This paper studies real option problems with stochastic interest rates and the tam structure of interest rates. Numerical experiments reveal that both threshold value of the project cashflow and option value show wrong value in the conventional methods with deterministic interest rates. For a typical example, threshold value of the project cashflow is about 5 times larger than that in the conventional methods, and the option value is about 4 times larger than that in the conventional model. We conclude that we need considering stochastic interest rates and the term structure of interest rates, when we deal with real estate investment problems.


T
The aims of this study is to figure out the used of politeness strategy uttered by the character in The Patriot movie and the influence of gender to the level of politeness within the movie. Documentation method and note-taking technique were applied in collecting the data of this study. The data were obtained from the movie The Patriot, furthermore, the data were classified based on their types of politeness and also based on the speaker's gender and analysed qualitatively using the theory of Politeness proposed by Brown and Levinson (1978) and the theory of sociolinguistics proposed by Ronald Wardhaugh (2010). The analysis revealed that the character in the movie The Patriot applied eleven out of fifteen strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson. Regarding to the gender of the character, women consistently tend to use neutral style when they have conversations both with women or men. On the other hand, men are using various levels of formality when they have conversation.


Abstract Objective The aim of the present study is to assess the return to play among amateur soccer league players after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Materials and Method The surgical protocols of ACL reconstruction surgeries performed in a sports medicine clinic from July 1st, 2013, to June 30th, 2014, were included in the study. Only the charts of amateur soccer league players who played once or twice a week were selected. The follow-up time was calculated as the number of months between surgery and the telephone survey. At the follow-up, the current status of the soccer playing was recorded. Those patients who were no longer playing in a team were asked what kind of sport they were currently practicing, as well as the main reason for not returning to team playing. Results A total of 61 (25.6%) patients met the inclusion criteria. The mean follow-up time was of 22.4 ± 3.4 months. At the follow-up, 30 (49.1%) patients were playing in amateur soccer teams. Among the patients who were no longer playing in a team, 19 (61.2%) were playing soccer occasionally, 11 (35.4%) were practicing other sports, and 1 developed a sedentary life style. The reasons for not returning to team playing were: fear of reinjury in 26%; knee symptoms in 26%; lack of confidence in the knee in 23%, family or job commitments in 23%; and not being eligible to participate in competitive sports in 2%. Conclusion After an average of two years of ACL reconstruction, only half of the amateur soccer league players return to play.


International law concerning military intervention is traditionally based on the legal principle of non-intervention, but has changed due to UN Security Council practice and enhanced protection of human rights. This article discusses the current international practice and the relationship between international interventions and the application of the rights approach. Looking at the UN Security Council mandate, the article questions whether there is a consideration or integration of the rights approach to international intervention. Unless the rights approaches are fully integrated into international intervention, there will be little achievement in fully resolving conflicts and implementing long-term, effective, post-conflict recovery programmes.


During the process of direct radiocarbon dating of four Early Upper Paleolithic modern humans from the Romanian sites of Pestera cu Oase, Pestera Muierii and Pestera Cioclovina Uscată, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) were measured from their bone collagen. These individuals have δ13C values similar to other Late Pleistocene humans. Their δ15N values are well within the carnivore trophic level range, among the higher of the Middle Upper Paleolithic values, and significantly greater than those of preceding Middle Paleolithic and Initial Upper Paleolithic Neanderthals. These data suggest a shift towards a broader faunal dietary spectrum among these early modern humans, despite western and eastern European archeological evidence and human functional morphology indicating little change in faunal exploitation from the Middle Paleolithic to the Early Upper Paleolithic.


The first part of the paper provides an overview of the Romanian non-governmental sector and its challenges faced after 1989. The legal basis for setting and maintaining this sector as well as the classification of non-governmental organizations and the structure of human resources are also explained. The second part of the paper performs a broad analysis covering the whole Romanian nongovernmental sector. In the end, some general recommendations on the Romanian NGO sector development are formulated.


In his article "Gulliver, Travel, and Empire" Claude Rawson analyzes Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels as a central document of European intellectual history. Rawson focuses on the relationship between ethnicity and human identity asking what constitutes humanity and how individual groups qualify (or not) for human status. Posing as a "parody" of travel books, Rawson's article is both a series of voyages and an ethnically widening arc of moral exploration as Swift's Book Four at once expresses an ambivalent perception of the Irish under English rule and extends to what Swift/Gulliver calls "all Savage Nations" and ultimately takes in what Swift described in a letter as "that Animal called Man." Claude Rawson, "Gulliver, Travel, and Empire" page 2 of 10 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14.5 (2012): Special issue New Work about the Journey and Its Portrayals. Ed. I-Chun Wang


Gas fractionation device of No.2 refinery of Fushun Petrochemical Company is briefly introduced in this paper.And the process of normalization (such as,hormalization time intention scheme and measure mode ) is introduced in detail, and the material balance condition of the whole device is enumerated. The consuption index of all the differentitems,the energy consuption of the device,and the quality of product are analyzed.According to the anylyzing result of the normalization analysis of the gas fractionation device, it shows that the present normalization analysis is fairlysuccessful.


Technology adoption is a key-step to meet the sustainability criteria. In this article we discuss the potential sparing-land effect arising from integrated crop-livestock systems adoption in the Brazilian Cerrado. Considering the technical coefficients provided by research and field observations, regarding crop/pasture ratio during the rainy season and stocking rates commonly practiced in these mixed farms, the sparing land effect would vary from 1.9 to 8.4 hectares spared/hectare of renovated pasture (0.4 head/hectare in the baseline scenario). With adequate incentives to promote capacity building, financing mechanisms and farm management (best management practice adoption) integrated crop-livestock systems adoption can effectively contribute to avoided deforestation and hence to lower carbon emissions in Brazil.


Knowledge development is one of the main elements in knowledge management that focuses on the development of new skills, new products, better ideas and more productive processes. Knowledge development includes all those management efforts that the organization tries to capture, capabilities that have deficiencies and the creation of capabilities that are still not within the organization.1 Hospital, as the most important unit for providing health services, plays a vital role in the patients' health. The optimal use of the scientific process and the development of knowledge along with information technology play an essential role in the quantity and quality of services.2 Imam Khomeini's Dehdasht Hospital was no exception to this rule and due to the importance of providing health services in the Dehdasht city, the necessity of using scientific knowledge and information technology to improve the performance of health care services is essential. The researchers believes that the institutionalization of knowledge management, coupled with technological and information technology, could speed up the hospital's performance in delivering health services to patients.3 Accordingly, the goal of improving the performance of Imam Khomeini's Dehdasht Hospital is one of the main requirements of the organization that should be produced or absorbed and developed in the organization. Today, not only the survival and development of organizations depends on the knowledge and proper management of it, but also the survival of the society is dependent on the use of up-to-date knowledge.


Summary 1. Suspensions of human white blood cells in homologous fresh plasma will adsorb tuberculin (O.T.) from the plasma. 2. White blood cells from normal persons with a negative intracutaneous reaction to tuberculin as well as white cells from persons with active tuberculosis show this phenomenon. 3. Suspensions of mouse white blood cells in homologous fresh plasma will not adsorb tuberculin from the plasma. 4. There is no difference in the lack of tuberculin adsorption by white blood cells from normal or tuberculous mice. 5. Normal human plasma does not whereas plasma from patients with active tuberculosis does partially inactivate tuberculin under the conditions of thee experiments. 6. Tuberculin has been assayed by its in vitro cytotoxic effect on white blood cells. from tuberculous subjects.


Endophytic bacteria have been isolated from many plants and their contribution to host plants have been proposed by many researchers, such as preventing plant from pathogens, producing plant growth hormones, producing bioactive compounds, solubilizing phosphate, etc. However, the study of endophytes of pioneer plant such as fern is very limited. The objective of this study was to obtain potential endophytic bacteria from fern Tectaria barberi and to measure their ability to inhibit the growth of human pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli (EPEC), Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Listeria monocytogenes BTCC B693, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ATCC 43300, Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228, and Proteus vulgaris ATCC 13315). The ability of isolates in solubilizing phosphate was measured to learn possible role of endophytes for the plant. Six endophytic bacteria were obtained. Antagonistic test indicated all isolates inhibited the growth of tested pathogens to some extends. Isolates EPS36 showed the highest inhibition activity against EPEC (with inhibition zone 8.6 mm). The isolate also inhibited the growth of S. aureus and S. epidermidis by 6.1 and 6.6 mm, respectively. EPS37 inhibited the growth of S. aureus by 6.1 mm, EPS02 inhibited P. vulgaris (5.6 mm), EPS42 to L. monocytogenes (5.7 mm), and EPS21 inhibited MRSA (5 mm). Qualitative screening of isolates in Pikovskaya media after 24 hours incubation showed that EPS41, EPS36, and EPS37 formed clear zone surrounding the colony indicating their ability to solubilize phosphates. As far literatures has been surveyed, this is the first study of endophytes bacterial isolates from pteridophytes in the country, and a lot more is needed in order to elaborate the role of endophytes from this plant.


Wayleave is defined that citizens take advantage of road according to its traffic use.Therefore,for the sake of traffic safety and order,it is legal and necessary to adopt traffic control measures to limit citizens' equal wayleave.However,if over limited,it might pass the proper line of police right,invade equal wayleave and violate equal principle.


A phone app is proving popular among Amazonian hunters in monitoring their offtakes, and it shows promise as a hunting management tool.


