SUMMARY: The physical and mechanical properties of Adherus Dural Sealant were evaluated through in vitro testing which included set time, water uptake, Young's modulus and burst strength. Using product up to two years old, Adherus Dural Sealant repeatedly set in one second, remained dimensionally stable, swelling only 8% in any one axis when exposed to an excess of solution, and was able to provide a firm barrier to fluid leaks for three to four weeks when exposed to pressures corresponding to spinal CSF pressures and five to six weeks when exposed to cranial physiological pressures.


In this provocative collection of essays, an interdisciplinary group of eminent thinkers and writers offer their thoughts on how embracing creativity - tapping into the "originality of everyday life" - can lead to improved physical and mental health, to new ways of thinking, of experiencing the world and ourselves. They show how creativity can refine our views of human nature at an individual and societal level and, ultimately, change our paradigms for survival - and for flourishing - in a world fraught with urgent challenges.


Laboratory sessions are designed to develop the experimental skills and the acquaintance with instruments that may contribute to a successful career in Biochemistry and associated fields. This study is a report on improving a traditional Biochemistry course by devising the laboratory sessions as an inquiry-based environment to develop the students' autonomy to plan, perform, and interpret experiments. We reformulated our Biochemistry laboratory to have three activities that sequentially increase regarding autonomy. We used an autonomy support structure consisting of varying levels of engagement by the student in such aspects as Organizational, Procedural, and Cognitive, gradually transferring to students the responsibility for their decisions within the laboratory. Our results show that students performed better on the less instructed worksheet activities, characterized by a more complex autonomy support, as compared to the activities tightly controlled by worksheet directions. A review of the group lab r...


Canada is an Arctic nation, although deep-seated anxieties about sovereignty and control belie its self-proclaimed status as an Arctic superpower.1 More than 40% of the country's landmass and 162,000 kilometers (approximately 101,000 miles) of its coastline lie "north of sixty," spanning approximately one-quarter of the global Arctic. Popular imagery has long cast the Arctic as a resource-rich "frontier of destiny," a homeland for indigenous peoples, a fragile environment in need of protection, and a source of national inspiration. Through these various lenses, Canadian commentators watch intently as Asian states' interests grow in Arctic science, environmental issues, resource development, shipping opportunities, and regional governance. For a country with a history of limited investment in northern transportation and economic development, the entrance of new players resurrects old anxieties about national interests, sovereignty, and practical control. While Canada seeks Asian investment to help drive its economic growth, commentators worry about the long-term implications of the rise of Asia, China's grand strategic interests more generally, and the growing footprint and influence of state-owned enterprises in a sparsely populated region. Accordingly, Canada's ongoing challenge lies in balancing the emerging opportunities associated with the opening of the Arctic as a resource and transportation frontier with the security and stewardship issues associated with protecting part of the Canadian homeland.This essay begins with an overview of Canada's Arctic strategy and how this frames its approach to circumpolar affairs and the Arctic Council, followed by a discussion of Canada's concerns about the admission of new observers to the council. The next section notes emerging opportunities for enhanced Canada-Asia engagement, despite persistent anxiety about increasing Asian interest in Arctic science, governance, resources, and maritime routes. This essay concludes that by working through existing mechanisms and ensuring that Asian states' participation does not erode Arctic state sovereignty, Canada and the other Arctic states can realize their national goals, maintain their leadership roles in regional governance, and accommodate growing international interest in the circumpolar north.Canada's Arctic StrategyCanada's priorities for the Arctic are laid out in its 2009 white paper Canada's Northern Strategy: Our North, Our Heritage, Our Future, which promotes an overriding agenda of seeking to develop a healthy, prosperous, and secure region within a strong and sovereign Canada.2 This strategy contains four main pillars: exercising Canada's Arctic sovereignty, promoting social and economic development, protecting Canada's environmental heritage, and improving and devolving governance. The Conservative Party government of Stephen Harper considers the sovereignty pillar to be its foremost priority, an approach that capitalizes on Canadian nationalism and primordial anxieties about the country's control over its share of the Arctic. Despite official assurances that Canadian sovereignty is well established in legal terms and that boundary or status-of-water disputes with neighboring countries are well managed, threat narratives that imagine foreign challenges to Canada's Arctic lands and seas continue to resonate with Canadians. Nevertheless, the country works closely with other Arctic states to promote and protect its international interests and cooperate on a broader vision for the region.Official statements confirm that Canada considers the Arctic Council to be the preeminent intergovernmental forum for cooperation between the eight Arctic member states and the international indigenous peoples' organizations that partake in the council as permanent participants. Among these organizations are the Arctic Athabaskan Council, Gwich'in Council International, and Inuit Circumpolar Council, all of which have Canadian constituents. …


Introduction and summary 1. Political developments: Political background. A chronology of political developments since the Tenth Congress of the Communist Party held 18-25 April 2006. The Vietnam War (the human toll). Communist Party membership. The boat people. Religion. The internet. Demography. AIDS. SARS. Bird flu. Swine flu. 2. Economic developments: Economic background. The economic system. Financial and exchange rate policy: developments since October 2006 (including the global financial crisis). The state sector. Privatization and stock markets. Foreign trade. The World Trade Organization (WTO). The Asian financial crisis. Foreign debt and aid. Foreign direct investment. Outward investment by Vietnamese firms. Agriculture. Economic performance. Postscript Bibliography Index


Age-based weight estimation methods are used in the resuscitation of children deemed too sick to weigh. Some methods involve multiple formulae, which can be difficult to recall and use. This paper presents a conceptually simple finger-counting method that can be used to rapidly estimate weight based on existing age-based formulae.


The buckling equations of filament wound composite cylindrical shell are established. The coefficients Kij and Lij of the buckling equations are determined by solving the equations. The geometric analysis and the effective stiffness calculation for the fiber crossover and undulation region are respectively accomplished. Using the effective stiffness of the undulation region, the specific formulas of the coefficients Kij and Lij of the buckling equations are determined. Numerical examples of the buckling critical loads have been performed for the different winding angles and stacking sequences cylindrical shell designs. It can be concluded that the fiber undulation results in the less effect on the buckling critical loads Pcr. Pcr increases with the thickness-radius ratio. The effect on Pcr due to the fiber undulation is more obvious with the thickness-radius ratio. Pcr decreases with the length-radius ratio. The effect on Pcr due to the fiber undulation can be neglected when the ratio is large.


Based on the correlation analytic process and GM (1,1) model of the Grey System theories, the paper analyzes the influence of the technologic index of substance in the agricultural modernization upon the development of the agricultural economy in Hunan province. This result shows that agricultural chemical technology plays the most important role in the development of agricultural economy, and then electrization, irrigation and mechanization. The paper forecasts the development trend in the future of these factors by the GM (1,1) model, which dynamically reflects the development trend of Hunan agricultural economy. On this basis, we presented some related proposals for promoting the development of agricultural economy of Hunan province.


A space is said to be small weakly infinite dimensional if it has a basis -' such that the collection of finite unions of elements of _ is inessential. A characterization of small weak infinite dimensionality is given for locally compact spaces. This characterization is then used to prove that if f: X -+ Y is a proper hereditary shape equivalence from a metric space X which is small weakly infinite dimensional onto a locally compact metric space Y, then Y is small weakly infinite dimensional.


In this article, experimental data on methane hydrate formation in mixtures of water and acetone are presented. For eight different acetone−water mixtures, the phase transition hydrate + liquid + vapor → liquid + vapor (HLV → LV) was determined in the pressure range 2.50 < p/MPa < 11.25. In addition, the experimental data obtained were described by a model that takes into account the variation of the enthalpy of hydrate formation as a function of pressure and acetone concentration. The average absolute temperature difference in the representation of the hydrate formation temperatures of methane in the presence of acetone is less than 0.32 K.


Active magnetic colloids are capable of rich collective behavior and complex self-organization. The interplay between short and long range interactions taking place away from equilibrium often results in a spontaneous formation of localized dynamic microstructures. Here we report a method for guided self-assembly and control of self-organized colloidal vortices emerging in a ferromagnetic particle ensemble energized by a uniaxial alternating (AC) magnetic field. The structure of a vortex composed of rolling magnetic particles can be stabilized and manipulated by means of an additional strongly localized alternating magnetic field provided by a mini-coil. By tuning parameters of the localized field we effectively control the dimensions and particle number density in the vortex. We find that the roller vortex self-organization is assisted by a field-induced magnetic "steering" rather than magnetic field gradients and is only possible while the system is in active (magnetic rollers) state. We demonstrate that parameters of the emergent vortex are efficiently tuned by a phase shift between alternating magnetic fields. The method for assisted self-organization of rolling magnetic colloids into a vortex with on-demand characteristics suggests a new tool for active matter control and manipulation, and may lead to the development of new approaches towards the guided microscopic transport in active particles systems.


