C oronary artery disease is estimated to affect over 81 million adults in America, with a projected cost of $156.4 billion healthcare dollars in 2008. It remains the leading cause of death in Americans, with an average of one death per minute due to a coronary event. Ninety percent of all persons with an acute coronary event will have at least one of the following predisposing risk factors: hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cigarette smoking or diabetes. More than 106 million Americans—46% of the adult population— have a total cholesterol of 200mg/dL or greater, and this does not include the 11% of adolescents with similar levels of total cholesterol. According to data from the 3rd Report from the Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in AdultsAdult Treatment Panel III (NCEPATP III), the majority of these patients are receiving suboptimal care. Only a minority of patients (less than 50%) that qualify for treatment of their dyslipidemia as part of a cardiovascular risk reduction strategy are on any form of treatment. The same holds true for those with symptomatic coronary artery disease who are at the highest risk for future cardiovascular events.


This article explores the dynamic and the implications for the legal response to sex robots, using the United States legal system as a case study. This article does not try to cover all legal aspects of sex with robots, but rather focuses on likely legal strategies to prohibit or restrict sex robots. The American legal system has traditionally followed a two-step approach to non-traditional sexual practices, typified by an initial effort to prohibit such practices to protect "public morality," followed by a subsequent period of relaxation and non-enforcement. This pattern will likely apply to sex robots, where some state legislatures will likely seek to ban sex robots outright, but may encounter Constitutional obstacles and the unwillingness of law enforcement to expend significant resources enforcing against such "victimless crimes." More focused prohibitions that go beyond public morality arguments and seek to protect arguably legitimate interests will have greater salience. Examples include prohibitions on child sex robots that may be used to promote pedophilia, the recognition of human-robot marriage that could weaken the unique human bonds that sanctify marriage, and sex robot brothels that could debase and damage neighborhoods. However, even these more legitimate goals in restricting certain applications of sex robots are likely to encounter legal obstacles under U.S. constitutional law, and thus likely follow the two-step dynamic seen for other non-traditional sexual practices of initial attempts at legal prohibition followed by relaxation of enforcement and implicit acceptance.


When the amplitude of a thickness transducer is high enough, nonlinear terms must be added as a perturbation to both constitutive equations of the material. Electrical and acoustical fields with multiple frequencies will appear when a single harmonic voltage is applied to the transducer. This can be modeled by a series of equivalent circuits (one for each harmonic frequency) which include some elements (voltage and current sources) that depend nonlinearly on the currents at all circuits. The nonlinear elements of the circuit at a given frequency can be obtained if we know the functions /spl Phi/(x) and /spl Psi/(x), which are the perturbations of the constitutive equations. Two equivalent circuits are developed. In the first one, a symmetric transducer is considered, radiation losses are modeled by an impedance, only one port (electrical) is considered and all elements are reduced to their electrical equivalent. In the second one, which is a modified Mason circuit, two mechanical ports are considered, so mechanical boundaries may be non-symmetrical, and uses a transformer as an electromechanical coupling, so the mechanical circuit is described in terms of force and velocity.


The territory of Yakutia is 3,1 million sq. km, and represents 1/5 of the country. In relation to climatic conditions it is the coldest region in the world, which has been occupied by people since Paleolithic times. Here used to live the Paleo-Asiatic people, who were the ancestors of modern Yukagirs, Chukchi and Eskimo. Evenki and Evens came to Central and Southern Yakutia about two thousand years ago. Yakut appeared during the last millennium, and Russians came about 400 years ago. The main activities of the Paleo-Asiatic people were hunting, fishing and gathering. The ancestors of present Evenki and Evens managed to tame reindeer, Yakut brought horses and cattle, Russian brought agriculture. Development and social adaptation of life in the coldest region of Earth in the middle ages are a unique phenomenon. Representatives of the Sakha people established sedentary lifestyle in this area. Due to environment conditions of the taiga-alas landscape, Yakut population lived dispersed according to individual Alaas until the 30's of the last century. According to analysis of construction of a house of Sakha people «Balagan», yards and a birchbark «Urasa», authors suppose life development of Yakut was fully adequate in relation to the climate, environment and demands of the people during times, which are co-called «Little Ice Age». Detailed studies on particular parts of the houses and yards emphasize people's thoughtfulness, prudence and moderation for unfavorable living conditions, which helped to increase in several times the population number of ethnos.


jurisdiction and a manly attempt to make some sense of the judgment of the World Court in the Lotus case. Coming down in favour of the "linking point" approach to prescriptive jurisdiction, he next discusses the principles of territoriality, protection and nationality as bases of jurisdiction, concluding that none of them provided a valid basis for the United States measures in the "pipeline" affair. His study ends with an examination of procedures for settling such jurisdictional conflicts, including the use of "blocking statutes" and analogous measures, resort to the principle of the primacy of territorial jurisdiction, and the "balancing of interests" approach. While he stresses throughout the central importance of the right of States to be free from interference by other States in their internal affairs, he also emphasises that multilateral enterprises give rise to problems which cannot adequately be dealt with on the basis of territorial jurisdiction. Ergec regards the "balancing of interests" approach as a makeshift expedient with serious deficiencies which can nevertheless make a useful contribution to conflict resolution.


The structural model is typical of single or multistory buildings with floor, ceiling, or wall-supported equipment assemblies. Attention is especially focused on the random properties of the earthquake environment and structural response. The method is applied to the problem of protecting industrial equipment in the vicinity of an active fault. When compared to conventional earthquake design and deterministic methods of analysis, the advantages of this approach are: (1) The random properties of the ground motion are analyzed at all earthquake intensity levels; (2) the results reflect the location, protection level, and service life of the building; (3) earthquake damage cost, protection cost, and reliability are important design factors; and (4) cost-effective and optimal design configurations are disclosed.


This nationwide population-based cohort study investigates the risk of hearing loss in patients with alopecia areata using claims data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan.


The paper considers the influence of spatial variability of undrained shear strength cu on the stability of a long, 5 m high, 45o slope cut in clay. It investigates the suitability of boundary conditions adopted in 3D finite element simulations, and the feasibility of linking complex stochastic (Monte Carlo) analysis with basic probability theory for predicting the influence of slope length in reliability assessments. The methodology is the same as in previous 2D (1) and 3D (2) investigations. The clay is modelled using a linear elastic, perfectly plastic Tresca soil model, and the slope is modelled using 20-node brick, 3D finite elements. Local average subdivision is used to generate 3D random fields of cu; based on a normal distribution of cu and a depth- independent mean ( μ) and coefficient of variation ( V = 0.3), and on vertical and horizontal scales of fluctuation, �v = 1.0 m andh = 6.0 m, respectively. For each realisation, the random field of cu is mapped onto the finite element mesh at the Gauss point level and the in-situ stresses in the slope are generated by applying gravity loading. By considering the slope for different values of μ, the relationship between reliability (R) and global factor of safety (F) is found: i.e. for a given value of F (based on μ), R = 1 - ( Nf/N), in which N is the total number of realisations and Nf is the number of realisations in which slope failure occurs. Figure 1 shows details for a typical slope (2). The elements are 0.5 m deep and 1.0 m × 1.0 m in plan, while the boundary conditions include a fixed base and rollers along the back face preventing displacement in the x direction. The two ends of the mesh have rollers allowing only vertical ( z) displacement. It was decided to restrain movement in the x direction along these boundaries, as initial analyses suggested slope failure was attracted to the mesh ends when only the y direction was restrained—note that weaker zones near the mesh ends take on greater significance when the x direction is free, due to the implied symmetry of material properties about the boundary. Reference (2) demonstrated that, for a slope of height H and length L, three failure modes are possible: for H < �h < L/2, discrete failures occur through semi-continuous weaker zones and R depends on slope length (i.e. R is lower for longer slopes, due to the increased chance of encountering a zone weak enough to trigger failure). Figure 2 shows the R versus F response for various slope lengths. The computed results are in close agreement with the response estimated by extrapolating the computed


Canonical polyadic decomposition (CPD) has been a workhorse for multimodal data analytics. This work puts forth a stochastic algorithmic framework for CPD under β-divergence, which is well-motivated in statistical learning—where the Euclidean distance is typically not preferred. Despite the existence of a series of prior works addressing this topic, pressing computational and theoretical challenges, e.g., scalability and convergence issues, still remain. In this paper, a unified stochastic mirror descent framework is developed for large-scale β-divergence CPD. Our key contribution is the integrated design of a tensor fiber sampling strategy and a flexible stochastic Bregman divergence-based mirror descent iterative procedure, which significantly reduces the computation and memory cost per iteration for various β. Leveraging the fiber sampling scheme and the multilinear algebraic structure of low-rank tensors, the proposed lightweight algorithm also ensures global convergence to a stationary point under mild conditions. Numerical results on synthetic and real data show that our framework attains significant computational saving compared with state-of-the-art methods.


Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a vector-borne disease that is caused by the protozoan Leishmania infantum and transmitted to humans and other mammals through the bites of infected female sandflies. VL has been prevalent in Minas Gerais, Brazil, since the 1940s. As the vector completes its reproductive cycle in the soil with organic matter, the association between the occurrence of VL and unimproved solid waste disposal sites has been investigated. Thus, in this study, we analyzed the relationship of waste disposal conditions, inadequacies in disposal, and waste collection with the rates of VL, using statistical regression models. A case-control study was conducted to elucidate the relationship between VL and waste management; sick individuals (cases) were compared to healthy individuals (control), to determine the cause, by constructing a multiple regression model to analyze data through a stepwise method. In Minas Gerais, according to the reports of the government in 2017, 60.1% of the urban population has access to an adequate final disposal system for urban solid waste, with an increase of 2.3% compared to the size of the disposal system in 2016. Thus, almost 40% of the population is forced to use poor or unimproved waste disposal sites. The results confirmed the direct relationship between VL and the unimproved disposal of solid waste in the municipalities (waste coverage collection: p = 0.004; waste found in the streets: p = 9.69 × 10–13). These rates also indicated that the proper management of wastes can help to combat VL by considerably reducing the breeding sites of sandflies, curbing adverse health effects, and improving the health of the population.


