The World Social Forum's slogan proclaims that "another world is possi ble." That possible world came up against the real world of politics when the forum met in Caracas, Venezuela, from January 24 to 29, 2006. Like the five previous forums, it was a big, chaotic, and exciting gathering of a broad array of activists, movements, and organizations seeking to make a differ ent world. The social forum brings together what is often called the "antiglobalization" movement, but activists reject the term. Opposed to neoliberal corporate globalization, they prefer to be thought of as the global justice movement, working toward a world that is integrated from below. But more than its predecessors, the Caracas meeting hosted a vigorous debate about what the forum should be and how it should engage the world that it wants to change. The 2006 social forum was "polycentric." For the first time since annual meetings began in 2001, it did not meet at a single location (the previous meetings were in Porto Alegre, Brazil, except for the 2004 meeting in Mumbai, India). Instead it was slated to have three simultaneous meetings? in Caracas; Bamako, Mali; and Karachi, Pakistan?all to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which the social forum was created to challenge.1 The decision to decentralize the forum was part of the organizers' effort to make it more open, democratic, and participatory (Hammond, 2005). In


Text-based visual question answering (TextVQA) requires analyzing both the visual contents and texts in an image to answer a question, which is more practical than general visual question answering (VQA). Existing efforts tend to regard optical character recognition (OCR) as a pre-processing and then combine it with a VQA framework. It makes the performance of multimodal reasoning and question answering highly depend on the accuracy of OCR. In this work, we address this issue with two perspectives. First, we take advantages of multimodal cues to complete the semantic information of texts. A visually enhanced text embedding is proposed to enable understanding of texts without accurately recognizing them. Second, we further leverage rich contextual information to modify the answer texts even if the OCR module does not correctly recognize them. In addition, the visual objects are endued with semantic representations to enable objects in the same semantic space as OCR tokens. Equipped with these techniques, the cumulative error propagation caused by poor OCR performance is effectively suppressed. Extensive experiments on TextVQA and ST-VQA datasets demonstrate that our approach achieves the state-of-the-art performance in terms of accuracy and robustness.


A method for performing an assay Serological agglutination for one or more analyte antibodies target (106) in a liquid sample (105), said method comprising the steps of: a) providing a thin planar chamber (1) having opposite flat surfaces (101), at least one of which is transparent; b) placing a quantity of first detectable particles (102) in said planar chamber (1), and said first particles (102) comprise, on their surfaces, an antigen (103) against which the analyte antibodies target (106 target) ; c) placing second control particles (115), similar in size and shape to said first particles (102) in said chamber (1), and said control particles (115) different from said first particles (102) in 10 the color or fluorescence or other distinguishable features, and said control particles (115) are devoid of such antigens (103); d) allowing or causing said first detectable particles (102) and said sample (105) are mixed together, whereby said analyte antibody target (106), when present, will cause agglutination of said first particles (102); e) forming an image or electronically scanning said mixture to detect individual aggregates of particles by analysis of patterns of pixel intensity resulting from aggregation of detected particles; f) determining the presence or absence of significant particle agglutination by comparing signals of the first aggregated particles (107, 108) with signals of aggregated control particles.


The present invention is directed to a microwave conducting structure 46a, 48b and a method for producing such a structure, which structure comprises a first electrically conductive layer L32, a first dielectric substrate D31 with a first dielectric constant being arranged on the first electrically conductive layer L32, and at least one electrically conductive trace CT1, CT2 with a first width being arranged on or within the dielectric substrate D31. A track of a second dielectric substrate DM1, DM2 having a second width being wider than the first width and a second dielectric constant being lower than the first dielectric constant, is arranged locally between said first dielectric substrate D31 and said conductive trace CT1, CT2 so as to extend along said conductive trace CT1, CT2 such that the conductive trace CT1, CT2 operates electrically as being arranged on the second dielectric substrate DM1, DM2.


Objective To investigate the distribution and variety of 8 kinds ofefflux-mediated disinfectant and antiseptic genes(qacE△1,emrE/Pa,E1/Pa,qacE/Pa,smr-2,qacE,tehA,oqxA) as well as metcuric reductase(merA) gene in multi-drug resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa(P.aeruginosa).Methods From January to December 2009,20 strains of multi-drug resistant P.aeruginosa isolated from sputum and wound secretion were collected from the hospitalized patients.Eight kinds of efflux-mediated disinfectant and antiseptic genes as well as metcuric reductase gene were analyzed by PCR and verified by DNA sequencing.tehA gene were searched in 4 selected bacteria: Escherichia coli,Shigella,Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter from the database of microbiology(www.biocyc.org).Results In 20 strains of P.aeruginosa,11 strains(55.0%),1 strains(5.0%),1 strains(5.0%),11 strains(55.0%)were verified to carry 4 genes: qacE△1,emrE,tehA and merA,respectively.In the 12 strains 1 or more than 1 gene were detectabe.The other 5 genes were undetectable.tehA gene could be searched in Escherichia coli and Shigella from the database of www.biocyc.org,but it was unsearchable in Pseudomonas aeruginosa(strain PAO1 and PA14) and Acinetobacter in the database.Conclusion Most of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were resistant to disinfectants and antiseptics.It was the first report for detectable 8 efflux-mediated disinfectant and antiseptic genes as well as metcuric reductase gene in China,and tehA gene was detectable in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.


The applicability of the architecture of a nanoscale surrounding gate field-effect transistor with a combined cylindrical working area for low-voltage applications is discussed. At the same time, the licensed TCAD Sentaurus instrument and technological modeling system is used as a tool. The transistor architecture under consideration involves combining the working zones of n-channel and p-channel transistors with one common gate. At the same time, the efficiency of suppressing short-channel effects is maintained and a high level of transistor current is provided in the strong inversion mode. Based on this architecture, a TCAD model of the NAND gate has been developed, the design of which contains two independent surrounding gates one combined working area. The use of the proposed gate architecture makes it possible to reduce the number of required transistor structures per gate by three times. This leads to a decrease in the switched capacity and power dissipation. From the simulation results, the gate geometric parameters with a working area length of 25 nm and a diameter of 8.5 nm, which can function at control voltages of 0.5 V in the frequency range up to 20 GHz with high gain, are determined. The switching time delay is 0.81 ps. The TCAD model of a half-adder is developed in the basis 2NAND. According to the simulation results, the efficiency of the prototype, which performs binary code addition operations with a delay of 4.2 ps at a supply voltage of 0.5 V and a frequency of 20 GHz, is shown. The obtained results create a theoretical basis for the synthesis of low-voltage complex functional blocks with high performance and minimal occupied area, which meets modern requirements for digital applications.


The use of advanced simulation by power system engineers is increasing rapidly because of the need of developing new powerful technologies to make high performance simulation easier, to implement and also to make possible new studies of power system modeling. An environment that has modeling flexibility to allow modification or addition of new power system models is needed so that power system engineers can quickly get started in testing of new research ideas. In this paper, we present a new Modelica library used with MidFielder program for power system simulations and a new function in MidFielder for power system data conversion to use in Modelica's environment. Two examples which are for modeling of static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) and superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) are used to demonstrate the capability of this new function.


We expressed recombinant Arabidopsis myosin XI (MYA1), in which the motor domain of MYA1 was connected to an artificial lever arm composed of triple helical repeats of Dictyostelium a-actinin, in order to understand its motor activity and intracellular function. The Vmax and Kactin of the actin-activated Mg2þ ATPase activity of the recombinant MYA1 were 50.7 Pi head 1 s 1 and 30.2 mM, respectively, at 258C. The recombinant MYA1 could translocate actin filament at the maximum velocity of 1.8 mms 1 at 258C in the in vitro motility assay. The value corresponded to a motility of 3.2 mms 1 for native MYA1 if we consider the difference in the lever arm length, and this value was very close to the velocity of cytoplasmic streaming in Arabidopsis hypocotyl epidermal cells. The extent of inhibition by ADP of the motility of MYA1 was similar to that of the well-known processive motor, myosin V, suggesting that MYA1 is a processive motor. The dissociation rate of the actin–MYA1ADP complex induced by ATP (73.5 s ) and the Vmax value of the actin-activated Mg2þ ATPase activity revealed that MYA1 stays in the actin-bound state for about 70% of its mechanochemical cycle time. This high ratio of actin-bound states is also a characteristic of processive motors. Our results strongly suggest that MYA1 is a processive motor and involved in vesicle transport and/or cytoplasmic streaming.


We investigated the optical and electrical properties of Mg-doped In x Ga 1-x N(0≤x≤0.3) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition with different In and Mg contents. When the Mg doping concentration was fixed, the hole concentration of samples increased remarkably with the elevation of In mole fraction. The highest hole concentration achieved was 2.4×10 19 cm -3 ,the doping efficiency increased nearly by two orders. We explained the carrier transition mechanism with the help of the photoluminesce spectra. In addition, we obtained the activation energy of Mg and the band position of deep donor in InGaN:Mg samples.


Japanese high-school students often study until late into the night and sacrifice their sleep in order to pass entrance and other exams. On the other hand, they often take a nap in the (late) afternoon, and daytime napping or inemuri is widely tolerated. This article asks what cultural and social sense it makes to keep students up for studying, when they cannot concentrate on what is being said in class. It examines notions of time and diligence based on the ethnographic findings and analyses sleep, especially inemuri, from sociological perspective.


This article focuses on tools that allow amateurs to create or modify videogames. In order to contribute to study the nature of game design, we will analyze games as crafted "artifacts". We will first review five categories of tools that allow creating games, in order to highlight the different "parts" games are made of. We will then use this empirical review to introduce a simple model of the inner structure of games: the ISICO model.


