Rheumatic manifestations are common in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). Since previous reports on the prevalence of arthritis in this disease may have a rheumatology referral bias, we sought to establish the prevalence of undifferentiated inflammatory arthropathy (UIA) in unselected HT patients as seen in an endocrinology clinic.


Many intelligent driver assistance algorithms try to improve on-road safety by using driver eye gaze, commonly using foveal gaze as an estimate of human attention. While human visual acuity is highest in the foveal field of view, drivers often use their peripheral vision to process scene elements. Previous work in psychology has modeled this combination of foveal and peripheral gaze as a construct known as Functional Field of View (FFoV). In this work, we study the shape and dynamics of the FFoV during active driving. We use a peripheral detection task in a virtual reality (VR) driving simulator with licensed drivers in urban driving settings. We find evidence that supports a vertically asymmetric (upward-inhibited) shape of the FFoV in our active driving task, similar to previous work in non-driving settings. Additionally, we show that this asymmetry disappears when the same peripheral detection task is conducted in a non-driving setting. Finally, we also examine the dynamic nature of the FFoV. Our data indicates that drivers' peripheral target detection ability is inhibited right after saccades but recovers once drivers fixate for some time. The findings of the FFoV's task-dependent nature as well as systematic asymmetries and inhibitions have implications for gaze-based intelligent driving assistance systems.


Cu-SSZ-13 and Zr-modified Cu-SSZ-13 catalysts with different Zr/Cu mass ratios were prepared by ion-exchange and impregnation methods, respectively. The NH3-SCR performance tests were performed using the catalyst performance evaluation device to investigate the effects of different Zr/Cu mass ratios on the catalyst ammonia-selective catalytic reduction (NH3-SCR) performance. X-ray diffraction, ICP-OES, BET, NH3 temperature-programed desorption (NH3-TPD), H2 temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, and in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (in situ DRIFTS) were used to characterize the catalysts. The results show that the prepared Cu-SSZ-13 catalyst had good catalytic activity. Zr introduction was carried out on this basis. The results showed that proper Zr doping improved the catalytic activity at low temperatures and widened the high-temperature stage, with an optimal activity stage at a Zr/Cu mass ratio of 0.2. The NOx conversion efficiency was close to 100% at 200 °C and over 80% at 450 °C. The active species were well dispersed on the catalyst surface, and the metal modification did not change the crystal structure of the zeolite. The NH3-TPD results showed that the Zr-modified catalyst had more abundant acid sites, and the H2-TPR results indicated that the Cu species on the catalyst had excellent reducibility at low temperatures. The interaction between Cu and Zr could regulate the Cu+ and Cu2+ proportion on the catalyst surface, which facilitated the increase in the Cu+ for fast SCR reaction at low temperatures. With abundant acid sites and both SCR reactions following the Eley–Rideal (E–R) and Langmuir–Hinshelwood (L–H) mechanism on the catalyst surface at a low temperature of 150 °C, more abundant acid sites and reaction paths created favorable conditions for NH3-SCR reactions at low temperatures.


(57) A capsule for receiving a substance for the prepara tion of a beverage with a coffee machine or tea to be naked you by a piston during the passage of extracting liquid after piercing the bottom by the barbs of the piston. The injected plastic material cap has a bottom (1) and a side wall (3) s "generally part of a truncated cone and a rim (4) covered by a lid (5) after loading of the substance in the capsule. The side wall (2) is formed of a single truncated cone between the flange (3) and the base (1) open (12) formed from a flattened ring (11) connected to the side wall (2) . The side wall (2) is covered with a label (23) and the open bottom (1) including its ring (11) is covered with a waterproof seal (14) inside the bottom.


In this paper we present a new vibrato and tremolo suppression technique for onset detection. It weights the differences of the magnitude spectrogram used for the calculation of the spectral flux onset detection function on the basis of the local group delay information. With this weighting technique applied, the onset detection function is able to reliably distinguish between genuine onsets and spectral energy peaks originating from vibrato or tremolo present in the signal and lowers the number of false positive detections considerably. Especially in cases of music with numerous vibratos and tremolos (e.g. opera singing or string performances) the number of false positive detections can be reduced by up to 50% without missing any additional events. Performance is evaluated and compared to current state-of-the-art algorithms using three different datasets comprising mixed audio material (25,927 onsets), violin recordings (7,677 onsets) and solo voice recordings of operas (1,448 onsets).


Applying quality cost techniques within an organization can be very difficult, and problems may arise at any stage from planning the programme through to corrective action. Seeks to illustrate the difficulties experienced with quality costs by two quality assurance managers working in very different total quality management (TQM) environments: Company A manufactures and assembles computers and is working at the forefront of advanced technologies, while Company B produces products used in the steel industry and is more representative of "traditional" industries. This part of the study was carried out between May and July 1993 and resulted in interviews with the quality managers to determine key problem areas. Broadly speaking, the difficulties identified can be categorized as: management, the quality assurance/accountancy interface, communications, internal systems, and people.


An experimental investigation, as part of a research program on the development of technology for the design of supersonic combustion ramjets, has been conducted to determine the effect of injection angle on the jet penetration, mixing rate, and airstream total-pressure recovery downstream of five laterally spaced sonic hydrogen jets flush mounted on a flat plate. Results of this investigation indicated that at lower injection angles less free-stream momentum loss was required to turn and accelerate the injected gas downstream and, thereby, less flow disturbance and total-pressure loss were produced. In addition, lower injection angles resulted in improved fuel distribution and faster mixing of the injected gas with the free stream. A correlating parameter, developed from considerations of the effective-momentum-flux differences between the injected gas and the free-stream air, predicted greater penetration and faster mixing for the lower injection angles.


The invention provides a method for improving mercury removal efficiency of a flue gas desulphurization system. According to method, a desulphurization and mercury-removing additive composed of, by mass, 30 to 40% of sodium formate and 60 to 70% of calcium hypochlorite is added into desulphurization absorption slurry. The method comprises the following steps: preparing a desulphurization and mercury-removing additive uniform liquid with a concentration of 20 to 30% from sodium formate and calcium hypochlorite in a ground pit or filtrate pit of a flue gas desulfurization tower; pumping the uniform liquid into the desulfurization tower by using a ground pit pump or filtrate pump; and increasing air quantity of an oxidation fan so as to improve oxidation effect. According to method, the desulphurization and mercury-removing additive is applied to flue gas desulphurization, and the additive can effectively accelerate desulphurization reaction speed, reduce limestone content in gypsum, promote oxidation of elemental mercury in flue gas into oxidized mercury, inhibit reduction of oxidized mercury in the slurry and improve efficiency of the desulphurization system in removing sulfur dioxide and mercury in flue gas.


South Africa focuses on service delivery at primary health care (PHC) clinics. A 'servant leader' could guide student nurses towards service delivery at PHC clinics. The purpose of this study was to describe the role of nurse managers acting as servant leaders of student nurses at some PHC clinics in the Johannesburg, South Africa, area. A quantitative, exploratory and descriptive design was followed. The accessible population comprised 302 third- and fourth-year diploma and degree student nurses enrolled at a university in Johannesburg and its affiliated nursing college who were allocated to PHC clinics for learning experience. A survey was conducted by means of a structured questionnaire which was returned by 288 (95%) respondents. The findings indicated that student nurses perceived shortcomings in the nurse managers as 'servant leaders' regarding empowerment, compassion and role modelling. Nurse managers should be briefed with regard to empowering student nurses, showing compassion and role modelling during interaction with them as well as building relationships of trust between them and the student nurses.


Accumulation of heavy metals, namely Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn, was estimated in some of the important herbal drugs of India, viz., Alpinia galanga, Artemisia parviflora, Butea monosperma, Coleus forskohlii, Curcuma amada, Euphorbia prostrata, Leucas aspera, Malaxis acuminata and Pueraria tuberosa. A total of 34 samples, genuine as well as market samples of aforesaid plant species, were procured for estimation of heavy metals. The concentration of Pb and Cd was found beyond the WHO permissible limits in most of the samples studied. It is also notable that difference in heavy metal concentration in a particular plant species collected from different regions is related to the site from where the samples were collected. For example, Junagadh sample of Artemisia parviflora leaves accumulated more Pb and Zn as compared to the Tarikhet sample. This may be due to higher industrial activity at Junagadh district of Gujrat State. Similarly, Lucknow samples of Alpinia galanga and Curcuma amada showed maximum concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cu and Zn, as compared to the other regional samples of the same species, and the air pollution due to automobiles is quite high in this city.


This paper describes the fabrication of a modular wireless IMU sensor network suit with a distributed vibrotactile motor for body postural measurements with feedback. Each sensor measures the absolute orientations then transmits them into one portable hub. The module can be connected with up to four vibration motors to provide feedback to the user. Each vibration motor is hosted by a block sliding through the elastic strap used for attaching the module. The vibration motors on the strap can be positioned to different sides of the body to indicate movement directions. The suit is used to train and evaluate various static and dynamic tasks. The distribution of vibrotactile feedback targets particular features of movement in real-time such as amplitude and velocity. Preliminary experiments show the ability to identify normal walking and limping based on metrics such as the trajectory of the center of mass, the energy of left and right legs, and the calf and thigh angles to the vertical. Online identification of gait is the primary key to trigger a wearable assistive device.


We explore the S-wave and P-wave amplitudes for NNK and ΛΛK interactions using chiral perturbation theory to O(m s log m s). In contrast to the large corrections found in P-wave amplitudes in the nonleptonic decay of octet baryons, the NNK amplitudes receive only small corrections to their tree-level values. The uncertainty in the ΛΛK amplitudes is found to be large.


