In 1979, an equation was developed to estimate the percentage of current and future timber volume loss due to stem decay caused by Heterobasidion annosum and other fungi in advance regeneration stands of grand and white fir in eastern Oregon and Washington. Methods for using and testing the equation are presented. Extensive testing in 1988 showed the equation to be valid for estimating volumes of timber loss due to stem decay in grand fir stands in northern Idaho, in white fir stands in southern Oregon and northern California, in red fir stands in northern California, and in western hemlock stands in western Oregon and Washington. Intensive testing of these and other species in western North America and in other geographical areas should be done to verify the utility of the fir decay model. In western North America, the true firs (Abies spp.) attain maximum economic and ecological importance. Fir timber volumes in Oregon and Washington are 17.2 billion cubic feet (0.5 cubic meters) distributed among several species: noble fir (Abies procera Rehd.), Pacific silver fir (A. amabilis (Dougl.) Forbes), subalpine fir (A. lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.), California red fir (A. magnifica A. Murr.), white fir (A. concolor (Gord. & Glend.) Lindl.:Hildebr.), and grand fir (A. grandis (Dougl.:D. Don) Lindl.). These true fir species are an important timber resource. Stands of fir also protect watershed, hold mountain snowpacks, and provide cover and thermal protection for wildlife. They are also valuable as aesthetic components of recreational landscapes, and for Presented at the Symposium on Research and Management of Annosus Root Disease in Western North America, April 18-21, 1989, Monterey, Calif. Research Plant Pathologist, Pacific Northwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, La Grande, Oreg. specialty products such as Christmas trees and decorative greenery (Franklin 1981). Annual stem decay losses in true firs in Oregon and Washington have been estimated at 25 million cubic feet (0.7 million cubic meters) (Childs and Shea 1967). Over 20 percent of the decay in advance grand and white fir regeneration is caused by Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref. in eastern Oregon and Washington (Aho and others 1987). Other fungi that cause appreciable stem decay in true firs are Echinodontium tinctorium (Ell. & Ev.), Hericium Abietis (Weir:Huber) K. Harrison, Pholiota limonella (Pk.) Sacc., and Stereum sanguinolentum (Alb. & Schw.:Fr.) Fr. Stem decay losses in noble fir, Pacific silver fir, California red fir, and subalpine fir are less serious than in white fir and grand fir. Consequently, there are few reports of stem decay damage in these species in Oregon and Washington. Although studies (Morrison and others 1986) show stumps of Pacific silver fir to be highly susceptible to infection by H. annosum, the incidence of infection or decay in young trees has not been reported. Stem decay fungi most commonly found in advance regeneration stands of Pacific silver fir and subalpine fir include S. sanguinolentum and E. tinctorium (Smith and Craig 1970, Herring and Etheridge 1976). The fungi most commonly associated with stem decay in young-growth California red fir include H. annosum, P. limonella, and Y. tinctorium (Aho and others 1983). Noble fir is probably the most decay-resistant species among the true firs, but occasionally & tinctorium causes significant losses in mature timber (Filip, G.M., unpublished). Incidence of stem decay fungi in advance regeneration stands of noble fir has not been reported. Unpublished data on file, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, La Grande, Oreg. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-116 123 DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIR DECAY EQUATION


Herbal drugs as well as the traditional medicines are widely used and are a part of primary healthcare among world population. The demand of herbal drugs is also seen increased in developed nations due to its beneficial effects. As the use of herbal drugs increases worldwide, the possibility of side effects and adverse effects are also more common, which necessitate well structured regulatory control over the globe. But the fact is that the legislative classification and regulatory control of herbals differ among countries and no harmonization exists in regulations. Assurance of the safety, efficacy and quality of herbal drugs remain a key issue in industrialized and developing nations. This review illustrates on how the herbal drugs are defined and to compare the different perceptions of herbal drugs regulations in Russia and India.


Rhythmic neural activity synchronizes with certain rhythmic behaviors, such as breathing, sniffing, saccades, and speech. The extent to which neural oscillations synchronize with higher-level and more complex behaviors is largely unknown. Here we investigated electrophysiological synchronization with keyboard typing, which is an omnipresent behavior daily engaged by an uncountably large number of people. Keyboard typing is rhythmic with frequency characteristics roughly the same as neural oscillatory dynamics associated with cognitive control, notably through midfrontal theta (4 -7 Hz) oscillations. We tested the hypothesis that synchronization occurs between typing and midfrontal theta, and breaks down when errors are committed. Thirty healthy participants typed words and sentences on a keyboard without visual feedback, while EEG was recorded. Typing rhythmicity was investigated by inter-keystroke interval analyses and by a kernel density estimation method. We used a multivariate spatial filtering technique to investigate frequency-specific synchronization between typing and neuronal oscillations. Our results demonstrate theta rhythmicity in typing (around 6.5 Hz) through the two different behavioral analyses. Synchronization between typing and neuronal oscillations occurred at frequencies ranging from 4 to 15 Hz, but to a larger extent for lower frequencies. However, peak synchronization frequency was idiosyncratic across subjects, therefore not specific to theta nor to midfrontal regions, and correlated somewhat with peak typing frequency. Errors and trials associated with stronger cognitive control were not associated with changes in synchronization at any frequency. As a whole, this study shows that brain-behavior synchronization does occur during keyboard typing but is not specific to midfrontal theta. Significance statement Every day, millions of people type on keyboards. Keyboard typing is a rhythmic behavior, with inter-keystroke-intervals of around 135 ms (~7 Hz), which is roughly the same frequency as the brain rhythm implicated in cognitive control ("theta" band, ~6 Hz). Here we investigated the hypothesis that the EEG signature of cognitive control is synchronized with keyboard typing. By recording EEG during typing in 30 healthy subjects we showed that keyboard typing indeed follows theta rhythmicity, and that synchronization between typing and neural oscillations occurs. However, synchronization was not limited to theta but occurred at frequencies ranging from 4 to 15 Hz, and in several regions. Brain-behavior synchronization during typing thus seems more nuanced and complex than we originally hypothesized.


Based on the System Dependence Theory and Network Management Theory, this paper analyses the transition of the administrative function of our government, the quality and efficiency enhancement in public sports service, the cost predicament and mode predicament in the process of maintaining and ensuring sports rights of the entire nation. Furthermore the paper suggests two approaches to cope with the problems: firstly, the system insurance which innovates the mode of public sports service from the system perspective; secondly, the subject coordination, a thorough analysis of various sports service subjects and their relationship from the network management perspective.


The synthesis of the structural isomers of 6-oxo-2,4-heptadienoic acid was undertaken as a means of providing analogues to investigate the structural requirements of maleylacetone cis-trans isomerase. 6-Oxo-2(Z),4(E)-heptadienoic acid and the methyl esters of 6-oxo-2(E),4(Z)-, 6-oxo-2(Z),4(Z)-, and 6-oxo-2(E),4(E)-heptadienoic acid were synthesized. Base-catalyzed hydrolysis of these esters furnished the corresponding acids except in the case of the 2Z,4Z isomer, which yielded instead the 2Z,4E acid. A mechanism for isomerization is suggested. Photocatalyzed isomerization of the acids and esters as a possible way of generating the ZZ acid was studied. The properties of the acids, their interaction with the enzyme, and what this suggests about the interaction of substrate maleylacetone with the enzyme is discussed. 16 references, 1 figure, 2 tables.


Due to the growth of solar power and the concern regarding its effects on power system because of its intermittency and zero inertia, in this project I am trying to smooth solar power using electrical consumer. The purpose of this project is to absorb PV output fluctuation as much as possible with electrical consumer in buildings such as cooling fan, and to make the overall current draw steadily from the system (consumer + PV output), without fast intermittency. For absorbing PV output intermittency we need a consumer which we can control its usage rapidly and smoothly; a consumer which changing its consumption would not affect the functionality of the device. On this project I am making the building cooling fan to follow the PV output. There are two reason for choosing building fan; first, we can control its speed and by changing its speed we are changing its electrical usage by cubic, and second, the room temperature is not effected by making fan following PV output intermittency.


III-nitrides semiconductors, specifically the GaN-based materials, including the binary GaN and related alloys with InN and AlN, such as the ternary AlGaN and InGaN as well as the quaternary InAlGaN have been intensively investigated in recent years because of the potential applications for optoelectronic devices operating in short wavelength spectral range and in high power and high temperature electronic devices. GaN-based materials are also ideal for the fabrication of high responsive and visible blind UV detectors because of the unique properties that encompass wide and direct band gap, high absorption coefficients, and sharp cutoff of the wavelength detection. The high breakdown voltage and high saturation velocity also enable the use of GaN-based materials for high-speed device operation and high power applications, such as power amplifiers for wireless base stations, low noise amplifiers, and high power switches. Sensing devices are another important application of the GaN-based materials, especially in harsh environments owing to the high thermal and chemical stability of these materials.


Spider species those are important for causing health related hazards, are different from continent to continent and even from country to country. Loxosceles species and Latrodectus species bites are common in South and North America are as Latrodectus species and Latrodectus hasselti bites are common in Africa and Australia respectively. In India spider bite, though common in clinical practice, but still inadequately reported. Though a large number of spider bites seemas harmless, our experience in clinical practice differs in most of the cases. Lack of large studies and few case reports from this part of the world, results in inadequate experience in dealing symptomatic bites. Here we report a middle aged housewife from the eastern part of India who comes to us with gradually progressive local inflammation after a spider bite. Her local inflammation rapidly spread in spite of conservative managements with NSAIDS, local agents, and steroids and only responds on adding Dapsone to the regimen. We confirm the spider as a species of Tarantula of genera chilobrachys with the help of Zoology department and share our experience as a successful treatment of rare an envenomation.


SEM is an account modeling method. The paper introduced the basic SEM theory, established the contest estimation system, and explained the application of the system in agricultural machinery enterprise.


