NEGOTIATING SPEECH AND LANGUAGE IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA: THE POLITICS OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY/ (BLACK ENGLISHES) "The men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraiminite? If he said, No, They said to him, Then say Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth: for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slew him...." Judges 12:6. SPEECH REFLECTS THE SOCIAL RELATIONS IN A SOCIETY The quote above describing the Biblical account of the battle between the Ephraimites and the Gileadites illustrates how pronunciation of one word, changed by the omission of the "h," sound served to identify escaping Ephraimites who claimed to be Gileadites in order to escape death. The Ephraimites' speech revealed their identity, and forty-two thousand of them were killed in this battle. Despite the date and context of this example, speech and language are still used as tools to identify, demarcate, and at times to dominate and oppress those without power in various societies. How we speak and the languages we use serve to distinguish among nationalities, social classes and groups, educational levels, and to some degree, age and gender. History, culture, geography and other environmental factors, as well as personal experiences, all influence what we say and how we say it. Speech reflects social relations in a society, and social relations, in turn, shape/affect/determine how people speak as well as how they respond to various forms and patterns of speech. The languages or dialects spoken by the dominant groups in a given society will be that of those accorded power and prestige. Burling (1973, p. 27) reviews the source of a language's status and prestige in the following: In a society like ours it may be inevitable that the language of those with money, education, and high social status comes to be regarded as the best. These are the people who often set the standards.... But if by some magic our class system were suddenly overturned, new forms of speech would surely acquire prestige. If, for instance, those who held positions of power and respect regularly used double negatives, while the humble members of the lower classes never did so, we can be confident that double negatives would soon begin to sound elegant, simply because elegant people used them. Lukia Koliussi (2004, p.107) observes: "Language is the most important means of human interaction and social survival. By understanding, inferring, and relaying meaning, we creatively negotiate, construct, reconstruct, and define the norms and rules by which we live and the identities we either are 'assigned' by society or choose to take in certain situations." How does the exercise of power to construct and define these societal norms affect students of African descent and what roles do educators and schooling play in maintaining the linguistic status quo? My goal in this article is to encourage educators and others to examine the links between attitudes towards speech and language of students of African descent and social justice. In addition to my graduate training in communication and my experience as a communications consultant, I have researched Black linguistics extensively in order to write the course: "Black Speech and Language Communication Behaviors," which has been approved and is now being offered at this university. However, in this article, my experiences as student, elementary school teacher, student teacher supervisor and professor in three cultural contexts are scaffolded around and used to illuminate research perspectives on the politics of black speech and language communication. SPEECH AND LANGUAGE SOCIALIZATION: MAINTAINING THE LINGUISTIC STATUS QUO Often during their formative formal and informal learning experiences students become socialized to society's norms or designations/classifications of 'good" and 'bad' English. …


The causes for deviance and crimes are explored on the macrolevel with the theory of structural function by American sociologist Parsons from three systems: the personality system,the culture system,and the society system.The functions of social control and the specific ways to achieve social control are put forward.


The effects of the encapsulant, content, particle size and synergistic action of microencapsulated red phosphorus (MRP)with other flame retardant on the flame retardancy, mechanical properties and smoke suppressing of flame-retarded LDPE cable compound were studied. The results showed that the flame retardancy of the compound containing MRP in the melamine resin and in the melamine resin/zinc borate was the best. When the content of the MRP was 8phr, the flame retardancy of the compound reached up to the level of UL94 V-0 and the LOI increased from 17.4% to 22.5%; and the effect on the mechanical properties of the compound was little when the content was within the extent of loading; among the binary systems, MRP/aluminium hydroxide, MRP/magnesium hydroxide and MRP/zinc borate had the excellent synergistic effects, the synergistic indexes were 1.6, 1.4 and 2.3 respectively, and MRP/zinc borate had good synergetic effects of smoke suppressing; among ternary systems, MRP/zinc borate/decabromodiphenyl, MRP/aluminium hydroxide/magnesium hydroxide and MRP/zinc borate/melamine had the excellent synergistic effects, the synergistic indexes were 2.6, 2.1 and 2.0 separately.


Infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare, but life-threatening complication of cardiac device implantation. Despite recent preventive strategies, and advances in antimicrobial and surgical treatment, morbidity and mortality rates are still high.

 The objective of our study was to assess the epidemiological characteristics, temporal tends and mortality rate of cardiac device related IE (CDRIE) in our high-volume, tertiary referral center.

 retrospective data collection was performed from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2016. Thirty-day, 6-month and 1-year mortality was estimated, which were compared to left-sided native valve endocarditis (LSNIE). Patients administered between 2006 and 2010 and between 2011 and 2016 were compared to assess temporal trends.

 465 cases of IE were administered, out of whom 54 patients had CDRIE (39 males [72%], mean age: 55.8 ±19 yrs; 4 VVI, 7 VDD, 7 VVI-ICD, 20 DDD, 5 DDD-ICD and 11 CRT devices; median time since first implantation: 1558 days [IQR: 470 days – 8.6 yrs]). The infection was caused by streptococci in 3 cases (5.5%), Staphylococci were the most prevalent infective agents (70%), S. aureus (SA) in 28 cases (52%, out of whom 10 were MRSA), coagulase negative Staphylococcus in 10 cases (18.5%), blood culture negative cases in 8 patients (15%), and in 5 cases other pathogens were responsible. 266 patients had LSNIE (201 males [75%], mean age: 54.4 ± 15.6 yrs). There was no difference between the two groups in age or in portion of males. Mortality rates were the same in CDRIE group compared to LSNIE group (30-day: 13% vs 13%, 6-month: 20% vs 25%, 1-year: 26% vs 29% and long-term: 44% vs 44%, ns resp.) Patients who died in the CDRIE group (n = 25) were older (64 yrs [IQR:59-71 yrs] vs 52 yrs [IQR: 27-69 yrs], p = 0.02), male sex was less common (52% vs 79%, p = 0.03), had lower ejection fraction (39.6 ±16.6% vs 54.6 ±14.5%, p < 0.001), had worse renal function (GFR: 46.3 ± 15.3 vs 60.2 ± 23.5 ml/min/1.73m2, p = 0.04), shorter time since first device implantation (2.1 yrs [IQR: 1.1-4.8 yrs] vs 6.7 yrs [4.1-12.9 yrs], p = 0.006), and CRT device implantation were more prevalent (32% vs 10%, p < 0.05).
 Patients admitted before 2011 (n = 22) did not differ from patients admitted after 2011 (n = 32) in terms of age, male gender, concomitant valve infection, pocket infection, or embolic event. The 30-day (0% vs 6%) and the 1-year mortality (18% vs 31%) were the same before and after 2011, but the 6-month mortality was better before 2011 (4.5% vs 31%, p = 0.01). CRT device implantation was more prevalent over time (5% vs 31%, p = 0.01), and SA infection became more frequent (36% vs 63%, p = 0.05)

 During the last decade patients with CDRIE had a same survival as patients with LSNIE, every fourth patient died one year after the diagnosis. Almost three-quarter of the infections were caused by Staphylococci, and the portion of S. aureus infection increased over time.


Review question / Objective: This systematic review aims to define and evaluate the treatments available for two different stages of the Molar Incisor Hypomineralization (MIH) defect. On stage I, the lesion is classified as Mild and is characterized by demarcated opacities without posteruptive breakdown. On stage II, the lesion is classified as Severe and is characterized by posteruptive breakdown of enamel. To this end, the proposed study will answer the following question: What are the treatments available and their results for the two different stages of MIH on permanent teeth? Condition being studied: Mild and Severe Molar Incisor Hypomineralization (MIH). MIH is an enamel defect that occurs during the mineralization on the second stage of the formation of the enamel called maturation phase. This disease affects the outer layer of enamel, making the structure soft and undercalcified. The appearance of the lesion can be white opaque to yellow brown depending on the stage ( mild or severe).


Most recent object detection methods have achieved growing performance on public datasets. However, enormous efforts are needed for these methods due to the extensive annotations of ground-truth boxes. Weakly Supervised Object Detection (WSOD) methods hence have been proposed to solve this problem as only image-level annotations are required and then output bounding boxes related to the objects. In order to further elevate the weakly supervised detection methods on the extraction of reasonable features, the training of potential positive proposals, and the generation of proposals before training, we propose a new Combined Backbone and Advanced Selection Heads (CBASH) method with the proposals generated from the object semantic information. Specifically, Combined Backbone will make the unobvious object features more noticeable, Advanced Selection Heads promote more potential positive proposals to get training, and the generated object semantic proposals elevate the quality and quantity of positive proposals. The proposed method is evaluated on the challenging PASCAL VOC 2007 and 2012 benchmark datasets. Experimental results show that our proposed method can achieve improved performance on both VOC 2007 and VOC 2012 datasets and outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods.


OBJECTIVE
In 2012, two Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals began offering outpatient cervical ripening with oral misoprostol under a study protocol. We evaluated inpatient time from admission to delivery and adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes associated with outpatient use of misoprostol for cervical ripening among low-risk women with term pregnancies.

STUDY DESIGN
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 345 women who received misoprostol outpatient vs. inpatient at the study sites (n=1,374) and at all Kaiser hospitals (n=9,908) between 2012 and 2017.