In order for undergraduate nursing students to demonstrate their ability to achieve the required level of competency with practice they must be able to integrate both the clinical skills and knowledge that are pivotal to safe and competent nursing practice. In response to ongoing concerns about students' level of competency expressed by the supervising clinical staff, one School of Nursing and Midwifery created a Clinical Coach (CC) role. The purpose of this paper is to present the data collected including outcomes achieved and the coaching strategies used when a CC role was implemented to support and develop nursing practice for the marginal performer or 'at risk' student. A literature review of the application of coaching to nursing, a detailed analysis and discussion of the outcomes identified from auditing of collected data and the specific coaching strategies that resulted in successful outcomes for students is presented. This model of Clinical Coaching for nursing students could readily be adopted by other Schools of Nursing and Midwifery. This account of the regime of coaching practices may also offer a transferable, adaptable and flexible approach for other health professions who require their undergraduate students to complete clinical placements in preparation for professional practice. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction of Nursing and Midwifery implemented a series of practice develClinical placement experience is an integral aspect of practice development for undergraduate nursing students undertaking a Bachelor of Nursing degree in Australia. Students undertake multiple placements across various health agencies. Development of nursing practice requires the synchronicity of both knowledge application and clinical skills and students must demonstrate ability to integrate these professional requirements of the Registered Nurse (RN) for which they are being prepared. In Australia, this requires students to demonstrate the ability to meet the Nursing and Midwifery Board (NMBA) competencies (Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council, 2006) to that of a beginning level RN standard by completion of their degree. The majority of nursing students is able to develop and to meet these expectations and successfully integrate increasingly complex skills with practice knowledge as they progress throughout the year levels. Some students, however, fail to meet the expected levels of competency when undertaking nursing practice in the clinical setting. In response to an increasing number of students who had practice deficits identified when theywere in the clinical setting, one School .F., Clinical Coaching e An inn x.doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2014. opment strategies. The appointment of an academic in a Clinical Coach (CC) role the subject of this paper was one of these strategies. The purpose of this paper is to present the data collected including outcomes achieved and the coaching strategies used when the CC rolewas implemented to support and develop nursing practice for the marginal performer or 'at risk' student. The CC provided opportunity for early intervention and guidance to students identified and referred who required additional support to build confidence, to develop understanding and to increase ability to demonstrate the core attributes of practice and so improve their clinical practice skills. The term skills throughout this paper will refer to the collective practices of nurses that require them to perform psychomotor technical clinical skills, demonstrate effective communication skills, show ability to time manage and be able to plan and prioritise nursing care for their patients. 'Coaching' is a term borrowed from sporting philosophy. Sporting philosophy is underpinned by cognitive psychology, which seeks to understand the nature of human intelligence and how this works (Anderson, 1985). In more recent times the term 'coach' has emerged as a contemporary term used by 'executive or life coaches' who are often engaged by business management to improve productivity or equip individuals with the skills that result in success (Savage, 2001). Coaches follow established codes of behaviour that include having realistic and attainable expectations, ovative role to improve marginal nursing students' clinical practice, 06.010 M.F. Kelton / Nurse Education in Practice xxx (2014) 1e5 2 ensuring all players know the rules, earning players' respect, and giving praise as well as being personally committed (Pyke, 1991). The term 'coach' as it relates to the CC role discussed throughout this paper, is synonymous with its accepted meaning within the sporting world as one who trains through the processes of instruction and of giving advice (Pyke, 1991). Coaching in relation to clinical education involves 'the interactive, interpersonal processes through the acquisition of appropriate skills, actions and abilities that form the basis of professional practice' (Morton-Cooper and Palmer, 1993, p 47, cited in Grealish, 2000 p. 231). The CC role involved adaptation of sporting tenets or principles to the clinical practice milieu and was underpinned by six coaching principles. These principleswere to showeach student respect; seek to develop their potential; communicate effectively; provide specific feedback; use goal setting to motivate and provide appropriate challenges (Martens, 1997; Crisfield et al., 1996). Coaching sessions were focused on development of student's nursing practice skills affording them opportunity to improve their practice and meet the standards of clinical competency of safe practice. The CC provided support and advice to students and encouraged students to access wider support services provided by the University if necessary. In addition, the CC role included responsibility for contributing to the planning and evaluation of undergraduate course work through direct involvement with curriculum development. The CC tracked all coaching referrals and student progress. The coaching data-base provided the means by which to track the outcomes of the Clinical Coach role over the initial 9 semesters it was implemented. An audit of this data together with a review of literature around coaching for nursing practice development will be presented, analysed and discussed in this paper. Lessons learnt to date about development of clinical practice and the specific coaching strategies that resulted in successful outcomes for referred students will be presented. Patterns and trends that emerged have enabled the CC to make recommendations to the wider School community and of implementing a range of strategies to further support the marginal or 'at risk' undergraduate nursing student.


The photochemical mineralization of dissolved organic carbon to dissolved inorganic carbon(DIC) is a key process in carbon cycling.Suwannee river humic acid was photooxidated using a Suntest CPS solar simulator to examine the effects of dissolved oxygen levels,the wavelength of incident light and the concentration of Fe on the photoproduction of DIC.Based on the rate of DIC photoproduction under air-saturation in the first 24 h(4.40 μmol/(L·h)),it increased by a factor of 1.56 under O2-saturation,but fell by only 36% under N2-saturation.UV-B,UV-A and visible wavelengths accounted for 31.8,32.6 and 25.6% respectively of DIC production.As 20 μmol/L DFOM added,the rate of DIC photoproduction was 55.6% of that of original Suwannee river humic acid samples with 5.46 μmol/L Fe.


Our study presents results of air-pollutant measurements in four types of environmental accidents using a mobile multi-gas FTIR apparatus. Fuel leakage at a gas-station caused extremely high concentrations of pollutants. During a fire at a landfill the release of CO, SO2, NO2, heptane, ethane, propane, benzene, toluene, xylene, and styrene was also high. An accident in defense industry facilities did not lead to endangerment of the environment. An emitter-air condenser in an industrial facility released dangerous concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans, benzene, toluene, xylene, and styrene. A mobile FTIR gas analyzer is useful in diverse ecological accidents.


Various flavins, FMN, FAD, and acriflavin, were immobilized to Sepharose using several different coupling methods. The only product stable enough to permit extended studies was acriflavin coupled to epoxy‐substituted Sepharose. The nonenzymic oxidizing capacity towards NAD(P)H was investigated and a 25% specific activity, compared to that of free acriflavin, was observed. The reduced acriflavin was immediately auto‐reoxidized in air and could thus be reused. It was shown that acriflavin‐Sepharose preparations function as NAD(P)H oxidizing agents in a number of different dehydrogenase systems including lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), alanine dehydrogenase (alaDH), and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH). The amount of expensive coenzyme necessary for high product formation of such systems was thereby markedly reduced.


This paper examines the coverage of legislative lobbying in European news media. The starting point thereby is that lobbying in the crowded EU-level interest community is not only a struggle for direct access to policymakers, but that in order to realize policy goals many interest groups rely on political attention generated by the media. Our main research question is how media attention is skewed towards particular interests and which factors explain these varying levels of prominence. Our empirical analysis is based on a set of 125 legislative proposals adopted by the European Commission between 2008 and 2010. For all these cases we identified 388 interest organizations that made public statements, we coded the amount of media attention for these organized interest, the type of statements they made as well as some key organizational features. While the aggregate levels of attention look pretty balanced, our evidence shows that media prominence is skewed towards particular types of interests and that the uneven distribution of media prominence is significantly explained by the type of policy position organized interests adopt.


Angus bulls generally produced smaller but meatier and higher-conditioned animals with more palatable meat than did Hereford bulls in these limited comparisons of crossbreds with each of the breeds separately (using four presumably representative bulls of each breed).


This paper is to describe the success case that NLP Research Team, ETRI could commercialize the domain-specific machine translation systems every year since 2006. One of the main factors to enable the commercialization was the customization method which adapts an existing system to new domain. The goal of this paper is to introduce the customization method in detail and show how the customization method has evolved according to domains. For this, we will first describe the pure customization method used to adapt an English-Korean Web MT system in 2004 to an English-Korean patent MT system in 2006. Then we will discuss the upgraded customization method that semi-automatic construction of translation knowledge, semi-automatic tuning of translation engine modules, and automatic evaluation were added to the pure customization method. This upgraded customization method could make the following commercialization possible: machine translation system for scientific paper translation in 2007, machine translation system for IT web news translation in 2008, machine translation system for business documents translation in 2009, and machine translation system for messenger translation in 2010.


When pancreatoduodenectomy is conducted in a patient with celiac axis obstruction, the blood flow to the liver becomes an important consideration. We report a case of carcinoma of the papilla of Vater with celiac axis obstruction, for which pancreatoduodenectomy was done safely without reconstruction of blood circula-tion. A 75-year-old woman admitted for general fatigue and right hypochondralgia was found in endoscopic examination to have carcinoma of the papilla of Vater. Visceral angiography showed extensive collateral blood flow to the hepatic artery and splenic artery via dilated pancreatic arcades and the dorsal pancreatic artery from the superior mesenteric artery. A lateral view of 3D reformation of enhancement abdominal CT showed celiac axis obstruction necessitating surgery. We found a stricture at the celiac axis and we detached it, but pulsations of the common hepatic artery were not visible. Monitoring with ultrasonic flowmetry showed that the common hepatic artery had an efferent blood flow after test-clamping gastroduodenal artery, which is supposed to be from the dorsal pancreatic artery. We conducted pancreatoduodenectomy safely without reconstruction of blood circulation.


Although a recent Gallup poll indicates that only 5 percent of adults in the United States consider themselves vegetarians, plant-based eating pervades American food culture, popularizing "Meatless Monday" campaigns and fueling public knowledge of tofu and veggie burgers, if not their consumption. In The Vegetarian Crusade, Adam Shprintzen, assistant professor of history at Marywood University, traces the history of meat-free eating in the United States, taking the vegetarian movement as his unit of analysis. Drawn to the subject by his own conversion to vegetarianism, Shprintzen seeks to properly historicize the American dietary movement, as not "a product of twentieth-century modernism" (1), an example of ethical consumption, or a dietary choice motivated by health, but rather a political and ideological reform initiative with roots firmly planted in the nineteenth century. Shprintzen pivots his study around the marked shift in the vegetarian movement's aims after the Civil War—from a movement focused on broad social change to one that promoted individual success and productivity. Starting in 1817, when followers of the Bible Christian Church brought their meatless lifestyle to American shores, Shprintzen chronicles the make up and evolution of the vegetarian movement through its "institutions, organizations, prominent advocates, and publications" (2). While Shprintzen takes a linear and singularly historical approach, he draws from rich primary sources, such as medical journals, popular press, and advertising, as well as vegetarian pamphlets, lectures, cookbooks, and periodicals. In his first chapters, Shprintzen demonstrates how the antebellum vegetarian movement viewed a meat-free diet as part of a "total reform ideology" (30), united with the social causes of abolition, women's suffrage, pacifism, and economic equality. This period of vegetarianism collectivized a variety of believers, including Bible Christians, followers of Sylvester Graham, water curists, residents of Fruitlands led by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane, and early physiologists. Whether consuming a Grahamite diet of "coarse wheaten bread" or endeavoring to create a fruitopia in New England, followers eschewed meat, viewing a plant-based diet as a morally centered "catalyst" (4) for broader social change.