To our Readers The proceedings of the Spanish Branch of the International League against Epilepsy and of the American Epilepsy Society are published in this issue to fulfil one of the functions of Epilepsia, to publish proceedings and thus facilitate exchange of information. This function is effectively defeated when the proceedings are published with a considerable delay. Would the Epilepsy Societies please keep this in mind and send us proceedings immediately after or, if they are available, even before the meetings? We will do our part to ensure prompt publication. The Editors


Based on matter-element model,the estimating index system of automobile integrated performance and evaluation model are established.Using the established evaluation model,the automobile integrated performance of the example automobile is evaluated,and the result indicates the evaluation system has a great practical value and supplies a new method for integrated properties evaluation of automobile.


The effects of intensive fishing and fish recruitment on the nutrient excretion rate by a planktivorous roach Rutilus rutilus stock in Lake Vesijarvi were estimated using a bioenergetics model. The values were compared with those given by the model assuming that no mass removal occurred or that the mass removal ceased after 2 years. According to the model, during June-August 1989 phosphorus (P) excretion by the pelagic roach stock corresponded to 18% of the annual external P loading and showed a maximum of 0.4 mg m−2 day−1. As a result of mass removal, the maximum daily P excretion declined to 0.18 mg m−2 by 1990 and to 0.10 mg m−2 by 1992. The reduction was due to the lower number of roach, while the excretion rates of individual fish were unaffected. A 2-year mass removal would have temporarily reduced the P excretion rate, but in 1991 and 1992 the highest daily excretion rates would have been doubled compared with values after the 4-year mass removal. Assuming no fishing mortality, interannual differences were diminished and the excretion rates in 1991 and 1992 were 2.5 times higher than the values after the 4-year mass removal. The results suggest that nutrient recycling by fish stocks may be affected substantially by fisheries management. However, the effects are dependent on the timing of fishing due to the variations in the year class strength of fish. In Lake Vesijarvi the reduction in nutrient excretion was amplified coincidentally by the natural variation in recruitment of the roach stock.


Objective To investigate the risk factors of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.Methods The case-control study was performed in questionnaire survey of 100 patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD),which were all diagnosed by ultrasonography;and 100 healthy persons were enrolled as controls.The results were analyzed.Results Logistic multivariate analysis showed that all 19 independent variables and dependent variables including waist-to-hip ratio,body mass index,preference for intake of sweet food,preference for intake of meat,additional intake before going to bed,preference for sea food,often going out for meal and family history of NAFLD and diabetes,Body mass index,preference for intake of meat,family history of NAFLD and diabetes were related to the pathogenesis of NAFLD(P0.05).And there were statistic significances between two groups in waist-to-hip ratio,body mass index,preference for intake of meat,additional intake before going to bed,preference for sea food,often going out for meal and family history of NAFLD and diabetes,and hyperglycemia(P0.05).Conclusion Nonalcaholic fatty liver disease is closely associated with multi-metabolite disorders taking obesity as the center.Unhealthy food taking habits is of a certain relation with the formation of NAFLD,and heredity may also be another important factor.


Good morning and thank you all for joining us today. I'm thrilled to open today's excellent slate of hearings, and to welcome the distinguished group of scholars and market participants we have with us. I'd like to give a special thanks to the FTC staff, for putting this hearing together; and to NYU Law School, for hosting the event. I'd also like to give a special welcome to Commissioner Robert Jackson, of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Commissioner Jackson has spoken publicly about his desire to bring competition economics to the SEC, and is here with us today. I only hope that this does not augur some sort of inter-agency power grab attempt. The FTC may be older, but we're scrappy and don't shy from a fight. Today we explore an issue in which I am particularly interested—in fact, my first public remarks as a FTC Commissioner focused on it—that is, the competitive effects and antitrust implications, if any, of "common ownership". The U.S. antitrust


angiogenesis include thrombin, protease-activated receptors (PARs) and fibrin. These pathways are schematically represented in figure 1 [4]. While angiogenesis is the central link between blood coagulation and tumorigenesis, coagulation products (via pathways other than those related to angiogenesis) may also promote tumor growth. Clotting-dependent pathways of tumor angiogenesis likely involve activation of the TF receptor via ligand binding, followed by downstream production of thrombin and ensuing clot formation. Clotting-independent pathways appear to involve phosphorylation of the cytoplasmic domain of the TF receptor and subsequent downstream signaling events that occur independent of thrombin production or clot formation, and possibly even independent of ligand activation [5, 7] (fig. 2). The cytoplasmic tail of TF appears to regulate non-clotting-dependent mechanisms, including cytoskeletal reorganization, vascular remodeling, angiogenesis and cellular metastasis [6–9]. Following extracellular binding of the TF receptor, the actin-binding protein 280 (ABP-280) is recruited to the cytoplasmic tail where it participates in the assembly of actin filaments [8]. The carboxyl terminus of ABP-280 associates with the Patients who present with idiopathic venous thromboembolism (VTE) frequently harbor an occult cancer that does not become clinically evident until months or perhaps years later. Although Professor Armand Trousseau first documented this link between coagulation and malignancy in 1865 [1], the mechanisms underlying the association have only recently started to become more apparent. The key mediator of this link appears to be tissue factor (TF), the ubiquitous 47 kd membrane protein receptor for factor VII (and factor VIIa) in the clotting cascade that is overexpressed in tumor cells, tumor-associated macrophages and tumor-associated endothelial cells. In addition to its role in the mediation of VTE in cancer, expression of TF by aberrant (angiogenic) endothelial cells may also be of critical importance both as a novel marker and as a regulator of tumor angiogenesis. Therefore, TF appears to be a useful target for so-called 'vascular targeting agents' [2], many of which will be discussed in this first session of the meeting. TF may regulate tumor growth, diapedesis of tumor cells across endothelial barriers and tumor angiogeneis [3–5]. The function of TF in tumor angiogenesis, which is essential for tumor growth and metastasis, is mediated via both clotting-dependent and -independent pathways [3–7]. Other


e11580 Background: This study analyzed clinical results of video-assisted breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer.

METHODS
Video-assisted breast-conserving surgery is indicated for breast cancer that has not invaded the skin. A skin incision is made at an inconspicuous site. Skin-sparing partial mastectomy was performed endoscopically on 244 patients (stage I, n=94; stage II, n=150). Morbidity, curability and patient satisfaction were analyzed.

RESULTS
Skin necrosis was seen in 9 patients. Local recurrence was seen in 13 patients (mean postoperative interval, 65.3 months). Distant metastasis-free survival at 60 months was 93.6% for stage I and 90.5% for stage II. Overall survival was 95.7% for stage I and 96.9% for stage II. Satisfaction with surgery as investigated by questionnaire was "good" for 72.3% of patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Video-assisted breast-conserving surgery showed no increases in local or distant recurrence and patient satisfaction was high. Video-assisted breast-conserving surgery appears useful for local treatment of breast cancer. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


[Objective]To explore the bleeding location and treatment of epistaxis by the way of endoscopy.[Methods]A total of 721 patients who were treated by the way of endoscopy in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed.[Results]The bleeding points were found in the following different sites:anteroinferior part of nasal septum(35.64%,257/721),superior wall of inferior nasal meatus(24.83%,179/721),olfactory cleft of nasal septum(13.31%,96/721),inner of middle nasal meatus(3.88%,28/721),posterosuperior wall of middle nasal meatus(2.50%,18/721) and uncertain(9.29%,67/721).[Conclusion] The treatment of epistaxis by endoscopy is one of the most effective methods,of which the bleeding location should be carefully searched.For the location of olfactory cleft,middle nasal meatus and uncertain,the endoscopy combined with displacement of the middle and inferior turbinate gives good visualization.


Different cultures with their own advantages and disadvantages, rather than oppositional, are complementary and interrelated. As mainstream of international research is frequently from a 'Western' perspective and under a 'Western' criterion, to avoid a fragmented view, in this paper, we attempted to give an "insider's perspective" of an "indigenous" pedagogical practice. This "indigenous" practice, appearing rarely in the West, is typically regarded as a natural strategy to deepen the understanding in local curriculum as a daily routine. The practice, namely, variation problems, are known widely in Chinese mathematics curricula as "One Problem, Multiple Solutions" (OPMS, 一題多解,varying solutions), "Multiple Problems, One Solution" (MPOS,多 題一解, varying presentations), and "One Problem, Multiple Changes" (OPMC,一題多變,varying conditions and conclusions). This paper critically looks into the "indigenous" practice, its theoretical implications, and its cultural grounds, including the goal of examination, the goal of the national curricula, and the goal of pedagogy. It might enable us to see which parts of educational processes the different educational systems can learn from each other in a more integrative perspective.


Here it is demonstrated that the tetraphenylethene moiety, a typical AIE luminogen, can act as a receptor instead of a transducer in a MOF to enable turn-on ammonia detection. The CuI-based MOF, normally vulnerable to ammonia attack, is protected by network entanglement and shows good stability, selectivity and recyclability. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the AIE phenomenon usually active in solution is also valid at the solid–liquid interface, and the AIEgen works even better in a MOF than in solution for calibrating solvent viscosity with a favorable linear response.


