Silicon-based solar cell manufacturing via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of both active/passive layers is investigated. In addition, in-situ plasma diagnostics of the deposition process can be monitored in real-time. Two types of complementary diagnostics, namely optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and quadruple mass spectrometry (QMS) are applied to an PECVD reactor. Furthermore, the impact of chamber wall conditioning on the solar cell performance is experimentally investigated based on symmetrical stacks structure (a-Si:H(i) / CZ wafer (n)/ a-Si:H(i)) and the n-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) growth process conditions were optimized. Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell back surface field (BSF) layer was prepared by conventional radio-frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) and the processing conditions in terms of the phosphine flow (1–20sccm), hydrogen dilution ratio (R=H2/SiH4) as 1–5 and symmetrical stacks structure using a (PH3/SiH4/H2/Ar) mixture were experimentally optimized. In addition, characterization of effective carrier lifetime (τeff), electrical and structure properties as well as correlation with the hydrogen dilution ratio were systematically discussed with the emphasis on the effectiveness of passivation layer. A high quality intrinsic/n-type a-Si:H layer stack BSF layer with measured effective carrier lifetime (τeff) of 1.8ms (which counts for implied Voc 0.707 V), can be consistently obtained and this improved passivation layer can be primarily attributed to the synergy of chemical and field effect to significantly reduce the surface recombination.


This paper contains interesting simulation results concerning the nonstationary potential distribution inside the sheath formed between a plasma and a biased electrode in the presence of a fast group of electrons. The influence of these fast monoenergetic electrons on the ion dynamics of a planar sheath is investigated assuming that the ion, electron, and fast electron components act as three coupled fluids. Under collision-free conditions and in the presence of a fast electron beam, the evolution of the potential and ion density distribution as a function of length is found. These profiles show that in the plasma with a group of fast monoenergetic electrons, a nonmonotonic distribution of the potential could be formed in front of the cathode in which its maximum is larger than the biased electrode potential with the passage of time. Results indicate that the formation of this maximum potential depends strongly on the ratio of the density of non-Maxwellian (fast) electrons to the density of the Maxwellian...


We are in the process of upgrading all of the analysers performing Biochemistry analysis at Pathlab Waikato in Hamilton and Pathlab BOP in Tauranga, both for general chemistry and Immunoassay. This upgrade will improve the performance of assays and improve turnaround times. All general biochemistry and Immunoassay results are now being reported from the new analysers. There will be no change to reference intervals for the tests and you should not notice any change to patient results with one noticeable exception:


Relationship between "Bit" and "It" is based on a nature of "It", a nature of quantum systems. We explore it, suggesting that quantum systems are effective systems made of fundamental particle events, described in Standard Model. Such unusual view of quantum systems, "It", puts it onto the same level as observed "Bits", which leads to conclusion that "Bit" is "It". 1 Definitions of "Bit", of "It", and of a Quantum Problem "Bits" and a quantative approach to information is a domain of information theory, which really started in late 1940's, mostly with Claude Shannon's work [1] about communications. Shannon introduces a relation between amount of information that can be sent through a communication channel and a number of states of the channel. For our purposes, particular mathematical form of that relation is not very important. Most important is that now we have a direct quantified relation between information, "Bit", and features of existing physical systems, or "It". Naturally, Shannon's work [1] assumes classical physical systems, not quantum ones. Does it matter? Well, information is defined as a function of states of some system. At any given moment a classical system is always in one of its own states. But it is not exactly so for quantum systems. A quantum system may seem not to be in any of its own states (we'll talk about it below in details), yet, on observation the same system gives information about its state. Therefore, in coarse terms, Shannon's relationship can be seen not as "It" defining "Bits", but the other way around, as "Bits" defining a state of "It" (see [2], where Wheeler introduces bit versus it theme). So, nature of physical quantum systems, i.e. "It", is key here. Let's then look at it closer. ∗E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


1. Method of ultrasonic testing of cast products made of titanium alloys, comprising the steps of: providing a titanium articles immediately after casting consisting of a titanium alloy with addition of boron in the range from 0.05 to 0.20 percent by weight; iultrazvukovuyu penetrant molded article of titanium to detect internal defects in izdelii.2. Method according to Claim. 1, characterized in that the boron content is from 0.05 to 0.15 percent by masse.3. Method according to claim. 2, characterized in that the boron content is from 0.05 to 0.10 percent by masse.4. Method according to Claim. 1, characterized in that the boron content is from 0.10 to 0.20 percent by masse.5. Method according to Claim. 1, characterized in that the boron content is from 0.10 to 0.15 percent by masse.6. method according to claim 1, characterized in that the titanium-base alloy is selected from:. technically pure titanium, Ti-6Al-4V, Ti-5Al-2Sn-2Zr-4Mo-4Cr, Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-2Mo, Ti -6Al-2Sn-4Zr-2Mo-0.1Si, Ti-10V-2Fe-3Al, Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-6Mo, Ti-5Al-2.5Sn, Ti-3Al-2.5V, Ti-6Al-4V ultrafine , Ti-6Al-6V-2Sn, Ti-15Mo-2.7Nb-3 Al-0.2Si, Ti-3Al-8V-6Cr-4Mo-4Zr, and Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr.7. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the ultrasonic inspection step is completed product, verified non-destructively.; and further comprising the step of hot working tested non-destructively titanium to the finished product produkt.8. Method according to claim. 7, characterized in that the heat treatment step includes at least one step of forging, rolling and press molding the molded article of the tested titanium izdelie.9 ready for use. Method according to Claim. 1, characterized in that the ultrasonic inspection step is completed verified non-destructively cast titanium product without heat treatment to reduce graininess


Objective. To investigate the changes and influencing factors of early postoperative pulmonary functionof thoracotomy.Methods. Pre-and early postoperative pulmonary function was studied in 64 consecutive cases withoptimal thoracotomy. Pain assessment was done before pulmonary function test, and the chief complaintsof patients were recorded after the procedure. The changing curves of pulmonary function were done andthe differences associated with groups, surgical styles, pain assessment, epidural analgesia, chief com-plaint and preoperative conditions were analyzed.Results. Pulmonary function was severely lowered to about 40% of the base line on the first day,and it was rehabilitated to about 60% of the base line on the eighth day. There was a greater gradienton the recovery curve on the 3rd and 4th days. Epidural analgesia was able to improve pain relaxationand pulmonary function in some degree. Single-factor analysis showed that postoperative pain, postopera-tive day and surgical style were the significant influencing factors for early postoperative pulmonary func-tion. By multiple-factor analysis, preoperative pulmonary function, age and postoperative pain were themain factors, while surgical style had only weak effect on it.Conclusions. Early postoperative pulmonary function is severely impaired by thoracotomy. It rehabili-tate gradually with time. Improvement of preoperative pulmonary function, reducing surgical procedure in-juries, especially injury to respiratory muscle system, and enough postoperative pain relief are the mostimportant means that would reduce pulmonary function impairment and consequently reduce postoperativepulmonary complications.


Chen et al (Chinese patent 1.220,995, translation).* Focus (1998) 2002):36.* Chen et al. (Chinese patent 1.220,995, translation provided).* Focus (1998) 2002):36.* American Chemical Society, Most Cited Journal Articles 2002, CAS Science Spotlight, Chemistry & Related Science, Journal Articles, 2002, http:/www.cas.org/spotlightjcite?)2/jcite(02.html. Bonham, M.J. et al., Improved Purification and Yields of RNA by RNeasy, BioTechniques 21:57-60, (1996). Chattopadhyay, N. et al. Inexpensive SDS-Phenol Method for RNA Extraction from Tissues, BioTechniques, 15:24-25 (1993). Chomczynski, P. etal, Modification of the TRI Reagent Procedure for Isolation of RNA from Polysaccharideand Proteoglycan-Rich Sources, Short Technical Reports, BioTechniques, 19:942-945 (1995). Chomczynski, Piotr, A Reagent for the Single-Step Simultaneous Isolation of RNA, DNA and Proteins from Cell and Tissue Samples, BioTechniques, 15:532-535 (1993). Chomczynski, P. etal. Single-Step Method of RNA Isolation by Acid Guanidinium Thiocyanate-Phenol-Chloroform Extraction, Anal. Biochem. 162:156-159 (1987). Girotti, M. etal, Gene Expression Profiling of Rat Uterus at Different Stages of Parturition, Endocrinology 144:2254-2265. Guan, H.P. et al. A futile metabolic cycle activated in adipocytes by antidiabetic agents, Nature Med. 8:1122-1128 (2003). Kedzierski. W. etal, ANovel Non-Enzymatic Procedure for Removing DNA Template from RNA Transcription Mixtures, BioTechniques 10:210-214 (1991). Kingston, Robert E. Preparation and Analysis of RNA. Current Pro tocols in Molecular Biology, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., NewYork, vol. 1, 2002, Chapter 4, 4.0.1.-4.3.4. Liu, Z. et al. An Improved Rapid Method of Isolating RNA from Cultured Cells by SDS-Acid Phenol/Chloroform Extraction, BioTechniques 16:56-57 (1994). Mathy, N. L. etal, Removal of RT-PCR Inhibitors from RNA Extracts of Tissues, BioTechniques 21:770-774 (1996). Molecular Research Center, Tri Reagent RNA, DNA, Protein Isola tion Reagent, Manufacturer's Protocol, pp. 1-6 (2003). Monstein, H.J. et al., RNA Extraction from Gastrointestinal Tract and Pancreas by a Modified Chomczynski and Sacchi Method, BioTechniques 19:340-343 (1995). Mutimer, H. et al. Pitfalls of Processed Pseudogenes in RT-PCR, BioTechniques 24:585-587 (1998). Puissant, C. etal. An Improvement of the Single-Step Method of RNA Isolation by Acid Guanidinium Thiocyanate-Phenol-Chloroform Extraction, BioTechniques 8:148-149 (1990). ScienceWatch, Twenty Years of Citation Superstars, ScienceWatch, Sep.-Oct. 2003, http:/www.sciencewatch.com/sent-oct2003/ SW Sept-Oct2003 page2.html. Siebert, Paul D. et al. Modified acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phe nol-chloroform RNA extraction method which greatly reduces DNA contamination, Nucleic Acid Res. 21:2019-2020 (1993). Simms, RNA. Isolation Reagent and Methods, U.S. Patent Applica tion Publication No. 20030204077, Oct. 30, 2003 (U.S. Appl. No. 10/442,946). Suzuki, Y. et al. Extraction of Total RNA from Leaves of Eucalyptus and Other Woody and Herbaceous Plants using Sodium Isoascorbate, BioTechniques 34:988-993 (2003). Monstein, et al., RNA Extraction from Gastroinestinal Tract and Pancreas by a Modified Chomczynski and Sacchi Method, BioTechniques (1995), vol. 19, pp. 340-344. PCT, International Search Report, PCT/US2005/012814, mailed Jul. 29, 2005, 5 pages. Wallace, Largeand Small-Scale Phenol Extractions, Methods in Enzymology (1987), vol. 152, pp. 33-48.


