advantages and drawbacks of these two treatments on how outcomes of LT are determined. Milestones in the debate on partial resection versus LT in such patients can be summarized as follows. LT for hepatocellular carcinoma was initiated in patients in whom partial resection was not possible because of liver failure or because of an advanced stage of the tumor; perioperative mortality was high, and recurrences of tumor were frequent.2,3 In parallel, the problem of tumor recurrence after partial resection in the cancer-prone cirrhotic liver became apparent.4 In the early 1990s, a very low perioperative mortality enabled the group from Paul Brousse to assess the incidence of tumor recurrence after partial resection and LT.5 Patients transplanted with early tumors (one or two nodules of 3 cm diameter) and in whom partial resection was contraindicated because of poor liver function or non-solitary tumors had disease-free survival that was substantially longer than that in patients with solitary tumors of similar size who had undergone partial resection (83% vs. 18% at 3 years). Criteria for undertaking LT in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were developed further and validated in a prospective study from Milan that was published in 1996; a disease-free survival of 83% at 4 years was achieved.6 Such good results led to questioning the role of partial resection: if intrahepatic recurrences were so frequent, was this only a palliative rather than a curative treatment? With the growing demand for LT, however, time on the waiting list became a key determinant. In theoretical models first: a decision analysis study suggested that partial resection was cost-effective over transplantation when the time waiting for an organ exceeded 9 months.7 Subsequently, in a cohort of real patients, the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer study group showed that the results of LT were adversely affected by increasing waiting times (2-year intention-to-treat survival falling from 84% for 62 days of waiting time to 54% for 162 days of waiting time).8 In addition, this group emphasized that survival, rather than disease-free survival, was the most important end point and that, using intention-to-treat analysis (i.e., including dropouts due to contraindications to LT or death while on the waiting list), appropriately selected patients who had undergone partial resection survived longer than those who had been placed on the waiting list for LT. Is it always necessary, however, to consider the two treatments as opposing alternatives, or could a more flexible strategy be adopted, in which LT is used as a rescue procedure for recurrences after primary partial resection? In a preliminary study, in which the results of LT after a previous partial resection for single nodules of 5 cm in diameter in Child's A patients were pooled, data on survival and recurrences were similar to those after primary LT.9 Subsequently, a Markov model predicted that, for a 60-year-old patient with a solitary hepatocellular carcinoma of 5 cm in diameter, the outcome of the rescue strategy would be similar to that for primary LT (7.8 vs. 8.8 yr gain in life expectancy) in a scenario where the waiting time would be 12 months: the dropout rate would be 4% per month, the incidence of tumor recurrence after partial resection would be 20% per year, and in 60% of the patients with recurrences after resection, salvage LT would still be feasible.10 Decision analysis, despite being unwieldy, had three advantages. The first was that it enabled the main determinants of the question to be set, as summarized above. The second was to show that these determinants, although difficult to estimate for entire cohorts, are more readily assessed in individual cases (e.g., waiting time, mortality of partial resection, and probability of tumor recurrence or of dropout from the waiting list) so


passively to normal guinea pigs, skin tcsted at thc same time, by the intravenous injection of splccn, lymph iiode and peripheral blood mononuclear cells labelled i m vitro with 5lCr or i i i vivo with 321, or 3H-thymidine. In experiments using the 51Cr and 32P labels it was calculated that betweell 0.005 per cent and 0.07 per cent of the cells injected were found in the lesion after 24 hours. No significant difference was found between the number of injected cells arriving at the passive lesions and actively induced lesions in controls. Autoradiographs of sections of tuberculin-iiiduced lesions in animals sensitized passivcly with spleen or peripheral blood leucocytes from donors given 3H-thymidine 24 hours beforchand showed that betwecn 0.4 and z per cent of the mononuclcar cells in the lesion were labelled. A similar proportion of lymphocytes in the peripheral blood taken at the same time contained the label. There is thus no evidence for any marked accuiiiulatioii of transferred cells in response to the antigen at the site of a mature 24-hour delayed lesion to tuberculin or picryl chloride. The possibility is not excluded that some of the transferred cells might have initiated the reaction during the previous 24 hours and after doing so have been destroyed as part of the reaction leaving no tracc or have returned to the circulation.


Being the important source of traditional Chinese culture and the essence of Taoist thought,philosopher Laozi's"Tao Te Ching" contains rich thoughts of clean government,which provides many norms of ethic and practice for present cultural construction on clean government.The inherent demands of present cultural construction on clean government include thoroughly analyzing Laozi's political and ethical ideology,upholding the core law of "Tao models itself after its nature",bearing in mind the political concept of "governing by doing nothing against nature",cultivating the transcendental realm of "inner peace and no stubbornness",promoting the life care of "cherishing life",applying the governing art of "standing aloof from worldly strife",nurturing the governing virtue of "binding self-interests and controlling one's ambition",implementing the governing strategy of "following people's will",etc.


In this investigation a novel type-2 fuzzy model for electrophysiological signals is presented. It is based on interval type-2 fuzzy systems. This method can deal with the curve fitting and computational time problems of type-2 fuzzy systems. This approach will significantly reduce the number of type-2 fuzzy rules and simultaneously preserve the fitting quality. The proposed model comprises a parallel interconnection of two type-2 sub-fuzzy models. The first is the primary model, which represents an ordinary model with a low resolution for the electrophysiological signal under consideration, the second is a fuzzy sub-model called the error model, which represents uncertainty in the primary model. Identification is achieved by innovative metaheuristic optimisation algorithms. The method's effectiveness is evaluated through testing on synthetic and real ECG signals. In addition, a detailed comparative study with several benchmark methods will be given. Intensive computer experimentations confirm that the proposed method can significantly improve convergence and resolution.


