Objective
To assess the clinical value of cross raft screws technique in preventing postoperative collapse of tibial plateau fracture.

Methods
From September 2014 to November 2017, data of 14 patients with tibial plateau fracture who were treated by cross raft screws technique were retrospectively analyzed. There were 9 males and 5 females aged from 30-65 years old (average, 44.4±1.7 years). There were 8 patients that the thickness of subchondral cancellous bone measured preoperatively by CT data was less than 4 mm, and 6 patients that the thickness of subchondral cancellous bone measured intraoperatively was less than 4 mm. 1/4 tubular plate was placed along the anterior rim of lateral tibial plateau, and the 3.5 mm cortical bone screws were fixed as bamboo raft from anterior to posterior through the plate. The collapse of tibial plateau after surgery were measured by CT scan after union of the fracture. The function of knee was evaluated by Rasmussen Anatomical and Functional Grading.

Results
The time of tubular plate procedure was 18 to 35 min (average, 24.1±5.4 min). All 14 patients were successfully followed-up for 13.8±5.1 months. The height of collapse preoperatively by CT scan was 5-21 mm (average, 8.00±1.40 mm). 3 days after the operation, the height between articular line and lateral articular surface was 0-2 mm (average, 0.80±0.06 mm). Compared with CT data preoperatively, the collapse was corrected postoperatively that was proved by CT scan (P< 0.05). After the fracture was healed, according to CT data, the height between articular line and lateral articular surface was 0-2 mm (average, 0.70±0.08 mm). Compared with CT data postoperatively, there was no postoperative collapse happened (P=0.466). The position and length of nails were placed appropriately. The average healing time of fracture was 3.6 months. There were no infection, nonunion and pain of tendon happened. The plate could be touched subcutaneously in 2 patients, who had no discomfort feelings. The patient's postoperative Rasmussen Anatomical Grading were 13-18 (average, 16.7), including 8 cases excellent and 6 cases good. The postoperative Rasmussen Functional Grading was 18-28 (average, 25.7), including 11 cases excellent and 3 cases good.

Conclusion
The cross raft screws technique is a good way to prevent the postoperative collapse of the lateral articular surface of tibial plateau.

Key words:
Tibial fractures; Fracture fixation, internal; Treatment outcome


The University of Vienna and the Embassy of the United States of America cordially invite you to the talk "President John F. Kennedy in crisis: 50 years later" by Timothy...


Abstract We use reduction maps to study the minimal model program. Our main result is that the existence of a good minimal model for a Kawamata log terminal pair (X,Δ) can be detected on a birational model of the base of the (KX+Δ)-trivial reduction map. We then interpret the main conjectures of the minimal model program as a natural statement about the existence of curves on X.


This study was conducted to determine the SWCC of unsaturated tropical residual soil in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Undisturbed soil samples at five locations of high-risk slopes area were taken at a depth of 0.5 m using block sampler. In the determination of the SWCC, the pressure plate extractor with the capacity of 1500 kN/m2 has been used. The index properties of the soil such as natural moisture content, Atterberg limits, specific gravity, and soil classification are performed according to BS 1377: Part 2: 1990. The results of index properties show that the natural moisture content of the soil is between 36% to 46%, the plasticity index is between 10% - 26%, the specific gravity is between 2.51 - 2.61 and the soils is classified as silty organic clay of low plasticity. The SWCC data from the pressure plate extractor have been fitted with the Fredlund and Xing equation. The results show that the air entry value and residual matric suction for residual soils are in the range of 17 kN/m2 to 24 kN/m2 and 145 kN/m2 to 225 kN/m2 respectively. From the fitting curve, it is found that the average value of the Fredlund and Xing parameters such as a, n and m are in the range of 0.24-0.299, 1.7-4.8 and 0.142-0.440 respectively.


Varenicline may be a helpful smoking-cessation aid to stable depressed patients already receiving antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications, and its use does not appear to worsen moods, thoughts, or emotional states.


600Background: Conventional anthracyclines are particularly active in HER2-positive breast cancer (BC), but their use concomitantly with anti-HER2 agents is limited by cardiotoxicity. Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) and lapatinib (L) offer a safer alternative for combining these two classes of agents. Methods: This is an open label phase Ib study, with 3+3 dose escalation design. Patients with HER2-positive (FISH amplified or immunohistochemistry 3+) advanced BC, progressing after trastuzumab with a cumulative dose of doxorubicin ≤ 240 mg/m2 or equivalent, received PLD 30 mg/m2 intravenously on day 1 plus escalating doses of L orally on days 1-21 of each 21-day cycle (L dose levels 1 / 2: 1250 / 1500 mg/m2). The primary endpoint was to define the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) at first cycle, and secondary endpoints were the activity and safety profile with multiple cycles. Results: Nine patients out of 11 enrolled were evaluable (1 excluded for allergic reaction at first PLD dose, 1 withdrew consent)...


The primary objectives of forage-based livestock grazing systems are to enhance sustainability of pastures and cattle production, and to maintain economic stability in the presence of changes in input costs and returns. Grazing management strategies and implementation vary for adapted forages according to vegetational-hardiness zones, livestock production objectives, and manager preferences for grazing systems, stocking rates, and stocking methods. Stocking methods are strategies or techniques to manipulate grazing animals in space and time and may be considered as variations of continuous or rotational stocking. In many stocking method discussions, the debates are often focused on experimental confirmational data vs testimonials and perceptions. Acceptable methodology and statistical analyses of grazing experimentation on continuous vs rotational stocking provides repeated measures of forage nutritive value, forage mass, grazing intensity, and stocking rate on gain per animal, gain per unit land area. Additional measurements may include effects on forage stand maintenance and soil nutrient analyses-status. Recent adaptations of mob stocking and intensive rotational grazing via popular press and consultants have received acclaims for methods to enhance ecosystem services, soil health, and other non-experimentally documented attributes. Managers may adopt these testimonials of stocking methods of 60 days or more deferment based on their perception of protecting and enhancing the environment rather than logic of seeking experimental evidence. However, when given a choice of forage available for consumption, cattle select more than 80% of their diet as leaves. Thus, with respect to average daily gain per animal (ADG), only a small percentage of pasture studies have shown an advantage for rotational stocking. The lack of ADG was attributed to reduced nutritive value of forage available for selection during the residence time. Selecting management and stocking strategies for optimum utilization for forage produced, individual animal performance, and overall gain per unit land area has led to flexible grazing systems. These grazing systems may not be "hardcore rotationally, time-scheduled stocked," but they do involve multiple pastures with strategies to incorporate movement of cattle based on current paddock forage status and forage mass estimates for desired animal performance. Grazing management strategies control the degree of intensity of beef cattle production based on level of economic risk and desired-expected environmental stewardship goals. Of all the strategies that management may adopt for grazing, the primary factor that controls resultant sustainability of pastures is that of grazing intensity as measured by stocking rate or forage height-density. Implementing revised or new management strategies requires attention to detail and the use of data-results-recommendations from comparative experiments conducted by a recognized source without conflict of interest in the method promoted.


The Appeals Board (Board) adopts the same stipulations as the ALJ, and has considered the same record as did the ALJ, consisting of the transcript of Regular Hearing held September 2, 2008; the transcript of the evidentiary deposition of Edward Prostic, M.D., taken September 19, 2008, with attachments; the deposition of Prem Parmar, M.D., taken December 9, 2008, with attachments; the transcript of Motion for Penalties Hearing held February 26, 2009, with attachments; and the documents filed of record in this matter. The Board placed this matter on the Summary Docket calendar for determination without oral argument.


The invention relates to heavy metal sludge treated agent and a treating method thereof and in particular discloses a heavy metal pollution bottle sediment curing agent. The curing agent comprises cement and pulverized fuel ash, the mass ratio of the pulverized fuel ash to cement is 1:(0.5-11).The curing method of the curing agent comprises the following steps: directly adding the curing agent tothe heavy metal pollution bottle sediment with the use level of the curing agent being 0.4-1.5 times of the use level of the heavy metal pollution bottle sediment; maintaining the mixture after beingadded the curing agent for at least 3 days; and finally, completing the curing process.The curing agent and curing method of the invention not only has low processing cost but also ideal curing effect.


High peak to average power ratio (PAPR) is one of the main disadvantages of OFDM. Clipping can reduce the PAPR but suffers from high out-of-band distortion. Recently, peak cancellation is introduced to reduce the out-of-band radiation with a band-limited cancellation function. In this paper, a set of windowing function is applied as the cancellation function. Furthermore, the cancellation function is windowed into limited number of samples, and the performance of sinc function with different number of limited samples is investigated. Simulation results show that peak cancellation with a limited-sample sinc function can achieve better PAPR reduction performance with lower complexity.


Metal-catalyzed hydrofunctionalization reactions of alkynes, i.e., the addition of Y–H units (Y = heteroatom or carbon) across the carbon–carbon triple bond, have attracted enormous attention for decades since they allow the straightforward and atom-economic access to a wide variety of functionalized olefins and, in its intramolecular version, to relevant heterocyclic and carbocyclic compounds. Despite conjugated 1,3-diynes being considered key building blocks in synthetic organic chemistry, this particular class of alkynes has been much less employed in hydrofunctionalization reactions when compared to terminal or internal monoynes. The presence of two C≡C bonds in conjugated 1,3-diynes adds to the classical regio- and stereocontrol issues associated with the alkyne hydrofunctionalization processes' other problems, such as the possibility to undergo 1,2-, 3,4-, or 1,4-monoadditions as well as double addition reactions, thus increasing the number of potential products that can be formed. In this review article, metal-catalyzed hydrofunctionalization reactions of these challenging substrates are comprehensively discussed.


