The Argentine crisis has its origins neither in the economic reforms undertaken by President Carlos Menem in 1989 nor in the globalization process of the previous decades. Rather, Argentina's decline has been a slow process that began in the early 20th century. President Menem, in fact, based his economic reforms on sound economic logic: the privatization of state-owned enterprises, a monetary conversion ratio of one peso to the U.S. dollar, and a commercial opening to the world. In 1991, inflation--which had reached hair-raising figures--was curbed, and substantial GDP per capita growth was achieved in the following years. Despite these short-lived achievements, the economic situation deteriorated, and in November 2001 the government presided over by Fernando de la Rua decreed the partial freezing of bank deposits both in Argentine pesos and U.S. dollars. On December 19, supermarkets were plundered throughout the country, and the following day President de la Rua signed his resignation. Thereafter, the country had a succession of five presidents and declared the default of its foreign debt in an atmosphere of extreme economic, social, and political unrest. Representatives of all political parties in Congress--in both the House of Representatives and the Senate--daily articles in newspapers, and the hoards of demonstrators who take to the streets of Buenos Aires, all attribute the present crisis to the liberal economic reforms carried out by President Menem, as well as globalization and the IMF intervention. In February 2002, in the streets of Dublin we saw posters displaying the map of Argentina with the following caption: "See what savage capitalista together with the IMF can do to a nation." In this article, I argue that Argentina's crisis is the result of colonial political practices manifest in modern Argentine economics. I show that Argentina's amazing development after the 1853-60 National Constitution was due to the introduction of a series of institutions and cultural values that modified those stemming from Spanish colonial times. However, at the beginning of the 20th century--a period when, paradoxically, the country had become one of the richest in the world--there was a revival of certain cultural features of the colonial era that caused a process of economic decline. This decline was intensified after World War II. The reforms that started in 1989, rather than being the cause of our present situation, were unable to reverse the return to certain habits and features dating from colonial times. First, I explore the features that characterized Spanish colonial times. Then I refer to the modernization carried out after 1853, the subsequent regressions of the 20th century, and the reasons why the 1989 reforms were unable to stop the decline. I end with a reflection on the causes of those regressions and consider the prospects for the future. Colonial Features During the three-century colonial period, what is now Argentine territory was one of the poorest areas of the Spanish empire, largely due to its geographic placement, far from the centers of economic and political activity. In 1810, at independence, Argentina's population was smaller than that of Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru, and its economy was underdeveloped relative to the rest of the Hispanic American territory. Though remote, the recently created Viceroyalty of the River Plate shared sociocultural traits typical of the continent dominated by Spain: political absolutism, mercantilism, disregard for the law, religious uniformity, xenophobia, and social stratification. Administration based on these cultural principles could only contribute to Argentina's underdevelopment, leading to bad government and abusive economic practices. Below I examine each sociocultural trait in turn. Absolutism One of the most striking features of Hispanic American society was absolutism. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus discovered America the Spanish monarchs were trying to consolidate their power over feudal nobility. …


Gear-tooth profile modifications and gear-tooth crowning do not change the geometric dimensions of the gear smoothness and can distribute the contact stress throughout the tooth surface and improve the reliability and capacity of the gear transmission, the smoothness of transmission thus it can reduce the effect of heat deformation after machining, resulting in a longer life span and decrease the vibration. Owing to the advantages of high efficiency, high precision, and environmental consciousness, etc., the electrochemical gear-tooth profile modification (ECGTPM) will become a valuable new technique. The focus is laid on developing an automatic control system for ECGTPM in this paper. The control architecture, the processing mechanism, the main components and their functionalities are demonstrated in detail. The implementation of the control system for ECGTPM is helpful to the improvement of productivity, safety, automation, etc. Some experiments are verified to the advantages of this new technique.


The more attention was paid to works of mountain zone hydrology in arid inland river basin in the past; especially on analysis of water amount and runoff come from mountain areas. It was lack of study on oasis zone hydrology and desert zone hydrology that due to less of attention to irrigation areas and ecology. As an example, the paper analyzes basic characteristics and hydrologic mechanism toward arid inland rivers in Xinjiang Autonomous Region. In the paper, combining the mountain zone hydrology, oasis zone hydrology and ecological environment protection, considering hydrologic cycle in the whole river basin, a new conception of hydrologic cycle in arid inland river basin is presented based on the research and practice of hydrology problem. The contents and goals are put forward for widening research on the field of hydrology. New ideas and contents enrich research and development of hydrology.


Mathematical thinking (MT) has been one of the most important goals for mathematics education as it can support sustainable mathematics learning. Its role in school mathematics has recently been explicitly identified as one of "Four Basics" in the latest national curriculum standard for compulsory education, which is seen as one of the prominent features of Chinese mathematics education. This paper reviewed definitions, descriptions, and explanations from a historical perspective and aimed to provide a comprehensive and contemporary conceptualization for MT in a Chinese context, which can be applied as a comparison to MT in English works. To achieve this, document analysis was applied in this study. Major official documents, papers, and books were reviewed to see the process of MT conceptualization given by the policy makers and researchers. Results indicated that MT places more emphasis on the process of mathematical methods application in problem solving, such as the method of combination of symbolic and graphic mathematics. Mathematical thought is also recommended by Chinese researchers to help students think like mathematicians. Another major characteristic is that the classification of major types of MT is usually focused on that which can make the concept more understandable.


Abstract : A study has been carried out to determine the feasibility of various antenna configurations for a proposed satellite mission to profile the surface temperature of the ocean using a passive microwave radiometer. Specifically, a static, multiple-beam microwave antenna utilizing a phase-switched Mills cross as its basic element is proposed and analyzed in detail. Although the Mills cross configuration does not completely meet the specified requirements of this particular application, its analysis does provide a necessary frame of reference for assessing its usefulness in general, and for establishing its features and drawbacks relative to alternative antenna configurations. It also serves as an illustrative example of some of the design tradeoffs and problems that are encountered in trying to map the earth's surface from a space platform. (Author)


Ba (Ti0.91Zr0.09) O3 ceramics doped with CuO were prepared by a solid phase reaction. The ferroelectric properties of Ba (Ti0.91Zr0.09) O3 ceramics were investigated. The results revealed that the materials are of relaxor type at Orthorhombic-Tetragonal phase transition point and undergoes a diffuse phase transition at Tetragonal-Cubic phase transition point. A non-linear P-E loop and narrow loop are observed, which exhibit a typical ferroelectric relaxor characteristic at the room temperature. Remanent polarization Pr and coercive electric field EC decrease with increasing dopant concentration, A remanent polarization of 0.20 μC/cm2 and a coercive filed of 0.81 KV/cm for BTZC38 at the room temperature were obtained.


Greg Butler, Sridhar S. Iyer, and Susan H. Ley Basser Department of Computer Science University of Sydney Sydney NSW7 2006 Australia This paper describes the design and il~lplen~cllt~~tic~ll of a deductive database for the 2668 groups of oN.Icr 2'1, (n < 7). The system was implemented in NU-Prolog, a Prolog system with built-in functions for creating and using deductive databases. In addition to the database, a simple query language was written. This ena.blcs database users to access the data using a simpler and more familiar set-theoretic syntax than that provided by the Prolog interpreter.


Over the last decades, many scholars, feminist and others, have argued that critique must be reframed in different and more 'productive' ways because its 'conventional' formulation and practice have outlived its usefulness as a conceptual tool. Instead, they have called for affirmation or affirmative critique and a more generative mode of critical engagement in the search for new imaginaries, transformative potentialities and other futures. New feminist materialist thought's emergence is, we argue, symptomatic of this contemporary intellectual landscape that claims to move beyond critique. While sympathetic with the desire to rethink a form of critique that speaks to the (urgent) politics of the present and the remaking of political imaginaries, we argue that the theoretical gesture to move beyond critique may offer a potentially troubling remapping organised around certain kinds of repression (of the undetermined and ambivalent work of critique) and amnesia (of feminist genealogies and over different feminist projects' conceptualisation of matter) that yield a politics without politics.


Although resting state fMRI seems an ideal tool for investigating clinical populations, especially in case of reduced cooperation or tolerance, unbiased methods with high sensitivity for disease relevant pathologies remain to be identified. In this paper, we perform spectral clustering on the mean time series of automated anatomical labeling regions of interest for comparing the resting state networks in healthy volunteers and major depression disorder (MDD) patients. A new network homogeneity measure is suggested as a criterion for evaluating the level of homogeneity in a network. We found reduced network homogeneity specifically within the default mode network in MDD subjects compared to age-matched controls. In contrast to previously proposed methods investigating network homogeneity, we fully relied on data-driven definition of clusters of interest to fill an important gap between ROI based network analyses and those using ICA.


By using the dynamic loop test system with dual speeds, which was designed and constructed by authors themselves , the corrosion rate beneath deposit on API\|P105 in CO 2\|containing ,simulating injection water of Lunnan Oil Field was measured with a simulating cell. The results showed that the corrosion rate increased with increasing the ratio of the surface areas of cathode to that of anode(A c/A a). But when A c/A a increased to certain value, the corrosion rate decreased first, then increased with increasing A c/A a. In this paper, the non\|monotonic relationship between the corrosion rate and the A c/A a value is discussed and clarified. The corrosion rate was also be affected by such factors as flowing rate, partial pressure of CO 2 etc. When A c/A a was small, there was little effect on it. But after A c/A a increased to certain value, the effect would be larger.


