Integration between Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) will be essential for competitiveness and innovation in Europe in the coming years. In this context, the new European Commission's initiative Horizon 2020, the biggest financial program for Research and Innovation aims to finance different Risk Management Projects going "from fundamental research to market innovation". This involves the entire innovation chain focusing on the research and development of crosscutting KETs, which are among the priorities of the Horizon 2020 Framework strategy. This strategy identifies the need for the EU to facilitate the industrial deployment of KETs in order to make its industries more innovative and globally competitive [1]. Horizon 2020 aims to redefine the cooperation in funding and scientific research by turning scientific breakthroughs into innovative products and services with over 74 billion € budget [2]. Is emphasized on three main pillars: Scientific Excellence, Society Challenges and Industrial Leadership. This last one aims to support SMEs in the industrial development and application of KETs [3], which have been selected according to the economic criteria, economic potential, capital intensity, technology intensity, and their value adding enabling role: Nanotechnology, Micro and Nano Electronics, Photonics, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology Industry, and Advanced Manufacturing Systems. Nanotechnology, is expected to make a rapid impact on society [4],[5]. After a long R+D incubation period, several industrial segments are already emerging as early adopters of nanotech-enabled products and findings suggest that the Bio&Health market is among the most challenging field for the coming years. Nanotechnology is also considered multidisciplinary since it is not restricted to the realm of advanced materials, extending also to manufacturing processes, biotechnology, pharmacy, electronics and IT, as well as other technologies [6]. These characteristics allow the connection to a diversified set of industries [7], implying that nanotechnologies can be involved directly or indirectly in the other five remaining KETs. This strong interdisciplinary character, combined with the possibility of manipulating a material atom by atom, opens up unknown fields and provides an endless source of innovation and creativity. While each KET already has huge potential for innovation individually, their cross-fertilization is particularly important to offer even greater possibilities to foster innovation and create new markets. The concept of cross-cutting KETs refers to the integration of different key enabling technologies in a way that creates value beyond the sum of the individual technologies for developing innovative and competitive products, goods and services that can contribute to solving societal challenges. The global market volume in KETS is 646 billion euros and substantial growth is expected of approximately 8% of EU GDP by 2015. At present, the emerging sector of applied nanotechnology is addressed to the biomedicine (nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine) [8], starting to show a promising impact in the health sciences principally in three main areas: Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Regenerative Medicine (Figure 1) [9], [10]. Nanomedicine is considered a long-term play in the market [11]. In fact, the global nanotechnology market is anticipated to grow around 19% by year during 2013-2017 [12]. The expected market size related to radical innovation-based nanomedicines will be 1.000 M€ in 2020 and 3.000 M€ in 2025 [13]. In this context H2020 will spend 9.7% of the total budget in Health, demographic change and wellbeing. Translation of innovation and time-to-market reduction are important challenges on this framework. Nanomedicine firms have focused primarily on the science and less on the commercial applications resulting difficult to bring products into the market [11]. This remarks the existence of a gap between the current high levels of scientific performance and the industrial competitiveness [14]. The Commission states that bridging the so called "Valley of Death" to upscale new KET technology based prototypes to commercial manufacturing, often constitutes a weak link in the successful use of KETs potential. This is meant to be the "European industrial Renaissance" by covering the whole value of chain lab-to-market as the principal aim of H2020 where market is the main starting point. Fig. 1: Fields for cross-cutting KETs innovations in the Health and Healthcare Domain


Soil samples are taken from two experimental roads in Heilongjiang province for the test. Then a prediction of shear strength is carried out, basing on a three-layer BP (back propagation) network in Matlab, the hidden layer, output layer and training function of which adopt non-linear transfer function tansig, linear transfer function purelin, and trainbfg function respectively. It is found workable to predict factors influencing shearing strength using BP neural network with given soil properties. Prediction results of cohesion strength for clay show a better performance than those for sandy soil, while results of friction angle for sandy soil are better than those for clay. It is indicated that BP neural network does a better work in predicting the friction angle than that of cohesion.


The data of summer locust occurred from 1980 to 2001 in Fengqiu County and climate data during the corresponding period are employed to examine the influence of climate conditions to the occurrence of summer locust using compound analysis, and also some forecast indexes have been found.


This paper presents a 6–18 GHz highly compact multifunction core chip using a 0.15 μm GaAs process. The Core multifunction chip includes a 6-bit digital phase shifter for beam steering, a 6-bit digital attenuator for amplitude correction, low-noise amplifiers (LNA) for amplitude compensation, and single-pole double-throws (SPDT) T/R switch Used to implement feature selection. Fabrication results show that the MMIC exhibits a transmit gain of 1 to 3.7 dB and a receive gain of -3 to 2 dB in the 6 to 18 GHz range. The transmission path root mean square (RMS) gain and phase error are better than 0.6 dB and 7.3°, respectively.


In this paper we characterize the regular medial algebras, the paramedial n-ary groupoids with a regular element, the paramedial algebras with a regular element and the regular paramedial algebras. Also, we characterize paramedial, co-medial and co-paramedial pairs of quasigroup operations and paramedial, co-medial and co-paramedial algebras with the quasigroup operations.


In this study, we aimed to deepen the understanding of the circumstances under which crosslinguistic influence occurs, by focusing on the acquisition of the Dutch plural by two- and three-year old children who attend bilingual Dutch-English daycare. In doing so, we explored the roles of variability, overlap and language dominance as these are all factors that have been linked to the occurrence of crosslinguistic influence in studies on bilingual language acquisition and language contact. We investigated the expectation that young children who are exposed to English might show a stronger preference for -s pluralization in Dutch, because of the partial overlap in Dutch and English pluralization. In total, a group of 95 children that grew up with only Dutch and/or English at home and attended bilingual (Dutch-English) daycare (51 females, 44 males, mean age = 3;6 years) participated in an elicited production task. Results showed that no clear-cut evidence for unidirectional crosslinguistic influence from English to Dutch could be found in the form of -s overgeneralizations. However, we did find evidence for the role of variability in this domain of language, since children made more overgeneralizations when rhyme and sonorancy contradicted. Also, English exposure seemed to facilitate correct production of the -s affix, and children who overgeneralized the -s affix were mostly children that were exposed to the English language at home, suggesting that language dominance does play a role in preference for the -s affix.


Repair techniques used on Interstate Loop 610 in Houston and on U.S. 59 in District 11 about 100 miles north of Houston are described in this article. A procedure for repairing extensive longitudinal cracking on I-610 was developed with the assistance of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin. Polymer concrete consisting of aggregate with a polymer binder was used to repair the portland cement concrete. Details of the monomer system are described. Over 100,000 linear feet of cracks on I-610 were repaired by enlarging them and filling them with PC in the West Loop. A 1985 evaluation of the crack repaired on the South Loop two years earlier, indicated that 80 to 90 % were in good condition. A repair project on U.S. 59 is described which served as a pilot study to determine the effectiveness of various types of concrete repairs that might be used in flexible-over-rigid sections. Replacement using precast drop-in units is also described.


Lead halide perovskite‐based X‐ray detectors show very promising sensitivity and low detection limit, which can be used for next‐generation, room‐temperature radiation detections. It is interesting to find that the diode‐structured X‐ray detector shows very high photocurrent gain under small reversed bias voltage, which is unusual and should be investigated and understood for better device design. In this regard, a lead halide perovskite‐based X‐ray detector with the p–i–n structure is fabricated and studied. The p–i–n structured device shows abnormal and excellent photoconductor properties with high photocurrent gain factor under reverse bias. Further device simulation reveals that the ion migration and accumulation in the perovskite material are responsible for the large band‐bending at the interface, which may induce charge tunneling to reduce the contact resistance and causes the reverse‐biased device to work as a photoconductor rather than a photodiode. This finding provides a new approach to the understanding and design of high‐performance X‐ray detectors utilizing ionic semiconductors like lead halide perovskites.


The aim of the investigation was to determine the influence of variations in thickness and colour of agricultural plastic film on silage preservation conditions and grass silage quality. For this purpose, 30 cylindrical plastic containers (mini-silos; 0·3 m3) were filled with chopped grass and covered with five films of different thickness and colour: 90 μm, white; 125 μm, green; 150 μm, black; 200 μm, green and 200 μm, white. Four replications of each film type were placed in the open air. Two replications were housed indoors and exposed to an 'artificial sky' in a test apparatus. The surface temperature of the films was found to be strongly dependent on film thickness and colour. Results of the chemical analysis of silages did not reveal any significant influence of the films. This was also the case when restricting the analysis to the uppermost silage layer. The results showed that under the conditions of this experiment, well preserved forage can be produced with films of differing colour, as well as of lesser thickness.


This paper presents a gap mechanism for evaluating the performance of three energy minimisation models in wireless multicast networks. The first model is the existing coded packet that is based on simulation technique. The second and the third models are the recently proposed techniques that are based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. The input-oriented Banker, Chanes and Cooper (BCC) and Chanes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) approaches are considered for DEA model development. It is found that the proposed input-oriented BCC and CCR models provide better energy gap in wireless networks compared to the coded packet model.


Raymond G. Mogill is Advisory Committee Chairman, Richmond Public Schools, Richmond, California. THE present problem was to determine, through the use of the survey ~technique, if the home rooms in the public schools of the United States have educational value in terms of a philosophy of education involving administrative and educational interpretations of the objectives and functions of the home room.