Abstract Scat analyses are commonly applied to study feeding ecology of carnivores. Factors developed in feeding trials are often used to convert dry matter mass of scat remainders to fresh matter mass of killed or scavenged prey. In our study, we aimed at: 1) presenting conversion factors (CFs) of roe deer Capreolus capreolus, European hare Lepus europaeus and house mice Mus musculus digested by wolf Canis lupus, Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx and red fox Vulpes vulpes, 2) comparing CFs derived from fox exposed to different feeding levels (fasted vs non-fasted before each feeding trial), 3) comparing effects of using different mesh sizes in the lab procedure on CFs, 4) comparing effects of applying CFs derived from wolf, lynx and fox to wolf scats, and 5) quantifying biases caused by inappropriate procedures in scat analyses. Feeding level, use of different mesh sizes, and application of predator-specific CFs affected the estimated number of killed prey individuals. The greatest deviations were found for the feeding level in regard to roe deer and European hare, and for the application of lynx CFs of roe deer and European hare to wolf scats. The strong relationship between prey use and CFs in our study may be used to estimate prey numbers from scats more precisely: in cases of low prey use, we suggest applying CFs derived from non-fasted carnivores, and in cases of high prey use CFs from fasted conspecifics are more appropriate. We recommend applying predator-prey specific CFs and using the same mesh size on which these CFs are based. The presented CFs allow recalculation of prey masses and prey numbers from scat analyses, which had been gained by using inappropriate CFs.


The dynamic stability of single-jet and double-jet zonal currents is investigated for several quasi-barotropic models by a finite difference method and by means of finite Fourier series. The two methods give generally similar results, but some moderate differences occur when the mesh length is decreased or the number of Fourier components is increased. Also the stability characteristics of single-jet and double-jet profiles differ considerably. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1962.tb01351.x


The majority of electronic markets worldwide employ limit order books, and the recently emerging exchanges for cryptocurrencies pose no exception. With this work, we empirically analyze whether commonly observed empirical properties from established limit order exchanges transfer to the cryptocurrency domain. Based on the literature, we establish a structured methodological framework to conduct analyses in a systematic and comprehensive way. We then present results from a unique and extensive limit order data set acquired from major cryptocurrency exchanges for the currency pair Bitcoin to US Dollar. We recover many observations from mature markets, such as a symmetry between the average ask and the average bid side of the order book, autocorrelation in returns on the smallest time scales only, volatility clustering and the timing of large trades. We also observe some idiosyncrasies: The distributions of trade size and limit order prices deviate from commonly observed patterns. Also, we find limit order books to be relatively shallow and liquidity costs to be relatively high when compared to established markets.


A patient with several congenital malformations, principally in the face, cardiovascular system and genitalia, was found to have the karyotype46,X,der(X),t,X;3)(Xqter← p21::3ql2‐←3qter). A comparison of the clinical and cytogenetical findings with similar cases in the literature led to the conclusion that a partial trisomy 3q is the most likely cause for the symptoms in this patient.


In this study,the static adsorption and desorption properties of six macroporous resins were compared for the purification of lotus seed epicarp polyphenols( LSEPPs). The purification conditions of the most suitable macroporous resin were optimized. In addition,the stabilities of LSEPPs were also investigated. The results indicated that AB-8 resin had the optimal adsorption and desorption performance. The optimal adsorption conditions with AB-8 macroporous resin were determined as follows: solution concentration of 4. 5 mg / mL,feeding rate of 0. 5 mL / min,and the optimal desorption conditions with AB-8 macroporous resin were ethanol concentration of 50%,elution rate of 2 mL / min,elution volume of 4 BV. Under these conditions,the purity of LSEPPs was 69. 34%. The stabilities of LSEPPs were improved by low temperature,light-avoiding and midly acidic conditions. Fe3 +,Fe2 +,Al3 +,Sn2 +,Cu2 +and Pb2 +had destructive effect on LSEPPs.


The new issue of the upcoming 2019 year be gins with an update on key issues related to the Global Strategy for Asthma (GINA), very comprehensively summarised by Helen K Reddel, Chair of the GINA Board of Directors, from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney, Australia. This review pro vides an overview of the immense work devel oped by the GINA's team over the last 25 years, made possible originally through a joint col laboration between the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the World Health Organization (WHO), firstly headed by Suzanne Hurd and Claude Lenfant in the early 1990s. Since its inception, GINA initiated sub stantial changes in key concepts about asth ma and its management and treatment that have had a substan tial global impact on this disease, sometimes associated to a bit of con troversy. This review reports several recent vital changes, including a dis cussion about their rationale and the debate that followed. This is elegantly concentrated in two tables, including a new asthma definition to enhance its heterogeneity, an expansion of the scope of evidence considered by its authors and an integration of practical advice about therapy across the spectrum of asthma severity, all in all very nicely presented.


Among the various contaminants,heavy metals are of particular concern due to their environmental persistence,recycling and ecological risks.However,as an essential component of organic matter,humid acids tend strongly to combine with heavy metals and have an effect on the release of heavy metals from the contaminants sediments.Results showed that the addition of humid acids couldsignificantly effect the release of heavy metals from sediments.The higher amount,the more remarkable this release efficacy.With the same amount of FA andHA,the effect strength of the two fractions was in the sequence of HAFA.With different amount FA,the release ratio of Cu,Zn,Pb,Cd was 73%~80%,18.5%~22%,7.5%~10%,97%~99% while HA,the release ratio was 66.5%~72%,15.5%~19.5%,6%~8.5%,96%~98.5%.In the same humid acids,Ph values also would have effect on release.The higher Ph value,the less release amount was.When pH reached to 8,the release ratio did not change.


Abstract In this study, 101 Escherichia (E.) coli isolates from broilers, laying hens and turkeys which had died from colibacillosis, collected from 37 intensive and rural farms in Albania, were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility toward 12 different molecules. The highest levels of resistance were observed for Erythromycin (E) (100%) Amoxicillin (AMX) (99.1%), Tetracycline (TE 30) (96.07%), Streptomycin (STR) (93.07%) and Neomycin (N30) (85.15%). Considerable resistance was also detected for fluoroquinolones. Moreover, 73.33% of E. coli resistant to at least one fluoroquinolone were also resistant to the two other fluoroquinolones checked. No evident differences were found between the E. coli from intensive and from rural farms. Multiple antibiotic resistance was expressed by all the E. coli tested. 23.63% and 17.39% of E. coli isolated from intensive and rural farms, respectively, were resistant towards all the drugs tested. These data would seem to indicate incorrect use of antibiotics on poultry farms in Albania.


Certificateless public key cryptography was introduced to overcome the key escrow limitation of the identity-based cryptography. Combining the advantages of the identity-based cryptography and authenticated key agreement protocol, a new ID-based authenticated certificateless key agreement protocol that made use of bilinear pairings was proposed. The analysis shows that the protocol not only possesses the security properties that common key agreement protocols have, but also needs less pairing operation compared to the existing key agreement protocols.


Stiff ordinary differential equations pose computational difficulties as they present severe step size restrictions on the numerical methods to be used. Construction of numerical methods that possess suitable stability properties for the solution of such systems has been the target of many researchers. Development of methods suitable for these systems of equations has been either through the use of derivative of the solution or by introducing off-step points, additional stages or super future points. These processes have been exploited in Runge-Kutta methods or linear multistep methods. In this study, an improved class of linear multistep block method has been constructed based on Adams Moulton block methods. The improved methods are shown to be A-stable, a property desirable to handle stiff ODEs. Methods of uniform orders 10 and 11 have been constructed. The efficiency of the new methods tested on stiff systems of ODEs and the results reveal that the MOBAM methods compare favourably with results obtained using the state of the art Matlab Ode23 solver.


Compressive strength of lime-fly ash concrete mix in the initial stages of hardening is found to be greatly influenced by the curing period and temperature. Rastrup's maturity combining the curing parameters could be related to the observed unconfined compressive strength of the mix and expressed mathematically. Since the flexural strength may be the criterion for thickness design of pozzolanic base courses, a mathematical relationship between the observed compressive and flexural strengths of the material matured under identical curing conditions has also been developed. The mix exhibited adequate strength in flexure when it was matured to Rastrup's value of about 450 days. Under the prevalent summer season of the tropical areas of India, the mix can be matured to the above extent in a reasonable curing period of about 35 days. (Author/TRRL)


INTRODUCTION When the United States Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction over Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego,' many national associations, public interest groups, and state and local governments expected that the Court's ruling would clarify the extent to which governmental units could regulate commercial speech.' In that case, two billboard companies had appealed a California Supreme Court decision upholding San Diego's outdoor advertising ordinance. 3 The companies had unsuccessfully argued that the city's ordinance, which prohibited most outdoor advertising signs, violated the free speech clause of the first amendment. The first amendment issue was particularly important because of the general confusion concerning the status of commercial speech. Although the United States Supreme Court had recently held that commercial speech was entitled to constitutional protection, 5 the Court also had stated that commercial speech did not merit the 1. 453 U.S. 490 (1980). 2. The case produced a number of amicus curiae briefs arguing both sides of this issue. (1976). For a discussion of the case see infra notes 28-33 and accompanying text. same degree of protection as noncommercial speech. 6 For this reason , courts were unsure about what constitutional test to apply in determining the validity of commercial speech regulations. 7 Adding to the difficulty was the absence of any clear statement as to how commercial speech should be defined.' The Supreme Court decided Metromedia on July 2, 1981. Since then the decision has been greeted with confusion and uncertainty. It has been reported in various publications, 9 yet not explained. Perhaps this should not be surprising due to the peculiar alignment of the Court and the outcome of the case. Although six justices concluded that San Diego's ordinance violated the first and fourteenth amendments, their varied approaches make it impossible to predict what kinds of restrictions on commercial speech may be upheld in the future. 1 0 In analyzing Metromedia, this note will discussion of the case see infra notes 39-48 and accompanying text. 7. State and federal courts had applied a variety of inconsistent balancing tests. See,(invalidating a city-wide ban using a strict scrutiny test). 8. The Supreme Court has variously defined commercial speech in terms of whether its purpose is commercial, Murdock v. For purposes of this article, the term commercial speech will be used to refer only to "speech of any form that advertises a product or service for profit or for [a] business …


A survey of the magnitude of water-related stress in Indian villages and its effect on rural life, conducted in four districts across the country highlights numerous problems of availability, accessibility and quality of water. The complementarities in water and other areas such as hygiene, education and agriculture have to be tapped and collaborative efforts made to mitigate water stress.


