Policy and Performance in Nigeria's Export Agriculture At independence in 1960, Nigeria was firmly established as a major exporter in the world market for cocoa, groundnuts and oil palm products. Long before this period, marketing arrangements had been formalised to deal with domestic procurements and export arrangements for major agricultural export commodities. Legislation vested monopoly export rights in centralised marketing organs, whose establishment was ostensibly motivated by the desire to protect producers interests. These bodies soon became agents of state control through which peasant surplus could be extracted. Gradually, pricing policy objectives came to be dominated by a desire to raise taxes rather than stabilise producer incomes. Helleiner provides a detailed account of marketing boards' role in generating fiscal resources for development. As instruments for mobilising savings, the marketing board system was effective. The revenues derived from export produce constituted a significant percentage of central and regional financial resources, and the basis for growth until the late sixties, when oil earnings came to dominate the revenue structure. For many of the marketing board-controlled commodities, production reached its peak in the mid-sixties. Between 1970 and the early eighties the production of these commodities steadily declined. This decline is most dramatically exhibited in groundnuts and palm oil output. Not only was their export wiped out but by the late seventies substantial imports were required to fill a domestic supply deficit. A note of caution is warranted at this juncture. Not enough is known about the actual trends in the country's agricultural production. Declining commodity exports alongside rising vegetable oil imports do not necessarily reflect a collapsed and stagnant agricultural sector. Much of this trend may be accountable in terms of an expanded domestic demand. The expansion of demand for Nigeria's agricultural produce has arisen partly from the rapid population growth and urbanisation experienced. It is also a result of income increases associated with the oil-boom. In


IN the preface to the Doctor's Dilemma, George Bernard Shaw says: Make up your mind how many doctors the community needs to keep it well. Do not register more or less than this number; and let regi...


In this paper, a recently proposed model which is called Mean-varianceskewness for fuzzy portfolio selection is studied. Both the multidimensional nature of the portfolio selection problems and the requirements of the investor are considered in this model. The weighted possibilistic moments are used to approximate the quantification of the fuzzy variables. Then, an adaptive decomposition-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (AMOEA/D) is designed to solve this model which is considered as a constrained three-objective optimization problem. In this algorithm, this problem is firstly decomposed into a number of sub-problems through a set of weight vectors with good uniformly and aggregate functions, and these sub-problems are simultaneously optimized in a run; secondly, according to the distances of obtained non-dominated solutions, an adaptive weight vector adjustment strategy is proposed to redistribute the weight vectors of sub-objective spaces; thirdly, a crossover based uniform design is specially designed for portfolio selection problems; fourthly, an external elite population is introduced to help maintaining the diversity of obtained non-dominated solutions. Moreover, comparing with some efficient state-of-the-art algorithms NSGAII and MOEA/D on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the results indicate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


In order to improve the qualities of ecology and landscape of Platyclatdus orientalis plantation in limestone mountain in Xuzhou,the growth rhythm of Platyclatdus orientalis plantation in Yunlong Mountain was studied with the method of stem analysis.The results showed that: The logarithmic equation was superior to the growth process of diameter at breast height(DBH) and tree height in the P.orientalis plantation,and the Logistic equation was superior to the growth process of stem volume,and these growth model had a good correlation.The average and annual increment of DBH and tree height was highest in the 10-year-old plantation,but the stands were still not into maturity.There were three pronounced peaks appeared every several years in the growth process of DBH,which could be used to guide the thinning and tending.This study provided theoretical bases for the comprehensive management of P.orientalis plantation in future.


We study trace operators νν·''(Ω;υο,υι) -> L(dQ,;w) in weighted Sobolev spaces for sufficiently regular unbounded domains Ω C M N with noncompact boundary. We show that under certain conditions on the weight functions V0,Vi ,w, this operator is compact. This result is then used to prove existence of a nontrivial solution of a semilinear elliptic equation with nonlinear boundary condition in an unbounded domain. AMS-Classification (1991): 46 E 35, 35 J 65


Objective The experiences on the management of traumatic sternal fracture were summarized.Methods The medical records and radiographs of 43 patients with traumatic sternal fracture admitted between June 2006 and December 2009 were retrospectively studied,including the characteristics of patients,causes of injury and associated injuries.Results Sternal fracture was mainly caused by traffic trauma and high fall injuries,resulting severe sternal injuries and significant associated injuries.One patient died from flail chest,massive pulmonary contusion and ARDS;one died from abdominal bleeding and MOF;two died from brain trauma.The others were survived.There was no great vessel injury and cardiac shock.Spiral CT and reconstruction technique could reveal more sternal fractures than plain film and CT scan could.Ten patients(23%) with severely displaced fracture underwent surgical treatment with no significant complications.Conclusion Admission to hospital is not necessary for patients having a stable and isolated sternal fracture and should be reserved for those with high-energy trauma,severely displaced fractures or significant associated injuries. Further investigations are necessary only when associated injury is suspected on clinical grounds.The clinical application of 3-D Spiral CT together with reconstruction technique improve the diagnosis of sternal fractures.Surgical stabilization by the simple and safe technique like open reduction and internal fixation of sternal fracture was recommended to the cases with severely displaced or unstable fracture.


Resistance spot welding (RSW) is metal surface joining process. in which contacting metal are joining by the heat obtained from electric current. It is generally used for fabricating sheet metal assemblies such as automobile part, truck cabins, rail vehicles and home applications due to its advantages in welding efficiency. A study will be conducting to investigate the mechanical properties of sandwich material. In this work, an attempt is made to review the literature on the effect of welding parameters such as welding current, welding time, welding force and materials etc. to obtain the optimum welding parameters for resistance spot welding. Many researchers have used the various techniques such as Taguchi method, Design of Experiments (DOE), Response surface methodology (RSM), Box-Behnken experimental method are very popular due to its versatile usage in various field of engineering application especially in welding problems.


Given the stringent requirements of energy efficiency for Internet-of-Things edge devices, approximate multipliers, as a basic component of many processors and accelerators, have been constantly proposed and studied for decades, especially in error-resilient applications. The computation error and energy efficiency largely depend on how and where the approximation is introduced into a design. Thus, this article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the approximation techniques in multiplier designs ranging from algorithms and architectures to circuits. We have implemented representative approximate multiplier designs in each category to understand the impact of the design techniques on accuracy and efficiency. The designs can then be effectively deployed in high-level applications, such as machine learning, to gain energy efficiency at the cost of slight accuracy loss.


A regular curve is a continuum such that for each point p of the continuum there is an arbitrarily small open set containing p with a finite boundary. If the continuum is compact this statement is equivalent to the statement that each pair of points can be separated by a finite number of points. A point is a regular point of a continuum if it is contained in arbitrarily small open sets with finite boundaries. Such a point is said to be of order n if the boundary of each set consists of n or fewer points, and n is the smallest integer for which this is true. If p is a regular point but no such integer n exists then p is said to be a point of increasing order (or of order co). It is not true that if each pair of points of a continuum can be separated by n points then each point is of order less than or equal to n. For example, any dendrite has the property that each pair of points can be separated by one point. However, this note will show that if each pair of points of a continuum can be separated by n points, n> 2, then the set of all points of order greater than n must be countable, and that no one of the nonlocal separating points of order greater than n is a limit point of nonlocal separating points of order greater than n. The proof will depend on three lemmas concerning cuttings that are perhaps of interest in themselves. The fact that the local separating points of order greater than n are countable follows from the well-known theorem of G. T. Whyburn (see [3, p. 61]) that the set of all local separating points of order greater than two of any locally compact separable metric space is countable. The theorem of this note gives conditions under which a set of nonlocal separating points is countable. That the nonlocal separating points of order n need not be countable is shown by the examples given in [1 ] of regular curves of bounded order n such that the nonlocal separating points of order n are uncountable and form a perfect set. It should be noted that it is a direct consequence of Theorem 1.1 of [1] that if in a continuum every pair of points can be separated by n points, then some set of fewer than n points must separate the continuum.


This paper proposes that countertransference dreams may serve as indicators and help deal with difficult crisis in the psychoanalytic process. The transferential field defines the difficulties which the analyst has to deal with. The analyst is always involved in this field. A fragment of a clinical case of the author, in which a countertransference dream had an important role, is used as an example.


Objective To detect dengue virus (DV) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in bats in Guangdong and Guangxi, China. Method During Sep. 2004 and Nov. 2005, bats were collected from several areas from Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. Brain tissues and serum samples of bats were obtained. RT-PCR with two pairs of universal primers and cell isolation culture methods were used for detecting the DV and JEV. Result 905 of nine species of bats in four families were collected. These bats were collected from 7 areas of middle and western Guangdong province and eastern Guangxi province. 905 bats included: 154 Rousettus leschenaulti,395 Cynopterus sphinx, 5 Miniopterus schreibersi, 52 Scotophilus kuhli, 228 Rhinolophus affinis,15 Rhinolophus sinicus,41 Rhinolophus blythi, 8 Hipposideros pomona and 7 Hipposideros pratti. The genes of DV and JEV were not detected and no DV and JEV were found in these samples. Conclusion This results showed that the DV and JEV perhaps not existed in the investigative bats.


Market research or employee surveys often involve: 1) a population of interest and 2) a need for measuring the number (percent) of people with a certain characteristic. Some of these population characteristics might be: percent of satisfied customers, percent of customers who showed interest toward a future product/service, or the number of people who might be users of a particular product/technology.