— Open banking is a product of transformation and upgrading of traditional banks under the background of internet finance, aiming to provide customers with "one-stop" integrated services by opening up data and business. By methods of literatures review and cases comparative study, this paper summarizes the characteristics of open banking and gets following conclusions. The new rules of internet finance and FinTech are the important motivation for the development of open banking. With open API as the technology and platform cooperation as the form, open banking has realized the "seamless connection" between financial services and production scenarios. Driven by internet finance, Chinese commercial banks have formed three different modes of open banking including scenario access, platform export and integrated mode. In order to promote the further development of open banking in China, it is necessary to strengthen the strategic thinking of win-win symbiosis, improve the platform and open IT architecture, release the value of data elements, and shape the new ecology of FinTech.


This publication reflects the highlights of the «Civil Law» Section, held on April 3, 2014 at the VI Kutafin International Scientific and Practical Conference. Leading experts in the field of civil law and intellectual property law attended the conference, representing higher education institutions of Tajikistan, Moldova, the Russian Federation regions, as well as higher education institutions of Moscow. The speakers were as well young law teachers and postgraduates. All participants' reports of the Section were related to the relevant theoretical and practical problems of civil law. Reports of the Conference are the results of their creative and scientific research based on a system of public and private methods of cognition. Participants in their speeches have focused on a number of controversial issues of civil law, legislation and law practice with respect to the contract system, contract amendments, the statute of limitations, organizational commitment, values of the German legal experience for improving Russian legislation and legal practice, as well as the protection of intellectual property.


The various neuropiles and cellular glomeruli of the brain, suboesophageal ganglion and ventral ganglion chain were identified in Gammarus setosus Dementieva. Two types of neurosecretory cells, A and B, were present in the brain glomeruli, two in the glomeruli of the suboesophageal ganglion, A and A', and four in the glomeruli of the ventral ganglia, A, A', B and C, all based on perikaryon size. There were two types of neurosecretory granules in the cells of the brain glomeruli, type I were small, dense spheres 98-160 nm in diameter found only in the A cells, while the larger type II vesicles ranged from 195-815 nm, resembled mitochondria and were found in both A and B cells. The type I granules were Golgi-formed but the origin of the type II vesicles is uncertain, the possibilities being transformation of Golgi-formed multivesicular bodies (MVB), or mitochondrial fission and alteration of conformation. Accessory cephalic structures present in the anterior head region were the sinus gland, paired statocysts and a dorsal, medial, unpaired frontal organ. Production and release of neurosecretory material (NSM), was observed in the frontal organ neurons and they were divided into two types, I and II, based on the size of their secretory granules. Those of type I ranged from 1000-4500 nm in diameter, similar in morphology to the type II vesicles of the brain but larger, while the type II vesicles of the frontal organ neurons were 300-900 nm and Golgi-formed. The frontal organ appears to be a neurohemal organ with the NSM liberated through rupture of the cell membrane. The sinus gland contained variable amounts of NSM but release was not observed and no X organ was found. Morphological alteration of the follicular epithelium was noted before vitellogenesis begins and the hepatopancreas was indicated as a probable source of the vitellogenic materials. Decrease in photoperiod stimulates vitellogenesis in late summer and long photoperiods (14 hours light) prolong the ovarian cycle, while shorter ones (12 and 8 hours light) accelerate it respectively. Complete darkness resulted in successive cycles after resorption of the oocytes. The type I frontal organ neurons appear to release an ovary-inhibiting hormone while the role of the type II neurons is unknown. The secretions of the neurosecretory cells of the brain and ganglia also have an uncertain effect upon reproduction with evidence to support either a stimulatory or inhibitory effect dependent upon the type of release exhibited.


Copes and partial endplates influence the resistance to lateral buckling of a steel beam. In order to quantify this influence, numerical research has been carried out with validated models. Full-scale laboratory tests carried out for the validation of the numerical models are described in the Annex to this paper. The research resulted in proposed reduction factors for the critical elastic buckling load of beams with various end connections. With the reduced elastic buckling load and the existing buckling curves the resistance of steel beams with copes and partial end plates can be determined.


A COMBINATION OF MATERIAL ADSORBENT PARTICULARLY SUITABLE FOR MAINTAINING VACUUM DEVICES THAT they CAN NOT BE HEATED TO TEMPERATURES HIGHER THAN about 2,000 C comprising: a) A MO / PD mixture of an oxide of a transition metal MO CHOSEN FROM OXIDE COBALT , copper oxide or combinations thereof, metallic palladium, IN WHICH THE LAST PRESENT IN A maximum of about 2% by weight; B) an adsorbing material MOISTURE. SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS IN ADDITION MAY ADD TO THIS COMBINATION A LITHIUM BASED ALLOY AND BARIO, PREFERABLY BALI SUB {4}. ALSO DESCRIBED DEVICES CONTAIN adsorbents for the combination.


Histological diversity of canine mammary tumours (CMTs) provides little prognostic information. Hence, use of a histological grading system may be helpful for prognosis of CMTs. A total 59 canine mammary carcinomas (CMCs) were graded histologically. The carcinomas were classified as grade I, II, or III based on evaluation of the formation of tubular structures, nuclear pleomorphism, and mitotic indices. Microscopic evidence of lymphatic invasion was also examined. Histologically, 26 (26/59; 44.07%), 23 (38.98%), and 10 (16.95%) CMCs were graded in grade I, II and III respectively. Majority of solid carcinomas, anaplastic carcinomas, comedocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma were in histological malignancy Grade III, whereas most tubulopapillary carcinomas, complex carcinomas, carcinoma and malignant myoepithelioma, mixed carcinomas and malignant myoepithelioma were in histological malignancy Grade I. Variable numbers of tubular carcinomas, tubulopapillary carcinomas, solid carcinomas, carcinoma and malignant myoepithelioma, mixed carcinomas and malignant myoepithelioma shown intermediate malignancy Grade II. Lymphovascular invasion was detected in 10 (16.95%) CMCs cases. Of this 10 cases 2 CMCs were in grade I while 4 CMCs were in each grade II and grade III. Tubular carcinoma, micropaillary carcinoma, solid carcinomas, anaplastic carcinoma, carcinoma and malignant myoepithelioma and mixed carcinomas showed lymphovascular invasion. In conclusion, this study validated the Pena method of histopathological grading of CMCs. This grading system of CMCs could be used for future prognostic studies.


The logistics of space programs and its history within NASA are discussed, with emphasis on manned space flight and the Space Shuttle program. The lessons learned and the experience gained during these programs are reported on. Key elements of logistics are highlighted, and the problems and issues that can be expected to arise in relation to the support of long-term space operations and future space programs, are discussed. Such missions include the International Space Station program and the reusable launch vehicle. Possible solutions to the problems identified are outlined.


Introduction: Intragastric balloon is a know obesity treatment where a silicon device is implanted into the patient's stomach. It is a minimally invasive option for endoscopic obesity treatment, acting as a space-occupying device that leads to weight loss since it increases the feeling of satiety. It helps patients lose weight enabling them to reach faster and better results than just dieting. In Brazil it has been a very common treatment for obesity and has been growing in popularity due to its safety profile and good weight loss results. The total weight loss average percentage found in the Brazilian Intragastric Balloon Consensus was 18,4. Case Report: This case report is about a 41 years old, female, caucasian patient that came up with a specific complication with the balloon, the hyperinflation. In her eighth month with the balloon she started with nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting that did not cease after changes in her usual diets. An abdominal X-ray showed a big air-fluid level into the balloon. Discussion: The overall reported of complications with the Intragastric Balloon is very low. However, when a complication does occur, it can be very serious. Hyperinflation is an uncommon complication as demonstrated in the Brazilian Intragastric Balloon Consensus Statement (BIBC) and its mechanism is still unknown. One possible explanation is a relation with fungus colonization or aerobics bacterias infection. Literature datas are still poor and don't allow any conclusions but some possibilities could be: fluid contamination during the insertion, valve defect, porosity of the material or some intrinsic patient condition. Spontaneous hyperinflation causes abdominal swelling and pain, and/or vomiting. At the time that this complication occurs there's only one possible treatment. The balloon must be removed to avoid more severe complications. Conclusion: IGB is a very safe treatment for obesity. But, just like any other invasive treatment for obesity, it has its complications. Hyperinflation is one of them, but uncommon. There's only one solution for this problem. The balloon must be removal.


In this paper, we investigate the diffusion of oxygen in a spherical cell including nonlinear uptake kinetics. The Lane–Emden boundary value problem with Michaelis–Menten kinetics is used to model the dimensionless oxygen concentration in our analysis. We first convert the Lane–Emden equation to the equivalent Volterra integral form that incorporates the boundary condition at the cell's center, but which still leaves one unknown constant of integration, as an intermediate step. Next we evaluate the Volterra integral form of the concentration and its flux at the cell membrane and substitute them into the remaining boundary condition to determine the unknown constant of integration by appropriate algebraic manipulations. Upon substitution we have converted the equivalent Volterra integral form to the equivalent Fredholm–Volterra integral form, and use the Duan–Rach modified recursion scheme to effectively decompose the unknown constant of integration by formula. The Adomian decomposition method is then applied to solve the equivalent nonlinear Fredholm–Volterra integral representation of the Lane–Emden model for the concentration of oxygen within the spherical cell. Our approach shows enhancements over existing techniques.


