Tinnitus Aereum a s an Effect of Increased Tension in the lateral Pterygoid Muscle To the Editor: Tinnitus, which to a greater or lesser extent affects 7% of the western societies,' can be associated with almost any form of ear disease. Sometimes, however, tinnitus has no clear cause and is then considered to be correlated to hydrops in the inner ear? Several studies indicate, though, that the etiology of tinnitus without a clear cause still is mostly unknown.' At a stomatognathic examination of 39 patients with disabling tinnitus without a clear cause, temporomandibular joints, jaw muscles, and mandibular function were examined. It was found that all of them had a pronounced craniomandibular disorder; i.e., 7 to 17 points with an average score of 11.0 on a scale ranging from 0 to 25 according to the clinical dysfunction index by Helkimo. The patients, who were referred from two otolaryngological clinics in southern Sweden, were between the ages of 23 and 74 years and both sexes were represented. Twentynine of them had unilateral tinnitus and 10 had bilateral tinnitus. Seventeen of the patients had the diagnosis of Meniere's syndrome. During the examination, it was found that the lateral pterygoid muscle was extremely sore when being palpated. In the unilateral cases the lateral pterygoid muscle was more sensitive on the tinnitus side, whereas the soreness was practically equal in the bilateral cases. When a local anesthetic (1.8 lidocaine 2%) was injected intramuscularly into the lateral pterygoid muscle on the tinnitus side, the patients expressed a tinnitus relief in 46 of the 49 areas of the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The response varied from 20% to 100%. The average tinnitus relief was estimated at 63% on the VAS, and 14 patients claimed feeling a 100% relief. The tinnitus reappeared when the effect of the anesthetic wore off. In order to repeat the effect, a renewed intramuscular injection was made to one patient eight times in a 4-week period, each time resulting in a tinnitus relief in the range of 70% to 90% according to the VAS. Since the tinnitus reappeared when the effect of anesthetic ceased, an explanation to the patients sound experience could be bone conduction of some kind of vibrations from muscular activities in the lateral pterygoid muscle. Thus should tinnitus aureum be correlated with tension in the lateral pterygoid muscle, caused by craniomandibular disorder. The findings show that an anesthetic intramuscular injection into the lateral pterygoid muscle can be used to establish the source of tinnitus when caused by increased tension in this muscle. Treating tinnitus aureum caused by craniomandibular disorder, would include different ways of stabilizing the dental occlusion. A progressing study of the results of treatment shows that the soreness of the lateral pterygoid muscle is radically lowered by the treatment. In relation to the absence of soreness, the patients state that they have a permanent relief of tinniuts. A more complete description of the findings and the outcome of the treatment will be published later.


Objective: Sheep and goats are commonly used large animal species for studying pathogenesis and treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). This review focuses on the macroscopic and microscopic criteria for assessing OA in sheep and goats and recommends particular assessment criteria to assist standardization in the conduct and reporting of preclinical trials of OA. Methods: A review was conducted of all published OA studies using sheep and goats and the most common macroscopic, microscopic, or ultrastructural scoring systems were summarized. General recommendations regarding methods of OA assessment in the sheep and goat have been made and a preliminary study of their reliability and utility undertaken. Results: The modified Mankin scoring system is recommended for semiquantitative histological assessment of OA in due to its already widespread adoption, ease of use, similarity to scoring systems used for OA in humans, its achievable inter-rater reliability. Specific recommendations are also provided for histological scoring of synovitis and scoring of macroscopic lesions of OA. Conclusions: The proposed system for assessment of sheep and goat articular tissues appears to provide a useful versatile method to quantify OA change. It is hoped that by adopting more standardised quantitative outcome measures, better comparison between different studies and arthritis models will be possible. The suggested scoring systems can be modified in the future as our knowledge of disease pathophysiology advances.


The aim of the research was to analyze the implementation of the Emotional Spiritual Quotient (ESQ) in exemplary Javanese leadership at the GUPPI Madrasah Aliyah, Rakit District, Banjarnegara Regency. The research was carried out with a qualitative approach and data collection was carried out by observation, interviews, documentation. The results of the research on the Javanese leadership of Madrasah Principals are carried out by giving examples in behavior and work and being polite in speaking. The madrasa principal's leadership not only gives orders, but also shows an exemplary attitude in all aspects, be it discipline, responsibility, cleanliness and so on.


An introductory guide to meditation which is a technique for training the mind, especially attention and the will, so that the reader can lift above the surface level of life and journey into the very depths of consciousness.


At the present level of knowledge about the problem of sexual abuse are outlined a number of new developments in the planning of preventive measures aimed at preventing sex crimes. The formation and construction of these measures in Russia in this period should be paramount in nature.One of the components of the role of this process is the creation of community organizations and services for emergency psychological care with a staff of qualified psychologists capable of providing assistance to victims of such serious crimes as crimes against sexual freedom and sexual integrity.


High performance millimeter-wave enhancement-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs using plasma oxidation technology (POT) is fabricated by PECVD. The PECVD system avoids downward bombardment making this process damage free. The POT enables the formation of a thin oxide layer on gate region, ultralow leakage was achieved on the fabricated device, Ioff = 9.5× 10−7 mA/mm and it has a high ON/OFF ratio of over 109, the lowest off-state leakage for the AlGaN/GaN in deep-submicrometer gate length. The enhancement-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs using this new oxidation technology exhibits outstanding performance including Vth of 0.4 V, maximum drain current of 1 A/mm and fmax of 170 GHz.


The failure and leakage of the oilfield natural gas pipeline may lead to many serious sequences, such as the severe casualties and property losses. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the leakage of natural gas pipeline and the subsequent explosion accident of vapor cloud, adopts the TNT equivalent method to calculate the results of vapor cloud explosion of certain natural gas pipeline in Daqing Oilfield, and gets the relationship between the area of harm zone and leakage time as well as the harm radius corresponding to the different leakage time and area of discharge opening. In addition, it discusses the calculation results and gives the suggestions to reduce the loss resulting from the pipeline disaster.


To provide an up‐to‐date account of drug prescription during pregnancy in France from 2011 to 2014 using the permanent sample of the French national computerized healthcare database and with a focus on recommended supplementations, fetotoxic drugs and teratogenic drugs.


The field-emission phenomenon is exploited in a broad variety of applications and systems. Previous studies have reported that the current induced by field emission strongly and inherently depend on the temperature. This dependence enhances the noise in the current, which results in performance degradation in, for example, signal detection and communications in nanoscale receivers. In this paper, a mathematical model is presented for the suppression of the noise based on its probability density. Our experiment and analysis revealed that the density follows a Gaussian distribution, and the dependence on temperature is observed to be exponential. This result is intriguing because in the field of signal processing and communication, the influence of temperature is often considered with a noise-temperature model, namely, linear dependence. Using our derived model, we theoretically evaluated the communication performance of a nanoscale receiver; owing to the exponential dependence on temperature, severe performance degradation was found with increasing temperature. This means that, as field-emission technology continues to be developed, the temperature should be kept low, for example, at room temperature, to secure the reliability of nanoscale communication devices.


The present invention discloses the production of a by-produced calcium sulfate whisker aqueous sodium microemulsion method, the following steps: First aqueous sodium metered, measured Baume; moderate again added calcium sulfate solution, stirred for 20 -30 min, left to age for 5-6 hours, to obtain a precipitate, was diluted with distilled water, and sulfuric acid was added to dissolve, then heated to boiling immediately filtered, the filtrate was cooled to obtain crystals of calcium sulfate whisker, drying, packaging can . The present invention utilizes waste NaSO4, made of calcium sulfate whiskers, which addresses the problem of waste water discharge, and also created a benefit, which is made of calcium sulfate whisker mass is equivalent to a hydrothermal method, and its requirements are greatly simplify the process, the effect is significant .


The contributions of classical Greek culture to science, including medicine, were considerable. Happily, Greece is again becoming a force in modern biomedicine. Bibliometric analysis shows that, compared to the rest of the world, Greece has achieved a steady, gradual increase in research productivity during the last 10 years both in absolute and relative terms. However, that increase has come in selected fields and despite the fact that the proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to research and development has been stable at around 0.6% (i.e., 3–5 times lower than that of the European Community, the United States of America, and Japan, where the relevant values are 1.9%, 2.7%, and 2.9%). In addition, there are serious problems related to the adequacy of the infrastructure that supports research in Greece. This article outlines the classical contributions to biomedical science in the cradle of Western civilization and the state of science in Greece today.


This work reports progress in current studies of zoning of magmatic crystals from basalts and andesites. A simple law of normal growth is tested using zoning profiles of olivine and plagioclase crystals and is shown to be compatible with the zoning profiles of some olivines and parts of complexly zoned plagioclases. Using a convenient linearizing technique (in which the ratio of compositional end-members is plotted against volume), we can identify those parts of the zoning profile which fit a simple normal growth law. This technique permits easy identification of those parts of a complexly zoned crystal which require a more complex law of growth. Calculations used in this modeling are similar to those previously used for olivine (Pearce, 1984c, 1987) and are now extended to plagioclase. It is concluded that it is both theoretically possible and practically feasible to make inferences about the liquid in the local system from which a crystal grew by examining the detailed zoning pattern of the crystal.