The invitation from the editors to contribute my perceptions about the changes in ecumenical and interreligious relations on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies in 2014 evokes a personal response. Thus, in the initial section of this essay, I will situate my own journey in the broader theological and ecclesial context. In the second part, I will reflect on challenges in the U.S. Catholic Church in its relationship with the Jewish people. My family life and Seattle, Washington, upbringing were the genesis of my involvement across religious borders. From my early childhood I was skeptical of the teachings of my elementary school religion classes and the formulations of the Baltimore Catechism about who could be saved. Child of a lifelong practicing Catholic--my mother--and of a religiously nonaffiliated father, I rejected the notion that my father would be excluded from heaven simply because of his lack of religious belonging. At some level, I also rejected the notion of a God who consigned people to hell because they belonged to the wrong religion or none at all. My secondary education overlapped with Vatican 11. While I do not recall learning much in detail about the council, I have a distinct memory of reading Pope John XXIII's encyclical addressed to all persons of good will, Pacem in terris, and of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Those formative texts had a profound influence; they stand out more than anything else I read in those years (except the dreadful monograph, Modern Youth and Chastity, foisted upon us in our junior year). Although I know now how fiercely the conciliar participants debated the issues about relations with Jews, I was less aware of the deliberations in St. Peter's Basilica than I was of what was happening on the local front. (1) The priest who was chaplain at the high school I attended, the Rev. William Treacy, had become friends with Rabbi Raphael Levine; joined by a Protestant minister, they had a weekly television show, "Challenge," which first aired in 1960 and continued for fifteen seasons. And, when Treacy was named pastor of a parish--my grandmother's parish, as it happened--that was in the process of building a new church, he commissioned Levine's wife, Reeva Miller, an artist, to design the altar. Levine and Treacy founded an interfaith camp together, Camp Brotherhood, and in 1974 wrote a book together, Wild Branch on the Olive Tree. (2) Only in recent years have I realized how much their work, in tandem with the growing sense of aggiornamento in the church, influenced me. In the spring of 1965, for example, I organized an afternoon of exchange with the youth group of Levine's synagogue, Temple de Hirsch, and students at the high school I attended. That was six months before the promulgation of Nostra aetate, on October 28, 1965. A church coming at long last to acknowledge the "rays of truth" in other religious traditions and the modeling of persons who collaborated across religious borders exerted a powerful pull on me, but it was not until I began graduate study in New York City in the fall of 1974 that I began to grapple with the ways in which supersessionist theology had denigrated Judaism and distorted Christian origins. Writing a dissertation that traced the evolution of salvation history and analyzed its theological foundations was the beginning of my interest in what I now identify as Christian theologies of Judaism--that is, doing Christian theology in conversation with Jewish thought and in light of the history of the Jewish-Christian encounter. (3) It is the latter conversation that particularly shapes my theological thinking. Christians have an ethical obligation to confront our tradition's disparagement of Judaism and its consequent contribution to the rise of Antisemitism. In retrospect, that sense of ethical obligation has been a major influence in my writing and teaching. …


"Academic accounting programs cover a great deal of technical material and its application, but are not always able to give students much hands-on experience in accounting without an added internship course. Our accounting communication course includes a payroll project that gives students some field experience in interviewing and compiling materials, then producing written workpapers and giving an oral presentation on their findings. An advantage of our project over some more structured ones is that it requires very little professor involvement-students choose and set up the company interviews themselves. "


This work is part of the realization of our doctoral thesis whose theme is "Problem of the food and nutritional practices of the urban populations of the precarious districts of Port-Bouët, in Abidjan (Ivory Coast). This study aims to present the characteristics, food and hygiene of shops, markets and street food places in precarious neighborhoods of the municipality of Port-Bouët in Abidjan.The methodology is based on (1) direct observation of the environment of these shops and street food places (2) surveys of the supporters of these shops (questionnaires). In the 65 precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët, grouped into seven zones, there are many street food places and they are mostly "open air". Most of the shops, markets and street food places are located along dusty roads or gutters containing sewage. They open from morning to evening and are generally run by women of foreign origin and some Ivorians. It sells foods for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, of African types. Vendors, utensils, cutlery are "relatively good" cleanliness. Some shops and street food places do not have handwashing points. Others give customers the same container filled with water to wash their hands. In short, shops and street food places have poor hygiene that can impact the health of consumers.


This paper studies the linkage between owner-occupied housing and portfolio choice. Using a theoretical simulation model with Finnish asset return data we find that a leveraged position in housing has a clear negative effect on the share of stocks in a mean-variance efficient portfolio. The second part of the paper studies how owner-occupied housing actually affects households' financial portfolios using Finnish household data. The main result indicates that the more valuable house a homeowner resides in, at a given level of net wealth, the less likely it is to own stocks. However, it seems that housing has only a small effect if any on the share of financial assets a household invests in stocks conditional on stockholding.


This paper reports on the use of anonymous pop quizzes (APQs) during stand-alone and multi-session library instruction sessions. APQs were used at the end of a class as a tool to test how well students have understood the material presented to them, to reinforce retention of important points, to increase student engagement through an interactive task, and to assist the instructor in planning and preparing future classes.

Pop quizzes are frequently used in the classroom. They are popular with students as they often allow for bonus points [1, 2] and popular with teachers as they encourage student attendance and pre-class preparation [3]. Padilla-Walker has shown that students who performed well on daily extra-credit quizzes did better on final exams [2], while Nevid found that "mastery" quizzes—pop-quizzes given at the beginning and end of a class lecture to indicate key lecture concepts—led to a marked improvement by undergraduate psychology students in terms of retention of key concepts [4]. The research on announced versus unannounced quizzes is contradictory: Some studies indicate students performed better on unannounced quizzes (i.e., pop quizzes) as they encourage attendance in class and the review of materials prior to coming to class [5, 6], while other work found announced quizzes led to improved exam performance and final grades for undergraduate medical students [7].

The few examples of anonymous quizzes in the literature (called ConcepTests or interactive anonymous quizzes) were used in the late-1990s in physics and chemistry classes [8–,10]. However, these examples—which tended to be highly structured, focus on a single question, and involve a great deal of in-class discussion amongst students—are quite different in format from the APQs as used in this study at the University of Saskatchewan.

While the literature is scarce on the use of APQs in instruction, overall, the use of pop quizzes in the classroom setting has been shown to identify problem areas that need additional reinforcement [6], encourage class attendance and pre-class preparation [11], and allow students to preview sample test questions [11, 12]. It was with these potential benefits in mind that the use of APQs was implemented in library instruction in a health sciences library.


Objective To explore the effect of amlodipine on the expression of ET-1 and BNP in plasma of rats with congestive heart failure. Methods Rats were diveded into three groups, control, chronic heart failure and amlodipine therapy group. Chronic heart failure was induced with adriamycin 20 mg·kg-1 BW. Rats in amlodipine group received amlodipine 10 mg·kg-1·d-1 and adriamycin at the same time. Hemodynamic measurement was carried out after 4 weeks and the contents of ET-1 and BNP in plasma of each group were detected. Results Compared with control group, the ± dp/dtmax in chronic heart failure group significantly decreased, and the expression of ET-1 and BNP in plasma significantly increased (P0.01). The ±dp/dtmax in amlodipine group was significantly lower than that in control but obviously higher than that in chronic heart failure group, and the expression of ET1 and BNP in plasma was significantly higher than that in control but obviously lower than that in chronic heart failure group (P0.01).Conclusions One mechanism of amlodipine treatment of rats with congestive heart failure may be indirectly reduced the expression of ET-1 and BNP through maintaining the function and structure of left ventricular and protecting cardiac cells.


Chalcides boulengeri (Anderson, 1896) isa scincid lizard belonging, with three otherspecies,tothesemifossorialandpsammophiloussubgenus Sphenops Wagler 1830, previouslyconsidered a distinct genus, but recently in-cluded in Chalcides Laurenti, 1768 based onkaryological and osteological data (see Caputoet al., 1993a, and Caputo, 2004; see also Mateoet al., 1995). It inhabits sandy regions aroundthe north African Sahara desert from Moroccoto Libya (Mellado and Dakki, 1988; Le Berre,1989; Bons and Geniez, 1996; Schleich et al.,1996). C. boulengeri spends most of its timeunder the sand surface, beneath the roots ofdesert shrubs or under stones. It is a diurnalspecies, but becomes nocturnal in the hottestmonths of the summer. Two species of thesubgenus Sphenops have been karyotyped sofar: C.sphenopsiformis (Dumeril)(Capriglione,1987) and C. sepsoides (Audouin) (Caputoet al., 1993a), both sharing a karyotype of 28chromosomes and differing only by a pericen-tric inversion involving the 10


This study is to evaluate the RHESSys (Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System) simulated streamflow (Q), evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture (SM), gross primary productivity (GPP) and photosynthetic productivity (PSNnet) with the measured data. The RHESSys is a hydro-ecological model designed to simulate integrated water, carbon, and nutrient cycling and transport over spatially variable terrain. A 8.5 km2 Seolma-cheon catchment located in the northwest of South Korea was adopted. The catchment covers 90.0% forest and the dominant soil is sandy loam. The model was calibrated with 2 years (2007-2008) daily Q at the watershed outlet and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) GPP, PSNnet and 3 year (2007~2009) daily ET data measured at flux tower using the eddy-covariance technique. The coefficient of determination (R2) and the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency (ME) for Q were 0.74 and 0.63, and the average R2 for ET and GPP were 0.54 and 0.93 respectively. The model was validated with 1 year (2009) Q and GPP. The R2 and the ME for Q were 0.92 and 0.84, the R2 for GPP were 0.93.