The symmetry of codon degeneracies in the standard genetic code is analyzed from an empirical standpoint. It is argued that the genetic code is a relation rather than a mapping, and a generalized genetic code is tentatively proposed. This view of the genetic code is shown to be supported by the symmetry analysis. The primary results are ( I ) a new elucidation of the basic symmetry inherent in the standard genetic code, (2) the elaboration of necessary conditions for codon degeneracy, and (3) the unification of the symmetry or ambiguous codon assignments with that of the standard genetic code. The centrality of the concept of a biological context to ambiguity and to the generalized genetic code is discussed.


In the idea of that "He who exercises government by means of his virtue","virtue" has the three characters: lofty moral,do-nothing wisdom and broad courage,instead of indicating "moral"only.Its objects are official instead of common people.It is not the backward idea of "ruling by moral",it is the advanced idea of political moral performing discipline.The three characters are the standards to decide the validity of modern government.Although such an idea was raised over 2000 years ago,it is not antique;it has the modernity,showing the forward looking of Confucius political philosophy.


Numerous innovations and efforts were made in the 1 960s and 1 970s to promote new curricula and new teaching approaches, but the results often seemed to be not so satisfactory. In view of the success of modem management in industrial and commercial organiza tions in the 1 980s, people began to believe that, in or der to improve education quality, it would be neces sary to reform the structural system and management style of schools. Based on this belief, there have been various school reform movements initiated in many parts of the world (Cheng, 1 996a) . Since the late 1 980s, school-based management has become the cen tral topic and strategy in educational reform in differ ent parts of the world (Caldwell, 1 990; Caldwell and Spinks, 1 988 ; Cheng, 1 996b; David, 1 989; Dimmock, 1 993 ; Mohrman and Wohlstetter, 1 994) . In the past decades, Hong Kong has also undergone different educational reforms. In the 1 970s and 1 980s, much effort was put to increase school places and ex pand education systems; educational reform was con fined to input of resources and improvement of teach ing or learning facilities, such as remedial teaching, student counseling, and some teacher refresher training programs (Education Commission, 1 988 , 1 990) . How ever, the effort was insufficient for successful school improvement (Cheng, 1 995) . Knowing that " . . . the success of individual quality improvement measures will be limited if schools are not able to draw effec tively on the skills, energy, and commitment of every member of the school community" (Education and Manpower Branch and Education Department, 1 99 1 , p . 1 ) , the policymakers o f Hong Kong planned to set a


ABSTRACT— A newly identified spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, has recently been established as the causal agent of chronic meningoradiculitis (Bannwarth's syndrome, BS). An etiological diagnosis can be obtained by specific antibody determination. To detect intrathecally produced Borrelia antibodies, we examined paired serum and CSF samples from 10 BS patients and 41 controls. CSF/serum IgG specific antibody indices were calculated by relating the CSF/serum ratio of specific antibody activity to the CSF/serum ratio of total IgG and of albumin; 8/10 BS patients compared to 4/39 controls had elevated index values. In only one of the 4 positive controls could spirochetal infection be excluded. We conclude that determination of specific antibody indices is a reliable and sensitive diagnostic test for nervous system B. burgdorferi infection.


Performance of hysteretic magnetostrictive transducers can be affected by a variable applied stress if its magnitude is comparable with the mechanical pre-stress. Aim of this paper is to present the design of a controller with hysteresis compensation able to take into account the applied stress. The controller is implemented and tested in a real-time setup and compared with standard closed loop PID controller. The proposed approach leads to better performances with respect to stress-independent (classical) compensators.


As molecules with powerful antiviral activity,interferons α and β play critical roles in modulating immune responses to foreign and self-antigens.This paper reviews the role of oral low dose IFNα in local and systemic immunoregulation.


The wettability of coal surfaces by water continues to be one of the key factors which determines the success of coal flotation. Consequently, oxidation of coal surfaces is a fundamental issue of interest. In this work, the effect of oxidation on the wetting of coal surfaces and the interaction between water molecules and oxygen-containing sites at the coal surface were investigated based on advancing/receding contact angle measurements and molecular dynamics simulations. For the simulation studies, a flat coal surface was constructed with the assistance of the molecular repulsion between graphite surfaces and the assembly of Wiser coal molecules. Our results indicated that the simulated advancing and receding contact angles were very similar, and both of them decreased, as expected, with an increase of hydroxyl sites at the coal surface. The good agreement between the simulated advancing/receding contact angles and the experimental receding contact angle values suggested that the configuration of the systems and the set of parameters for the simulation were appropriate. The spreading of water is mainly due to the hydrogen bonds formed between the interfacial water molecules and the hydroxyl sites at the coal surface. The hydroxyl groups exhibit stronger hydration capacity than other oxygen-containing groups according to the calculated hydrogen bonds and interaction energies.


A method of estimating the pitch of a speech acoustic signal in a time interval in which said signal is a voiced one, wherein the pitch corresponds to the distance between the contact points of a circle and a plot, normalized to a limit value, of the energy of said speech acoustic signal as a function of time; said contact points being obtained by rolling said circle on said plot.


1.Introduction In the 3rd generation mobile cellular system such as W-CDMA and the 4th generation of mobile cellular systems, examinations of spatial processing techniques such as Adaptive Array Antenna and Space diversity techniques have been investigated [1],[2]. In order to estimate accurately the performance of these spatial processing techniques in Wide-Band mobile communications, a time-space path model in which both characteristics of the delay profile and of the spatial arrival angle profile for traveling waves can be simulated at the same time is required. In the privious works, the propagation model with a profile of the Gauss distribution is used as an angle propagation model and the model with a profile of the exponential distribution is used as the propagation delay time model [3]. These models are very simple and the analysis of the propagation characteristics using these propagation models is comparatively well in agreement with measurements. Then they have been widely used as the theoretical analytic and the numerical simulation model. On the other hand, Ray trace model and the scattering model are proposed as models which can explain measurement results. Especially, the scattering model which is simplified one of Ray trace model is used as the model which gives the arrival direction of the electric wave from the base station to the mobile station. However, it is known that the model can not always succeed to explain sufficiently the measured results of receptions at the base station. In our privious works, we propsed a new time-space path model expanding the scattering model[4].We difine this model as " the privious proposed model". In this paper, we propose a new time-space path model expanding the privious proposed model taking the arrengement of buildings in the city part into account. And we show that the analysis using the proposed model well agree with the field measurement results.


The variety of standards available for interoperability in the building systems market should provide our industry with a firm foundation for delivering benefits and value to end users. Unfortunately, after a decade of hard work, these standards are only beginning to deliver as promised. The problem in many cases is that risk, cost and perceptions collide as systems are specified, bid and installed.


The natural history of the forearm started in water within the fins of some devonian fishes. Some 385 million years later, through amazing adaptations, the forearm bones allowed the tetrapods world to colonize every other kind of biotopes on Earth. Initially devoted to locomotion in amphibians, birds and reptiles, the forearm develops more ambitiously in the mammalian lineage. Adopting first an upright limb posture and bipedalism thereafter, the Hominidae forelimb acquires an extreme range of pro-supination and can be dedicated to other tasks, including tool making and handling. By developing unconstrained joints at the elbow and wrist level, as well as more and more specialized soft tissues like the triangular fibrocartilage complex, the human forearm reaches the most sophisticated compromise between strength, mobility and stability and becomes the hand's greatest ally.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to explore the clinical significance of miR-145-5p expression in gastric cancer (GC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Expression of miR-145-5p was evaluated by qRT- PCR in tumor and normal gastric tissues in 145 GC patients. The correlation between the miR-145-5p expression and clinicopathological parameters was investigated. Finally, the survival was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method and proportional hazards model.

RESULTS
Expression levels of miR-145-5p in GC tissues were significantly lower than those in adjacent normal tissues (p < 0.001). MiR-145-5p expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, metastasis stage, and distant metastasis (all p < 0.05). Furthermore, Patients with low miR-145-5p expression had poorer overall survival time than those with high miR-145-5p expression (p = 0.014). Moreover, univariate and multivariate Cox analysis showed that miR-145-5p was an independent prognostic indicator for OS (p = 0.011).

CONCLUSIONS
MiR-145-5p is down-expressed in GC, and can be used as a marker of poor prognosis in GC patients.


A backrest (200) comprises a panel-shaped base member (10) that is provided along a main surface (12) which includes a reference line (13) extending in a direction intersecting a floor surface (F) of a vehicle, and a retaining member (11) that is provided on a front surface (14A) of the base member (10) and that has a front surface (14B) which has a curved surface shape in a state in which the retaining member (11) is supporting a load in a direction toward the main surface (12). Due to this configuration, the retaining member (11) presents a curved surface shape due to the load of a standing passenger when the passenger leans against the backrest (200), and thereby the passenger's body can be stably retained.


With the rapid development of computers and Internet,tens of thousands of users tend to write and communicate in English in their daily work.For users whose mother tongue is not English,writing in Enshi is a major obstacle to them.Grammar check technology originated in the application of natural language understanding.This paper,according to the principle of practicality and effectiveness is to introduce the system error instantiation,the negative model to realize the rules of grammar check,which simplifies the analysis of algorithms and extends the coverage of error-check.


