Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune systemic inflammatory disease affecting approximately 1% of the worldwide population. The interaction of genetic and environmental factors results in a cascade of immune reactions, which ultimately lead to the development of synovitis, joint damage, and structural bone damage.1 The importance of the left atrium in cardiovascular performance has long been acknowledged. Quantitative assessment of left atrial (LA) function is laborious, requiring invasive pressure-volume loops and thus precluding its routine clinical use. In recent years, novel postprocessing imaging methodologies have emerged, providing a complementary approach for the assessment of the left atrium. Atrial strain and strain rate obtained using either Doppler tissue imaging or two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography have proved to be feasible and reproducible techniques to evaluate LA mechanics.2 Objectives To screen cardiac affection in rheumatoid arthritis patients To assess subclinical echocardiography affection in RA patients Methods 30 healthy control, and 45 RA patient subjected to full clinical assessment, DAS 28 ESR score, full laboratory evaluation, conventional and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and strain (S) and strain rate (SR) analysis by two-dimensional speckle tracking of the left atrium. Results we found statistically significant difference in 2 Left atrial PEF, 2 Left atrial EI, 2 Left atrial TEF, TDI mitral lateral anuulus e', TDI mitral lateral annulus S, Average SR E 1/s between patients and controls, and negative correlation between TDI lateral e, TDI lateral s, and Strain rate e and rheumatoid factor, There was negative correlation between 2LA PEF, 2LA EI, and 2LA TEF. Rheumatoid factor is correlated to strain rate e, and negatively correlated with left atrial passive emptying Conclusions RA had alteration in left LV longitudinal myocardial function, left atrial expansion volume can be a predictor of AF in RA. RA patient had more left atrial stiffness. Our study concluded cardiac affection is more in seropositive RA patients. References [1] Gibofsky A. Overview of epidemiology, pathophysiology, and diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. Am J Manag Care2012;18(13):S295–302. [2] Maria J Vieira, Rogério Teixeira, LinoGonçalves, et al. Left Atrial Mechanics: Echocardiographic Assessment and Clinical Implications2014;27(5):463–478. Disclosure of Interest None declared


During the Upper Pleistocene human hunters had to compete with large carnivores in their ecological setting. This paper analyses the fauna from the small cave of Pego do Diabo, with an occupation classified as Aurignacian, and considers human-carnivore relationships in the Portuguese Upper Paleolithic. Similar to other Early Upper Paleolithic cave deposits in Portugal (Salemas, Caldeirao, Casa da Moura and Buraca Escura), Pego do Diabo faunal assemblage includes remains of several carnivore species, such as wolf, hyena and iberian lynx. Some evidences suggest important changes in the relationship between humans and carnivores at the end of the last glacial in Portuguese Early Upper Paleolithic sites : first, the relative abundance of carnivore remains, associated with a high degree of carnivore-modified bones ; second, a significant reduction in carnivore species diversity during the Solutrean and Magdalenian. A model is developed emphasizing short and discontinuous human occupations of small cavities during the Early Upper Paleolithic, which left these sites free for carnivore denning. These patterns changed during the Solutrean, as large carnivores started to disappear from the archaeological record and sites containing significant numbers of carnivore-damaged fauna begin to be rare.


Auditory monitoring is an option to monitor the auditory development of infants during the first years of life and to promote early diagnosis. Its objective is to analyze the auditory development of infants who passed the hearing screening, but had risk indicators for hearing loss in their neonatal history.


Mobile devices use embedded processors with low computing capabilities to reduce power consumption. Since floating-point arithmetic units are power hungry, computationally intensive jobs must be accomplished with either digital signal processors or hardware co-processors. In this paper, we propose to perform fixed-point arithmetic on an integer hardware unit. We illustrate the advantages of our approach by implementing fingerprint verification on mobile devices.


In recent years, the interest in modeling extrusion processes has resulted in the development of several analytical and numerical methodologies. The present work optimizes cold extrusion process variables (Die angle (DA), Ram speed (RS), Coefficient of friction (CoF)) on extrusion force, displacement, damage and time for the Aluminum AA 2024 alloy material. DEFORMTM-3D software is used to carry out numerical simulations and to study the behavior of the Aluminum AA 2024 billet during the plastic deformation over the conical die. The die/ container and ram (top die) are considered as rigid bodies and the room temperature is maintained during the extrusion process. The simulations are conducted as per L27 Taguchi orthogonal array. The obtained results are analyzed in ANOVA. An optimization using multiple variables is performed by grey relational analysis (GRA). The highest grey relational grade (GRG) is obtained for experiments conducted at DA level 2, RS level 2, and CoF level 3 (minimum extrusion force, damage and time) and (maximum displacement) is achieved by GRA. Systematically, the influence of the ram speed, coefficient of friction, and die angle are examined. The damage factor is considerable at 30° DA under the ram speed of 3mm/min.


The purpose of this study is to establish directions of industrial location policies in the major metropolitan areas in Korea with focusing on the views of industrial systems and an industrial organization. The results of the analyses of industrial components, locational changes, and operating units of industrial systems suggest three aspects to be considered in a regional industrial policy : components of industrial type ; mix in the stages of product life cycle ; and mix of operating units of industrial systems. Based on the examination of the spatial division of labor and issues of external control in Korea, cities other than Seoul, Pusan and Taegu are in poor condition in regional industrial linkages and in an innovation potential. Focusing on the improvement of the regional innovation potential and the regional industrial linkage in the metropolitan areas, the followings are suggested as directions for a new industrial location policy in the major metropolitan areas : 1) leading role of multi-regional firms in industrial development of Kwangju and Taejeon metropolitan areas for a short-term period ; 2) best use of local labor forces and an improvement of linkages between firms and universities ; 3) promotion of innovation of large firms and dispersion of firm's research institutions in a long run ; 4) improvement of the regional industrial linkages in the industrial systems of provincial or local cities ; 5) improvement of innovation adoption of small-medium sized firms with integrating these firms into a diffusion process at an early point in time ; and 6) development of technopolises for a long term structural change and regional development.


Leguminous plants are able to grow under nitrogen-limiting conditions by establishing an endosymbiotic interaction with diazotrophic soil bacteria known as rhizobia. This interaction results in root structures, nodules, where rhizobia are differenciated to bacteroids and symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) occurs (Van de Velde et al., 2006). Key enzymes involved in SNF require metals as cofactor to carry out their catalytic activity such as nitrogenase, leghemoglobin, cytochrome oxidase and superoxide dismutase. Previous results in Medicago truncatula showed that metals have to be provided to the bacteroids by the host legume, being released to the apoplast of zone II (infection/maturation zone) of the nodule (Rodriguez- Haas et al., 2013). It is known that Yellow Stripe-like (YSL) transporters mediate metal trafficking from the root to sink organs, however, no information of the role of these transporters in the context of SNF is available. Medicago truncatula YSL1 is a good candidate to mediate this transport, since it reaches an expression peak in these organs. MtYSL1 was localized around the vascular conducts of nodules and, in the root pericycle. MtYSL1 immunolocalization showed that it was embedded in the plasma membrane of non-infected cells surrounding the vessels. These results suggest a role of MtYSL1 in metal delivery to M. truncatula nodules


Safety performance functions (SPFs) were developed for rural two-lane county roadway segments in Michigan. Five years of crash data (2011 to 2015) were analyzed for greater than 6,500 mi of rural county roadways, covering 29 of Michigan's 83 counties and representing all regions of the state. Three separate models were developed to estimate annual deer-excluded total and injury crashes on rural county roadways: 1) paved federal-aid segments, 2) paved non-federal-aid segments, and 3) paved and gravel non-federal-aid segments with fewer than 400 vpd. To account for the unobserved heterogeneity associated with differing county design standards, mixed effects negative binomial models with a county-specific random effect were utilized. Not surprisingly, the county segment SPFs generally differed from traditional models generated using data from state-maintained roadways. County federal-aid roadways general showed greater crash occurrence than county non-federal-aid roadways, the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) two-lane rural roadways model, and rural state highways in Michigan. County non-federal-aid paved roadways showed crash occurrence rates that were remarkably similar to the HSM base rural two-lane roadway model, whereas gravel roadways showed greater crash occurrence rates. The presence of horizontal curves with design speeds below 55 mph had a strong association with the occurrence of total and injury crashes across all county road classes. Increasing driveway density was also found to be associated with increased crash occurrence. However, lane width, roadway surface width, and paved shoulder width had little to no impact on total or injury crashes.


The use of simulation and virtual reality for learning can only be as effective as the pedagogical intentions and skills driving them. This study will examine the statement by describing how learning is facilitated using different types of simulation in an engineering module -- Aircraft Systems – in a problem-based learning environment. The authors will elaborate on the potential of such lesson designs to promote selfdirectedness in students.


A review is made of those past, present, and planned experiments at the AGS whose primary purpose is to determine whether the H‐dibaryon exists. Preliminary results are given for experiment E813, based on partially‐completed analysis.


T^HE pioneer work of Edwards and Palmer1 .¦¦ in the field of atypical mycobacterial infec¬ tions began with the observations that in some countries tuberculin reactions exhibit a bimodal distribution, while in others predominantly large reactions are seen in a unimodal pattern. These investigators postulated that small reactions are mainly due to infections with organisms other than tubercle bacilli.


A method for effectively providing main gas into a pool of molten metal, which is particularly useful for use in an electric arc furnace. The method employs combustion of secondary oxygen with fuel to form a flame envelope around a main gas stream which protects the main gas from entrainment of ambient gases as it passes through the headspace of the furnace. This enables the gas to retain to a substantial degree its original force upon injection into the headspace and thus may be injected into the furnace at a safe distance from the molten metal surface while still achieving substantially complete penetration into the molten metal.


