8 9 Social behaviors are essential for survival and reproduction and vary strongly among individuals, species, 10 and heritable brain diseases. The molecular and cellular bases of this variation are poorly resolved, and 11 discovering them is necessary to understand how neural circuit and behavioral functions—and 12 dysfunctions—vary in social contexts. Here we integrate single nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) with 13 comparative genomics and automated behavior analysis to investigate the neurobiology of castle-building, a 14 recently-evolved social, spatial, goal-directed, and repetitive construction behavior in Lake Malawi cichlid 15 fishes. We simultaneously control for and analyze two biological variables correlated with castle-building behavior: quivering, a courtship "dance" behavior, and relative gonadal mass. We find signatures of building-, 17 quivering-, and gonadal-associated neuronal excitation, gene expression, and neurogenesis in distinct cell 18 populations. Converging lines of evidence support the involvement of estrogen, TrkB, and CCK signaling 19 systems, and specific pallial excitatory neuronal subpopulations, in castle-building behavior. We show 20 additional evidence that castle-building has evolved in part through genomic divergence in a gene module 21 that is selectively expressed in stem-like quiescent radial glial cells (RGCs) lining the ventricular zone of the 22 pallium. This RGC subpopulation exhibits signatures of a building-associated departure from quiescence, 23 which in turn is associated with neuronal rebalancing in the putative fish homologue of the hippocampus. Our 24 work supports an unexpected role for glia and neurogenesis in the evolution of social behavior, and more 25 broadly shows how snRNA-seq can be used to systematically profile the cellular bases of previously unstudied social behaviors in new species systems.


Sudden cardiac arrest is usually caused by an electrical disturbance that disrupts the heart's rhythmic pumping action. When cardiac arrest happens, blood flow to the entire body stops. 2 If not immediately treated, sudden cardiac arrest results in cessation of life. Survival rates remain low despite modern resuscitation attempts. 3 In a groundbreaking 2014 study, researchers measured testosterone and estrogen levels to correlate risk of sudden cardiac arrest. The findings revealed that lower levels of testosterone or higher levels of estrogen in men were strongly associated


Review(s) of: The Ottoman defence against the Anzac landing: 25 April 1915, by Uyar, M. (2015), Sydney, Big Sky Publishing, Pb, 181 pp., R.r.p $19.99, ISBN 978-1-922132-99-4; Defending Gallipoli: The Turkish story, by Broadbent, H. (2015), Carlton: Melbourne University Press, Pb, 306 pp., R.r.p $32.99, ISBN 9780522864564.


With the development of computer technology,in recent years,the electronic length-frequency analysis that estimates biological property value of the fish based on length frequency of fish is widely applied,while setting class interval size for length grouping is the essential step to apply electronic length-frequency analysis of fish,however,it is usually neglected seriously and often arbitrarily set at 1 mm,5 mm or 10 mm,etc.. In order to minimize errors,in this paper,according to biological determination information of Stolephorus commersoni and Collichthys lucidus during the annual monthly survey of fishery resources in the Pearl River estuarine waters by beam trawl and hang trawl from December 1997 to December 1998,composition data of length frequency is restructured with different class interval size of length grouping. Based on the length-frequency data grouped by different class interval size,asymptotic length (L∞),growth coefficient (K) value and fish resources exploitation parameters (Z,M,F,E) were estimated using the FAO-ICLARM Stock Assessment Tools (FiSAT Ⅱ ) software,and the difference of estimation results based on different class interval size of length grouping was analyzed. The results showed that there were significant differences in the estimation of asymptotic length (L∞),growth coefficient (K) and resource exploitation parameter (Z,M,F,Z) when the composition data of length frequency were reconstructed based on grouping class interval sizes with large difference. It is proposed to use length rang,length standard deviation and sample number and other impact factors to commonly determine the class interval size of length grouping of fish,so as to enhance the credibility of the estimation results and to achieve the object of quantitative analysis of biological property value of the fish.


A fast real-time algorithm is presented for median filtering of signals and images. The algorithm determines the kth bit of the median by inspecting the k most significant bits of the samples. The total number of full-word comparison steps is equal to the wordlength of the samples. Speed and hardware complexity of the algorithm is compared with two other fast methods for median filtering.


In this paper we consider seok a social term. In the sense of "a group of blood relatives," it is found only among the Turkic peoples of Southern Siberia. The accumulated materials of ethnographic, historical and legal nature allow to speak about seoks of South Siberian Turks as a social institution formed under the influence of Mongol legislation in XIII-XVIII centuries. Mongolians have a similar term yasun bearing the same semantic load. In other modern Turkic-speaking ethnic groups the term is absent in a similar sense, though it is able to illustrate some of the social categories (Kyrgyz, Kazakhs). But the Turks of Southern Siberia were under the legal systems of government and social organizations of Mongolian (Altyn-Khan, Oirat) states, so they perceived a then terminology. If you continue with a retrospective look at the pre-Mongol period, the preliminary conclusion may also be in favor of the opinion of the absence of the peoples of the ancient circle of social organization based on "generic" or "tribal" relationships. Available sources on the worldview of the ancient Turks, Kirghiz, Uighurs and Kipchaks did not indicate the dominance of "tribal ideology." The terms designating over family social structures, it is extremely vague and uncertain. It is no accident that this circumstance contrasts Orkhon and Yenisei inscriptions, the richest vocabulary of social relationship. The most important connection of individuals are concentrated in the categories of family relationship and not a "tribal" interaction. It is obvious that the concept of consanguine kind is not suitable for the analysis of the social organization of the Turks of Southern Siberia. This leads to a archaization of the views of researchers about the communities that have a long historical period were familiar with more complex types of social order. Universalism principles of kinship allowed to use it in other forms of social structuring. Categories of relationship were a kind of matrix, which were imposed and the government, political institutions.


Fundamental credit analysis is widely performed by fixed income analysts and financial institutions to assess the credit risk of individual companies based on their financial data, notably the financial statements reported by the companies. Yet, the conventional analysis has not developed a computational method to forecast, directly from a company's financial statements, the default probability, the recovery rate, and ultimately the fundamental valuation of a company's credit risk in terms of credit spreads to risk-free rate. This paper introduces a generalizable approach to achieve these goals by implementing fundamental credit analysis in dynamical models. When combined with Monte-Carlo simulation, the current methodology naturally combines several novel features in the same forecast algorithm: 1. integrating default (defined as the state of negative cash) and recovery rate (under liquidation scenario) through the same defaulted balance sheet, 2. valuing the corporate real options manifested as planning in the amount of borrowing and expenditure, 3. embedding macro-economic and macro-financing conditions, and 4. forecasting the joint default risk of multiple companies. The method is applied to the Chinese real estate industry to forecast for several listed developers their forward default probabilities and associated recovery rates, and the fair-value par coupon curves of senior unsecured debt, using as inputs 6-8 years of their annual financial statements with 2020 as the latest. The results show both agreements and disagreements with the market-traded credit spreads at early April 2021, the time of these forecasts. The models forecasted much wider than market spreads on the big three developers, particularly pricing Evergrande in highly distressed levels. After setting up additional generic industry models, the current methodology is capable of computing default risk and debt valuation on large-scale of companies based on their historical financial statements.


Fuzzy assessment model is used to assess eutrophic state of ten lake areas in Donghu Lake of Wuhan City.The resemblance between the object and the criterion is denoted by Hamming distance.Results show that mesotrophic water constitutes 42.6% of total water area,and the area of eutrophication is 5.8%,including Miaohu Lake and Shuiguohu Lake.It indicates that two of the ten lake areas are in a state of eutrophication,while four of them are in mesotrophic status.


This quarterly basin activities report is a summation of three months drilling and testing activities in the Greater Green River Basin, Northern Great Plains Province, Piceance Basin, and Uinta Basin. Detailed information is given for each study area for the first quarter of 1979.


ABSTRACT This case study illustrates the emerging role of occupational therapy in Mongolia. As a result of limited resources and staff, clients living outside of the city are particularly isolated from receiving rehabilitation services. Occupational therapy assessment, treatment, education and training were provided to improve the situation of the client. An additional benefit of the occupational therapist's intervention was the use of this case study to educate carers, students and medical professionals about the concepts and value of occupational therapy. With international training and clinical education, and new occupational therapy graduates, understanding of the profession will increase and occupational therapy will continue to advance in Mongolia.


In this issue we introduce a new, occasional feature in Ancient Mesoamerica: longer, sustained, detailed papers that elaborate the finer points of controversial culture-historical issues or theoretical debates in Mesoamerican studies. Each of these longer pieces will be followed in a future issue by invited commentaries. This first paper involves a debate that has been brewing for some time: the origins of the words for cacao (Theobroma cacao and congeners [McNeil 2006b:341]) and chocolate and the culture-historical implications. Few things of ancient Mesoamerica have whetted both the intellectual and the culinary appetite like cacao and and its derivative, chocolate. Cacao and chocolate, in fact, have represented many things in Mesoamerica and all over the world: food, beverage, commodity, money—and words that evoke lively scholarly debate.


Based on the grey theory,the GM(1,1) prediction model for the pollution discharge produced by gasification of organic solid waste was established,as well as the precision assessment for the model.The relevant Matlab program was also developed.The GM(1,1) model for the percentage of NO,NO2,NOX,and SO2 under different temperatures was constructed by using the sample gas generated by burning the mixture of solid waste(12.9% of rice hull,15.8% of wastepaper,17.5% of leaves,24.8% of armoise,29.0% of tyre) with oxygen flow of 3m3/h under temperatures of 650℃,700℃,750℃,800℃,and 850℃.Based on that,the respective predicted content of NO,NO2,NOX,and SO2 in the gas generated under 900℃ are 57.133 9 ppm,9.911 1 ppm,69.764 3 ppm,and 28.774 7 ppm,and the largest residual error is NOX which is only-2.953 4%.