This study evaluated the accuracy of gauge adjusted Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP_Gauge version V5.222.1, hereafter G_Gauge) data in Japan's Tone River basin during 2006–2009. Specifically, the accuracy of a gauge non-adjusted product, GSMaP Moving Vector with Kalman Filter (GSMaP_MVK, hereafter G_MVK), was compared. Both products were also evaluated against ground observation data from the local rain gauge-radar combined product Radar/Raingauge-Analyzed Precipitation (Radar-AMeDAS, hereafter R-AMeDAS) in terms of temporal and spatial variability. Temporal analyses showed G_Gauge had better accuracy than G_MVK at sub-daily time scales (1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 hrs) within any range of precipitation intensity and better detection capabilities of rainfall event. Linear regressions with Radar-AMeDAS showed better performance for G_Gauge than G_MVK at any time scales in terms of Pearson's correlation coefficient and the slope of regression. At hourly scale, in particular, Pearson's correlation coefficient for G_Gauge (0.84) was higher than that for G_MVK (0.72) as well as the slope of linear regression (0.87 and 0.65, respectively). The probability of detection (POD) improved from 0.48 (G_MVK) to 0.70 (G_Gauge) when gauge adjusted data were used. However, spatial analysis detected that G_Gauge still underestimated the precipitation intensity in high elevation regions and slightly overestimated it in low elevation regions. The POD and false alarm ratio (FAR) had a linear relationship with log-transformed elevation data (R2 > 0.4), and the relationships were stronger in the winter seasons than the summer seasons. For further improvements of the GSMaP product, we suggest including local gauge-calibrated ground radar dataset to enhance accuracy at the basin scale. At any spatial and temporal scale, the evaluation of these products should consider seasonal changes (especially in winter) and the topographic effects.


From observations of infrared lines, oxygen and nitrogen abundances of the prototype field horizontal-branch stars HD 109995 and HD 161817, the somewhat similar star HD 64488, and the sharp-lined Population I A stars Theta Leo and HR 6559 have been obtained, as well as carbon abundances of HD 161817 and Theta Leo. The results for HD 161817 may be in accord with the predictions of Sweigart and Mengel (1979) for dredge-up during the previous red-giant stage if the non-LTE effects for the O I lines have been properly accounted for, and those for the C I and N I lines are small. This star and HD 109995 are apparently both oxygen and nitrogen poor to the same degree although their iron abundances differ by 0.3 dex.


The paper introduces recent some progress about the process of seawater desalination of SWRO,MSF and MED. With intensifying competition of the market of seawater desalination and the technical development, especial in SWRO, there has been significant progress in reducing the energy requirement. It was reported that total energy requirement is below 3 kWh/m 3, and the prices of desalted water fall to below $0.55/m 3 for SWRO. For large scale seawater desalting plant in international reguest for proposals, SWRO won bids at lowst capitalization, power requirement and price. A great development is anticipated for the 21st century in seawater desalination market, and SWRO will be mainly process.


1. Elements of Communicable Diseases 2. Communicable Disease Theory 3. Control Principles and Methods 4. Control Strategy and Organization 5. Notification and Health Regulations 6. Classification of Communicable Diseases 7. Water-washed Diseases 8. Faecal Oral Diseases 9. Food borne Diseases 10. Diseases of Soil Contact 11. Diseases of Water Contact 12. Skin Infections 13. Respiratory Diseases and Other Airborne Transmitted Infections 14. Diseases Transmitted via Body Fluids 15. Insect Borne Diseases 16. Ectoparasite Zoonoses 17. Domestic and Synanthropic Zoonoses 18. New and Emerging Diseases 19. List of Communicable Diseases.


"The more powerful you are, the more your actions will have an impact on people, the more responsible you are to act humbly. If you


The invention relates to a structural sandwich element, especially wall element, comprising at least one cellulose honeycomb core having a plurality of juxtaposed channels, said honeycomb core being accommodated between a first and a second cover layer. According to the invention, the first and/or the second cover layer is/are a concrete cover layer, especially from high-performance concrete, or a gypsum cover layer.


When building low-rise buildings with a variety of structural elements, it is important to have an idea of their thermal state in extreme heat exchange conditions. Therefore, the study of heat transfer processes in heat-stressed elements of external fences is relevant and of considerable practical interest.
The purpose of this work is to conduct parametric studies in typical angular fragments of inhomogeneous enclosing structures with u-turn angles from 60 to 150°. At the same time, the analysis of the thermal state is carried out for both external and internal angles.
The mathematical modeling of spatial heat transfer in the fragments under consideration is based on the solution of a nonlinear system of differential equations of thermal conductivity with corresponding boundary conditions by the finite element method using the Thermal module included in the ANSYS software package.
The analysis of numerical results given for three types of enclosing structures made using various technologies allowed us to clarify the influence of their geometric and thermophysical characteristics on the distribution of temperature and heat flow over the thickness of the fragments under consideration, as well as to determine the change in these parameters on both the internal and external surfaces of the structure. To establish that for all types of walling with increasing rotation angle, the temperature in the inner corner of the structure decreases, and in the outer increases, and the density of the heat flow behaves vice versa; the distance from the corner to the area stabilization with increasing angle of rotation reduces, smiling for all types of structures for temperature and heat flow; an increase in the thermal resistance leads to a temperature increase and decrease of the heat flux in the corner tend to be developed fragments; issue recommendations for creating energy-efficient structures that meet modern requirements.


How seed dispersal trajectory shifts with abiotic and biotic factors and what is the relationship between seed dispersal distance and dispersal trajectory are remain unclear. We used wind tunnel and video camera to track the seed dispersal trajectory of 7 Calligonum species with different appendages under the different wind speeds and the release heights. Dispersal trajectories and distances were determined by video analysis and spatial coordinate transformation. Based on perspective principle, 4 modes of trajectories were determined. Wind speed, seed mass and release height were the key factors determining seed dispersal trajectory modes. Release height and wind speed tended to have the strongest explanatory power on seeds with bristles and wings, respectively. Different trajectory modes lead to different dispersal distance, while the same dispersal distance can be the result of different trajectory modes. The proportion of species' trajectory modes formed its trajectory spectrum. Wind speed tends to have strong influence on light and low-wind-loading seeds, release height tends to have that on heavy and high-wind-loading seeds. Species with high proportion of horizontal projectile and projectile have high dispersal capacity, vice versa. Therefore, trajectory spectrum of a species reveals its primary dispersal strategies and evolutionary consequences.


Food insecurity is prevalent in northern Canada, especially among Indigenous peoples. As one approach to address this issue, the federal government subsidizes the shipping of necessities to remote northern communities, initially through the Food Mail Program and then Nutrition North Canada as of April 2011. We use the Canadian Community Health Survey (2007 to 2016) and a difference‐in‐differences model to estimate the impact of the policy change on food insecurity, testing for heterogeneity between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous families. Our results, which withstand several robustness checks, indicate that the policy change increased the likelihood of overall food insecurity by 8.9 percentage points (77.3% relative to the sample mean) and moderate/severe food insecurity by 7.1 percentage points (89.3% relative to the sample mean). It also increased severe food insecurity among Indigenous families by 7.3 percentage points (more than three times the sample mean). There was, however, variation across regions and subsamples of families with children. Specifically, the policy change was particularly harmful to Indigenous families in the territories and Inuit Nunangat. The detrimental impact was also heightened in the presence of children, especially when considering severe food insecurity among Indigenous families.


market economy? Debreu's account of the The general equilibrium model of the market basic framework of his model and of the now economy has played a central role in many standard existence arguments is clear and areas of economic analysis. The model proconcise and peppered with insightful remarks. vides an elegant description of the funcProofs of existence are useful, as Debreu tioning of an economic system characterised comments, in `insuring against the elaboraby competitive markets. Many authors have tion of grand theories about the empty set' . made signi® cant contributions to the modern The next chapter, by Timothy Kehoe, condevelopment of the general equilibrium siders the conditions under which equilibria model. Amongst the most important has been are unique and stable, so that use can be made Gerard Debreu. This book is dedicated to of comparative static analysis. Unfortunately, Debreu for his 75th birthday, and attempts to necessary and suý cient mathematical condiprovide a `clear and authoritative' account of tions for uniqueness are highly restrictive and the elements of general equilibrium theory, do not have any readily interpretable ecofocusing on those aspects of the theory that nomic meaning. The presentation is clear and were laid out in Debreu's (1959) Theory of informative and makes good use of numerical Value. illustrations. The issue of uniqueness is of parThe book's account is certainly authoritaticular import, as Kehoe notes, for applied tive. Each of the authors has made a subgeneral equilibrium models, which rarely satstantial contribution to the ® eld. On the isfy these conditions so that applied modellers whole, the sometimes diý cult ideas of genmust fall back on extensive numerical simulaeral equilibrium theory are presented with tion to verify uniqueness and stability of equicommendable clarity and with masterly libria. Kehoe therefore concludes by arguing insight into their implications. As a result, for increased research to identify conditions while little that the book contains could be for uniqueness and stability in cases that are described as new, its expositions are nevermore relevant to applied modelling. theless fresh. If a unique and stable equilibrium exists Alan Kirman's Introduction provides a for the general equilibrium system, can it be useful discussion of the relationships computed? Chapter 4 of the book presents a between the various chapters and Debreu's revised version of Herbert Scarf 's discussion work. Debreu's in ̄ uence on each of these of computation, previously published in Scarf areas has been profound. Among the most & Shoven (1984). An appendix to the chapter, important of Debreu's contributions howby Jean-Jacques Herings, reviews recent ever, according to Kirman, was his use of developments in computation. While useful, the `axiomatic method' . In support, Kirman Hering's comments are briefÐ only four quotes Debreu's (1977) address to the Unipages or soÐ and perhaps a little too terse. A versity of Bonn: `. . . the complete speci® cafuller account of these developments would tion of assumptions, the exact statement of have been helpful. conclusions, and the rigor of the deductions In contrast, the chapter on Incomplete of an axiomatized study provide a secure Markets by Thorsten Hens runs to around 70 foundation on which the construction of ecopages, by far the longest contribution. Hens nomic theory can proceed.' That approach comments in his introduction that he was has certainly come to dominate mainstream asked to provide a `non-technical' account of


Abstract In the present paper we describe the 35Cl NQR investigation of PCl3-reorientations in the molecules of three trichlorophosphazocompounds, Cl3P=NCC1(CC13)2 (I), C13P=NP(O)(CC13)2(II), C13P=NCOCF3 (III). In order to elucidate the quantitative parameters of the reorientational motion we have used (unlikeI) the temperature dependence of the quadrupole spin-lattice relaxation time T1 which is very sensitive to a molecular dynamics2,3.