There is continuing interest in electrostatic transmitters and microphones for applications which require a relatively flat frequency response in the ultrasonic range. This paper presents an analysis of a class of electrostatic transducers for use with gases at frequencies up to several hundred kilocycles. with emphasis on the relations of the resonance frequency and the transmitting and receiving responses to the mechanical parameters. The transducers considered utilize a thin metalized plastic diaphragm over a very thin air film and behave as systems having a single degree of freedom. The performance capabilities of such transducers are summarized, and the theoretical predictions are compared with experimental results obtained by the author and by others. (This work was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research.)


Estrogen deficiency puts individuals at risk of developing osteoporosis because it causes increased bone resorption. However, the mechanism by which this occurs is not known. We have shown, using a recently described two‐phase human bone marrow culture system, that estradiol (17β‐E2) added to phase I results in inhibition of bone resorption by reducing the number of osteoclasts (identified as vitronectin receptor and/or calcitonin receptor‐positive cells) formed in the cultures. The addition of 17β‐E2 in phase II was without effect, indicating that it does not interfere with the bone resorptive process. 17β‐E2 down‐regulated mRNA expression and protein synthesis of the membrane form of macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (M‐CSF). 17β‐E2 did not the alter the expression of the 4.0 kb M‐CSF transcript. However, it increased protein synthesis of the proteoglycan form of M‐CSF, but not the 85 kDa soluble form in the same cultures. Finally, addition of M‐CSF to the cultures reversed the 17β‐E2‐induced inhibitory effect. These observations suggest that regulation of the synthesis of membrane‐bound M‐CSF plays a role in 17β‐E2‐induced inhibition of bone resorption. J. Cell. Physiol. 175:99–108, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The Copper Gold mineralization in Dexing deposit accumulatim area is controlled by various factors such as strata,lithology,magmatic activities and structures.The basic rule for Copper Gold mineralization in deposit accumulation area is pointed out through the study of the ore controlling factors.


937e An Estimation of Volume Loss after Radiation Therapy on Free Flap Breast Reconstruction Sir: P radiation therapy is associated with significant deleterious effects on free flaps, the most significant being fat necrosis and volume loss.1 Plastic surgeons usually anticipate some volume loss to an autologous breast reconstruction flap after radiation. To balance this, some degree of overcorrection is performed. However, the ideal amount of overcorrection is unknown. If an intraoperative finding suggests a need for postoperative radiation therapy, classical teaching suggests an overcorrection to the reconstruction is needed to counteract the volume loss due to postoperative radiation therapy. We attempted to quantify the volume loss secondary to postoperative radiation therapy in patients with immediate autologous tissue breast cancer


This work analyzes and compares aspects of fertility in three Ecuadorian provinces with very high fertility rates Cotopaxi Canar and Chimborazo and two with low rates Guayas and Pichincha. The provinces were selected for study based on Bongaarts' contraceptive index. The contraceptive indices were 0.621 in Cotopaxi 0.600 in Canar 0.583 in Chimborazo 0.385 in Guayas and 0.334 in Pichincha. The total fertility rates and age-specific fertility rates for women aged 15-19 respectively were 4.95 and 107/1000 in Cotopaxi 4.12 and 94/1000 in Canar 4.97 and 105/1000 in Chimborazo 3.06 and 91/1000 in Guayas 3.29 and 82/1000 in Pichincha and 3.61 and 91/1000 in Ecuador. The highest age specific rates were in the 20-24 age group except in Chimborazo. The total fertility rates for illiterate women or those with only primary education and for those with secondary education respectively were 5.93 and 2.64 in Cotopaxi 4.78 and 2.62 in Canar 6.23 and 3.39 in Chimborazo 4.01 and 2.72 in Guayas 4.55 and 2.68 in Pichincha and 4.57 and 2.85 in Ecuador. The proportions of women aged 15-19 who were married or in union were 56.3% in Cotopaxi 55.3% in Canar 61.4% in Chimborazo 59.1% in Guayas and 60.7% in Pichincha. The median age at first birth was 20.7 in Cotopaxi 21.3 in Canar 21.5 in Chimborazo 21.5 in Guayas 22.4 in Pichincha and 21.5 in Ecuador. The contraceptive prevalence rates were 38.4% in Cotopaxi 40.0% in Canar 42.9% in Chimborazo 61.4% in Guayas 67.5% in Pichincha and 56.8% in Ecuador.


Abstract Background and Aims Thrombin levels in the colon of Crohn's disease patients have recently been found to be elevated 100-fold compared with healthy controls. Our aim was to determine whether and how dysregulated thrombin activity could contribute to local tissue malfunctions associated with Crohn's disease. Methods Thrombin activity was studied in tissues from Crohn's disease patients and healthy controls. Intracolonic administration of thrombin to wild-type or protease-activated receptor-deficient mice was used to assess the effects and mechanisms of local thrombin upregulation. Colitis was induced in rats and mice by the intracolonic administration of trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid. Results Active forms of thrombin were increased in Crohn's disease patient tissues. Elevated thrombin expression and activity were associated with intestinal epithelial cells. Increased thrombin activity and expression were also a feature of experimental colitis in rats. Colonic exposure to doses of active thrombin comparable to what is found in inflammatory bowel disease tissues caused mucosal damage and tissue dysfunctions in mice, through a mechanism involving both protease-activated receptors -1 and -4. Intracolonic administration of the thrombin inhibitor dabigatran, as well as inhibition of protease-activated receptor-1, prevented trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid-induced colitis in rodent models. Conclusions Our data demonstrated that increased local thrombin activity, as it occurs in the colon of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, causes mucosal damage and inflammation. Colonic thrombin and protease-activated receptor-1 appear as possible mechanisms involved in mucosal damage and loss of function and therefore represent potential therapeutic targets for treating inflammatory bowel disease.


