Reproductive hormones produce lasting epigenetic changes in the DNA of the male liver and the female mammary gland, according to two new studies. One study shows that testosterone is involved in permanently stripping methyl groups from DNA in the male liver during sexual maturity [1]. Another study shows that pregnancy hormones demethylate DNA in the mammary gland, priming the organ for a second pregnancy [2]. In the first study, Yitzhak Reizel and Adam Spiro et al. found that the DNA of male and female adult livers is differentially methylated, with males having low methylation on about 1000 DNA regions, each about 400 base pairs long. This state of low methylation occurs during sexual maturation, when high levels of testosterone are secreted. Testosterone also induced this state in castrated males and in females. The DNA changes were long-lasting and did not disappear after testosterone was removed. Demethylation seems to occur mainly on enhancer elements, many of which bind transcription factors such as STAT5—a factor previously implicated in male-specific transcription in the liver. Demethylation results in permanent up-regulation of nearby genes, many of them involved in metabolic processes that are distinct in males. The findings are in sync with previous observations that testosterone results in differential expression of genes in male and female livers, and differences in chromatin structure. The new results also have relevance for humans. Compared with female livers, or with other tissue from males, human male livers had regions of reduced DNA methylation. Many of these regions corresponded to enhancers with binding motifs for STAT5 and other transcription factors. In the second study, Camila O. dos Santos showed that pregnancy hormones result in long-lasting demethylation of DNA in the mammary gland. Demethyation occurred preferentially in the regulatory regions of genes associated with mammary gland development and lactation, and was most pronounced in the DNA of luminal cells. These cells form milk-secreting structures and the lining of milk ducts, and undergo profound changes during pregnancy. After pregnancy, the morphology of the mammary gland returns to its pre-pregnancy state, and pre-pregnancy gene expression patterns resume. But the low levels of methylation persist, and seem to prime the organ for its next pregnancy. The genes linked to demethylated regions turned-on more rapidly in response to hormones in mice that had already been pregnant, and mammary glands developed more rapidly (Fig. 1). These findings jive with observations from other mammals, including humans, that milk supply increases with a second pregnancy. Many mothers also find, anecdotally, that their milk supply is more robust and nursing is easier during a second pregnancy. Curiously, the majority of the demethylated regions in the mammary gland also bound transcription factor STAT5, which has been implicated previously in mammary gland development. Reproductive hormones are known to induce epigenetic changes during development, but the new studies add an extra dimension to this understanding, showing how such changes can endure in the absence of the hormones. These studies also set the stage for a deeper understanding of how external factors, such as hormone-mimicking environmental toxicants, may affect DNA methylation.


ObjectiveTo evaluate the reliability and validity of the of Disability Assessment Schedule Ⅱ of World Health Organization(WHO-DASⅡ) applied in assessment of the function of disabled athletes.Methods56 disabled people,26 wheelchair basketball athletes and 30 patients,were sampled and completed WHO-DASⅡ questionnaire.The test and re-test had been administrated in 10 days.Barthel Index(BI) and Sports Classification Test had been implemented for the functioning assessment.ResultsThe test-retest reliability for WHO-DASⅡ in six dimensions were: 0.978,0.807,0.938,0.877,0.998,0.935,0.986 and all were in very significant level(P0.01).There were negative correlation between WHO-DASⅡ scores and BI in total and in every dimension,the correlation coefficients were:-0.77,-0.17,-0.71,-0.82,-0.33,-0.73,-0.61.The correlation coefficients between WHO-DASⅡ total and six dimensional scores and the grade of sports classification were:-0.741,-0.378,-0.806,(-0.541),-0.293,-0.510,-0.677.ConclusionWHO-DASⅡ can be used in assessing the function of disabled athletes.


The border between virtual space and real life is getting thinner: digital technologies are used everywhere, and virtual communities are increasingly influencing real economic and political life. China began an active struggle with fan communities in 2021, where fan clubs and the popularity of "idols" formed an alternative social force capable of influencing economic and social processes. The Chinese experience of controlling and restricting the fan environment has become the first in the world, while examples of using the resources of fan communities for political purposes have been known in the United States and China itself for years. Can the fan community become an active element of civil society or an effective tool of political struggle? The article examines the phenomenon of fan communities in the context of political science, current cases of using the power of fandom in politics and prospects for the development of fan culture within civil society.


The short-term influence on the mining caused by the world financial crisis exceeded expectations.And then the mining is being confronted with lots of challenges.But the independence of the mining is acturally determined its development.Presently,the industrialization in China has not been completed yet,while urbanization just began,which needs huge number of mineral resources.It is concluded that the impact of China's mining industry from the financial crisis is limited and temporary.This paper presented some views about opportunities of the development of China's mining industry under the situation of the world financial crisis.


OBJECTIVES
Aim of this systematic review is to investigate the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) after routine removal of syndesmotic screws (SSs) placed to stabilize syndesmotic injuries.

DATA SOURCES
A systematic literature search was performed in the PubMed, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases for studies published online before February 2020, using the key words and synonyms of "syndesmotic screw" and ("ankle fractures" or "syndesmotic injury") and "implant removal".

STUDY SELECTION
Studies were eligible for inclusion when they described >10 adult patients undergoing elective/scheduled removal of the SS.

DATA EXTRACTION
The 15 included articles were assessed for quality and risk of bias using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Baseline characteristics of the studies, the study population, the intervention, potential confounders and primary outcome (% of SSIs) were extracted using a customized extraction sheet.

DATA SYNTHESIS
The primary outcome was presented as a proportion of included patients and as a weighted mean, using inverse variance, calculated in RStudio. Furthermore, potential confounders were identified.

CONCLUSIONS
The percentage of SSIs ranged from 0 to 9.2%, with a weighted mean of 4%. The largest proportion of these infections were superficial (3%, 95%CI: 2-5), compared to 2% deep infections (95%CI: 1-4). These rates were comparable to those of other foot/ankle procedures indicating that the individual indication for SS removal should be carefully considered. Future studies should focus on valid indications for SSR, the influence of prophylactic antibiotics on SSI after SSR, and complications of retaining the syndesmotic screw to enable a fair benefits/risks comparison of routine vs. on-demand removal of the SS.


Introduction In utero hematopoietic cell transplantation (IUHCTx) is a promising strategy to treat congenital disorders as the fetal host can potentially be tolerized to transplanted cells early in gestation. However, levels of engraftment have been low and fetal host conditioning strategies to increase space in hematopoietic niches have not been widely explored. We hypothesized that depletion of fetal host hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) using an antibody against the c-kit receptor (ACK2), a strategy which selectively depletes HSC by disrupting stem cell factor (SCF) signaling, would improve engraftment after HSC transplantation.

Methods Fetal C57B6.CD45.2 (B6) mice were injected with increasing doses of ACK2 (2.5-50 µg/fetus) or isotype control antibody on E14.5 and surviving pups were transplanted with congenic B6.CD45.1 fetal liver mononuclear cells (2.5×106 cells/pup) on day of life 1 (P1, 7 days after in utero injection), allowing post-transplantation host monitoring. Host HSC depletion and residual serum ACK2 concentration were examined on P1. Peripheral blood chimerism, defined as donor/(donor+host) CD45 cells, as well as the lineage distribution of chimeric cells, were determined beginning 4 weeks after transplantation.

Results Survival to birth among fetuses injected with 2.5, 5, or 10 µg of ACK2 was similar to controls (control: 74%; 2.5 µg: 80%; 5 µg: 71%; 10 µg: 60%, p=0.2 by chi-square test, n≥45/group) but was significantly lower at higher concentrations (20 µg: 37%; 50 µg: 31%, p<0.001 vs. control, n≥70/group). Transient anemia and leukopenia were observed on P1 with doses ≥ 5 µg which resolved by P7 (n=17). Four of 19 pups previously treated with ACK2 (2.5-10 µg) and observed long-term had patchy coat discoloration, possibly a manifestation of disruption of C-kit+ melanocyte migration.

In utero ACK2 treatment resulted in significant and dose-dependent depletion of host HSCs (defined as Lin-Sca-1+C-kit+, KLS) in the bone marrow of treated animals by P1 ([Figure 1A][1]). There was no depletion of KLS cells in the liver. Residual ACK2 antibody was undetectable in the serum by P1, validating our strategy of in utero depletion and neonatal transplantation.

![Figure 1][2]

Figure 1
( A) Absolute number of KLS cells in long bones of animals treated with ACK2 or control on E14.5 and harvested on P1. * p<0.001, n=5-18/group. ( B) Levels of donor peripheral blood CD45 cell chimerism in treated animals after in utero ACK2 treatment and neonatal transplantation, or in utero transplantation alone. * p<0.05 between control and all doses, n≥4/group, * * p<0.05 between 2.5 µg or 5 µg and in utero transplant at 12 weeks, n≥4/group.

In animals receiving neonatal transplantation, ACK2 depletion resulted in a significant increase in levels of engraftment 4 weeks after transplantation compared to controls (control: 3.3±0.3%; 2.5 µg: 13±1.4%; 5 µg: 10±2.4%; 10 µg: 11±2.0%, p<0.05 for each dose vs control by ANOVA). Accordingly, we detected an increased number total bone marrow KLS cells 7 days after transplantation in ACK2 treated animals compared to controls (412±45.9 vs. 933±112 cells, p=0.01, n≥3/group). Moreover, levels of chimerism increased over time in treated animals ([Figure 1B][1]; 12 weeks: 2.5 µg: 190%; 5 µg: 170%; 10 µg: 160%) while they remained unchanged in controls. Overall, levels of chimerism achieved with ACK2 treatment were significantly higher than that observed in animals that received in utero transplantation without ACK2 depletion.

Lineage analysis of peripheral blood for granulocytes, B cells, and T cells indicated an equal increase in all lineages, suggesting ACK2 depletes true HSCs and not committed progenitors. Interestingly, ACK2 depletion at doses 2.5-10 µg did not result in engraftment of allogeneic BALB/c cells (n=11), indicating that allogeneic neonatal transplantation, unlike in utero transplantation, is limited by a host immune response which is unaffected by ACK2.

