We study the Cauchy problem for nonlocal reaction diffusion equations with bistable nonlinearity in 1D spatial domain and investigate the asymptotic behaviors of solutions with a one-parameter family of monotonically increasing and compactly supported initial data. We show that for small values of the parameter the corresponding solutions decay to 0, while for large values the related solutions converge to 1 uniformly on compacts. Moreover, we prove that the transition from extinction (converging to 0) to propagation (converging to 1) is sharp. Numerical results are provided to verify the theoretical results.


This article examines if idiosyncratic risk can forecast stock returns for 10 European markets. We found little evidence to suggest that idiosyncratic volatility, equally or value weighted, can predict future stock market returns. However, we found that idiosyncratic risk measured as the equally weighted average variance of all stocks can significantly predict future size and value premia.


The scientific training is not only reflected on the macroscopic aspect –controlling the training and improve the training efficiency but also reflected on the microcosmic aspect—training method,choice of training means,quantity set-up and pertinence with the development of sports scientific training theory.The strength training of shot-players plays a very important role in the whole training process.The article made an analysis on the strength training of different ages and levels with parts of Heilongjiang provincial shot-players.It also introduces some common methods of strength training and some principles and problems to which the athletes should pay more attention.


Employee motivation is a key element in achieving greater professional efficiency. In this study, academic workplace motivation is analyzed the Universidad JuAirez AutA³noma de Tabasco. The study design is non-experimental, transectional and descriptive. The investigation results show that even though two different academic divisions were studied, they have homogenous motivational levels. Moreover, we find that economic incentives, life stability and interpersonal relations are key elements in achieving motivation and professional efficiency.


Community Service Activity ( CSA ) of the application of science and technology entitled "Application of Liquid-Gas Phase Extraction Technology on Development of Kalamansi - Orange - Based Products" has been completed. This activity aims to implement gas-liquid extraction technology, namely steam distillation in extracting essential oils from residues of Kalamansi orange syrup processing, providing knowledge and ways to process Kalamansi orange essential oil into products which have economic value in addition to syrup. It was carried out with the target audience , namely Bhakti Nusa Production Unit in SMKS 16 Bengkulu . It is done to help the production unit to develop Kalamansi-based products by utilizing residues produced by syrup which is rich in essential oils. The products produced on the CSA of the application of science and technology include aromatherapy candles, air freshener gels, anti-mosquito lotions and Bay Tat cakes of Kalamansi jam. The product produced is more widely informed through the socialization activity that received a response and enthusiasm from the audience. Products of CSA of t he application of science and technology are expected to be a superior product from the Bhakti Nusa Production Unit of SMKS 16 Pharmac y as well as to be a top-quality product of the pride of Bengkulu C ity with high economic value. Keywords : Extraction, Liqiud-Gas, Kalamansi, Essential oil


A study on nest-site characteristics with reference to breeding success in the Black-billed Magpies Pica pica sericea was carried out from 1979 to 1983 in the south of Saga City, Japan. Although the density of nests was much higher in the residential areas than in croplands, there was no active preference to nest near human habitations. Utility poles were most used for nesting (46%), and Celtis sinensis (16%), Diospyros kaki (9%), Cinnamomum camphora (6%), and Pinus thunbergii (4%) followed it. There was not any preference either for utility poles, for certain tree species or for evergreen trees. The breeding success was lower in Diospyros than other major tree species. Breeding started earlier and breeding success was higher at nests on taller trees. Tall trees (≥_ 8m) accounted for 92% of 118 nest trees in the residential areas, and 46% of 13 nest trees in croplands. .Although the magpies build their nests on most available tree species, they may prefer tall trees for nesting which are often in short supply outside the residential areas.


Photocatalytic oxidation of benzoic acid by titania, ozoned or hydrogen peroxide of different initial concentrations were studied.The experimental results showed that combined photocatalysis with UV irradiation,ozonation and hydrogen peroxide(UV/TiO2/O3/H2O2) or combined photocatalysis with UV irradiation and ozonation(UV/TiO2/O3) considerably increased degradation of benzoic acid,as compared with UV irradiation alone(UV),or combined photocatalysis with UV irradiation(UV/TiO2),or combined hydrogen peroxide with UV irradiation(UV/H2O2).The best usage of TiO2 was 4.0 g/L,and the degradation speed of benzoic acid increased along with the accretion of the concentration of O3.Benzoic acid was inclined to be oxidized as H2O2 in low concentration.The kinetic study showed that the complete degradation of benzoic acid followed one-order kinetics and this depended only upon TiO2,O3 or H2O2 peroxide concentration and indicated that benzoic acid concentration did not affect the kinetics during UV,UV/TiO2,UV/H2O2,UV/TiO2/O3 and UV/TiO2/O3/H2O2.The rate constants in the degradation of benzoic acid with UV/TiO2/O3/H2O2 were 1.47~6.29 times higher than what with UV/TiO2/O3.The rate constants were 3.39~5.21 times higher than what with TiO2/UV.


Matrix effects, ionization enhancement or suppression, are always possible with the electrospray ionization technique and can significantly hamper the analysis of PFAs in complex environmental matrixes. The objective of this study is to determine and eliminate the matrix effects in analysis of sewage using high performance liquid chromatography-negative electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-negative ESI-MS/MS). Standard addition, which involves spiking successive known quantities of a standard into the sample extracts and reanalyzing, are used for determination of the matrix effects, while correction using isotopically labeled internal standards and clean-up of sample extracts using dispersive carbon sorbent are used for elimination of matrix effects. The results indicate that ultra-short- (C2-3) and long-chain PFCAs (>C10) suffer ionization suppression, while medium-chain PFCAs (C4-10) and PFBS experience ionization enhancement; however, PFHxS and PFOS do not suffer significant matrix effects. Although internal standards, MPFOA and MPFOS, can effectively negate matrix effects for medium-chain PFCAs (C7-10), they are not suitable for some short- ( C10 PFCAs), which are eluted significantly earlier or later than their retention times, respectively. However, matrix effects of all analytes are significantly naegated by dispersive carbon sorbent because it can effectively remove the co-eluting interference compounds from SPE elution but not affect PFAs.


Dark matter can capture in neutron stars from scattering off ultra-relativistic electrons. We present a method to calculate the capture rate on degenerate targets with ultra-relativistic momenta in a compact astronomical object. Our treatment accounts for the target momentum and the Fermi degeneracy of the system. We derive scaling relations for scattering with relativistic targets and confirm consistency with the non-relativistic limit and Lorentz invariance. The potential observation of kinetic heating of neutron stars has a larger discovery reach for dark matter-lepton interactions than conventional terrestrial direct detection experiments. We map this reach onto a set of bosonic and fermionic effective contact interactions between dark matter and leptons as well as nucleons. We show the results for the contact operators up to dimension 6 for spin-0 and spin-1/2 dark matter interactions with relativistic as well as non-relativistic Standard Model fermions. Highlights of this program in the case of vector mediated interactions are presented in a companion letter [1]. Our method is generalizable to dark matter scattering in any degenerate medium where the Pauli exclusion principle leads to relativistic targets with a constrained phase space for scattering.


Microorganisms in streams are potentially transported as freely suspended organisms or attached to particulates. Many water quality models currently neglect resuspension, an important process to predict in-stream bacteria concentrations. The objective of this work is to measure resuspension of E. coli from different substrates under a range of flows. An assessment of the attached fraction and resuspension rate was completed by measuring E. coli concentrations in a recirculating flume at two locations. The test was completed for three different substrates: sand, sand-silt, and sand-silt covered with biofilm. The experiments were conducted at flows below, and above the calculated critical shear stress, as well as two different water depths. Attachment ratios were assessed using a combination of shaking and filtering techniques. The results showed that attachment ratios increased as particle sizes decreases and cohesion increased. Attachment decreased after the critical shear stress was surpassed; sand attachment decreased from 14.29% to 11.44%, sand-silt decreased from 42.01% to 20.59% and biofilm decreased from 82.52% to 11.77% (values averaged for two collection points). The resuspension calculations show resuspension of attached particles at the first test point (8.54E-7 to 1.74E-5 CFU/m 2 /s) and deposition at the second test point (-2.99E-5 to 1.69E-5 CFU/m 2 /s). At the first sample location there was a steady increase of resuspension as shear stress increased whereas at the second sample location the resuspension rate remained nearly constant.


Interleukin 1 (IL-1) is known to activate the signal transduction machinery, including the transcription factor, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB). The activation mechanism of NF-κB has been studied intensively, while the negative regulatory mechanisms of NF-κB remain to be clarified. In the present study, we found that genistein, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, augmented IL-1α-dependent NF-κB activation, suggesting the presence of a tyrosine kinase mediating a suppression signal on NF-κB. As determined by luciferase reporter gene assay using κB-responsive element, genistein enhanced IL-1α-induced NF-κB activation. Although genistein failed to increase luciferase activity at 1 and 3 h after IL-1α stimulation, it induced prolonged activation beginning at 6 h after the initial stimulation. We next examined whether genistein augmented the DNA-binding activity of NF-κB, using electrophoretic mobility shift assay. In the case of the control experiment, the binding of NF- κB to the κB-responsive element peaked at 30 min after IL-1α stimulation, and decreased thereafter. In contrast, treatment with genistein maintained the maximum binding activity for at least 2 h after stimulation. Moreover, genistein enhanced the IL-1α-dependent degradation of IκBα. Taken together, our results indicate that genistein augments IκB degradation, resulting in continuous NF-κB activation. This suggests the possibility that tyrosine kinase negatively regulates NF-κB.


Multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD) is a rare metabolic disorder of oxidation of amino acids and fatty acids with an autosomal recessive inheritance. Patients usually present symptoms of MADD in the neonatal period, though it can also be diagnosed in the late adulthood. We present a 36-year-old male with MADD who had sensory axonal neuropathy, rhabdomyolysis metabolic acidosis, lactic acidosis, hypoglycemia and low ketone bodies and renal failure. Early diagnosis and prompt management with carnitine and riboflavin supplements can help in better management of this rare metabolic disorder.