The Mino Bimaadiziwin Homebuilders postsecondary education pilot project built Indigenous youth capacity and houses in two remote Anishinini reserves—Garden Hill and Wasagamack. To evaluate this community-led project, a sustainable livelihood assessment holistically measured the impact on 45 of the 70 (64%) Homebuilder students and the community. The community benefited by gaining three culturally appropriate houses built from local lumber and employment opportunities for Anishinini instructors. A longitudinal survey found five of the six livelihood assets improved statistically and significantly, including satisfaction with social relationships, cultural awareness, income and ability to pay bills, housing safety, and human development. Students reported better relations with their families and neighbourhood. Most (85%) of the 70 Homebuilder students earned postsecondary certificates either in forestry, homebuilding or both while obtaining a training stipend, which elevated their incomes. These positive outcomes occurred despite project underfunding, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, climate change events, and inequitable housing policies under the Indian Act. Based on this project's success, we recommend investing in Indigenous-led postsecondary education in community homebuilding projects. However, to attain equitable housing and human rights, a plan is needed to overturn the Indian Act, which keeps Indigenous people as "wards of the state" and their land in trust.


The flexible geometry configuration of the bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has many advantages. However, it causes serious measurement error in the bistatic SAR system, which degrades the quality of the SAR images and the precision of the digital elevation model (DEM) obtained using stereoscopy bistatic SAR. In this paper, the influence of the scene height estimation error, trigger delay, transmitter position measurement error, receiver position measurement error, and transmission line length measurement error are analyzed. These analyses are very useful in bistatic SAR system design. The scene height estimation error, trigger delay, transmitter position measurement error, and synchronization receiver position measurement error affect both the quality of the images and the precision of the DEM obtained by stereoscopy bistatic SAR slightly. The echo receiver position measurement error and transmission line length measurement error affect the quality of the imaging only slightly, but seriously affect the precision of the DEM obtained by stereoscopy bistatic SAR. Luckily, their measurement precision can be quite satisfactory. Simulations and real bistatic experimental results verify the proposed theoretical analysis.


A solution-phase synthesis of monodisperse SnTe nanocrystals via the reaction of bis[bis(trimethylsilyl)amino]tin(II) with trioctylphosphine telluride in oleylamine is demonstrated. The obtained SnTe nanocrystals are single-crystalline particles with a cubic rock-salt crystal structure. The size of the SnTe nanocrystals can be precisely tuned in the range of 4.5−15 nm by tailoring the reaction temperature and stabilizer concentration. These SnTe nanocrystals exhibit size-tunable band gap energies of 0.38−0.8 eV. The narrow size-distributions allow assembling SnTe nanocrystals into 3-dimensional superlattices.


THE myxedematous patient is said to be less tolerant than the normal subject to the administration of desiccated thyroid. Although this concept has long prevailed, objective support is meager. It has been suggested that the tolerance of the euthyroid patient derives from inactivation of the exogenous thyroid by the functioning thyroid gland (1, 2, 3). Others (4, 5) have observed in rat, dog and rabbit that thyroidectomy enhances the metabolic response to large doses of thyroid. The studies of Means and Lerman (6) indicate that the patient with myxedema has a striking initial response of the metabolic rate to desiccated thyroid, but that as the metabolic rate approaches normal, further response is comparable to that seen in normal subjects having similar metabolic rates. More recently Greer (7), after studying the radioiodide uptake of the human thyroid gland as influenced by administration of thyroid, suggested that the myxedematous and the euthyroid patient might be comparable in their responses, and tha...


Books reviewed:

Ferrel Heady, One Time Around

Herbert H. Werlin, The Mysteries of Development: Studies Using Political Elasticity Theory

Theodore R.Marmor, The Politics of Medicare

Jerry Mitchell, The American Experiment with Government Corporations

Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth

Garry Wills, A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government

David F. Lindenfeld, The Practical Imagination: The German Sciences of State in the Nineteenth Century

Jos C. N. Raadschelders, Handbook of Administrative History


In this paper,a substrate-screening trial for industrial rice seedlings cultivation was carried out in order to find out good industrial rice seedlings-raising methods and then improve degree of mechanization in rice production. The results showed that highest quality of seedlings was obtained using normal soil in rice field and chemical fertilizer as substrate while lowest cost was obtained using fine soil in rice field and chemical fertilizer as substrate.


Background:  Multiple protein kinases have been shown to be involved in the apoptotic neuronal loss of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although some studies support the role of protein kinase C (PKC) in amyloid precursor protein processing as well as in tau phosphorylation, a direct role for PKC in apoptotic neuronal death remains to be clarified. In the present study, we report on the possible role of PKC in cell survival during conditions of stress through phosphorylation of the X‐linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP).


The investigation of the change of a multilayer film work function of jointly adsorbed atoms of barium, scandium and oxygen on the facet (100) of a tungsten crystal at adsorption and heating has been made. The work function of the multilayer film of jointly adsorbed atoms of barium, scandium and oxygen on the facet (100) of tungsten crystal, consisting of 2-3 Ba monolayers and 2-3 Sc monolayers with an optimal doze of adsorbed oxygen when heated at temperature 1400 - 1500 K for a few minutes and then activated by monolayer of barium atoms drops down to 1.70 - 1.75 eV which is close to the work function value of scandate cathodes. On the basis of the obtained results one can assert that the work model of scandate cathodes based on the availability of scandium oxide and barium oxide crystals, activated by monolayer film of barium and barium oxide atoms, on emitting surface is preferable.


In order to safeguard Chinese civil aviation's order to be safe and effective operation, further regulate its enforcement behavior. It is necessary to rationalize the relationship between air marshal and other aviation security officers, improve its enforcement system, unified its enforcement procedure, create the assessment standards of its enforcement, and then improving the air marshal's enforcement power.


The extracting study of Lappa seed oil was carried with the supercritical fluid carbon dioxide extraction technique. The effects of extraction pressure, temperature, time and SC-CO2 flow on the extraction rate were investigated. The results of the experiments indicate thet the optimum extraction pressure, temperature, time and SC-CO2 flow for the maxium extraction was 30 Mpa,50℃,3h,30 kg/h respectively. The components of the seed oil was determined by GC/MS,and the physical and chemical properties of the seed oil were analyzed. The results showed the product extracted with SC-CO2 was superior to that with ether.


Alzheimer's disease: challenges & concepts The neurodegenerative disease described by Alois Alzheimer in 1906 is now recognized as a major aging-related dementia worldwide, affecting more than 35 million individuals. With the demographic shift toward aging societies, this number is expected to double every 20 years, to an estimated 135.5 million worldwide afflicted with the disease by 2050 [1]. The global costs related to diminished social functioning in AD patients are similar to the financial burdens of heart disease and cancer, placing Alzheimer's disease (AD) among major public health concerns [2]. AD develops for tens of years in the pre


The analysis of food salt is very important because of its high consumption by the population, for both medicinal and nutritional use. In this study, nine different samples of food salt (Cyprus black, Himalayan pink, Hawaii red, iodized, hyposodic iodized, Maldon smoked sea, common sea, Breton sea and Persia blue), coming from large Italian retailers and employed by people for different cooking food purposes, were investigated through High Purity Germanium (HPGe) Gamma Spectrometry in order to evaluate the anthropogenic (137Cs) and natural (40K) radioisotopes activity concentration, and used Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) in order to assess any possible metals contamination by a comparison between Cu, As, Cd, Hg and Pb concentrations and the limits set by the Italian Legislation. The evaluation of dose levels due to the salt ingestion for the age category higher than 17 years was performed taking into account the human body daily need of about 10 g of salt, and in the precautionary hypothesis, this need was satisfied from a single type of salt. All obtained results are under allowable levels (1 mSv/year), thus excluding the risk of ionizing radiation effects on humans. Regarding to the metals concentration, experimental results show that it is lower than the contamination threshold values, thus excluding their presence as pollutants.


Simple Summary Poultry is currently the most efficient animal productive system and could contribute to fulfilling the need for protein in order to supply the increasing human population. However, intensive selection of broilers makes them more susceptible to several welfare concerns. Moreover, in order to improve animal welfare, alternative housing systems, such as free-range and organic systems, are becoming increasingly popular. These changes in the modern poultry industry, in combination with restrictions on antibiotics, have led to the need for poultry with higher disease resistance. Naturally occurring antibodies (NAbs), which are major components of innate immunity, have been previously detected in chicken sera. These studies showed that NAbs are heritable and that high levels of NAbs are associated with survival and highly specific antibody responses against pathogens. Therefore, we investigated the circulating levels of IgM and IgY NAbs against selected antigens (actin, DNA, trinitrophenol and lipopolysaccharide) as potential biomarkers of poultry welfare and productivity in fast-growth (Ross 308) and slow-growth (Sasso) broilers raised in conventional and free-range systems, respectively, under 3-year industrial-scale production. Overall, we demonstrated significant differences in IgM NAb levels during the final breeding step between the two commercial genotypes, highlighting NAbs as potential biomarkers to be exploited in the poultry industry. Abstract Naturally occurring antibodies (NAbs), which are major components of innate immunity, exist in circulation under healthy conditions without prior antigenic stimulation and are able to recognize both self- and non-self-constituents. The present study aimed at identifying potential immunological differences between commercial fast- and slow-growth broilers (n = 555) raised in conventional and free-range systems, respectively, through the use of the specificity, isotypes and levels of circulating NAbs. The possible beneficial effect of oregano-based dietary supplementation was also evaluated. To this end, serum IgM and IgY NAbs against self- (actin and DNA) and non-self- antigens (trinitrophenol and lipopolysaccharide) were measured by ELISA and further correlated with genotype, season and performance. Significantly higher levels of IgM NAbs against all antigens were found in slow-growth compared to fast-growth broilers. IgM NAb levels were also significantly increased in dietarily supplemented slow-growth broilers versus those consuming standard feed. Moreover, significantly elevated levels of anti-DNA IgY NAbs were found in fast-growth compared to slow-growth broilers, whereas the opposite was observed for anti-LPS IgY NAbs. Multivariate linear regression analysis confirmed multiple interactions between NAb levels, genotype, season and performance. Overall, serum NAbs have proven to be valuable innovative immunotools in the poultry industry, efficiently differentiating fast-growing versus slow-growing broilers, and dietary supplementation of plant extracts can enhance natural immunity.