A method was developed for the introduction of affinity tags onto bacteriophage heads using a phage display technique. It was shown that T4 bacteriophage carrying a biotin-binding polypeptide (Biotin Carboxyl Carrier Protein, BCCP, from acetyl-CoA carboxylase of E. coli) or a Cellulose Binding Module (CBM, of xylanase from Thermotoga maritime) can be effectively immobilized onto various streptavidin- or cellulose-based materials, respectively. Interaction of the bacteriophage with the functionalized surface is strong and almost irreversible. The immobilized phages, termed BCCP-T4 and CBM-T4, retain a high level of infectivity and are capable of capturing 70100% of E. coli cells from suspensions containing 10 to 10 6 cfu/ml in 30 min. The subsequent lysis of captured cells resulted in the release of multiple progeny phages. Enumeration of progeny phages by real-time PCR allowed detection of 1 cfu of E. coli per 5 µl sample within 2 hours.


We have developed, fabricated and tested a terahertz (THz) source based on the long Josephson junction acting as the flux-flow oscillator (FFO). The FFO was integrated to the lens antenna on a single chip providing the THz emission to open space. We used the double slot type of antenna coupled to the semielliptical silicon lens to form a narrow output beam. The impedance and the emission properties of the antenna were numerically simulated. The experimental samples were fabricated with the FFO based on Nb/AlN/NbN superconductor–insulator– superconductor (SIS) trilayers with a current density of 11 kA/cm and a gap voltage of about 3.55 mV. The output radiation was studied by a THz spectrometer based on the SIS receiver with high spectral resolution, the signal has been observed in the range of 440-700 GHz with the signal-to-noise ratio up to 55 dB. A feasibility of the phase locking by using the harmonic mixer has been discussed. A flux-flow oscillator (FFO) based on the unidirectional flow of magnetic vortexes (fluxes) in a long Josephson junction is a promising solution of local source for heterodyne receiving in terahertz (THz) region [1],[2]. Its frequency tuning range up to 100% of central frequency is unique among other types of THz sources. The FFO output power of about 0.1-1 μW gained in the peak with a linewidth of ~40 kHz by using the phaselocking loop (PLL) is sufficient for heterodyne requirements. Up to now, the FFO has been implemented as the local oscillator utilizing the on-chip integration with the receiving SIS-mixer at the on-board superconducting receiver for the TELIS balloon instrument [3],[4]. In this study, we have coupled the FFO output radiation to a transmitting lens antenna and developed a compact THz oscillator emitting to open space. The idea of the oscillator is presented in Fig. 1. The cryogenic module with the oscillator can be installed on the same cold plate as a detector and operate as a heterodyne source. Recently we tested this concept using also a double slot antenna but with another type of the excitation and another topology of the antenna [5],[6]. The numerical simulations, fabrication, and experimental study of the samples were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 1779-20343). The technological maintenance for fabrication of the tunnel structures was carried out at the Kotel'nikov IREE RAS within the framework of the state task. N. V. Kinev, L. V. Filippenko, M. Yu. Fominskiy, V. P. Koshelets are with the Kotel'nikov Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics RAS, Moscow 125009, Russia. (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com). The numerical simulations were performed using a specialized microwave 3D-modeling software. The impedance of the antenna and the power emitted to open space are presented in Fig. 2. According to simulations, the antenna operating range is 350-550 GHz defined by a power level of emission to open space higher than 0.5 of the total output FFO power. After this, the batch of the samples containing the FFO with dimensions 16×400 μm based on Nb/AlN/NbN trilayer and the slot antenna based on Nb film with a thickness of ~200 nm was fabricated. The current density of SIS trilayer on the batch is about 11 kA/cm, which corresponds to parameter K. I. Rudakov is with the Kotel'nikov Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics RAS, Moscow 125009, Russia, and also with the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, 9712 CP Groningen, The Netherlands. A. M. Baryshev is with the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, 9712 CP Groningen, The Netherlands. Superconducting Flux-Flow Oscillator as a Terahertz External Local Oscillator for Heterodyne Receiving Nickolay V. Kinev, Kirill I. Rudakov, Lyudmila V. Filippenko, Mikhail Yu. Fominskiy, Andrey M. Baryshev, and Valery P. Koshelets Fig. 1. On the left – layout of the planar structure with the FFO coupled by a microstrip line to the slot antenna; on the right – the scheme of the chip containing a microcircuit placed at the focus of the silicon lens. The scheme on the right is not to scale.


A precision film plane digitizer utilizing air bearings for bubble chamber pictures in which the x and y motions are decoupled has been developed. Its inherent accuracy is 1.5 µm or better, and its overall measurement accuracy is 2.5 µm.


A novel class of phthalocyanines substituted with azo group moieties on the periphery of phthalocyanine ring was synthesized, and they show obvious, broad uncommon absorption band in the visible re...


: There has been a increase in sewage and food waste generation in India. In the last few decades because of rapid population growth and economic development in the country. In this study pre performance of the biomass to produce power. Sewage and food waste are chosen as to study and produce biogas under certain conditions. By which biogas production enhances and purify, leading to a high power generation. Wastewater that has been adversely affected in quality of water in the river . During recent years, there has been people are concern about water and their use, conservation of water all over the world. It has been observed that sewage water is directly supplied to the river. Sewage and food waste can be for generation of electricity form gas and remaining of biomass can be used for manure.


The objective of this study was to investigate the Antiulcer activity of gum resin of Commiphora wightii (bhandaari) in rats. The antiulcer activity of aqueous extract was evaluated in indomethacin & ethanol induced gastric ulcer model in wistar rats. The aqueous gum resin extract was prepared by cold maceration extraction process using water as solvent. Phytochemical analysis & acute oral toxicity were carried out using standard methods. The preliminary phytochemical screening of C.wightii revealed the presence of sterols, glycoside & flavonoids. The Aqueous extract at a concentration of 250 mg/kg & 500 mg/kg exhibit a protective effect on ulcer induced models & was compared with standard drugs Ranitidine & Misoprostol. Percentage ulcer inhibition of aqueous Extract at 500 mg/kg for Indomethacin & ethanol induced ulcer model were 23.27% & 40.55% respectively. Among the doses studied aqueous extract 500 mg/kg body weight was found to be optimum for significant ulcer reduction. The flavanoids & Sterols present in the aqueous extract might be responsible for the antiulcer action probably by maintaining the antioxidant level in the gastrointestinal tract there by reducing mucosal damage. The extract exhibit ulcer protection activity in dose dependent manner .


In 1805, Young described the so-called Young's equation for a liquid drop resting on a planar surface, which since has been successfully applied for different designs and extended to cover various physical situations. In this paper, we used the method developed by Lubarda to derive a Young's equation for a liquid drop resting on an axisymmetric concave surface, which is considered to account for an extended form of nonplanar surfaces. As a result, a new form of Young's equation is derived, which can be reduced into the Young's equation for either a planar boundary or a vertical tube and accordingly can be considered as an extended form of Young's equation for surfaces of various forms.


Physical exercise and exertion impose an increased demand of nutrients and oxygen on the body. To achieve this, some sports persons resort to pills and injections as shortcuts to success. The use of drugs in sports goes back centuries, about all the way back to the very invention of the concept of sports. In sports, doping is the administrations of or used by a competing athlete of any substance foreign to the body or any physiological substance taken in abnormal quantity or taken by an abnormal route of entry into the body with the sole purpose of increasing in as artificial and unfair manner his/her performance in competition. In November 1999, the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) was founded as an independent foundation with equal representatives from the Olympic Movement and Public authorities. The creation of WADA is one of the most recent and impressive examples of collaboration in international sport. "Think positive test negative" is the message of WADA to every athlete in all sports. Gene doping, blood doping, blood doping, and human growth hormone are the future challenges in the field of doping agents and improvement of detection techniques. In formation and education should be provided to athletes as well as to the society.


The use of blockchain technology has increased dramatically in the past decade. Blockchain continues to develop, and new functions and capabilities continue to develop. Although the use of this technology began with cryptocurrency, it has been extended to other areas that can benefit from a shared and secure ledger. As an important technology of energy digitization, blockchain has the characteristics of distributed computing, storage, level data sharing, sharing, openness, transparency, tamperability and continuity, and can provide technical support for energy business digitization. Put forward the concept of blockchain breaking the Bureau of energy digital economy, and analyze the role of blockchain in building a new production relationship of energy digital economy from three aspects: ownership of means of production, new production relationship and product distribution form.


'How can you possibly award prizes when everybody missed the target?' said Alice. 'Well', said the Queen, ' some missed by more than others, and we have a fine normal distribution of misses, which means we can forget the target.'


Depositing on inclined cylindrical surfaces has recently gained interest due to its potential for directly employing feedstock that forms part of the printed structure. In this paper, we present our approach to perform cylindrical path planning through converting a planar slicing data structure into a universal 3D polar data structure. This has the advantage of using off-the-shelf slicing software and adapting it for cylindrical path planning. Our approach is capable of generating cylindrical print paths of various patterns such as linear raster, circular raster, hybrid contour, and zigzag path. We demonstrate the capability of the approach to planning cylindrical print paths for two different revolved components employing these three different printing patterns. Actual printing experiments and tensile tests of the cylindrical part using wire-arc additive manufacturing were conducted and reported. It was found that they yield an average tensile strength that matches the strength of the 4340 feedstock.