Textured polycrystalline YBCO films with superconducting transition temperatures of ∼90 K have been prepared on flexible zirconia substrates, partially stabilized by 3 mol % yttria. X‐ray data suggest undesirable (013) and [(110) (103)] texture in minor amounts within the predominantly c‐axis oriented film. The transmission electron microscope data reveal clean, special crystallographic as well as silicon contaminated grain boundaries containing amorphous phases. By depositing a zirconia buffer layer, fully stabilized by 9 mol % yttria, we have demonstrated that the normal‐state metallic and superconducting properties of the YBCO films can be considerably improved. These films exhibit critical‐current densities of ∼0.9×104 A/cm2 at 77 K in zero field and 2×105 A/cm2 at 4.2 K in zero field.


Abstract : The report is principally concerned with the thermal degradation of two copolymer systems, methyl methacrylate/methyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate/butyl acrylate. The photo-degradation of the methyl methacrylate/ methyl acrylate system was also studied insofar as it is relevant to the thermal reaction. An accurate method, making use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, was devised and applied to these and other acrylate/methacrylate systems. For both systems a series of copolymers covering the whole composition range was synthesised. Thermal methods of analysis, such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and thermal volatilisation analysis (TVA), showed that the copolymers became more stable to thermal breakdown as the acrylate content was increased. The gaseous degradation products, liquid products, chain fragments and residue were each examined separately.


Objective To analyze the clinical phenotype and to screen for causative mutations in GUCY2D gene in children with Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA).Methods Clinical data and genomic DNA were collected from 27 patients with LCA. The exons 2 and 8 of the GUCY2D gene were analyzed using PCR heteroduplex SSCP method.Results Visual inattention was noticed in all 27 probands with LCA and the best corrected visual acuity less than 0.1. Symptomatic age in all 27 cases was less than 2 years old, and 21 of the 27 were less than 3 months. Nystagmus was present in all cases in which a searching eye movement was present in 15 cases. Fundus changes were found in 22 cases but a normal fundus was present in 5 cases. Three of the 27 had a family history displayed an autosomal recessive inheritance. ERG cone and rod responses were markedly reduced or non recordable in all cases. Mutation in the exons 2 and 8 of the GUCY2D gene was not detected in these 27 probands.Conclusion Clinical manifestation varied in patients with LCA and the diagnosis of LCA mainly depends on the examination of ERG. Mutation in the exons 2 and 8 of the GUCY2D gene is not responsible for the retinal degeneration in the 27 patients.


A two-meter propane bubble chamber has been used to study the production of pions and protons in inelastic dC, HeC, CC, and multinucleon CC collisions at momentum 4.2 GeV/c per nucleon. The concept of total charge of an event (Q) has been used to determine the number of interacting protons. The multiplicity of ..pi.. mesons and the momentum and angular characteristics of ..pi../sup -/ mesons and protons have been analyzed as functions of the number of interacting protons. The data obtained are compared with calculations according to the Dubna cascade model. It is shown that this model qualitatively reproduces the dependences of the average momenta , the rapidity , and the emission angle of ..pi../sup -/ mesons and protons on Q in the observed interactions. The existing discrepancies of the calculated and experimentally measured values decrease with increase of the mass number of the incident nucleus. The model poorly describes the dependence of the average transverse momentum of ..pi../sup -/ mesons on Q, and in reproduction of the dependence of on Q for protons it does not achieve even qualitative agreement.


Following injury, transfusion of Red Blood Cells (RBCs) of greater storage duration has been associated with anincreased morbidity and mortality. Prospective trials focusing on the impact of the storage age of RBCs in severely bleeding trauma patients have typically failed to accrue patients. This has been attributed to both inability to maintain a large inventoryof fresh RBCs, and the difficulties in obtainingconsent in severely bleeding trauma patients. To address theissue of the impact of old blood on the injury victim, we reviewed the literature on this topic.


Objective To observe the clinical effects of "Shuxinqufeng Decoction" in treating angina pectoris and disclose its action mechanism. Methods Eighty-six angina patients were randomly divided into three groups: 28 patients in control group received routine western medicine therapy, and 29 patients in treatment group I were treated by "Shuxinqufeng Decoction" combined with the routine therapy, while 29 patients in treatment group U were treated by "Shuxin Decoction" and the routine therapy. Clinical effects of angina, electrocardiogram and TCM syndromes, levels of blood sICAM-l, sVCAM-l and MCP-1 were observed. Results The clinical effects of angina, electrocardiogram, and TCM syndromes in the treatment group Ⅰ were superior to those in the control group (P<0.05, P<0.01). The levels of sICAM-l, sVCAM-l and MCP-1 in the treatment group Ⅰ were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05, P<0.01), and the level of sICAM-1 in the treatment group Ⅰ were lower than that in the treatment group Ⅱ Conclusion "Shuxinqufeng Decoction" is effective for angina pectoris possibly by depressing inflammatory response.


In order to compare the effect of peeling with incisor bar and with smooth roller bar on veneer quality, a mini-lathe in Forintek's laboratory was significantly upgraded by installing digit control system and two kinds of bars. Forty-five spruce blocks were peeled with incisor bar and smooth roller bar respectively so as to investigate the effect of three controllable variables, pitch angle (PA), vertical gap (VG), and horizontal gap (HG), with three level configurations and duplication twice for each controllable peeling parameters setting, on veneer quality while other parameters were fixed. The effect of bar type on veneer curl-up and thickness variation was compared. The test results demonstrated that the peeling with incisor bar could reduce green veneer curl-up ratio over 60% compared with the smooth roller bar, and generate more even veneer thickness and less veneer thickness variation than the smooth roller bar. The optimum lathe settings for incisor bar and for smooth roller bar were quite different, which indicate that the lathe settings have to be adjusted after changing bar from one to another. The optimum lathe settings for incisor bar were PA 90.5°, VG 9.84 mm,and HG 2.79 mm. In contrast,the optimum lathe settings for smooth roller bar were PA 88.5°, VG 11.75 mm,and HG 2.54 mm in this experiment.


We present low-resolution Keck spectra of nine candidate globular clusters in the possible merger-remnant elliptical galaxy NGC 3610. Eight of the objects appear to be bona fide globular clusters of NGC 3610. We find that two of the clusters belong to an old metal-poor population, five to an old metal-rich population, and only one to an intermediate-age metal-rich population. The estimated age of the intermediate-age cluster is 1–5 Gyr, which is in agreement with earlier estimates of the merger age and suggests that this cluster was formed during the merger. However, the presence of five old metal-rich clusters indicates that a substantial number of the metal-rich clusters in NGC 3610 likely came from the progenitor galaxies, although the global ratio of old to intermediate-age metal-rich clusters remains very uncertain.


System shelf storage with storage shelves (12a, 12b) which have in storage levels (16) situated one above another storage positions (17) for goods (2), and a unit of handling goods (4; 4 '; 4 ") having at least a first freight elevator (34a) with a lifting transportation device (36a) and lowerable for entry and removal from storage of goods (2) and a first intermediate storage device device (35a) for storing intermediately goods (2) on its conveying devices supply (43, 44), and at least one rack aisle (15) extending between the storage shelves (12a, 12b) and along the ware elevator device (34a) and the intermediate storage device (35a), and guides (20) extending in the longitudinal direction of the rack aisle (15) in at least some of the levels of shelf (16), and at least one handling apparatus shelving level (3) displaceable along guides (20) for transporting goods (2) between the storage positions (17) and the device buffer (35a) and a conveyor connected to the goods hoist (34a) with a first conveyor mechanism (54a device; 69) for transporting goods (2) to the ware elevator (34a) and a second conveyor mechanism (55a device; 71) for transporting goods (2) from the ware elevator (34a) device, the device comprising buffer (35a) at least some of the rack planes (16) stationarily a first block section buffer (41a) and a second block section buffer (42a), which are arranged conveyors delivery devices (43, 44) and between which the conveyor device (36a) of the ware elevator device (34a) can be positioned and operated at least some of the rack planes (16) such that the while at least a first product (2) can be transported from the first block section buffer (41a) to the transport device (36a) and at least one second WARE a (2) from the conveyor device (36a) to the second block section buffer (42a), the first block section buffer (41a) being provided with conveying means supply (43) and the second block section buffer (42a) with the carrier supply devices (44) relative to the rack aisle (15) in front of and behind the ware elevator (34a) device and laterally next to the rack aisle ( 15) along the guides (20), and serving the first block section buffer (41a) exclusively for an output operation warehouse for goods (2) and the second leg section buffer (42a) exclusively for operation in storage for goods (2), characterized in that the guides (20) extending in the longitudinal direction of the rack aisle (15) along the storage racks (12a, 12b), the ware elevator (34a) device and the intermediate storage device (35a) and also because the device ware elevator (34a) disposed between the conveyors (54a, 55a; 69, 71) and sections of stretch buffer (41a, 42a), with raisable and lowerable carrying device (36a) is provided for the entry and removal from storage of goods (2) laterally next to the rack aisle ( 15) along the guides (20), the conveying devices supply (43) in the first block section buffer (41a) are formed by storage rails that move the goods (2) from the receiving section ( 45) remote from the ware elevator (34a) device to a delivery section (46) adjacent to nonreversible ware elevator (34a) in one direction of transport (48a), device and can approach the receiving section ( 45) from the handling apparatus shelving level (3) and being transferred goods (2) from the handling apparatus shelving level (3) to the receiving section (45), and stand or formed conveyors delivery devices (44) in the second block section buffer (42a) for storage rails that move the goods (2) from a receiving section (49) adjacent the ware elevator (34a) device to delivery section (50) remote from the device ware elevator (34a) in one direction of transport (52a) not reversible and can approach the handling apparatus shelving level (3) to the delivery section (50) and being transferred goods (2) from the delivery section (50) the handling apparatus shelving level (3).