Thanks to new display technology development, mobile phone has been evolving from early analog phone to current smart phone. Most noticeable evidences include display evolution from digital to liquid crystal (LCD), and to more recent active‐matrix organic light‐emitting diode (AMOLED), color advancement from monochromic to full‐color, and display panel size from small‐screen to large‐screen. Besides, full‐screen has also become a new trend in mobile phone market since 2017. To meet the full‐screen display and/or to achieve the high screen‐to‐body ratio, display panel makers have come out a variety of screen design, notch, dew‐drop, hole‐punch, etc. Equally important, narrow border is another key technical requirement that will help increase the screen‐to‐body ratio, ultimately, enhancing visual experience. Technically, screen‐to‐body ratio of 90% or higher can be considered as a full‐screen. In order to meet this full‐screen display, it is necessary to reduce the bottom‐border from 4 mm to 1 mm, and leftand right‐borders from 1.2 mm to 0.5 mm, simultaneously. However, narrow border should be compatible with ESD, De‐mux circuits. This would require a width of about 1 mm in the FANOUT area. In addition, since the upper/left/right‐borders are only 0.5 mm or narrower, frit sealing may have only about 300 um in width, putting panel reliability in a great risk.


Primary esophageal small cell carcinoma(PESC) is one of the rare types of esophageal cancer,characterized by high malignancy and poor prognosis.Its biological behavior,treatment mode and prognosis are markedly different from those of squamous cell carcinoma.The incidence of PESC reported at home and abroad is obviously increasing.This review outlines the status of PESC research and some different opinions about it.


Interest in cogeneration systems for industrial and commercial facilities is rapidly growing. This resurgence can be traced to new federal laws and regulations, rising electric utility rates, and an overall national desire to enhance energy efficiency. Even though cogeneration is not a new technology and the physics are not complex, a variety of critical electric power issues face the facility manager. This paper focuses on some of these management issues. They are: the advantages of interconnecting with the electric utility, the considerations which arise when negotiating a comprehensive cogeneration contract with the utility, and methods for protecting the generator and other electrical systems.


The aim of this investigation is to determine the physical, mineral and morphological properties of recycled brick aggregate at elevated temperatures.The two series of concrete mix i.e.normal aggregate concrete (NAC) and recycled brick aggregate concrete (RBAC) were prepared and subjected to temperatures between 100-800°C at intervals of 100°C for 3 hours of exposure. XRD and SEM analysis were done after exposing them to temperatures. From the compression test it is concluded that the fire resistance of recycled brick aggregate concrete is better than the normal aggregate concrete. This better performance of RBAC at high temperatures could be attributed to lower deterioration rate of C-S-H gel than NAC which can be perceived from SEM and XRD analysis.


Massive advancement of mobile computing technology and systems has led to their integration in different aspects of our life. Mobile and pervasive environments built over wireless infrastructures have introduced new possibilities in the healthcare sector in the form of real time health monitoring and diagnosis systems. While current third generation technologies may be sufficient to implement simple monitoring applications involving small amount of data using short messages, systems involving round-the-clock mobile health monitoring, remote tests and diagnosis and other real time applications in healthcare sector requires seamless fourth generation mobile broadband technologies like WiMAX or LTE. In this work, we discuss features, benefits, socio economic reasons of mobile health management and identify some of the most recent mobile health management systems developed and deployed worldwide. Finally, we present the architecture of a next generation healthcare system and discuss issues and challenges that should be addressed in this system.


Robert van Gulik was a famous Dutch sinologist.The core purpose of his Chinese studies was to be a typical Chinese scholar-official,who wanted to pursue political achievements while enjoying a private life of a hermit.For that purpose he not only focused on the studies of Chinese poems,lute-playing,chess,calligraphy and painting,but also socialized with the Chinese cultural elites of his days.Based on the rich documents he left and the memories of Gulik's family and his colleagues,the paper aims to give a sketch of Robert van Gulik's social activities in Chongqing during World War II.


The state-of-the-art deep neural network (DNN) achieves impressive performance on the input that is similar to training data. However, it fails to make reasonable decisions on the input that is quite different from training data, i.e., out-of-distribution (OOD) examples. Although many techniques have been proposed to detect OOD examples in recent years, it is still a lack of a systematic study about the effectiveness and robustness of different techniques as well as the performance of OOD-aware DNN models. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive study to unveil the mystery of current OOD detection techniques, and investigate the differences between OOD-unaware/-aware DNNs in model performance, robustness, and uncertainty. We first compare the effectiveness of existing detection techniques and identify the best one. Then, evasion attacks are performed to evaluate the robustness of techniques. Furthermore, we compare the accuracy and robustness between OOD-unaware/-aware DNNs. At last, we study the uncertainty of different models on various kinds of data. Empirical results show OOD-aware detection modules have better performance and are more robust against random noises and evasion attacks. OOD-awareness seldom degrades the accuracy of DNN models in training/test datasets. In contrast, it makes the DNN model more robust against adversarial attacks and noisy inputs. Our study calls for attention to the development of OOD-aware DNN models and the necessity to take data distribution into account when robust and reliable DNN models are desired.


The surgical treatment method for urolithiasis started with open nephroor ureterolithotomy. It gradually improved in a less-invasive direction with the advancement of endoscopic technology and eventually developed into endoscopic surgery using a natural orifice [1]. Urolithiasis is biomineralization caused by the biochemical aggregation of supersaturated crystals of urine excreted from the glomeruli, collecting tubules, and papilla into the renal collecting system [2]. The treatment of urolithiasis is a complex process that requires the appropriate application of treatment methods with various levels of surgical difficulty in consideration of the nature and size of the stone, different anatomical characteristics and variations, etc. Accordingly, various treatment methods such as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, ureteroscopy, laparoscopic nephroor ureterolithotomy, and percutaneous nephroor ureterolithotomy have been applied in the last several decades. Eventually, approaching all the complex calyceal structures is directly related to the success rate and the safety of stone surgery [3].


The cracks in hydraulic turbine blades threaten the safety of running machine and lower economic profits.They are fatigue cracks which is mainly caused by alternating stress.Stay vane Kaman Vortex and the excessive pulse of pressing force exerted to the backside of guide vane and the underside of runner can lead to intensive vibration and excessive alternating stress.Residual tensile stress because of abrading blads should be seriously considered.Parts object to generation of cracks should be protected by residual pressing stress.0Cr13Ni4Mo could be replaced by austenitic stainless steel with high toughness and strength in order to increase fatigue life and improve weldablity.It is important to improve manufacturing technique and diˉminish welding and casting defect.Operating should be standardized and operating with lower water head and burden should be avoided.


Fake news is becoming an increasingly invasive problem within our society. As our society becomes more ingrained in technology, news has become more susceptible to technological predation. In this paper, we demonstrate how evolutionary-based feature selection increases fake news detection while dramatically reducing the number of features needed.


Siberia in the XIX century was unalterably called the "krai of exile", which was due to the need to solve a state problem – the colonization of the outskirts. The forced relocation significantly influenced both on the structure of the region's population and on the economic and cultural development of the territories. By the end of the XIX century the largest convict prisons of Siberia remained only in Tobolsk and Irkutsk. In view of this, the study of various aspects of the exile system and penitentiary institutions of Siberia is relevant for historical research. The article presents the analysis of prisoners in Tobolsk prisons as a special social element of the urban population at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. It is worth noting that at this period four penitentiary institutions of all three categories existing at that time in the Russian Empire were located in Tobolsk: a prison castle, which also acted as a transit prison, two hard labor prisons and a special sections of prisons. The primary and statistical materials of the First General Census of the Russian Empire in 1897 were the main source of data. The census forms preserved unique and fairly complete information about prisoners of all prisons in Tobolsk, which made it possible to consider in detail a number of socio-demographic indicators of prisoners: sex and age, marital status, religious confession and mother tongue, social and professional identification data, migration and/or routing of convicts. A comparison of the general characteristics of the inhabitants of prisons and the urban population on materials of the 1897 census confirmed the significant influence of prisoners on the socio-demographic «portrait» of the city according to a number of indicators such as the number of male employable population, Mohammedans, immigrants from other gubernias. In our opinion, this should be taken into account when conducting various directions of historical research. Thus, the prisoners, according to the indicators, can be considered as a separate social group of the urban population in Siberia at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.


The hyperthermophilic anaerobic archaeon Pyrococcus abyssi, which lacks thymidine kinase, incorporates label from extracellular uracil, but not from thymidine, into its DNA. This implies that P. abyssi must synthesize dTMP (thymidylate), an essential precursor for DNA synthesis, de novo. However, iterative similarity searches of the three completed Pyrococcus genomes fail to detect candidate genes for canonical thymidylate synthase ThyA, suggesting the presence of alternative pathways for dTMP synthesis. Indeed, by identifying a novel class of flavin-dependent thymidylate synthases, ThyX, we have recently proven that two distinct pathways for de novo synthesis of dTMP are operational in the microbial world. While both thyX and thyA can be found in hyperthermophilic micro-organisms, the phylogenetic distribution of thyX among hyperthermophiles is wider than that of thyA. In this contribution, we discuss the differences in the distinct mechanisms of dTMP synthesis, with a special emphasis on hyperthermophilic micro-organisms.


Suman Dhayal, Gopal Sapkota, Usha Philipose, and Yuri Rostovtsev Department of Physics, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203 Telephone: 940-565-3281, Fax: 940-565-2515, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Abstract Gold nanoparticles have interesting properties of nano-antennas that focus the radiation field in relatively small, much smaller than the wavelength of radiation, regions. Optical and electronic properties of nanowires experiencing huge field enhancement can be modified due to this plasmonic interactions. We have developed generalized Mie theory to demonstrated the effect of enhancement of electric field near gold nanoparticles and study novel optical and electronic properties of these new structures: nanotubes with the pores filled with metal nanoparticles and nanowires with metal naoparticles as inclusions on their surface. In the talk, we discuss the applications of such novel nanoscale hybrid metal/semiconductor composite in applications such as sensitive sensors and efficient photovoltaics.