This invention relates to a thermoplastic material for the manufacture of opaque products in form of sheet or plate characterized in that it forms a mixture comprising a polyolefin resin incorporating an inorganic filler and an additive comprising a metal charge. Preferably, the resin comprises a polypropylene-polyethylene copolymer optionally incorporating 8 to 25% of titanium dioxide, the mineral filler is selected from titanium dioxide, talc or calcium carbonate and the metallic filler is aluminum. In particular, the additive is an inorganic complex in an amount between 0.05 to 0.5% by weight, e.g. masterbatch type and containing 50% titanium dioxide particles and aluminum. The invention also relates to a solid or cellular sheet whose light transmittance rate is less than 1% preferably less than 0.5%. The latter finds application as print media.


The aim of the study was to analyze the labor resource involved in agricultural activity in the South-Muntenia Region, as well as to highlight the existing trends in this sector as a result of the health crisis we are going through. Existing statistical data indicate annual fluctuations in the number of employees in agriculture in the period 2016-2019, up to 1-2%, after which between 2019 and 2020 there is a decrease of 1.29%, considered insignificant. In Romania, there is a decrease of 1.8%, amid economic uncertainties, but also the capricious climate, avoiding employment. On the other hand, the average gross salary increases by 12.45% in 2020, compared to 2019, and the forecasts so far for 2021 follow the same trend.


This paper is concerned with matrix elements of spin‐dependent operators. We present a detailed derivation of the matrix elements of the operators Δ(n)ij and Δ(n+1)ij shown in the article by Gould and Paldus [J. Chem. Phys. 92, 7394 (1990]) to lead to the matrix elements of all spin‐dependent operators within the Gel'fand spin‐adapted basis; as required for spin‐dependent CI and the calculation of relativistic energy level shifts. Besides being useful for spin‐dependent CI calculations, involving the incorporation of spin–orbit and spin–spin type electronic interactions, our results can be used for the calculation of spin‐dependent properties coming from a wave function with well defined spin. Such wave functions can now be routinely computed using any one of numerous unitary group based program systems, hence the usefulness of our formalism for chemical properties. In particular we give an application of this formalism to the calculation of the spin density of a molecule using a spin‐adapted wave functio...


The Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) Socio-Economic Research Program, initiated by UMTA in 1975, is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary research effort addressing the social, economic, environmental, institutional, land use, and performance issues of AGT technology in the urban environment. A major objective of this program is to ascertain the potential market for AGT systems in the United States. The information was extracted from 38 proposals submitted by U.S. cities for consideration in UMTA's Downtown People Mover (DPM) Project in June 1976. These proposals address a range of socioeconomic considerations related to the installation of DPM systems in central business districts. The considerations include application site characteristics, system ridership, system economics, past project planning, local funding sources, related transportation planning activities, related central city redevelopment activities, and environmental impacts. This report presents a brief description of the status of AGT technology in the U.S., a summary of the project and site characteristics given in the DPM proposals, and individual summary sheets for each city. The 38 DPM proposals submitted indicate that there is a U.S. market for a people mover system.


Abstract A method for the determination of thallium in solid environmental samples is developed. After destruction of the sample, TI(III) is extracted from 0.5 M hydrobromic acid solution into diisopropyl-ether. the organic phase is evaporated and the residue taken up in a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acids. Measurements are carried out with an atomic absorption spectrometer with Zeeman background corrector. the accuracy of the method is tested by analysis of certified reference materials and the method is applied to fly ash and emitted particulate matter from a municipal refuse incinerator and to soil samples.


Writing is one of the language skills. The students feel difficult in this skill because they have to express their ideas in a written text. This issue also happened in SMP 2 Bae Kudus. The ability of writing narrative text of the eighth grade students of SMP 2 Bae Kudus in academic year 2013/2014 is low enough. Most of the students can not develop their ideas. As the result, the students' writing score is categorized in poor criterion. Wordless picture book is the teaching media to solve the problem writing ability in narrative text. This book has many illustrations that give much ideas compose a narrative text because the story has chronological pictures which have problems and problem solving.
The objective of this research are to find out whether there is any significant difference between the ability of writing narrative text of the eighth grade students of SMP 2 Bae Kudus in academic year 21013/2014 before and after they are taught by wordless picture book. The design of the research is quasi experimental research which is done by giving pre- test, treatments, and post- test to know the students' writing ability.
After nalyzing the research data, the writer finds out highest score is (70) and lowest score is (55) before being taught by using wordless picture book. While, the mean of pre- test score is 62.25 and deviation standard is 11.14. Otherwise, the highest and lowest scores after being taught by using wordless picture book are 95 and 60. Then, the mean and deviation standard are 81.5 and 10.01 Moreover, to know the level significant, the writer uses t- test analysis. T- test is 4.72and T- table is 2.07 on the level significant 5%. It means T- test > t-table. So, there is a significant difference between the ability of writing narrative text of the eighth grade students of SMP 2 Bae Kudus in academic year 2013/2014 before and after they are taught by wordless picture book.
Based on the result above, wordless picture book can develop the students' ability in writing text. The book helps them make a story based on their own imagination. The writer suggests that English teacher should use wordless picture book to solve the students' problem in writing narrative text and for the next researchers, this research can be more evolved about the writing activity with other skill of English language.


The Meiyu front rainstorm occurred from July 4 to July 5,2003 in the Yangtze-Huaihe River basin was simulated and diagnosed by WRF.The analysis results suggested that the torrential rain region was in an environment of high temperature and high humidity.The rainstorm process was promoted by the coupling of upper and lower tropospheric jet stream,and the combination of convergence in lower troposphere and divergence in upper troposphere.The moist potential vorticity was computed to reveal the physical mechanisms of this rainstorm.The overlapping of the positive and negative ζMPV1 in upper and lower level,and the evolution of ζMPV10 and ζMPV20 showed that unstable convective energy as well as slantwise vorticity developed in this rainstorm process.ζMPV1 and ζMPV2 totally suggest the intensification of convective instability and baroclinic instability in the storm area.


The United States experienced a 25% unemployment rate in 1929 as a result of the Great Depression. More than 5,000 banks in the United States announced closure, and more than 80,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy as a direct result of the Great Depression. Everyone was drowning in the woes of being unemployed. However, Hollywood movies provided a pastime for people who were suffering every day during the Great Depression. Although the 1930s was the worst time for the U.S. economy, it was the golden age of Hollywood. The 1930s to the late 1940s are referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood, in which Hollywood dominated the film industry. Women on screen have many images, but all these female portraits cannot be separated from men. Women's life at that time was inextricably linked with men's. This paper analyzes women's images from the Golden Age of Hollywood movies. The purpose is to explain how the portrayal of women on screen reflects the status of women in society at the time and what factors led to such a portrayal of women on screen. The paper found that the most impactful factors are women's jobs taken by men during the Great Depression, the dominant social consciousness of masculinity, and the desire for male voyeurism.


This paper first presents a brief reveiw of the multicriteria problems faced by the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps in making enlisted personnel assignment decisions. Then for the most complex of these military assignment problems, the Marine Corps problem, a new modeling and solution approach is presented with computational results for a problem having eleven criteria and approximately 10,000 constraints and 780,000 variables. Other contributions of this paper include: (a) New insights into the effects on model structure and solution efficiency of handling preemptive multiple criteria sequentially versus simultaneously. (b) Derivation of an excellent convex proportional fill function. (c) Providing multicriteria researchers with a class of large-scale test problems.


A well-ordered society faces a crisis whenever non-compliers intrude society. This has a potential to destabilize political order. This paper provides a formal analysis of two competing solutions to the problem of political stability offered in the public reason liberalism literature – namely, using public reason or using convergence discourse to restore political stability in the well-ordered society. The formal analyses offered in this paper show that using public reason fails completely, while using convergent discourse, although doing better, has its own limitations.


The report describes a projèct in which six visually impaired people who had given up any expectation of reading for pleasure underwent a programme of training to re-learn reading skills. The report shows how, after twelve weeks, the participants were able to read commercial large print either with no optical aid or with a lower level of magnification than would usually be prescribed.


The 7 km long CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is, apart from the LHC, the accelerator with the largest stored beam energy worldwide of up to 3MJ. In 2008, an equipment failure led to a fast tune shift towards an integer resonance and an uncontrolled loss of a high intensity beam, which resulted in major damage of the accelerator. Distinct experimental studies and simulations provide clear understanding of the beam dynamics and the beam loss patterns at different SPS tune resonances. Diverging closed orbit oscillations, a resonant dispersion and increased beta beating are the driving effects that lead to a complete beam loss in as little as 3 turns (69 μs). At the moment, the commissioning of a new turn-by-turn position interlock system which will counteract the vulnerability of the SPS is ongoing. In this paper, mainly the dynamics of beam losses at different tune resonances and machine protection related aspects are discussed. The beam dynamics at tune resonances are only briefly addressed, a more detailed description is given in [1]. A very comprehensive description of theory, methodology, experiments, simulations and results is given in [2].


Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease showing alterations in neurotransmitters, above all in brain regions responsibles for cognition and emotions. In this disease, an imbalance between neurotransmitters, acetylcholine, GABA, glutamate, noradrenaline and serotonin are included. In brain examinations, serotonin levels and the specific receptors are found to be decreased. In the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, serotonin levels are associated with cognitive functions, whereas in the brainstem serotonin levels are related with symptoms of mood, for example depressed mood. Psychotic symptoms, i.e. paranoia or hallucinations which can occur in patients with Alzheimer's disease are associated with dopamine and serotonin hyperactivity in brain regions responsibles for memory and emotions, i.e. the mesolimbic system and hippocampus.


This article investigates the determinants of agricultural households' product commercialisation in Kosovo in 2005, and in particular whether the integration of farms into input markets plays a role. Using data from a survey of 4187 agricultural households, a two-stage selection model is used, taking account of potential endogeneity of input prices. Results show that high labour price and low land availability are strong impediments to commercialisation of agriculture in the region.


Breast cancer is the most common and lethal type of cancer among women in the world. Epimutation is the leading cause of the tumorigenesis of breast cancer. DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) is the key enzyme involved in the regulation of DNA methylation pattern. In this research, the fragment-based drug design approach on natural products was performed to discover a novel inhibitor of the DNMT1 as a therapeutic strategy against breast cancer. About 2,601 fragments out of 168,646 compounds were obtained from the Lipinski's Rule of Three and toxicity screening. The fragments were docked into the S-Adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) binding site of DNMT1. The potential fragments were merged with S-Adenosyl-L-homocysteine (SAH), generating nine ligands. The ligands underwent flexible docking simulation and ADME-Tox prediction by using AdmetSAR, Toxtree, SwissADME software. Three ligands show favorable characteristics as a new drug candidate for the DNMT1 inhibitor according to the interaction of the amino acid residues, RMSD, and ∆Gbinding. MAHI1 being the best ligands in term of ∆Gbinding -12.6300 kcal/mol, molecular interaction, and pharmacological properties.


Most islet xenotransplantation laboratories have focused on porcine islets, which are both costly and difficult to isolate. Teleost (bony) fish, such as tilapia, possess macroscopically visible distinct islet organs called Brockmann bodies which can be inexpensively harvested. When transplanted into diabetic nude mice, tilapia islets maintain long‐term normoglycemia and provide human‐like glucose tolerance profiles. Like porcine islets, when transplanted into euthymic mice, they are rejected in a CD4 T‐cell‐dependent manner. However, unlike pigs, tilapia are so phylogenetically primitive that their cells do not express α(1,3)Gal and, because tilapia are highly evolved to live in warm stagnant waters nearly devoid of dissolved oxygen, their islet cells are exceedingly resistant to hypoxia, making them ideal for transplantation within encapsulation devices. Encapsulation, especially when combined with co‐stimulatory blockade, markedly prolongs tilapia islet xenograft survival in small animal recipients, and a collaborator has shown function in diabetic cynomolgus monkeys. In anticipation of preclinical xenotransplantation studies, we have extensively characterized tilapia islets (morphology, embryologic development, cell biology, peptides, etc.) and their regulation of glucose homeostasis. Because tilapia insulin differs structurally from human insulin by 17 amino acids, we have produced transgenic tilapia whose islets stably express physiological levels of humanized insulin and have now bred these to homozygosity. These transgenic fish can serve as a platform for further development into a cell therapy product for diabetes.


Disclosed is a radio frequency processing device for addressing a technical problem in which a large time delay between a baseband processing device and a radio frequency processing device causes a poor system performance. The device comprises: a storage for storing a set of code; and a processor for controlling the radio frequency processing device to process a baseband signal or a radio frequency signal when some or all of the set of code is executed, wherein the process includes modulating the baseband signal or demodulating the radio frequency signal, and processing MAC PDU or processing MAC PDU and RLC PDU. Also disclosed is a corresponding processing method.


Objective: This paper made a conclusion about the functions and the protective mechanisms of reactive oxygen specie.Methods: It was based on 20 pieces of Chinese and English papers that the species and the presence of the reactive oxygen in plant stress and defense was reviewed.Results: The species,comparative characters of reactive oxygen species was introduced.Further more,the functions and the protective mechanisms of reactive oxygen species was emphasized specially.In addition,prospecting the future research direction of this field was concluded.Conclusion: It illuminated the reactive oxygen species had a dual functional that damages cells at high concentration and act as ubiquitous signal molecules to induce the expression of defense genes and adaptive response at low concentration.


This review presents a systematic and comprehensive survey of the methods of preparation and the chemical reactivity of cyanoacetamide derivatives. These compounds are important intermediates for the synthesis of a variety of otherwise difficult to obtain synthetically useful and novel heterocyclic systems.


This study evaluated the convenience of postdisaster recovery housing complexes constructed in Japan's Iwate Prefecture following the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. We expected that five years on from the disaster, the evacuees would find life there more convenient. The study was targeted at three major cities in the southern coastal area of Iwate Prefecture that were most heavily struck by the earthquake-triggered tsunami: Kamaishi, Ofunato, and Rikuzentakata. Using geographical information system software, we conducted a network analysis of the coordinate data on the location of crucial infrastructure. Housing complexes within the defined service area of each infrastructure facility were assigned a score of 10, while those within two and three times the defined service area were assigned scores of 5.0 and 3.3, respectively. The convenience of the housing complexes was evaluated using these scores. In Ofunato City, the post-disaster recovery housing complexes were shown to have better access to key infrastructure than the temporary housing complexes, and in Rikuzentakata City, the two types of complexes were shown to have comparable access. In Kamaishi City, however, the post-disaster recovery housing complexes were shown to have poorer access to key infrastructure than the temporary housing complexes. These results suggest that the daily life of evacuees has not greatly improved in Rikuzentakata and Kamaishi. These results were not in line with our prior expectations.


The construction of a 3D point cloud map for long-term vehicle localization has always been a challenge in the autonomous driving community. In a highly dynamic urban environment, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) systems can be heavily affected by non-permanent objects and features during the mapping process, leaving undesired noise in the final map, which is redundant for long-term application. This paper explores applying object detection neural networks in SLAM systems to reduce the effect from dynamic objects (e.g., vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists). Specifically, we use Point-Pillars to detect and remove objects first and then perform LOAM to achieve a more static mapping. In the experimental section, the proposed method is validated on the public KITTI Odometry dataset. Compared with the original LOAM, the proposed method can provide a static point cloud map, thus improving the robustness of long-term vehicle applications.


This article presents an equivalent stress approach that can be used in many elastoplastic constitutive models for unsaturated soils. The use of the equivalent stress leads to a modified yield locus that is independent of the suction. In addition, the equivalent stress becomes the major stress variable, with suction required only as an additional variable in calculations. The model on the basis of equivalent stress predicts exactly the same soil behaviour, with the sole difference being the use of equivalent stress instead of original stress variables. This article also presents the equivalent stress formulations of several constitutive models for unsaturated soils, including the Barcelona Basic Model. The predictions from these models remain unchanged, with the only difference being in their implementation. Finally, the equivalent stress approach and the net stress approach are compared for the Barcelona Basic Model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective To investigate the recent infection conditions of TORCH-IgM among the pregnant women. Methods Enzyme linked immonosorbent assay(ELISA) was applied to detect serum TORCH-IgM in 7,650 pregnant women with different gestational weeks and the examining results were compared. Results The total positive rate of TORCH-IgM in pregnant women was 9.65%.The positive rates of TOX,RV,CMV,HSV1 2IgM were 3.10%,1.07%,4.29%,and 1.19%,respectively. Conclusions It is necessary to detect TORCH-IgM in pregnant women as the valid evidence of recent infection,and it is of great significance to promote birth quality and improve the population quality.


This study investigated the effects of work engagement and psychological meaningfulness on life satisfaction taking into account the moderating effect of gender. A cross-sectional research design was used to capture data on satisfaction with life, work engagement and psychological meaningfulness. The sample consisted of 796 employees from various companies in South Africa (women = 65.9%; aged between 18 and 67). The results showed work engagement and psychological meaningfulness to significantly predict life satisfaction. A significant interaction effect for gender was found on the relationships between work engagement on life satisfaction and psychological meaningfulness on work engagement respectively. The results indicated that men showed a higher level of life satisfaction when work engagement was high. Women showed lower levels of life satisfaction the more they engage in their work. Women further experienced a higher level of work engagement compared to men; however, the relationship between psychological meaningfulness and work engagement was stronger for men. The more psychological meaningfulness men experience, the more they will engage-unlike women, who tend to experience work engagement irrespective of psychological meaningfulness.


The re-aromatizing loss of toluene by radical initiated fragmentation of substrates (II) and (IV) renders possible the transformation of dithiocarbonyl group and a tri- or dichloromethyl group to olefins.


To assess sleep in the home situation, wrist actigraphy is often used. However, it requires an on-body sensor which may disturb sleep and primarily collects data on the movement of one wrist only. Video actigraphy, by estimating motion from captured infrared images, overcome these issues. In this paper, we compare activity levels from wrist and full body video actigraphy in a home setting. Video actigraphy correctly found 19 % more small and medium movements that were missed by the wrist sensor. We further show that similar values of sleep efficiency (SE, %) are obtained from simultaneous recordings of video and wrist actigraphy, and we compared both to reference SE values provided by a full polysomnography (PSG). The proposed video actigraphy proved convenient and easy to use in real home situations. It successfully found movements originating from under the blanket, and turned out robust to various sleeping positions, different illumination conditions, viewing angles, beds and blankets. Our results suggest that on-body actigraph sensors can be successfully replaced with the proposed video-based solution for the application of unobtrusive sleep monitoring and analysis.


Due to climate and environmental changes, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced several drought and flood events in recent decades with serious consequences on the economy of the sub-region. In this context, the region needs to enhance its capacity in water resources management, based on both good knowledge of contemporary variations in river flows and reliable forecasts. The objective of this article was to study the evolution of current and future flows in the Nyong River Basin (NRB) in Cameroon. To achieve this, the Pettitt and modified Mann–Kendall tests were used to analyze the hydrometeorological time series in the basin. The SWAT model was used to simulate the future flows in the NRB. During the 1970s, the Nyong basin experienced a joint decrease in rainfall and flow. Despite a general decrease in future precipitation, a significant increase in runoff is expected in this basin, regardless of the period (2022–2060 or 2061–2100), the model (RCA4 or CCCma) and the scenario (representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 or RCP8.5). This increase in flow will be the result of the increase in impervious areas to the detriment of forest in the basin, which will compensate for the drop in precipitation with an increase in runoff.