Fourth ventricle epidermoid cysts or pearly tumors are uncommon lesions which arise from epithelial remnants at the time of neural tube closure. They are benign extracerebral intra-dural lesions accounting for <2% of intracranial tumors out of which only 5-18% may occur in the fourth ventricle. Epidermoid cysts of the fourth ventricle occur very rarely, with few cases reported in the literature. We present a case of a pathological proven less common fourth ventricle epidermoid cyst.


Economic empowerment among single mothers is an important research avenue as these mothers are, in most cases, the heads of households. The economic ability of single mothers to support their dependents is crucial in ensuring the survival of their households. The income of single mothers mainly comes from paid jobs whereby these mothers are expected to work while at the same time looking after their young children. These mothers have to make economic decisions on the limited resources available and their decisions will have an effect on the entire households. Reports from the Malaysian Department of Statistics show that the income of female headed households (widows and divorcees / permanently separated women) is lower than that of married women. It indicates the vulnerability of this type of households to any economic shocks as they are the sole breadwinner of the family. In a quest to understand the economic decision made by single mothers, this present study adapts the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices theory or better known as the KAP theory to study their economic empowerment. In particular, this paper will determine indicator / variables as discussed in the previous studies in developing the framework of the model. This study postulates that financial knowledge, financial attitude and financial practices as well as the socio economic factors (age and income) are the most prominent indicators in studying women's economic empowerment. Therefore the contribution of this study is in developing a testable model of economic empowerment of single mothers based on KAP theory.


It is our aim to study the dynamics of a two-level atom immersed in the modified radiation field of a photonic band-gap material using non-Markovian stochastic Schroedinger equations. Up to now, such methodology has only been applied to toy models and not to physically realistic systems as the one presented here. In order to check its validity, we shall study several of the physical phenomena already described in the literature within non-Markovian master equations, such as the long-time-limit residual population in the excited level of the atom and the population inversion which occurs in the atomic system when applying an external laser field. In addition to the stochastic equation, we propose a non-Markovian master equation derived from the stochastic formalism, which in contrast to the current models of master equation preserves positivity. We propose a correlation function for the radiation field (environment) that captures many of the physically relevant aspects of the problem and describes the short-time behavior in a more accurate way than previously proposed ones. This characteristic permits a correct description of the fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, which in the stochastic formalism are represented by the noise, and a better description of the non-Markovian effects in themore » atomic dynamics. The methodology presented in this paper to apply stochastic Schroedinger equations can be followed to study more complex systems, like many-level atoms embedded in more complicated photonic band-gap structures.« less


In this introduction and presentation of this monography, a review is done on the evolution of Social Anthropology in Spain, as well as the evolution of the topics that have prevailed under the discipline. Insofar as there is an analysis of the groups represented or not in this volume, there is an overview on the current status of Anthropological research Spain. In the second part of the text, the reader will find a brief comment on the theoretical and methodo logical characteristics collected in the texts. In light of the texts there is a reflection on the relevant changes and developments that have taken place in the discipline. It also highlights the central role of ethnography as the main hallmark of Anthropology in the new context of globalization analysis.


The Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA) is a valid and reliable simple observational tool specifically for computer workers however it does not include muscle/force loads as compared to the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), which is the most commonly used tool regardless of occupations. A modified Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (mRULA) has been developed specifically for computer use among office workers, however, its validity and reliability has weak evidence from only a small pool of currently available studies. This study primarily aims to determine the validity and reliability - namely the external validity, internal consistency, and inter- and intra- rater reliability - of the mRULA in the assessment of ergonomic risk factors among public and private office workers. Secondarily, this study aims to compare the ergonomic risk between office workers in public and private companies. This study is a quantitative psychometric study. Data were obtained through video method of participants from the selected public and private companies in their respective office workstations. Two assessors used both ROSA and mRULA tools for two trials. Results determined the external validity thru Pearson Correlation Test based on ROSA, internal consistency thru Cronbach alpha, inter-rater reliability thru Wilcoxon Signed Test, and intrarater reliability thru the Intra-Class Coefficient of mRULA and compared public and private companies thru Mann Whitney U Test. significant difference, either in the public company (Z = -6.218, p value = .000) or in the private company (Z = -2.211, p value = .027), was found between ROSA and mRULA while approaching moderate internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.536) was found.


an account of its beneficial effects in the hands of Dr. Calhoun, of Philadelphia, which he found in the Medico-Chirurgical Review. We subjoin Mr. Valentine's case, which is certainly a very interesting one. Mary Dampier, eet. forty, far advanced in her first pregnancy, fell down in a fit of apoplexy, on the 19th of November last. Sense and motion were lost for two hours, when she recovered in a great degree, but had still some remaining vertigo and inclination to sleep, the mouth being also drawn to one side, and the left arm paralysed. She was bled, leeched, blistered, and mercurialized; under which treatment all the symptoms were removed, except the paralysis of the arm and hand; for which she was directed to use friction with the linim. volat., which produced scarcely any benefit. Having met with some observations on the use of the tourniquet in paralytic affections, I resolved on giving it a trial. All medicines and applications being discontinued, it was first applied on the 9th


Novatein Thermoplastic Protein (NTP) is a biopolymer produced by modifying bloodmeal to a thermoplastic material, but requires reinforcement to improve mechanical properties. Proteinintercalated calcium (CaBt) and sodium bentonite (NaBt) were investigated as nano-scale reinforcements in NTP. These were prepared by recovering proteins from meat processing wastewater called stickwater, thereby reducing treatment cost and intercalating protein into clay layers in a single step. Using stickwater-modified NaBt improved the composite's tensile strength by 23% (at 0.5 parts per hundred bloodmeal, pph BM ) and Young's modulus by 17% compared to standard NTP. Stickwater treatment greatly improved the compatibility of bentonite with NTP compared to gelatin-treated bentonite whose resulting composites only had similar or slightly improved mechanical properties. The improved mechanical properties are parallel with other improvements observed in thermal, crystallinity and filler distribution. Potential applications include plant pots and seedling trays for plant nursery and agricultural disposable tools such as weasand clips, nails and barbs.


Article history: Received 20 August 2019 Accepted 15 October 2019 The phase-separation phenomenon of non-ionic surfactants occurring in aqueous solution was used for the extraction and concentration of thorium ions. The method is based on the complexation reaction of thorium(IV) with 2-(5-bromo-2pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol (5-Br-PADAP) at pH (3.4). The formed complex was quantitatively extracted to the phase rich in octylphenoxypolyethoxyethanol (Triton X-114) after centrifugation. The enriched analyte in the surfactant-rich phase was extracted, dissolved and determined spectrophotometrically at 531 nm. The optimal extraction and reaction conditions (e.g. pH, surfactant concentration, reagent concentration, temperature, effect of time) were evaluated and the analytical characteristics of the method (e.g. limit of detection, linear range and preconcentration factor) were obtained. Linearity was obeyed in the range of 0.125-2.5μg/ml of Th(IV). The interference effect of some foreign ions was also tested. The proposed method was successfully applied for the preconcentration and determination of trace thorium ions in certified reference sample and silicate geological samples.


Detection of nerve agents (NAs) gas in the environment through portable devices to protect people in case of emergencies still remains a challenge for scientists involved in this research field. Current detection strategies require the use of cumbersome, expensive equipment that is only accessible to specialized personnel. By contrast, emerging optical detection is one of the most promising strategies for the development of reliable, easy readout devices. However, the selectivity of the existing optical sensors needs to be improved. To overcome the lack of selectivity, the innovative strategy of the optical arrays is under evaluation due to the specific response, the ease of preparation, the portability of the equipment, and the possibility to use affordable detectors, such as smartphones, that are easily accessible to non-specialized operators. In this work, the first optical-based sensor array for the selective detection of gaseous dimethylmethylphosphonate (DMMP), a NAs simulant, is reported, employing a simple smartphone as a detector and obtaining remarkably efficient and selective detection.


The invention relates to the field of computers, in particular to a planetary compact disc recorder. Four drive assemblies in the planetary compact disc recorder are evenly distributed on a rotary disc and sequentially drive sun gears and planetary gears through speed regulating drive motors, and the sun gears and the planetary gears drive compact discs on compact disc clamp shaft heads to rotate at a constant speed so as to complete compact disc recording. Linear servo stepping motors rotate to drive helical lead screws to move upwards, then the helical lead screws drive hinge joint seats connected onto the helical lead screws in a sleeving mode to move upwards, and laser heads complete the whole recording work from inner circles to outer circles and complete simultaneous recording of a plurality of compact discs due to accurate motions of the linear servo stepping motors. Track seeking mechanism assemblies are switched to other drive assemblies in position each time cam indexing unit and a main power motor rotate at 90 degrees, the compact discs completely recorded on the drive assemblies are replaced while recording, the time for arranging compact discs to be recorded is not needed, and the effect of simultaneously recording a plurality of compact discs is really achieved.


Abstract. A theoretical study is presented on planar micro-optic solar concentrators. These can be inexpensively fabricated using nanoimprinting techniques and can provide indoor illumination. Multiple combinations of lenslet array designs and coupling features are optimized, and full system efficiencies are evaluated by ray-tracing simulations. Concentrator designs are optimized with considerations of suitability to tropical regions. A design capable of near-unity efficiency at up to 18-deg field angles and up to 92.14% collection efficiency within ±30-deg incident angle is reported. A cost analysis is then performed using meteorological data.