We prove an analogue of the Kac–Wakimoto conjecture for the periplectic Lie superalgebra [Formula: see text], stating that any simple module lying in a block of non-maximal atypicality has superdimension zero.


The paper analyzes the relationship between abnormal overpressure and gas pool formation in the tectonic compression environment, taking the Kela 2 gas field of Kuqa Depression as an example.In the earlier cosmic elevating,most gas is injected into pool and the pressure of gas accumulation rises rapidly.The hydrocarbon accumulation model of Kela 2 is that the reservoir and source rocks are communicated by faults,and oil and gas driven by superpressure migrate into reservoir and accumulate.In the earlier accumulation,the reservoir has no strong superpressure and is not closed.The fluids can outflow from it.With the natural gas replacing water in the structural trap and the diagenesis,the liquid pressure of gas accumulation rises and the overpressure pool is formed no more than 2 Ma ago.Abnormal overpressure and gas accumulation are the results of structural event and conservation condition;there is not a cause-effect connection between them.The perfect match between gas source and seal is the key factor of gas accumulation.


Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory dermatosis that may manifest with flushing, erythema, telangiectasia, papules and pustules, or phymatous changes, occasionally with ocular involvement.1 It was widely accepted that rosacea typically occurs in people aged 30-50 years old.2 However, the youngest rosacea patient reported was an eight-year-old girl, inspiring dermatologists to pay more attention to the evaluation of rosacea among younger populations.3 Moreover, evidence supported that not merely adults but also adolescents are subject to the influence caused by their skin conditions.4 Hence, we aimed to explore the prevalence, clinical characteristics and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of rosacea in Chinese adolescents to establish future guidelines.


The Finite Element model of the laminate plate is used to approximate the experimental modal results by a optimization procedure. From the modal properties the tensile and shear modulus and the Poisson coefficient of a woven orthotropic composite plate were determined by this method. The plates used in the experiment are made of S2-glass/epoxy with 16 layers are manufactured by vacuum assisted wet lay-up. The matrix of the nanocomposite has been obtained by adding 0%, 1%, 2% nanoclays in weight into epoxy matrix. Remarks are made about the results, analysis methodology and its limitations. .


8065 Background: Reducing the tumor burden prior to vaccination facilitates an effective immune response (IR) against the idiotype in FL. In this context, we evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of a novel cytoreductive regimen, CVP/F. Methods: Newly diagnosed, advanced stage FL patients (pt) were treated with CVP (cyclophosphamide 400 mg/m2 PO d1–5, vincristine 2 mg d 1, prednisone 100 mg/m2 d1–5) alternating with F (25 mg/m2 IV d1–5) every 21 days for 2 cycles beyond best response (maximum 8). Pt judged to be cytoreduced adequately were vaccinated monthly × 5 with idiotype protein made from their FL. Results: Among 34 enrolled pt, median age was 45 years (yr), and FLIPI scores were: 18% low, 71% intermediate and 12% high. 38% pt had grade 1 and 62% had grade 2 FL. There were no toxic deaths or opportunistic infections. With 233 cycles (117 CVP and 116 F) given to 33 evaluable pt, neutropenic fever occurred in 7 cycles (3%). 20 cycles (17%) of CVP and 29 cycles (25%) of F were dose reduced for leukopenia....


This paper proposes an inverse optimal control (IOC) framework which incorporates demonstrations with mixed qualities. The proposed method utilizes the benefits of sub-optimal demonstrations which can provide information about what not to do and supplies training data near states unvisited by optimal demonstrations. The main idea of the proposed method is to find the value function which satisfies the optimality condition over optimal demonstrations and violates it over sub-optimal demonstrations. We conduct experiments on three environments and empirically show that the proposed method outperforms the original IOC algorithm, which uses only optimal demonstrations.


[Purpose] This study investigated differences in respiratory function between female university students with and without recurrent non-specific low back pain. [Subjects and Methods] Seventeen female university students with non-specific chronic low back pain (LBP group) and 17 healthy female university students (healthy group) participated in this study. Forced vital capacity (FVC), percentage of predicted forced vital capacity (%FVC), maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures, chest and abdominal wall mobility (breathing movement scale), and abdominal wall mobility during a leg raise were measured. [Results] FVC, %FVC, the scale values for the upper and lower chest wall mobility, and the scale values for abdominal wall mobility during a leg raise were significantly lower in the LBP group than in the healthy group. [Conclusion] The results suggest that non-specific chronic low back pain may be associated with decreased FVC related to chest and abdominal wall mobility of female university students.


A process for the preparation of a mesopore molecular sieve, hydrocarbon groups are bonded directly to silicon atoms in its molecular skeleton, in which a metal oxide and / or a precursor thereof and a silane compound of the formula (1) in the presence of a surface active agent (matrix), which for the formation is suitable mesoporous structures, is reacted in a solvent at room temperature to 100 ° C, the resulting product is separated and washed and the matrix is removed from the product, wherein - the metal oxide and / or a precursor thereof comprises silica alone, or silica in a mixture with at least one other metal oxide and the atomic ratio of silicon to the further metal is at least 5; - is the silane compound represented by the formula (1) shown RSiX wherein - R is a C - X is a C - the molar ratio of silane compound is too metal oxide in the range of 0.01 to 0.6; - the...


Rates of turnover of water, energy and sodium were measured in free-ranging and enclosed Lacerta viridis and Vipera aspis at a site in Western France in late summer. Rates of CO2 production did not differ significantly between free-ranging Lacerta and those maintained in large outdoor enclosures and averaged 0.371 ± 0.056 mL(g.hr)-1 which was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than the rate of 0.152 ± 0.02 mL(g.hr)-1 recorded for Vipera aspis living in similar outdoor enclosures. Rates of water, but not sodium, turnover were significantly greater in free-ranging than in enclosed Lacerta (12.03 ± 1.21 mL(100g.day)-1 versus 7.46 ± 1.03 mL(100g.day)-1 respectively), suggesting that the free-ranging individuals, which were captured along a canal, had access to a source of free water not linked with their diet. Field Metabolic Rates (FMR) of Lacerta were positively and significantly correlated with the rate of water turnover and analysis of influx and efflux data indicate that this lizard requires on the average approximately 8mL(100g.day)-1 of water to maintain its hydric balance. A similar analysis suggests that this species requires roughly 1meq(kg.day)-1 of sodium for the maintenance of electrolyte balance. Rates of sodium and water turnover were significantly correlated in captive Lacerta, the diet of which was supplemented daily with mealworms and crickets, but the correlation in the case of animals living by the canal was not significant, indicating again that sources of water and sodium intake were independent in these individuals. Rates of water and sodium turnover were low in the vipers maintained in external enclosures and both elements were in negative balance, as would be expected with non-feeding animals. The data reveal a small but significant intake of sodium however, which was not identified. A regression of water intake versus rate of weight loss suggest that Vipera aspis requires an intake of approximately 2.5mL(100g.day)-1 to maintain hydric balance under these conditions. The data reported here for FMR's and rates of water turnover are compared with those for other lizards in the literature and suggest that Lacerta viridis falls mid-way between desert and tropical species studied to date. Further work with temperate-living species should prove of value in delineating the physiological capacities of terrestrial reptiles.


Background. Doppler velocimetry, a new tool for measuring blood flow, vascular resistance, and central hemodynamics can be applied to monitor those patients at risk and provide therapeutic concepts for preeclampsia. This study was designed to use a Doppler velocimetry stud to correlate the relationship between central hemodynamics, uteroplacental circulation, and the perinatal outcome in severe preeclampsia.


The open laboratory is the breach in the reform of experimental teaching.To improve the teaching quality and teaching effectiveness of experimental teaching,and to promote the combination of teaching and open laboratory construction,some experience of several years' exploration in laboratory construction has been summarized.Based on the teaching system of "one principal line,four levels,and six modules",this paper introduces the construction of the harbor laboratory in terms of regulations,open laboratory mechanism,teaching team,and experimental teaching material,etc.


A highly efficient process for the production and recovery of pure succinic acid from a succinate salt that involves minimal use of additional reagents, and produces virtually no waste by-products, and permits internal recycle of the base and acid values, is provided. The method involves the formation of diammonium succinate, either by using an ammonium ion based material to maintain neutral8 pH in the fermenter or by substituting the ammonium cation for the cation of the succinate salt created in the fermenter. The diammonium succinate can then be reacted with a sulfate ion, such as by combining the diammonium succinate with ammonium bisulfate and/or sulfuric acid at sufficiently low pH to yield succinic acid and ammonium sulfate. The ammonium sulfate is advantageously cracked thermally into ammonia and ammonium bisulfate. The succinic acid can be purified with a methanol dissolution step. Various filtration, reflux and reutilization steps can also be employed.


Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology ¦ Volume 23 ¦ Issue 5 ¦ September-October 2020 736 Sir, Both carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and transfemoral carotid artery stenting (TFCAS) for carotid stenosis cannot be performed in certain situations. Transcarotid arterial revascularization (TCAR) is now an established alternative in "difficult carotids."[1] Herein, we describe a "similar" hybrid technique for CAS that obviates the need for expensive hardware.