Conclusion We have demonstrated that fetal HSC depletion using ACK2 can lead to clinically relevant levels of donor cell engraftment with minimal toxicity. In previous studies with this antibody, host HSC depletion required either immunodeficient animals or concurrent irradiation, whereas we achieved depletion in wild-type fetal hosts, suggesting differences in fetal vs. adult HSC sensitivity to SCF signaling. Future studies should explore this strategy to improve engraftment in large animals models of IUHCTx.

Disclosures: Weissman: Amgen, Systemix, Stem cells Inc, Cellerant: Consultancy, Employment, Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

 [1]: #F1
 [2]: pending:yes


Jazz, experimentation, and Los Angeles are ineluctably linked by history. The city and its active jazz scene were and continue to be a fertile ground for musicians who seek to challenge the boundaries of genre. Unfortunately, the city also has a reputation for being a very difficult place for experimenters. Such influential musicians as Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, and Ornette Coleman all left Los Angeles before becoming well known. Those who remained, like Gerald Wilson and Horace Tapscott, seem almost as well known for their obscurity as their music. Fortunately, more recent publications have corrected this, bringing the music and stories of these Los Angeles innovators to broader audiences (Bryant et al. 1998; Tapscott and Isoardi 2001; Isoardi 2006; Dailey 2007; Sharp 2008). This essay examines the early career of two of the most overlooked, yet locally influential, musicians: John Carter and Bobby Bradford. I focus on their collaboration in a group called the New Art Jazz Ensemble, which was active from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. Carter and Bradford's music emphasized the decisions and choices of the musicians. Because this music did not fit easily into the commercial jazz world, the group found alternative places to present their music. Their music and actions inspired the formation of an active experimental music scene that still exists today. Paths to Los Angeles John Carter was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1929 and attended the same high school as Ornette Coleman, and also like Coleman, he played saxophone in rhythm-and-blues bands around the Dallas-Fort Worth area while being inspired by the new sounds of bebop. Unlike Coleman, Carter received a formal music education and pursued teaching as a career. After graduating from high school at age fifteen, Carter received a bachelor's degree in music education from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1949. While at Lincoln University, he also performed with various music groups in clubs in nearby Kansas City and St. Louis. He married, had a son, and began teaching elementary school in Fort Worth when only nineteen years old. Carter then earned a master of arts degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1956. Attending graduate school in Colorado was more of a necessity than a choice because it was still difficult for African Americans to receive advanced degrees in Texas at the time (see Carter 1992, 9; Dailey 2007, 38-40). The Carters moved to Los Angeles in 1961, where John secured a job as an elementary school music teacher. Like many other African Americans, Carter believed Los Angeles held the promise of greater opportunity for himself as well as his growing family (Sides 2003). As a musician, Carter was also attracted to what he thought was the city's active jazz scene. There was also the possibility of lucrative studio work to augment his teacher's salary. Unfortunately, what had been an active jazz scene was in rapid decline by the early 1960s, and studio work was challenging to secure for newcomers. Carter caught only the waning days of Central Avenue's jam sessions and was never able to break into the studio scene (Woodard 1991, 26; Dailey 2007,43-46). Additionally, the racial tensions in his new hometown were at the breaking point, marked by the eruption of the Watts riots in 1965 (Davis 1990,293; Home 1995). The growing consciousness that emerged in its wake inspired Carter to delve into more experimental music, particularly as he began collaborating with Bobby Bradford. Bobby Bradford was born in Cleveland, Mississippi, in 1934 and moved to Dallas in 1946. He attended the same high school as such future luminaries as pianist Cedar Walton and saxophonists David "Fathead" Newman and James Clay. Bradford, a trumpet player, and his classmates were attracted to the modernism of bebop. They performed around the DallasFort Worth area where Bradford met Ornette Coleman, but coincidentally not John Carter. …


Adnan Gutub, Computer Engineering Department, Umm Al‐Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Email: email@example.com Abstract Data hiding technologies aim to hide the existence of secret information within digital covers such as images by causing unnoticeable degradation to their quality. Reducing the image distortion and increasing the embedding capacity are the main points that the data hiding techniques revolved around. This article proposes two high payload embedding methods with high stego image quality using the Hue‐Saturation‐Value (HSV) colour model. The first method is hue‐based embedding (HBE) that employs the H plane for hiding one or two bits in non‐grey pixels. The second method uses the three HSV components, so it is called three‐planes embedding (TPE). In TPE, one bit is hidden in the least significant bit (LSB) of V of the grey pixels, one or two bits in H of the pixels having low saturation or low brightness and one bit in the LSB of S otherwise. The experiments were conducted on 25 images and the results show that HBE hides more data on average than TPE with its quality reaching 60 dB. TPE achieves quality up to 61 dB and capacity reaches 364 Kb. TPE scores the highest capacity among six state‐of‐ the‐art techniques in Red‐Green‐Blue, HSV, Hue‐Saturation‐Intensity and YCbCr spaces with the highest average peak signal to noise ratio midst five of them. By embedding 60, 90, and 120 Kb, this TPE attains the best average quality amid all the methods.


This paper develops properties of recurrence sequences defined from circulant matrices obtained from the characteristic polynomial of the Pell–Padovan sequence. The study of these sequences modulo m yields cyclic groups and semigroups from the generating matrices. Finally, we obtain the lengths of the periods of the extended sequences in the extended triangle groups E(2, n, 2), E(2, 2, n) and E(n, 2, 2) for n ≥ 3 as applications of the results obtained.


When should humans enhance themselves? We try to answer this question by engaging in a conceptual analysis of the nature of different activities. We think that cognitive enhancement is morally impermissible in some practice-oriented activities, such as some educational activities, when it is the case both that cognitive enhancement would negatively affect the point of those activities (i.e. learning through a certain kind of effort) and that we have good reasons to value that point. We then argue that cognitive enhancement should be allowed in two groups of cases, namely in practice-oriented activities, such as recreational activities on which little moral value or social import hangs, and in some prominently goal-directed activities, such as high-responsibility professions, the goal of which has significant moral or social value. Finally, we argue that the use of efficacious and relatively safe cognitive enhancers may even be obligatory in those highresponsibility professions under certain special circumstances.


This paper shows a passive broad-band SPDT T/R switch in 55-nm BiCMOS technology which covers most of the millimetre-wave bands considered for 5G (from 28 to 86 GHz). It is intended to be integrated into active phased array antenna modules for a 5G small cell access link. The realized switch presents minimum insertion loss of 2.6 dB. The switch isolation is better than 26 dB. Its very wide bandwidth (14-94 GHz) allows it to be used in K, Q, V and E bands. The area occupied by the chip is around 0.3 mm2.


Importance In the US, there are no effective regulations controlling how much the price of a medication can increase. A patchwork of studies examining the reasons for soaring prices has focused on medications that have received considerable media attention, like insulin, epinephrine, and colchicine. Objective To identify the 50 medications with the greatest increase in average spending per beneficiary and the 50 medications with the greatest decrease in average spending per beneficiary, and to identify the factors associated with spending increases. Design, participants This cross-sectional study used publicly available data from the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program from 2014 to 2020. We included drugs dispensed to > 1000 beneficiaries in each study year and excluded those primarily administered intravenously. Main measures Percentage change in average spending per beneficiary from 2014 to 2020 was calculated for each drug. For each drug, we extracted the number of beneficiaries, the number of manufacturers, and the drug-specific total annual spending reported in the Medicare Part D data set. An online database search was conducted to identify the primary clinical indication, the availability of any generic versions, and the date of FDA approval for each drug. Results The 50 medications with the greatest increase in spending per beneficiary had a median increase of 362.4% (interquartile range [IQR]: 286.6%-563.0%), with a cumulative spending of almost $5 billion in 2020 alone. Most drugs with the greatest increases in spending per beneficiary had generic versions available (68%) and were approved by the FDA over 10 years ago (66%). Medications with the greatest increase in spending per beneficiary had a median of 1 manufacturer (IQR: 1–2), while medications with the greatest decrease in spending per beneficiary had a median of 9.5 manufacturers (IQR: 5–14). Conclusions This study identified rapidly increasing costs of medications under Medicare Part D. Our findings demonstrate that off-patent medications can skyrocket in price, especially when there are few manufacturers of a given medication.


By starting from experimental- and ab initio-determined phase diagrams (PDs) of materials, a machine learning (ML) method is developed to infer the free energy function for each phase. The ML...


In the trend of income measurement concept from"revenue-expense concept"to"asset-liability concept",China has started to implement the"Accounting Standards for Enterprises No. 18—Income tax"since 2007. Using the balance sheet liability method as the treatment of income tax accounting may improve the quality of income tax accounting information in financial accounting. This article selects the reliability and the correlation of the financial reporting information to empirically test how the deferred income taxes affect the quality of financial report information. This study aims to further improve the quality of financial report information,helpful for the investors to make the decision.


With advances in technology,more and more attention has been focused on the problems of controlled-release fertilizer because of high utilization and better increasing yield.Comparative tests between controlled-release fertilizer and NPK compound fertilizer indicated that controlled-release fertilizer had better effect on growth and yield.


This study contributes to the economic assessment of the benefits derived from the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). A practical definition of environmental benefits and a valuation scenario of the non-market benefits of water quality improvement is proposed. This economic assessment is needed to asses whether the WFD is disproportionately costly. The contingent valuation method is applied to the Guadalquivir River Basin (Southern Spain), using a two-stage Heckman estimation model.


The design idea of the CNC experimental platform based on FANUC 0i Mate-C is illustrated in this paper. The design of the power supply system. CNC module, servo module, VO board, magazine module and fault setting module are detailed. In the end, the experiments based on this platform are designed.


