Introduction and objective: To report the hydrodynamic of a porous orifice (G) tube as replacement for the wrong Starling' law Material and method: Hydrodynamics of the G tube, based on capillary ultrastructure, were studied. The effect of changing G tube orifice diameter, proximal pressure and distal pressure on the side pressure and C pressure were evaluated. The literature on capillary physiology was reviewed. Result: Hydrodynamics of the G tube showed that proximal, akin to arterial, pressure induces a negative side pressure gradient on the G tube wall, which is negative causing suction maximum near the inlet and turn positive maximum near the exit causing filtration. This created the rapid, autonomous magnetic field like fluid circulation phenomenon between G and C. Conclusion: Hydrodynamic studies of the G tube challenge the role attributed to arterial pressure as a filtration force in Starling's law. A perspective literature review shows that the oncotic pressure force has been previously cancelled and the law has failed to explain the capillary–ISF transfer in most parts of the body. A concept based on the new hydrodynamic phenomenon of the G tube is proposed to replace Starling's law for the capillary–ISF circulation. A rapid autonomous dynamic magnetic field-like G–C circulation occurs between fluid in the G tube's lumen and a surrounding fluid compartment C. Factors which initiate, regulate and affect the G–C circulation, its physiological and haemodynamic relevance and its clinical importance to the pathogenesis of oedema, shock and the MVOD/F syndrome are discussed. *Correspondence to: Ghanem AN, Department of Urology, President Mubarak Street, Mansoura, Egypt, Tel: 00201020883243; E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Context: The rapid spread of COVID-19 globally continues to be a threat for healthcare professionals. Dental students and practitioners remain at the risk of having this disease. Aim: The aim of this survey was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and perception of dental students across India toward COVID-19. Settings and Design: A survey with 51 questions to obtain knowledge, attitude, and perception of dental students toward COVID-19 was formulated, pretested via a pilot study and then validated. Subjects and Methods: The final questionnaire was circulated through a link to Google forms, making participation voluntary. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis was carried out using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and independent t-test. Results: A total of 610 undergraduate dental students (3rd year, 4th year and students undergoing internship) from various dental colleges across the country responded. On intergroup comparison using One-way ANOVA test, between knowledge, attitude, and perception of dental undergraduate students, attitude toward COVID-19 was found be of statistical significance with P = 0.008. Conclusion: Knowledge, awareness, and perception toward COVID-19 will help contain the spread of this infectious disease that can be caused during dental procedures. There lies a strong call to conduct educational programs on COVID-19 regarding the infection control practices for all healthcare professions, especially dental school students.


Center of gravity (CG) trajectory during walking has been used as an important indicator to understand the mechanism of pathological walking. Kinematic method using optical motion analysis system and force plate method using ground reaction force are conventionally used to calculate
 CG trajectory during gait. However, there is a limitation in that expensive experimental equipment is needed to measure it. The purpose of this study was to develop a long short-term memory (LSTM) network model that could estimate the CG trajectory during gait based on a low-cost portable
 inertial sensor signal. Twenty healthy adult males (age: 24.2±2.1 years; height: 171.4±5.2 cm; weight: 67.5±7.4 kg) who had no history of musculoskeletal disorders were participated in the study. Based on the optical motion capture system, CG trajectories have been calculated
 using highly accurate kinematic method. Input variables of the LSTM model consisted of a total of six signals of three-axis acceleration and angular velocity. Data were divided into training/validation/testing data at a ratio of 80/10/10. Performance was evaluated utilizing 10-fold cross-validation.
 As a result of model estimation, the Pearson correlation coefficient of about 0.9 or more and root mean square error values ranging from 3.9 to 31 mm were obtained in anterior/posterior, proximal/distal, and medial/lateral directions. These results confirmed that the CG trajectory during walking
 could be estimated by using low cost, small wearable inertial sensor. This novel CG prediction method has potential to evaluate pathological gait by incorporating patient walking data.


Plants of 'Pink Ice' were pruned at monthly intervals from January to December 1999. Single plants were used per treatment and treatments were repeated five times in a randomised complete block design. For the first crop after pruning the highest yield was achieved for plants pruned in June. However, more flowers were harvested during the high price period of December and January when plants were pruned in March. Except when pruning was done in December, January or February, the yield of the return bloom was ca. 50 percent of the first crop with few shoots flowering during December or January. High yields were achieved in the return bloom for plants pruned in December, January or February, but only the latter two dates of pruning produced shoots that flowered during December or January. About 40 percent of the shoots that were 70 cm or longer by the month of May preceding the first flowering period had initiated flowers. Flowers borne on an autumn flush needed 4 to 6 weeks longer to complete their development than for spring flush borne flowers. However since flower initiation in autumn occurred earlier by more than 3 months than on the spring flush, this difference in time accounted for the earlier flowering of the former in spite of a longer period to complete the flower developmental process.


More extensive application of electronic products lead electronic packaging trend to be miniaturization and multi-functional. With prohibiting of solder containing SnPb, lead-free solder now has been widely utilized. However, there are still a plenty of reliability issues exist in it such as high melting point, poor wettability, more apparent electromigration effect and heat transfer effect. Thus, it is necessary to find comprehensive approach to improve the overall performance of lead-free solders. Besides, the volumes of solders at the electrical interconnects have been limited to be microscopic level due to the miniaturisation of circuitry proportionally while the volume fraction of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) was increased in the microstructure of solder joints. Such as, the proportion of IMCs in a solder continually increases while the electronic packaging size decreased, which could deteriorate the solder reliability. Adding reinforced particle is one of effective ways to improve the performance of solder joints. POSS, a kind of reinforced particles with Si-O cage structure, could be a good connection with metal atoms, highly dispersed distribution in the solder, effectively hinder dislocation motion. However, the influence of POSS on IMCs structure was rarely considered. In this paper, the effects of POSS reinforcing particles on IMCs microstructure and crystal orientation evolution were inversitgated during the interfacial reactions between Sn-3.5Ag solders and Cu substrates. The growth and solidification are considered during the experiment by blocking the melting solder from natural cooling or controlling the melting parameters to distinguish the enhancement effect of POSS. To explore the true effect of POSS, no addition solder group is set with respective melting condition all the same but not adding reinforcing particles. As the result shows, adding reinforcing particle like POSS into Sn3.5Ag makes scalloped Cu6Sn5 achieve planarization, which results from that the average thickness of the intermetallic compounds was significantly suppressed by the reinforcing particles. During the growth behavior, as soldering takes longer time, Cu diffuses more inside of solder and reacted more entirely with Sn, resulting in interfacial IMC size becomes larger. POSS reinforcing particles inhibit Ag from diffusing, resulting in the inhibition of Ag3Sn formulation. POSS inhibits Cu from diffusing inside of solder, blocking Cu6Sn5 growing into solder, and POSS makes scalloped Cu more level and smooth, decreasing interfacial energy of Cu6Sn5. Cu6Sn5 is growing in the process of solidification, and once solder added POSS its Cu6Sn5 will be limited from growing into the insider of solder, which decreases the interfacial surface energy of Cu6Sn5. Besides, POSS makes interfacial IMC more level and smooth, which increases the strength of solder and Cu connections and reduce the possibility of crack at interfacial surface in solder, improving the performance of solder.


For more than 40 years, scholars have been investigating psychological and communicative implications for the concept of place. During that time, a variety of methods have been employed, yet often without an obvious concern for the extent to which investigative conclusions match perceptions held by respondents who originally generate data the analyses rely upon. Although this distinction between actors' and informants' meanings for place is a subject most in the field of environmental communication encounter in their formative education, the actual practice of place-based research sometimes fails to adequately address the issue. Thus, the following commentary explores various threats to representational validity and suggests a number of areas we researchers should consider when conducting our place-based studies. In urging ourselves to rise to the challenge of self-skepticism, I hope my analysis provides a modestly novel take on empiricism regarding what places mean to those we study.


Abstract - Two Indonesian companies, namely PT PAL and PT. Daya Radar Utama (DRU), have been given the tasks by the Government of Indonesia to produce several warships for the Indonesian Navy. The Government has also issued a policy in the field of defense industry, which among others regulates matters related to the procurement of the TNI's main weapon systems. This research is intended to examine the impacts of the policy on the operations and supply chain strategies of PT PAL and PT DRU in producing warships. By using descriptive qualitative analysis method, the Researcher analyzed empirical data obtained in the field research supported by several theories, namely theory of strategy, theory of operations and supply chain strategy, theory of public policy, and theory of self-sufficient. From the analysis, there are several findings. The policies have given a certain level of positive impacts on the industries, such as: the improvement of cooperations among them, the improvement of manufacturing process due to the product's standardization, the improvement of self-reliance level of the industries, and the capability improvement of the companies due to cooperation with foreign parties. However, the policies still give negative impacts to the companies, such as: the low level application of the supply chain management, low level use of the domestic materials and ship's components, and the low level of fair competition among domestic defense industries. Keywords : operation strategy, supply chain, warship, PT PAL, PT DRU, Navy, Government of Indonesia, defense industry policy.


Sediment traps were placed in St Helena Bay and Elands Bay in the southern Benguela system in December 1984 for 2–3 days. Comparisons of abundance of selected phytoplankton species in the water column, from the traps and in the sediment/water interface revealed differences in the sinking behaviour of the selected species. These differences are most likely exaggerated by the formation of resting spores. Although the water column was dominated by vegetative cells, the flux to the sediment occurred largely in the form of resting spores. The results suggest rapid formation and settling of resting spores from the water column. These transient events may be missed by typical field sampling procedures, thereby underestimating frequency of spore formation. High concentrations of resting spores dominated the phytoplankton assemblages of the sediment/water interface, suggesting that seeding by spores from the sediment is possibly an important factor resulting in the success of Chaetoceros species and the consistent...


