As a theoretical basis for the evaluation of regional development policies which include capital subsidy in the form of low interest rate financing, we have the famous Borts's criteria. Borts's criteria, however, presuppose the existence of an immobile labor force as an idle resource in a specific region, and this assumption makes the criteria practically inapplicable to the situation of present-day Japan, where the interregional mobility of the labor force is extremely high. The only way to justify the meaningfulness of regional development policies which use subsidy in Japan is to take the nationwide dispersion of population as a supreme social-policy objective and to evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of alternative economic policies instead of using the cost — benefit approach of Borts's criteria. In the present paper, different intervention policies to attain a desired distribution of population between two regions are compared from the point of view of social cost as well as from that of the amount of subsidy (or tax) needed.


A brief review of existing methods of determining specific heats is given with reference to their suitability for poor conductors. The method of cooling, which has received scant attention in the past, is developed to afford an accurate and ready method. This is used to measure the specific heats of typical substances.


Numerous Mathematical models are being produced to predict the trend of spreading of corona virus disease (COVID19) epidemics in INDIA and worldwide, which has become a pandemic. On 23rd Feb 2020, first case of covid-19 was reported, when we were writing this paper cases crossing 70000 in India. We present here data driven models for COVID-19 in India where we used minimal number of parameters to provide insights into the spread of the disease. Here in this paper we are presenting the Susceptible-Infected (SI), Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR), SEIR and SEIR-D models, implemented on Python language with their transition diagrams. All four models presented here are related quantitatively and based on Indian data. In this paper our aim is to deliver an overview of these models and the outcome of simulation by using the dataset of Covid-19. Numbers of plots are presented here for analysis which makes the prediction easy.


Crop models have proven to be useful in establishing strategies to improve production under water-limiting conditions; however, this requires that models have accurate water balance. The objective of this paper was to evaluate various potential evapotranspiration (E0) equations and different ways of partitioning E0 between soil evaporation and crop transpiration within the DSSAT models and particularly the CROPGRO faba bean (Vicia faba L.) model. The default DSSAT E0 options of Priestley-Taylor (PT) and Penman-FAO (P-FAO24) as well as several equations based on Penman-Monteith theory, and an alternative E0 partitioning function were evaluated against measured time-series data on soil water content, actual evapotranspiration (ET), and crop biomass accumulation of faba bean grown under rainfed conditions in southwest Spain. We conclude (i) the PT option is reasonable but tends to overpredict ET, especially in early season, and its ET predictions are significantly improved when the extinction coefficient is reduced from its default value of 0.85 to 0.5; (ii) P-FAO24 is the least adequate to simulate ET and biomass; (iii) the Penman-Monteith reference method (PM-REF based on FAO no. 56 manual) gave good predictions for faba bean but tended to underpredict ET in other locations with soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]; and (iv) dynamic forms of the Penman-Monteith option that use crop-model-predicted leaf area index and height effects on aerodynamic and surface resistance to water vapor transport also gave good predictions. For this crop and environment, ET prediction accuracy with all the ET options except the PM-REF was improved using a 0.5 extinction coefficient for net radiation.


Introduction: Using Google Trends (GT) data, the trend variations for the most common antibiotics used to treat uncomplicated cystitis were analyzed by time and region since 2004. Methods: GT was used to create a "line-graph" that shows how interest in a topic in certain locations has grown or decreased over time. The relative search volume, which is displayed on a scale of 0–100, was used to index the search values for specific phrases. Nitrofurantoin (NFN), fosfomycin (FOS), trimethoprim (TMP), pivmecillinam (PIV), and cefadroxil are among the antibiotics recommended by the European Association of Urology (EAU) and the American Urological Association for the treatment of uncomplicated cystitis. Using the "global" inquiry category, the data was searched "worldwide" from 1 February 2004 to 31 December 2021. Results: In the regression analysis, all antibiotics exhibited positive trends (p < 0.05). With a steady rise in popularity, NFN is the most popular antibiotic today. Search trend for cefadroxil stayed nearly stable until 2012, the rate of rise in the last 10 years increased, and cefadroxil is the second most popular antibiotic. In the previous 5 years, there was a decline in interest in TMP. In recent years, there was an increase in the trends for FOS and PIV. Conclusion: Clinicians and patients all around the world increasingly use the web to search for antibiotic therapies for uncomplicated cystitis. Antibiotics used to treat uncomplicated cystitis have various trends in different continents throughout the world. The web trends seem to be compatible with daily use.


The pathogenicity of two isolates (FS1 and FS2) of the Fusarium solani isolated from diseased chickpea plants harvested from two different regions from Morocco, which were identified morphologically and molecular, was evaluated as the severity, incidence and index of the disease. The results show that the two isolates tested were able to induce symptoms in both parts of the plant (root and aerial), of the seven chickpea varieties ('Garbanzo', 'Farihane', 'Moubarak', 'Douyet', 'Rizki', 'Arifi' and 'Zahour'), which were associated with a reduction in all measured agronomic parameters. However, the intensity of the symptoms depends on the combination of the variety and the isolate of Fusarium. It appears that the FS2 isolate affected the 'Moubarak' variety much more, while the pathogenicity of the FS2 isolate was more pronounced on the 'Rizki' variety. The increase in the leaf damage index as a function of time is due to the evolution of leaf yellowing through several physiological stages (necrosis, stunting, wilting, leaf fall), before causing plant death. At the end of the experiment, the re-isolation of the two Fusarium isolates from the four vegetative parts of all inoculated varieties was positive.


Results are described of a design study investigating the feasibility of using high-pressure water-jet cutting in continuous mining of coal in underground mines. In the report, a design concept is developed in which eight water jets would be mounted on a modified Goodman 968 loader with standard gathering headarms and drive. In the design, four double acting intensifiers feed the eight jets at 50,000 psi with a flow rate of 28.8 gpm. A traversing mechanism is described which would move the jets across the face of 30 ips in a programmed cutting pattern. In this type of machine, there is a marked reduction in the amount of respirable dust generated when mining with water. This significantly reduces the occurrence of pneumoconiosis or black lung. It is inherently incapable of igniting methane gas accumulations by metal bits striking pyrites or slate. No sparking is possible when the water stream impacts the rock. Furthermore, economies in mining coal may be effected since the tool wear is minimal. The wear of a nozzle through which clean water flows is markedly less than the abrasion that takes place when bits rub against rock. (GRA)


....................................................................................................................................... 2 Problem Statement .................................................................................................................... 4 Background Information .......................................................................................................... 5 History of Mazes....................................................................................................................... 5 History of the IEEE Micromouse ............................................................................................ 8 Hardware .................................................................................................................................... 10 Block Diagram ........................................................................................................................ 10 Motors ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Power ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Sensors .................................................................................................................................... 30 Chassis .................................................................................................................................... 38 Software...................................................................................................................................... 39 Flowchart ................................................................................................................................. 39 Algorithm.................................................................................................................................. 40 Testing and Simulation........................................................................................................... 45 GP2D120 IR Distance Sensor ............................................................................................. 45 Button Debounce.................................................................................................................... 48 Social Implications .................................................................................................................. 50 Safety and Ethics ..................................................................................................................... 54 Economics ................................................................................................................................. 57 Future Work ............................................................................................................................... 58 Conclusions............................................................................................................................... 59 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. 60 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 61 Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 63 Schematic ................................................................................................................................ 63 Datasheets .............................................................................................................................. 66 Rules ........................................................................................................................................ 69


Opinions differ on the empirical success of the Ideal Free Distribution. The Ideal Free model predicts that the distribution of organisms between resource sites should match the distribution of resources. Many studies report support for this prediction. We review tests of this model utilising a method of analysis derived from the psychological principle called the matching law. Our reanalysis revealed that the distribution of organisms is consistently less extreme than the distribution of resources. This systematic deviation from the Ideal Free Distribution means organisms underuse richer sites and overuse poorer sites. We examine how deviations from the Ideal Free Distribution may arise as a consequence of discrimination constraints, competitive interactions, competitive asymmetries and travel between sites, and recommend ways in which the design of future tests of the Ideal Free Distribution may be improved.


In this work, a polarization conversion metasurface is proposed, which can convert linearly polarized electromagnetic (EM) waves into cross-polarized waves in ultra-wideband at high polarization conversion efficiency. The proposed sandwiched metasurface, composed of a top anisotropic resonator structure, an intermediate dielectric substrate, and a bottom metallic ground, has an extremely thin thickness (only 6.6% of the longest wavelength of the working frequency range). Both numerical simulation and experimental results illustrate that the metasurface can work in the ultra-wideband (ranging from 9.04 to 20.83 GHz) with a high polarization conversion ratio (>0.9). Polarization conversion in a wide bandwidth is attributed to multiple resonances in the operating frequency range. Additionally, the proposed metasurface also shows good performance for oblique incidence. It is expected that the designed metasurface will be more convenient for integration within ultra-thin EM devices.