Instead, we find a significant better performance for the 3J2C condition, demonstrating a non−lineraly interaction of the two sources of information. We find that participants perfomed best when the information was presented in the sequence where local structure was immediately followed by the coherent picture. (Blank−3J2C). Q: Is this information extraction work regardless of the order of presentation?


The hemocytes of the horseshoe crab are highly sensitive to lipopolysaccharides (LPSs), and the hemocytes secrete defense molecules through exocytosis in response to stimulation by LPS. Four types of lectins, named tachylectin (TL)-1 to TL-4, have been identified in hemocytes.1–4 The ligand specificities of these tachylectins are different from each other, but all tachylectins recognize surface substances on pathogens, the so-called pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs).5 On the other hand, we were able to purify plasma lectins with acetyl-group specificity, named TL-5A and TL–5B,6 and recently we resolved the crystal structure of the plasma lectin in complex with a ligand.7 TL-5A and TL-5B consist of 269 and 289 amino acid residues (45% sequence identity). TL-5A and TL-5B show significant sequence similarity to the COOH-terminal domains of fibrinogen and -chains (about 40% identity). TL-5A and TL-5B form oligomers in solution with molecular weights in the range 160–300 kDa. They strongly agglutinate all types of human erythrocytes at the minimum agglutination concentration of 0.004 mg/ml, and they also agglutinate both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The concentration of TL-5A or TL-5B is at least 10 mg/ml in normal plasma, which is a sufficient concentration for agglutination. Therefore, TL-5A and TL-5B may play an important role in the recognition of PAMPs at the forefront of the innate immune system. Here we describe the molecular basis of self/non-self discrimination of the horseshoe crab lectins through the recognition of ligands with high density on pathogens.


The Last Planner System (LPS) implementation showed great results in improving workflow for construction projects. In order to apply LPS, companies must collect key metrics on site; such data include Percent Plan Complete (PPC) for tasks done on site. In this study, ten shelters from "Self-help" rehabilitation project were monitored. To identify workflow issues and highlight causes of delay PPC was measured for the duration of the project. This study is a personal effort to assess the reliability of workflow in the light of the fact that contractors do not apply the LPS. The results showed that "Self-Help" delivery method promoted lean behaviour in families who were engaged in the rehabilitation process. They tackled constrains, expedited the work and organized construction activities in sound manner; thus, achieving high PPC. However, families who did not engage in rehabilitation process failed to finish their shelters on time, and achieved a low PPC. Reasons for incomplete weekly tasks were recorded and analysed. The main goal of this on-going research is to improve workflow of UN projects, highlight causes of delays, and add value to refugees by removing impediments to construction workflow so that projects can be finished sooner and at a lower cost.


The integral equations describing forward scattering problems are generally solved numerically by iterative methods. In this work, we apply iterative deep neural network to solve both surface integral equation (SIE) and volume integral equation (VIE). The Green's function describing wave physics is involved in both training and prediction stage. The trained neural network can predict either the surface current density on conducting targets from SIE, or the total electromagnetic (EM) field in dielectric volume from VIE. We validate this method with two numerical examples, one for SIE and the other for VIE. This work may provide us a new perspective of incorporating wave physics into neural networks for fast EM computation.


The molecule of the title compound, C14H10Cl2N2O2, is roughly planar and displays a trans configuration with respect to the C=N double bond. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 14.5 (2)°. The compound adopts a chain structure which is stabilized by intermolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.


The selection of the kernel function parameter and error penalty factor affected the precision of the support vector machine(SVM) significantly.In order to give full play to the SVM model,a TS-SVM model in which parameters were optimized by a taboo search algorithm(TS) was proposed.By using this model to calculate the evaluation indexes of the water safety of Shandong Province,safety indexes and safety grades of every utilization project were obtained.The results show that the TS-SVM model,which has strong learning ability,can yield rational results and is a practicable model for water safety assessment.


Based on the development of traditional furniture,the folk folk-custom,culture of furniture design,and some typical cases,this paper issues the consideration of modern furniture design.


We measured whole-tree transpiration of mature Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies trees exposed to ambient and twice-ambient O3 regimes (1xO3 and 2xO3 free-air fumigation). After eight years, mean daily total transpiration did not vary with the O3 regime over the 31 days of our study, even though individual daily values increased with increasing daily O3 peaks in both species. Although the environmental parameters were similar at 1xO3 and 2xO3, the main factors affecting daily transpiration were vapour pressure deficit in 2xO3 spruce and O3 peaks in beech. For a mechanistic explanation, we measured O3-induced sluggish stomatal responses to variable light (sunflecks) by means of leaf-level gas exchange measurements only in the species where O3 was a significant factor for transpiration, i.e., beech. Stomata were always slower in closing than in opening. The 2xO3 stomata were slower in opening and mostly in closing than 1xO3 stomata, so that O3 uptake and water loss were amplified before a steady state was reached. Such delay in the stomatal reaction suggests caution when assessing stomatal conductance under O3 pollution, because recording gas exchange at the time photosynthesis reached an equilibrium resulted in a significant overestimation of stomatal conductance when stomata were closing (ab. 90% at 1xO3 and 250% at 2xO3). Sun and shade leaves showed similar sluggish responses, thus suggesting that sluggishness may occur within the entire crown. The fact that total transpiration was similar at 1xO3 and 2xO3, however, suggests that the higher water loss due to stomatal sluggishness was offset by lower steady-state stomatal conductance at 2xO3. In conclusion, O3 exposure amplified short-term water loss from mature beech trees by slowing stomatal dynamics, while decreased long-term water loss because of lower steady-state stomatal conductance. Over the short term of this experiment, the two responses offset each other and no effect on total transpiration was observed.


This dissertation examined why young people drink alcohol in a risky manner. Young people were shown to drink, in a risky manner, if they were with other people who were drinking, and if they exhibited a tendency of wanting to fit in and conform with other people.


Significance During meiosis prophase I in mammals, a series of events occur, such as homologous recombination, DSB repair, crossover formation, XY body formation, and meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). We report here that a male pachynema-specific (MAPS) protein is essential for prophase I progression in mouse spermatocytes. Maps knockout causes the demise of pachytene spermatocytes throughout early to mid- and late pachynema, resulting in male but not female infertility. Moreover, protein ubiquitination was dramatically increased in Maps−/− pachytene spermatocytes, likely contributing to the dysregulated global gene expression, including failed MSCI. In summary, MAPS is an indispensable protein for male fertility. Meiosis is a specialized cell division that creates haploid germ cells from diploid progenitors. Through differential RNA expression analyses, we previously identified a number of mouse genes that were dramatically elevated in spermatocytes, relative to their very low expression in spermatogonia and somatic organs. Here, we investigated in detail 1700102P08Rik, one of these genes, and independently conclude that it encodes a male germline-specific protein, in agreement with a recent report. We demonstrated that it is essential for pachynema progression in spermatocytes and named it male pachynema-specific (MAPS) protein. Mice lacking Maps (Maps−/−) suffered from pachytene arrest and spermatocyte death, leading to male infertility, whereas female fertility was not affected. Interestingly, pubertal Maps−/− spermatocytes were arrested at early pachytene stage, accompanied by defects in DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair, crossover formation, and XY body formation. In contrast, adult Maps−/− spermatocytes only exhibited partially defective crossover but nonetheless were delayed or failed in progression from early to mid- and late pachytene stage, resulting in cell death. Furthermore, we report a significant transcriptional dysregulation in autosomes and XY chromosomes in both pubertal and adult Maps−/− pachytene spermatocytes, including failed meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). Further experiments revealed that MAPS overexpression in vitro dramatically decreased the ubiquitination levels of cellular proteins. Conversely, in Maps−/− pachytene cells, protein ubiquitination was dramatically increased, likely contributing to the large-scale disruption in gene expression in pachytene cells. Thus, MAPS is a protein essential for pachynema progression in male mice, possibly in mammals in general.


Prunus campanulata Maxim, is one of the native plants in Taiwan. The attractive fruits are red, small and astringent. It was only used for ornamental planting with low edible value. The objectives of this research are to improve the fruit size and economic value of P. campanulata Maxim, by natural field selection. Field selections were conducted at fruiting period in five lowland regions. Average fruit weight for 220 sampling trees ranged for 0.36 to 1.33g, 63.8% to 86.1%. for flesh proportion, 7.4 to 19.0 °Brix for total soluble solid, and 0.5 to 3.0% for titratable acidity. Eight good selections were under evaluation and utilization.


Vehicular edge computing (VEC) offers a new paradigm for improving vehicular services and enhancing vehicle capabilities. In the VEC environments, vehicles can offload tasks to edge servers deployed in roadside units or other vehicles via wireless networks to enhance their computation capability. However, the high mobility of vehicles will lead to constant change of the network topology among resources, which will affect the completion time and the reliability of offloaded tasks. Therefore, we proposes a reliability‐based offloading strategy by considering task attributes, resource state, completion time, and reliability to map task flows to resources that can satisfy the time constraints with high reliability. The experimental results show that, compared with existing typical algorithms, the proposed strategy not only reduces the average completion time of tasks, but also ensures the reliability of tasks.