This study is aimed at investigating English teachers' perception in using Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework in teaching and learning process at Senior High schools in Buleleng Sub District. This study applied an explanatory sequential mixed method design which used a questionnaire and interview guide as the instruments that had been tested for their validity and reliability. The data from the questionnaires were processed by using a Microsoft Office Excel to calculate the mean score in order to know the qualification level of each the dimension. The results of data analysis showed that most of the teachers had positive perceptions of using TPACK framework in teaching English at senior high schools. It was shown by the position of mean score in the high position of the interval with the mean score was 139.074.


In his two prosepoems Master Zixu and Imperial Forest,Sima Xiang objectively explained the inexorable historical trend toward great unification in a time of Han Dynasty's prosperity. And the author's description of "magnificence" and parabolic intention in the prosepoems also conformed to the demand of the times. In a sense, Sima Xiangru and Dong Zhongshu, though different in their approaches, were equal in their concepts of great unification.


Resistance genes for leaf and stem rusts in bread wheat line Selection212 are recessive in nature. Both leaf and stem rust resistance genes, named tentatively as LrSel212 and SrSel212, have been mapped to the short arm of chromosome 2B
 separated by genetic distance of 16.4 cM. Xwmc474 was the closest marker located between two genes, 5.6 cM proximal to LrSel212 and 10.8 cM distal to SrSel212. Leaf rust pathotype 77-5 is virulent to leaf rust resistance genes located on chromosome
 2B viz., Lr13, Lr16, Lr23, Lr35 and Lr73, but avirulent to Selection212, suggesting that LrSel212 is distinct from these genes. Six stem rust resistance genes have been assigned to chromosome 2B viz., Sr19, Sr20, Sr23, Sr36, Sr39 and Sr40. Stem rust
 pathotype 40A used in genetic analysis was virulent to Sr19 and Sr20, but avirulent to Selection212; and the latter showed a significantly lower infection type in comparison to Sr39. Sr23 and Sr36 showed susceptibility to few other stem rust
 pathotypes to which Selection212 was resistant. While the response of Sr40 to Indian pathotypes of Pgt is not known, differences in the genetic distance and nature of inheritance between Selection212 and Sr40 indicate their distinct identity.
 However, test of allelism with Sr40 is required to confirm whether SrSel212 represents a different locus. Selection212 may be useful in broadening the genetic base of rust resistance in wheat.


On 16 July 1973 the Soviet Union put into operation the 350 MW(e) dual-purpose fast reactor BN-350, designed for the desalting of water (120 000 m per day) and the generation of electricity. In France, the Phenix reactor [250 MvV(e)] has been brought to full power, while in the United Kingdom the PFR reactor [250 MWfej] has reached criticality. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the construction of the demonstration fast reactor SNR-300 [300 MW(e)] has started. Italy began the construction of the PEC reactor [ 140 MW(th)]. The United States is building the FFTF reactor the forerunner of a demonstration breeder. Japan will soon begin the construction of the fast reactor MONJU [300 MW(e)\ The Soviet union has started building its next demonstration reactor, BN-600, which will have a power of 600 MW(e). The current status of sodium breeder technology is such that, even before the programmes of the present generation of demonstration reactors are completed, design work can be started — and in fact has been started — on commercial fast reactors of 1000 MW(e) and above.


Mycobacterial pathogens are the causative agents of chronic infectious diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy. Autophagy has recently emerged as an innate mechanism for defense against these intracellular pathogens. In vitro studies have shown that mycobacteria escaping from phagosomes into the cytosol are ubiquitinated and targeted by selective autophagy receptors. However, there is currently no in vivo evidence for the role of selective autophagy receptors in defense against mycobacteria, and the importance of autophagy in control of mycobacterial diseases remains controversial. Here we have used Mycobacterium marinum (Mm), which causes a tuberculosis-like disease in zebrafish, to investigate the function of two selective autophagy receptors, Optineurin (Optn) and SQSTM1 (p62), in host defense against a mycobacterial pathogen. To visualize the autophagy response to Mm in vivo, optn and p62 zebrafish mutant lines were generated in the background of a GFP-Lc3 autophagy reporter line. We found that loss-of-function mutation of optn or p62 reduces autophagic targeting of Mm, and increases susceptibility of the zebrafish host to Mm infection. Transient knockdown studies confirmed the requirement of both selective autophagy receptors for host resistance against Mm infection. For gain-of-function analysis, we overexpressed optn or p62 by mRNA injection and found this to increase the levels of GFP-Lc3 puncta in association with Mm and to reduce the Mm infection burden. Taken together, our results demonstrate that both Optineurin and p62 are required for autophagic host defense against mycobacterial infection and support that protection against tuberculosis disease may be achieved by therapeutic strategies that enhance selective autophagy. Author summary Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease that claims over a million lives annually. Vaccination provides insufficient protection and the causative bacterial pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotic therapy. Therefore, there is an urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies. Besides searches for new antibiotics, considerable efforts are being made to identify drugs that improve the immune defenses of the infected host. One host defense pathway under investigation for therapeutic targeting is autophagy, a cellular housekeeping mechanism that can direct intracellular bacteria to degradation. However, evidence for the anti-mycobacterial function of autophagy is largely based on studies in cultured cells. Therefore, we set out to investigate anti-mycobacterial autophagy using zebrafish embryos, which develop hallmarks of tuberculosis following infection with Mycobacterium marinum. Using red-fluorescent mycobacteria and a green-fluorescent zebrafish autophagy reporter we could visualize the anti-mycobacterial autophagy response in a living host. We generated mutant and knockdown zebrafish for two selective autophagy receptors, Optineurin and p62, and found that these have reduced anti-bacterial autophagy and are more susceptible to tuberculosis. Moreover, we found that increased expression of these receptors enhances anti-bacterial autophagy and protects against tuberculosis. These results provide new evidence for the host-protective function of selective autophagy in tuberculosis.


Purpose: To compare surgical results after phacoemulsification using two different techniques for removal of Ophthalmic Viscoelastic Device (OVD).
Methods: A randomized prospective study was conducted on 77 patients who underwent cataract surgery. In the first group, OVD was removed over the optic by small abrupt horizontal and vertical displacements of the IOL. In the second group OVD was removed by placing the I/A probe behind the IOL. Intraocular Pressure (IOP), Intraocular Lens Position (IOLP) and refraction were analyzed over the first six weeks.


ALTHOUGH tissue growth during hibernation has been investigated to some extent (Sarnat et al., 1942; Cassens, 1939), the response of a tissue in a hibernating animal to a controlled stimulus has not been studied. The following experiments were designed to compare the responsiveness of the seminal vesicles to injection of measured amounts of testosterone in castrated male hamsters in the hibernating state with similarly treated animals which did not hiberante.


A boiler (19) is provided with: a combustion furnace (10); an exhaust gas passage (28) through which the combustion exhaust gas from the combustion furnace (10) passes; a superheater tube (27) which is provided within the exhaust gas passage (28); and a corrosion inhibition device (59) which supplies a corrosion inhibitor for boilers into the exhaust gas passage (28). The corrosion inhibitor for boilers is used for the purpose of inhibiting corrosion of the superheater tube (27), and contains corrosion inhibition particles which adhere to the superheater tube (27) together with the combustion ash floating within the exhaust gas passage (28) and attract corrosive particles in the combustion ash thereto.


The invention discloses a capacitive equipment dielectric loss monitoring device based on an electric field sensor and a monitoring method. By means of the electric field sensor, phase information of a voltage signal of a bus can be directly obtained on site. The angle difference problem brought during extraction of a traditional secondary side voltage signal is avoided. A FPFA+DAP technology is adopted by a monitoring terminal, and the characteristics of high collecting precision of an FPGA and fast calculation ability of a DSP are in full use. Two circuits which are totally the same are adopted by the monitoring terminal to achieve collecting processing of monitoring on-site voltage signals and a leakage current signal. By means of the GPS synchronous timing technology, when a set sampling interval arrives on a time reference of a GPS, a rising edge of a 1PPS signal synchronously triggers a sampling logic module to finish A/D high-speed sampling of the voltage signal and the current signal in a period. Dielectric loss parameter information reflecting equipment insulated states can be calculated and obtained, and data are uploaded to bay level equipment.


Room temperature electroreflectance (ER) measurements have been performed near the fundamental absorption edge of CuGaS2 single crystals grown by both iodine-transport and melt-growth methods. Transition energies and broadness of the ER spectra are examined and the results are discussed in terms of photoluminescence properties. The band gap energy obtained from the ER spectrum is 2.492 eV at 290 K, and the value is larger than the widely used band gap energy of 2.43 eV determined by the previous ER studies.