ABSTRACT This study investigates the affordances of Exploratory Practice to engage the teacher and students in dialogically researching cultures and intercultural issues in a language classroom. Aiming to engage students in learning about the world from Taiwan's diplomatic allies, the central classroom puzzle involved whether such engagement facilitated students' development of intercultural competence. The instructional procedures consisted of four stages: Setting the stage, Establishing a common ground, Joint construction, and Continuous learning. Stage-by-stage analysis revealed that students were able to take the role of co-researchers in the learning process and engage in learning about the customs and values of other countries. A sense of global citizenship was also developed in which students felt they were responsible for making this world a better place. This study ends by calling for more practitioner research like Exploratory Practice to encourage more dialogues between teachers and students.


Aspheric surface testing would be greatly facilitated if the requirement for a null condition were removed. Testing an optic in a non-null configuration introduces aberrations into the wavefront. The wavefront measured at the sensor is different from the wavefront initially produced by the test surface, and the interferometer must be calibrated if useful measurements of aspheres are to be made. One potential calibration technique is reverse optimization, where a lens design program is used to retrieve the prescription of the interferometer. Various problems in modeling an interferometer, and potential solutions, are discussed. A defocused sphere was used to generate a non-null wavefront with 100(lambda) of departure at the surface. The reverse optimization results matched the experimental data to better than (lambda) /4 PV.


The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of temperatures and O 2 and CO 2 partial pressures on the quality of 'Pink Lady' apples (Malus domestica Borkh.) during controlled atmosphere storage. The following treatments were evaluated: 1.5kPa of O 2 + 1.0kPa of CO 2 at –0.5°C, and 1.5kPa of O2 + 1.0kPa of CO 2; 1.5kPa of O 2 + 2.0kPa of CO 2 ; 1.0kPa of O 2 + 1.0kPa of CO 2 ; 1.0kPa of O 2 + <0.5kPa of CO 2 ; cold atmosphere (20.8kPa of O2 + <0.5kPa of CO2) at +0.5°C. Quality evaluations were carried out after nine months of storage followed by seven days of shelf-life at 20°C. Fruits kept at controlled atmosphere conditions showed the lowest occurrence of rots, the highest flesh firmness and the highest total soluble solid, compared to cold stored fruits. The best partial pressure to keep the quality of 'Pink Lady' apple were 1.5kPa of O2 + 1.0kPa of CO 2 at –0.5°C, and 1.5kPa of O 2 + 1.0kPa of CO 2 ; 1.5kPa of O 2 + 2.0kPa of CO 2 at +0.5oC. On the other hand, the partial pressures 1.0kPa of O2 + 1.0kPa of CO 2 and 1.0kPa of O 2 + <0.5kPa of CO 2 showed the highest occurrence of rots and senescent breakdown incidence, respectively. Controlled atmosphere conditions, compared to cold stored, kept higher quality /


Let $\{T_t\}_{t>0}$ be a strongly continuous semigroup of positive contractions on $L_p(X,\mu)$ with $1<p<\infty$. Let $E$ be a UMD Banach lattice of measurable functions on another measure space $(\Omega,\nu)$. For $f\in L_p(X; E)$ define
$$\mathcal M(f)(x, \omega)=\sup_{t>0}\frac1t\Big|\int_0^tT_s(f(\cdot,\omega))(x)ds\Big|,\quad (x,\omega)\in X\times\Omega.$$ Then the following maximal ergodic inequality holds
$$\big\|\mathcal M(f)\big\|_{L_p(X; E)}\lesssim \big\|f\big\|_{L_p(X; E)},\quad f\in L_p(X; E).$$ If the semigroup $\{T_t\}_{t>0}$ is additionally assumed to be analytic, then $\{T_t\}_{t>0}$ extends to an analytic semigroup on $L_p(X; E)$ and $\mathcal M(f)$ in the above inequality can be replaced by the following sectorial maximal function
$$\mathcal T_\theta(f)(x, \omega)=\sup_{|{\rm arg}(z)| 0$.
Under the latter analyticity assumption and if $E$ is a complex interpolation space between a Hilbert space and a UMD Banach space, then $\{T_t\}_{t>0}$ extends to an analytic semigroup on $L_p(X; E)$ and its negative generator has a bounded $H^\infty(\Sigma_\sigma)$ calculus for some $\sigma<\pi/2$.


To construct a computer program module for CHEMPROF capable of tutoring students in the assignment of oxidation number to inorganic compounds, we have studied the constraints on oxidation number assignment and developed a model that is both reliable for computer implementation and comprehensible by students. The model strives to precisely define and circumscribe this domain and to give it a complete declarative description. This rule-based approach will allow computer-aided instruction to expand beyond the limitations of predefined drill and prescripted solutions to problems


As narrowband off-chip RF filtering is not compatible with the concept of software-defined radio (SDR), an SDR receiver must be designed to tolerate large out-of-band blockers with minimal gain compression and noise figure degradation. A recent circuit tackles this problem by dispensing with the LNA entirely. This mixer-first approach achieves impressive linearity, but at the expense of noise figure and, since such a receiver has no gain prior to down-conversion, the flicker noise corner can be unacceptably high. Other SDR attempts invariably use a noise-cancelling LNA at the front end, which provides wideband matching, however such approaches have either inadequate linearity or display too large a noise for our purposes. In this work, we propose a hybrid frequency-translational, noise-cancelling (FTNC) receiver that employs two separate down-conversion paths to enable noise cancelling with no voltage gain prior to base-band filtering. The resulting design has a sub-2dB noise figure and tolerates 0dBm blockers with no gain back-off, breaking the traditional noise-linearity trade-off common in all receivers.


The purpose of this research is to determine and analyse the supporting materials used in EFL public and private high schools; furthermore, compare the supporting materials used in public and private high schools.
This research took place in a public and a private high school in the cantons of Gonzanama and Calvas in the province of Loja. The public school, this is located in Gonzanama and it has morning and evening schedules so the students have different ages; they do not live with their parents and have to work.
On the other hand, the private institution has only daily schedule the students have similar ages besides they live with their parents.
In order to perform this investigation, the qualitative and quantitative methods were applied. After having observed five classes in each school mentioned above, the information taken from these high schools was analysed and it confirms that the use of supplementary materials for EFL classes is mostly employed by private schools than public one; therefore, there is a great variety in the use of supplementary material in these institutions.


Objective To observe the curative effect of lactobacillus complex capsules on helicobacter pylori(Hp).Methods The observed 59 cases who suffered from stomach ulcer and infected with H.pylori were divided into two groups(control group and treatment group).The treatment group(22 cases) was served with omeprazole for one week,lactobacillus complex capsules plus ulcerlmin for four weeks.The control group(37 cases) was served with omeprazole,amoxicillin and clarithromycin for one week,ulcerlmin for four weeks.When four weeks after the course of treatment,14C-Urea Breath Test and gastroscope were re-examined,and the ulcer healing rate,Hp eradication rate and the degree of inflammatory cell infiltration in gastric mucosa before and after treatment were observed.Results In the treatment group and control group,the stomach ulcer healing rates were 86.36% and 91.88% and the Hp eradication rates were 72.73% and 81.08%,respectively.Compared with the control group,the healing rates and the eradication rates in the treatment group had no significant difference(P0.05).The degree of inflammatory cell infiltration in mucosa was better improved after treatment in the two groups(P0.05).Conclusions The effect of lactobacillus complex capsules on controlling Hp infection is similar to that of antibiotics.


This research background is about ilegal distribution and abuse of drugs that it has become a
crime on an international scale. As a student city, Yogyakarta is not spared from the circulation
and misuse of narcotics and illegal drugs so that the necessary role of the police in narcotics
crime solving process. The purpose of this research is to know how police investigate and
solving the crime of narcotics and drugs, and what problem encountered in this case especially in
Sleman jurisdiction of District Court, Yogyakarta. Normative legal research that focuses on
positive norms of law about Indonesian police are used for this research methode. Police began
investigating the role of the information society or police members, then inflicted or made a
report the information later published a warrant investigation. After the investigation was
conducted and the results of the investigation has arranged, and than if it is true that such
information leads to drug abuse so it can be done and continued to narcotics criminal
investigations process. Encountered that found in this case is about minimum number of
investigator, minimum information about drugs case, and many more perpetrators of the drugs
crime. knowledge about drugs sould be given to increase inversigation process. Book about kind
of drugs also required to educate public and community that can help police to give information
about drugs crime. More investigator sould be added to minimalize drugs criminal case.
Education should be given to the investigators about kind of narcotics and drugs.


Dear Editors, Phenytoin, a well-known medicine for seizures, has been reported to have a positive therapeutic impact on diabetic foot ulcers in recent years through external application because of the enhancement of fibroblast proliferation (1,2), collagen production (1,2) and granulation tissue formation (1). The agent has gained increasing clinical attention because it is inexpensive and easy to apply and its advantage of shortening wound healing time (1) as compared with the conventional


VATS is being widely used nowadays in thoracic surgeries. One lung ventilation (OLV) is a technique routinely used in thoracic anesthesia to facilitate thoracic surgery. Double-lumen tubes (DLT) remain the most popular and reliable choice for one lung ventilation especially in adult patients.

 To evaluate single lung ventilation as an alternative to conventional ventilation in video assisted thoracoscopic lung surgeries despite the claimed intra operative and post-operative hypoxemia which could be avoided or even minimized by changing ventilatory setting.

 After approval of anaesthesiology department scientific and ethical committees in Ain Shams University Hospitals, Patients were included in the study in form of two equal groups (each of 30 patients). Group A: (no.=30) Patients did lung surgeries with single lung ventilation using double lumen endotracheal tube. Group B: (no.=30) Patients did lung surgeries with two lung ventilation using conventional single lumen endotracheal tube (two lung ventilation).