Significance Understanding the evolution of the CNS is fundamental for resolving the phylogenetic relationships within Panarthropoda (Euarthropoda, Tardigrada, Onychophora). The ground pattern of the panarthropod CNS remains elusive, however, as there is uncertainty on which neurological characters can be regarded as ancestral among extant phyla. Here we describe the ventral nerve cord (VNC) in Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis, an early Cambrian euarthropod from South China. The VNC reveals extraordinary detail, including condensed ganglia and regularly spaced nerve roots that correspond topologically to the peripheral nerves of Priapulida and Onychophora. Our findings demonstrate the persistence of ancestral neurological features of Ecdysozoa in early euarthropods and help to reconstruct the VNC ground pattern in Panarthropoda. Panarthropods are typified by disparate grades of neurological organization reflecting a complex evolutionary history. The fossil record offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct early character evolution of the nervous system via exceptional preservation in extinct representatives. Here we describe the neurological architecture of the ventral nerve cord (VNC) in the upper-stem group euarthropod Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis from the early Cambrian Xiaoshiba Lagerstätte (South China). The VNC of C. kunmingensis comprises a homonymous series of condensed ganglia that extend throughout the body, each associated with a pair of biramous limbs. Submillimetric preservation reveals numerous segmental and intersegmental nerve roots emerging from both sides of the VNC, which correspond topologically to the peripheral nerves of extant Priapulida and Onychophora. The fuxianhuiid VNC indicates that ancestral neurological features of Ecdysozoa persisted into derived members of stem-group Euarthropoda but were later lost in crown-group representatives. These findings illuminate the VNC ground pattern in Panarthropoda and suggest the independent secondary loss of cycloneuralian-like neurological characters in Tardigrada and Euarthropoda.


The point spread function (PSF) of an X-ray mirror is determined by its surface topography. A new attempt is made to cover the full range of random surface roughness from macroscopic to microscopic imperfections, which has not been possible in the past. The angular deflections imposed by geometric slope errors are compared with diffraction angles which are calculated for each spatial frequency of the Fourier spectrum of the surface profile. A critical frequency has been found at which the regimes of geometric and diffraction optics separate, enabling easy calculation of the full PSF. The well-known expression of the Rayleigh scattering factor is shown to hold also separately for each spatial frequency. Furthermore, for frequencies greater than the critical frequency the total microroughness is shown to be as low as to allow the application of the existing scattering theories in the smooth surface limit. At lower spatial frequencies geometric slope errors dominate.


Intramolecular singlet energy transfer can be detected in a series of rigid bichromophoric molecules (1(n)) where a dimethoxynaphthalene chromophore and a carbonyl chromophore are separated by extended all-trans arrays of up to eight C-C {sigma} bonds (1(8)). In the series of compounds 2(n) kinks are introduced in the array of {sigma} bonds of the saturated hydrocarbon system, which bridges the chromophores. Singlet energy transfer is then much less efficient (i.e. in 2(6)) or even absent (i.e. in 2(8)), which supports the earlier interpretation of the energy transfer mechanism in 1(n) as being mainly mediated by through-bond exchange interaction and furthermore explains the virtual absence of such interaction in more flexible systems where the chromophores are linked by polymethylene bridges.


This vibrant celebration of the legacy of Richard Allsopp, a pioneering lexicographer and cultural researcher, explores various aspects of language, culture, and identity in the Caribbean from the perspective of leading Caribbean scholars, some of whom were Allsopp's students and many, his colleagues and friends. The book is a living sign of the Caribbean togetherness that Jeannette Allsopp calls for in her own text. Its sixteen chapters are divided into six sections on themes that were dear to Richard Allsopp's heart.


This manuscript describes a technique and its tool support to perform comparisons on agile methods, based on a set of relevant features and attributes. This set includes attributes related to four IEEE's Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) Knowledge Areas (KAs) and to the agile principles defined in the Agile Manifesto. With this set of attributes, by analysing the practices proposed by each method, we are able to assess (1) the coverage degree for the considered KAs and (2) the agility degree. In this manuscript, the application of the technique is exemplified in comparing extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum.


Power generation apparatus comprises a generator 10, a gas turbine 1, arranged to drive the generator, fuel gas supply means, including storage means 3, arranged to store a buffer reservoir of fuel gas, and a control valve 4, which is operable to control the flow of fuel gas from the storage means 3 to the gas turbine, in response to transient generator power output demand. A gasification combined cycle power generating apparatus is also disclosed (figures 6 and 7) in which a gasification vessel (in which fuel gas is produced from carboniferous feed stock) is connected to a saturator vessel which is connected to a control valve at an inlet of a gas turbine engine unit. A controllable gas-expanding turbine, driving a generator, is disposed between the gasification vessel and the saturator vessel. A control computer, responsive to power demand on the gas turbine engine unit, controls the control valve and may also control the gas-expanding turbine.


The oyster cultivation industry of Hiroshima has a history of nearly 400 years and provides about 70% of the oyster production for the whole of Japan. The favourable location enables all the spat to be produced locally and the number of collector plates used for this purpose each year reaches 200–300 million. The natural system of spat collecting which is operated at Hiroshima is explained here in detail. In the first half, the spawning methods, primary environmental factors, development, early life history, the fundamentals of larval development and ecology, resistance of the larvae to their environment, conditions for attachment of the larvae, larval growth and decline, etc. are discussed in detail. In the second half, the practical and technical facts concerning setting up forecasts of spat production, the appropriate number of collector plates for spat collection, the growth and decline of juvenile attached oysters are presented.


The economic impact of the Coronavirus / COVID-19 crisis on various industries, and countries. It also provides estimates of the potential global economic costs of COVID-19, and GDP growth in various countries. Showing the economic impact of the current outbreak is being underestimated, relying too much on historical comparisons with SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), or the 2008/2009 financial crisis. This study aims to determine a significant comparison of stock prices and transaction volumes in the presence of the covid 19 pandemic (case study at PT. Matahari Department Store, Tbk). The data from this study were taken from 42 days before Covid-19 and 42 days after the announcement of the first case of Covid-19 in Indonesia. processing and data analysis using paired sample t-test using SPSS. Based on the results of data analysis, it can be concluded that there was a significant difference in stock prices before and after the announcement of the first Covid-19 case in Indonesia, the significance value was indicated by 0.00 < 0.05, with stock prices experiencing a decrease compared to before the Covid-19 case. as well as the volume of stock transactions, the results of data analysis showed a significant difference with a significance value of 0.00 < 0.05. Then the volume of stock transactions after the announcement of covid-19 showed an increasing value


Measures of expropriation and requisition enacted during the Spanish conflict by both the Republican and the Nationalist Governments have given rise to a series of cases which involve fundamental questions relating to state immunity, the effect of the acts of foreign states and governments, and the consequences of de facto recognition. While the decisions in general follow those laid down in similar cases growing out of the Soviet decrees of nationalization, the Spanish Civil War cases contain sufficient elements of novelty to justify their careful study. Both contending parties endeavored by requisition to obtain possession or control of Spanish vessels wherever situate, and the ensuing claims by the owners or the adversary government before foreign courts compelled an examination of the relative status of the de jure government of Spain and of the insurgent government of General Franco during a civil "war" which abounded in anomalous situations.


Arsenic is a metalloid present throughout the world, and the primary sources of exposure are through air, soil, and water. Arsenic is currently ranked as the most hazardous substance among environmental toxicants, and is well recognized as a human carcinogen, as well as a contributor to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. However, cardiovascular effects have been mostly evaluated in epidemiological studies, and the direct mechanisms of pathogenesis remain largely unknown. The scope of studies described in this dissertation characterizes the cardiovascular pathophysiology associated with exposure to environmentally-relevant arsenic concentrations (100 μg/L), and attempts to elucidate the molecular mechanisms behind impaired vascular function. The effects of chronic arsenic exposure on blood pressure regulation were examined using a mouse model exposed to 100 μg/L for 22 weeks. Chronic exposure to arsenic results in the development of hypertension and concentric left ventricular hypertrophy. Furthermore, data presented here demonstrates that in utero exposure contributes to the development of metabolic syndrome throughout adulthood. Results indicate the development of hyperglycemia, hypercholesterolemia and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Mechanistic studies demonstrate the effects of arsenicals on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and its role in arsenic-induced vascular relaxation impairment. Biochemical assessment of eNOS conclude that decreased nitric oxide availability does not occur through alterations in protein levels or phosphorylation changes; however,


The temperature profile and the radiative and convective wall-heat fluxes for a hydro-dynamically established flow of a nongray gas in a cylinder are calculated numerically for laminar or turbulent flow. Turbulent eddy viscosity is represented by a two-region model having a near-wall-region and a far-from-wall region. Gas properties are represented by the exponential-winged band model. Qualitatively the results for a gas with a single major band agree with a previous solution for a cylinder with internal heat generation.


Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques have achieved much importance in providing visual and quantitative information of human body. Diffusion MRI is the only non-invasive tool to obtain information of the neural fiber networks of the human brain. The traditional Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is only capable of characterizing Gaussian diffusion. High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) extends its ability to model more complex diffusion processes. Spherical harmonic series truncated to a certain degree is used in recent studies to describe the measured non-Gaussian Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) profile. In this study, we use the sampling theorem on band-limited spherical harmonics to choose a suitable degree to truncate the spherical harmonic series in the sense of Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and use Monte Carlo integration to compute the spherical harmonic transform of human brain data obtained from icosahedral schema.


Main advances at home and abroad in the field of freeze-thaw-induced erosion are reviewed.The notion of freeze-thaw-indued erosion is firstly discussed and clarified.Then some research results such as the cause,type,intensity classification,erosion rate,main influence factors,erosion prediction and prevention and control of freeze-thaw erosion are presented and analyzed.The problems and shortcomings of current freeze-thaw-induced erosion research are pointed out.Research directions and key issues of freeze-thaw-induced erosion in a certain period of the future are finally put forward in terms of the real research situations of freeze-thaw-induced erosion in China.