RESULTS
Women in the outpatient group were more likely to be White than both inpatient groups (63.3% vs. 56.3% at study sites and 47.1% all hospitals, P=.002 and <.001); other demographics were clinically comparable. Most women undergoing labor induction were nulliparous; however, a greater proportion in the outpatient group were nulliparous compared to inpatient groups (70.8% vs. 61.8% and 64.3%, P=.002 and .01). Prior to the administration of misoprostol, women in the outpatient misoprostol group were more likely to present with no cervical dilation (34.7% vs. 34.9% and 34.9%, P=.10 and >.999). On inpatient admission, women who received outpatient misoprostol were more likely to have a cervical dilation of ≥3 cm (39.8% vs. 12.5% and 9.7%, P<.001). The outpatient group had a shorter mean time between admission and delivery (23.6 vs. 29.4 and 29.8 hours, P<.001). The adjusted estimated mean difference between the outpatient and inpatient groups in time from admission to delivery was -6.48 hours (P<.001), and the adjusted estimated mean difference in cervical dilation on admission was +1.02 cm (P<.001). There was no difference in cesarean delivery rates between groups.

CONCLUSION
Outpatient use of misoprostol for cervical ripening is associated with reduced inpatient time from admission to delivery compared to inpatient misoprostol, and had no difference in rates of cesarean delivery or maternal or neonatal complications.


We present relativistic calculations of the differential, integrated elastic, momen- tum transfer total cross sections and spin polarization parameters for positrons scattered from Gold atom using a simple optical model potential to represent interaction between positron and target atoms in the energy range 2.0 - 500 eV. In the present calculation we employ a parameter-free model potential for the correlation polarization and absorption potential as devised for positron-atom scattering. The theoretical results are obtained from relativistic approach based on solving the Dirac equation using Hartree-Fock and Dirac-Fock wave functions. PACS: 11.80.Fv


Background: About 90% ovarian cancers are epithelial and 10-15% of this group are mucinous. The treatment is the hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. However, most of these tumors occur in young women that have not yet given birth in which preservation of fertility should be considered. We present a case of huge mucinous cystadenoma and massive ascites managed by preserving uterus and ovaries. Meigs' syndrome is found in fibroma, and thecoma of ovary, however, in rare occasion this syndrome is occurred in mucinous cystadenoma. lab including and CT The was negative for malignancy. laparotomy the ovarian tumors carried out including cytology of ascitic-fluid, cytology of diaphragm, ovarian cystectomy, biopsy of the paracolic gutter, exploring abdomen and pelvis. Histopathology report revealed mucinous cystadenoma. Moreover, according to the normal appearance of the appendix in this case, the appendectomy was not performed. Conclusion: Ovarian cysts in young women who are associated with elevated levels of tumor markers and ascites require careful evaluation. Management of ovarian cysts depends on patient's age, size of the cyst, and its histopathological nature. Conservative surgery such as ovarian cystectomy or salpingo-oophorectomy is adequate in mucinous tumors of ovary. Multiple frozen sections are very important to know the malignant variation of this tumor and helps accurate patient management. Surgical expertise is required to prevent complications in huge tumors has distorted the anatomy, so gynecologic oncologist plays a prominent role in management. In this case, beside of the huge tumor and massive ascites uterine and ovaries were preserved by gynecologist oncologist and patient is well up to now. Abstract


Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT)combinesaspirinwithaP1Y12 inhibitor(clopidogrel,prasugrel,orticagrelor)todecreasetheriskofcoronary thrombosis. Compared with antiplatelet therapy with aspirin alone, DAPTafteramyocardial infarction (MI)orpercutaneouscoronaryintervention (PCI) reduces the risk of spontaneous MI and coronary stent thrombosis (Audio).1 However, the addition, intensification, or prolongation of antiplatelet therapy necessitates a trade-off betweendecreasingischemicrisk and increasing bleeding risk.1 In addition to this trade-off, consideration also must be given to the implications of ischemic or bleeding events, how patients are selected for treatment with DAPT and its duration, and what can be done to reduce bleeding risk. In patients with prior MI within the past 1 to 3 years, extending DAPT for 18 to 36 months beyond the recommended duration of 12 months yields a 1% to 3% absolute decrease in ischemic events (spontaneous MI, stent thrombosis, or stroke) at the cost of a 1% absolute increase in bleeding events (Audio).1 However, the consequences of bleeding or ischemic events are more important than their initial occurrence. The increased mortality associated with these events was reported by Secemsky and colleagues2 in the May 2017 issue of JAMA Cardiology. In this secondary analysis of the DAPT study, 52 of 478 patients (10.9%) who had an ischemic event died (median follow-up time after the event, 275 days).2 Having an ischemic event was associated with a 12.6-fold (95% CI, 9.0to 17.6-fold) increased risk of mortality compared with 11 170 patients who did not have an ischemic event. Among 232 patients who experienced a bleeding event, 41 died (17.7%). Having a bleeding event was associated with an 18.1-fold (95% CI, 12.6to 26.0-fold) increased risk of death compared with 11 416 patients who did not have Viewpoint page 120


We congratulate Ravi et al. [1] for their recent paper in ERJ Open Research, "Imprinting of bronchial epithelial cells upon in vivo rhinovirus infection in people with asthma". We would like to discuss their study and make some contributions. A differentiated air–liquid interface model shows that the airway epithelium plays a key role in response to respiratory viral infections in people with asthma https://bit.ly/3yDgiX1


This thesis documents the adaptation and extension of an existing computational construction kit, and its use by a community of learners previously unaddressed blind and visually impaired children. This community has an intimate relationship with the digital and assistive technologies that they rely on for carrying out their everyday tasks, but have no tools for designing and creating their own devices. Using a computational construction kit, created around the latest Programmable Brick (the Cricket), children can write programs to interact with the world around them using sensors, speech synthesis, and numerous other actuators. The Cricket system was extended with a number of specific modules, and redesigned to better suit touch and sound-based interaction patterns. This thesis documents an initial technology implementation and presents case studies of activities carried out with a small group of visually impaired teenagers. These case studies serve to highlight specific domains of knowledge that were discovered to be especially relevant for this community. Much of this work impacts approaches, technologies, and activities for sighted users of the Programmable Brick. Thesis Supervisor: Mitchel Resnick Title: Associate Professor This work was supported in part by: The LEGO Company Media Lab Asia National Sciene Foundation (grant #ESI-0087813) Learning Lab Denmark Things that Think Consortium, MIT Media Lab Digital Life Consortium, MIT Media Lab Designing a Computational Construction Kit for the Blind and Visually Impaired


The problem of technical devices evaluation and choosing is not easy decision making process. The technological development and the availability of many different technical solutions with different performance parameters specify complex combinatorial choice problems. The night vision devices (NVD) have become quite popular recently and are an example of complex technical choice with conflicting performance parameters. The paper describes important NVD parameters that should be considered and a multicriteria optimization approach for smart NVD choice. The proposed approach uses popular weighted sum method to comply with different user preferences by defining relative weights among NVD parameters considered as objective functions. The practical applicability of the proposed approach has been demonstrated by some case study examples of choosing night vision goggles satisfying different user preferences. Real set of devices offered on Internet are used to formulate and solve optimization tasks reflecting user's preferences. The proposed multicriteria choice approach can be used for all types of night vision devices and other technical devices also to make a smart choice corresponding to decision-makers preferences and restrictions.


The organizational behavior is the vital term of the organizational culture and the general code of business conduct. The paper undertakes to study the general behavior of the employees in the perspective of the role perception in various capacities. The paper also highlights the impact of the contribution of the role perception when it comes to take the responsible decisions and organizational roles. The role perception has been regarded as an important tool of organizational decision making.


The abundance of glycerol as the side product of biodiesel has motivated researches on glycerol utilization as a feedstock for more valuable products. This research presents the possibility of producing polyester (glyptal), which is a widely used coating material, from glycerol by esterification using phthalic anhydride. Esterification reaction of phthalic anhydride and glycerol to produce glyptal can be catalyzed by Lewis acid provided by either homogeneous or heterogeneous catalyst. This study compared the performance of activated zeolite as heterogeneous catalyst in the esterification of glycerol and phthalic anhydride with the performance of p- toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) as homogeneous catalyst. The reactions were carried out in laboratory scale batch reactor. The kinetics was modeled using Step Growth Polymerization Model. The rate constant obtained from experimental data fitting on the model was correlated with temperature by Arrhenius equation. Both activated zeolite and PTSA exhibited Arrhenius behavior. Based on the comparison of the Arrhenius constants of the reaction catalyzed by each of the two different catalysts, PTSA performed better in term of lower activation energy. Nevertheless, this result did not suggest that activated zeolite was failed. The activated zeolite was successful to make the reaction happen. To reach the same performance as the homogeneous PTSA, the activated zeolite needs to be improved with respect to its cation exchange capacity and also the operational consideration such as the amount of zeolite added per volume of reaction and the intensity of mixing to minimize the diffusion resistance surrounding the zeolite particles.


The Qinghai Province, situated in the northwest of China, is experiencing a
continuous warming which is approximately three times more than the rate of
global warming. This ongoing warming has a direct connection to vegetation
cover, with significant societal and economic impacts in this region. In the
present study, we investigate the correlation between climate change and vegetation
cover in Qinghai Province. Analysis shows that in the Qinghai Province,
order of NDVI is highest in summer followed by autumn, spring and
winter. By calculating the average annual and seasonal-NDVI values, it is deduced
that the main type of vegetation cover in the Qinghai Province has an
upward trend at the rate of 0.013/10a, 0.016/10a, 0.035/10a and 0.058/10a for
annual, winter, spring and summer, respectively. While a downward trend at
a rate of 0.056/10a is present in autumn-NDVI. At the 0.01% significance level,
a significant positive relationship of winter-NDVI with mean winter precipitation
and temperature is revealed. Mean NDVI of spring and autumn show
a significant positive relationship with respective seasonal mean precipitation.
However, a significant difference is present between mean summer-NDVI and
mean summer precipitation. Furthermore, mean NDVI of summer and autumn
has a significant negative relationship with respective seasonal mean
temperature.