 In our study it was found that intraoperative hypoxemia (SaO2 < 90%) occurred during some cases of single lung ventilation in 4 out of 30 cases. However, it was irrelevant to any other intraoperative or post-operative complication. Moreover, it was irrelevant to post-operative arterial oxygen saturation or any end organ complication. In our study also all comorbidities which can affect arterial oxygen saturation were excluded from the study from the start. However, better studies are urgently needed to investigate an individual "best oxygen content" concept for each patient undergoing one-lung ventilation.

 The result of this study comparing single lung ventilation versus to lung ventilation in video assisted thoracoscopic surgeries concerning mainly intraoperative and post-operative hypoxia demonstrated that intra operative hypoxia occurred in some cases of single lung ventilation. However, this intraoperative hypoxia was irrelevant to post-operative hypoxia or any intraoperative or post-operative complications. So, our study recommends that using DLT for one lung ventilation is ideal for video assisted thoracoscopic lung surgeries, providing better surgical field, lesser surgery duration and better surgeon satisfaction.


The 2005 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Quantum Electronics and Laser Science and the Photonic Applications Systems and Technologies conference showcased more than 1,600 talks on the latest breakthroughs in optical research and applications.


Doped ZnO:Al thin films were deposited on glass substrates by the solgel dip technique. Optical parameters such as the refractive index and the extinction coefficient tend to change with increasing annealing temperature.


A Boolean function P from $\{ {0,1} \}^\prime $ into $\{ {0,1} \}$ is said to be evasive, if every decision-tree algorithm for evaluating P must examine all t arguments in the worst case. It was known that any nontrivial monotone bipartite graph property on vertex set $V \times W$ must be evasive, when $|V| \cdot |W|$ is a power of a prime number. In this paper, we prove that every nontrivial monotone bipartite graph property is evasive.


There are reported statistically apparent differences between some msequences and their reciprocal m-sequences, observed in simulations of 1-dimensional random walk functional, such as maxima and sojourn times of sample paths. Less attention to differences between m-sequences and their reciprocal sequences has been paid in most of theoretical and empirical researches. Algebraic theoretical explanation of these results seems to be a very difficult problem, because the feedback polynomial of a reciprocal m-sequence is the reciprocal polynomial of that of the corresponding m-sequence, and because the algebraic properties of a polynomial and those of its reciprocal polynomial are considered to be similar. Keyword: m-sequence, reciprocal polynomial, reciprocal m-sequence, random walk tests.


Bell Miners Manorina melanophrys are cooperative breeders and occur in discrete colonies. A colony comprised a number of breeding pairs occupying slightly overlapping foraging ranges that they shared with non-breeding offspring and immigrants. All nests belonging to a breeding pair were built within the pair's combined foraging ranges. Males remained in the natal colony until they gained a breeding position, whereas females generally dispersed to another colony. The area of an individual's foraging range did not vary significantly with its age, sex or breeding status. Helpers regularly travelled outside their foraging ranges to provision young belonging to a range of different breeding pairs. The individuals helping one breeding pair were not a mutually exclusiveset of individuals from those helping other breeding pairs within a colony. As such the social organisation of the Bell Miner does not fit within current classifications of breeding systems, but closely resembles that of the Noisy Miner M. rnelanocephala. Bell Miners exhibited extreme interspecific territoriality that resulted in almost total exclusion of all other avian species from the colony's territory. Males performed more acts of interspecific aggression than females. The extreme degree of exclusion achieved by Bell Miners may represent a benefit only attainable through cooperative group-defence of a resource.


ABSTRACT Alternative sigma (σ) factors and phosphotransferase systems (PTSs) play pivotal roles in the environmental adaptation and virulence of Listeria monocytogenes. The growth of the L. monocytogenes parent strain 10403S and 15 isogenic alternative σ factor mutants was assessed in defined minimal medium (DM) with PTS-dependent or non-PTS-dependent carbon sources at 25°C or 37°C. Overall, our results suggested that the regulatory effect of alternative σ factors on the growth of L. monocytogenes is dependent on the temperature and the carbon source. One-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) showed that the factor "strain" had a significant effect on the maximum growth rate (μmax), lag phase duration (λ), and maximum optical density (ODmax) in PTS-dependent carbon sources (P < 0.05) but not in a non-PTS-dependent carbon source. Also, the ODmax was not affected by strain for any of the three PTS-dependent carbon sources at 25°C but was affected by strain at 37°C. Monitoring by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that transcript levels for lmo0027, a glucose-glucoside PTS permease (PTSGlc-1)-encoding gene, were higher in the absence of σL, and lower in the absence of σH, than in the parent strain. Our data thus indicate that σL negatively regulates lmo0027 and that the increased μmax observed for the ΔsigL strain in DM with glucose may be associated with increased expression of PTSGlc-1 encoded by lmo0027. Our findings suggest that σH and σL mediate the PTS-dependent growth of L. monocytogenes through complex transcriptional regulations and fine-tuning of the expression of specific pts genes, including lmo0027. Our findings also reveal a more important and complex role of alternative σ factors in the regulation of growth in different sugar sources than previously assumed.


Through data analysis of baking start-up for new baking methods about 400 kA large pre-baked aluminum smelting cell,the conclusions is obtained,that it is an good effect for baking,saving a lot of energy,reducing the cost of baking,as well as running aluminum smelting cell in good condition,so as to obtain good economic benefits.


The intraperitoneal administration of heat-aggregated sheep γ-globulin to mice caused a greater than sixfold decline in serum complement. Decomplementation significantly decreased the mean time to death of mice infected intraperitoneally with Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, but final mortality in normal and decomplemented groups of mice was similar. When the challenge bacteria were pretreated with fresh mouse serum, decomplementation had no effect and mice survived a lethal challenge of serum-treated organisms. This protective property was removed by heating the mouse serum to 56° for 30 minutes. Decomplementation did not affect the progress of Erysipelothrix infection in mice with acquired antibody. This suggests that complement protects by opsonization.


Traditional programming, execution and optimization techniques have been shown to be inadequate to exploit the features of computer processors with many cores. In particular, previous research shows that traditional paradigms are insufficient to harness the opportunities of manycore processors: (1) traditional execution models do not provide constructs rich enough to express parallel programs, (2) traditional analysis tools allow little insight into the performance of parallel programs and (3) traditional programming and execution tools only offer awkward ways to execute parallel programs. This thesis addresses those problems with the introduction of TIDeFlow, a parallel execution model aimed at efficient execution and development of High Performance Computing (HPC) programs in manycore processors. The following are the main contributions of this thesis: 1. The formulation of a parallel execution model that is able to exploit the features present in manycore processors. 2. The development of several highly scalable algorithms and a technique to analyze their throughput. 3. The implementation of the TIDeFlow toolchain, including a programming model and a distributed runtime system.


We consider the problem of accurate in-body ranging for localization of a wireless capsule endoscope utilizing ultra-wide band (UWB) signaling. In this context, we explore the joint use of neural network structures and learning algorithms based on metaheuristics, an example of which is particle swarm optimization (PSO). The contributions of this paper are three-fold. First, we undertake a systematic performance analysis of the PSO technique for UWB-based in-body ranging and propose an improved version of the PSO algorithm. Second, we quantitatively compare the performance of PSO techniques against more traditional learning algorithms, such as Bayesian Regularization, Levenberg-Marquardt and Single Conjugate Gradient. Third, we quantify the impact of activation functions used to define the neural network structure on performance. Our results indicate that PSO-based techniques can outperform traditional techniques by as much as 40%, depending on the activation functions used in the neural network.


Communication is not necessarily made se- cure by the use of encryption alone. The mere existence of communication is often enough to raise suspicion and trigger investigative actions. Covert channels aim to hide the very existence of the communication. The huge amount of data and vast number of different protocols in the Internet makes it ideal as a high-bandwidth vehicle for covert communications. Covert channels are hidden inside pre-existing overt communication by encoding additional semantics onto 'normal' behaviours of the overt channels. We have developed CCHEF - a flexible and extensible software framework for evaluating covert channels in network protocols. The framework is able to establish covert channels across real networks using real overt traffic, but can also emulate covert channels based on overt traffic previously collected in trace files. In this paper we present the design and implementation of CCHEF. Index Terms—Covert Channels, Network Protocols


This topic is about the basic theory and composition of power VDMOS,covering the wide application for power electronic devices,the request for silicon epitaxy material and the development direction in the future.According to the demands for the epitaxial wafer,by optimizing the epitaxial process and parameter,we have eliminated or weakened the effect by self-dopant on resistivity uniformity,dispelled the impact by transition zone on thickness uniformity,well removed the configuration defect and,finally produced the demanded epitaxy material with large size.Meanwhile,our serious study,which is on the relationship between parameter of silicon epitaxy material and the electronic property parameter of VDMOS device,has laid a solid foundation for the development and popularity of power devices.


Decorative patterns on the railings of Yangtze River Bridge in Wuhan are composed of fringe-like patterns,diamond-shaped patterns of auspicious cloud and forty-eight different patterns of animals and plants.This paper elaborates material and design of the railings as well as names,involving species and composition of decorative patterns.Popular concise and refined,patterns represent the images by associating "xiang" with "yi",which accords with the pursuit of artistic image in Chinese traditional artistic ideology.