Anti-signed B/L is a act of common admiralty swindle in navigate transport.It disturbed the normal ocean shipping economic order seriously.Anti-signed B/L have double quality of break a contract and tort.Think of the circulation of commerce of B/L and in order to protect the profit of in good faith,it is more suitable to confirm the anti-signed B/L as a effective transport contract certificate and goods right,and more identical with trade practice in reality.Based on the different in lawsuit of break a contract and tort when we investigate the carrier anti-signed B/L,we should accorde specific case to choose one that more advantageous to ourselves.


The systems which deals with healthcare are rapidly untouched and a widespread area, where both opportunities & challenges are plenty. The increase of smart mobile phones and advancement in sensors which are used for medical purpose, these devices enhance Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN). Which is used for patient monitoring remotely called as M-health also called as Mobile-health. It increases the quality and health care by providing a reliable and cost effective. In this system, a protocol called LSAP (Lightweight and Security Aware protocol). LSAP is proposed to assist Device to Device transmission of data for Mobile health systems by means of ORA (Optimal Relay Assignment) algorithm. Linear marking Mechanism was a general idea behind ORAA algorithm. To realize polynomial time complexity at the end of every iteration; are offered by linear marking. To increase the objective function during iteration process, ORA regulate the assignment which is the preliminary assignment. Source node of minimum capacity was identified by ORA at the time of iteration process, which results in designing an efficient system.


In Numero zero the main theme is lying. It is utilized as a sort of normative account of its epistemic implication foregrounding lying's problematization. Here Eco addresses the very duality of lying that is intertwined with the authenticity of language, and journalism is the ideal genre to tackle this problem. A lie is intrinsically linguistic and essentially semiotic because, at a material expression level and an immaterial content level, language violates the principle of non-contradiction since it is and it is not at the same time and in the same respect, due to the dualistic nature of signs that work toward the creation of meaning. It is because it is endowed with the ability to refer; it is not because it is never a true self, it lacks its own individuality. Thus, as a communicative/significative medium, language foresees and legitimizes the paradoxical duality between lie and truth insofar as it always requires the presence of the other; it requires the coexistence of the one (expression level) and the other (content level) to ultimately produce meaning. Numero zero sheds light on the hermeneutics of lies and fakes, and further gives a hint of the reverberations they produce in the world in which we live.


An operating system utilises resources to convert inputs into outputs in the form of goods or services. Conventionally, operations management is defined as the task of designing, establishing, planning, running, controlling, maintaining and improving such systems. As the output of such systems constitutes both goods and services this establishes operations management as a field of activity somewhat broader than production (or manufacturing) management which solely provides goods or artefacts. However the distinction between goods and services is unclear and the latter category is broad and heterogeneous. It may therefore be worthwhile to have a more detailed definition:


In this paper, the vo!tage-fed series compensated inductor type load-resonant high-frequency inverter is originally presented for driving a newly-developed silent discharge ozone generating tube The effective power regulation scheme of this ozonizer is proposed, which is based on PDM (Puise Density Modulation) related PWM strategy due to DSP implementation The effectiveness of this inverter type ozonizer is proved in simulation and experiment.


It is my opinion that the 21st century will be the century of play, and the heteroglossic activity of artists in the 20th century has been the forecast.


ABSTRACT. Three silhouette traps of novel design were used to investigate the trap finding ability of female Austrosimulium bancrofti (Taylor) (Diptera: Simuliidae) in southeast Queensland. The traps were 'upright', 'elongate' or 'square' in shape. Five highly significant factors: hour after sunrise, temperature, relative humidity, trap shape and distance between traps, were included in a model which generated fitted estimates of flies captured under defined conditions. The rate of increase and the level of maximum capture rate indicated that the elongate trap captured the highest numbers of blackflies. An interaction between hour after sunrise and temperature suggests a strong endogenous modification of trap finding activity. Numbers captured increased with increasing distance between traps and decreasing relative humidity. The importance of these results in understanding behaviour of A. bancrofti is discussed.


Abstract The design of a sewage treatment plant for the city of Kavala is now in progress. In order to estimate the existing levels of pollutant loads in the city's sewage a research programme was conducted. The present paper deals with the description and the results of the programme.


Virtual manufacturing (VM) is one of the research highlights both in science circles and enterprise circles at present. In this paper, on analyzing the forming process of the workpiece and the sources of machining error, Cutter Trajectory Representation (CT-Rep) is presented, which is available for characterizing the machining quality of workpiece in VM. According to the CT-Rep, the surface geometrical topological model of the workpiece after turning operation is established and applied in virtual machining and measuring cell being developed.


A bed comprising a frame, a mattress supported on the frame, and at the head of the bed a closure or chamber composed of two shell portions, to wit, a fixed lower portion fixed to the frame and a movable portion movable between an open position where it is retracted on the fixed portion and provides free access to the head of the bed and a closed position in which it leaves only a small opening towards the foot of the bed. Each shell portion of the chamber is constituted by a rigid frame covered with a sound insulating material and a sound absorbing material. The movable portion is itself constituted by two parts articulated to one another and to the fixed portion around a common horizontal transverse axis. One part of the movable portion is transparent and capable of being retracted into the other part which is opaque.


The idea of a balanced polycentric urban system pla ys prominent role in major strategic documents on European spatial planning. However, it remains a promise without sound empirical evidence how much the implementation of thi s idea would serve the major goals of the European Union competitiveness, cohesion and sustai nabil ty. This paper is to contribute to the understanding of polycentricity by reviewing di fferent definitions and methods to measure and forecast polycentricity and to assess the impac ts of different levels of polycentricity on economic growth and territorial cohesion. The concl usion is that polycentricity could be a rational trade-off between the conflicting goals gr owth and equity, but that more research is needed to forecast the likely impacts of combinatio s f different time-sequenced sectoral policies to achieve that trade-off.


[Objective] The research aimed to evaluation the ecological effects during natural restoration for desert steppe in Ningxia.[Method]The vegetation and soil for desert steppes which are unenclosed and enclosed for 3 years,4 years,5 years,6 years and 7 years were investigated and determined.The soil bulk,organic matter,total nitrogen,available nitrogen,available phosphorus,available kalium,plant density,height,coverage,biomass and herbaceous perennial plant proportion were chosen as evaluation indices.The principal component analysis was used to evaluate the ecological effects.[Result]The results showed that the plant density and coverage were the highest in the 5th year.Soil organic matter and total nitrogen content showed no significant variation.Available nitrogen and available kalium contents were up to the highest in the 4th year;Available phosphorus content was highest in the 6th year.[Conclusion]The synthetical score of ecological effect in the 5th year was the highest.The grasslands can be properly used at this time.


Nephroblastoma (Wilms tumor) is one of the most common malignant embryonic tumors in children. Nephroblastoma accounts for 5-11% of all childhood tumors, and its frequency is 0.4 to 1 per 10,000 live births. It is most common in children under the age of 5 years, rarely in newborns and adults. We have presented our own clinical observation of a premature newborn girl, starting from the 1st day of life, the dynamics of the disease, comprehensive examination and treatment, including highly specialized care, are reflected. There was an unfavorable prognosis with a fatal outcome at the age of 13 days, taking into account risk factors: early age, antenatal realization in the form of nephromegaly in the neonatal period with diffuse anaplasia. The causes of death were cardiopulmonary insufficiency and progressive renal insufficiency.


Using conditional test, the diethyl sebacate was synthesized from ethanol and decanedioic acid by direct esterification. The effect of reaction temperature, reaction time, materials ratio, the content of catalyst on the synthesis were studied, and the proper technological conditions were given as follows: the reaction temperature is 80℃, reaction time is 7h, the molar ratio of ethanol and decanedioic acid is 7.0,the content of catalyst is 1.5g; the taling water reagent (cyclohexane) is 15mL(when decanedioic acid is 0. 1mol) .The yield of esterification product was 95.45% . the catalyst could be used for times without any treatments. Experimental result showed that the catalyst had many advantages, such as easy preparation, low cost and high activity.lt was also non - corrosive and pollution - free to the environment.


Double skin facades (DSFs) are gaining momentum in Europe as a low-energy design technique for the refurbishments of office buildings due to their potential to act as a thermal buffer in winter and maximise the use of natural ventilation in summer. Existing research suggests that DSFs are capable of significant reductions to the energy consumption of buildings as well as improvements to the thermal comfort achieved. However, the design of a DSF is highly complex due to the parameters and variables involved. By means of the dynamic energy simulation software IES VE 2013, energy analyses have been undertaken to evaluate the energy consumption under the variation of different aspects (namely, shading devices, type of glazing of the outer skin, operable inlets and outlets areas, and orientation). To assess the risk of overheating in DSFs, energy analyses have always been coupled with comfort assessments based on the adaptive method suited to the free-running nature of most of existing buildings. Eventually, the contribution of each aspect towards both energy saving and overheating has been assessed.


Abstract In the paper some properties of compositions of ϱ-upper continuous functions are presented. We will show conditions for a function f: I → I under which g ∘ f is ϱ-upper continuous for each ϱ-upper continuous function g: I → ℝ. A small generalization of Luzin-Menchoff Theorem and Zahorski Theorem will be discussed.


