Until the deep-rooted reforms started from the Selim II era, Ottoman health system was based on the value series of the Seljuk era. The health institutions of the era, named Dârüşşifâ, bimarhâne and timarhâne, were not official state institutions but they were rather established through the donations of bureaucrats and members of public. Established in the classical period, the institution of 'Hekim Başılık (Chief Physicianship)' mostly served to organize the health services of the palace and the army. During this long period when the health-related needs of people were not met by the state in Europe and ottoman State, the health and treatment requirements of people were addressed through physicians, surgeons and foundation hospitals in larger towns. Moving towards rural areas and greater masses, this duty was assumed by sheiks, hoja, ocaklı, healers who performed what could be described as traditional medicine or folk medicine. In Turkish communities, the origins of folk medicine dates back to Shamanic Kams, who were believed to have supernatural powers in religious and worldly terms. Folks in those times believed that Shamans were men devoted to religion, exorcised evil spirits and had healing abilities. Majority of the population were in this belief. Despite the process of Islamization in the following periods, these beliefs were not forgotten completely, but rather continued their existence by being adapted into Islamic beliefs. In this context, Shamans have continued their treatment duties mostly as ocaklı but they assigned their religious tasks and healing duties to the Islamic guardian cult. This way, Sufis became a significant part of traditional folk medicine first in Seljuk and then in Ottoman era. Through the lodges and monasteries they have established, Sufis integrated to the social life in the Ottoman era and performed countless important tasks for the community and the state, ranging from settlement of nomads to transportation, accommodation of guests to securing secluded areas, and treatment of numerous psychological and physical diseases. The people had a strong perception that Sufis were men of God, miracle workers and protectors. This belief was foremost important for the acceptance of their healing abilities. As such, members of public were seeking help from Sufis for all kinds of health issues, ranging from mental problems, stomachache, headache, pain in different parts of body, children's health problems, infertility, behaviour disorders leading to domestic issues to epidemics. So much so that this curing capabilities of Sufis have sometimes been supported by the state and gained an official status. Hence the purpose of this study is to review the folk medicine aspect of Sufis in the Ottoman historic plane and to reveal the treatment methods they used for a number of conditions. The subject has been explained under two main headlines; one consisting of spiritual practises such as prayer, dhikr, nazar, ruqya and shrine visitations, and the other one consisting of apparent practises such as fasting, herbal mixtures etc. While conducting this current study, chronicles, Sufi works, memoirs of the era, archives and modern studies have been reviewed.


Based on the characteristics of Geographic Information System (GIS), the teaching content and teaching method of GIS in Normal University in the 21ST Century is discussed.


C4 olefin is an important chemical industry raw material, but the traditional production method not only has a low output rate, but also produces many additional by-products, wasting valuable resources. Therefore, exploring the production of C4 olefins from ethanol to alleviate the status quo has become the mainstream direction of chemistry research. Aiming at practical problems, this paper establishes corresponding effective models based on experimental data at various temperatures under different catalysts, and obtains the specific relationships between C4 olefin selectivity and C4 olefin yield, catalyst combination and temperature, respectively, so as to obtain the optimal ethanol to C4 olefins plan.


An intended death of target cardiomyocyte was induced in zebrafish by femtosecond-laser illumination. Time-lapse imaging revealed that cellular morphology changes accompanied by increase of membrane permeability and generation of cytosolic bubbles enclosed with plasma membrane.


Centrifuge experiments on olivine, chromite, and plagioclase aggregates saturated in basaltic liquid show evidence of viscous compaction by grain‐boundary diffusion‐controlled creep. The experiments confirm that the exponential dependence of shear viscosity on melt fraction, observed at low porosities in earlier shear deformation experiments, extends to sedimentary porosities. The compaction profiles are inconsistent with the porosity‐dependence commonly ascribed to viscosity in macroscopic compaction models, which underestimate the effect of matrix disaggregation and consequently overestimate the viscosities of crystal mushes by 1–2 orders of magnitude. The time to halve the porosity of natural olivine igneous sediments by compaction is estimated from the centrifuge experiments to be O(103)y. Half‐times for plagioclase and chromite layers are O(104–105)y, suggesting that such layers compact on magmatic time scales only if they are loaded by additional sedimentation. At conditions relevant to melt flow in asthenospheric settings and trans‐crustal magmatic systems, the bulk and shear viscosities inferred for olivine and plagioclase are O(1017)Pa s, 4 orders of magnitude less than inferred from earlier experimental studies of the diffusion creep rheology. The reduced viscosities imply time‐ and length‐scales for compaction processes that are substantially shorter than previously anticipated. Our analysis serendipitously reveals that the oft‐neglected solidity term of the Carman‐Kozeny porosity‐permeability relation is essential to prevent non‐physical behavior in models of cumulate compaction.


Groundnut is an important oil seed crop grown in Andhra Pradesh and India during khanf (rainfed) and post rainy (rabi-summer) seasons. Study of variability and correlation among yield and yield component traits and stem necrosis disease would help in selection of high yielding varieties with stem necrosis disease resistance. Twenty two genotypes were sown in randomized block design with three replications during rabi 2000–01. High genotypic and phenotypic variation was observed for final plant stand (730.40 and 1059.80), 100 pod weight (41.18 and 76.60). High genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were recorded for pod yield per plant (23.06% and 33.20%) and plant stand maintained at harvest (22.75% and 27.41%). It indicates the presence of considerable amount of genetic variability for these characters. High heritability was observed for 100 pod weight (73.33%), plant stand maintained at harvest (68.92%) and PSND (63.61%). High genetic advance as percentage of mean was observed for plant stand maintained at harvest (38.91%), pod yield per plant (32.99%) and PSND incidence (20.90). The performance of additive genetic variance for plant stand maintained at harvest as showing high heritability, genetic advance and PSND incidence gives a lot of scope for improvement through selection. Moderate heritability and low genetic gain was observed for days to maturity and shelling out turn indicating the non-additive gene effects. Pod yield showed highly significant positive correlation with shelling out turn (0.272), kernel yield per plant (0.901) and weak negative correlation with peanut stem necrosis disease incidence (−0.063).


This paper contributes to our understanding of food policy–research partnerships and provides a review of the theory and empirical literature about the factors that contribute to effective food policy–research partnerships. The literature points to the emergence of organizational partnerships as primarily driven by subjective perceptions about potential partners, the complex and uncertain external environment, access to resources through partnership and expectations of potential impact of the partnership.


A decade after the Cook Inlet beluga was listed as endangered in 2008, its population has shown no signs of recovery. Lack of ecology knowledge limits our understanding of, and ability to manage, potential threats impeding recovery of this declining population. NOAA Fisheries, in partnership with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, initiated a passive acoustics program in 2017 to monitor beluga seasonal occurrence by deploying a series of acoustic moorings, followed by months' work of manual validation for the detectors' output. To reduce this labor intensive and time-consuming process, we extracted a series of spectrograms from the sound files containing validated detections, and built 4 deep learning convolutional neural networks (CNN) with fine tuning of parameters. The final model is an ensemble of these individually optimized models, and achieves 96.57% precision and 92.26% recall on testing data. As a comparison, current detectors tend to trigger more false positives, which result in 20%–60% precision when human noise is present and 85%–95% precision in quiet areas. Following the success of the model with its easy generalizations to other acoustic detection problems, our next step will be comparing results from non-validated raw data to adopt this updated analysis process.


The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the world and its impact has spread far beyond healthcare facilities, even influencing health-seeking behaviours, thereby awakening one major concern for us. The debate on whether the pandemic has resulted in an increase or decrease in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates has become a necessity. 1 Although antibiotics' overuse and self-medication direct us towards the worst result, stringent containment measuresemployed by governments across the globe might have counteracted the increase. However, in war-torn countries those measureswere not as effective as they should have been. Syria has been ravaged by a protracted war that has resulted in a deteriorated healthcare system. The economic impact of a long-lasting lockdown and stringent containment measures was diffi-cult to bear in light of the pre-existing economic burden of the war. Moreover, awareness campaigns reinforcing social distancing and the wearing of facemasks have not the desired outcomes given the ongoing near-normal life. Additionally, antibiotics and particularly azithromycin are being widely prescribed for cases with flu-like symptoms, or more easily, obtained from pharmacies without a prescription. Apart from a national curfew and lock-downs in certain areas of Syria during the first wave of COVID-19, other containment measures that could limit the increase of AMR rates, such as social distancing and isolation of positive cases, have been poorly employed since then. However, it cannot be said that factors suggesting the decrease of AMR rates are entirely absent in Syria. General hygiene being taken more seriously by Syrians, participants their hands and physical contact (81.3%, and respective-ly), 2 95.8% of the of hands and


Details at the atomic or molecular level are important for a more thorough understanding of polymer processes. A better knowledge of both structure and dynamics is needed. A method which is particularly suited for this task is the molecular dynamics method (MD). The method is well known, but its application to the solid state of polymers has not been extensive. Indeed, polymer applications present some unique difficulties to be discussed in the next section. In our detailed computer simulations of the dynamics of solid polymers, we have focused on the following three topics: (a) simulations of condis crystals and meso-phase transitions, (b) melting and crystallization of polymers, and (c) calculation of vibrational spectra and heat capacities of solids. 13 refs., 1 fig.