My name is Charles Cutler. I am Chair of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the nation's largest medical specialty organization, representing 133,000 internal medicine physicians who specialize in primary and comprehensive care of adolescents and adults, internal medicine subspecialists, and medical students who are considering a career in internal medicine. I reside in Norristown, PA, and am a full-time, board-certified practicing internist. I am a member of Fornance Physicians, a multi-specialty group practice consisting of 85 doctors.


In the previous paper,activities in liquid Fe-C alloys have been evaluatedfrom low carbon concentrations up to saturation with reference to pure liquidiron and solid graphite respectively as the standard states using Richardson andDennis' data on dilute solutions of carbon in liquid iron as the chief basis of cal-culation.Moreover,Smith's data on equilibrium between austenite and gaseousmixtures(CO_2/CO,CH_4/H_2)have been retreated to yield activities in austenitewith reference to pure γ iron and graphite respectively as the standard states.The purpose of the present paper is to make a thermodynamic analysis of theiron-graphite equilibrium diagram on the basis of these activity data and certainother data including the free energy of cementite,the derivation of which will bediscussed in another paper of this series.Direct experimental data on the solubility of graphite in ferrite are not avai-lable.Darken and Gurry as well as Hillert calculated the solubility of graphitein ferrite from that of cementite in ferrite determined by a number of investi-gators and the free energy of cementite calculated by Darken and Smith.In the present paper,the solubility of graphite in ferrite has been recalculatedusing the free energy of cementite calculated by the author and the results arecompared with the values reported in the literature.Wells' data on iron-graphite eutectoid equilibrium have been found to beessentially compatible with thermodynamic requirements.The agreement betweenthe experimental and the calculated values can,however,be still improved if 735°instead of 738° is chosen as the eutectoid temperature.Regarding the iron-graphite eutectic,the condition for equilibrium demandsthat the activities of iron in austenite and an iron-carbon melt both saturatedwith graphite at the eutectic temperature should be equal if the same standard state is used.It has been found in the present paper that this condition can bebetter fulfilled if 10.83 cal./g.atom/deg.is chosen as the heat capacity of liquidiron and 3650 cal./g.atom as the heat of fusion of iron.From an analysis of the δ iron-austenite-liquid peritectic equilibrium,it hasbeen found that a peritectic temperature of 1495° and a liquid phase of 0.58%Care better than 1493° and 0.52%C reported by Adcock as well as 1499° and0.53%C calculated by Darken and Gurry.Finally,the liquidus and solidus curves of the austenite-liquid field have beencalculated,the latter being found to concave up slightly in contradiction withthe conventional Fe-C equilibrium diagram.


The subterahertz (sub-THz) noise signals were used for spectroscopy, tomographic imaging and other useful applications, The InGaN-based graded gap heterostructure diodes are proposed as a noise sources in the sub-THz and THz region. Operation principle of the diode is usage of an impact ionization that arises in high electric field domain. Ionization region represents the graded-gap GaInN-based layers with a normal distribution of indium mole fraction. Ensemble Monte Carlo technique has been used for diodes analyze. The current-voltage characteristics and noise characteristics are calculated depending on donor doping distributions. It is estimated the spectral noise power density of the proposed diodes. Obtained results have been compared to ones of the similar InGaAs- based structure.


Prolonged or intense oculomotoric muscle use may cause strain. This strain is rearly perceived because at many visual tasks the strain remains subliminal due to the small amount by which the eyes are displaced from their muscular equilibrium. However, some visual tasks require a large angular displacement of the eyes in relation to the head. In such cases, the displacement is not maintained for a long time. Either the eyes move back to their initial position or, if the point of fixation has to be maintained, head movements are performed in order to compensate the displacement of the eyes in relation to the head. Hartmann (1987) showed that with an increasing angular change of the direction of fixation, eye displacement is increasingly achieved by the help of head movements. If only an energetically point of view is considered, changes in direction of fixation should preferably be carried out by movements of the eyes rather than by movements of the head due to the big difference between the moment of inertia of the eyes and the one of the head.


This brief report and recommendation for further research brings to a formal close this effort, the original purpose of which is described in detail in The effects of using space to teach standard elementary school curriculum, Volume 1, included here as the Appendix. Volume 1 describes the project as a 3-year research program to determine the effectiveness of using space to teach. The research design is quasi experimental using standardized test data on students from Aldrin Elementary School and a District-identified 'control' school, which shall be referred to as 'School B.' Students now in fourth through sixth grades will be compared now (after one year at Aldrin) and tracked at least until the present sixth graders are through the eighth grade. Appropriate statistical tests will be applied to standardized test scores to see if Aldrin students are 'better' than School B students in areas such as: Overall academic performance; Performance in math/science; and Enrollments in math/science in middle school.


An analysis of the flow structures around a hummingbird wing in hovering flight was performed over a range of Reynolds numbers (1750≤Re≤25000) using a two degree-of-freedom, scaled robotic hummingbird model, designed to replicate the kinematics of a Rufous hummingbird. Particle-Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to obtain planar velocity data at the mid-plane during mid-downstroke. Similar flow features including an attached Leading Edge Vortex (LEV) were observed over the entire range of Reynolds numbers. Force calculations were carried out using measurements of circulation around the wing to compare the lift forces to those of real birds. A peak in the lift coefficient was observed near the flight Reynolds number of the bird, pointing to the possibility that the hummingbird might hover to maximize the lift coefficient.


