Quantization is the core part of all lossy source coding schemes. We present a design scheme for statistical optimization of a set of one-bit (i.e., two-level) quantizers, given the signal statistics of an arbitrary signal, for example a prediction error signal. The set of quantizers can then be used for block-adaptive quantization of the signal. The quantizer design criterion combines ideas from block truncation coding (BTC) and vector quantization (VQ). As an example application of our design scheme we apply a set of two-level quantizers to adaptive differential pulse code modulation of color video where the quantizers are switched adaptively on a block-by-block basis. Coding results show that this scheme has a better performance than other low-complexity video coding schemes. At 2 bit/pel, it performs more than 2 dB better in peak signal-to-noise ratio than DPCM (differential pulse code modulation) and up to 3.5 dB better than BTC.


Abstract Much work has been published in recent years on the role of women in the development process in Africa. One of the major themes to emerge from this literature is that the demands on women's time and energy are increasing. The result is that women are working harder but deriving little benefit from it. The authors' research in The Gambia has shown that rural women are increasingly being drawn into the development process through involvement in various income‐generating projects, such as vegetable cultivation. Some of these schemes are sponsored by government agencies, others by non‐governmental organisations and others are spontaneous self‐help schemes. The consequence of involvement in such projects is that time, for rural Gambian women, is becoming a scarce resource; women not only participate in horticultural projects, but are also responsible for domestic production and reproduction. All these tasks are performed without any modern equipment. It is suggested that the rural development process ...


Cleaning loss is an important parameter to judge the performance of a corn combine harvester. At present, there exists the phenomenon that corn cleaning loss rate detection devices have a long signal processing time and low recognition accuracy. To solve this problem, based on the principle of the impacting piezoelectric effect, the impacting signals of corn kernels and impurities are analyzed by means of the frequency spectrum method to obtain the characteristic frequency for effectively distinguishing corn kernels and impurities, which is determined as 8.7 kHz. Based on this characteristic frequency, a corn cleaning loss kernel recognition system is designed, which can realize the function of corn kernel recognition and cleaning loss rate recording. In this system, signal processing circuits which mainly include two-order high-pass filtration, envelope wave detection and voltage comparison are designed. On the basis of the signal processing circuit, adding the judgment program for the holding time of the output square wave signal improves the system's recognition accuracy for kernels impacting the sensitive plate simultaneously. The system was tested in indoor conditions. The results show that 20–30 corn kernels could be accurately recognized per minute on a single sensitive plate, and the recognition accuracy rate of this system could reach 85% when three corn kernels impacted simultaneously. The results serve as a theoretical basis and represent a new method for the design of a cleaning loss kernel recognition system.


Aristotle once said that surprise,leisure and freedom are three necessary conditions for the emergence of science.From his own experience the author discussed why the inner and pertinacious enthusiasm for science is the most important factor for the development of the pure science in our country.


Abstract Objective To determine the implications of car ownership for physical activity and weight in a global city. Design Quasi-experimental cross sectional study. Setting Beijing, China, 2011-15. Participants People aged 18 and older from a random sample of households who had entered a permit lottery to purchase a vehicle between January 2011 and November 2015. Interventions Permit allowing purchase of a vehicle within six months of permit issuance. Main outcome measures Transit use (number of subway and bus rides each week), physical activity (minutes of walking or bicycling each day), and weight, measured once in early 2016. Results Of 937 people analysed in total, 180 had won a permit to purchase a new vehicle. Winning the permit lottery resulted in the purchase of an additional vehicle 91% of the time (95% confidence interval 89% to 94%; P<0.001). About five years after winning, winners took significantly fewer weekly transit rides (−2.9 rides (−5.1 to −0.7); P=0.01) and walked and cycled significantly less (−24.2 minutes (−40.3 to −8.1); P=0.003) than those who did not win the lottery. Average weight did not change significantly between lottery winners and losers. Among those aged 50 and older, however, winners' weight had increased relative to that of losers (10.3 kg (0.5 to 20.2); P=0.04) 5.1 years after winning. Conclusions These data indicate that vehicle ownership in a rapidly growing global city led to long term reductions in physical activity and increase in weight. Continuing increases in car use and ownership in developing and middle income countries could adversely affect physical health and obesity rates.


Session-layer services for enhancing functionality and improving network performance are gaining in importance in the Internet. Examples of such services include connection multiplexing, congestion state sharing, application-level routing, mobility/migration support, and encryption. This paper describes TESLA, a transparent and extensible framework allowing session-layer services to be developed using a high-level flow-based abstraction. TESLA services can be deployed transparently using dynamic library interposition and can be composed by chaining event handlers in a graph structure. We show how TESLA can be used to implement several session-layer services including encryption, SOCKS, application-controlled routing, flow migration, and traffic rate shaping, all with acceptably low performance degradation.


The apparent contradiction of the status of women as both thots and queens, as expressed by the sentences 'if she breathes, she's a thot' and 'all women are queens' is examined. The problem is formalized using the law of the excluded middle and a counterexample to the assertion is provided. The implications of the lack of a paradox are discussed.


Objective. Society for Health Care Epidemiology guidelines recommend decreasing the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in institutions where methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is endemic. We evaluated whether an intervention to limit fluoroquinolone use was associated with a lower rate of nosocomial MRSA infection and summarized changes in antibiotic use, changes in other variables potentially correlated with a lower rate of MRSA infection, and rates of nosocomial infections due to other pathogens. Design. Single-center quasi-experimental design. A time series of nosocomial MRSA infections was measured at monthly intervals from July 2001 through June of 2004; there were 80 MRSA infections recorded. Segmented regression analysis (ie, quasi-Poisson generalized linear models) was used to evaluate variables possibly associated with the nosocomial MRSA infection rate. Setting. An 87-bed Veterans Affairs teaching hospital with an extended-care facility. Intervention. A physician-directed computer-generated intervention designed to limit the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics was initiated, and institutional changes in antibiotic use and nosocomial MRSA infection rates were tracked. Results. After the intervention, fluoroquinolone use decreased by approximately 34%, and levofloxacin use decreased by approximately 50%. Decreased fluoroquinolone use was offset by increased cephalosporin, piperacillin-tazobactam, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole use. The nosocomial MRSA infection rate decreased from 1.37 to 0.63 episodes per 1,000 patient-days after the study intervention (P = .02). Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus and Enterococcus infection rates also decreased. However, the rate of infection with gram-negative organisms increased. The rate of MRSA infection was positively correlated with levofloxacin use (P = .01) and azithromycin use (P = .08), whereas it was negatively correlated with summer season (P = .05). In a subsequent model, the rate of MRSA infection was negatively correlated with the study intervention (P = .04). Conclusion. Reduction in the institutional use of fluoroquinolones may be associated with a lower nosocomial MRSA infection rate.


The dataset generated in this paper is a significant improvement over previous data and will be extremely valuable in providing topographic boundary data for models of ocean and ice sheet/ice stream interactions, and as a starting point for palaeotopographic reconstructions. Models that operate on a basinor trough-scale in particular are likely to benefit as they seek to understand localised responses to external forcing. However, with higher-resolution models comes a greater sensitivity to small-scale spatial variations present in boundary data and therefore to error in any such dataset. The authors include a clear discussion and table that incorporates the issue of error and the


The paper generalizes data on symmetry of minerals in different Earth's envelops as a function of temperature, pressure and combined effect of both these parameters. It is shown that distribution of mineral species in the symmetry hierarchy, in particular — existence of the monoclinic maximum and the triclinic minimum in the symmetry statistics of the world of minerals and non-organic compounds, is determined, first of all, by two diversified factors: dynamic properties of the crystal lattice (quantity of the unit cell parameters not fixed by the symmetry) and the crystal structure efficiency (maximum multiplicity of atomic positions allowed by the given point-to-point group). With increase of temperature the symmetry of the substance becomes usually higher, the permanently increasing pressure makes it lower, but rising again with its reconstruction. Mutual increase of temperature and pressure with depth inside the Earth provides the stable elevation of the average symmetry of rock — from single units up to the maximum value 48 of the Dolivo-Dobrovolsky index. Multiparametricity of the minerals symmetry statistics allows to leave without comments some fluctuations of this function until their verification by time.


(57) Abstract: defibrillation method and apparatus for controlling the amount of energy contained in the defibrillation pulse applied to the patient using impedance through the patient's thorax (TTI). Before supplying defibrillating pulse, the patient's TTI is measured by the impedance measuring circuit (11). Patient TTI is further also measured during the supply of the prior defibrillation pulse. Microprocessor (23) by using the TTI of the patient measured, (i) the phase duration of a defibrillation pulse, and (ii) that the defibrillator capacitor bank (15) controls the voltage level to be charged to control the shape of the defibrillation pulse by. Energy transferred to the patient by the defibrillation pulse is controlled shape of the defibrillation pulse to Koero it or near or to the desired value. The desired value can be set by the operator through the energy selector (25). Switch (13) controls the connection of defibrillation electrodes to the impedance measuring circuit (11) and a capacitor bank (15) (27a, 27b).


the merits of this reading. "I beg you, Arsiccio," says Sodo, "finish up as soon as you can, because I'm very sleepy. I've never had so much trouble staying awake as in the last few minutes. Your chatter has begun to bore me" (164). Here the conflation of sexual and discursive intercourse seems to have exhausted both itself and Sodo without fulfilling our generic expectations. To the extent that La Cazzaria does not merely confirm what we already know about sex, knowledge, and power in Renaissance Italy, the dialogue may be even more significant than Moulton suggests. Routledge's claim on the back cover notwithstanding, this translation is not the first English version of Vignali's dialogue. Moulton himself mentions two earlier ones in his introduction, The Love Academy and La Cazzaria: Dialogue on Diddling (both 1968), although he dismisses them. This is unfortunate. While hard to come by in academic libraries, they are readily available through online consortia of used bookstores and are of more than passing interest.