Context. Clumping in the winds of massive stars may significantly reduce empirical mass-loss rates, and which in turn may have a large impact on our understanding of massive star evolution. Aims. Here, we investigate wind-clumping through the linear polarization induced by light scattering off the clumps. Methods. Through the use of an analytic wind clumping model, we predict the time evolution of the linear polarimetry over a large parameter space. We concentrate on the Luminous Blue Variables, which display the greatest amount of polarimetric variability and for which we recently conducted a spectropolarimetric survey. Results. Our model results indicate that the observed level of polarimetric variability can be reproduced for two regimes of parameter space: one of a small number of massive, optically-thick clumps; and one of a very large number of low-mass clumps. Conclusions. Although a systematic time-resolved monitoring campaign is required to distinguish between the two scenarios, we currently favour the latter, given the short timescale of the observed polarization variability. As the polarization is predicted to scale linearly with mass-loss rate, we anticipate that all hot stars with very large mass-loss rates should display polarimetric variability. This is consistent with recent findings that intrinsic polarization is more common in stars with strong Hα emission.


Carbonate export prices remain high, as import and export volumes ease., and supply issues in LatAm delay shipments.

Lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) import and export volumes in China dropped in July as the average value of the goods remained firm, the latest China custom data shows.

Recent supply issues of this battery mineral in Latin America has affected deliveries to China, which is reflected in the data.

Chinese lithium carbonate import volumes plunged 34% month-on-month to 1,954 tonnes in July, down from 2,978 tonnes in June.

Meanwhile, the export volumes have also dropped by 28% to 104 tonnes in July, down from 144 tonnes in June.

China remains a net importer of lithium compounds, while the value of the country's exported material exceeded the value of imported material on a per unit basis, as indicated in the graph below.


Given the wide use of Radio Frequency (RF) devices for applications ranging from data networks to wireless sensors, it is of interest to be able to characterize individual devices to verify compliance with FCC Part 15 rules. In an effort to characterize these types of devices we have developed a system that utilizes specially designed probe signals to elicit a response from the device from which unique characteristics can be extracted. The features that uniquely characterize a device are referred to as device signatures or device fingerprints. We apply this approach to RF devices which employ different bandpass filters, and construct training based classifiers which are highly accurate. We also introduce a model-based framework for optimal detection that can be employed to obtain performance limits, and to study model mismatch and probe optimization.


The impact of a kination‐dominated (KD) phase generated by a quintessential exponential model on the thermal abundance of Supersymmetric (SUSY) extremely Weekly Interacting Massive Particles (e‐WIMPs) is investigated. For values of the quintessential energy‐density parameter at the eve of nucleosynthesis close to its upper bound, we find that (i) the gravitino (G) constraint is totally evaded for unstable G's; (ii) the thermal abundance of stable G is not sufficient to account for the cold dark matter (CDM) of the universe; (iii) the thermal abundance of axinos (a) can satisfy the CDM constraint for values of the initial temperature well above those required in the standard cosmology (SC).


Ferrite Cobalt (CoFe2O4) is a distinguished magnetic material with average enforcement and average magnitude of magnetization. It has a distinct chemical stability and mechanized hardness. It is an expectant advocate for the procedure of sensory devices and actuators, as a definitive sealing, magnetic drug target, and electrical devices and has an extensive range of research in material technology/science for technological uses/applications. The naoparticles of cobalt ferrite on an entangled effectively processed at ambient temperature through a simple co-precipitation process. The crystal structure & morphology of symbol was determined by XRD and SEM. The XRD spectrum confirms that the composite nanoparticles are formed by the perfect spinel structure. The average rate of crystals was determined by means of Modified Scherer (54nm) and Williamson-Hall (49nm) methods. A SEM view showed the nanoparticles CoFe2O4 being grouped in nearby structures. The bond and visual features were described by FTIR and UV-Vis Spectrum. Compared with other absorbing bands informed in literature, this material shows a very large intake band between 350 and 600 cm-1 in the FTIR test. More than one pitch in UVVis spectrum is seen with a direct straight band gap identified of 4.1 eV and 4.9 eV. This is again in contrast to other reports in literature. These irregular outcomes express that although a very good spinel structure is in place, coordination of the symbols in the cells of the unit is different here. An electronic DC training for the temperatures cobalt ferrite was tested for temperature, which again showed some interesting results from those reported in literature. This combination of irregular buildings in considerable degree of the ferrite needs to demonstrate a deeper analysis of the overall structure and characteristics of cobalt ferrite in comparison to these methods.


Almost 50 years have passed since the first Software Reliability models were developed, namely the well-known nonhomogeneous Poisson processes based. Over these years, a lot of new models have been proposed and software component has become more and more important in technological projects. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, Software Engineering has strongly evolved and so have software development and testing methodologies, improving the classical waterfall method popular in the 70s. This poses some questions: Are the original models still applicable? Are there any software reliability models that take into account modern Software Engineering methodologies? What are the new concepts introduced by the modern Software Engineering methods? What are the new characteristics required to Software Reliability models in order to be applied to todays projects? In this paper, we address these questions by reviewing the academic and industrial research on Software Reliability and Engineering and analyze possible new proposals.


An electrochemical procedure for preparing chromophore-catalyst assemblies on oxide electrode surfaces by reductive vinyl coupling is described. On core/shell SnO2/TiO2 nanoparticle oxide films, excitation of the assembly with 1 sun (100 mW cm–2) illumination in 0.1 M H2PO4–/HPO42– at pH 7 with an applied bias of 0.4 V versus SCE leads to water splitting in a DSPEC with a Pt cathode. Over a 5 min photolysis period, the core/shell photoanode produced O2 with a faradaic efficiency of 22%. Instability of the surface bound chromophore in its oxidized state in the phosphate buffer leads to a gradual decrease in photocurrent and to the relatively modest faradaic efficiencies.


Abstract. We compare turbulence properties in two cases of marine stratocumulus-topped boundary layer, coupled (CP) and decoupled (DCP), using high resolution in situ measurements performed by the helicopter-borne platform ACTOS in the region of Eastern North Atlantic. Thermodynamically well-mixed CP was characterized by large latent heat flux at the surface and in cloud top region, and substantially smaller sensible heat flux. Turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) was efficiently generated by buoyancy in the cloud and at the surface, and dissipated with comparable rate across the entire depth. Structure functions and power spectra of velocity fluctuations in inertial range were reasonably consistent with the predictions of Kolmogorov theory. The turbulence was close to isotropic. In the DCP, decoupling was most obvious in humidity profiles. Heat fluxes and buoyant TKE production at the surface were similar to the CP. Around the transition level, latent heat flux decreased to zero and TKE was consumed by weak stability. In the cloud top region heat fluxes almost vanished and buoyancy production was significantly smaller than for the CP. TKE dissipation rate inside the DCP differed between its sublayers. Structure functions and power spectra in inertial range deviated from Kolmogorov scaling. This was more pronounced in the cloud and subcloud layer in comparison to the surface mixed layer. The turbulence was more anisotropic than in the CP, with horizontal fluctuations dominating. The degree of anisotropy was largest in the cloud and subcloud layer of the DCP. Integral lengthscales, of the order of 100 m in both cases, indicate turbulent eddies smaller than the depth of the CP or of the sublayers of the DCP. We hypothesize that turbulence produced in the cloud or close to the surface is redistributed across the entire CP but rather only inside the relevant sublayers in the DCP. Scattered cumulus convection may play a role in transport between those sublayers.


article deals with the study of the use of project methodology (MP) as facilitator of scientific literacy of the infant education. Presents a discussion of "scientific alphabetizing" and "scientific literacy", seeking its main indicators. Then, in field research, we performed the planning and implementation of a practical lesson of selective collection,with a group of the first period, at a private school. After analyzing the activity applied, dialoguing with the data collected in the documentary analysis and literature, we found evidence that MP allows the construction of a favorable environment for Scientific Alphabetizing, and even events of scientific literacy, increasing the internalization of knowledge in the process of teaching and learning.


Based on the description of the five cases studied in chapter six we will now turn to the analysis of the data gathered. In analyzing the data we are interested in the factors that influence the degree of formalization of the ordering process in practice and the positive and negative effects of formalizing the ordering process. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the data of the five companies in order to answer these questions. This chapter consists of an analysis of each company studied. In discussing the factors that influence the degree of formalization and the effects of formalizing, the conceptual model is a starting point of our analysis. The conceptual model consists of three main (groups of) variables:-influencing variables-complexity and formalization of the ordering process-performance related to the order processing. The relationships between these three main groups of variables are the central focus of the analysis. The analysis per company is presented according to a standard format. First an overview of the characteristics related to the variables is presented per company. The characteristics relevant for the analysis are numbered in the overview, corresponding with the numbers used in the causal network. Second, the relationships between the characteristics are discussed, based on the causal networks of these relationships. The causal networks reflect the main groups of variables of the conceptual model. The analysis focuses on the relationships between-demand and production-influencing variables and the complexity and formalization of the ordering process-the ordering process and performance Third, we discuss the role of the ordering process and the pattern of order processing, as presented in Chapter 4. We thus position the ordering process of a specific company in the taxonomy of order-processing patterns and analyze the complexity and degree of formalization of the ordering process related to the order-processing pattern and the effects of formalizing the ordering process. In the next chapter we conduct a cross-case analysis to further study similarities and differences between the five separate companies.