In this paper, we are trying to solve the problems are minority character image data generation and recognition. We adopt the Laplacian pyramid generative adversarial networks to generate character images. To avoid the generated images noise, we improved the network structure by the approach context loss. The result obtained in the research the clearity of generated picture were improved and the noise is decreased. The impacts of results are help recognition research on minority character image, collect character image data sample and build a method to produce rare image sample dataset for machine learning.


In 1944, several dozen psychology students were shown a short film clip and asked to comment on what was happening. The film featured two triangles and a circle moving across a plain surface. As Rose (2011) reports, only one of the test subjects saw the scene for what it really was. The rest humanised the shapes, variously contending that the circle was 'worried', the triangles were 'two men fighting' and that the circle was a 'woman' being pursued, with criminal intent, by two triangular malefactors. Although psychology students are a much manipulated group – so experimented on, seemingly, that one fears for their collective mental health – this reaction to the test shapes is unsurprising. Humankind is incorrigibly anthropomorphic (Guthrie, 1993). We are prone to see people in all kinds of things. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the recent eBay sale of a KFC chicken nugget which resembled George Washington in noble profile. A bidding war broke out between patriotic nugget collectors and the presidential icon eventually went for a paltry $8,100. Heaven only knows how high they'd go if Brad Pitt's nuggets were under the hammer. Viewed dispassionately, such auction actions seem deeply absurd. Yet they exemplify humankind's anthropomorphic inclinations. From the cave paintings of Neolithic man, through the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece, via the beast fables of Aesop and Apuleius, to the cartoon capers of Mickey and Minnie, humanity has never been reluctant to anthropomorphise (Bleakley, 2000; Jones, 2005). The totem poles of Native Americans, the signs of the Chinese zodiac, the constellations in the heavens, and the elephantine mascots adopted by sports teams and university colleges are testament to the ubiquity of anthropomorphism, as are our everyday interactions with companion animals (Baker, 2001; Gibson, 2009). Of all the domains in which anthropomorphism runs rampant, it is arguably most rampant amongst managers (see Fournier, 1998; Freling & Forbes, 2005; Levy, 1985). The much-maligned language of businesspeople is replete with 800lb gorillas, apes in the corner office, getting ducks in a row, and big hairy audacious goals (Conniff, 2008). Its gurus peddle parables about purple cows, black swans, long tails, hive minds, hidden hands, and what have you (Tucker & Allman, 2004). Its concepts and theories are predicated on personification – product life cycles, marketing myopia, store personality, customer relationships – and beastly brand mascots not only abound on product ranges, but run wild in the aisles of supermarkets, tout their wares during television advertising breaks, and make exhibitions of themselves in virtual reality (Shalit, 2000). They're gr-r-reat! In such circumstances, it is apt that marketing and consumer researchers are paying ever more attention to anthropomorphism. Drawing upon the abundant background literature in biology, zoology, sociology, anthropology, psychology, literary theory, art history, and media studies (e.g. Cory, 2012; Daston & Mitman, 2005; Diski, 2010), many marketing scholars are energetically exploring consumers' anthropomorphic propensities and what they mean for scholarship and practice (e.g. Aggarwal & McGill, 2007; Avis, Aitken, & Ferguson, 2012; Delbaere, McQuarrie, & Phillips,


Abstract 3605 Poster Board III-541 The Polycomb group (PcG) protein Bmi1 maintains silencing of the Ink4a-Arf locus and plays a key role in stem cell self-renewal and oncogenesis. The phosphoinositide 3-kinase-Akt (PI3K-Akt) signaling pathway regulates cell survival, growth, metabolism, migration and angiogenesis. In response to acute Pten loss (which results in Akt activation), mouse embryonic fibroblasts (mefs) accumulate p16Ink4a and p19Arf and undergo senescence. Similarly, Bmi1 −/− mefs undergo premature senescence and accumulate p16Ink4a and p19Arf. PTEN and Bmi1 have similar effects on hematopoiesis; Pten deletion promotes hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) proliferation, resulting in HSC depletion, whereas loss of Bmi1 impairs HSC self-renewal capability, also leading to bone marrow failure. These similarities led us to examine whether the PI3K/Akt pathway functions upstream of Bmi1 to negatively regulate its function and indeed we found that PKB/Akt phosphorylates Bmi1 in vivo, which results in its dissociation from chromatin and in de-repression of the Ink4a-Arf locus. Furthermore, activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway suppresses the ability of Bmi1 to promote cell growth and tumourigenesis and decreases the global level of histone H2A ubiquitination. PI3K/Akt signaling is not active in hematopoietic stem cells, but it is active in more committed progenitor cells. Thus, phosphorylation and inactivation of Bmi1 by Akt may limit HSC self-renewal. Our study also provides a mechanism for the upregulation of p16Ink4a and p19Arf seen in cancer cells that have activation of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, and identifies important crosstalk between phosphorylation and chromatin structure. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In this paper, a Power Amplifier (PA) cell comprised of a single n- channel PDSOI transistor fabricated in a 45-nm RFSOI technology is used for the reliability study. DC stress bias at gate and drain terminals are applied for reproducing practical conditions for a PA. The impact of varying DC stress at the drain terminal is studied thoroughly by analyzing DC and RF performance. Impact of hot carrier degradation through DC, small, and large signal performance is studied. Perspectives of the mechanism for the generation of defects are studied through the time slope exponent method and behavior of transconductance characteristics for pre-and post- stress instances.


Spectroscopy is an essential tool to explore the interaction between light and matter. With the extensive study of ultrafast phenomena, ultrafast spectrum analysis is in great demand. In view of the limited acquisition frame rate of the conventional spectroscopy, the ultrafast temporal focusing mechanism was proposed and demonstrated, and it is capable of capturing arbitrary waveform signal, with the acquisition frame rate up to 100 MHz. Moreover, several approaches have been proposed to further improve its accuracy and bandwidth, it has achieved 2-pm spectral resolution and 58-nm observation bandwidth, and the observation range has been further extended to microwave and terahertz span. Furthermore, this spectroscopy has successfully characterized ultrafast phenomena and mechanisms of devices, and has been applied to several ultrafast spectral imaging systems.


With the large-scale application of wireless sensor network (WSN), in this application system, it is particularly important to promote the transmission real-time and achieve the remote real-time transmission of the data that the sink nodes sensor gets. This paper uses the way of the connection of the WSN based on Zigbee protocol and the Internet based on TCP/IP protocol, meanwhile introduces μC/OS-II embedded real-time operating system to manage and schedule the system resource. The experiment result shows that the design of this gateway can effectively solve the problem of data remote transmission, and also can meet the real-time requirement of the application monitoring.


Background: Current effective treatments available for asthma are mainly the inhalers. Nurses play a vital role in imparting correct knowledge of asthma care and teaching inhaler techniques to patients. The aims of the study were to, a) determine the knowledge of nurses regarding asthma and its management and b) evaluate the competence of nurses to use inhalers. Methods: A simple random sample of registered nurses was taken from the medical surgical units of the hospital. Data was collected by using pre and post test asthma questionnaire and a nine step inhaler skill checklist. Results: The pre-test data shows 40-50% of RNs lacked the knowledge of causes, sign and symptoms and the management of asthma. More than 30% were not able to demonstrate the correct inhaler technique of MDIs. Evaluation after several teaching sessions shows 80-90% improvement in the knowledge and competence of nurses to use inhalers. Conclusion: Continuous training programs and workshops are needed to improve the knowledge of nurses about asthma, their competence to use inhalers and to demonstrate to patients.


There is an important significance of AC/DC comparator with high precision for the precision measurement in electric power industry. An AC/DC comparator based on the non integer period Sampling and rapid data refactoring is designed. The AC/DC comparator consists of the input buffer, A/D change, DC reference standard, magnetic isolation and sampling control chip. AC/DC comparator is used to sample the AC Magnitude and realize the AC traceable to DC with the reference of the high precision DC reference standard. Through the error analysis of the AC/DC comparator for each part, the Maximum error of voltage amplitude measurement is ±8×10 -6 .The experimental results show that the accuracy of frequency, amplitude and phase is respectively 10 -6 、10 -6 、10 -5 ,and the stability is 10 -6 、10 -6 、 10 -5 . It proves that the AC/DC comparator can accurate


The article deals with elastic deformation in the vibrating mass flow transducer having a U-shaped pipe form impacted by Coriolis forces. Based on torque equation, the author has determined the function for converting mass flow rate into the time interval between identical phases of oscillation in the tube parts where the conversion ratio demonstrates the stiffness properties of the components.


Introduction: Today, hysterectomy is one of the commonest types of surgery and is the one of the most prevalent surgical procedures in the United States after cesarean section (C-section). One of the important complications of hysterectomy is postoperative pain. To relieve this pain, various methods are used, including the use of analgesics such as intraperitoneal ketamine, dexmedetomidine and bupivacaine. Therefore, the present study is aimed to conduct a comparative study on the effect of intraperitoneal ketamine, dexmedetomidine and bupivacaine on postoperative pain control in patients undergoing abdominal hysterectomy. Materials and Methods: The present study is a randomized, double-blind clinical trial which performed on 105 patients during March 2019 to June 2020, undergoing abdominal hysterectomy who were randomly divided into three groups including D (dexmedetomidine), K (ketamine) and B (bupivacaine). The study groups were compared in terms of hemodynamics, postoperative pain score and amount of drug used after 24 hours after surgery, as well as duration of postoperative analgesia. The obtained data were statistically analyzed using Spss 22 statistical software using ANOVA and T test. Results: The results of this study revealed the effect of intraperitoneal dexmedetomidine, bupivacaine and ketamine in controlling the pain following abdominal hysterectomy, among which intraperitoneal ketamine was more effective in controlling postoperative pain, increasing postoperative pain relief, and reducing postoperative opioid use when compared with dexmedetomidine and bupivacaine. Conclusion: All three drugs, intraperitoneal dexmedetomidine, bupivacaine and ketamine, were detected to be essential in controlling postoperative pain in patients with complete abdominal hysterectomy. However, the effect of intraperitoneal ketamine was found to be greater than that of the other two drugs.


iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I want to thank God for making this possible, for seeing me through to this stage of my life and the opportunity to successfully complete my thesis in graduate school. I want to thank my advisor, Dr. Ioan Raicu for the opportunity to be a member of his lab and work under him as my thesis advisor. I want to thank my committee members, Dr. Boris Glavic and Dr. Kevin Jin for taking their time to serve on my committee. I also want to thank my lab member, Shiva Kumar, who also contributed to the success of my thesis, as well as other students who contributed on various parts of early iterations of this work, namely


The invention relates to a method and a device for controlling the sound level of audio devices in vehicles. The method comprises the following steps: detecting at least a value of a physical parameter that characterizes movement of a vehicle, and comparing the detected value of the at least one physical parameter with a preset threshold value of the parameter, if the detected value exceeding the preset threshold value, reducing the sound level of the audio devices. Thus the sound level of audio devices of vehicles is automatically reduced when a condition that the attention of a vehicle driver needs to improve appears in a road traffic.