In this paper, we show that the cryptographic key generation and distribution scheme for the smart gird proposed by Xia and Wang is vulnerable to the impersonation attack by which the adversary is able to impersonate the responder to the initiator. Furthermore, on the basis of this vulnerability, we point out that Xia and Wang's argument for resistance against the unknown key share (UKS) attack is incorrect.


PurposeDespite the increasingly growing empirical research on leader humor, the critical issue of how and when leader humor affects newcomer adjustment was largely overlooked. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between leader humor and newcomer adjustment. Based on social information processing theory, the authors identify newcomers' role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) as the mediator and suggest that newcomers' cognitive flexibility moderates the effects.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained from a 2-wave sample of 195 newcomers. The authors utilized the PROCESS procedure developed by Hayes to assess the hypothesized moderated mediation model.FindingsThe findings showed that leader humor could boost newcomers' RBSE which, in turn, was beneficial to newcomer adjustment. Besides, newcomers' cognitive flexibility plays a moderating role in the relationship between leader humor and newcomers' RBSE.Research limitations/implicationsThis study utilized a cross-sectional research design, making the design difficult to obtain causal conclusions. Moreover, the data were all based on self-reports from newcomers, which may raise a concern of common method bias.Originality/valueThis paper extends the literature on leader humor and newcomer adjustment by treating RBSE as the mediator and newcomers' cognitive flexibility as the moderator. This study is one of several empirical studies to test the link between leader humor and newcomer adjustment.


Nowadays, remotely impromptu sensor systems have gained popularity in both commercial and military situations. In any case, security is a critical problem for IoT systems due to its distribution in an open and unprotected environment. Also, because the encryption component is still insufficient to support the sensor protection from malicious attacks, a framework for detecting interruptions should be given. While interruption counteraction is an effective and successful strategy against attacks, there may be some assaults for which no established avoidance technique exists. Therefore, apart from protecting the framework against known attacks, the interruption detection framework collects critical data about attack strategies and aids in developing an interruption counteraction framework. Along with checking attacks against remote IoT devices, this article analyses the various activities to interrupt the discovery framework against remote sensor organizations. In this article, we offer a system for recognizing interruptions in a progressive structural plan that is tailored to the existing requirements and constraints of remote, specifically appointed sensor organizations. We used grouping components to construct a four-level progressive organization that increases network adaptability to large geological regions and employs both abnormality and abuse detection techniques for interruption finding in this suggested interruption location framework engineering. In addition, we offer a strategy-based location instrument and an interruption reaction, as well as a GSM cell concept for engineering interruption identification.


Abstract : Conventional damping tapes, consisting of one or more adhesive layers constrained by relatively rigid bands, do not have sufficient damping for many applications. Considerable improvement can be realized in a multiple- band configuration in which alternate bands are rigidly anchored on opposite sides of the configuration. The energy dissipation in such a configuration is analyzed considering both short (rigid) bands and long (elastic) bands. General relations are derived between the configuration properties in terms of the equivalent elastic modulus and the effective loss modulus and a parameter which includes the material properties and the configuration geometry. Test configurations were made and tested. Experimental results are in excellent agreement with the theory. Both the theory and experimental results indicate that this new configuration is capable of dissipating very large damping energy, significantly higher than conventional surface treatments. (Author)


Cah. Biol. Mar. (2005) 46 : 105-126 A new species of Glochinema (Epsilonematidae: Nematoda) from the oxygen minimum zone off Baja California, NE Pacific and phylogenetic relationships at species level within the family Carlos NEIRA 1 , Wilfrida DECRAEMER 2, 3 and Thierry BACKELJAU 2, 4 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Integrative Oceanography Division, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0218, USA. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com (2) Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, B-1000 Brussel, Belgium (3) Gent University, Department of Biology, Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium (4) University of Antwerp, Department of Biology, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerpen, Belgium Abstract: Glochinema spinithorni sp. nov. is described from muddy, bathyal sediments of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) of the north eastern Pacific Ocean off Baja California. It is characterized by a rather large body length (over 1 mm), a large number of body rings (242-282), sexual dimorphism in the number and position of pharyngeal thorns near the head region, cuticular ornamentation with numerous hairy spines and two sets of stronger spines ventrally in the anterior body half, mid-sized spiral amphids, and by the number and arrangement of ambulatory setae and long spicules (over 100 µm). The finding of a second OMZ Glochinema species with similar morphological characteristics supports the presumption that OMZs function as isolated habitats promoting endemism at low taxonomic levels. Results of phylogenetic analyses at the species level restricted to the Glochinematinae and Keratonematinae suggest that both OMZ species form a monophyletic group. An attempt was made to recognize phylogenetic relationships at species level within the family. The phylogenetic analyses were based upon a data matrix of 96 ingroup taxa and 25 characters. The results support the monophyly of the genera Leptepsilonema, Metepsilonema, Perepsilonema and Polkepsilonema (with or without Pternepsilonema). Resume : Une nouvelle espece du genre Glochinema (Epsilonematidae : Nematoda) de la zone de minimum en oxygene au large de la Basse Californie, Pacifique NE et relations phylogenetiques au niveau specifique au sein de la famille. Une nouvelle espece, Glochinema spinithorni sp. nov., provenant de sediments bathyaux envases de la zone de minimum en oxygene (OMZ) au large de la Basse Californie, est decrite. La nouvelle espece est caracterisee par son corps long (> 1 mm), le grand nombre d'anneaux corporels (242-282), un dimorphisme sexuel dans le nombre et la position des cornes pha- ryngiennes pres de la tete, l'ornementation cuticulaire avec de nombreuses epines fines et deux groupes de fortes epines ventrales dans la region anterieure du corps, les amphides spiralees de taille moyenne, le nombre et l'arrangement des soies ambulatoires et de longs spicules (> 100 µm). La decouverte au niveau de l'OMZ d'une seconde espece de Glochinema avec des caracteristiques morphologiques similaires soutient l'hypothese que les OMZ fonctionnent comme des habitats isoles favorables a l'endemisme a un faible niveau taxonomique. Les resultats d'analyses phylogenetiques au niveau de l'espece pour les Glochinematinae et Keratonematinae suggerent que les deux especes trouvees dans l'OMZ forment un groupe monophyletique. Une tentative est faite d'analyser la relation phylogenetique au niveau de l'espece dans la famille. Les analyses phylogenetiques ont ete basees sur un matrice de donnees de 96 taxons et 25 caracteres. Les resultats font Recu le 7 juin 2004 ; accepte apres revision le 14 mars 2005. Received 7 June 2004; accepted in revised form 14 March 2005.


A computational method is presented for the analysis of two-dimensional flow through a non-uniform gauze. The method, based upon the linearized theory due to Elder (1959), permits solutions for most practical cases to be obtained using relatively simple numerical techniques. Comparison with experimental data shows that the computed solutions are satisfactory provided the restrictions inherent in the linearized theory are observed.


In this paper, a scheme is developed which can detect what happens in real world in real time only by analyzing tweets as Big Data and let a user know the event. The proposed scheme is mainly divided into three parts which are:

Tweet Preprocessing (TP) : It uses Twitter Streaming API and the Morphological Analysis Engine for the purpose.2. Importance Degree Calculating (IDC) : It is designed for getting Extended Hybrid TF-IDF values of the nouns and an average of the values. 3. Remarkable Words Detecting (RMD) : is designed for detecting remarkable words based on currently gotten Extended Hybrid TF-IDF values and some averages of currently and previously gotten them. User can click on any of the remarkable words shown to see the tweets regarding it.The project aims to demonstrate how Twitter Data Analysis can be used to give a clear picture about a particular event, so that the user can get an overall idea about events happening currently.The contribution of our project towards the technology is that we are demonstrating how the power of Data Analytics can be used for the benets of the general public.


Cities, and therefore neighborhoods, are under constant change. Neighborhood changes may affect residents' health in multiple ways. The Heart Healthy Hoods (HHH) project studies the association between neighborhood and residents' health. Focusing on a middle–low-socioeconomic neighborhood in Madrid (Spain), our aim was to describe qualitatively its residents' perceptions on the urban changes and their impacts on health. We designed a qualitative study using 16 semi-structured interviews including adult residents and professionals living or working in the area. Firstly, we described the perceived main social and neighborhood changes. Secondly, we studied how these neighborhood changes connected to residents' health perceptions. Perceived major social changes were new demographic composition, new socio–cultural values and economic changes. Residents' negative health perceptions were the reduction of social relationships, increase of stress and labor precariousness. Positive health perceptions were the creation of supportive links, assimilation of self-care activities and the change in traditional roles. Neighborhood changes yielded both negative and positive effects on residents' health. These effects would be the result of the interrelation of different elements such as the existence or absence of social ties, family responsibilities, time availability, economic resources and access and awareness to health-promoting programs. These qualitative research results provide important insight into crafting urban health policies that may ultimately improve health outcomes in communities undergoing change.


The role of financial intermediaries in economic development can be clarified by examining Marx's contributions to an old debate among economic historians regarding the role of joint stock investment banking and, in particular, the rise of the French Credit Mobilier , in French economic development. Marx's account of the Credit Mobilier , in a series of articles written for the New York Daily Tribune during the 1850s, contains the outlines of a theory of the potentially destabilizing role of financial intermediaries in economic development. Five propositions regarding financial intermediaries (FIs) in development emerge: First, FIs promote the multiplication of financial claims to social wealth beyond any conceivable basis for their realization in production. Second, FIs immobilize and misallocate capital. Third, the lender of last resort function of the Central Bank is necessarily ineffective in confronting crises of FIs. Fourth, FIs accelerate the restructuring and concentration of capitalist property. Finally, FIs play an explicit political role in "buying time" in the context of class struggle, deferring conflict to a later date


1. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (RJ) Brasil. 2. Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre (RS) Brasil. A 40-year-old man presented with a 3-month history of cough, fever, and weight loss, progressing to an episode of hemoptysis. A CT scan of the chest showed an intensely enhanced intracavitary nodule, with air interposed between the nodule and the cavity wall (the air crescent sign—ACS—Figure 1).


