The purpose of this research was to develop a picture‐story technique which would elicit positive and negative attitudes toward the reading process from high and low achieving male fifth grade readers. Fantasy material from the first sample tested was found to include such attitudes, as judged by a panel of psychologists. Using an objective scoring method with a second sample, subjects were asked to agree or disagree with the rated attitude statements, presented along with the pictures. The researcher found that the high achieving reader scored significantly higher than the low achieving readers.


Four of the most popular weight loss diets in North America yield similar but modest weight loss in the long term and their cardiovascular benefits are unclear, a systematic review of randomised controlled trials has found.

The review was published online on 11 November by the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes .1 The senior author was Mark J Eisenberg, professor of medicine at the Jewish General Hospital affiliated with McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

In their review the researchers analysed trials that looked at the effectiveness of the Atkins, South Beach, and Zone diets and the Weight Watchers programme. These three book based diets all emphasise a low carbohydrate intake, and Weight Watchers is a behaviour modification programme organised around weekly group sessions where …


BACKGROUND
The risk of pneumonia increases after stroke, especially in poststroke dysphagia patients. Propensity score matching (PSM) is a statistical method in SPSS, which can be used to balance the difference between the 2 groups of known factors. Nasogastric tube feeding is an important factor of stroke-associated pneumonia. However, few studies have used PSM to eliminate the effect of confounding factor.

METHODS
Our research was a retrospective case-control study. Retrospective review of the patient database between December 1, 2019, and June 30, 2022, to identify consecutive dysphagia patients after cerebral infarction during hospitalization. An 1:1 PSM in SPSS 25.0 was used to balance nasogastric tube feeding between patients with and without pneumonia. The characteristics of these 2 groups were analyzed. Univariate and binary logistic regression analyses were used to screen the risk factors of dysphagia after cerebral infarction.

RESULTS
After 1:1 PSM, 198 subjects met our criteria and were included in the analysis. Age [odds ratio (OR)=1.047, 95% CI: 1.013-1.081, P=0.006], stroke phase (acute stroke) (OR=5.931, 95% CI: 1.133-31.054, P=0.035), admission National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score (OR=1.058, 95% CI: 1.004-1.115, P=0.034), and length of hospital stay (OR=1.025, 95% CI: 1.001-1.049, P=0.042) had statistically significant correlation with pneumonia in patients with dysphagia after cerebral infarction.

CONCLUSION
In clinical practice, for the prevention of pneumonia in patients with dysphagia after cerebral infarction, we should pay more attention to admission National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, age, and stroke phase, especially in acute cerebral infarction patients.


The article uses psychoanalytic object relations theory to construct a way to understand why interviews in IR research – viewed here as encounters between strangers – can be felt as 'catastrophic'. The theory supports critical theoretical approaches that suggest that the world is structured through self-other relations, and argues that encounters with 'others' are unsettling because they can undermine the ways we constitute ourselves in relation to the wider world. Yet such challenges are inevitable if research is to challenge existing object constructions and the power relations that attend them. The article illustrates this argument with a detailed discussion of research interviews conducted in Zimbabwe.


Based on the genomic DNA extracted from Hemarthria compressa,the main elements,i.e.Mg~(2+)concentration,dNTP concentration,primer concentration,template DNA concentration,Taq DNA polymerase dosage on RAPD-PCR amplification and BSA concentration were tested by single factor experiment,to determine their optimal levels respectively.A reaction system suitable for H.compressa was established,that is,25 μL amplification reactions system containing 1×PCR buffer、1.5~2 mmol/L Mg~(2+)、150 μmol/L dNTP、20 ng primer、40 ng template DNA、1U Taq DNA polymerase.


When a company is realizing its own purpose, it must undertake a certain social duty at the same time, including the duty of environmental protection. The company's environmental protection duty originates from the influence of the company with realizing its purpose, with the main performance of environment moral duty and environment legal duty. For the sake of fulfilling better environmental protection measures, realizing environment equity and justice and guaranteeing the continuous development of mankind, we must enhance the environmental protection duty of social member (including company) from many aspects.


Abstract In this paper, the velocity profile and pressure gradient of the unsteady state unidirectional flow of a Maxwell fluid in a circular duct are considered. The flow motion in the duct is induced by a prescribed arbitrary inlet volume flowrate which varies with time. Based on the flow conditions described, two basic flow situation are solved; these are a suddenly started and a constant acceleration flow respectively. These two results are applied to a practical case that is a trapezoidal motion. In addition, oscillatory flow is also considered. The results show that the effect of the relaxation time, λ, of the viscoelastic fluid is only of importance when the motion is unsteady.


The expanding processes of cement slurries are considered and the assessment the dynamics of expansion is made. Results of researches of dynamics and value of expansion of the main types of the expanding additives to cement slurries for casing of oil and gas wells are presented. The analysis of various types of the expanding additives with adjustable dynamics of expansion is made and recommendations for application of expanding additives are given.


A second potential drawback is the unavoidably brief discussion of some aspects of the movement. Bebout's method of analyzing by considering a network of mytho-historical expressions works well in most cases. The discussion of Alicia Gaspar de Alba's interventions in chapter 4, for example, is excellent and especially effective. However, this method necessarily leaves some elements untouched in the more complex cases. The brief discussion of the farmworkers movement, for example, left me feeling that examination of its many unaddressed aspects might challenge Bebout's analysis, or at least foster a lively debate. Yet, this is exactly where interdisciplinary work succeeds, even as it "fails" to satisfy disciplinary norms. Historians, literary scholars, and mythologists might all feel that their domains have been given short shrift in this work. But the virtue of interdisciplinary scholarship is to bring a variety of lenses to a question in order to create new vantage points that we could not otherwise have gained. In this sense, Bebout has succeeded admirably, shedding new light on a pivotal juncture in American politics and culture. In so doing, he also highlights the advantages to be obtained by challenging the hegemony of disciplinary expectations.


In the past decade, compact components such as Chip Scale Packages and flip chips were the work horses of miniaturization. However, emerging applications are now demanding even higher packaging density. In order to fulfill this requirement, three dimensional packaging was evolved. Advantages of three dimensional packaging structure include minimal conductor length and reduce speed limiting inter chip interconnects. In the past, this packaging approach was relegated to memory devices with relatively low power (flash). Recent focus, however, has been to extend the applications of stacked packages to include high performance memory, DRAM, logic-memory stack, system in a package etc. Stacked packages can be package-on-package or die stacked (with several dice inside the same casing) or both. It is common in a mobile phone that the stacked CSP is mounted on a circuit board and there is no space for air circulation. Depending on the power, due to the torturous heat flow path, it can result in high temperatures of the packaged die and the thermal specifications of the package can be easily exceeded. Hence there is a need for thermal simulation of a variety of packaging architecture for applications of interest. The objective of this paper was to perform thermal characterization of a commercially viable PoP. In order to model this PoP, flip chip logic die package was considered as the bottom package and two memory dice stacked package was considered as the top package. Eleven different scenarios were taken into consideration for the numerical analysis. Permutations of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 1, 2 and 3 W memory die and logic die was considered respectively Additional two cases are also described. Steady state analysis was performed based on which guidelines were provided. For the analysis commercially available FEA tool was considered.


Isothermal compression of the TC11 titanium alloy has been conducted on Gleebe-1500D hot-simulator at the deformation temperature ranging from 960°C to 1050°C, the strain rate ranging from 0.01s-1 to 10s-1, the maximal engineering strain 50%. Based on dynamic materials model (DMM) theory, the hot processing maps for TC11 titanium alloy were constructed at different strains with the data of hot compression tests. By analyzing the instability and stability regions of the processing maps and the microstructures of the specimens deformed in different regions, hot deformation mechanisms, deformation defects and optimization of hot working process for TC11 titanium alloy were investigated.


The relationships between inherent optical properties of ocean waters and the subsurface diffuse reflectance (R/sup -/) have been explored by a number of workers over the years. It is well accepted that R/sup -/ is related to the backscattering to absorption ratio b/sub b//a (or sometimes b/sub b//(a+b/sub b/)) through R=fb/sub b//a. The factor f has been described by a number of people, with various relationships being suggested for predicting its value. Until the development of "fast" oceanic radiative transfer models such as HYDROLIGHT, most workers have employed Monte Carlo techniques. This work presents results based on Monte Carlo investigations as well as comparisons with HYDROLIGHT results.


After a decade of high-speed of expansion,township enterprises have entered a period of adjustment under the pressure of both outer environment and inner system. The narrow resourses and deficiency of sum and of finance and the low efficiency of investment have turned out to be the main obstacles of the constant and sound development of township enterprises. At the present stage,it is important to improve the ownership system and the operation mechanism of township enterprises.as well as establish its perfect inner accumulation mechanism. On the other hand,the state government and the financial institutions should a1so make efforts to give a stronger support and provide a better outer environment and financial environment for the development of township enterprises.


A very simple optical procedure is developed to investigate the morphology of natural convection and the dynamic behavior of drops evaporating on a plate by means of a laser shadowgraphic system. This method is the only nonintrusive means of visualizing flow patterns in a time‐varying ''lens'' shaped system. Its uniqueness and superiority are discussed.


BACKGROUND
Some Helicobacter pylori strains activate human neutrophils without opsonins and/or produce vacuolating cytotoxin.

METHODS
Human gastric isolates of H. pylori were studied for their ability to nonopsonized induce an oxidative burst in human neutrophils as measured by chemiluminescence and for the production of vacuolating cytotoxin. In all, 80 strains were examined, and the type and grade of inflammation in the gastric biopsy specimens from the antrum and corpus of these patients were assessed in accordance with the Sydney system.

