The recent report from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, Montreal, 2010) acknowledges that ongoing biodiversity loss necessitates swift, radical action. Protecting undisturbed lands, while vital, is clearly insufficient, and the key role of unprotected, private land owned is being increasingly recognized. Seeking to avoid common assumptions of a social planner backed by government interventions, the present study focuses upon the incentives of the individual land owner. We use detailed data to show that successful conservation on private land depends on three factors: conservation effectiveness (the impact upon target species); private costs (especially reductions in production); and private benefits (the extent to which conservation activities provide compensation, for example by enhancing the value of remaining production). By examining the high-profile issue of palm-oil production in a major tropical biodiversity hotspot, we show that the levels of both conservation effectiveness and private costs are inherently spatial; varying the location of conservation activities can radically change both their effectiveness and private cost implications. We also use an economic choice experiment to show that consumers' willingness-to-pay for conservation-grade palm-oil products has the potential to incentivize private producers sufficiently to engage in conservation activities supporting vulnerable IUCN Red Listed species. However, these incentives vary according to the scale and efficiency of production and the extent to which conservation is targeted to optimize its cost-effectiveness. Our integrated, interdisciplinary approach shows how strategies to harness the power of the market can usefully complement existing, and to-date insufficient, approaches to conservation.


Crimes against women and children are increasing day by day in the present scenario. It is highly needed to provide a safe environment for them. The objective of this paper is to save the woman from unforeseen circumstances. For that, we propose a "Smart AIOT based Woman security system". The proposed system consists of a Raspberry Pi processor, RPi camera, GPS module, GSM, Mic, pulse rate sensor, LCD screen. The system monitors the activities of the pulse rate sensor and mic input. If any abnormality occurs then the system will make the decision. This paper reviews different women's security systems by their technology, platform, functionality, & compares different systems on different criteria. AI is involved in the proposed system to sense the danger prior and decide accordingly.


Objective:To study the expression of livin and its correlation with cyclin B1 in breast cancer.Methods:The expressions of livin and cyclin B1 in breast cancer paraffin embedded specimens were detected by immunohistochemical technique.The relationship between livin and cyclin B1 and clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed.Results:The rates of positive expression of livin and cyclin B1 protein in breast cancer were 77.2%and 68.4%,respectively,and the correlation was psitive(γ=0.701,P0.001).The significant correlation of cyclin B1 with lymphnode metastasis expression was found in breast cancer.Conclusions:Our findings suggest that upregulated expression of livin and cyclin B1 proteins may play an important role in the development of breast cancer.The relationship between cyclin B1 and lymphnode metastasis expression indicates that higher cyclin B1 expression may imply patient's poor prognosis.


Because prokaryotes populating the early Earth were structurally and morphologically very simple, it is difficult to obtain taxonomic information from microfossils, and even more problematic, to distinguish true fossils from abiotic objects. For example, many self-assembly processes associated with the precipitation of nanoscale minerals in the presence of organic compounds generate cell-like structures. Based on high resolution microscopy observations on natural samples, we describe three types of features common to Archean rocks and suggest that they represent microfossil-like artefacts.


Background and objectives: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a leading cause of death and disability world wide. Magnesium acts as a cofactor in glucose metabolism and its decreased level causes insulin resistance and many complications in diabetic patients. The present study evaluated the correlation of serum magnesium with HbA1c in DM patients.

Materials and methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka from July 2016 to June 2017. A total number of 100 individuals with and without diabetes mellitus were included in the study. HbA1c was measured by high performance liquid chromatography and estimation of serum magnesium was done by automatic biochemistry analyzer.

Results: Out of 100 enrolled participants, 50 were diagnosed patients of DM (Group-A) and 50 were age and sex matched apparently healthy individuals (Group-B). The mean age of Group-A and B individuals was 50.5 ± 6.0 and 50.4 ± 5.1 years respectively. Group-A had significantly (p < 0.001) lower serum magnesium concentration compared to Group-B (1.5 ± 0.6 mg/dl vs 2.3 ± 0.5 mg/dl). Serum magnesium levels showed significant negative correlations with HbA1c (r = -0.511, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: DM patients showed significant negative correlation of serum magnesium with HbA1c level. Routine screening for serum magnesium status would be helpful for the better management of diabetic cases.

IMC J Med Sci. 2023. 17(1): 005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55010/imcjms.17.005

*Correspondence: Farzana Ahmed, Department of Biochemistry, Ibrahim Medical College, 1/A Ibrahim Sarani, Shegunbagicha, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


Aromatic amino acids (AAAs) are integral components for protein production and their essentiality goes without saying. Moreover, their derivatives often are used by animal species as neurotransmitters that play some specific functions. The evolvement of specific physiological functions in AAA derivatives is likely due to the relative stability of their bulky planar ring structures of these AAAs. As a result, AAAs are structurally much less flexible than most of other amino acids (Li et al., 2021). Although functionally important, animal species cannot produce AAAs. Several essential enzymes required for AAA biosynthesis were either lost in animals or the AAA synthetic pathway never completely evolved in animals. Plants and microorganisms can produce the AAAs, but their production is energetically expensive and, therefore, it is advantageous for animals to obtain them from food sources. Obtaining sufficient amounts of the AAAs from food sources usually is not a major concern in animal species, especially for humans, but regulation of their individual contents and their metabolites is considerably important to human health. Consequently, disorder of their metabolic pathways often leads to medical issues in humans. Among the three commonly considered AAAs (based on structures, histidine also is an AAA, but it is not produced through the shikimate pathway and not considered a typical AAA), phenylalanine contains a benzene ring, tyrosine has hydroxylated benzene ring, and tryptophan consists of an indole ring. In general, the benzene ring is more stable than indole ring; thus, both phenylalanine and tyrosine are more stable than tryptophan. Because animal species can obtain AAAs from food sources, the ability to breakdown the AAAs or to convert these molecules to other compounds is often important to animal species, particularly humans. Phenylalanine is relatively abundant amino acid in proteins. In animal species, the major use of phenylalanine is for the biosynthesis of proteins; excess of phenylalanine beyond requires that it be degraded. Animals express phenylalanine hydroxylase, an enzyme that catalyzes the hydroxylation of phenylalanine to tyrosine. Phenylalanine hydroxylase has a moderate affinity to this amino acid (Km ~ .5 mM), which prevents phenylalanine from accumulating beyond physiological level, but also leaves adequate phenylalanine content for protein synthesis. It is well known that deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxylase leads to a life-threatening disease, phenylketonuria (van Spronsen et al., 2021). Moreover, phenylalanine hydroxylase has high substrate specificity. This characteristic (often overlooked) is very important for maintaining physiological conditions of human and perhaps other animal species and will be briefly elaborated when mentioning tyrosine metabolism. OPEN ACCESS


SUMMARY The study wasdesigned to examine effects of acute cellular injury on regional myocardial blood flow (RMBF)and cor- onary vascular reactivity. Before myocardial infarction in 14 dogs,RMBFwas measured using 7-lO,u microspheres during the hyper-emic response following a 60 sec transient ischemic stimulation(TIS). Myocardial infarction wasinducedbycomplete occlusion for two hours and then inflow to the injured area was re-established.RMBF was measured four hours later during basal conditions,following a 60 sec TIS and during infusion of adenosine, 1.0mg/kg/min. Effects ofacute cellular injury were examinedby mea- suring RMBFin multiple myocardial samples,grouped according to ISCHEMIA OFTHE MYOCARDIUM sufficient to ini-tiate acute myocardial injury effects local responses in thezone of ischemia which directly alter tissue perfusion.1-5 Studies from this laboratory6 have demonstrated that thealterations in regional myocardial perfusion which result from acutecellular injury are directly proportional


AICAR (5‐amino‐4‐imidazolecarboxamide riboside) is endogenously produced from an intermediate in the purine biosynthetic pathway. In human athletes, urine [AICAR] correlates with gender (males > females), athletic season (in competition > out of competition), and sport (weight lifting > soccer). Plasma AICAR was hypothesized to increase with exercise. An LC‐MS‐MS method was developed to quantify AICAR in plasma collected from race horses before and immediately after competition. Plasma AICAR was increased in the majority of horses after racing (n = 52, p < 0.0001). [AICAR] did not correlate with age, gender, or performance in this population. When administered intravenously, AICAR (1.0 mg/kg/min; 10 min) acutely (minutes) decreased mean arterial blood pressure (132 to 103 mmHg; n = 1) despite a compensatory increase in cardiac output (36 to 85 L/min; n = 1) and heart rate (41±4 to 72±14 bpm; n = 4). Exercise‐induced increases in AICAR may facilitate vasodilation. This work was supported by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, the PA Racing Commissions, the Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen Association, the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association, and the Pennsylvania Horsemen Benevolent and Protective Association.