Spatial filters are spatially distributed sensors, which filter a specific content of the deformation or vibration of a structure. Typically, they are put into practice by sensors, which are sensitive to the strain in a deformed structure. The most commonly used type is a modal filter, which filters one specific vibration mode of a structure. Applications of modal filters are in the field of vibration control as well as in Structural Health Monitoring. In the latter context the frequency response function obtained from the modal filter has only a single peak, if the structure is undamaged. If damage occurs, additional peaks appear in the frequency response function, from which one can conclude on the presence of damage. Besides the fact, that using modal filters for Structural Health Monitoring enables damage detection only indirectly, it is also a method, for which detailed information concerning the structure is needed; in particular, the constitutive relations are crucial for the computation of the vibration modes, which are needed to design the modal filters. In the present paper we propose a different type of spatial filter for Structural Health Monitoring Spatial Compatibility Filters. Such filters filter the incompatible part of the strain tensor; hence, their signal is trivial, if the strain tensor is comaptible. A non-trivial signal results only from the presence of incompatible parts of the strain tensor, which is the case for damaged structures. Hence, the signal of a compatibility filter can be directly related to damage. Moreover, the design of the filter only requires geometrical information about the structure, but no constitutive relations. Based on the concept of compatibility filters, we discuss their use for different levels of Structural Health Monitoring: Damage detection, localisation and quantification.


Based on holographic interferometry technique, we develop an alternative method for micrometer-sized periodic structures design. The optical setup with 2D spatial light modulator for periodic structures generation is presented. It is shown that this innovative method made possible the rapid generation of periodic structures employing diffractive masks and phase modulation based on multiple beam interference. The designed interference pattern can be formed by controlling the computed greyscale masks parameters. In this work, basic patterns of interference are investigated in case of three-beam correlation. This technique can be used to control the interference pattern distribution based on multiple beams for ultra-fast micron and sub-micron lithography experiments.


A case of acute renal failure is reported in a patient with severe lithium intoxication. Renal biopsy showed damage in the proximal tubules with less marked changes in the glomeruli and interlobular arteries. Lithium was withdrawn, and after treatment with peritoneal dialysis the patient regained normal renal function. The accumulation of lithium is known to lead to acute renal failure in the rat and the dog, and this report provides further evidence that it may do so in man.


In the past, the electrochemical instability of III–V semiconductors has severely limited their applicability in photocatlaysis. As a result, a vast majority of the research on photocatalysis has been done on TiO2, which is chemically robust over a wide range of pH. However, TiO2 has a wide band gap (3.2 eV) and can only absorb ∼4% of the solar spectrum, and thus, it will never provide efficient solar energy conversion/storage on its own. Here, we report photocatalytic CO2 reduction with water to produce methanol using TiO2-passivated GaP photocathodes under 532 nm wavelength illumination. The TiO2 layer prevents corrosion of the GaP, as evidenced by atomic force microscopy and photoelectrochemical measurements. Here, the GaP surface is passivated using a thin film of TiO2 deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD), which provides a viable, stable photocatalyst without sacrificing photocatalytic efficiency. In addition to providing a stable photocatalytic surface, the TiO2 passivation provides substantial...


Herein one new species of Amazhomidia Cipola Bellini from Brazilian Amazon is described and illustrated: A. thaisae sp. nov., plus one specimen no nominal due to lack of material for formal descriptionend point.  Acanthocyrtus guianiensis Womersley is redescribed and transferred to Amazhomidia by presence of prelabral chaetae bifurcated, macrochaetotaxy pattern, manubrium laterally with long distal mac finely ciliate and dens ventrally unscaled. Acanthocyrtus croceus Womersley is confirmed as a junior synonymy of A. guianiensis. The juvenile description of Amazhomidia ducke is provided, and changes in chaetotaxy nomenclature are made based on them. Acanthocyrtus lineatus Womersley is redescribed based on type material and new diagnostic characters are revealed. Identification keys for both genera and a comparison for Entomobryinae genera with dental spines are provided. Amazhomidia has now three and Acanthocyrtus Handschin six valid species.


As the teacher of 《Civil LawTopic》,we did some elaboration and reflection towards existing problems at teaching course. The teacher should based on students' concrete condition and using the resources richly to give play to students' initiative and creativity,and conducting their self-study,then combining with long term supervisory function can they enhancing teaching quality in open education.


Recently, motor speed reference generators have been designed for the cruise control of electric vehicles with either centralized electric motors (straight manoeuvres) or in-wheel motors (bend manoeuvres with sufficiently small constant steering angles). Steady-state operation at a safe (though conservative) tire longitudinal slip can be achieved, with no a priori knowledge regarding the occurrence of a specific external condition. Here, an innovative solution is presented. It is based on an ingenious use of Pacejka-like curves – representing the torque current-slip characteristics of the vehicle – to design a new contraction-mapping-based automatic tuning procedure for the longitudinal velocity of the vehicle. Such an innovative procedure overcomes the highly conservative nature of the previous approach in terms of unduly small longitudinal velocities (and yaw rates) under relatively favourable external conditions while guaranteeing a safe operating condition close to the maximum of the torque-slip characteristics with no knowledge of the tire-road adhesion coefficient. Comparative CarSim simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, in the presence of uncertain parameters and complex vehicle dynamics that are neglected at the control design stage.


Grading students' written work such as papers, essay questions on exams, and laboratory reports can be a significantly time-consuming task, although becoming a common practice. One of the common problems that arise when evaluating text documents can be the low quality of the source data that does not comply with the formatting rules. This study uses a Machine Learning approach to evaluate the quality of student paper text documents. During the experiment, data were taken from several works for testing. The quality assessment indicators used in this study are the compliance of the explanatory note with the structural elements of the document. Several Machine Learning algorithms and methods are tested, such as k-nearest neighbors (kNN), Support Vector Regressor (SVR), and Random Forest, to find the best model suitable for estimation. The result of the comparison reveals that kNN shows the highest prediction accuracy while having advantages in the learning process. The learning results of all algorithms are clearly presented in tables and graphical illustrations.


Using corner reflectors is a common passive jamming mode in shipboard electronic countermeasure.The corner reflectors have no obvious difference with the radar echo of ships in time,frequency and space domain,so the traditional single polarization radar has difficulty to discriminate the ship and corner reflector.This paper analyzes the characteristics difference of polarization echo between ships and corner reflectors,abstracts the characteristic vectors in cases of single frequency point and multiple frequency points based on Krogager polarization decomposition,and then makes a discrimination to the ship and corner reflector by support vector machine(SVM).The electromagnetic calculation data show that:the method proposed in this paper can discriminate the ship from corner reflectors well,furthermore,it is valid for both single corner reflector and array corner reflector,which presents a feasible method for discriminating ship from corner reflector.


Motivated by the recently demonstrated ability to attach quantum dots to polymers at well-defined locations, we propose a condensed-phase analog of the ion-trap quantum computer: a scheme for quantum computation using chemically assembled semiconductor nanocrystals attached to a linear support. The linear support is either a molecular string (e.g., DNA) or a nanoscale rod. The phonon modes of the linear support are used as a quantum-information bus between the dots. Our scheme offers greater flexibility in optimizing material parameters than the ion-trap method, but has additional complications. We discuss the relevant physical parameters, provide a detailed feasibility study, and suggest materials for which quantum computation may be possible with this approach. We find that Si is a potentially promising quantum-dot material, already allowing a 5-10-qubit quantum computer to operate with an error threshold of 10 - 3 .


In the introduction to his Grundlagen [2], Frege states three fundamental principles which he believes will help him to avoid philosophical errors in his study of the foundations of mathematics. The second of these fundamental principles is "never to ask for the meaning of a word in isolation, but only in the context of a proposition." This principle would presumably help Frege avoid a certain sort of psychologism which had long held a strong position in philosophy and the study of semantics. The search for a referent for at least all the nouns appearing in a sentence in providing a semantics for a sentence led to an appeal to mental pictures or visualizations when no external object was clearly available. When we recognize with Frege that all the words in a sentence need not have a referent, but only contextually contribute to the truth of the sentence, we have taken the step which permits avoidance of the mental-picture semantics. Frege seemingly soon dropped this fundamental principle, although he did continue to avoid any mental-picture semantics. The reasons for saying that he dropped the principle are basically two. (1) The great power of contextual definition is that it makes possible explicating a term's meaning by giving procedures for transforming phrases containing that term into phrases containing no apparently denoting expression associated with that term. This suggests that there is no entity referred to by the term, as exemplified by Russell's treatment of sets as logical fictions. The contextual definition is thus to be contrasted with


Based on extensions to the protocols PPP and IPSEC, we present a working proposal for building a network over which messages can be sent unconditionally secure. We will show how quantum cryptography can be implemented in classical protocols and how existing networks can be efficiently extended to suit our needs for unconditional security. We show that graph connectivity is crucial for the security of the transmission. For that matter, we provide secure routing services, so an adversary cannot penetrate any message flow successfully. Furthermore, our protocols are extensible to allow up to t − 1 adversaries (possibly cooperating) while remaining unconditionally secure.


Computers have been extolled, and sold in the millions, for the access they offer to information, for their interactivity, and for their ease and convenience of use. Let us suppose, for a moment , that the information they offer access to is inferior, that their interactivity is illusory, and that their use leads to a waste of time. What, then, are the ethics of the extraordinary claims made in their favor?