RESULTS
CL+ (rapid, strong response in chemiluminescence) strains (p < 0.0001) and Tox+ (cytotoxin-producing) strains (p < 0.0001) were associated with higher acute inflammation scores in gastric ulcer patients. CL+ (p = 0.0002) and Tox+ (p < 0.0001) strains were also associated with higher chronic inflammation scores in gastric ulcer patients.

CONCLUSIONS
CL+ and Tox+ strains seem to cause more severe inflammation in the gastric mucosa during H. pylori infection.


Upon the analyses of the present situation of botany experiment teaching in the university, and taking specific experiments as an example to illustrate the design model of explorative experiments, the paper evaluates and discusses the effectiveness of the application of exploring teaching in botany experiment teaching. The results show that the application of exploring teaching in botany experiments strengthens the comprehensive application of the basis knowledge, cultivates the interest in learning, trains the scientific research ability of the students, and cultures the team cooperation spirit of the students.


The change in electrochemical property of 12%Cr ferritic steam turbine steels with creep was investigated to examine an applicability of electrochemical material characterization method as a procedure for creep damage assessment. The anodic polarization curve measurement was applied to several creep test specimens with various degrees of damage. Experimental results revealed that a single current peak appeared at around + 150-200 mV during the measurement. The electrical charge of the peak ( F ) could be expressed as a function of the volume fraction ( V ), the average size ( r ) and the Cr content ( a ) of M 23 C 6 carbide, i.e ., F = 70890× r × V × a . This result suggested that the peak current density, I p , mainly reflected the size of M 23 C 6 carbide because two other variables showed no significant change. The I p increased with accumulating the creep damage, and this increment was more pronounced in the long-term creep region. There was a good correlation between the I p and the Vickers hardness. It was also found that the applied stress and the creep life fraction of creep damaged samples could be predicted based on the measured I p . Additionally, the electrochemical property of actual turbine components (high middle pressure rotor and casing) was measured using the portable electrochemical cell for on-site measurement. The results obtained in this study indicated that this electrochemical material characterization method was a potential procedure for creep damage assessment for turbine components.


To the Editor.— I report an alarming occurrence that colleagues inform me is not at all unusual. A medical student attending a proprietary medical school in Mexico requested that he spend his entire neurology clerkship passively observing my hospital rounds. There was no requirement for his working up patients, let alone critique of his neurological examination and diagnostic and therapeutic formulations. Nevertheless, he stated he would be given full credit by his medical school for neurology, merely on my stipulation that he did, in fact, spend a month with me. I assume that he would also be required to pass a formal written examination. It thus appears that we are going full circle, returning to the pre-Flexner days of proprietary apprenticeship medical education. Hence the danger that the advances in scientific medicine will be jeopardized by those who have a poor background in clinical medical science. It may be that


The trendy integration of educational information communication technology (ICT) with foreign language teaching and learning in China, which breeds a new ecology of foreign language education at different levels, and also calls for new professional development approaches for foreign language teachers. This paper will clarify the new connotation of foreign language teachers' professional ability, analyze the difficulties of foreign language teachers' professional development, and propose the optimal approaches of foreign language teachers' professional development from the aspects of cultivating teachers' information literacy, developing teachers' ability to acquire learning resources, improving teachers' scientific research ability, and building a good relationship between teachers and students. It aims to build a team of high-quality professional and innovative teachers and quicken the pace of educational modernization.


The stability,dispersity and rheologic behavior of alumina suspension were studied by changing the ball milling time and dispersant concentration. The results indicate that the ball milling time and dispersant concentration affect evidently the stability and dispersity of the suspension. The optimal ball milling time was 20 hours and the isoelectric point of pure alumina powder occurred at about pH 8.1. The addition of the dispersant made the isoelectric point move toward the direction of lower pH value and improved the stability of the suspension under alkaline conditions.


[Objective]To study and explore the important clinical value of traditional Chinese medicine care in urology.[Methods]100 cases were admitted to hospital in October 2008-2012 April during urology patients for the study object,and all the patients were divided into treatment and control groups using randomized control group of patients with the use of routine care,patients treated with external use in the routine care on the basis of Chinese medicine care,compared two groups of patients with nursing satisfaction and clinical outcomes.[Results]The clinical outcomes of patients treated was significantly better than control group patients,contrast(P0.05),with statistical significance.[Conclusion]Chinese medicine,nursing intervention to help improve clinical outcomes in patients with,it is worth the vigorous promotion and application in modern clinical.


Project (M.E.M.)--Engineering Management Program, AUB, 2004.;"First Reader: Dr. Walid Nasrallah,Assistant Professor, Engineering Management Second Reader :Dr. Toufic Mezher, Associate Professor, Engineering Management"


This study explores the factors that affect the household debt in Malaysia. This study is using quarterly data over the period January 2006 to December 2016 for the three independent variables which are Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Interest Rate (IR) and Unemployment Rate (UR). All data were collected from DataStream. This current study employs ordinary least square (OLS) in examining the factors affecting the household debt in Malaysia. The finding indicates that there is a positive significant relationship between gross domestic product and household debt. Meanwhile, it was discovered that there are negative significant relationship between interest rate and unemployment rate with household debt.


Select U-Boot and μClinux to make an in-depth study of the method of transplanting,because U-Boot is popular and powerful now as bootloader and μClinux is special designed for MCU without MMU.Take UP-NETARM3000 exploring board for instance,analyze configuration of its special function register and the process of transplanting in detail.Construct an ARM-μClinux based embedded system production platform based on S3C44B0X.U-Boot and μClinux transplanted in this way run steadily on UP-NETARM3000 exploring board and make solid foundation for the following developing.


To the Editor: Treatment with unopposed estrogen is known to increase the risk of endometrial hyperplasia, atypia, and carcinoma, and therefore the administration of a progestogen during hormone-re...


An 81-year-old male with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and atrial fibrillation presented with melena of 1-week duration and a hemoglobin level of 9.7 g/dL. Upper endoscopy revealed a 7 cm subepithelial lesion with 2 clean-based ulcers (Figure 1). Biopsies from the lesion and ulcers were consistent with a lipoma, and computed tomography imaging displayed a 7 cm lipoma-like structure in the antrum of the stomach (Figure 2). Subsequent endoscopic ultrasound imaging demonstrated a homogeneous hyperechoic lesion that originated from the submucosa with no associated lymphadenopathy, again consistent with a lipoma.


The objective of this paper is to determine which sphere of government – federal, state or municipal – presented greater apacity to influence the Brazilian economic growth with its expenses in the period of 1948 the 1998. It is also intended to determine which category of expense is more productive (CST – Consumption, subsidies and transferences or GT – total Investments of the government). Such objectives are reached with the use of the Feder model (1983), that disaggregates the economy in two sectors. The results indicate that the investment is the expense most relevant and the state sphere the one that presents greater capacity to stimulate the economic growth.


The technique in the operator formalism on Riemann surfaces is used to derive a general form of Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin- (BRST-)invariant N-string vertices for superstrings in the Neveu-Schwarz-Ramond formalism. We show how to construct manifestly OSp(2chemically bond1)-invariant vertices for the scattering of N Neveu-Schwarz strings and SL(2)-invariant vertices involving Ramond strings. It is also explicitly demonstrated that all these vertices are BRST invariant.


In this study, we introduce $\phi $-2-absorbing and $\phi $-2-absorbing primary submodules of modules over commutative rings generalizing the concepts of 2-absorbing and 2-absorbing primary submodules. Let $\phi :S(M)\rightarrow S(M)\cup \{\emptyset \}$ be a function where $S(M)$ denotes the set of all submodules of $M$ and $N$ a proper submodule of an $R$-module $M$. We will say that $N$ is a $\phi $-\textit{2-absorbing submodule} of $M$ if whenever $a,b\in R$, $m\in M$ with $abm\in N$ and $abm\notin \phi (N)$, then $am\in N$ or $bm\in N$ or $ab\in (N:_{R}M)$ and $N$ is said to be a $\phi $-2-absorbing primary submodule of $M$ whenever if $a,b\in R$, $m\in M$ with $abm\in N$ and $abm\notin \phi (N)$, then $am\in M$-$\mathrm{rad}(N)$ or $bm\in M$-$\mathrm{rad}(N)$ or $ab\in (N:_{R}M)$. We investigate many properties of these new types of submodules and establish some characterizations for $\phi $-2-absorbing and $\phi $-2-absorbing primary submodules of multiplication modules.


This work describes a phase locking system using a digital phase-frequency comparator combined with an harmonic mixer to achieve broad band operation and low phase noise. The system is low cost, easy to adjust and has been specially designed for YIG oscillators, but it's also aplicable to DRO's and others microwaves sources. We have applied this system to a 2 to 8 Ghz oscillator getting a very good phase-noise of ¿105 dBc @ 10Khz and frecuency steps of 100Hz in multiloop configuration.


