I. The rise of the "Pirate Party," culminating in several successful showings in state elections, is as surprising as it is unprecedented in the history of political parties in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is too early to say whether the German Pirate Party—unlike its forerunner counterpart in Sweden—will be successful in the long term. From the point of view of political theory, the young party is mainly of interest because it campaigns not so much on a central theme but rather on the promise of reorganizing democracy: The "LiquidFeedback" voting software is designed to involve the party "base" in all decision-making processes all the time. It is the party's promise that the systematic and consistent use of new communication technologies will replace the concept of representation with a more direct democracy. It is doubtful, however, whether we can do without the idea of representation. Participating in elections and electing representatives to parliament are practices that remain bound to representative democracy, as does the use of LiquidFeedback itself: members may "delegate" their voting rights, so a prominent member at times was able to submit 167 votes simultaneously. This arrangement constitutes a pragmatic solution to the problem of not every party member being able to vote on all issues all the time;


Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) has become an emerging technology in wireless communication system. In this paper, we consider a RISs-assisted system where two RISs are deployed to cooperatively assist communications between a multi-antenna base station (BS) and multiple single-antenna cell-edge users. We optimize the transmitting precoding of the multi-antenna BS and the angular phase transfer matrix of RIS together to maximize energy efficiency (EE) of the RISs-assisted system. In order to solve the challenging EE optimization problem effectively, we turn the non-convex maximization problem into two equivalent subproblems based on mean-square error (MSE) method, and finally use iterative algorithm for optimization. We respectively use Lagrangian method and semidefinite relaxation techniques to optimize transmitting beamforming matrix and RIS phase shifts matrix. Numerical results demonstrate the significant performance improvement achieved by deploying RIS.


This work deals with an automated micro-assembly of MEMS die holders using a 3D visual servoing approach. Visual positioning which was used is based on eye-to-hand tracking principle. The 3D poses of the MEMS are supplied in a real-time by a 3D (CAD) model-based tracking algorithm. Having executed the visual servoing the accuracy and repeatability of this method was examined. The micro-assembly process was performed and the accuracy calculated according to ISO 9283. The achieved accuracy was 0.345 μm and repeatability was 4.3 μm. The rotation accuracy was less than 0.13°.


ABSTRACT Egalitarianism is one of the key elements of the communist ideology, yet some of the former communist countries are among the most unequal in the world in terms of income distribution. How does the communist legacy affect income inequality in the long run? The goal of this article is to investigate this question by looking at a sample of sub-national regions of Russia. To be able to single out the mechanisms of the communist legacy effects more carefully, we look at a particular aspect of the communist legacy – the legacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). We demonstrate that the sub-national regions of Russia, which had higher CPSU membership rates in the past, are characterised by lower income inequality. This, however, appears to be unrelated to the governmental redistribution policies; we link lower inequality to the prevalence of informal networks.


Rapid advances in genomics technology have continued over the last few years. The ability to edit plant genes has been enabled by the development of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) and related technologies. The continuing improvements in DNA sequencing technology have complemented these new technologies by facilitating efficient and very specific targeting of genetic changes to specific genes and traits. Plant breeding can now move beyond marker-assisted breeding and genetic modification technologies to more complete and planned genetic improvements. Grain crops, in particular, are likely to benefit from increased rates of genetic gain. The genetic basis of grain characteristics will be more easily determined, resulting in new opportunities to improve grain quality and innovate in the development of new traits. Product traceability and identity preservation will also be enhanced by these technologies.


Public transportation is pretty important to achieve the development of a society. This dissertation talks about the problem in Bogota mobility and their integrated public transportation (SITP). Actually, this service presents a lot of issues that makes that users expend more time in trips every day, also the companies that are operating this system are close to go to bankrupt.
This TFM try to find a solution based in technology to the companies involved in the system with the implementation of a smart system that decrease crowd in buses and stations to optimize their service. Additionally, to allow the users to participate with a collaborative application that give them a real time status of the system.


A kind of system and method, it removes the removal rate of total organic carbon (" TOC ") in that never purify, untreated water for improving, keep best membrane filter performance simultaneously.The present invention overcomes many shortcomings of prior art water filtering system as follows: before water is conducted through described membrane filter, controls the pH level of this water, aims at the resistance electromagnetic surface electric charge of membrane filter to make the particle charge of this water.The particle charge of water is remained in the best electric charge window of concrete membrane filter, by reducing the scaling rate of this membrane filter and improve the performance of this membrane filter.


Tetrahydrofuran-2-ylmethylamine (1) was subjected to condensation reaction with 4-chlorobenzenesulfonyl chloride (2) in a mild basic medium to synthesize N-(tetrahydrofuran-2-ylmethyl)-4-chlorobenzenesulfonamide (3). A series of N-substituted derivatives, 5a-f, were synthesized by condensing alkyl/aralkyl halides, 4a-f, with 3 under polar aprotic conditions using sodium hydride activator. The spectral characterization of all the molecules included IR, 1 H-NMR and EI-MS data. The biological activity evaluation rendered 5c as moderate inhibitor of all the bacterial strains.


The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the editors or of the American Heart Association. Correspondence to: Kathryn J. Moore, PhD, Leon H Charney Division of Cardiology, New York University School of Medicine, 435 E 30th St, Science Bldg 706, New York, NY 10016. Email email@example.com For Sources of Funding and Disclosures, see page 1054. © 2019 American Heart Association, Inc. EDITORIAL


Spermiogenesis of Corallobothrium solidum Fritsch 1886, has been investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The zone of differentiation contains the two centrioles, each with one thin root, being orientated in the same plane only when a single intercentriolar body (ICB) appears between them. A median cytoplasmic process (MCP) develops distally to the two flagella, which are of unequal length, get longer and rotate towards the MCP. The nucleus penetrates into the spermatid body after the fusion of both flagella with the MCP has started. Flagellar roots occur occasionally in some spermatids. New for the Eucestoda are the following findings: 1. cortical microtubules (CMs) are arranged in two short parallel rows in one-axoneme region of some spermatids; 2. the crested body of spermatid consists either of electron-dense tubular elements and interposes itself between CMs, or it is rather homogeneous and situated more peripherally above one continuous semicircle of CMs. The present results support previous data that the type of spermiogenesis in proteocephalideans resembles mostly that observed in tetraphyllideans (Onchobothriidae and Phyllobothriidae), thus supporting the view of a close phylogenetic relationship of tetraphyllidean and proteocephalidean cestodes.


The essential cognitive mechanism of counterfactual thinking is conceptual blending. In blending, structure from input mental spaces is projected to a separate, "blended" mental space. The projection is selective. Through completion and elaboration, the blend develops structure not provided by the inputs. Inferences, arguments, and ideas developed in the blend can lead us to modify the initial inputs and to change our view of the corresponding situations. In the social and behavioral sciences, counterfactual blends have two functions — the spotlight and the lab rat. The spotlight picks out interesting structure in the input spaces; it is an instrument for improving conceptual structure and for designing research. The lab rat is modeled on the classic laboratory experiment; it is an instrument for isolating causal factors and causal relations. The spotlight and the lab rat have different criteria. In practice, they work together.


EW Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) constitutes the hematologic malignancy with the highest risk of associated fungal infections. Among patients with AML, the overall mortality rate from fungal infections was once 60% to 70%, but has improved in recent years to 20% to 30%. Throughout the literature, however, there is a wide range of factors with the potential to affect these numbers. Studies have shown that the mortality associated with invasive fungal infections in patients with AML undergoing induction therapy, autologous stem cell transplant, or allogeneic stem cell transplant may be as high as 40% to 60%, as compared with approximately 20% among patients treated with less-intensive or lessmyelosuppressive therapy.


Objective: To study the osteoporosis level of the residents living in Tangqiao community in Shanghai and to analyze their distribution pattern. Methods: Bone mineral density of 473 cases of community residents was measured by a census.Results: Incidence of both osteopenia and osteoporosis is higher in men over 65 than under 65, and more obvious in women over 55 than below 55, which has statistical significance(P0.05). Only a small part of the surveyed residents were diagnosed as osteoporosis, but the decrease in bone mass dominated and bone mineral density reduced with the increase of age. Conclusion:The prevention and intervention of osteoporosis should be strengthened when men reach at 65 years old and women at 56 years old so as to reflect the advantage of primary hospital in early intervention and prevention of common diseases occurred frequently.


The present invention is in the production of waste recycling technology, and discloses a method of separating from picloram production of slag purification a high content picloram, the method first picloram production of waste water was added to dissolve, then heated to 80 deg.] C start ~ time between loop filter 90 ℃, stopped to a temperature below 40 ℃ filtered to obtain the filtrate I; the filtrate was acidified with I into the autoclave, the contents were warmed to between 60 deg.] C was added a sprig ~ 90 ℃, no pH control stock solution 2 above, and then filtered while hot, filtered hot temperature not lower than 60 ℃, obtain a filter cake; the filter cake was rinsed with water after a content of greater than 95% picloram. This method ensures the production of most picloram effective separation of the residue, and the products meet the eligibility criteria, while ensuring that the respective isomers a preliminary separation, after a series of chemical synthesis processing resource utilization, to clean production environment-friendly purposes.


We present a phenomenological fluid dynamics model for a dilatant fluid, i.e. a severe shear thickening fluid, by introducing a state variable. The Navier-Stokes equation is coupled with the state variable field, which evolves in response to the local shear stress as the fluid is sheared. The viscosity is assumed to depend upon the state variable and to diverge at a certain value due to jamming. We demonstrate that the coupling of the fluid dynamics with the shear thickening leads to an oscillatory instability in the shear flow. The model also shows a peculiar response of the fluid to a strong external impact.