Celery (Apium graveolens L.) is a vegetable belonging to the Apiaceae family that is widely used for its distinct flavor and contains a variety of bioactive metabolites with healthy properties. Some celery ecotypes cultivated in specific territories of Italy have recently attracted the attention of consumers and scientists because of their peculiar sensorial and nutritional properties. In this work, the volatile profiles of white celery "Sedano Bianco di Sperlonga" Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) ecotype, black celery "Sedano Nero di Torricella Peligna" and wild-type celery were investigated using head-space solid-phase microextraction combined with gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC-MS) and compared to that of the common ribbed celery. Exploratory multivariate statistical analyses were conducted using principal component analysis (PCA) on HS-SPME/GC-MS patterns, separately collected from celery leaves and petioles, to assess similarity/dissimilarity in the flavor composition of the investigated varieties. PCA revealed a clear differentiation of wild-type celery from the cultivated varieties. Among the cultivated varieties, black celery "Sedano Nero di Torricella Peligna" exhibited a significantly different composition in volatile profile in both leaves and petioles compared to the white celery and the prevalent commercial variety. The chemical components of aroma, potentially useful for the classification of celery according to the variety/origin, were identified.


The visual display is the key to successful simulation and has been the subject of many intensive investigations. In the driving simulator it is desirable to present all of the normal visual environment to the driver--an unprogrammed display on a hemispherical screen in full color, fine detail, brightness, and stereoscopic vision. Unfortunately, the present state of the art in this field is still far from this goal. The following is a brief review of the most suitable techniques.


Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is one of the most common chronic autoimmune diseases characterized by islet autoimmunity. This is followed by immune destruction of the β-cells as T cells attack and destroy insulin-secreting pancreatic β cells, leading to insulin deficiency. Currently, life-long insulin therapy is the primary treatment option for the condition with research being centered around islet transplantation to restore glycemic stability. However, this procedure is limited by risks and supply shortages, highlighting the need for a safer, more effective therapy for the approximately 9 million people across the world with Type 1 Diabetes. This literature review serves to assess stem cells and their potential as a vast β-cell supply towards the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. Stem cells may differentiate to become a self-renewing β-cell line that may reverse Type 1 Diabetes; however, further studies expanding on encapsulation techniques, methods whereby living cells are entrapped in semi-permeable membranes for the purpose of disease treatment, are required. With this new horizon of possibilities, targeted efforts towards stem cell manipulation in expressing β-cell phenotype can pave the way for a highly efficacious treatment for Type 1 Diabetes.


The aim of this work was to determine the level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) in singed cowhides and charcoal grilled meat (suya) commonly consumed in Nigeria. The study area covered major markets in Umuahia. A total number of ten PAH (naphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene and chrysene) were investigated in singed cowhide and grilled lean meat samples. The PAHs were identified using gas chromatographic fitted with a flame ionization detector. Seven out of ten PAHs in the barbecued charcoal grilled meat (suya) were below the instrument detection limit while the levels of Naphthalene, Acenaphylene and Flourene found in the samples were 9260 μg/kg, 9920 μg/kg and 2565 μg/kg respectively. However only Naphthalene (1.624 μg/kg) were found in the singed cow hide. This study confirms the presence of PAHs in barbecued charcoal grilled meat and singed cowhide.


This paper is about the mode estimation of randomly switching linear systems. We follow up on previous results, where we posed the problem in a way which is well fitted for a worst-case analysis. The aforementioned investigation relies on a divergence measure and several other quantities, such as the entropy rate of the mode switching as well as the power ratio between the system's excitation and the measurement noise. In this article we ascribe a natural interpretation to such divergence measure, while establishing a connection to rate-distortion theory. We also explore why and in what form estimation fidelity is affected by the entropy rate of the mode switching. Additionally, this analysis suggests that such entropy rate must be regarded as a fundamental quantity in the determination of the estimation fidelity.


In the present paper scale parameter families with a bounded parameter interval are considered. The value of a s t r ict ly monotone function of the parameter is to be estimated. I t is shown that the minimax estimator under squared error loss is Bayes with respect to a two point prior i f the parameter interval is small enough. 1. Notation and introduction Let X" denote an observable random variable with density o J fo(0>x) = eg(ex) , χ e )K , where W = (0,») or )K = 1R and the unknown parameter θ i s an element of AMS 1980 subject classif ications (1985): Primary: 62 C 20; Secondary: 62 F 10


Face recognition is one of the most important problems of verifying or identifying a face from query image or input image. This system has emerged as an important field in case of surveillance systems. Face detection is a very powerful tool for video surveillance, human computer interface, face recognition, and image database management. Occlusion means extraneous objects that hinder face recognition, e.g., face covered with scarf, wearing glasses, beard, cap etc., is one of the greatest challenges in face recognition systems. Other issues are illumination, pose, expressions etc. An efficient method is used for detection of occlusions, which specifies the missing information in the occluded face. Method used for face detection is Viola-Jones algorithm, for occlusion detection and reconstruction of face fast weighted PCA is used are Neural Network (NN) is used for face recognition. Other appropriate methods are Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Eigenfaces. Propose method which is used will detect occluded face and recognize the face with the help of given same faces from the database.


This paper investigates the application of agent and multi-agent technologies in power system post fault recover system. Based on the introduction of the concepts of the agent and multi-agent system,the paper deploys the agent technology to analyze recover system structure and implementation,and discusses the function,structure,implementation technology and relevant decision rules of recover manage agent,system tracking and fault location agent,recover planning agent,and so on.This paper contributes to the fundamental theory of the power system post fault recover system based on the multi-agent technologies.An example analysis shows that the proposed method is of effectiveness and correctness.


The relevance of the research is primarily due to the fact that most of the aspects of the development of local government in China, despite a number of errors and Chinese specifics, do not cease to be of interest to many countries, especially the States of the post-Soviet space. In this regard, the author has attempted to analyze the formation and functioning of local organs of state administration in China. In the course of the research, the author found that local self-government in China began to be built as an institution in the early 1950s, and finally formed in the 2000s, despite the fact that community traditions in the agricultural areas of China began to take shape during the ruling Western Han dynasty. The most important reason why various aspects of Chinese local self-government attract the attention of domestic sinologists is the annually increasing global role of the PRC in global political and economic processes. In this combination, it is obvious that the system of local government of the PRC is unique and effective, and the experience of the PRC in the formation and organization of the functioning of the local government system can be used by the Russian Federation in the process of optimizing local government.


A Genetic Algorithm (hereinafter GA) based optimum design algorithm and program for plane steel frames with partially restrained connections is presented. The algorithm was incorporated with the refined plastic hinge analysis method, in which geometric nonlinearity was considered by using the stability functions of beam-column members and material nonlinearity was considered by using the gradual stiffness degradation model that included the effects of residual stress, moment redistribution by the occurrence of plastic hinges, partially restrained connections, and the geometric imperfection of members. In the genetic algorithm, a tournament selection method and micro-GAs were employed. The fitness function for the genetic algorithm was expressed as an unconstrained function composed of objective and penalty functions. The objective and penalty functions were expressed, respectively, as the weight of steel frames and the constraint functions which account for the requirements of load-carrying capacity, serviceability, ductility, and construction workability. To verify the appropriateness of the present method, the optimum design results of two plane steel frames with fully and partially restrained connections were compared.


A team of experts of The Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) in Prague (Department of Gas, Coke and Air Protection) deal with the significance of natural gas drying, give an overview of technologies for natural gas drying used in the world, and provides information on the pros and cons of different technological processes and possible applications thereof.


It is difficult to determine whether ternary lithium-ion batteries (t-LIBs) were the "source" of the actual fire scene because of the little available direct evidence left after thermal runaway combustion of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and the lack of relevant analytical methods for t-LIBs after complete combustion. As a result, a large number of fires involving t-LIBs are controversially identified as the cause every year. In this paper, we conducted experiments on the two most common thermal runaway types of t-LIBs to investigate the correlation model between their combustion products and thermal runaway types. In the case of overcharge, the combustion products (black powder) of t-LIBs contain aluminum elements, which may be due to the thermal reaction of aluminum. In contrast, in the case of heating, the combustion products of t-LIBs have almost no detectable elemental aluminum. The reason may be due to the ability of the electrode material to continuously decompose and precipitate a large amount of metal oxides under the overcharge condition, which constitutes the condition for the occurrence of the aluminum thermal reaction, making the presence of Al2O3 in the combustion products. However, the lack of continuous current action under the heating condition prevents the generation of the aluminum thermal reaction.


With the development of the tourism consumption demand and restricts of present vacation system to Chinese tourism, this paper expounds the urgency of implementing the salaried vacation system and puts forward a standpoint that the system is good for dealing with the contradiction between the increasing consumption demand of tourism and lacking of spare time, so that advancing tourism in China to develop further.


The growth considerations of fiscal policy reflecting budgetary imbalances, public debt evolution and methods of government finance, as well as the policy ensuing dynamic effects of the transition path toward equilibrium positions continue to be the dominant issues in international macroeconomics. Of paramount importance in both theoretical advances and empirical strategies is the crucial issue of fiscal austerity, and particularly its self-defeating attributes, as a means to correcting budget deficits while maintaining the sustainability of national debt, in conjunction to the worldwide impact of financial recession along with the procyclicality bias of the fiscal authorities, fraught with political-economy vagaries emerging in the process, which challenged many of the founding tenets of the traditional macrofinancial policy mix in smoothing aggregate demand and supporting a solid recovery trajectory with viable output growth rates and employment prospects. The core purpose of the present policy paper, reflecting upon the continuously traumatic Greek experience with persistently large imbalances in the general accounts of public finances, is to work as a notional bridge, by reconciling descriptive analyses with prescriptive methodologies, and as such produce a somewhat convenient basis for theoretical advances in the research field of appropriately defined fiscalist rules and effectively designed debt stabilisation policies. In accomplishing such a hybrid task, it adopts an over-simplistic arithmetic exercise underlying the stock-flow adjustment of pertinent policy variables and then, through a macro-financial approach to assessing the rate of interest impact and wealth effects of governmental sovereign finance, under conditions of both (im)perfect substitutability between domestic and foreign assets, for private capital accumulation and aggregate output productivity, it advances the relevant policy issues by recourse to a formal growth-modelling analysis of the equilibrium fundamentals aimed at addressing internalexternal imbalances, arising from varying budgetary constraints and accordingly adaptable debt stabilisation rules, hence ensuring the corresponding solvency constraint, and thereby underpinning the newer steady-state economy that helps enhance a rather modified index characterising the fiscal-growth nexus. Such a fiscal policy rationale on the output growth-debt dynamics interplay, although open to several alternative interpretations upon structural functional modifications, might prove both theoretically informative and technically consistent, perhaps optimistically, for conducting a conclusive policy design enriched with a robust flavour of practical applicability.