Corn steep liquor (CSL) and fermented ammoniated condensed whey (FACW) were compared to cottonseed meal (CSM) as protein sources for wintering 61 lactating first-calf Hereford heifers and 32 yearling Hereford heifers on native range. Cattle were allotted by weight and individually fed 6 days per week for 12 weeks one of four protein treatments: negative control (NC), positive control (PC), CSL and FACW to provide .7, 1.5, .15 and 1.5 lb crude protein (CP) per day, respectively, to the lacating heifers and .2, .4, .4 and .4lb cP per day, respectively, to the yearling heifers. CMS was supplied in the CSL and FACW treatments at the same level as in the negative control. Lactating heifers fed the NC lost more (P less than .005) weight and body condition (120 lb and 1.6 units) than those fed the PC (45.8 lb and .9 units). Weight and condition losses were similar (P more than .05) for lactating heifers fed PC, CSL and FACW. Yearling heifers fed the NC lost more (P less than .005) weight than those fed the PC (49.4 vs 10.6 lb). Yearling heifers fed CSL and FACW gained more (P less than .005) weight than those fed the PCmore » (17.6 and 9.3 vs - 10.6 lb). Feeding CSL resulted in signficantly lower rumen pH, lower ruminal acetate and higher ruminal butyrate, isovalerate and caproate levels than did feeding either control. Supplementing with FACW produced significantly lower rumen pH, higher rumen ammonia and soluble carbohydrate levels, lower ruminal acetate, and higher ruminal propionate and butyrate concentrations than did either control supplement. Corn steep liquor and FDCW appear to be effective protein sources for cows and heifers grazing winter native range.« less


Measurements of the relative strength of ocean surface wave spectral components have been made from an aircraft using the two-frequency microwave resonance technique. A coherent Ku-band radar was used to study the Bragg type resonance matching (at the difference frequency Delta-f) to the surface wave components. The spatial spectrum of the surface reflectivity modulation was then computed as the value of Delta-f was varied over a matching range of approximately 15 150 m in surface wavelength. This paper contains experimental results from flights conducted during the 1979 MARSEN project and the 1980 ARSLOE project, and the objective here is to present the radar results in terms of the variety of surface illumination geometries encountered. It will be shown that the MARSEN results, with the narrow footprint, are consistent with a one-dimensional theoretical approach and that the ARSLOE results, with a symmetric beam pattern, agree well with the existing two-dimensional theory.


The number of institutions destined to shelter old citizens has been increasing in Brazil since the last decades of the XX century. At the same time, a legal structure has been created to control its activities. This study aims to summarize Brazilian federal legislation, promulgated after 1988 Constitution, concerning elderly rights, especially the assistance in long-term care facilities.


smears diagnostic evaluation and treatment, because facilities are insufficient for health centers that are to treat preinvasive lesions. hand VIA has demonstrated high sensitivity for detecting CIN and cervical cancer, but it is limited by low specificity. ABSTRACT Background: Cervical cancer belongs to a glorious natural history which favors well implemented secondary preven-tion. Considering the various constraints in our country, our study aimed to evaluate Visual Inspection of Cervix with Acetic Acid (VIA) as an alternative or adjunct to cervical cytology (Pap smear) in early detection of cervical cancer and also to assess its effectiveness as a screening method in a tertiary center outside of low resource settings. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out at Gynae OPD of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) from January to December 2012. A total of 1600 sexually active women with 21 to 60 years old were enrolled in this study by purposive sampling technique. The women underwent a complete clinical evaluation, including Pap smear and VIA. Any positive test was referred to colposcopy and directed biopsy. Finally, data were analyzed with the help of SPSS 16 software. Results: Out of 1600, VIA was positive in 135(8.4%) and cytology was positive in 74(4.6%) cases of the true positive 48 cases. The sensitivity of VIA (75%) was much higher than that of Pap smear (48%). The sensitivity ratio 1.54 (p<0.001). The positive predictive value for detection of CIN2 and above was 17% for VIA and 16% for pap (p=0.5). Moreover, patients of lost to follow-up before colposcopy and biopsy were only 4.44% with VIA positive cases while 28.38% with positive Pap smear (p<0.0001). Conclusions: The high sensitivity of VIA indicates that it may be a feasible alternative test for detection of precancerous lesions of the cervix not only in limited-resource settings but also in a well-equipped tertiary hospital.


Effects of hurdle factors including supplementation of various levels of salt,saccharose and citric acid on storage stability of textured fish protein-based imitation foods by thermoplastic twin extrusion cooking were investigated based on the microorganism population including bacterial count,coliforms and mold count by Second-order regression Central Composite Design and regression analysis including t-test.In the microorganism heat insulation test,mold and bacterial growth was found to be restrained by the salt and citric acid.There were different effects of the saccharose on the mold and bacterial growth.


This article introduces a pattern language for security risk analysis of web applications in an example driven manner. The example patterns presented include a composite pattern and three basic patterns, namely a security requirements pattern, a web application design pattern and a risk analysis model pattern. The pattern language is intended to be used as a guideline to capture the security risk picture of a web application in a light weighted way with extended user groups, especially in the early phase of the software development life cycle.


Carcinomas represent complex neo-organs in which extensive communication networks between surrounding non-transformed endothelial, neural, inflammatory and immune cells provide biochemical signals that govern the behavior of malignant epithelial cells. Moreover, the initiation, progression and metastatic spread of malignant cells is in many human carcinomas associated with desmoplasia. Desmoplasia is typically associated with poor prognosis and in many contexts, confers resistance to therapy. Desmoplasia is characterized by activation of mesenchymal-derived stromal cells such as adipocytes and cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and dynamic remodeling of the extracellular matrix that underlies the dramatic physical differences of tumor tissue compared to corresponding normal tissue that result in further alternations in biochemical signals, contribute to a pro-tumorigenic metabolic milieu as well as alterations in biomechanical signals. Recent studies indicate that fibroblasts also play a critical role in regulating inflammatory and immune cell infiltration, intra-tumoral migration and function in primary tumors and metastatic disease. Recent studies have established that the stromal cell component is heterogeneous with subpopulations of CAFs and specific CAF-mediated pathways that either restrain or promote tumor progression. Genetic and immune-based therapy approaches have identified a subset of Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP)-expressing tumor promoting CAFs in pre-clinical models of multiple types of carcinoma and FAP -expression correlates with worse survival of patients with a variety of carcinomas including breast cancer. Studies demonstrating that FAP+ CAFs promote tumorigenesis through both immune-dependent and immune-independent mechanisms in pre-clinical models will be presented that support efforts to develop FAP+ cell-targeted therapies in combination with cancer cell targeted therapies. In an effort to refine our approach to therapeutically targeting stroma-dependent mechanisms from a cellular to a molecular level, we have also identified the proteolytic activity of FAP, a cell surface serine protease, as a critical molecular pathway by which FAP+ cells exert their pro-tumorogenic effects. We previously demonstrated in models of lung, colon, and pancreatic cancer, that FAP-null mice are protected from tumorigenesis, progression and metastasis. We recently expanded these results to pre-clinical models of breast cancer and investigated whether stroma-dependent mechanisms contribute to the increased risk of breast cancer incidence and/or progression associated with obesity. Using the spontaneous MMTV-neu murine breast cancer model, we found that FAP-null mice showed delayed primary tumorigenesis. In vitro spheroid formation assays revealed a role for FAP+/+ cells in supporting tumorigenesis, while experiments using primary stromal cell-derived matrices (CDMs) also established a role for FAP-mediated matrix remodeling in promoting cancer cell growth. Taken together, these data suggest that stromal cell-expressed FAP has multiple pro-tumorigenic functions in the context of early breast cancer. Citation Format: E Pure. Stromal Cells and Matrix Remodeling as Essential Regulators of the Tumor Microenvironment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PL1.


We describe a new gait segmentation method based on the continuous wavelet transform to identify stride-by-stride gait cycles from measurements of foot-mounted three-dimensional (3D) accelerometers. The detection of such gait cycles is indeed a crucial step for an accurate extraction of relevant gait events such as heel strike, toe strike, heel-off, and toe-off. We demonstrate the ability of this segmentation method, used in conjunction with a validated extraction algorithm, to calculate the following gait (duration) parameters for each gait cycle during the gait of a healthy young subject and of an elderly subject with Parkinson's disease (PD) in OFF and ON states: durations of (1) loading response, (2) mid-stance, (3) push-off, (4) stance, (5) swing, (6) stride, (7) step, and (8) double support phases. The experimental results show that the proposed method can extract relevant refined gait parameters to quantify subtle gait disturbances in subjects with PD.


ABSTRACT Urban diversity poses significant challenges for social work education in Europe's major cities. These challenges manifest themselves in an accumulation of conflicts, inequalities, and fracture lines between individuals, networks, cultures, but also different groups and their institutional and political environments. This current challenge for the education of the next generation of social workers is also related to the rapidly changing environmental conditions and complexity of the urban diversity. Urban society is increasingly fragmented and diverse requiring new knowledges and tools to support future social work practice. The aim of the paper is to analyze the potential of Community Service Learning (CSL) as an approach that can be effectively applied in complex urban settings. CSL is an experiential learning format that integrates academic and experiential learning within a community service context. The participative training model identifies three basic principles: civic engagement, cooperative and multiple learning, and the importance of critical reflexive learning. This paper builds on existing CSL literature and represents ongoing discussions in an Erasmus+ project, exploring social work education in complex urban settings.


Modernization of traditional Chinese medicine needs to build scientific,innovative,and reappearing animal model.It is the important link and premise condition for a success experiments.Basis on data and documents,this research shows that perfect Sjogren's syndrome TCM animal model is to seek the degree of agreement between pathogen of western medicine and symptom of TCM.


................................................. 63 Introduction............................................. 63 Materials and Methods ................................. 65 Experiment 1 ....................................... 65 Experiment 2 ...................................... 67 Sampling Methods................................. 67 Statistical Analyses............................. 68 Results and Discussion................................ 68 Experiment 1 ...................................... 68 Experiment 2 ...................................... 77 References C i t e d ........................................ 90 SUMMARY......................................................... 95 V I T A ............................................................ 100


This paper reports on a weekend performance event at the Tate Modern that explored how the senses of sound and movement can be used to apprehend geometrical and topological shapes and mathematical concepts. The sound sculpture Knots and Donuts spatialized sound and sonified space. It attuned the 'mind's ear' and the auditory imagination to conceive of a Borromean Knot and a torus within an immersive three-dimensional sound field. Through dance movement, the choreography of Ordinal 5 actualized the specific mathematical entity as understood in category theory. Both parts of the programme are considered as a performance as research experiment with an audience. Its aim was to understand how the sensory experience of the embodied mind might provide a basis of rationality in which meaning is not restricted to text and image, that is, an embodied topology.