The purpose of this study is to clarify the process in which fathers of home-cared children who are in need ofmedical care acquire technique of care and physical condition management for their children. Subjects of the studywere 5 fathers of home-cared children needing medical care of in Prefecture A. Survey period is from May, 2018 toJuly. The researchers visited home of fathers who agreed with participation in the study and performed semi-structuredinterview for them. The interview time is average 51 minutes and the revised version of Grounded Theory was used fordata analysis. As a result of the analysis, 33 concepts, 13 subcategory and 3 categories were generated. "Challengethe care", "Acquisition of analytical thinking" "Independence of care and judgment" were extracted for the categories.Fathers who just begin to learn about medical care tended to judge conditions of their children with numeric values asa standard, without having expert knowledge. They received instructions from mothers, who mastered care more. Afterthat, the fathers came to see expression and foot colors of their children while observing anaerobic conditions, andminded the mood of the children. Mothers assumed the central role of the care and fathers guessed their symptomswhile being unable to predict them. By the time when the children spent 1-2 years pass after the discharge from NICU,the father became able to judge physical conditions of their children comprehensively and care them Father's supportsurpassed what nurses could do in observing and caring children.


In the present study, data on sex ratio, maturity, Gonadosomatic index, fecundity and oocyte distribution of the pearlspot, Etroplus suratensis, were evaluated. Samples were collected from the landings of Vembanad lake during 2002 - 2004. Male-female ratio was found to be 1:0.8. Maximum GSI in male and female was 1.45 and 4.43 respectively. L50 was 19.5 cm in case of males and 20.0 cm in case of females. Absolute fecundity, varied between 874 and 7554 with an average of 2748. Fish is an asynchronous spawner with different clutches of ova, varied between 0.25 to 2.75 mm.


In March 1999, a panel of distinguished pathologists was convened by the U.S. National Institutes of Health Breast Cancer Think Tank to develop a classification of breast lesions based on their examination of 39 models of Genetically Engineered Mice (GEM) associated mouse mammary cancer (Cardiff et al., 2000). The meeting, in Annapolis, Maryland, resulted in a published summary report from the Pathology Panel (Cardiff et al., 2000). The Annapolis consensus report, developed from the Panel's deliberations, pointed out that the mammary lesions of GEM were different from most (spontaneous) mouse mammary tumors and could be divided into three distinct categories: (1) lesions that resemble those found in spontaneous mouse mammary tumor-igenesis, (2) lesions that have a unique " signature " tumor phenotype that was specific for the transgene, and (3) lesions that resemble those found in human breast diseases (Cardiff et al., 2000). This review emphasizes the proposed nomenclature and the differences between the models and human breast cancer with the intention of stimulating discussion and the development of new models. to develop a classification of GEM mammary tumors suitable for comparison with human breast cancer. The Annapolis Pathology Panel was provided with 175 slides representing 39 model systems involving 26 genes, five promoter systems, and two species. Three transplantation models , two carcinogen-induced models, and spontaneous Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus (MMTV)-induced le-sions were also included. The slide collection represented about 90% of the published GEM models of human breast cancer available at the time. The Panel received and studied the slides in advance of the meeting. The workshop featured presentations of the various models by the investigators, some of which were published as reviews (Andrechek et al. closed session for final discussions leading to the consensus report. A CD-ROM entitled " Mammary Cancer in Humans and Mice: A Tutorial for Comparative Pathology " that contains full color, annotated images of all of the tu


In order to improve coverage traversal efficiency of ocean survey for AUV, an improved exact cellular decomposition method is proposed. It combines exact cellular decomposition method and Differential Evolution, which reduce the task execution time and alleviate the problem of energy shortage due to obtaining the optimal cells traversal order. The simulation results verify that the improved exact cellular decomposition method performs better than exact cellular decomposition method in coverage path planning task.


EEG waves were recorded while subjects were to remember a given reference tone and later identify it as a part of a series of neighboring pitches. Each of the four reference tones was surrounded by pitches of increasingly smaller intervallic range. The results indicated a slightly greater amount of alpha desynchronization during discrimination of pitches at the two more difficult levels.


This research has discussed the effect of cellulose addictive on the change of major nutrition composi-tion of corn straw silage and the rumen digestibility of dairy cattle.Take goes to the ear of corn straw as to the experiment material,the recruitment of cellulose was respectively 0.00 g/1kg(C),0.05g/1kg(Ⅰ),0.2g/ 1kg(Ⅱ),1g/1kg(Ⅲ).Treated material were stored for 4 weeks,then carrying on the conventional analy-sis of nutrition composition and the experiment of feeding.Using four ruminally cannulated Holstein dairy cat-tle,4×4 Latin square design was used.The rumen degradability of major nutritional composition of corn straw silage was researched.The result was that there was not significant difference for the DM content ofⅠ Group,ⅡGroup andⅢgroup corn straw silage,but all were significantly lower than C group;There were significant increased to the CP content of corn straw silage which were different treated group with the cellu-lose recruitment obviously enhances,1g/1kg cellulase additive increasd to be the biggest;The NDF and the ADF content were significantly declined along with the cellulose recruitment significantly increased,in which 1g/1kg cellulase addictive was the biggest.The DM and the CP ED ofⅢGroup,ⅡGroup andⅠGroup corn straw silage were significantly higher than C group,and theⅢgroup was significantly higher thanⅡGroup andⅠGroup;There was significant difference between the different treatment group's corn straw silage,Ⅲ Group ⅡGroup ⅠGroup C Group;there was no significant difference in three groups for the ADF ED of corn straw silage,but all were significantly higher than C group.Indicated cellulase processing can increase the nutritional value of silage,also cellulase took 1g/1kg recruitment as suitable.


The energy of the high-speed water jet is usually utilized for cleaning, penetrating, fracturing or cutting of different materials. This study introduces a new application, i.e. the modification of surfaces through pressure-induced plastic flow. The experimental parameters, such as stand-off distance, feed-rate and pressure, can be controlled, so that no destructive effects can be detected on the surface of treated materials. Under these controlled conditions, there is a marked improvement in the mechanical properties, e.g. surface hardness, yield strength and fatigue strength of mild steel used as a target material. The method is similar in many ways to the well-known shot peening and abrasive cleaning methods. A comparative study, using annealed aluminum as a model material, was carried out between shot peening and water blasting. Using previously determined water jetting parameters, the improvement in fatigue strength attainable from water blasting is not as good as that for shot peening. The reasons for this and the interpretation of X-ray back reflection data are discussed. Order from: BSRA as No. 48,045.


THE INVENTION CONCERNS A DEVICE FOR MIXING AND STIRRING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF CARBON BLACK IN A TANK BALANCING. INVENTION IT INCLUDES A VERTICAL SHAFT 26 ROTARY PLACE CENTRALLY IN THE TANK BALANCING 12; AT LEAST TWO GROUPS OF HORIZONTAL BLADES 48, 54 ATTACHED TO TREE AT DIFFERENT LEVELS; LIFT OF ATTACHED TO THE ENDS OF BLADES HORIZONTAL LOWEST OF THE TWO GROUPS; SIDE OF PIGS 76 ATTACHED TO THE ENDS OF THE GROUP AND THE HIGHEST LOWEST GROUP BLADES HORIZONTAL; AND ATTACHED TO PADDLE WHEEL VERTICAL TREE WITH THE CURVES FORM SPIRAL AND EXTENDING UNTIL INTERNAL EDGES OUT OF TANK. THE INVENTION APPLIES ESPECIALLY TO THE PELLETIZATION CARBON BLACK.


Features of a survival of self-sowing and undergrowth of oak (Quercus robur) under crones of a parent forest stand are considered


The mechanical behavior of the support regions for continuous composite girders with tensile stresses in the concrete slab and compressive stresses in the lower steel profile becomes strongly nonlinear under negative bending moments. A static test on four half-scale model of a steel and concrete composite girders with different shear connectors including studs and PBL under hogging moments was conducted and observed to evaluate the influence of shear connector on inelastic behavior such as flexural stiffness reduction, crack initiation and development in concrete slab. From the test results, the flexural stiffness and loading capacity of the composite girders were improved by PBL shear connector. Higher initial cracking load and crack resistance stiffness of composite girders with PBL shear connector under serviceability limit state was obtained during crack development process. The test specimen could be assumed as full composite section until the ultimate state from load-slip relationship of shear connector. Analytical and experimental studies can serve as a basis for continuous composite bridges design.