Abstract The aim of this research study to identify the role of empathy, moral judgement and social entrepreneurial education in predicting social entrepreneurial intention. And also test the mediating effect of prosocial motivation in this relationship. Through the survey, primary sample data of 755 nascent social entrepreneurs were used to test the hypotheses. The hypothesised moderated mediation condition was supported as results suggest that prosocial motivation mediated the relationship between antecedents and social entrepreneurial intentions. Besides this social entrepreneurial education showed a strong direct relationship with social entrepreneurial intentions. These findings strengthen the argument which states that there is a great need from policy, educators and universities to start courses that can imbibe the feeling of empathy. And also support system to motivates students to go for social entrepreneurship as a career choice.


To obtain information on the characters of local and introduced varieties of sunflower, 492 varieties were planted on May 1. and June 15, 1974. Results observed were as flowers; 1) In flowering date, local varieties showed no significant difference between planting date, however introduced varieties were late in the delayed planting date. 2) Local varieties were more sensitive at the response of day length effect than introduced ones. 3) Introduced varieties were recommandable than local in growing them after barley harvest. But local varieties were stable in transplanting.


Purpose: A subset of patients with post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) fulfill the clinical criteria of myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). To establish the diagnosis of ME/CFS for clinical and research purposes, comprehensive scores have to be evaluated. Methods: We developed the Munich Berlin Symptom Questionnaires (MBSQs) and supplementary scoring sheets (SSSs) to allow for a rapid evaluation of common ME/CFS case definitions. The MBSQs were applied to young patients with chronic fatigue and post-exertional malaise (PEM) who presented to the MRI Chronic Fatigue Center for Young People (MCFC). Trials were retrospectively registered (NCT05778006, NCT05638724). Results: Using the MBSQs and SSSs, we report on ten patients aged 11 to 25 years diagnosed with ME/CFS after asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection or mild to moderate COVID-19. Results from their MBSQs and from well-established patient-reported outcome measures indicated severe impairments of daily activities and health-related quality of life. Conclusions: ME/CFS can follow SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients younger than 18 years, rendering structured diagnostic approaches most relevant for pediatric PCC clinics. The MBSQs and SSSs represent novel diagnostic tools that can facilitate the diagnosis of ME/CFS in children, adolescents, and adults with PCC and other post-viral syndromes.


The ongoing shift towards urban consolidation within the metropolitan strategies of Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, has seen policy attention focused on a perceived need for a greater proportion of the population to live in higher density housing in order to ease the pressures imposed by urban sprawl. But while planners and developers are forging a new compact city future for Australians, little attention has been directed towards the desirability of these new higher density dwelling alternatives. Drawing on data from a survey of 1,597 apartment residents in Sydney and Melbourne as well as 29 indepth interviews, this paper explores the desirability of apartments amongst those people already living in apartments in both cities. We explore the implications of planning strategies that are premised upon the assumption that it is prudent to better match household types to dwelling characteristics, thereby providing more 'housing choices' for the increasing numbers of lone persons and couple families without children. We discuss the issue of 'choice versus constraint' in regards to dwelling type, the incidences of other household types (e.g. families with children) living in apartments and the extent to which such dwellings actually suit the lifestyles of those who live in them. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for compact city policies in Australia.


Emerging sharing modes, like the consumer‐to‐consumer (C2C) sharing of Uber and the business‐to‐consumer (B2C) sharing of GoFun, have considerably affected the retailing markets of traditional manufacturers, who are motivated to consider product sharing when making pricing and capacity decisions, particularly electric car manufacturers with limited capacity. In this paper, we examine the equilibrium pricing for a capacity‐constrained manufacturer under various sharing modes and further analyze the impact of capacity constraint on the manufacturer's sharing mode selection as well as equilibrium outcomes. We find that manufacturers with low‐cost products prefer B2C sharing while those with high‐cost products prefer C2C sharing except when the sharing price is moderate. However, limited capacity motivates manufacturers to enter into the B2C sharing under a relatively low sharing price, and raise the total usage level by sharing high‐cost products. We also show that the equilibrium capacity allocated to the sharing market with low‐cost products first increases and then decreases. Finally, we find that sharing low‐cost products with a high limited capacity leads to a lower retail price under B2C sharing, which creates a win‐win situation for both the manufacturer and consumers. However, sharing high‐cost products with a low limited capacity creates a win‐lose situation for them.


In the current higher education internationalization studies,little attention is paid to the "city" and "culture" which closely related to higher education internationalization process.In fact,the modern city is the substance foundation on which higher education internationalization rely on.Culture developing is the deep influencing factor on higher education internationalization.The introduction of space theory can link city culture with higher education internationalization.To probe into higher education internationalization in the sight of city cultural space,the study contents which have very important practice and theory significance should at least include the subject factor,driving force mechanism and history culture value problem of higher education internationalization on the background of city cultural space expanding.


Post-intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) is a condition that affects between 50% to 70% of ICU survivors. Long-term quality of life associated with PICS is a combination of physical (ICU-acquired neuromuscular weakness), cognitive (thinking and judgment), and psychiatric (mental health status) impairments. Current practices have been unable to reduce the number and acuteness of PICS cases, believed to be related to a lack of investment in prevention and availability of qualified professionals to conduct therapy. Virtual Reality has already shown promising results in relaxing and abstracting ICU patients from the harsh clinical environment, however, there is still a great potential to be explored. This article investigates 3 current practices of physical and cognitive rehabilitation for ICU patients and proposes 14 design principles to guide the implementation of VR interventions for ICU rehabilitation.


T HE challenges of the future in automotive technology related to emissions are that we will deal with different and more sophisticated automotive power sources, fuels from a different mix of sources, and emissions different from those on which we have concentrated our atten-tion for the past two decades. These changes will not occur quickly because of the long lead time necessary to design and to build new power source types, the plants to produce and distribute new fuels, and to develop an understanding of the effects on man and the ecosystem of emissions we have not fully studied in the past. The most optimistic scenario I can conceive would be a breakthrough in storage battery design and manufacture that would give us an automobile with today's performance without a fuel-fired engine. Were this to happen while we still have the nuclear option to generate the electricity needed to charge the batteries without emissions, we would have solved the automotive emissions problem for the next several generations. Parenthetical-ly, I recognize that there are some who do not agree with my assessment of a nuclear solution as being optimal.


Dear editor, In their article entitled skin grafts in the periocular region without a bolstered dressing,1 the authors claim that this is the first literature report doing away altogether with using tie-over bolsters. A more accurate rephrasing would be that this is the first report in the literature where a bolster was not applied when perimeter sutures alone were used, because in 2004 Thomas Naugle and associates immobilized eyelid skin grafts with direct graft-to-bed quilting sutures alone and without the use of a sutured dressing in some of their patients.2 I find the encouraging results of the authors with grafts up to 3 cm interesting but rather antithetical. A well-established concept of graft survival is that skin grafts vascularize from the bed not just from the edges,3 and this is possibly why we could safely remove the sutured bolster from the equation when using direct tacking sutures. Otherwise I would restrict the use of such technique to grafts considerably smaller than 3 cm.


As a kind of new global satellite navigation system beside GPS,Galileo has its own unique modulation at the present time,which takes in the parameter(sub-carrier) and changes the function of autocorrelation,because of this,commonly used acquisition algorithm will encounter the obstacle.The strategy based on FFT is proposed to solve the problem that concerns subcarrier and multi-peak of the autocorrelation function after reducing the Doppler searching area,it is verified by testing the real data.


Self-encoded spread spectrum (SESS) is a novel modulation technique that acquires its spreading sequence from the randomness of the input data stream. In recent work, we incorporated SESS into MIMO system and showed that the system can achieve diversities in both time and space domains. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-code MIMO-SESS system that not only can achieve spatial and temporal diversities, but also can double the throughput compared with previous scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed multi-code MIMO-SESS system achieves about 6 dB of gain at 10−4 BER from the combined time and spatial diversities over an Alamouti scheme-based MIMO system under Rayleigh fading channels.


Pohlia hyaloperistoma Zhang, Li Higuchi, and P. macrocarpa Zhang, Li, Higuchi are described as new species from Yunnan and Xizang (Tibet) of China respectively. Pohlia hyaloperistoma is characterized by having the hyaline and smooth exostome, and P. macrocarpa is characterized by having the large capsules and dioecious sexuality.