This multi-method study contributes to the emerging literature on FinTech revolution in Information Systems by examining role of institutions in diffusion of digital currencies and cryptocurrencies using institutional trust as a theoretical lens. Using demonetization in India as our empirical setting, first we use qualitative data and find that the policy shock (demonetization) implemented in 2016 by the government created a trust ambivalence in institutional environment – currency system and fiat currency. Then, we hypothesize and demonstrate empirically, with a regression discontinuity design, that trust ambivalence provides growth opportunities for business organizations at arm's length from government private banks and cryptocurrency organizations by acting as alternative trustees to the government. Fundamentally, we demonstrate that trust in money need not be institutional only but can be substituted for by trust in digital instantiations of money (i.e., digital currencies and cryptocurrencies) and hence the business organizations can leverage the institutional trust ambivalence to their favor. Our study contributes to the interdisciplinary literature on trust and as well as emerging literature on FinTech and cryptocurrency in Information Systems.


Leishmania are intracellular protozoa that influence host immune responses eliciting parasite species‐specific pathologies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short single‐stranded ribonucleic acids that complement gene transcripts to block protein translation and have been shown to regulate immune system molecular mechanisms. Human monocyte‐derived dendritic cells (DC) and macrophages (MP) were infected in vitro with Leishmania major or Leishmania donovani parasites. Small RNAs were isolated from total RNA and sequenced to identify mature miRNAs associated with leishmanial infections. Normalized sequence read count profiles revealed a global downregulation in miRNA expression among host cells following infection. Most identified miRNAs were expressed at higher levels in L. donovani‐infected cells relative to L. major‐infected cells. Pathway enrichments using in silico‐predicted gene targets of differentially expressed miRNAs showed evidence of potentially universal MAP kinase signalling pathway effects. Whereas JAK‐STAT and TGF‐β signalling pathways were more highly enriched using targets of miRNAs upregulated in L. donovani‐infected cells, these data provide evidence in support of a selective influence on host cell miRNA expression and regulation in response to differential Leishmania infections.


Adult bluespotted rockcod Cephalopholis cyanostigma, a coral-reef grouper, were acclimated to either ambient (mean ± s.d. 406 ± 21 μatm; 1 atmos = 101325 Pa) or high pCO2 (945 ± 116 μatm) conditions in a laboratory for 8-9 days, then released at the water surface directly above a reef (depth c. 5 m) and followed on video camera (for 191 ± 21 s) by scuba divers until they sought cover in the reef. No differences were detected between groups in any of the six measured variables, which included the time fish spent immobile after release, tail beat frequency during swimming and the time required to locate and enter the protective shelter of the reef.


Recent years with the rapid development of the internet, the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) has been highly regarded.This paper introduces the nature, characteristic and the domestic and oversea educational practice of the MOOC. This paper focuses on the educational practice of the MOOC in the teaching of medical imaging and the value of the MOOC about cultivating the positivity , imaging diagnostic idea, innovation and teamwork spirit of the students.The future directions for the MOOC model in the teaching of medical imaging are analyzed in the paper.These practical experiences can be useful to the teaching reform of medical imaging.

Key words:
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC); Medical imaging; Teaching model


Wireless sensor nodes require very tight power budgets to operate from either a small battery, some energy harvesting mechanism or both. In many cases, thermal or electrochemical harvesting devices provide very low voltages of the order of 100 mV or even lower. Time-keeping functionality is required in IoT systems and the time-keeping module must be on at all times. Crystal oscillators have proven to be useful for low power time-keeping applications, and in this context supply voltage lowering is a convenient strategy. Therefore, 32 kHz crystal oscillators operating with only 60 mV supply are presented. Two implementations based on a Schmitt trigger circuit for two different crystals were designed and experimentally characterized. These crystal oscillators are based on the application of a Schmitt trigger as an amplifier. Guidelines for designing this block to be the amplifier of a crystal oscillator are provided. Furthermore, a dynamic model of the Schmitt trigger is proposed and the model results are compared against simulations. The amplifiers were experimentally characterized, providing a gain of 2.48 V/V with a 60 mV power supply. As it was intended in the design stage, for voltages above 100 mV hysteresis appears and the Schmitt trigger starts operating as a comparator. The Schmitt triggers to operate as amplifiers of the crystal oscillators are designed in a 130 nm CMOS process, requiring an area of 45 μm x 74 μm and 78 μm x 83 μm, respectively. The power consumptions of the crystal oscillators are 2.26 nW and 15 nW and the temperature stabilities attained are 62 ppm (25-62°C) and 50 ppm (5-62°C), respectively. The dependence on the supply voltage of the current consumption, fractional frequency, start-up time and oscillation amplitude were measured. The Allan deviation is 30 ppb for both oscillators. On the other hand, an LC voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is designed in 28 nm FD-SOI for RF applications. The possibility of modeling the transistors in the 28 nm FD-SOI technology by means of the all inversion region long channel bulk transistor model used for the Schmitt trigger circuits, is studied. A crosscoupled nMOS architecture is used to build the VCO. The theoretical limit for the minimum supply voltage that enables oscillation is studied. The transistors were optimally sized to aim the minimum power consumption through a low-voltage approach and the performance of the VCO was obtained through simulations. This page is intentionally left blank. List of Abbreviations AC alternate current BLE Bluetooth low-energy CMOS complementary metal oxide semiconductor DC direct current FD-SOI fully depleted silicon on insulator IoT internet of things LC-VCO LC-tank voltage controlled oscillator LUT look up table MI moderate inversion MOSFET metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor nMOS n-type metal oxide semiconductor PCB printed circuit board PLL phase locked loop pMOS p-type metal oxide semiconductor RF radio frequency SI strong inversion SoC system on chip UTBB ultra thin body and buried oxide WI weak inversion WSN wireless sensor network This page is intentionally left blank.


[Objective]To explore the effects of Weifuchun on TNF-α-induced inflammatory and intestinal metaplasia of GES-1 cells and to discuss the possible mechanism of the treatment of chronic gastritis.[Methods] Human gastric epithelial GES-1 cells were cultivated.ELISA was applied to test the levels of IL-4 and IL-6 and RT-PCR to test the expression of MUC2 and SOX2 mRNA.[Results]Weifuchun increased the level of IL-4 and decreased that of IL-6 while it decreased the expression of MUC2 mRNA and increased that of SOX2 mRNA.The difference between the drug treatment group and model group was significant(P0.05).[Conclusion]Weifuchun could inhibit the process of inflammatory in GES-1 cells by increasing the level of IL-4 and decreasing that of IL-6.It could suppress the process of intestinal metaplasia by decreasing MUC2 expression and increasing SOX2 expression.The study provided new evidence for Weifuchun in preventing and treating chronic gastritis


The effect of chilled pork treated with or without preservation solution, irradiation dose(1,2 and 3kGy)on the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of vacuum-packaged chilled pork stored at (4±1℃)for 21days were studied, in order to determine the best method of irradiation to extend shelf life of chilled pork. The result show: The chilled pork color is stable in the storage-life when the X-ray was 2kGy. The best method that can extremely extend shelf life of chilled pork is that the sample are treated with preservation solution, vacuum-package, 2.0kGy irradiation and refrigeration.


It is a big challenge for companies to recruit the best talent for the position of internal auditor. This challenge is increasing with the presence of various kinds of negative perceptions (stereotypes) regarding this profession. Using an experimental approach, this study examines the effect of job label, the primary role of internal auditors and career prospect toward the willingness of job applicants to apply the internal auditor position. Two experiments were conducted to answer the research questions with the design of each 1x2 and 2x2 between-subjects. The results of the study indicated that the willingness of job applicants was higher if the job was labeled with an accountant than labeled as internal auditor. These findings indicated that not only candidates with work experience were reluctant to apply for the position of internal auditors, but also from fresh graduates applicants. The applicant's willingness is higher if the primary role of internal audit department is more directed as a provider of consulting services than its conventional role as an assurance function. The applicant's willingness is higher when the accomplished staff will be promoted to a higher position outside the internal audit department than to be one of the leaders within the internal audit department. These findings suggest that organizations should design internal audit departments more precisely to support effective organization governance.


The notices of new publications in magazines and newspapers were part of the marketing policy of publishers. The wording and format of these advertising columns in the, mainly London, newspapers reveal much about the sophisticated manner in which the editors communicated their purpose in marketing newly published books. Besides the reviews, it is here, in these brief notices and advertisements, that we can map out barely noticeable shifts in the early reception of Sterne's fiction and his sermons (see Brandtzæg et al., "Advertising" 28). Digital archives such as ECCO, the Burney Collection, and British Periodicals are of great help today.


As a sensor, millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar can realize the function of touchless gesture control, and it has become a hot research spot in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). This paper proposes a robust mmWave gesture recog-nition method, which can recognize gestures end-to-end with high accuracy in a complex environment. It is worth mentioning that the Angle-Range joint temporal (ART) feature is extracted from radar echoes to describe gestures, which is a 3D matrix feature including azimuth, distance and speed in-formation. Then, the CNN-LSTM network is used to real-ize gesture classification. The experimental results show that this method has an accuracy of 98.5% for the recognition of four gesture types. The robust performance of the proposed method is validated by data samples collected in complex en-vironment and random population, and the average recognition accuracy remains above 88.7%.


Abstract Considering the ever-increasing human need for energy resources and on the other hand, the reduction of fossil fuel resources, the use of renewable energy has become one of the attractive topics of researchers. One of the available and ambient sources in nature is mechanical energy in nature, such as the energy of body movements, wind energy, energy in sea waves, etc. One of the methods of converting and extracting energy from the mentioned forms is the use of triboelectric nano generators. Triboelectric nanogenerators have various structures. In the current research, the contact mode and two electrodes of triboelectric nanogenerators have been discussed and also the relationships governing the nano generator have been calculated. By comparing the response of the nano generator in ideal and non-ideal state, it can be understood that considering the effects of edge capacitors will be effective on the final response of the nano generator. Finally, the effect of various parameters on the performance of the triboelectric nano generator has also been investigated.