s of papers 37 151 Live performance and meat yield responses of straight-run broilers to progressive concentrations of dietary energy maintained at a constant ME:Protein ratio. M. A. Hidalgo*, W. A. Dozier, III, A. J. Davis, and M. E. Freeman, University of Georgia. According to a popular benchmark reporting service, a diverse array of metabolizable energy values is being used in formulating diets for broiler chickens. Reducing dietary energy concentration while maintaining a constant ME:Protein ratio has been shown to result in equivalent broiler performance as compared to utilizing high energy diets when broilers are marketed at 6.5 lb. This study examined the effects of progressive concentrations of dietary energy at a constant ME:Protein ratio on live performance and processing yields of broilers during a 37-d production period. A total of 2,592 Ross x Ross 308 straight-run broilers were sexed and 27 of each sex were commingled and randomly assigned to one of 48 floor pens. Birds were given a three-phase feeding program, which consisted of starter (0-17 d), grower (18-30 d), and finisher (31-37 d). Dietary treatments consisted of six feeding regimens (8 reps/trt): Regimen 1: starter 1,350 kcal/lb, grower 1,370 kcal/lb, and finisher 1,400 kcal/lb; Regimen 2: starter 1,370 kcal/lb, grower 1,390 kcal/lb, and finisher 1,420 kcal/lb; Regimen 3: starter 1,390 kcal/lb, grower 1,410 kcal/lb, and finisher 1,440 kcal/lb; Regimen 4: starter 1,410 kcal/lb, grower 1,430 kcal/lb, and finisher 1,460 kcal/lb; Regimen 5: starter 1,430 kcal/lb, grower 1,450 kcal/lb, and finisher 1,480 kcal/lb; Regimen 6: starter 1,450 kcal/lb, grower 1,470 kcal/lb, and finisher 1,500 kcal/lb. In general, body weight measurements were lower (P<0.05) when broilers consumed Regimen 1 compared with the other regimens throughout each phase of growth. Feed conversion ratio was improved (P<0.05) with Regimens 4, 5, and 6 compared with Regimen 1 from 18-30 d, 30-37 d, and 0-37 d as was feed consumption (P<0.05) from 30-37 d and 0-37 d. Dietary treatments did not alter the incidence of mortality, abdominal fat percentage, chilled carcass yield, or the recovery of carcass parts. These data indicate reducing metabolizable energy content of the diet at a constant ME:Protein ratio allows similar live performance to be obtained without affecting meat recovery, but decreasing the energy content of the diets to sub-optimum concentrations adversely affected performance, which may be related to inadequate caloric and protein consumption.


The Π-electron networks in boron–nitrogen chains and rings have been treated by l.c.a.o.–m.o. techniques. The results for B—N chains predict a very weak alternation of bond order, smaller charges on the terminal atoms than on the internal atoms, and very little conjugation across B—B and N—N linkages. The calculations for the B—N rings predict an absence of a "4n + 2" pi-electron rule for aromaticity and a predominance of exocyclic over endocyclic Π bonding in the substituted rings. These results are compared with the properties of known B—N chains and rings and are contrasted with l.c.a.o.–m.o. calculations for the analogous carbon–carbon systems.


This is a brief survey of the research accomplishments of Bob Griess, focusing on the work primarily related to simple groups and their classification. It does not attempt to also cover Bob's many contributions to the theory of vertex operator algebras. (This is only because I am unqualified to survey that VOA material.) For background references on simple groups and their classification, I'll mainly use the "outline" book [1] Over half of Bob Griess's 85 papers on MathSciNet are more or less directly concerned with simple groups. Obviously I can only briefly describe the contents of so much work. (And I have left his work on vertex algebras etc to articles in this volume by more expert authors.) Background: Quasisimple components and the list of simple groups We first review some standard material from the early part of [1, Sec 0.3]. (More experienced readers can skip ahead to the subsequent subsection on the list of simple groups.) Received September 12, 2016. AMS Subject Classification: 20D05, 20D06, 20D08, 20E32, 20E42, 20J06.


Ramp metering of a simple isolated ramp is still a complex problem because of the limited storage on the on-ramp. To prevent on-ramps queues from spilling back to the upstream intersection, transportation agencies generally resort to queue flush policy. While this policy is detrimental to the freeway, there is limited empirical research to understand the causal relationships of various parameters of a queue flush mechanism and their impacts. Towards this end, this research investigated factors that may affect discharge flow drop. Suitably shifted cumulative curves were utilized to evaluate 28 queue flush instances. It was found that flow ratio could be used to explain the discharge flow drop. This research will help better manage queue flush policy and develop alternate strategies that are less detrimental then the current queue flush practice.


Baculoviral insecticides have been successfully used in the control of a variety of pest insects in agriculture and forestry. It has a few of defects as compared with chemical insecticides. The progress has been reviewed in the baculoviral insecticides for improving insecticidal properties, expanding host range, speeding-up of action and enhancing virulence in recent years.


The decisive event for the formation of anthropology in the 1860s was not Darwinism but the 'revolution in ethnological time', by which is meant the sudden collapse of the short biblical chronology for human history, and the opening out of an earlier prehistory of indefinite length. The principal effects of the time revolution were: to facilitate the formation of macrohistories that were naturalistic, gradualist and developmental; to remove the claim of the Bible and the classics to be documents on 'man's primitive state'; to promote the identification of 'savages' with the primitive, and, in the division of labour between the emergent disciplines of history and anthropology, to give to anthropology the responsibility for constructing universal histories. What anthropologists have made of that legacy in the twentieth century is briefly explored.


Stripe or yellow rust of wheat caused by Puccinia striiformis west end f. sp. tritici is devastating foliar disease and is considered of immense importance in cool and humid wheat growing parts of the world. A total of 41 wheat genotypes collected from different institutes of India were evaluated for Adult Plant Resistance to stripe rust. The field studies revealed fifteen genotypes viz: PBW 750, PBW 752, PBW 779, PBW 780, JAUW 672, WH 1184, HI 1619, 13th HTWYT 719, 25th HRWSN 2105, 47th IBWSN 1185, 32nd SAWSN 3011, HD 3086, 22nd SAWYT 316, PBW 763 and PBW 801 exhibiting resistant reaction with Average Coefficient of Infection (ACI) ranging from 0.45 to 2.


Heat capacities of aluminum clusters with around 55 atoms are investigated using extremely long constant-energy molecular dynamics simulations with an empirical many-body interaction potential. Different isomers are taken as the initial structures and found to anneal into the lowest-energy structure before melting during the temperature increase. The heat capacities of different isomers were found to be the same at low temperatures. Dips that emerged in the heat capacities in the previous experiment are not found.


The water situation in Southeast Asia has changed from one of relative abundance to one of relative scarcity. Conventional water management that strategized around the provision of adequate water supply to users has limited sustainability. Though nations in this region have adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Plan into their water management framework, successful outcomes are limited thus far. Water literacy has a growing importance for improving water sustainability, especially in developing countries. A literature search was employed to extract data on the different dimensions of water literacy in Southeast Asia including the sources and consumption patterns, water governance and management, and sociodemographic elements as well as the various aspects of water related challenges faced. Results from the review and analysis show that a large proportion of Southeast Asian populations are not part of a water sustainable society, and this presents a major hurdle for the countries to meet United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 by 2030. Therefore, active cognitive engagement through the creation of a water literate environment is critical for breaking the chain of water illiteracy and to achieve long-term water sustainability in Southeast Asia countries. Overall, this paper provides a critical analysis on lessons learnt from the region that can be mirrored in other parts of the world.


This chapter focuses on the developmental aspect of dispute resolution based on the experience of the Asian Development Bank (adb) over the last twenty years. adb has undertaken projects that support dispute resolution mechanisms in its developing member countries with the aim of achieving development impacts towards a more inclusive and sustainable economic development in Asia and the Pacific. This chapter posits that the promotion of dispute resolution through thematic or targeted interventions has yielded more effective results compared to larger-scale interventions through broader justice sector reform programs. This is demonstrated through adb's recent experience financing and implementing technical assistance projects under its Office of General Counsel's Law and Policy Reform Program focused on environmental and climate change adjudication, access to justice in gender-based violence cases and creating and strengthening international arbitration laws to foster foreign direct investment and cross-border trade. adb does not necessarily shy away from ambitious investments in the justice sector, but recent experience has shown that through smaller, welltargeted interventions with strong ownership by key stakeholders within their absorptive capacity, it has been able to demonstrate meaningful impact in the area of dispute resolution. Ramit Nagpal and Christina Pak 9789004407411 Downloaded from Brill.com03/07/2020 04:09:24AM via free access


Research is being conducted in the Polar Regions that generates significant quantities of important scientific data. Real-time exchange of this information in the field and access to the Internet is crucial. This paper presents a reliable, truly mobile, lightweight, and relatively inexpensive integrated data communications system to provide wireless Internet access in remote regions. It describes the work done as part of the Polar Radar for Ice Sheet Measurements (PRISM) project to support data communication requirements of science expeditions in the harsh climactic and technologically challenged regions of Greenland and Antarctica. An inverse multiplexed, multi-channel Iridium based system integrated with a long-range 802.11b network is developed to provide wireless Internet access at moderate speeds. Results of field experiments conducted at the North GRIP site in Greenland to evaluate the overall performance of the system are presented. The system has an average throughput of 9.26 Kbps and efficiency greater than 90%. The average time interval between call drops is observed to be 100 minutes with modem uptimes as high as 95%, which means the system is suitable for autonomous operation. Experiments conducted using the Wi-Fi system showed reliable communications over a distance of 10 Km with 802.11b throughputs varying from 4.8-0.23 Mbps depending on the signal to noise ratio at the receiver. The integrated communication system proved to be a reliable, lifeline alternative data/Internet connection in Polar Regions.


