INTRODUCTION Free radicals arising from metabolism or environmental sources interact continuously in biological systems and their uncontrolled generation correlates directly with molecular level of many diseases [1]. Lots of research has clearly showed that free radicals would damage nearby structures including DNA, proteins or lipids. Radical scavenging antioxidants are particularly important in antioxidative defence in protecting cells from the injury of free radical [2]. Medicinal plants contain a variety of bioactive substances which are of considerable use against various diseases. Th e demand for natural food ingredients has resulted in extensive research on naturally occurring antioxidants [3] which can neutralize highly reactive free radicals. Recently, research on phytochemicals and their eff ects on human health have been intensively studied. Terpenoids and isoprenoids are a structurally diverse group of natural products. More than 25,000 representatives with a variety of biological functions have been reported in the plant kingdom [4] and structurally diverse groups of secondary metabolites. Several compounds belonging to the class of terpenes have been reported to possess antioxidant properties, such as, monoterpenes hydrocarbons (mycene, terpinolene, pinene), oxygenated monoterpenes (nerol, geraniol, linalol, thymol), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (humulene, valencene, calarene), oxygenated sesquiterpenes (trans-trans-farnesol, farnesol, farnesyl acetate, guaiol), diterpene hydrocarbons (phytol, abetine), and tetraterpene hydrocarbons (caratenoids) [5,6]. From clinical studies, it is shown that terpenoids can increase the concentration of antioxidants [7]. Emilia sonchifolia (L.) DC (Asteraceae), a herbaceous plant, is found in India and other countries in Asia. It is used as folklore medicine against inflammation, rheumatism, cough, cuts and wounds in India [8]. Fresh juice squeezed from the leaves is utilized in the dressing of fresh wounds. Th e aqueous and methanolic extracts of Emilia sonchifolia leaves progressively reduced rat paw oedema [9]. Th e hydroethanolic extract of Emilia sonchifolia possess antinociceptive eff ect [10]. Th e present study was undertaken to investigate the free radical scavenging activities and also to confi rm the presence of terpenoid by HPTLC analysis in the n-hexane extract of Emilia sonchifolia. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plant collection Emilia sonchifolia was collected from Th rissur, Kerala, India. Th e plant was authenticated by Dr. G.V.S Moorthy, Botanical survey of India, TNAU Campus, Coimbatore. Th e voucher number is BSI/SRC/5/23/09-10/Tech/782. Fresh plant material was washed under running tap water, air dried and powdered.


Competition and collaboration are not mutually exclusive. In an effective supply chain they coexist. Indian agriculture is not a chain of established business firms but a primitive and incoherent aggregation of a large number of farmers, commission agents, traders, government agencies, cooperatives and a small number of firms and corporate bodies. The actors generally tend to exploit the rest of the supply chain for short term gains rather than collaborating for a long term win-win strategy. The need is to analyse every link in the vertical chain of production, storage, processing, logistics and marketing and to bring about a very intensive collaboration among the actors so as to maximise value addition on the one hand and cost efficiency on the other. The seeds and planting material, the package of practices, research and extension, information network, quality control, regulations, management, credit, storage and processing, marketing and organisations involved will have to receive close attention from all the stakeholders. Farmers have to view themselves as links in the supply chains rather than mere commodity producers. Stronger links between businesses throughout the supply chain create the critical mass, reliability, product consistency and quality demanded by customers. It is a challenge of education, coordination and management. It is the quintessence of integrated development. Cutting into the middle functions is a natural consequence of the approach as the retailers establish global sources network to guarantee supplies to satisfy the demands of the customer. This paper proposes some of the supply chains and tailors them accordingly for the upgradation of Indian farmers and unorganized retailers. In this paper we considered the way in which new forms of global coordination affect the possibilities for upgrading agricultural producers and traders in India. It addresses how different forms of insertion in the global economy facilitate or obstruct the potential for the acquisition of capabilities and market access, and the policy frameworks which might enhance upgrading opportunities for Indian farmers and retailers.


A contactless self-scanning electro-elastic nondestructive testing technique is described for determining in real time the presence, location, number and size of defects present on the surface of a material under test. In one embodiment the apparatus includes means for inducing eddy currents or current flow in the surface of the conductive material. A magnetostrictive delay line is disposed parallel to the direction of current flow and equidistant and in fixed spatial relation with the surface. The presence of a crack or defect in the surface proximate to the delay line creates transverse eddy currents or transverse currents in the material which interact locally with the magnetostrictive delay line to induce elastic waves in the delay line. The elastic waves are generated in the delay line only at locations corresponding to the edges of the defects. An ultrasonic sensor coupled to the delay line is used to detect the elastic waves travelling in the delay line. The location of a crack or fissure may be determined based on the time of arrival of the elastic waves at the sensor. The self-scanning line electro-elastic probe is not susceptible to the presence of elastic waves propagating in the material under test. The invention is applicable for inspection of flat and curved surfaces. Another elastic wave transmitting medium may be employed in place of the magnetostrictive delay line given appropriate excitation means. Additionally, the delay line may be fabricated as a two-dimensional sheet with ultrasonic sensors disposed at selected locations on the sheet to achieve rapid inspection of an area for defects, the location of defects being determinable based upon the time of arrival of induced elastic waves at respective sensors.


Foreword I: MICROFINANCE: AN OVERVIEW A Financial System for India's Poor - Priya Basu Microfinance Revisited - K G Karmakar II: MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS (MFIS) MFIs in India: An Overview - K Muralidhara Rao Regulatory Framework for MFIs - Krishan Jindal Promoting Linkages between Banks & MFIs - P Satish Sustainability of MFIs - Vijay Mahajan III: SHG-BANK LINKAGE PROGRAMME: PROGRESS & PROSPECTS - Sukhbir Singh SHGs and Savings Mobilization - H R Dave Livelihood Promotion among SHGs - Pradeep Kashyap Emerging SHG Federations and Challenges - C S Reddy Sustainability of SHGs - N Srinivasan Impact of SGSY on SHG: Bank Linkages - Thanksy Francis Thekkekara IV: SUCCESSFUL MFI MODELS Why Sanghamitra is Different? - Aloysius P Fernandez Beyond Microcredit: Building Nested Institutions of Savings and Credit Groups in India - The Kalanjiam Experience - K Narender Banking with Poor Self-employed Women - Jayshree Vyas Good Practices in SHG Book-keeping: Three Case Studies - Jan Meissner, Ramakrishna and Marie Luise Haberberger Attaining Outreach and Viability: Case Study of Bandhan - A K Padhi V: SUCCESSFUL BANK MODELS Pandyan Grama Bank SHG Linkage Model - S Manickam Prathama Bank: Farmers' Club Model - L R Ramachandran Bidar DCCBs-PACS Model - B B Mohanty Chandrapur DCCB-Anganwadi Model: A Case Study - S Santhanam VI: INNOVATIONS FOR GROWTH Role of Technology as a Growth Catalyst in the Microfinance Sector - Niket Kamdar and Puneet Gupta Leveraging Mutual Guarantees for Gaining Financial Access: Joint Liability Groups as Collateral Substitutes - B S Suran The 'Credit Plus' Approach for Tribal Development - K G Karmakar and N P Mohapatra Innovations in Credit Delivery System - K G Karmakar and N P Mohapatra Index


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine stock returns behavior during financial crises for an emerging market from 1992 to 2009. The authors identify episodes of significant price declines "crashes" and watch the stock price behavior during these episodes. Design/methodology/approach - This paper examines seven historical episodes of stock market crashes and their aftermath in the ASE over the last 18 years. The authors examine the behavior of stock returns and volatility in ASE during global, regional and local events. For this purpose the GARCH-M model is used to capture changes in variance. The data covers the period from January 1, 1992 to July 2, 2009 with different data frequency of daily, weekly and monthly closing prices for ASE general weighted price index. The authors use the crisis specification adopted by Mishkin and White where they define stock market crash as 20 percent decline in the stock market, and the one adopted by Patel and Sarker where they use a 35 percent or more fall in emerging stock market from its historical maximum as a definition of stock market crash, and the authors extend by adopting a third scenario to account only for the 2008-2009 crisis. Findings - The results show that crises in general have negative impact on stock returns for all sectors, with the banking sector being the most affected. The effect of the 2008-2009 crash is the most severe, with the largest drop in stock prices and high volatilities. The paper provides an evidence of high persistence in volatility and strong reverse relationship between stock return and its volatility before and after the crises. Research limitations/implications - The paper does not include rest-of-the-world economies. Practical implications - Stock return behavior change around financial crises, it can help the investment world and the academics predict stock return behavior and the dynamics of the first two moments during crises. Originality/value - The authors use three crisis specifications in one paper adopted by Mishkin and White (2002), Patel and Sarker (1998) and extend by adopting a third scenario to account only for the 2008-2009 crisis. The paper tests for robustness of the results using daily, weekly, and monthly frequencies. Few studies have examined the behavior of stock returns and volatility during financial crises with the majority of work done on developed markets.


This paper presents a class of iterative procedures, called accelerated Frank–Wolfe algorithms, It shows that a subclass, namely the nontrivial proper algorithms, is of special interest. An algorithm parametrized by an integer q is exhibited and it is then seen that for every $q > 0$, the algorithm is a nontrivial proper accelerated Frank–Wolfe algorithm.