The Constrained Total least Squares (CTLS) method is a generalized least squares technique used to solve an overdetermined set of linear equations whose coefficients are noisy. The CTLS method is a natural extension of the Total Least Squares method to the case where the noise components of the coefficients are algebraically related. This paper presents a number of analytical properties of the CTLS method and solution, and sets forth their application to harmonic superresolution. the CTLS solution as formulated is derived as a constrained minimization problem. It is shown that the CTLS problem can be reduced to an unconstrained minimization problem over a smaller set of variables. A perturbation analysis of the CTLS solution valid for small noise levels, is derived, and from it the root mean square error of the CTLS solution is obtained in closed form. It is shown that the CTLS problem is equivalent to a constrained parameter maximum-likelihood problem. A complex version of the Newton method for finding the minimum of a real function of several complex variables is derived and applied to find the CTLS solution. Finally, the CTLS technique is applied to frequency estimation of sinusoids and direction of arrival estimation of wavefronts impinging on a linear uniform array. Simulation results show that the CTLS method is more accurate than the Modified Forward Backward Linear Prediction technique of Tufts and Kumaresan. Also, the CTLS, MUSIC, and ROOT-MUSIC techniques are compared for angle-of-arrival estimation.


: Craft is a field of art that is very open with various meanings, according to the purpose of its creation, the raw materials used, the work process


NEWMAN, DOROTHY NICOLE. Assessing the impact of sentencing guidelines in adolescent criminal recidivism. (Under the direction of Dr. Nichole L. Huff) Criminal recidivism in adolescents and young adults is of growing concern, as approximately 75% of juvenile offenders reoffend within five years. Extant research correlates specific variables such as race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, mental health, and traumatic experiences with criminal behavior, however a paucity of research exists that examines the relationship between sentencing guidelines and recidivism rates. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of sentencing guidelines (i.e., dismissal, community service, probation, incarceration) on recidivism rates in juvenile offenders. Juvenile arrest records from 2012 (N = 283) were examined to determine if any repeat offenses were documented since the original sentencing. Findings suggest adolescent and young adult offenders who were sentenced to community service, probation, or incarceration after their first offense were less likely to reoffend than those whose charges were dismissed. Gender, age, and crime type were also significant predictors of recidivism. Implications of both punitive and restorative sentencing guidelines are discussed.


The longest wavelength (~1.4 μm) emitted by a diamond Raman laser pumped by a semiconductor disk laser (SDL) is reported. The output power of the intracavity-pumped Raman laser reached a maximum of 2.3 W with an optical conversion efficiency of 3.4% with respect to the absorbed diode pump power. Narrow Stokes emission (FWHM <0.1 nm) was attained using etalons to limit the fundamental spectrum to a single etalon peak. Tuning of the Raman laser over >40 nm was achieved via rotation of an intracavity birefringent filter that tuned the SDL oscillation wavelength. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation,


Four two-error linear regression treatments have been reported in the literature for use in Rb-Sr geochronology. We have made a general comparison of these treatments and have examined some of the assumptions and concepts implied in their use. For certain cases we show that analytical errors involved in Rb-Sr measurement are normally distributed and uncorrelated and may thus be regressed with any of the four published treatments. Furthermore, by the use of simulated test data, we show that all treatments provide essentially identical regression parameters (slope, intercept, and associated error estimates), provided that the observed scatter can be accounted for solely in terms of the experimental error. Such data are said to define an isochron. Data that possess scatter in excess of experimental error (i.e., geological error) are said to define an errorchron, and for such data the existing treatments may not furnish reliable regression parameters. One of the most important provisions of several of the treatments is a statistical index for distinguishing between isochrons and errorchrons. Use of this index requires an allowance for small-sample statistics based both on the number of samples regressed and on the number of replicates used in calculating the experimental error. As the value chosen for the experimental error also directly affects the final isochron error estimate, a Student's t multiplier (derived from the number of replicates used in calculating the experimental errors) should be applied to the final isochron error estimates.


Plants produce silica in large quantities, up to 2-10% per dry weight, depending on growth conditions and plant species. The roots absorb monosilicic acid from the soil, and it is transported with water and distributed in nearly all plant tissues. With evapotranspiration, the silicic acid solution is concentrated, and eventually silica forms at leaf epidermis. Nonetheless, the distribution of silica deposits is not uniform within plant tissues. This suggests that there are biological processes that control the deposition of the mineral. In a recent work, the protein Siliplant1 (Slp1) was discovered to precipitate silica in plants. Slp1 is expressed in sorghum leaf epidermal cells called silica cells. Biological molecules active in silica formation typically present positive charge moieties and form some 3D aggregation pattern that allows monosilicic acid to condense into bigger organized structures. Slp1 contains a 24 amino acid N-terminal signal peptide, followed by 124 amino acid linking sequence and a 7-repeat sequence. Slp1 without the signal peptide and a short, conserved peptide appearing five times in Slp1 precipitate silica in vitro. However, the activity of other parts of Slp1 in silica precipitation remains unknown. To analyze sequence motifs that precipitate silica, we synthesized segments of the repeating sequence in Slp1, and characterized the precipitation reactions by yield and spectroscopy. Thermal gravimetric and electron microscopy analyses are planned. Preliminary results show that the most conserved region in the repeating sequence precipitates silica at a concentration range of 1-1.5 mg/mL in a 100 mM silicic acid solution. Under buffered conditions, this peptide is positively charged, precipitating silica at pH between 6 and 7. In contrast, silica-gel formed at pH 8 or 5 after overnight incubation. In comparison, the full length Slp1 (missing the signal peptide) precipitates silica at an estimated concentration of 2.9 mg/mL and pH 6-8. Peptides flanking the conserved sequence did not precipitate silica. Precipitation reactions with combinations of peptides precipitated silica only when the conserved peptide was mixed with the peptide following it at a 1:1 ratio. This part of Slp1 presents –OH moieties that may interact with silica. The reaction produced silica gel as well as silica. When the conserved region was mixed with a preceding peptide, only silica-gel formed. This region presents acidic groups that may block the positive charge on the conserved region. We conclude that the conserved peptide is the only part of the Slp1 repeating region that actively precipitates silica. The peptides flanking the conserved region are not directly involved in silica precipitation. However, they may allow silica precipitation at increased pH, as seen in the full length Slp1. Further investigation is planned to understand their roles in silica formation.


Numerous radiobiologic experiments have documented the validity of the original observations (1, 2) that the state of oxygenation at the time of irradiation markedly influences radiation response. Clinical attempts to exploit this so-called "oxygen effect" have taken a number of forms. These include efforts at increasing tumor oxygenation by respiration of oxygen under hyperbaric (3) as well as ambient conditions (4, 5). A similar objective was approached by the intra-arterial infusion of hydrogen peroxide (6). Conversely, the reduction of normal tissue toxicity by production of ischemia was the design of tourniquet application proximal to the irradiation site for soft-tissue sarcomas and bone neoplasms in the extremities (7, 8). The present study is an attempt to attenuate the radiosensitivity of the normal kidney by creating hypoxia during irradiation with the intra-arterial infusion of a vasoconstrictor agent. Preclinical experiments in dogs, previously reported in part (9), have demonstrated a signifi...


Acrylic acid was graft copolymerized onto polyvinyl chloride (PVC) multifilament yarn using Co60 γ-ray irradiation and some properties of the fibers grafted and aftertreated were examined. The results are summarized as follows:(1) Tensile properties of fibers such as dry and wet tenacity and elongation are almost unchanged by the grafting or aftertreatment.(2) Heat shrinkage of the PVC fibers is decreased by acrylic acid grafting. The original PVC fiber shows the heat shrinkage up to about 60% of it's original length, while that of the 60.5% grafted PVC fiber is below 10%.(3) The effects of the aftertreatments of the grafted fibers on the heat shrinkage are remarkable. For instances, about 25% grafted PVC fiber aftertreated with Ca(CH3COO)2 or APO shows heat shrinkage of only 10% or below under 300°C.(4) No improvement is resulted in tensile properties of the grafted and aftertreated PVC fibers at higher temperature in spite of their excellent heat stability.


The land reclamation policies in Inner Mongolia began at the late Qing Dynasty, ended in the late 20 th century. It was a century from the restrictive reclamation to comprehensive reclamation. The various policies of reclamation carried out by government which had a profound impact on farming and animal husbandry and ecological environment of Inner Mongolia.


: Climate change is happening. Due to a spectrum of possible conse- quences, numerous studies examine the effects of global warming on species distribution. This study examines the effects of changing climate on distribution of selected strictly protected species of hoverflies in Serbia, by using species distribution modelling. Ten species were included in the analysis. Three species were predicted to lose a part of their range across time, while for seven species the range expansion was predicted. Both in the present time and in the future, mountainous regions have the highest species richness, such as Golija, Kopaonik, and Prokletije in the western Serbia, and mountains Stara Planina, Besna Kobi-la, Suva Planina, and Dukat in the southeastern part of the country. However, beside climate change, there are several other factors that might influence the distribution of strictly protected hoverflies in Serbia, such as intensive land use and degradation of habitats. Addition- ally, global warming also affects flowering plants that syrphids are dependent on, which could present another obstacle to their future range expansions. These results can contribute to planning future steps for the conservation of strictly protected hoverfly species.