Monte Carlo (MQ) method is a powerful tool to approximate high dimensional integrals. The disadvantage of ordinary MQ is the slow convergence rate by cause of the essential randomness of this method. Computations of this convergence can lead to pure time consuming. Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) method yields considerably better results since this method is a deterministic alternative which uses Low-Discrepancy sequences instead of random samples . There are a multiplicity of big open problems in QMC-methods, problems partly arising from applications and partly arising from theory. QMC are developed to integrate over unite cube, where it has much more accuracy than MC for integrands of bounded variation. Integration over more general spaces such as triangles, disks and Cartesian products of such spaces is more challenging for QMC. Nevertheless in real-world applications various problems are defined over such spaces. The aim of this thesis is to provide a survey of a solution of such problems of numerical integration defined over non-cubical spaces. We present QMC and randomised QMC (RQMC) constructions in the triangle with a vanishing discrepancy based on the recent work of Basu 2016. The QMC construction is a version of the Van der Corput-Halton sequences specially made to the unit triangle. The attraction of scrambled net is replication based error estimation for QMC with slightly the same accuracy as QMC, and for smooth enough integrands. (Less)


While emotion researchers with an evolutionary and biological orientation increasingly agree that small sets of discrete emotions are basic or primary, other researchers – particularly social constructionists – instead argue that all emotions are expressions of language and culture largely unconstrained by biology. Emotions are indeed socially and psychologically constructed, but not from scratch, for the basic emotions have evolved as biologically-structured adaptive reactions to the most fundamental problems of life, and have a deep evolutionary history. These life-problems were first identified in herpetology, and elaborated in Plutchik's universal ethogram, a behavioral profile of four problems of life – identity, temporality, hierarchy, and territoriality – shared by a wide range of animal species. Plutchik proposed that the opposite poles of each of these dimensions can represent prototypical life-situations requiring rapid adaptive reactions; these reactions comprise the eight primary emotions. By hypothesizing that these dimensions have evolved into elementary social-relations models, we establish a continuity between the sociorelational and biological levels of emotional experience. Identification of eight basic emotions enables a classification of 24 secondary and 56 tertiary level emotions.


Premature bolting has become the bottleneck in winter and early spring carrot production.It is useful to understand the mechanism of premature bolting regulation for breeding anti-bolting carrot varieties.A genetic model including additive and dominance effects was used to evaluate the quantitative genetics of premature bolting with the F1s and F2s from the reciprocal crosses between Songzi(P1,a wild carrot species)and six cultivars.Phenotypic variance(VP)and genetic variance components were significant for the ratio of premature bolting of hybrids,and additive variance(VA)was as the main effect.The ratios of premature bolting of P1 and 7262B(P6)were significantly less in the greenhouse than those in the field and no bolting plants occurred to Amsterdam forcing(P4)in the greenhouse,which may be influenced by low light.Initiation of premature bolting of P1,F1 and F2 were delayed by short day and the ratios decreased significantly.The plants were treated more short days and more affection showed.But there were no affection to parent P4.The same results were found to P1 roots treated with different days of 7 ℃.Premature bolting could all be found to P1 plants treated with 14 d under the temperature of 4 to 13 ℃,and the optimum temperature for vernalization was 7 ℃.


This is the text of a keynote address to the 2002 National Conference. It is reproduced here, with permission of the Editor, from Cadman, K. (Ed.) (2002). Learners from Diverse Cultures: Advancing Australia's Potential. Proceedings of the ACTA/ESLE National Conference, Adelaide, SA. We must seek always to understand what occurs when a second language confronts the first. I say confronts because of what occurs in the process of learning that second language and I have provided some examples. Additional to this, however, is the fact that the child's first or home language is part of his/her world, his/her relationships, his/her beliefs and values and is the means whereby his/her world is explained and can be manipulated. It is in every respect appropriate, needed and never to be devalued. All languages are precious and important. My plea is, be careful and respectful of those Aboriginal languages that have survived. Our children must pronounce Aboriginal language words correctly or we will end up with an Anglicised version of the original Aboriginal language that is not true to its tradition.


Based on the highway construction, this paper presents the normalization methods of attribute value of input and output indexes of the neural network, pro poses new evaluation method by the neural network, and sets up the model of highway construction comprehensive evaluation.


Ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation induces skin damage and inflammation. Persimmon leaf extract (PLE) has traditionally been used for the treatment of acute and chronic diseases in Asia, but there have been no reports on its UVB-protective effects. Thus, protective effects of PLE against UVB-induced inflammations in HaCaT keratinocytes and mice were investigated. In an in vitro study using HaCaT keratinocytes, UVB irradiation decreased cell viability and increased chemokine production. PLE recovered cell viability and suppressed UVB-induced production of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (CCL2) and cutaneous T cell-attracting chemokine (CCL27). Moreover, oral administration of PLE to UVB-irradiated mice resulted in significant suppression of skin damage. Histological analyses revealed that infiltration of inflammatory cells, especially degranulated mast cells, thickening of the epidermis, and hyperplasia were significantly reduced. PLE treatment suppressed UVB-induced CCL2 and CCL27 expressions in the skin. These results suggest PLE has potential as an effective material for protection against UVB-induced skin inflammation.


The paper reviews a current research project on hydration kinetics, mechanical properties and early age stress behavior of blended cement. A number of experiments including calorimetry and differential thermal analysis were performed during the investigation. The mechanical properties investigated included the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, Young's modulus, creep compliance, relaxation modulus, and coefficient of thermal dilation. Also studied was the early age stress behavior by measuring the stress developed in a uniaxially restrained concrete member; additionally, the deformation due to autogeneous shrinkage was also measured experimentally.


The regional ascription of the acute schistosomiasis report case has at least there ways.That is the place where the case was infected or the place where the one was reported or the case' now dwelling place.We compared the three conditions from the angle of dealing the epidemic situation and we felt it's suitable to ascribe the case in the now dwelling place.


available to nurses to learn stress management techniques such as workshops, practitioners in meditation and relaxation, workbooks and audiovideo tapes. The local bookstore is a good starting place. Dealing with stress as it occurs is a method to prevent stress accumulation. Some workplace reducers are: 1) compose self in frantic situations by stepping out and taking six to ten deep breaths; 2) visualize and go to your favorite place for three minutes; 3) tense and relax your major muscle groups for six minutes; and 4) share your thoughts/feelings with colleagues as a way to discharge them.2 A supportive working environment is also important to the management of stress. Agreements with colleagues and supervisors to manage conflicts as they arise and to share responsibility for assessing the degree of stress present from day to day and reduce/respond appropriately to the workplace stressors is vital to the continued well being of each pediatric oncology


Drones called also Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are one of the most growing up aircraft production sectors. Contemporary manufactured small drones use mostly electric engines for their drive. Application of such propulsion system needs elaborating of efficient and as light as possible energy sources for electric engines. There are used at present essentially two methods of energy storing suitable for these purposes i.e. batteries and production of electric energy on-board with use of Fuel Cells (FC). The second method requiring the hydrogen fuel to be supplied to FC is still in experimental phase however, results of researches are very promising. The review of systems of compressed hydrogen storage and on-board production has been presented in article. There have been presented several examples of experimental and commercial hydrogen feeding systems and essential technical problems with hydrogen storing for the needs of small drones.


The aim of this dissertation has been to increase the knowledge about support to children with CP injuries and to find out what they and their families need, expect, desire and can hope to receive. ...


The development of bigger and faster computers has not yet provided the computing power for medical image processing required nowadays. This is the result of several factors, including: i) the increasing number of qualified medical image users requiring sophisticated tools; ii) the demand for more performance and quality of results; iii) researchers are addressing problems that were previously considered extremely difficult to achieve; iv) medical images are produced with higher resolution and on a larger number. These factors lead to the need of exploring computing techniques that can boost the computational power of Healthcare Institutions while maintaining a relative low cost. Parallel computing is one of the approaches that can help solving this problem. Parallel computing can be achieved using multi-core processors, multiple processors, Graphical Processing Units (GPU), clusters or Grids. In order to gain the maximum benefit of parallel computing it is necessary to write specific programs for each environment or divide the data in smaller subsets. In this article we evaluate the performance of the two parallel computing tools when dealing with a medical image processing application. We compared the performance of the EELA-2 (E-science grid facility for Europe and Latin- America) grid infrastructure with a small Cluster (3 nodes x 8 cores = 24 cores) and a regular PC (Intel i3 – 2 cores). As expected the grid had a better performance for a large number of processes, the cluster for a small to medium number of processes and the PC for few processes.


Background: Physical activity could enhance the personal wellbeing and reduce the risks of many medical disease around the world Objectives: Assessing the knowledge and attitude and practice (KAP) of family towards physical activity in Makkah city in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methods: This study was based on cross-sectional questionnaire sheet study conducted in Makkah City from September to November 2017among 400families from different parts of Makkah City. Results: Most of the subjects had appropriable knowledge about the importance of physical activity and risk factors of physical inactivity. The attitude of the subjects was positive among most of them toward regular physical exercise, enhancing their family to practice physical activity and practicing physical activity with their family.  The level of practice was insufficient among most of the respondents regarding sports practice with their family and going for a long walk with their family. But the majority taught their children about the importance of physical activity and 50.5% let their children practice swimming and light physical activity. Conclusion: Although most of the subjects had good knowledge and attitude toward physical activity, the practice pattern was insufficient among most of them. There is a need for enhancing the physical activities among families in KSA and assessing the prevalence of chronic diseases among physically inactive subjects.