Airlines must be able to offer a full range of products though all available channels. Charles Tyler looks at a way forward for the industry.


ABSTRACT Despite the importance of earnings instability, little is known about its correlates or causes. This article seeks to better understand earnings instability by studying whether volatile firms pay volatile earnings and is the first to directly test the relationship using US linked employer–employee data. The article finds a positive and statistically significant relationship using within-firm variation. In addition, this article finds that lower earning workers are passed significantly more volatility from their employing firms than are higher earning workers.


In order to improve the traditional teaching of microbiology experiments a new microbiology experiment curriculum system is to be established with the cultivating creative ability as central contents by adjusting teaching contents, reforming teaching system, enriching teaching methods, strengthening construc- tion of teacher. This will help them to improve their ability of thinking independently and creatively as well as their practicing ability.


Methods and compositions are provided for cleaning and inhibiting the formation of fouling deposits on jet engine components during the combustion of turbine combustion fuel oils. Methods and compositions are also provided for inhibiting the formation and emission of soot and smoke from jet engine exhaust during turbine combustion fuel oil combustion. The methods employ a derivative of (thio)phosphonic acid added to the turbine combustion fuel oil. The preferred derivative is pentaerythritol ester of polyisobutenylthiophosphonic acid.


A recent review of published studies revealed that predators generally have lower population densities than non-predators in a variety of communities. We report here similar results for a highly replicated study of macroinvertebrates that colonized very uniform detrital microcosms in an old field. This pattern persisted even though predators usually were smaller than non-predators, as determined by body length and volume.


Abstract This work present the FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra of 2-[(2,3-dimethylphenyl)amino]benzoic acid [2DPABA] have been recorded and analyzed. All the theoretical parameters in this work have been calculated using DFT at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p) level. The detailed potential energy distribution (PED) of normal modes of vibrations were done by using MOLVIB program. The molecular structures, fundamental vibrational frequencies and intensity of the vibrational bands were investigated theoretically and interpreted comparing with experimental values. Furthermore, the electronic properties such as highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies were determined by time-dependent TD-DFT approach with 6-31G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. The reactivity sites were identified by mapping the electron density into molecular electrostatic potential (MEP). The thermodynamic properties at different temperatures were calculated, revealing the correlations between heat capacities, entropy and enthalpy changes with temperature. Global hardness, global softness, global electrophilicity and ionization potential of the compound were determined. A molecular docking study has supported the anticonvulsant activity of the 2-[(2,3-dimethylphenyl)amino]benzoic acid molecule.


This paper describes the results of a study aimed at better understanding of temper embrittlement in chromium-molybdenum steels containing various combinations of elements. It is shown that for steel both with and without nickel, phosphorus is the most important embrittling element, but only in combination with manganese, silicon or tin. The main effect of nickel is to lower unembrittled transition temperatures. In the presence of silicon and manganese plus silicon, tin also causes embrittlement after aging for long periods, but most important, the combination of tin and phosphorus in steels with or without manganese plus silicon appears to be the most potent combination of embrittling elements yet seen in this class of steel. 3 refs.


Cloud computing leverages virtualization to offer resources on demand to multiple "tenants". However, sharing the server and network infrastructure creates new vulnerabilities, where one tenant can attack another by compromising the underlying hypervisor. We design a system that supports virtualized networking using software switches without a hypervisor. In our architecture, the software switch runs in a Switch Domain (DomS) that is separate from the control VM. Both the guest VMs and DomS run directly on the server hardware, with processing and memory resources allocated in advance. Each guest VM interacts with the software switch through a shared memory region using periodic polling to detect network packets. The communication does not involve the hypervisor or the control VM. In addition, any software bugs that crash the software switch do not crash the rest of the system, and a crashed switch can be easily rebooted. Experiments with our initial prototype, built using Xen and Open vSwitch, show that the combination of shared pages and polling offers reasonable performance compared to conventional hypervisor-based solutions.


This double-blind, controlled, counter-balanced experiment examines the effects of system delay on users. Sixty-one participants completed 8 computerized tasks under 4 varied levels of time delay (from 500ms to 2000ms), with time and accuracy recorded. Participants rapidly adapted to system delay, committing neither errors of omission nor commission more frequently due to slowed system response. Time to finish tasks increased with system delay, but users were only slowed down by approximately as much time as was introduced by system delay itself. Implications for estimating the potential value of reduced system delay are discussed, as well as study limitations and suggestions for future work.


A total of 26 simple sequence repeats were identified using a random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) based technique in the Southeast Asian river catfish Mystus nemurus. We report on the characterization of five polymorphic microsatellite loci in M. nemurus. The average number of alleles per locus was 3.2. These are the first microsatellite loci that have been developed for this species. These markers should prove useful as tools for managing the brood stocks and for future aquacultural development of this species.


The study was intended to assess the effect on the gas turbine plant efficiency of the large quantities of cooling air required for high combustion temperature. Calculations of the cycle efficiency with varying combustor outlet temperature, compressor pressure ratio and blade internal cooling efficiency were made. Improvements in cooling technology to the level representative of modern aeroderivative machines would increase plant efficiency up to 40 -- 41%.


Jiang Zemin' s thought of a comprehensive growth of young talents is mainly represented as: putting forward the theory of "four unifications" to direct the comprehensive development of young talents; advocating the cultivation of those young talents with their creative spirit and inventive ability; demanding youth to inherit Chinese essential culture while absorbing the essential cultural outcomes of every country in the world and so on. This thought has inherited Deng Xiaoping' s theory of youth work not only in content but also in theoretical system. The thought can also be seen to enrich and improve Deng's youth theory and has promoted it to a new level.


The project quality a stage of the construction installation is a critical stage of quality forming,the installation project quality supervision procedures,the tasks,the basis,the specific implementation methods at stage of the construction are mainly described in the article.


Clonal microbes can switch between different phenotypes and recent theoretical work has shown that stochastic switching between these subpopulations can stabilize microbial communities. This phenotypic switching need not be stochastic, however, but could also be in response to environmental factors, both biotic and abiotic. Here, motivated by the bacterial persistence phenotype, we explore the ecological effects of such responsive switching by analyzing phenotypic switching in response to competing species. We show that the stability of microbial communities with responsive switching differs generically from that of communities with stochastic switching only. To understand the mechanisms by which responsive switching stabilizes coexistence, we go on to analyze simple two-species models. Combining exact results and numerical simulations, we extend the classical stability results for the competition of two species without phenotypic variation to the case in which one species switches, stochastically and responsively, between two phenotypes. In particular, we show that responsive switching can stabilize coexistence even when stochastic switching on its own does not affect the stability of the community.


The demand for utilization of L-glutamic acid as a human dietary supplement, flavour enhancer, chemical in biochemical processing, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries is fastly growing in recent times. It is largely imported amino acid in India and the total worldwide production of L-glutamic acid is more than 1.5 million tons per year through fermentation (Shimuzu and Hirusawa 2006). Besides the existing methods of industrial fermentations, many efforts are being pursued to improve the glutamic acid production especially under the stand point of cheaper available substrates to help go down the production costs. So better and cheaper methods of L-glutamic acid production has always been an issue which the scientific community have pursued with zeal.


[H]armony ... is not regarded by the intelligent votary of the Muses as given by them with a view to irrational pleasure ... but as meant to correct any discord which may have arisen in the courses of the soul, and to be our ally in bringing her into harmony and agreement with herself; and rhythm too was given by them for the same reason.... --Plato, Timaeus [Jowett translation] In December 1931, William Grant Still signed a contract with singer-songwriter-bandleader Willard Robison. Under its terms, Still was to serve as arranger for Robison for a year, with an option to renew for a second year. All arrangements made under this agreement were to be Robison's property. One paragraph of the contract paid tribute to Still's gifts in this area: "It is agreed that your ability and talents as an arranger and orchestrator of musical compositions [are] extraordinary and unique." Therefore, the contract stipulated, "you will not at any time during the term hereof make orchestrations for any person, firm or corporation other than myself" (Robison 1931).(1) Still was to receive $100 a week for his services. Not mentioned in the contract was a further service Still would peform for Robison: he would soon be hired as conductor of Robison's radio orchestra. It would be a pioneering example of cooperation between a white singer and a black arranger/conductor. Robison, whose Deep River Orchestra had been a moderately important recording orchestra in the twenties (it is remembered for including Bix Beiderbecke on one highly atypical recording date), is now best known as composer of the jazz standard "Old Folks" and as lyricist of "A Cottage for Sale." In February 1931, building on successful appearances on the previous year's Camel Pleasure Hour broadcasts, Robison started his own radio program, the Deep River Hour.(2) By November 1931, the show was broadcasting three times a week over New York radio station WOR. The arranger for the first Deep River Hour radio shows had been Kenn Sisson (1898-1947), an experienced radio arranger who had worked with Ben Bernie (ASCAP 1980, 468; I am assuming that Sisson's work with Bernie preceded his work with Robison). Sisson was an able arranger of popular songs; his published stock arrangements are spoken of with approval by twenties-revival bandleaders. But Robison had higher ambitions for the Deep River Hour. One of Robison's ambitions was to present light classics arranged for his orchestra. Robison himself wrote atmospheric piano pieces--two of his suites for piano, Inspiration Suite and Rural Revelations, had been published by Robbins--and he hoped to hear his compositions, along with others he admired, presented by his orchestra. (Four numbers from his Robbins suites--"By Quiet Firesides," "Down a Daisy Lane," "In Pastures Green," and "In a Poinsettia Garden"--are represented by Still arrangements in the Ellington Collection in the Smithsonian Institution.) Kenn Sisson, fully at home with popular song, seems not to have been comfortable in the world of the light classic; at least, there are no arrangements of light classics by him among the materials in the Ellington Collection. A deeper reason for Robison's interest in Still was Robison's style and subject matter as a performer. Much of Robison's repertoire, including many of his own songs, deals with the rural South ("Georgia on My Mind," a Hoagy Carmichael song written the year before the Deep River Hour began broadcasting, is a good example) and, specifically or by inference, with the black experience. Robison was a devotee of W. C. Handy-style blues and of the "rhythmic spiritual," a genre that will be discussed later in this article. The very name of the orchestra shows his desire to identify his music with the black experience. And many of Robison's songs--like many of those of Harold Arlen after him--invoke the black experience in order to speak of the human experience in general; Robison may well have seen Still's arrangements and conducting as a chance to validate his right to speak in this voice. …