Presents the method of adaptive threshold based on lifting wavelet for fire image edge detection,aimming at the real-time character of fire image and many fire characters in fire edge.Lifting wavelet is used to detect the edge through multi-level wavelet decomposition,thus ibtaubs the image edges of different resolution.Then these edges are combined as an integrated edge.The experimental results show that this algorithm edge positioning accuracy,noise immunity,the detected image edge continuous,smooth,and is an effective method of edge detection.


Submitted for the GEC11 Meeting of The American Physical Society Specific Localization of High-Voltage Discharge in Vicinity of Two Gases1 SERGEY LEONOV, MICHAIL SHURUPOV, JIHT RAS, MICHAIL SHNEIDER, Princeton University, ANATOLY NAPARTOVICH, IGOR KOCHETOV, TRINITI — A subject of paper is the appearance and dynamics of submicrosecond long filamentary high-voltage discharge generated in atmosphere, and in non-homogeneous gaseous media. Typical discharge parameters are: maximal current 1-3kA, breakdown voltage >100kV, duration 30-100ns, gap distance 50100mm. The effect of discharge specific localization within mixing layer of two gases is particularly discussed. The second discussed idea is the filamentary discharge movement within a region with concentration gradient of different components. For the short-pulse discharge the physical mechanism appears as the following. The first stage of the spark breakdown is the multiple streamers propagation from the high-voltage electrode toward the grounded one. In case of high-power electrical source those streamers occupy a huge volume of the gas, covering all possible paths for the further development. The next phase consists of the real selection of the discharge path among the multiple channels with non-zero conductivity. Experiments and calculations are presented for Air-CO2 and Air-C2H4 pairs. The effects found are supposed to be applied for lightning prediction/protection, and for high-speed mixing acceleration. 1The work was funded through EOARD-ISTC project #3793p. Some part of this work was supported by RFBR grant #10-08-00952. Sergey Leonov JIHT RAS Date submitted: 13 Jul 2011 Electronic form version 1.4


2D van der Waals (vdW) transition‐metal oxyhalides with low symmetry, novel magnetism, and good stability provide a versatile platform for conducting fundamental research and developing spintronics. Antiferromagnetic FeOCl has attracted significant interest owing to its unique semiconductor properties and relatively high Néel temperature. Herein, good‐quality centimeter‐scale FeOCl single crystals are controllably synthesized using the universal temperature‐oscillation chemical vapor transport (TO‐CVT) method. The crystal structure, bandgap, and anisotropic behavior of the 2D FeOCl are explored in detail. The absorption spectrum and electrical measurements reveal that 2D FeOCl is a semiconductor with an optical bandgap of ≈2.1 eV and a resistivity of ≈10−1 Ω m at 295 K, and the bandgap increases with decreasing thickness. Strong in‐plane optical and electrical anisotropies are observed in 2D FeOCl flakes, and the maximum resistance anisotropic ratio reaches 2.66 at 295 K. Additionally, the lattice vibration modes are studied through temperature‐dependent Raman spectra and first‐principles density functional calculations. A significant decrease in the Raman frequencies below the Néel temperature is observed, which results from the strong spin−phonon coupling effect in 2D FeOCl. This study provides a high‐quality low‐symmetry vdW magnetic candidate for miniaturized spintronics.


The present paper introduces a corpus of Dutch Renaissance poetry which was automatically annotated by using neural networks. The analysis of the annotations provides a clear picture of the process of implementing the new poetic form into Dutch poetic tradition, and of its different stages. The development of iambic metre was a gradual process that required various attempts; this can be well observed when comparing Dutch poems from a 100 year time window. While syllabic instances can be observed among the first attempts, most of the earlier poems are not isosyllabic and have a rather varied syllable length. This study shows that isosyllabicity developed together with iambicity. Finally, automatic poetry annotation allows for testing and validating theoretical hypotheses and for investigating literary questions with the aid of large amount of data.


Cloud computing as a new business model is developed very fast.Data storage and management is a very important and valuable research field in cloud computing.This paper introduces the concept of cloud storage as well as the advantage and architecture of cloud storage.Then it analyzes the cloud data storage technology--GFS(Google File System)/HDFS(Hadoop Distributed File System) and the cloud data management system-BigTable/HBase based on the specific cases of enterprises.


Presently,China's road traffic security situation is quite severe,and the cause-traffic-accident-escape is among the traffic crimes the much seen phenomenon,the problem is the attention focal point of the criminal judicature and the criminal law theory.The thesis gives the complete analysis about the form of outside expressions and maintenance,hoping to benefit the revision and consummation of the criminal law and the judicial practice.


Background: Little is known about preterm infant feeding and growth in the outpatient community setting and there are no standardized post-hospital discharge feeding guidelines. Objective: To describe the post-neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge growth trajectories of very preterm (<32 weeks gestational age (GA)) and moderately preterm (32-34 6/7 weeks GA) infants managed by community pediatric providers and to determine the association between post-discharge feeding type and growth Z-scores and z-score changes through 12 months corrected age (CA). Methods: Very preterm infants (n=104) and moderately preterm infants (n=109) born 2010-2014 and followed in hospital-affiliated community health clinics were enrolled in a single-center retrospective cohort study. Infant home feeding type and anthropometry were abstracted from outpatient medical chart review, and repeated measures analysis of variance calculated adjusted growth z-scores and z-score differences between 4 and 12 months CA. Linear regression models tested the relationship between type of home feeding at 4 months CA and anthropometry at 12 months CA. Results: By 12 months CA, 5% of very preterm and 10% of moderately preterm infants were overweight. Moderately preterm infants on nutrient-enriched vs. standard term feeds had lower length z-scores at 12 months CA (-0.04 vs. 0.37, P=.03). Feeding type at 4 months CA predicted 12 month CA body mass index z-scores for very preterm infants ({beta}=-0.66(-1.28, -0.04)). Conclusion: Community pediatric providers may manage preterm infant post-NICU discharge feeding in the context of growth. Further research is needed to explore modifiable drivers of obesity risk in preterm infants to optimize infant development.


Although the Nd:YAG laser has been used endoscopically to remove broncholiths, our experience with it for this purpose has been tedious and difficult. The calculus burns and partially vaporizes, but most of the removal has to be done mechanically with crushing from biopsy forceps.


State and local officials have long sought to diversify the mix of industries in their regions, hoping to reduce short-term volatility in their communities' economic growth rates and potentially boost overall long-term growth. ; While theory does suggest that industrial diversity can reduce economic volatility, views are mixed on whether and how industrial diversity affects long-term growth. ; Examining the varied landscape of industrial diversity across hundreds of counties in the Tenth District's seven-state region, Felix finds that counties with greater diversity did see more economic stability over a three-decade period. However, differences in industrial diversity had no significant impact on overall growth across the period, neither increasing nor restraining growth rates for employment or wages.


It's precondition and basement of wetland protection and restoration that wetlands are classified.Ground substance,soil type,pollution source and human disturbance of research object were recorded in field investigation.Wetlands in Beijing suburb were classified into three grades based on the wetlands classification system issued by "Wetland Convention" and formation classification.According to the cause of formation,wetlands in Beijing suburb were divided into natural wetlands and artificial wetlands;according to hydrologic characteristic of natural wetlands and function of artificial wetlands,they were divided into permanent river,seasonal river,canal,reservoir,and wetland park;and wetlands in Beijing suburb were divided into 22 types in third grade finally according to the characteristics of ground substance and degree of human disturb.Distribution and disturbance condition of the 22 wetland types were discussed.Based on investigation and analysis,some results can be obtained:the types of degradation wetland appeared in permanent rivers,seasonal rivers and canals because of water lack,and some riverbanks were leveled by human or strengthened with concrete.The type of reservoir bank were influenced heavily by human disturbance,and lack of water in outlet area was common.All types of wetland park were influenced mildly by human disturbance because wetland parks in Beijing were small and managed rigidly.Some secondary natural wetland types that appears in reservoirs should be protected prior.


This study aims to determine the effect of asset structure, profitability and liquidity on the capital structure of mining industry companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). This study uses quantitative methods with data sources in the form of company financial statements compiled and published online by the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), and library studies. The analysis was performed using descriptive statistical analysis, multiple linear regression and bivariate correlation test. The results showed that the asset structure had a positive effect on the capital structure, meaning that the more complex the asset structure, the more complex the capital structure was. On the other hand, profitability and liquidity variables have no effect on capital structure.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the chemical constituents of Elephantopus mollis.

METHODS
Compounds were separated and purified by various column chromatographies including macroporous resin, ODS, Sephadex LH-20 and silica gel columns. The structures were identified by their physicochemical properties and spectroscopic data.

RESULTS
Nine compounds were identified as 2beta-deethoxy-2-hydroxyphantomolin (1), 2beta-methoxy-2-deethoxyphantomolin (2), 2beta-methoxy-2-deethoxy-8-O-deacylphantomolin-8-O-tigli-nate (3), molephantinin (4), betulinic acid (5), magnolol (6), honokiol (7), dibutly phthalate (8) and tricin (9).

CONCLUSION
Compounds 5-9 are isolated from this plant for the first time.