In vitro culture of Pinus is always the priority of research all over the world. Pinus tabuliformis Carr is an evergreen gymnosperm unique to China, which has economic value. In this study, P. tabuliformis zygotic embryos were used as the research subject. The key skills of how callus induce from zygotic embryos and obtain stable suspension cells were explored, by means of tissue culture with different medium and hormones. The results showed that P. tabuliformis could induce callus effectively on DCR medium with 2.0 mg/L 2,4-D + 0.63 mg/L 6-BA + 0.61 mg/L KT + 0.1 μM BR hormones. The induction rate of the medium was up to 82.9%. The subculture medium was DCR + 1.1 mg/L 2,4-D + 0.45 mg/L 6-BA + 0.43 mg/L KT. Stable proliferation callus is obtained by subculture medium and P. tabuliformis suspension cell line is obtained by liquid culture. The method can provide materials for the genetic transformation research of P. tabuliformis and provide ways for the tissue culture regenerated seedlings of P. tabuliformis in the future.


Abstract : The conduct and outcome of war is never assured. As often quoted, Carl von Clausewitz lamented that "war is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty." The fog of war impacts every aspect of military planning. During the past decade, one of the major concerns traveling through military circles is the belief that we are in the midst of a revolution in military affairs (RMA). Some military planners hope that technical and other advances brought about by the RMA can lift some of this "fog of war." Many scholars point to the use of precision-guided munitions in the Gulf War and in the bombing campaigns of Operation Allied Force in Kosovo as proof positive of the existence of a new revolution in military affairs. However, all do not agree about this being a revolutionary step. Some claim that these advances are merely an evolutionary, and not revolutionary, step in the conduct of war. Most of the weapons and the Airland Battle Doctrine used in the conduct of these operations were around for a decade or more prior. Even of those who believe that the United States is in the beginning of and RMA may somewhat disagree over how to exactly define this revolution in military affairs. Is the advance in technology enough to comprise the revolution, or does it require more? In this paper, I will address what I believe to be the most all-inclusive definition of the RMA. I will then look at some possible impacts on the organization of the U.S. Army necessitated by this RMA. Changes in Army organization, along with the technological advances of the RMA, will necessitate changes in personnel support to the Army. I will discuss some of these impacts, propose some possible changes to personnel support functions and also some structural changes to personnel organizations. However, the first step is to come to a consensus on the definition of the revolution in military affairs.


Tarsal tunnel syndrome is an uncommon condition which can be painfully debilitating. This clinical diagnosis is often enhanced by electro diagnostic tests. Causes are both extrinsic and intrinsic. Initial treatment is usually non-operative, but at times surgical intervention is indicated at the outset. The surgery is difficult and the literature suggests patient selection is crucial for positive surgical outcomes. Surgical success rates are highest when cause is extrinsic and surgery is performed within 12 months of symptom onset.


A £2-million jointly-sponsored programme to reduce the number of incidents involving carbon monoxide poisoning will give the gas industry a valuable new insight into these incidents and improve guidelines for designing, installing and servicing domestic gas appliances, Nigel Evans * reports.


Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) techniques are often used to develop functional and reliable engineering systems. A key class of MDO problems is the control co-design problem wherein a plant and its control decisions are optimized together. However, little work has been done to investigate combined robust plant and robust closed-loop control design in the presence of statistical uncertainty. This work will address that gap by combining closed-loop co-design and reliability-based design optimization techniques. The utility of the proposed approach is demonstrated in the design of a thermal management system and its feedback PI controller. Reliable system designs are characterized by an increase in the system's thermal capacitance and utilization of integral control to decrease the magnitude of peak temperatures.


De-blurring the high resolution remote sensing images is an important issue in the relative research field of remote sensing. In this paper a novel algorithm of de-blurring the high resolution remote sensing images is proposed based on sparse representation. The high spatial resolution remote sensing images can be de-blurred by gradient projection algorithm, and keep the useful information of the image. The experimental results of the remote sensing images obtained by "the first satellite of high resolution" show that the algorithm can de-blur the image more effectively and improve the PSNR, this method has better performance than other dictionary learning algorithm.


The Breeder's and Price equations are static models of evolution. Recent work has demonstrated how components of these equations, such as selection differentials and heritabilities, can be calculated for each time-step from dynamic, evolutionarily-explicit, structured population models. These dynamic models consist of functions that describe how environmental factors impact associations of genotypes and phenotypic traits with survival, reproduction, development, and non-genetic inheritance. Because evolutionarily explicit versions of these structured models can include feedbacks and can capture all the routes via which environmental variation can impact evolution, they i) provide a more powerful predictive tool for modelling eco-evolution in natural settings than existing approaches, and ii) reveal how key evolutionary parameters incorporated into static models change with time as evolution, or environmental change, proceeds.


Dr LaPrairie's article is a useful and informative comment on 'new' initiatives in criminal justice processing which seem to have stirred a fire in the bellies of criminal justice practitioners in many parts of the world. In this brief comment, I wish to point out some issues which seem to have been overlooked in the rush to accept, adapt and adopt these initiatives, and which are largely absent from both Dr LaPrairie's piece and the literature on conferencing upon which she draws. Her abstract suggests that the article is merely a 'preliminary exploration of two new approaches in criminal justice which have important implications for Aboriginal and indigenous communities'. Her piece does indeed suggest that indigenous people have played an important part in the development of Sentencing Circles in Canada, and that the majority of offenders and communities in which Sentencing Circles operate are from indigenous communities, In contrast, the developments in family conferencing in Australia, apart from some variants in Northern New South Wales (Juvenile Justice Advisory Council 1993: 108) which bear little resemblance to the conferences discussed by LaPrairie, have only oblique implications for Aboriginal communities as a result of the discriminatory operation of Australian criminal justice. An appallingly high proportion of Aboriginal people, adult and young, are drawn daily into the net of criminal justice processing. Given that the number of Aboriginal young people who are cautioned by police or who receive the 'benefit' of a sentencing disposition other than custody is proportionately much lower than for non-Aboriginal young people in all parts of Australia (Luke & Cunneen 1995; Gale, Wundersitz & Bailey-Harris 1989) it seems to be unduly optimistic to expect that developments in conferencing in Australia will positively impact on Aboriginal communities without significantly greater input into their development from Aboriginal people themselves. This seems unlikely given the discriminatory practices which have been well documented in research on Aboriginal young people and policing over recent decades (see, eg, Cunneen 1994). Dr LaPrairie gives the impression that all forms of conferencing in Australia are closely modelled on the New Zealand Family Group Conferences (FGCs). It is true that the developments in New Zealand occurred because of Maori dissatisfaction with the enormous proportion of and negative impact on their young people going through the system which was in operation prior to the introduction of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act in 1989. It was also the case that the form adopted for the FGCs is based on 'traditional' Maori concepts of conflict resolution (Brown 1993; Maxwell 1993). However, Braithwaite's original and compelling theory of 'reintegrative shaming' (1989) was not a major influence on the New Zealand changes. It has, in contrast, been highly significant in the Wagga experiment,


Target detection is a key component of any constructive simulation. Detecting the target is the first step in the beginning of the constructive simulation. Detection predictions can have significant effect on the results in any constructive simulation. This paper explores the utility of advances in machine learning to inform sensor design by analyzing the outcomes of the time and detection models in constructive simulations. A simple scenario will be designed, and execution of the scenario will be performed to create datasets for analysis. Traditional metrics such as probability of detection and time to detect will be evaluated by the algorithms to determine the optimal sensor(s) designs to achieve the best possible performance across the scenario. A summary of the results and recommendations for machine learning algorithm design for this type of data analysis will then be presented.


Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of latanoprost (Xalatan) as adjunctive therapy in port wine stain related paediatric glaucoma. Methods: A retrospective non-randomised study. Patients with previous surgical intervention and medical treatment were included. Measurements were recorded from clinic and/or examination under anaesthetic (EUA) visits. A successful outcome was considered to be patients who required no further intervention following initiation of latanoprost, with stable glaucoma factors as well as drop in intraocular pressure. Results: 14 patients and 17 eyes were reviewed in total. The mean age of glaucoma diagnosis was 2.59 years (0.1–5.25 years) and of commencing latanoprost was 6.8 years (1.40–12.90 years). Percentage success at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year was 70.6%, 64.7%, 58.9%, and 47.1%, respectively, of eyes treated which translated to 71.4%, 64.2%, 57.1%, and 50% respectively of patients treated. Conclusions: A trial of latanoprost as adjunctive therapy in patients with port wine stain related glaucoma may temporise the need for surgery; with 50% of patients being controlled at 1 year follow up. Lack of efficacy was detected as early as 1 month following commencement of treatment.