Epidemiological surveillance reports revealed that Staphylococcus aureus ranked third among top bacterial pathogens causing food poisoning in Thailand during 2010-2012. Thailand Food and Drug Administration (FDA) abides by the international "zero tolerance" policy for staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs). Specifically, SEs must be absent in 25 g of food, while the bacteria are tolerated at low level depending on the types of food. Increasing numbers of S. aureus isolates from foods carried the newly described staphylococcal enterotoxin type I (SEI) and type G (SEG) rather than the classic types (e.g., SEA and SEB) previously identified as the common cause of staphylococcal food poisoning. In this study, we developed a quantitative PCR (qPCR) for detection of SEI-encoding gene as SEI is the most prevalent enterotoxin in newly described SE subgroup 3 and is increasingly found in S. aureus isolates from food samples causing food poisoning. The designed sei primer and probe set is specific to S. aureus sei gene and can detect as low as 150 femtogram of the target (approximately 50 bacterial cells/ml of milk). We proposed that our sei primer and probe set can be used in multiplex qPCR assay along with the already developed primer and probe sets targeting classic sea and seb genes for enterotoxin detection in food safety surveillance.


The effect of indole-butyric acid, both alone and with a low concentration of kinetin, on the rooting of rose cuttings in winter and summer, is presented in this paper. The experiments were conducted using 500 and 1000 mg/l IBA with or without the addition of 5 mg/l kinetin. The growth regulators were applied by dipping the base of a cutting for 5 s in an aqueous solution of these substances. Cuttings 5-6 cm in length were made from the mid-part of a stem of a rose grown in a greenhouse. The experiments were carried out using 'Queen of Bermuda' and 'Baccara' cuttings. The investigations showed that treating rose cuttings rooted in winter with an IBA solution had a significant promotive effect on the quantity of rooted cuttings, number of formed roots on the cutting, as well as on the length of the longest root. A distinctive increase in the number of breaking buds was also seen on the cuttings treated with IBA. The IBA solution applied to cuttings rooted in the summer significantly decreased the number of rooted cuttings and breaking buds. However, no significant influence on the number and length of formed roots was found. Addition of kinetin to the IBA solutions did not have any effect on the rooting of rose cuttings either in winter or summer.


High transport costs, a lack of reliable price information, and an inability to verify the quality of produce leave many farmers who produce cash crops in developing countries subject to exploitation by the intermediaries with whom they do business. The effect this exploitation has on farmers' profits, and on their incentives to invest time and resources into quality control, leads to adverse impacts in terms of both equity and efficiency, and the costs associ-ated with these are a matter of growing recognition on the part of economists and policymaker). The auction begins when a government employee visually inspects the quality and sets the initial bid. From there, the traders bid upward until the crop is sold. Government regulated mandis were specifically established to protect farmer, and open auctions were considered the most effective safeguard against traders accumulating excessive influence. However, the ability to collude among a relatively small number of traders in each mandi led to the extraction of a significant share of profits leaving little for the farmer who had no alternative method of selling. Farmers often do not have access to information about market conditions prior to selling their produce. Processors are also unable to perfectly monitor the traders. Access to information as well as direct interactions between farmers and processors can therefore have a potentially important effect on the price received by rural producers and on their behavior. Knowledge of prevailing prices enables farmers to reap the gains from a broader market search. An increase in returns can induce farmers to re-optimize their decisions about how to allocate land between alternative crops.


The invention relates to a breathing machine with a humidifying function, and belongs to the technical field of medical instruments. The breathing machine comprises a breathing machine body and a humidifying machine, wherein the gas outlet of the breathing machine body is connected to a connecting opening of the humidifying machine; a hydrophobic hollow fiber tube array is arranged inside the humidifying machine, and is formed by a plurality of surface-hydrophobic polymeric hollow fiber tubes which are arranged in parallel; micro holes through which gas can pass are distributed in the surfaces of the polymeric hollow fiber tubes; the hydrophobic hollow fiber tube array is communicated with the connecting opening through a hose; a water tank is also arranged in the humidifying machine; the bottom of the water tank is open; a heating plate is arranged at the bottom of the humidifying machine; an air outlet is formed in the upper part of the humidifying machine. The provided breathing machine has the humidifying function, meanwhile the problem that water is low in possibility of flowing out after the humidifying machine is overturned is solved, and the safety of the equipment is improved.


Currently in document retrieval there are many algorithms each with different strengths and weakness. There is some difficulty, however, in evaluating the impact of the test query set on retrieval results. The traditional evaluation process, the Cranfield evaluation paradigm, which uses a corpus and a set of user queries, focuses on making the queries as realistic as possible. Unfortunately such query sets lack the fine grained control necessary to test algorithm properties. We present an approach called controlled query generation (CQG) that creates query sets from documents in the corpus in a way that regulates the theoretic information quality of each query. This allows us to generate reproducible and well defined sets of queries of varying length and term specificity. Imposing this level of control over the query sets used for testing retrieval algorithms enables the rigorous simulation of different query environments to identify specific algorithm properties before introducing user queries. In this work, we demonstrate the usefulness of CQG by generating three different query environments to investigate characteristics of two blind relevance feedback approaches


The role of collective responsibility within French administrative jurisdications has diminished considerably in recent years, particularly within administrative courts. Have the goals of greater
output and speed in the justice system been achieved by having judges issue rulings on their
own? This does not seem to be the case. With the huge increase in the number of administrative disputes, having a single judge is not always the best way to attain greater efficiency of
justice and it even clearly leads to a lower quality of justice being dispensed.


The updated WHO classification system for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) includes some new entities, in particular refractory cytopenias with unilineage dysplasia (RCUD). The following review article presents a short overview regarding all subvariants of MDS but with special emphasis on the rare subtypes of MDS that can be exclusively recognized histomorphologically: (1) Hypoplastic MDS (MDS-hypo), (2) Fibrotic MDS (MDS-F) and MDS with associated systemic mastocytosis (SM-AHNMD).


Abstract Iron-sulfur clusters containing a variety of ligands, [Fe4S4(SR)4]2- (R = 4-C6H4CHO, 4-C5H4N, 2-(4-NO2)C5H4N) were prepared as potential constituents for functional assembly. Preparation and structure of a mixed-cluster compound (Me4N)4[Fe(SPh)4] [Fe4S4(SPh)4], involving both rubredoxin and [4Fe-4S] ferredoxin model clusters, are also discussed.


ARCHAEOLOGYRAVENNA, ITALY-- Yousef Madjidzadeh, chief of excavations at Jiroft in southeastern Iran, has found tablets that he believes display a hitherto unknown writing system. But the circumstances surrounding their excavation have raised doubts about the tablets' authenticity.


When Detroit celebrated its 250th anniversary in 1951 the city's women put on a pageant. On 21 June four hundred participants acted out thirty-three scenes from "Courage Was the Fashion," a theatrical extravaganza that depicted the women of Detroit's contributions to the city from its earliest days to the birthday celebration. To create this event a Women's Achievement Committee wrote three thousand letters to


In this paper, the in-cylinder mixture formation process of a two-stroke spark-ignition direct-injection(SIDI) diesel engine is simulated and analyzed. The effects of the shape of the combustion chamber, the injection time and the initial temperature of the engine on the mixing process and the performance of the SIDI diesel engine are analyzed. The simulation results show that the offset combustor can obviously improve the fuel economy of the SIDI diesel engine. Under the premise of constant fuel injection quantity, there is an optimal fuel injection time to make the power performance and economy of the SIDI diesel engine optimal. Increasing the initial temperature is beneficial to the atomization of diesel oil and the formation of diesel mixture in cylinder. The results will guide the engineering design of SIDI diesel engine.


Abstract This review article describes the factors affecting bioremediation processes including: goals of bioremediation and the optimal ecological conditions required; inoculation of microorganisms; co-metabolism; bioavailability and its improvement; biological evolution and its utilization; monitoring and control of bioremediation processes; identification of bioremediation effectiveness and ecological remediation and its key elements. The current progress in bioremediation techniques is summarized. The direction of future development, research and applications is also examined.


Analysis of microbial communities is a valuable tool for characterization and identification of microbes in a myriad of environments. We are currently using the molecular method terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis to characterize changes in bacterial and fungal communities on treated and untreated wood in soil. T-RFLP uses fluorescently labeled primers that bind to DNA and provide a fluorescent tag for each unique organism in a sample. The result is a microbial fingerprint that can be used to characterize the community of organisms present in the sample. This paper highlights the process by which microbial data from T-RFLP is obtained, analyzed, and interpreted. In this study, fungal and bacterial data from an accelerated fungal cellar test was analyzed to determine changes in fungal and bacterial species richness and composition during exposure to treated or untreated wood materials. Principal component analysis was used to analyze the microbial data. Results show differences in bacterial and fungal species composition in treated wood compared to untreated wood. Future uses for this technique are discussed.


Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is the cornerstone of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. Data regarding additional substrate modification has been conflicting, both in paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation.

 To assess the effect of additional linear substrate modification during de novo AF ablation on AF recurrence.

 We reviewed 1575 AF ablations in 1254 patients from January 2013 to June 2021 at a single academic medical center. There were 1096 de novo ablations. We defined substrate modification as linear ablations including cavotricuspid isthmus (CTI), superior vena cava isolation, intercaval line, mitral isthmus, and left atrial roof and floor lines. We evaluated clinical and procedural characteristics to identify risk factors for AF recurrence and complications. Patients were followed for a minimum of 6 months.

 The 1096 de novo ablations included 65.5% males with mean age 61.1 years, mean BMI 31.3, 81.8% paroxysmal AF and 18.2% persistent AF. There were four AF ablation subgroups: PVI alone (41.6%), PVI and CTI ablation (37.1%), PVI with CTI and additional substrate modification (15.6%), and PVI with substrate modification without CTI ablation (5.7%). Overall, AF recurred in 36.9% cases. AF recurrence with PVI only ablation was 41% compared to 32.7% in patients with PVI and CTI ablation (p=0.02). When looking at patients with paroxysmal and persistent AF, results were similar, with decreased AF recurrence with the addition of CTI ablation in both paroxysmal (37.3% v. 29.2%, p=0.03) and persistent AF (58.1% v. 40.0%, p=0.02). Additional substrate modification did not result in significant difference in outcome in either paroxysmal or persistent AF (Figure 1).