In this paper we study twisted conjugacy classes and the $R_{\infty}$-property for classical linear groups. In particular, we prove that the general linear group ${\rm GL}_n(K)$ and the special linear group ${\rm SL}_n(K)$ possess $R_{\infty}$-property, if $n\geq3$ and $K$ is an infinite integral domain with trivial group of automorphisms (Theorem 1), or $K$ is an integral domain, which has a zero characteristic and for which ${\rm Aut}(K)$ is torsion (Theorem 2).


This study was based on the theoretical investigations, case studies and interviews by several ship company`s staffs. This study has worked with two purposes; first, to suggest the directions of cruise development, second, to present cruise market enlargement strategies in Korea. The one is as follows; it is desired that cruise ship is developed by used vessel or charter ship or consortium. And the popularity of cruising is expected to fuel the rate of private and government investment in port infrastructure, new ship, destinations, itineraries, and tourism-related services. The other is as follows; The keys to cruise market enlargement are needed a variety of cruise course and by differentiating the product on the basis of image, physical attributes of the product, service level, or location, cruise lines can gain a competitive advantage. In order to obtain service excellence cruise lines are scrupulous about the training of one`s personnel. Being a major source of tourist information and a vital channel of distribution for cruise, it is imperative that cruise operators work closely with travel agents to promote and sell cruises. The marketing and promotion of cruise will require the cooperation of both the private and public sector to increase the demand for cruise travel. Also pricing of cruise needs to control customer demand through price policy and differentiations of price in high -season and shoulder- season.


Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical sensors (OS) based velocity measurement or ground moving target indication (GMTI) complement its capability. But the different techniques can be used also for the comparison and validation of the measurements and data acquisition. In the frame of the project VABENE video sequences were taken from some
motorways in Germany/Bavaria and at the same time SAR data acquisition form the same area was carried out. The paper is focused only on the methodical level of the validation of SAR/GMTI and optical video data and discusses, how the velocity of vehicles can be estimated using optical flow with parallelization from video sequences. Further an
approach for comparison the video frames with the SAR measurements with respect to GMTI will be proposed.


If regions of localized strong fields at plasma-vacuum interfaces are probed longitudinally with laser accelerated proton beams their velocity distribution changes sensitively and very fast. Its measured variations provide indirectly a higher temporal resolution as deduced from deflection geometries which rely on the explicit temporal resolution of the proton beam at the position of the object to probe. With help of reasonable models and comparative measurements changes of proton velocity can trace the field dynamics even at femtosecond time scale. In longitudinal probing, the very low longitudinal emittance together with a broad band kinetic energy distribution of laser accelerated protons is the essential prerequisite of the method. With a combination of energy and one-dimensional spatial resolution, we resolve fast field changes down to 100 fs. The used pump probe setup extends previous schemes and allows discriminating simultaneously between electric and magnetic fields in their temporal evolution.


The Astrakhan arch corresponds with a large projection of the basement in the southwest part of the Peri-Caspian depression. The surface of the crystalline basement (V = 6.9 kmps) in its central part is at depths of 9-12 km, and toward the northwest it subsides to 15-18 km in the Sarpin downwarp (Fig. 2). Velocities here suggest that the crust here is basaltic. The Astrakhan arch is mapped with confidence on reflecting horizon 1P, which is an erosion surface on the Bashkirian limestones (Fig. 1). The dimensions of the arch are 180 by 200 km, and amplitude reaches 3 km. The sub-salt Paleozoic sediments consist of thin (50-175 m) cherty-clayey-carbonate bituminous deposits of the Lower Permian Artinsk stage and underlying limestones of the Bashkir-Vizean. Below this are carbonate sediments of the Lower Carboniferous-Upper Devonian and clastic deposits of the Upper and Middle Devonian. Deep faults in the basement and platform cover separate the Astrakhan arch on the northwest from the Sarpin downwarp and other subsided parts of the Peri-Caspian depression. The south flank of the arch has a complicated structure. The carbonate complex of the Middle-Lower Carboniferous subsides along a system faults toward the Krasnokhuduk area A structure present here, the Krasno-khuduk It is commonly held that a foreland downwarp formed in the zone of junction of the Russian platform and the Donets fold system the time of transition from the geosynclinal regime to the platform regime. Carboniferous platform sediments were the pre-orogenic stage; Lower Permian molasse were the orogenic stage; and the Meso-Cenozoic


Functional Preliminaries: QFT - Why and How Functional Field Theory Generating Functional and the S-Matrix Schwinger - Fradkin Representations Perturbative Radiative Corrections to the Photon Propagator Finite, Non-perturbative Charge Renormalization Radiative Corrections to the Fermion Propagator Ideal and Realistic QCD A New, Analytic, Non-perturbative, Gauge-invariant Formulation Effective Locality Analytic Quark Binding Analytic Nucleon Binding New QED Symmetry-Breaking Model of Vacuum Energy, with application to Inflation and Dark Energy Astrophysical Implications of Tachyon Pairs in the Quantum Vacuum: Supernova and the Schwinger Mechanism Dark Matter Gamma-Ray Bursts Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Rays Loop Annihilation and Fermi Bubbles Final Speculations.


A hybrid treatment for wide‐angle paraxial propagation that includes effects of both sediment dispersion and weak nonlinearity has been developed. A Fourier transform approach is used to combine effects of refraction, diffraction, and sediment dispersion in the frequency domain, and nonlinear effects in the time domain. A nonlinear wide‐angle time‐domain equation developed recently is first split into linear and nonlinear component equations. The linear equation is decomposed into its discrete frequency‐domain counterparts. Sediment attenuation and dispersion are incorporated using a complex wave number along with a frequency‐dependent formula for phase velocity to satisfy causality. The numerical implementation consists of first decomposing a broadband source into its frequency components and propagating them over a range step using a wide‐angle PE. Fourier synthesis is used to reconstruct the signal, which is then corrected to account for nonlinear effects in the time domain. Numerical examples illustra...


The invention provides an apparatus for estimating fuel-cell hydrogen concentration and a fuel cell system which exploit the correlation between impedance semicircles and hydrogen concentrations to estimate fuel-cell hydrogen concentration. A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell 2, an impedance measuring instrument 3, and a control device 5. The control device 5 is connected to the impedance measuring instrument 3. The impedance measuring instrument 3 measures the impedance of the fuel cell 2 according to the AC impedance method. The control device 5 stores in advance a reference value corresponding to a reference hydrogen concentration. The control device 5 compares the real part Z' of impedance acquired via the impedance measuring instrument 3 against the reference value. When Z' is equal to or greater than the reference value, the control device 5 estimates the hydrogen concentration of the fuel cell 2 to be equal to or less than the reference hydrogen concentration.


Oligonucleotide Microarrays have become powerful tools in Genetic Research, as they serve as parallel scanning mechanisms to detect the presence of genes using test probes composed of controlled segments of gene code built by masking techniques. The detection of each gene depends on the multichannel differential expression of perfectly matched segments against mismatched ones. This methodology, devised to robustify the detection process posses some interesting problems under the point of view of Genomic Signal Processing, as test probes express themselves in rather different patterns, not showing proportional expression levels for most of the segment pairs, as it would be expected. These cases may be influenced by unexpected hybridization dynamics, and are worth of being studied with a double objective: gain insight into hybridization dynamics in microarrays, and to improve microarray production and processing as well. Two methods are proposed in this paper: modelling the dynamics of expression dynamics and isolating gene expressions showing unexpected behaviour to proceed in their further classification and study.


The current criminal law of our country only stipulates that the natural person can constitute the crime of misappropriating public funds,but it has paid no attention adequately to unit's misappropriating public funds.Conviction of unit's misappropriating public funds has its rationality from the perspectives of its social harmfulness,the existing legal sanction,the criminal policy and the restraining criminal law.Therefore,it is suggested that such conduct be regulated by criminal law.


SUMMARY. — The DART community ensemble data assimilation facility provides students, educators, and scientists with unprecedented access to free, state-of-the-art assimilation tools. DART's compre-hensive tutorial, low-order models, and examples can introduce students to ensemble data assimilation on their laptops. The same tools can produce analyses using 10-million-variable climate system models, novel remote sensing observations, and the newest supercomputers. This enables students to advance quickly from basic understanding to meaningful research projects. DART can also accelerate scientific progress by modelers and observational research-ers who do not have resources to develop their own assimilation systems.Future DART releases will include enhanced par-allel methods that scale for thousands of processors, novel algorithms to deal with nonlinearity and non-Gaussianity in ensembles, and carefully docu-mented MATLAB versions of the core DART algo-rithms for students. DART users are also contributing new models, observation types, and algorithms. By providing a nexus for a growing community of data assimilation users and experts, DART can provide an increasingly powerful and flexible set of tools for ensemble data assimilation.


The residue generated by the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens, BSF) during the processing of organic waste is considered a suitable crop fertilizer. However, no detailed studies have investigated the fertilizer value of the residue obtained from processing household organic waste. In this study, experimental household organic waste (EHOW) was processed by BSF at 200 mg of EHOW per head for 15 days at 27 °C. To evaluate the fertilizer value of the obtained BSF larvae production residue (BSFR), the chemical composition and microbiota were analyzed, and Komatsuna (Brassica rapa var. perviridis) cultivation tests were conducted. BSFR results demonstrated higher ammonium nitrogen and lower nitrate nitrogen, and the highest above-ground dry matter weight of Komatsuna. Although the relative abundance of Escherichia was low, the relative abundance of Xanthomonadaceae, which contains a genus that causes disease in plants, was high. Therefore, the presence of plant pathogens in the BSFR microbiota should be considered. Finally, the effects of BSFR on the external environment requires more detailed investigation.


