The aim of this manuscript is to present and discuss an attempt at transformative change in an on-reserve school in northern Saskatchewan. Myriad studies and government statistics have stated that on- reserve Indigenous students occupy the lowest levels of success in Canada as it relates to almost any recognized metric. In response to the ongoing inequity in education, a 3-year project was undertaken with potential national implications. In this project, a holistic approach was utilized which places an emphasis on leadership development, curriculum, teaching and learning, local Indigenous pedagogies, and mental health support. The confluence of approaches in this project have challenged standard approaches to school transformation by placing an emphasis on the local context and knowledge systems that already place the community in a position of strength. Data collection and project development was primarily focused on document analysis, classroom visits, meetings, and professional development with the faculty, planning sessions, instructional monitoring and student academic, cultural, and mental health assessments, and research projects. This manuscript offers wise practice considerations for diverse on- reserve schools through relationally collaborative interventions rooted in school psychology principles as key agents of change, resulting in: higher teacher retention; more comprehensive and effective lesson planning, implementation, and assessment; enhanced integration of Indigenous values within the classroom (e.g., PISIM); and improved teacher and student mental wellness in the classroom (e.g., teacher utilization of EFSS).


Living sociology refers to the life of sociology, seen as a field of competing scientific research programs. The dynamism of each program requires, on the one hand, engaging internal contradictions and external anomalies and, on the other hand, extended dialogue among the programs themselves. Living sociology also refers to the life of sociologists as they participate in the society they study. My understanding of these two dimensions of reflexive science—the scientific and the hermeneutic—developed through the interaction of teaching and research. I trace the way I learned the extended case method in Zambia and reformulated it through collaborations with students at Berkeley, arriving at the idea of the scientific research program. I show how I tried to contribute to the Marxist research program by wrestling with anomalies that sprung from my experiences working in factories in the United States, Hungary, and Russia. Finally, I describe how teaching social theory led me to Marxist conversations with structural functionalism and with the work of Pierre Bourdieu as well as prefiguring an extended conversation between W.E.B. Du Bois and the sociological canon.


The purpose of this work is to identify potentially hazardous zones of pipelines using remote sensing methods of monitoring and provide recommendations for further explorations.
It is known that about 50% of all accidents caused by human interventions that can be easy detected using optical methods. The other half of accidents occur due to movements of the earth's surface and corrosion of pipes, which can be detected using radar sensing. Therefore authors chose optical and radar sensing for monitoring.
In 2011, there was an accident on a transcontinental gas pipeline in Argentina - resulting in depressurization of the pipe. After the incident retrospective monitoring of emergency area was made, which confidently showed the presence of anomalies on the pipeline right of way directly over the place of future accident.
Nowadays, traditional methods of pipeline monitoring use helicopter based inspections and cost about 1000 euros/km. The current high price of images with high resolution, especially taking into account the typical minimal scene size (50 km2), make monitoring quite expensive.
To reduce the cost of monitoring, authors developed an optimal algorithm for condition control of pipelines.


Of all the problems besetting the poor inner-city black community, none is more pressing than that of interpersonal violence and aggression. This phenomenon wreaks havoc daily on the lives of community residents and increasingly spills over into downtown and residential middle-class areas. Muggings, burglaries, carjackings, and drugrelated shootings, all of which may leave their victims or innocent bystanders dead, are now common enough to concern all urban and many suburban residents. The inclination to violence springs from the circumstances of life among the ghetto poor – the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, the stigma of race, the fallout from rampant drug use and drug trafficking, and the resulting alienation and lack of hope for the future. Simply living in such an environment places young people at special risk of falling victim to aggressive behavior. Although there are often forces in the community which can counteract the negative influences – by far the most powerful is a strong, loving, "decent" (as inner-city residents put it) family committed to middle-class values – the despair is pervasive enough to have spawned an oppositional culture, that of "the streets," whose norms are often consciously opposed to those of mainstream society. These two orientations – decent and street – socially organize the community, and their coexistence has important consequences for residents, particularly for children growing up in the inner city.


B)' KATHLEEN KELLEY . Imagine a radiO program featur. inI Rudy Vallee. Kate Sm Ith, 1\'Ior. ton Downey, Bing C"oHby, Roy At· well, Graham McNamee, Tony Wons, A.! Jolson, Ben Bern Ie, the Ml!1s brothers. the singing lady, Chic 8&le. and others of eq ual fame! ImpoS8lble? Not at all. TOO ex· pensive? Pooh! \'V,here there's a 11'111 there's a way-and P,'of. H. Clay Harshbarger's class in radio broadcasting has a wil! ·ail its own. Impersonations These stars will positively appear -thOugh they may sound just a trine Iille various members of the claM. But that's only natural, b&o eause they will be membN'S of the claM, giving Impersona tions. The occasion of this colossal pro· lTam will be the final examina tion of the course-you've hea,'d of tinal txamlnations?-to be g iven 'Vednes· ~aj' morning. Each student has to do what he or she C!lIl do best duro Ing the two hours allotted to the program. But the Impersonations wiIl only make up one· third ot the ente,·taln. ment. AltoI' they have been g iven, another group of students wtIl bur· lesque mOdern radio programs. And then. the super climax-the radio of the future, In which the students ~ Into the crystal baU and dis· cover that they are destin cd to be rreal stars of world renown five, 10, or 16 years trom now. To Speak at MidYear Graduation


In the food industry, dairy proteins are often used to formulate emulsions. These animal-derived proteins have a high environmental impact and therefore there is a drive to replace them by plant proteins. It is challenging to fully replace dairy proteins by plant proteins in food emulsions, as this will affect the physicochemical stability of the emulsions and the final product quality (e.g., nutritional value and taste). Alternatively, a blend of dairy and plant proteins can be used to improve sustainability, while not compromising on functionality and product quality.


Each year, the IEEE Board of Directors elevates a group of the Institute's Senior Members to the grade of Fellow. This election is a great honor because, according to the IEEE Bylaws, the Fellow grade is one of ¿unusual professional distinction, to be conferred upon a person of outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics, radio, allied branches of engineering, or the related arts and sciences, who has made important individual contributions to one or more of these fields.¿ The key words in this definition of the Fellow grade are ¿outstanding¿ and ¿extraordinary.¿ According to the Bylaws, no more than 0.6 percent (revised upward in 1976 from 0.5 percent) of IEEE Senior Members may be elected Fellows in any one year; moreover, the annual number of elected Fellows may not exceed 0.1 percent of the Institute membership exclusive of Students and Associates. Translated, this means that, over the last decade, there had never been more than 127 Fellows elected in any one year until 1976, when the previously mentioned Bylaw revision permitted a maximum of 133 elections.


We consider the Bovespa economic index (Ibovespa) from January 1994 to the present. Starting directly from this high resolution data we study the statistical properties of the time evolution of the Ibovespa. In order to obtain price dynamics information we find the probability density function (pdf) of the Ibovespa price changes and by means of the so-called probability of return we find a useful power-law scaling behavior depending on the time interval. We also develop a statistical analysis about the rare occurence of large positive or negatives returns in the Brazilian market. In another words we study the temporal evolution of the volatility of the Ibovespa. The knowledge of these occurences could help to find the convenient hedging strategies, mainly it could help to find the frequency of riskless hedging


With the ever-increasing volume of data, there is an urgent need to provide expressive and efficient tools to support Big Data analytics. The declarative logical language Datalog has proven very effective at expressing concisely graph, machine learning, and knowledge discovery applications via recursive queries. In this demonstration, we develop Logic Library (LLib), a library of recursive algorithms written in Datalog that can be executed in BigDatalog, a Datalog engine on top of Apache Spark developed by us. LLib encapsulates complex logic-based algorithms into high-level APIs, which simplify the development and provide a unified interface akin to the one of Spark MLlib. As LLib is fully compatible with DataFrame, it enables the integrated utilization of its built-in applications and new Datalog queries with existing Spark functions, such as those provided by \mlib and Spark SQL. With a variety of examples, we will (i) show how to write programs with LLib to express a variety of applications; (ii) illustrate its user experience in Apache Spark ecosystem; and (iii) present a user-friendly interface to interact with the LLib framework and monitor the query results.


Background CD73 (ecto-5'-nucleotidase) is an ecto-nucleotidase that dephosphorylate AMP to form adenosine. Activation of adenosine signaling pathway in immune cells leads to the suppression of effector functions, down-regulate macrophage phagocytosis, inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokine release, as well as yield aberrantly differentiated dendritic cells producing protumorigenic molecules. In the tumor microenvironment, adenosinergic negative feedback signaling facilitated immune suppression is considered an important mechanism for immune evasion of cancer cells. 3 Combination of CD73 and anti-PD1 antibody has shown promising activity in suppressing tumor growth. Hence, we developed AK119, an antihuman CD73 monoclonal antibody, and AK123,a bi-specific antibody targeting both PD-1 and CD73 for immune therapy of cancer. Methods AK119 is a humanized antibody against CD73 and AK123 is a tetrameric bi-specific antibody targeting PD-1 and CD73. Binding assays of AK119 and AK123 to antigens, and antigen expressing cells were performed by using ELISA, Fortebio, and FACS assays. In-vitro assays to investigate the activity of AK119 and AK123 to inhibit CD73 enzymatic activity in modified CellTiter-Glo assay, to induce endocytosis of CD73, and to activate B cells were performed. Assay to evaluate AK123 activity on T cell activation were additionally performed. Moreover, the activities of AK119 and AK123 to mediate ADCC, CDC in CD73 expressing cells were also evaluated. Results AK119 and AK123 could bind to its respective soluble or membrane antigens expressing on PBMCs, MDA-MB-231, and U87-MG cells with high affinity. Results from cell-based assays indicated that AK119 and AK123 effectively inhibited nucleotidase enzyme activity of CD73, mediated endocytosis of CD73, and induced B cell activation by upregulating CD69 and CD83 expression on B cells, and showed more robust CD73 blocking and B cell activation activities compared to leading clinical candidate targeting CD73. AK123 could also block PD-1/PD-L1 interaction and enhance T cell activation. Conclusions In summary, AK119 and AK123 represent good preclinical biological properties, which support its further development as an anti-cancer immunotherapy or treating other diseases.