Oxidations of diesel soot containing catalytic metals such as Ca and Ba were experimentally characterized with a thermodalance. A two-stage oxidation process was observed with the metal-containing soot. The first stage of oxidation is catalytically promoted by metal additives with an enhanced reaction rate constant and a reduced activation energy. The percentage of the first stage increases with increases in metal content. The second stage of oxidation is also slightly promoted by the metal additives, compared with the oxidation of usual diesel soot.


The financial services sector is a prime target for cyber attackers: for four years in a row, it has been the single most attacked industry globally. It is thus only logical that Singapore's regulators have identified cybersecurity as the 'first priority' on the way towards a Smart Financial Centre and developed bespoke cybersecurity rules. This paper analyses the implications of Singapore's cybersecurity regulation for domestic FinTech firms and the impact of prospective international legal harmonisation in cyberspace. It argues that the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of the financial services ecosystem increases the risks of contagion and creates new entry points for cyber-attackers. This calls for additional measures to ensure cybersecurity of smaller and less sophisticated parties – FinTech innovators that may lack the resources and expertise to competently implement the 'default' cybersecurity rules and fend off advanced cyber-attacks. Internationally, Singapore is in an excellent spot to lead by example in the Asia-Pacific region, through developing and implementing novel regulatory approaches to cybersecurity – but true international harmonisation in this area remains only a distant possibility.


Recent research on political discussion has focused on whether aspects of interaction create a 'democratic dilemma' for the mass public in which people face a choice between political participation and political tolerance. This article argues that there are important variations in how people react to their immediate social contacts. It explores this idea by studying how social disagreement and expertise interact with gender to explain variance in political participation. First, it shows that there are conflicting expectations in the literature about how such dynamics should manifest, despite agreement that men and women should experience different kinds and degrees of social influence. Secondly, it examines these expectations by revisiting prominent, network-based explanations of political participation; it finds that these relationships do not display consistency across sex differences. The results point to the existence of varied 'social logics' for men and women, and suggest the need to reconsider how to think about the efficacy of discussion and disagreement in a democratic society.


More than 1125 bat species are found worldwide and India supports 119 species; of which 26 species are reported from Rajasthan. In Rajasthan, except Thar desert portion, documentation of this faunal group is either lacking or very poor in other parts of Rajasthan including Sariska National Park, Alwar. The present study reports 3 bat species from Sariska National Park that provides baseline data about chiropteran fauna of this Protected Area. With this reporting the chiropteran fauna of Alwar district also goes up to 8 species.


I read the recent review paper by Ross and colleagues with great interest. It is of great value for clinicians to have an update on the recent literature regarding the use of topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) for nonmelanoma skin cancer to offer patients the best possible treatment. The authors have raised concerns over the use of PDT for nodular basal cell carcinoma (BCC) that is more than 1 mm thick. This seems to be based on results of studies in which PDT was used as monotherapy or in combination with limited preparation of the tumor before therapy.


Mapping logical quantum circuits to Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices is a challenging problem which has attracted rapidly increasing interests from both quantum and classical computing communities. This article proposes an efficient method by (i) selecting an initial mapping that takes into consideration the similarity between the architecture graph of the given NISQ device and a graph induced by the input logical circuit and (ii) searching, in a filtered and depth-limited way, a most useful swap combination that makes executable as many as possible two-qubit gates in the logical circuit. The proposed circuit transformation algorithm can significantly decrease the number of auxiliary two-qubit gates required to be added to the logical circuit, especially when it has a large number of two-qubit gates. For an extensive benchmark set of 131 circuits and IBM's current premium Q system, viz., IBM Q Tokyo, our algorithm needs, in average, 0.3801 extra two-qubit gates per input two-qubit gate, while the corresponding figures for three state-of-the-art algorithms are 0.4705, 0.8154, and 1.0066, respectively.


Procedures extending the cell means model approach to analysis of covariance designs with one or more covariates are described. Computational procedures are presented for the following designs: randomized block analysis of covariance design, completely randomized factorial analysis of covariance design, completely randomized analysis of covariance design with multiple covariates, and randomized block analysis of covariance design with multiple covariates. Modifications of the computational procedures for a non-orthogonal randomized block analysis of covariance design also are presented.


This bachelor work is an introduction to multicriteria options evaluation. The goal of this work is not to provide a detailed list of all methods and its solutions. There are listed basic & simple methods which can be used by business managers at daily decision making process.


Global surface temperatures are expected to increase by several degrees in the next century, with potentially large but poorly understood impacts on ecological interactions. Here we propose potential effects of increased temperatures on ecologically dominant New Zealand grasses (Chionochloa spp.) that mass flower and mast seed. Twenty‐two years' data from five masting Chionochloa species in New Zealand showed that the cue for heavy flowering was unusually high temperature in the summer of the year before flowering. Attack by predispersal insect seed predators was much reduced in mast years, apparently because predator populations were satiated. Increased temperatures would greatly decrease interannual variation in Chionochloa flowering, allowing seed predator populations to increase and potentially to devastate the seed crop annually. Similar responses are likely in masting species worldwide. This previously unrecognized effect of global warming could have widespread impacts on temperate ecosystems.


DESCRIBED UNOS benzoyl derivatives of formula (I) wherein the substituents have the following meaning: LYM are hydrogen, C {SUB 1} B, 6} alkenyl, C {SUB, 2} SUB, 4} GROUPS BY one to five halogen atoms OC {SUB 1} UB, 4} Z is a heterocyclic radical of 5 or 6 membered, saturated or unsaturated, containing one to three heteroatoms and selected from the group of oxygen, sulfur or nitrogen, which may be optionally substituted by halogen, cyano, nitro, a group CO 4}, 1} C {SUB, 4} B, 1} Lotio, DI lly substituted by halogen, cyano, nitro, C {SUB 1}, 4 } RUPO, which may occur optionally also in the form tautomeric AS hydroxy group, or forms a bicyclic system with a fused phenyl ring, optionally substituted by halogen, cyano, nitro, C {SUB 1} 1} C {SUB, 4 } Gundo heterocycle fused, optionally substituted by halogen, cyano, nitro, C SUB {1} LO; Y is O, NR SUP {9}; N is zero or one; M is zero, one or two; R {SUP, 7} ES C {SUB, 1} - C {SUB, 4} alkyl, C {SUB, 1} halogenalkyl or NR {SUP, 9} R {sup, 10 C {SUB, 4} alkyl, C {SUB 1} 1} C {SUB, 4} ogen OC {SUB 1} C {SUB, 4} cROSSLINKED in position 2 and Formula (II), wherein R {sup, 1}, R {SUP , 2}, R {SUP, 4} YR {SUP, 6} hydrogen OC {SUB 1} SUB, 4} O, C {SUB, 1} Uilo, may optionally PORTAR these groups from one to three of the following SUBSTITUENTS: halogen, C {SUB 1} UB, 4} R {DO SUP, 3} tetrahydropyranyl RAHIDROTIOPIRANIL P, 5} a bond or a carbocyclic ring or six-membered DOS. The invention relates also to the salts of the compounds (I) NORMALLY USED IN AGRICULTURE.


In this paper, we show how the concept of hybridization band gaps can be utilized to create antennas for MIMO applications. Those strongly decoupled antennas present at the same time a very small form factor and a very low correlation. To that aim, we first explain briefly the concept of hybridization between a resonator and the free space waves continuum. Then we expose the methodology we use to design multi-ports antennas based on that concept. We present numerical and experimental results of 2 ports MIMO antennas at 2.45 GHz, printed on a PCB, whose areas are smaller than 2.6*2.6 cm2. The two ports display experimentally peak gains of a about 4 dB, efficiencies of 80%, a coupling lower than -30 dB and a correlation lower than 0.1.


A number of monovalent p-azobenzenearsonate derivatives of tyrosine elicit passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) reactions in guinea pigs sensitized with some, but not all, rabbit or guinea pig antisera raised by immunization with haptenated protein. Our data suggest that certain populations of cell-binding antibodies mediate these reactions. Reversibility of antibody-hapten interaction is indicated by failure of an eliciting injection of hapten to desensitize a site. In two hapten systems so far studied, this one and a series of dinitrophenylated compounds, certain monovalent antigens were found to be capable of eliciting cutaneous anaphylactic reactions.


In this paper, a new method based on Global Network Simulation (GNS) approach for adaptive distance relaying is presented. The GNS approach uses Diakoptics and Large Change Sensitivity (LCS) concepts to perform the interconnected power systems analysis globally. The proposed method employs the decentralized nature of GNS short circuit analysis for calculation of relay settings of each sub-network independently in the federal environment. Updating the relay settings of each utility in every power system conditions adaptively as well as meeting individual utilities' adopted coordination philosophies are great achievements of presented approach. No computational errors encountered in the proposed method since the applied concepts eliminates the usual needs for equivalent network or reduced models. The proposed approach is well fitted for nowadays restructured power industry requirements. The performance of the presented approach is examined using the IEEE 14 bus as a small tangible test system and a real version of huge interconnected network for practical purposes. The results compared with conventional approach. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this study, the sanitary quality of tap water sources within the University of Port Harcourt was investigated in order to determine its suitability for drinking and other domestic applications. Eight composite samples of tap water were collected from Eight different locations within the three campuses of the University of Port Harcourt using 300 ml-capacity sterile containers. These locations included NDDC Hostel, Sports Hostel, Medical Hostel, NUH Hostel, Dan Etete Hostel, Delta A Hostel, Delta B Hostel and Choba Campus. After collection, water samples were taken to the laboratory for enumeration and identification of Total heterotrophic bacteria (THB), Total coliform (TC) and Faecal coliform (FC) using the membrane filtration method. Result showed that the average THB, TC and FC counts recorded in the tap water samples across the eight locations ranged from 12.4 CFU to 36.7 CFU, 4.3 CFU to 10.1 CFU and 2.8 CFU to 5.2 CFU per 100ml respectively. Bacterial isolates were identified as probably belonging to genera such as Bacillus spp., Klebsiella spp., Enterobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp., Proteus spp., Citrobacter spp., Serratia spp. and Escherichia spp., respectively. Samples from Delta B hostel and Choba campus recorded the lowest and highest THB, TC and FC counts respectively. According to WHO standard, the result of THB, TC and FC counts indicated that the tap water in all eight locations were above the limit acceptable for drinking but within acceptable limit for other domestic use such as bathing and washing.