Abstract : Current secondary storage systems have low transfer rates relative to CPU processor needs. For memory intensive applications, such as data base machines with large on-line storage, this creates a performance bottleneck since the I/O subsystem forces the CPU to wait for data. Optical disks, which are now a commercially available medium, offer high storage densities (100 Mbits per square centimeter), low cost ($0.1/Mbyte), robustness (no head crash) and, as for other optical memories, the possibility for parallel readout. Still, although high storage densities are possible with optical disk systems, high throughput has not yet been achieved. One solution to processing bottleneck is the Motionless-head Parallel Readout Optical Disk System. This is a hybrid system combining holographic and imaging optical techniques. The underlying principle is that all mechanical motions of the head above the disk surface have been eliminated for addressing focusing and tracking. The Motionless head Parallel Readout system is designed to generate 2-D binary bit plane outputs, while the recording of the data on the disk remains sequential and can be done using a commercially available drive.


The In tourist Organization establishment during the years of the Soviet Union led to the rise of the tourism industry to a new level of quality. As a result of the tourism industry complete ideologicalization, it was analyzed through the Fergana tourist region that tour routes were established, which could mainly serve the communist ideology


Intelligence = Consciousness × Adaptability × Intention and Faith = Intuition × Inspiration × Imagination, are the complementary parts of the human mind; the link between is Conscience = Consciousness × Inspiration. Simulation is the relation between function and structure. Conscience simulation demands transcending from computability to simulability, by an intensive effort on extensive research to integrate essential mathematical and physical knowledge guided by philosophical goals. A way to begin is hierarchical simulation. Coexistent interdependent hierarchical types structure the universe of models for complex systems. They belong to different types of hierarchy. Symmetry between simulation and theory can model the conscience (Fig. 1). Keywords: Faith, Conscience, and Intelligence are [ in our Life.


We will mine the distribution and the composing propor tion of the symptoms f rom.the large amount data of study of the standards for differential diagnosis of the premenstr ual syndrome(PMS)and the evaluation of its clinical treatment,one of the Key Research Projection of the Ministry of Science and Technology of People's Republic of China. This study used principal component analysis(PCA)for data processing, and used AS(Analysis Services), for clustering data-mining. We have mined syndrome factor and the signif icant symptoms,and discussed the syndrome factor distribution and correlation,complies with the results of TCM syndrome differentiation of PMS. With PCA and AS (Analysis Services)data-mining can provide valuable analysis of anxiety or Liver-qi negative symptom complex.


Palladium (Pd) nanoparticles, ionic liquids (ILs), or both are integrated with graphene sheets to serve as an electrochemical sensor for detecting various bio-species. Ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid (UA), and dopamine (DA) are used as the model analytes. To assess the effects of the constituent ions of ILs on sensing properties, various ILs, namely EMI–SCN, EMI–DCA, BMP–DCA, BMI–PF6, EMI–NTF2, and BMP–NTF2, are investigated. The results demonstrate that the graphene/IL electrode shows superior detection sensitivity compared to those of the graphene/Pd and graphene/Pd/IL electrodes. Interestingly, the IL anions are found to play a crucial role in sensing performance. Angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals that graphene can create an aligned cation/anion orientation in the adsorbed IL film, with the anions preferentially occupying the topmost surface, thus dominating the interaction with analytes. The graphene/EMI–SCN electrode shows the highest sensitivity among the electrodes, 1.49 μA μM–1...


The Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) with spicy flavor, which is considered as one of the special spices in Vietnamese dishes. In the pepper contains a high content of essential oils contained in seeds and leaves, which not only have antioxidant and antibacterial resistance but also anti-Colon toxin, antidepressant, antifungal, analgesic, antidiarrhoeal. In the present study, we optimized the yield of essential oils obtained from Pepper leaves by Microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAHD) extraction method by examining the factors that affect the extraction process such as the size of leaves, the ratio of materials with solvent, time and microwave power. The highest essential oil performance achieved 0.94 mL/g by MAHD at grind size, extraction time (40 min), the ratio of water to raw materials (4:1mL/g), and microwave power (450W). A total of 22 volatile constituents were identified from the pepper leaves oil, with the major components being 3-Carene, D-Limonene, Caryophyllene, and β-Pinene.


The preservation of physical security for computer systems has long been used as a foundation for computational trust. This requirement has come as a result of the use of shared secrets as host identifiers since there has been no empirical means of ascertaining the trustworthiness of a host in an absolute sense. Recent technological trends erode the usefulness of physical security as the basis for trust as well as open the possibility for a new trust model. This new model is not based on the traditional human qualities of trust such as reputation and accountability, but on capability, timeliness and determinism. A software-based procedure is demonstrated for establishing the trustworthiness of a remote computer system in the context of this new model. Deficiencies of this method are examined and used as a motivation for the development of a hardware implementation that offers greater durability of trust as well as ease of use.


Energy deposition (preheat) by suprathermal electrons in laser-irradiated targets is described using a model based on Spencer's electron transport calculation. Approximate analytical, as well as numerical, solutions are found for the specific energy deposition ${\mathcal{E}}_{\mathrm{dep}}(\frac{J}{g})$ and fraction $f$ of energy transmitted beyond a given depth, measured in curvilinear ranges. Example calculations are presented for homogeneous targets of gold, aluminum, and carbon. The application of the model to treat multilayer composite targets is briefly considered. The parametric dependence of these results reveal that the most significant parameter by far is the source temperature ${T}_{h}$ of the hot or suprathermal electrons. The predictions of the preheat model are shown to be in good agreement with experimental data on gold and aluminum disks irradiated by Nd-glass laser pulses at the ${10}^{15}$ W/${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ level. Included in the theory-data comparison are predictions for these experiments based on several other simple models and large code simulations of the experiments. Future aluminum disk experiments in which ${T}_{h}$ is accurately measured could provide a sensitive test for the theories.


It is said that the increase and decrease of rural population are influenced by the standard of living, but I think that they are influenced beside by the cultural factors in many cases. The rate of population increase in each village of Saku Basin, during 1875-1947 is shown in Fig. 1. The rates are high in marginal districts of Basin, and low in its centeral districts. The relation between the rate of population increase and the economic factors or the cultural factors in this Basin are as follows. 1. The correlation between the rate and the average income in each village as economic factors shows a reversed relation. 2. In the correlation of the distance synchronous from the center (Koomorormachi) as cultural factors with the rates, the more remost the districts are, the higher rates they have. 3. There is the correct correlation between the area of cultivated land as the basis of farmer's life, the area of potential arable land and the rate of population increase. From what was mentioned above, I think that the increase and decrease of rural population in Saku Basin are influenced not by the economic factors, but by the cultural factors.


Modern avionic software usually runs on the ARINC653-compatible OS based on the Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture. Although existing ARINC653 annex of Architecture Analysis & Design Language (AADL) can be used to construct IMA models straightforward, it is still hard and error-prone work for avionics engineers because of the complexity of ARINC653 and manual modeling. Therefore, a hierarchical transformation-based approach is proposed to obtain correct IMA models step by step from general AADL models, rather than its ARINC653 annex. The typical transformation algorithm is given and a tool is also developed to help accomplish this approach automatically and effectively.


A group of 21 patients with various degrees of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease underwent radionuclide ventriculography with hemodynamic monitoring to assess the extent to which pulmonary artery pressures and pulmonary vascular resistance can be lowered by the vasodilator molsidomine. Molsidomine (N‐carboxy‐3‐morpholino‐sydnonimin‐ethylester) is similar to nitroglycerin in its mode of action. After hemodynamic and radionuclide data acquisition, at rest and during sub‐maximal exercise in the steady state, 2 mg molsidomine was injected intravenously. Rest and exercise measurements were repeated 45 min after molsidomine injection. in patients with mild to moderate disease (group 1), pulmonary artery resting pressures decreased by 12% (p<0.05) at rest and by 22% (p<0.01) during exercise after the administration of the drug. Total pulmonary resistance during exercise decreased significantly (p <0.01) as a result of a marked decrease of pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) compared with a minimal decrease in cardiac index (CI). in patients with severe disease (group 2), only the resting values of PAP decreased while the relationship between pressure and flow was unchanged. During the exercise period, the preload parameters of the right and left ventricles decreased by an average of 30%. With regard to gas exchange, only the arterial PO2 at rest decreased slightly but significantly (p<0.05) after molsidomine, while the coefficient of oxygen delivery was not affected by the drug. However, in four patients arterial PO2 was markedly reduced by the drug. Right ventricular ejection fraction increased significantly (p<0.01) both at rest and during exercise in group 1 and during exercise in group 2 after administration of molsidomine. The left ventricular ejection fraction increased at rest (p<0.05) and during exercise (p<0.01) only in group 1. in conclusion, our results show that only a few patients with advanced lung disease and hypoxia benefit from this vasodilator with predominant preload lowering effect. The lowering of total pulmonary vascular resistance in the exercise state and the marked lowering of preload and afterload of the right ventricle in patients with mild to moderate lung disease after administration of molsidomine might be relevant to patients during surgical stress. in these patients, the net effect of the drug may be beneficial despite a slight reduction of cardiac output in most patients.