The article presents results of practical testing of measurement techniques and characterization of thin sheet metallic ferromagnets under real pulsed magnetic attraction of their sections specified by manufacturing operation conditions. It is shown that the relative magnetic permeability of the processed metals is different from one, which corresponds to full saturation.


A learning control algorithm is presented that reduces the closing time of a radio-frequency microelectromechanical systems switch by minimizing bounce while maintaining robustness to fabrication variability. The switch consists of a plate supported by folded-beam springs. Electrostatic actuation of the plate causes pull-in with high impact velocities, which are difficult to control due to parameter variations from part to part. A single degree-of-freedom model was utilized to design a simple learning control algorithm that shapes the actuation voltage based on the open/closed state of the switch. Experiments on three different test switches show that after 5-10 iterations, the learning algorithm lands the switch plate with an impact velocity not exceeding 0.20 m/s, eliminating bounce. Simulations show that robustness to parameter variation is directly related to the number of required iterations for the device to learn the input for a bounce-free closure.


It is well known that rivers connect upstream and downstream ecosystems within watersheds. Here we describe the concept of precipitationsheds to show how upwind terrestrial evaporation source areas contribute moisture for precipitation to downwind sink regions. We illustrate the importance of upwind land cover in precipitationsheds to sustain precipitation in critically water stressed downwind areas, specifically dryland agricultural areas. We first identify seven regions where rainfed agriculture is particularly vulnerable to reductions in precipitation, and then map their precipitationsheds. We then develop a framework for qualitatively assessing the vulnerability of precipitation for these seven agricultural regions. We illustrate that the sink regions have varying degrees of vulnerability to changes in upwind evaporation rates depending on the extent of the precipitationshed, source region land use intensity and expected land cover changes in the source region.


Recently we extended our strategy for MRD-CI (multireference double excitation-configuration interaction) calculations based on localized/local orbitals and an "effective" CI Hamiltonian for molecular decompositions of large molecules to breaking a chemical bond in a molecule in a crystal or other solid environment. Our technique involves solving a quantum chemical ab-initio SCF explicitly for a system of a reference molecule surrounded by a number of other molecules in the multipole environment of more distant neighbors. The resulting canonical molecular orbitals are then localized and the localized occupied and virtual orbitals in the region of interest are included explicitly in the MRD-CI with the remainder of the occupied localized orbitals being folded into an "effective" CI Hamiltonian. The MRD-CI calculations are carried out for breaking a bond in the reference molecule. This method is completely general. The space treated explicitly quantum chemically and the surrounding space can have voids, defects, deformations, dislocations, impurities, dopants, edges and surfaces, boundaries, etc. We previously applied this procedure successfully to the H3CNO2 bond dissociation of nitromethane in a nitromethane crystal with extensive testing of the number of molecules that have to be included explicitly in the SCF and how many molecules have to be represented by more distant multipoles. The results indicated that it took more energy to dissociate the H3CNO2 bond when the nitromethane molecule was in the crystal than it did to dissociate that bond in the free nitromethane molecule. In this present study we have investigated the effect of voids (both in the nitromethane molecules treated explicitly in the SCF and those in the environment represented by multipoles) on the calculated H3CNO2 bond dissociation energies.


Sudden cardiac death (SCD) accounts for 15–20% of global mortality and coronary heart disease is the most common underlying substrate.1 The weeks to months following myocardial infarction (MI) have been recognized as a particularly vulnerable period, where the absolute rate of SCD is acutely elevated.2 Despite this observation, randomized trials of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy in the immediate post-MI period have not demonstrated an overall survival benefit in high-risk patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD).3 Whether additional strategies for SCD risk enrichment could identify post-MI patients who may benefit from sudden death prevention interventions remains unknown. In this issue of the Journal, Docherty and colleagues4 sought to develop a risk score for the prediction of SCD in patients with acute MI associated with heart failure and/or LVSD. The analytic cohort included 13 202 patients from three randomized trials of pharmacotherapy interventions (β-blocker, angiotensin receptor blocker, or aldosterone receptor blocker) in this population. Employing a competing risk framework with established candidate predictors of SCD, the authors derive a risk score using pooled data from the Effect of Carvedilol on Outcome After Myocardial Infarction in Patients with Left Ventricular Dysfunction (CAPRICORN)5 and Valsartan in Acute Myocardial Infarction (VALIANT)6 trials. Significant predictors of SCD were then scaled to an integer-based risk score, which was validated in the Eplerenone Post-Acute Myocardial Infarction Heart Failure Efficacy and Survival Study (EPHESUS).7 The authors identify a range of SCD risk factors that have been previously reported including age, elevated heart rate, active smoking, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤30%, atrial fibrillation, prior MI, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and absence of revascularization at index MI.1,8 The SCD risk model demonstrated reasonable discrimination for death subtype


In an effort to improve upon tomato varieties on the Ghanaian market, this study was carried out to identify genotypes with desirable qualities for further breeding work. The study was executed by crossing some varieties of Solanum lycopersicon; cherry red, cherry yellow, roma and wosowoso with a wild tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium. The progenies were cultivated for four generations to obtain these lines. Fruits harvested from these lines of F4 were analysed for the following physico-chemical properties; dry matter, pH, total titratable acidity, total soluble solids and vitamin C. The total soluble solids and total titratable acidity were used to deduce flavour and sweetness indices for the fruits. Significant (p<0.05) differences were observed among and within the various breeding lines. The dry matter, pH and total soluble solids of the fruits ranged from 5.21-8.43%, 4.08-4.59 and 4.00-7.80% respectively. Total titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, flavour and sweetness indices also ranged from 0.35-0.88%, 16.84-46.09 mg/100g, 0.07-0.16 and 5.33-13.64 respectively. In all wosowoso breeding lines were the most promising of all the breeding lines. Most of the progenies obtained had characteristics significantly (p<0.05) different from each other and then from those of their respective parents (controls). This shows that the various lines were still in the process of segregating and had not yet attained the status of pure lines.


Circuits and systems that have to deal with real valued artifacts often need to be evaluated not only for correct behaviors, but also the margins by which they satisfy the design intent. Our definition of "features" formally extends the classical notion of "assertions" by overlaying constructs for specifying real valued functions over matches of assertions, thereby providing a powerful language framework for specifying real valued properties of the system. In this paper we present, for the first time, methods for formal evaluation of feature ranges on hybrid automata models which are extensively used for modeling switched control systems. We demonstrate the methodology over three case studies, namely a cruise control system, a DC-DC Buck Regulator and a Li-ion battery charger.


Purpose: To evaluate the mean macular volume in normal Korean eyes using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Methods: The present study consisted of 132 patients (212 eyes) with no ophthalmic evidence of retinopathy and who had a best corrected visual acuity of 1.0 or better. The total macular volume was measured using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography and was analyzed according to age group, sex, degree of refractive error and presence of systemic disease such as diabetes and hypertension. Results: The mean total macular volume of all subjects was 10.07 0.45 , with means of 10.13 0.40 , 10.05 0.43 and 9.97 0.58 measured for the respective A, B, and C age groups. There was a significant difference between male and female patients. In addition, there was a significant difference between diabetic patients in group C and normal subjects. However, there was no significant difference according to degree of refractive error. Conclusions: The measured value of mean macular volume in normal Korean eyes can be expected to provide a standard value for diagnosing retinal disease and the need for careful follow-up.


On the basis of research papers published in academic journals such as Wenwu(Cultural Relics),Kaogu(Archeaeology) and Wenwu Baohu Yu Kaogu Kexue(Science of Conservation and Archaeology),this paper offers a brief review of new developments in archaeometric studies in China in the past two years.Some observations are also given on the future course of archaeometric research in China.


Climatic oscillations have been suggested to promote speciation and changes in species distributions, mostly in connection with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, the LGM is just the most recent of the 20+ glacial‐interglacial periods that characterise the Quaternary. Here, we investigate the role of climatic changes and geomorphological features in shaping the evolution, distribution and population dynamics of the South American cactus Cereus hildmannianus.


An open‐label Phase II study of oxaliplatin was conducted to evaluate its safety and efficacy in children with recurrent or refractory medulloblastoma (MB), supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumors (SPNET), and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT).


To study the normal MR venographic findings of cerebral deep veins. Materials and Methods: 3D-PC venography of cerebral deep vein in 120 normal subjects were obtained after intracranial abnormities excluded by conventional MR T1WI, T2WI, T2WI-flair and DWI. Results: The demonstration rates of the vein of Galen(VOG), the internal cerebral veins(ICV), the basal vein of Rosenthals(BVR) and the thalamostraite vein(TSV) were 100%、100%、85% and 97.5% respectively. VOG could be divided into five types according to VOG component: typeⅠwas composed of bilateral ICV and BVR(83 cases),type Ⅱ was of bilateral ICV and single BVR(19 cases),type Ⅲ was of bilateral ICV(10 cases), type Ⅳ was of single ICV and bilateral BVR (6 cases), and type Ⅴ was of single ICV and single BVR(2 cases). BVR drained to VOG in 106 cases and to ICV in 4 cases. ICV joined to VOG in 120 cases. VOG connected with straight sinus in 120 cases. The straight sinus was drained to torcular herrophili in 65 cases, to right transverse sinus in 39 cases and to left transverse sinus in 16 cases. Conclusion: MR venography is a effective and non-invasive method in demonstrating cerebral deep veins.


This article reviews different types of rail links to airports, and discusses the opportunities that they provide and their limitations together with possible solutions. Rail links to airports include high-speed network services, high-speed dedicated links, regional network services, and suburban links. Examples are given of each of these types of link, and of the cooperation arrangements that are sometimes made between airports and rail companies. If an airport provides high quality of rail link service, this is good for the reputation of its country and encourages more internal rail travel by visitors. A rail link is the most environment-friendly mode of transporting passengers between an airport and its neighbouring urban area, and it is safe and quiet. It also benefits railways in general. Over 100 opportunities for airport railways are being considered, planned, developed, or built, in addition to the 60 rail links open already. Improvements that can be made to some rail link services include better baggage handling, through ticketing, marketing initiatives, and train design. Limitations to rail links are mainly in the mind but can be physical; they include institutional, physical, financial, and timing barriers. There are many solutions, which the international Air Rail organisation is helping to provide.