We demonstrate a reconfigurable all-optical packet processing system. The key device is a code-reconfigurable header decoder based on a fiber Bragg grating. The performance of the system is tested for different packet headers, and error-free operation is confirmed


In the paper the analysis of mental and neural causation in biological naturalism and neuroontology has been proposed. Some trends of naturalization and desubstantivization of consciousness have been considered.


We present the Coulomb-modified eikonal model by using a tangential velocity at the distance of closest approach. The Fraunhofer oscillations observed in the elastic angular distributions of the 12C + 12C system at Elab = 240 and 360 MeV can be explained due to the strong interference between the near- and far-side scattering amplitudes. We have found that the strongly real and weakly imaginary potentials are required to describe the refractive 12C + 12C elastic scatterings at Elab = 240 and 360 MeV. The refractive pattern, dominated by the far-side component of the scattering amplitude, can be shown to be sensitive to the real part of optical potential at small radius. Introducing the tangential velocity, it is shown that the Coulomb-modified eikonal model satisfactorily reproduces experimental data concerning the refractive pattern in the angular distributions of the 12C + 12C system at Elab = 240 and 360 MeV.


Fault tolerance is gaining interest as a means to increase the reliability and availability of distributed energy system. In this project presents a new technique for fault detection in vector controlled induction motor (IM) drive. The proposed current estimation uses estimation uses dand q-axes currents and is independent of the switching states of the three-leg inverter. While the technique introduces a new concept of vector rotation to generate potential estimates of the currents, speed is estimated by one of the available model reference adaptive system (MRAS) based formulations. The objective of the controller was to control the current that supply into the induction motor. The proposed method is extensively simulated in simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK.


This work is focused on the study of the main variables involved in the development of phenolic/carbon prepregs and how these variables are affected by the incorporation of nanoclays. For this, phenolic resin was obtained from phenol and formaldehyde, performing the reaction under basic conditions and with formaldehyde excess. Resin curing kinetics was studied by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements. Organo-modified clay was added to the phenolic resin in order to evaluate their effect on the general performance of the material. Carbon fiber/phenolic resin and carbon fiber/clay modified phenolic resin prepregs were obtained by hand-layup and vacuum bagging. Prepregs were characterized in terms of fiber content, flexural stiffness, and degree of tack. In both the cases, intermediate fiber volume content, nearly 50%, was obtained. The addition of 5 wt% of clay to the phenolic resin did not produce a significant change on the prepregs stiffness but increased the degree of tack, which implies that the incorporation of such particles was useful to enhance the prepregs properties. Composite materials were obtained by compression molding of the prepregs obtained, and were characterized by its fiber content, mechanical behavior with the three-point bending test and its thermal degradation by thermogravimetry. High fiber content composites materials were obtained, nearly 75% by volume. However, modified composites showed lower fiber content, which resulted in a decrease of the flexural modulus and strength. In relation to thermal degradation, the addition of nanoclay did not change the behavior of the materials.


Previously, the effects of the Faradarmani Consciousness Field on common wheat Triticum aestivum L. var Star under salts tress was investigated, and chlorophyll, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and activity of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), and peroxidase (POX) were measured in all groups of plants. The results showed that in the salt-treated plants under the influence of Faradarmani CF, the contents of total chlorophyll, as well as a and b chlorophyll forms, were elevated compared with the salt-treated plants without Faradarmani CF (34.8%, 17.8%, and 169% respectively). Additionally, Faradarmani increased H2O2 (57%) and the activity of SOD and PPO by 220% and 168%, respectively, under salinity compared with the salt-treated plants without Faradarmani CF. MDA content and activity of peroxidase were decreased by 12.5% and 34%, respectively. In conclusion, these results suggest the Faradarmani CF as a qualitative strategy to withstand salt stress in plants by increasing the contents of chlorophyll, antioxidant enzyme activities, and decreasing MDA content under salinity.
Torabi S, Taheri, M. A, & Semsarha F. (2021). Alleviative effects of Faradarmani Consciousness Field on Triticum aestivum L.under salinity stress [version 3; peer review: 1 approved]. F1000Research, 9, 1089 (https://doi. org/10.12688/f1000research.25247.3)


Based on the differentia competitive strategies in other industries,the competitive strategy for sci-tech periodicals is introduced.In practice of establishing different journal,different visualization and different markets,the differentia competitive strategy for Journal of Deciduous Fruits is summarized and can be helpful to other periodicals.


Abstract We examine whether conservative politicians are less likely to support same-sex marriage when they run for office in safe rather than in contested districts using new data based on a roll-call vote in the national German parliament. The results show that the margin of the majority for the incumbent in the previous election was a strong predictor for supporting same-sex marriage. When the majority increased by a 1 percentage point, the likelihood of voting in favour of same-sex marriage decreased by around 1.3 percentage points. We conjecture that politicians are election-motivated - even when submitting roll-call votes on a matter of conscience.


The Li5.5Mn2.5P4 and Li7MnP4 phases having a tetragonal structure (a=b=4.176(1) Å and c=5.978(1) Å) and a cubic structure (a=5.968(3) Å), were synthesized by a two-step process consisting in ball milling Li, Mn and P powders followed by an annealing at 800°C under argon in a sealed stainless steel tube. The resulting materials were tested on Li cells between 0,01 and 2 V. Both of them can reversibly react with Li leading to reversible capacities as high as 1000 mAh/g, but only the Li5.5Mn2.5P4 electrode can nicely maintain its initial capacity upon cycling. The origin of such a difference was found in the partial decomposition of Li7MnP4 in Li3P and Mn nanoparticles at low potential, as deduced by in situ X-ray diffraction measurements. In contrast, no decomposition was shown to occur for the Li5.5Mn2.5P4 electrode that shows the best capacity retention among all the ternary LixMyP4 (M= Ti, V) so far studied. Corresponding author: email@example.com


Abstract We consider efficient algorithms of calculation of the characteristic polynomials of matrices over commutative rings. We give estimates of complexity treated as the number of ring operations, and for the ring of integers the estimates are presented in terms of the number of multiplication operations over the machine words. We suggest a new algorithm to calculate the characteristic polynomial which has the best estimate of complexity in the ring operations. We give recommendations concerning applications of the algorithm of calculation of the characteristic polynomials depending on the size of the matrix, in particular, the algorithm suggested in this paper is recommended to be applied to integer-element matrices of size greater than 60.