As one of the biometric recognition systems, gait recognition aims to recognize the human gait style on-the-go when they walk. The Kinect sensor is a new camera originally designed for game play, which recently has been focused on by researchers, especially for gait based recognition methods. This study focuses on using Kinect sensor for extracting gait signatures to be used for gait recognition purposes. Moreover a new feature set is extracted by calculating Euclidean distance between each pair of 20 joint points, followed by the application of various statistical moments during one gait cycle, called the Euclidean Distance Feature (EDF). The extracted feature vector is a high dimensional feature set. Therefore, we need to decrease the dimensions of the feature set, hence we applied, Principal Component Analysis followed by Linear Discriminant Analysis. Finally, the Linear Discriminant Classifier (LDC) and Nearest Neighbors (NN) are used separately as classification methods. The results indicated that the proposed method achieves a significant result and provides a 92% recognition accuracy


Introduction Ozone is a powerful drinking water disinfectant that is effective in treating chlorine resistant organisms, such as Cryptosporidia [1]. For bottled water, ozonation is generally preferred over other available disinfection treatment methods because it does not leave a taste or residual disinfectant, due to the short lifetime of ozone [2,3]. Ozone also improves the quality of finished drinking water, by reducing filtered water turbidity and decreasing the formation of many halogenated disinfection by-products. However, ozonation of drinking water containing bromide can result in the formation of the disinfection by-product bromate, a potential human carcinogen even at low μg/L concentrations [4]. The US EPA and European Commission have established a regulatory maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 μg/L bromate in drinking waters [5,6]. In the US, bottled water is considered a food product and is, therefore, regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act [7]. In 2001, the US FDA also established an MCL of 10 μg/L bromate in bottled drinking water [7]. More recently, the European Commission set a lower MCL of 3 μg/L bromate for natural mineral waters and spring waters treated by ozonation [8]. However, these limits were based on the feasibility of detection and removal, even though studies suggest concentrations lower than 1 μg/L pose increased lifetime cancer risks [4,9]. Ion chromatography (IC) plays an important role in the analysis of ozone-treated drinking water. Bromate can be separated using different IC column chemistries and detected using a variety of detection techniques. Which one to use primarily depends on the sample and detection limits required. When matrix conditions allow, suppressed conductivity detection is the easiest method to use. Otherwise, several strategies can be used to increase signal and deal with interfering anions by a combination of eluent, column and detection methods as summarized in Table 1.


Review(s) of: African Mining: Papers presented at the Conference held in Zimbabwe, August/September 1987. Published by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy.


A light extraction substrate for an organic light-emitting device (OLED) which can improve the brightness of a display or an illumination system to which an OLED is applied by improving light extraction efficiency and a method of manufacturing the same. The light extraction substrate for an OLED includes an oxide or nitride thin film formed on a substrate body. The oxide or nitride thin film includes a base layer formed on the substrate body, a first texture formed on the base layer, the first texture having a plurality of first protrusions which protrude continuously or discontinuously from the base layer, and a second texture having a plurality of second protrusions which protrude continuously or discontinuously from each outer surface of the first protrusions.


The Border Gateway Protocol is a crucial component of the Internets routing infrastructure. BGP is universally responsible for distributing routing information between Autonomous Systems. But because BGP lacks a scalable means of verifying the legitimacy and authenticity of routing traffic, it provides no protection from denial-ofservice attacks. This paper identifies and discusses three secure routing protocol proposals that are intended to replace BGP in providing network routing. The three protocols under consideration are Secure–BGP, Feedback-Based Routing, and the Secure Origin BGP. Several performance analysis questions by which these protocols are measured against are defined. The intent of these questions is to focus on three categories: the proposal's robustness, scalability, and deployability. The protocols are scored for each category, and this paper concludes with a discussion of the results of the performance analysis.


Synopsis: In order to operate conduction-cooled HTS coils wound with REBCO-coated conductors stably without thermal runaway, the coil should not have any degraded area in the winding, and the flux flow characteristics should be calculated numerically. However, the delamination characteristics of short wire, which are considered to be a significant factor in degradation, are inconsistent with the results of thermal stress analysis. Therefore, we newly proposed a method for evaluation of the allowable design range of the coil without degradation. This method is characterized by use of the test results of small model coils differing in the ratio of outer diameter and inner diameter. Additionally, we measured the flux flow characteristics of a dry coil and performed numerical calculation for turn-to-turn. The calculated values were in good agreement with the measured ones.


Eye Gaze Affects Vocal Intonation Mimicry Marie Postma-Nilsenov´a (firstname.lastname@example.com) Tilburg center for Cognition and Communication (TiCC), Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB Tilburg Tilburg, The Netherlands Niek Brunninkhuis (firstname.lastname@example.com) Tilburg center for Cognition and Communication (TiCC), Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB Tilburg Tilburg, The Netherlands Eric Postma (email@example.com) Tilburg center for Cognition and Communication (TiCC), Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB Tilburg Tilburg, The Netherlands Abstract According to the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), in social interaction, people adjust their vocal char- acteristics to accommodate to each other (Giles, Coupland, & Coupland, 1991). Support for CAT came from a study by (Gregory & Webster, 1996), who analyzed Larry King Live television interviews. The results revealed that depending on the relative status of the interviewed guest, Larry King mim- icked the vocal characteristics of his guests (in case of high status guests) or the guests mimicked the vocal characteris- tics of Larry King (in case of low status guests). In general, speakers who are perceived as attractive, likable and/or dom- inant influence listeners' pitch output, and pitch convergence can be seen as an indicator of cooperative behavior in commu- nication dyads (Okada, Lachs, & Boone, 2012). Pitch diver- gence, on the other hand, suggests that speakers may wish to be viewed as dissimilar and increase social distance between themselves (Babel, 2009). Eye gaze and behavioral mimicry are important foundations of social interaction. Inspired by recent studies on eye-gaze me- diated spontaneous behavioral mimicry of gestures, we studied the effect of eye gaze direction on vocal mimicry. Participants were instructed to repeat digits spoken by a virtual agent with a direct or averted eye gaze. As a measure of imitation, the vocal pitch was recorded and analyzed in order to determine if and to what extent vocal mimicry was modulated by eye gaze. The results showed that eye gaze direction affects vocal mimicry as measured by pitch slope. That is, when partici- pants were exposed to an agent that gazed at them directly, they accommodated their intonation more to that of the agent, than when they were exposed to an agent that averted its gaze. These results suggest that in social interaction with a virtual agent, humans mimic vocal intonation and that the degree of mimicry depends on the eye-gaze direction of the agent. The implications for studies of social interaction are discussed. Keywords: Eye Gaze; Vocal Mimicry; Virtual Agent 1. Introduction In social interaction, eye gaze direction and behavioral mimicry are powerful nonverbal social signals (Stass & Willis Jr, 1967; Kendon, 1967; Scherer, 1974; Cook & Smith, 1975; Fukayama, Ohno, Mukawa, Sawaki, & Hagita, 2002; Mason, Tatkow, & Macrae, 2005; Baaren, Janssen, Char- trand, & Dijksterhuis, 2009; Wang, 2012). Among different types of nonverbal cues, vocal pitch mimicry appears to play a fundamental role. The results of a range of experimental studies suggest that speakers effortlessly imitate and converge to the phonetic properties of recently heard speech (Delvaux & Soquet, 2007; Gentilucci & Bernardis, 2007; Natale, 1975; Pardo, 2006; Shockley, Sabadini, & Fowler, 2004), includ- ing pitch (Babel & Bulatov, 2012; Goldinger, 1998; Gorisch, Wells, & Brown, 2012). Pitch – the perceptual correlate of fundamental frequency (F 0 ) – is, arguably, the most impor- tant vocal source of information regarding emotions, stands and attitudes of the speaker. The F 0 region thus provides acoustic information for imitation exploited in promoting so- cial convergence and status accommodation (Gregory, 1983; Gregory, Webster, & Huang, 1993; Gregory & Webster, 1996; Gregory, Dagan, & Webster, 1997; Haas & Gregory, 2005; Pardo, 2006) and expressing ingroup-outgroup bias (Babel, 2009; Pardo, Gibbons, Suppes, & Krauss, 2012). Interestingly, empirical studies have shown that in social interactions, the direction of eye gaze influences the degree of behavioral mimicry (Kleinke & Pohlen, 1971; Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). A striking demonstration of the direct link between eye gaze direction and behavioral mimicry is due to Wang, Newport, and Hamilton (2011). In their study, par- ticipants were presented with a movie of an actress that ei- ther looked directly at the camera or averted her gaze from the camera. In both conditions there were movies of the ac- tress opening her hand and movies in which she closed her hand. At the beginning of each trial, participants were in- structed to either open or close their hand. The instructed hand movements could be congruent or incongruent with the displayed hand movements of the actress. After receiving the instruction, participants had to make the hand movement as quickly as possible. They were not instructed to mimic the hand movement of the actress. Not surprisingly, par- ticipants were significantly faster in making congruent hand movements than in making incongruent ones. Interestingly, though, the congruent hand movements in the direct gaze con- dition were considerably faster than those in the averted gaze condition, whereas for the incongruent hand movements gaze direction had no effect. These findings reveal that eye contact has a quick and specific effect on action mimicry.


PURPOSE
To determine the occurrence of BRAF V600E gene mutations and copy number changes of all autosome arms and genes known to be frequently altered in tumorigenesis in primary and metastatic conjunctival melanomas (CoMs).

METHODS
DNA (200 ng) was analyzed by three multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification assays (P027 uveal melanoma, P036 human telomere, and P206 spitzoid melanoma).

RESULTS
Eight of 16 primary tumor samples and 4 of 6 metastatic samples showed BRAF V600E gene mutations. CDKN1A and RUNX2 (both 6p21.2) were amplified in 11 and 16 of 21 primary CoMs, respectively. In metastatic CoMs, MLH1 (3p22.1) and TIMP2 (17q25.3) were frequently amplified, and MGMT (20q26.3) and ECHS1 (10q26.3) were frequently deleted. The BDH (3q), FLJ20265 (4p), OPRL1 (20q), and PAO (10q) genes, representing the telomeres of their respective chromosome arms in the P036 assay, were frequently amplified in metastatic CoMs. No statistically significant associations were identified between BRAF mutation or CDKN1A or RUNX2 amplification and sex, age, histologic cell type, or patient survival.