In this paper we consider a single server queueing model in which the interarrival times have a general distribution and service times are exponentially distributed. The server takes rest for a random duration when the system is empty or when the service of k units are over, whichever occurs first. Using the Imbedded Markov chain, the stationary behaviour of the process is studied. We investigate the waiting time distribution of unit in the system. Some numerical examples are also given.


The federal Minister for Health the Honourable Greg Hunt MP recently launched the Safer Baby Bundle — a national stillbirth program that aims to reduce stillbirth in Australia by 20% by 2023.1 The program is one of the responses to recommendations arising from the federal Senate's Select Committee on Stillbirth Research and Education.2 It draws from similar bundles of care in the United Kingdom that have been associated with successful reductions in stillbirth.3,4 Undoubtedly, these wholeofpopulation level programs are important and effective. However, because late pregnancy stillbirth can be prevented simply by delivering all babies early, they have the potential for harm.


Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States, Canada and other developed countries. Once diagnosed, patients are faced with various medical treatment options, depending upon whether they have prostate cancer that is localized to the prostate gland or metastatic prostate cancer. In addition to medical treatments, patients are often curious about dietary and nutritional supplement practices that may help to control their disease, slow its progression, or prevent its recurrence, as adjunctive proactive measures. As such, these patients are inclined to request advice on this matter from their Chiropractor and/or other holistic healthcare practitioners.


Objective To review the curative effect and safety of trimetazidine in treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy.Methods The databases of Cochrane Controlled Trials Register/CENTRAL,PubMed,EBSCO,WangFang Database,CJFD,CBM and VIP Database were retrieved with computers for collecting randomized controlled trials(RCT) about the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy with trimetazidine.The RCT were selected by two researchers independently according to inclusion and exclusion criterions and materials were extracted,checked crossly and given methodological quality evaluation.The Meta-analysis was conducted by using RevMan 5.0 software.Results There were totally 11 RCT enclosed,and the results of Meta-analysis showed that trimetazidine increased significantly LVEF(WMD=4.14,95%CI:3.16 to 5.12,P0.01),decreased LVEDd(WMD=-4.12,95%CI:-4.88 to-3.36,P0.01) and LVESd(WMD=-3.83,95%CI:-6.16 to-1.5,P0.01),increased 6MWD(WMD=38.95,95% CI:29.85 to 48.06,P0.01),and reduced readmission rate.Conclusion The existing evidences indicate that trimetazidine can improve the heart functional indexes and reduce readmission rate.As the limitation of the quality of enclosed literature,more randomized controlled double-blinded trials with higher quality are required for further reviewing the curative effect of trimetazidine on dilated cardiomyopathy.


The authors investigated more than 6000 college students of various areas by using the self-measuring table for Chinese teenagers.The results show that the self-development of college students is different in variants such as specialty,school nature,family background,only child,etc.but the difference is not obvious in the grade and gender.In the specialty aspect,the self evaluation mark of arts students is lower than that of science students and physical culture students and in the school nature aspect,the self-development level of students coming from the key universities is lower than that of students coming from common universities.In the family background,the development of self-awareness of students coming from the countryside is poorer than that of city students.And only child is better than non-only child in the self development.


To provide a twin clutch type transmission (23) connected to an engine (13) of a vehicle and the like in which an end portion of the main shaft (28) is held in the secure and compact manner to contribute to efficient operation of the transmission. In the twin clutch type transmission (23), the first and second hydraulic disk clutches (51a, 51b) are coaxially provided to be adjacent with each other, and the inner and outer shafts (43, 44) of the main shaft (28) as a coaxial dual structure are connected to the respective disk clutches (51a, 51b) coaxially. The ball bearing (73) fixed to the transmission case (22) with the holder plate (75) pierces the left end portion of the inner shaft (43) so as to be supported, and further to be tightened and fixed to the ball bearing (73) with the locknut (74) screwed with the leading end of the left end portion.


Background & objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Group schema therapy on social anxiety and its specific symptoms in blind and visually impaired people. Methods: This study was a semi -experimental study with pre-test, post-test and follow-up test with a control group .For this purpose, the statistical population of study ,included all blind and low-vision people admitted to Isfahan's Ababasir Educational Institute. 26 participants were selected by available sampling and were randomly assigned to the experimental group (13 persons) and the control group (13 persons). The experimental group was trained on 10 sessions (weekly) according to schema therapy in Yang protocol, while control group did not receive any training. Data were collected by self-report method (Social Phobia Inventory) and analyzed using covariance test by SPSS-21 software . Results: Results showed a significant difference between social anxiety in the experimental group, when entering the study, immediately after treatment, and 1 month after treatment; but no significant difference was observed in the control group. Conclusions: One of the useful and effective treatments for refractory, ambiguous and longterm disorders that have their roots in childhood is Yang's scheme therapy and also, group therapy is one of the most important factors in the effectiveness of this treatment model in the present study.


Kidney stones have a lifetime incidence of up to 13 percent in North America.1 In the United States, this disorder was responsible for an estimated 1.32 million visits to physicians in 1995 and for...


TSV interposer is expected to be the driving vehicle for 2.5-D IC integration. Although a number of studies have been reported on the thermo-mechanical reliability of TSVs, it remains difficult for one to justify whether a TSV design or an interposer design is manufacturable or not because we are still lack of experimental reliability data. This investigation has provided this important experimental data, and also a series of correlation studies by finite element simulations. A 2-D analytical solution was also examined to help understanding the physics of the problem. Regarding the experimental results, wafer cracking was observed for TSV arrays with large diameters and small pitch-to-diameter ratios after annealing at 300 °C. The critical strength to wafer cracking was determined to be 388 MPa from some finite element analyses. Through analytical considerations, the influence of TSV diameter on wafer cracking was found to rely on the contributions from the dielectric layer thickness and also the barrier layer thickness. An empirical model for the design of copper-filled TSV interposers was ultimately generated based on the modification of the 2-D solution.


The free movement of capital is one of the fundamental common market freedoms protected by the European Union (EU). The past decade or so was marked by the privatisation of industries formerly operated as public enterprises. Ownership of such enterprises, ranging from the energy and telecommunications sector to the operation of airports was made available to the broad public, individuals as well as institutionalised investors nationally and internationally. EU-member states have enacted or utilised provisions in their respective regulatory instruments either restricting the amount of shares that may be held by foreign investors or making foreign investment above a certain threshold contingent on the permission by the government or by creating and retaining shares that give its holder, the national government, special voting rights ('golden shares'). The question arises to what extent these measures are, if at all, compatible with the free movement of capital in the EU. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (ECJ) has had to deal with a number of these cases in the past and has attempted to develop criteria, which must be met by national regulators. In this article an attempt is made to critically assess the jurisprudence of the ECJ concerning the free movement of capital guarantee and its scope in the light of national attempts to protect national interests. This question is relevant beyond the EU as the free movement of capital is - in principle - applicable also with regard to third countries and non-EU nationals.


The data reported on in this paper are drawn from a large-scale sociolinguistic research project dealing with language shift and language loss of Turkish* and Italian immigrants in Flanders and the Netherlands. We have reported on various aspects of this project on different occasions (Jaspaert and Kroon 1988, 1989). In this paper we will mainly be concerned with the analysis of part of our data (language choice among Italians) in a more theoretical and methodological perspective. In the first section a short outline of the project is given. Next, the operationalization of some central concepts and factors is discussed. The third and final section deals with the analysis of the language-choice data of the Italian group. We have not included a description of the Italian group in the Netherlands and Flanders, nor an extensive overview of literature on language-choice patterns in other situations. The interested reader can find this Information in Jaspaert and Kroon (1989) and in Jaspaert and Kroon (forthcoming). Information on language and minorities in the Netherlands in general can be found in Extra and Vallen (1988).


An explanation is given of the problem that affect megalithic monuments, with respect to their survival, bearing in mind the numerous forest works that are currently been carried out in the mountains with powerful machinery. The preparation of archaeological letters is essential to protect this heritage, because it is impossible to safeguard something that is unknown. But once the heritage is known, it must be conditioned, made eminent, by clearing away the bramble, common gorse, heather or other obstacles that hide it and properly signpost it. Thus, a social and didactic purpose is fulfilled for the enjoyment of anyone passing nearby these megaliths.


With unparalleled sensitivities, nanocomposites are believed to be key components in future bodily sensor and healthcare devices. However, there is a lack in understanding of how repeated strain cy...


The solar still is an emerging water distillation technology gaining popularity among the scientific community. Achieving a high throughput and/or performance in solar stills remains an unresolved challenge. In this study, the feasibility of utilizing solar distillation systems for large water production was investigated. A solar still was designed and tested with different brackish waters under solar insolation in Los Angeles from March to April. The inner surface area of the cell was about 12.7 cm  12.7 cm with a maximum volume of 322.6 cm 3 . The still performance was evaluated experimentally and modeled theoretically, showing a good agreement between theory and experiment. The maximum achieved efficiency was 20.54%, corresponding to a freshwater production of 384.4 mL/day·m 2 (6.2 mL/day). Lowering the feed amounts from 120 to 30 mL/day resulted in increasing the experimental performance from 6% to 18.3% due to the quick ramp in heat of vaporization; however, the production rates decreased from 446.4 to 341 mL/day·m 2 (7.2 to 5.5 mL/day). Polystyrene insulation and a blackened walls/basin can improve the performance by maintaining high temperature, decreasing heat loss, and enhancing solar absorption. It is concluded that still materials, insolation rate, and inclination angle are the most critical design factors.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Background: Synkinesis is a common sequelae after incomplete recovery from Bell palsy. Current first-line treatments include botulinum toxin injection and physical therapy. However, patients unresponsive to these treatments may require further surgery. Various surgical treatments have been reported, but no consensus has been reached for the optimal surgery. In a guinea pig model of synkinesis, the facial nerve trunk (FNT) was observed using a scanning electron microscope. Based on the results of scanning electron microscope and clinical ultrasonography, the authors chose FNT as the therapeutic target. Methods: The authors performed epineurectomy of FNT for 11 patients with refractory oral-ocular and oculo-oral synkinesis under abnormal muscle response and facial electromyography monitoring. The postoperative assessments at 1 year were conducted using Sunnybrook Facial Grading System and Facial Disability Index scale. Furthermore, the epineurium excised during the operation was collected as the specimen and submitted for histopathological examination; the cadaveric FNT served as the control group. Results: The follow-up results showed significant relief from synkinesis (4.91 ± 0.37 versus 10.18 ± 0.64, P < 0.01), improvement of physical (84.55 ± 1.96 versus 73.18 ± 3.65, P < 0.01) and social functions (77.09 ± 3.24 versus 61.82 ± 6.28, P < 0.01), with no worsening of facial paralysis in the patients. The histopathological examination revealed many nerve fibers in the epineurium, suggesting that FNT was the area of aberrant axon regeneration. Conclusions: Epineurectomy of FNT is a safe and effective surgical remedy. It can be considered as a surgical option for patients with refractory oral-ocular and oculo-oral synkinesis following Bell palsy.