The deficiencies of mineral elements, change the
development of plants in a broad sense, and therefore may alter the growth and
fruit quality. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of macronutrient and boron
deficiencies on morphological characteristics of "Jupi" pineapple fruits. The treatments complete, -N, -P,
-K, -Ca, -Mg, -S and -B were applied as nutrient solutions in plastic pots with
14 kg of purified beach sand and one pineapple plant as the experimental unit.
The trial was set up a randomized complete blocks design with six replicate.
Nitrogen deficiency reduced fruit mass with and without crown, fruit length and
diameter and peduncle diameter, increased TA, TSS and vitamin C, reduced
TSS/TA, pH, pulp coloration and sensory acceptance of the fruits; phosphorus
deficiency reduced fruit mass with and without crown, fruit and crown length,
potassium deficiency reduced fruit mass with and without crown, length and diameter
peduncle and calcium deficiency reduced peduncle diameter. Peel thickness was
not affected by any deficiency. Nitrogen is the nutrient that most influenced
the fruits quality of pineapple "Jupi".


In this paper,the scalar field perturbations in the background of the massless BTZ black holes was discussed.We found that the massless BTZ hole contains only normal modes in the perturbations.This is different from the perturbation results in the generic non-rotating BTZ black hole background.This special property reflects that the massless BTZ black hole is a dif- ferent phase from that of the generic non-rotating BTZ hole.


With the advent of digitized music, many online streaming companies such as Spotify have capitalized on a listener's need for a common stream platform. An essential component of such a platform is the recommender systems that suggest the constituent user base, related tracks, albums and artists. In order to sustain such a recommender system, labeling data, to indicate which genre it belongs to is essential. Most recent academic publications that deal with music genre classification focus on the use of deep neural networks developed and applied within the music genre classification domain. This paper attempts to use some of the highly sophisticated techniques, such as Hierarchical Attention Networks that exist within the text classification domain in order to classify tracks of different genres. In order to do this, the music is first separated into different tracks (drums, vocals, bass and accompaniment) and converted into symbolic text data. Due to the sophistication of the distributed machine learning system present in this paper, it is capable of classifying contemporary genres with impressive accuracy, when comparing the results with that of competing classifiers. It is also argued that through the use text classification, the expert knowledge which musicians and people involved with musicological techniques, can be attracted to improving recommender systems within the music information retrieval research domain.


In this thesis, it is my intent to argue that introducing John Dewey's aesthetic theory into Jurgen Habermas's pragmatics of communication will provide more evidence in opposition to the suggestion that manipulation can avert future legitimation crises. In developing this thesis, several steps will be taken. First, I will explicate Habermas's work on legitimation crises in order to explain what a legitimation crisis is and how such a crisis arises. I will then consider two potential remedies that might help avert a legitimation crisis: increasing material rewards or increasing ideology/manipulation. Next, I will provide some explanations concerning why Habermas's pragmatic theory needs to be reinforced in order to adequately oppose the recommendation to use manipulation to avert legitimation crises. By juxtaposing Dewey's aesthetic theory with Habermas's pragmatics of communication, I intend to align myself with Habermas, and oppose the suggestion that manipulation can permanently avert future legitimation crises. By considering Dewey alongside Habermas, I will problematize manipulation and argue that manipulation is an unstable remedial measure. In conclusion, I will suggest that more stable remedial measures need to be sought if society desires to permanently avert legitimation crises


The paper analyzes an innovative investment organizational model to be realized in the airport space, branded "capsule hotel", whose mkt model directly recalls the logic of "b & b". Objective of the reasoning is to show how, given the spread that such a model is having a global and European level, the recent implementation project of this service within the Naples airport, international airport, but medium-range could boost the attractiveness of the same and their attributes nodality. What emerges from the survey conducted, is that the city of Naples, making it a leader in the national project of such a scale, it would receive a major impact in terms of visibility and consequent increase of the tourist flow and a strong impetus to the overall development of tourism in the South.


The mangrove forests of north-eastern Australia are both species-rich and well developed but there is very little information available on their vegetative growth or flowering and fruiting behaviour. This account attempts to rectify this situation by presenting the results of at least 4 years of field studies and observations. Previous reports recorded no less than 35 mangrove species occumng along the north-eastern coast and observations of the flowering and fruiting status of all these species were made. The results are supported by some litter fall studies and overall they reflect the diversity of mangrove species by displaying a range of peak activity months. However, there are some common trends and most species flower mainly during the dry hot summer (September-December) prior to the rainy season when they drop their propaguies during the morniks of peak rainfall (around Fe"u.iary). Detailed studies of litter fall were camed out in Missionary Bay, Hinchinbrook Island (1 8" 16'S.,146" 13'E.), and care was taken to record components of floral development and vegetative growth. The results for five species (Rhizophora apiculata, R, stylosa, R, X lamarckii, Bruguiera gymnorhiza and Ceriops tagal var. tagal) include estimates of mean leaf longevity and also suggest that the floral and vegetative cycles are coordinated.


The small astronomy satellite (SAS-A) was placed into earth orbit in December 1970 with one experiment designed to scan the celestial sphere for sources of X-ray emission. An automated test procedure was used to confirm proper operation of all the experiment sensors and electronics prior to launch of the spacecraft. The testing that had to be conducted over the operational spacecraft telemetry and command channels from a remote location was automated by use of a general-purpose computer system. The computer was programmed to set the experiment into a predetermined configuration of sensor and electronic activation by commanding the spacecraft to turn on specific X-ray and electronic pulsetrain sources external to the experiment by commanding a source control unit, and to receive, decommutate, and process the telemetered experiment data from the spacecraft to produce a summary printout of test results for the experiment checkout engineer. The automated testing worked very well, greatly reducing the total time required to check out thoroughly the experiment portion of the spacecraft and allowing a comprehensive test and calibration of the experiment to be run during the actual launch countdown.


The chaplain participated in important union decisions and made sure they were consistent with Church doctrine. He attended union executive meetings and could be called upon to provide an opinion on urgent matters. Le Duprex, 11(1): 5.


The role of radiative forcings and climate feedbacks on last millennium climate change is quantified in the transient climate model simulations from the CMIP5/PMIP3 archive. Changes in the global energy budget over the last millennium are decomposed into contributions from radiative forcings and climate feedbacks through the use of the Approximate Partial Radiative Perturbation (APRP) method and radiative kernels. Global cooling occurs ca. 1200-1850 CE in the multi-model ensemble mean with pronounced minima ca. 1230-1290, 1450, 1600-1700, and 1820-1840 CE (corresponding with volcanically active periods) that are outside the range of natural variability. Average Northern Hemisphere temperature anomalies agree well with proxyderived temperature reconstructions. Analysis of the global energy budget during the last millennium indicates that Little Ice Age (LIA) cooling is largely driven by volcanic forcing (comprising an average of 82%, 54% and 77% of the total forcing among models for the 1200-1450 CE, 1400-1650 CE and 1600-1850 CE periods, respectively, relative to 950-1200 CE), while contributions due to changes in total solar irradiance (15%, 30% and 10%) and greenhouse gas concentrations (3%, 16% and 13%) are substantially lower. Focusing on the period from 1600-1850 CE, the combination of these forcings directly contributes to 40%, on average, of the global cooling during the LIA, while the remainder of the cooling arises due to the Planck response and the sum of the climate feedbacks. Dominant positive feedbacks include the water vapor feedback, which contributes 29% of the global cooling and arises due to decreased water vapor concentration associated with the vertically-integrated cooling and the surface albedo feedback, which contributes 14% of the global cooling and arises due to high latitude sea ice expansion and increased snow cover. Lapse rate changes contribute an additional 7% of the global cooling; the positive lapse rate feedback in the last millennium simulations is in contrast to the negative lapse rate feedback that is observed in the CMIP5 future climate simulations and arises due to greater cooling near the surface than aloft throughout the midand high-latitudes.


Human visual cortex is organized with striking consistency across individuals. While recent findings demonstrate an unexpected coupling between functional and cytoarchitectonic regions relative to the folding of human visual cortex, a unifying principle linking these anatomical and functional features of cortex remains elusive. To fill this gap in knowledge, we combined independent and ground truth measurements of human cytoarchitectonic regions and genetic tissue characterization within the visual processing hierarchy. Using a data-driven approach, we examined if differential gene expression among cortical areas could explain the organization of the visual processing hierarchy into early, middle, and late processing stages. This approach revealed that the visual processing hierarchy is explained by two opposing gene expression gradients: one that contains a series of genes with expression magnitudes that ascend from the first processing stage (e.g. area hOc1, or V1) to the last processing stage (e.g. area FG4) and another that contains a separate series of genes that show a descending gradient. In the living human brain, each of these gradients correlates strongly with anatomical variations along the visual hierarchy such as the thickness or myelination of cortex. We further reveal that these genetic gradients emerge along unique trajectories in human development: the ascending gradient is present at 10-12 gestational weeks, while the descendent gradient emerges later (19-24 gestational weeks). Interestingly, it is not until early childhood (before 5 years of age) that the two expression gradients achieve their adult-like mean expression values. Finally, additional analyses in non-human primates (NHP) reveal the surprising finding that only the ascending, but not the descending, expression gradient is evolutionarily conserved. These findings create one of the first models bridging macroscopic features of human cytoarchitectonic areas in visual cortex with microscopic features of cellular organization and genetic expression, revealing that the hierarchy of human visual cortex, its cortical folding, and the cytoarchitecture underlying its computations, can be described by a sparse subset (~200) of genes, roughly one-third of which are not shared with NHP. These findings help pinpoint the genes contributing to both healthy cortical development and the cortical biology distinguishing humans from other primates, establishing essential groundwork for understanding future work linking genetic mutations with the function and development of the human brain.