Terbacil (3-tert-butyl-5-chloro-6-mefhyluracil) at either 2.24, 3.58 or 7.17 kg/ha applied under high fertility level (168 kg N/ha from 1-2-2 formulation) significantly increased yield of lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait and V. Myrtilloides Willd.). No yield differences were observed among terbacil rates. Rate of fertilizer application affected berry yield.


The diets of the acouchy Myoprocta exilis, agouti Dasyprocta leporina and paca Agouti paca, the three largest terrestrial rodents of French Guiana forests, were investigated from stomachs collected over several years. These species are primarily frugivores. The percentage of fruit in their diet decreased, and seasonal variation increased from the smallest species, the acouchy, to the largest, the paca (contents in dry mass: respectively, 98.5% ± 0.6%, 87.4% ± 3.5%, and 83.9% ± 7.6%). They differed from each other in the proportions of pulp and secondary foods (leaves, fibre, insects) consumed annually as well as seasonally. Dietary diversity in the acouchy was half that of the two other species. The seasonal variation in consumption of different fruit parts and of secondary foods by these species corresponded well with the fruit production in the forest, and was linked to their reproductive events. Overall, the diets of these three large rodents appeared intermediate between the small rodent species and the artiodactyls (peccaries and brocket deer) inhabiting the same areas, which also concords with their body mass and their place within the guild of terrestrial mammals.


In this paper, an indirect adaptive controller is applied to the vehicle active suspension with a hydraulic actuator. The inner loop controller, which is a nonlinear adaptive controller, is designed to control the force generated by the nonlinear hydraulic actuator. The spool valve dynamics of the hydraulic actuator is reduced using a singular perturbation technique. The parameter estimation error used in an indirect adaptation is decreased asymptotically. The absolute velocity of a sprung mass is damped down by its negatively proportional term (sky-hook damper) adopted as an outer loop controller.


Introduction: The origin of the fretted terrain of Protonilus Mensae has eluded full scientific understanding since its initial discovery in Mariner 9 data [1]. The fretted terrain is composed of mesas, plateaus, and knobs in highly irregular configurations separated by wide, flatfloored channels (Fig. 1, 2). Previous hypotheses have invoked groundwater sapping, unusual valley network extension, or collapse through erosion [1] and ice-driven mass wasting [2]. Characterizing the fretted terrain with new data and assessing new ideas for its formation is important for understanding the long-term geologic and climate history, as viable formation mechanisms are directly tied to the nature of the climate on early Mars. Here, we assess the possibility that the fretted terrain formed by meltwater produced from the interaction of regional volcanic resurfacing with a widespread ice sheet proposed to cover the southern highlands in the Late Noachian icy highlands climate model [3,4]. Study Site: Protonilus Mensae (PM) (Fig. 1), one of the most well-developed areas of fretted terrain, is part of the northernmost section of the southern highlands, and is predominately middle to late Noachian in age [5].


The main focus of this study is to analyse the conception of Aesthetic Modernity in Lee, Hyo Seok's novel, mainly expressed in 'Gaesalgoo'The novel has well articulated the modernity going through creating aesthetic time & space which were represented by sensual activities.The aesthetic space, the h...


[Objectives] To explore the effects of nano compound Chinese herbal medicine feed additive on growth performance, meat quality and disease resistance of chickens. [Methods] Chickens were fed with nano compound Chinese herbal medicine feed additive developed by Hunan Polytechnic of Environment and Biology, including 120 chickens in the treatment group and 120 chickens in the control group (CK). The growth performance indices (body weight gain, feed to gain ratio and slaughter index), meat quality indices (pH value, color, drip loss, shear force) and disease resistance indices (morbidity and mortality) of the chickens in the treatment and CK groups were recorded and determined, respectively. [Results] The inclusion of 2% nano compound Chinese herbal medicine feed additive in the diet significantly increased the growth rate, reduced the feed-to-gain ratio and improved the meat quality of the chickens. Supplementing Chinese herbal medicine could increase the pH value and reduce the drip loss and shear force of chicken meat. At the same time, the body's immune function, antioxidant level and resistance against diseases of the chickens fed with nano compound Chinese herbal medicine feed additive were improved. [Conclusions] The inclusion of nano compound Chinese herbal medicine feed additive in the diet can improve the growth performance, meat quality and disease resistance of chickens.


The excitation energy(3.4 eV) and emission energy(2.7 eV) of 9-ethynyl-9-hydroxyanthrone(EHAO) were obtained from time-dependent theoretical functional theory(TDDFT) and single-excitation configuration interaction(CIS) method.The effects of CH3OH and TNT on the fluorescence spectrum of 9-ethynyl-9-hydroxyanthrone were described by the front orbital theory.Results show that the electronic transition of the first excited state of the EHAO-CH3OH complex only occurs in the EHAO moiety,while the fluorescence properties were changed.In the complex of EHAO and TNT,HOMO is located in EHAO,and LUMO in TNT molecule.It suggests that intermolecular electron transfer occurs during the transition of the first excited state,which results in the fluorescence quenching effect.


In the past few years there is tremendous increase in the use of internet. With the development of large open networks, security threats have increased significantly in the past 20 years. Network attacks results in consumption of network resources and degrading network performance. As networks and information systems become complex, the security problems faced by such systems have evolved. Network attacks are still evolving and there is an utmost need to develop mechanisms which can be effective against them as network Security is a fundamental component of every network design. In this project we have developed a defense mechanism against network attack such as TCP, TCP-SYN flood and UDP attack. Rate limiting mechanism is used to provide defense against TCP-SYN attack and Ingress filter mechanism to defend against TCP and UDP attack. The defense mechanism is deployed on practical network having client-server architecture.


As Katie Gentile, the editor of The Business of Being Made rightly points out, reproductive technologies and attendant ideas of parenthood, motherhood, science, gender, bodies and babies remain topics of fascination in American (and other) culture and much remains to be thought and understood about this. The volume asserts that it is 'the first book to critically analyse assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) from a transdisciplinary perspective integrating psychoanalytical and cultural theories' (blurb), and one of its key claims and aims, as reflected in its subtitle, is that:


This paper makes use of a clinical vignette from the therapy of a 13-year-old boy to explore the concept of projective identification. After presenting a session in which there was a particularly difficult enactment between the boy and his therapist, the paper asks how the 'public face' of our psychoanalytic theories relates to the 'private face' of our moment-to-moment responses in a clinical situation, and explores this question further by looking at the concept of projective identification. After a brief survey of the historical development of the term, focusing especially on Klein and Bion, the clinical material is re-examined. The paper ends by reviewing contemporary Freudian perspectives on projective identification, including the work of Joseph Sandler, and suggests that we may discover the value of theoretical concepts by exploring how they enable us to think and respond differently in the clinical situation.


Accumulation of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) in Lewy bodies and neurites of midbrain dopamine neurons is diagnostic for Parkinson's disease (PD), leading to the proposal that PD is a toxic gain-of-function synucleinopathy. Here we discuss the alternative viewpoint that α-syn displacement from synapses by misfolding and aggregation results in a toxic loss-of-function. In support of this hypothesis we provide evidence from our pilot study demonstrating that knockdown of endogenous α-syn in dopamine neurons of non-human primates reproduces the pattern of nigrostriatal degeneration characteristic of PD.


The Lange and Outeniqua Mountains north of Mossel Bay consist of tightly packed
east-west orientated ranges, dissected by numerous small, short rivers and valleys. Peaks within these ranges reach heights of 1 500 metres above sea level, and have a high relative relief. These mountain ranges form formidable obstacles that have hindered access from the coast to the interior since the earliest times. Because these obstacles could only be crossed at certain places, routes were used repeatedly and became known to local people as well as to travellers. Early in the history of South Africa, probably even before the days of the Khoisan, there was a need for a link between the coast and the interior. With the arrival of white settlers at the Cape, the need for a route between the Cape and the
interior became a high priority. This article will give a historical overview of the origin, the historic and present uses of the Attaqua's Kloof, Cloete's and Robinson Passes, as well as the changing interaction between these passes. Keywords : Mountain passes, routes, Attaqua's Kloof Pass, Cloete's Pass, Robinson Passes, Outeniqua Mountains, Mossel Bay South Africa Journal of Cultural History Vol. 21 (2) 2007: pp. 139-158


The essay studied actual fulfillment information of 8 medical professional indexes of 76 all-level hospitals in the years 2005 and 2006 in Guangzhou.It conducted medical economic analysis from perspectives of influencing medical service demand,resources distribution,utilization and costs,and emphatically commented on health justice. The author is of the opinion that,in the process of building a harmonious society,health justice shall be the value-orientation of medical reform policy.


Adopting a contingency perspective, the authors present and test a fit-as-moderation model that posits that overall firm performance is influenced by how well the marketing organization's structural characteristics (i.e., formalization, centralization, and specialization) and strategic behavioral emphases (i.e., customer, competitor, innovation, and cost control) complement alternative business strategies (i.e., prospector, analyzer, low-cost defender, and differentiated defender). Responses from 228 senior marketing managers provide support for the model and demonstrate that each strategy type requires different combinations of marketing organization structures and strategic behaviors for success.


The current state of the study of different liquid crystalline (LC) systems doped with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is discussed. An attempt is endeavored to outline the state-of-the-art technology that has emerged after two past decades. Systematization and analysis are presented for the integration of single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes in thermotropic (nematic, smectic, cholesteric, ferroelectric, etc.) and lyotropic LCs. Special attention is paid to the effects of alignment and supramolecular organization resulting from orientational coupling between CNTs and the LC matrix. The effects of the specific inter-molecular and inter-particle interactions and intriguing microstructural, electromagnetic, percolation, optical, and electro-optical properties are also discussed.