CONCLUSIONS
No copy number changes were associated exclusively with metastatic CoMs. However, further investigation of the role of CDKN1A and RUNX2 in CoMs development and that of MLH1, TIMP2, MGMT, and ECHS1 in metastatic CoMs is warranted. Validation of the observed gene and chromosome arm copy number changes in a larger cohort of primary and metastatic CoMs is necessary to identify the patients at highest risk for CoMs metastasis.


In this paper, a framework for replacing missing values in a database is proposed since a real-world database is seldom complete. Good data quality in a database can directly improve the performance of any data mining algorithm in various applications. Our proposed framework adopts the basic concepts from conditional probability theories and further develops an algorithm to facilitate the capability of handling both nominal and numerical values, which addresses the problem of the inability of handling both nominal and numerical values with a high degree of accuracy in the existing algorithms. Several experiments are conducted and the experimental results demonstrate that our framework provides a high accuracy when compared with most of the commonly used algorithms such as using the average value, using the maximum value, and using the minimum value to replace missing values.


This study is concerned with the process of urban renewal of the central area of Holy Makkah. It overviews principle problems of re newal and then it delineates the goal of the study which is the provision of integrated principles to deal with renewal problems. These principles can then be embodied in an urban renewal design which is sensitive to the un ique attributes of the area and the different dimensions related to it such as functional, cultural. environmental. social, and economic ones. The Study methodology relies basically on field studies and the analysis. and evaluation of the existing conditions. It also explores solutions to crys talize the contribution that the suggested principles could contribute.


Summary A new approach to the coding of medical nomenclature is described: According to this approach, medical terms would be coded in a free-standing fashion similarly as entries in most dictionaries. A general or master catalogue would serve as the operational basis for specialty field catalogues, each containing medical terms closely related. Thus, a symptom catalogue would contain only those terms which are used to describe patient complaints. Specific disease entities would have "blue prints" listed in a so-called "Lexicon". The disease code would be appended by a digit indicating the accuracy of diagnosis and generated by comparing the patient's data with the disease's blue print. The proposed scheme could eliminate many shortcomings of presently employed coding systems.


We present a method for recovering from syntax errors encountered during parsing. The method provides a form of minimum distance repair, has linear time complexity, and is completely automatic. It is incorporated into the LR parser-generator yacc in such a way that the compiler writer can generate a parser with recovery without providing any additional information to yacc |Error messages phrased in terms of source input are generated automatically. We present a formal method for evaluating the performance of error recovery methods, based on global minimum-distance error correction, and show that the error recovery method presented achieves a theoretically best performance on 80 percent of Pascal programs in the Ripley-Druseikis collection.


One of the factors in the lack of widespread clinical use of membrane oxygenators, has been the high cost of the units.


The openings offered by functional genomics reconciles organism biology and molecular biology, in order to define an integrative biology that should allow new insights about how a phenotype is built up from a genotype in interaction with its environment. This book covers a wide area of concepts and methods in genomics. This range from international genome sequencing projects to invaluable bioinformatics tools, analytical methods of gene expression, including final metabolic products, and their specific tissue to cellular compartmentalization. This new knowledge enables readers to understand the integration of basic physiological functions, and developmental programs. Also, the establishment of tight relationships between genomics, and genetics and plant breeding reveals synergies for exploiting molecular markers, for analysing genetic variation, or for studying quantitative traits. The integration that is now feasible by these new approaches also effects ecophysiology, and opens up new perspectives for the use of modelling for the study of plant populations. This book will contribute to the dissemination of these new practices. This book is intended for advanced students in biology and agronomy, their lecturers, and for all scientists who wish to understand plant genomics rapidly, in a relatively exhaustive and synthetic form.


This research work allowed knowing concepts of the study variables starting with the problem statement at the institutional level, where the problem was searched. It was proposed the objectives; general objective to determine how paratexts affect the development of language macro-skills and specific objectives to identity strategies, to strengthen macro-skills, to propose didactic activities, which will be achieved the end of the investigation. It was justified the research determining because it is important, relevant, feasible, useful, and beneficiaries of it, who are 32 children of third grade Basic Education from "21 de Abril" school. The theoretical framework was sought in the library of the University related to the proposed topics, in the rationales are detailed the main, which are the philosophical, epistemological, psychological, and legal, which is within the framework of the constitutional laws of the country. In the theoretical foundation were determined important and broad concepts for further expand knowledge through the two study variables. It was used the inductive and deductive methodology, which was used to compare the study variables. The type of research was descriptive, design of field research and bibliographic because it was investigated directly with the involved, the population was children 7-8 years no sample was taken. The applied technique was the observation sheet, which allowed by the observation how children are developed in their classrooms. Once information has been collected, it was proceeded to tabulate by statistical charts, which were graphically represented with their analysis and interpretation. The conclusions was determined, where children have difficulties in respect of the macro-skills where it is suggested to work in an appropriate manner applying techniques and methods which allow achieving meaningful learning.


The paper explores the different ideological frames that exist around sustainable consumption. Frames are a way of making sense of certain strips of activity, and can be used to interpret different ideological approaches. Through a grounded theory approach, the study analysed blockbuster environmental films and Facebook fan pages to explore how sustainability was framed within these cultural resources. Using Snow and Benford's (1988) framing methodology, the paper outlines the contrasting frames that exist around sustainable consumption, and highlights implications for social marketing campaigns.


Pharmacognostic investigation of fresh, powdered and anatomical sections of leaf, stem and root of Persea americana Mill (Lauraceae), were carried out to determine its macroscopic, microscopic, chemomicroscopical features as well as the physicochemical and phytochemical profile. The macromorphological parts showed alternate, simple and broad with a lanceolate – oblong shape, swollen petiole at the base, margin is entire, slightly undulated and waxy, apex is acuminate with an acute leaf base. The leaf is glossy, pubescent and dark green with a slightly disagreeable smell. The stem has a hard texture, rough fracture, superficially cracked or inconspicuously fissured and peels off in thick pieces with a disagreeable smell. The root has a long and unbranched tapped root plus a dense mass of superficial feeder roots, light brown in colour with a disagreeable smell and rough fracture. The microscopy of the powdered leaf revealed the following features: Anisocytic stomata, epidermal cells, prisms of calcium oxalate, unicellular trichome, starch granules, fibres, bundle of fibres with calcium oxalate crystals, reticulate vessels. The powdered stem revealed the following; Cork cell in surface view, bundle of fibres, single fibre, prism of calcium oxalate crystals, sclereids and the powdered root revealed the following features: Bundle of fibres, cork cell in surface view, prism of calcium oxalate crystal, bundle of fibres with calcium oxalate crystals, single pitted fibre with lumen. Chemomicroscopical analysis or investigation revealed the presence of lignin, starch, suberized wall, fibres, calcium oxalate crystals, and tannins for leaf, stem and root. The result of the analytical standards of the powdered leaves, stem and root gave moisture content of 5.70, 7.70 and 6.20 %; total ash 10.55, 9.70 and 10.80 %; acid insoluble ash 1.78, 1.99 and 1.55 %; alcohol extractive of 0..75, 1.02 and 0.85 %, water extractive 0.83, 2.14 and 0.58 % and sulphated ash 7.15, 6.40 and 5.50 % respectively. The preliminary phytochemical analysis of the leaf, stem and root revealed the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloids, saponins, glycosides, resins, tannins steroids, oils, flavonoids and terpenoids. These findings are of importance in the establishment of diagnostic indices for the identification and standardization of the plant.


The flow behavior model for 3D scaffold fabrication in the polymer deposition process by the heating method was developed for enhanced efficiency of the deposition process. The analysis of the polymer flow property is very important in the fabrication process of precise micro-structures such as scaffolds. In this study, a deposition model considering fluid mechanics and heat transfer phenomena was built up and introduced for the estimation of the fluid behavior of molten polymer. The effectiveness of the simulation model was verified through comparison with the experimental result in the case of PCL biomaterial. In addition, the effects of various parameters, such as pressure, temperature and nozzle size, were predicted through simulation before experimental approaches. Through the fabrication of 3D scaffold, it is concluded that this model is useful in predicting the flow behavior characteristics in the micro-structure fabrication process, which is based on the heating method.


Monolayers of collagen isolated from the sclera of the eyes of a pig were studied at the water-air interface upon the variation of subphase pH from 3.0 to 12.0 and the variation of concentration of KCl in the subphase up to 4.0 M. It was shown that the two-dimensional pressure isotherms for collagen monolayers are characterized by regions of liquid-expanded and liquid-condensed states with a clearly pronounced plateau dividing these regions. The plateau reflects the formation of fibrils from horizontally oriented single collagen molecules. The largest collapse pressure π c (60 mN/m) of a monolayer composed of fibrils at the water surface is observed in the protein isoelectric state and decreases while passing to the acidic and alkaline regions due to the electrostatic repulsion of macromolecules. As the ionic strength of a subphase increases to 4.0 M KCI, π c rises to 69.6 mN/m. Hysteresis of isotherms was found for monolayers constituted both from fibrils and fibers formed by fibrils. The compression moduli of elasticity of collagen monolayers were calculated at various pH and KCl concentrations. The largest value of the modulus of elasticity is typical of a collagen monolayer in the isoelectric state. It was concluded that self-assembling, two-dimensional structures are formed from collagen molecules and fibrils at the surface of water.