We examine the design of control rights of external financiers, and how these interact with the firm's security issuance and capital structure when the firm's initial owners and managers may disagree with new investors over project choice. The first main result is an ex ante managerial preference for "soft" financial claims that maximize managerial project-choice autonomy, which is in contrast to agency theory. Second, a dynamic "pecking order" of cash, equity, and debt emerges. Additional results explain equity issuance at high prices, the drifting of leverage ratios with stock returns, cash hoarding, and debt usage without taxes, agency, or signaling. The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com., Oxford University Press.


With the accelerating process of campus informatization, Chinese colleges and universities are actively exploring the integration of business and finance in carrying out financial management, and implementing the concept of comprehensive budget management in schools. This article first introduces the current development of industry-financial integration, and then puts forward a series of suggestions and measures on how to carry out industry-financial integration in an information environment, which has made important contributions to promoting the school's financial management capabilities.


This paper is concerned with the investigation of the semantic deviation in two poems; the Arabic poem by Al-Sayyab, The Detective and the English one by Eliot, Ash-Wednesday. The study adopts Geoffrey Leech's (1969) model of deviation taxonomy in the analyses of the two poems. Basically, Leech distinguishes three types of deviation; semantic deviation, form and realisation, but the present study confines itself to investigate only the first type (the semantic deviation), since it is related to the aims of the study, covering twelve types of semantic deviation that are all adopted in the analysis. The poems are classified in terms of the semantic levels to focus on and highlight the phenomenon of deviation deeply. As is known, each language has its own devices to investigate the phenomenon. Thus, the study tries to answer the questions whether or not both poets converge or diverge in their use of poetic devices, and whether it is possible to apply Leech's (1969) model for both languages. It is hypothesised that both poets demonstrate a high level of deviation in the two poems under study and the model can be applied to both poems. The two poems have been analysed thoroughly and the researchers concluded that the poets converge in the use of almost the same techniques that reflect semantic deviation, while they diverge in the images and meanings created through using tools of semantic deviation. Besides, Leech's model (1969) is applicable to both selected languages; English and Arabic.


Public trust in the media is at an all-time low, and this case illustrates a seedy link between the Washington press corps and the Washington swamp.


Agroforestry systems (SAF) in humid tropical areas are characterized by a high interspecific diversity and a multistrata structure of vegetation. These cropping systems are set up and managed on long time horizon (several decades), with a specific management of the various species in each field. The perennial crops (coffee-trees, cacao-trees, coconut) are the pivot of these SAF because they are the major sources of income for farmers. These systems are however the object of controversies; some regard them as not efficient on the basis of the yield of the perennial crop (Ruf. 2009), while others stress the importance of the environmental services which they provide (Montagini. 2005). To go beyond this controversy, quantified data on the production and environmental services provided by these systems are necessary. An abundant literature exists on these systems analysed with a disciplinary point of view (sociology, botany, ecophysiology, agronomy...). For the same discipline, like agronomy; studies generally focus on one scale, one stage or one component of the system. This knowledge is however difficult to integrate and one still does not have a systemic and shareable vision of SAF functioning and of the services provided in a given context. These systems also mobilize many experts and farmer's knowledge that must be integrated to build a common vision. This is important for assessment and improvement of the current SAF but also for the design of innovative SAF. In order to build this interdisciplinary vision we have developed a conceptual model of the relationships between structure, functions and services of these systems and of their dynamic during the life-time of the SAF. The definition of the model was based on a field survey in Guinea and it was further tested and improved with interview of a panel of experts having a disciplinary knowledge of these systems.


Thirty females' albino mice with average body weight of 25-30gm and 10-14 weeks old were used to investigate the toxicity of the oral administration of ampiroxicam on liver. The animals were given (single dose) of drug and were divided into three groups (10mice / group), control group were given distilled water, the two remaining groups ( treated group2 were administered by 20 mg/kg of ampiroxicam for one month and treated group3 were administrated by20 mg/kg of ampiroxicam for tow month). The results showed that the changes in of tissue of liver in treated animals include: degeneration of hepatocyte and hepatic sinusoidal dilation, also lymphocyte infiltration, necrosis, dead cell, detachment of basement membranes and hypertrophy while there are no significant microscopic changes in control group1 (untreated animals). The increase in duration of the oral administration of ampiroxicam has increasing significant effect on liver of mice.


Clinicians have focused traditionally on the physical wellbeing of their patients, opting for measures that are easily quantifiable. Increasingly, however, they have become aware of the additional need to assess the psychological well-being of those referred to their clinic. In deciding to give growth hormone (GH) therapy to a child or an adult, an assumption is made that there is some abnormality physical or otherwise to be corrected. In the case of GH deficiency (GHD) in children, the physical evidence is uncontroversial: not only is the patient very short, but there is also an underlying endocrine disorder associated with a variety of physical and physiological abnormalities. Disorders of mood, behaviour and performance have also been reported in patients with GHD, but although these may be of interest, a psychological assessment is not required in order to justify treatment. In the case of a child who is short, but otherwise normal, there may be no clear medical indications for treatment other than short stature, which is not a disease in itself. Any intervention must therefore be based on psychological grounds there must be convincing evidence that short stature has major psychosocial implications in childhood, adolescence or adulthood.


The chapter underscores the powerful emotional ambiguity that characterises the final moments of As You Like It and Twelfth Night. This alteration introduces a new understanding of melancholy that revolves around ideas of mood, time and setting. No longer tied to physical characterisations but grounded instead in the languor elicited by the inevitable passage of time, melancholy impresses itself into the very fabric of the plays it occupies. It finds particular resonance within the various musical interludes they contain, as well as in the several allusions to the bittersweet temporal perception that characters express. In both plays, the sense of a comic ending is seriously problematised by the growing sense of wistfulness that develops. Despite the promise of a return to court, the multiple loose ends in As You Like It undercut the otherwise joyful resolution. Similarly, a strong sense of this more spectral melancholy, embodied in Feste's closing ballad, sweeps through the final act, coating it in a wistful longing for times past. The powerful emotional ambiguity of these final moments underscores the symbiotic revisions of melancholy and comedy into a melancomic theatrical and philosophical affect.


This paper analyzes the connotations and contemporary values of Chinese traditional culture, and points out the superiorities of university library in carrying forward traditional culture, and puts forward some paths for carrying forward traditional culture.


Considered some typical recent cases in which the criminal victims or their relatives'legal rights couldn't be realized for thec riminals were disable to compensate.Limited by the Chinese national conditions and combined with the ideas of relative rationalism,the nationalc ompensation system of criminal victims in which the civil litigation is collateral to the criminal proceedings should be established in China.


A new cultivar of Phalaenopsis 'Jaha' was developed at Cactus Research Institute, Gyeonggido A.R.E.S in 2006. A crossing between 'KYP74', a pink flower with red lip and 'KYP88', light pink colored flower in 1999 was obtained 264 seedlings. 'Jaha' was finally selected through the test of characteristics from 2002 to 2006. This cultivar has purple color flower with red purple lip, large flower, 11.0 flowers per plant, and 81.0 of inflorescence length. This new cultivar was registered for commercialization in 2006 and would be cultured under greenhouse condition in Korea.


There has been particular concern in Ireland, as in many other countries, about the effects of poverty on children. The impact of poverty during childhood, and especially in early childhood, may be especially difficult to reverse. For this reason, a key question is how policies can be made more effective in supporting the incomes of families with children. In order to explore this question we examine evidence on how child poverty rates vary across a wide range of countries and the role of policy differences in helping to explain these differences in outcomes for children. We then focus more closely on the Irish system of child-related income supports. We examine how it has evolved in recent years, and the impact of such changes on child poverty. The implications of introducing a "second tier" of income-tested child income support, replacing Child Dependant Additions and Family Income Supplement, are then examined. Such a change has been under consideration as part of the Ending Child Poverty Initiative under Sustaining Progress and remains on the agenda in the most recent partnership agreement, Towards 2016.


ABSTRACT NUT carcinoma (NC) is an aggressive squamous tumor characterized by NUT gene rearrangement, and the most common fusion form is BRD4-NUT. However, NC diagnosis is difficult for its rareness and often being confused with a variety of poorly differentiated tumors. A 21-year-old Chinese woman was referred to our hospital for cough and intermittent fever. Chest computed tomography (CT) imaging revealed a left lobe hilar mass. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy results showed that tumor cells were poorly differentiated. In combination with immunohistochemistry staining, she was misdiagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumor. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) revealing BRD4-NUT fusion, and NUT immunohistochemistry confirmed the diagnosis of NC. Subsequently, left pneumonectomy and lymph node dissection were performed, and the patient received pemetrexed and lobaplatin treatment. NGS technology played an important role in NC diagnosis in this case, and it may have clinical use for rare cancer diagnosis and guidance of potential targeted therapies.