. AbstrAct Recently a mixture of a tetracycline isomer, an acid, and a detergent, combined in a product called MTAD has been suggested as a final rinse to remove the smear layer from the surface of instrumented root canals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of MTAD and alternate use of EDTA and MTAD with NaOCl on the apical microleakage of obturated root canals. In this study 60 maxillary central incisors were decoronated at cemento-enamel junction. The roots were divided into six groups of ten teeth each according to irrigation regimens used during preparation of root canals as follows: Saline, NaOCl, MTAD, NaOCl / EDTA, NaOCl / MTAD, and NaOCl / EDTA / NaOCl. After cleaning and shaping, roots were obturated with gutta percha and Endofill root canal sealer using lateral condensation technique and incubated at 370C for 48 hours. The roots were coated by nail varnish and immersed in india ink then rendered clear by using 10% nitric acid and methyl salcilate. Dye-penetration extent was measured using stereomicroscope. The results of this study showed that roots irrigated with NaOCl / MTAD had a significantly least mean extent of dye-penetration values compared with all irrigating regimen except NaOCl / EDTA. In conclusion the final rinse with either MTAD or EDTA following 2.5% NaOCl irrigation could reduce the root apical microleakage.


This paper reports the results of a study of lymphocyte apoptosis in the blood of 81 patients presenting with autoimmune thyropathies, such as autoimmune thyroidism (AIT) and Grave's disease (GD). It was shown that AIT in patients with hypothyroidism and DTG is associated with an increased number of CD95+ lymphocytes «doomed» to apoptose. Moreover, AIT and DTG conditions are characterized by an elevated level of serum tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). In euthyroid patients with AIT, this rise is accompanied by a decrease in the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) level. Hypotyroid patients with AIT exhibit positive relationship between an increased number of CD95+ lymphocytes in blood and serum TNF-α levels.


The African wild cat (AWC, Felis silvestris lybica; 2n = 38) is one of the smallest wildcats, and it's future is threatened by hybridization with domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus; 2n = 38). Nuclear transfer (NT) is a potentially valuable tool for retaining genetic variability, and could assist in the continuation of species with few remaining individuals. Inter-species nuclear transfer into domestic cat (DSH) supports development of somatic cell nuclei from AWC (Gomez et al., 2003, Biol Reprod 69, 1032–1041). Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the in vivo developmental competence of nuclear transfer embryos derived by fusion of African wildcat fibroblasts with domestic cat cytoplasts, after transfer into domestic cat recipients. In vivo- and in vitro-matured domestic cat oocytes were mechanically enucleated in modified Tyrodes salt solution supplemented with 20 μg mL−1 of cytochalasin B (CCB) and 2 mg mL−1 of sucrose, and reconstructed with AWC fibroblast cells derived from an adult male; cultured and passaged 1 to 3 times before serum-starved with DMEM  + 0.5% FBS and cultured for 5 additional days before use. Fusion took place in fusion medium (0.3 M mannitol and 0.1 mM Mg + 2), and membrane fusion was induced by applying a 3 s AC pre-pulse of 20 V, 1 MHz; followed by two 30 μs DC pulses of 240V/mm at intervals of 0.5 s. Fused couplets were activated 2–3 h after fusion by placing the couplets between two electrodes in a fusion chamber containing 3 mL of fusion medium and exposing them to two 60 μs DC pulses of 120 V/mm. Then, couplets were incubated in 30 μL drops of Tyrodes solution containing 1% MEM nonessential amino acids, 3 mg mL−1 BSA (IVC-1 medium), and supplemented with 10 μg mL−1 cycloheximide and 5 μg mL−1 CCB at 38°C in 5% CO2 for 4 h. After activation, cloned embryos were cultured in 500 μL of IVC-1 medium until the day of the transfer. Derived AWC NT embryos were transferred into the oviducts (Day 1) or uteri (Days 5, 6, 7) of 36 gonadotrophin-treated DSH recipients on Day 1 after ovulation or on Days 5, 6, or 7 after oocyte aspiration, respectively. Pregnancy was assessed by ultrasonography on Days 21 to 23. One domestic cat was still pregnant and ongoing on Day 60. Kittens were delivered by Cesarean section in each of the seven pregnant recipients on days 61 to 67 of gestation. The kittens weighed an average of 86.2 g (50.0 to 103 g) and died within 36 h after delivery. The post-mortem pathology reports revealed that most of them had an immature respiratory system. The clonal status of the kittens was assessed by multiplex PCR amplification of 20 microsatellite markers, including seven markers that are known to be on the X chromosome. Results from these assays confirmed that the AWC kittens had originated from the AWC donor somatic cell line and were not related to the DSH recipient cats. In summary, these results indicate that AWC cloned kittens can be produced by ET of embryos derived from AWC cells into DSH cytoplasts. Research was funded partially by the John & Shirley Davies Foundation. Table 1


A free-cutting brass alloy material comprises the chemical elements in percent by mass: 0.2-0.3% of Mo, 1.1-1.2% of Mg, 0.1-0.2% of Si, 0.4-0.6% of Al, 0.04-0.06% of La, 18-19% of Zn, 0.3-0.5% of Cr, 0.02-0.04% of Pr, 0.6-0.8% of Be, and the balance Cu. The brass alloy has good processing performance owned by brass, also has good elasticity and hardness owned by beryllium copper. By adding Mo, La, Al, Si and other elements, the alloy is increased in anti-oxidation performance, corrosion resistance and strength, and also has excellent cutting performance. The brass alloy can be used to prepare products such as tap assemblies, valve rods and the like. An employed refining agent is used for casting production, is capable of reducing the porosity degree of a casting by 1-2 degree and enabling the oxide inclusions to be around second grade, and helps to obviously improve the yield.


We present explicit finiteness results for integral points on certain moduli schemes of abelian varieties of GL2-type. Parts of the results were obtained jointly with Benjamin Matschke or with Arno Kret. We also explain the strategy of proof which inter alia combines the method of Faltings (Arakelov, Parsin, Szpiro) with modularity results.


Laser surface heat treatment technology is a new laser processing technology gradually developed in the 70s of last century,especially in the areas of laser cladding gained great progress.In this article the laser cladding technology is outlined,and the effect of laser cladding parameters on the quality of cladding layer is introduced.


Veterinary hospitals are important locations for various sick and immunocompromised animal patients. These centers may act as reservoirs for nosocomial diseases such as Salmonella infection, one of the most common causes of healthcare-associated infections in veterinary hospitals. The study was performed at the Large Animal Ward (LAW), University Veterinary Hospital, Universiti Putra Malaysia, to assess the environment's degree of Salmonella spp. contamination. Environmental samples were obtained from various floor and surface areas in the LAW using sterile, moistened gauze. Salmonella spp. was determined using conventional bacteriological culture on all samples. Positive Salmonella isolates were subject to antimicrobial sensitivity testing. A total of 6 out of 135 (4.4%) samples were found to be positive for Salmonella spp., with 5/116 (4.3%) samples obtained from the ward environment and 1/19 (5.3%) obtained from reusable equipment. Antimicrobial sensitivity testing revealed three resistance profiles: all isolates were resistant to penicillin and enrofloxacin, one isolate was resistant to streptomycin, and one was resistant to gentamicin. The results indicate that animal treatment areas within the LAW can become contaminated with Salmonella spp. This study highlights the importance of improving biosecurity programs to prevent nosocomial diseases in patients and the hospital environment.

http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/resources/files/Pertanika PAPERS/JTAS Vol. 46 (2) May. 2023/07 JTAS-2579-2022.pdf


This paper presents, two 60 GHz millimeter- wave Yagi antennas and also discuss system architecture of optical OFDM system. When we are using an indoor or outdoor wireless optical channel for the transmission of optical OFDM signals, then an antenna system of 60 GHz freq. range is required. So for these particular applications of optical OFDM system, Yagi antennas are proposed. Its design considerations and the simulated results are given in this paper. In first design of Yagi horizontal feeding with lumped port excitation is used, while in second design vertical feeding using lumped port excitation with CPW feeding network has been used. HFSS is used for design simulation. Performance of the proposed antenna is analyzed in terms of the reflection loss and its radiation pattern. In this paper, comparison between two simulated design also been discussed.


The role of viscous heating in the onset of the instability in a liquid-saturated porous medium is studied. The change of the liquid viscosity with the temperature is taken into account by using a linear fluidity model. The system examined is a horizontal porous layer with an adiabatic lower boundary and an isothermal upper boundary. The combined effects of the viscous heating and of the variable viscosity yield a basic stationary and parallel throughflow in a horizontal direction. This basic solution may display singularities when the product between the Peclet number and the viscosity-temperature slope parameter exceeds the threshold value π/2. The linear stability of the basic solution is studied with respect to normal modes disturbances arbitrarily oriented to the basic flow direction. In all the physically realistic cases, the most unstable disturbances are proved to be the longitudinal rolls (the wave vector is perpendicular to the basic velocity). The instability to the longitudinal rolls occurs wh...


In current scenario, India is 'The Oyster' in the market of international dairy industry and total milk production is estimated to be about 155.5 MT in 2015-16 (Anonymous, 2017). Further, India contributes about 17-18% of world's total milk production. Out of which, buffalo milk contributes 55% and cow milk 40.5% of total milk production. Hence, there is a good potential and availability of milk for the preparation of milk products in India. Paneer is an indigenous coagulated milk product prepared by the addition of permitted organic acids to hot milk and subsequent drainage of whey. Paneer consists of entire milk casein, part of denatured whey proteins, almost all fat, colloidal salts and soluble milk solids in proportion to the moisture content retained. The characteristics features of paneer is a typical mild acidic flavour with slightly sweet taste and has a firm, cohesive and spongy body and a close knit smooth texture. Paneer, like other indigenous dairy products, is a highly perishable product and suffers from limited shelf-life, largely because International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 9 (2017) pp. 376-389 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com


The problem considered in this paper is the extension of an approximation space to include a nearness relation. Approximation spaces were introduced by Zdzis law Pawlak during the early 1980s as frameworks for classifying objects by means of attributes (features). Pawlak introduced approximations as a means of approximating one set of objects with another set of objects using an indiscernibility relation that is based on a comparison between the feature values of objects. Until now, the focus has been on the overlap between sets. It is possible to introduce a nearness relation that can be used to determine the "nearness" of sets that are possibly disjoint. Several members of a family of nearness relations are introduced in this article. The contribution of this article is the introduction of a nearness relation that makes it possible to extend Pawlak's model for an approximation space and to consider the extension of generalized approximations spaces.