According to mixture of colors theory,the white diffraction can be regarded as noncoherent superposition of the three primary colors diffraction.Employing with the Maflab's abundant drawing functions and powerful computation ability, we can simulate the white diffraction fields of slit and circular hole,and give the source code of it.The result is intuitionistic and vivid.


We determine the creep rates for classical and quantum motion in uniaxially anisotropic and layered superconductors within the framework of weak collective-pinning theory. In particular, we concentrate on the low- and intermediate-magnetic-field regime where single-vortex collective pinning is relevant. For a field aligned with the crystal c axis, we find that both the classical and the quantum creep rates are enhanced as compared with the isotropic results due to the increased elasticity of the vortices. For anisotropic superconductors the creep rates do not depend on the angle v between the magnetic field and the crystal ab plane and are also independent of the direction of motion


In most cases, the brick converter suppliers provide derating charts for their converters. One would think that it would be easy to compare the converters based on the conditions shown in these derating charts, but unfortunately by doing so one can be easily deceived. Typically these suppliers are providing this information not only as a service to the designer but as a method to promote their product. To promote their product, most manufacturers will provide derating based on ideal test conditions where the converter will operate its best. In many cases the information from these charts may be hard to relate to one's application. This paper will take the reader through the many subtleties of brick derating and give the reader a good understanding of the proper way to determine how to select the best brick for the application.


device to programmable logic arrays. The network AND and OR array of this device are combined. The metal lines 6 network input AND gates control the devices and 22, field effect transistors between diffusions 26 and 24 of mass of product terms. These are connected by the contact 28 with the product line 30 made of polysilicon of the OR array, to a different level which control devices 32 OR between broadcasts mass 26 and diffusions 34 output. This increases network density. Can be used in any device with programmable logic devices to perform a set of logical functions.


Composition for Guan Zhong of the First Test Paper of National College Entrance Examination in 2020, tested the examinee's cognition of the value of the times of traditional culture. Examining the record of Guan Zhong in The Analects of Confucius can reveal the Confucian historiography. Confucianism adheres to Comprehensive Historiography requiring comprehensive dialectical observation, insists on Humanistic Historiography believing the people are the creators of history, perseveres in Heroic Historiography convincing princes and generals are the decisive force of history, upholds Orthodox Historiography advocating the maintenance of a unified situation. Middle school students should make a dialectical analysis of Confucian historical views, getting rid of its dross, saving its essence, inheriting and carrying forward for it in the case of Chinese traditional culture deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.


Play is an activity of expression of the singularity of the human being that at each stage of life assumes distinct characteristics and represents nuances of the Human Development. Play shows itself in different ways at different ages, yet it presents a basic form that characterizes it it is motivated by spontaneity and it can be associated with a manifestation of the creative potential. In our 21st century we contemplate great changes such as the creation of the internet, that constituted a new social landscape and instituted new habits that have no precedent in the timeline of our human evolution. The possibilities of communication with different cultures and of social relationship without face-to-face, concrete but real contact, modified the way of living and thinking of it, in which the Play expanded by reinventing the daily life. Playing, each day more, is an action characterized as experience that features in the future. To play is to produce and protect the culture, to unlock the human potential and to contemplate the incessant expansion of human capabilities that derive from its creativity.


Excessive adipose tissue, in the case of common obesity, has been associated
with an endocrine-metabolic alteration that contributes to a manifestation of dyslipidemia. To
identify mechanisms which are involved in disorders of lipid metabolism, several nutrients have been
studied, especially zinc, which act by regulating transcription factors that are important for synthesis
and oxidation of lipids and act as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant nutrient. Thus, the study
makes an assessment of the zinc status and biomarkers of cardiovascular risk in obese women.

 A case-control study enrolling obese (body mass index (BMI) ≥35 kg/m²) and eutrophic
(BMI 18.5-24.9 kg/m²) Brazilian women was conducted. Dietary zinc intake was assessed by the
three-day food registry. Plasma, erythrocyte and urinary zinc concentrations were determined by inductively
coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Cardiovascular risk was assessed by plasma
concentrations of lipid fractions, and by anthropometric measures.

Both groups showed a dietary zinc intake above the recommendations, with no statistical
difference between them (p >0.05). Mean plasma and erythrocyte zinc concentrations were significantly
reduced in obese women, compared to the control group (p <0.05). Urinary zinc excretion was
significantly higher in obese women (p <0.05), who also had a significantly higher cardiovascular
risk when compared to the control group (p <0.05). An inverse correlation between dietary zinc intake
and waist-hip ratio was found in obese women.

Obese women presented zinc redistribution characterized by reduced concentrations in
plasma and erythrocytes, dietary zinc intake above the recommended, and increased zinc excretion in
the urine. This study shows dyshomeostasis of zinc in obesity, a possible role in adiposity control
and, consequently, its protective role against cardiovascular risk, due to its influence on risk biomarkers,
such as waist-hip ratio.


MK-0457 (VX-680) is a potent small molecule inhibitor of the Aurora-family of protein kinases that inhibits cell proliferation through aberrant mitosis and failed cytokinesis. Affected cells are subsequently deleted by apoptosis. Tumor regression and increased survival have been reported in multiple in-vivo models and in January 2005 MK-0457 entered Phase I clinical trials as the first in class Aurora inhibitor. Although MK-0457 demonstrates significant selectivity over the vast majority of kinases tested, it has been shown to potently inhibit Flt-3 and Abl, both of which are targets for anti-cancer therapies. Most notably MK-0457 potently inhibits a series of mutant Abl kinases including the multi-drug resistant T315I form that is commonly expressed in Gleevec refractory CML and ALL. We report here the first MK-0457 / Aurora co-complex crystal structure and show that it adopts a closed inactive conformation. By comparison with other reported kinase structures we provide a structural basis for the cross-reactivity with wild type and drug resistant mutants of the Abl kinase. We also show that MK-0457 blocks both Aurora and Abl cellular kinase activity and displays potent cytotoxic activity against a range of leukemic cell lines, including Gleevec resistant cells that are reliant on mutant Abl for growth and survival. Similar observations have recently been made in the clinic, where new data show that MK-0457 has activity in patients with BCR-ABL T315I mutant CML and Philadelphia positive ALL.


The substantial growth of the farmed salmon industry in Europe since the 1970s has highlighted concerns regarding the genetic impact of escaped farmed salmon on wild salmonid stocks. High incidences of salmon × trout hybrids have been recorded in rivers situated near intensive salmon farming in Norway and Scotland, which may be indicative of a breakdown in reproductive isolation between salmon, Salmo salar L., and brown trout, Salmo trutta L. In the present study, salmonid fry and 0+ parr were collected from rivers in western Ireland. Allozyme and minisatellite DNA analysis were carried out on fry to determine the frequency of F1 hybrids from 10 rivers located within 38 km of salmon farms and three rivers at least 80 km from salmon farms. A total of 49 hybrids were recorded from 4135 salmonid fry (frequency = 1.2%). Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that all hybrids arose from Atlantic salmon female × brown trout male crosses. Hybrid parr were recorded from one of the low-risk rivers (1.0%), but were present in seven out of the 10 catchments located within 38 km of salmon farms, with frequencies ranging from 0.7% to 3.1%. The results of the present survey, which represents the first extensive record of the levels of salmon-trout hybridization in Ireland, are discussed in relation to the continued growth of salmon farming in this country.


The present invention provides a negative-strand RNA virus having a foreign gene partial sequence of E sequence of minus strand RNA virus is modified contained in the gene sequence. Foreign genes comprising a portion of E sequence, it was found that mutation at high frequency in the minus-strand RNA virus occurs. By modifying the sequence of the foreign gene so as not to have this sequence, it is possible to prevent the mutation in gene carried in the minus-strand RNA virus occurs.


The purpose of this study is to review the development of distribution channels in finance industry with reference to banking and insurance. Distribution as a marketing function is of great importance for all businesses regardless of the main separation of production economy and financial economy in view of the fact that businesses can continue their activities in condition that their goods and services are marketed. This is dependent on the marketing performance of companies. This very fact accounts for the significance of this line of business. The paper covers Turkey as an emerging country where banking industry and –in particular- insurance industry have been growing remarkably despite global and local financial turbulences. In this study, change in distribution channels is analyzed for the years after 2002 when Turkish Financial Markets –especially banking and insurance sector- went through a considerable transformation in the aftermath of 2001 economic crisis. Analyzing comprehensively the figures about marketing line of business, this paper suggests that -as far as Turkish market is concerned- there exists much room for the development of distribution channels in finance industry. The paper also argues that banc-assurance, private-banking and digital distribution channels have great potential to grow in banking and insurance market.


Historically, a dual farming structure was typical in Slovakia, by which there were a large number of small peasant farms and at the same time a significant portion of land was held by huge estates – latifundia. Land reforms, which started after WW I, did not significantly change this pattern, nevertheless they managed to reduce the size of large holdings and to upgrade peasant holdings. In 1895, close to 50 per cent of the total land was occupied by holdings larger than 100 hectares (52 per cent of the total number of holdings were peasant farms smaller than 2.9 ha, altogether occupying only 5.8 per cent of the total land). After the first land reform, the share of holdings over 100 hectares diminished to 23.5 per cent of total land.