Paneer is a very popular coagulated milk product but like other dairy products it is very perishable. Thus, a study was conducted to extend the shelf life of paneer packed with clove and oregano essential oil treated starch and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) based edible packaging film. Starch and CMC based edible packaging film was prepared by adding starch (5 g), carboxymethyl cellulose (15% W/W starch) and glycerol (40 ml/100 g starch) in distilled water (100 mL) and then clove and oregano essential oil was incorporated before drying. Control paneer sample and paneer samples packed in clove and oregano essential oil treated edible packaging film showed significant (p


e14062Background: Real world evidence generated from electronic health records (EHRs) is playing an increasing role in health care decisions. It has been recognized as an essential element to asses...


Abstract : The objective of this research was to study the effects of temperature, ionic strength, and presence of additional organics on the aqueous solution/gas equilibria of a variety of chlorinated organic compounds: 1,1,1- trichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, chloroform, methylene chloride, and o-dichlorobenzene. Henry's Constant for each alone was determined in pure water over the temperature range, 10 deg - 30 deg C, using an equilibrium, batch stripping reactor. Data were fit to a regression equation. Henry's constants for selected organic solvents were determined at ionic strengths up to 1.0 M (KC1). Results suggest that ionic strength effects on activity can be ignored in systems processing ionic strengths less than 0.07 M. Henry's constants for organic solvents dissolved in multicomponent aqueous mixtures of other organic solvents were measured. It was found that relatively small concentrations of the organic solvents in water mutually affected one another's volatility. (Author)


By establishing an avascular, highly elastic, region within the fetal area of high acuity (AHA), the developing primate eye has created a unique substrate on which the mechanical forces of intraocular pressure (IOP) and growth-induced retinal stretch (stretch) can act. We proposed (Springer & Hendrickson, 2004b) that these forces generate both the pit and high cone density found in the adult AHA. In this paper, we use quantitative measures to determine the temporal relationships between nasal and temporal retinal elongation, changes in pit depth, cone packing, and cone morphology over M. nemestrina retinal development. Retinal length increased rapidly to about 105 days postconception (dpc; Phase 1) and then elongation virtually ceased (Phase 2) until just after birth (180 dpc). Retinal elongation due to stretch resumed during Phase 3 until approximately 315 dpc (4–5 months), after which time the retina appeared mature (Phase 4). The pit appeared during the quiescent Phase 2, suggesting that IOP acts, in conjunction with molecular changes in the inner retina, on the highly elastic, avascular, AHA to generate a deep, narrow pit and causes inner retinal cellular displacements. Subsequently (Phase 3), the pit widened, became 50% shallower and central inner retinal lamina thinned slightly due to a small amount of retinal stretch occurring in the AHA. Centripetal movement of cones was minimal until just after birth when the pit reached 88% of its maximal depth. Accelerated cone packing during Phase 3 was temporally correlated with increased stretch. A slight stretching of the central inner retina generates "lift" forces that cause the pit to become shallower and wider. In turn, these "lift" forces draw cones toward the center of the AHA (Springer, 1999). Localized changes in cone morphology associated with packing, included smaller cell body size, a change from a monolayer to a multilayered mound of cell bodies, elongation of inner segments and tilting of the apical portion toward the AHA. These changes began in cones overlying the edges of the pit, not its center. Henle cone axons formed initially in association with centrifugal displacement of the inner retina during pit formation, with an additional subsequent elongation due to cones moving centripetally. An integrated, two-factor model of AHA formation is presented. Initially, during the second half of gestation (Phase 2), IOP acts on the hyperelastic avascular zone of the AHA to generate a deep pit in the inner retina. In the first 4 months after birth (Phase 3), central retinal stretch generates tensile "lift" forces that remodel the pit and pack cones by drawing them toward the AHA center.


With the deepening of globalization, China's economic development mode has also undergone major changes. China's regional economic development has entered a new normal. Finance plays a vital role in China's economic development and people's life. Based on the background of China's economic development entering the new normal, this paper analyzes the relationship between the new normal and China's fiscal and taxation reform, explores the focus of China's fiscal and taxation reform under the new normal, and then puts forward the path of China's fiscal and taxation policy reform. 1. The negative impact caused by the outbreak of the international financial crisis to this day, and the unstable world economic development All countries in the world have adopted a comprehensive adjustment of economic structure to promote their own economic development. China's economy is the main force driving the development of the global economy, and it is facing severe challenges under such a situation. When President Xi Jinping visited Henan in May 2014, he pointed out that China is still in an important period of strategic opportunities. Economic development must conform to the temporary characteristics of China's economic development and adapt to the background of the new normal. We must clearly realize that the new normal is accompanied by new problems and contradictions. Whether we can adapt to the new normal depends on the overall deepening of reform. As an important part of deepening the reform in an all-round way, fiscal and taxation reform has far-reaching influence on other reforms. Therefore, under the new normal of economy, fiscal and taxation reform in China must be rigorous, scientific and reasonable. 2. The relationship between the new normal and fiscal reform 2.1 Fiscal and taxation policies to provide protection for economic growth China is currently a developing country, and many economic and social problems need to be solved by rapid economic growth. In essence, the key to the new normal of economic development is to change the mode of economic growth, i.e. from the traditional extensive high-growth stage to the high-efficiency medium-high-growth stage, so that it can better develop in the direction of benign growth and realize synchronous growth with the potential growth rate. The potential economic growth rate is mainly affected by the following factors, such as labor and capital input 2019 International Conference on Education, Management, Social Science and Humanities Research (EMSSHR 2019) Published by CSP © 2019 the Authors 274 and total factor productivity. At present, scientific and technological innovation plays a more and more important role in economic development. In 2014, under the situation that the development of traditional industries in our country has encountered a bottleneck period, the emerging industries dominated by the Internet are increasingly prominent and the economic momentum is fierce. Therefore, through the reform and adjustment of fiscal and taxation policies to better function in scientific and technological innovation and research, it can not only devote itself to the new 2.2 Fiscal and tax reform to adapt to the new normal of economic development and reform Fiscal and taxation reforms in various periods need to be coordinated with the current economic and social development. As far as our country is concerned, the fiscal and taxation reform has gone through many stages, and all of them are reforms adapted to our national conditions. During the period of planned economy in China, finance plays an important role in promoting and coordinating economic development. During this period, the main policy was to expand the local fiscal revenue and expenditure rights and implement a graded contract system. From 1994 to 1999, due to the rapid economic and social development, the current fiscal and taxation system has not adapted to the current economic development. To adapt to the current economic development, the central government should reform fiscal and taxation policies as the reform of tax distribution system doesn't work well in China. under the high development trend of our country's economy, the budget reform of various departments was gradually realized. China has also implemented a government procurement system to strengthen the management of fiscal expenditure. Gradually, a system of separating revenue from expenditure has been formed. Since 2012, China's economic development has entered a new normal of regional development. At the beginning of the new year in the same year, the pilot project of replacing business tax with increase was officially started. In the past, China's fiscal and taxation reforms were adapted to the rapid economic growth, with incremental adjustments to meet the needs of economic and social development. Under the new normal, the economic development slows down, and some enterprises gradually withdraw from the historical stage, such as enterprises with excess production capacity, etc. Then the remaining negative effects must be compensated by reforming fiscal and taxation policies. On the whole, fiscal and taxation reform must still be advanced to adapt to the changing social and economic requirements. 2.3 Fiscal reform and social reform under the new normal. Fiscal and taxation reform is an important part of China's overall deepening reform at this stage. Whether the goals of fiscal and taxation reform are consistent with the goals of the overall social reform at this stage will directly affect the effectiveness of China's overall social reform. Under the background of the new normal, fiscal and taxation reform and economic reform are both part of China's overall reform, and both should go hand in hand. Reform in various fields such as economy, politics, culture, society, ecology and party building is the basic requirement for regional development under the new normal in China. Obviously, both the fiscal revenue and expenditure relationship and the basic tax system play a key role in the success or failure of various reforms. Therefore, the fiscal and taxation reform must be taken as an angle of comprehensive reform, and all parties should be coordinated to complement each other on the overall basis. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee positioned the function of fiscal and taxation reform: optimizing the allocation of resources, maintaining the unity of the market, promoting social fairness and achieving long-term stability of the country. This reflects that the objectives and tasks of China's fiscal and taxation reform include two important aspects: one is the task of economic development, and the other is the task of social development. The current economic development goal of our country is: fiscal and taxation reform should not only promote stable economic growth,


Background: This study aimed to compare the predictive power of various markers of nutrition and Protein Energy Wasting (PEW) in Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients (MHD) and prospec-tively evaluate the best markers of morbidity and hospitalization risk in protein energy wasted MHD patients. Methods: Eighty MHD patients were studied. Nutritional status at the baseline of the study was assessed with regard to PEW diagnosis criteria for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) based on the recommendations of the International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism (ISRNM). Validated Malnutrition Inflammation Score (MIS) and Bioimpedance Analysis (BIA) were also used for further nutritional assessment of patients. BIA was performed 30 minutes after a HD session and the Phase Angle (PA), Body Cell Mass (BCM) and body fat precent values were recorded. The correlation between methods was assessed through Pearson's correlation co-efficient and Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve. Results: 66.3% had PEW based on ISRNM criteria. Serum albumin, PA, BCM and MIS were best predictors of PEW by logistic regression analysis. The best predictive accuracy (99.2%) was obtained by the combination of all four aforementioned components of PEW; sensitivity 96.2%, specificity 98.4%, positive predictive value 99.4%, negative predictive value 93.04% and Area Under Curve (AUC) (0.85, p<0.001). Furthermore, patients with a lower phase angle, BCM% and higher MIS had a higher hospitalization rate and time. Conclusion: We recommend that MIS, BIA, anthropometric measures, and biochemical markers be used in combination for best accuracy in diagnosis and evaluation of the nutritional status of ESRD patients.