In order to reduce the workload of farmers on individual identification of pigs, reduce interference to pigs, and raise automation and intelligent level of farms, a Matlab-based automatic classification system is set up. Firstly, top view video sequences are captured for group-housed pigs from pig barn, and the adaptive Gaussian mixture model based on prediction mechanism is used to detect the foreground objects. Then with morphological processing and hole filling, the targets are extracted as completely as possible from the background. Secondly, after building the sample image databases for each pig, color, texture and shape features are extracted and combined as the feature vector. Next, LLE (Locally Linear Embedding) algorithm is adopted to reduce the data dimension. Finally, hybrid kernel SVM (Support Vector Machine) classifier is designed to identify the pigs in test frames. Experimental results show that the recognition rate of pigs is 95.2%. For improving the recognition rate, decreasing cost and interference to pigs, the above method is proposed. Moreover, it can lay a foundation for future researches on group-housed pigs in behaviors, emotions, breathings and so on, which has good practical significance.


The relationship between the distribution of horses and ecoclimatic environment in the Aba Prefecture is studied. The results indicate that the comprehensive climatic indices of suitable climatic area for horses are as follows: the average annual temperature is 1.7-2.2℃, annual accumulative temperature of 0℃, 1432.2-4448, annual radiative capacity 130-147 kJ/cm2, annual sunshine time 2310~2410h, annual precipitation 680mm, dry degree from May to October 0.11-0.33 k and subordination Cx = 1 for yaks; and the indices for horse are 9.0-13.5℃, 0℃, 3362-4892, 102-122 kJ/cm2, 1637-2129.7h, 490-730mm, 1.03-1.41K, and Cx = 0; the climatic indices between the areas are 124-131 kJ/cm2, 1630-2200h, 590-760mm, 0.60-0.68K, and Cx = 0.49-0.84.


In every country Election is a basic process of democracy, which allows people to show their opinions by selecting their candidate. This paper describes overview of various research done to improve the security, privacy of the e-voting technology. To make such kind of system, every system consists of voter authentication and vote casting. Now days using of biometric based security level system become faster and secure. In India, government is collecting biometric information of every person and providing them, a unique twelve-digit number called Aadhaar Number. Hence, using of Aadhaar number and its biometric database voter verification can be made, after verification voting can be perform.


In higher education, university students need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills for their future workplace. Companies provide opportunities for students to participate as trainee consultants in innovation-related projects as a form of experiential learning. We designed a quasi-experimental study to investigate how supervisors' structured feedback can influence students' learning and project performance. We recruited 28 business school final year undergraduates who formed teams of four students either by themselves or with the help of the school. We randomly assigned three teams with 12 students to the treatment group and four teams of 16 students to the control group. In the treatment group, company supervisors were asked to provide structured written feedback for the treatment group using structured feedback forms, which focus students' attention on task level, process level, and self-regulation level at three project milestone stages. In the control group, students received feedback from company supervisors without any feedback form. At the end of this project, a survey was conducted to measure students' attitudes toward feedback in supporting learning and their perceived usefulness of company supervisors' feedback. The results show that company supervisors' structured feedback positively affected students' overall project performance in presentation and report, and students' positive attitudes toward feedback and perceived usefulness of company supervisor's structured feedback are positively related to students' report performance.


A limitation of CRISP accuracy for evaluation of room-level indoor positioning methods is presented in this paper. Indoor positioning solutions are usually based on fingerprinting approach or signal propagation models. Fingerprinting based indoor positioning methods apply heuristics and data mining techniques to determine the position. Hence, room-level indoor positioning can be considered as a classification problem where the room is the category. Thus the design of a room-level positioning method requires the training and evaluation of various classifiers. The CRISP approach is widely accepted to measure the performance of classifiers. Five well known classification methods were compared for indoor positioning purpose over an indoor positioning dataset. Analysis of the experimental results shows that the CRISP accuracy was not able to represent the performance of the classifiers for the given task.


An unidentified newly isolated acidophilic fungus was cultivated in peat hydrolyzate for potential use as single-cell protein (SCP). At the optimal medium composition of (NH4)2SO4 0.5%. K2HPO4 0.5%, MgSO4 0.04%, and an initial pH of 2.5, the maximum biomass concentration of 10.4 g/L and the total carbohydrate reduction of 69.7% were obtained from the batch cultivation in an open-pond bioreactor. The fungal biomass contained 24.3% protein, 1.7% lipid, 61.2% carbohydrate and 12.8% ash on the dry weight basis. The content of lysine, threonine, methionine, leucine and isoleucine in peat hydrolyzate-grown fungus was superior to the FAO standard.

Un fungus acidiphile nouvellement isole et non-identifie est cultive dans l'hydrolysat de tourbe comme source de proteines microbiennes. Sous les conditions optimales du mileu de culture de 0.5% (NH4)2SO4, 0.5% K2HPO4, 0.04% MgSO4 et du pH initial de 2.5, la culture en discontinu dans un bioreacteur type bassin ouvert donne une concentration maximum de la biomasse de 10.4 g/L et une reduction maximum des sucres totaux de 69.7%. La biomasse de ce fungus contient 24.3%) proteine, 1.7% lipide, 61.2% hydrates de carbone et 12.8% cendre sur une base seche. Les teneurs en lysine, threonine, methionine, leucine et isoleucine du fungus cultive dans l'hydrolysat de tourbe sont superieures aux standards de la FAO.


[Problem] To make it possible to significantly inhibit breakage of the tip of a saw blade even when cutting continuous inner surface beads inside arc-welded steel tubes, electric resistance-welded steel tubes, or the like. [Solution] Provided is a tip saw (1) in which saw blades (3) are disposed protruding at prescribed intervals on the periphery of a discoid base metal (2), in which a tip (5) is fixed to each saw blade (3), and in which blade cavities (6) are formed between the adjacent saw blades (3). The tip saw (1) has an outer diameter (D) of at least 250mm. The width (W2) of inlet openings of the blade cavities (6) is in the range of 0.6-1.2% of the outer diameter. Both tip surfaces (5a) and tip-opposing surfaces (6a) in the blade cavities (6) are slanted, as necessary, towards the side opposite to the rotation direction of the tip saw (1).


We introduce a chaotic microcomb based high interference-tolerance parallel LiDAR. Parallel chaos with record-high noise spectra beyond 7 GHz leads to sub-cm-level ranging accuracy. The intrinsic orthogonality permits single-pixel detection, greatly simplifying the system architecture.


Laszlo's systems philosophy was founded in early 1970s and matured in early 21st century in its main thoughts.Such a philosophy focuses on: the hypothesis of communicating vacuum,biperspectivism,the viewpoint that subject and object jointly determine cognition and the standpoint of value that the subject must adapt to its environment.Laszlo's systems thought gives us important enlightenment to substantiate and develop Marxist philosophy and endow it with exuberant vitality.


Objective To investigate surface electrocardiographic features of atrioventricular conduction block (A-VB) at bundle branch level. Methods Surface ECG were analyzed retrospectively in 5 patients with A-VB. Results Diagnosis clues of A-VB at bundle branch level on surface ECG were as follow: ①All-or-none phenomenon of atrioventricular conduction. ②Escape beat or ventricular capture appeared as a narrow QRS wave with second degree A-VB or high degree A-VB. ③Paroxysmal A-VB. ④QRS wave of ventricular capture showed one or bilateral bundle branch block with intermittent missing of QRS wave. ⑤Waves of ventricular capture with mobitz II or high degree A-VB revealed alternating fascicular block or bundle branch block. ⑥Ventricular escape rhythm was slower. Conclusion It is possible to diagnose A-VB at bundle branch level according to surface ECG with clinical findings.


Personal life-narratives, like literary narratives, comprize both subject matter and style conveying information about experiences in a structured manner. The subject matter of these anecdotes generally concern relations between self and other and the main style factor contrasts an engaged first-person or a detached third-person perspective. Attribution theorists of the 1960s and 1970s argued that when people adopt an engaged first-person perspective they emphasize the external situational determinants of their own behavior. In contrast, when they assume a detached third-person perspective they focus on internal dispositional factors which govern the behavior of others. The main premise underlying this study was that individuals could approach both their own experiences and those of others from engaged situational or detached dispositional viewpoints. The life-narratives of 51 undergraduates, who each recounted one positive and one negative episode, were analysed using a qualitative research strategy. The...


All frames show a group of Satan's Slaves gang members (some wearing patches) and their Triumph motorbikes parked at Oriental Bay. Unless otherwise stated, all persons are unidentified. Photographs taken by Ans Westra.
Source of descriptive information - Notes written by Westra, accompanying the corresponding proof sheet
Quantity: 4 b&w original negative(s) 120 strips containing 12 images.
Physical Description: Cellulose acetate roll film


Is science getting at the truth? The sceptics—those who spread doubt about science—often employ a simple argument: scientists were 'sure' in the past, and then they ended up being wrong. Such sceptics draw on dramatic quotes from eminent scientists such as Lord Kelvin, who reportedly stated at the turn of the 20th century 'There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now', shortly before physics was dramatically transformed. They ask: given the history of science, wouldn't it be naïve to think that current scientific theories reveal 'the truth', and will never be discarded in favour of other theories? Through a combination of historical investigation and philosophical-sociological analysis, Identifying Future-Proof Science defends science against such potentially dangerous scepticism. It is argued that we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever, so long as science continues. How do we identify future-proof claims? This appears to be a new question for science scholars, and not an unimportant one. It is argued that the best way to identify future-proof science is to avoid any attempt to analyse the relevant first-order scientific evidence, instead focusing purely on second-order evidence. Specifically, a scientific claim is future-proof when the relevant scientific community is large, international, and diverse, and at least 95 per cent of that community would describe the claim as a 'scientific fact'. In the entire history of science, no claim meeting these criteria has ever been overturned, despite enormous opportunity.