Evaluations of many community programs controvert a number of common assumptions about the conditions and effects of noninstitu tional correctional programs. Evidence will be presented in this essay that raises questions about the effectiveness, humaneness, and econo my of community-based programs. Such programs have had, it is argued, a range of undesirable effects on the justice system and soci ety that have not been widely recognized. In particular, there is a ten dency for community programs to extend state control over an in creasing proportion of the population. The validity of conventional explanations of the origins of community-based programs will be dis cussed, and an alternative theoretical framework will be proposed that takes account of the need for the social control apparatus to respond to larger structural exigencies in the advanced capitalist state.


InformatIon technology has the potentIal to profoundly affect democracy and civic discourse through active citizen participation. This article outlines how recent developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can not only improve public decision-making within the parameters of existing political tradition but also challenge fundamental assumptions about the organization of democratic governments. This article classifies ICT tools along a continuum according to the level of citizen participation that they support and the level of cost-reduction that they could offer. However, digital divide, security, and privacy issues are crucial concerns that need to be addressed in parallel if Internet based ICT tools are envisioned as an integral part of citizen engagement. We further review the presence and position of the majority of tools currently used in U.S. Web sites on this continuum. Using a representative sample of U.S. government web sites, we found that U.S. Digital government initiatives currently lack support for even basic, low-cost, scalable ICT tools (such as asynchronous discussion boards) that can foster citizens'active engagement within the parameters of current organization of government. We also identify ICT tools on the continuum, that can change the way government and citizens interact with each other, on various non-governmental web sites as well as some that are being tested in research laboratories. The recent advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have created a lot of opportunities for transforming the relationship between a government and its citizens. Marchionini 4 divides such government initiatives along three major areas: Access to information, Transaction services , and Citizen participation. While the initiatives that fall under the first two categories have been studied widely , enabling active citizen participation has been an area that has " perhaps been the most controversial and certainly the least developed. " 1, 2 Any initiative that encourages meaningful and active participation from its citizens on-line has the potential to impact the underlying mechanisms of democracy and civic discourse. The new breed of ICTs can be placed in three broad categories along a participation continuum based on the interaction between governments and citizens: Communication Component (CC) ˲ through which citizens are informed about policies. This is essentially a one-way dissemination of information (e.g. Government Tax forms and guidelines available on-line). Deliberation Component (DC) ˲ through which citizens can identify and deliberate on issues of importance. This component involves ICT tools that support two-way communication and deliberation (such as deliberation through …


The authors developed a minimally invasive method with computer-assisted navigation for retrograde drilling of osteochondral lesions of the talus. Planning of the pathway and adjustment of the targeting device were performed outside the operating room. In 10 cadavers and four patients, accuracy of pin placement was in the range of 1.0-3.5 mm.


Abstract Objective: Firearm discharges produce hazardous levels of impulse noise that can lead to permanent hearing loss. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of suppression, ammunition, and barrel length on AR-15 rifles. Design: Sound levels were measured left/right of a user's head, and 1-m left of the muzzle, per MIL-STD-1474-D, under both unsuppressed and suppressed conditions. Study sample: Nine commercially available AR-15 rifles and 14 suppressors were used. Results: Suppressors significantly decreased peak dB SPL at the 1-m location and the left ear location. However, under most rifle/ammunition conditions, levels remained above 140 dB peak SPL near a user's right ear. In a subset of conditions, subsonic ammunition produced values near or below 140 dB peak SPL. Overall suppression ranged from 7–32 dB across conditions. Conclusions: These data indicate that (1) suppressors reduce discharge levels to 140 dB peak SPL or below in only a subset of AR-15 conditions, (2) shorter barrel length and use of muzzle brake devices can substantially increase exposure level for the user, and (3) there are significant left/right ear sound pressure differences under suppressed conditions as a function of the AR-15 direct impingement design that must be considered during sound measurements to fully evaluate overall efficacy.


A brief assessment of the global warming in the Arctic climate system with the emphasis on sea ice is presented. The Arctic region is coupled to the global climate system by the atmosphere and ocean circulation that provides a major contribution to the Arctic energy budget. On this basis using of special indices it is shown that amplification of warming in the Arctic is associated with the increasing of meridional heat transport from the low latitudes.


In recent years Android operating system, being installed on huge numbers of smartphones, tablets and other devices, had a breakthrough on the market. Following that success, the need to recover and analyze data from Android OS, became important part of mobile forensics. Consequently, many commercial and open-source mobile forensic tools became available for forensics investigators. The subject of this paper is to present open source-free tools and to illustrate how to forensically recover data from Android based devices.


Color harmony is an important factor affecting the aesthetic feeling of images and plays an important role in visual perception. It can evaluate the feasibility of images by constructing the computational model of human aesthetic thinking. In this paper, a color harmony evaluation method based on color complexity was implemented. Given the classical color harmony model which is suitable for the simple color combination but not suitable for the complex image, and the local feature redundancy caused by grid sampling, an adaptive sampling based on CCM(color complexity measure) was implemented. Then, K-means was adopted to extract local color harmony features. Finally, a model was constructed between local color harmony features and the overall color harmony by SVM. The results show that the method implemented in this paper can represent the color harmony of complex images accurately and effectively.


Postpartum uterine diseases are important for both animal welfare and economic reasons, contributing to cow discomfort, elimination from the herd, and impaired reproductive performance. Although presence of Escherichia coli and Truperella pyogenes has been more commonly associated with uterine inflammation and impaired reproductive performance (Studer and Morrow, 1978; Bonnett and Martin, 1995; Bicalho et al., 2010), other pathogenic bacteria, such as Fusobacterium necrophorum, Bacteroides spp., Pseudomonas spp., Staphylococcus spp., Prevotella melaninogenicus, and Streptococcus spp. have also been associated with uterine diseases (Williams et al., 2005; Azawi, 2008; Santos et al., 2011).


Western yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) has by far the greatest commercial importance of any tree in the Southwest. In 1908 it constituted 96.5 per cent of the lumber cut of Arizona and 87.7 per cent of the cut in New Mexico. The extensive pure stands of it in this region are now being heavily logged, and this exploitation will undoubtedly increase. Therefore the perpetuation of the trees becomes a problem of vital importance. Reproduction has not been satisfactory, either in the virgin forest or after lumbering operations, and large areas once overed with good stands of yellow pine are now practically bare. The artificial reforestation of denuded areas is impracticable at present, yet a study made in 1908 indicates that proper methods of management will insure a satisfactory second growth.


AbstractEight Earth System Models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) are evaluated, focusing on both the net carbon dioxide flux and its components and their relation with climatic variables (temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture) in the historical (1850–2005) and representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5; 2006–2100) simulations. While model results differ, their median globally averaged production and respiration terms from 1976 to 2005 agree reasonably with available observation-based products. Disturbances such as land use change are roughly represented but crucial in determining whether the land is a carbon source or sink over many regions in both simulations. While carbon fluxes vary with latitude and between the two simulations, the ratio of net to gross primary production, representing the ecosystem carbon use efficiency, is less dependent on latitude and does not differ significantly in the historical and RCP4.5 simulations. The linear trend of increas...


The article mainly elaborated the importantance of strengthening the informationization of hospital economic management.The author pointed out the problems and the insufficiency of the information construction of hospital.Finally,the author put forward some countermeasures,which included strengthening the awareness of health economic information management,establishing conservation-oriented management model of health economics, building integration platform of health economics management,perfecting the related measures,training health economics management team,strengthening the building of digital hospital and so on.


Under consideration are the general set of Human computer Interaction (HCI) and Educational principles from prominent authors in the field and the construction of a system for evaluating Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) with respect to the application of these HCI and Educational Principles. A frequency analysis of principles is used to obtain the most significant set. Metrics are devised to provide objective measures of these principles and a consistent testing regime is introduced. These principles are used to analyse the University VLE Blackboard. An open source VLE is also constructed with similar content to Blackboard courses so that a systematic comparison can be made. HCI and Educational metrics are determined for each VLE.


In the late period of twentieth century,there appeared different kinds of critical voices to deny the writing significance of The House of the Seven Gables,the typical of which denied its structural feature,viewed it as Hawthorne's least successful work and claimed that the novel's mysteriously happy ending was stained and inconsistent.That this is an illustrating prejudice or intentional error of reading.In fact there is an internal narrative system,an Arabesque form which is symmetrical,parallel and theme crossing in the novel behind its confusing structure.It is by this structure,which is externally confused but internally unified,that Hawthorne has used history as his narrative original and completed his psychological illustration on the subjectivity's decline in its signification,and also realized his politically rhetorical strategies on the romance writing.


In this letter, a novel five-pole monoblock dielectricresonator (MDR) bandpass filter with two transmission zeroes (TZs) based on the compact stacked configuration is proposed. The TZ pair is introduced with great flexibility and can be readily allocated at either or both sides of the passband with only a few filter dimension adjustments. The proposed filter has a simple fabrication process with tuning flexibility since there is no need to weld or assemble cavities. A 2.6-GHz filter with a symmetric TZ pair and 150-MHz bandwidth is fabricated. Measurement results show good agreement with simulated responses for validating the design theory.


In this paper we propose a scalable backup service for virtualization infrastructure such as private cloud called hBaaS. hBaaS is designed to utilize existing infrastructure without the needs of additional equipment to provision it as-a-Service model. We propose an integrated solution for virtualization platform that scales as the total VMs increases. The solution addresses the issue of concentrated backup schedule on a specific time range which potentially cause resource bottleneck. We discuss two methods to reduce the backup workload footprint; by distributing the backup workload operation into multiple proxy servers and push the backup operations into background which increases the duration of time to backup but lessen the impact of backup operation to the infrastructure. Indirectly, hBaaS will be able to cater more backup requests from users.