With the booming deployment of smart homes, concerns about user privacy keep growing. Recent research has shown that encrypted wireless traffic of IoT devices can be exploited by packet-sniffing attacks to reveal users' privacy-sensitive information (e.g., the time when residents leave their home and go to work), which may be used to launch further attacks (e.g., a break-in). To address the growing concerns, we propose SniffMislead, a non-intrusive (i.e., without modifying IoT devices, hubs, or platforms) privacy-protecting approach, based on packet injection, against wireless packet sniffers. Instead of randomly injecting packets, which is ineffective against a smarter attacker, SniffMislead proposes the notion of phantom users, "people" who do not exist in the physical world. From an attacker's perspective, however, they are perceived as real users. SniffMislead places multiple phantom users in a smart home, which can effectively prevent an attacker from inferring useful information. We design a top-down approach to synthesize phantom users' behaviors, construct the sequence of decoy device events and commands, and then inject corresponding packets into the home. We show how SniffMislead ensures logical integrity and contextual consistency of injected packets, as well as how it makes a phantom user indistinguishable from a real user. Our evaluation results from a smart home testbed demonstrate that SniffMislead significantly reduces an attacker's privacy-inferring capabilities, bringing the accuracy from 94.8% down to 3.5%.


In variable rate application technology (VRT), crop production input rate is changed within fields in response to spatially variable factors that affect the optimum application rate. It is being considered by farmers and the crop input industry because factors that affect crop yield are not always uniform within fields and, therefore, do not allow optimum efficiency or profitability from uniform application. If VRT is widely adopted, then a change must occur in the predominant management practice of applying inputs as uniformly as possible and changing rates only between fields-what has historically occurred on the majority of production fields. Properly implemented, VRT is a correct concept and can work [...]


This paper proposes a class of ratio type estimators of finite population variance, when the population variance of an auxiliary character is known. Asymptotic expression for mean square error (MSE) is derived and compared with the mean square errors of some existing estimators. An empirical study is carried out to illustrate the performance of the constructed estimator over others.


We presenr s:anning tunneling. mlclg:copy (STM) images of smooth, in situ prepared, Sulfur-terminated (S-termihated) Ga]{s(001; surface reconstruction. It is found that Z x 6 surface reconstruction is dominant on the S-terminated CaAqOOf) surface. This Z x 6 reconstruction, which cell is containip fiye S-S adatom dimers, ii O#rmineO Uy Uotl STM 11{ lefJection high.-energy electron diffiaction. Atomic model, which is consisrenr with both the s'l.M images and electron-counting heuristics, is also shown. Moreover, thi Z x 6 reconstruction is also observed in the case of (NFl+)zsx-treated surface.


Most existing methodologies for text classification represent text as vectors of words, to be specific "bag-of-words." This content portrayal results in a high dimensionality of feature space and much of the time experiences surface jumbling. When it comes to short texts, these become even more serious because of their shortness and sparsity and with the bilingual similarity of text it gets more difficult. This paper proposes an approach to deal with both sparsity and computational complexity of bilingual similarity of short text. English short text is mapped with Probase and Hindi short text is mapped with BabelNet a knowledge base with coverage of words and concepts for 248 languages. A semantic network is created to manipulate the word to word and concept to concept correlation. Unlike the earlier approaches of embedding, words and concepts from both English and Hindi short texts are treated separately to yield word embedding (Word2Vec) and concept embedding (Concept2Vec) respectively. The similarity between bilingual short texts is computed using the skip-gram based word embedding and concept embedding. When evaluated with Pilot and STSS 131 short text benchmark datasets, the proposed optimized bilingual short text embedding gives better similarity score. Keywords— Short text, Conceptualization, Probase, BabelNet, Skipgram, Word2Vec, Concept2Vec


The GANSEKI (Geochemistry and Archives of ocean floor rocks on Networks for Solid Earth Knowledge Integration) database, managed by JAMSTEC, houses information and geochemical data of rock samples collected during research cruises. The database can be searched by two methods: by dive and dredge sites identified on a map, and by metadata. Of the rocks in the database, archived samples housed at JAMSTEC are available for observation and analysis free of charge, if an application is made and accepted, and geochemical data in the JAMSTEC archives have been compiled in GANSEKI.


This report summarizes the tools and methods used to parameterize the radiative absorption by CH and N O 4 2 within the context of the infrared radiative transfer model of Chou and Suarez (1994), currently being used within the LLNL/UCLA climate model. We discuss in detail the physical formulation, computational implementation, and application of codes for line-by-line opacity calculations and generation of wide-band opacity probability distributions. In treating the wide-band opacity probability distributions, we derive the equations for weighting the opacity probabilities of individual wavenumber bins by the Planck function. Finally, we verify our implementation of CH and N O absorption with the the Chou and Suarez model by 4 2 comparision of radiative fluxes and tropospheric forcings with benchmark cases from ICRCCM and IPCC studies. Our parameterizations of the tropospheric forcing of ambient CH and N O individually, in the absence 4 2 of other trace gases, were within 13% of the ICRCCM medians. The combined forcing for the two gases was within 10% of the ICRCCM median. Our tropospheric radiative forcings for anthropogenic perturbation scenarios from IPCC and other sources compared within 2–11% with the benchmark values.


Ad-hoc networks consist of autonomous self-organized nodes. Nodes use a wireless medium for communication, thus two nodes can communicate directly if and only if they are within each other's transmission radius. Swarm intelligence refers to complex behaviors that arise from very simple individual behaviors and interactions, which is often observed in nature, especially among social insects such as ants. Although each individual (an ant) has little intelligence and simply follows basic rules using local information obtained from the environment, such as ant's pheromone trail laying and following behavior, globally optimized behaviors, such as finding a shortest path, emerge when they work collectively as a group. In this paper, we apply this biologically inspired metaphor to the routing in mobile ad hoc networks. In this paper, we describe an algorithm which draws inspiration from Swarm Intelligence to obtain these characteristics. In an extensive set of simulation tests, we compare our routing algorithm with a state-of-the-art algorithm, and show that it gets better performance over a wide range of different scenarios and for a number of different evaluation measures. In particular, we show that it scales better with the number of nodes in the network.


In this paper, performance of STBC, VBLAST, MLSTBC and Hybrid-STBC-VBLAST is investigated in the presence of rayleigh fading for relay assisted multiple access communication. STBC provides diversity gain but does not provide multiplexing gain. On the other hand, VBLAST provides multiplexing gain but does not provide diversity gain. But combination of STBC and VBAST scheme such as MLSTBC and HYBRID-STBC-VBLAST provide both diversity and multiplexing gain. So, it is possible to improve the capacity of second hop for a relay assisted multiple access channel maintaining the reliability of system by using MLSTBC or Hybrid-STBC-VBLAST. The capacity of whole system also increases for using MLSTBC and HYBRID-STBC-VBLAST at relay. An adaptive MIMO transmission approach among STBC, VBLAST, MLSTBC and Hybrid-STBC-VBLAST is also proposed based on the capacity for relay assisted multiple access communication. The proposed scheme compares the capacity of STBC, VBLAST, MLSTBC and Hybrid-STBC-VBLAST at destination and selects the MIMO mode for highest capacity and sends feedback to the relay with two extra signaling bits. It consists of users where each user transmits STBC encoded information from two transmit antennas. STBC or VBLAST or MLSTBC or Hybrid-STBC-VBLAST is used depending on the feedback bits to re-encode the information at relay. Simulation and analytical results are presented to show the performance of the proposed system.


We consider a single product maritime inventory routing problem in which the production and consumption rates are constant over the planning horizon. The problem involves a heterogeneous fleet and multiple production and consumption ports with limited storage capacity. Maritime transportation is characterized by high levels of uncertainty, and sailing times can be severely influenced by varying and unpredictable weather conditions. To deal with the uncertainty, this paper investigates the use of adaptable robust optimization where the sailing times are assumed to belong to the well-known budget polytope uncertainty set. In the recourse model, the routing, the order of port visits, and the quantities to load and unload are fixed before the uncertainty is revealed, while the visit time to ports and the stock levels can be adjusted to the scenario. We propose a decomposition algorithm that iterates between a master problem that considers a subset of scenarios and an adversarial separation problem that search...


Modern telecommunications companies operate in conditions of risk and uncertainty due to both external and internal factors. Due to the influence of various factors, companies may find themselves in a state of crisis due to the lack of a management mechanism, the main purpose of which is to ensure economic stability and efficiency based on sustainable capacity building. The purpose of this article is to identify the factors that affect the economic stability of telecommunications enterprises in Ukraine, and study their impact on the integrated indicator in order to form an organizational and economic mechanism for managing economic stability. The study was carried out using the following methods: analysis, synthesis, generalization, systematization, correlation and regression analysis. The main tendencies of Ukrainian telecommunication networks development are defined in this research. It is established that the crisis conditions in the world and national economy have led to the development of organizational and economic mechanism for managing the economic stability of telecommunications enterprises. The key structural element of this mechanism is proposed to determine the assessment of economic stability based on the use of a set of balanced indicators. Based on correlation and regression analysis, a significant dependence of the overall integrated indicator of economic stability on the subscriber component, moderate - on the component of internal business processes and staff training and development and a weak inverse dependence on the financial component. It was proved an expediency of using multicollinearity to check the tightness of the relationship between the analyzed variables in the regression model.


Three new thymol derivatives, 7-formyl-9-isobutyryloxy-8-hydroxythymol (1), 7,9-di-isobutyryloxy-8,10-dehydrothymol (2) and 2α-methoxyl-3β-methyl-6-methylol-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (3), along with five known ones (4–8), were isolated from the aerial parts of the invasive plant Ageratina adenophora. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and they were all isolated from the aerial part of A. adenophora for the first time. These compounds, except 8, selectively showed in vitro antimicrobial activity against three Gram-(+) and two Gram-(−) bacterial strains. In particular, compounds 1 and 5 showed notable in vitro antimicrobial activity against all five bacterial strains with IC50 values ranging from 3.9 to 15.6 μg mL−1, as compared to reference compound kanamycin sulfate with a MIC value 1.9–3.9 μg mL−1. Compounds 1 and 5 were further revealed to show in vitro cytotoxic activity against three tested human tumor (MCF-7, NCI-H460 and HeLa) cell lines, with IC50 values ranging from 7.45 to 28.63 μM. Compounds 7 and 8 selectively showed slight but detectable in vitro cytotoxicity toward MCF-7 and NCI-H460 cell lines, with IC50 values 44.65–83.19 μM. No cytotoxic effects were detected in the bioassay of the other four thymol derivatives. The present results provide new data to support that the aerial parts of A. adenophora are a rich source of bioactive chemicals valuable in medicinal applications.