The present study explores the impact of COVID-19 on the volatility structure of the sectoral market in India. ARMA(p,q)- GJR-GARCH(1, 1)-std model is used to determine the daily conditional volatility for 13 selected sectors over the period starting from January 2020 to December 2021. The quantile regression model is employed to examine the changes in the structure of volatility in each sector over the pandemic duration. The results of the study show that the volatility of Metal, Oil–Gas and PSU are more sensitive to market volatility, whereas the volume of new COVID-19 cases exceeds the threshold limit, and no extreme spillover is observed from the market volatility. In addition to this, Bankex, Metal, Oil–Gas, Private Banks and Power sector volatility are more responsive to news sentiments during the period of increase in new COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, the results also reveal that news sentiments help to control the significant fluctuation in the sectoral market.


A feature of spine synapses is the existence of a neck connecting the synapse on the spine head to the dendritic shaft. As with a cable, spine neck resistance (Rneck) increases with increasing neck length and is inversely proportional to the cross‐sectional area of the neck. A synaptic current entering a spine with a high Rneck will lead to greater local depolarization in the spine head than would a similar input applied to a spine with a lower Rneck. This could make spines with high Rneck more sensitive to plastic changes since voltage sensitive conductances, such as N‐methyl‐D‐aspartic acid (NMDA) channels can be more easily activated. This hypothesis was tested using serial section electron microscopic reconstructions of thalamocortical spine synapses and spine necks located on spiny stellate cells and corticothalamic cells from area 17 of cats. Thalamic axons and corticothalamic neurons were labeled by injections of the tracer biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of anesthetized cats and spiny stellates were filled intracellularly in vivo with horseradish peroxidase. Twenty‐eight labeled spines that formed synapses with dLGN boutons were collected from three spiny stellate and four corticothalamic cells and reconstructed in 3D from serial electron micrographs. Spine length, spine diameter, and the area of the postsynaptic density were measured from the 3D reconstructions and Rneck of the spine was estimated. No correlation was found between the postsynaptic density size and the estimated spine Rneck. This suggests that forms of plasticity that lead to larger synapses are independent of spine neck resistance. J. Comp. Neurol. 521:2058–2066, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The depletion of fossil-fuel resources on a worldwide basis has necessitated an urgent search for substitute energy sources to meet up the present day demand. Solar energy is clean, inexhaustible and environment-friendly resource among all renewable energy options. But neither a standalone solar photovoltaic (PV) system nor a wind energy system can provide a continuous supply of energy due to seasonal and periodic weather variations. Therefore, in order to satisfy the load demand, grid connected energy systems are now being implemented, that combines solar and utility grid, where the grid acts as an infinite like energy storage. In this paper a 10kWp grid tied roof solar system is implemented with a rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) in a home to overcome the frequent shut downs of the utility grid. In a country like India, the utility grid is shut down for few hours during the day time when the power from the solar is at maximum rate. During this shut down period, the energy from the solar system is stored in RESS apart from the loads connected in the home. The stored energy can be utilized during the night without taking much power from the utility grid. The power consumption from the utility grid can be nullified with the proposed system and in addition to this the excess stored power from the solar system is used for reducing usage of other energy purchases such as cooking gas and supplied back to the grid which is beneficial to the user. The proposed system is experimentally tested and the results are presented.


Mohammad Zaki, MN State Univ, Mankato We define an algebraic number α as a root of an algebraic equation, a0∗x+a1∗x+· · ·+an−1∗x+an = 0 where ao, a1, · · · , an are rational integers, not all zero. We say α is an algebraic integer if a0 = 0. If an algebraic number α satisfies an algebraic equation of degree n with rational coefficients, and none of lower degree, then we say α is of degree n. If α is an algebraic number, then we define an algebraic field as the aggregate of all numbers R(α) = P (α) Q(α) , where P,Q are polynomials with rational coefficients, and Q(α) 6= 0. We denote this field by K(α). It is easy to verify that the sum and product of any two members of K(θ) belong to K(θ). Also if α, β belong to K(θ) and β 6= 0 then αβ belongs to K(θ). If an algebraic number ε is of degree 1, then ε is a rational number, and it is plain that for any rational ε K(ε) is the aggregate of rational numbers. We denote this field by K(1). It is a part of every algebraic field. If the degree of ε is 2, then ε is said to be quadratic, and K(ε) is called a quadratic field. Since the degree of ε is 2 ε satisfies a quadratic equation, a0 ∗x +a1 ∗x+a2 = 0. so, ε = a+b∗ √ m/c for some integers a, b, c,m where m doesn't have a squared factor. It is easily verified that K(ε) is the same as K( √ m) for some square-free rational integer m, positive or negative, apart from 1. Here we concentrate on quadratic fields. We will try to find the quadratic fields where the fundamental theorem of arithmetic holds. But before we get there we need to develop the notion of primes, and the Euclidean Property that will be described in a moment. If ε ∈ K( √ m) then ε = P ( √ m)


Background—The 1-year restenosis rate after balloon angioplasty of long lesions in below-the-knee arteries may be as high as 70%. Our aim was to investigate the efficacy of a paclitaxel drug-eluting balloons versus conventional percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for the reduction of restenosis in diabetic patients with critical limb ischemia undergoing endovascular intervention of below-the-knee arteries. Methods and Results—The Drug-Eluting Balloon in Peripheral Intervention for Below the Knee Angioplasty Evaluation (DEBATE-BTK) is a randomized, open-label, single-center study comparing drug-eluting balloons and PTA. Inclusion criteria were diabetes mellitus, critical limb ischemia (Rutherford class 4 or higher), significant stenosis or occlusion >40 mm of at least 1 below-the-knee vessel with distal runoff, and life expectancy >1 year. Binary in-segment restenosis at a 1-year angiographic or ultrasonographic follow-up was the primary end point. Clinically driven target lesion revascularization,...


The reaction between Ru3(µ-H)(µ3-C12H15)(CO)9 and C2Ph2 affords Ru3(µ3-C2Ph2C12H16)(µ- CO)2(CO)6, characterized by a single-crystal X-ray structure determination. Addition of the alkyne to the cluster-bonded C12 ligand gives a bicyclic 12/5 system incorporating the central ruthenium atom of a bent Ru3 chain.


We aimed to investigate the natural course of hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) in a long‐term follow‐up study with sonography.


Ceremonial customs — whether religious or secular — play an important role in every culture. The liberation of the classical Roman liturgy, with its detailed ceremonial rubrics, by Pope Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum, is therefore an event of great significance for the Church. Christianity, as a religion of incarnation, values human talent and can always employ it to the greater glory of God. The most perfect expression of this truth is to be found in the sacred mysteries of the liturgy, developed in tradition by a continual process of refinement and enrichment. It is in relationships — hospitality, friendship, and love — that details take on their most profound significance. Wilful ignorance of the details of a social ritual, or of an art, can lead to cultural impoverishment. It is wrong, then, to dismiss as trivial the detailed rubrics of the traditional Roman Rite, since these are aspects of the culture of the faith which should be observed with loving fidelity.


Posterior microphthalmos is a rare ocular disorder characterized by disproportionately short vitreous length and numerous posterior segment findings. We report a rare coexistence of bilateral macular hole with posterior microphthalmos in a 15-year-old girl. Detailed ophthalmic examination and investigations including B scan ultrasonography and optical coherence tomography were performed. Ophthalmic examination showed bilateral high hyperopia. Best corrected visual acuity was 6/18 in each eye with correction of +12 D in right eye and +10 D in left eye. Ocular biometry measurements showed short total axial length (16.3 mm both eyes) with remarkable shortening of posterior segment (9.3 mm right eye; 9.28 mm left eye) but normal anterior segment parameters. Anterior chamber depth and horizontal corneal diameter were within normal range. Fundus evaluation revealed bilateral macular hole. Optical coherence tomography finding was compatible with bilateral lamellar macular hole in both eyes. B scan ultrasonography showed sclerochoroidal thickening with foreshortening of vitreous cavity. A variety of posterior segment manifestations associated with posterior microphthalmos have been reported but macular hole is an extremely rare association. This finding is noteworthy and probably among very few in literature.


Line, the author in doing this presents a most commendably concise, clear and readable review of general world fishery problems concerning freedom of the seas. A sketchy coverage of the period from Grotius to the Allied occupation of Japan is followed by discussion of the proclamation of President Syngman Rhee establishing the line that bore his name which, regardless of diplomatic or historical justification, was an arbitrary assertion of control over an extensive high seas area formerly fished by Japanese. The various Korean attempts at legal justification are treated seriatim. First comes a chapter on continental shelf proclamations commencing with the Truman proclamation of 1945 and the Geneva treaty of 1958. There follow the Geneva fisheries treaty; breadth of the territorial sea; developments subsequent to the Geneva Conferences; agreement between Japan and third states; the 1963-1964 negotiations. The conclusion is that there is no legal validity to the Korean position and the two nations should disregard the line and settle their difficulties. After all this there comes a postscript that this has been done. The author's arguments are impressive until he ventures a strained application of the Japanese-U.S.S.R. fishery agreements and omits to point out the similarity between the Rhee Line and the arbitrary lines established by the U.S.S.R. off Eastern Siberia, when he fails to apply his own quotation from Philip C. Jessup relating to appreciation of "International Realities." In view of the apparent skepticism of the author as to the merits of the principle of "abstention," it is interesting to note that a prominent Japanese is quoted as having recently said "countries having salmon spawning rivers have special rights to the salmon spawned in those rivers even when the fish are on the high seas." The book contains well-selected references and appendices of pertinent documents.


