Objective To study the effect of age on monophasic action potential (MAP) of atrial muscle. Methods According to their age, Wistar rats (n=40) were divided into 4 groups:young group, adult group, middle-aged group and old group.The MAP at 20%(MAPD_ 20),50%(MAPD_ 50) and 90%(MAPD_ 90) repolarization and effective refractory period (ERP) of left atrium at the same pacing cycle length (S_1S_1=400 ms), and the MAPD at other shorter pacing cycle length were assayed for each group.Result With age advancing, all phases of MAP and ERP were prolonged (P0.01), while the MAPD and ERP of left atrial muscle in old group became short. In the same age group, the MAPD shortened with pacing frequency increasing.The change in middle-aged group was marked, and mainly appeared in MAPD_ 90.Conclution Age is an important factor influencing heart electrophysiology.


Rheumatoid cachexia (RC) is common, probably underappreciated, and incompletely understood. It is important to recognize this, because these patients can often be helped.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease affecting more women than men, with a prevalence of 0.5%–1% in the United States1,2. Nearly two-thirds of patients with RA have a metabolic abnormality accompanied by wasting of muscle mass, with the presence of stable or even increased fat mass3. This is referred to as RC. This condition is seen without any evidence of malabsorption or impaired renal or liver function.

RC was first described by Sir James Paget over 100 years ago. It is derived from the Greek word meaning "bad condition"4. It is a major cause of weight loss and increased mortality and morbidity in patients with RA.

While cachexia generally reflects advanced malnutrition and wasting, we now know that this term more specifically refers to a loss of body cell mass (BCM). BCM is clinically relevant as loss of more than 40% of baseline BCM is associated with death5. With even as little as 5% loss of BCM, there are demonstrable changes in morbidity, including reduced muscle strength, altered energy metabolism, and increased susceptibility to infections6. The average loss of BCM among patients with RA is 13%–15%, about one-third of the maximum survivable loss of BCM3.

Patients with RA have a 2-fold to 5-fold higher mortality rate than the general population because of increased risk of infections2. Thus, RC should be viewed as an important contributor to increased morbidity and …

Address correspondence to Dr. R. Panush, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, HMR 711, 2011 Zonal Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA. E-mail: panush{at}usc.edu


Background of the Study : Cerebral palsy is a condition in infants / children where the message of the muscles and the brain does not run smoothly so that this situation makes simple tasks that we give to children as a mild pick up objects become very difficult.
Purposes : To investigate the implementation of physiotherapy to the reduction of spasticity and improvement of functional ability to walk.

Method : Neuro Development Treatment exercise therapy to reduce spasticity and improve functional ability
Results: Examination of spasticity done Asworth scale for spasticity showed no change and no potential occurrence of muscle contractures. On examination of the functional activity of the parameters GMFM results: (T1) Dimensions A lie down and roll over with a score of 29.41%, Dimension B sits with a score of 30%, Dimension C crawling and kneeling with a score of 26.19%, Dimension D stands with a score of 0 %, and Dimension E walking, running, and jumping with a score of 0%.
Conclusion : Using Neuro Development Treatment modalities results found no reduction in spasticity and improvement of functional ability roads.


Nanogold particles dispersed on oxides can be highly active as catalyst and often lack the long-term stability due to the inherent instability of small gold particles. New thinking for the catalyst design is therefore urgently demanded to enhance the gold sticking on oxides while retaining the high activity. By systematically investigating the working mechanism of a ternary system, Au supported on alumina modified anatase titania, using first principles calculations, this work illustrates from the atomic level how a third component (alumina) can be used as the nucleation center to anchor Au particles while the component itself does not take part in the catalytic oxidation of CO. For Au supported on pure anatase, CO oxidation is already facile with the reaction barrier being only 0.22 eV, but the Au adsorption on anatase is rather weak as expected. The stepwise growth of alumina on anatase is shown to produce locally clustered alumina thin layers on anatase (Al2O3/TiO2). On these Al2O3/TiO2 sites, the bind...


Aim: The aim of the present study is to investigate the effectiveness of group training of psychological capital on happiness due to the moderating effect of social relationships. Methods: Research method was semi-experimental with the control group. The sample was vulnerable women in the city Khomeini Shahr. Among them, 15 women were selected as a control group and 15 women in the experimental group. The sampling was cluster random. Fifteen sessions of group psychological capital were conducted for the experimental group. Pretest and posttest was performed by Psychological Capital Questionnaire 24 questions, statistics of CFI, RMSEA are respectively 0/97 and 0/08, in the model and also the reliability of the questionnaire obtained 0/85. Oxford happiness, 29 questions, the correlation between the oral hygiene index with the Beck's depression inventory and the scale and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was respectively 48/0, 45/0 and 39/0. Cronbach's alpha for the inventory was equal to 0/91 and adult attachment, 18 questions, in Iran using the test-retest reliability and the correlation between the two performances show that the test is reliable in the level of 0/95. The data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. Result: The results showed that the Group training of psychological capital has a positive impact on happiness and increases happiness in both groups with high and low social relations. Conclusions: The results showed that increasing of psychological capital increase happiness and increase the quality of life and reduced social and psychological injuries.


The paper proposes a high capacity reversible watermarking algorithm based on block-level prediction error histogram shifting. This algorithm, in contrast to the known prediction error histogram shifting based ones, provides a higher embedding capacity, which is achieved by employing similarity among adjacent blocks rather than simply pixels inside of a block. The imperceptibility is ensured by the premise that once the block selected is small enough, the center pixels of adjacent blocks have high probability of similarity or equality. At last, the effectiveness and performance are evaluated by experiments and the result shows that our proposed algorithm has higher capacity under the same imperceptibility compared with the classic prediction error histogram shifting based reversible watermarking algorithm as well as the state-of-the-art.


Optical access links can be used for relaying data from the surface of Mars to spacecraft orbiting Mars. In this paper considerations related to the concept of operations, link analysis and low-complexity transceiver design required for future implementation are discussed, along with the description of some prototype transceiver development that has been completed.


A widespread public-key-infrastructure(PKI) has to handle an enormous number of queries for cryptographic certificates which attest the authenticity of public keys,it needs high require for the services and network.In some special environments,it's hard to be satisfied with all users.Therefore the author developed a specialized peer-to-peer-PKI realizing efficient search and transfer of certificates and trust-recommendations.It is based on a combination of a logic calculus model for PKIs and a scalable peer-to-peer lookup protocol-Chord.This distributed approach offers advantages in comparison to hierarchical or centralized systems in terms of fault resistance,load distribution,self administration and independence of an operating organization.


The invention relates to a film dressing of a thin plastic film coated with the adhesive. The adhesive has softness of 10-22mm. The weight of the adhesive coating layer is 50g/m 2 or more at each unit area.


The invention discloses high-weather-fastness polysulfide sealant, which comprises base cream and vulcanizing cream, wherein the base cream comprises the components by weight: 30-70% of liquid polysulfide rubber, 20-60% of padding, 1-10% of tackifier, 3-20% of plasticizer, 0.3-5% of coupling agent, 0.1-2% of antioxidant and 0.05-1% of anti-ultraviolet agent; the vulcanizing cream comprises the components by weight: 25-70% of vulcanizing agent, 25-70% of plasticizer and 0.5-5% of vulcanization accelerator; and the mixed weight ratio of the base cream to the vulcanizing cream is 100 to (6-14). The invention also discloses a preparation method of the polysulfide sealant. The invention also discloses a preparation of the high-weather-fastness polysulfide sealant. The polysulfide sealant is characterized in that the weather fastness of the sealant is improved by the antioxidant and the anti-ultraviolet agent; the material cost is low, the process is stable, and the reproducibility is good. The high-weather-fastness polysulfide sealant disclosed by the invention can be used for bonding sealing elements of buildings, ships, high-speed trains, automobiles and the like, therefore, the high-weather fastness polysulfide sealant has a great application value in industry.


Habitual abortion is a complex multifactorial pathology. It leads to severe psychological trauma not only through a pregnancy loss, but also because uncertainty of reasons that led to this (more than 50 % of cases) and controversial further treatment plan of this disease with unknown following pregnancy outcome. The article presents a review of contemporary approaches to diagnosis and treatment of habitual abortion.


incidence varies from , to  of the coronary angiographies, with predilection of the right coronary artery. Unruptured coronary aneurysms are often silent and may remain undiag- nosed. Th e etiology can be either congenital or acquired. We describe a case of a left anterior descending artery (LAD) aneurysm treated with an off -pump surgical revascularization with a LIMA to LAD without exclusion or ligature of the aneurysm.


For the first time an attempt is made to single out locative-directional prefixes in the Hattian verbs, reveal their meaning and functions by comparing them with locative-directional prefixes in the Abkhazian-Adyghe languages. While singling out prefixes we took into consideration legitimate sound correspondences of vowels and consonants in the Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages:voiced–voiceless, palatal–hard, etc. Hattian sentences are given in Latin, their Abkhazian-Adyghe matches – in the Cyrillic alphabet and Latin transliteration in square brackets. The materials of the study were bilingual texts «The God of Moon Fallen from the Heaven» and «A Building Ritual». The methodology of the investigation is based on L. Talmy's cognitive semantics and typology. Orientation relationships are used for analyzing the meaning of Hattian verbal prefixes. The analysis of the Hattian locativedirectional prefixes and their comparison with Abkhazian-Adyghe locative-directional prefixes made it possible to reveal: 1) their coincidence in form and function; 2) the generality of archetype of locative-directional meanings in the matches; 3) the use of incorporation to widen the meaning of a locative prefix. Thus, in spite of a long time gap between the Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages, the locative-directional matches in the languages make it possible to speak of their close relationship. The results of the investigation may be used for writing books on history of Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages and for reconstruction of languages that have no writing.


Most decision tree algorithms focus on uni variate i e axis parallel tests at each inter nal node of a tree Oblique decision trees use multivariate linear tests at each non leaf node This paper reports a novel approach to the construction of non linear decision trees The crux of this method consists of the gen eration of new features and the augmenta tion of the primitive features with these new ones The resulted non linear decision trees are more accurate than their axis parallel or oblique counterparts Experiments on sev eral arti cial and real world data sets demon strate this property


1. SUMMARY 1.1 Due to the recent resignation of Councillor Mary Jean Devon from the Audit Committee, a vacancy has arisen which requires to be filled.


Oak processionary moth (OPM) was introduced into the U.K. in 2004–2005 and pheromone traps have been used to monitor its spread and provide an early warning of the colonization of new areas. The traps capture adult male OPM, although catches are highly variable and it has proved difficult to establish a relationship between the numbers of males caught and local population densities. Surveys carried out around 260 pheromone traps as part of the U.K. OPM control programme, however, reveal a consistent linear relationship between square‐root transformed adult males per trap and cube‐root (or log10) transformed numbers of larval nests (r2 = 0.47; P < 0.001) In 91% of cases where traps captured no adult males, there were no OPM nests within 250 m and, where nests were present, the numbers of nests were low. Traps that captured more than 10–20 males were associated with counts of ≥ 50 larval nests. Defoliation and risks to human health from OPM are more closely related to nest density (i.e. the numbers of nests per tree). Consequently, identifying trap catches that might initiate a management response also requires information on the number of oak trees in the surrounding area.


The Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) was developed late last century but has still to be introduced to the vast majority of economists. The HHT transform is a way of extracting the frequency mode features of cycles embedded in any time series using an adaptive data method that can be applied without making any assumptions about stationarity or linear data-generating properties. This paper introduces economists to the two constituent parts of the HHT transform, namely empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and Hilbert spectral analysis. Illustrative applications using HHT are also made to two financial and three economic time series.


The paper is devoted to the study of verbal formulae of attracting attention, which, without naming the addressee, encourage him to response. In Ukrainian and Lezgin speech communication such function is realized, as a rule, by interjections, particles and imperatives used by the addresser either because of uncertainty or extreme generalization of social indications of the addressee, or due to the lack of necessity (volition) of realizing such a nomination under certain speech conditions. The study resulted in determination of the fact that being the ethnos' spiritual culture markers of a certain kind, such addresses are marked by ethnographic originality.


Water repellent finish was carried out by padding and single-side impregnating coating. Effects of water repellency, coating amount, different adhesive on adhesion effect, as well as water repellency finishing on moisture permeability were discussed. Results show that using conventional adhesive, the adhesion effect will get worse along with the increase of water repellency. Adhesion effect improves slightly if increasing the coating amount. Special adhesive can overcome the above disadvantages while little effect on moisture permeability.


Density-dependent habitat selection has implications for fisheries management and for the recovery of depleted fish populations. According to ideal free distribution theory, populations contract into areas of highest habitat suitability as their abundance decreases. This can increase their vulnerability to fishing and predation. We detected density-dependent habitat selection by juvenile Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) (ages 1 and 2) in the North Sea and compared the observed distribution–abundance relationships with those predicted from a model based on ideal free distribution theory and knowledge of optimal temperatures for growth, where temperature was used as a measure of suitability. As predicted by the model, in years when stock size was low, the catches were largely confined to regions with near-optimal bottom temperatures. Conversely, when population size was high, catches were spread across a larger area including regions with suboptimal temperatures. The spatial extent of optimal habitat appears to ...


An essential building-block for construction of future real-time computer systems (RTCS's) is a timeliness-guaranteed operating system. The first co-author recently formulated a model of an operating system kernel which can support both real-time processes and new-style real-time objects with guaranteed timely services. The model has been named the DREAM kernel. The key emphasis in formulating the DREAM kernel was in realization of guaranteed timely service capabilities with minimal loss of hardware utilization. This paper presents a summary of the main structuring principles that were exploited to realize guaranteed timely service capabilities together with modularity and expandability in the DREAM kernel. A prototype implementation of the DREAM kernel, v.D2, has been produced by the authors to run on a network of PC's connected by an Ethernet. Several implementation techniques that were adopted during the course of this prototype implementation and may be applicable to other real-time kernel development environments, are briefly discussed in this paper. The prototype kernel (v.D2) has been used to run a real-time object structured non-trivial defense C3 application together with a real-time simulator of the application environment.


This paper presents a method of obtaining transmission network equivalents from the network's response to a pulse excitation signal. The proposed method is based on modal decomposition representation for the large-scale interconnected system. In this framework we use Prony analysis to identify the network function of the system and to decompose the large system into a parallel combination of simple first-order systems. As a result the network function of the transmission network can be identified easily, and a Thevenin-type of discrete-time filter model can be generated. It can reproduce the driving-point impedance characteristic of the network. Furthermore, the proposed model can be implemented into the EMTP in a direct manner. The simulation results with the full system representation and the developed equivalent system showed a good agreement.


Several reports have shown that the formation of stable water clusters (SWC) of different sizes underlie their physical and chemical properties, such as temperature-related density and anomalous melting at high temperature. Among the SWCs, one produces a double helix (DH), a structure that has been studied in a variety of biological systems. The major objective of this preliminary study was to investigate the effects of SWCs on several phenotypic and molecular characteristics of human cancer cell lines. Our previous findings have demonstrated that very high dilutions of chemical/biological agents, while having no direct observed effects on human cellular systems, can nevertheless induce molecular and genetic changes that contribute to signaling by other stimuli. These findings suggested that cells can respond to relatively fewer molecules than physiological levels comprising of high number of molecules. Accordingly, we hypothesized that treatment of cells with a water preparation containing SWCs would induce molecular and genetic changes in human cellular systems. This hypothesis was tested using human melanoma cell lines as a model for an in vitro analysis. We examined the effect of SWCs on cell viability, proliferation, expression of immune death receptors and response to deathligand–induced apoptosis. In addition, we examined whether genetic changes might have also taken place. The preliminary findings demonstrate that treatment of melanoma cell lines with SWCs inhibits cell proliferation, upregulates the expression of death receptors, sensitizes the tumor cells to FasL-induced apoptosis, and selectively modifies gene products that regulate growth and the apoptotic pathways.


Melton viaduct, a wrought iron, lattice girder railway bridge, has been in service for 98 years. It has developed buckles in some of the bottom chords which theoretically should be in tension. A detailed review of the structure with field measurements revealed that compression developed through seizure of the expansion joints and restraint of the trestles coupled with temperature and live load effects, and also through the effect of the trestle tension bracing. It has been established that the buckles do not affect structural integrity. An estimate of stress history combined with the measured stresses and laboratory tests of the fatigue life of a wrought iron splice established a virtually unlimited fatigue life. With regular inspection the structure can remain in unrestricted service for the foreseeable future.


When applying what is called Kelvin's principle to the elementary currents of two permanent magnets that attract each other, an apparent energy paradox appears. For Kelvin's principle says that when constant electric currents are displaced with respect to one another, the
 mechanical work yielded as a result of the action of magnetic forces is equal in amount to the increase (not decrease) in the energy of the total magnetic field. The energy provided by the power supply in order to keep the currents constant is thus twice as large as the mechanical work yielded
 during the displacement of the current-carrying wires. But when dealing with permanent magnets and their polarization currents, there is still the yield of mechanical work and also the increase in energy of the total magnetic field, but no such thing as a visible power supply. In this article,
 things are analyzed by using the Poynting vector as an instrument. As a result, the topological assumption of a hidden reservoir of energy sitting in the direction of a fourth spatial dimension turns out to be indispensable in order to save the principle of local conservation of energy and
 of action by contact. A recognition of this kind was foreshadowed by Mie 100 years ago, who postulated that, in certain, but nevertheless common situations, energy flowed into ambient space out of the particles themselves both in the gravitational and the electromagnetic case.


Objective To observe the effect of Herba Hedyotis Diffusae(HHD) on expression of heat shock protein 70(HSP70) and P16 anti-oncogene protein in mice with H22 cell transplanted tumor. Methods The mice were immunized with hepatoma-lines-H22 cells which were treated by Chinese herbs firstly. According to the pretreatment of the Chinese herbs and whether the H22 cells being blocked by HSP70 monoclonal antibody,the mice were divided into 5 groups:HHD non-blocking group,HHD-blocking group,Radix Codonopsis(RC)-blocking group,RC non-blocking group,and RPMI-1640 control group. Then the treated H22 Cells were translated into the mice. The expression of HSP70 and P16 anti-oncogene protein in mice with transplanted H22 liver carcinoma was detected by immunohistochemical marking method. Results The expressions of HSP70 was up-regulated in HDD non-blocking group and RC non-blocking group,in particular in RC non-blocking group,and the difference was significant as compared with HHD-blocking group,RC-blocking group and control blank group.The expression of P16 anti-oncogene protein was up-regulated in the treatment groups,and the difference was significant in comparison with the control group. The effect on P16 anti-oncogene protein expression was stronger in HDD groups than that in RC groups,but the difference was insignificant between the blocking group and the non-blocking group of each herb. Conclusion The anti-tumor effect of HDD may be achieved by inducing HSP70 expression in transplanted H22 neoplasia and by enhancing the immunogenicity. The up-regulation of P16 anti-oncogene expression by HHD and RC has no direct relationship with the induction of HSP70,and the related mechanism needs further research.


A Kalman filter for application to stationary or non-stationary time series is proposed. A major feature is a new initialisation method to accommodate non-stationary time series. The filter works on time series with missing values at any point of time including the initialisation phase. It can also be used where a state space model does not satisfy the traditional observability condition, a situation that can arise with seasonal time series.Another feature of the paper is that the Kalman filter is described in terms of the augmented moments of the state vectors, these being an aggregate of means, variances, covariances and other pertinent information. By doing this, the Kalman filter is specified without direct recourse to those relatively complex formulae for calculating associated means and variances found in traditional expositions.A computer implementation of the Kalman filter is also described where the augmented moments are treated as an object; the operations of addition and multiplication are overloaded to work on instances of this object; and a form of statistical conditioning is implemented as an operator.


Demand response of waterworks has a big possibility because waterworks consume 2 ~ 3 % of world electricity and water is easy to store. This paper proposes a control method called "simple dead-beat control" to suppress the two-step power consumption of pumps of waterworks occurred in the step response. Though a dead-beat control method have been proposed, the method needs a lot of parameters to determine. The simple dead-beat control needs only step-response tests to determine the parameters. In tests of this method by use of actual waterworks site, the amplitude of two-step responses is modelled as bivariate quadratic function of the present and next target of pump power consumption. The effectiveness of the suppression is evaluated by the RMS value of the difference between the target and the actual pump power of the test data.


ABSTRACT This paper investigates the spatial effect of environmental regulation measures on the upgrading of industrial structure in the integrated development strategy of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas. In order to reflect the effect of the environmental regulation and different regulation measures more truly, this paper constructs indices of the environmental regulation measures through the results of policy texts quantification. On the basis of the previous research, this paper divides environmental regulation into the following types: personnel and administrative measures of command and control; market-oriented fiscal, taxation, financial and other economic measures; guidance measures. Spatial panel regression results show that administrative measures of command control and market-oriented fiscal measures have a significant role in promoting regional industrial structure upgrading, but not conducive to the advancement of the industrial structure of adjacent areas. Their roles in promoting and inhibition are counteracted, which causes the total effect of industrial structure upgrading of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the surrounding areas are not significant. Personnel measures, financial measures, other economic measures and guidance measures do not have the short-term effect and spatial effect on the upgrading of industrial structure.


Voltage mode and dual-loop current-mode linear controllers are widely used in buck converters due to their simple implementation and fixed frequency PWM operation. While the dynamic response can be improved by pushing the control bandwidth, lower stability margins may lead to unexpected peak deviations, leading to failures due to magnetic saturations or excessive overshoot. A dual-loop geometric compensator is introduced in this work by combining state-plane analysis with traditional linear controllers. The proposed geometric voltage loop tightly controls the time-domain evolution of the state variables, providing a reliable transient response by following a desired geometrical path to reach the target steady state operating point. Straight line and circular trajectories are implemented resulting in an outstanding, well defined, and reliable transient behaviour. Experimental results of dual-loop geometric-based controlled 50W platform validate the proposed control concept and highlight the strong contribution to the applied field made by this innovative controller.


In the Kaoshiung Study in Taiwan efforts to use public information aided staff experience in preparing materials identifying audiences and generally improving the entire public health aspect. For the first time specific ways were identified for the family planning programs to reach specific audiences. This use of the mass media enabled family planning messages to reach mass audiences at a relatively low cost. As a result of the findings of this study it was decided to provide pills to all women requesting them since loop acceptances were not adversely effected by the use of the pill.


Multiple myeloma (MM) is a neoplastic plasma disorder that is characterized by clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow, monoclonal protein in the blood or urine and associated organ dysfunction. It is preceded by a premalignant tumor which is share genetic abnormalities, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). Although remarkable progress has been achieved, but pathogenesis of MM is still very complex. Multiple myeloma appears to arise from the malignant transformation of germinal-center B-lymphocyte. The first oncogenic events in MM appear to occur in the germinal center due to error in isotype class switching and somatic hypermutation. MM is divided into two distinct genetic subtypes: (1) hyperdiploid myeloma is characterized by multiple trisomies of chromosome 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 19 and 21; (2) non-hyperdiploid in contrast is characterized by recurrence translocations t(4;14), t(14;16), t (14;20); t(6;14) and t(11;14). A unifying event in the pathogenesis of MM is the dysregulated expression of cyclin D gene. Genetic aberrations occur in MM and also in premalignant state (MGUS), suggesting that genetic mutations alone are necessary, but not sufficient for myeloma transformation. A " random second hit model" was proposed. Hypothetical second hits are: additional genetic changes ( RAS mutation, p16 methylation, p53 mutation), proliferation due to cell cycle dysregulation, evasion of programmed cell death and changes in bone marrow microenvironment. A complex interaction with the BM microenvironment , characterized by activation of osteoclast and supression of osteoblast , leads to lytic bone lesions.


We study new physics effects on B decay processes including a final T particle, namely B → Dτν and B → TV. An important feature of these processes is that a charged Higgs boson can contribute to the decay amplitude at the tree level in models such as Two Higgs Doublet Model and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We derive a resummed effective Lagrangian for charged-Higgs mediated interactions in the MSSM with the Minimal Flavor Violation. Including supersymmetric (SUSY) loop corrections for down-type-quark and charged-lepton Yukawa couplings, we calculate the branching ratios of the B → DTV and B → TV processes. We find that SUSY correction due to gluino-sbottom diagrams can change the Higgs exchange contribution by ±50%, whereas stau-neutralino diagrams can make corrections up to 20%. We also discuss relationship between SUSY corrections in the tauonic decays and flavor changing neutral current processes such as E s → μ + μ - and b → sγ.


Penetrating abdominal trauma is prevalent in most urban settings in the United States; for instance, 25% of trauma cases in Los Angeles are penetrating. Selective nonoperative management is practiced routinely for blunt abdominal trauma, but in most institutions laparotomy is still considered the standard of care for abdominal gunshot wounds. The traditional treatment of these injuries has been exploratory laparotomy for all gunshot wounds to the abdomen and for all stab wounds where peritoneal violation has been proven. Nonoperative versus surgical management The implementation of selective nonoperative management of penetrating abdominal trauma can decrease the rate of unnecessary laparotomy and thus avoid the complications associated with nontherapeutic surgery. In addition, it significantly shortens hospital length of stay, resulting in cost savings. 1 One reason cited for aggressive surgical management has been the high incidence of intra-abdominal injuries in cases of penetrating trauma, previously reported to be as high as 98%. 2 However, the studies reporting this number do not distinguish between therapeutic and nontherapeutic laparotomies, making it difficult to accurately assess which cases could have been managed without surgery. 2,3 In addition, other studies have found the incidence to be only about 70% to 80%, leaving 20% to 30% of cases that can be managed nonoperatively. 4-7 Clinicians have been hesitant to move to nonoperative management because many consider negative exploratory laparotomy to be a harmless procedure. However, it is not without complications. Any surgery involves exposure to anesthesia, whose risks include idiosyncratic reactions and aspiration; other risks of surgery are bleeding, infection, iatrogenic injuries, and


This paper examined urban-rural inequality in Thailand using three socioeconomic surveys from 1988, 1998, and 2007. Household consumption expenditure was used as a welfare measure. The quantile regression technique was employed to investigate urban-rural inequality in different quantiles. The Machado-Mata decomposition approach was then applied to decompose the urban-rural gap into two components: Differences were identified between urban and rural household characteristics and in the returns to household characteristics. The decomposition results suggested that in 1988, the urban-rural gap was primarily due to the return differential between urban and rural households. In 1998, the top urban households were better off due to superior characteristics whereas in the lowest quantiles, the gap was predominantly due to differences in the returns to characteristics. In 2007, urban households were better off than their rural counterparts because of superior endowments. Improving rural household endowment such as educational attainment would potentially reduce the gap between the rural and urban sectors.


Extensive nerve injuries, often leading to nerve defects, represent a very challenging pathology with a complex therapeutic approach: trophic molecules (1 and 2 insulin-like growing factors, NGF, BDNF, 3, and 4/5neurotrophins), vascularized nerves, metabolic manipulation of pulsating electric fields. Nowadays, the researches are axed on peripheral nerve tissue engineering, consisting of viable Schwann or Schwann-like cells implants in nerve conduits manufactured from biocompatible natural and synthetic polymers. In our study we evaluated polymer biocompatibility, both by qualitative (Giemsa cell cytochemical staining) and quantitative methods (MTT test). According to the cytotoxicity scale from the SR EN ISO 10993-5:2003 European standard, it can be concluded that, although the synthetical polymers are slightly cytotoxic, their mixing with biopolymers led to a significant increase in viability, thus achieving a good biocompatibility, with the consequent selection of the optimal variants of polymer shuffles in order to achieve nerve conduits. Cuvinte cheie: celule stem, biocompatibilitate, conducte nervoase Rezumat: Leziunile nervoase extensive, soldate adesea cu defecte nervoase, reprezintă o patologie extrem de provocatoare cu o abordare terapeutică complexă: molecule trofice (factorii de cre stere insulin-like 1 si 2, NGF, BDNF, neurotrofinele 3 si 4/5), nervi vascularizaţi, manipularea metabolică a câmpurilor electrice pulsatile. In prezent, cercetările sunt axate pe ingineria tisulară a nervilor periferici, constând in implantarea de celule Schwann sau Schwann-like viabile in conducte nervoase obţinute din polimeri naturali si sintetici biocompatibili. In cadrul studiului nostru am evaluat biocompatibilitatea polimerilor atât prin metode calitative (colorarea citochimică a celulelor Giemsa) cât si prin metode cantitative (testul MTT). Conform scalei de citotoxicitate din standardul european SR EN ISO 10993-5:2003, s-a constatat că, desi polimerii sintetici sunt usor citotoxici, amestecarea lor cu biopolimeri conduce la o crestere sensibilă a viabilitaţii, deci o bună biocompatibilizare a acestora, cu selecţia in consecinţă a variantelor optime de amestecuri de polimeri in scopul obţinerii de conducte nervoase.


Aims:  Isolated hepatocytes in suspension may offer an alternative culture system for bioartificial liver devices. However, maintenance of isolated hepatocyte suspensions in conventional media leads to rapid loss of cell integrity. The aim of this study was to develop a modified medium to better maintain hepatocyte integrity.


Following the studies of Marshall McLuhan and Eric Havelock, Derrick De Kerchkove argues that the invention of theater by the Athenian community between the sixth and fifth centuries BC marks a decisive moment in the formation of Western mind, to be closely connected with the contemporary invention of alphabetic writing. Since attending to the theatrical performance requires attention and behavior characterized by immobility, distance and mental reflection, theater would have contributed to the emergence of modes of perception and participation in social life dependent on the increasing value of eye and sight, while promoting the decline of the oral and tribal ear. Theater was indeed one of the main instruments of what de Kerckhove call "desensorialization" of knowledge and experience. Has the profound transformation of communication media brought to some change? Signals from experimental theater of the second half of the twentieth century seem to suggest a significant change in the status of the performing arts, if not a true reversal. In the context of contemporary communicaton, characterized by virtuality and digital networks, the practice of performing arts (theatre, music, dance) acquires a predominantly opposite value as a potential "accelerator" of "ri-sensorialization" of knowledge.


In a wavelength routing optical networks (WRON), wavelength converters can greatly enhance the fiber utilization and reduce the overall call blocking probability of the networks. But wavelength converters are very expensive nowadays. So the optimal utilization of wavelength converters is an important question in optical network configuration. This paper resolved this question by using genetic algorithm (GA). We calculated the blocking probability of optimal configuration in NSFNet with simulation. Considering normal genetic algorithm's shortcomings, we proposed an enhanced genetic algorithm (EGA). At last two GAs's performances were compared by simulation.


All peroral endoscopy is fraught with some danger and the examining surgeon should have had preliminary, careful and complete training under the guidance of an expert before attempting any type of endoscopy. Recently I have seen three cases emphasizing thistwo were in children with generalized emphysema of the neck and perforation of the trachea and a rapidly ensuing death followed bungling endoscopy.


Going public is an important milestone for a private venture. Unfortunately, the rate of post-IPO delisting has been increasing especially in more recent decades. However, how newly public firms ca...


Terrorism casualties in the U.S. have been caused primarily by attacks on facilities. In earthquake, hurricane, infectious disease outbreaks, hazmat releases, and other disasters, peoples' safety often depends on the facilities they occupy. Yet strategic homeland security documents issued by the White House and the US Department of Homeland Security focus on the protection of "infrastructures," understood to consist mainly of utility systems, and rarely on facilities per se. For other than federal office buildings and infrastructure nodes, federal plans barely acknowledge the urgent task of protecting civilian facilities. This article gives evidence for the importance of facilities to homeland security. Are facilities so varied and numerous that it would be cost-prohibitive to implement a national protection strategy? The article argues that it would not be. Economies of scope in multi-hazard protection, existing legal and accreditation frameworks, new possibilities for integrating information systems, and the nation's many facility-safety professionals are all valuable resources on which to build. The U.S. should identify facility protection as a distinctive field of homeland security policy and proceed by supporting decentralized initiatives.


Use of photography and poetry offer a way for participants to express lived experiences through a visual and written means of self-expression. These forms of data collection can provide a rich, thick description of those often overlying on the peripherals of society. Traditional means of qualitative research such as interview and observation can at times create a barrier between the researcher and the participants because of the face-to-face interaction. Participants may be uncomfortable expressing authentic feeling during a formal interview process. By offering participants the opportunity to personally select descriptive photographs and articulate expression in their own voice through poetry, an authentic expression occurs.


The forming of hollow steps shaped part by the extrusion forming process is a difficult problem.The law of metal flow can not be clearly understood,and the formed part also can not be easily taken out.A new method which adopts clamping device was introduced.The part was formed when device folds,while taken out when device unfolds.Based on the analysis of hollow steps part extrusion,the entire process simulation of tow kinds stock extrusions were carried out using finite element software DEFORM,in 4 time steps of 40,55,278,500.The law of metal flow was obtained,and found out the column was the best shape for stock.Moreover,the load-stroke curve for all steps and X-load curve were achieved in order to optimize the mold forming parameters.Finally the experiment was done according to the parameters of simulation and qualified part was obtained.


Triplet state quenching of benzophenone derivatives in the presence of amino-acids undergoes via photoinduced intermolecular electron transfer mechanism (PET), which is followed by the transformations yielding free radicals able to initiate polymerization. This paper describes a series of water soluble free radical photoinitiating systems consisting of sodium 4-benzoylbenzenesulfonate (BBS) and sodium 4,4'-dibenzoylbenzenesulfonate (DBBS) as the light absorbing chromophores and amino acids or sulfur-containing amino acids acting as the electron donors. Photoinitiated polymerization were carried out for the mixture composed of poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate (PEGDA) - 1 % NH 4 OH (3:1). The mechanistic aspect of photoinitiating processes was investigated by the measurement of polymerization kinetics and by the nanosecond laser flash photolysis. The photoreduction of benzophenone derivatives in the presence of the electron donors was studied in acetonitryle and water solutions. Nanosecond laser flash photolysis indicated a weak efficiency of ketyl radical formation (λ max = 550 nm), which is due to the hydrogen atom abstraction by the excited triplet state of the sulfobenzophenone chromophore. It is also documented that in the presence of amino acids or sulfur containing amino acids PET process leads to formation of α-aminoradicals that can initiate PEGDA polymerization. Based on photochemistry of tested benzophenone derivatives, photochemistry of sulfur-containing amino acids and obtained results the mechanism describing primary and secondary processes occurring during photoinitiated polymerization via PET process is proposed.


The history of the design of spinal needle tips is discussed, from the first needles used by J. Leonard Corning in 1885 to innovative, modern needle designs that continue to appear on the market. The shape of the needle tip started as a cutting bevel and developed into the atraumatic tip and the pencil‐point tip in current common use. Innovative designs such as the stylet‐tipped needle and the directional needle are described, as well as the needles used for continuous spinal anaesthesia.


BACKGROUND: Transfusion‐related acute lung injury (TRALI) is the leading cause of transfusion‐associated death in the United States. Its diagnosis is based on clinical and radiographic changes that are indistinguishable from acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS). TRALI is presumed to be a form of ALI/ARDS; however, it differs in its triggering events and associated mortality. Two cases of rapidly fatal TRALI in which the postmortem pathology differed from that classically associated with ALI/ARDS are reported.


Traveler route choice behavior is the cornerstone of numerous advanced traffic management technologies. However, few datasets of actual segment-by-segment travel routes have been collected and analyzed. This is understandable, given the difficulties faced by traditional survey methods, such as phone and mail surveys, when collecting route data. With the improved accuracy of GPS devices, it is now feasible to collect route data using GPS devices, especially passive GPS devices, which are relatively low-cost, do not require additional computerized equipment, and are more suitable for collecting data for research purposes, given their small size and lack of a screen to distract users. However, despite the widespread availability of GPS technology, there are still very few comprehensive GPS-collected travel route datasets. Collecting data with passive GPS devices is not as straightforward as widely assumed. This is especially true if the data is to be used directly in identifying route choice behavior. When the GPS device is used to collect multiple-day travel data, the post-processing of the data is challenging. Automatic spatial models to identify trip ends and convert point data to link-by-link data is necessary but also extremely time and resource intensive. This paper will summarize the results of several research projects conducted by the authors to study the methodological possibility of using GPS to collect travel route data. Spatial models were constructed in a GIS environment to accomplish the data processing and conversion. One unique feature of the study is that model calibration was conducted using real known route data so that the accuracy of the models was measured. This work will contribute to better utilization of GPS devices in travel data collection.


The invention discloses a method and a device for realizing the construction of a test use case. The method comprises the following steps of for each test function of contents to be tested, independently decomposing each test function into an architecture parent module and an architecture child module from an aspect of architecture according to a logic relationship, wherein the architecture parent module and the architecture child module have a parent-child relationship; independently decomposing the architecture parent module and the architecture child module into a unit parent module and a unit child module from steps according to the test function, wherein the unit parent module and the unit child module have the parent-child relationship; and through the establishment of connection in the architecture parent module and the architecture child module, constructing a tree form test use case. Contents to be tested are decomposed from the aspects of the architecture and the steps, the connection of each group of architecture parent modules and architecture child modules is established to construct the tree form test use case, all modules can be traversed according to a general algorithm when a test is executed, environment configuration and the like can be reversely deleted by a tool, and the decomposed modules can be flexibly controlled. The complexity of the construction of the test use case in the stages of compiling, execution, statistics and analysis is lowered, and the method is favorable for the automatic operation of the test.


Inventory management is an important aspect for good planning in business activities. The application of inventory management in it is a primary need if there is a problem with the supply of raw materials, all operational activities will be disrupted, the problem in this study is that there are often empty P304C laying quail stocks, so many consumers complain. Predicting demand accurately is very difficult because Tani Raya cannot predict consumer desires, so it must carefully plan the inventory so that it is not too large and not too small. this study used the EOQ method. The purpose of this study is to analyze and determine the control of feed inventory of p304c laying quails using the Economy Order Quantity method in SME tani raya. The results obtained by the optimal frequency of purchases are carried out 12 times a year with a total purchase of 14,000 kg, with a safety stock of 1,514 kg. Reordering is carried out when the inventory of goods remains 14, 514 kg or 14, 500 kg. the calculated EOQ method produces a total cost of Rp. 2,509,976 while the conventional method is Rp. 7,539,873, with a difference of Rp. 5,029,897.


Sun supplies the purest energy available on the Earth. Hungary and Serbia seems to be even further from this energy source free from CO2 emission, since in spite of the fact that, these states has excellent geographical features neither our present governments non supports this issue to a sufficient extent. A correct purchase price of solar energy should be determined in harmony with the European directives, as nearly all our neighbouring countries have higher achievements in utilising renewable energy sources. Today thermopiles can be found in various applications for temperature or radiation measurements and for electric energy production. It is in the initial stage, especially space technology applications. There exist, for example, surface temperature sensors, gas sensors based on the Lambert-Beer law of absorption, and vacuum sensors. Based on the thermoelectric effect, the thermopile can be used as a heat sensor to measure thermal radiation. A thermopile is made of thermocouple junction pairs connected electrically in series. The absorption of thermal radiation by one of the thermocouple junctions, called the active junction, increases its temperature.


In this work, the barriers existing in creation of intra-entrepreneurial culture within a corporation will be questioned, as well as the certain factors leading to creation of environment for intra-entrepreneurship within a corporation. Finally, the specific characteristics of intra-entrepreneurs wilt be discussed and they wilt be compared to the characteristics of the corporation managers and entrepreneurs. A special attention is paid to the barriers on one side, and to the skills on the other side of the phenomenon called intra-entrepreneurship. Final observations in this work have realistically considered the options of intra-entrepreneurship implementation in post-privatization phase in our conditions.


Two major species of phytophagous stink bugs, Nezara viridula (L.) and Euschistus setvus (Say), occur in peanut fields (Tillman 2008, J. Entomol. Sci. 43: 191-207). All developmental stages of N. viridula and E. servus have been found in peanuts indicating that both species of stink bugs develop on this plant (Tillman 2008). Seasonal abundance of N. viridula and E. servus nymphs and adults in peanuts provided further support that these 2 species of stink bugs develop on this crop (Tillman 2008). Altogether, these observations of stink bug populations in peanuts indicate that these insects feed on this crop, but stink bug feeding on peanuts has never been documented. Consequently, the objective of this study was to determine if and where on the plant N. viridula and E. servus oviposit and feed on peanuts. Nezara viridula and E. servus were collected weekly throughout the peanut growing season in 2 commercial peanut fields in Irwin Co., GA, in 2007. The first peanut field was planted in 'GA Green' peanuts on 22 May 2007, and the second field was planted in the same variety on 29 May 2007. After a sweep sample was collected from 7.31 -m of row, the sample was placed in a 3.79 L ZipIocTM bag which was then placed in a cooler and transported to the laboratory. Insect species, developmental stage, and sex were identified in the laboratory. Obtaining data on seasonal abundance of the 2 stink bug species in peanuts provided information on the occurrence of eggs, nymphs, and a new generation of stink bug adults in this crop. For both stink bug species, adults and nymphs used in laboratory tests were collected from the second peanut field from 15 Sep through 4 Oct. Only young, 1to 7-d-old, stink bug adults were collected because presumably they developed on peanuts. Voucher specimens of all insects are held in the USDA-ARS, Crop Protection & Management Research Laboratory in Tifton, GA. To determine if the new generation of N. viridula and E. servus females in lateseason peanuts would oviposit on peanuts in the laboratory, field-collected females were given the opportunity to oviposit on a "peanut plant" in cylindrical cages. Peanuts


The analysis of the influence of flooding of the developed areas of closed mining enterprises on the mechanical characteristics of clay rocks is given. The deformation characteristics of clay shale under prolonged moistening conditions have been experimentally established and proved. Simulation of stress-strain state of soil massifs and building structures by method of finite elements is considered and the influence of power of developed spaces on settlement of building foundations of buildings of light materials is established. The distribution of vertical displacements in the rock massif is presented, the graphs of the dependence of the foundation settlement on the excavation power are plotted, the excess of the standard values of settlement is noted when buildings are located directly above the preparing workings.


The control of light dosimetry during photodynamic therapy requires the knowledge of all the optical coefficient in situ. Therefore, a sensor based upon the backscattering phenomenon has been conceived. It is described in the first part. The second part of the paper shows how the combination of the Kubelka and Munk's theory and an ARX modeling of light gives access to the required values. In the last part the results obtained in vitro on optical phantoms and in vivo on nude mice are analyzed.


The installation of Intelligent Electric Devices (IEDs) in the substations has changed the face of protection engineering. These devices not only record a variety of analog and digital values but also communicate the data to the control centre. Thus, the same engineers who were struggling for data earlier with electromechanical relays now have sufficient data to analyze the events taking place in the system from time to time. The IEDs generate operational data, which helps to analyze what went wrong in the system and non-operational data, which indicates why things went wrong in the system. Thus, with each IED sending data at the control centre, a large volume of data gets accumulated which cannot be analyzed manually. Automated systems are required to assist engineers analyze the data received from IEDs and provide quality information to the various user groups. In this paper, an attempt has been made to reduce large amount of data generated by the new generation relay IEDs using rough set theory. The logic has been developed to analyze the concise data available after using rough set technique and communicate the information so extracted to the operator, protection and maintenance departments. These departments make use of the information in running the system in a more effective and efficient manner.


Purpose – The purpose of this research is to incorporate the exponentiated Weibull testing‐effort functions into software reliability modeling and to estimate the optimal software release time.Design/methodology/approach – This paper suggests a software reliability growth model based on the non‐homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) which incorporates the exponentiated Weibull (EW) testing‐efforts.Findings – Experimental results on actual data from three software projects are compared with other existing models which reveal that the proposed software reliability growth model with EW testing‐effort is wider and effective SRGM.Research limitations/implications – This paper presents a SRGM using a constant error detection rate per unit testing‐effort.Practical implications – Software reliability growth model is one of the fundamental techniques to assess software reliability quantitatively. The results obtained in this paper will be useful during the software testing process.Originality/value – The present schem...


In situ denitrification in Lake 227 was assayed by using 15N-labeled NO3− during summer stratification periods in 1973, 1974, and 1975. Dissolved oxygen and NO3− concentrations were the main factors controlling denitrification in the water column and in sediments. The epilimnetic sediment–water interface was a more significant site of natural denitrification when compared to the oxygen-limiting (dissolved oxygen less than 0.2 mg/L) thermocline and the anoxic hypolimnion. Epilimnetic sediment denitrification rates averaged about 15 mg N∙m−2∙d−1. Nearly all of the NO3− that mixed into the surficial sediments was denitrified. Alone, epilimnetic denitrification removed 1.4% of the NO3− added annually. Below the euphotic zone, sediments would provide an efficient sink for NO3−-N without simultaneous initiation of eutrophication.Key words: denitrification, nitrogen sink, nitrate in lakes, experimental lakes, summer stratification


The bladder of the insectivorous aquatic plant Utricularia, after stimulation and consequent sudden increase in volume, slowly resets, transporting solutes, mainly Na+, K+ and C1-, and water, from the lumen to the outside solution. The resetting process, which involves the movement of both water and chloride against the direction of passive driving forces, requires energy. As the resetting rate is diminished by the application of respiratory inhibitors and by lowered temperature, but is not affected by darkness, it is clear that respiration and not photosynthesis provides the energy for transport. Experiments with bladders resetting under paraffin oil show that the transported luminal fluid emerges from the mouth region of the bladder. The transport of solution from lumen to outside is essentially a one-way process. Changes of osmotic potential in the luminal solution affect transport rate, but similar changes in the outside solution do not. Bladders which are fully set appear to be almost completely impermeable to water. The transport process can be accounted for as an active transport of chloride ions, with sodium as the predominant accompanying ion, from the lumen to some intermediate region in the cellular bladder wall. Between this region and the lumen an osmotic gradient could be set up that would cause a passive flow of water from the lumen. An increase in hydrostatic pressure in the space could then expel solution, possibly through a subcuticular space to the outside.


Democracy uniquely respects an important set of persons' autonomy claims. Along with standard first-order autonomy claims to act without interference, persons have second-order autonomy claims to authority over the social context of their choice. These second-order claims are grounded in the same ideal self-direction that grounds first-order claims. One triggers another's second-order claims when one directs another's will by shaping the context of her choice, or when one implicates another's will by shaping the nature of her responsibility for her actions. When a basic structure exists in which individuals continuously direct and implicate one another's wills, each person has a second-order autonomy claim to authority over the terms of that structure. Because each person is equally entitled to respect for her autonomy, each is equally entitled to authority over the basic structure. Political equality—the equal authority of each citizen over the terms of common life—therefore uniquely respects these autonomy claims of each citizen. We therefore have non-instrumental, autonomy-based reasons to support democratic decision-making.


Among the topics discussed are NASA's land remote sensing plans for the 1980s, the evolution of Landsat 4 and the performance of its sensors, the Landsat 4 thematic mapper image processing system radiometric and geometric characteristics, data quality, image data radiometric analysis and spectral/stratigraphic analysis, and thematic mapper agricultural, forest resource and geological applications. Also covered are geologic applications of side-looking airborne radar, digital image processing, the large format camera, the RADARSAT program, the SPOT 1 system's program status, distribution plans, and simulation program, Space Shuttle multispectral linear array studies of the optical and biological properties of terrestrial land cover, orbital surveys of solar-stimulated luminescence, the Space Shuttle imaging radar research facility, and Space Shuttle-based polar ice sounding altimetry.


The aim of this study is to investigate the mechanical properties of polymeric composites prepared by means of extrusion and injection moulding. Three stable thermoplastic polymers (high density polyethylene, polysulphone and polyamide) were used as composite matrices. Antibacterial silver nanoparticles nAg were used as the modifying phase. The mechanical properties of the tested materials were determined during uniaxial stretching. Such parameters as Young's modulus E, tensile strength Rm and elongation at maximum force εFmax were measured. The results show that neither the preparation technology nor the amount of modifier impair the mechanical properties of the tested composites. The addition of silver nanoparticles does not cause a loss of strength, while it increases the Young's modulus of the materials.


The exopolysaccharide(EPS) biosynthetic genes of Lactobacillus rhamnosus JAAS8 were located on the chromosome in a 19.7 kb region consisting of 16 open reading frames.GenBank database searching showed that the predicted protein products of the gene cluster from L.rhamnosus JAAS8 had the highest identity with the EPS biosynthetic genes of Lactobacillus.The central portion of the locus was occupied by six genes(welF,welG,welH,welI,welJ and welE) encoding potential glycosyltransferases.Three genes(rmlA,rmlB and rmlC) involved in the biosynthesis of the sugar nucleotide precursor dTDP-L-rhamnose were identified in the EPS biosynthesis locus.The predicted amino acid sequences from six genes(wzd,wze,wzy,wzx,wzr,and wzb) have the most resemble proteins involved in putative polysaccharide chain length determination,polymerization and export.


Zr-grafted SBA-15 is the most effective support among Zr-modified SBA-15 materials prepared by various methods for supporting Co catalyst in the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis due to the large BET surfa...


The review covers optical systems and instruments used in laparoscopy techniques of laparoscopic photography including enlargement methods and diagnostic procedures a discussion of the diagnostic value of laparoscopy and comparison between biopsy and laparoscopy as diagnostic tools and risks and complications. The performance and use of the Hopkins and Lumina optical systems are discussed in detail and compared. Laparoscopy is regarded as especially useful in the diagnosis of liver diseases and techniques and findings are discussed at length. A study of complications and accidents showed that 1594 such complications and accidents of all types occurred in 63850 laparoscopic operations. 19 cases were fatal. The review contains extensive bibliographical references.


The task of mining the association rule has become one of the most widely used discovery pattern methods in Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD). One such task is to represent the itemset in the memory. The representation of the itemset largely depend on the type of data structure that is used for storing them. Computing the process of mining the association rule im- pacts the memory and time requirement of the itemset. With the increase in the dimensionality of data and datasets, mining such large volume of datasets will be difficult since all these itemsets cannot be placed in the main memory. As representation of an itemset greatly affects the efficiency of the rule mining association, a compact and compress representation of an itemset is needed. In this paper, a set representation is introduced which is more memory and cost efficient. Bitmap representation takes one byte for an element but the set representation uses one bit. The set representation is being incorporated in Apriori Algorithm. Set representation is also being tested for different rule generation algorithms. The complexities of these different rule generation algorithms using set representation are being compared in terms of memory and time execution.


Writing is used as primary activity within most of the master programs within Civil Engineering education to support the students to reach a significant number of learning outcomes in different courses. However, none of these activities address writing itself even less how it must be performed, so it is a demand to the students to write and critically review technical reports in many occasions without giving proper tools on how to do it. That has raised some concerns among teachers involved in the program. A more generalized problem that affects students across the entire master program is that many of them reach the final master thesis report with clear writing difficulties. In this paper, therefore, it is present a proposal on how to address the writing by introducing new Teaching/Learning Activities (TLAs), Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) and Assessment Activities (AAs) transversally through the master program. Consequently, some courses within the MPSEB has been selected and modified accordingly.


The attention of the civilized world has lately been awakened to a certain corner of it where crime and massacre have become rife, and where fanaticism and tyranny have been maturing their most horrible results. Information about the lands in which these scenes have been, and are being enacted, and about the nations that are groaning under the iron hand of the unspeakable Turk, now assumes a new aspect of interest to all, especially to the sympathetic hearts of the American people. To physicians and all others interested in their noble profession, all that pertains to the medical conditions and needs of these countries will be among the first topics of interest. It shall be my effort tonight to present before you the medical needs of Syria, my native country, which, though not undergoing the same convulsions that are now tearing up other sections of the Ottoman Empire, may yet


1. INTRODUCTION Japanese 7 higher educational institutions in Fukui prefecture started to cooperate with each other in the middle of 2008. The aim of this project called " F-LECCS " is in order to build " One virtual university environment " on a computer network by using open source software such as SNS (OpenSNP), LMS (Moodle), and e-Portfolio (Mahara). This open platform allows all the users to access learning resources across the universities, and enables them to form intercollegiate learning communities as the " Communities of Practice (CoP). The center system of the CoP is the social networking service (F-LECCS SNS) and has started to work on the beginning of April, 2009. On the F-LECCS SNS, over 300 communities and 360,000 logins (370 logins/day) have been made by the end of March, 2011. The CoPs are growing well. Our research interest is to understand the growth mechanism of communities on a SNS. Therefore, we combine the complex network analysis for understanding how network grows and the text mining analysis for understanding how people communicate.


Utilization of high-P iron ores is gaining considerable attention because of large reserves and the depletion of high-grade iron ores. The use of low-grade iron ores results in an increase in the P content in hot metal. Therefore, P is removed from iron ores prior to its use in smelting.1) A variety of dephosphorization processes for high-P iron ores have been developed such as acid leaching, carbothermic reduction, and physical beneficiation.2–4) Due to the large amount of iron ores, an enormous processing capacity is required and the treatment cost is also huge, which restricts the industrialization of these methods. P existing in high-P iron ores is considered a potential source of phosphorus. We should therefore pay attention to the comprehensive utilization of high-P iron ores. Through efficient dephosphorization using multi-phase slag, high levels of P in hot metal can be removed, leading to its concentration in slag.5) P is mainly found in the 2CaO∙SiO23CaO∙P2O5 (C2S–C3P) solid solution in steelmaking slag, which has a high P2O5 content and high distribution ratio between C2S–C3P solid solution and other phases.6) If the P-concentrated solid solution can be extracted from the slag, the obtained phosphate will be suitable for producing phosOptimum Conditions for Phosphorus Recovery from Steelmaking Slag with High P2O5 Content by Selective Leaching


. In this paper, we studied the metric mean dimension in Feldman-Katok(FK for short) metric. We introduced the notions of FK-Bowen metric mean dimension and FK-Packing metric mean dimension on subset. And we established two variational principles.


The principle of the repetitive controller is introduced. The influence of one key coefficient on the system steady-state error and convergence speed in the repetitive controller is analyzed in detail as well as two designs of the coefficient are summarized. With the help of simulation, the reason why different choices cause different steady - state precision is discussed and some improvement of this coefficient design is proposed in the end.


The Advisory Committee on Paperwork Burden Reduction's (ACPBR) first annual progress report, provides the framework for the Paperwork Burden Reduction Initiative (PBRI). It describes the benefits and importance of the PBRI, challenges it addresses, opportunities it presents, vision and strategy for moving toward real outcomes, and impacts.


Objective To evaluate diagnostic value of the ratio of AST and PLT(AST/PLT),the ratio of GGT and PLT(GGT/PLT) for hepatic fibrosis.Methods Comparing blood routine index,hepatic function index and four hepatic fibrosis routine index(HA,CⅣ,PCⅢ and LN) level in the chronic hepatitis B with them in the healthy subjects.Comparing with them in the different division of inflammation grade(G) and the different fibrosis stage(S) of the chronic hepatitis B.Results The serum level of AST/PLT,GGT/PLT, HA,CⅣ,PCⅢ and LN in patients whatever the division of inflammation grade and fibrosis stage were significantly higher than those in the healthy subjects(P0.01).However,there was not a statistically significant difference comparing the positive percent of ASP/PLT and GGT/PLT in patients with those in the control group.HA was better than other three indices,its positive percent was not a statistically significant difference as compared with the positive percent of ASP/PLT and GGT/PLT in patients with those in the control group.HA was better than other three indices,its positive percent was not a statistically significant difference as compared with the positive percent of ASP/PLT and GGT/PLT.Conclusion Serum level of AST/PLT and GGT/PLT can be used as the indices for diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis,but the precondition is excluding the possibility of other reasons induce to the heighten of AST or GGT and the dropping of PLT.


This paper puts forward teaching target,knowledge structure and teaching mode on course of database system for innovation education.In this paper ,the author also presents the knowledge system and knowledge link on course of database system.That is grope for advance teaching quality of database system.


In this paper a systematic numerical study of flow past an impulsively started circular cylinder at low and moderate Reynolds numbers using a lattice-Boltzmann algorithmic approach is presented together with an extended volumetric boundary scheme. Results agree well with some well-known previous works. It is demonstrated that in the nearly incompressible limit, this approach is able to provide accurate direct numerical simulations of unsteady flows with curved geometry.


4105 Background: Benefit of quality of life made laparoscopic gastric cancer surgery attractive, but there are still concerns about laparoscopic lymph node dissection. The aim of this study was to evaluate a feasibility of laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) with D2 lymph node dissection compared with open distal gastrectomy (ODG) for advanced gastric cancer (AGC). Methods: Patients with cT2-T4a and cN0-2 (AJCC 7th staging system) distal gastric cancer were randomly assigned to LADG or ODG. The primary endpoint was the non-compliance rate of the lymph node dissection defined as rate of cases where there was more than one missing lymph node station according to the guidelines of the Japanese Research Society for Gastric Cancer lymph node grouping. Secondary endpoints were perioperative complications, changes of inflammatory and immunological parameters, postoperative hospital stay, and 3 year disease free survival. This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT01088204. Results: Between ...


Abstract South African artist Lawrence Lemaoana's artwork, Last Line of Defence, evinces new ways in which young South African artists are renegotiating the Self/Other binary coupling in their art. In this work, Lemaoana subverts colonial and apartheid paradigms which sought to fix the self and other not only at opposite ends of an ideological pole, but also the manner in which physical or visual markers of difference were employed as tools in perpetuating the division and hierarchy that governed this binary framework. Through the use of a masquerade constructed from stereotypical notions of white ascendancy and femininity, Lemaoana attempts to deflect the physical markers of difference attached to his identity and establish the unreliability of physical qualities as signifiers of otherness.


The proliferation of reactive and neoplastic cells was retrospectively assessed in 92 cases of non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma by morphometry using a double‐immunoenzymatic technique including surface markers and the monoclonal antibody Ki‐67. The findings were compared with the histological diagnosis. The overall Ki‐67 positivity is not always a good measure of the corresponding corrected values and therefore we recommend that a correction should be made for the total number of complementary lymphocytes in the tumour. Taking the macrophages and the Ki‐67 positivity of the reactive cells into account does not generally add any information. There was no difference in reactive cell content between follicular (counted within follicles) and diffuse lymphomas within the tumour areas. The value of the group mean for low‐grade follicular (nodular) lymphomas was significantly higher than that of diffuse low‐grade lymphomas, but not significantly different from that of intermediate‐grade lymphomas. High‐grade lymphomas exhibited significantly greater Ki‐67 positivity than those of intermediate grade. In 76% of the cases there was significant agreement between malignancy grade (low/intermediate malignant versus high malignant) at 45% corrected Ki‐67 counts.


Electrochemical sensor technology has the potential to revolutinise analytical measurements in food analysis by providing a cheap, easy to use and portable alternative to traditional chromotography and mass spectrometry based techniques. In this thesis two such sensors are developed one for the detection of caffeine and other for the detection of the mycotoxin, deoxynivalenol. These sensors are developed from both a food safety and quality control point of view. The majority of sensor development has been for the medical point of care sector, however apart from blood glucose sensing, commerical successes have been limited. Regulatory barriers are not as significant in the food industry compared to the medical industry and hence, real world applications should be more feasible. Chapter 1 provides a general introduction to sensor technology for food analysis with an emphasis on electrochemical transducers and modified electrodes in particular. Background theory is outlined for both fundamental electrochemistry and immunoassay development and previously published work in electrochemical sensors for food analysis is summarised. In Chapter 2 a number of electrochemical pretreatment techniques are compared with multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) modified screen printed electrodes in the development of an electrochemical immunosensor for mouse IgG detection. It was found that a MWCNT/Nafion modified electrode had the most promising analytical characteristics with an LOD of 0.2 ppm, IC50 value of 0.3 ppm, linear range of 0.04 2.7 ppm and R2 value of 0.9286. Subsequent to the optimisation of an electrode material for this model analyte (mouse IgG), an electrochemical immunosensor for deoxynivalenol was developed in Chapter 3. Firstly, an ELISA protocol was developed with a LOD of 0.534 ppm and linear range of 0.9 53 ppm, followed by the transfer of this protocol onto the MWCNT/Nafion electrode. A limit of detection of 0.95 ppm and IC50 value of 2 ppm were found. These values are promising considering that the EU maximum residue limit (MRL) for DON in wheat samples is 1.75 ppm. However, the developed sensor was unable to detect DON in wheat samples suggesting that a more sophisticated sample pretreatment method would need to be investigated. In Chapter 4, a number of different approaches for electrochemical caffeine detection are investigated namely electrochemically pretreated, nafion


According to the admission control requirements of multi-level classified network(MLCN),a secure access model based on trusted network connection was proposed.By introducing security attribute checking rule,the security attribute of accessing device and its objects were checked in order to ensure that they would not lead to sensitive information leakage.By introducing integrity measurement rule,mutual measurement between the network and the device can be achieved.Based on the access security model,an access system framework for MLCN and an accompanying authentication protocol were put forward.The protocol performs integrity measurement before authenticating user authentication to achieve reliable mutual authentication.Comparative analysis indicates that the protocol is relatively more efficient.


By using the advantages of symmetry, a novel architecture of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing passive optical network (OFDM-PON) is proposed. It can not only achieve flexible protections but also provide the function of adding users conveniently. By utilizing the characteristics of ring based optical access network, the network keeps strong survivability against the fibers' failures. Based on a novel remote node (RN) with symmetrical structure and an expansible optical network unit (ONU), the network can add new ONUs easily. Simulation and analysis show that it can achieve perfect performance. Furthermore, the system also has low BER (bit error rate) and SER (signal error rate) for the different kind of signals, besides the system can adapt a variety of working modes.


Abstract Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of quartz grains extracted from beachrock on the southeast coast of India was attempted. Preliminary OSL ages of beachrock indicate that during the Late Holocene (3.6–2.1 ka) sea level along this coast was higher than at present. This observation is broadly consistent with the existing data based on radiocarbon dating of bioclasts in the beachrock, which suggests a higher sea stand during 4.3–2.3 ka. This study demonstrates the potential of optical luminescence dating of beachrock for refining sea-level chronology and shoreline evolution on the southeastern coast of India.


In this paper we describe UMLΨ, a software performance evaluation tool based on process-oriented simulation. The tool can be used to evaluate performances of software systems which are described at a high level of abstraction. This allows the software modeler to estimate the system performances before actually building it, at the design phase. We consider software specifications as Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams annotated according to a subset of the stereotypes and tagged values defined in the UML Performance Profile. UMLΨ transforms the software model, i.e., the set of UML annotated diagrams, into a performance process-oriented simulation model. Simulation parameters are derived by the software description and the additional information given in the specification. Simulation experiments are carried on by choosing an appropriate condition for the length of the simulation run. The tool collects observations and derives estimates of a set of performance measures. Performance results are interpreted at the software specification level, as they are inserted into the software model as tagged values associated to the relevant UML elements. Further analysis can be applied to the possibly modified software model in order to meet given performance requirements. We illustrate with an example how the UMLΨ tool can be used.


: Accurate measurement of tooth mobility has been experimentally developed. In this study, the relationship between tooth mobility and percussion waveform using a new device was determined in a model and in humans. The newly developed tooth percussion device was found to be compact and the measurements obtained with this device were reproducible. Peak acceleration, duration, and peak frequency of the power spectrum of percussion wave corresponded significantly to tooth mobility, suggesting that these measurements are appropriate parameters of tooth mobility. The peak acceleration of the percussion wave caused by tapping a tooth correlated and decreased significantly with the increase in mobility among tooth groups divided according to clinical mobility of Classes 0, 1 and 2. The duration of the percussion wave caused by tapping a tooth correlated and increased significantly with the increase in mobility among tooth groups divided according to clinical mobility of Classes 0, 1 and 2. These findings indicate that the peak value and duration of the percussion caused by tapping a tooth can be used as indicators to objectively evaluate tooth mobility. It was found that tooth mobility can be easily and objectively measured by the newly developed device. teeth, mobility, tooth mobility, periodontal ligament, periodontium


In order to change present situation of the exchange about maintenance of agricultural machinery,and to build the network platform for the exchange about maintenance of agricultural machinery,this paper designed the forum for maintenance of agricultural machinery based on the three-tier architecture development mode of ASP.NET 2.0.In the article the function of the forum,the structure of data sheet and implementation of framework were introduced in detail.During the process of the implementation of the forum's framework,Microsoft's Data Access Application Block for the.NET was quoted to access application block,having reduced the codes of implementation of three-tier application and also having enhanced the efficiency to carry out the procedure.


Background Tuberculosis remains a major public health problem worldwide accounting for 1.4 million deaths annually. LL-37 is an effector molecule involved in immunity with both antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties. The purpose of this study was to compare LL-37 circulatory levels among participants with active and latent tuberculosis and to determine its ability to discriminate between the two infectious states. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed among 56 active tuberculosis patients, 49 latent tuberculosis individuals, and 43 individuals without tuberculosis infection. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to assess LL-37 levels. Data analysis was performed using STATA software and Graph pad Prism version 8. Mann-Whitney U test was used for correlation between variables with two categories and the Kruskal-Wallis test for three or more categories. Results The study had more female participants than males, with similar median ages across the three groups, 29.5, 25.0, and 23.0 years respectively. Active tuberculosis patients had significantly higher LL-37 levels compared to those with latent tuberculosis and without tuberculosis. The median/interquartile ranges were 318.8 ng/ml (157.9–547.1), 242.2 ng/ml (136.2–579.3), 170.9 ng/ml (129.3–228.3); p = 0.002 respectively. Higher LL-37 was found in the male participant with median/interquartile range, 424.8 ng/ml (226.2–666.8) compared to the females 237.7 ng/ml (129.6–466.6); p = 0.045. LL-37 had better discriminatory potential between active tuberculosis and no tuberculosis (AUC = 0.71, sensitivity 71.4% specificity = 69.8%) than with latent tuberculosis (AUC = 0.55, sensitivity = 71.4%, specificity = 44.9%). There was moderate differentiation between latent tuberculosis and no tuberculosis (AUC = 0.63, sensitivity = 44.9% specificity = 90.7%). Conclusion Significantly higher LL-37 levels were observed among active tuberculosis patients than those without tuberculosis infection and were, therefore able to discriminate between active tuberculosis and other tuberculosis infectious states, especially with no tuberculosis. Further assessment of this biomarker as a screening tool to exclude tuberculosis is required.


Almost two decades after the internet and other modern communications technologies took the information age forward in one quantum leap, media companies the world over are still grappling with the question of how to make money from convergence The leader in this field, in South Africa at least, has undoubtedly been Naspers boss Koos Bekker. It appears the Kirsh family is looking to apply its Midas touch to the conundrum too.


Hospitals continue to deal with an increasingly competitive and changing health care environment. Cost containment pressures and regulatory changes included in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 and the more recently mandated Medicare prospective payment system represent the most radical alterations in hospital payment since Medicare began. These changes mean key hospital decision-makers require new information and more sophisticated management tools to help improve hospital performance.


95% heterozygosity in females (Nucleic Acids Res We the potential use of this probe to differentiate between active and inactive X chromosomes through the methylation patterns revealed by the restriction enzyme MspI (recognition site CCGG) and its methylation sensitive isoschizomer HpaII. Experi-ments were carried out using DNA prepared from blood and from cell lines with defined patterns of X inactivation. Preliminary results suggest that the CCGG sites flanking the DXS255 locus are extensively methylated on active X chromosomes and unmethylated on inactive X chromo- somes. The high degree of heterozygosity detected, combined with this differential methylation pattern, indi- cate that this simple system should be applicable to many situations where assessment of X inactivation status is required (for example, imprinting, females with X linked disorders, analysis of clonal development in tumours). pre-parations from the CF cases. These results suggest that enzyme analysis of purified microvillar membrane fragments may be a more discriminating test for the prenatal diagnosis of CF than assay of these enzymes in AF supernatant.


Objective To establish a new fluorescence kinetics analysis method for the trace lead in water sample. Methods Trace Pb2+ may present a strong catalytic effect on the reaction of hydrogen peroxide oxidation of dichlorofluorescein (DCF),when adding trace Pb2+, the fluorescence intensity weakened more obviously, through the determination of fluorescence intensity to determine the Pb2+ content. In the reaction system, the excitation wavelength and emission wavelengths were 491 nm and 517 nm respectively. Results The linear range of Pb2+ was 4.0-100.0 μ g/L, the limit of detection was 3.1 μg/L, the linear regression equation was: ΔF=828 C (μg/ml)+1.26, the correlation coefficient was 0.9990. Conclusion This method is simple, fast, sensitive and applicable to the determination of trace lead in water.


A method for handover from a packet exchange call to a circuit switching call and a apparatus therefor for anchoring a voice call in an application level are provided to anchor the voice call in the application level by inserting SCSE for handover signal conversion between MME and MSC in case of generating handover between an LTE domain and a GSM/WCDMA CS domain. A handover request message is received from a terminal through a packet switching network(602). In case the handover request message is a GTP(GPRS Tunneling Protocol) message, it determines whether the terminal requesting handover is the anchoredterminal(604). If so, the GRP message is converted into MAP(Mobile Application Part) message and forwarded to the circuit switching network(605, 606).


The relationship between livestock production and climate change is the subject of hot debate, with arguments for major shifts in diets and a reduction in livestock production. This Perspective examines how global assessments of livestock‐derived methane emissions are framed, identifying assumptions and data gaps that influence standard life‐cycle analysis approaches. These include inadequate data due to a focus on industrial not extensive systems; errors arising due to inappropriate emission factors being applied; questions of how global warming potentials are derived for different greenhouse gases and debates about what baselines are appropriate. The article argues for a holistic systems approach that takes account of diverse livestock systems—both intensive and extensive—including both positive and negative impacts. In particular, the potential benefits of extensive livestock systems are highlighted, including supporting livelihoods, providing high‐quality nutrition, enhancing biodiversity, protecting landscapes, and sequestering carbon. By failing to differentiate between livestock systems, global assessments may mislead. Inappropriate measurement, verification and reporting processes linked to global climate change policy may in turn result in interventions that can undermine the livelihoods of extensive livestock‐keepers in marginal areas, including mobile pastoralists. In the politics of global assessments, certain interests promote framings of the livestock‐climate challenge in favour of contained, intensive systems, and the conversion of extensive rangelands into conservation investments. Emerging from a narrow, aggregated scientific framing, global assessments therefore can have political consequences. A more disaggregated, nuanced approach is required if the future of food and climate change is to be effectively addressed.


1. Notation. Let D be the complex plane cut along the negative real axis, let F»' be the upper half-plane and let D" be the right half-plane. We define DR = Dn {|z| ^ F}, D'R = D' n {|z| ^ F} and D"B = D" n {|z| < F}. We are going to consider a function u subharmonic in D or DH. Let M(r) = sup|Z| = r zz(z) and m(r) = inf[zl=r u(z). We also introduce, for r>0, v(r) = lim sup u(z), v(r) = lim sup u(z) and u( — r) = max (v(r), v(r)). z-»-r + iO z-»-r-iO The symbols -r + z'O and -r—iO indicate that z approaches the negative real axis from above and from below, respectively. By vx and vx, we mean the corresponding upper limits for the function ux. In the whole paper, we write z=reiB. In §3, bx and ¿>2 denote positive bounded functions. 2. The main result. Theorem. Let A be a number in the interval (0, 1) and let u (^ — co) be a function subharmonic in D that satisfies (2.1) H(-r)-cos7rAM(r) ^ 0. FAe« either limr^"o r~ÁM(r) = oo or both (A) and (B) hold: (A) There exists a number a such that (2.2) lim r~Áu(reie) = a cos AÖ, |0| < w, r-» oo


The music of Toru Takemitsu has been discussed largely in terms of its so-called "Japanese-ness" and viewed as a confluence of Japanese and Western musical traditions by historians and music theorists alike. While it might well be the case that certain features in his music could be labeled Japanese, it is not the only possible way of viewing it. This study examines, through the analysis of his three orchestral works, how we can approach his music from a more neutral and universal standpoint with a strict analytical methodology.The three works selected here, Dream/Window (1985), Fantasma/Cantos (1991), and Spirit Garden (1994), all belong to the "Garden Series," one of Takemitsu's major thematic compositions. The composer has made explicit mention of the Japanese garden as source of his inspiration for these pieces. There are actually two meanings in this single metaphor: the vertical aspect of his garden music is represented as his "pan-focal" (multi-focal) orchestration, but the more relevant here is its horizonal or temporal aspect that is comparable to the stroll in the Japanese garden. It is embodied in these three works as the recurrence of primary melodic/harmonic ideas in different guises through the principle of coloristic variation.A new concept called the superset/subset network is introduced to serve my analytical purpose; the network consists of all possible supersets and subsets of a referential sonority and makes it possible to examine the sonorities that are related to it and study the middle- and large-scale as well as small-scale structures of the entire compositions. My analytical methodology also strives for a comprehensiveness that is free from pre-analytical choice of referential sets and their cardinalities. The analysis reveals that each of the three works relies on its own referential sonority and the way it is deployed during the piece does have a certain similarity to the formal design of a Japanese garden, although they are musically self-sufficient wholes and do not necessitate such an extra-musical interpretation. Other topics such as musical influences, the concept of ma and Japanese perception of time, and titles in Takemitsu's works are also discussed.


The paper is devoted to the study of the use of organic-mineral waste from the pulp and paper industry for the land and dumps restoration disturbed by the mining and processing industry. The examination of the chemical, agrochemical and toxicological properties of the dumps of the Verninsky GOK were carried out. It showed their toxicity to the environment and the need for restoration. It is proposed to use soil moisture obtained from frozen colloidal sediments of sludge-lignin of the Baikal PPM OJSC (BPPM) to intensify the restoration succession. It reduces the toxic effect of dumps on higher plants and introduces the necessary nutrients. At the same time, the use of the obtained soil moistures will make it possible not only to restore lands disturbed by the mining and processing industry, but also to utilize the accumulated waste of JSC BPPM, which creates a huge socio-ecological threat for Lake Baikal and the entire Southern Baikal region.


A pot experiment was conducted to study the effect of ammonium (NH4) and nitrate (NO3) on growth, water relations and rhizodeposition (taking accumulation of sand on the root surface as an indirect measure) of two varieties of maize (C-20 and C-77). Nitrogen was applied as ammonium sulphate or potassium nitrate at 50 or 100 mg L-1 of the rooting medium solution and the plants were harvested 15 days after seed sowing when seed reserves were nearly exhausted. It was assumed that form and level of N was the main variable affecting plant growth besides K that was added as potassium nitrate. Data were recorded on root and shoot biomass (fresh and dry weight) and amount and water concentration of sand adhering to the roots. In general, higher level of NH4-N had a negative effect on plant growth and a positive effect on tissue water concentration. The amount of sand adhering to the roots increased in the presence of lower levels of NH4 in both the maize varieties. The roots could adhere sand 2-3 times their fresh weight and 30-43 times the dry weight and was assumed to reflect the amount of rhizodeposits. The RAS showed significantly higher water concentration as compared to the bulk sand suggesting the presence of polysaccharides that were assumed to be released from the roots or synthesized by rhizospheric microorganisms. The water concentration of RAS was found to be higher in the presence of NH4 suggesting a higher rhizodeposition and/or microbial synthesis of polysaccharides. Implications of forms of N in the rooting medium to plant growth are discussed.