In most Chinese primary school classes, teacher-centered and, teacher-dominated teaching still dominates. For moststudents, classrooms are still the most important places for input. Thus, in language learning, it is important to study teacher talk.The paper makes a study on teacher feedback in teacher talk, especially positive feedback in primary schools through question-naires and recording. The study shows that in primary school English classes, teachers' positive feedback exceeds negative feed-back, and both feedbacks appear in a mixed form. The study also shows that teachers can mostly realize the importance of theirfeedback in students' English learning and try to use it intentionally, but there exist differences in how to use it effectively andreasonably. At last the paper tries to provide some suggestions.


Assessing the value of investments in network security operations remains a challenging problem. We suggest that an essential component of an analysis of this problem must be an account of the structure of the system/network and the services it is intended to deliver. We apply the methods of classical applied mathematics — using tools drawn from algebra, logic, probability theory, and theoretical computer science — to represent systems, services, and information flows in order to assess the value of network and security operations deployed in response to environmental threats and the requirements of business alignment. We use Monte Carlo experimentation to explore the levels of investment in, and trade-offs between, operations staff and security control devices necessary to maintain network availability of value determined by a given Service Level Agreement. We conclude that our methods deliver useful analyses and identify necessary future work required properly to integrate models of spatially distributed networks, stochastic environmental behaviour, and system value.


Sensitivity studies the network response to perturbations. We consider local perturbations of the concentrations of metabolites at an equilibrium. We investigate the responses in the network, both of the metabolite concentrations and of the reaction fluxes. Our approach is purely qualitative, rather than quantitative. In fact, our analysis is based, solely, on the stoichiometry of the reaction network and we do not require any quantitative information on the reaction rates. Instead, the description is done only in algebraic terms, and the only data required is the network structure. Biological applications include metabolic control and network reconstruction.


It is my purpose in this paper to consider how development was thought about and imagined on the Balkans from the middle of the nineteenth century to World war II.(1) I am particularly interested in modernizing ideologies, i.e., such that viewed modernization in a certain formulation as highly desirable and strove to bring it about or to accelerate it. I am especially interested in the competition between alternative views on modernization, differing in the general direction or emphasis or in the view on the pace of development (rapid change versus continuity). Lastly, I am interested in altogether negative reactions (of rejection) towards modernization. I will consider the modernization "projects" (or visions) of nationalism (with its subsequent national-statist development), of liberalism, socialism, agrarianism and some negative responses of a more literary character (of romantic poets, Slavophiles, populists, of what can be termed "autochtonism" and of fascism). While not every intellectual current had a fully elaborated view on modernization, all took part in the debate on the vital issue of development and had something distinctive to say about it. It was the contact with (Western) Europe, experienced as more advanced and superior, that posed the problem of development ("progress," modernization) to the Balkan peoples under the reign of two empires (the Ottoman and the Habsburg). The impact of the Enlightenment (and of the French revolution) was first felt among the Greeks, the Rumanians and the Serbs under Habsburg rule because of more favorable geographic location, trade relations (the Greek trade colonies acting as outposts in the West) and closer cultural and educational ties with the West. The merchant Diaspora of the Balkan peoples played an outstanding role as a mediator.(2) The influence of the Enlightenment in the stricter sense was confined to intellectual circles among the Greeks and the peoples under Habsburg domination and to single intellectuals of the peoples under Ottoman domination. But it exerted a more diffuse influence and precipitated a sort of popular self-education movement among the Bulgarians and the Serbs under Ottoman domination, in Bosnia and Macedonia.(3) Due to the European influence the Balkan peoples increasingly turned away from Eastern orthodoxy with its restricted religious education and were introduced to a new age of secularism and nationalism. Consonant with the Enlightenment belief in the advance of Reason was the idea of a unitary, goal-oriented change, conducting from a more primitive to a more "advanced" state of the society. For the elites of the Balkan peoples, deeply impressed with the achievements of Western Europe, she was a naturally given paragon of "progress." One can find in the writings of the time the metaphoric vision of a single path of "progress" with all nations marching along it and finding themselves at different points, the (West) European nations at the head of this march.(4) Especially at the early stage, modernization was equated to "Europeanization" and sometimes defined more generally as "civilization." At a most general level "progress" meant "reason," "knowledge," "education," "science." The Balkan observers saw its particular manifestations in the advance of technology, the growth of industry and commerce, of material well-being but also in the establishment of political democracy, citizen rights and freedoms.(5) One may speak about a proto-project of modernization in the Balkans under diffuse Enlightenment influences, with knowledge and education as leading ideas. Under conditions of foreign domination on the Balkans, the idea of development and progress became closely associated, and in fact inseparable, from the project of nationalism. Ottoman (Turkish, "Asian") backwardness, the presumable immutability and lack of potential for development of the empire were opposed to progress and development, which were associated in their turn with Europe; the contrast had strong emotional and moral overtones, with the Ottomans standing also for subjugation of peoples and despotic rule, superstition and religious fanaticism, the corruption of moeurs, etc. …


ABSTRACT Soil remediation is one of the most important issues in environmental engineering. In this study, the effect of phenanthrene, anthracene, and benz(a)anthracene chemical structures on their removal from different soil slurries were investigated. Also, the effects of initial pollution concentration, injected ozone, water content and processing time on soil remediation were examined by response surface methodology. In the optimized condition for the soil of industrial site, anthracene, phenanthrene, and benz(a)anthracene have 67.87%, 85.2%, and 45.9% removal efficiencies, respectively. Based on these results, better water solubility, and less fine-grained soil particles are contributors to more efficient soil remediation system by ozonation. Abbreviations: ANOVA: analysis of variance; RSM: response surface methodology; CCD: central composite design; PAHs: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; ANT: anthracene; PHE: phenanthrene; BaA: benz(a)anthracene; Vw: water volume; InjO3: injected ozone; T: time; CANT: initial anthracene concentration; CPHE: initial phenanthrene concentration; Wt: Weight percentage; PGSEZ: persian gulf special economic zone


Barthel Self-care Index scores were recorded at 6-month intervals for patients in a geriatric home care program by an occupational therapist in cooperation with an interdisciplinary health care team. Scores ranged from 10 to 100 with an overall mean score of 83.9. Lowest score for a patient living alone was 75 and that patient required extensive social services to remain in the community. The data suggest that the Barthel Index may be useful in helping to define the personal care needs of the frail community elderly and in identifying the need to consider institutional placement.


A main objective in code generation for ASIPs is to develop retargetable compilers in order to permit exploration of different architectural alternatives within short turnaround time. Retargetability requires that the compiler is supplied with a formal description of the target processor. This description is usually transformed into an internal instruction set model, on which the actual code generation operates. In this contribution we analyze the demands on instruction set models for retargetable code generation, and we present a formal instruction set model which meets these demands. Compared to previous work, it covers a broad range of instruction formats and includes a detailed view of inter-instruction restrictions.


Desmoplastic small round cell tumor is a rare malignant tumor that occurs primarily in young males. Here, a case of small round cell tumor in an adult male successfully treated with a curative concurrent chemoradiotherapy is presented. A 58-year-old man had an intrapelvic tumor. Surgical resection was attempted, but the tumor was unresectable. Needle biopsy was performed and the diagnosis was suggested to be desmoplastic small round cell tumor. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy was performed, and a complete response was obtained. This patient has been alive for 8 years after treatment with no evidence of disease. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy appears to be a useful treatment choice for unresectable desmoplastic small round cell tumor. Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2011; 9(3): 201205


Deep Learning has become a popular approach for unsupervised feature learning [3]. It is now used extensively for object, face and speech recognition, as well as other classification tasks [1, 4]. The success achieved by deep learning is said to be due to the fact that these models comprise several layers of representation, with each higher layer expected to learn increasingly complex features of the given data. One example of such models is the Deep Belief Network (DBN) [5], a generative probabilistic model having a Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) as fundamental building block. In particular, Convolutional Deep Belief Networks (cvDBN) have been very successful at audio classification tasks [2, 3]. In cvDBNs, the weights are shared between multiple units of each RBM [1, 2]. Convolutional approaches have been used for learning of invariant local features from high-dimensional data. Recently, cvDBNs have been shown capable of learning high-level features from audio spectrograms [3]. The cvDBNs map the input space to the space of latent variables by applying convolution of the audio spectrogram with the weight matrix. The convolutional networks in [3] use the entire spectrogram (following PCA whitening) as input to the RBM, thus requiring either the use of a fixed audio length or sampling that converts the timedomain signals into fixed-length spectrograms. Moreover, the length of the audio data is usually very large, which can make training [4, 5] computationally difficult in the case of big data applications. As pointed out in [3], it remains an interesting problem to apply deep learning to larger data sets and more challenging tasks. Further, we note that when applied to music genre classification, the first layer features performed the best overall [3] (using 300 nodes with a filter length of 10). 1


This study aims to investigate the preferences and needs of elementary school students, their parents and teachers for developing English Experience Center programs in elementary schools in Korea. In order to identify these preferences and needs, a questionnaire was administered to 2,353 students, 2,854 parents and 272 teachers and supervisors at 11 elementary schools and offices of education in 5 different areas. The results show that parents and teachers preferred having regular English classes in the English Expereice Center utilizing discretionary activity hours and extracurricular classes to after-school programs during the semester. As for the ideal length of the programs, the groups preferred long-term programs to short-term programs at the center. In terms of the type of English Experience Center program; all the groups preferred situation-based programs to task-based and content-based programs. Culture-based programs were mostly preferred, but content-based programs were the least preferred by all three groups. Based on the results of the present study, suggestions for the effective English Experience center programs and English immersion programs were made at the end of the paper.