Cells reside in a complex microenvironment (niche) in which the biochemical and biophysical properties of the extracellular matrix profoundly affect cell behavior. Extracellular stiffness, one important bio‐mechanical characteristic of the cell niche, is important in regulating cell proliferation, migration, and lineage specification. However, the mechanism by which mechanical signals guide osteogenic and adipogenic commitment of stem cells remains difficult to dissect. To explore this question, we generated a range of polydimethylsiloxane‐based matrices with differing degrees of stiffness that mimicked the stiffness seen in natural tissues and examined adipose stem cell morphology, spreading, vinculin expression, and differentiation along the osteogenic and adipogenic pathways. Rigid matrices allowed broader cell spreading, faster growth rate and stronger expression of vinculin in adipose‐derived stem cells. In the presence of inductive culture media, stiffness‐dependent osteogenesis and adipogenesis of the adipose stem cells indicated that there was a combinatorial effect of biophysical and biochemical cues; no such lineage specification was observed in normal media. Osteogenic differentiation behavior showed a correlation with matrix rigidity, as well as with elevated expression of RhoA, ROCK‐1/‐2, and related proteins in the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway. The result provides a comprehensive understanding of how stem cells respond to the surrounding microenvironment and points to the fact that matrix stiffness is a critical element in biomaterial design and this will be an important advance in stem cell‐based tissue engineering.


The utility model discloses an anti-backlash transmission case for linear motion on a rack, and belongs to the technical field of machining equipment. The anti-backlash transmission case mainly comprises a power input shaft, a first power output shaft and a second power output shaft, which are rotationally mounted on a transmission case body, wherein the first power output shaft is in transmission connection with the power input shaft through a first gear pair, the second power output shaft is in transmission connection with the power input shaft through a second gear pair, the first gear pair comprises a first worm gear and a first worm, the second gear pair comprises a second worm gear and a second worm, the second worm gear is fixedly mounted on the second power output shaft, the second worm is mounted on the power input shaft in a sliding manner through a spline, and elastic devices are clamped and pressed on two sides of the second worm respectively. The anti-backlash transmission case is simple in structure, and can not only overcome the impacts of the gear transmission case on transmission precision during the gear-rack transmission, but also reduce production and manufacturing costs.


Static timing analysis is an important timing analysis technique in the physical design process of integrated circuits, facing the challenge of speed and accuracy trade-off in advanced nodes. Expensive and burdensome path-based analysis (PBA) forces designers to adopt faster graph-based analysis (GBA) in more early flows at the cost of pessimism. Existing work focuses on reducing pessimism but ignores the degree of optimism. In this paper, we propose a stage-based delay model based on machine learning technique with customized loss function to rapidly generate predicted PBA timing results from the pessimistic GBA timing report with considering the asymmetric loss. The model could also enable the designers to identify the false violation path in GBA report with less time cost to reduce the over-design and margin in post-route optimization phase. Experimental results demonstrate that the mean absolute error of predicted PBA slack divergence reduces 66.7%~79.8% compared to GBA-PBA slack divergence (from 17.79ps to 5.92ps and 3.6ps) with about 3X runtime overhead reduction on a 28nm industrial ASIC for each corner. It can also correct about 75.6% false violation paths in GBA timing report.


The retinotopic organization of the anuran visual system has been investigated with the method of selective anterograde transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) following retinal lesions. The course of optic axons to specific structures was also confirmed by retrograde transport in the optic tract following HRP injections in the tectum and pretectum. As the optic nerve reaches the optic chiasm, the fibers from each of the four retinal quadrants appear as bands with the nasal (n) quadrant entering the chiasmal anterior pole, followed by ventral (v), temporal (t), and dorsal (d) quadrants. The preoptic nucleus is the first structure to be innervated, followed by the suprachiasmatic nucleus; both are innervated directly from fibers in the dorsal part of the optic nerve, which contains fibers from all the retinal quadrants. Each quadrant expands across the dorsoventral extent of the chiasm at the point where it enters. At this level the quadrants are arrayed along the rostrocaudal axis (as they are later in the marginal optic tract) in the sequence n‐v‐t‐d. Optic fibers then spread across the chiasm, the nasal quadrant splits, taking up positions in the rostral and caudal margins of the optic radiation. Following the split in the nasal representation, the optic tract is transformed into topographically arranged sheets in the marginal optic tract.


Objective To analyze the brain region change in heroin dependent patients by computerized tomography(CT).Methods The brains of 72 heroin dependent patients and 50 normal controls were scanned by CT.Results The CT value of posterior limb of internal capsule,thalamencephal,nucleus dentatus in both cerebellum and the white matter of lateral cerebral ventricle were significantly decreased in heroin dependent patients compared to the normal controls.The duration of drug abuse and amount of drug abuse had no relationship with the value of CT.Conclusions The heroin dependent patients may have the brain lesion in the some brain region.The change of brain in CT may be special mark in heroin dependent patients with toxic encephalopathy.


Severe cytopenia, including neutropenia and anemia, may occasionally occur during anti-tumor necrosis factor &agr; (TNF-&agr;) therapy. However, its mechanism is poorly understood, and little is known concerning the rationale of the choice of biologic therapy after a severe episode of cytopenia. The authors present the case of a 68-year-old rheumatoid arthritis patient in whom severe pancytopenia developed soon after the initiation of etanercept therapy. After resolution, the interleukin 6 receptor-blocking agent tocilizumab was introduced, which resulted in long-lasting complete remission of the rheumatoid arthritis without any adverse effects. The apoptosis-inducing effects of 3 TNF-&agr; blockers and tocilizumab on peripheral blood mononuclear cells of the patient were compared by means of annexin V and propidium iodide labeling and flow cytometry. In concert with the clinical events, the anti-TNF-&agr; agents demonstrated significantly higher apoptotic activities than that of tocilizumab. Tocilizumab appeared safe after anti-TNF-&agr;-induced cytopenia possibly caused by apoptosis induction.


This study presents numerical modeling of the dynamic behavior of an earth dam rested on a liquefiable foundation. Numerical simulations are carried out using effective stress-based, fully coupled nonlinear dynamic analysis approach. The Finn-Byrne model with extended Masing rules is employed to model pore pressure generation in the liquefied soils. In this regard, Masing rules are implemented into the constitutive relations to precisely explain the nonlinear response of soil under general cyclic loading. As a result, the soil shear stiffness and hysteretic damping can change with loading history. Pore pressure is accumulated as a function of the cyclic shear strain amplitude. The procedure of calibrating the constructed numerical model with well-documented centrifuge test data is addressed. Acceptable agreements are shown between the results obtained from the current investigation and those of experimental observations available in the literature. Afterwards, the dynamic response of an earth dam founded on a liquefiable sandy soil foundation is evaluated and discussed. Special emphasis is given to the computed excess pore water pressures, deformations and accelerations during dynamic loading. It is shown that the numerical model can predict the essential aspects of liquefaction phenomenon occurred in the earth dam-foundation system during dynamic loading.


[Objective]To evaluate the clinical efficacy and surgical methods of the total knee arthroplasty(TKA) for severe senu valsum deformity. [Methods]Fifteen patients(18 knees) were enrolled from this hospital of during June 2008 to March 2010.To measure the FTA angles,the ROM of the knee joint,KSS and function scores before the TKA operation,then patellar lateral approach,targeted osteotomy,selective lateral soft tissue release and installed restrictive or non-restrictive limited small prosthesis were selected as the criteria method to complete the operation.After the operation,the above-mentioned criteria were re-measured in order to compare the effect of surgery with preoperative. [Results] All patients were followed up for 8 to 28 months.FTA angles reduced from preoperative 27.0°(20°~ 35°) to 4.5°(0 °~ 9°).The ROM increased from preoperative 79.4°(70°~ 90°) to 109.7°(100°~ 120°).KSS score improved from 28.9 points(15 to 40 points) to 88.7 points(85 to 95 points),functional score improved from 23.0 points(0 to 40 points) to 89.1(85~95minutes).Differences are all very notable(P0.01).[Conclusion]All patients with valgus deformity after total knee arthroplasty have been corrected,no significant pain was found after surgery in all cases.Walking and stair climbing improved significantly compared with preoperative function.Patellar side lateral approach,targeted osteotomy,selective lateral soft tissue release,the installation of small prosthesis restrictive or non-restrictive implementation of TKA,can achieve satisfactory clinical results,thus significantly improve knee function,improve patient quality of life.


Сomprehension of the concepts: «inertial condition of a body» and «inertial force» is the main aim of the article. Authors consider an inertial condition of a body or a system, as independent, autonomous, self-retaining and only internally dialectically changeable condition of the system living under the internal laws.


Based on the data of 1.8 million single births taken from the German perinatal census of the years 1995 through to 1997, the percentile distributions for birth weight (3rd, 10th, 50th, 90th, 97th) were presented using different calculation methods. It became apparent that the percentiles calculated using cumulative relative frequency were more suitable for the somatic classification of newborns than the percentiles calculated on the assumption of the existence of a normal distribution of birth weight. However, the difference was smaller than expected. Nevertheless, particularly in the important lower percentiles, differences are noticeable which are due to the slight left-sided asymmetry of the distribution of weight between the two calculation methods.


Abstract The London-based architecture and design collective Assemble make two kinds of "architectural ceramics": clay-based objects that ornament buildings, and domestic wares produced as part of larger architectural projects. The collective started the Granby Workshop for the production of unique objects for the home in 2014 and ceramics also feature in contracted architectural projects. This essay positions Assemble's use of ceramics between the traditions of studio pottery and machine-based ceramic manufacturing. Through discussion of a few recent examples it reveals how the collective are realizing the commercial and pedagogical potential of the medium.


As market is fiercely competitive, marketing risks grow with each passing day, especially with the clients capital credit declining and loan seriously defaulting. What is more, enterprises usually lack effective management measures. The capital credit assessment methods of clients-A-FA, which combines analytic hierarchy process, fuzzy and accurate, solve to assess market clients capital credit fairly well. It constructs assessing target system according to enterprise assessment standard and establishes operative operating methods. Aiming at the result of assessment to determine capital credit grade standard, enterprises carry out capital credit management in different grade, carry out risk-warning in advance and control in time, which has great operative and practical significance in business.