Entry into mitosis requires the coordinated activation of protein kinases and phosphatases that regulate key cell cycle components allowing entry, progression and exit of mitosis. The limiting step is thought to be the activation of both Cdk1-Cyclin B and Greatwall kinases. The former promoting phosphorylation of mitotic substrates when cells enter into mitosis and the latter inhibiting PP2A-B55, responsible for dephosphorylation of these substrates. Here, we summarize recent data on the regulation of Greatwall activity and reversal of mitotic substrates phosphorylation required for mitotic exit.


The erythrocyte membrane plays an important role in the shape and deformability of the cell, is composed by a lipid bilayer and a cytoskeleton which contain 15 main proteins and numberless of minor ones. There are horizontal interaction (spectrin-spectrin and spectrin-actin-4.1 protein), and vertical interactions (spectrin-AE1-ankyrin and 4.1 protein glucophorin-AE1) between those proteins. Defects in the horizontal interaction produce hereditary elliptocytosis and hereditary pyropoikilocytosis, whereas defects in the vertical interactions to hereditary spherocytosis (HS) and hereditary ovalocytosis. The HS is a hemolytic anemia of variable severity, characterized by spheroidal, dense, fragile erythrocytes, which are trapped in the spleen. The deficient proteins more commonly observed in HS are ankyrin, spectrins, AE1 and 4.2 protein. Although reports on HS in Mexico are scarce, HS has been observed in our country with a higher frequency than hemoglobinopathies (31.3 vs 25.8%) in selected population (patients with hemolytic anemia). In this work the biological, biochemical and genetic aspects of the erythrocyte membrane as well as hereditary spherocytosis disease are reviewed.


Network intruders usually use a series of hosts (stepping stones) to conceal the tracks of their intrusion in the network. This type of intrusion can be detected through an approach called Stepping Stone Detection (SSD). In the past years, SSD was confined to the detection of only this type of intrusion. In this dissertation, we consider the use of SSD concepts in the field of backdoor attack detection. The application of SSD in this field results in many advantages. First, the use of SSD makes the backdoor attack detection and the scan process time faster. Second, this technique detects all types of backdoor attack, both known and unknown, even if the backdoor attack is encrypted. Third, this technique reduces the large storage resources used by traditional antivirus tools in detecting backdoor attacks. This study contributes to the field by extending the application of SSD-based techniques, which are usually used in SSD-based environments only, into backdoor attack detection environments. Through an experiment, the accuracy of SSD-based backdoor attack
detection is shown as very high.


In this cross-sectional study, 120 nurses completed the survey in a university hospital in Iran. The study tools were Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Questionnaire (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ). Nurses with PSQI>5 and ESS≥10 were considered having poor sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness. Nurses were subdivided into morning-, intermediateand eveningtypes according to MEQ. Data were analyzed by chi-square, Mann–Whitney U-test, logistic regression, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) tests.


Results from the recent research literature indicate the urgent need for more intervention outcome studies for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) worldwide, with available interventions commonly being considered a form of "tertiary prevention". This paper presents a synthesis of two TEACCH-based intervention studies for children and adults with ASD, carried out in Germany: (1) The concept of the "Double ABCX Caregiver Stress-Coping model" (adapted from Pakenham, Samios, & Sofronoff, 2005) having guided our research is outlined and related to tertiary-preventive interventions; (2) based on a broad-category taxonomy adapted from the research literature, and considering recent systematic reviews, three comprehensive intervention approaches are outlined and discussed concerning construct, internal and external validity: (a) "traditional Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)", (b) "TEACCH" and (c) "contemporary ABA"; (3) the concept of "structured teaching" being a key component of TEACCH (Schopler, 1997) is outlined briefly. The present synthesis aims at examining the effectiveness of TEACCH based interventions within various social settings. The first study, using a controlled individual-subject design, reports on a social communication training with a 7-year-old girl with autism and intellectual disability living in a residential home. In the second, a small group study, the long-term outcomes of a


The present paper intends to introduce our study on the quantitative retrieval of heavy metal contamination in the soil based on the field hyper-spectral of soil in hoping to explore and find the optimal parameters of the spectra which are of highly precision for the heavy metal concentration investigation and measurement. As is known,in comparison with the traditional monitoring methods for soil's heavy metal contamination monitoring testing and examination through laboratory analysis,the hyper-spectral remote sensing technology is rather simple and efficient,lowexpensive and convenient,in addition to its non-invasive by nature. However,the spectra collection has to be confined for laboratory conditions,which has made it impossible to do all-weather and field monitoring activities. In this paper,we would like to take the sewage irrigation area of Longkou City,Shandong,as a sample monitoring area and set 32 sampling regions and collect soil samples we need,which is made up of 9 kinds of heavy metals and include such heavy metal contents as those of Cr,Mn,Fe,Ni,Cu,Zn,As,Cd and Pb. At the same time,we have measured the field reflectance spectra by using a Field Spec Hand-operating spectrometer produced by the ASD Company(Analytical Spectral Devices). To achieve the purpose we have set up,we have extracted four parameters based on the reflection spectra,such as the continuum-removed spectra(CR),the inverse-lg spectra(lg(1 / R)),the first derivative reflectance spectra(RD1),as well as the second derivative reflectance spectra(RD2),while modeling has been done by using the Partial LeastSquares Regression(PLSR). The results of our analysis show that it is of extremely great importance to reduce or eliminate the heavy metal contaminants with biological toxicity for such heavy metal pollution has become very serious in the study area,especially the contaminants of As,Ni,Cd. Statistically speaking,among the 6kinds of heavy metal contaminants,i. e. those of Ni,Mn,As,Pb,Zn,Cr,are closely correlated with Fe and Mn. That is to say,among the 6 aforementioned heavy metal contaminants,the best modeling results have been gained with the first derivative reflectance spectra(RD1),whereas the second derivative reflectance spectra(RD2),the reflectance(R) and the reflectance(R),serve as the continuum-removed spectra(CR),respectively. The values of validated accuracy account for 0. 935 3,0. 7814,0. 699 6,0. 745 8,0. 690 1,0. 569 6. And,last of all,it has to be pointed out that the model we have adopted in our monitoring practice proves to be feasible for the situation under study.And,what is necessary to stress is for us to establish the models by using different parameters to achieve the optimal results for different separate heavy metals through comparison of the different models. In so doing,it would be possible to improve the timeliness monitoring for such contamination by heavy metals in the soil and open up the potential application prospects of the models we have developed for broader areas.


Elevation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in heart failure is well documented. However, sources of ROS in the failing myocardium are still unknown. In this study, we examined whether NADPH oxidase is a major source of ROS in failing human myocardium. Superoxide (O2−), a precursor of ROS, levels were detected by lucigenin (5 uM) chemiluminescence. The pre‐incubation of human myocardium with NADPH (Nox) oxidase inhibitors, respectively, gp91dstat (50 uM), apocynin (100 uM) and diphenyleneiodonium (DPI; 10 uM), significantly inhibited O2− generation to 48.0, 21.4, and 16.4% of the untreated control O2− levels (378±102 Units/mg protein). Determination of NADPH oxidase activity indicates that O2− generation increased by 9.6‐ and 2.9‐fold by NADPH (100 uM) and NADH (100 uM), respectively, in DPI‐ and gp91dstat‐inhibitable manner. Interestingly, myocardial O2− was also inhibited by 6‐aminonicotinamide (5 mM), a glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) inhibitor, to 53.5% of the untreated control. Furthermore, staurosporine (100 nM), a PKC inhibitor, and PP2 (0.010 mM), a Src inhibitor, attenuated G6PD to 2.2 and 49.1%, respectively, of the untreated control activity (0.29±0.04 nM/min/mg protein) and myocardial O2− to 62.1 and 58.7% of the control. Our data suggest that NADPH oxidase is a major source of ROS. G6PD‐derived NADPH fuel NADPH oxidase activity, and both G6PD and NADPH oxidase are activated in failing cardiac muscle by PKC‐Src signaling pathways.


Objective To evaluate the special roles of modified procedure of instrumented posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) for the treatment of the isthmic lumbar spondylolisthesis. Methods Surgical procedure was modified. The definitive reduction of the spondylolisthesis using pedicle screw instrumentation was followed by primary reduction using intervertebral disc space distraction and interbody fusion with insert cages and local morselized bone after decompressive laminectomy. A prospective, single-cohort, observational study of the clinical outcomes and radiological data, was assessed in a series of 46 patients with isthmic spondylolisthesis who underwent surgery from January 1999 to February 2004. The clinical outcomes were evaluated according to Oswestry disability questionnaire, and the radiographic data included slipping degree, slipping angle and posterior height of intervertebral disc. Thin-section helical computed tomography (CT) scanning was used in 5 cases post-operatively to assess the interbody fusion. Results Post-operatively, the slipping degree reduced, the posterior heights of intervertebral space increased and slipping angle decreased. The radiographic data had no obvious loss in mean follow-up time of 36 months (range, 12-73 months). Thin-section helical CT study clearly demonstrated the radiographic presence or absence of bridging bone, and solid bony fusion could be obtained at least one year after operation. The objective clinical outcomes of the Oswestry disability questionnaire were in average 33.6±6.4 before operation and 17.6±5.5 after operation. Conclusion The modified procedure as described offers advantages for isthmic spondylolisthesis, not only in substantial deformity correction, but also in suitable interbody cages choosen and normal sagital plane alignment restoration.