A calcium-binding peptide was purified from hydrolysates of porcine plasma protein. Porcine plasma protein was hydrolyzed using Flavourzyme, and the hydrolysates were filtered using YM-3 membrane. The membrane filtered solution was fractionated using Sephadex G-15, normal phase high-performance liquid, ion exchange chromatography, and fast protein liquid chromatography for a calcium-binding peptide. The sequence of the purified calcium-binding peptide was analyzed using liquid chromatography/electron spray ionization tandem mass spectrum and identified to be Val-Ser-Gly-Val-Glu-Asp-Val-Asn. The calcium- binding peptide can be used as a food ingredient or feed for calcium deficiency.


A high performance V-band surface mountable packaging structure has been proposed and demonstrated. We enabled the use of liquid crystal polymer (LCP) as a low-cost SMT millimeter-wave package. This package employed the wire bonding technique as the RF interconnect, and the vertical via as the vertical signal transition, despite it being meant for application up to V-band. The optimized vertical transition structure consisting of the vertical via and high-impedance transmission lines (TRLs) was designed to form a low-pass impedance matching network compensating for the parasitic inductance of the bonding wire. The overall packaging structure, including a bond wire, a vertical via and a solder joint, achieved excellent RF characteristics and a low insertion loss of less than 0.6 dB at 65 GHz. The adoption of widely used conventional technology such as a general printed circuit board (PCB) wiring process and a low-cost plastic substrate makes it possible to realize cost-effective millimeter-wave equipment.


Result. Good vision; a round pupil. There is a loud cardiac bruit. CASE x. T. G., aged 62, a mechanical draughtsman, healthy, rather feeble, wlho had suffered a good deal of anxiety of late, had double cataract. The upper section was done in the right eye without accident to the iris or vitreouis humour. The incision was slow in uniting, but not so much so as in Case xia youniger and much stronger subject. No operation was performed on the left eye. Result. Good sight. The pupil is central and round. The sounds of the heart are natural. CASF XI. C. B., a nailer, aged 51, had double cataract. The capsule of the right lens was thickened and opaquie. The left lens had a slightly greenish shade. The eyes are deep set, and the brows very large and prominent, which give a forbidding aspect to a countenance, which, in other respects, was not disagreeable. An operation for convergent strabismus was performed in 1856, in anticipation of the cataract treatment. Severe headaches preceded the dimness of sight. The lenticular disease is referred by the patient to a contusion of the eyes, from a thrust of a mali's finger, about four years since. The lower incision was executed in both eyes, and on the same day, without accident to the iris or vitreous humour. From the toughness of the capsule. some difficulty was presented in the extraction of the right cataract, and a little vitreous humour escaped. No inflammatory pain followed. Union took place very slowly. Meat was given on the second day after the operation, and ale on the third. Although the patienit was a younger and stronger man than T. G. (Case x), the repair of the wound was more tardy than in his case. Result. Good sight in both eyes. The pupils are central and round; a very small pellet of capsule adheres to the lower margin of the right pupil. The sounds of the heart are natural. CASE xii. L. R., aged 77, a female, has double cataract. The left is complicated by retinal disease. The light eye affords a good specimen, as in Case ix, of Morgagnian cataract. The anterior capsule is speckled, which gives the appearance of gruel to the cataract. When the head was turned back, the solid nucleus disappeared, and a general milkiness was substituted. Illness obliged the patient to leave the house before the adoption of any surgical proceeding.


Well-foundedness is related to an important property of rewriting systems, namely termination. A well-known technique to prove well-foundedness on term orderings is Kruskal's theorem, which implies that a monotonic term ordering over a finite signature satisfying the subterm property is well-founded. However, it does not seem to work for a number of terminating term rewriting systems. In this paper, it is shown that a term ordering possessing subterm property and decomposability ( in place of monotonicity) does yield a simpler proof of well-foundedness for terminating term rewriting systems than the techniques depending on Kruskal's theorem.


Background: We studied the number of lymph nodes (LN) assessed in gastric cancer, and evaluated the association between different factors and a lower number of LN assessed. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study in three hospitals in Tehran city, I.R. Of Iran. We used patient medical and pathological reports and obtained personal and clinical information. We studied the association of being on the N3 stage with the number of assessed lymph nodes (NALN), gender, tumor size, T stage, hospital, tumor site, histopathological diagnosis, tumor grade and age at diagnosis. In addition, we estimated the association between NALN and different clinical variables. A logistic regression model estimated the crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: The average number of NALN was 10.48 (±6.9). We found that the probability of being diagnosed as stage N3 was significantly lower in patients who had less than 15 LN assessed compared to those who had more than 15 LN assessed in their pathology reports (OR=0.2; 95% CI 0.1-0.4). The hospital, tumor sizes were significantly associated with NALN. Conclusion: Lower NALN led to stage migration and underestimation of the real tumor stage in GC patients. The LN assessments were lower than recommended by the American Joint Cancer Clinician Association in all the three hospitals included in this study. Developing national guidelines, training surgeons and pathologists, conducting regular monitoring and evaluation of the data is necessary to increase NALN and thus improve the staging of GC patients.


Emperor Tai Wu in Beiwai Dynasty deserves to be a great man. When he was transfering the economic strategy in early Bei-wei Dynasty,he turned his foresight not only to all the occupied regions, but also to the exploit of the coming occupied regions. Thewestern economic strategy began with making alliance with Western Regions and"Zhi Q Huo" (acquiring treasres), then reopenedthe Silk Road by occupying Hexi area. All these exerted an important and lasting influence on the dvelopment economy and the pros-perity of the country.


The acoustical dynamics within English CVC-syllables is modeled by a set of phonetically-motivated parametric functions of the formant-frequency trajectories of vocalic nuclei. The notion of linear superposition of contextual effects leads to an approximate decomposition of vowel-formant transitions into a constant vowel target, an initial CV- and a final VC-transition. The latter transitions are further modeled asL + kf(n)andL' + k'g(n), wheref(n)andg(n)are per-consonant common-contour shape functionskandk'are scaling constants, andLandL'are interpreted as consonant loci. These models were tested on a small database produced by three native Australian male speakers, who recorded five repetitions of Australian English /CVd/-syllables, where C=/h,b,d,g,p,t,k/ and V=/i,I,ε,æ,þ,λ,3,a, / in /CVd The techniques for constructing these models from formant data are presented and fits to multi-speaker test data analysed.


Nanoparticles of [Pb0.7 La0.2] TiO3 ceramics were prepared by conventional combustion technique from the oxides of PbO, La2O3 and TiO2 with different sintering time (ts) (2, 6, 10, 12, 16 and 20h) while keeping the calcination temperature at 1200 o C. Particle size of the samples was estimated between 25 to 65 nm through Scherrer formula and was found to increase with increasing sintering time (ts). Microstructural analysis of the samples was carried out using scanning electron microscope which showed that grain boundary increased with increasing sintering time (ts) while dislocations were reduced. The dielectric constant and Curie temperature of the samples was increased with increasing sintering time (ts), but the activation energy in both of ferroelectric and paraelectric (Ea) decreased with increasing ts. The diffusion coefficient (γ) decreased with increasing ts. In other words the optimum sintering time conditions was found.


Radium isotopes provide a means of identifying the source of freshened waters in the ocean and determining the time elapsed since these waters were in the estuary. We present evidence that, during April, waters from the Amazon mixing zone pass within 50 km of the mouth of the Orinoco mouth. These Amazon waters are characterized by a lower Ra228/Ra226 activity ratio than are waters from the Orinoco at similar salinities. Within the Caribbean Sea waters of Orinoco origin carry a characteristic radium signature including excess activities of Ra224. This isotope may be used to estimate the time elapsed since the waters were removed from contact with sediments. Current speeds based on Ra224 dating range from 5 to 20 cm/sec during April. Radium isotopes also provide an assessment of sediment mixing in the estuary. During low discharge (April), considerable mixing of older sediment by physical or biological processes or dredging maintained high activities of Ra228 in the estuary and produced the highest Ra228/Ra226 A. R.'s yet measured in any estuary. During the high discharge (Sept.) a large fraction of the Ra228 was derived from desorption from fresh sediment rather than mixing of older sediments. Activities of Ra224 were high in themore » estuary during both high and low discharge, indicating that considerable mixing of recently introduced sediment must occur during each period. The Ra224/Ra228 A. R.'s measured in Sept. imply that the same sediments were being resuspended during high discharge, and that there was little exposure of older sediments which had been stored in the estuary for months to years.« less


Air Traffic Management (ATM) is getting challenging mainly due to the massive information processed from increasingly sophisticated avionics systems, unprecedentedly crowded airspaces, and ever-changing weather conditions affecting grounded or flying aircraft. The complex situation overwhelms pilots and ATM controllers who work to keep aviation dependable. To provide artificial decision-making support for ATM and Unmanned Aerial System Traffic Management (UTM) systems, ontologies are an attractive knowledge technology. This paper proposes to endow an Avionics Analytics Ontology (AAO) with semantic uncertainty for input information to improve effectiveness in ATM/UTM decision-making processes. The approach is aligned with the Uncertainty Representation and Reasoning Evaluation Framework (URREF), that develops an uncertainty ontology. The degree of uncertainty is considered by means of metrics developed to quantify the information veracity. A case study is presented that involves two ATM/UTM operation scenarios where UAVs are flying nearby commercial aircraft and/or airports. It shows results from above application examples with source truth over 0.75 using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADSB) from London Heathrow Airport.


