As a blood marker of endothelium, we investigated the seric activity of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) at rest and after stimulation either by local venostasis or dDAVP infusion. dDAVP did not induce any significant change in ACE contrarily to venostasis. Searching for an endothelial abnormality implicated in the genesis of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) we applied the local venostasis test to patients affected by recurrent DVT. Patients, divided in 3 groups (group I : documented history of recurrent DVT, group II : only one DVT or recurrent superficial venous thrombosis, group III : history of arterial thrombo embolism), and controls were screened for ACE as well as for plasmatic fibrinolytic activity and von Willebrand factor (vWF) level. Two types of abnormalities of seric ACE activity were found : low basal level in group I and low response to venostasis in groups I and III : group II did not differ from controls. This suggests an endothelial lesion participating to the etiology of some recurrent DVT and supports the measurement of seric ACE to discriminate some patients at high risk of DVT. Measures of fibrinolytic and ACE activities are not redundant since the two types of ACE abnormalities were not individually encountered in the same patients and were independent from abnormalities of the fibrinolytic system


Simultaneous control of the spatial and temporal properties of the optical near field in the vicinity of a nanostructure is achieved by illumination with broadband optimally polarization-shaped femtosecond light pulses. Here we demonstrate the spatial control of the local linear and nonlinear fluence, the local spectral distribution, and the local temporal intensity profile on a subdiffraction length scale. The boundary-element method is used for a self-consistent solution of Maxwell's equations in the frequency domain. Particular control objectives for spatial field distribution and temporal evolution are expressed as fitness functions in an evolutionary algorithm that optimizes adaptively the polarization-shaped input light pulses. Substantial control according to different goals is demonstrated and the limits of controllability are investigated. The dominating control mechanism is local interference of near-field modes that are excited with the two independent polarization components of the incident light pulses and hence polarization pulse shaping is essential to achieve substantial control in the optical near field. The influence of other control mechanisms is discussed and a number of applications are presented.


Abstract: This paper is a review of the literature on Aboriginal and other ethnically based cultural industries. Participation in the cultural industries by organizations based in Native and ethnocultural communities has grown dramatically over the past decade. The emergence of Aboriginal broadcasting operations, mostly in, but not limited to, northern Canada, has had a dramatic effect on the cultural life of those communities. Broadcasting undertakings organized by ethnocultural groups have succeeded in a number of Canadian cities, with cable community channels providing an effective outlet. There are multilingual radio stations in some cities and a multilingual television station in Toronto. There is a small but important presence in the publishing industry, mostly at the level of periodicals, by Native and ethnocultural groups. There is, however, a dearth of research into cultural industries in these sectors. Much of the work touches on Aboriginal broadcasters but looks at them in social or anthropological terms, not as cultural industries. Recommendations are made for a number of baseline studies focusing on the impact of Native and ethnocultural organizations as cultural industries which create employment, cash flows, and have an economic life. Resume: Cet article passe en revue la documentation sur les industries culturelles autochtones et autres industries ethniques. Au cours de la derniere decennie, les organisations centrees dans des communautes autochtones et ethnoculturelles ont dramatiquement augmente leur participation aux industries culturelles. L'emergence de radiodiffuseurs autochtones, surtout dans le Nord canadien mais ailleurs aussi, a profondement touche la vie culturelle de ces communautes. Les entreprises de radiodiffusion lancees par des groupes ethnoculturels ont reussi dans bon nombre de villes canadiennes, et les canaux communautaires au câble offrent un debouche efficace. Il existe des stations de radio polyglottes dans certaines villes, et une station de television polyglotte a Toronto. Des groupes autochtones et ethnoculturels marquent aussi une presence restreinte mais significative dans l'edition, surtout au niveau des periodiques. Il manque cependant de recherches sur les industries culturelles dans ces secteurs. Une grande partie du travail accompli se rapporte a la radiodiffusion autochtone, mais ces recherches tendent a considerer celle-ci d'un point de vue social ou anthropologique plutot que de l'envisager comme une industrie culturelle. Cet article propose que des etudes de base soient menees sur les organisations autochtones et ethnoculturelles en tant qu'industries culturelles qui creent des emplois et des cash-flows, et menent une veritable vie economique.


In 1996, Kyle Johnson got me interested in sentences like (1a). The truth conditions of the relevant, universal NP dependent reading are reasonably clear, (1b), but how to compositionally derive them is less so. It seems that the scope of the NP every boy is the relation in (1c) while the NP quantifies over pairs of boys. This is very stipulative. It has little to do with any normal meaning of the NP and the overt material in the sentence.


Results are presented from a study of leakage losses from a position control systemand the resulting knowledge that may be incorporated into an on-line expert system for fault diagnosis. The use of aminimum number of sensors results in leakage and position error data that have limitations for multiple-faultsituations. It is then shown how the application of an artificial neural network can give additional confidence to a fault assertion, and results are shown for a number of leakage conditions.


What is the problem and what is known about it so far? Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, the virus that causes AIDS) interferes with the ability to fight infections. Simultaneous use of several anti-HIV drugs can reduce the amount of the virus in the blood and improve patient outcomes. Unfortunately, HIV is not always fully suppressed by such treatments. HIV can then become resistant to the drugs, and the patient must then change to another group of drugs. Two blood tests, the number of CD4 immune cells (a higher number is better) and viral load (a smaller load is better), usually guide doctors in making changes in anti-HIV drug regimens for their patients. To use these tests most effectively to make treatment decisions, doctors need a method to predict which patients are most likely to become resistant to the drugs. Then, physicians could monitor such patients especially closely for early signs of treatment failure and quickly change treatments. Why did the researchers do this particular study? To see what information best predicts that a patient will have a long-lasting response to anti-HIV drugs. Who was studied? 489 HIV-infected patients with CD4 counts lower than 200 who were in a study of treatment with a combination of three anti-HIV drugs: indinavir, zidovudine (or AZT), and lamivudine (or 3TC). How was the study done? The researchers collected information on various patient factors, including CD4 counts and viral loads. They obtained this information before starting the drug treatments and after 4 and 8 weeks of drug treatment. The researchers then used this information to predict the response of HIV infection to 24 weeks of treatment. What did the researchers find? Patients with higher CD4 counts and lower viral loads after 8 weeks on the drugs were more likely to have continued favorable response to the anti-HIV drugs (lower viral load and fewer AIDS-related illnesses) after receiving the drugs for 24 weeks than were patients who had lower CD4 counts and higher viral loads at 8 weeks. What were the limitations of the study? This study looked at only one of many combinations of anti-HIV drugs. The results might not apply to patients taking other drugs. What are the implications of the study? Doctors who have started a patient on indinavir, zidovudine, and lamivudine therapy might consider changing to another combination of drugs if the patient has not had an increase in CD4 counts and a reduction in HIV viral load after 8 weeks of treatment.


Abstract The early soybean production system (ESPS) in the southern region of the United States is being promoted as a cropping practice that reduces the risk of drought stress to the crop. This ESPS involves planting an early-maturing soybean cultivar, ≈4–6 wk before planting the conventional later-maturing soybean cultivars. A field study was conducted in Georgia soybeans in 1997–1999 to compare arthropod pest seasonal abundance, insect-induced defoliation, and yields between ESPS and conventionally planted soybeans. The conventional soybean production system had higher populations of late season defoliators, including the velvetbean caterpillar, Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner, and the soybean looper, Pseudoplusia includens (Walker). The percentage defoliation was higher in the conventional system than in the ESPS all three years. The threecornered alfalfa hopper, Spissistilus festinus (Say), was more abundant in the ESPS in early season, but similar population densities were observed in July–August in both ESPS and conventional soybeans, then the highest seasonal population peaks occurred in the conventional soybeans in September, after the ESPS was harvested. Stink bugs, primarily the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.), also were more numerous in the ESPS during midseason. However, stink bugs moved to the conventional soybeans in September and peaked at densities much higher than in the ESPS. Yields in the ESPS plots were equal to or exceeded the yields in the conventional soybean plots in all three years of this study. Adoption of ESPS in the southern region should have a positive economical and environmental impact on soybean integrated pest management because this system escapes serious crop injury from some annual insect pests.


Introduction: Today concerns about the somatic and mental-emotional effects of exposure to electromagnetic waves have been raised. Although early thermal effects can not be attributed to these waves, It is necessary to investigate the long-term and side effects of these waves. One of the devices that has the most connection with electromagnetic waves is cell phones. In the present study, the correlation between excessive use of mobile phones and agression in students was investigated.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted with the participation of 810 students of Arak University of Medical Sciences. At first, demographic information was obtained, then the mobile phone dependence was measured by the use of "Cell Phone Over-Use Scale (COS)". AGQ questionnaire was used to measure aggression, in which four subscales of physical aggression (PA), verbal aggression (VA), anger (A), and hostility (H) were studied. The survey of both questionnaires was based on Likert scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS20 software, Chi-Square, t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient at a significant level of 0.05.
Results: The average score of the COS and physical aggression (PA), verbal aggression (VA), anger (A), and hostility (H), was (54.10 ± 16.10), (18.23 ± 3.12), (12.56 ± 3.65), (17.45 ± 5.26), (14.9
± 4.42) Which had no significant difference between men and women(p≥0.05). Also, Pearson correlation test showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between all AGQ components and excessive use (P <0.01).
Conclusion: However, Thermal effects for 900 Mhz electromagnetic waves can not be considered. Two important factors that can be considered in related research include the late effects and mental-psychological effects. In this research, excessive use of mobile phones has been shown to have a direct positive correlation with the increase in agression and its associated components.