A new nano-fabrication process, utilizing protein supramolecules, biomineralization, and nano-etching was proposed, which was named Bio Nano Process (BNP). The main processes of the BNP include the nanoparticle (NP) or nanowire (NW) synthesis utilizing bio-template (biomineralization) and nanostructure fabrication utilizing self-organization of protein supramolecules. Proteins are so designed to produce the final structures. The space where nano functional structures are fabricated is named an "Active Bio-field". It was proven that the process has vast potential to be applied to a wide range of quantum effect base nano-devices and thin film devices.


Objectives of this study were to evaluate the use of feeding behavior traits to predict individual-animal RFI and DMI of growing cattle fed high-grain finishing diets. Performance, DMI, and feeding behavior data were collected from 1 study utilizing 498 Angus-based composite steers (Study 1), and 2 studies utilizing 408 heifers (Study 2) and 321 steers (Study 3) composed of Brangus, Braford, Simbrah, and Angus breeds. DMI and feeding behavior traits were measured using a GrowSafe system, and RFI calculated within trial. Seventeen feeding behavior traits were evaluated: Frequency and duration of bunk visit (BV) and meal events, head-down duration (HDD), average meal length, maximum non-feeding interval, corresponding day-to-day variation (SD) of these traits, and ratios of HDD per BV duration, HDD per meal duration, and BV events per meal event. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) models for DMI and RFI were calibrated using data from Study 1 and 2, and independently validated using Study 3. Independent variables for the DMI models included mid-test BW0.75, ADG, frame size, and ultrasound traits, with and without feeding behavior traits, and for the RFI model included frame size, ultrasound, and feeding behavior traits. For prediction of DMI, validation R2 (R2v) of the base model (Mid-test BW0.75, ADG, frame size, and ultrasound) was 0.46. Inclusion of feeding behavior traits to the base model increased R2v to 0.66. For prediction of RFI, R2v was low (0.37), but the model classified 51% of calves into the correct RFI group (± 0.50 SD), with only 7% incorrectly classified across 2 RFI groups. Ongoing development of biosensor-based technologies to quantify feeding behavior patterns provides opportunities to predict DMI in support of precision nutrition, and reduce costs of identifying feed-efficient cattle. Further research is warranted to evaluate the robustness of PLSR-based models to predict RFI and DMI in cattle.


We argue that empirical research on creativity in design is detached from the realities of the design profession and therefore unable to contribute much to the development of the discipline. We believe that by taking an industry needs-centered approach to research and starting by understanding design practices we can find better and more fruitful research questions. This theoretical paper presents an overview of the empirical approaches to studying creativity in design, specifically in the front end of the design process. We define a practice-based approach for design research and review some studies pertinent to this approach. We discuss the theoretical foundations of the practice-based approach and propose it can yield several insights into professional designers' productivity. We expect that this style of inquire can advance design tools for both practitioners and students in the future.


Abstract : The study examines the cost reductions obtained by using water management techniques at Holston Army Ammunition Plant. It compares the cost obtained per 1000 gallons of wastewater treated to an original treatment proposal presented by Clark, Dietz and Associates Engineers, Inc. of Memphis, Tennessee.


The honeynet is a new technology used in the field of computer security for researching the actions of hackers. While honeynets have the potential to give us great insight into the hacker world, recent studies have shown that the rate of data collection by honeynets is far from optimal. This paper first discusses the motivation for using honeynets to track hacker's activities as well as a brief background on honeynets and the various types of hackers in the world. Then, solutions to the problem of increasing honeynet traffic are presented. The primary solution that the author develops is using a webserver as bait, and the steps needed to implement this approach are discussed in detail. Two additional methods are also presented as alternatives advertising through hacker chatrooms and online contests. The author concludes that all three of these methods are feasible and intends to implement them for experimental confirmation.


Division of Business Administration, Chosun University, Gwangju, 501-759The purposes of this study are to investigate the stereotype of position and direction that users expect door lock control devices in different orientations, and to collect information regarding preferred door lock design and orientations. Six hundred subjects aged from 10s to 60s were surveyed under the operating conditions of three different door locks(cylindrical, circular-type, and lever-type auxiliary locks) mounted on the miniature door in two different orientations(right and left side). The door locks presented to the subjects were the most widely used door locks in our living environment. The results indicated that if the door locks were seen from the inside, 59 q 67% of the subjects expected 'vertical' position locking depending on the door lock control types, cylinder or auxiliary lock. When the door locks were seen from the outside, the locking direction of door lock control was not consistent either 'clockwise' or 'counterclockwise'. It was rather dependent on the orientation of the door lock positions. As a concluding remark, it is better to design and install door lock control devices in the way that users expect them to work.Keywords : human expectations, population stereotype, compatibility


Mandarin Chinese numeral classifiers receive considerable attention in linguistic research. The status of the general classifier 个 gè remains unresolved. Many linguists suggest that the use of 个 gè as a noun classifier is arbitrary. This view is challenged in the current study. Relying on the CCL-Corpus of Peking University and data from Google, we investigated which nouns for living beings are most likely classified by the general classifier 个 gè. The results suggest that the use of the classifier 个 gè is motivated by an anthropocentric continuum as described by Köpcke and Zubin in the 1990s. We tested Köpcke and Zubin's approach with Chinese native speakers. We examined 76 animal expressions to explore the semantic interdependence of numeral classifiers and the nouns. Our study shows that nouns with the semantic feature [+ animate] are more likely to be classified by 个 gè if their denotatum is either very close to or very far located from the anthropocentric center. In contrast animate nouns whose denotata are located at some intermediate distance from the anthropocentric center are less likely to be classified by 个 gè.


The aim of the present study was to evaluate the gastro protective effects of FDREE in Indomethacin and cold restraint stress induced ulcer models. Wistar albino rats were employed in the study. The prelimi nary phytochemical screening of the ethanolic extract of root showed the presence of various phytoconstituents namely, tannins, al kaloids flavonoids, glycosides. The acute toxicity of the extract revealed that 2000 mg/kg was safe as no mor tality was seen a t this dose. Three doses 100, 200 and 4 00 mg /kg were chosen for the study. The extract elicited significant gastro protective effect in both the ulcer models which was evident by the results of gastric parameters and biochemical assays of Glutathione and Malondialdehyde . The extract significantly lowered the elevated levels of free acidity, total acidity, volume of gastric juice and malondialdehyde when compared with the negative control group. The levels of Glutathione were increased in the test groups. T he decrease in gastric volume, total acidity , free acidity and reduction in the levels of Malondialdehyde and increase in the levels of Glutathione in the test groups suggests the gastro protective effect of the plant. K eywords : Glutathione , Malondialdehyd e , Ficus dalhousiae root ethanolic extract, Indomethacin .


Next generation networks are defined to be packet based networks that provide telecommunication services to users by utilizing different transport technologies, wired and wireless. In this paper we provide a generic framework for handover decision management in next generation networks. We show that any handover decision algorithm can utilize our framework. We show the feasibility of applying our framework through an implementation example. One of the main features of NGNs is application adaptability; the applications designed for NGN systems have to be adaptable to different networks and different devices. We propose a handover decision algorithm that utilizes our generic framework and selects the network for handover such that the quality of experience of the user is near optimal. Through simulations we show that our algorithm reduces unnecessary handovers and also satisfies the handover requirements.


Pipelines and workflows are widely used in the medical research for enabling reproducibility and provenance tracking. Many tools exist and produced models (graphs most of the time) need to be exchanged, compared or analysed, therefore interoperability is required. For addressing the interoperability, standards have been developed such as the W3C PROV, PROV-O, CWL, and ISO TC276. institutions).


Anytime algorithms allow a system to trade solution quality for computation time. In previous work, monitoring techniques have been developed to allow agents to stop the computation at the "right" time so as to optimize a given time-dependent utility function. However, these results apply only to the single-agent case. In this paper we analyze the problems that arise when several agents solve components of a larger problem, each using an anytime algorithm. Monitoring in this case is more challenging as each agent is uncertain about the progress made so far by the others. We develop a formal framework for decentralized monitoring, establish the complexity of several interesting variants of the problem, and propose solution techniques for each one. Finally, we show that the framework can be applied to decentralized flow and planning problems.


The work of the first author was partially funded by Autoritas Consulting SA and by Ministerio de Econom´ia de Espa˜na under grant ECOPORTUNITY IPT-2012-1220-430000. The work of the second author was carried out in the framework of the WIQ-EI IRSES project (Grant No. 269180) within the FP 7 Marie Curie, the DIANA APPLICATIONS Finding Hidden Knowledge in Texts: Applications (TIN2012-38603-C02-01) project and the VLC/CAMPUS Microcluster on Multimodal Interaction in Intelligent Systems.


In this paper, an optimization methodology based on the surrogate model is proposed to synthesize arbitrary equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) patterns of a THz phased array. The optimization algorithm is implemented in PyAEDT, a Python library recently developed by ANSYS that can directly interact with HFSS (electromagnetic simulation software), where the mutual coupling effect and the element pattern are considered comprehensively. The simulated results reveal that the method works well, while conventional beamforming algorithms based on the array factor calculation are insufficient to precisely assess the EIRP performance of the THz phased array. The proposed high-fidelity optimization technique has a potential for accurate and fast EIRP pattern synthesis of THz phased arrays.


There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when actually Nobody asked Anybody. (Author unknown) ike other aspects of daily living, education always runs the risk of being left up to somebody else. Izaak Walton wrote in The Compleat Angler, "That which is everybody's business is nobody's business," for each person assumes someone else will shoulder the obligation. Yet, the education of children is too important to leave solely to the school or completely to the home and community. The purpose of this article is to show how three groups-professionals, parents, and pupils-relate to each other, and to propose specific categories of accountability that each group must assume if the home-school partnership is to germinate and mature.


