The SURE program is a new reliability analysis tool for ultrareliable computer system architectures. The computational methods on which the program is based provide an efficient means for computing accurate upper and lower bounds for the death state probabilities of a large class of semi-Markov models. Once a semi-Markov model is described using a simple input language, the SURE program automatically computes the upper and lower bounds on the probability of system failure. A parameter of the model can be specified as a variable over a range of values directing the SURE program to perform a sensitivity analysis automatically. This feature, along with the speed of the program, makes it especially useful as a design tool.


• Allograft rejection Rejection involves cell- and antibody-mediated organ injury occurring as the result of recognition of an allograft as nonself. This process is categorized histologically and immunologically into three major types: hyperacute, acute and chronic. Hyperacute rejection is mediated by pre-existing antibodies to allogeneic antigens on the vascular endotheli al cells within the donor organ. Donor recipient human leukocyte anti gen (HLA) and ABO blood-group cross-matching are used to prevent hyperacute rejection [2]. Acute rejection is primarily a cell-mediated process that most commonly occurs from the first week to several years after transplantation. After heart transplantation [24], 61% of patients remain rejection free after the first posttransplantation month, 38% of patients are without rejection by 6 months, and 34% of patients are without rejection by 2 months. The hazard function for initial rejection peaks at approximately 1 month. Chronic rejection, or late graft failure, is an irreversible gradual deterioration of graft function that OCCurS in many allografts months to years after transplantation as the result of intimal thickening and fibrosis [2]. Cardiac allograft vasculopathy is an giographically evident in ~45% of heart trans plant recipients who sur vive ~3 years [39]. This form of rejection involves a variety of immune system components: T cells, cytokines, macrophages, and adhesion mol ecules [3]. Preventing or reducing the rate of acute rejection episodes does not only avoid or decrease acute allograft damage, but is expected to have a substantial impact on the rate of chronic rejection because repeated or severe episodes of allograft rejection has been correlated to the devel opment of cardiac-allograft vasculopathy, the main cause of death after the first year in transplant recipients [11, 17, 39,42].


Previous results showed braking reaction times (RTs) increased with higher intensity intravehicular noise (IN). Experiments were performed to relate electromyographic (EMG) activity to these RT changes. IN, recorded in a moving car, was reproduced at 77 and 85 dB, through a calibrated sound system, to subjects in a simulated vehicle. During 3‐h exposures, subjects were required to maintain a fixed speed on the speedometer and brake when a red light lit up at random intervals. Surface electrodes recorded EMG activity from right gastrocnemius and rectus femoris muscles. Digital counters provided the braking reflex RTs. For the rectus, at 77 dB, following a latency of 0.1–0.3 sec, there was a burst of activity which tapered off. With time, the amplitude of the response diminished and its duration increased. At 85 dB, this latter pattern. generally associated with fatigue, appeared earlier in time than at 77 dB, with significantly longer duration. For the gastrocnemius triphasic response, there was a progress...


: In this paper we investigate the holographic R´enyi entropy in N = 1 supergravity (SUGRA) in AdS 3 spacetime, which is dual to the two-dimensional N = (1 , 1) superconformal field theory (SCFT). We consider both cases of two short intervals on a line with zero temperature and one interval on a circle with low temperature. In SUGRA side we consider contributions of both graviton and gravitino, and in SCFT side we consider contributions of both stress tensor T , ¯ T and their superpartners G , ¯ G . We find matches between SUGRA and SCFT results.


This paper the situation of the water resources and the characteristic of the mechanized water saving agriculture of Yunnan. And raises the relevant countermeasure , the technical measures and the development pattern of the mechanized water saving agriculture development.


Importance
Systemic safety of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) is a matter of debate and regular updates are necessary.

Objective
To evaluate systemic adverse events (SAEs) associated with intravitreal anti-VEGF drugs compared with non-anti-VEGF treatments in patients with ocular diseases.

Data Sources
Electronic searches were conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases from inception to July 7, 2020.

Study Selection
Randomized clinical trials conducted in adults with retinal diseases who received intravitreal anti-VEGF drugs.

Data Extraction and Synthesis
Studies and treatment characteristics and outcome data were extracted and analyzed, and study quality was evaluated.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Main outcomes were major cardiovascular events (MACEs) and total mortality. Secondary outcomes included nonocular hemorrhage, components of MACEs, other cardiovascular outcomes, serious SAEs, and all SAEs.

Results
A total of 74 randomized clinical trials were analyzed: 32 trials (43%) included 14 190 patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), 24 (32%) included 5424 patients with diabetic retinopathy (diabetic macular edema or proliferative diabetic retinopathy), 17 trials (23%) included 3757 patients with retinal vein occlusion, and 1 trial (1%) included 122 patients with myopic choroidal neovascularization. Anti-VEGF drug administration did not increase MACEs compared with control agents (odds ratio [OR], 1.16; 95% CI, 0.85-1.58) or total mortality (OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 0.82-1.96). There was an interaction (subgroup difference, P = .04) in mortality risk depending on the underlying disease with an increase (OR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.03-3.16; P = .04) in the risk of death in patients with diabetic retinopathy; however, no increase was observed in patients with AMD or retinal vein occlusion. Administration of anti-VEGF drugs increased the risk of nonocular hemorrhage (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.01-2.10), mainly in patients with AMD.

Conclusions and Relevance
Intravitreal anti-VEGF was not associated with an increase in MACEs in the trials examined herein. Increased mortality in patients with diabetes and nonocular hemorrhages, especially in those with AMD, could represent a safety signal, but the evidence was not strong. However, continued surveillance of SAEs remains warranted.


Scores of avalanche injuries and fatalities occur annually. This research presents an avalanche search and rescue (SAR) proof-of-concept option that utilizes a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) helicopter with a payload capable of detecting and locating a buried victim's cell phone. Cell phones involved in this research were modern-day fourth generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) devices with an application specifically designed for potential SAR detection. This study focused primarily on radio frequency (RF) propagation modeling through snow and air. The analysis and associated field trials demonstrate that it is feasible to detect these cell phone devices through avalanche debris up to 7 feet deep. Alpine UAS inclement flight demonstrations were also conducted. Although many studies have been published on detecting the position of mobile cellular devices, this is the first of its kind to quantify the detection of a cell phone that is buried under the snow.


Background Acetylation alters several protein properties including molecular weight, stability, enzymatic activity, protein–protein interactions, and other biological functions. Our previous findings demonstrating that diacetyl/peroxynitrite can acetylate L-lysine, L-histidine, and albumin in vitro led us to investigate whether diacetyl-treated rats suffer protein acetylation as well. Methods Wistar rats were administered diacetyl daily for four weeks, after which they were sacrificed, and their lung proteins were extracted to be analysed by Nano-LC-MS/MS (Q-TOF). A C18 reversed-phase column and gradient elution with formic acid/acetonitrile solutions from 2 to 50% over 150 min were used to separate the proteins. Protein detection was performed using a microTOF-Q II (QTOF) equipped with captive source and an electrospray-ionization source. The data from mass spectrometry were processed using a Compass 1.7 and analyzed using Protein Scape, software that uses Mascot algorithms to perform protein searches. Results A set of 3,162 acetylated peptides derived from 351 acetylated proteins in the diacetyl-treated group was identified. Among them, 23 targeted proteins were significantly more acetylated in the diacetyl-treated group than in the PBS control. Protein acetylation of the group treated with 540 mg/kg/day of diacetyl was corroborated by Western blotting analysis. Conclusions These data support our hypothesis that diacetyl exposure in animals may lead to the generation of acetyl radicals, compounds that attach to proteins, affecting their functions and triggering adverse health problems.


The depths and heights of some of Mildura's most historic buildings are exposed as part of a new filmed based work at the Mildura Arts Centre.


In 1912, while working for the Parke Davis pharmaceutical company, Wilbur Scoville developed a method to measure the heat level of a Chile pepper. This test, the Scoville Organoleptic Test, is a dilution-taste procedure: pure chiles were grounded with a sugar-water solution and panelists sipped the concoctions, in increasingly diluted concentrations, until the liquid no longer burned the mouth. A score was then assigned to each Chile based on how much it needed to be diluted before you could taste no heat.


The work mechanism of the Penning ion source is introduced in this paper.The research process of the invention,development and application of the Penning ion source is reviewed.And the domestic and overseas developments are introduced in detail separately.Then the application of Penning ion source,especially in well-logging,is concerned.Finally,the shortage of the domestic research work,the further work of theories and experiments are discussed.


The paper presents the researched content to apply BBI (Boeing Bump Index) method of ICAO, FAA to evaluate the influence of airfield pavement roughness on the dynamic load of aircraft wheel with measured data in Cam Ranh International Airport, thereby proposing to apply to the actual design and operation of the airports in Vietnam.


In the paper five cool-season turf grasses: F.arundinaces Schreb.,F.rubra L.,P.pratensis L.,L.perene L.and A.stolonifera L.in Ankang city were taken as research materials to make exterior quality assessment with the method of United States Lawn comprehensive evaluation.The results showed F.arundinaces Schreb.had rough texture,good summer survival performance,and highest assessment in appearance quality in Ankang;L.perene L.had pretty texture,poor summer survival performance,but would soon be restored;F.rubra L,P.pratensis L and A.stolonifera L had good grass texture,poor summer survival performance and more difficult in recovery.The assessment of external quality appearance was poor.