On the Complexity of Ontological Reasoning under Disjunctive.- Existential Rules.- New Races in Parameterized Algorithmics.- Scott Is Always Simple.- Simple Models for Recursive Schemes.- Unordered Constraint Satisfaction Games.- A Polynomial-Time Algorithm for Computing the Maximum Common.- Subgraph of Outerplanar Graphs of Bounded Degree.- Reductions to the Set of Random Strings: The Resource-Bounded Case.- Approximate Graph Isomorphism.- Near-Optimal Expanding Generator Sets for Solvable Permutation Groups.- Generating Functions of Timed Languages.- The Robust Set Problem: Parameterized Complexity and Approximation.- Mortality for 2 x 2 Matrices Is NP-Hard.- Solving Counter Parity Games.- Drawing Planar Graphs on Points Inside a Polygon.- Smoothed Complexity Theory.- Abelian Pattern Avoidance in Partial Words.- The Complexity of Rerouting Shortest Paths.- Computing with Large Populations Using Interactions.- Pancake Flipping Is Hard.- In-place Heap Construction with Optimized Comparisons, Moves, and Cache.- A Dichotomy Theorem for Homomorphism.- On the Impact of Fair Best Response Dynamics.- When Trees Grow Low: Shrubs and Fast MSO1.- Obtaining Planarity by Contracting Few Kernels for Edge Dominating Set.- Quasi-recognizable vs MSO Definable Languages of One-Dimensional.- Reversal Hierarchies for Small.- The Lower Reaches of Circuit Weakly-Synchronized Ground Tree Rewriting.- Identity Testing, Multilinearity Testing, and Monomials in Read-Once/Twice Formulas and Branching Programs.- Asymmetric Swap-Equilibrium: A Unifying Equilibrium Concept for Network Creation Games.- Maximum Cliques in Graphs with Small Intersection Number and Random Intersection.- Regularity Problems for Weak Pushdown omega-Automata and Games.- Computational Aspects of Cellular Automata on Countable Sofic Shifts.- On Two Stronger Versions of Dejean's Conjecture.- A Quadratic Vertex Kernel for Feedback Arc Set in Bipartite Tournaments.


The purpose of this study was to understand the concerns of the large class size in providing effective teaching and regular physical activity from the instructors of the basic instruction program at a Mid-Atlantic university. In this study, four BIP instructors (2 males and 2 females) who had more than 30 students in their teaching voluntarily agreed to take part in this study. All the instructors were working as graduate assistants for either a master or doctorate degree in the physical education program, and were teaching one or more activity courses including volleyball, conditioning, racquetball, elementary fitness education, Frisbee, and badminton. Participants spent about thirty to forty minutes responding to the formal interview questions in order to gain the insight into teachers' concerns about teaching their classes. Interview questions were designed using an open-ended format and responses were audio taped and then transcribed for analysis. The transcribed data were analyzed and classified into the following categories: 1) safety, 2) organizing the learning environment and managing students, 3) student achievement, 4) time and space, and 5) equipment. According to the results, the college instructors were concerned about the large class size as a critical element in teaching, which was negatively influenced to the classified categories.


This paper proposes a privacy-friendly billing and settlements system for use in peer-to-peer energy trading markets. More specifically, it proposes a privacy-enhancing settlements protocol (PESP) which makes use of a partial homomorphic encryption scheme to facilitate private processing and computation of smart grid users' monthly energy bill by a semi-trusted third party. In addition, it allows for minor financial penalties to users who participate in peer-to-peer trading but do not accurately predict their energy usage for each period and, as such, import or export varying amounts compared to the amount they have agreed to trade for initially. This encourages predictions to be accurate to help keep the trading fair and aiding suppliers to make accurate predictions about the amount of electricity needed for each trading period. Our security analysis and performance evaluation demonstrate that PESP protects users' privacy and is efficient in terms of computation and communication cost.


In this study, we have fabricated Heusler alloy Fe2CrSi/Fe2VSi superlattice on MgAl2O4 substrate and have investigated inter-layer exchange coupling among Fe2CrSi layers. Biquadratic coupling is dominated below the Neel temperature of Fe2VSi. By comparing magnetic coupling energy at 77 K and room temperature, it is suggested that the inter-layer exchange coupling is dominated by the proximity effect, i.e. the antiferromagnetic alignment of magnetic moments in Fe2VSi spacer layer.


The Copper Flat porphyry is a Laramide copper deposit in southwest New Mexico. High-altitude AVIRIS data were acquired over the site in 1998. Limonite minerals, carbonates, some phyllosilicates, epidote, gypsum, and tremolite/talc have been preliminarily mapped based on AVIRIS data. The results indicate a fairly regular zonation of hydrothermal alteration minerals around the porphyry that is consistent with classic models of alteration from porphyry copper deposits. Verification of the preliminary results is on-going. X-ray diffraction analyses and laboratory spectral analyses will be performed on samples from the area in order to confirm the results of mineral mapping. 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Hillsboro mining district is located in the Animas Mountains in Sierra County, New Mexico, approximately 180 miles south of Albuquerque (Figure 1). The district lies on the eastern edge of the Laramide Arizona-Sonora-New Mexico porphyry-copper belt. The district contains six types of mineral deposits: the Copper Flat porphyry, polymetallic fissure veins that radiate from the porphyry, carbonate replacement deposits, weakly mineralized skarn deposits, jasperoids, and placer gold deposits derived from the fissure veins. Figure 1--Location of the Hillsboro mining district (McLemore et al., 1999). 1 Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado (email@example.com) 2 U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Resources Team, Denver, Colorado 3 New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Socorro, New Mexico 4 Autometric, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colorado 5 University of Texas at El Paso High-altitude Airborne Visible Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data were collected over the site during the summer of 1998. This type of remotely sensed data has a spatial resolution of approximately 17 meters and measures spectral radiance in 224 channels from 0.38 to 2.5 micrometers. AVIRIS data have been used with success many times in the past to produce maps of minerals occurring on the surface. The Hillsboro district provides a good location to study the use of AVIRIS data to map hydrothermal alteration because of the variety in deposit types and alteration types within the district. 2.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE The objective of this research is to evaluate AVIRIS data as a tool for mapping hydrothermal alteration in the Hillsboro district. The research is aimed at answering two questions. The first is, what is the distribution of alteration minerals within the Hillsboro district? The second is, how well can this distribution be mapped from AVIRIS data? 3.0 GEOLOGY OF THE HILLSBORO MINING DISTRICT Figure 2 is a generalized geologic map of the Hillsboro district. The Animas Mountains are composed of Cretaceous andesites erupted from the Copper Flat volcano. The Copper Flat quartz monzonite porphyry was emplaced in the vent of the volcano. The circular outcrop of andesite surrounding the porphyry measures approximately six kilometers in diameter and is at least 830 meters thick (Figure 2) (McLemore et al., 1999). Thirty-four latite dikes radiate outward from the porphyry into the andesite, many of which are associated with polymetallic veins. The circular andesite outcrop is surrounded by Paleozoic carbonates and alluvial deposits. Skarn deposits occur in the carbonates to the north and south of the andesite. In addition, jasperoid bodies, which replaced some of the carbonates, are found to the south of the andesite. The Warm Springs quartz monzonite intrudes the flank of the andesite to the south of Copper Flat, and there is another quartz monzonite in the northern part of the district (McLemore et al., 1999). Pliocene basalts cap some of the peaks in the region. Figure 2--Generalized geologic map of the Hillsboro mining district (McLemore et al., 2000). The andesite is composed of volcanic flows, flow breccias, and volcaniclastic rocks. It is usually dark gray to greenish gray and porphyritic. It is composed of plagioclase, orthoclase, hornblende, and magnetite, with lesser amounts of biotite, clinopyroxene, quartz, rutile, apatite, and zircon (McLemore et al., 1999). The andesite also contains epidote and is propylitically altered near the Copper Flat quartz monzonite and the polymetallic veins (Fowler, 1982). The quartz monzonite is light gray to pinkish gray and contains large euhedral potassium feldspar crystals, euhedral to subhedral plagioclase, quartz, biotite, and hornblende (Fowler, 1982). The dikes are gray to tan to white and vary in thickness from 1 to 38 m (McLemore et al, 2000). They contain feldspar phenocrysts in a groundmass of feldspar and quartz. Small amounts of biotite and hornblende are present locally. Three types of dikes have been mapped: quartz latite, latite porphyry, and latite (Fowler, 1982). Skarns occur in the limestones to the north and south of the andesite. The skarns are small and contain garnet, epidote and magnetite. Carbonate replacement deposits, which are either Ag-Mn or Pb-Zn dominant, are developed in the Paleozoic limestones and dolomites (McLemore et al., 1999). Jasperoids have replaced large portions of the carbonates to the south of the andesite. The jasperoids are white to reddish brown and brecciated. They contain primarily quartz, iron oxide, and manganese oxide. Lesser amounts of weathered pyrite, dolomite, calcite, magnesite, sericite, fluorite, and altered feldspar are also present (McLemore et al., 2000). 4.0 HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION Alteration is a change "in the chemical or mineralogical composition of a rock, generally produced by weathering or hydrothermal solutions" (Bates and Jackson, 1984). Hydrothermal alteration assemblages within the Hillsboro district are prevalent, varied and well characterized. McLemore et al. (2000) summarized the alteration types as shown in Table 1. Table 1--Summary of alteration types (McLemore et al., 2000) [Minerals in boldface type may be identified with AVIRIS data.] Host Rock/Mineral Deposit Type Alteration Type Alteration Mineral Assemblage Biotite-potassic Biotite, K-feldspar, quartz, pyrite Potassic K-feldspar, chlorite, quartz, pyrite Quartz monzonite/porphyry copper deposit Sericitic Sericite, quartz, pyrite Propylitic Epidote, chlorite, sericite, pyrite, magnetite Argillic Sericite, calcite, chlorite, quartz, pyrite Andesites adjacent to the latite dikes and polymetallic veins Propylitic Chlorite, kaolinite, sericite, calcite, quartz, pyrite Propylitic Quartz, K-feldspar, pyrite, epidote, chlorite Latite dikes associated with the polymetallic veins Sericitic Quartz, sericite, chlorite, pyrite Skarn Garnet, epidote, magnetite, quartz Marble Marble, recrystallized limestone Limestones, dolostones Jasperoid Quartz, iron oxides, manganese oxide A model for hydrothermal alteration around porphyry copper deposits was developed by Lowell and Guilbert (1970). In this model, alteration progresses outward from a central core of potassic alteration to a phyllic alteration zone, then to an argillic zone, and finally to a propylitic alteration zone along the periphery. Potassic alteration is characterized by biotite and orthoclase. Phyllic alteration consists of quartz, sericite and pyrite. Argillic alteration minerals include kaolinite and montmorillonite. Typical propylitic alteration minerals include epidote, calcite, and chlorite. A schematic cross-section through an idealized copper deposit is illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 3--Model for hydrothermal alteration around a porphyry copper deposit. Modified from Hollister (1978). In addition to hydrothermal alteration, deuteric alteration is also prevalent in the Hillsboro district. Deuteric is defined as "referring to reactions between primary magmatic minerals and the water-rich solutions that separate from the same body of magma at a late stage in its cooling history" (Bates and Jackson, 1984). In the Hillsboro district, deuteric alteration is responsible for the widespread replacement of feldspar phenocrysts by sericite, replacement of groundmass minerals by sericite and chlorite, and replacement of hornblende by biotite, hematite, and chlorite (McLemore et al., 2000). 5.0 METHODOLOGY This research project consists of four steps: 1. Preparation of mineral maps from AVIRIS data; 2. Field checking of mineral maps combined with field mapping of alteration in critical areas such as the porphyry itself and an anomalous area in the andesite to the northwest of the porphyry; 3. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of samples to support the identification of clay minerals; 4. Laboratory spectral measurements and analysis of samples. The AVIRIS data were calibrated to spectral reflectance by personnel at the Mineral Resources Team at the USGS in Denver. Additional pre-processing is unnecessary. The image is georeferenced, facilitating combination with other geospatial data sets, such as geochemical or geophysical data. The data scene encompasses the six mineral deposit types within the Hillsboro district. Mineral maps of the Hillsboro district have been prepared with ENVI software using the continuum removal/spectral feature fitting technique. This procedure begins by selecting diagnostic electromagnetic absorption features for the minerals being mapped. These absorption features were obtained from the USGS Tetracorder 3.5 command file. Spectra from the USGS Digital Spectral Library (Clark et al., 1993) have been used as references. The spectral range of an absorption feature is isolated in every pixel within the scene by spectrally subsetting the image. Individual features from various pixels must then be normalized in order to compare them to the reference spectrum. The normalization process consists of (1) drawing a straight line between the endpoints of a given absorption feature (the straight line is referred to as a "continuum") and (2) dividing the value of the reflectance spectrum by the value of the continuum at many points along the line. Following continuum removal of both the reference spectrum and the image sp