-The physical basis of fracture mechanisms of austenitic steel with different microstructures was introduced briefly. The samples (SS316 austenitic stainless steel) studied were supplied in the form of a 22 mm-diameter round bar, were heat treated (HT) at 500 C, 800 C and for 1000 C followed by furnace cooling. This work examines the effect of different microstructures of austenitic stainless steel responses (static) of the alloy. It was found that yield strength decreases drastically along with hardness values with increase of HT temperature; however, tensile strength follows the same tendency above HT 800 C. It was also observed that strain hardening coefficient, K, was mainly dependent on ferrite content, while n remain unchanged. Static fracture morphology reveals a normal progression in brittleness of material. Microstructure observations as well as SEM examinations of the fracture surface for statically fractured specimen were performed to support the above experimental results. Key-Words: Static Fracture Mechanics, SS316 Austenitic Stainless Steel, Reactor Pressure Vessel


Blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) juveniles (59 g) and channel cafish (I. punctatus) juveniles (84 g) were stocked at 24,700 fish/ha into twelve 0.04-ha earthen ponds and fed diets containing either 25 or 35% protein according to a winter feeding schedule. After 189 days, final biomass in ponds stocked with channel catfish was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than in ponds stocked with blue catfish, largely reflecting differences in stocking weight. Both species lost weight during the winter period, whether fed 25 or 35% protein diets. At harvest, fat levels were significantly higher and protein levels significantly lower in blue catfish than in channel catfish, despite the blue catfish's smaller size. Channel catfish appear to rely more on fat stores during the winter period than blue catfish. Blue catfish demonstrated no growth advantage over channel catfish during the winter period.


With examples drawn from her own experience, from her patients' stories, and from myth, fairy tale, and contemporary fiction, Dr. Bassoff shows readers how to overcome the conflict between intense identification with and resentment of the mother that so often causes women deep unhappiness.


The present study is focused on the preparation of chitosan (CS)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) blend and semi-interpenetrating polymer network (sIPN). Blend CS/PAN hydrogel films (HFs) were prepared by solution blending and casting technique. CS in the blend was crosslinked with epichlorohydrin (ECH) to prepare sIPN. The developed CS/PAN blend and sIPN hydrogels were characterized with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermagravimetric analysis (TGA), and Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). The result showed good miscibility between CS and PAN and crosslinking of CS in the blend. The swelling of the different blended and sIPN hydrogels samples were examined at room temperature (Tr). Blend (C80/P20) sample showed highest swelling (∼2400%) and fair degree of stability (∼28% until 96 h), whereas sIPN hydrogel exhibited relatively low degree of swelling (∼244%) and high degree of aqueous (∼85 % until 96 h), and thermal (onset temperature 304°...


This paper considers the problem of designing a linear functional filter (LFF) to estimate a linear function of the state of a linear stochastic system. The LFF is a linear unbiased filter and is generally of lower order than the Kalman-Bucy filter. When the LFF is unbiased in the so-called linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) problem, it is shown that the separation properties are established for the quadratic cost function and the stability. In the steady-state case, the minimal order, a canonical form and the optimal design are obtained for a single LFF which estimates a scalar-valued linear function of the state. Finally, an illustrative example is given to show the effectiveness of the LFF.


FIELD: agriculture and construction. SUBSTANCE: method implies seeding of ground with grass, watering by spraying, hand weeding, and regular mowing of grass. After sowing of grass, irrigation by water spraying is effected twice per day. First mowing is carried out in dry weather at grass height of 8-10 cm. Further mowing procedures are performed at grass height not over 12 cm down to height not below 4-6 cm. After each use of grass-covered ground, damaged spots of it are repaired by way of raking and adding special soil mixture containing grass seeds, and each watering is performed to soil depth of 1-3 cm. Maintenance soil mixture has following components, mass %: chernozem - 60-80, peat - 35-18, dry softwood sawdust - 5-10. Entire surface of ground is periodically levelled by spreading maintenance soil mixture without seeds. Resodding of damaged spots is effected. Mowing is carried out not later than one day before use of ground. Last mowing in season is done with possibility of grass growing before coming of frost. Mineral fertilizer is introduced 5-10 days before use of ground. Before introduction of fertilizer, ground is shoveled. At application of fertilizer, it is washed off from leaves into soil with daily intensive watering of ground during 3-4 days. Created sod is regularly pierced by means of power-driven or manual sod-piercing implement. EFFECT: high efficiency. 9 cl


Communication control device comprising: includes an input / output unit (1), which is dependent on the receipt of a packet for generating a search query and a destination address of the packet, the mask data, to receive a result, route and transmitting data based around the package on the result of route data and a memory (3) for storing a route table tree having a tree structure of a plurality of nodes with respective node data, and a route search circuit (2) for access to the route tree table in response to the query, to determine the route information of ending node as a result of route data based on the destination address, wherein the access selecting a node of the plurality of nodes based (on a mask data + 1) th bit contains the destination address, and the result of route data to the input / output unit (1 output) to transmit the packet.


Compared with single chemotherapy, collaborative treatment can significantly improve the cure rate of malignant tumors, reduce the use of chemotherapy drugs and avoid the damage to the organs. The combination of Photo thermal therapy and chemotherapy has also become the most common treatment in recent years. In this article, we synthesized a kind of mesoporous silica with a large specific surface area and pore volume to encapsulate the Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Owing to the unique magnetic and photo thermal properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles, the combination of PTT- chemo targeted therapy has been achieved and greatly reduces the side effects of the drugs on the human body. This novel particle will create a broader application in the future.


(...) Three experiments were conducted using a growth chamber and a glasshouse to determine the influence of starter mineral N and strains of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii on dry matter production and N 2 fixation on arrowleaf clover. In one experiment, seeds were planted in a N-deficient medium, inoculated with two strains of rhizobia and provided with five levels of mineral N. The lowest level of mineral N doubled seedling dry weights and the amount of biologically fixed N in 40-d-old seedlings. Rhizobial strain interacted with mineral N in influencing dry matter production and N 2 fixation (...)


This paper contributes an estimation framework to measure both technological and linkage externalities from foreign direct investment (FDI). Empirical research to date has dealt only with intra-industry spillovers from FDI without allowance for inter-industry effects. However, as optimal organization of the multinational corporation (MNC) involves minimization of profit losses due to leakage of technical information to competitors, host-country firms within the MNC's sector experience limited productivity gains ensuing FDI. Other producers may benefit, especially when MNCs transfer knowledge to local clients, or outsource to local upstream suppliers. FDI substitutes within-sector domestic investment but complements it across sectors. Hence, FDI can potentially induce not only exit and entry but also changes in incumbents' market shares across industries. The net impact on aggregate capital formation by host-country producers hinges on the interaction between linkages and spillovers. Estimations based on the Colombian Manufacturing Census yield the sectoral pattern of externality diffusion and measurement of spillover and linkage effects from FDI.


Leprosy is a chronic communicable and becomes neglected disease. Papua Province still become a leprosy pocket area in Indonesia, including Jayapura City. One of leprosy pocket area in Jayapura City is Hamadi. Based on data, there were 131 active leprosy patients in Hamadi Public Health Centre (PHC) until June 2019. From a research in 2015, showed that lack of knowledge about leprosy and its management among household contacts become important factor for leprosy patients. Rumah Sobat (Pal's House) an integrated self-care group for leprosy was operated in November 2015 in Hamadi PHC. Adopted 5 tables program from Posyandu Balita (Integrated Health Centre for Pre and Post Natal), Rumah Sobat have 5 parts (corners) consists: registration corner, education corner, care and treatment corner, examination corner (physical and laboratory tests) and handicraft skill corner. Operated one time in a month. 64 persons (20 active patients, 7 cured patients and 37 household contacts) were attended the opening of Rumah Sobat. Positive response arise from patients, household contacts and stakeholders. Rumah sobat still operating until now. Integrated selfcare group with household contacts and ex leprosy patients involved, can used as alternative of leprosy caring method. In other hand, more approach methods and techniques were needed to increasing the participants of Rumah Sobat.


The references is a important part of a scientific and technological papers.Some causality is that the references is a serises demonstrating the significance of the papers.it is a master for commenting some question of the papers. The references can differentiate a personal fruition from another.The references can show profession morality of an author.


The Library of the University of Thessaly was set up in 1988. The objective of high priority was and still is it's utilization by all citizens of the Thessaly area.
The Faculty of Humanities Library Branch
Special emphasis was given to the core of the collection, which should be capable of covering extensively all informational requests or reading interest around every field of knowledge. Established in the '90s, it is a contemporary and scientific library. All those factors mentioned above, along with:
- The effective management of human and material resources,
- The abundance of specialized staff,
- The continuing collection enrichment
- The all year round operation,
- The modern material and its technical infrastructure,
- The free use of Internet and
- Its city center location
attract a number of unaffiliated clientele, of different age, profession, education and social characteristics. They have the privilege of using many specialized or non-specialized services, concerning their studies, post studies, their jobs and their long-life education.
From the growing number of non-academic visitors to this Branch of the University Library, it is clear that the Library is "gaining" an important share of clientele compared to the rest of Local Libraries. Nevertheless what is not obvious is also the lack of a bi-directional, constant, unofficial but essential collaboration between the University Library and the rest of Local Libraries. The long experience and practice of the Thessaly University Library, contradicts a) the fears of many other Greek Academic Libraries, for qualitative and quantitative decrease in their services, in case they served also citizens besides academics, a task suitable only for local libraries according to their opinion, b) the belief that Academic Libraries when serving citizens are boycotting the function of local Libraries.
Our main concern must be the establishment and activation of Libraries (having an impact on the cultural and scientific development of our country) and the careful use of experience and technology towards a fair and without discriminations and exclusions spread of knowledge.