Summary
The influence of flaxseed gum (FG) on the retrogradation of maize starch (MS) was investigated in this study. Based on the results of rapid visco-analyzer (RVA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Low field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FG has a retardation effect on the retrogradation of MS. With the addition increasing, the more significant the retardation effect was observed (P   0.05). FG could wrap around starch granules, suppress the recrystallisation of amylose and amylopectin, increase the water mobility and decrease the water loss. In summary, the overall results suggested that FG could be used as a natural inhibitor of the retrogradation of starch in food industry.


A sliced test (SLT) system has been constructed for the ATLAS, one of the flour LHC experiments, end-cap muon level-1 (LVL1) trigger. Although the system has been constructed using yet prototype ASICs or electronics modules, the design scheme of the trigger, readout as well as control logics applied to the system is the final one. The size is about 1/300 of the whole number of channels. The purpose to construct the present integrated system is to confirm the system design even very in detail, and to measure the performance before the final production of all the ingredients are launched. In this paper we discuss the validity of the logics through the comparison of the simulation results, the latency measurement and long run tests.


Significance Schlafen-11 (SLFN11) inactivation leads to chemoresistance of a broad range of DNA-damaging agents. We uncover an expanded Ataxia Telangiectasia- and Rad3-related (ATR)-mediated signaling network that overcomes chemoresistance by an unbiased genome-wide RNAi screen in SLFN11-knockout cells and is validated with clinically developing ATR/CHK1 inhibitors. ATR inhibition induces CDT1 phosphorylation, leading to mitotic catastrophe cell death in SLFN11-deficient cells. We identify a key role of SLFN11 for CDT1 degradation by binding to DDB1–CUL4CDT2 ubiquitin ligase during DNA damage, thereby blocking replication reactivation by which SLFN11-deficient cells cause chemoresistance. Our findings provide a rationale for combination therapy with ATR inhibitor and DNA-targeted drugs, and reveal how SLFN11 irreversibly arrests replication during DNA damage acting as a cofactor of CUL4CDT2 ubiquitin ligase. Schlafen-11 (SLFN11) inactivation in ∼50% of cancer cells confers broad chemoresistance. To identify therapeutic targets and underlying molecular mechanisms for overcoming chemoresistance, we performed an unbiased genome-wide RNAi screen in SLFN11-WT and -knockout (KO) cells. We found that inactivation of Ataxia Telangiectasia- and Rad3-related (ATR), CHK1, BRCA2, and RPA1 overcome chemoresistance to camptothecin (CPT) in SLFN11-KO cells. Accordingly, we validate that clinical inhibitors of ATR (M4344 and M6620) and CHK1 (SRA737) resensitize SLFN11-KO cells to topotecan, indotecan, etoposide, cisplatin, and talazoparib. We uncover that ATR inhibition significantly increases mitotic defects along with increased CDT1 phosphorylation, which destabilizes kinetochore-microtubule attachments in SLFN11-KO cells. We also reveal a chemoresistance mechanism by which CDT1 degradation is retarded, eventually inducing replication reactivation under DNA damage in SLFN11-KO cells. In contrast, in SLFN11-expressing cells, SLFN11 promotes the degradation of CDT1 in response to CPT by binding to DDB1 of CUL4CDT2 E3 ubiquitin ligase associated with replication forks. We show that the C terminus and ATPase domain of SLFN11 are required for DDB1 binding and CDT1 degradation. Furthermore, we identify a therapy-relevant ATPase mutant (E669K) of the SLFN11 gene in human TCGA and show that the mutant contributes to chemoresistance and retarded CDT1 degradation. Taken together, our study reveals new chemotherapeutic insights on how targeting the ATR pathway overcomes chemoresistance of SLFN11-deficient cancers. It also demonstrates that SLFN11 irreversibly arrests replication by degrading CDT1 through the DDB1–CUL4CDT2 ubiquitin ligase.


Multitudes of language teaching practice shows that g reat attention drawn to language learning can help language teachers better their teaching and give appropriate learning support to language learners. A critical analysis of the author's English language learning experience is given in the paper, encompassing the approaches used, the role of the teachers, expectations on the learners at different times and the effectiveness of the learning . In addition, how the language teacher can benefi t from this experience for his own TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages) practice is addressed.


Rules 23–28 UPCARoP deal with the Statement of defence and the possible Counterclaim for revocation. The Statement of defence is the defendant's answer to the Statement of claim and is to enable the claimant to make a specific response. The purpose of the Statement of defence is to enable the Court to make effective preparations for the proceedings by enabling it to gain at the earliest possible stage the most comprehensive overview possible of the subject matter in dispute. For that reason, the defendant, already in the Statement of defence, must present his means of defence and counter-arguments as fully as possible. In the rejoinder, he may only respond to the matters raised in the reply (second sentence of Rule 29(e), second sentence of Rule 52). Details on the content of the Statement of defence are set out in Rule 24. Pursuant to Rules 12.2 and Rule 25.1, the defendant has the possibility, together with the Statement of defence, of lodging a Counterclaim for revocation.


International business research points to the uncertainty in transnational commerce that is often aggravated by the dynamism and complexity inherent in global transactions. This paper addresses the evolution of private governance designs in the typical situation of absent public law of the nation state in international commerce. The following research question is addressed: What are the governance designs in use and what are the drivers of their evolution? Empirical research, conducted in two completely different industries (timber trade and outsourcing of software development) reveals evolutionary mechanisms and particular governance modes that are preferably chosen by the transaction partners.


An improved design of CMOS dynamic latch comparator with dual input dual output with a simple design of three stages is represented. The basic disadvantages of latch type comparators are overcome by producing an edge triggered comparison. The circuit is designed for a resolution of 300nV and the power consumption is reduced to 450uW. It is designed for 1.8V DC supply voltage and 1 MHz clock frequency for PVT variations. The simulation of the comparator is done in Cadence® Virtuoso Analog Design Environment using 180nm technology. The error quotient is reduced less than 5% by adding a buffer stage. The delay is brought down to 5nS. The active area appreciably is reduced. Layout of the proposed comparator has been simulated in Cadence® Virtuoso Layout XL Design Environment. DRC and LVS have been verified.


Electrical Resistivity Imaging for Unknown Bridge Foundation Depth Determination. (December 2011) Rungroj Arjwech, B.A., Khon Kaen University; M.S., Khon Kaen University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Mark E. Everett Unknown bridge foundations pose a significant safety risk due to stream scour and erosion. Records from older structures may be non-existent, incomplete, or incorrect. Nondestructive and inexpensive geophysical methods have been identified as suitable to investigate unknown bridge foundations. The objective of the present study is to apply advanced 2D electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) in order to identify depth of unknown bridge foundations. A survey procedure is carried out in mixed terrain water and land environments with rough topography. A conventional resistivity survey procedure is used with the electrodes installed on the stream banks. However, some electrodes must be adapted for underwater use. Tests were conducted in one laboratory experimentation and at five field experimentations located at three roadway bridges, a geotechnical test site, and a railway bridge. The first experimentation was at the bridges with the smallest foundations, later working up in size to larger drilled shafts and spread footings. Both known to unknown foundations were investigated. The geotechnical test site is used as an experimental site for 2D and 3D ERI. The data acquisition is carried out along 2D profile with a linear array in the dipole-dipole configuration. The data collections have been carried out using electrodes deployed directly across smaller foundations. Electrodes are deployed in proximity to larger foundations to image them from the side. The 2D ERI can detect the presence of a bridge foundation but is unable to resolve its precise shape and depth.


Two high-performance prototype houses were built in Carbondale, Colorado, as part of the US Department of Energy's Building America (BA) Program. Each prototype was a 1256 ft 2 (117 m 2 ), one-story, three-bedroom house and met the local requirements for affordable housing. The authors, representing the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, performed short-term field testing and DOE-2,2 simulations in support of this project at the end of December 2004. They also installed long-term monitoring equipment in one of the houses, and are currently tracking the performance of key building systems under occupied conditions. One of the houses (designated HI) included a package of cost-effective energy-efficiency features that placed it well above the Energy Star level, targeting a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score of 88-89. The other (designated H2) was a BA research house, targeting a HERS score of 94-95 and 45% whole-house energy savings compared to the BA Benchmark. The floor plans and other basic characteristics of the two houses were nearly identical except for the extended package of energy efficiency measures in the H2, including a 1.6 kW (5500 Btu/h) photovoltaic system, a combination solar hot water and radiant space heating system, heat recovery ventilation, and orientation specific glazing. Preliminary results from the field evaluation indicate that the energy savings for both houses will exceed the design targets established for the project, although the performance of certain building systems, including the ventilation and foundation systems, leave some room for improvement.


Nanocomposites of graphene oxide with polyacrylates with varying numbers of carbon atoms from 10 to 18 were prepared by surface-initiated atom-transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP), thereby controlling the density of polymer grafting through regulated molecular weight with narrow polydispersity. The dispersivities of these nanocomposites in oil media depend on the grafted density of polyacrylates on the graphene surface, and the degree of dispersion and stability increase with increasing chain length. After detailed characterization of these nanocomposites, their lubrication properties in terms of antifriction and antiwear behavior in base oil and polyol were evaluated. An optimized loading of 0.04 mg/mL graphene oxide/C18-polyacryalate nanocomposite in base oil and polyol provided improved tribological properties in terms of significant reductions of about 42% and 34% in friction and wear, respectively, as well as an improvement in the pour point, thus qualifying this nanocomposite as a potential ant...