On 29 August, 2011, I had the honour and pleasure to witness and facilitate the creation of the African Federation of Public Health Associations. It was a landmark event attended by all Ministers of Health of the African region, during which we committed to work together to support Governments and communities to address the public health challenges that we face at regional and country levels. Therefore, organizing the 13th World Congress on Public Health in Africa demonstrates the confidence that the World Federation of Public Health Associations places in the young African federation. I am assured that deliberations during the next 5 days will provide new insights and creative solutions to public health issues being faced by the world and the African continent in particular. (Published: 13 June 2012) Citation: Glob Health Action 2012, 5 : 18842 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v5i0.18842


Occult hepatic metastases (OHM) may be present in a quarter of patients undergoing apparently curvative surgery for colorectal cancer'. Apart from the encouraging Glasgow experience of serial ultrasound and CT which detected OHM in > 20 per cent of patients'


dolomite samples, the water sample from 17 wells, and the sample of water scaling from the No.436 well were tested for trace elements Sr and Ba in Wumishan formation of Renqiu oil field. The dissolution and precipitation of minerals composed of these trace elements at different temperatures and under different pressures of CO 2 were simulated using the PHREEQM software. The distribution and migration of the trace elements were discussed. The result shows that the distribution of trace elements was controlled by the sedimentation environment and the post stage water rock interaction. Minerals formed in a high energy environment of subtidal zone have a high content of trace elements. The Sr, for example, may reach as high as 0.03%; While those formed in a low energy environment of suprallitoral zone have a low content of Sr, only 0.0028%. For the scaling, the content of Sr may be as high as 0.69% and that of Ba is 0.09%, much higher than that in rocks and in water of the oil field, indicating that there exists a strong condensation action in the scaling process.


The structure of the metal-free acid of the antibiotic X-537A has been determined using a bromo-derivative and reveals a dimer enclosing a water molecule.


The nuclear electric quadrupole interaction at $^{111}\mathrm{Cd}$ nuclei in hafnium-metal host is measured in temperature range 4.2-878 K with the use of time-differential perturbed ($\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\gamma}$) angular correlations. The observed quadrupole-interaction frequency ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{Q}=+28.8$ MHz at 295 K.


A method for mobile sink that can solve load-balance problem of bottleneck nodes and how to communicate with isolated nodes is proposed in the paper.The OPNET simulation results indicate that the proposed methed can lead to load balance and greatly improve throughputs of the whole network.


of letters. It is tantalising, but with no clear part to give a clue I hardly think anything will be made of the poem unless the writing can be made clearer by a re-agent. This has already been tried with great success in the case of the other fragments treated in this paper (compare the version of 1902 with that of 1907). Probably the re-agent was at the same time applied to this. But if not, it should be done without delay, and then photographed. It should be remembered that the camera can often see more than the eye. My thanks are due to Mr. G. Braunholtz, of Manchester University, for most kindly reporting on the MS. when he visited Berlin some years ago.


: Synthesis of cross-linked starch has been successfully carried out by crosslinking reaction between breadfruit starch ( Artocarpus communis ) and epichlorohydrin with variation of epichlorohydrin 1%; 2%; and 3 %. The result of cross-linked starch was characterized by FT-IR spectrophotometer and the degree of Substitution (DS). The formation of cross-linked starch was confirmed by FT-IR spectra data with the appearance of stretching vibrational of C-O-C at 1018.41-1242.16 cm -1 . The value of DS for variations of epichlorohydrin 1%; 2%; 3% are 0.0552; 0.0701; 0.0613, respectively. The cross-linked starch with variation 2% of epichlorohydrin has the highest DS and then it was characterized using SEM and determined the swelling degree. The results of the swelling degree test with a variation of absorption time of 6 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours, 72 hours were 0.9925%, 1.4611%, 1.8054%, 2.0049%, 3.0124%, respectively.


We show that the structure and pricing of debt in LBOs mostly depend on a single characteristic of the target firm, pre-LBO profitability. We find a positive relationship between pre-LBO profitability and deal leverage that is consistent with a dynamic trade-off theory of capital structure in the pres- ence of adjustment costs. We argue that the wide range of debt tranches used in LBO financing can be folded into two main categories, senior and junior debt, where the pricing of senior and junior debt depends on their relative use and on bankruptcy risk. Our evidence also suggests that senior lenders oversupply cheap credit during hot buyout markets. 2011 reserved.


We determine the equilibrium in two transaction mechanisms: auctions and posted prices. Agents choose whether to participate in markets where trades are consummated by auctions or in markets where sellers post prices. We show that the selling mechanisms are practically equivalent. Previous studies have shown that auction markets emerge as a unique evolutionary stable equilibrium when compared to bargaining markets. Posted price market dominate bargaining markets similarly.


In this study, we investigated the ability of a physics based 2-D model (TELEMAC2D coupled with SISYPHE) to reproduce the braiding dynamics from the initiation, starting from an initially flat bed with a central incision, to the evolution of the pattern resulting from different flow, sediment forcings and sediment transport formulas. The idealized river model remained close, in terms of dimension, to flume experiments. The choice of boundary conditions, taken as simple as possible, allowed to directly link the result to the constitutive relations used and an isolated analysis of the model capability to reproduce the morphology and the dynamic characteristic of braided streams. The simulation results showed that the model successfully reproduced the initiating phase of the braiding


This paper presents an extension of a previously reported discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based load modeling methodology which targets at modeling time-series load profiles to enable the more effective and realistic quasi-static time-series simulation of distribution feeders. The time-series load model is composed of two major parts: 1) The low-resolution field-measured load data which usually have a resolution of 30 or 15 min., 2) The high-resolution load variability model data extracted from the established variability database which can have resolution up to 1 sec. A load aggregation methodology is developed to aggregate the load profiles so that load profiles at different transformer ratings can be effectively modeled. Validation, evaluation, and analysis of the developed load modeling approach has been performed on the IEEE-123 feeder and an actual utility feeder from California. The analysis completed on the two feeders have demonstrated the effectiveness and revealed the value of the developed model for distribution feeder quasi-static time-series simulation at high temporal resolution.


Objective: To investigate the influence of high-fat diet on glucose metabolism and fatty acid composition of serum phospholipid in OLETF rats, a model of spontaneous type 2 diabetes mellitus. Method: Twenty male OLETF rats of 14 w age were divided into 2 groups randomly. The dietary fat in two groups contained identical percentages of saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Oral glucose tolerance test and measurement of insulin level were performed after 10 w treatment. The fatty acid composition of serum phospholipid in rats was observed as well. Results:The food intakes were comparable in 2 groups. The body weight gain in high-fat group was higher than standard group during the experiment. The result of oral glucose tolerance test and measurement of insulin level showed that the glucose metabolism in two groups had no significant difference. Only the percentage of total n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, 18:3(n-3) of serum phospholipid were comparable, percentages of other fatty acids were significantly different in two groups. Conclusion:With the comparable fatty acid composition, higher dietary fat lead to more body weight gain, but had no significant influence on glucose metabolism in OLETF rats. The amount of dietary fat had significant effect on fatty acids composition of serum phospholipid in OLETF rats.


This paper presents a study of asymptotic stability for the control of flexible systems. It shows that when the controller structure is a collocated direct output feedback design with positive definite feedback gain, the number and placement of sensors and actuators are the only factors required to determine necessary and sufficient conditions to ensure closed-loop asymptotic stability. The minimum number of control devices required is dependent on the maximum number of multiple eigenvalues. The positioning of the control devices is restricted by checking several simple subsidiary rank conditions.


A one-dimensional chain cobalt(II) coordination polymer with 2,4,6-trimethyl- benzoic acid, 1,10-phenanthroline and cobalt perchlorate anhydrous has been synthesized in the solvent mixture of water/methanol and characterized. Crystal data for this complex: tetragonal, space group I41, a = 2.0356(2), c = 1.3779(3) nm, V = 5.7096(15) nm3, Mr = 581.51, μ(MoKα) = 0.644, Dc = 1.353 g/cm3, Z = 8, F(000) = 2424, final S = 1.005, R = 0.0404 and wR = 0.0865. The crystal structure shows that the cobalt ion is coordinated with two nitrogen atoms of one 1,10-phenanthroline molecule, three oxygen atoms from three 2,4,6-trimethylbenzoic acid mole- cules and one water molecule, giving a distorted octahedral coordination geometry. The result of TG analysis indicates that the title complex is stable till 200 ℃.


The time variation of suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) in the thaw season obtained in the Hiyamizusawa Brook, Hokkaido, Japan, was simulated by the process-based grain lift model. The grain-size distributions of suspended sediment have indicated that the suspended sediment was mainly supplied from sand bed sediment. Thus the model calculated the amount of fine grains stirred up from sand bed sediment. All the fine grains in the tractive layer were assumed to be suspended during a certain time. The thickness of the tractive layer was calculated from the hydraulic condition at the time, and the maximum grain size possible to be stirred up (d max ) was calculated by the pressure difference on the river bed surface. By dividing the amount of fine grains finer than d max by the discharge at the time, the SSC was calculated. From the tractive layer where fine grains were already stirred up by previous discharge conditions, only the grains coarser than d max were set to be stirred up the next time. Only the amount and grain-size distribution of sand bed sediment were set as initial conditions, and the SSC was calculated from time to time. The model explained well both the time and amount of peak SSC throughout the thaw season.