We review explanations offered by researchers for optimism in comparative risk judgments – the belief that one is at lower risk than other people for negative events. Our review organizes the explanations into four categories. The categories reflect a) the desired end-states of comparative judgments, b) the cognitive processes that guide judgments, c) the information people have or use in making judgments, and d) the underlying affect. For each explanation we review relevant studies. We conclude by discussing whether comparative optimism reflects a distortion in personal risk judgments or judgments of the average person's risk, by addressing the interplay of the various accounts of comparative optimism, and by discussing directions for future research. Psychics and astrologers sustain a steady business by appealing to people's desire to predict the future. People want to know whether they will be lucky in love or at risk for cancer or other debilitating illnesses. Yet people are not just interested in how their future will unfold in an absolute sense; they are interested in knowing how their future will compare with that of other people, and for good reason. In a variety of domains (sports competitions, admissions to competitive graduate schools, job promotions), success and failure are defined by how people measure up to others because those others provide a standard against which people can evaluate themselves (Festinger, 1954). Of course, the future is uncertain, and unlike psychics and astrologers, laypeople lack a crystal ball for predicting what lies ahead. They must instead weigh their knowledge of themselves and their knowledge of others to forecast the future. Importantly, over two decades of research on comparative risk judgments suggest that people systematically tip the scale in their own favor, predicting their outcomes will be brighter than that of their peers. Comparative optimism refers to the tendency for people to believe that they are less likely to experience negative


The concept of client resistance is redefined in dynamic systemic terms to provide a new framework for assessment and intervention with resistant families. This reformulation should help the clinician and the agency to strengthen and redirect transformation forces in the client-family system.


: Spermatogonial stem cell ( SSCs ) are the sources of sperm throughout adult life. Though the number of SSCs in testes is limited, they are maintained by self-renewal division. To investigate the life span of SSCs in vivo, we specifically marked SSCs of mouse testes by virus in -fection, and found that offspring were born from identical SSCs after > 482 days. The result sug-gests that single SSCs can contribute to sperm production with a remarkably long life-span. We established a culture system to expand SSCs in vitro, and showed that SSCs maintain genetic and epigenetic properties after 2 year ' s culture, and produced normal offspring after transplantation into testes. Using this culture system, we identified several signaling molecules involved in SSC self-renewal division. Those include GDNF and FGF2, the cytokines, both of which play import ant roles in SSC culture, and their downstream signaling molecules, cell cycle regulators, and gly colytic pathway. Technique to manipulate SSCs will be useful for male infertility treatment and animal transgenesis, and the knowledge of SSC self-renewal mechanism will help establishing a method to expand SSCs of a wide range of animals in vitro.


Let K be a field, f = ( f1, . . . , fm) and g = (g1, . . . ,gm) be two sets of m > 1 non-linear polynomials over K[x1, . . . ,xn]. We consider the computational problem of finding – if any – an invertible transformation on the variables mapping f to g. The corresponding equivalence problem is known as Isomorphism of Polynomials with one Secret (IP1S) and is a fundamental problem in multivariate cryptography; the problem is also called PolyProj when m = 1. Agrawal and Saxena show that Graph Isomorphism (GI) reduces to equivalence of cubic polynomials with respect to an invertible linear change of variables. This strongly suggests that solving equivalence problems efficiently, i.e. in polynomial-time, is a very challenging algorithmic task. Then, following Kayal at SODA'11, we search for large families of polynomials equivalence which can be solved efficiently. The main result is a randomized polynomial-time algorithm for solving IP1S for quadratic instances, a particular case of importance in cryptography and somewhat justifying a posteriori the fact that GI reduces to only cubic instances of IP1S. To this end, we show that IP1S for quadratic polynomials can be reduced to a variant of the classical module isomorphism problem in representation theory, which involves to test the orthogonal simultaneous conjugacy of symmetric matrices. We show that we can essentially linearize the problem by reducing quadratic-IP1S to test the orthogonal simultaneous similarity of symmetric matrices; this latter problem was shown by Chistov, Ivanyos and Karpinski to be equivalent of finding an invertible matrix in the linear space Kn×n of n×n matrices over K and to compute the square root in a matrix algebra. While computing square roots of matrices can be be done efficiently using numerical methods, it seems difficult to control the bit complexity of such methods. However, we present exact and polynomial-time algorithms for computing the square root in Kn×n for various fields (including finite fields). We then consider #IP1S, the counting version of IP1S for quadratic instances. In particular, we provide a (complete) characterization of the automorphism group of homogeneous quadratic polynomials. Finally, we also consider the more general Isomorphism of Polynomials (IP) problem where we allow an invertible linear transformation on the variables and on the set of polynomials. A randomized polynomial-time algorithm for solving IP when f = (x1 , . . . ,x d n) is presented. From an algorithmic point of view, the problem boils down to factoring the determinant of a linear matrix (i.e. a matrix whose components are linear polynomials). This extends to IP a result of Kayal obtained for PolyProj.


Ron Cigarfish, CEO of the National Association of Trout Fishing Guides (NATFG), proudly examined the new sign on his corporate office wall. In handsomely gilded lettering it read "Create a glut, stupid." Ron had admired the current United States president's reminder message in his campaign office that read, "It's the economy, stupid." This message had focused the campaign and led to ultimate success. Although definitely not a supporter of the president's political party, Ron liked success. The organizational mission of NATFG was making trout fishers happy. Unfortunately, the fishing guides in his organization were increasingly disgruntled due to the limited number of trout available in the nation's lakes and streams. The lack of supply made it as difficult to catch a trout as it is to catch as a fly with toothpicks, dramatically increasing the cost per fish for the fishers. Obviously, the NATFG members were not meeting their mission. Several circumstances led to the current trout shortage. First , fishing was becoming an increasingly popular way to improve quality of life among all members of the society. Second, the country's population was both growing and aging, and as older fishers retired they were able to spend more time fishing. Third, managers of the trout-breeding fisheries, whose job it was to stock the lakes and streams, decided that it would be better to keep the trout growing in the safety of the breeding


Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) algorithms require novel paradigms of error mitigation. To obtain noise-robust quantum computers, each logical qubit is equipped with hundreds or thousands of physical qubits. However, it is not possible to use memory-consuming techniques for current quantum devices having at most hundreds or at best thousands of physical qubits on their own. For specific problems, valid quantum states have a unique structure as in the case of Fock states and W-states where the Hamming weight is fixed, and the evolution takes place in a smaller subspace of the full Hilbert space. With this pre-knowledge, some errors can be detected in the course of the evolution of the circuit, by filtering the states not obeying the pattern through post-selection. In this paper, we present mid-circuit post-selection schemes for frequently used encodings such as one-hot, binary, gray, and domain-wall encoding. For the particular subspace of one-hot states, we propose a method that works by compressing the full Hilbert space to a smaller subspace, allowing projecting to the desired subspace without using any ancilla qubits. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach for the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz algorithm. Our method is particularly suitable for the currently available hardware, where measuring and resetting is possible, but classical control conditional operators are not.


DEPENDING ON THE TYPE OF PAVEMENT CONSTRUCTION, VARIOUS PREVENTIVE MEASURES ARE USED AGAINST FROST DAMAGE. THESE ARE: (1) EXCAVATION OF THE SOIL SUBJECT TO FROST HEAVE AND REPLACEMENT WITH A NON-FROST HEAVING MATERIAL. (2) APPLICATION OF A LAYER WITH LOW HEAT CONDUCTIVITY, IMPEDING THE ENTRANCE OF FROST TO UNDERLYING LAYERS. (3) APPLICATION OF A LAYER WHICH WILL PREVENT CAPILLARY CONDUCTION. (4) LOWERING THE GROUND WATER BY DEEP DRAINAGE. (5) CHEMICAL TREATMENT TO LOWER THE FROST HEAVING RATE OF SOIL.


As an alternative measure for penalty,the core of the probation system is to protect the juveniles. At the present stage,this system,being influenced by case centralism,has been altered in terms of function in China,that is,more importance has been attached to penalty rather than to protection. Emphasizing system design yet ignoring its application is an underdeveloped probation system. The necessity of constructing the probation system is a consensus in practice. The contents of this system shall be included in the present evaluation system,yet it is merely an expedient. The probation system shall systematically improve its welfare-oriented control mode by getting rid of the blind spots such as "welfare is not penalty"and "welfare means pure economy",balancing the protection of juveniles and the protection of the victims,and balancing the investment and payment.


IT Is well known that until recent years pupils had no choice in the selection of materials, textbooks, the subjects which they were to study, or the manner in which studying was to be carried out. Education was provided by adults and administered through procedures which they had previously decided were best for the child, without ascertaining his interests or considering how he might like to go to work on the material. As educators began to understand the importance of the child as an individual, education underwent many changes. Projects, units, and centers of interest were introduced, with the idea of capturing the child's attention and of relating the study to his experience in living. Materials were simplified to meet the child's needs, and the fact that not all children within a given grade were working at the same level or at the same rate of speed was taken into account. The next step was to obtain the children's reactions to the studies that were planned for them and to discover their interests and the


The aim of this work is to study the development of the macroscopic non-uniformity of the electron density of high pressure discharge for excimer lasers and eventually its propagation because of the medium kinetics phenomena. This study is executed using a transverse mono-dimensional model, in which the plasma is represented by a set of resistances in parallel. The time variations of the electron density in each plasma element are obtained by solving a set of ordinary differential equations describing the plasma kinetics and external circuit. The use of the present model allows a good comprehension of the halogen depletion phenomena, which is the principal cause of laser operation premature termination and allows a simple study of a large-scale non-uniformity in preionization density and its effects on plasma electrical and chemical properties. The results obtained indicate clearly that about 50% of halogen is consumed at the end of the pulse.