The invention relates to a flexible inorganic fiber material and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method of the flexible inorganic fiber material comprises the steps as follows: firstly, at least one metal source is dissolved in a solvent, a coupling agent and a surfactant are added sequentially and uniformly mixed to prepare a homogeneous and stable precursor solution which contains interpenetrating molecular chains adopting a three-dimensional network structure, and then a precursor fiber material is prepared by the precursor solution through a spinning forming process; and the precursor fiber material is calcined in an appropriate atmosphere to obtain the flexible inorganic fiber material. According to the invention, various inorganic fiber materials can be prepared through different spinning processes, the preparation process is simple and high in yield, and the prepared inorganic fiber material has good flexibility and has broad application prospect in the fields of catalysis, energy, electronics, filtration, thermal insulation and the like.


for some v e c t o r <J> -, where the symbol V denotes covariant d i f u • . f e r e n t i a t i o n with respect t o the metr i c of the space . I f <P. i s assumed to be non-zero and the space i s n o n f l a t then the space is c a l l e d of recurrent curvature , or b r i e f l y a recurrent space [b] , [ 9 ] » In the case <!>. = 0 , the R -space reduces t o > 0 n the well-known Cartan symmetric space . According t o Chaki and Gupta [ 3 ] , an n-dimensional ( n > 3 ) Riemannian space i s s a i d to be conformally symmetric, i f i t s W'eyl conformal tensor


Eve Haddow and Chantal Knowles share the results of a major review of Pacific collections held by museums across the country


Microstructure of nickel-base superalloy K480 after different heat treatment was studied by OM and SEM.The results show that the γ′ particles is not dissolve completely in the matrix after solution heat treatment at 1130 ℃.Secondary γ′ particles are precipitated uniformly after solution heat treatment at 1190,1210 and 1230 ℃ and the volume of γ/γ′ eutectic and carbides decreases with the increase of solution temperature.Primary aging causes growth of the secondary γ′ particles with the aging temperature increasing.The tertiary γ′ particles appear in the γ matrix channel after aging at 1050,1090 and 1110 ℃ for 4 h.These fine tertiary γ′ particles are re-dissolved into the matrix and larger γ′ particles during the subsequently secondary agine and full time aging.


Fullerenes such as C60, C70 and so on can be doped in conducting polymers such as poly (3-alkylthiophene) and poly (2, 5-dialkoxyphenylene vinylene) whose main chains are composed of highly extended conjugated electron systems. The doping effect depends on the electronic band schemes of both conducting polymer and fullerene. In the conducting polymer whose valence band top is high in energy, fullerene is effectively doped just as conventional dopants (acceptors). On the other hand, in the conducting polymer whose valence band top is low in energy, fullerens are not effective dopants under dark but various interesting phenomena have been observed upon light irradiation due to photo-induced charge transfer between conducting polymer and fullerene. Junctions made of conducting polymer and fullerene layers also exhibit unique characteristics.Various other novel properties in conducting polymer-fullerene composite are also discussed.


In this paper, percolation-based street network connectivity is studied for two types of networks from transit systems: first, networks from a fixed route transit (FRT) and second, networks from a flexible route transit (FXRT). Application examples with Route 121 from Long Beach Transit for FRT show that the connectivity of a section of the route analysed is up to 67%. With FXRT example using five Call-n-Ride (CnR) Denver RTD, the connectivity is found to be the highest for Interlocken with street connectivity up to 14.4%. The street network from all the five CnR systems appeared to be poorly connected for drop-off or pick-up of passengers. This research would serve as a benchmark to studying several other percolation-based properties of porous media that can be successfully applied to modelling network connectivity of other modes of transportation such as rail and freight trucks.


An analysis is made on the regeneration process of toroidal magnetic flux of RFP plasma based on Sato's nonlinear driven reconnection model. The expression of magnetic field perturbation due to helical kink instability indicates that resonant helical kink mode is not effective to regenerate the toroidal magnetic flux of RFP plasma. From the limit of the magnetic island width formed by the reconnection driven by the plasma flow due to helical kink mode, the saturation level of the generated toroidal magnetic flux is estimated.


The cusped field thruster uses several permanent ring magnets of alternating polarity to create a multistage cusp magnetic topology. It has demonstrated a long lifetime because of reduced plasma losses to the discharge channel surface. However, the high beam divergence problem has not been solved in this type of thruster. The purpose of this technical note is to describe a plume control method to reduce its plume angle. The results show that the magnetic field intensity in the plume region and the shape of the last separatrix have great influence on plume divergence.


As an economical and efficient artificial lift method, plunger lift can be used to unload the accumulated liquids from the bottom of gas wells, which helps lower the bottomhole pressure, resulting in higher gas production rate. However, the transient flow behavior of the plunger-lift-aided production system is still not well understood due to the lack of a reliable and accurate prediction model. In this study, a transient mechanistic model is developed to simulate the comprehensive dynamic process of a plunger-lift system that is cyclically paced by a surface control valve.
 Starting from the Gasbarri and Wiggins (2001) dynamic plunger-lift model, four stages in the cyclic movement of a plunger can be identified and calculated using a set of specific governing equations. Considering the gas flows with a plunger in the tubing, the model can calculate the instant velocities of the plunger during its rising and falling movement. The classical inflow performance relationship (IPR) is employed as the reservoir model to obtain the fluid flow rates from the reservoir to the wellbore. The proposed new model can capture the essential parameters of plunger-lift cycles, including plunger velocity/acceleration, tubing/casing pressure, production rates, etc. Compared to previous models, the predicted rising and falling speeds of the plunger are improved. The hydrocarbon mixture properties in the gas well are computed by a compositional model in this study, which provides more accurate and reasonable predictions of tubing and casing pressure.
 Several parametric studies are presented in the paper. These studies will help to understand the influence of different parameters on the process of plunger lift. An appropriate combination of casing and tubing pressure should be taken into consideration. A reservoir coefficient term is introduced and defined. A larger reservoir coefficient will improve the ultimate profitability of the well by increasing the production rate at the beginning and accelerate the depletion of gas wells. If the gas/liquid ratio (GLR) is too low, liquid loading may be triggered. The parametric study shows that an adequate GLR is necessary for reliable plunger-liftperformance.


At a time when our field is under attack from many quarters, it is critically important to be able to discuss what it is that we do as psychiatrists in a non-defensive and intellectually rigorous manner. Help here.


Exciting developments in both in vitro and in silico technologies have led to new ways to identify patient specific cardiac mechanisms. The development of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) has been a critical in vitro advance in the study of patient-specific physiology, pathophysiology and response to drugs. However, the iPSC-CM methodology is limited by the low throughput and high variability of resulting electrophysiological measurements. Moreover, the iPSC-CMs generate immature action potentials, and it is not clear if observations in the iPSC-CM model system can be confidently interpreted to reflect impact in human adults. There has been no demonstrated method to allow reliable translation of results from the iPSC-CM to a mature adult cardiac response. Here, we demonstrate a new computational approach intended to address the current shortcomings of the iPSC-CM platform by developing and deploying a multitask network that was trained and tested using simulated data and then applied to experimental data. We showed that a deep learning network can be applied to classify cells into the drugged and drug free categories and can be used to predict the impact of electrophysiological perturbation across the continuum of aging from the immature iPSC-CM action potential to the adult ventricular myocyte action potential. We validated the output of the model with experimental data. The method can be applied broadly across a spectrum of aging, but also to translate data between species. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted September 29, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.28.317461 doi: bioRxiv preprint


Almost all previous studies on the Makyung dance theater concurred that the aforementioned performance was the oldest form of traditional theater amongst the Malays in Southeast Asia. It arrived or started before the arrival of Islam to the Malay Peninsula. Unfortunately, the written record on Makyung only existed at the end of the 18th century. Hence, the exact date on the origin of Makyung is difficult to determine. This means that the main sources of research on Makyung are from oral traditions, including myths, as well as the evidence contained in the self-titled performances, and not only depending the sources of writing, material evident or archaeological materials. Consequently, this article offers that Makyung is the oldest dance theatre in Southeast Asia through the analysis of previous historical records, studies and opinions about stories and elements in the performance structure.


The utility model relates to a full-automatic plate-cutting machine, which is composed of a main frame 1, a triaxial tip mechanism 2, an arm drive shift box 3, a leading screw 4, a feeding rod 5, a subsidiary frame 6, a sliding bar 8, a triaxial rotation mechanism 9 and a main drive box 10. The main drive box 10 is provided with two sets of division devices which analyze a continuous motion into two intermittent movement. An input axis drives two output axes which are respectively connected with the leading screw 4 and the feeding rod 5. The inner part of the arm drive shift box 3 is divided into three steps and is provided with two eccentric axes, so the shift, cutting feed and retraction of the arm drive shift box 3 can be controlled automatically. A screw rod of the triaxial tip mechanism 2 is divided from the middle part and is made into left and right screws, nuts on which are hinged with a connecting bar. When a hand wheel is rotated, the nuts of both ends move reversely on the screw rod to drive the connecting bar to move, and a tip stretches and retracts with the movement. The utility model has the advantages of high degree of automation, sensitive and accurate movement, high precision, low labor strength, high efficiency, the retractable movable tip, good self lock, simple integrated construction, a wide application range and low manufacture cost, and can process triaxial coiling material simultaneously.


Deaerators use steam to heat the water to the full saturation temperature corresponding to the steam pressure in the deaerator and to scrub out and carry away dissolved gases. Steam flow may be parallel, cross, or counter to the water flow. The deaerator consists of a deaeration section, a storage tank, and a vent. In the deaeration section, steam bubbles through the water, both heating and agitating it. Steam is cooled by incoming water and condensed at the vent condenser. Non-condensable gases and some steam are released through the vent.