Fingerprint identification is one of the mo st well-known and publicized biometrics. Because of their uniqueness and consistency over time, fingerprints have been used for identification for over a century, more re c ntly becoming automated (i.e. a biometric) due to advancement in computing capabilities. Fingerprint identification is popular because of the inherent ease in acquisition, the numerous sources (ten fingers) available for collections, and their established us e and collections by law enforcement and immigration. Fingerprint verif ication is one of the most reliable personal identification me thod and it plays a very important role in forensic and civilia n applications. However, manual fingerprint verification is so tedio us, time-consuming, and expensive that it is incapable of meeting today's increasing performance requirements. Hence, an automatic fingerprint identification system (AFIS) is widely needed. Proposed system describes the design and im plementation of an off-line fingerprint verification system usin g wavelet transforms. In this method, matching is done between the input image and the stored template without resorting to e xhaustive search using the extracted feature. Keywords—fingerprint verification, wavelet transform, automat ic fingerprint identification system (AFIS),


B. G. Martinsson1, J. Friberg1, S. M. Andersson1, A. Weigelt2,*, M. Hermann2, D. Assmann2, J. Voigtländer2, C. A. M. Brenninkmeijer 3, P. J. F. van Velthoven4, and A. Zahn5 1Division of Nuclear Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden 2Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany 3Division of Atmospheric Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany 4Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, the Netherlands 5Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany * now at: Institute for Coastal Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Geesthacht, Germany


An hp–adaptive pseudospectral method is presented for solving optimal control problems. This method adjusts both the mesh spacing and the degree of the polynomial on each mesh interval until a specified error tolerance is satisfied. In regions of relatively high curvature, convergence is achieved by refining the mesh, while in regions of relatively low curvature, convergence is achieved by increasing the degree of the polynomial. Using four examples, the hp–adaptive pseudospectral scheme is shown to be more efficient than either a pure p– or a pure h– method.


In 2005, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) to deter those with means from evading their debts in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The law substantially increased the cost to debtors of filing bankruptcy. We use national data gathered at the zip code level to estimate how the law affected debtor filing rates at different income levels and by homeownership. We consider econometric models that account both for observed and unobserved differences across neighborhoods, as well as allow for arbitrary differences in bankruptcy time trends across neighborhoods. Results suggest that the law disproportionately reduced filings among poor neighborhoods by about 32% and that poorer filers also shifted 12% more towards pricier Chapter 13 filings with these effects being exacerbated by differences in homeownership.


Rectal bleeding and lung pneumonitis are the most common side effect following prostate and lung external radiotherapy treatments. To assess retrospectively rectum and lung normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) at different dose-volume limits changing the number of fractions, 40 patients, half treated for prostate cancer and half treated for lung disease using a conformal radiotherapy treatment (3DCRT) or an intensity-modulated radiation treatment (IMRT) were included in our study. Rectum and lung complications were analysed changing the number of fractions and adjusting the total dose keeping the dose-volume limits fixed as per original standard dose plan (2 Gy/daily). Three different sets of parameters, two linear-quadratic and one seriality model, were employed to evaluate rectum and lung NTCP using Biosuite software. An increased in rectum and lung complications was observed at low dose-volume values when the number of fraction was reduced from 38 given at 2 Gy/day to 5 given at 8 Gy/day. NTCP differences were substantially reduced to an average value of 4% when VD>40 Gy for rectum and VD >20Gy for lung treatments were considered. A lower NTCP coefficient of variation was obtained for V70 and V30 for rectum and lung respectively. Results indicate that more consideration should be given to the low dose-volume limits when the number of fractions are reduced and the dose per fraction increased in prostate and lung treatment to take under control rectum and lung toxicity for both 3DCRT and IMRT treatments. *Correspondence to: Antonella Bufacchi, Medical Physics Department, S. Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli Hospital and PIOXI Clinic, Rome, Italy, E-mail: email@example.com


The growth of the clothing industry in the Indonesian market and the global market is very rapid. The Uniqlo brand is classified as a fast fashion brand that is quite successful in managing product quality and image well. Analysis of the research can be seen that there are several challenges for Uniqlo in terms of service quality, and the value of customer perceptions of customer loyalty. This research was conducted to analyse the problems at Uniqlo Indonesia. The econometrics model in this study is the effect of service quality and customer perceived value on customer loyalty in fashion store namely Uniqlo. This study uses primary data cross section as many as 234 respondents. The analytical method in this study is Robust Least Squared Model. The results of the analysis of this study conclude that an increase in service quality and customer perceived value can significantly increase on customer loyalty. Every unit scale increase in service quality will increase the customer loyalty by 0.54-unit Likert scale, then every unit Likert scale increase in customer perceived value will increase customer loyalty by 0.29-unit Likert scale. This study suggests that the policy of service quality and customer perceived value is crucial to increase customer loyalty.


Brushless direct current (BLDC) motors are widely used in industrial, aerospace, medical, machine tools, aerospace and control applications. Nowadays they are becoming popular due to their advantages such as reduced maintenance, better speed-torque characteristics, good dynamic performance, noiseless operation, wide speed range, compact size, high torque to volume ratio, low moment of inertia and high efficiency. However, very few control techniques are available for controlling the BLDC drive systems. This paper presents a MATLAB simulation of practically realizable control techniques such as a conventional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, a fuzzy controller, an adaptive artificial neural network proportional-integral-derivative (ANN-PID) controller and a pulse width modulation technique based PID controller for achieving better performance during the operating conditions. The simulation results are presented to highlight the effectiveness of these controllers such as speed of response, overshoot and steady-state error etc.


The quality of our future depends on our capacity to learn and to use that learning for living. That is, learning for living and living for learning have become important aspects of contemporary life. In the modern world, learning is considered an integral and essential part of living well. Therefore, the quality of living at the individual, community and societal levels are dependent on life-long education. This is particularly important for Pacific countries. Equally, learning for leading, and leading for learning should become important ingredients of the organisational life of our schools. Traditionally, we have given some importance to the former and paid relatively scant attention to the latter, namely, leading for learning. This observation applies generally to all organisations, but has particular relevance to educational organisations at all levels in the Pacific, as learning to lead has been relatively neglected, until recent times.


Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of Tl4InGa3S8 layered single crystals grown by the Bridgman method have been studied in the 550–710 nm wavelength and 80–300 K temperature ranges with below bandgap excitation (λexc = 532 nm), and in the 420–600 nm wavelength and 30–300 K temperature ranges with above bandgap excitation (λexc = 325 nm). The broad emission bands centered at 580 nm (2.14 eV) and 496 nm (2.49 eV) were observed at T = 80 and 30 K for below and above bandgap excitation processes, respectively. Variations in emission spectra have been studied as a function of excitation laser intensity in the 10.3–429.7 mW cm−2 range for below bandgap excitation. Radiative transitions from the donor levels located at 0.02 and 0.37 eV below the bottom of the conduction band to the deep acceptor level located at 0.20 eV above the top of the valence band were proposed to be responsible for the observed PL bands. From x-ray powder diffraction and EDS analysis, the monoclinic unit cell parameters and compositional parameters, respectively, were determined.


Based on more than 24 months of ethnographic research among Maya ritualists in the western highlands of Guatemala, this article examines how pajooneem , or tz'ite' seed divination, facilitates decision-making and distributes cognition between client, diviner, and ritual techniques. Tz'ite' seed divination exhibits a stylized routine that draws on important 'mediating structures,' including the 260-day ritual calendar known throughout Mesoamerica. Because it is both a ritual and cognitive practice, Maya divination grounds decision-making in a perennially relevant set of cultural values.


The kinetics of Wittig-Horner reaction between several middle-active phosphonates and substituted benzaldehydes, and the effect of substituents which bond on phosphonates and benzaldehydes respectively on the reaction rate have been studied. Experimental findings are consistent with intermediate formation being the rate-determining step. The substituents on phosphonates play an important part in the formation of the intermediate. Large negative entropy values provide further evidence for the rate-detemining step, and for the intermediate, which probably has a fourmembered cyclic structure.


This paper presents an estimation method of rotational direction and speed for free-running ac machines driven by an inverter without speed and voltage sensor. The method has four estimation modes, and it utilizes only the measured phase current of machines. The performance of the proposed method is verified through the experiments for both permanent-magnet synchronous motor and asynchronous machines.


Nano science and technology is a new field of emergence in materials science and engineering, which forms the basis for evolution of novel technological materials. Nano technology finds application in various fields of science and technology. This article presents a critical review of the literature on the influence of nano silica in concrete and its application for the development of sustainable materials in the construction industry and to study the pore filling effect and its pozzolanic activity with cement towards improvement of mechanical properties and durability aspects. Thus, there is a scope for development of crack free concrete towards sustainable construction.


Improving glycemic control for inpatients with diabetes remains a formidable challenge. While the use of inadequate and nonphysiological insulin regimens is widespread, there are many potential barriers to improving physician and nursing hospital practices in this area. This article describes an integrated program that utilizes subcutaneous and intravenous insulin order forms incorporating guidelines that encourage more appropriate insulin therapy in the hospital. This approach has resulted in a significant decrease in one factor associated with suboptimal insulin use for inpatients: reliance on sliding-scale short-acting insulin alone for blood glucose control.


In this paper the constants of strong unicity of minimal projections onto some two-dimensional subspaces in l∞(4) will be calculated.