 In de novo AF ablations, addition of CTI ablation to de novo PVI ablation is associated with lower AF recurrence in both paroxysmal and persistent AF. Additional linear substrate modification did not impact outcomes.

 Type of funding sources: None.


In the design of antennas for portable telephones, it is important to evaluate the radiation efficiency of the antennas in the vicinity of the human body, since the radiation efficiency could decrease due to power absorption by the human body. However, if different antennas are designed by different people, and different human models are used in their evaluations, their results cannot be compared each other directly to determine which antenna has a highest radiation efficiency. Therefore, it is required to develop some canonical problems that may be utilized for comparing the numerical and experimental results of the characteristics of various antennas. Working Group 3 of COST 244 has proposed some canonical problems for comparing different numerical methods developed for calculation of absorbed power in the human head to assess the potential hazard caused by the use of mobile communication devices. The objective of this report is to measure the radiation efficiency of antennas in the vicinity of the human head models defined by COST 244 to investigate how the radiation efficiency changes with the different models. The pattern integration method is used as the measurement method. The experimental results are shown and compared with the numerical results by using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method.


Due to the harsh working environment and lacking of external information, after a long period of work, the performance of the local reference inertial device will deteriorate, which will cause the navigation information to fail to meet the requirements of user equipment. In this paper, a local reference dynamic calibration method based on hull deformation compensation is proposed. Firstly, eliminate the coordinate system misalignment between the main inertial navigation system (MINS) and the local reference. Furthermore, a Kalman filter is designed to calibrate the bias errors of the local reference laser gyro and accelerometer based on the high-precision navigation information of the MINS. The simulation results show that after accurate hull deformation compensation, the local reference laser gyro bias error estimation accuracy is better than 0.002°/h , accelerometer bias error estimation accuracy is better than 1μg ,which provides an effective solution for local reference marine dynamic calibration


O3,UV and O3 /UV were separately used to treat simulated berberine pharmaceutical wastewater.The results showed that the O3 /UV process created a synergetic effect for wastewater treatment.The effects of initial pH,O3 dosage and initial berberine concentration on O3 /UV oxidation efficiency were then investigated to determine the optimal parameters.For 1000 mg /L of berberine wastewater with pH of 5,when the ozone dosage was 279.0 mg /L and the treatment time was 45 min,the berberine removal efficiency reached 80% .As the initial concentration of berberine wastewater increased,the berberine and CODCr removal efficiencies decreased gradually.Finally,the O3 /UV process was used to treat real berberine wastewater.It was verified that O3 /UV process was an effective pretreatment technology which greatly improved the biodegradability of berberine wastewater,with an increase of ρ(BOD5 ) /ρ(CODCr) ratio by 16 times.


This paper tells of the basic concepts of GStreamer,analyzes RTP plugins principle.And based on an open-source multimedia system being composed of uctimclient and open IMS kernel,G711 RTP plugins is improved by intro-ducing SRTP function,thus achieving the end-to-end confidentiality and integrity protection of VOIP audio data streams.


This paper primarily focuses on curve generalization over the repetitive trajectory. The method proposed in this paper assumes that the trajectory data in every timestamp satisfy Gaussian distribution and leverages a cubic uniform B-spline curve to represent the parameter of this Gaussian distribution. The parameter of the B-spline curve is calculated via maximum likelihood estimation. This paper compares the trajectory generalization methods based on the proposed method with the traditional Gaussian mixture model using the collected Brewing movement trajectory and demonstrates the superiority of the proposed method.


Jane Galbraith from the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations (NCPTA) explains the benefits of charity status and offers a guide on how to acheive this.


Prestress loss estimation is required for properly assessing concrete stresses and members deformation. Earlier methods of prestress loss prediction were based on relatively low concrete strength. Their use for high strength concrete can produce significant errors due to their inability to accommodate varying material properties. Another source of error for earlier methods is that they do not adequately address the interaction between precast concrete members and cat-in-place composite topping. This paper presents the results of the research work conducted by Tadros et al in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 18-07 study on prestress losses in high strength concrete which have been adopted by the American Association of State highway and Transportation Officials, Load and Resistance Factor Design, AASHTO LRFD Specifications for inclusion in the 2005 edition. This paper consists of two parts. Part I describes the development of the new methods that are applicable to conventional and high strength concrete ranging from 4 to 15 ksi (28 to 103 MPa). Part II deals with the experimental program and comparison of measured versus prestress losses.


The introduction of high‐bandwidth demanding services such as multimedia services has resulted in important changes on how services in the Internet are accessed and what quality‐of‐experience requirements (i.e. limited amount of packet loss, fairness between connections) are expected to ensure a smooth service delivery. In the current congestion control mechanisms, misbehaving Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) stacks can easily achieve an unfair advantage over the other connections by not responding to Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) warnings, sent by the active queue management (AQM) system when congestion in the network is imminent. In this article, we present an accountability mechanism that holds connections accountable for their actions through the detection and penalization of misbehaving TCP stacks with the goal of restoring the fairness in the network. The mechanism is specifically targeted at deployment in multimedia access networks as these environments are most prone to fairness issues due to misbehaving TCP stacks (i.e. long‐lived connections and a moderate connection pool size). We argue that a cognitive approach is best suited to cope with the dynamicity of the environment and therefore present a cognitive detection algorithm that combines machine learning algorithms to classify connections into well‐behaving and misbehaving profiles. This is in turn used by a differentiated AQM mechanism that provides a different treatment for the well‐behaving and misbehaving profiles. The performance of the cognitive accountability mechanism has been characterized both in terms of the accuracy of the cognitive detection algorithm and the overall impact of the mechanism on network fairness. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Pineapple has been identified as a new source of wealth and occupies third place in the world tropical fruits production after bananas and mangos respectively. Pineapple variety MD2 now is the most popular variety where it is being traded globally and occupied 50%-55% of world market mainly due to its excellent taste, sweetness, attractive golden flesh, golden skin color, lifespan, ripeness and its perfect cylindrical shape. While the pineapple industry is growing rapidly, post-harvest losses seems to be one of factors slowing it down and sunburn incidence are one of them. In Malaysia, during strong sunlight time often leads to severe fruit sunburn incidence rate up to 50%. An experiment has been conducted at Kluang, Johor (3rd Agro-climatic zone) which is preharvest treatment using chemical; T1 (water only), T2 (Calcium foliar), T3 (Boron foliar) and T4 (Calcium+Magnesium+Boron mixed foliar). Results show that, T4 is the best treatment which only 2% sunburn incidence rate with highest fruit total soluble solids (TSS) score 22°brix and 2,302 grams total fruit weight followed by T2, T3 and T1 with the results 15% sunburn incidence with 20°brix and 2,093 grams total weight fruit, 25% sunburn incidence with 19°Brix and 1,719 total fruit weight, and lastly 50% sunburn incidence with 17°Brix and 1,614 grams total fruit weight respectively. Therefore, pre-harvest treatment using chemical foliar mixture of Calcium, Magnesium and Boron are suggested but further research have to be conducted at different agroclimatic zone to confirm that this treatment can be apply to every agro-climatic zone in Malaysia.


This paper presents a study of wheel alignment effect regarding coast down simulation. Due to greenhouse effect and CO2 regulation from EU and others country, Car Company enforce to improve fuel economy through all parts and system of vehicle. They adapt many solution to reduce overall friction of vehicle such as low rolling resistance tire and low drag caliper and so on for vehicle dynamic perspective. In this study, vehicle dynamics were studied to find out improving coast down characteristics, because it needs to calculate F/E of each vehicle to measure specific coast down characteristics of vehicle and it affects overall F/E improvement or worsening. In this paper, vehicle wheel alignments were studied within vehicle architecture because wheel alignments have a tolerance from minimum to maximum within vehicle dynamic performance bandwidth. Using DOE (Design Of Experiments) methods, wheel alignments effect were evaluated through 121 load-cases based on Kriging Method. To simulate vehicle dynamics due to changing wheel alignment, CarSim was used and post processed EC method. From this study, the wheel alignments were affected coast down characteristics through simulation and proposed optimal wheel alignment parameter. Through this results, proposed optimal wheel alignment are improved cost down characteristics within vehicle performance bandwidth.