This paper gives a research on the way and model of cooperation and competition in the network information ecological chain,describing the power factors of cooperation and competition in the network information ecological chain.At last it sums up the basic laws of cooperation and competition in network information ecological chain.


It is necessary to study the threshold of the soils of boron toxicity to crops in order to establish boron criteria in the soils for evaluating soil boron pollution and better managing boron polluted soils.Selection of the most boron-toxic vegetable is important for the above objective.A series of water-culture experiments with different boron concentrations in the culture solutions and the seedlings of 18 vegetable species commonly cultivated in Fujian Province,southeast of China,were conducted in order to compare the sensibility to boron toxicity of the vegetables and select the most boron-toxic sensible vegetable species.The results showed that the boron-toxic symptoms appeared more obviously on cucumber,cowpea and red cowpea than on the others.The symptoms appeared on the sensible vegetables as early as 2 days after the water culture with higher boron concentrations.On the contrary,water spinach and cabbage did not show apparent boron-toxic symptoms suggesting that the two vegetables were more tolerant to boron toxicity.The plant heights and the shoot fresh weights of all the vegetables decreased with the increase of boron concentrations in the culture solutions and showed significant correlations with each other with only few exceptions.The shoot fresh weights of red cowpea and cowpea decreased more dramatically than the other vegetable species whereas those of carrot,Jinfeng cabbage,egg dishes,pakchoi(new crown)and cabbage decreased the least.The vegetable that had the most obvious borontoxic symptoms and the lowest EC20 value(the boron concentration at which the fresh shoot weight decreased by 20%)was selected as the most boron-toxic sensible vegetable.Therefore,the most boron-toxic sensible vegetable species was red cowpea of which the EC20 was only 3.36 mg·L-1 boron.


Illinois State University and University of Illinois faculty collaborated to pilot test and evaluate Applied Academics curricula in Illinois. Three sets of pilot sites included the following: (1) 14 local education agencies that pilot tested Applied Communications and/or Mathematics; (2) 10 sites at which vocational teachers collaborated with academic teachers; and (3) sites at WhiCh academic and vocational instructors and administrators identified barriers and incentives to collaboration. Instruments used at the pilot sites for applied curricula collected data on students, teachers, and school districts; information concerning participaut expectations and outcomes; and educational background of students and teachers. Teachers at the collaborative sites kept journals of their collaborative interactions with academic teachers. Informal meetings were held with participants in the third set of pilot sites. Teachers found the applied academics materials effective and promoted academic/vocational collaboration; students indicated that the materials had a positive impact on their interest in content. Time constraints and a clear mission were the most important barriers to effective collaboration. On the positive Side, teachers acquired assistance, money, contacts, and resrairces. The project developed a flowchart for strategic planning for curriculum integration and a content outline for a guidebook for integration activities for teachers and administrators. (21 references) (YLB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EARS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Ce: Integrating Academic Content into Business Education: Results from Research in Illinois ogranyugwv O inumnol coke 0..-st.oev uptievaqt, end iN>mp0-4.,, DUc AVON AL. rot SOVACt S INFORMATION CENniatMW.1 taws OM urnOra Nis Ow, le:woe:hit es +ate. tel, iNwion oionsalt.o. ohg.rehn9 ; 41,Or chmge Ivor bee++ made ta mprocluewn WW1, ',tont& of or* or 0,Pouornssiatra ,orirs cror monk go nog neteiosio, ,ftvoeet..1 nt+.0a. R twelombr. ,rse ovfirv Thomas S. Haynes Illinois State University Dale Law and Jerry Pepple University of Illinois "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Abstract TO THE EDUCATIoNAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER fERICI Faculty at Illinois State University and University of Illinois collaborated to pilot test and evaluate Applied Academics curricula in Illinois. The researchers collected data on the impact of Applied Communications and Applied Mathematics curricula on students and programs. In addition, they assessed, through case studies, procedures, and guidelines that educators can follow to cause academic and vocational education teachers to work cooperatively.TO THE EDUCATIoNAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER fERICI Faculty at Illinois State University and University of Illinois collaborated to pilot test and evaluate Applied Academics curricula in Illinois. The researchers collected data on the impact of Applied Communications and Applied Mathematics curricula on students and programs. In addition, they assessed, through case studies, procedures, and guidelines that educators can follow to cause academic and vocational education teachers to work cooperatively. Data levealed several positive aspects of the Applied Academics curricula that would support the use of these materials in business education classes. Data also indicated drawbacks, concerns, and key processes to consider when using these materials, as well as how to facilitate collaboration between academic and vocational teachers.


This paper aims to tease out some of the more subtle geo-political movements which are taking place in the Asian theatre. In broad terms, India's rise as a global player challenges the traditional concept that has seen, for the past century, the Asian region under the influence of a lone non-democratic hegemon (Japan pre WWII, the Soviet Union post WWII, China 1990-present).


The day-to-day technological development of wireless communication, RADAR and millimeter wave applications has increased the need of planar circuits like MMIC, MIC to connect with waveguide section horn antennas with transmitter/receivers section and the time demands a low loss transition interconnect between microstrip line and waveguide. In this paper a detailed study of a microwave rectangular waveguide-to-microstrip line transition has been presented in tabulated format for easy understanding of transitions along with their merits, demerits and coupling methodology used to design transitions and the results in terms of insertion loss (IL), return loss (RL) and fractional obtained bandwidth have also been presented. The specific applications of the designed transitions for RADAR, millimeter wave and wireless communications, etc. are displayed in the table. The methodology (procedure) steps to design transitions have been also listed for future improvement in transition design.


Purpose: In recent years, the popularity of percutaneous vertebral augmentation, with vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty, and the volume and rate of procedures are steadily increasing. Although osteoporotic and neoplastic vertebral body fractures are usually regarded as the main indication to such minimally invasive procedures, kyphoplasty can be a safe and effective treatment also in neurologically intact patients with Magerl type A traumatic injuries who are not candidates to surgery. At our institution, patients are customarily offered the option between kyphoplasty and the traditional triad of prolonged bed rest, external bracing and analgesia when harboring suitable lesions of the thoracolumbar spine. In traumatic injuries, cortical bone is usually violated and is not competent anymore to contain injected cement within vertebral body boundaries. Therefore, we use modified techniques tailored to patient's fracture features and aimed to forestall cement leakage. Our techniques and results are reported here. Materials and Methods: From June 2005 to January 2009, 42 hospitalized subjects (age: 18-85 yrs.; M: 23, F: 19) agreed to undergo kyphoplasty because of a traumatic injury involving the spine from T5 through L5. Standard kyphoplasty technique is described elsewhere and well known. One-shot sealing can be obtained by injecting a small amount of doughy bone cement and, then, reinserting and inflating again the balloon-like bone tamp to spread out cement and press it against osseous defects. Afterwards, cavity filling up ensues. In case a comminuted fracture presents wide gaps, such a sealing cannot be obtained at one blow. Instead, cavity remodelling, lining and filling must be carried out in an incremental fashion, beginning in the anterior portion of the vertebral body and, then, going posteriorly. Results: Mobilization on the second post-op day was obtained in all cases. All subjects reported immediate pain relief. No clinical complications occurred. Conclusion: As it has been already pointed out, conservative therapy of vertebral body fractures is neither benign nor risk-free as the term seems to imply and its complications are well documented, while vertebral augmentation can produce immediate improvement in a patient's quality of life. At present, such considerations hold true for osteoporotic and neoplastic lesions, but several attempts are underway to broaden the use of vertebral augmentation to traumatic injuries too. In this latter regard, our series is the largest one so far reported and confirms that kyphoplasty can be safely and effectively performed after traumatic injuries. In conclusion, the standard or modified kyphoplasty techniques we routinely employ can help vertebral augmentation to fulfill the promise it seems to hold in traumatic vertebral body compression fractures.


265 Background: Identifying quality measurements for discovering and delivering effective cancer care are dependent on the strategic vision of the cancer center and its respective units yet, each unit encompasses a distinctive set of competencies. We propose a framework for evaluating and structuring the alignment of quality and unit strategy measures within the overall vision of a cancer center.

METHODS
Prospective analysis was conducted with structured interviews across leadership and key opinion leaders (1) at the executive level, (2) within cancer center units (including basic science, cores, clinical research, and oncology service lines) and (3) across key hospital and research integration points. Quality and strategic areas reviewed were success measures, strategic focus, competitive dimensions, key strategies, and significant barriers. Risk of bias was accounted for through interrater reliability across the consensus of three independent reviewers. Measures of consistency were quantitatively assessed through triangulation of multiple perspectives based on roles and responsibilities.

RESULTS
61 individuals were interviewed, generating 875 responses across the five areas. Responses were grouped into 303 categories, and then into 32 specific perspectives. These perspectives were linked with each of the five quality and strategic categories. Assessment and prioritization of quality and strategic measures were calculated based on tabulation of responses.

CONCLUSIONS
While overarching strategy is well understood throughout the cancer center, quality, and strategic measures must be developed to integrate activities of each functional units across the cancer center to support overall goals. The framework for aligning quality measures to strategy facilitates the ability for centers to develop, align, and prioritize quality measures across the institution. [Table: see text].