Aim at the multiple incentive aspects of heating fault, this paper proposes a method of multi-sensors information fusion to extract latent parameter, a mathematic model of minimum parameter fault diagnosis to identify status of pipe network operation through fuzzy inference. It develops the network distributed fault monitoring system, solves the questions of heating pipe network fault real-time monitor and special fault incentive discrimination and reduces the error rate of system fault.


Functionalized α-arylamino-α′-chloro ketones are obtained in high yield via a straightforward homologation reaction of Weinreb amides derived from N-arylglycines using in situ generated chloromethyllithium. The use of the Weinreb amides is essential and allows the chemoselective homologation of N-aryl-N-substituted glycine analogues, a transformation which is not possible using similar glycine esters. The procedure is promising for the large-scale preparation of α-amino-α′-chloropropanones, which are valuable precursors for a variety of bioactive compounds.


The paper summarizes the development of ANN and its application in industries comprehensively.The application of ANN and its prospect in ceramic industry is explored and discussed emphatically by citing applied examples of ANN.


The invention relates to a microbiology device, in particular to a photosynthetic hydrogen preparation device. The device consists of a cylindrical reaction cylinder (1), a guide flow cylinder (2) coaxially arranged in the reaction cylinder (1) and an electric-heating tube (4) arranged on the upper part of the reaction cylinder (1), wherein a light source is arranged in the cylinder wall of the guide flow cylinder (2); and the upper part of the reaction cylinder (1) is provided with a gas outlet (5) and a reactive fluid outlet (3). The device is characterized in that: a reactive fluid inlet tube (6) is arranged at the top of the reaction cylinder (1); the upper part of the guide flow cylinder (2) extends into the guide flow cylinder (2); and the elevation of the reactive fluid outlet (3) is higher than that of the upper end face of the guide flow cylinder (2). The photosynthetic hydrogen preparation device can push reactive fluid in the guide flow cylinder to flow downwards based on the pressure of a flow pump and the gravitational potential energy of the reactive fluid so as to accelerate the circulatory flow of the reactive fluid in a reactor. The device has good hydrogen preparation effect and obvious effect of helping to lower energy consumption.


To prolong the life of nozzle and raise the efficiency of the water jet equipment,the design of nozzles used in PMAHPWJ(pre-mixed abrasive high pressure water jet) equipment was optimized.The interior flow of several typical nozzles was simulated with CFD software,and a series of simulation datum such as pressure distributing, velocity distributing,turbulent kinetic energy distributing and axis-oriented velocity distributing on the axis were gained.After the analyses of every simulation,the better nozzle structure was drawn out which may offer evidences for the design of perdurable nozzles.The simulation results prove to be exact by a series of experiments with the three nozzles.


"When they go low, we go high" — Michelle Obama, 2016 Democratic National Convention Heralded by some as the "forever first lady," Michelle Obama represents myriad things for Americans in the era of Donald Trump. For some, she is the epitome of grace, elegance, and courage. For others, Michelle Obama is an angry black woman who hates America. How can one woman embody different reactions from Americans? One simple response would be the intense partisan nature of contemporary politics. However, a deeper analysis would reveal that an intersectional approach is necessary to understand how Michelle Obama is perceived by Americans as well as how she sees herself. Her legacy is complicated, and therefore it requires political scientists to untangle the messy roles of race, class, gender, motherhood, presidential politics, public opinion, and (black) feminism in their analysis of Michelle Obama. This special issue of Politics & Gender undertakes such an analysis. Within these pages, authors pay particular attention to the intersectional intricacies that have marked Michelle Obama's years in the White House and beyond. To set the stage for this issue, this introduction provides some context to Michelle Obama and why she is a worthwhile subject for political analysis and discussion. The unelected position of first lady has evolved over the years to become one of leadership and decision-making (Scharrer and Bissell 2000). As an institution, the role of the first lady is based on accumulated precedents and audience perceptions, and it is dependent on elite and popular expectations (Wekkin 2000). Furthermore, the first ladyship wields a form of soft power that is significant for conveying policy preferences, international affairs, and public opinion (Zhang 2017). How the first lady's identity is constructed is instrumental in how she is able to leverage this soft power. As the first black first lady, Michelle Obama's


Acellular porcine super flexor tendon (pSFT) offers a promising solution to replacement of damaged anterior cruciate ligament [1]. It is desirable to package and terminally sterilise the acellular grafts to eliminate any possible harmful pathogens. However, irradiation techniques can damage the collagen ultra-structure and consequently reduce the mechanical properties [2]. The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of irradiation sterilisation of varying dosages on the biomechanical properties of the acellular pSFT. Tendons were decellularised using a previously established protocol [1] and subjected to irradiation sterilisation using either 30 kGy gamma, 55 kGy gamma, 34 kGy E-beam, 15 kGy gamma, 15 kGy E-beam and (15+15) kGy E-beam (fractionated dose). Specimens then underwent stress relaxation and strength testing at 0 and 12 months post sterilisation to determine whether any effect on these properties was progressive. For stress relaxation testing, specimens were analysed using a Maxwell-Wiechert model. For strength testing, the ultimate tensile strength, Young9s modulus and failure strain were assessed. Significant differences were found which demonstrated that all irradiation treatments had an effect on the time-independent and time-dependent viscoelastic properties of irradiated tendons compared to per-acetic acid only treated controls. Interestingly, no significant differences were found between the irradiated groups. Similar trends were found for the strength testing properties. No significant differences were found between groups at 0 and 12 months. Tendons retained sufficient biomechanical properties following sterilisation, however it was notable that there were no significant differences between the irradiated groups, as it was believed higher dosages would lead to a greater reduction in the mechanical properties. The changes observed were not altered further after 12 months storage, indicating the acellular pSFT graft has a stable shelf-life.


Uterine rupture is a non-surgical breach of the continuity of the myometrial wall of the uterus. Objective: identify risk factors and evaluate the prognosis of uterine rupture. This was a descriptive and analytical study with retrospective data collection over a four-year period from January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2018.We recruited all cases of uterine rupture that met our criteria and matched them to the following case. The frequency of uterine rupture was 0.77%. The aged group from 25-34 were most represented with 69.5%. The average age was 27.1 ± 2.3 years with extremes of 15 and 47 years. The majority of patients (69%) were multiparous and one hundred and forty-five patients (72.5%) were referred. One hundred and sixty-six patients (83%) had an unscarred uterus. Inadequate use of oxytocin was inriminated in 104 cases (52%) with uterine rupture (p=0.02). Fetopelvic disproportion was found in 32% (p=0.002).The uterine rupture was complete in 76.5% of case. Suturing of uterus tear was done in 85.5%. Twenty-nine patients (14.5%) had a hysterectomy. Blood transfusion was performed in 78%. Anemia was the most common complication with 67.5% .Nineteen maternal deaths (9.5%) were recorded. One hundred and seventy-two fetuses (86%) were stillborn. Conclusion: This study shows that the main risk factors are a history of cesarean section, multiparity, and young age.


Japan Atomic Energy Agency has undertaken the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) Project at Gifu Pref., central Japan. The aims of the project are to establish methodologies for investigation, analysis, and assessment of the deep geological environment, and to develop engineering techniques for deep-underground applications. The MIU consists of two vertical shafts and a number of horizontal tunnels connecting the two shafts. In this study, hydrochemical properties were monitored continuously to evaluate the hydrochemical changes during the MIU construction. The study demonstrated that groundwater salinity changed in relation to the variation of groundwater-‰ow conditions as a result of the shaft construction. In particular, ``up-coning'' of the salinity proˆle was observed at the bottom of the shafts owing to the upward movement of deeper groundwater. The intensity of up-coning was irregular, and depended on the hydrogeological heterogeneity of the groundwater system. Although pH rose to around 12 due to interaction with the concrete lining the shafts and with the grout injected into the adjacent host rock, it decreased to below 10 in less than 2 years. The redox condition remained reducing, which is considered to be controlled by Fe/Fe(OH)3(am) and/or SO 24 /FeS2 couples. These ˆndings can be summarized in a conceptual model.


The E-ELT is the most ambitious of the ELTs that are planed. Its main characteristic is to be an adaptive telescope, i.e. AO is included in the telescope design. The science case for the E-ELT is largely driven by ad iffraction limited image quality of the telescope. The science goals span from direct imaging and charac- terisation of exo-planets to studying the most distant objects in the universe. The science cases imply a long term deployment at the telescope of many AO flavours (ground-layer AO, single conjugated AO, laser tomography AO, multi-conjugated AO, multi-object AO, extreme AO). While some of these are covered by the telescope, others will require post-focal AO modules feeding the instruments. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) project aims to provide European astronomers with the largest optical-infrared telescope in the World. With a diameter of 42 m and being fully adaptive from the start, the E-ELT will be more than one hundred times more sensitive than the present-day largest optical telescopes. The E-ELT will vastly advance astrophysical knowledge by enabling detailed studies of planets around other stars, the first galaxies in the Universe, super-massive black holes, and the nature of the Universe's dark sector. The E-ELT is being built by the European Southern Observatory on behalf on its 14 member countries. The project is currently in its detailed design phase, supplemented by a FP7 preparatory program under a grant from the European Commission. Decision to build is expected by late 2010, with a start of operation in 2018.