Marriage is a means to create a new household or family between a man and a woman. Through this research, we want to know and find cases where divorce occurs because of early marriage. 1 This research is a qualitative research. 1). Marriage is everyone's right and he has the right to live it. Where at this age there are many challenges in life. 2) Early childhood is called the golden age, where children easily receive stimulation, both directly and indirectly, as well as various educational activities from their environment. The consequences of early divorce are internal and external factors. Internal factors include disputes, cost issues and affairs. External factors are factors of understanding religion, economy and cultural customs. 2 Development of young couples is very necessary, because they still have developmental tasks in the search for identity and social identity which are sometimes still confusing. One focus of their training and counseling is social maturation.
Keywords: marriage, early age, divorce


OBJECTIVE To determine puerarin in Ganmao Qingre grains.METHODS C_ 18 column,detection wavelength 250nm and the mobile phase of methanol-1.4%acetic acid (22∶78) were used in RP-HPLC.RESULTS The recovery of the method was 99.59% (RSD=2.3%, n =5).CONCLUSION This method is simple, accurate and can be used for quality control of Ganmao Qingre grains.


A new method for the asymmetric synthesis of 1-substituted tetrahydroisoquinolines is presented. It is based on stereoselective addition reactions of organometallic compounds to the intermediate N-acyliminium ion 6, which is provided with an N-acyl group as a chiral auxiliary. In addition reactions with organomagnesium and organozinc reagents diastereoselectivities from 70:30 to 95:5 (for 7/8) were observed with the zinc reagents in general leading to markedly improved stereoselectivities. By catalytic hydrogenation of 7 and 8 and after removal of the chiral auxiliary the target compounds 11 and 12 were obtained. The enantiomerically pure 11c–g and 12c–g (ee > 99 %), 1-aryl-tetrahydroisoquinolines, were evaluated for their affinity to the PCP [1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)piperidine] binding site of the NMDA (N-methyl D-aspartate) receptor. In each case the enantiomers 11 exhibited a higher affinity than those of 12, with the potencies of the enantiomers differing by a factor of 4 (11/12g) to 27 (11/12c). The absolute configuration of the more potent enantiomers 11 is in accordance with the stereochemical requirement found for FR115427 (3) which is a close analogue.


Abstract Vagus nerve may play a role in serum glucose modulation. The complicated peptic ulcer patients (with perforation or/and bleeding) who received surgical procedures with or without vagotomy provided 2 patient populations for studying the impact of vagus nerve integrity. We assessed the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in peptic ulcer patients without and with complications by surgical treatment received in a retrospective population study using the National Health Insurance database in Taiwan. A cohort of 163,385 patients with peptic ulcer and without Helicobacter pylori infection in 2000 to 2003 was established. A randomly selected cohort of 163,385 persons without peptic ulcer matched by age, sex, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, Charlson comorbidity index score, and index year was utilized for comparison. The risks of developing diabetes in both cohorts and in the complicated peptic ulcer patients who received truncal vagotomy or simple suture/hemostasis (SSH) were assessed at the end of 2011. The overall diabetes incidence was higher in patients with peptic ulcer than those without peptic ulcer (15.87 vs 12.60 per 1000 person-years) by an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.43 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.40–1.47) based on the multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis (competing risk). Comparing ulcer patients with truncal vagotomy and SSH or those without surgical treatment, the aHR was the lowest in the vagotomy group (0.48, 95% CI = 0.41–0.56). Peptic ulcer patients have an elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Moreover, there were associations of vagus nerve severance and decreased risk of subsequent type 2 diabetes in complicated peptic ulcer patients.


Intelligent Transport Systems(ITS) has been currently growing attention in industry as hightech traffic system and ITS infrastructure has been built not only on expressway but also on national highways. Although the effect of ITS installation on national highways is not easy to measure with quantitative methodology, it is necessary to develop the quantitative method to verify the effect accurate analysis of ITS effect. In this study, the analysis of cost efficiency of ITS project carried out by Iksan Regional Constriction Management Administration(IRCMA) was conducted. Analysis period and discount rate were assumed as 10 years and 5.5%, respectively. Several measures of the effect including reduction of travel time, CO2 discharged and fuel and the value of Variable Message Sign(VMS) information were proposed. Concludingly, ITS project implemented by IRCMA appeared to be cost effective, indicating 1.20 of B/C ratio, 12.4% of IRR and W1.48 billion of NPV.


Different arene Cr(CO)(3) complexes were supported on a polystyrene isonitrile resin by photochemical-promoted replacement of a chromium carbonyl ligand by the NC group. The supported complexes proved to be stable and were successfully used for further transformations. In particular, the reactivity of dichlorobenzene complexes to different nucleophiles was investigated and found to be comparable with that of the parent Cr(CO)(3) complexes.


As methods for treating boiler feed water have improved, and marine engineers have increasingly turned their attention to the need for greater cleanliness of the waterside, it is becoming apparent that there is a distinct possibility that modern cleanliness may not be an unmitigated blessing. Perhaps some reasonable amount of scale served a useful purpose in guarding clean metal from oxygen attack, and perhaps a permanent oxide film served other purposes than merely to increase the heat transfer coefficient. There is much discussion along such lines these days, and Commander Bruner's discussion of oxygen elimination and reduction is therefore timely, and interesting to all ship engineers. Marine boilers become more efficient with each new design, and weight factors are dropping daily. But this means that there is less metal in them to start with, and it follows that they are more vulnerable than the boilers of twenty years ago to an insidious disintegration into Fe2O3 and Fe3O4.


The synthesis of (3S, 6S)-(+)-3,7-dimethyl-6-hydroxy-3-acetoxyocta-1,7-diene and (3S, 6S)-(–)-3,7-dimethylocta-1,7-diene-3,6-diol via the rearrangement of the chiral 2,3-epoxy alcohol, with the system Ph3P, pyridine, I2 and H2O, is described.


A satisfactory feature of the General Election -which is still in full swing is the return for West ?St. Pancras of Sir William Collins. In referring .to his candidature last month we strongly urged his -claims, not, of course, because of his political convictions, which do not affect this journal, but because of the public services he has rendered, and because of his recognised position in the medical nvorld. The new House of Commons, like its predecessors, will be all the better for the presence, at "Westminster, of men who have displayed exceptional ability in the pursuit of their own calling or profession, and exceptional administrative skill in the management of the institution with which they have been prominently associated. Sir William


One scarce resource in embedded systems is memory. Multitasking makes the lack of memory problem even worse. Most current embedded systems, which do not provide virtual memory, simply divide physical memory and evenly assign contiguous memory chunks to multiple applications. Such simple memory management can frequently cause the lack of available memory for some applications, while others are not using the full amount of assigned memory. To overcome inefficiency in current memory management, we present an efficient heap management scheme that allows multiple applications to share heap space. To reduce overall heap memory usage, applications adaptively acquire subheaps out of shared pool of memory and release surplus subheaps to shared pool. As a result, applications see noncontiguous multiple subheaps as a heap in their address space. We target Java applications to implement our heap-sharing scheme in the KVM from Sun Microsystems. To protect fragmented heap space with a limited number of regions in memory protection unit (MPU), we maintain only a limited number of subheaps. We experimentally evaluate our heap management scheme with J2ME MIDP applications. Our static and dynamic schemes reduce heap memory usage, on average, by 30 and 27&percent;, respectively. For both schemes, overheads are kept low. The execution times in our schemes are increased only by 0.01&percent; for static scheme and 0.35&percent; for dynamic scheme, on average.


The Yanshanian magmatism in the northeastern part of the Shanxi Province,controlled by regional structures,occurred as northeast belt with local concentrations.These magmatic rocks,formed in three pulses at 150~160Ma,130~140Ma and 85~127Ma,can be grouped into two suits.The former suit is comprised of granodiorite,monzongranite and coarse grain porphyritic biotite granite.The later suit is composed of diorite,granodiorite porphyry,granitic porphyry and quartz porphyry.The later suit shows close relationship to gold and basic sulfide mineralization.Most of these magmatic rocks are peraluminous and alkaline rocks with adakite affinity.These rocks belong to I-type and were evolved from same source.The formation of these granitic rocks was probably related to crust-mantle interaction triggered by lithosphere thinning of the North China Craton in Mesozoic.Related to the Yanshanian magmatic activities,mineral deposits also show concentration and multi-stage mineralization.The mineral deposit types include porphyritic Mo-Au,skarn-hydrothermal vein Au,Fe,and explosive breccia-hydrothermal quartz vein type Au or Cu-Ag,Ag-Pb-Zn deposit.Some of these types were overlapped sometimes in the same area and show spatial zone in elemental distributions.The Mo-Au mineralization was in 150~160Ma and is related to the monzondiorite or quartz diorite,granodiorite.The Au mineralization was in 130~140Ma,and is related to quartz diorite and quartz porphyry.Ag and basic sulfide mineralization were in 85~127Ma,and is related to granitic porphyry,quartz porphyry and explosive breccia rocks.Hydrothermal fluid responsible for this mineralization was soured from related magmatic activity.These metallic mineralization were genetically related to the tectonic regime transition of North China Craton in Mesozoic,lithosphere thinning,and inner land orogenesis and large scale magmatic activities.