Abstract:This Swedish study investigates how primary school children's perspectives on a "good schoolyard" can be illuminated through envisioning workshops using model-making. In addition to advocating for the qualities and affordances of the standard schoolyard equipment, children also suggested and constructed new features affording playing with domestic animals, being in peace and quiet in tree houses, picking fruit, and using digital playgrounds. For the children to go beyond reproducing the features, environmental qualities, and affordances of their current schoolyards, they needed plenty of time for communication and hands-on activities, opportunities to relax, imagine, and receive input and inspiration from others' experiences.


An important aspect of disclosure control is the isolation and control of individual-level records that have a high probability of being identified (as their contents, or variables. are unusual) consider, for example, a sixteen-year-old widow. However, many such datasets contain temporal information relating specifically to an individual which needs to be addressed when making such decisions. An unusual temporal sequence of events pertaining to an individual has the potential to lead to disclosure but is missed if the analysis is restricted to a single period in time. Algorithms have been specifically designed to conduct a comprehensive search for "risky" records in survey-type data in a single period of time. This paper examines the extension of one of these for finding temporal sequences which may pose a disclosure risk to individuals in a datasets. Preliminary results indicates that this methodology has the potential to enhance disclosure control techniques significantly.


There is enough freshwater on the planet to ensure clean and accessible water for every human being. Despite this fact, water scarcity is a global problem affecting the livelihoods of people everyw ...


In this experiment,we collected 253 samples of sera from companion dogs with different ages during 2011-2012 and detected JEV neutralizing antibodies.The overall positive rate of JEV neutralizing antibodies in companion dogs was 28.1%,with significant seasonal variation.The positive rate for the months before(March to May)and after(October to December)JE epidemic season(June to September)was 16.3% and 43.4%,respectively,showing a statistically significant difference between the two groups(χ2=14.432,P0.01).The positive rate for dogs younger and older than one year was24.1%and 36.1%,respectively,and a statistically significant difference was detected between the two groups(χ2=3.952,P0.05).The positive rate for the male and female companion dogs was 32.5% and 24.6%,respectively,while no statistical significance was found(χ2=1.860,P0.05).Results showed that companion dogs were infected with JEV seriously,especially in the JE epidemic season,and companion dogs could serve as a sentinel animal to assess the risk of human infection by JEV.


Introduction: Intussusception is idiopathic in over 90% of cases. The main causes exceptionally found are Merkel′s diverticulum, polyps, and lymphomas. We report a case of ileo-ileal intussusception due to entrapped Ascaris.
Case Report: A 3-year-old child referred to the emergency department for vomiting, diffuse abdominal pain, and cessation of passage of flatus and feces evolving for 24 hours. Ultrasound showed in the right peri-umbilical region a sandwich like bowel mass compatible with an intestinal intussusception. There were multiple "bull′s eye" and "railway track" images suggestive of intestinal ascariasis in the mass and beside it. Surgical intervention by laparotomy found an ileo-ileal intussusception with impacted Ascaris. An enterotomy was performed and worms were removed. Medical treatment with albendazole was administrated after restart of intestinal transit.
Conclusion: Through this case we illustrate a rare cause of intestinal intussusception and the interest of ultrasound in diagnosis by a correlation with surgery.


Cyclization of 3-thiapentane-1,5-dithiol (4) as its cesium dithiolate with 1,3-dichloropropanone (1) gives in 72% yield the cyclic thioether 3,6,9-trithiadecanone (C7H12OS3, 5). Crystals are white. Crystal data for 5 at 130 K: monoclinic, space group P2(1), with a = 7.145(1) angstrom, b = 5.310(1) angstrom, c = 11.932(1) angstrom, beta = 96.57(1)degrees, Z = 2, R = 0.024, and R(w) = 0.032 for 1640 reflections (I > 3.0sigma(I)). Reaction of 4 with 1,4-dichlorobutanone (2) affords in 52% yield the nonsymmetric 3,6,9-trithiaundecanone (C8H14OS3, 6). Crystals are white. Crystal data for 6 at 100 K: triclinic, space group P1BAR, with a = 5.408(4) angstrom, b = 7.366(3) angstrom, c = 13.581(4) angstrom, alpha = 80.87(3)degrees, beta = 78.68(5)degrees, gamma = 69.79(5)degrees, Z = 2, R = 0.074, and R(w) = 0.095 for 2105 reflections (I > 2.5sigma(I)). Reaction of 4 with 1,5-dichloropentan-3-one (3) resulted in formation of 4,7,10-trithiadodecanone (C9H16O3S, 7) in 63% yield. Crystals are white. Crystal data for 7 at 298 K: orthorhombic, space group Pnma, with a = 15.4077(3) angstrom, b = 15.3536(17) angstrom, c = 4.9889(11) angstrom, Z = 4, R = 0.072, and R(w) = 0.080 for 740 reflections (I>2.5sigma(I)). Conductometric titrations of AgOTf in MeCN and THF with 5-7 showed that, dependent on solvent and concentration, in solution 1:1 and 3:2 (ligand:Ag+) adducts are formed.


The injection of liquid paraffin subcutaneously for penis enlargement, although it is medically unacceptable, is still used in some countries of Eastern Europe and Far East. The complications of the technique are many and serious. We presented a case of a person, which is rare in Greece, who had carried out self - injection of liquid paraffin in the penis resulting in significant deformity and dysuria due to phimosis. Η έγχυση υγρής παραφίνης υποδeρματικά για τη μeγέθυνση του πέους, παρότι eίναι απαράδeκτη ιατρικά, eξακολουθeί να χρησιμοποιeίται σe ορισμένeς χώρeς της Ανατολικής Eυρώπης και της Άπω Ανατολής. Οι eπιπλοκές της τeχνικής eίναι πολλές και σοβαρές. Παρουσιάζeται πeριστατικό, σπάνιο για τα eλληνικά δeδομένα, ατόμου που eίχe διeνeργήσeι αυτοένeση υγρής παραφίνης στο πέος του μe αποτέλeσμα σημαντική δυσμορφία και δυσουρία λόγω φίμωσης.


This article presents the aging characterization and modeling of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries. The research work suggested here aims to characterize the aging of the resistances and the capacities of the batteries as a function of using temperature and direct current undulations. The proposed model of the LiFePO4 batteries is for multisource systems, such as distributed power generation systems-based renewable energies. The performances of the batteries used in these systems can be affected by the temperature and the dc-current undulations. The characterization system takes into account the temperature and the dc-current undulations as thermal and electric constraints for batteries. The experimental tests are performed through charging and discharging operations using calibrated fluctuating dc-current waveforms. The experimental measurements and simulations results obtained are similar with a deviation less than 1%. Hence, the proposed model is very appropriate to predict the degradation of battery parameters caused by the combined impacts of direct current undulations and the temperature.


Objective:To investigate the effect of oxidative stress on high glucose-induced apoptosis in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Methods:MTT assay was carried out to detect the viability of cultrured cardiomyocytes exposed to different concentrations of glucose ranging from 10 mmol / L to 50 mmol / L. Laser confocal microscopy,TUNEL assay and flow cytometry were designed to observe and detect cellular apoptosis. Cardiomyocytes were randomly divided into three groups:the control group,the high glucose group and the antioxidant group. Oxidative stress was evaluated by detecting levels of LDH,MDA and SOD in the supernatant of culture media. Results:High glucose was found to inhibit cardiomyocyte viability in a concentration-dependent manner. The results of laser confocal microscopy,TUNEL assay and flow cytometry all suggested that high glucose can induce cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Our findings showed significant increase of LDH and MDA levels and decrease of SOD activity in the high glucose group compared with the control group. However,in the antioxidant group,LDH and MDA levels decreased and SOD activity increased significantly compared with those in the high-glucose group. The apoptotic rate of cardiomyocytes in the high glucose group increased significantly compared with that in the control group,while the apoptotic rate in the antioxidant group declined remarkably in comparison with that in the high glucose group. Conclusion:Oxidative stress is an important mechanism for high glucose-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis.


Some new 7-alkyl (or aryl) aminomethyl-6-chloroquinoline-5,8-quinones (II) have been obtained through the reaction of 6-chloroquinoline-5,8-quinone with primary aliphatic or aromatic amines and paraformaldehyde in ethanol. On using secondary amines such as piperidine or morpholine in the above reaction, 6-chloro-7-piperidino (or morpholino) methylquinoline-5,8-quinone (III) and (IV) respectively were obtained. The structure of the synthesised compounds was confirmed by elemental analysis and spectral data. The synthesised compounds were also biologically evaluated.


The authors present an overview of a flexible network architecture for fiber-optic subscriber loops, and review the basic environment for centralized and automated network operation. A surveillance and test system for the optical fiber network is also described. The system makes it possible to access fibers remotely and isolate failures promptly when they occur. It also automatically measures fiber loss on a regularly scheduled basis while fibers are in service. This gives a clear picture of fiber loss degradation.<<ETX>>


the northern sector of the Kent interlobate Complex, created by two major ice lobes of the Laurentide ice sheet during late Wisconsinan times, dominates the glacial landscape of northeast Ohio. the geomorphology of this impressive complex reveals the presence of large hummocks, kettle lakes and substantial esker chains. the esker chains, usually smaller than 1.3 km long, run parallel to the interlobate complex geographic orientation of northeast-southwest. gravel pits present on large hummocks display bedded and sorted sedimentary units of gravel, sand and gravel and climbing ripple laminated sand with folds, which demonstrate that the northern sector of the interlobate complex is primarily a glaciofluvial feature. topping these hummocks is a massive clast-supported diamicton interpreted to be a debris flow. these geomorphic and sedimentary characteristics seem to indicate that hummocks present in the interlobate area are in fact kames and that the entire northern sector of the interlobate complex is a product of late Wisconsinan time transgressive ice stagnation that occurred between two major ice lobes.