Atmospheric concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured at urban/industrial, suburban, coastal and rural areas in New Jersey, USA, as part of the New Jersey Atmospheric Deposition Network (NJADN). Concentrations of 36 PAH compounds were measured in the gas and particle phases in air and in precipitation at nine sites at regular intervals from October 1997 through May 2001. Gas phase and particle phase Σ36PAH concentrations ranged from 0.45 to 118 ng/m and 0.046 to 172 ng/m, respectively, and precipitation concentrations ranged from 11 to 16200 ng/L. PAH concentrations vary spatially across the State of New Jersey with the highest concentrations occurring at the most heavily urban and industrial locations. Although the absolute concentrations vary spatially, the PAH profiles are statistically similar at nine of the ten sampling sites indicating that the mix of sources around New Jersey is the same. On average, temperature accounts for 25% of the total variability in gas phase PAH concentrations indicating that air-surface exchange is not the primary mechanism for controlling concentrations in air. Gas phase PAH concentrations increase in the warmer seasons; whereas, the opposite trend is seen for predominantly particle phase PAHs with concentrations at a maximum in colder seasons. Increased emission of PAH attributed to elevated fossil fuel use in winter drives the particle phase PAH concentrations at most of the NJADN sites. Volume weighted mean (VWM) precipitation concentrations are highest at the more highly urban/industrial sites and do not display a consistent seasonal pattern across the state of New Jersey.


Although small conductance (SK)‐mediated calcium‐dependent potassium currents are usually mostly thought to modulate neuronal adaptation by suppressing repetitive spike firing, recent evidence suggests that these channels also modulate synaptic transmission. SK2 channels were shown to be activated in dendritic spines following calcium entry via N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor. Such activation of potassium currents terminates the NMDA‐dependent postsynaptic potential (PSP).


In this paper, the cutting of Mild Steel and Aluminum using electrochemical machining (ECM) with a electrode by using Taguchi approach has been reported. The Taguchi orthogonal array design is used to formulate the experimental layout, to analyze the effect of each parameter on the machining characteristics, and to predict the optimal choice for each ECM parameter such voltage, tool feed and current. It is found that these parameters have a significant influence on machining characteristic such as metal removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR). The analysis of the Taguchi method show that, in general the current significantly affects the SR and voltage affects the MRR. Verification of taguchi approach is


PURPOSE: To obtain an epoxy resin compsn. which contains a compd. which inhibits the reaction of a curative with a polyepoxide at low temps. in the presence of a cure catalyst by compounding a specific cure inhibitor into a polyepoxide. CONSTITUTION: This compsn. is prepd. by incorporating a cure inhibitor (B) contg. boric acid, maleic acid, or a mixture of boric acid with at least one acid having a weakly nucleophilic anion into a polyepoxide (A). Thus, the reaction of the polyepoxide with a curative can be inhibited at low temps. in the presence of a cure catalyst. The comspn. can be exposed to a temp. at which a solvent present therein can be removed by evaporation without causing the epoxy resin to be substantially cured. In the presence of the inhibitor, the concn. of a catalyst present can be considerably increased without causing the cure of the compsn. in the step of solvent removal. A higher concn. of the catalyst gives a final product with higher crosslink density and Tg. COPYRIGHT: (C)1992,JPO


In the process of curve fitting, the unknown relationship between the data sampling rate and the frequency of the measured signal as well as signal's frequency fluctuations can cause remarkable error. In this paper, a sine curve fitting algorithm with frequency precise estimation is proposed to solve this problem. Firstly, ellipse fitting algorithm is used to estimate the measured signal frequency. On the basis of this, the three-parameter sine fitting calculation based on the least squares method is applied to the sampling data, and the accuracy of the sine curve fitting result is improved. The experimental results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper can avoid the problem of frequency fluctuation and error caused by the unknown relationship between the sampling frequencies. Moreover, the fitting has a good randomness after frequency estimation, and the fitting result has nothing to do with the signal amplitude. Compared without frequency accurate estimation, the fitting error is greatly reduced and the fitting precision is higher.


Abstract
Gastroduodenal stress ulcers are frequent sources of massive bleeding and present difficult therapeutic problems. Pathologically, they are acute with minimal reactive fibrosis. Etiology appears related to mucosal vascular engorgement due to microvascular adjustments unrelated to total mucosal blood flow, and without disruption of the gastric mucosal barrier to acid diffusion. Selective intra-arterial injection of vasoconstrictor drugs may arrest bleeding from stress ulcers. Prevention of the many predisposing conditions such as shock, sepsis, and pulmonary insufficiency is the best medical treatment. Once bleeding begins, transfusion, iced saline solution lavage, and (later) antacids are indicated. If bleeding persists, vagotomy with pyloroplasty, vagotomy with subtotal gastrectomy, or total gastrectomy may be required to stop it, but there is disagreement concerning the best operation. Stress ulcers are frequent in association with severe burns and in patients with lesions of the central nervous system. Stress ulcers are appearing with rising frequency, the cause is obscure, and the treatment is unsatisfactory.


Two contamination protection suits which permit work in contaminated surroundings and in the presence of radioactive aerosols are described. One is an English suit being manufactured commercially and the other is a newly developed German suit. The German model is distinguishedby mechanical stability, chemical resistance, fireproofness, and aerosol tightness. A special suit opening permits the suit to be put on and off without the assistance of a second person. (tr-auth)


Behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) have been evaluated as methods to teach different safety skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. Research on BST has examined topics such as gun safety, abduction prevention, poison avoidance, and sexual abuse prevention. A large safety issue that is missing from the literature is drowning prevention and water safety skills. Drowning is one of the most prevalent issues facing facing children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), particularly those who elope from their homes or caregivers. The current study aimed the effectiveness of using BST+IST to teach three water safety skills to three children with ASD. The intial form of intervention was BST with total task presentation of the skill, using verbal instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. If this intervention did not result in an increase in performance, the skill was broken down into individual component presentation, in which each component of the skill was taught using the same procedures. Results from the current study showed that BST+IST was effective in teaching all skills to all participants.


Armored military vehicles have a harsh noise environment and many times the noise levels become almost an afterthought for the vehicle designers. There are numerous noise sources such as the engine, transmission, cooling fans, and track noise. The thick armor plating and the fact that the noise sources are inside the vehicle exacerbate the noise problem. This means there are few paths for the noise to exit the vehicle into the atmosphere and the result is an extremely loud noise environment for crew and passengers. Much success has been seen in the use of active headsets for the crew, but this is not feasible for the embarked troops in an armored transport vehicle, so the noise control must be inherent to the vehicle. The development of a bulkhead panel for containing the vehicle's engine is examined. The bulkhead panels serve the dual purpose of thermal and acoustic barriers. In addition to mass effects for reducing transmitted engine noise, viscoelastic layers are included in the panel to further passively attenuate noise transmission. The wide temperature swings seen in the panel during operation of the vehicle complicate the viscoelastic damping design. Test results from a panel prototype are presented for a testbed representing the military vehicle configuration.


Instead of trying to give a comprehensive coverage of all part of the field of statistics, the author's intention with this book is to concentrate on the most important topics in the field and cover these in more detail. Thus, although the number of statistical terms discussed in the book is limited, the terms covered are explained with as much depth as space has allowed. Most entries are covered according to a strict structure, starting with a brief definition and then with separate headings for History, discussing the background of the topic, such as when a test was first proposed; Mathematical aspects, giving technical details; Domains and limitations, discussing when a method could be used; Examples, showing applications of a method; Further reading, which gives references to related entries; and finally References, providing references to relevant literature about the discussed subject. The intention to cover only the most important topics, but cover these in more depth, is a good idea. Of course, there are always some topics that a reader will miss, and some topics that one wonders why they are included, but overall most topics that one should expect to have in a book of this kind are included. However, a problem with this book is that the accuracy and correctness of some entries are questionable. For example, about Bayesian statistics, the entry says: "Bayesien [sic!] statistics is a large domain in the field of statistics that differs due to an axiomatization of the statistics that gives it a certain internal coherence. The basic idea is to interpret the probability of an event as it is commonly used; in other words as the uncertainty that is related to it." This is both uninformative and hard to understand, and the correctness of it is questionable. A second example is the entry about Erich Lehmann, which states that he was "born in Strasbourg, France, in 1917," and in fact Strassburg at that time belonged to Germany. Another point of criticism is the author's subjectivity in some entries. For example, in the entry about statistical software, the author says that Minitab is "by far the easiest system to use," SAS is "surely the most complete package," and "EViews is the tool of choice for analysis, forecasting, and econometric modeling." As another example, in the entry about Measure of Shape, the author talks about Karl Pearson's "extremely interesting system." This kind of subjective judgments is not what one expects from an encyclopedia. Thirdly, it is hard to understand why some topics are covered in two different entries when they are in fact only two different names for the same thing. For example, there are separate entries for Analysis of Variance and One-Way Analysis of Variance, as well as for L1 Estimation and Least Absolute Deviation Regression, with the latter entries repeating most of the information from the former ones in a somewhat rewritten form. Likewise, in the entry about statistical software, there are two entries for BMDP, IMSL, NAG, P-STAT, SAS and SPSS, with both entries giving


The utility model discloses a horizontal type silencer. The horizontal type silencer comprises an expansion chamber, an air inlet pipe and an air exhaust pipe. The expansion chamber comprises a chamber wall, a front end cover and a back end cover. The expansion chamber comprises a first chamber, a second chamber and a third chamber which are mutually independent and sequentially communicated. Air exhaust holes of the air inlet pipe are communicated with the first chamber, and an air inlet end of the air exhaust pipe is communicated with the third chamber. According to the horizontal type silencer, the three cushion chambers are formed, and then airflow can collide with chamber walls in the three cushion chambers, and therefore sufficient cushion is achieved and a noise elimination effect is increased. A plurality of through holes are formed in the air inlet pipe to serve as the air exhaust holes, when the airflow passes through the through holes, frequency spectrum of air injection noise can move to high frequency or ultrahigh frequency, audible sound components in the frequency spectrum are obviously reduced, and therefore interference and damage to people are lowered.