The invention relates to a grid drive circuit and an array substrate and a display panel of the grid drive circuit. The grid drive circuit comprises multi-stage grid drive units, each stage of grid drive unit comprises a starting unit, an energy storage unit, a pulling-up unit, a first pulling-down unit and a second pulling-down unit, wherein the second pulling-down unit is coupled with the energy storage unit and a grid line and used for generating second control signals intermittently according to a driving voltage, a time pulse signal and a second reference voltage so that the driving voltage and a grid signal on the grid line can be pulled down to the second reference voltage. Besides, in order to prevent the problem because a leakage current exists between a first reference voltage and the second reference voltage, a chip responsible for providing the reference voltages is burnt, transistors which are located between the first reference voltage and the second reference voltage and the leakage current may flow through are further changed to a plurality of transistors in series connection so that the electric leakage probability is reduced. The grid drive circuit and the array substrate of the grid drive circuit are enhanced in reliability, the service life is long, and the grid drive circuit can be applied to various display panels.


took account of the opposition only in providing for a year's delay in implementation and for the calling of a second commission to deal with possible revisions of the whole labor relations system. By the time this second commission had made a report which could only delineate two opposing positions, the whole chain of issues had lost its international links. Attempts of a number of the unions to bring complaints of non-compliance before the ILO (matters to which Harari does not allude) did not persuade that body to intervene again. In Japan, a third advisory council was deliberating substantially the same issues as the story ends. In drawing conclusions, Harari is mainly concerned with what his case study demonstrates about the workings of Japanese government and whether it tends to confirm—he believes it does—earlier studies of Hellman, Thayer and Fukui on the dominant role of the Liberal Democratic Party in the policy-making process and whether and how its factional structure with its subleaders influence the behavior of party leaders. He believes their role, except when they speak for the whole party, is negligible. He raises interesting questions about the linkage between labor legislation and other "issue-areas," particularly foreign trade; about the "elitist nature of the process" and "the insignificant role of public opinion"; about the motives of the international trade union organizations in supporting the Japanese workers' strategy and the payoff for their support; and about the repercussions of the episode on ILO policy both in respect to the substantive issue of freedom of association and the tactical one of involvement in the internal affairs of member nations. Some of these issues appear in the concluding chapter for the first time: the last, that of ILO policy, was noted as a major purpose of the study. But new or old, major or minor, they all receive only summary treatment, a single sentence obiter dictum. On the ILO, with only a passing reference to the sending of a similar mission of inquiry to Greece in 1968, he concludes that the Japan case "built up the organization's self-confidence in its ability to promote 715


The purpose of the study

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To determine the lag time between the exposure to asbestos and the onset of chest pain.

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To determine the relationship between the onset of chest pain associated with pleural plaques and the diagnosis of their presence.

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To correlate the dermatomal distribution of the pain with the location of the plaques.

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To record the incidence of other potential causes of chest pain.

Methods

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Review of the medical files of 100 patients.

Results

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It has been possible to exclude cardiac and musculoskeletal causes of chest pain by appropriate assessment including the history, physical examination and the results of investigations of the patients with pleural plaques.

Conclusions

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The location of the pleural plaques and the course of the unprotected intercostal nerves, provide a scientific explanation of the pain.


This paper addresses two main challenges: how to offer an overview on the urban form of Portuguese cities, and how to analyse the fundamental aspects of the evolution of this physical form over time. The Morpho methodology is applied to address these challenges. This methodology focuses on a reduced number of urban form elements and characteristics, all related to the town plan: the spatial accessibility of the street system, the dimension of street blocks, the density of plots, and the coincidence between building and plot frontages. Morpho is applied to Portugal's 20 most important cities. In addition to producing specific new knowledge on this sample of Portuguese cities, the paper presents results that are relevant for a wider geographical context, and demonstrates the potential of the methodology in comparing a large set of cities.


An analysis of an idealized passive vibration-cancelling two-terminal mount with one degree of freedom at each mechanical terminal isolating a nonrigid machine from a nonrigid foundation is presented. To evaluate a vibration-cancelling (VC) mount, its effectiveness as a function of frequency is compared with the effectiveness of both conventional and compound mounts isolating a rigid machine from a nonrigid foundation. The comparisons indicate that a carefully designed and manufactured VC mount should provide substantially greater vibration reduction at its cancellation frequency than either a conventional or compound mount having the same low frequency stiffness, i.e., stiffness at the natural frequency of the machine mount system.


Received 13 July 2018. Accepted 15 Apr. 2019. *Corresponding author (email@example.com). ABSTRACT Vegetative growth in the form of tillers is crucial in development of wheat (Triticum aestivum L). To better understand wheat development and tiller initiation, a study was conducted using two seeding rates (193 vs. 676 m-2) and two N application timings (single vs. split). Using a detailed marking technique to track leaf and tiller growth, tillers plant-1, rate of leaf appearance tiller-1, phyllochron interval (PI), accumulated heat units, and maximum leaf number (MLN) were measured. Although the timing of tiller initiation did not differ among the two seeding rates, results showed that at the low seeding rate (LSR) the frequency of leaf appearance on each tiller was increased, resulting in tillers having more leaves at decimal growth stage (DGS) 30. At the high seeding rate (HSR), leaf appearance among tillers was reduced, resulting in only fall tillers having enough leaf area to sustain growth from DGS 30 to harvest. The MLN was significantly greater at the LSR compared with the HSR. The MLN for the main stem was greater than those found on Tiller 1, and MLN for Tiller 1 was greater than those found on Tiller 2. There were no significant interactions or main effects involving the timing of N. It is difficult to determine the role that N application timing has on tiller and leaf development since there was not a consistent effect of N timing on PI and no effects of N timing on MLN.


The System of redaction of the manifests in Barcelona and Manresa in the beginnings of the XIVth century. In this article we want to give you a document that we have find in the Arxiu Historic Comarcal de Manresa. We believe that it give us some interesting information about the history of the mid age taxation in the catalonian's villages. It is about the way had been made the manifests and the taxes of the citizen's properties in Barcelona in the beginnings of the 14th century. We can know these information thanks to a Manresa's case between the person in charge of made the talla and some citizens who, maybe, were differing with the quantities which they'll must pay. The sentence decision, ordered that the talles from Manresa were dones like in Barcelona and explained how them ought to do it.


One of the specializations that many granivorous rodents exhibit to increase their efficiency in harvesting seeds is cheek pouches. We propose that the presence or absence of cheek pouches is related to seed size and the productivity of the habitat where those rodents reside.


The relationship between words of fou,pi and bu in the literature of West Zhou Dynasty is very complex. There are bu and fou in the bronze inscriptions of West Zhou Dynasty. The meaning of pi is indicated by bu. In addition to bu as a negative adverb,fou can also be used in negative sense. fou,bu and pi are used in Shangshu and Yi Zhou Shu,with their meaning and usage basically separated. Shijing and Zhouyi have bu and fou, the meaning of pi in Shijing is represented by bu.


In 1229 CE, following the signing of the Treaty of Jaffa by Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil and Emperor Frederick II, Jerusalem passed into the hands of the Crusaders who then went on to rule it for the next ten years. The aim of this article is to present a critical analysis of the historical narratives of both Muslim and non-Muslim historians who continue to interpret al-Kamil's decision to hand the holy city over to the Crusaders as an act of collaboration with them. I shall attempt to answer the following questions. Did Sultan al-Kamil really offer to give Jerusalem to Emperor Frederick II in return for his support? To what extent was al-Kamil's decision a strategic attempt to suppress the Sixth Crusade? What was the outcome of the Treaty of Jaffa? And how did Muslims and non-Muslims regard it?


Two-stroke outboard boat engines using total loss lubrication deposit a significant proportion of their lubricant and fuel directly into the water environment. Extensive atmospheric emission testing of outboard motors has taken place, however, emissions to the water are largely unaddressed in the literature and could be critical because the exhaust of most outboard engines is released below the water and mixed by the action of the propeller. The purpose of this work is to document the velocity and scalar field characteristics of a submerged swirling jet emanating from a propeller. The aim is to provide guidance on fundamental characteristics of such a jet, far enough downstream that it is relevant to the eventual modelling of this mixing problem (i.e. the mixing of engine emissions with water). Measurements of the velocity field (axial, tangential, and radial) and scalar field (concentration) were performed in a turbulent jet generated by a model boat propeller (0.02 m diameter) operating in a weak co-flow of 0.04 ms-1. The measurements were carried out up to 50 propeller diameters downstream of the source which was placed in a glass-walled flume, 0.4 m wide with a free surface depth of 0.15 m. The jet and scalar plume development were compared to that of a classical free round jet. Further, results with respect to velocity distribution, turbulence decay and integral flow properties plus scalar distribution, dilution and integral plume properties were all calculated and compared to existing literature. The velocity field results are the first published results to show the development of the flow fifty propeller diameters downstream. Up to ten propeller diameters downstream the results corroborate the earlier work of Petersson [1, 2]. Beyond ten propeller diameters downstream, the walls of the flume affected the flow. The concentration field results show that under these experimental conditions the propeller induced mixing exhibited a complete mixing length some 300 times shorter than for the wall-shear induced diffusion alone. Furthermore, a first principles relation was derived that illustrates the link between engine emission rate and propeller kinematics in generating the propeller-jet source concentration of pollutants. Using experimental results an estimate for benzene concentration fifty propeller diameters downstream of a 74 kW vessel was calculated to be around one third of the regulatory threshold for that chemical.