In this paper, the author finds some deficiencies in reading habit, re ading approach, reading quantity of college students through questionnaire, and puts forward some countermeasures and improving methods for them aiming at impro ving their reading comprehension and making reading a most efficient way of gett ing information among college students.


In this study, a new process dispersion monitoring control chart is proposed based on a function‐based adaptation to select the smoothing constant value, named as a function‐based adaptive exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) dispersion control chart. It is suggested to track shift ranges first expected in process dispersion by opting for smoothing constant computation with the help of a function. The shift magnitude assessment is made by an unbiased estimator that determines the smoothing constant value through the proposed function. The enhanced efficiency of the proposed chart can be assessed in terms of smaller run‐length profiles, which are determined through Monte Carlo simulations. The proposed chart is compared with the existing adaptive EWMA dispersion chart, and it turned out to perform substantially efficiently in detecting all kinds of decreasing and increasing process dispersion shift magnitudes. Moreover, a real‐life dataset application is explained in the example section to elaborate on the ease of implementation in the real‐life scenario.


This Paper intends to handle the problem of training data insufficiency by utilizing data of auxiliary language. Articulatory Feature(AF) is introduced as a base of data sharing. Several experiments show that the new system outperforms over BUT system. Finally, data-driven relabeling method is used to get an even better performance.


Graphs have become indispensable in modeling and representing complicated structured data such as proteins, chemical compounds, and XML documents. Development of graph databases for use in research and development is a well-established activity in pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Storing the graphs into large databases is a challenging task as it deals with efficient space and time management. Unlike item sets in huge transactional databases, it becomes essential to ensure the consistency of graph databases since relationships among edges of a graph are predominant. One of the necessary procedures required is a mechanism to check whether two graphs are automorphic. For graphs with more than one vertex with the same label, more than one adjacency matrix representations are possible based on the ordering of vertices with identical labels and there are possibilities that the same graph is stored more than once using different adjacency matrices, leading to adverse results in mining graph databases. Difficulty in identifying and eliminating the automorphic graphs is a challenging problem to the research community. In this paper, a proficient algorithm is devised that efficiently detects and avoids the same graph getting stored into the database. The computational time is also substantially reduced compared to the canonical labeling approach used in Frequent Subgraph Discovery algorithm. The experimental results and comparisons offer a positive response to the newly proposed algorithm.


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The vehicles management information system was developed based on B/S and C/S technology.The actual demand from vehicle service,in view of its characteristic,the paper proposed design principle of this system,and described the system structural design and the functional design,and emphatically introduced the job management realization method of the system core function module.


In this paper, we introduce Optimal Classification Forests, a new family of classifiers that takes advantage of an optimal ensemble of decision trees to derive accurate and interpretable classifiers. We propose a novel mathematical optimization-based methodology in which a given number of trees are simultaneously constructed, each of them providing a predicted class for the observations in the feature space. The classification rule is derived by assigning to each observation its most frequently predicted class among the trees in the forest. We provide a mixed integer linear programming formulation for the problem. We report the results of our computational experiments, from which we conclude that our proposed method has equal or superior performance compared with state-of-the-art tree-based classification methods. More importantly, it achieves high prediction accuracy with, for example, orders of magnitude fewer trees than random forests. We also present three real-world case studies showing that our methodology has very interesting implications in terms of interpretability.


New N-alkyl-substituted heterocyclic system imidazo[4,5-a]quinindolines (imidazo[4,5-f]indolo[2,3-b]quinolines) were synthesized by one pot reaction of 1-alkyl-5-nitro-1Hbenzimidazole with 2-(1-alkyl-1H-3-indolyl)acetonitrile in basic media via the nucleophilic substitution of hydrogen and concomitant cyclisation in good yields. Physical spectral (UV-vis, IR, NMR and fluorescence) and analytical data have established the structures of synthesized compounds. The fluorescence properties of these new heterocyclic compounds were studied. The fluorescence of all compounds was very intense and fluorescence quantum yields were very high (> 0.70). Solvent effects on absorption and emission spectra of these dyes have also been studied; the absorption and emission bands in polar solvents undergo a red shift. Density function theory (DFT) calculations of one structure by using the B3LYP hybrid functional and the 6-311+G(d,p) basis set to provide the relevant frontier orbitals were also performed.


Using gray theory,the scientometrical indexes based on the articles abstracted from Science Citation Index Expanded(SCI-E) database on the arid land research by Chinese authors were analyzed and a gray model was built to predict the status and tendency of arid land research in China.Results show that the various scientometrical indexes have increased obviously over the last eleven years and will keep the strong growing tendency in the following years(2006-2008).A series of core supporting disciplines with comparatively firm structure has formed,of which the article yield is not stable yet.Their academic away,measured by article citation indexes,is a little lower than that of international companions,and is much higher than that of the other fields of domestic sciences.


Abstract The sedimentation of amyloplasts in inverted statocytes of the flower stalk of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale Weber) was followed using light microscopy. Much variety in sedimentation pattern was evident with complete sedimentation occurring in as little as 3–4 min to as much as a few h and individual amyloplasts showing barely perceptible sedimentation or sedimenting at speeds of up to 40 μm min−1. It was also apparent that amyloplasts were subjected to considerable movement after they had sedimented. Large vacuoles and cytoplasmic streaming in statocytes were confirmed and are considered to greatly influence amy-loplast sedimentation pattern. The implications of these observations for the starch-statolith hypothesis of geotropism are discussed.


Scientific approach is intended to provide insight to students in recognizing, understanding the various materials using a scientific approach, that information can come from anywhere, at any time, do not rely on the information in the direction of the teacher. This study aimed to investigate the difference of student achievement in writing descriptive essay between students who received scientific aprroach and expository approach. Samples of this research consisted of 57 students at 5th grade students in Gracia Sustain Medan, 29 students from V-A and 28 students from V-B. This study was conducted at the first semester of the academic year 2017/ 2018. The sample was selected by using random sampling technique and they were assigned to two sections : the first section was Class V-B containing 28 students and representing the experimental group and was taught by using the scientific approach and the second section represented the control group, class V-A containing 29 students and was taught by using expository approach. Data collection was held by using instrument of decriptive writing test. The mean score of post-test between the experimental and control group significant (0.000 < 0.05) Pre-test (mean = 41.07, s.d. = 16.407). Post-test (mean=66.64, s.d. = 9.089). The findings showed that student achievement in writing descriptive essay among student who were taught using scientific approach has significant diferences than the student achievement in writing descriptive essay among student who received expository


It is very important for the application and making of software multimedia to enlarge teaching capacity,improve teaching effect and develop students' ability to speculate in the microbiology teaching.Based on the characters and actual fact of college in the course of Microbiology,this paper discussed the useful experience on making and application of multimedia courseware.


The article studies the features of the modern understanding of postmodernism in the Islamic cultural and communicative space. The authors' attention is focused on the philosophical views of Ziauddin Sardar, a Muslim intellectual, whose worldview is familiar with the realities of both the Islamic and the Western Worlds. The authors of the study come to the conclusion that the views, phenomena, events, relations characterized as «postmodern» are due to the rethinking of the categories of identity, the postcolonial world order, intercultural relationships of the postnormal- post-habitual time. Arguing about postmodernism from the standpoint of an intellectual, Z. Sardar subjects closely the models of interethnic interaction, authenticity, sovereignty and appropriation of culture. Sardar states that modern life models of the Islamic World are characterized by unfolding post-Westernization, which has replaced Eurocentrism. In this regard, the intellectual articulates the opinion accepted by the scientific community involved in the philosophical discourse of our time about the need to pragmatize authentic models of life and thought within each culture.


Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is a type I transmembrane glycoprotein, which is highly expressed on tumor cells. As EpCAM plays a crucial role in cell adhesion, survival, proliferation, stemness, and tumorigenesis, it has been considered as a promising target for tumor diagnosis and therapy. Anti-EpCAM monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been developed and have previously demonstrated promising outcomes in several clinical trials. An anti-EpCAM mAb, EpMab-37 (mouse IgG1, kappa) was previously developed by the authors, using the cell-based immunization and screening method. In the present study, a defucosylated version of anti-EpCAM mAb (EpMab-37-mG2a-f) was generated to evaluate the antitumor activity against EpCAM-positive cells. EpMab-37-mG2a-f recognized EpCAM-overexpressing CHO-K1 (CHO/EpCAM) cells with a moderate binding-affinity [dissociation constant (KD)=2.2×10−8 M] using flow cytometry. EpMab-37-mG2a-f exhibited potent antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) for CHO/EpCAM cells by murine splenocytes and complements, respectively. Furthermore, the administration of EpMab-37-mG2a-f significantly suppressed CHO/EpCAM xenograft tumor development compared with the control mouse IgG. EpMab-37-mG2a-f also exhibited a moderate binding-affinity (KD) =1.5×10−8 M] and high ADCC and CDC activities for a colorectal cancer cell line (Caco-2 cells). The administration of EpMab-37-mG2a-f to Caco-2 tumor-bearing mice significantly suppressed tumor development compared with the control. By contrast, EpMab-37-mG2a-f never suppressed the xenograft tumor growth of Caco-2 cells in which EpCAM was knocked out. On the whole, these results indicate that EpMab-37-mG2a-f may exert antitumor activities against EpCAM-positive cancers and may thus be a promising therapeutic regimen for colorectal cancer.