In the Polish part of the Western Tatra Mts. metamorphic complex, migmatites predominate forming the northern envelope of the Rohace granite. They are both heterophanic (mainly stromatitic) and homophanic (schliere-type) ones. The P-T evolution of the metamorphic complex shifted from the medium pressures (7.5–9 kbar) and temperatures in the range of 700–730C (Ky + St stability field) to the stability of sillimanite (750–780C) and than to andalusite (GAWĘDA et al., 1999). Among the migmatites two generations were distinguished: the first generation was formed during differentiation in the Ky+St stability field and the second one due to the partial melting in the sillimanite stability field (BURDA & GAWĘDA, 1999). Zircons, being accessory minerals in migmatites, have been affected by the metamorphic events, occurring in this area and they may be considered as good petrogenetic indicators of the rock evolution. To observe the zircon response for the partial melting of the host metasedimentary rocks, the zircon crystals from both leucosome and mesosome from the stromatitic migmatite were investigated. The population of zircons from mesosome is dominated by the normal prismatic crystals, differing in colours (colourless, grayish, yellowish-grayish and abundant brown and dark grey crystals). The length of single crystals varies in the range of 20 to 60 μm and the aspect ratio (length : width) ranges from 1:1 to 2:1. The degree of crystal roundness changes in the large scale, but in general subhedral crystals predominate. The percentage of anhedral zircons with rounded edges and tops is difficult to determine because of the transitional stages from euhedral to anhedral forms. Euhedral zircons can be both short and prismatic and elongated ones. In the population of short, isometric crystals the rounded, subhedral to anhedral forms are more popular. Different forms of zircon corrosion are observed in the analysed grain population. Fine-grained zircon aggregates are abundant in mesosome but rare in leucosome. The morphology of zircons from mesosome is dominated by the {110} prism and {211} pyramid. The most common types are S1, S2, S6, S7, L1, L2, with a distinguished maximum at S1. In CL images of the mesosome zircons inner cores, surrounded by the outer magmatic rims are commonly observed. The outer rims represent the magmatic recrystallization event in the metamorphic complex. Many rounded zircons are completely diffuse in the CL images, with neither an old core nor the outer magmatic zoning observed. Among the zircons from leucosome euhedral, transparent, light-coloured crystals predominate, with elongation 2:1 to 4:1. They are mostly S1, S2, S21, S22 forms according to Pupin's classification (PUPIN, 1980). In the typological distribution two maxims can be observed, suggesting the occurrence of two generations of zircons. CL investigations often revealed subtle oscillatory zoning, due to heterogeneous distribution of trace elements during the crystal growth (HOSKIN & BLACK, 2000). The intensity of CL signal shows no major variations. It is possible that the chemical environment during crystallization remained fairly stable. These zircons grew during a single magmatic event. Some zircons exhibit inner cores, which are relics from the protolith. Chemical analyses of zircons from mesosome revealed that Zr/Hf ratio varies in a wide range: from 24 to 110,2. However, about 50% of the analysed zircons show the Zr/Hf ratio in the range of 24–39. There are no major changes in major element distribution in the zircon crystals.


In 1999 the Petroleum Group of Primary Industries arid Resources South Australia (PIRSA) conducted an audit of seismic lines in the Cooper Basin of South Australia, to assess their condition upon expiry of Petroleum Exploration Licences (PLLsl 5 and 6. A significant number of seismic lines located in gihber plains and residual tablelands to the north of Innamincka were identified as being in poor condition, particularly in regard to active erosion. Detailed assessment of the condition of 1200 km of seismic lines was made using maps produced from low-level aerial videography. Key stakeholders agreed that physical rehabilitation of windrows or erosional gullies would be unlikely to make a significant improvement to the environmental condition of the lines. This is consistent with other published research on rehabilitation attempts in similar terrains. Rather than wasting money and effort by forcing the licensees (primarily Santos Lid) to undertake any physical rehabilitation, PIRSA, Santos, and the Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH) agreed that funding of other environmental projects in the Innamincka Regional Reserve would provide a better net benefit to the local environment. The licensees offered to fund projects to a total of SA660 000 as an offset to undertaking physical rehabilitation. The South Australian Government has accepted this offer. A formal agreement and implementation plan has been developed for the licensees to fund a range of environmental projects within the Innamincka Regional Reserve. In return, the Government agrees that no further rehabilitation of the lines will he required.


Purpose: A sudden shift of work from the office to home amid global lockdown demands exploration of factors that facilitate or obstruct remote working and their impact on practical and psychological outcomes for the employee when individual mandatorily telecommutes full-time with no prior experience of the same Based on job demands and resources model (JD-R), the present study explores the role of certain job demands and resources on negative and positive outcomes through mediating role of strain and well-being, respectively Design/methodology/approach: A data sample of 371 IT sector employees was collected and confirmatory factor analysis model was run to assess the model fit indices, convergent and divergent validities of the data While proposed hypotheses of the study were tested using structural equations modeling (SEM) technique Findings: It was found that workload pressure, task interdependence, professional isolation and family interference in work lead to exhaustion and further stress, whereas the presence of autonomy and schedule flexibility and sufficient technology resources improve employee work-life balance and further better productivity and performance and job satisfaction Improved well-being was also found to reduce stress for full-time telecommuters Practical implications: This study provides implications that will help in doing away with exhaustion and stress for employees and ensure business continuity in emergencies like COVID-19 pandemic Originality/value: There are no past instances of mandatory full-time telecommuting arrangement by organizations, and researchers never had the opportunity to study it This research, based on the JD-R model provides for the first time empirical insights into the experiences of mandatory full-time telecommuting during COVID-19 induced lockdown © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited


In this paper, we examine the impact of political constraints on economic reform plans, with special reference to the transition from centrally planned to market economies. We analyse the problem of an agenda-setting reform-minded Government facing a bureaucracy or industrial sector for which allocative efficiency requires redundancies and an increase in work intensity. The Government also tries to minimize the rents conceded to its heterogeneous workforce. We examine two types of political constraints: unanimity rule and majority rule, both in a one-period and a two-period horizon. The main results are the following. First of all, we show how adverse selection and time-consistency may generate the widely-observed feature of gradualism as an ingredient of an optimal reform. Second, under a majority rule, it is shown to be possible for the Government to obtain a majority vote for a reform scheme that intertemporally hurts majority interests. Indeed, the Government can improve rent extraction through the strategic use of the threat of future proposals: the group which expects to be in the minority tomorrow may accept concessions, while its votes can be used to extract rents from another group. These results suggest that, in a dynamic context, democratic constraints should not be overestimated as an obstacle against efficiency-enhancing economic reforms. The results of this paper may throw some light on the political economy of current reforms in Eastern Europe.


Coded caching can exploit new multicast opportunities even when multiple users request different pieces of content, and thus can significantly reduce the backhaul requirement for serving high-volume content. However, existing studies of coded caching have been limited to the scenarios where all files of interest are of a common size. This work studies the performance limits of coded caching when the file sizes are different. We derive a new lower bound and an achievable upper bound for the worst-case transmission rate under coded caching, and show that these two bounds differ by at most a Θ(log K) factor, where K is the number of users in the system. There are two key novelties in our analysis. First, our lower bound is derived by considering a new cut-set bound where larger files are requested more times. The analysis of this new cut-set bound requires careful concatenation of several entropy inequalities. Compared to a lower bound using standard cut-set arguments, our lower bound is improved by a Θ(log K) factor. Second, our achievable scheme uses a caching probability that increases proportionally with the file size. Compared to schemes that use a common caching probability, the achievable rate of our scheme is reduced by a Θ K/logk2 factor.


Soil types and cropping systems influence the diversity and composition of the rhizospheric microbial communities. Coptis chinensis Franch is one of the most important medicinal plants in China. In the current study, we provide detailed information regarding the diversity and composition of rhizospheric fungal communities of the C. chinensis plants in continuous cropping fields and fallow fields in two seasons (winter and summer), using next-generation sequencing. Alpha diversity was higher in the five-year C. chinensis field and lower in fallow fields. Significant differences analysis confirmed more fungi in the cultivated field soil than in fallow fields. Additionally, PCoA of beta diversity indices revealed that samples associated with the cultivated fields and fallow fields in different seasons were separated. Five fungal phyla (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, Glomeromycota and Mucoromycota) were identified from the soil samples in addition to the unclassified fungal taxa and Cryptomycota, and among these phyla, Ascomycota was predominantly found. FUNGuild fungal functional prediction revealed that saprotroph was the dominant trophic type in all two time-series soil samples. Redundancy analysis (RDA) of the dominant phyla data and soil physiochemical properties revealed the variations in fungal community structure in the soil samples. Knowledge from the present study could provide a valuable reference for solving the continuous cropping problems and promote the sustainable development of the C. chinensis industry.