Objective:To synthesize BP897, a dopamine D3 receptor partial agonist. Methods: Starting from diethanolamine, BP897 was prepared via chlorination, cyclization, substitution, aminolysis and condensation reaction. Results:The total yield was 40. 2% . The structure was verified by 1HNMR, MS and IR. Conclusion:A synthetic procedure with mild reactive conditions and cheaper starting rea gents for BP897 is achieved.


This paper propounds that the primary role of asphalt fillers is to combine with the binder component of a mix to produce a bituminous mortar or mastic of appropriate properties rather than just filling the remaining voids within the aggregate framework. Data from laboratory investigations conducted to date which support this proposition are presented.


In multi-robot systems, it is very important to maintain the network connectivity for cooperative behavior between robots. This paper describes a new method for deployment of wireless relay nodes. When applying rescue robots in building or underground city, connecting communication range is attenuated. In the paper, we divide multi-robot by leader robot, source robot, and relay robot. Using these robots, we propose communication control algorithm for connecting network communication.


Saline solutions of calf thymus DNA have been heated at 100℃ for different periods and the change in viscosity followed in comparison with the changes in its affinity for two basic dyes, methyl green and pyronin. Under our experimental conditions, it is less likely that a molecular degradation of DNA has taken place in heat denaturation, but such treatment brought about a decrease in the quantity of methyl green bound to DNA up to about 50%. It can be inferred, therefore, that the affinity of DNA for methyl green depends, to a great extent, on the molecular spatial configuration of the former, or more concretely, on the double helix structure.The type of binding curves of methyl green by native and by some heat-denatured DNA's has been explored on the basis of a general theory of the interaction of a large polymeric molecule with small molecules.On summarizing all the results obtained a mechanism of binding of methyl green by DNA has been proposed.A competition has been observed between methyl green and pyronin in the double binding process by DNA, with the former predominating over the latter. From these results and from the difference in the chemical structures of these two dyes we may suggest that pyronin would not set up such strict claim to the molecular spatial configuration of DNA as in the case of methyl green.


This paper proposes a generic SATCOM control loop in a generic multivector structure to facilitate predictive analysis for achieving resiliency under time varying circumstances. The control loop provides strategies and actions in the context of game theory to optimize the resources for SATCOM networks. Details of the theoretic game and resources optimization approaches are discussed in the paper.


Most donor deferrals are due to low hemoglobin (Hb) levels. Previously measured Hb levels and donation intervals are known to be associated with Hb deferral. However, this relationship has never been quantified. In this study, we related the prevalence of Hb deferral to previously measured Hb levels and donation intervals.


Objective:To study the curative effect of needle-Rnife tenolysis treating snapping thumb.Methods:Applying the needle-knife tenolysis treating 86 cases of snapping thumb via fixed-point streaking and hearing method based on the microanatomy and dynamic anatomy of tendon sheath and sesamoid bone of tendon of the snapping thumb.Results:86 patients were cured with the needle-knife tenolysis once.No injury and recourrence happened.Conclusion:The operator should perform the tenolysis via the approach of needle-knife to the tendon sheath along the safety line with the perfect coordination of eyes,hands and ears.The snapping thumb can be cured with the operation only once.This method can replace the tenolysis with surgcal operation and is worth popularizing.


Objectives: This study aimed to determine the cost-effectiveness ofinfluenza vaccination in people 65–74 years of age in the absence of comorbidity.


The article summarizes and compares the materials used for orthopedic joint orthoplasty. The issues related to manufacturing the implants as indigenous product are discussed. The article gives broad view of utility of materials that are used by Indian manufacturing companies for biomedical application The article discusses about the trends in Indian manufacturing scenario, and tries to give broad idea for possible improvements to be undertaken while  product design of implant ,with reference to increasing Indian market for implant manufacturers. The attempt is made to analyze the structural response of Zirconium and tantalum as implant for fixation. The Finite Element analysis gives preliminary bone implant response under flexural loads.


Altera, the encoder and decoder architecture is simulated to observe its functionality. The designing of the encoder and decoder is intended for uses in Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID passive interrogator.


In this short note we observe that if the cycles in a prime component of the cycle space of a compact complex manifold are uniformly definably in some o-minimal expansion of Ran, then the component is compact.


Background: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a lethal disease with limited therapeutic options. We have previously discovered LCK driving signaling through AXL, a TAM receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), by phosphoproteomic analysis of CCA (J Hepatol 2022). AXL mediates acquired drug resistance in solid cancers. However, the exact role of AXL in CCA still remains to be elucidated. Here, we investigated the significance of AXL expression as a potential therapeutic target in CCA and the role of phosphorylated AXL Y866.
 Methods: We first evaluated the expression levels of AXL in CCA and its associations with patient outcomes using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Next, to evaluate whether AXL inhibition sensitizes CCA cells to gemcitabine and cisplatin (GemCis) therapy, AXL downregulation was achieved via the siRNA approach and the selective inhibitor bemcentinib. We examined the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of HuCCT1, a well-characterized CCA cell line, on GemCis therapy with or without AXL knockdown using cell viability assay. Then we assessed the efficacy of the combinatorial therapy of GemCis and bemcentinib utilizing Calcusyn software. Apoptosis was evaluated by Annexin V assay. In vivo efficacy was assessed using an SB-1 (murine CCA cell line) and a syngeneic murine model of CCA treated with vehicle, GemCis, bemcentinib, and the combination of GemCis and bemcentinib. Finally, to investigate the role of AXL Y866 in CCA, we performed BioID to identify and compare the interactomes of AXL WT and AXL Y866F in HuCCT1 cells.
 Results: In the TCGA cohorts, AXL is significantly expressed in CCA (P < 0.01), and disease-free survival and overall survival in the low AXL expression group are significantly longer than those in the high AXL expression group (P = 0.04, 0.01). In in vitro study, the IC50 value of GemCis was decreased from 685nM to 129nM after AXL knockdown. A synergistic effect was observed with CI = 0.17 and Fa = 0.50 in the combinatorial therapy. The combinatorial therapy caused significantly increased apoptosis compared to GemCis or bemcentinib alone (P < 0.01, P < 0.01). In in vivo study, the combinatorial therapy significantly suppressed the tumor growth compared to GemCis or bemcentinib alone (P = 0.04, 0.01), and the expression levels of Ki67 and the phosphorylation levels of PEAK1 decreased in the combinatorial therapy group compared to other groups in immunostaining examination. In BioID experiments, among the 222 proteins detected in both AXL WT and AXL Y866F interactomes, PEAK1 kinase, which localizes to actin cytoskeleton and focal adhesions, was the kinase most affected by AXL Y866. In gene ontology analysis to characterize the interactome of AXL Y866, cell-cell adhesion and focal adhesion-related proteins were enriched.
 Conclusions: AXL inhibition sensitizes CCA cells to cytotoxic chemotherapy in the preclinical model. AXL Y866-PEAK1 signaling axis is a potential target for the treatment of CCA.
 Citation Format: Shohei Takaichi, Dong-Gi Mun, Jennifer L. Tomlinson, Amro M. Abdelrahman, Danielle M. Carlson, Alaa Abou Daher, Nathan W. Werneburg, Xinyan Wu, Akhilesh Pandey, Gregory J. Gores, Rory L. Smoot. Axl inhibition sensitizes cholangiocarcinoma cells to cytotoxic chemotherapy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 4996.


This work aims at investigating the improvement of performances that can be obtained by using a transportable large-area landmine-imaging device. It is made of modular detecting systems, which operation is based on radioisotopic neutron source(s), appropriate moderating and shielding structure(s) and a set of collimator-less direction sensitive scintillation detectors. These localize the prevailing directions of the prompt gammas that have energy values falling within selected windows. The key element of such a device is the ability to produce an image of the examined field of view in which the areas, respect to the surrounding soil, that produce energy patterns compatible with the components of the explosive substance are highlighted. Starting from the experience made with a small-scale 3D detector an extensive modeling activity has been started for designing a real-scale prototype module to be submitted to field tests.


The softened membrane model for torsion (SMMT) can predict the entire torque-twist curve, including the cracking point, for reinforced concrete members. In the SMMT, however, the cracking point has to be determined via a complicated iterative solution algorithm. This paper presents a step-by-step simplification of the SMMT and proposes a set of simple formulas for direct calculation of both cracking torque and twist. The formulas are validated with tests of 93 torsional specimens and compared with three other empirical formulas. Findings show that the proposed formulas are simple enough to be used for design purposes. They are also capable of producing more rational and accurate predictions than other empirical formulas.


Introduction 1. Language, Interpreters, and Official Translations in the Roman World 2. Livius Andronicus, Ennius, and the Beginnings of Epic Translation in Rome 3. Making a Show of the Greeks: Translation and Drama in the Third and Second Century Rome 4. Cicero's Impossible Translation: On the Best Type of Orator and Beyond 5. Late Republican and Augustan Poets on Translation: Catullus, Horace, Lucretius, and Germanicus Caesar 6. The Post-Ciceronian Landscape of Roman Translation Theory Conclusion: A Roman Theory of Translation?