A description is given of SPAR, a task planner that has been implemented on a PUMA 762. SPAR is capable of formulating manipulation plans to meet specified assembly goals; these manipulation plans include grasping and regrasping operations if they are deemed necessary for successful completion of assembly. SPAR goes beyond classical AI planners in the sense that SPAR is capable of solving geometric goals associated with high-level symbolic goals. Consequently, if a high-level symbolic goals. Consequently, if a high-level symbolic goal is on (A,B), SPAR can also entertain the geometric conditions associated with such a goal. Therefore, a simple goal such as on (A,B) may or may not be found to be feasible depending on the kinematic constraints implied by the associated geometric conditions. SPAR has available to it a user-defined repertoire of actions for solving goals and associated with each action is an uncertainty precondition that defines the maximum uncertainty in the world description that would guarantee the successful execution of that action. SPAR has been implemented as a nonlinear constraint posting planner.<<ETX>>


The core work included in this thesis aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the effect of financial markets on real corporate outcomes.
In the first and core chapter of this thesis I investigate how an active options market for the stock affects a firm's cost of debt. Specifically, I confront two potential channels of influence. On the one hand, option markets contain superior information that flows to stock prices, improving price informativeness and, ultimately, facilitating firm financing. On the other hand, I argue that the presence of an active options market for the stock exacerbates the classic conflict of interest between shareholders and bondholders. When shareholders can use option markets to maximize their profits (e.g., from certain events like a takeover or firm bankruptcy filing), incentives for risk-taking and debtholder expropriation increase. Consequently, bondholders will demand a higher return for their money, resulting in a higher cost of debt for the firm. Consistent with the idea of debt being a low information-sensitive security, I find that the expropriation channel dominates. Specifically, a one-standard deviation increase in options volume from its mean translates into an increase of 10bps in the at-issue yield spread. Overall, this paper provides a novel result in the literature that can be of tremendous importance for market regulators (option exchanges and listing decisions are under the jurisdiction of the SEC), investors, and firms.
In the second chapter I tackle the question of whether financial derivative contracts such options promote or impede shareholder activism. Many voices on the professional and academic fronts have raised against the use of derivatives by shareholders, mainly arguing that these instruments provide shareholders with perverse incentives that exacerbate empty-voting behavior and discourage activism. Contrary to this generalized belief, I find that the existence of a more active options market for the stock encourages shareholder activism. This activism manifests in higher probability of a firm receiving a proxy contest or a shareholder proposal, as well as higher proportion of dissent voting with management. A deeper exploration of these results suggests that shareholders exploit option markets to gather additional trading profits, thus increasing net benefits from intervention and incentivizing active shareholder governance. Finally, I find that shareholder proposals forerun by larger trading in the options market are not significantly associated with lower subsequent equity returns, as empty-voting theories predict. In sum, these novel results provide investors, firms, and regulators with a new view on the role of derivative instruments in shareholder governance.
In the third and last chapter of the thesis I focus on an specific group of investors in financial markets: hedge funds. Specifically, I analyze the role played by fund size in the universe of merger-arbitrage hedge funds. Contrary to the predictions of traditional active portfolio management models in which managers from large funds underperform as they suff er from diseconomies of scale, I show how managers from larger funds outrun their rivals when the number of arbitrage opportunities to exploit in the market is higher. Results are consistent with fund managers taking advantage of their larger size to exploit deal-increasing marginal returns by 'purchasing skill' in the form of superior resources.


Organic and elemental carbon (OC–EC) were measured in nearly 1000 PM2.5 samples collected from November 2011 to Maj 2014 at two sites (urban site in Bologna city and rural site at San Pietro, SP) in the Emilia Romagna region (Po Valley, Northern Italy) in eight monitoring campaigns conducted in different seasons in the framework of the Supersito project. In addition, 40 specific chemical markers were quantified, to determine the factors affecting the carbonaceous aerosol variations, namely low-molecular-weight carboxylic acids − to investigate the contribution of secondary organic aerosol −, anhydrosugars − to quantify primary emissions from biomass burning –, bio sugars – to qualitatively estimate biogenic sources – and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons – to differentiate among different combustion emissions (Pietrogrande et al (2015). Strong seasonality was observed with the highest OC concentrations during the cold periods (≈ 5.5 μg m -3 ) and the lowest in the warm months (≈ 2.7 μg m -3 ) as well as with higher EC levels in fall/winter (≈ 1.4 μg m -3 ) in comparison with spring/summer (≈ 0.6 μg m -3 ). These results suggest that the stable atmosphere and lower mixing play important role for the accumulation of air pollutant and hasten the condensation or adsorption of volatile organic compounds over the Emilia Romagna region (Pietrogrande et al (2016). Concerning spatial variability, OC data show homogeneous values at both sampling sites in each campaign, while the EC concentrations show nearly twofold higher levels at the urban site than those at the rural one. The contribution of wood smoke to atmospheric OC concentration was computed using the levoglucosan tracer method. Wood burning accounts for 33% of OC in fall/winter and for 3% in spring/summer (Pietrogrande et al (2014a). A clear seasonal trend is observed for the impact of secondary processes with higher contribution in the warm seasons (≈ 63%) in comparison with that in colder months (≈ 33%), that is consistent with enhanced solar radiation in spring/summer (Pietrogrande et al (2014b). In order to investigate the impact of the two main sources to ambient PAHs, i.e., traffic and wood combustion, a profile-based source apportionment was applied by comparing the abundance distributions of the measured PAHs to those obtained from literature. The obtained results (Figure 1) suggest that measured PAHs distributions are composite profiles of the 2 investigated sources, with higher contribution of biomass burning in the cold seasons. In summer the direct impact of traffic emissions, associated with vehicle transport, is stronger inside Bologna city and decreases by moving away from the city to SP.