IntroductionWhat is e-finance? The provision of financial services and markets using electronic communication and computation. The developments can be divided into two broad areas. The first is the impact on banking and financial services. They argue that the advent of the internet and other electronic communication means has fundamentally altered many aspects of the banking industry. Many of the services traditionally provided by banks are being provided by other entities.The financial services industry is undergoing dramatic changes caused by recent significant technological advances and the explosion of services offered on the Internet. The revolution underway can significantly accelerate financial sector development in many countries by reducing costs to consumers of financial services, increasing breadth and quality, and widening access to financial and non-financial services. Globalization, economic integration within and across countries, deregulation, technological advances in Telecommunications especially in cable and wireless communication technologies, and the spread of the Internet are dramatically changing the structure and nature of financial services provision and financial services industries around the world. Internet and other technologies are not just alternative distribution channels, but are fundamentally changing the business model. The Internet is about reach, richness and relationships. It allows people and businesses to communicate one to one or many to many, provides access to vast amounts of information gives access to global markets, and provides transaction support (B2B, B2C, and C2C). Financial institutions can have a much richer exchange with their customers and can create and tailor products and services that meet the evolving needs of their customers. At the same time, the Internet poses a threat: it allows new financial service providers to more effectively compete for customers because it does not distinguish between traditional "bricks and mortars" institutions and those without physical presence. Increasingly, consumers and businesses are comfortable with alternative payment mechanisms provided through the Internet. These forces are leading to large benefits for consumers of financial services at both the retail and commercial level. The advances in technology are resulting in fundamental changes in the basic structure of the financial services industry on a global basis. Technological advances are leading to the entry of new types of financial services providers within countries and across borders, including online banks, brokerages, mono-liners and so called aggregators (which allow consumers and businesses to compare financial services, e.g., loans, saving rates, insurance policies etc). In addition, there is a proliferation of new types of non-financial entities that are offering a whole range of financial services, many of them directly competing with banks and the formal financial intermediaries. Many of these companies are dedicated to the provision of one kind of service, while others are adding financial services to their traditional line of business. The latter include utilities and telecommunications companies that offer various forms of 2 payment or other services via use of their existing distribution network and customer relationships.Vertically integrated financial service organizations that try to create synergies by combining brand names, distribution networks and financial service production are rapidly growing.E-Finance in Global market placeFinancial institutions have traditionally relied on notions of trust and loyalty to keep their customer base. A number of e-finance initiates have been aimed mainly at the provision of online services to existing customers in an attempt to keep them loyal. However the convenience of online services can lure customers away from their banks, building societies and insurance companies. There are three ways that e-finance initiatives seem to have emerged. …


This chapter addresses a new type of digital signature scheme named as Proxy Blind Distributed Signature Scheme which is based on Discrete Log Problem (DLP). The need for Proxy Blind Distributed Digital Scheme arises whenever a person delegate his signing authority to the intended person, there is no guarantee that the proxy signer will be in the position to do the work (signing process). The proxy signing system may be engaged with some other work or the system may be corrupted due to some malicious programs at that time. In this case, if the system is modeled with proxy signature scheme, then the original signer cannot achieve his goal. Hence the signing delegation is distributed into a group of persons with a threshold version. This technique will overcome the problem of unavailability of the system in a proxy signature scheme. Furthermore, this distributed concept will increase the robustness of the signature scheme.


Objective To explore the change and its clinical significance of glycemic excursions in diabetic inpatients(DM) with acute myocardial infarction(AMI).Methods 30 DM patients with AMI (AMI group) and 30 DM patients with chronic coronary artery disease(CAD group) were enrolled with 30 health subjects matched for age,sex and HbA_1c levels.All participants' glycemic excursions were measured by a continuous glucose monitoring system for 72 hours.Results(1)The mean amplitude of glycemic excursions(MAGE),absolute means of daily differences,postprandial glucose excursion and mean level of 3 hours postprandial blood glucose were higher in AMI patients[(3.83±1.38),(2.62±1.08),(3.43±1.70),(10.49±2.44) mmol/L]than in CAD patients[(3.17±1.14),(2.00±0.90), (2.34±1.64),(8.95±2.45)mmol/L,all P0.05].The standard division of blood glucose seems to be more in AMI patients than in others[(2.53±1.02) vs(2.16±0.85) mmol/L,P=0.051].(2)Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that MAGE in the AMI group was an impact factor of GRACE risk score,which was independent of age and EF value.Conclusion DM patients with AMI have a series of increased fluctuation in intraday,day-to-day and postprandial blood glucose excursions as compared to DM patients with CAD.The MAGE may be useful for evaluating the prognosis of DM patients with AMI.


We give first examples of finitely generated groups having an intermediate, with values in $(0,1)$, Hilbert space compression (which is a numerical parameter measuring the distortion required to embed a metric space into Hilbert space). These groups include certain diagram groups. In particular, we show that the Hilbert space compression of Richard Thompson's group $F$ is equal to $1/2$, the Hilbert space compression of $\mathbb{Z}\wr\mathbb{Z}$ is between $1/2$ and $3/4$, and the Hilbert space compression of $\mathbb{Z}\wr(\mathbb{Z}\wr\mathbb{Z})$ is between 0 and $1/2$. In general, we find a relationship between the growth of $H$ and the Hilbert space compression of $\mathbb{Z}\wr H$.


The capacity for a complex inner lifeworld that encompasses ongoing streams of inner dialogue and reverie, as well as non-linguistic or image based forms of thought, is an essential component of being human and central to many everyday actions and practices. Simply put, without inner expression there would be no self-understanding or social existence in any recognisable form. Despite this, it is largely a terra incognita for anthropology or is seen as irrelevant or intangible, rather than an empirical phenomenon that is directly constitutive of people's lived experiences and actions and therefore worthy of investigation. As such anthropology is at risk of only telling half the story of human life. This presents a deep-seated problem for disciplines like anthropology that are based on empirical evidence insofar as it is primarily a methodological and practical problem rather than a conceptual one, especially with regard to how to research and represent the transient, stream-like and ever-changing character of people's interior expressions and experiences as they emerge in the moment. In response, this article attempts to offer an ethnographically grounded account of how people's lived experiences of the city are mediated by complex amalgams of inner expression, memory and imagination that largely remain beneath the surface of their public activities. The accompanying video and sound recordings derive from an experimental practice-based research project, New York Stories, for which I recorded more than a hundred interior dialogues of random strangers as they moved around the city. The reader is invited to download sounds clips onto their phone or MP3 player and walk around their own city with someone else's thoughts in their head.


Photograph of the demolition of terrace houses, Anderton Street, off Shakespeare Road, Ladywood and children playing. The photograph was taken in 1968.


For the past four years, four different cohorts of students from the Science and Technology program at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD have performed their senior research projects at the Howard University Beltsville Research Campus in Beltsville, MD. The projects have focused generally on the testing and correction of low-cost sensors and development of instrumentation for use in profiling the lower atmosphere. Specifically, we have developed a low-cost tethersonde system and used it to carry aloft a low-cost instrument that measures particulate matter (PM) as well as a standard radiosonde measuring temperature, pressure and relative humidity. The low-cost PM sensor was found to provide artificially high values of PM under conditions of elevated relative humidity likely due to the presence of hygroscopic aerosols. Reference measurements of PM were used to develop a correction technique for the low-cost PM sensor. Profiling measurements of temperature and PM during the breakdown of a nocturnal inversion were performed using the tethersonde system on August 30, 2019. The evolution of temperature during the breakdown of the inversion was studied and compared with model forecasts. The attempt to measure PM during the tethersonde experiment was not successful due, we believe, to the packaging of the low cost sensor. Future cohorts of students from Eleanor Roosevelt High School students will work on improving the instrumentation and measurements shown here as we continue the collaboration between the Howard University Beltsville Campus and the local school system.


In this paper the morphological structures of the pineal organ in Lampetra japonica, Carassius auratus, Rana nigromaculata, Erareias argus, Coluba livia domesticus and Ochotona curzoniae were observed and compared and the problem about thiers evolution was discussed. It is found that there are two kinds of pineal organs in vertebrates. One kind belongs to poikilothermic animals consisting of parapineal body and pineal body. The parapineal body is a typical photosensitive organ and the structure of the pineal body is related to photosensitivity. The other kind belongs to homothermal animals composed only of pineal body without parapineal body. The pineal body possesses the features of endocrine gland. In phylogeny, the latter may have evolved from the former. It is shown that the pineal gland of mammals may have evolved from a kind of photo- sensitive organ. The primitive vertebrate possesses two pineal eyes.


Abstract The aim of the study was to evaluate interrelationships between final body weight, and morphometric, densitometric, and mechanical properties of the mandible in 6-month-old Polish Large White pigs exposed to dexamethasone and nanocalcium. The study was performed on 27 males, castrated on the 28th d after weaning, and reared until the age of 6 months, after which the animals were slaughtered, and the mandible was obtained. The pigs were divided into four experimental groups: animals given per os nanopartical calcium, animals injected with dexamethasone, animals given both nanopartical calcium per os and dexamethasone injections, and animals injected with placebo. After the slaughter, morphological properties of the mandible such as bone weight and length were determined. Using computed tomography technique, volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) of the cortical bone (Cd), mean volumetric bone mineral density (MvBMD), and total bone volume (Bvol) of whole mandible were measured. Areal bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content were evaluated with the use of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometric method. Using three-point bending test, mechanical parameters such as maximum elastic strength (Wy) and ultimate strength (Wf) of mandible were estimated. Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was determined between all the investigated variables. The obtained results showed a significantly positive correlation between body weight and mandible weight, mandible length, Bvol, Cd, BMD, BMC, Wy, and Wf. However, statistically insignificant correlations of MvBMD and body weight, mandible weight, mandible length, and Bvol were observed. Furthermore, Bvol and Cd were not found to be significantly correlated. In conclusion, this study showed numerous positive correlations between final body weight and densitometric, morphometric, and mechanical properties of the mandible. This bone of pigs may be used as an attractive model for further investigation on metabolic response of the skeleton to physiological, nutritional, toxicological, and pharmacological factors influencing bone tissue metabolism.