Weaknesses in smartphone security pose a severe privacy threat to users. Currently, smartphones are secured through methods such as passwords, fingerprint scanners, and facial recognition cameras. To explore new methods and strengthen smartphone security, we developed a capacitive swipe based user authentication and identification technique. Swipe is a gesture that a user performs throughout the usage of a smartphone. Our methodology focuses on using the capacitive touchscreen to capture the user's swipe. While the user swipes, a series of capacitive frames are captured for each swipe. We developed an algorithm to process this series of capacitive frames pertaining to the swipe. While different swipes may contain different numbers of capacitive frames, our algorithm normalizes the frames by constructing the same number of frames for every swipe. After applying the algorithm, we transform the normalized frames into gray scale images. We apply principal component analysis (PCA) to these images to extract principal components, which are then used as features to authenticate/identify the user. We tested random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms as classifiers. For authentication, the performance of SVM (tested with left swipes) was more promising than RF, yielding a maximum accuracy of 79.88% with an FAR and FRR of 15.84% and 50%, respectively. SVM (tested with right swipes) produced our maximum identification accuracy at 57.81% along with an FAR and FRR of 0.60% and 42.18%, respectively.


Abstract Reduction of the carbonyl group of ketones to a methylene unit is widely applied in organic syntheses. In this article, we report that trialkoxylsilane/Zn-based catalyst systems may be applied in the reduction of the carbonyl groups of α,β-unsaturated ketones to methylene units under very mild conditions. In comparison with other Zn-based catalysts, excellent rates and high conversions of α,β-unsaturated ketones to methylene units are obtained using trialkoxylsilane/ZnI2 or ZnCl2. And the same time, the hydrosilylation reaction product could only be detected when using CuI, CuCl, or FeCl3. No reaction could be conducted by using trialkoxylsilane/CoCl2 or NiCl2, in comparison with Zn-based catalysts. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Phosphorus, Sulfur, and Silicon and the Related Elements to view the free supplemental file. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


The purpose of this paper is to identify several important issues in the statistical analysis of serial images of active brain tumors and to offer some approaches and methods to help resolve them. Current serial brain tumor imaging is very strong on data acquisition and display yet appears weak on data analysis and inference. To help bridge the gap between certain theoretical mathematical methods for medical imaging developed over the past several decades and actual clinical practice, we describe a new physical phantom that we have designed and built for our research. We also offer some extensions of several relevant tools and principles from statistical science to the analysis of our serial medical images. Among the tools we discuss are the physical phantom itself, a simple experimental design, methods that help to separate image registration and object deformation effects, and some simple paired t-test ideas for comparison of differences in spatial point processes generated from pixelwise events in serial images. We identify several sources of extraneous variation between paired images and propose a few simple methods to control or eliminate them. Replicated experiments with our physical phantom can be used to study the properties of these methods under controlled and known conditions. Several actual patient and simulated serial SPECT images help to motivate and illustrate our techniques.


On-state low current detector uses a transistor having main cells (32) and sense cells (34). Feedback circuit (36) acts to maintain substantially constant target value the voltage between the main cell (32) ends when below a level that generates a target voltage value of the main cell is the load current. Target voltage value is high enough so that the voltage of the low-current detector comparator (18) can be easily measured.


This study utilized the interpretation of the airborne magnetic and radiometric data to delineate the potential structures that are associated with gold mineralization of the Minna and its environs, Northcentral Nigeria. The total field anomaly data was reduced to pole and upward continued in a bid to well positioned and enhanced the shallow (high pass) magnetic structures. The high pass structural lineaments were extracted and the resulting prominent E-W and NE-SW tectonic trends were revealed which are perhaps related to Eburnean (D1) and Pan-African (D2) deformation events respectively. Subsequently, numerous regions with relatively high degree of faulting and shearing effects were unraveled from the line density analysis of the high pass lineaments. The 3-D Euler deconvolution technique provides a synonymous trend pattern with the HP lineaments as well as estimate the depth extents to the potential structures with values varying between 82.7 and 211.9 m. It was found that the mineralized structures associated with gold over the study area interact with the hydrothermal fluids alongside/adjacent to the structurally deformed (relatively high degree of faulting and shearing effects) regions. The observed regions with coincident, of the hydrothermally altered and structurally deformed are therefore marked as the resourceful, structures for gold mineralization. Hence, the derived evidence from this study has updated the information on the structures that are associated with gold mineralization and also acts a mitigation major against the indiscriminate excavations of the studied region.


Northeastern old industrial base reconstruction brings historical development chance for Northeastern region.Long time development of Northeastern old industrial base needs cultivation of technology knowledge.The government should increase investment in public education;protect patent,encourage private R and D;and develop technology education with Northeastern features under national education system,train skill workers,furthermore,cater for enterprises' demand.


Concept drift is a major problem that the chemical sensor community is facing in their research and development. This arises when the predictive characteristic feature of the target variable in the sensor setup, changes due to some chemical or physical interaction of the environment elements with the surface of the sensor and other factors such as aging and poisoning of the surface. This is not a new problem but is having a wide scope of further developments. Recent research suggests an upcoming solution for this drift compensation as ensemble of classifiers with uniform weightage to all the participating classifiers or some non-uniform weightage according to performance of individual classifier. There arise some ill posed problems with this ensemble of classifiers. This paper introduces a new machine learning approach to solve this problem through regularized weighted ensemble of classifiers for overcoming the time dependent drift occurrence. The weights are chosen by regularized majority voting which are then associated with the individual classifiers to form the ensembles. This regularized drift compensation algorithm is applied to solve the gas discrimination problem for classification of 6 different volatile organic compounds over time series data set consisting of data recorded using an array of 16 metal oxides sensors for 3 years. Our experiment tries various different regularization approaches and finds best improvement in case of double regularization of Single Value Decomposition and L2 regularization. Results clearly indicate improved classification accuracy in presence of drift and better results than recent reporting. To the best of our knowledge, such a machine learning approach has not yet been applied for drift correction in sensor community.


A study has been made of the effect of reduction of a Fe2O3 catalyst doubly-promoted with Al2O3 and K2O on its ability to catalyze ethylbenzene dehydrogenation. Reducing gases used were hydrogen, CH3OH, HCHO and CO. Reducing temperatures were ranged from 400 to 530°C. Activity tests were carried out at 460∼500°C in a flow system.Reduction by those gases caused to increase in the catalytic activity and selectivity of the catalyst. The most effective reducing agent was found to be CO (Fig.6). X-Ray analysis showed that iron existed primarily as Fe3O4 and γ-Fe2O3 in the reduced catalysts while as α-Fe2O3 in an unreduced one.The catalytic activities of the reduced catalysts for styrene formation paralleled approximately with the content of crystalline γ-Fe2O3 rather than with that of crystalline Fe3O4 (Fig.7).