In this paper, Long-Term Proportional Fair (LTPF) resource allocation algorithm in dynamic OFDMA system is presented, which provides long-term QoS guarantee (mainly throughput requirement satisfaction) to individual user and follows every user's QoS profile at long-term by incremental optimization of proportional fairness and overall system rate maximization. The LTPF algorithm dynamically allocates the OFDMA sub-carriers to the users in such a way that in long-term the individual QoS requirement is achieved as well as fairness among the users is maintained even in a heterogeneous traffic condition. Here more than maintaining individual user's instantaneous QoS; emphasis is given to follow mean QoS profile of all the users in long-term to retain the objectives of both proportional fairness and multi-user raw rate maximization. Compared to the algorithms, which provide proportional fair optimization and raw-rate maximization independently, this algorithm attempts to provide both kinds of optimizations simultaneously and reach an optimum point when computed in long-term by exploiting the time diversity gain of mobile wireless environment.


In the new historical period, applied college has become the important power of promoting higher education development. Its development has been closely connected with its quality of teaching. Teaching inspection is an important method of the quality guarantee. Currently, applied college has continued to using the traditional teaching inspection model, whicn is the disadvantage of improving the quality. So, it's necessary to construct the mechanism of the teaching inspection from the theory and practice according to the applied college. On theory, it constructs the fundamental frame; on practice, it constructs the subject, the system, the regulation and the object of the teaching inspection. The construction of the mechanism is the process of the constant exploration and improvement, so it's necessary to renew the inspetive idea and abide by the inspective law.


Transient acoustic scattering data from objects obtained using a one-dimensional line scan or two-dimensional raster scan can be processed via a linear quasi-holographic method [K. Baik, C. Dudley, and P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 130, 3838–3851 (2011)] in a way that is reversible, allowing isolation of spatially or temporally dependent features [T. M. Marston et al., in Proc. IEEE Oceans 2010]. Unlike nearfield holography the subsonic wavenumber components are suppressed in the processing. Backscattering data collected from a collocated source/receiver (monostatic scattering) and scattering involving a stationary source and mobile receiver (bistatic) may be processed in this manner. Distinct image features such as those due to edge diffraction, specular reflection, and elastic effects may be extracted in the image domain and then reverse processed to allow examination of those features in time and spectral domains. Multiple objects may also be isolated in this manner and clutter may be removed [D. ...


A model for the degassing of Xe, Ar, and He from the Earth has been constructed. The Earth is divided into three idealized reservoirs in terms of their noble gas inventories: undegassed mantle, degassed mantle or mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) mantle, and atmosphere plus continental crust. Degassing is assumed to occur via the partitioning of gases between a vapor phase and basaltic melt, in accord with He-Ar isotope systematics which require that 3He be degassed at a slower rate than 36Ar on average. A total inversion technique is used to handle the large uncertainties associated with the input parameters. The model successfully reconciles presently available isotope ratios of 129Xe/130Xe, 40Ar/36Ar, and 4He/3He in the different Earth reservoirs, and accurately predicts the present degassing rates of He and Ar. This is the first time that noble gas isotope data have been shown to be consistent with a single degassing model. The success of this model demonstrates the feasibility of a solubility-controlled degassing mechanism, and shows that there is a relationship between noble gas isotope ratios and the melt-vapor partition coefficients for those gases, which has been obscured by the complicated radiogenic growth and degassing equations. The high 129Xe/130Xe ratios in MORB are shown to be consistent with the low solubility of Xe in silicate melts, which resulted in a faster degassing rate for Xe than for other gases in the context of this model. Therefore, the mean degassing time derived from Xe is not directly applicable to other gases. The degassed mantle, our end-member degassed mantle reservoir, is found to be almost completely degassed for the noble gases, while the exact degree of degassing depends on the species under consideration, as well as the choice of isotope ratios to characterize this mantle segment. If extreme isotope ratios are used, the degree of degassing for the degassed mantle is: 99.92% for 130Xe, 99.7% for 36Ar, 97.5% for 3He, 82% for 40Ar and 88% for 4He. The mean time of degassing, measured from the formation of Earth, is 21±7 Ma for 130Xe, 56±19 Ma for 36Ar, 310±120 Ma for 3He, ∼1.5 Ga for 40Ar, and ∼0.8 Ga for 4He. Because the degassing is likely to be solubility controlled at some level, study of noble gases alone does not fully constrain the evolution of the atmosphere. However, the model can be extended to major gaseous species in the Earth's primary atmosphere if the relevant solubilities are known. Similarities between the solubilities of CO2, CO, and He, and between N2 and Ar, suggest a mean age for the total atmosphere on the order of 4.4 to 4.3 Ga. The formation of the oceans was a much later event because of the much higher solubility of H2O in silicate melt. If H2O has been the primary outgassing species for ocean water, the oceans have a mean age on the order of 2.7 Ga, suggesting that the volume ratio of continental crust to the oceans might have remained relatively constant during Earth history.


1. Respiratory specimens (throat-swabs, sputum and tracheal aspirate) from patients with influenza-like illnesses 2. Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells (Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences) 3. Eagle's Minimum Essential Medium (EMEM) (Life Technologies, Gibco®, catalog number: 11095-080) 4. Fetal bovine serum (Life Technologies, Gibco®, catalog number: 10099) 5. Viral transportation medium (Yocon Bio-technology, catalog number: MT0301-1) 6. QIAsymphony Virus/Bacteria Mini Kit (QIAGEN, catalog number: 931036) 7. Nuclease-free water (Life Technologies, catalog number: 10977) 8. SuperScript III Platinum SYBR Green One-Step qRT-PCR Kit (Life Technologies, catalog number: 11736) 9. The primer sequences used for detection of influenza A H7N9 virus


This paper analyzes the necessity of power factor correction,the active power factor correction contrasted the main circuit topology,this paper chooses a bridge topology is determined.Bridgeless PFC circuit principle and the advantages and disadvantages of analysis,can see the bridge circuit has the advantages of low switching devices,low power consumption,small cost,circuit the advantages of small volume.In control system choose single cycle control,and simulation model is established by using MATLAB simulink simulation platform,simulation shows that the single cycle control of bridge PFC to improve power factor.


In this article, we demonstrate by simulations that rich imputation models for incomplete longitudinal datasets produce more calibrated estimates in terms of reduced bias and higher coverage rates without duly deflating the efficiency. We argue that the use of supplementary variables that are thought to be potential causes or correlates of missingness or outcomes in the imputation process may lead to better inferential results in comparison to simpler imputation models. The liberal use of these variables is recommended as opposed to the conservative strategy.


Antagonism of selected agonist‐type drugs is an approach commonly employed to identify new drug activity. In the search for new anxiolytics, drug antagonism has not been a drug development tool in the past because of the lack of a suitable anxiogenic agonist for routine use. Recently, a number of anxiogenic drugs have been described. Pentylenetetrazol is one of those drugs. This review provides a critical examination of pentylenetetrazol with regard to its suitability as an agonist of anxiety that may be used routinely to predict and bioassay anxiolytic activity of novel molecules. In addition, drug discrimination is presented as a novel tool to measure objectively a specific animal activity which shows the same pharmacological properties as the subjectively perceived symptom of anxiety in human subjects. It is believed that the antagonism of an interoceptive discriminative stimulus produced by pentylenetetrazol may be a reliable and sensitive procedure to identify anxiolytic drugs of the future.


This report highlights the high potential of earth observation for consistent and objective monitoring of elements at risk at various spatial scales. The product portfolio of EO derived geo-products ranges from global low resolution land cover datasets to high resolution spatially accurate building inventories on a local scale. Despite the importance of adequate data for a comprehensive risk analysis as a critical factor affecting the constraints and requirements for the scientific community, end-users, stakeholders and policy makers, an immense discrepancy exists between data-rich countries of the developed world where extensive geospatial information is available, and less-developed data-poor countries. While data-poor countries mainly rely on international efforts to provide low resolution land cover / use maps of global coverage, significant international efforts to provide geo-products of medium to high resolution on a regional scale have only been undertaken in data-rich countries of the developed world such as Europe in the past.

With regard to user-oriented product generation in project SENSUM, a multi-scale and multi-source reference database has been set up to systematically screen available products with regard to data availability for the three project test sites of strongly differing data availability: Cologne (data-rich), Izmir (intermediate), Isfara/Batken (data-poor). At a later stage, these data will serve as a reference to evaluate and document the capabilities and limitations of the proposed products and range them with regard to the current GMES product portfolio. From the final database content, it becomes clear that data-poor countries of Central Asia mainly rely on coarse resolution products of global coverage which, however, provide multi-categorical thematic detail. In contrast, medium and high resolution datasets are spatially restricted to the European test sites due to trans-European mapping efforts initiated there. However, two currently developed global products – namely DLR's Global Urban Footprint as well as JRC's Global Human Settlement Layer – will be a major leap forward regarding the derivation of high resolution and accurate reference data for human exposures on a global scale – as they will provide consistent and geometrically detailed land cover information at unprecedented spatial resolutions. Furthermore, a viable option for future research and applications is presented, namely Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) by crowd-sourcing of extensive mapping communities such as the Open StreetMap project.

However, as remote sensing methods alone cannot provide all information needed for a comprehensive vulnerability and risk estimation, especially when political or socio-economical vulnerability is considered, the call for future research is on the integration of EO and in-situ data. Furthermore, the higher-ranking goal of activities in project SENSUM should address potentials for integration of the proposed products and methodologies in the GMES service offer, particularly envisaging the future expansion of the existing GMES service and product offer to further non-European countries.