Bone marrow cells were transferred into 700 RX‐irradiated syngeneic mice, and reganeration of the thymus was demonstrated by determining the total amount of DNA in the thymus. The amount of DNA in the regenerated thymus 9 days after X‐irradiation paralleled the number of cells injected, the range being 0 to 106 cells. These results indicate that regeneration during this period reflects the proliferation of thymocyte precursors existing in bone marrow cells, therefore such can be used as an indicator to determine the number of thymocyte precursors.


There is a distinct pleasure in the discovery of an emergent story while interacting with a digital game. Most game interfaces, however, only allow this to happen in the here and now of play, and do not afford the retrieval of potentially interesting events that might have happened outside the player's view, or that were missed as they were occurring. We present our project's Chronicles interface that automatically documents most of what has transpired in the game world in a form inspired by Wikipedia. This allows players to intuitively explore entities and past events, facilitating the discovery of emergent stories. Because this represents a daunting mass of information, we conceptualize the notion of designed "entry points" to the data, i.e. suggestions and motivations to consult specific content. We also propose a subjective mode, disclosing only the information the player-character is aware of in order to maintain a meaningful economy of knowledge.


Objective To understand the clinical characteristics of gout arthritis in depth in order to decrease misdiagnosis.Methods The clinical characteristics and therapeutic efficacy of 262 patients with gout arthritis were analyzed.Results In the 262 patients with gout arthritis,most of them were middle-aged male;37(10.3%) cases had family history;89(30.5%) cases had high purine food frequently.The patients who initially had first metatarsus toe joint involvement were 152(58.0%)cases.The misdiagnosis rate of gout arthritis was high.In acute episode,non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs could get better therapeutic effect and less side effect.Conclusions Gout arthritis is a kind of acute single joint arthritis that mainly involves middle-aged males.The first metatarsus toe joint is usually affected.The pathogenesis of gout may relate to bad living habits.


The electrical conductivity of MgO:nAl/sub 2/O/sub 3/ spinel has been measured for 1 < n < 3.6 for temperatures between 500 and 1400/sup 0/C. The results for nonstoichiometric spinel are significantly different from those of stoichiometric material. Spinel with n up to 2 was found to be stable at temperatures above 1000/sup 0/C, whereas, MgO:3.6Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ exhibited multiple indications of instability and disproportionation.


Readers who noted last month's editorial know this: Titles are important. They are perused for information about whether the article will be of interest to the individual reader. Once the reader is motivated to move past the title, the abstract provides the first impression about the quality of the entire manuscript. Thus, the abstract is of critical importance. It is the first thing that both peer reviewers and readers will read in depth, and it is judged for its quality and clarity of expression. At JAANP, the abstract format varies based on the article type: Structured abstracts: This type of abstract is used for all manuscripts that are organized according to a scientific methodology, such as qualitative and quantitative studies, mixed methods research, systematic reviews, and related studies. The abstract is arranged into short sections with headings. In JAANP, the preferred headings are background and purpose, methods, conclusions, and implications for practice. This organization helps the author synopsize the study, highlighting key components that succinctly describe the scientific process and findings. Unstructured abstracts: This type of abstract does not contain headers. It is used for manuscripts that do not follow a classic research methodology. In JAANP, the following article types call for an unstructured abstract: brief reports, columns, case studies, health policy, and education articles. When submitting any of these article types, an unstructured abstract is expected (JAANP Author Guidelines, 2019). In all cases, the abstract must answer the same critical question as themanuscript itself: "Why is this important?" Authors have 250 words to make the case for why their manuscript should be read in detail. That is why choosing your words carefully and not making the abstract an afterthought will make the difference between being read and cited or being passed over. An abstract should always be written after the manuscript to ensure consistency with the content of the full manuscript. By writing the abstract at the end, the author also saves time by being able to pull key points and phrases from the existing manuscript. Do not, however, include citations and references from the manuscript. These do not belong in the abstract. Following the abstract, the author should list at least two to three keywords. The term "keyword" refers to individual words selected by the author that will result in the manuscript being located when the keywords are placed in a search engine. Keep in mind that potential readers and researchers conduct literature searches for manuscripts of interest using keywords. The choice of keywords is therefore very important to allow your manuscript to be discoverable by others in the future. In summary, the abstract will lead a reader to one of two conclusions: "This article provides useful and compelling information that's organized and well written. I will learn something I didn't know before. I need to read this." Or alternatively, "Well if I didn't understand the first 250 words, I doubt I'll gain anything from the piece. I think I'll pass." That's why an abstract is so important.


The article is devoted to some problems of SMS-communication. The paper highlights its impact on the modern discourse and focuses on such issues as the background of SMS-service, its development, role and importance for the modern society. Some significant terms within the subject were analysed.


Background: Cisplatin is a major antitumor drug used for treatment of solid tumors. Nephrotoxicity is its main limiting side effect. Exenatide is described as an incretin mimetic polypeptide, it acts as a GLP-1 receptor agonist and its insulinotropic activity is mediated through binding to and stimulation of GLP-1 receptors on human pancreatic β-cells. Aim: the present work was designed to study the effect of exenatide on experimentally cisplatin induced nephropathy in nondiabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Thirty two male adult Sprague Dawley rats randomly divided into four groups, each consisted of 8 animals, and distributed as follows: Group I: (control) normal group and received saline vehicle. Group II: (cisplatin) group includes rats injected intraperitoneally by a single dose of cisplatin (6 mg/kg) to induce nephrotoxicity, received no treatment and were sacrificed 7 days after cisplatin administration. Group III: (exenatide) group: rats treated by exenatide (10 mg/kg/day s.c.) for 4 weeks. Group IV: (exenatide+cisplatin) group: rats treated by exenatide (10 mg/kg/day s.c.) for 4 weeks before induction of nephrotoxicity by cisplatin. The following parameters were measured: fasting blood glucose, serum urea, serum creatinine, reduced glutathion (GSH) level in the renal tissue, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) level in the renal tissue, renal blood flow changes and histopathological changes of the kidney. Results: Pretreatment with exenatide resulted in significant reduction in serum urea, serum creatinine level and renal TNFα level compared to cisplatin group but still significantly higher than control group with significant increase in renal GSH level and renal blood flow compared to cisplatin group but still also significantly lower than control group. Cisplatin group showing tubular degeneration with infiltration of inflammatory cells while pretreatment with exenatide showing certain improvement in general histological structure with mild tubular degeneration and less inflammatory cell infiltration. Conclusion: it can be concluded that the use of exenatide improved the biochemical and histopathological changes that occur in the renal tissue by cisplatin.


The contents of the Cape Basin of the South Atlantic Ocean,
southwest of Cape Town, is a melange of water types from a number
of different sources. One of the least studied of these water types
comes from intrusions of sub-Antarctic water that are associated
with the spawning of Agulhas rings. An analysis of a variety of data
on the region shows that these intrusions originate along a latitude
of 40°S, but only between longitudes of 8° and 22°E. In extreme
cases they can extend equatorward beyond the southern tip of
Africa. Intrusions take place at least five times per year. Their
distinct surface expressions are shown to be but outcrops of water
masses that usually are found at greater depths. These vertical
perturbations may extend to depths exceeding 1500 m.


Epoxy resins are widely used as phase materials of matrix in fiber-reinforced composites. To overcome brittleness of cross-linked epoxy, thermoplastic modified epoxy has been extensively studied. However, specific toughening mechanism of thermoplastic modified epoxy has not been established in molecular viewpoint. Allegedly, toughening mechanisms of particle debonding, plastic yielding of nanovoids, and localized shear banding are primary origin of fracture toughness enhancement. The purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of each toughening mechanism. In this study, PES is used as a toughening agent for the cross-linked epoxy composed of TGAP and DDS. Cohesive interface is also considered as it can affect toughening mechanisms. As a result, methodology of construction of finite element PES/epoxy model with cohesive interface is proposed.


Beam pumping motor system (BPMS) is a typical periodic potential energy load which is affected by factors such as down-hole load, mechanical transmission and geological structure. During a running cycle, the power fluctuates in a large range and multiple operating conditions where potential energy, electrical energy and kinetic energy are converted to one another and thus leads to lower system efficiency. For this type of load, a four-quadrant inverter is an effective method to improve the efficiency of the motor system. However, in practice, the two-quadrant variable frequency control is widely used due to its lower cost. The drawback of this control is the difficulty in realizing efficient conversion and utilization of electrical energy under the power generation mode, since the generated electrical energy is converted into thermal energy by the installed resistance brake inside the inverter, which causes additional energy consumption. To resolve this problem, this paper systematically studies the influence of frequency regulation on the load torque of BPMS, an automatic tracking frequency regulation method is then proposed. With this method, the controllable conversion between the kinetic and potential energy forms can be realized, and the fluctuation power under dynamic load conditions can also be smoothed. Meanwhile, energy consumption in power generation mode is also reduced effectively. The correctness and practicability of the proposed method are verified by the simulations and experiments of a standard oil well. The results show that, comparing to the traditional two-quadrant inverter, the proposed method can reduce the active power fluctuation of the system by about 20% under the premise of still using a two-quadrant inverter, and the power saving ratio is increased by more than 10%.