Summary

Many Western countries are on the verge of a demograhpic change. This change consists of an aging population in combination with a decreasing birth rate. To meet the need following the labour shortage, the Swedish migration framework was modified in 2008. In the new framework the former labour market examination was abolished. Instead the individual employer became the decision maker of whether third country recruitment was necessary. The work permit is now directly attached to the emloyer, as the migrant worker is filling a specific need. If the migrant worker loses the employment, she/he will be deported after three months, unless a new employment is attained.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyze whether this framework and its consequences are in accordance with international human and labour rights conventions, established within the United Nations (UN) regime. One core universal human right is the right not to be treated in a discriminatory manner based on e.g. ethnicity or nationality. Another important right within the field of international labour law is that the work performed is supposed to be so called "decent work".

The theoretic approach focuses on investigating how the deportability of migrant workers, mainly due to the work permits´ attachment to the employer (during the initial 24 months), effects their basic human and labour rights. Furthermore, the state´s involvement in the construction of deportability is discussed by studying the connection between immigration and labour law and the implications of these frameworks in another judicial context.

The Swedish framework of immigration law has certain supervisory mechanisms to assure that migrant workers are not exploited and national labour laws also applies to this group of workers. Inspite of this, there are regular reports on how migrant workers meet both discriminatory and degrading treatment in the Swedish labour market. The question is whether a system where the employees right to reside in Sweden is dependent on the employer ever can guarantee that the migrant workers´ basic human and labour rights are not breached.


There is substantial interest in increased use of formative assessment in higher education. We report on the introduction of a minimal formative assessment measure. Tutors on a level one undergraduate psychology course provided assessment of individual student contribution to tutorials. Using a combination of rating scales and open-ended questions, we examined student (n = 49) and tutor (n = 8) perceptions of the impact of this assessment measure. Students reported increases in their perceptions of preparation, contribution, motivation and reward as a result of the assessment, whereas tutors did not. Implications for higher education practice and theory are discussed.


This letter reports on the exact particle mass spectrum in a coagulating system with the coagulation kernel proportional to the product of masses of two coalescing particles. This model is known to reveal the sol–gel transition, i.e., formation of a cluster with the mass comparable to the total mass of the whole system. The single-particle mass spectrum is analyzed in the thermodynamic limit and it is demonstrated explicitly how the gel appears in the system.


Motivated by the goal of discovering more accurate characteristics of Chinese stock market,this paper in- vestigates the power-law properties and criticality of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Compound Index (SSEECI) with two benchmarks of 5-rnin and 1-day database.We find that the center profile of returns distribution is well described by the Levy regime and,more important,that the approximately symmetric tails of distribution are char- acterized by another power-law regime with an exponent well out of the Levy range 0α2 and also beyond the exponentα≈3 of fully developed markets.Moreover,we also show that returns appear to exhibit the criticality. When timescale△t4 days,the distribution exhibits the slow convergence to normal Gaussian behavior.The phe- nomena support that the critical timescale△t≈4days of fully developed markets is universal for Chinese stock mar- ket.


Static and dynamic self-organized patterns are observed in dielectric barrier discharge by numerical simulation. The static pattern is characterized by regularly distributed standing discharge channels/filaments, and its morphology is significantly dependent on discharge parameters such as electrode size and voltage. The interaction between the filaments proves to be electrostatic repulsive force. The introduction of the external flow field breaks the stability of the pattern which finally results in the formation of a quasi-static pattern with a displaced filament or dynamic pattern with directional moving filaments. The thrust from the flow should be responsible for the motion of the filaments, which may also be described from the microscopic view that the neutral background atoms transfer the momentum to species by the collision. Moreover, the filaments may also exhibit particle-like behaviors, such as collision, vanishment, and generation under the effect of flow.


This study explores the Chineseness on different levels as displayed in the lexicographic text of The Chinese English Dictionary (unabridged, 1st volume, 2015) (CED) and interprets it as Sinicization informed by the spirit of glocalization. Adopting the discourse approach proposed by Chen (2019) as CLDS (Critical Lexicographical Discourse Studies), it views CED as discourse and aims to examine and reveal how the dominant ideological powers within Chinese society may have borne on the dictionary's distinct Sinicizing efforts. It proposes that CED has effectively challenged the established norms of bilingual lexicography involving English in mainland China in its negotiating Chinese into sharing the status of target language with English and infusing the dictionary text with rich traditional Chinese culture. Meanwhile, CED also demonstrates strong glocalizing tendencies in its consistent 'de-ideologizing' efforts in the treatment of historic-political and cultural terms, as well as its unusual emphasis on acculturation as a translation guideline which serves well to universalize the local and vice versa.


School shootings, although occurring regularly since the 1850s, have had a relatively short life as subjects of cultural and literary discourse. That is not to say that the school violence narrative does not have a long history: the novels of Charles Dickens are often preoccupied with institutional/educational violence by suggesting that violent headmasters do not contribute to a morally coherent national character that is achieved by upholding masculine traditions of discipline. It is during the Cold War, however, that this Dickensian education plot, and the sense of narrative closure it inevitably produces, collapsed. Whether committed by students or government officials (as this article will show was the norm in 1960s cinema), school shootings suddenly became a central way to explore the encroachment of the political on the personal. This shift to school shootings has its origins in the revolutionary attitudes of the 1960s—the standoffs on college campuses that saturate our cultural memory of that time period—but has also, in our post-Columbine world, attained its own social history, producing a transnational, transmedia genre that I want to call the school shooting text. While much has been said about a select few contemporary iterations of the school shooting text, such as Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003), little has been said about how such texts consolidated around certain political and cinematic ideologies. That is, the genre's pre-history has been ignored. The school shooting text emerged at a volatile political moment when structures of governance were often no longer viewed as part of a viable social future. A genre reacting to the rejection of the future by school shooters, then, begins as a critique of the way such futures are dismantled by political structures. The school shooting initially comes, within cultural production, to stand in for the impossibilities of progress in the late 1960s, a sense that political violence had reached its limits. Rooted in the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s, the school shooting text began as an apparatus of exploring larger systems of power and control, a role that the filmmakers I will discuss certainly intended. However, to our post-Columbine perspective, the school shooting takes on different dimensions. I think, therefore, that it is also valuable to analyze the school shooter in these films per se, to go beyond the political and look at what these films say about how individuals personally deal with and encounter social abjection while beginning to theorize the "school shooter" as a character that eventually emerges in a number of post-Columbine texts. It is my contention that the school shooting in film represents a spectacularization of the indecipherable contradiction between the political and the personal, a breakdown that


Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the most common cause of bacterial, seafood‐related illness in the USA. Currently, there is a dearth of published reports regarding immunity to infection with this pathogen. Here, production of both pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokines by V. parahaemolyticus‐infected RAW 264.7 murine macrophages was studied. It was determined that this infection results in increased concentrations of IL‐1α, IL‐6, TNF‐α and IL‐10. Additionally, decreases in cell surface TLR2 and TLR4 and increases in T‐cell co‐stimulatory molecules CD40 and CD86 were discovered. The data presented here begin to identify the immune variables required to eliminate V. parahaemolyticus from infected host tissues.


A liner for use with a glove comprises a first inner skin contacting layer 30 comprising a non-woven material and laminating to the first layer a second layer 40 comprising a waterproof material. The non-woven material may comprise spun-bonded, melt blown or chemically bonded polypropylene, polyester, polyamide or other thermoplastic fibres or blends. The waterproof material may be breathable. The first layer 30 may be ultra sonically welded or heat sealed to the second layer 40 . A third layer may be laminated to the second layer and may be made of the same material as the first layer. Also disclosed is a glove comprising a liner as afore described and a method of making the liner by sealing around the edges to form a glove shape. The liner material outside the seal may be cut away leaving a margin and marginal finger tabs may be left at the tips of the fingers.


Cloud computing is an incipient innovation which broadly spreads among analysts. It furnishes clients with foundation, stage and programming as enhancement which is easily available by means of web. A cloud is a sort of parallel and conveyed framework comprising of a gathering of virtualized PCs that are utilized to execute various tasks to accomplish good execution time, accomplish due date and usage of its assets. The scheduling issue can be seen as the finding an ideal task of assignments over the accessible arrangement of assets with the goal that we can accomplish the wanted objectives for tasks. This paper presents an optimal algorithm for scheduling tasks to get their waiting time as a QoS parameter. The algorithm is simulated using Cloudsim simulator and experiments are carried out to help clients to make sense of the bottleneck of utilizing no. of virtual machine parallely.


The simulation models of the pilot-operated check valve and the hydraulic system were built and simulated with analysis by using the AMESim software aimed at the problem of lifting cylinder sliding in raising and pitching system of forging manipulate briefly at stop. The momentary dynamic characteristics of the decompression poppet,the main poppet and the pilot piston of the check valve in system were analyzed. The results show that the pilot-operated check valve cannot close in time is the reason for sliding of the lifting cylinder. In the process of the valve closing,the pilot piston reset slowly,which added resistance to the poppet reset,led to the poppet not reset at once. By increasing reset spring stiffness of the pilot piston made the pilot piston reset quickly,the valve closes immediately,and it can solve the sliding problem efficiently.


This review sheds light on the evolving phase of home-based women entrepreneurs, with the main focus on opportunities for growth and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Women have undergone a radical transformation from merely a homemaker to a dynamic multifaceted personality contributing to the socio-economic growth worldwide. This change is partly attributed to the growth of home-based businesses which offers women to take control over their lives by turning their skills, hobbies and ideas into prof table ventures. Major challenges faced by home-based business women include access to start up capital, conflict between work and family, managing business growth successfully, lack of training and business skills, keeping up with technology and other market place changes. New heights have and can be further achieved by women as entrepreneurs by overcoming social barriers, by increasing literacy rates of females, honing their business skills and asserting their capacity to assume leadership position. By increasing their participation in economic activity and by designing and implementing a well planned comprehensive programme for women professionals can improve confidence and a sense of self belief which would lead them to perform better in the professional ambience.