OBJECTIVE The pharmacokinetics was studied on sustained-release tablets of itopride hydrochloride using health dogs and was compared with the dispersible tablets of itopride hydrochloride. METHODS A single dose of the sustained-release dispersible tablets of itopride hydrochloride were given separately to six dogs according to the double-periodical crossed design. An HPLC method was established for the determination of the plasma concentration of itopride hydrochloride. RESULTS After oral administration, the pharmacokinetics parameters of sustained-release tablets Cmax,tmax,t1/2 (Ke), AUC0-∞were (548.6±54.2) μg·L-1,(6.7±1.2)h,(6.0±0.6)h and (6.6±0.5)mg·L-1·h respectively, and the corresponding parameters of dispersible tablets were(798.1±42.5)μg·L-1,(1.83±0.25)h,(5.72±0.26)h and (7.0±0.6)mg·L-1·h. CONCLUSION The sustained-release tablets of itopride hydrochloride have an significant sustained-released effect.


In this thesis we report that hypothalamic KLF4 represents a new transcription factor specifically modulating AgRP expression in vivo. Hypothalamic KLF4 colocalizes with AgRP neurons and is modulated by nutritional status and leptin. KLF4 over-expression in the arcuate nucleus is sufficient to increase food intake and to blunt the anorectic action of leptin in a FoxO1-independent manner. Moreover hypothalamic KLF4 is regulated by leptin in rats fed a chow diet but not in diet induced obesity rats, and KLF4 does not affect high fat diet- induced leptin resistance. Pregnancy is a special metabolic state and we wanted to characterize the impact of diet before and during pregnancy. We found that independently of the type of diet in late pregnancy: glucose serum levels were decreased, there is an increase in triglyceride serum levels, brown adipose tissue and body temperature are decreased and lipid mobilization is increased in brown adipose tissue.


This paper uses a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model to analyze the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and output dynamics in a multicountry context. The GVAR model enables us to make two important contributions: First, to model international linkages among a large number of countries, which is a key asset given the diversity of countries involved, and second, to model foreign direct investment and output dynamics jointly. The country-specific small-dimensional vector autoregressive submodels are estimated utilizing a Bayesian version of the model coupled with stochastic search variable selection priors to account for model uncertainty. Using a sample of 15 emerging and advanced economies over the period 1998:Q1–2012:Q4, we find that US outbound FDI exerts a positive long-term effect on output. Asian and Latin American economies tend to react faster and also stronger than Western European countries. Forecast error variance decompositions indicate that FDI plays a prominent role in explaining gross domestic product fluctuations, especially in emerging market economies.


Already in the Digitising European Industry (DEI) strategy [1], the Commission set up the ambitious goal of making Europe the world leader in the Internet of Things (IoT). In 2017, we launched five IoT Large-Scale Pilot (LSP) projects [2] in the areas of smart cities, health, wearables, cars and food and agriculture, with a total amount of EU funding of 100 million EUR. In 2018, a set of eight IoT security and privacy research projects was launched with a budget of 37 million EUR. In 2019, six additional LSP projects (two on agriculture, one on energy and three on digital health and care) have been launched. These pilot deployment projects are addressing both the technology aspects and the regulatory and societal issues around IoT, demonstrating that IoT technology and digitisation have the potential of solving societal challenges as well as stimulating the creation of open European and global standards. However, these research and innovation activities need to be taken in parallel with the relevant policy and regulatory steps, which can contribute to the delivery of our goals. The current work that the Commission is undertaking on the legal framework for liability for emerging digital technologies, should help to stimulate investment and to enhance users' trust in them, especially for IoT and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In addition, the recently adopted ICT Cybersecurity Certification Framework will enable the development of IoT innovation, while providing security at the expected level of assurance.


fuel flow rate out of a fuel injector is accurately determined from pressure measurements at one or two locations upstream of the fuel nozzle. Linear flame responses are obtained with small-amplitude fuel modulations, typically below 2.0% of the mean fuel flow rate, about 60 Hz below the acoustic resonant frequencies. The invariance in the flametransferfunctionstothefuelmodulationamplitudesuggeststhatthederived flametransferfunctionsarelinear and that the induced heat release rate oscillations mainly respond to variations in the instantaneous fuel flow rate rather than in the droplet size and distribution. Flame transfer functions at different air flow rates, equivalence ratios, and preheat temperature are examined. With fuel modulations around the acoustic resonant frequencies, forcing-induced acoustic feedback on heat release responses cannot be ignored, and the measured flame transfer functions are no longer open-loop and linear. The nonlinearity in the forced flame responses is significantly affected by acoustic damping. Extinction and entrainment of self-excited combustion oscillations by fuel modulations at the approach of the acoustic resonant frequencies are observed. Self-excited combustion oscillations can be diminished byincreasingtheamountoffuelmodulations.Applicationsofthe flametransferfunctionstomodelingandcontrolof combustion instability and lean blowout for both liquid-fueled and gas-fueled combustion are discussed.


A double Michelson interferometer is used to compare an unknown wavelength of a continuous laser with a known wavelength of a reference laser (helium-neon stabilized) on the saturated absorption line of iodine at 6328 AA. The system is built so that the path difference is identical for each of the two beams. The corner cube moves vertically in a curve in a vacuum. The moving corner cube, controlled by microprocessor, is accelerated and retarded in the extreme phases of the movement. In these two phases all the useful measurements are stored. A polynomial interpolation enables determination of the starting and finishing points of initial and final instants.


The assessment of the bacteriological quality among 390 samples of bottled drinking water was studied. The samples were tested for Escherichia coli, Clostridia, total Coliform, Streptococci feacal and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The rates of microbial contamination in bottled drinking water were of 56.7% (2017) and 50.7% (2018). The samples failed to meet QCVN drinking water standard of acceptable limits of bacterial presence including Pseudomonas aeruginosa (41.5%), total Coliform (11.8%), Clostridia (4.6%); Escherichia coli (4.9%) and Streptococcifeacal (1.3%). It is necessary to strengthen the inspection, supervision, propagation, and education that give warnings, ensure water quality and raise the awareness of producers, traders and consumers.


Significance Losses are ubiquitous in manipulating complex systems. They arise from our lack of control on the microscopic degrees of freedom of the system. A universal way to minimize losses is to consider adiabatic processes. These processes are, however, very slow, which significantly limits their power. In this work, we show how to speed up these protocols for general complex (quantum) systems. Although dissipation cannot be avoided, we show how it can be reduced significantly with only local access to the system. Applications range from quantum information technologies to preparing experiments and even controlling complicated classical systems, such as those found in nature. Counterdiabatic driving protocols have been proposed [Demirplak M, Rice SA (2003) J Chem Phys A 107:9937–9945; Berry M (2009) J Phys A Math Theor 42:365303] as a means to make fast changes in the Hamiltonian without exciting transitions. Such driving in principle allows one to realize arbitrarily fast annealing protocols or implement fast dissipationless driving, circumventing standard adiabatic limitations requiring infinitesimally slow rates. These ideas were tested and used both experimentally and theoretically in small systems, but in larger chaotic systems, it is known that exact counterdiabatic protocols do not exist. In this work, we develop a simple variational approach allowing one to find the best possible counterdiabatic protocols given physical constraints, like locality. These protocols are easy to derive and implement both experimentally and numerically. We show that, using these approximate protocols, one can drastically suppress heating and increase fidelity of quantum annealing protocols in complex many-particle systems. In the fast limit, these protocols provide an effective dual description of adiabatic dynamics, where the coupling constant plays the role of time and the counterdiabatic term plays the role of the Hamiltonian.


A physical restraint is any device that restricts a patient's movement and cannot be removed easily by the patient. Examples of restraints include vest or wrist restraints, geriatric chairs with tables, and bed side rails. The prevalence of restraint use in nursing homes and acute care hospitals is estimated between 25 and 85 percent. 3,4 Risk factors for being restrained include impaired cognition, low body weight, frailty, older age, and functional dependence. 4,5 Restraints are most commonly used to prevent falls, wandering, and disruption of therapy. 3,6


markdownabstract__Abstract__

The ovary, or female gonad, plays a central role in the production of the female gametes,
the oocytes, and is the major organ where sex steroid hormones are produced
in females. In humans, the oocytes are produced from a limiting primordial follicle
pool, which is established before birth. From the primordial follicle pool follicles
are continuously recruited to develop through primary and secondary stages to become
antral follicles. After puberty, when menstrual cycling has commenced, at each
cycle, follicles will be recruited from this growing follicle pool under the influence of
Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), and ultimately only one of those follicles will
reach the preovulatory stage (dominant follicle) (Figure 1). The remaining follicles
that are not rescued by FSH will become atretic.
Under the influence of Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH) from the
hypothalamus, Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and FSH are secreted by the pituitary.
During a menstrual cycle, which has an average length of 28 days, two phases can
be recognized before and after ovulation: the follicular and the luteal phase. In
normal cycling women, FSH levels are highest when the dominant follicle emerges.
This leads to the production of estrogens by the granulosa cells of the preovulatory
follicle. After estrogen levels peak, the LH surge occurs and ovulation will follow. After
ovulation, the follicle remnant without the oocyte forms the corpus luteum, which
marks the beginning of the luteal phase. The corpus luteum produces progesterone
and estrogens which synergistically stimulate the endometrium. When pregnancy
does not occur, progesteron and estrogen levels drop and menses start.


In this paper, variational methods are used to establish some existence and multiplicity results and provide uniform estimates of extremal values for a class of elliptic equations of the form: \begin{document}$-Δ u - {{λ}\over{|x|^2}}u = h(x) u^q + μ W(x) u^p,\ \ x∈Ω\backslash\{0\}$ \end{document} with Dirichlet boundary conditions, where \begin{document}$0∈ Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^N $\end{document} ( \begin{document}$N≥q 3 $\end{document} ) be a bounded domain with smooth boundary \begin{document}$\partial Ω $\end{document} , \begin{document}$μ>0 $\end{document} is a parameter, \begin{document}$0 , \begin{document}$h(x)>0 $\end{document} and \begin{document}$W(x) $\end{document} is a given function with the set \begin{document}$\{x∈ Ω: W(x)>0\} $\end{document} of positive measure.