A tutorial designed for programmers familiar with Powerbuilder who are now interested in learning more sophisticated client-server applications. The book provides advanced techniques and concepts for the Powerbuilder 4.0 programmer including multiple document interfacing, SQL and Datawindows techniques, and User Objects. CD contains exercises and applications.


The activity of thalidomide monotherapy in relapsed or refractory disease is widely accepted but many haematologists have observed better response rates with combination therapies. This communication aims to give an overview on the efficacy of these alternatives. Methods: Our group has performed two systematic reviews (thalidomide monotherapy: Glasmacher et al., Brit. J. Haematol., 2005; 129 suppl 1: 24; thalidomide and dexamethasone combination therapy: submitted to ASH 2005). Furthermore a search of trials combining thalidomide, cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone (with or without further drugs) was performed. Only trials that included patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma could be evaluated. Response was defined as a reduction of the monoclonal component by more than 50% in the absence of any sign of disease progression. Proportions and 95% confidence intervals were reported (Confidence Interval Analysis, Version 2.1.1, Southampton, UK, 2000). Results: Thalidomide monotherapy was administered in doses between 50–600 mg/d (median doses). Thalidomide in combination with dexamethasone was given in doses of 100–400 mg/d (median doses), dexamethasone was given 40 mg/d d1–4 every 3–4 weeks in 7 of 8 trials. Thalidomide dosage and combination therapy of trials adding Cy to thalidomide and dexamethasone are shown in Table 1. The response rates of the three different thalidomide applications are demonstrated Table 2. Conclusion: This compilation of data from phase II trials cannot replace a randomized trial and may be biased. With this limitation it seems that thalidomide combined with dexamethasone (response rate 51%) is more effective than monotherapy (response rate 29%) as the 95% confidence intervals for the response rates do not overlap. Whether a combination of thalidomide, dexamethasone and cyclophosphamide is more effective than thalidomide and dexamethasone alone cannot be decided from the current data.


This chapter offers a clear and convincing argument for reconceptualising current approaches and dominant paradigms at play in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). Throughout the study reported in this chapter, the author draws on his experience as an early career academic that came to PETE with 18 years of experience in teaching and developing Physical Education (PE) curricula in schools. This research is, therefore, an example of reflection in action requiring a reflexive standpoint acknowledging that he is included in the subject matter that the author was trying to understand. As he interrogated the autobiographical data and research literature, theoretical concepts emerged to inform his theorising and to expand his thinking about the practice of sport teaching in PE. The author confronts the models, metaphors, and images that had been part of his apprenticeship of observation and pre-service teacher training.


Many study abroad programs require language proficiency, emphasize language learning, or otherwise support the development of language skills for their students. A general assumption underlying this attention to foreign language acquisition is that access to the host culture is increased as students are able to converse with host nationals using that foreign language (Edelstein, 2009). Likewise, some theorists have promoted the idea that being able to converse and think in a foreign language gives the speaker special access to the manner in which native speakers might conceptualize and construe their reality (Hill & Mannheim, 1992). Yet there is some debate about the centrality of language learning in the process of developing intercultural competence. Bennett (2008) for example, says that a fluent foreign language speaker without intercultural competence may be a "fluent fool" who knows how to unknowingly insult host nationals using perfect vocabulary and grammar (p. 17). The current study examines the relationship of language fluency to a variety of outcomes of study abroad. The general question posed is "Does the requirement for foreign language fluency lead to better study abroad outcomes?" The outcomes examined roughly follow Ward's ABC model of acculturation (Ward, 2001, Ward, Bocher , & Furnham, 2000). This model suggests that study abroad outcomes fall into three categories: affect, behavior, and cognition. Affect (A) is mostly measured by psychological constructs related to the mental and emotional well-being of study abroad students. The behavioral aspect (B) is measured by attending to the ease and completeness with which a student "fits in" with the host culture. Cognition (C) is measured by examining aspects of the students' social identification. All three outcomes


Abstract Drawing on ethnographic data collected in the city of Nanjing, China, the article analyses discursive practices of courtship and marriage in the context of post-Mao and post-Deng economic, social, and legal developments. Informants' discussions often revolve around the tension between the idea that marriage should be about love and the increasing material demands that prospective grooms face upon marriage in a market-led consumer society. This tension also emerges in media debates on the hedonistic attitude of Ma Nuo, a contestant on the matchmaking programme Feicheng Wurao (If you are the one). Informants, on the other hand, articulate their feelings in terms of family responsibility and pursue marriages that, while based on choice, may also ensure financial stability and parental approval.


Launched before the atomic hypothesis took hold, elasticity theory is a spectacular achievement. A continuum-level description, it provides a powerful toolkit for determining how architecturally simple solids such as crystals respond macroscopically to stress, whilst encoding microscopic, atomic-realm details parsimoniously, via a few parameters. Solids that are architecturally complex at the atomic level—such as vulcanized rubber, gels and glasses—are commonly addressed using elasticity theory, too. However, their microscopic-level irregularity raises new issues, not only of elasticity but also of structure: How do the elastic 'constants' of such media fluctuate across a sample? Do such media strain non-affinely in response to stresses? Are there regional variations in the position-fluctuations of the atoms? More generally, can the structure and elasticity of architecturally complex solids be viewed as emergent collective phenomena, determinable from their underlying microscopic thermal motion and characterizable by some suitable continuum theory?


We study a situation with several service providers that are located geographically close together. These service providers keep spare parts in stock to protect for downtime of their high-tech machines and face different downtime costs per stockout. Service providers can cooperate by forming a joint spare parts pool, and we study the allocation of the joint costs to the individual service providers by studying an associated cooperative game. In the extant literature, the joint spare parts pool is typically controlled by a suboptimal full-pooling policy. This may lead to an empty core of the associated cooperative game. We show possible emptiness of the core under a full-pooling policy in our setting as well. The focus of the paper is then on situations in which we allow service providers to apply an optimal policy: a kind of stratification that determines, depending on the real-time on-hand inventory, which service providers may take parts from the pool. We formulate the associated cooperative game, which we call a stratified pooling game, by defining each coalitional value in terms of the minimal long-run average costs of a Markov decision process. We show that the core of stratified pooling games is always non-empty. Our five-step proof of this result is of interest in itself because it may be more generally applicable for other cooperative games where coalitional values correspond to the minimal long-run average costs of Markov decision processes.


Abstract 515 Background: Recent studies indicate that the disease-specific mortality In sickle cell anemia is about 6% in children up to 18 years and 15% in the 18–30 year age group, yielding a cumulative mortality of 21% by age 30 years. It is important to identify children at high risk so that early interventions can be developed to reduce this high mortality. Methods: We prospectively enrolled 505 children and adolescents with sickle cell disease in 2005–2010, 380 with hemoglobin SS and 130 with other genotypes. The median age at enrollment was 12 years with a range of 3 to 20 years. Baseline clinical features, echocardiography, six-minute walk test and pulmonary function testing were performed at steady-state. Follow-up for mortality has been performed in 470 of the participants at a median of 37 months after enrollment, range of 1 to 59 months. Results: Six of 470 patients (1.3%) died during the follow-up period, five with hemoglobin SS and one with hemoglobin SC. The median age at the time of death in these six participants was 20 years, range of 15 to 23 years. Death occurred during the follow-up period in 2.7% of participants over 12 years of age at enrollment and 3.7% of those over 15 years of age. The causes of death were stroke in 4, multiorgan failure in 1 and unknown in 1. Death occurred in 5.9% of 51 participants with a history of stroke versus 0.7% of 416 without stroke history; in 3.5% of 113 participants with a history of asthma versus 0.6% of 354 without asthma history; in 4.9% of 103 participants with 10 or more blood transfusions lifetime versus 0.3% of 359 with less than 10 blood transfusions; in 3.3% of 90 participants with two or more severe pain episodes in the past year versus 0.8% of 380 participants with less than two severe pain episodes in the past year. In age-adjusted analyses, the hazards ratio (95% CI) of death was 6.1 (1.2-30.5) for history of stroke (P=0.029), 10.2 (1.2-89.5) for history of frequent blood transfusions (P=0.036), 5.8 (1.1-31.8) for history of asthma (P=0.044) and 1.07 (1.00-1.14) for frequent severe pain episodes (P=0.047). Clinical findings associated with these risk factors included higher concentrations of markers of hemolysis for history of stroke and history of frequent blood transfusions, decreased FEV1/FVC and increased total lung capacity for history of asthma, and lower concentrations of markers of hemolysis and high ECHO-determined tricuspid regurgitation velocity for history of frequent severe pain episodes. Conclusions: Over a median of three years of observation of this cohort, no deaths occurred among 248 sickle cell disease children 12 years of age or younger at enrollment but there were 6 deaths among 222 participants 13–20 years of age at enrollment. In bi-variate age-adjusted analyses, histories of stroke, asthma, frequent blood transfusions and frequent pain episodes were associated with an increased risk of death. Strikingly, four of the five deaths in which the cause was known were due to stroke. The present data on mortality in the PUSH study suggest that prevention of stroke is critical in improving the survival in adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Aging is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. Cardiac fibrosis is a harmful result of repeated myocardial infarction that increases risk of morbidity and future injury. Interestingly, rates of cardiac fibrosis are different between young and aged individuals, as well as men and women. Here, for the first time, we identify and isolate matrix-bound extracellular vesicles from the left ventricles (LVs) of young or aged men and women. These LV vesicles (LVVs) show differences in morphology and content between these four cohorts. LVVs effects on fibrosis were also investigated in vitro, and it was shown that aged male LVVs were pro-fibrotic, while other LVVs were anti-fibrotic. miRNAs identified from these LVVs could partially recapitulate these effects together, but not individually, and confer other benefits. These data suggest that synergistic effects of matrix-resident exosomal miRNAs may influence the differential clinical response to MI.