Instructional design under network environment has become a new skill that teachers must master.To resolve the problem that the traditional teaching design can not meet the demand of network teaching,from the point of instructional design,comprehensively considering the main factors of influencing instructional design,the paper break through the principle of traditional instruction design and puts forward the reasonable and effective instructional design strategy under the network environment.


This chapter focuses on the use and abuse of the astrologer in literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. It examines in detail a few genre specific depictions of the astrologer in short stories, verse, news writings, drama, and the novel. Put differently, while the increasing strictures surrounding the practice of judicial astrology, and the growing divergence between the tasks of the astronomer and those of the astrologer, both served to erode the authority of this figure, the writer recognized and contested his cultural prestige. The extremes of the eternal quotidian of the Virgilian farmer and of the particular historical moment of the Georgics were durably linked by the practice of astrometeorology. The heyday of astrometeorological literature in the 16th century was facilitated by the fact that prognostications based on these weather signs generally escaped from the ecclesiastical and civil censorship. Keywords: astrometeorological literature; Georgics ; judicial astrology


Toll‐like receptor 3 (TLR3) has gained recognition as a novel molecular target for cancer therapy because TLR3 activation by its synthetic ligand poly I:C directly causes tumor cell death. Recently, we reported that tumor suppressor p53 increases the expression of TLR3 in several tumor cell lines. Another study also showed that interferon‐α (IFN‐α) up‐regulates TLR3 expression. We thus hypothesized that various anticancer drugs such as p53‐activating reagents and IFNs may potentiate poly I:C‐induced tumor cell death through the up‐regulation of TLR3 expression. Here, we screened several anticancer drugs that, together with poly I:C, effectively cause tumor cell death in colon carcinoma HCT116 cells. We found that the DNA‐damaging reagent 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU) increased TLR3 mRNA expression and potentiated poly I:C‐induced apoptosis in HCT116 p53+/+ cells but had only minimal effect in p53−/− cells, indicating a p53‐dependent pathway. On the other hand, IFN‐α increased poly I:C‐induced apoptosis and the TLR3 mRNA level in HCT116 p53+/+ and p53−/− cell lines. Furthermore, the combination of poly I:C, 5‐FU and IFN‐α induced the highest apoptosis in HCT116 p53+/+ and p53−/− cells. Taken together, these data suggest that the anticancer drugs increased TLR3 expression and subsequently potentiated poly I:C‐induced apoptosis likely via p53‐dependent and ‐independent pathways. Considering that the p53 status in malignant cells is heterogeneous, this combination approach may provide a highly effective tumor therapy. (Cancer Sci 2010)


: China faces difficult challenges due to its aging population. The country's endowment system is still in its infancy, and pensions have become a major problem requiring prompt resolution. Based on China's national policies, this paper proposes a "medical and nursing care smart linking" elderly care system centered on a large hospital for diagnosis and treatment. This system uses the Internet to connect institutional, community, and family pension models and employs new cloud-based artificial intelligence for diagnosis and rehabilitation. Related work has shown that the use of the Internet, advanced artificial intelligence, and other effective comprehensive treatment technologies to solve the current problems facing China's pension industry has important research value. These are very promising efforts that are in line with national development strategies and relevant policies.


The semiconductor industry has a pressing need for information about dopant profiles. Reliable data is required for evaluation of process parameters and as input to simulations of dopant diffusion. Recent studies with electron holography have shown that 2-D dopant profiles can be successfully imaged with high-spatial resolution and sensitivity[1]. However, further research is needed to evaluate artifacts that prevent quantification on a routine basis.


The present invention relates to a composite catalyst for preparing sec-butyl acetate by direct esterification of ethyl ester and butylene, which takes heteropoly acid as the catalyst active component and porous carrier as the dispersant; the weight proportion of the heteropoly acid and the porous carrier is 0.01:1 to 10:1. The heteropoly acid is one with Keggin structure, which consists of phosphotungstic acid, silicotungstic acid, germanium tungstic acid, arsenowolframic acid, phosphomolybdate, germanomolybdate or arsenicomolybdate. The porous carrier comprises porous SiO2, Al2O3, SBA-15, MCM-41, white carbon black, porous SiC, corallite, andalusite, cordierite, meerschaum, Attapulgite or kaolin. The composite catalyst of the present invention solves the problem that the catalysis efficiency is low if the heteropoly acid is separated out from the reaction system.


In order to study some unreasonable phenomena existing in the cultivation of special students of broadcasting and hosting in China, and make the cultivation and selection of special students of broadcasting and hosting become more standardized and scientific, this paper argues that improving the humanistic literacy of special students of broadcasting and hosting can meet the needs of talents in today's society. Firstly, the current situation of Chinese teaching of special students of broadcasting and hosting in high schools was analysed. Secondly, from the perspective of humanistic literacy, the advantages of students' humanistic literacy in language learning were discussed, the significance of improving students' humanistic literacy was studied, and the relationship between Chinese teaching and humanistic literacy was explored. Then, the investigation questionnaire and the investigation analysis were carried out for the analysis of condition and the factor of the broadcasting and hosting specialty student's humanitic literacy; finally, through the analysis to the humanities factor in the language teaching, the teacher and the student's idea were changed. The broadcasting and hosting specialty student's training strategy in the language teaching on the promotion of the teacher and the student's humanistic literacy was proposed. The results indicated the studies provided new directions and ideas for the cultivation of the special students of broadcasting and hosting.


The purpose of this project was to experimentally measure the rates of several thermochemical gas-solid reactions between sulfur gases in the Venus atmosphere and reactive minerals on the hot Venus surface. Despite the great importance of these reactions for the maintenance of significant amounts of sulfur gases (and thus for the maintenance of the global cloud cover) in the atmosphere of Venus, essentially no kinetic data are currently available for them.


A pharmaceutical composition for preventing and treating dementia, which contains a ginsenoside-F2(F2) and ginsenoside-CK as a main ingredient is provided to treat mild congnitive impairment and prevent degenerative brain diseases (Alzheimer disease, parkinson's disease, etc.). A pharmaceutical composition for preventing and treating dementia comprises a ginsenoside-F2 of the chemical formula 1 and ginsenoside-CK of the chemical formula 2 as main ingredient. In the chemical formulas 1 and 2, Glc indicates glucose. The content ratio of ginsenoside-F1 and ginsenoside-CK is 1:0.01~2. The content of the ginsenoside F2 and CK is 0.1~50 weight% based on the total weight. The amount of the composition in a health functional food is 0.01-15 weight% based on the total food weight.


In this study, the effect of the parameters playing a role in the root flow behavior of HAWT are only partly understood. To better reveal the root flow properties, this study presents the progression of HAWT blade root flow at two different blade geometries and at two different tip speed ratios. The effects of the geometry and the tip speed ratio on the root flow behavior and on the evolution of the root flow features are investigated. This study aims to answer the following questions: (i) What are the effects of the blade geometry and tip speed ratio on the root flow behavior? (ii) How are the blade wake and the root vortex evolution affected by the change of these parameters? The analysis of the velocity fields shows that the radial flow behavior changes with different blade geometries but a remarkable difference in the radial flow behavior is not observed with the change of tip speed ratio. The formation of the wake is different at three test cases because of different loading that the blades are encountered. From the circulation distribution along the blades, while a strong root vortex can be observed in Blade 1, the bound vorticity along Blade 2 builds up gradually when moving outboard, and do not show a trace of a strong root vortex.


Within the lattice of partitions of a finite set, the kth level consists of partitions having k blocks. A matching between levels $k_1$ and $k_2$ is a one-to-one function assigning to each partition in the smaller level another in the larger level, which is related to the first by refinement. It is shown that matchings between adjacent levels of the partition lattice fail to exist precisely for k in an interval. The endpoints of the matchingless interval are shown to equal asymptotically $n\log 2/\log n$ and $n\log 4/\log n$.


Graphene oxide and Graphene based Nano Composites are under intense spotlight of Scientific Community due to their unparalleled unique properties. This work describes a simple Room temperature method for the synthesis of Graphene oxide nanosheet . Successful Graphene oxide formation was confirmed by XRD Studies and Raman Spectra studies ( D and G band) .The d spacing was also calculated using XRD information. Morphology of the prepared sample was observed from the HRSEM images. The test of UV-VIS spectrometer indicated that GO sheet possessed excellent optical response. Electrochemical performance of the Graphene oxide electrode was analyzed by cyclic voltammetry, which showed the capacitive behavior of Graphene oxide. This investigation highlights the importance of the preparation of Graphene oxide sheets using simple room temperature method,which finds use in supercapacitor applications.