Dual problems based on a class of nonlinear Lagrange functions for inequality constrained optimization problems are proposed.Under the Jacobian uniqueness conditions,the second order sufficient conditions for the dual problem are demonstrated so that the quadratic growth condition holds at the solution.The equivalence conditions for the existence of saddle points are given,which are sufficient for zero duality gap between the primal problem and the dual problem.Moreover,a sufficient condition for the existence of saddle points is presented,which is characterized by the perturbation function.


The changes of volatile components of cooked rice during storage at for 5 hr were investigated. Among more than 100 volatile components of fresh cooked rice, the predominant one was hexanal followed by nonanal, acetone, pentanal, butanal, heptanal, octanal and toluene. These eight components comprised about 55% of the total volatile, which was decreased by half after one hour storage. The amount of major volatile components in Tongil type rice was higher than Japonica rice, but the decrease of volatiles during storage was faster in the former.


The utility model relates to a multipurpose video distributor, which is characterized in that: an output port is provided with a set of video ports of Video, S-Video, color difference, COMPONENT, VGA, DVI and HDMI, and an input port is equipped with two or more than two sets of video ports of Video, S-Video, color difference, COMPONENT, VGA, DVI and HDMI, the video ports are positioned at both ends of a box body and form a whole body, and corresponding ports having the same name are connected with each other in the box by a video line. The video distributor has the functional effects that: the video distributor can automatically detect input signals and select corresponding port output ends and can avoid the repeating and troublesome wiring connection.


In principle, fish culture with aquaponics system save land utilization and can improve the efficiency of nutrient utilization of unconsumed feed and fish metabolism waste. Therefore, this system is recognized as environmentally friendly fish farming. The research aimed to find the optimum water retention for the maximum growth of tilapia raised in the aquaponics system. This experiment consisted of three treatments of different water retention, i.e. 30, 60, and 120 minutes and one flow- through recirculation system. Results showed that the highest individual weight gain of 39.92 g and individual daily growth rate of 0.54 g /day were reached in the treatment of 120 minutes water retention for 40 days growing period. Meanwhile, the lowest individual weight were observed in the treatment of 30 minutes water retention and control treatment, i.e. 25.25 ± 1.22 g and 18.52 ± 1.07 g, respectively. Aquaponic fish farming system with water retention of 120 minutes could reduced 10.69% of N- Total and 38.10% of P- Total, while survival rate was not influenced by water retention treatment


Prostate‐specific membrane antigen (PSMA) remains an attractive target for imaging and therapeutic applications for prostate cancer. Recent efforts have been made to conjugate inhibitors of PSMA with imaging agents. Compared to antibodies, small‐molecule inhibitors of PSMA possess apparent advantages for in vivo applications. To date, there are no reports on the cellular fate of such constructs once bound the extracellular domain of PSMA. The present study was focused on precisely defining the binding specificity, time‐dependent internalization, cellular localization, and retention of inhibitor conjugates targeted to PSMA on LNCaP cells. A novel fluorescent inhibitor was prepared as a model to examine these processes.


Over the past few years, the role of such positioning systems as Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in the big cities is falling rapidly. The reason for this is the increasing density, height and area of the buildings. The walls of the buildings are among the key problems in the performance of these positioning systems. In addition, the above systems are failing with their tasks in such large-scale buildings as museums, exhibition and shopping centers etc. In this regard, in recent years, a new global challenge in the field of indoor positioning appeared - the localization and subsequent navigation of mobile objects (pedestrians, vehicles and robots) in enclosed areas, as well as the environment in which satellite navigation systems for some reasons are not efficient.


The self assembling behavior of styrene vinyl triethoxylsilane copolymer was examined. The qualities of the polymer films made from the polymer solutions of different concentrations in toluene were investigated by means of static water contact angle measurement, ellipsometric thickness measurement, surface composition analysis, and atomic force microscopic observation of the surface morphology. The friction and wear behavior of the self assembled film sliding against AISI 52100 steel was examined. It was found that the quality of the self assembled ultra thin polymer films is closely dependent on the concentration of the polymer solutions from which the film is prepared. This in turn leads to change in the friction and wear behavior of the self assembled ultra thin polymer films. The self assembled polymer films register low friction coefficient and long antiwear life in sliding against AISI 52100 steel, as compared with the silicon substrate. Thus they could be potential candidates as the friction reducing and wear resistant protective layers of Si based elements in micro systems.


Recently, clinical treatments applying drug delivery system (DDS) , e. g. photo-dynamic therapy, have been being developed. However , it is quite difficult to in vivo dianose spatiotemporal distribution of drug infiltration, so the validation study should be too insufficient to progress the DDS development. In this study, we propose a quantitatively visualizing assay of DDS , namely 2-Color O ptical Coherence Dosigraphy (2 C-OCD), which is based on optical coherence tomography using two waveband light sources having different optical absorbance of drug . This can simultaneously provide microscale tomographic images of scatterer density and drug concentration . In order to confirm 2 C-OCD, two buffer solutions having different concentration combination of Intralipid and DDS drug were pressurized from respective ends of Y-shaped microchannel . Their concentration maps were calculated at the cross-section of Y-junction using 2 C-OCD . Consequently, the results agreed with inlet conditions of concentration combination , thus 2 C-OCD can visualize drug concentration with spatial resolution 5μm×10μm and accuracy ±11 .3μM.


This study investigated the relationship between participation in school sports and adolescent health risk behaviors in a nationally representative sample of 12,272 high school students. Male and f...


Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmatic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV) is a rare, life-threatening, systemic auto-immune disease.[1]Due to the low prevalence, multiple treating disciplines and poor registration, including ICD-10 classification, identifying AAV patients for (pre-)clinical studies, research and health care evaluation is challenging.[2, 3]Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve identifying these patients in health care organisations. Employing artificial intelligence (AI) – supported search engines are increasingly suggested to achieve this.Reliably identify AAV patients in electronic health records (EHR) using an AI-based tool that incorporates text mining and Natural Language Processing (NLP).The identification method consists of a search strategy combined with NLP-based exclusion. A search strategy to optimally identify AAV patients within a single center EHR system of an academic hospital was developed using an established AAV cohort (n=203) as a gold-standard reference set. Patient records, identified by the search strategy outside of the reference set, underwent manual review to confirm newly-identified AAV patients. Then, improvement in performance by adding NLP to the text-mining search strategy was investigated. Validation was performed on an independent EHR system of a non-academic hospital with an established AAV cohort available for reference (n=84).The search strategy combined five queries based on disease description, laboratory measurements, medication and relevant specialisms. In the determination EHR, the search strategy identified 608 patients, including 197/203 (97.0%) AAV patients of the reference set and 149 newly-identified AAV cases confirmed by manual review. Employing NLP in the identification method improved the positive predictive value (PPV) from 57% (346/608 patients) to 78% (339/444 patients). These results were validated in an independent EHR system where the search strategy identified 333 patient, including 82/84 (97.6%) AAV patients of the reference set and 112 newly-identified AAV cases upon manual review. NLP improved PPV from 59% (194/333 patients) to 86% (192/223 patients). Negative predictive values and specificities were above 98% in all analyses.We present an AI based identification method to identify low-prevalent AAV patients in EHR systems. We demonstrated improved performance when adding NLP to the text-mining search strategy. Successful validation in an independent health organisation supports the applicability and transportability of this method which can be an important accelerator for research efforts and health care evaluation in AAV patients.[1]Kitching AR, Anders HJ, Basu N, Brouwer E, Gordon J, Jayne DR, et al. ANCA-associated vasculitis. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2020;6(1):71.[2]Quan H, Li B, Saunders LD, Parsons GA, Nilsson CI, Alibhai A, et al. Assessing validity of ICD-9-CM and ICD-10 administrative data in recording clinical conditions in a unique dually coded database. Health Serv Res. 2008;43(4):1424-41.[3]Spierings J BT, Dirikgil E, Moens HB. Overdaad aan ICD-coderingen hindert onderzoek. Medisch Contact. 2020;22:18-20.NIL.Jolijn van Leeuwen: None declared, Erik Penne: None declared, Y.K. Onno Teng Consultant of: YKOT received an unrestricted research grant and consultancy fees from Vifor Pharma., Grant/research support from: The work of YKOT was supported by the Dutch Kidney Foundation (17OKG04) and by the Arthritis Research and Collaboration Hub Foundation. Arthritis Research and Collaboration Hub is funded by Dutch Arthritis Foundation (ReumaNederland).


This Study was commissioned by a number of Trustee bodies of voluntary secondary schools in Ireland. We are extremely grateful to the members of the Advisory Group, drawn from the Trustee members, for their on-going support and feedback on the research. We wish to thank the principals, as well as key stakeholders (Trustee members and educational stakeholders) who participated in the study. We also acknowledge the role of Amarach Research in conducting a survey of second-level school principals and chairpersons of boards of management of all se-level schools. Finally, our condthanks go to the Director of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), two internal ESRI referees and an external referee for their comments on earlier drafts of this report.


This essay explores how Catholic women have changed Catholicism as a culture, if not so much the institutional church, in the years between 1970 and 2020. Catholic women have not endeared ourselves to Catholic hierarchs; in fact many dislike and fear us. But we have saved lives, spiritual as well as physical, by providing solid opposition and creative alternatives to the institutional church. A redesign of Catholicsm begins with the culture and ethos. Catholic women envision it as a global movement rooted in particular cultures, united by values of love and justice, open to the wisdom of many religious traditions, and structured to provide ministry and meaning through cooperative, horizontally organized communities. While there has been progress, more work remains to be done.