The paper introduces (purely communicative) tissue P systems with conditional uniport. Conditional uniport means that every application of a communication rule moves one object in a certain direction by possibly using another one as an activator which is left untouched in the place where it is. Tissue P systems with conditional uniport are shown to be computationally complete in the sense that they can recognise all recursively enumerable sets of natural numbers. This is achieved by simulating deterministic register machines.


1. A composition comprising: (a) ammonium nitrate; (b) a fuel component; (c) a functionalized polymer component; (d) an anionic oil soluble surfactant, wherein the mixture of components (b), (c) and ( d) gelled, not being legkotekuchim.2. A composition according to claim 1, characterized in that component (a) is in the form of agglomerates and / or granul.3. A composition according to claim 1, characterized in that the component comprising ammonium nitrate, is not capable of retaining at least 6% of the liquid fuel component in the application to obtain a mixture of ammonium nitrate and liquid topliva.4. A composition according to claim 1, characterized in that the component comprising ammonium nitrate has a bulk bulk density greater than about 0.85 g / cc. cm, oil absorption capacity less than about 7%, or combination thereof svoystv.5. A composition according to claim 1, characterized in that component (b) comprises a diesel oil, mineral oil, vegetable oil, mono- and / or di-esters of vegetable oils recovered oil, or combinations thereof and may further include a solid fuel komponent.6. A composition according to claim 1, characterized in that component (c) comprises the reaction product of an olefin copolymer and an unsaturated carboxylic acylating agenta.7. A composition according to claim 6, characterized in that the unsaturated carboxylic acylating agent comprises maleic angidrid.8. A composition according to claim 1, characterized in that component (c) comprises a copolymer of maleic anhydride and an olefin functionalized with a weight average molecular weight of from 50,000 to 200000.9. A composition according to claim 1, characterized in that component (d) in the composition delivers calcium ions, ion


Wood basic density is indicative of several other wood properties and is considered as a key feature for many industrial applications. Near infrared spectros...


Two neutrino telescopes are being installed in the Mediterranean Sea by the KM3NeT Collaboration. The Collaboration is currently validating the viability of the standard White Rabbit technology for the next phase of the project. One of the necessary studies for this validation is the reliability assessment of the Switching Core Board and its carrier, the main electronics components of the White Rabbit Switch. This contribution presents the reliability studies, based on the FIDES method, performed to the Switch Core Board and the KM3NeT carrier in order to obtain an estimate of the Failure In Time, as well as to find which components can be optimised in order to increase the reliability of the system. Moreover, the Highly Accelerated Life Tests, a stress testing methodology for enhancing product reliability, performed to the first prototypes of the switch electronics boards, produced with the FIDES modifications, are presented.


A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different covering cultivation modes on winter wheat yield, soil water storage, soil water and heat coupling processes and water use efficiency in the dry land of loess plateau. The experiment consisted of four treatments: conventional fertilization(CK), recommended fertilization(JN), recommended fertilization + straw mulching(JN+S), recommended fertilization + plastic film mulching on soil ridges and straw mulching in furrows(JN+PFM+S). The results showed that there are significantly different in soil moisture contents among all the treatments, and soil water content of different soil layers fluctuated with rainfall and was influenced by different covering cultivation modes. JN+PFM+S treatment had the highest water storage. Soil daily mean temperature differences were very small among all the treatments, but the intraday temperature changes were significantly different, and warming effects of different treatments were JN+PFM+S JN JN+S. Compared with the CK treatment, the wheat yield was increased by 5.25% and water use efficiency was increased by 18.85% in the JN+PFM+S treatment. In summary, JN+PFM+S treatment was considered to be suitable mode for the crop production in the local region. HYDRUS-1D model is capable of simulating soil water content dynamics well, so it can be used for analyzing soil water and heat processes between different covering cultivation modes.


. The purpose of this research is to describe the effectiveness of using POE strategy on students' learning result on the topic of the factors affecting reaction rate. The subjects of this research are 33 students of XI grade MIA 1 SMAN 1 Leces Probolinggo in 2016/2017 academic year. The data collecting techniques in this research were observation, test, and questionnaire. The results showed that the students'activities were student-centered learning and all students achieved the completeness of learning result in knowledge aspect. Based on those results, we could conclude that the implementation of POE strategy were effective to improve student's learning result  on the topic of factors affecting reaction rate.


The research work considers the simulation and analysis of transition processes in linear electrical circuits using the MatLab software package. The transition processes occurring in the following linear electrical circuits were analyzed: RL equivalent circuit in case of connecting the relay control winding to a DC voltage source; RC equivalent circuit in case of connecting a capacitor through a limiting resistor to a DC voltage source and disconnecting it from the source; RLC equivalent circuit in case of capacitor discharge to an inductor; this capacitor shall be pre-charged from a DC voltage source; a branched electrical circuit of the first order where its topology changes after switching. As a result of the research, the transition process graphs were obtained for which the simulated completion time of the transient process does not differ from the calculated values with an error of less than 2%. The analysis of transition processes revealed the following: the winding inductance effect on the time of relay switching; the effect of the additional resistance value on the charge (discharge) of the capacitor; the effect of the resistance value change when the capacitor is discharged in a circuit with two reactive elements; the effect of changes in the topology of the electrical circuit on the intensity of the transient process after switching.


This cross-sectional study had its epicenter in establishing the scenario in which commercial companies act as an expanded way of directly exercising financial intermediation. The provisions of the Organic Monetary and Financial Code, 2014 agree. The strength of the research provided greater economy; a fact that made it possible to work with more subjects by producing results more quickly. After a tour of the praximetry on the fundamental ideas of financial intermediation and the legal bases of the modern State, the author analyzed the practice of interpreting the law and the interaction of the regulatory system of financial law in Ecuador, with a view to demonstrating your hypothesis.


The article provides the analysis on some causes of fault and malfunction occurred during blower fan operation, such as bearing vibration, abnormal bearing temperature increasing, clogging of adjustable vane, malfunction of protection unit, etc., some effective approach have been approved actually and given hereafter.


At the 1974 Topology Conference at Charlotte, North Carolina, Peter Nyikos introduced the concept of an ortho-base and announced that a T2 paracompact first-countable ,8-space having an ortho-base is metrizable. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an obvious monotonic generalization of ortho-basms and to prove the following theorem. THEOREM. If S is a regular To space having a monotonic ortho-base, then each of the following inplies that S has a base of countabk order: (1) S is connected; (2) S is a 9-space; (3) S is a first-countabk monotonic ,8-space. Nyikos' theorem is a corollary to (3) and Arhangel'ski;s theorem that a T2 paracompact space having a base of countable order is metrizable. An ortho-base for a space X is a base B for the topology of X such that if F C B, then either n F is open or n F = {x} and F is a local base at x. Every space having an ortho-base is orthocompact' and for To developable spaces, the converse is true. However, the space of countable ordinals is an orthocompact space which does not have an ortho-base. The concept of an ortho-base was introduced by Nyikos in [5] where he announced [5, Theorem 3.1] that a T2 paracompact first countable fl-space2 having an ortho-base is metrizable. The purpose of this note is to show that a regular To first countable monotonic fl-space having a monotonic ortho-base (see definitions below) has a base of countable order thereby obtaining Nyikos' theorem as a corollary to the well-known theorem of Arhangel'skii that a T2 paracompact space having a base of countable order is metrizable. The primitive concepts of Wicke and Worrell are essential tools in the investigation of spaces having bases of countable order and it is assumed that the reader is acquainted with the terminology and techniques found in [7] and [8]. An example of the utility of these technical results is the following lemma, the proof of which is implicit in the works of these authors. Presented to the Society, September 12, 1975; received by the editors September 29, 1975 and, in revised form, November 1, 1976. AMS (MOS) subject classifications (1970). Primary 54E99.


Multi-projector systems offer both higher resolution and brightness by using a cluster of projectors, and it can provide better visual quality when compared to traditional systems using a single high performance projector. When we consider the high cost associated with high-end projectors, the use of multiple low cost projectors can reduce considerably the cost of such installation. This article presents the research and development of a scalable multi-projection system that enables the construction of virtual reality systems with a large number of projectors and graphics computers, and that is capable of achieving a high resolution display. We demonstrate the viability of such system with the development of a camera-based multi-projector system called FastFusion, which automatically calibrates casually aligned projectors to properly blend different projections. Our system software improves known algorithms in the literature for projector calibration and image blending. The main improvement is a more efficient distribution of the calibration process. In addition, since our library proposes a new architecture that is able to manage many projectors, it may lead to the development of Immersion Systems with retina resolution. FastFusion has been tested and validated by virtual reality applications. In this work, we analyze the visual performance of FastFusion in a CAVE system with three walls, eighteen projectors and nine computers.


Recently, the application of magnetostrictive patch transducers (MPTs) has gradually extended to structural health monitoring of pipeline (SHM). However, it is limited in this field due to demagnetization and fixed working frequency of traditional transducers. To solve these problems, a novel torsional mode MPT using permanent magnet array and four solenoid coils is proposed for structural health monitoring of pipe. In the suggested configuration, each solenoid coil can generate and receive torsional guided wave of any frequency because its width is far less than wavelength. And the phased array method is adopted to control the propagation direction of guided wave. Furthermore, it is experimentally verified that the 4-channel wideband MPT can inspect a 3% circumferential defect of pipe using torsional guided waves with different frequencies from 30 kHz to 200 kHz.