The social association and cooperation in the scientific and technological field of countries is closer and closer all over the world,and the concern intensity of educational development from the country is higher and higher.In order to adapting the needs of university's internationalization,the university in Yunnan must utilize various favorable opportunities,and excavate their advantage,and realize the cooperative situation of having a bright future,and open-up the field of scientific and technological cooperation,and strengthen the scientific and technological cooperation and exchange with the ASEAN countries,so they will realize "the two-win",and create more economic benefits and social benefits.


The strength of the information hiding science is due to the non-existence of standard algorithms to be used in hiding secret messages. Also there is randomness in hiding methods such as combining several media (covers) with different methods to pass a secret message. In addition, there are no formal methods to be followed to discover the hidden data. For this reason, the task of this paper becomes difficult. In this paper a new method is suggested to hide a file in .EXE file undetectable antivirus system. The aims of this paper is to study the different types of steganography systems, design and implementation of steganography system which embeds information in an .EXE files and proposed system to be undetectable with anti virus software's and making it imperceptible by any anti-virus software, for the reason that the antivirus programmed consider one of software used to find information hiding inside secret cover file.


Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was cultivated directly from whole blood treated with anticoagulant by cocultivation with phytohaemagglutinin‐stimulated cord blood lymphocytes. When heparin was used as the anticoagulant, isolation rates were low (10% to 56%, depending on the patient group); but when EDTA was used, isolation rates were much higher (50% to 100%). Culture of whole blood gave results identical to those of culture of separated peripheral mononuclear cells, and in some cases virus could be isolated from as little as 10 μl of unseparated EDTA anticoagulated blood.


Duplex pulse low-energy extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy(ESWL)is a high success rate,low recurrence method to treat urinary calculi,with low adverse effect and no severe complication.This article summarized the research outcomes of improvement of success rate,reducing peripheral tissue impairment and prevention of calculus recurrence of low-energy ESWL.


THE MULTIFOLD character of the human immune response has been recognized for many years by the variety of antibodies which result from infection or immunization. Until recently, the basis for such discrimination has been limited to the electrophoretic mobility or biologic effects of antibody in vitro. Biophysical tools which permit the isolation and structural investigation of proteins and other macromolecules have been applied to antibody molecules with such effectiveness that it is now possible to describe the heterogeneity of the human immune response in exquisite detail. These major advances in knowledge require and justify an updated nomenclature.
 THE NOMENCLATURE
 A group of leaders in this field met in 1964 at Geneva under the auspices of WHO and recommended international adoption of the terms shown in Table I A-1.
 The preexisting confusion over nomenclature appears to have been resolved by nearly unanimous adoption of their recommendations by workers in the field with the result that it is standard in most current technical literature on the subject. Popular usage to date appears to favor the notation employing the Greek letter gamma: γG, γM, γA, and γD for the major classes of immunoglobulins, rather than the equally acceptable, but phonetically clumsy Ig-G, Ig-M, Ig-A, and Ig-D notation. Because the data involved, as well as the nomenclature, are too new to have appeared in textbooks or review journals usually read by those interested in child health, it is appropriate to review briefly the structure and functions of the immunoglobulin molecules as currently understood, and to suggest some actual and potentially important applications of this information in diagnosis and therapy.


Contemporary discourse embraces notions of human movement in space as occurring in both set, singular locations and also through many locations and ever-changing fields. Mobile conceptions of location and spatiality particularly relate to patterns of everyday contemporary life and are embraced in some artistic and performance practices. Graphic notation of movement now needs to accommodate mobile as well stable expressions of location to incorporate these changing contemporary spatial conceptions. In this essay, the author discusses Labanotation and Motif Writing as notation forms that often privilege location as a stable entity, and Motation as a form that addresses mobile and ever-changing locations. These individual systems speak to different concerns in the documentation of movement through space, and contemporary notation practices in some instances may best be served through using a hybrid version of these forms. Graphic notation requires the observer to analyze and reflect on human movement within the structure of a particular notation system. The use of a notation system that employs both stable and mobile references of location then encourages more nuance and varying perspectives on human movement and spatiality.


The two transport protocols DCCP and UDP-Lite can make use of data that are known to be erroneous, provided that the link layer hands over such data. A similar functionality has been suggested for TCP. In order to investigate the potential of these mechanisms in WiFi networks, we carried out a measurement study where we examined how often information about corrupt data reaches the transport layer when the corruption control at the link layer is disabled. Our results suggest that this may be a rare occurrence in certain scenarios.


Development of high performance applications requires support from various profiling and analysis tools. Advances in technology should be accompanied by rework of existing instruments and continuous revision of their compliance to state of the art. We demonstrate the ability of existing tools, such as Performance Expert, to address performance problems of MPI-3.0 functions. This paper describes the rules required to expand these performance tools. A set of simulations and a real-world application are used to confirm the correctness of our approach.


This paper investigates Bayesian forecasts for some cointegrated time series data. Suppose data are derived from some cointegrated model, but, an unrestricted vector autoregressive model, without including cointegrated conditions, is fitted; the implication of using an incorrect model will be investigated from the Bayesian forecasting viewpoint. For some special cointegrated data and under the diffuse prior assumption, it can be analytically proven that the posterior predictive distributions for both the true model and the fitted model are asymptotically the same for any future step. For a more general cointegrated model, examinations are performed via simulations. Some simulated results reveal that a reasonably unrestricted model will still provide a rather accurate forecast as long as the sample size is large enough or the forecasting period is not too far in the future. For a small sample size or for long-term forecasting, more accurate forecasts are expected if the correct cointegrated model is actually applied. Copyright © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Among the various types of quantum computers, photonic quantum computers have shown great potential due to their high degree of scalability. However, the development of photonic quantum computers is still in its infancy, and the characterization of their performance is of critical importance to guide further improvements. In this work, we present the first characterization and insights derived from Xanadu's X8 photonic quantum computer. Our work represents an important step toward the development of practical and scalable photonic quantum computers.


This paper presents theoretical and experimental investigations on the non-planar log-periodic dipole antenna, whose upper and lower halves contain dipoles, inclined by angles α1 and α2 respectively. Using the fact that a tilted dipole is capable of receiving horizontally as well as vertically polarized signals, it is mathematically shown that the utility of the log-periodic dipole antenna (LPDA) can be increased by tilting the constituent dipoles. Using the linear antenna array theory, the expressions for the far field radiation patterns, power gain and aperture, are derived. Calculations were made to predict the effect of Ψ (angle between the two halves of the LPDA) and the tilt angles (α1, and β2) of the dipoles on the radiation pattern, power gain and aperture of the non-planar log-periodic dipole antenna. Comparison is made between the theoretical and experimental results. It is concluded that both the results agree reasonably.


Introduction: Wheat products such as flour and bread account for a significant part of the diet in Iran. Thus, microbial contamination of these products can cause various diseases in the community. In this regard, the aim of this study was to determine the microbial quality of flour used in bakeries and semi-industrial packaged lavash breads in Bandar abbas city. Methods: In this descriptive study, the flour and bread samples were collected from bakeries and food supermarkets, respectively, and their microbial quality and moisture were determined according to the methods proposed by Iranian National Standards Organization. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and SPSS and Excel softwares. Results: The results showed that none of the bread samples were contaminated with coliform and Escherichia coli. With respect to the national permissible limit of 103 CFU mold/g for bread, the number of molds exceeded national permissible limit in 24 of the bread samples. Furthermore, the number of total microorganisms and molds in 25 and 10 of flour samples exceeded national permissible limits (105 CFU/g for total microorganisms and 5×103 CFU/g for molds). Conclusion: This study revealed that the microbial content of some flour and packaged bread samples collected from Bandar Abbas exceeded national permissible limits. This situation is a matter of concern, especially for the breads contaminated to molds, due to probable production of toxins and direct consumption of the contaminated bread.  Therefore, regulatory authorities should focus more on the monitoring of the microbial contamination of packaged foods. Key Words: Bread, Flour, Microbial Contamination.


: In order to minimize settlement of a shallow foundation, a model test is per-formed using geogrids for reinforcement. The optimal reinforcement is found by varying reinforcement length and changing reinforcement layer. From the test results, it is inferred that 2 layers and 4 times the foundation length is the most effective reinforcement condition obtained using geogrids. As a result of this tendency, 2 layers-4 times and 2 layers-5 times conditions are used to determine the reinforcement effect of two types of geogrids with the same tensile strength and of a single type of geogrid but with two tensile strengths. The reinforcement effect of the welded type is less than that of warp-knitted type. It can be seen that frictional resistance is developed at the soil–geogrid rib interface; therefore, the reinforcement capacity is reduced. It is inefficient to use reinforcement of high tensile strength under conditions of allowable bearing capacity, but it is necessary to choose reinforcement of suitable tensile strength under conditions of ultimate bearing capacity.