The spores of Drynaria roosii Nakaike were cultured in inorganic medium and soil, respectively. The spore germination and gametophyte development were observed under microscope. The results showed that the spores were yellowish, monolete, without perispore and bearing granular ornamentation on the exospore. They are bean-shaped in equatorial view and elliptical in polar view. The spores germinated within 10~12 days after inoculation, the type of germination is Vittaria-type while that of gametophyte development is Drynaria-type. The prothallial plates formed in 20 days after inoculation and the establishment of apical cell was later. After the formation of the prothallial plate, profuse unicellular hairs occurred on both the surfaces and margin of the prothalli. The young prothalli developed in 60 days after inoculation and the mature prothalli are cordate-thalloid. The sex organs formed in 65 days after inoculation. The antheridia appeared about 10 days earlier than archegonia. Archegonial neck usually inclines or curves towards the base of the prothallus at maturity. It could be observed that the embryos break through the archegonia after fertilization.


In october 1541, a letter left the city of Innsbruck, in which the government, or Regiment, sharply admonished the mayor and councilors of the city of Belfort in the Sundgau. With all seriousness, the government reminded them that they were obliged to submit to the Lord von Mörsperg, their God-given authority, and if they did not, they would lose their freedom and risk further punishment.1 It is easy enough to identify the petitioner and petitioned in this document: the seigniorial family of Mörsberg/Morimont on one side, and the mayor and city council of Belfort/Beffort on the other. But there was also a third, superior authority involved: the Habsburg regime in Innsbruck and its subordinate, regional representatives who administered the Vorlande from nearby Ensisheim, which had admonished the city to remain "obedient" to the Herrn von Mörsberg. This instruction was, in fact, part of a long series of disputes between mortgagee lord (Pfandherr) and city. This article examines this type of conflict in more detail to present a model for analyzing structural changes through the historical development of three cities on the western edges of the Holy Roman Empire: Belfort, Rheinfelden, and Laufenberg.


Does the real difference between non-consequentialist and consequentialist theories lie in their approach to value? Non-consequentialist theories are thought either to allow a different kind of value (namely, agent-relative value) or to advocate a different response to value ('honouring' rather than 'promoting'). One objection to this idea implies that all normative theories are describable as consequentialist. But then the distinction between honouring and promoting collapses into the distinction between relative and neutral value. A proper description of non-consequentialist theories can only be achieved by including a distinction between temporal relativity and neutrality in addition to the distinction between agent-relativity and agent-neutrality.


The transport of arsenic from soil through to edible crop is important when assessing the potential health risks from a food source.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and predicitve factors of dental anxiety among Brazilian adolescents.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study of a random sample of 340 Brazilian adolescents, done between 2005 and 2010. Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale and an objective questionnaire were used to determine the degree of dental anxiety.

RESULTS
The prevalence of moderate to severe dental anxiety was approximately 18%. Dental anxiety was correlated with the following factors: gender (P<.05), age group (P<.001), degree of schooling (P<.001), access to newspapers and/or the Internet (P<02), oral hygiene frequency (P=.005), visits to the dentist (P<.02), reason for last visit to the dentist (P<.001), and experience with dental pain (P=.002).

CONCLUSIONS
Dental fear and anxiety in Brazilian adolescents are associated with lack of economic resources, negligence of oral health, low educational level, female gender, and younger age.


When cycling through a medium discharge rate at room temperature is described lithium ion secondary battery having a high total energy, energy density and specific discharge capacity. Improved battery is based on the high loading of the positive electrode material having a high energy density. This capacity may be filled in high density electrode without sacrificing performance, it is achieved by the development of the positive electrode active material with very high specific energy capacity. High loadings of the positive electrode material in the battery is facilitated by using a polymer binder having an average molecular weight greater than 800,000 atomic mass units.


In automatic assembling valve train parts of internal combustion engines must be exactly between a valve stem (22) and one of a valve spring (23) acted on the valve spring plate (24) are positioned mainly valve wedges (25). So that this process can be performed at a high clock speed, reliable, relatively expensive devices are required. The invention proposes a device with which the valve keys (25) simply by resting on the valve spring plate (24) are so positioned that they mounting levers (38) for attaching the valve keys (25) on the valve stem (22) can be taken over and then are attachable to the valve stem (22). Such a device is distinguished due to the positioning of the valve keys (25) with the aid of the valve spring plate (24) by a simple construction and nevertheless permits a reliable assembly of the valve train parts at a high clock speed.


Abstract A finite basis problem in Specht modules is considered. Some criteria are proved for a submodule to be generated by a submodule of the Specht module with fewer columns. Also a positive solution is obtained for two-row diagrams.


In order to explore the mechanical response characteristics of fractured sandstone under true triaxial different medium principal stresses, matdem particle flow software was used to study the mechanical response characteristics, fracture mechanism and damage evolution characteristics of sandstone specimens under the conditions of 30 MPa, 40 MPa and 50 MPa respectively. The simulation results are verified by true triaxial test. The results show that under true triaxial stress, the increase of medium principal stress is beneficial to increase the strength of sandstone. The fracture degree of the specimen increases with the increase of the intermediate principal stress, and finally the interlacing macroscopic cracks are formed. When the intermediate principal stress is perpendicular to the fracture strike, the fracture mode of sandstone is that the macroscopic fracture plane is perpendicular to the fracture strike, and the fracture mechanism of sandstone under true triaxial compression is mainly shear failure, accompanied by tensile failure. With the increasing of the intermediate principal stress, the fractal dimension of the fracture of sandstone specimen increases significantly and the degree of fracture deepens. Combined with the true triaxial test results, the rationality of particle flow simulation test is proved.


In this letter, we propose a simplified channel stacked array with a layer selection by multi-level operation (SLSM) and a new string select transistors (SSTs) threshold voltage (Vth) setting method that all the SSTs on each layer are set to targeted the Vth values simultaneously by one erase operation. To verify the validity of the new method in SLSM, TCAD simulations are performed, and a fabricated pseudo SLSM is measured. It is verified that the Vth values of SSTs are set to the targeted Vth values by the new method. Moreover, memory operations are examined in the fabricated structure after setting the Vth values of all the SSTs by the new method. As a result, stable memory operations are obtained successfully without the interference between stacked layers.


Objectives To establish the recovery priorities of individuals suffering with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM). Design A cross-sectional, observational study. Setting Patients from across the world with a diagnosis of DCM accessed the survey over an 18-month period on Myelopathy.org, an international myelopathy charity. Participants 481 individuals suffering from DCM completed the online survey fully. Main outcome measures Functional recovery domains were established through qualitative interviews and a consensus process. Individuals were asked about their disease characteristics, including limb pain (Visual Analogue Scale) and functional disability (patient-derived version of the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association score). Individuals ranked recovery domains (arm and hand function, walking, upper body/trunk function, sexual function, elimination of pain, sensation and bladder/bowel function) in order of priority. Priorities were analysed as the modal first priority and mean ranking. The influence of demographics on selection was analysed, with significance p<0.05. Results Of 659 survey responses obtained, 481 were complete. Overall, pain was the most popular recovery priority (39.9%) of respondents, followed by walking (20.2%), sensation (11.9%) and arm and hand function (11.5%). Sexual function (5.7%), bladder and bowel (3.7%) and trunk function (3.5%) were chosen less frequently. When considering the average ranking of symptoms, while pain remained the priority (2.6±2.0), this was closely followed by walking (2.9±1.7) and arm/hand function (3.0±1.4). Sensation ranked lower (4.3±2.1). With respect to disease characteristics, overall pain remained the recovery priority, with the exception of patients with greater walking impairment (p<0.005) who prioritised walking, even among patients with lower pain scores. Conclusions This is the first study investigating patient priorities in DCM. The patient priorities reported provide an important framework for future research and will help to ensure that it is aligned with patient needs.


This research study was designed to explore the English language competency of teacher educators and its effect on their job satisfaction and motivation in order to maintain their position at their departments of Education at Universities of Sindh province of Pakistan. As, languages are generally taught and assessed in terms of four skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Where listening and reading are known as receptive skills while speaking and writing as productive skills, which are directly concerned and connected with the cognitive development of the teachers  educators and its proper utilization to become satisfied and motivated faculty members. The data was collected and analysed through narrative analysis technique, the qualitative research design and method. The findings of this article would be found suitable, reliable, strong resource and a rich addition in to the existing literature, which provides a suitable insight to all stakeholders to understand the real position and phenomenon of language competency and its effects.


Let $ZB$ be the center of a $p$ -block $B$ of a finite group with defect group $D$ . We show that the Loewy length $LL(ZB)$ of $ZB$ is bounded by $|D|/p+p-1$ provided $D$ is not cyclic. If $D$ is nonabelian, we prove the stronger bound $LL(ZB)<\min \{p^{d-1},4p^{d-2}\}$ where $|D|=p^{d}$ . Conversely, we classify the blocks $B$ with $LL(ZB)\geqslant \min \{p^{d-1},4p^{d-2}\}$ . This extends some results previously obtained by the present authors. Moreover, we characterize blocks with uniserial center.


Excerpt To the editor: The paper "Effectiveness of Coronary Care Units in Small Community Hospitals" by Stross and associates (Ann Intern Med85:709-713, 1976) indicates that the worst, or least eff...