Microbial ectoenzyme activities in aquatic environments are important agents of poly- mer hydrolysis and indicators of the state of microbial carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorus nutrition. However, like most other biochemical and molecular measurements, ectoenzyme activities have been limited to discrete water samples. We have developed a continuous underway method for measuring microbial enzyme activities using high-sensitivity fluorescent substrates. The system we developed consisted of a peristaltic proportioning pump, a temperature-controlled water bath, and a spectrofluorometer interfaced to a portable computer which controlled the fluorometer and logged the data. This method has been applied to alkaline phosphatase and to leucine aminopeptidase measurements in the surface waters of the Mississippi River plume and the Louisiana shelf, and alka- line phosphatase measurements in the surface waters of a Texas lake. This method will enable us to map the surface distributions of microbial enzyme activities on scales comparable to temperature, salinity, in vivo fluorescence, and other parameters which can be continuously mapped from a research ship while underway.


lins, Colo. (May 1974). 11. Tullis, J.P. & Ball, J.W. Cavitation Data for Valves and Its Applications. Proc. Conf. on Cavitation, The Institution of Mechanical Engrs. Edinburgh (Sept. 3-5, 1974). 12. Whittington, N.C. Cavitation Scale Effects for Generalized Valve Shapes. Master's thesis, Dept. Civil Engrg., Colo. State Univ., Fort Collins, Colo. (Dec. 1970). 13. Ball, J.W. Cavitation Characteristics of Gate Valves and Globe Valves Used as Flow Regulators Under Heads up to About 125 Feet. Trans. ASME (Aug 1957). 14. Ball, J.W. Sudden Enlargements in Pipelines. Jour. Power Div.-ASCE, 3340: (Dec. 1962). 15. Knapp, R.T. & Hollander, A. Laboratory Investigations of the Mechanism of Cavitation. Trans. ASME, Vol. 70 (Jul. 1948). 16. Wheeler, W.H. Indentation of Metals by Cavitation. Jour. Basic Engrg., Trans. AS ME (Mar. 1960). 17. Plesset, M.S. & Ellis, A.T. On the Mechanism of Cavitation Damage. Trans. ASME (Oct. 1955). 18. Hammitt, F.G. Recent Theories of Cavitation Damage Including Nonsymmetrical Bubble Collapse Effects. Natl. Bur. Standards Special Publications 394, US Dept. of Commerce, NBS (Apr. 1974). 19. Strasberg, M. Undissolved Air Cavities as Cavitation Nuclei. Proc. 1955, NPL Symposium on Cavitation in Hydrodynamics, Paper 6, HMSO, London (Sep. 1956). 20. Peterka, A.J. The Effect of Entrained Air on Cavitation Pitting. Presented at a joint meeting of IAHR and ASCE (1953). 21. Hammitt, F.G. Damage to Solids Caused by Cavitations. Presented at Royal Soc. Discussion on Deformation of Solids Due


West China is not only the less developed area in economy and culture but also the minority nationality area, together with the frontier. It is a matter of overall importance to strengthen and development the relations of socialist nationality. To uphold the social environment of unity and steady, we must take economic construction as the central task to achieve economy and politics link cultural construction together. This relies on and reinforces the unity and cooperation of our various nationalities, also brings benefit to the common developments and progresses of ours.


To the Editor: —In my letter inThe Journal, January 16, I find I was in error in stating that Professor Jespersen had retired from the Committee of the Delegation. May I take this opportunity of asking the avalanche of correspondents who have written to me, asking how best to commence the study of the language, to give me a little time in which to reply to their letters. Also I should be glad if any future correspondents would kindly enclose a stamped directed envelope, as the tax of postage is already considerable.


ABSTRACT Cystathionine γ-lyase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was immobilized to aminohexyl-Sepharose through the cofactor pyridoxal 5′-phosphate and was characterized with respect to its cystathionine γ-synthase activity. The immobilized product was so stable that it repeatedly catalyzed as many as five cycles of the reaction without losing activity.


The effect of Aminoethoxyvinylglicine (AVG), available commercially as Retain®, was evaluated in Fuji Suprema apples during four growing seasons. The application time and the concentration of AVG in a single or multiple sprays were studied to evaluate the effect of AVG on fruit ripening delay, preharvest drop control, fruit production, mean fruit weight, fruit firmness, soluble solids, total iodine-starch, fruit skin color, 'water core' incidence, fruit crack and sun scald incidence. The AVG was applied one, two, four weeks before the harvest point and at harvest time in concentrations ranging from 60 to 120 g ha-1. All treatments delayed fruit ripening, and applied twice and one week before the harvest point concentrated on the same harvest date. The maturation delay was accompanied by the maintenance of firmness and starch degradation. The mean fruit weight increased significantly compared to the control treatment. The development of fruit red color was delayed in proportion to the maturation delay. The AVG applications with different concentrations and application times in one or two times did not differ in relation to fruit drop before harvest in 'Fuji' apples, but all treatments with AVG were significantly lower than the control treatment.


ARIMA method is often used in time series data forecasting. However, when an outlier occurs or there is an observation value that is far from a set of data, forecasting with this method will provide a large residual so that the normality assumption is not met. One method developed from the ARIMA Method that overcomes outliers, is called the ARIMA Additive Outlier Method (ARIMA AO). The purpose of this study is to forecast time series data containing outliers with the ARIMA AO Method. This method can reduce the presence of outliers with iterative procedures. The data used is data on the number of foreign tourists visiting the Port of Tanjung Priok. The results obtained are that the model has a normal distribution residual and forecasting accuracy value with MSE and MAPE is smaller than the ARIMA.


In this Special Issue of Children, we can find several articles that present the results of various current investigations in the field of eating disorders and obesity in children and adolescents [...].


Objective To investigate IgG antibody against Japanese encephalitis virus,dengue virus,tick-borne encephalitis virus and hantaan virus among population in Linzhi area of Tibet,and provide serologic evidence for diagnosis,prevention and control of arthropod-borne infectious diseases.Methods Blood samples were collected from residents living at an altitude of ≤2 000m and different age groups in Zayu(Zayu town) and Medog(Damu,Beibong,and Medog towns) counties which had been identified as malaria epidemic area during July to August 2010.All samples were tested by indirect ELISA for IgG antibody.Results A total of 350 blood samples were collected,of which 249 and 101 were from Medog and Zayu respectively.7.71%(27/350),1.71%(6/350),3.43%(12/350),and 0.57%(2/350) of samples were positive for Japanese encephalitis virus,dengue virus,tick-borne encephalitis virus,and hantaan virus,respectively.The positive ratio for tick-borne encephalitis virus was 6.93%(7/101)in Zayu and 2.00%(5/249)in Medog(P0.05),1.97%(5/254)at an altitude of ≤1 500 m and 7.29%(7/96) at an altitude of 1 500 m(P0.05),and increased with increasing altitude.A significant positive ratio for tick-borne encephalitis virus antibody was analyzed among different age groups.11 to 50 years age group of them was highest(5.88%)(11/187),followed by ≤10(0%) and 50 years age groups(0%).Conclusion Infections by Japanese encephalitis virus and tick-borne encephalitis virus were confirmed in Linzhi,but more lab evidence will be provided for confirmation of Dengue fever and Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Linzhi.


Twenty-one new substituted allyloxy macrolide derivatives were synthesized from azithromycin 11,12-cyclic borate and clarithromycin,respectively.The antibacterial activity of azithromycin 4″-substituted allyloxy,3-decladinosyl-3-substituted allyloxy and 3-decladinosyl-3-substituted allyloxy 11,12-dimethoxyl derivatives were evaluated in vitro and compared.The results showed that introduction 4″-substituted allyloxy into azihtromycin improved antibacterial activity against tested Staphylococcus aureus,Enterococcus and Gamma streptococcus.Introduction 3-substituted allyloxy into azihtromycin reduced antibacterial activity and narrowed antimicrobial spectrum.Introduction 11,12-dimethoxyl futher reduced antibacterial activity.Heteroaryl substituted allyloxy derivatives exhibited better antibacterial activities.In addition,introduction 3-O-[4-(2,5-dichlorophenoxy)-2-butenyl] into erythromycin A also reduced antibacterial activity and narrowed antimicrobial spectrum.


After 10 years' investigation,we wok out high-yield cultivation technique of amaranth which is appropriate to apply in Jilin province,three techniques of planting and breeding model,a kind of food named "xianxiangbing",and have formed a complete system of promotion.Planting amaranth,developing aquaculture,reducing farming costs and increasing farmers' income,all that play appositive role to adjust planting structure and promote the development of animal husbandry.


Gopalpura Tank is located  near village Gopalpura in Distt. Guna of M. P. It is one of the artificial water bodies of Guna (M. P.) used for irrigation  as well as for pisciculture.  No known source  of pollution enters the water  body.  Physico-chemical studies  were  undertaken  to  enhance  the  limnological knowledge  about the tank  and to  explore  possibilities  for  better management of pisciculture. This  paper deals with the some fishes  of the Gopalpura Tank at Guna Distt.  (M. P.) in relation  to the abiotic factors i. e. physical  (Temperature,  Conductivity, Transparency,  Turbidity,  Colour) and chemical  (pH, DO, Free  CO.  COD, Chloride, Total alkalinity, Hardness). Altogether the total numbers of fishes described are eleven in number from this Tank.