As current technology development trend of microelectronic industry driven by portable and wearable electronic products, adopting advanced IC fabrication process technology and a powerful integrated fan-out (InFO) wafer level system integration (WLSI) technology has been developed to integrate application processor chip with memory package for smart mobile devices[1][3]. This fan-out wafer level package (FO-WLP) to extend the functionality performance within thin form-factor for fulfilling product application requirements is essential and important to a successful new product development, especially for Application Processor, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and power management IC (PMIC) products[1]. FO-WLP is good electrical performance package by its very short distance package level interconnection, and it has been rapidly adopted for 12 inch copper fabrication process technologies. Knowing its very thin package without package substrate as stress buffer between IC chip and system board, board level reliability performance of FO-WLP becomes challenge as products moving to large die size for enabling more functionality on the same or less space due to higher package stress induced by larger die size[2]. The board level underfill(UF) has been implemented in Surface Mount Technology(SMT) assembly process to prevent mechanical stress induced solder ball and redistribution layer (RDL) damage[4]. In general, the UF will help to reduce the mechanical stress to impact solder joint reliability. However, due to less sophistication of SMT UF process compared with flip-chip assembly UF process, such as no pre-plasma treatment, high dispensing speed and no CSAM inspection to detect the dispensing quality, SMT UF dispensing quality brings a great of quality and reliability concern to the FO-WLP package joint on board, especially electrical leakage issue due to small ball pitch of the package. Therefore, it becomes the objective of this study on SMT production quality and reliability risk of FO-WLP package on board with focusing on board level UF filling into BGA balls of FO-WLP package impact to product reliability.


The Thévenin equivalent is considered as the standard grid equivalent for power system analysis. The integration on power electronics components in the power systems introduces non-linear operation characteristics that cannot be captured by Thévenin equivalent. Therefore, an alternative grid equivalent representation is required. This article presents a steady-state equivalent representation of power systems with penetration of power electronics, which is suitable for both normal operation studies and short-circuit calculations. This equivalent grid representation is developed based on the voltage-current (U-I) characteristic of a power system to map the relationship between voltages and currents of a specific network node. Such grid equivalent representation has been presented for single-phase, balanced and unbalanced three-phase power systems in this paper. A methodology is presented to identify operation points when the equivalent system under study is connected to any external system. The proposed equivalent grid representation and the methodology for operation points identification have been tested on the Voltage Source Converter (VSC) based test system and are validated through dynamic simulations.


We report a precise measurement of the hyperfine interval in the ${2P}_{1/2}$ state of $^{7}$Li. The transition from the ground state ($D_1$ line) is accessed using a diode laser and the technique of saturated-absorption spectroscopy in hot Li vapor. The interval is measured by locking an acousto-optic modulator to the frequency difference between the two hyperfine peaks. The measured interval of 92.040(6)~MHz is consistent with an earlier measurement reported by us using an atomic-beam spectrometer [Das and Natarajan, J.\ Phys.\ B {\bf 41}, 035001 (2008)]. The interval yields the magnetic dipole constant in the $P_{1/2}$ state as $A=46.047(3)$, which is discrepant from theoretical calculations by $>80$~kHz.


This research first deals with the states of affairsKazakhstanfaces nowadays in the field of energy security. Energy security is a declared priority forKazakhstangovernment. The article explores the diverse risks that may arise from conditions of increasing economic competition and resource scarcity, and the full range of problems that may follow if major producers or consumers of energy lose confidence to secure access to energy. It surveys the strategic outlook of both producer and consumer states. Oil, which sits in the foreground of the global energy picture, is a finite resource. Much remains to be discovered about the ultimate extent of global petroleum reserves, and about the economics of their exploitation. [1]


Thermal characteristics of coswirling flames with various axial and angular inlet momentum distributions are investigated in this experimental study. The heat loading, the Reynolds number, and the overall equivalence ratio were held constant while the swirl and flow distribution were systematically varied between the two air jets. Turbulent temperatures were measured with a fine-wire thermocouple in the recirculation zone, shear mixing, and postcombustion regions. A digital compensation technique was used to increase the maximum thermocouple frequency limit from approximately 50 Hz to over 1.5 kHz. The total swirl number and the total equivalence ratio were insufficient in characterizing thermal effects in these flames. Additional governing parameters are presented, which more accurately describe behavior in coannular burners. These parameters account for the swirl number in each jet, the relative jet strength, and the local stoichiometry at the inlet of the burner.


The preservation, conservation and promotion of the cultural values of our country are responsibility of all. In this process, the geodesists and cartographers are responsible for mapping the sites of cultural heritage. In this report are presented the field activities for mapping, description and attractive visualization of the rich cultural and historical heritage left by our ancestors on the lands of Pliska, Veliki Preslav, Madara and other remarkable places of the Shumen region. The aim of the study is to develop theoretical and methodological bases for cartographic documentation, which later can serve to create specialized maps for the management of cultural heritage. The described technology for documenting and preserving cultural and historical sites is based on the use of the modern technology for airphotographing of the areas occupied with archaeological monuments by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known by the name drone. As a result of the surveyed objects the relevance of some of the principles of the cartographic documentation is illustrated. A database of cultural and historical heritage sites in the Shumen region has been created in the form of various digital documents orthophotomaps, 3D models, photographic pictures, texts from historical sources for description of cultural objects, etc.


This introduction introduces the shifting terms and characteristics historically ascribed to the still life genre, in order to open up a more nuanced discussion of the significance of stillness and still life for modern cultural practices across different media, in literature, painting, sculpture and dance. The still life paintings of the French Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) are paradigmatic in this exploration of modern still life and the phenomenon of the 'animate inanimate'. This introduction examines a range of textual responses to his still lifes by Virginia Woolf, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wassily Kandinsky and (in an extended exploration) D.H. Lawrence, in order to explore a constellation of motifs, concerns and desires that shape the still life in the 'age of speed'.


The phospholipase A2 (PLA2) family of enzymes are responsible for cleavage of membrane phospholipids, releasing a free fatty acid and lysophospholipid. Various PLA2 dependent pathways are important in regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, motility, and immune responses which can all be altered during tumor development and progression. Calcium independent PLA2 (iPLA2) enzymes are responsible for phospholipid remodeling as well as release of arachidonic acid or lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) which play major roles in downstream signaling pathways. The most commonly studied iPLA2 enzymes are iPLA2β and iPLA2γ, but their role in cancer development remains unknown. To determine what effects cigarette smoke exposure had on mammary tissue from wild type and iPLA2γ deficient mice, we exposed six month old females to cigarette smoke using the SCIREQ InExpose system for up to six months. Mammary tissue was removed and snap frozen for biochemistry or stored in formalin for immunohistochemical analysis. Following three and six months of cigarette smoke exposure, wild type mice showed atypical ductal hyperplasia. In comparison, the iPLA2γ knockout mice developed ductal carcinoma in situ following three months of cigarette smoke exposure. Recent studies from our lab have determined that iPLA2γ deletion in mice results in alterations of cytokine expression implicated in breast tumor progression when compared to wild type mice. Changes in cytokine expression may elucidate the mechanism by which iPLA2γ deficient mice develop tumors more rapidly than wild type mice in the presence of cigarette smoking.


Indonesia has the risk of spreading infectious diseases such as Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URI), diarrhea, Dengue, Chikungunya, and Malaria. Various activities to address the spread this infectious diseases with counseling, provision of abate powder, and fogging is still not effective. The spread of infectious disease treatment measures have not been effective due to lack of information about the spread of infectious disease events to the public. One way to effectively disseminate information may use early warning systems. To develop an early warning system, it can be done with some models, one of them using a combination of SMS Gateway technology and Geographic Information System (GIS). The concept of the model in the form of a system of interaction between the community and the Departement of Health (DOH) is assisted by the health centers and hospitals for the prevention of infectious diseases. Results obtained in the form of service modeling interaction services based SOA framework. Service modeling in the form of the composition of the three layers in the service interface layer are interconnected, as a result of the decomposition of business processes prevention of infectious diseases.


The paper will describe the challenges and implemen tation of self healing distribution automation scheme impl emented by Scottish and Southern Energy on the Isle of Wigh t in 2008. This involved the supply of equipment by S&C Electric Europe Ltd covering several 11KV feeder an d substations. It will describe the equipment used th at when combined offered a self healing real time solution to distribution networks and how this improves network reliability. It will discuss the products being used and the fea tures chosen by Scottish and Southern energy to introduce a self healing real time alternative solution to conventio nal centralised Scada control to improve network perfor mance. The S&C IntelliRupter pulse closer will be discusse d along with how the patented pulse closing can be used to extend network life and restore networks even when there i s a loss of communication. IntelliTEAM ii peer to peer communications and universal interface modules and their benefits and interface with existing equipment and Scada will be covered.


You may download books from apec2003.org. Project is a high quality resource for free eBooks books.It is known to be world's largest free eBooks site. You can easily search by the title, author and subject.Read book online, and you can also check out ratings and reviews from other users.This library catalog is an open online project of many sites, and allows users to contribute books. These books are compatible for Kindles, Nooks, iPads and most e-readers.


Amorphous ceramics with the chemical composition Si_3B_3N_7 and SiBN_3C were produced from single-source molecular precursors by polymerization and pyrolysis. The powder and fiber materials were investigated by means of energy filtering transmission electron microscopy. The intensity of elastically scattered electrons is recorded to calculate the pair distribution function of these ceramics. In the pair distribution function of Si_3B_3N_7 three significant maxima at 0.144, 0.172, and 0.291 nm are clearly resolved and are assigned to the pair distances B–N, Si–N, and Si–Si (N–N), respectively, by comparison to crystalline materials. The predominant structural units of the ceramic are trigonal planar BN_3 and tetrahedral SiN_4 groups, which are close to their regular symmetry. The overall pair distribution function of SiBN_3C is very similar to that of Si_3B_3N_7; however, the maxima are broadened due to the incorporation of carbon into the network. High-resolution mapping of the elements Si, B, N, and C with electron spectroscopic imaging reveals a homogeneous distribution on a subnanometer scale without precipitation or separation of, for example, carbon-rich clusters. Similarly, elemental mapping of Si_3B_3N_7 reveals a random distribution of the elements Si, B, and N at the same scale. Both new ceramics consist of an amorphous network with bonds and coordinations as preformed in the precursor.