Random anisotropy effect has been observed in the neutron quasielastic scattering profile from a single crystal of Fe 0.65 Co 0.35 TiO 3 . The effect appears in magnetic diffuse scattering in the large q space. The instantaneous correlation function in small q around q around antiferromagnetic superlattice points is of the Lorentzian squared function of 1/(κ 2 + q 2 ) 2 , where κ is the temperatured dependent inverse correlation length below T N . Combined with other experimental results, we conclude that the random anisotropy field destroys the magnetic long range order in this mixture of two components with competing anisotropies.


Objectives: Socially responsible activities of firms play an imperative part in enhancing financial effectiveness and specially serve as an important mediator into the causal association between financial effectiveness and corporate governance. Therefore, the aim of the current project is to assess the association between financial effectiveness and corporate governance and then analyze the mediating function that corporate social responsibility takes in the causal relation of financial effectiveness with corporate governance. Methods/Statistical Analysis: To investigate the causal linkages from the components of corporate governance to financial effectiveness, OLS regression analyses were employed to test statistical significance. To examine statistically the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility, this research applied the procedures suggested1. Findings: The empirical results indicated that, good corporate governance is an important force leading to improved financial effectiveness, where managerial independence, ownership concentration and chief executive officer chairperson duality are positively related to financial effectiveness. In addition, socially responsible activities of firms were evidenced as an important mediating factor affecting the relation of financial effectiveness with corporate governance. Socially responsible activities fully interfere with the effect of ownership concentration in the managerial board on financial effectiveness. In contrast, they just partially mediate the influences of managerial independence and chief executive officer chairperson duality on financial effectiveness. Application/Improvements: This research offer researchers of management as well as business directors with a more comprehensive understanding on the complicated associations among financial effectiveness, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance. These will help executive officers to be more socially responsible and to decide on more appropriate corporate governance practices, which could improve financial effectiveness.


Embedded Web servers are widely used today for IP-based element management. We present a new management architecture that combines this technology with XML, DOM, and XPath to unify element management and network management. XML is used for both management information modeling and manager-agent communication. By taking advantage of modern Web technologies, the proposed architecture provides a method to develop management applications efficiently and to manage network devices effectively. We also explain how legacy SNMP agents are integrated into our proposed architecture.


In this segment of Teaching Rounds in Cardiac Electrophysiology, Hayashi et al present a patient with atypical atrioventricular (AV) nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT) with an unusual initiation and mechanism for maintaining arrhythmia. Their astute observations, which they present as excellent teaching points, led to successful ablation at the earliest site of retrograde slow pathway activation. The student of electrophysiology will rarely see a similar case in his or her practice. However, the magnitude of the teaching value of such a description lies in the generalizability of the findings and the deductive process that led to a successful outcome. Exceptional cases teach us how we use information available from any case to achieve conceptual understanding and in most cases success.


In this work, a new vision algorithm is designed and implemented to extract and identify the surface defects on the Golden Delicious apples caused by the enzymic browning process. 60 Golden Delicious apples were selected for the experiments, of which 30 had enzymic browning defects and the other 30 were sound. Image processing part of the proposed vision algorithm extracted the normalized defective surface area of the apples with the high accuracy of 97.15%. The normalized defective areas of the segmented images were selected as the feature to feed into a threshold-based classifier. The analysis based on the above feature indicated that the images with the normalized defective area less than 0.0065 do not belong to the defective apples; rather, they were extracted as part of the calyx and stem of the healthy apples. The classification accuracy of the classifier applied in this study was 98.5%. The proposed algorithm shows better performance compared to the previously presented methods while needing less computational complexity and hardware cost.


Foreign body in the urinary bladder is not very common. It may occur by self insertion or migration from neighboring organs. It represents a urologic challenge which requires prompt management and should be treated as emergencies. Most of the foreign bodies in the urinary bladder can be successfully removed endoscopically. Sometimes open surgical procedure may require in removing the foreign body. Removal of foreign body from urinary bladder may be quite challenging requiring imaginations & high level surgical skills. Here we reported a case of 29 years old mentally retarded man with an intravesical foreign body. We successfully removed the foreign body by endoscopic procedure under general anesthesia. In post operative follow up there was no voiding problem & patient was advised for psychiatric consultation.
JCMCTA 2012 ; 23 (2): 47-49


The Hanford Site Permanent Isolation Barrier Development Program was organized to develop an in-place disposal capability for low-level nuclear waste for the US Department of Energy at the Hanford Site in south-eastern Washington. Layered earthen and engineered barriers are being developed by Westinghouse Hanford Company and the Pacific Northwest Laboratory that will function in what is presently a semiarid environment (annual precipitation 150 mm) for at least 1,000 yr by limiting the infiltration of water through the waste. The Long-Term Climate Change Task is one of several key barrier tasks. Based on the recommendation of a panel of internationally recognized climate and modeling experts, climatic data for this task is being acquired in a step-wise and multi-disciplinary manner. The specific research strategy includes literature review and specialized studies to obtain pollen-derived climatic reconstruction, documented historic weather patterns, and Global Circulation Model output of potential future climate changes related to both the greenhouse effect and the cycling into the next ice age. The specific goals of the task are to: (1) obtain defensible probabilistic projections of the long-term climate variability in the Hanford Site region at many different time scales into the future, (2) develop several test case climate scenarios thatmore » bracket the range of potential future climate, and (3) use the climate scenarios both to test and to model protective barrier performance.« less


The paper presents the assessment for hydrochemical characteristics with Piper diagram and statistical methods to assess the impacts of mining on the water quality and water environment.The entropy weighted osculating value method is also used to assess the water quality in the study area.Results indicate that statistical characteristics of various indices are different in different water bodies.The concentrations of indicators of water bodies rely on the environment where water bodies lie.The main water chemistry type is HCO3-Ca·Mg or HCO3-Ca type,which indicates the excellent conditions of recharge area for water runoff.Water quality assessment shows that the water quality in the study area lies between good quality and excellent quality conditions which is suitable for drinking.However,protective measures are needed for water quality protection,for the mining activities would have great impacts on the water quality.


The article is devoted to the search for a concise answer to the question: how does the nucleus of a crystal arise? Although a simple and complete answer is impossible at the same time, an attempt has been made to clarify the problem in three aspects: according to which principle particles are combined into a nucleus, which nucleus have a chance to become crystal, and from which atomic configuration it can be recognized. To model the small polyhedral clusters, the principle of equal immediate environment is proposed. It is shown that such clusters with an odd number of atoms are impossible. Small polyhedral clusters should grow by attaching pairs of atoms. Previously, this was known for fullerenes because of their specific geometry. The topic is important because of the coverage of various quasi- and non-crystalline structures by crystallography and mineralogy.


Many of the hours I passed learning from Wally Avis were spent discussing practical problems of lexicography. Because of this, and because my tribute to him is being published elsewhere (English World-Wide 1:1, 1980), it seems appropriate to honour him here by dealing with one such problem, especially one that no one has satisfactorily solved. I refer to the treatment in monolingual English dictionaries of idioms—those elusive, hard to define, and harder still to classify phrases that appear usually in boldface as numbered or listed subentries. Perhaps the most common type of idiom so defined is the fuzzy phrasal verb, and Wally was constantly intrigued by the anomalies of such apparently simple examples as start up. We can say, "Let's start up the car" and "Let's start the car up"; we can say, "Let's start up the hill" but not "Let's start the hill up."


The aim of this study is to explore students perception of parts of formative assessment which involve the subject of Swedish writing. The study include students from grade 5 to grade 6, and the st ...


Abstract Modern day pyrometry permits the measurement of temperature with maximum uncertainties ranging between about O.1°C at 1064°C (gold point) and 2°C at 3525°C. These uncertainties refer to the realization of the International Practical Temperature Scale (IPTS) and represent the level of accuracy a temperature per se can be determined under optimized conditions. Unfortunately, the measurement of a material property as a function of temperature imposes experimental constraints which seriously degrade the inherent accuracy of the temperature measurement system, often to unknown levels. Consequently, in situ temperature calibrations are required which must employ the use of a well characterized reference material compatible with the environment of the experiment. Suitable secondary temperature reference standards are not generally available and this lack is being addressed by the High Temperature Commission (IUPAC) through its current melting point program on Y2O3 and formerly by its efforts on Al2O3.Th...


# Certain commercial equipment, instruments, or materials are identified in this report to specify the experimental procedure adequately. Such identification does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the materials or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose. Abstract Broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) was used to study thin films of Ge 2 Sb 2 Se 5 exposed to low fluence UV-irradiation that resulted in thermally reversible photo-induced changes (PICs) on the film surfaces. Changes were characterized by reversible changes in film morphology and changes in the microwave scattering signature prior to and following irradiation. The PIC resulting from irradiation formed a low modulus and electrically resistive layer at the film surface. Modest heating of the photo-exposed material to about 60 ◦ C, anneals out the photo-formed layer to leave behind a very thin layer of smooth, thermally stable material at the film surface. Re-exposure of the material to UV-light recreated a foamy layer, which anneals away with modest heating over several cycles. The broadband microwave insertion loss (S 21 ) increased with the film morphology changes after UV light exposure and decreased with thermal anneal over several cycles. These changes are correlated with transformations in the film's surface morphology, and


Urban environments are a place where bird species are living due to the availability of considerable food and roosting sites, particularly in gardens and parks. However, bird species diversity and distribution is poorly known in urban areas. In order to fill the gaps, this study aimed to quantify bird species diversity and abundance for conservation priority of Wolkite town. The study area was stratified into different blocks namely abattoir, dump site, sacred site and home-garden, based on land characteristics and bird attracting features. Point transects were laid on stratified blocks randomly with the aid of GPS. Bird data have been collected via direct observation with help of a binocular. The data were analyzed through one-way ANOVA and Paired Sample t-test. The study recorded a total 30 bird species, of which 18 species are resident and 12 are seasonal migrants. Most of the identified birds (58.67%) are locally frequent and about 6.6% are rare species. In home-garden block, the highest species diversity was recorded in both wet and dry seasons. The bird species are distributed evenly in home-garden (E=0.976) and sacred site(E=0.944) during wet and dry seasons. Bird species abundance had a significant difference among the identified blocks (F=5.47, df=3, P<0.05. The result showed that Wolkite town harbors many rare, near endemic, critically endangered and seasonal migrant bird species. Hence, it is an important area of endemism and conservation priority and qualifies the criteria to be recognized as an important bird area of Ethiopia. In conclusions, similar small towns could have a diversified bird species and need to be considered as a conservation priority areas.