Abstract : The report contains the design integration test requirements for the Dyna-Soar Program and shall serve as the official source for Project Section and Staff usage. The document is designed to provide a single point of reference for all design integration test requirements and shall be used in generating the development test plans. Design integration tests consist of engineering testing wherein system design variables are investigated to verify the physical and functional capability and compatibility of mated subsystems using hardware completely representative of production configuration.


Сervical dystonia (CD) is the most common type of focal dystonia (up to 50% of all dystonia cases). Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) injections is the treatment choice for CD. However, the effectiveness and tolerability of botulinum therapy in CD depends on the correct choice of target muscles and the accuracy of the BoNT injection. The publication presents literature data and our own clinical experience regarding the use of navigation in BoNT injections in CD.According to the majority of authors, the use of navigation equipment, such as ultrasound (US) and electromyography (EMG), definitely increases the effectiveness of CD treatment and reduces the likelihood of adverse events. For the first time, an algorithm for the diagnosis and treatment of CD is proposed, based on the use of the method of «double- (EMG and US) guided navigation», a variant for determining the comparative activity of muscles by the intensity of the EMG signal and the design of an individual «passport» of the CD. The possibilities of analyzing the US of muscles, drawing up an accurate treatment regimen, targeted administration of BoNT, and using a non-injectable EMG electrode are shown. We present 4 clinical cases demonstrating the advantages of the double- (EMG+US) guided navigation method over the EMG-guided navigation for injection. The proposed algorithm for the diagnosis and treatment of CD makes it possible to increase the effectiveness of treatment, optimize the costs of BoNT and diagnostic equipment (injection EMG needle).


This exploratory study examines one aspect of social work practice in the admission service of two comprehensive mental health centers, in terms of the effect of different items of information about applicants on the decision for further action. Tape recordings of 98 initial interviews by twelve intake workers were examined in terms of demographic charac- teristics, referral data, condition at start of interview, presenting problem, crisis situation, and diagnostic impression obtained. Decisions were grouped into six possible categories: to continue for further study, to refer to intake team, to refer to inpatient service, to refer to outpatient service, to refer elsewhere, or to defer action. Predictions of association based on case models were analyzed separately, and some patternings were ascertained.


Remote residential audits are intended to identify significant retrofit opportunities without home visits. Among such opportunities, the potential for improvement of building envelope thermal properties and/or installation of a high-efficiency HVAC system have some of the largest energy savings potentials for homes located in cooler climates. The state-of-the-art methods for remote auditing are still in their infancy in terms of limited validation and need for home characteristics that are unavailable to utilities (e.g., the building's square footage, volume, orientation, wall materials, HVAC model and age) and/or numerous similar homes in a neighborhood. In this paper, we discuss a new remote audit method that has the potential to estimate key building thermal parameters (overall U-value, ACH, HVAC efficiency) using only interval electricity and/or gas consumption data. Unlike PRISM and other approaches that assume steady-state conditions, our approach capitalizes on physics-based modeling of transient thermal response. In particular, we consider a lumped capacitance/mass heat transfer model for a building. Under some reasonable assumptions, a solution to the underlying equations can be used to relate HVAC run-time and weather data to key building physical parameters. We implement this approach using hour-resolution gas consumption data on eighty single-family households in the Northeast.


Mary Hope Greg (1850-1949) was a
lifelong follower of John Ruskin, and
a Companion of Ruskin's Guild of St
George.
She was a passionate supporter of museums
during the early 20th century, giving collections of
domestic crafts and children's toys to Manchester
City Art Galleries and London's Bethnal Green
Museum.
She established her own museum in the
Hertfordshire village of Westmill as a memorial to
her late husband, fellow collector and local
landowner Thomas Tylston Greg. She later set up
the T&M Greg Trust to preserve land and property
in the village for future generations. She was also
a keen amateur naturalist and watercolour
painter, recording the changing seasons of the
Hertfordshire countryside in her nature diaries,
now in the collections of the Guild. She did most
of this between the ages of 70 and 99.
Until recently, however, little was really known
about her life. In this talk, Liz Mitchell shares the
latest findings of her PhD research. She provides
fascinating insights into the development of Mrs
Greg's dedication to Ruskin from her early life in
Liverpool as a member of a family of
wealthy philanthropists, through to the diverse
achievements of her old age.


We thank Dr. Mortazavi for pointing out the role of radiation as an important factor under microgravity conditions (1) while referring to our paper (2). We agree with Dr. Mortazavi that radiation is an important component when it comes to assessment of bacterial response to the space environment. We have previously published papers on radiation-resistant spore-producing Bacillus strains isolated from spacecraft cleanroom facilities that are of planetary protection concern …


Decomposition behaviors of bamboo, chinquapin (hardwood), and Japan cedar (softwood) in hot-compressed water (HCW) were examined using a HCW flow type reactor to achieve the maximum utilization of plant biomass. HCW was passed through the reactor (3.6 mL) loaded with the biomass sample powder (177−250 μm) at a flow rate of 10 mL/min under 9.8 MPa. The temperature of HCW was maintained at 180 °C for 20 min, after which it was raised to about 285 °C at a rate of 5 °C /min and maintained at 285 °C for about 7 min. By these operations, free sugars, some of lignin and most of hemicellulose, were first solubilized in water and flowed out during the initial 20 min flow of HCW. Cellulose started to decompose when the temperature of HCW was over 230 °C. The orders of elution of these components were common for three biomass samples, although the amount of products obtained during the heat-up period up to 180 °C and that of residue which finally remained in the reactor differed with the samples.


Abstract Interventional radiologists continue to provide an expanding range of central venous access services. Central venous access procedures now constitute nearly 50% of the daily workload in many interventional radiology practices. This article will briefly review the percutaneous, image-guided techniques that interventional radiologists commonly use to evaluate and treat catheterrelated problems and complications.


The non‐obese diabetic (NOD) mouse is a widely used animal model for the study of human diabetes. The lymphocytic (peri‐)insulitis is preceded by an early accumulation of dendritic cells (DC) around the islets of Langerhans. This DC accumulation is thought to derive from an influx of monocytes attracted by pro‐inflammatory chemokines. Besides chemokines, extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins play an important role in the accumulation of leukocytes in tissues. We studied the expression of the chemokines CCL2, CCL5, CXCL10, CCL19 and CCL21 over time in pancreases of NOD and control mice by ELISA on pancreas lysates as well as by immunohistochemistry. In addition, we studied the adhesive capacity of bone marrow‐derived DC (BMDC) to ECM components. DC in the NOD pancreas accumulated at sites with an intense expression of fibronectin. In vitro, NOD BMDC showed increased fibronectin adhesion and increased VLA‐5 expression. At the time of early DC accumulation (<10 wk), the lymphoid tissue‐related chemokines CCL19 and CCL21 were increased. Our findings support the view that the early accumulation of DC around the NOD islets is not the consequence of an enhanced attraction of precursors and immature DC by pro‐inflammatory chemokines. It rather might be the consequence of an aberrantly enhanced adhesion and retention of NOD DC.


In this article, I explore the question of whal happens when African literary and dramatic texlS travel. Using the example of one of the major works of Wole Soyinka's corpus, The Road, I pose the following question: In what resides the "Africanness" of African literary and dramatic texts, and how does this "Africanness" fare when African texts travel? In other words, I explore how the markers, signs, and codes of "Africanness" are read, decoded, reconfigured, and, above all, appropriated when African texts travel. Although the three ins lances of "traveling" that I shall explore in the staging of The Road all took place outside Africa, I wish to emphasize that both the practical and the theoretical implications of my observations and reflections in the article also apply to the "traveling" of African literary and dramatic texts within the African continent. Although I shall presently give a fuller elaboration of the term "Africanness" and why I make it so central to my observations and analyses in this ar...