Their arguments include a fundamental misunderstanding as the basic difference between 'ontological' and 'explanatory' reductionism does not reside in the essence of things but that the former suggests it will not ever be possible to understand things as deep as needed because of the limitations of the human mind. The same time, reductionism is at the core of scientific thinking and research, and suggests that phenomena can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena.


The STEVAL-IPE006V1 is an integrated system designed to provide a complete demonstration of a high-end solution for power metering. It shows no compromise measurement of active, reactive and apparent energies, load management and automatic meter reading via a power line modem, antitampering both on neutral wire and meter box, surge protection and in-application programming. The demonstration board is supplied directly from the mains through a high performance switch mode power supply. The measured values can be observed on the board's LCD or through the serial interface on a PC screen. All the parameter settings are changeable using this GUI. For safety reasons, the power supply and metering parts are galvanically isolated from the rest of the board. Application engineers can use this board to evaluate the components or to get started quickly with their own power meter product development project. All software and firmware source codes, gerber files and the bill of material are provided to help you get started easily and allow you to focus on the specific requirements of your application.


The paper deals with representations about the city of Salvador - BA in contemporary Brazilian cinema, focusing on the public space of the city, its main aspects and socio - spatial contradictions. The inventory of twenty-five films presented contributes to the line of research of the Geographies of Cinema, in structuring in Brazil and in the world, because it deals with the analysis of public space in contemporary Brazilian films, a topic still little explored in Brazil.


The physics of turbulence is a key to understand the plasma confinement. In reversedfield pinch (RFP), turbulence plays an important role to sustain the plasma configuration. However, experimental study of the turbulence is not sufficient especially around the reversed field surface. Microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) is a powerful technique to measure the two-dimensional (2D) density turbulence localized at the cutoff surface directly. For this purpose, the MIR system in 20 GHz with large aperture imaging optics and a 4 × 4 Yagi-Uda antenna array has been developed to measure the turbulence around rcut/a = 0.7 ∼ 0.9 in a large RFP device, TPE-RX. The MIR signal Ae is detected by the quadrature detectors, with which the amplitude A and IQ signals (cosine and sine components of the phase φ) of the reflection wave can be obtained. In this system, the spatial resolution is 3.7 cm and the temporal resolution is 1μs. Since this is the first MIR system as a turbulence diagnostics, comparison between the simulation and a laboratory test of MIR system has been carried out. A numerical model based on the Huygens-Fresnel equation is used to simulate the MIR signal. Main results in this test and simulation are as follows: (1) the phase φ corresponds to the displacement of the cutoff surface in the radial direction; (2) the amplitude A corresponds to the reflection power, which is modulated by the shape of the cutoff surface; (3) the coherence length of the complex IQ signals is longer than that of the amplitude signals; (4) MIR is valid with the condition 4k⊥dL/D < 1 to measure the motion of the cutoff surface. Here L, D, k⊥ and d denote distance between cutoff and lens, diameter of the lens, perpendicular wavenumber and radial displacement of the cutoff, respectively. The fluctuations measured in TPE-RX mainly distribute in the range of 4k⊥dL/D < 0.8 which suggests present MIR system can make a clear image of the cutoff surface in plasma. In the RFP plasma, the generalized ohm's law is written as ηj‖ = E‖+ < υ̃ × B̃ >‖, where ‖ denotes parallel to the magnetic field (it is poloidal at the reversal surface). In the standard plasma, the poloidal current is driven by the electromotive forces < υ̃ × B̃ >p, which is produced by the fluctuations in the plasma (dynamo action). In the pulsed poloidal current drive (PPCD) plasma, the additional external field in the poloidal direction is generated and the poloidal current can be directly driven by this external electric field. As a result, the fluctuations may be suppressed with PPCD. In this work, the developed turbulence techniques are as follows: (1) the cross correlation, (2) the wavelet, (3) the maximum entropy method (MEM), (4) the fluctuation


They are not common inquiries on the religious disagreement in the Spain of century XIX. This work intends to contribute for this thematic. From a 1543 narrative, of Francisco Enzinas, the work looked for to point the presence of the protestantism in all the social stratus of the country, and not only between the common people, as usually it is announced Wordskey Protestantism, Spain, Religion in century XVI


This thesis presents the concept of innovation, types and its importance in generating competitive advantages in business, how is managed the innovation process and the elements that favor and hinder as well as risks, and then analyzed the types of organizations sorted by Mintzberg and the most important elements of each of them, from this deepens primarily business organizations, innovative and bureaucratic to present a proposal that consist in generating areas to integrate innovation into a bureaucratic organization that promote the generation of a culture of innnovation.


In this paper, we present an innovative chart mining technique for improving parse coverage based on partial parse outputs from precision grammars. The general approach of mining features from partial analyses is applicable to a range of lexical acquisition tasks, and is particularly suited to domain-specific lexical tuning and lexical acquisition using low-coverage grammars. As an illustration of the functionality of our proposed technique, we develop a lexical acquisition model for English verb particle constructions which operates over unlexicalised features mined from a partial parsing chart. The proposed technique is shown to outperform a state-of-the-art parser over the target task, despite being based on relatively simplistic features.


In-depth accident study is a method useful as a complement to more quantitative accident approaches, to further the research in malfunctions in the driving system and their determinants. They help to precisely define the adapted countermeasures to address the right targets. The road users are considered central in such an analysis, to understand the nature and the reasons for the difficulties and malfunctions they encounter when on the road. This paper presents some key elements on in-depth accident data collection and elaboration, on the sequential analysis of the accident process; the functional analysis of human failures and their factors. As part of the traffic system, the powered two-wheelers have become a component both crucial and critical. In the second part of the paper, they are taken as an application example of what can bring an in-depth accident approach to the understanding of the difficulties faced by road users.


Traditionally, light for phototherapy and photodynamic therapy has been administered in a clinical environment using lasers or bulky lamp systems; however light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for phototherapy and photodynamic therapy are gaining in popularity due to their high efficiencies, low-cost designs, and design versatility. In addition, LEDs can be assembled into flexible bandages to be worn on the patient's skin to replace traditional lamp systems and increase patient comfort. However, because this brings the LEDs closer to the skin, light intensity hot spots form which is not desirable for phototherapy where uniform irradiance is required to inactivate target cells most effectively. We present an optical simulation of a blue LED array to evaluate the effects of immersion media of varying thickness on the uniformity of light distribution for near-field illumination in phototherapeutic applications. We have compared different immersion materials (air, water, and optical-grade silicone) placed in between the LED array and the skin with the goal of uniform irradiance distribution and optimized lighting efficiency. The irradiance incident on the tissue over an area of 60 cm2 was simulated and compared for the three materials. Both silicone and water showed an increase in uniformity over an area of 14.4 cm2 as the thickness increased without a significant decrease in irradiance at the tissue. These results show promise for future flexible photonic devices where a high degree of uniformity is required in situations where the device needs to be placed on or near the skin.


The article focuses on a study which explored diversification, financial performance and other issues involved in corporate strategy. A discussion is presented about corporate management and proces...


Treatment of chromoblastomycosis with a combination of debulking surgery, intralesional amphotericin B, and oral terbinafine Dear Editor, Chromoblastomycosis is a chronic occupational disease caused by dematiaceous fungi from Fonsecaea and Cladophialophora species. Its recalcitrant and polymorphic nature makes its diagnosis and management difficult. Studies about its treatment are limited. This is a case of severe chromoblastomycosis in an elderly farmer treated with excision followed by weekly intralesional amphotericin B (AMB) and 500 mg of terbinafine daily. The initial management included surgical debulking of the lesion. Intralesional AMB was administered the following day and was given weekly for 19 weeks. Intralesional AMB was prepared by dissolving 25 mg of AMB in 20 ml of sterilized water. Five milliliters of 2% lidocaine solution was added, making 1 mg/ml of AMB. Since the lesion was large, intralesional AMB was injected at the edge of the wound using 0.25–0.5 ml of AMB solution per cm of the lesion. Simultaneous treatment with 500 mg oral terbinafine was given daily. Terbinafine was extended for 2 weeks more until the raised active edges subsided. There were no reported adverse drug events during the course of treatment and no recurrence after 6 months. Shorter treatment duration may have been warranted with early initiation. This is a case of a 75-year-old farmer with a 12-year history of a verrucous and hyperkeratotic plaque on the right foot with foul-smelling discharge and associated lymphedema of the leg. Biopsy showed muriform cells or Medlar bodies which are characteristic of chromoblastomycosis. Tissue culture showed Fonsecaea pedrosoi. He had initially been treated with cryotherapy, itraconazole 200 mg per day for more than 8 months, and even complete surgical excision, but recurrence of the lesions prompted consult at our institution. Upon consult, he had a large foul-smelling warty plaque and lymphedema of the right leg which he insisted on amputating (Fig. 1). The initial management included surgical debulking of the lesion. Intralesional amphotericin B (AMB, Gufic Stridden Biopharma Pvt Ltd, India) was administered the following day and was given weekly for 19 weeks. Intralesional AMB solution was prepared by dissolving 25 mg of AMB in 20 ml of sterilized water. Five milliliters of 2% lidocaine solution was added making 1 mg/ml of AMB. Since the lesion was large, intralesional AMB was injected at the edge of the wound using 0.25–0.5 ml of AMB solution per cm2 of the lesion. Simultaneous treatment with 500 mg oral terbinafine was given daily. After 19 weeks, treatment with AMB and terbinafine was discontinued, and wounds were treated conservatively (Fig. 2). Persistence of the raised wound edges prompted an extended duration of terbinafine monotherapy for 2 weeks until the active wound edges subsided. There were no reported adverse drug events during the course of treatment. On follow-up after 6 months, there was still no recurrence of chromoblastomycosis lesions observed. However, lymphedema, hypopigmentation, and atrophic scarring were already irreversible. Chromoblastomycosis is a chronic fungal infection involving the skin and subcutaneous tissues with associated granulomatous, purulent, and fibrotic tissue formation. It is caused by dematiaceous fungi from the Fonsecaea and Cladophialophora species, with Fonsecaea pedrosoi being one of the most common. It is an occupational disease, frequently found among farmers and manual laborers in tropics such as India, Sri Lanka, Central and South America, Cuba, and Jamaica. Lack of protective garments and poor nutrition and hygiene are the main risk factors. The recalcitrant and polymorphic nature of the disease coupled with low cure rate and high relapse rates make its diagnosis and management difficult. Existing clinical trials about its treatment are limited. Oral antifungal agents, such as itraconazole and terbinafine, are the primary therapeutic options with varying treatment response. Physical interventions like surgical excision and cryotherapy are used as adjuncts to reduce the duration of systemic therapy and to improve treatment