This letter is written in reference to the article "Caffeine Theophylline and Human Sperm Motility" by K.A. Dougherty A.T.K. Cockett and R.L. Urry appearing in "Fertility and Sterility" (27: 541 1976) because we believe several points need clarification. The authors compare the effect of various concentrations of caffeine and theophylline in Tyrodes buffer pH 7.8. We wish to take issue with the statement that "Contrary to suggestions in recent reports caffeine and theophylline did not uniformly increase the viability the percentage of spermatozoal activity or the quality of the activity in samples examined." The authors findings are not necessarily contrary to our work since they have not studied the effects of caffeine under the same experimental conditions that were used in our work. Our work was carried out at a pH of 7.2 in a Tris-modified Ringers buffer while Dougherty et al. carried out their work with Tyrodes buffer at a pH of 7.8. To a scientist their statement is analogous to a comparison of apples and oranges. It should also be noted that our results were based on a study of 125 human semen samples which showed improvement in more than 90% of the specimens examined. All of our experiments were examined in duplicate with the proper controls.(FULL TEXT)


An overview of some key human aspects and findings derived from consideration of the 1998 Katherine and Daly Rivers Region Flood is illustrated. The residents impacted by the 1998 disaster evidenced, overwhelmingly, the basic survival qualities of a robust majority of the population, in a possibly typical, under stress Australian community.


Given the common reputation of Mamluk officials as being, even by the standards of their own time and place, extraordinarily corrupt and grasping, it is hardly surprising that contemporary governments, confronted by reports of Mamluk officials impounding the goods of foreign merchants, and demanding of them outrageous compensation, were inclined to attribute these acts to greed. That this was not always the case, however, that in some circumstances Mamluk officials operated not solely from greed but as well in reaction to some real offense and from a desire for justice for their own subjects, is evident from the documents from the Venetian archives which refer to what, for want of any official title, might be designated the Brizi-Corner Swindle of 1376–77. The Venetians were, by the fourteenth century, old hands at Levantine trade, perhaps the oldest in Christendom. The national legend of the smuggling of the body of St. Mark from Abbasid Egypt in the ninth century attests not only to the antiquity of Venetian contacts in the East, but also to their self-perception as a people who could take care of themselves in the treacherous world of Eastern Mediterranean trade and politics. They had confronted and dealt with all manner of hazards at one time or another—pirates, cut-throat competition from the Genoese and others, uncooperative or merely corrupt officials, and the uncertain security of the goods, and, indeed, the very persons, of traders living on sufferance in foreign parts. They knew their way around. Successful trade presupposes mastery of diplomacy, and Venice had learned to play that game particularly well: from Flanders to Tana, even among the crafty Byzantines or the testy Mongols, Venetian diplomats had met with success in securing the trading interests of the Republic. And yet, in the midand late fourteenth century, the Venetians apparently found their resourcefulness severely tested by trading conditions in Egypt and Syria. Even for a trading nation of such consummate ability, dealing with the Mamluks was something particularly


In order to meet the current needs of power transmission, people have turned their attention to direct current (DC) transmission. When the alternating current(AC) power grid (PG) fails, it is easy to cause commutation failure in the DC system, thereby increasing the fault scope of the system. Therefore, this article adopts a flexible DC transmission system. Flexible DC converters have many control parameters, and there are mutual influences and conflicts between these parameters. By applying intelligent algorithms to multi‐objective optimization (MOP), these complex MOP problems can be effectively solved and an optimal set of control parameter combinations can be found. This method has an important contribution and novelty for optimizing the converter control parameters of flexible DC transmission systems. This article achieves fast and accurate MOP of the control parameters of flexible DC transmission converters by continuously detecting the similarities between antibodies and maintaining the diversity of the population. The research results show that the average DC side current is about 405A in the first 20 seconds, and the DC side current fluctuates regularly after 20 seconds. This article lays the foundation for establishing a real‐time simulation model of flexible DC transmission systems suitable for real‐time simulation systems.


A method for controlling an electrical device and an electrical device are disclosed. The electrical device according to the invention includes a magnetic sensor circuitry (101) for detecting magnetic field and for generating a detection signal in response to the detected magnetic field, and a control circuitry (102) for controlling operation of the electrical device in accordance with the detection signal. The magnetic sensor circuitry is configured to detect a direction related to a deviation of the magnetic field from the magnetic field of the earth, and the control circuitry is configured to control the operation of the electrical device in accordance with the detected direction. The electrical device can be controlled by using e.g. a permanent magnet (105) for directing, to the magnetic sensor circuitry, magnetic field deviating from the magnetic field of the earth and having a desired orientation. Thus, the electrical device can be controlled without an electrical connector or a radio interface.


Methods for handling uncertainty should be evaluated in terms of their cognitive compatibility with real-world decision makers. Bayesian models of uncertainty demand precise up-front assessments of all problem elements and discourage the dynamic evolution of problem understanding. They handle missing or conflicting data by mathematical aggregation, while real-world decision makers regard gaps in knowledge and conflicting evidence as problems to be solved. Finally, they produce as output a statistical average rather than a coherent picture of the situation. Another approach to decision making, based on pattern-matching, does not address the ways in which situation pictures are evaluated and modified. A third approach, however, called the Recognition / Metacognition model, treats decision making under uncertainty as a problem-solving process that starts with the results of recognition, verifies them, and improves them where necessary. Critiquing strategies identify problems of incompleteness, conflict, and unreliability in situation models, and lead to correcting steps that retrieve or collect additional information or adopt assumptions. Training methods based on this model have been developed and tested with active-duty Naval officers.


second century b.c. to the third century a.D. is relatively well understood. Despite this, there are many objects about which very little is known. Whether displayed in museums throughout the world or kept in storerooms, they await further study, or at least a fruitful insight. One such category of objects consists of early Indian bronzes, especially those pre dating the fifth century A.D., which do not form a cohesive group and are frequently enigmatic, even when found in excavated contexts. Often, they are unique, or at least appear to be so. In 1984 The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired one of these puzzling bronzes, a seated figure from ancient India (Figure 1 ). Cast by the direct lost-wax process, the figure is made of a copper-zinc alloy that is actually a brass, but by common convention we will refer to it as a bronze. The work is 36.4 centimeters high, considerably larger than most ancient Indian bronzes. While the bronze was included in the


The guinea pig has been shown to have a longer period of tissue differentiation during its development and a similarity to the human in many of its reproductive and developmental features (Hoar and Salem, '61). It would seem to be the ideal animal for investigation of the possible teratological effects of endocrine imbalance. The present experiment was designed to test the effects of adrenalectomy on development in guinea pigs.


Objective To investigate neuroprotective effects of Ginkgo Biloba Extract on the dopaminergic neurons in model mice of Parkinson's disease.Method 36 mice were randomly divided into three groups,12 mice in each group.The mice in PD model group were injected intraperitoneally with MPTP(30 mg/kg) for 5 days to induce PD;the mice in GBE pretreatment group were injected intraperitoneally GBE(60 mg/kg) before MPTP injection for 8 days;and the mice in normal control group were injected intraperitoneally the same volume saline.The changes of tyrosine hydroxylase(TH) positive cells in substantia nigra zona compacta were observed using TH immunohistochemistry,and the concentration of DA,DOPAC and HVA were detected by HPLC-ECD.Results Both the TH positive cells in SN and the concentration of DA,DOPAC and HVA of the mice of PD model group exhibited siginificant reductions(P0.01),in GBE pretreatment group,the number of TH positive cells in SN and the concentration of DA,DOPAC and HVA were increased significantely compared to the PD model group(P0.05),but they were still lower than those in normal control group(P0.01).Conclusion GBE has neuroprotective effetcts on PD mice.


The current use and teaching of recording is explored. The development of the use of records for worker accountability and the loss of recording as part of the social work process is traced historically. An alternative to the medical model (problem-oriented record) is proposed based on a client-focused model that espouses social work values.


In this thesis we consider proximity problems on point sets. Proximity problems arise in many fields of computer science, with broad application to computational geometry, machine learning, computational biology, data mining, and the like. In particular, we consider the problems of approximate nearest neighbor search and dynamic maintenance of a spanner for a point set.
It has been conjectured that all algorithms for these two problems suffer from the "curse of dimensionality," which means that their run times grow exponentially with the dimension of the point set. To avoid this undesirable growth, we consider point sets that possess a doubling dimension λ. We first present a dynamic data structure that uses linear space and supports a (1+e)-approximate nearest neighbor search of the point set. We then extend this data structure to allow the dynamic maintenance of a low degree (1+e)- spanner for the point set. The query and update time of these structures are logarithmic in the size of the point set and exponential in λ (as opposed to exponential in the dimension); when λ is small, this provides a significant speed-up over known algorithms, and when λ and e are constant these run times are optimal up to a constant. The spanner degree is optimal, while the spanner update times improve on all previously known algorithms.


The present study was carried out to determine the effect of four herbs viz . Arjuna , ashwagandha, puthkanda and shalampanja on growth characteristics of probiotic cultures. Effect of herb extract on growth characteristics of probiotic bacteria viz . Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus was determined. It was found that Arjuna and ashwagandha inhibit growth of Lactobacilus bulgaricus , however puthkanda and shalampanja increased growth of Lactobacilus bulgaricus or supportive to their growth, however in case of Streptococcus thermophilus all herbs showed inhibitory effects.