Exogenously applied phytohormones improve the endosperm cells and establish greater kernel sink capacity and grain filling, improving grain yield. In this study, 28-Homobrassinolide (HBR) dosages (20, 25, and 30 mg a. i. ha−1) were applied separately at the silking stage under controlled conditions, and EDAH (a mixture of ethephon and diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate) dosage of 90 g a. i. ha−1 was sprayed at the jointing stage to enhance the lodging resistance. Our objective was to investigate whether the application of HBR under controlled conditions or with EDAH could enhance the grain filling rate by regulating endogenous hormones. The results showed that HBR at the silking stage significantly increased endogenous hormones (ABA, IAA, Z+ZR), hampered leaf senescence, enhanced photosynthetic, improved dry matter accumulation in grains, and increased the grain-filling period, filling rate, and thousand-grains weight. Additionally, HBR 25 and 30 mg a. i. ha−1 increased the final yield by 9.9% and 19.5% compared to the control (CK) in 2020 and 14.1% and 18.95% in 2021, respectively. There was no significant difference between the results obtained from HBR-controlled and EDAH treatments at the jointing stage. Thus, we conclude that spraying HBR 25~30 mg a. i. ha−1 under controlled conditions may increase the grain yield under normal weather conditions. In adverse weather conditions and heavy wind, spraying EDAH 90 g a. i. ha−1 at the jointing stage and HBR 30 mg a. i. ha−1 at the silking stage can enhance maize production.


Poverty, inequality, and unemployment are on the rise in South Africa. The focus of this study is on school-age children in poverty. Education is a critical policy imperative for the country. Model-based small area estimation was conducted to estimate the different poverty measures for lower and upper bound poverty levels. The primary data sources are the Income and Expenditure Survey 2010/2011 and the 2011 national population census. The model diagnostics and the validation of the estimates showed that the model-based estimates at the local municipality level are more reliable than the direct estimates. There are significant variations in poverty across the local municipalities of South Africa; therefore, spatially targeted poverty alleviation programmes are more beneficial.


The relationships between trade, remittances from overseas workers and the domestic economy are examined for their implications for labor and trade policy. Import substitution and protectionism as well as weaknesses in the domestic economy continue to push Filipino workers overseas and encourage dependency on remittances. The limited use of remittances for real productive investments at the household level is associated with length of migration, reliance on overseas workers as a source of foreign exchange, and a failure to correct the structural imbalances of the economy. Unlike other Asian countries such as South Korea and Thailand, the Philippines is far from the turning points in trade and labor migration that allow net labor import. Implications of a coordinated trade and labor policy are discussed.


One of the major directions of scientific-research work in the over-all plan of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR is the study of the complex of natural resources and the elaboration of the scientific principles of the many-sided development of the productive forces of the individual regions of the USSR. The basic research in this area is being conducted by the Council for the Study of Productive Forces (COPF) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Its work plan provides for laying the scientific foundations for proposals to master natural resources on the basis of their comparative technical-economic evaluation and for revealing the perspectives for the development of new production bases (junctions) and determining their role in interregional and interbranch economic ties.


Abstract In the paper selected nonparametric and semiparametric estimation methods of higher orders quantiles are considered. The construction of nonparametric confidence intervals is based on order statistics of appropriate ranks from random samples or from generated bootstrap samples. Semiparametric bootstrap methods are characterized by double bootstrap simulations. The values of bootstrap sample below the prearranged threshold are generated by the empirical distribution and the values above this threshold are generated by the distribution based on the asymptotic properties of the tail of the random variable distribution. The results of the study allow one to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the considered procedures and to compare these methods.


In 2001 when the US magazine Foreign Policy placed the Republic of Ireland at the top of the Globalisation Index, Ireland supposedly took its place for the first time among the most globally 'integrated' countries of the twenty first century. 1 Over the next few years however the numbers of 'racist' incidents reported in the Republic of Ireland began to rise indicating that there was a further need to an alyse the cultural complexities of globalisation which had previously been overshadowe d by the economic successes.


This paper investigates the influence of aggregate packing optimization based on a particle packing method (PPM) and cement paste volume (CPV) on the workability and mechanical properties of both natural aggregate concrete (NAC) and recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). The slump, compressive strength, flexural strength and Young's modulus of concrete were first examined, followed with the characterization of macro‐pore structure inside RAC by using X‐ray computed tomography (CT). The results indicate that the PPM can help to densify the granular skeleton of aggregates in concrete by reducing the void around the aggregates and the cement paste film thickness, and subsequently enhances the mechanical properties of the concrete with a constant CPV. This enhancement is higher for RAC than NAC, particularly for the Young's modulus. The particle packing optimization can also decrease the number of macro pores in RAC, contributing to the enhancement in the mechanical properties of RAC. Moreover, increasing CPV in concrete with a maximum aggregate packing status considerably decreases the mechanical properties of concrete, whereas increases its workability. This is mainly caused by the increased number of macro pores in the cement paste and at the interfaces between RCAs and hardened cement paste.


High resolution data with low reservoir coverage (e.g. image logs) and low resolution data with high reservoir coverage (e.g. seismic data) are available in the petroleum industry for decades. However, both the high resolution and coverage together in a single set of data has not yet been possible (Christie et al.1995). In the modern days of highresolution reservoir characterisation and modelling, efforts are made in all directions for increasing the resolution of seismic data to a comparable level with the resolution of well log data (Perra et al., 2003, Barkved et al., 2004). Experiments are also carried out to convert the high resolution log data into seismic domain for a better correlation and linking between the high resolution and high coverage data.


A protocol for the generation of high yields of viable protoplasts has been developed for several highly branched (colonial) strains of the Quorn ® myco-protein fungus, Fusarium graminearum A3/5. Driselase was found to produce higher protoplast yields ( ca 10 9 g -1 wet weight) than the other lytic enzymes tested (Glucanex, Novozyme, β-glucuronidase, Sigma lytic enzyme, or ICN lytic enzyme), although yields differed for the various strains. Protoplast regeneration frequencies of 25–50% were observed when glucose (1.0 M) or sucrose (1.0 M) was used as the osmotic stabilizer. A highly branched strain of F. graminearum CC1–5, which grows better in submerged culture than the more sparsely branched wild-type strain (A3/5) was transformed using the hygromycin B resistance plasmid pAN7–1.


Cardiac toxicity still represents a common adverse outcome causing drug attrition and post-marketing withdrawal. The development of relevant in vitro models resembling the human heart recently opened the path towards a more accurate detection of drug-induced human cardiac toxicity early in the drug development process. Organs-on-chip have been proposed as promising tools to recapitulate in vitro the key aspects of the in vivo cardiac physiology and to provide a means to directly analyze functional readouts. In this scenario, a new device capable of continuous monitoring of electrophysiological signals from functional in vitro human hearts-on-chip is here presented. The development of cardiac microtissues was achieved through a recently published method to control the mechanical environment, while the introduction of a technology consisting in micro-electrode coaxial guides allowed to conduct direct and non-destructive electrophysiology studies. The generated human cardiac microtissues exhibited synchronous spontaneous beating, as demonstrated by multi-point and continuous acquisition of cardiac field potential, and expression of relevant genes encoding for cardiac ion-channels. A proof-of-concept pharmacological validation on three drugs proved the proposed model to potentially be a powerful tool to evaluate functional cardiac toxicity.


The present invention provides a light alloy vehicle wheel. This light alloy vehicle wheel using at least a portion of a disk forged parts, only the outer rim portion of the other processing section and the inner rim or the inner rim portion, and these engagement with the disk by friction welding portion. An inner rim portion and the outer rim portion of the disk portion are integrally molded light alloy forged light alloy cast member and the friction welding method can be joined together; the disk portion and the outer rim portion and a forged light alloy inner rim light alloy cast member can be integrally molded engaging the friction welding method. Integrally molded using casting outer rim portion and the inner rim portion, the inner rim portion can flow forming.


Excessive extraction of groundwater resulting in serious land subsidence as well as intensified rainfall and storm surges due to climate change complicate the flooding problems in southwest Taiwan. A coupled set of different models was proposed to analyze the effect of inundation risk considering land subsidence and climate change. Three models, including the groundwater flow model, land subsidence model, and the physiographic drainage–inundation model, were used in this study, enabling simulations of different considerations. The results revealed that more severe flooding would result from land subsidence and climate change. The findings of a 21% increase in flood area with an inundation depth greater than 1.5 m for 200‐yr return period events clearly showed more severe flooding would result from land subsidence. The flooding in those severely subsiding areas would increase in a range from 3.4 to 21.5% when further considering climate change.


Primary biliary cirrhosis is a chronic, de-structive autoimmune liver disease of humans. Patient sera are characterized by a high frequency (>95%) of autoantibodies to a Mr 70,000 mitochondrial antigen, a component of the M2 antigen complex. We have identified a human cDNA clone encoding the complete amino acid sequence ofthis autoantigen. The predicted structure has significant similarity with the dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase (EC 126.96.36.199) of the Escherichia coli pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex. The human sequence preserves the Glu-Thr-Asp-Lys-Ala motif of the lipoyl-binding site and has two potential binding sites. Expressed fragments of the cDNA react strongly with sera from patients with primary biliary cirrhosis but not with sera from patients with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis or sera from healthy subjects. the results confirm the presence of a cysteine at this position in the derived protein sequence. We have been unable to isolate an independent cDNA clone that includes this region of the sequence. We Dr. I. K. for the Joy cell DNA and RNA; Dr. A. for help with computer analysis; and and for technical assistance. We Prof. J. for assistance in the correction of the pRMIT sequence.