Agency decision-making regarding the release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment, which has the potential to affect the environment and human health, must be consistent with the principles of sustainable development. This requires adherence to the principles of intergenerational equity, the conservation of biological diversity, the precautionary principle, and the polluter pays principle. The potential risks associated with GMOs make public participation an essential element of agency decision-making. This is because the scientific evidence about the safety, or otherwise, of GMOs is sufficiently uncertain. In such a case, decisions to release them must be politically negotiated. Yet when the regulatory arrangements for dealing with GMOs in the United States and the European Union are compared and contrasted markedly different regulatory frameworks emerge. In the case of the US, the regulation of GMOs falls short of the sustainability benchmark, while the EU's seems entirely consistent with it. How do we explain, then, the paradox of a US public which is so accepting of food derived under a relatively lax regulatory and administrative framework, and a fearful EU public protected by extensive regulation and risk assessment processes?


The Yucatan coastline has been experiencing beach erosion during the past few decades; the erosion has reached critical points at some locations such as the Chelem beach, located near the Progreso Pier. Despite this problem, only few studies have been devoted in order to investigate the role of coastal structures on explaining the high erosion rates reported at this location. Therefore, the aim of this work is to evaluate the effects of the Progreso Pier on the wave transformation and alongshore sediment transport in the study area. Field surveys were conducted in a monthly basis in order to estimate the erosion rates and wave conditions with an ADCP installed at 8 m water depth. The field information confirmed the high erosional trends (O(1)m/year) that explain coastal infrastructure damage and property losses. The wave measurements were employed as the forcing of a wind-wave numerical model (MIKE 21 SW). The numerical model is implemented in the study area for two different scenarios, with and without the pier; this was to estimate nearshore wave conditions. Subsequently, the nearshore wave climate at 5 m water depth is employed for the calculation of alongshore sediment transport rates in 5 points that are representative of the littoral drift along the study area. The modeling results show that the pier acts as a large scale wave-sheltering structure that induces important alongshore sediment transport gradients under mean wave conditions, decreasing the capacity of the waves to recover the beach. On the other hand, during winter storms, when the direction of the waves is from the NNW, the structure does not seem to play an important role on wave transformation into the study. As a result, the Progreso Pier enhances beach erosion in the Chelem area by inducing algonshore gradients in sediment transport and decreasing the beach recovery capability


Most efficient synthetic route to dl-estrone appears to be based on the cobalt-mediated cooligomerization of bis(trimethyl)acetylene with 1,5-hexadiyne which provides the one-step construction of rings ABC of the steroid nucleus with essentially complete chemo-, regio-, and stereospecificity. Treatment of the resultant bis silyl derivative with trifluoroacetic acid at -30/sup 0/C and monitoring the reaction by NMR produced 90% yield of 3-(CH/sub 3/)/sub 3/trimethylsilylestra-1,3,5(10) trien-17-one. Oxidative aryl-silicon cleavage occurs almost quantitatively on exposure to lead (trifluoroacetate) to provide dl-estrone. This route constitutes the shortest racemic estrone synthesis known to date starting from a monocyclic or acyclic precursor.


The web applications developed are often poorly structured and poorly documented. Maintaining such systems is problematic. This paper presents an approach to recover the architecture of such systems, in order to make maintenance more manageable. The approach extracts the structure of web applications and shows the interaction between their various components. The recovery process uses a set of extractors to analyze the source code of web applications. The extracted data is manipulated to reduce the complexity of the architectural diagrams. Developers can use the extracted architecture to gain a better understanding of web applications and to assist in their maintenance.


A fully explicit formula for the eigenvalues of Casimir invariants for U-q(gl(m/n)) is given which applies to all unitary irreps. This is achieved by making some interesting observations on atypicality indices for irreps occurring in the tensor product of unitary irreps of the same type. These results have applications in the determination of link polynomials arising from unitary irreps of U-q(gl(m/n)).


The statistical systems of the developing countries have experienced significant changes in recent years. However, the growing importance of statistical information for the decisionmaking process both at national and international level, in an increasingly globalised world, combined with the fact that statistics are a public good, pose very demanding challenges for those countries. The purpose of this STCPM was, on the one hand, to present to the international statistical community the work done so far by a group of developing countries, namely the Portuguese-speaking African countries, in terms of developing their respective statistical systems and, on the other hand, to share their main concerns in order to meet the challenges ahead, while benefiting from the experiences of other developed countries.


Russian émigré Alexey Brodovitch, best known for leading a radical shift in magazine design in the United States during his twenty-four-year tenure (1934–58) as art director of Harper's Bazaar, also pursued innovative practices in other fields of art, design, and education. His ballet photography, made during rehearsals and performances of touring dance companies in New York City from 1935 to 1938, explored unusual methods of capturing dancers in motion. Brodovitch's images would eventually come to be celebrated for their unconventional approach, but at the time, Brodovitch was not sure of his direction. Recent archival discoveries suggest that Brodovitch reframed this graphic "problem" into curriculum for his classes at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, inspiring students to delve into a number of experimental photographic techniques and pioneering the teaching of such practices in American classrooms.


This study investigates the comparative ability of a marathon and a weekly encounter group to produce gains in self-actualization. The sub jects were twenty-three undergraduates who volunteered for each of the experiences. The marathon group was conducted for sixteen relatively continuous hours. The weekly group met for two hours, twice weekly, for four weeks-a total of sixteen hours. Both treatment groups, conducted by the same leader, received the same sequence of group exercises. A signifi cant group effect indicated that both groups increased their self- actualization scores from the pretest. No significant differences were found between the two experimental groups on self-actualization or per ceived adjustment to life events over the two-year follow-up. No signifi cant group differences were found on participants' retrospective ratings of short-term and long-term group effects. Among other issues, the possi bility that certain treatment goals may be selectively influenced by one time format over the other is discussed.


X-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopies, high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy, spot profile analysis low energy electron diffraction, and density functional theory calculations are employed to study the growth of (001) oriented ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}$ surfaces on a Pd(100)-supported MnO(001) substrate, with the Hausmannite planar lattice constants aligned along the [110] direction of the underlying MnO(001) support. We show that despite the rather large lattice mismatch, abrupt interfaces may exist between rocksalt MnO and Hausmannite. We argue that this process is facilitated by the relatively low computed strain energy and we propose realistic models for the interface. An atop site registry between the Mn(O) atoms of the oxygen rich ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}$ termination and the MnO(001) O(Mn) atoms underneath is found to be the energetically most favorable configuration. The significant planar expansion is accompanied by a large compression of the ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}$ vertical lattice constant, yielding structural distortion of the O-Mn-O octahedral axis. Spot profile analysis low energy electron diffraction experiments show that the conversion reaction proceeds easily in both directions, thus indicating the reversible redox character of the transition.


A simple and efficient synthesis of benzo[4,5]imidazo[1,2- a ]pyrimidine derivatives has been accomplished by the reaction of 2-aminobenzimidazole, aldehydes and β-dicarbonyl compounds under solvent-free conditions in the presence of silica sulfuric acid. KEY WORDS : B enzo[4,5]imidazo[1,2- a ]pyrimidine , S ilica sulfuric acid , 2- A minobenzimidazole , A romatic aldehydes , β- D icarbonyl compounds , S olvent-free Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2010 , 24(3), 417-423.


This announcement outlines a reformulation of W. Gustin's combinatorial theory of current graphs [3] and J. W. T. Youngs' extension of that theory to vortex graphs [8] into the topological context of covering spaces and branched covering spaces. Whereas certain restrictions imposed by Gustin and Youngs were convenient in obtaining minimal imbeddings of complete graphs, leading to the solution of the Heawood map-coloring problem (see Ringel and Youngs [6]), the present relaxation of those restrictions leads to a more general method of constructing minimal and other imbeddings of graphs.


Objective:To evaluate the prognostic value of NT-pro-B type natriuretic peptide(NT-proBNP) in patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism(PTE).Methods:A total of 55 PTE patients were divided into two groups.NT-proBNP(+) group,n=31,the patients had the serum NT-proBNP≥450pg/ml from 0-49 years of age,NT-proBNP≥900pg/ml from 50-75 years,and NT-proBNP≥1800pg/ml from 76-100 years;and NT-proBNP(-) group,n=24,the patients had serum NT-proBNP less than the above level at each same age group respectively.The systolic blood pressure,heart rate,oxygen pressure(PaO2),end diastolic diameter of right ventricle,rate of pulmonary hypertension and the clinical adverse outcome were compared in both groups.Results:The heart rate was increased and the systolic blood pressure,PaO2 were decreased in NT-proBNP(+) group than that in NT-proBNP(-) group,P0.05 respectively.The end diastolic diameter of right ventricle and the rate of pulmonary hypertension were higher in NT-proBNP(+) group,P0.01 respectively.The incidence of clinical adverse outcome was higher in NT-proBNP(+) group,P0.01.The patients with clinical adverse outcome had the higher median NT-proBNP than those without it(7436pg/ml vs.812pg/ml),P0.01.The elevated NT-proBNP was an independent risk factor for clinical adverse outcome by statistical analysis(OR:15.3,95% CI 1.2~134.0;P 0.05).Conclusion:The patients with the high risk or intermediate risk of PTE usually have increased serum NT-proBNP,likewise,PTE patients with normal serum level of NT-proBNP will have better prognosis.


The ion implantation method is analysed from the point of view of its efficiency as a technique for doping silicon with donor and acceptor impurities, for synthesising silicon-based compounds and for producing gettering layers and optoelectronic structures. The introduction, agglomeration, and annealing of radiation-produced defects in ion-implanted silicon are considered. The role of interstitial defects in radiation-related defect formation is estimated. Mechanisms of athermal migration of silicon atoms in the silicon lattice are analysed.