The global market for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) witnessed explosive growth over the 1997-2006 period, as the stock of global issuance expanded from $300 billion to almost $2 trillion. CDO issuance importantly supported the market for subprime mortgage-backed debt, via the re-packaging of those assets into derivative CDO securities. The surge in issuance of subprime mortgage-backed CDOs coincided with a marked tightening in subprime MBS-Treasury spreads, suggesting some measurable effect of this market-completing vehicle on the supply/demand balance and pricing of mortgage-backed securities. In 2007 and in the wake of the implosion in the CDO market, spreads on subprime mortgage-backed securities widened considerably. This research evaluates the effects of the emergence of the CDO market on the pricing of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities. Upon controlling for mortgage option values and other well-established determinants of credit spreads, research indicates that the emergence of the subprime-backed CDO market was associated with a significant tightening of subprime MBS/Treasury yield spreads. Results of VAR and other robustness tests serve to corroborate the results. Research findings suggest the importance of innovations in derivative securities markets to the pricing and related affordability of subprime mortgages. Results similarly indicate that the unexpected closure of the CDO market exerted upward pressure on MBS spreads, and in so doing contributed to changes in the pricing, underwriting and related demise of subprime mortgages. JEL Classification Numbers: R31, G10, G12


Abstract : The nonoily waste-water streams aboard USS SIERRA (AD 18) originating from the crew's head, galley (and scullery), laundry, pipe shop, and print shop have been characterized. The data have been used to develop mass emission factors for selected parameters in these waste-water streams. Projections have been made to the total ship for total nonoily waste-water discharges for normal in-port operations. Data collected aboard other ships surveyed under this program (USS O'HARE (DD 889), USS SEATTLE (AOE 3), and USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62) are being similarly analyzed and correlated. Corroboration and validation of mass emission factors must be accomplished by characterization of the total flow and all subflows deriving from a ship of comparable size. (Author)


Objective. The article focuses on the current state of library web content accessibility. Methods. 56 library websites of different countries (27 digital libraries and 29 specialized library resources for people with disabilities) have been successfully tested for the compliance with the WCAG 2.1 standards using the Webaccessibility.com service. Using the Alexa.com service the comparative analysis of the websites traffic ranking has been additionally conducted. Results. It has been established that only 3 websites out of 56 meet the accessibility standards of WCAG 2.1 with the compliance score of 92%. Conclusions. It has been concluded that the libraries' current practices of providing web content accessibility are insufficient. The emphasis has been placed on the need to optimize and promote specialized library resources and to implement a continuous audit of web content accessibility by means of automatic testing and engaging users with disabilities into these processes.


This study attempted to maximize environmental language learning for four hearing-impaired children. The children's mothers were systematically trained to present specific language symbols to their...


In the layout processing method for adjusting the amount of change in the size of the container, the number of containers associated with each other link is set so as to extend between a plurality of pages. Accordingly, the content data is determined in accordance with the content data into a predetermined page or another page.


In order to identify the main pollutant in wastewater, and make the evaluation of wastewater characteristic more reasonable and available, methods of water quality matrix and weight analyzing were used to analyze the results of water quality of Xi'an municipal wastewater in this study. The results show that respective weights of SS,COD,BOD5 ,TN,TP are 0. 266 7,0. 074 8,0. 141 2,0. 042 0,0. 475 3 and respective weights of suspended mater and soluble mater are 0. 637 3,0. 362 7. Therefore it can be concluded that contaminations of suspended matter, organic matter and phosphate in Xi'an municipal wastewater are more harmful to environment and natural water and should be firstly removed in wastewater treatment.


The function of agriculture in China's industrialization has determined the development of agricultural economy as well as the relations between population and economy in rural areas. Due to lack of funds and an abundant labor force, agricultural production has had to follow the road of labor-intensive cultivation. Population growth was rapid while agricultural production has developed more slowly. Agricultural development involved using improved seed strains, improving cropping systems, changing planting structure, improving field management, and utilizing a large part of the labor force. The strengthening of the labor-intensive structure has helped to increase agricultural yield and the use of a large proportion of the labor force. Population pressure on resources has been aggravated due to population growth, causing resource deterioration. The rapidly increasing population is mostly in rural areas. Migration to the cities is not usually allowed. Separating reproduction from the productive capacity of the land in rural China had the effect of raising fertility. The cost of bringing up children in rural China has been low since the Revolution. A family receives money for each child and can also have economies of scale in having many children. Thus, the factors which should have lowered the birth rate such as increased female employment have lost their effect.


Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) rods have been prepared under various polyme- rization conditions. All the obtained rod-preforms were subjected to a drawing process to examine their thermoplastic properties. The mechanical and optical properties of the drawn PMMA fibres were determined with respect •to the preparation and drawing conditions of the rods. Polystyrene - core polymer optical fibres (POF) manufacturing as well, as gra- dient - index (GRIN) polymer rod preparation were also briefly reviewed.


The invention discloses a hydrolysis-resistant polyphenylene sulfide composite modified material and a preparation method thereof. The polyphenylene sulfide composite modified material is prepared from the following raw materials in percent by mass: 45%-72% of polyphenylene sulfide powder, 20%-46% of alkali-free glass fibers, 2.5%-5% of vinyl silicone oil, 0.5%-1% of a silane coupling agent, 1.0%-2% of a hydrolysis resistant agent, 0.3%-0.5% of an antioxidant and 0.5%-0.8% of a chemical assistant. The hydrolysis-resistant polyphenylene sulfide composite modified material prepared by the preparation method disclosed by the invention has the advantages of hydrolysis resistance, high and low-temperature resistance, acid/alkaline resistance and the like, and can be used for placing a copper material and a steel material in the wading industry, so that a purpose of lowering cost is reached; moreover, service life of products can be effectively prolonged, and phenomena such as difficult processing are improved.


Summary A modification of the counter‐immunoelectroosmophoresis method is described which will allow rapid identification of hepatitis associated antigen and antibody within 2 hr by producing a reaction of identity with known reference materials. The specificity of the reaction is established by the demonstration of non‐identity and partial identity by this technique.


Polyaniline (PAN) and polypyrrole (PPY) were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and bulk analytical techniques. A systematic comparison of the results was carried out to determine the effects of anion size, synthesis methods, and the nature of the polymer (powder or film) on the variation between the surface and bulk compositions. Good agreement between the XPS and bulk analytical results is generally obtained for chemically synthesized polyaniline (in powder form). However, these two methods may give substantial discrepancies in the analysis of anion concentration in as-cast polyaniline base films subjected to re-doping by acids. Such discrepancies are also found in the analysis of as-synthesized polypyrrole doped by large anions and polypyrrole base films and powders after re-doping by acids. In these cases the XPS technique tends to give anion concentrations that are significantly higher than the bulk values. In some of these cases the high surface anion concentration supports a high pr...


SRM(Switched Reluctance Motor) drives require the accurate position and speed information of the rotor. These informations are generally provided by a shaft encoder or resolver. High temperature, EMI, and dust may make detection performance deteriorate. Therefore, the elimination of the position and speed sensor is desirable.

In this paper, a nonlinear adaptive observer using the MRAS(Model Reference Adaptive System) is proposed. The rotor speed and position are estimated by the adaptation law using the real and estimated currents. The stability of the adaptive observer is proved by Lyapunov stability theory.

The proposed methods are implemented with TMS320C31 DSP. Experimental results prove that the observer has a good estimation performance of the rotor speed and position despite of the parameter variations and loads, and the speed control can be accomplished in the wide speed range.


Fast and accurate topology identification is particularly important to achieve the observability, measurability and controllability of distribution network. A topology identification method using second-order cone programming of power flow estimation is proposed in this paper. Using a small number of line power measurements and a large number of load pseudo-measurements, the power flow estimation of the distribution network with unknown topology is completed by constructing a second-order cone programming problem. According to the power flow estimation results, the possible topologies are screened and their difference indices is compared to complete topology identification. The effectiveness of the proposed topology identification method is examined on the IEEE 33-bus test case.


Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research has gained traction in Africa in recent years. Researchers and designers have exploited the opportunities created by advances in mobile technology and increasing access to internet services in the communities to develop and deploy user-centered digital solutions targeting African audience and for solving Africa's problems. However, only a few researches have investigated the potential opportunities and challenges that face the adoption of HCI projects and mobile technology among indigenous people, especially in Biafra land in Nigeria. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to present an insider perspective of our lived experiences in conducting HCI4D and mobile technology research, the methodological and practical challenges, and design opportunities for advancing social and culturally-sensitive HCI research and mobile application designs in the Global South.


An 80-year-old man was admitted for cardiac failure and recurrence of electrocardiographically typical atrial flutter (figure, upper left panel). Six months earlier he has had cavo-tricuspid isthmus (CTI) ablation with successful block. A …


To the Editor:— The appearance of diatrizoate in urine after oral administration can occur in patients with normal gastrointestinal tracts, intestinal obstruction, or gastrointestinal inflammatory disease, but we believe that this is quite uncommon. In studies using diatrizoate administered orally or by enema in nonselected cases, Rubin ( Arch Surg 80 :495-500, 1960) reports only one urogram in over 150 studies; Epstein ( Amer J Roent 78 :694-697, 1957) reports no urinary tract visualization in 30 cases, and Shehadi ( Amer J Roentgen 89 :741-751, 1963) observed renal excretion in only two patients in a series of over 1,500 cases (both patients had small intestinal obstruction). The occurrence of a pyelogram after oral diatrizoate in intestinal obstruction also is unusual. Lowman ( Surg Gynec Obstet 106 :567-572, 1958) reports on an unselected total of 50 patients with the problem of intestinal obstruction as a surgical emergency. He states that after diatrizoate administration orally or


The treatment of HIV infections has not become easier for the physician. The physician must be familiar with a growing diversity of medications and the associated side effects and drug interactions. In addition to this, HIV are increasingly drug resistant. In order to prescribe the best possible treatment for these new strains, the knowledge to interpret complex resistances is necessary.The patient's desire for a simplified therapeutic regime or therapeutic interruptions should also be considered. Afurther challenge is the treatment of HIV-positive women during pregnancy. HIV-specialized doctors now treat their patients over many decades and must allow for this time interval when making therapeutic decisions.