Continental Portugal, localized in a region of moderate seismicity, was hit through the years with several earthquakes that in some case caused a lot of damage and victims. The Geological and Geotechnical characteristics are some of the most important factors in the evaluation of seismic hazard. The different behavior of the several geological formations that form the bedrock of the city of Porto, and the topography differences lead to the observation of the different seismic intensities. In this paper, the studied region was Boavista-Foz, marked by the presence of Varisc deformations whether in the metassediment, whether in the orthognaisse. This anisotropy was caused by the fragile F1 and F3 deformations on the Varisc Orogeny. To evaluate the different seismic behavior in the studied area, we characterized geologically the area, through the harvesting, interpreting and data analyzing of the tests, and the geotechnical description through analysis in situ. This analysis allowed us to define in detail, the geological structure and to geotechnicaly determine the lithological units present in the area of study. We also point the superficial formations in Boavista Foz and its fundamental frequencies, and cross the results with the lithological characteristics of the area in order to estimate the potential damage in case of an earthquake. Considering that in general, the area in question obtained low frequency results as well as high frequencies, and according to this data, it would have to be made a crossing of the results with the constructed buildings in Boavista-Foz, and proceed in a cautious way.


5-Substituted dipyrromethanes are important precursors for the synthesis of meso-substituted porphyrins,1 expanded porphyrins, and porphyrin analogues.2 Several one-flask methods have been reported for the synthesis of 5-substituted dipyrromethanes by the condensation of an aldehyde and pyrrole using various combinations of acids and solvents.3-14 We previously reported a one-flask synthesis of dipyrromethanes in which an aldehyde is dissolved in a 40-fold excess of pyrrole with a catalytic amount of an acid at room temperature in the absence of any other solvent.8 This method has afforded good yields of 5-substituted dipyrromethanes bearing many types of functional groups.15 However, purification of the product is typically achieved by flash column chromatography, restricting application to the small-scale preparation of dipyrromethanes. Our objective in this study was to eliminate the use of chromatography during purification, thereby removing the major bottleneck to the synthesis of multigram quantities of dipyrromethanes. Upon examining the crude reaction mixture from the acid-catalyzed condensation of benzaldehyde in excess pyrrole, we found that the principal reaction products consist of the dipyrromethane (1), the N-confused dipyrromethane (2,3′-dipyrromethane) (2) and the tripyrrane (3) (Scheme 1). The presence of the N-confused dipyrromethane was surprising as this species had not been detected previously.8 Using GC we have examined the distribution of these products as a function of the pyrrole:benzaldehyde ratio and the acid catalyst. We have developed a purification process based on bulb-to-bulb distillation followed by recrystallization that affords analytically pure dipyrromethanes in multigram quantities. The condensation of pyrrole and benzaldehyde upon heating without added acids has also been examined.


This paper discussed the significances of using anodes in the process of aluminum electrolysis and pointed out that the inert anodes should meet the standards. The advantages and disadvantages of inert anodes were also analyzed. The research results of inert anodes such as alloy anodes, SnO_2 based anodes, cermet anodes and Cerium oxide coated anodes were reviewed. The problems in inert anodes development that need to be solved as soon as possible were put forward.


Activation of Bell nonlocality refers to the phenomenon that some entangled mixed states that admit a local hidden variable model in the standard Bell scenario nevertheless reveal their nonlocal nature in more exotic measurement scenarios. We present such a scenario that involves broadcasting the local subsystems of a single-copy of a bipartite quantum state to multiple parties, and use the scenario to study the nonlocal properties of the two-qubit isotropic state:ρα=α|Φ+⟩⟨Φ+|+(1−α)14.We present two main results, considering that Nature allows for (i) the most general no-signalling correlations, and (ii) the most general quantum correlations at the level of any hidden variable theory. We show that the state does not admit a local hidden variable description for α>0.559 and α>12, in cases (i) and (ii) respectively, which in both cases provides a device-independent certification of the entanglement of the state. These bounds are significantly lower than the previously best-known bound of 0.697 for both Bell nonlocality and device-independent entanglement certification using a single copy of the state. Our results show that strong examples of non-classicality are possible with a small number of resources.


In the present note an effort will be made to point out that entrepreneurship reduces income inequality. Entrepreneurship reward is a measurable economic variable and can be therefore related to gini coefficient, which is an indicator of income inequality. Panel data refer to the period (1995–2004) covering most Western European countries and the estimated panel regression will be feasible using the software package EVIEWS.


As a main function of bank is accepting or borrowing from their customers or credit institutions to make loans to others, default risk is the oldest, the most important and primary risk in banking sector. Especially in these years after the recent financial crisis, a huge amount of banks' loan unfortunately became bad debt, default probability of banks consequently increases, and depositors, regulators also gradually lost their belief on banks. As a measure of bank health, bank credit rating is introduced for the assessment. This paper represents a sample of 16 Vietnamese commercial banks from 2008 to 2012 aims to provide knowledge about credit trustworthiness and determine estimated bank default probability afterward.


Objective: To investigate the relationship between the deletion of AZF and azoospermia or oligospermia.Methods: Multiplex PCR were use to detect the deletions of 4 STSs located in the AZF region,namely sY86 in AZFa,sY127 in AZFb,sY254 and sY255in AZFc.PCR-SSCP was used to check the sY254 point mutations among eighty-four Han Chinese patients with azoospermia or oligospermia.The expression pattern of DAZ gene in different tissues was studied using RT-PCR method.Results: The concurrent deletions of sY254 and sY255 in AZFc subregion were found in three azoosperima patient.The sY254 point mutations were not found in the 48 patients who were studied,the other 36 patients were not studed.DAZ gene only expressed in the testis tissue.Conclusion: The deletions of AZFc may be associated with some Han Chinese azoospermia.


ABSTRACT Personality approaches suggest that who the leader is crucial to adequately understanding the conjuncture and historical dynamics in studying politics. In thisagent-centred perspective, personal traits and leadership styles play significant roles in shaping a leader's policy-making process. This article provides a chance to get inside the personal 'black-box' of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, one of the most influential political figures in the history of the Republic of Turkey, in questioning who he is affects how he makes political decisions and how he reacts to institutional and situational constraints, such as e-memorandum and party closure case of the AKP. Reflecting the detailed results of systematic and comparative research, this article also empirically broadens the literature about Turkish leaders and provides a theoretical contribution to international leadership studies by highlighting the effects of a Turkish leader's traits and styles on the domestic policy orientations in Turkey.


Structural changes in VO2F, which allow two-electron transfer during electrochemical Li cycling, were investigated. This compound adopts a rhombohedral structure, space group R3c, with O and F sharing one site, and was synthesized by high-energy ball-milling. The thermal stability of VO2F, which is related to the battery safety, is studied by in situ XRD upon heating and by thermal gravimetric analysis. VO2F is found to be stable up to 160 °C under inert atmosphere; above this temperature, it converts into vanadium oxide with fluorine loss. The structure evolution upon lithium cycling was studied by ex situ X-ray diffraction and absorption techniques. The results show that lithiation of VO2F goes through a solid-solution reaction, and the rhombohedral structure is preserved if no more than one lithium ion is intercalated. Upon a second Li insertion, an irreversible transition to a rock-salt structure occurs. We show using first-principles calculations that this irreversible transformation can be explaine...


A 41-year-old woman was referred to our institution owing to acute myocardial infarction. She had a history of cigarette smoking, hyperlipidaemia and asthma. On the day of admission she had taken high doses of a β2 agonist (inhaled salbutamol 2 g as cumulative dose) because of worsening asthma attacks. She …


A great increase in ventilation and cardiac output is set off by and even before rapid locomotion begins. An investigation into the neural mechanisms involved revealed that the subsequent increase in pulmonary blood flow stimulates J or juxtapulmonary capillary receptors that lie in the pulmonary parenchyma. Reflexes arising from stimulation of these sensory receptors are an increase in ventilation accompanied by sensations of breathlessness, bradycardia and reduction or stopping of exercise. Of these, the significance of reflex bradycardia is to reduce the great rise in pulmonary capillary pressure during strenuous exercise and protect the pulmonary arterioles from rupture as they are vulnerable to mechanical stress.


This paper is devoted to estimation of the influence of magnetic field in an elastic solid half-space under thermoelastic diffusion. The governing equations in xz -plane are solved taking into consideration the GL model. The reflection of dilatational (P) wave and shear vertical (SV) wave splits into four waves, namely: P wave, thermal wave, mass diffusion wave and SV wave. The reflection phenomena of P and SV waves from the free surface of an elastic solid with thermoelastic diffusion, under the influence of magnetic field is considered. The expressions for the reflection coefficients for the four reflected waves are obtained. These reflection coefficients are found to depend upon the angle of incidence θ of P and SV waves, thermoelastic diffusion, magnetic field and other material parameters. The numerical values for the reflection coefficients are calculated analytically and presented graphically for various values of these parameters. Relevant results of previous investigations are deduced as special cases from this study.


A temperature acquisition and Ethernet transmission system based on ARM is designed,which focuses on the acquisition of the real-time temperature and transmission in batch.The system uses the ARM kernel LPC2214 to acquire the analog signal that comes from the LM235 temperature sensor.The DM900 Ethernet transmission with higher reliability is appropriate for large amount of data transmission and realization of the long-distance communication.In order to facilitate debugging and expansion a serial communication module and JTAG debugging interface module simulation are designed.The temperature in the real-time acquisition transmission is realized.