Li isotopic system has been suggested as a significant tracer on the heterogeneity and material recycling in the mantle by its large relative mass fractionation. Even if the subduction zone is the key place for understanding the mantle heterogeneity of Li isotopes, it has not been revealed clearly the behavior of Li isotopes during arc-related mantle metasomatism and/or partial melting. Mantle xenoliths from Avacha volcano, the southern Kamchatka arc are mainly depleted harzburgites, and derived from the mantle wedge in the subduction zone. Thus, in order to elucidate the behavior of Li isotopes during subduction-related mantle matasomatism, we report here the result of Li isotopes and trace element analyses of mantle xenoliths from Avacha volcano. Trace elements and Li isotopic ratios of powdered mantle xenoliths are determined by quadropole-type and Multicollector-type ICP-MS at the Earthquake Research Institute, the University of Tokyo, respectively. First-step chemical separation procedure was adopted and modified mainly after that by Nisho and Nakai (2002), and second-step column procedure was prepared to minimize the effect of matrix ions and organic matters. For MC-ICP-MS analysis


The main technologies and application of the traditional petro-chemical plants for increasing propylene production are reviewed,such as steam cracking of olefins,catalytic cracking of olefins,FCC to propylene of heavy oil.The technology characteristics and production situation of propane dehydrogenation and methanol transferring into olefin are detailed introduced,and the development trend was analysed.The technologies are the non oil routes to olefins which are rapid development in recent years.


rhe present stlldy was conducted On a local transformer manufactunng company. This is a fabrication/assembly organization where raw materials arc procured and processed. The scenario observed in the study is not velYdifferent from other local industries. Local firms in many cases are very reluctant or pay less attention in incorporating and utilizing operations managcment techniques such a, invcnlOry control, scheduling, material requirements planning (l\1RP) etc. The main rCaSOnof the organi7.ation's unenthusiastic attitlldc is identified as unawarene,,, of lhc benefits from technology utilization, The lack of knowledge about lhe benefil;1;of using MRP in variou, aspecls hindercd its wide spread diffusion, A general perception that the pl'Ocurement of raw materials either in huge quantity at a lime or in small quanllly from penod to period without adopting any mathematical approach would not have any sigmficant effect on the total cost still prevails in the local firms, Practically the situation is djfferent. It has been found thaI the procurem~nt of matcnals applymg an established algorithm (i,e \\lagner-Whitin apPl'Oach)imtead of current practice (intuihvc approach) could reduce the invenlory costs remarkably. In this re8pect (lot sizing) an educational version pl'Odnction and operation management software named POM was used, The study revealed thaI the company could <ave as hIgh as 70% inventory cost such as silicon steel. Similar is the sltuar;on for other materials also. Besides this, the incorporation ofMRP facilitates the company in many ways especially in better management such as avoIdance reordering, shortfall, of materials, idle time minimization, timely delivery of products etc, It is required for the company to bring in change in many aspects to adapt the MRP system, the imporlanl of whICh arc the relationship with vendor, con<istent quality of the raw materials, th~ documcntation pl'Ocess, the reliable lead time etc. Situation could be improved further if mathematical model for multiple ilems lot s;7-eand variable lot size could be developed considering the conSlI'aintof store" fund, transport facility


The study of embodiment and cognition of language takes priority in cognitive linguistics.From the perspective of word formation from morphemes,the paper arrives at the conclusion that meaning generation of word formation displays that human being's cognition starts at senseing human being's body itself and the space around,and extends to the inner mind and the outer envirnment.The paper further adoptes Event-domain Cognitive Model as an analytical instrument to interpret the metonymy mechanism of English word formation from morphemes.


AbstractMicrospheres of disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) were prepared with either polyacrylic acid (Carbopol 934) or sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) by the spray-drying technique. The arithmetic mean diameter of the spraydried particles ranged from 3.2 to 5.7 microns. The plain DSCG particles and the microspheres containing NaCMC were spherical and had a smooth surface, whereas the microspheres containing Carbopol 934 were more irregular and partly shrunken. The dissolution rate of the plain DSCG was prolonged when the drug was incorporated with the polymers. The more polymer the microspheres contained the slower the drug release rate. The in vitro mucoadhesion test showed that the plain DSCG was nearly as mucoadhesive as the the plain polymers. The microspheres of DSCG with either of the polymers were, however, clearly more mucoadhesive than the plain starting materials. The adsorption isotherms showed the hygroscopic nature of the polymers and DSCG. The hydration of the microspheres increased as a fu...


The pentavalent bismuthate BaBi2O6 was prepared by a low-temperature hydrothermal reaction using NaBiO3.nH2O and Ba(OH)2.8H2O as starting materials. The X-ray powder diffraction pattern was indexed with a hexagonal cell (space group: P-31 m), the same as a PbSb2O6-type crystal. The crystal structure of this compound was refined using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data. The cell parameters were found to be a=5.57534(6) and c=5.7381(1) A and the final reliability (R) factors obtained by Rietveld analysis were Rwp=5.15 % and Rp=3.62 %. This compound exhibited profound photocatalytic activity for phenol decomposition under visible light irradiation.


Multiphasic tissue models have been used extensively to predict the behavior of cartilaginous tissues [1]. Their application to other soft tissues, however, has often been overlooked. Unlike the more commonly used continuum model of the viscoelastic solid [2], multiphasic models allow us to infer the behaviors and properties of tissue subcomponents by observing the behavior of the tissue whole. As a great deal of tissue function and structure is related to the control and transport of fluids and fluid-borne agents, there is clearly a need for this insight in all tissues. For example, there has been a great deal of interest recently in the possibility of modifying the flow properties of solid tumors and other tissues to allow the targeted delivery of large molecular weight drugs, such as chemotherapeutic or genetic agents [3–4]. It is well known that the high interstitial fluid pressures, confused vasculature, and lack of a lymphatic system prevent the effective distribution of directly injected or systemically administered drugs into tumors [3]. Increasing the effective permeability of these tumors can ameliorate these issues and allow for more effective treatment. A handful of studies have found that the biphasic model, along with some basic experimental tools, can reasonably represent the flow properties of tumors [4–5]. In this paper, we describe a technique using a simple confined compression experiment with the biphasic model to measure the hydraulic conductivity of samples of cardiac tissue.© 2007 ASME


Introduction: One of the subcategories of studies about expertise is the study of visual skills involved in the performance of the expertise. Many researchers have tried to offer different solutions by comparing these skills among expert and near-expert players. The current study aimed to compare visual search behavior in skilled and near-skilled players at basketball jump shot. Materials and Methods: The participants were basketball players who were divided to skilled and near-skilled ones based on the years of playing and the league they play in. To record and collect research data, sensomotoric instruments (SMI) eye tracking glasses with 60 Hz sample rate were used. All participants performed some jump shot and data related with gaze behavior (number of fixations and fixation duration) were collected and compared using independent t test. Results: There was a significant different in number of fixations (P = 0.040) and no significant different in fixation duration between skilled and near-skilled participants. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it concluded that gaze behavior can be one of the distinguishing factors of different skill levels, which focus on it can help to improve the expertise performance in sport by identifying more important and effective factors in training.


With the development of the reform in physical teaching, great changes have taken place in physical classroom teaching. In which, the change of physical teaching method is the critical part. The multi-media technology has been pounding at the traditional teaching model since it is widely used. Under such circumstances, the disadvantages of the traditional teaching were completely exposed. Therefore, as for college teachers in physical education, we should apply the multi-media technology to physical teaching as soon as possible so as to counteract the disadvantages of traditional physical teaching. In this way can we improve the quality of both teaching and students as well as promote the harmonious development of quality education.


New methods for treatment of significant amounts of data on nucleation and coalescence of defects were developed. The analysis of the surface condition of modern nanocoated materials was performed.


In this paper a method is presented which allows to calculate the electromagnetic field in the presence of a material that consists of several thin layers with anisotropic conductivity. The proposed method combines an analytic solution for the field inside the layer with the method of moments. By comparison to other field solvers, it is demonstrated that the presented method yields correct results.


This paper presents an analysis of speech synthesis quality achieved by simultaneously performing voice conversion and language code-switching using multilingual VQ-VAE speech synthesis in German, French, English and Italian. In this paper, we utilize VQ code indices representing phone information from VQ-VAE to perform code-switching and a VQ speaker code to perform voice conversion in a single system with a neural vocoder. Our analysis examines several aspects of code-switching including the number of language switches and the number of words involved in each switch. We found that speech synthesis quality degrades after increasing the number of language switches within an utterance and decreasing the number of words. We also found some evidence of accent transfer when performing voice conversion across languages as observed when a speaker's original language differs from the language of a synthetic target utterance. We present results from our listening tests and discuss the inherent difficulties of assess-ing accent transfer in speech synthesis. Our work highlights some of the limitations and strengths of using a semi-supervised end-to-end system like VQ-VAE for handling multilingual synthesis. Our work provides insight into why multilingual speech synthesis is challenging and we suggest some directions for ex-panding work in this area.


We performed an EUS-TTNB (endoscopic ultrasound through-the-needle biopsy) in a 48-year-old man with an asymptomatic 4 cm pancreatic neck hypodense lesion, with inhomogeneous slight contrast enhancement. On T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the lesion appeared as a complex cystic lesion with internal septa, with positive contrast enhancement. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) showed a septate PCL (pancreatic cystic lesion) with granular internal aspect, lobulated contours, and no visible cystic walls or mural nodules. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


We discuss how various forms of dry superlubricity, recently observed on the nanoscale, have been interpreted by simple phenomenological models. In particular, we review the cases of static and dynamic single-contact lubricity, thermolubricity, and structural lubricity. All these phenomena have been studied by friction force microscopy and explained using the classical Prandtl–Tomlinson model and its extensions, including thermal activation, temporal and spatial variations of the surface energy corrugation, and multiple-contact effects.


Software Engineering course design for undergraduates has been a challenging task in many campuses, especially for those that do not have large enrollment. This is not only because the course has t...


In this paper, we study intermittent behaviors of coupled piecewise-expanding map lattices with two nodes and a weak coupling. We show that the successive phase transition between ordered and disordered phases occurs for almost every orbit. That is, we prove $\liminf_{n\rightarrow \infty}| x_1(n)-x_2(n)|=0$ and $\limsup_{n\rightarrow \infty}| x_1(n)-x_2(n)|\ge c_0>0$, where $x_1(n), x_2(n)$ correspond to the coordinates of two nodes at the iterative step $n$. We also prove the same conclusion for weakly coupled tent-map lattices with any multi-nodes.