Taiwan Power Company (TPC) plans to substitute sea sand, the traditional construction material of ash pond dike, by Coal Ash Controlled Low Strength Material (CACLSM) which consists of large amount of coal ash from thermal power plants and a little amount of cement. The purpose of such a plan is to develop a new utilization approach of coal ash to improve the quality and to reduce the cost of the dike construction. As a result, a few basic engineering properties of CACLSM as used in dike construction at the coastal site with shallow seawater are studied in the paper. According to the design requirement of 40-60 kgf/cm for 28-day compressive strength, two mix proportions of CACLSM are finally adopted based on a series of mix trial tests. The one contains higher ratio of fly ash to bottom ash and another higher ratio of bottom ash to fly ash. Afterward, several test items are conducted including slump flow, flow cylinder, setting time, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, sulfate attack, one dimensional consolidation, influence of dry-wet cycle in seawater together with wave action, erosion of wind with coal ash particles, and placement into water. For the given two mix proportions, the 28-day compressive strengths of CACLSM mixtures are 36.8 kgf/cm and 37.1 kgf/cm, respectively, as flow cylinder is 150±5mm. Around 40-day age, their compressive strengths can reach 40 kgf/cm or more. In additional, their 28-day splitting strengths are 4.32 kgf/cm and 4.14 kgf/cm, respectively. The two mixtures show good resistance to sulfate attack, however, the mixture with higher ratio of fly ash to bottom ash has less material segregation than ones with higher ratio of bottom ash to fly ash. After a testing period of 90 days, both dry-wet cycle in seawater together with wave action, and erosion of wind with coal ash particles do not cause the detrimental effect on either the appearance or the strength of CACLSM mixtures. 2013 World of Coal Ash (WOCA) Conference April 22-25, 2013 in Lexington, KY http://www.flyash.info/


Objective To investigate epidemiological characteristics of hand-foot-and-mouth disease(HFMD) in a subdistrict of Shenzhen in 2009.Methods A database was established for statistical analysis.Results 1357 cases of HMFD in 2009,the incidence rate was 149.09/lakh higher than China.HFMD case was found in every month and the incidence peak was in April to July,accounts for 54.6% of the whole year.1121 cases of HFMD in 0 to 3 years accounts for 82.6 of the total number of patient.1059 cases of patients were among scattered children,accounting for 78% of all cases.Conclusion The incidence of HMFD varied by population and seasons.This is favorable to the prevention of HMED by Carried out epidemiological investigations.


The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has recently published a homogenised daily temperature dataset, ACORN-SAT, for the monitoring of climate variability and change in Australia. The dataset employs the latest analysis techniques and takes advantage of newly digitised observational data to provide a daily temperature record over the last 100 years. In this paper, we present a case-study to publish the ACORN-SAT as Linked Data. We use the Semantic Sensor Network ontology to deliver the publicly available metadata about the BOM weather stations and their deployment history as linked data. Additionally, for concepts that are not covered by existing vocabularies, we have developed domain ontologies to define the adjusted aggregate variables and associated parameters for the ACORN-SAT homogenised observation data, the BOM weather stations and the BOM Rainfall districts. We use the RDF Data Cube Vocabulary to publish the originally released tabular time series data and structure it into slices to support multiple views and query endpoints. We further describe how these linked open vocabularies have been used and combined in the context of this project to make this dataset linkable to existing or future linked open data resources. We also discuss the versatility of the new service for the consumers of the ACORNSAT dataset and uncover some issues which are specific to such long term climate data time series. The resulting Linked Sensor Data Cube is now accessible online via a pilot government linked data service built on the Linked Data API at lab.environment.data.gov.au.


Background : Neonatal hypertrophic pyloric stenosis is a rare pathological entity in pediatrics. The incidence of hypertrophic pyloric stenosis is 1-3 per 1000 live births in the neonatal period.
Case Presentation: We have presented a 4-day-old male who has non-projectile, non-bilious vomiting and has not passed stool for the last two days. Necessary investigations have been carried out, and the final diagnosis was made by an ultrasound of the abdomen, which revealed hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. Ramstedt's Pyloromyotomy was performed to correct pyloric stenosis alongside intraoperative findings of malrotation of the gut with normal mesentery and small gut.
Conclusion:
In this report, we have discussed the presentation of, hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in the early neonatal period  with no electrolyte imbalance, no metabolic alkalosis ( varies from usual presentation ) and associated malrotation of the gut. In Pakistan, hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in the early neonatal period has not been documented before.


The failure of pedagogy in regards to science education speaks to a lack of political will to enact those practices demonstrated by research to be most effective. Such practices are costly: limited class sizes, semi-structured investigative tasks, smallgroup learning, projects rather than rote, and above all, time to proceed from problem finding-to inquiry-to resolution all take resources and funds that most universities (not to say high schools) seem unwilling to put forth. Sadly, this state of affairs is unlikely to improve, given increasing calls for accountability and fiscal responsibility on the part of the universities in North America. The likelihood of having to do more with less is great.


Treatment of N-[o-(alk-1-enyl)phenyl]-2-(methylsulfinyl)acetamides with trifluoroacetic anhydride gave 2(1H)-quinolinones or 2H-1-benzazepin-2-ones, depending upon the position of the substituents on the alkene double bond.


The article contains results of profound research in the area of methods of increase of reliability and resistance in competitive activity of heterosexual wrestlers which is based on the analysis of specially designed survey responses. It is determined that in many characteristics of reliability and resistance female wrestlers are much weaker than male wrestlers. This conclusion determines the necessity in development of targeted methods of these characteristics increase in accordance with specifics of development of the adequate mechanisms of management applicable in female wrestlers sport activity. The article describes the complex of main method stages in training of women athletes in free style wrestling in compliance of sexual dimorphism influence.


Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) is a pathological condition currently recognized as an acquired, usually idiopathic, focal lesion of the subchondral bone with risk for instability and secondary damage to overlying articular cartilage, including softening, swelling, early separation, partial detachment, or complete osteochondral separation from the surrounding, healthy tissue resulting in a loose body [1–5]. OCD lesions are characterized by degrees of osseous resorption, collapse, and focal necrosis formation with possible delamination of the articular cartilage, unlike acute osteochondral fracture of normal cartilage (Fig. 5.1) [4]. Increasing fragmentation of both cartilage and bone leads to early degenerative changes, third-body wear due to osteochondral loose bodies, and loss of function in the affected compartment that may contribute to premature osteoarthritis (OA) [1, 4, 6]. The prevalence of OCD is estimated at 15–29 cases per 100,000 [3, 7–10]; however, the incidence may be increasing due to greater detection ability and increased participation in competitive youth sports at younger ages [1, 8]. Patients 12–19 years of age have been reported as having the highest incidence of OCD, resulting in being one of the most common causes of knee pain and dysfunction in young adults [7, 11]. In general, males are affected more often than females, with a reported male-to-female ratio as high as 5:3 [7, 12]. Furthermore, African-American ethnicity and patients with discoid lateral meniscus have been associated with a higher incidence of OCD lesions (Table 5.1) [6, 13]. While lesions can develop in the elbow, ankle, femoral head, and wrist, the most common site of involvement is the knee. Specifically, the medial femoral condyle [MFC (70–80%)], lateral femoral condyle [LFC (15–20%)], and patella (5–10%) account for the predominant majority of symptomatic lesions of the knee [9, 13, 14]. Bilateral presentation may also occur in up to 15–30% of cases [14, 15]. OCD lesions are classically subcategorized into juvenile and adult forms, based on the status of the distal femoral physes. Juvenile OCD (JOCD) occurs in children and adolescents with open growth plates, while adult OCD (AOCD) is considered when the physes are closed at the time of the diagnosis. AOCD may arise de novo, but it is more commonly accepted as the result of an AU1


We have implemented ab initio linear combinations of Gaussian-type orbital calculations with generalized localized spin density approximation (GLSDA) for a dimer of equilateral H3 as a model of the noncollinear magnetic clusters. It has been found that the GLSDA solution with the three-dimensional noncollinear spin structure is, contrary to prior band calculations by other groups, the ground state near the Oh conformation. Further computational results are compared to that of ab initio generalized Hartree–Fock. The difference between them and the influence of the correlation correction were discussed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2001


Coatings with diffraction pigments present high iridescence, which needs to be characterized to describe their appearance. The spectral Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) of six coatings with SpectraFlair diffraction pigments were measured using the robot-arm-based goniospectrophotometerer GEFE, designed and developed at CSIC. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) has been applied to study the coatings' BRDF data. From data evaluation and based in theoretical considerations, we propose a relevant geometric factor to study the spectral reflectance and color gamut variation of coatings with diffraction pigments. At fixed values of this geometrical variable, the spectral BRDF component due to diffraction is almost constant. Commercially-available portable goniospectrophotometers, extensively used in several industries (automotive and others), have to be provided with more aspecular measurement angles to characterize goniochromatic coatings based on diffraction pigments.