Sooty mould caused by citrus whiteflies,  Dialeurodes citri Ashmead and Aleurocanthus  woglumi Ashby (Aleyrodidae : Hemiptera) is  posing a serious threat to citrus industry in  Punjab. Sooty mould (Capnodium citri Berk. and  Desm.) is a black superficial fungal growth which  appears on leaves, twigs, flowers and fruits of  plants heavily infested with honey dew excreting  insects such as whiteflies. Whiteflies affect the  plant performance by sucking cell sap while sooty  mould interferes with the normal photosynthetic  activity of plant which reduces the plant vigour  and subsequently its fruit bearing capacity  (Shivankar, 2000; Arora et al., 2000). Since sooty  mould occurs due to the presence of citrus  whiteflies, the prevention and treatment consist  not only in fighting the mould itself, but also in  exclusion and control of whiteflies.


The emergence of the Internet has forced a large number of firms to introduce Internet-based channels of distribution into existing distribution systems to market their products. In multiple channels context, there has been a call for better performance measures to assess whether channel management is productive. Unfortunately, little academic research has addressed key criteria to apply in determining the marketing channel performance. In order to fill in the literature gap, this research attempts to adopt Analytic Network Process (ANP) to identify and compare the key performance criteria of Internet channels on the basis of Strategic Profit Model (SPM). This study found that Return on Equity and Return on Total Assets are two most important criteria. This research helps managers to know the key criteria of Internet channels performance evaluation, which is much helpful for them to configure their improvement plans as they may not have sufficient resources to deal with all the dimensions at the same time.


Living and dead foraminifera have been investigated along three transects away from tidewater glaciers of northern Novaya Zemlya. There are three glacier-proximal dominant foraminiferal taxa: Allog...


Objective:To discuss the relationship between human cytomegalovirus intrauterine infection and vertical transmission from mother to fetus. Methods:RT-PCR method was used to detect IE-mRNA and L-mRNA in 85 maternal blood samples which were HCMV-IgM positive or HCMV-DNA positive.And HCMV-DNA was analyzed by PEP-PCR method in fetal cells isolated from maternal blood. Results:57 out of 85 were detected IE-mRNA or L-mRNA positive,among which 37 samples of fetal cells were HCMV-DNA positive.The HCMV transmission rate was 64.91%.None of IE-mRNA or L-mRNA were detected in 28 samples and 4 of them were HCMV-DNA positive in fetal cells.It's transmission was 14.29%.There was statistical difference between the two groups (P0.001). Conclusions:The risk of transmission rate was higher when they were actively infected.It has important meaning in taking correct therapy measures and predicting fetal health.


The singularity avoidance problem in image-based visual servoing can be formulated as a constrained optimization problem where the constraint is typically the distance from singular points. This paper develops a new approach to vision-based robot control, which avoids the robot singularities by using a new method for nonlinear programming, called biased Quasi-Newton. Contrary to classical singularity avoidance this approach does not need any a-priori knowledge of kinematics or robot model to avoid singular points or regions. Furthermore we also illustrate how to apply the bias method for simple visual obstacle avoidance. Finally to show the practical applicability of our method. We have implemented it on Barrett WAM and PUMA 560 manipulators and tested both numerous real trajectories, as well as run exhaustive simulations around critical configurations using a simulation model to confirm empirically that both safe and efficient trajectory are chosen around singular regions.


The contribution of higher vibrational levels to the rotational spectrum of linear polyatomic molecules with a center of symmetry (CO2 and C2H2) is assessed. An apparent nuclear degeneracy is analytically formulated by vibrational averaging and compared to numerical averaging over vibrational levels. It enables inferring the vibrational temperature of the bending and asymmetric stretching modes from the ratio of even to odd peaks in the rotational Raman spectrum. The contribution from higher vibrational levels is already observable at room temperature as g˜e/o=0.96/0.04 for CO2 and g˜e/o=1.16/2.84 for C2H2. The use of the apparent degeneracy to account for higher vibrational levels is demonstrated on spectra measured for a CO2 microwave plasma in the temperature range of 300-3500 K, and shown to be valid up to 1500 K.


Active magnetic bearings (AMB) find extended application in high-speed rotating electrical machines due to the contact-free operation, which reduces the overall machine wear. Previous research on the control system for the AMB dealt mostly with PID controller, with its advantage of simple design. Improvements using faster control access to the plant can be realized by state-space control. Additionally, the magnetic bearing as a MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) system can be better described by the state-space equations. A digital state controller is applied to levitate a rotor of a 40-kW 40000-rpm PM synchronous machine. Simulation and measurement results are given for zero speed operation at an AMB test-rig.


Assuming the well-known conjecture that [x,x+x^t] contains a prime for t > 0 and x sufficiently large, we prove: For 0 0 as s -> 0. A curious feature of the proof is that Behrend's construction on large subsets of {1,2,...,x} containing no 3-term a.p., is a key ingredient.


Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in the world and ranked first in India. It is mainly caused by sexually transmitted infection (STI) of human papilloma virus (HPV). The patients of cervical cancer are associated with negative labels by general public because of their promiscuous behavior and unwillingness to have protected sex. They themselves have expressed shame, self-blame, guilt and fear of social exclusion. The introduction of cancer cervix screening programme for selected population induces fear and anxiety, which may be detrimental for mental health. The diagnoses and treatment of cancer have significant impact on physical, psychological, emotional and social aspects of individual and culture. The most common psychiatric disorder observed in cancer patients is adjustment disorder with depression, anxiety or both. Anxiety is an unpleasant ABSTRACT


"The ubiquitous appeal to a Golden Age of peace and spendour, be it the , the Middle Ages, or sometimes the , leads pax Romana ancien régime to two types of reflections. Some travellers ponder the inevitable decline of French civilization....Others detect a flaw in modern society rather than an abstract historical force....Both approaches resort to the past not only as an "escape", but, most importantly, as an indictment of the present." 157


Objective The present analysis was made to understand the degree of prevalence of risk factors related to chronic diseases for the provision of a scientific basis for the development of interventions good for the province. Methods Stratified cluster random sampling was used and 1260 persons were surveyed by questionnaire and uniformly concentrated investigation on the risk factors of chronic diseases. Results 77.5% of the surveyed population had one or more risk factors. The rates of smoking, drinking, overweight and obesity were respectively 26.5%, 38.1%, 32.9% and 8.3%; 55.6% of the people presented a lack of physical activity; 53.7% lacked calcium intake; 16.2% lacked vitamin B and C intake and 8.2% lacked protein intake. 68.8% of them had intake of styrene-acrylic category carcinogenic substances and high sodium food. Prevalence rate of hypertension, hyperlipemia and diabetes made up 24.2%, 5.9% and 1.7%, respectively; smoking, drinking, BMI≥24, deficiency of vitamin B and C intake and hyperlipemia are risk factors of hypertension. Conclusion The risk factors of chronic diseases are at high level, and the continued existence of risk factors gives rise to high incidence of chronic diseases. Interference of the risk factors is of urgent need to curb the epidemic of chronic diseases.


The lipid profile of seven species of unicellular eukaryotic microalgae grown under controlled conditions was studied with emphasis on the hydrocarbons and the fatty acids as part of a search for oil‐producing algae. Green, slow‐growing colonies of Botryococcus braunii Kutz contained the highest lipid content of 45% based on the organic weight, with an increase to 55% under nitrogen deficiency and with no effect of sodium chloride stress. Ankistrodesmus sp. Thomas, Dunaliella spp., Isochrysis sp., Nannochloris sp. Thomas, and Nitzschia sp. Chapman contained an average of 25% lipids under nitrogen sufficient conditions. Nitrogen deficiency resulted in significant increase in the lipid content in all species but Dunaliella spp., which produced a higher content of carbohydrates. Significant low amounts of acyclic hydrocarbons were detected only in Botryococcus braunii Kutz and not in the other algae. The major hydrocarbon fractions in nitrogen deficient Botryococcus braunii Kutz, Dunaliella salina Thomas, Isochrysis spp. and Nannochloris sp. Thomas were cyclic and branched polyunsaturated components which were identified as various isoprenoid derivatives. The polar lipid composition of glycolipids and phospholipids of all species investigated was fairly typical of photosynthetic eukaryotic algae. Fatty acid composition was species specific, with changes occurring in the relative amounts of individual acids of cells cultivated under different conditions and growth phases. All species synthesized C14:0, C16.0, C18:1, C18:2 and C18:3 fatty acids; C 16:4 in Ankistrodesmus sp. Thomas; C18:4 and C 22.6 in Isochrysis sp.; C16:2, C16:3 and C20:5 in Nannochloris sp. Thomas; C16:2, C16:3 and C20:5 in Nitzschia sp. Chapman. Nitrogen deficiency and salt stress induced accumulation of C18:1 in all treated species and to a lesser extent in Botryococcus braunii Kutz. The low production of hydrocarbons under optimal growth conditions and the high production of hydrocarbons under limited growth conditions cannot support the notion that microalgae can be utilized as biosolar energy converters for the production of liquid fuel, but point to the availability of a variety of neutral and polar lipid products.


A list is provided of 263 neotropical species of bryophytes (141 mosses, 122 hepatics) distributed in Bryophyta Neotropica Exsiccata, Fascicles I-VI (1984-1992).


In this study, we reported a decrease of oxygen concentration and an increase in the growth rate of a-plane gallium nitride (a-GaN) film grown using Ga2O gas and NH3 gas. The oxygen concentration in a-GaN film was decreased with increasing partial pressure of NH3 and growth temperature. An a-GaN film with the lowest oxygen concentration of 4 ×1018 atoms/cm3 and the growth rate of 18 µm/h was obtained under NH3 partial pressure of 84 kPa at 1250 °C. We concluded that growth under high partial pressure of NH3 at high temperature can produce a-plane GaN film with a high growth rate and low oxygen concentration.