A new imaging study identifi ed an abnormal metabolic network in the brains of Tourette syndrome (TS) patients and revealed another distinct network of activity in a subset of patients who also had obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD). The study, which used PET scans and a sophisticated method of analysis to map brain activity, underscored the fact that TS is not a one-size-fi ts-all disorder. "These fi ndings suggest that the different clinical manifestations of TS are associated with the expression of two distinct metabolic brain networks," the researchers wrote in the paper, which was published online Feb. 9 before the print edition of Neurology. "These, and potentially other disease-related spatial covariance patterns, may prove useful as biomarkers for assessing responses to new therapies for TS and related comorbidities."


OBJECTIVE
To determine causal associations between genetically predicted TNF-α, IL-12p70 and IL-17 levels and risk of PsA.

METHODS
The publicly available summary-level findings from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) was used to identify loci influencing normal physiological concentrations of TNF-α, IL-12p70 and IL-17 (n = 8293) among healthy individuals as exposure and a GWAS for PsA from the UK Biobank (PsA = 900, control = 462 033) as the outcome. A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed using the inverse-variance weighted (IVW), weighted median and MR-Egger regression methods. Sensitivity analysis and MR-Egger regression analysis were performed to evaluate the heterogeneity and pleiotropic effects of each variant.

RESULTS
Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at genome-wide significance from GWASs on TNF-α, IL-12p70 and IL-17 were identified as the instrumental variables. The IVW method indicated a causal association between increased IL-17 level and risk of PsA (β = -0.00186 per allele, s.e. = 0.00043, P = 0.002). Results were consistent in the weighted median method (β = -0.00145 per allele, s.e. = 0.00059, P = 0.014) although the MR-Egger method suggested a non-significant association (β = -0.00133 per allele, s.e. = 0.00087; P = 0.087). Single SNP MR results revealed that the C allele of rs117556572 was robustly associated with risk of PsA (β = 0.00210, s.e. = 0.00069, P = 0.002). However, no evidence for a causal effect was observed between TNF-α, IL-12p70, decreased IL-17 levels and risk of PsA.

CONCLUSION
Our findings provide preliminary evidence that genetic variants predisposing to higher physiological IL-17 level are associated with decreased risk of PsA.


We present an efficient algorithm to compute the joint density function of a set of discrete independent random variables. The computation is accurate upto the coverage specified. The teclmique is based on a simple mathematical structure and associated property knolVIl as the diamond property. The algorithm generates the product density, or slates of the joint random variable, in order of decreasing probability, stopping when a prescribed degree of accuracy has been obtained. Since the algorithm can be seen to exhibit a high degree of inherent parallelism, we propose easily implementable versions of the original algorithm for parallel machines. 'This researdl was supported in part by NSF award CCR-9102331, NATO award 900108 and the Mathematical Sciences Section of Oak Ridge National Laboratory under contract contract DE-AC05-840R2HOO with Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.


Malaysia and South Korea, successful graduates of Asian Financial Crisis, employed different paths to recovery via Capital Control and IMF bail-out respectively. This paper tracks recovery trajectories of the two nations via orthodox and emergent growth indicators: GDP and GPI. We report unemployment, open-trade, fixed capital accumulation, and prior crisis to be influential determinants of both metrics, while credit and foreign exchange rate lack significance.


Kristin Dykstra's translations and criticism feature work by Reina Marı́a Rodrı́guez, Omar Pérez, and others. Her bilingual editions include Time's Arrest (2001) and Violet Island and Other Poems (2004), both by Rodrı́guez, as well as Something of the Sacred (2007) and Did You Hear about the Fighting Cat (2010), both by Pérez. She co-edits Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas with Gabriel Bernal Granados and Roberto Tejada, and is Associate Professor of English at Illinois State University.


This article intrduced the special feature,therapeutic effectiveness, indication,contraindication and treatment mechanism of multi-direction rapid traction.The effects of 186 cases with lumbar disc herniation were treated with rapid traction were observed .134 out of 186 cases were only treated for once. The total effective rate was 92.5%,the excellent 80.6%.The change of protruding material in 32 cases with lumbar disc herniation was also assessed. The medial or post-lateral protrusion were followed-up three months to four years after rapid traction. The protruding materials were measured on CT screen with the ratio of protruding material area / vertebral canal area.The ratio determination in 20 post-lateral hernia patients at pre-treatment and followed-up duration was 0.1830±0.0663 and 0.130±0.0618 respectively, and in 10 cases with medial protrusion, the ratio was respectivly 0.2337±0.0858 and 0.1572±0.0749 (P0.05) at pre-treatment and followed-up period. Samples of human lumbosacral spine L 1~S 1 from ten dult cadavers were used for the experiments. The sagittal and coronal sections were made by cryotomy method of section anatomy. The results showed that both intervetebal space and 2/3 superior forament were enlarged. The facet joint was broaded and the nerve root in the canal was moved. It can conclused that the effects of multi-direction traction release the compression of nerve root in the canal and movement of facet joint as well as relief sticky nerve root.


The article introduces the characters of the latest EDA technology's software protel 99 and states its application to the electronic circuit CAI through some example in detail.


This collection of articles published in the British Journal of Dermatology highlight some of the recent developments related to cutaneous porphyrias, which as rare diseases are considered something of an enigma to many dermatologists (see Porphyria virtual issue). They comprise a subset of the eight mainly inherited disorders of haem biosynthesis that present with acute neurovisceral attacks (the acute porphyrias), cutaneous photosensitivity, or in two (variegate porphyria and hereditary coproporphyria), potentially both. Clinical presentation is a consequence of accumulation of pathway intermediates, which for the cutaneous porphyrias are porphyrins. Circulating porphyrins produced from either the bone marrow [erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP); X-linked erythropoietic protoporphyria (XLEPP); congenital erythropoietic porphyria (CEP)] or liver [porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT); variegate porphyria (VP); and hereditary coproporphyria (HCP)] accumulate in the dermis where they are able to absorb visible light (wavelength around 410 nm), using this energy to form oxygen radicals which cause the photosensitivity characteristic of these disorders. As visible light (not ultraviolet, UV) induces the clinical features of cutaneous porphyrias, ordinary over-the-counter sunscreens are not effective and reflectant sunscreens are required. The ability of porphyrins to absorb light is also the basis of laboratory testing, with the released energy being detected as fluorescence. Testing the plasma portion of an anticoagulated blood sample for porphyrin fluorescence emission is the most important first-line test when cutaneous porphyria is suspected. The commonest of the cutaneous porphyrias, PCT, is a mainly acquired disorder which manifests as a consequence of disturbed liver function. Well-known triggers include excess alcohol, viral hepatitis, iron overload and prescribed oestrogen use. The article by Andersen et al. explores the experiences of patients with PCT through focus groups and describes the wide variation in patient response to the presence of fragile skin and blistering. Of interest, the authors highlight the effect and consequence of itching of the affected areas as being particularly troublesome for some patients. The variation in patient perception and experience is highlighted, as is the importance of taking time to explain the condition and provide good-quality information and reassurance to patients about this porphyria, which can be treated effectively with either venesection or low-dose chloroquine. The second article concerns CEP, the rarest of the cutaneous porphyrias, which usually presents during infancy with severe bullous photosensitization. A milder phenotype with later onset in adolescence or early adulthood is described, as is a very rare syndrome of acquired uroporphyria associated with myelodysplasia in which no germline mutations are identified. The article by Aguilera et al. proposes another mechanism for late-onset CEP, whereby a carrier of a known pathogenic germline mutation develops mild CEP as a consequence of acquired mosaicism, most likely in an erythroid clone of cells. The authors suggest two possible mechanisms, clonal expansion of the mutant allele, or loss of function of the normal allele. This article also serves as a reminder for dermatologists that not all adult-onset bullous porphyria is due to PCT; hence, the importance of laboratory testing of appropriate samples to differentiate between PCT, VP and CEP. The majority of articles in this virtual collection relate to erythropoietic protoporphyrias (EPP, XLEPP), in which increased production of protoporphyrin, the final intermediate in the haem pathway, causes intense burning pain on exposure to sunlight. As physicians regularly seeing patients with EPP, questions in clinic tend to change from 'what do I have, what causes it and how can we treat it?' to 'is there anything new?' There are of course good reasons for regular clinic visits: monitoring liver function, ensuring vitamin D sufficiency to optimize good bone health and answering additional questions that may arise as the patient ages. Anaemia, which is usually mild, is common and does not require treatment with iron therapy unless symptomatic. Iron replacement can worsen cutaneous photosensitivity and should therefore be initiated only following specialist advice. The importance of bone health in sunlight avoiders is illustrated in the article by Biewenga et al., who report a high prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia in their patients with EPP compared with the general population. They highlight the importance of prevention, and in particular lifestyle advice to improve dietary calcium intake, physical activity and lifelong compliance with vitamin D supplementation in order to reduce fracture risk. So, it is with interest that we read Biolcati et al. reporting on 115 patients with EPP in whom treatment with subcutaneous afamelanotide implants has been continued in post-clinical trials. Afamelanotide is administered every 2 months as a subcutaneous implant and many patients have chosen to travel long distances to continue receiving treatment. Quality of life measured by an EPP-specific questionnaire rose from 32% to 74% of maximum and remained stable throughout the treatment observation period. Despite the considerable time and costs incurred, discontinuation rates were shown to be low. Having administered over 1000 implants, this long-term


The paper puts forward the quality assurance system for reconfigurable manufacturing to fit the requirement of batch production with variable types, which is based on the analysis of the requirement of process quality control, according to the fact that a motor rotor enterprise rebuilds the assembly line. The system is a whole scheme for ensuring the quality, which is from the view of production site, according to the requirement of ISO9000, adopting internet technology. Some key working positions influencing the products quality are reformed, as well as the process quality control system, facing reconfigurable manufacturing data collection, analysis and management, is established. Finally the quality assuring system for reconfigurable is realized.