After the 2011 revolution, Egypt has experienced frequent electricity blackouts and a severe shortage of energy supplies. The government responded to the problem by reduc-ing the subsidy on energy for heavy industries, and household electricity use. Also, the government planned to introduce a smart card system that entails a certain quota of fuel for each registered car per month. It appeared to the public that the Egyptian government is attempting to adopt an energy conservation policy, to ration energy consumption and manage the deficit in energy supplies. Given that energy is an essential input for many economic activities, there is a concern that a reduction in energy consumption may damp-en the growth potentials of the Egyptian economy. This paper investigates the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in Egypt during the peri-od 1980-2012, within a multivariate framework by including measures for capital and labor in the aggregate production function. Causality is tested using a modified version of the Granger causality test due to Toda and Yamamoto (1995). The analyses endogenously control for potential structural breaks in the time series when conducting the unit root tests. In addition to aggregate energy consumption, the analysis is also segregated by different components of energy use, including oil, electricity, natural gas, and coal to ac-count for any potential aggregation bias. Results show no causal relationship between total primary energy consumption and economic growth, supporting the neutrality hypothesis. When the analysis is stratified by energy type, a one-way positive causal relation running from economic growth to electricity and oil consumption is found which is consistent with the conservation hypothesis. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence that energy conservation policy has no negative effect on the growth prospects of the Egyptian economy in the long-run.


This paper proposes a new research method, Participatory Action Design Research (PADR), for studies in the Urban Informatics domain. PADR supports Urban Informatics research in developing new technological means (e.g. using mobile and ubiquitous computing) to resolve contemporary issues or support everyday life in urban environments. The paper discusses the nature, aims and inherent methodological needs of Urban Informatics research, and proposes PADR as a method to address these needs. Situated in a socio-technical context, Urban Informatics requires a close dialogue between social and design-oriented fields of research as well as their methods. PADR combines Action Research and Design Science Research, both of which are used in Information Systems, another field with a strong socio-technical emphasis, and further adapts them to the cross-disciplinary needs and research context of Urban Informatics.


We read with interest the article from Bayhan et al., which assessed changes in choroidal thickness (CT) with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS). The authors reported that patients with OSAS had thinner CT nasal to the fovea. When comparing CT between different groups of patients, it is important to consider the topographic variation of the choroid. One potential limitation of this study is that the authors measured point CT measurements nasally and temporally along a horizontal Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) B-scan. In order to fully appreciate the effects of OSAS on CT, it would be interesting to know whether there were corresponding changes in CT in the superior and inferior regions of the macula along a vertical OCT B-scan. In addition, the choroid is a complex three-dimensional structure with a highly interconnected network of blood vessels. The disadvantage of point thickness measurements is that they can be influenced to a greater extent by local changes in CT or irregularities in the choriod–scleral border, compared with mean thickness measurements. Hence, measuring mean CT and choroidal volume using the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study grid will provide more comprehensive information of the change of choroidal topography due to OSAS than single point thickness measurements. The error of manual measurements should also be determined to differentiate clinical change from measurement variability. It has been reported from a study regarding the repeatability of manual measurements of CT in healthy subjects imaged by spectral-domain OCT using the enhanced depth imaging technique that a subfoveal CT change of more than 32μm is likely to exceed inter-observer variability. In the current study, the differences of


In this paper we present an approach that synthesizes a dynamic sequence from another related sequence, and apply it to a virtual conductor: to synthesize linked figure animation from an input music track. We propose that the mapping between two dynamic sequences can be modeled with a Kernel-based Hidden Markov model, or KHMM. A KHMM is an HMM for which the kernel-based functions are used to model the state observation density of the joint input and output distribution. Specifically, the state observation density is estimated by employing a likelihood-weighted sampling scheme. Our KHMM model is ideal for dynamic sequence synthesis because the global dynamics are learned by the HMM, and subtle details in the dynamic mapping are kept in the kernel-based state density. We demonstrate our virtual conductor by synthesizing extensive animation sequences from input music sequences with different styles and beat patterns.


In recent years there has been a shift in focus towards greater recognition of the social consequences of events. Most of this research has resulted in the innovative development of empirical scales to measure resident perceptions of social impacts. The instruments that are used in these studies are well reported within the literature. However, it has been found that there is limited reporting of the methodological tools used for pretesting these instruments. It is argued in this paper that there is a requirement for more detailed accounts of pretesting techniques to be included in methodological reporting. In doing so, the method of data collection can be assured and other researchers can readily replicate the studies. This is important, as an understanding of phenomena will progress more productively if researchers are able to follow, and build on, other empirical analyses. This paper focuses on the methodological reports of social impact event studies to demonstrate this issue. Therefore the paper has four aims. First, a review of methodological frameworks within the existing literature for pretesting social impact instruments is presented. Second, the paper details the use of Focus Groups as a tool for pretesting social impact questionnaires on two community music festivals. Third, the results of the pretest are presented in terms of the changes made to the questionnaire items based on pretest feedback. Fourth, the benefits and limitations of this technique


: The general objective of this study was to examine the determinants of effective value addition in the tea processing sub-chain to Kenya tea export. Specifically, the study investigated the effects of strategic planning, technological competitiveness and marketing competitiveness on effective value addition of the tea processing in Kenya. KTDA is the leading management Agency for the small scale tea farmers in Kenya. The new terms applying to the Agency are contractual agreement with the independent tea companies it manages. The 54 factories at the time of privatization have now grown to 65 representing 560,000 small scale tea farmers spread across the entire country (KTDA, 2015). They are independent private sector companies, which procure management services and expertise from the Agency at an agreed commission of total sales proceeds. In addition to processing and marketing producers' tea, the Agency also offers other services such as extension, insurance, provision of inputs and financial services. To strengthen the conceptual framework the researcher used theories such as resource base theory and cost leadership theory. The study will use primary data which will be collected through use of questionnaires with respondents at the Kenya Tea Development Agency. The sample size was 195. A modified Likert scale questionnaire will be developed divided into three parts. A pilot study was carried out to refine the instrument. The quality and consistency of the study was further assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Data analysis was performed on a PC computer using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS Version 22) for Windows. Analysis was done using frequency counts, percentages, means and standard deviation, regression, correlation and the information generated was presented in form of graphs, charts and tables. From the research findings, the study concluded all the independent variables studied have significant effect on value addition as indicated by the strong coefficient of correlation and a p-value which is less than 0.05.The overall effect of the analyzed factors was very high as indicated by the coefficient of determination. The overall P-value of 0.00 which is less than 0.05 (5%) is an indication of relevance of the studied variables, significant at the calculated 95% level of significance. This implies that the studied independent variables namely strategic planning, technological competitiveness, marketing competitiveness and government policy have significant effect on value addition in tea processing export in Kenya. There was a strong positive correlation between the independent variables and dependent variable. The existing strategic planning practices and technological competitiveness practices should be modified towards modern strategic planning practices and technological competitiveness practices in order to improve value addition in the tea processing firms in Kenya. In modifying strategic planning practices, education programs on strategic planning for employees and managers should be given key priority in the tea processing processing firms in Kenya. In modifying technological competitiveness practices, the mangers of the tea processing firms in Kenya should incorporate modern sea food processing value addition technologies for the success of the industry.


This paper,making full use of newly unearthed Chujian(楚简) of the Warring States Periods,explores the spreading of Jiuge(九歌) written by Qu Yuan and the copyrights of several works in Jiuzhang(九章).It thinks that,the original Jiuge(九歌) was a kind of court music used in sacrificial rites and spreaded to the regions of Yuan(阮) and Xiang(湘),and gradually became a kind of folk songs among people of Yuan Country(越国).Then the greatest poet of Chu State,Qu Yuan,improved it and finally accordingly formed his great work Jiuzhang(九章),which was full of his personal characteristics.In his work,Qu Yuan lauded Wu Zi-xu(伍子胥),which was tally with the social ethics then,and his work embodied the colour of revenge of the Pre-Qin Dynasty.We cannot sloppily deny the copyrights of works in Jiuge(九歌).


There has been a protracted struggle in Queensland about how to configure the relationship between language, literacy and textual studies in the senior syllabus for English. Debate has centred on the locus of curriculum control rather than curriculum change. The author offers a perspective on this English crisis and proposes that if English is to have currency and connectedness an entirely new curriculum and cultural formation is needed.


Dear Editor, Glioma is the most common type of malignant intracranial tumor, with glioma morbidity accounting for half of that of all brain tumours.1 Although most patients with gliomas are routinely offered radiotherapy and temozolomide chemotherapy after tumor resection, the prognosis is still very poor. Patients surviving more than 5 years account for less than 5% of all patients.2 Increasing studies have indicated that cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a key role in tumorigenesis, progression, and drug resistance3,4; therefore, our study aimed to identify novel prognostic molecules and construct a prognosticmodel that integrates clinical features and cancer stemness-associated genes for use in glioma patients. First, data from 301 patients with WHOII-IV gliomas (dataset ID:mRNAarray, data type: mRNA Microarray) were extracted from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) database (http://cgga.org.cn/download.jsp). The mean age of the patients was 42.4 years (range 12-70 years). The baseline characteristics of the patients are summarized in Supporting information Table S2. Then, to identify the prognostic biomarkers of patients, 359 cancer stemness-associated genes (relevance score ≥ 50 points) screened from the GeneCards database were included in the univariate Cox regression analysis, from which 162 genes (P ≤ .001) were identified. Next, these significant genes were further entered into multivariate analysis, and we found that 12 statistically significant genes were independent prognostic factors (Supporting information Table S1). The description, molecular function, and regression coefficient of these genes are summarized in Supporting information Table S3. Next, the stemness score of each patient was calculated according to themRNA levels and regression coefficient of each prognostic gene. According to the median cut-off of the stemness score, 301 glioma patients were divided into low (n = 150) and high stemness score groups (n = 151). We used χ2 tests to investigate the correlation between the stemness score and clinicopathological features and


Characterized by elegant circular features and gentle curves, Shaker designs are best created using a band saw. Mark Duginske, band-saw craftsman and Shaker designer, has arranged these projects in order of complexity. Designs include a hanging shelf, benches, tables, chairs and cabinets. Everyone from the beginner to the experienced band-saw user should find appropriate projects amongst this collection.