This paper discusses the trajectory tracking problem of discrete-time networked control systems with time-varying interval-bounded uncertainties, random network-induced delays, and data dropouts. A dynamic predictive feedback linearization controller is proposed to compensate for the delays and data dropouts. The augmented system is analyzed for closed-loop stability and tracking performance is guaranteed in the H∞ sense.


This paper examines the impact of the availability of wage labor on some aspects of marriage in Kalardast a rural area in northern Iran. It demonstrates how and to what extent traditional ceremonies and the system of transactions at marriage have been modified in recent years under the influence of a cash economy primarily as a result of the ability of young men to provide for their marriage and thus free themselves from their fathers households. All aspects of marriage in these 4 villages are embedded in the wider kinship system. The responsibilities for arranging celebrating and sustaining marriage involves the wider kin group; the symbolic rituals of marriage are group rather than individual-oriented. However change has brought about a process of individuation culminating in the emergence of the individual from the clan group. At present both the traditional and modified systems of selecting spouses and of conducting marriage ceremonies co-exist. While the new trends are gaining acceptance and are practiced in Rudbarak the traditional marriage rituals remain intact in the 3 isolated villages. At the root of the change lies the economic autonomy of young men who in the traditional setting were dependent on their fathers household and had less contact with urban centers. The changes which have occurred in the sphere of marriage transactions offer the young men a much greater degree of independence from their fathers and kin groups. The increased importance of mahr which does not involve any immediate exchange of wealth and the possibility of replacing shirbaha by paying for the costs of a limited festivity weakens the limitation on the choice of spouse and the dependence of individuals on the kin group that are inherent in traditional marriage transactions. The dowry that a girl brings into the marriage now provides part of the material preconditions for establishing a new household. This is reflected in the newly married womens perception of their dowry; many of them keep it safely packed for their independent household.


Conflicts of interests: There are no conflicts of interest for all authors. Funding: All authors are employees of Lhasa Limited, and all research was funded by Lhasa Limited. Phosphite ester compounds are utilized as stabilizers and anti-oxidants in industrial polymers [e.g. poly(vinyl chlorides)] and lubrication oils. Establishing the skin sensitization hazard for this class of compounds would currently be challenging, as these compounds are not represented in public datasets of in vivo skin sensitizers [e.g. Cronin and Basketter (1), Gerberick et al (2), and Urbisch et al (3)].


1 Nuclear Medicine Unit, University Hospital "G. Martino", Messina, Italy 2 Section of Radiological Sciences, Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and GruppoCollegato di Messina, IstitutoNazionale di FisicaNucleare, Messina, Italy 3 Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, Messina, Italy Abstract Cu isotope finds increasing theranostic applications in PET and nuclear medicine therapies. Clinically relevant 64 Cu activities can be produced by proton irradiation of enriched metal targets. This work presents a systematic theoretical study of non-carrier added 64 Cu production pathways with Ni and Zn enriched targets bombarded by protons accelerated by a low-energy medical cyclotron, evaluating the contribution of all the competing channels when degrading proton energy, changing target thickness and irradiation or cooling times, with the aim of optimizing such parameters and providing an overview of 64 Cu production. 64 Cu production from 95% 64 Ni and 97% 67 Zn enriched targets were considered. Yields at the End Of Bombardment (EOB) were calculated through TALYS code and an analytical computation based on the EXFOR experimental data libraries and on Bragg curves in targets evaluated with MCNPX Monte Carlo code. A validation of our theoretical estimations was obtained through a comparison with experimental data, when available in literature. The comparison between the two investigated pathways allows to point out the potential advantages of each method to be selected basing on the specific needs of production.


Foam as a soil conditioner can transform the mechanical properties of the excavated natural muck and lubricate the interface between the cutting tools and muck, thus reducing the tools' wear and promoting the efficiency of earth pressure balance (EPB) shield tunneling. This paper aims to explore the meso-mechanism of foam in improving the workability of sand by combining discrete element modeling (DEM) with experimental investigations of slump tests. A "sand-foam" mixture DEM model was generated by simplifying the sand grains and foam as individual particles with different properties. The particle-scale simulated parameters were calibrated based on a series of experimental observations. The effects of foam on the inter-particle contact distribution and the evolution of contact forces during the slumping process were investigated in detail through numerical modeling. It was found that injecting foam into sand specimens could increase the coordination number and the contact number around sand grains. Although the force transmission pattern changes from "sand-sand" into the coexistence of "sand-foam", "sand-sand" and "foam-foam" contacts, the magnitude of contact forces transferred by foam particles is significantly lower than that by sand particles. The presence of foam reduces contact-scale frictional strength and thus reduces the stability of the microstructures of sand. In addition, the normal direction of inter-particle contact force deflects from the vertical to the horizontal and the magnitude of contact force decreases significantly with the influence of foam.


Dams are an ever more vital tool for addressing our growing water needs and the emergence of new challenges such as sustainable development and climate change. However, these infrastructures are still highly controversial around the world. Citing numerous examples, this paper goes over the main points of debate around dams, and the necessary conditions for securing their acceptability.


This revised manuscript is an improvement on the previous submission, but many of my prior concerns remain. The manuscript (though shorter) is still too long, and studded with unsubstantiated socio-political commentary, that, however valid, is not appropriate for scientific publication. The authors present conclusions in a definitive manner that I believe is not warranted by the results of their analyses, which is problematic.


We present an ignition element for pyrotechnic active masses. The ignition element is connected to a circuit carrier assembly and the circuit board assembly having an electronic ignition. However DOLLAR A The ignition element itself has, in addition to a separate carrier body having contact means for electrically contacting the ignition element to the circuit carrier arrangement. The carrier body has in this case preferably standardized dimensions and contact means, so that the ignition element such as a normal electrical component can be mounted on the circuit carrier arrangement. In particular, an electrically ignitable layer may be deposited on the separate carrier body, which increased by the heat-resistant and poorly heat-conducting material of the carrier body and the efficiency of the circuit carrier arrangement significantly better protect against the effects of burn-up of the pyrotechnic active mass. The explosive layer may be oriented away with respect to the contact means on the bottom of the carrier body on a side surface of the carrier body and the circuit carrier arrangement in the longitudinal direction of the pyrotechnic active mass.


PurposeBuilding on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aims to explore how overall justice climate (OJC) and cross-cultural psychological capital (CCPsyCap) help highly skilled expatriates develop creative behaviours despite disruptive global macro-events. This topic has not been extensively researched in the context of expatriation, especially amongst self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected through a web-based questionnaire from 307 SIEs coming from the MENA region and working in different sectors of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The responses were analysed via partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).FindingsEmpirical evidence shows that no significant direct correlation exists between the OJC and the creativity of SIEs. However, the results demonstrate that this relationship was completely mediated by CCPsyCap.Practical implicationsThe context of high uncertainty may limit individuals' cognitive abilities amongst individuals, in turn, reducing their level of creativity. In this regard, this study identifies the need for host organisations to develop fair human resource policies to enhance creative behaviours amongst SIEs in such a context. It also underlines the role of psychological resources as a coping mechanism that helps those expatriates cope with the diverse challenges of their international assignments.Originality/valueThis study offers new theoretical support for understanding how the combination of OJC and psychological resources constitutes a springboard for enhancing SIEs' creativity in a context of hardship. This study also advances the COR theory by adopting a "cross-level resources caravans" approach.


ISBN 0-262-11223-X Too often, designers of computer systems, both hardware and software, use models and concepts that focus on the artifact while ignoring the context in which the artifact will be used. According to this book, that assumption is a major reason for many of the failures in contemporary computer systems development. It is time for designers and users to join forces in the design of computer systems. The contributors to this book address both the pragmatic approach of direct collaboration between designers and users (known as participatory design) and the more conceptual approach that incorporates complementary perspectives to help designers come up with better solutions. The volume brings together different computerrelated research disciplines, including computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), human-computer interaction (CHI), and software engineering, as well as social science disciplines concerned with the design and use of computer artifacts. The book is organized into two parts. The first, "Artifacts and Use," focuses on the context of using computer artifacts. The second, "Process and People," focuses on the context of designing computer artifacts. Contributors: Colin Beardon, Jeanette Blomberg, Kristin Braa, Tone Bratteteig, Paul book preview


The requirements for medical university graduates in modern conditions imply a broad mastery of professional competencies, including not only theoretical knowledge, but also practical medical skills. The rapid development of medical science and practice doesn`t allow us to limit ourselves to the traditional «academic» approach to learning, the basis of which is the memorization of large amounts of information, but dictates the necessity to teach students the skills of selfeducation and selfimprovement throughout their lives. Andragogical approach, which requires the introduction of other methods and principles into the educational process, corresponds to the achievement of this goal. An important component of modern learning technology is the motivation of a student to master a future profession, the acquisition of skills in the analysis and synthesis of information, the principles of a scientific approach, the formation of an individual trajectory of the educational process. In this regard, we need to discuss possible ways to increase the motivation of not only the student, but also the teacher to master and implement andragogical models and principles. A graduate of a medical university, starting an independent medical activity, should have the skill of teamwork, quick decisionmaking, which can be formed only if the principle of joint training of a teacher and a student is observed.