Abstract Chromatin dysregulation is both a cause and consequence of aberrant RNA Polymerase II (Pol2) transcription in cancer. Some of the most striking examples of chromatin disruption in cancer include somatic mutations in genes encoding histone H3 (H3.3/H3.1K27M) observed in ~80% of diffuse midline glioma (DMG). H3K27M mutant histones act in a dominant manner to disrupt chromatin regulation and Pol2-dependent transcription in DMG. How H3K27M impinges on the Pol2 transcriptional machinery and whether aberrant Pol2 transcription can reciprocally induce chromatin dysregulation in DMG remain open questions. We conducted epigenome-focused CRISPR dropout screens and identified multiple regulators of Pol2 elongation, including Elongin B and C (ELOB/ELOC) as DMG genetic dependencies. Follow-up studies confirm that knockout (KO) of ELOB inhibits DMG proliferation in neurosphere culture and abrogates DMG tumorigenesis in orthotopic xenografts. Additional chromatin profiling studies reveal that ELOB binding sites are enriched in H3K27M mutant histones, suggesting that ELOB works together with H3K27M to promote malignant gene expression in DMG. Indeed, reciprocal knockout studies suggest that while ELOB chromatin binding patterns were not altered by H3K27M KO, ELOB KO significantly reduced H3K27M chromatin incorporation at thousands of genomic loci. Further RNAseq and PROseq analyses reveal that ELOB KO alters Pol2 transcription resulting in the up-regulation of genes associated with neuronal and muscle differentiation and the repression of glial stem cell genes. Together, these findings suggest that H3K27M chromatin binding patterns and aberrant gene regulation in DMG are, in part, dictated by ELOB and the Pol2 elongation machinery. Finally, analyses of patient datasets indicate that ELOB complex genes are overexpressed in high grade glioma and DMG and correlate with decreased patient survival. Collectively, these studies suggest that a functional interaction between ELOB and H3K27M mutant histones induces DMG-specific aberrations in chromatin and gene regulation to drive malignancy.


In this paper we consider a functional differential equation of general form. Using the Laplace transform, we prove that such an equation has a nonoscillatory solution if and only if the characteristic equation has a real zero.


Viewpoint change, pose variation and background clutter have adverse impacts on similarity evaluation for person re-identification. Because of its distinction and reliability, person saliency has been applied to model person appearance characteristics. However, such valuable information is not fully exploited to compute similarities of person images with existing deep methods. To this end, we present a novel multi-stream refining based deep multi-task learning scheme that aggregates multi-stage salient embedding features in the network to boost the retrieval performance. Specifically, the backbone network is divided into four stages and a channel significance self-learning sub-module is introduced to strengthen the importance of saliency channels adaptively. Meanwhile, an enhancement sub-module is employed to extract the common information and different information from the channels. Finally, a multi-stream multi-task learning framework combining four-stage branches is adopted to learn discriminative features. Compared with the state-of-the-art approaches, our model achieves competitive performance on three publicly available datasets, i.e., Market-1501, MSMT17, and CUHK03. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our method, which achieves 95.67%/88.51%, 87.53%/65.54%, and 89.32%/78.99% on Rank-1/mAP, respectively.


The invention discloses a fully differential voltage buffer circuit. The fully differential voltage buffer circuit comprises an input stage circuit (1) and an output stage circuit (2); the input stage circuit (1) converts an input signal into a current signal; the current signal is amplified through the output stage circuit (2) and converted into a voltage signal to be output; the output common-mode voltage of the output stage circuit (2) can be controlled by a resistor (12) in the output stage circuit (2). The voltage buffer circuit can achieve buffering processing of differential voltage signals, and the common-mode voltage of the output differential signals is kept constant under the condition that the bias current is determined, and does not change along with the change of the input common-mode voltage. On the premise that the output differential-mode voltage and the input differential-mode voltage are guaranteed, the constant output common-mode voltage exists in a large input common-mode voltage change range; the value of the required output common-mode voltage can be conveniently set by changing the resistance of the resistor in the output stage circuit, and accordingly the flexibility of circuit design is improved.


Elaborately ornamented males may provide more paternal services than less ornamented males in some contexts but may alternatively invest in territoriality or mating over paternal effort. Two outstanding questions involve whether different types of sexual pigmentation communicate distinct information about paternal strategy and whether highly ornamented males adjust paternal effort to context-dependent benefits. In yellow warblers (Setophaga petechia), we explored whether carotenoid- and phaeomelanin-based pigmentation show distinct or complementary relationships to paternal effort and song rate and how males differing in pigmentation adjust behavior to nesting stage, brood size, and territorial challenge. Past studies have suggested that highly melanic male yellow warblers invest in territoriality or mating over paternal effort. However, genetic paternity data from our population indicate that males with high levels of both pigment types retain within-pair paternity but gain little extrapair paternity. Therefore, we predicted that these males should also exhibit higher paternal effort. Highly melanic males sang at high rates during incubation and provisioned incubating females at relatively low rates late in the incubation stage, but showed high late-stage nestling provisioning effort, and did not greatly reduce nestling provisioning rate under territorial challenge. Moreover, as predicted based on genetic paternity data, the relationship between melanin pigmentation and paternal effort varied with the level of carotenoid pigmentation expressed by males, with males expressing high levels of both pigment types provisioning late-stage nestlings at enhanced rates. Thus, the pigment types in combination may signal paternal benefits, and results suggest flexible investment in paternal effort by highly pigmented males.


A test stand which accurately measures the impulse bit and thrust vector of reaction jet thrusters used in the attitude control system of space vehicles has been developed. It can be used to measure, in a vacuum or ambient environment, both impulse and thrust vector of reaction jet thrusters using hydrazine or inert gas propellants. The ballistic pendulum configuration was selected because of its accuracy, simplicity, and versatility. The pendulum is mounted on flexure pivots rotating about a vertical axis at the center of its mass. The test stand has the following measurement capabilities: impulse of 0.00004 to 4.4 N-sec (0.00001 to 1.0 lb-sec) with a pulse duration of 0.5 msec to 1 sec; static thrust of 0.22 to 22 N (0.05 to 5 lb) with a 5 percent resolution; and thrust angle alinement of 0.22 to 22 N (0.05 to 5 lb) thrusters with 0.01 deg accuracy.


We have extended Fortune's sweep-line algorithm for the construction Voronoi diagrams in the plane to the surface of a sphere. Although the extension is straightforward, it requires interesting modifications. The main difference between the sweep line algorithms on plane and on the sphere is that that the beach line on the sphere is a closed curve. We have implemented this algorithm and tessellated spheres with up to one million sites. The running time for our sweep line algorithm on the sphere is O(N log N), and the storage space is O(N).


Long time series of vegetation productivity products are significant for the research of global carbon cycle and climate change. In this article, the 0.05° global gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP) products from 1981 to 2018 were estimated by using the improved multisource data synergized quantitative (MuSyQ) NPP algorithm. The model was based on the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) and leaf area index (LAI) data from the global land surface satellite (GLASS) dataset, the light use efficiency (LUE) from the parameterization approach with the clearness index (CI), the ERA-Interim meteorological data, and other environmental factors. The results suggested that the accuracy of the MuSyQ GPP product was slightly higher than that of the MOD17 GPP product when compared with the FLUXNET GPP, especially for the evergreen broadleaf forest (EBF), deciduous broadleaf forest (DBF), wetland (WET), cropland (CRO), woody savanna (WSAV), and closed shrubland (CSH) land types. MuSyQ NPP product also has higher accuracy [R2 = 0.81, RMSE = 214.6 gC/(m2year)] than MOD17 NPP [R2 = 0.55, RMSE = 214.7 gC/(m2year)] when compared with the BigFoot NPP, which indicated the reliability of the improved MuSyQ-NPP algorithm in estimating global NPP. Our results showed a significant upward trend in global NPP, which was most affected by FPAR, followed by LUE, temperature, and PAR. The average NPP declined significantly in Asia and Amazon tropical rainforests and increased significantly in Africa tropical rainforest, which were affected by the local deforestation or the forest expansion, and also the climate factors.


The Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) and its counting counterpart appears under different guises in many areas of mathematics, computer science, and elsewhere. Its structural and algorithmic properties have demonstrated to play a crucial role in many of those applications. For instance, in the decision CSPs, structural properties of the relational structures involved---like, for example, dismantlability---and their logical characterizations have been instrumental for determining the complexity and other properties of the problem. Topological properties of the solution set such as connectedness are related to the hardness of CSPs over random structures. Additionally, in approximate counting and statistical physics, where CSPs emerge in the form of spin systems, mixing properties and the uniqueness of Gibbs measures have been heavily exploited for approximating partition functions and free energy.
In spite of the great diversity of those features, there are some eerie similarities between them. These were observed and made more precise in the case of graph homomorphisms by Brightwell and Winkler, who showed that dismantlability of the target graph, connectedness of the set of homomorphisms, and good mixing properties of the corresponding spin system are all equivalent. In this paper we go a step further and demonstrate similar connections for arbitrary CSPs. This requires much deeper understanding of dismantling and the structure of the solution space in the case of relational structures, and new refined concepts of mixing introduced by Briceno. In addition, we develop properties related to the study of valid extensions of a given partially defined homomorphism, an approach that turns out to be novel even in the graph case. We also add to the mix the combinatorial property of finite duality and its logic counterpart, FO-definability, studied by Larose, Loten, and Tardif.


As an inverse problem, UXO (unexploded ordnance) discrimination requires fast forward models to estimate the response of target to sensor sources. In EMI sensing, the most well developed models approximate an object using frequency (or time) dependent magnetic dipoles. If the dipole moments at each frequency are independent model parameters, the number of unknowns in the inverse problem will be very large, particularly when multiple dipoles are required. Here we introduce a modified dipole model, in which a small number of model parameters are needed to describe each element of magnetization tensor. The modified model simplifies the inversion process, which makes it more suitable for real field applications, especially for highly contaminated UXO sites.