This article emphasizes the benefits of social media and online collaboration technology use in expatriate management, and the need to pay special attention to digitalization-related issues in supporting expatriates and their family members before, during, and after international assignments. In particular, we argue that the traditional approaches to expatriate management need to be developed further to reflect current technological advancements, especially social media and online collaboration tools that are increasingly used by millions of individuals worldwide on a daily basis—a trend that has been reinforced by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and related social contact and international mobility restrictions. For this purpose, we show the advantages of implementing the above digital technologies in a number of instances, ranging from the recruitment and selection of international assignees to the cultural adjustment of expatriates and their families in a foreign country. Given these benefits, and the need to account for potential challenges associated with the use of or a high reliance on digital technology during expatriate assignments to both culturally close and distant countries, we outline recommendations that will guide the management of these digital tools by assigning organizations. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.


Datasets of molecules or particles are commonly visualized by rendering a sphere for every present particle. It is necessary to aid the human perception when such a dataset is to be examined, since depth perception is lost without providing effects such as ambient occlusion or shadows. In this work, we present mechanisms that attempt to provide such effects with high quality without compromising interactive frame rates even in large datasets. Additionally, to reduce noise caused by heavily varying surface normals, normal approximation is deployed.


Adrenal transplants were made into the ears of 6 adult rabbits by means of Sandison's technic. 1 The left adrenal gland was removed aseptically from the rabbit and placed in warm saline for 10 to 15 minutes. Thin pieces of both cortex and medulla were taken and inserted into the chamber adjacent to the blood vessels. Immediate observation showed that the transplant consisted of cell masses too opaque to be clearly seen, with a few isolated cells at the edge. These individual cells appear to live for 2 to 4 weeks, exhibiting some migrating activity but never active amoeboid movement. They are quite large and show vacuoles and a number of highly refractile granules. In 4 days to a week the vacuoles became more numerous and many of the cells began to shrink, fragment and disappear. No cells were seen to be growing and multiplying. The main transplant showed some living cells along the margin but the center when visible appeared to be necrotic and became slowly absorbed in the course of about 4 weeks. The transplant apparently retards the growth of the connective tissue and blood vessels in the chamber. No adrenal cells were seen to live in among the connective tissue, nor was there any indication of reaction about the transplant, except for the presence of a few leucocytes and macrophages. Occasionally a zone of leucocytes, 3 or 4 cells deep, was found next to a degenerating mass. All 6 rabbits, 5 with autotransplant and one with hemotransplant showed quite similar findings. None of the transplants exhibited signs of growth or survived longer than 6 weeks. Attempt was also made to transplant the adrenal in 2 stages. The transparent chamber was first inserted into the ear of the rabbit.


Ceria-type materials were investigated as reactive chemical intermediates, in view of solar thermochemical hydrogen production via two-step water-splitting. Ceria/zirconia mixed oxides and ceria doped with yttrium, lanthanum, praseodymium, or gadolinium were studied using a thermobalance to evaluate their thermal reduction capacity in inert atmosphere and their subsequent reactivity with water steam to generate hydrogen. Ceria/zirconia materials present the highest reduction yields with a noticeable linear increase as a function of the zirconium content (in the range 0–54% Zr), while the gravimetric amount of O2 released during reduction tends to level off for Zr atomic contents above 25%. Temperature-programmed reduction experiments demonstrate that the zirconium insertion favors the bulk reduction. The addition of different dopants (among Y, La, Pr, and Gd) did not affect the global materials reducibility, although it should favor the material thermal stability during repeated cycles. The marked effect ...


Taking the rapid-developing logistic industry as study object and the development different of regional logistic industry as deep study introduction,the logistic input/output index was applied in order to tackle the bias of single factor productivity index on measure of logistic development level,and static assessment is taken on logistic industrial development performance in different areas by nonparametric statistical DEA model,all of these provide quantitive analysis reference for logistic industry development among regions in China.Taking practical analysis as example,the obvious difference of logistic development level in east,middle and west of China was discussed in this paper.


The application of low-altitude remote sensing data was introduced.The application demand of modern agricultural resources management was discussed.The application method of low-latitude remote sensing in supervisory work of agricultural resources dynamic quantitative observation work was expounded.


Research on the performance of family firms is growing, but results are mixed, especially for nonlisted companies. Thus, on the basis of the co-presence of benefits and disadvantages of family involvement in ownership and management, we explored the presence of nonlinear effects of these two variables on performance. We run regression analyses on data drawn from 620 privately held family firms in Italy: A negative quadratic relationship between family involvement in management and performance was found, but we did not find any association between family involvement in ownership and performance. Our results suggest that in privately held firms the positive effects that previous literature associates with the presence of family managers do not appear strong enough to compensate for the disadvantages deriving from a nonmonetary goal orientation, nor do they compensate for the costs deriving from the need to solve conflicts between family managers and the impossibility of enlarging the company's social and intellectual capital through the employment of nonfamily managers. Moreover, the quadratic nature of the relationship calls for greater attention to be paid to these effects by family business owners, especially in those cases where family involvement in management is high.


Data compression algorithms are used in process plants to store and transmit data for analysis purposes. Amount of data is increasing in process plants due to advances in automation and process monitoring technologies. Process data historians are used in plants to store, manage, retrieve and analyze process data. Process data historians use data compression algorithms to effectively manage large amount of data. Best practiced compression algorithm in process data historians has a severe drawback that it significantly alters the statistical properties of reconstructed data; this results in incorrect analysis results which have financial and safety implications for the process plants. Proposed compression algorithm is designed to preserve the critical statistical properties for process data analysis which supports operational decision making in process plants. Case studies are presented on real plant data and simulated data to compare the performance of proposed algorithm with best practiced algorithm used in process data historians.


The standard linear model for electroseismic waves is investigated in the presence of anisotropic, inhomogeneous, time‐shift invariant media. In the framework of a comprehensive theory for a new class of evolutionary problems wellposedness of associated initial boundary value problems is shown (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


The intermetallic compound Al 3 Ti was formed by combustion synthesis from an elemental powder mixture and was simultaneously bonded with intermetallic TiAl base material. During continuous heating of the elemental powder mixture, Al 3 Ti is formed spontaneously near the melting temperature of Al. At the same temperature, Al from the powder mixture reacted with TiAl base material to form an Al 3 Ti reaction layer, which achieved the joining between TiAl and Al 3 Ti. The obtained Al 3 Ti layer on the TiAl base material was densified by hot pressing and exhibited almost the same wear properties as Al 3 Ti material produced by casting.


With the instruction of several highways in the Gurbantunggut desert,there emerged ecological desturbance belt along them including instruction belt and function belt.It changed the atmospheric field near the ground,peeled off the ground cover,brought out sand source,reallocated surface water and isolated the primitive habitat.Field observation and sampling analysis show that the vegetation restoration of the disturbance belt depends on some factors,such as the stability of sand surface,the precipitation distribution on the ground?time?the underground table?seed sources and wind field.At the same time,we primarily conclude the laws of vegetation restoration:①the content of organic matter of surface sand in the checkerboard fence increases by time;②checkerboard fence accelerates the vegetation restoration;③sand covers naturally on the windward slope,seeds tend to germinate and grow;④longitrophic mesophyte vegetation emerges on the road-shoulder,xeromorphic vegetation on both slopes of the roadbed,the restorative condition in the disturbances adjacent to the highway relys on the water condition;⑤the degree of the vegetation restoration increases by time,the process of vegetation succession is:ephemeral plant?Aristida pinnate TrinKobresiaHaloxylon ammodendron or Haloxylon pericum.Finally we put forward a series of restorative measures,such as improving the checkerboard fence material,increasing the content of organic matter of sandy soil,using dry water(water highly absorbing material),seeding timely etc.


Introduction: With the lack of evidence-based specific therapy for COVID-19, the prevention against the infection and boosting the body's immunity is the only option. Experts have suggested the use of herbal plants to boost the immunity; however, the use and acceptance of herbal medicinal plants among young adults are not known. The present study is aimed at assessing the use of herbal medicinal preparations as immunity booster among young adults during the times of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among college-going students during October 23–31, 2020. A Google form was circulated to the target group through the private and institutional networks during the study period. The questionnaire consisted of questions related to past, current, and future use of the herbal medicinal preparations. Data were extracted in MS-Excel. Univariate analysis and logistic regression was performed using the SPSS software version 21. Results: A total of 318 participants with a mean age of 20.5 ± 2.1 and approximately 79% females were included in the analysis. Of the total, 65.7% participants stated some use of herbal preparations as the immunity booster during the pandemic. Type of family, monthly income of the family, and state of residence were not found to be significantly associated with the use of herbal medicinal plants during the pandemic, whereas the past use of herbal medicines, participants who considered herbal medicinal plants to be effective and safe were found to be significantly associated with the use of herbal preparations during the pandemic. Conclusion: A significantly large proportion of young adults are using herbal medicinal plants as immunity booster during the pandemic indicating inclination toward traditional medicines.