Evaluating performance of signalized intersections is very important in traffic congestion management. Some typical methods, such as Highway Capacity Manual's average vehicle delay based Level of Service estimation method, have been proposed, and these methods use vehicle delay to index the commuters' time waiting and discomfort feeling directly. However, vehicle delay is often estimated approximately by various mathematical models and uses a few detection traffic data. After traffic detecting systems have been installed, it is easy to acquire and store traffic data. But few previous evaluation methods have adequately made use of the massive data, especially the historical traffic data. In this paper, a novel performance evaluation method based on data mining techniques for signalized intersections is proposed. This method represents the operating condition of signalized intersections based on a so-called pseudo traffic flow-occupancy model. Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm is adopted to extract features from massive data. Then Congestion Changing Index (CCI) is defined to indicate the change of congestion level quantificationally. Experiments carried on typical signalized intersections show that this proposed model method and feature extracting algorithm is feasible, the CCI result is effective especially when it is carried out on evaluating the congestion level changing after control scheme adjusting. All of these experiments data are from loop detectors of Beijing's urban traffic control system.


Observation of the expansion history of the universe allows exploration of the physical properties and energy density of the universe's various constituents. Standardizable candles such as Type Ia supernovae remain one of the most promising and robust tools in this endeavor by allowing for a direct measure of the luminosity distance-redshift curve and thereby producing detailed studies of the dark energy responsible for the universe's currently accelerating expansion. As such observations are pushed to higher redshifts, the observed flux is increasingly affected by gravitational lensing magnification due to intervening structure along the line of sight. We simulate and analyze the non-Gaussian probability distribution function of deamplification and amplification due to lensing of standard candles, quantify the effect of a convolution over many independent sources (which acts to restore the intrinsic average [unlensed] luminosity due to flux conservation), and compute the additional uncertainty due to lensing on derived cosmological parameters. We find that, in the case of large numbers of sources, the lensing distribution along any particular line of sight can be approximated by a Gaussian with standard deviation given by σeff = 0.088z as a function of redshift z. The resulting "degradation factor" due to lensing is a factor of 3 reduction in the effective number of usable supernovae at z = 1.5 (for sources with intrinsic flux dispersion of 10%).


Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company, is leading the development and integration of the Vehicle Health Management (VHM) system for Lockheed Martin's VentureStar Reusable Launch Vehicle. The primary objective of this effort is to provide an automated health status and decision-making system for the vehicle. A detailed simulation of the VHM system on RLV is currently being developed using the Foresight Design and Modeling Tool. The simulation will consists of models of key components of the RLV VHM system. An effective detailed system simulation will allow for system and design engineering, as well as program management teams, to accurately and efficiently system designs, analyze the behavior of current systems, and predict the feasibility of making smooth and cost-efficient transitions form older technologies to newer ones. This methodology will reduce program costs, decrease total program life-cycle time, and ultimately increase mission success.


The effect of solar flares on the weather on Earth is examined. It is concluded that the processes which arise in the atmosphere are so intricate that a single calculation of solar activity is insufficient for long-range forecasting. However, combined consideration of processes dependent upon the dynamic instability of the atmosphere and the effect of solar activity will contribute to the improvement of long-range forecasts.


The training process of the highly skilled technical specialist adaptive control system possibilities and principles are considered in this article. It is noted that training structuring allows for separating management functions at different stages of training and also for considering individual models of educational process adaptive management. The rational methods and control actions types are offered on the selected training stages.


The article characterizes the bases of the organization of physical culture recreational work in micro district on the basis of an average comprehensive school as the regular activity integrating educational work, work with parents, out-of-class physical training.


The utility model provides a filter with a settling tube, which comprises a Y-shaped filter. The structure is characterized in that the settling tube, in which a plurality of downward sloping plates is disposed, is connected under the Y-shaped filter. The utility model has the following advantages: the filter is simply structured and easy to operate; the utility model can filter and precipitate the big and small filth in the water recycle system in time, prevent the block-up of the filter gauze, and has a strong capability of holding the filth, so that the filtering efficiency is improved and the filth discharge period is prolonged; the water resource is saved, the human labor and material use are reduced, and the safe and economic operation of the entire system is ensured.


Rene Descartes and Francois Viete were the first to deal substantially with the modeling of polynomial equations, but to date no one saw in these works anything more than remarkable constructions. The model presented here briefly is the natural continuation of the model discovered by Viete for the cubic equation.


The current problems of the international family law are identified and analyzed with the help of common logical methods such as analysis, synthesis, abstraction and generalization, as well as a comparative method that provides an opportunity to analyze, clarify, define and explicate the main issues on international family law. As a result of the study, it is determined that in each state legal norms, having their long historical and religious roots, the existence of customs and traditions reflecting the each nation and a certain community specifics, are the very circumstance preventing the unification of material and even (although in a much lesser degree) collison rules within the international family law. Differences are found in virtually all institutions of family law, while the very set of institutions coincides in many respects. The actual problems of the international family law are associated with "unstable" marriages and divorces, as well as the issues related to the spouses in divorce rights implementation.


The vehicle body side-wall of high-speed train is one of the key parts for vehicle body,its manufacturing quality directly affects the appearance,safety and reliability of train running.With regard to above problem,the PowerMILL software is used for NC machining simulation and validation in one of the high-speed train body side-walls,the simulation system can effectively detect the over-cutting and collision of the tool with the workpiece during side-wall machining.The data measuring result at the manufacturing site shows that the implementation of this machining improvement plan has significantly improved the quality and one-time success rate of the vehicle body side-wall manufacturing,and has an important engineering application value.


Yam crop is highly susceptible to Anthracnose; various research projects have been carried out into the development of anthracnose-resistant varieties. Boutou yam is one example of a disease-resistant variety; it gives high yields and thus is of high economic interest. The present study aims to optimize growing conditions and the harvesting stage of production in Martinique (F.W.I). Furthermore, the physicochemical, nutritional and sensory qualities of the harvested product are analysed. Results of the study indicate that the optimum harvesting time for Boutou is the ninth month after sowing. Harvesting at this stage gave the highest values for energy, carbohydrates and dry matter. The influence of fertilization on the physicochemical, nutritional and organoleptic qualities of Boutou was also analysed. In addition, new cultivars (of Boutou yam) were compared with the five already established cultivars - this comparison led to the conclusion that cultivars AL56 and Boutou are the best cultivars for yam production. These varieties met the expectations and preferences of the local market and had recoverable nutritional characteristics.


This paper investigates the characteristics of piano sound using the waveforms of velocity of vibration of strings, the waveforms of driving force and velocity of vibration of the soundboard, and waveforms of sound pressure. The waveforms for the investigation were generated by using a analog simulator so that the separation of conditions is easy. A pulse generated by striking a string with a hammer propagates along the string and reflects against the soundboard. This drives the soundboard producing its vibration, and a part of vibration energy radiates from the soundboard producing piano sounds. The soundboard vibration contains both forced and free vibrations. The latter is influenced by the driving point admittance of the soundboard, and this plays an important role in determining the piano timbre. Still more the characteristics of piano sound are clarified using waveforms obtained by digital simulation and their spectra.


Hexagonal Mg(OH)2 nanoflakes were synthesized via a hydrothermal method in the presence of polyethylene glycol 20000 (PEG-20000). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were applied to characterize the composition, morphologies and structure of the Mg(OH)2 nanoflakes. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis was performed to investigate the porous structure and surface area of the as-obtained nanoflakes. The transesterification of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) with phenol to produce diphenyl carbonate (DPC) was carried out over the hexagonal Mg(OH)2 nanoflakes. The evaluation results showed that the hexagonal Mg(OH)2 nanoflakes had better activity and excellent selectivity to target products compared with many conventional ester exchange catalysts. Compared with other catalysts, such as AlCl3, ZnCl2, and irregular Mg(OH)2 synthesized via a hydrothermal method without PEG-20000, which all have been widely used as catalysts for this transesterification reaction, Mg(OH)2 nanoflakes were more stable and showed a relatively high activity with a low catalyst amount. The transesterification reaction process was also analyzed with the classic thermodynamic theory, and when the reaction was carried out at 453 K, with a molar ratio of phenol to DMC of 2 : 1, a reaction time of 13 h, and a catalyst amount of 0.2% (molar ratio to phenol), the selectivity of the transesterification reaction reached 92.3%. Moreover, the deactivated hexagonal Mg(OH)2 nanoflakes could be easily reactivated by calcination under vacuum, and the regenerated Mg(OH)2 nanoflakes showed the catalytic activity almost as high as that of the fresh sample.


Based on the camping materials service requirements and joint support system developing trend,the paper applies the game theory in quatitative analysis of camping materials joint support benefits before and after the joint support system was set up and gives some advices on how to reform the joint support system.