The concept of multimedia is clearly taking off as the technology of the 21st century. The benefits of multimedia are so compelling that they begin touching every arena of business operations. Multimedia is virtually a revolution in four areas: communication, computing, entertainment, and consumer electronics. The multimedia industry has already created a new niche for us computer scientists, researchers, and engineers, where we have to learn how to blend art and engineering. Both practitioners and researchers in multimedia must keep up with the extremely fast pace at which the multimedia technology is advancing. Multimedia applications can be very diverse and imaginative: from video-on-demand and interactive television systems to videoconferencing and multimedia-based training and educational systems.


By watching training teams found that there is a lack of interest in the physical side when some coaches great and the attention to the skills, relying on personal experience that depend on the ability and experience of the players and local coaches, so the researchers to prepare strength training pummel water to develop some of the physical abilities and their impact on the performance of some basic skills of junior paintbrush Tairh.ltkon way expressive benefit trainers in achieving results: 1-preparation exercises for strength and water pummel to develop some of the physical abilities of the players junior badminton. 2. determine the impact of the development of some of the physical abilities and their impact on the performance of the performance of the offensive skills of junior badminton. Researchers experimental method used to design with pre and post-tests per group, and defines the research community plays clubs denominator and the Hashemite Mehta junior paintbrush plane's 10 players were selected the same random way Statistics totaling (6) players. The main conclusions are: 1. The use of water pummel strength training contributed to the development of the physical abilities of the players junior badminton. 2. That the choice of strength exercises pummel water to develop physical abilities were compatible with the working muscles for badminton skills than the effective impact in the development of the cause of their performance


Magnitude and duration are important characteristics when performing tracking of voltage variations. Accurate characterization of voltage variations relies much on the precise identification of frequencies of the measured signals. Although the Prony's method can provide high resolution for frequency estimation, the computational burden in the root-finding process is a crucial problem. A modified Prony-based solution procedure for voltage variation tracking is proposed in this paper. By providing a set of filters, the transfer polynomial with high estimation order in Prony's model can be efficiently reduced. The performance of the proposed method is validated by testing the generated and actual measured voltage signals. Results are compared with those obtained by typical Prony's method, namely, fast Fourier transform, adaptive linear neural network, and Kalman filtering. It shows that the proposed method is more accurate regardless of interferences of the power system frequency deviation, harmonics, and interharmonics, where both voltage variations and harmonics can be simultaneously detected.


[PROBLEMS] To provide a metallized nonoxide ceramic molding that exhibits enhanced bonding strength between metal layer and substrate and enhanced boding durability, and provide a process for producing the same. [MEANS FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS] The process for producing a metallized molding is characterized by including the heating step of heating a nonoxide ceramic molding to a temperature 300‹C lower than the oxidation initiation temperature of the nonoxide ceramic or higher temperature substantially without solid dissolution of oxygen during the temperature rise; the oxidation step of bringing the nonoxide ceramic molding, as a substrate, heated by the heating step into contact with an oxidative gas and maintaining the same at a temperature higher than the oxidation initiation temperature of the nonoxide ceramic so that the nonoxide ceramic molding has its surface oxidized to thereby form an oxide layer; and the metallizing step of forming a metal layer on the surface of the oxide layer of the nonoxide ceramic molding having the oxidized layer provided on its surface in the oxidation step. ® KIPO & WIPO 2007


In its different manifestations in our contemporary mass societies, the public realm has undergone a series of fundamental transformations over the course of the past century. A comparison of the present-day organization of the public realm with that which predominated among earlier generations, above all prior to World War II, illustrates that these changes correspond to metamorphoses in the mass media: the televisual image, the internet, the world wide web and accompanying types of digital technology, in their ubiquity and familiarity, lend pattern to the public sphere in its contemporary form. * Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. 12 Jeffrey Andrew Barash Through illustrations drawn from the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts of the 1990s, this article focuses on mutations in the modes of organization of public experience and public memory that have emerged over the past decades. According to its central argument, the great technical advances of mass communications have brought forth their uncanny capacity to simulate direct experience through images while dissimulating the gap which separates communicated information from the immediate life world in which it originates. In this framework, the format of mass communications has become a principle contemporary source of public visibility, indeed of an iconic status which, as it is publicly conveyed and remembered, is readily translated into mass celebrity and novel contemporary forms of public influence.


Developing and establishing nurses' potential caring is an essential step toward future-oriented nursing care. This study adopted a technical action research approach aimed to develop nurses' potential of caring for the end of life patients in a Khon Kaen, North-Eastern Thai, Hospital. The participants were registered nurses recruited by purposive selection. The project was divided into three phases. Phase 1, the analysis of the phenomenon of caring for patients at the end of life by in-depth interviews of 12 nurses. Phase 2, the action phase: 52 nurses from each ward volunteered to participate in a workshop to develop nurses' potential of caring for the end of life patients. Phase 3, evaluation: Immediately prior and post- tests assessed knowledge, attitudes and practices. Paired samples t-tests were used to compare pre- and post-test results. In-depth interviews of 8 the nurse-participants and 6 head nurses who had been working with the participants at 1 month later were used to illustrate their progress in achieving potential.The results revealed that average score of knowledge and performance of caring for patients at the end of life were statistically significant at .05 level (p-value = 0.007 and p-value = 0.005), but attitude was not different. Nurse-participants reflected that workshop increased their knowledge and attitudes towards in confident and achieving their performance of caring for patients at the end of life. The findings emphasis on the need to improve nurses' potential to enable them can provide the right and optimal care and ensure that patients will benefit from safe.


Circular synthetic aperture radar (CSAR) is different from other usual SAR modes, e.g., Stripmap SAR or Spotlight SAR, which takes a circular path rather than a straight path. It can provide not only two-dimensional (2-D) high resolution images but also three- dimensional (3-D) information about the target. In this paper, 2- D CSAR imaging containing 3-D information about the target is discussed. Considering the limited bandwidth of radar system and the limited angular persistence of the reflector's scattering characteristic in a real scene, we combine the data extrapolation technique based on the autoregressive (AR) model with the non-coherent combination of the sub-aperture images based on the approximate Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) technique to get a 2-D CSAR image with resolution improved and with aspect-dependent reflectivity characteristics kept. The GTRI T-72 tank dataset is processed to test the algorithm.


A study was made to correlate different electrodeposition parameters, like, e.g., cathodic overpotential, bath composition, and bath ageing, with characteristics as crystallographic texture and roughness, and the ductility of electrolytic copper foils. Copper foils with a low (220) preferred crystallographic orientation, and a smooth surface are obtained when depositing at 87 to 113 mV cathodic overpotential from copper sulfate solutions with a low chloride content. Under these plating conditions copper foils with the highest ductility were achieved


The dynamic change in the fermentation of Luzhou-flavor liquor dominated by typical microorganism population was investigated.The monitoring of the quantity of typical microorganism population in pits indicated that there was no clear boundary between ethanol fermentation and acid-producing ester-producing fermentation and one transferred into another gradually with the change of dominant microorganism population or microflora in pits.Meanwhile,there was certain difference in quantity change of typical microorganism population in pits for liquor-making enterprises in different regions.Moreover,single use of beef extract peptone medium combined with spread plate count method to measure the quantity of aerobic bacteria could not reflect the real status of aerobic bacteria in pits.


As a new potential cathode material for lithium ion batteries, Li2MnSiO4/C was synthesized by a solution method. The thermal behavior of the precursor for Li2MnSiO4/C was measured by thermogravimetric (TG) analysis and the range of calcination temperatures from 600 to 800 °C was determined. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) patterns indicated that all the Li2MnSiO4/C samples crystallized in an orthorhombic structure with space group Pmn21. The morphology and particle size of the samples were also characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effects of calcination temperature on the electrochemical performance of Li2MnSiO4/C were studied using galvanostatic charge-discharge measurements at various current densities. The results showed that the sample prepared at 700 ° C exhibited a much higher coulombic efficiency and better cyclic performance than the other samples.


Purpose: This study aims to explore the independent housing experiences of people with mental illness who receive supported independent housing services provided by the public sector.Methods: Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using semi-structured interviews. Twelve participants, who had been living independently in the community for around 11 months, were included. A qualitative descriptive method and a content analysis method were applied.Results: Independent housing experiences of people with mental illness were classified into the following four domains: house effect, growth, challenges and limitations, relationships, and support. Eleven categories included the starting point of life, environmental & psychological comfort, inspire independence and confidence, recognition of goals and responsibilities, positive self-awareness, psychological difficulties, immaturity of daily coping, unstable self-protection, relationship improvement, and importance of support resources.Conclusion: For successful community integration of mentally disabled people, continuous legal institutional preparation for stable housing, government active interest, and flexible financial support are needed. In addition to housing support, a recovery-based independent housing case management model needs to be developed for successful maintenance of independent living. We also suggest a study on the effectiveness of independent housing to determine evidence for making a policy.