Exciton spin stability in InP quantum dots at the elevated temperatures is studied by measuring resonant spin orientation of excitons. With the increase of temperature, spin relaxation time becomes shorter and resonant spin orientation of excitons is reduced. It is 12 times longer than the lifetime of 260 ps at 5 K but is comparable with the lifetime around 50 K. The amplitude of the resonant spin orientation structure changes with the change of the excitation photon energy, reflecting the competition between the spin relaxation through the energy relaxation and the energy relaxation. Spin relaxation time through the energy relaxation is comparable with phonon-mediated relaxation time and is much shorter than the spin relaxation time within the bright and dark exciton states.


9549 Background: Ageing is a global phenomenon, also in Brazil. That shift in demographics has huge impact in healthcare. Although still emerging in developing nations, there is no major national innitiative focusing on oncologic geriatric pts. The study describes a program to improve care in >70y cancer pts in A C Camargo Cancer Center, Sao Paulo. We hypothesized that incorporating CGA into daily practice can improve individualized care. Methods: aims of the study were to evaluate if: 1) CGA could be feasible in daily practice, 2) it could be useful as a tool in treatment/tx decision making, 3) analyse the impact of CGA in the selection of tx, with its ability to predict complications (such as dose reduction, hospitalization, or tx discontinuation) in a recently implemented Oncogeriatric Unit. Pts >70y, candidates to receive systemic tx, underwent CGA assessments, which included scales of: ADL (Katz, Lawton), mini-nutritional assessment, depression (GDS), comorbidities and polypharmacy. Patients were cla...


Lilium spp.plants were subjected to different shading treatments(57.5%,75.5%,83.4%,88.9%) in tnis experiment.The results showed that shading significantly reduced net photosynthetic rate,intercellular CO2 concentration,stomatal conductance,transpiration rate,maximum fluorescence yield,maximum variable fluorescence and PSⅡphotochemical efficiency of Lilium spp.;but the influence of shading on its initial fluorescence was not significant.With the lengthening of the shading treatment,chlorophyll content declined steadily while,the value of chlorophyll a/b first increased and then decreased.A comprehensive analysis indicated that in Yaan planting Lilium spp.in greenhouses can meet its requirements for light.


This booklet was created in the framework of the Project MineHeritage: Historical Mining - Tracing and Learning from
 Ancient Materials and Mining Technology. Booklet: no. 1, v. 13.


I studied the phenology of W. insignis (n =10), tree with great ornamental potential with conspicuous flowers, which grows on the San Lorencito riverbed, in the Alberto Manuel Brenes Biological Reserve, Alajuela, Costa Rica, June 2014 until October 2015. Of the selected sample of six individuals with flower production, the diameter at breast height ranged from 7 cm to 11.9 cm, while the highest trees measured 15 m. The identification of the individuals was done with plastic marks enumerated, after this they were georeferenced. In relation the flowering phenotypes (subanual), foliar sprouts, fall foliage were continuous, without having a total loss of the leaves. While the fructification was absent in October 2014 and June 2015. There was asynchrony between individuals in the behavior of the phenological stages. The fall of foliage (n = 10, r = 0.35, p <0.05) and flowering (n = 10, r = 0.46, p <0.05) correlated with precipitation while fruiting (n = 10), r = -0.51, p <0.05) had an inversely proportional correlation with this phenomenon.


Thus the German scientific community acquiesced in "Nazi attacks on the integrity of science, Jewish colleagues and the traditional autonomy of university life," (p. 155) and American "scientists' public response on behalf of [J. Robert] Oppenheimer can be characterized as weak, nonactive, and tenuous." (p. 293) For Haberer, the failure of the community of science to defend itself against the State suggests that members of the community may in fact be committed to no "ultimate values," such as the search for truth, and thus have functioned as gunsfor-hire in the interest of whatever values the State chooses as desirable. Scientists are urged to face the question of their "social responsibility" and to abandon the outdated assumption that "progress" is an inevitable, and desirable, product of science. The book succeeds in making explicit and clarifying important questions involving the relationship of science and governments. It also convincingly demonstrates that the scientific community has acquiesced to governments at crucial points in history and has generally been unwilling to face up the question of its "social responsibility." Furthermore, it calls attention, explicitly or implicitly, to a number of areas which might profitably be the subject of future research by political scientists employing a wide variety of methods. One of the more significant of these areas is that involving the socialization of scientists and the implications of that socialization for their attitudes and behavior vis-a-vis government and public affairs.


Most strains from Okinawa were divided into three clusters belonging to hpEastAsia. The phylogeographic origin was significantly associated with clinical outcomes; however, it depended on the status of cagA (East-Asian type, Western type and cagA negative) and vacA (m1 or m2). Gastric cancer was more prevalent in the cluster containing most East Asian-type cagA strains. The results of MLST showed that the prevalence of gastric cancer in each group did not differ when only Western-type cagA strains or cagA-negative strains were used. This also suggests that cagA is a better predictive factor than the phylogeographic origin. Further studies are required to confirm the relationship between the ancestral origin of H pylori and clinical outcomes.


This article examines the problems of interviewing retarded persons, and their problems too. These ought to be appreciated by everyone who has anything to do with mentally handicapped people, either within or outside of the criminal justice system. The object is to generate discussion and bring about greater awareness, involving as many professionals as possible.


Fish is a rich source of selenium (Se), a powerful antioxidant which is essential for human reproduction and child neurodevelopment (1) . Se de fi ciency has been associated with numerous pregnancy complications, demonstrating that an insuf fi cient Se concentration can affect maternal and child health (2) . According to current European recommendations, women should consume 60 μ g Se/d (3) . Inadequate Se intake and status has been reported in Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East (4) . There has been limited research to investigate the effect of fi sh consumption on the Se status of pregnant women, particularly those with high fi sh consumption. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between dietary patterns, fi sh consumption, and Se status in a high fi sh-eating cohort of Seychellois pregnant women. A total of n = 1536 pregnant women were enrolled onto the Seychelles Child Development and Nutrition Study Cohort 2. At 28 weeks ' gestation, women provided a blood sample which was used to determine serum total Se status using ICP-MS. Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQ) were also completed at this time to evaluate habitual dietary habits (n = 267). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to determine dietary patterns and the varimax rotation was used to identify which food groups were most frequently consumed in each of the dietary patterns (5) . A Fish Use Questionnaire (FUQ) was also used to assess fi sh intakes. In this cohort, with a mean (SD) of 8.5 (4.7) fi


The clinical case report is presented of the successful elimination of incision right atrial re entrant tachycardia using navigational CARTO system in an 11 year old patient with the congenital heart disease (transposition of great vessels) after Mastard s operation.


Statins have besides the lipid lowering
effect, a number of pleiotropic effects, which could be of
additional therapeutic benefit. In this study the direct effects of
pravastatin on the myocardium were examined, which might be of
therapeutic relevance in heart failure. The experiments were
performed on isolated human failing trabeculae or isolated adult
rabbit cardiomyocytes. The results show that pravastatin in
therapeutic concentrations has no acute or medium term measurable
impact on contractility of isolated human heart muscle strips. A
long-term effect cannot be ruled out. Using western blot analysis,
we examined the cardiac anti-apoptotic Akt-GSK3 signaling pathway
at insufficient myocardium and the effects of pravastatin on this
cell-survival pathway. Thereby the expression level and the
phosphorylation of Akt and GSK3 were determined. Our data suggest
a decreased activation of this signaling cascade in terminally
insufficient human cardiac ventricle tissue compared to
non-insufficient control hearts. Pravastatin activates the
Akt-GSK3 signaling pathway via the PI3-kinase in insufficient
human ventricular trabeculae as well as in isolated rabbit
cardiomyocytes, possible counteracting the increased apoptosis in a
heart failure. The increased activity of this signaling pathway may
also involve an induction of SERCA2a expression, which is
characteristic decreased in heart failure. Further investigations
are necessary to clarify the clinical relevance of this effect.
Another effect of the pravastatin-mediated activation of PI3K-Akt
signaling pathway was an acute increase in cytosolic NO production
which could be detected in cardiomyocytes using confocal
microscopy. From the results of this study it can be concluded that
pravastatin has direct effects on the myocardium, which may cause
acute and chronic cardioprotective properties and may be of
therapeutic benefit in heart failure.


If law was ever regarded as something which governs human relations only within the limits of a given community such a narrow view has now been abandoned. At the present time so-called foreign law is now frequently studied not only as a possible source of inspiration but also for the sake of comparison and unification. This new attitude is well represented by the book under review. Written in English by an Italian lawyer who feels as "a European", it deals mainly with French law. It "grew out of a chapter in a post-doctoral dissertation undertaken.. . at North-western University in Chicago"; and was concluded in Queensland, where the author teaches comparative law, after fruitful discussion with such scholars as Prof. Arthurs in Toronto and the late Dean Montrose in Singapore; and to crown this feat of cosmopolitism, the work was published in Holland with a foreword by an English Lord of Appeal. As underlined by the latter, the main object of this book was to provide "Australian and other English language readers" with a guide through the complexities of the French system relating to cartels, restrictive agreements and economic concentration. To what extent this object has been achieved depends on the kind of guidance the reader is expecting. If he merely seeks documentation of the subject, his curiosity will be amply rewarded. The quantity of collected data is impressive; there are numerous and detailed references to legal texts, with frequent quotations in extenso both of legislation and decided cases. But the very abundance of material is not necessarily conducive to clarity and may even become somewhat confusing. This can in turn be attributed to the author's reluctance to come to grips with the legal issues involved. For example, we find no discussion—and hardly an incidental mention (at p. 172)—of the problem of the validity of price maintenance clauses as against a third party, which has raised such heated controversy all over the world. In fact, all this material is used not to argue opposing legal positions, but rather to illustrate the conflicting tendencies in the French economy. The rich bibliography itself (pp. 359-364) confirms the impression that in spite of his initial statement that "this is a lawyer's book" (p. 9) the author's angle was economic rather than juridical.