BACKGROUND: The quality of life in the fast ageing population in the twentieth century is of great importance. Insomnia and melatonin levels in the geriatric population greatly affect sleep quality thereby also affecting blood pressure, mood changes and immune functions in this large segment of population. AIM: To study the effect of melatonin in elderly persons with insomnia  whether it restores sleep quality and sleep duration. METHODS: Insomnia is defined as inadequate sleep. Thirty subjects participated in the study, 20 females and 10 males. The study was conducted on subjects attending the OPD at the Nepalgunj Medical College & Teaching Hospital at Kohalpur between December 2008 and March 2010. Age group of the subjects ranged from 36 years to 80 years. All subjects were administered melatonin 3 mgm tablets before going to bed for 10 - 20 days. All data obtained were subjective relying on patient's recall and compliance. RESULTS: In 26 patients the quality of sleep was good and they felt relaxed and cheerful. In 15 patients melatonin was combined with alprazolam 0.25 mgm. Adverse effects were reported by a few subjects (like tachycardia, headache & depression). One case reported hypothermia. CONCLUSION: Melatonin has a beneficial effect in elderly subjects with insomnia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jucms.v1i3.8764  Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences Vol.1(3) 2013: 42-45


In April of this year agreement was reached between the British and the Australian Governments to build a 150-inch telescope for observations of the southern sky. The agreement specified that: (i) the telescope would be built at the Australian National University's present site at Siding Spring Observatory; (ii) the expected cost was $11 million and the telescope would be built and operated on a 50-50 basis as between the two Governments; (iii) the telescope would be virtually a copy of the existing Kitt Peak 150-inch design. This was intended to save the time usually needed for the design of a new telescope and, as we shall see, it might lead to considerable savings in cost.


The energy dependence of European Union (EU) countries on North Africa will change fundamentally by the year 2050. The fossil reserves of Algeria and Libya will be depleted and EU member states will have to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions under the framework convention on climate change (FCCC). Simultaneously, all the North African countries will be faced with demographic pressures, ecological problems, and water and food shortages, which may result in greater pressures for their people to try to migrate to the European Union. The declining income from fossil‐based energy will exacerbate these economic crises. Is there an alternative that guarantees external income for North African countries while facilitating the implementation of the FCCC by EU member states? This could lie in a shift from fossil to solar energy exports by cable or by using hydrogen as an energy carrier. Research and development and demonstration projects on renewable energy systems for the Mediterranean indicate the possibility ...


Purpose
Two disastrous Tsunamis, one on the west coast of Sumatra Island, Indonesia, in 2004 and another in North East Japan in 2011, had seriously destroyed a large number of bridges. Thus, experimental tests in a wave flume and a fluid structure interaction (FSI) analysis were constructed to gain insight into tsunami bore force on coastal bridges.

Design/methodology/approach
Various wave heights and shallow water were used in the experiments and computational process. A 1:40 scaled concrete bridge model was placed in mild beach profile similar to a 24 × 1.5 × 2 m wave flume for the experimental investigation. An Arbitrary Lagrange Euler formulation for the propagation of tsunami solitary and bore waves by an FSI package of LS-DYNA on high-performance computing system was used to evaluate the experimental results.

Findings
The excellent agreement between experiments and computational simulation is shown in results. The results showed that the fully coupled FSI models could capture the tsunami wave force accurately for all ranges of wave heights and shallow depths. The effects of the overturning moment, horizontal, uplift and impact forces on a pier and deck of the bridge were evaluated in this research.

Originality/value
Photos and videos captured during the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and the 2011 Japan tsunami showed solitary tsunami waves breaking offshore, along with an extremely turbulent tsunami-induced bore propagating toward shore with significantly higher velocity. Consequently, the outcomes of this current experimental and numerical study are highly relevant to the evaluation of tsunami bore forces on the coastal, over sea or river bridges. These experiments assessed tsunami wave forces on deck pier showing the complete response of the coastal bridge over water.


This doctoral thesis builds upon long-term and predominantly single-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted with Chechen and Ingush asylum seekers in one particular asylum centre in Eastern Poland between 2007 and 2009. It is concerned with some of the processes that constitute what some scholars have regarded as the unsettled and uprooted identity of refugees. Acknowledging that the thing that all immigrants from the North Caucasus had in common was the fact that their lives had been dramatically affected by the post-socialist Russo-Chechen wars, I consider war and displacement to be extreme disruptive events. Focusing on refugees' voices, their narratives, life stories, utterances, paintings, but also silences, I examine the variety of ways in which these subjects attempted to make sense of a world, which had been radically changed by violence. Besides, the thesis does not overlook that refugee identity is also produced through the historically specific institutional practices and discourses of those who take part in political and humanitarian intervention. After delineating the way in which the notion 'refugee' was constructed in post-socialist Poland, I describe this political-legal construction as it existed and reproduced itself in the context of everyday life. Last, I consider the way in which these definitions became part of refugees' lived experiences. Describing the people I encountered in the field—mostly refugees but also low-level bureaucrats, social workers, teachers, or local inhabitants of the surrounding urban and economically deprived neighbourhood—this doctoral thesis explores how violent disruption becomes integrated in the everyday life of victims of war and displacement within a specific political, socio-economic and historical setting.


Summary In November 1994, the Hertfordshire School Attendance Project, an initiative set up by the local authority's Education Welfare Service with the purpose of promoting regular school attendance, conducted a survey on school attendance in which 12 secondary schools participated. The survey was intended to establish how pupils responded to coming to school; to identify levels of truancy, including post‐registration truancy; to determine the reasons for such truancy; and to assist schools in developing appropriate and effective responses. The survey found that the overwhelming majority of pupils mostly liked school, attended regularly and were mostly happy with the curriculum which they were offered. The truancy that was located was confined mainly to Years 9, 10 and 11; it was neither widespread nor habitual in character, and appeared to be caused primarily by what might be termed 'lesson difficulty'. That is, the pupil involved either did not like or could not do a particular lesson and/or had a poor ...


With the powerful learning ability and computing ability, artificial intelligence can push personalized learning resources for learners after a comprehensive analysis of the collected big data, making the adaptive learning coefficient close to 1, for which learners can complete learning tasks in a more pleasant state and make more progress in study; AI-supported Multi-dimensional diagnostic evaluation and resource feedback of test proved to strengthen students' language cognition ability and promote the development of English learning.


This study aimed to evaluate the impact of an educational cognitive neuroscience intervention (NeuroStratE) focusing on teaching the functioning of the brain and practical tools to address the procrastination behavior of 199 students enrolled at university from 2019 to 2021. The evolution of procrastination behavior is measured by specific scales and the planning ability through the Tower of Hanoi test. We compared the change in procrastination behaviors and planning ability between the pre and post-test to those of a control group. Procrastination behavior reduction and planning ability improved more in the students who followed the intervention (N = 179) than those in the control group (N = 20). Using mixed methods, these results were qualitatively refined with student feedback on the value of the intervention program, along with individual student interviews. This study highlights that it is particularly courses of procrastination and associated practical tools which contributed to reduced procrastination behavior and improved the planning ability.


This paper considers a cognitive mobile edge computing (MEC) system with an energy-harvesting wireless device (WD) and an MEC server (MS). In particular, the WD opportunistically accesses the licensed spectrum of an overlaid primary communication link to offload the sensing data to the MS for edge processing. Under time-varying fading channel, random energy arrivals, and stochastic ON-OFF state of the primary link, we aim to design an online algorithm to maximize the long-term average sensing rate of the WD subject to quality of service (QoS) requirement of primary link, average power consumption of MS and data queue stability of both MS and WD. We formulate the problem as a multi-stage stochastic optimization that jointly determines the data sensing rate and processing method (i.e., local and edge processing) in sequential time slots. The online optimization is particularly challenging due to the unknown future system parameters and the tightly dependent control decisions across different time slots. To tackle this problem, we proposed an online algorithm named PLySE which requires no prior-knowledge of future information. Specifically, it leverages the perturbed Lyapunov optimization technique to decompose the multi-stage stochastic optimization into per-slot deterministic optimization problems, and obtains the closed-form optimal solution of data sensing and processing control in each time slot. Our analysis shows that both the optimal data sensing and processing solutions exhibit an interesting threshold-based structure related to the secondary queueing backlogs and primary link activity. Simulation results collaborate with our analysis and demonstrate more than 42.5% data sensing rate improvement of the proposed PLySE over representative benchmark methods.


The scaffolding protein ankyrin-B is needed for maximal insulin release, and loss of function is a risk factor for diabetes. Risk Factor for Diabetes In addition to the glucose that enters the bloodstream, the parasympathetic nervous system also stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin in response to eating a meal. Healy et al. show that loss of a single copy of the gene encoding ankyrin-B (ankB) in mice impaired insulin secretion in response to ingested glucose, causing glucose intolerance. In isolated pancreatic islets, ankB haploinsufficiency resulted in reduced abundance of the inositol trisphosphate receptor (IP3R), a calcium channel localized to the endoplasmic reticulum, and impaired calcium signaling in response to cholinergic stimulation. Although islets secrete insulin in response to glucose, the addition of a cholinergic agonist (to mimic parasympathetic stimulation) enhances the amount of insulin released. Islets from the ankB haploinsufficient mice failed to show this potentiation of insulin secretion. Healy et al. also found that, in humans, a loss-of-function mutation in AnkB, which is associated with heart disease, was also associated with diabetes. Thus, mutations in this scaffolding protein that cause aberrant calcium signaling may be a risk factor in multiple diseases. Parasympathetic stimulation of pancreatic islets augments glucose-stimulated insulin secretion by inducing inositol trisphosphate receptor (IP3R)–mediated calcium ion (Ca2+) release. Ankyrin-B binds to the IP3R and is enriched in pancreatic beta cells. We found that ankyrin-B–deficient islets displayed impaired potentiation of insulin secretion by the muscarinic agonist carbachol, blunted carbachol-mediated intracellular Ca2+ release, and reduced the abundance of IP3R. Ankyrin-B–haploinsufficient mice exhibited hyperglycemia after oral ingestion but not after intraperitoneal injection of glucose, consistent with impaired parasympathetic potentiation of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. The R1788W mutation of ankyrin-B impaired its function in pancreatic islets and is associated with type 2 diabetes in Caucasians and Hispanics. Thus, defective glycemic regulation through loss of ankyrin-B–dependent stabilization of IP3R is a potential risk factor for type 2 diabetes.