Wireless visual sensor networks (WVSN) bring a more comprehensive perception of monitored environments, leading to an increase adoption of such networks as a promising solution for a wide range of applications. Among many examples, highlight industrial applications related to the industry 4.0 paradigm, which increasingly require more data from manufacturing systems. Those sensor-based applications are in many cases safety-critical, requiring dependability guarantees mainly related with reliability and availability, that should be maintained during the whole network operation. Although several approaches have provided network deployment with dependability guarantees, sometimes the monitored environment or the application configurations can change during the network operation, which can violate the dependability requirements and demand network redeployment in order to keep those guarantees. In this paper we propose a novel algorithm to redeploy WVSN guided by the optimization of the application dependability, considering changes on cameras' orientations. A methodology is defined to support dependability analysis. We compare the results of the proposed algorithm with previous algorithms found in literature. The achieved results show that the proposed algorithm is useful and efficient to provide network redeployment, keeping or improving the application dependability.


Introduction: In laser surgery, the laser beam can evaporate and cut the tissue like a small surgical knife when the tissue temperature is heated to 100 degrees Celsius. a complete understanding of the distribution of damage in both pathologic tissue and surrounding tissue is necessary. Although the test is the most realistic solution for treating medical problems, for this reason, theoretical investigation of thermal damage in laser tissue is used as an alternative method.

Materials and Methods: The diffusion of laser light in the tissue is initially solved using a robust seven-fluid model in the cylindrical coordinate system. The spatial distribution of the absorbed laser energy is introduced into the environmental transfer equation to solve the temperature response. Heat damage to tissues is determined according to the amount of dental protein by using the equation of the rate process.

Results: Heat damage to tissues is determined according to the amount of dental protein by using the equation of the rate process. It has been found that significant protein denaturation can occur when the temperature is over 53 ° C.
Conclusion: When a tissue radiates with a continuous laser beam with constant power in time, the damage parameter is also stored even after the laser is shut down. The most serious tissue damage occurs after laser radiation, when the temperature is about 53 ° C.


The multimedia teaching network represented by the"network English reading and writing" has obtained the phased success being as a totally new teaching means. This paper introduces the features and functions of this new course form, expounds the limitations of the traditional reading course and writing course through the comparison, and describes the strong superiorities of the network teaching.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of tablet surface area/ volume (SA/Vol) on drug release from extended-release matrix tablets of lamivudine prepared with hydroxy propyl methylcellulose (HPMC). Highly soluble drug such as lamivudine was utilized in this study to give predominantly diffusion-controlled release. Drug release from HPMC matrix tablets with similar values of SA/Vol was comparable within the same tablet shaped tablet. Tablets having the same surface area but different SA/Vol values did not result in similar drug release, tablets with larger SA/Vol values had faster release profiles. Utility of SA/Vol to affect drug release was demonstrated by changing drug doses, and altering tablet shape to adjust SA/Vol. When SA/Vol was held constant, similar release profiles were obtained. Thus, surface area/volume is one of the key variables in controlling drug release from HPMC matrix tablets. Proper use of this variable has practical application by formulators who may need to duplicate drug release profiles from tablets of different sizes and different shapes.


Counseling self-efficacy and counseling skills were examined over time in a graduate prepracticum class. Efficacy increased with training, but its relationship to performance of skills was weak.


The demand for commissioning services for new-building construction projects is experiencing rapid growth. Commissioning (Cx) is touted as being a quality- focused process for ensuring the owner's project require- ments (OPR) are met by design, final construction, and the operations of a building. To an owner this is just what is needed to receive a perfect building at occupancy. However, as many owners have realized, the Cx process does not guarantee the completed building will be what was expected. It should be pointed out that this is typically not caused by the Cx process, but the Cx process should or could have identified, in the early phases of the project, many of the issues that made it through to the completed building. There are a number of reasons why the Cx services received may not be optimal. Often it is poor communication and the transfer of knowledge between project teams. Cx should and can facilitate both commu- nication and the transfer of knowledge from phase to phase. An adaptation of the quality function deployment (QFD) four-phase model can accomplish this by filling the gaps among the major Cx activities and provide a standard approach to the process. The four-phase model effectively links each of the Cx activities to each other and back to the OPR, providing a method for improved communication and knowledge transfer. This paper investigates some potential reasons for inconsistent Cx services, presents an argument for the need of a Cx standard, and proposes a potential standard.


A device for the storage of viscous media, in particular polymer bitumen, (29 28) comprises a container (2) for storing the medium (3), a feed pump (6) for conveying at least a partial volume of the medium (3) and a at least one jet nozzle having, arranged in the container (2), with the feed pump (6) standing in conveying connection jet apparatus (12, 13) allowing a agitation jet (48) for stirring the medium (3), wherein the (from the jet apparatus 12, 13 ) to be dispensed agitation jet (48) relative to one (in the jet apparatus 12, 13) to be supplied to the motive medium beam has an increased volume and / or causing a reduced loss of momentum on the medium to be stirred (3).


The organizing committee of the Second ACM International Workshop on Multimedia Technologies for Distance Leaning (MTDL 2010) will like to welcome all of you to join the workshop as well as the ACM Multimedia Conference 2010. Education is considered as one of the most important social activities by all countries and governments, especially in the age of information exchange through the Internet. Distance learning technologies, although still rely on educational professionals to have guidance, computer and communication technologies help remove the time and space restrictions that exist in traditional learning. This MTDL workshop aims to discuss new contributions as well as practical experiences using computer and communication technologies. Especially, it looks at the differences of using and without using multimedia technologies for education.

In general, multimedia technologies can help students learn in a more interesting way as compared to traditional education methods, with sound and various media. Some educational theories also suggest that a few special trainings can be constructed much efficiently with the help from interactive multimedia. For instance, interactive simulation is useful in medical training. Additional technologies to fuse multidimensional information for e-learning are also interesting contributions from computer and sociological perspectives. On the other hand, interesting learning materials rely on good authoring technologies to combine learning activities for students. The materials for supporting these activities need to be located from local or a remote database and be retrieved efficiently. Therefore, how to search and rank learning objects from distance learning repositories has become not only a computer technology-based problem but also a communication issue. Communication technologies can also improve the attractiveness of social games and game-based learning. This year, we received a total of 14 papers (12 papers submitted and 2 papers recommended by the main conference), the program committee decided to accept 6 of them that were related to the above issues. These papers are from Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Spain, Taiwan, and United Kingdom. Each paper was reviewed by at least three program committee members and discussed by the program committee co-chairs before acceptance. The overall acceptance rate is less than 43%.


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Existing literature on the agenda-setting process is grounded and well cited in studies of U.S. national institutions, but emerging scholarship has taken the fundamental principles of agenda setting—attention, information, and learning—and has extended their applicability to understudied participants and institutions. This essay highlights three areas of study that have undergone particular growth during the last few years and best represent the trend of applying the well understood dynamics of agenda setting to a broader swath of participants in the policy process. We first examine how scholars have focused on agenda setting within U.S. state and local governments and the way these institutions balance their agenda-setting needs internally, while still trying to be heard within a federal system. Second, we highlight policy scholars' contributions to create better definitions and measures of the relationship between the media and policy process. Finally, we explore the contributions to the broader agenda-setting literature made by scholars examining non-U.S. institutions. These three categories are but a part of the growing trend in the subfield to expand the scope of agenda-setting research.


Graphics processing units (GPUs) have become an integral part of both High Performance Computing (HPC) and desktop systems. To fully exploit their potential, algorithms should be specifically designed to fit the General Purpose computing on GPU (GPGPU) programming paradigm and, above all, an optimized implementation should be provided. In the past, pattern languages were proven to be an effective way to communicate experience and help researchers and developers to reduce the learning curve over a particular expertise field. In this paper we describe SIMPL, a pattern language dedicated to GPGPU computing. We discuss in detail three example patterns enabling optimal performance results on various classes of applications.


Abstract:Jean-Jacques Rousseau gave pride of place to the imagination in his new science of consciousness. Two of his most important literary works, Confessions and Julie, were intended to exhibit the range, complexity, and potency of this much-maligned faculty, thereby affirming its rightful place in a science of what consciousness reveals. In mining his own experience for data, Rousseau discovered that the imagination's idealization powers soothed the disturbing spontaneity of consciousness as well as his own longing for enduring attachments.


Since 1977 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) test as an alternative to the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Pyrogen Test <151> (PT). Acceptance was based on a number of studies showing excellent correlation of the LAL assay with the PT. Fred Pearson and colleagues summed this up nicely with the statement: "While several hundred thousand LAL tests have been conducted by Travenol, and several hundred have required retest in rabbits, in no case has there been an LAL pass and a rabbit failure." As an added benefit, the LAL assay was found to be more sensitive than the PT, allowing realistic in-process control during the manufacture of drug solutions. Some studies examining the utility of LAL continued even after approval of the LAL test by the FDA. One study in particular showed that: 1) most drugs produced in the US were LAL negative, i.e. had no detectable endotoxin (2449 out of 2526, or 97%); 2) those that were positive were mostly drug products derived from natural sources (17 out of 24); and 3) endotoxin was associated with the contamination of raw material(s), not the finished product. This did not come as too much of a surprise as even the earliest studies, used to validate the use of the febrile response in rabbits as the forerunner of the pharmacopeial PT, implicated endotoxin as the cause of "injection fever". Thus, experimental and historical data overwhelmingly supported replacement of the PT with the BET. In the final analysis, the most serious objection to replacing the PT with the BET was not the issue of non-endotoxin pyrogens but the fact that the LAL assay was more sensitive than the PT, and the LAL activity with different endotoxins did not tightly correlate with PT response, i.e. the same weight of endotoxin from different bacteria did not all exhibit similar responses in the PT. Thus, the LAL test was not considered a good indicator of "biological activity". The first criticism was removed following studies which determined the actual amount of standard endotoxin needed to elicit a positive PT. This finding resulted in the concept of the "endotoxin limit". The second objection was also overcome with the introduction of the Reference Standard Endotoxin (RSE), and an accompanying unit of activity--the Endotoxin Unit (EU). So successful was the use of LAL and accompanying RSE that, beginning in1985 with USP XXI, the USP began replacing the PT with the Bacterial Endotoxins Test (BET) <85> in monographs requiring a test for pyrogens. Water for Injection, recognized as a critical ingredient in nearly all injectables, or as a processing reagent, was the first monograph requiring the BET. In USP XXIV, only 20 monographs still specified the PT, all the rest required BET. On the other hand, the FDA, recognizing the possibility that a new drug may possess some inherent pyrogenicity (i.e. non-endotoxin pyrogen) or whose process may introduce a non-endotoxin pyrogen, still requires the PT as part of an Investigatory New Drug (IND) application for injectables. Letter From the President