Disclosed is a chlorine dioxide generating composition which generates chlorine dioxide through a reaction between a chlorite and an acid. Specifically disclosed is a chlorine dioxide generating composition containing a solid chlorite, a solid acid and a solid slow moisture release agent which is capable of slowly releasing the moisture content held therein.


A facile, "one‐pot", chemical approach to synthesize gold‐based nanoparticles finely dispersed on porous activated carbon (Norit) was demonstrated in this work. The pH of the synthesis bath played a critical role in determining the optimal gold‐carbon interaction, which enabled a successful deposition of the gold nanoparticles onto the carbon matrix with a maximized metal utilization of 93 %. The obtained AuNP/C nanocomposite was characterized using SEM, HAADF‐STEM electron tomography and electrochemical techniques. It was found that the Au nanoparticles, with diameters between 5 and 20 nm, were evenly distributed over the carbon matrix, both inside and outside the pores. Electrochemical characterization indicated that the composite had a very large electroactive surface area (EASA), as high as 282.4 m2 gAu−1. By exploiting its very high EASA, the catalyst was intended to boost the productivity of glucaric acid in the electrooxidation of its precursor, gluconic acid. However, cyclic voltammetry experiments revealed a very limited reactivity towards gluconic acid oxidation, due to the spacial hindrance of gluconic acid molecule which prevented diffusion inside the catalyst nanopores. On the other hand, the as‐synthesized nanocomposite promises to be effective towards the ORR, and might thus find potential application as anode catalyst for fuel cells as well as for the scalability of all those electrochemical reactions involving small molecules with high diffusivity and catalysed by noble metals (i. e. CO2, CH4, N2, etc..).


Many cities are trying to reduce cars and create more human-centered environment to improve the urban life quality. A large body of research has been focused on urban street planning, particularly on livable street, while street tree as one of the key elements on building livable street has not been well studied and examined. This paper is a literature review of research that linked analyses of livable street with street tree. This paper provides a review of 36 relevant studies, examining: (i) the definition and discussion of livable street, and (ii) the role of street tree on creating livable street. This article discusses the definition of livable street and the relationship between livable street and residents, social inclusion, street traffic, infrastructure interactions, and stakeholders. More importantly, street tree as a very important element in livable street is examined from the perspective of its benefits, challenges and citizens' attitudes towards it. The results from the literature review indicate that a very limited number of studies have discussed the street tree's influence on street livability. Future studies could further investigate the interactions between street tree and residents and reveal the imperceptible effect of street tree on street livability.


Effects of the time of water soaking, types of seeding substrate, different concentration of gibberellin and potassium nitrate soaking on the seed germination of Trifolium repens were investigated. The results indicated that the time of water soaking for 24 hours could greatly increase the germination index, vigor index, germination energy and germination percentage of T.repens, the germination percentage was remarkable increased between 10% and 13% compared with non-soaking. The substrate types had significant effects on the germination index and germination vigor index of T.repens. The better combination of the concentration of GA3 and KNO3 and the type of seeding substrate for T.repens was 50 mg·L-2 GA3+0.2% KNO3, with garden soil∶sand∶peat=2∶1∶1, the average germination percentage reached to 31.66%, the average germination vigor index reached to 42.212.


Image is of an elderly Tarahumara female sitting outside of a plank house built into a canyon. Photograph taken near the village of Basiwari.


The field of precision medicine holds great promise in revolutionizing healthcare by providing personalized and targeted treatments. However, the successful implementation of precision medicine heavily relies on accurate and efficient diagnostic tools. This paper explores the potential of leveraging machine learning techniques for data-driven diagnostics in precision medicine


The present paper describes a new species from northeastern Vietnam, provides morphological features of the female of Neocerambyx pellitus (Hitzinger in Breuning et Hitzinger, 1943) for the first time and gives an accurate record of this species from Western Malaysia, the southernmost in its distribution area. Besides this, the distributions of Neocerambyx grandis Gahan, 1891 and N. katarinae Holzschuh, 2009 in India, China, Laos and Vietnam are discussed, based both on new material studied and an analysis of literature data. The material treated in this work belongs to the following institutional and private collections: BM — Bishop Museum (Honolulu, USA); MSNM — Museo Civico di Storia Naturale (Milano, Italy); cAM — collection of Alexandr Miroshnikov (Krasnodar, Russia); cCH — collection of Carolus Holzschuh (Villach, Austria); cSM — collection of Sergey Murzin (Moscow, Russia).


Abstract : The lynchpin of proper strategic response in time of developing crisis Is not forces available, target sets or diplomatic access. The key Is understanding who makes the key decisions and how those decisions are made at the national level. The national security decisionmaking of a nation is the centerpiece of its strategic vision, forces and conduct. It is arguably the single most Important element In predicting national behavior. This paper examines the national security decisionmaking of the former Soviet Union and Israel relative to their respective Invasions or Afghanistan in 1979 and Lebanon in 1982. The study analyzes the respective national security decisionmaking systems, the strategic setting for both invasions, the decisions to Invade and the outcomes. In both cases, Imbalanced Information and constricted interaction between key personalities and factions short-circuited the decisionmaking process. Both nations, not recognizing the Inherent flaws In their systems that eliminated institutional checks and balances, made bad decisions based on bad policy. American and allied national security decisionmakers should heed the lessons derived from these cases.


Several firms, including ID Quantique, MagiQ, and SmartQuantum, are working on turning the esoteric quantum properties of light into money. These firms are trying to sell a way of distributing a cryptographic key that is theoretically theft-proof because it relies on the quirky quantum physics of photons. Such a quantum key distribution system could allow entities with secrets to encode and decode their data for transmission over optical fiber. Quantum key distribution lets two computers generate a key between them by taking advantage of a quantum property of photon. A quantum key can be generated by transmitting a series of bits encoded using one or a few photons per bit and two types of polarization filters


Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) vs. controls, and to verify possible associations of MetS with specific disease-related factors. Methods: The subjects were 283 RA patients and 226 healthy controls, frequency matched by age and sex. MetS was defined according to National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria. Disease activity was evaluated with the Disease Activity Score using 28 joints (DAS28). A standardized clinical evaluation was performed and cardiovascular risk factors were assessed. Results: The criteria for MetS were met by 39.2% RA patients vs. 19.5% in the control group (p < 0.001). Increased waist circumference, elevated blood pressure (BP), and fasting glucose were more frequent in RA patients than controls (p < 0.001 for all associations). By multiple logistic regression analysis (adjusted for age, sex, and years at school), the risk of having MetS was significantly higher for RA patients than for controls [odds ratio (OR) 1.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17–3.00, p = 0.009]. The DAS28 was significantly higher in RA patients with MetS than in those without MetS (3.59 ± 1.27 vs. 3.14 ± 1.53; p = 0.01). Disease duration, the presence of rheumatoid factor, and extra-articular manifestations were similar for patients with and without MetS. Conclusions: MetS frequency was higher in RA patients than in controls. Among RA patients, MetS was associated with disease activity. The higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in RA suggests that inflammatory processes play a notable role in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and indicates that tight control of systemic inflammatory activity and CVD modifiable risk factors should be recommended.


The invention relates to an intelligent lighting control system based on ZigBee technology and an LED light source and application of the system. The system comprises a light adjustable LED drive module, a luminous intensity sensor module and a personal terminal module. A peer to peer relation is formed between the modules; the modules form a distributed system and carry out information transmission through the ZigBee technology; and each module can be increased or reduced at any moment in use. The method comprises that: the luminous intensity sensor module directly measures the luminous intensity of a working face; and through information communication, the LED drive module estimates the influence degree on the luminous intensity of the working face to be regulated and decides a mode of light regulating action. The luminous intensity sensor module continuously sends out the requirement of light regulation till the luminous intensity of the working face meets the requirement. The intelligent lighting control system has low cost, strong expandability and good flexibility, can meet visual requirement of people and farthest achieve energy saving.


The catalyst composition for the selective oxidation of soot and the reduction of nitrogen oxides, which comprises one or more acidic zeolite or zeolite component of a physical mixture of the active metal compound with one or more oxidation-reduction, and use the method of selective reduction and oxidation of soot in the catalyst composition of the oxide of nitrogen.