This paper discusses Late Iron Age gold foil figures from Scandinavia. The figures can be described as tiny human-like beings stamped on very thin gold foil. They mainly date to what in Sweden is c ...


A novel single-switch quadratic boost converter is presented in this paper. Its static conversion ratio indicates that the proposed topology is well suited in applications requiring a slight step-up of the input voltage compared to the classical boost. Static characteristics are derived and the semiconductor stresses proved to be lower than in the classical boost. For the considered design example, a measured efficiency of 93% was obtained. According to the design relationships, a prototype was breadboarded. First the designed converter was simulated, then subjected to practical experiments. Finally, the theoretical aspects were confirmed by the simulations and the experimental results, thus proving the feasibility of the proposed converter.


In early 2017, as Afghanistan witnessed the largest influx of refugee returns in recent years, little was known about the location patterns and needs of the more than 2 million Afghan returnees who had come back since 2015. Separate agencies managed registration databases for different groups, and the lack of access to SIM cards (due to the lack of necessary documentation) severely limited the broad applicability of findings from phone monitoring surveys. At the same time, existing data sources had not been fully exploited to characterize different groups of displaced populations, nor had attempts been made to link them to data collected by humanitarian agencies. The main purpose of collecting information on returnees was to assist the design and targeting of development programs for recent and future returnees. The note will start by discussing the details of how survey participants were identified using a combination of Random Digit Dialing (RDD) and Interactive voice response (IVR) and respondent driven sampling (RDS). Section 3 will present the survey design, implementation and response rates. Section 4 discusses the implications of the sampling methods and section 5 analyzes the representativeness of the collected data. Section Error! Reference source not found. discusses the use of sampling weights to adjust for sampling bias and finally, section 7 summarizes up the lessons learned.


:The present work was carried out to compare the effects of age and antihypertensive therapy on lipid profile in hypertensive and normotensive individuals. A total of 150 individuals were used for the study.100 hypertensive under therapy were used and 50 normotensive served as control. Serum lipid (Cholesterol (T -chol) , triglyceride (TG), Phospholipids (PL),High density lipoprotein( HDL-chol ), Low density lipoprotein( LDLchol) and very low density lipoprotein (VLD L- chol) were biochemical parameters monitored. The normotensive studied had mean age of 50 + 11 years and blood pressure of 117 + 6 / 77+ 6 mmHg. The hypertensive had mean age of 55 + 10 years and blood pressure of 177+25 /103 + 10 mmHg.The study revealed that there was a highly significant effect of age on total cholesterol in hypertensive than normotensive individuals .The mean total cholesterol (T -chol) and triglyceride (TG) were (156+11, and 59 + 4) mg/dl respectively for the normotensives; and hypertensive the means were 166 + 13 for the T –chol and 66+ 7 mg/dl for triglyceride (P<0.05). Similarly, a significant lower phospholipids level of 158+8 mg /dl was obtained for normotensives, hypertensives had a mean (165+ 11 mg/dl, P<0.05). However, HDL-chol was lower in hypertensives (57+ 10) mg/dl than in normotensives (64+ 13) mg/dl). Hypertensive patients also recorded higher mean values of LDL-chol (95+ 17) mg/dl than the normotensives with mean values of 81+ 15 mg/dl for LDL- chol. Marginally higher level of VLD L- chol was observed in hypertensive patients as well compared to normotensive individuals VLD L- chol(13+ 2)mg/dl and 12 + 1 mg/dl for VLD Lchol( P<0.05).


In the one-dimensional case (vertical or horizontal dimensioning of a parallel-sided object) a consistent engineering drawing is one whose graph is a tree.To extend this work to two dimensions, we define a new generalization of the k-tree, by relaxing the mutual adjacency condition on vertices adjacent to the new vertex in the usual inductive definition of the k-tree. We call these graphs r-trees. We also define a generalization of the cyclic property of graphs. A graph is r-cyclic if it contains a subgraph, all of whose vertices have degree greater than r. We prove that r-trees are maximal r-acyclic graphs.The graph theory yields an algorithm for detecting consistency in dimensioned drawings.


We employ GPRS,ZigBee,GIS and WSN to devise a remote management system for a city manhole for solving its antitheft and positioning issue.The system can perform real-time monitoring for the state of a manhole and its inside environment and can realize its active early warning and alarm.The system can therefore avoid the damage to a manhole cover,its stealing by a person or being damaged by a vehicle.


a salt-secreting nasal gland (Ohmart 1972) age were preserved in alcohol to document various stages of development. and studies on the efficiency in body water turnover in birds under simulated desert conRESULTS ditions (Ohmart et al. 1970) indicated that BREEDING SEASON AND NESTING detailed field information was needed to integrate physiological and ecological findings in The Roadrunner has a bimodal nesting pat-


The present invention relates to aqueous suspensions comprising an aluminous cement and / or a sulfoaluminum calcium cement and binder compositions comprising the aqueous suspension in combination with organic binders, stable at ambient temperature and at elevated temperature, and processes for their preparation.


Success of a tracking method depends largely on choosing the suitable window size as soon as the target size changes in image sequences. To achieve this goal, we propose a fast tracking algorithm based on adaptively adjusting tracking window. Firstly, tracking window is divided into four edge subwindows, and a background subwindow around it. Then, by calculating the spatiotemporal gradient power ratios of the target in each subwindow, four proper expansion vectors are associated with any tracking window sides such that the occupancy rate of the target in tracking window should be maintained within a specified range. In addition, since temporal changing of target is evaluated in calculating these vectors, we estimate overall target displacement by sum of expansion vectors. Experimental results using various real video sequences show that the proposed algorithm successfully track an unknown textured target in real time, and is robust to dynamic occlusions in complex noisy backgrounds.


By using the droplet epitaxy method, we succeed in fabricating the InAs quantum dots (QDs) with the spatial density of 4×1010∕cm2 and an average lateral size of 20nm on GaAs (001) at the droplets deposition temperature of 50°C and subsequent annealing process under As4 flux. These QDs shows the intense photoluminescence even at room temperature indicating that high-quality InAs QDs can be fabricated by near room temperature droplets deposition and crystallization process by 400°C in situ annealing.


The aim of this study was to determine species-specific features of arterial vascularisation of the auditory tube of domestic pigs as a segment connecting the nasopharynx and the middle ear with regard to the increasing role of pigs as most appropriate model of human biomedical research. The arterial branches involved in the vascularisation of the auditory tube were described on corrosion casts. It was found out that in the direction of the middle ear, the tube received blood from branches of a. palatina ascendens, a. meningea media, a. temporalis profunda caudalis and rete mirabile epidurale rostrale, out of which the first of enumerated arteries was the most involved. In the majority of cases (87.5%) it gave off two branches that ramified in the lateral and medial walls of the tube. For the first time, it was demonstrated that a. palatina ascendens was separated from the facial artery and not from a. lingualis. The measurements on casts showed that the diameter of left a. palatina ascendens was statistically significantly larger than right one in both sexes, and that average diameters of either right or left arteries were larger in males. The results allowed concluding that a. palatina ascendens was predominantly involved in the arterial blood supply of porcine auditory tube.


Effective and efficient closed-loop supply chain processes can constitute a significant competitive edge for companies. However, the integration of forward and reverse processes poses some challenges both on the supply side - e.g. availability of remanufacturable products - and on the demand side, e.g. cannibalization between new and remanufactured products. In this paper a model for studying supply side interactions is presented. In a two-period setting with uncertain demand a newsvendor-type approach is used to characterize the optimal production and remanufacturing policies. The main emphasis is on the link between production and sales of new products and the resulting subsequent supply of used products. Further, the issue of storing excess production is addressed and the substitution effect between inventories and remanufacturable products is quantified.


It is important for people in technical fields to be familiar with sustainability issues because public awareness of environmental and social concerns related to technologies has been growing. Also in pharmacy education, a deep understanding of sustainability issues is required so that the future pharmacists will make a positive impact on the environment. This study examines whether Japanese university students can identify problems in an illogical essay and it evaluates the effectiveness of the problem checklist when revising the text on the sustainability of drugs. We also investigate how much knowledge the participants have about the term "sustainability." The results of the present experiment suggest that the prior peer review training is beneficial in highlighting the problems in the essay and making revisions. The results also reveal that the problem checklist is very effective. Furthermore, the activity of reading and revising the text on "sustainability" using the peer review method as well as answering the questions about the knowledge of the term stimulate them to consider the sustainability issues. In order to spread the concept of sustainability in Japan, the topic of sustainability should be widely covered in college education.


301.apsi 2 150 40.3 2 143 42.3 Hardware CPU: AMD Opteron (TM) 2220SE CPU MHz: 2800 FPU: Integrated CPU(s) enabled: 2 cores, 1 chip, 2 cores/chip CPU(s) orderable: 1,2 chips Parallel: No Primary Cache: 64 KB I + 64 KB D on chip per core Secondary Cache: 1 MB I+D on chip per core L3 Cache: N/A Other Cache: N/A Memory: 8 GB (4x2 GB PC2-5300P CL5.0) Disk Subsystem: 1x250 GB SATA Other Hardware: Software Operating System: SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 (x86_64) SP 3 SuSE kernel 2.6.5-7.244-smp Compiler: PathScale EKOPath(TM) Compiler Suite, Release 2.5 AMD Core Math Library 3.5.0 File System: Linux/ext2 System State: Multi-user run level 3


Should swine flu mutate into a more sinister disease than its present form, very large numbers of sick patients will present at the reception of your practice or your hospital demanding treatment. Some of them may be your colleagues or their families. Will you give them priority?