Movement psychotherapy is presented as a therapeutical tool which main approach to the conflict is the body. The body is the way of expression of transformation and, at the same time, its instrument. Theoretical and practical backgrounds of movement psychotherapy are stated, as well as its achievements and limitations in the treatment of emotional communication difficulties in adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia.


The historic background of advance of cleaning production in countryside was analyzed based on the development history of cleaning production and the prevention and cure of agricultural non-point pollution.Practical demand in the new countryside construction was indicated according to the present state of country environment.The theoretics of cleaning engineering in countryside was summed up from conception,connotation and application aspects.The strategic concept and development suggestions for cleaning engineering in countryside were put forward combining the objective of construction of socialist new countryside.


BACKGROUND
 The current digital health context is incapable of supporting the future need for data security and storage in digital health services. It requires implementing a robust, interoperable, and scalable data storage and security solution to address this future need. Blockchain is an emerging information technology that can support this industry's timely needs. Therefore, a clear foundational understanding of Blockchain affordances for digital health is significant to harness its full potential.

 OBJECTIVE
 Objective: This paper presents a comprehensive review of Blockchain affordances for digital health. The review aims to: 1) identify the perceived Blockchain affordances and 2) explore the recent Blockchain research in digital health (actualized).

 METHODS
 We applied the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology to review the literature extant. Furthermore, we applied the affordance theory lens to define and defend our findings on Blockchain affordances.

 RESULTS
 A total of 3627 relevant papers have been identified and analysed in this review study. Of these, 90 were probed deeply. Our analysis identified 14 Blockchain affordances (Access control, Interoperability, Security, Tamper-resistance, Traceability, Anonymity, Data Provenance, Identity, Immutability, Integrity, Privacy, Transparency, and Trust) which are perceived and actualized in digital health. Our study also discovered several constraints in Blockchain implementation such as security and privacy, interoperability, scalability, and infrastructural support that requires further research attention.

 CONCLUSIONS
 We believe this study will guide further Blockchain research in the digital health domain and informatively contribute to eliminating (decreasing) the dark side of digital health and improving (increasing) the bright side for the future.


1. The effects of oxidised oil, dietary alpha-tocopherol and BHA/BHT-supplementation on the fatty acid composition of mitochondrial, microsomal and soluble protein fractions of broiler muscles, and on their lability to metmyoglobin/hydrogen peroxide-catalysed peroxidation were investigated. 2. Oxidised oil in the broiler diets induced rapid oxidation of the membrane-bound lipids and decreased their stability towards metmyoglobin-hydrogen peroxide-catalysed peroxidation. 3. Supplementation of the broiler diets with alpha-tocopherol increased the alpha-tocopherol concentrations in the microsomal and soluble protein fractions of the dark meat as well as the soluble protein fraction of the white meat. This, in turn, stabilised the membrane-bound lipids against metmyoglobin/hydrogen peroxide-initiated peroxidative changes.


The authors hypothesize that the age-related decline in bone formation will be reflected in an altered pattern of gene expression for proteins found in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of bone. Further, this decline in bone formation and altered ECM composition contribute to a decreased mechanical competence. Previous studies have investigated age-related changes in bone mechanics and bone metabolism independently. Further, these studies have used different strains of rats with varied growth rates and life spans making interpretation difficult. The present study is the first comprehensive investigation of the effect of aging on bone at the molecular, cellular and whole organ levels. The results showed that the decline in bone formation and material properties was associated with a corresponding decrease in the steady-state levels of type I collagen, osteopontin and osteocalcin mRNA. The abundance and orientation of collagen fibers contribute to the material properties of bone, as may the abundance of osteopontin and osteocalcin. Therefore, the authors' results suggest a decrease in ECM production and composition may contribute to age-related changes in bone material properties.


The dielectric relaxation studies of propan-1-ol with alkyl benzoates (methyl benzoate and ethyl benzoate) have been carried out, for various mole fractions at different temperatures, using LF impedance analyzer, Plunger method and Abbe's refractometer in radio, microwave and optic frequency regions, respectively. Kirkwood effective correlation factor, corrective Kirkwood correlation factor, Bruggeman parameter, relaxation time and thermo dynamical parameters are calculated using the experimental data. Conformational analysis of the formation of hydrogen bond in the equimolar binary mixture systems of propan-1-ol with alkyl benzoates is supported by experimental and theoretical FT-IR values.


The average lifespan of HIV-infected subjects remains shorter compared to uninfected individuals. Immunosenescence may be responsible for this difference despite effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) with successful viral suppression. Here, we evaluated the effects of HIV and ART exposure on T cell aging in male homosexual HIV subjects. CD4+ T cell activation (HLA-DR+) and senescence (CD57+) markers were analyzed by flow cytometry, and telomere length was quantified by real-time PCR. Specifically, we observed an increase in activation and senescence markers on total CD4+ T cell populations in HIV-infected subjects. We also observed a reduction in senescence markers on terminally differentiated memory T(TemRA) cells and activation markers on central memory T(TCM), effector memory T(TEM), and TemRA cells in ART-treated HIV subjects. Furthermore, we also observed an extension of telomere length in memory CD4+ T cells, rather than naive CD4+ T cells, after viral control by ART. Our results indicate that HIV-infected patients exhibit a premature T cell aging phenotype with accelerated immune senescence. Partial recovery of immune senescence and differentiation aberrances is achieved in CD4+ T cells in HIV patients on ART. Overall, these results suggest that HIV infection, rather than ART exposure, influences the T cell aging process.


ABSTRACT In 2018, a new governance law (Ustawa 2.0) modernised the institutional governance of Polish public higher education institutions. This article investigates the governance changes from the cultural perspective of higher education governance through a survey administered to all Polish rectors. Responses were analysed by splitting higher education institutions into three categories (traditional academic [comprehensive], specialised, and applied sciences) to explore whether distinct institutional environments/subfields influence the perception of the new governance model. This article provides several research contributions: it is the first to adopt a cultural perspective to analyse higher education governance reforms in a Central and Eastern European country; it addresses specialised universities and universities of applied sciences, which are usually overlooked in higher education governance studies; and it extends the knowledge of the recent Polish higher education reform by highlighting divergent interpretations of the same governance framework across distinct institutional subfields within the same higher education system.


Abstract The purpose of this study was to evaluate variations in the number of retrieved lymph nodes (LNs) over time and to determine the factors that influence the retrieval of <12 LNs during colon cancer resection. Patients with colon cancer who were surgically treated between 1997 and 2013 were identified from our institutional tumor registry. Patient, tumor, and pathologic variables were evaluated. Factors that influenced the retrieval of <12 LNs were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression modeling, including time effects. In total, 6967 patients were identified. The median patient age was 61 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 45–79 years) and 58.4% of these patients were male. The median number of LNs retrieved was 21 (IQR = 14–29), which increased from 14 (IQR = 11–27) in 1997 to 26 (IQR = 19–34) in 2013. The proportion of patients with ≥12 retrieved LNs increased from 72% in 1997 to 98.8% in 2013 (P < 0.00001). This corresponded to the more recent emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach to adequate LN evaluation. The number of retrieved LNs was also found to be associated with age, sex, tumor location, T stage, and operative year. Tumor location and T stage influenced the number of retrieved LNs, irrespective of the operative year (P < 0.05). Factors including a tumor location in the sigmoid/left colon, old age, open resection, earlier operative year, and early T stage were more likely to be associated with <12 recovered LNs (P < 0.5; chi-squared test) (P < 0.001). The total number of retrieved LNs may be influenced by tumor location and T stage of a colon cancer, irrespective of the year of surgery. LN retrieval after colon cancer resection has increased in recent years due to a better awareness of its importance and the use of multidisciplinary approaches.


This bachelor work on the topic "Measurement bases in Accounting," shows that the valuation of assets and liabilities is one of the most important areas of accounting. The first part defines the basic kinds of valuation bases according to Czech accounting legislation and conducted a brief characterization of the individual components of assets and liabilities. The second part focuses on a specific company, which seeks to represent the selected folder assets and liabilities in their valuation based on valuation bases according to Czech accounting legislation.


Since the publication of the complete sequence of the human genome in 2003 there has been great interest in exploring the functions of the proteins encoded by the genes. To reveal the function of e ...


Analyzes social competence, an often used yet elusive concept. Although complex, it need not be incomprehensible or unwieldy. Child and adolescent clients often engage in maladaptive social behavior in order to meet their emerging needs. A tri-component model, viewing social competence as a multilevel construct made up of social adjustment, social performance, and social skills, can be a useful heuristic for clinicians and researchers seeking to modify, predict, or explain children's social functioning. The implications for assessing social competence in this way are discussed.


Regression analysis is one of the important methods in the data mining system.This paper mainly researches how to use the regression models for modeling data mining,introduces the regression model followed by 3 types,the parameter estimation based on the least squares,the significant validation and presents three kinds of optimization algorithm that included the test and deal of disperse extremum,model improvement and the selection of independent variable.Finally,it explains the regression analysis in data mining application through real data.