The objective of the study was to assess level of physical activity, perception of barriers to practice, and stages of behavior change in visually impaired individuals of an inland city in the State of Paraná. The participants were 40 individuals with visual impairment (37.5% blind and 62.5% with low vision) of both sexes (57.5% men) aged 21-69 years (mean age 39.52 years; ± 17.58 for men and 39.88 years; ± 14.96 for women). Participants were assessed in only one moment, through three questionnaires (perception of barriers to physical activity, International Questionnaire of Physical Activity (IPAQ) short version, and stages of behavior change). According to the IPAQ results, a prevalence of 70% of physical inactivity was found. The main barriers mentioned by the interviewees were "lack of support from family and/or friends", "physical limitations" and "bad mood". In relation to the questionnaire of stages of behavior change, 50% of the subjects were in the preparation stage. The study concludes that the level of physical activity in the visually impaired is low and the main causes of this can be motivational, lack of physical fitness and psychological.


Argus is a twin beam, 20 cm output aperture, Nd:glass laser system that has delivered 4TW to a laser fusion target. This performance is based on the concepts that multiple spatial filtering can prevent beam fill factors. Damage to optics due to self focusing and filamentation does not occur on Argus. The only form of damage is induced by broadband radiation from xenon flashlamps interacting with contaminants on or in the Nd:glass. The severity of damage is measured by the fraction of the beam obscured by the damage sites. This averages 0.1% per surface or 0.75% per arm. The amount of damage does not appear to be strongly related to the number of amplifier firings and generally occurs during the first few firings.


Objective: To discuss the effect of different nursing methods on perianal skin injury of critically ill patients. Methods: 500 Critically ill patients from Jan. 2012- Jun. 2013 were randomly divided into three group,the 166 patients in blank group were received water care. The 166 patients in control group were received peristomal skin care powder. The 168 patients in the study group were received three- drugs mixed. To compare the occur of perianal skin injury after nursing 20 days. Results: The occur of perianal skin injury in study group was 15 cases,in control group was 40 cases and in blank group was 120 cases,there was statistically significant( P 0. 05). Conclusion: The three- drug mixed to the care of critical patients' perianal skin has best effectiveness and efficiency.


This paper presents an optimization based approach in order to achieve an acceptable Total Cost of Electricity (TCE). To reduce the TCE of the system which contains a PV/Wind sub-system and a battery, the conventional Genetic Algorithm (GA) based approach is used. The continuity of service requires the substitution of the production source overnight by the association of a lead-acid battery under the global system in order to control the output power by meeting the needs of consumers. By introducing the TCE as important factor, an economic evaluation is elaborated by presenting an acceptable cost of energy. The results obtained show a high level of economic feasibility by achieving a lowest TCE.


Marine organisms produce many of the pharmaceutically active natural compounds (drugs). Marine sponges are sessile invertebrates that have developed effective strategies to protect themselves against viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotic predators. Sponges are known as prolific sources of bioactive compounds that is used for the treatment of various human diseases. In most cases, the primary producers of bioactive compounds are symbiotic microorganisms hosted by marine sponges. Among the sponge-associated bacteria, Actinobacteria are of particular interest in producing antibiotics and other therapeutically significant compounds. In fact, the genus Streptomyces alone accounts for a remarkable 80% of the actinobacterial natural products reported till date. These organisms synthesize novel bioactive compounds like antibiotics, enzymes, enzyme inhibitors, pigments and their biotechnological application such as probiotics and single cell protein besides their taxonomic and ecological perspectives. With increasing advancement in science and technology, there would be greater demands in future for new bioactive compounds synthesised by Streptomyces from various marine sources.


At present, conceptual plant layout for chemical plants is mainly based on the knowledge of experienced layout engineers. The design as well as the evaluation and optimization of alternative layouts are not sufficiently supported by currently employed CAD-systems. As part of the research project a system for a conceptual plant layout consisting of the following three main points of emphasis - equipment modeling, layout modeling and pipe routing - has been developed. The positioning of the equipment within the steel structure is calculated using algorithms based on heuristic rules and process requirements. An auto-routing system then works out the pipe routing and assesses the overall construction. Subsequent cycles of optimization lead to a detail optimization of the layout or may devise alternative layouts. The comparison of the pipe layout calculated through auto-routing with an actual construction of a real plant shows a satisfactory agreement.


A systematic study of soft materials and flexible mechanics yields a soft patch capable of detecting sleep stages and sleep apnea.


Viscosity is an important parameter to reflect flow characteristic of liquid.Measurement of viscosity is widely used in various fields of aviation,aerospace,industrial,etc,so it has great economic and social benefit to have viscosity measured in time and precisely.At first,three representational conventional viscosity measurement methods are reviewed,including capillary method,rotational method and oscillating method.Secondly,two new measurement methods developed in recently years are introduced emphatically,including ultrasonic wave method and electromagnetic method.At last,the development trend of liquid viscosity measurement method is prospected.


Wearable devices have recently received considerable interest due to their potential to greatly impact health. They may stimulate a broad population to pursue life-long health enhancing physical activity, fitness and improve individual performance. A wide range of mobile devices are being developed for real-time non-invasive monitoring, for example heart rate, blood pressure, electroencephalogram. Here we review recent biomedical research utilizing wearable technology in the context of the principal areas of medicine (cardiovascular, diabetes and neurology) and some areas requiring further considerations by the field will be discussed. The doctors and the nurses must be prepared to manage the relationship with patients who more and more often will submit the mobile devices data obtained, running thus the risk of being overwhelmed by an enormous mass of information and new responsibilities in a context of greater uncertainty and confusion. Moreover, there is also the possibility that the patients excessively rely on self-monitoring and the mantra of "do-it-yourself" diagnoses, actually not very reliable and in any case not easily inferrable simply from the data analysis. In fact, there are still many uncertainties relating for example to the accuracy of the obtainable data, the treatment criteria and the actual value in terms of improvement of clinical results compared to traditional therapy.


The invention relates to a tensioner or tensioning roller device (1) for a torque transmission member. This device comprises at least one bearing (3) with an inner ring (32), an outer ring (31) and at least one row of rolling elements (33; 34) between the inner (32) and outer (31) a pulley (2) surmounting the outer ring (31) and a fixing screw (4) comprising a body (41), dedicated to be inserted into a central bore (32b) of the inner ring (32) and screw head (42). An abutment (6a) is provided at the outer periphery of body (41) of the screw (4) and a first abutment (5a) and a second abutment (5b) are provided in the bore (32b) of the inner ring ( 32). The axial length (L4) between the head (42) and the abutment (6a) of the screw (4) is equal to the axial length (L2) between a radial edge (32f) of the inner ring (32) against which the head (42) of the screw (4) is intended to come into contact and the first abutment (5a) into the bore (32b) of the inner ring (32). The axial length (L4) between the head (42) and the abutment (6a) of the screw (4) is strictly greater than the axial length (LO) between a radial edge (32d) of the inner ring (32) opposite the head (42) of the screw (4) and the second abutment (5b) into the bore (32b) of the inner ring (32). The abutment (6a) of the screw (4) comes into contact with the first abutment (5a) of the inner ring (32) upon insertion in the desired direction of the body (41) of the screw (4) in bore (32b) of the inner ring (32) but comes into contact with the second abutment (5b) of the inner ring (32) upon insertion in the unwanted direction of the body (41) of the screw (4 ).


Lack of information and resources as well as isolation cause many immigrants in Spain to end their pregnancies in abortion. In 1996 immigrants underwent some 51000 abortions including more than 6000 in the Dator Clinic in Madrid. The Dator Clinic has prepared a report showing that 17.1% of women undergoing abortion in Madrid in 1996 were immigrants nearly 50% from Latin America. The authors state that the data can be extrapolated to other large cities with similar immigration patterns. Immigrant women have many of the same motivations for abortion as native women. Nearly 60% are single and 27% have children in the country of origin whom they support with their earnings. Many would lose their jobs if they became pregnant. They lack economic and social support systems in Spain. 46% had not used contraception and many who used pills or condoms did so incorrectly reflecting their limited access to contraception programs in Spain. Their educational level is not a great impediment to contraceptive use as over 63% have secondary education. Women under 20 are a population at special risk undergoing 10% of abortions among immigrant women.


An electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an audio input module which receives the utterance of a user as a voice input, an audio output module which outputs contents corresponding to the voice input, and a processor which is set to determine the output type of the contents based on at least one among the speed of the utterance, the volume of the utterance, and a keyword included in the utterance. Besides, various embodiments grasped through a specification are possible. Accordingly, the present invention can effectively provide the contents corresponding to the voice input by analyzing the voice input by the utterance of the user.


For hybrid systems in piecewise affine (PWA) form, this paper presents a new methodology for computing the solution, defined over a set of (possibly overlapping) polyhedra, of the finite-time constrained optimal control problem based on quadratic costs. First, feasible mode sequences are determined via backward reachability analysis, and multiparametric quadratic programming is employed to determine candidate polyhedral regions of the solution and the corresponding value functions and optimal control gains. Then, the value functions associated with overlapping regions are compared in order to discard those regions whose associated control law is never optimal. The comparison problem is, in general, nonconvex and is tackled here as a DC (Difference of Convex functions) programming problem.


Robert J. Cormack and Robert D. Osborne (eds.), Discrimination and Public Policy in Northern Ireland, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. Pp.288, 37 tables, 8 figures, biblio., index. £27.50. ISBN 0–19–827519–6. John Fulton, The Tragedy of Belief: Division, Politics, and Religion in Ireland, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, Pp.260, 6 tables, biblio., index. £30. ISBN 0–19–827316–9. John E. Finn, Constitutions in Crisis: Political Violence and the Rule of Law, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Pp.274, biblio., index. £28. ISBN 0–19–505738–4.