We present an impossibility result, called a theorem about facts and words, which pertains to a general communication system. The theorem states that the number of distinct words used in a finite text is roughly greater than the number of independent elementary persistent facts described in the same text. In particular, this theorem can be related to Zipf's law, power-law scaling of mutual information, and power-law-tailed learning curves. The assumptions of the theorem are: a finite alphabet, linear sequence of symbols, complexity that does not decrease in time, entropy rate that can be estimated, and finiteness of the inverse complexity rate.


................................................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Problem statement ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Scope of the thesis .............................................................................................................................. 3 1.3 Organization of the text ...................................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 2: RELATED WORK ................................................................................................................ 7 2.1 Monte Carlo ........................................................................................................................................ 7 2.2 Quasi Monte Carlo .............................................................................................................................. 8 2.3 Latin Hypercube Sampling ................................................................................................................. 8 2.4 Generalized Polynomial Chaos (gPC) Theory .................................................................................. 10 2.4.1 One-dimensional orthonormal polynomials ............................................................................... 11 2.4.2 Multidimensional orthonormal polynomials .............................................................................. 13 2.4.3 Derivation of statistics ............................................................................................................... 14 2.5 Intrusive and non-intrusive methods ................................................................................................. 16 2.5.1 Intrusive methods ....................................................................................................................... 16 2.5.2 Non-intrusive methods ............................................................................................................... 17 126.96.36.199 Pseudo-spectral collocation ................................................................................................. 17 18.104.22.168 Conventional Linear Regression approach ......................................................................... 19 220.127.116.11 Non-intrusive formulation of Stochastic Testing ................................................................ 20 2.6 Sparse Polynomial Chaos Techniques .............................................................................................. 21 2.6.1 Sensitivity Indices using ANOVA-HDMR ................................................................................ 22 2.6.2 Hierarchical Sparse PC Approach .............................................................................................. 23 2.6.3 Anisotropic Sparse PC Approach .............................................................................................. 25 2.6.4 Hyperbolic PC Expansion .......................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 3: APPROACHES TO ACCELERATE THE CLASSICAL FEDOROV SEARCH ALGORITHM............................................................................................................................................. 29 3.1 PC expansion using Linear Regression ............................................................................................. 29 3.2 Advantages over intrusive approaches .............................................................................................. 31 3.3 Proposed D-Optimal Linear Regression Approach ........................................................................... 31


The chitosanase and protease producing strain, Serratia sp. TKU016, was isolated from the soil in Taiwan. The optimized condition for chitosanase and protease production were found when the culture was shaken at 30℃for 3 days in 100mL of medium contain 1% shrimp shell powder (SSP), 0.1 % K2HPO4 and 0.05 % MgSO4.7H2O (pH8). One chitosanase and one protease were purified by chromatography procedures of DEAE-Sepharose, and Sephacryl S-100. The molecular mass of the chitosanase and protease determined by SDS-PAGE was approximately 65 kDa and 53 kDa, respectively. The optimum pH, optimum temperature, pH stability, and thermal stability of chitosanase were pH 7、40℃、pH 4-8 and <80℃, respectively. The optimum pH, optimum temperature, pH stability, and thermal stability of protease were pH 11、40℃、pH 5-11 and <90℃,respectively. The chitosanase was inactivated by Mn2+. The protease showed good activity toward azocasein and azoalbumin as substrates, low activity with gelatin, fibrin, and elastin.


Calculations were made of nuclear reaction cross sections, neglecting Coulomb forces but considering resonances related to the production of intermediate nuclei and considering data presented by Adler and Bohr on proton excitation of Na/sup 23/. It is shown that, differential excitation cross sections as functions of scattering angle in purity Coulomb or interference and nuclear-resonance terms are described by Legrange polynomials. An analysis is made of elastic scattering of protons on Na/sup 23/ and angular distribution of gamma rays in Na/sup 23/(p, gamma )Mg/sup 24/ at E/sub p/ = 0.877 Mev. Di spersion formulas for ineleastic scattering in Coulomb fields are discussed in a supplement. (R.V.J.) tae internal magnetic field at the Te nuclei in the iron enkoersteds respectively. (auth)


Objective: To evaluate the role of the C-nociceptive nerve fibers in nerve axon reflex-related vasodilation. Methods: Skin vascular reactivity, in response to iontophoresis of acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside, was evaluated at both the forearm and the foot levels in 13 diabetic neuropathic (DN),11 nonneuropathic (D), and 9 healthy control (C) subjects. The total and nerve axon reflex-related vasodilation were measured by two single-point laser probes. A topical anesthetic was applied on the contralateral forearm and foot, and all the measurements were repeated. Results: Dermal anesthesia resulted in a reduction of the nerve axon reflex-related vasodilation at the forearm in all three groups (C 70.7 ± 12%, D 59.7 ± 7%, and DN 73.5 ± 14%; percentage of reduction over preanesthesia response, mean ± SEM; p < 0.001) and at the foot in the two nonneuropathic groups (C 74 ± 10% and D 68.9 ± 9%; p < 0.001 versus before anesthesia). This reduction was absent at the foot of the neuropathic patients (DN −4 ± 21%; p = NS versus before anesthesia). A correlation was found between the nerve axon reflex-related response and measurements of nerve function (neuropathy disability score, r = −0.425, p < 0.017; vibration perception threshold, r = −0.527, p < 0.002; Semmes–Weinstein monofilament perception, r = −0.619, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The nerve axon reflex-related vasodilation is directly related to the function of the C-nociceptive fibers and is significantly associated with other nerve function measurements. As this is an objective measurement, it has the potential to be used as an alternative to currently employed techniques to evaluate small-fiber function.


English is a very urgent subject in academic life. In order to improve reading comprehension skills, teachers need to use online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This method is to provide space for students to study independently online. This study aimed to analyze the effect of the flipped digital classroom method using Moodle e-learning material and students' engagement on students' reading comprehension skills. This research used a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design. The instruments used in this research were observation sheets, questionnaires, and reading comprehension tests. The data analysis used Two Way ANOVA.  The results showed that the flipped digital classroom method using Moodle and student engagement affect reading comprehension skills. English lecturers should apply this method by building a pleasant online learning atmosphere so that student engagement and reading comprehension skills increase.


Abstract The kinetics of isothermal oxidation of UC powder were studied at oxygen partial pressures between 7.0×10–−4 and 1.1×10–−2 atm in the temperature range from 400 to 1,400°C with use made of thermogravimetric techniques. Oxidation rates at the initial stage were observed to be linear against the reaction time for all the cases studied, suggesting surface reaction. Different activation energies were found for three regions of temperature—1.6 kcal/mol for region I (below about 800°C), 4.9 kcal/mol for region H (about 800–1,200°C) and 23.0 kcal/mol for region HI (above about 1,200°C). The rate-determining step for each region is discussed from the experimental results.


Writing an undergraduate thesis will inevitably encounter various obstacles and problems. A high adversity quotient is needed to complete an undergraduate thesis. Other psychological abilities need to be analyzed in relation to increasing the adversity quotient. The aim of this study is to analyze other factors that affected the adversity quotient in compiling an undergraduate thesis. The cross-sectional design was conducted on 110 students who were preparing their undergraduate thesis. Respondent characteristics (gender), intrinsic motivation, adversity quotient, self-directed learning readiness (SDLR), and anxiety were measured for all respondents. The results of the analysis showed that the adversity quotient was significantly associated with intrinsic motivation, SDLR, and anxiety, but not with gender. The strength of the relationship of all these factors is ranged from very weak to weak. The conclusion of this study is the adversity quotient is one of the individual responses to a certain situation or condition. Correlation between these factors describes that all factors appear in responses to the situation or conditions. However, these factors do not play a role in increasing a person's adversity quotient.


Abstract Late February: the world was facing new 'global challenges' as the new Covid-19 threat was calling for new cooperation strategies. Meant as a sort of an early Covid-19 record of objective facts interpreted subjectively, this paper aims at analyzing the concept of fear related to health, political and economic stability and overall feeling of security as they reshaped the world with the coronavirus outbreak.


The title compound, [MgBr2(C4H8O)4] (1a), forms twinned four-component monoclinic crystals as a new polymorph, space group P21/n with Z´ = 2, in addition to the already known tetragonal polymorph (1b). Although the molecular parameters in the two polymorphs match very well, the packing patterns are significantly different. Furthermore, the correct constitution of the mixed halide bromo-chloro-tetrakis(tetrahydrofuran-κO)magnesium(II) (2) could be determined. Graphical Abstract Polymorphism of Dibromo-tetrakis(tetrahydrofuran-κO)magnesium(II)


Astroglial cells seldom receive as much attention as neurons in drug abuse studies involving the central nervous system. Astroglial cells were previously thought to be passive bystanders reduced to only playing a supportive role to neurons. However, increasing understandings of the myriad functions these glial cells actually possess suggest that glial cells may play a more active role in instances of drug exposure. Furthermore the mechanisms by which cocaine uses to elicit its effects on glial cells have yet to be elucidated. This present study uses rat astroglioma cells to investigate the effects cocaine has on cell viability using a Crystal Violet Dye Uptake Assay; analyze cell cycle activity using flow cytometry; and finally the expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins using an anti‐body microarray. It is expected that cocaine will decrease rat astroglioma viability in a dose‐dependent manner. It is also expected that cocaine will cause alterations the expression of specific cell cycle regulatory proteins which will subsequently result in disruptions in the normal progression of the cell cycle in these astroglioma cells. These results may clarify how cocaine elicits its effects on the cell cycle of glial cells. Research supported by NCRR/RCMI G12 RR03020 and G12 MD007582–28


Model calculations of coherent Raman spectra under resonance pumping conditions for polyatomic molecules have been carried out. The influence of the resonance background, which originates from the 'extra' resonance term of the resonance vibronic transition S0S1, is demonstrated. According to the calculations, the coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectra for ωa = 2ωp−ωs are slightly changed when the resonance background is taken into account. The background contribution to the coherent Stokes Raman scattering (CSRS) for ωs = 2ωp−ωa is higher. It is shown that a line reshaping associated with the concentration changes contains information about the relaxation parameters of the molecules, especially about the dephasing Γ.