The change of global average temperature as the impact of global warming has taken big attention among people nowadays. anthropogenic factors which derived from human activities have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so it might change the climate parameters such as rainfall pattern and the rate of temperature. The changes in these environmental components will affect species in ecosystem groups, vector patterns, and disease viruses. Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) is a disease that caused by the virus and transmitted through Aedes Aegypti mosquito. A recent study showed that 80% DHF risk occurrence could be explained by those climate parameters. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the events of DHF cases and climate parameter in East Java as one of the endemic places of DHF in Indonesia and also to project the probability of DHF occurrence period of 2020-2050 based on Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP 4.5). Statistical methods including principal component analysis, downscaling, correlation, and ordinal logistic regression was carried out. The results showed that probability of DHF occurrence was high during peak rain season (DJF) and gradually weakened as went to dry season. The projection for 2020-2050 period didn't show a significant change in general compared to present but some area increased and decreased sharply. DOI : 10.5281/zenodo.2582323


This essay focuses on the explosive claim Cavell inserts in the middle of The Claim of Reason that a narrative history of a certain style of philosophy should be called "Philosophy and the Rejection of the Human." In order to understand the accusation, I shape interpretations of what Cavell means by nearly each of the terms of this dramatic sentence. I begin by comparing senses of "philosophy" by way of a comparison with Rorty's critical review of The Claim of Reason; I proceed by underlining how, in Cavell's work, the notion "human" and its rejection also is entangled with that which Cavell describes as "skepticism." It is necessary, therefore, to understand whether there is a specific characteristic difference between skepticism and the style of philosophy that is implicated in the "rejection of the human." It seems as if there should be a difference, given Cavell's notorious approval of the truth or the moral of skepticism and the apparent criticism of the philosophical style that rejects the human. I show that the difference can be discovered by focusing on Cavell's understanding of criteria. In particular, I emphasize the (open) space of a subject's relation to criteria, a subjective claim to universality without objectivity, in pursuing and extending Cavell's own appeal to Kant's Critique of Judgment. It is this subjective component that is rejected in the style of philosophy that Cavell singles out.


We consider some random series parametrised by complex binary strings. The simplest case is that of Rademacher series, independent of a time parameter. This is then extended to the case of Fourier series on the circle with Rademacher coefficients. Finally, a specific Fourier series which has coefficients determined by a computable function is shown to converge to an algorithmically random Brownian motion.


In Turkish, the spelling of voiced consonants (b, c, d, g) at word-end positions of the words of eastren origin has long been a matter of discussion in grammmar books and spelling manuals. However, such words haven't been scanned in the context of lexicons, nor has the subject been thoroughly held. In this study, I have tried to determine all such words and comment on them.


Arrangement of text.
Other Titles - Employees'
Extended Title - Under the patronage and in the presence of Hon. J. Rigg, M.L.C. and Wm McLean, M.H.R.
Inscriptions: Recto - bottom left - Newtown Printing Works
Quantity: 1 colour photo-mechanical print(s).
Physical Description: Letterpress, black on blue, 240 x 420 mm.


A Lorentz invariant framework is developed to model the cross spectrum of two interferometers in a space-time that emerges from a Planck scale quantum system with exact causal symmetry and holographic spacelike rotational correlations. Space-time relationships between world lines are generated by entanglement of geometrical states on causal diamonds. The entanglement is tied to a unique observable signature: an exotic imaginary broad band cross spectrum, with a frequency structure determined by the layout of the interferometers. The models will be used to interpret data from the reconfigured Fermilab Holometer, and for conceptual design of future experiments.


The addition of synchrophasors to the power grid to improve observability comes at the cost of an increased attack surface: the wide area measurement system. A common source of zero-days, that can be used to exploit the system, is improper input validation. The strict availability and timing requirements of the grid make it critical that input validation be done right and in a timely fashion. PhasorSec is a hardened security filter for the synchrophasor communication protocol, C37.118. PhasorSec is built using language theoretic principles which treat all input as a language with a specific grammar that defines what input must be accepted. An open-source version of the prototype is provided and evaluation in terms of CPU-time show that it is possible to meet the strict latency requirements. Experiments also demonstrate its effectiveness against the state-of-the-art AFL fuzzer.


Most recurrent real-time applications can be modeled as a set of sequential code segments(or blocks) that must be (repeatedly) executed in a specific order. In this paper, we provide aschedulability analysis for such systems modeled as a set of parallel DAG tasks executed underany limited-preemptive global job-level fixed priority scheduling policy. More precisely, we derive response-time bounds for a set of jobs subject to precedence constraints, release jitter, and executiontime uncertainty, which enables support for a wide variety of parallel, limited-preemptive execution models (e.g., limited-preemptive periodic DAG tasks, generalized multi-frame tasks, distributed transactions, etc.). Our analysis explores the space of all possible schedules using a powerful new state abstraction and state-pruning technique. In an empirical evaluation, the analysis is able to identify between 10 to 90 percentage points more schedulable task sets than the state-of-the-art schedulability test for limitedpreemptive sporadic DAG tasks. It scales to large systems of up to 64 cores with 20 DAG tasks. Moreover, while our analysis is almost as accurate as the state-of-the-art exact schedulability test based on model checking (for sequential non-preemptive tasks), it is three order-of-magnitude faster and hence capable of analyzing task sets with more than 60 tasks on 8 cores in less than a few seconds. Response-Time Analysis of Limited-Preemptive Parallel DAG Tasks Under Global Scheduling Mitra Nasri Delft University of Technology (TUDelft), Delft, The Netherlands Geoffrey Nelissen CISTER Research Centre, Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ISEP-IPP), Portugal Björn B. Brandenburg Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS), Kaiserslautern, Germany


Mesoporous material, MCM-41, synthesized from rice husk (RH-MCM-41) was modified by loading silylating agent (either Trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS), Dimethyl- dichlorosilane (DMCS) or Phenyl-trichlorosilane (PTCS)) in different concentration (1-9 %wt), and aging time, varied from I, 6, 9 and 24 hr. Properties of samples were characterized by XRD, Nz adsorption, FfIR, and TPD and adsorption of water, hexane, and toluene. Chemical modification resulted smaller pore size average and less surface area of RH-MCM-41, from 2.9 to 2.2 nm and from 900 to 500 mZ/g, respectively. PTCS could affect RH-MCM-41 surface structure more than other two. Adsorption behavior of modified RH-MCM-41 was also reflected to comparatively higher hydrophobicity.


Intermittent Hypoxia (IH), a hallmark of sleep apnea, causes severe neurologic deficits. Inflammation underlies much IH‐induced neuropathology, including cortical/hippocampal neuronal apoptosis and obliteration of phrenic long‐term facilitation, a form of spinal respiratory motor plasticity. We tested the idea that microglial responses to IH differ by CNS region and that the presence of soluble, IH‐induced toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) ligands play a role. Animals were treated with 8–12hrs of IH or normoxia for 1–14 days. Various CNS regions were harvested, dissociated, and pelleted for immunomagnetic isolation of microglia. Soluble IH‐induced factors remained in the sample supernatants. Microglial activation was assessed by flow cytometry and/or qRT‐PCR and was found to differ by CNS region. To investigate the mechanism whereby IH activates microglia, we treated microglial cultures with CNS supernatants. The soluble factors from IH‐treated animals induced activation of cultured microglia, pro‐inflammatory effects that were absent in microglia with nonfunctional TLR4. These data suggest that endogenous molecule(s) released during IH may signal through TLR4 to promote microglial activation and neuroinflammation in vivo. This is the first study to demonstrate regional differences in microglial inflammatory responses to IH, and to investigate their mechanistic underpinnings.


Background We examined the recent reasons for hindering antipsychotic medications during pregnancy in Japan. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the medical charts of all women who gave birth after 22 weeks' gestation at Japanese Red Cross Katsushika Maternity Hospital from August 2016 to July 2017. Results Four pregnant women with mental disorders (three schizophrenia and one adjustment disorder) kept the interruption of medications under their partners' compulsion. All of their partners had a history of mental disorders (two schizophrenia, one anxiety disorder and one adjustment disorder). Conclusion In cases of pregnancy requiring mental health care, mental health care on partners seemed to be also needed.


Abstract. The outcome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection depends on the immune response caused by the host genetic factors. Cytokines are key mediators of inflammation and development of specific immunity, which is responsible for the elimination of HCV. It has been found that the polymorphisms in several cytokine genes play role in human susceptibility to HCV infection, determine its differences in response to HCV and treatment-induced HCV clearance. This review summarizes the results of studies on the single-nucleotide polymorphisms of cytokine genes that complete our knowledge of the pathogenesis of HCV infection.


We investigated metal-insulator transitions for double layer two-dimensional electron hole systems in transition metal dicalcogenides (TMDC) stacked on opposite sides of thin layers of boron nitride (BN). The interparticle interaction is calculated by including the screening due to the polarization charges at different interfaces, including that at the encapsultion and the substrate of experimental structures. We compute and compare the energies of the metallic electron-hole plasma and the newly proposed insulating exciton solid with fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo simulation including the high valley degeneracy of the electron bands. We found that for some examples of current experimental structures, the transition electron/hole density is in an accessible range of g × 10 cm with g between 4.1 and 14.5 for spacer thicknesses between 2.5 and 7.5 nm. Our result raise the possibility of exploiting this effect for logic device applications.


Water charging systems are designed to achieve many objectives in addition to collecting sufficient revenue. This paper describes a review of charges being undertaken by the Wellington Regional Council in association with its Tour city customers. The review objectives included designing a pricing structure that sends appropriate price signals with respect to future costs, while at the same time reflecting actual costs. The pricing structure should also be able to be used at both the wholesale and retail levels as well as being practical and logical.


The driver can request a steering intervention control for automatic parking or parking assistance, to a parking assistance system for performing parking assistance or automatic parking of a vehicle equipped with a parking assistant device and steering actuator. According to the present invention, when there is the request from the side of the driver, is performed certainty inspection of the relevant system functions, at least, any errors in the control device of the parking assistant device, an error in the control device of the steering actuator there are no, any errors in the communication between the two control devices, and an automatic whether steering intervention control is requested is checked, the steering intervention control line is requested when these conditions are not met not crack.


Generalized framework for access control (GFAC) is a classical multi-policies supporting mechanism, but its efficiency markedly declines after enforcing several policy modules. Considering the efficiency of GFAC, a novel access control framework based on immunity (IGFAC) is constructed with employing multiple principles and mechanisms of the artificial immune system, such as the immune recognition, the immune learning and the immune memory. With the simulation research and many experiments, it shows that IGFAC is able to improve the performance of the original GFAC, and especially, it has some capabilities of self-adaptive and diversity behaviors.