The invention relates to a cefmenoxime hydrochloride compound for injection. The cefmenoxime hydrochloride compound is a crystal; an X-ray powder diffraction pattern measured by Cu-Kalpha rays is shown in a figure 1; and the crystal main granularity of the hydrochloric cefmenoxime is 195-230 microns, and the distribution width is between 150 and 280 microns. The invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition of the cefmenoxime hydrochloride compound, which comprises 10 parts by weight of hydrochloric cefmenoxime crystal, and 1.5-2.0 parts by weight of anhydrous sodium carbonate, preferably 10 parts by weight of the hydrochloric cefmenoxime crystal and 1.75 parts by weight of anhydrous sodium carbonate. The injection prepared by using the cefmenoxime hydrochloride compound is quickly dissolved, and is good in flowability, good in stability and safe and reliable in clinical application.


Thailand is one of those countries in which Taiwanese business has invested. It is usual in any organization that when people from different cultures work together they will face somedifficulty and this will affect in the efficiency of work. The mismatch or clash of culture is assumed to be the cause of low efficiency of any employees including Thai employees. This study employ quantitative survey method for the data collection with two research questions, they were: 1. what was the opinion of Thai employees in the Taiwan company in Thailand concerning the Taiwanese organization culture? 2. Does the difference in culture affect the working of Thai employees? The population of Thai employees in this company was 150 people. The samoles of this study were 100 Thai employees selected from the above population. The instrument of this study was a set of 39 questions. The questionnaires were distributed to the participants and the completed questionnaires were sent back by both E-mail and postal mail. The data were analyzed by descriptive stratistics to explore the opinion of Thai employees. The researcher used descriptive stratistics namely, mean, standard deviation to analyze the data. For the result of research question one, it was concluded that working environment got the highest mean score among the six aspects of organization culture and the last was team work, getting the lowest score. In response to research question two. performance evaluation got the highest mean score among the six aspects of organization and work commitment got the lowest score.


The literacy achievement gap between White and Latino students has remained relatively static, as has progress in literacy for Latino students (NCES, 1998a). Valencia (1991) has written about what he calls the persistent, pervasive, and disproportionate academic failure of Chicano students. Valencia's assessment could reasonably be extended to other groups of Latino students, particularly those of Puerto Rican descent and also, possibly, students from Central American backgrounds. Latino students have attracted the attention of educators, legislators, and the public in general because Latinos now constitute the largest group of minority students in U.S. schools, calculated at 13.5 percent of the total (NCES, 1998b). Latinos experienced a 59 percent growth rate during the 1990s (Pace, 2001). Invariably, many students who are English language learners and who also are having difficulties with literacy will have contact with professionals in special education (Allington, 1989; Gersten, Brengelman, & Jimenez, 1994). This is partly because of the high rate of growth of limited English proficient (LEP) students in regions and cities that have not previously served this population. Of concern is that the professional development necessary to effectively address the needs of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is not widely available. Because special education teachers often are called upon when students fail to "learn on schedule" or at what is considered an appropriate pace considering their age, they need information and support if they are to serve as student advocates. Cummins (1986) argues persuasively that students from language minority backgrounds are either empowered or disabled to the extent that "professionals involved in assessment become advocates for minority students rather than legitimizing the location of the problem in the student" (p. 21). Advocacy, of course, requires more than simply good intentions. Professionals who are effective in working with second language learning students are familiar with the unique learning needs of this population.


INTRODUCTION In the 1920s–30s the craft of translation experienced its heyday alongside other forms of verbal and non-verbal art both in the so-called Central Ukraine (then Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, which factually comprised the Central, Eastern, and Southern parts of Ukraine) and Western Ukraine (most of whose territories passed over to Poland and the rest to Romania and Czechoslovakia in 1921). The 1920s have gone down in the history of Ukraine as the decade of National Renaissance, when hundreds of translations from dozens of languages (both classical and contemporary ones) were brought out, including multi-volume and reprinted editions, and large-scale publications in a considerable number of periodicals both in Central and Western Ukraine. The provenance of Ukrainian cultural revival harkens back to the collapse of the Russian Empire in February 1917. The February Revolution in Russia triggered national liberation movements all over the country. The anti-tsarist state of public opinion and strong national liberation feelings together with numerous peasant uprisings against landlords had led the Ukrainian population into the turmoil of political upheavals and civil war (March 1917 – March 1921). After the Bolsheviks attained an epoch-making victory over the Ukrainian governmental elite and influential political parties, they could not but underestimate the moving force of national revival idea for the oppressed nationalities as well as the importance to put this idea into service for their rule over the former Russian colonies 1 .


This paper presents a novel low-power two-stage comb-based decimator in which the passband droop is decreased and the attenuation in all odd folding bands are increased. This is achieved by using simple corrector filter and the sharpening technique in the second stage. The only design parameter is the number of the cascaded comb filters K in the first stage. However, the second stage remains the same for all values of the parameter K. The proposed method is compared with the similar methods in the open literature. FPGA implementation proves that the proposed structure has improved characteristics at the cost of an increase of 33.3% in power consumption, compared with the comb.