This paper aims at analysing the way writers/translators and illustrators in simplified versions, in Portuguese and English, of Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, skilfully resort both to linguistic / stylistic choices and to non-verbal language to disambiguate deictic references (namely 'here' / 'there', 'now', 'this' / 'that'), otherwise beyond young readers' grasp. A multi-layered interpretive framework, drawing on discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, and a corpus-based approach (Carter 1994:5), contributes to an understanding of the dynamic intersemiotic dialogue in multimodal simplified stories. These challenge the children with different but sequenced perspectives, facilitating their comprehension of space and time references, thereby fostering visual literacy, language acquisition and reading literacy in the process of meaning-making.


Scenario writing is useful research method in Futures Studies. Expert-based scenarios are often used in conjunction with Delphi technique to identify, forecast and model outcomes for given issues or situations. Well written, scenarios have the capacity to provide awareness and appreciation of social and historical inputs and possible outcomes to issues and policy responses. They also have significant influence on public attitudes when presented in literary or cinematic form. This paper is a summary of a screenplay that envisions a post-unified Korea where a generation of North Korean "lost boys" are a social problem. This scenario draws from the template of the classic book and movie, A Clockwork Orange, which dealt specifically with government response to criminal behavior by alienated youth. This paper contributes a philosophical and social perspective to a topic that has been primarily treated institutionally as if a kind of engineering problem. That a post-reunification Korea will result in a significant number of young males with few marketable skills and little prospects for a mainstream future should be confronted as a real prospect. That conventional rehabilitation services are very likely to fall short is strongly suggested here.


A common goal for array antennas has been to pack the elements tighter for lower scan angles while fighting mutual coupling. The emergence of wireless networks as a rapidly expanding market has brought about a need for very small and efficient phased array antennas. An optimal design would incorporate tightly packed elements for efficient directed transmissions that radiate effectively without significant mutual coupling. This paper presents arrays for a wireless LAN configuration, designed at 2 GHz for operation at the PCS band, that scan lower angles more efficiently than conventional designs. We show the benefits of using fractal elements in linear phased arrays to achieve denser packing while minimizing mutual coupling. Previous work has shown that fractal geometries are an effective means of miniaturizing antennas. The smaller elements can work in an array in two ways: the first is to increase the gap size between the elements, thus reducing the coupling between them; the second is to allow more elements into a fixed length array for broader scan angles. Also, there are two methods for utilizing fractal in arrays. One method is fractal arrays, which arrange elements in fractal patterns. The other method, analyzed here uses fractals as elements. Linear arrays of fractal square loop elements are analyzed using a method of moments computer code developed at UCLA.


The education and formation of users become a social necessity in Cuba at the moment that the scientific and technical information represents one of the resources for the social development. When taking in consideration the advance that take place constantly in all the disciplines of the knowledge and the effect that can be produced with a practical application and a constant update, easily the necessity is included/understood that exists to make arrive these advances at our users. Then is evidence the great importance of the education and formation of users and that our librarians understand which is their paper within the scientist-information activity.


The optical pulse generation system (OPG) produces the initial pulse that is shaped, spatially and temporally, frequency modulated, amplified to 22 X and injected into the 192 main amplifier chains of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser system.


This report analyzes the issue of residence restriction laws for released sex offenders by briefly examining provisions of the Adam Walsh Act; identifying and comparing residence restriction laws in a number of states; discussing the impact of residence restriction laws on sex offenders, law enforcement and the public; presenting arguments in support of and against residence restriction laws; and reviewing some alternative proposals for monitoring released sex offenders..


Heavy workload and low efficiency are problems in organizing the grouting result tables of water conservancy grouting projects.In this paper,taking visualization window as the operation interface,a program for automatically organizing the grouting result tables using VBA language,the secondary development tool of Excel,is presented.Having inputted original borehole data and the grouting data in the Excel worksheets,users then select tables to be organized in the visualization window,and then click on "generate table" button to achieve automatic organization.The program has been applied to an engineering project and proved to be capable of automatic,accurate,and efficient organization.This paper lays foundation for applying Excel VBA language to organizing data of grouting projects,and serve as a reference for organizing data of other engineering projects.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how public law regulates the relationship between private landowners and users of town and village greens. It explores the scope of the public law which permits the exercise of customary rights of recreation over private property, and considers the limits that exist within the current regulatory framework. In particular the paper explores how subsidiary considerations such as protection of the environment have become increasingly relevant to the disputes involving town and village greens.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on a critical appraisal of recent judgments, academic literature and policy papers which address the regulation of town and village greens.Findings – The paper determines that the current regulatory framework fails to sufficiently protect landowners against opportunistic claims for registration of a town and village green. Specifically the paper identifies that gaps exist both in the substance of the statute and the judic...


Analysis of existing mathematical models of chemical power sources is performed. Method of modeling of nickel-hydrogen storage battery is proposed. Energy model of nickel-hydrogen storage battery which is used in power systems of spaceships is developed.


Liver asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGP-R), which specifically recognizes and binds galactose and N-acetyl galactosamine, has been implicated in binding and endocytosis of glycoproteins. Therefore, the possibility that it may have a role in contacting and processing pathogenic organisms was investigated. The interaction in vitro between ASGP-R and surface oligosaccharide structures of Echinococcus granulosus and Trichinella spiralis was studied by immunohistochemical methods. Specific binding of ASGP-R to ligands on the surface protoscolex of E. granulosus was demonstrated. To the contrary, ASGP-R bound ligand(s) of T. spiralis stihocytes, while a staining reaction was absent from the parasite cuticle. These results show that ASGP-R could take part in binding to and retention of E. granulosus in liver cells, thus contributing to its hepatotropic activity.


SUBTITLE: SEATING, EVIRONMENTAL CONTROL, AS WELL AS INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEMS, ARE ALL FACTORS WHICH HELP AIRLINES TO KEEP PASSENGERS. BERNIE BALDWIN LOOKS AT SOME OF THE MANUFACTURERS' LATEST OFFERINGS.


Finding the best candidates to match a set of job requirements can be viewed as both an art and a science. In this paper, we conduct an empirical study using actual job candidates and job applicants. We compare the ranked lists generated by executive recruiting experts with the list generated by three search strategies: one using crowdworkers in a gamified environment, a second using information retrieval-based search methods, and a third method which combines information retrieval methods and weighted feature-based approach. We examine these three strategies across two separate job categories – technical and non-technical (management). Our study finds the gamified-enhanced crowdsourcing environment works best for ranking candidates for technical jobs while the text mining and gamified crowdsourcing environments perform equally well for ranking candidates for non-technical jobs. Last, we discuss possible reasons for our results as well as suggest possible enhancements to reduce the gap between our strategies and the HR executive recruiting experts.


With the atmospheric environment problem increasingly serious,bag house dusting plays a central role in smoke and dust treatment. In order to ensure dusting results by high temperature fume and cut costs,the paper studies the key techniques of bag house of temperature control,cleaning mechanism,pressure regulation and so on. In view of the fact that the parameters of bag house are complex and the working condition fluctuates severely,modern control theory is applied in bag dusting technology. Based on the dusting experience,the membership function is improved,and the temperature fuzzy controller for dust collector is designed,and through collecting and analyzing of field data,the control results are compared. The results show that the temperature fuzzy control method and the multidimensional cleaning mechanism have good control effect in bag house dusting.


Defoliation by the European gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) and subsequent tree mortality have been well documented in the northeastern United States. In this study we evaluate tree mortality after initial defoliation in mixed pine- hardwood stands in the southeastern United States as the range of European gypsy moth expands. In 1993, 46 mature pine- oak and pine-sweetgum stands were selected on the coastal plain in Maryland and Virginia along the advancing gypsy moth front. Initial stand conditions, defoliation, and tree mortality after a single defoliation outbreak were monitored for 4 years. Susceptible oaks and sweetgum were defoliated at the greatest intensities. After defoliation, mortality in attacked stands was 4.4 m 2 /ha higher in pine- oak stands and 1.7 m 2 /ha higher in pine-sweetgum stands, representing 13 and 3% of the total basal area, respectively. Mortality of pines was observed mainly among suppressed and intermediate trees. Logistic regressions were derived to correlate individual tree mortality to stand and tree factors associated with gypsy moth attack. On the basis of these models, susceptible understory species with degraded crowns in pine- oak stands were at the greatest risk of mortality. Dominant overstory pines in pine- hardwood stands appear to be at low risk. FOR .S CI. 53(6):683- 691.