The method of econometrics is employed to study the relationship between the economic growth and the number of persons engaged in scientific and technological activities, the expenditure for the activities, and the output from the activities. This paper discusses the correlation relationship between the scale of scientific system and economic growth in China from 1991 to 2000.


Abstract The author proposes fourteen parameters for assessing partnering relations in construction enterprises. By means of these parameters, experts in construction enterprises apply a five‐point scale in order to evaluate enterprise relations with four transactors within its microenvironment. The parameters describing relationships are adopted as assessment criteria. The question of selecting the best construction enterprise for cooperation is a multi‐criteria issue. The author's solution is based on the ELECTRE III method and elaborates two alternative methods of selecting the best construction enterprise on the basis of the analysis of partnering relations between construction enterprises being studied and their transactors within the microenvironment and indicates one of the above introduced methods as preference. Two methods have been developed with a view to supporting a decision‐making system in a construction enterprise as regards the choice of a subcontractor. Relevant calculations can be made ...


The short-time hot corrosion kinetics of Ni_3Al in the presence of a salt film
(about 2mg/cm~2 (Na,K)_2SO_4) in O_2-0.5%(SO_2+SO_3) atmosphere at temperature range of
600--850℃ has been studied by thermal gravimetry, chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction,
metallography and SEM. Low temperature hot corrosion occured in Ni_3Al due to the forma-
tion of liquidNi-Na-K sulphate eutectic phase. The corrosion rates reached maximum at
750℃ in the condition mentioned above. Moreover, the effects of O_2/SO_2/SO_3 gas, salt
film and CoCrAlY coating on the hot corrosion behavior of Ni_3Al have also been
investigated. The salt film may accelerate the oxidation of Ni_3Al in air, and CoCrAlY coating
may improve the corrosion resistance of Ni_3Al in same environment.


The subject of this paper is a numerical procedure for the computation of the variables of axisymmetric rotational flow at a shock wave in a flow field computed by the method of characteristics. The procedure can be extended to the method of characteristics in three independent variables.


Key Points Rivaroxaban was efficacious and safe in a child with protein C deficiency to prevent the recurrence of skin necrosis or venous thrombosis. The dosage of direct oral anticoagulants in children with thrombophilia is unclear; a thrombin generation assay may be useful to adjust it.


Fairfax has announced a further shakeup of its media business in a bid to reduce its editorial budget by $30 million. Editorial staff at mastheads including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are again facing redundancies, though it's not yet known how many jobs will go. While Fairfax talks up its online future, one media watcher says it's likely the move is just another step towards the eventual breakup of the media business.


The water pollutant in Shaoxing is mainly constituted by industry waste,daily life consuming,agriculture contamination and river runoff.Based on the current environmental situation,some comprehensive managements on water pollution are suggested in this paper on the view of watershed,region and pollution sources by adjusting industry structure,promoting wholesome production and replanning drainage layout.


Quick speech in noise (QuickSIN) test is a method of measuring hearing loss based on the ability of patients to recognize speech in the noise. QuickSIN test is implemented in a Windows environment for testing hearing at home without specialized facilities. Based on the screaning test decision whether to send a candidate to be in a specialized medical institution shall be taken. SYSTEM FOR MEASUREMENT OF HEARING QUALITY USING QUICK SIN TEST Zoran Šarić, Ružica Bilibajkić


Background In response to the challenge to rapidly identify treatment options for COVID-19, several studies reported that statins, as a drug class, reduce mortality in these patients. Here we explored the possibility that different statins might differ in their ability to exert protective effects based on computational predictions. Methods A Bayesian network tool was used to predict drugs that shift the host transcriptomic response to SARS-CoV-2 infection towards a healthy state. Drugs were predicted using 14 RNA-sequencing datasets from 72 autopsy tissues and 465 COVID-19 patient samples or from cultured human cells and organoids infected with SARS-CoV-2, with a total of 2,436 drugs investigated. Top drug predictions included statins, which were tested in Vero E6 cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 and human endothelial cells infected with a related OC43 coronavirus. A database containing over 4,000 COVID-19 patients on statins was also analyzed to determine mortality risk in patients prescribed specific statins versus untreated matched controls. Findings Simvastatin was among the most highly predicted compounds (14/14 datasets) and five other statins were predicted to be active in > 50% of analyses. In vitro testing of SARS-CoV-2 infected cells revealed simvastatin to be a potent inhibitor whereas most other statins were less effective. Simvastatin also inhibited OC43 infection and reduced cytokine production in endothelial cells. Analysis of the clinical database revealed that reduced mortality risk was only observed in COVID-19 patients prescribed a subset of statins, including simvastatin and atorvastatin. Interpretation Different statins may differ in their ability to sustain the lives of COVID-19 patients despite having a shared target and lipid-modifying mechanism of action. These findings highlight the value of target-agnostic drug prediction coupled with patient databases to identify and validate non-obvious mechanisms and drug repurposing opportunities. Funding DARPA, Wyss Institute, Hess Research Fund, UCSF Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research, and NIH


Objective To probe the nursing measures of trauma flail-chest patients.Methods The records of 150 patients in the department of thoracic surgery who presented with traumatic flail-chest were studied.The treatment methods of traumatic flail-chest were summarized.To correct the shock on time,do the management and care of respiratory tract and chest wall fixation well,control the pain of patient,pay more attention to the thoracic duct,give scientific nutritional support and psychological nursing to them.Results All the 150 patients presenting with traumatic flail-chest were recovered,with no nursing complication.Conclusions Active and effective nursing cares are very important for patients presenting with traumatic flail-chest to return to good health.


Abstract To improve detection performance of passive location system based on troposcatter, we propose a blind signal detection algorithm. According to our algorithm, complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition decomposes the received signal into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). To reconstruct the signal and background noises, difference between the entropy of adjacent IMFs is utilized as a standard. Different IMFs are utilized to estimate threshold of energy detection algorithm and energy level of received signal. Simulation examples indicate that the proposed algorithm can blindly and effectively detect the signal.


Intrapericardial teratomas are rare but potentially fatal. Early diagnosis and decision for treatment can be accomplished with prenatal ultrasound. The most common squeal of intrapericardial teratomas are pericardial effusion and pressure on the structures of the cardiovascular and/or respiratory system at birth. Herein we report a case of the diagnosis and anesthetic management of an intrapericardial immature teratoma in a low weight premature neonate.
Key words: Intrapericardial teratoma, premature, anesthetic management


A proposal in the third plenary session of 18 is "setting up the system of national park". During this process, it is necessary to define the concept of the national park system and the relationship between the national park and the existing protected area of China,. Then this paper analyzes the main problems of establishing the national park: department fragmentation because of the sub-sector management system, the conflicts between protection and development, overlapping of conservation areas, serious fragmentations, lack of public welfare; and also propose the solutions of the above problems: suggestions for the management system, integrating resources to construct the pilot, implementing " one law in one garden", setting up ecological compensation system, exploring the ownership of the land resources and setting up the franchise system.


The linear problem of p-polarized laser radiation absorption in sharp-edged plasmas under the normal skin-effect regime was considered. Magnetic component equation has been solved analytically by the use of perturbation techniques in the limit when the density scale length is much less than the laser wavelength. Asymptotic expressions for an absorption efficiency have been obtained for a linear plasma density profile.


The Middle Route Project of South- to- North Water Diversion is a strategic foundation project for optimal water resources allocation in China. The project construction will greatly mitigate the water shortage of Beijing,Tianjin and north China. But at the same time,the project will change the natural hydrological regime and causes the conflict of water use inside and outside the basin,sharpening the contradictions of storage and discharge between upstream and downstream in the basin and competitive water use inside and outside the river and among different industries,etc. In the view of the water supply and demand contradiction of the whole basin and considering the main water sources,water use units as well as the operation and joint regulation of water resources projects in the basin,the joint water resources regulation model for Hanjing River Basin is established and water resources supply and demand condition in typical year in the basin is simulated. The model provides a convenient and scientific tool and simulation platform for decision making of united water resources allocation in Hanjiang River Basin and analysis of potential water quantity of the Middle Route Project of South- to- North Water Diversion.