This work is based on a comparative study of three Non-destructive Testing NDT techniques for the inspection of an old book that was bound in the XIXth century. Infrared thermography (IRT), terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and air-coupled ultrasonic C-scan (ACU) were used to retrieve both damages and defects in the book cover. Then, the results were compared and analysed; in addition, specific defects were determined and explained via a comparison. Advanced image processing techniques were applied in order to highlight the shapes of subsurface features.


Abstract A patient, previously described, was found to have increased susceptibility to bacterial infections related to a deficiency of serum enhancement of in vitro phagocytosis. The same deficien...


It has become common to use historical data as a guide in analyzing future risks. However, the statistical tools used often are based on the assumption that the data (regardless of the source) may be treated as independent data for risk analysis purposes. In some cases the data is conditional in nature, and the proper tool needs to be one which reflects this characteristic of the data. This paper highlights the impact that such a change would have on a variety of risk assessment models, with specific emphasis on investment forecasting.


The present invention discloses a method for its preparation Sinonovacula sauce, raw materials comprising by weight: 100 parts Sinonovacula meat slurry, 3-5 parts of edible salt, 10-15 parts glucose, 1-3 parts of monosodium glutamate, disodium succinate 0.2-0.5 parts of disodium 5'flavor nucleotides 0.1-0.3 parts, 5-10 parts onion oil, 3-5 parts of hydroxypropyl distarch phosphate, polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate 0.1 -0.5 copies. The invention low temperature vacuum fried razor clam meat and add shallot, can effectively remove the smell of fish razor clam meat products bright color, brownish red, aroma, taste delicious, smooth and delicate texture, can be widely used in home or restaurant industry.


The article discusses the issues of distinguishing two types of crimes: extortion (Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and coercion to complete a transaction or to refuse to complete it (Article 179 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the objective parties of which have a certain similarity, which gives rise to problems of qualification to take possession of the right to someone else's property or commit other property actions. The practice of applying the norms in question is analyzed, the author points out the qualification errors in this kind of criminal cases, both at the stage of preliminary investigation and judicial examination. It is proposed to give an appropriate explanation of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.


We consider the simultaneous Bayesian estimation for the normal means based on different noninformative type hyperpriors in hierarchical model. We provide numerical example using the famous baseball data in Efron and Morris (1975) for illustration.


Abstract : To understand how the information available to an operator and the transparency of an intelligent agents reasoning interact to affect complacent behavior, 2 between-subjects experiments were conducted. Participants supervised a 3-vehicle convoy as it traversed a simulated environment and rerouted the convoy when needed with the assistance of an intelligent agent. In Experiment 1 (low information), participants received information about their current route only; in Experiment 2 (high information), they received information about both their current route and the suggested alternate route. In Experiment 1, access to agent reasoning was found to be an effective deterrent to complacent behavior. However, the addition of information that created ambiguity for the operator encouraged complacency, resulting in reduced performance and poorer trust calibration. In Experiment 2, access to agent reasoning was found to have little effect on complacent behavior, and there were notable differences due to individual differences. These findings suggest that when the operator has more information regarding their task environment, individual difference factors may influence performance outcomes more than access to agent reasoning. These findings indicate some negative outcomes resulting from the incongruous transparency of agent reasoning may be mitigated by increasing the information available to the operator.


The aim of this study is to investigate the leisure satisfaction and motivation of the individuals participating in open water swimming competitions. The sample of the study consists of 104 individuals who participated in Datca open water swimming competitions in 2018. In the study, in addition to the personal information form, "Leisure Motivation Scale" (LMS) developed by (Pelletier et all., 1991)  and adapted to Turkish by Gungormus (2012) and "Leisure Satisfaction Scale" (LSS) developed by Beard ve Ragheb (1980) and adapted to Turkish by Gokce (2008) were used. In data analysis, the normality of the data was tested and in addition to the descriptive statistics, Independent Sample T Test was used for two groups and One Way Variance Analysis was used for more than two groups. The correlation between the two scales was calculated by using Pearson Correlation Coefficient. While no correlation was found between the participants' genders and their years of participation in terms of leisure motivation and leisure satisfaction levels, significant difference was found between the leisure motivations of individuals who were interested in swimming recreatively and professional individuals. In addition, a positive and moderate correlation was found between LMS and LSS. As a conclusion, there can be an increase in the satisfaction levels of individuals if their leisure motivation can be increased. This is an important factor in increasing the attendance of the participants and ensuring the continuity of the organization.


Summary The electron energies in the positive column of low pressure hot cathode glow discharges have been examined by the magnetic spectrum method. From measurements of the energy distribution of electrons reaching a positive probe a method of finding the space potential is deduced. With this knowledge a comparison is made of the energy distribution of electrons, in the positive colunms of air and argon discharges, determined by the present method and the conventional probe method. Wide discrepancies are observed. The magnetic spectrum indicates a distribution of the Druyvesteyn tbrm whilst that deduced from probes is Maxwellian. The changing form of the distribution reaching negative probes is proof of the failure at these pressures of the assumptions on which Langmuir probe theory is based. Calculations by Boyd on positive ion sheath formation may give some indication of the mechanisms producing the changing distributiom


. Let ( M 4 ,g ) be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension four. We investigate the properties of metrics which are critical points of the eigen- values of the Paneitz operator when considered as functionals on the space of conformal metrics with fixed volume. We prove that critical metrics of the aforementioned functional are associated to a higher-order analogue of harmonic maps (which we call Paneitz map) into round spheres. We derive other important properties of such critical metrics and provide examples.


This report describes a flexible, objectoriented software framework for modelling linear inverse problems, including solvers for analytic and least-squares solutions with optional regularization. Real-world linear problems can be composed at runtime, making the library suitable for a broad variety of applications. We demonstrate this flexibility with examples from X-ray Computed Tomography for linear attenuation and differential phase contrast.


DISCLAIMER
In an effort to expedite the publication of articles, AJHP is posting manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time.

PURPOSE
Producing compounded sterile preparations (CSP) of the highest quality and ensuring safe hazardous drug handling are well-established priorities for pharmacy departments. Maintaining compliance with United States Pharmacopeia general chapters 797 and 800 (USP <797> and <800>) must also be a priority for health-system leadership. This report describes how a pharmacy-driven multidisciplinary committee was created to provide USP <797> and <800> oversight within a multicampus Veterans Affairs health system and the facility and safety outcomes achieved.

SUMMARY
The Veterans Health Administration required facilities to establish an oversight committee to ensure USP-compliant CSP procedures and the safe handling of hazardous drugs in all aspects of the medication-use process. Spearheaded by the pharmacy department, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) chartered the CSP Advisory Committee to achieve this goal.The membership was composed of department heads in the areas of pharmacy, nursing, environmental management services, engineering, facility planning, safety, industrial hygiene, employee health, supply chain services, infection control, and quality management and the health system's director's office. The medication safety officer served as the executive secretary for the advisory committee and was responsible for agenda development, minutes, and coordinating timely follow-ups on action items; the VAPAHCS deputy director served as chair. Monthly meetings were conducted to receive updates on targeted sterile compounding and hazardous drug handling objectives: environmental controls and monitoring, compliance with regulatory requirements, staff competency, hazardous drug exposure event analyses, and development of well-defined health-system policy to guide practice.

CONCLUSION
Taking a multidisciplinary approach to USP <797> and <800> compliance facilitated communications, created engagement, and ensured completion of action plans.


It is very complicated to analyze the Coupling problem of seepage field and stress field for rock mass of equivalent continuum.Meanwhile,it is a very difficult and key problem in the rock mechanics and civil engineering how to obtain the parameters in seepage field,stress field and two field coupling models.On the basis of the heads and displacements measured,combined with genetic algorithm,this paper puts forward parameters identification method of coupled seepage and stress field.On the condition of drawdown of reservoir water level in some example,the parameters identification analysis is made according to analysis results of coupled seepage and stress assumed to be the measured data.The validity and feasibility of the inverse thought,method and calculation program are verified.The parameters of coupled seepage and stress fields analyzed which is very important to build the coupled seepage and stress fields model and improve the reliability of calculation.


Prolegomena In "A search for meaning: making sense of depression", Siân E. Lewis (1995) examines the issue of meaning in depression as that appears in the personal accounts of depressive individuals. Lewis argues that the understanding of depression from an individual's point of view contrasts to the various characterizations provided by the clinical literature. Lewis explores the personal meaning of the condition "as a problem located in the individual or explained with reference to particular social circumstances" (p. 369).


An absolute measurement of the density of silicon crystals used for a determination of Avogadro constant is described. Two 1-kg spheres of nearly perfect geometries were fabricated from a single-crystal silicon ingot both for measuring their densities and for determining the density distribution in the ingot. A scanning type optical interferometer was used to measure their diameters in vacuo. Their volumes were obtained by fitting the diameters to a series of spherical harmonics. Thickness of oxide layers on their surfaces was measured by using an ellipsometer to evaluate its effect on their volumes. The masses of the spheres were measured by using a precision balance for the prototype kilogram. The relative total uncertainty of the densities, determined by direct measurements of their masses and volumes in vacuo, is estimated to 1.1/spl times/10/sup -7/. >


Space is at a premium on many college and university campuses. Libraries are often asked to vacate space for offices, labs, and learning commons. When the loss is shelving space, libraries face the dilemma of what to do with those displaced materials. This paper looks at the loss of approximately 7,000 linear feet of shelving space in an academic law library and the successful in-library relocation project necessitated by that loss. Planning is key to any project, especially one involving approximately 80,000 volumes. The author discusses the planning that went into the project and the outcome. Planning included determining the size of the collections, mapping the relocation of materials, and identifying challenges. Readers will learn about a simple yet fairly accurate method for measuring library collections. The reasoning behind mapping the relocation of materials to specific areas is discussed. Challenges, such as allocating growth space, safety concerns, and lack of elevator access, are also covered.