Two kinds of Mg(OH)2 nanosheets were prepared using a precipitation conversion method, and Mg(OH)2 microparticles were synthesized by a direct precipitation method. Drying kinetics experiments of magnesium hydroxide of three morphological micro nanostructures were performed and their drying curves as well as drying rate curves were obtained at 80–140°C. The equilibrium moisture adsorption isotherms of magnesium hydroxide of three morphological micro nanostructures at 12°C were obtained. Results indicate that drying rate curves of magnesium hydroxide microparticles exhibit three stages: a setup period, a constant rate drying period, and a falling rate drying period. Drying rate curves of magnesium hydroxide nanosheets (nanosheets A and nanosheets B) show the same three stages with a small descending trend of constant rate drying period. It is also found that equilibrium moisture contents of Mg(OH)2 nanosheets are larger than those of Mg(OH)2 microparticles under the same drying conditions. The hydroscopicity of nanosheets A is the strongest and that of microparticles is the weakest.


Research purposes: The bridges in the special sections of the Shenyang-Dandong Passenger Dedicated Line needed to be built by using the bridging machine with movable die carrier because of the natural environment conditions.The calculation was made to verify the design and manufacturing qualities of the MZ900S type Bridging machine with upstriker movable die carrier,know the actual deflection and stiffness of the bridging machine under the various working states during construction of cast-in-situ box girder and determine the reasonable pre-camber according to the y=0.121 3x2-30.1 for the purpose of ensuring the bridging machine in the good working state in service. Research conclusions:(1) The calculation and heaped loading test showed the strength,stiffness,manufacturing quality and assembly quality of the movable die carrier met the design requirements and the pre-camber was reasonable according to the y=0.121 3x2-30.1.(2) The movable die carrier had the features of the clear loading on the structure,good adaptability,perfect functions and high mechanization.(3) The movable die carrier met the construction requirements for the 24 m box girder,the curve bridge,the bidirectional 32 m box girder with assembly of integrated 32 m bridge opening.


The possibility of modifying the ferromagnetic response of a multiferroic heterostructure via fully optical means exploiting the photovoltaic/photostrictive properties of the ferroelectric component is an effective method for tuning the interfacial properties. In this study, the effects of 405 nm visible‐light illumination on the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic responses of (001) Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐0.4PbTiO3 (PMN‐PT)/Ni heterostructures are presented. By combining electrical, structural, magnetic, and spectroscopic measurements, how light illumination above the ferroelectric bandgap energy induces a photovoltaic current and the photostrictive effect reduces the coercive field of the interfacial magnetostrictive Ni layer are shown. Firstly, a light‐induced variation in the Ni orbital moment as a result of sum‐rule analysis of x‐ray magnetic circular dichroic measurements is reported. The reduction of orbital moment reveals a photogenerated strain field. The observed effect is strongly reduced when polarizing out‐of‐plane the PMN‐PT substrate, showing a highly anisotropic photostrictive contribution from the in‐plane ferroelectric domains. These results shed light on the delicate energy balance that leads to sizeable light‐induced effects in multiferroic heterostructures, while confirming the need of spectroscopy for identifying the physical origin of interface behavior.


Data relevant to 696 Holstein cows raised at El-yoser private farm, 51 km south east Alexandria, between 1995-2005 were utilized to study the genetic behaviour of first lactation total milk yield (TMY), 305-days milk yield (305-DMY), peak yield (PY), lactation period (LP) and days open (DO). Also, the effects of season and year of calving and age at first calving were studied. The least squares analysis with unequal subclass numbers indicated that the overall least square means of TMY, 305-DMY, PY, LP and DO were 10289.9 kg, 8417.1 kg, 36.9 kg, 392.7 day and 182.7 day, respectively. Season of calving had highly significant effect on PY, LP and DO, but had no significant effect on TMY and 305-DMY. Year of calving had highly significant influence on all studied traits. Age at first calving had highly significant effect on 305-DMY and PY, but had no significant effect on TMY, LP and DO. The variance components estimated from sire-dam mixed models were utilized to calculate heritability estimates of 0.05, 0.11, 0.13, 0.05 and 0.18 for TMY, 305-DMY, PY, LP and DO, respectively. The genetic corrletions estimated from two traits sire mixed models were positive ranging from 0.12 to 0.96, except those between 305-DMY and PY with LP and DO were negative (-0.14 to -0.32). Correlations among all traits were highly significant. The positive genetic correlations between TMY and each of 305-DMY and PY indicate that selection for high TMY will produce associated genetic improvement in both 305-DMY and PY. The breeding values for TMY, 305-DMY, PY, LP and DO of cows ranged between -8857.4 and 10253.0, between -5662.1 and 2817.0 and between -19.5 and 17.6 kg, -303.4 and 350.8, and between -278.8 and 495.0 day, respectively, the corresponding values for dams were between 433.7 and 724.5, -895.8 and 604.2, -1.0 and 1.0 kg and -2.4 and 3.2 and between -10.2 and 16.5 day, respectively. The corresponding values for sires were between 372.2 and 399.7, -455.9 and 337.7, -1.4 and 0.8 kg and -7.1 and 5.7 and between -16.4 and 29.7 day, respectively. The genetic trends estimated as the regression of sires breeding values on time were not significant for all traits and were negative except for PY and DO. Generally, the results indicate that the managerial systems and environmental conditions were appropriate and have positive effects on performance traits of Holstein cows in this commercial herd. Also, the results indicate the need for designing an effective programme to increase the genetic variability in this herd in order to improve performance traits of cows through selection.


Environmental sustainability is an important field in both research and practice. Governments and enterprises expend huge amounts of money and effort in attempting to reach their environmental goals, e.g., resource efficiency or the reduction of CO 2 emissions. In the information systems (IS) community, the research field of Green IS has recently emerged, examining the potential of IS to foster environmental sustainability. In this paper, we focus on the capacity of mobile applications to support environmental concerned measures by performing a classification of existing mobile apps in the Google Play store. The goal of this explorative paper is to structure findings regarding the application of sustainable mobile apps from theory and practice in the domain of Green IS and to create an avenue for further detailed research on this matter. Therefore, we examine three research questions based on Green IS theory and the results of an extensive app store analysis. The article discovers suitable domains for the private use of sustainable mobile apps and discusses the adequacy of established Green IS roles from the business domain. Furthermore, the connections between applications and user goals are discussed in terms of motivational and acceptance-related factors of user engagement.


Variance components and genetic parameters of economically relevant traits in livestock, whether continuous or categorical, can be estimated by methods computationally available providing support for the selection and mating of animals in breeding programs. The objectives of this paper were to obtain and compare the variance components estimates for visual traits under continuous or categorical distribution in single-trait analysis and their correlations with continuous productive traits in two-trait analysis. Data of conformation (CONF), precocity of fat deposition (PREC) and muscling (MUSC) visual scores evaluated at 18 months of age as well as the weight at 18 months of age (YW) were collected from animals born from 2000 to 2012, in Nellore cattle herds raised in Southeastern and Central Western tropical regions of Brazil. Methods III of Henderson, Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML), Bayesian Inference and generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) were tested. Variance components obtained from single-trait analysis were similar to those obtained from two-trait analysis. The estimates of heritability (h2) for the visual scores ranged from 0.1081 to 0.2190. Heritability estimates for traits evaluated by visual scores have moderate to high magnitude justifying the inclusion of visual scores as selection criteria in animal breeding and the selection of animals with higher scores for mating. High genetic correlations between yearling weight and morphological traits were verified. For visual scores of conformation, precocity and muscling, the most suitable model based on one-trait or two-trait analyses considered an animal model, a linear distribution of the data and the estimation method of the components of (co)variance based on Bayesian methodology.


The alar plate of the prosencephalon differentiates into a tectum‐like structure when transplanted and integrated into the mesencephalon around 10‐somite stage. Homeobox containing gene, en, is expressed in the mesencephalon with caudorostral gradient from 7‐somite stage. Here expression of en in the prosencephalic transplant in the mesencephalon was studied immunohistochemically with anti‐en antibody. Transplantation was carried out between quail and chick. It was shown that the transplant was stained with anti‐en antibody at the caudal part of the mesencephalon. At the rostral part, the transplant did not express en. When the transplant was not contiguous to the caudal part of the host mesencephalon, it did not express en. The present study suggests that the prosencephalic transplant differentiates into the tectum‐like structure when it expresses en at the caudal part of the mesencephalon.


A description is given of the set-up and procedure of determining the heat conduction coefficient. The heat conduction coefficient of brand A'' and B'' graphites was determined over a temperature range of 1300 to 2400 deg C. (auth)


Analytical and numerical calculations of the effects of 'one-bond virtual couplings' on heteronuclear proton-carbon-13 chemical shift correlation two-dimensional N.M.R. spectra are presented. Experimental results in good agreement with theory are reported for the two heteronuclear ABX spin systems of 2,3-dibromothiophene and the two ABCX systems of methyl acrylate.


Small and medium-sized enterprises in China have become a major force for social-economic development and play an increasingly important role in booming the economy,creating jobs,promoting creation and improving livelihood. However,it still accounts for a small share of government procurement market due to the immature of mechanism,the barrier of concept and self-reasons.In this sense,it is necessary to improve matching policy measures and carry out laws and regulations to support the development of SMEs and standardize relevant policy measures in a way to provide mechanism guarantee for the grow of SMEs through government procurement and promote the sustainable development of the economy.