Faced with the challenges of the international financial crisis,companies should re-examine their own development strategies,and in accordance with the development strategy to adjust its own characteristics.International financial crisis has exposed a number of issues,such as severe lack of government regulation,corporate governance and the existence of the system of incentive and restrictive defects.Enterprises should speed up the formation of a sound and effective corporate governance structure,the establishment of a suitable enterprise characteristics and efficient management methods in order to enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises.And continuously strengthen the quality of management,cost management,financial management and risk management,to improve response capabilities and the level of crisis.


Alkenes, alkanes, and polystyrene were converted into fully deuterium labelled ones by treatment with transition metal catalyst and deuterium oxide under hydrothermal condition. The simple method to get fully deuterium labelled compounds is easy to apply to various types of organic compounds.


In this paper the 2K-H type straight tooth planetary gear retarder is taken as an example and a new exhaust algorithm is adopted in computer,and the layout method of the computer program is supplied.Using the exhaust algorithm,all feasible design schemes may be obtained;and by comparison,the better scheme is picked out easily.


The sol-gel method was used to synthesize zero-valent iron/titanium dioxide supported on activated carbon (Fe0/TiO2/AC) Adsorbent and the adsorbents were comprehensively characterized by XRF, XRD, FT-IR, BET, FE-SEM and EDX analysis. The batch experiments were performed to evaluate the effect of adsorbent type, pH of solution, pollutant initial concentration and contact time on the 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) adsorption efficiency. The equilibrium experiments revealed that the Langmuir isotherm was good fitted to the adsorption equilibrium data, whereas; the adsorption kinetic experiments indicated that the adsorption procedure was excellent described through a pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The obtained maximum adsorption capacities from Langmuir isotherms of 86.5, 87.5, 86,57 and 88.76 mg/g were achieved for activated carbon (AC), zero-valent iron/activated carbon (Fe0/AC), titanium dioxide/activated carbon (TiO2/AC) and Fe0/TiO2/AC at the 2,4-D initial concentration of 90 mg/L, pH=4 and 25 ℃, respectively.


[Objective] To study the effectiveness and security of Aspirin plus Low-molecular weight heparin in the treatment of early acute cerebral infarction. [Methods] Eighty-five patient with acute cerebral infarction within 6~24 h of episode and muscle strength under level 3,were randomly divided into two groups. The treatment group (n=50) was treated with aspirin plus Low-molecular weight heparin; The control group (n=35) was treated with aspirin alone, the nerve function deficit scores was observed, and the coagulant function and the risk of cerebral hemorrhage were tested. [Results] There were no significant differences in coagulant function and the risk of cerebral hemorrhage between the two groups before treatment and after treatment(P 0.05); There were siginificant differences between the two groups in neurological deficit scores (P 0.05). [Conclusion] Aspirin plus Low-molecular weight heparin in the treatment of early acute cerebral infarction is better than aspirin alone, and it is an safe therapy.


Progress and perspective in martensitic transformation are described.
The definition of martensite reaction, the thermodynamics of martensitic trans-
formation, the effect of austenite condition on martensitic transformation, kinetics,
nucleation and growth, as well as the crystallography of martensitic transformation
are presented.


Abstract The aim of this paper is to critically evaluate whether biodata could be used as a valid tool in the preselection process of trainee chartered accountants. Biographical details of recently qualified accountants, who trained within the whole spectrum of ICAS training offices, were collected from a self-completion questionnaire. The data collected were used to develop statistical models predicting the ability to pass the ICAS examinations at the first attempt. The validity of the developed models for use within the Scottish chartered accountancy profession was then evaluated. A rational approach was adopted through the formulation of a conceptual framework. General background areas were hypothesised to be relevant in the determination of ICAS examination success, and within these general areas specific factors were highlighted and entered into a logistic regression model using data from trainees who qualified in the years 1993–94. Statistically significant models were developed for fully-accredited honours (n= 149) and ordinary graduates (n = 225) and these models continued to retain their validity when applied to trainees who qualified in 1995 as demonstrated by the reported tetrachoric correlation coefficients (honours graduates, 0.48, and ordinary graduates, 0.42). This paper has therefore identified that a rationally derived model based on biographical information can be used to differentiate between fully accredited trainees who pass their examinations at the first attempt and those who experience failure. This work calls into question many of the current pre-selection practices used by the training providers and provides training principals who employ fully-accredited graduates to undertake ICAS training with a useful pre-selection tool.


Induction heating is an effective method for metal heating. One of the unique applications of induction heating, there is a superheated steam generator. We propose a novel superheated steamer having both advantages for cooling of induction coil and for warming of water in advance. In the paper, the structure and behavior of proposed steamer driven by high frequency inverter are described, and its usefulness is proved.


The invention discloses a method, device and system for transferring messages. The method comprises the following steps: receiving at least one message sent by a publisher, wherein the message comprises the effective load, the real-time attribute and the theme of the message; if the real-time attribute of the message is set to be non-real-time transfer, storing the effective load of the message in an effective load list of messages corresponding to the theme of the message; when a preset strategy is met, adopting a compression algorithm to compress the effective load contained in the effective load list of the messages so as to obtain a compression message of the theme; and sending the compression message to a subscriber corresponding to the theme by a target notification service middleware. According to the embodiment of the invention, after the message (which requires low instantaneity) with the non-real-time transfer attribute is stored in the effective load list of the messages inaccordance with the real-time attribute of the message, the compression and the transfer are carried out in batches, thereby improving the throughput of the notification service middleware, and saving the system bandwidth.


(57) Abstract: A method of reducing an immune response to the graft in the recipient body are treated with an effective amount of suppressor T cells to reduce or inhibit host rejection of the graft the recipient Method. Suppressor T cells prior to implant can be administered concurrently, or after. The immune response to the host by foreign tissue, i.e. a method of inducing a decrease in graft-versus-host disease is disclosed by treatment with suppressor T cells.


A retrospective descriptive analysis was performed with the objective of determining the behavior of STIs in the health area of San Antonio del Sur from January 2011 to January 2012. The universe is made up of 169 patients with STIs. The variables were analyzed: age, sex, school level, occupation, socioeconomic conditions and more frequent infections. The predominant age was 26-36 and 15-25 years, both female. The prevailed ending college level. There was a higher incidence in pre-university and university groups and a good economic situation. Among the most frequent infections were vaginitis due to candidiasis and chlamydia, followed by trichimoniasis.


This study was done on the request of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA CR). The purpose of this study was to define standards for rural municipalities (municipalities) and clarify this approach for assessment of the following measures in The Rural Development Plan 2014-2020. The assessment of standards shows how the principle is more preferred if it is the principle of cohesion in the area (disparity) or competitiveness and support of successful areas.


Electronic spectra of the NH2 radical have been recorded as LIF excitation spectra of the products of photolysis of NH3 in its A–X bands; as dispersed-emission spectra following laser excitation with this same source; and as emission spectra from a discharge through ammonia recorded with a Fourier-transform spectrometer. All these spectra are dominated by transitions in which the a-axis rotation is excited to high values of the Ka quantum number. By combination of these experimental data with model calculations all the strong features in the spectra have been assigned. The 'semi-rigid bender' Renner–Teller hamiltonian gives an adequate representation of these spectra of all Ka provided that v2 is low, but there are strong stretch–bend interactions at higher v2. The excitation mechanism in a cold supersonic discharge source is thought to involve the initial dissociation to NH2+ H of NH3 excited via its A state by electron collision, followed by excitation of the NH2 in a second such collision.


primarily as battlegrounds for the minds ofthe newcomers and their offspring. However, Seller also gives equal treatment to other facets ofAmerican ethnic life-the press, mutual aid societies, literary contributions. Woven into her story ofinstitutions is a story ofideas and attitudes. Thus, as she moves into the twentieth century Seller not only treats the melting pot versus cultural pluralism debate but also an immigration policy that shifted from the Quota Act of 1924 to the Immigration Act of 1965. Sellers carefully analyzes the implications, both positive and negative, of each of these Acts in terms of their meaning for the political, social and economic life of ethnics in late twentieth century America. This leads her, finally, into a discussion of Third World immigrants in post-industrial America. She touches on some ofthe problems of bilinguaIism, of urban crime, of undocumented workers, and concludes with a brave treatment of the revival ofnativism and racism in the 1970s and 80s. New immigration policies are interpreted in this light and the links between the past and the present are thereby clearly established. Though the players have changed, the underlying structural tensions remain, as does, she argues, the ambivalence with which Americans, whoever they are, treat newcomers to their shores. To SeekAmerica is primarily for the beginning student or nonspecialist. It is richer than other volumes of its ilk in its coverage of diverse ethnic experiences, and it is much more engagingly written. The historical depth,juxtaposed with a discussion of very contemporary problems of immigration, leave the reader with a very clear understanding of both continuity and change. The volume contains a very useful bibliographic essay that covers both scholarly and literary sources and the list ofethnic novels is intriguing and impressive.