In this paper 50-50% concentration of ethylene glycol – water solution is used as PCM having freezing point 239K. This PCM solution is used in evaporator cabin of cascade refrigeration system to increase the overall thermal performance of the system. COP of 5 different cases are compared relative to the COP of normal cascade refrigeration system. Out of five cases increment of COP is 44.08% in case of cascade system with Al chamber compared to normal system's COP.


A movable element according to the present invention comprises: a shaft (11) having a rod shape extending in a first direction; and a plurality of magnets (12, 13) having a cylindrical shape through which the shaft (11) is inserted, the plurality of magnets (12, 13) having thrust magnets (12) generating magnetic flux parallel to a first direction and radial magnets (13) generating magnetic flux in the radial direction of the cylindrical shape. The thrust magnets (12) and the radial magnets (13) are alternately arranged side by side so that the thrust magnets (12) are arranged at both ends. Fixing members (14) made of a magnetic material are further provided adjacently further outward along the first direction with respect to each thrust magnet (12) arranged at both ends.


Nowadays, the shortages of fossil based energy on the earth and the pollution caused by using them is a noticeable problem that people are challenging with. As a result, human try to use natural resources vastly instead of fossil-based ones to reduce their consumption dramatically. In this circumstance, the role of architects are more important than ever in reducing the need for energy by proper designing likewise the past construction history. Green building design criteria emphasizes the energy-efficient performance of fenestration materials. Iran is a country comprising of four main different climatic areas. Selecting materials and using proper techniques for a building project is a challenging task in each part. Ancient buildings were built by different materials, techniques and forms in different parts of this country. One of the main parts of climatic areas in Iran is the hot and dry climates such as deserts. The appropriate materials and techniques which were used in ancient buildings in this part of the country to make this area comfortable for people will be investigated in this paper. Moreover, the buildings of Kashan, located in the desert part of Iran, will be mentioned as case study.


The primary goal of this research work is to detect and remove non responsive channels and trials in evoked potentials by tracing out the signals with very low energy. This is done by calculating the energy of the average evoked potential of each channel, and the energy of the average evoked potential of each trial. Then channel wise and trial wise median test is conducted to detect and remove non-responsive channels and trials. An attempt has been made to apply these techniques to 14-channel visual evoked potentials (VEPs) obtained from four different subjects.


The invention relates to a sodium hydrogen pump protein with an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID No.2. Or, the sodium hydrogen pump protein has an amino acid sequence with sodium hydrogen pump protein activity, wherein the sequence is obtained by that the amino acid sequence represented SEQ ID No.2 is subjected to substitution, deletion, or addition of one or more amino acid residues. The invention also relates to a coding gene of the sodium hydrogen pump protein. The gene has a nucleotide sequence represented by SEQ ID No.1, or the gene has a nucleotide sequence coding the amino acid sequence represented by the SEQ ID No.2. The invention also relates to a recombinant vector and cells comprising the sodium hydrogen pump gene, and an application of the sodium hydrogen pump protein, the coding gene thereof, and the recombinant vector and the cell comprising the gene in culturing salt-resistant and alkali-resistant genetically modified organisms.


Pierre Teilhard de Chardin challenged theology to reach for an understanding of God that would take into account the reality of evolution. Paul Tillich's notion of New Being goes a long way toward meeting this challenge, and a theology of evolution can gain a great deal from Tillich's religious thought. But Teilhard would still wonder whether the philosophical notion of being, even when qualified by the adjective new, is itself adequate to contextualize evolution theologically. To Teilhard a theology attuned to a post-Darwinian world requires nothing less than a revolution in our understanding of what is ultimately real. It is doubtful that Tillich's rather classical theological system is radical enough to accommodate this requirement. For Teilhard, on the other hand, a metaphysics grounded in the biblical vision, wherein God is understood as the future on which the world rests as its sole support, can provide a more suitable setting for evolutionary theology.


This research focuses on the methodology of Ibn Sinan in his book "The Secret eloquence - Ser al-fasaha" and also the contents and sources that he dealt with. At the constituve part of the main structure of research, other books affecting el-Hafâci's methodology are reviewed as well. The author has given evidences from poems, highlighted the features of selected (fasih) poems, mentioned poetic models more than prose models, used explicit statements and made descriptions about meanings and concepts for literary comparison. Besides, at the last part of this research, the criticisms of scholars about Ibn Sinan's methodology has been analyzed, the supportive and opposing points have been discussed and therefore some defictive and conflictive sides of Ibn Sinan's methodology have been mentioned


The 20 July 2018 no-confidence motion shown for 12 hours live on Indian national news networks where the Congress party (with 44 seats in the Indian parliament of 545 members) defied the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by initiating a no-confidence motion against them has to be seen in a light different from the commonsensical reading as the conflict between liberal democracy and populist authoritarianism. This essay is on a Marxist reading of the politics of parliamentary democracy and how the commodity principle must be seen governing bourgeois politics. It claims that one does not have to read into the appearance levels of what the leader of the liberal democratic Congress party Rahul Gandhi said or did not say, or what the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said or did not say. This essay claims that the no-confidence motion was not merely a spectacle, but a delusion that Marx calls a 'phantasmagoria' transformed into the political space where both the liberal democracy of the Congress and the populism of the ruling BJP are fighting for the political space of capitalist authoritarianism. This essay seeks a different space where popular politics can be played out, a space that is radically different from that of the bourgeois state.


Industrial engineers face many nonideal operating conditions in the design of the active rectifiers: too long computation time, presence of acquisition filters, AC phases unbalance, location of the grid voltage sensors after a dominant reactance and passive damping if an LCL-filter is used. The phenomena generated by these conditions are generally nonlinear. Hence the first step is to find out how much each of them affects the system's overall performance. Then new rules for the tuning of the controllers can be developed on the basis of the analysis of the transient behavior and of the steady state harmonic content of the DC voltage and of the AC current. This procedure is developed in this paper through simulations and laboratory tests.


The early warning system of international engineering contract are risk identification analysis module,early warning module and risk countermeasure module.Risk identification analysis module is a process carrying on systematical risk mining and categorizing.The main mission of the risk early-warning module is to design a risk early-warning index system,compare the score of a certain risk index with the early-warning scope,and send out an early warning signal if the risk factor outruns the early-warning scope.Moreover,a comprehensive evaluation model is set up to measure the comprehensive function of those various risks to the international engineering contract,and get the risk degree of it.The risk countermeasure module analyzes the risk factors that send out early-warning signal,and look for countermeasures to make the contractor evade risks as far as possible,reduce and even do not suffer loss.


Article history: Received January 18, 2013 Received in revised format 8 June 2013 Accepted 10 June 2013 Available online June 15 2013 Automatic teller machine (ATM) is one of the most popular banking facilities to do daily financial transactions. People use ATM services to pay bills, transfer funds and withdraw cash. Therefore, we can treat ATM as a tradition inventory problem and use simulation technique to analysis the amount of cash required on different occasions such as regular days, holidays, etc. The proposed model of this paper uses genetic algorithm to determine the replenishment cash strategy for each ATM. The survey uses all transactions accomplished during the fiscal years of 2011-2012 on one of Iranian banks named Ayande. The study categorizes various ATM based on the average daily transactions into three groups of low, medium and high levels. The preliminary results of our survey indicate that it is possible to do setup different strategies to manage cash in various banks, optimally. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Radio stations in contemporary Jordan broadcast what is locally known as morning "service programmes" ( barāmij khadamātiyya ), in which listeners call the station and speak live on air in order to request assistance or ask for mediation with local authorities in resolution of an issue. As part of my doctoral research on communicative discourse in Jordanian radio today, I analyse the "persona" of the broadcasters who respond to these calls and communicate with listeners as a crucial element that makes service programmes distinctive from each other. I compare and contrast the personae of two service programme hosts, Hani al-Badri and Muhammad al-Wakeel, through analysing programme recordings and accompanying data from websites and social media. I argue, however, that an adequate exploration of such media texts requires an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach, including theory and methods from: and c) media studies – interpreting radio recordings as a type of mass-mediated communication. One challenge of this approach lies in choosing data and material that is amenable to multi-stranded analysis. It also runs the risk of sacrificing methodological rigorosity, as defined by each individual discipline, in favour of a more sweeping examination with a less clearly defined focus. Nevertheless, I argue that setting the scope more broadly is productive in the case of analysing Jordanian radio programme recordings. My study demonstrates that minute aspects of language and performance have broader relevance through public address and participation frameworks. An interdisciplinary approach, therefore, reveals important aspects of media communication in the contemporary Middle East which may be neglected when the topic is approached through a single disciplinary lens.


On the basis of the kinetic parameters of source rocks,with the combination of the data of sedimentary burial and paleo-thermal histories,hydrocarbon generation histories of Triassic-Jurassic source rocks in Kuqa Depression,Tarim Basin were studied using the method of kinetics in this paper.It demonstrated that Triassic-Jurassic source rocks(e.g.coal and mudstone) in Kuqa Depression generated gas relatively later,which mainly occurred at the late stage of Himalayan Period(after 10 Ma) and main gas peak was in the last 5 Ma.The gas generation time and main gas peak of the Middle and Upper Triassic source rocks were slightly earlier than those of the Middle and Lower Jurassic coal-bearing source rocks.The characteristics of late gas generation would provide the favorable hydrocarbon source for the late accumulation of natural gas in Kuqa Depression.