Converting Web pages into XML,Web wrappers can support the integration of existing systems.XSLT aims at XML transformation.Its capabilities in information extraction and reorganization show good potential for wrappers.Wrapper description incorporates the query interfaces,result schemas and mapping rules.This XML file is used to generate executable code automatically.Wrapper execution and code generation are all based on standard XSLT,which features great portability.A content-based locating method called "Meta-Data Aligning" is also put forward to improve wrappers' tolerance to the changes of Web pages.Ideas and techniques are validated in the implementation of the prototype.


The ideas expressed by Askad Mukhtar in scientific and journalistic articles, short stories and novels reflect the influence of the genius writer Tolstoy on the worldview of the Uzbek writer. In this regard, Leo Tolstoy's literary influence on the author's works, in particular, in the novel "Chinar", is of great historical and artistic significance. The article provides reviews about the heroes of his works, which helped create the image of the great writer from sources collected during the writing of the novel. In addition, information is provided on the activities and fate of two Uzbek representatives who managed to meet with Tolstoy - Ubaydulla Asadullahozhaev and Abduvokhid Koriev. Analysis of the conversation between Tolstoy and Koriev shows that Askad Mukhtor was a knowledgeable representative of Eastern and Western literature.


The objectives of this study were to prepare starch nanocomposite films incorporating grape pomace extract (GPE) and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) using a solvent-casting method, and to characterize the mechanical properties, color, water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), crystalline structure, morphology, thermal stability, phenolic compound release profile and antibacterial activity of the films. Incorporating CNC and GPE significantly (P < 0.05) increased the films' thickness, mechanical properties, and opacity. Brightness and color were mainly influenced by GPE level, while CNC had a great impact on the reduction of WVTR values of the film. Three characteristic cellulose I crystalline peaks were observed using X-ray diffraction in CNC-containing nanocomposite films. However, the effect of CNC levels on thermal stability was not significant. Phenolic compound releases were time and film dependent, and the nanocomposite films incorporating with GPE and CNC exhibited stronger inhibitory effect against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 compared to Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 7644. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44438.


In the article the problem of professional sefdetermination of a student being а subject of professional development is investigated. Functions of professional selfdetermination a re argumented which if realized within higher school educating process supply studentsۥ training for teaching in modern sociocultural conditions.


Discrimination against women is not new. Women have been the target of unequal measures for a very long time. Early in U.S. history, a married woman could not sue or be sued, inherit, enter into contracts, make wills or keep her own property. Until the 20 Century, women could not vote. So, it is no surprise that women have been—and still are--subject to inequality in the workplace. What makes discrimination against women unique among groups targeted for discriminatory employment practices is that unlike other groups who are discriminated against out of hatred, women have been subject to discrimination ostensibly for their own protection. Often described as the "gentle sex" or the "weaker sex", women have been protected first by their fathers and later by their husbands. Another rationale for discriminating against women is their perceived role as seductive sexual objects from which men need protection. These bases for gender discrimination have found expression in the laws of the United States and in such great cases as Rostker v. Golberg, excluding women from the draft, and Dothard v. Rawlinson, excluding women from contact positions in a maximum security male penitentiary. As a result of the institutionalization of these social mores, women still suffer great inequality, especially in the workplace. To combat this inequity, federal laws have been enacted to promote equal treatment of women in terms of employment, pay and other workplace conditions. Title VII is the main federal law that prohibits discrimination against women in the workplace. But Title VII also sets up a defense for employers when they have a factual basis for believing that women (or men, in fairness) cannot perform the requirements of the job. This defense is commonly known as the bona fide occupational qualification or BFOQ defense, and it has been frustrating attempts by women to achieve equality in the work place. The BFOQ defense will justify gender as a job requirement if the job in question cannot be satisfactorily performed by members of the excluded sex. While this definition appears to allow gender discrimination when it perhaps should, that is when the unwanted sex would be unable to perform the job as in the case of an actor or actress where gender may be required for genuineness, the BFOQ defense has morphed through jurisprudence to justify gender discrimination where either sex could perform the job equally well but privacy interests of third parties of one sex make it more psychologically comfortable that the job be performed by persons of that same sex, or where third parties like customers or patients need protection. These forms of the BFOQ are generally known as the privacy based BFOQ and the safety BFOQ, respectively. There are two areas of employment in which bodily privacy and safety have justified overt gender discrimination against women by courts finding that gender is a BFOQ: nursing staff and prison guards. These two areas have also spawned recent scholarly debate as to the need for the BFOQ to protect women from sexual attack and bodily exposure. Following a brief overview of Title VII and the BFOQ provision, this paper examines court opinions involving prison guards and nurses where the courts have found that the BFOQ justifies gender discrimination to show that these courts openly and systematically rely upon the archaic stereotypes of women as seductive sexual objects and/or weak human beings in upholding the BFOQ. The continuing expression of these stereotypes in legal precedent leads to counsel and parties raising the same stereotypical arguments in each new case that comes before the courts. I argue that by legitimizing these stereotypes the courts are perpetuating gender discrimination to the detriment of women. By excluding both men and women from employment in these sectors, creating a "separate but equal" workforce where women continue to serve in lower paying and less prestigious positions, the courts are maintaining a system in which women continue to be denied the means to gain power in our society. It is indeed ironic that this system is exalted as being for the good of women.


The design of steering tie rods affects tire wear and handling performance of passenger cars. The displacement matrix method was used to analyze the spatial kinematics of the MacPherson strut suspension and steering tie rods in a rack and pinion steering system. Calculational method of the relationship between the inside and outside wheels of the front axle was given. Objective functions of the optimal design consider steering ratio, tire wear, and vehicle handling performance. A mathematic model for the steering tie rod optimization was constructed. The flexible tolerance algorithm was used to solve the optimization problem considering both the kinematics analysis and the optimization. Tests with an actual car show that the optimal design method is accurate and very useful in vehicle design.


This paper presents an account of work done in connection with the selection of a suitable high-tension insulator for a transmission line operated at 110,000 volts. It is a report of an investigation giving a faithful account of the motives calling for the same, the method adopted and used to carry out the work, and the line of reasoning followed in classifying the results obtained. It is not intended to be a criticism of any individual design or of the valuable work which has been done by others in the same direction. The problem which had to be solved was well defined, requiring no more difficult task than to select from a number of insulators the one best suited for certain predetermined conditions. From the first to the last, the question was one concerned with engineering only, in which biased opinion or partiality was to be absolutely absent. How well this problem has been solved may be judged from the following account and perhaps more so by the tangible results obtained in the years following, during actual operation.


Aim: This is the first French preliminary study to evaluate the psychological health of parents with infants treated by therapeutic hypothermia for anoxo-ischemic encephalopathy and discharged from the hospital with regular initial progression (MRI and normal outpatient examinations).Materials and method: Seven children, under age two, treated with therapeutic hypothermia for anoxo-ischemic encephalopathy at birth and their parents were met and examined. All the children were discharged from the maternity ward with a normal MRI and a satisfactory clinical examination. The Brunet-Lezine scale was used to measure the children's psychomotor development, while the parents' psychological health was evaluated using two adapted scales – the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Perinatal Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder scale – in addition to a semi-structured interview.Results: With the revised Brunet-Lezine scale, the children did not present significant developmental delay (DQ between 98 and 97). However, eight to eighteen months after the event, 50 % of mothers and 25 % of fathers showed pathological scores of post-traumatic stress. The other half of the mothers and 25 % of fathers showed postnatal depression. Interviews uncovered traumatic experiences of delivery; bonding difficulties for the first minutes and days following childbirth; high exposure of fathers; extreme projections about life and death during the hypothermia treatment; and the importance of MRI results and the stay in kangaroo care for reassurance and growing accustomed to the feeling of parenthood. We also found persistent parental concerns six months to one year later despite the absence of disability for their children.Conclusion: Anoxo-ischemic encephalopathy and therapeutic hypothermia are psychological stressors for parents, even in the absence of complications. This study confirms the need for a trusted therapeutic framework during hospitalization. But it also shows the importance of a preventive multidisciplinary follow-up for all families, regardless of the medical outcome. More research is needed to better understand and help families facing these life experiences.


The present investigation was conducted during kharif 2016-2017 at College of Horticulture, Dr. Y.S.R. Horticultural University, Venkataramannagudem to assess the impact of mutagens on leaf characters like leaf length, leaf width, leaf chlorophyll and leaf curcumin in turmeric. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design and replicated thrice under open field condition. Rhizomes are treated with gamma rays (25 Gy and 50 Gy) and EMS (250 ppm, 500 ppm and 1000 ppm) along with control. The plants recorded maximum leaf length, width, chlorophyll content and curcumin with 25 Gy, 250 ppm EMS and combination of 25 Gy + 250 ppm EMS. Among the treatments, 25 Gy gamma rays and 250 ppm EMS concentration resulted in creating variability in turmeric.