Laquinimod is an orally available quinoline 3-carboxamide derivative drug studied in phase II and III clinical trials for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), systemic lupus erythematosus, and Crohn disease. Laquinimod has shown promise in RRMS clinical trials,1,2 and identifying the mechanism underlying its disease-modifying effects could help target it to the patient population where it would be most effective. Studies in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) models of multiple sclerosis (MS) have suggested that the drug may ameliorate disease by modulating innate and adaptive immune responses, for example via effects on macrophages/monocytes, dendritic cells (DCs), and T-helper (Th) cells.3–5 However, its key effector mechanisms and the cellular targets by which the drug ameliorates disease are still not fully resolved. The article by Varrin-Doyer et al.6 in this issue of Neurology® Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation sheds new light on this question and provides important insights that could be relevant for the treatment of MS. In elegant experiments, Varrin-Doyer et al. provide convincing evidence that treatment with laquinimod strongly ameliorates disease in 2 models of recombinant myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)–induced EAE and spontaneous EAE in mice transgenic for a T-cell receptor specific for MOG35-55 peptide and a MOG-specific immunoglobulin H chain knock-in (2D2 × Th mice). In both of these models, the authors show that laquinimod treatment prevented the development of T-follicular-helper (Tfh) cells and decreased the production of MOG-specific immunoglobulin G antibodies. Interestingly, in a spontaneous model of EAE, associated with the formation of meningeal follicle-like structures that are populated by B and T cells,7 laquinimod therapy reduced the number and the size of these cellular aggregates.


Abstract Thermal or base-promoted conversion of 5′-O-TBDMS-3′-O-(1H-imidazole-1-thiocarbonyl)thymidine (1) afforded 5′-O-TBDMS-2,3′-anhydro-thymidine (2), a pivotal intermediate for the transformation of the 3′-hydroxy group of 2′-deoxyribonucleosides, in high yield.


Summary: The professional stress of the nurses is one of the main criteria in determining the quality of nursing care in neurological hospital care. Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the professional stress of nurses in neurological clinics and wards in Bulgaria. Methodology: The survey was conducted through a direct anonymous questionnaire during the period June 2016 - February 2017. The respondents are 100 nurses (out of 136) working in the neurological wards of nine hospitals in Bulgaria, selected on a lottery basis. Results: The results show staff shortages reported in 53, 8%, psychoemotional exhaustion among nurses in 64% and stress at work in (64, 1%). More than one-third of respondents are reporting for a lacking willingness to work. Occupational exhaustion is presented as psychoemotional exhaustion, accompanied by low professional motivation and dissatisfaction. Conclusions: The specific nature of the professional activity of the


This essay tries to find a philosophical answer to the question that theology has not been able to answer for centuries: "If the world was created intentionally by God who is Supreme and absolute Good, what is the meaning of the existence of moral evil?". The author, criticizing axiological and ethical relativism, specifies that Satan is the highest personal evil and the source of all evil individuals. In his considerations the author comes to the conclusion that the existence of evil is a condition for the existence of morality and free will, and therefore for the freedom of human beings (freedom is defined as the ability to make conscious choices). Furthermore, evil strengthens or even makes possible the existence of certain values and contributes to a better understanding of the nature of good. Without evil and suffering, man would not be so fully human.


A 20 day old female child† presented to the Pediatric Surgery outpatient department in Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, India, in March 2015, with an extra right lower limb. A parasitic limb having a malformed foot was originating from the anterolateral aspect of the right inguinal region (Fig. 1). The right lower limb bearing club foot was shorter and had restricted mobility due to the overlying parasitic limb. Pelvic X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging showed normal hip joint, femur and thigh muscles of parasitic limb, however muscles and bones of the leg region were hypoplastic (Figs 2 and 3). The child underwent surgery in the form of 'Parasitic Limb Disarticulation' so as to prevent the right lower


In this article, we prove some well-known coupled fixed point theorems in 0-complete metric spaces. Also, we present some corollaries related to our study. In addition to these, we give an example where our results successfully obtained the existence and uniqueness of the coupled fixed point, which cannot be applied to demonstrate in complete metric spaces. Finally, we apply our results to examine the existence and uniqueness of a solution of the system of nonlinear integral equations.


Objective To analyze the reasons of disputes and complaints due to injection of expensive drugs in outpatient department,and take effective countermeasures to improve the quality of nursing.Methods The reasons of waste of expensive drugs during injection were analyzed,and the improvement measures were carried out.Then,the patients' complaints and nursing disputes were compared before and after the improvement.Results The main rea- sons of disputes were leftover of drugs during pumping,lack of responsibility,nurses' techniques,and special packaging of drugs.After the improvement, the disputes and complaints decreased from 21 cases in year 2005 to 3 cases in year 2006.Conclusion The improved measures can effectively reduce medical disputes.


Confidence measures for stereo earned increasing popularity in most recent works concerning stereo, being effectively deployed to improve its accuracy. While most measures are obtained by processing cues from the cost volume, top-performing ones usually leverage on random-forests or CNNs to predict match reliability. Therefore, a proper amount of labeled data is required to effectively train such confidence measures. Being such ground-truth labels not always available in practical applications, in this paper we propose a methodology suited for training confidence measures in a self-supervised manner. Leveraging on a pool of properly selected conventional measures, we automatically detect a subset of very reliable pixels as well as a subset of erroneous samples from the output of a stereo algorithm. This strategy provides labels for training confidence measures based on machine-learning technique without ground-truth labels. Compared to state-of-the-art, our method is neither constrained to image sequences nor to image content. Experimental results on three challenging datasets with three stereo algorithms and three state-of-the-art confidence measures based on machine-learning techniques confirm the effectiveness of our proposal for self-supervised training.


Object Counting is a challenging problem with different solutions based on the available computing power and the nature of data to be processed. Memory efficiency, simplicity and speed are very important requisites for algorithms to be used in modern day systems which include distributed systems and wireless sensor networks where it is extremely advantageous to do basic preprocessing of data from the sensors in the nodes itself. Reduced computing power available in the nodes poses a challenge and this can be overcome by the use of algorithms with simple steps. We present an algorithm to monitor continuity, count objects and measure parameters such as area by isolating patterns and objects from data based on simple computations. Memory efficiency, speed and flexibility of the proposed algorithm have been discussed. It has many broad applications that include counting objects on a conveyer, monitoring people in a traffic signal, pattern isolation from multicolored images and monitoring continuity in real time image data from sensors. We describe the experimental setup used to implement this algorithm.


Pleasure is arguably the central issue in the feminist debate around women and representation. The discussion has been particularly contentious in film studies. In the early days of feminist film criticism, pleasure was repudiated, being perceived as inextricably linked with dominant (patriarchal) ideology. More recently, however, the mood has shifted. Measure is gradually coming into favour, as its critical potential becomes more apparent. The thesis traces the contours of the pleasure debate, from the perspective of both feminist film criticism and feminist film practice. The principal theories and methods of feminist film analysis of the last fifteen years are reviewed, as are the basic features of the feminist film aesthetic as they have developed over the same time frame. Two quite distinct conceptions of pleasure emerge from this review; the differences between them are explicated in depth, and a synthesis is proposed., While the thesis deals specifically with film, the issues it raises are relevant to other popular cultural practices as well. After all, popular culture would not be popular were it not for pleasure. The thesis argues that pleasure is crucial to a feminist cultural politics, and concludes that the theory and the practice of pleasure must be made to coincide in order for this politics to be truly successful.


It is well established that the VIX Index tends to be negatively correlated with equity markets. This suggests that VIX futures and options may have the potential to provide significant diversification benefits for traditional portfolios. However, since the term structure of VIX futures is generally upward sloping, long VIX futures positions can place a significant drag on portfolio performance.

In this paper we consider the performance of strategies that buy VIX futures or VIX call options in a portfolio context in 2008 and 2016, as well as over a 10+ year period from 2006 to 2017. In addition, we consider alternative strategies including long S&P 500® protective put strategies and the dynamic S&P 500 plus VIX call buying strategy of the VXTH index.

Meaningful portfolio diversification benefits for risk-averse investors are possible over particular time periods with small allocations to long VIX futures or call options, but there can be substantial portfolio drag if large allocations are made over long time periods during which there are flat to rising stock markets.


Abstract : Innovative problem solving is a critical cognitive skill that leaders need to tackle the complex and ill-defined problems inherent in leadership and dynamic organizations. In an era of rapid technological and informational innovations, Air Force leaders find themselves in a constantly changing military and world environment. Air Force leaders must be capable of innovative thought and action in order to deal with the ambiguous, complex, and novel problems this changing environment generates. Although creative problem solving is often perceived as a rare talent, it is a cognitive skill and innate ability that can be nurtured, developed, and stimulated through education and training. This research paper examines the following two questions: (1) Are USAF officer professional military education (PME) curricula at in-residence schools offering innovative strategies for solving problems? and (2) Along the PME continuum, is there a difference in what is offered in each school and is it appropriate for the level of the officer's experience? A literature review of the following areas was conducted: the importance of innovative problem solving, problem solving and leadership, the acquisition of problem solving knowledge and skills, and the USAF officer PME curricula. The research concluded that while Air Force PME does a good job of developing innovative problem solving skills at the primary officer levels, not much of an emphasis is placed on fine-tuning or expanding these skills at the middle and senior officer levels. More research is needed to determine whether the curriculum at the middle and senior service schools should be expanded to include innovative problem solving.