It does a certain amount of violence to our preconceived parameters of the concept of soul to assume that humans, at least, can exist without one. How do the Chinese conceive that such a phenomenality is possible? What animates the body if the soul is gone? I will attempt to put the body in question on the autopsy table, so to speak, by combing through Chinese sources on what happens to the body after the soul defined as ling-hun, or ''cultural personality,'' leaves it at death. I will be asking whether we may properly speak of a soul that does not have an individual personality and is even perhaps not ''culturally Chinese''.
If we look back into the development of Levi-Strauss' basic paradigm in cultural analysis, i.e. the positing of a binary set of terms that conjoin to form a whole, we will find that it is almost unthinkable NOT to analyse the concept of soul (or any other concept in China, for that matter) through structuralist eyes, because those eyes were themselves opened to their point of view with the aid of Chinese systems of thought. I will cite Levi-Strauss` own recollection of the how he originally formulated the ''structuralist'' point of view characterized by the nature/culture contrast, and then outline how western sinological approaches to their object of study have a curious yet predictable resonance with their subject.


In view of their potential in the treatment of oncological diseases, photosensitizers (PS) have been the object of active research for the last years. The applied therapeutic photodynamic method involves the activation of a PS by light at a specific wavelength. PS interacts with oxygen and catalyzes the production of singlet oxygen molecules or radical oxygen species which leads to tumor cell death. This work is devoted to the study of the effectiveness of the photodynamic action of new PSs based on polycationic derivatives of synthetic bacteriochlorin on human lung cancer cells A549. The results obtained show that these PS effectively bind to these cells, have high phototoxicity and low 'dark' cytotoxicity for them. Morphological and immunohistochemical studies show that photodynamic effect leads to induction of cell necrosis and apoptosis, as well as a sharp decrease in mitotic activity.


This paper is a partial review of the literature on the assessment of patient satisfaction and the problems associated with obtaining robust information. The difficulties encountered in this form of qualitative research are highlighted in 233 patients with venous leg ulcers. Patients attending a community-based leg ulcer clinic were compared with a similar group treated by the district nursing service. The study was part of a larger randomised controlled trial of the cost-effectiveness of community-based leg ulcer clinics, using four layer bandaging, compared with usual care at home provided by the district nursing service. Results showed that overall levels of satisfaction were high for both groups at three months.


The present invention relates to an apremilast sustained release preparation. Specifically, the present invention relates to an apremilast composition which is a sustained release preparation having a high bioavailability in the body. The present invention provides a sustained release drug preparation containing an apremilast sustained release component and a site-specific release component therefor. Within in vitro release testing, the release speed is steady and constant.


Acknowledgement First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Ge Yang for the continuous support of my M.S. study and research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. His guidance as well as constructive feedback and critics helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor. In addition, I would like to express the deepest appreciation to Prof. Robert Tilton for his time and effort to review my thesis. I would like to thank my lab mates Qinle Ba, Jackie Chen, Hao-Chih Lee and Yiyi Yu for all the assistance and help I needed during my research. Their feedback and the stimulating discussions also played an important role in evolving me into a better researcher. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family and friends who have always been there to support me and cheer me up during dull times. Their faith and blessings have helped me to remain positive at all times. Abstract The interaction between nanoparticles and cells has been studied extensively, especially for targeted cancer drug delivery. However, our understanding of the influence of particle size and surface modification on cellular uptake of nanoparticles remains rather limited. This study investigated the effect of particle size and surface modification on the cellular uptake of polystyrene nanoparticles into several cultured cell lines, including BSC1, HEK, and 3T3, as well as primary mouse hippocampus neurons. The results showed that overly small nanoparticles (25nm in diameter) as well as overly large nanoparticles (100nm in diameter) were not efficient for cellular uptake, whereas the 70 nm size range appeared to have the highest uptake efficiency. Coating the nanoparticles with cell penetrating peptide significantly improved their cellular uptake by the cell lines. However, no improvement in cellular uptake was observed when the nanoparticles were coated with epidermal growth factor. Different from the cell lines, in the case of primary mouse hippocampus neurons, there was a significant increase in the uptake of nanoparticles when coated with either epidermal growth factor or cell penetrating peptides. Together, these results revealed that the cellular uptake efficiency of nanoparticles depends strongly on particle size, surface modification as well as cell types.


This paper investigates exponential stability in mean square of singular Markovian jump systems with saturating actuators and time-varying delay. The statistical property of the Markov process is fully used to derive the differential of the function. By using a delay decomposition method, a mode-dependent Lyapunov-Krasovskii function is established. A sufficient condition is proposed for exponential stability in mean square of the system designing the memoryless state feedback. A numerical example shows that the approach proposed is effective.


Background: To compare the foetal doppler studies &CPR in diabetic pregnant patients, as compared to normal pregnancy at 36 weeks to 38 weeks period of gestation Patients and Methods: This prospective study has been carried out to investigate the association between pregnancy with diabetes, abnormal Doppler parameters and adverse pregnancy outcome and to compare the data with that of normal pregnancy. Results& Discussion: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most important complication in pregnancy, associated with higher rates of poor foetal, maternal and perinatal outcomes. Therefore, this longitudinal study was conducted in pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic or admitted in the wards of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Lok Nayak Hospital, New Delhi. The mean CPR in women with diabetes was 1.77+0.53 whereas it was 1.71+0.43 in normal pregnant women. The mean CPR in women with diabetes was more as compared to control. However, the difference was statistically not significant (p value = 0.43).In our study, the mean CPR was significantly higher in pregnant women with diabetes on hypoglycaemic agents as compared to control group (p value = 0.04). In case group two women had CPR<1, out of which 1had NVD and 1 had CS. In case group with CPR>1, 43 women had NVD, whereas 35 had CS. In control group, none of the women had CPR<1. In control group with CPR>1, 52 women had NVD, 24 had CShad vacuum assisted vaginal delivery and 2 had forceps assisted vaginal delivery. On comparison of case and control groups, p value was found to be 0.02 which was statistically significant. According to our study, 1.7 is the best cut-off of CPR to predict the possibility of LSCS or Instrumental delivery for non-reassuring fetal heart rate. For cut-off1.7, the Sensitivity is 62.10%, Specificity is 57.3%, PPV is 24.3% and NPV is 87.2%. High negative predictive value suggests that a normal CPR is associated with lower possibility for caesarean section. Conclusion:The mean CPR in pregnant women with DM was more& the mean CPR was significantly higher in women with diabetes on OHA's.Uncontrolled blood sugar profile in diabetic pregnant women was significantly associated with abnormal CPR values.It was further demonstrated that the mean MCA PI was higher in diabetics, which led to higher CPR.& a normal CPR is associated with lower possibility for caesarean section.


This study brought to the definition and the calculation of Odour Emission Factors (OEFs), which enable the estimation of odour emissions from a composting plant by relating the quantity of odour emitted to the atmosphere to a given associated activity. The results show that the aerobic biological treatment has the highest odour impact, with an OEF of 1.4 ? 108 ouE t−1. Moreover, the efficiency values that were measured on the odour abatement systems adopted in the monitored plants are presented: Biofilters have an average efficiency value of 93.88%, whereas scrubbers have very variable efficiencies, with an average value of 44.12%.


Triple Negative (TN) breast cancer has few treatment alternatives. The chance for cure is poor, prognosis is bad and it is more aggressive than other types of breast cancers. Axillary involvement and early solid organ metastasis especially internal organs are more frequent. TN breast cancer with less treatment alternative was compared to divulge the differences with Luminal B (LB) which showed better outcomes with new treatment protocols. Comparison of these two groups may help us to produce promising treatment and follow up protocols. In Ege University General Surgery Department 91 TN (estrogen negative, progesterone negative and human epidermal growth factor negative) and 183 LB (estrogen positive, progesterone positive and human epidermal growth factor positive) patients operated between 1998 and 2007 were included in this study Survival without metastasis were lower than in TN group than LB group at 12th and 24th months but these were statistically indifferent. At 36th and 60th months however differences were significant (Log Rank p=0.021 and p=0.041 respectively) TN phenotype has negative prognosis due to the effect of early high internal organ metastasis rate. This finding has a strategic importance in treatment and follow up approach


Communal pairing in superconductors introduces variational freedom for Cooper pairs to share fermions. Temporal oscillations of the superconducting gap entropically drive communal pairing through the order by disorder phenomenology, stabilising a finite momentum space width of the superconducting gap that increases with interaction strength, creating a smooth evolution from the weakly interacting BCS state to the strongly interacting BEC state.


It is the purpose of this paper to review recent developments concerning the signs of electrode potentials, particularly with respect to single electrode potential, half-reaction potential, and half-cell electromotive force.


In this paper, parameter median unbias estimation with miinimum mean square error is pro posed by using relation between hypotheses and parameter estimation and its application to rella billty growth model for geometric distribution


This paper presents an approach for developing the programming and offline simulation systems for low-cost industrial robots in the MatLab/Simulink environment. The approach is presented in the example of a virtual model of a 4-axis robot with hybrid kinematics intended for manipulation tasks. The industrial robot with hybrid kinematics consists of the well-known 5R planar parallel mechanism to which two serial axes have been added. The programming system developed in a MatLab environment involves generating G-code programs based on given pick and place points. The virtual model included in the simulation system is configured in the Simulink environment based on the CAD model of the robot and its kinematic structure. The kinematic model and the inverse kinematic problem have to be included in the virtual model to realize the motion of the virtual robot. The system of programming and simulation has been verified through several examples that include object manipulation to perform various tasks.