Previous studies on the onion skin as a natural dye by Made Diah Angendari showing the colour of each mordant used a Jumputan and suggested using a different concentration of mordant in the next research. Based on it, interviews were conducted to three different speakers: KLP Nusantara, Mrs Kuswati, and Dapur Alifa. According to the interviewers, all can produce ±64 kg of onion skin per month and most of the onion skin were thrown or burned. Based on it, a research was done by using a variation of colouring matter, mordant measurement, dyeing technique, dyeing duration, and technique of textile to use plenty onion skin and develop technique on the natural dye of onion skin. To obtain the required data, the student collects the data with experimental methods, such as by observation, interview, literature study, and experimentation. The results of the elected experiment show that the used of iron post-mordanting and an hour cold dyeing technique have a good result based on the endurance of wear-off in Balai Besar Tekstil Bandung and it was applied to a textile product in the form of long cloth with different measurement.


Oxidative stress is one of the earliest events in Alzheimer's disease (AD). A chemical genetic screen revealed that deregulated cyclin‐dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) may cause oxidative stress by compromising the cellular anti‐oxidant defense system. Using novel Cdk5 modulators, we show the mechanism by which Cdk5 can induce oxidative stress in the disease's early stage and cell death in the late stage. Cdk5 dysregulation upon neurotoxic insults results in reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in neuronal cells because of the inactivation of peroxiredoxin I and II. Sole temporal activation of Cdk5 also increases ROS, suggesting its major role in this process. Cdk5 inhibition rescues mitochondrial damage upon neurotoxic insults, thereby revealing Cdk5 as an upstream regulator of mitochondrial dysfunction. As mitochondrial damage results in elevated ROS and Ca2+ levels, both of which activate Cdk5, we propose that a feedback loop occurs in late stage of AD and leads to cell death (active Cdk5 → ROS → excess ROS → mitochondrial damage → ROS → hyperactive Cdk5 → severe oxidative stress and cell injury → cell death). Cdk5 inhibition upon neurotoxic insult prevents cell death significantly, supporting this hypothesis. As oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction play pivotal roles in promoting neurodegeneration, Cdk5 could be a viable therapeutic target for AD.


Aldose reductase converts glucose to sorbitol in the polyol pathway. It is an important enzyme to prevent diabetic complications. In this study, we studied the inhibitory effects of bromophenol derivatives on aldose reductase (AR), α‐glucosidase, and α‐amylase enzymes. In the bromophenols series, compound 1f showed the maximum inhibition effect against AR with a Ki value of 0.05 ± 0.01 μM, while compound 1d showed the lowest inhibition effect against AR with a Ki value of 1.13 ± 0.99 μM. In addition, α‐amylase from porcine pancreas and α‐glucosidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae were used as enzymes. In this study, all compounds were tested for the inhibition of the α‐glucosidase enzyme and demonstrated efficient inhibition profiles with Ki values in the range of 43.62 ± 5.28 to 144.37 ± 16.37 nM against α‐glucosidase. Additionally, these compounds were tested against the α‐amylase enzyme, which determined an effective inhibition profile with IC50 values in the range of 9.63–91.47 nM. These compounds can be selective inhibitors of AR, α‐glucosidase, and α‐amylase enzymes as antidiabetic agents.


Excessive proinflammatory cytokine and NO production by activated microglia play a role in neurodegenerative disorders. To investigate whether the neuroprotectant N‐acetyl‐O‐methyldopamine (NAMDA) downregulates genes associated with microglial activation, we measured gene expression of TNF‐α, IL‐1β, inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2), and an associated cofactor synthesis gene, GTP cyclohydrolase I (GTPCH) in LPS‐stimulated microglia cells in the presence or absence of NAMDA. The temporal pattern of cytokine gene expression showed that LPS (0.2 μg/ml) increased TNF‐α and IL‐1β gene expression at 1 and 3 h, which was repressed by cotreatment of NAMDA. Similarly, LPS also induced GTPCH and NOS2 gene expression at 3 and 6 h, and cotreatment of NAMDA repressed the induction with parallel reduction of nitrite, an oxidative metabolite of nitric oxide. Since transcription factor NF‐κB is involved in regulating expression of these genes, the effects of NAMDA on NF‐κB nuclear translocation and DNA binding in immunostimulated microglia were investigated. We found that neither LPS‐induced NF‐κB translocation nor DNA binding activity was affected by cotreatment with NAMDA in BV‐2 microglia. On the other hand, NAMDA increased intracellular cAMP levels and potentiated LPS‐induced phosphorylated cAMP‐responsive element binding protein (pCREB) expression. Treatment with adenosine 3′5′‐cyclic monophosphothioate, a specific inhibitor of cAMP‐dependent protein kinase (PKA), reversed not only NAMDA‐induced pCREB upregulation but also NAMDA‐induced repression of TNF‐α and IL‐1β gene transcription. The data demonstrate that NAMDA represses LPS‐induced proinflammatory cytokines gene expression via a cAMP‐dependent protein kinase pathway. Thus, repressing proinflammatory cytokines and NOS2 gene expression in activated microglia by NAMDA may provide new therapeutic strategies for ischemic cerebral disease as well as other neurodegenerative diseases. GLIA 33:324–333, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


A pre-treating method for the surface of Mg-alloy includes such steps as sand blasting and cleaning by flushing with clean water or high-pressure air.


The US Department of Energy is constructing and operating the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a research and development facility near Carlsbad, New Mexico, to determine whether or not defense-generated high-level radioactive waste can be stored safely in bedded salt. The goal of the WIPP modeling program is to develop the capability to predict room responses from one site to another without a priori knowledge of the actual room responses. Data from one of the early WIPP excavations, called the South Drift, have already been used to form an initial evaluation of computational models for predicting room closures as a result of salt creep. In that study, a significant unresolved discrepancy existed between predicted and measured room closures. It was suggested that future studies address alternate forms of the constitutive law. In this paper, an alternate form of the creep model for salt is used that is founded upon the deformation-mechanism map for the micromechanical deformation processes. This model embodies both steady-state and transient creep. Also, quasi-static plasticity is incorporated into the complete constitutive model for salt. The conclusion is drawn that the combination of the mechanistic creep model, plasticity, and flow potential can approximate the late time South Driftmore » deformation. Further improvement of the model fit of plasticity in the future is expected to further improve the simulation.« less


In this paper, we investigate the performance of using a square array of four antennas for selection combining (SC), maximal-ratio combining (MRC) of Nakagami correlated signals. The closed form of average output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and bit error rate (BER) with SC for arbitrary 4 correlated branches will be derived and the expression of BER with MRC is also derived by utilizing the method of characteristic function (CF). Two models for angle of arrival (AOA), e.g. uniform and Gaussian, will be considered, as well as the comparison between their system performances. The effect of correlation coefficients and fading factor on the system performance are discussed by numerical results, which show that the uniform distributed AOA system outperforms the Gaussian distributed AOA system with small angular spread.


The expression pelle Libystidis ursae, which occurs at Aen. 5.37 and 8.368, has caused a certain amount of puzzlement among scholars. This article will attempt to explain, through Virgil's allusions to Apollonius' Argonautica, the function of Libystis as a pointer to the motif of the creation of a new homeland within a foreign territory, as is the case with Segesta and Rome. This idea is further developed by the two omens that forebode the foundations of Segesta and Rome, that is, the omen of Acestes' arrow at Aen. 5.522–8 and the weapon-omen at Aen. 8.524–9, both of which are consistently associated with flames, comets, and lightning. These elements underline the symbolism of destruction, rebirth, and Jupiter's will that characterizes the foundations of Segesta and future Rome.


In this paper, software architectures and architecture styles are modeled with attributed typed graphs and graph grammars respectively. Accordingly, dynamic reconfigurations of software architectures are modeled with graph transformations. Based on such a modeling, a supporting environment is constructed twofold. Firstly, the visual manipulation of the graphical representation of software architectures is supported with a graph grammar- enabled editor. Secondly, the graphical architecture model is reified as a runtime software architecture object built into the physical running system, through which graph transformations of the architecture model is then naturally reflected as dynamic reconfigurations of the running system.


Ultrasonic diagnostics is a modern and effective method of laboratory testing of both animals and humans, used for estimation of overall state, and for detection of different pathologies in organs and systems. The aim of the present study was to establish the efficacy of ultrasonic diagnostics of dog dirofilariasis caused by Dirofilaria immitis parasitism, based on several indexes of invasion intensity. It was established that the number of D. immitis helminths found depended on the intensity indexes of microdirafilariasis invasion: using echocardiography, there were no helminths found under the index lower than 40 larvae/cm3. Under the index higher than that, we visualized 1–10 parasite individuals in the cavity of the right ventricle and right atrium, and at the tricuspid valve leaflets. It was established by the results of echocardiography of dogs invaded by D. immitis that the level of invasion intensity impacts significantly on the animals' heart structure and function, and on their intracardiac hemodynamics. It was proved that under increase of microfilaria number in the blood, heart function deteriorates. Under the invasion intensity lower than 40 larvae/cm3, the changes were characterized by a slight increase in thickness of the posterior wall of the left ventricle in diastole, aorta diameter, left atrium and pulmonary artery (by 6.2%). Under the invasion intensity of 40–60 larvae/cm3, the deterioration in heart structure and function was followed by thickening of the interventricular septum in diastole, posterior wall of the left ventricle in diastole (by 5.6%), increase in ejection fraction index (by 7.0%), widening of aorta root, pulmonary artery, diameter of the left ventricle (by 21.4%), and with increase in indexes of ratio between diameters of the left ventricle and pulmonary artery, and aorta (by 15.6%). Signs of hemodynamic deterioration were established in sick animals, which was characterized by increase of blood speed in the tricuspid valve (by 33.7%), and its decrease in the pulmonary artery (14.1%). Under the invasion intensity higher than 60 larvae/cm3, the aforementioned indexes changed even more significantly. We observed thickening of the posterior wall of the right ventricle in diastole, decrease of the end-systolic size of the left ventricle (by 13.0%), blood speed increase in the aorta and mitral valve (by 12.2%). The obtained results show the necessity of echocardiographic testing of dogs with cardiac dirofilariasis, which allows effective proof of the diagnosis and also helps to understand the overall state of the animal more deeply and to provide it with the appropriate symptomatic cure.