Worldwide, about 35.7 million people were estimated to be affected by dementia in 2010. One way to treat dementia is by exercising, but human trainers are few and expensive. Robots can be mass prod ...


Abstract Macroinvertebrate community composition was compared across streams draining catchments dominated by either native bush, agricultural or urban land uses within the Water of Leith stream catchment near Dunedin, New Zealand. Land use was associated with differences in taxon richness and faunal composition of communities present in each stream. The mean abundance levels of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera were highest in native bush catchments, and lowest in urban catchments. In contrast, the mean abundance of Oligochaeta exhibited the opposite pattern. Increasing dominance of the urban and agricultural streams by pollution tolerant taxa was reflected in the Macroinvertebrate Community Index and Quantitative Macroinvertebrate Community Index scores.


Pseudomembranous trigonitis is the term used to describe squamous metaplastic changes of the bladder trigone, which affect nearly 40% of adult females. We present the characteristics of this underrecognized clinical entity and encourage further relevant research.


Scatterplot matrices or SPLOMs provide a feasible method of visualizing and representing multi‐dimensional data especially for a small number of dimensions. For very high dimensional data, we introduce a novel technique to summarize a SPLOM, as a clustered matrix of glyphs, or a Glyph SPLOM. Each glyph visually encodes a general measure of dependency strength, distance correlation, and a logical dependency class based on the occupancy of the scatterplot quadrants. We present the Glyph SPLOM as a general alternative to the traditional correlation based heatmap and the scatterplot matrix in two examples: demography data from the World Health Organization (WHO), and gene expression data from developmental biology. By using both, dependency class and strength, the Glyph SPLOM illustrates high dimensional data in more detail than a heatmap but with more summarization than a SPLOM. More importantly, the summarization capabilities of Glyph SPLOM allow for the assertion of "necessity" causal relationships in the data and the reconstruction of interaction networks in various dynamic systems.


This work analyzes the most significant root cause categories of Telecoms security incidents over the recent years, prominent initiatives to mitigate the identified cyber security threats and associated risks, and joint efforts on cyber security standards and certification frameworks, ongoing globally. The benefits of 5G requirements, technologies, new threat landscape, system assets and security control zone, and enhanced solutions to product, deployment and operation, and application security are then presented. Reduction of national dependency on any one supplier -irrespective of its country of origin -and a more competitive, sustainable and diverse Telecoms supply chain, along with proper risk mitigation and transparency measures is the most effective solution to 5G, and beyond, cyber security.


We report the first ever demonstration of a wavelength-locked Alexandrite laser using a volume Bragg grating (VBG) as a wavelength-selective mirror. Output power of 3.3 W with a diffraction limited beam quality of M2=1.1 was obtained at a lasing wavelength of 762.2 nm and a linewidth (FWHM) of 2.5 GHz.


The design of computing systems able to process data from electrophysiology experiments in real-time is required by biological applications where feedback stimulation of cells could depend on their current activities. From algorithm to hardware implementations, these closed loop systems are specific to cell types, culture size and analog acquisition system properties. Consequently, developing digital processing systems for biological experimentation is time consuming and could become a limiting factor for research in neuroscience. Model-based methodologies for hardware architecture generation is currently investigated in video and signal processing domains because they drastically reduce the development time of hardware prototypes and improve the design flexibility with low over-cost in comparison with handmade designs. In this article, we evaluate the interests and the drawbacks of these model-based methodologies for electrophysiological applications and compare them with previous handmade design.


Social health inequalities are high and either persist or increase. Social expenditures seem more linked to mortality than do health expenditures. This result emphasizes the role of social determinants of health. Developing intersectoriality and acting on policies outside of the health field are major issues. Reducing the social health inequalities gradient would encourage implementation of proportional universalism, promotion of experiments, mobilize available expertise and co-construct local and national interventions.


The use of development indicators in the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process is not only required legislatively (in terms of the Municipal Systems Act, 2000 amongst others), but is also aimed at ensuring the measurability of development initiatives and thereby at ensuring the accountability of decision-makers in municipalities. Development indicators guide municipalities in the allocation of scarce resources to those areas where they are most needed. Development indicators are therefore an essential part of an IDP. This article sets out to explore the use of these indicators in the IDPs of three local municipalities in the Free State, in order to demonstrate the critical absence of adequate development indicators in the IDPs. The article firstly explores the existing literature on development indicators and thereafter, the legislative requirements with regard to the use of development indicators in the IDPs. The various types of indicators used in development planning will be compared with those presented in the three IDPs (Mantsopa, Nala and Setsoto), in order to explore the limited use of development indicators in the IDPs, as well as the possible reasons for this. The implications for development planning and local governance will also be discussed.


Chiral plasmonic metamaterials can amplify chiral signals, resulting in circular dichroism (CD) responses that are several orders of magnitude far beyond those of nature. However, the design process of chiral plasmonic metamaterials based on conventional methods is time-consuming. In recent years, the combination of deep learning (DL) and nanophotonics have accelerated the design of nanophotonic devices. Here, we construct the fully connected neural network (FC-NN) model for the forward prediction and inverse design of chiral plasmonic metamaterials structures and introduce the permutation importance approach to optimize the model and increase its interpretability. Our experimental results show that using the peak magnitude of CD and the corresponding wavelength instead of the entire spectrum as the output in the forward prediction improves the accuracy of the peak magnitude of CD prediction, avoids the introduction of auxiliary networks, and simplifies the network structure; The permutation importance analysis shows that the gold length of the resonator is the most critical structural parameter affecting the CD response. In the inverse design, the permutation importance method helps us to make feature selections for the input of the network. By reducing 251 inputs (the whole CD spectrum) to 4 inputs (the peak magnitude of CD and the corresponding wavelength), the network can still maintain a good prediction performance and decrease the training time of the network. Our proposed method can be extended not only to other DL models to study the CD response of chiral metamaterials but also to other areas where DL is combined with metamaterials to accelerate the system optimization and design process of nanophotonic devices.


In Eliot and the Art of Collaboration, Richard Badenhausen characterizes Eliot's relationship to other poets in a number of ways--as "conversation alliance," using Eliot's own words; as reliance on a "stabilizing field"," and, overarchingly, as collaboration, meaning a form of companionship that implies dependence (qtd. in Daumer). The Eliotic need to eradicate the self, and its intimate relationship with his poetic process, are highlighted in his citation of Eliot's remark to Aiken, that "it's interesting to cut yourself to pieces once in awhile, and see if the fragments will sprout," with the implication lent by his relationship with Aiken that they may sprout collaboration (qtd. in Daumer). Elisabeth Daumer's review discusses Badenhausen's focus on the Eliotic modes of self eradication and submission, suggesting that the book foregoes a chance to focus on "alternative models of collaboration" (Daumer). Ronald Bush suggests that Badenhausen's model of collaboration draws little from Koestenbaum "s discussion (Bush 5 70), among others, that suggest a polymorphous relationship among Eliot and his collaborators. Both discussions necessitate the thought that Eliot's relationship with collaborators be defined by progression, rather than static connection. His use of collaboration may follow the evolution that characterized his work, from what Wilson characterizes as his "early irony" to the reconciliation of Four Quartets. That movement may be most clearly traced through his evolving representations of Yeats. In Eminent Domain, Richard Ellmann describes the ghost encounter of "Little Gidding" as a "collocation" of Yeats with Eliot (94). That term suggests merging, but sonically suggests echolocation, the navigational tool that a bat uses to find its way, projecting its voice, reading its own position by the landscape encoded in the rebounding echoes. Ellmann also tells the story of a Wellesley College dinner where the two were seated next to each other. For most of the meal, the older poet was absorbed in conversation with the friend on his other side, oblivious to Eliot's presence. Finally, he turned, with no trace of recognition, to invite Eliot into the conversation: 'My friend here and I have been discussing the defects of T.S. Eliot's poetry. What do you think of that poetry?' Eliot held up his place card to excuse himself from the jury. (89) This story comes without citation or contextualizing specifics, so the source and timing are unclear. In 1925, Pound's letter to a friend notes that "Eliot don't see either Yeats or Hardy," showing a sardonic echo of nonrecognition (92). That mirroring of Yeats, though coincidental, highlights Eliot's pattern of representing Yeatsian themes, motifs, and ideas in ways that significantly change his own poems. In some of his most personally and historically significant works, the agencies of transformation echo Yeats, to tell the reader where the speaker stands. Ultimately, this echolocation leads Eliot to the identification of his speaker with Yeats, in "Little Gidding," and a religious vision shaped by Yeats' own. Eliot's early representations of Yeats seem geared toward rejection. In "A Cooking Egg," he adopts Yeats's occult explorations as his own to satirize them more bitingly: I shall not want Pipit in Heaven: Madame Blavatsky will instruct me In the Seven Sacred Trances. (lines 21-23) Yeats's following of Blavatsky, along with his other explorations of the mystical and magical, inspire an unusual intensity of reaction in Eliot. In a 1919 review, he turns especially caustic, saying of Yeats, "His remoteness is not an escape from the world, for he is innocent of any world to escape from" (qtd. in Ellmann, Eminent 91). This reaction echoes Yeats' dismissal of Eliot's beliefs. Eliot's incorporation of Christianity he saw as holding only the possibility of "a convenient symbolism for some older or newer thought" (91). …


Attempts to extract the order of the chiral transition of QCD at zero chemical potential, with two dynamical flavors of massless quarks, from simulations with progressively decreasing pion mass have remained inconclusive because of their increasing numerical cost. In an alternative approach to this problem, we consider the path integral as a function of continuous number $N_f$ of degenerate quarks. If the transition in the chiral limit is first-order for $N_f \ge 3$, a second-order transition for $N_f=2$ then requires a tricritical point in between. This in turn implies tricritical scaling of the critical boundary line between the first-order and crossover regions as the chiral limit is approached. Non-integer numbers of fermion flavors are easily implemented within the staggered fermion discretization. Exploratory simulations at $\mu=0$ and $N_f = 2.8, 2.6, 2.4, 2.2, 2.1$, on coarse $N_\tau = 4$ lattices, indeed show a smooth variation of the critical mass mapping out a critical line in the $(m,N_f)$-plane. For the smallest masses the line appears consistent with tricritical scaling, allowing for an extrapolation to the chiral limit.