Photolithographic and electron-beam integrated circuit fabrication techniques rely heavily upon differences in polymer resist dissolution (development) rates to produce circuit patterns. We have applied the wide-line NMR technique, augmented by dynamic nuclear polarization, to the measurement of polymer dissolution rates of poly(methyl methacrylate), (PMMA). At high gamma-ray exposures, we find PMMA to have dissolution rates from 2X to 1000X those of unirradiated material. The highest radiation-enhanced dissolution rates are obtained with carbon tetrachloride-based developer solutions, whereas generally lower enhanced rates are observed with 1:3 acetone or methylethylketone/isopropanol standard developer. E-beam line exposures are developed in PMMA and poly(ethyl methacrylate), PEMA, resists using similar developers for comparison. Using straight CCl/sub 4/ as a developer, e-beam lines 1-2..mu.. wide were developed in 3800 A thick PEMA resist at 1 x 10/sup -5/ C/cm/sup 2/ with less than or equal to 200 A loss in unexposed resist thickness. The higher differential dissolution with CCl/sub 4/, a poorer solvent for unirradiated PMMA than acetone or MEK, is explained by decline in polarity of PMMA by radiation-induced decarboxylation. 5 figures.


The theory presented in this paper permits the determination of extremal bounds for a given adsorbate–adsorbent system within which the adsorption isotherms must fall if certain assumptions pertaining to the nature of the adsorption process are applicable. The use of interpolation theory in estimating lower and upper bounds on physical quantities of interest in adsorption theory is also discussed.


There have been a number of developments within religious epistemology in recent years. Currently, the dominant view within mainstream philosophy of religion is, arguably, reformed epistemology. What is less well known is that feminist epistemologists have also been active recently within the philosophy of religion, advancing new perspectives from which to view the link between knowledge and religious experience. In this article I examine the claim by certain feminist religious epistemologists that women are both epistemically oppressed and epistemically privileged, and I consider whether or not this justifies the specific re-conceptualisations of religious terms that such epistemologists have proposed.


Background potassium (K+) leak currents, conducted by two-pore domain K+ (K2P) channels, are critical for the stabilization of the membrane potential. The effect of K2P channels on motor rhythm remains enigmatic. We show here a K2P TWK-40 regulates the rhythmic defecation motor program (DMP) in Caenorhabditis elegans. Disrupting TWK-40 suppresses the expulsion defects of nlp-40 and aex-2 mutants. By contrast, a gain-of-function (gf) mutant of twk-40 significantly reduces the expulsion frequency per DMP cycle. In situ whole-cell patch clamping demonstrates that TWK-40 forms an outward currents that hyperpolarize the resting membrane potential of DVB neuron. In addition, TWK-40 substantially contributes to the rhythmic activity of the DVB. Specifically, DVB Ca2+ oscillations exhibit obvious defects in twk-40 mutants. Expression of TWK-40(gf) in DVB recapitulates the expulsion deficiency of the twk-40(gf) mutant, and inhibits DVB Ca2+ oscillations in both wild-type and twk-40(lf) animals. Moreover, DVB innervated enteric muscles also exhibit rhythmic Ca2+ defects. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the TWK-40 is an essential inhibitor of DMP, thus revealing a cellular mechanism by funtional K2P channel of rhythmic motor activity.


The invention provides an intelligent substation SCD (substation configuration description) resolving method based on SAX. The method is characterized by comprising an SAX resolving module, an SCD information finding module and an SCD information output processing module, wherein the SAX resolving module carries out event driving mode one-by-one node sequential resolving on an SCD file, sub nodes are transmitted to the SCD information finding module, the SCD information finding module finds and transmits the result to the SCD information output processing module, the SCD information output processing module feeds back the sub nodes to the SCD information finding module and then finds all parent nodes of the sub nodes, and finally, the SCD information finding module transmits the final SCD resolving result to the SCD output module to be output. The SCD information includes GOOSE data item information and SV channel information.


A compound containing all of the carbons of the anticancer agent antofine was produced in a single step from the coupling of a γ,δ-unsaturated carbene complex with a 2-alkynylphenyl ketone derivati...


This paper focuses on the main discussion points of the 4th International Police Executive Symposium in Vienna, 1997. The symposium's theme was international police co‐operation and particular attention was paid to current co‐operation projects, plans for the future and the lessons that can be drawn from their experiences. The results of a questionnaire covering the issues raised by the symposium are examined in light of the discussions which ensued in Vienna. It was found that the subject of international police co‐operation has strong support and that the views expressed by the participants are very widely held. The results of the questionnaire, although reflecting the views of the symposium, suggested that there are a significant number of people who have little or no knowledge of international police co‐operation.


The High Pressure Direct Injection gas engine concept has been further optimized by evaluating the influence of engine hardware configurations, exhaust gas recirculation and engine control settings. The fuel efficiency for the optimized engine under real driving conditions was estimated to be six percent better than for a diesel reference engine, the diesel replacement is above 95 percent, and greenhouse gas emissions were lowered between 22-30 percent depending on the composition of the natural gas. Greenhouse gas savings can reach 90 percent if biogas was used instead of natural gas. Emissions of nitrogen oxides and soot from the optimized engine were similar to those from the diesel engine. Methane emissions for the optimized engine were low and the methane released during on-the-road driving conditions was below the Euro VI emission standards proposed limit of 0.5 gallons per kilowatt hour and could be considered sustainable. Catalysts optimized for methane oxidation were successfully evaluated. Even with the best catalyst the exhaust gas temperature during real driving conditions was found to be too low for efficient methane oxidation. Additional work on advanced heat management is therefore recommended. The High Pressure Direct Injection technique was especially beneficial for efficient methane oxidation but was also a key enabler for other high efficiency gas engine concepts such as lean burn spark ignited engines and engines of the dual fuel type.


African Americans face a disproportionate incidence and prevalence of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in the United States, but HS severity and outcomes across racial and ethnic groups have not been well‐established while controlling for potentially confounding factors. In this retrospective cohort study, we investigated the associations of race and ethnicity with HS severity, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and surgeries for HS while controlling for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), tobacco use, and insurance type.


To the Editor: As we have known, Emergency Medicine is an interdisciplinary subject and has many hot spots for research. However, many researchers often worry that their research is too narrowed or not so cutting edge as to be accepted by journals with high impact factor (IFs). Why? One reason perhaps lies in the fact that many of them have difficulty in following the fronts and hot spots in internal Emergency Medicine research.

Here, we introduce the use of Essential Science Indicator (USA) tools to analyze the frontier and cutting edge researches in the field of internal Emergency Medicine, and we hope this can help researchers in finding research fronts.

The 5 hotspots of internal Emergency Medicine research were "sepsis," "acute pulmonary," "trauma," "shock" and "cardiopulmonary resuscitation." Yes, sepsis is the hottest subject in Emergency Medicine. Although there are already some large studies published in top medicine journals about Surviving Sepsis Campaign Protocols (SSCP),[1,2,3,4,5,6] SSCP is still the hottest front for years to come. The followed hotspots are acute lung injury; the most attention were paid on the acute respiratory distress syndrome, receptor signaling, and acute lung injury evaluation. And others can refer to the Table 1.

Table 1

The keywords and fronts of internal Emergency Medicine research


This article addresses the relationship of Elinor Glyn, Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg at the time of the formation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Through the use of newly available archival materials it focuses specifically on the contractual negotiations over motion picture rights to Glyn's stories, negotiations that were of definite significance in establishing the practices of cross-media collaboration that existed between novelists and moviemakers in Hollywood in the 1920s. It also serves to indicate how the economic, artistic and legal processes involved in moviemaking in this period were inextricably connected, and suggests that personal and professional conflicts were often an essential part of the evolving practices of Hollywood in the silent era.


This paper analyzes the implications of potential offenders caring about their relative status. We establish that subjects' status concerns can result in multiple-equilibrium crime rates and may modify the standard comparative-statics results regarding how the crime rate changes in response to a higher detection probability and higher sanctions. In addition, we argue that the socially optimal level of the detection probability and the sanction will often be higher when potential offenders care about their relative positions. Our analysis can be linked to one of the most important criminological theories of crime, namely strain theory. JEL-Code: H230, K420.


Fundus images provide an opportunity for early detection of diabetes. Generally, retina fundus images of diabetic patients exhibit exudates, which are lesions indicative of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). Computational tools have the potential to assist medical practitioners in early screening of the disease. The experiment consists of two parts: 1) detection of exudates in the fundus image (using the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP1) and Support Vector Machine (SVM1)), followed by 2) removal of exudates detected in step (1), feature representation using Color Autocorrelogram (CAC) and classification using another set of classifiers (MLP2 and SVM2). Experimental results on the MESSIDOR dataset suggest that the method has the potential to be used for early indication of DR.


Skin‐based immunotherapy of type 1 allergies has recently been re‐investigated as an alternative for subcutaneous injections. In the current study, we employed a mouse model of house dust mite (HDM)‐induced lung inflammation to explore the potential of laser‐facilitated epicutaneous allergen‐specific treatment.


To understand the political causes of macroeconomic policy, it is necessary to examine the institutions that actually make such policy and the incentives those institutions face. An explanation of the political causes of United States monetary policy must treat the various institutions that are influential in the monetary policy process, which are, at a minimum, the Federal Reserve ("Fed") and the executive (including the president, the Treasury Department, and other advisors in the Executive Office of the President). The reelection motive has proven useful in modeling presidential incentives. In this article I investigate whether electoral incentives associated with the theory of the "political business cycle" (PBC) can help to explain the behavior of the Fed over the last quarter century. The political business cycle has had a curious hold on modern political economy. While the empirical evidence in favor of the cycle is far from overwhelming, its theoretical importance leads to continuing empirical


We have extended the Schelling model of neighborhood racial segregation to include agents who can authentically 'see' their neighbors up to a distance R, called 'vision'. By exploring the consequences of systematically varying R, we have developed an understanding of how vision interacts with racial preferences and minority concentrations and leads to novel, complex segregation behavior. We have discovered three regimes: an unstable regime, where societies invariably segregate; a stable regime, where integrated societies remain stable; and an intermediate regime where a complex behavior is observed. We present detailed results for the symmetric case (which maximizes conflict), where equal numbers of agents of two races occupy the same cityscape. We briefly indicate the policy implications of these simulations.