Orientation: Human research (HR) practitioners have an important role to play in the sustainability and competitiveness of organisations. Yet their strategic contribution and the value they add remain unrecognised. Research purpose: The main objective of this research was to explore the extent to which HR practitioners are currently allowed to display HR competencies in the workplace, and whether any significant differences exist between perceived HR competencies, based on the respondents' demographic characteristics. Motivation for the study: Limited empirical research exists on the extent to which HR practitioners are allowed to display key competencies in the South African workplace. Research approach, design, and method: A quantitative research approach was followed. A Human Resource Management Professional Competence Questionnaire was administered to HR practitioners and managers ( N = 481). Main findings: The results showed that HR competencies are poorly applied in selected South African workplaces. The competencies that were indicated as having the poorest application were talent management, HR metrics, HR business knowledge, and innovation. The white ethic group experienced a poorer application of all human research management (HRM) competencies compared to the black African ethnic group. Practical/managerial implications: The findings of the research highlighted the need for management to evaluate the current application of HR practices in the workplace and also the extent to which HR professionals are involved as strategic business partners. Contribution/value-add: This research highlights the need for the current application of HR competencies in South African workplaces to be improved.


In the parish San Rafael of the canton Tenguel of the province of the Guayas one worked with the asexual propagation of banana tree of the clone Cavendish gigantea to leave of taken colines of plants elites selected in the field to use in the establishment of plantations of organic banana tree following the limits of the certificadora OKO BCS. The outlined objectives were: 1. to determine the best treatment with organic payments in banana tree colines in nursery. 2. to evaluate the effect of acceleration in growth of banana tree colines. The analyzed variables were, height of the colin to the 30, 45 and 60 days after the siembra, number of roots to the 60 days, grosor of the pseudotallo, number of leaves to the 60 days and biomass of the plant. The treatments were assigned to the experimental units following the limits of the design blocks at random with five treatments and six repetitions. The experimental unit was integrated by 20 polyethylene cases containing a sustrato and the colines to those that are incorporated the doses of the treatments. The obtained results evidenced that the incorporation of organic materials in the colines enraizamiento for new plantations cooperates to the growth and development to foliate and of the plants. The height of the plants and especially the rate of daily growth was superior that the one observed in the witness; reached to 1,23 cm per day in the colines paid with bokashi 160 g/colin, compared with the witness that grew to a rhythm of 0,50 cm/dia, consequence of that which to the 60 days, the plants presented bigger height. For the number of leaves for plant, statistical significancia was also obtained, standing out the treatment bokashi 160 g/p. In the variable number of roots, it was not obtained significant differences that which is attributed to that the emission of roots, is bound to genetic factors. In grosor of the shaft in the short period of time of 60 days, significant answer was not obtained to the application of the organic payments. In the biomass for plant statistical significancia was obtained for treatments occupying the first place the treatment bokashi 160 g/hill with an average of 478 g/p, without ending up differing statistically of the witness but if with relationship to the plants fertilized with phosphoric rock, in those that it was obtained the smallest weight or biomass.


This paper highlights the importance of increased community involvement in local government and how it will be an integral part of best value. The paper is based on the experiences of the Transportation and Estates Department of Cornwall County Council. The paper describes the important role that engineers can play in increased community involvement which, if successful, will earn engineers higher respect from the public.


This chapter will address challenges with IoT and machine learning including how a portion of the difficulties of deep learning executions while planning the arrangement and choice of right calculation. Existing research in deep learning and IoT was focused to find how garbage in will deliver waste out, which is exceptionally appropriate for the scope of the informational index for machine learning. The quality, sum, readiness, and choice of information are essential to the achievement of a machine learning arrangement. Consequently, this chapter aims to provide an overview of how the system can use technologies along with deep learning and challenges to realize the security challenges IoT can support. Even though calculations can work in any nonexclusive conditions, there are particular rules to determine which calculation would work best under which circumstances. How reinforcement learning deep learning is useful for IoT will also be covered in the chapter.


This study compared differences of perceived waiting time, negative affect, acceptability, service satisfaction, intention to leave, and switching intention among the four different kinds of experimental groups which were located in four different hypothetical conditions of a theme park waiting line. A questionnaire was distributed to 160 people, 40 people for each experimental group, and 145 questionnaires were finally used for data analysis. Results showed that there were statistically significant differences among the four kinds of waiting situation in term terms of all the variables such as perceived waiting time, negative affect, acceptability, service satisfaction, intention to leave, and switching intention. Based on the results, several points were made from the point of effective marketing project on a waiting line traffic in a theme park.


A kinetic model of photoablation with the nanosecond pulses of an excimer laser, based on the so‐called moving interface, is presented. The rate of the ablating interface is assumed to be v=k(I−It) when the intensity I exceeds the threshold intensity It. The intensity reaching the interface I attenuated by the absorption of the products is I0e−βx, where x is the position of the interface. The ablation rate constant k of the polymer and screening coefficient β of the gas products are evaluated for each polymer and wavelength, by fitting the etch curves obtained precisely with our quartz crystal microbalance technique (as well as the literature data). The etching of polyphenylquinoxaline, a thermostable polymer, at three wavelengths (193, 248, and 351 nm) is given as an example.


Urbanization in China is an important event in the world of 21 century. To build a garden city is a trend of urbanization in China. Through analysis of connotation of the Garden city, following the principle of sustainable development, utilization of underground space was suggested for multiple land use, relax of urban traffic jam, improving the urban environment to solve the key problems in urban development.


The invention provides a fitting device. The device comprises a database module, a human body data module, a matching module and a display module, wherein the database module acquires clothes information and stores clothes in classification; the human body data module is connected with the matching module and the display module respectively and stores a human body model of a user; and the display module displays the human body model of the user, displays the clothes in the database module when the matching module selects the clothes in the database module and displays the effect of the clothes selected by the matching module on the human body model. The invention also provides a corresponding fitting method. The method and the device store the clothes information in the database module, select the clothes through the matching module, fit the clothes on the human body model and display the matching effect on the display module, so that a user can conveniently select fitting clothes.


Throughout the United States, health systems are attempting to change decades of operational systems designed to deliver health care as a reimbursable service into systems that deliver health as a population goal.1 Alongside those transformative activities are quality improvement efforts, such as those that aim to reduce hospital-acquired infections, readmissions for heart failure, scheduling delays to see a physician, or long waiting times after arriving for an appointment. Toward both transformation and incremental improvement are calls for the learning health system, ie, clinicians who see every patient encounter as a way to make the next one better.2 Although the federal government is a major investor in health-related research and could accelerate the development of learning health systems, the current efforts toward that goal may need a redesign of their own. Public and private payers are attempting to transform the health system through changes in the financial incentives for care delivery. The theory is that when clinicians derive most of their revenue from fee-forservice piecework, it encourages volume, but that they may change their practices to promote value when faced


Developing musical skills through singing games, action songs, games and listening activities. Come in comfortable clothes to sing, play games and participate in activities for learning music in the K-6 music class. Learn ways to enhance your listening program, play games with flashcards, and learn new singing games for special days throughout the school year. You will be sure to go home with some new ideas for your music program.


Under the strong influence of the COVID-19, online teaching has been carried out in Colleges and universities all over the world. There are essential differences between online teaching and offline teaching. Although the teaching method of live online teaching is novel, a series of problems arise, such as students can't keep up with the steps of teachers, which is difficult to absorb teaching content and low teaching efficiency. Therefore, the objective of this paper is effectively solve the online teaching, poor understanding and analysis ability, low atmosphere and other problems. In this paper, VR technology e-learning which is new ideas, the design of new VR and online teaching integration way, the construction of online VR classroom and teacher control system, the use of modeling technology to create virtual classroom, cross space real-time teaching, improve the efficiency of online teaching in colleges and universities.


Objective To study a new method for the repair of tissue defects of the finger tip.Methods From July 2002 to July 2007,tissue defects of the finger tip in 87 patients(113 fingers) were repaired using fasciocutaneous reverse flap pedicled dorsal digital nerves,and the blood circulation of the flap used for repair and long-term retraction was observed postoperatively.Results All flaps survived;on the flap surface of 49 fingers water vacuoles appeared and showed violet coloration at 2~4 days after operation,which resolved within 5~7 days without affecting the survival of the flaps.After 4~15 months follow-up,all paients were satisfied with the appearance and texture of the skip flaps and recovery of sensation(2-PD,6~9 mm).Retraction of the flap area was 10%.The donor areas were well healed after transplantation of full-thick flaps from upper limbs or internal forearms.Conclusion The repair of tissue defects of the finger tip using fasciocutaneous reverse flap pedicled dorsal digital nerves is characterized by straightforward operative technique without sacrifice of major arteries,and this method merits morewide spread clinical application.