The objective of the present study was to estimate the activities of antioxidant parameters such as plasma catalase (CAT), erythrocyte lysate reduced glutathione (GSH) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) as well as determination of plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (TAO) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients. Additionally, it was the determination of their correlation with CLL progression and their prognostic role in CLL outcome. This study includes 41 newly diagnosed, untreated CLL patients. Plasma CAT activity, erythrocyte lysate GSH concentration and also plasma MDA concentration were significantly higher in CLL patients when compared to normal subjects. Concerning to clinical outcomes of CLL patients, MDA concentration was significantly higher in patients suffered from lymphocytic doubling and those who progressed to more advanced stage. GSH concentration was significantly higher in those who suffered from lymphocytic doubling. The increased levels of CAT activity, MDA, and GSH concentrations indicate the higher oxidative stress levels in CLL patients. Oxidative stress stimulates the antioxidant defense systems. Additionally, the higher levels of plasma MDA shows the higher levels of lipid peroxidation. Therefore, antioxidants play a vital and an important role as a protective system against these free radicals and preventing the risk and complications of blood cancer of CLL disease.


OBJECTIVE
To verify the applicability and the clinical significance of left ventricular wall stress determinations by intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) during resections of abdominal aortic aneurysms.

DESIGNS
Prospective comparison of changes in left ventricular wall stress between two groups of patients with and without coronary artery disease.

SETTING
Operatory room of Universitary Institute.

PATIENTS
Twenty-three patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms; 8 had clinically evident coronary artery disease (CAD+); 15 patients did not have clinical or electrocardiographic evidence of coronary artery disease (CAD-).

INTERVENTIONS
Resection of the aortic aneurysm and insertion of a synthetic prosthesis.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
During operation transesophageal monitoring of left ventricular volumes and wall stress was performed during induction of anesthesia (T1), for two minutes after aortic clamping (T2), at the end of the proximal anastomosis (T3), for two minutes after aortic declamping (T4) and at the end of the procedure (T5). Circumpherential stress at end systole (sES) and end diastole (sED) was more sensitive than hemodynamic and volumetric parameters in detecting changes i function of the ischemic myocardium. In detail we observed: a significant increase of sES in CAD+versus CAD- at T2: 98 (sd 18) vs 83 (sd 14) 10(3) dyne/cm2. a significant increase of sED in CAD + versus CAD- at T2: 28.5 (sd 6) vs 22 (sd 4.5) 10(3) dyne/cm3. a similar trend of sES and sED at T4: 73 (sd 20.5) vs 46 (sd 15) 10(3) dyne/cm2 and 31 (sd 12) vs 16 (sd 7.7) 10(3) dyne/cm2 respectively. a significant increase of sED in CAD + at T5 (about 20' after T4): 26.5 (sd 9.5) vs 16 (sd 5.2) 10(3) dyne/cm2 which is expression of a persistent reduction of ventricular compliance in the ischemic patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Wall stress modifies MVO2 and subsequently is sensitive in detecting changes in myocardial performance. TEE could valuably integrate routine hemodynamic monitoring of patients with coronary heart disease who undergo surgical resection of abdominal aortic aneurysms.


Through field observation and sorting out 17 families and 32 species of ornamental plants in Daguan County of Yunnan Province and describing the plants' ornamental characteristics,this paper is intended to provides some scientific basis and references for Yunnan's wild flower resources development and protection and promote the cultivation of the flowers with our own intellectual properties in Yunnan.


Metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients have a 5-year survival rate of just 12%. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover novel molecular mechanisms that contribute to TNBC metastasis such as N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification. To do this, we conducted a selective CRISPR-cas9 screen of 14 m6A-regulators and identified an m6A reader protein, YTHDC1, as an essential gene for the survival of MDA-MB-231 cells. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset showed that patients with poorer prognosis had elevated YTHDC1 expression, which supports a tumor-promoting role of YTHDC1. In vitro, genetic depletion of YTHDC1 significantly impaired Transwell migration and invasion of human TNBC (MDA-MB-231 and SUM159) cells. In vivo, YTHDC1 overexpressing TNBC cells engrafted into the mammary fat pad of NSG mice formed greater numbers and larger sizes of lung metastatic nodules compared to control. Conversely, YTHDC1 knockout (KO) cells produced fewer and smaller lung metastatic nodules compared to control. Together, our in vitro and in vivo data demonstrate YTHDC1's role in promoting TNBC metastasis. To identify high confidence YTHDC1 targets, we conducted three layers of transcriptome-wide sequencing with MDA-MB-231 cells: RNA-seq (profiling differential gene expression and nuclear export), m6A-seq (profiling m6A methylation in mRNA), and RIP-seq (profiling YTHDC1 binding sites in mRNA). Pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes in MDA-MB-231 YTHDC1 KO cells identified pathways related to metastasis and TGF-β signaling, which is consistent with our phenotypic observations. Overlapping the three sequencing datasets identified SMAD3 as a YTHDC1 target mRNA. Mechanistically, YTHDC1 KO impairs the nuclear export of SMAD3 mRNA, resulting in reduced protein levels of this critical effector of TGF-β signaling. YTHDC1 KO significantly reduced Transwell migration and invasion of TGF-β induced TNBC cells and the expression of TGF-β responsive genes such as SNAIL, IL11, FN, and CTGF. Overexpression of SMAD3 was able to rescue the impaired migration and invasion of YTHDC1 KO TNBC cells and restore the expression of TGF-β responsive genes following TGF-β treatment. We also demonstrated that the oncogenic role of YTHDC1 is mediated through its recognition of m6A, as m6A-binding defective mutants of YTHDC1 were unable to rescue impaired Transwell migration and invasion of YTHDC1 KO TNBC cells. In summary, our study reveals that TNBC metastasis is mediated at least in part through YTHDC1's function in promoting SMAD3 expression to augment the TGF-β signaling cascade.
 Citation Format: Brandon Tan, Wei Liu, Keren Zhou, Emily Prince, Lu Yang, Yangchan Li, Ying Qing, Li Han, Zhicong Zhao, Rui Su, Chun-Wei Chen, Jianjun Chen. The N6-methyladenosine reader YTHDC1 is essential for TGF-beta-mediated metastasis of triple negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 2188.


This paper reports on the findings of a pilot study to investigate Long Distance Reflexives (LDR) in Norwegian. It begins with an introduction to the main features of Norwegian LDR, then examines data from several Norwegian dialects, showing that both the perspective model of LDR and the Logocentric Hierarchy is relevant to LDR in Norwegian. The final section presents some more data which highlight semantic differences between Norwegian anaphors which do not obey the Complementarity Principle.


I wish to do two things: a) to provide a brief description of educational studies in England and Scotland as these have developed in the last hundred years, and b) to suggest that, within this narrative account, patterns of change can be identified. For most of the paper I will take the site of educational studies to be university departments and university schools of education. ... I distinguish a number of stages in the development of educational studies... Inside each period, I distinguish one or two trends, usually noting a) the institutionalization of educational studies and b) shifts in its epistemological centre of gravity, as some kinds of studies in education rise in importance and others diminish. (DIPF/Orig.)


Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), which catalyses the carboxylation of phosphoenolpyruvate using HCO3 ± to generate oxaloacetic acid, is an important enzyme in the primary metabolism of plants. Although the PEPC genes (ppc) comprise only a small gene family, the function of each gene is not clear, except for roles in C4 photosynthesis and CAM. Three PEPC genes (Nsppc1±3) from the C3 plant Nicotiana sylvestris were used to investigate their roles and regulation in a C3 plant, and their regulation by phosphorus depletion in particular. First, the induction of PEPC by phosphorus depletion was con®rmed. Next, Nsppc1 was determined to be mainly responsive to phosphorus de®ciency at the transcriptional level. Further studies using transgenic tobacco harbouring a chimeric gene consisting of the 2.0 kb promoter region of Nsppc1 and the b-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter showed that PEPC is transcriptionally induced. It was also found that sucrose had a synergistic effect on the induction of PEPC by phosphorus de®ciency. A series of transgenic tobacco containing 5¢-deletion mutants of Nsppc1 promoter::GUS fusion revealed that the ±539 to ±442 bp Nsppc1 promoter region, relative to the translation start site, was necessary for the response to phosphorus de®ciency. Gain-of-function analysis using a construct containing three tandem repeats of the ±539 to ±442 bp region con®rmed that this region was suf®cient to induce the phosphorus-de®ciency response in tobacco.


Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) aims to detect the sentiment polarities of a sentence with a given aspect. Aspect-term sentiment analysis (ATSA) is a subtask of ABSA, in ATSA, the aspect is given by aspect term: a word or a phrase in sentence. In previous work, most models apply attention mechanism or gating mechanism to capture the key part of the sentence and detect the sentiment polarity by classifying the weighted sum vector, which are regardless of the aspect information during the classification. However, same contexts may show different sentiment polarity with differnet aspects. For example, in sentence "The scene hunky waiters dub diner darling and it sounds like they mean it." the context "dub diner dearling" shows negative polarity towards the aspect term "waiters". But in sentence "The diner's husband dub diner darling.", the same context would show neural polarity towards "husband". The absent of aspect information would make model get a wrong result in some sentence. To solve this problem, we propose a model called Trasfomer-based context-aspect Relation Detect Model (TRDM), and add two special tokens "[CLSA]" and "[SEPA]" to specify the aspect term in the sentence. TRDM uses the embedding of two tyes of tokens (i.e. "[CLS]" and "[CLSA]") for classification where "[CLS]" is used to represent the entire sentence in BERT. This scheme enable TRDM to combine the sentence information and aspect information in the step of sentiment polarity classification. We evaluate the performance of our model on two datasets: Restaurant dataset from SemEval2014 and MAMS from NLPCC 2020. Experiment results show that our model obtain noticeable improvement compared with state-of-art transfromer-based models.