In the papera methodology for controlling a technological process described by a two-dimensional normal distribution using new control charts is given, where the control value is Kolmogorov's statistics ρx and ρy and a correlation coefficient (rxy). Using these control charts shows the control of the machine producing the shotgun shells (weapons or other shotgun shells). Control charts are based on Kolmogorov's consentcriterion and Fisher's criterion of linear dependence of the components of a random normal vector.


By computing the relevance of follow-up stories, the traditional topic tracking approaches could track the stories. However, subtopics derived from one topic and the evolution process of these subtopics could not be identified with traditional approaches. A method is proposed to detect event and subtopics and get the evolution process of event from media data. Firstly creating entity vectors with entities in the media data and computing similarity between two entity vectors to separate single event. Then creating full vectors with all keywords in the dataset of an event and computing similarity between two full vectors to get several subtopics of an event and the evolution process of the event. Experiments show that this method can get events and subtopics of them effectively.


This paper presents a new tri-dexel volumetric modeling method for representing complex geometric models in applications such as haptic virtual sculpting and product prototyping. A tri-dexel model consists of three overlapping dexel models in X, Y, and Z axis directions, respectively. Detailed algorithms of eliminating inconsistency in a tri-dexel model and reconstructing a water-tight polyhedral surface model from a tri-dexel model are discussed in this paper. Compared to the traditional voxel model data structure and dexel model data structure, the proposed tri-dexel data structure provides a better alternative geometric modeling method for certain applications. The proposed techniques can be used as a geometric representation kernel in CAD/CAM systems and CNC process simulation. #


The paper presents an approach based on field bus and multi agent for job shop dynamic scheduling problem.The approach is a hybrid multi agent scheduling one.In this approach,there is a primary agent that sends scheduling tasks to other secondary agents.After all secondary agents complete their scheduling tasks,they transfer the scheduling results to the primary agent.Then the primary agent modifies these results until getting a good scheduling solution.The results of experiments appear that the approach possesses fine extensibility and robustiness.


Instagram is a new media which is a development of mass media. This is what causes humans to easily spread information and even a culture. Korean Wave is a popular culture from Korea that is very fast to spread, one of which is through this Instagram media. Instagram contributes in providing a picture of the meaning of masculinity. One boy band from South Korea namely Beyond The Scene (BTS) also utilizes Instagram media to provide information and interact with audiences. This boy band, which in 2019 has 19.3 million followers, often uploads photos with a fashion style that is quite unique. The fashion style gave rise to different responses from the audience, especially about the concept of masculinity.The research method used in this research is descriptive qualitative and interpretive with reception analyst approach from Stuart Hall. To obtain data, researchers used the Focus Group Discusion (FGD) method on 6 male members in the K-Popers community namely BLAST Entertainment and Documentation to strengthen the authenticity of the data. After that the data will be examined and grouped into 3 reception categories namely, Dominant reading, negotiated reading, and Oppositional reading.
The results of this study indicate that most members of the BLAST community do not agree that the BTS fashion style on Instagram is part of the masculine concept. This is marked by 3 informants included in the Oppositional Reading category. However, rejecting this masculine concept did not stop them from working and continued to adopt and make the fashion of this Korean boy band their mecca.


The large branching ratios for pure annihilation $\bar{B}_s^0$ $\to$ $\pi^+ \pi^-$ and $\bar{B}_d^0$ $\to$ $K^+ K^-$ decays reported by CDF and LHCb collaborations recently and the so-called ${\pi}K$ and ${\pi}{\pi}$ puzzles indicate that spectator scattering and annihilation contributions are important to the penguin-dominated, color-suppressed tree dominated, and pure annihilation nonleptonic $B$ decays. Combining the available experimental data for $B_{u,d}$ ${\to}$ $\pi \pi$, ${\pi}K$ and $K \bar{K}$ decays, we do a global fit on the spectator scattering and annihilation parameters $X_H({\rho}_H$, ${\phi}_H)$, $X_A^i({\rho}_A^{i},{\phi}_A^{i})$ and $X_A^f({\rho}_A^{f},{\phi}_A^{f})$, which are used to parameterize the endpoint singularity in amplitudes of spectator scattering, nonfactorizable and factorizable annihilation topologies within the QCD factorization framework, in three scenarios for different purpose. Numerically, in scenario II, we get $({\rho}_A^{i},{\phi}_A^{i}[^{\circ}])=(2.88^{+1.52}_{-1.30},-103^{+33}_{-40})$ and $({\rho}_A^{f},{\phi}_A^{f}[^{\circ}])=(1.21^{+0.22}_{-0.25},-40^{+12}_{-8})$ at the $68\%$ confidence level, which are mainly demanded by resolving ${\pi}K$ puzzle and confirm the presupposition that $X_A^i\neq X_A^f$. In addition, correspondingly, the $B$-meson wave function parameter $\lambda_B$ is also fitted to be $0.18^{+0.11}_{-0.08}\, MeV$, which plays an important role for resolving both ${\pi}K$ and $\pi\pi$ puzzles. With the fitted parameters, the QCDF results for observables of $B_{u,d}$ $\to$ $\pi \pi$, $\pi K$ and $K \bar{K}$ decays are in good agreement with experimental measurements. Much more experimental and theoretical efforts are expected to understand the underlying QCD dynamics of spectator scattering and annihilation contributions.


Chassis is the main carriage system of vehicle. Vibration occurs in chassis due to internally generated forces, unbalances and external loads. Understanding any structural vibration problem is to define its modes of vibration. Each mode is defined by natural frequency, modal damping and mode shape. ODS testing is done for frame numerically using ANSYS. Steel chassis analysis is done both numerically and experimentally using Shaker, Data signal analyzerand ME'ScopeVES.


Keeping soil health intact for sustained production had been the prime concern of agricultural science and shall ever remain so till any source other than farming is searched out as a source of human nutrition. The term soil health is a composite nomenclature comprising physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. The various soil properties too are closely inter related and inter dependent the interplay of which is the ultimate parameter of productivity of soils. The soil biological attributes are also responsible for determination & maintenance of physical properties of soil. The physical properties of soil in its own turn


Development in Bangladesh is increasingly defined by and through an adaptation regime, a socially and historically specific configuration of power that governs the landscape of possible intervention in the face of climate change. It includes institutions of development, research, media, and science, as well as various state actors both nationally and internationally. The adaptation regime operates through three interrelated processes: imagination, experimentation, and dispossession. Each of these processes is produced and manifested both materially and epistemically. The adaptation regime is built on a vision of development in which urbanization and export-led growth are both desirable and inevitable. For the rural poor, this entails dispossession from agrarian livelihoods and outmigration. As this shift contributes to the expansion of production of export commodities such as garments and frozen shrimp, the threat of climate change and its associated migrations is reframed as an opportunity for development and growth.


The National Petroleum Reserve No. 3 site (NPR-3) near Casper, Wyoming is being prepared for transfer to private industry. Remediation of the NPR-3 site has already begun in anticipation of this transfer. This document describes the characterization of the NPR-3 site for Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM). Data generated on radionuclide concentrations and radon emanation may be used to determine disposal options and the need for remediation at this site. A preliminary gamma survey of the NPR-3 site was conducted to identify areas of potential NORM contamination. Based on these gamma surveys, two general areas of NORM contamination were found: the North Water Flood area and the BTP-10 produced water discharge steam. A maximum surface exposure rate of 120 {micro}R h{sup -1} was observed in the North Water Flood area, with the highest readings found along the drainage channel from the area. Exposure rates dropped to background quickly with increasing distance from the center of the drainage. The maximum observed exposure rate in the BTP-10 produced water drainage was 40 {micro}R h{sup -1}. Soil and sediment sampling were concentrated in these two areas. All samples were analyzed for concentration of {sup 226}Ra, {sup 228}Ra, and {sup 40}K. Maximum {sup 226}Ra concentrations observed in the samples collected were 46 pCi g{sup -1} for soil and 78 pCi g{sup -1} for sediment. Concentrations in most samples were considerably lower than these values. Radon emanation fraction was also measured for a randomly selected fraction of the samples. The mean Rn emanation fraction measured was 0.10, indicating that on average only 10 percent of the Rn produced is released from the medium. Based on the results of these analyses, NORM contamination at the NPR-3 site is minimal, and appears to be restricted to the two general areas sampled. Concentrations of NORM radionuclides found soils and sediments in these two locations do not justify remedial actions at present. However, continued discharge of NORM-contaminated produced waters from the BTP-10 area will likely result in the continued accumulation of NORM in sediment. It is therefore recommended that the sediments in the BTP-10 discharge stream be monitored periodically for NORM.


The paper presented an assessment of the resource potentials of composting organic waste materials arising from the municipal solid waste stream from cities in Nigeria. Through a review of quantitative data, the composition of municipal solid waste arising within cities in Nigeria was examined in order to identify the potentials for composting organic materials from the waste stream composition. The data showed that the average majority of the waste stream was organic materials which implied high potentials for composting organic waste materials from Nigerian cities. The review also identified further potentials for composting was associated with the large population and the majority of them engaged in agriculture, as a high potential market for compost manure in Nigeria. There were more potentials derivable from the current policies of importing and supplying chemical fertilizer with huge subsidies for domestic agriculture in the country. The need to substitute these policies of chemical fertilizer with the use of compost manure implied high potentials for composting in the country. The paper also identified numerous benefits of composting in general and with particular reference to the Nigerian situation which includes, among others a reduction of the vast quantity of solid waste for final disposal, reducing air pollution and ground water leachate and also employment generation and increased income. Therefore, the paper recommended a deliberate government policy to promote composting of organic solid wastes material and marketing of compost manure to substitute the current policies of importing chemical fertilizer with subsidy for domestic agriculture as a strategy to achieve sustainable waste management in Nigeria.