Background: Colonoscopy is used as a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure to assess patients with lower gastrointestinal disease. Practice guidelines from the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) outline accepted indications for colonoscopy; however, there is disagreement over there use in patients who present with abdominal pain in the absence of other symptoms. These guidelines state that colonoscopy is generally not indicated for chronic


Chronic and end-stage kidney disease patients experience significantly increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality due to multitude of interlinked pathophysiological processes inducing metabolic and inflammatory conditions. Pulse pressure (PP) reports cardiac and vascular conditions, where consistently high PP values are associated with atrial fibrillation, aortic insufficiency, arterial stiffness or arteriovenous malformation, and low PP values may be associated with aortic valve stenosis, cardiac insufficiency or cardiac tamponade. However, the association of pre-hemodialysis (pre-HD) PP with mortality among hemodialysis patients is not well understood. In this study, we aim to explore the extent to which PP is associated with mortality.

 We analyzed pre-HD PP (calculated as pre-HD SBP minus pre-HD DBP) between 1/2001 and 12/2012 in hemodialysis patients treated in U.S. Fresenius Medical Care facilities. A 3-months baseline period was defined as months 4 to 6 after hemodialysis initiation, all-cause mortality was noted during follow-up. Only patients who survived baseline were included. Censoring events were renal transplantation, modality change, or study end. We built Cox proportional hazards models with spline terms, allowing us to model nonlinear effects of pre-HD PP as a continuous variable and its relationship with all-cause mortality.

 We included 152,625 patients. Mean age was 60.8 years, 59% were white and 56% were male. During a median follow-up of 26.0 months 40.4% patients died. We found that for patients with pre-HD PP between 49.2 mmHg and 74.7 mmHg, were associated with better survival. In contrast, a PP below 49.2 mmHg and above 74.7 mmHg were associated with higher mortality. Similar nonlinear effects are seen in SBP for a given pre-HD PP value (see Fig. 1).

 The association of pre-HD PP with mortality is nonlinear, and a better understanding of the nonlinearity will provide further insights into disentangling the associated mediators affecting its dynamics. Our findings may aid risk stratification in HD patients.


The long-term biocompatibility and physical performance of polymeric materials in the physiological environment depend both on adsorption and absorption processes. While the former has received significant attention in the literature, the latter has not been sufficiently appreciated. Accelerated testing of prosthetic devices in the wrong media and temperatures yield misleading information as exemplified by pumping bladders of heart assist devices and heart valves. Although glutaraldehyde-treated porcine heterograft heart valves performed better than expected in humans over a period of several years, physical degradations that have been observed may be associated with the breakdown of the crosslinks. Appropriately selected smooth-surfaced biomaterials and hydrogels are far better suited for temporary blood contacting prosthetic applications such as left ventricular heart assist devices (LVADs) than polyester flocked fibril surfaces that result in the deposition of a thick layer of fibrin/cellular mesh with...


Many nuclear safeguards inspection instruments use neutron sources to interrogate the fissile material (commonly 235U and 239Pu) to be measured. The neutron sources currently used in these instruments are isotopics such as Californium-252, Americium-Lithium, etc. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to transport isotopic sources from one measurement location to another. This represents a significant problem for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards inspectors because they must take their safeguards instruments with them to each nuclear installation to make an independent measurement. The purpose of this paper is to review the possibility of replacing isotopic neutron sources now used in IAEA safeguards instruments with electric neutron sources such as deuterium-tritium (D-T, 14-MeV neutrons) or deuterium-deuterium (D-D, 2-MeV neutrons). The potential for neutron generators to interrogate spent-light water reactor fuel assemblies in storage pools is also reviewed.


One hundred and eighty outpatients at the outpatient services of the Douglas Hospital were evaluated for the presence of tardive dyskinesia. Forty-nine (27%) among them had tardive dyskinesia. In this study, female sex, older age and the current administration of antiparkinsonian medication were found to be significantly related to the occurrence of tardive dyskinesia.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultrasonic display equipment that can quantitatively evaluate the ventricle motions by arranging a frame comparison means and a mapping function allotting means in an ultrasonic heart imaging device, spatially in a device that accurately images the ventricle motions. SOLUTION: Output signals of scanner 10 that scans a special area of a patient body such as a heart by ultrasonic waves are inputted into a frame memory 13 through a scan converter 12, and are displayed in a displayer 14 while collecting the data. At this time, in a sound quantifying unit 30, each pixel points are classified whether it is a blood pixel point or is a tissue pixel point and whether it appears in a diastole or in a contraction. Namely, the sound quantifying unit 30 is equipped with a frame comparison means that judges the pixel points changing to different type images, and a mapping function allotting means that allots the mapping function in order to easily distinguish the changed pixel points.


Photocatalytic degradation of pollutants is characterized by its low energy consumption and high efficiency.In this paper,the application of TiO2、CdS、ZnO semiconductor nano-materials in water treatment and air purification is introduced and the development direction of semiconductor photocatalyst in the future is forecasted.


Background: To find the levels of serum CRP in confirmed Covid-19 patients and to compare their levels in patients with mild to moderate disease and patients with severe disease who required ICU care for management.
Methods: A Cross sectional study was carried out on 100 confirmed cases of Covid-19, in whom Serum levels of Random sugar (RBS), Creatinine, Urea, C- reactive protein (CRP) were measured.
Results: The levels of serum Urea, Creatinine were significantly increased in group II when compared to group 1, and the levels of CRP were significantly increased with p value <0.0001 in group IIwhen compared to group I.
Conclusion: Findings of our study suggest that determination of biochemical parameters like CRP at the time of hospitalization helps in predicting the severity of disease and need for ICU for better treatment management and prevention of adverse outcome.
Keywords: Severe acute respiratory syndrome, Covid-19, C- reactive protein, Intensive care unit.


Power system stability is divided into two main components, namely the transient stability involving short term dynamics and the voltage stability involving long term dynamics of power system. The two problems can be studied within a unified environment. The unified index of system stability can give a common measure of voltage stability and angle stability. Thus, the transient stability and the voltage stability can be considered in the corrective control scheme simultaneously. In this paper, the sensitivity analysis-based method is proposed to determine the corrective actions to improve the system transient stability and voltage stability.


The subject of this article is a numerically stable method for solving nonsingular Cramerian systems of linear equations, with a symmetric indefinite coefficient matrix. It consists in adapting the algorithm presented in [1] that can stably and effectively diagonalize any indefinite symmetric matrix. It is in fact some modification of the Gaussian symmetric elimination procedure.


Significant land-use changes in North Dakota have been reported and are widespread over the entire state. Such changing patterns may portend localized impairment to agricultural watersheds. In this study, Land-use Land-cover (LULC) change was modeled using geostatistics. The study area was within the Pipestem Creek watershed, a part of the Missouri Watershed James Subregion of North Dakota, USA. Landsat Thematic mapper images from the years 2007, 2011 and 2015 were used as preliminary data. LULC information for these datasets was acquired from the Global Land-cover facility and Landsat Program. Data analysis, spectral classification and post classification techniques were applied on the datasets. A transition matrix was derived using a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) model. This study demonstrates that the integration of satellite remote sensing, GIS and statistics may be an effective approach for analyzing the direction, rate, and spatial pattern of land-use change.


We investigated the clinical and biological effects of cholesterol-lowering treatment with a statin in 19 patients with Alzheimer's disease. They received simvastatin 20 mg/day for 12 weeks in an open trial. Primary efficacy parameters were the changes after 12 weeks in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of β-amyloid42 (Aβ42), α-secretase-cleaved amyloid precursor protein (α-sAPP), β-secretase-cleaved APP (β-sAPP), tau, phospho-tau and the plasma levels of Aβ42. A secondary efficacy parameter was the change in the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognition (ADAS-cog) score. After 12 weeks, CSF α-sAPP and CSF β-sAPP were significantly reduced (p < 0.001), but the CSF levels of tau, phospho-tau, Aβ42 and the plasma levels of Aβ42 were unchanged. The ADAS-cog score was slightly increased (p < 0.05). The results suggest that simvastatin acts directly on the processing of APP by inhibiting both the α- and the β-secretase pathways.


The Ca2+/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II) is thought to play an important part in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. To determine which of the known subtypes (α, β, γ,δ ) occur in insulin-secreting cells, we amplified all types of CaM kinase II by RT-PCR and found the β3-, γ-,δ 2- and δ6-subtypes in RINm5F insulinoma cells. None of the other 8 δ-subtypes was present. Antibodies generated against the bacterially expressed association domain of theδ 2-subtype recognized the recombinant γ andδ -subtypes. In INS-1 and RINm5F cells, as well as freshly isolated rat islets, only a 55-kDa protein corresponding in size to theδ 2-subtype expressed in NIH3T3 fibroblasts was detected. The δ2-subtype therefore appears to represent the predominant subtype of CaM kinase II present in insulin secreting cells. The enzyme was primarily associated with cytoskeletal structures, and very little was present in the soluble compartment or detergent soluble fraction in INS-1- or RINm5F-cells. An analysis ...


Satellite thermal remote sensing provides land surface temperatures (LST) over extensive areas that are vital in various applications, but this technique suffers from its sampling style and the impenetrability of clouds, which frequently generates data gaps. Annual temperature cycle (ATC) models can fill these gaps and estimate continuous daily LST dynamics from a number of thermal observations. However, the standard ATC model (termed ATCS) remains incapable of quantifying the short-term LST variations caused by synoptic conditions. By incorporating in-situ surface air temperatures (SATs) and satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation indexes (NDVIs), here we proposed an enhanced ATC model (ATCE) to describe the daily LST fluctuations. With Aqua/MODIS LST products as validation data, we implemented and tested the ATCE over the Yangtze River Delta region of China. The results demonstrate that, when compared with the ATCS, the overall root mean square errors of the ATCE decrease by 1.0 and 0.8 K for the day and night, respectively. The accuracy improvements vary with land cover types with greater improvements over the forest, grassland, and built-up areas than over cropland and wetland. The assessments at different time scales further confirm that LST fluctuations can be better described by the ATCE. Though with limitations, we consider this new model and its associated parameters hold great potentials in various applications.