We describe a new member of the aldo‐keto reductase (AKR) superfamily in the silkworm Bombyx mori. On the basis of its amino acid sequence and phylogenetic tree, this AKR belongs to the AKR1B family and has been designated as bmALD1. In the current study, recombinant bmALD1 was overexpressed, purified to homogeneity and kinetically characterized. We discovered that bmALD1 uses NADPH as a coenzyme to reduce carbonyl compounds such as DL‐glyceraldehyde, glucose and 2‐nonenal. No NADH‐dependent activity was detected. To the best of our knowledge, bmALD1 is only the third AKR characterized in silkworm which, given its substrate specificity, could play a major role in glucose metabolism and antioxidant reactions. Our data provide an increased understanding of insect AKR function.


Introduction: The pathological significance of blood pressure (BP) variability in patients with heart failure (HF) has not been fully elucidated. We propose the term Actisensitivity to describe such BP reactivity in response to physical activity; this new aspect of BP variability can be evaluated using our recently developed device, a multisensor-ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) device (TM-2441, A&D Co., Tokyo) equipped with an actigraph that can detect physical movements. Methods: In the present study, actisensitivity is defined as the slope of the regression line that is calculated from ambulatory systolic BP (SBP) with the log-transformed value corresponding 5-min average of physical activity just before each BP measurement. We prospectively assessed the changes in actisensitivity and ambulatory BP (ABP) parameters between patients with and without improved cardiac function during the treatment of HF. We assessed 20 patients with diagnosed HF (mean ± SD age, 63.3 ± 14.1 years; male, 65%; ischemic heart disease, 15%; atrial fibrillation, 25%) just after initial or adjusted treatments, and reassessed the multisensor-ABPM data at follow-up from 6–12 months after tailored treatment. Second, we divided these patients into an improved (n = 11 patients) and a not-improved (n = 9) cardiac-function group; an increase in echocardiographic left ventricular ejection fraction of ≧ 10%. We then compared the changes in actisensitivity and ABP parameters between the two groups. Results: Parameters of ABP variability, i.e., SD, coefficient of variation, and average real variability of SBP, did not change between baseline and follow-up in either group. However, the actisensitivity value tended to increase from baseline to follow-up in the improved group (1.0 ± 3.5 vs. 4.5 ± 3.5, p = 0.065), but not in the not-improved group. The degree of changes in actisensitivity from baseline to follow-up tended to be higher in the improved group than the not-improved group (3.5 ± 5.6 vs. -1.2 ± 4.8, p = 0.059) (Figure). Moreover, in the overall patient group, the change of actisensitivity from baseline to follow-up was significantly related to the changes of LVEF (r = 0.553, p = 0.011). Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to prospectively observe the changes of novel BP reactivity against physical activity in HF patients using the new multisensor-ABPM device. Our findings should help to elucidate the relationships between BP variability/hemodynamics during physical activity and cardiac function in patients with HF.


The structures have been examined of lower density random models, obtained by removing atoms from the close-packed, random-model built here. Radial distribution functions and coordination distribution for models containing different proportions of holes have been calculated.


Space debris laser ranging was achieved with a 60 W, 200 Hz, 532 nm
 nanosecond slab, single-frequency green laser at the Shanghai Astronomical
 Observatory's 60 cm satellite laser ranging system. There were 174 passes
 of space debris measured in 2017, with the minimum radar cross section
 (RCS) being 0.25 m2 and the highest ranging precision up to
 13.6 cm. The RCS of space debris measured with the farthest distances in
 174 passes was analyzed. The results show that the farthest measurement
 distance (R) and RCS (S) were fitted to R = 1388.159S0.24312,
 indicating that this laser can measure the distance of 1388.159 km at an
 RCS of 1 m2, which is very helpful to surveillance and research
 on low-Earth-orbit space debris.


PURPOSE: To enhance the learner's knowledge and competence in wound bed preparation. TARGET AUDIENCE: This continuing education activity is intended for physicians and nurses with an interest in skin and wound care. OBJECTIVES: After participating in this educational activity, the participant should be better able to: Assess wounds to classify them and determine prognosis. Apply evolving evidence regarding effective wound bed preparation and recommend patient-specific therapy. This article builds and expands upon the concept of wound bed preparation introduced by Sibbald et al 2000 as a holistic approach to wound diagnosis and treatment of the cause and patient-centered concerns such as pain management, optimizing the components of local wound care: Debridement, Infection and persistent Inflammation, along with Moisture balance before Edge effect for healable but stalled chronic wounds.


We theoretically investigate chaotic and stable structures in coupled-resonator chains and synthetic frequency dimension influenced by Kerr nonlinearity, thereby bringing insights in the emerging field of soliton generation in chains and lattices of high-Q resonators.


Conjugated polymers have emerged as a promising candidate of photocatalyst materials. Design principle, that maximizes the synergy between conjugated skeleton and catalyst moiety, is strongly desired to be established for...


goals. Other goals include: acquiring objective sexual information, assuming responsibility for one's sexuality and sexual satisfaction, distinguishing sensuality from sexuality, accepting or tolerating sexual difference, and determining sexual exploitation. Research, study, and experience have produced a number of techniques to facilitate achievement of these goals. Included are a description of the course and its evolution, as well as a section on student enrollment and reasons for taking the course. A discussion of goals and techniques for teaching human sexuality follows.


ABSTRACT This article contributes to the research on comparative human resource management by providing a model of the Russian business system and its effect on human resource management practices at Russian subsidiaries of Western multinational companies. Whitley's approach was adopted to illustrate the links between institutional arenas, business systems, and human resource management practices. The empirical part is based on interviews with senior human resources managers of Western multinational companies operating in Russia. The findings provide insight into the interaction between the national business system and human resource management practices in Russia.


This article asks about the current modes of production in human rights research and how they are (or may be) determined by the structures where that knowledge is generated. These questions will be answered by looking at the results of a preliminary study on the reception and subsequent institutionalisation of studies on human rights in stable structures that are dedicated to their research, training and dissemination in Spanish universities. The starting hypothesis is that this institutionalisation causes conceptual, epistemological and methodological biases in the rationales for knowledge construction in the field of human rights that determine and hinder the interdisciplinary approach demanded by its study. Interdisciplinarity has become a dominant aspect of human rights research. The question about how this feature is articulated and who articulates it in the academic institutional framework is pertinent in a field of knowledge that cannot avoid asymmetries in the production and circulation of knowledge. The results show that human rights research has been mainly institutionalised in stable university structures in Spain within the field of legal sciences, with a clear predominance of the area of the Philosophy of Law. It can be concluded that this has been conditioned by the reception and subsequent development of the study of human rights in Spain. While it has been found that the line developed by these centres and research groups has been consolidated and recognised, it can also be confirmed that their modes of knowledge production do not match the rationale of interdisciplinary research. These limitations are not just endogenous. There are some features of Spanish institutional R&D&i culture that make interdisciplinary research on human rights difficult.


Background: Hyperpigmentation is one of the signs of skin aging which is mostly caused by Ultraviolet B (UVB) rays exposure. The gold standard for hyperpigmentation therapy is hydroquinone (HQ) but its long-term use can cause side effects such as irritation, rebound phenomenon, and even ochronosis. Black soybeans contain active ingredients that can prevent the increase of tyrosinase enzyme and the amount of melanin so that it can be used as an alternative therapy for hyperpigmentation. This study aims to prove that the administration of 30% black soybean extract cream was as effective as 4% HQ cream in inhibiting the increase of tyrosinase enzyme expression and the amount of melanin in guinea pig skin exposed to UVB rays.
Methods: This study used a post-test only control group design method with 30 guinea pigs as samples. The sample was divided into three groups of 10 each. The P1 group was given the base cream, the P2 group was given the 4% HQ cream, while the P3 group was given the 30% black soybean extract cream. Each group was exposed to UVB rays with a total dose of 390mJ/cm2 for 2 weeks, after that the guinea pig skin tissue was taken and histopathological preparations were made for examination of tyrosinase enzyme expression and the amount of melanin. The data obtained were analyzed using one way ANOVA, then the differences between groups were analyzed using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) test.
Results: The results showed that the mean of the tyrosinase enzyme expression and the amount of melanin in the black soybean extract group P3 (12.880±3.327% and 3.16±1.486) were not significantly different from the HQ4% group P2 (9.690±2.176% and 2.18±1.117), while the mean of the base cream group P1 (25.78±5.392% and 12.080±3.150) was the highest among the three groups. The LSD test showed a significant difference between the base cream group (P1) and the other groups (p<0.01), but there was no significant difference between the 4% hydroquinone group (P2) and the 30% black soybean extract treatment group (P3) (p >0.05).
Conclusion: The conclusion of this study was that 30% black soybean ethanol extract cream inhibited the increase of tyrosinase enzyme expression and the amount of melanin as effective as 4% HQ cream on guinea pig skin exposed to UVB light.


Mobile robotic telepresence systems (MRPs) allow users to have a video conferencing communication channel with people in a distant environment where the MRP is physically located. In addition to having an audiovisual channel, the remote user can navigate the MRP. In this study, we interviewed ten undergraduate students after they had conducted a search-and-find task using an MRP. We found that students find it easy to maneuver the MRP and value the ability to move around in a remote space as well as having a physically embodied representation. We also found that students face challenges in approaching people due to three reasons, self-presentational concerns, novelty of robot-mediated communication, and difficulty with interpreting nonverbal cues. We will discuss our findings and provide design suggestions that could make MRPs more useful for social interactions.