The dam of Sainte Croix is a 61.5 m high arch dam with double curvature, built in the Verdon Gorges in France from 1973 until 1975. Since its construction, the follow-up of its mechanical behaviour is based on planimetric measurements realized on 32 lava rosettes distributed on its downstream facing. The grid reference consists of 9 survey columns among which 5 are considered and verified fixed. The qualitative assessment of the arch dam mechanical behaviour is very accurate with biannual measurements but the operator wished to improve it in case of particular operating conditions with the possibility of a close follow-up. Among the techniques currently used for dam's surveillance (ICOLD, Bulletin 158, 2018), a solution by motorized total station, completely integrated into the information system, was thus proposed and implemented in July 2016 after numerous tests were realized on all the processing chain. These tests led to an increased reliability of the permanent on-site installation, its connection to the information system called KOALA with features equivalent to those of a classic remote instrumentation (measurements on request or preset, automatic data processing including elaborate topographic calculations, etc.) and the operational maintenance of the system. The advantages of this measuring system are the continuity of the horizontal displacements time series with the addition of the vertical displacements, a behaviour analysis based on a larger sample of measurements under variable hydrostatic/thermal loads, a lower cost than other alternatives (pendulums and GNSS stations for example) and the possibility offered to add marks for a minor cost. This paper presents this technological evolution chronologically in a simple and instructional manner for the different parts: material, software, and in particular modelling and validation of the obtained data with historical one. I. SAINTE CROIX ARCH DAM The dam of Sainte Croix (cf. Fig. 1.) is a 61.5 m high arch dam (138 m long) with double curvature, built in the Verdon Gorges in south of France on a 33.5 m foundation base from 1973 until 1975. The setting out of the dam in a limestone gorge showing a significant narrowing in the lower part led to a concrete base on which the structure rests. The dam overhangs an underground hydroelectric plant in its right bank, and closes a reservoir of 767 hm. Figure 1. Sainte Croix arch dam It is the headwaters reservoir of a succession of works on the Verdon river. In addition to its hydroelectric production, the Sainte Croix reservoir is also used as a reservoir for irrigation and tourist facilities in summer. Under normal operating conditions, the Sainte Croix reservoir usually varies between 469 and 477 m above sea level. The dam is based on limestone foundations with karstic cavities. In the abutments, a grout cut off goes 70 meters deep on the left bank and under the underground plant on the right bank. At the bottom of the valley, it goes around 40 meters deep under the excavation line. A drainage curtain about 30 meters deep at the bottom of the valley and 60 meters long into the banks completes the grout cut off 10 meters downstream. The mechanical behaviour of the dam is monitored thanks to:  planimetric measurements on 32 targets located on its downstream facing, 4 Joint International Symposium on Deformation Monitoring (JISDM), 15-17 May 2019, Athens, Greece  a direct pendulum and an inverted one to measure the foundation base displacements with respect to the ground surface,  and a direct pendulum in the left abutment. In the first years after the impoundment (which ended in 1975), the structure was moving downstream in relation with the concrete shrinkage/creep and the adaptation of the closest blocks from banks towards the abutments. After this evolution, the almost stabilization of the arch dam, its foundation base and abutments was acquired in the 1980s to make way for a slow upstream displacement, less than 0.1 mm/year at the crest of the crown which commonly occurs on dams of similar geometry. Concerning reversible effects, given the minor fluctuations of the reservoir, the dam shows no significant displacement related to hydrostatic head variations. However, its shape implies a significant thermal sensitivity in the order of 15 mm annual amplitude between winter and summer at the crest of the crown of the arch dam. II. HISTORICAL DAMS MONITORING SURVEY AT EDF Historically, planimetric monitoring survey on EDF dams consists in measuring the horizontal angles on each target point whose coordinates are sought, using a theodolite positioned on survey columns known to be fixed and whose coordinates are known. Figure 2. Lava rosettes location on downstream facing of the dam 32 sealed lava rosettes (concentric circle targets printed on enamelled lava plates) constitute these target points on Sainte Croix dam (cf. Fig. 2.). This material has been chosen for its stability over time and for its resistance to thermal and chemical attacks. Indeed, the use of geodetic survey for dams monitoring requires measurement accuracy in order to measure low displacements as well as a controlled stability over time of the planimetric grid of reference to follow the dam behaviour during its lifetime. At present, the measurement of distances is still little used in the monitoring surveys performed on EDF dams especially because the existing lava rosettes do not allow a suitable precision for this type of measurement. It would require the installation of prism reflectors. From each survey column, a series of angle measurements is performed using the theodolite positioned within 0.3 mm on a centering plate. It includes the other survey columns and known references as well as the lava rosettes whose coordinates are to be determined. Two sights from different survey columns (but three or four are preferred) are performed at least on each lava rosette to determine its coordinates. It allows for over determination that is required in the absence of distance measurement. The accuracy in the determination of each lava rosette's position using these angular measurements depends on the configuration of the planimetric grid of reference: it involves the position, the number and the conditions of fixity of the reference marks as well as the series of angle measurements performed. Figure 3. Planimetric grid on Sainte Croix dam In general, planimetric grids of reference are designed to ensure a measurement uncertainty on horizontal displacements (to 95%) lower or equal to +/2 mm for this type of concrete dam. On Sainte Croix dam, the planimetric grid of reference consists of 9 survey columns among which 5 are considered and verified fixed (constant coordinates over time) and 4 are said mobile (whose coordinates are determined at each monitoring survey based on the fixed references) (cf. Fig. 3.). 4 Joint International Symposium on Deformation Monitoring (JISDM), 15-17 May 2019, Athens, Greece On Sainte Croix arch dam, the standard monitoring survey as practiced since the construction of the structure brought full satisfaction in terms of accuracy and stability of the grid of fixed survey columns controlled over time. Nevertheless, the operator wished to have the possibility of a close follow-up of the horizontal displacements in case of particular operating conditions. As monitoring surveys require specific skills, they cannot be realized on site by the local operator, that is to say much more frequent trips of specialized teams would be necessary implying additional costs. The installation of pendulums system on the crown of the arch was considered but because of the geometry of the arch (double curvature) this solution was difficult to implement. Furthermore, this additional pendulums system would have been local because it would have covered only the central part of the arch dam in addition to the left abutment whereas the monitoring survey enables a spatial appreciation of the structure's displacements and of its abutments eventually. Taking advantage of having a planimetric grid of reference of very good quality, it was therefore decided to study a solution based on automated monitoring surveys satisfying the monitoring constraints on Sainte Croix arch dam in a completely integrated way. III. EVOLUTION TOWARDS AN AUTOMATED MONITORING SURVEY COMPLETELY INTEGRATED INTO EDF INFORMATION SYSTEM For a more frequent follow-up of the arch dam's displacements, a system using total station was thus set up on site in 2008. By increasing the measurements' frequency and having the possibility to trigger remote measurements during particular operating conditions and/or loads (floods, heavy colds, heatwaves, earthquakes, etc), the follow-up of the displacements is therefore refined. In addition, the vertical displacement, not measured so far, is indeed integrated. In general, this integration can be a significant contribution for dams undergoing pathologies such as alkali-aggregate reaction. This system does not work with measurements on lava rosettes but on prism reflectors using the angular and the distance measurements. 24 prism reflector (LEICA GPM104 type), integrated in robust and durable stainless steel supports, were thus installed on the dam near the existing lava rosettes (Cf. Fig. 4.). These reflectors, targeted from P04 survey column, have thus all been directed to the latter. Only the lava rosettes closest to the right bank, not visible from P04 survey column, were not equipped with prism reflector. Figure 4. Lava rosette and associated prism reflector Prism reflector have also been installed near 6 of the reference marks targeted from the P04 survey column, with a geological and geometrical consistency, so as to consider that the movements of the reference mark and the associated reflector are similar. 3 of the survey columns are considered fixed (constant coordinates over time) and 3 other reference marks are said mobile (whose co


There is an apparent correspondence between literary genres and the exercise of philosophy, but what is it? If we remember the a-typicality of the philosopher in search of a meaning that orients life, we understand there is no exclusive literary genre for the exercise of philosophy. The Greek way of philosophizing can fit both a hymn s or an epistle s structure. No genre is exclusive to a philosophical experience because in order to understand this experience it s necessary to reveal first a negative definition of what is not; such experience does not consist in provoking meaninglessness or loss of meaning and, there isn 't in Antiquity an exercise of literature suitable for the cult of ugliness or for an opening to wrong. Chaos or hubris does not belong in the realm of what's arguable and philosophy opposes values that are not the true values. After the place of uncertainty where the philosopher positions himself, in this tension between doxa and episteme, the fundamental choice of life comes, and this is what determines, in turn, the choice of one literary genre or another. The fundamental choice of life actually is a school of education and the discourse that shapes it must fully correspond with it. Thus the almost exclusive choice of this or that literary genre in this or that school is explained. The above can serve as an example to apprehend Cleanthes' Hymn to Zeus.


Glucosamine is an amino-sugar compound that is a precursor in synthesis repairment of cartilage and joints in human body. Glucosamine can be produced in the body as well as obtained from animal and plant sources. One of the plant sources that contain glucosamine is the seed of palmyrah. To obtain glucosamine from palmyrah seeds is required extraction process. The addition of ammonium salt precursor to the extraction stage could increase the production of glucosamine. The aim of this research was to determine the influence of the type and concentration of ammonium salt precursor to the glucosamine content from seeds of palmyrah fruit. This research used nested design with two factors, consisting of type and concentration of precursor. The main factor of precursor type (as first factor) consisting of three levels, namely NH4Cl, (NH4)2CO3, and (NH4)2SO4, although nested factor of precursor concentration (as second factor) consisting of two levels. The glucosamine content was tested by spectrophotometry analysis. The effect of treatment was analyzed using analysis of variance and was continued with the Least Significant Difference test. Glucosamine was tested qualitatively by Thin Layer Chromatography. The results showed that the best treatment of precursor types were found in the addition of NH4Cl 4.5 M; (NH4)2CO3 1.5 M; and (NH4)2SO44 M with glucosamine content1418.5; 1263.5 and 1078.5 ppm and yield 0.450; 0.380; and 0.627% respectively.The qualitative test using TLC showed all samples of extracts have similarities of retention factor with glucosamine standard.


Dispersion characteristics for AC charging pile distribution and monitoring of electric vehicles in mobile state, it proposes a communication method with the server by centralized GPRS module and Electric Vehicle Terminal (EVT). In order to meet the design requirements of the comprehensive monitoring system for remote access, system uses Struts, Spring and Hibernate framework based on Browser/Server (B/S). Network servers use weblogic cluster together with the Oracle database server and Coherence real-time database to meet the high number of concurrent users. Client pages are based on the full-featured ExtJs library with beautiful interface. The system consists of five functional modules, which are structured and closed contact with each other. Test results show that the system is stable and the average response time is short.