Abstract When fully implemented, Omega will be a system of eight very low frequency (VLF) transmitters providing global coverage for navigation. Recently, intensive design and development has exploited Omega for tracking sondes (both free-rising and free-falling) to determine wind velocity as a function of height. During the summer of 1974, several GATE measurement systems, including radiosondes launched from ships and dropsondes released from both aircraft and constant level balloons, will provide winds derived from Omega signals. While some GATE ship radiosonde systems will use other VLF transmitters for windfinding, the principles involved are essentially identical to those required for Omega windfinding. This paper formulates the analytical techniques needed to use Omega or other VLF transmitters for windfinding, discusses sources of measurement errors, reviews Omega wind measurement error experiments, and projects wind errors into the GATE "B" area near 10N latitude and 25W longitude.


Basic research will become a leading force and strategic engine for the future world development. The establishment of the legal system of basic research provides an all-round institutional guarantee for the vigorous development of basic research. The development of basic research cannot be separated from a good legal environment. Two dimensions of legal environment analysis of basic research are constructed: The first is the composition of the legal subject of basic research and the nature of basic research behavior, the second is the typical problem of basic research in China and the legal system it requires. Based on the above research frame, There are five main legal problems about basic research in Chnia: The lack of legislation on basic research subjects (scientific research institutions); The actual weakening of basic research guarantees under the existing governance framework; The lack of legislation for scientific research funding and the lack of supervision; The lack of integrity in the legal environment for basic research; The legal system of transformation of achievements focuses on dislocation. In order to solve the above problems, legislation should pay attention to the importance of basic research, guarantee the independence of basic research funding institutions and research institutions, and establish independent research funding management laws. Create an honest legal environment and social atmosphere conducive to basic research, establish a stable and effective legal system for protecting and using basic research results.


Monitoring the photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal is essential for cardiovascular patients in the hospital or at home, as well as for those working in front of a personal computer (PC) at the office every day. Therefore, we developed a wireless PPG mouse that consists of a PC mouse, PPG sensor, and Bluetooth mote. The sensor is located within the PC mouse, therefore, the structure of the ordinary mouse is not changed. A user's thumb can easily touch the surface of a sensor for PPG signal monitoring. However, it is challenging to process the signals collected from the PPG mouse, especially in the cases where the mouse moves quickly or the user performs multiple actions on the mouse buttons. In this paper, we propose a robust algorithm to detect the PPG peak under big motion artifact conditions. In the proposed algorithm, an adaptive method enables simultaneous detection of true peaks and eliminates fake peaks from the acquired PPG signal. Next, these detected error peaks can be corrected by a random error estimator. The combination of two sequential methods enhances the robustness of the algorithm for distinguishing irregular PPG patterns. The proposed algorithm presents an advantage for real-time applications and continuous heart rate monitoring systems using a wireless PPG sensor implemented in a PC mouse.


O ne dimensional Differential Transformation Method (1-dim DTM) is used to find the solution of the eighth order boundary value problems. The approximate solution of the problem is obtained in the form of a rapid convergent series. To illustrate the ability, efficiency and reliability of the method, some examples are given, revealing its effectiveness and simplicity and the calculated results are compared with exact solution.


Real--time and accurate construction of regional sound speed profiles (SSP) is important for building underwater positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems as it greatly affect the signal propagation modes such as trajectory. In this paper, we summarizes and analyzes the current research status in the field of underwater SSP construction, and the mainstream methods include direct SSP measurement and SSP inversion. In the direct measurement method, we compare the performance of popular international commercial temperature, conductivity, and depth profilers (CTD). While for the inversion methods, the framework and basic principles of matched field processing (MFP), compressive sensing (CS), and deep learning (DL) for constructing SSP are introduced, and their advantages and disadvantages are compared. The traditional direct measurement method has good accuracy performance, but it usually takes a long time. The proposal of SSP inversion method greatly improves the convenience and real--time performance, but the accuracy is not as good as the direct measurement method. Currently, the SSP inversion relies on sonar observation data, making it difficult to apply to areas that couldn't be covered by underwater observation systems, and these methods are unable to predict the distribution of sound velocity at future times. How to comprehensively utilize multi-source data and provide elastic sound velocity distribution estimation services with different accuracy and real-time requirements for underwater users without sonar observation data is the mainstream trend in future research on SSP construction.


According to federal communication commission (FCC) rules, the 3.1 10.6 GHz band is allocated to the ultra wideband (UWB) applications. Due to the overlap of the currently allocated UWB frequency band with the communication systems such as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) bands in the 2.4GHz(2.4–2.484GHz), 5.2GHz (5.15–5.35GHz),and 5.8GHz(5.725–5.825GHz) bands, and the World Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) system bands 2.5GHz(2.5–2.69GHz), 3.5GHz (3.4–3.69GHz), and 5.8GHz (5.25–5.825GHz). Therefore, an unwanted intrusion will be expected between these frequencies, now a day's many systems operate across several frequency bands, requiring a band-notched or bandrejected function. The band notching techniques used in the recent papers are tuning stub,shaped slot, parasitic element, and the fractal geometry. In this paper a comparison will be done between these techniques.


This paper investigated the effects of mesoscopic structure on crack resistance of asphalt mastic basing on the bending failure simulation with discrete element method. A Dynamic Link Library wrote by C++ is proposed for the modelling process of particle filling. Response surface and variance analysis are used to calibrate mesoscopic mechanical parameters of contact model, determine the influence of different parameters on deformation in bending failure test and the relationship between the parameters is fitted by mathematical formula. The effects of air void content and fine aggregate surface texture on crack resistance of asphalt mastic at -10 °C were studied then. It was proved that the adhesive strength and bonding area between fine aggregates co-influence the ultimate bending failure load, and the contact stiffness influences the ultimate bending deflection. Mathematical correlation formula between the radius of binding area and the critical stress that satisfies the ultimate load of asphalt mastic beam can be fitted in same form. The flexural strain energy density of asphalt mastic is increased with the decrease of air void content. The results are of positive significance for improving the mechanical properties of asphalt road in cold regions.


This study aims to analyze and determine the effect of work stress and compensation on employees' performance through motivation and job satisfaction in Life Insurance Companies in Indonesia. The data was collected using a purposive sampling of the population. The number of respondents sampled were 260 respondents out of 928 employees who work in 10 private life insurance companies in Jakarta, Indonesia. The data was collected using questionnaires. This data were then estimated using statistical analysis so called Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the help of AMOS program. The study found inter alia that job stress has a significant negative effect on employee performance, while compensation has a significant positive effect on employee performance. However, using SEM analysis it was found that only compensation has significant positive effect on employee performance through motivation and job satisfaction. This suggests that to increase the work performance of the life insurance companies in Jakarta, it is a must for the company to give a greater attention on the compensation.


In audio watermarking, data is hidden in an audio file in order to ensure the security of the audio file. The data used for watermarking can be of any type such as a bit sequence or an image. Watermarking acts as a means to protect the file from intruders and copyright infringements. Audio watermarking techniques rely on the imperfections of Human Auditory System (HAS). A psychoacoustic auditory model is introduced to classify the tonality and non-tonality of HAS along with Modified Discrete Cosine Transform (MDCT) which is an efficient transformation technique for audio coding. It eliminates the blocking artifacts. The proposed scheme can be compared with other digital audio watermarking techniques to analyze the robustness and efficiency.


ABSTRACTThe objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of income generating program through toman fish (Channa micropeltes) farming as an implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) conducted by PT Subur Agro Makmur in Hulu Sungai Selatan Regency. Moreover, this research was also aimed to identify and evaluate the problems faced by the farmer group, and also propose some alternatives to improve the effectiveness of the program. Interview-based evaluation research was used in this study. Interview was conducted to every toman fish farming group who join to the program. Descriptive analysis was used as data analysis technic and also used as the way to propose some alternatives of improvement program. Research result showed that: 1) There were technical problems (fish feed availability and environmental condition) and social problems (problem on group dynamics, problem of internal management of the program's organizer, and also problem between program's organizer and program's supervisor) as the main inhibiting factors effecting the effectiveness of toman fish farming program; 2) Based on the ratio of successful village and the fail village during conducting the program, the effectiveness level of toman fish farming program was 25%, means that this program has not succeed yet and has not given advantages to make prosperous of the community around company which join the program, because the result of toman fish farming has not able to alleviate daily user's burden or become main alternative family income.


The Mekong Delta, home to 20 million people, is experiencing significant land loss due to rising sea levels, accelerating land subsidence, and declining sediment supply. Robust estimates of the sediment flux delivered to Mekong Delta (SFMD) and the relative contribution of sediment load (RCSL) from individual subbasins are key to designing future adaptation strategies, such as strategic dam planning, sand mining, and delta groundwater management. However, existing estimates of SFMD and RCSL are largely deterministic without uncertainty quantification or using a uniform sampling to represent uncertainty. They also remain questionable due to data inconsistency and methodological biases caused by overlooked physical processes. Here, we develop a hybrid physics‐based data‐driven modeling framework to constrain the probability distribution of SFMD and RCSL and explore how they change under plausible climate change and land‐use change scenarios, leveraging recent advances in Bayesian inference (i.e., reasoning by refutation). We find that pure yield‐based approaches, which typically ignore sediment retention, can lead to higher estimates of RCSL from upstream regions compared with the physics‐based approach. Our best estimate of historical (1962–2005) SFMD combining multiple lines of evidence shows a median of 106 Mt/yr with a 5%–95% range of 66–160 Mt/yr. Over the analyzed range of land‐use and climate change scenarios, future changes in SFMD seem to be more sensitive to the latter, especially changes in wet‐season precipitation. Our estimate of RCSL from the Upper Mekong River Basin is likely (>66% probability) in the range of 0.25–0.39 with a mean of 0.34 in all plausible scenarios.