Starting from the comparison among seismic-isolated building,energy dissipation and seismic protection structure,and traditional seismic-resistant building,this thesis expounds the principles of these new technologies and their development status at home and abroad,analyzes and discusses the development research in this aspect in Yunnan province.Analysis result shows that: seismic-isolated building and energy dissipation and seismic protection structure can effectively protect the safety of life and property.


Abstract. Puppet show becomes alast option for teenagers when they get some alternative shows. This is a verypathetic phenomenon as the generation has no longer been interested to theirown asset. Thus, people who love and care about puupet should find a way tomake puppet show live because in the story we can get great life values andmoral teaching. A nation is strong when it has good and firm characters. Thisarticle talks about some educative values which have relations to values ofpoliteness and firm and strong will of the main characters of the puppet showentitled "Rabine Bambang Wijanarko". The educative values are traced andanalized from dialogues of the main characters with the supporting characters


portal of entry of P. oralis could be detected retrospectively. At Prevotella oralis Homograft-Valve Endocarditis 3 months follow-up the patient was doing well; blood cultures Complicated by Aortic-Root Abscess, Intracardiac were negative. Fistula, and Complete Heart Block Anaerobic microorganisms are rare in infectious endocarditis (2% of all cases) [3]. The microorganisms more frequently obEndocarditis due to Prevotella species is rare. We describe served are Bacteroides fragilis, Fusobacterium necrophorum, Prevotella oralis (formerly Bacteroides oralis) homograft aortic Clostridium species, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Propionibactevalve monomicrobial endocarditis, complicated by an aortic root rium acnes, and others [3]. Prevotella, a new gram-negative obliabscess and an intracardiac fistula. To our knowledge, only one gately anaerobic genus, previously classified as Bacteroides [4], case of P. oralis monomicrobial endocarditis has been reported recovered primarily from abscesses and in obstetric and gynecopreviously [1]. logic infections, has also been implicated in osteomyelitis and A 44-year-old man underwent an elective aortic valve replacesoft-tissue infections. The anaerobic bacteria usually cause valve ment with a 22-mm cryopreserved aortic homograft because of destruction, congestive heart failure, and systemic emboli. The severe aortic insufficiency. Nineteen days later he was readmitted high mortality rate among previously reported cases of anaerobic to the hospital because of a 3-day history of fever (temperature, endocarditis has ranged from 21% to 46%, but more recently the 387C). His blood pressure was 110/60 mm Hg and his pulse was rate seems to have diminished [5]. It is extremely rare that endocar100 beats/min; a grade 2–3/6 systolic murmur was noted over ditis due to anaerobic bacteria affects prosthetic valves. This is the left sternal border. Laboratory findings included the following particularly true with the use of a cryopreserved homograft, bevalues: hemoglobin, 10.3 g/dL; hematocrit, 32%; WBC count, cause of its intrinsic resistance to infections. 13,070/mm (82% segmented forms and 12% band forms); and platelet count, 89,000/mm. Electrocardiography demonstrated a complete atrioventricular (A-V) block with a nodal escape rate of 100 beats/m. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) showed an aortic root abscess and an intracardiac fistula originating from the left ventricular outflow tract and extending into the right atrium through the membranous septum. Possible vegetations in the right atrium near the fistula were also revealed (figure 1). Treatment was initiated with vancomycin (1 g iv b.i.d.), gentamicin (100 mg iv t.i.d.), and rifampin (300 mg iv b.i.d.). Four sets of blood cultures were positive in 48 hours for a gramnegative rod that grew only on CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) anaerobe agar and brucella agar plates under anaerobic conditions. The microorganism was identified as P. oralis according to biochemical testing, metabolic end-products analysis, and cell-wall fatty acid profiling by use of gas liquid chromatography [2]. The isolate was b-lactamase positive. MICs determined by use of a microdilution method were as follows: penicillin, ú8 mg/mL; amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, 4 mg/mL; cefoxitin, 2 mg/mL; piperacillin/tazobactam, £16 mg/mL; imipenem, £0.06 mg/mL; clindamycin, §64 mg/mL; and metronidazole, 0.25 mg/mL. The therapy regimen was then changed to that with imipenem (500 mg iv q.i.d.). A repeated aortic valve replacement was undertaken; the homograft and infected tissue from the aortic root abscess were removed, and a new cryopreserved homograft was implanted. The intracardiac fistula was closed. Histopathologic examination of the valvular tissue revealed an inflammatory infiltration, and intraoperative collection of pus and biopsy specimens was arranged. Gram staining of the aortic homograft revealed gram-negative rods, but after long incubation in appropriate media and anaerobic atmosphere cultures of the specimen were negative. Postoperative treatment with metronidazole (500 mg t.i.d.) was continued for 6 weeks. No


Objective: To evaluate the methods and effect the treatment for vascular tumour. Methods: Stab the tumor with a needle, electrify the needle; then inject the sclerosing agent into the tumour; press it with bandage. Results: 16 cases were treated. 5 cases were treated by copper needle, in which 2 cases have obvious necroses and reduction; 3 tumours reduced not significant; 14 cases(included the 3 cases) were treated by the combining treatment. 11 cases got beyond 50%, and they were resected by the operation; 2 relapsed cases were cured by the combined method.All the cases have no ang serious complications. Conclusion: Copper needle combine sclerosing agent embolism is a simple, safe and effective method to treat vascular tumour.


This paper introduces a framework for the evaluation of geographic information (GI), divided into representational and communicative aspects. The representational component is concerned with how 'real-world' phenomena situated in space and time come to be represented or modelled in GI, considered at ontological, modelling and system levels. The communicative component of GI is concerned with how representations of GI are understood by the users of the information, considered at relevance, commodification, exploration and management levels. This paper attempts to bring together the previous work in all these areas into an evaluative framework so that creators and users can assess the validity and success of the representational and communicative process overall. This paper also outlines the architecture of a client-server geolibrary designed for information sharing. This kind of architecture provides a distributed and open platform for the development of GI networks, upon which more productive use of GI can be built in future.


This article presents research undertaken with female headteachers in UK primary schools and explores several influential discourses in relation to female headteachers' identities. It considers themes inherent in women's narratives as they reflect upon their professional lives and discusses various identities inhabited by female leaders which emerge from the data. It also explores dominant discourses related to the masculine construction of leadership, women's domestic responsibilities and women as enablers, which have a significant impact on women's professional lives and upon the ways in which they are positioned. It notes that women's narratives are shot through with ambiguity as they may inhabit several contradictory identities revealing qualities, characteristics and leadership styles which diverge from socially prescribed gender-appropriate behaviours. The article suggests that although there may appear to be a variety of identities from which women may select, there are limits to agency. It concludes that powerful discourses exist which constrain or facilitate ways of being, so impacting on leadership work and the professional lives of female headteachers. Consequently, the complex negotiations of women as they take up leadership roles in schools should be acknowledged.


Dealing with the iconography of fetes in the Renaissance means investigating into humanism and the neo Platonist currents of thought which influenced the artists of the time and led to the syncretism of arts in court celebrations.In the ephemeral art of revels -entries, masquerades, balls and ballets- the costumes of mythical figures from the Bible or the Antiquity were then brought back to the fashion of the sixteenth century with a playful twist and updated through the new themes inspired by the Great Explorations, such as the contrast between the exoticism of the New World and the traditions of the Old World. Along with those codes, the establishment of a new decorum allowed the evolution of the notion of performance and of the places best suited for theatricals. Social and political issues of a time fraught with religious wars, alliances and peace, also contributed in paving the way for such changes.Celebrations thus proved the quintessential instrument of the assertion of royal power, which turned them into vectors of communication, not to say communion. Both sumptuous and innovative, they foreshadowed the magnificent fetes of the following centuries.


MECKEL'S diverticulum is the most frequent congenital anomaly of the gastrointestinal tract, being found in 0.8 per cent of 44,163 collected autopsies. Though the surgical aspects of the disease have been dealt with thoroughly and frequently, only 3 cases of familial occurrence have been reported. In the earliest report that we have found, which appeared in 1955,1 there were 4 cases in one family: a twenty-nine-year-old mother with gangrenous diverticulitis; her 2 sons; and her twenty-seven-year-old sister. Another report (also in 1955)2 described bleeding of a peptic ulcer in Meckel's diverticulum in a nine-year-old boy whose seven-year-old brother had had . . .


The chemical reactivity test, CRT, is a procedure used to screen the compatibility of component structure materials with explosives. This report contains the results of CRT materials evaluations conducted at Mound Facility. Data about materials combinations are catalogued both under the name of the explosive and the nonexplosive.


АBSTRACT: General composition of seeds isolated from four Bulgarian grape varieties and their changes during growing was studied. The total content of the main compounds in the seeds was: glyceride oil: 11.6-16.5%; proteins:6.3-8.9%, carbohydrates:65.5-70.9%, ash:2.1-2.8%. The water soluble saccharides were found to be 3.66.3%. The ratio of mono-, di- and trisaccharides was 13.5-19.4%, 70.2-73.8% and 7.1-16.3% respectively. In monosaccharide fraction the main components were fructose (16.2-33.9%), glucose (38.2-44.4%) and galactose (17.6-39.2%). Xylose, rhamnose and arabinose were detected too. In the disaccharide fraction predominated iso-maltose (82.1-91.5%), followed by saccharose and maltose.The changes of the content and composition of soluble carbohydrates in grape seeds during growing were also examined.The content of saccharides decreased relatively from 6.9% in the first to 5.1% in the third stage. The percentage of trisaccharidesrised from 7.1% to 16.3% at the expense of the decrease of the quantity of monosaccharides from19.4% to 13.5% and of the disaccharides from 73.5% to 70.2%. The content of fructose increased from 23.7% to 33.9% at the expense the galactose level which dropped from 32.7% to 17.6%. The increase of the content isomaltosefrom 55.9% to82.1% at the expense of all other disaccharides was detectedin the disaccharide fraction.