While the available facilities exceed the demand, all patients will doubtless be dealt with in an orderly manner. But when the numbers exceed the facilities, triage will be implemented, selecting those who will benefit from treatment in favour of those in whom treatment may ultimately be futile. This is a well understood process, dating back through centuries of warfare, and is considered a measured response to a lack of resources. But warfare tends to generate a wide spectrum of injury severity. This makes differentiation between those who can wait for treatment, those who cannot, and those for whom treatment will make little difference relatively straightforward, at least in theory. However, an overwhelming …


Introduction Globally, workers experience stress, resulting in lack of productivity (Dewa et al., 2010).  In Finland, occupational health care (OHC) has an important but little explored role in supporting workers' ability to work (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, 2001). The objective of this Finnish study was to explore OHC interventions to promote work ability of workers suffering from chronic work-related stress.  Methods We interviewed 25 OHC professionals: physicians (n=7), nurses (n=7), psychologists (n=4) and physiotherapists (n=7), orally and in writing, about these OHC interventions.  The data underwent qualitative content analysis. Results First, OHC conducted individual-level interventions consisting of (i) the treatment of co-occurring illnesses (e.g. sleep disorders, depression, alcoholism, hypertension, musculoskeletal symptoms, digestive symptoms, migraine, diabetes), (ii) stress management (e.g. relaxation, mind-body therapies, exercise), and (iii) psychological support (e.g. supportive conversations at OHC, directing the worker to psychotherapy treatment, rehabilitation, or both). Second, work community level-interventions consisted of (i) recommending work accommodations, (ii) advising in work ergonomics (the health and safety of the physical work environment and working methods), (iii) conducting targeted work place visits (e.g. to solve interpersonal conflicts, guide and advise the whole work community about how to recognize stress symptoms, how to reduce stress, and how to seek help from OHC), (iv) conducting screening surveys (to recognize workers at risk), and (v) supporting supervisors to support burdened workers and the whole work community. Third, organizational-level interventions were conducted (e.g. informing the leadership of psychosocial risks at work, to influence organizational policies). Discussion OHC conducted multi-level interventions to promote the work ability of workers with work-related stress. The focus of the interventions was, however, at the individual level with the treatment of evident medical symptoms. Combining both individual-level and work place-level interventions has been successful in the prevention of severe work-related stress syndrome (Awa et al., 2010). To optimize OHC support, more focus on preventive interventions at the work community and organizational levels are warranted. References Awa, W. L., Plaumann, M., & Walter, U. (2010). Burnout prevention: A review of intervention programs. Patient Education and Counseling, 78 (2), 184-190. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.uef.fi:2048/10.1016/j.pec.2009.04.008 Dewa, C. S., Loong, D., Bonato, S., Thanh, N. X., & Jacobs, P. (2014). How does burnout affect physician productivity? A systematic literature review. BMC Health Services Research, 14 , 325-6963-14-325. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-14-325 [doi] Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland. Occupational Health Care Act. No. 1383/2001. [cited 2017 Jan 07]. Available from: https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2001/en20011383.pdf


(57) Abstract: Method for the prevention of the storage medium, and the accidental and unacknowledged writing and reading of information therefrom, a first code indicating a first protection mode of (a) storage medium a step of writing a predetermined position of the storage medium (112), and step (118) for receiving a command to change the protection mode (b) storage medium from the first protection mode to a second protection mode, (c) instead of the first code in a predetermined position of the storage medium, and a step (136, 138) for writing a second code indicating a second protection mode. Protection mode, either prevents writing to the storage medium, to the storage medium, and either to prevent writing and reading from it, write to the storage medium can also be either not be blocked read. Changing the protection mode can also be protected with a password.


Rapid sequence intubation outside hospital is fraught with difficulties: an intervention in a supposed hostile environment, the lack of precise information about the medical history of the patient, the diversity in the skills of doctors. In France, a Commission of Experts drew up a set of guidelines in 2000. Objectives This prospective study was conducted in three mobile emergency and intensive care units. Methods The patients were over 15 years of age and were not in cardiac arrest. The study was to compare practices in the three units with the guidelines drawn up by the Commission of Experts so as to define the main parameters for quality assurance. All of the patients involved were considered to have full stomachs and required rapid sequence induction. Results This procedure comply the guidelines only in 45% of cases; in the other cases succinylcholine should have been administered (mobile emergency and intensive care unit A) and the Sellick manoeuvre should have been used (mobile emergency and intensive care unit A and B). Notwithstanding, these two centres treated more traumatized patients than mobile emergency and intensive care unit C, and use of the Sellick manoeuvre in such circumstances is questionable. Conclusions More training and greater diffusion of the protocols are required, especially with regard to doctors who intervene intermittently.


The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, is a spiral galaxy located just off the end of the handle off the Big Dipper.


Through the engineering practices of subway deep excavations in Shanghai,some methods of improving the soft-soil mechanical with time-space effect were compared and studied,and then analyze each applicative range,advantages and shortcomings,in order to help choosing the rational and economical designs.


This study investigates whether firm innovation can be systematically traced to the CEO's performance evaluation made by boards of directors. In evaluating CEO performance, the board can (i) assess and evaluate performance on job aspects that are per-se difficult to measure and (ii) signal firm value to outsiders without having to disclose competitively sensitive details. In this paper, I argue that these features of CEO performance evaluation are central to understanding how boards motivate innovation. The first feature increases the effort allocation towards innovation, while the second feature increases the incentive intensity of equity incentives. As a result, I expect that firm innovation is positively related to the presence of board's private measures in evaluating the CEO, and more importantly, positively related to the interaction of private measures and equity incentives. Empirical results are in line with both expectations. Overall, findings suggest that boards can reduce incentive problems associated with equity ownership in high information asymmetry environments by signaling innovation without disclosing competitively sensitive details.


The problem of determining the masses and ages of T Tauri star (TTS) using their evolutionary status is discussed. We test four pre-main sequence evolutionary models using well determined observational parameters of 12 binary TTSs and two binary red dwarfs. It is shown that the masses derived using the tracks of all models are in good agreement with the masses obtained from the observations of TTSs with masses M > 0.7M⊙ (mean error ε ∼ 10%). Low-mass stars with M ≤ 0.7M⊙ have significantly greater mean error: ε ∼ 50% for the tracks of Bressan et al. and Chen et al., and ε ∼ 30% for the other tracks. The isochrones of all tested evolutionary models diverge for stars with masses M ≤ 0.7M⊙. The difference increases with the mass decrease and can reach 10% of Kelvin-Helmholtz time for stars with mass M = 0.2M⊙. The ages of most of the considered TTSs are smaller than the Kelvin-Helmholtz time. This confirms their evolutionary status of being pre-main sequence stars.


There has been relatively little empirical research on the distinctive characteristics and needs of female offenders that could help guide rehabilitative approaches that are gender specific. This study considered a sample of female offenders (N = 886) and male offenders (N = 1,435) who had been released from incarceration and provided with assessment services as part of the community reentry process. Comparisons were conducted using the employment, companions, and financial domains of the Level of Service Inventory (LSI-R and LS-CMI). Female offenders received significantly higher ratings in companion and financial deficits, consistent with some prior research suggesting that social and financial risk factors for offending may be more substantial in women. Implications for research and the practice of gender-specific rehabilitation approaches are discussed.


SUMMARY The success and growth of ETD programs hinge upon careful planning and communication, effective use of technology infrastructure and personnel, and developing outreach strategies to engage constituents across diverse campus departments. The contributions and responsibilities of graduate faculty, information technology professionals and librarians as unique and distinct realms create challenges for building effective teams. There exists wide variation in how ETD programs are administered and staffed, reflecting the diverse array of organizational structures in place in academic institutions. What practical information is necessary in building successful ETD initiatives? What outreach efforts and instructional materials are provided to graduate students and faculty to simplify procedures and standardize the process? This chapter presents elements to consider in ETD program implementation, reviews practical workflow issues and identifies potential barriers to success.


This paper addresses dioxin/furan formation issues in relation to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) thermal waste treatment system's needs. The test objectives for the initial dioxin/furan tests were to measure the effect of particulate removal at various elevated operating temperatures on dioxin/furan formation, and to document the performance of the ceramic and high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)-grade, sintered-metal filters. The first step in testing was to establish that dioxins/furans could indeed be produced under a given operating condition. The process conditions were then adjusted to meet the primary test objective. An appropriate test bed configuration was developed specifically for this test. A test process gas slipstream of nominally 2 pounds per minute (lb/min) was taken from a main process gas stream of nominally 8 lb/min. Test bed components included a ceramic hot filter in series with a sintered-metal, HEPA-grade filter downstream of a primary thermal waste treatment chamber and a natural gas afterburner. A plasma arc torch was used for the first test, which was run on two separate days, and a natural gas alternate thermal driver was used for the last four tests. The surrogate feed recipe was formulated for its ability to produce dioxins/furans, and to approximate DOE incinerator conditions when burned. The feedrate was adjusted to produce short periods (puffs) of reducing conditions to enhance dioxin/furan generation. Dioxin/furan sampling was accomplished by using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Method 23, "Determination of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans Emissions from Stationary Sources." The test program was based on the hypothesis that dioxin/furan compounds form at 400 to 950 F in the presence of catalytically active solids, such as offgas particulate. It was expected that by filtering dioxin/furan formation-enhancing particulate at a temperature above the expected dioxin formation temperature, dioxin/furan formation could be retarded, if not eliminated, according to the specified process conditions. The work was performed by MSE Technology Applications, Inc. (MSE), in Butte, Montana, under the direction of the DOE's Mixed Waste Focus Area (MWFA) and the DOE's Western Environmental Technology Office (WETO).