India has completed two decades of economic liberalisation in 2010. As a logical extension of trade liberalisation to the farm sector, India signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in August 2009 and it came into effect on 1 January 2010. Under the FTA, it has been agreed upon to phase out domestic market protection for different commodities within stipulated period. The Indo-ASEAN trade pact encompasses a wide array of 3666 commodities ranging from agriculture to electronics goods. For tariff reduction, commodities have been classified under five tracks: (i) normal; (ii) sensitive; (iii) highly sensitive; (iv) special products; and (v) excluded products. Products in the exclusion list contained 489 commodities, of which 302 are agriculture products, 27 fish products, 81 textile products, 50 automotive products, 17 products from chemical industry and 12 other products. Although the stipulated period of the FTA ends by December 2019, the duration of agreement of the FTA vary across countries within ASEAN. Commodities listed under `normal track' shall be made free of import duty while the Most Favoured Nations Tariff (MFN tariff) of items included under sensitive track shall be phased out to 50 per cent by 2019 for most of the commodities. The `highly sensitive' group of commodities have again been classified into three categories: (i) commodities with a tariff reduction target to 50 per cent; (ii) tariff reduction target by 50 per cent; and (iii) tariff reduction target by 25 per cent in 2019. For Special Products MFN tariff reduction target vary between 40 per cent and 51 per cent from the base tariff rate prevailed on January 1, 2010. Three major plantation crops in Kerala, viz., (i) natural rubber (NR); (ii) coffee; and (iii) pepper have been included under different product groups. The NR is included under Excluded Products group, implying no tariff reduction for the commodity while coffee and pepper have been placed under Special Products. The applied MFN tariff rate of coffee is scheduled to be reduced to 45 per cent on December 2019 from its base rate of 100 per cent in 2010 January. And for pepper, tariff reduction is planned


We investigate the asymptotic behavior of binned kernel density estimators for dependent and locally non-stationary random fields converging to stationary random fields. We focus on the study of the bias and the asymptotic normality of the estimators. A simulation experiment conducted shows that both the kernel density estimator and the binned kernel density estimator have the same behavior and estimate accurately the true density when the number of fields increases.


Comprising the steps of encoding video images in each of the plurality of frames, thereby to generate encoded video stream, the inter-frame coding to encode at least a portion of some of the frame group comprising the step of using the refresh steps, a step of transmitting over more channel loss the encoded video stream to be decoded at the receiver to generate decoded video, the encoding of the video image to, and a step of performing a restore operation to abort error propagation appearing in said decoded video due to the effect of the inter-prediction in the presence of a loss through the channel, said restoration operation, fed back from the receiver, is started by the report representing the loss, restore operation is performed over a frame of the plurality of number, is a method of refreshing the encoding of the various partial frame area at different respective frame .


The electronic structure of the ordered Zintl (B32) phase of LiAl has been studied in a molecular cluster model within the framework of the Hartree-Fock-Slater theory. Knight shifts and electronic field gradients induced by vacancies are calculated and compared with recent NMR studies. The effects of lattice relaxation about a vacancy are studied and combined with recent neutron diffraction analyses to predict relaxation-induced field gradients.


In this paper, an adaptive scheme based on biogeography based optimization and particle swarm optimization method for optimal penetration and sizing of distributed generation system in the existing radial distribution network at the optimal bus is suggested. Power losses and voltage profile maintenance are the biggest restrictions of the existing power system. These power losses will be calculated by load flow analysis and the adaptive scheme has been applied for power loss reduction and enhancing voltage profile. The testing of the adaptive scheme for optimal penetration and sizing of distributed generation system will be done at the IEEE 69 bus radial distribution network. This adaptive scheme and IEEE 69 bus radial distribution network are modelled with the help of Matlab software.


In the course of a comprehensive analysis of the theory of the working process of hammer crushers, the insufficiency of theoretical studies of the processes occurring in the crushing chamber was revealed. One of the areas of theoretical research considered in this article is the determination of the displacement energy of the annular layer in a hammer crusher. Keywords: HAMMER CRUSHERS, ANNULAR LAYER, PASSABLE PARTICLES, ENERGY, SPEED, HAMMER, ROTOR, WORK OF DEFORMATION, POWER


High-energy-density lithium ion batteries are expected to be employed as energy storage devices for uninterruptible power supplies for telecommunications, load leveling equipment, and electric vehicles. This application requires a large lithium ion battery with a high energy. However, it is generally difficult to ensure the safety of such batteries, which must not catch fire or burst when the battery experiences problems such as a short circuit, overcharging, a high temperature, or a crushing force. Various organic solvent-based solutions have been widely marketed for use as lithium ion battery electrolytes, including propylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, ethylmethyl carbonate, diethyl carbonate, and γ-butyrolactone as the solvent. Electrolytes with these organic solvents provide the following features: a high lithium salt solubility of 1.0 to 3.0 mol dm–3, high specific conductivity over a wide temperature range such as –20 to 60°C, a wide electrochemical window of 0 to over 5.0 V vs. Li/Li+, and good chemical stability against both the cathode and anode. However, these organic solvents are flammable and volatile, which makes the batteries that employ them a safety risk. Therefore, various measures have been taken to make lithium ion batteries safe. However, year by year the energy density has increased, and larger batteries are being developed. This raises serious concerns about the future safety of this type of battery. One promising solution is to use a nonflammable, nonvolatile electrolyte since this would eliminate most of the flammable material from the battery. This nonflammability is effective in preventing batteries from catching fire, and a nonvolatile electrolyte prevents batteries from bursting. One candidate for a nonflammable electrolyte solvent is a room-temperature molten salt (ionic liquid). Ionic liquids consist of a cation and an anion, and the total charge of the compound is neutral. They generally have a number of features including nonflamKatsuya Hayashi†, Yasue Nemoto, Keiji Akuto, and Yoji Sakurai


We report on a survey devoted to the search of exoplanets around young and nearby stars carried out with NACO at the VLT. The detection limit for 28 among the best available targets versus the angular separation from the star is presented. The nondetection of any planetary mass companion in our survey is used to derive, for the first time, the frequency of the upper limit of the projected planet-star separation. In particular, we find that in 50% of the cases, no 5MJ (or more massive) planet has been detected at projected separations larger than 14 AU, and no 10MJ (or more massive) planet has been detected at projected separations larger than 8.5 AU. In 100% of the cases, these values increase to 36 and 65 AU, respectively. The excellent sensitivity reached by our study leads to a much lower upper limit of the projected planet-star separation compared with previous studies. For example, for the β Pictoris group (~12 Myr), we did not detect any 10MJ planet at distances larger than 15 AU. A previous study carried out with 4 m class telescopes put an upper limit for 10MJ planets at ~60 AU. For our closest target (V2306 Oph; d = 4.3 pc), it is shown that it would be possible to detect a 10MJ planet at a minimum projected separation from the star of 1 AU and a 5MJ planet at a minimum projected separation of 3.7 AU. Our results are discussed with respect to mechanisms explaining planet formation and migration and forthcoming observational strategies and future planet-finder observations from the ground.


Since the 1970s, many academics have researched the Cypriot struggle for independence, therefore the literature on the subject is rich. Robert Holland's Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus is seminal and well-documented, focusing on the overall political, diplomatic, and military history of the Cyprus crisis. Published within the same subject area were Cyprus: Conflict and Conciliation, 1954–1958 by St. Xydis and Isle of Discord: Nationalism, Imperialism and the Making of the Cyprus Problem by Ioannis Stefanidis. Evanthis Hatzivassiliou focused on the political and constitutional aspects in his Britain and the International Status of Cyprus, 1955–1959. With reference to secret intelligence, Richard Aldrich, in The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence, dedicated a chapter to the Cyprus insurgency, presenting information on covert action, mainly from secondary sources. He also emphasized the strategic importance of British and American intelligence bases in Cyprus during the Cold War. As Royal Air Force Air Vice Marshal Peter Philpot put it, Cyprus ''was an indispensable and irreplaceable center for providing 'Y' service intelligence.'' Fragmented information about British operations against


The research is dedicated to the investigation of the national peculiarities of the concepts heart and soul in the English, German and Ukrainian phraseological worldviews.The examined lexicographic and phraseological sources reveal that the frequency of use of phraseological units with the concept heart is approximately the same in Ukrainian, English and German. Moreover, the phraseological units with the concept heart are widely used in all the three languages and can express a wide range of meanings, connected with the emotional and psychological state of a person and the qualitative and evaluative characteristic of a person, both positive and negative. Thus, the research shows that phraseological units that verbalize the concept heart form an extremely used layer in the Ukrainian, German and English phraseology. Investigation of the concept soul in the Ukrainian, English and German worldviews demonstrates that the human body is considered to be the form of human existence, the soul holder. So, in a figurative meaning, the heart can be the symbol of the soul, its center. Therefore, in the phraseological worldviews of the studied languages, human's soul, as well as heart, can describe a variety of human feelings, emotions and character traits. The research shows that the English language is not as rich in phraseological units that reflect the concept soul as the Ukrainian language. Thus, the greatest number of phraseological units actualizing the concept soul belongs to the Ukrainian phraseological heritage.


The structures of new cyclic decadepsipeptides, clavariopsins A and B, were determined to be cyclo[-(R)-2-hydroxyisovaleryl-L-pipecoyl-L-MeVal-L-Val-L-MeAsp-L-MeIle-L-MeIle-Gly L-MeVal-L-Tyr(OMe)-] and cyclo[-(R)-2-hydroxyisovaleryl-L-pipecolyl-L-Val-L-Val-L-MeAsp-L-Melle-L-MeIle-Gly-L-MeVal-L-Tyr(OMe)-], respectively, by spectroscopic analyses, especially using 2D NMR techniques. The absolute stereochemistry was elucidated by the advanced Marfey's method and chiral HPLC analysis.