Objective:  The objective of this study was to establish the value of different markers in differentiating reactive mesothelial cells from metastatic adenocarcinomatous cells in serous effusions (SE).


One of the key components of financial risk management is risk measurement. This typically requires modeling, estimating and forecasting tail-related quantities of the asset returns' conditional distribution. Recent advances in the financial econometrics literature have developed several models based on Extreme Value Theory (EVT) to carry out these tasks. The purpose of this paper is to review these methods.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review proposals concerned with advice to President Obama from a cybernetics viewpoint, along with critical comments on the new administration by Noam Chomsky. Also reviewed are proposals for an international conference on the financial crisis.Design/methodology/approach – The aim is to review developments on the internet, especially those of general cybernetic interest.Findings – There is enthusiasm about introducing cybernetics principles in the new administration. Reservations by Chomsky about some aspects are mentioned, as is also a separate initiative for application of cybernetics to world problems.Practical implications – The proposals relating to the Obama administration include not only giving off advice but also possible installation of a specialist on cybernetics in the White House, and founding of a new research facility. For the proposed international conference mentioned, the advice is to watch the CYBCOM list for developments.Originality/value – It ...


Object To explore the method for measuring area of traumatic perforation of tympanic memberane through analysis of 41 cases. Method pohotes acqurired by otologic endoscope were analysed by using the software photoshop, the area proportion of perforation to the tympanic memberane was calculated, other forensic clinical characteristics for ear trauma was studied. Result traumatic perforation of tympanic memberane is usually small, blood stained, irregular edged and located in the left side. Conclusion otologic endoscopy and image software could exactly record and analyze quantitative traumatic perforation of tympanic memberane.


In the process of economic development, influenced by many factors, this paper establishes a regression model between capital stock and financial development under the influence of endogenous growth theory to analyze the change of capital stock in the process of economic growth. It is found that financial development plays a greater role in the capital stock, and the role played by financial markets is weaker than that of financial intermediaries


A chiplet placement algorithm for 2.5-D IC integration on an interposer is discussed in this paper. Inspired by the NoC (network-on-chip) mapping problem, we propose a novel chiplet placement algorithm called the CCEOA (chiplet communication energy optimization algorithm), which takes into account the actual size of the chiplet. The CCEOA can map chiplets to mesh topology, resulting in a layout with a low CEC (communication energy consumption). The algorithm considers the spacing of the chiplets while selecting the initial nodes and the nodes to map the next chiplet. Furthermore, because there exist nodes resulting in the same CEC increment during the mapping process, the algorithm adopts a secondary local exploration strategy to further select nodes. Meanwhile, the lateral and vertical placements of chiplets are also considered. The algorithm is implemented and evaluated with a 2.5-D IC integration with 22 chiplets to demonstrate its efficiency and the accuracy.


This paper discusses certain elements of the architecture and some of the statues preserved in the Hōryūji, Nara, Japan, in comparison with similar structures and artifacts seen in contemporary cave temples in China, especially those at Mogao, in Dunhuang, and Longmen, in Luoyang. Several long-standing problems are elucidated, and tentative dates are established for the beam-structure in the roof of the upper floor of the Main Hall, the roof of the Tamamushi no Zushi, the Bodhisattvas painted on the door leaves, the murals in the Main Hall, and the statues in the Gojūnotō (Five-storied Pagoda).


Objective:To observe the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine treatment of children with Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis.Method:60 cases of allergic purpura nephritis(kidney type)were divided into control group(n=30)and treatment group(n=30).Control group was treated with conventional Western medicine prednisone tablets and Tripterygium glycosides tablets.Based on the treatment in control group,treatment group was given traditional Chinese medicine decoction,which should be modified with the symptoms.The clinical efficacy was observed after treatment.Results:The total effective was 86.67% in treatment group,63.33% in control group,the difference was statistically significant(P0.05).Conclusion:TCM Differential Treatment combined with Western medicine treatment has significant effect on purpura nephritis.


Saccadic dysmetria, intrusions, and oscillations are often encountered in association with certain cerebellar and neurodegenerative diseases. When severe, they can give rise to visual symptoms, such as difficulty with reading and oscillopsia. In this chapter, we begin by reviewing the clinical features of saccadic dysmetria, in which the saccadic amplitude is inappropriately calibrated. We next review the clinical features of saccadic intrusions and oscillations, which include square-wave jerks, macrosaccadic oscillations, ocular flutter, and opsoclonus. We review the common causes of these entities and discuss the diagnostic workup. Lastly, we discuss potential medical treatments to reduce the magnitude and frequency of saccadic intrusions and oscillations.


The authors propose a machine translation technique for a compact terminal such as a mobile telephone. With a compact terminal that emphasizes portability such as a mobile phone, the number of keys that the terminal can be equipped with is necessarily restricted by the limited size of the terminal itself. Therefore, to enable input by using only this small number of keys, the proposed technique assigns multiple characters to a single input key. In addition, to enable rapid input, a single character is entered by a single key-press. As a result, the number sequence that is the input string to the proposed technique is associated with multiple character strings, and thus there also exist multiple translation candidates for this number sequence, thereby increasing ambiguity. Nevertheless, by using inductive learning, the proposed technique can automatically acquire translation rules that depend on the subject and use these rules for translation. This high level of adaptability enables the proposed technique to eliminate ambiguity as much as possible during the translation process to obtain a correct translation. The authors created a system based on the proposed technique and assigned a small number of word translation rules in advance to perform Japanese-to-English machine translation experiments. The results verified the effectiveness of the proposed technique by showing that the final translation precision of approximately 70% and the translation efficiency were high. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 87(9): 33–47, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjc.20100


THE CORE IDEA OF this book is that humor is a good thing because of its central role in the interplay between religion, individuals, and the imagination. Drawing principally on Sigmund Freud, but referencing many other authorities, Capps identifies the core personal functions of humor, especially in the form of jokes, as bringing about a favorable psychological economy with respect to painful emotions, difficult thinking, and costly inhibitions. Humor assists individuals better to manage disequilibrating thoughts, feelings, and behaviors connected with anxieties about death, poverty, deviancy, grief, boredom, sexuality, values, and social inequality, to name a few. In addition, humor assists with identity development, social cohesiveness, intimacy, and the regeneration of the soul by bringing it back to its central concerns and particular grounding. He provides illuminating connections between humor as an instrument of religion, a means for therapeutic refraining, and a basis for appreciating the possibilities and limitations of ministers, rabbis, and priests.


The synthesis and preliminary pharmacological in vitro of seventeen pentapeptide analogs of the opioid peptide dermorphin are reported. Substitution at residue Tyr5 and/or modification of C-terminal are generally well tolerated.


The Internet of Things (IoT) provides the ability for humans and computers to interact with billions of devices such as sensors, actuators, and other objects connected to the Internet. Considering the consumer electronic market, one of the main adopted wireless network protocols is Bluetooth and, nowadays, the Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) version. Therefore, the development of new services that interact with BLE-enabled devices is an interest topic for IoT. Specially when considering BLE-enabled devices that uses GATT protocol for communication. In this paper is proposed a solution based on the use of a flow-based programming tool, Node-RED, that allows data provided by BLE-GATT devices to be available to Internet services in an easy to implement way using widely used protocols, such as MQTT. Also, regarding interoperability between devices, it is proposed the use of oneIoTa data model to allow standardized communication between BLE devices and Internet services. Therefore, the presented solution should easier the integration of BLE devices with Internet services, and keep interoperability using a public data model.


Why should companies engage in licensing-out? While conventional wisdom mostly focuses on the financial and commercial benefits available to the licensor, this paper points to the learning opportunities entailed in licensing agreements. We develop an exploratory study built around a longitudinal cross-industry database of 558 licensing deals and we apply the vicarious learning framework to analyze the learning opportunities exploited by the licensor, as a result of engaging with a particular licensee in the first place. We investigate the licensorlicensee dyads on several dimensions, capturing their profiles and the different learning opportunities exploited; we also compare dyads that invert their role in a subsequent round to dyads that do not to understand whether there are difference in terms of learning patterns. Findings offer several insights consistent with a learning scenario, thus prompting further empirical research.


Now, the comet assay is used widely to detect chemical genotoxicity both in vitro and in vivo. There may be many important factors affecting the outcomes of in vitro comet assay, for example, exposure and sampling periods, used cells, S9 components, and electrophoresis condition. We have been questioning better experimental design to give good outcome of this assay. Followings are our tentative conclusions: (1) long sampling period should not be employed; (2) long exposure period should not be employed for chemicals that are unstable in culture media; (3) any eukaryotic cells can be used in this assay; (4) S9 components same as those used in the Ames test can be used to give good outcomes in this assay; and (5) although different kinds of DNA lesion can be detected at different pH condition during electrophoresis, alkaline (pH >13) condition is suitable for the comet assay as a genotoxicity test.


IN READING the medical research literature, one often sees references to or use of matched controls. This procedure may be included, for instance, in comparative drug trials or studies of the putative etiologic effect of certain environmental factors. Actually, there are a variety of research settings that may lend themselves to this approach. What do we mean by matching? Briefly, it ordinarily consists of the selection, for each test subject in a study (eg, one with a certain disease or receiving a certain therapy), of a comparison subject who is as similar to the test subject as possible except for the presence of the disease or treatment under investigation. One of the ways in which matching differs from stratification or blocking is that the comparison subjects in matching are selected individually to match individual test subjects. For example, in a case-control study of the possible effect of fiber consumption in