Recent studies of plastic deformation using high-resolution experimental techniques testify that deformation processes are often characterized by collective effects that emerge on a mesoscopic scale, intermediate between the scale of individual crystal defects and that of the macroscopic sample. In particular, the acoustic emission (AE) method reveals intermittency of plastic deformation in various experimental conditions, which is manifested by the property of scale invariance, a characteristic feature of self-organized phenomena. The objective of the dissertation was to study the inherent structure of AE for different mechanisms of plastic deformation, to examine its dependence on the strain rate and strain hardening of the material, and to understand the relationships between short time scales related to organization of defects and those relevant to the continuous approach of plasticity. The study was performed on AlMg and Mg-based alloys, the plastic deformation of which is accompanied by a strong acoustic activity and controlled by different physical mechanisms: the Portevin-Le Chatelier (PLC) effect in the first case and a combination of twinning and dislocation glide in the second case. Application of a technique of continuous AE recording ("data streaming") allowed proving that the apparent behavior, discrete or continuous, of AE accompanying the PLC effect depends on the time scale of observation and the physical parameters surveyed. However, unlike the traditional view, it appears that AE has an intermittent character during both stress serrations and macroscopically smooth flow. Using methods of the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems, such as the multifractal analysis, a tendency to a transition between the scale-invariant dynamics and the behaviors characterized by intrinsic scales was detected during work hardening. Finally, we proved that the power-law statistical distributions persist in wide ranges of variation of parameters conventionally used to individualize acoustic events. This result is of general importance because it applies to all avalanche-like processes emerging in dynamical systems


Reliable methods have been developed for controlled spawning of captive southern flounder, Paralichthys lethostigma, broodstock during their natural winter (December–February) spawning season. From 1999 to 2004, we evaluated the effects of manipulation of photoperiod and temperature on both advance and delay spawning to produce viable embryos throughout the year. Wild-caught adult broodstock were held in 4.8- to 7.0-m3 controlled-environment tanks at a sex ratio of approximately 12 females to 4 males. Broodstock were subjected to different artificial photothermal conditioning regimes: extended winter (EW), accelerated (A-10-, A-6-, A-4.5-, and A-3.8-mo regimes), and delayed (D-16- and D-14-mo regimes), with gradual and abrupt transitions, respectively, from long to short daylengths. Under an EW cycle, fish were exposed to constant short daylengths (10 L: 14 D) after the winter solstice in January. Eighty-seven natural spawnings from December to April produced 18.3 × 106 eggs, with 20.9% hatching successfully (i.e., overall egg viability). Under an A-10-mo cycle, rate of decrease in daylength was accelerated after the summer solstice in July, to reach winter conditions in October. Seven induced spawning trials from October to November produced 897 × 103 eggs, with 40.4% viability. Under an A-6-mo cycle, rate of change of photoperiod was accelerated after the winter solstice in January, to reach winter conditions in July. Three induced spawning trials in July produced 550 × 103 eggs, with 14.7% viability. Under an A-4.5-mo cycle, broodstock exposed to EW from January through April were exposed to an accelerated cycle to reach winter conditions by October. Four induced spawning trials from September to November produced 729 × 103 eggs, with 28.7% viability. Under an A-3.8-mo cycle, broodstock exposed to EW conditions from January through April were exposed to an accelerated cycle to reach winter conditions by September. Five induced spawning trials from September to November produced 510 × 103 eggs, with 45.9% viability. Under a D-16-mo cycle, fish were exposed to a decelerated decline in photoperiod after the summer solstice in July, to reach winter conditions in May, when atretic females were observed. Under a D-14-mo cycle, fish were exposed to constant summer conditions from December through mid-June and then to an abrupt decline in photoperiod to winter conditions in late June. Six induced spawning trials from September to November produced 763 × 103 eggs, with 13.0% viability. Production of viable embryos was greatest during the extended winter because of abundant natural spawnings. While successful natural spawnings were rare during the fall or summer, viable embryos were produced through induced spawnings during all seasons of the year, with no significant (P > 0.05) differences in egg viability. Extended winter conditions prolonged spawning from 3 to 5 mo. Accelerated (3.8–10 mo) regimes were effective in producing viable embryos from summer through fall, but a minimum of 5 mo was required to complete gonadal recrudescence. While constant long daylengths after the summer solstice delayed gonadal recrudescence, with spawning obtained 2.5 mo after an abrupt reduction to short daylengths, a decelerated decline in photoperiod did not. Artificial control of daylength enabled precise control of gonadal recrudescence and year-round spawning in southern flounder without adverse effects on the quality of eggs and larvae and will improve availability of seedstock for commercial aquaculturists.


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Introduction. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a complex and heterogeneous malignancy of plasma cells that has two precursor states: monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM). MGUS and SMM are asymptomatic states that eventually give rise to overt MM, with some patients progressing, while others do not. Recent studies in MM pathobiology have highlighted epigenetic alterations that contribute to the onset, progression and heterogeneity of MM. Global hypomethylation of DNA, including tumor suppressor genes, and hypermethylation of B-cell specific enhancers, abnormal histone methylation patterns due to the overexpression of histone methyltransferases such as MMSET, and deregulation of non-coding RNAs along with mutations in different classes of chromatin modulators underline a potential for epigenetic biomarkers in disease prognosis and treatment. This study aimed to define epigenetic pathways that lead to the dynamic regulation of gene expression in MM pathogenesis.
 Methods. We performed ATAC-seq (Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin using sequencing) and RNA-seq on 10 MM cell lines and CD138+ plasma cells isolated from bone marrow aspirates of 3 healthy donors, 9 SMM, 8 newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) and 9 relapsed (RRMM) patients. ATAC-seq reads were trimmed of adapters, aligned to hg19 using bowtie2, and filtered for mapping quality >=Q30 using the ENCODE ATAC-seq pipeline. Reads mapping to promoter regions, defined as -400 to +250 bases from a refseq transcription start site, were counted using bedtools for each sample. Promoter read counts were then normalized by the total number of reads in promoters in the sample, scaled to 1 million total reads, and converted to log10(x+1) space.
 Results. To characterize the epigenetic contribution to disease progression in MM, we first identified accessible promoter regions in normal plasma cells (NPC), SMM, NDMM and RRMM patients and found regions displaying differential accessibility in MM progression. Next, we intersected the list of differential accessible regions (DARs) with matched transcriptome data and observed two main clusters: genes with unaltered transcription profiles and genes in which the dynamics of open chromatin regions (OCRs) correlated with gene expression. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that a large portion of the differentially expressed (DE) genes in SMM remain DE in NDMM as compared to NPCs (882 genes out of 1642 and 1150 DE genes in SMM and NDMM, respectively). Those genes were significantly enriched for pathways like epithelial mesenchymal transition, cell cycle checkpoints and mitosis, KRAS signaling and interleukin-JAK-STAT pathways. To investigate the genes that behaved differently among the stages of disease, we looked at differential accessibility and expression in NDMM and SMM samples, and integrated them with Whole-Genome Bisulfite-Sequencing and 450K DNA-methylation data from MM patients and healthy donors (BLUEPRINT). This analysis led to the identification of novel genes in MM progression, such as the transcriptional repressor ZNF254 and IRAK3, a negative regulator of the TLR/IL1R signaling pathway. Although gene expression data for these genes showed comparable mRNA levels in SMM and NPCs, followed by a significant decrease in NDMM/ RRMM, ATAC-seq revealed a striking drop in promoter accessibility in SMM, NDMM and RRMM cases. Comparison of ATAC-seq peaks to DNA methylation and ChIP-seq data revealed that the altered OCR of IRAK3 is actually hypermethylated in MM patients and marked by H3K4me3, a marker of active promoters, in MM cell lines. Hypermethylation of IRAK3 has been described in hepatocellular carcinoma, where it is associated with poor prognosis. Together, our data suggest that the identified IRAK3 OCR may act as a bivalent domain that loses accessibility in the precursor states and gains DNA methylation in MM progression. Hence, IRAK3 methylation could be a novel prognostic marker in MM.
 Conclusion. We have generated a global epigenetic map of primary tumors from patients at the smoldering, newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory stage of multiple myeloma. Integrative analysis of ATAC-seq data with DNA methylome, transcriptome and whole-genome map of active and repressive histone marks in our study led to the identification of IRAK3 as a novel epigenetic biomarker of disease progression.

 Licht: Celgene: Research Funding. Ghobrial:Takeda: Consultancy; BMS: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy.


A building with an integrated photovoltaic system that roughly generates as much energy as it consumes annually is called net zero energy building. The owner of such a building still has to pay a monthly electricity bill due to frequent electricity exchange with the grid and the fact that the retail price of electricity is usually higher than the feed-in-tariff. Adding a battery energy storage system can potentially reduce the monthly net payment of the building owner since it can alleviate the necessity of importing power from the grid at the time where it is expensive. The problem of selecting the optimal size of the battery energy storage system for all-electric buildings is modeled and solved in this paper. First, a new mixed-integer nonlinear programming model is built. Then, it is reformulated to accumulate the nonlinearity of the model in only one constraint. Finally, the reformulated model is linearized to efficient mixed-integer programming models applying two approaches: McCormick relaxation and piecewise linearization. The numerical study on a typical building in Luxembourg illustrates that the proposed McCormick-based linear model can provide high accuracy results within a reasonable runtime.