Purely economic analyses of the East Asian newly industrializing countries have overlooked the politics of their growth. Why were these countries able to pursue strategies that combined rapid growth with a relatively equitable distribution of income? The reason lies partly in external conditions, including expanding world trade, and, in the case of Taiwan and Korea, pressure from the United States for policy reform. Domestic social and political conditions were also auspicious, however. Export-led growth was facilitated by weak labor movements and the absence of leftist or populist parties. A relatively brief period of import-substitution policies prevented the development of strong protectionist business interests. Equity was advanced by land reforms in Korea and Taiwan and by the absence of a rural sector in Hong Kong and Singapore. No explanation is complete, however, without reference to the strength of the East Asian states, including their insulation from interest-group pressures and their cohesive, meritocratic bureaucracies. These political institutions facilitated coherent, decisive, yet flexible policy.


In this paper we investigate the dispersion of a tracer in a semi-enclosed basin characterized by a steady flow with recirculations. In particular, we focus on the macroscopic behavior of the system, characterized by the total concentration of the tracer in the basin, C(t), and by its residence time T. As a case study, the circulation in an idealized basin mirroring some of the major characteristics of the Tyrrhenian Sea is considered, with a northward current connecting the inflow and the outflow regions of the basin, and with a main cyclonic gyre in the northern part of it. Numerical simulations are performed from several release points in the basin and for two different values of the diffusivity coefficient K. Two independent models for dispersion are used, an Eulerian and a Lagrangian one, allowing us to validate both the basic formalism and the numerical results. The experiments show that the macroscopic properties of dispersion are largely influenced by the presence of the main gyre, while they do not depend strongly on K in the considered range. Namely, after a first phase which depends on the initial conditions, the tracer tends to be concentrated in the region of the northern gyre, and this influences the trend of C(t) versus time and the value T. For almost all the simulations, the decrease of C(t) in time can be approximated by an exponential decay, indicating a constant probability of tracer escaping the basin. The e-folding timescale of the decay is the inverse of the principal eigenvalue of the advection-diffusion operator, and it can be computed a priori knowing the flow field; this allows us to compute also an a priori estimate for the residence time T. Only when the initial release is very close to the outflow, is the initial decay of C(t) distinctly different from an exponential, and a more detailed analysis is necessary. The basic results appear generalizable to a number of other similar systems with recirculations.


Photoacoustic imaging is a hybrid imaging modality that is based on the detection of acoustic waves generated by absorption of pulsed light by tissue chromophores such as hemoglobin in blood. Serial photoacoustic imaging has been performed over a 10-day period after subcutaneous inoculation of pancreatic tumor cells in a rat. The images were obtained from ultrasound generated by absorption in hemoglobin of short laser pulses at a wavelength of 1064 nm. The ultrasound signals were measured in reflection mode using a double-ring photoacoustic detector. A correction algorithm has been developed to correct for scanning and movement artifacts during the measurements. Three-dimensional data visualize the development and quantify the extent of individual blood vessels around the growing tumor, blood concentration changes inside the tumor and growth in depth of the neovascularized region.


Summary Plasma obtained from six healthy individuals was capable of promoting the phagocytosis of Staphylococcus albus and gelatinized radiolabeled lipid emulsion by human blood leukocytes. Experimental plasma derived from six patients with carcinoma manifested normal ability to opsonize S. albus when compared to the control plasma. In contrast, plasma from these patients was unable to support the phagocytosis of a gelatinized RE test lipid emulsion by either rat liver slices or human leukocytes. In comparison with normal plasma, the experimental plasma manifested an 80 and 64% reduction in lipid emulsion phagocytosis by rat liver slices and human leukocytes, respectively. These results suggest that the loss of opsonizing ability previously observed in patients with carcinoma is not a general phenomena but may be restricted to gelatin–stabilized colloids.


The paper surveys geometric mathematical framework for computational modeling of multibody system dynamics. Starting with the configuration space of rigid body motion and analysis of it's Lie group structure, the elements of respective Lie algebra are addressed and basic relations pertinent to geometrical formulations of multibody system dynamics are surveyed. Dynamical model of multibody system on manifold introduced, along with the outline of geometric characteristics of holonomic and non‐holonomic kinematical constraints.


Plato 's criticism of Protagoras's relativism 9exposed in the Teeteto) outlines two kinds of relativism: the appearance as related to perception, and the appearance as related to action???. By studying the arguments of Plato criticism, and by showing how Plato aims at surpassing those two ways of relativism, the author discovers that the foundation of his criticism is the thought of ideas. Conversely, he himself proposes two different perspectives in an attempt to transcend Protagoras' thesis: From Heralitus' and from Aristotle's. Finally, the author highlights that the Teeteto opens a path for the connection between practical and theoretical philosophy, whose commom root is the appearance.


If we expect students to function effectively on teams and to have a respect for diversity and a knowledge of contemporary professional, societal and global issues (TAC of ABET Program Outcomes criteria 2 e and 2 j), how and where do we demonstrate those outcomes within our professional activities as role models? This paper will reflect on how faculty and librarians fostered a successful cross disciplinary relationship and worked as an effective team built on diverse personal strengths. The authors examine their journey to nurture an information fluent learning environment which they viewed as one of critical 21 st century teaching and learning issues, and share their lessons learned that are applicable to their team skill teaching practices.


Objective To investigate the susceptibility to common antibiotics of Corynebacterium isolated from clinical specimens.Methods The MICs of 12 antibiotics to Corynebacterium were tested with home-brew broth dilution microplates and the tested results were verified by SENSITITRE CMP2IHM plates.Results A total of 184 strains of Corynebacterium were tested for susceptibility to antibiotics.More than 50% of the strains were resistant to penicillin,cefotaxime,erythromycin,ciprofloxacin,tetracycline,doxycycline and clindamyci,and about 50% were sensitive to imipenem,gentamicin and rifampicin.No strains resistant to vancomycin and linezolid were detectable.Conclusions The broth microdilution method could be reliably used for the determination of MICs for Corynebacterium.The sensitivity of current Corynebacterium to various antibiotics is decreasing and the number of multidrug resistant strains is increasing.


Image registration is an important task in medical image processing. Assuming spatially stationary intensity relation among images, conventional area based algorithms such as CC (Correlation Coefficients) and MI (Mutual Information), show weaker results alongside spatially varying intensity distortion. In this research, a structural representation of images is introduced. It allows us to use simpler similarity metrics in multimodal images which are also robust against the mentioned distortion field. The efficiency of this presentation in non-rigid image registration in the presence of spatial varying distortion field is examined. Experimental results on synthetic and real-world data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for image registration tasks.


This report reviews the character of passenger travel by car in Great Britain using, in particular, results from the National Travel Survey 1975/76. Car passengers who travel in a car belonging to another family account for as many passenger kilometres as all stage-carriage bus services. Car-poolers, who take it in turns to drive their own car and give lifts to others in the group, are only about 3 per cent of those who drive a car to work. Most passengers in non-household cars are regular passengers (car-sharers) who do not have the option of driving themselves. The families of car-poolers appear to make little use of the car on the days it is left behind for use off-peak, only about 10 km/week on average. Nor do they appear to make fewer off-peak bus trips than families where all the cars are taken to work. The report attempts to quantify the effects of a hypothetical 10 per cent increase in peak period car occupancy. Net community benefits in excess of found100 M Pa are estimated, with large savings in car travel and traffic congestion for increased car pooling, or in peak bus and rail provision if car-sharing increases. Though difficult to quantify, such an increase appears likely to occur only in extreme circumstances, particularly in the light of a trend for car occupancies to decrease. /Author/TRRL/


A judge has ruled in favour of South Northamptonshire Council, Cherwell District Council, Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Banbury Town Council as they fight against proposed downgrades to services at the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.


Objective: To establish the method for determining the notoginsenoside R1, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Re and ginsenoside Rb1 in Xuesaitong soft capsules by HPLC. Methods: The separation was performed on ZORBAX SB-Aq column(250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm). The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile-water with linear gradient elution. The flow rate was 1.0 m L·min-1. The detection wavelength was 203 nm and the column temperature was 25 ℃. Results: The calibration curves showed good linearity in the range of 0.32 – 3.20 μg(notoginsenoside R1, r = 1.000 0), 0.72 – 7.20 μg(ginsenoside Rg1, r = 1.000 0), 0.21 – 2.10 μg(ginsenoside Re, r = 0.999 9), 0.92 – 9.20 μg(ginsenoside Rb1, r = 1.000 0). The average recoveries(n = 9) were 100.22%, 100.62%, 100.02%, 100.33% respectively, and RSD were 0.99%, 1.18%, 2.02%, 0.97% respectively. Conclusion: The method is convenient, rapid, economical and accurate, which is suitable for quality control of Xuesaitong soft capsules.