Carmakers need to learn from early adopters who say they may not buy an electric vehicle (EV) again, if they are to develop from a niche into a mass market. Recent research by the authors on such Japanese consumers finds that about one-third of them fall into this category. These buyers said they were "seduced" by attractive subsidies, low energy costs and a good test drive. But environmentally conscious "green enthusiasts" (who love EV technology for its low energy costs and comfortable driving experience) were better informed about EVs than these buyers, and they became less enthusiastic about their purchase when they faced issues such as locating places to charge their cars and higher electric bills. EV makers should adopt retention and education programs in order to avoid negative market feedback that could "poison the well" for new buyers and thus lock in the reluctant buyers. The authors also found that nonbuyers were concerned about price, even though early adopters weren't. Manufacturers must learn how to build customer loyalty to broaden the market for EVs, until prices drop to the point where the level of mass-market uptake stimulates infrastructure development.


Milkfish bone has a lot of collagen so that it is appropriate as raw material in the making of gelatin. This research aimed to determine the effects of temperature and time of milkfish bone extraction on the yield of gelatin, then gelatin was applied as a syrup thickener. The steps used in the making of gelatin from milkfish bone, the included: degreasing, demineralization, extraction, drying, testing and application. This research used variations at temperature of 50, 70, 90oC and variations at time of 90, 120, 150, 180 minutes. The lowest produced water content was 90oC for 180 minutes, with water content of 5%. The lowest produced ash content was 70oC for 120 minutes, with ash content of 2%. The highest gelatin was obtained at 70oC for 150 minutes with a yield of 2,43%. The gelatin was then applied to the syrup and was compared to the commercial syrup and commercial gelatin in terms of pH and viscosity. The sampel was also tested with FT-IR to know the functional groups contained in gelatin results. The weight of gelatin used for viscosity equivalent with commercial syrup was 1,330 grams.


The concept and connotation of complex electromagnetic environment are discussed in the paper.The new idea that the study of complex electromagnetic environment should be divided into battlefield electromagnetic environment and equipment detection electromagnetic environment studies is proposed.The applied category and distinguish of classification of battlefield electromagnetic environment and equipment detection electromagnetic environment are analyzed.And then the gist and principle of classification are established.The means of classification and quantification of electromagnetic environment for frequency equipment detection are proposed.Finally,Platform basis electromagnetic environment and transient electromagnetic pulse environment are described by quantized data.


Abstract : Velocity and temperature fields together with specie concentrations are computed for an axially symmetric, supersonic, hot, free jet mixing with quiescent air. Based on simplifying assumptions regarding the chemistry involved, the problem can be divided in two parts. One of these parts is to determine the velocity and temperature field. The second part consists of integrating the continuity of the specie equations when the solution to the first part of the problem is obtained. Two different cases are considered frozen and equilibrium flow.


We examine the consequences of demanding higher capital requirements to banks (as in Basel III or, recently, to large banks in the context of the Europe) on the dynamics of banks to comply with the new standards and on the long-term effects for the interest rates quoted to bank loans and the demand of bank credit. The analysis combines econometric estimations of the determinants of the equity capital ratios and the i nterest rates of loans with simulations of market equilibrium results on the interest rate of loans a nd the demand of bank credit, based on a parameterized model of the Spanish banking industry. We find that the gap between the target and the actual capital ratio is reduced around 40% every year, mainly with retained earnings. We also find that raising one percentage point the equ ity capital ratio increases 4.2 basis points the interest rate on loans. Finally, the simulation exe rcise shows that the estimated increase in the cost of funds for banks associated to an increment in one percentage point of the equity capital ratio will imply a decrease of 0.8% in the total de mand of bank credit. These results suggest that the social costs from higher equity capital require ments for banks are expected to be higher in the transition period, until banks reach the new standa rd, than in the steady state of the new industry equilibrium, when all banks comply with the new rat io.


The Rencontre Formation is a sequence of Late Precambrian sediments outcropping around Fortune Bay in southeastern Newfoundland. The formation is variable, consisting of red conglomerates, coarse sandstones, red siltstones, with subordinate pale sandstones, and gray-green siltstones with fine sandstones. The exact thickness of the formation is uncertain as a complete section is not seen at any one locality, but the maximum possible thickness is in the order of 1500m. -- The Rencontre Formation is divided into facies associations on the basis of lithology and sedimentary structures. Five of these have been recognised in northern Fortune Bay, and four others on Brunette Island in the south. These associations reflect the vertical and lateral variability of the Rencontre Formation. -- The formation consists of fan delta, braided river, low energy marine, marginal marine, and tidal-marine deposits. In certain cases, there are no closely analogous modern environments with which to compare these sediments, in particular the basal 300m in the north of Fortune Bay. These are the deposits of fan deltas, but show a poor distinction between delta plain and delta front environments. -- A palaeogeographic model is developed in which deposition occurred in a northeast to southwest trending basin. Initially this was small, probably fault-bounded, with a marine connection to the northeast. Basin growth to the west and southwest is implied by the progressive overstepping of older deposits by younger strata, and led to a elongate basin with marine connections to the northeast and southwest. The basin history was complicated with alternating tectonic activity, quiescence, and sea-level changes. The upper part of the sequence signals a change from deposition in a narrow, elongate, basin, a motif characteristic of late Precambrian sedimentation in the Avalon terrane, to one of stable cratonic-type sedimentation, with broad depocentres, a motif characteristic of Early Palaeozoic sedimentation in the Avalon terrane.


The literature search that informed our review initially yielded 12,122 papers of potential interest, derived from seven databases. After applying a series of filters we arrived at 92 papers on which we base our findings, thoughts and recommendations for future work. Our methodological approach was informed by the systematic review guidance published by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (2009), and the Arts Council definition of 'arts activities'. Hence we considered papers reporting therapeutic arts interventions conducted on 'patients' which included some measurement of a health state. After excluding any research on people less than age 18, we selected studies where participants had active (as opposed to passive) engagement with the therapy/treatment/medium. Only study types which were
quantitative were included in this review. Rather than simply criticise the execution of the research we applied our own expertise to the process. It was immediately evident that definitions and categories would pose some difficulties as there is much variety in the language used to describe the arts, therapies and treatment. This
is a problem of indexing, causing the literature search and initial screening to be a laborious process. The most commonly reported art activities were: writing, music, art and dance. The most numerous health condition studied was mental health followed by cognitive function, stress
and cancer. Most research was carried out in the US and the UK. As a discipline, psychology featured regularly. When arts therapists were involved in the research the descriptions and possible effects of the art medium tended to be better elucidated. Future research into the use of art therapy in healthcare will benefit from a synthesis of approaches that can retain the more robust aspects of, for example, RCTs with the insights that
can be derived from qualitative methods.


The fuel subsidy patchwork in Nigeria has been fraught with elite manipulations and intrigues. This paper analyses the debilitating state of Nigeria's energy-dependent economy against the backdrop of unprecedented oil-generated opulence. The article relies on secondary data. This method enabled the author draw heavily on recorded data thus making for an in-depth analysis. It was found that rampant corruption in the nation's sprawling oil sector is hugely responsible for the intractable economic development slow-motion that has worsened the plight of ordinary Nigerians. While the country's refineries remain moribund, fuel subsidy has, instead created leeway for the criminally-minded elite to squander the commonwealth. Government has demonstrated little or no political will to stem the decay in the oil sector, as underlined by her reluctance to prosecute oil thieves, some of whom are directly or indirectly connected to the apparatus of the state. Unlike in Ghana where government engaged the people and introduced measures to cushion the harsh effects of fuel subsidy phase-out on the poor, in Nigeria, government has often increased the cost of petrol before ever addressing its impacts on vulnerable groups. The paper therefore recommends the revamping of the country's refineries, the strengthening of the fight against corruption and the establishment of a regulatory framework to protect citizens as necessary measures to help improve the poor state of Nigeria's economy and society. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v4n1p395


This paper presents spur suppression technique for multiplied delay locked loop (MDLL), and a spur model of MDLL using Markov chain analysis. By randomly reloading the reference edge to the delay line, the reference spur caused by systematic timing error are reduced by more than 20 dB compared to a conventional MDLL. On the other hand, the rms jitter is reduced by half compared to a PLL without reference reload. The effectiveness of spur and noise reduction are verified by the proposed model and experimental results.


We study the screening length of a quark-antiquark pair moving in a strongly coupled hot plasma of = 4 super-Yang-Mills using AdS/CFT correspondence where the background metric is five dimensional AdS black hole. We take the string solution as such the separation length L of quark-antiquark pair is parallel to the string velocity v. The screening length and the bound energy are computed numerically using Mathematica. We find that the plots are bounded from below by some functions that are related to the momentum flow of the drag force configuration Pc. We compare the result by computing the screening length in the quark-antiquark reference frame by boosting the AdS black hole.


With the development of the Internet network, the decision makers in different places can solve the problem effectively and reasonably at the same time. Based on social data analysis, the decision making system of rural entrepreneurial economy is designed. The whole system is designed with reference to the Microsoft.NET framework. The modules, such as the project decision-making, interactive decision making, data access, query results, system management, and other functional modules, are achieved by using the technology of the Internet technology, communication technology, database technology and so on, and the functions of each module are analyzed and designed in detail.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the existence of factors permitting the prediction of sagittal stability after orthodontic treatment in patients with Angle Class II malocclusion.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched up to March 2015. Inclusion criteria were longitudinal studies with at least 10 subjects investigating associations between at least one factor and stability, with an average minimum follow-up period of 2 years; stability measured using posttreatment sagittal dental changes; and orthodontic treatment including removable and/or fixed appliances with or without extractions. Two reviewers independently selected and assessed the quality of the articles.