EDUCATION WILLIAMS, MARY B.A. WINSTON-SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY, 1967 B.S. DUKE UNIVERISITY, 1976 A STUDY TO DETERMINE HOW FACULTY, RESIDENTS, AND STUDENTS RATE CLINICAL TEACHER BEHAVIORS IN THE TEACHING OF GERIATRICS IN MEDICAL SCHOOLS Advisor: Professor Phil A. Bradley Dissertation dated December 3, 1987 The purpose of this study was to identify effective clinical teacher behaviors in geriatrics as perceived by faculty, residents, and medical students; and to determine whether the ratings of these behaviors were influenced by six variables: professional status (faculty, residents, students), medical specialty of the teacher (Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Psychiatry); courses taken in geriatrics; age, race and sex of the respondent. Seven factors of clinical teaching incorporated into the study were instructor knowledge, organization and clarity, group instructional skills, enthusiasm and stimulation, clinical competence, modeling and clinical supervision. An instrument was constructed to measure perceptions of what teacher behaviors should be of those teachers who teach residents and students about caring for elderly patients. In addition, the instrument measured perceptions of how frequent these behaviors were demonstrated. Three hundred fifty three (353) questionnaires were mailed to a sample of a


The low-cost replacement cable consists of a 510 foot roll of 19 pair twisted shielded cable with each end terminated by a standard AMP mass termination connector. The cable tested out and was installed with no irregularities or problems. The termination procedure is plotted. (LEW)


The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of cupping therapy as an adjuvant therapy in the management of patient with bronchial asthma. To achieve this target, a total of 50 patients suffering from moderate persistent bronchial asthma were included in this study. They were selected from chest clinics in Giza Chest Hospital and Ain Shams University Hospital.


The questionnaire was administered to 75 institutional subnormal adolescent girls and to 75 normal adolescent high school girls. The mean ages of the two groups were 15 years, 11 months, and 15 years, 2 months, respectively; the 33 items the responses were indicated by checkmarks after the chosen answers. The number of possible answers varied from two, where the subject indicated affirmation or negation, to five, where the subject indicated the frequency of occurrence on a scale ranging from "never" to "very often." The following items are typical of the total 36 used in the questionnaire:


This Casenote/Comment is brought to you for free and open access by TU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tulsa Law Review by an authorized editor of TU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com. Recommended Citation Fred M. Buxton, & Jeffrey D. Knight, Coastal Oil & Gas Corp. v. FERC: Does the Contract or the Natural Gas Act Control Dedication Pursuant to Contract, 22 Tulsa L. J. 659 (2013).


First published in 1949, Key's study seems to me still to rank first among the books published by political scientists on the general subject of American domestic politics since World War II. The coverage was comprehensive, the author's political insights were superb, the style was clear and felicitous, the research was prodigious, and the methodology employed set an example that has still not been surpassed in redirecting the discipline of political science.


Kalman's formal limiting procedure is applied to some recent results in sequential discrete-time non-linear filtering and smoothing to obtain the corresponding estimation algorithms for continuous-time non-linear dynamic systems. The resulting filtering algorithm is found to agree with the well-known Detchmendy-Sridhar filter which was obtained via another method. The present smoothing algorithm is a new result. It is argued that the combined filter-smoothing results here lead to an estimation algorithm which is second order in both system dynamics and measurement function non-linearity.


An analytical method to determine polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon s (PAHs) is required to obtain high-quality analytical results. The purpose of this study is to achieve good separation of a few PAHs by using environmentally friendly liquid chromatography. Accordingly, a liquid chromatograph incorporating a fluorescence detector, UV detector, and a capillary column is employed herein to simultaneously minimize the use of chemicals and obtain analytical results better than those obtained using a conventional column. Observation parameter include single analysis of each PAH, method validation, the new stationary phase, the effect of mobile phase concentration, and Quencher effect. The PAHs tested include naphthalene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, and pyrene. The test results show that when using an acetonitrile concentration of 100%, the retention times of different PAHs do not differ significantly. Furthermore, upon decreasing the acetonitrile concentration, the retention time increases, and better separation was achieved. The value ranges of precision, LOD, LOQ, and linearity are 3.43–12.42%, 4.7–15.1 mg/L, 15.6–50.5 mg/L, and 0.87–0.99, respectively. The new Sil-S-ImC30 stationary phase showed good results in terms of separation of PAHs. Likewise, the use of 60, 70, 80, and 90% acetonitrile as the mobile phase in combination with 0.03 M acrylamide as the quencher affected retention time but not separation .


This paper proposes a simple method to synthesize a proportional−integral−derivative (PID) type controller that is capable of providing the best possible performance for regulating stochastic disturbances and/or set-point tracking. This novel strategy requires no a priori information about the open-loop process or noise models. Input−output data from closed-loop experimental tests (e.g., through natural or induced set-point changes) will be used to estimate the closed-loop servo and disturbance models, which are then utilized to arrive at "optimal" PID controller settings. Several measures of the performance and robustness are computed alongside to aid in the process of controller tuning. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated using representative case studies.


Reflective optical systems have many advantages such as no chromatic aberration, wide detection band range, suitable for large aperture, light weight and compact structure. More and more two-mirror and three-mirror optical systems have been applied widely, which greatly promotes the development of space optical detection technology. With the continuous development of optical design, in order to increase the field of view, eliminate stray light and compact systems structure, some off-axis four mirror optical systems have been designed. Based on the vector wave-front aberration theory of reflective optical systems, a design method of off-axis four-mirror optical system is proposed in this paper. This method is more intuitive in aberration optimization and can greatly improve the design efficiency of optical system. At last, by using of the optical design software CODE V, a four-mirror optical system with the off-axis field of view is designed.


The invention provides a data transmission method and a distributed base station, and problems of large amount of data transmission quantity and high transmission cost can be solved. The method is used for data transmission between a base band unit (BBU) and a remote radio unit (RRU) of the distributed base station. The method comprises that the data transmitted between the BBU and RRU is frequency domain data, and time domain to frequency domain transition of data is performed in the RRU. The method uses the frequency domain data to transmit, and compared with transforming to the time domain data, under a circumstance that the data is not compressed, transmitted data size between the BBU and the RRU can be reduced, thereby reducing transmission cost and reducing requirement of bandwidth.


The influence of the quality of the bibliographic description on the search results in bibliometric data bases is considered. Three basic levels for bibliometric assessments are proposed. The influence of bibliometric errors on the quality of assessments at each level is shown. It is noted that the level at which the work is carried out with specific authors is the most sensitive. The responsibility for the inaccuracy of bibliographic data in scientometric search engines lies on the generators of information resources of these systems.


Despite all the unique features multilevel converters offer, their high number of required power switches has restricted their implementation to particular applications. To mitigate this problem, a novel multilevel ac/ac converter is proposed in this paper which utilises less number of semiconductor devices in its structure. The proposed converter is achieved by cascading recently introduced reduced switch count ac/ac converter and is comparable in performance to cascaded h-bridge multilevel converters except that it is an ac/ac converter capable of working in regenerative mode. The proposed configuration retains all the features of CHB MLIs such as low output voltage distortion, reduced dv/dt stresses, low distortion input ac current and modular structure. Moreover, compared to conventional CHB converters, the number of switches and related drive circuits are reduced in the proposed converter by 25%. The novel structure is introduced, its generalized carrier based modulation scheme is elaborated and a control method is suggested for it. The validity of operation of the proposed system is verified through simulation.


Popular online group buying websites introduced a tipping point mechanism to the e-commerce world. However, the effects of this mechanism on an individual buyer's purchase decisions require further investigation. In this study, we developed a new construct, 'group inference', to study how information about the purchase group's behaviours can influence a customer's online group buying intention in the tipping point mechanism. We find that group inference as well as the buyer's satisfaction with the price discount and his expectation of quality can have significant positive effects on the buyer's intention to buy. The findings provide several important implications for online group buying research and management.


Dairy farming is expanding rapidly in Canterbury, New Zealand, and there is increasing concern about the effects that this expansion may be having on water quality in rivers, lakes and aquifers. The Canterbury plains is made up of many different soil types, including soils with a relatively impervious clay layer in the B horizon, usually at around 300 mm depth. Accurate measurement of drainage flux and nitrate leaching losses in these heavy textured soils is essential to determine the effects of dairy farming on water quality in this region. Six plots measuring 20 m x 5 m were constructed, each side by side and hydraulically sealed off from the outside paddock and each other by a vertically installed 700 mm deep polythene sheet. A permeable plastic 'nova flow' drainage pipe (100 mm) was installed in the centre of each plot at a depth of 800 mm, and the trench backfilled with gravel to 250 mm depth. The drainage pipe from each plot runs into a common sub-surface drainage chamber where 6 x 2 L capacity tipping buckets are housed to enable the simultaneous measurement and recording of drainage from all 6 plots. Each tipping bucket is connected to a data logger and an automatic water sampler. For each plot one tip of the bucket is equal to 0.02 mm of drainage. Every 25 tips (0.5 mm of drainage) the auto sampler takes a 70 ml sample and stores this in a 1 L bottle. After 10 samples (5 mm of drainage) the sampler will switch to a new bottle to continue collecting the next sample. Each auto sampler has 24 bottles, enough for 120 mm of drainage. All data files can be downloaded via telemetry and rate of drainage, number of samples taken, total amount of drainage (mm) per plot, rainfall (mm) and soil temperature can be viewed on the computer in real time back at the laboratory.


The different extraction methods are compared in the determination of negative ion surface active agent.The steps are simplified and the efficiency is improved.


The present invention relates to an endoscopic instrument having a shaft (2) and a rod end portion provided at a distal end of the instrument head on the side (1) (9), with the instrument head comprises two pivotable to one another tool jaw member (11, 12), by the instrument of the jaw end of the control rod member in the traction means (5-8) (2) is guided from the proximal end side, wherein the at least one jaw means (11, 12) having two cams, each engaging the cam traction means (5-8). Each jaw member (11, 12) provided with two different radial dimensions of the cam, wherein the cam radially larger closer to the longitudinal axis of the tool than the small radial cam (14) is provided.