An interdisciplinary team of Investigators at Johns Hopkins Hospital performed a unique single-center study to reduce methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) infections in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using active surveillance and a decolonization intervention. To do so, they performed surveillance cultures of the anterior nares of all NICU patients and treated colonized infants with mupirocin (twice daily for 5 days) and chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bathing (twice using CHG-impregnated cloths). Their outcome measures were healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) as defined by the National Health Safety Network (NHSN) caused by MSSA and other MSSA clinical cultures obtained during the course of care. Using incidence rate ratios derived from an interrupted time series conducted from April 2011 to September 2014, the investigators found a significant reduction in MSSA-associated NHSN-defined HAIs and clinical cultures. Notably, this reduction occurred despite failure to screen ~25% of eligible infants for MSSA and failure to decolonize ~21% of colonized infants. Furthermore, interventions were only provided to infants >36 weeks gestational age or >4 weeks chronological age, thereby rendering the infants at highest risk ineligible to participate, as HAIs are inversely associated with birth weight in the NICU population. No reductions in MRSA HAIs or clinical cultures occurred, but the numbers of such outcomes were small, and a similar intervention for MRSA was already in place during the pre-intervention period. The authors did not comment on infections caused by other pathogens. Similar active surveillance and decolonization interventions have been used to combat MRSA in the NICU population, particularly during outbreaks, and they have been reported to combat outbreaks of MSSA. Although these strategies have not been previously implemented to combat endemic MSSA, there is strong rationale to develop strategies to reduce MSSA burden in the NICU population: MSSA rates are higher than those of MRSA in the NICU population, and the morbidity and mortality from HAIs in the NICU population can be devastating. Thus, safe interventions to reduce such infections would be welcome. This study does address safety, but unanswered questions remain. The investigators did not note the emergence of mupirocin resistance, but only 65 of the first 85 MSSA isolates were tested, and the intervention period was relatively short, 18 months. Thus, this observation is not fully reassuring, and it is crucial to continue to monitor mupirocin resistance over time. The investigators did not address the long-term safety or short-term tolerability of CHG bathing. Concerns about the safety of CHG in preterm infants continue, including adverse neurologic effects and skin reactions. The Food and Drug Administration recently modified the labeling for 2% chlorhexidine gluconate cloths and added "use with care in premature infants or infants under 2 months of age. These products may cause irritation or chemical burns." As a result of these concerns, the CHG decolonization intervention in this study was only provided to infants >36 weeks gestational age or >4 weeks chronological age. The investigators did not assess CHG susceptibility, but recent studies have suggested reduced CHG susceptibility associated with daily CHG bathing. Finally, in the modern era, we must consider the potential unintended consequences of decolonization strategies that adversely impact the microbiome. For example, potentially more virulent organisms could become colonizing flora, or colonization with S. aureus could be critical for normal developmental processes. In summary, this study has provided much-needed data to justify performing a large, multicenter study to establish the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of targeted surveillance cultures and decolonization strategies in the NICU population. Such a study design is likely to be embraced by the neonatology community. In addition, a larger future study could more fully assess the durability of decolonization, assess whether infected infants acquire new S. aureus strains or become infected with their colonizing strains, determine optimal


Year 2024 U.S. Air Force will replace their current Northrop T-38 Talon aircraft trainer for pilots, and therefore they have designed the T-X program where several aircraft manufactures competes ab ...


The formation of naphthalene particles by expansion of a supercritical solution is investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. Supercritical carbon dioxide is chosen as solvent. A method for the successive expansion of the simulation box is developed which allows expanding the system very closely to the adiabatic curve obtained form a reference equation of state. During the expansion the solubility decreases and naphthalene particles precipitate. The heat of formation is compensated by the Joule−Thomson effect of the expanding solvent. Therefore, no influence of a molecular dynamics simulation thermostat is involved. Here the method is proposed and analyzed in extensive studies. Results are presented for the formation of naphthalene particles using a realistic model for the molecular interaction. In addition, a simplified potential model is employed to analyze finite size effects.


Altos de Cazuca is commune number four in the municipality of Soacha, bordering Ciudad Bolivar. This commune is characterized by being densely populated and with a high rate of poverty. According to the website of the Mayor's Office, 69,325 people inhabit the territory, corresponding to 17.41% of the total municipality. Around 30 neighborhoods make up the entire territory of Altos de Cazuca, most of which are distinguished by being informal settlements.

The settlement of the commune has been directly related to internal displacement processes as a consequence of the armed conflict in different areas of the country. Due to this internal displacement, the peripheries of the cities have received the migrants of the conflict. Soacha, being the municipality with the cheapest land value close to Bogota, has been involved in these urbanization processes, without being able to cover the needs of the population that settled in these areas. Thus, the high rates of poverty are evidenced within Altos de Cazuca.

Irregular urbanization mixed with high rates of poverty were some of the factors that allowed the presence of groups outside the law in the territory, generating various violent events. This situation made Altos de Cazuca news and generated the perception of the area as a violent territory.

In this way, a media narrative has been generated that established a social stigma for Cazuca as a dangerous place to live and the focus of all kinds of social problems. These narratives forget to make visible and highlight the people who work daily to make their commune a resistant and worthy place to live and that violence does not exhaust the reality of its inhabitants.

Through communication and journalism it is valuable to know from what other place, other than violence, the inhabitants of Altos de Cazuca can collectively create a story that positively transforms the perspective of their territory.


To establish efficacy and safety of artesunate/lumefantrine fixed‐dose combination (FDC) in comparison with artemether/lumefantrine FDC in treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria.


We discuss several issues important for experimentally observing Efimov physics in ultracold quantum gases. By numerically solving the three-boson Schrödinger equation over a broad range of scattering lengths and energies, and by including model potentials with multiple bound states, we address the complications of relating experimental observations to available analytic expressions. These more realistic potentials introduce features that can mask the predicted Efimov physics at small scattering lengths. They also allow us to verify that positive and negative scattering lengths are universally connected only across a pole, not across a zero. Additionally, we show that the spacing between Efimov features for the relatively small scattering lengths accessible experimentally fails to precisely follow the geometric progression expected for Efimov physics. Finally, we emphasize the importance of the short-range three-body physics in determining the position of Efimov features and show that theoretically reproducing two-body physics is not generally sufficient to predict three-body properties quantitatively.


Atherothrombosis describes the occurrence of both atherosclerosis and thrombosis in an artery, a common feature of peripheral arterial disease.1 It is estimated that 1 in 16 U.S. residents who were at least 40 years of age in 2000 (approximately 8.5 million persons) had peripheral arterial disease.2 Although claudication is frequent in and seriously limits the lifestyle of patients with peripheral arterial disease, the most common cause of death in these patients is from coexisting atherothrombosis in the coronary or carotid arteries, resulting in a risk of myocardial infarction or stroke that is three times as high as the risk in . . .


In this note we report on a project in progress, where we study compactness of infinitary logics, including the logic of chains. The motivation of this project is to find logical reasons for the set-theoretic phenomenon of com- pactness at singular cardinals.


In the near future, a massive deployment of LTE femtocells in indoor environments is expected, leading to a harmful interference in the femtocell tier and to a substantial increase of energy consumption on entire cellular network. In this paper we address these issues proposing a fully distributed measurement-based pilot power control algorithm for LTE femtocells embedded in a macrocell area. In our approach each Femto Base Station (FBS) autonomously self-configures and self-optimizes its cell radius according to the detected on-site user activity under interference constraints. The algorithm does not require any signaling exchange between BSs, making it attractive for practical use in the expected large-scale femtocell deployment.


Recent technological advances allow us to study the impact of genes on the specific cerebral correlates of psychopathologies. In accordance with this new specific area of research, the present thesis describes the impact of the 5-HTTLPR and the rs4675690 two polymorphisms who seem to play a role in major depressive disorder on the neural correlates of the subjective experience of sadness in children. Following a review of the literature (Chapter 1), the two studies included in this thesis will be described (Chapter 2 and 3). These functional magnetic resonance imaging studies aimed to compare the activation pattern – during a transient state of sadness in children of 8 years old carriers of different alleles. Sadness was induced by the passive viewing of sad film extracts. The results suggest that both polymorphisms have an impact on the cerebral activation associated with sadness. Specifically, children who were carriers of the allele associated with greater risk to develop major depressive disorder carriers of the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR and homozygote for the T allele of the rs4675690) showed altered cerebral activations in regions known to be implicated in normal and pathological sadness. Chapter 4 present an integration of the result to the current literature.


In the research the assessment of the impact of sensors found in the milking unit during the process of machine cow milking on selected metrological properties of temperature sensors installed in a milking cluster has been done. The analyses have been made on the basis of the temperature curves of milk flow in cows' udder quarters obtained during the cowshed tests. In the research a microprocessor measuring system has been used. The system has been designed in the Institute of Biosystem Engineering at the University of Life Sciences in Poznan. The system is cooperating with thermistors installed in teat cups. The results of variance analysis has shown statistically highly essential influence of the thermistor's initial temperature and sort of a quarter on the time of establishing the maximum milk temperature.


This paper investigates the determinants of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia. The determinants of participation in higher education can be investigated at the micro or macro level. Using regression analysis we focus on the macro-level determinants of the increasing relative rate at which the relevant population of youth participates in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia from 1980-81 to 2006-7. Since 1980 the relative participation in higher education has increased more than twice the initial level. We investigate possible reasons for that dramatic increase in association with the overall economic conditions, the financial conditions of individuals, the expected benefits from undergraduate higher education, the proportion of the relevant population who fulfilled the enrollment requirements, the changing personal and social values related to higher education, and the supply side variables of higher education. In a regression analysis we include trend and autoregression effects. Finally, we make a simple simulation estimate of the expected development of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia in the near future.


Introduction: Acute asthma is associated with morbidity and mortality in patient referred to emergency department (ED). Our study was focused on simple objective measures in ED to predicting factors affecting disposition of patients with acute asthma referred to emergency ward. Methods and materials: Data were collected prospectively at one center over 12-month period on 103 adult patients. Asthma step severity categorization and management was determined by GINA guidelines. Presenting ED vital signs, OSAT values, pulmonary function testing (spirometry, flow-volume loop, PImax, PEmax) and disposition were recorded for each study subject. Results: In this study 103 patients were studied. In our patients 56 cases (%54.4) admitted and 47 (45.6) cases were discharged. There is no significant difference between admission rates and these variables: Age, Weight, Height, BMI (Body Mass Index), History of previous hospitalization, Living place (urban/rural), peripheral edema and some spirometric parameters; but significant difference were seen between admission rates and these variables: Functional stage of dyspnea, Pulsus Paradoxus, Intercostal retraction, Respiratory Rate (RR), Heart Rate, Arterial saturation of oxygen, Arteial pH. Variables that predict admission rates in our patients are as follows: Sex, RR and SaO2in first visit, PEmax in second measurement. Discussion: Finding those variables that predict admission in asthmatic patients is very important and cost effective. We recommend further studies in this field, especially in measurement of new pulmonary function variables such as PImax and PEmax. Key words: Asthma, emergency, PEmax


Various chemically bonded C
 60
 fullerene silica phases were
synthesized as stationary phases for liquid chromatography (LC) and their
retention behaviors were evaluated systematically with various polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) using microcolumn LC. The results clearly
indicate that the C
 60
 bonded phases have a unique molecular
recognition capability. With the C
 60
 bonded phases, planar PAHs
having a partial structure similar to that of the C
 60
 molecule
were retained longer than analogous PAHs molecules without the partial
structure of C
 60
. The results also show that the C
 60

bonded phases with higher surface coverage (C-high type), i.e.,
0.411 and 0.351 µmol m
 -

 2
, offered a
selectivity different from that of the C
 60
 fullerene bonded
phases with lower surface coverage (C-low type), i.e., 0.102 and
0.159 µmol m
 -

 2
 for the separation of
isomeric PAHs. These retention behaviors can be explained by the fit of
the molecular shape of the solute molecules to the stationary phase
ligands. The separation of C
 60
 and C
 70
 fullerenes
was also examined with various C
 60
 bonded phases and the
results showed that the separation factors were comparable to those with
commercially available octadecylsilica (ODS) phases.