In this paper, a simple time-dependent failure criterion has been proposed for cemented paste backfills. In
addition to curing time, it allows to take into account the binder content that will be responsible for the
material strength development. The properties described by this time-dependent criterion are those
undrained since the backfilled mine stopes have been categorised as undrained in long term.


Automated Planning can be fruitfully exploited as a Decision Support toolkit that, given a specification of available actions (elementary decisions to be taken), an initial situation and goals to be achieved, generates a plan that represents a (partially ordered) sequence of such elementary decisions that once performed the required goals are achieved. Road Traffic Accident Management is a life-critical task that deals with effective planning of emergency response when accidents occur, in order to mitigate negative effects, especially saving human lives that might be in imminent danger. In this paper, we exploit Automated Planning in the Road Traffic Accident Management domain. We specifically focus on providing necessary treatment for victims injured during accidents. This involves coordination of medical teams responsible for providing medical treatment to the victims and fire brigades that are required to release victims trapped in damaged vehicles. An empirical analysis, based in the region ofWest Yorkshire (UK) with a number of real accidents recently occurred there, shows the suitability of the proposed Automated Planning approach to be used in time-critical conditions, and confirms the effectiveness of the generated plans. We also demonstrated its usefulness as a tool for evaluating the impact of additional resources, in order to provide guidance for future investments.


Regional-scale assessment of the effects of ozone on forest ecosystems involves a diffuse array of sources distributed across tens of thousands of square kilometers. Exposure characteristics have short-term dynamics (hours or days), but effects may be manifest only after years of exposure. Discussion of the adequacy of forestry data for assessing the impact of ozone on forests from the national perspective requires first a discussion of the process by which such an assessment might be done, and secondly, discussion of the other types of data necessary to permit differentiation of forest impacts. This paper addresses a variety of approaches to assessment of forest impacts, discusses the basic data requirements necessary for an assessment of ozone impacts on forests, and provides an assessment of data availability on a national scale. 24 refs., 4 figs.


A case of post-vaccination myelitis following administration of chick embryo cell rabies vaccine in a 20 year-old young lady is described. The case presented with paraplegia five days after receiving the third dose (on 12th day) of the vaccine for rabies. Myelitis was confirmed by signal changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). She improved considerably on steroids treatment. This is the first case of myelitis following rabies chick embryo cell vaccination in Bangladesh. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/imcj.v6i2.14738 Ibrahim Med. Coll. J. 2012; 6(2): 76-77


Not numerous data available in the literature on changes of system lymphgroove at healthy people depending on natural factors and geographical conditions were the reason of corrying out of the present work. Using radioisotope methods, it is surveyed practically healthy 54 men in the age of from 18 till 60 years and is more senior, living in areas with sharphy continental climate, iodic insufficiency and deficiency of some mineral substances in an environment. Certain dynamics of values lymphgroove, speeds of distribution RPP on vessels and time of decrease in accumulation of activity above investigated areas depending on age which was characterized by reduction of digital values in process of ageing an organism is noted. The done work has allowed to establish threshold parameters of investigated test at persons of different age groups.


The current paper shows the results obtained in an action research related to an educational intervention named 'Modulo Cabildo Ciudadano' (Module Citizen Council), aimed to strengthen citizenship competences and constituent empowerment of a group of future Elementary Education teachers. To achieve it, we addressed the Chilean social outbreak occurred between 2019 and 2020 and the resulting constitutional process, both synchronic to the development of this research. The evaluation of the educational intervention was performed using a mixedmethods approach with the prevalence of a qualitative analysis. Hence, we utilized fieldnotes, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and a discussion group. The data obtained was analyzed with qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics. The results obtained reveal the potential of the treatment of current social problems to develop citizenship competences and interest in public issues. Moreover, we determined various strengths and weaknesses, and some proposals for the redesign of the educational module.


The response of birds to variaIions in Ihe density of incense-cedar (Colocedrw decvrem [Toe] Florin.), and Ulmugh exclosure experiments, theimpact of bird fonging on the density of the scaleinsect ~Xvlococculur mncrocnrone). was studied in the mixed-.. canifer zone of the western Siena Nevada during winter. Buds concenuated foraging activities on Ihe bark of small (a0 cm d.b.h.) cedar. Indices of abundance for manv bird specieswereloweronsiteswiIh10W~cedardensity halysisofforagingactivitiesindicated that birds reduced the density of scale insects on cedar and avoided sites with low-cedar density. Theresultsindi~atethataminimumdensil~ of>150smallcedar/hamayberquired to prevent areduction in the abundance of birds ovenvinteringin Ihese study areas. Small cedar apparently provide needed cover and fwd for much of the bird community. These findings m conuay to current thinking of forest managersin themanagement ofincense-cedar.


Abstract: The particulate fraction, heat‐labile factor, heat‐stable factor, and NADPH are essential for the conversion of lignoceric acid (tetracosanoic acid) to cerebronic acid (α‐hydroxylignoceric acid). The heat‐labile factor was extracted from calf cerebellum and partially purified in four steps: ammonium sulfate precipitation, hydroxylapatite chromatography, isoelectric focusing, and NAD‐Agarose affinity chromatography. The specific activity of the heat‐labile factor was increased 105‐fold during the last three steps, with a yield of 37% of the activity. One major and several minor bands were visible when the preparation was examined by SDS‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with Coomassie blue staining. The major band corresponded to a protein of molecular weight 32,700, and the minor bands corresponded to proteins of molecular weights 62,000 and 67,000. The activity was lost when the heat‐labile factor was incubated with 1 mM‐N‐ethylmaleimide. This inhibition was prevented by preincubating the heat‐labile factor with 1 mM‐NADH. These observations indicate that the heat‐labile factor contains a sulfhydryl group which is essential for activity, and that it is located at or near the binding site for the pyridine nucleotide.


In February 2014, the Government of Canada under Stephen Harper introduced the 'Fair Elections Act'. This reform to the elections act removed provisions for access to voting for individuals lacking certain forms of identification. Noting that this would have a disproportionate impact on people experiencing homelessness, nursing advocates joined with other activists to try to prevent then subsequently overturn this legislation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the 93rd competency of the College of Nurses of Ontario, "Advocates and promotes healthy public policy and social justice," by unpacking a case example of advocacy for voting rights. This paper addresses the challenges faced by nurses in doing public policy advocacy and concludes with lessons learned. Fulfilling our college mandated requirement to be politically active means ensuring that public policies are just, equitable, and reflective of the progressive values of Nursing.


Based on generally modified soybeans for materials,the effects of grinding and puffing processing on endogenous gene of Lectin and exogenous gene of Cp4 epsps and promoter and terminator were studied by the qualitative research methods of PCR.The results also indicated that grinding and puffing processing had impacted in some extent the degradation of transgenic component of soybean and regulatory elements.


Recently a new dimension of graphs has manifested in the network science community that goes beyond the traditional notion of connections and disconnections to include both favorable and adverse relationships. There are many applications, such as ranking and clustering, where data scientists are interested in solving linear systems associated with unsigned graphs. We show that there exists a direct relationship between a signed graph and an unsigned variant. Methods that have been applied for unsigned graphs could be applied to signed graphs in a meaningful way. Fairly robust solvers for unsigned, undirected graph Laplacians have been developed, but these solvers are not directly applicable to general, signed graphs. Gremban's expansion [K. Gremban, Combinatorial Preconditioners for Sparse, Symmetric, Diagonally Dominant Linear Systems, Ph.D. thesis and Tech. report CMU-CS-96-123, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 1996] is used to transform the signed, undirected graph La...


The JSON Schema language lacks explicit support for defining time-varying schemas of JSON documents. Moreover, existing JSON NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, CouchDB) do not provide any support for managing temporal data. Hence, administrators of JSON NoSQL databases have to use ad hoc techniques in order to specify JSON schema for time-varying instances. In this chapter, the authors propose a disciplined approach, named Temporal JSON Schema (τJSchema), for the temporal management of JSON documents. τJSchema allows creating a temporal JSON schema from (1) a conventional JSON schema, (2) a set of temporal logical characteristics, for specifying which components of a JSON document can vary over time, and (3) a set of temporal physical characteristics, for specifying how the time-varying aspects are represented in the document. By using such characteristics to describe temporal aspects of JSON data, τJSchema guarantees logical and physical data independence and provides a low-impact solution since it requires neither updates to existing JSON documents nor extensions to related JSON technologies.


Aim To explore the role of Bcl-2 /Bad / mPTP pathway in 14-3-3γ protecting against LPS-induced cardiomyocyte injury.Methods pFLAG-14-33γ recombinant plasmid was constructed and transfected into primary neonatal SD rat cardiomyocytes.After treatment of LPS injury,the activity of LDH was analyzed in supernatant;cell viability was detected by MTT colorimetric assay;cell apoptosis was determinated by flow cytometry;opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pore(mPTP) was detected by swelling of isolated cardiac mitochondria;the level of 14-3-3γ,Bad,phospho-Bad protein in cell and the level of Bcl-2 protein in mitochondria were analyzed by Western blot.Results LPS damage made LDH activity increase,cell viability decrease,cell apoptosis increase,and mPTP opening aggravate.After the transfection with pFLAG-14-3-3γ,LDH activity and cell apoptosis were decreased,cell viability was increased,mPTP opening was inhibited,and level of phospho-Bad was raised,while level of Bcl-2 in mitochondria was also increased.Conclusions pFLAG-14-3-3γ can protect against LPS-induced cardiomyocyte damage,and the mechanism is related to phosphorylating Bad,releasing Bcl-2 to mitochondria,and inhibiting mPTP opening.