Selective laser melting is an additive manufacturing technology where metal powder is melted by a laser source layer-wise, forming a solid, dense metallic component. With the selective laser meting process, near net shape components can be manufactured directly from a 3D-model. The model is sliced into thin layers and a powder is spread onto a build platform. In the next step, the powder is fused by a laser as dictated by the model. The laser energy is intense enough to permit full melting (welding) of the particles to form solid metal. The process is repeated layer by layer until the part is complete. A number of materials are available, including steel, aluminium, titanium and, in recent time, also superalloys. The material investigated in the current project is a nickel base superalloy composition-wise equivalent to Hastelloy X, a solution strengthened superalloy typically used in large welded components exposed to high temperatures in oxidizing as well as reducing environments. Microstructurally, the material is different from both a hot-rolled, as well as a cast material due to the manufacturing process. Since the SLM process involves laser melting of powder particles in the size range of <50μm, the structure resembles of a weld structure, however on a smaller scale. Due to the layer-by-layer build strategy, the material will exhibit anisotropy. In the current project, high temperature mechanical fatigue and creep tests are performed. The microstructure is evaluated and the influence on the mechanical properties is discussed. Anisotropy in mechanical properties is discussed and the underlying factors of the anisotropy are analyzed.


In the early nineteenth century, most mathematicians believed that a continuous function has derivative at a significant set of points. A.~M.~Amp\`ere even tried to give a theoretical justificati ...


The current article is based on the concept to enhance the solubility and dissolution rate of a model drug, Rosuvastatin Calcium, which is BCS class-II drug with anti-hyperlipidemic potential. The reported bioavailability from oral route of drug is only 20%. So aim of current study is to improve the solubility and dissolution rate of a poorly water-soluble drug Rosuvastatin Calcium, by solid dispersion technique. Physical mixtures and solid dispersions were prepared using natural polymers A. Marmelos in different to drug to carrier ratios. Prepared formulations were characterized in solid state by FTIR analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy and in-vitro dissolution study. Solid state characterizations indicated the Rosuvastatin Calcium was present in amorphous form and entrapped in polymer matrix. In contrast to the very slow dissolution rate of pure Rosuvastatin Calcium, the dispersion of the drug in the polymers considerably enhanced the dissolution rate. The mixtures of solid dispersion and excipients were evaluated for pre-compression parameters. After then fast dissolving tablets were prepared by direct compression technique. The formulated tablets were evaluated by post compression parameters . In-vitro drug release performance of the developed formulations was investigated.


Economic development in minority regions in the Qing-Zang plateau sh ouldn't copy the patterns in the East but develop its own advantages to improve fundamental construction and adjustment of industrial structure rapidly, stress on exploitation of special conducts, develop small towns,enforce ecological prot ection and take a way of sustained development.


Besides a fine structure, the levels of u mesic atoms produce-d on non- zero-spin nuclei also have a hyperfine structure. If the hyperfine splitting of weakly excited levels is large compared to their width, thwis splitting should be important for the magnitude of mu /sup -/ meson depolarization. The magnitude of the effect is estimated for the case when the nuclear spin is 1/2. If the hyperfine splitting of the lower excited levels is large compared to their width, the polarization of a mu meson in the K shell should be approximately 1/3 of that for a nuclear spin of zero. Conversely, if the level width considerably exceeds the hyperfine splitting the hyperfine structure will only be manifest in the K shell and the polarization will decrease to 1/2 that of a zero-spin nucleus. (auth)


Singular value decomposition (SVD) is a popular technique to extract essential information by reducing the dimension of a feature set. SVD is able to analyze a vast matrix in spite of a relatively low computational cost. However, singular vectors produced by SVD have been seldom used in convolutional neural networks (CNNs). This is because the inherent properties of singular vectors such as sign ambiguity and manifold features make CNNs difficult to learn singular vectors. In order to overcome the limitations, this paper analyzes the undesirable properties of singular vectors and presents the transformation of singular vectors into Euclidean space as a smart solution. If the singular vectors are transformed to follow Euclidean geometry, SVD can be used for pooling to maintain the feature information well, which is called singular vector pooling (SVP). Since SVP can extract essential information from a feature map, it is robust against adversarial attacks in comparison to global average pooling. Thus, SVP shows a quantitative performance improvement of about 36% for the CIFAR10 dataset. In addition, we applied SVP to a knowledge distillation scheme that uses singular vectors in a restricted manner. As a result, SVP improved the performance by up to 1.7% for the CIFAR100 dataset.


Cag Educational Company went into operation 20 years ago in Azerbaijan. During this time, general issues about these educational activities are mainly focused on the successes at the international olimpiyads and places that had been attained by the graduates in the university entrance exams. The company was showed as the successful case on educating future generations with the strong universal values and close ties with the national and traditional features of the country. Cag Company every time tries to arrange education activities which are consistent with the national priorities. These continuous efforts have huge potential to generate accumulated economic gains. Economic gains of the education activities are important in many ways; such as reducing poverty, increasing human development situation and stimulating non-oil sectors which is crucial in Azerbaijan case, because of the resource boom. This study tries to find out empirical and practical proof about related issues stated above.


Margaret Doxey (1975) wrote much of her influential work on sanctions in an era characterized by young international institutions, against the backdrop of the geopolitical tensions of the Cold War. The 16 women who contribute to the book Multilateral Sanctions Revisited (Charron and Portela 2022) honor Doxey's scholarship in a time of re-emerging global tensions. Indeed, since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has imposed only two new sanctions regimes, on South Sudan (in 2015) and Mali (in 2017). That is a steep decline from the peak of United Nations (UN) sanctions activity in the 1990s and 2000s. This engaging book makes an important contribution to the literature by recognizing two diverging but interrelated trends. Contemporary sanctions are smarter than ever, but they fail to make up for the eroding moral legitimacy of measures imposed outside of the framework of the UN. First, the sophistication of targeted sanctions increasingly constrains targets, pushing them further into the margins of the international system. Thanks to the contributions of panels of experts, financial institutions, counterterrorism intelligence, certification schemes, and the ombudsperson, the senders of sanctions stay on top of a complex cat-and-mouse game with the individuals, entities, and regimes that try to evade them. Zuzana Hudáková notes that scholars recognize more than 100 types of targeted sanctions, labeled in terms of their targets, activities, commodities, economic sectors, or geographical regions (Biersteker et al. 2018).


One of the most distinctive characteristics of humans among primates is the size, organization and function of the brain. A recent study has proposed that there was widespread accelerated sequence evolution of genes functioning in the nervous system during human origins. Here we test this hypothesis by a genome-wide analysis of genes that are expressed predominantly or specifically in brain tissues and genes that have important roles in the brain, identified on the basis of five different definitions of brain specificity. Although there is little overlap among the five sets of brain-specific genes, none of them supports human acceleration. On the contrary, some datasets show significantly fewer nonsynonymous substitutions in humans than in chimpanzees for brain-specific genes relative to other genes in the genome. Our results suggest that the unique features of the human brain did not arise by a large number of adaptive amino acid changes in many proteins. Introduction The human brain differs substantially from those of other primates in size, organization and function. For instance, in comparison to that of chimpanzees, the brain weight of humans is over 300% greater but the body is only 35% heavier (Williams 2002) (Figure 2.1). The structural asymmetry between the left and right hemispheres is especially pronounced in human brains (Deacon 1994). Humans also have speech or language and other high-order cognitive functions that are absent in non-human primates. The genetic changes that have been responsible for the emergence of these human-unique brain features are a topic of enduring interest. Generally


Transition from summer to winter changes red deer digestive tract physiology and digestive processes. The objective of the trial was to determine the effects of season on in vitro apparent (ivADMD) and true dry matter (ivTDMD) digestibility, in vitro gas production parameters and short-chain fatty acid synthesis (SCFA) in red deer hinds of eleven substrates naturally occurring in Slovenia (chestnut fruits, acorns of common and sessile oak, two fresh grasses) and those frequently used in supplemental red deer feeding (two grass hays and two grass silages, apple pomace and sugar beet roots). There were no differences in ivADMD, ivTDMD, determined by incubation of feeds in buffered rumen fluid, as there were no differences in majority of gas production parameters between autumn and winter season. Only the parameter "C" (specific gas production rate) was frequently higher (p < 0.05) in winter season than in autumn season. The amounts of SCFA were similar between two seasons. However, the proportion of acetic acid tended to be higher in winter, while the proportions of propionic and butyric acid tended to be higher in autumn than in winter especially in high fibre feeds. On contrary, in high starch feeds such as oak acorns and chestnut fruits, the proportion of propionic acid was higher (p < 0.05) in winter, while of butyric acid in autumn (p < 0.05). Despite the fact that the number of used substrates (n = 11) and animal rumen fluid donors (n = 6) were small, these results indicate a shift in rumen microbial metabolism between autumn and winter season.


Abstract Delegation and its related conflicts are the core of the interaction with any kind of autonomous agent and are relevant for modelling both Multi-Agent Systems (MASs), organizations, and user-agents interaction. On the one side, in order to exploit local knowledge and local adaptation delegation cannot be fully specified, and, on the other side, in order to be really helpful and collaborative the delegated agent frequently must go beyond the literally delegated task (request). In this perspective we present in this paper a plan-based definition of the very basic notions of delegation, adoption and task, and a theory of different kinds and levels of delegation and adoption. Then we focus on conflicts arising between an agent (the "client") delegating some tasks to some other agent, and this agent (the "contractor") adopting and/or satisfying those tasks conflicts which are either due to the intelligence and the initiative of the delegated agent or to an inappropriate delegation by the client. We ex...