Climate change poses a serious threat to human well-being and life on Earth. To avoid global warming's worst consequences every effort is needed, which requires cognitively, affectively and behaviorally engaging of as many of us as possible. However, climate change engagement is far from easy or simple, with manifold personal and contextual variables affecting our connection with the issue. Because of this, games and gamification have been proposed as visual, interactive, and motivating methods to support people in their engagement journey. Despite dozens of climate change-relevant digital games existing, some configurations are under-explored, including messaging frames such as health, engagement dimensions beyond knowledge, technologies such as immersive virtual reality (VR), and controlled experimental research methods. In this article, we present Climate Connected: Outbreak, a story-based single-player game for immersive VR and traditional computer screens that approaches climate change as a planetary health and well-being issue and supports players in their affective and behavioral connection to it. The game takes place in 2050 and connects day-to-day objects with systemic issues. Two versions can be played, one featuring an unnamed distant place and the other located in Tampere, Finland. The game has been used in research and has led to nuanced understandings of the players' experience, as well as learning, attitude, and self-efficacy gains.


In functional optical imaging,the very low SNR makes the sample covariance matrix have singularity,which brings the whitening the operation of the ICA denoising method to reduce the dimensionality,so the ICA denoising method will lost the signal detection ability.To resolve the problem,with the difference between the observed signals and the noise reconstructed by the initial ICA denoising method,a difference ICA(DICA) denoisng method is presented in this paper.Use the traditional filtering denoising method and the DICA denoisng method to deal with the simulated optical imaging datum in very low SNR,the results show that compared to the filtering denoising method,the DICA denoising method not only improves the denoising performance,but also can keep the output SNR while the input SNR changing.


Leukemia detection is a current area of research. The work focuses on the identification of the most suitable technique for the edge detection in the Leukemia images. Five different edge detection techniques are simulated in this work using different types of Leukemia images. Four types of Leukemia are considered and forty different Leukemia images (ten of each type) are taken for the purpose of simulation. The performance evaluation of edge detection techniques on different types of Leukemia images is assessed using various image quality metrics. The quantitative analysis is done based on the parameters PSNR, MSE and CoC. Qualitative analysis is also done for the evaluation purpose. Matlab 11b is used for the simulation. It has been observed from the test cases that Sobel operator produces better results for all the four types of the Leukemia images. The best results are produced for the images of CML type.


1. A method of detecting the desired analyte in a sample using electromagnetic wave or monochromatic beam and comprising the following steps: (I) highlight a group of samples of at least one electromagnetic wave or a monochromatic beam, the group of samples includes a plurality of samples potentially containing the desired analyte! (Ii) measuring the intensity of electromagnetic wave reflected, absorbed or emitted by a group of samples when illuminated by an electromagnetic wave and / or monochromatic beam! (Iii) register set (s) of values, correlated (correlated) with the intensity of the electromagnetic waves or monochromatic beam reflected (reflected) absorbed (absorbed) or emitted (radiated) by a group of samples, wherein the or each set of values corresponds to appropriate electromagnetic wave or monochromatic beam reflected (reflection), absorbed (absorption) or radiation (emitted) by a group of samples! (Iv) corresponded set (s) of values, correlated (correlated) with the electromagnetic wave and / or monochromatic beam! (V) it is selecting one of the sets of values corresponding to higher signal and the! (Vi) establish the presence or absence of the desired analyte from a set of values selected in step (v). ! 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that some of the samples or the samples pre-treated with a detection label, comprising enhancing agent signal. ! 3. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the desired analyte labeled substance containing enhancer signal. ! 4. The method of claim 1, wherein h


The grain size of monolayer large area graphene is key to its performance. Microstructural design for the desired grain size requires a fundamental understanding of graphene nucleation and growth. The two levers that can be used to control these aspects are the defect density, whose population can be controlled by annealing, and the gas-phase supersaturation for activation of nucleation at the defect sites. We observe that defects on copper surface, namely dislocations, grain boundaries, triple points, and rolling marks, initiate nucleation of graphene. We show that among these defects dislocations are the most potent nucleation sites, as they get activated at lowest supersaturation. As an illustration, we tailor the defect density and supersaturation to change the domain size of graphene from 100 mu m(2). Growth data reported in the literature has been summarized on a supersaturation plot, and a regime for defect-dominated growth has been identified. In this growth regime, we demonstrate the spatial control over nucleation at intentionally introduced defects, paving the way for patterned growth of graphene. Our results provide a unified framework for understanding the role of defects in graphene nucleation and can be used as a guideline for controlled growth of graphene.


A qualitative fault diagnosis method based on the bond graph model is studied. According the specific causal relationship of the relevant parameters and the variables in Bond Graph model elements, parts of all possible fault system can be derived when some observations changed. Then the future state of each possible fault can be predicted. Through compared with the observed characteristics, position fault source in the assumption of fault sets are predicted. The simulation verifies that the method is convenient and effective.


The development of research on oxidation of SiC\|based materials is reviewed. The oxidation mechanism and the effect of environment are discussed.


Books reviewed: Stuart C. Aitken, Family Fantasies and Community Space Robert M. Bone, The Regional Geography of Canada Michael R. Curry, Digital Places: Living with Geographic Information Technologies John Fraser Hart, The Rural Landscape Guntrum Herb and David Kaplan, Nested Identities: Nationalism, Territory, and Scale Klaus Frantz, Indian Reservations in the United States: Territory, Sovereignty, and Socioeconomic Change Linda Mcdowell, Gender, Identity and Place Wolfgang G. Natter, Literature at War, 1914–1940 Allen J. Scott, Regions and the World Economy Hilgard O' Reilly Sternberg, A Água e o Homem na Várzea do Careiro


We propose a positron source for future linear colliders which uses the mechanism of coherent pair creation process from the collision of a high energy electron beam and a monochromatic photon beam. We show that there is a sharp spike in the pair‐produced positron energy spectrum at an energy much lower than the primary beam energy. Thr transverse emittance is ''damped,'' yielding final positrons with lower normalized emittance than the initial electrons. Numerical examples invoking conventional lasers and Free Electron Lasers (FEL) for the photon beams are considered.


The association of coronary artery disease with smoking is well known. Peptic ulcer is commoner in smokers than in non-smokers, and smokers without an ulcer have an increased liability to its subsequent development.5-7 Ulcer morbidity and mortality vary with socioeconomic status, and, at least in Great Britain, both seem to be higher in people who are relatively impoverished.8 9 This trend is the reverse of what is popularly accepted-the hard-working executive with an ulcer-but that picture is probably based on figures published 30 years ago showing that mortality from duodenal ulcer was then distinctly greater in social class I than in any other.10 The reason for the change is unknown, but now the relationship between mortality and social class seems to be the same for gastric and duodenal ulcer and for coronary artery disease. 9 Two associations which are hard to understand include an inverse correlation between blood pressure and frequency of peptic ulcer, and an association between idiopathic gastrointestinal bleeding and aortic stenosis. The former was detected during a survey conducted in Israel, when the incidence of peptic ulcer was found to be somewhat diminished in men with relatively low diastolic blood pressures.1' The results are the same as those obtained over 40 years ago in a study conducted by Glass.12 No logical explanation seems possible. The second association, between gastrointestinal bleeding and aortic stenosis,13 may be due to ischaemic mucosal necrosis as a result of poor gastrointestinal perfusion. But, if this is so, it seems somewhat surprising that gastrointestinal bleeding is not reported more frequently as a complication of hypotensive cardiac infarction, when the insult might be expected to be more severe, even if brief.


Larch (Larix gmelinii) is the most important industrial timber species in northeastern China, and is ecological significant in boreal forest ecosystems. However, the growth of larch is often limited by nitrogen (N) availability because of slow litter decomposition rates due to low temperatures and the long winter in these northern forests. To explore the relationship between growth and soil N availability in larch, we treated one-year old larch seedlings to four different N supply levels (1, 4, 8 and 16 mmol·L -1, respectively) and measured acquisition and allocation of carbon and N. The results showed that the biomass, whole plant N concentration, whole plant N content and special N absorption rate of larch seedlings were enhanced with N supply levels. With the increase in N supply, needle and stem weight ratios and needle and stem N weight ratios increased, whereas the root weight ratio and root N weight ratio decreased. As N supply levels increased from 1 mmol·L -1 to 8 mmol·L -1, whole plant relative growth rate (RGR) increased linearly, whereas whole plant N productivity (NP_P) remained constant. At the highest N treatment (16 mmol·L -1), whole plant RGR was the same as in the 8 mmol·L -1 N treatment, but NP_P decreased significantly compared with the 8 mmol·L -1 treatment. In contrast, needle N productivity of larch seedlings exhibited a negative relationship with N supply level.


In the title coordination polymer, [Mn(4-CPOA)(2,2′-bipy)(H2O)]n [where 4-CPOA2− is 4-carboxylatophenoxyacetate (C9H6O5) and 2,2′-bipy is 2,2′-bipyridine (C10H8N2)], each MnII ion displays a distorted octahedral coordination configuration, defined by three carboxyl O atoms from two different 4-CPOA2− groups, two N atoms from the 2,2′-bipyridine ligand and one water molecule. Adjacent MnII ions are linked by carboxylate groups into a one-dimensional chain structure with a shortest Mn⋯Mn distance of 9.771 (3) A. A two-dimensional supramolecular network is constructed through O—H⋯O intermolecular hydrogen bonds and π–π stacking interactions.