Background: The epidemiological data on childhood epilepsy, essential to plan services in resource constrained developing nations, is scarce. Identifying the determinants of treatment gaps in childhood epilepsy is essential to provide optimal care for childhood epilepsy. Study type and duration: This was a descriptive cross-sectional community based study conducted from April 14, 2014 to April 16, 2014, conducted at two privately owned hospitals in Bhakhar, Punjab, Pakistan. Objective: To evaluate the treatment gap and its determinants in childhood epilepsy in Bhakhar city. Methods: We conducted a random three-stage sampling of children being treated as epileptic or had epileptic seizures. Subjects were identified through two days of free paediatric neurology camps, one day at each hospital. A twenty-item screening questionnaire was used to identify the presence of epilepsy. Definitions provided by International League against Epilepsy (ILAE) were used to classify the screened positive subjects as epilepsy. The treatment gap and factors associated with it were assessed and calculated by two pediatric neurologists in consensus. Information obtained from subjects and their care givers included: demographic characteristics, current and past treatment options utilized, reasons for treatment options used and reasons for nonadherence to antiepilepsy drugs (AEDs). Results: 130 children with epilepsy were enrolled and epilepsy treatment gap of 90% was documented among these patients. Nonadherence was observed in 70(54%) patients, 50(38%) patients were adherent to the prescribed AEDs, whereas 10(8%) patients had never used any antiepileptic drug; on the other hand 61% of the total patients were being treated with polytherapy (≥2AEDs). The most common causes of TGCE were cost, untrained health professionals, poor/no counseling to the parents, nonavailability of AEDs and younger age of the patients. No national or international organization was found attempting to decrease TGCE in Bhakhar city. Conclusion: Owing to the marked scarcity of comprehensive childhood epilepsy care centers in under-resourced communities of Pakistan, only a minority of patients are being treated optimally. Determining the appropriate interventions need to narrow the treatment gap and these rely critically upon understanding the magnitude of treatment gap and the driving forces behind it. Muhammad Akbar Malik*, Hamza Malik, Muhammad Waseem Wali, Nadeem Shabbir and Muhammad Saeed The Brain Associates Institute, 218 D Model Town, Lahore, Pakistan *Address for Correspondence Muhammad Akbar Malik, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, The Brain Associates Institute, 218 D Model Town, Lahore, Pakistan, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Submission: 24 November 2014 Accepted: 29 December 2014 Published: 03 January 2015 Reviewed & Approved by: Dr. Maromi Nei, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, USA Research Article Open Access Journal of Neurology and Psychology Avens Publishing Group Inviting Innovations Avens Publishing Group Inviting Innovations


Reduction of number of image colors is an important task for presentation, transmission, segmentation, and compression of color images. In most cases, it is easier to process and understand an image with a limited number of colors. Color image reduction speeds up the manipulations on an image and reduces the storage cost and transmission cost. Various techniques have been proposed for color image reduction considering the noise factors, and the modifications in these techniques are still in progress. In this paper various color reduction techniques have been defined to an extent that a researcher can get an idea for the modified most efficient technique. The neural approach can be implemented for color reduction.


The essay analyses the concept of the common goods that, with all its limitations, was able to open a real discussion between different academic disciplines (and not only the legal ones). The " Rodota Commission " classified the cultural heritage as a common heritage. The common goods are, in fact, an attempt to recover opportunities of access, participation and public organization.  The Authority  therefore criticizes, the business approach  to cultural heritage that led to the privatization also of  museums (a false model). The regulation of cultural heritage, with respect to the need for preservation and care, can provide a very useful model for the theory of commons goods.


It was brought to our attention that there were errors in the original publication by Kim et al. [1]. [...].


Constructing hierarchical structures with heterointerfaces is an effective approach for developing high‐efficiency energy‐storage anodes for sodium‐ion batteries. In this study, MoS2@ZnIn2S4 nanorods are designed and fabricated for structural improvement. Theoretical calculations reveal that there are two different MoS2‐ZnIn2S4 heterointerfaces formed by MoS2 with the Zn and In facets of ZnIn2S4, which generate directional built‐in electric fields that provide additional driving forces for facilitating electron transfer. These two heterojunction interfaces, especially the MoS2‐In facet, exhibit enhanced Na+ adsorption energies and reduce Na+ diffusion energy barriers. The multistep reactions of MoS2 and ZnIn2S4 reveal a synergistic effect that promotes the entire electrochemical process. Furthermore, the synthesized hierarchical nanorods composed of nanosheets offer abundant Na+‐storage sites and multidirectional migration pathways and, importantly, accommodate the excessive volume change. Benefiting from the heterointerfaces and hierarchical structure, the composite electrode exhibits excellent electrochemical performance, with high reaction activity and rapid electron/ion diffusion kinetics.


Four new combinations in Limonium (L. lacostei, L. dielsianum, L. chrysocomum subsp. semenovii, and L. callianthum), one in Armeria (A. labradorica subsp. sibirica), and one in Acantholimon (A. laevigatum) are proposed. During the revision of Plumbaginaceae for the Flora of China, it became evident that the nomenclature of six poorly understood taxa in the genera Acantholimon, Limonium, and Armeria required some adjustment. In order to make the names available for the forthcoming volume of the Flora of China, the nomenclatural changes are herein proposed. Acantholimon laevigatum (Peng) R. Kamelin, comb. et stat. nov. Basionym: Acantholimon alatavicum Bunge var. laevigatum Peng, Guihaia 3: 291. 1983. TYPE: China. Xinjiang: Wenquun, K. C. Kuan 4564 (holotype, PE). The differences in leaf color, size, and flattening, size of outer and inner bracts, and size and indumentum of calyx support the recognition of Acantholimon laevigatum and A. alatavicum as distinct species instead of varieties of the latter. Armeria labradorica Wallroth subsp. sibirica (Turczaninow) R. Kamelin, comb. et stat. nov. Basionym: Armeria sibirica Turczaninow in Boissier, A. de Candolle, Prodr. 12: 678. 1848. TYPE: [Russia]. Siberia: Ad Tessinsky dozor, ? J. Kusnetov s.n. (holotype, LE). This taxon is widespread in bogs and meadows on alpine slopes or high plateaus at 3,000-3,500 m in the Altai Mountains in Mongolia and South Siberia, Russia. It is highly likely that the species also occurs in China, because it has been collected from several stations along the Mongolian-Chinese border in the Altai Mountains. Limonium lacostei (Danguy) R. Kamelin, comb. nov. Basionym: Statice lacostei Danguy, J. Bot. (Paris) ser. 2, 1(3): 53. 1908. TYPE: [China. Xinjiang]: Vallee de Tegermanlik, 4,000 m, 26 Aug. 1906, La Coste s.n. (holotype, P). Limonium roborowskii Ikonnikov-Galitzky, Acta Inst. Bot. Acad. Sci. URSS, ser. 1, 2: 255. 1936, syn. nov. TYPE: China. Xinjiang: Kashgaria, Kara-teke, 9 June 1889, W. J. Roborowsky s.n. (lectotype, LE). Peng (1987) cited Statice lacostei as a synonym of Limonium aureum (L.) Hill and maintained L. roborowskii as a distinct but related species. Statice lacostei and L. roborowskii are conspecific, and the correct name for the species is L. lacostei. The latter is readily distinguished from L. aureum by its straight, nonflexuous rachis and light or lemon-yellow calyx limb, instead of dichotomously branched, strongly flexuous rachis and golden calyx limb. Limonium dielsianum (Wangerin) R. Kamelin, comb. nov. Basionym: Statice dielsiana Wangerin, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 17: 399. 1921. L. aureum (L.) Hill var. dielsianum (Wangerin) Peng, Fl. Reipubl. Popul. Sin. 60(1): 38. 1987. TYPE: China. [Qinghai] (as Tibet): beim Lager 66 am Rande der Tsaidam, district Barun, A. Tafel 242 (holotype, B). This taxon was reduced by Peng (1987) to a variety of Limonium aureum, but the two are quite distinct in the inflorescence rachis, which is flexuous and dichotomous in L. aureum and straight in L. dielsianum, and calyx limb color, which is golden in the former and light yellow in the latter. In my opinion, these are best treated as distinct species. Limonium chrysocomum (Karelin & Kirilow) 0. Kuntze subsp. semenovii (Herder) R. Kamelin, comb. et stat. nov. Basionym: Statice semenovii Herder in Regel & Herder, Bull. Soc. Imp. Natur. Moscou 41(1): 398. 1868. TYPE: [Kazakhstan]. Ili, Katu [Alatau], 2,500 m, 1857, P. Semenov s.n. (holotype, LE). Limonium chrysocomum is a very variable species with two geographically distinct infraspecific taxa. I recognize these as subspecies and maintain subspecies chrysocomum as a variable taxon with three varieties, as did Peng (1987). NOVON 3: 261-262. 1993. This content downloaded from 22.214.171.124 on Fri, 02 Sep 2016 05:16:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms


An experiment was carried out to examine the effects of light quality on the fruit quality in strawberry (Fragaria sp cv. Chandler) established in glasshouse. Five different colored polypropylene filters (red, blue, yellow, green and clear) were tested, with plants growing without cover as control. Fresh and dry weight, length and width, total soluble solids (TSS), pH, titratable acidity (TA) and maturity index (MI), were measured on fruits. All evaluated variables were significantly affected by the spectral filters, except the pH of the juice. The fruit growth was strongly reduced by green cover. Under the yellow cover plants enhanced the fresh weight of fruits and the MI. The blue cover reduced the TSS content in fruits as well as the MI. The length and width of fruits were improved by the red cover. The clear cover increased the TSS and the TA. For certain variables, the results were no enough conclusive to propose this new production system in the strawberry crop in the tropical highlands; however, it would be important to assess this production technique in regions with higher irradiance to the region where this study was done.