A three-dimensional structural anisotropic bounding surface model with a modified shape function of Lode angle is introduced to describe the effects of the principal stress rotation.One-dimensional consolidation tests and undrained triaxial tests under isotropic and anisotropic consolidation modes and a series of drained stress probe tests and hollow cylindrical undrained torsion shear tests with different coefficients of the intermediate principal stress are performed on natural undisturbed samples of Shanghai soft clay to study the yield characteristics and the effects of the principal stress rotation.The test results show that the properties of natural Shanghai soft clay are characterized by structural yield and anisotropic plasticity.The initial state bounding surface of Shanghai soft clay can be described by an inclined ellipse on the plane,and the limit state surface is not symmetrical as well with respect to the K0 line.The ratio of the critical stress decreases with the increase of coefficient of the intermediate principal stress.It shows that the equation of three-dimensional yield surface in the model is reasonable.Furthermore,the stress-strain relationship and strength of soft clay are influenced remarkably by the principal stress rotation.The parameters of the proposed model are calibrated by the undrained isotropic and anisotropic triaxial test results for natural Shanghai soft clay.The validity of the model is verified by drained stress path tests and hollow cylindrical torsion shear test results.Comparison between the simulated and experimental results shows that the effects of loading paths and the principal stress rotation are well captured by the model.


Modern combustion turbines have several applications: power stations, naval, aeronautical and oil industry. Aeronautical applications seek reduction of pollutant emissions using mixtures of conventional Jet fuels with biofuels and synthetic fuels. Due to the restrictions of natural gas and other oil fuels supply for the generation of electricity, the use of alternative fuels in stationary gas turbines is being seriously considered. Generally, all liquid and gaseous fuels from biomass, syngas, biogas, refinery gas and other unconventional sources are considered as alternative fuels. In the last years, with the objective of making the industrial and aeronautical process in harmony with the current environmental laws around the world, much research on the use of these alternative fuels in gas turbines is in progress. Gas turbines are thermal machines with the great advantage of being capable of successfully burning a large variety of fuels in a continuous combustion process. Gas turbine combustion chambers with this ability are referred as "Fuel Flexible Gas Turbine Combustor". This paper aims at describing a methodology for sizing fuel flexible gas turbine combustors and, additionally, analyzing the reacting flow in these designed combustion chambers. The design of the fuel flexible gas turbine combustors is based on the thermokinetic equilibrium, nearly-global mechanisms, zero and one-dimensional approaches simultaneously with numerical methods as Newton-Raphson, LU factorization and inverse Lagrange polynomials. A computational tool has been developed for the combustor sizing. The zero and onedimensional models are based on the methodology developed by Lefebvre, Melconian e Modak. The thermokinetic equilibrium, flammability limit and nearly-global mechanisms models are based on the methodology developed by Gordon and McBride. The study of the combustion efficiency for the studied fuels and its influence on the production of pollutant emissions under several operating conditions is presented. Useful information is generated at the design stage of a fuel flexible gas turbine combustion chamber, which may be used to alter the pollutant emissions at very early stage of the design.


Abstract Objective. Low serum trough levels (TLs) of infliximab (IFX) and antibodies to IFX (ATIs) are associated with the loss of therapeutic response in adults with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) receiving IFX. Until now, pediatric data are scarce. Therefore, we aimed to cross-sectionally investigate the association between ATIs and IFX TLs, and clinical and biochemical disease activity in children receiving IFX for IBD. Material and methods. Children aged <18 years receiving IFX maintenance treatment for Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) at three Dutch hospitals were included. Prior to two consecutive IFX infusions, IFX TLs and ATI levels were measured. Clinical disease activity was determined by Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index (PCDAI) and Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index (PUCAI), for CD and UC, respectively. Biochemical disease activity was assessed by serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and fecal calprotectin (FC). Clinical remission was defined as a PUCAI or PCDAI score of <10. Therapeutic range of IFX was considered 3–7 µg/ml. Results. Thirty-nine patients were included (31 CD; 16 females). Median age was 15 years. Median IFX TL was 3.5 µg/ml [IQR 2–7]. Subtherapeutic and supratherapeutic TLs were found in 38% and 23% of children, respectively. ATIs were detected in four patients. A correlation was found between IFX TL and CRP [rs = −0.51; p < 0.01] and FC [rs = −0.49; p < 0.01]. However, when only clinical disease activity was considered, no difference in median TL was found between remission and active disease (resp. 3.5 µg/ml [IQR 2–5] and 2.3 µg/ml [IQR 0.3–4.6]; p = 0.2). Conclusions. IFX TLs are related to biochemical markers of disease activity. This could provide a rationale for monitoring TLs in children receiving IFX for IBD.


The rectangular fold of the codex, the unrolling of the scroll, the flickering instabilities of the digital page: each of these does not simply register the presence of information ontologically prior to its being-written, but shapes that information as information as it hardens into the specificity of a material. Many have worked of late (I am thinking of Friedrich Kittler, Katherine Hayles, and Daniel Tiffany, among others) to show how the physical substrates of expression simultaneously make possible and constrain the expressions to which they give voice. In service to the text, a material, a set of physical practices, also serves the text to someone, gives it to be read and gives it up to be read. I began this essay after becoming interested in cutting, copying, and pasting in Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's Death of a Discipline. Five times Spivak refers to cutting, copying, or pasting. In each case the terms' appearance suggests both the material irruption of her writing practice onto the page and her own awareness and manipulation of that irruption as practice. Here are the first two instances:


1. It was shown by Barlotti(1) that the number, k, of points on a (k, n)-arc in a Galois plane S2, q, of order q, where n and q are coprime, satisfies Regular arcs, in which all the points are of the same type have been studied by Basile and Brutti(2) and, for n = 3 by d'Orgeval(4). By means of an electronic computer Lunelli and Sce(5) have enumerated many arcs in Galois planes of low order. The object of this note is to show how the (11, 3)-arcs of S2, 5, none of which is regular, may be described using only geometrical properties.


The invention relates to a hydraulic assembly (10) comprising a first hydraulic element (12) having a first bore (14) of a first axis (A) determined, resulting in a first fixing face (16) of said first member ( 12), a second hydraulic member (18) having a second bore (20) of a second axis (B) forming a determined angle of inclination (α) determined with the first axis (a) opening into a second side fixing (22) of said second member (18), said members (12, 18) being joined to each other via their first and second fixing surfaces (16, 22) the first and second bores (14, 20) being arranged substantially facing one another, characterized in that it comprises a tubular member sealing means (24) which is received within first and second bores (14, 20), which has opposite ends sealingly received in said first and dry ond bores, and which comprises adjustment means (26) to the angle of inclination determined.


AbstractThe temper embrittlement of a susceptible Ni-Cr steel modifies the internal fric tion spectrum: the Snaek and dislocation peaks disappear, whereas the grain boundary dam;ing is increased, between 400° and 600°C. This latter characteristic permits one to follow isothermally the embrittling reaction and to establish a correlation between the increment of internal friction and the progressive shifting of the transition temperature. This paper shows that internal friction, since it does not present the disadvantages of a destructive test, is a versatile tool to analyze the phenomenon within the embrittlement zone and to compare indirectly the inherent grain boundary segregation.Finally, a brief examination of the corresponding variations in shear modulus establishes that although temper brittleness is mainly related with phenomena occurring at or near grain boundaries, it also affects the matrix. Resume Au cours de la fragilisation au revenu d'un acier Ni-Cr sensibilise, le spectre de frottement inter...


The aim of this paper is finding the optimum image pattern of the tamarind turmeric herb. So far, in the process of producing tamarind turmeric herb, it is not constant in terms of taste and color, which is influenced by maturity and the amount of turmeric. Image pattern recognition will use Backpropagation algorithm applied to typical Content-based image retrieval systems. The main purpose is to apprehend various parts of tamarind turmeric herb in the retrieving processing. The camera is applied to classify the tamarind turmeric herb product, process into 5x5 pixels, and take an average of the RGB value so the stable RGB values will be obtained in each category and used as input for Backpropagation algorithm. The most suitable and the fastest process from the Backpropagation algorithm will be searched and applied in a real-time machine. In this paper will be using two methods, first, train the algorithm using ten data by change neuron, layer, momentum, and learning rate, and the last is testing with ten data. The results obtained from the training and testing algorithm that the two hidden layers can recognize 100% inputs, with three input layers used for R, G, and B value, ten neurons in the first hidden layers and the second hidden layers, one output layer with a parameter used is Learning rate 0.5 and Momentum 0.6. The best image pattern standard for tamarind turmeric herb is dark yellow with RGB values of 255, 102, 32 up to 255, 128, 48.


The essay embraced two aspects of Hegel's music opinion,namely,the essence of philosophy and the aesthetical characteristics.It is based on Aesthetics as an integral part of his Philosophical System,assuming the differentiated identity of philosophy and Aesthetics in musical theory.Therefore,it is that of the inherent relationship between the 'idea/spirit'and musical arts.


A simple method is given to analyze the influence of the surface roughness on the photothermal deflection spectroscopy(PDS) of SiN-x thin films.The related formula between the optical absorbance coefficient measured by PDS(α-(PDS)) and surface rms roughness(σ) is obtained.Based on this result,α-(PDS) of the SiN-x thin film with the nano-sized σ is corrected and named α-(true).Furthermore,the influence of the different σ and film thickness(d-f) on α-(PDS) is discussed.The results indicate that the deviation between α-(PDS) and α-(true) is considerable on the side of low energy,which is not only dependent on σ but also related to d-f.The bigger σ and the smaller d-f will make the deviation increase obviously.But it can be neglected on the side of high energy.