Arthritis is a clinical diagnosis characterised by joint pain, swelling and stiffness. Aspiration of synovial fluid, laboratory testing and imaging with X-ray, ultrasound examination and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are valuable adjuncts, but clinical pattern recognition based on training and experience and the interpretation of test results are essential in determining the underlying condition. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most prevalent inflammatory joint disease, and recent studies have provided convincing evidence that early diagnosis and prompt treatment with antirheumatic drugs are important determinants of outcome.


This paper describes an exercise with children in the implementation of housing rights. Based on the argued opinion that housing rights cannot be exercised without participation and that participation without knowledge is pretence, a Kids and Architecture programme was initiated with a group of 40 children — displaced from homes in the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok — at a girls' home run by the Human Development Foundation (HDF). The programme, developed in two phases and involving students from the King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), School of Architecture, set about to teach these children some of the elements of architecture so that they could participate in the design of their own housing. From this experiment a number of conclusions are drawn about the implementation of housing rights and about the teaching of architecture, both to children and architecture students.


The purpose of this study is to make learning material that can develop both Computational thinking and Mathematical thinking. This study suggest a hamburger flowchart as a teaching material that combines the three elements of "unplugged", "thinking from the end " and "mathematics class". Using this flowchart, basic experiment was conducted for 8 to 12 years old. The purpose of this experiment is to confirm whether it is possible for children to develop both Computational thinking and Mathematical thinking by using the hamburger flowchart. We evaluated both Computational thinking and Mathematical thinking from the state in this class and the content of the worksheet and prior and subsequent tests. As a result, the state related to Computational thinking and Mathematical thinking increased, and the correct answer rate of many children increased from the prior test to the subsequent test. Therefore it turned out that the hamburger flowchart affects mathematical thinking.


Brucellosis is resulted in spondyloarthropathy (SpA) in almost 50% of human patients, but mechanisms of this association are poorly characterized. To study immune mechanisms of SpA, BALB/c mice were infected with bioluminescent B.melitensis, and bacterial dissemination in spleen, liver and axial skeleton was monitored using bioluminescence and immunohistochemistry (IHC). At the peak of infection, bioluminescence showed accumulation of bacteria in front and hind paws, but the strongest signal was detected in the caudal skeleton reproducing the distribution of vertebrae. IHC confirmed intracellular bacteria in spleen, liver, and in the subchondral bone marrow of vertebrae and in peripheral joints without inflammatory cells infiltration. At 26 weeks post infection, bacteria were cleared from the body, but mice developed ankle joint arthritis and spondylolisthesis. We found that immunodominant Brucella-derived peptide from methionine sulfoxide reductase is presented by murine macrophages in context of MHC class I molecule to cytotoxic T cells (CTL). Homologous mouse/host protein carries a sequence that is 100% identical to Brucella epitope. In silico prediction analysis indicates that Brucella epitope binds to human HLA-B*2705 and B*2702 class I molecules, that are strongly associated with human SpA. Our data provide support for brucellosis-induced SpA as a reactive arthritis-type disease with a potential involvement of CTL in the disease pathogenesis.


The proliferation of mobile devices and the emergence of wireless location‐based services have generated consumer demand for precise location. In this paper, the MUSIC super‐resolution algorithm is applied to time delay estimation for positioning purposes in cellular networks. The goal is to position a Mobile Station with UMTS technology. The problem of Base‐Stations herability is solved using Cumulative Virtual Blanking. A simple simulator is presented using DS‐SS signal. The results show that MUSIC algorithm improves the time delay estimation in both the cases whether or not Cumulative Virtual Blanking was carried out.


Interrelations «structure anti-inflammatory activity (AIA)» and «structure toxicity» among nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were investigated. Structural characteristic attributes for effective NSAIDs with low level of toxic action were revealed. On the basis of the established laws the structural modification of 5benzoyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-pyrrolizine-1-carboxylic acid (ketorolac) and 4-hydroxy-2-methyl-N-(5methyl-1,3-thiazol-2-yl)-3,4-dihydro-2H-1,2benzothiazine-3-carboxamide 1,1-dioxide (meloxicam) was spent. It is as a result received moderately toxic 23 compounds with expressed AIA.


During the fermentation of cocoa beans, the yeasts produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Through reactions associated with amino acid metabolism, yeasts generate important aroma precursors as acetate esters and fatty acid ethyl esters are essential in developing fruity flavors and aromas in the final product (usually chocolate). In addition, some yeasts may have pectinolytic and antifungal activity, which is desirable in the post-harvest process of cocoa. The main yeast species in cocoa fermentation are Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pichia kudriavzevii, and Hanseniaspora opuntiae. These produce higher alcohols and acetyl-CoA to make acetate–esters, compounds that produce floral and fruity notes. However, there are still controversies in scientific reports because some mention that there are no significant differences in the sensory characteristics of the final product. Others mention that the fermentation of cocoa by yeast has a significant influence on improving the sensory attributes of the final product. However, using yeasts as starter cultures for cocoa bean fermentation is recommended to homogenize sensory attributes such as notes and flavors in chocolate.


In recent years there have been many breakthroughs in software and hardware, which has increased the demand for mobile application development. Technology and innovation today has a big impact on h ...


The introduction of CPLD with linking up with hardware by useof software and flexible combination can lead to a revolution about the experimental education of computer organization and architecture.This paper introduces the overall coneeption and hardware design of the experimental instrument, accomplished experiments and the key techniques used in the deoelopment.


The paper presents the experimental studies of coal-water fuel viscosity and suspensions with addition of small amount of various liquid combustible components (isopropyl alcohol, liquid wastes of rubber products processing, and used engine oil) performed. The results show that a liquid combustible component introduced into the suspension causes an increase in the viscosity of the fuel, since the viscosity of the considered liquid combustible components is higher than the viscosity of water. It has been established that the viscosity of slurry fuels based on 3B, D, and T grade coals increases with the increase in the combustible components concentration in the liquid, as less viscous water is replaced by a more viscous substance. Slurry fuel based on 3B grade coal has been determined to have the highest viscosity among the three studied grades, while the slurry fuel based on T grade coal has the smallest viscosity. It has been established that coal-water fuels with addition of a small amount of various liquid combustible components can be used for combustion in boiler units furnaces, since their viscosity and fluidity remain within acceptable limits.


Marine fungi-derived natural products represent an excellent reservoir for the discovery of novel lead compounds with biological activities. Here, we report the identification of two new drimane sesquiterpenes (1 and 2) and six new polyketides (3–8), together with 10 known compounds (9–18), from a marine-derived fungus Penicillium sp. TW58-16. The planar structures of these compounds were elucidated by extensive 1D and 2D NMR, which was supported by HR-ESI-MS data. The absolute configurations of these compounds were determined by experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD), and their optical rotations compared with those reported. Evaluation of the anti-inflammatory activity of compounds 1–18 revealed that compound 5 significantly inhibited the release of nitric oxide (NO) induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in RAW264.7 cells, correlating with the inhibition of expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). In addition, we revealed that compounds 1, 3–6, 14, 16, and 18 showed strong α-glucosidase inhibitory effects with inhibition rates of 35.4%, 73.2%, 55.6%, 74.4%, 32.0%, 36.9%, 88.0%, and 91.1%, respectively, which were comparable with or even better than that of the positive control, acarbose. Together, our results illustrate the potential of discovering new marine-based therapeutic agents against inflammation and diabetes mellitus.


Big Bang cosmology is problematic because of the hypothetical beginning that is not in accord with the conservation of energy. Furthermore, it is based on the interpretation of astronomical data that is questionable. Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) is not direct proof of
 the existence of the recombination period in some remote physical past. Cosmological redshift can be seen as the "tired light effect" proposed by Zwicky [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 15, 773 (1929)]. Based on direct reading of astronomical data, here we introduce a model
 of the universe, which predicts that in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the centers of galaxies, matter is transforming back into the elementary particles in the form of huge jets that are throwing elementary particles into the intergalactic space and so creating "fresh material"
 for new stars formation. This process occurring in AGNs, invoked by our model, has no beginning, and it is in permanent dynamic equilibrium, non-created, which means the universe is eternal. The entropy of the universe as a whole is constant.


Abstract Many an ethically minded translator would think twice or thrice prior to translating an ideologically loaded text as they need to reflect the encoded ideologies of the original narrative in the target narrative. Yet, some translators decide, for different reasons, to undermine and challenge the narratives in question, thus applying various reframing strategies to superimpose certain directionality on the original narratives. This paper, therefore, examines the English translations of the Arabic editorials on Daesh (ISIS), published by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) that has a large impact on the US policy and the public. In this paper, we explain how media translation contributes to (re)framing the current civil war in Syria on the one hand, and how this promotes the narrative of 'Arab and Muslim terrorists' on the other. The study finds that by relying on the narrativity feature of selective appropriation, MEMRI extensively employs the textual reframing tools, i.e., addition and omission, thus promoting different narratives of the civil war. We propose that rival narratives could be circulated through translation where the translators reframe the original narratives and reconstruct the embedded narrativity features that, in turn, renegotiate the original arguments.


In this paper we study the effect of contract design on the performance of railway maintenance in Sweden, using a panel data set over the period 2003-2013. The marginal effect of incentive intensity is estimated, showing that the power of incentive schemes improve performance as measured by the number of infrastructure failures. In addition, when tendered in competition, the performance payment schemes result in a decrease in infrastructure failures causing train delays, but an increase in other failures.