The acceptance and use of mediation by courts – at the state and federal level – has grown steadily over the last several decades. Today, mediation is a central element in the overall casemanagement system of many courts, and this phenomenon continues to grow unabated. At the same time, however, another quite different phenomenon has emerged – the expression of serious criticism from mediation scholars and experts about the way mediation is used by the courts. Indeed, it appears that judges and lawyers in the court system, on the one hand, and mediation experts on the other, understand court-related mediation – and mediation itself – in very different terms. Ironically, then, the moment of mediation's widest acceptance by the courts has become the occasion for intense concern and even fearfulness from the mediation ―community‖ itself.


TiO2@SBA-15 mesoporous nanocomposite are of increasing interest as materials for photocatalytic applications. We report here an investigation on the characteristics of TiO2@SBA-15 prepared by introducing titanium by a grafting technique. The samples, having TiO2 loadings of 10%, have been characterized by XRF, XRD, FT-IR (CO adsorption), porosimetry, SEM, HRTEM, and UV-Visible diffuse reflectance. Three different titanium species were evidenced to be present. The first two derive from the reaction of titanium with silanol groups in the corona area of inner SBA-15 walls leading to the formation of either TiO4 tetrahedral sites (by reaction by hydroxyl nests of surface defect sites) and/or pseudo-octahedral surface sites anchored by two (or more) Si or Ti ions through bridging oxygen. The third species derives from the reaction of titanium in the regions with high sylanol density, e.g. in the micropores located in the corona of SBA-15 channels, leading to the formation of TiO2-like nanoareas with dimensions of around 1-2 nm maximum, but having characteristics different from those of crystalline titania as shown by FTIR data.


Thermodynamic parameters for the oxidation of monosubstituted anilines, VIZ., aniline, ortho-, metaand para-chloroanilines, orthoand para-ethoxyanilines, orthoand para-methylanilines, ortho-, metaand p-carboxylicanilines and meta-bromoaniline have been reported and their role in deciding the mechanism operative for this oxidation process is discussed. The validity of isokinetic relationship and Hammett linear free energy relationship is tested and the results obtained are interpreted. An attempt has been made to correlate all these findings, with the mechanism operative and transition state formed in the oxidation of monosubstituted anilines by peroxydisulphate ion in acetic acid-water medium.


Ferroelectric single crystals in the Pb/sub 1-x/TiO/sub 3/ system have been grown by using the PbO flux method. The maximum volume of the crystals is a function of the Ca concentration and decreases with increase of x from about 60 mm/sup 3/ at x=0 to 0.05 mm/sup 3/ at x=0.3. The lattice constant of the a and c axes decrease with increase of x. The Curie points linearly decrease from 487 degrees C at x=0 to 478 degrees C at x=0.1, depending on the Ca concentration.<<ETX>>


The title of the reported project is "Nordic Nuclear Safety Research (NKS) Workshop on Knowledge Management in Nordic NPPs". One important objective of this workshop was to explore if and how knowledge retention activities could be coordinated between the various Nordic utilities. The main conclusions of the workshop can be summed up as follows: Establishing good knowledge management routines is recognized by many utilities today. However, there seem to be no real consensus on what should be focused on in the present situation. Maybe the most pressing problem is to avoid undesirable consequences of the massive retirement soon to follow. Still, there is no consensus on what those consequences might be, and what should be done to avoid them.


The utility model relates to a double-safety device for portal-bridge crane hook traveling. The double-safety device for portal-bridge crane hook traveling is suitable for a portal-bridge crane. The double-safety device for portal-bridge crane hook traveling comprises a worm gear reducer, a target is arranged on the worm gear shaft of the worm gear reducer, a proximity switch is arranged on a wing plate, the range in which the target moves circularly and the induction field of the proximity switch intersect, a fixing plate is arranged on a bottom plate, a microswitch is connected with the fixing plate, a pressure head is fixed on the worm gear shaft, and the distance between the pressure head and the microswitch is determined according to the fact that when moving circularly following the circular movement of the worm gear shaft, the pressure head can touch an idler wheel of the microswitch so that microswitch action can be achieved. Multiple protection procedures are used in the double-safety device for portal-bridge crane hook traveling, the shortcomings of jamming, easy abrasion and free-of-multiple-protection in the prior art are overcome, and safety during the lifting process of the crane can be guaranteed.


Phase locked loop (PLL) is an important part of the current-controlled grid-connected converter. Its job is to estimate the phase angle of the grid voltage. If the PLL is not robust, the grid-voltage distortion will lead to an error in the estimated phase leading to a degradable performance of the converter. In this paper, the effect of the PLL on the operation of a current-controlled voltage-source converter is examined. A PLL synthesis is proposed, to track the phase angle of the distorted grid voltage, and compared with a previously investigated PLL. The result found is that the proposed synthesis of the PLL is superior in case of grid voltage harmonics other than the 5th and the 7th orders. Moreover, the voltage amplitude oscillation has been reduced from 8% to 3%, with the proposed PLL, compared to 5% with the previously investigated PLL.


This research was inspired by the lack of ICT-based learning media in linear program material. Linear program material has the potential to be developed visually using computer devices to facilitate students in understanding the linear programs. The aim of the study was to develop ICT-based mathematics learning media that met the validity, practicality and effectiveness. The instruments used in this research were material validation sheets, media validation sheets, response questionnaires and student achievement test. Questionnaire sheets were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Based on the results of data analysis and discussion, it can be concluded that the ICT-based media of mathematics learning is valid with an average score of 3.36 by the material validator and 3.42 by the media validator. This learning media also fulfills practical requirements with an average student response of 3.45 in small group trials and 3.18 in large group trials. Learning media also influence students achievement learning. Student achievements in this research are in sufficient criteria that is 65.21%.


The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of a set of firm-specific and policy related variables such as size, age, ownership and effective rate of assistance on the rate of production capacity realization (PCR) of firms. This study uses a panel of 92 food manufacturing firms of Bangladesh over the periods 1992-1994 and 1997-1999. Firm size is found to have positive impact while capital intensity and age of firm have negative impact on PCR at the firm level. The striking result is that the policy related variables such as the effective rate of assistance (ERA) and outward orientation (OPN) do not have any significant impact on PCR. These results are confirmed by the extensive test of sensitivity analysis. The insignificance of ERA and OPN may be attributed to piecemeal and partial nature of policy reforms. The results suggests the need for further reform of trade policies, in particular, focusing on reducing nominal and effective protection levels in order to enhance competition and competitiveness so that an efficient production can take a firmer root in the industrial sector of the economy.


To solve additional local waviness of uncoiled strip caused by local high spot, the destabilization waviness model was established, and the critical destabilization value of additional local waviness was deduced based on strip energy theory and local high spot layers stress model. The influence of local high spot on additional local waviness of uncoiled strip was quantitatively analysed by numerical simulation. The reliability of mathematical model was proved by simulation calculation and production experiment, which provided the important guide basis for solving additional local waviness of uncoiled strip in production and bring enormously economic benefits for corporations. The research results show that with local high spot value increase, critical compression stress value of destabilization waviness will be reduced, and the defect grade of additional local waviness is more serious, and waviness of uncoiled strip is more likely to occur.


Dr. Feuerstadt: Our body has at least two defense mechanisms against C. difficile, including colonization resistance and our serologic or blood-borne immune system response. In order to best understand these mechanisms, let's quickly review the infection and its mechanism of infectivity. In the environment, C. difficile rests in an indolent, inert state called the spore phase. And classically what happens is we swallow the spore phase, it's resistant to our gastric acid, it gets into our small bowel where it converts or germinates into the vegetative phase. The vegetative phase multiplies, divides, and multiplies as it builds steam heading towards the colon.


From view of reactive power compensation in three-phase four-wire systems,the authors logically analyze and compare the p-q-r theory with other kinds of instantaneous power theories which are widely applied in power compensation on current detecting algorisms in three-phase four-wire system thoroughly.With the definitions of the instantaneous power theories and from the viewpoints of control freedom and principle of energy conservation,the advantages and disadvantages of these theories are concluded.After the logically deducing,the authors establish a model of a nonlinear load of there phase four wire system with MATLABLE simpower system,then applied the theories in practice.It is concluded that traditional instantaneous power theory is useful in total compensation,by which both reactive power and active power depends on reactive current,but does not comfort with energy conservation.The adapted instantaneous power theory which comply with energy law,is valuable in precise current compensation.The instantaneous power theory in p-q-r coordinates in which the energy conservation and reactive power is independent each other,is important in reactive power independent compensation.The p-q-r theory provides two degrees of freedom to control the system currents by only compensating the instantaneous imaginary power without using any energy storage element.The definition of powers maintains conservatism agrees well with the general understanding of power.Simulation results show the superiority of the p-q-r theory both in definition and compensation.The p-q-r theory extends power theory family with its outstanding advantages,it will be wildly applied in reactive power compensation.