This paper examines the social economic and demographic characteristics of the US Hispanic population. Data on foreign-born Hispanics are divided into 4 major categories: Mexico Cuba Hispanic Central America (including the Dominican Republic) and Hispanic South America. According to the 1980 US census the foreign born population from Spanish Latin America included about 3.8 million people or 26% of the Spanish-origin population. Most are from Mexico (over 2 million) and Cuba (about 600000). Hispanic Central Americans in the US are most often from respectively the Dominican Republic El Salvador Guatemala and Panama. Hispanic South Americans are most often from Colombia Ecuador Argentina Peru Chile and Venezuela. The 1980 census shows that Hispanic foreign-born population is slightly older than the native population but this is influenced by the high median age of the Cubans. 72% of the Hispanic foreign-born are not citizens. 93% of the Hispanics as opposed to 75% of the natives live in metropolitan areas. 29% of Hispanics and natives over 15 years old are married. The fertility of Hispanic foreign-born women is substantially higher than that of native women 2.9 as opposed to 2.4 children ever born. Cuban women have the lowest fertility about 1.9 children per woman. 96% of the Hispanics speak Spanish at home; about half speak English well or very well. 37% of the Hispanics over 25 years old are high school graduates as opposed to 68% of the natives. Mexicans have the lowest levels of education followed by the Cubans Central Americans and South Americans. The unemployment rate for Hispanics is 8.6% while for natives it is 6.5%. Mexicans have the highest unemployment rate. 35% of the Hispanics work as operators fabricators or laborers; only 11% are managers or professionals. Hispanics median family income is $14500 substantially lower than natives $20000; Mexicans and Central Americans have much lower incomes than Cubans and South Americans. Differences between different Hispanic groups are determined primarily by differences at entry rather than by differences in assimilation.


The prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has reached epidemic proportions in South Africa, coinciding with high levels of sedentary behaviour, urbanisation and stress. The nexus between stress, physical inactivity and non-communicable diseases may be regulated, in part, by changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS). ANS function may be measured using a proxy of heart rate variability (HRV). Regular physical activity, controlled breathing and stress reduction have been shown to alter HRV. This paper presents preliminary data from a community-based biokinetics physical activity and mindfulness intervention (Sweet Hearts) on HRV. The study's findings demonstrated favourable changes in measures of heart rate variability (HRV) – specifically in the low frequency (LF) spectrum that is associated with baroreflex function. The implications of these changes, in terms of health outcomes, along with efforts at addressing scalability and sustainability of community-based health promotion interventions may be important targets for future study.


Checkpoint-recovery based on system virtualization is an attractive approach for providing the transparent and economic fault tolerance service in virtualized environments. The previous approaches introduce either great performance degradation or complex implementation issues. In this work, we propose a whole system hot-mirroring platform, namely Radiata, to provide fault-tolerance for any type of service by encapsulating the service instance into a virtual machine, and hot-mirroring the state changes of the virtual machine via the continual state replication. Our approach exploits three key optimizations for further reduction of the performance overhead: the asynchronous state replication, the COW-based memory checkpoint and the dirty page prediction. Based on the KVM platform, we have implemented the prototype system. The comprehensive evaluations under a variety of workloads demonstrate that Radiata is able to effectively support rapid and transparent fail-over in case of unexpected hardware failure, and outperforms the existing mechanisms in terms of the performance degradation in failure-free condition.


Review(s) of: Internet policy in China: A field study of internet cafes, by Helen Sun, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010, xvi + 316 pp. US$80.00 (hardcover).


We prove a version of Schur–Weyl duality over finite fields. We prove that for any field k, if k has at least r + 1 elements, then Schur– Weyl duality holds for the rth tensor power of a finite dimensional vector space V . Moreover, if the dimension of V is at least r + 1, the natural map kSr → EndGL(V )(V ) is an isomorphism. This isomorphism may fail if dimk V is not strictly larger than r.


AbstractIn order to achieve a better understanding of the computer services as a catalyst of innovation for local economies, some issues have to be addressed, as follows: a) the links between the processes of innovation, and the cognitive exchanges underpinning such processes; b) the peculiar operational methods and activities performed by computer services; and c) the constraints and problems that can hinder the use of such services in a specific local context. The paper assumes a perspective that considers the spread of an innovation as a process of knowledge transfer and dissemination, and applies it to a case-study investigation about the role of innovation agents played by some computer services companies in the North-east of Italy.


Acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF)[l] has been extensively used in gain flattening [2] of erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) due to its advantages in flexible spectral design, low insertion loss, and inherent fibercompatibility. Recently, a hollow optical fiber (HOF) has found versatile applications such as higher-order-mode dspexsion compensation [3], Gigabit Ethernet on multimode fiber [4], and wavelength and mode selective couple for optical inter-connections. [5] In t h s paper, we report on the filter characteristics of AOTF based on HOF @OFAOTF) with an emphasis on its polarization characteristics, for the first time to the best knowledge of the authors.


Objectives: To analyze the causes and risk factors associated with maternal mortalities in Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Kamla Nehru Hospital IGMC Shimla, with a further interest in drawing up implementable ways to reduce mortality rates in the future. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study carried out at Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, KNH, IGMC Shimla, HP with the details collected from the patient case sheets and the maternal review death forms from January 2015 to December 2018. Results: There were 42 cases of maternal mortality over a period of 4 years. The MMR of the four years was 162.43. Various causes of death in these 42 patients, according to the WHO-ICD 10 criteria, were hypertensive toxemia 21.40% (n=9), fulminant hepatitis 19.40% (n=8), sepsis 16.60% (n=7), and hemorrhage 11.9% (n=5). Conclusion: The various causes of maternal mortality are either preventable or have highly effective intervention. The four necessary areas in the spectrum of maternal care include a good prenatal care, skilled birth assistance, comprehensive emergency obstetrics care and a good postnatal care.


Leo Tolstoy's have been considering to include fraternity and belief in God, the central ideals of Christianity. In fact his care for mankind is for human mentality and idealism beyond religion.


The objectives of the study were to analyze the nutritional composition of some species of pine caterpillars and to encourage utilization of these forest insect pests, therefore, the study constituted part of IPM (Integrated Pest Management) for these forest pests in China. The results showed that the crude protein (CP) content of the pupae of 4 species ranged from 53.55% to 61.26%. The CP content of the adults of 2 species was 58.04% and 68.30% respectively. The fat and the energy content ranged from 19.75 to 26.46% and from 406 to 473 kcal per 100g for the pupae; 6.56 to 24.63% and 327 to 454 kcal per 100g for the adults respectively. As compared with the essential amino acids according to WHO/FAO/UNU pattern, some of the essential amino acids for human adult nutrition are found to be higher than the levels as recommended by WHO/FAO/UNU.


Milk samples collected at different stages from a high temperature short time (HTST) pasteurisation plant were subjected to microbiological analysis to examine the efficacy of various control points in the process. Standard plate counts (SPC) in the milk samples collected at pre-pasteurisation stages i.e. from milk cans, receiving tank and float control balance tank were 7.03, 7.23 and 7.38 log10 cfu/ml, respectively. HTST heat processing reduced the SPC levels to 4.09 log10 cfu/ml in the pasteurized milk but its recontamination was revealed during packaging process, which raised the SPC to 5.35 log10 cfu/ml in packed milk. Coliform counts in the raw milk were high (4.64 log10 cfu/ml) suggesting unhygienic production at the dairy farm. The heat process successfully eliminated the coliforms but the packed milk again revealed 4.02 log10 cfu/ml in the packaged milk. Similarly, psychrophillic bacteria in the raw milk (5.15 log10 cfu/ml) were also eliminated but again detected in the packed milk (5.19 log10 cfu/ml). Faulty pasteurization poses great health risk to consumers apart from reducing the shelf life of the product.


This research study investigated sexological outcomes of gender reassignment surgery in 17 postoperative male-to-female transsexuals (new women). Study procedures included self-report questionnaires, a structured interview, a medical history and physical examination with gynecological evaluation (the New Woman's Gynecological Index), and neovaginal blood flow assessment by photoplethysmography. The results of descriptive analysis, correlational analysis, discriminant analysis, and multiple regression analysis identifying predictors of good sexual functioning are presented. Gender reassignment was rated as successful by 94% of the new women. Two-thirds of the new women were orgasmic. The best predictors of orgasmic potential were genital sensitivity and congruence between gender identity and body. The best predictors of sexual satisfaction were the Stress Inventory total score and the genital neurosensory evaluation. The best predictors of overall success of gender reassignment were vaginal depth and vulva...


The author has done a clinical trial of health education project in 53 cases of mild or moderate hypertension patients aged 35-75 years.He investigates and compares the differences of patients' awareness of the disease,compliance of doctor's advice,control of blood pressure before and after the implementation of health education,then discusses the role of health education in hypertension treatment and puts forward several medical ethical issues existed in the treatment of hypertension.


A new optical measurement method for evaluating the defects on silicon wafer surfaces quantitatively, applicable to in-process measurement, is presented. The experimental system for measuring the defects consists of a Fourier transform optical system using a high-power objective lens. In order to verify the feasibility of the applications of this method to automatic in-process measurement, a two-stage measurement for detecting and evaluating small particles, which are typical defects on silicon wafer surfaces, was carried out. The results showed that the proposed two-stage measurement method is effective for measuring small defects in the sub-micro meter scale size.


While the May 4th Movement accomplished its missions of fighting imperialism and advocating science,it failed in its democratic enterprise.To benefit from the legacy of this movement,we must correct a mistake that the movement committed: the abolishment of Confucianism and the traditional culture.Unless we re-establish humanity we cannot restore our national core value system.


Social networking is one of the important element in entrepreneurial success. Past studies have attested many factors that contribute to entrepreneurial success, one of which is social networking.Social networks entail chains of persons in which specific service or support is provided to a person, and the same person is expected to provide others in the network with similar kind of support.Women entrepreneurs in particular are facing difficulties in juggling business and family commitments.Their social networking is very closely related to their families and networking with outsiders such as friends.This study is important to describe the relationship between social networking and the success of women entrepreneurs with the moderating effect of work-family conflict, whether the work-family conflict strengthens or weakens the relationship.The data gathered through the questionnaire method in which 220 successful Malay women entrepreneurs registered with the Companies Commission Malaysia (CCM) responded.By using SEM-PLS, the result of analysis conducted indicate that social networking is significantly related to Malay women entrepreneurial success while work-family conflict seems to not significantly moderate the significant relationship between social networking and Malay women entrepreneurial success.Implications and direction for further research are also presented.