During its more than 30-year history, National Public Radio has earned its reputation as America's radio news source of record. Success has not come easily, though, because the promise of a steady supply of funds from the U.S. government-free from the taint of government influence- was never fulfilled. This article examines the reasons why NPR now raises more money from listeners and business underwriters than it does from government sources, once its sole means of support. By serving a particular audience, developing a strong brand for its signature programs, and leveraging the brand with a variety of ancillary services, NPR has assured its own financial viability. Some critics deride these moves as a commodification of the organization's original public service mission. Concerted efforts to maintain the network's public service focus and the development of new programming streams are two ways in which the public radio system can answer these criticisms, while serving a wider swath of the American population at the same time.


The LifeCLEF challenge BirdCLEF offers a large-scale proving ground for system-oriented evaluation of bird species identification based on audio recordings of their sounds. One of its strengths is that it uses data collected through Xeno-canto, the worldwide community of bird sound recordists. This ensures that BirdCLEF is close to the conditions of real-world application, in particular with regard to the number of species in the training set (1500). The main novelty of the 2017 edition of BirdCLEF was the inclusion of soundscape recordings containing time-coded bird species annotations in addition to the usual Xeno-canto recordings that focus on a single foreground species. This paper reports an overview of the systems developed by the five participating research groups, the methodology of the evaluation of their performance, and an analysis and discussion of the results obtained.


Taking 'Yali' pear of Hebei os research object,the correlation of each quality index were analysed,by bivariate correlation analysis.The results showed that CS and soluble solids,titratable acid were the main evaluation factors,and there was abvious variation of 'Yali' pear quality in different producing area.There was extremely significant positive correlation between soluble solids and CS,titratable acid,Vc each other,while starch had extremely significant negative correlation with CS and soluble solids,titratable acid,Vc.Per had significant positive correlation with hardness,titratable acid had significant negative correlation with hardness,but there was no significant correlation between the other quality index.


Quantization of systems described by Lagrangians with higher‐order derivatives is performed. It is shown that the usual Lagrangian with first‐order derivatives may be consistently replaced by one with second‐order derivatives, the resulting wavefunction being one of a mixed representation.


We report a straightforward, metal-free, efficient protocol for the synthesis of 2-phenylnaphthalenes from 1-phenylethane-1,2-diols under mild conditions. In this strategy, 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol is used as a solvent that stabilizes the reaction intermediate. An in situ IR experiment revealed that the reaction proceeds through the formation of phenylacetaldehyde followed by a [4+2] Diels–Alder reaction. Several control experiments were performed to gain mechanistic insights into the reaction.


There is an on-going need for accurate oscillator strengths to be used in astrophysical applications, particularly in plasma diagnostics and in the modelling of stellar atmospheres and the interstellar medium. There are several databases in regular use which contain some of the required data, although often insufficiently complete, and sometimes not sufficiently accurate. In addition, several atomic structure packages are available through the literature, or from their individual authors, which would allow further calculations to be undertaken. Laboratory measurements provide an important check on the accuracy of calculated data, and the combined efforts of theorists and experimentalists have succeeded in providing data of an accuracy sufficient for some astrophysical applications. However, the insufficiency or inadequacy of atomic data is a continuing problem. We discuss in the context of appropriate examples some of the principal steps which researchers have taken to calculate accurate oscillator strengths, including both ab initio results and also various extrapolation processes which attempt to improve such results. We also present some examples of the main causes of difficulty in such calculations, particularly for complex (many-electron) ions, and indicate ways in which the difficulties might be overcome.


By means of new taxonomical principle and method of "the Chinese Soil Taxonomy(3rd edition)",the complete soil taxonomic classification of four soil profiles was obtained,and they could be allocated in Alfisol order,Udalf suborder,Albudalf great group and corres ponding subgroup,soil family and soil series.On the basis of obtained data,was they could be allocated in Alfisol order,Udalf suborder,yellow-cinnamon great group,albic yellow-cinnamon subgroup and corresponding soil genera and soil species according to the classification status of "Chinese Soil Category Classification System".


For simulation analysis of piezoelectric device with a driver circuit, this paper proposes a hybrid simulation scheme with a combination of multi-physics field finite element simulation and circuit analysis software. Taking the drive analysis of piezoelectric transformer as an example, the paper firstly uses the circuit analysis software Multisim to carry out the actuation simulation with the equivalent circuit model. Then, the modal analysis of the piezoelectric transformer is carried out in Comsol, and the driving circuit is imported by the SPICE netlist for hybrid simulation. Finally, the paper introduces the temperature model of the piezoelectric parameter d33 and analyzes the effect of temperature changes on the driving performance of the piezoelectric transformer. Comparing the simulation data, the results of the hybrid simulation are more accurate and more in line with the actual working process of the piezoelectric transformer.


Teachers' questioning is a pivotal contributing factor to support students' engagement in productive mathematical collective argumentation. Following Habermas'(1998) construct of rational behavior, we attempted to demonstrate how teachers' questioning can be framed based on this construct. Adapting Habermas' construct with Toulmin's (1958/2003) model for argumentation, we conducted a case study to analyze how a prospective secondary teacher used questions to support collective argumentation in one of her student teaching classrooms. We also explored how the prospective teacher's interpretations of argumentation related to her use of rational questioning. The results suggested that this theoretical integration can be a useful tool to frame teacher questioning based on teachers' intentions and organizations of argumentation. Some educational implications for teacher professional development are provided.


A hot-air balloon, with the air heated by natural sources, is described. Buoyancy is accomplished by either solar heating or by utilizing the IR thermal flux of the planet to heat the gas in the balloon. Altitude control is provided by a valve which is opened and closed by a barometer. The balloon is made of an organic material which has to absorb radiant energy and to emit as little as possible.


analysis tend to confirm the hypotheses, but Holsti urges caution since other variables such as personality, ideology or domestic politics may affect the phenomena under study. In conclusion, the book is a useful one for students of communist political systems. It systematically attempts to employ theory developed in political science generally to communist politics specifically; the authors attempted to test the hypotheses developed and operationalize the concepts employed in a scientific manner. On the other hand, the results obtained from the analysis are not very surprising. The work in this regard more or less confirms, by empirical investigation, hypotheses that have been suggested by more impressionistic methods earlier. However, this is probably more the fault of our inadequate development of theory in political science than it is the fault of any of the authors. In short, this book as Triska implies is useful more for what it attempts to do than what it actually produces. It will be a valuable source for students studying various empirical approaches to the study of communist politics.—ROBERT BLACKWEIX, Emory University.


Out of the many molecules and formulations that go through the different phases of clinical trials, many a few fail in between, and the very few that complete the trials successfully are of herbal origin. For example cur cumin completed phase 3 trials in the United States. These are the times of herbal renaissance. We need to explore the nature's bounty for our benefit. A lot of research is going on in this direction .Tephrosia purpurea (L) Pers. is one such herb. Despite the volume and enormity of work carried out on this plant, the translational outcome is very poor. The reasons behind this deficit have to be identified and addressed. It is a constituent of many Ayurvedic formulations used for liver protection and regeneration.


1-(2,5-Dimethylthien-3-yl)-2-(4-acetyl-2,5-dimethylthien-3-yl) cyclopentene has been synthesized by a six-step procedure, such as Vilsmeier reaction, Wolff-Kishner-Huang reduction reaction, The Friedel-Crafts acylation, McMurry reaction etc. Upon alternate irradiation with 297 and 500 nm light upon 1-(2,5-Dimethylthien-3-yl)-2-(4-acetyl-2,5-dimethylthien-3-yl) cyclopentene, the absorption spectrum changes reversibly and a clear isosbestic point appears. These results suggest that the compound can undergo photochromism and do not decompose during the irradiation.


In this paper, we present a new heuristic search algorithm, HSCP, that can solve conditional/contingent planning problems with nondeterministic actions as well as partial observations. The algorithm repeats its AND-OR search trials until a complete solution graph can be found. However, unlike existing heuristic AND-OR search algorithms such as and , the AND-OR search trial conducted by HSCP concentrates on only a single candidate of solution subgraphs to expand it into a complete solution graph. Moreover, unlike real-time dynamic programming algorithms such as RTDP and LRTDP, the AND-OR search trial of HSCP finds a solution immediately when it possible without delaying it until the estimated value of every state converges. Therefore, the HSCP search algorithm has the advantage that it can find a sub-optimal conditional plan very efficiently.


absence of dialogue between capital and labour within companies. It may, in fact, be considered a pioneering example and a model of 'good practice' worth 'exporting' to other companies and sectors facing the threat of mass redundancies. iv) The agreement confirms the tradition of social partnership which has long been associated with VW worldwide. It should also be noted that the success of this agreement in Portugal should not be divorced from the positive influence that the German 'parent company's' culture of negotiation has had on the culture of conflict which still exerts a strong influence over Portuguese labour relations.


Against the prophets of doom who have predicted the demise of a recognizable American Jewish community, I argue that America has finally become a legitimate homeland for Jews; that this hypothesis may be fully illustrated if not quite proved; and that Philip Roth's recent work exudes a contemporary spirit of Jewish self-examination and cultural inquiry, a fictional essaying that in itself exemplifies a new dynamic in American Jewish life.' By homeland I mean a country where Jews are living meaningful, creative Jewish lives, and where their actions and deeds in the world reflect their Jewish identities. By legitimate I mean that in America, Jews can be deeply committed to the values, aspirations, and meanings embodied in Jewish history while at the same time remaining loyal to American institutions that ensure