The phenomenon named reverse effusion often appears during impregnation of the electrode production,which directly affects the quality of products,increases the consumption of impregnant pitch,raises the cost of working procedure,and pollutes the environment.The causes and damages of pitch adhered to the surface of impregnated preforms,and the solutions accordingly were put forth.


This is an extensive revision of the text "Communicating Theory and Practice", the fourth edition. The text covers all aspects of communication, with an emphasis on strategy, practice and process, all of which are explored within the context of our society and culture.


This study uses logistic models to examine the effects of the one-child policy in China and womens characteristics on the probability of a second birth and on the length of the open birth interval. Analysis is based on a sample of women from the 1988 Two-per-Thousand National Fertility and Birth Control Survey who had their first child during 1978-82. Analysis includes the construction of a logistic model for determining the probability of a second birth and a piecewise proportional hazards model for determining the interval between the first and second births. The EM algorithm is used in the estimation procedure. Covariates include the acceptance of the one-child certificate age at birth of the first child place of residence education and gender and survival of the first child. Findings from Model I which includes all covariates reveal that acceptance of the one-child certificate is a significant and strong determinant of the length of the birth interval and the probability of a second birth in both types of study area. Acceptance of a one-child certificate decreases the odds of having a second birth by over 10 times and decreases by more than 5 times the hazard of a second birth among women who will have a second child. Model II without the one-child policy covariate showed stronger effects of womens background characteristics. Womens background characteristics were a stronger determinant of the probability of a second birth than the length of the birth interval. As age at birth of the first child increased the probability of a second child decreased. Place of residence was the most important background characteristic. Living in a city had a stronger impact on the probability of a second birth than acceptance of a one-child certificate. Higher educational level was associated with a lower probability of a second birth. The effect of gender of the first child was stronger in low fertility areas.


As the ERP software market has been growing at a very fast pace over the last several years and has been predicted to keep growing rapidly, but at the same time Implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software in a global environment faces a several key challenges. E.g. business processes are to be reengineered to align with the ERP software best practices, technical architecture and infrastructure needs to be in place globally as per specifications of the packaged software, integration of extended enterprise services in terms of ERP, CRM, SCM, Business intelligence systems, etc., are some of key challenges which an organizations face to implement such global solutions. Besides all these, critical success factors like users involvement, time and budget constraints, vendor performance, etc. are other side of implementation process. In this paper, authors had reviewed key technical and implementation issues faced in ERP implementation, how to resolve them and .finally a framework is proposed for overall ERP system implementation and design of program management, which contributes to the success of such complex and global solutions This framework is designed to facilitate small and medium level companies to implement ERP system of there own.


UP TO A FEW DECADES AGO, HISTORIANS seem to have generally agreed that science is a product of a type of society which has (1) a surplus economy, (2) a division of labour, making it possible for at least some individuals to devote most of their time to nonutilitarian activities, and (3) means of keeping permanent records: a writing system. The generally accepted facts are in fairly good agreement with this scenario. Science of some sort developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the 3d or 2d millennium B.C., in China in the 2d or 1st, in Mesoamerica in the 1st millennium A.D. (The exact dates are impossible to give, both because of our lack of exact knowledge and because of the vagueness of the concept of science itself.) All these civilizations were literate when science arose in them. The link between science and literacy might seem to some extent to depend on a circular argument. How can we document scientific knowledge in the past if there is no written evidence of some kind? However, we do not require a writing system of the ordinary kind, accommodated to speech. Instead, we might find symbolizations of geometrical constructions or of arithmetical operations exhibiting more structure than, say, tally notches.2 I shall try to look a little more closely at the anthropological evidence regarding this science-literacy link. First, however, I must define somewhat more precisely what T mean by "science." Any human society possesses a vast amount of practical knowledge related to its everyday life and economy. Hunters and gatherers have to know the geography of their district, the growth seasons of their plants and roots, and the habits of their animals of prey. Once such communities were in possession of language, individuals would naturally have transmitted their knowledge to each other orally. It would then have become conscious knowledge, not the (possibly) unconscious knowledge that in most cases is all we can infer about other animals. In other words, our early ancestors would have had, we may assume, a pool of stored traditional ore about their environment. It is not reasonable, however, to call this knowledge scientific until it has become in some sense numerate and quantified. For instance, every hunter knows that the harder he pulls his bowstring, the faster the arrow will fly. He also knows that to reach a distant goal with his arrow he has to aim higher than to reach a near one. This knowledge does not become scientific until one can tell just how much faster the arrow will fly if one increases the pull by a definite amount or just how much higher one's aim must be in order for the arrow to reach a goal more distant by a definite amount. Hence there can be no science in these areas without an ability to measure. The measuring may be done either by reference to some graphic scale or arithmetically. The latter calls for at least some elementary arithmetical routines: counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We do not know of any nonliterate society, past or present, that possesses the kind of measuring gear that would handle with any exactness the necessary data in, say, the arrowshooting example. As for arithmetic, the evidence from contemporary hunters and gatherers is that several of them (among them many Australian and South American tribes) hardly count beyond four or five (see, e.g., Bird 1946:79; Cooper 1946:125). Admittedly, this does not imply that they cannot handle higher numbers. Even without a name for a value higher than five, one can in principle handle higher figures by combining fives (10 being "two fives", 25 "five fives", 100 "four times five fives," etc.). This method is unwieldy, however, and requires close attention once several multiples are involved. Any community that regularly needs to handle high figures will surely also soon introduce words for them. The lack of names hence does not imply inability to conceptualize them but does indicate that the community had little need for them. It seems plausible that the need to name higher figures increased as the economy came to be based more and more on herding and on farming-in other words, as a Palaeolithic pattern of life yielded to a Neolithic one. It would evidently be useful to be able to count one's animals or the vessels containing the year's corn, beans, or oil. It is therefore not surprising that in agricultural communities counting to at least


The article discusses the issues of assessing the level of attractiveness of cities in the Russian Federation. An algorithm for developing the econometric component of the model is proposed. The parameters of analyzing the level of attractiveness of cities for various economic agents have been determined. Among the factors influencing the attractiveness of cities for residents, the population size, housing provision, crime rate, the level of wages and medical provision were identified. Assessment of attractiveness from the standpoint of doing business involves considering production volumes, retail turnover and the number of city residents. The factors of tourist attraction are the characteristics of collective accommodation facilities and the number of corresponding requests on the Internet. In general, the formed regression equations meet the requirements and are applicable for solving problems of predicting changes in the values of the analyzed parameters. An example of the formation of the corresponding regression equation for assessing the level of attractiveness of a city from the point of view of residents is presented. Together with the equations describing the level of attractiveness for other economic agents (business, tourists, etc.), it forms a complex of econometric models, which can be further used as the core of the corresponding software tools. At the same time, this toolkit should also include functional blocks aimed at solving particular problems of its use. The key ones are responsible for generating scenario forecasts, analyzing information, assessing regional ratings and visualizing the results obtained. The research results can be applied by federal and regional authorities in solving problems of territorial development of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the country as a whole.


Different music information retrieval (MIR) techniques have been developed over time. This, in part is due to the fact that the variety of formats used to represent musical content creates the necessity of using specialized format-dependent algorithms. Nonetheless, techniques that are used in text information retrieval can be used as a starting point for the development of general systems that deal with musical content. In this paper three different information retrieval techniques are evaluated for the task of music information retrieval. Two of them are commonly used for text documents, while the other was designed specifically for musical content. As a first step, a general overview of a MIR system is given, and the concept of a music representation language is introduced. After this, the different techniques evaluated are discussed and explained. Finally, the test methodology and results are presented along with a discussion of the importance that text IR techniques might have on the field.


This letter presents an improved method to calculate the aperture admittance for an open-ended coaxial sensor. The accuracy of the variational integral admittance equation is enhanced by adding universal lumped capacitance correction terms. The corrected capacitance is expressed as a function of aperture size, operating frequency and relative permittivity of the sample under test.


An explanation for escalating commitment based on prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) is extended from the individual to the group level of analysis. As predicted, escalating commitment to a losing course of action occurred consistently in the escalation decisions of individuals that were negatively framed by sunk costs. Group decision making exacerbated the frequency and severity of escalation.


George Lakoff,the American linguist,and Mark Johnson,the British philosopher,promote metaphorical study to the conceptual and cognitive level.Metaphors universally exist in human language and are important cognitive tools for us to conceptualize and understand the world.With the application of journey metaphor in his inaugural address,president Obama compared the US future development into a journey,succeeding in winning more support and inspiring more enthusiasm.The oral English teaching can be enlightened to a certain degree by the application and function of JOURNEY METAPHOR in Obama's inaugural address.


A regular polynomial self-mapping of complex Euclidean space has a continuous extension to the hyperplane at infinity. The induced mapping at infinity is used to describe the dynamics of the self-mapping in a neighborhood of infinity. A theory of external rays is developed to provide the connection between the behavior at infinity and the behavior on the finite plane.