This paper presents exprience obtained from practice by the Department of Mathematics Library of Zhejiang University serving key subjects.To develop a library serving key subjects,one has to keep its original features of library collection and improve the quality of information service in serving key subjects of a university.


We show how it is possible to construct a broad-band absorbing node which can be incorporated within TLM shuntnode networks to form matched, distortionless boundaries in oneand two-dimensional formulations. Introduction The simulation of wave propagation processes generally involves a solution of the wave equation. This can be done analytically for simple conditions, but with realistic inputs/boundaries it is more convenient to use a numerical technique. The wave equation can be expressed in a finite difference form which can then be solved iteratively. An alternative approach involves replacing the wave problem by an electrical circuit analogue which can then be solved numerically or otherwise. Transmission Line Matrix (TLM) is one such analogue technique where signals propagate across a network of transmission lines. In addition to discretising space transmission lines discretise time by virtue of the inherent propagation delays which they create. Signals propagating through a transmission line network follow the wave equation and thus a solution of the currents and voltages in the network provides an instantaneous solution of the wave equation in terms of the Maxwell field components. Christopoulos [1] provides a very useful introduction to the technique. Electromagnetic and acoustic modellers frequently have to deal with scattering problems which are open or unbounded. In order to maintain the computational load within reasonable limits many modelling techniques require that some form of artificial boundary must be invoked. This should provide a perfect match between the immediate problem space and its surrounds. Various methods methods for achieving this within finite difference formulations have been proposed and are contrasted in the next paragraph. In the transmission line matrix (TLM) technique this might be approached by means of a reflectionless (ρ = 0) boundary description. However, it is well known that this is not appropriate over a wide range of frequencies and angles of incidence. To overcome this 1 School of Information Systems, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ (UK) to whom any correspondence should be addressed (email@example.com) 2 Shanghai Radio Equipment Research Institute, Shanghai, P.R. of China difficulty a number of options have been investigated and the status as at 1995 has been reviewed by Chen [2]. The Discrete Green's Function (Johns Matrix) [3] stores the response at the boundary nodes due to all the region beyond the boundary. A variant of this technique has also been proposed for heat-flow modelling in open-boundary problems [4]. Eswarrappa et al [5] have used a technique whereby the region outside the immediate problem space becomes progressively lossy. By far the most popular approach to perfect matched load (pml) boundary modelling is to use either the Higdon [6] or Berenger [7] boundaries. These are essentially finite difference descriptions which are bolted onto the periphery of a TLM model. Although they work effectively, they largely ignore the intuitive essence of TLM as promoted by Johns himself. The nearest approach to this philosophy is the method used in acoustic propagation by O Connor [8]. This assumes that a proportion of every impulse is absorbed (in a method which is not specified) at every node within a boundary layer at every iteration. In this paper we attempt to provide a similar physical basis for perfectly matched layers by constructing a network of broad-band absorbing TLM nodes. Initially we will concentrate on a single broad-band, matched, distortionless absorbing TLM node. Our approach is to start by developing a node which attenuates voltage impulses. We will show that the degree of attenuation is critically dependent on the matching of several parameters. We will then outline how the correct choice of parameters lead to an identical attenuation for current. The paper will conclude with a demonstration of how this simple network might be applied in twoand three-dimensional models. Z Z R R


Saddle point matrix is the coefficient matrix of the linear system derived from the saddle point problem, which arise from many scientific and engineering applications. The eigenvalue information of the saddle point matrices is usually quite important in practical computation. In this paper, the power method is applied to computing the spectral radius of the saddle point matrices. Furthermore, based on some theoretical results of eigenvalue estimates for the saddle point matrices, a new indicator, which is a function of the extreme eigenvalues of the sub blocks, is proposed to predict the convergence rate of the power method. The numerical results of the experiment on computing the spectral radius of the saddle point matrices derived from the model of the Stokes equation demonstrate that the proposed algorithm and the indicator are both effective.


Can meet simple to read today in demand through other routes in reader,but existence of digital resource-sharing area in the library,Which should serve readers in terms of research,prompts the imagination of half an open digital public room.Dspace has management system with a hierarchical authority controls,and it sets up management of the digital public space of open library half-and-half in order to realize the intention.


The electrical losses during hydroelectric generator operation may account for 1 to 2% of electricity production, and represent an interesting heat potential. The generator cooling water temperature is low, and application of a mechanically driven heat pump represents, therefore, a reasonable solution when, however, it is also economically viable. A simplified techno-economic model was built in order to check the economic viability of such waste heat recovery system. The model enables the source and sink heat temperature, as well as, heat flow rate to be variated and the basic heat pump parameters estimated including its COP and investment cost. An oil boiler system is assumed as a waste heat recovery system alternative. It serves for economical comparison and evaluation of the net present value and payback period of any proposed low temperature waste heat recovery system configuration.


In this study, a relation-based dam suitability analysis (RDSA) technique is developed to identify the most suitable sites for dams. The methodology focused on a group of the most important parameters/indicators (stream order, terrain roughness index, slope, multiresolution valley bottom flatness index, closed depression, valley depth, and downslope gradient difference) and their relation to the dam wall and reservoir suitability. Quantitative assessment results in an elevation-area-capacity (EAC) curve substantiating the capacity determination of selected sites. The methodology also incorporates the estimation of soil erosion (SE) using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model and sediment yield at the selected dam sites. The RDSA technique identifies two suitable dam sites (A and B) with a maximum collective capacity of approximately 1202 million m3. The RDSA technique was validated with the existing dam, Gomal-Zam, in the north of Sanghar catchment, where RDSA classified the Gomal-Zam Dam in a very high suitability class. The SE estimates show an average of 75 t-ha−1y−1 of soil loss occurs in the study area. The result shows approximately 298,073 and 318,000 tons of annual average sediment yield (SY) will feed the dam A and B respectively. The SE-based sediment yield substantiates the approximate life of Dam-A and Dam-B to be 87 and 90 years, respectively. The approach is dynamic and can be applied for any other location globally for dam site selection and SE estimation.