Objectives : calcaneus osteomyelitis is an uncommon bone infection in children, with subtle clinical findings and no important immunologic response, requiring diagnostic imaging to make a diagnosis. This is a clinical study made with patients diagnosticated with calcaneus osteomielitis. Materials and methods : this is a retrospective study of patients with calcaneus ostomyelitis during a 5-year follow up. The variables analyzed were age, gender, affected side, previous trauma or disease, time to diagnosis and treatment period. Results : nine patients were recluted. Six of them with secretion cultures; which 4 were positive with S. aureus. (three with methicillin-resistant S. aureus and one case methicillin - sensitive) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in two cases. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was neccesary in 6 patients, with findings sugestive of osteomyelitis in all of them. Conclusion: a high-suspect index is essential to diagnosis, besides imaging studies and laboratory exams. Inicial VSG and PCR were positive in all patients and had a tendency to lowering during treatment. CRP correlated with clinical improvement and was an important marker to iniciate orally antymicrobial treatment.  MRI and bone scan were an accurate resource in diagnosis. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common microorganism in this and other studies. P. aeruginosa was associated with accidental heel puncture.Early antimicrobial therapy is the main choice. Surgery is needed in some selected cases.


The paper discusses two methods of optimal excitation signal design for identiication with Maximum Likelihood parameter estimation: The \classical", dispersion function based method, and a new, semideenite programming based one. It is shown that the dispersion function based algorithm is a primal-dual method. The problem can be formulated as matrix determinant maximization subject to linear matrix inequalities. We introduce an interior point method for excitation signal design. The implementations of the two methods are compared in practical use. For general problems , the semideenite programming based approach performs better, while for practical optimal excitation signal design, the dispersion function based one is recommended.


A hydrology single element level forecast model is brought forward based on rough set theory.The model uses the historical data of hydrology series itself as forecast factors.The minimal rule set,i.e.,forecast pattern set,is achieved according to the principle of attribute significance and the maximal appearing frequency of rules.A principle of maximal support strength of the forecast pattern set for forecasting object is put forward and used to forecast in the model.The model is used to forecast annual runoff of Dahuofang Reservoir.The result indicates that the forecast model based on rough set can describe the relation between forecast factors and forecast object effectively.The forecast model based on rough set is composed of simple decision rules and can be easily understood and applied.


The collected bearing signals are easily interfered by strong ambient noise due to complex operating conditions. It's a challenge to identify faults accurately and to reduce dependence on model hyper-parameters for intelligent diagnostic methods. This paper proposes an improved ensemble method based on deep belief network (DBN) for fault diagnosis of rolling bearings. Firstly, a series of DBNs with different hyper-parameters are constructed and trained. Secondly, the improved ensemble method is used to acquire the weights matrix for each DBN. Finally, each DBN votes together in accordance with its respective weight matrix to get the final diagnosis result. This method is applied to rolling bearing data from Case Western Reserve University. Experiments show that the effect of fault diagnosis is significantly improved because the feature learning ability of different DBNs is fully taken advantage of.


Age differences in learning a complex cognitive skill are examined. The type of knowledge gained and levels of performance and transfer achieved, under different practice conditions, were compared in younger and older groups of trainees. The development of verbalizable knowledge about the task but not task performance itself varied as a function of age and practice condition. All trainees achieved transfer to novel versions of the task but older subjects appeared restricted to tasks drawn from the same semantic domain. The implications of these findings for developing training programmes for older workers are discussed.


The morphology of the femur varies among the anthropoid primates reflecting different positional behaviors. Femora of cercopithecids are adaptive for cursorial locomotor patterns (e. g., running, leaping) but less adaptive for climbing or clambering. Femora of colobines are more specialized for leaping and arboreal balance as compared with those of cercopithecines. Femora of medium- and large-sized cebids, chimpanzee, and gibbon display morphological features related to quadrumanous climbing and acrobatic arboreal balance, but they demonstrate no specialized feature for cursorial locomotion and leaping. Outstanding characteristics in each taxon are as follows: projected greater trochanter and anteroposteriorly long distal epiphysis in cercopithecines; thick and more or less acutely angled neck, and symmetrically sized femoral condyles in colobines; low greater trochanter, gracile and highly angled neck, mediolaterally wide distal epiphysis, and expanded medial condyle in apes; gracile and highly angled neck, and mediolaterally wide distal epiphysis in medium- and large-sized cebids.


Lieutenant Colonel Dominic J. Caraccilo, US Army In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says that "[v]ictory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur."' Antoine Henri Jomini, Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tw-masters of war strategy--offer timeless views of the face of battle. Clauswitz argues that perfect prewar planning for contingencies is difficult, if not impossible, because of the fog of war. To anticipate the full array of possibilities of changes and plan a way to adapt to all of them is, at least, futile. Therefore, the strategist and his enamored tactician must be able to properly assess the situation, given wartime realities, and adapt to battlefield changes. Revising the strategic net assessment is a first step on the road to victory. Clausewitz states, "Friction, as we choose to call it, is the force that makes the apparently easy so difficult."2 Idealistically, a strategist wants to anticipate and plan contingencies so as to conquer all changes in the character of war. Sun Tzu indicates that good intelligence makes it possible to predict the outcome of a war in battle. However, Clausewitz says, "[T]he very nature of interaction is bound to make [war] unpredictable."' History is rich with examples which show that prewar plans do not directly relate to wartime realities. Strategists' ability or inability to reassess and adapt to volatile changes-the friction and fog of war-played key roles in the American Revolution, the Korean War and in the Algerian insurgency. The American Revolution During the American Revolution, the British had a prewar plan of using coercive measures to force colonists to capitulate to British empirical and parliamentary rule. The prewar British plan was seemingly simpleput down a rebellion and return the colonies to the desired status quo. Sun Tzu would have criticized the British for not considering in the prewar planning process the colonials' will to resist and ability to prevail. He would have told the British to anticipate French and Spanish forces' joining the battle. In short, he would have suggested that the British needed a better scriptwriter. Shooting British subjects would not win colonial hearts and minds. If they had ascertained that using force would do nothing more than nourish the rebellion and recognized that force was detrimental to their cause, the British could have designed courses of action to counter colonial reaction. They could have determined whether it was more feasible to go for the decisive blow or to accept a colonial independence while maintaining a prominent economic existence. While the British did not believe they would have to resort to force to put down what they viewed as a weak rebellion, shedding blood at the onset should have led them to reconsider their strategy.4 Ideally, it would be great if the strategist could foresee all changes that might occur. But, even Sun Tzu would not argue against the fact that it is nearly impossible to flawlessly script an entire campaign. Because of such uncertainty, prewar plans are always marginal, at best. The Korean War The character of the war in Korea could have led to US use of nuclear weapons to prevent communist Chinese intervening between the North and South Koreans.' Considering the inability to anticipate changes in the character of war, it is questionable whether Sun Tzu or Clausewitz would have decided to play the nuclear trump card. Arguably, a preplanned nuclear reaction to a possible change in battle would have been detrimental to the military situation in Korea and to international diplomacy. …


Authors indicated 24 species from Ural region and two of them are endemics: E. gmelinii Steud. and E. borszczowii Prokh. The paper presents a summary of species with a description of their environmental attachment. Also describes the general distribution and distribution on the natural provinces. This article analyzes character of distribution and ecological and geographical attachment. Established that steppe, rock, meadow and meadow-forest species are dominated in species composition of spurges on area of Ural region. Greatest number of species is observed in the southern provinces. There are 16 species in the Southern Ural, 14 – in the Middle-Tobolsk forest steppe province and 13 in the Samara-Iletsk steppe province. The northern limit of spreading of spurges on the western slope differs from distribution on the eastern slopes of the Urals.


This article presents research conducted on the development of a seismic vulnerability assessment procedure for highway systems funded under NCEER's Highway Project. It represents work in progress and the data and modelspresentedfor the Memphis highway system are preliminary. They arefor illustration purposes only and are subject to change. A more complete version of this paper will appear in the proceedings of the "National Seismic Conference on Bridges and Highways, I' sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and Caltrans, to be held on December 10-13, 1995 in San Diego, California. Comments and questions should be directed to Stuart Werner, Dames and Moore, at (415) 896 5858.


Background The optimum risk score determining perioperative mortality and morbidity in cardiac surgery remains debated. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) derived from glycaemic and oxidative stress accumulate to a comparable amount in skin and the cardiovascular system leading to a decline in organ function. We aimed to study the association between AGE accumulation measured as skin autofluorescence (sAF) and the outcome of cardiac surgery patients. Methods Between April 2008 and November 2016, data from 758 consecutive patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, aortic valve replacement or a combined procedure were analyzed. Skin autofluorescence was measured using an autofluorescence reader. Beside mortality, for the combined categorical morbidity outcome of each patient failure of the cardiac-, pulmonary-, renal- and cerebral system, as well as reoperation and wound healing disorders were counted. Patients without or with only one of the outcomes were assigned zero points whereas more than one outcome failure resulted in one point. Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated in multivariable logistic regression analysis with other preoperative parameters and the established cardiac surgery risk score systems EuroSCORE II and STS score. Results Skin autofluorescence as non-invasive marker of tissue glycation provided the best prognostic value in identifying patients with major morbidity risks after cardiac surgery (OR = 3.13; 95%CI 2.16–4.54). With respect to mortality prediction the STS score (OR = 1.24; 95%CI 1.03–1.5) was superior compared to the EuroSCORE II (OR = 1.17: 95%CI 0.96–1.43), but not superior when compared to sAF (OR = 6.04; 95%CI 2.44–14.95). Conclusion This finding suggests that skin autofluorescence is a good biomarker candidate to assess the perioperative risk of patients in cardiac surgery. Since the EuroSCORE does not contain a morbidity component, in our view further sAF measurement is an option.