Abstract Digital filtering of aerial Multispectral Scanner data using the Haar transform has been attempted for a part of Cambay Basin in India for the extraction of linear and anomalous patterns. In addition, a typical pattern has been generated to assess the capability of filtering the linears. The results show that the major drainage as well as lineament patterns are extracted by digital filtering techniques.


This research intends to provide the basic data for the student athlete's efficient and positive use of their time that is on increase. For this purpose, The present study examines the student athlete's stress hardiness and coach support and also sport bum-out studied their influence on the sport bum-out. Convenience sampling, which is a non-probability sampling, was used. Among a total of 280 questionnaires distributed, 265 copies were collected back. And the questionnaires that were insincerely replied, double-replied or judged useless for the study were excluded and a total of 257 questionnaires were analyzed. In order to get the objective propriety of the contents of the questionnaire, one professor in the major and three researchers verified it. For the analysis of the data, SPSS 18.0 version for Windows and AMOS 15.0 for the verification of mediating effects. At this time, the level of statistical significance was set at a=.05 and the results of the analysis are as follows: First, the result of examining the influence of the stress hardiness on the coach support partly influenced. Second, the result of examining the influence of the stress hardiness on the sport bum-out were partly influenced. Third, the result of examining the influence of the coach support on the sport bum-out were partly influenced. Fourth, the result of examining the influence among the stress hardiness, coach support and sport bum-out through each of direct and indirect ways.


This research was conducted to study the reproductive cycle and fecundity of the fish Tristramella simonis in the Northern Great River (Nahr Alkabeer Alshmali) north of Lattakia city. 263 individuals were collected from the northern great river, during the period between July 2017 and June 2018. Samples were collected every 15 days using gill nets, which its pores diameter ranged from 16 to 20 mm and using cages (1 × 1 × 1 m). The total length of the collected fish ranged from 9.5 to 16.5 cm, and their weights ranged from 19.5 to 112.27 g. Samples contained (128 females) and (88 males) and (47) undetected. Results of Gonado Somatic Index (GSI) showed that the reproduction period was between April and August with three obvious peaks of maturity. Where the highest value of GSI was (10.06±8.46) % for females and (0.13 ± 0.05) % for males. Results of Hepato Somatic Index (HSI) was concurrence highly with the ecological and physiological changes, which result from changes in sexual activity during the reproductive cycle. Where the highest value of HSI attained 3.79 ± 1.86 % for females and attained 3.95 ± 1.38 % for males. In the first sexual maturity, the length attained 13.31 cm for females and (14.87 cm) for males. The sexual rate was (1: 0.7), which means 40.7 % males and 59.3 % females in the population. The absolute fecundity ranged from 940 to 1229 egg. While the relative fecundity ranged between 158- 215 egg/ g of ovary weight. Egg diameter during reproduction season ranged between 2.4- 4 mm, with several sizes, which mean a relatively long reproduction term


Recently, Bailey et al. performed iron opacity measurements on the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratory in conditions close to the ones of the base of the convective zone of the Sun. Such experiments have raised questions about the physical models commonly used in opacity codes. To understand the discrepancy between experiment and theory, More et al. investigated the role of twophoton processes. In the present work we show, by a simple estimate and using hydrogenic formulas, that due to the intensity of the backlight radiation seen by the sample, such processes are likely to play an important role only for highly excited states.


The paper presents changes in wettability of the unmodified and modified polyethylene terephthalate (PET) surfaces. A low temperature air plasma was used to activate the polymer surface and to change its hydrophilic–hydrophobic properties. Then, using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, the Langmuir monolayers of 1,2–dipalmitoyl– sn –glycero–3–phosphocholine (DPPC) and cyclosporine A (CsA) with different molar fractions, i.e. χ=0.25, 0.50, 0.75, were deposited onto the activated PET surface. A series of DPPC and CsA monolayers was also transferred onto the PET-supported chitosan layer, previously produced by the dip-coating method. The wetting properties of such modified PET surfaces were then investigated by the contact angle measurements using three test liquids with well known surface tension components. The obtained results show that wettability depends on the composition of the deposited DPPC/CsA layer with or without chitosan. Presence of chitosan makes the DPPC/CsA film surface more polar due to specific organization of molecules that expose their polar heads outside.


THIS flow cytometry antibody panel was developed and optimized for the characterization of CD41 and CD81 T-cell memory and functional responses in adult and infant cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) stimulated with peptide pools to various antigens of interest (Table 1). The panel has been used to evaluate Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) antigen-specific responses in clinical trial specimens, and is currently undergoing assay qualification.


Objective To study the correlation between the expression of survivin or its change after radiotherapy and effect in cervical carcinoma.Methods 38 cases of women with cervical carcinoma were treated with radiotherapy.The expression of Survivin pre-and post-radiotherapy was measured by immunohistochemically; and cell apoptosis were examined by TUNEL method,and the re-sponse to the treatment was evaluated.Results The effect of patients with negative survivin of radiotherapy presented better than those with intense Survivin,and difference was significant ( P0.05) .Among the patients who were no change,the expression of Survivin was up-regulated more significantly after radiotherapy than those with partial clinical release,and the difference was significant ( P0.05) ; apoptosis cells with negative Survivin expressed after radiotherapy were increased,and the difference was also significant ( P0.05) .Conclusions Survivin gene may be new target to reverse radiotherapy resist.


"Before entering upon the consideration of the treatment of affections of the heart it is necessary to have in mind a clear idea of what we aim at in treating any given individual . there are many obscure phenomena which nevertheless are often the object towards which treatment is directed, though in themselves these phenomena are not the signs of disease nor suitable indications for treatment."-Sir James Mackenzie.


Negotiated environments?: needs, demands, and values in the age of sustainability Introduction In its response to the report of the House of Lords Select Committee on Sustainable Development (1995), the UK Government endorses the view, often articulated, that demand management is an integral part of sustainable development: "... the pursuit of more sustainable forms of consumption, including reduced levels of demand and encouraging demand for alternative goods and services as well as stimulating more effective and sufficient supply, is an important aspect of Government policy..." (DoE, 1995a, paragraph 62, emphasis added). Implicit in this statement is an acknowledgement that continued growth in demand for material goods and services involves the consumption of valued environments. But demand for a wide range of goods and services is growing and it is difficult to detect any serious political commitment to curtail these trends. This is not surprising, because demand management—especially when it moves beyond its softer forms in which demand is still to be met, but more efficiently—challenges basic tenets of consumer societies and begs fundamental questions of political philosophy. These issues are rarely explicit in the consensual rhetoric on sustainable development, the inadequacies of which will increasingly be exposed as growth in demand in many sectors continues on a collision course with rising environmental expectations. I suggest in this commentary that, in spite of the emphasis on 'needs' in sustainable development, there is still a powerful presumption, in both the language and the implementation of policy, in favour of meeting demands for goods and services while environments remain negotiable. This presumption is reinforced in the planning process—the political forum in which many of these conflicts are exposed—by a tendency to treat 'subjective' environmental values as a less valid basis for decisions than allegedly more objective information. I argue that the necessity for value judgment does not, however, place such conflict beyond the realm of rational discourse: it should be a starting point for more critical analysis of needs, demands, and choices. Since space will not permit extensive qualification of my arguments, it might help to clarify a number of points at the outset. First, it is undeniably the case that goods and services of the kind discussed in this commentary have delivered many benefits and that some of them—water and housing, for example—make important contributions to environmental quality in their own right: the 'material' and the environmental are not neatly separate. Second, I accept that the 'demand imperative' has been dented— it is no longer thought that roads can be constructed to cater for all projected traffic growth, for example—though I suggest that the imperative and the growth paradigm that underpins it are still powerful. Third, I do not wish to imply that economic and environmental objectives are invariably in conflict or to underestimate the potential to reduce "the environmental coefficient of growth" (Jacobs, 1992) through good planning and technological innovation. I believe, however, that there must be an environmental bottom line. Finally, I accept that the legitimacy of environmental demands is increasingly recognised in legal standards or statutory protection and that there are


A comparison between performance of a five-port demodulator (FPD) and a three-phase demodulator (TPD) with both architectures connected to a so-called baseband I/Q regeneration circuit is carried out. In order to compare these two receivers to a classical architecture, the performance of an I/Q demodulator (IQD) is also presented. Measured results show the superiority of TPD and IQD over FPD in terms of residual DC offsets and 2nd order intermodulation distortion (IMD2) products, noise figure (NF), and sensitivity due to the use of active balanced mixers instead of diode power detectors. Lastly, demodulation of three noncontiguous RF carriers shows the stronger potential of the three-phase demodulator (TPD) for applications in future long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) receivers through EVM and constellation diagram measurements.


More and more evidence have indicated that the enamel matrix proteins which originate from Hertwig's epithelial root sheath can not only be involved in the formation of acellular cementum,but also have the potential to induce regeneration of the same type of cementum during the stage of embryo. Furthermore they can also stimulate the proliferation and differentiation of periodontal ligament cells,dental follicular cells etc. This article is summarizing the recent studies on the effects of enamel matrix proteins to the periodontal tissue and cells and their regeneration.


The key aims and objectives of the Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law Project are discussed. The OAK Project was funded by the Australian Government at the Queensland University of Technology with the aim of facilitating open access to a range of publicly funded materials.