Emphysematous cystitis is a rare pathology characterized by gas bubbles within the bladder wall and lumen from gas‐producing bacteria. Sepsis‐associated purpura fulminans is also rare and shows poor clinical outcomes.


This paper has been designed the miniaturized LPDA antenna applying the triangular meander structure. To reduce the basic LPDA antenna, four dipole elements for low frequency band of the basic LPDA antenna were changed into triangular meander structure except for the other elements to keep the performance of high frequency band. The proposed antenna was miniaturized up to 60 % compared with the basic LPDA antenna. The average gain was measured as 6.69 dBi.


The articles by Jordan and Roland and by Samdahl and Kelly encourage us, as leisure researchers, to step back and examine the relevance of our research and the role of journals and periodicals in disseminating this research. The main conclusion arising from the Jordan and Roland paper is that very few practitioners and academic researchers read research journals. This certainly appears to be true for practitioners, but the majority of academic researchers did report reading the Journal of Leisure Research (JLR) or Leisure Sciences (LS) at least sometimes (see Jordan and Roland: Table 1). Jordan and Roland found fairly strong agreement from both practitioners and academic researchers that published articles should have some applicability to the practice of the profession and that all research articles should include a section about implications for practice. Very few respondents felt that research articles are easily understood or applied by practitioners. Should these findings cause JLR to reassess its approach to the dissemination of leisure and recreation research? As with any type of publication, journals need to identify an appropriate niche in which to meet the needs of a defined readership. JLR has traditionally functioned as a theory-based scholarly publication meeting prescribed academic standards. This represents a valid and valuable niche in the spectrum of leisure and recreation publications, and is complementary to the roles of other journals and periodicals that locate themselves at various points along the theoretical-- applied dimension, some with specific mandates to bridge the gap between empirical research and practical application. There are also alternative forums in which published research from academic journals may be disseminated to recreation practitioners. The fact that practitioners may not read journals such as JLR does not mean, as Jordan and Roland suggest, "the existence of a non-influential body of research literature". Publications or features are often designed specifically to convey relevant research findings to practitioners. Examples of these include the Research Update section of Parks and Recreation and the Look at Leisure bulletin of Alberta Recreation and Parks. Furthermore, educational seminars and presentations for a practitioner audience often draw on empirical findings, providing contextual and trend information that may ultimately be more beneficial to practitioners than conclusions from discrete published articles. Nevertheless, the findings of Jordan and Roland should focus our attention on the continuing need for dialogue between practitioners and academic researchers to ensure that practitioners are aware of significant developments in the leisure literature and that researchers are making some attempt to address key concerns of practitioners. Although there is a role for theoretically-based journals, there are opportunities for these journals to provide more practitioner-friendly features such as review articles that summarize key findings and trends in specific topic areas and address their implications for practice. Samdahl and Kelly, in their analysis of publication citations, have provided a valuable overview of the broad field of leisure and recreation research and have raised some challenging issues with regard to the crossfertilization of leisure research with other relevant bodies of literature. They report that articles in JLR and LS represent less than ten percent of the currently published leisure and recreation research. …


New Canadian and American standards for concrete and bridges now provides guidelines for the design, production, curing, material characterization and installation of Ultra-High Performance Fiber R...


3D ECT sensors are responsible for detecting spatial capacitance changes caused by spatial changes in electrical permittivity. In this paper authors propose a novel approach to the 3D ECT sensors fabrication process that use 3D computer modelling and 3D printing to easily get any sensor shape, electrode layout, scale and shielding strategy. The proposed method is much faster, more flexible and accurate than previously used hand-made approach. This paper compares and analysis the measurement abilities of a 3D ECT sensor made with traditional hand-made technique with a device printed using a new approach.


In the world of Patrick White's novels, women are the maternal archetype. Just as other maternal archetypes like the earth, flowers, trees or mandala, women have abstract meaning: simplicity, and the source of life.They are protection, ensuring the possibility for the selfless to reach the extreme calmness and happiness. While for the egoists, they are dark and destructive. In the maternal archetype, Patrick White conceives a dream for Australia.


British Indian and British Pakistani patients think that the products of the pharmaceutical industry are potent and may do harm. They do not want to take any more tablets than they absolutely have to. They discontinue their tablets if they have major side effects. They distrust doctors who stand to gain financially from prescribing particular drugs. They use creative strategies to titrate the dose of their drugs to the lowest that they consider works.1 In all these respects, the sample reported here has more similarities to than differences from the indigenous British population, and indeed most other groups studied in relation to medicine taking.2 3

That said, this study is no less …


Abstract : CTD data from the California Current System are analysed in terms of both empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) and quasigeostrophic vertical modes (QGMs). A single EOF accounts for about 97% of the total variance in hydrostatic pressure perturbations to 3000m. The first four pressure EOFs correspond quite well to the first four QGMs. The QGMs are orthogonal with respect to integration over the total water depth, while the EOFs are orthogonal over the depth interval where there are data; thus, a subsets of increasingly deeper cast data are used; the EOFs and QGMs become more alike. The EOF amplitudes must also be uncorrelated over the sample of profiles used, while those of the QGMs need not be; yet, the EOF analysis roughly selects the first four QGMs, even from just eight casts to 3000m. Apparently, the variance contained in each successive QGM decreases precipitously; thus, the variance in QGM 1 overwhelms any correlated part of QGM 2. Likewise, the variance left over in QGM 2 is still sufficient to overwhelm QGM 3 (and so on). (Note also that low-frequency internal waves, e.g. internal tides, have virtually identical modal structure to the QGMs; these may also contribute to the EOFs). In the upper 100 meters, the EOFs vary markedly from survey to survey. The density analysis can produce an EOF which doesn't fit into the 'normal' QGM sequence, but rather is strongly surface trapped, being confirmed roughly to the top 100 meters. This mode, which may represent mixed or Ekman layer variability, can account for up to 20% of the total density variance. (Author)


Partial discharge (PD) in oil-paper insulation of transformer is considered to be a serious fault condition. The movement of excessive charge over pressboard may result in mechanical and chemical damage to material through thermal and electronic action. With the development of PD, gases, white marks and tracks appeared. To research the relationship among the gases white marks and carbonized tracks, a needle-plate electrode configuration was set in laboratory. Pressboards with grooves of varying depths were made to release the gases. And all the pressboards were dissected layer by layer so as to observe carbonized tracks inside the pressboard. Besides, the phenomena of gases, white marks and tracks were recorded by taking photos. The experiment showed that: with the development of PD, carbonized tracks appeared on the pressboards. And as the decomposition of the insulation oil and pressboards, a large amount of gases were generated and overflowed through the pressboard pores, then white marks were formed; Moreover, due to the existence of residual gases, the surface of pressboard was raised where PD happened; As the gases loosed and even broke the pressboards' structure, PD took place more easily. As a result, carbonized tracks grew to be more.


When details of Denmark's plans to renew its entire signaling infrastructure first emerged nearly 10 years ago, it raised eyebrows across the signaling community. Now that work on the major contracts is well underway, this article takes a look at how the company spearheading the effort in Copenhagen is progressing.


Dream of Red Mansions with delicate brushwork shows a broad art space,epic content and structure to the people to in-depth research and extensive discussion of design space.The true mingled with the false,the whole story makes the person produce a dreamy and extraordinary heroic feelings.With the theory and approach of'ghost',this article makes an attempt to discuss Dream of Red Mansions.We can find some ideas like'void and sense','destiny'and 'cause and effect',which are ubiquitous in the whole story.It has notable characteristics of 'ghosts' narrative'in the concrete form by myths,ghosts as well as 'a monk and a Taoist'.


Higher applied-technique-oriented talent is the cultivating aim of the higher vocational education for adults,who must grasp the profession ability of the certain post.In order to make the talent training standards defmite,it is necessary to realize the communication between vocational education and curricula education. The higher vocational education for adults is the important part of education of the whole people and life-long education.And it is the important carrier for building learning city and society.


A bushing support system for anchoring hollow fiber forming tips in a fiber glass bushing is described. The truss like support for the air tubes and bushing tips insure minimal movement of the tips during bushing operation and that any movement is accompanied by corresponding movement of their tubes to thereby maintain the initially established concentricity of tube wall to tip wall when the tubes are positioned in the interior of the tips.


A research on the relationship that exists between a life experience which is rich in meaning and the satisfaction of psychological needs like autonomy, competence and relationship is presented in this issue. This research was done with a sample of 402 university students, who were administered the Italian version of two questionnaires which are meant to determine the presence of these psychological aspects of the person: the «Life Regard Index» and the «Basic Psychological Needs Scale».


I sketch out an approach to legal integration in Europe that can be characterised as "Nuanced Legal Realism". Nuanced Legal Realism neither assumes the complete indeterminacy of legal rules, nor the existence of a single right answer in all and every case, but views law as one potential constraint among the many factors shaping judicial behaviour. While contrasting this approach with mainstream perspectives on legal integration, I show how it might help us get a better grasp of the incentives, constraints and causal relations at work in the legal integration process.


Considerable research reports that racial composition strongly affects violent-crime rates. Unfortunately, most research ignores the possibility that violent-crime rates may affect racial composition. Using a sample of U. S. cities, the authors examine the reciprocal effects of racial composition and violent-crime rates over the last 40 years. While racial composition strongly affects the change in violent-crime rates from 1980 to 1990, it only minimally affects changes in rates for the previous three decades; but violent-crime rates (especially robbery) substantially affect the change in racial composition for all four decades. Indeed, robbery rates appear to play a significant role in the white flight from central cities.