Background/Aim. Stroke remains one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. The aim of the study was to determine the nursing care-associated predictors of in-hospital mortality in the patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) who were hospitalized at the Department of Emergency Neurology. Methods. Prospective cohort study included 59 consecutive patients with AIS admitted to the Department of Emergency Neurology, Neurology Clinic, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade. The patients were followed until discharge or death. For exploring a relationship between the outcome of patients with AIS and different groups of factors, the univariate and multivariate Cox proportionate hazard regression models were used. Results. There were 32 male and 27 female patients with AIS. The mean age was 62.5 ? 15.2 years. The average duration of hospitalization was 11.1 ? 9.6 days (median 8 days; range 1?54 days). Almost 80% of patients (47/59; 79.7%) were admitted to the stroke unit, while 12 (20.3%) patients were admitted to the intensive care unit. In the univariate Cox regression analysis the significant variables (p < 0.05) were the Morse score (p = 0.030) and the type of admission unit (p = 0.029). The multivariate predictive model revealed that the type of admission unit (stroke unit vs conventional unit) [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.16; p = 0.032] was the independent predictor of in-hospital mortality in the patients with AIS. Conclusion. The results of this study showed an important role of nursing staff in the recovery of the AIS patients, as well as that admission to the stroke units versus the conventional units is the independent predictor of decreased in-hospital mortality.


Based on the Takagi-Sugeno model, this paper studies the design of the fault detection filter for nonlinear systems in network environment. The packet dropout satisfies the Bernoulli distribution. By establishing the fuzzy-basis-dependent Lyapunov function, the sufficient conditions for the system to be stable and satisfy the performance index are given. Finally, an example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed designed methods.


Abstract It is a commonly accepted view that the parity theory of forward exchange based on the law of one price was first formulated by Keynes. In this article we assess the preliminary shapes of the interest parity (IP) relation. After reviewing the early beginnings of the IP relation, we investigate two French economists of the mid-nineteenth century who have hitherto received no adequate attention. We argue that Bonnet and Juglar ought to be considered pioneers in the assessment of IP relation since Goschen's contribution is related to the specificity of 'long' exchange rates at a bimetallic time.


In this paper, we present the results of the synthesis of nanodiamonds from carbon nanostructures and diamondoids in an arc discharge. The electrodes used in the experiments were a molybdenum cathode and a copper anode coated with carbon nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and diamondoids. The formation of carbon nanostructures on the surface of a copper electrode was carried out in an electric arc sunk into fuel oil. At the next stage, these carbon nanostructures served as a source of atomic carbon and diamondoids from the surface of the arc discharge anode. The use of fuel oil as a feedstock for creating the electrode material probably led to the retention of diamondoids contained in fuel oil during two vaporizations. It was found that, in addition to carbon nanotubes, nanodiamonds also formed on the cathode surface.


We have examined the possibility of producing analogs of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) from copra oil, i.e. a triacylglycerol mixture with a high content of medium-chain fatty acid moieties (C6-C10). A two-step enzymatic process was used in which copra triacylglycerols were first split with papain lipase by alcoholysis with an alkyl alcohol and then subjected to interesterification with the alkyl esters recovered using papain lipase. Effects of temperature, water activity/content, substrate ratio, biocatalyst amount, and alcohol chain length were also investigated. On the one hand, the sn-3 stereoselectivity of the lipase in the alcoholysis of copra oil with butanol has permitted a direct enrichment of caproic, caprylic and capric moieties in the synthesized butyl esters. Thus, in the batch reactor, the reaction led to about 31% conversion of the oil after 24 h, and the content Of C6-C10 acids in the synthesized esters increased from about 16% in the starting oil to almost 42%. A similar enzymatic alcoholysis in a packed-bed column bioreactor gave 31% conversion of the oil after 120 min of reactor residence time. The reaction was also very selective because the C6-C10 fatty acyl groups represented about half of the newly formed butyl esters, whereas they accounted for only 16% of total fatty acids in the starting oil. On the other hand, the transesterification of the alkyl esters recovered (highly enriched in C6-C10 fatty acyl groups) with native copra oil directly led to an increase in the content of MCT in the oil, from 18 mol-% at the beginning of the reaction to 61 mol-% of MCT after a time period of 72 h in the batch reactor. (Resume d'auteur)


A very important event happened in the world: principally new high-effective non-thermal method of high-viscous oil extraction from subsurface was successfully tested at Permian-Carboniferous pool of Usinskoe oil field in Komi republic.


............................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgment ................................................................................................................ ii List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... v List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations and Symbols................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Problem Definition ............................................................................................... 1 1.3 Objectives ............................................................................................................. 3 1.4 Structure of the Thesis .......................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Literature Review .............................................................................................. 5 2.1 Assessment of Observed Trends ............................................................................... 5 2.1.1 Global climate change trends ............................................................................. 5 2.1.2 Observed trends for the Mediterranean and Palestine ...................................... 10 2.2 Projections of Future Climate Change .................................................................... 12 2.2.1 Global climate changeIPCC 4 assessment report ......................................... 12 2.2.1 Projections for the Mediterranean .................................................................... 15 2.3 Water Resources in Palestine .................................................................................. 17 2.3.1 Groundwater ..................................................................................................... 18 2.3.2 Surface water .................................................................................................... 19 2.3.3 Water deficits .................................................................................................... 20 2.4 Agriculture in Palestine ........................................................................................... 21 2.4.1 General.............................................................................................................. 21 2.4.2 Rain-fed vs. irrigated agriculture ...................................................................... 22 2.4.3 Constraints on agriculture ................................................................................. 22 2.4.4 Agriculture and the national economy.............................................................. 23 2.5 Climate Change and Agricultural Water Demand .................................................. 23 Chapter 3: Methodology ................................................................................................... 27 3.1 General .................................................................................................................... 27


Discusses two important approaches to active vision-multi-resolution and variable-resolution. As examples, work on active object recognition and active stereo is presented. It is shown that the motivation and advantage for adopting these approaches are clearly their effectiveness and efficiency. The two approaches are the same in spirit and they are similar in methodologies. Moreover, they are both suited for real-time pyramidal implementations.


The manufacture model of tube product line in shipyard can be considered as Hybrid Flow Shop. Based on the model, this article use an improved artificial immune algorithm to solve the scheduling problem. By the using of immunity memory, the good antibody can be saved and can be made full use, consequently, the constringency and robust of the algorithm are improved. The result of the simulation by the production model of tube manufactory shows that the sequence of the job given by the algorithm can shorten the makespan and can improve the production efficiency.


In this text, I present the first steps in computatinal linguistics, to allow the automatic generation of poetry. In order to achieve it, different corpora search techniques have been used, from simple string-match searches, to advanced semantic searches, using different tools developed by the IXA group. Poetic language is more than simple metrics and gramaticality, as it has plenty of semantical and pragmatical information. In this work we focused on semantics.


Electrochemical capacitance spectroscopy (ECS) has been introduced as impedance based approach for assays as sensitive and technique capable to indicate interfacial change, such as target binding at an appropriate receptor. Herein, we integrated synthesis of redox-tagged peptide with self-assembling capability, for C Reactive Protein (CRP) detection (a biomarker of risk of diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease). Peptides containing ferrocene (Fc) were synthesized by solid phase peptide synthesis: Fc-E-AA-C-NH2 and Fc-E-A-A-A-C-NH2. Ferrocene molecule is related to the electron transfer that occurred in the system as confirmed by redox capacitance. Peptides were used for generating self-assembled monolayers over gold surfaces and it was used for capacitancebased impedance spectroscopy. The platforms were able to detect CRP with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.30 and 0.24 nM. The difference found on LOD and sensitivity are attributed to the peptides sequences and their probe redox distance. Therefore, we have monitored immunosensor construction with PMIRRAS. The spectra showed bands at 1550 cm-1 and 1655 cm-1 assigned to amide II and amide I groups present in the peptides, antibody and antigen. The area and intensity of these bands indicated the organization of self-assembled monolayers. The immunosensors are highlighted for the robustness and potential to be used in real samples, once they showed specificity response to the target, these systems could be used for any relevant biomarkers diagnostics.


An AC switch for switching a load circuit (11) has a relay (20) with a relay contact (21) which is to be connected to the load circuit, an electronic circuit arrangement (22), which is provided with a sensor (42), for controlling the relay (20), and a rectifying circuit arrangement (23) for supplying the electronic circuit arrangement (22) and the relay. In order to supply power when the relay contact (21) is open and when it is closed, the input (27, 28) of the rectifying circuit arrangement (23) is connected on the one hand via a resistor (R1) to the connecting terminals for the load circuit (11) and on the other hand to the secondary winding (26) of a current transformer (25) whose primary winding (24) is connected in series with the relay contact (21) and is bridged by two parallel-connected diodes (D1, D2) having opposite forward directions. The impedance of the primary winding (24) of the transformer (25) is at least five times greater than the forward resistance of the diodes (D1, D2) at the maximum load current intensity, as a result of which only a relatively small portion of the load current in each case flows through the primary winding (24) and, because of the current/voltage characteristic of the diodes, the voltage across this winding changes only relatively slightly when the current intensity in the load circuit (11) varies by a factor of more than 10. The transformer (25) can have relatively small dimensions. The switch can be used in the same way as a normal mechanical switch in domestic installations.