The present paper is an integral part of the "Preparation of the strategy for social benefits monetization reform in Ukraine" project, co-financed by the 2008 Polish aid programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland and carried out by CASE in 2008. The paper was prepared as background material aimed at obtaining a better understanding of the main bottlenecks in reforming a vast in-kind benefits system typical for many countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The paper focuses on the following issues: aims and motives of monetization reforms in Russia; expected outcomes of the reform; description of the implementation process; changes of the roles of various actors and agencies; compensation of housing and communal services (HCS) expenses in the course of HCS and monetization reforms; and the major gains and failures of the reform. The paper concludes with lessons that can be derived from the Russian monetization experience for the planned Ukrainian monetization reform. The paper is based on extensive research on the monetization reform in Russia and literature published by leading Russian independent research centers including the Independent Institute for Social Policy (IISP), the Institute for Urban Economics, the Centre for Economic and Financial studies (CEFIR), and the Institute for the Economy in Transition (IET).


The quality and efficacy of vermicompost are greatly influenced by the respective feeding materials as well as earthworm species used in vermicomposting. Consequently, the variable role of applied vermicompost is reflected in crop production. With a view to observe the efficacy of vermicompost produced from various sources in supplementing zinc and boron requirement for quality production of cabbage, a field study was conducted in Floodplain soil of Bangladesh. Six treatment combinations comprising of vermicompost from different sources, and different levels of zinc and boron from mineral fertilizers were tested in the study. The vermicompost used in different treatments were produced from different combinations of feeding materials (cowdung and poultry litter) and earthworm species (Eisenia fetida and Eudrilus eugeniae). A control treatment having no supplement of Zn and B was tested in the study. Higher measurements were recorded for most of the parameters studied, i.e., head diameter, marketable yield and total yield in the vermicompost treated plots than the solely mineral fertilizer treated plot. Except for P, the highest uptake of each of the elements by cabbage was observed due to the application of T3 treatment (VC-ECD @2.0 t ha-1 + 1.5 kg Zn ha-1 + 1.0 kg B ha-1). The findings of this research work indicate the additional benefit of using vermicompost over the mineral fertilizer in supplying zinc and boron for better production of cabbage.


In this paper, we propose a method to exploit the harmonicity of human voiced speech using only the most harmonic sub-part of the spectrum. This technique searches for all the potential sub-windows of the spectrum, and measures their local harmonicity, using a newly proposed metric, which works in the spectral autocorrelation domain and employs a novel sinusoidal fitting approach. Experiments show that the new feature can be used to detect noisy voiced speech frames heavily corrupted by non-stationary noise even at 0dB SNR with high precision and recall, which gives better results than the Windowed Autocorrelation Lag Energy (WALE), a recently proposed voicing features, under a complex factory noise scenarios.


The main goal of this study is on developing a proper brand-new data of national base map and Data Based(DB) model for new information technology environments. To achieve this goal, we generated a brandnew Hybrid spatial information model which is specialized in the spatio-temporal map structure, the framework map for information integration, and the multiple-layered topology structure. The DB structure was designed to reflect the change of objections by adding a new dimension of "time" in the spartial information, while the infrastructure was able to connect/converge with other information by giving the unique ID and multiscale fusion map structure. Furthermore, the topology and multi visualization structure, including indoor and basement information, were designed to overcome limitations of expressing in 2 dimension map. The result from the performance test, which was based on the Hybrid spatial information model, confirms the possibility in advanced national base map and conducted DB model through implementing various information and spatiotemporal connections.


Higher plants, terrestrial micro-organisms and marine organisms have yielded natural products with a great diversity of chemical structures, biological activity and novel modes of action, and these have been a rich source of leads for the discovery of new crop protection chemicals and pharmaceuticals. This review will focus on natural products from marine organisms – the "hot spot" of natural products research in recent years – as well as on insecticidal natural products from terrestrial plants. Marine natural products with pesticidal activity include alkaloids and macrolactones, while pesticides from plants include terpenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids, macrolactones and acetogenins as well as essential oils containing a mixture of natural products.


Let G a be subgroup of SL(2,C), the group of 2x2 matrices of determinant 1 with complex entries. Let h map onto h(G) be a homomorphism. We call h a trace preserving homomorphism if tr(h(g))=tr(g) for all g in G,where tr(g) is the trace of g. We solve the question of when a trace invariant homomorphism is a conjugation by some A in SL(2,R). Moreover, if the group G is finitely presented, this paper determines which traces of the generators and products of the generators determine the group up to conjugation. Incomplete solutions are known from the study of Fuchsian groups. Our theorems in this paper will expand the results in the literature to include Fuchsian Groups with elliptic elements, which have not been considered before. Moreover, they will be applicable to any class of subgroups of SL(2,C). The methods used will be relatively elementary and will indicate how many traces are needed, and the role that any relator equation plays in the parameterization by traces of a class of groups.


Objective of the study: to develop and assess the occlusal digital splint for treating patients with temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJD). Material and Methods — 17 patients between the ages of 30 and 49 diagnosed with TMJD were admitted for treatment. To normalize mandibular position, an occlusal digital splint for all patients was manufactured in accordance with our original method. An intensity of pain sensations in all patients prior to, and after, the treatment was assessed by a visual analogue scale, along with the changes in the mandibular movements' amplitude, and the signs of splint wear and stability of occlusal contacts. Results — Patients have adapted themselves well to the splint and found it convenient in use. The study results showed that it was sufficiently effective in treatment of TMJD. Reduction in pain intensity and restoration of mandibular movements' amplitude were detected with certainty. Only in 2 (11.7%) cases, the signs of wear on the splint were found, as evidenced by the changes in pre-treatment occlusal contacts. In all other cases throughout the study, a stable occlusal contact has been encountered. Conclusion — Our results indicated that proposed occlusal digital splint may be considered as a treatment option for the patients with TMJ disorders.


The complexation between ribavirin and copper dichloride produced a blue strip crystal.The single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis was taken to determine the crystal structure of the complex.The characteristics of the complex were studied in means of IR spectra,UV spectra and TG-DTA analysis.The crystal complex was soluble in water but slightly soluble in methanol and ethanol that could be latent medicine.


A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used to predict the flow patterns and hydraulics of a commercial-scale sieve tray. The model considers the 3-D two-phase flow of gas and liquid in which each phase is treated as an interpenetrating continuum having separate transport equations. Interaction between the two phases occurs via an interphase momentum transfer. For the CFD analysis, the commercial packages CFX5.4 and CFX4.4 of AEA Technology were employed. Velocity distributions, clear liquid height, froth height, and liquid holdup fraction in froth were predicted for various combinations of gas and liquid flow rates. Tray geometry and operating conditions were based on the experimental work that Solari and Bell carried out in a 1.22-m diameter air-water simulator in 1986 at Fractionation Research Inc. Predicted results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data of these authors. The objective of the work was studying the extent to which CFD can be used as a prediction and design tool for industrial trays. The simulation results are such that CFD can be used as an invaluable tool in tray design and analysis.


Quality management is one of important factor in an organization. Quality management has been developed since early 20th century through number of stages: quality control (QC); quality assurance (QA) and total quality control (TQC). Scopes and concepts have been extended from stage to stage. And Total Quality Management (TQM) is one of popular and efficient management concept in a modern organization. The differences between last quality managements and TQM are: last quality managements are obviously assigned major duties and responsible of quality department in an organization and quality is managed according to certain standards which have been built up. Meanwhile TQM requires involvement of all people, departments, sectors in an organization and TQM implementation also requires continuous improvement. Even though TQM implementation help organization to improve not only quality of products, service but also management systems, there are still the gaps lasted between each level in an organization that lead the achievement from TQM implementation is not as planed and organization expectation. The case study in this research is a manufacture company with two year implemented TQM, the research will focus to find the gaps between levels in factory.


Here, the authors apply Lorenz–Lorentz and Maxwell Garnett homogenisation theory in order to extract the effective constitutive parameters of a metamaterial. The authors demonstrate the significance of extracting the polarisability coefficients of a metamaterial taking in consideration the interaction fields of a unit cell neighbours in an infinite periodic structure. The validation process is done using full wave analysis by comparing reflection and transmission coefficients of the periodic structure to the results from a bulk characterised by the extracted electrical effective parameters. The presented method helped us to evaluate the effective parameters of non-dispersive metamaterials with highly interaction fields. In addition, several new geometries of metamaterials that are characterised by unique non-dispersive diagonal ϵ ¯ ¯ and μ ¯ ¯ are presented.


(i) Proceeding from a consideration of the non‐diffusible constituents of the cells, the sum of the electric charges thereon, the mean intracellular pH, and an optimum or maximum membrane potential, the inorganic levels of Na, K, H, HCO2 and CI can be interpreted as physiological requirements and HCO3 and CI concentrations in turn, assuming a necessary ventilation tension of CO2. (2) Omitting considerations of the membrane potential, or treating them as of secondary importance, the optimum pH value, and in turn the K and HCO3 concentrations, are theoretically deducible by an alternative method of wider implications. (3) Including the effects of contact with the solid bone salts the concentration of the inorganic phosphate ions and minimal values for Ca and Mg ionic concentrations may also be deduced.


A novel two‐dimensional crest factor reduction (2D‐CFR) is proposed to improve the dual‐band concurrent performance of power amplifiers (PAs). The concurrent performance of target PA can be improved significantly when the power for peak detection conforms to the concurrent characteristic. Peak detection and clipping operation are presented based on concurrent output capacity of PAs, which can be efficiently described by introducing two design parameters. Measured results show that the drain efficiency is improved from 34.2% to 36.6% with the proposed 2D‐CFR when compared with the conventional 2D‐CFR while maintaining similar error vector magnitude and ACPRs, which indicates a significant performance improvement.


Bronchiolitis is a major cause of hospitalisation in children under 24 months of age and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The illness is usually caused by a virus, commonly respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and is characterised by acute wheezing, rhinorrhoea, sneezing, coughing, fever and tachypnoea. Conventional supportive care for bronchiolitis is to provide supplemental oxygen, respiratory support and fluid therapy. An emerging alternative to conventional care is to deliver heated, humidified highflow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen. HFNC therapy has been demonstrated to be a well-tolerated intervention, which can deliver oxygen at a higher flow rate than conventional delivery via nasal cannula. It is proposed by using heated and humidified oxygen, less damage occurs to the upper airway mucosa, the alveolar dead space is washed out, facilitating alveolar ventilation and resistance to upper airway ventilation is reduced. Additionally, it is suggested HFNC therapy provides a degree of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which assists in maintaining open airways and thus improves ventilation.