We show that any closed set E having a sigma-finite (n - 1)-dimensional Hausdorff measure does not support the nonzero distributional divergence of a continuous vector field; in particular it has the property that any C-1 function in R-n that is harmonic outside it is harmonic in R-n. We also exhibit a compact set E having Hausdorff dimension n - 1, supporting the nonzero distributional divergence of a continuous vector field yet having the property that any C-1 function that is harmonic outside E is harmonic in R-n.


Preterm birth (PTB), defined as childbirth occurring at less than 37 completed weeks, is the chief problem in obstetrics today and approximately 10 percent of all births are preterm. It is considered a major determinant of neonatal mortality and morbidity and has long-term adverse consequences for health. The study was conducted to detect the rate and factors affecting PTBs among all deliveries encountered in a secondary health care facility (El-Moneera general hospital in south Cairo) during the period from July to December 2014. Mothers were investigated using pre-coded questionnaire containing the relevant variables (socio-demographic data with menstrual & obstetric history). Babies were also examined for their parameters just after their delivery as well as their characteristics. Results detected that only (41deliveries=8.2%) were PTBs among all deliveries encountered in the place of study with mean weight (2087±176g) compared with (3132±435 g) of term births. The most significant risk factors associated with PTBs were low maternal weight(<50kg),where recorded by (39%) vs (21.7%) of full term mothers, ante-partum maternal morbidities especially anemia, hemorrhage and infection where reported by (58.5%),(29.3%) &(22%) respectively of preterm births vs (37.7%),(11.5%) & (10.9%) respectively. Medication use during pregnancy especially steroids was associated with development of PTBs where recorded by (24.4%) vs (11.1%) while regular attending antenatal care was higher among full term mothers as (66%) vs (34.1%) of PTBs mothers. Other obstetric factors related to PTBs included primiparity & past history of abortion and PTBs. Significant fetal factors included twins pregnancy & the presence of fetal & placental anomalies. The study recommended that risk factors that may be amenable to control should be determined through epidemiological researches. Targeting high risk groups through clinical services in addition to raising socioeconomic standards of mothers especially health status and education are approaches that may aid prevention of PTBs problem in our society.


The article analyzes the synthesis of higher fatty acids based on local secondary oil products of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the influence of various factors on their synthesis. The highest yield of fractional acids C10 - C17 during paraffin processing is observed as a result of paraffin oxidation with a boiling point of 260-350 °C. The fractional composition of the obtained fatty acids was analyzed by gas chromosome spectroscopy. The effect of the catalyst on the oxidation process on the duration of oxidation and the change in acid, ether and carbonyl numbers has been studied.


Helmet is a self-protection equipment designed to minimize injury during an impact to the head due to motocycle accidents. According to regulation of SNI 1811–2007, helmet must satisfy several criterions, such as penetration resistance and ability to absorb impact energy. In general, helmet could resistpenetration, but it might not absorb impact energy properly. Applicants might suffered head trauma for a while after collision. Impactenergy on helmet is absorbed by foam rather than the shell of helmet. The helmet which has a good penetration resistance and energy absorption normally is not lightweight. Users feel heavy and pain in the neck when wearing such helmet for rather longer time. This research developed a multiple reinforcement's composite material as an alternative materialfor helmet shell in order to obtain a lightweight helmet, which has penetration resistance, and good ability in absorbing impact energy. This research is started by simulating shell of helmet. The shell consists of epoxy-sisal fibers-hollow glass microsphere (HGM) composite andlaminated with carbon fiber on the external shell side. Simulation of penetration test and impact absorption are performed by following National standard procedures SNI 1811-2007. Depth of penetration that occured due to penetration is recorded during simulation of penetration. Meanwhile, acceleration is recorded during simulation of impact. Based on both simulations, a helmet configuration consists of one layer of carbon fiber and 4 mm of epoxy-sisal fibers-hollow glass microsphere composite thickness is selected. This configuration is satisfied regulation of SNI 1811–2007. The shell of helmet is unpenetrated - depth of penentration is 77.3%, and the unit helmet absorp the impact energy by reducing acceleration to 1305g.Helmet is a self-protection equipment designed to minimize injury during an impact to the head due to motocycle accidents. According to regulation of SNI 1811–2007, helmet must satisfy several criterions, such as penetration resistance and ability to absorb impact energy. In general, helmet could resistpenetration, but it might not absorb impact energy properly. Applicants might suffered head trauma for a while after collision. Impactenergy on helmet is absorbed by foam rather than the shell of helmet. The helmet which has a good penetration resistance and energy absorption normally is not lightweight. Users feel heavy and pain in the neck when wearing such helmet for rather longer time. This research developed a multiple reinforcement's composite material as an alternative materialfor helmet shell in order to obtain a lightweight helmet, which has penetration resistance, and good ability in absorbing impact energy. This research is started by simulating shell of helmet. The shell consists of epoxy-sisal ...


One of the leading educational problems of the present day is that of measuring the efficiency of schools. In the past it has been necessary to rely upon opinion in many matters relating to the progress of children in school. There have been no adequate units until recently with which to express educational products. For this reason, the results of educational processes often have been expressed in terms of mere conjecture, which has had small scientific value. An attempt has been made during the last few years, however, to establish standards and units by which scholastic efficiency and progress in educational attainment may be measured in a definite manner and to this end experimental and statistical methods have been applied to the measurement of educational results. Since a large part of the educational practice in the past has had no scientific foundation, the results of much of the teaching have been meager, and since there have been no adequate means of measuring the efficiency of instruction, it has been impossible to determine in any precise manner what real results were being secured. To a certain extent this condition still prevails, and on that account it may be said that one of the great needs in education at the present time is the establishment of units of measurement, standards of attainment, and reliable tests in each subject by which the value of different types of instruction may be scientifically and competently measured. There is no subject in the school curriculum in which there is a greater need that tests be devised with which to measure the accomplishment of children than reading. It is the purpose in this article to describe a test planned for this purpose which has been used by the writer to measure reading ability in seven New Hampshire school systems. A description of the test, the method


In this paper, a method of analyzing relationships between items in specific health examination data is presented to cope with lifestyle-related diseases. The proposed method uses self-organizing maps, and focuses on twelve items such as hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GPT), and triglyceride (TG). The proposed method picks up the data from the examination dataset according to the standard specified by some item values. The training data are then generated by calculating the difference between item values associated with successive two years and normalizing the values of this calculation. The proposed method labels neurons in the map by using item values of training data as parameters, and examine the relationships between items in the examination data by observing clusters formed in the map. Experimental results reveal the relationships among HbA1c, GOT, GPT, γ-GTP and TG both in the unfavorable case of HbA1c deteriorating and in the favorable case of HbA1c being improved.


David Gruenewald's use of Foucault's way of understanding the connections between knowledge systems, the multiple ways in which they influence the exercise of power, and the resulting form of subjectivity makes a major contribution to understanding the double binds that make current approaches to environmental education more part of the problem than the solution. I think Gruenewald is essentially correct in making the argument that the way environmental education is integrated into the dominant way of thinking about educational practices, which in turn are based on the deep cultural assumptions (a symbolic ecology that Foucault calls a "regime of truth"), ensures that the cultural roots of the ecological crisis will not be addressed. His argument that the dominant discourse that governs most approaches to environmental education marginalizes any consideration of the social and ecojustice issues is also correct. The language of science, the industrial-driven marketplace, and the messianic drive to spread the Western form of individual subjectivity and supporting cultural assumptions exclude the language required to make explicit what is being subjugated. That is, theJanus face of science is seldom recognized, with the result that the role of science in advancing the Industrial Revolution, and the digital phase we are now entering, goes unchallenged. Thus, science is equated with emancipation and empowerment, and not with the delegitimation of the knowledge systems of other cultures and the marginalization of intergenerational knowledge that has not been monetized and thus has a smaller ecological footprint. As environmental education is so closely aligned with the supposedly culture-free epistemology of science,


This paper analyzes the related electrical properties of the module generator environment for analog integrated circuits, such as transistor mismatching, RC time constant of MOS transistor gates, parasitic capacitance and electromigration The estimation of electrical properties was taken into consideration during the module generation in order to satisfy the different constraints and application requirements It enhances the reliability of circuit design A number of high quality operational amplifiers and analog switches have been designed with the help of this electrical property driven module generator environment


This study aims to identify values and issues in reconstruction of competence-based curriculum, focused on the national elementary school curriculum in Republic of Korea which has been reoriented for competence-based education, by examination of the curriculum documents, interviews with teachers and observation of lectures. In conclusion, First, from the teachers' perspective, a competence is considered as a comprehensive aspect that learners realize with their whole abilities. With the definition of the competence which is one's whole aspect of strength to live with, competences are described with abilities in specific activities. This sheds light on abilities that have existed but not been focused before. Secondly, teachers from A, B and C schools participating in the research have made their own achievements based on their own interpretations of the national curriculum. Each of teachers has played own role as both a practitioner and a developer of the curriculum with own professional knowledge and unique qualities, while cooperating and sharing with the people of each school. The findings from this study imply that competence-based education has been utilized in meaningful ways at school fields as one of the tools for reconstructing the curriculum, in consideration that the implementation process of the competence-based education is a part of the shift from the traditional knowledge-transmission education to the alternative education forms.