Abstract : The transition of new C2ISR technologies and capabilities to the warfighter in a useful and timely manner is a longstanding challenge, which is often met through unique solutions to specific warfighter problems, and often compromising interoperability in combat and other field operations. Interoperability is now a major concern and the focus of C2ISR development. the most effective way to address this concern is through the integrated development of C2ISR components. However, integration is not readily accommodated in the present acquisition and PPBS processes, one reason why there has been lots of discussion with modest results. In this paper we recommend a new approach to integration, namely that integration be viewed as and explicit result, not just as an attribute of C2ISR systems. We then look at the processes and the problems from this perspective and make some recommendations for providing integrated and interoperable new technology to the warfighter in a timely manner.


This study sought to understand the demographic and commitment variables that predict participation by recreational fishers in public consultation programs, and investigated differences in opinions and beliefs between participants and non-participants. In a survey of recreational fishers in Queensland, Australia, 28% of respondents reported participating in public consultation programs regarding issues affecting recreational fisheries. Participation in consultation programs was positively related to age, avidity, centrality (i.e., importance) of fishing to lifestyle, and membership in fisheries-related organizations. There was no effect of gender, income, or years of fishing experience on participation. Participants and non-participants differed significantly in their level of agreement with 12 of 20 belief statements about fisheries management, issues and threats facing recreational fisheries, and the effects of recreational fishing on fish populations. Participants and non-participants also differed in their level of approval of four of eight fishing regulations. Results suggest that recreational fishers who participate in public consultation programs may not be representative of the wider recreational fisher population.


A new technique which is different from the present technique for reactioncasting was put forward .Using the technique,TiC/Fe composite was synthesized.Moreover,according to both of the results of the temperature fields,and the thermodynamical calculation and analysis of the hightemperature chemical reaction which insitu synthesis of TiC,the feasibility of the technique was verified theoretically.At the same time,the results could be applicable to control the synthesis process too.


Ordinary CNC machine tools transformation has become the enterprises to improve an important means of their own degree of automation is an important way of technological innovation of small and medium-sized machinery processing enterprises.The article describes the the ordinary NC lathe process and methods.


Abstract : The purpose of this research was to parametrically investigate the viability of skip entry maneuvers as an alternative to vacuum-only maneuvers, and to identify whether skip entry maneuvers can extend spacecraft mission lifetime by limiting propellant expenditure through the exploitation of the aerodynamic interaction between the upper atmosphere and an example entry vehicle and remote-sensing orbital platform. Employing the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) and a notional satellite design as the example entry vehicles, the entry profile dynamics of a skip entry maneuver were characterized with varying trajectory initial conditions such as entry altitude, entry flight-path angle, and vehicle aerodynamics. In addition, the ∆V requirements of skip entry maneuvers were characterized, specifically the ∆V required to complete one or more successive skip entry trajectories as well as to execute a desired change in orbit inclination angle.


This paper describes wind tunnel measurements carried out within the collaborative, three year DAN-AERO MW research project between Risø DTU and the industrial partners LM Wind Power, Siemens Wind Power, Vestas Wind Systems and the utility company DONG Energy from 2007 to 2009. One of the issues in the project was to explore the differences between airfoil characteristics measured in different wind tunnels. When designing a rotor and predicting the overall wind turbine performance using e.g. aeroelastic codes, the airfoil characteristics are crucial. Thus, in this work measurements on the NACA 633-418 and the Risø-B1-18 airfoils carried out in the VELUX wind tunnel (DK), the LM Wind Power Low Speed Wind Tunnel (DK) and the Delft Low Speed Low Turbulence wind tunnel (NL) were compared. The tunnels are different with respect to configuration and turbulence level. The comparisons between the measurements showed that the best agreement between results was seen for Reynolds number of 3.0x10 6 because the LM and Delft tunnels were designed to work optimally around this Reynolds number. Turbulence intensity of ~1% caused high drag coefficients at all angles of attack compared to turbulence intensities from 0.1% and below. Furthermore, turbulence intensities from 0.1% and below did not correlate with minimum drag. However, the turbulence intensity had an influence on the transition point location. Thus, the lower the turbulence intensity, the higher the lift value at which the transition point moves towards the leading edge. Several deviations between the wind tunnel data were observed, but most of the differences between the measurements were ascribed to differences in airfoil model shapes, methods for analyzing the data and calibrations. A comparison of the measurements to XFOIL revealed the necessity to be aware of the turbulence intensity. It also revealed the limitations in XFOIL, where the drag coefficient in general was under predicted and maximum lift as well as the lift under separated conditions was significantly over predicted.


Anthropogenic use of nitrogen and phosphorus causes a risk to aquatic ecosystems and hence the livelihood of humans. To tackle this issue, the European Union have imposed environmental obligations on its member states to higher the quality of the aquatic environment. As a member state, Denmark is partly fulfilling these objectives by re-creating wetlands in the landscape, which retain and remove nutrients from agricultural runoff. However, it has been identified that there is a risk of phosphorus leaking from the wetlands re-created on phosphorus rich soils. The biogeochemical processes regarding phosphorus mobilization in wetlands are of high complexity, making it hard to predict potential phosphorus leakage from a wetland. This makes management difficult as there is high uncertainty regarding the impact of decisions. This thesis maps and evaluates the management practice of the Danish government regarding re-creation of wetlands through interviews with governmental officials, conversations with experts and a literature review. Finally, it is discussed how an implementation of adaptive management could improve the long-term management of Danish wetlands regarding potential phosphorus leakage. The results show that the current management practice uses a phosphorus model to risk assess potential phosphorus leakage from re-created wetlands. This model has limitations regarding the variables used in the model and it is not dynamic over time. The model does currently not include aluminium, sulphur and calcium, which is shown to be important in assessing the risk of phosphorus leakage from re-created wetlands. Furthermore, the results suggest that the combination of high uncertainty in terms of low knowledge level on biogeochemical processes and high controllability in terms of carefully planned projects makes adaptive management a promising management option, which over time can reduce uncertainty and thereby make management more sustainable. The thesis concludes that management can be improved through an implementation of adaptive management in Denmark and that long-term monitoring of nutrient loads from wetlands are key to gain a better understanding, which can ensure a sustainable management of re-creation of wetlands in Denmark. (Less)


Summary Variations of total mercury (Hg) contents in Fontinalis antipyretica Hedw. observed during a 3 years investigation (1989–1991) lead us to a 1 year study with weekly sampling at a non-contaminated and a contaminated site. Apart Hg contents, parameters taken into account were: air (AT) and water (WT) temperature, precipitation (PR), insolation (SU), current velocity (CV), water level (WL), immersion depth (ID), proportion of young shoots (only at the contaminated site, YS), suspended matter of the stream water (SM) and residues after acid digestion of this bryophyte species (RD). Statistical analysis (PCA) showed significant difference between the 2 data sets. Therefore, each data set was submitted to a Multiple Correspondance Factor Analysis (MCFA). These results indicate seasonal variations of Hg contents (HG) of the studied moss species. The parameters ID, CV and RD reflecting the hydrological situation and their consequences on resuspension of particulate matter are positively correlated with hi...


E very year, 380 million tons of plastic enter the material cycle. If it were to be loaded into 40-ton trucks, the line would encircle the Earth nearly four times. This figure includes plastics for bags, food packaging and cosmetic bottles, toothpaste tubes and tights, as well as plastics for computer monitors and smartphones, CDs, linoleum and laminate flooring. Similarly, car and aircraft manufacturers are continuously increasing the proportion of plastics in their products – to reduce weight and thus lower fuel consumption. The reason plastics are so omnipresent is quite simply because they offer so many advantages. Not only are they lightweight and strong, they are also versatile and long-lasting. The key chemical characteristic of plastics is that they are made by joining basic building blocks – monomers – to form enormous chains, sometimes thousands of monomers long. Chemists use different types of monomers to modify the properties of a plastic, such as hardness, ductility, tensile strength, thermal stability and much more. Once synthesized, most polymers are virtually indestructible. Even exposing them to weathering and light causes no more than slight discoloration. And microorganisms that use many other materials as food sources are at a loss when it comes to dealing with most plastics. Depending on the type of polymer and the conditions it is exposed to, it can take decades or even centuries before the giant molecules are fully broken down into carbon dioxide, water and other residues. Until then, they continue to represent a potential hazard to fish, seabirds and many other animals.


Poster: "ECR 2015 / C-0424 / CSF flow quantification in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IHH) and hyperprolactinemia by data of phase contrast MRI " by: "O. Bogomyakova, N. Mesropyan, Y. Stankevich, L. Shraybman, A. Tulupov ; Novosibirsk/RU"


With the move towards Australian Workplace Agreements promoted by the Workplace Relations Act 1996 gaining momentum, comes the issue of how do unions adapt to this changing environment, particularly those unions regarded as 'traditional' and therefore as "dinosaurs". In the shrinking Queensland meat processing and export industry, the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union is such a union and in 1997 it was confronted with the introduction of AWAs by two companies. The union had to develop a strategy to counter-act a possible threat to its membership base from individual contracts and the threat to established wages and conditions which it had won for its members across the state through collective bargaining. The union had already chosen to rely on its traditional strengths to meet the initial challenges posed by the changing industrial relations climate of the earlier 1990s and saw no reason not to utilise those same strengths in overcoming this most recent threat. This paper provides a practical, rather than theoretical, assessment of the strategies adopted by the AMIEU(Qld).