THOMPSON, ELIZABETH ELLEN ANDERSON. CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein Alpha in UVB Responses in Human and Mouse Skin and Mouse Skin Tumorigenesis. (Under the direction of Dr. Robert C. Smart). Human epidermis is routinely subjected to DNA damage induced by solar radiation and keratinocytes have developed intricate mechanisms to respond to UVB-induced DNA damage. Despite these mechanisms, nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most common cancer in the US. Previous analysis of immortalized mouse keratinocytes has revealed that the bZIP transcription factor, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (C/EBPα), is induced by DNA damage and has a role in the G1 checkpoint. Here we demonstrate C/EBPα is induced in the epidermis of the human subjects exposed to UVB. To begin to determine the in vivo physiological significance of the up-regulation of C/EBPα by UVB, we generated an epidermal specific C/EBPα knockout (K5Cre;C/EBPα) mouse on a SKH1 hairless background. Following UVB treatment, these mice displayed an impaired keratinocyte cycle arrest and abnormal entry of keratinocytes into S-phase. This impaired cell cycle checkpoint in UVB-treated C/EBPα deficient skin was associated with greatly diminished p21 levels which occurred through a p53-independent mechanism. To further investigate whether C/EBPα could function as a tumor suppressor gene in UVB induced skin tumorigenesis, we exposed K5Cre;C/EBPα and K5Cre control SKH1 mice to 20mJ/cm UVB three times weekly. The K5Cre;C/EBPα mice displayed both increased tumor incidence and multiplicity, suggesting that loss of C/EBPα in the epidermis confers increased susceptibility to UVB-induced skin tumorigenesis. In addition, we also observed that human skin SCC and BCC display greatly reduced or absent C/EBPα levels, implicating that loss of C/EBPα contributes to the development of human nonmelanoma skin cancers. Collectively, our results demonstrate that C/EBPα is induced by UVB in human skin, inhibits cell cycle progression in response to UVB in vivo and is a tumor suppressor gene in UVB induced skin tumorigenesis. CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein Alpha in UVB Responses in Human and Mouse Skin and Mouse Skin Tumorigenesis by Elizabeth Ellen Anderson Thompson A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Toxicology Raleigh, North Carolina 2009


Lightweight mirrors for space can be made using a thin flexible substrate for the optical surface and a rigid lightweight frame with actuators for support. The accuracy of the optical surface is actively maintained by adjusting the actuators using feedback from wavefront measurements. The University of Arizona is now in the final stages of fabricating two such mirrors. A 2-m NGST Mirror System Demonstrator, with an areal density of 13 kg/m2, is being built for NASA and will be tested at cryogenic temperatures. A 50 cm development mirror, with an areal density of only 5 kg/m2, is also being fabricated. This paper discusses the fabrication processes involved with both of these mirrors.


The reason of voltage recovery of alkaline Zn/MnO2 battery after discharge was explainedThe positive electrode polarazation was reducedThe discussion showed that the bad performance of battery and modification opinion was introduced


Cicchetti, D. V. (2006). The Paris 1976 wine tastings revisited once more: Comparing ratings of consistent and inconsistent tasters. Journal of Wine Economics, 1(2), 125–140. Moskin, J. (2020). The wine world's most elite circle has a sexual harassment problem. New York Times, October 29, 2020. Robinson, J. (1994 to 2015). The Oxford Companion to Wine. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Stavins, R. N. (2006). Film review: Alexander Payne, sideways. Journal of Wine Economics, 1(1), 91–93. Stavins, R. N. (2007). Book review: Jancis Robinson, tasting pleasures—Confessions of awine lover. Journal of Wine Economics, 2(1), 106–108. Stavins, R. N. (2013). Film review: Jason Wise, Somm. Journal of Wine Economics, 8(2), 238–241. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020). Labor force statistics from the current population survey. Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. Available at https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm (accessed October 31, 2020).


China and India,the two large developing countries,are both facing the similar deterioration of ecological environment,caused by substantially similar reasons.In terms of the legal system,India environmental legislation,compared to China,is more advanced,and its environmental justice initiative is also more prominent.Nevertheless,the environmental litigation and environmental law enforcement in India is as inefficient as in China.In order to cope with the challenges of environmental problems,both China and India need to dedicate their efforts to seek countermeasures.The aforementioned problems have a comparative value and a mutual enlightenment,because the basic conditions of the two large developing countries are analogous and comparable,although they have different social systems.


A TYPICAL PATIENT A 28-year-old lady was brought into the emergency department having had two generalized tonic–clonic seizures. These terminated spontaneously and by the next day she was feeling back to normal apart from a mild headache. She recalled involuntary head turning to the left just before blacking out. Postictally there was no neurological deficit, and there was no earlier history of headaches. She was otherwise fit and well. Her brain CT scan showed a large low-density space-occupying lesion in the right frontal lobe, which did not enhance with contrast, suggestive of a glioma, probably low-grade (Fig. 1). At this point the key issues are: How reliable is CT/MR scanning in detecting and grading gliomas? What are the risks, benefits and limitations of stereotactic biopsy? When is it appropriate to recommend gross total resection? If a biopsy or resection is done and shows a low


Measurements were made of local rates of heat transfer on the front and back surfaces of an infinite flat plate stnip oriented normal to an air stream at atmosphenic pressure and temperature. The chord length of the plate was 6.75 in., and its wind-tunnel blockage ratio was 0.211. The data, reduced with propenty values at the mean film temperature, were well correlated by an equation of the type hL/k approximately Re2/3. Effects of turbulence grids and of a splitter plate at the rear were also included. The plate constitutes a basic apparatus for the sthdy of heat transfer to regions of separated flow. The present knowledge of the onset, develop: ment, and nature of separated flows together with the corresponding heat transfer characteristics are outlined. In conclusion an extensive bibliography is given. (auth)


In situ values of vertical gradients of gravity (VGGs) are often needed when compiling residual spatiotemporal gravity changes that are interpreted in volcanic areas with the objective of drawing inferences about sources of volcanic unrest or pending eruptions. VGG values are seldom acquired by in situ observations. Their availability in 4D volcano-microgravimetric surveys and studies can be mediated by predicting the VGGs based on high resolution high accuracy DEMs and modelling the topographic component (constituent) of the VGG. Based on a modelling effort and in situ verification of VGG predicted on Etna in the summit craters area, on the north-east rift and on benchmarks of the monitoring network covering the volcano in a wider context, we learned that the VGG prediction can be improved by using drone-borne photogrammetry with GNSS ground control to produce a finer DEM in the closest vicinity of the VGG point (benchmark or field point) with resolution higher than the available high-resolution LiDAR-derived DEM, and using detailed modeling of gravity effect (on VGG) of anthropogenic objects such as walls and buildings adjacent to the VGG points. In this poster we present the methods used in the refined VGG prediction and the results of the verification of VGGs predicted on Etna.


Age affects the production of secondary metabolites, but how developmental cues regulate secondary metabolism remains poorly understood. Annatto (Bixa orellana L.) is a source of bixin, an apocarotenoid used in the world's food industry worldwide. Understanding how age-dependent mechanisms control bixin biosynthesis is of great interest for plant biology and for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and textile industries. Here, we used genetic and molecular tools to unravel the role of the annatto age regulated miRNA156 (miR156) targeted SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN LIKE (BoSPL) genes in secondary metabolism. Low expression of several BoSPL genes in miR156 overexpressing annatto plants (OE::156) impacted leaf ontogeny, reducing bixin production and increasing abscisic acid (ABA) levels. Modulation of BoCCD4;4 and BoCCD1 expression, key genes in lycopene cleavage, was associated with diverting the carbon flux from bixin to ABA, whereas upregulation of lycopene β cyclase genes implies the xanthophyll biosynthetic pathway acted as a carbon sink in OE::156 plants. Proteomic analyses revealed low accumulation of most secondary metabolite-related enzymes in OE::156 plants, suggesting that miR156 targeted BoSPLs are required to activate several annatto secondary metabolic pathways. Our findings suggest that carbon flux in B. orellana OE::156 leaves was redirected from bixin to ABA production, indicating an age-dependent leaf dynamics of bixin biosynthesis. Importantly, our study opened a new venue to future annatto breeding programs aiming to improve bixin output.


14 Trees in the southern Siberian Mountains forest-tundra ecotone have considerably increased their 15 radial and apical growth increments during the last few decades. This leads to the widespread vertical 16 transformation of mat and prostrate krummholz forms of larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb) and Siberian 17 pine (Pinus sibirica Du Tour). An analysis of the radial growth increments showed that these 18 transformations began in the mid-1980s. Larch showed a greater resistance to the harsh alpine 19 environment and attained a vertical growth form in areas where Siberian pine is still krummholz. 20 Upper larch treeline is about 10 m higher than Siberian pine treeline. Observed apical and radial 21 growth increment increases were correlated with CO2 concentration (r = 0.83–0.87), summer 22 temperatures (r = 0.55–0.64), and "cold period" (i.e. September–May) air temperatures (r = 0.36– 23 0.37). Positive correlation between growth increments and winter precipitation was attributed to snow 24 cover protection for trees during wintertime. 25 DOI: 10.1657/1938-4246-43.4. 26 27 Introduction 28 The climate-driven impact on tree vegetation is expected to be most significant where climate 29 variables limit tree growth, e.g., in the alpine forest-tundra ecotone (e.g., Holtmeier and Broll, 2007). 30 It has been reported that during the last few decades, increased stand density and tree growth 31 increments have been observed in the northern forest-tundra ecotone, which includes alpine and non32 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120000642 2020-01-11T15:24:11+00:00Z


There are three methods—rotational shells finite element method,analytic method and elastic foundation beam method for calculating the strength of sphere-toroid-cone combined shell under external pressure.The paper lay stress on the basic hypothesis and essential thoughts of these methods.Contradistinguished from another methods,elastic foundation beam method is the criterion calculating method because of its superiority.