The microarray of DNA probes with 5 -NH2 and 5 -Tex/3 -NH2 modified terminus on 10 μm carboxylate functional beads surface in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)- carbodiimide (EDC) is characterized in the present paper. It was found that the microarray capacity of DNA probes on the beads surface depends on the pH of the aqueous solution, the concentration of DNA probe and the total surface area of the beads. On optimal conditions, the minimum distance of 20 mer single-stranded DNA probe microarrayed on beads surface is about 14 nm, while that of 20 mer double-stranded DNA probes is about 27 nm. If the probe length increases from 20 mer to 35 mer, its microarray density decreases correspondingly. Mechanism study shows that the binding mode of DNA probes on the beads surface is nearly parallel to the beads surface.


Research monographs that adopt a different perspective on a research field are always welcome. In that context, Charleen Chiong's book provides an interesting contribution to the literature on Singaporean education. Her wider theme is the structures and processes of national education and if and how they contribute to educational inequality. Her more specific focus is on addressing two gaps in the research as she perceives them: (1) a qualitative (as opposed to quantitative) approach to the views of those who are among the more socially disadvantaged within Singaporean society in which meritocracy is a guiding principle; and (2) the utilisation of a 'studying through ' approach, in which the interdependence and relationships between state, school and family form the research core as opposed to macro approaches centred on the state or micro studies centred purely on the family. Underpinning these aims are three policy dilemmas that Chiong identifies: (1) the tension between a meritocratic educational system that promotes possibilities for success and yet structurally works to counter this; (2) a perceived shift from meritocracy to parentocracy, where success increasingly depends upon parents' abilities to invest actively in their children's education; and (3) the tensions resulting from the recent educational reforms that promote more holistic, child-centred approaches compared with the older and high-stake performative approach. In order to discuss these themes, Chiong adopts a conceptual and analytical framework that utilises Foucault's notion of governmentality, using three tiers of governance (political rationalities, political technologies and technologies). She discusses two key questions: how disadvantaged families conceptualise and work towards 'successful' education for their children; and how these families navigate their relationship to the state in all its facets in the broader


Human security has been gaining considerable attentions both from academic and policy audiences, yet there remains one question on how to reconcile its two different types of nature: universal tenet of the concept and territorial character of its implimentation. This paper purports to give a positive answer to this poser by presenting three conditions. They are namely: (1) providing a universal moral foundation of human security, based on the view about human being and harm; (2) actualising the concept by combining international and global efforts, or through the mutual embedment between international policy and global governance; and (3) nevertheless always acknowledging its possible "failures" and thus preparing remedies for them.


BACKGROUND
 Blended models which incorporate elements of both internet and face-to-face therapies have been shown to be effective. Therapist and patients have expressed concerns that less rather more therapy sessions relative to self-guided internet sessions may be associated with lower therapeutic alliance, lower program completion rates and poorer outcomes.

 OBJECTIVE
 A multi-site quasi-experimental comparison study with a noninferiority design conducted in routine clinical care was used to assess webSTAIR, a 10-module blended therapy for trauma-exposed individuals delivered with 10 weekly therapist sessions (Coach10) compared to 5 biweekly sessions (Coach5). It was hypothesized that Coach5 would be "as good as" Coach10 regarding a range of outcomes.

 METHODS
 : A total of 202 Veterans were enrolled in the study (Coach5 n = 101, Coach10 n = 101). PTSD symptoms, depression, emotion regulation, interpersonal problems and social functioning measures were collected at pretreatment, mid, posttreatment and 3-month follow-up. Noninferiority analyses were conducted on symptom outcome measures. Comparisons of continuous and categorical measures regarding participant and therapist activities were conducted.

 RESULTS
 : Participants reported moderate to severe levels of baseline PTSD and/or depression. Significant reductions were obtained on all symptom measures at post and 3-month follow-up. Coach5 was not inferior to Coach10 on any outcome. Therapeutic alliance was high and equivalent across the two treatment conditions and completion rates and web usage were similar. Coach5 therapists' total session time was substantially less than Coach10. Both programs were associated with a low and equal number of therapist activities related to scheduling and crisis/motivational sessions.

 CONCLUSIONS
 A blended model delivered with 5 sessions of therapist support was noninferior to 10 sessions among individuals with moderate to severe symptoms. Future studies identifying patient characteristics as moderators of outcomes in high versus low dose of therapist support will help create flexible technology-based intervention programming.


This experiment was conducted to examine the effect of determination of standardized ileal digestibility(SID) of amino acids in growing pigs fed corn distillers dried grains with solubles(DDGS) using either chromic oxide or titanium dioxide.Six growing barrows(Duroc × Yorkshire × Landrace,initial body weight,35.1 ± 2.1 kg) fitted with simple T-cannulas were allotted to a 6 × 6 Latin square design with 6 periods and 6 diets.Four DDGS diets were prepared using either chromic oxide or titanium dioxide,and the last two diets were nitrogen-free diets.The results showed that among all the amino acids,the SID values of lysine and tryptophan were the lowest.In addition,except for the histidine and phenylalanine,there were no significant differences for the SID values calculated using either chromic oxide or titanium dioxide(P0.05).The results indicated that both chromic oxide and titanium dioxide can be effectively used in conducting amino acid digestibility studies in corn DDGS.