Abstract. Goal. The assessment of the main trends in the activity of agricultural producers in crop production was carried out in order to substantiate the possibilities of the Perm Region for self-sufficiency with the main types of food resources in the presence of adverse effects of natural and climatic conditions. Methods. A statistical analysis was carried out using grouping and comparison methods based on the official statistics of the Perm Region for 2016-2020. Results. In accordance with the social and geographical specifics of the Perm Region, on the territory of which rural areas predominate, the largest volume of crop production is produced in the households of the population (up to 58 %), whose activities are characterized by the lowest level of stability and are more susceptible to the negative impact of natural and climatic conditions. The activity of agricultural organizations (share up to 36 %) and farms (share up to 8 %) is more stable. A higher level of dependence on natural and climatic conditions was revealed in the field of potato production, a lower level – in the field of grain and vegetables production of protected soil. The risk is reinforced by the fact that up to 70 % of the natural volume of potatoes and more than 80% of vegetables are produced in households. With a decrease in the total sown area by 1.2 %, there is a decrease in the sown area of potatoes by 15 % and vegetables by 6 %. The identified trends allowed us to identify the risk of reducing the level of food self-sufficiency of the Perm Region with potatoes and vegetables. The insecurity of domestic potato consumption in the Perm Region is, according to preliminary data, 13 % in 2020. The presence of risk was also revealed for vegetables, the internal consumption of the region was provided with vegetable products of its own production by an average of 56% during the study period. The results obtained allow us to identify the directions of optimization of the Perm Region strategy in solving the problems of food self-sufficiency. Scientific novelty. The dynamics of factors of crop production (structure, yield, acreage, intensification) is assessed taking into account the social, geographical, natural and climatic specifics of the Perm Region through the prism of the impact on the regional food balance and the level of self-sufficiency of the region with potatoes and vegetables.


RANKINE'S AND COULOMB'S THEORIES OF EARTH PRESSURE COMPUTATIONS ARE ANALYZED. IT IS DETERMINED THAT THE FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS OF RANKINE'S EARTH PRESSURE THEORY ARE INCOMPATABLE WITH THE KNOWN RELATION BETWEEN STRESS AND STRAIN IN SOILS, INCLUDING SAND. THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE OTHER CLASSICAL THEORIES CAN ONLY BE ACCEPTED FOR PRACTICAL PURPOSES IF CERTAIN CONDITIONS CONCERNING THE LATERAL EXPANSION OF THE SUPPORTED SAND ARE SATISFIED. THE TOTAL LATERAL PRESSURE OF THE SAND DOES NOT ASSUME THE THEORETICAL VALUE UNLESS THE AVERAGE YIELD OF THE LATERAL SUPPORT EXCEEDS A CERTAIN MINIMUM VALUE. UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS THIS REQUIREMENT IS SATISFIED BY BOTH THE RETAINING WALLS AND THE TIMBERING IN CUTS. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRESSURE OF SAND ON THE BACK OF A LATERAL SUPPORT DOES NOT AGREE WITH THE THEORY UNLESS THE YIELD OF THE SUPPORT EXCEEDS IN EVERY POINT THE VALUES DETERMINED BY THE COULOMB THEORY. FOR IDENTICAL SOIL CONDITIONS AND EQUAL YIELD OF THE LATERAL SUPPORT, THE TOTAL LATERAL PRESSURE ON THE SUPPORT IS THE SAME. YET THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRESSURE OVER THIS SUPPORT VARIES ENORMOUSLY ACCORDING TO THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE YIELD OVER THE FACE OF THE BANK. THE MORE THIS DISTRIBUTION DEPARTS FROM A STRAIGHT LINE TO THE FOOT OF THE BANK, THE MORE IMPORTANT THE DEPARTURE FROM THE HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION IS LIKELY TO BE.


Recent published reports on clinical trials of CPT‐11 indicate the effectiveness of this compound, a prodrug of SN‐38, against malignant glioma in combination with anti‐vascular endothelial growth factor antibody. Here, we determined if NK012, and SN‐38 incorporating micelle, can be an appropriate formulation for glioblastoma treatment compared with CPT‐11. In vitro cytotoxicity was evaluated against several glioma lines with NK012, CPT‐11, SN‐38, ACNU, CDDP and etoposide. For the in vivo test, a human glioma line (U87MG) transfected with the luciferase gene was inoculated into nude mice brain for pharmacokinetic analysis by fluorescence microscopy and high‐performance liquid chromatography after intravenous injection of NK012 and CPT‐11. In vivo antitumor activity of NK012 and CPT‐11 was evaluated by bioluminescence image and Kaplan‐Meier analyses. The growth‐inhibitory effects of NK012 were 34‐ to 444‐fold more potent than those of CPT‐11. Markedly enhanced and prolonged distribution of free SN‐38 in the xenografts was observed after NK012 injection compared with CPT‐11. NK012 showed significantly potent antitumor activity against an orthotopic glioblastoma multiforme xenograft and significantly longer survival rate than CPT‐11 (p = 0.0014). This implies that NK012 can pass through the blood brain tumor barrier effectively. NK012, which combines enhanced distribution with prolonged sustained release, may be ideal for glioma treatment. Currently, a phase I study of NK012 is almost complete in Japan and the US. The present translational study warrants the clinical phase II study of NK012 in patients with malignant glioma. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


( 3-Allyl)palladium complexes of general formula [Pd( 3-R C3H4){ 2-Ph2PN(R)PPh(N2C3HMe2-3,5)}](PF6) (3-6) and [Pd( 3-R C3H4){ 2-Ph2P(S)N(CHMe2)PPh(N2C3HMe2-3,5)}](PF6) (7-8), containing pyrazolyl-substituted diphosphazane ligands bearing a stereogenic phosphorus centre, have been synthesised. NMR spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction studies showed that the diphosphazane ligand in [Pd( 3-R C3H4){ 2-Ph2PN(R)PPh(N2C3HMe2-3,5)}](PF6) [R = Me or Ph; R = CHMe2 (3 and 5) or (S)-*CHMePh (4 and 6)] displayed unprecedented P,N-coordination instead of the hitherto observed P,P-coordination. These complexes existed in solution as mixtures of endo,syn,trans, exo,syn,trans, and endo,syn,cis diastereomers. In the solid state, only the endo,syn,trans isomer was observed for complex 5. Phase-sensitive 2-D NOESY and ROESY spectra showed that the complexes 3-5 underwent syn,anti isomerisation; the NMR spectroscopic data were consistent with a mechanism involving the opening of the 3-allyl group at the trans position with respect to the phosphorus centre. The isomerisation thus appeared to be electronically controlled. The complexes [Pd( 3-MeC3H4){ 2-Ph2P(S)N(CHMe2)PPh(N2C3HMe23,5)}](PF6) (7) and [Pd( 3-PhC3H4){ 2-Ph2P(S)N(CHMe2)PPh(N2C3HMe2-3,5)}](PF6) (8), bearing the diphosphazane monosulfide Ph2P(S)N(CHMe2)PPh(N2C3HMe2-3,5) (1c), displayed P,S-coordination and existed in solution as six and four isomers, respectively. Exchange was observed among four of the six isomers of 7 and among all the four isomers of 8 at 298 K, through the opening of the 3-allyl moiety, which appeared to be subject to both electronic and steric control.


Danish North Sea blend was assayed earlier this year. The light, sweet crude comprises crude oil from 10 fields. The crude is piped from offshore production facilities to the A/S Dansk Shell refinery at Fredericia, Denmark. Fig. 1 shows the boiling point curve for the crude, and Fig. 2 illustrates the metals content (vanadium, nickel, and iron), as a function of distillation temperature. The table lists properties of the crude and its fractions.


We present a meta-analytic review on the processing of negations in conditional reasoning about affirmation problems (Modus Ponens: "MP", Affirmation of the Consequent "AC") and denial problems (Denial of the Antecedent "DA", and Modus Tollens "MT"). Findings correct previous generalisations about the phenomena. First, the effects of negation in the part of the conditional about which an inference is made, are not constrained to denial problems. These inferential-negation effects are also observed on AC. Second, there generally are reliable effects of a negation in the clause referred to by the categorical premise, and these referred-negation effects are constrained to the logically fallacious AC and DA inferences. All findings are presented and discussed in relation to contemporary mental model (MM) and mental logic (ML) theories. It is argued that a double-negation elimination hypothesis provides a sufficient explanation of inferential-negation effects within both MM theory and ML theory, if the latter is extended by a validating search for counter examples. Both MM and ML theories adhere to a processing scheme that allows them to incorporate an account of referred-negation effects based on the thesis that counter-example frequency is modulated by the scope of a contrast class delineated by a false affirmative. We conclude that MM and ML theories provide adequate processing schemes to accommodate for the explanatory hypotheses, at least in principle. In practice, both approaches remain equivocal as regards the connectivity and interactivity with long-term memory knowledge invoked in generating, manipulating, and testing the mental representations of negative state of affairs.