The conventional way in analysing image segmentation algorithms manually is difficult since it requires a lot of human effort in keeping all data for analysis. Various heuristic algorithms are bundled with Otsu's and Kapur's objective function in finding optimal fitness and quality segmentation. In this work Otsu's and Kapur's objective function are bundled with heuristics such as harmony search optimisation (HSO) and electro magnetic optimisation (EMO) to compare the solution accuracy of segmented images In order to statistically analyse such algorithms, an automated tool is developed which takes an input image of any image category under consideration and extracts the segmented fitness values and quality parameters of the image. The extracted values are stored in a central database server constrained with image type, image category, methodology and heuristic used, no of thresholds and quality parameters. The central repository information is fed into data mining and data analytic tools to statistically rank the segmentation algorithms.


Purpose
Forensic crime labs play an important role in the criminal justice system's response to violent gun crimes in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methods of firearms analysis including ballistics imaging and proposed best practices for investigating gun crimes. A separate line of research has begun to explore the structure of forensic labs and how structure impacts lab performance.

Design/methodology/approach
To date, however, proposed best practices in firearms investigation have not been empirically tested within crime labs. The authors address this gap in the literature by using a mediation model examining organizational correlates of a limited number of tasks (identified by Peter Gagliardi's 13 Critical Tasks) believed to enhance our final dependent measures, forensic crime lab outcomes (NIBIN acquisitions and hits). The authors examine, therefore, the relationship between organizational correlates, collected from a sample of publicly funded labs in the USA, on several of Gagliardi's tasks and then explore the relationship of those tasks on our outcome variables: NIBIN acquisitions and hits.

Findings
Results indicate agency size and number of agencies serviced by a lab are significant factors associated with our mediating variables (Gagliardi's tasks). Communication was identified as a significant task associated with achieving NIBIN acquisitions and hits. In general, this study underscores the importance of communication between labs and other institutional constituents for increasing ballistics imaging outputs. Furthermore, findings provide partial support for Gagliard's tasks, by highlighting the role of enhanced communication on organization-based performance outcomes.

Originality/value
This study is the first to examine the mediating effect of Gagliardi's tasks on the organizational performance of ballistics imaging systems within crime labs. In addition, this study examines the influence of organizational correlates on these mediating tasks.


For more than one hundred years, Australian governments have supported the principle that the employment relationship of public servants should be independent of direct control by politicians. In recent decades, concern has been expressed that the independence of public servants has been undermined and that they have become politicised. Scholarly examination of the issue has been somewhat limited by the absence of a clear definition of what is meant by politicisation, with the term being associated both with the exercise of control over the human resource management (HRM) elements of the relationship as well as the tasks performed by public servants. The purpose of this paper is to establish a valid definition of politicisation through historical analysis of the patronage and the independent civil service systems of employment.


When Dozy, Pokey, and Hardy went out into the world, Papa and Mama warned them to build strong houses because of the big bad wolf. Dozey and Pokey ignored their parents' advice and built flimsy houses. But Hardy listened to his parents by working hard and building a strong house. After the big, bad wolf blew down the houses of Dozey and Pokey, they narrowly escaped to Hardy's house, and learned a valuable lesson about doing their best. In the rewriting of this classic tale, Carl Sommer teaches the importance of diligence, respect for labor, and self-discipline.


Here we document for the first time how major rivers connect directly to the deep-sea, by analysing the longest runout sediment flows (of any type) yet measured in action. These seafloor turbidity currents originated from the Congo River-mouth, with one flow travelling >1,130 km whilst accelerating from 5.2 to 8.0 m/s. In one year, these turbidity currents eroded 1-2 km3 of sediment from just one submarine canyon, equivalent to 14-28% of the annual global-flux from rivers. It was known earthquakes trigger canyon-flushing flows. We show major river-floods also generate canyon-flushing flows, primed by rapid sediment-accumulation at the river-mouth, but triggered by spring tides weeks to months after the flood. This is also the first field-confirmation that turbidity currents which erode can self-accelerate, thereby travelling much further. These observations explain highly-efficient organic carbon transfer, and have important implications for hazards to seabed cables, or how terrestrial climate change impacts the deep-sea.


Provided are a iridium complex that can thin-coat form using solution processing a light-emitting layer that is introduced with carbazole derivatives and aromatic quinoline derivatives as main ligands, and alkoxy, alkyl-oxy alkoxy, alkylamines, allylamines, or amino alkylamine derivatives on the fourth carbon of picolinic acid or picolinic acid-N-oxide as auxiliary ligands, and a red phosphorescing organic electric-field light-emitting element comprising the light-emitting layer having iridium complex compound dopant. The solution processable iridium complex synthesized using main ligands and auxiliary ligands introduced via iridium according to the present invention has a highly increased solubility, which enables the formation of light-emitting layer using solution processing instead of vacuum deposition, doping the iridium complex onto the light-emitting layer, so to enable not only scaling-up thereof, but also the formation of an element having much greater preparation process efficiency than the conventional method of element preparation through vacuum deposition.


ECOSYSTEM AND POTENTIAL ANALOG TO EUROPA D. G. Gleeson, R. T. Pappalardo, S. E. Grasby, A. S. Templeton & J. R. Spear. 1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder; 2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; 3 NASA Astrobiology Institute, 4 Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Calgary; 5 Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Colorado School of Mines.


The disclosure relates to mitigating the effect of a sudden change in sensor calibration parameters. An embodiment of the disclosure retrieves a current calibration parameter value for the sensor, determines a new calibration parameter value for the sensor, and generates transitional calibration parameter values based at least on the current calibration parameter value and the new calibration parameter value using an interpolation function configured to prevent a sudden change in the sensor calibration parameter values.


Walking Freely on Firm Ground: Letters to Mary Virginia Foreman 1935-1951. Bv Artur Schnabel, edited by Werner Grunzweig, Lynn Matheson, and Anicia Timberlake. Hofheim: Wolke, 2014. [370 p. ISBN 9783955931001. 39 [euro].] Illustrations, bibliography, index. There is no doubt that the pianist and composer Artur Schnabel was a man of strong opinions: he made no secret of his preferences in piano manufacturers, the impact of sound recording on artistic creation, and his devotion to the music of Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert. In this collection of letters, we see another side of his personality, as Schnabel candidly describes his feelings on politics, differences in European and American society and cultural values, and his deep affection for a young woman who was the recipient of more than 400 letters during their friendship. Through these letters to an aspiring pianist and music student, a portrait of Schnabel emerges to show an artist integrally connected to the world around him, both as a musician-composer and as an intellectual. The exact nature of Mary Virginia Foreman Le Garrec's relationship with Schnabel is rather ambiguous. The book's preface gives a recounting of their first meeting as well as some details about Foreman's life after Schnabel's death. Foreman herself wrote two books about Schnabel, and in 2002 donated his letters to her to the Berlin Akademie der Kunste; the letters selected for this anthology are drawn from that archive. Schnabel's first letters to Foreman date from January 1935 and occur somewhat regularly in a biweekly pattern until two months before his death in 1951. This collection provides readers with an in-depth view of the life of a musical virtuoso and composer of the mid-twentieth century. Schnabel describes in great detail the pitfalls of organizing concert series, the less than optimum conditions for recording sessions, and the struggle to integrate the economic necessity of touring with the need for the time and reflection required for musical composition. While these problems may not be unique to Schnabel, his letters (many written during the years of the Second World War), provide a compelling portrait showing how musicians and performing arts are adversely affected by the war and its aftermath. In poignant letters from October 1938, as the conflict drew closer to Italy, Schnabel describes his remorse at leaving his beloved home in Tremezzo, wondering when and if he would ever be permitted to return to a place that brought him not only solace from a hectic performance schedule, but was also the birthplace of much musical productivity. Schnabel laments the slight given to conductor Otto Klemperer who, because of his German background and the political climate, was not given the position of principal conductor at two major U.S. orchestras, pointing out the helplessness of artists within the wider pool of politics. While Schnabel admits to Foreman that he considers himself privileged because of his ability to travel out of Europe, he worries about the uncertainty of his future as he waits to see which country may offer him and his family asylum. Perhaps the most moving letter in the collection dates from July 1946, as Schnabel describes postcards sent to his cousin by his mother, describing her last days in a concentration camp before her death at the hands of the Nazis. That Schnabel lived through these emotionally charged events is tragic; that he was able to continuously work as a performer and composer as well is extraordinary. As primary source documents, these letters give readers a window into the creation of Schnabel's musical compositions and supply a context for the integration of his life and art. Despite his hectic schedule of public performances, recording sessions, master classes, and lectures, Schnabel was a composer of both large and small scale musical works. In his letters, Schnabel outlines his compositional process: a case in point is his Two Movements for Chorus and Orchestra. …


The electronic spectrum and structure of tetracyanotetrathiafulvalene have been investigated by the ASMO-SCF-CI method, in which the 3d orbitals of sulfur atoms are taken into account. The calculated results showed that the absorption band at the longest wavelength can be interpreted in terms of intramolecular charge-transfer.


ABSTRACT A confidential postal questionnaire of members of the Political Science Association of South Africa (PSASA) was undertaken in February 1990 and a response rate of 40% obtained. The results have been analyzed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of political science in South Africa. It is shown that the discipline is now firmly established in South Africa and that the profession has a clear commitment to a democratic non‐racial future. There is, however, a lack of blacks and women among practitioners and societal and disciplinary constraints inhibit the development of substantive work. The way forward requires greater vigour on the part of the PSASA and a higher level of conceptualization and theoretical development.