Prematurely born babies usually suffer from nutrition deficiency. Total parental nutrition (TPN) has been one of the major treatments commonly used by clinicians to improve the nutritional needs of prematurely born babies. This paper described the application of an artificial neuromolecular (ANM) chip to a database of prematurely born babies who were treated with TPN. The objective was to investigate the weight changes of these babies from the data of physical examination, laboratory tests, and TPN elements. Experimental results showed that the ANM chip achieved satisfactory results, outperforming both the back-propagation neural networks and SAS (a statistical tool). Out of our expectation, the result was even better than that of human judgment, suggesting that it could be used as an assisting tool to clinicians.


The effect of very thin polymer interlayers made of either acid-initiated cross-linkable polyfluorenes or the parent non-cross-linkable polyfluorenes, on top of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonic acid, on the efficiency of light-emitting diodes based on three different electroluminescent (EL) polymers is studied. We find that the use of non-cross-linkable polymers leads to the formation of interlayers with a thickness not exceeding 1nm and their effect on the light-emitting diode characteristics is not directly correlated with the energetic position of the frontier levels, indicating that other effects, such as interfacial morphology and contact area, which may depend on the specific interlayer/EL polymer combination, play a significant role. When cross-linkable polymers are used, thicker interlayers are formed (up to about 7nm), and their effect is better related to their frontier level energy. In particular, we found that with these interlayers, a quite significant EL effic...


Just because expectant parents choose more active participation in the birth of their child does not indicate they need less nursing care. They simply need different care from that used with traditional childbirth methods.


In this paper, impact damage behaviours of C/SiC rigid-felt titanium alloy three-layered plate under normal impact are investigated. First, low velocity impact experiment of the three-layered plate is performed by means of a drop weight impact apparatus. Second, the finite element model of the three-layered plate is established using a damage constitutive model; also, the influences of the initial kinetic energy (the initial velocity and the mass of the impactor) on stress distributions and damage patterns of the three-layered plate are analysed. Finally, the energy dissipation mechanisms and failure characterizations of the three-layered plate are discussed; also, the agreements of physical variables and damage morphologies between experimental and numerical results validate the reliability of numerical simulation. The results will play an important role in designing and evaluating advanced thermal protection structure.


Located at the Science and Technology Park of University of Tehran, Behsazan Larzeh Davam Co. has developed a patented technology to systematically design and manufacture linear and nonlinear fluid viscous dampers in Iran. Designing and manufacturing of a fluid viscous damper is a multidisciplinary task which calls for significant expertise in different branches of science including, structural dynamics, fluid and solid mechanics, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), etc. In this study, experimental results of three full-scale viscous dampers are presented and performances of the manufactured viscous dampers are discussed. All prototype specimens have been designed and manufactured by Behsazan Larzeh Davam Co. The main characteristics of the considered viscous dampers are shown in Figure 1.


The notions of tradition and modernity can be said to function like Jakobson's shifters, as Jespersen originally defined them: "A class of words … whose meaning varies with the situation." These two terms are a function of 1) a situation in space and time; 2) they are semantically interdependent; and 3) they cannot ignore the notions of tradition and modernity that preceded them. In order to remain, today's modernity must evolve into tomorrow's tradition. In this study, I propose to show how in Anne Hebert's Les Fous de Bassan, the three aspects of the "narrative reality" as Gerard Genette defines them in Figures III-namely, the story (the signified), the text (the signifying) and the narration (the act of telling itself)-are a perfect literary illustration of the mechanisms that condition the notions of tradition and modernity. In Hebert's novel, the story defines a situation where the dialectic between the traditional and the modern is shown to be impossible. It is at the level of the narration that thi...


The alkali metal ion pairs of 2,2′-bithiazolyl, bisthiazol-2-yl ketyl, bis-2-thienyl ketyl, and of two symmetrical dithienothienyl ketyls have been studied by e.s.r. in ethereal solutions in the presence of diberzo-18-crown-6 ether. The conformational stability of the latter three ketyls is much affected by the complexation of the ion pair by the cyclic ether. The sodium complexes show also a large enhancement of the energy barrier to the rotation of the aromatic groups. These results have been interpreted by postulating a sandwich structure for the crown complexes of the sodium ketyls.


In this article Guglielmo Maria Caporale and Brian Henry summarise the results of a recent research project which focussed on the empirical evidence that there may be gains from policy cooperation. Policy interactions were analysed using a new econometric model of the G-3, and a new methodology which incorporates elements from both optimal control and strategic game theory. They conclude that the gains from policy coordination might be significant.


Population of Bangladesh has been predicted with the help of an ordinary differential equation model known as logistic population model which is parameterized by growth rate along with capacity human population of Bangladesh. We use fourth order Runge-Kutta scheme for the numerical solution of the non- autonomous and non-linear model where we incorporate the growth rate as a function of time. First we test the numerical method for Bangladesh population data (1991-2006) and we find our population projection which is very good fit with the actual data. Then we implement the logistic model that gives future population projection for Bangladesh during 1996 to 2035.


This chapter introduces the "biohybrid systems" section of the Handbook of Living Machines and briefly reviews some important examples of systems formed by coupling biological to engineered components. These include brain–machine interfaces, both non-invasive, using different external measurement and scanning devices, and invasive approaches focusing on implantable probes. Next we consider fabrication methods for micro- and nanobiohybrid systems and an example of a biohybrid system at the organism level, in the form of a robot–animal biohybrid, developed using methods from synthetic biology. There are many application for biohybrid systems in healthcare: we include exemplar chapters describing intelligent prostheses such as artificial hands with tactile sensing capabilities, sensory organ–chip hybrids in the form of cochlear implants, and artificial implants designed to replace damaged neural tissue and restore lost memory function.


For a hydropower plant,the results of governor model test are important basis of system stability analysis calculation;and governor performance can be examined and unit dynamic characteristics be optimized by the test.Based on introduction of the static and dynamic load tests conducted at Youjiang Hydropower Plant,the author analyzed the results of test,which provide basis for safe and stable operation of units and power grid.


We experimentally demonstrate a DMT transmission system with 1.55-μm EML using nonlinearity-aware time domain super-Nyquist image induced aliasing. Compared with linear equalization, the capacity is improved by ∼16.8%(33.1%) with proposed method for 4(40) km transmission.


This paper presents probability and possibility as two measures to model different types of uncertainty in continuous dynamical systems. We analyze and compare how probability and possibility distribution evolve in a dynamical system modeled by differential equations, where initial conditions and/or parameter may be uncertain. Moreover, we propose a new algorithm for the numerical resolution of a fuzzy differential system and we relate it to existing computational methods to solve regular stochastic differential equations. Finally, we compare results obtained by simulating a dynamical system in which uncertainty is first represented in a possibilistic and then in a probabilistic form.


The invention relates to a method for operating an exhaust system of a vehicle, in which fuel in the exhaust gas is introduced and thereby the temperature of which is arranged in the exhaust system particulate filter is increased to a value at which burns off in the particulate filter soot. During the introduction of the fuel into the exhaust gas, a parameter (42, 48) is taken into account, at least, which has an influence on the conversion of nitric oxide to nitrogen dioxide over an oxidation catalyst which is arranged upstream of the particulate filter.


This paper presents the application of a mesh generation strategy for problems involving deforming geometries produced by three-dimensional ice accretion simulations, which are more challenging than corresponding two-dimensional problems. A technique to deform a discrete surface as it evolves due to the accretion of ice is described. The surface evolution algorithm is based on a face-offseting approach. A fast algebraic technique to propagate the computed surface deformations into the surrounding volume mesh while maintaining geometric mesh quality is also presented. Results are presented for a complex glaze ice on a rectangular planform wing with a constant GLC-305 airfoil section and rime ice and glaze shapes on a swept, tapered GLC-305 wing also with a GLC-305 cross section.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To differentiate between pseudo-occlusion (PO) and true occlusion (TO) of internal carotid artery (ICA) is important in thrombectomy treatment planning for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients. Although delayed contrast filling has been differentiated carotid PO from TO, its application has been limited by the implementations of multiphasic computed tomography angiography (mCTA). In this study, we hypothesized that carotid ring sign, which is readily acquired from single-phasic CTA, can sufficiently differentiate carotid TO from PO. METHODS Two hundred patients with non-visualization of the proximal ICA were included. Diagnosis of PO or TO of the cervical segment of ICA was made based on digital subtraction angiography. Diagnostic performances of carotid ring sign on arterial-phasic CTA and delayed contrast filling on mCTA were evaluated and compared. RESULTS One-hundred-twelve patients had ICA PO and 88 had TO. Carotid ring sign was more common in TO patients (70.5% vs 6.3%, p<0.001), while delayed contrast filling was more common in PO (94.9% vs 7.7%, p<0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of carotid ring sign in diagnosing carotid TO was 0.70 and 0.94 respectively, while sensitivity and specificity of delayed contrast filling was 0.95 and 0.92 in judging carotid PO. CONCLUSIONS Carotid ring sign is a potent imaging marker in diagnosing ICA TO. Carotid ring sign could be complementary to delayed contrast filling sign in differentiating TO from PO, in particular in centers with only single-phasic CTA.