Trityl-OX063 is a narrow-line, water-soluble and biocompatible polarizing agent, widely used for Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) amplified NMR of 13C, but not of the abundant 1H nuclear-spin, for which the ineffective solid-effect (SE) is expected to be operational. Surprisingly, we observed a crossover from SE to thermal mixing (TM) DNP of 1H with increasing Trityl-OX063 concentration at 7 T. We experimentally ascertained diagnostic signatures of TM-DNP that have only been theoretically predicted: i) an EPR spectrum that maintains an asymmetrically broadened EPR-line from strong e-e couplings, and ii) hyperpolarization, i.e. cooling, of select electron-spin populations manifested in a characteristic pump-probe Electron-Double-Resonance spectrum under DNP conditions. Low microwave power requirements, high polarization transfer rates and efficient DNP at high magnetic-field are key benefits of TM-DNP.


We investigated the thermoelectric properties of the ternary half-Heusler compound, TiNiSn, when introducing C and N. The addition of C or N to TiNiSn leads to an enhanced power factor and a decreasing lattice thermal conductivity by point defect phonon scattering. The thermoelectric performances of TiNiSn alloys are significantly improved by adding 1 at. % TiN, TiC, and figure of merit (ZT) values of 0.43 and 0.34, respectively, can be obtained at 723 K. This increase in thermoelectric performance is very helpful in the commercialization of thermoelectric power generation in the mid-temperature range.


This paper examines the generative role of doubt in episodes of organizational change. It explains how members raise, examine and resolve doubts about organizational change through a process of abd...


The prevalence of mental illness in our country increases year by year and mental illness rank the first within the our country's total disease burden.China's mental health service has many problems;however,although it reaches at the best developmental stage in history.In the end,we give out some suggestions here,including of facilitating the legislative process of "The People's Republic of China Mental Health Act",improving and implement the government policy,and successfully promoting the health care reform;developing the mental health service in the integrated hospitals,making a proper and reasonable use of increasing funding yearly,extending mental health service to community in view of the conception for mental disease control,popularizing the mental health knowledge,eliminating the prejudice and discrimination,enhancing the training of the mental health professionals,and training the staff working in the integrated hospitals and other people that engage in mental care.


Level of detail techniques are widely applied to minimize sampling error subject to working set size constraints. Typical large data sets being produced today have many variables sampled across time-varying volumes. Visualization of these multivariate volumes is commonly phrased in terms of conditional expressions such as "show variable A where variable B is between B1 and B2." The bounds, B1 and B2, tend to be specified during the interactive portion of the workflow. Thus, to maximize quality over the salient interval, level of detail selection should also be interactive. We introduce the concept of histogram spectra to quickly and compactly quantify the statistical sensitivity of volumes to sampling. Salient interval volumes of one or more variables are used to select which parts of the histogram spectra are important. The level of detail selection problem, over a time-varying, multivariate, multiresolution volume, is then posed as an integer programming problem using the histogram spectra. We propose an efficient solution enabling interactive LOD selection on large, out-of-core volumes and show its efficacy on two real data sets from different problem domains.


If P is a prime and 2P+1 is also prime, then P is a Sophie Germain prime. In this article several new Sophie Germain primes are reported, which are the largest known at this time. The search method and the expected search times are discussed.


The word statistics is used in two different senses. Statistics (plural) are facts and figures (data), while statistics (singular) is a methodology for obtaining and analyzing data as a basis for decision making. In this paper I will include as members of the statistical community two groups: professional statisticians who are concerned primarily with statistics as a methodology, and users of both statistical methodology and data made available by government agencies, industrial and business concerns, university research investigations, etc. The right of individual privacy in a democracy such as ours has been interpreted in a general way as "the right to be let alone." However, with the rapid development of informational technology made possible by the invention of the electronic computer, the basic attribute of an effective right of privacy has come to mean the individual's ability to control the circulation of information relating to him. I will be concerned exclusively with this notion and attribute of privacy. The individual's ability to control information relating to him is of concern in relation to both private data programs (e.g., programs based on a credit bureau's data bank) and official data programs (e.g., programs based on federal statistics obtained from routine government operations, censuses and surveys). In order to be specific, the protection of privacy in its relation to the statistical community will be considered here only with regard to the data programs of the federal government.


Good manufacturing practices include the concept of equipment qualification which aims to demonstrate in a documented way that equipment operates correctly for its intended use and that it is properly maintained and calibrated. Equipment qualification is the base to generate quality data and is formed by four phases: DQ, IQ, OQ and PQ. This article presents how to carry out OQ for a liquid chromatograph. A proposed OQ for a liquid chromatograph is based ona variety of tests that evaluate equipment from a modularpoint of view. There have also been discussed and setappropriate acceptance criteria whose selection has been based on a search and examination of the criteria used by manufacturers and an exhaustive study of equipment historical results.


Currently, the treatment of articular cartilage defects results in tissue repair that leads to osteoarthritis [1]. Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is a technique based in obtaining autogenous chondrocytes from a cartilage biopsy. After culturing, the cells are seeded onto biodegradable scaffolds that provide the environment required for growing them. The grown chondrocytes replace and remodel the scaffold to produce artificial cartilage used for grafting. Indeed, surgical procedures based on artificial tissue have been already marketed in USA and Europe (Carticel®, BioCart). Unfortunately, the clinical implementation of ACI has been limited by its high cost: Colombian patients who need ACI must travel to USA, Italy or Israel where authorized cell processing facilities are located. Therefore, there is a need for the development of in-site production of tissue engineered cartilage to provide patients of all socioeconomic status with ACI at a reasonable cost. A commonly biomaterial used to manufacture scaffolds for engineering artificial cartilage is collagen type II, a major component of the cartilage extracellular matrix. In this work scaffolds were produced using pure collagen type II isolated from bovine trachea. The microstructure of them was also studied.


Abstract The adsorption mechanism of diethyl phthalate (DEP) on solid particles is still unclear due to the complicated properties of adsorbents. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have definite structures and uniform surfaces, thus they were chosen as the model adsorbents in this study. The site energy distribution may provide important information for adsorption mechanisms, but no study has applied site energy distribution to illuminate the DEP thermodynamic adsorption on CNTs. Thus, this study focused on the thermodynamic adsorption behavior of DEP on CNTs combining the site sorption energy distribution analysis. The adsorption coefficient Kd followed the order: MG>MH≈MC. Surface area was not the only factor for DEP adsorption on CNTs. Hydrophobic interactions, H-bonds, morphology of CNTs, and DEP molecule structure may control DEP adsorption. Electron donor-acceptor interaction was limited in this system. The thermodynamic parameters changes showed that the adsorption process is exothermic and spontaneous. The s...


We propose a novel scheme of optical pulse compression reflectometry (OPCR) based on double sideband modulation (DSBM). Owing to the use of DSBM in the novel scheme, the cost-effectiveness and the stability of the OPCR are essentially enhanced. The working principle and the theoretical analysis are demonstrated. Experiment is conducted to verify that the performance of the DSBM-based OPCR is comparable with that based on single sideband modulation. Large measurement range over 58 km with high spatial resolution of 10 cm is experimentally achieved.


Abstract During the leaching of chalcopyrite in cupric chloride solutions, a reaction product layer forms on the mineral surface. In the present work, the formation and the composition of the reaction product layer on solid stationary chalcopyrite was studied in a chemical environment similar to that of the HydroCopper® process. The effect of the process parameters on the reaction product layer was investigated. Electrochemical measurements, including A.C. impedance spectroscopy, were carried out and an equivalent circuit was used to estimate the surface parameters of the reaction product layer, such as resistance, capacitance and porosity. Scanning electron microscopy was used to complement the electrochemical measurements. The results suggest that at pH = 1, a fragile more resistive elemental sulphur layer forms, whereas at pH = 3, a porous less resistive FeOOH layer is formed. Lors de la lixiviation de la chalcopyrite en solutions de chlorure cuivrique, une couche de produit de reaction se forme a la surface du mineral. Dans le present travail, on a etudie la formation et la composition de la couche du produit de reaction sur de la chalcopyrite solide stationnaire dans un environnement chimique similaire a celui du procede d'HydroCopper®. On a etudie l'effet des parametres du procede sur la couche de produit de reaction. On a effectue des mesures electrochimiques, incluant la spectroscopie a impedance A.C., et l'on a utilise un circuit equivalent pour estimer les parametres de surface de la couche de produit de reaction, comme la resistance, la capacitance et la porosite. On a utilise la microscopie electronique a balayage pour completer les mesures electrochimiques. Les resultats suggerent qu'a un pH = 1, une couche fragile de soufre elementaire plus resistive se forme, alors qu'a un pH = 3, une couche poreuse moins resistive de FeOOH est formee.


The invention relates to a housing (10) for receiving at least one battery cell (1), with a terminal portion for electrically contacting the casing (10) having an electric motor driven device, in particular a hand tool, and with at least one connecting line (20) on one side the at least one battery cell (1), with the at least one battery cell (1) is contacted at least at one pole indirectly electrically, wherein the at least one connecting line (20), in particular parallel to the extension of the battery cell (1) to the point of connection to the battery cell (1) opposite side of the battery cell (1) is guided. According to the invention, it is provided that the housing (10) has a separate conduit (22) in which the at least one connecting line (20) is guided separately from the at least one battery cell (1).