The economic theory falls behind the completely new social-economic and environmental realities in the last 10-15 years. The main problem is methodological. The new realities demand more and more persistently a common methodological approach, which is holistically-systematic both on a national and a globally-historical scale. The key to this approach is a complex of several fundamental interrelations of the highest synthetic nature. They can be defined and formalised only theoretically.


With increasing competition in the global marketplace, a prime and basic question for many enterprises is how to construct a global strategy for existing product mixes through standardization or localization, so as to achieve success in regional or local markets. The purpose of this paper is to investigate customer value perceptions of products, to view what variables are important to consumers, and lastly to make comparisons via a cross‐cultural study. Using the same survey method to collect data from Taipei (Taiwan), Seoul (South Korea), Shanghai (China), and Tokyo (Japan), perceived customer values of products were collected together in a List of customer values. The results yielded a wide array of both crosscultural differences and similarities in East Asia.


Transportation of hazardous materials poses the risk of major accidents on road and rail. Such accidents are usually triggered of by a traffic accident on road and rail and occur as fires, explosions and releases of hazardous materials. The present paper takes a look on data related to traffic accidents which end up in fires and explosions. Data sources are described and an initial processing of this data is carried out. Results of data processing are represented as relative probabilities of occurrence of fire and explosion accidents. The study detects a variety of accident scenarios and presents a visualisation of these scenarios by means of an event tree. The findings of the study have the prospect of an application to the assessment of risk in transport infrastructure.


The kind of bridge whose steel tubes are filled and coated with concrete, the surface of steel tubes is not exposed, and concrete filled steel tubes are the main stiff framework in construction is called concrete filled steel tube stiff framework arch bridge. Introducing the prefabrication and setting of stiff framework of a large-span concrete filled steel tube stiff framework arch bridge in detail, as well as the concrete pouring process, can provide references for the construction of largespan concrete filled steel tube stiff framework arch bridges in future.


This paper discusses the fuzzy pattern recognition(FPR)model,including the establishment of relative membership grade function and qualitative and quantitative index relative membership grade function.It proposes the qualitative and quantitative index integration method,presents the FPR evaluation matrix and level characteristic value evaluation matrix.Combined with an example of radar jamming effects evaluation,the characteristics and feasibility of using this model in evaluation practice are analyzed.The results show that the proposed integration method can reflect the evaluation result,and is quite feasible and practical.


Tokophobia is actually an extreme fear of childbirth. And it's on the increase, researcher Catriona Jones from the University of Hull warned the British Science Festival last week. So much so that NHS perinatal mental health services have asked her to look into the problem after a rise in the number of women asking for …


1. For example, see: Warren James Belasco, Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910–1945 (Baltimore, 1979); Elizabeth Cromley, et al., Resorts of the Catskills (New York, 1979); Annabel Jane Wharton, Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture (Chicago, 2001); Molly W. Berger, ed., "The American Hotel," Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 25 (2005): whole issue; and Marianne Lamonca and Jonathan Mogul, eds., Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultze & Weaver (New York, 2005).


To determine if the hydrophobic surfactant proteins affect the stability of pulmonary surfactant monolayers at an air/water interface, we compared the kinetics of collapse for the complete set of lipids in calf surfactant with and without the proteins. Monomolecular films spread at the surface of captive bubbles were compressed at 37°C to surface pressures (π) above 46 mN/m, at which collapsed first occurred. The rate of area‐compression required to maintain constant π determined the rate of collapse. For films with and without the proteins, higher π initially produced faster collapse, but the rates then reached a maximum and decreased to minimal values. The maximum rate for the lipids with the proteins was almost twice the value for the lipids alone. Because small changes in π produced large shifts in the rate close to the fastest collapse, compressions at constant rates also established the threshold speed required to achieve high π as an indirect measure of the fastest collapse. Both samples produced a sharply defined threshold that occurred at slightly faster compression with the proteins present, supporting the direct measurements that the proteins produce a faster maximum rate of collapse. At 47–53 mN/m, the hydrophobic surfactant proteins destabilize the compressed monolayers, and tend to limit access to the higher π at which the lipid films become metastable.


Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a leading cause of bacterial community-acquired pneumonia and is implicated in initiation and exacerbation of asthma. One of the characteristic signs of M. pneumoniae infection in humans is an imbalanced proinflammatory immune response. A recently identified M. pneumoniae virulence factor is the Community-Acquired Respiratory Distress Syndrome (CARDS) toxin, an ADP-ribosylating and vacuolating protein produced abundantly during infection that is capable of displaying inflammation and pathology similar to infection with live M. pneumoniae. Our prior studies have focused heavily on the potent inflammatory effects of CARDS toxin in vitro, however its exact role during infection is unclear. We hypothesized that an M. pneumoniae strain lacking CARDS toxin expression would be unable to trigger the robust inflammatory response in vivo that is necessary for M. pneumoniae pathogenesis.
 We genetically modified the clinical isolate M. pneumoniae S1 strain to generate a CARDS-deficient mutant we designated M7. M7 and S1 were used in vivo to identify changes in the proinflammatory response. Interestingly, we observed a drastic difference in the dynamics of M. pneumoniae infection during the early course of infection. Secretion of the cytokines TNF-α and CXCL1 were both significantly altered early during infection in M7-infected mice. The effects of this response led to a significant impact on Mycoplasma survival. By utilizing a novel CARDS toxin-deficient mutant of M. pneumoniae, our findings provide valuable insight into our understanding of the innate immune response against M. pneumoniae and implicate CARDS toxin as a potentially important target for therapeutic intervention during M. pneumoniae infection.


Wi-Fi clients must associate to a specifi c Access Point (AP) to communicate over the Interne t. Current association methods are based on maximum Re ceived Signal Strength Index (RSSI) implying that a client associates to the strongest AP around it. Th is is a simple scheme that has performed well in pu rely distributed settings. Modern wireless networks, how ever, are increasingly being connected by a wired backbone. The backbone allows for out-of-band commu nication among APs, opening up opportunities for improved protocol design. This paper takes advantag e of this opportunity through a coordinated client association scheme where APs consider a global view of the network, and decide on the optimal client-A P association. We show that such an association outpe rforms RSSI based schemes in several scenarios, whi le remaining practical and scalable for wide-scale dep loyment. Here introduce the SAC protocol in this project to improve our performance. It argue that the load imb alance and consequent unfair bandwidth allocation can be g reatly alleviated by intelligently associating user to APs, termed association control, rather than having users associate with the APs of strongest signal s trength. Simulation results demonstrate that such a techniqu e can improve over purely distributed association schemes, resulting in higher fairness, better load balancing properties, and even some robustness to c lient mobility. Key Terms: Include load balancing; association co ntrol; max-flow; fairness


In this article we analyze the Pestana's Syndicalist Party (SP) to better clarify some of the doctrinal contours of the heterogeneous libertarian movement. To do this, we first define a framework, understanding the libertarian movement as a political culture where we have established antipoliticism as one of its fundamental principles. Subsequently, after reviewing some of the political manifestations of the libertarian movement, we completed that framework by observing how this principle was reviewed in its practices to achieve its goals. With the study of SP's primary sources we observe how it also emerged by reviewing anarchist antipoliticism as an instrument to achieve its objectives, but finally it went further and eliminated it from its final goals. We conclude that the SP was born as another political expression of the Spanish libertarian movement, but after its evolution it ended up breaking with the doctrinal minimums that linked it to this movement.


Visualization and collaboration of large scale data sets on Internet is still one of biggest challenges in scientific visualization. A distributed, real-time, collaborative system for large scale data like seismic model can be a valuable tool to support scientific research. In this paper, we present a new approach for Web-based synchronized collaborative visualization of large scale data using Web services and rich Web clients which supports collaborative visualization in Web browsers. We use WS-resources in WSRF (Web services resource framework) to maintain states collaborative server. On client side, we design an Ajax-based (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) application using standard Web technologies. A collaborative demonstration of 3D seismic model which is 2GB size is presented and experimental results are showed finally.


To ensure the electric thickness coherence in any part of the missile radome which has a complicated shape and is made of hard and brittle material, it′s very important to precisely measure and machine the radome. The aim to accurately machine the radome is to make the collimation error of the missile minished. The control system of the measuring and machining equipment, which is specially designed and manufactured, is presented. The control principle, the system architecture and anti jamming methods of the open control system based on dual CPU, including the hardware system and the software system are discussed. The results show that the system can meet the requirements of rapid and precise measuring and machining for the inner contour of the radome.


ABSTRACT Decisions about response strategies to mitigate threats to people and the environment from an oil spill must be made rapidly because an oil spill on water is dynamic. Science to inform the...


Dear Editor Upper abdominal laparoscopic surgeries, especially laparoscopic cholecystectomy under regional anaesthesia (RA) have been a research area of interest in recent times. Although a good number of studies have been conducted, and even meta-analysis has shown regional anaesthesia as feasible option1, the issue has remained as a Pandora box which requires further evaluation2. In this line, the article published in your esteemed journal on the comparison of arterial carbondi-oxide tension (PaCO2) and end-tidal carbon-dioxide tensions (EtCO2) under general anaesthesia (GA) and spinal arachnoid block (SAB) is read with great interest3. The authors have compared a few very important parameters and done a commendable job. The hypothesis and the result both will help the scientific community in better decision making. However, a few facts and methodology needs to be considered before coming to a conclusion.