EDITOR: We are grateful for Mr. Curtis' comments, which gives us an opportunity to provide further clarifications. In reading our previous report, one should bear in mind that clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps called phases. In phase I, such as our pilot study of electro-acupuncture for retinitis pigmentosa, researchers test a new intervention in a small group to evaluate safety and determine estimates of effect size. Previous phase I trials for orphan retinal diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa, have included very small samples without a placebo control. If phase I trials demonstrate safety and support study hypotheses, then later phase trials will include larger numbers of subjects and a control group. In his letter, Curtis raises the concern that the subjects with retinitis pigmentosa in our phase 1 trial may have experienced placebo effects, as they were actively seeking an intervention to help with their otherwise untreatable visual loss. He also suggests that heat lamps applied to the stomach, as in our pilot study, may enhance placebo effects but gives no reference or scientific support for this statement. The occurrence of placebo effects following acupuncture is indeed a possibility and an unavoidable factor in any clinical trial. This is precisely why we reported previously the need for future controlled trials, have now identified an appropriate sham intervention and are currently conducting an NIH-funded placebocontrolled trial of electro-acupuncture for retinitis pigmentosa (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02086890). Curtis claims there are learning effects for visual field and scotopic tests but references a study of frequency doubling perimetry in people without ocular disease and without previous experience with visual field testing. Previously, we addressed this issue by referencing studies indicating no learning effects for these tests in a retinitis pigmentosa population with previous visual field experience. It was important to use a 'large' test battery (n = 4) in our initial exploratory study, as we did not know which of the many aspects of visual loss in retinitis pigmentosa might be affected by acupuncture. Curtis commented that it is possible to obtain significant positives by chance when using a large number of tests in a small sample. For this reason, we did not apply any statistical tests to detect significance in our data. Instead, we determined the proportion of patients with improvements outside the 95 per cent confidence interval reported previously for testretest variability in retinitis pigmentosa. Exceeding this interval is highly suggestive that the change is not likely due to chance or usual variability. Beyond the placebo effect, Curtis believes there are no plausible hypotheses to support changes in anatomical structures or physiological processes after treatment with acupuncture; however, there is evidence from a published, controlled study using electro-acupuncture in rats with retinitis pigmentosa-like degeneration, which found increased retinal nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, as well as preserved outer nuclear layer retinal thickness. We did not claim to have adequate power to demonstrate effectiveness with our initial small sample. Power to show a significant effect is dependent on the magnitude of the effect size and variability of the outcome measure; these parameters alone determine the required sample size. These factors will vary according to the study population, outcome measure and intervention. Therefore, one cannot make the conjecture that an equivalent review of acupuncture research would reveal that a sample size of 70 to 80 subjects would be inadequately powered to detect effects, as in the homeopathy review referenced by Curtis. We welcome suggestions and comments and urge readers to keep an open mind. It is true that older reports of clinical acupuncture outcomes in retinitis pigmentosa are bereft of scientific approaches. With the use of a standardised treatment and evaluation protocol, consisting of validated measures of vision, we firmly believe that our previous and current studies will help to break from that legacy.


Markov-switching model is a method applied to investigating the structural changes of nonlinear time series. This paper, by constructing three states Markov-switching model, studies the state transition behaviors in the price fluctuation of nonferrous metal from January 2001 to March 2011. Three different kinds of states of SHFE copper price fluctuation are observed: rising sharply, rising mildly and dropping sharply. Each state is characterized with different probability of transition as well as different average duration. The final part presents the causal analysis of the emergence of main state at each phase. The empirical results show that the Markov-switching model can effectively depict fluctuating behavior of non-ferrous metal prices.


The serious concern of many specialists, who deal with the problems of drug addiction, regarding counteracting the spread of drug addiction among juvenile population and establishing the efficient targeted informational influences on underaged drug users and drug criminals for their social (psychological and pedagogical support) prompted the Author to write this Article. The article deals with both traditional, worldwide known rehabilitation approaches to drug addicted teenagers, and fundamentally new methods that take advantages of the digital environment. The Author paid particular attention to the analysis of the positive changes that (thanks to IT technologies) contributed to the formation of anti-drug attitudes, constructive motivation, and legal behavior skills of deviant minors who participated in the experiment. The Author also presented the data on psychological testing, that demonstrated the dynamics of empirical response of the adolescent in course of restoring their self-control and self-regulation, awakening their willingness to gaining new knowledge, to becoming successful and creative members of the information society. The Author comes to the conclusion that the digital environment can either destroy a child or form his/her positive attitudes, constructive motivation, readiness to give up drugs, to reintegrate, as well as serve as a tool that gives advice and signals to the appropriate specialists about the successful recovery of a client or (on the contrary) about a sudden deterioration of his/her condition (crisis, breakdowns, etc.).


The paper deals with actual information on the range and conjuncture of the market the curtain fabrics, useful to the enterprises of the sphere of small and medium business of windows textiles and design. Geographical and price segmentation of manufacturing firms of interior textiles is executed, their innovative potential is con-sidered.


Bronchiolitis is the leading cause of hospitalization of infants in the U.S. Use of steroids for infants with bronchiolitis remains controversial


North Yorkshire has seen heavy rainfall and flooding over many areas.More rain is also expected across parts of the county over the course of this ...


Attenuating the undesired audio noise generated by impulse noise,such as shot and scream of brakes,is specially useful for real-time audio recording of TV or broadcasting live report.On the basis of impulse noise detection algorithms based on template,this paper improves the method of establishing the template by using multiple microphones to pick up noise corrupted signals and impulse noises in the environment.The universal of thresholds is found and a detection algorithm with slope as the characteristic is proposed by comparing a variety of feature extraction algorithms.The proposed algorithm gets a significant improvement in testing speed and accuracy,which means it is suitable for real-time processing of audio signals.


standard based on the location, size, and assumed morphology of the potential debris. The current damage-potential methodology assumes that the ice balls liberate during the portion of flight that will provide the highest impact velo city and that a significant portion of the ice ball mass remains intact until impact. These assum ptions are considered conservative and may result in unnecessary launch scrubs. Experimental data are required to reduce conservatism. A combined environments facility has been designed to simulate the launch environments. The facility simulates vibration, ae rodynamic loading, thermal, and ascent pressure environments. These environments may be applied simultaneously or individually. This work was performed for NASA Space Shuttle Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Office in support of Debris Risk Management.


Short-circuit current calculation is the basis of power system planning, development and protection. In power system simulation calculations, the load model is connected directly to the substation high-voltage bus. However, the actual load is generally connected to the grid via the distribution network, which is not taken into account in existing short-circuit current calculations. Based on the analysis of the influencing factors of short-circuit current, this paper puts forward a method to determine the proportion of induction motors connected to the short-circuit bus or other non-short-circuit buses when calculating the short-circuit current of 110 kV and above voltage level buses, and uses PSASP to simulate and analyze a network system with distribution network of different voltage levels that conforms to the load distribution characteristics of a province's power grid, in order to improve the accuracy of short-circuit current calculation results of power system.


A pathologic feature of late-onset retinal degeneration caused by the S163R mutation in C1q e tumor necrosis factor-5 (C1QTNF5) is the presence of unusually thick deposits between the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) and the vascular choroid, considered a hallmark of this disease. Following its speci fi c expression in mouse RPE, the S163R mutant exhibits a reversed polarized distribution relative to the apically secreted wild-type C1QTNF5, and forms widespread, prominent deposits that gradually increase in size with aging. The current study shows that S163R deposits expand to a considerable thickness through a progressive increase in the basolateral RPE membrane, substantially raising the total RPE height


In many countries, the government pays almost identical nominal wages to workers living in regions with notable economic disparities. In most cases this is the result of highly centralized pay systems. By developing a two-region general equilibrium model with unions and search frictions in the labour market, I study the differences in terms of unemployment, real wages, and inequality between a regional wage bargaining process and a national one in the public sector. Adopting the former lowers public sector real salaries but it also decreases unemployment and jacks up private sector real earnings. Simulations conducted on the basis of Italian data show that, compared to a national negotiation process, a regional one also increases inequality both within and between regions.


This paper provides an empirical analysis of the causes of deviations of inflation from the CNB targets. In the short term, shocks relating to prices of agricultural producers represent the most important factor. In the medium-term horizon, foreign exchange shocks form the most important factor. At the same time, it could not be proved that monetary policy would create any major shocks contributing to the non-fulfilment of inflation targets, although its certain role cannot be excluded either.


AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) have been developed for current-collapse-free operation at high drain bias voltages. The newly designed single-chip GaN HEMT amplifier for W-CDMA base station applications achieves a record CW output power of 150 W with a high power-added efficiency (PAE) of 54% at 2.1 GHz. The amplifier, combined with a digital pre-distortion (DPD) system, also demonstrates a state of the art efficiency of 40% with an adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACLR) of less than -50 dBc for 4-carrier W-CDMA signals and reaches the saturated peak power level of 174 W with a drain supply voltage of 63 V. We prove for the first time that the AlGaN/GaN HEMT amplifier can completely fulfills the W-CDMA system requirement.


The impact of Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises hereafter known as MSMEs cannot be overemphasized. They play a major role to the development and growth of every economy. SMEs have been known to contribute immensely to counties GDP and they help also in providing employment opportunities. Innovation on the other hand is important to the continued success of any organization. Innovation can be associated with; change, ideas, revolution, new products and idea, remodeling all in an effort to create a new market of change the way, pattern or method a particular product and service is perceived. This document seeks to study the impact of agencies and associations and their impact to innovation in SMEs in Nigeria and Portugal.