RESULTS
The search strategy resulted in 1372 articles, of which 17 met the inclusion criteria. Large changes during treatment in molar and canine relationships were the only two factors found to be positively associated with relapse, but with limited evidence. Fourteen factors were found not to be predictive of relapse, also with limited evidence. These factors included treatment characteristics, patient pretreatment characteristics, and final posttreatment characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS
There is currently limited evidence to support the influence of factors predictive of sagittal stability following Class II malocclusion treatment. More high-quality prospective studies are needed, and functional factors possibly affecting relapse also need to be further assessed.


The C-binding,Ag-NORs,and G-banding patterns of the metaphase chromosomes of barfin flounder Verasper moseri were investigated in this study.The results showed that the interstitial regions of most chromosomes exhibited positive C-bands,in which the whole 3rd,13th,20th,and 22nd pair of chromosomes showed totally positive C-band,whilst the 1st,4th and 8th pair of chromosomes only showed positive C-bands in the middle region,the rest with centromeric positive C-bands.However,the 9th pair of chromosomes showed negative result.The C-banding heretochromatin occupied 54.91% of the total chromosome in the present study.Silver staining study showed that most chromosomes featured two silver-stained nuclear organizing regions(Ag-NORs) with the percentage of 87.5%.Accordingly,the interphase nucleus with 2 nucleolus appeared most frequently,thus it is supposed that the barfin flounder bears a pair of Ag-NORs which located at the end of short arm of the submetacentric chromosomes.A total of 59 positive G-bands(37 strong,22 light) were recorded in 23 pairs of chromosomes.These results would provide basic data for the genomic research and biodiversity conservation of barfin flounder.


A process and device are disclosed for moistening a moving web of material (10), in particular for moistening again a printed then dried printed material. As soon as possible after the thermal drying process is concluded, preferably in the area of the cooling cylinders, a moistening agent is pressed on one or both sides of the web of material (10) by an applicator (12) by means of a smooth cylinder (15), against a guiding element (11).


In modern conditions, the traditional approach to teaching foreign languages is undergoing fundamental changes. The status of foreign languages in the higher education system has significantly increased owing to constantly improving information and communication technologies. The focus moves from the traditional forms of learning a foreign language to the development of technological resources and distant learning techniques. It is based on the real communicative situation performed by means of written and oral interaction between communicants. The students need to get a set of language skills which is a conglomerate of knowledge in all areas of the chosen specialty in combination with a foreign language, and apart from the common vocabulary includes the study of special terminology the so-called thesaurus. Like any innovation, distant learning has advantages and disadvantages. The approach to the system of distant education in the mode of «pro» and «contra» ("pros" and "cons") involves monitoring of the positive aspects and shortcomings in the field of teaching foreign languages that allows adjusting the process itself and achieving maximum efficiency of its functioning.


AbstrAct Eutrophication of coastal waters has greatly increased in the last several decades throughout the world, with demonstrated linkages to anthropogenic nutrient loads. Anthropogenic inputs been shown to provide significant sources of nitrogen that have been linked to increased primary production and are considered the most significant factor contributing to the global increase in harmful algal blooms (HABs). While a growing number of studies have suggested a linkage between anthropogenic nitrogen sources and HABs in California, there is a general perception that in upwelling regions, such as California, the flux of anthropogenic nutrient inputs are small relative to upwelling flux, and therefore they have relatively little effect on the productivity of coastal waters. However, no studies to date have quantified the natural and anthropogenic inputs on regional and local scales in the SCB to verify the accuracy of this perception. In order to test the hypothesis that natural sources (e.g., upwelling) greatly exceed anthropogenic nutrient sources to the SCB, this study compared the contributions of nitrogen (N) from four major nutrient sources: 1) upwelling, 2) treated wastewater effluent discharged to ocean outfalls, 3) riverine runoff, and 4) atmospheric deposition. This comparison was made using large regional datasets combined with modeling on both regional (SCBwide) and sub-regional scales. The results from this study show that at the regional bight-wide spatial scale, upwelling is the largest source of nitrogen by an order of magnitude to effluent and two to riverine runoff. However, at smaller spatial scales, natural and anthropogenic contributions were equivalent. In particular, wastewater effluent and upwelling contributed the same quantity of nitrogen in several regions of the SCB. These findings contradict the currently held perception that in upwellingdominated marine ecosystems, anthropogenic nutrient inputs are negligible and are consistent with the growing number of studies that have suggested a linkage between anthropogenic nitrogen sources and HABs in California nearshore waters. These results of this study suggest that anthropogenic Comparison of natural and anthropogenic nutrient sources in the Southern California Bight


The tri-axial tests of unsaturated remolded Guangxi expansive soils were performed for different dry densities and controlled suction.The relation of the hardening,softening,dilation and compaction features of Guangxi remolded expansive soils with the pore structure was studied.The results showed that the stress-strain curves were those of hardening type and the volume strains were dilation for low dry density soil sample because the pore size was large with good connectivity for low density samples.The hardening type of stress-strain curves would transfer to the softening type when the dry density of soil samples increased.The relationship between suction strength and suction was a hyperbolic feature.


Pitcairnia queroana , known only from the state of Chiapas, Mexico, is here described and illustrated. The new taxon superficially resembles P. sulphurea but differs from it by the presence of long petioles, longer inflorescence with more than 60 flowers, purple calyx, and the conspicuous and dense white-lanate-tomentose indument that covers all the inflorescence. An identification key for the taxa of the genus present in this state is also included.


The effect of grinding on superconductors of Y-123 and Bi(Pb)-2223 phases and phase formation have been studied by means of X- ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, scanning electron microscope and measurements of the superconductivity. The experimental results show that there is significant difference of grinding effect on Y-123 and Bi(Pb)-2223 phase superconductors. Grinding causes a change of crystalline state to amorphous one for Bi(Pb)-2223 phase superconductor. The effect of the mechanical strain from preparing process and accident on superconductivity of material should be taken into consideration.


Yun-Han Chu Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica Professor, Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University email@example.com & Bridget Welsh Associate Professor, Political Science, Singapore Management University, Singapore email@example.com & Mark Weatherall PhD candidate, Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University firstname.lastname@example.com


Looking for a way to give back during these
hard economic times? Recession, layoffs, high
unemployment — all can make it hard for people to think
about donating to charity. When we have less money, giving
away what we do have seems even less appealing. But that
is exactly when charity and nonprofit community organizations
need donations the most to help others in need.


SOC design is an integration of multi million transistors in a single chip for time to market and reducing the cost of the design. This paper presents point-to-point Architecture of WISHBONE bus. Main aim of the WISHBONE bus Architectures are to transfer the data from master to slave in different application without redesign of IP core. And that one will increase the productivity with reduction in design time. Standard interface bus protocol should do the plug and play.


Atom matterwave interferometry requires mirror and beamsplitter pulses that are robust to inhomogeneities in field intensity, magnetic environment, atom velocity and Zeeman sub-state. We present theoretical results which show that pulse shapes determined using quantum control methods can significantly improve interferometer performance by allowing broader atom distributions, larger interferometer areas and higher contrast. We have applied gradient ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE) to optimise the design of phase-modulated mirror pulses for a Mach-Zehnder light-pulse atom interferometer, with the aim of increasing fringe contrast when averaged over atoms with an experimentally relevant range of velocities, beam intensities, and Zeeman states. Pulses were found to be highly robust to variations in detuning and coupling strength, and offer a clear improvement in robustness over the best established composite pulses. The peak mirror fidelity in a cloud of ∼ 80 µK 85Rb atoms is predicted to be improved by a factor of 2 compared with standard rectangular π pulses.


This literature review summarises the basic principles of biomonitoring of lead, mercury and nickel, the most common metallic pollutants in the Arctic. Various countries have developed recommendations for threshold values of these metals in the biological media of humans depending upon age and other personal characteristics. The most informative biological media are blood and hair for lead; blood, hair and urine for mercury; blood for a nickel. Biological monitoring of these metals is particularly needed in the settlements near the metal plants of Kola Peninsula, in the Norilsk industrial area and the gold-mining districts of Yakutia. High levels of lead in fish have become a paramount public health concern in the Arctic because fish is typical food for local populations of the coastal areas, especially for the indigenous minorities of the North. Lead concentrations in the tissues of freshwater fish caught in many rivers of the Murmansk region, Republic Sakha (Yakutia) and other northern regions frequently exceeded the threshold values. Health risks arising from the consumption of contaminated fish have not been assessed in the Arctic, but the studies conducted elsewhere indicated considerable risks. Some biologists have proposed establishing maximum permissible levels of lead in fish muscles relative to its fat content, which could be necessary for the health of those who depend upon this source of food. Several countries have issued recommendations for maximum monthly consumption of certain species of fish harvested in specific water reservoirs.


Introduced the several socialism models that occurred in the searching of a better social system in the past century in western society, the scientific socialism they finally found. This socialism was accepted and spread by the Chinese intellectuals, and was chosen by the Chinese Communist Party.


The aim of this study was to report the main clinical, laboratory and pathological findings of eight affected calves abomasum ulcers treated at Clinica de Bovinos, Campus Garanhuns / Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco - UFRPE, from 2000 to 2014. The main complaints the owners were apathy and in some cases diarrhea blackish color. Physical examination was shown apathy, anorexia, pale mucous membranes, cachexia, hyperthermia and moderate to severe dehydration. On examination of the abdomen changes were observed in the contour, ruminal, abomasal and intestinal hypomotility. The faeces presented in most cases pasty, blackened color, malodorous and mucus. Some of the animals had concomitant diseases: pneumonia, tick fever, bloating and diarrhea. Of the eight animals served seven came to death and only one was discharged. Among the changes found in the count blood cells called attention leukocytosis by neutrophilia ( = 18,400 / uL). Hypoproteinemia, hyperfibrinogenemia and decreased hematocrit. The analysis of ruminal fluid highlighted the severe impairment of the number of live infusoria, reduced density and motility, altered odor, color almost always blackened and increase in chloride content ( = 73.58 mEq / L). The main pathological findings were different sizes and types of ulcers distributed by abomasal mucosa, blood clots in the lumen of the organ, pyloric stenosis and diffuse peritonitis. Given these findings it is accomplished that this disease is very important economic and productive, especially in younger animals as calves when affected has risk of death.