1. Although population surveys often provide information on multiple species, these data are rarely analysed within a multiple-species framework despite the potential for more efficient estimation of population parameters. 2. We have developed a multiple-species modelling framework that uses similarities in capture/detection processes among species to model multiple species data more parsimoniously. We present examples of this approach applied to distance, time of detection and multiple observer sampling for avian point count data. 3. Models that included species as a covariate and individual species effects were generally selected as the best models for distance sampling, but group models without species effects performed best for the time of detection and multiple observer methods. Population estimates were more precise for no-species-effect models than for species-effect models, demonstrating the benefits of exploiting species' similarities when modelling multiple species data. Partial species-effect models and additive models were also useful because they modelled similarities among species while allowing for species differences. 4. Synthesis and applications. We recommend the adoption of multiple-species modelling because of its potential for improved population estimates. This framework will be particularly beneficial for modelling count data from rare species because information on the detection process can be 'borrowed' from more common species. The multiple-species modelling framework presented here is applicable to a wide range of sampling techniques and taxa.


Today, both the concept of the web and of applications are heavily intertwined.
Their union is embodied by web applications that allow the user to perform various
operations, or more generally, do work over the web. On the application layer,
communication often uses the HTTP protocol via its basic methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE and HEAD).
Since web traffic is slowly moving from desktop computers to smart phones and tablets,
it is advisable to build web applications with these devices in mind.
The main purpose or goal of this thesis is the development of a web application
that will allow users to register, upload and edit pictures or photos. The editing
will be triggered with a request to the server, which will call a specific function
in a program called ImageMagick.
A mobile app will be also available to the users, which will enable direct
storing of photos, taken with their mobile phone or tablet, in their account.


INTRODUCTION :
The management of patients with heart failure is an important issue in
cardiology. The cost of healthcare associated with management and hospitalization
is substantial. Device therapy for patients refractory to medical therapy focuses on
improving the clinical outcome and quality of life.
Normally Electrical activation and conduction through the His Purkinje
network occurs fast. This results in synchronous mechanical contraction of the
heart. Many diseases of the heart produce changes in the temporal sequence of
early and late systolic contraction of different regions of the myocardium1. This
results in abnormal contraction pattern due to the resultant electromechanical
dyssynchrony. This causes an increase in the duration of QRS on ECG.
Some studies report mechanical dyssynchrony in a subgroup of patients with
diastolic heart failure2 too. Dyssynchrony has also been reported in some patients
with heart failure and decreased ejection fraction and a normal QRS duration3.
The differential regional activation and dyssynchronous left ventricular
contraction by decreasing ejection and relaxation has the net effect of reduced
cardiac output. Work efficiency of the myocardium is also decreased because of
the dyssynchrony.
Heart failure is associated with alterations in the local and systemic neuro
hormonal milieu playing an important role in pathological remodeling and changes
at the cellular level1,4. Superimposition of electrical conduction delay and
mechanical dyssynchrony over this setting results in additive effects and creates
complex pathological changes and increased propensity to arrhythmias.
AIMS & OBJECTIVES :
To assess the prevalence of inter and intraventricular dyssynchrony in
patients with heart failure and Normal QRS duration echocardiographically using
M mode and Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI).
CONCLUSION ;
1. Intra and interventricular dyssynchrony occur in a significant proportion
of heart failure patients with a QRS duration of 120 ms or less. The
prevalence of intra ventricular electromechanical dyssynchrony was 23%
and interventricular dyssynchrony 16 %
2. Among the indices of intraventricular dyssynchrony, The dyssynchrony
index(Ts-SD) and peak velocity difference
(Ts diff ) show good inter parameter correlation compared to septal
posterior wall motion delay SPWMD.
3. There is no association between the QRS duration and the dyssynchrony
parameters in the study.
4. There is no association between interventricular dyssynchrony and
intraventricular dyssynchrony.


Water-soluble, stable quantum dots consisting of a CdTe core with shells of CdS and ZnS have been prepared using a simple successive injection of precursors in one-pot technique. The particles exhibited type II behaviour and were successfully used in imaging HeLa cells.


Osteoma is a poorly understood benign bone tumour, the truly neoplastic origin of which has been debated by several authors. Some scientists underline its relationship with hyperostosis. Other authors deny the existence of osteoma as an autonomous nosographic entity. Cranial osteoma, single or multiple, is frequently found in ancient human bones from archaeological excavations. To clarify the true nature of this pathologic osseous neoformation, the author examines the occurrence of osteomata in other extant vertebrates. Comparative pathology shows that it is particularly frequent in fishes. Palaeopathological examination of fossil animals documents the great antiquity of this pathology: in fact osteoma was demonstrated on the body of a cervical vertebra from a Cretaceous mosasaur. The author found evidence of osteomata in many fossil fishes of the Miocene and the Pliocene, and also in some mammal remains. Histologic and radiographic analyses demonstrate the presence of common morphologic characteristics in the lesions in different species and different time period. In conclusion, the study shows that human osteomata (mainly cranial) have a long history and are a pathology found in many other vertebrates. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective: To identify the morphological changes of the stratum intermedium in the developing tooth of postnatal mice.Methods: BALB/c postnatal mice were applied to studying the development of stratum intermedium by HE.Then an electron microscope was carried out to elucidate the ultrastructural changes of stratum intermedium during the secretion of enamel.Results: Stratum intermedium had two or three cells layers during the late bell stage.Sslight rough endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondrion in cytoplasm were observed.At this stage,the inner enamal epithelium was columnar,and the rough endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria increased in number.Desmosomes junctions between the inner enamel epithelium and the stratum intermedium cells were also studied,which increased greatly with advanced secretion from the beginning of differentiation to the formation of enamel.Then with the completion of the process,stratum intermedium underwent thinning and involution.The intercellular space became porous and organeleas were also less than before.Conclusion: Stratum intermedium plays an important regulating role during the differentiation of ameloblast and the normal formation of enamel morphous,which also indicates that the stratum intermedium may have transport and supporting functions during the amelification.


The invention relates to a fungus, in particular to a Bifidobacterium animalis provided with the functions of immune stimulation and adjustment of an intestinal microorganism flora. The invention belongs to the microorganism product technical field. The preservation No. of the Bifidobacterium animalis is CGMCC No.1904; the preservation date is December 30th, 2006; and the preservation unit is Common Microorganism Center of China Committee for Culture Collection of Microorganisms. The product source of the invention is intestinal canals of healthy people, thereby the Bifidobacterium animalis has good resistance on acids, cholate and manual simulation digestive juice, has binding capacity on epithelial cells of the intestinal canals and has the functions of immune stimulation and adjustment of the intestinal microorganism flora.


Knowledge on the zoogeography of the amphibians of Croatia, as well as on their ecology,
 has been rather scarce and based on papers dealing with this subject in the framework of the
 research about the distribution of amphibians and reptiles in Croatia, without going deeper
 into the zoogeographical issues. This is quite understandable since the knowledge on
 distribution and composition of amphibian fauna for many parts of Croatia has been
 insufficient, regardless of the fact that mainly unsystematic explorations were conducted
 already since the 19th century. It is only recently that enough data have been collected to
 enable the production of more precise distribution maps of amphibian taxa. This thesis gives
 precise distribution maps for each amphibian taxon, compares similarities in composition of
 amphibian fauna among various climazonal vegetation belts in Croatia and among various
 biomes. Beside ecological valences of each taxon, in Croatia recent distribution was largely
 influenced by Pleistocene and post-Pleistocene migrations. Based on analyses of distribution
 of Croatian amphibian taxa and their distribution in Croatian mesoregions, and analyses of
 their connection to certain ecological parameters, and by connecting those results with
 palaeonotological finds and results of the latest phylogenetic and pylogeographic research,
 this thesis proposes division of Croatia into six zoogeographically distinctive areas for
 amphibians.


of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy LOWER LEAF HARVESTING OPTIONS AND LEAF POSITION EFFECTS ON SOME AGRONOMIC, CHEMICAL, AND MINERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FLUE-CURED TOBACCO By Glenn Ralph Stocks December, 1991 Chairman: Dr. E.B. Whitty Major Department: Agronomy Lower leaf harvesting options are management tools of flue-cured tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) farmers that are determined by economic considerations. The lowest leaves of the flue-cured tobacco plant are the lowest in yield and value and some farmers choose not to harvest them because of their relatively low economic return. There are inherent differences in the agronomic, chemical, and mineral characteristics of tobacco leaves depending on where the leaves are positioned on the stalk. Pruning and discarding the lowest three or four leaves has been shown in some studies to not adversely affect total yield. However, pruning lower leaves reduced yield in another study. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of five lower leaf harvesting options on leaf position characteristics of flue-cured tobacco plants having exactly 21 leaves prior to pruning. The responses of leaf position parameters were evaluated under normal harvesting methods and a time after pruning study involving acquisition of ail leaves that remained on plants at a given period of time. Not harvesting the lower leaves reduced yield as total leaf number harvested declined, but average value per kilogram was increased because the lowest leaves were the lowest valued . No differences in leaf position yield or total non-structural carbohydrate concentration were found, leading to the conclusion that lower leaf harvesting treatments had no effect