A densely spaced hydrographic survey of the northern Irminger Basin together with satellite-tracked near-surface drifters confirm the intense mesoscale variability within and above the Denmark Strait overflow. In particular, the drifters show distinct cyclonic vortices over the downslope edge of the outflow plume. Growing perturbations such as these can be attributed to the baroclinic instability of a density current. A primitive equation model with periodic boundaries is used to simulate the destabilization of an idealized dense filament on a continental slope that resembles the northeastern Irminger Basin. Unstable waves evolve rapidly if the initial temperature profile is perturbed with a sinusoidal anomaly that exceeds a certain cutoff wavelength. As the waves grow to large amplitudes isolated eddies of both signs develop. Anticyclones form initially within the dense filament and are rich in overflow water. In contrast, cyclones form initially with their center in the ambient water but wrap outflow water around their center, thus containing a mixture of both water types. The nonlinear advection of waters that were originally located within the front between both water masses contributes most significantly to the stronger intensification of the cyclones in comparison with anticyclones. The frontal waters carry positive relative vorticity into the center of the cyclone. The process bears therefore some resemblance to atmospheric frontal cyclogenesis. After saturation there is a bottom jet of overflow water that is confined by counterrotating eddies: anticyclones upslope and cyclones downslope of the overflow core. The parameter dependence of the maximum growth rate is studied, and the implications of eddy-induced mixing for the water mass modification is discussed.


The Science & Technology Facilities Council is home to international Facilities such as the ISIS Neutron Spallation Source ≪http://www.isis.rl.ac.uk≫, Central Laser Facility ≪http://www.clf.rl.ac.uk/≫ and Diamond Light Source ≪http://www.diamond.ac.uk/default.htm≫, the National Grid Service ≪http://www.grid-support.ac.uk/≫  including national super computers ≪http://www.cse.scitech.ac.uk≫, Tier1 data service for CERN particle physics experiment,  the British Atmospheric data Centre and the British Oceanographic Data Centre at the Space Science and Technology department.  Together these Facilities generate several Terabytes of data per month which needs to be handled, catalogued and provided access to. In addition, the scientists within STFC departments also develop complex simulations and undertake data analysis for their own experiments. Facilities also have strong ongoing collaborations with UK academic and commercial users through their involvement with Collaborative Computational Programme, generating very large simulation datasets. There is thus the need to support high resolution data analysis using distributed compute, data and visualization resources. At the same time, these requirements offer the computational and visualization scientists within STFC unique opportunities to advocate the take up of advanced visualization techniques and toolkits in distributed high performance, high resolution hardware environment. It gives an opportunity to understand the requirements and usefulness of distributed visualization. Given this seemingly advantageous position, the STFC vizNET ≪http://www.viznet.ac.uk/≫ partners have been actively pursuing visualization awareness activities and services aimed at application holders of various scientific disciplines. These activities include holding workshops, hands-on tutorials, show case demonstrations and the setting up of hardware based visualization services with technical support. This report provides details of these activities, the outcomes, the status and some suggestions as to the way forward.


Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a laboratory model which has intrigued experimental pathologists and immunologists for many years. The identification of the specific etiologic agent has been one of the principal goals of investigators in this field since the introduction of the adjuvant as a tool in the efficient induction of disease.', The assumption that myelin was the encephalitogenic constituent of nerve tissue was based on the fact that white matter, consisting mainly of myelin, was more encephalitogenic than gray matter,2 and that neonatal tissue, containing no myelin, was inactive. ' Subsequently it was reported that white matter proteolipids were encephalitoand again myelin was implicated indirectly as the encephalitogen. However, the disease induced in rabbits by proteolipids was attenuated3 and the activity of proteolipids in guinea pigs was so slight when compared quantitatively with whole tissue6,' that it could not be considered of any significance. A petroleum ether soluble fraction which did satisfy the criterion of inducing disease comparable to that induced by whole tissue was reported by Lipton and Steigman.* These authors did not characterize the specific encephalitogenic compound but it was shown by Kies et aLY that an encephalitogenic protein could be extracted from the petroleum ether soluble fraction by dilute acid. This protein was similar to the potent encephalitogenic fractions which had been isolated from chloroform-methanol extracted tissue (bovine cord or guinea pig brain) by Roboz-Einstein et a1.lo and Kies et al." It was difficult to prove that these water-soluble protein fractions were related to myelin until a purified myelin fraction was separated from whole tissue by ultracentrifugation." An encephalitogenic protein, which was similar to the encephalitogen originally isolated from defatted CNS, was obtained from lyophilized myelin by acid extraction or from chloroform-methanol soluble myelin by solvent di~tributi0n.I~ The localization of the encephalitogen in myelin removes any basis for argument regarding the protein or proteolipid nature of the encephalitogen. As Waksman et al. stated in their paper on the chemical nature of the encephalitogen in white matter proteolipid~,~ the evidence indicated that the effective antigen was a small specijic fraction of proteolipids. Prior to our demonstration of the localization of encephalitogen in myelin, our experimental results were in disagreement with this conclusion in two respects: ( 1 ) chloroform-methanol extracts of guinea pig CNS, which must have contained proteolipids, were not encephalitogenic in guinea pigs, and (2) the defatted residue yielded a potent encephalitogenic fraction which was obviously a free protein and not a proteolipid. The presence of the encephalitogen in myelin, in a chloroform-methanol soluble form, must mean that it exists in the tissue in combination with a lipid. The evidence presented in the previous paper14 plus data to be discussed in the present one indicates that myelin protein can be


s for the 2021 National Medicines Symposium 100 Improving antibiotic prescribing for cellulitis: an impactful collaboration between three rural-regional health services Ms Jaclyn Bishop, Mr Mark Jones, Mr James Farquharson, Ms Kathrine Summerhayes, Ms Roxanne Tucker, Ms Mary Smith, Dr Raquel Cowan, Associate Professor Deborah Friedman, Dr Thomas Schulz, Dr David Kong, Professor Kirsty Buising 1 University of Melbourne, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (Medicine-RMH), Melbourne, Australia, University of Melbourne, National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship (Peter Doherty Research Institute for Infection and Immunity), Melbourne, Australia, Ballarat Health Services, Ballarat, Australia, Colac Area Health, Colac, Australia, Wimmera Health Care Group, Horsham, Australia, Department of Health and Human Services, Horsham, Australia, Barwon Health, Geelong, Australia, Deakin University, Faculty of Health (School of Medicine), Geelong, Australia, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victorian Infectious Diseases Service, Melbourne, Australia, University of Melbourne, Department of Infectious Diseases (Peter Doherty Research Institute for Infection and Immunity), Melbourne, Australia, Monash University, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Centre for Medicine Use and Safety) Background: An analysis of the National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey (NAPS) data indicated that antibiotics for cellulitis were more often inappropriately prescribed in regional and remote hospitals compared to major-city hospitals (25.7% v 19.0%, p = <0.001). Given that antibiotic therapy for cellulitis is well established, this represented an evidence-practice gap. Objective: To improve the appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing for cellulitis by implementing a cellulitis management plan developed through a collaboration between three Victorian rural-regional health services. Method: An adult lower limb cellulitis management plan incorporating advice on antibiotic prescribing was co-designed by three rural-regional Victorian health services. Adults with ICD-10-AM codes for lower limb cellulitis or erysipelas admitted as inpatients of the three hospitals between 1 May 2019 to 30 November 2019 (baseline) and 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2020 (post-implementation) were included. Patients were excluded if they were admitted to ICU during their admission. Antibiotic prescriptions on Day 1 were assessed using the NAPS appropriateness definitions. Key findings: Overall, 29% (37/127) of patients with lower limb cellulitis were commenced on the cellulitis management plan. The overall appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing at Day 1 was similar in the baseline and post-implementation groups (79% and 82% respectively). In the post-implementation group, there was a non-statistically significant increase in antibiotic appropriateness when the cellulitis plan was initiated (88% v 79%, 95% CI -5.6% to 19.8%, p=0.20). Implications & lessons learnt: Cross-organisational collaborations present unique challenges, particularly in rural-regional health services where resources and staffing structures can vary considerably. This study showed that a collaboration between three independent rural-regional health services can conceptualise, design and implement shared resources. Reduced duplication in resource development between health services and across jurisdictions is urgently required. Greater clinician-researcher skills in implementation science methods may improve the adoption and integration of evidence-based prescribing in health services.


This software program allows designers to methodically construct and view system-level diagrams for analysis and optimization, regardless of the design complexity.


The practice for most patients in radiotherapy is still to generate a treatment plan, which is consequently used over the entire course of therapy, typically for 25–30 fractions. This leads to a number of systematic uncertainties associated with the generation of a treatment plan (imaging for treatment planning, contouring, dose calculation). Even as this practice gradually changes with the introduction of adaptive concepts, the mentioned systematic uncertainties apply to the number of fractions for which the plan is used. A second category of uncertainties is of random nature and can be separated into interfraction and intrafraction uncertainties. Most of these random uncertainties will show a tendency to average out over the number of fractions. All uncertainties taken together will inevitably lead to deviations between the delivered dose and the prescribed absorbed dose. For example, a random setup uncertainty will lead to a smearing out of the delivered dose but not to a shift of the dose distribution. A systematic error in the definition of the target point, however, will lead to a systematic shift of the delivered dose distribution in all subsequent fractions if not corrected. In ion-beam therapy uncertainties play a more important role for two reasons. First, a lower number of fractions is delivered, which may lead to a larger impact of random uncertainties. Second, the calculation of RBE-weighted dose, which is widely used, necessitates the use of biological models with inherently larger uncertainties in the input parameters. Consequently, the uncertainties involved in ion-beam therapy will be discussed below in more detail. Due to the nature of the underlying biological processes and their variations, the response of an organ or tumor to a radiation dose is not completely predictable. Only from a group of patients, meaningful parameters, that affect the outcome, can be derived statistically. In addition to these inherently probabilistic effects, there are also uncertainties connected to the underlying physical and clinical parameters on which the biological effects of radiation are dependent. To derive meaningful clinical results from the application of ion beams, these parameters should be specified, controlled, and if possible, kept to a reasonable accuracy and uncertainty level. Some of these parameters can, in principle, be determined by measurements while others are more difficult to determine precisely. Among the latter, there are all the treatment parameters, which are defined through the experience and expertise of the radiation oncologist. These are:


Based on the introduction to a multidirectional solar array,this paper builds its flexible dynamic model in ADAMS,and simulates the restraint torque of solar array drive assembly(SADA) with friction torque.According to the simulation results,it can be drawn that the two side panels latch asynchronously,causing several shocks to the SADA.This conclusion gives a reference to the design of 2-dimension solar array configuration and hinges and control tactics of SADA in space.