American researchers have tested an experimental device that can use energy from a beating heart to produce electricity, raising hopes for future battery-free cardiac pacemakers that would last indefinitely, saving heart patients from repeat surgery to replace their implants when the batteries are spent.


The follo.wing experimental results suggest that in the case of ultraviolet irradiation of wool it is ' again r~odificat'~orn of'the epicuticle which is primarily responsible for. accelerated rate of dye uptake. ~i~ces, of fibers Iwl e abraded between two glass , . Jt»~k~sl of I ~beti I &dquo;Fe ahraded hetween two ~&dquo;ass ~; ;s41d ,whd s~t ' M , had been rough ned by grind, ingyth a h ' powder. Ahrasion was continued until a'U! I~At~ticular material was removed. The pieces were cut in halves ; half was irradiated for a time to give a large increase of dyeing rate in inta rs (2 hr. at 15 cm. from a 125


It is possible to suppress an unpleasant feeling caused by an operation sound when an operation frequency of a compressor is increased. An outdoor control unit (20) includes a first control unit (22), a second control unit (23), and a switching unit (24) and controls the rpm of an outdoor fan (30). The outdoor fan (30) sends air to an outdoor heat exchanger (13) so as to promote heat exchange in the outdoor heat exchanger (13). The first control unit (22) executes a first control to control the rpm of the outdoor fan (30) according to the operation frequency of the compressor (11). The second control unit (23) executes a second control to control the rpm of the outdoor fan (30) according to a parameter other than the operation frequency of the compressor (11). The switching unit (24) executes a switching control to perform switching between the first control and the second control according to a predetermined switching condition during a cooling operation under a low outside air condition. The low outside air condition means a condition when the outside air temperature is lower than a first temperature.


A 40 years old single woman was presented with severe abdominal pain, progressive in nature (acute abdominal) during clinical examination a huge abdominal mass arising from pelvis was found with signs of abdominal rigidity and guarding. All other clinical features were within normal range. The abdominal ultrasound examination revealed abdominopelvic mass, irregular in shape with some degeneration of uterine myoma and adnexal infraction. The mass was not well defined and all matted together. Pre-operative diagnosis torsion of this mass with suspected origin of uterine myoma, adnexal or uterine torsion causing infarction of this mass. The operative findings were uterine torsion with both its adnexa. This torsion was severe enough to cause ischemia and gangrene to multiple parts of the mass. The final diagnosis was made during surgery and confirmed by histopathology examination. The diagnosis and proper action without delay save the patient from any complications and make the recovery smooth and quick.


A practical vector,termed as pAnGH1,designed for constant RNAi and rapid selection of stable RNAi clones in gallus cells was constructed.It replied on the well-know interference of small hairpin RNA(shRNA) to target gene expression,and choosed the EGFP gene as a visual marker,and neomycin resistance gene controlled by the endogenous chicken β-actin promter as a selection marker to faciliate the visual and rapid selection of stable RNAi clones.Also,the specially designed cassete under human H1 RNA promoter contained BglII and HindIII sites that were spaced by an additional 50bp intermediary sequence,which enabled the rapid PCR-scanning of recombinant clones containing the shRNA-coding insert in that the insertion of foreign shRNA-coding fragment resulted in the loss of the priming sites in intermediary sequence.The shRNA-mediated transient interference of EGFP and sIgM λ were performed in the chicken embryo fibroblast cells DF-I and the chicken B-lymphocyte cells DT40 respectively,which exhibited the remarkable inhibition of target expression.In addtiton,the selection of stable sIgMλ-RNAi clones by the dual marker of EGFP and Neomycin was visual and rapid.These results indicated that this vector was high efficient and more convenient in operation.


This paper studies on the sports thoughts of Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen.The results show that the power-oriented sports thoughts of Liang and Sun characterized by"strengthening the nation"reflects a concern of the nation,that the the strength-oriented sports thoughts characterized by"protecting the country"embodies the consciousness of national survival,and that the fitness-oriented sports thoughts characterized by"nourishing the life"focuses on the life consciousness of the individuals.Today,a new interpretation of the sports advocations of Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen can not only provide insights in the sports thoughts of the political leaders of modern national bourgeois,but benefit modern people by offering inspiration as well.


Some two years after the beginning of the so-called transformation effort, Eastern Europe (EE) still has a long way to go. But something useful has been learnt in the process, although at a high cost. For one thing, it is now clear that it makes no sense to treat the EE world as a homogeneous area. In the past, the principles and consequences of central planning had flattened out the differences; the EE economies were virtually forced to give up specialization1, and the vast majority of enterprises were obliged to accept the inputs available, irrespective of quality.2 It is true that large economies were relatively less damaged by the failure to exploit their potential comparative advantages; but this effect was by and large compensated by the greater inefficiencies that command planning usually implies for large countries. In short, the shortcomings of central planning were so huge, that all the EE countries were more or less in an equally poor condition by any standards.


New data from the BaBar, Belle, and CLEO Collaborations on B decays to two-body charmless final states are analyzed, with the following consequences: (1) The penguin amplitude which dominates the decay $B^+ \to \pi^+ K^{*0}$ has a magnitude similar to that dominating $B^+ \to \pi^+ K^0$. (2) The decay $B^+ \to \pi^+ \eta$, a good candidate for observing direct CP violation, should be detectable at present levels of sensitivity. (3) The decays $B^+ \to \eta' K^+$ and $B^+ \to \eta K^{*+}$ are sufficiently similar in rate to the corresponding decays $B^0 \to \eta' K^0$ and $B^0 \to \eta K^{*0}$, respectively, that one cannot yet infer the need for ``tree'' amplitudes $t'$ contributing to the $B^+$ but not the $B^0$ decays. Statistical requirements for observing this and other examples of tree-penguin interference are given. (4) Whereas the $B^+ \to \eta' K^+$ and $B^0 \to \eta' K^0$ rates cannot be accounted for by the penguin amplitude $p'$ alone but require an additional flavor-singlet penguin contribution $s'$, no such flavor-singlet penguin contribution is yet called for in the decays $B^+ \to \eta K^{*+}$ or $B^0 \to \eta K^{*0}$. Predictions for the rates for $B^+ \to \eta' K^{*+}$ and $B^0 \to \eta' K^{*0}$ are given which would allow one to gauge the importance of these flavor-singlet penguin amplitudes.


The technical evolution of the subsonic airplane is traced from a curiosity at the beginning of World War I to the highly useful machine of today. Included are descriptions of significant aircraft which incorporated important technical innovations and served to shape the future course of aeronautical development, as well as aircraft which represented the state-of-art in a particular time frame or were much used or liked. The discussion is related primarily to aircraft configuration evolution and associated aerodynamic characteristics and, to a lesser extent, to developments in aircraft construction and propulsion. The material is presented in a manner designed to appeal to the nontechnical reader who is interested in the evolution of the airplane, as well as to students of aeronautical engineering and others with an aeronautical background.


We introduce methods for augmenting aerial visualizations of Earth (from tools such as Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth) with dynamic information obtained from videos. Our goal is to make Au...


A13 SPARSE 3D SEISMIC DATA ACQUISITION FOR MINIMUM EFFORT COST AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IN THE PO VALLEY ITALY Abstract 1 M. WILKES¹ M. DAVIES¹ L. VILLANI ² H. CROOK¹ K. LATHAM ³ and M. BUNT 4 ¹Bg Group 100 Thames Valley Park Drive Reading Berkshire RG6 1PT UK ²Bg Internationalbv Piazza Cavour 2 Milano 20121 Italy ³Imc Geophysics Limited Po Box 18 Sutton-Ashfield Notts NG17 2NS UK 4 Rps Hydrosearch Goldsworth House Denton Way Woking Surrey GU21 3LF UK Hydrocarbon exploration in the Po Valley Italy has historically relied upon 2D seismic data due to the logistical effort high cost


The production of ethanol from sweet potato by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation(SSF) is presented.In the experiments,the kept parameters influencing ethanol fermentation were screened out by Plackett-Burman design,then the optimum values of the parameters were determined by Box-Behnken design.The results suggested that the important parameters included initial pH,inoculation amount and fermentation temperature.The optimum conditions were as follows:initial pH at 4.42,inoculation amount as 8.35%,and fermentation temperature 36.69 ℃.Under such conditions,starch utilization ratio can reach 89.12% in 50 L ferment or at 48 h.


The family Rubiaceae comprises around 637 genera and approximately 10,700 species, occurring essentially in tropical regions of Brazil. Richardia brasiliensis Gomes, known popularly as "poaia branca", is native to Brazil south region, used in folk medicine as anti-emetic and in the treatment of diabetes. This work reports the isolation and structural identification of a flavonoid glycoside, a triterpene, a coumarin and two benzoic acid derivatives, aiming at contributing to the chemotaxonomy of the genus Richardia, through a phytochemical study of Richardia brasiliensis. By means of this study the metabolites isorhamnetin-3-O-rutinoside, oleanolic acid, the coumarin scopoletin and p-hydroxy-benzoic and m-methoxy-p-hydroxy-benzoic acids were isolated and identified. All of them, but the latter, were isolated for the first time in the genus, thereby presenting relevant chemotaxonomic importance to it. The structures were identified using spectroscopic techniques such as IR, one and two-dimensional 1H and 13C NMR besides comparison with literature data.