Background ionizing radiation attributed to natural sources has over the years been at increase due to increase in infrastructural facilities and population inducing more human activities within campuses. This called for very great concern because of it effects on the human at higher exposure doses. Consequently, the Assessment of the Natural Ionizing Radiation was carried out at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (IBBUL) and Niger State Polytechnic, Zungeru (NSPZ) with approximate populations of 7000 and 5200 students respectively. A portable Geiger-Mueller dosimeter was used at 19 different locations within the two tertiary institutions. The results revealed the Dose Rate variation from 0.14 to 0.186 μSv⁄hr, at IBBUL, while at NSPZ the variation was from 0.12 to 0.158 μSv⁄hr. For all the locations the mean Dose Rate was 0.154 μSv⁄hr with a standard deviation of 0.0195 μSv⁄hr. Generally, average Annual Effective Dose Rate obtained is 0.27 mSv/annum which fell within the recommended alarming limit of 1 mSv/annum given by the International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) for non-occupational population exposure. This implied no adverse impact on the tenements within the two tertiary Institutions. However, part of the recommendations is that more work needs to be done on the soil to characterize the areas for possible radioactive source deposits which may be up to alarming magnitude in the near future.


Abstract : Crack-growth-rate studies on Ti-7Al-2Cb-1Ta and Ti-6Al-4V alloys in low-cycle fatigue were performed in air and in a 3.5-percent salt-water solution. The Ti-7Al-2Cb-1Ta alloy was additionally tested in distilled water. An increase in crack-growth rate at all strain ranges was observed for the Ti-7Al-2Cb-1Ta in the 'wet' environments over that in the 'dry', whereas the Ti-6Al-4V alloys did not appear to be sensitive to a 'wet' environment. At a strain range of 8000 to 9000 microinches/inch, corresponding to about 60-percent yield strength, the crack-growth rate of Ti-7Al-2Cb-1Ta alloy accelerated and became erratic. Fractographic studies show that the increase in crack-growth rate is due to a change from the ductile mode of fatigue fracture usually found in 'dry' low-cycle fatigue tests of titanium alloys, to the brittle quasi-cleavage mode of fracture-a fracture mechanism of stress-corrosion cracking. The amount of quasi-cleavage seen on the fatigued fracture surface generally corresponds to the crack-growth-rate increase; thus, it is indicative of the degree of stress-corrosion cracking sensitivity. (Author)


American business practices and views on Japanese management tend to dominate the management literature worldwide. This domination is at odds with the relatively meager attention given to the management practices of other successful countries in the world. This paper focuses on Germany, Europe's "economic giant." In 1990, West Germany produced 40 percent of the European Community's manufactured output (Warner and Campbell, 1993). Its export power is unparalleled; Germany's volume of world trade nearly equals that of the much larger United States. Its exports are, and have been since the 1960s, twice as high, per capita, as Japan's (e.g., Heiduk and Yamamura, 1990; The Economist, 1993). This paper aims to identify the key to German-style management, by which we mean the unique, culturally embedded management practices within Germany. In order to provide a realistic picture of a national management style, one has to consider behavioral as well as institutional aspects of the business system (see Whitley, 1992, 1994). In this paper, both types of aspects are combined in an integrative fashion. Compared with management in other European countries, German-style management has received a lot of academic attention. Surprisingly, however, the number of empirical studies on this topic is rather limited. In order to identify the key to German-style management, we analyzed a representative set of empirical research studies that focused on management styles and systems in different countries, including Germany. To enrich our analysis, we also considered essays and noncomparative literature on German management. These essays provide information on the background conditions of the German business system which cannot be neglected in order to achieve an understanding of German-style management.1 After characterizing the empirical literature, this paper offers an overview of the unique features of German-style management. Attention is then focused on


The spatial unevenness of rates of entrepreneurship and innovation are an enduring theme within the fi eld of economic geography. More recently, a lack of entrepreneurial and innovative capacity and capability have been identi fi ed as a cause for many cities and regions becoming what are considered by some as left behind places both economically and socially. Although this is rightly the case, the fi eld is still seeking to grapple with establishing plausible and realistic solutions to tackling the long-term problems these cities and regions face. An emerging and potentially powerful stream of research has started to emerge indicating that some so-called left behind places have begun a journey of new path creation based on entrepreneurial endeavor, which has led to the development of new innovative fi rms in growing industries. Nevertheless, much of the literature takes a relatively downbeat approach, suggesting that a small band of winning cities and regions will continue to develop and advance at the expense of the laggards. The Rise of the Rest represents an engaging and enlightening account as to how this zero-sum theory does not necessarily need to be the case and provides a somewhat different philosophical counterweight to some streams of scholarly work. Indeed, The Rise of the Rest is not written by an academic, but rather by Steve Case, the founder of America Online (AOL) and now a leading venture capitalist. The book tells his story as to how he initiated a major venture fi nance program — also called the Rise of the Rest — that has sought to trigger new entrepreneurship and innovation in cities and regions in the US outside the traditional hotspots on the nation ' s east and west coasts.


This report documents the status of ongoing tests performed to construct a material database for use in structural analysis codes. Room temperature uniaxial tension and compression tests were performed to quantify isotropy and strain-rate sensitivity at static rates. Notched tensile tests were performed to support development of the damage portion of coupled flow-damage constitutive models. Plate perforation tests were also performed to be compared with future analytical predictions. Limited quantities of the pseudo HY-100 material permitted only a subset of such tests. Future tests are to include high-rate compression for improved strain-rate sensitivity modeling at anticipated service conditions, and elevated temperature compression testing for improved modeling of potential material softening due to adiabatic heating. 3 refs., 11 figs.


Using Optical Coherence Tomography, we measure the attenuation of slow light modes in slotted photonic crystal waveguides. When the group index is close to 20, the attenuation is below 300 dB cm−1. Here, the optical confinement in the empty slot is very strong, corresponding to an ultra-small effective cross section of 0.02 μm2. This is nearly 10 times below the diffraction limit at λ = 1.5 μm, and it enables an effective interaction with a very small volume of functionalized matter.


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA continued pressing reluctant senators to pass climate and energy legislation this year during a 90-minute meeting last week with some two dozen of them. The President remains committed to provisions "putting a price on pollution," he said in a statement after the closed-door meeting. But the statement noted that "not all of the senators agreed with this approach" and that the President welcomes other ideas to cut "dependence on oil, create jobs, strengthen national security, and reduce atmospheric pollution." The fate of energy and climate legislation in the Senate is likely to turn on several draft bills under consideration and the ability of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to meld provisions that are popular enough to draw the support needed to reach a 60-vote majority and bring a bill to the floor. Reid says he hopes to produce such a bill this summer, but floor action may have to wait until ...


We describe MOSS, a small language of mobile distributed objects and system-wide references, uncommitted to any distributed simulation protocol, but which can be executed as a distributed conservative simulation with automatic deduction of lookahead. We show how the MOSS programmer can control the dynamic distribution and locality of simulation objects by simple means which provide natural modelling functions. Preliminary results show how programmed locality can reduce communication costs in simulation.<<ETX>>


Field research was conducted during 1990, 1991, and 1992 to examine effects of plant density on rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel, oviposition in rice, Oryza sativa L. Results of the plant density study showed that there was a trend for more eggs per plant at lower densities, but a trend toward more eggs per unit area with higher plant densities. Plant densities influenced rice water weevil oviposition during the first 3 wk of permanent flooding. However, plant spacing cannot be manipulated to control rice water weevil infestation because recommended optimum plant densities do not differ significantly in their effect on oviposition.


Sir, A 60-year-old male patient presented with right abdominal pain with diarrhoea of one week duration to the department of medicine. There was no history of fever or any other specific abdominal signs and symptoms. He was diagnosed to have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and treated with medications for the past six years. But his symptoms persisted on and off. Routine blood investigations and abdominal ultrasound was normal. Lower gastroscopy revealed mild diverticulitis. Stool examination demonstrated oval, bile stained parasitic eggs with larva inside the ova [Figure I]. The size of the ova was similar to that of Ascaris lumbricoides. The images of the ova were sent to CDC, USA for identification which was reported as Heterodera species, a plant nematode and a spurious passenger in the stool. Retrospectively, the history revealed association of his symptoms with the consumption of tubers like tapioca and potato. His symptoms had subsided by the time a repeat stool examination was done after 4 days which did not reveal any parasite. We compared the clinical condition of the patient to that of animal scabies in humans and suggested whether Heterodera can be the cause for patient's symptoms. Sarcoptes scabiei var hominis is a species specific mite that causes scabies only in human beings. The characteristic symptom of scabies infection is intense nocturnal itching. The presence of burrow within the skin of finger webs and genitalia is pathognomonic of scabies. However, animal scabies in human is caused by a different kind of scabies mite that does not survive or reproduce on humans but cause 'mange' in animals. When a person comes in contact with an infested animal, the animal mite can cause temporary itching and skin irritation. However, the animal mite cannot reproduce on a person and will die on its own in a couple of days. Therefore, the mainstay of the treatment is symptomatic relief with avoidance of contact with the animal. Similarly, Heterodera, a plant pathogen is found commonly in rice, vegetables and other crops like coconut, banana, tapioca, yams, pulses etc. 2 The parasite does not cause any pathologic disease in humans but it can be the reason for the irritation of the human bowel by its mere presence which can lead to the IBS. Figure I: