Environmental exposure to arsenic is a worldwide health concern which is linked to a number of diseases. Areas with arsenic levels above the current safe concentration have higher levels of skin, lung, liver, and bladder cancers and non-carcinogenic pathologies, including neuropathy, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. Understanding the mechanism by which arsenic exerts its toxic effects is crucial to developing preventative strategies and more effective treatments for individuals with long term exposure to arsenic compounds. This thesis outlines the epidemiological evidence for arsenic-linked diseases as well as the current understanding of arsenic metabolism and the mechanism(s) of how arsenic exerts its cytotoxicity. The liver is a major site of arsenic uptake and biotransformation and thus is affected by high arsenic levels. Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been shown to play a major role in the toxic effects of arsenic. Using primary and immortalized hepatocyte cell lines these studies investigate how arsenic generates the production of ROS. The localization of superoxide was shown to overlap with mitochondria and antioxidant enzymes were shown to be induced after arsenic treatment. Measurement of mitochondria function through oxygen consumption rate (OCR) shows that arsenic affects oxidative phosphorylation and the ability for mitochondria to efficiently couple electron transport with ATP production. Understanding the source of ROS from arsenic exposure and how cells cope with altered mitochondrial bioenergetics is an important building block for future studies on arsenic toxicity and for developing treatments for arsenic exposure.


In recent years, attack trees have been developed to describe processes by which malicious users attempt to exploit or break complex systems. Attack trees offer a method of decomposing, visualizing, and determining the cost or likelihood of attacks. Attack trees by themselves do not provide enough decision support to system defenders. The defenders need methods to determine which protections to implement and where to place them in the system to mitigate the vulnerabilities found. This research develops the concept of using protection trees to offer a detailed risk analysis for the protection of a system. In addition to developing protection trees, this research improves the existing concept of attack trees as well as developing rule sets for the manipulation of metrics used in the security of complex systems.
This research specifically develops the framework for using an attack and protection tree methodology to analyze the security of complex systems. To accomplish this, the structure of attack trees is extended and modified to create the concept of protection trees. To validate the effectiveness of the methodology, the Schematic Protection Model (SPM) is used. The SPM is extended and applied to verify that a system protected using the attack and protection tree methodology is safe. To demonstrate the general usefulness of this novel methodology, it is used to analyze the security of several varied domains including computer networks, online banking, homeland security, and mobile ad hoc networks.


When an intelligent agent learns to imitate human visuomotor behaviors, it may benefit from knowing where the human is allocating visual attention, which can be inferred from their gaze. A wealth of information regarding intelligent decision making is conveyed by human gaze allocation; hence, exploiting such information has the potential to improve the agent's performance. With this motivation, we collect high-quality human action and gaze data while playing Atari games. We first train a deep neural network that can predict human gaze positions and visual attention with high accuracy (the gaze network) and then train another deep neural network to predict human actions (the policy network). Including the gaze predictions from the gaze network in the policy network significantly improves the action prediction accuracy. We conclude that it is feasible to learn human attention in the given visuomotor tasks, and that combining the learned attention model with imitation learning yields promising results.


Naturalizing a global 'world of capitalist totality' serves as a modality for normalizing global processes of capital accumulation. However 'global' remains a project evinced in specific forms of cultural action and practices. This preliminary article juxtaposes two vastly separated spheres of global economy and society that are rarely considered together. The haute sphere of a crisis ridden global financial system increasingly sees its salvation in mobilizing and disposing of the 'surpluses of the Orient' in a manner that speeds up global capital accumulation. In this light the financial crisis and the enhanced global role and aspirations of Asian states, in particular China and India, may lead to compromises in the ways both states have articulated local, national and global accumulation processes to one another, and mediated their impact on marginalized domestic social groups. Historians have traditionally misrecognized struggles of subordinated social groups to resist surrendering their claims to capital or resist proletarianization. It has now become more important than ever to revisit these struggles and their redoubts to uncover cultural and political actions for grounding the 'global', and the practices, idioms and relationships of resistance to them.


Physics-based fluid simulation has played an increasingly important role in the computer graphics community. Recent methods in this area have greatly improved in generating complex visual effects and also in computational efficiency. Novel techniques have emerged to deal with complex boundaries, multiphase fluids, gas-liquid interfaces, and fine details. In parallel, the combined use of machine learning, image processing, and fluid control technologies has brought many interesting and novel research perspectives. In this survey, we provide an introduction to theoretical concepts underpinning physics-based fluid simulation and their practical implementation with the aim to serve as a guide for both newcomer and seasoned researchers for exploring the physics-based fluid simulation field, with a focus on recent developments in the last decade. Driven by the distribution of recent publications in the field, we structure our survey to cover physical background, discretization approaches, computational methods that address scalability, fluid interactions with other materials and interfaces, and methods for expressive aspects of surface detail and control. From a practical perspective, we overview existing implementations available for the above methods.


Hip fractures are intensely painful, so post-operative analgesia is an integral part of patient care for early rehabilitation and mobility.[1] Local anaesthetics with epidural additives ideally should provide stable haemodynamics and prolonged analgesia. There is limited literature comparing dexmedetomidine and ketamine as epidural additives. We conducted a study of continuous epidural infusion of bupivacaine plus dexmedetomidine comparing with bupivacaine plus preservative-free (PF) ketamine in patients undergoing hip fracture surgeries to assess the quality of post-operative analgesia.


This article is based on national financial education expenditure budget and the annual GDP data since the reform and opening up, using the nonlinear MS(M)-VAR(p)model to analyze the linkage mechanism of the China's education investment and macroeconomic growth. The conclusions indicate that:(1) when growth rate of education investment is in a low level, it has a smaller volatility and a greater persistence; when growth rate of education investment is in a high level, it hasa greater volatility and a smaller persistence.(2) When the macroeconomic presented slow or rapid growth, it showsa greater volatility andsmaller persistence; when the macroeconomic is in the"moderate growth"stage, it shows a smaller volatilityandgreater persistence.(3) The prophase GDP growth rate has a significant positive effect on current education investment; but the growth rate of prophase education investment has a significant negative effect on current GDP growth rate.(4) When the"Education and economic"system is in the"slow growth phase"or"moderate growth phase", it has greater possibility and more stronger sustainable, while educational investment growth rate and GDP growth rate has a negative correlation; when"Education and economic"system is in the"fast growth phase", it has the smallest possibility and the weakest continuity, while educational investment growth rate and GDP growth rate has a positive correlation.


A Genetic-Fuzzy Sliding Mode Controller is presented for DC Servomotor system control. The fuzzy logic controller was optimized by Genetic Algorithm method to reduce and eliminate the chattering phenomenon. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented approach, a comparison between the proposed system, and standard Sliding Mode controller were conducted. Simulation results have shown the advantages of choosing the proposed controller, to achieve the desired results, regardless of the external disturbance, the variation in system parameters, or the feedback noise.


As with many leadership positions, women hold very few head coaching positions in sports. This does not mean that women do not play sports and do not hold many positions in the field of sports. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between Perceived Barriers and Role Model perceptions of athletes-students and Self-Efficacy on basis of Social Cognitive Career Theory. For this purpose, the sample of the research consisted of 109 female athletes-students. The results, a difference was found between the age of the athlete students, the gender of the coach, the year of doing sports and the sports branch, and the dimensions of coaching self-efficacy and role modeling. Differences were found between the age of the athletes, the gender of the coach, the branch of sports and the dimension of discrimination. A significant relationship was found between trainer gender and self-efficacy and being a role model.


The conventional design equations for centered-inclined slots of a planar array feed network rely on certain assumptions regarding the phase relationship between the elements of the scattering parameters of coupling junctions, and do not account for higher-order coupling between tilted slots. Phase variations between S-parameters give rise to excitation errors in the radiating branches, and discounting the effects of higher-order coupling causes the input reflection coefficient minimum to deviate from the design frequency. In this communication, we derive new design relations which accommodate phase differences between individual scattering parameters and compensate for higher-order coupling. Compensation is achieved with the addition of closed-form terms in the expression for the equivalent impedance of the coupling slots. The effectiveness of the proposed procedure is demonstrated by means of an illustrative design example.


Histones are chromatin proteins that are highly modified with many different types of post‐translational modifications. These modifications act in concert to regulate a number of chromatin‐related processes. However, identification and quantification of co‐occurring histone post‐translational modifications is challenging because there are many potential combinations of modifications and because the commonly used strategy of fragmenting proteins using trypsin or an alternative protease prior to LC‐MS/MS analysis results in the loss of connectivity between modifications on different peptides. In this unit, mass spectrometric methods to analyze combinatorial histone modifications on histone tails (middle‐down mass spectrometry) and on intact histones (top‐down mass spectrometry) are described. Curr. Protoc. Protein Sci. 77:23.7.1‐23.7.28. © 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Incidence of human mpox has been increasing in West and Central Africa, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where monkeypox virus (MPXV) is endemic. Most estimates of the pathogens transmissibility in DRC are based on data from the 1980s. Amid the global 2022 mpox outbreak, new estimates are needed to characterize the virus epidemic potential and inform outbreak control strategies. We used the R package vimes to identify clusters of laboratory-confirmed mpox cases in Tshuapa Province, DRC. Cases with both temporal and spatial data were assigned to clusters based on the diseases serial interval and spatial kernel. We used the size of the clusters to infer the effective reproduction number, Rt, and the rate of zoonotic spillover of MPXV into the human population. Out of 1,463 confirmed mpox cases reported in Tshuapa Province between 2013 and 2017, 878 had both date of symptom onset and a location with geographic coordinates. Results include an estimated Rt of 0.82 (95% CI: 0.79 - 0.85) and a rate of 132 (95% CI: 122 - 143) spillovers per year assuming a reporting rate of 0.25. This estimate of Rt is larger compared to most previous estimates. One potential explanation for this result is that Rt could have increased in DRC over time due to declining population-level immunity conferred by smallpox vaccination, which was discontinued around 1982. Rt could be overestimated if our assumption of one spillover event per cluster does not hold. Our results are consistent with increased transmissibility of MPXV in Tshuapa Province.


In a new report, researchers suggest that natural T-cell responses against HIV can be enhanced. Previously, investigators found that, in mice, a


In this article, silicon bulk micromachined RF MEMS switch with four cantilever piezoelectric actuators has been designed, fabricated, and characterized for advanced mobile/wireless communication systems. The proposed switch is comprised of four piezoelectric cantilever actuators, a contact metal pad, and a suspended CPW signal line above the silicon substrate. The fabricated piezoelectric switch has an insertion loss of −0.23 dB and an isolation of −44 dB at a frequency of 2 GHz and an operation voltage of 2.5 V, respectively. Also, it has constant performance characteristics at the certain range of applied voltages above the operation voltage that result in high production yield. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 570–573, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22195


Informationization is the big trend in the world economy and the development of society.It causes fundamental changes in a series of social economic life.Energetically giving great impetus to national economy and social informationization,using informationizations to bring along industralization are strategic move of speeding up our country's progress of modernization and they are also an urgent need to deal with increasing severe competition in the world.In givien impetus to our national economy and social informationization,we should follow the following basic principles:seizing opportunities,giving play to coming superiority,working hard to accomplish the striding across development of informative industry,Paying attention to use informative technology to reform and improve traditional industry,taking ourselves as the dominant factor,having our eyes on the improvement and all round development of the level of consume in people's daily life.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical outcomes for sublobar resection (SR) or SR plus intraoperative brachytherapy (SRB) for clinical stage I non-small-cell lung cancer.

METHODS
A systematic search was performed in the EMBASE, PubMed and Cochrane Library databases to identify related studies comparing SR to SRB. Data were collected on local recurrence (LR) as a primary outcome and regional or distant recurrence, overall survival and disease-free survival (DFS) as secondary outcomes. Meta-analysis was carried out using Stata 12.0.

RESULTS
A total of 476 patients received SRB, and 617 received SR across 5 studies. Meta-analysis of LR, regional or distant recurrence, overall survival and disease-free survival rates showed no significant difference between SRB and SR groups. However, when biologically effective dose (BED) was >100 Gy, LR rate was lower in the SRB group than in the SR group (Relative risk [RR] = 0.143, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.051-0.397) (p < 0.001). When BED was <100 Gy, no significant difference was found in LR rate between SRB and SR groups (SRB versus SR: RR = 1.132, 95%CI: 0.704-1.821) (p = 0.608).

CONCLUSIONS
Intraoperative brachytherapy was not associated with reduced risk of regional or distant metastasis or improved outcomes for patients with clinical stage I non-small-cell lung cancer; however, it might reduce the LR rate when BED was >100 Gy.


DNA is the most important biological molecule, and its hydration contributes essentially to the structure and functions of the double helix. We analyze the microhydration of the individual bases of nucleic acids and their methyl derivatives using methods of molecular mechanics (MM) with the Poltev-Malenkov (PM), AMBER and OPLS force fields, as well as ab initio Quantum Mechanics (QM) calculations at MP2/6-31G(d,p) level of theory. A comparison is made between the calculated interaction energies and the experimental enthalpies of microhydration of bases, obtained from mass spectrometry at low temperatures. Each local water-base interaction energy minimum obtained with MM corresponds to the minimum obtained with QM. General qualitative agreement was observed in the geometrical characteristics of the local minima obtained via the two groups of methods. MM minima correspond to slightly more coplanar structures than those obtained via QM methods, and the absolute MM energy values overestimate corresponding values obtained with QM. For Adenine and Thymine the QM local minima energy values are closer to those obtained by the PM potential (average of 0.72 kcal/mol) than by the AMBER force field (1.86 kcal/mol). The differences in energy between MM and QM results are more pronounced for Guanine and Cytosine, especially for minima with the water molecule forming H-bonds with two proton-acceptor centers of the base. Such minima are the deepest ones obtained via MM methods while QM calculations result in the global minima corresponding to water molecule H-bonded to one acceptor and one donor site of the base. Calculations for trimethylated bases with a water molecule corroborate the MM results. The energy profiles were obtained with some degrees of freedom of the water molecule being frozen. This data will contribute to the improvement of the molecular mechanics force fields.


The International Fund for Agricultural Development's (IFAD's) vision for the post-2015 rural world is one in which extreme rural poverty is eliminated through inclusive and sustainable agriculture and rural development, and in which poor rural people and communities, including those who live in remote areas, are empowered to build prosperous and sustainable livelihoods. IFAD is focused on rural people at the bottom of the pyramid, women, and marginalized people. External evaluations have shown that IFAD, a small and agile organization, has been effective in addressing its declared mission. Its dilemma going forward is whether to assist poor people in only poor countries, or even in low middle-income countries and middle-income countries, as it has done in the past. An assessment is needed of whether the current paradigm of average per capita country income is sufficiently robust to support IFAD's mandate, particularly in countries with acute per capita income inequality. Demonstrating impacts has been a challenge, but then IFAD is not alone in that regard. A vigorous program of impact assessments is underway but generalizing beyond findings of individual impact evaluations has been a challenge. The Eleventh Replenishment (IFAD11, 2019–21) may barely reach US$1.1 billion of the US$1.2 billion replenishment target over a three-year period. The ongoing IFAD12 Replenishment (2022–4) needs to exceed that to secure IFAD's financial future, including market-based borrowing at rates that MICs will find expedient to borrow at for rural development programs where, traditionally, highly concessional and/or grant funding has been available.


PRESENT KNOWLEDGE INDICATED THAT THE PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACCIDENTS RESTS WITH THE DRIVER OF THE VEHICLE. NEVERTHELESS, IT IS STILL NOT CLEAR WHAT CONTRIBUTION TO THIS IS MADE BY THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE VEHICLE ITSELF. FOR THIS REASON A PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF ROAD SAFETY RESEARCH IN THE COMING YEARS MUST BE TO INVESTIGATE BY SCIENTIFIC MEANS AND TO ANALYSE THE RELATION BETWEEN DRIVER, VEHICLE AND ROAD AS IT AFFECTS ACCIDENT RISK. IN ORDER TO ATTAIN THIS IMPORTANT GOAL A PROGRAMME OF RESEARCH IS SET OUT FOR THE FUTURE, AND IS BRIEFLY DESCRIBED IN THIS REPORT. THE MAIN POINTS OF THE PROGRAMME ARE AS FOLLOWS: (1) DETERMINATION OF THE RELATION BETWEEN DRIVER BEHAVIOUR AND THE OCCURRENCE OF ACCIDENTS; (2) DEFINITION OF THE DRIVING SITUATION; (3) OPTIMIZATION OF DRIVER-VEHICLE PERFORMANCE; (4) DETERMINATION OF DRIVER-VEHICLE PERFORMANCE IN ACCIDENTS.


Nucleic acid memory (NAM) is the storage of digital data by encoding the information into the medium of nucleic acids. This is often called DNA storage, as typically, but not necessarily, the information is stored in the nucleobases that comprise DNA. Baum first introduced this idea in 1995, but it wasn't until 2012 that Church proved the idea on a larger scale. NAM has a number of features that make it very promising as a data storage medium. The three typically highlighted are capacity density, data retention (i.e., durability), and energy usage. NAM should enter the data storage market, as a hardware product, through the ~$4.5B archiving market, by targeting large storage service providers and large data-intensive corporations with on-premise operations. A NAM product has the potential to reduce the capital and operational cost base of these companies, by millions of dollars per year. An architecture strategy should be employed to enter the market, relying on control over underlying ideas and partnerships to barricade the company from competition. NAM is a decade away from commercialization, making this a very risky early stage venture. The costs need to come down at least 100,000-fold before the technology is cost competitive with current solutions. Additionally, there are a number of scientific and engineering issues that need to be carefully resolved. Due to the risks, the only viable funding source is government grants. If early stage funding were secured, IP should be developed in the core NAM technology of storage and access and an interim revenue source established. This would allow the company a strong chance to thrive in the competitive storage industry, if and when NAM becomes cost competitive. Thesis Supervisor: Aleksandra Kacperczyk Title: Fred Kayne (1960) Career Development Professor of Entrepreneurship


Many tests have been made so far to assess the biological quality of rivers with molecular data. Most often HTS-related eDNA metabarcoding sequences clustered into Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) are assigned to taxa, using reference barcode databases. From there, the existing biotic indices, developed for morphological data are calculated. However, this approach has several drawbacks that may justify their lower performances compared to traditional ones, or not extracting the maximum potential from the molecular data. The first is the incompleteness of reference databases (despite their continuous evolution) avoiding the conversion of molecular into taxonomic may overcome this issue. Yet, another likely source of bias in the assessments is at the basis of existing classification systems: a possible poor correspondence between the biological reference conditions developed based on species morphology and on molecular data. In other words, molecular-based assemblages from different rivers may not group similarly or respond to the same environmental variables as taxa. Correcting this would require rebuilding the whole systems and establishing new typological-based molecular reference values, which are then used to calculate Ecological Quality Ratios (EQR) and determine the Ecological Quality Status (EQS) of river sites. One alternative to the grouping step inherent to the typological approach, and that may be viewed as artificial (nature is a continuum), is the prediction of site-specific reference conditions based on abiotic characteristics of sites. Thus, we tested a combination of machine-learning modelling techniques to build a taxonomic-free site-specific index to assess rivers based on diatom assemblages, from 81 ‡ © Feio M. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. sites located in Portugal (Feio et al. (2020)Feio et al. 2020). The models are trained to predict diatom OTUs expected under reference conditions, from environmental data. Then, for each test site, an OTU EQR is calculated based on the deviation between the observed OTUs in the field samples and the expected OTUs under reference conditions, which is finally converted into a quality class (after the construction of a new classification system). The molecular-based model was accurate and sensitive to global anthropogenic disturbance (such as, changes in land use and habitat quality), which gives promising insights to its use for bioassessment of rivers. Further work consists of testing this approach with invertebrate data as well as investigating the potential of ISO or ESV in alternative to OTUs.


In the Classical Quarterly, vol. ii. No. 2, reviewing Breiter's recent text of the Astronomica, together with Housman's edition of Book i, I made a number of suggestions of my own on some of the principal difficulties in the text and interpretation of Manilius. I did not, however, bring my notes down beyond Book i. In the present paper I propose to traverse some of the more thorny places of ii. and iii. I shall try to make what I have to say to some extent a continued review of Breiter (and even of Housman).


A circularly polarized full-duplex antenna array is designed for a 60 GHz wireless transmission chip. Firstly, a dual-polarization antenna based on the cavity-backed slot is designed. Two orthogonal modes $(\text{TE}_{120}$ and $\text{TE}_{210})$ are used to realize two different polarization states of the antenna, thus effectively reducing cross-polarization. A layered feeding structure is adopted in the design, which can enhance the isolation between the two ports. Then a circularly polarized antenna array is proposed based on the proposed dual-polarization antenna. The four antennas are rotated 90° around the phase center of the array to achieve the right-hand circular polarization function. The simulation results show that the antenna can operate between 63.3 to 64.5 GHz with isolation of 37 dB between the transmitting and receiving ports.


Abstract:This article utilizes the interdisciplinary tools of material culture and oral history to explore the ways in which black women from a rural Mississippi community called "the Crossroads" represent—in material form—their social, cultural, and historical experiences. Through an analysis of oral history interviews with black women who were born between 1927 and 1947 and who worked as sharecroppers and domestics at the Crossroads during Jim Crow, I demonstrate how they used material objects (for instance, repurposed Prince Albert tobacco tins as hair rollers flour sacks as dresses, and Sears Roebuck catalogs as wallpaper) and engaged in makeshifting, which I define as black women's logical, material, temporary responses to discrimination, oppression, racism, or lack. Through makeshifting, these women organized the logics of culture and community; reimagined their circumstances; and resisted in the face of poverty and racial, class, and gender discrimination during the early twentieth century.


be a reflection of working class strength and agitation. On the other hand, it could be a capitalist move to abandon an unprofitable enterprise and give money to builders and financiers who could benefit from local authority spending. Since the contributors find very little evidence for working class unity, they are inclined to think therg was something of a capitalist plot at work, so that whatever happened could not have been to the working man's advantage. Only the 1915 Rent and Mortgage Restriction Act, passed with a background of working class agitation, albeit of a highly patriotic moralistic kind against war profiteering, seems to have been in the workers' real interest. I am sure, however, the contributors are wrong about even this: the Act misled workers to continue to believe in the efficacy of parliamentary legislation to right social wrongs; handed over working class housing not to the workers in cooperatives but to the chill mercies of a bureaucratic state reluctant to accept that the Act would destroy the private rented sector of housing; required the creation of council housing for which the working class paid in taxation for the subsidised housing of its own richer members while leaving its poorer members in the increasing physical disintegration of private rented accommodation; and finally distorted housing development so slums would be a problem to the end of the century. For the contributors, the historical evidence is profoundly ambiguous, inevitably given their view of the benefit problems. They are almost certainly correct in insisting that their question is the right one to attempt to answer, but it requires a much sharper set of analytic tools than the crude mechanistic Marxism they deplore but emotionally accept. However, for their labours in clarifying the enormous variety of local policies and attitudes to housing 1885-1939, we must be grateful, even if their perspective is an ultimately unhelpful one.


on July 31st (p. 218) to the, opening of tlie new chemeiclal block, w-ith its unsurpassed facilities for teaching, this important preliminary in the meldical eourse. The provision for instruction in biology has also received the fullest possible attention. Somiiething mlore is still required, howev-er, since Epsom-l College should furnish a similfarly high standard in all respects. We therefore invite special attention to the appeal of Dr. Raynmond Crawfurd hich is published at page 1195 of this issue. Dr. Craw furd pleads for such assistance as will enable the sanatorium accommodation of the College to be brought uip to date and mnade fully adequate. At present this is patently not the case. The wooden hut wlichl is the only building available at the College at presenit for the isolation of all varieties of infectious disease is far from fulfilling the most elementary requirem--enits for a school of its size. In the light of


With an aim to monitor the sub-ionosperic changes a Very Low Frequency (VLF) signal receiving station has been installed at Cooch Behar in Eastern India $[26.334^{\circ}\mathrm{N} ; 89.326^{\circ}\mathrm{E}]$. VLF signals transmitted from different navy transmitter e.g. VTX $[8.433^{\circ}\mathrm{N} ; 77.733^{\circ}\mathrm{E}]$, NWC $[21.816^{\circ}\mathrm{S}$; $114.165^{\circ}\mathrm{E}]$, NDT $[32.082^{\circ}\mathrm{N}; 130.827^{\circ}\mathrm{E}]$ around the world are received by an E-field whip antenna and a computer records the amplitude of the amplified signals at the rate of 4 data points per second. Diurnal variation of the data is analyzed and it is observed that the shifts of the Terminator Time during both the sun rise and sunset time are very prominent. Interestingly these perturbations are followed by several moderate size earthquakes. Primarily the VLF signals appear to be very promising for short time earthquake precursor study.


The pathology of ascites syndrome in 55 male and female broiler chickens aged 26 to 44 days was studied and compared with normal controls. At necropsy, gross changes included dark breast muscle, marked abdominal distention, presence of 40-260 ml clear yellow fluid with clots of fibrin in the abdominal cavity, hydropericardium, cardiomegaly and pericardial haemorrhages, and congestion in lungs, liver, kidneys and intestines. The liver was shrunken with greyish capsule. The histopathology revealed congestion, dilatation of parabronchi and adjacent air capillaries, hypertrophy of smooth muscle of parabronchial walls, numerous small-to-large hyaline cartilaginous foci and, in some cases, osseous foci in parenchyma of lung. Congestion, oedema and myofiber degeneration of heart, pronounced dilatation of sinusoids, atrophy and degeneration of hepatocytes, marked thickening of capsule and in some cases fatty change of liver; congestion of glomeruli and urate deposits in the lumina of collecting tubules in the kidney; congestion, disappearance of white pulp and mild to severe thickening of capsule in the spleen, congestion, follicular depletion, intrafollicular cyst formation in the bursa of Fabricius were also seen.


The homogenous one-speed neutron transport in plane geometry can be solved using spherical harmonics method ( P N ). The scattering function is expressed as series of the first four terms of Legendre polynomials to get appropriate solutions. We calculated eigenvalues ( ν ) for different values of the number of secondary neutron per collision ( c ). Also the results of triplet of anisotropic scattering are compared with the results of linear, pure-quadratic and pure-triplet anisotropic scattering.


The physician dedicated to the preservation of health as well as the treatment of illness must be conversant with both the immediate and the remote causes of disease. The following 1942 Connecticut case report has its origins in social religious economic legal as well as medical factors; it ends with the death of a white female age 23. While medicine must conform itself to social regulation medicine must also bring evidence of the unsatisfactory nature of such regulations to the immediate attention of all who influence those regulations. The patient was admitted to the hospital May 16 complaining of chills fever and bloody vaginal discharge. The patient had 4 children ages 1-7 years old. The husband was a truck driver earning $20 to $325 a week. Husband and wife decided it would be wise to limit the size of their family. Contraception (condoms) were used until about 9 months before the present illness when the druggist declined to continue to sell the patient any form of contraception. The womans last menstrual period occurred in late January. On May 12 the patient produced by a self-induced abortion 2 fetuses through the insertion of a catheter sterilized by boiling into her uterus. 2 days later she was hospitalized with a fever of 105.4 degrees Fahrenheit a pulse rate of 130/minute and a rebound tenderness over the lower abdomen. The uterus was enlarged to the size of about a 3-month pregnancy and was soft and tender on motion. The cervix was enlarged soft and discharged a sanguinous fluid. The blood and cervical discharge culture yielded a heavy growth of beta hemolytic streptococci. Despite treatment the blood culture remained heavily positive; the patient had a temperature spiking to 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Coma was followed by death on the 25th day of hospitalization.


The current situation of the development in video surveillance industry and the main problems are analyzed.This paper expounds the design of the video control system based on ASP.NET network,using Web Servers structure and Open Network Video Interface Forum(ONVIF).From the system architecture,the main flow chart ASP.NET framework in the application of monitoring system are emphatically analyzed,and the various modules function network video monitoring system is implemented.The system can improve the user perception compatibility and security monitoring equipment(IPC),and it has a certain application value for security monitoring.


Methods of assessing and measuring female genital functions are reviewed and their roles in research and current clinical evaluation of dysfunction discussed.


Jagn1 deficiency results in alterations in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi apparatus of antibody-producing cells, reduced antibody secretion, and aberrant IgG N-glycosylation. The data uncover a key role for JAGN1 and ER stress in antibody glycosylation and humoral immunity in mice and humans.


– This paper presents a peer comparison between the integration and simplification concepts of zero-voltage-transition (ZVT) circuits applied to voltage fed three-phase inverters used in industrial adjustable-speed drives. Initially, both concepts are defined and their main advantages and limitations are identified. Thereafter, a comparison is made between two selected topologies, considering modulation strategies, main and auxiliary circuit losses and the harmonic content of the inverter output voltage. It is demonstrated that when the load demands a voltage with low harmonic content, the simplified ZVT topologies are recommended and when the number of components is the main concern, the integrated ZVT topologies may be the best choice. Finally, experimental results for the selected topologies operating at 1.5 kW and 20 kHz are presented in order to confirm the comparative analysis carried out. The simplified ZVT topology presented an efficiency of 98.1% at nominal operation while the integrated ZVT topology presented an efficiency of 97.2% at the same condition.


The spatial segregation between dwarf spheroidal (dSph) and dwarf irregular galaxies in the Local Group has long been regarded as evidence of an interaction with their host galaxies. In this paper, we assume that ram-pressure stripping is the dominant mechanism that removed gas from the dSphs and we use this to derive a lower bound on the density of the corona of the Milky Way at large distances (R similar to 50-90 kpc) from the Galactic Centre. At the same time, we derive an upper bound by demanding that the interstellar medium of the dSphs is in pressure equilibrium with the hot corona. We consider two dwarfs (Sextans and Carina) with well-determined orbits and star formation histories. Our approach introduces several novel features: (i) we use the measured star formation histories of the dwarfs to derive the time at which they last lost their gas and (via a modified version of the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation) their internal gas density at that time; (ii) we use a large suite of 2D hydrodynamical simulations to model the gas stripping; and (iii) we include supernova feedback tied to the gas content. Despite having very different orbits and star formation histories, we find results for the two dSphs that are in excellent agreement with one another. We derive an average particle density of the corona of the Milky Way at R = 50-90 kpc in the range n(cor) = 1.3-3.6 x 10(-4) cm(-3). Including additional constraints from X-ray emission limits and pulsar dispersion measurements (that strengthen our upper bound), we derive Galactic coronal density profiles. Extrapolating these to large radii, we estimate the fraction of baryons (missing baryons) that can exist within the virial radius of the Milky Way. For an isothermal corona (T-cor = 1.8 x 10(6) K), this is small - just 10-20 per cent of the expected missing baryon fraction, assuming a virial mass of 1-2 x 10(12) M-circle dot. Only a hot (T-cor = 3 x 10(6) K) and adiabatic corona can contain all of the Galaxy's missing baryons. Models for the Milky Way must explain why its corona is in a hot adiabatic thermal state; or why a large fraction of its baryons lie beyond the virial radius.


The efficient design of departure and arrival routes in the airspace surrounding airports, called the terminal maneuvering area, is crucial for increasing the capacity of such areas, thus alleviati...


ABSTRACT
Sukresna, Etik Ektafia. 2010. The Students' Mastery of Derivational Suffixes for the English Parts of Speech (A Case Study of the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAN 1 Kajen, Pekalongan in the Academic Year of 2009/2010). English Department. Semarang State University. First Advisor: Drs. Suprapto, M.Hum. Second Advisor: Galuh Kirana Dwi Areni, S.S., M.Pd.
Keywords: derivational suffixes, English parts of speech, descriptive study.
The objectives of the study are to describe how well the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Kajen Pekalongan in academic year 2009/2010 have mastered Derivational Suffixes and to measure the achievement level of those students in mastering Derivational Suffixes. This study was stimulated by the fact that not all students could master derivational suffixes for the English parts of speech well. They are considered a difficult topic of grammar since the students found difficulties to determine the combination of suffixes and words to form other words which have different parts of speech in the process of derivation.
The population of this study was the eleventh grade students of SMAN 1 Kajen, Pekalongan in the academic year 2009/2010. The number of population was 240 students. Since the population number was more than 100 students and divided into some groups of class, I conducted cluster random sampling technique to choose the sample. I took 15 % of the population, which are 35 students from class XI IPA 1 as the sample of this research.
In gathering the data, I gave a test consisting 50 multiple choice items to the students of XI IPA 1 on April 24, 2010. Before giving the test, I administered a try out test at the same school but in different class that is class XI IPA 3 on April 3, 2010. The main goal of conducting the try out test was to measure the validity and reliability of the instrument of this study. The try out test consisted of 60 multiple choice items which turned out that 50 items were valid and 10 items were not.
I computed the data statistically by using Criterion-Reference Grading developed by Tinambunan (1988:129), that is A (93-100 % correct), B (85-92% correct), C (75-84 % correct), D (60-74 % correct), and F (below 60 %). The result of the statistical analysis was 0 % of the students who got A, 2.86% of the students who got B, 17.14% of the students who got C, 45.71 % of the students who got D, and 34.29% of the students who got F. According to the Department of Education and Culture (Depdikbud, 1993: 37) the students can be successful if they get score 65 and above. This study shows that there were 20 students got more than 65 and 15 students got less than 65. It means that most of the students have already mastered derivational suffixes of the English parts of speech.
The percentages of students' achievement for each classification were 67.86% for the use of derivational suffixes of noun, 57.85% for the use of derivational form of verb, 59.62% for the use of derivational form of adjective, and 58.57% for the use of derivational form of adverb. Since the percentages of
students' achievement in the use of derivational form of verb were the lowest one, I can conclude that the most difficulty faced by the students is the use of derivational form of verb.


A 31-year-old woman presented with witnessed ingestion of multiple cylindrical batteries to deliberately self-harm 2 hours prior to admission. The patient denied any symptoms. Physical exam was normal. Abdominal series showed 7 cylindrical batteries (5 AAA and 2 AA) in the upper abdomen (Figure 1). Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) under conscious sedation revealed food remnants in the stomach. Despite extensive irrigation and suctioning only 2 batteries were visualized in the stomach and both were successfully retrieved using a Roth net. No mucosal damage was apparent. The next morning, she complained of mild abdominal pain with mild epigastric tenderness. Abdominal x-ray revealed 4 batteries in the stomach, and another in the small bowel. The patient underwent repeat EGD under general anesthesia within 12 hours of the ingestion time. Stomach exam revealed 3 batteries in the body with 3 deep ulcerations (2 in the antrum and 1 in the incisura) and multiple erosions (Figure 2). Duodenal exam showed superficial mucosal erosions, and another battery was seen beyond the ligament of Treitz.


This thesis illustrates the fabrication and
characterization of a footpad based on an original principle of
volumetric displacement sensing. It is intended for use in
detecting ground reaction forces in a running quadrupedal robot.
The footpad is manufactured as a monolithic, composite structure
composed of multi-graded polymers reinforced by glass fiber to
increase durability and traction. The volumetric displacement
sensing principle utilizes a hyperelastic gel-like pad with
embedded magnets and Hall-effect sensors. Normal and shear forces
can be detected as contact forces cause the gel-like pad to deform
into rigid wells without the need to expose the sensor. A one-time
training process using an artificial neural network was used to
relate the normal and shear forces with the volumetric displacement
sensor output. Two iterations on geometry are prototyped and
tested. The first shows the ability to accurately predict normal
forces in the Z-axis up to 80 N with a root mean squared error of
6% but little information about shear forces in the X an Y-axis.
The second iteration demonstrates an ability to pick up the
presence and direction of shear forces up to 40 N but with a root
mean squared error of 70%. This project demonstrates a
proof-of-concept for a more robust force sensor suitable for use in
robotics that requires compliance while interacting with its
environment.


Purpose - Organizations have viewed sustainability as a societal problem and unrelated to business. To recognize sustainability as an organizational issue requires companies to deal with the challenge of transforming into environmentally sustainable enterprises. This requires institutions to align mission statements with values. The purpose of this paper is to replicate previous research in sustainability and the cultural facets which impact the process. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative case study method was used to analyze 25 organizations within the US Midwest with various contexts to determine how their respective cultures impacted their change initiatives. Specifically, the authors spoke to sustainability change agents with regard to their leadership and culture, and the factors that are conducive to (or barriers to) implementing sustainability initiatives. Findings - The original study demonstrated the presence of seven contextual conditions which are important in the process of imbedding sustainability within the institution. This research found the same dimensions to be present; however, they manifested differently 15 years later. Practical implications - The original research offered a somewhat dark picture of the sustainability change initiatives within organizations. The current study however; offers a much more positive perspective which demonstrates organizations appear to have progressed with regard to sustainability. Originality/value - This is a replication study whereby we discovered similar themes as to the nature of contextual factors that can hinder or advance sustainability initiatives; however, the findings 15 years later show a marked difference in the current state of affairs and the ability to implement sustainability initiatives.


Article history: Received 5 October 2018 Received in revised form 4 December 2018 Accepted 8 December 2018 Available online 5 January 2019 This study aims to determine the efficacy of nickel-based coating as wax repellent for stainless steel pipelines. Two variables for nickel-based coating were studied namely nickel sulphate and sodium hypophosphate. Results show that 100% and 50% reduction of wax deposition for coating with sodium hypophosphate and coating with nickel sulphate respectively. These values indicate that nickel based coating can reduce wax deposition on the pipe surface. It also depicts that coating with more sodium hypophosphate serve better anti-wax coating compared to nickel based coating with more nickel sulphate. SEM analysis shows good surface morphology for the coating and displays a microstructure that plays an important role in protecting stainless steel surfaces.


204 Background: Osseous metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is uncommon, and optimal palliative management for palliation is unclear. We present our clinical experience with palliative radiotherapy (RT) for osseous metastasis from HCC.

METHODS
Patients were identified using two prospectively maintained databases at our institution: all patients with HCC who developed metastases and all patients undergoing RT. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed following Institutional Review Board approval. We identified 146 patients with metastatic HCC, of which 28 patients with 38 osseous metastases were eligible for this analysis. All patients are seen in a multi-disciplinary clinic where consensus for management is developed. Most (89%) had metastasis at the time of initial tumor diagnosis, including 22 (79%) patients with osseous lesions at diagnosis. Tissue confirmation of metastasis was obtained in 22 (79%) patients. Outcomes of interest included patient-reported pain relief at time of follow-up, radiographic response at 6-12 months, and overall survival. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS (IBM Corporation).

RESULTS
Median age at diagnosis was 61 years, and 86% (n = 24) were male. The most common site of metastasis was vertebral body (n = 26, 70%). Median time from bone metastasis diagnosis to RT was 1 month (range, 0-20). Only 1 patient received concomitant systemic therapy at the time of RT. Metastases were most commonly treated using 2D techniques (n = 26, 68%) to 30 Gy in 10 fractions (n = 18, 47%). Pain relief was complete, partial, and absent for 8 (21%), 24 (63%), and 6 (16%) metastases, respectively; no patient reported an increase in pain after treatment. Prescription BED3 > 50 Gy was associated with improved local control (P = .03). 7 (18%) radiographic local failures were observed at a median time of 5.4 months, and the 6-month local failure rate was 20.2%. Median survival was 3.4 months, with a 6-month survival rate of 39.1%.

CONCLUSIONS
Mortality for patients with osseous metastasis from HCC is high, but palliative RT is associated with significant pain relief and/or disease control in many patients. This data on efficacy of palliative RT helps guide optimal management of these patients.


Subtitle: The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. (CSIC), the conglomerates in charge of most of the country's shipyards, plan to reach the summit of world shipbuilding by 2015 through shpyard modernisation and increased efficiency and rationalisation.


Non-crustacean plankton was studied during summer cruises to the northern Nor wegian Sea from 1996 to 1998. The dominant species in the investigated area were Aglantha digitale (Hydrozoa) and Sagitta elegans (Chaetognatha). The average density, mean biomass, and interannual changes of zooplankton are presented against the background of sea tempera tures. The results of this work indicate the very strong inter-annual variability of non-crustacea n zooplankton abundance. Correlations with minor changes in sea temperature were noted only for hydromedusae.


What factors influence the embodiment felt towards parts of our bodies controlled by others? Using a new "joint avatar" whose left and right limbs are controlled by two people simultaneously


There have been examined 100 female patients of fertile age with chronic endometritis: 50 women got traditional medicamental treatment, 50 – with additional general magnetotherapy. It was registered that the use of general magnetotherapy leads to substantial decrease of the intensity of lipid peroxidation processes; it happens due to activation of antioxidant protective system.


This chapter discusses the conditions under which semi-parliamentary government can be stable. It responds to two conjectures about "strong" bicameralism: that constitutional designers who prefer strong second chambers have to be willing to accept (a) either a presidential system of government; or (b) oversized and ideologically heterogeneous cabinets. Both conjectures are largely unfounded because they neglect that second chambers can be designed to be powerful in the legislative process, but permissive with respect to cabinet formation. The chapter measures second chambers' "restrictiveness" with respect to cabinet formation as a neglected dimension of bicameral designs and uses the resulting indices to explain comparative patterns of cabinet formation and constitutional reform. A conditional logit analyses of cabinet formation in 28 democratic systems in the period 1975–2018 shows that governments' potential control of a second-chamber majority only affects cabinet formation when the chamber in question is restrictive. A comparative analysis of patterns of constitutional reform and stability in twelve bicameral systems suggests that reducing the restrictiveness of a second chamber—rather than its democratic legitimacy or legislative veto power—can be sufficient to stabilize a "strong" second chamber.


This article quantifies the occupational segregation of Hispanics in the largest Hispanic enclaves of the US. Using a procedure based on propensity score, it explores the role played by the characteristics of Hispanics, such as country of origin and English fluency, in explaining the variation of segregation across metropolitan areas. Regarding the characteristics of the metropolitan areas, a regression analysis shows that the segregation of Hispanic workers tends to be higher in relatively smaller and highly educated labour markets, with a lower proportion of Hispanics, a higher growth of recent foreign-born Hispanics and in areas where they face cooler feelings from the rest of the population.


We have been developing an Electronic Health Recording system, based on Application Service Provider technology. In this paper, we introduce a new practical module for operation recording. It is important on medical application that operation recording modules can easily handle a variety of data types and access operations (e.g., append and change). In medical applications, erroneous or abnormal data input causes critical problems. In order to solve such problems, we implemented functions to store all input data and logs and enabled medical stas to


Dual-rotor permanent magnet brushless (DRPMB) machine is proposed to satisfy some special requirements, such as the drive systems of Electrical Vehicle. However, the DRPMB motor is difficult to be designed through the existing commercial programs due to its particular configuration. In this paper, an equivalent magnetic-circuit method has been given to design DRPMB motor. Then a prototype was fabricated and tested in order to prove the validity of the method and indicate the superiority of this kind of machine.


Abstract : Consider a class M of probability measures on a measurable space X and measurable functions gi and h on X. In a typical moment problem we want further information on the possible sets of values taken by the integrals micrometers (gj) and micrometers (h) as micrometers runs through M. And the main purpose of the present paper is to develop into more systematic methods certain principles which in special cases have been found effective for handling such moment problems. In Sections 2 through 4 we take up certain frequently occurring moment problems where the class X happens to be convex. In Section 2 the space X can be any locally compact Hausdorff space. For {hj, j epsilon J} as an arbitrary collection (finite or infinite) of lower semicontinuous functions on X, we establish a condition which is both necessary and sufficient for the existence of a regular probability measure micrometer on X satisfying y (hj) less than or equal to nj for all j epsilon J. However, we do assume as a side condition that the hj dominate each other at infinity in a certain weak sense. This domination condition is void when X is compact and nearly so when hj equal to or more than 0.


This study proved the effectiveness of bibliotherapy through implementing a bibliotherapy program focusing on the psychological well-being of university students in South Korea and provided a rationale for a bibliotherapy course to help university students to improve their mental health. The univers...


This paper proposes that the Old Japanese case particle wo was an inherent Case-marker. The historical changes of wo are, then, characterized by the particle wo becoming a structural Case-marker in Modern Japanese. The consequences of this parametric change are substantiated by the six historical changes concerning wo : the verb-particle selectional changes, changes in topicalizability of wo-marked nominals, development of the o-causative, changes in the order of the particle (w)o and the conjunctive particle to (and), development of the double o constraint, and changes in wo-marking of the subject of the intransitive predicate


This study aims to determine the effect of Brand Attitudes, Brand Image, and the Perceived
Risk on product toward purchase intention of beverage named Pulpy Orange in Surabaya.
This study is a quantitative one so questionnaires remain as data source. Samples are some of
Pulpy Orange consumers selected through purposive technique or by judgment sampling
method. The questionnaire was distributed to 130 respondents. Data were analyzed by
Structural Equation Model Analysis (SEM) of AMOS 22.0 program. This research shows that
Brand image has standardized regression weight of 0,527 toward brand image with value of
C.R equals to 3,506 and p value is 0.000 (p < 0,05) so that Brand image has significant effect
toward Brand Attitude. Brand image has standardized regression weight of -0.190 toward
perceived risk with value of C.R of -1.539 and p value of 0.125 (p < 0.05) so that Brand
Image has no significant effect toward perceived risk. The perceived risk has standardized
regression weight of -0.439 toward purchase intention with value of C.R of -4.156 and pvalue
of 0.000 (p <0.05) so that perceived risk has significant effect toward purchase
intention. Brand image has standardized regression weight of 0,510 toward purchase
intention with value of C.R equals to 3,240 supported by p value of 0,001 (p <0,05) so that
brand image have significant effect toward purchase intention. Brand attitudes have
standardized regression weight of 0.350 to purchase intention with value of C.R of 2.517 and
p-value of 0.012 (p <0.05) so that brand attitudes have a significant effect on the purchase
intention on Pulpy Orange.
Keywords: Brand Attitude, Brand Image, Perceived Risk, purchase intention, Pulpy
Orange.


For many years, people all over the world have been lost their lives due to catastrophic disasters, such as fires, terrorist attacks, and earthquakes. Main causes of the damage expansion in these disasters include the escape delay of evacuees. So we have proposed a system using terminals in real time providing evacuation assistance that is Emergency Rescue Evacuation Support System (ERESS). This system is automatic disaster detection by mobile phone holders around the terminals and information gathering, analysis and sharing, evacuation quickly. This paper focuses on the evacuation route finding, and we propose the number of people grasp system of neighboring terminals using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). We perform the performance evaluation by experiments to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


The functional requirements of the zone controller (ZC) subsystem in the communication-based train control (CBTC) system are discussed. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is combined with the special requirements of train operation control in CBTC to standardize the implementation process of the ZC subsystem and improve the development efficiency of the system. This article uses UML modeling to intuitively display the structure of the system, check the integrity of the system, and complete the simulation verification of the system model.


Background:
 Troponin levels are routinely tested and trended in emergency departments even in the absence of clinical suspicion for Acute Coronary Syndrome. This can result in increased utilization of resources. We examined the rates at which troponin assays were drawn on admission to the medical service of our hospital and the appropriate use fo this assay.

 Methods:
 Consecutive patients admitted to the medical wards of our hospital over a one month period for which a Troponin level was obtained within 8 hours of arrival were prospectively identified. Baseline demographic and clinic characteristics and information regarding the admitting diagnosis were obtained through a detailed chart review. Cardiology testing or consults that were obtained soley for evaluation of an abnormal troponin were recorded. We defined an inappropriate troponin test (IT) as one that was drawn in the absence of a clear reason including, ischemic like symptoms (chest pain, epigastric pain, upper back pain, jaw pain or left shoulder/arm pain), unexplained shortness of breath, new ECG changes, syncope, arrhythmia or CHF.

 Results:
 Among 142 patients identified, 47 (33%) had IT. These patients were 61.9 ± 19.3 years of age (range 19-102 years), and 18 (38.3%) were female. Admitting diagnoses for those patients who had IT included the following: Altered mental status 8 (17%); Sepsis/Infection 8 (17%); Weakness 6 (12.8%); Other GI symptoms 5 (10.6%); GI Bleeding 2 (4.3%); Other miscellanous diagnosis 18 (38.3%). Table 1 depicts the characteristics of these patients.

 Conclusion:
 Significant number of patients admitted with non-cardiac diagnoses have Troponin assays drawn for unapparent reasons; This IT assay rarely results in the identification of a new cardiac diagnosis. In the long term, these IT can result in a significant and unnecessary increased utilization of hospital resources.


An instantaneous reactive power compensator is presented and analyzed in this paper. It operates without sensing the reactive
power demand and nonlinearities present in the load. An instantaneous compensation feature is achieved without employing any complicated control logic. The compensator is operated in discrete mode to achieve the instantaneous compensating feature.


Collectively, the results summarized in this review suggest that HBV acts like a stealth virus early in infection, remaining undetected and spreading until the onset of the adaptive immune response several weeks later. We suspect that the relative invisibility of HBV to the innate sensing machinery of the cells reflects its replication strategy, which sequesters the transcriptional template in the nucleus, entails the production of capped and polyadenylated viral mRNAs that resemble the structure of normal cellular transcripts, and the replicating viral genome is sheltered within viral capsid particles in the cytoplasm and, therefore, does not elicit a response. In contrast, HCV activates a strong intracellular antiviral response in the liver, presumably because it replicates via a dsRNA intermediate in the cytoplasm, where it can readily induce the cellular dsRNA sensing apparatus and initiate the signaling cascade. In turn, this results in the induction of many genes, such as the 2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthetase Mx1, that have known antiviral activity (reviewed in references 128 and 141); TRIM14 and 22, members of the same gene family as TRIM5, which has been shown to be part of the host defense against retroviruses (reviewed in reference 11); and ISG15, which has recently been proposed to have a role in innate immunity (124). Impressively, however, HCV cunningly manages to spread through the liver despite induction of these genes, presumably because its E2, NS3, and NS5A proteins can defeat them. On the other hand, both viruses can be controlled when CD8+ T cells enter the liver, recognize antigen, kill whatever infected cells they encounter, and secrete IFN-γ, which triggers a broad-based cascade that amplifies the inflammatory process and has antiviral activity, at least in HBV-transgenic mice and the HBV and HCV cell culture systems. The unexpected finding that HBV does not modulate host cellular gene transcription and apparently does not induce an innate immune response when spreading through the liver raises the possibility that HBV, unlike HCV and other viruses, has evolved to evade innate immunity by not inducing it rather then actively counteracting it; this, in turn, might leave HBV very sensitive to intracellular antiviral mechanisms when they are induced by the adaptive immune system or an unrelated viral infection. Although we suggest that HBV and HCV infections can be inhibited noncytopathically by the cellular genes that are induced during this process, the identities of those genes, the antiviral mechanisms they elicit, and the unique evasion strategies of each virus remain to be determined, marking a new starting point in the quest to understand the cellular and molecular immunobiology of these viral infections.


Sulphinic esters of prop-2-ynyl alcohols rearrange thermally to allenyl sulphones. Evidence for a cyclic mechanism for the rearrangement is discussed. (+)-(R)-1-Methylprop-2-ynyl toluene-p-sulphinate rearranges to (–)-buta-1,2-dienyl p-tolyl sulphone, whose absolute configuration, predicted on the basis of a cyclic mechanism for the rearrangement, agrees with that calculated from the polarisability sequence of substituents attached to the chiral system.Sulphenic esters of prop-2-ynyl alcohols rearrange rapidly to allenyl sulphoxides, and the chirality of the allene group derived from an α-substituted prop-2-ynyl alcohol is the same as that generated in the sulphinate → sulphone rearrangement.Sulphinic and sulphenic esters of but-2-yne-1,4-diol rearrange to 2,3-bis-sulphonyl- or sulphinyl-buta-1,3-dienes. Structures of the products obtained have been proven by synthesis.Prototropic equilibration of four-carbon acetylenic–allenic aryl sulphones shows the following decreasing order of stability: ArSO2·CH2·C⋮CMe > ArSO2·CH:C:CHMe > ArSO2·C⋮C·CH2Me.


A superstrong permanent magnet quadrupole (PMQ) is one of the candidates for the final focus lens for the linear collider because of its compactness and low power consumption. The first fabricated prototype of our PMQ achieved a 300T/m superstrong field gradient with a 100mm overall magnet radius and a 7mm bore radius, but a drawback is its fixed strength. Therefore, a second prototype of PMQ, whose strength is adjustable, was fabricated. Its strength adjustability is based on the "double ring structure", rotating subdivided magnet slices separately. This second prototype is being tested. Some of the early results are presented.


Ethical issues are hot topics in today's media conscious society.' Questions currently debated include: Is insider trading a result of greedy individuals, or does it foretell a problem with the entire system of business? Are the temptations from profit motives too great for government employees and their defense contractors to manage independently? Should doctors use the organs from aborted fetuses for medical purposes? Do the media concentrate too much on scandals and miss the issues that may be ultimately more important? Regardless of the field of study, without a firm knowledge of the ethical guidelines that shape a person's values, principles, and loyalties, decisions will always be called into question by others. Just as discussions of professional ethics in various fields have received an abundance of media treatment, photojournalism has also received recent widespread attention in magazines and books and from experts in the field. Life magazine published an anniversary issue that included a discussion on photojournalism titled, "150 Years of Photography Pictures that Made a Difference." American Photographer recently illustrated its magazine with a cover and more than 30 pages on the subject of photojournalism. Marianne Fulton, associate curator of photographic collections at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., was the author of an important book on photojournalism, Eyes of Time: Photojournalism in America.2 Jim Dooley, photo editorkhief for Newshy, recently remarked that "newspaper photojournalism is in its heyday. It's going through a tremendous renewal." Professor of photojournalism at the University of Missouri, Bill Kuykendall, also feels that there is now a photojournalism renaissance. "I think there has been a rebirth of interest in candid ... photojournalism," says Kuykendall.' One of the jobs of a photojournalism instructor is to come up with the right tools and methods to teach photojournalism most effectively. With lectures, slide shows, and demonstrations, students have been taught to use their cameras, lenses, flashes, and darkroom equipment to produce images that will be accepted by newspaper and magazine editors. However, photojournalism instruction should concern itself not only with technical and aesthetic concerns, but also with ethical principles. Photojournalism instructors can use traditional teaching methods (usually a lecture with slides) to analyze a controversial news image or a photographer's conduct. But short of an internship where a student gets first-hand experience, traditional classroom techniques do not adequately give an undergraduate student an understanding of the decisions a working photojournalist makes during an assignment. In 1981, Craig Hartley asked professional


The red pigmented strain F-1-1 of Serratia marcescens shows a strong antagonism against Phytophthora capsici, the pathogen of damping-off of cucumber seedlings, and its antagonistic activity is due to the production of antibiotic red pigments. In the present study, purification and identification of the red pigments produced by the strain F-1-1 were performed. The water-insoluble red pigments were extracted from cultures on agar plates with ethanol and then chloroform, and purified by silica gel column chromatography. An active substance was isolated using the antifungal activity assay and was identified as prodigiosin, a known compound based on the spectral data. Purified prodigiosin inhibited the germination of cystospores and the growth of the fungal hyphae of P. capsici. It also showed antimicrobial activity against some plant-pathogenic fungi including Cochliobolus miyabeanus, Pythium spinosum, P. ultimum and against plant pathogenic bacteria including, Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis and Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora. These results suggest that S. marcescens F-1-1 could be used as a biocontrol agent against many plant diseases other than cucumber damping-off.


Objective To study the relationship between serum homocysteine level and acute type 2 diabetes mellitus complicated with cerebral infarction.Methods Patients were divided into three groups:acute diabetic cerebral infarction group including 87 patients,diabetes mellitus including 72 patients and control group including 67 healthy persons.The HCY,folic acid,VitB12 and serum lipid were determined.The data was analyzed and the relationship was discussed.Results The level of HCY in diabetic cerebral infarction group[(15.7 ±9.7)nmol/L]was much higher than that in the other two groups[(11.9±7.2)nmol/L and(13.5±6.1)nmol/L].Conclusion HCY maybe participate in occurrence and development of diabetes and pathological changes of blood vessels.It was an independent risk factor of acute cerebral infarction.

Key words:
Serum homocysteine; Diabetes mellitus; Cerebral infarction


This paper presents a single-chip smart camera. The SoC IC comprises a 120 dB, 15 Mpixel/s digital optical sensor with pixel selection and signal conditioning circuits, a 32-bit RISC processor with instruction cache and 60 MIPS performance, a 32-node vision/neural coprocessor with 300 MOPS performance, 10-bit analog-to-digital converter, serial SPI and serial video interfaces. A 512-KB FLASH program memory and 1-MB data RAM memories are implemented externally to the chip. The functional blocks are interconnected via a single main data bus for best flexibility. The chip has been fabricated in a 0.35 µm 2-poly CMOS process with an area of 5.93 × 5.98 mm2and a typical power dissipation of 1 W at 3.3 V and 60 MHz.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To form a predetermined space relation for one positioning index by deciding a position of an incomplete offset printing plate with one positioning index as a reference, holding the plate at a predetermined position, cutting a reference position of a printer, trimming the plate in a predetermined length to the index, and bending an end of the plate. SOLUTION: In the printing plate supplying apparatus 100, a positioning pin 26 has a means for positioning a printing plate 10. The plate 10 is held so that most portion of a surface of the plate 10 is disposed at a predetermined position to a positioning means 26 by pulling the plate 10 between a base portion and a component or bringing the plate 10 into close contact with a base plate 20 and holding the plate 10. Thus, an accurate position of the plate 10 is proved. The apparatus 100 is constituted to cooperate with a roll 52 of the plate 10 installed in a container 50. The container 50 is attached to an end of the plate 20 at an opposite side to a punching unit 36.


Major challenges in transistor gate stack materials include the replacement of SiO2 and SiON dielectrics with high-κ dielectric materials, and that of doped polycrystalline Si gate electrodes with metals [1]. A ternary system, such as a high-temperature crystalline system of HfAlOx is another approach to obtain a new high-κ material due to expectations that the ternary system may provide a new function and alleviate disadvantages of the binary one. n-type silicon (100) substrate was cleaned by the standard RCA process. After the Si wafers were cleaned, a tunneling oxide (SiO2) with a thickness of 3 nm was grown by rapid thermal oxide (RTO) process at a substrate temperature of 1000C for 15 s. A thin high-κ HfO2 film with a thickness of >2 nm and a thick high-κ Al2O3 film with a thickness of 15 nm as a blocking oxide were both deposited by ALD. To improve the charge storage characteristics, the post deposition annealing (PDA) treatment was carried out at temperatures of 900C for 1 min in N2 atmosphere. To form the memory capacitors, the high work function platinum (Pt) metal gate electrode (area: 1.12×10 cm) was deposited by sputtering using a shadow mask. The post metal annealing (PMA) treatment was performed at a temperature of 400°C for 5 min in N2 (90%) and H2 (10%) gases.The HfO2 film is shown to be fully polycrystalline grain, while the Al2O3 film shows a partial crystalline grain. After the PDA treatment, the HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminate layers show double HfO2 charge trapping layers with a HfAlO film as a barrier layer. It is observed that the Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3 middle layers are mixed together after PDA treatment, resulting in a partially crystalline HfAlO layer. Fig. 1 shows the depth profiles of Al 2p, O 1s and Hf 4f from the Al2O3 through to the SiO2 layers. XPS intensities associated with Hf decrease noticeably at etch cycle 11, while that of Hf increases substantially at etch cycle 7 as the annealing temperature goes up to 900°C. This implies that the phase structure of HfO2 changes to Al+HfO2 at a temperature of about 900°C, which is due to Hf out diffusion. To explain the transformation of HfO2 to Al +HfO2, inference may be made from the oxidation phenomenon of HfO2 alloys. Many reports have explained the preferential oxidation due to larger negative Gibbs free energy [2, 3]. From the perspective of thermodynamics, HfO2 is expected to be spontaneously reduced to Hf, while Al is oxidized to Al2O3. This is in agreement with our experimental observation. The reduction of HfO2 to Hf was observed in the samples annealed at 1000°C. This may be explained by the exponential dependence of reaction kinetics on temperature. The thermodynamic stability of Hf in the Hf–Al–O matrix can also prevent any traces of oxygen from oxidizing Hf during the nanocrystal formation process, resulting in enlargement of the process window. Fig. 2(a) shows the clockwise capacitance-voltage (CV) hysteresis characteristic with different sweeping gate voltages for the as-deposited memory capacitor. The holding time was 3s and delay time was 0.1s during C-V measurement. A small memory window of ΔV≈2.5V was observed only under a large sweeping voltage of ±15V. The memory window at a sweeping gate voltage of ±10V was not observed, and the same situation was true with ±5V and ±2V. This indicates that the trapping sites in the as-deposited memory capacitor were negligible. The calculated equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) value from the C-V hysteresis was found to be 9.3±0.5 nm. Large memory windows of ΔV≈10.0V@=±15V and ΔV≈5.9V@±10V were observed for the annealed memory capacitor [Fig. 2(b)], due to the charge storage in the high-κ HfAlOx nanocrystals. The HfAlOx nanocrystals embedded in HfO2 and Al2O3 matrix efficiently stored the charge, which is responsible for the enhancement of the memory characteristics. A large memory window was observed due to the charge storage in the high-κ HfAlOx nanocrystals. The resultant tunneling oxide thickness is > 5nm which improves the retention. The high-κ Al2O3 and high work function Pt metal gate can enhance erasing speed and eliminate electron back tunneling current. The initial memory window is ΔV~ 2.1V. After 7 days of retention, a significant memory window of ΔV~0.7V and charge loss of 66% were observed at room temperature due to the charge confinement in HfAlOx nanocrystals.


In the title hydrated molecular salt, 2C4H8N3O+·C8H3NO62−·H2O, the dihedral angles between the benzene ring and the nitro group and the carboxylate groups are 48.0 (2), 55.3 (2) and 60.7 (2)°, respectively. In the crystal, the components are linked by N—H⋯O, O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, generating a two-dimensional network parallel to (102).


Scientific investigations and observations show that carbon dioxide is a major contributor to the increasingly damaging effects of global warming. Thus, geological sequestration of carbon dioxide in saline aquifers is already in operations across the globe. However, geological carbon sequestration in an aquifer should be safeguarded from CO 2 leakage into the atmosphere and/or CO 2 migration into potable water aquifers that are also present in the subsurface. To promote safety of living and non-living species that are near and far from the geological sequestration sites, this work presents techniques for monitoring the greenhouse gas stored in geological porous media, using experiments and numerical simulation techniques. The work employed two-phase flow parameters like capillary pressure (P


In an approach of low transparency of the barrier the tunneling of electrons through doubly degenerate local state has been considered with allowance for the Coulomb and electron-phonon interactions. It is shown that in the case of weak electron-phonon and strong electron-electron interactions the dependence of tunneling current on the applied voltage has a step-like character at low temperature. The threshold value of the current was measured for small applied bias. The bistable state of the tunneling current is possible in the region of large bias. In the case of strong electron-phonon and weak electron-electron interactions, the threshold of tunneling current can be bistable. This result is a direct consequence of the electron pairing in local states.


An important modulation technique for Internet of Things (IoT) is the one proposed by the low power long range (LoRa) alliance. In this paper, we analyze the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-ary LoRa modulation in the time and frequency domains. First, we provide the signal description in the time domain, and show that LoRa is a memoryless continuous phase modulation. The cross-correlation between the transmitted waveforms is determined, proving that LoRa can be considered approximately an orthogonal modulation only for large <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Then, we investigate the spectral characteristics of the signal modulated by random data, obtaining a closed-form expression of the spectrum in terms of Fresnel functions. Quite surprisingly, we found that LoRa has both continuous and discrete spectra, with the discrete spectrum containing exactly a fraction <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1/M$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the total signal power.


The aim of the research is to test the effect of the adoption of lean supply chain regulators (process standard and industry standards) in improving the organization's response to its customers.
Research Methodology:
      The researchers used the descriptive and analytical approach to study the problem and analyze it and to explain its variables in the General Company for the manufacture of medicines and medical supplies in Samarra as a field of study and adopted a questionnaire form as a tool to identify the reality of the research variables in the surveyed company. Research hypotheses tested by using appropriate statistical methods (implementation ratio, multiple regression analysis).
Results:
   One of the most important results of the research is that there is a weak significant effect of the standardization of the process and the industrial standards in improving the organization's response to its customers.


Optical waveguide technology is playing an ever expanding role in telecommunication networks and has reached the production phase in a very short time. Optical fiber systems have proved cost-effective and reliable. Large repeater spacings, particularly in the telephone network, provide a key advantage of fiber-optic systems over competing transmission technologies. Fiber-optic systems operating ~1300 nm are capable of achieving significantly larger repeater spacings than systems operating in the near-IR wavelength range between 800 and 900 nm.


A new HRC (hybrid rate control) algorithm for Wi-Mesh Network based on ARF protocol and reverse channel estimation mechanism is proposed.In HRC algorithm,the transmission rate would not be raised when the channel state is stable,and could be adjusted under good condition when the channel state changes fast.Thus the system could gain better performance.The simulation results show that HRC protocol could raise the success probability of data-frame sending and improve the efficiency of wireless spectrum as compared with ARF protocol.


[reaction: see text] Fluoranthene 2 and heptacycle 3 are easily accessible from the reaction of diyne 1 and norbornadiene (NBD) in the presence of the rhodium catalyst. The unusual [(2+2)+(2+2)] adduct 3 was confirmed by the X-ray crystal structure analysis.


The mechanism of moisture desorption from both stainless steel and ceramic surfaces is studied. A unique experimental setup was designed and utilized to determine desorption under gas flow conditions by monitoring the moisture concentration at the system outlet. A simple analytical technique that was used to analyze the desorption data so acquired, in an effort to normalize the results and thus make them system independent, is presented. Desorption rate constants for stainless steel and ceramic (85% alumina) surfaces are calculated using this model at a constant temperature.<<ETX>>


BACKGROUND: Macular holes are among the common causes of irreversible visual impairment. At an early stage macular holes may be asymptomatic which is a pressing problem in the diagnosis of this pathology.
AIM: This work analyzes the prevalence of non-full-thickness and full-thickness macular holes in the population of the Republic of Bashkortostan, depending on the age, gender, and nature of the respondents settlement.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Ural Eye and Medical Study was conducted and included 5899 people.
RESULTS: In the study population, macular holes were detected in 64 patients (1.1%, 71 eyes), including non-full-thickness macular holes revealed in 46 (0.8%) cases, and full-thickness macular holes found in 18 (0.3%) cases. The average age of patients with macular holes was 67.809.34 years, which significantly exceeded the average age of individuals in the study population (59.010.7 years; p 0.001). The incidence of macular holes among women was 1.35%, and that of men was 0.81%. In contrast, it was 0.96% among urban residents and 1.34% among rural residents. In the patient population with macular holes, and especially in the subpopulation with non-full-thickness macular holes, a significant predominance of this pathology was registered in female patients and urban residents.
CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of macular holes in the Republic of Bashkortostan was 1.1%, in line with the average global level. Non-full-thickness macular hole predominance among urban residents in the absence of a significant difference in gender characteristics and the prevalence of full-thickness macular holes is a distinguishing feature in the epidemiology of macular holes for the region under study.


Karen Alter's book is not intended to be a legal study of the European legal system. Rather, it is written from the vantage point of political science [xi]. From this perspective, the book traces the process by which two doctrines, developed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) at the beginning of the 1960s, were more or less accepted by the judiciaries of the Member States of the European Community, and by national governments. The first of these doctrines is that of the supremacy of European Community law (or, as the author says with slight imprecision, 'European law'). This doctrine holds that in case, and to the extent, of irreconcilable results in the application of both legal systems to the same situation, the conflicting national law of the Member States becomes inapplicable. According to the second doctrine, provisions of European law can have direct effect. This means that they can in certain circumstances be pleaded by individuals as sources of rights, and enforced by the same individuals in the legal systems of the Member States. Two Member States, Germany and France, serve as contrasting examples of the process of acceptance of these doctrines. The book has six chapters, the third and fourth of which look at the German and French judiciary, the fifth at the acceptance of the two doctrines by these Member States' governments. The first two chapters, and the last one, respectively, lay out the theoretical framework for the two country surveys, and reflect on the lessons to be drawn from these two particular cases. This scholarly volume is most carefully researched and argued, and the author shows an admirable insight into the two national legal cultures which are the subject of her study. The book is also largely free from jargon, be it taken from political sciences, or from the law; only on very few occasions does one 'neo .. .-ism' battle it out with


Objective To obtain stability data of Cyticoline Sodium Tablets under different surroundings through experiments,providing basis for drug storage and determination of expiration date.Methods The content of cyticoline sodium in Cyticoline Sodium Tablets was detected by HPLC.The stability of Cyticoline Sodium Tablets was determined by light test,high-temperature test,high-humidity test,accelerated test and long-term test.K25 ℃ was calculated by arrhenius equation and the statistical principle and the expiration date was predicted.Results Cyticoline Sodium Tablets were stable.The result of long-term tests was consistent with the predicated expiration date.Conclusion The expiration date of Cyticoline Sodium Tablets was 36 months under room temperature.


An experimental and analytical study was conducted to study the partial replacement of sand using Teak Wood Dust in concrete. The substitution of sand by wood waste can relieve the scarcity of raw materials and lighten concrete masonry block weight. Several trial mixes is being prepared with varying amount of Teak wooden powder. For making M30 grade of concrete replacing sand with teak wood dust in proportions of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% . The results obtained by varying the percentage of Teak Wood Dust being analyzed and compared with standard concreteand find out the optimum mix .Then its Workability, strength, durability, impact and water absorption test are studied and compared with control mix. The most important properties of concrete are the compressive strength and Tensile strength. Also, increasing the teak wooden dust incorporation caused decreases in unit weights and strength values of mortars with a parallel increase in water absorption values at all ages.


In recent years, the content volume and number of users of the Web have increased dramatically. This large amount of data has caused an information overload problem, which hinders the ability of a user to find the relevant data at the right time. Therefore, the primary task of recommendation systems is to analyze data in order to offer users suggestions for similar data. Recommendations which use the core content are known as content-based recommendation or content filtering, and recommendations which utilize directly the user feedback are known as collaborative filtering. This thesis presents the design, implementation, testing, and evaluation of a recommender system within the recipe domain, where various approaches for producing recommendations are utilized. More specifically, this thesis discusses approaches derived from basic recommendation algorithms, but customized to take advantage of specific data available in the recipe domain. The proposed approaches for recommending recipes make use of recipe ingredients and reviews. We first build ingredient vectors for both recipes and users (based on recipes they have rated highly), and recommend new recipes to users based on the similarity between user and recipe ingredient vectors. Similarly, we build recipe and user vectors based on recipe review text, and recommend new recipes based on the similarity between user and recipe review vectors. At last, we study a hybrid approach, where both ingredients and reviews are used together. Our proposed approaches are tested over an existing dataset crawled from recipes.com. Experimental results show that the recipe ingredients are more informative than the review text for making recommendations. Furthermore, when using ingredients and reviews together, the results are better than using just the reviews, but worse than using just the ingredients, suggesting that to make use of reviews, the review vocabulary needs better filtering.


Laser powder bed fusion manufactured (PBF-LB) austenitic stainless steel 316L offers higher strength than traditionally manufactured counterparts. Further improvement can be obtained with suitable surface modification. This work focuses on improving the material qualities with the aid of severe shot peening (SSP), which can increase the surface hardness, reduce roughness and produce grain refinement and compressive residual stresses on the surface. These qualities are all beneficial for the fatigue life of the material. Material was studied in two conditions: as built and heat treated (HT) at 1100 °C and the effect of SSP on both. The results showed clear microstructural changes on both structures leading to increased strength. The fatigue strength of as built material benefits greatly from the SSP treatment, but when performed on a high temperature HT material the benefits are negligible. However, in applications where the parts are subjected to bending forces the surface modification plays a role also with the HT material.


There are many competing computational algorithms in multiple imputation. To this date, however, it is unknown which of these algorithms outperforms the others under what circumstances. In this paper, we describe the mechanisms of various multiple imputation algorithms and compare their performance in a variety of situations to determine which algorithm is best suited to the imputation of missing values in official economic statistics.


128 male and female Ss participated in a study in which information processing efficiencies for the visual and tactual modalities were compared. With the same set of stimulus objects used for the 2 modalities no difference between visual and tactual concept identification (CI) was obtained. Significant interactions were found between S's sex, relevant dimensions, and similarity of stimulus levels. Independent measures of the salience and discriminability of the stimulus dimensions were obtained in an attempt to relate these factors to CI performance.


We report on a unique case with a monosomy 21 in amniocytes and a trisomy 4 in umbilical cord tissue. Subsequent analysis of other tissues from the child revealed a mosaic pattern of either one or the other chromosomal abnormality. We attempt to explain the mechanism of origin of this phenomenon.


The interact system model (ISM) is used to examine the interactions between messages submitted during online discussions related to a graduate education course in curriculum theory. Interactions are analyzed using complexity science and conclusions are drawn concerning structures that could enhance discussion and support the construction of collective understandings.


Grounded in the user experience driven innovation (UXDI) framework (Djamasbi and Strong, 2019), we developed an empathetic chatbot, ERIN, to help college students find resources about sensitive issues such as mental health and Title IX. This extended abstract: 1) Reports ERIN's UX driven iterative design process, 2) investigates possible influence of medium on ERIN's user experience, and 3) explores UX factors impacting adoption behavior. Using the UXDI framework, we initiated ERIN's design and development process by gaining a deep understanding of ERIN users through developing proto personas. This objective was accomplished by interviewing two key informants. Next, we expanded our understanding of ERIN users by conducting a second interview study but this time with 15 undergraduate students (intended ERIN users) to 1) verify and/or refine proto personas that were developed as the result of the first study, and 2) gather user reactions to and preferences for interacting with an initial prototype that was developed based on the insight from the first study. The results of this second study verified and refined our developed proto-personas and provided insight for improving ERIN. In a third user study (n=12), we tested the modified ERIN and examined the impact of its UX on its adoption. Because prior research suggests that medium (i.e., laptop vs. smartphone) may impact user reactions to chatbots, we designed the third study as a between-subject experiment. All participants were provided with two scenarios and asked to use the chatbot to address the situation described in the scenarios. Half participants accessed the chatbot via their laptop, and the other half via their mobile phones. After completing the task, participants' subjective experience was captured using the system usability score (SUS) and perceived task effort (PTE). Their adoption behavior was captured using TAM's perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), and behavioral intention (BI). The results showed that user reactions to ERIN were almost significantly better in the mobile group compared to the laptop group (p=0.07). Consistent with a recent study (Jain, Djamasbi, and Hall-Phillips, 2020), we examined the impact of UX on adoption behavior by looking into the relationship between PTE, SUS, and BI (UX-BI model). Supporting the results of this previous study, our analysis showed that the impact of PTE on BI was mediated by SUS, which had a strong direct significant (p=0.00, B=0.08, Adj. R2=0.54) impact on BI. Similarly, PTE had a strong direct significant impact on SUS (p=0.00, B=22.5, Adj. R2=0.62). As in the previous study, we did not find a significant direct relationship between PTE and BI (p=0.10, B=1.44, Adj. R2=0.17). Next, we examined the impact of UX on BI through TAM constructs, namely ease of use and usefulness. Our results showed only a strong significant positive relationship between PEOU and PU (p=0.00, B=0.85, Adj. R2=0.79). The results showed that PTE had a marginally significant effect on PEOU (p=0.07, B=0.83, Adj. R2=0.22) while it had a significant impact on PU (p=0.04, B=0.89, Adj. R2=0.31). However, once the impact of PEOU on PU was taken into consideration, this relationship between PTE and PU became non-significant. These results suggest that the UX-BI model was more helpful in explaining behavioral intention for ERIN; hence it may serve as a useful tool for predicting chatbot adoption. These preliminary results must be verified with larger datasets. The results showing a stronger relationship between SUS and BI compared to the relationship between PU and BI supports the UXDI's central principle asserting that technology development must start with UX. Because UX is a dynamic phenomenon, the UXDI framework asserts the need for continual iterative assessments both in the design world and the usage world after a product is launched.