The aim of this research wants to know the influence of Service Learning strategy toward biology learning achievement of XI
degree students at SMA Negeri 1 Boyolali in 2011/2012 academic year.
This research was quasi experiment research which use posttest only control design. This research applyed Service Learning
strategy in experimental group and conventional strategy with discussion, classical course and question-answer method in control
group. Population's research is the entire class XI IPA at SMA Negeri 1 Boyolali in 2011/2012 academic year. Sampling techniques
used cluster random sampling. Random result has chosen XI IPA 6 as experiment group and XI IPA 4 as control group. Data was
collected using questionnaire, multiple choice test, observation sheet, and document. The data were analyzed by t-test.
The research concluded that the application of Service Learning strategy has taken good effect toward student's achievement
cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domain in learning biology of SMA Negeri 1 Boyolali.
Keywords: Service Learning strategy, Biology Learning Achievement.


Land cover mapping is often performed via satellite or aerial multispectral/hyperspectral datasets. This paper explores new potentials for the characterisation of land cover from archive greyscale satellite sources by using classification analysis of colourised images. In particular, a CORONA satellite image over Larnaca city in Cyprus was used for this study. The DeOldify Deep learning method embedded in the MyHeritage platform was initially applied to colourise the CORONA image. The new image was then compared against the original greyscale image across various quality metric methods. Then, the geometric correction of the CORONA coloured image was performed using common ground control points taken for aerial images. Later a segmentation process of the image was completed, while segments were selected and characterised for training purposes during the classification process. The latest was performed using the support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Five main land cover classes were selected: land, water, salt lake, vegetation, and urban areas. The overall results of the classification process were then evaluated. The results were very promising (>85 classification accuracy, 0.91 kappa coefficient). The outcomes show that this method can be implemented in any archive greyscale satellite or aerial image to characterise preview landscapes. These results are improved compared to other methods, such as using texture filters.


It is necessary to perform simulations combining SystemView with MATLAB on many practical occasions.The principles of communication through M-LINK are studied in detail.The example of Pulse Code Modulation(PCM)is given.The simulation result confirms the feasibility of the proposed principles.


A new higher-order saddlepoint approximation is derived for the distribution of weighted dou15 ble partial sum statistics. The approximation is very accurate for small sample sizes, and does not require simulation or a Brownian bridge approximation. We then show how to use the statistics and the corresponding approximation results for change-point detection, and illustrate its use on the data from the annual flow of the Nile river. We also relate the approximation to the distribution of the Cramér-von Mises statistic and the Anderson-Darling statistic for testing goodness-of-fit. 20 Numerical simulation suggests that t the higher-order approximation to the distributions of theses statistics provide more accurate and faster results than are currently available.


An edge coloring of a multigraph is nearly equitable if, among the edges incident to each vertex, the numbers of edges colored with any two colors differ by at most two. It has been proved that the problem of finding a nearly equitable edge coloring can be solved in O(m/k) time, where m and k are the numbers of edges and given colors, respectively. In this paper, we present a recursive algorithm that runs in O (mn log (m/(kn) + 1)) time, where n is the number of vertices. This algorithm improves the bestknown worst-case time complexity. When k = O(1), the time complexity of all known algorithms is O(m), which implies that this time complexity remains to be the best for more than twenty years since 1982 when Hilton and de Werra gave a constructive proof for the existence of a nearly equitable edge coloring for any multigraph. Our result is the first that improves this time complexity when m/n grows to infinity; e.g., m = n for an arbitrary constant θ > 1. Submitted: July 2008 Reviewed: September 2008 Revised: October 2008 Accepted: October 2008 Final: November 2008 Published: December 2008 Article type: Regular paper Communicated by: D. Wagner This research was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in Proceedings of ISAAC [10]. E-mail addresses: firstname.lastname@example.com (Xuzhen Xie) firstname.lastname@example.com (Mutsunori Yagiura) firstname.lastname@example.com (Takao Ono) email@example.com (Tomio Hirata) firstname.lastname@example.com (Uri Zwick) 384 X. Xie et al. An Efficient Algorithm for Nearly Equitable Edge Coloring


VeriSIM is a learning environment which helps software engineering students comprehend a given design, by enabling them to trace different scenarios in the design. Learners trace different scenarios by constructing a state diagram. In VeriSIM, learners go through four challenges which help them progressively trace scenarios in the design. VeriSIM provides learners affordances to add, edit, delete states, as well as "run" a given state diagram. All such learner interactions are logged in the system. In this paper, we analyze the interaction logs of 12 students, in order to infer certain behavior patterns. The preliminary analysis of these patterns shows that the order of the challenges help learners effectively trace scenarios.


Introduction: The effects of early detection on treatment need to be evaluated. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the Basque breast cancer early detection program (BCEDP) on breast cancer surgery in our hospital.
Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted of women who underwent surgery for breast cancer between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2016. Participants were classified into: Group A, those referred from the screening program after routine mammography; or group B, those referred from primary care or other gynecological clinics within our health region.
Results: In the study period, 630 women were diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. Their mean age was 60.2 years (standard deviation 5.4). Out of these, 220 (35%) referred from the BCEDP formed group A, the other 410 women (65%) forming group B. Invasive cancer was diagnosed in 185 women in group A (84%) and in 370 (90.2%) in group B (p=0.02). Regarding treatment, mastectomies were carried out in 47 women (21.4%) in Group A and 225 (54.9%) in group B (p<0.001); axillary lymphadenectomies were performed in 31 women (14.1%) in Group A and 83 (20.2%) in Group B, (p=0.02); and adjuvant chemotherapy was given in 66 women (30%) in Group A and 148 (36.1%) in Group B (p<0.001).
Conclusion: In our setting, breast cancer patients referred through the BCEDP have earlier stage cancer, can be expected to benefit from less radical surgery, have lower proportion of axillary lymph node involvement and require less adjuvant chemotherapy.


Embelin is a plant extract widely used as a herbal medicine against a wide range o f ailments in humans. Its use has been associated with sexual debility in male subjects. Studies have shown that it actually posses anti-fertility properties in male laboratory animals. In female rats, it has been shown to cause fetal resorption and to reduce ovarian weights. However, studies in the female have not explicitly elucidated the changes that take place at endocrinological level; neither have they described ovarian morphological changes nor the evolution of estrous cycles associated with embelin exposure. This study aimed to accomplish the above. The effects o f embelin on the evolution of estrous cycles, progesterone and estradiol profiles and ovarian histopathology were examined. Thirty adult (4 months old) regularly cycling female Sprague-Dawley rats were used. They were given 1 ml/kg bwt. Corn oil (groupl-control, n=10); or embelin dissolved in corn oil at 10 mg/kg bwt. (groupll-experimental, n=10) and 20 mg/kg bwt. (groupIII-cxpcrimcntal, n=10). The treatments were given subcutcneously on alternate days for 20 days. Thus, each animal received a total o f 10 injections by the end of the experiment. Oestrous cycles were monitored daily by vaginal cytology. Ovarian histopathology and progesterone and estradiol levels were assessed by standard procedures. Subcutaneous injections o f embelin in this animal model resulted in the disruption of the regular oestrous cycle patterns. Specifically, 3 animals out o f 10 in group II (10 mg/kg bwt. ) and 4 animals out o f 10 in group III (20 mg/kg bwt. ) essentially remained in dioestrus by the fifth injection. There was a significant depression of plasma estradiol (P<0.05) and progesterone (P<0.02) at both dose levels. Histopathological evaluation o f the ovaries from the embelin treated rats revealed the presence of abnormal follicles. In most follicles, the oocytes showed distortions in their symmetries. There were no significant changes in the liver and pituitary glands. In a separate experiment, mixed ovarian cells were isolated frqm another set o f normally cycling rats and directly challenged with embelin in vitro.


A solar cell based on dye-sensitized photoelectric conversion was studied by investigating the effects of the amount of polyethylene glycol(PEG), added to the paste, on surface morphology of the films and on the solar cell performance. Energy conversion efficiency was found to increase with PEG addition up to 20 % by weight of and then decrease with further addition due to the aggregation of nano particles in the film. In this study, the best result of dye-sensitized solar cell was the short circuit current(Isc) of , the open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.73 V, the fill factor (ff) of 0.55 and the overall energy conversion efficiency () of 9.1 % under illumination with AM 1.5 simulated sunlight.


Mobile phones have ceased to be devices that people merely use to make phone calls. Today, modern mobile phones offer their users a large selection of features which are accessed via hierarchical menus. These hierarchical menus typically result in deep nested menus that require numerous clicks to navigate through, often resulting in usability issues. This paper presents a prototype of a new menu style (Barrel menu) for mobile phones, and compares the usability of this menu style with that of a traditional hierarchical (Hub-and-Spoke) design. The Barrel menu was found to be as efficient as the Hub-and-Spoke menu in terms of time-on-task and key presses, but was found to cause fewer user errors. In addition, the Barrel menu was found to be better in terms of ease of use, orientation, user satisfaction and learnability. Thus, the Barrel menu shows the potential to be a feasible alternative for mobile phone manufacturers to overcome some of the usability issues associated with Hub-and-Spoke menus.