One of the most robust empirical findings about direct democracy is that US states with the voter initiative tax and spend significantly less than states without the initiative, at least since the mid-1970s. The relationship between initiative status and fiscal policy has been interpreted as causal and as an indication that voters prefer smaller government than legislators. Yet, existing research has not explained exactly which elements of the public budget are cut in initiative states. This paper does so. First, I establish that the fiscal differential between initiative and non-initiative states is not due to smaller government budgets in general, but specifically due to lesser and more unequal education funding, primarily resulting from reductions in state aid to local school districts. Next, drawing upon a newly created data set that traces state education funding from the late 1800s to today, I explore the origins of these fiscal differentials. I find that some of the differences between would-be initiative and non-initiative states are evident even before the initiative existed. Others emerged only many decades after the initiative had been adopted. Tracing the causal pathway from the voter initiative to contemporary policy outcomes—if indeed there is one—is therefore a major challenge for scholarship in this area. I discuss implications of these results for the understanding of direct democracy and its effects on the relationship between voters and politicians.


In many technical fields, for example heat exchangers, circular cylinders are involved in Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) problems. Therefore correct fluid forces or Strouhal number, drag and fluctuating lift coefficient are needed. On one hand Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) or Large Eddy Simulation (LES) are too time-expensive, on the other hand great errors can occur, if fluid forces are evaluated with mainstream statistical turbulence models. An incorrect prediction of laminar to turbulent transition and correspondingly a miscalculation of the separation point is the main reason. Several turbulence models and models for laminar to turbulent transition are applied to flow around a circular cylinder in the Reynolds number range from 500 up to 106 . Mainly 2D simulations demonstrate the large improvements that are possible with transition models. Additionally calculations are presented to evaluate whether the class of statistical turbulence and transition models is influenced by three dimensional modeling. Results will be presented for the Shear Stress Transport (SST) and the Wilcox98 k-ω turbulence model. While the latter can be modified according to a proposal of Wilcox (1998) to take transition into account, the commercial code we use at our institute provides several extensions for transition modeling together with the SST model.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


Introduction The Tunisian revolution (2) has moved on from being described as the most inspiring and outstanding revolt in the Arab world since the beginning of 2011 to a situation where people have experienced deep fragmentations and divisions in relation to what kind of political system, reforms and rights to move toward to (3). In the revolutionary aftermath, an impasse seems to have been reached, which is characterized by confusion, fear, and disenchantment. In spite of this, a number of social and political organizations have become active participants in the transitional process, and this is perhaps most clearly demonstrated by the involvement of women activists, something which has constituted a potential element of hope for other women's movements in the region. In Tunisian history, the introduction of the Personal Status Code (4) in 1956 and the establishment of the legal status of Tunisian women in terms of the equality of all citizens before the law (5) have combined to set up one of the first models for women's emancipation in the Middle East and North African countries, as well as women's engagement with political and social transformations has been deeply rooted within society. Since that time, the subject of the status of women in Tunisian society has also become significant in the agenda of the Islamic Tendency Movement, the precursor of the Ennahda party. Indeed, Shaykh Rachid Gannouchi raised questions concerning the Personal Status Code in his book 'Muslim woman in Tunisia: between Qu'ranic directives and realities of Tunisian society' (1993). However, this has not implied an opposition to gender equality, and this contribution has helped to underline the importance of contextualizing women's rights within the complexity of Tunisian society (Sadiki, 2012). Since the time of post-colonial independence, Tunisian women have on the one hand struggled against dictatorships and violence, and on the other hand they have addressed their battles towards the traditional religious and cultural norms founded on the principles which exclude women from the public sphere. In the most recent years, a very noteworthy step forward took place just after the revolution, when, in August 2011, Tunisia became the first country in the region to propose withdrawing its specific reservations regarding the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) (6). This proposal has to date remained only a statement of intent, since the current government has not yet enforced such provisions. As in many other Arab countries, in Tunisia the post-revolutionary euphoria has quickly changed its direction and is heading towards a situation where violent episodes of harassment and intimidation can be directed against women's initiatives calling for gender justice and equal rights. This situation described above represents the background to the fieldwork carried out in February 2013, on which this study is founded. Following an historical overview of Tunisian women's activism, this paper principally focuses on the question of whether, and if so, in what way, Tunisian women's and feminist organizations have changed their agenda in relation to the improvement of women's rights and participation in socio-political transformations during the post-revolutionary transition. Another issue examined throughout this paper is the relationship between secular and religious women's organizations, relationship which is often seen in terms of division. Finally, this research also deals with the main challenges experienced by women activists involved in transnational programs such as those operated in partnership with women's organizations from the other side of the Mediterranean, and particularly those operated under the umbrella of the European Union. Employing a multidisciplinary approach towards the results of field research (7), the transcripts of the interviews with Tunisian women activists (both from grassroots and institutional political participation) have been examined to implement a constructive discourse centered on the transitional process. …


We present a construction of a gradient recovery operator based on an oblique projection, where the basis functions of two involved spaces satisfy a condition of biorthogonality. The biorthogonality condition guarantees that the recovery operator is local.


The latter 1990s witnessed rapid growth among the largest retail food chain companies, much of it through acquisitions. An explanatory motive is that grocery chains could achieve greater scale economies and operating efficiencies, and increase their bargaining power with packaged food manufacturer-suppliers. This article begins to examine whether the largest retailers are realizing the promised financial rewards associated with this growth trend. We examine the performance of the three largest U.S. food retailers, Albertson's, Inc., The Kroger Company, and Safeway Inc., over 7 fiscal years beginning in calendar year 1993 and ending in fiscal year 1999, a period that covers the recent increase in acquisition activity. Overall, we find only modest evidence that the financial returns to the rapid growth strategies of the three largest food retailers have begun to be realized through fiscal year 1999. lEconLit citations: G390, G340, Q130r © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


AIMS
The pathophysiology underlying aortic valve stenosis (AVS)-induced cardiac dysfunction and reduced exercise capacity is unclear. We hypothesize that improvement of myocardial external efficiency (MEE)--the ratio between external work and myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2)--underlies functional improvement of AVS patients after aortic valve replacement (AVR). Therefore, the aim of this proof-of-concept study was to investigate whether myocardial efficiency is reduced in patients with cardiac hypertrophy caused by AVS and to assess the effect of AVR on myocardial efficiency in relation to exercise capacity.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Echocardiography, cardiopulmonary exercise test, [(11)C]-acetate positron emission tomography and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging were performed in 10 AVS patients prior to (pre-AVR) and 4 months after AVR (post-AVR). Fourteen healthy individuals served as control group. MEE was significantly lower in pre-AVR patients (32 ± 7%) than in controls (49 ± 6%). AVR significantly decreased left ventricle mass and MVO2. Also, external work significantly decreased post-AVR reaching similar values as in controls. AVR significantly improved MEE from 32 ± 7 to 37 ± 5% (P = 0.02). Moreover, significant correlations were present between the AVR-induced increase in MEE and changes in both exercise work (r = 0.74, P = 0.01) and peak VO2 (r = 0.67, P = 0.03). However, four AVS patients did not show improved MEE, which was associated with no or minimal improvement in exercise parameters.

CONCLUSION
MEE is significantly reduced in patients with AVS-induced hypertrophy. Improved MEE is an important predictor of AVR-induced improvement of exercise capacity in AVS patients. Future investigation is needed to confirm our observations in a large prospective, multicenter clinical trial.


Objective To investigate the expression of tumor suppressor vitamin D3 up-regulated protein 1 (VDUP1) in lung cancer, and to reveal its relationship with lung cancer and significance.Methods The expressions of VDUP1 mRNA and protein in lung cancer tissues and adjacent normal lung tissues of 35 patients with lung cancer were detected by real time-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot. The hierarchical comparison was further performed according to cancer cell differentiation and TNM clinical stage of lung cancer. Results The expressions of VDUP1 mRNA and protein in lung cancer tissues were obviously lower than those in adjacent normal lung tissues ( P =0. 000). The expression of VDUP1 protein in lung cancer was related to TNM stage and cell differentiation (all P <0. 05), but not to smoking, sex, and histological type. Multiple analysis results showed VDUP1 expression was respectively 1. 17±0. 07,0. 91±0. 26,0. 83±0. 26 in high, middle, and low differentiation lung cancer tissues ( P =0. 023). VDUP1 expression at stage Ⅰ~Ⅱ(1. 03±0. 20) was significantly higher than that at stage Ⅲ ~Ⅳ (0. 79±0. 24, P =0. 004). Conclusions VDUP1 is lowly expressed in lung cancer, and related with TNM stage of lung cancer and cell differentiation, may be an effective indicator to determine progress and prognosis of lung cancer.

Key words:
Vitamin D3 up-regulated protein l; Lung cancer; Real time-polymerase chain reaction; Western bolt


It is usually safe after a week with repairs that do not put tissues under tension

Papers p 1056

Surgeons have traditionally advised patients recovering from groin hernia repairs not to drive for a month or two. This is based on the concern that postoperative pain could prolong reaction times and, to a lesser degree, that there is a risk of early recurrence as a result of the inertial forces that occur during a sudden impact or stop. However, preclusion from driving, particularly in the major cities around the globe, can have socioeconomic consequences.

Fortunately, by alleviating traditional concerns (and restrictions) about driving, the modern method of hernia repair is improving not only patients' physical wellbeing but their social and psychological recovery as well.