Oxytetracycline–glucose–yeast extract agar (OGYA), gentamicin–glucose–yeast extract agar (GGYA) with the antibiotic added separately or sterilized with the medium, chlortetracycline–Rose Bengal agar (CRA), chloramphenicol-streptomycin agar (PYA) and to a lesser extent, oxytetracycline–gentamicin–glucose–yeast extract agar (OGGYA) with or without Rose Bengal added, have been compared for the selective enumeration of moulds in foods. The results obtained from dried cereal products show that the media are almost equally productive and selective when applied to such foods, but Rose Bengal limits the size of mould colonies. When examining fresh proteinaceous foods, such as minced meat and chicken, CR agars and to a certain extent gentamicin-containing agars show the distinct advantage of being much more inhibitory towards the psychrotrophic Gram negative rods that predominate in the associated flora of such foods. Oxytetracycline–glucose–yeast extract agar lost its bacteriostatic properties when heavily challenged with proteinaceous substrates and/or incubated for longer periods at 37° or even at 25°. For such applications chloramphenicol was found to be the antibiotic of choice.


A single monolayer (ML) of Cr was found to have a significant effect on the magnetic properties of subsequently deposited ultra-thin epitaxial Co layers. Brillouin light scattering (BLS) indicated that the Cr interlayer reversed the sign of the interface contribution to the total perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of the Co. The negative value of the interfacial anisotropy term implied in-plane behavior. As a result, the samples with Cr became in-plane at about 11 ML of Co (1 ML of Co is about 0.2 nm), but the structures without Cr, while behaving qualitatively similar, exhibited higher total PMA and became in-plane at about 13 ML of Co. This behavior was also confirmed using perpendicular magneto-optic Kerr effect measurements. These results suggested that the in-plane nature of the interface anisotropy term for those samples with Cr was significant in determining their greater sensitivity to increased Co thickness. The impact of interdiffusion at the Cr/Co interface should not be neglected; by itse...


Introduction: In recent years, laparoscopy has been considered as important tool in diagnosis and treatment of infertility. The main objective of the study was to detect the diagnostic efficacy of laparoscopy in uterine, tubal and ovarian pathologies. Material and Methods: Present study was carried out in Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (U.I.S.E. Maternity Hospital) in collaboration with Department of Radiodiagnosis & Department of Pathology, G.S.V.M. Medical College, Kanpur. Study included sixty cases of both primary and secondary infertility in women. A detailed clinical history especially marital and obstetric history of the patients was taken. Thorough gynaecological examination was done and all necessary investigations (baseline endocrinal investigations, post coital study, cervical mucus study, ovulation study, post menstrual HSG) were done before laparoscopic examination. Written consent form was taken from all the patients. Results: Among 60 patients, 38 (63.33%) belonged to primary infertility and 22 (36.67%) were of secondary infertility. In primary (57.91%) and secondary infertility (59.1%) maximum number of patient belonged to age group of 21-25 years followed by 21-25 years age group in primary infertility and 31-36 years age group in secondary infertility. Peritubal or peri-ovarian adhesions were present in 15 cases of primary infertility and 5 cases of secondary infertility. Thirty four patients (56.67%) had normal ovaries. Conclusion: Due to safety and cost effectiveness, laparoscopy is considered as important diagnostic tool for evaluation of cause of infertility in women and for effective treatment decisions.


Selected, peer reviewed papers from the International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials 2007, Otsu Prince Hotel Convention Hall, Lake Biwa Resort, Otsu, Japan, October 14 - 19, 2007.


Taking as its starting point the considerable popular interest in oral history resources in Britain today, and the wide use made of them on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in a number of institutional and more informal settings, the article briefly retraces the origins of this "history from below", which frequently involves the use of autobiographical, or self life-writing, in order to question its significance from a gender perspective. After examining in general terms the epistemological and methodological difficulties involved in using oral sources, personal testimony and individual life-histories, the specific problems raised in using women's narratives are discussed: their traditionally "muted" voice and fragmented sense of selfhood require that new modes of listening and interpretation be brought into play.To bring into focus the practical implications of this theoretical inquiry, the article concludes by looking more closely at how two feminist researchers have made use of women's accounts of their lives in order to assess the extent to which their experiences during World War II brought about a modification in their status, notably in the articulation between professional and family life.


Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are widely employed to drive soft robots. However, their inherent flexibility offers both benefits and challenges. This property reduces their output force/torque and makes them hard to control. This paper introduces a new design method that enhances the actuator's performance and controllability. The complex structure of the soft actuator is simplified by approximating it as a cantilever beam. This allows us to derive a mechanical equation between input pressure to output torque. Additionally, a dynamical model is explored to understand the correlation between the natural frequency and dimensional parameters of the SPA. The design problem is then transformed into an optimization problem, using the mechanical equation as the objective function and the dynamical equation as a constraint. By solving this optimization problem, the optimal dimensional parameters are determined. Prior to fabrication, preliminary tests are conducted using the finite element method. Six prototypes are manufactured to validate the proposed approach. The optimal actuator successfully generates the desired force/torque, while its natural frequency remains within the constrained range. This work highlights the potential of using approximated models and optimization formulation to boost the efficiency and dynamic performance of soft pneumatic actuators.


A b, "those") may be connected with the Egyptian t that is likewise characteristic of feminine demonstratives,3 as tn and tw, "this"; tf or tf0, "that"; later t3, "this," and fem. art. "the." Perhaps this feminine pronoun is responsible for the use of the particle tw in Egyptian as a subject of impersonal4 sentences, like Fr. on and Ger. man, somewhat recalling the Semitic way of using the feminine in a neuter sense-for example, 1't ;b ~ , "It will not happen"; Zr~ '17 , "Was there [lit. 'she'] anything like this [fem.]?" etc. Now, as a deictic element in general, independently of gender, this t figures in the Egyptian masculine relative5 particle nty (> Copt. 3 T), "which," as well as in the fem. ntt that has besides a special suffixed t to indicate gender. Why then not connect the Eth. fem. 'enta, "which," as well as the feminine demonstrative 'entdakvt, "that," with Egyptian rather than with Berber?' Also the Egyptian conjunction rntt,7 "inasmuch as," "because," is evidently a mere compound of the feminine


M ORE than a year ago my dear friend, Prof. A. E. Haydon of the University of Chicago, called my attention to a book which was as unknown to me as it doubtless is to most of my medical and scientific readers. The work in question is entitled "Histoire des Croyances religieuses et des opinions philosophique en Chine depuis I'origine, jusqu' a nos jours," by L. Wieger, s .j ., published in 1917.1 Here is found a summary of a previously untranslated work, the "Su-wen," by an unknown author upon which there are extant numerous Chinese commentaries. My translation, for which I received some valuable suggestions from Miss E. F. Dexter of this University, was subsequently submitted to M. Wieger, who has most graciously consented to its publication and has explained to me several obscure references.


Recent political and corporate initiatives indicate that voluntary agreements and emission trading will play a crucial role in climate policy. We show that when emission trading is integrated as an option in voluntary agreement contracts, the overall efficiency of the use of flexible climate policy instruments is strongly increased. The emission trading option, formalized as a CO2 allowance call option contract that can be traded, provides clear incentives to overcomply with the target of the voluntary agreement. The option mechanism also delivers a market price for eventual non-compliance, based on differences in abatement costs. With an example, we illustrate that the option mechanism can result in stimulating financial benefits for the firms that are most successful in reducing emissions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment


An exercise machine with an adaptive interface comprises: a processing unit (7) for managing and controlling the machine; sensor means (9) for transferring information about the machine operating state to the processing unit (7); a user interface (10) equipped with means (11) for displaying the machine current operating state; manual control means (12) for the machine functions; optimisation means (19), controlled by the processing unit (7) and designed to modify the display means (11) and the manual control means (12) when there are variations in at least one machine operating parameter detected by the sensor means (9).


For the last years, Europe has been subject to fiscal austerity in order to satisfy the Maastrich criteria. In this way, Spanish municipalities have been affected by new regulations and local government structure has changed. This paper is focused on the main factors that explain local government debt. In particular, budgetary information of a group of Spanish municipalities is used (1990-2000). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data are presented. Key words:Fiscal Federalism, Local Government, debt, decentralization.


The paper analyzes the main reasons causing slow development of clothing materials and rare emergence of wonderful dress design in our country.It explains the relationship between clothing materials and social culture tendency starting from the generation and development history of specific materials including several natural fibers,discusses culture expression of clothing materials in different social stages,and expounds the culture composition of natural fibers for clothing with stress on cultural connotation when designing,manufacturing and selecting of clothing materials so as to make innovation of fashion garments.


Vaginal laxity lacks standardized diagnosis and severity criteria. It is considered as a subjective complaint that reflects decreased sexual satisfaction due to vaginal loosening. Treatment modalities have included physiotherapy and plastic surgery. Recently, laser treatments have also gained popularity as a means of relieving gynecological complaints such as pelvic organ prolapse, stress urinary incontinence, and genitourinary syndrome of menopause. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of CO2 laser treatment in women for whom a decrease in sexual sensation during intercourse and vaginal loosening were their primary complaints.