In the study of depression, attempts to elucidate using mathematical models are not commonly performed. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the construction of a new mathematical model for depression. We regard this study as a new method in the study on depression. Furthermore, in this paper, after constructing a mathematical model, numerical simulation is carried out, the time development of depression is visualized, and the purpose is also to capture the pathology.In the study of depression, attempts to elucidate using mathematical models are not commonly performed. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the construction of a new mathematical model for depression. We regard this study as a new method in the study on depression. Furthermore, in this paper, after constructing a mathematical model, numerical simulation is carried out, the time development of depression is visualized, and the purpose is also to capture the pathology.


In this paper, an improved form of the generalized quasilinearization technique is developed to obtain a monotone sequence of approximate solutions converging uniformly and quadratically to a unique solution of the forced Duffing equation involving mixed nonlinearities with periodic boundary conditions.


Digital image watermarking is a technique used to hide data & embedded inside an image to show authenticity or proof of ownership watermarking with DWT is the best technique used to solve authenticity & copyright protection in this paper watermarking with detailed DWT coefficients is proposed. The performance evaluation for robustness & imperceptibility of proposed method has been made (SSIM) Structure similarity index & peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). To validate the efficiency of proposed method, the simulation results are compared with certain state of art techniques the comparison results illustrate that the proposed scheme performing better than existing method.


As a necessary process of life, sleep is an important part of the body rehabilitation, integration and consolidating memories, is an integral part of health. Recently, a lot of people are suffering from sleep diseases, such as insomnia, which aroused the interest of a large number of scholars to research on sleep, and this has a certain realistic guiding significance. By using nonlinear dynamics theory knowledge, The Jenson-Shannon Divergence(JSD) algorithm and the multiscale JSD algorithm are proposed to research on the alpha EEG signals and theta EEG signals which in conscious period and Non-rapid Eye Movement(NREM) sleep stage I in this paper. At the same time, we also use the SPSS statistical software to verify the results of two experiments about the EEG in alpha band and theta band in two different states, the results of two groups got a very good effect both in the accuracy and reliability. In addition, we analyzed the alpha EEG in two states with the method of error bar graph, the research results show that both the JSD algorithm and the improved multi-scale JSD algorithm can effectively distinguish the EEG signals both in awaked period and NREM sleep stage I, which is unified with the scientific basis, namely the alpha waves in eeg signals are more than the other waves when people are awaked, however, there are more theta waves in eeg signals when people are in state of NREM sleep stage I (shallow sleep phases), proved that the EEG signals in two states exist significant differences, which also tell me that the algorithm we proposed can be further used in the study of sleep EEG in installment, which can be provided to help all kinds of disease diagnosis and treatment of sleep with effective auxiliary function, the research has an important practical significance.


A polynomial-time primal-dual aane scaling algorithm for linear and convex quadratic programming and its power series extension. Trust region aane scaling algorithms for linearly constrained convex and concave programs. 35] Y. Ye. A new complexityresult on minimizationof a quadraticfunctionwith a sphere constraint. 26 7. Concluding remarks. Global optimization is of central importance in both the natural sciences, such as physics, chemistry and biology, as well as artiicial or man-made sciences, such as computer science and operations research. The advent of interior point methods has provided alternatives to design exact algorithms, as well as heuristics, for many classes of global optimization problems. In this chapter, we restricted ourselves to applications of interior point methods for quadratic and combinatorial optimization problems, as well as nonconvex potential functions. Recently, a great amount of research activity on semideenite programming 2, 28] has produced some very interesting results. The signiicance of semideenite programming is that it provides tighter relaxations to many combinatorial and nonconvex optimization problems and, in theory, semideenite programming can be solved in polynomial time. Preliminary implementations of semideenite programming have been recently described 4]. There is a vast amount of literature on interior point methods for linear and convex programming, as well as applications in global and combinatorial optimization. We direct the reader to the interior point World Wide Web page at the URL


1. Postlobin-O, administered subcutaneously, increases urine output in hydrated and non-hydrated rats. 2. The diuretic action of postlobin-O is not due to the pressor hormone contaminating it. 3. Pitocin produces a diuretic effect in non-hydrated rats equal to that of postlobin-O. 4. Postlobin-O antagonizes the antidiuretic action of postlobin-V. Therefore, the rat antidiuretic assay method is only of value when the ratio between oxytocic and pressor activities of the standard preparation is similar to that of the unknown preparation.


The spot size a focused helium neon laser oriented at an angle with respect to the optical axis of a focusing lens has been determined using scanning optical fiber - power meter system. The spot size was measured by obtaining the laser beam waists at planes located at some distance after the lens. Using the laser beam waists, we simulated the beam profile for a focused laser beam tilted at an angle. The obtained data shows promising potential of the optical fiber - power meter system in determining the spot size of a focused high - powered laser beam.


The possibility that gastrin may play a role in the development of colorectal carcinoma has aroused considerable interest over the past decade. In early reports some colorectal carcinomas and colorectal carcinoma cell lines were shown to produce gastrin,1 to express gastrin receptors,2 and to respond mitogenically to exogenous gastrin.2 The most favoured explanation for these observations was an autocrine or paracrine loop in which gastrin was produced by the tumour, bound to tumour receptors, and stimulated tumour growth. However, gastrin may also have acted as an endocrine agent as hypergastrinaemia has been reported in a number of patients with colorectal carcinoma, although the source of the gastrin has not been defined.3-5 Further studies of the expression of gastrin6-8 and gastrin receptors9 10 in colorectal carcinomas and colorectal carcinoma cell lines, and of hypergastrinaemia in patients with colorectal carcinoma,11-15 indicated that the early positive reports were not universally correct. Recent information on the nature and source of the gastrin produced, and the discovery of novel receptors selective for non-amidated gastrins, makes it timely to reconsider the involvement of progastrin derived peptides in colorectal carcinoma.

There is now abundant evidence that most colorectal carcinomas synthesise progastrin. Gastrin mRNA has been detected by both polymerase chain reaction and northern hybridisation in colorectal carcinoma cell lines, normal human colonic mucosa and colorectal carcinomas.6 16-18 The gastrin mRNA is of low abundance but the major band of 0.7 kilobases is identical in sequence to antral gastrin mRNA.6 16 17 There is, however, considerable disparity in the literature on the proportion of colorectal carcinomas that contain amidated gastrin (table 1). The variable efficiency of translation and extent of postranslational processing of gastrin in peptide producing tumours20 offers an explanation for some of the contradictory reports as …


From the existing literature, it appears that gender has a significant influence on the manner in which information is collected and processed. Gender also appears to have a significant effect on the risk profile. This paper examines the effects of auditor gender on audit report and audit opinion. Only a limited number of studies have investigated gender differences in an audit context. The paper tests its hypotheses on the basis of a laboratory experiment in which it analyzes the final written exams of 20 female and 20 male future auditors. The findings suggest that women auditors discover more potential misstatements than male auditors, though they analyze the misstatements in a less accurate manner than male auditors. The findings also indicate that women auditors are more risk-averse than male auditors. Implications on auditor choice by companies, assignment of personnel to audit teams, and quality control issues are also discussed in the paper.


Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori together with his manifesto L'arte dei rumori (1913) marked a break with the art of clear signification. From here on, noise and dispersed sounds replaced the concept of music reverberating the harmony of the spheres by propelling the quandaries of immanence contingent on palpable resonance performing the differential relational manner of heterogeneous existence. This somatic turn is central to Jean-Luc Nancy's Listening, where he proposes listening as a tangible fundamental resonance rumbling the corpse sonore. This paper elaborates on the move from the art of music to the plurality of rhythmic worlds. Nancy's proposition of sonorous existence demonstrates two movements, one that retreats from hearing the Pythagorean musical-arithmetical cosmos exhibited in Robert Fludd's Monochord, the other plays the singular plural pulsations of dispersed creation performed by Michael Snow's Tap.


This study explored the problem of under-achievement in Hong Kong. Underachievers were compared with high achievers and low achievers on their motivational characteristics. The findings generally supported that motivational variables were important factors in discriminating under-achievers and high achievers. W hile under-achievers had poor academic self-concept, low attainment value in learning, and deficiencies in using effective learning strategies, they did not demonstrate maladaptive attributional pattern as described in Western studies. Implications of these findings for the study of under-achievement and implementation of interventions are discussed.


The Polish tradition of worker participation in the management of the enterprise dates back to 1918–1919. This tradition found its roots in the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, and independence activities in Poland, the councils of workers' delegates and factory committees. The task of the workers' delegates and factory committees was to organise workers, to insure the protection of their professional and living interests and to reopen and supervise factories left behind by invaders.


Recommender systems (RS) are targeted towards users who lack sufficient experience to evaluate the overwhelming number of alternative examples that a system may offer. Collaborative Filtering RS is one of the approach that provide recommendations without taking into account the contents of the items being recommended however, they face several challenges such as cold start, data sparsity, low confidence etc. Of late there has been considerable interest in Cross Domain RS, where we exploit knowledge from auxiliary domains which contains additional user preference data to improve recommendation on target domains. This paper, focus on Probabilistic Matrix Factorization (PMF) model in Cross Domain Recommender (CDR) that outperforms on other model based Collaborative Filtering recommenders. Experiments are conducted on benchmark datasets shown significant improvement in the quality of the CDR over various test sets.


The impurity emission from a N 2 flowing silent discharge produces a characteristic colour of the afterglow. Without impurity the N 2 post-discharge is of a yellow colour as a result of N atom recombination on the N 2 (B, 11) radiative state. With a few hydrocarbons into N 2 , the afterglow changes for a violet colour coming from the C + N recombination on the CN (B, 7) radiative state. Finally, when oxygen atoms are the main impurity, it appears a green afterflow whose the band head is located on the auroral (O'S-O 1 D ) oxygen line.