Purpose
The status of government's legal adviser in Israel is complicated and controversial. This status deeply impacts discretion and independence, especially in the role of combating corruption. This article aims to review the status, power and independence of the government's legal adviser and his/her interaction with other legal institutions dealing with corruption cases.

Design/methodology/approach
The author argues that the period of the 1980s, in Israel, was characterized by prosecution's activism because of the dramatically increased number of corruption-related cases.

Findings
Prominent government legal advisers formulated approaches to the struggle against political corruption in Israel; upon becoming justices of the supreme court, they successfully transited their prosecution mindset to judicial activism (and not only for corruption-related cases).

Originality/value
This article discovers a linkage between prosecution and judicial positions, not under the Israeli legislation but based on personal willingness to combat corruption.


This work presents a new method to dry the malt using geothermal water. This thing is possible if the geothermal fluid has a temperature and a pressure high enough; if the temperature is not high enough it can only be used for a part of the processing aspects or as additional heat to cover all the thermic energy needs of the processes. The geothermal energy can be integrated in an industrial process, in two applications: either as a means of storage for the energy dissipated in the surrounding atmosphere or as a source of energy which can directly offer a direct process of heating or of cooling.


Self-Help groups have a key role in empowering their members and have emerged as a potential tool for agricultural extension; however, they also face a few constraints. To understand the intervention point for strengthening SHGs by exploring its various dimensions and overcoming the constraints faced by them, the present study focused on a) the individual profile characteristics of SHGs' members and b) the group characteristics of SHGs' members. It was inferred from the study that the majority of the members belonged to the middle age group (27 to 44 years), were married females, belonged to nuclear families, had a medium annual income comprised of marginal land holdings, were engaged in agriculture with other subsidiary occupations, and had a medium duration (between 3 to 5 years) of membership in SHGs. Awareness and Readiness to use Android phones have also increased amongst SHGs, i.e., the majority of the members perceived medium-level ease of use of Android phones, i.e., neither too easy nor too difficult to use. The majority of the respondents had education up to intermediate level. Most of the respondents had a medium level of achievement motivation, and they occasionally sought information from 'friends and relatives', 'neighbors,' and 'progressive farmers'. Among personal cosmopolite sources, block development officers, scientists from agricultural universities, agriculture officers from banks, and DDM, NABARD was the preferred source. Radio, Kisan Call Center, and the Internet were occasionally preferred for agricultural information. The majority of the respondents belonged to the medium category in terms of task function and maintenance function. They had a favorable attitude towards collectivization and group decision-making. These research findings on self-help group members must be taken into account by the researchers, extensionists, trainers, and policymakers for the formulation, designing and successful implementation of trainings, development programmes and interventions for strengthening the group dynamics.


Tom wesselmann's Bathtub Col/age #3 of 1963 (fig.l) displays anassortment of household fixtures dating from the late 1950s and early 1960s arranged above a wood veneer platform, two feet deep, that serves as the bathroom's floor. Visitors to the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, which owns and exhibits the work, must view Wesselmann's bathroom from a distance. Bathtub Collage #3 is mounted against a wall across a room-width stage, which is roped off by a cord suspended from theater stanchions. Such an installation, with its life-size scale and use of real bathroom fixtures, grants Wesselmann's picture the kind of space usually reserved for a specific type of museum display: the period room. It also, perhaps inadvertently, capitalizes on the voyeuristic dimension inherent in historical dioramas of daily life, for Wesselmann's interior includes a nude woman drying herself with an orange striped towel, standing in a blue enamel bathtub. Viewed in West Germany, Wesselmann's bathroom can appear to be the work of ethnographic reconstruction: it offers a glimpse of the "American Way of Life," of the domestic interior and the mores of the middle-class homemaker in the United States at a certain moment in the postwar period. Transatlantic distance, however, does not preclude Bathtub Collage #3 as a period room from reiterating the American middle class's own understanding of itself in the 1950s and early 1960s. That self-image was formulated in numerous cultural texts, ranging from television situation comedies to journalistic accounts of national trends, that presented the United States after World War Two as the land of suburbs, nuclear families, mass-produced appliances, and disposable consumer goods. While that account, itself shaped by constantly shifting representations and riven by internal contradictions, was challenged both at the time and subsequently, the view that all Americans shared in a common middleclass consumer culture in the postwar era persists in many of today's cultural representations of the 1950s. • Both critics and historians of Pop art, for instance, have consistently discussed this art movement as if it presented a checklist of icons characterizing American national culture of the 1950s: Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, comic books, hamburgers, Cokes, and suburbia. 2 Yet though Wesselmann's collage may be read as a historical period room, it is, in another more obvious sense, a painting hanging within the walls of a modern art museum. In Cologne Bathtub Collage #3 takes its place in a large room


It has been widely understood and accepted that water compensation should take "sustainable development" as its instructional thought. In this paper, we provided an overview of the development and overall status of the study in China's water resources compensation, as well as a brief summary of the research results, including the purpose, significance and the theoretical basis of water resources compensation. And some important issues on the water compensation mechanism were also summarized in the paper: 1) the definition of the right to own and use the water resources; 2) the change of compensation criteria; 3) the indicator System; 4) the integration of market adjustment and government management. Thus, we should focus on the above issues in further study, and start the researches on the water compensation mechanism from the function of water resources functions.


Increasing demands for information‐storage capacity and for miniaturization of memory cells have driven exploration of new‐generation data storage devices, because the conventional Si‐based memory technology is approaching its fundamental physical limits. Hybrid materials and novel device structure may lead to a paradigm shift toward memory devices that have high density, multifunctionality, and low power consumption. Here, the structure and operation mechanism of resistive switching memory devices are described, then recent advances in hybrid materials (e.g., graphene‐based polymer composites, organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite materials) for fabrication of these devices are summarized. How to increase the ON/OFF ratio and the density of memories, and to decrease programming voltage by selecting appropriate active materials, and engineering the active layers, are also demonstrated. Finally, the current challenges and future directions in memory devices based on hybrid materials are summarized.


This article reviews a support program for rice cultivation in Mali in 2008, l'Initiative riz, in the framework of a food crisis related to the increase in the cost of grain. This program reflects the role played by rice in the orientation of agricultural policy, both for the government of Mali and for funders. L'Initiative riz also informs on the political dimension of rice, to the extent that this crop is not consumed by those who suffer the most from hunger due to its prohibitive cost. The price of rice is a central issue of an ongoing controversy between state officials, traders, and producers. To understand it, we look back at the history of their relationship and the history of rice cultivation in Mali.


Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01GM108731. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers whose valuable comments and suggestions helped improve the quality of the paper. The authors apologize for this oversight.


Maternal phenylketonuria is a disease process caused by the adverse effects of high maternal blood phenylalanine (PHE) on the fetus. Unless treated, maternal PKU results in teratogenic effects on the fetus that can lead to mental retardation, microcephaly, intrauterine growth retardation, congenital cardiovascular defects, low birth weight, spontaneous abortion and fetal death. Although PKU has been recognized as a major challenge for many years, surprisingly little is known about the pathophysiologic mechanism(s) of PHE toward the fetus. To more thoroughly investigate the pathogenesis of this heritable disease and to explore potential therapeutic actions, the genetic mouse model Pahenu2 was used. The overall goals of this project were to use the Pah enu2 mouse to examine the effect of maternal blood PHE level on: (1) The pregnancy outcome of maternal PKU offspring as measured by the incidence of spontaneous abortion and certain key measures of development at birth (i.e., head circumference, weight, and crown-rump length of offspring); and (2) The fetal nutritional status of maternal PKU offspring as assessed by the levels of PHE, tyrosine (TYR), and other essential amino acids (EAA) at birth. In this study, we clearly observed that elevated maternal blood PHE levels, whether they were caused by the maternal diet or maternal genotype, were responsible for the fetal abnormalities in maternal PKU. With regard to fetal developmental outcomes, significant reductions in birth weight, crown-rump length, and head circumference were seen in offspring gestated under high maternal blood PHE conditions. The incidence of fetal loss was significantly different between treatment and control groups. Reductions in the levels of alanine, glutamine, and glutamic acid were observed in fetal blood among offspring born to mutant mothers with high blood PHE levels. None of the branched chain amino acids were reduced in maternal PKU offspring. These findings strongly suggest that there are important maternal genotype and dietary components but no fetal genotype component to this maternal PKU model. Given that these maternal factors also appear to be the most important components of human maternal PKU, this model seems certain to provide a valid animal model to overcome the difficulties of human studies.