Ric c1, an allergenic protein from castor oil plants (Ricinus communis), is an insect α-amylase inhibitor that has become an occupational allergen. Ric c1 can cross-react with allergens from wheat, soybean, peanut, shrimp, fish, gluten, house dust, tobacco and air fungus, thereby amplifying the concern and risks caused by castor oil plants (COP) allergens. Two continuous IgE-binding epitopes were identified in Ric c1, both containing glutamic acid residues involved in IgE-binding and allergic challenges. We produced recombinant Ric c1 (rRic c1) in Escherichia coli, using primers from foliar castor oil plant DNA, and a mutant (Glu-Leu) recombinant protein (mrRic c1) in the same system using synthetic genes. rRic c1 preserved both allergenic and α-amylase inhibitory properties, and mrRic c1 drastically reduced allergenic properties. These results can help to establish meaningful relationships between structure, defence and allergenicity, important steps for producing engineered plants and developing new approaches for immunotherapy.


In 1901 and 1902 a Massachusetts physician, Duncan MacDougall, conducted an experiment that involved weighing 6 terminally ill patients immediately before and after being pronounced dead.1 Dr MacDougall recorded a reduction in 1 patient's weight of 21 g, which he believed represented that of the departed soul, while excluding the data from the other 5 patients for various reasons. He reported this finding in an article titled "Hypothesis Concerning Soul Substance Together With Experimental Evidence of the Existence of Such Substance,"2 although he acknowledged that "a large number of experiments would require to be made before the matter can be proven beyond any possibility of error."2 Despite this disclaimer, the study was reported in The New York Times and many other prominent publications. Although these observations were completely discredited by the scientific community, searching for "21 gram soul" on the internet today returns nearly 20 000 000 hits. We now view this episode derisively, but the scientific lapses committed by MacDougall such as excluding potentially eligible patients, using unreliable measures, and selectively reporting results that are favorable to the investigator's hypothesis remain distressingly common. Boutron and Ravaud3 have enumerated more than a dozen ways in which investigators have been prone to misrepresenting their results to appear more favorable, often collectively referred to as "spin." At the time of their initial study, they found that more than half of the reports of randomized controlled trials they examined misrepresented the results. The issues they identified that are most relevant to clinical research include the following:


About 9% of pediatric Crohn's disease (CD) patients experience complications within 3 years from diagnosis in spite of anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (anti-TNF) biologic treatment. Within 5 years, such complications may require surgical interventions in up to 20% of cases. Due to the relatively rare nature of these complicated pediatric CD cases within large CD cohorts, traditional genome wide association studies (GWAS) rarely capture this patient population. Our aim was to identify critical genetic associations of anti-TNF refractory complicated pediatric CD subtypes.

 The study was approved by BCM IRB. Included patients had developed CD between the ages of 6 and 18. The Paris classification was used to place patients in the following categories:
 1. Anti-TNF refractory small bowel CD (RSB-CD): L4b; L4b/B2; or L4b/B2B3 who had or were imminent to have small bowel resection.
 2.. Anti-TNF refractory colonic CD (RC-CD): L2 requiring ileal diversion; or L2/B2; or L2/B2B3 who had or were considered to receive colectomy or partial colonic resection.
 Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed from peripheral blood derived DNA. PLINK (https://www.cog-genomics.org/plink2/) was used to identify enriched single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The level of significance for exome wide differentiation was relaxed to p<0.01. The potential deleteriousness of single nucleotide variants was determined by CADD (https://cadd.gs.washington.edu/). Gene Ontology enRIchment anaLysis and visuaLizAtion tool (GORILLA) was used to compare gene lists associated with colonic enriched SNPs versus ileal enriched SNPs (http://geneontology.org/).

 In eight RSB-CD and 11 RC-CD cases, age at presentation, gender, ethnicity, and need for surgery (75% and 55%, respectively) did not significantly differ between the groups. There were 269 genes associated with 277 SNPs that had significantly (p<0.01) different allele variation between colonic vs ileal CD. Of these, 170 genes associated with 116 distinct SNPs had a CADD score of >10. Out of the top five SNP candidate associated genes, four (4/5 = 80%: EFNA3, STEAP1B, DSG1, and CYP4F2) have been already linked with Crohn's disease and/or colitis. GORILLA based investigation indicated that colonic CD associated genes were enriched (p<0.001) in biologic function relevant for lipid metabolic process (GO:0006629), small molecule metabolic process (GO:0044281), and organic substance metabolic process (GO:0071704) compared to ileal CD associated genes.

 We have uncovered candidate genetic risk loci, which may differentially influence pediatric CD towards developing primarily small intestinal or colonic complications. The discovered loci hold significant potential as novel genetic modifiers, which may set the basis for risk assessment, prevention and personalized treatment against complicated pediatric CD.


The stability of the grid-connected voltge source converter (VSC) with limits of phase locked loop (PLL) is investigated in this letter. The studied system is a nonlinear switched system that consists of three subsystems and a switching rule that connects switching between these subsystems. It is proved that the three subsystems share one common Lyapunov function, and the derivation of the constructed Lyapunov function for each subsystem with respect to time is negative. As a result, one conservative stability region for the studied switched system is derived, and the system can be asymptotically stable under arbitrary switching within the derived stability region. Numerical results show that implementing limits of PLL is one simple and effective approach to enhance the system stability of VSCs.


With byproduct of Tilapia nilotica as material, Refinement of crude oil from tilapia nilotica and its fatty acid composition were systematically studied. Results show that the best optimum parameters of crude oil refinied from Tilapia nilotica were as follow: with 80%phosphate degumming, its adding amount being 1% of its oil amount; with 30% caustic sodium removing free fatty acid, its adding amount being 2% of its oil amount; with active white earth beaching, its adding amount being 20% of its oil amount; with vacuum deordorizing for 30 min. Oil of Tilapia nilotica obtained was clear and fresh yellow liquid, its physicochemical properties index conformed to fish oil standard There were 29 kinds of fatty acid including C12~C22 in Tilapia nilotica oil , among them, there being 10 kinds of saturated fatty acids, 7 kinds of single unsaturated fatty acids, and 12 kinds of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acid and saturated fatty acid were (57.58%) and (42.42%) of its total fat, respectively. Single unsaturated fatty acids were mainly oleic(18∶1) and palmitoleic (16∶1), they were (27.66%) and (7.62%) of total fatty acids, respectively. Polyunsaturated fatty acids were linoleic (18∶2) and linolenic (18∶3,n-3), they were (10.18%) and (3.04%), respectively. EPA(20∶5)and DHA(22∶6)were poor in Tilapia nilotica oil, they only were (0.68%) and (1.03%) of its total fatty acids, respectively. Saturated fatty acids were mainly palmitic (16∶0), stearic (18∶0) and myristic(14∶0), they were (26.75%),(5.23%) and (3.00%) of its total fatty acids.


The added mass and the damping coefficient of a large surface-piercing circular cylinder extending to the seabed and undergoing horizontal oscillations are described. A closed-form solution to the corresponding linear radiation problem is obtained by the use of eigenfunction expansions. Attention is given to the vertical distribution of these coefficients and to their high-frequency asymptotic behaviour. Comparisons are made with experimental measurements. The application to typical offshore structures is discussed. Key words: added mass, cylinders, damping, hydrodynamics, ocean engineering.


Neonatal subgaleal hematomas (SGHs) are rare but potentially life‐threatening complications of vacuum extraction deliveries. We report a rare case of four enlarging SGHs in an 11‐day‐old boy born without use of instruments during delivery. It is likely that trauma from the provider's fingers caused these SGHs during a normal vaginal delivery. Ultrasound findings confirmed the diagnosis of SGH, distinct from other birth trauma such as cephalohematoma or caput succedaneum.


The invention discloses a process of extracting fructus cannabis oil by supercritical CO2 extraction. The process comprises the following steps: by using fructus cannabis without shells and seed skins as a raw material, casting fructus cannabis into a supercritical extraction tank; by using supercritical CO2 with a flow of 28+/- 1Kg/H as a solvent, extracting at a pressure of 25+/- 1MPa, and at a temperature of 35-40 DEG C; then, sequentially introducing into a first-level separation tank and a second-level separation tank, wherein the pressure of the first-level separation tank is 12+/- 1MPa, and the temperature is 35-40 DEG C, while the pressure of the second-level separation tank is 6+/- 1MPa, and the temperature is 33+/- 1DEG C. According to the process disclosed by the invention, supercritical CO2 in a flowing state is used as the solvent to extract to obtain natural, pollution-free and high purity fructus cannabis oil. Meanwhile, byproducts without oil are obtained, namely fructus cannabis meals, wherein the oil rate is less than 1%. Pollution generated by conventional oil refining is reduced, and meanwhile, the production cost is lowered, so that the process is suitable for popularization in a large scale.


The authors analyzed and discussed several representative "concepts" of Taijiquan available today,and defined Taijiquan as the following according to rules in logic after they have determined the intension and extension of the concept of Taijiquan: an organically unified free hand Wushu event that includes routines,pushing moves,boxing moves and power moves,basing its theoretical foundation on the Taiji doctrine and its key sports techniques on such 13 moves as poke,stroke,squeeze,press,pick,twist,elbow,lean,go forward,go backward,look leftward,look rightward and maintain motionless.


Far to many of our listed buildings are falling victim to arsonist, and the poor owners are unable to afford to restore them back to


Abstract The inauguration of President Mandela marked a new era in South Africa's foreign policy. The question is posed whether South Africa will set out to be a regional superpower or turn its back on the continent. An alternative to either is that South Africa will assume a leadership role, in particular making substantial contributions to conflict prevention and resolution in the region and further afield.