This study presents an experimental investigation on the effectiveness of pulse recharging technique in recovering the lost capacity of nickel cadmium batteries (NiCad), through a comparison test with the conventional constant-current recharging technique. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis has been carried out on the electrodes of both pulse recharged and conventionally recharged NiCad cells after a controlled experimental process to restore the lost capacity due to shallow cycling. The results show that the pulse recharging technique performed equally well with the conventional recharging method in improving the topologies of the cell electrodes and recovering the lost capacity of the NiCad cells. The causes of capacity loss in NiCad batteries have also been investigated and the results obtained established the claim that shallow cycling enhances large and dendritic crystalline growth on the cell electrodes.


The electromagnetic (EM) fields inside a rotating circular hollow dielectric cylinder were numerically calculated in two dimensions, and the numerical results were presented in this paper. The simulation was carried out by using the method of characteristics (MOC) for the solutions of the time-domain Maxwell equations with the application of the passing center swing back grids (PCSBG) technique in the modified O-type grid system. To illustrate the effects of the rotating hollow dielectric cylinder on the EM fields inside the cylinder, the cylinder may be set to rotate at impractically, extremely high angular frequencies. The use of PCSBG is to overcome the difficulty of the deformed grid cells resulting from the rotating object while the modified O-type grid system satisfies the requirement of minimum number of grid within the shortest wavelength of interest in the larger radius regions where the regular O-type grid fails. A Gaussian EM pulse is utilized as excitation source and set to illuminate the hollow cylinder which is made of either non-magnetic or impedance matching materials. For clear examinations the numerical results of EM fields at and around the cylinder center are exhibited. Several electric field distributions are also shown.


Now the standard condition has been declined to that which the kernel of vector-valued singular integral operators satisfying to weak Dini-type condition,and it proves that weighted inequalities and endpoint estimate results for vector-valued singular integral operators with Dini-type kernel.


Objectives: 1) Recognize which diagnostic modalities are helpful to facilitate safe decannulation. 2) Provide data-driven conclusions about pediatric tracheostomy management, given the recent American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Consensus Statement on Tracheostomy Management (January 2013), which was based on expert opinion alone. 3) Define a pediatric tracheostomy decannulation protocol that can be extended to a large subset of patients. Methods: Study type: 10-year retrospective review of one surgeon's pediatric tracheotomy decannulation methods. Inclusion criteria: Patients less than 18 years old. Setting: Tertiary care pediatric hospital. Outcome measurements: Airway endoscopy findings, sleep study results, capping trial tolerance, successful decannulation, and tracheocutaneous fistula repair and management. Results: 167 patients underwent tracheotomy during this period, and 52 were decannulated. Of these, 22 had suprastomal granulation tissue removed and 4 patients had tonsillectomies, adenoidectomies, epiglottopexies, and/or supraglottoplasties prior to decannulation. Seventeen patients had subglottic stenosis; 9 underwent laryngotracheal reconstruction. Twenty-five patients developed tracheocutaneous fistulas; 24 patients elected repair with 100% success rate. Conclusions: Decannulation of the pediatric patient requires a starkly different approach compared to the adult population, as many require surgical intervention prior to decannulation, and a much higher percentage of pediatric patients will keep a tracheocutaneous fistula. Our decannulation protocol includes daytime capping, rigid airway endoscopy to detect anatomic airway abnormalities, flexible endoscopy during simulated sleep to detect dynamic airway problems, and capped sleep studies. We also describe our novel trapdoor stomal flap technique, which has a 100% success rate for closure of tracheocutaneous fistulas.


Graft vs. host disease (GVHD)remains oneofthemainproblems associated with bonemarrow transplantation. Thecurrent studies wereundertaken todetermine whether treatment ofthedonor inoculum with theanticytotoxic cell compound L-leucyl-L-leucine methyl ester (Leu-Leu-OMe) would alter thedevelopment of GVHDinamurine model. Irradiated recipient micetransplanted withamixture ofcontrol bonemarrowandspleen cells from naive semiallogeneic donors died rapidly fromGVHD,whereas therecipients ofcells incubated with 250uMLeu-Leu-OMe all survived. Inaddition, Leu-Leu-OMe treatment ofcells obtained fromdonors immunized against host alloantigens resulted insignificantly prolonged survival. Phenotypic characterization of spleen cells fromthevarious groups ofmicethat hadreceived Leu-Leu-OMe-treated cells andsurvived consistently revealed thedonor phenotype. Treatment ofmarrowcells with250,uM Leu-Leu-OMe appeared tohavenoadverse effects onstemcell function. Erythropoiesis wasundiminished, asassayed bysplenic 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine-'25I uptake. Moreover, granulocytic and megakaryocytic regeneration werehistologically equivalent in thespleens ofrecipients ofcontrol orLeu-Leu-OMe-treated cells. Treatment ofthedonor inoculum with Leu-Leu-OMe thus prevents GVHD inthis murnne strain combination withnoapparent stemcell toxicity.


Traditional alpha-particle detectors are limited by relatively poor sensitivity, small size, and difficulty of operation. These factors result in laborious effort and imprecise results. In addition, it is difficult for these detectors to monitor the inside of pipes and large areas having nonuniform surfaces. To be effective, traditional monitors require the probe to be held less than 1 cm from the surface while scanning with a slow, steady, and continuous motion. Long-range alpha detector (LRAD) technology overcomes the limitations imposed by the short range of alpha particles and provides a detailed analysis of alpha contamination in a cost-effective manner. Using a combination of LRAD airflow and electrostatic methods, we have developed several monitors for the detection of alpha contamination on hands and arms, in surface soil, and for radon gas.


Doctors cannot be held criminailly responsibie for death hiring operation or treatment. On 5th August 2004 Indian Supreme Court delivered a landmark verdict that doctors cannot be prosecuted under criminal act if some mishap occur during discharge of their duties. After this judgement doctors can be sued only, for compensation, not for criminal act as done earlier. This judgement was delivered on one of the autopsy conducted by the author in 1994. The details of the cases and decisions there after are discussed here.


Introduction Adolescents are fast approaching adulthood, but they cannot be expected to make the transition from childhood to an adult legal status successfully without assistance. They need to develop complex skills for independent life in our relatively wealthy and technologically sophisticated society. Although parents have an essential part to play in this process, the law should also assist by ensuring that an adolescent's decisions are, as far as possible, respected. The growing emphasis on adult autonomy encouraged by the implementation of the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 has produced a judicial willingness to accommodate such ideas when interpreting adolescents' interests. The words of Baroness Hale of Richmond exemplify such an approach: Important physical, cognitive and psychological developments take place during adolescence. Adolescence begins with the onset of puberty; from puberty to adulthood, the 'capacity to acquire and utilise knowledge reaches its peak efficiency'; and the capacity for formal operational thought is the forerunner to developing the capacity to make autonomous moral judgments. Obviously, these developments happen at different times and at different rates for different people. But it is not at all surprising to find adolescents making different moral judgments from those of their parents. It is part of growing up. It is, however, unrealistic to expect children of any age to make decisions for themselves before they are developmentally ready to do so.


Introduction: Microparticles (MPs) are submicron vesicles released from cells both in health and in response to inflammation, apoptosis, or shear stress. Prior investigations have suggested that MP...


The hydrogenation of ethylene on Pd(111) is probed using a combination of temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and reflection−absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS). Ethylene adsorbs on clean Pd(111) in a di-σ configuration but converts to π-bonded species when the surface is presaturated by hydrogen. Ethane is formed with an activation energy of 3.0 ± 0.3 kcal/mol only when Pd(111) is pre-covered by hydrogen and not when ethylene and hydrogen are co-dosed, indicating that ethylene blocks hydrogen adsorption. Experiments performed by grafting ethyl species onto the surface by reaction with ethyl iodide indicate that ethyl species hydrogenate much more rapidly than the overall rate of ethylene hydrogenation, demonstrating that the addition of the first hydrogen atom to adsorbed ethylene to form an ethyl species is the rate-limiting step in the hydrogenation reaction. The adsorption geometry of ethyl iodide is found to depend on dosing conditions. When adsorbed at low exposures at 80 K, the mirror symm...


Obstructive Laryngitis (croup) is the acute inflammation of the larynx and the seriousness of the illness is linked to the obstruction degree of the aerial passage. There is a general assent in giving a single, oral dose of 0.15 to 0.6 mg/kg of dexamethasone for treating moderate and severe croup. The aim of our study was to describe the croup treatment in our setting and also to investigate when and which corticosteroids are used. A total of seventy-two (n=72) paediatrician were interviewed; 31% uses corticosteroids when facing a mild croup. Oral betamethasone, with a wide dose dispersion and frequency, is mostly used by the pediatricians. 97.2% uses corticosteroids when treating a mild croup; intravenous dexamethasone is used by 74.3%. 95.8% uses corticosteroids when treating severe croup; intravenous dexamethasone is also used in 76.8% of the cases. It was found that there was no application of the regulations proposed by the literature for the use of corticosteroids in croup. The reason is that oral dexamethasone is not available in Chile yet and that the equivalent dose of betamethasone, having pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties is not known either. Owing to this fact, it is necessary to carry out a research to compare the treatment in the proposed literature with another corticosteroid available in Chile, like oral betamethasone, for example, so as to establish a standard regulation in using corticosteroid croup in Chile.


Twenty percent of patients with tuberculosis will eventually have an extrapulmonary manifestation, with the most common site being the genitourinary tract.1 Tuberculosis of the seminal duct may be an important cause of male infertility as a result of epididymal scarring.1 Kondoh2 and Briceno Mayz3 et al reported on men with azoospermia and hypospermia due to tuberculosis but to our knowledge there are no reported cases of aspermia in the absence of ejaculatory duct obstruction.