Social change in the educational field has occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In-person learning is no longer implemented to minimize the impact of the spread of the virus. Due to this fundamental change, children's education that can be accessed from home has become a necessity. Parents now have a duty to become teachers for their children at home. Such occurrence is the result of the implementation of learning from home, which is supported by online learning. It serves as a panacea for the education sector during the Covid-19 era. Online learning is appealing due to its easy accessibility, wide reach, comfort, and flexibility in terms of participation. However, online learning has its own shortcomings. Among others, it limits interaction with others, making students feel isolated from their teachers and classmates. This article uses narrative review to analyze and elaborate on 30 journals that discuss learning from home, in terms of the impact of social change on students and the experience of parents.


I briefly describe the nature, content, scope, history, and culture of PHYS-L and related electronic mailing lists dedicated to the teaching and learning of physics (including PHYSHARE, TAP-L and PhysLrnR). I also describe etiquette and writing guidelines for contributing to discussions on mailing lists. Finally, I review technical guidelines for controlling physics list subscriptions and related archive software.


The analysis of the cleaning effect and threshed mixture compositions of 4LZ-1.0 model combine harvester could be targeted at the innovative design of cleaning equipment.Therefore,the effluents of the combine harvester were sampled,measured and sorted.The statistical results showed that: in the mixture of mature rice after threshing,the grain quality occupied about 90%,all light impurities were eliminated after cleaning,and the cleaning loss was less than 1%,but the impurity rate amounted to 4.9%.By the measurement of 1000-grain weight,the proportion of grain,shriveled grain and short stalk number was 793∶205∶2 in the mixture of mature rice after threshing.Therefore,we must take reducing the impurity rate as the main design goal in the premise of guaranteeing smaller cleaning loss in the improving design.


Usually, physicians diagnose lung diseases by listening to the lung sound using stethoscope. This technique is known as auscultation. Some lung diseases produce unique lung sounds, which refer to special recognized pattern. But the main problems concerning are the lung sounds that have low frequency (20 – 2000 Hz), low amplitude, in addition to other factors such as interference from other sounds, ear sensitiveness, and low variety of the pattern of lung sounds that make them almost similar. These came factors lead to the false diagnosing of lung disease if the auscultation procedures are not conducted correctly. We proposed method to classify lungsound using spectrogram and ART2 neural network. By this method we can classify lungsound abnormality based on peak frequency each time. Experimental result shows accuracy of the system up to 98% for 70 testing data that consist of 5 classes of lung sound abnormality.


Research has identified emotions as key components of the deception process (Buller & Burgoon, 1996). Yet, examining emotions in conjunction with deception has been branded an under-researched area (Seiter & Bruschke, 2007). The goal of this study was to discover if relational qualities (commitment and satisfaction) and the type of deceptive message communicated (lie, evasion, overstatement, concealment, or collusion) related to feelings of guilt and shame following deception. Participants were asked to recall the most recent time they deceived their romantic partner, describe the lie, and complete relational quality and emotional response measures. Results indicate that the type of deceptive message communicated was not related to relational qualities. Further, feelings of guilt and shame did not differ based on type of deception. However, results indicate positive relationships between the emotional experiences of guilt and shame and relational qualities of commitment and satisfaction. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.


The invention relates to a method according to which the temperature of the catalytic converter monolith is determined at the catalytic converter intake by means of a temperature model on the basis of modelled or measured exhaust-gas temperature upstream of the NOx storage catalytic converter (17). On the basis of the different temperature behaviour of the intake and output the monolith temperature at the level of the catalyst is determined by an additional temperature model.


Digital image analysis is being increasingly used in many application areas. This paper presents a study of the Active Shape Models and their application for locating cells in histological images. The paper begins with the choice of the class of objects to be modelled including their variations. It follows with the description of the statistical modelling technique and the iterative updating algorithm used to locate corresponding objects within the target image. The paper concludes with a results section where segmented nuclei and cytoplasm are presented within a set of different target images.


e18590 Background: Mortality from cancer has been decreasing for all races and ethnicities. However, African Americans (AA) continue to have the highest mortality. Healthcare disparity contributes to poor outcomes. Here, we evaluate the differences in access to health care and socioeconomic status between different races and ethnicities in the US. Methods: We extracted data on demographic and healthcare coverage variables of patients diagnosed with cancer from the 2021 Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a national health-related telephone survey. We analyzed the effect of racial disparities in relation to socioeconomic factors and Census Bureau regions. R version 2.2.2 was used for all data extraction and analysis. Results: Out of 4,31,639 responders of BRFSS from the mainland US territory, 41,933 (9.71%) had been diagnosed with cancer other than skin cancer. Of these, 9,746 (9.74%) were from North East, 8,827 (9.11%) were from West, 10,806 (9.98%) were from South, and 12,554 (9.92%) were from Mid-West. In our sample, 35,137 (83.8%) were White, 2,356 (5.6%) were AA, 1,383 (3.3%) were Hispanic, and 3,047 (7.3%) were from others (Asian, American Indian/Alaskan Native, other race). More than 95% of oncology patients had health care coverage. However, the proportion of AA without healthcare coverage was higher than the White population (2.1% vs 1.2%, p < 0.005). 5.3% of cancer patients did not see physicians due to cost. This percentage was significantly higher among AA compared to White (8.2% vs 4.3%, p < 0.001). The rates of health care coverage and being unable to see a physician due to cost between AA and White were also statistically significant in each census region (not shown in table). Compared to White, AA patients with cancer were found to have statistically significantly lower education and income levels. This difference was present in all census regions of the US (not shown in table). Conclusions: Among cancer patients, AA are more likely not to have health care coverage, unable to see a physician due to cost, and have lower education and income level than White. These disparities impacting care of cancer patients exists in all major US regions, which likely promotes poor health outcomes. In addition, AA patients are underrepresented in this survey. [Table: see text]


The devastation of millions of coconut palms caused by outbreak infestation of the invasive Coconut Scale Insect (CSI) Aspidiotus rigidus Reyne, has posed a serious threat to the industry in the Philippines. The life history of A. rigidus on coconut and mangosteen was comparatively studied to understand the effects of host-plant species on its development, to investigate potential host-suitability factors that contributed to its outbreak infestation, and to gather baseline information on the development and characteristics of this pest. The study was conducted at the Institute of Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture and Food Science, University of the Philippines Los Baños. Insect size (body and scale) was not significantly different on both hosts during egg, crawler, white cap, pre-second and second instar stages, as well as during male pre-pupal, pupal and adult stages. The female third instars and adults, however, were bigger on mangosteen than on coconut. At the end of second instar, sexual differentiation was very visible wherein parthenogenic females further undergone two developmental stages: third instar and adults that feed permanently on the leaves. Males undergone three stages: prepupa, pupa and winged adults. Males normally have shorter life cycle and smaller bodies than the females. Developmental rate of A. rigidus before second instar was not significantly different on both hosts. However, stages approaching to insect maturity of both males and females developed faster on coconut. As a result, A. rigidus life cycle was shorter on coconut than on mangosteen. Moreover, insect fecundity was higher on coconut due to longer female longevity. More females than males were observed on mangosteen while the sex ratio was almost equal on coconut. These results suggest that coconut provides better nourishment and living conditions that support shorter life cycle and augment insect development, longevity and reproduction which are potential host-suitability factors that contributed to the outbreak. Mangosteen is an effective host-plant to rear A. rigidus pure culture as validated also by DNA sequence analysis. Information generated can be used for monitoring and timely management of the pest, in studying host-insect interaction, and in mass rearing for future studies.


Objective: To study the clinic stages of multiple myeloma,the index of curative effect and compare the Durie-Salmon(DS) stage with International Staging System(ISS) stage.Methods: Retrospective study applied to analyze the clinic data of 137 multiple myeloma(MM) cases.Results: The DS stage significantly correlated with ISS stage(P≤0.05);The levels of hemoglobin(Hb),β2-microglobulin(β2-MG),albumin(ALB),the degree of bone destruction,serum creatinine(Scr),the proportion of M Protein(except for light chain,IgD and IgE types) the degree of bone destruction and the proportion of M Protein(except for light chain,IgD and IgE types) significantly correlated with the DS stage and ISS stage(P≤0.05).Pre-treatment hemoglobin(Hb),Scr,albumin(ALB),β2-MG,the degree of bone destruction could affect curative effect(P0.05).Conclusion: The ISS stage could be a simple alternative to DS stage for patients.Therefore,we may estimate the prognosis and curative effect by inspecting the levels of Scr,β2-MG,ALB regularly.


Hey @gandibar, I just received this _phishy_ e-mail :-) Sender email is a .fr address and the link points to a .it domain. Let me


The optimum conditions for the extraction of flavonoids from Arenaria kansuensis Maxim were determined using orthogonal experiment. An analysis method with high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) was established to study the composition of extraction. On the basis of single-factor experiments, the effect on extraction yield was investigated by surfactant kind, surfactant amount, ethanol concentration, extraction duration, extraction temperature and liquid-to-solid ratio. Based on this, the significance of the various factors and interactions were analyzed with the use of orthogonal experiment. The optimal extraction conditions for flavonoids from Arenaria kansuensis Maxim were ethanol concentration of 5 %, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate(LAS) concentration of 0.25 %, liquid-to-solid ratio of 1 ∶ 30(g/mL), extraction temperature of 70 ℃ and extraction time of 0.5 h. Under the optimized conditions, the maximum extraction yield of flavonoids was 1.75 %. The extraction had a small amount of quercetin and kaempferol which was analyzed by HPLC. Therefore, the extraction method that surfactant-assisted showed good application prospects in the field of extraction effective components of plant.