The present invention discloses a method of controlling a filling process of a working fluid container (10) which opens over into the working fluid container (10) the filler pipe (20) by means of a filling device (80) can be filled, wherein the working fluid container (10) a vent valve (30) which the electrically between an open position in which the working fluid container (10) by means of the vent valve (30) is at least indirectly fluidly connected to the atmosphere, and a closed position in which the working fluid container (10) by means of the vent valve (30) from the atmosphere fluidly isolated is operable, the method comprising the following method steps: a) conversion of the vent valve (30) in its open position; b) determining a filling level of the working fluid container (10); c) reducing a ventilation volume flow through the vent valve (30) when the has filling level of the working fluid container (10) reaches a predetermined Abschaltfullstand or exceeded; d) determining a Befullstopps the filling device (80); and e) transferring the vent valve (30) in its closed position after a predetermined period of time (t1) after determining the Befullstopps.


The phototactic behavioral responses of Tribolium castaneum adults to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) of seven different wavelengths were determined under various conditions (light exposure times, light sources, and luminance intensities) and compared with those of a black light bulb (BLB) under laboratory conditions. Based on the attractive rate (%) of T. castaneum adults under optimal conditions (50 lx and an 48 h exposure time) in the dark, red LED (625±10 nm) exhibited the highest potential attractive rate (97.8 %), followed by yellow (590±5 nm, 68.9 %), green (520±5 nm, 55.6 %), infrared (IR) (730 nm, 54.4 %), white (450�620 nm, 41.1 %), blue (470±10 nm, 34.4 %), and ultraviolet (UV) (365 nm, 0.06 %) LEDs. In comparison, red LED (97.8 %) was approximately 3.4 times more attractive to T. castaneum adults than the BLB (28.9 %). These results indicate that a red LED trap could be useful to control T. castaneum adults.


Traditional Chinese opera in Queli came into being under specified historical background and regional environment,when we study traditional Chinese opera in Queli from the angle of fame and wealth and its origin,we can find out that there is vivid image to show its peculiar value judgement,namely,emphasis on getting well established and far-famed and actively experiencing the real world,caring little for private interest and seeking public interest.These aspects can not only be seen in scholar-officials,but can also be found in the hermits,actresses and merchants.


This article highlights chemical modifications like alkali treatment, dinitrophenylation, benzoylation, and benzoylation-acetylation carried out on an pineapple agrowaste leaf fiber (PALF). The parent and chemically modified PALF were characterized by FTIR spectra, pH measurement, and detection of nitrogen. The percent moisture regain (extent of hydrophobicity), mechanical strength, and chemical inertness of parent and chemically modified fibers were evaluated. The modified fibers showed significant hydrophobicity, improved mechanical strength, and moderate chemical resistance. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 64: 2119–2125, 1997


That the anterior lobe of the mammalian hypophysis liberates a hormone stimulating growth and essential for growth to normal stature would seem abundantly proved both by the work in the experimental production of gigantism 1 and in experimental hypophysectomy 2 accomplished during the last few years in this laboratory. We have also taken the important initial steps to secure the growth hormone in a sterile, easily absorbable and almost protein-free solution, steps which to some extent have been made the basis of recent communications from other laboratories. 3 About two years ago Zondek and Aschheim 4 and P. E. Smith, 5 working independently, secured a totally distinct effect from the implantation of anterior hypophyseal substance—the induction of precocious sexual maturity in young mammals, mice and rats. The vaginal smear and behavior changes showed clearly that estrus had been induced. Examination of the young animals after they had been killed showed


BACKGROUND
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease, associated with severe impairment of quality of life. Although the motor aspects of the illness are typically successfully treated with medications acting on the dopaminergic system, a number of patients encounter progressive difficulties associated with their medical treatment.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Carefully selected patients will benefit from deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment for their PD. Selection requires dopamine challenge testing and neuropsychological testing for the presence of cognitive impairment. Careful follow-up and programming of the DBS system are mandatory, and a major reason for DBS failure is inadequate programming and management of medication.

CONCLUSION
DBS is a useful component of standard therapy for PD and may reduce symptoms, improve quality of life, promote patient independence and reduce healthcare costs by reducing requirements for medicine.


The generators of the fundamental representation of the Lie group GL(4N;r), integral N?1, are constructed from Kronecker products of smaller matrices in such a way that their tensor character under the action of the (unique) full null‐plane Lorentz subgroup is apparent. Commutation relations of these tensors are given in terms of symmetric and antisymmetric structure constants for the fundamental representation of U(N) used in their construction. Generators of the Sp(4N;r) subgroup are classified according to transformation character under a U(N) subgroup. Commutation relations of sp(4N;r) are given in terms of SU(2)spin ⊗U(N) multiplets.


The mathematical model of auto anti-lock braking system(ABS) is established, the definite state machine Stateflow model based on Stateflow for the ABS electronic control unit is built, a modeling method based on Matlab/Simulink and Stateflow is presented, and the hybrid model of ABS by Simulink is simulated. The simulation results showed that this hybrid system can be relatively true to reflect the practical work process of ABS; the control strategy could shorten the braking distance significantly and improve the safety. The parameters of this simulation were easy to adjust, the control method approached to the reality and could be used as development tools of ABS or illustrations of teaching in laboratory.


Samples of surface mounted components cooled during their solidification process were subjected to aging treatment in accelerated way to develop microstructural changes. Microsections of solder joints were analysed and methods for measurement of characteristic size of Sn-dendrite is proposed. These tools can be used to detect structures (such as dendrites, dendrites grains, or intermetallic features).
The impact of cooling rate and iso-thermal ageing on the microstructure of lead-free alloys as used in surface mount joints is investigated. The changes in the tin dendrites and intermetallics are measured using image analysis tools developed here. The algorithm developed produces a numerated classification that can be correlated with the aging of the microstructure.


A piping plan depends on inspection history or inspection data in order to extract propensity of damage mechanism. The inspection data are 1Periodic maintenance inspection record (SDI), 2 On-stream inspection data (OSI), 3Unplanned stop or extraordinary inspection records and 4 corrosion-loop database visualized by evaluating corrosion rate as a corrosion system. Each of injury site of corrosion thinning with an organic acid as a specific injury mechanism, operating temperature conditions as a condition for extracting parts, fluid corrosion factor, structure factor, and material is quantified qualitatively or semi-qualitatively. It states that priority order by data visualization of damage propensity (Bayesian theorem) is required.


The results shown for the 13 strains from the Escherichia coli reference (ECOR) collection that Souza et al. included "as a reference" in their recent allozyme analysis of diverse natural E. coli isolates (8) fail to validate the newly derived phylogeny (Fig. 1 in reference 8), leave mysterious the correspondence between this phylogeny and that of the ECOR collection (1–5, 7), and raise serious concerns regarding the validity of the investigators' allozyme data and the conclusions derived therefrom (8).

In the dendrogram of Souza, et al. (Fig. 1 in reference 8), the eight ECOR group A control strains are variously placed in the new "ancestral cluster" (along with the four group B1 strains) and in clusters G and C (together with the sole ECOR group D control strain), i.e., across the breadth of the tree and in association with members of the two other ECOR groups studied. This conflicts with previous analyses of the ECOR strains, which with few exceptions have placed the group A strains close together, apart from representatives of other ECOR groups, irrespective of cluster analysis method (e.g., principal-component analysis, UPGMA, neighbor joining, or parsimony) or type of data set (e.g., starch or cellulose acetate gel allozyme analysis, comparative DNA sequencing, or PCR fingerprinting) (1–5, 7).

A direct comparison of allozyme data for the 13 ECOR controls as provided by Souza et al. (8), and as obtained from the ECOR database at the Thomas Whittam laboratory web site (http://www.bio.psu.edu/People/Faculty/Whittam/Lab/), for the six loci at which these two data sets coincide is informative (Table (Table1).1). Souza et al. report more polymorphisms at five of the six loci than are documented in the ECOR database. These discrepancies are most marked for the eight group A ECOR strains, among which Souza et al. list twice as many allelic variants (not counting nulls) over the six loci as does the ECOR database (Table (Table1).1). According to Souza et al., but not the ECOR data base, ECOR strains 5 and 8 exhibit distinct alleles for IDH, MDH, MPI, and/or PGM as compared with the other six group A strains (data not shown), evidence suggesting that different strains may have been tested as ECOR 5 and 8 in the different analyses. Still, Souza et al. report more diversity even among the remaining six group A ECOR strains than is found in the ECOR database (data not shown).

TABLE 1

Allozyme polymorphisms among 13 ECOR control strainsa according to two different sources

That these discrepancies are not simply a matter of cellulose acetate gels (8) versus starch gels (ECOR database) is shown by the data of Pupo et al. (5). Using cellulose acetate gel allozyme analysis, these investigators found the group A ECOR strains to be quite homogeneous across 10 enzyme loci, including the six shown in Table Table1,1, and derived a neighbor joining tree quite similar to that obtained by Herzer et al. using starch gels and 38 loci (3, 5). Thus, the data of Souza et al. (8), at least for the group A ECOR strains, are of uncertain validity. Confidence in the remainder of these investigators' allozyme data set is weakened by the inclusion of an enzyme (ARK, arginine kinase) that is without precedent in the E. coli allozyme literature and the exceptional finding of two loci for ME (malic enzyme) (3, 6). Consequently, the tree (Fig. 1 in reference 8), the genetic diversity calculations (Table 2 in reference 8), and all inferences drawn from these analyses are suspect and provide no support for the revised understandings of phylogenetic relationships within E. coli proposed by the authors (8).


By using the mixed DEA model to evaluate the relative efficiency of venture enterprises and matching efficiency scores with integrated evaluation scores from specialists,this paper proposes a new approach for determining index weights in the venture enterprise evaluation index system through solving a quadratic program.The method overcomes the existing methods' shortcomings such as the subjective opinion of experts for determing the weights,lack of scientific foundation and hard to generalize.


Over the past few years, clinical microbiologists have assumed increasing responsibility for the rapid, accurate detection of a diverse number of emerging (new) and reemerging pathogens. Ironically, these responsibilities come at a time when resources are limited and budgets are significantly