Background: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an endemic disease in south eastern of Iran, especially in Sistan and Baluchestan province. CCHF is a potentially fatal disease. Many factors are suggested for the prediction of severity in this disease. Objectives: In this study, the viral load in patients admitted to Boo-Ali hospital was determined and the association between viral load and disease severity was evaluated based on DIC severity score in patients with CCHF. Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, we studied patients with confirmed CCHF who were admitted to Boo-Ali hospital, Zahedan, from September 2012 to March 2014. The patients were divided into two groups based on DIC severity score. Then, the viral load in the patients was measured by using RNA as a template for RT-PCR (QIAgene OneStep SYBR GREEN qRT-PCR smart mix) and finally, the two groups were compared. The results were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 (SPSS Inc.). To investigate the correlation between viral load and disease severity, and also to find the viral load differentiating mild cases from severe cases, ROC curve, Mann–Whitney U test, and Independent t-test were used. Results: The total number of patients with confirmed CCHF under the subject of study was 37 (84% male and 16% female) in age range of 17 to 58 years (31.112.2). The mean viral loads on the first and fifth days of admission were 1.3106 and 3.7105 copies/mL, respectively. After grouping patients based on DIC severity, the mean viral load on the first day of admission was 3.2105 copies/mL in the mild CCHF group and 4.3106 copies/m in the severe CCHF group. The viral load had a direct correlation with CCHF severity (P0.001). Serum viral load that differentiated between mild and severe cases of CCHF was determined as 8.6105 copies/mL with sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 92%, positive predictive value of 82%, and negative predictive value of 100%. Conclusions: The viral load in patients who suffer from CCHF has a direct significant correlation with disease severity. Viral load above 8.6105 copies/mL on the first day of admission is a predictor of severe CCHF.


This study was conducted purposely following various initiatives and programmes by the Government of Tanzania to incorporate ICT in education since 2007 with the National ICT policy theme "ICT for improved education". The study provides insights regarding secondary school students' skills and attitudes in effective use of information and communication technology. The study was a co-relational and cross-sectional survey biased to the quantitative approach involving students, ICT teachers and school administrators. A total of 246 students from six public secondary schools in Tanzania were involved in this study. Primary data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Using inferential and descriptive analyzes, results show that, secondary school students do not have enough skills on effective use of information and communication technologies. However, students have basic knowledge in different aspects of ICTs particularly Internet and various hardware and software available in Tanzania. The implications to the approach of teaching and learning of ICT subjects in secondary schools, its evaluation and assessment and future initiatives related to ICT educations and infrastructure development have impacts towards creating a well-connected society. It is therefore recommended that secondary schools should provide enough ICT tools for students' hands-on experiences. The utmost end result of integrating ICT in secondary education system will eventually be the economic engine of Tanzania by preparing her students for the knowledge based economy.


The paper discusses criterion of the approximation between a common star reference frame. And inertial reference frame. And by figuring out the intensity of tide- generating force field in solar, earth, and earth surface reference frame, and Coriolis acceleration in earth surface reference frame, the discrepancy between these reference frames and inertial reference frame is given.


Along its existence, the EU has increasingly become an international factor with a significant economic and political influence. The role and power of EU's external policy have increased with every enlargement of the Union, thereby strengthening its position on the international stage. Thus, the 27 EU Member States provide the Union with the capacity of taking strong action in various regions of the world, by promoting prosperity and supporting stability and welfare for all EU citizens. One should not forget that the European Union is the biggest world trade partner and the largest assistance provider for developing countries. The common commercial policy of the European Union is a key component of its relations to the other international actors. EU has undertaken a proactive external security policy, supporting crisis management and peace maintenance missions, both in Europe and worldwide. Within the current multilateral international context, the EU has created new tools, in addition to the traditional tools of external policy. To this purpose, we mention the initiative for solving issues such as global warming and climate changes, as global issues need global solutions.


Objective: To observe the effectiveness of Compound Sophorae Injection in the treatment of radiation proctitis.Methods: Totally 65 patients were randomly divided into two groups.Of the patients,35 were treated with both radiotherapy and Compound Sophorae Injection,and 30 with radiotherapy alone(control).Results: The incidence of radiation proctitis was 20% in combination group and 63.3% in control group.Conclusion: Compound Sophorae Injection is an effective adjuvant therapy in the treatment of radiation proctitis and can effectively reduce the adverse effects of radiotherapy.


An experimental investigation carried out on a luxury sedan door observed the effect of making small changes to trim boundary conditions by removing and replacing a series of small polymer clips that held the trim to the aluminium door. Structural testing was carried out by exciting the system with a shaker and recording the response with accelerometers placed at three different locations about the door. Acoustic response measurements were also taken with the use of a sound intensity probe. The study found that the removal of even a single clip could vary the response significantly for certain clip locations. The spread of structural data was also found to range by more than 15 dB for certain frequency bands. Similar large deviations were observed for the noise transfer response measurements. This is significantly large spread of data for what might be perceived as a relatively small change to the structure, highlighting the importance of reduced variability at material joints.


Essential oils of aerial parts of Stachys alpina ssp. dinarica collected from two localities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mt Jahorina and Mt Maglic, respectively) were investigated. Essential oils were obtained by hydrodistilation and analyzed using GC and GC-MS. Essential oil yields were 0.03 and 0.05% (w/w), respectively, and in each oil 71 components were identified, comprising 87.2 and 89.3% of the total amount. The main components in both samples were (E)-caryophyllene (13.4 and 9.3%), germacrene D (12.3 and 5.5%), caryophyllene oxide (5.7 and 8.4%), (E)-nerolidol (4.8 and 5.6%), n-nonanal (5.3 and 5.0%) and linalool (1.7 and 5.7%, respectively). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The preeminent intention of the proposed study is exploring the performance of the Brainstorm Optimization algorithm in Hard c-means clustering of data. The rationale behind this analysis is to generate a random solution set of centroids and then modify the centroids so as to refine the clusters. As we are using Brainstorm Optimization which is a form of evolutionary algorithm this refinement of centroid happens through competition and cooperation with existing centroid values. This algorithm incorporates both exploitation and exploration of the search space to generate the new centroids. The algorithm has been implemented with the Iris data set and its validity and effectiveness is tested with the help of commonly used internal evaluation measures for clustering like Davies Boudlin Index and Dunn Index.


This paper proposes a hybrid combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) model for day-ahead market clearing, in order to enhance the operation flexibility of CCGTs in practice. The proposed hybrid model, by taking benefits of combined offers from market participants on both configurations and individual physical turbines, can more accurately reflect physical operation features of CCGTs than existing CCGT models. A comprehensive review on existing CCGT models in academia and industry practice with their advantages and shortcomings is conducted. By taking benefits of the two most investigated models, i.e., configuration-based model and component-based model, the mapping relationship between these two models is revealed for deriving the proposed hybrid model. Tight formulations are further discussed for achieving the better computational performance. The proposed hybrid model is tested and compared with other CCGT models via the modified IEEE 118-bus system and the midcontinent independent system operator system. Results show notable benefits in maintaining operation flexibility and enhancing social welfare.


Neutrality is the life of judgment,and judiciary neutrality is the essential requirement of jurisdiction.Judiciary neutrality is not only the major requirement of judge conduct,but also the requirement of judge ability.It is also equal to procedural justice,and it is the most essential and the most important factor in the process of realizing procedural justice and fair proceeding.This article suggests that our judiciary neutrality should be positive,relative,should be aiming to realizing procedural justice.According to this conception,this article have proposed that we should put "judiciary neutrality" in the system of essential principal,using the height of principal to protect the "judiciary neutrality",and have proposed plenty of suggestions to complete relevant systems.


We address the problem of modeling and analyzing the flexible behavior of Prosumer systems for the purpose of balancing production and consumption of energy in, for example, an energy grid. We introduce the notion of Resource Timed Automata (RTA) and show how prosumers can be modeled using these automata. Furthermore, we show that aggeregation of prosumers in a smart electricity grid can be modeled as a special kind of parallel composition of such automata, and the balancing problem can be formalized as reachability problems on an observer automaton. Finally, we illustrate how these reachability problems can be solved using established methods from model checking, and discuss why we suspect these methods will scale well in practice for this type of problem.


This article will review the current scientific evidence that supports the role of diet and physical activity in the prevention of cancer. The reader will be able to: • Understand the multistep process of cancer development; • Describe the current evidence that supports the role of diet and physical activity in cancer prevention; • State the current dietary and physical activity guidelines for cancer prevention; • Describe current recommendations for lifestyle choices to reduce recurrence and promote wellness after a diagnosis of cancer; • Understand the proposed biological mechanisms by which diet and physical activity are thought to reduce cancer risk; and • Provide practical tips for clients to modify behavior with the goal of reducing cancer risk.


Europium-doped NaYF4 nanorods with a high aspect ratio are optically trapped using a single fibre tip optical tweezers. Three distinct trapping positions of the nanorods are observed: in contact with the fibre tip, close to the tip and 5 µm from the tip end. The direction and polarisation-dependent Eu3 +  photoluminescence is investigated by recording the emission parallel and perpendicular to the nanorod long axis through the trapping fibre and the microscope objective, respectively. These spectroscopic measurements permit an unambiguous determination of the nanorod orientation.