The Anthropocene is recognized (though not yet formally defined) as the time when human impacts are widespread on Earth. While some of the impacts are essential to supporting large human populations and can be sustainable in the long run, others can irretrievably damage the life support systems upon which the global society has come to depend, or spark rapid changes to which societies cannot adapt fast enough. Among these dangerous trends are increasing climate disruption, extinctions, loss of non-human-dominated ecosystems, pollution, and population overgrowth. Interactions between these five trends exacerbate their potential to trigger harmful global change. Reducing the resultant risks requires effective cooperation between scientists and policy makers to develop strategies that guide for environmental health over the next few decades. To that end, the Scientific Consensus on Maintaining Humanity's Life Support Systems in the 21st Century was written to make accessible to policy makers and others the basic scientific underpinnings and widespread agreement about both the dangers of and the solutions to climate disruption, extinctions, ecosystem loss, pollution and population overgrowth. When it was released in May 2013, the document included endorsements by 522 global change scientists, including dozens of members of various nations' most highly recognized scientific bodies, from 41 countries around the world. Since then, endorsements have grown to more than 1300 scientists plus more than 1700 others – business people, NGO representatives, students, and the general public – spanning more than 60 countries. Now also available in Spanish and Chinese, the document has proven useful in helping to stimulate national and international agreements. Further information about the genesis, uses, the signatories, and how to endorse it can be found at http://consensusforaction.stanford.edu/. Such communication between scientists, policy makers, and the public at large will be essential for effective guidance to address global change as the Anthropocene progresses.


The invention relates to a preparing method and a refining method for milrinone. The preparing method comprises the following steps: an absolute ethyl alcohol solution of 1-(4-pyridyl)-2-acetone is added dropwise into an absolute ethyl alcohol solution of ethoxymethylenemalononitrile, heat preservation is performed for 1-3 h under a condition of 20 DEG C-60 DEG C, then the temperature is increased to 75 DEG C-85 DEG C, a reaction liquid is cooled to 0-50 DEG C after a reaction is completed, solid-liquid separation is performed, and a solid is collected to obtain a product, wherein the mass ratio of ethoxymethylenemalononitrile to 1-(4-pyridyl)-2-acetone is (1.5-3):(1.5-2.5). According to the preparing method and the refining method, water is adopted to replace a purification solvent such as DMF (dimethyl formamide), methanol, ethanol and the like, so that not only are impurities removed effectively, all single impurities in a finished milrinone product is smaller than 0.1%, and solvent residues reach the standard, but also the production cost is reduced, product quality and yield are improved, and the methods are suitable for industrial production.


At the end of World War II, almost one million uprooted people sought refuge all across Europe. At the same time, as the Cold War quickly became global and independence processes were triggered, the frightening figure for refugees of concern to UNHCR stood at approximately 13 million people. However, the refugee problem has no single solution. On the one hand, in some cases, they seek temporary protection in neighboring countries. On the other hand, there is a need to combine other protection policies for conflict prevention, development aid for democratization, and maintenance of peace. The complexity of today's conflicts and the overlap of different types of population movements(immigration or asylum), have led to confusing terminology and politics. Determining who should be recognized as a refugee has become a complex matter. With a view to encoding, regularizing and creating general frameworks, the international community has created a legal framework for refugees, through the Geneva Convention and its Protocol and, more than thirty years later, through the Cartagena Declaration, which together define the refugee concept.


Several studies have suggested that i.v. atropine has a potential role in treating infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS). It remains unclear, however, whether surgery can be replaced by i.v. therapy.


A novel algorithm for computing RSIC intersection curves of two surfaces of revolution is presented; it subdivides a surface of revolution into a collection of coaxial spherical strips, by subdividing its generatrix into a collection of C/sup 0/ and C/sup 1/ coaxial circular arcs correspondingly. So the intersection problem of two surfaces of revolution is reduced to an intersection problem of two spherical stripes, and RSIC is approximated as a piecewise C/sup 0/ and C/sup 1/ circular, which is quite convenient for some CAD applications. Cylindrical bounding shell is used for computing valid intersection interval VII to avoid the unnecessary intersection computation efficiently. Finally, we give a simple algorithm of tracing RSIC for classification and a unified rational Bezier representation to RSIC.


A look-ahead velocity blending model for consecutive small line blocks is proposed in this paper to generate a smooth feedrate profile. Firstly, acceleration and deceleration velocity polynomial is constructed for one single small line. Then a velocity blending model for two small lines is presented, which takes displacement, velocity and acceleration constraints into consideration and therefore makes improvements on exsiting ones. The blend model can be used to build an approximate optimal feedrate for whole tool path. Finally simulations are performed to validate the proposed model.


The New England Botanical Club will offer up to $2000 in support of botanical research to be conducted by graduate students in 2013. This award is made annually to stimulate and encourage botanical research on the New England flora, and to make possible visits to the New England region by those who would not otherwise be able to do so. It is anticipated that two awards will be given, although the actual number and amount of awards will depend on the proposals received. The award will be given to the graduate student(s) submitting the best research proposal dealing with systematic botany, biosystematics, plant ecology, or plant conservation biology. Submission of manuscripts to the Club's journal, Rhodora, is strongly encouraged. Details on the materials to be submitted for consideration, as well as terms of the award agreement, can be found on the Club's web page (www.rhodora.org). Proposals and supporting letters must be received no later than March 1, 2014. The recipient(s) will be notified by April 30, 2014. The Graduate Awards Committee is pleased to announce that the winners of the 2013 award are Dennis Dietz of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for his proposal titled ''Inbreeding depression and pollination limitation in Sarracenia purpurea L. ssp. purpurea'' and Karoline Oldham of George Mason University for her proposal titled ''Geographical history and infraspecific morphological variation of the hemiparasitic wildflower, American Cow-wheat (Melampyrum lineare; Orobanchaceae).'' Abstracts of the winning proposals and a listing of the awards from 1985 to the present are available on the Club's web page.


The close of the twentieth century bore witness to a number of impressive proclamations concerning the triumph of liberal democracy, the end of history, and the arrival of a new world order. A brave new world of peace and prosperity was predicted, and yet the social and political problems associated with modernity show little sign of abating. The problems themselves have long been framed by specific normative evaluations and political strategies, such as the imperative to secure and defend what Karl Popper (1966) called the ZOpen Society[ against its internal and external enemies or, from another perspective, to confront authority in a bid for emancipation, justice and equality. Though both the problems and the normative evaluations endure, questions of social difference and political division have given rise to a new category of thought and action: exclusion. Now pervasive in policy debate and academic research, the concept of exclusion has been stretched over the social so as to encompass the more specific problems of poverty, domination, discrimination, exploitation, solidarity and cohesion, all of which connect up with, in a variety of ways, the question of power. When coupled to exclusion and emplaced within the context of democracy, Zpower[ has a tendency to invoke dark images of repression and heroic narratives of struggle and resistance. There are of course good reasons why the relationship between power and exclusion can be, and has been, examined in this way. However, in this chapter what I want to do is place exclusion, power, and that particular mode of social organization we call democracy together without first drawing conclusions as to the inherent goodness or badness of what is, as we shall see, a complex relation.


One of the most important differentiators between Commercial Games and Serious Games is content; delivered in a way that is successfully integrated with engaging game play and achieves the desired learning outcomes by delivering skills and knowledge effectively to the end-user. This ability to integrate content effectively is the key to producing "killer" Serious Games that deliver demonstrable learning outcomes, business benefits and overall value. However, achieving this nirvana is not a trivial task. Utilising lessons learned and case studies, this chapter provides an overview of why this process can be so challenging, including the differing experiences from the perspective of three stakeholders (game designer, instructional designer/learning psychologist and subject matter expert), how to manage preconceptions and balance their priorities. The case studies will also show how different methodologies, techniques and technology have been applied to help solve this fundamental challenge of delivering a successful serious game. Advice is provided on how to facilitate this process, capture the correct requirements and create a design that meets and exceeds the expectations of all the stakeholders involved, including the client/customer and the end user.


A lotion emulsion oil in alkaline water, consisting of 22-oxa-1α, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, one medium chain triglyceride, a nonionic surfactant and a water-soluble thickener, where the alkalinity is in a range of pH 8, 5 to 11 and where the alkalinity is supplied by the addition of an organic amine.


Remarks by Mr Turalay Kenç, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, at the "Stocktaking of International Financial Architecture" Conference, organized by the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee (RBWC), Shanghai Development Research Foundation (SDRF), Research Institute for Banking and Finance, China (PBOC) and Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), Shanghai, 26 February 2016.