The pain that follows the repair of hernias in the groin is caused by mechanical and chemical stimulation of large, myelinated nerve fibres (A-α fibres) or small, …


A process for the polymerization or copolymerization of ethylene at a position corresponding to a comprised within a range ranging from 500 to 3500 bar, at a polymerization temperature comprised within the margins between 100 ° C value operating pressure and 400 ° C in a suitable high pressure reactor, operating, a continuously or discontinuously (in batches), using polymerization initiator radicals, characterized in that the initiator of radical polymerization, is a hydroxylamine ester containing a structural element of formula (I) or (I '') (I ') wherein X' 'is hydrogen, C1-C36, C1-C36 which is substituted by halogen, C5-C12cycloalkyl, bicyclo- or tricyclo-alkyl C7-C12, C2-C36 alkenyl, C2-C18 alkynyl, C6-C10 aryl, O-C1-C18alkyl, O-C6-C10 aryl, - NH-C1-C18, -NH-C6-C10aryl, -N (C1-C6) 2; X '' is a bond or straight or C1-C36 link, C2-C36 alkenylene, alkynylene C2-C36, - (C1-C6) -phenyl- (C1-C6) or a group and * indicates the link or link to which are attached carbonyl groups.


In this study, the governing design factors of GFRP-reinforced concrete bridge deck are analyzed for typical bridges in Korea. The adopted bridge deck is a cast-in-situ concrete bridge deck for the prestressed concrete girder bridge with dimensions of 240 mm thickness and 2.75 m span length from center-to-center of supporting girders. The selected design variables are the diameters of GFRP rebar, spacings of GFRP rebars and concrete cover thicknesses, Considering the absence of the specification relating GFRP rebar in Korea, AASHTO specification is used to design the GFRP-reinforced concrete bridge deck. The GFRP-reinforced concrete bridge deck is proved to be governed by the criteria about serviceability, especially maximum crack width, while steel reinforced concrete bridge deck is governed by the criteria on ultimate limit state. In addition, GFRP rebars with diameter of 16 mm ~ 19 mm should be used for the main transverse direction of decks to assure appropriate rebar spacings.


In recent years, the device-to-device is considered as a promising technique to realize vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, which have more stringent requirements for latency and reliability. With underlay mode, this paper studies the resource scheduling and power allocation for the vehicular user equipments (VUEs) in order to maximize the sum rate of the downlink cellular user equipments (CUEs) while guaranteeing the latency and reliability requirements of V2V communications. To make the formulated problem solvable, the latency constraint is first transformed into a virtual queue constraint. Then, utilizing Lyapunov optimization theory, a dynamic radio resource allocation (RRA) algorithm is proposed to find the optimal solution to the considered problem. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed RRA algorithm can significantly reduce the interference of V2V communications to the CUEs as well as ensure the latency and reliability requirements of V2V communications.


The two 3-deoxy-D-hexosones, 3-deoxy-D-erythrohexosone and 3-deoxy-D-threohexosone, were quantitatively converted by acid to 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furaldehyde.The mechanism of the formation of 2-furaldehyde from sugars is discussed. Calcium hydroxide rapidly converted 3-deoxy-D-erythrohexosone to α- and β-glucometasaccharinic acids, and 3-deoxy-D-threohexosone to α- and β-galactometasaccharinic acids.


This study aimed to examine the trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity and to determine the associated socioeconomic and household environmental factors among women in Nepal. Using nationally representative data from the 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 cross-sectional Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHSs) (n = 33,507), the prevalence of overweight–obesity (body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) among women aged 15–49 years were examined. From the latest NDHS 2016, non-pregnant women with recorded anthropometric measurements (n = 6165) were included in the final analyses. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the socioeconomic and household environmental factors associated with BMI ≥ 25 and BMI ≥ 30. Between 1996 and 2016, the prevalence of overweight–obesity increased from 1.8% to 19.7%, while the prevalence of obesity increased from 0.2% to 4.1%. Age, marital status, wealth index, province of residence, cooking fuel, refrigerator, and bicycle were significantly associated with having both overweight–obesity and obesity. Similarly, educational status, religion, type of toilet facility, television, and mobile phone were significantly associated with having overweight–obesity. Given the alarming increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Nepalese women, there is an urgent need of interventions addressing these critical socioeconomic and household environmental factors.


Recent technological advancements in geomatics and mobile sensing have led to various urban big data, such as Tencent street view (TSV) photographs; yet, the urban objects in the big dataset have hitherto been inadequately exploited. This paper aims to propose a pedestrian analytics approach named vectors of uncountable and countable objects for clustering and analysis (VUCCA) for processing 530,000 TSV photographs of Hong Kong Island. First, VUCCA transductively adopts two pre-trained deep models to TSV photographs for extracting pedestrians and surrounding pixels into generalizable semantic vectors of features, including uncountable objects such as vegetation, sky, paved pedestrian path, and guardrail and countable objects such as cars, trucks, pedestrians, city animals, and traffic lights. Then, the extracted pedestrians are semantically clustered using the vectors, e.g., for understanding where they usually stand. Third, pedestrians are semantically indexed using relations and activities (e.g., walking behind a guardrail, road-crossing, carrying a backpack, or walking a pet) for queries of unstructured photographic instances or natural language clauses. The experiment results showed that the pedestrians detected in the TSV photographs were successfully clustered into meaningful groups and indexed by the semantic vectors. The presented VUCCA can enrich eye-level urban features into computational semantic vectors for pedestrians to enable smart city research in urban geography, urban planning, real estate, transportation, conservation, and other disciplines.


The description of the basic principles of constructing of the means of imitation modeling of the balancing electricity market functions in Ukraine is described. The assumptions, which are base of the imitation model of the balancing market are identified. The main functions of the imitation model of the balancing market and the mathematical apparatus used for the realization of these functions are outlined. An example of the modeling results of balancing market functions, taking into account the network constraints of the IPS of Ukraine is presented. References 6, figures 4.


● With the introduction of local earthquake tomography, aftershock seismology has registered a major advance in India in the last decade. In the first paper Mukhopadhyay and Kayal outline results of detailed aftershock studies carried out after the Bhuj 2004 event and present a picture of the Vp, Vs and Vp/ Vs variations in the 50km depth range of the lithosphere below the meizoseismal and adjoining zones of the event.


We consider the magnetic Ginzburg-Landau equations in a compact manifold $N$ $$ \begin{cases} -\varepsilon^2 \Delta^{A} u=\frac{1}{2}(1-|u|^2)u,\\ \varepsilon^2 d^*dA=\langle\nabla^A u,iu\rangle \end{cases} $$ formally corresponding to the Euler-Lagrange equations for the energy functional $$ E(u,A)=\frac{1}{2}\int_{N}\varepsilon^2|\nabla^Au|^{2}+\varepsilon^4|dA|^{2}+\frac{1}{4}(1-|u|^{2})^{2}. $$ Here $u:N\to \mathbb{C}$ and $A$ is a 1-form on $N$. Given a codimension-2 minimal submanifold $M\subset N$ which is also oriented and non-degenerate, we construct a solution $(u_\varepsilon,A_\varepsilon)$ such that $u_\varepsilon$ has a zero set consisting of a smooth surface close to $M$. Away from $M$ we have $$ u_\varepsilon(x)\to\frac{z}{|z|},\quad A_\varepsilon(x)\to\frac{1}{|z|^2}(-z^2dz^1+z^1dz^2),\quad x=\exp_y(z^\beta\nu_\beta(y)). $$ as $\varepsilon\to 0$, for all sufficiently small $z\ne 0$ and $y\in M$. Here, $\{\nu_1,\nu_2\}$ is a normal frame for $M$ in $N$. This improves a recent result by De Philippis and Pigati who built a solution for which the concentration phenomenon holds in an energy, measure-theoretical sense.


This article reviews the main types of security measures of enterprise proof the necessity of risk management as the main ways to prevent and neutralize the threats to economic security of company. Rewiews the methods and ways of controlling and minimizing risks. Formed the authors vision on the stage of management of enterprise security threats. The level of economic security of railway transport depends on how well its leaders and experts will be able to avoid potential threats and eliminate the harmful effects of certain negative elements of external and internal environment. That is necessary to detect types of threats, identify the sources of their origin, scope display, time to find by reducing the negative effects to a minimum. Since the main source of threat is the risk that every company needs an effective system of risk management. The purpose of risk management to maximize their positive impact (opportunities that are open), and thus minimize the associated negative factors (damage, loss). Effective processes of identifying and managing risk helps to achieve a reasonable compromise between these dangers and new features. Thus, a reasonable risk management will result in the neutralization of threats.


Critical Occasions examines the relations between selected critical texts of Dryden, Pope, and Johnson, and the theoretical problems that arise in writing the history of the critical past. It is a book about three great Augustan critics and about the theory and philosophy of history in its application to criticism. Philip Smallwood was Professor of English at Birmingham City University for many years and is presently Visiting Fellow in the Department of English at Bristol University.


Selection of human faces in images is a relevant task in the sphere of computer vision. The design of the clusterization of the features for faces identification in the images is considered. To allocate faces, we used the approach based on the spectral theory of graphs. The characteristics of graphs are formed using a random walk of the graph. To get some information about the possible cluster structure, an eigenvector is used corresponding to the minimum value of the commute time matrix. The prior information about the proportions of the head is used for imposing constraints on the clusterization results. The network of proportions is used as the prior information. In this paper the algorithm is described, the research is fulfilled; the results of the experiments are shown. The advantage of the developed algorithm is shown comparing to the algorithm of the normalized cuts on the graphs.


This article has the main purpose of showing the Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Fictitious disorder in which individuals, most often caregivers or parents, cause or aggravate physical or psychological illnesses in others, subjecting them to unpleasant and unnecessary treatments, causing permanent injuries and often even leading them to death. This syndrome may be influenced by external factors that make patients aim at possibilities of being recognized and gaining attention. In this article we will cover the concepts, stories and cases involving the Munchausen Syndrome, as well as its consequences and the results they bring to the legal system.