TO THE EDITOR: A 34-year-old White nonsmoking male was admitted to hospital with a history of cough and sputum production. The patient had severe intestinal Crohn's disease (CD), which had been diagnosed by colonic biopsy. He presented with gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, blood in stool, and abdominal pain refractory to 5-aminosalicylic acid therapy, and had been under treatment with infl iximab since 2015. His respiratory symptoms (i.e., cough and sputum production) began 2 years later and were treated with amoxicillin/clavulanate for 10 days, without improvement. Two weeks later, the patient developed chest pain, fever, and dyspnea, with no gastrointestinal evidence of a fl are-up of CD. At that time, his heart rate was 120 bpm, his SpO2 was 96%, and his C-reactive protein levels were elevated (190 mg/dL). In addition, he had crackles in the left hemithorax. Blood, sputum, and urine cultures were negative. A CT scan of the chest showed consolidation with air bronchogram and perilesional ground-glass opacities in the left lower lobe (Figure 1A), and a CT scan of the abdomen was suggestive of splenic abscess. Fine-needle aspiration of the spleen was performed, and abscess fl uid culture was positive for Proteus mirabilis, the patient being started on treatment with ceftriaxone and metronidazole. Bronchoscopy with BAL was performed, and polymerase chain reaction for tuberculosis, direct examination of BAL fl uid, and BAL fl uid culture were all negative. Given that the splenic fl uid collection persisted, drainage was performed, and oral corticosteroid therapy (prednisone at 1 mg/kg per day) was prescribed.Twenty-one days later, the patient had made a full recovery and was therefore discharged to outpatient follow-up. A follow-up CT scan of the chest performed 1 month later showed resolution of the left lower lobe consolidation. The symptoms recurred 3 months later, during corticosteroid reduction. A CT scan of the chest showed splenic abscess and left lower lobe consolidation (Figure 1A). An open lung biopsy revealed fi broblastic plugs within bronchioles, alveolar ducts, and adjacent alveolar spaces. The alveolar septa were thickened by a prominent chronic infl ammatory infi ltrate associated with type II pneumocyte hyperplasia. In addition to the aforementioned histological changes, there were non-necrotizing granulomas (although not in a lymphatic distribution), consisting of aggregates of epithelioid histiocytes (Figures 1C and 1D). Special stains for microorganisms were all negative. The fi nal diagnosis was aseptic non-necrotizing chronic granulomatous infl ammation associated with organizing pneumonia. The reintroduction of corticosteroid therapy and immunomodulation with azathioprine and infl iximab resulted in clinical and radiological resolution of the lung disease (Figure 1B). The splenic fl uid collection resolved after 16 weeks of treatment with ciprofl oxacin.


To exploit persimmon resources,the fermentation technology of persimmon vinegar drink was studied.The results show that using pectinase for hydrolyzing persimmon pulp,persimmon juice was extracted easily;the rate of juice was increased.The optimal parameters of enzymolysis were 0.2% of pectinase,at 45℃for 2 h and the alcoholic fermentation period was 2 d;the acetic fermentation was 2.5 d.The op- timum prescription of persimmon vinegar drink was as follows:ratio of fermented persimmon juice to water was 3:1,the amount of sugar added into drink was 10%.


The New W.E.T. Workout combines the clarity and user-friendliness of the original with current trends in physical fitness and recent advances in sports medicine. Video tape available.


Our theme this afternoon is one which reflects the influence of modern technology — or rather of various modern technologies — on an activity which is of interest to all of us — translation. The obvious question arising is: in which areas and to what extent can data processing be employed to make the work of the translating and allied professions easier? This question, however, requires immediate qualification. When I refer to electronic data processing I mean, of course, not the constantly expanding fields of application in which this new branch of technology is establishing itself but he limited field of (computational linguistics which, though a sub-branch of non-numeric data processing, is not necessarily to be taken as identical to the latter. The bipolar relationship between computational linguistics and translation science involves two components, "data processing for translation" and "translation science (including other branches of applied linguistics, such as terminology) for data processing". The short time available limits me, for all practical purposes, to saying a few words on the former of these two components. Before the Congress commenced, I was informed that many of those present today come from the ranks of literary translators, a fact which does not make my task of elucidating on the above considerations any the easier. Data processing is a specialised techno-scientific field based on strict logicalmathematical procedures and on methods of representation which can be structured and explicitly formulated. This can by no means be said to apply to literary translation, and we can be thankful for this small mercy, for to apply the processes of data processing to literary translation would be to pave the way for the triumphant revival of prescriptive perfectionism and the classical formalism associated therewith. However, I am sure that not everybody present in this hall is a literary translator; indeed, I feel safe in assuming that a World Congress is per se representative of all aspects of translation. Of course, the extent to which what I have to say on the use of computers will be of interest over such a wide range of translating activity will vary considerably according to the type of text to be translated. And when categorising types of text, the categories must correspond to activities ranging from, on the one hand, interlingual refabrication as, for example, in the case of lyric poetry to the direct transfer of sparepart and stock catalogues on the other, whereby the transition from the one extreme to the other is a continuous process through infinite intermediate shades. For translation is all of this. One can also categorise texts according to whether the difficulties involved are difficulties of formulation — the extreme case being that of esoteric or highly emotional texts — or difficulties presented by large numbers of specialised terms. Of course, there will be borderline cases of texts to which both these criteria can be applied. To deal with such cases the translator will require not only a well-developed skill for formulation but also an extensive specialised vocabulary. But that wide sector of translation work in which the translator's freedom of formulation is severely limited covers not only the translation of catalogues but also the translation of technical and scientific texts. The further we move in the direction of specialised vocabulary texts, the more help we can expect from the computer in the actual translation processes, for the time being at any rate; conversely, the practical applicability of the computer declines the more formulation problems a text poses. This applies, as I have already indicated, only to the practical process of translation as such. When we consider the theoretical investigation of the translation process from a linguistic point of view we are faced with an entirely different situation. However, practical limitations to the scope of my talk


The article examines the process of forming a "stock market-induced corporate identity". Nowadays, the concept of corporate identity is becoming multifaceted and interdisciplinary. The main thing in forming this image is the role and active position of the company's management, a built-up system of communications with society, and a proactive management policy. At the same time, there are external factors of corporate identity that do not depend on the proactive actions of management. According to the author, the financial market can be the field for establishing indirect communications between corporations and society where many investors are mediating. The stock market-induced corporate identity is forming in the process of this mediation. The driving belt between the financial market and corporate identity is investors' behavior, moods, preferences, and characteristics of investment choices. Recently emotions and subjective moods are replacing fundamental analysis. As a result, investors selecting the groups of stocks with the most noticeable stories – "story stocks". These stories provoke their rush of investment demand. Story stocks serve as an integrated concept for "meme stocks", "hot stocks", "NFT stocks", "buzzing stocks", "concept stocks", "thematic investing", "ESG stocks". The author shows the dynamics and growth of investors' attention to these groups of stocks in the article. Based on the analysis of quotes and fundamental indicators of story stocks, the author proves that the formation of corporate identity is divorced from internal factors that depend on the corporation itself, its management and shareholders, and increasingly depends on external factors determined by market sentiments of investors. The stock market-induced corporate identity is acquiring an independent role as one of the critical drivers of investors' behavior. Analysis of story stocks reveals a particular pattern: the more popular and louder the stories of stocks the more their value breaks away from the fundamental indicators.


We establish from first principles a perturbative framework that allows us to compute reaction rates for processes taking place in nonequilibrium $O (N)$ linear-sigma systems in broken phase. The system of our concern is quasiuniform system near equilibrium or nonequilibrium quasistationary system. We employ the closed-time-path formalism and use the so-called gradient approximation. No further approximation is introduced. In the course of construction of the framework, we obtain the gap equation that determines the effective masses of $\pi$ and of $\sigma$, and the generalized Boltzmann equation that describes the evolution of the number-density functions of $\pi$ and of $\sigma$.


Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA-25) and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate-co-carbon monoxide) (EVACO-2410) and their blends with EVACO:EVA ratios of 80:20, 60:40, 40:60, and 20:80 were foamed using CO2. These foams are of interest for applications ranging from footwear to medical devices. Foaming experiments were carried out using 1 mm thick melt-extruded films in CO2 at a range of pressures (100, 200, and 300 bar) and temperatures (30, 40, 50, and 60 °C). Foamability of the polymers was explored both under isothermal and gradient temperature conditions. Foams of EVACO-2410 displayed high initial expansions followed by postfoaming relaxation and shrinkage while foams generated from EVA-25 showed more dimensional stability. Blending EVACO-2410 with EVA-25 was explored as an approach to reduce postfoaming relaxation and shrinkage. The surfaces of the foamed samples displayed blistering that was linked to CO2 bubble entrapment and coalescence at the surface. Scanning electron micrographs of the foams generated from blends displayed distinct morphologies reflecting whether the sections were representing the machine- or cross-machine direction of extruded films. In going from EVACO-2410 to EVA-25, the cell densities ranged from about 106 to 1010 cells/cm3. Foams with low bulk densities of about 0.11 g/cm3 could be generated. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 45841.


In Knowledge Engineering,ontological analysis was used to reuse and share knowledge,which provided an idea to solve problems in modeling and simulation,such as domain information describing,system reuse and interoperability,simulation composability. First the definition of ontologies in the domain of Information Science was analysed,and then modeling based on ontologies was researched,including the use of ontologies in the common process of modeling,Discrete Event Modeling Ontology,and the method of Ontology Driven Simulation. Next the use of ontologies in composable simulation was discussed. In conclusion,the development direction of ontologies in modeling and simulation was pointed out.