The well-controlled formation of large silicon grains on predetermined positions is a key issue in order to produce single-grain thin film transistors on insulating substrates and thus to enable monolithic 3D integration. One way to achieve this is to artificially control the solidification of molten silicon during the flash crystallization of amorphous silicon. In this work, we present such an approach in which we used patterned metal layers below the amorphous silicon. The metal spots act as embedded micro mirrors and consequently introduce a lateral temperature gradient into the silicon film during flash crystallization. As a result, the grain growth from molten silicon is seeded from the predefined regions with the lowest temperature and thus the formation of large crystal silicon islands proceeds in a controlled manner. In the scope of this study, we evaluated a variety of different mirror patterns with respect to their suitability for this approach and observed that patterns of both circular and line-shaped mirrors are the most promising variants. The resulting silicon islands have pillow-like shapes and are located exclusively in regions between neighboring mirrors. They exhibit dimensions of a few tens of micrometers and consist of grains with sizes up to 28 μm. The formation of single-grain silicon pillow-like structures was observed for particular mirror patterns having circular mirrors. On the other hand, the application of mirror patterns with line-shaped mirrors resulted in the formation of elongated silicon grains which we explained in terms of lateral solidification starting from one edge. Furthermore, this approach exhibits grain filter characteristics leading to the controlled growth of large single grains at predetermined positions.


Little is known about the mechanisms through which routine outcome monitoring (ROM) influences psychotherapy outcomes. In this secondary analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial (Brattland et al., 2018), we investigated whether the working alliance mediated the effect of the Partners for Change Outcome Monitoring System (PCOMS), a ROM system that provides session-by-session feedback on clients' well-being and the alliance. Adult individuals (N = 170) referred for hospital-based outpatient mental health treatment were randomized to individual psychotherapy either with the PCOMS ROM system, or without (treatment as usual [TAU]). Treatment was provided by the same therapists (N = 20) in both conditions. A multilevel mediation model was developed to test if there was a significant indirect effect of ROM on client impairment at posttreatment through the alliance at 2 months' treatment controlled for first-session alliance. Alliance ratings increased more from session 1 to 2 months' treatment in the ROM than TAU condition, and alliance increase was associated with less posttreatment impairment. A significant indirect effect of ROM on treatment outcomes through alliance increase (p = .043) explained an estimated 23.0% of the effect of ROM on outcomes. The results were consistent with a theory of the alliance as one mechanism through which ROM works.


The Canning Stock Route: Rock Art and Jukurrpa ARC Linkage Project is documenting the cultural and environmental heritage of the route whilst developing management strategies in collaboration with Indigenous stakeholders.

Photo: Ken Leighton


Background: Reducing the 30-day hospital readmission rate is a national priority, and patient activation has emerged as a modifiable target to reduce hospital readmissions. Objective: Prior studies demonstrate that low patient activation and low health literacy are each associated with higher rates of hospital utilization. The aim of this study was to use path analysis methods to assess if patient activation mediates the relationship between health literacy and hospital utilization in the 30 days after discharge. Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial of patients receiving care at an urban safety net hospital. Path analyses were used to assess patient activation as a mediator of the relationship of education and health literacy with 30-day hospital utilization. The final model was stratified by race and ethnicity. Key Results: In the overall study sample, a patient activation measure (PAM) score that was one standard deviation (SD) higher was associated with 18% reduced odds of hospital utilization (odds ratio [OR] 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.73, 0.91]; p < .001). PAM mediated the relationship between education level and health literacy and hospital utilization. When stratified by race, the mediating effect of PAM was evident among Whites, but not among non-Whites. Specifically, a one SD higher PAM score was significantly associated with a 33% reduced odds of utilization among Whites (OR 0.67, 95% CI [0.57, 0.79], p < .001). With the inclusion of PAM in the model, there was no direct relationship between either health literacy or education and 30-day hospital utilization. Conclusions: Patient activation is only associated with hospital utilization among Whites. Further research is needed to assess if this selective protection is seen in other cohorts. Potential interventions to reduce hospital readmissions may need to consider other modifiable factors in racially and ethnically diverse populations. [Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2017;1(3):e128–e135.] Plain Language Summary: In this study, among White patients, the relationship between health literacy and hospital utilization within 30 days after discharge was due to patient activation. However, for non-White patients, the relationship between health literacy and hospital utilization within 30 days after discharge was not due to patient activation.


Background: eye examination for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) examinations is a screening test for which is among painful procedures in neonatal care unit. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of multisensory stimuli and breast milk on intensity of pain in premature infants during eye examination.
Methods: This study is a randomized clinical trial that 90 premature infants were randomly divided into 3 groups included: two intervention groups (1.multisensory stimulation (30 infants), 2.The recipient of the mother's breast milk (30 infants), and control group (30 infants). pain index score was recorded at 6 times based on Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP). Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20.0.
Results:  The mean pain score during the eye examination in the control group was significantly higher than two intervention groups (P>0.05. (Both sensory stimulation and breast milk intervention groups reduced the pain score, but the sensory stimulation group reached the baseline score earlier than the breast milk group, so that in  1.5 minutes after the second eye examination, there was a significant difference between the pain scores of the two intervention  groups. (p <0.05).
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, multisensory stimulation and breast milk both can be used to reduce pain in preterm infants during ROP examinations. Although the effect of multisensory stimulation was slightly greater, but breast milk could be a good alternative to a multisensory stimulation because it is a natural safe and effective analgesic at no cost.


Different from common 2D images, when a texture map image is project to a 3D model in the 3D space, it also implicitly associates with certain 3D geometry information. However, existing common texture map image compression methods do not take this into account. In this paper, we present a visual importance driven selective compression method for texture map image. Firstly, a visual important map construction method is presented, which takes not only the saliency information of the texture image but also the distortion of texture mapping into account. With this visual importance map, the texture map image is divided into several distinct areas. Then, the selective compression method is presented to compress these areas with a varying compression ratio. Experimental results show that the textured 3D model can obtain a better visual result when adopting our method.


Introduces the Hybrid Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization(HQPSO) into neural network design,then optimizes the structure and weights of neural network simultaneously.The optselection mechanism is used to preserve the excellent particles and BP algorithm is used to improve the training precision latterly,so it has more efficiency.The HQPSO is applied in the subject of the chaotic time series prediction.It demonstrates that the HQPSO improves the learning performance and generalization ability of neural network.


Based on the traditional load forecasting theory, this paper proposes a new short-term load forecasting method based on intelligent similar day recognition and deviation correction. Firstly, the characteristic matrix of prefecture-city and correlation factors is constructed to select the most similar day of load curve through calculating matrix correlation coefficient. On this basis, the real-time meteorological deviation correction strategy which adopts the XGBoost algorithm is established to carry out the secondary deviation correction of the load curve, so as to achieve the goal of short-term load prediction. An example study shows that this strategy can effectively improve accuracy of short-term load forecasting, and also has good adaptive characteristics. Therefore, this method can be applied to the short-term power load forecasting practice. This work is supported by Science and Technology Project of State Grid Corporation of China (No. 52150016006B).


Our country is very rich in silica raw material,but the comprehensive utilization of resource is not so good,causing unnecessary waste.This paper discussed comprehensive utilization of different grain size products during silica raw material processing through actual application examples of silica raw material in flat glass industry.


Burkholderia cepacia is an aerobic Gramnegative bacterium originally described as the cause of soft rot in onions but now recognised as a serious human pathogen most notably in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common, fatal inherited disease affecting Caucasian populations. Bacteroides fragilis, a Gramnegative commensal associated with the mucosal surface of the human colon, is the most frequently isolated anaerobic bacterium from clinical specimens and is increasingly implicated as an important source of endotoxin in gutderived sepsis. Previously, both organisms were considered to pose little hazard to human health and consequently, their pathogenesis and virulence factors are poorly understood. The cell surface components of a bacterium are classic virulence determinants and the influence of growth environment on the plasticity of the bacterial surface is well -established. This thesis considers the environmental regulation and biological activity of putative virulence factors for both organisms. Initial studies focused on the expression and antigenicity of the cell surface components; lipopolysaccharide (LPS), exopolysaccharide (EPS) and outer membrane from several representative strains. To determine the influence of growth environment, these components were investigated under different culture conditions and extraction methods. Results demonstrated that as with other Gramnegative organisms, the composition of outer membrane proteins of both B. cepacia and B. fragilis were influenced by cultural conditions with bacteria inducing or repressing protein structures presumably to influence overall permeability and survival. The EPS and LPS of B. fragilis also varied with environmental growth condition. Interestingly, extraction method was found to influence the LPS structure of B. cepacia including the loss of the distinctive rough LPS phenotype of an 'epidemic'


KIC 10553698A is a hot pulsating subdwarf B (sdB) star observed by the Kepler satellite. It exhibits dipole (l = 1) and quadrupole (l = 2) gravity modes with a clear period spacing structure. The seismic properties of the KIC 10553698A provide a test of stellar evolution models, and offer a unique opportunity to determine mixing processes. We consider mixing due to convective overshooting beyond the boundary of the helium burning core. Very small overshooting ( f = 10^{-6} ) results in a progressive increase in the size of convective core. However, moderate ( f = 10^{-2} ) and small ( f = 10^{-5} ) overshooting both lead to the occurrence of inert outer convective shells in the near-core region. We illustrate that the chemical stratifications induced by convective shells are able to change the g-mode period spacing pattern of a sdB star appreciably. The mean period spacing and trapping of the gravity modes in the model with moderate and small core overshooting are fully consistent with the period spacing trends observed in KIC 10553698A. Atomic diffusion driven by gravitational settling as well as thermal and chemical gradients is applied to reach a better match with the observed period spacings. Models that include small or very small overshooting with atomic diffusion have a decreased lifetime of the extreme horizontal branch phase and produce chemical stratification induced by convective shells during helium burning phase. In addition of being consistent with asteroseismology, their calculated values of the R2 parameter are more compatible with the observed R2 values.