Although that treatment is a useful improvement on the standard approach (consisting of a superposition of solutions of the form Ae) we found that it is unsuitable from a pedagogical point of view and, moreover, it is not universal for effective applications. Hence it is tempting to look for a simple, direct solution, which works in the real domain and only requires straightforward ideas. We propose here a more simple and efficient approach to the problem considered which encompasses simultaneously all possible cases of the solution forms of (1) independently of particular positions of the roots of (2) in the complex plane. Our approach is based on the solution of the widely known equation


The theses concerning the contacts of population are commonly met in literature. Really, archaeological material provides favourable grounds for the conclusions on "mixture of traditions". But two questions naturally arise: 1) is it not too often that different archaeological materials discovered together are interpreted as the evidence of the population contacts, and 2) can such observations be explained in another, quite ordinary way, for example, as the "artefacts' contacts" caused by the material mechanically mixed up? Any archaeological site is formed as a socio-natural object, it exists as a purely natural structure until it undergoes excavations. Thus, natural environment should be viewed as the key factor both in the site genesis and its "post-positional" existence. The data of soil science and palaeogeography accumulated by now give grounds to state that the influence of environment leads not only to considerable transformations of the archaeological cultural deposits, but affects the very nature of the site as an archaeological source. The associations of syncretic character emerge mainly not as a result of interaction of the ancient population, but are formed by mechanical mixing up artefacts. The author considers natural processes as global and objective phenomenon with standard consequence of mechanically mixed up archaeological materials, the leading role of soil transformations is stressed. Their negative influence is not just of regular and global character, they are the basic reason of the metamorphoses archaeological sites undergo.


The objective of this study is to address the following research question: how could the Interbranch organizations (IBOs) support the implementation of the new cap regulatory approach sustaining the design and the implementation of private orderings in Agro-industry value chains? Our method is based on two steps. First we delineate a conceptual framework based on recent achievements of Transaction Cost Economics. This step is based on the illustration of a three institutional layers architecture which includes macro-, meso- and microinstitutional levels. The next step is to focus on the case study of IBOs and is dedicated to analysis of such arrangements in terms of meso- institutions. The study provides two basic results. First is pointed out that the cap reform calls for the identification of appropriate meso-institutional level. Secondly it is suggested that the efficiency of the micro-institutional level is increased by the integration of the scope of the meso-institutional level.


Background: Liver transplantation involves a period of ischemia and reperfusion to the graft which leads to primary non-function and dysfunction of the liver in 5–10% of cases. Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) has been shown to reduce ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) injury to the liver and increase hepatic blood flow. We hypothesized that RIPC may directly modulate hepatic microcirculation and have investigated this using intravital microscopy. Methods: A rat model of liver IRI was used with 45 min of partial hepatic ischemia (70%) followed by 3 h of reperfusion. Four groups of animals (Sham, IRI, RIPC + IRI, RIPC + Sham) were studied ( n = 6, each group). Intravital microscopy was used to measure red blood cell (RBC) velocity, sinusoidal perfusion, sinusoidal flow and sinusoidal diameter. Neutrophil adhesion was assessed by rhodamine labeling of neutrophils and cell death using propidium iodide. Results: RIPC reduced the effects of IRI by significantly increasing red blood cell velocity, sinusoidal flow and sinusoidal perfusion along with decreased neutrophil adhesion and cell death. Conclusions: Using intravital microscopy, this study demonstrates that RIPC modulates hepatic microcirculation to reduce the effects of IRI. HO-1 may have a key role in the modulation of hepatic microcirculation and endothelial function. Our study shows a significant fall in sinusoidal perfusion and velocity of flow in the IRI group which was observed at all time points. Increased venular neutrophil adhesion, hepatocyte cell death, sinusoidal neutrophil stasis in the IR group with significantly increased serum transaminase levels in IRI and a significantly lower perfusion index compared with Sham animals


Objective To investigate the feasibility for establishing near-infrared spectra model transfer with traditional Chinese medicine. Method Poria cocos, a kind of fungi (called "Fuling" in Chinese), was used as an investigative object. NIR quantification model transfer of alkali-soluble polysaccharides in Poria cocos was studied. Spectra were obtained from Thermo Antaris II (master device) and Buchi NIRFlex N-500 (slave device), respectively. Procedures and factors that may have effects on the performance of spectral standardization have been investigated. Spline interpolation was applied to align spectra from two different instruments, and piecewise direct standardization was employed to standardize spectra from slave instrument. Full cross-validation was used to evaluate the result of model transfer. Results Spectral pre-processing including multiplicative signal correction and wavelength selection played an important role in operating the model transfer. Spectra within the region of 9000–6500 cm−1 provided relatively good transfer result. In addition, increasing window size had positive effect on improving the spectral transfer. In this study, a window size of 13 provided the best spectra standardization result. Test validation with five samples produced the best full cross-validation result with the values of correlation coefficient of calibration ( R c 2 ), correlation coefficient of prediction ( R p 2 ) and root mean square error of prediction as 0.86, 0.73 and 2.3, respectively. Conclusion In this study, many factors influenced the quality of the transferred slave spectra. And it is hard to provide a pretty good quantitative model transfer result about alkali-soluble polysaccharide in Poria cocos. The following factors have great effects on the quality of model transfer: (i) multiplicative signal correction which is necessary for model building; (ii) increasing the window size which has a positive effect on slave spectra standardization; (iii) a proper wavelength region benefits for model building; (iv) a proper scale of standardization group including proper samples is necessary.


BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY The practice of a salesperson treating a purchaser to a "business lunch" is and always has been a common business practice. Research has indicated that both purchasing and marketing people believe that the practice is a generally acceptable form of business conduct.[1] Specifically, recent studies[2] have indicated that among purchasing personnel, lunches were the most frequently offered and accepted supplier favor. Business practices involving close semi-social relationships, such as the business lunch, appear to be important to the conduct of effective buyer-seller relationships.[3] Underlying the concepts of close buyer-supplier relationships and strategic alliances between firms is the implication that relationships between firms will extend beyond arm's-length business exchanges to ties based on personal trust and respect.[4] However, an underlying principle of purchasing practice, advocated by the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM), is the avoidance of situations that might influence, or even appear to influence, purchasing decisions. This is particularly emphasized where gratuities are involved.[5] In practice, purchasing personnel believe that allowing personalities to influence the buying/selling transaction is one of eight problem situations that can be particularly troublesome.[6] The offer or acceptance of free gifts, meals, and trips is also placed in this problem category by purchasing participants in the same study. Given the complexity of these concepts, the point at which relationship building crosses the line and becomes a conflict of interest has become more difficult to discern.[7] The increasing conflict in perception of the business lunch as an ethical practice is indicated in a 1990 study, in which 83 percent of the buyers were offered lunches by suppliers, but only 68 percent of these buyers found this practice to be acceptable.[8] Sales representatives, on the other hand, have expressed less ethical concern about the practice of giving or accepting gifts and lunches than have purchasing professionals.[9] Moreover, many organizations restrict or prohibit their purchasing personnel from accepting a supplier's offer of lunch, but allow and even encourage their own sales personnel to take customers to lunch, leading to an almost schizophrenic attitude toward this practice within the same organization.[10] Research indicates that in the future there will be increasing pressure for firms to demonstrate a sense of social responsibility and an awareness of ethical problems. Clearly, this suggests a need to review sales techniques including gift giving, business lunches, and entertainment.[11] Given the differences in perceptions and inconsistent policies, coupled with the widespread participation in this practice, the authors undertook the present study to examine circumstances affecting the ethics-based attitudes toward and purposes served by the business lunch. The study attempts to determine the scenarios in which purchasing and sales personnel consider a free lunch to be ethically acceptable - and, conversely, whether there are conditions or circumstances that would create an ethical conflict. Finally, the study examines the business purposes accomplished by the business lunch, as perceived by both purchasers and suppliers. HOW THE STUDY WAS CONDUCTED Five hundred purchasing professionals and 500 sales representatives were selected randomly from a nationwide professional mailing list (for industrial purchasing and sales people) obtained from a major firm in this business. These potential participants were each sent a copy of the survey instrument, along with a cover letter explaining the research project, defining the terms used in the study; and requesting their participation in the study. A preaddressed postcard was included so respondents could request an executive summary of the results of the survey. …


According to the survey of SCL-90 measuring scale and self-designed questionnaire survey for 1,260 students from 6 colleges in our city,obviously there are great difference between impoverished university students and non-impoverished university students in psychological condition.Impoverished university students are usually anxious,tense,self-abased,sensitive,unsociable,introverted and depressive.Certainly,they may also have other psychological problems.This paper focuses on the analysis of the causes which have impact on the psychological health of those impoverished students to figure out the strategy to solve these psychological problems.


Summarizes a study that consisted of an empirical analysis of organizational career planning and management techniques ‐ activities, programmes and processes that are part of the human resource management role. Focuses on the actual use of these techniques and their evaluation by management and employees in 60 high‐technology organizations in Israel and the UK. The findings illustrate the applications of these techniques, their perceived quality and their estimated necessity. Presents an analysis ofthe management perceptions and employees' attitudes towards the various techniques. Reports findings which indicate the actual use of the career development techniques and reveal problems of organizational communication.


This paper presents a robust adaptation mechanism for the orders of a fractional-order proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller in order to optimally regulate the speed of a permanent magnet direct current motor. The fractional-number powers (order) of the integration and differentiation operator in the proposed controller are self-tuned in real-time using hyperbolic secant functions of error dynamics of motor's angular-speed. The proportional, integral and derivative gains of the fractional-order controller are meta-heuristically tuned via particle-swarm-optimization algorithm, and are kept fixed throughout the experimentation. The QNET DC Motor Control Trainer is used as a benchmark to experimentally compare the proposed control scheme with a fixed-gain generic PID controller as well as a fixed-gain and fixed-order fractional-order PID controller. The results of the 'hardware-in-the-loop' tests are presented to validate the robustness of the proposed speed controller.