The invention relates to a pure traditional Chinese medicine preparation prepared by lilac daphne root, cortex lycii radicis, radix scrophulariae and lithospermum. According to the preparation, a nozzle of an atomization device is utilized for directly spraying an affected gingiva lightly for administration or coating and smearing an affected tooth for administration, so that the medicine is directly absorbed by the gingiva so as to promote the blood circulation of the gingiva and eliminate the blood vessel stasis of the gingiva. Nutrition can be directly absorbed by the gingiva through active components, and the blood stasis of dental pulps is also solved readily, so that the nutrition can be directly absorbed by both of the gingiva and the dental pulps so as to eliminate the static blood stagnation in the blood vessels of the gingiva and the dental pulps and achieve double effects of promoting the blood circulation to remove the blood stasis and regulating the blood condition to alleviate pain. Therefore, the pulpitis is recovered, and the gingiva is regenerated. A loose tooth can be anew wrapped tightly by the regeneration and the expansion of an atrophied gingiva, which is beneficial to the health of periodontal tissues. Therefore, the toothache and the pulpitis are treated by the effects of promoting the blood circulation to remove the blood stasis and regulating the blood condition to alleviate the pain according to the pure traditional Chinese medicine preparation.


The mechanical behaviour of skin is very important as regards dermatology, surgery and impact trauma. Engineered skin substitutes can bring significant medical benefit, in particular to patients with extensive burn wounds, even if current skin substitutes do not restore normal skin anatomy and its natural mechanical properties. This work considers the mechanical characterization of a particular layer of skin: dermis. Dermis can be used as a filling material and as support in different areas of reconstructive plastic surgery such as post mastectomy reconstructive surgery and abdominal surgery. The aim was to verify the influence of the decellularization treatment on its properties. The specimens were subjected to uniaxial static tests performed with Bose Electroforce ® 3200 and experimental data were represented with engineering and real time stress-strain curves. To begin, descriptive parameters were identified for stress vs. strain curves, such as ultimate tensile strength and maximum Young's modulus, and they were subsequently compared through multivariate analysis of variance to determine the influence of specimen cut orientation and decellularization treatment duration. Dermis, that had been decellularized over 5 or 6 weeks, exhibited mechanical properties comparable with natural ones and ultimate tensile strength and maximum Young's modulus were shown to be considerably higher in real time curves than in engineering ones.


Objective To explore the relation between serum TNF-α,IL-10,IL-12 levels and myelodysplastic syndrome and its clinical significance.Then to study its role in the pathogenesis of MDS,which providing a theoretical basis for the prevention and treatment of MDS.Methods Serum levels of TNF-α,IL-10 and IL-12 were measured with ELISA in 40 cases of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome and 40 healthy subjects taken as control group.Results Serum TNF-α,IL-10,IL-12 levels of myelodysplastic syndrome were significantly higher than those of the healthy control group(all P0.01).We observed the serum TNF-α,IL-10 and IL-12 levels in different types of MDS.The results showed that the serum TNF-α,IL-10 and IL-12 levels in prophase group and progression group were significantly increased compared with the level of the control group(P0.01).IL-10 level in progression group of MDS was higher than that in the prophase group(P0.01);TNF-α and IL-12 levels in the progression group of MDS were lower than those in the prophase group(P0.01).Conclusion TNF-α,IL-10 and IL-12 take part in the pathogenesis of MDS.Detection of TNF-α,IL-10 and IL-12 may be helpful for typing and predicting its prognosis of MDS.In addition,it may provide new clues for the treatment of MDS.


Heteroepitaxial growth of III‐Sb nanowires allows for the formation of various interesting complex structures and enables the combination of their remarkable properties. In this Letter, we investigate the heteroepitaxial growth of Au‐seeded InSb and GaSb nanowires using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. We demonstrate successful single and double axial InSb–GaSb heterostructures in both directions. The formation properties of the grown nanowires including the compositional change of the particle and the interface sharpness are further discussed. In addition, the decomposition of InSb and GaSb segments and their side facet evolution are explained.


Capacitance and tangent delta are acknowledged as some of the main parameters for bushing insulation condition diagnosis, because they are directly affected by the deterioration of the insulation. This article intends to display a technique used in on-line monitoring of capacitance and tangent delta of bushings, in addition to an actual field deployment experience in monitoring 550 kV and 245 kV bushings on auto-transformers and power reactors. Results shown were obtained during the course of approximately one year, including on-line detection of insulation deterioration for a 550 kV bushing, avoiding a possible failure with explosion, later proven by off-line measurements of capacitance and tangent delta and by gas-chromatography analysis of oil sample from the bushing. Additionally, some practical consideration about practical issues related to installing online bushing monitoring systems on transformers equipped with bushing potential devices (BPD), where the tap of the bushing is already occupied, as well as on equipment on which it was possible to make the connection directly to the tap of the bushing.


The "Ren Yi doctrine" of Mengzi consists of "Ren doctrine" from the Confucianism and "Yi doctrine" from Mozi.However,Mengzi innovated a new meaning through combining the concept of Ren Yi with his concept of "heart filling".Hence Mengzi's political philosophy established the super-class popularity and the superiority of ethics to interest ownership.This paper regards Mengzi's thought as the Ren-Yi-based political thought,and discussed its fundamental implications and mode of thinking.


This paper discusses the method of solving the text classification task by using case-based reasoning. As a part of the text classification module in the implemented system, modified TF-IDF (Term Frequency - Inverse Document Frequency) measure of the text content based on the known information on the distribution of documents between different categories is proposed. This modification allows to improve the quality of the classification by considering the information on the distribution of the words in the entire case base. Implementation of the prototype of text classification module used in the interactive voice response system is presented. This module allows to get away from button menus to automated voice interaction between the user and the system. The result of computational experiments confirming the effectiveness of the developed system is proposed.


The main purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions on critical indicators of climate variability and change in the context of tourism event. Four indicators were identified namely, awareness and information sharing, policy and regulatory framework, added economic value and effective communication. To further explore and understand the perceptions, the method of the study involved a number of 57 event program students at the University Utara Malaysia as respondents. The findings indicated that they highly agreed to all four indicators as vital indicators of climate variability and change which need to be taken into account during conducting the tourism event. The findings highlighted that the effective communication is perceived as the most critical indicator whilst the added economic value is perceived as the least indicator of climate variability and change. The study suggested that further research should be undertaken with more number of respondents and also investigating the event organizers' perceptions on the critical indicators due to the fact that they are business oriented and would significantly consider the impacts of the event during climate variability and change.


In the article authors analyze the historical background of the Durand Line, consider the influence of the unsolved border issue between Afghanistan and Pakistan on the bilateral relations and reveal features of a separated nation Pashtu`s nationalistic movement development. Keywords—Durand Line; Pakistan; Afghanistan; Pashtu; Balochi; borders; separatism sentiments


In this work, we describe the preparation and characterization of supramolecular ionic liquid gels based on binary mixtures of biopolymers, comprising chitosan, chitin, cellulose and lignin. The gels were obtained...


Adoption of new innovated technologies has become an important requirement for a successful development and implementation of computer systems. Mobile cloud learning is a relatively recent paradigm shift that provides significant promise for meeting future education development and delivery requirements based on mobile cloud computing. The focal point of this study is to develop a conceptual model which highlights the effects of information cultural factors on the adoption of mobile cloud learning in higher education environments. The proposed model is developed based on four identified information cultural variables, namely information integrity, formality, control and pro-activeness. A pilot survey is conducted to test the questionnaire using a small sample of information systems experts and university lecturers. The results show acceptable reliability and validity of the instrument. Finally, conclusions, possible practical contributions of this study and some of the directions for upcoming research are discussed.


Groundnut and castor oils were passed through an azeotropic salt bath to yield heterogeneous masses. Both the oils yield acetone-soluble and -insoluble fractions. In both the cases acetone-insoluble fractions show the presence of benzenoid rings, ether linkages and oxiranes. The average molecular weights of acetone-soluble fractions vary from 901 to 936 in the case of groundnut oils and from 974 to 979 with castor oils. This shows that these oils are capable of polymerization by the present method.


The growth of commerce around the end of the 16th century created a need for large amounts of numerical calculation. the increasing understanding of astronomical phenomena around the same time also depended on accurate computation. the difficulty of accurately performing large amounts of tedious numerical work by hand stimulated Leibniz, Pascal and others to invent mechanical adding and multiplying machines in the 17th century. (See figure 1.) the speed and complexity of mechanical computation were limited by inertia, friction, size and the difficulty of transmitting information very far. the development of electrical technology led to the introduction of electrical components in peripheral parts of computing machines, such as motors in place of hand cranks. Major improvements in performance, however, had to await the electrical representation of information


This paper describes the development of logistics park in Heilongjiang,and proposes the development strategy of modern logistics park,that is to promote regional economic integration through regional logistics so as to achieve the formation of industrial clusters within the region and the development of inter-industry interactions effectively.


Diploma thesis with topic "Ergonomic Assesment Criteria Analysis of the Working System" is divided into the two parts, theoretical and practical. Findings of ergonomics are summarized in theoretical part. Basic ergonomical terms are described: ergonomics, working system, ergonomical assessment criteria and parameters. Practical part of thesis deals with ergonomical analysis of administration workplace. Gained data are rated due to ergonomical requirements, key defects are defined and recommendations are successively suggested what should lead to improve working conditions. The starting-points have flowed from results of the ergonomical analysis and are solved in the end of practical part.