Introduction Sepsis commonly brings patients to the emergency department (ED). Patient outcomes can vary widely. In some cases, rare complications of sepsis such as autoimmune hemolytic anemia can occur. Case Report A 68-year-old female presented with sepsis secondary to infected nephrolithiasis. The patient had signs and symptoms consistent with hemolysis upon arrival to the ED. Her hemolysis progressively worsened over a two-day period leading to a diagnosis of warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia. She responded well to treatment; however, her condition began to worsen due to a new infection caused by perforated colonic diverticula. The patient ultimately expired from complications of her perforated colonic diverticula. Conclusion It is crucial that emergency physicians understand the risk factors, symptoms, pathophysiology, and treatment of this rare complication of sepsis so that favorable patient outcomes can be achieved.


This article examines the various discursive strands converging within the cult of friendship in mid-eighteenth-century German culture. Following Christian Furchtegott Gellert's "Vier und zwanzigste Moralische Vorlesung" (Twenty-fourth Moral Lecture), it explores a programme of virtue that no longer follows religious values, but is informed by the enlightened paradigm of reason, and the redeeming of this idea within the framework of interpersonal relationships. The second half of the article investigates the relationship between friendship and the epistolary correspondence culture in the eighteenth century, illuminating the practices and artefacts of friendship communication.


The Communist Party of China displayed its ability to build China's advanced culture at the initial stage. This ability was shown in three aspects mainly: (1) Create a new theoretical phase of China's advanced culture which manifested the Chinese Communist Party's ability to choose, use and give full play to the key role of theory which was an important part of its ability to build theory.(2)Create a new practical phase of the development China's advanced culture which manifested the Chinese Communist Party's ability to integrate its cultural theories with practice. (3)Create a new phase in which China's advanced culture made the transition wholly which manifested the Chinese Communist Party's ability to control the trends of cultural development.


then married—Is he eligible for promotion to higher orders as one who has been married only cum unica et virgine?) Those who are seeking the origins of such modern concepts as "the rights of children" or "the best interests of the child" will not find them here. Because premodern Western law did not conceive of children as a separate legal topic, we do not find any elaborated themes or policies concerning them. The harsh consequences of their parents' sin were visited on illegitimate children for centuries. And yet, the ebb and flow of the doctrines and practices concerning paternity and legitimation by subsequent matrimony suggest that at least in some periods there were those who sought to mitigate these harsh consequences, and occasionally they say that that is what they are trying to do. The absorption by the secular courts in the early modern period of actions that had previously been in the ecclesiastical courts did not, at least initially, bring much change in doctrine. Ultimately, however, whether because the concerns of the state were not the same as those of the church or because of a hardening of sentiment that may be associated with Jansenism, the results were less favorable to children (and to their unmarried mothers) than seem to have prevailed in previous centuries.


In this paper a novel approach to image completion is introduced, which based on algorithm of Structure Priority Belief Propagation (SPBP) and Structure Propagation (SP). It is to use the user input line segment as auxiliary and use other one kind of distribution to source patches and destination patches. Namely in the auxiliary line source part which shows the belt-shaped discrete distribution, to destination patches which needs to complete, So each destination patch, which containing auxiliary line segment, is the similar overlap scheme for SPBP algorithm. The experimental results indicated that this optimized method surpasses the first two algorithms obviously in the image completion effect, and enhances the operation efficiency as well.


Although adult T. eques females had a longer SVL
and HL than males, the sexes did not differ in their
diet, and we found that larger females had more
offspring. These results suggest that sexual size
dimorphism in natural populations of T. eques may be
determined by fecundity selection rather than by the
ecological factors associated with the spectrum of
available prey sizes. The lack of intersexual
differences in the slope of the regression between HL
and SVL, and the upward shift in the intercept of the
regression line for females together with the shift
along the common slope toward larger females (data
for larger females do not overlap with the data for
larger males), showed that the larger heads of the
females are probably an outcome of their larger bodies
(SVL) and not of the allometric relationship between
these traits.


This work has as purpose to find the failures in the processes of administration of the inventories that the Logistic Agency of the Military Forces had in the period 2016 - 2018 for which it is fundamental to see the guidelines that since 2016 are in use for the control of the processes, after understanding the guidelines that propose the state of the function The public function is the sense that the process of audits has been developed throughout that period of time, as some examples in which failures are found ; analyzed point by point these failures are sought understand the difficulties that are taken into account at the time of conducting their mission processes.
Throughout the development, the work has become the process of managing internal audits from a policy perspective as it has been realized before being one more of the advice and control has been updated. flaws in the limits of the maximum errors.


Phytosociological study was carried out to estimate the dominant of weed flora in low land rice eco-system under varing climatic condition. The survey was conducted at Annamalai University experimental farm, Department of Agronomy, Annamalainagar during 2016 and 2017. The identified numbers were 11 and 14 during 2016 and 2017 wet season. Cyperus rotundus, Cyperus irria, Cyperus difformis, Echinocoloa colonum, Eclipta alba, Echinocoloa crusgali were the densely populated in 2016 while Cyperus rotundus, Cyperus irria, Echinocoloa colonum, Cyperus difformis, Marsilia quatrifolia, Echinocola crusgali and Bergia capensis, were the most densed in 2017. IVI computed for individual weed species in 2016 at annamalai nagar indicated that Cyperus rotundus was the predominant weed species with highest Relative abundance (RA) of 10.54 %, Relative density (RDE) of 18.97%, Relative frequency (RF) of 16% and Important value index (IVI) of 45.50 while in 2017 also obtained the Cyperus rotundus was the predominant weed species with highest Relative abundance (RA) of 10.61 %, Relative density (RDE) of 19.64%, Relative frequency (RF) of 1615.38% and Important value index (IVI) of 45.63. All other weed species were low in IVI and also rare in their occurrence with lesser frequency.


In many situations the effect of a continuous covariate on response varies across groups defined by levels of a categorical variable. This paper addresses generalized additive models incorporating the so‐called factor‐by‐curve interaction. A local scoring algorithm based on local linear kernel smoothers was used to estimate the model. Two different types of bootstrap‐based procedures are proposed for testing interaction terms, namely, the likelihood ratio test, and a procedure based on an estimate of the interaction terms. Given the high computational cost involved, binning techniques were used to speed up computation in the estimation and testing processes. A simulation study was conducted to assess the validity of these bootstrap‐based tests. This methodology was applied to studying prefrontal cortex neural activity associated with decision‐making in monkeys. The proposed statistical procedure proved very useful in revealing the neural activity correlates of decision‐making strategies adopted by monkeys in accordance with different behavioural tasks. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


INTRODUCING A DEVICE FOR REMOVING OPHTHALMIC SOLUTIONS condoms OR OTHERWISE, TO Pour the dissolution of a vessel. The device consists preferably of a container with flexible walls, defining the chamber RETAINING a solution, but can also be an aerosol or ANY other container. VESSEL also carries preferably a neck-shaped portion and a head for dispensing the liquid, WITH A vessel outlet at its end, through which leaves the solution. It also carries means for removing the preservative chamber through the container outlet. THESE MEDIA MATERIAL WITHDRAWAL EXCLUSION PREFERABLY CARRY. CONDOM IS REMOVED TO CONTACT organic material


Presentation of Case A fifty-three-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of weakness of the leg. She had had severe rheumatoid arthritis for seventeen years and for the past eight yea...


Students of Tamara Nikolaevna Shamalo congratulate her with the jubilee. This article tells about the scientific making of Tamara Nikolaevna as the eminent native scientist and describes development of her scientific school.


Background:Original study that examined senior nursing student awareness of an Acuity Measurement tool. Study examined nursing student knowledge of patients who are more acute and potentially decompensating. Adds information to need for Rapid Response Teams, areas to focus in nursing education and strengths in student's learning. Objective:Develop awareness of Early Warning Screening Tools as education tool for student nurses and novice nurses. Identify need for early recognition of acute deteriorating patients. Strengthen knowledge for Rapid Response Team interventions. Focus participants on areas of teaching for RN's working in high acuity areas. Methods:A Quantitative Study using a validated questionnaire. Using a convenience sample, 89 participants were questioned. Results:Nurses were unfamiliar with Acuity and Early Warning Screening tools. Nurses need more knowledge and practice to recognize Neurological Emergencies and Respiratory Deterioration. Cardiac responses were met adequately. Conclusion:Incorporate more knowledge on Early Warning screenings into nursing education. Increase awareness of Rapid Response Teams and their assessment tools. Increase knowledge for nurses to identify Neurological and Respiratory Emergencies.


The equilibrium conditions on distended reconnected field lines in the distant geomagnetic tail are investigated on the assumption that the field line tension is balanced by tail lobe 'mantle' plasma convecting into the central current sheet. Subject to steady reconnection at a neutral line being possible at some point in the tail we show that steady solutions can be obtained for arbitrary down-tail variations of mantle influx. Results are presented for a simple but physically plausible model in which the mantle density and bluk speed at the current sheet increase steadily down-tail. Acceleration of lobe plasma in the current sheet is also discussed, and the consequent structure of the hot plasma regions down stream from the neutral line.


Mathematical modelling of the biological processes, diseases and organs are important for the model-based control of diseases. Due to unmodeled dynamics, unknown and external disturbances, the performance of controllers based on these models are degraded for the accurate control. Therefore, robust controllers are need especially for the applications on patients. Inflammation, the cause of many complex biological phenomena and diseases, is a nonlinear process that is difficult to control. In this paper, continuous-time sliding-mode controller has been designed for the control of acute inflammation response (AIR) and antibacterial drug infusion under external disturbances both for septic and aseptic cases. Sliding-mode controller (SMC) is mostly used to control nonlinear systems against external disturbances and parametric uncertainties. Beside the control signal generation, we propose constraints on the control signals based on the clinical experiences such that the applied control signal is suitable for the health and improves the performance of the controller. Due to the multiple equilibrium point on the behavior of the acute inflammation response, it is difficult to design such model-based controllers without input constraints. In the numerical applications, septic death case and aseptic death case with disturbances are controlled and acceptable performances are obtained for future clinical applications.