It appeared to be a murder like any other. Late on the evening of Sunday, 8 April 1922, Nikolai Spiridonov, a worker and secretary of the Communist party cell at the Tsindel textile factory in Moscow, was shot in the chest by another worker, Andrei Volodin, the factory committee chairman. Volodin was drunk, the two men had had an argument, perhaps Spiridonov had been drinking too. A "family quarrel": such murders happened all the time in Soviet Russia. But this case was different. Spiridonov was a worker-correspondent, and his whistle-blowing articles in Pravda over the preceding several months had led to the dismissal of the factory's proletarian director, Daniil Firsov, for drinking, speculation and theft, to the removal of Firsov's crony, Ivan Levin, from his position of power as chairman of the factory committee, and to the expulsion of Volodin from the Communist party. "Firsov and Company" were proletarians gone bad: workers and Communists all, they had abused their authority and had turned their idle factory into a source of personal wealth and a nest of corruption. They had bought off the workers by sharing with them the spoils of the factory-calico, food, and building materials. They had already threatened Spiridonov with retaliation if he did not cease his tale-telling, and as he lay dying in a Moscow hospital, Spiridonov told his visitors that Volodin had been merely a "weapon in the hands of Firsov." The murder became a cause celebre for the "freedom of the proletarian press." The trial of Volodin and four of his accomplices in July received extensive coverage in Moscow newspapers, competing for attention with the long show trial of the leaders of the Left Socialist Revolutionary party. The comparison carried special im-


Big Data refers to analyzing the massive volume of data by combining different applications in order to save time, efficiency and quality when interpreting data. Controlling the data transfer along the network is a fundamental question in Big Data. In this context, the transport model of the Named Data Networking (NDN) architecture introduces several new features, especially name-based retrieval policy and smaller data transfer time thanks to the interest aggregation and in-network caching. These distinguishing features make the NDN a suitable communication model for Big Data transfer. But, since in NDN content can be retrieved from multiple caches and through multiple paths, the traditional host-to-host congestion control schemes become inconsistent. Hence there is a need for an efficient congestion control scheme that takes into account the tremendous volume of data generated by Big Data processing and NDN characteristics. In this paper, we give a detailed understanding of NDN benefits over traditional TCP/IP stack for Big Data transfer, then we focus on efficient control of Big Data transfer over NDN. We give a comprehensive overview of recent Named Data congestion control solutions and evaluate and discuss their relevance for Big Data applications.


The effect of electroslag refining on removal of iron from commercial purity aluminum using KCl-NaCl-Na3AlF6 slag containing Na2B4O7 was studied. The iron content decreases with the decrement of the remelting speed and the iron content can decrease from 0.42% to 0.20 mass% after electroslag refining. The chemical reaction between melt and slag to form Fe2B in the electroslag refining process is the main reason for the reduction of iron content. Thermodynamic calculation of the chemical reaction theoretically accounts for the formation of Fe2B spontaneously in the electroslag refining process. The ultimate strength and elongation of commercial aluminum are improved obviously after electroslag refining. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2010435]


The ethnic compulsory education,with its public goods attributes,is helpful for distributing rationally the educational resource,promoting the development of education for ethnic minorities,advancing education anti-poverty and harmonious social construction in ethnic minority areas.In order to solve the problems such as supply shortage,the defects of institutional arrangement,the supply discrepancies and the supply inefficiency,it is necessary to increase the finance investment,reform and consummate compulsory education institutional supply,adopt the will of ethnic minorities,and raise the efficiency of the supply of the ethnic compulsory education.


We present the results of our technique for bone grafting and internal fixation of scaphoid fractures using 2.0 mm or 1.5 mm AO mini fragment screws and temporary intraoperative AO mini external fixation. Union was achieved in 14 out of 16 fractures.


Review by James K. Lewis Environmental Education Director, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 3900 Commonwealth Blvd., MS 30, Tallahassee, FL 32399-3000, USA. TEL: 904-488-9334. Bob Droppelt, Mary Scurlock, Chris Frissell, and James Karr. ENTERING THE WATERSHED : A NEW APPROACH TO SAVE AMERICA'S RIVER WATERSHEDS. Washington, D.C., Island Press, 1993. 462 pp. US$55.00 cloth ISBN: 1-55963-247-7, US$27.50 paper ISBN 1-55963-275-5. Recycled, acid-free paper. Do it upstream, and save the good spots first. That, in a nutshell, is the new approach to saving America's river ecosystems. There is more of course, but anyone who has a river basin to save should take those words to heart. Perhaps one of the most important contributions made by ENTERING THE WATERSHED is its detailed analysis and indictment of the failures of the current methods of river restoration. However, that may be one of its faults also; the authors may spend too much of their time casting indictments, and too little time explaining exactly how we might go about using this new approach. Part I, 33 pages entitled Forgotten Waters, is a description of the crisis in which America's waterways find themselves today, why and how they got into the shape they are in, and an overview of why our past and current attempts to fix these problems haven't worked, and won't work. The 100-page Part II, Recommendations, provides us with a number of broad-ranging recommendations. These include: Community and Ecosystem Based Efforts, Recommendations for New National Policies and Goals, Recommendations for Federal Lands, Recommendations for Private Lands, and finally, a section entitled Recommendations for a Comprehensive Solution, which calls for an unlikely new federal law and program. If I had to quibble over these recommendations (all of them based on long experience, and all of them clearly needed) it would be that, except for the community and ecosystem-based recommendations, they are based upon a vision of sudden cooperation on the part of Congress and the myriad federal (and state and local) agencies with responsibility for America's rivers. Such cooperation is unlikely in today's world. Here in Florida, our Ecosystem Management effort at the regional, watershed, and community levels, closely resembles the community and ecosystem-based approach recommended by ENTERING THE WATERSHED. Here, the recommendations seem to be right on the mark: 1) Begin by protecting and securing the healthy areas first. 2) Find and protect other hot spots in the basin (areas where there still remains some biodiversity or naturalness that can be improved upon). 3) Look for potential hot spots that are near one of the other areas. These are areas that can be colonized as upstream habitats improve. 4) Identify and begin restoration of downstream river reaches that once supported important biological habitats and may support them again after extensive restoration.


Voice cloning is a major topic of speech sound processing and artificial intelligence. Its possible applications include customization of generated voice in robots, text-tospeech, it can also be used for making lines of speech of a given voice actor when he/she is unavailable. In this paper we describe a method to change the perceived speaker into a desired one by substituting the formants, interpolating between known phonemes when the measured formants don't exactly coincide with them. The method enables voice cloning with a short sample of target voice.


This paper summarizes the research of mental state model for agent, which is a major subject in the research on multiagent system. Most references are published after 1990. From different perspectives, covering informal analysis, formal models, architectures, cooperation researches, and applications, many important results are introduced in this paper, such as Bratman's analysis, Cohen and Levesque's intention model, Rao and Georgeff's BDI model, etc. Finally, some prosperous works are introduced as well. We hope that this presentation can help readers deepen their understanding of agent.


The primary aim of the study was to determine the comparison of emotional intelligence and achievement motivation of selected team games players and also to determine the correlation between emotional intelligence and achievement motivation of selected team games players. For the purpose of the study 30 male intercollegiate male players from Football, Basketball and Handball games (10 from each game) of Degree College of Physical Education were selected as the subjects. The data of emotional intelligence were collected by Emotional Intelligence Scale for Sports Person Questionnaire developed by RajithaMenon. A and Jayashree Acharya and also the data of achievement motivation were collected by Sports Achievement Motivation Questionnaire developed by M.L. Kamlesh. The level of significance was set at 0.05 to check the significance differences obtained by ANOVA and also check the correlation obtained by Pearson's Product Moment Correlation. The finding of statistical analysis revealed that there were no significant and Handball players (cal. F 0.05(2.27) = 1.08 and 0.41 respectively < tab (cal. F 0.05(2.27) = 1.08 and 3.35). The findings of statistical analysis also revealed that there were no significant correlation between emotional intelligence and achievement motivation of Football, Basketball and Handball Players (cal. F 0.05(9) = 0.598, 0.237 respectively < tab r0.05(9) = 0.602)


This is a survey of two recently emerged directions in the study of billiards inside pencils of quadrics: pseudo-integrable billiards in the plane and double reflection nets. Bibliography: 48 titles.


Abstract Today, the reproduction of the spaces is mostly realized through urban transformation processes. These processes are in evidence around all over the world. Urban transformation is an ambiguous umbrella definition that includes different actors, different processes and different fields. Beyond spatial changes, these transformations also affect social relationships and networks, which are vital for socioeconomically vulnerable groups in Istanbul, which is the most densely populated city in Turkey. In the Turkish case, which is referred to state-led urban transformation, displacement and dispossession processes led public opposition. During this process, public opposition started to institutionalize in reply to urban policies and the intensity of urban transformation. Neighborhood associations, which are the subject of the study, were also established in this context. Currently, they are organized at the national level under the name of the Union of Neighborhoods in Turkey. Understanding the engagement and experiences of residents to these neighborhood associations will be the aim of the research. The concept of social capital, which provides a broad understanding of social interactions and social networks, will form the theoretical framework. In accordance with the study, the concept of social capital has been examined under three dimensions: social network, trust and reciprocity, civil skills. According to the findings of the research, social capital, which includes three interdependent dimensions, has transformed and has been instrumentalized according to the transformations in the city. (Less)


In this paper,an important indicator of high performance concrete—durability test is made,the orthogonal experiment is designed based on the polar difference,the test results are analyzed,finds the influence law of various factors effected on the level of freeze-thaw resistance,optimizes the mixture ratio A1B2C1D3,prepares high freeze-thaw resistance concrete and does the production practices,which have achieved good results.


Consumer Protection Act provides an alternative resolution through outside the judicial system agency called The Consumer Dispute Settlement Agency, beside through a court whose jurisdiction covers the domicile of the consumer. Thus in case of consumer disputes, consumers do not have to litigants through the court, but can pass the existing The Consumer Dispute Settlement Agency at city / county throughout Indonesia.


The general equations available/developed for forest/wild mango trees based on measurement of diameter at breast height (DBH) (cannot be used) are not applicable for mango orchards which are predominantly established with grafted plants. Hence allometric equations were developed with destructive sampling of grafted mango trees. The selected parameters showed that allometric parameters were significantly related with age of the trees. The proportion of roots (22%) in grafted mangos was found to be higher than those reported for tropical forest trees (18%) with a R ratio of 0.291. The biomass expansion factor (BEF) varied with age. Initially the BEF was very high followed by a decreasing phase and finally a steady phase by and large attained stability beyond 20 years. The equations generally fitted the data well, and in most cases more than 50% of the observed variation in biomass was explained by primary branch girth (PBG) × number of primary branches (NPB). All equations were statistically significant (p < 0.05) for both scaling parameters, a and b. Based on the R 2 values the best fit model for estimation of above ground biomass of grafted mango trees is a power model using PBG × NPB as the best dimension: There was a good agreement between the observed and the predicted biomass using this equation.