Objective:To observe the effects of bowring paste(BP) on cerebral infarction size and neuronal apoptosis after cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury(IRI) in Mongolian gerbil and the influence whether or not shows a dose-depended relationship.Methods:The bilateral carotid artery occlusion method was used to establish gerbil cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury model.The model gerbils were divided into five groups randomly: sham group,model group,BP high-dose treatment group,BP medium-dose treatment group,BP low-dose treatment group.The TTC staining was used to measure brain infarction area,and the terminal deoxynudeotidyl transferase meditated dUTP-nick end labeling(TUNEL) was used to determine brain nerve cells apoptosis.Results:The brain infarction size and apoptosis brain nerve cells of BP high,medium-dose treatment group had significant differences with the model group,and were not significant with the sham group.The brain infarction size and apoptosis brain nerve cells of BP low-dose group had significant differences with model group,the sham group.Conclusion:BP can reduce the gerbil cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury cerebral infarction area,and inhibit brain cell apoptosis.It show a dose-dependent relationship.


Please provide some background information about your practice setting I work in a small, rural pharmacy in Drayton Valley, Alberta. It's attached to a physician's office that has approximately 12 physicians who have rotating schedules. We're close to the local hospital. I have patients of all ages—a broad demographic range. Describe your practice/role—what do you think makes it unique/ valuable? We have a diverse practice. We are very patient focused. I have a specialty in diabetic care and travel medicine. We do in-depth medication reviews that include lab requisitions and followups. I do a lot of unique follow-ups with my patients. For example, I text my diabetic patients


It would be helpful to estimate the original histogram of an image polluted by noise in recovering its grey values.The case of local biases occuring in the estimated version of the original histogram is analyzed.A simulation is then made using an image sequence of a pulse noise scattering at a given rate and with a progressive evenness.Experimental results show that when the pulse noise scatters sufficiently even to be a salt-and-pepper noise,estimated versions will converge to the original version of the image histogram.


Traffic sign recognition is an important part of the intelligent transportation system and has important application prospects in driverless vehicles and driver assistance systems[1]. In the image recognition of traffic signs, according to the image features of traffic signs, the common methods include traditional template matching method[2], SVM method[3], random forest[4] and the best Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) method. In this paper, a new CNN is proposed. Feature extraction, compared with the traditional CNN method, has higher accuracy, fewer parameters, smaller models and easier training, which is evaluated on the German Traffic Sign Recognition Benchmark (GTSRB) and the Belgium Traffic Sign Dataset (BTSD). The results show that this method is superior to the traditional CNN method in traffic identification.


The aim of this project is to propose a methodology in automatically building thematic index from French medical texts in order to improve the IR process. In this article, we focus on the selection process of relevant terms. Contrary to Bourigault and Charlet (1999) who defend a statistical method followed by human intervention, we propose an automatic method that takes advantage of available a priori medical resources such as the MeSH thesaurus (Lindberg et al., 1993) and GALEN (Rector et al., 1996).


The mitochondrial inner membrane is a dynamic interface that supports bioenergetic processes, intracellular communication, and transport of metabolites, lipids, and ions. The phospholipid, cardiolipin, is one of the defining components of this membrane and is classically ascribed an indispensable role in mitochondrial structure and function. Disruption of cardiolipin biology is causally linked to numerous pathophysiologies, including diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, Parkinson's disease, and, most notably, Barth syndrome. Yet how cardiolipin controls the metabolic functions of different tissues and how these tissues respond to loss of cardiolipin remains largely unknown. Therefore, we generated inducible gain and loss‐of‐function genetic models of cardiolipin synthesis in tissues with predominantly uncoupled (i.e. brown adipose) or coupled (i.e. skeletal muscle) mitochondria. We found that tissue‐specific loss of cardiolipin had dramatically different outcomes on respiration and whole‐body metabolic homeostasis. Cardiolipin deficiency in brown adipocytes significantly reduced organismal insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, whereas loss of cardiolipin in skeletal muscle unexpectedly improved glycemic control. Moreover, in contrast to the dogmatic belief that cardiolipin is ubiquitously required for mitochondrial function, we found that certain skeletal muscle fiber types fully retained respiratory capacity in the face of cardiolipin depletion through adaptive measures. Our collective findings on tissue‐specific roles of cardiolipin reshape the fundamental understanding of mitochondrial structure and function with potential therapeutic implications for phospholipid disorders.


(1) The toe and finger prints of the Sakhalin Ainu and Sakhalin AinuJapanese hybrids used in the report were obtained from evacuees from Sakhalin to Hokkaido after World War II.(2) The frequencies of the types of configurations on toes and fingers of Sakhalin Ainu and Mixed Ainu are listed in this table.(3) The percent frequencies of toe and finger print types for Sakhalin Ainu fall between those of Hokkaido Ainu and of the Japanese studied in a previous report.They are featured by Ainu characteristics. But their manifestation is slighter than that of the Hokkaido Ainu. They do not show a significant difference from such local Hokkaido Ainu groups as presenting comparatively less conspicuous features than other groups in Hokkaido where the Ainu show various characteristic manifestations. For the results of local groups refer to the author's report"Local Characteristics of the Ainu and Mixed Ainu in Hokkaido viewed from Toe Prints" in the December, 1956 issue of this journal.(4) The results of the survey of the Sakhalin Ainu show no difference from those of the Sakhalin Ainu-Japanese hybrids.In the present report what is described as Ainu hybrids is solely derived from the data in terms of hybrid between Sakhalin Ainu and Japanese. However, although backgrounds were carefully checked yet it must be admitted that the so-called Sakhalin Ainu presented may not necessarily have been established on one hundred per cent pure factors, because it seems difficult to ascertain definitely how long ago it was that Sakhalin Ainu began to mingle with the Japanese. Moreover there is a probability that there may be other blood in the Sakhalin Ainu than their own. The present classification may, however, be said to have been made on as fairly dependable a basis as is available present.The author's previous report dwelt on a comparative study between Hokkaido Ainu and Ainu-hybrid convincingly classified on detailed data. He has come to conclusion that even those data belonging to the so called Ainu may be constitutionally classified as those of hybrids so as they are not so different from those of Ainu hybrids and they are far short of being Ainu-like. This conclusion seems safely applicable to the case of the Sakhalin Ainu.Accordingly it is inferred that the present data of Sakhalin Ainu which show little difference from Sakhalin Ainu hybrids can not be regarded as data of constitutionally pure native Sakhalin Ainu. These data can be reasonably regarded as those of Sakhalin Ainu-Japanese hybrids. It is assumed that pure native Sakhalin Ainu may show much more intensified Ainu features than those reported in the present paper.


Osteoarticular tuberculosis, especially in the foot is uncommon.1 It makes up less than 3% of cases of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. As such, it has remained a diagnostic enigma despite improvements in investigative technology.1–4 It is an aggressive disease. Any significant delay in diagnosis may lead to spread of the infection from bone into adjacent joints and surrounding soft tissue. This leads to significant functional disability.1,4

A 36-year-old South Indian priest attended the orthopaedic department with a 1-year history of spontaneous onset right foot pain. There was no history of trauma or any systemic symptoms that may indicate infection. By the time of presentation he had been living in the UK for over 5 years. His symptoms were affecting his work as a priest as footwear was not permitted in his temple.

On examination there was …


Mining is the predominant industry in South Africa. It is also one of the most dangerous. This article discusses the development of a post-traumatic stress and accident involvement program developed by the Chamber of Mines of South Africa as a result of an explosion in a mine shaft that cost the lives of 52 employees.


The lack of guidance on sample treatment procedures for the measurement of soluble metal compounds in workplace air samples has been problematic for years. It is the intention of the present article to address this important issue by alerting the occupational and environmental health community of the existence of a newly promulgated "soluble" metals procedure, which has been published recently in an International Standard. The subject matter of this article may not appear to deal directly with "instrument performance criteria"; however, sample preparation methods for soluble metal compounds are designbased, and do indeed have a bearing on the subsequent instrumental analysis. Several years ago, the issue of metals and solubility, as it pertains to theAmerican Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' (ACGIH°R ) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs°R ), was discussed extensively by Fairfax and Blotzer.1 The matter is revisited here in view of the recent Ž nal approval of an International Standard, developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which describes methods for extracting metals and metalloids from workplace air samples for their subsequent determination.2 One of the pro-


Introduction: Partial or complete developmental failure to close and absorb the omphalo-mesenteric duct results in a variety of congenital anomalies, Meckel's Diverticulum (MD) with or without omphalo-mesenteric band being the most common. The Cecal volvulus (CV) caused by MD is extremely rare and only few case reports have been reported so far. Case Summary: In this case report, a case of 40-years-old female patient with features of small bowel obstruction is reported. The patient subsequently diagnosed to have "Meckel's Diverticulum" and "Loop Type of Cecal Volvulus" with ischemic changes involving cecum, Meckel's diverticulum, and ascending colon on computed tomography of abdomen performed in emergency. Conclusion: MD is often overlooked, and the patient usually presents with complications, appropriate knowledge of various pathophysiology of complications must be kept in mind for a prompt and effective management. Meckel's Diverticulum is often overlooked and the patient usually presents with complications, appropriate knowledge of various pathophysiology of complications must be kept in mind for a prompt and effective management.


Ground- and air-based lidar systems have been providing volumetric information about air quality, the ozone, global warming, and wind and weather patterns for years. But the real goal is to make it work from outer space.